Max's first flight

We were both surprised at how well Max did on the plane and in the airports. Here are a few pictures of the trip.

An Early Gift

The tradition started last year with our couches and continued this year with another early gift.

Recently we had a friend of ours visit and it wasn't until then that we realized that we really needed a new toilet. The old one would have trouble filling up the tank. So if someone used the toilet during the middle of the night it wold run and run till you went back and giggled the handle. Aside from that the old one had mold growing in the underside of the tank and it was stained. (that's all I'm going to say about that) So we needed a new one. After dropping Daniel off at the airport, Carrie Max and I went over to the Home Depot and picked out a shinny new toilet, and one of those fancy soft close seats.

Having never removed or installed a toilet before the first thing I did was NOT look at the instructions. I find it much more fun to read them once you are finished and see if their method was as good as the one you worked out for yourself. I will say that removing an old toilet was one of the more disgusting things I have ever done. Removing the old wax I wore two pair of gloves and once I was finished with everything I washed my hands 3 or 4 times then took a shower. I still didn't think I was clean but didn't want to waste any more water. I also, and this has never happened before, disinfected my tools when I was finished with them. The bathroom floor and the tub got a once over with Comet, (go ahead and sing the song if you want) and some Mr. Clean wipes.

It was all worth it though. Having done the toilet I now want to redo the rest of the bathroom. Maybe that will be next Christmas.

old

none

new

Olympic Torch

As promised here is a picture of the Olympic Torch as it passed by our place.

We were thinking about going down town to see the torch, until we looked on line and saw the route map. The Torch was going to pass right by our place. So we waited for the torch to get here then went outside to see it. As we drew closer to the street we heard the crowd starting to get louder. So I began to run with Max in his stroller we caught up to the torch and I began taking photos. I thought I would try for a zoomed in shot and that is when I noticed that I had set the camera to manual focus. What else could I do but start running again to catch up to the torch. Luckily there was an exchange of the flame just up the road so I was able to catch up to them. This time the photos where in focus.

here is a map of the torch's route.



And here is a picture of the exchange.

a cheesy reaction

As we are introducing new foods to Max we like to get his reactions on film. Here is what he gave us, when we gave him cheese.

this first one is with cottage cheese.


and here we have mozzarella


as you can tell he is a huge fan of cheese. :)

In the end he did eat all the mozzarella we had given him, but the cottage cheese, well he still doesn't like it. Don't worry the remainder of the cottage cheese didn't go to waste, Carrie made a delicious lasagna with it.

another ish

Max took his first steps the other night. We took video of it but it's pretty dark so the next morning we got Max to walk again.



He seems to want to run, but his feet won't keep up with his upper body so he ends up mostly falling towards you. With a little practice he might be walking by Christmas. For now we will have to settle for walking(ish)

Trick or Treat

Max dressed up as a chicken for halloween. He even got to go out "trick or treating". We went to our building's lobby and our sister building's lobby.

Here he is getting ready to head out the door


And here is a close up of the little chicken

Pumpkin Patch

We finally got round to a pumpkin patch so Max could pick out the perfect pumpkin for his first halloween. Once we arrived we Carrie found us a a cart but it didn't have a back so after looking around for a bit we decided to take one that someone had left alone for too long. We loaded Max in the cart and away we went.

They have some hay bails set aside so that you can take photos. We decided that we would indulge in the picture taking and snapped off this photo of my boy and my girl.
Then we took a break from the photo shoot and played a game of throw Max in the air. I really didn't think I was putting him that high in the air until I looked through the pictures on the camera. We play this game inside but are limited to the ceiling height, it was nice to get outside and play. I reckon I could put him up a good 4 meters (with practice)
After our game is was back to the seriousness of picture taking and Carrie took this pic of Max and Me.
Lastly Carrie shot some pics of Max playing in the hay.
As we carted Max around we decided to load the trolly up with pumpkins. I put one in there that had a bit of a rotten spot. Carrie said Max would get into that, I said no he won't. I was wrong. Just as soon as he was in the cart his hand went straight into the rancid spot.
And that was our day (read hour) at the Southbrook Pumpkin Patch.

Freddie Ipson

For those of you out there not on Facebook and don't know who Freddie Ipson is you can check him out on iTunes (clicking the link will open iTunes) I have been listening to him for a while now and really like his stuff. So go to iTunes and buy his stuff and share him with your friends.

new hat

Yesterday Max made his first trip the the USA. We had to drop Dad off at the airport and Mom at her hotel. While we were in the US we decided to do a bit of shopping and Grandma and Grandpa bought Max a new hat. He looks so cute in it I thought I would share.

Max and the Grands

I just wanted to post a picture of Grandma and Grandpa with Max. It was wonderful having Mom and Dad here and I know Max loved it.

Science Museum

Today we took Dad to the Science Museum in an effort to keep him from getting board. I know some of you are saying that going to the Science Museum would be a sure way to bore you not excite you. Anyway we saw a photo opportunity for Max and me so we took it, (then did a little photoshoping) and here it is.

Playing with Mom

race day

Max and I testing out our new racing game "Dirt 2"

aftermath

Max was eating and he sneezed. This is result.

stormy night

We just had a storm pass through with an amazing display of lightning. I grabbed my camera and tripod and went out into the rain to see if I could capture some lightning. 38 shots later and only 6 with any lightning in them.

Swimming(ish)

This past week we tried swimming with Max. I think the water may have been too cold for him.

two videos in a row, you had better leave a comment this time Robert. :)

G.I. Max

Robert asked for more videos, but I told him that Max wasn't doing anything interesting. Now I'm not saying that this is interesting but Max is crawling, sort of.

real food

Max had his first bit of cereal today. He has been wanting food for awhile now but we wanted to wait till he was six months. No your math is not wrong he is not six months yet, but when he had his check up today he had only gained a little over 100 grams so real food is on the menu.

he did manage to get some in his mouth
and this last picture is when the cereal was gone

so so…

so so suck your toe…

you know how the rest of it goes.

it's official

Maximilian is a Citizen of the United States of America and Canada.

we got his CRBA (Consular Report of Birth Abroad) and Passport in the mail so that makes it official.

here is a photo to commemorate this occasion.

reenactment

Max and I where sitting at the computer and Max was playing with his turtle. I heard him sucking on something and looked down and he had the turtle's head in his mouth and was sucking on it like a binkie. I turned on the iChat camera and took a photo but the resulting image was only 640x480px and was really grainy. So today we did a reenactment and I think the resulting image is just as priceless as the original. 

original

reenactment

rollover

On friday Max rolled over by himself for the first time. It took him a while at first time but now he can do it in a matter of seconds.

Achoo!

gesundheit

getting hungry

I just figured it was time for more pictures of Max. He is starting to grab at things and bring them to his mouth. So when I saw him trying to eat his monkey I grabbed my camera and took some photos. Enjoy.

Warm Weather Walk

The mercury was rising so we decided to get up, get out and go for a walk in the woods. So I guess that would make it a warm weather walk in the wood without wearing wooly winter wear. :)

The walk wasn't long but Max was completely exhausted by the end.

this is Max in his new hat. 
about half way through the walk he started getting fussy.
so we just took a few photos of him and mom and then continued the loop.
Max all tuckered out.

Baby Swap

For Easter we went to Aunt Karen's house for dinner, to hang out with the fam and meet Ayden. Ayden is Amanda's youngest son (Amanda is Carrie's Cousin). 

Dinner was fantastic, as was the company, as usual. 

Before dinner Carrie and Amanda sat down to hold each others baby. The difference between the two is astounding. Ayden is so tiny. I don't think there is a full month between them in age, but Max is easily double Ayden's size. 

Easter

I know that my Redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives.

He lives, he lives who once was dead, he lives.

Happy Easter

the back woods and cousins

Trish said she needed to see more pics of Max so here they are.

The first two are from a walk in the back woods that we took on Sunday. (A day that lived up to it's name.)

this last one is a picture of Max and his Cousins, Michalia and Jacob.

there's something different…

I don't think this needs any explanation, Max grew a beard and my face got younger. 

Flat Stanley

We recently had a friend of Abby's, named Flat Stanley, come and stay with us. He didn't eat much and didn't complain at all about sleeping on the table. When he got here he came with some instructions to include him in some activities. His time with us came to an end last week when we sent him back home. I put together a little comic strip to show Abigail what we did while Stanley was here in Toronto.

the front:

and on the back is a little story plus some fun facts about Canada:

Abby, I hope Flat Stanley arrives home safe and sound so you can show him to your class. Thanks for letting him come and stay with us.

Trish, This is Flat Stanley :)   [I wasn't ignoring your comment I'm just a slacker and I was waiting to hear from Amy and Abby if they minded if I posted about Stan. of course I would have heard back from them sooner had I emailed them before yesterday ;)  ]

Riverview Park & Zoo

Laura (Carrie's sister) invited us to the Zoo on Saturday. Had we known it was going to take as long as it did to get there we might have said no. So to the Zoo we went. As soon as we took Max out of the car some strangers exclaimed "oh, a baby" and decided to gather round to have a look.

After escaping the strangers we saw some Turkey taking a picture of Turkeys. (Kirk, [Laura's Husband] Michaila and Jacob)

As we continued our tour we witnessed a Donkey being a real Jack Ass as he tried to bite the other Burro. As you can see he got what was coming to him.

The rest of the tour pictures are continued on the next blog post.

Riverview Park & Zoo (more animals)

Here is a nice close-up of one of those Turkeys. They really are UGLY.

Here is a North American River Otter. There where two of these guys(or girls?) They appeared to be having a good time running around and playing in the water.

We also got to see a Cougar who was nice enough to perch himself up on the top of his home so we could get a photo of him.

This is a picture of a Squirrel Monkey. I think they were my favorite. They just looked so cute and cuddly.

Honorable mention goes to the Black and White Ruffed Lemurs who where making a horrible racket but wouldn't hold still for a photo. Also to the Camel, Fox, Goat, Ox, and others that didn't make it into this blog.