Cole can roll!

It's been nearly two weeks since Cole has been able to roll right over! Both ways!! He started off rolling from his back right over onto his tummy, which I think surprised him at first. A day or two later he was able to get back onto his back. Wow!



He's totally unstoppable now. Whenever he's laid down in his activity mat, on the bed or in his crib, he rolls right over onto his tummy and back again. He can prop himself up really well on his arms and elbows, and occasionally on his hands, but only a little so far. He seems to really enjoy being on his tummy now. Hurrah!

And how better to celebrate this milestone than by taking a nudie photo?

I thought it would be fun, and possibly we could use them on the announcements (although I changed my mind on that). It was fun alright... I didn't get many photos since the light was low inside, but Cole got a good giggle from peeing on me and pooping on the white blanket... It was pretty hilarious actually, and totally what one should expect from a naked baby. I thought I was so smart, waiting until after he'd filled his diapers, but alas he surprised us both with some extra poop just for good measure. Coley, you are a riot!

Lil' parder is done tuckered out...

I had to post this cute photo of Cole, sleeping after a walk in the Bjorn earlier this week. I love the way he's just spread out on the bed. He looks like he's been riding a horse in the old west or something! I clicked him out of the Bjorn straps and he just stayed asleep on the bed for a while. Note the bib - he wears them now in the carrier on walks, since one of his favourite activities seems to be sucking on the fabric. This way, he gets the bib all gobby and we can take it off when it gets all wet and cold against his face... And I have to wash the Bjorn less often!

That day, walked a few blocks over into Chinatown to buy some supplies at Ming Wo - some plastic measuring cups for him to play with in the tub and a good, solid, inexpensive 10-cup teapot for us. I do loves me some tea! :-) Also, we found some fun silicone kitchen utensils that are doing double-duty - I need to start stocking up on proper cooking supplies since I'm a grown-up now (or so they say) and Cole likes to play with them too.

While we were in the neighbourhood, we stopped by a great store on West Pender - Funhauser. They have all sorts of retro-style tiki stuff that is just up my cul-de-sac. I got an awesome book - Sippin' Safari. It has TONS of lost tropical drink recipes, with names like the "Sumatra Kula" and the "Dr. Wong", and details about the drink creators and the tiki lounges they were served in. Ahh, the hey day of the authentic tiki lounge... I wish I had a time machine. Apparently, I'll need to buy many more types of rum than I ever have on hand (which would be none)... :-) I do, however, have a terrific collection of vintage glasses and a massive library of exotica music, so I'm half-way there...

Choice made. Done. Finito!

Ahh, the world of baby products. So needlessly complicated. So overwhelmingly full of choices. Sometimes I think - in modern life in general - we are way too spoiled for choice and it actually makes choosing difficult. Not big life choices, but the nitty-gritty stuff choices. Like me spending many hours thinking about which high chair would truly, really best serve our baby-feeding needs.

Argh! So, I decided to stop waffling between product x and product z and just get on with it already. We just ordered an Anka high chair for Cole.

What I like about it is the simple look, the sustainable wood and BPA/phthalate free plastic and the fact that it's been formally rated as 'safe'. It's adjustable as baby grows and can be used up to 5 years/50 lbs converted to a booster seat. The tray is removable (and covered in a dishwasher-safe clip-on cover), so you can pull it right up to the table as well.

All in all I'm really satisfied. I was also debating about the Stokke Tripp Trapp, which I liked online but not as much in person (and it's nearly double the price) or the IKEA Antilop. I've heard really good things about the IKEA chair - and it's $25 in Canada - but I didn't like the fact that it didn't have a footrest and the tray was nearly impossible to get off in the store. I loved the price...

Phew - hands dusted off, choice made. Now I'll have to not think about this anymore until it arrives at the store in a couple of weeks. On to bigger, better matters. Like, did you see Obama's speech last night?

Wonder-filled, indeed!

Recently I was doing a little research online about the 4-month sleep regression that's so common for babies. Cole had been sleeping extremely well since about 2 months - we'd settled into a pattern where he went to bed around 7:30 and we woke him around 12 midnight to eat. And then he'd sleep again until about 6 am. It was awesome!

And then around 3 1/2 months, something seemed to change. I blamed myself at first (of course - Mom habit, eh?) because I'd gone to the Okanagan and mucked with that formula a little. He started waking up ALL NIGHT long. He wasn't fussy per se - Cole is an amazingly calm baby - but the pattern was different. He still went to bed easily at 7:30 but he would wake with little grunting noises and keep at it until we checked on him. I thought he must be hungry since he wasn't eating as well during the day (and LaLeche League's answer to everything is more boob) so I kept feeding him when he woke. Then we read that would create a bad habit, so we started just replacing his pacifier, and that put him right back to sleep in a second (I'm trying not to worry about that habit just yet!)...

When spending hours at night online trying to figure out a magical sleep solution (didn't find one), I stumbled across a reference to a book - The Wonder Weeks - that seemed to be describing what we were experiencing. The cover claims to tell you "how to turn your baby's 8 great fussy phases into magical leaps forward". Normally, I'm a little doubtful about claims like this. But honestly, this book is amazing! I think that might be the first time I've bolded text on this blog. It's that good!

It charts out the major milestones of baby's mental development over the first 14 months. Most books talk a lot about the physical milestones alone, but this shows how, behind the scenes, there is so much going on at a mental level before it shows up in things that you can see. Before a baby is able to do something physically, he has to understand large concepts that completely revolutionize how he sees his world.

For example, Cole is just 19 weeks now. He seems to suddenly be interested in and physically able to do many new things. He rolls over both ways, lifts up on his arms, tries to move, is interested in music and musical scales, watches us eat, loves tickling and anticipating the tickling, seems to understand certain phrases and songs, grabs at everything, sits up against us and so much more. This is actually Wonder Week 19 - when he has come to understand the world of events - "a short, familiar sequence of smooth transitions from one pattern to the next".

The book says that after the fussy period (usually a few weeks leading up to the acquisition of the new understanding) there will be an easy period when the baby enjoys experimenting with this new skill.

I can't recommend this book enough. It's written in a very positive, upbeat and fluent style and lends itself well to snippet-reading. That's great for me right now because I don't have time for hours of undisrupted tome-reading! I wasn't able to find it at Chapters online, but I did manage to snag a copy at the Vancouver Public Library. It's so good that I'm actually going to order one from Amazon.

Birth announcements made easy

Aside from announcing Cole's arrival on the Internet (Hello, world!), we didn't ever get official birth announcements printed way back when. And I just realized that! Oh, the world of the sleep deprived new parent... :-) I had wanted to design my own of course, but there really aren't enough hours in the week for my project wish-list.

But, I just found a wonderful solution that serves both my desire for mementos and my lack of time. Tiny Prints! They are actually good for all sorts of announcements, invitations and the like. And they actually have really charming templates - not an easy feat to win me over on the template concept, but they've done a good job.

Just enter your info, upload a photo and that's it. You can even have the envelopes return-addressed to save time. Nothing could be more valuable for new parents. And at $50 for 25, plain envelopes included, there quite reasonably priced. We're ordering a set just so we have a little keepsake announcement for our baby book. Here's the draft:

I chose one from the Dwell line, and elected to use a newborn photo (this is Cole enjoying his first nap at home!). I debated about using a current photo (and even staged an ill-conceived photo shoot - more on that later...), but in the end I thought the newborn photo & birth announcement made a good combination. It was amazing to look back to see how tiny he was when he came home from the hospital. Of course, someone more on top of things might send this out earlier on... :-)

On that note... I read online that it's never too late, etiquette-wise, to send birth announcements, providing you're not mailing them out with an invitation to baby's 1st birthday party included!

Cole loves his ball!

We dug out an old beach ball the other day after getting inspired by another one of the brilliant-yet-simple ideas from our book of 1001 games for babies. They suggested tossing up and catching the ball just before it lands on the baby, but this seems a little startling. I tried it anyway, and Cole seemed to enjoy it, but not as much as he enjoyed playing with the ball himself! He has been loving the ball - rolling with it, grabbing it, trying to eat it... It's adorable!

It's as much fun as a balloon, but more safe, since it won't explode and send delicious-yet-deadly rubber shards everywhere!

And, I figured out how to upload videos to YouTube! I was thinking about doing this last night at 2:30 am when, in a cruel twist of fate, I was again unable to sleep. It's really easy (uploading videos, not sleeping). Yay for me! :-) I think 90% of YouTube is split 50-50 between adorable baby videos and movies of teenagers hurting themselves... By the way, the video is smoother if you pause it at the beginning and wait for it to buffer.

Cole vs. New Year's baby

Ahh! The dreaded New Year's baby is back for more... We dug him/her/it (I think it's a her, since she's wearing lipstick) out of the closet last weekend for some fun. Cole and baby hadn't even met yet! We keep the baby in our bedroom closet, right under Jamie's section of clothes, so it's never too far away, should we need it...

Cole seemed both confused and interested. The funniest part happened much later - we'd left the New Year's baby on the bed and went off to play in another room. Hours had gone by. I was walking into the bedroom and saw the baby lying on the bed. It scared the bejesus out of me - I illogically thought at first it was Cole and we'd somehow forgotten he was lying in there or something crazy, all naked with arms and legs akimbo on the bed! Phew - it was just a creepy doll...

The old Bugaboo switcheroo...

The whole reason I liked the Bugaboo carriage in the first place (before I liked it for all the other reasons that compelled us to spend too much money on it!) was the awesome bassinet. I loved the idea of Cole being able to lie down in his comfy baby bed on wheels. It has proven to be a great place for him and definitely helped me to feel that he's been safe and cozy, and that's enabled us to get out and walk since week 1. And it has been totally worth the price, by the way - I love this carriage and use it every single day.

But, he's getting bigger and he's also been doing his stomach crunches for a while now while lying in the bassinet. It seems that he's trying to get a better view of his world! Also, he's often awake for portions of the stroller walks with nothing much to look at in there...

So, Jamie was able to convince me that it was time to try swapping out the bassinet for the seat. I was a little hesitant at first... I was a little wistful about him moving on from the baby bed, and of course I worried that he wouldn't be able to nap as well, or that it wouldn't be as safe. But, it's turned out great - Cole really likes sitting up a little more and getting a good view of things. In the fully reclined position, the seat is like a little hammock. Cole is able to nap in it just fine. It has a harness and we also put the handle back on the seat, so it seems plenty safe.

We took it for a test stroll to the bookstore on Saturday to make sure it was OK for Cole. Then we had an epic walkabout from our place to Granville Island, across the ferry, around English Bay, skirting Stanley Park and then all along the seawall in Coal Harbour on Sunday. It works great!

Chock full o' good ideas...

Playing with Cole is awesome - he is such a good-spirited baby and he's pretty much happy with anything you play with him. Aside from his playgym, which he is crazy for, he LOVES patty cake (especially the patting and rolling parts), anything involving being lifted up high or rocked about, being read to and touching his books, reaching, and everything in between. He even seems to love my constant singing! He touches everything and puts everything into his mouth. He thoroughly gummed the characters to his very first finger puppet show today, and then seemed fantastically entertained by a drool-soaked washcloth.

But, there certainly comes a time every single day, usually just before bath time, where Jamie and I feel like we are out of new, interesting material. So, we bought this awesome book to spark our creativity - Play & Learn: 1001 Fun Activities for Your Baby and Child.

It's full of great ideas that are both fun and developmentally appropriate for ages o-5 years! Some are pretty obvious, some we're already doing (a little pat on the back there) and there are lots more that are really just simple, easy things that seem like lots of fun. Oh, and for the time-strapped Mama, all the tips are presented in quick paragraph snippets. With pictures! :-)

Tastiest breakfast ever!

We have been enjoying the most delicious porridge ever, thanks to Aunt Patti, every day for the past two weeks. She made us this great breakfast during our visit to Penticton, and I couldn't wait to try it myself at home. There are two secrets - buying the right brand of oats (which are a blend of various things) and adding lots of tasty bits & pieces.

For two generous servings you'll need:

14 oz cold water
2 heaping 1/4 cup measures of Roger's Porridge Oats (available at Safeway)
A handful (a smallish 2 tbsps or 1/4 cup approx.) of each:
Dried cranberries
Dried blueberries
Golden raisins
Chopped walnuts
Slivered almonds
Brown sugar and milk - optional, for serving

Just combine the water, porrige oats and all the dried fruits & nuts in a medium pot. Bring to a boil on high. Reduce heat to low (we use 3 out of 10 on our stove) and cook, uncovered, for 17 minutes. Stir a few times throughout.

Serve in bowls with milk & sprinkled with brown sugar. SO good. You could change it up and add all sorts of your favourite dried fruits & nuts, or even fresh fruit when serving. Enjoy! I bagged up a week's worth of the mixture of all dry ingredients so it's speedy for Jamie to make in the morning.

PS - Very good for the digestion! In a good way. :-)

Cole finds IKEA exciting!

Jas and Cole and I took a trip to IKEA today to pick up a few "much needed" items. (More on "unnecessary" quotations here, but that would be more like much needed "items").

We got a few picture frames, as I'm finally getting around to hanging some of the wonderful photos from our honeymoon in Ireland, as well as a bunch of organizing stuff, fabric and some cute things for Mr. Cole. Like these adorable finger puppets (perfect for the doorway puppet show theatre I want to make) and this fun night light that gives off a cool blue glow.

The best part though had to be our lunch. Yes, the meatballs and mac & cheese with a side of veggies are good, but the funniest thing was Cole. We laid down some fabric on the table so that he could stretch out and play after an hour + in the Baby Bjorn. He'd had quite a lot of stimulation walking through the entire store, and after he ate his lunch (expressed milk - so convenient once in a while) he got snoozy. Being without his whole diaper bag of gear, I ended up swaddling him in some of the fabric I was buying.

Too cute!!! He fell asleep right on the table. What a doll.

Fun times!

Jamie and I love terrible 50's sci-fi movies. The kind of movies that are so atrociously bad they're awesomely good... Bad acting? No-name actors? Purposeless plots? Tons of stock footage? Really unfortunate monsters? Voyages to the Moon? Silver-clad space goddesses? All good!

We went out and bought ourselves 2 dvd sets with a total of 100 terrible movies yesterday for only $5o -- what a steal! One set of sci-fi and one of mysteries. All afternoon we were rubbing our hands in glee, waiting for Cole's bedtime so we could watch the first one. And a doozy it was - The Incredible Petrified World. A world that was neither incredible nor particularly petrified/petrifying, just really, really bad. Yay!! It involved a group of fools (boy, girl, boy, girl of course) who travel underwater for some vague reason (to investigate a "phantom layer" in the ocean) in a diving bell. Shocking - they get stuck down there. My favourite part - they venture out of the diving bell in scuba gear and find a set of caves containing oxygen and then the men go back to the death-trap diving bell to collect fishing poles (?) and their shoes (??)... Totally worth the .50 we paid for it. Can't wait for the next one - The Queen of the Amazons.

Once we're finished these 100 movies we are totally going to get more of these 50-movie packs. They're bundled by broad genre - horror, drive-in, nightmare worlds and catacomb of creepshows are all on our wish list. Oh, so many cinematic horrors - how wonderful! :-)

OK-anagan!

It's been ages since my last post, but Cole and I have been very busy lately. What with this lovely summer weather and all, we've been having our fair share of sunshine adventures (and some great naps too!).

We traveled last week to Penticton (in BC's fantastic Okanagan region, for those non BCers reading this!) to spend a few days relaxing with Bonnie & Jasmine. Thank you to Auntie Patti (Great in relationship to Cole and in general greatness too!) for letting us crash at your pad, the wonderful meals, company and for teaching me how to make great porridge.

The trip was so relaxing - some sunny days, some not-so-sunny ones too, lots of photo-taking excursions and some great late-night hot-tubbing after Cole was asleep. Wow - that was a lot of hypens... I wanted to go up to take photos of the vineyards & wineries (or "wineyards", as I hear some might call them...) and we certainly managed to do that. I think we visited 7 all in all. I only managed one tasting - and a tiny 2 sips of one white at that - since a) Cole was strapped to my chest and b) I was driving... The way to do a proper round of tasting tours would be to go on a bus maybe (yeck), or with a non-drinker as a chauffeur!

Mission Hill had lovely Mediterranean-esqe architecture, but the most surly tour staff who referred to Cole and said "we love babies - they are our future wine-drinkers, but..." and told us that basically if he fussed we weren't welcome. Well, IMHO only a moron would take a crying baby on a winery tour, but honestly it was said so rudely and then we were ignored! I don't generally buy a lot of wine anyway, and never theirs - I look for smaller brands and sadly the graphic designer in me shops based on graphically interesting labels usually, which has yielded many pretty bottles and gross wines. But I definitely will be giving them the official snub now, after they were so rude to us! We didn't take the tour. Instead we took our perfectly lovely baby and got a move on. The grounds were very pretty though.

Red Rooster had a nice place up on the ridge above Penticton - their 2007 Bantam is great. Thanks for the tip Jas! Cole seems to be enjoying himself here - maybe he was confused about the price of wine? A $30 bottle in the city only cost $14 at the winery! Stock up, I guess? ;-)

Stoneboat was a really nice little place near Oliver with great people and I have a bottle of their 2005 Nebbia blend tucked away for some future enjoyment.

But my favourite stop had to be Burrowing Owl. The most beautiful estate outside of Oliver and just gorgeous all around. And very nice people! And, to top it off, the most lovely wine I've had in ages... Their 2007 Pinot Gris is really delicious.

Aside from visiting the "wineyards", we relaxed, walked around the beach, visited the carnival (and got cotton candy!), ate cherries, watched the hummingbirds and generally had a good time. Cole even got his first taste of the high-life when we put his little feet into the hot tub. He really loves water. I'm going to have to take him swimming soon!

My only trouble is that Cole's sleep pattern seems a little screwy now after a week of things being quite different than at home. We're trying to fix that... :-)

I also bought a TON of fruit at Bears in Keremeous on the drive home. Seriously, I think I have a metric ton of produce - peaches, cherries, apricots as well as green beans and tomatoes too. So good! I made some apricot jam earlier this week and a tasty peach upside-down cake yesterday which was so good. I might make just a couple jars each of canned cherries & apricots, since I have so much...