Miscellaneous pre-Christmas updates

Aimee and Avery are in Ontario for Christmas (Mike stayed back to work) and we met up at Nolan's (Aimee's nephew) first birthday party.

Avery (nearly 11 months) and Nolan (1 year)

Really, whats a baby supposed to do with a slinky. Chew it and wave it!

Christmas tree decorating finished. Not a lot of fun by myself but I managed
it a lot better than last year.

Rasta is very interested in the new decor. He's such a good cat, never knocks anything down
or attacks the tree (in front of me).

"I'm not going to bat this off. See, I'm not even really looking at it."

As usual in the late fall and early winter it has been very windy. There are two guys who come regularly
(in full wet suits) to surf and this guy who has a big kite that pulls his tricycle along the beach.

Eve came to visit and helped me frame and hang the prints that I bought in Maine.

George's mum, Berneice, made Christmas stockings for Chris and Mike. A couple of years ago I made
one for Aimee and this is Averys. He has the same initials as Mike so I added a little "v" next to the
A to differentiate them.

Aimee and Avery visited for a few days before returning to Toronto for Christmas Eve with her family.

He was as interested as Rasta in the bells on the door handles.

And of course Rasta was as intrigued as always in the basket under the stroller.

Already George's "high forehead" and Mike's ears.

Ruby came to visit.

Both in motion.

He was very interested in both the dog and the cat. Rasta stayed about 2 1/2 feet away at all times but kept circling around to look at him from another angle. They took turns playing in a cardboard box.

I was just seconds too late grabbing my camera as Rasta had just let Avery touch his paw.

They will be back on Christmas Day which will be absolute bedlam with lots of family, dog, cat and baby.

Missing Avery already

At 10 months old, Avery is a "going concern". He is on the go, crawling (tending to use one knee and one foot which makes him "limp" while he is crawling) everywhere, pulling himself up on things to stand and while I was there actually took a step. He feeds himself (and the dog) small items put on his  high chair tray, eats a wide variety of foods from a spoon and on the last night I was there bit off small pieces of sweet potato fries to munch on while we were out to dinner. He doesn't let anyone put him to bed but Aimee (he fell asleep on me at about 9:30pm, watching TV when I took care of him while Aimee and Mike had a "date night"). He wriggles and tries to get up when his diaper is being changed especially if he's poopy which makes it even more of a struggle. He seems happy in his car seat, cooing and playing. He seems happy with the daycare. Mostly a happy kid.

Standing at the couch

Doesn't like socks on or to be covered in the stroller. Makes for some pretty cold little
feet when its below 0 in Edmonton!

Our walk was to Starbucks and no, we didn't actually let him have any.

He's got Aimee's nose, Mike's ears, George's hairline and his great grandfathers square feet. Still manages to be pretty cute though.

He can amuse himself for quite a while, crawling around and pulling himself up on various toys.

Sometimes its about handling things but more often than not, its about chewing them.

Very interested in kitchen activities, especially if the dishwasher is open. Luckily he
hasn't figured out the garbage can yet.

Knows he's not supposed to be drinking his bathwater.

Loves trashing his Dad.

Mike throws him in the air, swings him around and tickles him. He wonders why Avery doesn't want to cuddle with him.

At least Iggy gets a break when Avery and Mike are playing

Back home and there's just the cat for amusement.

In a bag of rug hooking.

Checking out the start of the Christmas prep. We have already had words
about eating the fake tree. Just wait 'til there are ornaments and presents
to contend with.

All Avery

On leaving the Point. The swans are migrating.

Out to visit in Edmonton and of course I am taking tons of photos of Avery. Unfortunately the cell phone takes better shots inside than the camera so then I have to e-mail them to myself and then download them on to the computer.

First night

Wearing the bib that I bought for him in Maine.

Dressed for bed and playing with his new Ikea ball.

The Ikea tunnel was supposed to be for Christmas but we couldn't resist opening it

Iggy cleaning him up after breakfast.

The downside for Iggy; getting his tail and ears pulled.

The upside; bibs, fingers and face.

Today was the first day, since I got here, that Avery didn't go to daycare and I have him for the whole day. Lovely, even though he has a nasty cold so there's the usual fight over wiping his nose.

Not sure if he likes carrots.

Yep, he does. 3 carrots on the tray. 1 carrot on the floor. Not bad.

Dinner was more carrots, ginger and sesame hummus on pita and fish. He didn't care for his first try at broccoli but we will try again. I love that babies eat regular food now, none of this baby food stuff.

Clean up after is always fun.

Nov 2015 Pakenham visit and MEC Indoor Triathlon

I spent some time with my nieces in Packenham, near Ottawa. Quite a shock to the system - the alarm goes off at 5:45am! Two large dogs need to be walked. Homework supervised.
Aside from the early morning (its dark!!) we had lots of fun.

Seeing way to many of these.

So much walking that Caesar is exhausted. (and totally uninhibited)

Buddy, who likes to go out in the screened room, no matter how cold. I was unable to get a picture
of the other cat, Cloe, too fast.

Monty did some sulking as I wouldn't let him sleep on my bed. These are large dogs!
I wouldn't have been able to roll over. They also have access to two couches and two
large chairs along with a dog bed that they never sleep on (the cat does)

After walking the girls to the bus I would then walk one or both of the dogs up the hill for about an hour. I was lucky with the weather; cold and crisp but little rain and often sunny.

"The first pond", where Monty, Caesar and I watched a beaver break through the thin ice one morning.

"The second pond". I only got this far 3 times during the week but its a lovely spot.
The woods are bare of leaves and in one direction you can see through them to
glimpses of the valley. Chicadees, wood peckers and lots of squirrels keep you company.

Every morning I created a different hairstyle for each of the girls. They did a lot of research on Pinterest and found me tutorial videos and step by step instructions.

I think this was called a reverse french braid.

This was a feather braid as you leave feathers of hair hanging below it. With another layer
added it becomes ....

a ladder braid.

My favourite was this one. The hair is taken up into a pony tail and then strands
pulled down into a french braid. This results in a basket like structure around
the head.

After leaving Ottawa I went to Toronto and competed, with Christine and Jason's sister, Meg, in the MEC Indoor Triathlon.

It was held at the sports complex built for the Pan Am Games held last summer.

It is an absolutely beautiful facility.

Chris and I swam in lanes 5 and 6.

As many lengths of the 25 metre section of the pool as we could complete
in 15 minutes. The water was warm and, after lake swimming, it was lovely
having no waves or gritty sand and a line on the bottom of the pool to keep you straight.

Watched over by the signage I saw so frequently on the TV.

We had 5 minutes to change (we took longer) and then 15 minutes on the stationary bikes. That was the worst part for me as the tension was set as if biking up hill. I had a hard time even getting the pedals to move.

Then 5 minutes to get to the track upstairs. The 15 minutes on the track went fast as there were volleyball
matches in the gymnasium below to watch. I ran the first 4 laps and then alternated walking and
running half laps. I haven't done any running in the last 2 years so didn't want to overdo it.

It wasn't as much fun as the outdoor tri-tri I did a couple of years ago on Toronto Island but it was a good experience and certainly a good workout.
I'm going to close with a couple of photos of Rasta as he hasn't been in evidence in the past few posts. These were taken when I gave him some catnip.

Can't get enough of this stuff.

Think I'll just sleep now.