King West, we hardly knew ya

Matt here.  

As many know, we recently moved.  After 7 years living in the King West / West Queen West area of Toronto (1.5 of those years with Karen), we moved to Queen East, a part of town known as Leslieville (affectionately referred to as Lesbieville by those ladies of the short hair who enjoy holding each others' hands).  As an area, it has really come around in the past 10 years and is in a pretty good location in terms of proximity to the Beaches, Downtown, and major highways like the Gardiner and DVP.

Prior to the move we got together for some drinks with some of our neighbours in our King West condo complex.  It was nice to get together with Maureen, Kent (who plays viola with the TSO...aren't we cool!), and Irene and Harold.  Harold always watched over me from Day 1 on Sudbury Street (even re-directing me to my front door after hanging out at his place during Caribanna my first weekend in 2007.  In my defence, I had just moved in the day before and mistook someone else's front door for my own.  Honest mistake!).

Long story short, we always referred to Harold as my Jamaican father.  So, I guess that makes him Magnus's Jamaican grandfather!  Maybe that's the source of Magnus's big mitts.

Magnus and his Jamaican Grandfather after our May return from Halifax

Anyhoo, two weeks after the move we decided to have a little house party.  As part of the planning, I conferred with my father on the required amounts of beer, wine, and booze.  Clearly, our combined base data (my rate of consumption and his party experiences from the 70s and 80s) was no longer an accurate representation of current party practices.  This left a good deal of drinks in the cooler the next day.  It kept Magnus occupied for hours (honest, hours).  We have other videos of him stopping, staring at his cold, red, numb hands (from the ice water), and then continuing on.  He can really manhandle those Guinness!

Looking forward to future visits from friends and family so that Magnus can show everyone around his new digs and 'hood!

Karen here.

I must add a few things about the move itself. On the much anticipated day, the movers arrived 2 hours early. WE WERE STILL PACKING!!! It was a hectic (and, admittedly, stressful) few hours, but it turned out we needed the extra two hours... all those bloody stairs! 

Our saving grace was my mother. She entertained Magnus the entire move! So we were free to get done what needed to be done. They had QUITE a lot of fun together.

It was obviously an incredibly long day, but we all pulled through. My mum stayed with us for a few days to continue to watch her only grandson while Matt and I got organized. Needless to say, she and Magnus continued to have a lot of fun (my mum even admitted to me that she's enjoying him more than she ever had a chance to do with her own kids! Love it!).

As a small token of appreciation, I took my mum for her first official mani-pedi. She told me she had never had anyone else put nail polish on for her! Check out the hot pink nail polish!

So we have now settled into our new lives at our new house, and it's pretty darn great!