Zach was slightly more interested in taking the lid on and off the bottle than feeding his young child consistent, but I guess there is a steep learning curve to parenthood.

Safe to say it’s a good thing it was Noah and not Patrick who was in charge of gathering up the animals in the ark, otherwise we’d be short a few zebras right about now…

Now Zach proudly sits on the couch and sketches surfs the web while scratching writing out emails to his family and friends.

Am I allowed to use it (as I tried tonight)? “No dada, Gacky” (No dad, it’s Zachy’s).

Apparently those ‘rules’ do not apply to Zach.

Patrick had all sorts of fun playing horsey on grandma’s knee, while Zach busied himself with bossing grandpa around and also playing with a new toy fire truck that they had brought him.

Patrick must have been feeling especially excited as not only did he show off his new crawling skills, but he also was standing up straight with grandma as well! I wonder if he will start walking sooner than what we expect?

Tomorrow we plan on going downtown for Winterlude. The weather should be fairly cooperative so we’re looking forward to a good day.

No, the real reason is that we now have two dead animals buried back there in rather unsettling shallow graves a-la mafia style. Yes, today our little guinea pig Wilbur died quietly in a bed of woodchips. He was surrounded by those who knew and loved him best: his water bottle and food bowl.

Joking aside, he unfortunately never got a lot of attention since we only had him a few months (January 2009) before Zach was born, and as you can imagine he was relegated rather quickly to ‘number 2’ status in our family. That being said, he was a pretty neat pet and its a sad to no longer have him.

We attempted to explain the situation to Zach but he’s still a bit to young to fully grasp the situation. He just happily said “dead Wilbs” and carried on with his playing!

I’m hoping that he won’t ‘resurrect’ in the springtime. With the ground being frozen it was really hard to dig a deep enough hole.

So, we’re back to having no pets again for the first time since we were married, and I don’t foresee us getting a new one anytime soon … that is until the boys start pining for one! ;)

Tonight we installed the safety gate in a strategic location to make sure the little guy’s bumps-and-bruises are limited as much as possible. The only other ‘danger’ area that we have to worry about are the stairs leading to our basement. However, Zach is doing a really good job in ensuring that the door to the stairs remains shut.

So suffice to say, Patrick is really enjoying his new mobility. Before he learned how to crawl, he would get very upset whenever we put him down on the floor, but now when we put him down he just starts scooting around happily.

Besides crawling, Patrick also like to spend quality time with his mama – whether it be a enjoying a good book or a nice cuddle.

So when grandpa arrived it was down to business very quickly for the boys. The ‘business’ at hand involved whizzing cars back-and-forth as quickly as possible.

Once they tired from that game (coincidently at the same time grandpa’s knees got sore) it was time to read some good books on the couch. Zach loves to read books and he had a pile of them for grandpa to read.

When it was bedtime poor Patrick had a breakdown as he didn’t want to sleep in his new/temporary location. We had moved his playpen into our room so dad could use the guest room (where Pat normally sleeps) but Pat was going to have none of it. He was in such distress that when we picked him up his face was covered in tears, sweat, drool and goober!

So it was back to his regular room and when we put him to bed he was quiet immediately and we didn’t hear another peep from him for the rest of the night. Talk about a creature of habit!

When we arrived we could see Oliver peeking outside the Mazerolle’s big bay window, and as we got out of the car we could hear him calling “Hello Zachy”, “Hello baby Pat”. Once the boys were inside it was full-out running and excitement – at least for Zach and Oliver. Patrick contented himself with some balloons and other toys that he found on the floor.

The running was fun, but it wasn’t to long before Zach spied a shiny new Richard Scarry book that Oliver had been given earlier for his birthday and was compelled to sit down and read. He loves books – especially ones by Richard Scarry.

As for Oliver? He played us a nice song on his one-string guitar.

Soon the food (pizza) arrived and we all stuffed ourselves, with the exception of Zach who was “scared” of being fed by either Julia or myself. Oh the fun we have trying to feed that silly boy!

If Oliver was excited about having friends and family over, then he was even more excited about his birthday cake. It didn’t’ take him long at all to polish off a big piece .. with “hardly” any mess at all!

Something tells me that he loved it. Happy Birthday Oliver!