Zoë's First Steps

Zoë took her first steps!! This video gives you an idea of the raucous reception they received. Since then, she's up to about 8 unaided steps (perhaps more if she's chasing a retreating Kate). I'll try to take a video of the progress tonight. Although Kate is on her 6th call in the last 9 nights, so not sure what we'll be up for. Really looking forward to our holidays - leaving for Maine on Friday!!

Plus, here are a couple of photos from the backyard hammock.

Longer Than Not Day

I stole/borrowed this concept from an adoption blog I read last month. So, Zoë has now been part of our family for longer than she wasn't. We had a low-key celebration with Kate's parents (photos below).

It has been quite a whirlwind nine months (almost) with Zoë. Her belly-laughs light up the lives of everyone she meets. She makes Jacob and Molly proud every day with a new "look what Zoë can do now baba!". She clings to her mama after any period of separation but after 30 seconds or so she's ready to embrace the rest of the world again. She melts my heart every time her lower lip trembles with indignation. She loves swimming in the lake, getting muddy, books, hugs, holding a finger to walk, dogs and ducks, clapping and dancing, everyone she meets, and has an unrivalled passion for ice cream. I would love it if she slept an extra hour in the morning (what, you think 6:45am would be an unreasonable request!?!?!), but that's the most minorest of complaints when weighed against the mounds of great stuff. And Zoë is the great stuff.

Longer Than Not dinner with mama

Everyone having a jolly time

The serious business of dessert

And at lunch today, this is Zoë going, going ...

... and gone

Hauling Trees and Kicking Balls

Exciting day today as we went to Don & Sara's (our future home) to see a fallen tree be cut up and then we were off to a picnic in the park and Playball. Here are some photos, followed by some catch-up on the past two weeks.

- The twins enthralled with the tree-hauling process

- Jacob playing ball with Don

 - Zoë living large in her set of borrowed wheels

 - Zoë watching M&J's Playball class

- Maybe I can't walk yet, but I could dominate this class

- Molly working on her step-over move

- Jacob's first off the mark for water-break

In other news:
- Molly's feet continue to be great. We had her annual check-up at Sick Kids, with no problems. She'll continue to wear her boots and bar at night for another year or so just to be on the safe side.
- Kate is a triathlon superhero. She finished 2nd in her age group this weekend in Gravenhurst out of about 30 competitors. Imagine what she'd be like if she wasn't working all the time and raising three young children.
- No nibbles on our house yet.
- We had lots of fun at the Mariposa Folk Festival last weekend. Great weather, good times with friends in the beer tents, and some good music (although, man do we miss the comparative hipness of the Vancouver Folk Fest). Matt Andersen was our favourite new discovery.
- Great, short visit from Greg, Jo and Benjamin yesterday. We sheltered from the heat in the shady backyard, with the kids in the turtle pool.

- Two movie rental recommendations:

• Clive Owen in The Boys Are Back. Owen's performance is great as a neanderthal sports writer pushed into fatherhood when his wife dies.
• Green Zone with Matt Damon. We have a soft spot for Damon and the Bourne movies (this has the same director), but I thought this was much better than the mixed reviews.

- And three in-cinema recommendations (yes, we're taking advantage of our babysitters before they leave for Europe/university:

• Inception - just as gripping, interesting and complex as the reviews say. DiCaprio is completely annoying but that's another personal bias.
• Knight and Day - perfect summer fun. And Cruise is charming and funny even though you expect him to be cloying and over-the-top
• Karate Kid - Jackie Chan is great and it's a really interesting China travelogue too. And it may have fulfilled enough of the kitschy nostalgia quotient that I don't have to see the A-Team.

Still On-Call

Kate's 4 straight days/nights of call haven't been the all-time worst, although Monday she'll be in surgery and Tuesday I have to go to T.O. with Zoë for her US visa so there's no real end in sight just yet. Molly and Jacob are cycling through a fever/exhaustion thing this weekend too. We've mostly been playing in the turtle pool in the shady yard with occasional ventures to the splash pad across the street and to the lake and beach. Scorching hot.

Enough of the pity party. Here's proof that we're actually all having a blast. The three kids loving their new fire engine tent (birthday present from Beth/Don/Sean/Erin). Yes, Molly has made the full conversion to no diapers and Jacob is 50-50.

These two videos comprise Zoë's entry in the Closest to Walking Without Actually Walking contest.
Here she is climbing in and out of a bucket of water, unassisted.

And here she is walking, holding onto nothing except the drawstrings on my sweatshirt.

Family Hugs

Last night's dinnertime conversation:
Molly: There are 3 kids in our family
Kate: That's right. How many people are in our family
Jacob: 1,2,3,4,5 (counts fingers, holds up hand to show 5 fingers)
Kate: That's right
Jacob: And if I close my hand like this then we are all giving each other a big hug

Kate is on call for 96 straight hours this weekend, starting this morning. So we'll see if we're all still giving each other big hugs by Sunday evening. We spent this morning down at the Canada Day festivities, going in bouncy castles and riding our bikes.

Kate and I went out on a date last night - a run, then dinner at a great new restaurant (duck confit poutine followed by beef and bison stroganoff!!) then out to see Karate Kid (which was fun, especially the scenes of China). We were the only people not watching the vampire movie.