Monday, December 27, 2010

Caleb's first Christmas

First family Christmas

Outside the snow is falling and it finally looks a lot like Christmas! It is a great day for sitting by the fire, drinking hot chocolate, playing with our new crocinole board and having lots of laughs while watching Caleb learn to walk on his new zebra push toy (see video below!).

Stocking fun

Caleb's first Christmas was a huge success. It began with a great dinner on the 24th where Grampie Greg, Alan and Caleb all debuted their festive matching Hawaiian shirts from Barbados! It was a very, very special moment for all in attendance! On Christmas morning, Cale helped unwrap all the gifts and has spent the past couple of days playing nonstop with his new toys. He particularly loved his vintage Family Camper, new books and his new toothbrush which was also a surprise winner! It was really fun to fill his stocking and play Santa on Christmas Eve, and I love knowing each year will only get better. It is fun to think about how the holiday season will bring him so much excitement and joy in the years to come.

Wow!

We braved the weather and took Cale outside on his new toboggan today. He looks just like he little brother Randy from The Christmas Story all bundled up in his blue snowsuit. He loved sliding and playing in the snow and now he's ready for a nice long nap. What a great storm day!

Winter wonderland


Thursday, December 23, 2010

Christmas Eve eve


I'm finally feeling the Christmas cheer. After being down south then coming home to no snow on the ground in Fredericton, Christmas has been the furthest thing from my mind. But tonight we went to my Aunt and Uncle's (Jay and Gale) house, sat around their beautifully decorated tree, ate holiday snacks, sang some Christmas carols and now I'm feeling filled with holiday spirit, just in time! It will be a very relaxed holiday for us. Alan's parents are in New Hampshire with Kim and Jim, Sarah and Mary aren't coming to Fredericton, so it is just my family and Kathy's family in town this year.

Tomorrow the festivities will begin with turkey dinner at my parents house. My mom is ecstatic to be ordering in the entire meal from the Delta! Christmas day will be filled with opening gifts, taking naps, dog walks in O'Dell and eating Delta leftovers. It will be our first Christmas as parents/Santa so I'll be taking lots of photos to share. I hope Caleb leaves some good cookies for us!

Right now I have to share a very special video - a commercial for New Brunswick tourism that David Myles put together featuring Alan and Kyle. David asked his fans to submit photos of NB and if you look closely you might just see a special little guy and his mama in their first music video debut! There are also lots of great shots from my dad of Moosecall. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Barbados

Playing in the sand with Grampy Greg

We are home after spending a wonderful week in paradise! The trip was everything we had hoped it would be. Lots of time to relax at the resort and swim in the warm, clear water, lots of time with family and friends, snorkeling with turtles and over shipwrecks, good food, great pina coladas and a wonderful baby who had an even better time than we did!

Passed out on the plane

Cale was a champ from the very beginning. He had no trouble with the long travel days and spent the majority of the flights curled up asleep in my arms. He loved the water and laughed as the waves would splash over his feet. He had absolutely no fear and would have happily stayed in the ocean or the pool all day long. He even added a few new sounds to his growing repertoire. A kissing sound when he sees birds or animals to call them in (just like his mama) and a bbrrroooommm sound when he sees cars, trucks or airplanes (just like his dad)! It was so great to have my parents there, too. They were such a great help with Caleb and didn't mind having him over night a couple of times, even though he still curls up in bed between them!


Seeing Lydia and Nick get married was definitely the highlight. The beach ceremony and reception were beautiful and yes, a few tears were shed! We were so glad to be there to celebrate with everyone.

Wedding night close up!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Southbound

There will be no need for all this winter wear soon!

At 5:45 on Saturday morning we take off for our weeklong vacation to Barbados. Sunshine, beaches, scuba diving, surfing, a great group of friends and family AND my best friend's wedding! There is no way this trip will be anything but amazing! I just hope I can make it through my speech at the wedding. I can hardly hold it together while watching a wedding show on tv, so I can hardly imagine how I'll be watching two people I love so much get married on the beach in an intimate ceremony. My mom is worse. She already burst into tears when Alan told her what song he was going to play (45 Years, by Stan Rogers). It will be a tear-jerker, there's no way around it.

I'm really, really excited to be able to go outside without having to bundle up. Winter is a whole different story when you have a baby. Especially one who is ridiculously squirmy and loves to pull off his hat and bite off his mittens. We've also both had colds for the past few weeks, so I'm hoping the nice weather and lots of time outdoors will get us feeling better.

Since I won't be writing for a week while we are away, I'll leave you with a few bonus photos!

Learning to drink from a cup

It's waaayyy more fun to do it this way

This is what happens if I leave Cale unattended for a few seconds. Maybe Santa reads my blog and will bring us a new deck of cards!


Sunday, December 5, 2010

Christmas craft fair

A beautiful pop-up card made by Fredericton's Angela Black. Check out her website here.

I try to support local artists as often as I can, so I love going Christmas shopping at the Halifax Crafter's Market as I did today with Caleb and my friend Nina. Cale was so amused by all the action. I just love how easily he makes connections with people through eye contact and big smiles. Of course, he tugged on the coat sleeves of several strangers and tore down a few paper snowflake ornaments, but mostly he was content to hang out in our arms and take everything in.

Not the world's most elaborate fort, but it does the trick

I am really starting to feel like Cale is becoming more of a toddler and less of a baby everyday. He loves taking things off of shelves, scattering books, cds and coasters all over the floor, so we now can legitimately blame our messy house on someone else! Our bath tub is now filled with toys. He is becoming much more interactive with his play and loves to make little blanket forts, ramps for his cars and big block towers which he quickly proceeds to knock down. Alan and I sometimes play a game trying to see who can build the biggest tower before The Hurricane plows it over. We can't usually get past 4-5 blocks. Sometimes I can hardly believe that things are just going to continue to become more and more fun the older he gets. Our little guy is growing up and I'm loving every minute of it!