Anthony on , , , , , , , 04 May 2008 09:20 pm

The weeks fly by but the weekends are family time. As such, here’s another weekend update…

We went and got Aidan’s hair cut yesterday. It wasn’t exactly planned; I mean he certainly needed it, but Gwen has developed a phobia about taking him to get his hair cut so it hasn’t been done on the weekdays. I desperately needed to get my hair cut too, so when I announced my attention to get my hair cut yesterday, Gwen & The Boy tagged along. We got to my barber’s shop, which was completely empty when we got there. Well, the barber and another hair-cutter (aside: what’s the noun describing a woman who works at a barbershop that exclusively cuts men’s hair? Barber? I guess, but it’s one of those nouns that I exclusively associate with a man. Weird.) were there but no customers.

So, we had a quick discussion (that involved the barber) and we decided that I’d get my hair cut while Gwen & The Boy watched, and then we’d get Aidan’s hair cut too. My haircut went well, without any tears. As soon as we tried to put Aidan in the barber’s chair, though, the hysteronics began. Once again, I sat him on my lap and the barber did the best he could. There were less tears than in previous times, but calm is the wrong word to use.

The haircut isn’t great, but it’s better than what it was when it was long. There are some pictures a bit further below.

On Sunday, we had brunch with our friends Ali and Nooshin. We biked over to Ali’s Yaletown condo and ate brunch while the Vancouver Marathon passed on the street below. Aidan had a chance to help with breakfast, and seemed to enjoy himself.

After brunch, we all got on bikes and pedalled over to Stanley Park. There’s a nice new playground there near Second Beach, and one of those old firetrucks-turned-into-playground-climbing-equipment that seem strangely popular in Vancouver.

After parting ways with Ali and Nooshin we took the Aquabus from the foot of Hornby Street to Granville Island and biked home. It was a nice way to start the day. The rest of the day sort of got away from us, but it started well!

Anthony on , , , , 01 Jan 2007 11:34 am

Oops, no coincidence that after getting our Wii, the holiday posts dried up. Here’s a summary of how things have been over the past week:

Christmas

Christmas Day was good. Aidan got up around 8:30-ish, and we got a little bit of food and drink into him before showing him the living room. He immediately went to the (set up) train table and began playing with the trains. Now, he hadn’t seen gifts under the tree (we didn’t put them out until Christmas Eve) but their presence didn’t seem to bother him. In fact, I’m willing to be that he would have happily played with the train table all morning! We had the grandparents on the webcam, though, so we had to hurry him along. It took almost 2 hours to work through everything. Not entirely because of the volume of stuff, but more because of the speed. Unfortunately, we don’t have too many pictures. I had the video camera set up and running on a tripod, but frankly things went so slowly that after the tape ran out, I didn’t replace it. We might splice out a bunch of scenes from it, but Aidan didn’t express an over-abundance of excitement. After the excitement of opening the gifts, he actually went down for a nap around 11:30, and slept for 3 or 4 hours. During that time, Gwen and I played Carcassonne. It’s quite a fun tile-laying game. Seems complicated before you play, but it’s actually not. We’ve since played quite a number of games, and neither one of us has dominated, although Gwen absolutely smoked me for the last two we played, beating me by 30 or 40 points (where she had somewhat over 100) each time.

Christmas gifts were light between the two of us. The laptop qualified as a Christmas gift, although two months early. I got a new cell phone (my first non new-to-me cell phone). Gwen got a watch, a couple of sets of earrings and a nifty euro teapot. Although we didn’t know it until Christmas Eve, we also got a new LCD monitor for our desktop computer; the old monitor died earlier that day.

We went to Tammy & Chris’ place that night for Christmas dinner consisting of home made pasta (ravioli in a white sauce). Aidan behaved well with Angus and the two cats in the non-baby-proofed apartment, but we had to leave pretty early after a few failed attempts to get him to go to bed there. Aidan got a nice rain suit from Tammy!

CIMG0704.JPG

CIMG0706.JPG

Boxing Day

Boxing Day was our turn for dinner. We had Ali, Tammy and Chris over later that day, but a good portion of the day was spent getting thing ready for it. I made another cranberry-sweet potato dish, and this one tasted better than the Thanksgiving dish. I think it’s a keeper. Gwen made a wonderful turkey … 7 kgs that we’d been thawing for a few days. The turkey was “gratis” from Superstore for spending some outlandish amount of money a few weeks earlier, but frozen more solid than the planet formerly known as Pluto. Even before the dinner, the cats were exhausted (see below). Dinner was great and then Tammy bankrupted us in a friendly game of Halifax-themed Monopoly.

CIMG0711.JPG

Boxing Day +1

The day after Boxing Day we went out to get Gwen some stuff from The Gap’s Boxing Day sale, and a battery for her watch at Oakridge. While there, we swung by Electronics Boutique (EB) to look at getting a used XBox game and wouldn’t you know it, they were getting a shipment of Wiis at that very time (as Gwen wrote). We ended up picking it up, along with Rayman Raving Rabbids, Zelda: Twiilight Princess, and Trauma Surgeon. And, oh, that night we took custody of Tammy’s two cats (including the 4 month old kitten “Jack”) while they are in Ontario for a short vacation.

then a blur…

The details of the subsequent days are somewhat blurry. Lots of Wii time. We picked up an extra Wiimote, and so we can play most of the Wii Sports together (with the exception of Wii Boxing, for which we need another nunchuck, but they’re much harder to find). I’ve finished the Story Mode of Rayman, but there’s still lots of other things to do. Gwen found Rayman a little frustrating, though. She’s much more into Trauma Surgeon. It’s a nifty concept, and sort of in the style of the old Parasite Eve, but it’s not quite for me. I’ve played an obscene number of hours of Zelda. Although it’s getting rave reviews as “best game ever”, it’s a little too much “on rails” for me. Fable and The Elder Scrolls were a little (or a lot) less linear, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s still a fun game, though. I just wish I could actually spend the rupees I’ve earned (why is it capped at 300 rupees if you can’t spend them?)

Lots of Carcassone too. What a fun game for two people. We have the Traders and Builders expansion too, and I guess we’ll be looking to get some of the other expansions.

The cats have established a pecking order, and are much more interactive than I expected they’d be after a short few days. Keji seems more comfortable after a few days than she did for the whole month she was with us a little over a year ago. She’s actually been up and around instead of hiding underneath the papasan the whole time. The biggest bone of contention seems to be the cat basket. Keji, Jack, and Dianthe have been forcing each other out when given the opportunity. Andromeda has been up and around, but keeps out of the frays. The tree is still up, but Jack has climbed it a few times. All in all, it’s going much smoother than we expected.

CIMG0716.JPG

Gwen got her hair done on the past Friday. It is quite the stylish cut, and she has quite the arrangements of highlights too. I didn’t get a photo the day she came home, and it hasn’t quite looked the same again, so after she spends some time getting to look “proper”, I’ll be sure to snap a picture.

New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve in Vancouver sucks. They don’t have any real public celebration. Certainly nothing like the Grand Parade in Halifax. We stayed at home, watched the CBC comedy specials, and turned in early. Woo-hoo! Party on, Garth! Heh, oh well.

So, that was the end of 2006. Here comes 2007!

Anthony on , 19 Nov 2006 12:10 pm

We took Aidan for haircut #2 yesterday afternoon.

In retrospect, maybe we shouldn’t have done it when he was so tired. Despite my best efforts, he didn’t get a nap yesterday. Not for a lack of trying, though. Also not for a lack of needing. He just wouldn’t go to sleep. Anyway, we went for haircuts around 4. The same barber who cut his hair last time was there, and getting him onto the kiddy bench wasn’t that difficult. The trouble started when the apron was placed over him.

And, by “trouble” I mean crying.

So, we tried a different approach. I sat in the chair, and Aidan sat on my lap. Well, that was sorta ok. Until the clippers turned on. Then the flight or fight instinct kicked in. Fortunately it was mostly the flight instinct, but that meant that it took both Gwen and I to hold him more or less still (well, actually a whole lot less than more) while the barber tried to cut his hair. For the whole experience, Aidan cried, shrieked, and fought to escape. The barber showed remarkable patience.

After trimming what he could, Aidan fled with Gwen while I got my hair cut. Aidan cuddled with Gwen for almost the whole time, but eventually started showing interest in the other people who were there getting their hair cut, and interest in what was being done to them.

Maybe we should look into cutting his hair ourselves. For the sake of the barber and his customers.

Anthony on , 06 Aug 2006 01:41 pm

This past Saturday, Gwen got her hair cut. Not her first one since having Aidan, but the first significant cut.

Her hair was getting pretty long, but it was getting in her face, and she was to the point where she was getting annoyed by it. Tammy had given her a gift certificate to a nice salon, so down we all walked down to “Rain” down by Granville Island. Aidan and I continued on to do various chores while Gwen went through what I can only imagine was a very “West Coast” experience.

One thing that she wanted to avoid was Mom Hair, the short hair style that well … read the article.

As you can see from the photos below, it’s shorter than it was, but isn’t the classic “Mom Hair” either. When she came home from the salon, it was incredibly curly. Apparently your hair goes through changes during and after pregnancy. Making straight hair curly seems to be one of those changes. The curls have calmed down somewhat, but it’s certainly not the straight fine hair that she used to have a few years ago.

The boy had a few double-takes on seeing Mama’s new ‘do, but didn’t cry, and seems to be pretty used to it now.



Catergories: ,

Next Page »