July 18 - July 24

We spent a really nice week in Canada! William is now officially an international traveler! In brief, here’s an account of our visit:

Thursday morning, Debra & Trevor came over and met our little man. Katherine came over in the evening, and Uncle Dave held William for all of about 5 minutes after work!

Friday, Mom drove us to Pap’s work so that the proud Grampa could show off his grandson to his work colleagues. All the women were definitely fawning over William and everyone thought he was a very good-looking baby.

In the evening, my friends came over to meet my son! Yemisi had driven from Ottawa, and Evelyn picked up Rie after work. Yemisi and Rie gave us some bath products (how nice to get shower gifts for the parents too!), and Evelyn gave us a cute Winnie the Pooh outfit set for about 6 months of age, as well as a gorgeous scrapbook she’s made for William, to which we need only add photos. It was obvious that she put a lot of time and thought into it and, like everything Evelyn does, it is so neat and looks absolutely great! Thanks to all of you! It was really nice to see everyone again, though we didn’t have nearly enough time to visit.

Saturday, we drove to London to attend Steve & Marie’s wedding. We got to see not only Steve & Marie, but most of the other relatives too: Uncle Owen, Tante Helga, Jon & Renee (whom I had never met before), Karl, Katie, Peter, Uncle Peter, Tante Hilde, Eric (best man), Sara (bridesmaid), Uncle Nick, Tante Dorothy, Scott & Jen (Jen makes pregnancy look good J), and Reimers. It was a nice wedding, and William was a bit hit! In fact, Darryl & I didn’t really get him for much of the evening as he was being held much by his proud grandparents and other relatives. It was maybe a bit overstimulative for William, though….

Sunday, we drove home from London (Mom had taken care of William during the night while Darryl & I each slept on a separate queen-sized bed….luxurious!) and spent a bit of time with Dave & Katherine.

Monday, Kate came over and got to meet our little guy!

Tuesday, we went over to Tante Helga’s for lunch and Jon and Katie joined us. It was nice to get to spend some time there. Afterwards, we visited Oma & Opa, where Tante Marichen stopped in for a while too. I’m really glad Oma & Opa got to meet William, and Oma held William for a time. That visit, too, was far too short, because it was time to head off to the airport and go home.

I wondered how William would do on the plane. Both times he slept for much of the time, feeding sometimes. I think he probably did so well in part because he was held in our arms. I thought the air pressure difference, ascending or descending, would bother him and so I tried to make sure to have a pacifier or bottle in his mouth at those times. But William didn’t seem to be phased; at least, he didn’t give us any indication that he was bothered at all.

So: it was a great trip though the time passed by too quickly! We hope to go up again at Christmas. That’ll be the next time Pap sees William and by then he’ll be about 6 months old and who knows what all he’ll be doing or how big he’ll be!