Staycation

We thought about taking a little holiday this summer...and then we realized that we live in such a beautiful place. Why not stay here and go exploring for a few days, and stay out all day like we are on a vacation? So we did, and we had a blast! We discovered a new beach, swam at an outdoor pool along the sea wall, soaked in all the majestic views, made lots of picnics, played in the sand, ate a good amount of yummy take out,  played hard and slept so soundly! It was a great way to enjoy these fleeting days of summer. We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful place, the only thing missing is our family.  We hoped one of you would come and enjoy our city with us this summer...but sadly no takers. Today we etched out our fall schedule- started to pencil in paper writing dates, comps prep, deadlines, swim lessons, soccer days, goals for meal plans, french lessons, yoga and date nights. I felt summer slip away...but it was a good one...actually a great one.

Seven months and counting...

Gavin Luca is seven months old, and well is so super handsome. He now has two bottom teeth that he loves to show off with his wide mouth smiles. Gavin has learned the sign for milk, perfected the face grab, and is back to his super happy self.

We have had a great month swimming, going to the beach and having many summer adventures. Gavin is always up for a whole day out and about, he loves the fresh air, the bus, and chillin' in in the back of the stroller.

Gavin adores eating! So far he has tried yam, pears, butternut squash, peas, barley and brown rice cereal. The squash has been is favourite so far, he even makes 'mmmm' sounds while eating it. Oh and Gavin loves water- so much that he gets a bit frantic, you have to be committed to water time because if you stop or take it away he freaks out.

Gavin is still an early morning riser, it is his time while his brother is asleep to explore and play alone.  He crawls around and plays with Elijah's toys, flips though books and tries to eat them, and screams in delight. By the time Elijah and Daddy are waking up and having breakfast Gavin is going down for his first nap. 

He loves to motor around- he pulls himself along on his belly and pushes with his left foot- he even has a little friction mark on his foot from where he pushes off. I am constantly reminded that I need to mop the floor a bit more throughly. He acts like a little swiffer- squeezing in to all those hard to reach places between chairs, under the couch and coffee table. Then inevitably he will get stuck and whine for someone to get him out. As Elijah would say "where are you going monkey man?" as he pulls Gavin's legs back. He has started climbing, and is trying very hard to push himself up.

Our little dude is using the potty like a champ! Somedays he even crawls toward the bathroom...guys I need to pee! So cute. We love you.

Pool Day

Pride Parade

Eating Party!

Menu

Roasted organic yam with a dash of breast milk

Six Months and Counting...

Our little Gavin is six months old and he has changed so much! He has sprouted his first tooth on the bottom right, so he has been a tad bit fussy. Well fussy for him, because he is such a chill baby. Oh how I am going to miss that gummy smile! 

He has also decided to start crawling! What?! Oh how your world changes when your baby starts to crawl. And he is so fast now! He frantically wants to get to everything...oh look at that train I want to shove it in my mouth, oh a pot lid...that looks loud I will bang it, oh whats that over there? Let me pull it down! Elijah thinks it is pretty funny "silly baby, don't put that in your mouth"! 

Gavin's a Mover from Juli on Vimeo.  

This is a video of the first time he discovered how to move, now he has the hang of it and boy can he cruise! 

Gavin also went swimming for the first time, he loves it! It is wonderful that we have a pool right across the street- during the hot spell we went every evening, it was a great way to get Gavi to fall fast asleep. 

Oh and he definitely has a predictable schedule. He wakes up every morning around 5:30am, I take him to the potty and he has a big pee and a poop (yah to hardly changing any poopy diapers this month, nay to waking up that early)!! Then he wants to try out all his new skills- rolling, sitting, worm crawling, then he is super relaxed and ready for his first nap about an hour and a half later.

You are such a sweet babe. I fall more and more in love with you each day. You are such a wonderful gift.  I love your puffy morning eyes, your sudden happy screams,  I love when you attack my face and try to eat my nose, and I love your super serious pursed lip splashing in the pool face.

A Prehistoric Party!

Elijah requested a dinosaur party- no surprise there! He was super excited to wake up to a dinosaur a-z wall and of course balloons! We had a few of his friends over to celebrate in all dino awesomeness. First we played with some dino cookie cutters and play dough, kinetic sand and fossils, and some dinosaur stamps. Then there was a knock at the door and magically a map appeared! It was time to go hunting for dinosaur eggs! We went through a time tunnel, across a rocky river walking like dinosaurs, over a bridge to the hypothesis station- to draw what we thought they eggs would look like, we found the BIG tree and went through the bubble forest. Finally after looking everywhere we found a nest of tall grass with all the eggs. We 'hatched' the eggs and they all found a baby dinosaur to take care of.  All the little explorers were hungry so we had spaghetti and meatballs, and finished it off with some coconut rice crispy dinosaur treats (thanks for all the awesome cooking Dad)!

Elijah opened his dinosaur land felt mat that I made him and played with some great new dinosaurs that he received as gifts. Thank you to everyone who came- we had a blast!

Happy third birthday to our little paleontologist!

WE LOVE YOU