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

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.

31 Weeks: Mr. Fitz goes to Vancouver, fight edition

We spent the last night of our trip back at Andrea and Grant’s place.

ABOVE & BELOW: Cameron and Fitz seemed to like playing with each other, until Cameron decided to twist off a piece of Fitz’s cheek. Twice.

ABOVE & BELOW: Cameron and Grant, with Andrea photo-bombing in the image below.

30 Weeks: Mr. Fitz goes to Vancouver, hotel edition

After a few days at Andrea’s place, we moved into a hotel downtown. There was a great view from our window out onto Dunsmuir Avenue’s separated bike lanes, all of which Fitz seemed to enjoy.

ABOVE: Fitz spent a lot of time hanging out in our hotel room yucking it up for the camera.

ABOVE & BELOW: We had lunch with Leslie, the mother of Carly’s childhood friend Steve Sheffer, at the legendary Save On Meats.

30 Weeks: Mr. Fitz goes to Vancouver to hang out with Cameron

In the first week of April the whole family took a jaunt out to Vancouver during a work trip for Matt. The first few days were spent with friends Andrea and Grant and their 10-month old boy Cameron.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz amuses himself before his second trip on a plane.

ABOVE & BELOW: Upon our arrival in Vancouver, Cameron said it was okay for Fitz to use his super cool swing set.

ABOVE: “How much of my hand can fit in here…?”

ABOVE: Andrea insisted it was too chilly for Fitz to wear only his fleece jacket, so he was wrapped up in this cute sloppy-eared dog snow suit.

ABOVE & BELOW: Cameron has a play area that keeps him contained when his lovely parents need to get shit done. Carly was able to take Fitz into it and play with the boys.

ABOVE & BELOW: Cameron is super expressive. And kinda intense!

26 Weeks: Fitz turns 6 months, starts to eat solids!

While away in Hilton Head, it became quite apparent that our little Fitzy wanted to start eating solid foods. He reached for bacon strips, chocolate ice cream, and whatever else we were putting in our mouths. So upon arrival home we began to feed him rice cereal, the medical community’s preferred first food. Carly was disappointed that we can’t add flavour to the food just yet but we all know Fitz’s exposure to food will not be limited.

BELOW: When Fitz is not eating he is trying to put any and everything into his mouth, including Mr. Sun who was Fitz’s sworn enemy less than 2 weeks ago.

VACATION: The birds! Dolphins! Turtles!

ABOVE: Cormorants over the Atlantic.

ABOVE: A pair of dolphins crest just off the shoreline.

ABOVE: Small sand dunes on the beach.

ABOVE: Sandpipers!

ABOVE: A mama seagull and her babies.

ABOVE & BELOW: Turtles!

ABOVE & BELOW: A stork!

ABOVE: A lookout at Harbortown on Hilton Head Island.

ABOVE: Pelicans on the breaker at Harbortown.

ABOVE: A pelican on the pier.

ABOVE: A cormorant surfaces on a pond near where we stayed.

ABOVE: This might be a cormorant but not positive.

25 Weeks: Mr. Fitz goes to South Carolina (26 photos & 2 videos)

For the last week of February, we spent time with the Ottawa grandparents down in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Our days consisted mostly of walking on the beach, watching the Winter Olympics, and looking out for dolphins or alligators. Lil’ Fitz had a great time taking in the warmth (as did his parents) and there wasn’t a minute of the day when he wasn’t being adored by someone.

ABOVE & BELOW: Our trip from Toronto to Hilton Head started at the ungodly hour of 4am. Fitz has an especially poor night of sleep which meant so did his mom and dad (check out Carly’s expression above). Despite this, Fitz did amazing on the two flights down south: he fell asleep before take-off and showed no signs of his ears popping. These images are at the gate of Toronto International Airport as we wait to board our 7:30am flight.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz out for a stroll in the warm weather.

ABOVE: This photo is awesome simply due to how Fitz is wearing his hat and the ‘tude he is giving off.

ABOVE: Fitz and Aunt Donna.

ABOVE: Fitz already trying to ignore his father.

ABOVE: No baby has been happier to go on a walk, or so you would think.

ABOVE & BELOW: Our second day in Hilton Head also coincided with the semi-final game of mens hockey at the Olympics. Canada dominated the US team, winning 1-0. We put the flag out of the porch after the win and we overheard passersby say, “Those Canadians are just trying to be annoying.” After the gold medal game we also wheeled Fitz around Harbortown wearing the CANADA Roots hoodie, much to the chagrin of a few sore losers.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz hangs out with Grandma Dunster; he has also become consistently excellent at sitting up and tummy time (he chose this trip to master the roll-over from stomach to back).

ABOVE: Fitz loves the peek-a-boo game.

ABOVE & BELOW: Carly and Fitz on the beach.

ABOVE & BELOW: Carly anf Fitz also spent time together in our jumbo-sized bed.

ABOVE: While we do brag about Fitz’s sitting-up abilities, he is still face-planting often.

BELOW: Fitz definitely prefers to be upright as much as possible these days.

ABOVE: We were placed at the back of the plane on two of our four flights. But on our last flight the two seats beside us were empty so we got to spread out.