Brought to you by the Letter B

In honour of the kids' continued affinity with all words commencing with "B" (ball, block, banana, book, bird, bye) here's a link to the classic Sesame Street performance of Letter B by the Beetles.

Other news:
- Jacob loves perogies
- While Kate was having a crazy call weekend, the twins had terrible sleeps. Possible explanation - Molly has busted out a few molars
- Kate and I had our third "date" in as many weeks. I think that means she reeeeally likes me.
- Loved Diving Bell and the Butterfly. What a great movie. I thought it was fantastic how they convincingly portrayed that this guy remained just as much of a lovable rogue even once all he could do was blink. Very cool cinematography too.
- Wii Boxing is the best workout you can get from your own living room, and surprise, surprise, Kate fights dirty. This link gives a sense of what the game's like to play.

Boys in Funny Places and Girls Being Funny

As soon as she saw photos of our new window seat, our friend Jo predicted that the kids would get into the shelves. And sure enough, I turned my back for a couple of minutes this morning and this is where I found The Boy.

Here's Molly coming close to standing on her own. For now she favours the lean.

There has been much lobbying from our young female demographic for more Molly videos. Molly invented this "drop the bear" gag yesterday, and Jacob is pretty sure it's the funniest joke ever. They were even willing to recreate the scene today, for the video camera.

The Sporting Legend Grows

Many of you are familiar with my athletic prowess. So you won't be surprised that upon joining the local tennis club this summer I've been festooned with compliments about my superior athleticism, speed, and general jauntiness. And if you think this has anything to do with the fact that the star of the club is 74 years old, or that I've got ten years on the next youngest member, well then you're a little cynical and possibly ageist. Last week I was having a ferocious groundstroke battle with one of the members, and I only won the point when his prosthetic hand came loose. I did have the good grace to help him pick up the scattered bolts and washers, but not before uttering the inevitable, "Can I give you a hand?".

We had a rainy but fun day down in Toronto yesterday, visiting Jo/Mike/Seb/Sophie in the morning and Priya/David/Rowan in the afternoon. As usual I should have taken more photos.

In case the kids hadn't had enough birthday celebrations already, here they are opening more presents, with the assistance of Seb and Sophie.


And last night I saw The Dark Knight, the latest Batman film. It was spectacular - gripping action from start to finish, and a smart, dark take on being a hero. Hard to believe there will be many better movies this year. Heath Ledger's final performance, as the Joker was great - much more compelling than Jim Carrey's comedic caricature.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Eat Your Heart Out

Jacob on the keyboard, exhibiting his mother's musical sense (discuss amongst yourselves whether this is praise or insult).


We went to Toronto for the day on Sunday, including an Ikea pitstop, lunch with Ben and Lori, a bookstore, some tennis, dinner with Greg and a quite pregnant Jo, and a late night return home. Numerous times during the day, Kate turned to me and said "can you believe we're doing everything we planned on doing?!?!". The kids were definitely on top of their games - usually our days don't work out quite like that. We're going to push our luck and try another big city visit this weekend.

Other big news. We have a babysitter scheduled for three mornings and evenings over the next three weeks, so I'm going to get in some extra tennis plus some "date" nights with my wife.

Other big news. I bought a Wii game system today. It's hilarious. I'm really looking forward to Boxing with Kate. Serious scores to settle.

Other big news. We're heading to Vancouver and Gambier for the first week of August.

Other big news. Greg and I are going to New York and Boston for Labour Day weekend to take in some baseball games, root against the home teams, and celebrate his 40th.

Radio Flyer - Our Babies Are Retro Cool

Our latest venture into shameless consumerism is a Radio Flyer walker wagon.
But look how cute it looks - can you really blame us?

And you thought it looked good on it's own. Look how fantastic it is with Jacob pushing Molly.

Jacob actually walked with it solo (without an adult stopping him from falling) for the first time today and here's the video. The drawback of filming at 5pm is that Jacob is thinking more about dinner than about being a movie star, so there are a few squawks.

And one more photo from today - Molly hiding under the table with a ball.

Photos From the Holiday

Molly on the beach

Jacob practicing his walking

Beth and Molly

Jacob on the move. He's so emphatic with slapping his hands down when he crawls that he kicked up quite the sandstorm as he plowed along.

Jacob proving to Beth and Erin that water is not his kryptonite

Erin looking after the two converted water-babies

Beth and mom in the kayak

The kids looking out from our cottage

Molly on the lawn - best crawling grass ever

Hard to believe this is the girl who, prior to last week, cried every time she went near the water.

The whole fan damily

Molly and her buddy Erin

Happy 40th anniversary - candle blow-out

Tennis Prodigy and Backyard Fun

We spent the week up at a resort in the Muskokas with my parents and sister's family. Jacob spent much of the time hauling around my tennis racket. Can't start'em too young. Here's a video of him working on his skills. Stick around for the end of the video to see Molly's role in his training.

And here's Jacob in his new shirt which reads, appropriately "My Entire Life is Being Blogged"

Here are a few shots of the kids playing in our backyard prior to heading off on vacation


Jacob with my dad

Jacob and Erin (who is possibly the best 6 year old babysitter of all time)

Jacob heading out to explore the world

Another Birthday Celebration

The kids had two solid weeks of birthday celebrations - starting in Thunder Bay with Kate's parents, and then with Kate's office colleagues, and then on the day with the Mariposa adopted grandparents, and then at home with us, and then, a few days later a backyard party with my parents, Beth's family and Dan & Alison's family. Here are photos of the latter.

Can you spot the child-rearing problems in this photo? I count at least four:

1) Jacob's chocolate is broken. Could happen to anyone, but is it the beginning of a litany of complaints that we always favoured Molly?
2) Matches left out for the kids to play with
3) My numerically dyslexic mother put the #1 candle on backwards. Whose math skills will the kids inherit?
4) Is that seriously the LCBO magazine under their 1st birthday cake? Never too early to start learning about whether a shiraz or a merlot goes better with chocolate cake.

More presents for our horribly spoiled children. Yes, all 14 of these people, plus Ben, slept at our house that night. And I think all the kids slept reasonably soundly. Miraculous.

Train engineer Molly

Jacob going out on a trek. He would crawl for miles if we didn't intervene.

Alison and the big twins bring Jacob back to the group

Beth and a very serious Molly

The kids attack the chocolate strawberries from their cake.

First Birthday

We're back from our holiday, so lot's of photos to catch up on.

First Birthday - June 26th
Here are the kids in their matching birthday shirts, enroute to the coffeeshop. I'd be surprised if we missed more than five mornings at the coffeeshop all year (except when we were out of town), so the kids are quite the celebrities there.

Compare with a year ago, the first time they went in the stroller, coming home from hospital. They're four times heavier than a year ago, a fact I can attest to from pushing the stroller all around town every day.

Here's the hoopla that met us at the coffeeshop, with our gang of adopted grandparents.

Spoiled rotten kids, surrounded by presents, including brush & comb sets, which they should be able to use in, oh, about 5 or 6 years. They're still not exactly hirsute.

And one of the whole family.