While We Were Away

Do you have any friends that are more like family than friends? If not, I recommend getting some ;) These two lovely people gave up 11 days of their lives to care for Ezra and Silas. The week was not always easy but I think it was a great success. The boys had a lot of fun and made some really great memories- I think I am still hearing a new story every day. Thank you, Alan and Larisa, for keeping our kids safe and loved so we didn't have to worry about them while we were away! 

Group Selfie! 

They're buds. 

Ezra the swimming master. 

Epic paper planes. 

Canada Day celebrations!

Lunchtime (and a weird visor?) 

Discovery Centre! 

Trippy photo, man.  

Cookies on the deck! 

He does smile, promise. 

Story Time!

As you know, Ezra is a great big brother and he loves reading. Today, I asked him to keep his brother happy while I dealt with a (minor) Silas issue. I came back to them like this. 

And it made my day. 

Emerging Artists

Both Ezra and Silas love watching me paint. They offen ask if they can paint as well, or tell me they are going to be artists when they grow up. Normally I don't have a lot of patience for allowing them to watch, and I'm not very good at letting them paint because I always want to fix I for them. Crafts are easier for me than painting. 

Anyway, I thought it was time: time to paint with the boys. We've done it before but I've been avoiding it. However, today I decided to go for it because I am trying to spend a lot of intentional time with them this week. 

As soon as we finished painting they decided to give their creations away and had specific people in mind for who the lucky recipients will be. 

Six months!

Philip was six months old yesterday! Wow has time flown. He had his measurements taken and his booster shot today at the doctor and he did great. He was 65cm long, head at 42.5cm and his weight was 7kg (which is 15.7lbs!) For comparisons sake, Silas was 14.5lbs and 68cm long (I have no data for Ezra at this age). 

Philip is doing SO well. He is so happy all the time. He is very enjoyable. We struggled for so long to get him to eat and gain weight and look where he is now! 

On another note, Ezra has a black eye. He is fine, it doesn't even hurt today and the swelling is much better. The story is that they were jumping for a game at Sunday school and he knocked heads with Silas. Ezra ended up with a huge welt and bruise and Silas didn't even notice he even got bonked. 

Philip the wiggler

I realize most of my posts as of late have been Philip-centred but he's the one that's changing the most right now. Here is a short video of some of this guys movement. He sounds a bit stressed but these are mostly happy noises, I promise. 

Philip's favourites

Philip is a very fun little guy. He is so easy going and is barely ever fussy (or else we have a different definition of fussy than we used to). He loves watching people and is a great squealer :). Here are a few of his favourite things. 

I showed you this one before but he really does love reading books. 

Sitting (sometimes) 

Standing! (Sometimes). He loves looking out this window. And sucking on the couch. 

He loves this ball. 

What!?!? Could he be thinking of crawling? We'll see! 

Philip's First Food

Yesterday Philip had his first taste of solid food! I made rice cereal from scratch for the first time ever and I can't believe I haven't done it (especially since I made most of the baby food previously and the rice cereal was so easy). 

Anyway, he did great! He was SO ready for solids and it was fun to feed him. Ezra and Silas were very excited about it too and they kept giggling at him. 

And here's another few from today: 

We're back from Italia!

After a loooong day of travel we are home. Rob and I went I Italy for a conference and Philip tagged along. I don't want to write tons about it but I'd love to share some highlights. 

He cried the whole first flight and slept the whole second. He did great for our return trip too. 

Rob didn't sleep on the plane (and it was a red eye) so he slept on the train. 

The view from our hotel room balcony! 

We went to Switzerland for the day. 

Beautiful towns. 

Fancy, random sitting room in the hotel. 

The view from the restaurant. 

Philip is hanging out on one of the islands in the lake. 

Chilling on a table. 

"Bored at conference" selfie. 

Avid reader number three! 

First time swimming- not a fan (the water was cold). 

Wining and dining on our SEVENTH anniversary date. 

We love each other. 

We went in this castle. 

This is the side entrance. It is a castle built solely for entertaining guests. 

Philip was cranky. 

A royal bed fit for Napoleon Bonaparte. Literally. 

The castle's garden. 

If you're this rich, you build random structures in your garden and house white peacocks (bottom left in the grass). 

Ezra recognized this ground as similar to Rapunzles in Tangled. 

This guy is an Italian celebrity. Bambino, piccolini, and complimente. 

Just some of the many desserts we were served this week. 

Menu from the formal banquet. 

Funny faces. 

The courtyard of the DaVinci museum in Milan. This place was super cool and super huge. 

We went to the Duomo! Still not finished being built after hundreds of years. 

The world's oldest shopping mall. 

This is the inside of the mall. Has Gucci, Luis Vuitton, prada, Mercedes and Armani (among others), plus restaurants. 

And then we got to come home to these sweet faces. 

We had an amazing trip but are very glad to be home.