Pierre-Emmanuel Trudeau was born two weeks ago in a Montreal hospital, and three days later at the Pine Avenue Art Deco mansion of his famous grandfather, he celebrated his first Christmas and his father's 33rd birthday.
"It felt right," said the proud father, Sacha Trudeau, about naming his first child after his late father, former Liberal prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Little Pierre-Emmanuel Trudeau, whose middle name is the same as his father's middle name, also has the famous initials of his grandfather - PET. Sacha Trudeau lived with his father and was his primary caregiver in the last years of his life before his death at age 80 in 2000.
Pierre-Emmanuel arrived several days past his due date, at 5:48 a.m. on Dec. 22, and weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces.
Sacha Trudeau, in a telephone interview from his Montreal home, said he and his spouse, Zoë Bedos, 31, are just "thrilled." The two plan to be married this summer.
He said he has wanted a child for a "long time."
"It's my greatest adventure yet," said the young man and filmmaker, who has taken his documentary camera to some dangerous corners of the globe, including Baghdad. Those days are now over for Mr. Trudeau, who friends say plans to stay much closer to home.
Mr. Trudeau, admitting that he was biased, described his baby as "absolutely beautiful" and an excellent sleeper. He is almost sleeping through the night, he said.
He also said that he's growing "extremely fast."
Mr. Trudeau said that his mother, Margaret, is also "thrilled" about the baby and has spent a good deal of time with the couple since Pierre-Emmanuel's birth.
Sacha and his spouse played hosts at Christmas at their home, the Pine Avenue mansion (the dining room seats 50 people) that Pierre Trudeau purchased after leaving politics. The home belongs to Sacha now and Ms. Bedos moved into the home several months ago.
His older brother, Justin, and his wife, Sophie Gregoire, were there for Christmas as was Mrs. Trudeau's mother, Doris Sinclair, and Ms. Bedos's parents.
Ms. Gregoire introduced Sacha to Zoë a couple of years ago.
Ms. Bedos is in the stationery business. Mr. Trudeau had told friends that if he found the right person he wanted to have many children. After he met Zoë Bedos, he told a friend that she was the one.
Both Justin and Sacha (whose real name is Alexandre) were born on Christmas Day, two years apart. The eldest Trudeau son was born in 1971 and Alexandre followed in 1973.
Their youngest brother, Michel, was killed in a skiing accident in 1998.
Pierre Trudeau had said he had selected the name Emmanuel as the second name for his second son. (Emmanuel is Hebrew for God with us.) Margaret Trudeau had chosen his first name, Alexandre. This was after the former Soviet ambassador to Canada, Alexander Yakovlev, who had become friends with the then prime minister and his wife. Sacha is an affectionate Russian diminutive of Alexander.