Kieran already had his first day of school last year - but this year seems somehow bigger. This is the year he starts French immersion and he is going to a new school to boot. Not exactly one to roll with the punches, we have been preparing him for this change since it became clear that it was inevitable at the end of the last school year.

For months before we went back and forth with a string of school administrators, trying to wrangle him a spot at the school he was already attending. Technically the school is one district over (the line runs through the alley behind our house), but it was also the school where his daycare is located, and, as mentioned, he was already a student there. No dice. If we had been willing to put him in English, that would have been fine. But French was a non-starter. We were finally told that he would be placed on a waiting list - somewhere around number 12. Bleh.

Oh well - the new school is, by the numbers, the better school. Plus, my sister and I both went there (yes, I acknowledge that does seem very small-town of me, given that we live in downtown Toronto) and it is a little closer to our house than his old school. It has taken some time, but I can see the advantages of this school over the last one. The only lingering detail is that his daycare is located at the old school, meaning I have to pick him up at 11:30 daily and walk him down to daycare. We decided that was best for now - give him something familiar to keep him grounded as he gets used to the new school, teacher, friends, classroom, etc. Who knows how long I will be able to keep that up.

So today was his first day. We had one last day together yesterday, so we went shopping, bought a couple of new school outfits, and talked about stuff. Last night he was crying about not wanting to go to school, so I told him he could take Haas, his favourite stuffed penguin, just this once. That seemed to calm him down.

But by this morning he had determined that Haas was not needed - the first thing he said when he woke up was that maybe his friends Will and Saima could show him around the classroom, since they'd already been there for a day. When Lachlan said he wanted to take his monkey to his daycare, Kieran actually suggested Lachlan take Haas instead. Know that Kieran *never* shares Haas. EVER.

Nevertheless, a short while later Kieran had second thoughts, thinking there was always a chance that Will and Saima wouldn't be at school. So Haas got packed into the knapsack, with his head sticking out, of course, and off we all went to school. Lachlan even got to walk us all the way there, since his daycare was walking an older boy over too.

When we finally found his line-up, Kieran's friend Will was in line. With the boundless enthusiasm of 5-year-olds, Will greeted Kieran with a hello that made it seem like Kieran was the best thing he'd seen all year! Kieran's shyness mostly melted away and within seconds they were laughing over "Max poo-poo loggerhead!" The height of preschool humour...

When I picked him up at 11:30 to walk him over to daycare he was smiling, relaxed, and thrilled to see me. I can't really figure out why he has to insist that he had no fun in class and he didn't like it at all, but I'm sure that soon the stories will catch up to reality once he gets more comfortable. But overall, this "second" first day went much better than expected. We'll see if tomorrow goes as well.

I spent my first week away from both kids last week and the most remarkable thing about it was how unremarkable it was. I was especially worried about how Kieran would react, after his recent mommy-centric behaviour. The morning I left, I braced myself for a huge loss of control by Kieran when I had to leave the house at 8 a.m. He did almost lose it, but the promise of a chocolate croissant with Theckla after I left totally stopped the hysterics in their tracks. I think I actually heard the brakes squealing.

I was less worried about Lachlan, since he hasn’t really gotten to the point where he understands leaving. And he’s just a lot less clingy than Kieran ever was. Maybe it’s because he loves Kieran so much that when mommy and daddy leave, at least he still has his big brother around, but I think it has much more to do with personality. If I was worried about anything with him, it was that he would totally forget who I was, or at least realize how expendable I was.

I worried about Keith too, but not because I didn’t think he could take it. I know he can manage the kids on his own; in fact, he’s much better than I am in many ways. But I couldn’t help but project how I feel when I’m with the kids without him for several days in a row: lonely. The kids are great, and they are excellent company, but sharing their daily ‘stuff’ with someone else is essential for me. Life happens without Keith. Life happens in technicolour with him.

Mostly I was worried how I would be. Would I long for them while I was gone, painfully aware of their absence every night at bedtime? When I hear stories of parents whose children are removed from their care for some reason, it makes me ache, imagining those parents missing out on hugs and milestones and stumbles and fights and snuggles. One of the moms in my moms’ group split with her husband and they share custody of their daughter. I choke up every time I think about her handing over her daughter to her husband for three or four days. I imagine that if that happened to me that the days without the kids would be blank and featureless.

It turns out I’m really just fine without them. Sure, I missed them, and every time I talked to Kieran on the phone I laughed heartily and wanted to reach through the phone for a hug. But I enjoyed going to bed late and sleeping in; getting up in the morning and just going to the grocery store for a loaf of bread; heading out for a run when the mood struck me; enjoying lunch in a restaurant without wolfing it down in between breaking up fights and accompanying someone to the bathroom; and making dinner without two sets of ‘helping’ hands.

I don’t know if I would have felt differently if the time away from them had been forced upon me rather than a choice I had made. I do know that we all more than survived the week. Kieran seems to be less dependent on me as a result – last night he asked for daddy to read him a story, something that hadn’t really been happening before I left. Rather than forgetting who I was, if anything, Lachlan was actually more aware of my presence. The first morning after I got back, I got him out of his crib and he hugged me for five full minutes. We just sat in the glider, his arms around my neck. When he was done, he sat up and I asked him for a kiss. And for the first time ever, he gave me a kiss. Then another, and another, and another.

It kind of goes without saying that Keith survived. I’d like to think he missed me and feels somewhat the same way I do about being with the kids on his own, but he definitely had a good week. And I think he connected with the boys in a bit of a new way. He kept saying what great kids we have and how well they were doing. That made me feel warm and fuzzy all week long.

I think we all surprised each other. Absence made the heart grow fonder and much, much stronger.

I never actually did document the potty training process with Kieran - fraught as it was with anxiety, mostly for me (mom).

At some point in the summer it became obvious that the nanny wasn't going to take the lead on potty training, as I'd hoped she would. Throughout this child-rearing phase I've taken on most challenges with determination and, some would argue, bull-headed stubbornness. But this was one area where I wanted someone else to take charge.

Potty-training had loomed large in my imagination since before he was born. I had no idea how to approach it and none of the advice I read about it made any kind of intuitive sense. Our tentative forays into introducing the potty were total failures. Kieran would happily sit on the potty for what seemed like hours without producing so much as a drop of sweat. Then we'd put his diaper back on and he'd immediately fill it up.

So when Keith and I were off together this summer, we chose a week at the cottage to really focus on it. No more diapers - it was underwear only.

The first day Kieran must have had 10 accidents. He didn't make it to the potty even once before he made a mess. The next day we caught almost every pee by asking him almost constantly if he needed to go to the potty.

By the third day, if we asked him and he didn't need to go, he got really mad at us. After that he mostly told us when he needed to go pee without needing prompting.

But he still hadn't pooed in the potty. Not even once.

We decided that we were going stir crazy being stuck on the island for three days, so we packed up three changes of clothes, the potty and a year's supply of wipes and headed into town for lunch and ice cream. Within 10 minutes of playing on the playground, Kieran had a load in his shorts. He seemed unperturbed.

OK, so public humiliation wasn't a motivation - we needed another tactic. That's when we decided that Kieran would be on a reward system. However much poo he put in the potty was the amount of ice cream he would get. He understood this concept immediately - and when he put a poo the size of a jelly bean into the potty for the first time and got a similarly small serving of ice cream, he was disproportionately happy. And he followed up the tiny poo in the potty with an enormous one in his shorts. ARG!

That's when Keith struck potty training gold. He stripped down to his "nudies" and encouraged Kieran to do the same. He figured that if Kieran had to choose between pooing on the floor and in the potty, he might finally feel some motivation to tell us about it.

The first success was not necessarily that cut and dried. It might have involved mommy looking over at a naked Kieran lying on the couch, bum out, and noticing that there was "something" there. But it did result in Kieran having his first big poo on the potty and it proved to be the breakthrough he needed.

Over the next week or two he had a lot of misses, but he finally started having more and more hits. One particularly memorable one was when he got up abruptly from dinner at Amma and Gault's and announced he had to pee. We brought the potty into the dining room and he tried to go but couldn't. I suspected he might be getting things mixed up, so I encouraged him to keep sitting there - and sure enough he had a great big poo as the rest of us finished up our dinners. Yes, a little gross. But kind of a lot less gross than having to change a diaper full of what is effectively adult poo. *Shiver*

Kieran has come so far since then. Now at daycare he goes into the bathroom on his own, pulls down his pants, pees into the urinal, pulls up his pants, and washes his own hands. He hasn't used the potty since July or August and no longer even uses the toddler seat on the toilet. And this week he started to insist that he wipe his own bum after a poo.

Honestly, 6 months ago I wasn't sure Kieran was ever going to use the potty and I was totally petrified of teaching him this skill. Now that we've gone through it once, I'm actually feeling my usual bullheadedness determination as I look ahead to doing the same with Lachlan. Bring. It. On.

Kieran’s language and his ability to express himself are getting better every day, but there are still some very cute slips he makes every once in awhile. “I fork it,” said as he took a bite of his dinner with his fork, had made us giggle a few times, especially since the word ‘fork’ in the mouth of a 3-year-old is not exactly rated ‘G.’

Then the other day, he was mad at Lachlan and started yelling what sounded like “I’m going to f*** you up.” We both stopped in our tracks. We turned around to see if there was something to explain what sounded like our first case of extreme potty mouth. Kieran was lying on the floor, playing with his favourite birthday present, a forklift, and Lachlan had been trying to get in on the action.

We realized that Kieran had just been looking for a way to describe the action of a forklift and what the forklift was going to do to Lachlan: if dumptrucks dump and sailboats sail, forklifts must fork. So this one was going to FORK him up.

I’m sure we’ll still have to deal with swearing down the road. For now, we were greatly relieved and laughingly we tried to explain that forklifts LIFT things.

We inadvertently took a photo of Lachlan last week that almost exactly mirrors a photo of Kieran taken at the same age and I just had to post the two photos side by side:


Kieran at 8 months is on the left; Lachlan at just over 7 months is on the right.

A few key things to note: Lachlan has considerably more hair; he's sitting on his own in the bathtub; and his ears stick out to infinity. Kieran's eyebrows, on the other hand, look like they've been plucked to look like an evil villain's. The ears and eyebrows are dead giveaways that these are different kids, but there sure are a lot of similarities - not the least of which is that ridiculously cheeky smile. They both seem to say "I'm a little imp full of much mischief," but each in their own unique way.

We've just come off a very busy and happy few days, full of happy kids and great friends.

Everything started on Thursday, the first of Theckla's four days off. I had the boys by myself and for the first time I felt like I was fully up to the task. We all went to Kieran's weekly library storytime program in the morning and ran into a friend whose wife had had their second son 4 days earlier. He was there with their 2.5-year-old, Kasch, who Kieran loves to bits. I thought mom would appreciate another hour or two of quiet time with the new baby, so I invited them all over for lunch. Naturally, chaos ensued, but it was a lovely, happy chaos. Since Kieran didn't have Aidan around, he really appreciated having a friend his own age to chase the cat with.

Friday started out a bit grey and seemed like a perfect day for the museum, but we had to stay around the neighbourhood so I could run some errands. After Lachlan's nap we headed out to the playground to get the wiggles out and have a picnic - and almost as soon as we stepped outside the sun came out.

Within 15 minutes of our arrival at the park, Kasch arrived with his grandma. He and Kieran spent a happy hour or so pushing battered plastic toys up the park's hill and riding down; digging in the sandbox; and throwing themselves down the slide (once headfirst, resulting in a mouthful of sand). Then, shortly before we were thinking about leaving, Audrey showed up for a short play break. Her departure was the perfect, cry-free opportunity for us to leave and run our errands. I think it also helped that Kieran was captivated by the phrase "running an errand" because of its novelty and his inability to understand exactly what it meant.

Friday night some old friends came over for dinner. We hadn't seen them since Kieran was about 9 months old, so it had been a long time coming. They arrived early enough to see the boys and have dinner with Kieran. Once the boys were in bed, Keith broke out his scotch collection, happy to have another connoisseur to share it with. I've known Wenona and Peter since I babysat their daughter, Siobhan, when I was in high school, and they're really interesting, kind and lovely people who we wish we saw more often.

Saturday was another beautiful day so we headed off to the playground - what else? As hoped, we ran into more friends, and had a picnic with the usual suspects: Amy, Alison, Iris and Andrew (although Andrew is a more unusual suspect, I suppose...). Aidan showed up with his mom, which was great for Kieran since he hadn't seen him in two days and wouldn't be seeing him again until Wednesday.

In the late afternoon Tracy and Paul came over with their 2.5-year-old, Evan, and their 7-week-old, Lila. Tracy was in my moms' group when I was off with Kieran, but we haven't seen much of each other recently becaue life's been crazy. I don't think Kieran and Evan had played together since Evan's second birthday party, so we had no idea what to expect. It turned out that Kieran and Evan are two little peas in a pod. Evan is a sweet, focussed little boy who is extremely communicative and imaginative. He loved Aslan and, unsurprisingly I suppose, Monster Truck Jam... Sound like someone you know? He and Kieran had a great time together and I think we'll be making a concerted effort to get them together more often - plus, that means we get to see Tracy and Paul too!

Which brings us to today - phew! We headed out to the Beach for brunch with a friend from my Chapters.ca days and his 4-year-old daughter. Again, it had been a very long time since the kids had seen each other, and it's amazing how much more able Kieran  is to play with her now. The last time she mostly ignored him. This time they were able to play with her dinosaur collection together during breakfast, and afterwards we all went to a nearby playground and they climbed the play structures together. As he climbed into bed for his nap when we got home, he said "Want to play with Mee-you (his toddlerspeak for 'Leelu') tomorrow." I guess we have another friend to schedule more regular playdates with!

We topped off this treat-filled weekend with one more special treat: a trip down to the Film Buff for an ice cream. We told Kieran we were going to get a treat, but not what the treat would be. He tried to guess - but when it wasn't banana bread, he was flummoxed and could only think it was "something else." He had no trouble choosing his flavour: cookies and cream, of course. How can you resist your two favourite things together at last? It took him the entire walk back (a 15-minute stroller ride) and another 10 minutes of sitting on the porch to finally finish it.

It feels like we've just completed a marathon of fun - but the best part is that Theckla's off for two more days and Keith is off too! I can't wait to see what we come up with.

Little Lachlan's personality is slowly emerging and I think it's pretty safe to say he's a very calm guy. He loves his big brother, who can almost always divert him if Lachlan is starting to get cranky. He loves his blankie (apparently this one's genetic - Kieran is still a big fan of his blankie) and usually sleeps completely underneath it:



He is, by and large, extremely happy. He is particularly happy when he can chew on his feet:



He likes to eat:



And sitting in a chair on the front porch is a real treat:

We had a great weekend at Ravenstone over Easter. As usual, Anne had planned great activities to keep Kieran learning and excited - this time he got to make Easter cards, cut cookies, bake bread, throw rocks into the lake, dig snow with his excavator, look at the Bird Book, dye Easter eggs, and, of course, hunt for Easter eggs.



He also read Peter Rabbit for the first time:




Lachlan, for his part, got to eat carrots and went for a big adventure walk up Shaman's Mount with mommy and daddy:

It's time to post some more photos of the boys. They continue to love each other, as you can see here:



and especially here:



Lachlan is also a great big smiler:

Our big news is that Keith has decided to take advantage of his right to parental leave starting in May - for 3 whole months! There are a lot of reasons for him to do this now, but one of the key ones is to allow me to have the space to start up my freelance writing business. I had planned on starting slowly with a couple days a week in May, ramping up to 4 days in June, but this accelerates that slightly.

I am a little sad to know that my time with Lachlan is coming to a close, but I know it won't be as big a transition as it was to go back after Kieran because I'll be working from home. But I'm also really excited to strike out on my own and test my ability to be my own boss.

Lachlan turned 6 months on Friday and he's been eating solid food for about 2 weeks. With Kieran we waited until he was the full 6 months, and it wasn't something I was really looking forward to. After all, by the time they're 6 months old, they're experienced nursing machines that no longer require 45 minutes to eat. Plus, you never have to think about taking food with you if you're just breastfeeding - food is just always at hand. So last time it felt like a huge effort to have to introduce solids.

But this time it just didn't feel like that big a deal. Sure, knowing that I would be starting to work a couple of days a week before he was 7 months old motivated me to get him well established on solid food by then. But more importantly, I saw how much Lachlan wanted to eat when we were having meals - so I was actually really excited to see how he would react to having food of his own. Turns out he loves it!

It may be a long time ago now, but our Xmas visit to RavenStone with Seanna, Karim and Samir was, as Amma put it, a grand jamboree! With a 2.5-year-old, a 1.5-year-old and a 1.5-month-old we all totally had our hands full. And what visit with the McGharbis would be complete without a bout of stomach flu - just like we had the last time we were together, in Edinburgh.

We realized just how important structured playtime is to the lives of toddlers; unfortunately the shock of it all meant we didn't figure this out until the last day as we were getting ready to leave. Our big learning for our next visit is to give them defined playtime with each other and alone so they don't get totally overstimulated. Kieran was so out of sorts one day that I caught him at 11 a.m. heading upstairs to his bed for a nap - on his own and 2 hours before his usual naptime. He also woke up one night at midnight, got out of bed and headed downstairs to "make cookies with Amma." He was really confused and disappointed when he was told he had to go back to bed. We can't remember the last time he woke up at night but it was easily more than a year ago.

All that said, it was wonderful to spend time with everyone and it was truly special to be up north with a ton of snow. Everyone had a great time outside sledding:


making snow angels:


and just being jolly:




I spent a lot of time indoors nursing and napping, but even I managed to get out for a little walk with the babe in the sling:


And Kieran did finally get to make cookies with Amma:


And he helped daddy decorate the Gingerbread RavenStone:


And Kieran and Samir loved Tata Seanna and Tonto Karim's gift to Kieran - a drawing mat that you draw on with water. Notice that Kieran is using his left hand, something he seems to have favoured since he started using his hands:

Over the last week or so Lachlan has made the seemingly enormous transition from the newborn stage, where he is present only in body, to the infant stage, where he actually interacts with his environment. His smiles show all over his face, not just the corners of his mouth and he really notices when other people are around. So far I've only managed to capture the end of a smile on camera:


I've also been trying to give him some more tummy time, after many stringent warnings from my girlfriend Alison who has a toddler and a baby 6 months older than Lachlan. It's easy to forget tummy time when you've got a 30-pounder running around, but she reminded me that if the baby doesn't get it early on, he'll have a very hard time making up for it as his head gets even bigger.

It turns out that unlike Kieran at his age, Lachlan seems to enjoy being on his front - and he's exceptionally strong.


He gets up so high, and his head is so floppy and unbalanced, that he usually flips right over. The first few times this happened he was on the plastic tiles on the hardwood floor and I wasn't expecting it. He wasn't exactly thrilled when his head hit the floor (don't be too alarmed - my hand was there to catch him). But when he was rolling on the couch and on Kieran's bed last night, he had this look on his face that said 'Check me out!'

Meanwhile, Kieran's language continues to improve enormously. When Theckla arrived on Monday morning, having not seen him over the weekend, she thought his clarity and his ability to tell a story had increased even in that short period of time. He told her all about his weekend: about his visit with Keaton, where he got a dragon tattoo, and about helping to trim the Christmas tree. And she understood it all without my translation.

He's also singing a bunch of songs: "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Twinkle Twinkle," "Row, Row, Row," and probably others that I just haven't discovered yet. Our main objective is to capture him singing "Itsy Bitsy" before he masters it perfectly: I want to remember how he sings "The itsy bitsy spider went uppa da wain."

A couple of weekends ago we packed the kids in the car and headed up to Keith's parents' house just outside of Bracebridge for Lachlan's inaugural visit. It was the first time Kieran really seemed to understand what was happening. A couple of hours before we left I told him we were going to see Amma and Gault and asked him where they live - he answered "RaisinStone."

Ravenstone is clearly one of Kieran's favourite places. As soon as we arrived, he climbed into his new bed in the attic nook and snuggled up to his stuffed wolf, a toy he only sees up there. In the morning he got out of bed on his own and came down the stairs into the kitchen to help Amma make smoothies and oatmeal. The rest of the weekend was chock-a-block with adventures with Amma and Gault involving snowy walks, hanging Christmas lights, making music, doing art projects and much more.







Lachlan won't get the same thrill out of Ravenstone for another year, but we tried to make his time exciting too by giving him a rare bath, with Kieran assisting:

I think Hallowe'en is my favourite 'holiday' in the year. Besides the fun of dressing up, I've always loved how the entire community opens its doors, literally and figuratively, in a way that is rare these days. Now that I have kids I have a renewed interest in it and this year I couldn't wait to se it through Kieran's and his friends' eyes.

We had originally planned on having the whole family dress as members of the cast of the Wizard of Oz (mom as Dorothy, dad as the Tin Man, Kieran as the Scarecrow, and Lachlan as Toto), but that plan dissolved in a post-delivery haze. Instead I picked up a pre-fab monkey suit at The Store that Must Not Be Named (aka WalMart) and I think Kieran frankly appreciated it much more than a reference to a movie he's never seen.



We joined up with our friends a few blocks away so they could hit some houses together. Aidan was dressed as a lion (he would have become the Cowardly Lion in our original costume plan) and Amy was a ladybug. The weather was unbelievable - you didn't even need a jacket, it was so nice and warm.



All of them quickly caught onto the idea of 'Trick or Treat,' although the spiderweb in the school playground was almost as fun as getting candy at the houses along the way:



We spent about 45 minutes wandering, mostly aimlessly, around two blocks until Kieran went up to a particularly scary house. He was doing fine with the sarcophagus, the eerie music, and even the flashing lights - but when the ghost came flying down from the tree along a clothesline he lost it. Our night ended there, but not without a good selection of candy for mom and dad to enjoy...

The night after Hallowe'en everyone in the neighbourhood takes their pumpkins down to a small park and sets them up along the path around the perimeter. The result is a "Pumpkin Parade" that wraps all the way around a baseball playing field with hundreds upon hundreds of pumpkins. This was easily Kieran's favourite part of the Hallowe'en experience. He loves "Pumpkin Lights" and is still talking about them more than a month later. We met up with our friends again and Kieran and Aidan strolled the length of the pumpkin parade, holding hands and pointing out their favourites. Animals carved into the pumpkins were an especially big hit.

Lachlan has been with us for nearly a month and a half now, and he's been growing like a weed. This is the first week he's gained less than a full pound - he weighs about 11.5 pounds now. He's smiling sometimes, eating tons and spending more and more time awake.

Here's a rather goofy photo of him from his first week:


The general consensus is that while he looks 'Kieranish,' he really is quite distinct from his brother. For starters, it looks like he'll be a brunette, although his hair has all but completely fallen out by now. Here's a photo of Kieran at about the same age (that's almost equally as goofy) so you can compare for yourself:


Personality-wise they also already seem different. Where Kieran would go from happy to screaming to be fed in the blink of an eye, Lachlan quietly lets me know he's getting peckish by rooting (sticking his tongue out). He doesn't seem to have the same witching hour that Kieran did from 5-9 pm and he's never had unexplained crying jags that went on for what seem like hours. On balance he seems calmer.

On the other hand, Kieran had slept through the night several times by this age - Lachlan's done that once and seems to be getting worse, not better on that front. I keep telling myself that's it's still early and he should improve, but I sure am missing out on my sleep!

Kieran has proved to be a very attentive, interested and doting big brother. He gives Lachlan lots of kisses and hugs and always wants to know where he is. He loves to hold him and will do so at every opportunity:




As everybody told us would happen, Kieran became a giant overnight as soon as Lachlan was born.


All of a sudden he had these huge, sturdy femurs, an enormous, boy-sized head, and - most disconcertingly - an adult-sized bum with adult-sized poos. Toilet training seems like a must these days, but sadly our nanny is not on board yet. Kieran meanwhile had his first pee in the potty yesterday. We're hoping it's a sign of things to come and we'll be focusing on it over the holidays.

So overall it seems to have been a smooth transition for our big 'wee man,' although I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Until that happens, we're still enjoying his extreme toddler silliness: pretending to be a monster frog;


putting a bucket on his head as a hat;


allowing us to style his hair into devil horns in the bath...


It's amazing to have two boys of different ages. When Kieran was really little I remember wanting to be able to peek into the future for a moment to see what he'd be like. The anticipation of him growing up made it difficult to fully enjoy Kieran as an infant. This time, though, I can simply enjoy the infant phase because if I want to see into the future all I have to do is look to Kieran. It's the best of both worlds.

...but perhaps I am getting a bit ahead of myself. A family friend thinks the name "Lachlan" (meaning: Warrior from the Land of the Lochs) sounded very Prime Ministerial, and I have this image of him in my head addressing the nation.

Lachlan (Baby XY at the time) made his grand appearance (or "launch", in delivery room parlance) at 00:31 Oct 17, at 8 lbs 2 oz, missing his Mom's birthday by 31 minutes. In this we can already see a very deep understanding of family politics, and public relationship management, as he now has the entire day to himself in our family. He and his mother will celebrate milestone birthdays together (Liz turned 35 on the 16th), much in the same way that Kieran and his Father share milestones (Kieran's launch was 2 days after his Dad's 35th), so we can clearly see how he has orchestrated regular, built-in events in his life worthy of press coverage. Genius!

The more astute among you have already recognized that he and his brother boast different last names; again, we see how even at this early age he differentiates himself; one could imagine this factoid written as the cleverly personalized intro to his autobiography, which would have the effect of giving the reader an emotional attachment to the subject matter.

So far he mostly cries Order! Order!, but no doubt he will be expanding his platform soon.

He is also very cute, and has a clear passion for breastmilk and snuggles with mom and dad.

His brother Kieran has had no difficulty in sharing the spotlight with him, and likes to give him kisses and gentle pats on his head. He is going to be a fantastic Big Brother.

Thank you for all your well wishes!

Hope you enjoy the first photos below.

Love,

The Family McTaglips
Keith, Liz, Kieran, and Lachlan

We've been taking great advantage of my early maternity leave this year and have spent a lot of time at Toha. Most recently we headed up there with another family from the neighbourhood who have a girl Kieran's age and another girl who's about 4 months old. Kieran and Amy (the 2-year-old) for the most part entertained each other - other than the expected daily toddler possession issues. (Mine! No - mine!)

We also celebrated Kieran's second birthday up there. Two days before Kieran's birthday we had a birthday pie and candles for Keith, so when the cake appeared with candles after Kieran's birthday dinner, Kieran knew just what to do. He started blowing - straight up his nose. Keith took a video, which is priceless. It starts with Kieran singing "Happy Kieran" (with Amy singing the right words in the background) and ends with mommy helping him put out the candles.

I thought it would be fun to put a couple of photos up from last year's visit to Toha and this year's as a little documentation of how Kieran has changed in a year.

On the dock with Auntie Trish in 2007:



More active fun with "Zsa Zsa" this year (as Trish has now been christened):



and "Bha" (aka Blair - also a tricky one for little mouths):



Driving the boat on "Bop's" lap (he always takes this job very seriously):



Some chill-out time with some light reading:



and a good friend:

It was bound to happen sooner or later - and I guess in some respects this is sooner. We are expecting baby number two. Kieran seems excited. I'm pretty sure he doesn't really understand what it means to be a big brother, but he likes the idea that there's a baby in mommy's tummy. He comes over and pulls up my shirt, digs his finger as deep as possible into my belly button and then finishes it up with the baby sign (a rocking motion with both arms together).

Of course, the full understanding of what it means to no longer have mom and dad's undivided attention will only first come to light once the other has arrived. I think then he'll really feel like it was much more fun inside mommy's tummy.

It's that time of year again - time to make Kieran dance for you!

But this year, the whole family got in on the action:

"The McTaglips Boogie"

I realize that Halloween is all about the parents at this point, but I just couldn't resist dressing Kieran up. Besides, everyone else was doing it, so it was the thing to do! When I bought his costume it was much more appropriate - he was still doing his 'ARRR' sound. Unfortunately that sound has come and gone, so he was just a cute one-year-old dressed up as a pirate.

First we made the rounds of a few people's houses - we saw Amy dressed as Princess Leia, Aidan as a tiger, Saima as a witch and Audrey as an owl. Kieran bravely walked most of the way up the walk at the scariest house in the neighbourhood (complete with ghost moving back and forth on a clothesline and several real-looking tombstones) but when we hit the sarcophagus full of heads with glowing eyes he made a bee-line back to the sidewalk, whimpering slightly.

There was so much going on we had major difficulty getting him to look at the camera for even a split second, so you should appreciate the miracle of getting both him *and* Aidan to look up together here.

Within just a couple of weeks Kieran has mastered walking. We've got him real shoes so he can walk outside and the cat is getting seriously freaked out by this new level of access. Aslan has usually spent the winters indoors, but I'm getting the feeling that this winter may be different, given that two toddlers terrorize him daily.

We have of course documented some of Kieran's first walks - and in true parental fashion, we've ensured we have footage that he will be mortified of when he's a teenager. Only now, in the digital age, we have the means to ensure his embarrassment is broadcast on YouTube!

Now that Kieran has mastered walking, it looks like he's working as hard as he can on talking. He now points to absolutely everything, saying "What's that?" (or, more accurately, "Whazza?"). My dad swears he says "cat" very clearly, but I haven't heard it and my dad's hearing is, well, undependable. He can definitely point out certain things in the books we read - cat is the most common thing he recognizes.

I think an explosion of language is around the corner. There's no question that the linguist in me (who's never buried far below the surface) is desperate to experience language acquisition first hand. It's such an amazing insight not only into Kieran's thoughts, but the human brain overall.

But really, all I really want is to hear him say "Mommy" for the first time. Just thinking about that makes me smile and want to tapdance.

I do realize I've gone a little video crazy lately. I'm one of those parents who forces everyone to sit down to watch home videos of their darlings - I've literally done that to all my co-workers, former and current. It's truly sad. Nevertheless I can't resist posting yet another video of Kieran - this one comes from when he was about 7 months old, so it's pretty out of date.

I also warn you that another is on its way shortly - with walking footage! I just can't help myself.

Wow - 4 posts in a week! Maybe I'll even keep it up...

I've just edited another video of Kieran doing random things over the last few months. This one's a little fancier, with transitions and titles and everything.

Big news! Kieran has progressed from a few staggering, uncontrolled steps to actual, real walking!

It's interesting - I had wondered how I would be able to distinguish actual walking from his first attempts, in which he was certainly putting one foot in front of the other. But it was pretty obvious. While he still can't go far, he can make it from one object to another in a deliberate fashion. He can catch himself sometimes when he teeters, and he can stand in one place. Up until now walking was more like falling while moving his feet - now it's like standing with some lateral movement.

It's hard to describe. You'll just have to see it.

We spent a lovely weekend up north at RavenStone with Keith's parents, his aunt Kathy, great-aunt Do and his grandfather, Barry. It's been quite awhile since Barry has seen Kieran, so we were really glad he got the chance. Kieran has been taking his first teetering steps so he also got a chance to see that. I don't want to pretend that Kieran is walking however - he still much prefers crawling, but will allow himself to be led around holding your hands without too much protest.

One thing he's really become proficient at is coming down the stairs. He pauses at the top, turns around (not always pointed in quite the right direction) and then takes them backwards. He's a little reckless though and without close supervision would tumble down, ass over tea kettle.

Still no words either - and he's also sadly lost his trademark growl! Luckily, we got it on video.

We returned from our eventful family weekend to a flooded basement after the drain by the back door got clogged. My parents had discovered it Sunday night when they came by to drop some stuff off and had put a fan down there to try and dry things out. But there had been a small lake covering one-third of the basement and it was still squishy on Wednesday. We called a flood restoration company to come out, they pulled up the carpet, cut away the underpard, set out a couple of fans and a dehumidifier and left it to dry for a couple of days. Hopefully it will all be back to normal by the weekend.

As one friend said, tongue placed firmly in cheek, "when it rains, it pours."

I will avoid apologies for the length of time we've been absent - suffice to say that I'm aware of the delay and have all manner of excuses that I won't bore you with.

Today is the first day in nearly two weeks where I feel like I might actually be getting better. I had a fever, achy-ness and sore throat for almost a week, then just as that seemed to be abating, I got another sore throat followed by a sinus cold and a hacking cough. Keith is totally fine, and Kieran managed to fight off the first infection but succumbed over the long weekend. He had a fever on Saturday of about 39.5 C and was sort of fussy and out of sorts. Then he woke up from a nap yesterday with a red rash on his head. He has really sensitive skin, so a red rash is not uncommon and we didn't think much about it until he woke up this morning and it was down his face, neck and back.

Of course I thought measles. He's had his measles shot (MMR) but you never know, right? We happened to have a pediatric dermatology appointment this morning for the rash he's had all over almost since birth, so I figured we'd ask them.

When the doctoral fellow came in she was sure it was measles too. By that point I'd convinced myself that it looked much better and I was second-guessing my measles diagnosis, so my heart sank. I was suddenly really worried about Aidan (the other kid who shares our nanny) and, of course, Kieran.

The fellow went to get the attending doctor¸ who came in a few moments later trailed by four (!) residents. As soon as he looked at the rash, though, he said there was no way that it was the measles and declared it to be roseola. What a huge relief! This is a far less serious illness, is very common among kids under 2 and is basically not contagious as soon as the rash appears.

Oh, and Kieran's other rash is something totally benign and is nothing to worry about. I can't remember the name of it, but apparently 80% of people have it - there's no treatment except moisturizing. I was glad to hear it wasn't an allergy.

Bottom line: we've got one happy, healthy kid.

I have finally been able to upload a video of Kieran to YouTube, which means we don't have to host the enormous files. For Kieran's first appearance I've cut together a few of the videos I've made over the last couple of months - since he's been mobile and, more importantly, since he started making his odd growling sound. Enjoy!

Kieran stopped shaking his head in greeting several weeks ago but last week it returned with a vengeance. Everyone gets a head shake these days and they all need to be instructed that this is his form of greeting. The head shake is then usually followed by the growl, a sound that is
unique to Kieran among the baby world and impossible to describe. I will try to get it loaded on the blog, as it really ought to play whenever the blog opens.

Kieran is also crawling and furniture surfing (aka cruising) with more and more confidence. He has apparently stood independently for a fraction of a second without falling, but I have sadly missed this. He shows no interest in walking holding onto someone's hand, but I'm quite glad of this because it usually means hours of running around the house hunched over.

As for me, work has already started. There's been much upheaval in my office so I've been asked to come back to help with a couple of projects. It's supposed to be part time, but I'm not sure that's realistic and unfortunately our babysitter can't start for another couple of weeks. And Keith is being run ragged at work, so he's not able to help much at the moment. I'm just trying not to panic.

What I do know is that everything always works out. The most important thing is that Kieran's happy and that seems to still be the case.

I'm not sure how a whole month got away from us, but suddenly it's nearly August! Everyone said the last few months would fly by and they weren't kidding. I've only got about 5 weeks left before I'm back to work again. We still have lots more fun stuff planned though, so it will be a lovely time; it will promise to fly by as quickly as the last 5 weeks.

But before I catch up on the summer events, I thought I should blog the rest of European tour before I totally forget about it.

Hamburg

We were last on our way to Hamburg to visit Nasreen and Philipp. We arrived Sunday evening, but the next day was a holiday so we were able to spend the day with Nasreen and Philipp. The last time I'd been to Hamburg was immediately after I finished the MBA, and I'd seen the city pretty thoroughly that time. This visit was all about spending time with the pregnant Nasreen and the expectant daddy, Philipp. So we walked around the neighbourhood, strolled along the Elbe river, lunched in cafes, napped, relaxed and enjoyed some unbelievably good home-cooked meals.

Nasreen's friend Franziska has a daughter who's the same age as Kieran and she invited us over for a playdate. The sun finally came out that afternoon and we were able to sit in the backyard drinking tea, trying to keep Kieran from eating the phones. Another mutual friend, Jelena, is also living in Hamburg and she came over one evening for dinner. It was asparagus season (the white kind that we don't really see much over here), so we had a veritable feast, with potatoes and 2 different kinds of cream sauces.

After 4 nights in Hamburg we were off to Karlsruhe.

Karlsruhe

I had been fairly indecisive about whether to take the train or fly to Karlsruhe. Flying was cheaper (don't get me started about how ludicrous that is) and faster, but I really don't enjoy it. I finally decided it was better for both of us if we took the train, so I splurged and bought a ticket for the high-speed train and even pre-booked us a seat. I couldn't believe how perfect it was. We had our compartment all to ourselves during most of the 5-hour trip, so Kieran slept for 1.5 hours, played on the floor, ate his lunch, made friends with some bigger boys and threw another baby's plastic cups on the floor. Sonja met us at the train station and we took the streetcar home. No waiting around in lines to board; no forcing Kieran to sit on my lap; no taking him out of the Baby Bjorn just as he feel asleep; no high-fare parking for the person meeting us; no car seat wrangling; no commuting to and from the airport. In short, a truly civilized experience.

Sonja had taken a day off work and we'd hoped that the weather would cooperate so we could go to the 'Baggersee' - a man-made lake where people swim and picnic. Instead, the rain poured down in buckets, forcing us to head to the new indoor shopping mall where I attempted to buy shoes (what else is new?). But Kieran was happy to spend time just hanging out with Sonja and Sascha in their apartment - they had so many great things to play with!

My friend Michael happened to be celebrating his birthday while we were there, so we showed up as the special guests on Saturday night. There was a huge group of folks from the student residence where I lived when I was on exchange and it was wonderful to catch up with all of them. They're all married, working, having kids, but somehow they're also just the same as ever!

There was another boy about a month older than Kieran at the party (along with lots of other older kids), and he was crawling like mad. When I saw him I thought it would be really fun to speak to his mom (who had 2 other kids at the party) and compare notes. But as soon as I started speaking with her I knew we were not going to see eye to eye. When I told her Kieran was 9 months old, 1 month younger than her boy, she said "But he's so small!" Right...

Later, when she was running after him as he crawled away for about the 20th time that night, I jokingly said "I guess that's what I have to look forward to!" (Kieran was not quite crawling yet - he would crawl 4 days later) Her response was "Well, he's been crawling forever" (i.e. What the hell's wrong with your kid that he's not moving yet?!)

Ah well, at least Sonja, Sascha and I had someone to talk about on the drive home...

Our visit to Karlsruhe was complete with a relaxing afternoon in the castle garden, dinner in a nice beer garden, another fresh asparagus feast and dinner with Sonja's parents.

Overall a smooth, memorable and totally lovely trip. A huge big hug and thanks go out to our many hosts - and to Kieran, who doesn't even know yet what a great traveller he is!

[Nothing more frustrating than deleting an entry you spent considerable time on! Arg.]

Left to our own devices, the McTaglips family wanted to ensure that we saw the ancient Edinburgh castle placed precariously at the top of Castle Rock in the middle of the old town. After 3 attempts, we finally made it in a characteristically Scottish drizzle. Kieran enjoyed the visit as he did all the museums we went to - happily asleep.

Tata Seanna and Tonton Karim generously offered to babysit one evening. While they had some 2-on-1 Kieran time, we enjoyed a nice meal at a grown-up restaurant followed by a haunted walking tour of Edinburgh's seedy history. Most of our time was spent in Greyfriars Kirk, home of the famous Greyfriars Bobby, the dog that wouldn't leave his master even in death. Our tour focused more on the gruesome stories of the graveyard, along with someone jumping out at us as we stood huddled in a chilly tomb.

To shake out the cobwebs the next day we took the bus out to the Pentland Hills for a stroll in the Scottish countryside. It was truly picturesque: sheep, rolling hills, fishermen, and every kind of weather you would expect as you strolled in Scotland. One minute it was hot and sunny, the next it was cold and raining. The weather changed 4 times during our 3-hour hike. At one point we were crossing a high point with the wind blowing so hard that we were drenched on our left sides but bone dry on the right.

On our last full day Seanna and Karim took us out to the Rosslyn Chapel, a charming 15th-century church that has the dubious honour of being the location of the Holy Grail in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Although it's truly beautiful, somehow the only photos we ended up with are of Kieran getting his bum changed and blowing bubbles in the churchyard.

We ended it all off with one more visit to the pub for our final fix of chips (aka french fries). I honestly think we haven't had french fries since we left Edinburgh - I think we might have actually overdosed, a feat that I thought could never happen to me!