Upstaged

The Christmas Vacation adventures began with a pretty grueling flight to Calgary. The flight out of Heathrow was delayed and we barely made our connection in Frankfurt. We were the absolutely LAST people through the gate and they had to offload people who'd already checked in but hadn't turned up to get on the plane so we could get seats. There were lots of delays due to fog in Frankfurt so lots of people were late and racing for connections. Yes, you read right. Frankfurt, in Germany and the totally opposite way from Calgary if you're starting in London. But the tickets were much cheaper but after the tough, tough flight I might be willing to pay the extra money just for a direct flight back to heathrow on the way home. Poor Bryn was not feeling well and subsequently cried a lot. It was really hard and I was watching the in flight monitor going 'Ok, only 8.5 hours left'. 'Ok, only 8 hours left'. "ok, only 7. hr 45 minutes left'. But we finally made it!!!

We arrived in Calgary sans luggage, which was to be expected as we barely made the flight ourselves. It is now day three with no luggage but fortunately Lorisa had 3 boxes of kids clothes here for me to go through so Bryn has been well dressed and we have been borrowing and buying a few things. Kevin argued with Air Canada and got us our $300 in compensation. Hopefully the luggage will arrive today.

Bryn continues to be unwell with red cheeks, runny nose, and a slight fever. He is struggling a lot to cope with the time change and is crying lots and clinging to mom. For example last night he slept from 9 pm until midnight, then started waking up every half an hour and crying and it would take 10 minutes or so to settle him each time. Finally at 2:30 a.m. I just got up with him and we were awake until 6 a.m. Then he slept til 8 a.m. and is now awake again. So he is all messed up and subsequently we are messed up too.

Kevin unfortunately has done something to his back and was in extreme pain the first two days we were here. I've not seen him suffering that much in a long time and was hurting so much that he actually consented to taking an Ibuprofen which he never does. But after a whole bunch of heat and stretching he is starting to feel better. He says it only hurts if he breathes really deeply rather than with every breath. Eye, yi, yi!! So far the trip has not been a real barrel of laughs as we are all physically unwell, tired and cranky. But we are hopeful that we are over the worst and the best is yet to come.

Ok, now to the title of this posting. Both sets of parents rushed right past Kevin and I and engulfed Bryn in cuddles and exclaimations of excitement and joy. Finally after 20 minutes of being ignored I whined a bit and said 'um, can I get a hug?'. Jan promptly gave me a hug and when I complained about not being very important anymore she said 'of course you're important, you brought Bryn'. Yes, officially upstaged by my son. i whinged a bit to Kevin about my new lower status and he just matter of factly turned to me and said ' get used to it.' So to those of you expecting babies in May, start preparing yourself now.

The need for cupboard latches

Card Soup

Walking and Sleeping

Two major new developments: Bryn is walking and Bryn is sleeping!

As you can see in the video our little man is a pied dans his own two feet. He took his first few steps alone back when Jan and Lloyd were visiting and he just progressed a bit each day. Now he can pretty much walk anywhere he wants and can go the length of the house no problem. Although given the choice he'd still rather have your hand to hang onto. My one year old is officially a toddler!

Ok, now for the really thrilling part...get ready...Bryn has slept through the night 5 nights in a row!!!! I think we might have the start of a new reality. I really hope this is a pattern and not just an anomoly. We've been working on a few different things but I think the biggest one was temperature regulation. He is back into sleeping in a babygro bag (no blankets to kick off and get cold) and Kevin rigged the timer on the underfloor heating so it is on all night in his room. We also have started a later bedtime between 9 and 10 pm which means that he wakes at around 6 or 6:30 a.m. (he usually only sleeps 8 to 9 hours a night) as well as instituting a snack just before he goes to sleep. So I think the combo of a full tummy and being warm, and perhaps also being played out from all that walking is causing full nights sleep.

He is also napping less, although not by my design so perhaps he is just readjusting his sleeping hours to the night rather than the day. Which I am over the moon about. Except that I keep waking up in the middle of the night to pee and then lie awake thinking, 'is he ok, is he breathing, why haven't I heard him, did he wake and I slept through it?'. However, my own body clock awakenings are much, much, MUCH easier to take than being torn out of sleep by Bryn. I am feeling so much better and more positive about everything now that I am finally getting some sleep. Only took a year, but hey, I'm not complaining, a year is better than some people get.

In other developmental news, Bryn can eat with a spoon or fork really well even sometimes managing to get food on it himself before manoevering it into his mouth. He can also drink from a cup by himself, although it has to be one with handles, and only when he decides to do it. There is still quite a bit of spillage if he's just in the mood for cup banging. :)

NCT Birthday Party

Rather than have 7 birthday parties in the space of a month we decided to have one party for all the NCT babies. It was so much fun! I was a bit sceptical that we were going to be able to pull it off especially the cake and candles all happening simultaneously with 7 babies but it worked pretty well in the end.

We decided to reduce the amount of presents so everyone just bought one gift each, for the child that was born just after yours. We gave to James and here he is opening it with mom Sarah.

Niki is being swarmed by Isla, Dimitri and Tom.

Happy Birthday Bryn!

Lisa has a really nice way with the kids and they all gravitate towards her. We joke she is a baby magnet. She is holding Ana and entertaining Ben.

Ben hammed it up for the camera.

Bryn is opening his awesome gift from Ana, a hand decorated sailboat pillow complete with its own sailor!

MMMMM....cake!

I made a special dairy free cake for Bryn but it was a bit of a disaster. It totally fell into bits when I tried to turn it out of the pan. But Kevin to the rescue! He used a tupperware as a mold and a lot of icing as glue and and voila, a four layer cube cake! After all that effort though, Bryn didn't really eat any of it.

Dimitri close up. He is so laid back and hardly ever cries, even when he bumps his head.

Hats and balloons and babies.

babies in action!

Happy Birthday to You (all of you!)

Bryn's Birthday Celebrations!

Kevin was in Germany for work on the 13th so we celebrated on the 14th when he got home. We had dinner together (coconut curry - Bryn really likes it) and then we did cake and presents. We decided to do just the three of us because we were planning on hosting a big party for all the NCT babies who are turning one around the same time (more on that in another post).

There was a whole pile of gifts most of which came in the mail from overseas, although the two huge green bags are from Gramma.

He couldn't unwrap things but he could dig around in the gift bags ok and once the presents were open he was keen to play with them.

Thanks Zia Nola and family for the cute bear hat and mitts. Extremely timely too as we just lost one of the awesome MEC mitts that my mom brought over from Canada :(. I am going to attach them to a string and thread them through his coat so I don't loose them.

Here is the huge pile of gifts Bryn recieved. What a lucky little boy. Thanks to everyone who thought of him and sent something. It was so nice to be remembered when we are so far away.

Bryn is not quite sure what is going on here with the cake. He can tell something different is happening but not quite how to react. I baked a blueberry cake (ok really blueberry muffins in a cake pan) because he loves blueberries but he wasn't really too interested. He didn't eat any of it. Too weird looking I guess. Probably a good thing if your kid is not interested in cake.

ONE!

Happy Birthday to Bryn!

Can't believe our little nugget is one whole year old today. Have been thinking back over the year and to all the things we've experienced together as a family since Bryn arrived. It has been a fantastic year, probably the best one of my life.

Have also been thinking back to November 13, 2007 and remember how it started out. Concerned over how long it had been since my water broke and the pressure from the doctors and midwives to come in and be induced and the decision finally to head to the hospital at around 9 a.m. By this time last year (it is now 11 a.m.) I was hooked up to Bill the IV and the process was started. Bryn was born at 11 pm. so techically he is not 1 for another 12 hours. It was a long, physically demanding and emotional day but oh so worth it!!!

Have been making a scrapbook for Bryn for his birthday and plan to make a list of 'firsts' and all the other things he's done in his first year so hopefully will post it when it is finished.

13th Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

Jan and Lloyd were very good sports about dressing up at the last minute for the party. Lloyd crafted these awesome headresses out of our laurel bushes. Fitting costumes having just been in Greece.

The Kefalonian hat resurfaced as a costume accessory. Can you guess what we are? (answers below). HINT: Kevin has wings and clawed feet (just cause its hard to see).

Ok, I can hardly stand how cute he is in this photo. I know I'm being one of those annoying parents but I have to say it was super fun to dress up our cutie for my beloved halloween ritual. He was such a trooper and stayed in his costume for most of the night which was a surprise, I thought he was going to protest after only a minute with the hood on.

The Halloween Makls and Hakls

Tim concentrating intently on his creation. Another English rookie we've converted to the Halloween carving ritual. We had quite a few carving virgins this year which is always fun when they stick their hand in to scoop out the guts.

The finished products.

Pumpkin of the Year was Tim's masterpiece the Death Star with accompanying Xwing fighter and Imperial Tie Fighter.

Greece

Kevin's parents have been here for a 3 week visit and we decided to take a trip to Kefalonia, Greece with them to get away for some sun, sand and swimming. Kefalonia is where the island where Captain Corelli's Mandolin was set. It is beautiful and the weather was much better than we anticipated. It was the very end of the vacation season so many things were closed or closing down but we still got to see some sights and enjoy the beach.

I was upstairs putting Bryn to sleep and I could hear Kevin and Lloyd having this intense conversation. I thought, boy they must be debating politics or the economy or something and I was keen to get downstairs and hear what they had discussed. Alas, it was only strategy for the best way to do a Sudoku!

Kefelonia experienced a massive earthquake in 1953 (about 7 on the richter scale) which devastated much of the island. Many families supersticiously decided to move away to avoid the cursed island. They immigrated mostly to North America but retained close ties, with many coming back to vacation and send money back to family that remained. The guide book claims why so much English is spoken there but it could also be the massive presence of package holiday companies from the UK (like the one we used). People argue that tourism has disturbed the authenticity of the island but Kefalonia is not a lush land for growing produce and has little mineral resources so it could not survive without the tourists. Ok, major sidetrack from the earthquake. In this photo Lloyd is trying to work out how the ruins of an olive press worked in the old town of Skala.

If you remember our trip to Wales you will know that Jan loves her icecream. She was disappointed in Kefalonia though as many of the icecream shops were closing down at the end of the season and just had a few of the least favourite flavours left. However, we did find this place in Argostoli which is the main town on the island and so is not as affected by the tourist season. Notice the grin!

Bryn and I inside the remains of st. George's castle. Just below us was a cavern where Kevin spotted a bat hiding for the day. There were lots of bats actually that we would see at night flying above our swimming pool at the villa. It was lit and attracted moths, tasty treats and easy pickings for the bats. It was so neat to watch them swooping this way and that to catch the moths especially as you could tell they couldn't see them by the last minute changes of directions that were made when they 'sounded' out where the insects were.

My gorgeous men!

Lloyd snorkling. It was a bit cold for swimming but Lloyd braved it several times in search of interesting fish. No coral reefs there but some rocks that sometimes housed fish.

Myrtos beach the most beautiful and famous beach on Kefalonia.

Who's that handsome cowboy? Yeehaw!

Kefalonia is mostly limestone which tends to erode away in sections so there are lots of caves on the island. Hence all the bats I suppose. This is an underground lake and cavern that we toured.

Melissani Lake boat tour (underground).

Everyone had to try the hat on. Kev bought it at the supermarket for 3 euros. Useful purchase it became part of my halloween costume (see a future blog posting).

My husband is so wonderful he walks on water.

Lloyd celebrated his birthday while they were in Oxford. The cake is a bit mini but made of Thortons toffee, yum.

We attempted our first dinner out in a long time with Bryn to celebrate Lloyd's birthday. The moment after this photo was crazy. A ballon wafted into the candle and popped which somehow triggered a glass of water to get spilled all over Jan and then the commotion and noise caused Bryn to start wailing. You just have to laugh sometimes though.

3 generations of Hakl men.

More Pics from Parents Visit

Boy, its been a long time since I've blogged but I've been busy (and tired and no computer time). Anyways, here's a few more pics from when my parents were here in September.

We went for a walk and ended up outside Enshym Hall, which was built in the Victorian age for wealthy family but they fell on hard times and it was used as a police training facility for a while and is now a hotel and conference centre.

Love this shot of my parents and Bryn. It was a beautiful day.

Bryn's First Word

Kevin was in Germany last week and one time when he called I was feeding Bryn. I said 'Bryn, guess who's on the phone? It's Daddy!' and he gestured at the phone and said 'Dada'. The next day when I said 'Daddy's coming home tonight' he looked out at the deck (the direction Kevin always comes home from) and said Dada and started waving. So he definitely knows who Daddy is.

Then this morning I went out to the guesthouse to get some much needed sleep. Bryn was in his high chair feeding (the same place he usually is at dinner time when Kevin gets home) when I walked inside. He looked at me and said 'Dada'. Hmmmm...

Kevin diplomatically suggested that perhaps dada is a catch-all phrase that really means, one of those parent people that I really love.

Visit from Parental Units

My folks arrived on Tuesday and we have been very much enjoying their visit. I have been utilizing the free babysitting service extensively. Yesterday, for example, I did hardly any child care. I went for lunch with Kevin and one of his new colleagues and his wife who is expecting (they have newly arrived from Brazil and we wanted to share what we know about childbirth in Oxford and make them feel welcome).

Then when I got home Bryn was asleep courtesy of Granny Bean's amazing nap inducing abilities so Dad and I went to the grocery store. The prime objectives for Dad were cookies, ice cream and a newspaper, all three of which were thoroughly enjoyed in the next few hours. When we got home mom and Dad took care of Bryn while I replentished the supply of butternut squash and sweet potatoe puree for the freezer and made dinner.

Then we went to Bryn's swimming class where Kevin took him in the pool and the parental units and I watched from behind the glass. He is so cute! Splashing and kicking and looking around at the other kids. I, of course, cringe everytime the instructor dunks him or pours water on him. Good thing Kev is doing the swimming and not me as I'm sure I would make Bryn more nervous because I am wimpy about the water.

Tonight Kevin and I have the luxury of going on a date, once again using my parental units as babysitters. Sure is nice having family around!

BRYN STARTED WALKING! (with help)

You know the abba song with the lyric, 'dance before I could walk'? Well Bryn started running before he could walk. Before this video was taken he could just sort of stand there as he held onto your hands. If you really shifted his weight and moved his arms you could sort of make him take steps but he wasn't really going with the whole left/right/left thing. The all of a sudden he starts moving his legs and he wants to run! Kevin couldn't believe it and thought I was dragging him along. :)

Kevin takes a baggie of carrots to work everyday for an afternoon snack. After Bryn was finished with this carrot I put it back in the fridge. Not having witnessed Bryn's snack Kevin pulled it out the next day and said 'what do you think happened to this carrot?' I'm sure he wondered if we had mice or something.

A Bit More Corsica

Lauren mentioned it one time and seeing these pictures I realize I do have a crazy eyebrow. Look at it peeking up out of my sunglasses! Sometimes I think Bryn has crazy eyebrows too. Especially when he squints his nose.

You are allowed 20 kg of luggage on these charter flights. Bryn only weighs 8.9 kg so I had lots of extra room in my suitcase.

This shot makes my heart melt. My men are soooo adorable!

Ditto!

Not from Corsica but so cute I had to post it.

Bryn and Daddy enjoying the waves. The water was so warm and the waves so mild that Bryn could sit here for half an hour quite happily. However, he did discover chokeable sized rocks and shells (as you can spot in the very end of the video) so we had to be vigilant.

This was hilarious! Especially since Bryn had been staring at Zane all week and adoring his every move. Zane finally decided to give some love back to his fan.

More hand harmonica as everyone seemed to love the last video of this. We think he does it when he is teething and you can see it seems like he is in a bit of discomfort.

More Corsica

The Tennisons
The Fair Maiden in in sun.
Zane is MOBILE! We found this cup all over the flat in the strangest places. It was super neat to watch all the things Zane can do and to see what the next developmental stages will be for Bryn. Bryn thought so too, staring at Zane al the time, even to the point of crying if his high chair was in a spot with out a clear view of his Hero. Which was often because Zane is always on the move. Now al bryn wants to do is stand and walk. think he will skip crawling altogether.
Group photo, which was rare despite joels magic tripod. gettingtwo babies on the same schedule...not so easy. but we wre all flexible and still got out and did lots of things. usually the tennisons were first out of the gate taking on sights and activities and reporting back to the makls who would take it on later. so although we didnt see everything together we did end up seeing most of the same things. we'd collapse in the chaos once we got both boys to bed and debrief on the day.
corsican music and choral chanting festival.
pine cones were a big hit

melissa in the citadel
the handsome makl boys
out for a run
bryn loved the water
jct gets a smile between bouts of brynzanity

typical lunchtime. bunny is eating his good supper.