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Breaking news!
Air France A340 Airbus has just come off the runway at Toronto's Pearson Airport. It was attempting to land, during a thunder storm, and seems to have lost control. Details are sketchy right now, but the unofficial rumour is that it was struck by lightning.
The plane is engulfed in flames right now. No word yet on the 200+ people still onboard...
He-man!
Jake has a walker - a thing on four wheels that was meant to help him learn the art of walking. With that now pretty much mastered, he loves to run around behind his walker, slamming it into walls, furniture, your ankles, or anything else that gets in his way. His favorite thing seems to be ramming it against the coffee table and then using it to push our coffee table into the next room. Oh yes, he's strong!
As you can see, he pushed the table from the living room into the dining room, causing the rug to buckle up. He sometimes shoves the walker so hard that it ends up under the table, leaving the table perched on two legs instead of four.
He's our little He-man.
A visit, a meal and a movie
My Mum and Allan, my stepfather, got Jake a little foam chair yesterday. It has Winnie-the-Pooh on it. We'd been looking around to buy him one but the cheapest we found was about $25. With a fairly tight budget at the moment, we decided to wait a little while longer before buying one. My Mum and Allan found one at a garage sale and only paid $1 for it. It looks brand new too! What a bargain!
So it was laundered and brought over here yesterday and Jake loves it. He's fallen off it a few times though, as he likes climbing on it rather than sitting on it. As you can see from the picture, he's as happy as anything, sitting in his own little chair and clutching new favorite toy, his Daddy's belt.
Then we joined my Mum and Allan for a tasty chicken dinner at St-Hubert. I had a club sandwich, as did Stephen and Ruth, while my Mum had a quarter chicken breast and Allan had the fajitas, I think. Anyway, it was heaven! Jake sat in a highchair and played quietly with a toy, even while we waited patiently for the food. Then he ate everything that was put in front of him.
After parting ways with my Mum and Allan, Stephen and picked up some chocolate and a movie and headed home. Jake was put to bed and we watched Boogeyman. I can't say that I really recommend that one though. It was very slow starting and very cliche finishing. Give it a miss.
Catching Up
It's been ages again. I can't seem to get back to regular writing recently. I mean, I have a hard enough time concentrating on anything when Jake is awake, nevermind creating legible paragraphs. For example, as I type this, he's under my desk. He was wrapped around my ankles, but is now trying to crawl under my chair. His attempt will be futile because he will get stuck. He always does. But he never learns, does he?
Anyway, things are moving along nicely with the little guy. He can now put shaped blocks into holes, although I hold the toy so that the correct hole is facing him. His balance when walking is even better now than it was, although he stumbles a lot when he's tired. And he's sleeping right through the night again.
We went through a lousy stage a couple of months ago where he was waking every night. I'd bring him into bed with me and we'd both sleep. But he'd be hysterical if we suggested that he should go back to his own bed. Then, one morning, I woke with a start at about 6:30am. Jake hadn't woken me during the night. Convinced that he must be injured or something, I crept into his room to check on him. He was sleeping soundly... until the floorboard creeked below me and so started a new day. And ever since then, he's slept right through again. I have no idea what change, but, thank you!
It's our wedding anniversary today. Four years! It seems like only yesterday that we were chatting online with ICQ, making plans to meet face-to-face in Montreal. It's amazing to think that, since then, we've travelled back and forth from Canada to England a couple of times, gotten married and had a baby. Our life has changed even more recently with Stephen's eldest two moving out of our house and his youngest daughter being grown up enough to have a boyfriend. We've had four exciting years together and I'm sure they'll be many more to come.
And finally, with the recent cooler temperatures, we decided to take up the pool. Stephen emptied it the day before yesterday and then, yesterday, moved the pool out of the way. It's left a horrible ring of dead grass, as we knew it would:
Oh well, next year, we'll just have to put the pool back in the exact same spot!
LaRonde!
On Friday, we went to LaRonde, Montreal's amusement park and home to the Monster, the highest wooden rollercoaster in the world. With Montreal having been my home for so many years, I've been to LaRonde many times and I've been on the Monster many times. But now that I'm a full-fledged adult with a child of my own, waiting in line for a couple of hours only to spend about 2 minutes whizzing through the air just doesn't have the same appeal for me anymore. So, needless to say, I didn't bother with that one on Friday.
Here is a shot of a small section of LaRonde, with the majestic Jacques-Cartier Bridge behind it:
We - Stephen and I - took Sarah and her boyfriend, B, along with us as well as Ruth and her boyfriend, A. We also had Jake with us. It was his first time in an amusement park and the look on his face was priceless. Soon after we arrived, we sat on the grass next to the rollercoaster called the Boomerang (so called because you first get to go around forward, then you get stopped kinda suddenly and then boomeranged backwards around the track) and we had some lunch from a picnic that I'd packed. Everytime the rollercoaster went by, and the people inside were screaming like their legs were being chopped off, Jake's eyes got as big as saucers and he stood still to watch.
I really wanted to take Jake on a ride, even though he was way to small for almost everything. So the Merry-Go-Round was the way to go. Here we are:
Jake was OK with the ride. He squirmed around on my lap for a while and wanted to walk around. But as soon as we were moving, he settled down and watched for his Daddy, who was standing nearby taking pictures.
Having been on only a few rides myself, but getting quite a bit of sun (my shoulders are pink despite sunblock), we finally left around 9:30pm. Jake was tired, but very well behaved. We were very proud of his infinite patience.
Finally, last night, Saturday, Stephen and I rented The Ring Two. I loved the first movie, but the second wasn't nearly as good, with glaring flaws throughout. Still spooky though, for those who love a good 'Boo!', like me.
Sulking
It's soooooo hot and humid and I'm incomfortable. According to The Weather Channel, it's only 23C here, but it feels so much worse. In fact, it feels worse now (8:40pm) than it did earlier this afternoon. I would have guessed 28C myself.
We pulled up the pool way too early. 
