ipod strolling

ipod strolling. the urban parent has many tools in their armory. a night-time stroll in the vancouver drizzle is sometimes the only one that works when i scream and shout and moan and groan and cry and generally express unhappiness. dad put the U2 collection on shuffle, and off we went. this morning i was fabulous kid whom everyone adored. i stared joyously and inquisitively, I sang the songs in church, I showed off my perfectly formed dimples in broad grins, I blew cute bubbles and dribbled on various people’s clothing. I enjoyed hanging out with the penas from mexico city. what a great sunday. tonight I’m not quite so fabulous, so after trying everything that ever calms me down, a stroll in the rain was quite simply the only way to give mom some peace. hopefully after a good feed I’ll enjoy the peace and tranquility of my wonderful cot, and sleep for a few hours at least.

for dad’s version of the stroll, read city of blinding lights :)

the resulting portrait

wow, i did ok. my official image, known to all governments, terrorist organisations, and customs officials. just need to answer all the difficult questions on the form (how am i supposed to know what colour my hair is going to be?), and the world is my aphrodisac shellfish.

PS Uncle tim suggests i don't use the photo on the right... :(

Passports

So with flights booked, we've finally set about getting me my passport. Hey Hey doesn't need one, so he's good to go. I'm getting a nice blue Canadian one. This may cause trouble when we land at Heathrow and i have to go through the non-EU channel without mom or dad, but maybe i'll be walking by then. it is a couple of months away still.

So, my passport: we went today to get my photo taken. I sat on dad's knee and did my best to fulfil the government's requirements:
Show a full front view of head and shoulders without head covering.
Image must have the face square to the camera with a neutral expression and with the mouth closed.
Taken against a plain, uniform white or light coloured background with no other person visible.

dad took off my hat (and bib, although there was no mention of that in the instructions) and did his best to stay at out of the picture. i concentrated hard on holding my head up, closing my mouth, opening my eyes and not moving. i'm not sure i managed it, but we'll find out tomorrow when we go back and pick up the photos.

If they're OK then the next step is to go and see my lawyer. do i have a lawyer yet, mom?

Hooray for Hey Hey

Hey Hey is my new best friend (after mom and dad, of course). He's a monkey that on occasion i cuddle in a really cute way, but normally i just settle back and chew on. This means mom and dad needn't sit with their fingers in my mouth for hours at a time.

Our flights are booked for April. We're arriving at Heathrow on April 5th, and staying until the 21st. Hey Hey and I are travelling in style - we've got a fully horizontal bed where we can both stretch out in comfort. I think mom and dad are jealous. They'll be sitting in the first row of economy class, where they can see all the rich people in business class with their comfortable seats, nice food and choice of films, but will themselves probably have less room than anyone else on the plane. That may have something to do with my bed........ good job it's only a 10 hour flight.

transport

i'm sure i've told you before about my stroller - it's a blue Zooper Sport "for discerning babies". i get to go out in it with mom when we go shopping or to church. when the sun's out we sometimes go as far as the beach.

if we need to go further than that, then we go in the car. the car's blue too, and is kind of a stroller with extra seats for mom and dad, and an engine so no-one has to walk. i'm not sure that a Ford Focus is a car for discerning adults, but it goes just fine.

today dad went out in the car with four Mexicans, so mom and i had to go on a bus. as she pushed me down the road mom explained to me about buses. they're kind of like strollers for lots of people, but everyone has to go the same way so sometimes you have to do some walking too. not only that, but the bus driver doesn't go as fast as dad so you have to might have to wait for a while at the bus stop.

it turns out there's lots of things mom didn't tell me about buses. she didn't tell me i'd get on the bus IN my stroller. i knew we were going along but mom was sitting beside me, so who was pushing? getting on the bus was a bit of an adventure too. it was kind of like when i go flying with dad, but i was still sat in my stroller and the whole ground was lifted up. weird. and the people on the bus were kind of odd too........

i did get to have lunch in Tim Horton's though. Urban mom fed me whilst perched on the side of the sink in the disabled washroom. I've eaten in better dining rooms, but lunch still tasted good.

welcome home dad

so, dad just walked in. 4:07pm, he left the house at 7am after kindly hanging out with me since 5:30. words to mom as he walks in the front door ...

"wow, you look great ... are you OK?"

hmmm, dad should work on his opening lines, eh? mom luckily thought this was very funny.

vital stats update

so mom and i went to the doctor today. i've been crying quite a bit, fussing. turns out that i'm growing REALLY fast. at birth i was in the 75th percentile of normal babes, with a big head. my body has now caught up with my noggin to make me a 95th percentile plus boy.

in non-scientific terms - i'm hooge. so mom is obviously a tremendous dairy queen. i'm also very strong, developing quickly, can hold my head up. my stomach muscles are working over time. dad loves to take me flying round the apartment, and i love it too. i'm crying because my body's doing a lot. what a kid.

father, son and wholly mimic'd

the all new joel photo gallery

a very large gallery of pictures of me. dad and i have been working on it for a while now. actually there's nearly 200 photos, so only my biggest fans are likely to have the patience. we'll do our best to edit to the best 20 soon, then you may have a hope.

still, if you're bored, send me an email joel@sopwithworld.com and i'll reply with the password you need - i don't just let anyone see photo's of "cute kid" you know.

happiness ... the elusive quality in a baby's repertoire

so, i type this while listening to a bunch of teenagers rocking the house. i don’t know what the band is called yet, i’ll have to ask. it’s a bit loud, and they have a little practice to do, but they rock. cover of “no sugar tonight” by the Guess Who is rather fine.

for some reason this week i find myself to be crying and screaming a lot. none of us really know why. i think i may be going for a “growth spurt” but it’s lasting a long time. mom and dad would rather i cheered up. i do smile and enjoy the good stuff still ... but really only for 20mins at a time.

top tips welcome on how to get more happy. it is of course raining .. very hard .. actually really hard. there's enough to make life bad right there - especially as the mountains are not openfor skiing right now .. grrr

hot pants

hot kid, hot pants. i’m not the biggest fan of my new cloth diapers, although i like to do my bit to save some trees and landfill space. actually what i really love to do is lie naked on the bathroom floor, but perhaps i shouldn’t be publishing these things ...

i'm so proud of my dad's example

hey mr preacher man

that's my dad, that is. he preached me a great sermon last week, and it sounded pretty good when i overheard him preaching it again to mom on saturday night, but you know, by sunday morning i'd heard it enough. i mean, how many times do you expect a guy to listen to the same talk in a week? mom tried to keep me quiet by making me eat, but i wasn't having any of it. i reckon if all those people were so keen to hear dad speak they could have come round to our house earlier in the week, right?

lots of people said nice things to him afterwards, but i didn't tell them it was only that good because he'd been practising on me.

big question is.......are they going to ask him to preach again?

we went skiing

more accurately, mom went skiing, dad did a bit of snowboarding, and i had a nap, cried, ate, cried, had a nap .....and generally prevented dad from writing his sermon or having a nap himself. mom had a fantastic time, even though she left me behind in the lodge. i didn't mind all that much - the light was very bright outside with the sun reflecting off the snow and it was a bit chilly for my liking.

it was a bit of a squash getting a snowboard, a pair of skis, two pairs of boots, my stroller and diaper bag and changes of clothes for everyone into the back of the car. i think we'll need to get a roofrack or a bigger car soon, especially if mom and dad are going to make a habit of this. i need to take more toys with me next time, and perhaps a book or two to read. a more comfortable chair than my stroller would be good too if i'm going to be stuck in it all day. it might be prudent to take along a bit of extra food for me too - i could get hungry being at altitude.

when it comes to travelling i think i take after my mom. being prepared means taking everything i might possibly need - and i'll keep thinking of things to take until every last square inch of space has been filled.

I've got hands

two of them......i've discovered what the thumbs are for, but what about the fingers? they're really interesting - i could watch them for hours. they seem to get tied up in knots very easily though. maybe it's because i've got so many? they poke my eye whilst i suck my thumb too, but my mouth's not big enough to get them all in as well. i know, i've tried.

Hey uncle nick j

i sent you an email to let you know of my existence, but it came back saying you were out of the office until March. i want a job like yours when i grow up. in the meantime, i'm looking forward to meeting you. mom says you make a mean tinned macaroni cheese. you'd fit in well here - Kraft mac and cheese is the national dish. it comes in a box though, so making it is a bit more technical than perhaps you could manage?

send me an email and we can continue our conversation in private. i want to know what mom and dad were like as teenagers, so i know how best to wind them up in later life

I'm dreaming of a white christmas...

or maybe it was real. one minute i was warm and snug in my carseat, having a little post-lunch snooze (definitely the thing to do on christmas day), the next thing i knew the outside world had gone white. having put enough clothes on me to ensure i got thoroughly cross and overheated, mom and dad then took me outside into the cold and wet. OK, so the trees were pretty although i quite like them green as a rule, but what was with that person who'd been out there so long they'd turned white from head to toe? it looked like their facial features had been turned to candy too. fortunately mom put me back in the car before the same thing happened to me.

next stop was BC womens hospital. i wanted to check my first girlfriend hadn't forgotten me. we found christi up on the ward waiting to deliver another baby. she was really pleased to see me, and still thanks i'm gorgeous. that's alright then.

finally mom and dad got around to putting the turkey in the oven. i don't know what's wrong with them. it's not like they went to church or anything today. perhaps they like eating a full roast lunch at 10pm?