August 2014 – Dunster Blackett: The Life of Carly, Matt & Fitzgerald

51 Weeks: The hop crawl in action and an early Parkdale birthday

Fitz is moving with some speed and purpose these days. These two videos show off his unique crawling style, which is more of a hop-crawl.

Because we are going to be out of town on Fitz’s actual birthday we decided to throw a little party for his Toronto friends. We gathered in Albert Crosland Parkette so that the kids and babies could run around the splash pad / wading pool.

ABOVE: Fitz reads the card from Emmit and his mom Andria.

ABOVE & BELOW: As demonstrated in previous posts, Fitz has a desire to crawl on top of other babies no matter who they are. Throughout the party Fitz could be repeatedly found affectionately trying to wrestle Emmit to the ground.

ABOVE & BELOW: Meghan encourages Fitz’s curiosity in all kinds of ways, it seems.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz strikes his contemplative pose for the camera.

ABOVE: Todd Irvine is always up for some fun, Fitz is learning.

ABOVE: Max — the son of Carly’s friend Kath and her husband Jamie.

ABOVE & BELOW: Carly’s friend Emma recently had twins: Leah and Zoe. They are about a month old now.

ABOVE: Matt and Fitz poolside.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz seemed to understand that everyone was paying attention to him, but he was unsure why. Maybe this cupcake has something to do with it….

50 Weeks: Fitz goes to the Brickworks & a peekaboo video

BELOW: In just over 2 weeks, Fitz has become a master of squats. He is now combining that with his love of peekaboo.

BELOW: We met Carly’s old work colleague Brian and his daughter Maggie at The Evergreen Brickworks to peruse the weekend farmers market.

49 Weeks: A wet weekend

Now that Fitz is becoming more mobile we have to find ways to contain him. On our porch, we’ve turned to an inflatable pool that he loves to sit in. Give Fitz some measuring cups to clank together or pour water out of and you’ve made him a very happy kid.

ABOVE: He was rather tired by this point of the day, hence the moody glance.

ABOVE & BELOW: We’ve come to the conclusion that Fitz can look like comedian actor Seth Rogen.

ABOVE & BELOW: We spent the other part of the weekend keeping Fitz wet as well. We took him to the Albert Crosland Parkette wading pool, which is only a few blocks away from our place and tucked in behind Queen St. West restaurants. Again, give Fitz some measuring cups….

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz made friends with Grayson, a 15-month old who lives around the corner. Grayson’s mobility gave us a glimspe of where Fitz might be in a few months. ABOVE: Grayson’s mom Kate turned Fitz into Elton John with those sunglasses. Grayson’s mom Kate turned Fitz into Elton John with those sunglasses.

Cottage Videos: Fitz pulling up, throwing, and hanging out on the dock

While at the cottage in the Gatineaus, Fitz got to experience a lake up close as well as show off some of his new skills: throwing stuff and pulling himself up.

Friends on vacation

We had a handful of friends share the Gatineau cottage with us over the course of the week. Most of our time together was spent on the dock, swimming in the lake, reading on the deck in the afternoon, and enjoying fine spirits within the covered porch at night.

ABOVE: Nick floats in Lac l’Ile on an overcast day.

ABOVE: Gen executes a near perfect dive. When she surfaced Nick pointed out that she might have jumped in with her sunglasses on, which was later confirmed when this photo was reviewed close up.

ABOVE: Carly also exhibits good form in her dive.

ABOVE: Nick takes a different diving approach.

ABOVE & BELOW: Jason and Mark listen intently to someone’s story. Probably Gen.

ABOVE & BELOW: Nick joined us for a last few nights of the trip, while Meghan stayed for the first few days.

48 Weeks: Fitz turns 11 months

During the trip Fitz reached the 11 month mark. Each month brings new discoveries and you could really see his curiosity was piqued whenever we took him for a walk through the forest down to the dock and lake. He reached out to touch leaves, point at trees, and look around at his surroundings. And he didn’t mind being carried down in the Ergo carrier by his parents.

BELOW: The family at 11 months.

ABOVE & BELOW: Carly’s parents came up to the cottage on Grandma’s birthday. They stayed for the food and later kidnapped Fitz back across the Ontario border in order to give Matt and Carly two nights off/sleep-in mornings.

ABOVE & BELOW: We spent the last night of our vacation back in Ottawa at Carly’s parent’s place where we were reunited with Fitz. Who knew a plastic basin could make such a good pool for such a young kid?

BELOW: Friends Gen and Nick joined us for a handful of days at the cottage and came back to Ottawa with us.

47 Weeks: Cousin Declan visits Fitz in the Gatineaus

In the middle of our week at the cottage, Carly’s cousin Clayton came in for the day from Constance Bay with his mom Barb, his wife Megan, and his eight-month old Declan. Fitz and Declan had briefly met on the May long-weekend in Ottawa, but they quickly found out they liked each other a lot.

BELOW: This montage gives you a better idea of how Fitz ended up on top of Declan.

BELOW: After the initial excitement died down, the boys got straight to throwing blocks and rings and crawling around.

ABOVE & BELOW: During the first few days of our stay, Fitz made some significant strides in his ability to move around. A hybrid crawl-hop has emerged that involves him pushing off with his left foot and steering with his right. There are times when he looks like he’s striking a pose in a sprinter’s starting position.

BELOW: Fitz has also made great strides in stuffing his mouth full of blueberries and putting a sock on his head.

47 Weeks: Cottage bound

Week 47 consisted mostly of getting ready for our vacation at a cottage in the Gatineaus with our friends. While out running chores in the days before leaving our little man begun working on his cool guy poses.

BELOW: Before heading off to the cottage, we spent the night and following day in Ottawa with Carly’s parents. Packing for vacation with a child is a new phenomenon for us. Fitz is only 23 pounds, but needs twice as much as either of us! Luckily, we didn’t need to pack any toys as Fitz has a whole bunch waiting for him.

BELOW: Our friend Meghan joined us for the first few days of the trip, including hanging out in the backyard of the Dunsters and taking Fitzy for a walk. Over the last week he has been quite eager to pull himself up and take steps with assistance. He obviously needs to burn some calories — look at the rolls in those thighs!

BELOW: With that expression, you can easily imagine that Fitz is grooving to some funky music. And again: those thighs!

BELOW: Fitz and uncle Chris catch up.