Matthew Blackett – Page 2 – Dunster Blackett: The Life of Carly, Matt & Fitzgerald

April 2017: Gorillas and Friends and Ottawa, oh my!

April was a chaotic month but we were still able to squeeze in a lot of fun things. In a spur of the moment decision, prompted by Fitzy saying “I want to see a gorilla today,” we went to the zoo. Both Carly and I have some real issues with the zoo but it’s fun to take Fitz now before he starts asking questions about the moral implications of keeping animals confined to such small spaces. Instead, we can just yell “ZEBRA!” and watch him get excited.

ABOVE: This baby gorilla charmed Fitz very much. He came up and banged on the window, which Fitz referred to as being “high-fived” by the gorilla. Gotta love the deforestation mural. Must make the gorillas feel at home.

BELOW: We went to look at the cherry blossoms blooming in High Park with about another 1-million Torontonians. We were joined by Eli and his parents, Callum and his dad Brian, and Leo and his dad James. The kids were mostly interested in running around on rocks and the hills.

For Easter, we jetted off to Ottawa where Fitz got to spend some time with his cousins Jack and Maggie.

March 2017: Lots of time with Eli

In March, Fitz spent a fair bit of free time hanging out with Eli. First we went to the Science Centre.

The High Park Castle playground is very close to use so we met up with Eli and his parents for some exercise.

ABOVE: This is Carly’s Bigfoot moment.

February 2017: Fun in Myrtle Beach!

The family got to spend a week down in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with Carly’s parents. 2017 was intensely busy for both of us so even just six weeks from our Xmas holidays we were happy to relax in the sunshine. And so was Fitz.

ABOVE: We flew out of Toronto’s Island Airport on Porter. Because the terminal in so small it’s a really kid-friendly place to be for 2 hours before take-off. Fitz made a lot of friends while he was doing laps of our gate.

ABOVE: This was the view, looking south down towards the hub of Myrtle Beach, from the balcony of the condo.

ABOVE & BELOW: The first day was a little overcast and chilly but nice enough for Dennis to take Fitzy for a walk on the beach. This was the only time that Fitzy was calm down by the ocean — from here on in he was hesitant to play in the sand until he lost all interest by day 4.

ABOVE & BELOW: During the first 2 days it was pretty easy to spot dolphins swimming by in the morning. But by Day 3 they disappeared. I was lucky enough to catch a few of them early one morning.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz left a message for Carly in the sand.

ABOVE & BELOW: Pelicans were plentiful and often flew by our balcony at eye level.

ABOVE & BELOW: We took Fitzy to the Ripley’s Aquarium one afternoon. We got to see sharks and weird fish and at this pool we could pet friendly stingrays.

ABOVE & BELOW: There was plenty of horsing around time.

ABOVE & BELOW: There was a place not far from our condo called Alligator Adventure, which kept a huge assortment of alligators and other exotic animals (like emus and hyenas).

ABOVE: The place hosted an information show where audience members got to touch a juvenile alligator. Fitzy was very interested in the tape around the mouth of reptile. It’s the one thing he remembers from the encounter. And this alligator below has the world’s worst under bite. It looks like a pig snout but his lower jaw veers right while the upper part veers left. He must’ve gotten teased a lot as a kid.

ABOVE & BELOW: All that excitement was followed by rest.

ABOVE & BELOW: We went for a walk at a place called Barefoot Landing that has these cute bridges over swamp-ponds. There were dispensers of fish food that we threw into the water and watched *huge* catfish swim up and eat.

ABOVE & BELOW: We attempted to go on the Myrtle Beach SkyWheel one morning but there were mechanical issues so we instead walked the pier and had lunch.

ABOVE & BELOW: We got to go on the SkyWheel the following day. Fitz loved it and was calmer at first than Carly or myself. Its height — 187 feet — gave us a cool view up and down the beach.

January 2017: New Year’s Eve, skating, Science Centre, and a ravine walk

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz got to ring in the new year by celebrating with Cameron (before he flew back to Vancouver) and his old daycare friend Noah (whose parents are friends with Cameron’s parents too).

ABOVE & BELOW: We bought Fitzy a pair of bob skates for Xmas. We took him out to the Sorauren Park rink and he absolutely loved it. We’ve taken him twice in January.

ABOVE & BELOW: On days when it’s too cold outside we take Fitz to the Ontario Science Centre. We went with his buddy Eli. Gotta love the Jekyll & Hyde look on Fitzy’s face in the two photos below.

BELOW: The following three pics were captured when I ask the boys to make some faces — fantastic results.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz’s friend Eli lives in the Baby Point neighbourhood and his house backs onto a ravine that connects to the Humber River. We went over one Sunday morning and were joined by their friend Callum for a walk in the woods. We also found some shelters that were probably created by teenagers looking for a warm place to drink or make out.

Christmas 2016: Hike in the woods, presents galore, and the plane museum

We spent the holidays in Ottawa with Carly’s family. One of our first activities was to go on a wintery hike with Declan, the son of Carly’s cousin Clayton.

ABOVE: Waiting for a bird to land in his hand.

BELOW: Not taking guff from anyone.

ABOVE & BELOW: On Christmas Day, Fitz got to unwrap an unholy amount of presents that related to the movie PLANES. Above is Ripslinger.

By the time he reaches drinking age he should be a shark at shuffleboard.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz and cousin Jack went to the air and space museum, which Fitz seems to love. They burned off a lot of energy chasing each other around and pretending to have wings.

ABOVE: Carly’s Uncle Jack got caught up in the plane-pretending game.

December 2016: High Park Zoo fun and winter arrives early

We often wander over to the High Park Zoo when we run out of ideas of where to take Fitz. A quick jaunt over with Emmett and his mom Andria ended up as lunch at the Grenadier Cafe.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz got a toboggan as an early Christmas gift. And he loooooooves it. Look at that expression — seems to enjoy a thrill.

November 2016: Eli’s birthday, Ottawa leaves, and a haricut

Eli’s parent hosted his birthday at their house in the west end, which backs onto a ravine with a pathway that leads down to the Humber River. He invited Fitz, Callum, Abigail, and Leo (Abi couldn’t make it).

ABOVE: We took Fitz to get a haircut and they really cut it. We had no idea it would be this short. Carly was slightly traumatized by it but on the plus side we won’t have to get it cut for a long time.

We went for a short visit to Ottawa. We took Fitz down to Carly’s Uncle Michael’s place that has a big backyard.

October 2016: Scooters, Scarborough Bluffs, and Halloween

ABOVE & BELOW: We’re trying to encourage Fitzy to use a scooter. He’s slightly interested and competent, but he prefers to run.

ABOVE & BELOW: We took Fitz to the Scarborough Bluffs on a brisk Saturday morning. Carly had never seen the luffs before so it was nice to do a little local sight-seeing.

ABOVE: This guy was nuts to out on that edge.

ABOVE: Fitz and Emmett being thrown around at the High Park Castle Park.

ABOVE & BELOW: We went to a massive Halloween costume shop in the ‘burbs and he picked out Spiderman within a minute. He doesn’t even watch Spiderman shows so it’s kind of a mystery why he chose it.

ABOVE & BELOW: Callum as a dragon and Eli as a spider.

September 2016: Cam visits, Gabriel visits, and Fitzy visits Emmett

Our friends Andrea and Grant, who live in Vancouver, came to Toronto for a few days and brought their son Cameron (and newborn Sloane) over for a picnic in Sorauren Park. There’s a good series of pics from the spring of 2014 of Cam and Fitz in Vancouver.

ABOVE & BELOW: Andrea and Grant are friends with Katie and Sean, who we know separately because their son Noah goes to daycare with Fitzy. They came to the picnic too and you can see from the photos that Noah and Fitz like to horseplay. They greeted each other by running across the baseball field and jumping on one another.