Date night (with Jasper)

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!

TNDC in the Santa Claus parade

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.

Hockey night in Canada.

Back on tour with Jasper

Jasper was back on the road this week, this time without his dad. Lots of distance was covered this week, no wonder I am exhausted!

Route: Kincardine- Toronto- Whitby- Kincardine- North Bay- Barrie- Kincardine
Distance driven: 1405 km

Earlier in the week, Pat's little brother Nathan came over for pizza and some playtime. Nathan is expecting his own little baby brother soon, so he is getting lots of good practice with Jasper.

Hanging with his best bud Nathan.

Wednesday night some friends came over for an Enjo party. Who knew we'd get excited about cleaning products (but also snacks).

Thursday morning the road trip started with picking up Aunt Heather at her new house. Our first stop was the Russian consulate to pick up the visas. Thankfully, all five visas were approved without any problems.

Next stop was to Grandma Beaton in North York. Jasper showed off his new moves for Grandma and we took him for a walk to meet some of Grandma's friends. Some of the other residents remembered Jasper by name from the last time we came to visit. I will have to remember to print out some pictures and mail them to Grandma Beaton, since she doesn't use the internet. 

In Toronto with Great Grandma Beaton

The next stop was to the Hoyle's house in Whitby. We got to visit with Great Aunt Cheryl, Great Uncle Doug, Charlotte and Mike. Jasper sampled some of Doug's homemade soup and got to play with some of Charlotte and Christopher's toys from when they were kids. He hasn't quite figured out the piano yet. Aunt Heather survived the night sleeping in the same room of as Jasper and I.

Playing with Charlotte's old toys in Whitby

Friday morning after lots of coffee, it was off to see Great Grandma and Grandpa Love. Great Grandpa wasn't having a great morning, but I think having lunch and a visit with Jasper cheered him up a bit. He even had a second dessert at lunch. The other residents enjoyed watching Jasper try to eat his lunch. I was pleasantly surprised that the retirement home had a high chair for us to use!

With Great Grandma Love at Amica

We drove back to Kincardine to drop off Aunt Heather and try to get a good night's rest before setting back out for North Bay on Saturday morning. By some miracle, Jasper slept most of the 5 hour trip to North Bay, only waking up for lunch at Webers near Orillia. Luckily, Webers has a veggie burger and it was delicious.

With the cousins in North Bay.

Saturday and Sunday were spent hanging out with Aunt Shelly and cousins Regan and Hailey. We went for come chilly walks, met Santa at the mall and went to a spaghetti dinner at the Davedi hall.

Davedi spaghetti dinner in North Bay.

Jasper was really happy to see his cousins again. Regan is still an expert diaper-changer, but Jasper is a lot more difficult to make stay still now.

 

 

 

The McIlroy/ Passmore/ Beaton grandkids!

Monday morning, we saw everyone off to school and then drove back to Barrie for lunch with the Parr great grandparents. We are lucky to have so many people to visit, but I sure am tired now. Hopefully, we won't have to go too far for the next few weeks.

7 months old

This was a busy week for little Jasper. On Monday, he went with me to work for Public Health Professionals Day. He did pretty well to sit through a three hour motivational speaker session and then lunch with all my co-workers. I only had to walk him around the halls a few times.

With Scolastica, Laura, Amy and Bennet at the HCHU.

Jasper tried some more new foods this week, including feeding himself porridge and yogurt. It's quite a messy undertaking, as you can see from the photo below.

After eating.

Jasper was seven months old on Thursday, so we took his monthly picture with Fred. He is definitely bigger than Fred now. I like the mischievous look he is giving in this picture.

Seven month picture with Fred.

Friday night Jasper got to meet Santa, reindeer, llamas, goats and a camel at Kincardine's Hometown Christmas event. Jasper didn't mind sitting with Santa at all.

With Santa at Kincardine Hometown Christmas

After meeting Santa, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where Jasper could torment Kitty for a while. The poor old cat just takes it. I guess Jasper is not allergic to cats, since he was pulling off her fur by the handful.

 Saturday, my friends Erynn and Michelle came up to visit from Toronto. It was so great to have them here for the weekend. We got to cook lots of yummy food, walk around snowy Kincardine and stop in to Heather's house warming party for a few hours.

With Erynn at Hawg's Breath

It snowed the week Jasper was born, but this was his first real experience out in the snow. His snow suit is a bit big for him, so he looks pretty funny trying to move around with it on. The jogging stroller did well in the snow. Good thing, we'll have to get used to getting around in the snow for the next few months.

Failed attempt at snow angel.

Russian Visa adventures

This week, a significant amount of time was spent getting all the paperwork in order for our visas to go to St. Petersburg this January. We are going to take the train there for 5 days after the World Junior Hockey Championships in Helsinki. Even though we're only doing a short visit, the visa process is still a giant pain. 

Dad, Jasper and I took the GO train down to the Russian Visa office on Monday to submit the applications. Two of the pictures got rejected, but luckily there was a photo shop down the street that fixed and re-printed them for us. I dragged Dad to Auntie's and Uncles for lunch before we took the GO bus back to Milton.

Cute hat from Aunt Colleen, but head is too big!

On Friday, Jasper and I took the bus from Kincardine to Toronto to pick up the first batch of completed visas. Jasper and I were both sick, so it was a bit of a challenging day to be schlepping around Toronto on public transit.

Playtime with Grannie.

Saturday morning, one set of Jasper's great grandparents came to visit him in Milton. We were going to head to Toronto and Whitby to visit the rest of the great grandparents, but didn't think it was a good idea to bring a sick baby (and adult) into retirement homes.

Great Grandpa always make sure Jasper's warm enough.

With Great Gran.

As it turned out, Pat also got called in to work on the weekend, so we drove back to Kincardine Saturday night. We made a quick stop in Elora to say hi to Britt and her family at her brother's stag and doe. It's good to see Britt again after her travel adventure. Hopefully we'll be able to spend more time together now that she is "funemployed" for a bit.

Stopped to see Brittney and her family in Elora.

Heading home

Our day started bright and early to catch our 8:00 am flight to Miami.

Playing on the airport floor.

It was a pretty uneventful day, just plane rides and a fast food lunch in the Miami airport. Jasper's new favourite activity is to stare at strangers until they smile at him, and then smile back. There were plenty of strangers to smile at in the airports and on the planes.

Looking for the CN tower as we land in Toronto.

Grannie and Grandad met us at the airport to bring us to Milton for dinner and an evening of figuring out our Russian visas. The Russian Consulate in Toronto is our task for tomorrow, while Pat heads back to Kincardine to work.

Catamaran day

Today was our last day in Barbados and we spent the whole day out on the water on a party catamaran. I'd done the same trip when I was here 10 years ago with the swim team for training camp. It was a bit different having Jasper with us.

Jasper ready for breakfast on the boat.

The service on the boat was quite impressive, they served breakfast and lunch and made sure you never had an empty cup. I mostly stuck to pineapple juice, but Pat enjoyed the rum.

The family after snorkelling

There were three stops during the trip: swimming with the turtles, snorkelling on a reef and wreck and swimming at an empty beach. Pat and I took turns swimming, and one of the staff even offered to watch Jasper for a while so we could both snorkel.

While Jasper napped.

Since it was an all-you-can-drink event, by the we got back to port at 2:30 pm, people were having a pretty good time dancing.

Jasper was the life of the party.

Pat even danced Jasper to sleep to the loud soca music that was blaring.

Matching hats and shades.

Back on shore, we went back to our room to meet up with Martyn. He's living in Toronto, but happened to be in Barbados visiting. It was great to catch up and we will definitely have to try to meet up in Toronto more often.

Martyn came to visit!

It was an early night, since our cab to the airport was called for 5:30 the next morning.