Welcome William!

Last night, just before midnight, William Daniel Robinson was born weighing in at 8lbs, 15oz! Proud parents, Alexis (Troy's brother) and Natalie are excited and doing well. Hooray, a cousin!

Beckett, Twelve Weeks Old!

You are soooo cute (if I do say so myself). I don't know what it is but I find something about chickens really funny (you are wearing PJ's with little chickens all over them). Watching Mama make dinner in the kitchen is so much fun!

The Dregs

I thought this was so funny - and I was glad I had my camera near me when it happened. Ethan still has some candy left from Hallowe'en. Every day, after his nap, we pull the bowl out of the cupboard and he plays with the various contents and picks out a couple of things to eat. We are now getting to the bottom of the bowl and one of the items left was one of those orange, black and yellow wrapped small toffee-like candies. I don't really remember what they taste like because I haven't eaten one in about 20 years, but I remember that I do not like them. From the series of pictures, it looks like Ethan doesn't either. After we opened it and tried a bite, he wanted to wrap it back up and exchange it for something more tasty in his bowl.

"Mama hab it?", asks Ethan.

"No thanks - I don't like them either.", says Mama.

That's my boy!

More Yard "Work"

The leaves at our house are relentless. I guess that's what happens when there are several giant poplar trees surrounding your house. So, once again we went outside to tackle the job - we are out front of our house moving all of the leaves into a big pile for the giant vacuum truck to suck up. Ethan thought that the pile was awesome. He was more than thrilled to be tossed in.
Troy used him to flatten the pile so we could cram more leaves in. Check out the pile...its taller than Ethan:
It was great camouflage - spot the toddler...

Beckett, Eleven Weeks Old!

We went to the Dr. for your 2 month check up and you are doing great. You are 14lbs 13oz and 25 inches long. Not quite as big as your brother was, but still in the 90th percentile which makes you a bigger kid. Our Dr. commented on how relaxed and pleasant you are - the staff was asking about taking you away from me during the appointment to get things done faster and I said it was fine. You smiled and cooed through the entire visit.

Not a Long Weekend BUT Much Busier

Friday after Dad finished work, we took a trip up to Mt. Doug Park and watched the sunset and moonrise.

Some kids showed up and Ethan was thrilled, "KIDS!", and he sprang into action to join the fun as usual.
The bigger girls were climbing on the little cement wall and jumping off of it and running around and splashing in small puddles. He had such a great time. It is so cute to watch him with older kids - he loves them...especially the little ladies...
He also loves to jump off of things - but that's not really big news...
On Saturday we took a trip to Mayfair Mall and Christmas was in full swing. Even Santa's place was set upalready! It was fun to cruise the mall with Ethan saying, "Christmas STARS! Christmas LIGHTS! Christmas (YOU GET THE PICTURE)..." I have a feeling this Christmas will be pretty fun because he knows what is going on - especially with the presents after just having a birthday last month.

Saturday night, Troy and I had our first full night out away from the kids. We went to dinner last month but we were home in under 2 hours - so it wasn't like a full social event.

Hopefully, you might have guessed that we went to an "Ugly Sweater Party" and that we (and our friends) do not normally dress like this. Above is Troy, with one of the party hosts, Jay wearing my sweater after the voting was over. It looks pretty cute on him.

Here is Holly and Kellie, and below, Troy and I. I was too busy enjoying myself to take more pictures. We had a fun night!

Sunday was a usual busy soccer park day and we were were both on the couch asleep by 7:30 after getting the kids to bed. Boy weekends sure have changed in the past couple of years...

Beckett, Ten Weeks Old!

You are starting to bat at the toys on your playmat. You hold your head up well enough that we can turn you around to face out in your baby carrier now. You like to try to stand on laps. You are an amazing, happy little baby!

Action shot of batting.

Smiling for the camera.

Long Weekend

We had a "lazy" (if you can call caring for two small children lazy) weekend and didn't do much. We puttered around the house, went for dog walks, car rides and played some peek-a-boo.
On soccer Sunday, Grammie and Grampie took Ethan to Goldstream and among other activities they did stinky rotten fish art - isn't it beautiful? You apparently put paint on the side of an "expired" salmon and press it into the paper. He had a great time!

A Trip to Alex's Gramma's

Yesterday, we went out to Metchosin to visit with Alex and Courtney at "Grandma's" house.

We were greeted by Cola and Major (the dogs) as we pulled into their long driveway on their 17 acre property. It is like heaven for little boys (and tomboys).

Out front of the house there was a sand pit with toys that the boys played in (to start). Courtney and I packed the babies into the carriers and Grandma carted the boys around form one adventure to another in the wagon. Ethan was thrilled!

They played on the swing set, looked at the turkeys, mucked around by the pond, here they are stomping on mushrooms...

They even have a mud pit and a bulldozer! I took this picture from the front of the house looking down over some of the property:

After hours playing outside, the boys stripped off their muddy clothes on the porch to go inside:

It is a beautiful house. Very warm and cozy with the most amazing kitchen and wrap around porch. The kind of place I want to live when I retire - or sooner if I won the lottery or something like that... Here are the stripped down boys with the cutest smiles:
Time for lunch! Look at those cute dangling legs!
They were hungry! So were we, and I was served the most delicious pork roast sandwich with asiago cheese...mmmmm!
After some lunch and reading and jumping on the bed it was time for us to head back. Ethan passed out in the car on the way home - I think he had a good time hangover!

We had such a great time - thank you so much for having us over, entertaining us, and feeding us! We hope to come back soon!

More Little Friends

On Tuesdays or Thursdays we like to have friends come over to visit and play. It is chaotic (lots of refereeing) but really fun. I always forget to pull the camera out when I am hosting - but yesterday I remembered...

Here's Cason, Holly's son - he's a regular! Cutie-pie...

Here's Tory on the left, Leah's son - with Cason and Ethan enjoying a snack. It was tough to capture them all together sitting still!
Darn toddlers - always squirming!
Say "Cheese!", or just eat some instead!

Beckett, Nine Weeks Old!

Well, the needles were a cinch! I waited in the waiting room with Ethan and played while Daddy held you for the nurses to poke! You were very good and brave.

You weighed in at 13 lbs, 13 oz. So you have gained 4.5 lbs in the 2 months since you were born! Grammie noticed that you were starting to fill out this past weekend when she and Grampie visited.

Weekenderies

On Friday afternoon we did yardwork when Daddy came home from work. The giant poplar trees in the backyard make for a lot of raking and mowing. Ethan loves to chase Troy around the yard with his little lawnmower or wheelbarrow. We can't wait until he is big enough to use the real ones...

Friends came over for a fire in the yard at night - and Veronica came to stay for the weekend. It was nice to socialize - I didn't take any pictures - silly me.

Saturday morning we all went for a nice long dog walk through the park by our house. Climbing rocks, pretending to throw Ethan over the bridge, looking for Mr Zamboni behind the arena, getting coffee, kicking leaves, shoulder rides.

Just our luck, on the way home we spotted a Bobcat in the mall parking lot!

In the afternoon we did errands and grocery shopping and went to bed early because we were pooped from the night before!

On Soccer Sunday morning, we hung out at the house until the first game time. Important to note that Ethan wanted to share his "cozy" (blue blanket) with Beckett for the first time! That is a HUGE gesture of love and kindness from Ethan.

Magic Hat

Ethan has a Mickey Mouse doll from "Fantasia" so it has a wizard hat on it with a moon and stars. He calls it a magic hat. When we were out for Hallowe'en he saw a little girl dressed as a witch and exclaimed, "Magic hat! Liddle girw magic hat!". I forgot that I had an old witch's hat in storage so I brought it out. He was thrilled:

We let him have some of his Hallowe'en candy when he wakes up from his afternoon nap. His loves to have Smarties and put them in his mini Jack-O-Lantern.
He dumps the candy out and puts them back in one by one occasionally pausing to select the next color to sample. Hmmmm...these are pretty tasty!
The hat was a bit too big so when daddy came home he cut out eye circles. Ohh, the Magic Hat - it is very special indeed!