Do-It, 1960's style

So I was out walking with Cole the other day and we stumbled across a great, if rather dank, thrift shop on Drake at Granville and as usual made a beeline for the books. It was run by two really sweet guys dressed as punk rockers who were blasting Dr. Dre, perhaps ironically.

Anyway, couldn't believe my luck in finding this gem - the McCalls Golden Do-It Book of crafts for kids, printed in 1966. 50 cents!

I love this era. The retro graphics alone sold me right off the bat, but there are a ton of great rainy-day arts & crafts inside, all using items I'm supposed to have around the house, like paper plates and pipe-cleaners. Most of the ideas are pretty cool. A few are downright weird, but that's part of the charm. Lots of paper crafts, projects that use materials destined for the blue-bin and it even has kids beginner level crochet, knitting and sewing projects. It also promises that the activities only require a minimum of adult supervision at best, which is always good, so one can get back to mixing a Rob Roy or washing the Plymouth or whatever one might have done 40+ years ago with a certain amount of free time afforded by keeping the kids busy.

A few pages, for your viewing pleasure:

The post in which I bitch a little (and resolve to be nicer)

I realized, recently, that I should be careful not to be so rude to perfect strangers here in Vancouver. This is a small city, and I am bound to offend someone, eventually, whom I will come to need a job from someday or, perhaps as importantly, is the person preparing my lunch. I don't need to give anyone a good reason to think I'm a jerk or to spit in my food.

I blame tiredness, which I blame for many of my tribulations lately, and am sure I will come 'round to my mostly-peachy self soon enough. In the meantime, and hopefully for the long term, I am resolving to (try to) be nicer. Maybe not "nice-nice" outright, but at least less rude, providing you are not smoking near me or hogging the sidewalk ramp. Or currently in the process of running me over in a crosswalk, in which case I will knock on your back window and pretend it was an accident. I am really going to try to focus on the many perfectly lovely (or at least odd and interesting) people I come into contact with every day.

Time for a rant though... Has anyone else noticed how many smokers there are lately? The latest statistics that I've read say that only 14% of British Columbians smoke. That means 86% don't. I realize that our much-applauded (deservedly so) anti-smoking by-laws that prohibit lighting up on patios or near entrance ways and the like have pushed the smokers from their cozy, if cold, chairs and turned them into roving zombies, searching for that elusive warm corner in which to yellow their teeth. But seriously - it seems lately as though ever second person on the sidewalk is smoking!

[Full disclosure: back when I was 21/22 I smoked for a about year, coinciding with a lot of clubbing and wearing of the-millenium-is-coming shiny clothes. I thought I was cool. I was not. Particularly since I preferred those super-thin long cigarettes, in menthol no less, from Amerdica that are made mainly for Southern divorcees that live in the trailer park. I don't know how much I enjoyed it, since it made me dizzy and nauseous most of the time. I quit quite easily cold turkey when I met Jamie, who hates the stuff and who I liked a heck of a lot more than smoking.]

It's a choice, sure, but what if my choice was to walk around with something disgusting and stenchy and cancer-causing and just blow a little in your baby's face? Would you feel just charming and warm all over?

I actually overheard a guy who was stinking up a patio in Steveston the other day saying "yeah, when I cough I know it's time for another cigarette." Dude, you might want to think about quitting. At the very least, please stop dangling your cancer stick over top of my baby, as I really prefer he not smoke. Same goes for puffing all of your smoke into my face when I can't get around you. Why don't you find a back alley and a milk crate and make yourself comfortable?

I don't think I'm alone, for two reasons in the last two days. First, I was passive-aggressively wrinkling my nose at a smoker we passed and telling Cole not to smoke because it definitely isn't cool when a stranger started laughing and engaged me in a conversation about how gross it is for a couple of blocks. Second, completely on her own, another pedestrian started laughing out loud on the street yesterday and when I looked over she pointed out a dude on a bike who was smoking. She said she sees him every day and finds it ridiculous, the combination.

Oh, and the sidewalk ramp thing? If you don't have wheels or a cane, you don't need the ramp. They're called legs. The sidewalk is only a few inches tall. Use your legs. Please stop cutting me off as I try to negotiate the ramp without being run over. I will seriously run into your ankle and pretend it was an accident. Oops, my goodness, gee I'm so sorry.

Happy three quarters birthday, Cole!

Yesterday was Cole's 9 month birthday. Three quarters of a whole year - amazing! I was thinking that 9 months sounded familiar, and of course this marks the point where his time outside the womb is equal to his time inside.

We spent the day doing a mix of the familiar and the new. We played as we do in the morning, before naptime and after lunch. Cole has figured out how to climb into his toy baskets after pulling everything out and seemed to really enjoy the experience.

He was treated to a free show as workmen came into our place during our 11 am lunchtime to inspect, and then rip out a few pieces of, our severely warped flooring. (A pipe burst three floors up a few weeks ago and hilarity has ensued.) They responded to my tales about the floor driving me crazy by ripping out a section of floorboards for now and chucking it on the deck. Apparently it will take several more weeks to get started on actual repairs. For now, this is a far sight better than walking on flooring that buckles with each step. Cole promptly learned how to pull painting tape off the spot they left.

Then we took a trip to my office. Cole was resourceful and found ways to amuse himself endlessly. Aside from beaming at everyone, he found out just how much fun you can have with a rolling step-stool and a bottle of water. Especially the step-stool - he pushed it around (thank you, low-pile sensible carpeting) and had a grand time walking behind it. And it was only a matter of time before he realized that he could climb on it too. Everything seemed very exciting for him, albeit beige.

I tend to be very protective of Cole's naptimes. We left the office armed with a travel mug of free coffee and he conked out in the car right away, so I figured we'd better keep rolling. I was hungry (after eating lunch at 11 am) and figured we'd come across a drive-thru along the way... Cole doesn't generally awaken and then go back to sleep for naps - you only get one shot each in the morning and afternoon. As it happened, it was a great, somewhat meditative, drive. Our car battery died a week ago (I left the ceiling light on and then parked the car for a week) and now our radio won't work without a special code that no one can give me over the phone. So I had an hour and a half to drive around without any music or talk, and it was really quite lovely. On a whim, we drove to Porteau Cove, halfway between Vancouver and Squamish. It was so beautiful out - the fog was rolling over the water and above it the sky was gloriously clear. Never did end up finding a drive-thru and instead resorted to eating one of Cole's teething cookies. Not bad, actually...

We must really start getting up to the mountains more often, or out of the city in general. I love it, but sometimes just a breath of that fresh woodsy aroma and an open stretch of road really hits the spot.

One of two

Just a few shots from yesterday's fog walk. So misty and beautiful. I am not averse to sun, but I'll take moody fog anytime. These are from a new point-and-shoot that I got at Christmas and mainly taken while still moving (so as not to disrupt the rocking motion of the carriage and tempt fate with a sleeping baby).

After hitting the library we walked through Yaletown and to the seawall. Cole slept the whole while, all the way to English Bay, down Denman and for half of a shop at the fancy new Safeway on the corner at Robson (which replaces the old, nasty Safeway on the corner at Robson).

And since we are in a black & white mood, here's one from the morning of Cole and I that definitely captures what we do a lot of - hugging and face-patting.

Baby-wearing, round 4

We have several options for baby-wearing around here...

First up, chronologically by order of acquisition, is the Peanut Shell sling that we got before Cole was born. I accidentally bought it too large (over the Internet) and so haven't really been comfortable using it, aside from bringing Cole home from the hospital. Back when he was wee I was also a) concerned that he'd somehow fall out and b) a little perturbed by the angle that his neck would take on in there... Jamie used it the other day on a whim and it fit him perfectly - although whether or not the zebra-print is too "effeminate" is up for debate... He said Cole had a great time in it in the hip carry and even fell asleep.

Thern there's the trusty Baby Bjorn which has served us well for a coon's age. It saved the day back when Cole was just weeks old and it became a favourite way for us to travel light. He's still under the weight limit on it, so occasionally we'll use it, but winter clothing combined with his height make it unweildly and of course he's heavy and that can be hell on the back.

The Ergo is still in the closet. I have never been really comfortable in it and Jamie hates the thing, but I don't miss an opportunity to point out everyone we see with one. They always look so comfortable and we keep trying it. I hold out hope that when Cole can hang out on our backs it will be great for us...

And the other day when out walking with Kim we spotted a discarded fabric wrap on the ground. Gross, yes, but for a minute I did think about how much laundering it would take to give it a go... Nevermind.

But, wait - there's more! Introducing the newest member of our team, the JJ Cole Premaxx sling. We were on a hunt to TJ's over the weekend to see if any money could be thrown at the sleeping issue, and we couldn't resist trying on another carrier while we were there. This one fit me and Cole like a charm and in a burst of impulse we brought it home. It's adjustable, so it fits Jamie too, and it claims to fit until 18 months, or 35lbs... I tried it today for a walk solo - Cole rode in it to the library on Georgia - and loved it. He was high up on my hip and we could talk and giggle and he also got a great view of everything going on around us. Here we are in our matching shades:

I pushed the stroller too, since the idea was to play at the library and then head out for a long walk/nap. And then after the long walk, I popped him back into the sling for a bus ride, some walking & shopping and a Skytrain ride home. It was awesome the whole time! He was up high, looking around, making raspberries at me and at the beginning anyway (when it was still sunny) trying to steal my shades.

So far, a thumbs-up to this carrier. Let the good times roll.

The long week

This week that just finished was loooooong around here.

Jamie was out of town (in Baltimore of all God-forsaken places) and of course when he's not here we certainly miss him. No more tag-teaming at sunrise and sundown or the exchange of "just go see if he's looking for a soother" hopes in the middle of the night when Cole can't possibly be hungry an hour after his last midnight feeding. I missed out on sharing tales of our days - tales from the outside world, stories of misadventures and new discoveries and all that good stuff... But on the other hand, on Thursday night I could loll around until the highly irresponsible hour of 10pm to watch both back-to-back episodes of CSI's goodbye to Grissom, sitting on the floor and cutting out fabric. I'm so glad he's back now (Jamie, not Grissom) - he shared a can of Guinness with me, ordered us a pizza and read Cole Grumpy Bird. He listened to my (somewhat) crazy ranting, and to stories of how I was fabulously rude to perfect strangers for various reasons this week because I'm tired and therefore entitled to be somewhat unpleasant. And had some quality Daddy-Baby time with Cole today while I visited the hairdresser.

Despite my crazy level of exhaustion, our days this week out and about, in and around were great. Daylight hours are good - it's the nighttime that's killer... Cole's been having fun with a bunch of lovely new toys too, thanks to terrific trio of my brother Bryan, s-i-l Michelle and niece Robyn who sent us a gift card to the toy store for Christmas. We strolled on up to Toys r Us and had a field day.

He's been highly entertained by one of his new favourites - his rotary phone. I love this thing - the ringing, the creepy woggly eyes, the 5 centimetre cord... Cole is nuts about it. I was thinking - do kids today (wow, old person phrase alert!) even get the concept of a rotary phone? I mean, for him this is just a fun toy that rolls and makes ringing noises - it's not like it relates to something he sees us using around the house. We don't even have a home phone, just a couple of mobiles...

And, just this week has just started to wiggle along to music. Almost clapping too, when we're playing in the kitchen and he's enjoying his other new toy, a magnetic animal-matching game complete with various cute down-home songs. And his first standing up solo dance was to Spoon's The Underdog. We danced around together as we do often and when I put him down he kept right on wiggling his legs while holding on to the sofa - so adorable! I'm a hard sell on most kids music, personally. I find it makes me want to, oh, gouge out my eyeballs, pour hot oil in my ears, you know... Like the collection of songs I saw advertised on tv a while ago featuring kiddie favourites "sung" by screaming children. When the woman on the commercial puts the cd in for a car trip so that her kids can scream along on top of the recording well, I just can't imagine how she keeps the car on the road! We have a huge (mostly bootleg) collection of music and are big fans of a lot of Internet radio too, with a good sprinkling of CBC Radio 2 and whatever that French station is that plays good stuff... I rotate through a loop of various musical moods. Sometimes it's Miles Davis or Coltrane (the inspiration for Cole's name) for months and then not again for a year, but I always come back to my favourite genres... And lately it's been back to some indie stuff. Here's a bit of what we've currently got in our playlist, in honour of Cole's first dance:

Hip, hop, hippity hop

Finally - have found time to make something new! It's been a long time, what with the Christmas holidays and whatnot... I thought I'd get lots done while Jamie was home for two weeks on vacation between Christmas and New Year's, but of course I just spent whatever leisure time we carved out watching really terrible old mystery shows and making hot chocolate...

Found a great book - Aranzi Cute Stuff - by two crafty Japanese sisters. The book itself is fantastic - really quirky and full of translated glory. And it has a ton of terrific projects. Good basics, too, even if you don't want to applique everything with characters. I have at least half the pages dog-eared with projects for Cole (and myself too)... They have a Baby Stuff book coming out next month that I'm preordering now - can't wait!

First up though: this cute bunny for Cole.

It's from the "long doll bag" pattern, and is supposed to be a little purse with a zipper in the back that you can carry on your wrist, but I modified it a little and just stuffed the torso. I'm going to try making it a friend in a different fabric. Cole was instantly a big fan - grabbed it off the doorknob where it was hanging before I even had a chance to photograph it.

He chose the vintage fabric from my scrap stash himself! The eyes and mouth were supposed to be appliqued felt, but I figured he would just chew them off so instead I used non-toxic fabric paint.

He is a big fan of bunnies in general lately. He loves turning the pages of I am a Bunny and pointing out Nicholas, the little bunny who lives in a hollow tree. He also gets a big kick out of Mrs. Bunny, a weirdo hand puppet that we found at Yoko Yaya at Christmas time. He smiles from ear to ear when she pops out to give him a little talk. She seems to have a good opinion on most matters (as voiced by yours truly). Her bunnies always eat their veggies and take their naps.

Finger!

Had to post this photo of Cole from the other day. After dressing him in his airplane shirt and Christmas flannel pants (and hiking them up before putting on the snowsuit), it became a little obvious that he was dressed like somebody's crotchety elderly uncle. Too funny...

Cole has discovered a new favourite thing in the past few days: FINGER! He loves pointing with one finger - not at things particularly, but just pointing his finger in general... I point back to him and tell him 'finger' which he finds amazingly hilarious. And he laughs like a crazy person when we play dancing finger, a character who pokes through the holes in the back of the dining room chairs and says "woggle, woggle, woggle". Loves it.

As you can see from these shots taken yesterday, he finds himself quite amusing...

We had a great time at Sunset Community Centre on Friday - Cole loves the space to roam, the other kids and all the toys too. I love watching him enjoy himself, playing too and of course catching up with friends. And talk about a steal of a deal - it was free for a baby Cole's age! We actually walked all the way there - to Main & 51st - with Cole napping all the way. The sidewalks became less maintained after 33rd, which was kind of a surprise to me since downtown is just peachy again. There was a fair amount of black ice and chunky frozen sludge to deal with at times. I made myself feel a little better about lazy folks not shoveling their sidewalks by throwing a few well-placed snowballs onto stoops... It was either that or write some notes, but I figured Cole would wake up if I stopped to look for a pen. Is anyone sending around a petition yet about changing the bylaws in Vancouver to enforce residential sidewalk shoveling?

And apparently it's 'naked pictures week' here... I let him roam free once in a while (usually when he escapes the diaper change) and he finds it highly entertaining. So far so good, as far as the carpet goes... ;-)

A day in the life

Just a few photos from our day yesterday. We had scads of fun at home, playing and getting out and about (well, that was fun for me).

Cole is crazy about the wool monkey from Auntie Kathy, Uncle Al & the boys - we call him Orangelo (for Orange Jello).

He's also great at helping me with my projects - he holds the lens cap for me and pokes the lens, and even helps keep my ball of wool from rolling under the couch. :-) He's been a little anxious lately when I move too far away, so I'm trying to find good ways to not only play together, but also to play independently while staying close by. I'm not sure how well the knitting & sitting on the floor with him plan is going to go, but it was adorable to watch him pounce on the wool like a kitty. I'm knitting a little scarf for him, so if he wants to suck on the wool it's fine by me. It will end up being munched on anyway in the long run!

By the way... After I posted about his naptime irregularities and stuck photos of him cavorting around in the nude on the Internets for the "world" to see, Cole was an angel and had a long nap in the morning and napped again for over an hour and a half in the stroller in the early afternoon - long enough to walk to the west end, go to Capers and walk all the way back. No comments on this happening again - just reporting on yesterday. :-) In fact, only an excessively loud man in our elevator woke him up. What is with otherwise very nice people shouting things like "OH - HE'S SLEEPING!" into a stroller at a sleeping baby? Or continuing to spew loudness at his mother, who is bristling visibly and talking as politely as possible in a very low tone? I actually shushed a still-hammered youngish man on the street on New Year's Day around noon. Thank you for bellowing "HAPPY NEW YEAR BABY" to Cole while he slept - he thanks you for your well wishes, I'm sure.

Oh - and check out Cole's top teeth!!!

I've been meaning to take a picture of them, which is easier said than done at this stage. You can see them best when he's upside-down or from another angle when he's howling with laughter - neither are easy photos to get single-handedly. His three top teeth are out, with the fourth about to come through. Aren't they awesome? Love that gap - it makes me giggle. To get this photo I tickled him and snapped away - ticklish and an adorable gap in his front teeth? Seriously, he gets more squishable and kissable every single day.

They sell hotdogs too

We've been trying to figure out what Cole needs in terms of naps lately. I think he's smack in the middle of the 8/9 month sleep regression, according to the lovely genius Moxie, but it seemsto me that perhaps the four month regression never ended. Lots of night waking. Not complaining (per se) - more just saying it. We are tired. Very, very tired. It takes a lot to get me this bone-achingly tired...

Because Cole is also all about not napping throughout the day as predictably as he used to, our patterns are a little out of whack and I'm slightly at a loss. Do I do something about it? What would that be? Let nature take it's course? Babies like routine, according to the books I have, but what if his routine is going through a transition? To what?

Our normal day used to go like so: wake up at 5 or hopefully 6ish (yikes), food, playtime, morning nap, food, playime at home, activities out with a nap on-the-go around noon, food, playtime at home, late afternoon nap, food, evening playtime, bathtime, bed. Nothing hard and fast, but it was pretty predictable. I'm not a schedule person at all and am brutal with timing (hey, I was even born late!) but I have found a lot of comfort in knowing what to expect generally throughout the day...

Well, it seems like Cole wants to drop an afternoon nap. Most of the time he doesn't want to sleep later in the afternoon. If he wakes up around 6am (or more likely, if we can coax him back to sleep in our bed for as long as possible) then the day works out ok and he naps mid morning at home and in the stroller for an hour or more when we're out in the early afternoon. We've moved bedtime a little earlier, to 6:30, according to advice from the good old Internets. But if he wakes up earlier then he ends up napping earlier throughout the day and then being way too wired and cranky by dinnertime... But, on the other hand somedays he's fine with it. And other days he only naps for half an hour in the carriage around noon and then I don't know what to do, since he doesn't want to sleep later on... The formula goes: he likes this if he does that but not that if he did like so and of course there's always the x factor of such and such. I do not like math. So what to do?

Oh, I realized that I started this post off with the intention of talking about IKEA, Sweden's gift to the world, other than brilliant hockey players, that is. Apparently any post I've tried to write in the last few days ends up being filled with sleep questions/whining or incoherant rambling about my various woes... Or reading articles on sleep while waiting for photos to upload. Well, the other day when the early naps thing happened I broke routine and decided that we should go for a 3:00 ride in the car. Dusted it off (hadn't had it out since Christmas - it's a real waste of money) and we drove to IKEA. Two things accomplished. Cole napped for the 30 minutes it took us to get to Coquitlam and spent the rest of the evening cheerfully, and we got to pick up one of there fancy collapsable tunnels that I'd been hankering after for a while. Perhaps afternoon jaunts to the suburbs are in order as we figure out this nap thing?

We took an extra little while to get out of the house. Cole is a wiggle worm during changing lately and likes especially to flip around as soon as his diaper comes off. He clambers over to the diapering supplies basket and tries to outwit me and suck on various lotion and powder bottles. If I thwart him he tries to crawl away and inspect the latch on the door, at the head of his changing table... This time I was trying to wrestle the diaper on and growing hotter by the minute (in my coat and scarf, already anticipating sitting still in the car and listening to the cbc). I put him down, sans diapers, on the floor so I could get my coat off and he had a whale of a time crawling around half naked, ripping books off his shelves and emptying the contents of a few baskets. He was enjoying himself the way only someone in a bear-eared coat, one sock and no pants can do... He was really a sight to behold. I actually really enjoy these moments when whatever happens and we just do our thing together, crawling around and playing, laughing, taking photos. He really is absolutely loads of fun and I think he already has a quirky sense of humour - he's a little imp.

Anyway, part 2... I do love ikea. I wish we had the kind of warehousey dwelling with exposed bricks painted a derelict kind of white and battered old wood floors that would make ikea furniture blend well with retro mod stuff in a weird, euro, cool kind of way. As it is, we just have the same shelves and lamps and picture frames as everyone else and it's ok for now. Works well for us. I've even gotten pretty good at assembling things... I also love their meatballs, the lingonberry sauce and the sparkling pear cider. I wonder whether actual Swedish people really do eat that kind of stuff, let alone buy it at ikea...

Anyway, partthree now? Cole loves his tunnel! That is what I started this post to communicate. He really loves it - he crawls from one end to the other laughing and squealing and having a blast. I would love it too - if I fit, I'd crawl in there with a book and fall asleep. Conveniently for us it matches his floor tiles, which is nice. Even though our place has become quite overrun with toys and whatnot it's nice to at least have some of them coordinate...

I also found him an adorable little push cart while we were there. Have to have at least one impulse buy per trip, and the suspiciously inexpensive hot dog doesn't count.

Science World: Like Sea World but with less water and more science

We had a quiet New Year's Eve 'round these parts. Not expecting to stay awake until midnight, we toasted our year past and the year to come with a great bottle of champagne early on - I think we were finished it well before 9. We fell asleep watching movies and when we woke later to feed Cole (one of his usual frequent nightly wakings) decided to stay awake for an extra 30 precious minutes in order to watch the countdown. We skipped the hooting and noisemaking from the balcony since only crazy fools would do that with a baby in the next room! While we are both of those things at times, I try not to be both at once.

Earlier in the day we hit up Science World. I hadn't been yet, and Jamie bought us memberships recently. It was fun - lots of cool experiments and activities for bigger kids, but Cole has a couple favourites too - he likes pulling at the guitar strings that show you sound waves, playing "I'm looking at you over... here!" in the angled mirrors and also the thing where you make an electrical circuit with your hands and it makes a weird sci-fi noise. As you can tell, I am not a big reader of plaques, and I did not do particularly well in science way back when, but I will get better with time, I'm sure, and Jamie can answer all the questions anyway! ;-)

Cole also really liked the kids play area - climbing through a little tunnel especially and we patiently waited our turn (apparently a novel concept!) to sit in the spaceship too.

All in all a great last day of what was a year of amazing new experiences for all of us. To 2009!