It's Birthday Season, eh?

How is it even possible that the last 18 months have flown by? I mean of course I have seen the tab on my laptop, or I have thought, or I used to think, that I needed to post an update, but then this beautiful life just sort of happened.

To catch you up there are about 2 seasons here in Toronto and a few states of mind: Pre-winter (oooh this is fun, I can wait to go sledding with the kids), Hardcore winter (why do I need an adult sized snow suit for school pick up), Winter again (WTF why are we still wearing coats in May) and the glorious SUMMER (can we survive entirely on ice cream cones and park sunshine?). We are just entering summer, which is a pretty magical time here. Everyone is happy, everyone seems to know that you have to take advantage of the good weather days. Which means on this last long weekend we… took the kids hiking, went for a family run (using the jogging stroller pushed by dear old dad), went to the playground, got ice cream, grilled and played on the roof, and biked to a harbourfront festival. It was a glorious weekend.

As for the family, we are on the brink of exciting babyhood. In the next two weeks, Megan will turn 36 (I think?), Ava will be 4, and Charlie will turn 2. The kids both go to the same daycare during the day, but are in separate classrooms. They are together almost all the time, and if they should be apart they ask about what the other one is doing. Charlie has learned a primal scream that Ava never seemed to have a need for which means something along the line of, “sibling interference”. Luckily they are getting better at using words to communicate and shockingly enough they compromise a majority of the time when the other one calmly asks for something.

But back to summer, we are riding out our time here in Toronto, we are enjoying the weather, the neighborhood, and the activities and people that we have come to love. It’s likely that another move with Bayer is on the horizon, but the when and where are still a bit fuzzy. We are looking forward to heading down to the States for 10 days in early June to celebrate birthdays with family, celebrate nephew Tyler’s HS graduation, spend a week down at Nana and Papa’s in Richmond, hopefully learning how to swim, and then going to NC for a Matzke side of the family boating weekend. Once we get back to Toronto we will host the kid’s second annual birthday picnic in the park. Which is both fun for the kids, and gives Ben and I the thrill of hosting a party which we rarely get to do anymore.

So should you find yourself in the great land of Canada, please give us a call, we will be here enjoying the sunshine, until we are not!

Best Wishes,

The Aylesworth Fam

6 Months Young

Wow, six months since the little man joined us and....breathe!

So we know how this goes, cue international move in the third trimester, cue new country, cue Ava's second birthday that breezed by with only a special cupcake, cue moving trucks, cue boxes and furniture everywhere on June 8th, cue Aunt Sandy arriving for the weekend, cue Charlie's unexpected arrival one week early on Sunday June 11th, cue Grandparents speeding up to help most of the summer, and...breathe!

There is not time here to write down all the wonderful things that have come in the last 6 months, because this post is about Charlie, and I have learned in 2017 that it's not too often that someone gets uninterrupted individual time!  But that is one of the things that I have grown to love about our little family; not a lot of privacy, but a lot of laughter.  I will take that trade off any day.  

So here's to Charlie, our little man, our "dream baby", and the one who completed the family.

We still can't figure out if Charlie has a very relaxed personality, if Mom and Dad (read as Mom) are more relaxed this time around, or a combination of both.  But from pretty much day one, Charlie just goes with the flow.  Sleep training...yeah okay I will sleep by myself.  Naps...I like the crib, but carrier, stroller okay I can snooze on the go.  Playtime...hmmm I seem to be left on the floor on a blanket  a lot, good thing the other little person around here gives me lots of toys.  Introduction to solids....now that's where I draw the line, the order is spoon to mouth, repeat, quickly or you are going to hear from me!

Charlie is a fabulous baby and quickly became Mommy's little buddy.  Together we hit the grocery store, run all our errands, complete school drop off and pick up for Ava, and hang out at the playground in the afternoon.

Sleep: He sleeps from 7 to 7 at night in his crib and is still getting a dreamfeed at 10pm.  He has been taking 3 naps each day but we are actively transitioning over to a morning and afternoon snooze.

Play:  Charlie has started sitting in the last two weeks.  He is independent (as in we would run out of the room for a second) if he has the feeding pillow behind him, he doesn't really use it for support, he just seems to like to know it's there.  He will also sit for 10-15 minutes with pillows around him or sitting in someone's legs.  He will sit on his own long enough to snap a quick photo but tends to fall over when reaching for toys or looking around.  Charlie has never been a big fan of tummy time.  He may or may not have mild re flux, which means spitting up has been part of our daily (multiple times daily) life since Day 1.  But he is gaining weight and doesn't seem bothered by the issue.  It is improving week by week and we all look forward to the day when a burp cloth isn't a constant accessory. Charlie has been watching us wave to him recently and seems like he is picking up on the motion.  It's adorable.

Food:  Charlie is still breastfeeding 6 times per day, but this is being shifted down to 5 as he changes his naps.  He loves solid foods and has had a mix of purees and mashed foods.  He seems to like everything and is a big fan of Greek yogurt just like big sis.  Thus far sweet potatoes are the only food that don't seem to like him to much.  Charlie has had carrots, apples, avocado, banana, raspberries, yogurt, rice, salmon, ground beef, and tastes of almost everything that we eat.  This weekend we discovered his first bottom middle tooth poking through the gum so really the possibilities are endless!

For now I must take the remaining chunk of nap time and start to make sense of the holiday preparations.  We are headed back to the east coast and look forward to spending the better part of 10 days with both the Aylesworths and the Matzkes.

Happy Holidays!

Much Love,

The Aylesworth 4