Christmas with the Marshalls

Finally, we're getting around to blogging about our Christmas holidays. Yes, it's February already, but we didn't get around to doing it while in Canada, and January (and early February) disappeared in a series of illnesses (first Jer, then Béla, then me), but I'm getting ahead of myself.

First we had to get to Canada. Here we are on the train heading to Frankfurt, which was by far the most pleasant part of our journey. I realize that his hat looks too small, but it's since stretched out a bit, and should fit him for a little while longer. It was a gift from our friend Grit, and I was determined that he should be able to wear a stretchy hat for a one year-old, but his noggin really is huge. The brim is supposed to be folded up, but that's never going to happen with this one.

How was the plane trip, you ask? Good in the sense that the plane arrived close to on schedule without crashing, bad in the sense that his ears caused him such torture that he wasn't able to breastfeed, as the pain of sucking was too much. And so he was hungry and in pain. Oh, and Jeremi and I were seated two rows apart. So yeah, it sucked. (Eventually I realized that he could drink from a bottle, as he didn't have to suck as hard, and I was able to manually express enormous quantities of milk in the airplane bathroom while Jer held the screaming baby, which made the rest of the trip more bearable. But you get the general idea, right?) And yes, I know that you're supposed to nurse the baby on take-off (even when the flight attendant tells you to hold him in the burp position, facing over your shoulder), but the plane left over an hour late, and all my excellent attempts to time his hunger for take-off were for naught. And he just won't eat when he's not hungry...

Anyhow, we made it there, and were met at the airport by not only my parents, but also Nick and Cathy, who were very eager to meet their new nephew, but also wanted to present us with the gift from the Thébeau side of the family, a video camera! They'd wrapped the box, but had the camera out so they could record Béla arriving in Canada, but unfortunately there was a problem with the camera they bought, and it couldn't access the hard drive, so it could only store a few seconds of video. They were able to return it for one that worked properly, but, alas, there is no video of the arrival in Canada.

We arrived early in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, went to my parents' place to get settled, and then headed over to Chris and Karen's for Christmas Eve dinner, tourtière. Normally Christmas Eve is spent attending various church services, but I'd already said that we wouldn't go with an infant with jetlag, and Chris and Karen definitely weren't going with a three day-old baby (oh yeah, did I mention that my nephew Gavin was born on the 21st, just in time for us to meet him?), so my mom skipped out on the choir, and we had a relaxing evening catching up. So relaxing, in fact, that we neglected to take any pictures. (This happened often throughout the holidays - it seems I'm making up for it with long-winded prose.)

Then finally, it was Christmas morning!!! We got to dress Béla in his little Christmas sleeper with matching tuque, which magically still fit him. Here he is trying out the exersaucer for the first time. (It was a success, I'd say, though not so much that I ran out and bought one. We're pretty low-tech when it comes to baby toys, but he got to try out all the fancy ones while in Canada.)

Chris, Karen, Owen, and Gavin all came over for breakfast, so we could open our stockings over a big breakfast. Despite our worst fears, Béla adapted to the time different with no trouble at all, sleeping in until 7:30 or so the first day. (I was afraid that Christmas might start at 2:00 am for us...) Here's Owen, having some breakfast.

Little Gavin had a Christmas sleeper on as well, and had his very own stocking. My mom got us all new stockings this year, so that they all matched. And yes, she bought a spare (or two?), in the hopes of future grandchildren.

Hanging out after breakfast with Karen, Owen, and my new nephew. After getting used to Béla, it was as if Gavin weighed nothing. Of course he's not really so light, but Béla was already twice as heavy as he was when he was born.

Béla and his uncle Chris, practicing standing up...

Then we headed over to Chris and Karen's, where we were going to open the presents and have Christmas dinner. Their house has an enormous foyer which is two storeys high, so of course they had to buy an enormous Christmas tree to fill it, which was about four meters tall. Here Jeremi and Béla are standing next to it for scale.

Béla loved opening presents, which mostly involved him grabbing on to a piece of paper, while one of us turned the present around, pulling it away from him, until it was unwrapped.

Getting a very classic baby toy...

...playing with a tambourine that my mom got when the Olympic torch went through Newmarket.

Here he was trying out one of the fancy bells-and-whistles (and-mobile-and-music-and-two-axis-rocking-motion) swings, which failed to lull him to sleep. To be honest, I think he might have been overstimulated. (Speaking of overstimulation, he got to see TV for the first time (that is, TV that's not playing on a laptop), and it was giant flat-screen HDTV at that. He stared, slack-jawed, at the wall of moving light and sound. I also got to see HDTV for the first time, when Karen put on Cars (which I hadn't seen), and I found myself totally overstimulated. Looks like we're sticking to laptop screens for now.

Where the magical swing failed, the cocoon-a-baby saved the day yet again. (He really is asleep with his hands over his eyes like that.)

The big gift that we got for each set of grandparents this year was a photobook of Béla's first 100 days (like how they rate presidents after 100 days, plus it was about when we could get it printed and shipped to us in time before we left). It was a big hit with both sides of the family. Here mom and dad are looking through it, and crying.

The big present for Owen this year was a play kitchen, which was saved for the end. He LOVED it!

After opening the gifts, there was lots of time for sitting around and hanging out. Here's my baba with her new great-grandson. (My mom has now become Baba, and my baba now goes by the questionable title of Baba-baba. She'll always be Baba to not only me, but all of my friends.)

And here are four generations of us, all hanging out on the couch.

And then he was asleep again, with his hands over his eyes. I know that this looks an awful lot like the last picture, but isn't it cute? Besides, it's a good picture of the reindeer-on-skates sleeper.

Here Gavin was having a little sleep on my nap. We brought him his very own Cocoon-a-baby for Christmas, which was very much appreciated.

Nick and Kathy came for Christmas supper as well, as they live nearby, and Kathy's family was all away for the holidays. Here they're checking out the photobook of Béla, while getting some quality baby-holding time in.

And of course big brother Owen (who was almost three) was practicing holding his new baby brother.

Over the next few days we got to see a lot of people, not least my Uncle Bernie, Aunt Joan, cousin Vanessa and her husband Joey, all from Kitchener-Waterloo, who came by to see all the new arrivals. We also went to Melanie and Ruthanne's for brunch, and had a chance to visit with Ezra as well. Also, Gloria, who was supposed to be there for Christmas, but ended up in the hospital on Christmas Day, came up to see us. Alas, we didn't manage to take pictures of any of that. We do have a couple more pictures from our first stint in Ontario though, which are just of Béla being cute while playing with his dad. They don't really add to the holiday narrative, but it's our blog, so we're allowed to post them all the same.

How cute is he?!?

a little pre-Christmas bonus

Lately Béla has been more and more aware of the camera, which means that he tends to stare at it with interest, rather than behaving normally, or smiling, even. But this doesn't mean that he's not as smily as usual, just that he stops and snaps to attention whenever the lightning box (as Jeremi calls the camera) comes out. One way around this is videos, but the sound from our camera is really terrible. We've found a way around it though, as my laptop takes pretty decent videos with really good sound. A bit cumbersome, but it works. And so you can enjoy the magic of Béla laughing. Laughing enough that he gave himself hiccups, in fact. Just a little pre-Christmas bonus.

We'll try to keep posting semi-regularly over the holidays, but it might be hard as we'll be on the go quite a bit.

Oh, and one more thing - welcome to the world Gavin, my brand new nephew, born early this morning, and congratulations Chris and Karen! I can't wait to meet him, and to congratulate you and big brother Owen in person in just a few more days!

Weeks 15 and 16

Most of this past week both Béla and I were sick with a cold, which somehow spared Jeremi. Luckily we're both pretty well healthy now, in time for our trip to Canada. (For those who don't know, we'll be in the Toronto area from the 24th-29th, and then in New Brunswick/Nova Scotia from the 29th-January 16th, and then Jer's returning to Germany, while Béla and I are heading back to Ontario for another week.)

The week before this we were healthy and doing lots. Here is Béla trying out the Jolly Jumper that Chris and Karen got him back when we met them in Paris in October.

This is not a skill that he mastered on the first try, as you can see in the video, but I'm sure he will.

I've been busy with some sewing, making another carrier and a dress from left over silk from the wedding. Here is Béla helping with a pattern piece while watching me iron.
Here he is on his activity mat playing with a ball that Marie and Rishad sent. It squeaks when it rolls, and is pretty cool. (The cat also seems to find it entertaining.)
Also, he's been growing a lot. The week before last he had some sort of a growth spurt, which required him to eat twice as often as usual for a couple of days. (He usually eats about 5-6 times a day, and it was at least 10 times a day for a couple of days, which meant that we didn't do much except for eat/feed, change, sleep, and repeat.) He had his second vaccination appointment as well, where he was weighed, and found to be 6905 g (something like 15 lb 3 oz), so he's well on his way to doubling his weight by four months.

All this growing has meant that he's fitting into new clothes! Most of the 3-6 month outfits fit now, including this ensemble from Gloria.
Look how cute this outfit is! And in fact, Béla loved it so much that he wore it for six days. This sounds terrible, but usually he poops on his clothes so regularly that we only really change his clothes when it happens, which is sometimes as often as three or four times a day. However this week everything stayed completely within the diaper. It's probably just his size, where for one brief moment in time the diapers fit perfectly, and he was neither slightly too small or slightly too big for the size he's wearing, but I like to think it was because he liked the outfit so much that he wanted to keep wearing it for a bit longer.
A week ago Sunday we had our friends Calin and Susanne over for a four course Italian extravaganza. The food was delicious, and it was a nice chance to see them before we all left town for the holidays. Now that I'm not at work I don't see them nearly as often as before.
The pasta course - homemade linguine with gorgonzola sauce (this came after stuffed zucchini as a starter).
A picture of all three of us, since there was someone else there to take pictures!
Then the next day, Monday, we went for lunch at Marie and Tristan's house. We know them from the former German Stammtisch, and they also recently became parents, with the birth of Marjane and Antonin in March. It was a nice chance to visit with them all, and see how big the babies are now! Béla was able to see what he'll be working on in five months' time, such as eating solid food! (Jeremi did work this day, but both he and Tristan took a long lunch to eat with us.)
Valentina also came, and got to play with so many babies! Here she is with the adventurous Marjane (with an unconscious Béla in the foreground).
And the lovely Marie, mother extraordinare, who is raising twins with no relatives nearby.
Antonin, who is a little clone of his father.
Both of the babies were very impressed with Valentina's curly hair.
It was great to see them all, and Valentina and I stayed until after 4:00, which made for rather a long "lunch". The only downside was that Béla couldn't settle down for a good sleep there, which made him a bit fussy. He made up for it by sleeping for more than three hours straight when we got home, which let me get lots done.

The day after this lunch was the doctor's appointment, and also my first meeting with all the women from my prenatal class, who meet for coffee once a week at a café with lots of couches and room enough for 9 bassinets/strollers/diaper bags. It was nice to see a bunch of other babies all around the same age, and Béla impressed them all with his sitting and standing, and, of course, his charming smiles. Here was are after arriving home that afternoon, which was the last fully healthy day for the two of us. And yes, the hat that goes with his outfit does really have little ears on it.
And finally, as promised, a video of Béla's first attempt at the jolly jumper. As you can see, he's using it more as a standing prop rather than a tool for jumping, but he seems to like the fact that he can turn around in it, and watch the cat. I'm going to have to try him in it again soon, to see if he's figured out the bouncing any more. (It's not the most interesting video ever, but Jeremi wanted to include it. Don't worry, the next post has a great little clip.)

Béla, week 14 (a little bit late...)

This past week we were rather remiss with picture-taking. It's not that we didn't do a lot, it's just that we often didn't have our camera with us. Thursday I was ridiculously productive, going to the foreigner's office to get Béla's visa in his passport, so that he's allowed to stay here, then going to the childcare bureau and signing him up for one of the city-sponsored day care centres for when our parental leave is over, and then going to yet another office with all my paperwork in tow to finally get a German driver's licence. (Jeremi switched his licence over a couple of months ago, but I had to get a letter from the BC licencing bureau stating that I'd had a licence there earlier than the issuing date of my current licence, so that I didn't have a probation period with my new licence.) That was a lot of bureaucracy for one day!

I also went out for lunch with a friend (with a baby) on Wednesday, and on Tuesday went to visit a colleague, Silvana, who's also on parental leave, after adopting a baby at the beginning of October. Her little girl, Paula, was born three months premature, on July 15th, so while she's officially 1.5 months older than Béla, her due date was more than 1.5 weeks after his. She's still pretty tiny, and Silvana's worried about infections still, so they don't go out so often. No problem, I said, we can come see you. And Béla was his usual self, charming and friendly, smiling, falling asleep in my arms for a little nap, until suddenly, he became a monster. I'm still not sure why, but he screamed for 45 minutes straight. Nothing I did would calm him down at all. He didn't want to eat, he'd already had a good sleep, he was just incredibly angry. This is really unusual for him, and Silvana was asking me what I usually do, and I mentioned that if he doesn't calm down when I walk around carrying him, sometimes I'll go up and down the stairs a bit. Then she was feeling so sorry for me, imagining me walking up and down the stairs endlessly with a screaming baby. What must the neighbours think, she said. I tried to explain that it really wasn't so bad, and he's usually a really easy baby. She's also used to a tiny and rather weak baby, and couldn't believe how loud he cried. It hurts my ears! she said. I tried to tell her that this was normal - he's not an exceptionally loud baby, but when he screams, it's hard to miss. In the end she had her husband drive me home, because she wouldn't let me leave with a screaming baby. It was a terrible, stressful afternoon, and it made me never want to leave the house with him again. But then, I got up the next day and went out for lunch with a friend, and it was okay.

We also had a really busy day on Saturday. Kerrin, a woman I met in my prenatal class, and who I've been meeting with about once a week to go for hikes, had invited me over to make Christmas cookies. The idea was that with four parents and two babies (her daughter is 9 days older than Béla), we should be able to get some cooking done. It was so much fun! Béla and Hanna (her daughter) hung out with each other and their dads (mostly), while we baked, and occasionally swapped jobs to feed the babies. Unfortunately we didn't bring our camera with us, so there are no pictures of them competing to see who could hold their head up the longest while on their bellies (Hanna won, but to be fair, Béla's head is a lot bigger), and who could poop on the most outfits in one day (it was a tie). But at least I took a picture of some of the cookies when we got home! Mmm... Very tasty.

And Saturday night we went out for supper with our friends from the Spanish Stammtisch in Jena, including Valentina, who had just submitted her thesis, and her boyfriend Raul (who used to be in our German class), who was visiting from Barcelona for the weekend. And after a great supper, I fed Béla one more time, and sent him home with Jeremi, and then went out without a baby. It was fabulous. (And of course, we have no pictures at all.)

But finally, some pictures that we do have! It's incredible seeing how much better he's getting with his hands day by day. This rattle is now his favourite thing to play with, as it has lots of handles, and it's nice to chew on.
And, as promised, a picture of Béla going for the jugular of his sweatersaurus.
And finally, because I realized that I didn't have many pictures from last week, I tried to take pictures throughout the day on Monday, to document a day in the life of our little man. Here he is upon waking up in the morning, when he's invariably happy.
Most people in my family think he looks like Jeremi's dad, but I think this is only because they don't know his male cousins on the Woods side. Look at this picture, and tell me he doesn't look like David or Mike (and it's not just the dimples!).
Starting the day with a quick feed...
...and then sucking on his receiving blanket for a while.
Going to change that full diaper...
...and then hanging out on the activity mat for a while. Here he is after throwing himself onto one of the cushions set up so he can practice sitting.
And, briefly, actually sitting, supported by his gorilla-like knuckles. (There's also a drool-bomb caught mid drip, if you look carefully.)
And, his favourite, practicing standing, while playing with the dangling items from his arch from a different perspective.
Then we moved to the kitchen so I could make lunch. He settled down in the chair we have in there to play with his rattle while I cooked.
Once lunch was ready, we settled down to read a book while waiting for Jeremi to get home. (He's actually home at this point, and is taking the picture.)
Then Béla laid down on the chair for a while while talking to us, as we enjoyed our lunch.
Or at least Jeremi enjoyed his lunch...
...while I held him for a while. (I got to eat after, once Jeremi was done and could take the baby.)
After lunch Jeremi tried on a silly hat...
...while Béla sat on cousin Itt.
And then he pooped all over, necessitating a diaper and outfit change.
And now there were little dogs on his feet! (As an aside, Jer doesn't usually come home for lunch, and I usually go out during the day. This day wasn't entirely typical.)
And then Béla slowly fell asleep...
...and woke up some time later, happy again! Feeding and changing followed yet again.
Then he hung out on a chair in the spare room (which will be his room one day, if he ever stops sleeping in our room), while I hung up laundry. This is made more interesting by the fact that I generally sing and/or talk to him all day long.
Then there was some more active time on the mat...
...and then back to the kitchen to work on supper! The wool blanket now gets chewed and sucked on.
Then Jeremi was home from work again, and while we were getting supper ready we were wondering if the snowsuit we had for him would fit, as we'll likely have to use it when we go to Canada. And so he tried it on for the first time, and was adorable. (And yes, it fit.) Look at the little dogs poking out the cuffs!
After supper he was a bit fussy, so his dad played with him and walked him around...
...until he managed to get him asleep in the sling. Then we could head out to the English Stammtisch, which meets at a bar nearby on Monday evenings.
Here they are hanging out, splitting a beer.
And then back home, and to bed. Jer's giving him a bottle of expressed breastmilk here, as he does pretty well every evening. I try to pump at least one bottle a day, so Jer can feed him in the evening, which lets me do things like go out to yoga, but also lets me cook supper or work on something else while the two of them hang out.
Usually at this point we just put him in his little bed between us, spin his mobile a few times, and he falls to sleep. Monday he didn't feel like following this pattern however, and there was a lot more walking and singing involved than usual. Finally, he fell asleep, and Jeremi was soon to follow.
And there you have it, a day in the life of Béla!