Long time no see!

It has been a wonderful summer.

We spent nearly all week-ends visiting some place in Montreal, be it a park as above, or a historical site, like the Maison St. Gabriel below.

Gabriel enjoyed these visits as much as we did, even though it was, at times, difficult for him that he wasn't allowed to touch objects, or that he wasn't allowed to watch his favorite exhibit all afternoon.

For example, the Stuart Museum showed a kitchen the way it may have looked in the 18th century, with several pans and pots. The display was encased with glass, which didn't prevent Gabriel from trying all the strategies he could think of to reach the pans. Eventually, we wanted to go and see the rest of the very nice exhibition, but Gabriel refused to leave. Worse: as soon as we put him back on the floor in the next room, he rushed back to the display, so that we almost literally had to drag him away.
Poor Gabriel. This wasn't even the only sad event of the day for him. We had visited the museum because it was the Montreal Children's Festival held in the large Jean-Drapeau park, which meant that all museums there were free. Of course, that was not the only reason to go there: On that day, there were countless attractions and activities for children of all ages.

In the afternoon, it got really crowded, so we were heading toward the metro station, when we noticed that Gabriel's giraffe was missing. Retracing our steps among the crowds turned up nothing. Gabriel got over the loss more quickly than Michelle and I, who had become so familiar with Gabriel grabbing the giraffe and stuffing the animal's nose in his mouth. Fortunately, there is the internet, so we were able to replace the stuffed animal. In fact, I ordered two of them just to be safe.

Michelle, Gabriel and I did not all our excursions alone.

Sometimes, we were accompanied by little Sophie, who is 1.5 months older than Gabriel, and her parents, for example on our stroll through the Ile de la Visitation park.

Sophie and Gabriel get along really well, playing, for example, hide and seek with the ball.

There is even talk of them opening a band!

Of course, while the kids (and Michelle) play,...

... the dads amuse themselves, too.

Here, we were taking apart the pasta machine for the third or fourth time, but in the end, it miraculously worked! And the pasta was awesome.

Oh yes, summer was wonderful, even on our balcony.

However, Gabriel didn't spend it just sitting around (I really envy him for his pajamas, by the way).

Gabriel spent large portions of this summer walking. At his birthday, he had made his first serious steps, and he kept on going. This is a snapshot from the 2nd of August, where Gabriel still needed some assistance to get started.

It was only a few weeks later, when Gabriel walked for some 100 meters at the Mont Royal park, holding my hand only when we were afraid that he may take an involuntary bath in the lake.

He even went exploring on his own on the viewing platform, which had me trying to figure out whether I should encourage his drive for discovery, or whether I should protect the other people's property.

All the moving, unfortunately, makes it tricky to consistently capture nice pictures.

Thus, we have to rely on situations when Gabriel doesn't move so much. For example when he sits in his little seat, ...

... or when he is restrained, such as on the bicycle seat, ...

... or in his high chair.

Gabriel is slowly, slowly getting more efficient at feeding himself. What works much better is when he feeds me while I feed him from the plate that I put between the two of us. That way, I can use my more developed motor skills to hit his mouth with my spoon, and to hit his spoon with my mouth. Also, Gabriel enjoys being able to feed his dad, which means that he enjoys more being fed.

Unfortunately, summer is over. My nose is cold as I sit on the bed, typing the blog entry. At least we have been rewarded with a splendid indian summer. On our fifth wedding anniversary, we took a trip north to Mount Tremblant, an important ski resort. This was my first non-airplane trip off the island of Montreal. The sky could have been more blue, but the colors were amazing. Even Gabriel was impressed.

The resort itself felt very artificial, almost Disney-like, ...

... but there were some opportunities to take a nice walk.

Had we not known that the trees were genuine, we may have wondered how they had managed to color them.

Ten days ago, we went to the botanical gardens, where we also saw some beautiful trees.

Gabriel was more impressed with stones and leaves on the ground. Fortunately, he mostly gives them to me rather than starting to try and eat them.

The Chinese garden within the botanical gardens is always worth a stop, ...

... but this time, it was even more impressive because of the diverse lanterns that are, every year, specially made for the October exhibit.

On Friday, we plan to see them at night.

Well, that's it for right now. I hope you won't have to wait that long till next time!