-Happy Holidays-

I am officially on holidays until Jan 3rd 2005. Jen is done this thursday, so it is just Keir and I for the next 2 days. We went for a ski this morning, well I skiied and he slept while I towed him, and right now Keir is down for his afternoon nap.
All of Keir X-mas shopping is done, I hope he likes what "Santa" got him.
Anyway I am really looking foprward to X-mas and spending time together as a family.
I probably won't post till after Boxing day so whereever you are....
Have a Merry Christmas and all the best to you in the New Year.
Ewan

-Pics-

As advertised here are a couple of photos from the past month.
From Keirs Birthday Party
Mom and Keir from the Birthday Party
Keir found some empty bottles that were very interesting at his party
Winter here , look at the snow outside the window.
Keir likes the X-mas tree
This is just wierd It is like his eyes are fallowing you.
The best for last SMILE

Well this weekend promises to be busy with a birthday party for our friends Mandy and Scott's 2 year old Macartney and my parents annual X-mas bash, plus I want ot get up skiing both days. I better rest up tonight.
That is all fo rnow
Take care
Ewan

-Hello, anybody there?-
OK so I am a little busy right now and haven't had a chance to post anything in over a month. We did have a party for Keir's birthday, there was cake and gifts and Keir really liked seeing everybody. I am amazed how social Keir is, he really does enjoy being around other people. I was a little worried that the party situation might be a little overwhelming for him. But he enjoy every minute of it. He even tried some of his cake!
I have lots of new pictures but I haven't uploaded them yet.
I will have some down time over the X-mas holidays. I am taking almost 2 weeks off. It will be nice to spend that much time with Keir and Jen.
We have been doing lots of X-country skiing, as we have gotten lots of snow here over the last couple of weeks.
I promise I will get lots more photos up in the coming weeks.
That is all for now
Take care
Ewan

-Birthday part 2-
Last night my parents came over for a little party for Keir's Birthday. It was just the 5 of us. On sunday we are having a bigger party for Keir's 1st birthday. We didn't want to make it a big thing but when it came time to put the list of attendee's together it just kept growing, we really wanted to share the special event with our friends and family. I think it is up to 25 people, now that may not be a lot for some people but for Jen and I that is. I always think that I don't know that many people but when you are forced to start inviting people to an event, you quickly realize that you really do know more people than you think. I am starting to go off on a tangent here so back to Keir's cake last night. I took some photos from last night.
Keir's Cake
Keir's reaction to his Cake
Mom help Keir blwo out his candle
Jen also got Keir a Balloon in the shape of an Elephant. Keir really likes elephant because of the new DVD he got.It is Baby Einstein, Baby Noah
He LOVES the baby Noah(an elephant puppet)
Keir had some cake and ice cream, which he really didn't like, it may have been to sweet for him.
I am not sure if Keir realized that all the fuss was for him, but it was a nice evening.
More tomorrow
Take Care
Ewan

-It's your BIRTHDAY-
Today is Keir birthday! He is officially 1 year old today!
Happy Birthday Keir!

Don't have a lot of time and I will post more tonight (or tomorrow morning) but my parents are coming over for some cake tonight.
It should be great.
Keir you are amazing!

That is all for now
Take Care

Ewan

-Rememberance Day-
Today is Rememberance Day in Canada, I have the day of but Jen doesn't, so it is just me watching Keir! Keir has been very good and well behaved for his dad. I did manage to misplace my house key after stepping out this morning, some parent I am! We managed to get back into the house with a quick trip to my parents house for their spare key.
Keir has been walking all morning long, around and around. It is just amazing to watch him go.
Jen has been back at work for almost two weeks, it was very hard at first(it still is really) but things are going smoother. My mom is loving the time she gets to spend with Keir on a daily basis. Jen isn't working full time hours either so that makes things a little eaiser for everyone involved.
Keir has just woken up from his nap so I have to get going.
Just a quick thought about Rememberance Day itself, I can't help but be very thankful for the all the men and women of the armed forces who made any sort of sacrafice for the wonderful country we live in.
That is all for now
Take Care
Ewan(Mr Mom)

-Happy Halloween-
Yesterday was Halloween, a spooky day! Keir had is own costume, and looked very scary as a dragon.
The dragon visited our friends Mark and Mel, and my parents house.
here are some pics from Halloween...
Pic1
Pic2
Pic3
Pic4
Pic5
Today is the last day of Jen's maternity leave, we are spending it together for a family day.
Tomorrow will be a hard day at the Hardie house when mommy has to leave Keir!
That is all for now
Take Care
Ewan

-Pictures!-
Everybody loves picutres, and have I got some for you.
I had mentioned a couple of post back that Keir was just starting to take some steps on his own. He is getting real good at walking and I managed to capture his walking with the camera....
Walking
Walking and Pointing
Walking and Falling
Walking and Smiling
Walking and Standing
He is actually walking here but the table is hiding it
I know this will sound like bragging but he really is getting good, he started of by only being able to go half way out on the carpet. By the end he was walking all the way to the end!
Here is one of Jen's all time favorite pics:
Bath Time
Keir has started to eat Adult food. We made some Chili for him(minus the spices!) which he really liked. He also had some panakes last weekend, here are some pictures of him enjoying those...
Belly Breakfast
Belly Breakfast2
Belly Breakfast3
Yes they were Blueberry panacakes and yes it was messy!
I had also mentioned that Keir loves to play in the Pots and Pans drawer, here he is caught in the act!
Pots and Pans
Pots and Pans2
More from the Kitchen, I am cooking Keir in the pots and pans...
Kitchen
More pics...
Gran and Keir outside
Gran and Keir outside2
Keir's litlle pointer finger
That is all for now
Take care
Ewan

-Busy, Busy, Busy-
Things have been realy crazy for me the past two weeks. Work is extremley busy, getting ready for Thanksgiving Weekend, and prepareing for the marathon, all made things a little hectic. Two of those issues have now passed, but I am still very busy at work.
We had a really nice Thanksgiving weekend, Jen's parents came up and stay with us for Sunday and Monday. Jen and I decided that we would like to host the Thanksgiving dinner at our place on Sunday. That meant that my mom and dad and Neal(home from Montreal) along with Jen's mom and dad, Keir, Jen and I were all going to be at our place on Sunday afternoon/night.
Everything went really well, the food was very good (everyone brought something for the meal) and with the exception of the chicken (my responsability) taking double the time that it was supposed to cook everything went off without a hitch. Did I mention I couldn't walk while I was preparing the meal? That's because I ran in a marathon in the morning!

The marathon went well, and I was pleased with my time 3:27:54 (my goal was to go under 3hrs 30mins). I learned a LOT from the whole expireince.
The course was very hilly which I wasn't expecting(Lesson Learned #1: examine the terrain you will be running on BEFORE you get to the race course) but throughout the first lap, 21.1km, I felt really good. I had a goal pace time and was actually running a little to fast and had to slow myself down a couple of times, but didn't do that good of a job beacuse I did the first lap 5 mins faster than I had planned.(Lesson Learned #2: stick to your plan!) I had planned to try and run the 2nd lap a little faster than the first, but it didn't work out that way. The two main factors in preventing me from accomplishing that was the temperature/wind (it was really cold that day with a strong wind) and the second half of the hills took a lot out of me. By the 33km mark I couldn't keep my leg turnover at a quick enough pace. The most important lesson I learned was how much of a mental game a marathon is. I really struggled mentally from the 35-40km portion of the race. With the adrenaline of the finish line in sight I was able to finish strong.
Here is the proof that I did finish the Marathon:
Official Results
Photograhic Proof
I guess I pretty well, I finished 21st out of 99 people and 2nd in my age group. I didn't stick around afterwards because I had to get home to start the chicken for supper later on that day.
I really did learn a lot, and can't wait to do another!
I will let Jen update you on Keir, but he is still as amazing as ever!
That is all for now
Take Care
Ewan

-That's small step for Keir, and two giant stunned parents-
OK, so that was a bad play on Neil Armstrongs famous quote, but it was an appropriate description for Jen and I's reaction last night to Keir's first two STEPS!!!!!!
Yes Keir walked on his own for the very first itme last night. He are the details: he was standing with the help of a samll table in his room. He turned and saw a soccer ball a couple of feet away and instead of sitting down and crawling over like he normally would do, he just turned towards the ball and took two steps over to it and sat down next to it. Jen looked at me, and I looked at her and said "Did he just do what I think he did?". After that we both clapped and cheered for Keir, he too seemed very proud of his accomplishment!
Of course we tried to recreate the feat a couple of times after that but with no success, Keir seemed to thing that once was enough for the night, maybe tomorrow night!
This weekend is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada, so it is a long weekend. We are having my parents, Jen's parents and my brother over for a big dinner on Sunday. It should be lots of fun.
Speaking of fun, i am running in a Marathon on Sunday Morning. I am very excited as it will be my first. More details to follow next week.
That's all for now
Take care
Ewan

-Keir 2 Dada 0-
This won't be a long post but I felt i should share so here goes. Last night Clobered me in the nose with his little head, it was timed perfectly his head was coming up mine was going down. His forehead hit me right on the underneath of my nose. It almost brought a tear to my eyes, but Keir didn't even flinch! He looked up at me smiling and wondering why I was holding my nose. There was no blood but it still hurt, Keir 1 Dada 0
After the head-but incident it was time for Keir's bath, I got him all stripped down and brought him into the bathroom while Jen ran the bath for Keir. As we were waiting for the bath to fill up, I was holding Keir at my side, sudenlly my side felt very wet and warm. Keir was peeing on me! Keir 2 Dada 0.
I guess these happenings are the "secret joys" of being a parent!
Told you it would be short.
Take Care
Ewan

Two post in one day, wow I guess I am trying to keep up with Jen!
My mum just brought a bunch of photos over that my dad had taken. So I thought I would share.
In no particular order:
Smiley Boy
Smiley Boy #2
Look Mom no hands
Keir at triathlon
A sunset photo my dad took
That all
Ewan

Well as Jen said here are some new photos of Keir. Keir has started eat more solids. These photos are from this morning of Keir eating toast:




As Jen mentioned in her last post, I was at the dentist yesterday. I needed some small filling done to a couple of teeth. I DON'T LIKE THE DENTIST DRILL, THAT NOISE IS THE WORST NOISE IN THE WORLD. For curiosity sake, I wore my Heart Rate Monitor. My Heart Rate peaked right around 100BPM(beats per Minute). Normally it would be right around 50BPM. I can handle the needles and everything else involved in the dentists office, but when they start drilling I really start to stress, evident by my heart rate.
Anyway I have to go back for one last filling because they ran out of time and didn't want to freeze both sides of my mouth.
Thats all for now
Take Care
Ewan

-Pots and Pans-
Again I must apologize for not being more consistant in updating the page, I was away at a conference last week so things were very compressed last week and I didn't have much spare time.
As I just mentioned, I was away last week for 3 days(2 nights) and it was the first time I was away from Keir. As you could expect it was very hard (although the 8hrs of uninterrupted sleep was nice!). Keir was very good for his mommy while I was away so that made it a little easier, but it was still very hard to not be able to see him for such an extended period of time.
Keir's latest things is that he loves to play with the pots and pans in the kitchen. He pulls open the drawer and empties it out and rattles them around, he can sit there for minutes at a time with a huge smile on his face. Jen read somewhere that only smart/creative kids play with the pots and pans, I am not sure how accurate that is but he sure does enjoys those pots and pans.

That is all for now

Take Care
Ewan

-Pictures-
I finally got around to sort through the holiday pictures.
Here are some of the better ones:
I got to read to Keir, his favorite book was this great
Star Wars Book
Keir loved it on the beach, he loved the water and the sand, and also being naked
We hiked up Mont St Marie (a near by ski hill) and the base the was a giant chair, which Keir sat in
Keir got to ride on his daddy's shoulders, the view is nice from up there
Keir was making firends in the hammock One __ two more pics from the hammock
That is all for now
Take Care
Ewan

-Busy, Busy, Busy-
Well once again I have been a little slow on updating anything here but I have an excuse, really, I do... OK not a good excuse but an excuse none the less. The excuse is: I was busy, I told you it wasn't a good excuse.
We were on vacation from August 7th to the 15th. We went up to the a cottage, that friends of ours let us use. The cottage and lake are beautiful but the weather was not, so we came home early. Keir did enjoy the water and got to go on lots of walks.
I have lots(and lots) of pictures of the vacation that I haven't gone through yet.
Keir has changed a lot since I last updated things here.
He no crawls with no problem and actually gets around really fast.
He won't stop "Talking", he babbles on to himself or anybody in his general direction.
He can climb stairs now! He goes up the stairs no problem but he hasn't figured out the down part just yet. Here is proof:
Stairs 1
Stairs 2
He has two more teeth, bringing his total to 6! The 2 teeth beside the big front teeth have started to come in.
He is sleeping in his own crib, and last night for the first time EVER he slept right through the whole night! I will tell you that is a great day(well night really) for parents. So cross your fingers that this trend continues.
That is all for now, I will get some pictures up soon.
Take care
Ewan

-Shuffle Monster-

Well Keir is really crawling now! He can basically crawl from one side of the room to the other (with a couple of rest stops along the way!). It started off as a sort of shuffle, he wasn't on all fours: one leg was still sort of bent. In this weird position he could "shuffle" around very well. The other day however; he finally figured out how to get both his knees underneeth him and now there is NO stopping him. He really seems to be genuinly enjoy moving about, always with a smile on his face. Actually Keir is a very happy little boy, except for when you ask him to sleep in his own crib!
His two top teeth are really coming in now, and his smile is now REALLY cute as a result (not that it wasn't cute before, he is just cuterer, if that is a word)
As mentioned above, we are having a whale of a time getting him to sleep in his own crib. He really lets you know how he feels, we have tried many different ways of getting him to sleep in the crib but all seem to have one common thread: Keir crying in the end. If anyone out there has any solutions/tips we are all ears, please.
We were at a beautiful wedding of our friends Mark and Mel on Friday. It was really a beautiful ceremony and we had an amazing time. I haven't upload our pictures yet but I will post that soon.
That all for now
Take care
Ewan

-Triathlete 1.2-
 
Well this past Sunday I did another triathlon, it was the Graham Beasley/ National Capital Triathlon. It was another Sprint Distance Triathlon which means it was a 500m swim, 20km bike, and a 5km run. My goal for this triathlon was to beat my time from the first triathlon I did in June.
I got to the race area in the morning at 8am figuring that it would leave me with loads of time. Well I had loads of time, but the transition area(were all the athletes equipment is stored) was almost full. So  I ended up getting a bad spot for my transition area. Next time I will get there a little earlier.
My swim start was at 9:30am. I adopted a different strategy for the swim portion, swimming more in the middle of the pack rather than out to the far left. This seem to work as I was really please with my swim, I even actually passed some people. I settled into a good rhythm and finished the swim in 10:31 on my watch, up to my transition area.
My transition to the bike didn't go so well. My top wouldn't go on without sticking, so I really struggled with it and in the process I ripped 3 of the 4 pins holding my race number off. After re-pinning my number and getting my shoes on I was off, by the time I got on my bike it was about 13mins. Did it really take me that long in the transition area? No matter, focus on the bike.
The Bike course was nice, the road was rough in some spots but wasn't to bad. It was not a flat as the the first triathlon but that is ok cause I passed a few people on the hilly sections of the course. I Kept a good pace on the bike and made it back to the transition area under 37mins. You have to dismount your bike and run to your transition area, well my area was at the far end of the end of the bike/start of the run (that was from being "late" in the morning). My transition from bike to run went a lot smoother than swim to bike. The temperature was heating up so I took a last swig gatorade from my water bottle on my bike and I took of on my run.
I was a little disappointed with my run, For the first km that last swig of gatorade was swishing around in my stomach, it didn't feel nice. I did not take any water at the first water station  By the first km my stomach settled down and I got into a nice groove, passing people and maintaining a nice rhythm. Just before the 3km marker there was another water station but I didn't wasn't to risk that sloshing feeling again so I didn't take any water. Then at the 3km marker my left hamstring cramped up, so I had to easy back on the tempo. I was worried it would turn into something worse, but by 4km marker it was completely gone, so I was able to finish the run strong.
There was quite a crowd at the finish, included was Keir, Jen, my Mom and Dad, and Jen's Mom and Dad along with our nephew William and niece Scarlett. Our friend Sara and her daughter Paige was there also.
I was very happy with my swim and bike and a little disappointed with my run.
The times break down as follows:

• Swim 12:46
• Bike 36:29
• Run 23:56
• Total of 1hr 13mins 10secs

That is better than my first triathlon, so I accomplished my goal. I now I can go faster, but I think I did improve (especially in the swim and Bike) from the last triathlon I did.
Here is the "tooting my own horn" portion of the blog: ended up 24 out of 117 me, 5  in my age group, but here is the best part because the top 2 men in the race were from my division they get medals for the overall, so that means the next 2 in the division move up. So I got the 3rd place medal for my age group! I certainly was not expecting that, but it was a nice surprise :-)
Non triathlon related: Keir was 8 months old on Friday! Keir's two top teeth are really coming in now and we both think it won't be long till he is able to stand up by himself. If he is on the ground now he can get right up to a sitting position and he try's to stand up after that but but he hasn't got that motion figured out yet.
That is all for now
Take care
Ewan

-New Look-
Well I figured it was time for a change. I have changed the look of the page a bit.
You can now comment on any of the post. You don't have to be a member you can just post anonymously, but just sign your name so I now who you are.
I will still be changing some of the graphic stuff (it is the stock templates from blogger) to make it a little more personalized.
Let me know what you think.
Take care
Ewan

-Welcome Back-

Well I have not updated the blog in a couple of weeks. I have an excuse though, we were on VACATION!!! July 1st is a National holiday, it fell on a Thursday this year so I took Friday off and then the whole of the next week as well. Jen, Keir and I went up to Jen's Grandmothers cottage (which is just outside of Perth, about an hour out of Ottawa)
The cottage was wonderful and relaxing, I got a couple of swims in, and a couple of good runs also. But it was really nice just to spend the whole day with Keir and Jen. I have a ton of photos from the past weeks, and have only had a little time to go through them.
Keir in the Lake
Keir and I on the dock at the cottage
Keir swinging on Canada Day
Keir walking with my dad
On of the things Keir likes to do is bang on the drums with his unlce Neal.
Keir is doing so many new things,

• His top two teeth have come trough


• He can pull himself up to stand


• He is very "talkative", he say's "Ba" a lot and laughs out loud for no real reason

This past weekend we also went to a beautiful wedding, in Toronto. It was Mark and Pascale's wedding. We left Keir with Jen's mom, aunt and uncle and cousins for the evening and left for a wonderful night. The wedding was all held at the MacLean House on the Sunnybrooke Hospital Estate. It was a beautiful setting, it was hard to believe that you were in the middle of Canada's largest and busiest city! The ceremony and meal was excellent. At 9:30 Jen was a little anxious to get home to Keir so we left the party at 10ish, we missed dessert :-(, and got home at 10:30. Jen said it was very hard for her to leave Keir for that long, eventhough she new he was in great hands. Well when we got back to Keir, he was all smiles. He had a great time with everyone. Hopefully it will get easier, for the parents, to leave Keir so that we can go out a little more and enjoy some time "sans-baby".
Here are a couple of random pics from the wedding:

The Bride walking in
The Ceremony
The Kiss
After the Kiss
The Hardie Family and the Bride


That is all for now
Take Care
Ewan