First Christmas

Christmas has been a week-long affair for Austin. It started with a drive to Montreal on Dec. 24 -- which was a rather uneventful almost-six hour ride, despite that fact that he slept very little. Santa's sleigh (aka, our SUV) was pretty full however -- it's amazing the amount of stuff you need to bring when travelling with a baby and Christmas presents.

Austin's Christmas present to everyone was to sleep in until 8:15 on Christmas morning, followed by present opening at the hotel with grandma and granddad, Ali, Billy and Suzie. He tired of the game quickly, so mommy and daddy finished opening his gifts for him. He did, and still does, very much enjoy the gift Santa brought him.

Then it was off to great-grandma's house for brunch with the rest of the family. Below is a picture of grandma with most of her grandchildren, and now great-grandchild.
And, of course,there was another flurry of present opening.

Christmas dinner was at a friend of the family's where Austin sampled most of the meal. He wasn't too sure whether he liked turkey or stuffing, but he certainly did love the homemade spicy guacamole appetizer...who knew!?

We made the reverse trek along the 401 on Dec. 26. Again, he chose to sleep very little, prompting us to decide, when possible, future drives will be done at night.

On Dec. 28 (at Austin's bedtime) we loaded up the car once more and headed for London. Christmas at grandpa's (Ryan's dad's) was the next morning, where once again Austin opened a present or two before tiring of the game.

Last, but not least, Christmas moved to Nana and Gramps' house (Ryan's mom's) on Dec. 30, where Austin received, and mommy and daddy opened, more presents.

Austin clearly doesn't understand the whole Christmas and present thing, but will definitely enjoy all the toys, books, dolls and DVDs he received. And mommy will too -- because there are now new books to memorize and more than one Baby Einstein DVD to watch!

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A visit with Santa

A few weeks ago, we took Austin to see Santa at the mall. Although a little hesitant to smile, he was very good. And we managed to buy a really good picture.

Then, last weekend, we went to the PCL family Christmas party where Austin, once again, got to sit on Santa's knee. He was too intrigued by Santa to even look at the camera and smile, but we did manage to get a few nice shots. You can almost see just how badly he wants to reach over and grab Santa's beard!

We'll be heading to Montreal on Dec. 24 to spend Christmas with the Gardner clan, then home on the 26th and to London on the 29th and 30th to do Christmas with Ryan's mom and dad. It'll be busy, but fun.

Merry Christmas (and Happy Hannukah) to all.

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Nine-month checkup

Austin went for his nine-month checkup yesterday and he's doing well. He's now 21 lbs 9.5 ozs and 29.5 inches long -- I think he must have sprouted in the last few weeks because, suddenly, all of his pants are too short! I guess it's time to start bringing out the 12-to-18-month size clothes.

I should mention, however, that he has a blocked tear duct. An ophthalmologist told us that it's not uncommon in children -- about 6% of babies are born with it. And 90% of the time, it clears up on its own by the child's first birthday. So that's the hope, and we're massaging his tear duct regularly, as instructed. But if it doesn't clear up, he will need surgery next spring. We've been assured that it's a very quick, and effective, surgery.

He's still cruising along the furniture, the walls, chairs and anything else he can get his hands on, and in the last week, he has tried to take a few steps on his own. Unfortunately, when trying to walk from the dresser in our room to the bed (about a foot and a bit apart) he took a pretty good tumble -- and has now developed a small, but healthy, dose of fear. It should keep him from trying a stunt like that again for at least a few more days.
Regardless, he still manages to get himself into every nook in the house, as you can see in the picture he's behind the couch and under the shelf!

He's doing really well at sleeping at night now -- many nights he sleeps from 8 p.m. until 7 a.m. But some nights he still wakes around 5 a.m. for an 'early morning snack' and then goes right back to sleep until 8, or even 9! But as usual, he's still not much of a napper. On a normal day, he'll take two, 20-30 minute naps.

That's all for now.

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