We're Alive Part 2

First off, promised pix of Milo and Grandpa. The initial examination:



Okay. I think Milo likes his Grandpa:




Now that I've gotten those in, back to our initial stay at the cottage. The cottage brings out something different in all of us. Some of us like to drink, others like to swim. Some like to exercise, and still others enjoy a bit of reading. Milo gets artistic:


Self Portrait with Cottage


Self Portrait with Tree


Self Portrait with Lake

Once we found out how much Milo enjoys photography, we started exploring his other interests. Apparently he shares his parents’ enthusiasm for rock music. We’ve found that he especially enjoys indie rock/pop. He does, however, appreciate some classic rock every now and then. Evidence? Well, when he was very upset one evening, Jill and I began serenading him with some Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody to be more specific (for fear of Shaken Baby Syndrome, we didn’t make him rock out like Wayne and Garth). Results…immediate pacification and some smiles to boot:







Of course we missed the best smiles…as if we were Big Bird and his biggest ones were Snuffleupagus, thus far, they seem to be reserved for only our viewing pleasure. As soon as the camera comes out, the smiles run with fear. I do decree: I Will Capture One Soon!

What else…oh, Jill tried to toss Milo into freezing Lake Rosseau for his first swimming lesson:



Milo, Zelda and I managed to convince Jill to wait until the water climbed above 65 degrees, though. Despite our successful intervention, Milo was so distraught that I had to comfort him by carrying him around the rest of the day and allowing him to use my pinky as a pacifier:



(No, Jill didn’t threaten to toss Milo in. I lied. Yes, I let him suck on my pinky; said pinky is still the best form of pacification we’ve run across).

Once we’d made it back to Guelph, we went to an impromptu pool party at Shannon’s. It was so impromptu, though, that I forgot the camera. So, unfortunately we don’t have a visual record of Shannon, Des, and Andrew’s first meeting with The Los.

I did, however, manage to find the camera by the time Milo received his two-month shots. Afterwards – and before he fell into a day-and-a-half coma – he was much more agreeable than I’d imagined he’d be. We’d been worrying about his reaction to the shots, but he simply hung out with us for a bit:







Well, he did become a bit contemplative:



Milo finally woke from his slumber just in time to experience his first baseball game. We were given a couple of free tickets to the Jays/Nationals game Wednesday night. We figured that if he became fussy, we could always take off. I mean, they were free tickets (row seventeen, first baseline side of home plate):









He ended up behaving quite well and we all had a great time. I mean, it wasn’t the Cubs and we weren’t at Wrigley, but I guess we can’t have everything we want. It was funny seeing how thrilled other guys, especially dads, were to see him there. They were all smiley and excited and saying things like, “First baseball game? How cool!”

So…to recap the last two long posts: Milo hoodied up, we drove north, stopped at the border for Gin and Tim’s (unfortunately we were on the American side [could that picture be any worse?], which has crappy chocolate cause the good Canadian chocolate at Tim’s comes from Cuba and the U.S. won’t drop the lame-ass embargo), crossed into Milo’s mother(’s)land, hung out with family in Guelph, ate at Webers on the way to the cottage, hung out in Muskoka, drove back to Guelph for shots/pool party/Jays game, and, uhh, I think that’s it.

We still need to see more friends, but for now, I think more time at the Cottage is called for…we leave this afternoon. Who knows when we’ll return, but I’ll post when we do. Until then, know that we’ll be drinking daiquiris down on the dock. Later.

We're Alive Part 1

Yes, we’re all still alive and well.

I guess I'll get my excuse for not updating the blog out of the way, so I can focus on more important things. So, yeah, I, uh, temporarily misplaced our digital camera and all the pics I wanted to upload were still on it. There wasn’t much I could do until I found it (which I finally did yesterday…it was in the camera case).

Since I last posted, Milo’s had so many new experiences that I’ve decided to break this post into two parts. Today, I’ll do part one, and I’ll get to part two before leaving for the cottage again, later this week. Anyway…on to the pics…

Here’s The Los all hoodied up for his journey north:



Nota bene – If you haven’t already figured it out, The Los is just Milo’s current nickname. We do, however, think it has loads of staying power. For all those interested, I’ve chalked up a bit on the evolution of this nickname…

Late March, 2006
Patrick: I wonder what Milos is going to look like.
Jill: Milos, eh? Like Isle of?
Patrick: Sure…why not?

Early May, 2006
Patrick: Los Milos, what are you doing?
Jill: Oh, so he’s no longer Greek, eh? What, is he Spanish? Mexican?
Patrick: Hmm…not sure.

Early June, 2006
Jill: Look, Patrick, The Los is smiling at me. He likes me! He likes me! He likes me!
Patrick: The Los?
Jill: Duh. Get with it. Sheesh, you’re so slow.

Okay, so now that we’re all up to speed…here’s Jill and The Los before our late-night run for the border (Canada, not Taco Bell):



So, we had three things to do at the border: 1) Get gin 2) Get Tim Hortons and 3) Take pictures of Milo entering his mother(’s)land:





You'll just have to trust me on the gin...either that or come visit at the cottage and I'll make you a gin and tonic.

After a few days in Guelph (pictures of Milo with Grandpa Bogart to come), we quickly headed up to the cottage. On the way, we made the obligatory stop at Webers, where Milo was serenaded by the Key Man and got to taste his first Webers burger/shake/and fry (yes Jill fed him there while eating. She said something about it being important for his development, and that the earlier he got it, the better…I don’t know, apparently something in Webers seasoning guards against sickness from all of the mosquito and black/deer/horsefly bites one accumulates in Muskoka).






Finally we arrived at the cottage, where I was caught in the act of my first episode of neglectful parenting. Here I am blowing a mosquito off of me, while paying no attention to whether or not Milo is being eaten alive:



You think I’m bad, though, well check Jill out…as soon as we settled down in the kitchen, Jill tried to fill The Los up with Ex.



When I asked her why she’s trying to get our son liquored up, she replied, “What? It’s the cottage. Duh.”


Let’s see…what else happened? Well, I offered Milo his first view of Lake Rosseau:



Uncle Adam came up for a visit:



Milo and I spent quality time together down on the dock:



And Milo received his first injury (deer fly bite):



That’s it for now. More to come soon…I promise.

Social Development

When scanning through the blog the other day, I realized that all of the updates on Milo thus far have been primarily concerned with his physical development. Fearing that I’m neglecting the importance of his social development, I decided to devote an entire post to it. So…here it goes…

At six and a half weeks, Milo has begun to form complex relationships with the various entities in his small world. He has become quite good friends with Zelda. At least most of the time, he seems to enjoy our company (my and Jill’s). But after careful and prolonged analysis, done by both me and Jill, we have come to the conclusion that his best friends in this world are surprisingly a collection of inanimate objects. Take the following pictures of Milo for example:








He is not interested in Jill. He also could not care a bit about the fact that I am standing nearby with a camera. Do you want to know what he’s doing?

Well, he is staring longingly at his best-friend:




This is not just an isolated occurrence. Nor is it the only object he has befriended. For instance…his group of friends consists of…

The frogs




A floor pillow




…and…lampy




Luckily for Milo, we should be leaving this weekend for Ontario (barring any car or medical complications). Once there, he’ll have his opportunity to spit his game at all the smokin’ Canadian hizzos…especially a few older women that have been emailing him recently. Oh…he’ll also get the chance to play with more dogs, spend his first summer at the cottage, see lots of family, and enjoy some daiquiris on the dock.

Here are some recent pictures taken of Milo from when he’s not hangin’ with his friends:

Baby Acne!

I’ve been putting this blog entry off for some time now. I mean, how am I ever going to live up to the hype surrounding my Swarthy Lothario pic?

I can't…so I’ll just move on, as if nothing ever happened.

The real reason I haven’t posted: I was in Florida visiting my family and upon my return, I got super sick. I can’t even hold Milo (I’ll get to him in a bit), cause we want to avoid him getting a cold. Anyway, here are a couple of family pics from my trip to Florida:



My grandmother is in the middle and my dad is over her left shoulder. The rest of the people are my dad’s siblings (all nine of my grandmother's kids were able to make it down).

The following is a picture of me and a few of my cousins (there are many, many more who weren’t able to get to Florida...oh, and we're supposed to be showing our moose ears, but it doesn't look like very many people managed to bust theirs out):



And here is the walk from our hotel to the ocean:



I must admit, it was strange being away from Jill and Milo for so long. Prior to this trip, the longest I’d been away was maybe a short dash to the grocery store or something. Plus, in the time that I was away, Milo started making all these cute little baby noises (coos and the like…no, Bonnie, I'm not talking about big dairy-producing barnyard-animals). But as strange as it was for me, it must have been even more peculiar for Jill, as she kept sending me pictures like this one:



…with an email that said, “Please come home. Don’t you miss us?”

(No she didn’t. She and Milo had a wonderful weekend with Grandma Bogart, and I thank each of them for allowing me to spend some time with my grandmother and the rest of my family who made the trip).

Stop!…Milo time!:

So last Wednesday (May 24), Milo turned 1 month old and on Thursday he had his 1 month checkup where he weighed in at 12lbs! Exciting news, I know. Well, here are some pics. If he appears a little zitty in some of them, well, that's because he is zitty. Like, really zitty. But, apparently it is normal and quite common for his age.