Spring Football at Handsworth

It is that time of year again... time to dust off the helmet's and pad's and get ready to play some football. Wow, was it ever hot this year! Last year was Max's second spring camp. He was not walking yet, so he did not have nearly as much fun as this year. The first day was spent clinging to mum and barely talking. I think the only time I've ever heard him that quiet, for that long, while he's been awake (wonder where he gets that from? heehee).

I think this was day 3 or 4, I should have kept better track. It's tough for me to do as much with the camp now that I'm chasing Max around, so very little "coaching" for me. It was a good camp as far as training went, I think I had to give someone a bandaid once... otherwise, no major (or minor) injuries. The grade 8's had too much sun on day 1 or day 2, so there were a few kids that were pretty tuckered out, but otherwise mostly fun in the sun.

Just running around, looking for the helmets. I have no idea why Max is obsessed with helmets, but he loves them: looking at them, pointing them out, trying to put them on (if he can lift them)

This is Max's "football face"... you better take him seriously, or lookout!

Just some fun shots of Max

He would be really quiet when the boys were right up close to him and as they were leaving he would start talking to them. He's a pretty tough guy, heeheehee.

"helmet?! Mom, helmet!". We're off to get to it, or get the ball, I'm not sure which it was at this point.

Coach Jay Prepchuck in the background.

Future coach?

Beluga whales

There was a brand new baby beluga whale born at the Vancouver Aquarium on Sunday, June 7th at 2:39pm to Aurora. Aurora is the grandmother of Tiqa, who was born 1 year ago today (June 10th) to Qila.

Max and I went to the Aquarium today to celebrate Tiqa's first birthday and it was busy! It was so exciting to get to see the brand new baby beluga at just about 3 days old.

Here's one of Max's favourite new toys.

Of course we visited Clownfish Cove and were very happy that Alex was back, playing his guitar. We got to practice singing happy birthday and of course, sang the baby beluga song. It was great to visit with our friends Ryo, Sadie and Allister. The Aquarium was insanely busy, but it was nice to be in the somewhat organized chaos that is Clownfish Cove.

The Aquarium has done a lot of work around the beluga's and their habitat. The nursery doesn't open until 10am and Max waited very patiently in line and was very quiet when we went down to the viewing areas.

Here are some photos of Aurora and her calf:

We captured a picture of Tiqa in the background here too:

Max and I got outside early and helped sing happy birthday to Tiqa while we snacked and then raced home for nap time. All-in-all a beautiful day for a birthday celebration.

My nephew is 1!

It's so hard to believe that Brandon came in to the world just 1 short year ago...

Happy birthday Brandon!


Let's celebrate with crawling into small spaces... Don't worry, Grandma to the rescue!

Opening presents with Dad.
and then Dad gets to play with the new toys!

Max and Brandon have so much fun together. Well, Brandon loves to follow Max and Max tries to get away. They are both learning to share and Max likes to help Brandon drink water or eat. It's so cute. He says "Hi Bwandon" when we get there or "here Bwandon" when he gives him something.

Brandon is now walking a little, talking a little and generally interacting more and more everyday. I LOVE his big beautiful blue eyes! I'm so glad that we are close enough to have play time.

I am so proud of my sister for what an amazing job she does taking care of, and raising Brandon. He is so lucky to have such a fabulous Mom. Brandon's birthday celebration was perfect - a small family gathering with grandparents, aunts & uncles and his cousin Max!

I'm posting a few of the photos I took, but I'm sure none of them compare to the ones that Kiri took. Brandon's Aunt Kiri is a professional photographer and she is absolutely amazing! She did our fall shots of Max. Her web site: http://www.kirimarr.com/

Happy Birthday Markus!

It is Markus's second birthday (big 2 on the cake, might have given it away). So we got to hang out with some friends at Mahon park. We haven't actually been there before, so it was a great opportunity for us to check it out.

Tons of food and fun!

I think Max's favourite place to play is the train. We have been back to the park a few times, but we always end up playing on the train. Occasionally we have gotten to walk through some of the water when it's hot, but we always come back to the train.

Going to the parade.

The first parade was Lynn Valley Day. It started a little later, so we had some time before they closed the road to find parking at the mall and wander a little (I definitely needed more cough syrup) and I wanted to get some healthy snacks for Max (raisins & some of those great organic brown rice crackers with nothing added - I think Heinz makes them). We found a great spot on the corner where we could see the parade without anyone in our way.

This is where Max started watching the parade. We re-applied sunscreen (it was hot and sunny).

This is where Max ended up watching most of the parade from (after a particularly loud float):

and one of his more favourite parts:

A couple of weeks later, we made it to the Height's Hat's Off Day parade in Burnaby. I'm sure the merchants were slightly disappointed with the weather, it wasn't a sunny day. I LOVED it. No need to re-apply sunscreen and no rain. It was perfect. Jess came with us and we went out bright and early (830am, ugh), found parking and started the trek up Hastings. We settled in front of Cafe Artigiano (convenient, considering it is my FAVOURITE place to get coffee). It was a long wait, but well worth it. The first 2 drill teams came through and did a demonstration block-by-block.

Jess (thanks for getting up so bright and early)

The American drill team was particularly impressive. I wish I was a better photographer, or had a better camera so I could get some better pictures.



As the day went on, it warmed up and we decided to have a porch bbq with friends (Eyola, Daniel & Jess). More to celebrate the fact that our deck was cleaned and cleared off enough that we could (thanks Daniel!).

Jess relaxing after dinner!

Max wearing Eyola's sunglasses, isn't he cute?

Just some fun little tidbits

I have not posted nearly as often as I would like to, so here are a couple of pictures of some of the fun stuff Max has been up to...


Lots and lots and lots of reading! Not only does Max read every night before bed, but often times he wants to read a few books before breakfast and then after he gets up from his afternoon nap. He has a large shelf that is overstuffed with books, so I'm glad he's enjoying his books. We particularly enjoy reading him any of the Boynton books (Birthday Monsters, the Going to Bed Book, Snoozers, Snuggle Puppy, Belly Button Book), they have fabulous pictures and rhythm. We've read Dr Seuss (from the big red book "Your Favorite Seuss") a few times, but Max doesn't always make it very far, it depends on the pictures.

This is our frog book, which seems to have gone missing...

Close up

REALLY close up

This is Max's other favourite activity. Driving his trucks anywhere. He quite often parks them under the cushions, so look out if you're ever sitting anywhere in our house.

Borrowing Dad's slippers...

and trying to walk in them.

The Power of Twitter

There are a ton of things I keep planning on writing about Life with Max, but I found myself eating breakfast and twittering while Max and I look at the various birds out the window. I look up pictures of birds on the computer and see if they look the same. I'm sure he doesn't get it, but it's fun and he loves looking at the lap top screen and pointing at the birds on it and then looking at the birds outside and shouting, "bird" with such excitement (I wish I knew what he was thinking).

Anyhow, as I am cruising through Twitter, I come across this tweet:

From ThingsMomsLike: RT @sandierpastures: Help a fellow Twitter-er whose son is battling cancer please do at http://is.gd/CUYb pls RT

For those of you not on Twitter:
RT= retweet (so copy it and send it on)
@sandierpastures (this is who ThingsMomsLike got it from)
http://is.gd/CUYb (this is a short version of the website and it doesn't always work, so I've attached the longer version below)
pls RT = please retweet (send it on)

http://www.manicmother.com/2009/05/please-help-my-family-kick-cancers-ass.html

I don't click on every single tweet that comes up, and I don't follow every single person that follows me. I don't know ThingsMomsLike, but she's a Mom from the US somewhere and tends to post some interesting thing. With tweetdeck I can click on the link and it shows me the long address, when I clicked on it and saw that it was another momblog, I thought that I would check it out. Sometimes it takes us a while to eat.

It's probably because Max is approaching 2, that I can relate. It brought tears to my eyes and a horrible feeling in my tummy. Yes, I am one of those crazy people that worries about what "could" happen to my son and I am so so so grateful that we are all healthy. I also know that could change in an instant.

Why do I write about this? I don't actually know any of these people... but I do believe in karma and I do believe that if anything were to ever happen to Max, I would reach out to the people that I "tweet" with and "facebook" with and who read my blog. It may seem strange to some people, but as impersonal as it may seem, these are people that I tweet with regularly and I quite often have more contact with them than I do with a lot of our family. If there is even just one person out there that clicks on the link because of my blog, my tweet or my facebook status, then I feel like I have done something to help.

So please, click on the link (or don't), but definitely pass it on, blog about it, tweet about it, link it on your facebook page or your webpage. Please do any of it to help a fellow mom who is going through unimaginable things right now.

I started out this blog by implying that it isn't about my Life with Max. This is very much about my Life with Max, I would have retweeted this before I had Max (IF there had been Twitter and I had been Twitter-ing), but I don't think I would have had contact with the people I do if it wasn't for Max.

Spend some time today thinking about what you're grateful for and don't forget to tell your loved ones that you love them!