Maxime

Maxime is now 21 months old and he is growing up quickly! His vocabulary has expanded enormously in the past few weeks. He can now say, "fleur, bibitte, autre, ours, Maman et Dada parti, vache (this word feels like it took forever) and many more. So all is well here and we are getting ready for the summer, working on a new deck and lots of yard work:)

Maxime walking Jack March 09

Here is a video of Maxime walking Jack (March 25, 2009). Maxime is now 20 months old and growing like a weed! He weighs 27 lbs and is learning French and his Daycare:)

Welcome Baby Sadie

Baby Sadie, originally uploaded by actionhamster.

Welcome Julie's new baby. Baby Sadie! 8lbs 4oz. Both Julie and Sadie are doing fine. For more pics check out the Flickr photostream.

La Visite!

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We had a great visit this past weekend from Francois and Anna. Those poor crazies drove all the way up to Kingston from Michigan. What a long drive!

We had a blast including going on a Thousand Islands Boat Cruise, hitting the obligatory Toucan night out, watching Anna lose her 'Poutine Virginity', and dining for Sunday's lunch at the best restaurant in Napanee - Napanee Fish and Chips. (That's not saying a whole lot for Napanee either HAHA!).

Here's a nice shot of them squeezing Maxime.

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S7302288, originally uploaded by actionhamster.

We even got some road hockey in on Sunday morning. Anna scored 3 goals! Woohooo! AND I just LOVE her Wings Jersey! Sweeeeeeeeeeeet!

Aberdeen Street Party

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Holy Molly! The Aberdeen Street Party did not disappoint. In fact, I think there were more people there this year than last year. I met loads of people that were from out of town as well. Including an entire bus load of people from Montreal! CrAzY!!!

One of the best parts was at about 11pm, a band broke out into live tunes at the corner of William and Aberdeen. The lead singer sung the entire set while standing on the porch rail and hugging the corner post. Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and AC/DC! They cranked out about 5 tunes before the cops told them to shut it down. Boooohooo!

Julie and I had a great night at the party and the evening was capped off with a mandatory stop at Bubba's for poutine! YUM!

Want to see more shots of the day... check out this set on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/actionhamster/sets/72157607554231695/

Maxime at his first football game!

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Maxime had a great time at his first football game!!! Go Geals Fo! Queen's crushed Western to retain a perfect undefeated record of 5-0.

The Chicken was flipped!

What do you get when you mix together 19 friends, 1 stranger, 2 rubber chickens, 20 bicycles, a disturbingly carved piece of wood, playing cards, loads of beer and a trophy with legs? You get the drunken bike tour (aka the Chicken Flip!). The weather was absolutely glorious - with full sun all day - as we biked from Kingston to the US and spent most of the day frolicking in the surf at Wilson's beach between Cape Vincent and Snug Harbour. It was the 20th annual trek and it was very well attended. It's absolutely the best way to kick off the start of the school year! Thanks to everyone who joined in. Stay tuned - pictures to follow shortly.
PS: Congrats to Ken who won the 'power run' part of the day with a hand that included three 3's! Nice!

Maxime's First Birthday

It is almost impossible to believe its been a year since "Scoochy" was born. What a beautiful boy, He brings so much laughter and joy to our lives. On July 26, 2008 he turned the big 1. He is over 22 lbs now, has 5 teeth and is beginning to walk with assistance:0 We love you little prince!

Big Screen!

Big Screen!, originally uploaded by actionhamster.

I attended the Big Music Fest in Belleville yesterday with CJ (Go Funnel Cake Go!). It was awesome. Sarah Harmer, Sam Roberts and The Tragically Hip. Great show. 15,000 people showed up for it. A great way to spend your first day of summer. Here's Gord on the Big Screen. In the background, some people in Belleville go about their regular lives (*grin*)

Feeling Hot!

Here is a cute shot of Eric and Maxime on June 7, 2008. It was a heat wave, 29+ so they were down to their shorts:)

House Action

There has been great movement on Alfred. St. We have 2 offers and lots of hits on the realtor's website, if all goes well our house may sell soon and we move by mid-August:)

Number One Fans

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Maxime and his Dad are the Number One Fans of the 2008 Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings. Woooohhhhooo! (Thanks to Mark Anderson for his great work!)

UN Earth Summit 1992!

Check out this presentation by 12 year old Severin Suzuki at the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992. AWESOME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggC3P8fL67w

Nice Kitchen, cozy and clean

Wait this kitchen is not finished.....

......
Just another reason why we are moving:) Who does this?? ha ha

Red Wings Win the Stanley Cup! Stanley Cup Champions 2007/08!

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! Red Wings Win! Red Wings Win! The 11th Stanley Cup in franchise history and the 4th Stanley Cup in 10 years! WOW!!!!!!!!!!! To celebrate the fact that the Red Wings have won the Stanley Cup in the first year of Maxime's life, both Erin and I are going to get a Red Wings Tattoo! I'm getting mine on my forehead! HAHAHAHAHAHA! More to follow on this story... stay tuned!

Triple overtime loss

Ouch! The Detroit Red Wings outplayed the Penguins in every way for 5 hours and they lost. That's hockey folks! I am confident that the Penguins cannot weather this Detroit Storm much longer. Pittsburgh will have its hands full on Tuesday night. Be there!

Red Wings win Games 1 and 2

Eric here. I have no finger nails left to bite; however, I am very glad that the Red Wings beat Pittsburgh in both games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (Wooooooooohooooooooooooo!!!) Kudos to Osgood for back-to-back shutouts in Games 1 and 2, a feat that has only been done 3 other times in history. And if you have not seen it, you must see the Highlight Reel Goal by Valteri Filppula! in last night's game. WOW!

So now the gang is off to Pittsburgh for Game 3 Wednesday Night! Good luck boys! Game 4 is Saturday and it's the same night as the Matthew Good Concert. YIKES! I don't really know what I am going to do in this situation.... eeeek!

Maxime........... the big 9 mo

First it was 9 months in, now out!!

Maxime is 9 months old, over 20lbs and scooching like a trooper. He will not crawl but manages to get around just as quickly dragging his bum across the floor, its pretty funny to see (it will be on You Tube soon!) He says "da da dddd da da" and "ga ga ggg ga". He is not really interested in baby toys at the moment, but loves drawers, cups and putting things on shelfs, then taking them off. He finally got a spot at daycare..... phew!! Eric and I are mainly following him around while trying to keep the mess down so we can sell our house:) Hugs and Kisses oxox

Santa is not Neutral during the Stanley Cup Playoffs!

Ho Habs Ho!

Happy Easter

Hop pity hop hop. It is that time of year again and the chocolate bunnies are nervous! Here is a picture of Maxime and myself, taken while Denise was visiting. We had a wonderful visit and it was great for Denise to see how much Maxime has changed since January. We even took in a puppet show at the library, Maxime was more enthralled by the younger kids then the puppets. This past week, while Mimi was here Maxime, began to say "da da" and "dee dee". He is almost 8 months old (hard to believe he is getting so big!) He loves to chat to himself:) "Hopping" everyone has a great Easter

The blond bombshell and her horse

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The neighbourhood is definitely going to the horses! In the winter, the horses are indoors and they are kept by this beautiful young girl. (HAHAAHA) Check out his previous antics in the summer!

Maxime Chez Grandpapa!

We visited Ottawa this weekend. We skated on the Ottawa canal for 2 hours and Maxime loved it!!! He enjoyed the ride in his little pink sled. Woohooo! We headed over to Grandpa's house to warm up and here's a short video of Maxime playing. Cute!

Tragically Hip in KINGSTON!

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Woooooooohooooooooo! The Tragically Hip rocked the K-Rock Centre last night! In attendance was Julie, Ken, Michelle, Erin, Alex, Jen, CJ and me, and probably loads more people we knew. It was a great concert in a new great venue. The crowd loved it! Dan Aykroyd even sat in on 'Locked in the Trunck of a Car" with the band. He laid down some mean harmonica. Here's a shot of Gord Downie pleasing the crowd!

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First live act in Kingston - Rob Baker from the Tragically Hip.

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First live act in Kingston - Paul Langlois from the Tragically Hip on the big screen.

Friday night - K-Rock Centre OPENS!

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The opening night of the K-Rock Centre - It's beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tomorrow is the innaugural concert: The Tragically Hip!

Eric and Maxime at the Hockey Game!

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Maxime and Eric at opening night of the K-Rock Centre. Poor Maxime has a cold.

Don!

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Don Cherry dropped the puck for the ceremonial face off.

The Tragically Hip in Brockville!

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Ok, TWO Tragically Hip concerts in three days! WOW! Here are some pictures of the first one. Jen and Eric rocked the Brockville Arts Centre on Thursday night in the 13th row with 700 of their closest friends!

THE HIP in Brockville!

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Eric in the 13th row... check out Gord Downie in the background.

The HIP in Brockville!

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Here's Jen and I at Sam's Brass Rack having a beer before the concert. There was two guys there that drove from Baltimore Maryland to see the concert! HOLY SMOKES!

Poker at my House!

Last night we had a 19 person poker tournament at my house. It was so awesome! Complete with drinks, munchies and pizza. We started with three tables of 6+ people at each. The top 3 from each table made it to the final table of 9. It took about 2 and a half hours to get to the final nine. The lucky nine were: Alex, Joey, Justin, Eric, Ray, Darryl, Ben, James and Ted. The top four people were winning prizes: $270, $135, 85, and $55, respectively. Nice prizes!!!!

So after more than hour of grinding at the final table with HUGE blinds Ray walked away the winner!!! Congratulations to Ray who just learned how to play Texas Hold'em three weeks ago! WOW! You gotta love beginner's luck! Justin took 2nd place, Eric took 3rd and Darryl won 4th place. A good time was had by all. It was a huge success and we'll do it again sometime soon!

Red Wing Live

Go Wings Go

Wings play Senators

On Jan 12, 2008 Eric, myself and Maxime ventured off on a McCoy Bus ride to see Detroit play Ottawa. Eric had not seen them live in about 4 years, so it was time to go! It was also our Christmas gift (thanks Eric:) This was Maxime's first NHL game, actually his first live hockey game ever! He enjoyed it up until the Ottawa scored and the Via rail make believe train honk its way through the stadium at extremely high decibels! The he would cry hysterically, made me feel like a bad Mom for taking him, but incidentally it was the only time he cried, so we chalked it up to him being a true Red Wings fan....... a proud moment for Dad:) But despite Maxime's protest the Wings lost 3-2, an exciting third period as the Wings tied it up from being 2-0, but then Ottawa scored with 4 minutes left. Steve Yzerman also dropped the ceremonial puck, as he had been inducted into Ottawa's hockey hall of fame that same weekend, this was a real treat for Eric. Really Eric should do this post as I may be butchering it, but I have the pictures on my camera, so here they are!!!

Maxime on You Tube

Check out this video link of Maxime laughing, playing and in his Jolly jumper for the first time!

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=actionhamster

Maxime and Mimi

The Triplet's cribS

It was not until I saw the three cribs all lined up that it hit me "there is 3!!!" Any time in the future when I whine about being too busy, I'll look back on this picture and say "I have it easy!!!"

Brenda and Dave's Triplets

Grandpa Webster and Maxime

Maxime's first trip to Windsor to see Mimi and Grandpa Webster

Here is Maxime on the train:

It's Erin signing on to describe Maxime's first trip to Windsor to see to see his grandparents:) Eric suggested I might as well travel a bit while I'm off work on Maternity leave so I thought...."I'll take Maxime to see Mimi!"

Maxime and I left on New Years Day to "ride the rails", a 9 hour train ride to Windsor. It didn't seem that long because we sat with a nice girl, "Christina" who got on the train in Belleville. Also by the time I changed Maxime, fed him and he slept (repeating this sequence 4 times) we arrived to be greeted by Ron and Denise, right on the track!

We are having a wonderful time visiting, yesterday we saw Brenda, Steve and their adorable triplets, Sara, Issac and Dillon, aka "Dilly", each whom turned two in November. Brenda and Steve have their hands full, to say the least! They are amazing parents and you can tell by how well behaved the kids are. Both Steve and Brenda love babies, they scooped Maxime up right away and played with him the whole time we visited.

Of course a trip to Windsor is never complete without getting some Red Wings gear for Eric, shhh..... its a surprise:) Maxime also got spoiled by Mimi and Ron, scoring a cute Redwings outfit, miniature wings hat (just in time for the Wings game we are going to in Ottawa on Jan 12) and some PJ's.

There is more fun to be had since we don't leave till Sunday, so I'll post again when we get back to Kingston.

Borat Loves Erin

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IMG_1336, originally uploaded by actionhamster.

Go Wings GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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You wanted tongue? Here's you go!

Merry Christmas, Love from Eric, Erin and Maxime

We are heading over to the Island this morning to spend Christmas day and eve with the "Merry's", we hope every one has a wonderful holiday!

Tongue Man.....Picture to follow

Maxime has learned to stick his tongue out, its too funny. I'll get a picture hopefully, but currently he hides it when the camera comes out! He also has graduated to the "neglect-a-saucer" as my friend Robin calls it ha ha (excer-saucer). He is getting better at sitting up and can almost roll over (Winston and Jacky are trying to help!)

Red Wing Fans!

Maxime is now 4 months old:)

It's been far to long since I last updated the blog! Soon Eric will be able to take back his post and updates will be more regular! Maxime was 4 months old on Nov 26/07 and he is growing fast! At his Dr. apt. last week he weighed in at a whooping 15 lbs! He is almost double his birth weight. He was 61 cm long and has dropped a bit in his height/length percentile, from 92% to 74%, but he's still a big boy! He fits into 9-12 month clothing now, hard to believe he use to be sooo small! He is very talkative and is really beginning to grab and suck at anything he can reach:) He loves the dogs and now pays notice to them and smiles at them. He will begin Starfish swimming lessons in January so he can get accustomed to the water. Maxime doing a bit of traveling this past weekend to the "One of a Kind Craft show" in Toronto with Gramma Merry and Aunt Julia. He was so great to travel with, never even cried, except when the car got dark! He is a wonderful baby, happy and healthy! Eric and I just soak up his cuteness everyday and feel very lucky to have him. Soon Christmas will be here and Maxime can see all his cousins again! Till next time.....

Maxime at his Second Wedding

Most people have only been to a few weddings in their lifetimes, well... Maxime has been to 2, before he is was three months old! I don't know where he gets his social abilities from?? Here are some pictures of Maxime in the Church and Chantal and Jeff, what a beautiful bride!! We forgot to get a family shot, duh! Maxime is also developing fast! He is now grabbing objects and bringing them to his mouth. He also is beginning to use his legs, tries to stand while on our laps. He is a charmer, smiling at anyone who pays him notice! I am not sure how much he weighs but he must be close to 14lbs by now. He will be Baptized this weekend on Wolfe Island, the same parish we were married in, pictures to follow:)

Homecoming

Eric and Julie had fun this year fighting the crowd on Aberdeen Street a few weekends back. They saw 6 cops bring down a guy, COOL! Here is their traditional snapshot.

Football and Aberdeen

Its Homecoming!

Traditionally Eric loves this weekend being the Queens grad he is. He and his pal Julie (also a Queens grad) will be heading out to the Football game today, Queens Gales against the Waterloo Warriors. Then its the victory or loser walk back from Richardson stadium. Then dinner, drinking and down to Aberdeen street! Will give updates! Here is a shot from last year......
Have Fun Guys:)

Une femme francaise, Sophie avec Maxime

Aunt Julie and Cousin Terri with the Wee Prince

My Bee Hat

Here is a snapshot of Maxime asleep in his rocker chair after a trip outdoors to help Mom work on some chores. It got chilly out so Maxime is sporting a hat which was given to him by Susan, a colleague of Eric's at RMC. It is an adorable hat!

Gramma Merry and Maxime

Maxime and Grampa Merry