Updates, photos and a rocking horse video

- Latest walkers on the block, but Jacob is getting close. He took 4 unassisted steps yesterday, before realizing he was on his own.
- For the 1st time since the twins were born we had to call a plumber to deal with a foreign object in the toilet. Only, it was one of the adults who had flushed a pen down the toilet. So, it will be hard to get too mad at the kids when they do it too.
- Kids both have their first colds of the fall - noses running like faucets but that's not slowing them down
- They moved into their "big kid beds" about a week ago and so far so good. We no longer have to lie down with them to put them to sleep, so it's a much easier job for one person.
- Quite sad about Paul Newman. A couple of great movies (The Hustler and The Sting). Plus, Slapshot, which in our family mythology, is credited with being the reason my parents decided to move us to Canada.
- The Bank Job is a good rental. Fairly typical heist movie, but quite well done and extra interesting as it is supposedly quite close to the real story of a bank robbery covered up by the highest levels of British government in order to protect the Queen's sister from a sexual scandal.
- Definitely Maybe is horrendous. Not a single word of dialogue rings true. The main dude acts like a jerk towards his supposed love interest for the duration of the movie and then commits an absolutely unforgivable act, for which he is forgiven and then everyone lives happily ever after. Totally lame. And Scarlett Johannson married Ryan Reynolds this week - seriously, she couldn't do better than this white bread doofus?

Fall Photos
- Jacob rocking in the garden

- Soccer definitely better with a ball each

- In their new raincoats, ready for England

- My first pony - Jacob gets excited about riding the "bucking" horse

Christmas in September

Not even Halloween yet, but I bought this ridiculous Christmas decoration today. I was excorciated last year by lovely wife for delaying purchase until after it sold out. Apparently this Santa has great significance to Kate's family, who, in addition to their wacky politics also believe in a different Christmas myth. Dating back to Kate's coureur-de-bois ancestors, they believe that Santa delivers toys in a birchbark canoe, pulled by nine flying beavers (sold separately, batteries not included).

Montreal and Sharing

We were in Montreal for the weekend - twins spent lots of time being entertained by their big twin cousins; Kate spent most of the time at her conference (and shopping - who knew that conference breaks were long enough to allow for that much shopping); I got in a run and lots of relaxation with my parents around to help with the kids; we went out for Thai food with Beth and Don; and Kate and I went to Ghost Town (Ricky Gervais is funny, but the movie was pretty terrible - completely formulaic and Greg Kinnear is as unwatchable as ever). It took us over 7 hours to drive home as we ran into a horrendous traffic jam on the 401 outside Kingston - and the kids never woke up once!

Kate was feeding the kids pasta for dinner last night. Molly offered Jacob a noodle so Kate said "good sharing Molly". Then Molly proceeded to offer Jacob every single one of her noodles. So Kate explained to the kids that too much sharing isn't always a good thing and that it's important to know what's yours. So, if they turn into greedy investment bankers, we know who to blame.

More Videos

Can you tell that I'm posting lots of happy stuff to ensure that people don't think I'm moping around after the adoption post below?

Here's a video of one of their favourite games. They "hide" something (often in plain sight), and then give the "I don't know where it is" hand gesture, complete with a perfect poker face. I love how they play along with each other's game. This one has the added bonuses of: degree of difficulty as they're perched on the coffeetable; chowing down on the stuffing of the football; Jacob spiking the ball like he just scored a touchdown.

And here's one of Jacob walking "one-handed" in his new shoes (they went shoeless all summer, which despite my protestations, seems to be over). It turns out he was walking with added degree of difficulty, as I just pulled a bunch of tissue out of the toe of one of the shoes. I like to make it as challenging as possible.

New thrones and drums

Molly & Jacob loving the new thrones that Mike dropped off yesterday (outgrown by Matthew and Emily)

Here they look like they're giving me the "we're not worthy" salute, but I think they're actually just trying to stand up

Video of the kids playing their new drums (yes they are the most spoiled twins ever)

Adoption Craziness

Loyal readers may recall that way back in the summer of 2005 we began the process to adopt a baby from China. At the time we expected to be home with our baby girl by the fall of 2006. Unfortunately our timing coincided with an abrupt slowdown in the Chinese adoption process, prompted by, most likely, a confluence of events (increased prosperity in China, some relaxing of one child policy, increased acceptance of domestic adoption, greater acceptance of girls, saving face with the attention brought by the Olympics, desire to shut down international adoption to appear to be more "1st world", and who knows what else). With every month we waited, the projected wait lengthened at an ever-faster rate, so rather than getting closer to the front of the queue, are hopes were continually stretched thinner and thinner. Finally, an IVF attempt worked and we got lucky times two. Our place in the adoption line finally came up, and if we hadn't put our file on hold we would be meeting our new daughter on Thanksgiving day (next month). We decided that while we do want to continue with the adoption (Mei Mei has been part of our imagined family for over 3 years after all), it would be unfair to everyone to have her be the same age as the twins. So we put our file on hold with the intention of reactivating it in the middle of 2009, with the hope of traveling at the end of 2009, with an age gap of around 1 1/2 years. But when we submitted our updated homestudy to the Chinese this summer (a requirement to show that our home would still be a good one for a new adoptee), our file must have jumped to the top of some pile by mistake because on Friday we received a "proposal". Meaning that we've been matched with a little girl (who's name I know) who was born in February. Crazy to think that the thing we wanted most in the whole world (and the thing that we still think is necessary to complete our family) could come true at the wrong time. We would have 3 kids within 7 months of age. All the social workers recommend against an age gap like this and Ontario wouldn't allow us to adopt her for that reason. We could proceed through BC, but after some pretty misty-eyed soul-searching we've decided to put our file back on hold and hopefully complete an adoption next year when we'll be better able to provide a great home for our daughter. In the meantime, I'm walking around feeling like I had all the wind knocked out of me.

Love and Loyalty

I felt a pain in my knee yesterday which I'm quite certain was sympathetic to Tom Brady's season-ending knee injury. Kate asked me if I was going to start cheering for another team now that Tom's out. I tried to explain that I've been with the Pats through thick and thin - a Super Bowl blowout loss to the Bears, a 1-15 season, the 3 Super Bowls, etc.. It's a long term relationship based on loyalty. I told Kate that if she ever has season-ending knee injury or goes 1-15 I'm going to stick with her too. At this point I think she walked out of the room. How do I explain that saying I love her like I love the Pats is the epitome of romance?

In other sporting news, order was restored to the tennis world as Federer silenced his doubters with a dominating win in the US Open final. I think only my father-in-law was picking Andy to win the final, but then again, since Brent started saying that Roger was done, he's won another 3 grand slams.

And here are some photos from our baseball trip:
Since it was Greg's camera he thought it would be hilarious to have a series of shots with me standing a step below him, so as to look dwarfed by him.
Here's one with Greg looking enormous at our seats in Yankee stadium.

And here's one of Greg looking enormous at Fenway. Behind us is the famous "Blue Monster" as Kate calls it, or the "Green Giant" as Jo calls it.

And here we are actually standing on the same level, both looking enormous next to NYC's finest.

The old ballpark

With the obnoxious Jays fans after beating the Yanks

And me looking a little lost on Broadway

Big Apple and Beantown Plus Video

Two twin photos and a video at the bottom of this post. But first a recap of my New York and Boston trip with Greg. In no particular order, here are some things that I'll remember:

1. Seeing an SUV completely engulfed in a fireball on the 400 on the way to the airport. No idea if the passengers survived, but I've never seen anything like it. The smoke was visible from miles away and the flames were 6-10 feet above the hood of the vehicle.
2. Flight delayed by several hours including abandoning one plane after we'd boarded. I couldn't have been happier, with my book to read and no screaming kids under my care. I'll never take another travel complaint seriously from anyone who doesn't have kids under the age of 4.
3. After arriving at our NYC hotel, near Times Square, at around 1am we went out for a bite to eat and a few refreshments. Headed back to the room at 4am and felt like we were letting the whole city down by turning in so early. It really is the city that never sleeps - not just a marketing cliche.
4. Drank Blue Moon beer for much of the weekend. Can't see doing that in Orillia - might get beat up for drinking a beer that gets served with a slice of orange. But Greg was feeling a little fruity so I went along.
5. Greg's proud facial expression after getting carded while trying to buy crappy lite beer at Yankee stadium. His face only fell slightly when we saw the sign stating that they card anyone who looks 40 or over. Way to still look 39 a few weeks after your 40th big guy. Mind you, I never got asked, so what does that say about my relative youth.
6. The fans at Yankee stadium were actually friendly and personable, despite us trying to get the "Let's go Blue Jays" chant started, and the presence of an obnoxious Canadian in our section (no, it wasn't Greg or me). I guess all the real New Yorkers were over at the US Open screaming during Djokovic's serve.
7. The subway home from the stadium. A huge crazy African American shouting about the demise of the Yankees playoff chances in biblical tones, conversing with an equally crazy, old Jewish guy about the starting rotation and what they need to do in the offseason. I half-expected Spike Lee to be directing the scene.
8. Greg demolished me in our ongoing Kensington game (points scored for running into people you know), when friends of his bumped into us at a restaurant in Soho. I'm still expecting to find out that it was a set up though, as Greg is a notorious cheat.
9. Amtrak from NY to Boston was beautiful. Who knew? I expected semi-urban wasteland but it was mostly quaint fishing villages.
10. Fenway Park is the 8th wonder. It's like stepping back in time. The seats near the infield are practically on top of the players. It feels as intimate as a minor league park and as awe-inspiring as any architectural marvel. The crowd was surprisingly subdued compared to Yankee stadium, and 80% of the crowd looked Irish-American, complete with red hair and sunburn. So at least I fit in.
11. We stumbled upon the Saint Anthony's Feast celebrations in the Italian part of Boston. Completely surreal. Marching bands led by old men leaping up and down, and the most beautiful cymbalist ever (leading to a drunken me trying to make Stephanie Zimbalist jokes - come on, do Remington Steele references ever get old?). Huge paper mache replicas of Saint Anthony and Sister Lucia carried through the streets, covered in dollar bills. I thought we were going to get run out of town when Greg asked an old lady whether they burn the saints at the end of the parade. When the parade stopped so the priest could make a speech, people on the roof bombarded the crowd with balls of confetti, most of which didn't unfurl properly so there were almost some head wounds. The catholics are some strange, strange cats.
12. Debating whether Greg's soon-to-be-born son should be named Gustav. I thought it would be historically weighty and significant. Greg was concerned that his first-born not be named after a storm that killed a hundred Caribbeans. It's not my choice, I realize, but I have gone through life as Hurricane Hazel and it hasn't hurt me.

Here's Jacob feeling the love for NYC

And Lois with the twins, after a weekend of standing in for me

One of my favourite videos yet. Molly practicing her standing, with personality in full force. Kate says that she sees more of Erin and my mom in Molly as she gets more cheeky.