babycondin: January 2007

Wow.

UPDATE: I've added the before pics below.

You may recall that my brother Andrew and his business partner Wee Mattie have been working on renovating an apartment building in Calgary to sell off as condominiums.

They picked up the building this past summer - it's just off 4th Street. Here's the before shot of the exterior way back when:

Well you can maybe imagine the interior back then (I've ordered new "before" pictures and will put them up here) and the outside's changed ALOT (new pictures also forthcoming), but man, I just got shots of the interior today and I had to post them. Here is the show suite:

Looks AWESOME guys. Apparently 5 of 16 are already sold and they've only been on the market a week. Congrats on the culmination of tons of hard work guys. It looks Real Good.

Update: Before Pics:

Theory and Action

Evan has asked me to help him start up an advocacy organization. He wants to call it B-FAT-MAN (Babies for Free Access To Mammaries All Night), but I'm trying to tell him the acronym needs a little work. He wants the group to fight for the right of babes everywhere to sleep in their parents' bed and keep them awake all night, every night. The Right of Perpetual Snack (his term) is fundamental and must be entrenched, he says. He's already started networking and fundraising is next.

We're also breaking new ground in evolutionary behavioural theory here at babycondin headquarters. We now have concrete proof that cute behaviours develop solely to put off bedtime or to avoid other forms of parental oppression. As but one example, Evan learned how to kiss tonight, and kept us up laughing his deep belly laugh and kissing each of us in turn for about 1/2 hour. It's now 11.00 and we're the dupes.

Welcome to earth.

On January 8th the city of Toronto got even better with the arrival of Arabella Claire de Pellegrin, born to parents Misty and Mike.

And out here on the coast, we welcome Clara Linnea Niddrie, born to Jackie and Carter at ~6 am on January 19th.

Both moms are doing great. Congratulations guys! That's 2 of the 7 new babies in our circle that are due to show up in the next 6 months.

Meanwhile back in 1978...

Who's cuter? No wait, don't tell me. I don't wanna know.

One last thing - in our tradition of discovering teeth only on Westjet flights, we are pleased to announce the arrival of Central Incisor F. (Tooth #3, for those counting.)

We're back...

from a really nice Christmas season far, far away from reality. Well, sort of. For those wondering, I did finish my paper on New Years Eve just after midnight and am quite happy with it. I'm now working on another.

We spent Evan's first Christmas in Gibsons with Carolynn's family. It was a great time and nice to have everyone dote on him/us (not to mention the free 6 am child care). Evan was real excited Christmas morning and played in the wrapping paper etc. We have about 800 pictures of this and Carolynn will soon sift through to post the best ones, as soon as she's finished the 48 hour call-shift she's presently working.

After Christmas we had a great flight to Calgary and enjoyed some time with family and friends there. Many have asked whether my parents survived their first-ever open-water snorkeling tour in the Caribbean and I am relieved to report that they returned in one piece. As for us, we managed to get in a day of skiing and to stay sober on New Years, both of which were firsts of the season, and adult-life, respectively.

Apologies and best wishes to those we weren't able to connect with over the holidays - hopefully we can see you soon.

Anyway, I should go to bed. Evan's got another cold and his sleeping has been, well, a little "outta whack" lately. Happy 2007 everyone!

(By the by, what'll happen to this blog in 2007 - the baby's cuteness has to peak somewhere doesn't it?)

Oh Evan. You are so going to kill me for posting this picture when you're old enough to read.

First hockey stick from Uncle Steve. Also hanging out with First-Cousin Dotty.

We hear it's been rainy in Vancouver. We're in Calgary right now - here's a picture of Carolynn and Evan from yesterday. I've been showing Evan the sun. That's been nice. The sun.

Update: Okay so I lied. That picture was from the summer. (As if you didn't know). This was what the weather was actually like in Calgary, but it chinooked muchly and was beautiful warm and sunny. Evan loved the snow, as you can see, and I swear we had a moment where he actually looked at the sun like "what's that?". Now we're back in Typhouver.