During Dennis’s visit for Fitz’s first day of school we also took in the air show. Two of Fitz’s four great-grandfathers were in the air force for World War II and Dennis grew up on a few military bases due to his dad being transferred on occasion. We also visited the train museum at the base of the CN Tower where Fitz became fascinated with the salmon art in the fountain.
ABOVE & BELOW: The Canada Day long weekend, like most of the weekends this summer, was a wet one. Fitz got to spend a lot of time splashing in puddles and running around the nearby park.
ABOVE: As the weekend progressed, it became clear that Fitz was fighting off something which manifested in a fever. He was up and down as the Advil broke the fever.
ABOVE: As usual, Fitzy requested we see Eli on the weekend so we arranged a visit to the castle park in High Park.
ABOVE & BELOW: Emmett has been in Vermont for a lot of the summer so we’ve barely had time to see him. Luckily, we were able to arrange an after-daycare visit to the wading pool around the corner from our place.
ABOVE & BELOW: Grange Park, behind the AGO, was recently renovated so we took Fitz to explore the new play structures and the relocated Henry Moore sculpture.
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.
ABOVE & BELOW: It was a dream come true for Fitz — we walked out one morning to find a digger parked in front of our house. He is beaming.
BELOW: In mid-June we got away to Ottawa where Fitz had a chance to work on his sandboxing, basketball, and swimming skills.
ABOVE & BELOW: We got a chance to hangout with Mae and Jenny.
We spent the Easter long-weekend in Ottawa where we tried to teach Fitz about the morning egg hunt, which he kinda liked but seemed confused about. Instead of chocolate in the eggs there were toys.
ABOVE & BELOW: We took Fitz for an afternoon walk along the path beside Hogg’s Back Falls.
ABOVE & BELOW: Just before Christmas, we got the Blackett cousins (and their kids) together to visit with Nan. Fitz got to meet his new cousin Raelyn, the daughter of Matt’s cousin Hillary (and her husband Nate). It was a good decision to make sure all of the cousins attended — Nan passed away just a month later at the tender age of 93.
BACK ROW, L-R: Heather, Paul, Julie, Meagan, Gillian
FRONT ROW, L-R: Matt, Fitz, Nan, Hilary, Raelyn
ABOVE & BELOW: Meanwhile in Ottawa, Fitz got right back into the swing shuffleboard and playing with cousin Avery.
ABOVE & BELOW: The shortest walk ever by Fitz and Poppa. They went to the corner and back due to the blowing wind.
ABOVE & BELOW: Matt and Poppa took Fitz to the Canadian Air and Space Museum for the day. As you can imagine, Fitz loved it.
Cousin Avery came for a visit on the same weekend as Grandma and Poppa came to visit.
Fitz and his buddy Emmett had some fun time together when Emmett’s mom Andria had a sidewalk sale.
The Labour Day long weekend was spent in Ottawa.
Fitz spent a day up at The Land, a bare bones property about at hour west of Ottawa that has a few cabins and access to the lake. A variety of Dunsters own it so we took Fitz up to play with his cousin Declan.
Declan is clearly a child of the outdoors. He was unafraid of anything in the water, whereas our city clicker boy was apprehensive about mud and the waves.
At the end of the day, Fitz took a deep like to Megan, Declan’s mom. It was hard to get him to move an inch from this position.
We took our brand new car, dubbed The Fitzy Car by Fitz, up to Ottawa for the weekend. Our Sunday consisted of a family gathering that quickly turned into the Fitz and Avery Show. Him and his cousin played with cars on the blanket and absolutely ran themselves ragged.
ABOVE & BELOW: We took Fitz to Ottawa for a few days over the Easter weekend. Obviously, Lee was very enthused, especially when it came to feeding him chocolates.
ABOVE: This is one of the last times he wore his winter hat and coat.
ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz has come to love running up and down the laneway behind our house. It offers him lots of space, interesting things to see, and freedom from traffic. You’ll notice that his hands are inside his mouth in almost all of these pics — he spent most of April teething (his back mollars are coming in). This was also the last weekend with his flowing locks untouched — photos below reveal the barber handiwork of Matt and Carly.
ABOVE & BELOW: New hair cut!
ABOVE: Fitz has taken a liking to walking under sandwich boards.
ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz has become Mr. Cool with his new sunglasses.
ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz is a big-time hugger and no one receives more attention from him at daycare than Abigail (above) and Yazsou (below).
