Fitzgerald – Page 6 – Dunster Blackett: The Life of Carly, Matt & Fitzgerald

1 Year, 4 Weeks: Down by the lake

One of the nicest benefits of living where we do is our access to the waterfront. The pedestrian bridge is 3 minutes away and the water’s edge is less than 5. Since summer has extended into autumn — and Carly is on the verge of going back to work — we thought we’d settle in to one of Carly’s secret spots with a semi-private view of Lake Ontario.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz is not always super charming for the camera — he has both a dour and animalistic side to him.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz is very stable standing upright and can often stand for up to 10 seconds on his own (see below).

ABOVE: The tall white building in the background is where Matt lived for 4 years before moving in with Carly.

BELOW: A group of Japanese tourists stumbled upon our sitting spot. A few of them were completely smitten by Fitz and took a series of photos. We can now honestly say that he has fans in Japan.

BELOW: After the Japanese crashed our party, we headed to the very busy kid’s playground in Sir Casimir Gzowski Park. It was a little hectic for Fitz but he really enjoyed the swings.

1 Year, 3 Weeks: The playground of teething

As Fitzy gets more mobile his playtime options are expanding. Playgrounds are not just about swings anymore — he’s crawling through tunnels, riding the slide, and climbing stairs.

Fitz is in the midst of a full blown teething extravaganza. His first 8 teeth appeared relatively close together back in the spring and it looks like he has 8 more coming in at different stages.

1 Year, 2 Weeks: Fitz goes to Polish Fest

The Polish Festival takes place on Roncesvalles just around the corner from us each year. This year it felt bigger than ever.

ABOVE & BELOW: He is all teeth and hair these days.

BELOW: He’s quite curious, which means everything that can move is touched, such as turning the TV’s sound off/on repeatedly or opening the fireplace doors.

1 Year 1 Week: At the playground

After all the celebration and hoopla of Fitz’s birthday, we settled back into our regular routines including going to the park. This trip to the park on Sorauren saw Fitz learn to climb a step. He also rode a slide.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz was also keen to explore the tube and crawl through it from one side to the other.

52 Weeks! 1 Year Old!

Somehow we managed to document each week of Fitz’s first year. There’s no guarantee we can keep it up forever, but we’ll try to see how long we can take it.

Fitz and Grandpa Dennis celebrated their shared significant birthdays in Ottawa over the Labour Day weekend. Grandma Lee planned the joint 1st-65th birth bash, which included a cake adorned with one of Matt’s photos.

The party started just as Fitz was finishing his afternoon nap. After waking up, he spent about 10 minutes in an anti-social mood before he perked up and started the charm offensive. And the tackling offensive.

ABOVE & BELOW: Cousin Declan came out to celebrate the birthdays and was at first greeted by shared play toys and small-chat time.

ABOVE: Then Declan decided it was time to bite Fitz’s fingers.

ABOVE & BELOW: Then Fitz pulled his patented tackling move.

BELOW: …and then his patented shirt grab move.

ABOVE & BELOW: Play time returned to normal where cuteness again reigned supreme…

ABOVE & BELOW: The next generation — Will, Fitz and Declan.

BELOW: It was at this point that Declan decided to vent his jealousy of Fitz’s flowing locks by trying to rip it out by the handful. Either that, or this is the baby-version of paddy-whacks.
Watch how it unfolds so quickly…

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.

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: 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.