guess it's worth a shot...

maybe peas (or other veg for that matter) would be more palatable for mr. cole if they arrived on his majesty's tray in popsicle form? he does love popsicles and i've taken lately to making smoo-cicles - just smoothie of whatever sort we're making poured into popsicle molds - and they've been a great success around here... i guess it's worth a try - why not? i think i'll make these tonight and give them a shot tomorrow - will report back.

great idea via weelicious. plus love the orla kiely background... ;-) i would be more likely eat peas-on-a-stick if they came on top of good graphics.

Fun with languages

A stroke of genius (?)... When I'm emailing people I don't know about various things I should start signing with "merci" instead of "thanks" or whatnot above my name. It was an accident the first time I did it this evening but I have a theory... If the email I just typed makes very little sense - due to baby-induced brain cell loss, working frantically during naptimes, sleep deprivation, whatever - they will just think I can communicate in English remarkably well for a French-speaking person. Not that I wrote an illogical email that possibly uses too many exclamation marks.

Good idea, non?

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.

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 & I need some camo and a batch of wheat paste...

Found an awesome book at Paper Ya on Granville Island the other day - the Guerilla Art Kit, by Keri Smith. I just couldn't resist buying it. At the time, I thought I was buying it for someone else for a future gift, but I absolutely can't part with it now, so I'll be buying another copy.

In it, there are tons of fantastic ideas for expressing yourself and provoking thought in others through the creation of your own street art installations - everything from straightforward things like stencils, chalk messages and posters to seed bombs, wish trees and so much more. With useful step-by-step instructions on how to physically get your message out there, along with loads of inspirational ideas, this book is a great browsy read. Even if you don't plan on stenciling your message to the side of a derelict building or construction wall! :-)

Although not written for children, the style and content I think would be appealing - with some adult help of course, and probably a few discussions about the legal aspects of "vandalism"! There are so many great art projects in here that could work in many ways for kids, as well as help them learn to recognize the individual messages and art in everyday life around them.

Thinking now about street art, I'm remembering a great feature article from last year in NY Magazine on the vandalism of "vandalism" - who is the Splasher - the person behind the destruction of the most prized street art installations in NYC, and what is he/she trying to say? And for some amazing large-scale inspiration, check out the renowned artist, Banksy.

Perfect timing - popsicles!

I have been all in a mood to make popsicles lately, and the timing is good, since this past weekend has been so freakishly hot.

I heard there are popsicle molds at IKEA for just $1, and I definitely have to pick one of those up next time I'm out in the neighbourhood. But, that's a big trip for a $1 item (although I "need" some fabric while I'm there... oh and a few of this and that... meatballs for lunch... $100 later...). Being impatient as I am, Cole and I wandered over to Cookworks downtown last week to search out a quick fix.

We found some fun rocket ship popsicle molds from Cuisipro. They have other awesome designs too - sailboats and stars and the old-fashioned dual-stick kind, like the ones you'd buy at the corner store and whack on the side of the counter to break in half.

So far we've tried them with Abundant-C juice smoothies (ok), white lemonade (awesome!) and I have a few more ideas up my sleeve for various kinds of juice and crushed berries etc. I'm sure I can find enough flavours to keep us cool all summer! I suppose we'll just have to try them all... The molds themselves were really easy to use and they came out nicely.

Tons of great popsicle recipes online - like these margarita ones for grown-ups or of course brilliant ideas from Ms. Martha.

Yay! Movies for Mommies!

Best idea ever! I was chatting today with friends from work and was clued in to the concept of special movie screenings around town especially for moms & babies. Apparently, a few theatres do special matinee screenings for Mamas - dim lighting, lower volume, etc. And of course, an audience full of mommies who won't mind crying babies or notice you breastfeeding. Talk about a great idea! I've done a little research and found this:

Movies for Mommies plays at the Ridge Theatre on Arbutus - Wednesdays at 1pm. There's also Stars and Strollers - movies at Cineplex theatres around the lower mainland, various weekdays at 1pm. I've heard that Fifth Ave and the Park do this as well, but can't find info online.

I'm so going to try this out next week! Thanks to Sheila & Laura for the awesome tip - and for the great visit today too, by the way.

Speaking of movies... I'm really looking forward to seeing The Happening, the new M. Night Shyamalan movie due out June 13. I always get in a twist to see his movies, and this one is no exception. Usually it's a bit of a let-down (as in disappointment, not milk!) when the mystery is unveiled - he's better at the suspenseful build-up than the reveal - but the anticipation is so good that it doesn't matter much. I'm hoping that Jamie and I can have our first date night out and go see it!

Babylegs are awesome!

Actual baby legs, of course, are squishy and tasty and adorable. But I am referring to Babylegs, the baby legwarmers. We received some as a gift at our shower (thank you Kim & Shawn & Abby!) and we used them for the first time today on Cole. In addition to his hat, Cole needed some leg protection from the sun in the Baby Bjorn, and since he was nice and calm already we didn't want to undress him from his onesie.

Check them out - cute, eh? Cole looks unimpressed here what with the yawning and all (so cute!), but in reality he was super stoked to have such adorable looking legs. And we were complimented on them before we'd walked a block!

Instructions for baby

Stumbled across some hilarious illustrated instructions for baby-raising. Good tips for one and all - especially those who hope to raise a well-adjusted person! Thought these would give others a much needed chuckle as well.

For more hilarious tips, keep reading...

Must have

Love, love, love this idea. The Huffington Post recently launched a project to graphically represent the "lunacy of the Bush years" in a series of posters. They asked the public to contribute words that captured this concept and over 1000 suggestions came back. Check out what the submissions amounted to: Bush slogans, people and events.

The end result is a series of three posters that pick the best of the best. The one above is the Bush slogans version - I must have it! They're selling litho'ed copies of the posters for $20 each and the funds will pay for large-format versions of the posters to be placed on buildings in NYC, LA and Washington, like in the concept below.

Do you love it, or do you love it? Buy yours here.

Speaking of food...

Tis the season! Last year Jamie and I did a big Christmas grocery shop of non-perishables and dropped the whole thing into the food bank box. It was really uplifting to walk through the grocery store and think of what special holiday items and food staples would make a difference to hungry people using the food bank. Funny how the most satisfying shopping is for those other than yourself. This year we are going to do the same thing again, and I'm looking forward to it. I urge everyone reading this to do a good deed to support the hungry in your community this Christmas, in whatever way is equal to your means.

I'm also happy to share that I was able to convince my company to do e-cards this holiday season, so rather than spending all the money on postage and custom designed cards by yours truly, we are donating the $10,000 it would have cost to the National Food Bank. I still design the ecard, so I'm not talking myself out of a job just yet! :-)

One cool movement I read about recently in Good Magazine is Replate.

Basically, it's giving your packaged-up restaurant leftovers to the homeless, either directly, or by leaving them in an accessible location, such as on top of a trash can. Many of us already do this, and this movement is trying to draw more folks to do the same. Check out their FAQs. Next time you can't finish your restaurant dinner ask for a doggie bag and replate it!