Our little man...

-- is sprouting teeth like mushrooms. We're at 5 now but the 6th is about to make an appearance.

-- will eat almost anything and everything. Loves garlic, pickles, olives, black beans, pasta, toast, cantelope... you name it. I keep being surprised that he likes something strong flavoured and then I realize that I love it too :)

-- Is stubborn! For instance, he has it in his little head that the bathmat should not hang over the edge of the tub. So if he spots it in place when he's walking me by the bathroom, he'll charge in, let go of one of my hands so that he can pull it off, then he throws in on the floor in a heap, takes my hand back and continues on to where he wanted to go. Maybe he's a little OCD too :)

-- Is the loveliest, funniest, kindest, snuggliest, most frustrating, rewarding little package of love we ever could have imagined. God bless him from the tip of his little head to his long little toes. What a kid.

We're home

Yup, that's right. We happily home and all together again. Coming back on a weekday might not have been the best idea, Adam is having a hard time leaving that boy to go to work. Luckily the weather is glorious here so we managed to meet him for a great picnic in the gardens yesterday at lunch.

Our flight home was another great one, this kid loves flying. We left at his bedtime on Monday night and it was the first flight that he didn't sleep AT ALL. He was chatting, laughing and flirting with the two girls across the aisle. We once again had an empty seat which makes all the difference in the world. I knew that I was jinxing myself by bringing a magazine though...

When he saw Adam waiting at the gate his reaction was priceless, I'll never forget it. He just stared with this amazed look like "could this possibly be MY dad?", then he was touching his face and smiling. So the sweetest thing ever. He was also very happy to see his grandpa and didn't make strange in the slightest. So he's happy to be home with his dad, his cat and his toys. It was all so exciting that he had two naps yesterday, one for an hour and a half and the second for three hours. This of course meant that he didn't go to bed until 10:00 but whatever, he's excited.

I'll try to get the rest of the Ottawa pics posted in the next day or two, depending on what kind of crazy nap schedule develops :)

Two Hundred and Sixty Four Miles to Six Mile

Ahhhh, the cottage road trip! A new and completely different kind of road trip experience for Alyson and I. To say that we were a little apprehensive before heading off would be just a weeeeeee understatement. Of course, now we're such pros that we we'll scoff at beginners, but it was quite a learning curve!

So we headed out from Ottawa the morning of the tenth confident that they would simultaneously take their morning naps (for roughly an hour and a half) while we sipped our coffees peacefully in the front seat. Ha, nothing could have been further from the truth. There were no naps to be had, and if an attempt was made to take one, the other would promptly start screaming and wake them up. When we pulled over for our first stop we were just a wee bit frazzled and debated stopping at a cheesy motel for the duration of the vacation. However, we bravely soldiered on and it did get easier (thank the little baby jesus) so that when we arrived in Toronto we were fairly calm and excited to see everyone. We stopped and had a visit with the grands (now great grands) and checked out the swanky new condo. Had a lovely dinner and visit, Aunt J was able to stop by which was nice. Then we packaged the kids up and headed for cottage country. Olan screamed the entire way, so enough said, but the whole trip wasn't bad enough to deter us from doing it again 3 days later.

The time at Six Mile was wonderful, as it always is. Such a magical place, so it was nice to show it to Olan. The weather was a bummer, a bit cold sometimes and wild wild storms. A tree came down on the little cottage so we all stayed together in the big one, poor Mom and Aunty Tepp had to bunk together- thanks! Much visiting ensued as well as eating... how can the cottage possibly make you that hungry? You kind of justify it by "oh well I swam, that's why I'm so hungry" but honestly I could dive in the water, climb out and then eat a 20 pound turkey. It boggles the mind. Olan also enjoyed himself... malt bread for breakfast, swimming in the lake, swinging with a killer view, napping with a nice fan blowing on him. We had a good visit with the Barrie B's, Kayla and Catherine and his other Great Grandma too. We also went in to Port Carling and Olan had his first frozen yogurt at Nibbs!

A. Tepp drove Mom back to Toronto so Aly and I piled the kids in and drove straight through to Ottawa. The trip back was a dream, the kids napped simultaneously (we told them it was a good idea!) and were happy little travellers the rest of the time. Bless their little bean toes!