Roland and I are very sad that Tammie and her twins, Benjamin and Michaela, are moving back to Ontario. 

Tammie and I have had special times commiserating through our pregnancies and births, and sharing the joys of our babies.   I will miss seeing our kids grow up together and I'll miss growing as a parent with Tammie.

So good bye for now.  We love you all.

Since I've been working more closely with parenting programs and babies, I've been very sensitive about using the word "good" to describe babies. When I hear people ask if a baby is "good", my skin crawls because it infers that a baby can also be "bad".  Babies can never be bad.

I understand that by using "good" people mean that a baby is quiet, passive, undemanding, etc.  But surely people can think of other ways of asking or talking about a baby's personality, habits, temperament or behaviour.

Perhaps I am even more sensitive about the issue because Simon does not fit into the quiet, passive baby mold. He is very vocal, active and animated. He seems to be able to clearly display his emotions when he is happy, excited and content, and as well as when his needs are not being met.

And that is not "bad" at all.

Joey (the happiest geek on earth) is asking for fav Canadian 80s tunes that weren't a hit in the States for a CD he is making for Wendy (very cool Bostonian and Joey's partner).

Almost all of the ones mentioned in the 85 comments so  far are favourites of mine, here are a few that haven't been mentioned so far:
Breeding Ground - Reunion
Teenage Head - Let's Shake, Teenage Beer Drinking Party
L'Etranger - geez, I can't remember any of their songs now, but I loved their stuff back in the day
Andrew Cash - Trail of Tears

A couple of weeks ago, Simon figured out that jumping is lots of fun. So he insists on having a few jumping sessions a day: we hold him under his armpits and let him jump on a padded surface like the carpet or his lambskin.

I'm amazed at how strong he is and how he intuitively figured out how to bend his knees, drop his weight, and push off. And he does it over and over and over again. We usually tire of this new game before he does.

The other day he had the opportunity to try out Ben and Michaela's (the twins) jolly jumper....hot dog! He had a heyday! I guess a jumping device of some sort is on our shopping list.

A couple of weeks ago, Simon and I attended a week long Parent-Infant Mother Goose camp and had an absolute riot!

The premise of Mother Goose is for parents to bond with their babies through songs and rhymes. Young children develop preliteracy skills while parents have a chance to meet other new parents.

So we've learned a number of new songs, stories and lap games to keep Simon entertained. It's amazing how he recognizes certain songs and reacts to them in certain ways. I can't wait until the fall when we can enroll in a 10 week session.

This week Simon has figured out how to roll.  At first it took quite a bit of effort to roll then prop himself on his elbows to look around.  There was a lot of determined grunting. But now he is rolling from his back to his belly and back over, usually with a good long pause propped on his elbows to survey his surroundings.

In fact, he's had so much practise that he now quickly flips from his back to his belly.  And he props himself up and looks around for several minutes before he tries to scoot forward. 
We are entertained by watching him look around and enjoy his surroundings and by discovering how determined he is.

It looks like we are moving to East Van. Real estate is ridiculously priced in the city of Vancouver and we don't have the over $500, 000 needed in our beloved Kitsilano for a townhouse.

Fortunately, there are lots of great neighbourhoods in East Van and it looks like we'll be living in a decent one close to Trout Lake (perfect for the East Van Farmers' Market) and close to Commercial drive (perfect for La Grotta del Formaggio and Santa Barbara Market).

More if/when the deal closes.