First trip: CUBA!

We recently returned from our first out-of-country family trip. We went to Cayo Coco, Cuba with extended family. We had a blast!

Holden was such a good airplane traveller.... patient, happy, quiet!

The resort was amazing, the weather was good, and we had lots of fun with family. Here are some pics from our trip.

Happy Family Day!

To celebrate Family Day, we went for a walk in the woods near our house.

Holden celebrates Christmas

Happy (early) birthday Holden!

Holden had his birthday party today (his birthday is actually this Weds). The whole family showed up!* We had a little party to celebrate this big milestone.

It was a great day. Holden had lots of fun. He loved having everyone around and was full of smiles and laughter all day.

Here's who was there:

Nannie (Danielle)
Grandamaman (Nicole)
Grand-daddy Zadie (Barry)
Uncle Gerry
Aunt Lisa
Cousin Cole
Cousin Keira
Paul (2nd cousin to Holden... or 3rd?)
Kay (great-great aunt to Holden!)

and of course:
Mommy (Steph)
Daddy (John)
and HOLDEN!

* Aunt Paula and Uncle Jeff couldn't make it down from Woodstock. We really missed them! Can't wait to see them soon.

On with the pictures!

Steph designed a Wall Juice tattoo to decorate. Here's Holden the morning of his party showing off the tattoo:



Let the party begin! Holden gets a kiss from Cousin Keira:


Holden gets his first gift, a great wooden activity center from Aunt Lisa, Uncle Gerry, Cole & Keira. Cole drew Holden a beautiful card too!



Aunt Lisa and Holden called each other in the morning to make sure they matched:


Cake time! Steph made great vegan chocolate cupcakes. They were amazing!


Holden's first true taste of sugar... he liked it! Ate the whole cupcake in 3 minutes flat!!


Playtime!





Holden gets a bouncy spinny zebra from Zadie. He loves it!


Bouncing:

Quel beau weekend!

What a great weekend. My mom and my aunt came to visit, and we had a fabulous time. Holden LOVES his grandmaman and he LOVES my aunt. He was showing off, smiling and flirting all weekend. On top of that, he slept 10 hours STRAIGHT Saturday night!!!

The weather was fabulous so we went for a couple of walks. Holden was born in November, so I'm used to always dressing him warmly before leaving the house. It's a very odd feeling to go outside without bundling him up! These pictures were taken after the morning walk, when it was still a bit chilly, but the afternoons have been crazy hot the last couple of days! We've gone from putting winter jackets on him to needing a sun hat in the course of 2 weeks! This country is so weird.

John wasn't here for the weekend, he was in Montreal at the UFC event. George St-Pierre won in his hometown! Wooohooo!! He was very excited to be there.

Photos from the weekend:

Holden sleeps!!! Really well!!

Last week we decided to stop co-sleeping and move Holden from our bed to his own crib. The decision was a sad one, but I was just not getting any sleep. Holden was constantly comfort feeding all night long; often every hour and sometimes even more; and he was very fidgety, which left me exhausted most days. We thought it would be a really tough and long transition, and we braced ourselves for a long couple of weeks of slow transition (we're against letting him cry it out). Turns out it was a piece of cake!! The first night he woke up only 2 or 3 times, and ever since then he's only been waking up once or twice!! He usually gives us at least one 5-hr stretch! I'm sleeping again, and Holden is also having more restful nights.

Here are 2 pics of him from last weekend (we really love thsi outfit, as you can tell!)

The thinker (or the couch potato):



Holden got an Easter present from his cousin Cole:


And it was Keira's birthday! Happy 2nd b-day!!!!

Shoveling & Winterlude!

Friday brought us a TON of snow, so John and I spent a couple of hours shoveling Saturday morning. We bundled up the baby and he slept soundly in his stroller while we got some exercise (that snow is heavy!!). It was really nice and mild out, so we didn't mind too much, plus John had a blast throwing me in the snowbanks a couple a times.

We had a fabulous Sunday here in the Nation's Capital! We went to Winterlude ice slides with the Churchill family, then back to Gerry & Lisa's house for a fabulous brunch. Here are some pics from our day:

Keira saying hello to a sleeping Holden:
The Churchills at the top of the slide... :


... the middle of the slide... :

... and the bottom of the slide! :

Keira looking adorable:

Cole looking slightly mischievous:


Back at Gerry & Lisa's, Holden finally wakes up and hangs out with his cousin Keira: