camera love - it's genetic

coco has his own little camera. i should clarify - he has his own hand-me-down slightly broken camera.

when i was expecting, this old camera's flash bit the dust and i saved it for just such a time. cole has no immediate need for flash photography (thank you very much, say everyone's as-yet uninjured eyeballs) but he loves playing with this. so far, for the most part, he's been doing a bang-up job documenting various floors and close-up shots of his thumb, but it's so cute to see him excited about it. he calls it "my camera" and actually reached up to grab it today when we left the house. a chip off the old (hey!) block, i tells you.

be prepared - if you give a small person a camera, you will be seeing plenty of crazy photos of yourself while you try to show them how to point it at things other than the ground... ;-)

capturing the moment

i met up recently with a friend and her two adorable wee folk at maplewood farm. it was a great sunny fall day, one that included much feeding of waterfowl and an alarming incident in the goat enclosure (seriously - they really do eat clothes and baby carriages and they escape given the chance and, well, you get the idea...).

but i forgot my camera! that never happens. lucky for me then that my playdate was the lovely kim of kim culbert photography. she took amazing photos of cole and was kind enough to share.

i absolutely love how she's captured him and the style of her shots. absolutely fantastic. and it was so nice to be camera-free, if only for a day. it's hard not to get preoccupied sometimes with capturing a moment instead of just enjoying it, and having someone else to take the photos was a lovely change! i like to fancy myself a photographer but i'm totally wowed on a regular basis by folks with a special talent that goes way beyond.

if you've been thinking of professional photos of your wee ones definitely check out her site for more info!

chalk outlines

we took our giant bucket of sidewalk chalk over to the close park across the street yesterday with friends and went back again today to add to our masterpiece.

cole loves doodling on random things (his face, the fridge door, etc) and although i'm sure letting him doodle all over the playground is not going to curb this, it certainly is fun. from a graffiti standpoint, i figure it's ok if the boot camp people can do it all over the place... i couldn't resist doodling along with him, and i must say that i think the playground is far more exciting now. we drew comments coming from the car passenger doors, covered the car in flames (no, other playground mom - it's not on fire - it's just really fast!), wrote sound effects noises around everything, put a welcome mat outside the playhouse and my favourite - we drew a pool full of pirahnas at the bottom of the slide. fun!

there were some pretty young ladies today at the park doing a photo shoot and cole was such a ham - he kept wandering into their shots. the photographer was happy to let cole sit with the girls and cole was certainly glad to participate - seriously, that kid loves the camera. he was all chatty and saying "s-mmmaya" (smile) the whole time. i think he got a number...

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.

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.

What an understatement!

Yesterday we went to the dreaded Sears Portrait Studio to get Cole's passport photo. Just something I'd been meaning to take care of. Apparently Blacks - my first stop in Pacific Centre - "doesn't do babies"...

Cole sat on my knee for the photo and I had to take off his jacket. I wasn't expecting that - and he was wearing one of his tragically funny onesies. To great effect:

You can't see the "muffin" part of the equation - they cropped it because I think Passport Canada doesn't jive with message tees or something - but I think it will do nicely. He was quite baffled by the photographer, who thought she could elicit a neutral expression by waving a seizure-inducing flashing duck in front of him.

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!

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...

Cole's smooth moves...

Jamie and I were looking for something to watch on TV and spent a few minutes watching the useless TV guide channel (newsflash - nothing was on). We happened to notice that there are a lot of shows featuring dancing lately... We had a good time changing the rest of the show titles scrolling by to include 'dancing' as part of their titles... Crime Dancing Investigations or Stardance SG1 anyone?

That actually worked out really well as a smooth introduction to the photos I took of Cole today - particularly the first one. Cole looks like a natural dancer (and brings out his part Irish heritage) with this move - he's got the jig down pat.

He looks like he's skeptical about the whole idea... Laying down and doing the jig is a ways away from any spangly jumpsuits and choreographed routines! :-)

BTW - thanks to Laura for the awesome turtles onesie & coordinated socks!

Guess what? More photos of Cole!

Jamie and I had a great walk in the beautiful rain today with Cole. We bundled him up in his carriage with the rain cover on and walked to Yaletown and back along the seawall. We try to go for a good, long walk every day - it's a great way to get some fresh air and exercise, and also for the change of scenery! Cole is generally very good in his various contraptions (carriage, Baby Bjorn, carseat) so our outings are also a good chance for him to get in a nice nap while we chat and do something grown-up...

This afternoon the light in our living room was soft and gorgeous, so I hauled out my "real" camera and took some lovely shots of Cole. He had some tummy time (he's getting so strong!) and he also really enjoyed just looking around while reclining peacefully on his back. I can't get over his beautiful eyes! He might grow up to be a ham like his Mama - he seems to enjoy being in front of the camera!

Photos from our week...

This week we have been able to really get to know more about our little gentleman Cole. The first few days at home from the hospital last week were kind of a blur, but we are starting to get a good routine for our days and nights and also better at reading his cues too. Jamie does most of the diaper changing - he's got quite the knack! :-)

We've also been able to venture out all together several times to enjoy this springtime weather - some stroller walks around the seawall and to Yaletown (even into Urban Fare for groceries!), and some other trips out with Jamie carrying Cole in the Baby Bjorn. It is so nice to get some fresh air, and Cole seems to really love to snooze while we're on the go!

At our Doctor's appointment on Thursday Cole's weight was almost completely back up to his birth weight, which is totally normal. His umbellical cord stump fell off on Sunday last week, and it continues to heal well. He's opening his eyes more and more, although his favourite activities are still eating, sleeping and exercising his digestive system!

Here are a few photos of our week...

First round of baby photos!

Our first three days and nights at home with Cole have been amazing. Not always very easy on the ears or alertness levels, but definitely full of love and new experiences along with some crying and lots of diapers and laundry!

We had our first outing on Thursday, to the Doctor's office. Cole has started to regain the weight he lost after birth and he only had a touch of jaundice, so the Doctor wasn't worried. He didn't even poop on the scale (Cole, that is, not the Doctor), which looked like a distinct possibility, given the fact that when he started filling those diapers earlier that day, it looked like it was his favourite thing to do!

We managed to make a couple pit stops (Capers, drug store) for a few essentials - me dashing around the store like a weirdo while Jamie broke the City's idling laws and kept the car running. Cole loves sitting in his car seat once the car is on (so far, anyway) and he sleeps through all the bumps and shifts. To get him to and from the car we are using our Peanut Shell sling. He really loves to be nestled inside it.

For the first night or two (or whatever - they blend together) he was a bit fussy for sleeping and we let him sleep on us quite a bit just so we could rest. Jamie was able to get him to sleep in the crib on Thursday night and we were able to catch some zzz's together. We were feeling pretty good about our skills after that day - an outing, a bath, sleeping in the crib...

But Friday was a day of great challenges for all three of us. Cole would not sleep during the day in his crib or anyplace else really at all and cried all day long, whenever he wasn't feeding, that is! Through some miracle though, he actually turned around at bedtime and slept for three consecutive three-hour shifts between feedings. Sweet relief!!! We are keeping our fingers crossed that we are learning some good techniques and we can repeat this again!

Mr. Cole says "No more pictures Mommy," on his rough day.

More eloquence than ever!

So, I've been very slow in putting up photos from Ireland... It takes a long time to go through the zillion photos I took, and with the move our computers were out of commission for a little while... Jamie has gotten me all set up with a fancy new situation so that I can get back at looking at the photos, and our Pubespot website will be live again shortly and soon we'll have more photos than you ever wanted to see!

In the meantime, here are some interesting shots taken at Blarney Castle, just a short distance from Cork. The castle itself is quite amazing, and you can walk throughout the entire place; up spiral stone staircases, along the battlements at the top and through some lovely gardens, including a druid stone circle. The history of the place is pretty amazing too - the first castle on the site was built in the 10th century, and the current castle is nearly 600 years old and was taken by Cromwell's armies back in the 1600's.

Of course, there are many castles in Ireland that share a similar history and style - what makes Blarney popular with tourists is the famous Stone of Eloquence - the Blarney Stone. It's located up beneath the battlements at the top of the castle, and to kiss it you have to lie on your back on the castle roof and you hold an iron rail while a man helps lower you through a hole, so that you're upside down and kissing behind you... Here are some "terrific" photos that show us in the act of kissing the stone. I kissed twice - once for me and once for PJs!

Sweet, sweet memory...

It doesn't take much to make me happy! Well, I guess that's not exactly true... Yesterday, after driving Jamie to the airport, I booked it out to White Rock to take photos of the totem poles out by the beach promenade. No matter my own personal preferences, totems are my best-selling subject on iStock, so when we spotted new ones recently I had to make a trip back with my gear. I think I got some great shots. Sky was brilliant blue all morning while I took pictures out and about.

When driving back home, low and behold - I remembered about the Krispy Kreme donut shop way out in the middle of nowhere, which was conveniently right where I was! I should know better, but there's just something about hot fried sugar dough that is extremely appealing. Honestly those donuts should be illegal. But PJs wanted a donut too, so I had one for each of us. ;-)

Next up on my list - errands. Returned broken dvd player that work gave to us as a gift (recalled - apparently they catch fire!) and bought the sweeeetest CF card for my DSLR camera. We don't want to bring a laptop to Ireland, and I needed more memory so I can shoot all those green rolling hills, ancient landmarks and pubs to my hearts content. I had a 4GB card in mind which would be four times my current card, but I couldn't stop from buying the 16GB card instead... What? It was on sale (of a sort). I could not stop my evil giggling when I realized that I can now shoot over 2500high-res jpgs (or 800 RAW + jpg)! On one card! Mua-ha-ha... Jamie bought me a 2GB SD card for the pocket camera on Saturday (700 high-res shots) so I am pretty much all set for massive amounts of photo memory! Trust - I can take 3000 photos in one trip.

See - all it took was that to make me have a great day! Oh, and I bought a new bra (always good!), had a great pasta dinner (homemade good) and enjoyed 3+ hours of new teenage melodramas that Jamie had Veoh'ed for me (Gossip Girl - so bad it's good)... That and an interesting 911 documentary, Confronting the Evidence, (ignore the intro segment - it's cheese) late at night. Good, good times.