Now that Austin is old enough not to try and leap from a moving wagon, we were able to head to the garden center and load up with everything we need for the Halloween festivities. In the wagon; one proud tiger, two pumpkins, and one little kid who refused to wear a costume. You figure out which is which…
As an example of what it used to be like taking pictures of Ethan, Austin is – as yet – uninfluenced by his older brother’s sense of drama in front of the camera.
Oh yeah…and Nicole was here too. Hey Nicole! 
Ethan had some visitors a little while back, and we ended up with this fairly hilarious picture of him, Ella and Wils…their expressions are pretty priceless (don’t you wonder what Wils is looking at?)
What the picture raises for me, however, is just how tough it is to get a picture of Ethan these days. It used to be that as soon as he saw the camera, he would put on his best smile and freeze. Now, well, it’s a little different. Take, as an illustration, the series that the above photo was a part of…
Yeah, well, that pretty much says it all. It is made no less challenging by the fact that he wants to see the result after every shot. I guess we all have our own aesthetic sense…
We got a not-so-little wagon for the kids; kind of an urban, father-powered SUV. With spring springing, it suddenly seems like the perfect way to get around.
Austin’s actually grown up enough to hold his own with Ethan in the wagon, though the two of them seem to like it best when Ethan’s pulling and Austin’s holding on like he’s riding a chariot.
When not wagoning, Austin can otherwise be found eating, which has become a constant state for him.
Little Mr. Austin
By which I mean to say, don’t expect to see a photo of him without food all over his face. It won’t happen. Ever.
This is the oh-so-gentle way that Ethan likes to play with his dear brother…with a little sprinkling of commentary on his favourite drink, and some coaching on how I should use the camera…
By popular request, here – at long last – is the new addition to the family…
And in case you’re wondering how Ethan is adjusting to his new brother…
At 11:25 on June 3rd, Austin Jonathan Williamson was born, weighing eight pounds and eleven ounces. Welcome Austin!
Pictures to follow…
Ethan’s psyched. We’ve got our first Christmas tree…and he actually likes wearing this hat.
Okay…wow. Lyon. Is. Amazing. Full stop.
First thing this morning we stepped out (after 12 hours of being completely comatose) and found that they had set up a farmer’s market across the street along the river. The produce made me tear up. No joke. I swear; my eyes were getting moist, and I have never wanted a kitchen so much as I did in that moment. Observe, exhibit ‘a’, the largest mountain of chanterelles I have ever seen:
I began to feel weak, but somehow managed to forge on.
I was ready to call it a day at that point, and would have been happy to call Lyon one of the nicest cities on the planet solely on the strength of its mushroom selection, but having dragged Laura and Ethan halfway across the planet I decided to continue across the bridge to centre town where, we found, there was far more than just good fungus.
(insert cute, loosely connected baby photo here)
Lyon, is a walkable city. It’s not just that people walk here. It’s that it’s walkable. Lots of pedestrian areas, pedestrian malls, pedestrian bridges…and a correlating profusion of pedestrians. It seems as though you can walk to just about anywhere you would like to go, and anywhere that falls outside of that is accessible by public bikes which you can rent everywhere.
Food? Amazing. Restaurants and cafes galore, and you can imagine my pleasure upon finding out that Lyon is famed for its cuisine. Huzzah, says I. Yes, I would like a goat cheese salad with goat cheese so good it makes any I’ve had before taste like it was made from the milk of a yak (trust me, yak cheese sucks).
Wine? Well, we went to an 8 euro tasting that turned into a 90 euro tasting, because the wine was so good that my knees got wobbly. Turns out they make some good plonk in this “Cotes du Rhone” place, whatever that is.
Scenery? Well, mountains never hurt anyone. Nor did cobblestone streets, beautiful architecture or rivers. I could write 1,000 words…or,
Okay, end gush. I actually have to go and eat dinner, instead of bubbling effusively about what it would be like to go to dinner.
Not that I don’t hold Ethan in the utmost esteem, but I was expecting our planes, trains and automobiles excursion with him to Lyon to be – to put it lightly – a living hell. A four month old baby. An overnight flight. Waiting for trains, then taking trains across the country. Taxis. Oh boy.
But apparently Ethan finds travel to be the most exciting thing imaginable. He was so good on the flight that even the people who were scowling at us when we got on (”Oh god, there’s a baby next to me!”) thanked us when we were getting off for “having such a good baby”. No word of a lie, the kid was laughing as the plane was landing.
I was also fairly pleased to find out that in order to catch the bullet train to Lyon, we had to get all the way to…terminal 2. That’s right, when normally it is a struggle to get transport into the city from an airport, we were able to take a direct train across the country.
Lyon itself is beautiful. We are right across the river (a five minute walk) from the centre of town which is made up mostly of pedestrian streets, shops and restaurants.
Seeing as we were too tired to go for dinner last night, I’m kind of excited to get out there today.
While I’m here doing several million posts to my blog, I should probably mention that we’re going to France…the day after tomorrow. I have a few things to do there with work, and Laura and Ethan are going to come with me and do some wine tastings while I sweat blood. Laura and I are currently working on hooking up a tour to the Rhone valley’s Cote Rotie one one of my days off.
Alright. Back to the Ethan pictures.
We are moved into our new place, and at long last it is starting to feel like home. Moving with an infant is far more difficult than I would have thought; the little man would interrupt whenever we got going with unpacking, with the net result being that we have been living in chaos for far longer than we would normally (I say normally, because moving has become the norm).
Observe the chaos:
Notice in this picture that the baby amongst the mountains of unassembled furniture and unpacked boxes is sleeping, signalling a rare moment of potential productivity.
All that said, we are beginning to feel well settled here…just in time for me to take off again. I’m hopping a flight to SF tomorrow morning, and will be gone the better part of the week…but it will be nice to have a home to come home to.
I’m headed north today and won’t have access to email until late tonight. In a pinch, I can be reached after 5pm at 416-834-7694.
It wasn’t hard to think of who would like a picture of this one as I was walking around…Dad, this one’s for you:
I have to be honest; I love Paris. There is nowhere else that I have been where every part of the city seems so considered. Even the back alleys are nice.
