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.

Out and about with our contraptions

Yesterday we took a sunny walk to Granville Island and we were so happy to have the new sunshade for our stroller. Thank you so much to Aunt Barb & Uncle Barry - we love it! It kept Cole so nice and shaded and also served well to make us look like visitors from the not-too-distant future (the fabric is a a cool looking mesh in metallic silver)!

Today we walked along the seawall to Yaletown to get some groceries, and Jamie used the Baby Bjorn. Cole really loves being carried in it.

It was pretty chilly and cloudy out, so we used the babylegs again and Cole wore a cute little knit hoodie. I thought that he and Jamie looked adorable, so at a stop light across from our place, I got out the camera. When I downloaded the photos from our walk, I pointed out to Jamie that he looked slightly annoyed in the photo - probably at me taking too many? Apparently, not so. Actually he was in the process of watching a hobo taking a wee on an electrical box across the intersection, hence the look of befuddlement. Good to know! Cole looks cute anyway, I think. ;-)

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!

Thank you!

We had a blast yesterday at the wonderful welcome brunch for Cole hosted by Bonnie and Dave. Jamie and I are so grateful to everyone - thank you so much for coming, for your support and for the lovely gifts - too much really, but we really appreciate everything.

It was terrific to see folks we haven't seen in ages and those we see much more often all gathered together to meet little Cole. He really had a great time - I'm sure of it! He was happy to be held by so many loving hands and he will be making many memories to come in his fancy new clothes, with his shiny new toys and everything in between.

Here we see Cole relaxing on Gramma Bonnie at the end of the day - definitely the party animal! You know you've had a great party when it's a three feedings & diaper changes kind of event! :-)

Thank you to Bonnie for planning such a beautiful event, and all those who helped too - everything was perfect and delicious and lots of fun. A great day all around!

I have lots of photos of the day - wasn't sure about posting everyone's photo online without permission though (is that the semi-professional photographer in me?). I'll be sending lots around via Bonnie...

Check - another essential off the list!

Don't go thinking that Jamie and I are all about frog t-shirts and wall decals (ok, we're mostly about the silly stuff). We also realized that we had to get down to business and finally figure out which car seat to buy so they'll let us leave the hospital with PJs! It was kind of overwhelming every time we went looking, so eventually we resorted to the good old Internet for advice.

I am fine with not using the infant seat on the stroller frame, so we decided to go with a convertible model that will stay in the car and allow PJs to sit rear-facing for the full first year, regardless of his weight, and then switch around for forward-facing use. It also reduces the amount of stuff to buy (rather than an infant seat and a regular seat a year later). Of course, I'm also glad to reduce the amount of crap we have to chuck in a landfill, since you really can't share or sell a used car seat for safety reasons...

Consumer Reports rated the Britax Roundabout as the top choice in the smaller-sized convertible category. It's got a ton of safety features that go above & beyond, and it also doesn't look hideous (which helps, but on this one subject at least, I decided to go for function over form!). We chose the Onyx one shown above (not that heinous cow version!!).

The only trouble was that all the stores in our area have the seat on backorder! Luckily, Dave & Bonnie were still down traveling the California coast in their RV. We found a store that sold the seat in the area they were in, and they were so sweet to pop into the cutest kids store - Chicken Little in Santa Barbara, CA - and pick it up for us. Thank you!!!

Rockin' chair that rocks!

Thank you to Bonnie and Dave for letting us use this lovely rocking chair for PJs room, and for getting it recovered for us. It looks terrific, and feels great!

This chair has a great history - Jamie was rocked in this chair as a baby, and I hear that he used to love sitting in it with the biggest cat I've ever seen, Morris, back then. I can't wait to see Jamie rocking PJs in this chair, and I can just picture all the use it will get very soon. Yay!

We also got our crib and mattress delivered today, so the room is coming along. Jamie and I plan to put the crib together this weekend when he is home. Can't wait!