Magnus's Welcoming Ceremony

Matt here.

Earlier this summer (it is still summer!), Ross (Karen's dad) hosted her and my family on his farm for Magnus's Welcoming Ceremony.  Not sure what a "Welcoming Ceremony" is?  Well, neither did we, really, but we knew that we wanted to get both families together to meet and officially welcome Magnus to the clans.  As I said to the audience at the farm, "For everyone but Magnus, there are two families here today.  For Magnus, there is only one: his."

In the Raz clan, typically both families of the newborn get together at a baptism. In our case, we wanted to keep organized religion out of the picture at this point.  Just in case you haven't been keeping up with the news over the past, oh, I don't know, 2000 years, organized religion has been tied to some pretty nasty events. 

Still, besides getting the two families together to meet, we did want Magnus to get started on his spiritual journey.  We asked our friend, Brent, to be his godfather and each grandparent to pass on their wishes to Magnus in terms of his spiritual life.  I think that my father summarized the theme of the event well when he said to Magnus, "Do not confuse religion with spirituality".

Magnus with his folks and the Godfather

With the quasi-formal stuff out of the way, we spent the rest of the afternoon eating, playing, relaxing, and riding on large vehicles.

I pity that soccer ball

Hanging with the boys at the BBQ

Everyone enjoying the feast

No shame: it's my party

Ross was kind enough to take the kids on both a hay ride and a ride on his float that is used in summer parades around Elgin.  After the ride on the float, I'm pretty sure that my brother Karl and brother-in-law Kevin were the most excited of all the participants.  They were very impressed with the float's speed.  Although, probably a little disappointed that they could no longer feel the breeze through their hair(s).

Strike a pose

Getting prepped for the hayride

Away we go

I'm Flying!

All in all, a great day was had at the Hawkins Farm.  Great weather, food, and fun. 

Magnus Is 10 Months Old!

Karen here.

On September 1st, Magnus turned 10 months old.

He certainly is a character. 

  All day long he likes to explore new things.

And does he ever like making a mess!

He is doing very well at the dinner table these days. His favourites are bananas, pears, and cheese. But he is hesitant to try new foods (likely because he's gagged many, many times!). He gets enough fruit, dairy, and carbs everyday, but it's difficult getting veggies and protein into him (besides eggs which he also loves). So I sucked it up and bought the "Baby Bullet" to liquify more protein and veggies for him. It works some of the time. Guess I just have a picky eater on my hands. Oh well. At least he can feed himself!

His favourite thing to do, though, is laugh and laugh and laugh!

Summer Fun

Karen here.

What a busy summer we've had! We spent SO much time getting the house ready to sell, and even MORE time looking for a new house. It's only been the last few weeks that we've lived any kind of 'normalcy'. Just this past week was the first time I had a chance to do something I've wanted to do all summer. I took Magnus rollerblading by the lake. It was a super hot day and I had a great workout! And what made it even more fun was Magnus and I had a picnic by the water's edge.

Lakeside Picnic

We had so much fun, in fact, that Matt joined us this past weekend. Magnus and I rollerbladed again while Matt went for a run. Sigh. Trying to soak up the last few days of summer (if the stupid polar vortex would go away - 'Augtober' indeed!).

Admittedly, we did get some time to relax this summer. We spent quite a bit of time at the cottage, and Magnus and I got to spend a lot of time with my family too (every few weeks we would drive home to see the Hawkins clan and / or the Raz clan). So I can't say we didn't enjoy the summer. Just that I wish I had enjoyed more.

On that note, here is a dump of photos and videos from the summer.

We begin with some fun with the Hawkins clan.

Magnus Chasing Jacoba

The Oma Train Bridge

Magnus and Jacoba Watching TV at Oma's House

 

Oma Doing Yard Work

And here are a bunch of fun Rasmussen pics.

The 12 Rasmussen Grandkids Making Funny Faces

Pre-Bedtime Swimming

Mags and Mags

Evie and Magnus

Magnus's First Boat Ride!

Magnus and Matt

Charlotte and Bridget

Frannie and Evie

Maggie, Magnus, Evie and Gabe

Bridget, Magnus and Charlotte

Grandpa Raz and Magnus

Hanging on the Dock at the Fripps'

Thanks to all the cousins for helping look after Magnus. You were all a big help, and he had so much fun playing with you!

I Got You Made

Just a quick update from Matt, here.

I worked from home today, as Karen had an appointment in the morning.  Got to love it.  Sleep in 30 minutes and still get to work on time!

When Karen left for her appointment, I grabbed Magnus and put him in the new - old den with me (had been a den, converted to spare room when Magnus arrived, and then back into a den for staging and until we move).  I set up his toys and turned my back to get to work, knowing that there was nothing around that could really hurt him.  I heard some noise, but nothing crazy, and continued with my work.  I turned around 30 seconds later to find this:

How did that happen?

He had decided to pull down most of our old DVDs and Videos from the 3rd shelf.  Smart enough to know to leave the Magnum PI collection alone, though.

Later, after I had put him down for his nap, I went to grab a banana for a snack.  I thought it odd to find only 2 in the fruit bowl.  Really, I'm standing there thinking, we had just done groceries on the weekend, I had grabbed the bananas, and I was pretty sure that I had grabbed enough to get us through to at least Thursday and I'm pretty sure that today is only Tuesday.  And then I remembered.  I had seen Karen and Magnus sharing a banana the other day.  He is starting to get into our food and to eat more than just his jarred baby food.  He was in his high chair, smiling at me with banana mush hanging off of those two bottom teeth.  I thought that he was just happy.  I'm thinking now instead that it might have been something more.  Leaning back in his chair with that sly grin, the glint in his eye, the casual chuckle...he was telling my, "I got you made, MOFO, and you're so slow you don't even know it yet."

Or maybe I'm imagining things.

Either way, if I see the look again I will try to get a photo.  Let's hope he perfects it by the time he hits the court and the pitch.

Magnus Is 9 Months Old!

On August 1st, Magnus turned 9 months old.

In the past month he has become an expert stander and squatter. He cruises around the furniture with such ease that bets have been placed as to whether he'll be walking in a month's time. We shall see. :)

And early last month he surprised us with this!

July was a busy month for us. But Magnus was a trooper. Well, most of the time.

These days, Magnus is super busy. He's into everything! I have to keep my eyes peeled at all times.

Who knows what kind of mischief he'll get into next!?

And man oh man. Does he ever look like a little boy now. I don't know if that makes me happy or sad. Or both maybe.

Some extra storage and a patch of grass in the back

Hello.  For those wondering, we haven't blogged in a while as we have been either spending our spare time looking for a new place to live or have been up at my folks' cottage in Quebec.  

Magnus and Matt Getting Our Feet Wet

Regarding the house hunt, “Some extra storage and a patch of grass in the back”, is what we told our agent we needed when we started looking for a new place a few months back.  We also wanted to be within a 30 minute commute by public transport to work.  As we started looking, we also realized that we wanted a bigger kitchen, a basement that could hold someone who is 6’3”ish, and, after seeing and losing the first house that we had bid on, a quiet tree lined street where kids could play.  

On Saturday morning, we thought we had found it.  It had been listed on Friday, caught my eye, and we decided to try and see it.  As it turns out, they were not having Open Houses and our agent was only available at 9:30am on the Saturday.  When we showed on Saturday to look at it, there were 3 positive signs: the decrepit house across the street that I had seen on Google Street View had recently been renovated, there were plenty of parking spots on the street (the house does not have parking), and there was a young boy biking round and round on the street.  After walking through the house once we realized that we had found our place, price dependent.  After a couple of offers and counter offers later that day and on Sunday, by Sunday afternoon we had our extra storage and patch of grass.

 

With the expectation of a positive inspection this Wednesday, we should be moving in in early October.  Not too bad of a process.  When we found out on Sunday that we had gotten the house, I was at a friend's moving some storage.  He and his wife told us that they had looked for over a year, lugging their newborn around Toronto every Saturday morning.  Glad that wasn't us!

On Sunday night, when discussing with Karen how we would lay out  the new place (where to put a TV, how to best use the 3^rd floor loft, what furniture do we need for the basement, etc…) she said, “They say you should live in a place for a year and really discover what you need before going out and buying  everything.”  Amen to that, Sister!

So, with that, we will try to take advantage of our last few months in King West, which is why I am writing this from our 3^rd floor back deck.  Funny thing is, I just realized that our current deck furniture won’t all fit at the new place!

Magnus is 8 months old!

Karen here.

My dear sweet Magnus is now 8 months old!

Now that he is sleeping through the night (8pm - 6am! Woo hoo!) I almost feel like a brand new person. I have so much more energy these days. I can really enjoy him. And I have been.

I've never been more in love. :)

We started going to mom-tot swimming so that Magnus would get used to the water prior to going to the cottage.  Here are the before and after pictures of his very first day of swimming.

Poor guy was SO cold afterwards!

He also went for his first swing ride.He wasn't overly impressed.

Swinging

So my little man has started pulling himself up.

 Pull To Standing

I have to be careful to watch when he does so in case he falls cuz we haven't 'baby-proofed' the house yet. And I highly doubt I will be one of the crazies who puts styrofoam protectors on every corner of furniture (yes, I was doing one crazy thing which I stopped - I used to use a spoon for each part of his meal - one for the meat, one for the veggie, one for the cereal - many people {parents mostly} helped me see the error of my ways).

Not only is he able to pull himself up, he's also started 'cruising' along the furniture!

Cruising

Of course, Magnus thinks it's a game, but I think it's practice. I set up a favourite toy (usually the remote at home - this video was taken at the cottage - those are Bridget and Frannie's feet waiting to catch him should he fall) and place him as far away from it as possible. He's gotten to be pretty darn fast! 

So has his crawling!

 'Flash' the Crawler

And his ability to crawl is a means to feed his incessant curiosity. Inevitably he gets himself into trouble sometimes.

Besides the physical realm which he has always been good at, Magnus has finally said his first 'word'. Well, not really. He's finally started saying a consonant-vowel combo. I think it's 'ba'?

Ba Ba Ba

Love. Love. Love.