The Bears Clan: January 2010

Nathan the Entertainer

Meline absolutely thinks her brother is the funniest thing in the world. Only he can get her to laugh like this. Here is some delightful bathtime entertainment!

Meline's New Toy

Here is Meline playing with (or should I say mouthing) one of her new Christmas toys. No one is more excited about her budding musical prowess than Michael! ;-)

Meline in Protest

Meline has some very important things to say (interspersed with some lovely farty face noises). Maybe it has something to do with that bottle on the counter that is juuuuust out of reach....

Great Big Brother

Here's Nathan being a great helper for Meline. He's helping her out with her stocking on Christmas morning.

Santa's Response

Nathan had a very specific request for Santa this Christmas. This is how Santa responded...

Christmas Morning!

Its finally here! Nathan and Meline wait patiently in my mom's room as the adults run around getting their morning coffee (and soda...ahem...Michael...ahem)

Here are Meline and Nathan checking out their new toys and stocking.

Nathan helps Meline put together her present from Santa.

Meline loves her new xylophone!

She's just drooling with excitement!

He's Real!!

Nathan finally got his proof! Rudolph took some pics of Santa busy at work putting presents under the tree.

Busy Santa!

Here he is getting ready to go up the chimney.

And last but not least, next morning, Nathan found some reindeer footprints in the oatmeal! Jackpot!

Getting Ready For Santa

Twas the night before Xmas, lots of preparing to do. Here's Nathan writing a letter to Santa.

Nathan left a challenge for Santa.... would he come through??

In a further attempt to get some proof of Santa's existence, Nathan sprinkled some oatmeal around a table outside, hoping to secretly get some raindeer footprints.

Gotta leave a snack out for Santa. Then its off to bed!

Oh, what an adventure. Showed up at the airport on Dec 20th at 5am, boarding passes in hand, ready to fly to Florida for Xmas. Long story short, the airport was a zoo and only 3 people were working the Delta counter so we missed our flight. After waiting in line for two hours, we were told we couldn't be put on another flight until the 23rd. Two hours in line gave Michael and I a lot of time to think, and so we decided to ditch our plans of flying, hop in the car, and hit the open road! Here we are, a couple of hours into the drive, still in good spirits.

Nathan passed the time playing on his Nintendo DS

Meline passed the time by sleeping (thank goodness!)

Michael passed the time by making ridiculous faces

Ok Michael, lets take a nice picture together....

Alrighty, lets try that again...

If you've ever made the drive on i-95, then you've seen South Of The Border... Can't miss it!

Finally arrived 18 hours later, exhausted, at 3:50 in the morning. Hmmm... what were we thinking!

An Early Xmas Treat

Since we were heading down to Florida for Christmas this year, we decided to open a couple of gifts at home before we left. These were from my grandma and grandpa Bearss. Meline is intrigued by the shiny green box!

Here's Nathan with one of his gifts.

Binoculars! Very fun!

Mmmm....bows are tasty...

Barney! Meline is thrilled with her new purple friend.

The Mysterious Falling Water

Meline eventually conquered her fear of water (see one of the first entries in this blog) and came to love bathtime. She's still, however, trying to figure out the mystery of the stuff falling from the spout. It looks solid, buuuut..... can't.....seem....to....grasp.... ugh......

Thanksgiving in Toronto

First stop, Niagra Falls! We drove to Toronto for Thanksgiving this year so we could visit Michael's parents and his two grandmas. We made to Niagra Falls after our first night of driving and checked into a hotel late at night. Woke up and this was our view out of the hotel. Granted, not the best view of the falls, but we got great glimpses of it every so often when the fog moved out of the way.

After our short stop to Niagra Falls, we were off to Toronto!

A Day At The Big Red Barn

When Michael was growing up, his mom would take him to a play place in Toronto called the "Big Red Barn." It had a play area inside the barn and all kinds of farm animals around it. Well, the Big Red Barn is still standing today and a second generation got the chance to enjoy its spoils :-) Here's Nathan feeding one of the goats.

Nathan is pointing out something very interesting to Meline and Michael.

Some silly pictures of Nathan :-)

One of Nathan's favorite things in the Big Red Barn was the tire swing inside. Off he goes!!

woo hoo!

good times!

Here's a cute picture of Michael and Meline. It was cold that day so everyone was bundled up!

A very cosmopolitan Meline with her beret :-)

Air Heads

We took an afternoon and visited the Toronto Science Museum. One of the exhibits, you got your picture taken and then this huge wall of bubbles would percolate and your image would come out! Can you see my image, created in bubbles?

How about Michael?

An Early Xmas While Visiting Jesse

We visited Michael's Grandma Jesse on a couple of occasions while in Toronto and had a special treat of an early Christmas! Meline thinks she's hit the jackpot with a tasty new treat. Just think how excited she'll be when she figures out there is something fun inside!

A new book! One of her favorite toys :-)

I think both Nathan and Meline are very pleased with their new gifts!

The Toronto Zoo

While in Toronto, we visited the zoo. It was amazing! We could get really close to most of the animals. It was a really cold day, so we also had most of the zoo to ourselves. My preferred way of sight seeing. Here is Nathan introducing himself to one of the locals. Looks like a staring contest is under way... wonder who wins??