Bronson and Mom

It's raining, it's pouring, the baby is snoring...

Well, it's pouring here, finally. Big drops that are falling hard, like hail, but there's no way they could be hail, it's not that cold. I can hear cars on the road screeching and having driving issues. Bronson and I were supposed to walk to the grocery store today, but I've ordered the groceries for delivery instead - it's a big load and delivery is free (promotion).
The baby boy is in the middle of a growth spurt - his tummy is huge and he's very, very grumpy. I am also grumpy as he keeps waking up several times a night and feeding at least twice a night. The past few nights have been hard. So, we're both just exhausted.
The skies are gray and cloudy, it's still muggy but not warm like Sunday was. It's pants and long sleeves today!

So, Bronson and I will stay in today, do some collage and play and nap. Later I'll venture out to yoga... mostly because they're filming the OC down the road at CalTech today and I want to walk by the trailers and check it out, at this point I think a nap might do me better than an hour and a half of yoga.

Bronson's Theme song

Watch Jordy sing Bronson's theme song
[For my french immersion folk, welcome to a blast from the past :)]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2ftzzY5VDNU

A day at Huntington gardens with my mom

A picture story by Bronson

Friday afternoon after lunch with dad, mom took me to the Huntington gardens. Dad obviously didn't come, because he would never have let mom put me in a strawberry hat and pink rainbow blankie - I kind of looked like a girl, but I didn't really mind... yet. We mostly went to see all the cacti, they're very big and prickly. Some of them are growing hair because it's winter-time. Mom kept taking lots of pictures of me and very few of the cacti because she said that grandpa Tim always told her to take pictures with people in them, and whenever she tries taking pictures without people in them, they don't turn out. Plus, she said I was the most beautiful thing in the gardens :) So, even though all of the pictures are of me, they were taken at different places throughout the gardens. Also, you can see that now I'm so big I ride forwards in the stroller and I have a new big boy car seat!

Big cactus, big baby

Yeay, mom! This is lots of fun, I like to look at everything!

Snack and a show

I like going on outings with my mom because I like to meet new people who tell me that I'm cute in lots of different languages. (I understand them all, you know)

What are you doing over there, mom? I'm over here, take pictures of me!

Well, that was fun... we should go...

It's getting cold, we should go...

Seriously mom, the park is closing and I have a 5 o'clock with the Zebra, LET's GO!

Mhmmm, Mr. Monkey, I had so much fun... I'll tell you all about it later, yawn!

Matt found this site, this is pretty fun, I thought I'd post it for everyone to check out when they've got a minute - especially Beth! I think ou'll like this :)

http://www.armorgames.com/games/scribble2.html

B-Man sits, B-Man screams

Bronson continues to exercise his new found vocal chords with high pitched screams every now and then.... yay. They're quite shrill, but appear to not really mean anything. He can be smiling or upset, the scream sounds the same. So, that's fun.
Speaking of exercising, [OR speaking of Bronson...] the little dude has been sitting up on his own recently. Here are some pictures of how good he is! Note that even though it is quite warm here, Matthew is STILL wearing the same Manitoba wool socks, as always.

Bronson-Bear rolls around with a bear of similar stature

This morning Bronson and I attended a Caltech Womens Club playgroup at a nearby park. Although Bronson was the youngest by far (literally by at least 10 months), it was still fun for him, as he's in a stage where he likes to watch people, especially toddlers. It was nice for me as I met other moms in the area and some really great kids. Still, it's shocking that Bronson is of the same stature as many of them who are running around and talking.

This afternoon Bronson and I played with some of the toys in his room. Currently his idea of play is "Grab & Chew", but I think he still enjoys the grab part even when the chew isn't possible. Here are some pictures of our play time, I'm off to my big person break (aka yoga) :)

Bronson stands...his ground

This weekend has been a whirlwind adventure of visits and food. Saturday we had brunch with Elaina and Joey and their 5 month old Jesse (aka Bronson's forced best friend). The guys seemed sort of interested in each other, especially to the point that if one ate, the other wanted to, too. We put them down on the ground and harrassed them with pictures as they began to interact. Poor Jesse isn't used to the daily camera onslaught that Bronson has grown accustomed!
Jesse is a month older than Bronson, and quite a long thin fellow. He weighs only one pound less than the B-man, but that is suprising looking at these pictures. Bronson looks like the play mat bully.

Saturday afternoon, after 2 hours at home resting up and watching episodes of Scrubs, we went to a "Make your own omellet" party at [first year astro grad student] Meg's. It was lots of fun, and the omellets were great. I realized while there that there were 5+ languages being spoken in the room of ~ 15 people. That's pretty cool. On that note, I have begun reading Bronson 'Le Petit Prince' for the first (of many) times in his life. Throughout french immersion grade school I think they made us read it 5 times or so, it admittedly got better with every reading. Though it's a simple book I remember that no one really understood it the first 3 times or so. The crazy hippie play that those crazy west coast french people put on for us in grade 6 probably didn't help.

On to Sunday, after catching up on sleep and having my weekly painting time, we attended the Cataclysmic variables soccer game. We won! However we'd had to forfeit because only ~ half of our team showed up. At the end of the game a real wind picked up as we walked home and blew stuff into our eyes. Bronson was nicely protected in his stroller, for probably the last trip facing backwards he'll ever take. The kid's gotten too big and he's moving up to a sitting infant car seat. Oh, also on his list of accomplishments lately; he's been producing [lots of] snot, sleeping well on his own with his door closed, pretending to chew when dad pretends to feed him with a baby spoon and standing on his own while holding on to something. Pretty darn good.

Bronson's starring role

Watch the video Bronson made!
Bronson

Bronson's new chair

Bronson has gotten a new chair and now finds himself at adult level for supper time. He's also showing signs that he's ready to start eating, as these pictures clearly show. He's been grabbing at our food and taking a real interest in how we chew. sometimes he mimicks me chewing.

We saw the doctor this week. Bronson's head has grown, he's now in the 92nd percentile for that, and he's longer, too (26.5 inches). Most exciting is his weight, he's gained a pound and a half and now weighs 18 lbs 6 oz. When the doc put him on the scale, however, it caused a major power outage affecting not only the office, entire 4 story building and elevators, but the entire block of offices including the hospital and traffic lights. We had to leave via the staircase in the dark!
Okay, so that was a poor attempt at jesting, but there really was a major power outage during his appointment, people got stuck in the elevators and the security guard freaked and was desperately calling for back up when we passed him. As a result Bronson couldn't get his vaccines that day and we had to go back on Friday for them. I think we should always go back another time for them because without the buildup of a stressful exam, he really enjoyed these shots and even smiled when the nurse gave them.

A Mouthfull

B-Man naws on his zebra pal as he continues teething - his pain has definetly subsided since our Manitoba visit, he doesn't get nearly as irate as he was near the end there.

Bronson got a new toy last week - an exersaucer! As you may recall, he had a walker that he could move around in, although many pediatricians do not recommend them and they're illegal to be sold in Canada, we thought he could handle it since we both had them when we were young and loved them. Anyhow, long story short, he only moves backwards in it and our pediatrician warned us about that, so for now he will be confined to the exersaucer, which he seems to enjoy anyhow. (Note: also from the Caltech baby-pool, cost $5, wooohoooo!)

Our happy little pilot.

The Big Roll

Today, on his 4 month birthday Bronson finally decided to roll over. After hovering on his side for several minutes, he finally decided to take the plunge. Here are the "action shots". Nioce kid, he even waited for dad to come home for lunch before making this leap in development.

1. Ooooh, a toy, maybe I can get it?


2. Reach, reach...
3. And over I go!4. After enjoying the victory for a minute or so, Bronson realized that he's now on his tummy, and can't roll back over, and gets quite upset. So, we roll him back onto his back, and he immediately rolls onto his tummy again. Now there's no stopping him, he won't lie on his back and he gets really upset when on his tummy. Mom will now spend her days rolling him back and forth :)

Newest painting ...

Since I've got a minute while B naps, here's my latest painting, it's in oil and about 30 x 40 inches.

Bronson and I lunch outside

Today Bronson and I took lunch on the balcony, the weather is finally perfect, not too hot, not too cold but nice and sunny, and no socks necessary!

The Rose Bowl Parade

On New Years Day Pasadena hosts the Rose Bowl Football game and Parade. The Parade is what puts Pasadena on the map, and grandstand seating tickets start at $50 each. The parade runs the length of Colorado Blvd, and we live 2 blocks South of that. Many people camp out from noon the day before to get good spots. I was up at 5am feeding Bronson and could hear people parking outside and heading to the route to claim spots.

The neat thing about this parade is that the floats are giant, and completely covered with flowers! Every colour is made of flowers, it's really neat and some take all year to create.

Matthew went to see some of it, since Wilson is an emergency route, no one is allowed to sit along the road at Colorado and Wilson, so you can get a good cross view without camping out at all. In fact, I think he went out there half way through the parade. I slept in and then made it out to catch the last float. Here are some pics that Matt took, in case you're interested.

Now why the heck is this interesting? See below.

It's Mike! It's Santa! It' a Russian! Noooo, it's a mountie in the Rose Bowl Parade!

BLOG NOTE: I have changed the settings on the blog so that you don't need to have your own blog to leave a comment, but please leave your name with your comments so that we know who's reading and leaving messages. Sorry it took me so long to figure out how to do this :)

And home again, home again!

A final entry in my blog holiday housekeeping, after a final shot with the herd, we did the 9 hour trip home. We just missed a big snow storm in MB, and are enjoying the blue skies and warm weather down here. I really missed being able to take walks with Bronson in the stroller and he really missed being able to see where we were going (not having a blanket covering his face every time we venture out).

We didn't really celebrate New Years, we were in bed by ten and justify it saying that we celebrated Manitoba New Years. On New Years day I slept in, but Matthew walked with Bronson over to Colorado street (2 blocks) and caught some of the Rose Parade. I tried to catch up and ended up seeing just the last float, but it looked pretty spectacular.

School starts tomorrow for Matthew and we're just enjoying hanging out with Bronson, reading and watching hour upon hour of Pride and Prejudice starring Coling Firth. Well, I guess I can't speak for Matthew on that one.

To help ease us out of home sickness, we're watching Corner Gas daily, and I've gotten my sewing machine (thank you Gary & Tara, Diane & Terry and Teri & Jay!) and am contemplating starting on presents for Christmas 2007.

Love to all, hope the West Coasters enjoyed their holidays as much as we did ours.

Boxing Day - The Stevenson Curling Bonspiel

On Boxing Day Teri, Bronson, Matthew and I drove the 90 minutes to Morris for the annual Stevenson curling bonspiel. This was my first attempt at curling, and I wasn't as good at it as I thought I'd be. However, I am proud to note that of the 6 stones I threw, 2 of them remained in play :)

Matthew poses in Alan's curling sweater ... Matt used it to distract his dad and subsequently defeat their rink in round one. I tried to use the camera to distract Matthew when my rink played them in the finals. It didn't work, Matthew's rink won the Bronson Briar (named after Bronson's namesake and late Great Grandfather)

Loren, Matthew and Neil talk strategy. This was Loren's first win.

Meanwhile, upstairs Bronson meets more family and soaks up all the attention.

Later, after the curling is through and Matthew has defeated us in a tight game of Settlers of Catan, we feast.

Another photo op with the 4 generations of Stevenson's.

All in all, I had a great time and plan to practise some before my next Bronson Briar. The Stevenson gift exchange is fun, everyone brought a gift and we played "Musical gifts", like musical chairs. Matthew's 'Zombie Survival' book made it's way into the right hands of his cousin Jay, I hope that Neil enjoys the sketching set I put in. We scored with a beautiful wooden jewellery box from ten thousand villages and a tupperware set including an awesome juice/water jug. We stuffed it with clothes and brought it back with us to California. Teri got a Loon clock and every time she set it off for the next few days I jumped up thinking that Bronson was crying. Apparently he sounds like a loon :)

Thank you all for a great Christmas time!

Christmas Day - A Tale of three Cities?



Christmas morning was spent with Grandma Diane, Grandpa Terry and Aunty Teri in Portage. There Bronson continued to clean up on gifts, good food continued to be consumed and a nice long nap was had by mum.

The family in their Christmas pj's (yup, Target carries ACDC pjs)

Teri and Jay bear on Christmas morning

Christmas afternoon was spent web-camming with Grandma Val, Grandpa Tim and Aunty Amy. Many thanks exchanged for the thoughtful gifts.

Bronson and his dad.

Oh, no, wait, that's just an Albert Einstein figurine Matthew got in his stocking.

Christmas evening was spent with Grandpa Alan, Grandmere Lorraine and the Hudon kids, and grandkids... Roxanne, Jason, Larissa, Adrien, Murielle, Tom, Noah, Isaac, Lydia, Scott, Emily, Joshua, Natalie, Andre, Rhonda and Pierre, their Chinese houseguest (real name is not Pierre, but he wanted a Canadian nick name). We are especially indebted to Roxanne who stepped up to the plate and changed Bronson's diaper when Matthew and I were stuck in behind the dinner table and B-man chose that moment to take his daily poop :) Well planned, no?
There was also a suprise visit from Santa, though I don't have pics of it, it was good times. 2/3rds of the people in the room took a turn on his lap, he must've had a really busy night to give everyone such attention :)

Tom enjoys the gift we searched high and low for. (That's right, it's Arnold, The Governator)

Group photo of all the Grandkids in their new snowman pjs made by Lorraine: (L to R) Larissa, Adrien, Joshua, Noah, Isaac, Emily and Bronson. Poor Emily is eclipsed by Bronson... just look how big his head is! The ages of these kids range from approx. 3yrs to 3 months.