No team Canada hockey games today, and we were all pretty jet lagged, so we spent most of the day hanging out here at our apartment. We did some laundry and groceries. No sign of our two lost luggage pieces yet. I got an e-mail from the airline that they were left behind in Toronto.
Great room for exploring.
Jasper loves ripping around on the carpet in the living room. He and his Grandma were having crawling races this evening and he thought it was the most hilarious thing in the world.
Concentrating really hard.
Most of Jasper's clothes are in the lost suitcase, so we've been trying to keep the few outfits we have clean by hanging out in his diaper.
Piggy back with Dad.
Jasper has also been very chatty the last couple of days. He seems to talk the most when Pat is holding him.
Jim and Pat decided to go to the Switzerland vs. Denmark game tonight. Dawne and I stayed home, I think we'll have enough hockey by the end of the week.
We arrived in Helsinki about 1:00 pm, but two of our pieces of luggage did not. After filling out all the missing bags paperwork and taking transit to our Airbnb apartment, we didn't have much time before the first hockey game. We decided to skip the first Denmark vs. Sweden game to eat dinner, rest a bit and head to the Canada vs. USA game at 8:00.
Walking to the arena.
While we rested, it snowed a couple cm, It is definitely a lot colder here than it was in Toronto, but it is still unseasonably warm, with temperatures around freezing. The Helsinki Ice Hall is about a 25 minute walk or 15 minute tram ride from our apartment. The tram was 10 minutes away, so we decided to walk. Unfortunately, Jasper's boots are in one of the lost suitcases along with two of our Team Canada jerseys.
Outside the Helsinki Ice Hall.
The game was pretty exciting, but Canada lost 4-2 to the USA in the end. More than half the stands were full of Canadian fans. It's surprising how many people made the trip over to Finland. Our seats were in the top row of the lower bowl right behind one of the nets.
Not sure about the headphones.
No more headphones for me.
We remembered to bring Jasper's ear protection, but he has now figured out how to pull them off himself. It wasn't too loud in there tonight, but I'm not sure how we're going to get him to keep the headphones on when it does get loud.
Not exciting enough for Jasper.
Jasper fell asleep after the first period and didn't wake up until we were ready to leave. I'm not sure how he is going to react to the 7 hour time difference. At least he can pretty much sleep anywhere and anytime he wants (I am kind of jealous).
Since we're back "on the road", I'll try to update the blog daily for the rest of the trip. After a bit of Christmas traffic and some confusion with Jasper's boarding pass, we made it to our gate with lots of time to spare for our 6:10 pm flight/
Watching the planes go by.
We got some drinks while we waited, and Jasper explored the floor of the terminal, trying to grab anything he could.
Crawling around the terminal.
He got a hold of our neighbour's backpack, pulled it over and shoved it in his mouth. Luckily, they didn't seem to mind and were happy to smile at Jasper.
So proud of himself (for chewing a stranger's backpack)
The first leg of the flight to Amsterdam was fairly uneventful. Jasper slept most of the time, and we watched some movies. When we landed it was 7:00 am local time, so we missed a night's sleep. It is going to be a long day!
Despite celebrating Christmas early, we had plenty more family to visit the week of Christmas. I also had lots of packing to do to get ready for our trip to Finland.
Icy beach in Kincardine.
My parents stayed in Kincardine for a couple extra days to help watch Jasper while I got everything ready for the trip. Pat's parents came over on Monday night for dinner, a hot tub and for Jasper to open some presents from the Beaton and Love families.
Opening presents with Grandpa.
Jasper has started to get the hang of opening gifts, but mostly he just likes to eat the wrapping paper.
A book from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Love.
Jasper's Great Aunt Dorcas got him a pair of jail bird pajamas from Alcatraz in San Francisco. They look very similar to the ones his Dad and aunt and uncle wore 20 years ago.
Alcatraz pajamas from Great Aunt Dorcas.
Pat, Kathryn and Scott in similar outfits.
The grandparents all tried out the hot tub before we had to drain it the next morning.
Grandparents in the hot tub.
Pat took the day off Wednesday, so we drove down to Whitby to visit the Loves and Hoyles. Great Grandpa Love seems to be doing really well in the Whitby Rehab Hospital and I think he was pretty happy to see Jasper. Jasper wasn't too keen on the Santa that came around to visit the patients. I think he didn't want the competition for attention!
Not sure about Santa.
It was great to see Grandpa smiling and playing with Jasper!
Much better just with Great Grandpa
We had a nice dinner at the Hoyles on Wednesday night and then got into our new board game, Ticket to Ride. The rules were really complicated, but the game was quite easy and fun to play.
Playing with Great Grandma's walker.
On Christmas eve, after breakfast and a quick visit with Christopher, we drove back to Toronto to see Grandma Beaton.
In Whitby with cousin Christopher.
Jasper enjoyed crawling around her apartment and trying to eat her magazines and newspapers. Great Grandma Beaton thinks that Jasper is very advanced for his age.
Sitting with Great Grandma Beaton.
After burritos at Chipolte, it was back to Milton for a low key Christmas eve and morning. I took advantage of the amazing weather to go for a run and we played some more board games. Of course there was laundry and packing to do as well to get ready for our 6 pm flight.
Since we're flying to Helsinki on Christmas day, we celebrated Christmas early this year. The whole week was full of Christmas activities. Aunt Kate was visiting Kincardine and it was great to hang out with her during the week. She just got her Visa approved to move to Texas to get married, so we wanted to spend as much time with her as possible.
Aunt Heather hosted a birthday dinner for Grandma Dawne on Wednesday night. Jasper got to torment the kitty and we ate some delicious food.
Thursday I took Jasper to the doctor and found out that he has pneumonia. He had been coughing and had a fever, but I thought it was just a cold. He didn't take well to the first antibiotic he was prescribed, but the doctor gave him another one and now he's on the mend.
Baby Santa with Grandpa.
On Friday, the McIlroys and Parrs arrived at our house to get ready for the weekend's Christmas celebrations. Jasper was still a bit under the weather, but he was pretty excited to see his family.
Dad dressed up in red too.
Grandad found Jasper a Santa suit that is really cute, but the Santa hat is too small for his big head.
Monkeying around
We had a fun weekend of eating lots of food, opening some presents, going for chilly walks around town, hot tub soaks and playing games.
Hard to catch him staying still now.
Jasper and his new growth chart.
On Sunday, Nathan came over to hang out too. Nathan is definitely one of Jasper's favourite people, he always stares at him whenever Nathan is around.
With his bed bud Nathan
We won a one week hot tub rental as a door prize in a dodge ball tournament about 5 years ago. The pool company honoured the certificate so we had a hot tub on the back deck for the weekend.
The hot tub rental we won playing dodge ball
A tradition in our family is to make graham cracker gingerbread houses. This year the houses were Star Wars themed.
Star wars gingerbread creation.
Jasper is still doing his funny eye squint face, especially for the cameras. Jasper got lots of cool presents from his family, including a great hand knit stegosaurus hat.
Hat made by Aunt Katie, sweater from other Aunt Kate and books from Regan
Jasper also crawled forwards for the first time this weekend and had his 8 month "birthday". It was a busy, tiring and exciting week for all of us!
I didn't remember to take many pictures this week. Britt came up to visit on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I don't even have any pictures of her and Jasper!
Friday night Pat went to the Raptors game in Toronto, and I went to a trial session at the Cross Fit gym in town. Grandma watched Jasper while we were out. He'll take a bottle sometimes now but still doesn't want to go to bed without me there. We're still working on that.
Since Jasper isn't great at going to bed with other people yet, we brought him along on our date night in Owen Sound. The first stop was at Saffron in Port Elgin, our favourite restaurant in the area. They have dishes from all over the world on their menu- a real mix of cuisines. We had our old favourite, chickpea doubles, and also tried the zucchini fritter special. Jasper tried bits of everything.
Eating cucumber and doubles at Saffron.
Our destination was the Heartwood Music Hall in Owen Sound for the Terra Lightfoot and Donovan Woods concert. Jasper did really well, and even fell asleep eventually in the carrier. We only stayed for half of Terra's set, but it was really Donovan that we'd come to see anyways. The midwife who delivered Jasper and the receptionist from the midwife clinic were also there. Everyone thought Pat was a "cool dad" for bringing his baby to a concert. Funny how no one every tells me I'm a cool mom...
Watching Donovan Woods at Heartwood Music Hall.
Sunday morning, Pat let me sleep in a bit while he and Jasper played. Like many kids, Jasper enjoys to play with his toy bucket more than his actual toys sometimes.
Baby in a bucket.
Sunday night we had Pat's high school friends over for a Christmas dinner. The group now consists of 11 adults and 9 children, so it was a bit chaotic. We managed to get everyone fed and no one got hurt, so I think it was a successful evening. It will make having 13 people here next weekend (12 adults, 1 baby) seem like a piece of cake!
We stayed at home this week. The longest I had to drive was to Bayfield for my work Christmas party. It was good to give the car a rest.
On Wednesday night, Pat was a "celebrity server" for the Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraiser at Boston Pizza so we went there for dinner. Pat got so good at refilling the soft drinks and clearing the dishes that he may consider a career change.
Plumber Jasper enjoying his play centre.
Jasper and I went to MOPS (Mothers of Pre-schoolers) on Thursday for breakfast, a cookie exchange and a craft. While I was making the craft, I realized I haven't done anything involving fine motor skills in quite a while.
Crawling backwards under the couch.
My parents came up late Thursday night to visit for the weekend. Mom brought Jasper a cute penguin hat and some mittens with straps to attach them to his coat.
New penguin hat from Grannie.
Saturday was Santa Claus parade day, and our small TNDC group put together a human-powered Star Wars/ ugly Christmas sweater themed float. We got lots of questions about what TNDC stands for and lots of little kids (and Dads) thought our Vader Santa was cool.
A small TNDC contingent in the parade.
Nathan came to the parade too and was great at handing out candy canes to kids along the parade route. Mom and Dad watched the parade and took some photos.
