week + weekend

The kitchen is a disaster, I haven't showered today, I just ate, I need to pack for a tomorrow-trip to Montreal (yay!) and the to-do list is long; but... but! oh man, the fact that I get to spend my whole entire day with little Hendrik makes it all okay. And that we spent whole entire days this week at the gym and all is still well with our world is saying something; the volleyball camp/program that I'm running started on Monday, and after three long days I'm glad to have some respite. I was a little nervous about how it would go with him the babe the Henny in tow and it was all a-ok... he was a doll! We took breaks and he took naps in his stroller and crawled around in the gym, you know, dug some balls and spiked some spikes ... and ? yeah! Week one was great. This whole organizational thing is a first for me, and I'm glad that it went off without a hitch. I'm coaching in week two and I have babysitters - how's that for a double whammy - we'll see how that (again, something else new) goes. Isn't there always something new with parenthood? I suppose. Anyways, I hope the volleyballers enjoyed week one as well; we'll see how they feel about it next Wednesday with the fabulous exit questionnaire I made yesterday afternoon.

the girls + coaching staff

and the boys + coaching staff

Anyways, onwards! We've skyped with Steve a few times this week and Hendrik has been SO cute! He grabs at the screen (at Steve's face) and... wait for it... says DADA! It's melt your heart adorable. The guys are doing well over there in Europe, and have made their way from the Czech Republic to Slovenia to Estonia and are now competing in a tourney there to round out the trip. Time has gone by quickly for me actually, and being solo with the babe hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be. Hendrik is such a good little dude, and I'm not doing any of the regular make-the-dinner things that happen when the big dude is around. To be honest, it's made me wonder if having a husband is more work than having a baby; hmmm... hm, hm. I um I ummm, I can't say.

a few pics from Jen - thanks!

Okay, and Hendrik updates. He's started waving (sometimes on command, sometimes not on command), maybe giving kisses (more like lip smacks) and tonight he is wearing, for the first time, a two-piece pyjama set... it's adorable! Very little kid. I'll have to take a picture in the morning. I should make an entire list of updates - what he's eating, fave toys, fave books, my favourite outfit, his sched etc... I'll add it to my blogging to-do list. Um okay, and since the kitchen isn't getting any cleaner with me at this junk-strewn dining room table - and our bags sure aren't packing themselves - I should go. Ooh, yes - I'm going to Montreal tomorrow for the weekend (or at least until Saturday) to see Amer and Marianne and Louis and a few other friends too - yay! Can't wait. Clean up starts... now!

what the dining room table looks like right now... ouf.

a little morning reading...

blog coming later today...

aviation museum

It's been another busy day, and while I'd like to write and get a solid blog down there is a rather tall 8-month old baby tugging at my shorts. So, this will just be a photo essay of our trip to the Aviation Museum yesterday. Highlights were the cutout photos (love!), the massive globe, the art project and breastfeeding in front of a missile. And with that.... here goes:

interactive art project!

pilot and co-pilot

terrific tent tunnels

The weekend has been busy and full of errands and to-do lists, but it has also been good. Sigh. And now, at 9:00 on Saturday night I'm really really really going to try my very best to finally get to the one thing that's been pushed from day to the next day to the next day to never-ending never-coming ever ever ever will it ever happen; the workout. I've given myself 3 minutes to write this blog and then, er, well, I'm not sure what'll happen then, but it's going to be a short one - pics and vid. I bought a tent tunnel at Ikea on Friday and Hendrik LOVES it... love loves loves. Pictures and video; sigh... what a doll!

loving it!!

my sweet, sleeping babe

hmm..

Okay so I said I'd be off the computer by 9:00 and here it is already 9:34 - what the... wait, actually that's not that bad :) Anyways! I have to post a few things, just because. First of all - tonight I got three chopsticks in my sushi ready pack - what does this mean? ( - said in double rainbow voice) I'm not the first person to ask this question, and apparently it's lucky? Right... what else would it be? Anyways, interesting! And thank you Jen (and Cooper) for bringing dinner - and dessert! 0ver. Too bad the kiddies missed out... but then again, they had delicious looking pureed food AND dessert too. We had strawberries and they had peaches; yum for all.

Secondly - watch this video and then tell me ... should I be concerned that this kidlet is going to climb out of his crib? I mean... really?! Or maybe I'll just wake up one morning and find him perched in a corner of his room. Paaaaah... Okay, and even thought there is more to say, that's it that's all... I'm off!


8 months old and crawling, climbing, squealing!

on the move!

visits and vball

The last few days have been full of amazing visits and volleyball action, and now, things have simmered just about as low as they can go. Well, no no no, not really. On Thursday Steve left for a hotel in Kanata (boo) - they had games to play on Friday and Saturday night against Slovakia (World League qualifying matches) - and some new friends Jen and Cooper came over for dinner. On Friday my very very verrrry good friend Anne-Marie (remember her from last summer? we had a solid preggers visit last August) came down from Montreal with her little bean Marianne, for visiting and volleyball too, and it was SO good to see her and meet her babe. What did we even do? Um... hm. We talked non-stop, walked and ate, and observed the kiddies playing with and ignoring each other. It was funny to see them together - sometimes so keenly interested in each other (grab smack pull, and the two moms - "gentle! gentle! doucement!!") and othertimes crawling over or past each other as if completely alone in the room. So yeah, it was great seeing her and great too to see Steve back in action on Friday night at Scotiabank Place. They lost on Friday night but, to get ahead of myself, won on Saturday, which means more games in a few weeks in the next round of the qualification process for next summer's World League. We had the Fab Four back here on Friday night, and our place - though just two bedrooms - really held the whole lot of us quite comfortably I must say. Hendrik was happy in our room, and it was nice for me (minus the middle of the night wake up) to have him in there... hearing his breathing and waking up to smiles right there at the foot of the bed was not such a bad way to start the day. On Saturday Amer and I walked and talked (and ate) some more, and when she left for home I left for the game and a big win - woooop woop! It was great seeing everyone on top of their game and playing with a bit more confidence. I'm hoping that the team can keep building building building, and ultimately qualify for London 2012 next summer - that's my long term hope BUT (and I'll admit that this is outright downright selfish) I hope they qualify for the World Cup in September so that Hendrik and I can tag along and watch them in action IN JAPAN in November. Ha, there you go.

dinner!

Okay and onwards. Now, the simmering; Steve had to leave this morning for TWO whole weeks.. boo! They'll be training and playing in the Czech Republic (stop number one), Slovenia (stop 2) and Estonia (stop 3) - busy! It will be interesting being alone with Hendrik, though thankfully, I've got babysitters not four hours away who are willing to come up for chunk #2 of my volleyball camp. Planning for that is going well, but there's still much to do. Ok, time for bed - but first... our little guy is eight months old now! AND - as we just noticed today - he has another tooth on the way... that makes seven - ak!!

on his 8-month birthday... it's going by way too fast!

checking out the ipad with grandpa brinkman

hanging out with another new friend ")

happy guys!

summer produce, summer projects

summer produce - mmmmmm

I stayed up waaaay too late last night reading Emma Donahue's Room; it wasn't until 12:30 that I gave in, put the book down and turned off the light. At first I wasn't completely into reading the kidspeak, and I ended up doing some skimming here and there - reading the grammatically incorrect and chopped up language was a bit too much to read word for word. The story behind the story is creepy (reminds me of the Austrian man who kept his daughter etc etc - so so so so horrible) but since you don't get much of that and it's all coming from a very naive perspective it's good; I don't stay up until 12:30 that often any more (sad sad sad), so that's saying something. Mr Muffin was up at 5:00 this morning, and I cut to the chase and fed him right away in a half-awake zombie trance, and then it was back to bed for the both of us thank goodness... and we all slept until 7:45 - bliss! On the topic of books, my current favourite kiddie tome is Love is You and Me - so poignant and cute, and the pictures are simple and perfect.

art projects! better pictures to come once they're up on a wall where they belong

for now they'll just hang out with all of the stuff that should be in our furnace room, but is stashed in a corner; the ceiling in there (drip drip drip) still needs to be put back together

We've had a few projects this week - some impromptu and some planned for weeks, or er, actually, months. I bought canvases from Michael's hmmm, when would that have been? Well anyways, it was months ago, and we finally got around to taking them out of their plastic wrappers and dousing them - or one of them - with colour. I didn't take any pictures of the artists at work, but armed with brushes, wine and lots of little bottles of paint, vee vent to vork! (said in a french artiste voice) and were totally prepared to be disappointed by the end product. BUT! It worked out and we love it. Now the challenge is getting this ouevre up on the wall before another two months jet by. Art project number two (inspired by this post at Young House Love) is in progress, but may have to be put up on the shelf until Steve gets back from his trip. Is that news? Yes - Steve and his team of vballers are leaving for a European tour/trip on Sunday for two(ish) weeks :( It will be strange not having him around, and even more strange for him to not see his son - for that long. Mrrrr... but there's skype and email and yadda yadda, so it won't be so bad, right?



So the art thing was our non-impromptu project, and our spur of the moment deal was buying a whole bunch of fruit and prepping and freezing it for future enjoyment. My mom has always canned - or frozen I should say - fruit, and throughout our childhood we enjoyed peaches and applesauce, plums and rhubarb, strawberries and apricots throughout the winter. Of course, we had no idea how amazing it was to have such delicious fruit in the throes of winter - it was normal for us to have fruit and cookies for dessert every night. (YUM.) Here and now, it was Steve's initiative, and the freezer is now stocked with 6 or 7 jars of raspberries, and 3 jars of strawberries... mmm mmm good. I mean, yeah, okay, we're not sure that we'll be here in the winter (Plan A is for Steve to get a vb contract overseas somewhere) but the fruit will either be there or already gobbled - we'll see how long it lasts in there.

Okay, and to finish (I'm fading fast here), one - just one! - pic of our cute little boy.... oh how I love him!!!

the latest

trying to beat the heat with a quick trip to the park

Ouuuuf it has been HOT out! I find it kind of unbelievable that a place can be so hot in the summer and so cold in the winter. It topped out yesterday at 39 degrees (45 with the humidex) and is thankfully a bit cooler (yeah, right) today with a high of 33. Besides a quick walk and two minute swing ride, we've been inside almost all week. Well, there was also a too-hot afternoon up at Dan's cot on the Gatineau river; I actually considered leaving because I felt like a flaming ball of fire - blech. Anyways, I suppose I shouldn't really complain - if it weren't for Hendrik I'd probably be spending more time outside, and really, all I have to do is remember the cold winter bite and I'll umm, yeah, I'll stop all this hot weather cogitation.

almost 8 months and on the move

SO! As per usual, there is lots to catch up on. The last bit of our vacation was superb, and we had a great time at Peter and Lisa's wedding in Oakville. We made it to the church just in time for the beautiful bride to walk down the aisle and wed her groom (yay!) and then, after a gathering at the Lewis household, headed for the dinner and re-ception. Hendrik was soooo well-behaved, and even fell asleep on Steve after the first dance, allowing all three of us to join guests and the bride and groom on the dance floor for Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. And yes, it was as cute as can be. Steve managed to do a successful transfer to his car seat, and Hendrik slept in a corner while we both ripped it up on the dance floor for 20 minutes. And then the poor little dude woke up screeeeeaming; I'm sure the loud music and dark, unfamiliar surroundings didn't help him out at all - and that was my cue to scoop him up and head for the hotel.

yay! congrats to peter and lisa :)

my two guys

Some of these Bison champs were at the wedding, and came to ours too - spot anyone familiar?

We stopped a few times on our way back home on Sunday - in Bowmanville, and then up at the cottage for dinner and a jump or two in the river - and now, life is as it was before. Well, not really. Hendrik is crawling and cruising everywhere, and we're babyproofing on the go - so life is different for us all. He's adorable though - he'll crawl and sit and clap, then crawl and sit and clap (see vid above), and he laughs and is a happy little dude almost all the time. He's been up a bit at night which is not my most favourite thing, but we've lucked out on the sleep thing thus far, so I can't really complain. He's still a champ when it comes to eating, and besides quinoa, just about everything we've put in front of him gets gobbled. And that's pretty much it as far as Hendrik updates go - I know that's what everyone really wants to read about anyways (right?), so now on to his parentals. I'm staying super busy with both the mom thing and the volleyball program I'm running - sometimes I wonder how people with more on their plate do it - when do you get groceries? When do you cook? Anyways - Steve is back in the swing of things (paaaaha) in the gym and is feeling good, so woop, that's good news. The team has a few games next week here in Ottawa against Slovakia - they're competing for a chance for a spot in World League next summer... should be good! And I'm going to end this blog with two golden tidbits of information: Number UNO: over the last few days I've had some amazing chats with friends that are far far away, way out west, and it's been awesome. Number TWO: At Costco the other day a 15-pack of KRISPY KREME donuts jumped into my cart and followed me home and I had to throw them in the freezer and slam the door after eating not one not two but three donuts. Why? Why does Costco have to sell 15 packs of donuts? YUM. I shouldn't really complain about that either. :)

Emballage valeur is right - yummm!

a crowe and b-ville shorty

Coffee commercial? Coffee and morning sunshine... perfection!

Here are the last of my pictures from our time up at the Crowe; I'm sure there are some other gems out there but before time gets away from me (again - this is a recurring theme here), I'll post 'em. We're headed into Toronto this weekend for a wedding, and it is going to be epic! Well hmm, maybe not so much... I'll have Hendrik by my side and I'm thinking we'll head home on the early side (for me) on Saturday night and let Poppa Steve ham it up with his friends. A lot of the people that made our wedding such a blast will be there, so I'm sure it will be lots and lots of fun. Um um um so I should go and pack up - there are some B-ville pics thrown in here too... we've had such a great vacation!

Hendrik still LOVEs being on his feet - and he liked the guitar too. Baby Beluga was the favourite - the New Raffi up at the Crowe

Fishing!

Mmmm pizza on the grill... it's the BEST!

Erin and Fred, pizza chefs extraordinaire!

He LOVES this play table; thank you Jordynn! I keep meaning to thank you and your family again for this gift :)

happy and happy :)