Hey Cole, how's the weather up there?

Jamie gave me a special treat today - five whole hours of independence! I took a fantastic trip with Kim to Portobello West for craft ogling (and a little buying). We also dropped by the drool-worthy vintage and crafted shop Lucky Rooster on Charles at Commercial (add one more metre of vintage fabric to the vault) after deciding that it was not necessary to eat with other people's children at Little Nest since we had no babes in tow ourselves...

My boys ambled over to buy a couple's pass at Science World (Cole is free - lucky lad). We are pretty nearly across the street from it, so it's handy. Though Cole is a bit wee, Jamie said that he seemed to have a real blast looking at stuff and touching things. And I think generally being with Daddy of course... No photos - I did request it, but apparently taking care of the baby by oneself is quite a handful without the obligation to record it for posterity... :-) So anyway, we're set up for a year of all things science-related.

And the fun didn't stop there! This evening they made their first couch fort. We had to stop in the middle of construction for a bit of impromptu vacuuming of crumbs from beneath the cushions. Disgusting! How did so many crumbs get back there? Do I need to start serving us out of a trough? We eat all our meals from the couch despite having a perfectly functional table, which triples as my office and craft command centre.

While they were enjoying the newly-freshened couch cushion fort, Jamie got out the yardstick (technically a metre, but hey) and got down to measuring Cole's height. It would appear from our measurements that he's no taller now than he was several months ago (about 27 - 28 inches) but that can't be true since we keep raising his jumper and buying the kid new pants! Also, we have very little skill at baby measuring and Cole likes to lean...

Got time to waste?

Personally, the answer to that is no, but somehow I seem to manage to carve out a slice of time for purely ridiculous activities on a reasonably regular basis. How? Well, but neglecting things I really need to do, of course! Dusty floor be damned! Buying groceries? Well, maybe we can order a pizza instead...

I stumbled across White Whine the other day via a mention in November's WIRED and it's too tragically funny not to pass along. It promises 'a new white person complaint every day of the week'. Includes beauties like: "Ugh, I have to take my mittens off to type on my iphone.” and “A kid with the same name as me died in a car accident this week and it is messing up my Google Alerts.” Too good.

It's a nice riff on Stuff White People Like. There, I found #111 and #97 funny lately. Full disclosure - I have a nice peacoat yet dislike the trend of wearing seasonally inappropriate scarves... Jamie says the site too stereotypical - perhaps offensive even - but I've gotta laugh, even when it does point out that I sometimes like things that are lame. I really think they should take the whiteness out of the names though and change it to something else inclusive of a social spectrum that is all too likely to nod while reading, rather than base the generalizations on a racial group.

Similarly quick-to-read is the wonderfully tongue-in-cheek 1001 Rules for my Unborn Son. At turns funny, witty and poignant, and accompanied by a slew of funny vintage-y photos, it's a good read and definitely offers up some useful tips every day. Always good advice - #298: Have a signature look. And one I should have noticed earlier - #283: Don't forget your local elections.

And who can resist the chance to immortalize (embarrass) your family? After laughing myself silly seeing a friend do this to her family, I had to make an Elf Yourself of us dancing the Charleston.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

If you yourself have copious amounts of time to waste (and an odd desire to see us dancing!) you can also check us out at some kind of barnyard hootenanny. Enjoy!

And one last point. Taking the time to blog about wasting time is another surefire way of blowing through a few precious minutes that could be better spent getting dressed for the day or working on something productive. Tips from the master, folks...

Splish splash, let's distract Cole in the bath

Couldn't resist posting a couple cute photos of Cole in the tub tonight. At home especially, where we have lots of things to pull up on, he's crazy for standing. The edges of bookshelves, the bed, the couch and us, stacks of books and chair legs and anything else he sees are good launching points for his adventures in standing.

Apparently the tub is turning into one of those places too - he lunges out of the water towards whatever else is sitting on the counter and tries to get up on the edge of the bath itself... We're still bathing him in the sink tub because our big bath has shower doors and a metal rail for them, which make bathing him in the large tub seem like a pain at this point... Anyway, because he's so active, I find I'm trying to distract him with different floating playthings each night. We threw a couple miniature rubber duckies that we had kicking around in there tonight and he definitely liked them. Ducks are popular with him in general and I think he might have thought they were soothers...

Oddly, today when we went to playtime at Sunset Community Centre, which was all kinds of awesome, he was content to play with the stuff, taste inedible objects, look at the other babies (hey kiddies, from Cole - hi Mamas, from me) and make the occasional break for it across the gym floor. No standing at all. I guess there were no objects that looked scalable, except me, and that's debatable!

Chugging along...

A very big thank-you to Jamie, guest blog poster extraordinaire, who kept the NaBloPoMo streak churning ever forward. I apparently need to give him a posting profile so folks don't suspect I've just suddenly gone off my rocker and started referring to myself in the third person, which I do around the house anyway, sadly. "Mama's going to get her coat on and then we're going out Cole!". Sing-song voice and third person = cuckoo whack-a-doo!

I am not so sure about the whole concept of posting every day. Or make that of having to post every day. I just don't have that much interesting grade-A material! But since I started, I have to finish. I would make an excellent drug addict, I think, since I am very all-or-nothing!

Anyway, feeling better today. Many slices of dry toast and nearly a whole two litre bottle of gingerale all to myself later, I am feeling less nauseous. I get that way when I get a migraine and man, yesterday's was a doozy. Glad that's done with! Jamie knows I feel miserable when I'm willing to go to bed at 7:30. Normally I fight bedtime like a toddler.

We had an easy day today - plans with a friend for coffee got derailed due to illness (hers - I'm fine now!) so I spent the morning lazily strolling around with Cole and stopping by the library. I figured that I should stop ordering so many things online in the middle of the night only to wonder why I don't have any money in the light of day... Hey - did you know the books at the library are free?!? ;-)

Can't wait to get a better look at Softies: Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals and see what I can make for Cole. Yay - more projects? I have a bunch of requests for plush toys and embroidery books that I had in my shopping cart at Amazon a few nights ago. I'm not patient and am more than willing to pay for books that I love, but I figured that I might as well test the titles all out first! There is that saying that you should be able to use at least two patterns in a book to justify buying it... I hope that the 'simple instructions' in this title is true - I like simple instructions. Perfect for my (baby-created) short attention span these days. The patterns are from 24 different artists from around the world and I must say that I love that whale.

NaBloPoMo hurrah...

Unfortunately Randi is feeling under the weather today. I've sent her to bed with some dry toast and a steaming mug of apple cider vinegar and honey - and no that's not because I don't know how to cook :) The apple cider vinegar and honey is my mom's now not so secret formula for warding off colds and such. Randi hates the taste and I have to battle her every time to drink it but I know that's it's all worth while.

The last thing she said as she drifted off to sleep was "What about NaBloPoMo..." - obviously delirious at this point. Regardless, let's keep the dream alive with this wonderful post for November 26th.

Title reference:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0773650/
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/diaz/222/duffgardens.wav

Cole and his girl-friend

Just a quick post about a few things. My slow-cooker chili has been cooking for precisely 10 hours and I am ready to eat it...

Today we had a great bus ride/walk with Kim & Abby up to Burgoo and back. I can't resist the cheese... Grilled, that is, in sandwich form. Not-so-secretly all cheese, in actuality... When we got back the kiddies had some fun in Cole's room. Fun being relative - Cole tried to steal Abner's soother and then pulled her hair. Abner got him back by poking him (sort of) in the eye. Laughs and giggles all around! :-) It was great to share tea, mom and project talk and always fun to see how the kids react to each other.

Finally went tonight to the chiropractor for my back. Specifically for the new back pain that happened last week, but generally it didn't hurt to address the ongoing backache I've had for oh, 9 months plus seven months? Apparently I hadn't been since before I was pregnant!!! Back when I had copious amounts of free time for medically necessary appointments. Usually necessary because I wore high heels everywhere... If you need a chiropractor I totally recommend mine - Dr. Fred Meinzer. He's a gem! I have to go back on Thursday. I have never been told to come back in two days before - I think that means I have a problem. Apparently, among other things, my pelvis is out of alignment!!! Ouch. I have excellent extended medical through my office, so really the only thing stopping me until now has been... Um, laziness before baby and lack of time (and a dash of laziness) since.

And back to my slow-cooker chili. Smells so good. Made it up as I went along today. I somehow managed to lose a can of tomatoes that I know I purchased, so I had to improvise a little... As long as it's spicy, I can add cheddar on top and dip bread into it, I'll be happy.

A freebie day off (for Jamie)...

Jamie had a much-deserved mini-holiday from work today and we spent it visiting the Aquarium. Our timing was great - I think we got there around 11am and it was really empty, all things considered. There was one school field trip going on and a really hyper toddler on a leash running wild, but otherwise it was really empty. I love having a membership - we breeze straight in (although there was no line today) and we don't have to worry about seeing everything at one go. Although did you know they have a sloth there? We found a section I'd never been to before, the Amazon, which is kind of odd considering that it's a pretty small aquarium...

We fueled the rest of our day with the rejuvenating power of aquarium hotdogs and walked through the park - they're putting up the Christmas lights now. What better way to be introduced to the concept of Santa Clause than by seeing hundreds of the plastic fellows in the process of becoming an electric spectacle?

We also went for a great little drive (something we don't do a lot of what with my knees hitting the dash in the passenger seat and all!) - and did a lot of playing. Cole and Jamie enjoyed a game of "control tower communications" using the rings from an otherwise annoying stacking rings toy. Fun!

Tired...

I am exhausted today. Jamie is back (yahoo and yay and hoorah!) but Cole seems to be having a tough day. I still think he's getting his top two teeth, plus he has issues in the diapers department (stewed more prunes though, so help is on the way!). Today I popped out of the house for a couple of hours this afternoon solo for the oh-so-exciting trip to buy a new ironing board and while I was gone he did not nap as he usually does. Period. He always naps in the afternoon and today he did not. We did the whole evening routine a shade early since he was obviously tired and so far, since he's been in bed for the night, he's woken up twice and it's 7:30. When you're saying your prayers, add a little something for us tonight. If you have a shrine, light a stick of incense. If you know the Baby Whisperer, get her to come on over! :-) I am also being tricked because our lovely neighbours have an 18 month baby and he's in the hallway bellowing. I keep thinking it's Cole.

Anyway, since I can't collect my thoughts enough to write a sensible post about anything in particular, I leave you with this picture, taken yesterday, that makes me laugh. We got the hat yesterday while shopping for art supplies at De Serres over on Main. Love that an art supply store is closer to our house than a grocery store.

Yo ho ho...

Danger alert!

We have a set of these very cool looking matching animals from Plan Toys and they've been quite popular around here lately. Although they're marked 2+ on the box and website, I didn't see any reason why Cole couldn't play with them with supervision. I checked them all over and all the pieces seemed secure, and I trusted that company who are known for their safe wooden toys. We kept the chicken under wraps because the beak looked too pointy for my liking (you could take an eye out with that thing!), but the others seemed ok. The yellow worm was especially well-chewed by Cole over the past few weeks.

Was, being the operative word. I caught a real safety problem with these, thankfully before it became dangerous to Cole. One of the felt circles on the worm nearly came clean off! Hello, chokeables! (Our word for swallowable items that we keep away from Cole.) When I was inspecting the toy, I tugged at the horns ever so gently to see if they were secure, one of them came right off in my hand! It was like a delicious little morsel. Defintely unsafe. Very scary too. I checked all these before I gave them to Cole and that didn't happen. I guess a few weeks of being knocked on the floor did the trick? And perhaps the felt didn't stand up to baby drool?

I wrote to Plan Toys to let them know and I'll let you know what happens. I've taken our set entirely away from Cole and I hope that they do something on a recall level because there's no way this has just happened to us. I saw a review on the site above in which another family had a set where the velcro kept falling off the chicken (which is why they gave only a four-star rating. Hello? What??). I thought toys for kids under 3 were supposed to be carefully produced to reduce the risk of choking...

Lazy Friday post...

We've had quite the random Friday...

But first, Cole is awesome. He is all for standing and trying it out every chance he gets. Check him out this evening:



I like how weird our living room looks in that video, like all our furniture is crammed into one corner. We're using a small, crazy 70's vinyl-covered ottoman that I've meant to reupholster for a really long time as a coffee table so that Cole doesn't bonk his head on the real one, I keep squishing it between the chair and the couch to block off more pointy corners and I got all my fabric in big IKEA tubs out of the closet for my project the other day and am using it to block the fireplace so Cole can't scratch at the chain curtains. Ahh - so cluttered in here!

Anyway, (more) long rambling to follow. I think I pinched a nerve in my lower back yesterday while hovering over Cole trying to dress him as he tried to get away, so I've spent today lurching around like a zombie, trying not to twist or bend. I seem to need to do that a lot... I'm sitting gingerly as we speak. Ow, ow, ow. It's probably a good thing that playdate plans got rescheduled (hope little C feels better soon!) because I really doubt that I could have kept a handle on Cole in a wide open space with my current range of mobility!

But what to do with the day now that we had no plans? I wanted to take Cole swimming but was afraid that my back would seize up in the pool and then what would become of us? Ruled out walking because of pant issues (more on that later) and back pain. So we took the car up to West Vancouver to do a little shopping at Whole Foods and Michaels (had to get my hands on some of these awesome Christmas stamps for I don't know what reason).

Also had to return the most adorable pajamas that I got for Cole recently. When I put them on him we noticed that they were a little on the small side, although they were 6-12 months size. When I took a second look at them on, I realized they were for a girl! The cute puckered shoulders gave it away. I would have kept them anyway if they fit, but two strikes means a return in my book.

Speaking of clothes, I really need some new ones, evidently. The other day I walked through some dog poop and it got on the bottom of my favourite comfy jeans. Yesterday in the rain I wore my back up jeans and got them all soaked and gravelly in the rain. I tossed them both in the wash very diligently, but realized as I went to get dressed right before we were leaving today that I forgot to turn on the dryer... Faced with wet pants, I went to the closet. I should state that I have many pairs of jeans and other pants too, but none of them fit. Still have like 15 baby pounds to lose... The only other jeans that fit haven't been hemmed and are like six inches too long. Who do they make pants for? I'm 5'5 and a normal height among all the women I know. I have enough skirts to get me to Christmas eve without wearing doubles, but I figured then I'd have to search around for tights from two years ago, since last winter's maternity tights all went in the trash. So what choices was I left with? White or camo capri pants, the rattiest pair of sweatpants that I wear when the others are in the laundry or maternity dress pants. Yeah, I chose the latter... At least with a coat on they looked nice, but weirdly nice for walking around with a baby in the middle of the day. And even if noone else knew they were maternity pants, I did...

Surprising! Exciting!

So with Jamie out of town this week, I'm finding that my morning shower has become much shorter and much less relaxing. Normally, we have a little routine. Wake up (not of own accord). Jamie brings Cole to bed if he's not already there. I nurse, Jamie showers. Cole and I play until Jamie is done. That makes it sound like he takes long, but he doesn't - Cole's just an efficient eater these days! Then Jamie takes Cole into the kitchen and gets breakfast started while I shower. Works great! Sometimes, if my bones hurt from extreme tiredness (and exaggerating), I actually take a bath, at great peril to my books. Be warned, if you borrow books from me, they've most likely been in the bathtub. We mix it up sometimes, but generally that's the pattern.

Well, with Jamie gone, so is my (somewhat/not really) leisurely morning moment... I've tried all sorts of things to keep Cole occupied while I'm showering. Forget a bath - I wouldn't even try that! I'm doing the quick shower thing, in and out in like three minutes. Just enough time to wash my face, use some soap, rinse and get out. I only wash my hair every few days and I don't even get it wet in between (shower cap, so becoming).

I block off the hallway between the bedroom and bathroom, leave the pocket door open and keep an eye on him. Good until he crawls over whatever barrier I've put up... Beeline for the toilet, as I've mentioned one thousand times now. I've tried bringing him into the shower, which was fun, but not very relaxing or cleansing for me... I don't like to leave him in the crib because I have an (irrational) fear of him suddenly learning to jump out of it while I'm showering... It's silly because he could wake up and learn to do that anytime anyway, so I don't know why I think he'd do it while I'm showering... Kind of like how for the longest time I stayed away from San Francisco because I had an irrational fear that there'd be a big earthquake when I was there. I've given up on that fear ages ago now and San Francisco is lovely, plus I suppose we live in an earthquake zone anyway so what am I scared of? By the way, I'm not crazy...

Anyway, so this morning I put Cole in the crib with a plethora (good word, unlike suboptimal) of toys, turned the baby monitor up to the highest level and placed it on the countertop. Had a good (enough) 3-minute shower and went off to check on Cole as soon as I was out. Well, whack me on the head with a wet noodle - he suddenly learned to stand on his own!

I came into the room and he was just standing in the corner of the crib, smiling at his reflection in the mirrored closet doors. He's so jolly. I let out some kind of surprised noise the second I rounded the corner - it was so odd to see him standing up like that! Grabbed the camera to document another first. He's been trying to get up to standing on his own for a week or so now, but I hadn't seen it like this ever, or in the crib. He stayed up for ages, until I lifted him out to go to the kitchen together. Next up was distracting him with objects from the cupboards while I made tea and loaded the dishwasher...

The best toys in the house...

Sometimes the best toys aren't toys at all, it seems... Cole is having a grand time exploring lately and he's getting a kick out of anything that makes noise or feels interesting. Especially random things that I find for him - a silicone cooking brush, tupperware filled with non-chokeable items, a vintage plastic egg cup... And a pilates ball! He loved pushing it along the floor, pouncing on it and evidently tasting it... I have had that thing collecting dust in the closet for probably 2 years before discovering it's purpose, as a baby toy!

Also popular? All things off-limits. The toilet, the fireplace, the edge of the bed... Mama's coat buttons, the blue bag of IKEA returns at the front door... They were all popular today.

Gross things I love about Cole (this week)

I was saying today to Grandma B that Cole is the only person in the world who could get away with some of the adorably gross stuff he does on a daily basis. This morning I took him to bed with me around 3 in the hopes of getting some more sleep. Jamie is away on business and Cole had been up and down all night (I'm thinking more teeth - I need a reason!!). He woke me up for the millionth time at 5:30 by kicking me in the stomach repeatedly, scratching my underarm while he ate and then ripping out more of my hair (from my head, not underarms thank you very much!) and kicking me in the mouth while we were playing. Seriously - if anyone else did that stuff, they'd be sleeping on the balcony. IF I was feeling generous!

Other weird and/or gross stuff he's doing, that secretly I love:

• His knack for playing with the food already in his mouth... Reaches in immediately after nearly every bite of food. That's if I manage to sneak the food in without him hijacking the spoon! I think it means he gets what's going on with the food and all, but still, very messy and gross. But a sign perhaps that the home-made baby food is delicious? I do cook up a good batch of unseasoned steamed and mashed veggies, I guess...

• His fascination with the toilet. It's just so funny. Every chance he gets, he makes a beeline to the toilet. And yesterday he discovered that toilet paper is delightfully playful. On the plus side, I doubt that the outside of our toilet has ever been so clean as it is now that I know he's interested in it.
  

• When he sucked on my entire nose yesterday and really gobbed it up, I thought I'd show him what it was like and sucked on his. Well, he loved it. Laughed like a crazy person. We went back and forth for ages - it ceased to be gross when it became a lot of fun... However, I still washed my face thoroughly when we were done!

• Lifting him way up high only to have baby drool land in my mouth. Mostly I can dodge. I'm fast like that... Not always so lucky with sneezed milk.
  

• The fact that he peed on me after his bath tonight. It was gross, but really funny. He doesn't do it very often at all so I totally didn't expect it. Holding him in his towel and jotting notes about groceries on the fridge for a second (for cole - prunes to help the poop and baking soda to cover up the smell of poop coming from the diaper pail) when that weird warm feeling cued me in pretty quickly.

PS - the hat photo isn't gross, I just love it and didn't have a reason in the last couple days to post it. So there it is! Cole got a good laugh at himself in that silly hat. It makes me laugh too.

Babytime at the library

We attended our first 'Little Babytime' at the Vancouver Central Library today, and I think Cole enjoyed it! I thought it was more of a storytime thing, actually, and expected to be able to hold Cole in my lap and veg out a little while someone else was entertaining, but it was actually more of a sing-along and activity group. The songs were cute and I did meet another really nice Mom there, and to boot I also got a good workout in my left leg what with all the baby bouncing that accompanied the songs! Cole seemed a little perplexed at the whole thing, but he was happy with the bouncing, singing and of course something from home to chew on.

We also finally found our way to the children's section of the library. Until now I've been requesting books online and just picking them up upstairs. The children's library is on the lower level, but you can't reach it using the elevator that seems obvious, from the lobby area... That only gets you to the washroom and conference rooms. On the plus side, you can also see the book sorting roller machines, if that seems interesting to you...

Cole and I had a good time after the group on our own perusing the baby and kids books. We found a good place to sit in a window nook (which for Cole meant sitting in the bucket of books for a good laugh) and we watched the pigeons splashing around in the fountain outside.

We picked up a good stack of books to bring home and Cole had a good time practicing his crawling skills too. He is crawling like crazy now, on his hands and knees most of the time. He can really get some good distance!

Mmm... macarons

I am crazy in love with macarons. I have been meaning to make some for the longest time, but have been somewhat daunted by their complicated-ness and the fact that the best recipes are either in French (in which I am, how you say, out of practice) or dictate the ingredients in weight measurements (um, do you have 125g of egg whites?). I thought I bought all the ingredients the other day, but discovered I am fresh out of castor sugar and parchment paper. Since I'm taking too long to make my own, I cheated and satisfied my sweet (1/8th French) tooth with a few from La Baguette Et L'echalote on Granville Island.

SO GOOD! Especially the lemon ones. Light, crispy meringues with lemon cream sandwiched between. I don't think it can get any better than that! I love meringue, in any form. I am known to whip up extra when making lemon meringue pies just so that I can (oh so elegantly) eat it right out of the mixing bowl, raw. When I was doing this last week I wondered why I like it so much - I mean, I don't find the concept of raw egg whites appetizing...

I enjoyed one yesterday after Jamie and I took Cole on a walk to Granville Island. We had a great fall day, walking, checking out the exhibits at Emily Carr, visiting Opus (dropping hints for Santa), playing Santa for Coley at Knotty Toys and generally having a great time. We took the ferry back, which is always a good short cut, since it docks about five minutes from our doorstep. Cole enjoyed looking at the water and boats, and we even saw a seal.

We went strolling today along the seawall on the opposite side of the creek and ended up taking the ferry across to pick up some brooch fasteners at the bead shop for my crafty projects and unsurprisingly found myself tempted again. I brought two more home and promptly set about making tea and digging out a fancy teacup to accompany my treats.

Fun in the water

One of my favourite activities each week is visiting the pool with Cole. We haven't joined a waterbabies group just yet, only because the Aquatic Centre's schedule seems to coincide perfectly with Cole's morning naptime. We're waiting for the next round, to see if they schedule it at a different time or if Cole's sleeping pattern changes by then... If not, maybe we'll head out to a different pool that may have a more convenient schedule? I like the looks of the Eileen Daly one in Burnaby.

Cole's enjoying the water, as far as I can tell! We've been practicing a couple of face dunks each time ever since I had some instruction from the lifeguard. There's just a simple trick. Blowing in a baby's face triggers a breath-holding reflex, apparently. Good to know! Cole's happy to have new things to chew on in the water, likes watching the big kids (2 & 3 year olds), and seems fairly indifferent to the actual water - not a lot as far as splashing goes although he does practice that in the tub.



One of the second-best things about our trips to the pool, other than getting to wear my bathing suit out in public (boo), are the funny conversations with children in the changing room. So far I've been informed that little boys have penises (which they love to tell everyone, evidently - and I never know what to say!) and that I have nipples, which I'm just so glad that one little boy enjoyed pointing out. Lovely! It was decided a while back that Cole looked like Charlie Brown, according to one kid, because he was bald. And on our last visit I had a charming discussion with a little guy who was convinced there was a piece of poop on the floor (it was a leaf), no matter was his mama said. He was really cute. I'm getting better (very slowly!) at understanding kid speak, which is often a little garbled to begin with and then muffled by animal crackers or banana...

Sub-what-timal?

OK, I may not be the world's best writer and Lord knows I could use a little help in the punctuation department. I do, after all, count Austen's novels amongst some of my all-time favourite reads and that whole era had an addiction to the comma that I find myself dipping into occasionally and very randomly.

But still, I've always thought I had an admirable vocabulary. Passable at least! ;-) But a favourite word of Jamie's really tricked me recently.

SUBOPTIMAL!

Is it a word? Seriously? The good people of every major dictionary seem to think so. Many learned folks agree. The dude who wrote the probably brilliant yet seriously thick-reading Theory of Suboptimal Decisions needs it. There's even a band using the name in Germany... But I think that it's a crappy word.

Conceptually, yes. Good word. Less than optimal. Not perfect. A word that is definitely going to get a lot of use, for sure. But it's just so... SUBOPTIMAL! It the opposite of graceful. It's clunky and awkward to say and I personally think it should cease to be a legitimate word. I'm not alone. Several smarty pants people that Jamie works with agree. I have yet to poll anyone that I know to gauge their opinion. Any votes with me?

Fab Etsy finds

I've been spending a lot of time on Etsy lately, browsing randomly. I could buy something oh, probably every five minutes, so I try to forget the fact that I have my VISA number memorized. I am so inspired by what others are creating. While I'm working on my soft fabric items I keep being lured by print materials...

This week I couldn't resist this awesome find - the 2009 calendar postcard, from Decoylab. It's a fantastic idea - different postcards are mailed out once per month throughout the year. What can I say - I need extra help keeping track of what day it is and I really like getting pretty things in the mail.

I've been hot after one of their cuckoo clocks for a while now. Am debating. I have nowhere to put one (and I don't really like the ticking sound of a clock), but they're so awesome...

Other things that I'm tempted by are plentiful:

Fantastic prints by matteart. So many to choose from, I can't decide which ones I want. Or again, what to do with them. We have such a small space and I really don't have any blank wall space, but again, I really covet... I wonder if a fox puffing on a pipe that produces a kaliedoscopic cloud would send a pro-smoking signal to Cole? Or would his slick attire be just the thing? Am defintely, militantly, anti-smoking. But he looks so sly in his Mad Men style tie. I'm trying to decide on just one from the collection for Cole's room...

Love everything from The Black Apple. Am resisting these lovely pins because I can't even attach them to my coat at the moment, Cole being the human tasting machine that he is. I had to retire my 'oh brother' vintage donkey pin for the time being... I don't dare wear long earrings near him. It's one thing to lose a clump of hair each day - I really like having intact earlobes.

Love the bags from Amsterdam-based Morelle. Amsterdam is so hot right now, apparently. Hey - shout out to the stupidest (and most addictive show) antm... This one, the Oyster, is really calling my name. Shall I buy a new bag?

Love Berkley Illustration's collection of animal prints, specifically this rat. These are just so awesome and irreverent. Gotta love the crafted back story behind each animal too... I have to get a couple of these for Cole's room, I think. Kids like animals in funny, old-timey shirts, right?

Don't even get me started on all the letterpressed cards I'm drooling over... Someday soon I'm going to do a round-up of some favourites. Because even if I can't get them all myself, maybe someone else will buy them and mail me one? ;-)

Adorable-ness

In the last few days Cole has really started babbling. He's saying one thing in particular that makes my heart melt - "mumum". Usually when he's very tired or hungry, over and over. Here he is last night after his bath, before getting his PJs on for milk and bedtime:



We're not really sure if he means me, milk or something else - or if he's just exercising his vocal cords with a new sound - but both me picking him up for a cuddle or nursing him seem to calm the "mumums" so I think he's asking for something... And when I pick him up and say "mumum is here" he smiles sometimes! I am chosing to think he means me, because it's just so adorable.

If you have older babies, when did they say their first word? Did you count stuff like mumum?

Nog time!

I bought my first litre of egg nog today! Delicious, sweet egg nog. Didn't buy any rum, sadly. For the record, I love egg nog the first few times I have it each year and then I am perfectly glad to wait a while to enjoy some more right before Christmas. I drink mine straight-up, like milk, but I've been known to enjoy the grown-up version too. I know not everyone loves the stuff... It's one of those love-it or hate-it things. One of these years I'm going to have to clean out the liquor cupboard to make Martha's special egg nog. Hello - it calls for 3 cups of bourbon, half a cup of rum and 2 cups of cognac!

PS - I totally love the card above, from Pinecone + Chickadee. Must have. Found it while googling 'egg nog'. And their mustachioed snail makes me giggle.

I can't believe it's getting close to Christmas already. We're super excited about Cole's first one, and I'm going to have to try very hard not to spoil him... We have pared things down to a reasonable level amongst ourselves and close family in the interest of not being over-consumers, but it's so tempting seeing all the cool stuff out there for kids. Stockings still are my hands-down favourite part of Christmas presents, and I really love making Jamie's every year. Can't wait to work on Cole's together... We found a few stocking stuffers today on a random visit to the Granville Island Toy Company on Main, and we had to try very hard to keep them in my secret present drawer (well, secret to Cole anyway) and not play with them straight away.

Supremely exciting!

OK, so perhaps that is a little exaggerated, but I am really stoked about a big new project. Yes, yes, I do have all those other projects going on. I am a bit wonky, you might say, to be adding new stuff to my list considering that I keep bemoaning the fact that I can't get anything creative done. But, this new thing is super cool.

I'm getting a couple of yards (yes, yards - you Americans and your outdated measurements) of custom fabric printed over at the totally rad Spoonflower. Not finding exactly what you have in mind at the fabric shop? Well, you can design your own fabric and print it for a mere $18 per yard. I'd been stewing for a while about what to print and then BAM - yesterday inspiration struck... I can't say what it is yet, but I think it's hilarious and can't wait to see the fabric and put it all together...

All this is part of a larger plan, to start selling handmade baby & home textiles stuff on Etsy, the online craft marketplace. I've been meaning to for ages, and have a closet full of material (partly sourced for this use!) that I'm finally getting to. Today I spent a few hours sewing a stack of baby bibs as a start - a simple project that I find really relaxing. I also ordered business cards, labels and packaging materials too. I don't know why I'm mentioning all this before I can show anything (NaBloPoMo, that's why!) but in the next couple of weeks once everything arrives I'm going to be sewing like mad. My very own sweatshop! :-)

Wish me luck!

Save that child!!

I took the "Save that child" class put on by St. John Ambulance today and it was pretty informative. The instructor was a tad spacey and they didn't cover as much material as I'd hoped for related to simple first aid stuff like the uncomplicated bumps and lumps that all kids will get, but I did learn what I specifically really wanted to know - what to do in the case of infant choking. We also covered how to administer CPR to all ages and what to do in case of shock. And how to bandage an arterial wound! Yikes...

Of course, it was hard to keep a straight face at the earnest yet unintentionally comical first aid videos involving good parenting/bad parenting scenarios... It also served to make me feel more protective than ever - and less like leaving Cole in the hands of a babysitter (except you of course Gramma B!), particularly when I had to partner with the only 12 year old kid in the class... Wow and yikes.

I did get a chance to jot down a few notes for things we need to add to our first aid kit, as well as other babyproofing steps that we had better get a move on. And we definitely need an emergency preparedness kit too. Yay - three things I like... Being prepared, (I was a Girl Guide) shopping for supplies and packing things into a kit. A winning combination.

That didn't take long...

So, on Wednesday I said that Cole was about to move into a sitting position on his own, right? He was getting up on one cheek and leaning on his arm for support. Well, later that day he suddenly became able to do it all on his own! And for-real crawling? Yup - he's doing that more each day.

He can now move from lying on his tummy or crawling to sitting right on his bum. And back down again too! It's just one more amazing change that we've seen in him lately. He's making full use of his new skills too - hardly sitting still at all! He's crawling, moving, scratching and tasting everything. He's off in a flash and under the dining room table, in the bathroom or heading straight towards something that has caught his eye. Sometimes a toy, sometimes the remote or a magazine or a shoe... And while we're nursing in the side lying position, he'll turn himself over suddenly and try to crawl off the bed!

He also almost managed to pull himself up on the ottoman. He didn't stay up for long, but he keeps trying... He seemed as surprised as I did, that first time!

We've retired the activity mat that had been in the living room for the past several months. It served us very well, but he wasn't really playing on it anymore - it was more of a destination for me to put him for two seconds until he crawled off of it, so we've left him with all the toys, downloaded some Mozart from iTunes and installed a Skip*Hop Playspot in it's place.

The Playspot is cool - it's baby-safe interlocking foam tiling. It provides a soft surface for him to play on, although of course he does venture from it! And it doesn't hurt that it sort of matches our living room stuff - our space is small and crazy colours can easily overwhelm it (or me!)... I think I have to make some more bumpers or big pillows too, to protect Cole from the fireplace area. Thankfully it's a totally fake electric fireplace (what is the point of that? I'd rather be able to put our sofa against a wall!), but he does like to feel the chain mail curtains...

This time last year...

I was having lunch on Tuesday with a friend at Burgoo on Main (yum, yum - love the tomato soup and grilled cheese - very 'back to school') and when she ordered Irish Stew the wafting aroma reminded me very distinctly that this exact time last year we were on our honeymoon in Ireland. Actually, today in particular, we were driving the Antrim coast, spending a couple days in Northern Ireland before heading back down south for a few weeks.

Posing at Dunluce Castle, the most delighful old wreck.

I never did post all the photos anyplace in particular - I took so many and I hadn't ever really organized or whittled them down at all. Gotta get rid of the blurry ones, the ones where Jamie has that look of smiling for 12 seconds because I left the self timer on and the few - very few - where I look pained and am giving him the mock-finger for one reason or another. But I'm close. Soon I'll put a bunch up on Flickr I think. Baby ones too! That is the goal, anyway... :-) I've been sentimental about our trip lately and am waiting for Jamie to come home today with black & white enlargements of a few favourite photos for our living room. He has strick instructions not to bend them or let them get wet! Gotta do something with the frames I bought, oh, a two months ago.

So what is this - a post about randomness? Kind of... I'm doing NaBloPoMo, or trying to. Never heard of it? I don't blame you - I actually read about it on another rad blog that I'm addicted to. It's National Blog Posting Month, and the goal is to post every day during the lovely month of November. Seven for seven so far. I don't know if a blog post about blog posts (and soup! and Ireland!) counts, but I'll have another up later today anyway about Cole... The best thing about it - other than having a reason to blab out whatever randomness I feel like - is the name. Now Jamie knows whenever something even potentially, barely, remotely interesting happens, I will say "nablopomo!" with a slightly insane laugh and shake my finger in the air...

Anyway, to round out this post, here are a couple of random shots of exactly one year ago today, when we were in Northern Ireland, driving along the Irish sea.

Speeding along the route north in our Peugot.

The view westward from Dunluce Castle, of rocky coastline and pounding waves.

The Creative Family

Fall is making me feel more and more nest-y every day. Perfect timing then, for a new book to arrive on my doorstep, courtesy of Jamie delivery. For some reason I have problems with a few delivery companies actually getting stuff to our door here (um, it's a buzzer - ring it!) so I send stuff over to Jamie's office frequently. It also saves me the walk a few blocks over to the Chinatown post office, which is where our things go when they don't fit in the mailbox.

Back to the topic at hand... My new book! It's The Creative Family, by the amazingly talented Amanda Blake Soule, mother to four (any day now) and author of the popular blog SouleMama. The book is all about embracing the handmade way of life and awakening a spirit of creativity and appreciation for simpler things in your children. Using basic art materials, natural elements, found treasures and a lot of family playtime, it's definitely 100% inspirational.

Her blog just adds to my longings lately for the East Coast life. Way out East, like the maritimes. I could do Halifax - I've been there before and it's adorable... I need me some apple picking, Atlantic seashores and proper flea markets... Maybe some culture? Or history? Some depth? It's the furthest I can go on this continent, I figure... I've already tried going as far as I can go this direction! I'm finding BC a little soul-less lately - I love it and hate it at the same time... I feel a little like there's nowhere to go for a change of scene. Does that make sense? Maybe it's just because I'm home all the time? I mean, there's stuff to do in Vancouver; I love the city itself but it all seems the same once you leave downtown. Just big box stores and pick-up trucks... We don't manage to blend urban and countryside well here, I think. I'm running out of things to photograph, it feels like. Jamie reminds me that our career options may be a tad limited in the Maritimes, which is certainly true, but geesh - we could get a house! And it'd be only a few hours flight to Europe.

Mr. Curious is on the move

I've been so astounded lately in watching Cole's development. Right around the six month mark he made such a huge leap, both mentally and physically. He seems to be really getting it so much more, and his quirky little personality is showing through more each day.

He's also become very mobile! After spending the last six weeks or so creeping, he's started getting up on his hands and knees and crawling. Just a little lurching bit at a time now, often for exploring things and he still creeps to get around quickly. He can sit up for ages on his own, twist himself up into a mostly-sitting position from his tummy and he's definitely interested in exploring everything. We had a good time in the kitchen yesterday banging measuring cups on the floor. Nice and noisy!

For some reason, the bathroom holds some weird allure for him - he crawls in there every chance he gets, even though I'd imagine that the cold tile floor can't be enjoyable on his tummy. He used to go straight for my feet while I'm getting ready for our morning walk - now he does that, gives my socks a little suck and then scoots past me in a beeline for the toilet... Is he telling me something? :-)

Back to the basics

I needed something crafty to do with my hands this week while watching copious amounts of election coverage on TV. I'm less inclined to become apoplectic when watching stressful things if I'm doing something that diverts at least part of that steam towards a productive activity. Same goes during the hockey playoffs (during which I usually knit scarves) except then, instead of cursing, I mutter about the fact that someone who's paid x million dollars should be able to score a goal...

But, I digress... One positive result of this excess of fidgitiness on Sunday night was a new bracelet.

I have a disturbingly large collection of semi-precious and vintage glass beads that are all languishing in a tackle box because I'm not in the midst of a jewelery-making craze, which was definitely the case a few years ago. But that does mean that when inspiration strikes, I have the supplies... Another victory for compulsive craft supplies hording!

Congratulations America, on making the right choice

Shepherd Fairey's iconic Obama poster

And other exciting developments...

You know life is exciting when you are jazzed up about a mop. Sad, but true...

I am not one of those people who really enjoys cleaning. I think I've said this before, possibly using the exact same words... Despite the fact that I can easily find 30 things I'd rather do before breaking out the vacuum, I find I'm cleaning much more often now that we have a baby. Guess it's just one of those things you do, along with talking in the third person, discussing baby poop and perfecting quacking sounds for Old MacDonald while walking down the street.

Now that Cole is crawling, I've become concerned about how we clean the floors... I know, I know - exciting stuff. We use environmentally-friendly dish and laundry soaps, cleansers and whatnot, but I could still be caught Swiffering the floors until recently. Our whole place, with the exception of the bedrooms, has lovely dark wood floors, and it seems like there are constantly new little dust dunes forming around the base of the furniture. Dust and random assortments of my hair, since Cole gets about a handful of it a day, fresh off the scalp. Everything I'd read online said that using the wet Swiffer cloths didn't pose a risk to babies crawling on the floors after they dry, but that's from the same industry that said DDT was delicious, right?

Guilty feelings be gone; I just bought an oMop from Method. The wood floor care kit ($40) comes with the mop, a few biodegradable corn sweeping clothes, a washable microfibre pad and this cool non-toxic cleaning solution that you squirt directly on the floor. I like squirting things right onto the floor, I've realized... And the cleaning solution smells like almonds. oMop is safe for people and the environment, so a thumbs up all around.

It was really easy to use. Perhaps the novelty will wear off (I'm almost sure of that!) but it was disturbingly kind of fun to clean the floor for the first time ever... I was even motivated enough to clean the shadowy, dusty underworld beneath the sofa. I noticed it was really gross under there when I lost a bead and we both had to crawl around looking for it, lest it become a choking hazard for Mr. Curious.

So now I can quit worrying that the Swiffer will give Cole a tail or something, and get on with my day. No more stories about mopping anytime soon, if I can I help it.

Happy Election Eve, America

Really, the rest of world should get some sort of vote in the American Presidential election, I think, since so many billions of people have to live with the result of who is chosen...

In case you're tired (as I am!) of watching CNN's version of the election process, here are a few election-related snippets from other sources:

America: Love It or Fix It is a head-to-head from Good, illustrating where the candidates stand on major issues. Obama hasn't taken as liberal a stance as I'd like on energy, but maybe Al Gore can pay him a visit in the Oval Office or something...

Also check out Good's Why Vote? section, featuring 1564 reasons why you shouldn't miss out. Funny, tragic, motivating... Including the fact that 20% of NYU students would give up their right to vote in this election for a freaking iPod touch (so prove how stupid they are and exercise your right not to be a moron). And interesting - more American soldiers have died so far in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq than died during the US Revolution.

Still thinking of voting McCain? Check out this letter to McCain supporters on Huffington Post.



Voting for the sake of your future not enough motivation for you? Well then, do it because Starbucks will give you a free coffee. I'm sure you'll be thirsty after waiting in line all day...

Thinking of skipping the process because you don't like standing or lining up? Get upset then and get motivated. Enjoy Slate's round-up of voting irregularities reported so far. Shudder...

Finished voting and need something to do with the rest of your day? Why not grab a book fit for Commander in Chief? Check out NY Times essay on the favourite literature of past and potential presidents... Brings to mind how Palin couldn't even name a magazine or newspaper that she reads.

Those of you in America who plan to vote, make sure you do! Don't get all wrapped up in buying supplies for your election night victory party or screenprinting a batch of "Obama Wins" t-shirts without making that critical step... Let's not count our chickens before they're hatched, eh? Just a reminder that the 2000 election was decided in the end by 537 votes*?

Go-Bama!

*allegedly. ahem...

Just in time for winter

I am a big fan of the hot water bottle. I like a lot of old-lady things - making jam, drinking tea, knitting, cardigans... Complaining about my back pain (seriously - Cole weighs 18lbs). But the hot water bottle is one of my favourites. Perfect for when you're feeling under the weather or just cold even, there's something so old-fashioned and slow about it that's instantly relaxing.

But who likes to actually curl up with just the plain rubber bottle? Ours were wrapped in the most disagreeable jackets - one in an old flannel sack that was rapidly disintegrating, the other jammed into the much-too-small terrycloth case from a bath pillow. Replacing these had been on my project list for a while.

So voila - one nap time later (my new favourite unit of time measurement) we have two lovely new bottle covers. The Paris one is for me the manly(ish) floral is for Jamie. They were so easy - just a big pocket really with a tie attached to one side for wrapping.

Bring on the sniffles and cold winter feet - we're ready.

Want to depress your child?

Had enough of inspiring, interesting or enjoyable books for kids? Then why not embrace the most depressing and negative storybook ever? Presenting the ever-so-generically titled Stories for Children by Galley Press. Sadly, I can't find any information about it online. It's like the Internet is denying this book exists!

Originally published in Slovakia in the '80s, it's definitely chock full of Eastern European charm. Or is that doom and gloom? The collection definitely seems like the product of breadlines and bleak winter mornings. The stories - 25 of them, all doozies - feature a heck of a lot of depressing tragedy, even for fairy tales...

Take the tale The Musicans of Bremen (please!) for example... Based on the Grimm Brothers tale, it features a donkey that is about the be sent to the butcher, a dog lying in a ditch proclaiming he's not ready to die, an old cat who was nearly drowned and a rooster who barely dodged being made into soup. They eventually bust up a gang of robbers and end up living happily every after in an abandoned house. The concept of the story is good, but it's the overwhelming number of references to violent deaths that seem out of place for a children's tale. I can only imagine Cole asking "what does it mean when the rooster says the cook is going to wring his neck?"

All the stories are like that - even Little Red Riding Hood seemed exceedingly morose - the girl and her grandmother are both eaten and then ripped from the wolf's jaws, right before the woodsman stuffs stones down his throat! Intense... I thought I remembered Grandma getting hidden in a closet and then everyone scaring the wolf away?

I picked up this little gem at the Vancouver Public Library sale earlier in October, because it was $2 and because it looked somewhat promising. It's translated, so it reads a little oddly, and it's inscribed with crazy handwriting, 'Merry Christmas, from Babka." Jamie and I get a good laugh out of it, but it's pretty bleak. And it smells kind of dank.