New stroller

The new stroller has arrived! Actually, I drove down to Ogdensburg last Friday to pick it up because we ordered it from Amazon.com (why won't they shop to Canada????). Anyway, Sandy (Greg's mom) graciously babysat for me since Avery doesn't have any ID yet and can't cross the border. It turned out that Avery slept for approximately 2.5 out of the 4 hours I was gone and pooped twice. Lucky Sandy! :)

The stroller we got is the BabyJogger City Elite Single - it is considered an all-terrain stroller but is not specifically intended for jogging. Now, does it seem odd to anyone else that a company called BabyJogger would make any (or in fact, several) types of stroller that are not meant for jogging? At any rate, I have spoken to a few people who have jogged with it anyway and didn't have any concerns. Right now we have to use the car seat adaptor with it, making it look enormous, but the ride is much smoother than the Graco travel system stroller we have. On the downside, there is no real cupholder and the basket in the bottom is smaller and harder to get into. With respect to the cupholder, I have already bought an attachment package from Prince Lionheart that will help clip any number of water bottle/sippy cup/other kid things to the handle, etc. I will let you know whether it works out. We also got a bug canopy (for those weekly trips out to Manotick) and a rain/wind canopy. I am not sure the rain canopy will fit because it isn't specific to the City Elite model, but that one came from Kiddytown and they are pretty good about taking things back.

All that to say, I haven't actually tried jogging with the stroller (or with Avery to be more precise)...I am a little nervous because her head still moves around a bit while walking and it will obviously be worse if I am moving faster. We bought a better head support for the car seat (yes, I have been doing a ridiculous amount of shopping this week), so that should help. We are heading to Toronto tomorrow for a visit and we are only bringing this stroller, so I will likely have to give the jogging a try while we are there.

A quick update on Avery - at 7 weeks (this past Tuesday) she weighed 12 lbs 3 oz. Not quite growing at the same rate as Nicholas, but it is fast enough for my liking! I am going to have to work on my arm and back muscles to be able to keep lifting the car seat. She has already grown out of a ton of clothes, (quite sad when they only wear the cute outfits a couple of times) and is wearing some 3-6 month items now. Then again, the sizing is all so variable, it is hard to know what she should really be wearing. I tried to measure her length the other day, but it came out as 22 inches, less then the 23 inches she supposedly was when she was born. I don't think she has gotten any shorter, so my measuring skills may not be up to par. I'll have to try again sometime soon.

Broken down pool

I mentioned in my last post that our pool was broken...well this was what it looked like about a week ago. Now, the snow is all gone and the pool walls have collapsed inwards even more. Basically, due to the ridiculous amount of snow we had this year, there was too much pressure on the walls of above ground pools and 500+ of them across the city were damaged and have to be replaced. Good time to be in the pool business I guess.

Luckily most of the costs are covered by our house insurance, so we will be getting a new pool probably in June. That means we will have a slow start on the swimming season this year, but hopefully we will catch up in July and August. If the replacement pool wasn't covered by the insurance, we would have ended up with a really big vegetable patch instead!

Running...sigh

Inspired by Julie's first post-pregnancy run, I finally managed to get motivated to do my own first run. And I use the word "run" even more loosely than she does. A brief disclaimer: I have always been a follower of the "run a bunch of minutes, then walk one minute" school of running. Partly because it helps me get my breathing under control and stretch a little, not to mention drink some water rather than spilling it all over me, but also because of the mental help it provides by breaking the run into more manageable chunks. So today's run (my first real exercise in LONG time) was actually in 3-4 minute intervals of running, with 1-minute walks in between. When I am in better shape, I usually do 10 and 1. Something to aim for at least.

I have never been good at distance running, and I have to admit that I really don't enjoy it, even when I am in better shape than now. It just gets to be less painful, rather than more fun. However, I have found that it is really the best way for me to lose weight and trim down in general, so hopefully I can keep this up. I am also hoping the novelty of the jogging stroller will be good motivation when it comes next week.

So the run itself...I was super-slow, a little cold when running into the wind, and generally dying by the end. On the positive side, my shins didn't hurt and my feet didn't fall asleep (I know, I usually tie my shoes too tight) - these were my main issues when I last quit running. But I have felt like crap for the rest of today. I have never been a believer that exercising gives you more energy during the rest of the day. Or, it could be this silly cold we have been passing around for the last couple of days. If that is what it is, sorry Kean family!

One up side for the run - I set out saying I was going to do 5km regardless of how long it took me. I had previously mapped out a couple of routes on Gmaps Pedometer and thought I remembered which one was the 5km version. When I got out there I quickly realized there was no way I would be able to do the route I had planned, so I cut out about a third - and I was annoyed that it still took me so long to do. When I got home I decided to map the route I did to see how long it was, and it turned out to be 5km! I guess I had mixed up the two routes and the one I was thinking of was longer - somewhere between 6-7 km. So I felt a little better about the whole thing.

At any rate, that was my running adventure for today. Hopefully they will get less eventful, more a part of the weekly routine, and more "fun". At least the nicer weather will definitely help and I am sure I will appreciate any running I have done once ultimate starts again.

Next post - our broken pool. Another sigh...

5 weeks old...and too drunk to make it to the crib

5 weeks old...and too drunk to make it to the crib
Originally uploaded by The Herages

Perhaps posting this photo is just going to get me in trouble ( I swear there was no way she was going to fall and my mom was right there to catch her just in case), but I thought this was too cute a pose to pass up. I also wanted to show off the ridiculous way Avery's mother had dressed her - diaper shirt courtesy of Christine Mason, pants courtesy of Maya, Natasha and/or Jaida Lawson and hoodies courtesy of Aidan Ferguson (via his mom of course). Oh, and the hat is from the Lawsons as well. At least each of the items has pink on it - that means the outfit kinda matches, doesn't it???

Anyway, Avery was not really drunk but rather still passed out from a car ride. I think she has now hit her 6 week growth spurt because she slept a ton during the day for the last couple of days and today she didn't even fall asleep when we were in the car. She has been sleeping now for about 45 mins and I think this has been the longest stretch so far today. Hopefully this pattern won't emerge tonight as well.

In other news, Greg and I managed to sneak out for a movie this week - we're only getting out this much because my mother was here, and I assume we will settle into a more normal routine for a couple with an infant now that she has gone home. We saw Run Fatboy Run, and despite some not great reviews that I read, we really liked it. The movie had a few moments of super-gross out humour a la American Pie, etc. as well as general good laughs. Of course the whole thing was unrealistic, but isn't that what going to the movies is all about?

The other "big" development for the week is that we have already bought another stroller. I have only used our current stroller about 5 times, and while it isn't terrible, I got the bug for a different one after trying the Mason's Bob dualie stroller. We ended up ordering one from BabyJogger - but I will write about that once it comes and I get to try it out a bit. Jogging, of course... :)

Our vist to the Sugar Bush

This morning Greg, Avery, my mom and I went to a local Sugarbush to get a pancake breakfast and check out the maple syrup action. Ok, it wasn't really morning any more by the time we got there, but it was our breakfast and lunch. Proulx Berry Farm is really close to our house, which was one advantage, but it is not a huge place and wasn't terribly well organized, so we ended up waiting in line for over an hour outside to get to the food. Thankfully, it was a gorgeous day today and warm enough to spend the time outside. I also suspect this was one of the last weekends the sugarbushes will be open, so people came out in droves. Overall it was quite fun and the food definitely hit the spot after waiting so long.

Avery was a champ through the whole thing! I had her in the carrier the whole time and she basically slept through it all. We did take her out for a while once Greg was done eating - maybe she won't make a face when she finally gets to taste maple syrup. Or maybe she will prefer Aunt Jemima syrup like her mother, much to her father's chagrin!

I am really liking the carrier - it is a Beco Baby Carrier, and I bought it at Milkface in Ottawa. (It seems this blog is also going to be a bit of a baby product review site.) This particular carrier was recommended by Dana. What I like about it is that it isn't hard and cumbersome, nor is it particularly big. However, there is enough support so that I don't feel it in my back and it is fairly adjustable so that Greg and I can both use it. Avery really likes it so far, and typically falls asleep within minutes of being in it. Today I kept debating whether it would have made more sense to have brought her in the stroller, but because the dining area was so crowded, having to cart around the bucket car seat would have been a huge hassle. It all seems to be one big experiment!

4 weeks old, an anniversary and the Miracle Blanket

Avery turned 4 weeks old on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - and Greg and I celebrated this occasion by leaving her at home and going out for dinner for our 2 year anniversary. It was all a coincidence and we didn't intentionally want to leave her at home, but it worked out nicely since my mom is currently visiting us and could babysit. It apparently all went smoothly and Avery enjoyed her bottle of boob juice immensely. I only checked my cell phone about 3 times and never called. I was working on the assumption that my mom would call if there was a real problem.

Greg and I went to a restaurant called Ambiente, which is located in New Edinburgh. We had been there once before for a special dinner and enjoyed the food just as much this time around. I would highly recommend it, though it isn't cheap - but the service is excellent, the decor is nice and subtle, and as mentioned, the food is excellent. I also had my first full glass of wine in approximately 10 months. It was a lovely Chenin Blanc from Ontario to go with my scallops, but I never caught the name of the winery. I then asked about Chenin Blanc in the LCBO, since I didn't know anything about it, and apparently the LCBO doesn't have it very often, much less those from Ontario. So I am going to have to do some more research.

And then there is the Miracle Blanket - this was a present from Amy and Kevin who discovered how well it worked when their son Liam was a newborn. I believe most of our friends now use them on their infants. Amy calls this the "Baby Burrito" and I like to refer to it as a baby straight jacket. At any rate, it works quite well. Avery doesn't see the blanket and start to calm down immediately like some kids do, but at least she doesn't fight me when I wrap her up anymore. She does actually quite like to have her hands free normally, but I think she has accepted the swaddling as part of her night-time routine. And she is sleeping a little longer these days - she sleeps anywhere from 3.5 to 5 hours after her last feeding, and then another 2-4 hours after that. Some mornings I am relatively refreshed, other mornings it is all pretty rough - we never quite know what it is going to be. Now if only I could learn how to nap during the day! :)