Pride Flag Raising

Here are a few photos of us at the flag-raising for Orillia's gay pride week. First time the flag has been raised at the Opera House, the centre of the community. Great turnout and lots of talk of how hard it still is to grow up gay in a small town. The Raging Grannies sang a couple of songs - are they the coolest old people around or what? One of the grannies came up to me with tears in her eyes and said, "It always makes me cry to see a father so involved with his babies. My husband wanted to be like that but it wasn't possible - he would have lost too much face". Jacob was sucking on my finger after an inconsolable period and I was thinking to myself "I'm not being involved, I'm just trying to keep the peace here". But it led to a great little discussion about small public actions and their larger political impact, about social progress needing baby steps, and how those baby steps are taken by regular people, not by big, important leaders.


The bottom picture is of Kate and I heading out on our first "date night" on Wednesday.

Bourne

Summer escapism at its best - we thoroughly enjoyed the Bourne Ultimatum last night. We left the kids with my parents, who said their time was uneventful (making it look easy only shows us up though). First time for us to be together, without the kids, since they left the hospital.

Picnic at Tudhope

Yesterday evening we walked down to Tudhope Park, with takeout from the new Chinese restaurant on the main street ("ethnic" food in the Big O - be still my beating heart). Perfect weather, great view and the kids enjoyed breastfeeding in the great outdoors.

Unlike Tiger . . .

. . . I remain unbeaten on the golf course as a new dad. I brought my A game today, shooting an 84 at Settler's Ghost, annihilating my heavily favoured father. To be fair, he hadn't brought his new clubs with him (what, he seriously thought he could beat me with old clubs?), he wasn't playing his home course (like Nadal on clay he's not a threat out of his comfort zone), I lent him a sand wedge that I had discarded 10 years ago based on its unreliability (gotta fight dirty), and I believe he's still suffering jet lag from the drive from Montreal.

More importantly, Kate survived the 5 hours home alone with the kids. When we got home, all 3 were sound asleep.

We Win!!

Unfortunately, "we" refers to the twins, not to their parents. The kids have proven a little trickier to put down over the past week. These two photos capture them after they'd finally fallen asleep, but not before: squawking for a lengthy period, busting out of their swaddles and striking victorious poses.

New Jacob photos

Here are two new photos of Jacob (note the slightly chubbier cheeks). I've taken Darryl's advice to heart so there will be no more photos of me scantily clad on the blog.

Got some exercise yesterday for the first time since the kids arrived - delivering a thorough tennis trouncing to my little brother-in-law. The skinny guy couldn't handle the heat. Unfortunately I'll be getting my athletic comeuppance in a few days when I take to the golf links with my parents. Dad has gotten too good for me with his daily golfing and I wouldn't be surprised if this is mom's opportunity to take me down too.

We're having a relatively quiet Saturday. Walked this morning to Mariposa for coffee then down to the waterfront (busy with long weekend visitors and the annual Funfest (!!)). Picked up a few things from the weekly farmer's market and now we're hiding from the heat while the kids nap.

Weekly Toronto visit

We had our weekly visit to Sick Kids. Molly's feet continue to progress well. We didn't sleep all that well last night, which made the early drive to T.O. and then the long day a bit of a struggle. Jacob now weighs an even 8lb (what a monster) and Molly is up to 7lb 4oz sans casts. So they're both continuing to grow well.

We dropped by a super-cool baby store in the big city. I think the Ergo has won the head-to-head comparison with the Bjorn. I also realized that if I lived near stores like this one, I would spend gazillions on trendy gear for babies. I am so weak.

Ben came home with us from Toronto, shared Indian leftovers for dinner and is getting a flavour of our exciting parental lives.

Here are a few photos from Lindsey and Serge's recent visit that Serge just sent my way.