Alyssa's stream of consciousness

Remembering Dilly

2012-01-20T22:47:00.002-05:00

On January 19th, we made the decision to put down our cat Dilly. Even though I wasn't very close to either cat, it was extremely sad nonetheless watching her die, and knowing that it was in large part due to a decision we had made. She had developed significant kidney disease, and we decided to put her down without pursuing too many diagnostic tests and/or treatments. She was 13, going on 14 years old, and we felt that because she had already had a fairly long life, and was basically no longer acting like herself - as in, she had become too lethargic to even run away from the kids...she let them pet her!!! - and knowing that regardless of how many interventions we tried and how much money we spent, she wasn't likely to live more than 6-12 months longer anyway, that now was a better time than later. I still wonder if we made the right choice, and if it was more for her or more for us - in the sense of convenience and being willing to fit any treatments for her into our already busy lives...

The euthanasia was a very surreal experience - I do wish you could know they understand and also give their blessing, but really, I just want to feel better about the decision we made.

Greg, of course, had a much longer history with the cats. They were found as tiny kittens in a garbage can and were brought to the Animal Hospital where his ex-girlfriend worked as a vet tech. After a few days, Greg and Mel made the decision to adopt them and they have been with Greg ever since. I can imagine that there were both super-cute little kittens and Dilly being the smaller, more timid of the two, was adorable I am sure. That being said, Greg's favorite memory of Dilly is from when, as a kitten, she was being a bit too curiou and ended up surprpising herself by falling and/or jumping from the second floor hallway, through the railing, down into the living room. Probably used up the second and third of her nine lives that day!

So...the aftermath? Dobyn (her sister) seems a little lost right now. I suspect she will come around and will probably just interact more with us, but it must really be strange for her. The kids have taken it all quite well - probably in part because Dilly never interacted with them very much due to her skittishness. Also, Mikes is really too young to understand any of it, and Avery has decided that Dilly is in the ground after having "dived", and has a toy to play with there and a book to read. So she won't be bored... :)

Anyway, this is not an experience I relish going through again, but I suspect we will be back to the vet clinic soon enough with Greg's dog Trus. He is going on 13 now, and is going blind and crazy. He has been living with Greg's parents since I went back to work a year ago, and we can all see the fairly progressive decline he has been going through. That decision is not going to be an easy one for any of us...

And Dobyn - I am sure she is going to live to be 20, just to drive us bonkers.

We all love and miss you Dilly :) The picture Avery drew for you will be added - just as soon as I can make it work!!!

I figured it out!

2012-01-17T22:51:00.001-05:00

By buying one less $3 Grande Non-fat Americano Misto at Starbucks per day, I will save abt $1000/year. Awesome and scary all at the same time...This one is for you Bonnie!

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2012 Resolutions - January edition

2012-01-13T00:01:00.001-05:00

New Year's resolutions...such a loaded concept. I always have a ton of things that I want to make better about myself. And I thought I was going to have about 40 resolutions all carefully detailed into separate categories. And...of course that didn't happen. But I have decided on a few different "changes" to work in the money category. I'm also pleasantly surprised that I am pretty much sticking to them so far! Some of the others have already dropped off the table, or are on temporary hiatus, but I have come up with a new plan. I am going to introduce some new resolutions every month - working on a different category each time. And I am going to try and blog about how I am doing. TRY I said...no delusions that I will keep it up!

So the catgegory for Janaury is money matters as I mentioned. I make a decent salary and yet, I never seem to be saving much money. I have a few completely frivolous habits, that I never feel very good about doing after the fact. The two that come to mind first are: 1) too many coffees at Starbucks, and 2) too many trashy magazines. The directly resulting resolutions are therefore: 1) I am only allowed to purchase one coffee per day at Starbucks, and 2) NO MORE trashy magazines! Basically, I won't be buying the magazines anymore. If I really want to read a story, I am either going to find it online or read it at Chapters. I can do this...it just makes so much more sense and I won't have to feel guilty about wasting so much money. On the Starbucks front, I am really not interested in decreasing my caffeine intake. Instead, I was just getting into the bad habit of buying too many coffees even though I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home, I can buy Starbucks beans in bulk at Costco and make my own in the morning. Then I get to buy one in the afternoon for a little treat. Cross my fingers, this is actually working so far. I haven't figured out exactly how much this is going to save me, but I am guessing it is in the order of $700/year. As for the trashy mags, it could be as much as $2-300/year. Or maybe more...

The last thing I am doing is "paying myself first". I have set up an automatic transfer into my savings account for the same day that I get paid. I am going to make sure I have a minimum balance in there, that will increase with each pay period. When it gets to a substantial enough amount, I'll figure out something to do with it. Like contribute to my RRSP - how totally exciting!!! :)

Awesome and quick steel-cut oats

2012-01-10T21:17:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: after making this recipe a couple of times lately with pretty soupy results, we decided to try 7 cups of water to 2 cups of oats. Worked MUCH better! Unless you really like watery oatmeal :)

So we have been doing this great breakfast option lately...I cook a big batch of steel-cut oats at night, and then portion it into servings the next morning for Greg and I to eat for breakfast at work. Seriously simple...next challenge will be to get the kids to eat oatmeal as well!
Here's the recipe:
8 cups of water
2 cups of steel-cut oats (we get them at the bulk barn)
1-2 pinches of salt
1-2 tsp Vanilla extract (optional)
Set water to boil in a large pot. Once boiling, add salt, vanilla and oats and stir. Let boil for one minute, stir, remove from heat and cover. Let sit overnight. This makes approximately 6, 1cup servings, plus a little more. I add milk and honey, and microwave it for 1-2 mins at work. The remaining portions will keep for a week in the fridge.
Important note: if you add milk, make sure you Tupperware has a tight lid. That is properly closed. I have learned this lesson the hard way. Twice. :)
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Green bean and chickpea salad

2012-01-10T21:09:00.001-05:00

This is one of the Pearce family's old stand-by recipes...and amazingly both girls seem to love it. Still working on G though :)

Ingredients:
- A bunch of green or yellow beans, trimmed and rinsed
- one can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- approx 1 tsp of salt (the dressing needs to be pretty salty)
- ground black pepper to taste
- approx 1/2 tsp of cumin
- approx 1/2 tsp ground coriander (optional)
- approx 1/2 tsp oregano (optional)
- approx 1 tbsp good mustard (ie not French's) (but also optional)
- 2-3 tbsp cider vinegar
- 1/4 c veg oil (prob not olive oil though)

Boil beans until tender, drain and rinse with cold water. Mix dressing ingredients, then toss beans and chickpeas together with dressing. Salad is best if there is time for it to sit for a while - that way the beans and chickpeas absorb some of the flavour from the dressing.

Notes: the dressing should be pretty tangy before tossing with the beans. The dressing ingredients and measures are obviously pretty much a guesstimate. This is one of those meals where I usually just wing it and taste as I go! :)

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Awesome recipe for Steak Fajitas

2012-01-02T21:59:00.001-05:00

We have made this many times, including tonight. I use flank steak and normally grill the meat on the BBQ. But given that it is now officially winter in Ottawa, we were not brave enough. Instead I seared the flank steak in a hot pan for abt 3-4 mins on each side and then put it in a 350 deg oven for abt 15-20 mins while the peppers and onions cooked. It was delicious as always!

http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com/steak-fajita-recipe.html

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2011 - A year in review

2012-01-02T14:57:00.001-05:00

I am determined to bang this post out in one sitting...so that it is actually posted on a reasonable date. To that end, I am not going to include pictures now, but will add a few later. Pictures = complications!

The major events of this past year really included my stepsister Shelly's wedding in June, and various other trips to Toronto. We didn't do any other major trips or have any interesting holidays, but it was a busy year nonetheless trying to figure out the routine with me back at work starting in mid-January. I was definitely dreading my return to work, not because I don't enjoy my job and the people I work with (which I most certainly do!), but more because going back to work the first time was pretty challenging trying to learn how to juggle everything. Overall, I would say this time around was nowhere near as bad - of course there are phases of everything seeming so overwhelming and frustrating and like it is never all going to get done, but overall I think we have the work-life balance somewhat in check. Greg might disagree...he is always concerned that I work too much - and that is something I need to keep in mind. As hard as it is likely to be, I am going to stop worrying so much about advancing at work, and just enjoy this phase. In all, I/we have a pretty sweet gig with our jobs - assuming we still have them come Budget time.

Our latest drama has been all about the computers - I had a work reject computer at home for the last while. It came in handy for remote access purposes, and it was far better than the hunk of junk we had been using (my brother-in-law's cast-off from his university days, circa 2001?). Anyway, the work computer has been slayed by some kind of virus and work doesn't loan out its reject machines anymore. We are all supposed to be getting laptops, but I am not sure when that will happen for me. In the meantime, it is back to the 2001 machine, or the "freecycle" machines Greg gifted himself with from the side of the road. So at this point, I think we have at least 4 crappy towers at home, Greg's work laptop, I might get a work laptop one of these days, and we are thinking about buying one. I was more or less convinced about getting the MacBook Pro, but spending that kind of money doesn't really seem prudent at the moment. Sigh...the office is getting a little crowded (with junk!).

The Christmas season was pretty good - we had an "open house" party in December that seemed to be quite a success. It was a little crowded and I learned a few more lessons for the next time. Hopefully we can continue to make it an annual event. We had Christmas here in the Odot with Greg's family and my mom, then moved the party to the Tdot for a few days, which was very luckily combined with an impromptu visit from Uncle Dan. As always, it was great for the girls to get to spend time with him (though we missed Auntie A), and we'll have to make more effort to get out to Calgary for some visits. Or Auntie A and Uncle Dan could move east...Anyhoo, once again the girls received way too many presents. Next year we are going to have to be really diligent about limiting the number, especially given that their birthdays follow so quickly after. Avery was in her element opening presents, but not so understanding of the concept of "giving". She was also more than happy to open Micaela's presents - though it could be the last time she gets away with it. We are also going to have to work a little harder on the "giving back" concept and giving to those who are less fortunate. The January toy purge is going to be interesting.

And some observations on the girls at this stage: Micaela will be two in a few weeks. She is still a little monkey, mischievous and headstrong, in both a good and bad way. She is quite shy and loud noises frighten her, and yet she is a little daredevil (tobogganing...no problem!), and can be very chatty, loves to sing, and is even outgoing at times. As long as it is on her own terms... :) Avery will be four in March and has matured a ton. She is starting to listen more (maybe wishful thinking on my part), is really good at creative play, loves to dance, and is still into all things girlie. She is very social and always wants to go meet new people - she's very good at integrating herself into the activities of other families at the park for example - and she is definitely looking forward to starting JK in the fall. Full day kindergarten for her...not so sure what our daycare solution is going to be and I am a little sad to think she won't be going to Linda's anymore. Oh well, a few months to go yet.

A favourite anecdote from this year - it can be very challenging getting the kids out the door in the morning, particularly when winter gear is involved. One morning this fall I was trying to get them ready, only to be frustrated at every turn. At one point I had them both sitting on the stairs, Avery whining and flopping instead of zipping up her sweater, saying "I can't do it...can you help me?" even though she definitely can do it on her own. Micaela, on the other hand, was trying to do up her own sweater, saying, "I do it. I do it!" instead of letting me help her. And, of course, she can't do it on her own!! That was one of the crazy mornings...and I am sure there are a few more to come. But then, they are so darn cute!!!

On tap for 2012: again, no major plans as of yet. Sorting out the computer drama, making some progress on home reno projects (that damn gazebo is coming down this year!!! And hopefully we will rebuild the back deck too), maybe a summer beach adventure, Greg's impending 40th birthday (maybe a trip to Vegas???), and the usual day-to-day chaos...setting up to be another busy one! I also have approximately 40 New Year's resolutions - I want to do a post about those as well, because of the whole "write it down, and publicly commit to them" philosophy, but I worry that I won't quite make it happen. Sigh...and I didn't like the looks of any of the apps that are available. Oh well, resolution post (maybe) to come.

Happy 2012 everyone!

2010 - A year in review

2012-01-02T14:08:00.000-05:00

This post was literally a year in the making...and I still never finished it. Since I now have to get to work on the 2011 summary, I figured I would post this one first. As you can see, the end is a little "point-form" :)

This is only a little later than I meant for it to be...like a month. But what can you do, right?

Trying to remember all the things that happened over the last year will be a challenge - all I know is that is was one of the fastest years of my life. Probably the fastest actually.

The biggest event was of course, the birth of our second daughter Micaela in January. It was all very exciting to finally give birth and have the newest member of our family at home, but I'm not going to lie, the first few months were very challenging. She turned out to be a little colicky, particularly around bedtime, which coincided nicely with our challenges getting Avery to bed at a reasonable time. While that particular phase seemed like it was never going to end while we were in it, now I look back and can't remember when it did actually finish. But I suppose it did at some point.

Anyway, moving on...we had some nice visits from family just after Micaela was born, including my parents and my brother and Andrea. In April we headed to Toronto for the long Easter weekend - which was nice, though we quickly realized how much more challenging road trips and being away from home would be with two little kids. In May the girls and I went back to Toronto for a longer trip and Greg joined us for the last weekend. I had been toying with the idea of driving alone with the girls...I figured it wouldn't be that bad since I had done it with Avery once at 5 months and she slept for the whole drive. However, my dad offered to take the train to Ottawa and then drive to TO with me, so I took him up on the offer. And thank goodness...everything was going fine until we were detoured off the 401 near Kingston and Micaela started to cry. And basically didn't stop until we got to TO 3 or 4 hours later. Man, was she ever pissed off! And then she fell asleep when we got off the 401 in TO - you know, about 5mins from my mother's house. Still slightly scarred from that trip! :)

Summer in 2010 seemed like it would never end, what with the great weather we had in April. So what did we do? A bunch of fun things, but the main highlights were our trips to Kincardine and Calgary, a few pool parties, visits from a couple of Toronto aunties, as well as Grossmueti and Aunt Barbara, and other assorted adventures.

Starting at the beginning of July, my aunt Barbara from Switzerland and my mother came for a visit. In Barbara's honour, we decided to brave the masses on the Hill on Canada Day with the girls. Don't get me wrong, I love the atmosphere on the Hill on Canada Day and it would be great to go every year. However, having done it once now with a single stroller and once with a double stroller, I am not so sure we will be heading there next year. I could be wrong, but probably only if the Queen doesn't decide to pop over this time. :)

At the end of July we took two weeks off to go to TO again, and then to a cottage on the beach at Kincardine with Uncle Ted and Auntie Jamie. It was a really nice week. Avery had a great time playing on the beach and collecting rocks, having fun with her aunt and uncle and getting ice cream after dinner. Micaela didn't love the beach so much this year (apparently, babies and sand aren't a great combo!), but will surely enjoy it more if we decide to go again in 2011. Greg was able to golf and I managed to play tennis with Ted. Which actually made me remember how much I enjoy it and would like to get back into playing...another thing to add to the list! :)

In August the girls and I had a major adventure - the 3 of us flew to Calgary to visit Uncle Dan and Auntie A! I really wasn't sure what I was getting myself into flying with the two kids by myself, but other than a couple of "pull my hair out" moments, it actually went pretty well. And the pulling-out of my hair was mostly induced by encounters with obnoxious people and/or Air Canada employees, rather than by either of my children. They were real troopers and I was very impressed with how well they coped with all of it. Before I tar all AC employees with the same negative brush, I should say that most of the in-flight crew on the way there were very helpful and courteous...it was the ones on the way back who seemed annoyed at me for taking so long to get us all off the plane when we landed in Ottawa, while they watched me struggle with all of our stuff from the back of the plane rather than actually help me! We did a bunch of fun things in Calgary, including hanging out with Andrea's family, and it was nice to finally see where D&A live. I think the trip also really helped Avery understand where they live and how far away it is that we needed to go there in an airplane. In all, it was definitely worth to effort to make the trip...especially since Grampa Kelly picked up the tab for the tickets! :)

Fall - mostly defined by weight watchers for me, but will do another post about that. Avery doing sportball, tried to get her into a dance class, which she would have loved, but couldn't so did Gymboree. Micaela coming into her own, settling down in temperament, starting to eat, move, crawl, get more chatty - started slowly at daycare...Avery at Halloween with the Cinderella costume - her love of all things princess, shoes, dresses all the time, not wanting to dress warmly.

October - Baby Jacob being born. Very exciting for the girls to have a new little baby cousin, and a first nephew or niece for both Greg and I. Congratulations to Jamie and Ted!!

November - another trip to TO

December - open house, Christmas season

Wrapping up the year - return to work, Micaela turning one, Avery soon to turn three, the girls starting to play together more, weathering the sick storm, figuring out the rest of our lives. looking forward to Shelly's wedding, maybe more nieces/nephews/cousins

Can't wait to try this!

2011-12-25T14:12:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! This recipe is an excerpt from the Globe and Mail from last Wed or Thurs and I am excited to give it a try. Here is a pic of the test case before it goes in the oven:

Since I assembled it already and will be taking it to my in-laws' house for dinner, I don't think it is going to get quite the puff, but it definitely tasted delicious before baking. And I added chives...also delicious.

Pommes soufflé

Irreverent and quick with a joke, Joe Beef's Frédéric Morin cooks elevated comfort food in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood. He loves esoterica and history (as evidenced in the madcap decor of Joe Beef and Liverpool House, the restaurants he co-owns with David McMillan), so it's no surprise he finds inspiration for his menu in the obscure French movie Le Grand Restaurant. In it, Louis de Funès plays a restaurateur. "He goes to a table of Germans who've asked for a recipe for the potato soufflé," Mr. Morin says. "So he recites the recipe with a German accent and gets very authoritarian. It's very funny, so I like to do this recipe.

"Start with basic Joe Beef mashed potatoes: two pounds of fingerling potatoes, skin on, seasoned and mashed with ½ cup of warmedmilk and ½ cup of cold, cubed unsalted butter. Separate four eggs, beat the yolks and incorporate into the potatoes, whip the whites to stiff peaks and fold into the mixture. Finish with a dusting of powdered parmesan and bake at 400 F for 20 to 25 minutes.

"Be sure to use powdered parmesan on top or else you won't get a nice crust."

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18 months, 42 months and a summer update

2011-08-22T22:35:00.000-04:00

Flower Girl!

It feels very surreal to say that I have a 3.5 year old and a 1.5 year old...guess I better get used to that feeling. Micaela is just at the 18 month mark (now 19 really) and is definitely growing into her, ahem, "personality". Avery is almost 3.5 and coming up on 13 at any moment now. That being said, one minute she seems incredibly grown up and then the next minute she reverts to random, inexplicable crying. That ends at some point, doesn't it? Although according to Greg, I still do that. But I digress.. :)

We have had quite a good summer so far. Highlights have included my step-sister Shelly's wedding, which was Avery first starring role as a flower girl. I wasn't completely sure how she would react, especially in a room with 400 people and all of them staring at her. But she did so well, she looked super-cute in her dress, she posed for pictures, and she partied her litle heart out. She actually cried when I told her at 11:30pm that she couldn't go back and dance more because we were leaving. Then she fell asleep about 3mins after getting into the car.

Party Girl!

Micaela is incredibly full of beans these days and talking up a storm. Our favourite words of hers are: "I hab it?", "I watch PeeVee?", "PEEEEEEEZZZZ!" and "Aveeeery. Aaaaaavery. Averyyyyyyy!" She is a little climber, loves walking all over, enjoys the swings, is a decent eater (as long as we aren't trying to slip any fruits in unannouced, especially those that aren't on the tolerated list which includes apples, bananas, cherries and watermelon - sometimes), and she LOVES to dance. The rhythm is in that kid!

It is also becoming clear that the two girls have two very different personalities and physical capabilities. Avery can be very focused and has the ability to concentrate on one thing for an extended period of time (so much so that she doesn't hear her parents trying desperately to get her attention!), and she often flips back and forth between wanting to be independent, and then wanting us to really baby her. Mikes is definitely more independent in general, quite saucy and a little tease, she is physically much more capable than Avery at this age (with none of Avery's trademark clumsiness), but she is still very hesitant around strangers. And oh yeah, she adores her daddy! Seems like we each got one kid :)

Trying to keep the kids under control during the ceremony...

Both girls are quite caring, particularly towards their special toys, and even once in a while towards each other. Avery has a new favourite stuffed animal every few days, while Micaela has recently fallen in love with "Timmie" from the Treehouse show "Timmie Time". She and I took Timmie on a little walk around the block in the doll stroller the other day, and she wouldn't stop fussing over him - she kept stopping to make sure he was sitting up ok. So freakin' cute! And both girls seem to really like their cousin Jacob - it is clear that he is going to be a little in love with his big cousin Avery, but I suspect he and Micaela will get up to plenty of no-good with each other as they grow up.


Canada Day 2011

The rest of the summer has gone by so quickly - Avery started soccer this year - so far I'm not making any plans to attend the Women's World Cup in 15 years to cheer her on - but she seemed to enjoy it...most of the time. She has become a little fish this summer, which was great as we finally started to make some good use of the pool. Mikes is less interested in swimming, but I suspect next year will be a totally different story. We
has a great trip to Toronto in July - went to Riverdale Farm, the Zoo, had a fun picnic with Grampa Kelly and Nana, and had a very nice visit with Great Grammie Beryl and the great uncles. Not too much more planned for the rest of the summer - but just trying to make the most of it while it is still here!

Averyisms

2011-04-25T13:33:00.002-04:00

A couple of cute things Avery has been saying lately:

1) whoa! I say whoa!

(this also works for ooops and sorry)

2) where is Titi (Grossmueti) going? She's going to vote honey. She go boating, and she catch fish for her dinner? No honey, not boating, VOTING.

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And she's three!

2011-04-09T21:48:00.000-04:00

(of course this post is about 1.5 months late now...but as usual, better late than never!)

Good morning, 3-year old... :)

Our baby girl #1 turned three years old a few weeks ago...it is starting to get inconceivable how fast it is all going by. Anyhoo, the days leading up to Avery's 3rd birthday and even the actual day itself were not great because, you guessed it, everyone was sick! With ear infections this time. However, we managed to pull off the birthday party anyway, thank goodness! It was a super-fun party at Gymboree which Avery loved, and I think most of the other kids did too. She especially loved the Princess Aurora/Sleeping Beauty cake that Dana made for her. (Thank you again to Dana for a great cake and delicious cupcakes - they were a huge hit with the birthday girl and you really did me a huge favour by taking care of that tiny little task... :) And thank you to everyone who attended, helped and gave Avery presents. Boy, does she now understand the concept of presents!

Micaela wants in on the cupcake action


Birthday umbrella!

The awesome Princess Aurora cake, compliments of Dana Kean

So what is Avery like at three years old? Growing up all the time, that's for sure. She is about 30 lbs, 39 inches and generally full of energy and imagination. She went through a big princess, dress-up, pretty shoes phase this year, but seems to be a little less interested in her princess dresses at the moment. She also only wanted to wear dresses for about 9 months, especially her summer sundresses that are oh-so-appropriate for the dead of winter. Thankfully she now willingly puts on pants and socks to keep warm.

She is full of interesting observations and funny statements - though of course I can't come up with any good examples now. But we have really noticed that her ability to communicate has improved immensely, which is a great thing since this time last year we were actually pretty concerned that her speaking ability and vocabulary acquisition wasn't coming along as quickly as it should have been. That being said, I love it when she says "farkle" instead of "sparkle". :)

Owl ring

2011-02-19T21:54:00.001-05:00

Bought this ring today and I totally love it. Even though the eyeballs already fell out... :)

Testing out the email blogging...

2011-02-13T23:49:00.001-05:00

Let's see if this works!

And she's one year old!

2011-02-13T23:03:00.002-05:00

Just to repeat myself for the millionth time...I can't believe how quickly time is flying! Micaela is now a year old and has had 4 birthday parties to prove it. A mini-celebration at home, one at daycare, one at Gramma and Poppa's house, and then the big shindig with friends and family. That's a lot of cake for someone who really isn't too interested! :)

Good birthday morning, sleepyhead!

At one year old, here is what she is up to: standing on her own and cruising, but not quite walking (although at almost three weeks later as I am writing this post, she is getting really close and has taken a few steps on her own with some success), chatting and singing a lot - her words are mama, dada, peekaboo, thank you, go, Avery, and bye. She has 2.25 teeth...ok, I am just being facetious, but she basically has her two bottom front teeth, one of the top ones, and the second has maybe just barely cut. Crazy - she must have the slowest growing teeth in the world. Micaela is definitely a little monkey - whenever there is a moment of chaos she makes a break for the stairs and then smiles like a little devil when she gets caught! At her 12 month doctor's appt, she was 29 inches long and 18 lbs, 14 oz. Guess it is going to be a while before we will turn her car seat around.

Girlie cupcakes

Birthday girl!

Party girl!

Avery had a great time at all the parties for Mikes, mostly because she got to open the presents and blow out the candles. I'm thinking she is really going to enjoy her own birthday party this year. :) Thanks to everyone for the presents for Micaela, and to everyone who held parties, attended parties or helped with parties. So much for a low-key birthday, right? :)

In other news, I have been back at work for the past 4 weeks now - holy! I thought it was 3, and then counted on the calendar to actually figure it out. Time is going by at warp speed!!! Mostly things are going really well, except for the everyone getting sick phase that happened during the first two weeks. As in, I went to work on Day 1, felt like garbage, and stayed home for Days 2 and 3. Who does that??? Greg has had about 3 different sickness in that time, and Avery had a bout of bacterial pneumonia. It was less than fun...but at least Mikes escaped the worst of it. Even the green eye snot is pretty manageable. Anyway, I will probably do another post (someday) with my thoughts on work. Different perspective this time, knowing that it is very unlikely I will ever be going on maternity leave again.

Learning something new all the time...

2011-02-13T22:14:00.000-05:00

So we learned something interesting and totally gross this week. Micaela's eyes were looking pretty crusty in the morning and there was one day that Greg thought a nose booger had actually lodged itself in the corner of her eye. However, after a couple of mornings of this, we decided it must actually be an eye infection. We spoke to the pediatrician's office and found out, to our grossed-outedness, that because babies/little toddlers don't have very much room in their sinuses, sometimes the secretions that come with colds make their way out through the eyes. In other words, Micaela's eyes are snotting. So much so that they have been crusted shut the last couple of mornings. I told you it was gross - poor kid, though it really doesn't seem to bother her that much. Except when I try to clean her eyes up. Then we get to hear about it! :)

Fun with the green garbage bin...

2011-01-12T13:39:00.000-05:00

And the green bin saga continues...I thought we didn't need to use the bin liner bags in our big green garbage bin. Result = green garbage frozen to the bin, and the garbage truck didn't take it away a few weeks ago. Therefore, after my MIL worked to get all the frozen garbage out of the bin while we were away (I know, I do have the best MIL in the world), the green bin is now lined with a large garden wate bag. Today's result = most green garbage left with the truck. Almost empty garden bag = frozen to the frozen garbage in bottom of bin. Could have been worse, but man, I almost had a freakout when I saw the bag still hanging out of the bin. I mean, there are only so many times you can go without having the green garbage taken away :) Next challenge: getting the City of Ottawa to respond to my request for a new bin for free because the truck broke ours ages ago. Good luck to me!

11 months old and Christmas

2011-01-05T12:35:00.002-05:00

(If the formatting is not good for those of you reading this post on FB, please check out the original post)

As you can see, I have a bunch of blogging catch-up to do. As usual, really. Anyway, Christmas was a
pretty eventful day...there's the obvious, of presents, little kid excitement, LOTS of yummy food, and family. Along with all of that, a certain little miss turned 11 months old. Crazy hard to believe, it is!

11 months old at Christmas dinner

Micaela at 11 months old is definitely coming into her own. She is crawling, climbing stairs (constantly, much to our chagrin), pulling up to standing and letting go for a few seconds at a time, saying a few words and phrases - "uh oh!" is a favourite. Middle-of-the-night sleep training has begun...it is a little rough right now, but I am still hopeful that she will be sleeping in her crib for the whole night by the time I go back to work...in less than 2 weeks! She has also started going to daycare pretty much full-time. She cries like crazy when I leave, with tears and snot everywhere, but she is reportedly doing pretty well settling in, eating big-kid food on her own and napping in the playpen. She loves it when they go outside to play and even cried yesterday when she got the 5-minute warning that it was time to go in. What a monkey! :)

So Christmas this year was a ton of fun. Avery had a much better idea of what was going on and knew that Santa was coming and would bring her presents. And boy did she get a lot of presents! Too much really, and I think one of my tasks in the next couple of weeks will be to do a toy sort and put away some of them to pull out later in the year. And also find some to give away. At any rate, she was pretty excited about most of the things she got, but the favourites had to have been the princess dress-up treasure chest, the princess shoes and the cash register. Here's a video of when she was opening the shoes:

In case you didn't hear it, she said "oh my..." when she figured out what they were :)

Opening stockings

With regard to the "too many presents" issue, I was asking my mom what it was like when Dan and I were kids. I have distinct memories of not getting as many presents as a lot of my other friends - not that we lacked for anything, but it just seemed like most of them got a pile, while we got something big, and then a few other little things and clothes. And I finally figured out why...we didn't get presents from our extended family. My mom's whole side lives in Switzerland, so we typically didn't exchange presents with them. And my dad's side wasn't really into present-giving for various reasons, so basically we received presents only from our little family of 4. And please don't think I am complaining, but it just all became really clear when I saw the ridiculous amount of stuff under the tree on Christmas morning. I guess it doesn't help that there aren't very many grandchildren/nieces/nephews on either side of our families, and people really like to buy presents for little kids. I enjoyed shopping for our little nephew Jacob! :) Anyway, next year we will have to come up with some sort of strategy, because this year was really too much. That being said, thank you to everyone for all of the presents, from the girls and from Greg and I too. Christmas 2010 was definitely one to remember!

Another Avery funny

2011-01-01T21:12:00.000-05:00

Happy 2011 to everyone! There are many posts planned, mostly to catch up and close out 2010, but here is a cute little story from today:

During "naptime" when Avery was (supposed to be) "resting", I peaked into her room to see what she was up to. She had one of her books open on her bed and she was running circles around it and saying "Jump!" (you know, because we totally approve of her jumping on her bed.) Anyway, I stood there watching her for a while and when she finally noticed I was there, she got quite a guilty look on her face. I asked her what she was doing and she said matter-of-factly, "I'm jumping into the storybook." I had to think for a moment, and then said, "...Oh. Like Dora, right?" Then we had to have a little talk about how some of the things Dora does are just pretend, and that she should just pretend too. I'm sure she grasped everything I said...now I'm just waiting for the day when she tries to handle a baby alligator the way Diego and Alicia taught her to. :)

10 months old...

2010-12-03T11:05:00.001-05:00

Micaela is now 10 months old (actually 10 months and a week old already). She is officially crawling, trying to pull herself up to standing, getting into things she shouldn't be (i.e. eating rocks out of the planters - maybe she saw Connor eating rocks one too many times!), and eating more and more real food. She does still enjoy her pureed goodness though. She has her two front bottom teeth, and I think one of the top front ones is on the way.

Mikes seems to be starting to say some words...we could have sworn she has said "Avery" in one form or another a few times, as well as Dada, Mama, and maybe dog.

She is a pretty happy kid, though it seems that teething takes a lot out of her. She is a good napper, and a good night sleeper until about 1am when she wakes up pretty determined not to sleep in her crib. This habit is not helped by mommy and daddy's lack of will to make her sleep in her crib, so she sleeps the rest of the night with us...But I have a plan! The first two weeks in January are going to be "cut the cord" time - when we will work on a little sleep-training with her. She doesn't really know this yet, so I figure we'll let her have a nice Christmas before breaking it to her on Jan 3rd-ish. Which will coincide quite conveniently with her more-or-less full-time start at daycare. Should be fun times! :)

One thing that occurred to me the other day...this was basically the age at which I went back to work after being on maternity leave with Avery. This time around I can't imagine not having this last 1.5 months. And boy do I plan on enjoying it! With the kids, of course... :)

They are too smart for us...

2010-11-15T08:17:00.004-05:00

So Avery was her usual sucky self this morning as I got her out of bed, dressed and fed. On the way out the door, Greg had a lot to carry and asked her to pick up her snowpants and hand them to him. She thought he was asking her to carry them and she said (insert whiny, two-year old voice here), "No, too heavy." He said, "No, no, I just need you to pick them up and hand them to me." She said again, "too heavy" and I inserted "help Daddy, help Daddy, help Daddy" as Greg pretended to be stretching down to the ground and straining to get there. So instead of picking up the pants, Avery pulled Greg's hand down until he could reach the snowpants on the floor. What can you do but giggle - she was helping! :)

Banana bran chocolate chip muffins

2010-10-28T15:00:00.001-04:00

Even though I am not normally a fan of baking mixes, I am making an exception for this weight watchers friendly recipe. Here is the basic idea:

3 cups of Quaker low fat muffin mix (I used the honey bran type)
3 cups of all-bran or bran flakes (the PC blue menu bran flakes worked nicely)
2.5 cups of warm water
1.5 cups of fruit, e.g. mashed ripe bananas, pumpkin puree, applesauce, rhubarb
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup of raisins OR chocolate chips OR cranberries, etc (optional)

1. Mix bran and water, let stand for 5 mins.
2. Add muffin mix, fruit, baking powder and raisins/chocolate chips/cranberries, and combine well.
3. Spray mini-muffin tins with cooking spray or oil.
4. Fill mini-muffin cups fairly heaping.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 mins.

Notes: The original recipe said this amount made 32 mini-muffins for a point each, though I made 48 heaping mini-muffins with this amount. I guess my mini-muffin trays are on the small side, but this way I can add the raisins or chocolate chips and still keep the points to one per muffin.

Last night I made banana muffins with chocolate chips and added some nutmeg. Delicious, though adding about 1/2 teaspoon of salt would have helped a bit. I needed about 4 mashed bananas (previously frozen) to make 1.5 cups. I have also made pumpkin raisin muffins, using cinnamon, all-spice, nutmeg and ginger to make them more interesting - and you don't need to be shy with the spices. 1.5 cups of pumpkin puree is about 1/2 one of the big cans (28 oz I think).

Of course adding butter makes them infinitely more delicious, but apparently weight watchers poo-poos on butter. Sigh...anyway, enjoy!

9 months old - time for a profile!

2010-10-26T13:34:00.001-04:00

Since I shamelessly ripped off Julie's post for the #1 daughter back in 2008, figured I should do the same for the #2 daughter. Micaela is 9 months old today, and I cannot believe how fast time is going by. Sigh...but I will lament about that another time.

Funny, Micaela hasn't had the chance to play with a Starbucks coffee cup the way Avery liked to at this age (with no coffee in it of course!). I guess that is because I have cut down my patronage big-time. When a grande non-fat latte is 3 points, you tend to prioritze!

Weight: I am guessing around 18 lbs, but will update officially once she goes to the doc next week. Update: she was 18 lbs, 2 oz. Avery was 18 lbs 14 oz.

Height: I am guessing around 27.5 inches, to be updated (both are smaller than Avery at 9 months). Update: she was 28 inches, as was Avery at this age.

Eye Colour: Brown, with greeny-hazel shifts every once in a while.

Hair Status: Quite a good bit of medium brown hair, all over her head, with enough for barrettes and tiny little ponytails.

Teeth Status: First tooth cut exactly yesterday (9 months minus a day)! It is the bottom front left tooth. Likely to be joined by its partner soon I think.

Nicknames: Mikes, Mikey, Miker-doodles, Miker-moos (all from Mom); Nugget, Miker-doos (Dad); Caela (Avery); Michalie (or something like that from Grossmueti and the Swiss faction)

Prized Collection: In a repeat of Avery's babyhood, Micaela's shoe collection is enormous. Most are inherited, though Mom has purchased a couple here and there... :) Shoes are followed closely by clothes!

Biggest accomplishments: clapping, waving off food she doesn't want, pulling herself up to standing with help from Mom or Dad, saying "da da da da da da da da" repeatedly (for just about anything), some serious gurgling, and incredible flexibility. Check this out (which is actually from a few weeks ago):

Ways to describe her physique: healthy baby girl, beautiful big eyes, great chubba cheeks.

Favorites: Trus and the cats, the "exerpooper", anything she can bang on the floor, the TV remote, watching TV, being a little daredevil, bathtime, and pretty much anything she can put in her mouth.

Most likely career: Therapist (because of the way she likes to stare at others and decipher their innermost thoughts, but prefers not to be analyzed herself - i.e. don't stare directly at the baby!), or Olympic breaststroker (due to her frog-kick proficiency)

Who sleeps most? Avery, who seems to be able to sleep through anything. Micaela is actually a way better sleeper than Avery was at this age, and if we could get ourselves into bed at a decent time, we would sleep pretty well too. We also have to stop bringing Mikes into our bed in the middle of the night when we don't have the resolve to let her cry it out!

Most endearing qualities: Great (devilish) smile, desire to explore, contentedness while snuggling on the couch (until she needs to get down to explore, that is).

Favourite food: Pears, broccoli, sweet corn casserole (!), avocado, yogurt

Marital status: Single and choosy

What’s next? Hopefully a little more mobility ( I know I will rue those words) in learning how to roll from stomach to back and decrease her frustration, crawl, stand, walk, run...but all in good time! :)

Micaela's room

2010-10-08T15:07:00.001-04:00

So this is a little late...but since I posted a pic of Avery's room when it was ready before she was born, I thought I should do the same for Micaela. We actually had her room painted before she was born (mostly thanks to Sandy), but since it was still a guest room for a few months after she was born and she bunked in our room, it was never totally decorated. Now it is - and is even clean most of the time! There are still a few things I want to put up, like the lovely glass butterfly decorations from Arlene and the hand-painted letters to spell out Micaela's name, courtesy of Sandy again. I still haven't figured out how to hang the butterflies though. Any ideas?

5, 6 and 7 months old...and 2.5 years!

2010-08-30T14:12:00.001-04:00

Wow - I am getting really bad at this. I've already missed posts for Micaela's 5, 6 and 7th month "birthdays" so this will have to be a super one. Oh, the pressure...

5 months

6 months

7 months

So where is she at? At just over 7 months she is sitting up well, with the occasional accidental tip to one side and on-purpose fall backwards because she likes it. She is rolling easily to her stomach and once in a while rolls back to her back. She sleeps on her side sometimes now, mostly for naps, and can move around her crib a fair bit by kicking and pushing with her feet. The weaning has begun, and day 1 is going fairly well - I don't anticipate problems since she has gotten over her hatred of the bottle (I think, I hope). She is eating solids, loves the multigrain baby cereal and is coming around on fruit, but has started to nix veggies. We'll see how she does with this week's new addition: salmon. Thank goodness she doesn't know that poached, pureed salmon with no seasoning is not the way most people like it! :)

Micaela is a pretty easy-going kid now, though I think the teeth are interfering with her sunny disposition because they have yet to appear. Avery's number 1 and 2 teeth came in around 7.5 months, so Micaela's might be any day now. She is pretty willing to hang out in the stroller/exersaucer/jolly jumper while her crazy sister runs all around her. But I know she is dying to get out there and run too. No rushing that on my part!

In a dress bought for next year

Pensive at the park

Avery is doing very well at 2.5 years. She is a super-happy kid when we are out or when she is at daycare. At home it can be a little more variable. She LOVES TV, and isn't always very happy when we say no - so that makes for a lot of tantrums as we try to limit her watching to specific, limited times. The other main time for grumpiness is first thing in the morning - apparently asking her to say good morning to us before she says "I watch TV" is enough to set her off. Sigh...I assume this too shall pass. :) But on the upside, she is talking more and more and is coming up with the cutest expressions. It is amazing how they become so much more fun and adorable at the same time as they become so much more trying. It's like it was designed that way. I am definitely looking forward to the fall as Avery starts a dance class and sportball. She is such a little person now!

Dozy ladies

We have had a pretty great summer - but that will have to be another post...hopefully soon. :)

Finally, I read a whole book!

2010-07-22T21:46:00.001-04:00

I just finished reading Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open. It was the first library book I was actually able to complete since Micaela was born - and some of them I even renewed several times before just giving up altogether. I found the book really interesting - not because I was ever a huge Agassi fan, or at all really, but more because I love getting an insider's perspective on any exclusive world, and because I love tennis. It was very cool to read about some of his matches that I remember watching on TV, including the semis of the 2001 Australian Open when he beat Patrick Rafter in a match I tried to get tickets to because I was in Melbourne at the time. It turns out that Agassi is a pretty interesting guy, and isn't exactly who the media told us he was. And though I wasn't ever a huge Steffi Graf fan, I love that they are together and I really hope their marriage is as good for them as the book made it sound. Especially since Brooke Shields and that marriage didn't get the most favourable coverage.

Would I recommend it? Not sure...the writing is decent and the story is definitely gripping enough (especially for the tennis nerds). Might not be worth your while if tennis isn't your thing. But thought I would share nonetheless.

Super Mom!

2010-07-15T22:40:00.000-04:00

Ok, not really. But I do have moments when I am super-proud of my mom skills (but never my photography skills :). Like today when I made playdough for Avery (with Micaela screaming the whole time). Most people would not be as impressed with themselves as I am, but then, I don't have the Martha Stewart gene, nor am I a crafty person. So when I found this recipe and it actually worked out well, impressed I was. The Wilton food colouring gels work really well to get cool colours and you don't need to use a lot for each batch. This pic is actually from the first time I made the playdough - today's colours were orange and yellow.

A fun summer dessert

2010-07-03T22:59:00.000-04:00

These have been a hit lately: Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Sandwiches. This was another recipe courtesy of the Food Network page on facebook. My modifications were to buy the strawberry ice cream instead of making it from scratch, and to roll the sandwiches in mini chocolate chips instead of peanut butter chips or peanuts. The peanut butter cookie recipe is a keeper all on its own.

Cauliflower Tabouli

2010-06-26T22:28:00.002-04:00

I am a big fan of tabouli (tabouleh?) of all sorts, so when I saw this recipe I thought it had potential. Greg, not normally a fan of cauliflower cooked or raw, grudgingly indicated he would give it a try. I have to admit that, as I was preparing it, I had my doubts it would turn out to be Greg-edible, let alone delicious. But delicious it was! You would be hard-pressed to know that it was cauliflower instead of a grain and the taste was fantastic. Even better, it is really healthy. Thanks to the food network site on facebook for suggesting it. Enjoy!

Fish Tacos

2010-06-16T21:10:00.000-04:00

I am always looking for new, easy and quick fish recipes. I would really like our family to eat more fish, but I basically hate cooking it and usually don't really enjoy the fish after I have cooked it myself. So I went looking for a fish taco recipe - I had heard that fish tacos are supposed to be great, but I haven't ever tried them in a restaurant. This is the one I found and we loved it! I think I have made these tacos about once a week for the last month. My notes are:
- I don't use taco seasoning. Instead I use some ground cumin, ground coriander, salt and pepper to taste. I used to add cayenne as well, but no matter how little I used it always seemed too spicy for Avery so I just stopped. I find that I don't even measure the cumin and coriander, I just guess and keep tasting. I think it would be hard to go overboard on either of those, especially the coriander.
- I've been using Basa (Vietnamese catfish) fillets lately and have really liked the taste and texture.
- For the cabbage, I usually just buy a bag of pre-shredded coleslaw mix. It works pretty well.
- The sour cream mix is also excellent as a dip with tortilla chips. I add a little lime to the dip to give it more zing.

If anyone has any great fish recipes to recommend, please send them my way!

Growing up...

2010-06-16T20:54:00.001-04:00

Some days, I can't quite believe how fast Avery is growing up. It's the little things, such as recently she has started calling me "Mommy" instead of Mama. I find it really odd when she says it, because it almost seems like she thinks it is a more grown-up thing to say, rather than something she really wants to say. But on the other hand, I almost always refer to myself as Mommy, so it makes sense that she would catch on sooner or later. The other grown-up thing she did this week was help me bake a cake - Julie's rhubarb cake to be precise. The experience was great (and very messy), and kind of went like this: "Ok Avery, put the flour in the bowl. NO, DON'T TOUCH THAT! Alright sweetheart, next is the sugar. AVERY, DON'T SPILL IT! Very good job sweetie, keep mixing. BE CAREFUL - DON'T FALL OFF THE STOOL!..." and you get the gist of it. It was really cool the way she remembered that I told her the topping would go on after we put the cake in the pan, and then she used a small measuring cup to start putting the topping on before I asked her too. Then she dumped a cupful on the floor and Trus enjoyed a sugary treat. And so it went... :)

The picture is of how she was dressed one day when she went to daycare. She really wanted to wear the fancy dress Dana gave her, hence the pink skirt (and the dress was apparently only $3 on the clearance rack - best $3 Dana ever spent!), it was a cold day so we made her wear pants under the dress, the sweater was the first one I could put my hands on, and the hat just pulled the whole outfit together!

Catching up again...

2010-06-13T22:21:00.000-04:00

Funny how I can't even blog regularly while on mat leave...what am I going to do when I go back to work? Oh well, I'll deal with that when I have to.

In Herage news, Micaela is now 4.5 months old and Avery is a solid 2 years - with all that entails. Mikes is growing up quickly, smiling and laughing mostly at her big sister, on the verge of rolling over for about 3 weeks now, and is still a mama's girl. She is getting better though - she is much more willing to go to other people, at least for a few minutes before she starts crying. :) Her sleeping at night isn't improving much, but as I said to Bonnie, this time around I am not going to worry about it. I will work on all of that as it gets closer to me going back to work, and when she starts daycare, Linda (our daycare provider) will fix her, just like she did with Avery!

Avery is a very active little kid, with all the bumps and bruises to show for it. She is doing great, enjoying being a big "sistha" and is talking more and more every day. We've even managed to kick her soother habit, as all of the soothers somehow were lost in Toronto. I just keep reminding her that it wasn't Grossmueti who lost them.

We did a big trip to Toronto in May - the girls and I drove there with my dad to start. Due to a car fire on the 401, the trip took about 6.5 hours. It was probably the longest drive to TO ever for me, made even more painful by Micaela screaming for the last 2 hours or so. We hung out at my mom's house for a week, visiting as many people as possible, and Greg joined us for the long weekend. It was a pretty tiring week, but overall went very well.

Since then we've made a few day trips to the cottage and we're planning to have people over for as many pool parties as possible - as long as the weather cooperates. We are going to a cottage with Ted and Jamie in July, and I am hoping to go to Calgary with the girls in August to see Dan and Andrea...it will all depend on the price of flights whether it is Micaela and I, or both girls and I. I wish there was a kid price, but no such luck. With all of that activity, summer is probably going to fly by!

Super-yum!

2010-04-20T22:02:00.001-04:00

Here is another recipe - I can't take any credit for this one, because it comes coutesy of Bonnie Lawson, but I have to say I have now "tested" it many times and can vouch for its deliciousness and easiness. These are called Chip Crumble squares, but they might as well as be called heaven in a bite (or 10). Here is the original recipe:

1 cup of butter, softened
1 cup of brown sugar
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of chocolate chips
1 cup of walnut pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix butter, brown sugar, flour and vanilla together.
3. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
4. Press into ungreased baking dish - a 9x13inch pan works well.
5. Bake for approximately 25 mins, until squares are slightly browned. Let cool and cut into squares.

And here is how I have modified it:

I have started adding oats (not instant) in place of some of the flour. For example, 1/2 cup of oats and 1.5 cups of flour worked well, but the oats weren't that noticeable. Last time I used 1 cup of oats and 1 cup of flour and I had to bake it about 5 mins longer because the oats didn't absorb the butter the way the flour does. A better ratio would probably be 1.5 cups of oats and 1 cup of flour. At any rate, all of these combinations still tasted great and that is the most important thing! I also add about 1 teaspoon of salt, as most recipes with chocolate taste better with a little salt to balance the sweetness.

Please use this recipe and enjoy - and feel free to make it for me any time! :)

A catch-all...

2010-04-19T22:32:00.000-04:00

This is meant to be a big catch-up post - I haven't really written anything but recipes in a while. Overall, we are doing well. On a day-to-day basis, we are more-or-less exhausted! Micaela is growing well, starting to get much more alert and interested in her surroundings. She is now over 12 pounds, at the age of 12 weeks. She is definitely growing out of the 0-3 month clothes but I haven't quite gotten around to taking out the bigger sizes yet. Something else for the to-do list...sigh. She still has her fusiness in the evenings, pretty bad actually the last couple of nights. I am still holding out hope that a magic switch will be flipped when she turns 3 months, and this will all be behind us. Probably living in a dreamworld, right? To date I have cut out caffeine, chickpeas (and other legume type thingies), flax seed (which we usually have in our morning smoothies), and dairy in the afternoon and evening. Harder than it sounds, but it could be worse I suppose. However, on the whole Micaela is pretty sweet and is smiling more and more. She also seems to recognize the sound of Avery's voice. Particularly when Avery is "communicating" loudly right next to her! :)

Avery is doing very well too. I have started to have her home from daycare one day a week. Last week went really well - we did a group outing to the Agriculture Museum with Chelsea, Aidan and Connor. It was a gorgeous day and Avery and Aidan had a ball. They weren't super-interested in the animals, but the playground was a big hit, snacks went over well, and running around in the grass while picking dandelions was surprisingly entertaining. I did everything I could to keep Avery awake on the ride home because I knew that if she napped in the car she wouldn't nap again at home. She did fall asleep just as we arrived home, and as expected, wasn't really interested in sleeping in her bed after that. However, I did get her to stay in her room for around 2 hours "resting" (with one poo break) - there was lots of reading, playing, singing and general hanging out but no sleeping. After a fairly low-key afternoon, Greg took her to the grocery store just before dinner. She fell asleep in the car on the way back (and it's only a 10 minute drive at most), and didn't wake up until 6:30 Thursday morning. Thank goodness she had had some snacks with her on the outing! Micaela also slept well that afternoon and night. I guess fresh air will do that to you! Not sure what is on the agenda for this week - I will have to come up with something fun.

Over Easter weekend we made our first trip to Toronto with both of the girls. Despite being very nervous about the drives, they turned out to be the easiest parts of our trip. Avery was preoccupied with DVDs, managed to use the potty on the side of the road when it was necessary, and Micaela slept 90% of the time. Hopefully that will continue for the next trip there in May. There were other times when both girls were complete disasters - e.g. Easter Sunday dinner at my mom's house. Greg and I did not get to eat much at that meal, sigh. But again, I suppose it shall all pass and change, and become better and worse! Anyway, check out the video of Avery's first Easter Egg hunt (Micaela didn't seem to be enjoying it as much).

Anything else going on? Not too much. Greg and I managed to get out on Sunday and see the movie "Kick Ass" or Kick Butt as we starting saying at home. Greg loved it; me - meh, not as much. The superheroes stuff really isn't my thing, but I did appreciate the humour and quirky little details. However, the amount of violence was shocking, especially when it was an 11-year old girl doing the killing. I am now starting to better understand how seeing that kind of violence in movies or video games can make people immune to the horror of it all, and think that it is normal. Yet another thing to worry about on the kid list. Anyway, it was definitely very nice to get out for a couple of hours and thankfully both girls were good (i.e. slept most of the time). Thanks again to Auntie Jamie and Uncle Ted for babysitting!

Help!

2010-04-13T19:08:00.000-04:00

I am looking for a good sweet potato fries/wedges recipe that doesn't require deep frying. Every time I make them in the oven they turn out mushy. Tonight we did some wedges on the BBQ and they were definitely less mushy, but still far from crispy. Anyone have any brilliant suggestions?

North African meatballs

2010-04-08T09:12:00.000-04:00

These North African meatballs are a must-try. It is a recipe from the Food Network's show, Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa d'Arabian. I used ground lamb instead of beef, but ground beef, chicken or turkey would all probably work just fine because there is enough flavour in both the meatballs and sauce. The recipe takes a while to prepare, but it is worth it. Next time I will probably make a double batch of meatballs and freeze the extra for another meal. I didn't use the noted recipe for couscous; instead I "winged it" on making my own israeli couscous with orange zest and cranberries. It wasn't a total success because I used too much liquid, but I know better for next time, and I won't be too lazy to look up some directions on the internet. Enjoy!

She's 2 years old!

2010-03-10T10:49:00.000-05:00

Last week we hit quite a milestone with Avery turning 2. To celebrate her birthday, we went to the Works for dinner on Thursday, with Gramma and Grampa Herage. Avery was really well behaved, but I think that had a lot to do with Gramma keeping her entertained for the whole meal. Then on Saturday we had her birthday party, with most of the family. Unfortunately there weren't any other kids there (besides Micaela), because the Fergusons were down and out with colds, etc, and because we didn't really think we could handle a party with the whole gang of kid friends. That will be next year's challenge!

Avery really enjoyed her party and got through it with no major melt-downs. She liked her cake - mostly the candy decorations on top - and enjoyed the presents. She seemed a little confused as to why I wouldn't let her play with anything after she opened it, but then it would have taken hours to get everything open. Thanks again to everyone who came, thanks for all of the help you gave us and thank you very much for Avery's presents!

So the story of the cake...Most of you probably know that I am no baker. I can cook pretty well, but I find that a lot easier because you don't need to be so precise. Of course, baking is a different story - following the recipe actually matters a lot more! Anyway, I decided to make Avery a butterfly cake. With some very helpful suggestions from Amy and Dana (including the advice to use a box cake instead of making one from scratch), it turned out pretty well. But thank goodness I did use a box cake because making the icing alone took me forever. Decorating it was also a big challenge, due to my shaky hands and the very tiny candies, and I swore up and down that I would never do this again. Of course, next year when it is Micaela's turn for a party, I will probably feel guilty if I don't make her one too. So I will just have to plan a little better! :)

And how is Micaela doing?

2010-03-10T10:41:00.000-05:00

She is pretty good - as of 6 weeks she is now at 10 lbs 7 oz and has grown to 23 inches. That means she's grown 3 inches since birth, or the birth measurement was a little off. I am going with the latter theory. :)

Right now she is going through a phase of pretty bad gassiness (I refuse to call it colic). She hits her peak discomfort between 6 and 8pm, making it really challenging to cook dinner, play with Avery after dinner and put Avery to bed, but we are muddling through. I did all of that on my own last night while Greg was curling, and I was the only one who didn't cry at some point or another. :) Actually, Avery was pretty good with the whole thing, despite not being able to hear her stories sometimes because of Micaela's crying, and there were only 2 time-outs through the whole process. It can only get better, right?

Ditali in Tomato Chickpea Sauce

2010-03-10T10:34:00.001-05:00

This was the cover recipe from the March 2010 issue of Canadian Living. It was ok, vegetarian, easy to make and my mom and I liked it well enough - but it isn't going to win any awards for tastiness. Avery wasn't a big fan, but did eat the chickpeas (which she surprisingly loves). Greg didn't go anywhere near it, and I didn't even think to offer him any. I might make it again, but only if someone else is coming for dinner. Otherwise there would be too much leftovers!

From the mouths of babes

2010-03-10T10:07:00.003-05:00

In the spirit of recording the funny things kids say, here's one from Avery. We were at a sugar shack on Sunday for breakfast (Sucrerie du Terroir in Val-des-Monts, the same place we went last year), and then went for a quick walk to see the sap running into the buckets. When we lifted Avery up to see what was going on, she quickly annouced, "pee!" So there you have it, sap = tree pee. :)

As for the sugar shack, I thought the breakfast was better last year. Since it is quite a drive, and is fairly expensive, I don't think we will be heading back there again. Anyone have suggestions for a favourite place to go? Preferably more towards the east end?

One month old and keeping trucking along...

2010-02-25T21:54:00.000-05:00

Micaela is already one month old. Hard to believe it has gone by so fast and yet harder to believe she hasn't been around longer. She is doing very well - yesterday she was up to 9lbs 11.5 oz, which could be because she is feeding all the time! She is still eating every 3 hours at night, sigh, which doesn't help much in the sleep department. She is getting way more alert, and has maybe even smiled intentionally a couple of times in my direction. She isn't a big fan of the car seat, but is usually fine when we get moving in the car. Maybe she has a need for speed like her mother! :)

Avery is still enjoying being a big sister, though maybe not enjoying the 2-year old growing pains as much. Bedtime continues to be totally inconsistent - some nights she is so tired she doesn't even want all her stories, other nights it takes us multiple attempts to get her to calm down. Everytime we have another bedtime disaster I feel like I am failing at this mother gig, and it makes me even more worried to be alone with both of them for any extended period of time. It doesn't help that Micaela is most fussy between 6 and 9, and needs a bunch of attention and many feedings. So I guess we'll find out whether I can handle it tomorrow night when Greg goes curling. I have approximately one plan of attack and if it all goes south (as it did tonight), the TV may be what I resort to. Sigh again. Also a little curious when Greg is going to attempt to be alone with them. Maybe when I play frisbee in May - we shall see.

We've had a ton of visitors over the last few weeks - my mom was here when Micaela was born and then again a couple of weeks later. My dad and Cassandra came a few weeks ago, and then Dan and Andrea came from Calgary. We really appreciate all of the help everyone has given us, as well as all of the food and presents from our friends and family!

We took a quick trip over to the Haggerty's for Micaela's first photo shoot with Amy. She took some awesome shots, which will be made into a birth annoucement shortly. Otherwise, the only excitement we have on the horizon is Avery's 2nd birthday. I can't believe it is here already. We are going with a family party this year, but plan to put the emphasis on her kid friends next year. I am going to attempt another cake - I am sure that will be worthy of a post, as this will be going way out of my comfort zone! Stay tuned...

Micaela's progress so far...and ours too

2010-02-04T23:06:00.002-05:00

So how are we doing? Pretty well, for the most part. I hate to say it, but John Kean and Kevin may be on to something when they say "babies are easy". Really, it is toddlers that are "challenging". :)

Avery is reacting very well to being a big sister. She loves to say hi to the baby (Hi Baby), and often wants to
hold her. She is also very interested in diaper changes and breastfeeding. I have seen her nurse her baby doll a few times now. She is doing very well in potty training (all thanks to Linda, much less thanks to us), but she is already using it as a tool to get out of bed, get out of her booster seat, etc. She is also giving us such a hard time at bedtime - there is almost no point in trying to get her to stay in her bed until she has decided she is ready to sleep. Sigh...these things pass, right?

Micaela is doing very well. Breastfeeding has worked out pretty well this time - almost 2 weeks in and we're getting close to pain-free nursings. It seems to me she has become a bit of a snacker during the day, but I guess I don't really have much else better to do than feed her whenever she wants. She is a little more focused at night, thank goodness. She's gaining weight and her little chicken legs are slowly starting to fill out. Nights aren't too bad - she usually sleeps for stretches of 2.5-3 hours, nurses for 20-30 mins, and more or less goes right back to sleep. Next step is to get her out of our bed and into her crib. I suspect her difficulty in achieving that step is her mother's failure to try. Maybe next week... :) One interesting development is that so far she does not like the Miracle Blanket. She likes to sleep with her hands above her head, which of course is not possible when the Miracle Blanket is used properly, so we have been putting her in a sleep sack instead. I'm not too worried about not using the Miracle Blanket - maybe we won't have that same awful backsliding in sleeping duration once we stopped using it with Avery - but it just seems strange to me that we might not use it. It worked so well for Avery (and us), up to a point.

A few wrinkles have occurred over the past week. 1) Avery tripped and fell into the wall last week, resulting in a scary goose-egg on her forehead, to the point that Greg took her into a walk-in clinic. The doctor was pretty sure she didn't have a concussion, but told us to keep her home from daycare the next day, to limit her activity and no TV. That was a challenge - but Sandy helped us out as usual, and we managed to get through the day. A week later, her bruise is finally starting to go away.

2) The other morning, Avery accidentally head-butted Greg in the nose, to the point that he thought his nose was broken, and that he was imminently going to throw up. He was fine in the end, but he is a lot more careful now when he is getting her dressed!

3) A little more serious - we had a call from the Genetics Dept at CHEO today. Turns out that Micaela screened postive for the same class of disorders that Avery did on the Newborn Screening tests. As with Avery, Micaela was only marginally above the cut-off, so we went to CHEO and gave them a urine sample and blood. We should get the results next week, but we aren't too worried this time around. CHEO's new theory is that rather than this being a genetic disorder in either of them, that I actually develop higher levels of the chemical they are testing for in the later stages of my pregnancies, and then pass the elevated chemical on to the babies. I had a urine test and blood test as well today, so they might know more about me next week as well.

Overall, life with 2 kids brings new and interesting challenges. Mostly the things that are stressing me out have to do with Avery, and I am constantly feeling like I am not spending enough time with her or giving her enough attention. Hopefully that will pass, and I will get to have some one-on-one time with her soon. Greg is spending a lot more time with her, and she seems quite happy with that. She is still going to daycare full-time, and will until the winter is over. She continues to love it there, and we couldn't be happier about that. Thank goodness for Linda!

Micaela's birth story

2010-02-02T22:21:00.000-05:00

In the name of making sure I have all of these memories written down somewhere (as if I would be keeping baby books!), here is the story of Micaela's birth and relevant details. Hopefully this will be a help to Auntie Jamie when she makes Micaela a really nice keepsake book for her first birthday, the way she did for Avery... :)
And onto labour - I think my first contractions started at about 10:30 on Sunday morning, Jan 24th, but didn't really get "regular" until about 2 or 3 pm. Over the course of the day, Greg, Avery and I went to buy Avery a helmet, went grocery shopping, and I did a few loads of laundry. Thankfully Sandy showed up at about 3pm to look after Avery because I wasn't coping super-well anymore. I did manage to throw some dinner on the table, but then I basically did my own thing for the next few hours. At about 10pm, with my contractions still everywhere between 5 and 10 mins apart, I decided to lie down for a while. This slowed everything down to about 15-20 mins apart and I actually managed to fall asleep a couple of times. However, I got up to go to the bathroom at about 11 and all of a sudden, the contractions were about 4 mins apart, and seriously painful. Time to call the midwife!

We headed into the Monfort Hospital and got there at about midnight. Despite the freezing rain storm, driving wasn't too bad. We made a little pitstop on the side of Montreal Road approximately 500 feet away from the turn into the hopital, because I thought I was going to throw up. I gagged on the side of the road for a minute, didn't throw up, which was good because the sidewalk was sheer ice and I don't think it would have ended well.

Once at the hospital, our midwives Joanne and Claudia assessed me, decided I was about 9cm dilated, and told me it wouldn't be too long before the baby was born. A little sidenote - as part of my "birth plan", I had decided I didn't want an epidural if I could manage not to have one. Clearly at that point, it was getting to be too late. I was open to possibly having laughing gas, but the contractions were so close together and strong that I didn't even feel capable of asking for it, and, as I learned, the midwives are very non-interventionist. They weren't going to offer anything, but would have provided it if I had asked. Unfortunately, I wasn't really capable of asking at that point.

Anyway, we were put in a birthing room, which was fantastic by the way. The Monfort birthing centre is quite impressive. I was told to "listen to my body" and if I felt the need to start pushing I could go ahead. Huh? They weren't going to tell me when to start pushing? This is when I realized I was in for a very different experience than with Avery, when the nurses and OBs at the General told me exactly what to do and when. This time, the midwives offered that I could push standing up or lying in the bed - another huh? Greg told me that I had to lie down, because if he saw anything bloody he was going to end up passed out on the floor and that the midwives had enough to deal with. I ended up choosing the bed and started pushing. I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, but they kept telling me that it was going well and that I should keep it up. Eventually Micaela's head made an appearance, I gave one last big push and she popped out. Really quickly. And she apparently pooped everywhere while doing so! :) It was 1:27am, she weighed 7lbs and half an ounce, and was 20 inches long. The midwives put her on my chest for a little bit and then took her to have some mucous suctioned out because she was a little "grunty" as they said. Turns out being born that quickly can have some drawbacks...she was fine after a little while, we bonded for a bit, did some preliminary nursing, and then took a little nap. The hospital actually wanted us to go home at 4:30am - they send you home really quick when you have midwives, because they will visit at home within 24 hours - but given that it was pouring rain and was the middle of the night, we managed to stay until about 7:45am. We were home by 8am. Isn't that insane?

Anyway, this is the really condensed version - I think I was pushing on the bed for about 10-15 mins and I thought I was going to die it hurt so much. I was also really scared, but that is where the midwives came in handy because they seemed to sense it and reassured me enough. I also tore like crazy, again, and later an OB had to come stitch me up because the midwives weren't sure they could do it in the way that was necessary. All that to say, I am glad I didn't have any drugs, but I am honestly not sure what I would do if I had to do it again. Thankfully, we don't plan to have any more kids so I probably won't have to make that decision. :)

Overall the midwife experience was a really positive one. I was followed very closely, had ample time at each appointment to discuss issues and ask questions. When we had the Down's Syndrome scare with Micaela back in Sept/Oct, Denise (who was actually my primary midwife but wasn't on-call when I went into labour) was a great help and very proactive about making sure we had all the information we needed to manage the situation and any decision-making. I appreciate that things more or less went according to my birth plan, but I do wish I had been more aware that the midwives were going to be that hands-off during the process. If I had known, I would have made it clear that I was going to need more direction and guidance. By the time I figured out what was going on, I wasn't really capable of asking for more help. Of course it all worked out, but that is the one thing that I would have changed. The post-partum care has also been great - 3 visits at home, some very specific help with breastfeeding, and follow-up calls in between have been very useful. I would highly recommend using a midwife to anyone, but would just suggest that first-time moms at least discuss the birthing process in great detail beforehand, and be prepared to go home from the hospital very quickly. It wasn't so bad for us, being that it was our second child, but it would have completely freaked me out the first time around.

Anyway, that is the story of Micaela's birth - next post will be an update on how we are all doing...

As if! And 40 weeks and counting...

2010-01-19T21:05:00.000-05:00

So today (Jan 19th, in case I don't finish this post very quickly) was my due date and still nothing much is going on. To be expected I guess, since I was 5 days late with Avery, and I have definitely had enough things on the to do list to stay busy. I do hope to have the baby before the weekend, because I expect there will be serious grumpiness if it goes any longer than that...oh well, that will be Greg's problem! :)

Anyway, the "as if" from the title is actually a little adventure that occurred today. I have a Nissan Rogue - generally speaking a car that I have enjoyed driving and it has treated me well. However, for the last 6 months I have had issues with my tires. In the summer, all of a sudden one of the tires seemed to leaking - as evidenced by the fancy dashboard signal that came on to indicate a loss of tire pressure (ain't technology grand!). First problem was that the caps to the air valves were fancy metal (instead of cheap plastic) and had rusted onto the valve stems. When Greg was trying to get them off to put air in the tires, a couple of the caps and tops of the valve stems snapped off. Luckily Nissan replaced all of the valve stems under warranty, because they were not cheap, what with the sensor being in the valve stems and all. Like the $100 each kind of not cheap.

So with that done, I hoped the problem was over. However, a couple of weeks later the air pressure signal came on again, and then again and again despite always adding air. When the pressure was checked, it was always the same tire with what seemed like a slow leak. I took the car to my trusty mechanic, and he sealed up the tires, because apparently the seals on aluminum rims are awful for leaking. This whole business went on until mid-December, when Frank the Mechanic finally seemed to fix the problem. Greg even asked me a couple of days ago if I had had anymore problems with the tire, and I said no - because everything seemed to be fine.

So you can imagine where I am going with this story. This morning I was driving Avery to daycare and first thing, the tire pressure signal went on. Then I started to hear a funny noise, like the tire was being rubbed by ice in the wheel well. Anyway, got to daycare and checked the tire, and of course it was completely flat - out of nowhere! Drove the car home (slowly, and the daycare is really close), and then Greg drove me to my midwife appointment, which I was now late for. Came home, called CAA, they put the spare on for me, we saw that there was a really large construction-type staple in the tire, and I drove off to see Frank. Long story short (too late!), the tire couldn't be saved.

My choices ended up being getting one new tire, which is not really recommended due to the AWD, and it wouldn't be available for a week, OR, getting 4 new tires, even though 3 of the 4 I had were perfectly fine with about 60% of the treads left, and getting them today. And of course, at 4 times the price of the single tire. Sigh...giving that I hope to be having a baby imminently and that I can't drive Greg's car because it is a standard, we chose to just get the 4 new tires. Sigh again. Wasn't really expecting to drop a ton of bucks today. On something as little fun as tires. But I was warned, by Frank ironically, that tires for the Rogue would prove to be stupid-expensive. And he was right! He was also really glad that I didn't go into labour in his waiting room.

Anyway, that was the drama for today. Now that it is all over with, I can go back to focusing on the new kid. Crosss your fingers that she makes an appearance before the weekend!

On breastfeeding...

2010-01-16T22:45:00.003-05:00

I just finished reading an interesting book: Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains and Politics of Breastfeeding edited by Maureen Connolly and Dana Sullivan. Well, I suppose "interesting" is all a matter of perspective, but given that with any luck this is about to become my world all over again, I am definitely interested. The stories in the book were entertaining and heartbreaking, and most of them resonated with me in some way. One of the reviews in the link mentions that the women all come from very similar backgrounds, therefore making many of the stories and perspectives very similar. It would have been nice to see a broader cross-section of society, but I suppose being a good/successful writer was one of the criteria for picking the contributors. Anyhoo...it got me thinking again about my own feelings about breastfeeding.

Even after nursing Avery for about 8 months, and having it all go fairly successfully (except for the first two weeks when I didn't think I could do it one more time, every time), I am still pretty ambivalent about the whole scenario. I fully understand all of the positive reasons for doing it, and agree with them, and that is why I definitely plan to breastfeed #2 as well. But I never got to a point where I "enjoyed" it, the way some mothers seem to. I definitely appreciated the convenience at times, but I also really resented being on the hook all the time, especially in the beginning. Of course knowing what to expect should help me manage the frustrations (and discomfort) this time around, and hopefully it will be a more enjoyable experience. But I have to say, I get why some families just choose to bottle-feed, even in the absense of any nursing difficulties. And my honest opinion is that all other things being equal, i.e. the baby has access to loving parent(s), good parenting, decent healthcare, etc., that there won't be much of a difference between a breastfed or formula-fed baby growing up. Science may not completely agree with me, but that is my instinct. I also hate that women feel guilty, or are made to feel guilty, about formula-feeding their children. I think a happier, less-stressed, more relaxed mom/parent goes a long way towards the well-being of a baby than almost anything else.

I have also noticed that Avery has only recently started to turn to Greg for comforting (probably when she got to be about 18-20 months), and I believe that is because she was always just more used to me comforting her one way or another when she was younger, and in large part through nursing. They just didn't develop the same kind of bond in the early days, because he wasn't a big part of her feeding and I simply spent more time with her, nursing her, holding her, rocking her, etc. I am glad that she and I have that bond of course, but I wish it hadn't taken her so long to bond with Greg as well; at least things are better now.

The concept of nursing in public is still one that I personally have trouble with. I really didn't do it very much last time around - with the exception of when I was in Switzerland with Avery and my mom last fall (Avery was 6 months). There I nursed all around the country! (It is pretty small, but still...) I'm not sure if it was the anonymity, or the fact that I had to do it if I wanted us to be able to get out and do stuff, but I don't think it was because their society is way more tolerant of public nursing, being European and all. I still felt as though I was getting a lot of stares at times. I hope to be less self-conscious about the whole thing this time, and again, that probably comes with knowing what to expect and being more relaxed about it in general. But even today, I saw a woman nursing her maybe 8-month old baby at Starbucks, and I did a mental double-take. I was wondering if I will be nursing a baby at Starbucks one of these days...given how much time I spend there, I am pretty sure I never did last time around!

Anyway, for anyone who is aghast at me saying all of these heretical things, I absolutely will make every effort to nurse kid #2 as well. But I bet I will always feel a little conflicted about the whole thing...

Yet another shameless rip-off of a great idea...

2010-01-15T21:50:00.004-05:00

Once again, I am stealing one of Julie Mason's great ideas - this time it is the recipe blogging. I also enjoy cooking and when I come across a recipe that works, I do like to pass it along. This time it is a Thai green mango salad. This is one of my favourite Thai dishes, and I don't often find salads I like as much as the one I had at my very first and still favourite Thai restaurant: the Thai Shan Inn in Toronto. This restaurant really is a dive to look at, but the food is amazing. Supposedly they are moving to new digs soon, but we have been hearing that for years. At any rate, I did find a great recipe from Canadian Living back in December and I have already made the salad 3 times since then.

In other good meals, tonight I made a really simple lamb dish that tastes great. Lately we have been buying boneless leg of lamb from Costco, then chopping it into stew meat size pieces at home. So the leg I just bought was just under $27 (can't remember the weight unfortunately), but when I cut it up I got 4 portions of meat that will each feed 3 adults generously. So 12 portions for $27 - about $2.25/portion. That isn't that expensive, John Kean! :)

The dish I made is this (adapted slightly from my Low Carb Gourmet cookbook by Karen Barnaby):

Approx 2 lbs of lamb (I don't think I had this much), cut into bite-size pieces
~1 tbsp of chopped garlic
~2-3 tbsp of ground coriander seed
~2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
(measurements are approximate because I don't really measure much - but you can't really go wrong with these ingredients.)

Throw it all in a bowl, mix it up, let it marinate for 2 hours to overnight.
Throw it all in a dry frying pan on medium-high heat, with one medium-sized onion cut in wedges, fry for appoximately 5-10 mins, depending on how rare or not you like your meat, stirring every few mins.

We usually eat it with rice, sliced cucumbers, pita and tzatziki of some sort - tonight it was actually a PC tzatziki dressing.

If you give either of these recipes a try, enjoy!

2009 in a nutshell

2010-01-09T20:55:00.001-05:00

Broke the last record - close to 4.5 months this time with no post. But that is all about to change, since I am now on maternity leave. No baby yet, which means time to spare right? There definitely will be extra time for posting, if I can get through my to-do list first. Hang on, kid - just need about a week for the list! :) But I digress...this post will also get photos added as they become available, i.e. just as soon as I get off my lazy butt and upload them!

So 2009 - an interesting year, in the way they are all interesting. Some of the more memorable moments from the first part of the year were blogged about earlier - my return to work after mat leave with Avery, her start at daycare #1 and subsequent move to daycare #2, our trip to Mexico in March (pre-H1N1 outbreak)...since then, what has happened?

Uncle Dan and Auntie A came to visit in May - not sure if I mentioned that before. It was very nice for Avery to be able to visit with them because she really doesn't get to see them very often. Despite an impromptu and for no apparent reason fever that happened while they were visiting, Avery managed to take them on a trip to the Market for lunch, along with Grossmueti. We are all looking forward to Feb, whenthey will be visiting again!

As will likely be a recurring feature of my government career, I went on a French training stint in July and August. My levels expired while I was on mat leave the last time, so when I went back to work I knew training was on the horizon. I have to say, overall it was a fairly pleasant experience. Work was pretty slow over the summer, so it was good timing in that sense. And I was in a group of 4 people, all of whom were very nice and agreeable. Not that the gang I was with the first time around weren't all great people, it is just that it was such a big group and we were together for a year. That was never going to go smoothly everyday! Anyway, I was pretty successful - received an exemption in the reading comprehension test, and a C on my oral exam. So I never have to do either of the written tests again, but will have to do the oral exam again in about 5 years. Plenty of time to speak French, right? HA!

In other exciting news, we attended the wedding of our good friends Natalie and Ryan in late September. It was a lovely ceremony and reception, certainly worth the drive especially because it was kid-free. Many thanks to Sandy and Tim for babysitting that weekend, and congratulations again to Nat & Ry! I have to admit I was beyond jealous when Nat was telling me all about their Italian honeymoon. Sigh...the picture attached isn't the best, but I didn't really any good ones unfortunately. Certainly doesn't do justice to how amazing Natty looked!

Undoubtedly our biggest news for 2009 was that we were pregnant again and will be having another baby girl imminently - due on January 19th. The pregnancy has gone fairly well, I felt a lot more icky during the first trimester than I did with Avery, but still no actually throwing up or anything like that. We did run into some concerns at around 20 weeks though - I had the normal 20 week ultrasound and it showed a choroid plexus (brain) cyst and intracardiac echogenic foci, basically bright spots in the heart. Both of these are "soft markers" for Down's Syndrome, and a couple of other chromosomal disorders. If the baby had only had one or the other, there wouldn't have been much concern. However, with two of them, and due to the fact that I was already at about 22 weeks by the time this was all discussed, we were booked for a level 2 ultrasound and genetic counselling at CHEO. Needless to say, our concerns were alleviated through the next ultrasound and through talking with the counsellors at CHEO - the brain cyst had disappeared, and the statistics were quite indicative of no expected issues (I had also had the integrated prenatal screening procedures and that put the odds of the baby having Down's at about 1 in 6000). No further testing was recommended, and we had already decided we weren't going to get an aminocentesis done anyway, regardless of what the ultrasound showed (unless something far more serious than Down's was indicated). All that to say, we essentially stopped worrying at that point. Of course, there is still a chance that the baby could have some issues, but really no more than for anyone. So we wait and see, and hope for the best. Shouldn't be too long now... :)

And that about wraps up 2009 - especially since we are already 1.5 weeks into 2010. This is going to be an interesting year - new baby, being the parents of 2 kids (eek!), the Olympics, the G8/G20, another (and final) maternity leave, and who knows what else might happen. Happy New Year to everyone out there, and best wishes for 2010!

Turning over a new leaf...

2009-08-25T22:21:00.006-04:00

This has to be some kind of (dubious) record - 4 months without a post! But as mentioned, I hope to be turning over a new leaf and blogging more often. The inspiration was that Greg and I went to see the movie Julie & Julia this evening and I remembered that I do actually like having a somewhat creative outlet. I also really like having a record of the goings-on in our lives and something to look back on. So I am going to give it a good try once again!

The movie was amusing - it was the first time in a long time that we have gone to the theatre together, for a movie that I wanted to see. The Julie Powell character was a little insipid - not sure if that was due to the acting, the writing or the person herself, but Meryl Streep was pretty funny and of course I enjoyed all of the food details. Thanks as usual to Sandy and Tim for babysitting!

I will do a bigger catch-up later, but in Avery news, she is doing well, growing quickly and apparently trying to take over the world, one boat at a time! (Though I was even a little nervous while this picture was being taken, I swear she was safe and there were lots of us around - she wasn't out on the open water or anything... :)

Recap...

2009-04-26T17:06:00.000-04:00

Since I can't even manage to do one post per month, it is possible the future of this blog will be an endless series of recaps. Better that than nothing I suppose! In fact, this blog has already come in handy - Auntie Jamie (and Uncle Ted) put together another really nice birthday present for Avery. A retrospective of her first year, with photos mainly from Flickr and details mainly from here. The book is awesome and we really appreciate it. Especially because I am so terrible at doing those types of things, even though I really love having them.

The biggest news of the past 1.5 months is the trip we took to Mexico. Avery, Greg and I went with Ted and Jamie at the end of March, and we had a great time. Wasn't quite the vacations of old, but it went well all in all. The resort, the Paradisus Riviera Cancun, was very well set up for families and babies. The food was good, Avery ate well and slept well, and we all had plenty of beach drinks. The weather was mainly great, only a couple of days of strong winds meant we couldn't hang out near the beach. Basically it was just very nice to get away and continue to learn how to cope (well) when travelling with a munchkin.

Avery is continuing to grow up quickly - she's walking all over, often doing laps around the kitchen or dining room table. She isn't saying very many real words, but she is making herself better understood these days. She points very agressively at things she wants, and will shake her head no when she doesn't want something. It even seems as if she means it and isn't just doing the gratuitous "no" that kids seem to pick up. I am sure that habit will still make an appearance soon! Daycare is going very well. We switched to the home daycare in mid-March after some drama at the daycare centre, and it couldn't be better now. When I drop her off in the morning, she runs in right away to start playing. I even have to ask her nicely for a hug and kiss before I leave. :)

This past week I took my first business trip since Avery was born. It was a very quick overnighter in Toronto, with a full-day meeting on Thursday. There haven't been many times over the course of my career with the government that I have said the words, "that was a very good meeting, well worth the time to go, very informative," etc. This meeting was all that and more, since it ended a little bit early. :) We flew Porter to the island airport and it was everything good that I have been told. The Royal York was a very nice place to stay and I had a great sushi dinner with my mom at New Gen before I flew home. But on to the important stuff...I did miss Avery, but it was all over so quickly that I barely had time to worry. Greg did very well taking care of her, even coping with the 3am out-of-the-blue wakeup. Apparently Avery didn't miss me at all, but she was very happy to see me on Friday morning. And I was very happy to see her! (And Greg too, of course).

Greg and I were talking today about how things have changed, etc. And it is funny, but the thing we miss the most about our BA (before Avery) life , are the trips we made to Chapters/Starbucks on either Saturday or Sunday mornings. For those of you who didn't know we did this, we used to go there for a couple of hours, have a coffee and some breakfast, and I would read magazines and he would read books. It was a great way to chill out, kinda spend some time together, and I got to catch up on all the celeb gossip without having to actually waste money. Sigh...but if that is all that we really miss about before, I think we are doing fairly well. And it will probably only be about 10 more years before we can do it again! With kids in tow, of course. :)

She's 1!!!!

2009-03-05T20:53:00.014-05:00

IMG_2873
Originally uploaded by The Herages

How did that happen??? This has easily been the fastest year of my life - Avery's too I imagine. :) She is growing up very quickly, walking, talking-ish, and starting to assert her little personality. I swear she had a couple of temper tantrums today! But overall she is doing really well, and she's an absolute joy. Except at 2am, but one day she will sleep consistently through the night, right?

We had her birthday party last weekend and it all went fairly smoothly. Greg and/or I did make a trip to Loblaws pretty much everyday for a week, but I guess that is how it works. Thank you to all of our family and friends who came to the party, thanks for all of the great presents for the Aver-doodles, and thanks especially to those of you who helped out. I was really kind of worried how it would all go, especially when Avery refused to take a nap beforehand. But she was a real trooper - it was like she knew that everyone was there for her and she was loving it! :) And of course, presents are always fun. And cake - boy did she love her cake!

So what else....works goes, pretty well for the most part. Avery was sick again for a few days this week, but seems to be coming around now. She has 6 teeth in total at the age of one - but two of them just cut in the last couple of days. We went to the doctor today and she is 29.75 inches tall and 20 pounds. I think we will probably turn the car seats around this weekend, since the weather is supposed to be pretty good. Should be a whole new experience for Avery, actually being able to see where we are going. Her eyes are pretty well hazel at this point - I think it would be neat if they stayed that way. And in the end we decided to switch her to the home daycare. We were there today for a little playdate and lunch, and I think it will all work out really well. Only issue is that the next youngest kid is 15 months old and I am not so sure he's keen on having a new baby in his hood. Oh well, I guess it's one of those things they all have to learn at some point.

In bigger and better news, we are headed to Mexico in a couple of weeks! I cannot even tell you how excited I am. We are going with Ted and Jamie, which is awesome. Mostly for their company and only a little for all of the help they will be with Avery. :) And, she just loves them, so everyone will be happy! We are going to the Mayan Riviera again, to the Paradisus Riviera resort. The only knock on the resort that we have seen is that it is not a party place and there are too many kids. Guess times have changed, haven't they, that we actually seek out this kind of place. Anyhoo, that will probably be my next post at the rate I am going so I will fill you all in on the trip then!

Reflections on working...again

2009-01-27T21:46:00.004-05:00

Back to work it is...sigh. I started back at work on January 19th, so about 1.5 weeks in, I have some thoughts. To begin, working isn't the hard part. The hard parts are arranging daycare, planning in advance for things like dinner, clothes, bags, etc, making sure Avery is enjoying daycare (or at the very least, is not miserable), and trying to get everything done on time. Don't even get me started on the hardest part - getting out of bed every morning. 5:30am is just inhumane - especially for a now reformed night owl!

Anyway, enough complaining. All in all, things are going fairly well (the sound you don't hear is me knocking wood, on my head). Avery is doing pretty well at daycare, Greg and I are getting out of the house on time, and my new job is pretty cool so far. Hopefully that will continue, but at the very least, I am working with some really nice people. Greg has always managed to pick Avery up on time or early, so hopefully the impending snow won't throw a wrench into those works.

A little funny...my last week of mat leave we all came down with a vicious stomach bug. Avery got it first, then I did two days later, and then Greg two days later. Needless to say, this threw a wrench into all my plans for getting stuff done before I went back to work. On the upside, I did lose 5 pounds in about 3 days. Anyhoo, Avery had diarrhea and then became constipated. It seemed like she was in some pain at night when trying to sleep because she hadn't pooped in a while, so I gave her a little prunes for two mornings in a row. Well. Prunes work wonders on my kid. She had blowouts every day at daycare except for Friday, and kept coming home in totally different clothes than I had dressed her in in the morning. One day she had to have an impromptu bath in the sink there - apparently no one was impressed with that situation. I kept telling the daycare workers that this wasn't normal, and they kept grumbling at me. The ironic part of it was that I didn't have to change a poopy diaper for a week. Have to look at life's little pluses, right?

Our current dilemma is trying to decide whether we are going to switch Avery from the daycare centre she is currently in, to the home daycare where we have a spot in April if we want it. Greg and I are having real trouble making this decision. On the one hand, Avery seems to be doing pretty well at the centre and why should we rock the boat. On the other hand, the centre is a little chaotic, with lots of kids and several different teachers, and I worry she isn't getting a lot of individual attention. All things being equal, if we had had a spot available to us in each place in the beginning, I would have chosen the home daycare. I just had a really good feel about it when we visited. But now I don't know if the upheaval would really be worth it. Thoughts?

10 months old, a new start and catching up...

2009-01-14T12:34:00.004-05:00

I started writing this post about 1.5 weeks ago and never finished it. I figured I might as well put it up now anyway, and then try hard to catch up with the rest of our lives. One of these days...

So Avery is now 10 months old...almost two weeks ago actually and I am only now getting around to writing about it. And it isn't as if I've been good about blogging otherwise. Oh well, I suspect it is only going to get worse because I am going back to work on Monday!!!! How the heck did that happen? I think I am still in denial. I suppose that will end fairly quickly. Using my brain again will be the real challenge! Not to mention getting up before 6 every morning. Avery started daycare this week, and we've been practicing getting up on time. It's going ok, though there isn't the pressure of drying my hair, putting on makeup and trying not to let her make my clothes messy before we leave. Watch me panic on Monday morning though, and this darn OCTranspo strike isn't going to help. But I know there are many many people far worse off than me!

Now that those important concerns are out of the way, how is Avery actually doing at daycare? Pretty good I think. She started on Monday and is going a little longer each day. She doesn't even notice when I leave and just starts playing with the various toys. She is a little quiet when I pick her up, but I hope that is just from all the stimulation and getting used to a new routine. Tomorrow she'll go for the whole day and hopefully it will all be fine! Getting her to nap and have her bottles properly there will take some time, but at least she is eating really well. Just like a good Herage/Pearce.

At the 10 month mark the little miss is crawling around very quickly, is constantly standing up with the assistance of everything, she's cruising and starting to transfer herself from one support to another. She is now saying "dada" regularly, though I think it sometime gets mixed up with "ta ta", which is what we say to her when we don't want her to touch something. I think she is also saying some form of "book" but it doesn't come out all that clearly.

All I want for Christmas is my top right lateral incisor...

2008-12-27T17:09:00.003-05:00

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone and an early Happy New Year! I hope everyone is having a very nice Christmas season and relaxing a little. Hard to believe I will be back to work in a few short weeks, but there it is. On to funner topics....

Avery's first Christmas has come and gone, and it was a great time. Of course she didn't have a clue what was going on, and since her attention span is still pretty short, even the appearance of a bunch of new toys didn't really seem to make a big impact. But we enjoyed it anyway. My mom came to spend a week with us in Ottawa, and we had a very nice cheese fondue on Christmas Eve, and then went to Greg's parents' house for dinner on Christmas Day. Sandy, Tim and Jamie made us an excellent meal and it was very nice to be able to spend Avery's first Christmas with all the Herages/Kroekers and my mom. Too bad Grampa Kelly didn't get to see Avery over the holidays, but don't feel too sorry for him. He and Cassandra are sunning it up on a Hawaiian cruise. We'll seem them next week when we go to Toronto.

So Avery has finally cut another tooth - the aforementioned top right lateral incisor. Bonnie assured me that it wasn't strange that Avery is getting this tooth before she has her top central incisors, and that I didn't need to rush her to the dentist or anything. It is going to look a little strange when it comes all the way in though, with only that one and her two bottom teeth! :)

This week we finally put away Avery's playmat - we had the Fisher Price Rainforest Melodies & Lights Deluxe Gym. I would highly recommend this one as Avery really loved it, it was fairly durable and she got some use out of it even over the last couple of months. Granted it is probably not meant to be used as a standing support, but somehow she made it work that way! :)

And finally, I managed to do a little shopping today beacuse I desperately need to revamp my work wardrobe. The best deals I found were at the Gap at St. Laurent mall. I got 4 pairs of work pants that ranged in price from $15 to $25, and they all fit fairly well. Can't beat that!

My they grow up quickly!

2008-12-06T12:20:00.008-05:00

In a shameless rip-off of Julie's six month update for Nicholas, here is our nine month version for Avery. And no, there was no coffee in the Starbucks cup - she just really loves playing with them. Looks like she'll be taking after Mama anyway! :)

Weight: 18lbs 14oz (pretty average and about what Nicholas was at 6 months :)

Height: 28 inches (just slightly taller than average)

Eye Colour: Greeny-brown, but changing with every outfit

Hair Status: Rocking the faux-hawk most of the time, waiting patiently for enough hair to put a barrette in

Teeth Status: Two bottom front teeth came in 2 months ago, still waiting for the rest of them

Nicknames: Sweetpea, Monkey, Doodles, Squirt

Prized Collection: Shoes! Already taking after Mommy, Gramma Sandy and Great Aunt Arlene, Avery owns 9 pairs of shoes, slippers and booties. And Mommy most certainly did not buy all of them.

Biggest accomplishments: pulling herself up anywhere and everywhere, crawling up a long flight of stairs with bum support from Mommy or Daddy, clapping, waving, shaking her head "no" and saying "mama" for just about everything (but I know she really means me :)

Ways to describe her physique: healthy baby girl, cutest budda belly and feet

Favorites: Trus and the cats, the "exerpooper", her mini-soccer ball, pulling books off the bookshelf, TV, and still anything she can put in her mouth

Most likely career: Surgeon (due to her manual dexterity in finding the tiniest bits on the floor to pick up and eat), or teeth model (but she still has to grow many more)

Who sleeps most? No one - we are all still working on improving her day and night sleep...sigh

Most endearing qualities: heartwarming smile, tenaciousness, cuddliness

Favourite food: multigrain cereal, yogurt, cheese, bananas, beef stroganoff (the grown-up kind)

Marital status: single, but flirting with all the boys

What’s next? Standing, walking, running - and then next week, hopefully she will say "dada"

Possibly the cutest thing ever...after Avery of course!

2008-11-23T22:15:00.003-05:00

Have you seen this? It's a Puppy Cam of six Shiba Inu puppies - check it out. I'm not sure how it all came about, but it is pretty fun to watch. Even when they are mostly sleeping and they walk over each other to get the best spots, or nip at each other's ears just for kicks.

Yay to the return of Top Chef!

2008-11-17T20:32:00.003-05:00

So I love the show Top Chef - if you don't know it, it is a Bravo show that is shown on the Food Network in Canada. It's a reality show where chefs compete against each other in a variety of challenges to become "Top Chef" and win some $ and cool prizes - as well as the bragging rights of course. What I love about it is that most of the "cheftestants" (their word, not mine) are trained, professional chefs and they come to win. There is also a healthy mix of personality clashes and personal baggage to round out the cooking action. It is nice to watch a reality show where the participants are skilled and not just fame-seekers. I guess that is also why I like So You Think You Can Dance...but I digress.

Unfortunately I wasn't aware that Season 5 started last week and I only caught part of the first episode, but no worries - I plan to be a dedicated watcher nonetheless. For anyone who is a wannabe chef and amateur foodie, this show is for you. It's on the Food Network Wednesdays at 10pm. And it is worth staying up for! :)

She's on the move!

2008-11-15T18:19:00.006-05:00

Avery has officially started crawling. The first real crawl happened at 8 months and one week, just after we came back from Toronto. Too bad Grossmueti didn't get to see it in person, but I am sure she will get her fill at Christmas. Grampa Kelly and Cassandra will just have to come to Ottawa sometime soon to see it themselves.
So the crawling - she isn't too speedy, thankfully, and she hasn't gotten into much yet. But it really doesn't take long for her to move somewhere and do something you weren't expecting. We will be spending the rest of this weekend finishing the babyproofing we should have done ages ago.

Our trip to Toronto last week was very nice - more or less the same type of visit, visiting with a lot of friends and family. Had a fun fondue dinner with Avery's "Toronto aunties" - it was great to see everyone, especially Kate whom I haven't seen in 1.5 years, but I am totally over fondue. The cheese one was fine, but I no longer enjoy broth fondues. It takes too long to cook stuff, the sauces are always too far away, some people (Greg) are way squeamish about the raw meat, and I ended up walking around the table for a good part of the meal. The chocolate fondue was nice, but then, it has chocolate going for it.

In other news, we are still working on daycare options. We definitely have a spot at a daycare centre close to home if we want it, and I am fairly sure Avery will end up going there. In the meantime though, we are continuing to check out home daycares. The first one we went to was a bit of a shock to both Greg and I. I am sure the provider was great, but Avery just seemed so young compared to the other kids and it was hard to imagine this person coping with 5 kids at once. And one of the kids threw a toy at Avery's head twice while we were there - doesn't exactly inspire confidence. But we will keep looking, just in case the perfect place is out there. At least we know we won't have to scramble for something at the last minute!

8 months and counting...

2008-11-04T22:06:00.004-05:00

As you may have guessed, Avery is now 8 months old. Honestly, could the time be flying any quicker??? Sure, there are still some days that seem to drag on forever, but mostly I can't even remember what it was like when she was really little. Thank goodness I have been using this blog to record at least some of the memories!

So - what is Avery up to these days? Well, push-ups, crawling/sliding backwards, turning in circles, sitting up and the occasional faceplant. So far there is almost no forward momentum. She crawled forward a couple of paces last Sunday at Gramma and Grampa's house, but has shown no interest in repeating the feat. None of her toys seem exciting enough for her to really work to get them. When she did crawl, it was because she was after my foot. So I imagine it won't be long, but then again, neither Greg nor I will be surprised if she skips real crawling and goes straight to walking. She loves to stand! She uses our fingers to pull herself up and each day she does more of the work herself. Her balance and core strength is not good, but her legs seem pretty strong. Must be all the jolly jumper workouts. They should make those for adults. :)

Eating is still going well and she has tried a good number of foods. Favourites are still the sweeter veggies, yougurt, most of the meats (she has tried beef, lamb, chicken, fish and pork), puffed wheat and cheerios. However, anything with texture that doesn't melt in her mouth is rejected after only a couple of bites. So far this includes cheese, tofu and grated apple. I am going to try pear with her next, but I am waiting for the pears to ripen a little more.

I am not sure about her height and weight, but I am guessing she's about 17.5-18 pounds now. I suppose I could measure her height myself - one of these days. Lately I have been getting comments that she seems delicate/petite or very small for her age, so I hope she is still on the right track. But she still has her thigh chunk and wrist indents, so I don't think she has become too skinny or anything. She seems pretty healthy to me!

Avery's first Halloween came and went and she dressed up as a turtle, courtesy of Aidan Ferguson. We took her around to a couple of houses, mama got a little candy, and then we came home to hand out our own candy. It was a bit complicated because Greg was at curling (he couldn't skip it as well, because we are half the team after all), so I fed Avery her dinner in the front hall, kept Trus on a leash so that he wouldn't jump up at the kids who came to the door and handed out candy until it ran out. When it did, I blew out the pumpkin candle thinking that would indicate to the kids that we were done for the night - but they rang the doorbell anyway. So I turned out the porch light as well, making it extremely dark on our walkway - and they still came. So I stopped answering the doorbell. But there was one persistent little trick-or-treater who rang the bell twice and then knocked. I answered the door and told him I had no more candy (because he obviously wasn't going away without a reason), and then he apologized and said he was sorry to have annoyed me. Ahh, kids...they'll do almost anything for a little candy! :)

Update on curling and sleeping...

2008-10-18T21:09:00.005-04:00

Since I am sure you are all burning to know how curling and sleeping went last night, I thought I would share. We won at curling and Avery kinda slept through the night! In all, I would say it was a pretty good night.

Greg ended up skipping our game and Andrew and I threw 3 rocks each, while Rory threw the last two. I was not much help in the game, but thankfully the other team wasn't having a great night. There really are so many things to think about you are throwing...getting the handle right, aim, balance, weight, etc. There is always at least one that I completely forget about. The whole thing really reminds me of golf where it is so easy to overthink things. And then there is my knee. I don't have great balance as it is, and I basically fall on my sore knee every time I throw. Today it is swollen and bruised again, and I am starting to get concerned that it is more than just a bad bruise. The swollen part feels a little like there is gel in there when I touch it. I'll give it a couple of days again and then maybe think about seeing the doctor.

So the sleeping - Ted and Jamie babysat for Avery and said she didn't hardly make a sound the whole time we were gone. Greg and I finally went to bed around 1:30am and Avery starting whimpering around 3-ish, I think. We had decided we weren't going to go check on her (or change her diaper) unless she really started screaming and after about 5-10 mins she quieted down and went back to sleep. I think the fact that Greg and I were so tired helped us wait out the crying, because neither of us had the energy to get up! We all basically slept in until about 8am, with a quick feeding at 6am. Avery diaper was totally soaked, and it had leaked a little around the edges of her diaper shirt, but she didn't seem to mind. So maybe the middle of the night diaper changes really aren't necessary.

We shall see what tonight brings - I don't have high hopes since I just heard her moaning a little and she has only been asleep for about an hour at this point. Sigh....

A sleep question...

2008-10-16T21:41:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned many times before, Avery does not sleep super-well at night. And her patterns are constantly changing. Last week she had a thing going where she nursed and then went to bed at about 8-ish. She was up again like clockwork between 10:30 and 11:30 pm, at which point her diaper was usually saturated and she was more than willing to feed again. I changed her, then would feed her, and then she went back to sleep fairly easily after that. Then she would be up again between 2-3 am, diaper full again, and we changed her again. Getting her back to sleep after that was usually much more difficult. So more often than not, we gave in and brought her into bed with us. Needless to say, she loves it and sleeps "like a baby" in our bed.

So my question is, any ideas why she is soaking her diaper so much during the night? This is a relatively new thing and she still pees normal amounts during the day. Of course, everything has already changed again - last night she didn't wake up until about 2am and her diaper wasn't that wet, so who knows what tonight will bring. Tonight I am going to try giving her a teddy bear from my mother-in-law when she wakes at 2am - this teddy has a removable pouch that you can microwave to warm up and then put it back in the bear. I am hoping snuggling up to the warm bear will feel the same as snuggling up to mommy or daddy. :)

In other news, I have started to wean Avery and it is going fairly well. Some discomfort now and then, but she is taking bottles fairly well. And by the way, spinning class is hard! Jen-Anne McNeill is our instructor and boy is she keen. It is a really good workout and especially for me because I have never done much biking, but boy is my butt sore afterwards. And speaking of sore, we are curling again tomorrow. My knee is still bruised two weeks later from the last attempt. Maybe I will take a picture of it this time if there is anything good to see. I didn't curl last week because I was sick, and the team won without me. Greg is likely not going to curl this week - I am not so sure we are going to win without him and with me instead. I will keep you updated! :)

7 months old and a trip to Switzerland

2008-10-06T22:00:00.001-04:00

As usual, I have been meaning to post forever. A fair bit has happened over the last few weeks, so I'll just have to do a major catch-up post in the spirit of Dana.

Avery is 7 months old now - and I am still astounded how quickly time is flying. She is continuing to grow, though she has definitely slowed down in gaining weight. She is about 27 inches now, and around 16 lbs 10-ish oz. She actually lost a little weight in September, but more on that later. She is eating a bunch of different veggies and fruit now, loves her cereal and yogurt, and tried beef for the first time today. She wasn't overly keen on it, but she didn't totally reject it. So we will try again tomorrow. She cut her first tooth (bottom front left) last week, and I think its partner is on the way. She is saying "mama" now - ok, not really, but she does say "mamamamama" and sometime she says it in my direction. :) She is sitting up pretty well, and is starting to push forward over her legs and feet - usually ending up in a face-plant. No real crawling, but she often sees something in front of her that she wants to get, pushes and pushes, and then gets really mad when she ends up farther away from it, rather than closer. Very cute! Sleeping continues to be a disaster, but I have resolved that it will work itself out one of these days. If I end up with a 3-year old that doesn't want to sleep on her own ever, I guess we will all know why!

The most major event from September was our trip to Switzerland. Avery, my mom and I went for two weeks and stayed with Aunt and Uncle in their small town between Basel and Zurich. Now that I have some perspective, I can say that overall it was a pretty good trip. Avery did awesomely well on all of the plane rides and most of the train rides. Jet lag was hard to cope with (I guess babies can't logic it out and stay up for the sake of getting over jet lag faster), as was Avery's teething, diaper rash and stomach bug that resulted in many, many, MANY diaper changes per day. Hence the aforementioned weight loss.

Regardless, we did manage to fit in a number of outings, to Bern, Zurich, Luzern, Lausanne and Locarno. We went to a really cool glass factory in Hergiswil where we watched glass being blown into vases, etc. Highlights of the trip were the free wine festival/tasting that my mom and I stumbled onto in Locarno (with Avery in the carrier on my back), and all of the awesome food we had. Most of it was cooked my aunt Ursula, but there were a few great meals (and desserts) to be had in restaurants as well. I was able to see all of my family there, which was great since it had been about 15 years since I had last seen some of them. And I really appreciate the hospitality of Ursula and Gil, as well as the chance to hang out with my aunt Barbara, my cousins and their kids, Sebastian and Clara-Elisa. Hopefully it won't be another 15 years before we go back and hopefully Greg will be able to come the next time. I don't think he would stand for staying home alone again! :)

Other recent events: Meghan and Dave's wedding last Saturday was a great time and Meghan looked gorgeous (ok, Dave looked pretty good too). I got a cool cover-up for the baby carrier so that I don't have to be so worried about Avery freezing her butt off when we go for walks. I have gotten back into my exercise classes through Mommefit, and started spinning class with Jammer as an instructor. She was awesome and boy, did my butt hurt the next day! However, that hurt was nothing compared to the bruise I got on my knee while curling last Friday night. Greg and I joined a curling team with my friend Rory and her friend Andrew. The three of them have all curled for years - I have not. So you can understand why I was a little nervous. Once we started, my nervousness about not playing well quickly turned into nervousness about falling and cracking my skull open on the ice. I did fall twice and the second time I completely schmucked my knee. That was when I went to buy a gripper for my slider foot and that made all the difference in the world. I am mostly looking forward to curling again this week, as long as my knee isn't as sore. Or maybe I will just have a perma-bruise until the season is over. It is a beaut, let me tell ya!

6 months old!!!

2008-09-04T21:19:00.004-04:00

So I never meant for this blog to only get updated once a month to coincide with Avery becoming a month older, but it seems that is all that I am inspired to write about. I will try to pick up the pace just a little bit!

On that note, Avery turned 6 months old today. How the heck did that happen? It hit me the other day that I only have about 4.5 months left before I go back to work. Eeek! Really, I am of two minds about that. I was always pretty sure that I wasn't meant to be a stay-at-home mom, and now I am quite certain, but it will be heartbreaking to send Avery off to daycare. I guess it is for everyone. And speaking of daycare, that is my new project. No real progress yet, but I am hoping to get something resolved well before panic mode starts. I think that would be in December, so I still have a bit of time.

Avery stats are now 26.25 inches tall and 16 lbs 12 oz. I guess her growth rate is slowing down now because I was pretty sure she was going to be close to 18 lbs. I guess it just feels like that when I end up carrying her around a lot. Like today at the mall - nothing like carrying a grumpy baby while pushing bags in the stroller with the other hand! :)

She is quite the roller - definitely have to watch her on the change table at all times - but is mainly going in circles because she definitely prefers one direction. She can spin on her belly and is starting to do push-ups. She sometimes pushes backwards on a slippery floor and once in a while will hold a crawling position when she is put there, but collapse is imminent. She can sit up pretty well, though falling happens in all directions and without warning - usually as a result of something interesting catching her attention. She is now eating a fair bit of cereal and she's tried (and mostly liked) carrots and sweet potatoes. Bananas are a different story - much to her father's joy, she seems to be rejecting bananas. However, I like bananas and still find the puree to be revolting. So maybe when she moves on to a normal banana she won't hate it as much.

We (Avery, my mom and I) are heading to Switzerland next week for a 2-week vacation. Greg isn't coming because it is a bad time for him at work - he is hoping we will get to go sometime later, hopefully with kid#2 and when they are a little older and able to enjoy themselves. I am looking forward to the trip, as I haven't been there in about 15 years, but I am also a bit nervous. Mostly about the flight, but also about how Avery will adjust when we get there and whether she will keep the house up at night. On that, she is still very inconsistent with the sleeping. I noted Julie's comment about Nicholas being a better sleeper at 6 weeks than 6 months, and I think Avery falls into that category too. It seems to be getting a little better, and I am now making an effort to wait longer before I feed her - more like 4-5am instead of 2-3am. But she is still not good at soothing herself; hopefully that is something she will grow into. Maybe Liam can give her some lessons!

5 months old!!!

2008-08-04T22:03:00.005-04:00

I can hardly believe, but Avery was five months old today. Time has flown by so quickly, and now I can barely remember what life was like when she was a newborn. Oh well, I guess that is what they all say! :)

So the stats: when Avery was at the pediatrician in mid-July she weighed 15 lbs 10 oz and was 25.75 inches tall. She is probably now around 16-16.5 lbs and about 26 inches. We moved her into her new car seat this week (and as everyone warned me, I do miss the bucket!). She still sleeps a fair bit when in the car, but she also reaches her limit much more quickly these days and sobs as though the world is coming to an end - until we start moving again. She is now eating rice and barley cereal twice a day - she really seems to like eating, but I wonder how much food is actually getting into her, since she also likes to eat her fingers and toes during meals. She is getting closer to sitting up on her own, she is sort-of imitating some facial expressions, and I don't really think there are any signs of teeth yet though - but I could be wrong on that one!

We moved her crib into her own room a couple of weeks ago and at first her sleeping patterns didn't change at all - in a good way. However, the last few nights have been rough. She wakes up several times, not always to feed but sometimes because she can't soothe herself back to sleep or because she ends up on her stomach and doesn't like it. And last night, just when it seemed like Avery was actually going to sleep a little longer, the alarm on the monitor went off twice! Both times we rushed into the room to find her calmly sleeping on her back, but I suspect she rolled so close to the bars that she rolled off the sensor pad. We have the Angel Care monitor that detects movement (breathing/heart beat), as well as sound. At some points I have loved the comfort of knowing she is still breathing without needing to check on her every 5 minutes, but now I am nearing the point where we might only use the sound feature. To be determined in the next couple of nights...maybe this sleep issue is just the 5-month phase that Bonnie told me about. Or maybe it is nothing and I just wasn't expecting baby sleeping to be this inconsistent and confusing! :)

In other news, we had another successful trip to Toronto last week. We saw most family members and friends, made it to the Canadian Open golf tournament for a little bit, and even hit the Big Apple on the 401 on the way home. I have always wondered what it was all about and now I know - we weren't missing too much. Greg is heading back to work tomorrow after being off for all of July. It was a good month and we did some fun things - but all fun usually comes to an end. It will be a hard adjustment for both of us - no more sleeping in for him and much more planning and coping during the day for me, but at least now I can try to get Avery on more of a schedule. We shall see how that works out!

City Chase 2008

2008-07-19T22:01:00.004-04:00

Today Rory and I participated in the 2008 City Chase, taking place in Ottawa and Gatineau. It was a pretty good time and we did fairly well considering our general state of unfitness. I believe we came in 88th out of 340 teams, and were about the 6-7th place all-female team. Hey - we'll take our victories where we can get them! Not quite as good as in 2006 when we were the 3rd all female team and 29th place, but really, sometimes I wonder how well we could do if we were ever actually in shape! :)

Some of the fun things we did included a disc-golf challenge in JC Park, walking on stilts, fencing, batting and catching, and shotting cans with a paint ball gun. We really didn't do any of the crazy checkpoints this year, like eating gross stuff, touching spiders or canoeing on the river. On the one hand, I regret that the checkpoints we did were pretty tame, but on the other hand I appreciated that we weren't particularly dirty or wet at any point. It was a really nice day for the race, though we did have to make sure to drink enough water once the sun came out.

A little funny...after the race Rory and I were joking about "when we go to the World Championships in Morocco" (which we were going to get to by having our names drawn out of a hat instead of winning a local race). We had been told that the race for Worlds lasts 40-72 hours, rather then the 6 hours of today's race. Considering that we were basically dead after finishing at around 5 hours today, I thought 40-72 hours might be a bit much. In response, Rory said, "we might need to stretch first". hehehehehe

Thanks to all of the people who helped us out with the clues and finding checkpoints, etc - Greg, Dave, Kevin, Bonnie and Catrina. Thanks to Tim and Sandy for coming over today to help out around the house and look after Avery. I sure hope I didn't miss anyone! :)

Avery at 4 months...

2008-07-12T22:30:00.001-04:00

Note: I started writing this post on July 5th-ish, but am actually finishing it on July 12th - not sure what the date will be when it gets posted.

Yet more time has passed between postings, and it seems I am now just trying to keep up with the major milestones. Avery was 4 months old on July 4th, Independence Day coincidentally because she seems to be getting more and more independent all the time. She can now roll both from back to front and front to back (with varying degrees of success), which means I can't really take my eyes of her when she is on the playmat, lest she roll with any speed into the wall. I've said it before and I will say it again, thank goodness for the Jolly Jumper when I am trying to cook or to just get a little bit of a break!

I am going to go ahead and guess that she is about 25-26 inches long now, and somewhere between 15-16 pounds - she is now in six 3 diapers. We are no good at weighing and measuring her at home, but she will be going to the doctor next week for her 2nd vaccinations and we'll get the real story then. She has been doing fun things like putting her feet in her mouth for a couple of weeks now, and she has gone swimming in our pool a couple of times this summer.

The pool is pretty chilly, so I think she mostly just tolerates it for my sake rather than actually enjoying the experience. Hopefully that will change as the pool warms up. You will note her stunning orange swimming ensemble in the pic - it is from Sunseals (a Canadian company) and while it was not cheap, it seems to be doing the trick to keep the sun off her since we aren't supposed to use sunscreen yet.

Today we have an impromptu swim visit from the Fergusons, which turned into afternoon beers, and then morphed into dinner. If there is one thing I love about mat leave (other than watching Avery grow up) it is that I am enjoying being more social on weekends, worrying less about getting chores done and fitting in everything I need to do before going back to work on Mondays. It is so nice just to lounge around and not worry about time passing too quickly!

Greg has been on parental leave with me since the end of June - things are going pretty well (neither of us has gone postal on the other one yet :) and we are even getting some things done around the house. It will be a bit of a shock when he goes back to work in August, as I will have to start coming up with ways to fill the days for Avery and I again. My plan is start her on solids in early August, so that should hopefully provide both of us with some entertainment and maybe even bring some structure to our days - we certainly don't have any of that now!!! :)

Speaking of lack of structure, each night seems to bring a new sleeping adventure. Avery is always waking up at least once in the early morning and wants to be fed. If it was always 4am or 5am, I could understand that. But sometimes it is 1am, sometimes 3am, and sometimes 5am. I can't tell if it is something waking her up (like the animals), that she just wakes up and can't soothe herself back to sleep, or if she really is hungry at each of these times. At any rate, I almost always end up feeding her and then trying to convince her to sleep again. Usually Greg ends up rocking her for a while, which means neither of us gets much continuous sleep. So who really knows. The next thing we are going to try is to move her crib back into her room from our bedroom, hopefully this weekend. Public health recommends babies stay in their parents' room until 6 months, but we've already had her with us longer than most people we know (except for the Lawsons), and I think it is time. Hopefully this will result in better sleep all around! :)

Saying goodbye to the Miracle Blanket

2008-06-18T10:47:00.004-04:00

As Avery is now 15 weeks, it was well time to try putting her to sleep without using the Miracle Blanket. As mentioned previously, this swaddling blanket was a present from Amy who nicknamed the resulting arrangement as the "Baby Burrito". But really, Avery had been sleeping through the night for approximately the past two months and I wasn't very keen on what would happen when we stopped using the blanket. I was also nervous because of the problems the Keans had with Daniel once they stopped - what was it? He didn't sleep through the night again until he was 10 months???

Anyway, given that Avery had started to work at least one arm or one leg out of the blanket for the past couple of nights, I figured it was time to make the change. So last Friday night we gave it a try - putting her in a sleep sack instead. And it really wasn't too bad!! Since then she has woken up fussing a couple of times in the night, but usually putting her soother back in her mouth helps her to go straight back to sleep. That is, until last night...I am not sure what happened, but she more or less woke up every 3 hours again, just like when she was a really newborn. I ended up feeding her each time and then rocking her back to sleep. I have a couple of theories - one is that this is her 3-month growth spurt, but a couple of weeks late, and the other is that she really didn't like the spicy Thai red curry chicken I made and had for dinner two nights in a row! I am hoping that whatever the reason, it is just a very short phase and we will go back nice sound sleeps very soon. I am not sure how well I will be able to handle sleepless nights again, now that I have gotten used to the luxury of many hours in a row! :)

P.S. An update on the passport experience...I am fairly certain I received both Avery's and my passport within a week of going to the Gatineau office. So once again, I highly recommend going there if you need your passport in short order.

Avery at 3 months...

2008-06-04T17:04:00.002-04:00

How time flies! Especially when you have a new baby and/or guilt about not posting anything for a long time...to be honest, I haven't really felt there was much of note to wrote about over the last few weeks, but Avery's 3-month bday seems like a good enough reason!

She is doing super-well, measuring in at approximately 24 inches and weighing somewhere between 14 and 15 pounds. I don't have a more precise weight because she is now too old to go to the public health well-baby drop-in sessions and at the last one we went to, last Monday, they told me she weighed less than she had at her pediatrician appt 3 weeks before that. ? So at this point, I am just guessing. She is pretty active and happy (most days anyway, yesterday was bit of a rough ride), and still has no semblance of a schedule - though I suppose that is probably more my fault than hers :) A couple of weeks ago she seemed to be starting to roll-over (check out some videos on flickr), and even spontaneously flipped from tummy to back, bonking her head in the process and surprising Greg big-time. But she hasn't seemed too interested in trying again since.

We had a little adventure today - we went to get passports with Julie and Nicholas. The whole experience couldn't have been smoother. Avery slept the whole time, there was zero line-up, we were able to have a nice lunch, and apparently Nicholas even slept in the car both ways. We should go get passports everyday!!! At any rate, I would highly recommend going to the Gatineau office if you need to renew your passport anytime soon. The building wasn't the most straightforward to navigate with the stroller, but that is partly me not being adept at navigating the stroller in general.

Tomorrow we have a breakfast date with a friend from work - we are supposed to meet up at 8am. I am hoping this all works, but I suspect we might end up a little late. I fully intend to blame it on traffic. Friday is a lunch date in Gatineau with other work friends, and then my mom is coming in the evening for the weekend. Looking forward to some grandmother fun and good weather hopefully...and hopefully the new pool will be installed very soon!

Toronto Odyssey

2008-05-11T15:31:00.004-04:00

4 generations of Pearce
Originally uploaded by The Herages

It has been a while, hasn't it, since I posted anything. That certainly doesn't mean nothing has been going on, but more that I just haven't managed to get the timing right to write out a whole post in one go. So on to the update...

At the end of April, Greg, Avery and I headed to Toronto to visit my family - pretty much all of my family and many friends as well! Greg headed home after the weekend (by flying with Porter and hanging out with Stephane Dion on the plane - ok, he didn't really talk to him but they were on the same plane at the same time :), and I stayed for another week. During that time Avery and I visited with my mom, dad, grandmother, various aunts and uncles, my university friends, my high school friends and a friend from my old work. Avery was a star through the whole thing! I, on the other hand, was a little tired by the end of it. :)

Special thanks to my mom for putting up with us the whole week (though I don't think she really minded), to my dad and Cassandra for hosting a great party and letting us see most of the family all in one go, to Andrea (Rabel) Comeau for having a lovely baby shower for us, and to all our other friends and family who had us over for visits.

Avery turned 2 months old while we were there - as of last Tuesday (9 weeks), she weighed13 lbs 5 oz and was 23.5 inches in length, apparently a little above average on both counts. I think I misstated her length in one of my earlier posts, because I don't think she has been shrinking or anything! She's a pretty happy baby and seems to enjoy life, even though she only poops once every 2-3 days. I keep thinking I've seen the biggest poops ever and she keeps surprising me. Yesterday I had to wash the cover of her little rocker chair among other things because there was leakage everywhere...hopefully she will grow out of this phase sooner rather than later!

New stroller

2008-04-23T16:30:00.005-04:00

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

2008-04-23T16:21:00.003-04:00

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

2008-04-13T21:05:00.004-04:00

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

2008-04-10T16:18:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-05T17:16:00.007-04:00

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

2008-04-05T16:26:00.005-04:00

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! :)

Avery's progress so far...

2008-03-20T17:11:00.010-04:00

Now that it has been a couple of weeks, it is time to write a little about how Avery is actually doing (and how her parents are adjusting to being parents). As I mentioned, there have already been many highs and lows in this short time, which I suppose is just good practice for parenthood in general. Avery is doing really well - after the slight scare at the hospital when she came close to losing 10% of her birth weight, she is now at a whopping 9lbs 5 oz (her birth weight was 7lbs 11 oz) in 2.5 weeks. I actually asked the pediatrician if I should be concerned that she is gaining too much weight, but he said that really wasn't a problem since I am breastfeeding.

At any rate, much has happened over the last couple of weeks. Uncle Trus (our dog) came home from living with the grandparents and has adjusted very well to having Avery around. He basically ignores her, which is just fine with us since he still doesn't really like other kids - we confirmed this when Brent, Chelsea and their 7-month old son Aidan came to visit.

We also had another medical scare - Avery had a slightly elevated level on one of the conditions they test for during the Newborn Screening program. She is fine thank goodness, but she had to have extra bloodwork and a urine sample to make sure she didn't have a genetic disorder that can result in a range of conditions called organic acidemias. Needless to say, when the hospital does the screen after they are born and tells you that no news is good news, and then you get a call from CHEO...panic definitely sets in quickly. But really, she is totally fine after all.

Avery has already had many visitors, which has been awesome - and thank you very much to everyone who brought us food and/or had us over for meals over the last couple of weeks. It has all been extremely appreciated! One highlight visit was from Uncle Dan and Auntie Andrea who came to Ottawa from Calgary. They were, of course, stunned by the amount of snow we have here, but were also quite thrilled with their little niece.

Another special visit was from Grampa Kelly (who barely said hello to his daughter before checking out his granddaughter), Cassandra and Shelly. They also brought Avery a special rabbit teddy bear they created themselves at Build-a-Bear. The teddy is named Robin Rabbit, thus carrying on the tradition of the name Robin in the Pearce family.

Avery had her first Easter dinner over at Gramma and Grampa Herage's house and wore a very cute outfit (courtesy of Dana) - since Avery mainly only wears sleepers, we had to get her a little more dressed up for a special occasion. And she had to put on her Easter bib:

And finally, on Thursday Greg went back to work so Avery and I decided to have a big adventure and take a road trip to Brockville to see the Masons - particularly Avery's birthday buddy Nicholas. We spent a very nice afternoon with them and had two great meals. Nicholas is definitely a cutie - must be something about being born on March 4th! :) I didn't manage to take any pictures of the two of them, but when the Masons post theirs, I will link to it. Here they are:

The hospital experience and first few days

2008-03-16T12:23:00.005-04:00

So it turns out that Greg and Avery are asleep in the glider as we speak...thought I had better take this opportunity to start typing before they wake up - or until I get too sore, if you know what I mean! :)

Our time in the hospital...it was certainly a whirlwind and great learning experience, with a bunch of highs and lows. On the whole, I have to note that the nurses who cared for Avery and me were awesome and complete professionals. Two stood out in particular, Helen and Jovanna (sp?), but all of them were very helpful in their own ways. Not to say that there weren't some frustrating times, but overall it was fairly positive.

We started off in a ward room in the Mother-Baby unit - we weren't very excited about this having requested a private room, but we did eventually get moved at about 11pm on Tuesday night. At least there was a place for Greg to sleep in the private room!

Tuesday went by in a blur - we had a ton of people come visit, including Gramma and Grampa Herage, Gramma Pearce, the Keans, the Haggertys, Bonnie and Ted & Jamie. It was nice to have everyone and the presents were all very much appreciated! Day one we started learning how to breastfeed, change diapers and bath Avery among other things. It was a little hard to take it all in, but we kept plugging away. Having been fairly nervous about nursing, it was a little disconcerting when Avery would hang out at the breast but not really suck. The nurses weren't concerned because they said she didn't really need to take anything in for the first 24 hours, but it made me a little worried. That night, however, our nurse showed us a way to nurse that Avery actually seemed to like and she started snacking on the colostrum. She continued to nurse over the next day with more success some times than others, and to be quite frank, my nipples were starting to show the wear and tear. I know proper breastfeeding is not supposed to hurt, but hurt it did! Wednesday night, Avery was extremely cranky and wouldn't settle down. Our nurse took her away a couple of times so that Greg and I could get a little sleep, which really helped.

By the next morning, the nurse on duty became concerned that she had lost too much of her birth weight. We were supposed to be discharged at 9:30am, but the freaking-out about her weight delayed that all by a couple of hours. Avery got down to about 9% of birth weight lost, still above the cut-off of 10%, but the pediatrician insisted that we supplement the breastfeeding with an oz or so of formula at every feed. I have to admit that she did settle down quite a bit after having her first bit of formula, so it was clear that she was hungry and was not getting anything from the colostrum. We were not happy about this situation and were worried the formula from the bottle would wreck the little progress we had made with breastfeeding, but it was simply a matter of my milk needing to come in - which it did during the night on Thursday.

After supplementing for about 36 hours and my milk coming in, we took Avery to the pediatrician on Friday morning. They weighed her there and she was up about 5 oz from the day before - so at least we didn't have to worry that she was starving any more. By the time we went back to the pediatrician on Monday morning, she was up to 7lbs 14 oz - above her birth weight in less than a week. Seems we have gotten the hang of this nursing business after all.

While still in the hospital, we were lucky enough to see the lactation consultant. She was so helpful and even though I may not have been having as many difficulties as some people, she was still able to give me a couple of tricks that really made a difference. She was also a lot less stressed out about Avery's weight, lack of bowel movements, etc. than the nurses, which helped calm Greg and I down enormously. We did make a call to Telehealth late on Friday night, but hey, we are first-time parents after all! And now I hear the little angel waking up, so I had better go feed her!

The labour and delivery story...

2008-03-16T11:29:00.004-04:00

IMG_1003
Originally uploaded by The Herages

I wanted to try and get the full labour and delivery story down before I forget it - even though it has already been about 2 weeks, I still feel like it was yesterday. And this way, the little princess will be able to read about it one day (I hope), since she won't have a traditional baby book. I have never been any good at those things!

My contractions began on Sunday, March 2nd at about 10pm. Since I had had a couple of contractions here and there, I didn't really think labour was actually starting. After all, I had plans for Monday that I really wanted to get done! :) However, they kept coming and I didn't get any sleep that night. I basically hung out in the bathroom so as not to wake up Greg, reading and breathing through the pain. I took a really long shower (long even for me), and eventually tried to sleep a bit. At about 5am I woke Greg up because I didn't feel like doing the contraction business on my own any more, and let him know that we were likely going to the hospital soon. Of course, we had freezing rain that morning so he had to spend about 30 mins scraping off the car while I hung out on the exercise ball. Our hospital was the Ottawa Hospital - General Campus.

We ended up heading to the hospital around 1pm on Monday because I had a previously scheduled ultrasound to check on the baby because I was overdue. Of course, I don't really remember having many contractions on the way to the hospital or during the ultrasound, but they were about 8-9 minutes apart when we left the house. The ultrasound went fine and we were told the baby would weigh about 8 lbs. We then headed to the triage desk and I was assessed as being about 2.5 cm dilated. Because the hospital doesn't admit people until they are 3cm dilated, they told us to go walking around and get something to eat. I wasn't really keen on that idea because I was having serious trouble keeping food down (ask Greg about me vomiting up blueberry sauce in my hands in the bathroom at about 6am - and about him having to clean it up). But we went to the caf, hung out for a couple of hours and then went back to triage. I was eventually assessed again and was only at 3cm - and the hospital still wouldn't admit me! I got seriously cranky because the contractions were pretty strong and about 5 mins apart, so they offered me Nubane, a narcotic. I had never really thought about taking narcotics that early in the process, but I did and I was so glad because I was able to sleep on the couch in the early labour room (!) for a couple of hours, and when I was assessed later, I had dilated to 7-8cm. So they finally admitted me then!

When we got into the labour and delivery room, I had to make a decision about having an epidural. I had never planned on having a natural birth with no drugs, but I was just trying to last as long as possible without taking anything. I guess the Nubane kind of threw a wrench in those plans, but I definitely don't regret that! I started waffling about whether to have the epidural or not, since I was relatively far along, but in talking it through with the nurse, I realized that I would probably "need" one eventually. So I got the epidural at just before midnight on Monday. The worst part of that was having to get the IV needle inserted - the nurse missed and blew the first vein she tried on the back of my hand, and I had a bruise for about 1.5 weeks as a result. Thankfully she called in another nurse to try the second vein and that worked fine. Of course, once the epidural was in my contractions slowed down and became fairly irregular. This allowed me to get some sleep, but they eventually had to give me oxytocin in order to make the contractions regular and have me start pushing. So much for no interventions!!!

I finally started pushing at around 5:20am on Tuesday. I pushed for close to 1.5 hours with very little progress - in retrospect, I think I just wasn't pushing as hard as I could have but I really didn't know what was what at the time. A decision was eventually made to use the vacuum to get Avery's head out, because I really wasn't going to be able to get it done on my own. With the use of the vacuum, hospital protocol states that certain people need to be in the room. All of a sudden it seemed like there were about 10 people there - 2 nurses, one OB, 2 residents, a med student "observing", and a few people from pediatrics, along with Greg and I. And of course, this was shift change time, so as soon as I delivered Avery there were a whole bunch more people coming and going.

So the vacuum...basically once it was on it was about 2 more contractions before her head was out. And they weren't fun contractions but at least it was over with fairly quickly after that. The part that I found challenging (well one part), was the "stop pushing" phase. How do you stop pushing when that is all you have been doing for 2 hours and the baby isn't completely out yet? There was some tearing of course and the requisite stitching afterwards. I guess the residents sewing me up saw the looks on my face because they offered me a local anaesthetic for the pain of the needle. I took it because they said it would take them 5-10 mins to finish. Shouldn't the epidural have covered the pain of the sewing process as well???

At any rate, by this point we had held Avery, figured out she was a girl, weighed her in at 7lbs 11 oz, and gotten her back all cleaned up. The first thing I said to her after that was that I hoped she was ok with being an only child because I really didn't think I could do that again! Of course I was kidding, but holy Hannah, was that ever a process!!!

So that is the labour and delivery story. Next time Avery takes a nap, I will try to write down some memories of our stay in the hospital. I can't believe this all basically happened two weeks ago. Time is flying and yet the nights seem to drag on and on... :)

She's finally here!

2008-03-09T17:27:00.006-04:00

Just a quick post to announce the arrival of our daughter Avery Beryl Pearce Herage. She was born on March 4th at 7:03am, weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz. As you may know, I was completely expecting that we were going to have a boy, so I was a bit surprised when they told us she was a girl - especially after Greg mistook the umbilical cord for...well, you can probably guess. I understand her leg was obscuring a good view of the evidence. :)

I plan on writing more about the whole experience shortly and posting pictures on Flickr, but that will have to wait for another time. Till then, we're off to experience all the wonderful and crazy thrills that come with parenthood!

40+ weeks and still waiting...

2008-02-29T09:58:00.003-05:00

As you can probably tell, I am not super-excited that I haven't given birth yet. I was really keen on having this kid in February, though not for any particularly good reason, and the fact that it is not going to happen is a little bit of a bummer. At this point I have basically convinced myself that I will be induced next weekend and that my likelihood of having a C-section is now much greater. I know there is still a good chance that I could go into labour on my own during the next week, but right now it doesn't feel very likely. Nothing whatsoever is happening!!! I am starting to understand what Amy went through when she had Liam. :)

Since I have now been off work for about 3 weeks, you may wonder how I am keeping myself busy - I have not been too successful with that at all. I am trying to catch up on all the emails I neglected over the past few months, I've been looking into writing a will, I need to check out some mutual funds to try and revamp my RRSP (but I really have no motivation to get that done), my brother tried to convince me that I should actually do my own taxes this year for the first time (instead of having my accountant/mother do them for me as usual), but I don't know if that is likely to happen since I don't even have my T4 yet. What else??? I am working my way through book club books, but as interesting as they are, I can't seem to stay awake while reading. I haven't been getting out to walk Trus much, because of the cold weather and because I only have a certain amount of endurance for him pulling me along at this point. Hopefully we can go when it warms up later today. Other than that, I have been watching far too much stupid TV. I am trying to stay away from it, but sometimes I do just get sucked in for a few hours. And my desire to clean really hasn't kicked in yet - I understand that it can be helpful in stimulating labour, but a lifelong aversion to cleaning can't be overcome just like that! :)

So that is my whiny post...expect a few more over the next couple of days! :)

It's finally ready!

2008-02-22T17:53:00.003-05:00

The baby's room that is...not the baby him or herself. We're still waiting for junior to make a grand appearance, but since we've finally done everything in the baby's room that we were planning on doing, I feel a little better about the idea that the baby can come any time. It is somewhat ironic considering the baby will likely sleep in our room for quite a while before moving into his/her own room. However, I strongly felt that anything we didn't get accomplished before the baby was born was seriously unlikely to happen anytime soon after the baby was born. So we are now good to go on that front.

This is me at 39 weeks and 2 days...and counting. I am wearing my new Lululemon sweatshirt because I love it (it is orange after all), even though it is very uncomfortable when I do it up. I am still not quite at the point that I desperately need to get the baby out, but if this whole pregnancy thing extends into March, I am not going to be a happy camper! I am also a big fan of the double chin in this shot. At least my swollen ankles aren't showing here... :)

So the pictures are obviously of the baby's room and the froggy and friends theme we picked. It all evolved from a print I picked up at a local art store a long time ago, in fact when we were expecting the first time around, but I am glad we chose to use it now. I quite like how everything turned out, especially since I have no knack for decorating and actually don't even really like doing it that much. And after the pseudo-furniture fiasco we had when trying to buy the crib and dresser, I am really glad it all worked out. We were originally going to go with the same set but in a really dark finish. Even though that is typically my preference for furniture, I think the white actually looks quite nice. I suppose it is more baby-oriented, rather than adult-oriented.

Anyhoo, that is all for now...happy weekend everyone!

Amazing quilt!

2008-02-18T10:45:00.002-05:00

IMG_0968
Originally uploaded by The Herages

This is kind of a test to see how this blogging from Flickr function works - but I thought using a picture of the quilt Julie made for us would be a good place to start.

We would like to use the quilt as a wall hanging in the short-term and we are currently trying to figure out how to hang it on the wall with no damage to the quilt (or wall). This kind of thing is my major pre-occupation these days!!! That and laundry, which I have been putting off for too long now. So off I go... :)

New Blog - February 2008

2008-02-17T23:06:00.001-05:00

I have decided to start a new blog, since I plan on being much more diligent about writing this year while on maternity leave. I am going to migrate all of my old posts here so that I don't lose them, but the chronological order will be a little messed up. Hopefully I will write something new very shortly - hopefully there will be something new to write about very shortly!! Still no progress on the baby-delivering front as yet...but stay tuned!

My first entry - July 07, 2006

2008-02-17T23:03:00.000-05:00

Not quite sure how I ended up starting this blog. All i did was ask a simple question to help someone else start one and look what happened. Oh well, perhaps I will actually like this - if I remember to write entries. It seems to me this is an awful lot like a journal, which i have never been particularly good at doing.

Since I can't come up with anything good to write about now, maybe I'll just sign off instead. Surely tomorrow I will have some good ideas!

The weekend - July 10, 2006

2008-02-17T23:02:00.004-05:00

We didn't have that exciting a weekend but it was nice overall...cooked dinner on Friday (actually quite a change for me!), had a nice dinner out on Saturday at Kinki in the market to celebrate the unofficial good news about the job, and then went to see "The Devil Wears Prada". Of course Greg was one of about 5 males in the audience, but he suffered through it. I decided it was my turn to pick the movie because we had seen a fair number of movies based on comics lately (definitely not my first choice). Even though the movie was fairly superficial, there was a good little life lesson about being too attached to your job. I suppose I can relate to that and it made Greg think that he's right about me working too hard.

With respect to Kinki, that was my second time eating there. The first time I went with Rory and as far as I recall, we had great food and great service. I had heard in the meantime that the service was no good, but Greg and I really enjoyed both the food and the “atmosphere” on Saturday night. It wasn’t super-busy, but we had a seat under the covered patio and the food was delicious. It is definitely the best sushi I have had in Ottawa…though I suppose that isn’t saying too much. Honestly, for the maki I ate I would have probably paid a third of the price in Toronto. Sigh...My favourite Japanese restaurant in Toronto is New Generation Sushi (mostly it is really good quality fish for really good prices - there isn't too much "atmosphere" though!)

On Sunday we went over to Greg's parents' place and went for a swim in the pool. As you can see from the picture, our dog Trus is not much of a swimmer. Mostly he got his exercise from running around the pool and barking at us all afternoon. Have you ever heard of a dog that can't doggie paddle?

Sunday night we watched the movie Syriana. (Note: we watch a lot of movies. Greg takes DVDs out from the library and there is no predicting what will come in when. They get a lot of new releases around the same time that Blockbuster does and Greg reserves them online. Way cheaper…but sometimes a little bit challenging to watch them all before they are due.) At any rate, back to Syriana. It was definitely an interesting, gripping movie. But I can’t help but feel that I missed the point of about half of it. I’m sure I could watch it several more times to figure out what was happening, but who has time for that? Just typing this entry was almost more energy than I have…

"Bureaucratically Incorrect"

2008-02-17T23:02:00.002-05:00

If there is anyone out there who has a copy of the book Bureaucratically Incorrect: Letters to a Young Public Servant by Bob Chartier, or knows where I could buy one, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know. It is supposed to be available at Chapters or Amazon, but my searches don't seem to be working. James was stunned that I hadn't yet read it and said that he figured all Ottawa-types would have gobbled it up. I seem to have missed that boat.

The debrief on fasting and Cameras – July 18, 2006

2008-02-17T23:01:00.005-05:00

So for all of you who are anxiously awaiting a debrief on the fasting…here goes. Greg essentially fasted from 6pm on Friday until 1-ish pm on Sunday. At that point he had a couple of carrot, apple, ginger juices from Booster Juice (barf in my opinion ). Then it was on to several bowls of popcorn (air-popped even) and a few other munchies. Nothing really heavy or substantial though. I don’t actuallyknow whether the fasting did him any good in the end, but he was definitely quiet and lacking in energy all weekend. Don’t be alarmed…on Monday night he was back to his usual “annoy Alyssa to death” self.

My fruit fast certainly didn’t provide me with any of the results I was expecting – I’m sure no one wants the details of that. However, despite being hungry often, I was never really lacking in energy. And, not drinking coffee for two days didn’t kill me. It was worth it just to find that out really. I also cracked when Greg started eating popcorn, so i basically was on fruit only from first thing Saturday morning to 3pm on Sunday. I might try it again one day, but it would probably be wise to officially stop drinking coffee before that. So really, I might never try again!

The stupid thing we did was go to see Pirates of the Caribbean on Saturday night. Stupid because the movie wasn’t great (basically it is just more of the same), and because we were ready to eat the popcorn of the 10-year old girl beside us. Without saying please.

A new topic – I’m thinking about getting a new camera. Mine still works fine, but the lack of optical zoom does drive me crazy (and yes it is that old and that low-level a model that it doesn’t have optical zoom). Of course we have Greg’s nice camera, but he isn't super-keen on me using it and I do find it somewhat complicated. I would just like one that I can take anywhere and get great shots, without worrying about it being too delicate or attractive to thieves! If anyone has any suggestions about a good camera to buy in the $3-400 range (all in), I would love to hear them!

Ahhh, life! - July 15, 2006

2008-02-17T23:01:00.002-05:00

I started an entry the other day and then lost it because our computer is super-unreliable...I haven't been willing to try again until now.

Big news of the week is that I sprained my ankle on Thursday night at a Flossy ultimate game. (See photo from a non-eventful Flossy game from the week before J, courtesy of Jody.) While the sprain isn’t that bad, hobbling around is fairly annoying. Most annoying however, is that Rory and I just signed up to do the Ottawa City Chase on July 22^nd – you can check out what it is all about here: http://www.citychase.ca/en_site.asp. Not that we thought we might win or anything, but in order to get into the spirit, teams at least have to do some running. Even Rory and I. So I guess we’ll have to see what can be done because it would be a fairly expensive default. I still really want to participate though!

Other news of the weekend is that Greg and I are doing fasts of a sort. I guess mine really isn’t a fast, but instead I am only eating fruits and drinking water – it’s supposed to be very “cleansing”. Greg is only having water for the weekend. I am a little worried he’s going to pass out, but I suppose people do this sort of thing all the time. Should be interesting to see if we are still talking to each other by the end of the weekend, since my weekend diet does not include coffee. Could be treacherous!!!

Catch-up time – September 6, 2006

2008-02-17T23:00:00.002-05:00

I have been completely derelict in my blogging duties and have not written anything in over a month. That said, there is much to catch up on!

I’ll start back in July, when Rory and I did the City Chase in Ottawa. She’s already blogged about it (here) and I will add my two cents. We decided to enter the race fairly last minute – we had both done it back in 2004 and had a lot of fun, but we both had different partners then (yay Deb). Anyway, on a lark we paid up and ended up doing really well! Experience definitely counts in these things. We ended coming 29^th overall and we were the 2^nd place all female team. It is reassuring to know that we were that more than 10 minutes behind the 1^st place all female team so that even if we had run a little faster and a little more, it wouldn’t have made us first! We agreed that we didn't really love any of the checkpoints, but mostly enjoyed the fact that we were pretty smart about the whole thing and finished well. No matter what people say, winning (or doing well) always makes sports, games, urban obstable challenges, whatever - much more enjoyable!

Anyway, I highly recommend the City Chase as a fun way to spend a Saturday. The only irky thing is that it costs a fair bit to do ($150 per team) and it is questionable how much of the proceeds are donated to charity. There are no claims of charitable contributions that I can see, but I believe the organizers partner with a not-for-profit of some type every year. I can understand that this is a fairly expensive event to put on, but I would generally feel better about forking out the dough if I at least knew a little more about how much money goes to good charitable organizations.

Wow! I am a blogging slacker...November 06, 2006

2008-02-17T23:00:00.001-05:00

It really has been a very long time since I last wrote anything. Two months exactly in fact. Part of the problem is that my work cut off access to this site and flickr.com, which makes me far less inclined to do any major typing. It is so much easier when I am already on the computer and looking for a slight diversion from the day-to-day grind, I mean, super-exciting work.

Anyway, much has actually happened over the last two months, some good and some quite bad. Not going to go into the bad details, but needless to say, I will be glad when this year is behind us. On the good side, we just bought a new house! Actually we settled everything back in October and it really was a surprise to everyone involved. We hadn’t really been planning on moving anytime soon, but when this house went up for sale we were pretty curious about the inside and the backyard, so we went to take a look. One thing led to another and we ended up buying it. We are very excited about the whole thing, but unfortunately we won’t be moving in until July 2007. Sigh…but at least that gives us some time to get our own house fixed up and hopefully sold quickly in the spring.

Trip to Alberta in August 2006 – November 10, 2006

2008-02-17T22:59:00.000-05:00

As you can no doubt tell, this is a very belated entry about our trip to Calgary in August. I wanted to post about it because I had already started writing something and because it helps when looking at the pictures and trying figure out what they might be of! So keep in mind that this is just rough sketch of what we did because my memory is already failing. That won't stop me from being long-winded though!

So Greg and I took a trip out west in August to see Dan and Andrea and some of boomtown Calgary and surrounding regions. The change in theme for my page is in honour of that trip. We got to Calgary on a Friday night and there was instant drama as D&A had rescued an injured baby hawk on the way to the airport. They came to pick us up at the airport and the hawk was in a box in the car. We went to a wildlife rescue centre on the edge of town right away, which is where Greg took a couple of pics. All in all, a fairly eventful start to the week!

Over the next couple of days we toured around Calgary a bit, went to the Farmer’s Market and a Fringe Festival one-man show “Iraq and back” and then went to the Badlands and Drumheller to see prairies, canyons, dinosaurs and the Hoo Doos.

Next was a 3-day trip up the highway to Jasper for Greg and I. We meandered a fair bit on the way up there, stopping at Lake Louise for a picnic, taking a walk on the ice at the Columbia Icefields and eventually making our way into the town of Jasper. Because I waited until we got to C-dot to make a hotel reservation, there wasn’t too much available. However ended up finding a neat place that only cost an arm per night – the Tekarra Lodge. The next day we went on a long hike on some mountain (they all started to run together after a while J) and then for a dip in the Miette Hot Springs. The hike was pretty cool (we ran into a couple whose camera equipment blew down the hill from the one of the “summits” – thank god it wasn’t ours), but the hot springs was huge disappointment. Basically it was a crowded, over-chlorinated, hot version of an icky public pool. Clearly we didn’t see the online pictures before we went there! One of the interesting things for us during the hike was the need to be very aware of bears and know how to deal with the situation if we came across them. Growing up in urban Toronto and Ottawa doesn’t really prepare you for these situations, so we paid close attention to Andrea’s advice. We didn’t see any bears in the end, which didn’t really upset me, but we definitely saw many other interesting animals we don’t come across every day!

Day 3 of the roadtrip was basically spent driving back to Calgary – this time we stopped in Banff and didn’t love it, but that could have been because of the torrential rain and the fact that it was way more crowded than Jasper. We did find a cool little bakery that actually had baked goods with no gluten, so Greg got to have a sweet treat for a change. We ended the night by having dinner with D&A, and A’s brother Matt and his girlfriend Tara at Spicy Hut, a pan-asian restaurant. It’s somewhat of a fancy description for a restaurant that is basically one step up in décor from the Thai Shan Inn, but the food was very good.

On Thursday, Dan drove Greg and I southwest to the town of Fort Macleod to see the one and only Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. It is essentially a museum carved into a hill where natives used to herd buffalo over the edge of a cliff for a mass kill. Kinda gory, but the museum and the way it is laid out is really cool. That night we headed over to Andrea’s parents’ house for a lovely dinner and nice relaxing time. Friday was mainly spent brunching, walking around downtown, camera shopping (so that I could save about $40 in PST) and then flying home. All in all, a great week of vacation! I hope we left some stuff to do next time we go visit D&A though. J

One interesting note…when we came back from the airport in Ottawa, we noticed that a house across the street from us had a sold sign on the lawn. Since the house hadn’t even been up for sale when we left, that it means it sold in under a week. Hopefully that bodes well for when it’s time to sell ours!!

I love food! - November 22, 2006

2008-02-17T22:58:00.000-05:00

I apparently don’t feel like sleeping, which is why I am staying up to post this very important entry…ha!

Actually I changed my theme in honour of my dinner out last night at Mama Grazzi’s in the market. I had a great time catching up with Vanessa, but our dinner was really not fantastic. The food was so-so, and the service was actually pretty appalling once we thought about it. Our waiter had a cute accent, which I think he figures will help him get away with forgetting everything his customers ask him to do. And when reminded of things forgotten, he blamed everyone else for it. That drives me crazy!! So needless to say, I won’t be going back there in a hurry.

On the other hand, I had an amazing dinner out with Derek last weekend at the Whalesbone Oyster House on Bank Street. Of course any dinner with Derek is a good time, but the food was especially fantastic. We shared the lobster bisque, which was like fluffy lobster-flavoured butter (so good), as well as the crab cakes – they were also pretty yummy and I am not usually super-keen on crab cakes. We both had the maple miso cod and loved it. Though we considered having dessert, there was no room in the belly. If only they had had an espresso machine, the night would have been fully completely. But no worries, I would go back there in a heartbeat.

Enough for tonight…stayed tuned for an upcoming post on a recent heart-wrenching event.

December 31, 2007

2008-02-17T22:56:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe that I haven’t written an entry for more than a year, but just for Kevin, I am making sure to do at least one in 2007. Cutting it a little close to the wire, I know.

So 2007…what to say? It has clearly gone by in a blur. The heart-wrenching event I referred to in the last (long ago) post was actually the miscarriage I had in fall 2006. At the time I really wanted to write about it, more just as a cathartic thing, but one thing led to another and I never managed to get any thoughts down. Not that I am trying to gloss over it or anything like that, but time does bring perspective and the fact that I am now 7 months pregnant really helps to make the memories less painful. So that is where we are at – we are expecting our first baby on February 28, 2008. And yes, 2008 is a leap year! And no, we don’t know what the gender is – hopefully a healthy gender. J

Otherwise, 2007…I changed jobs and became a manager for the first time. Definitely a learning experience and one that I am so glad I had. Not sure what will happen following maternity leave, but I might well be in this job for a while longer. There are so many things that I would have loved to do in this position, but because of the pregnancy I really had to focus my energy on making sure the immediate needs were taken care of and my long-term view basically only extended to February. Maybe next time around I can tackle some of the bigger challenges. Ha! As though I am going to have more energy when I have a one-year old to worry about…

Greg and I also bought a new house this year – just around the corner from our old one. We are really loving it, slowly getting it more and more to feel like our home. Next challenge is to finish putting up pictures (maybe a never-ending task), and of course, to decorate the baby’s room. We (I) have a plan, but basically we are just waiting for stuff to come in and then I will put Greg to work! At least it is all painted already. A big hit with the house is the hot tub on the back deck - check out Kevin's blog for more details.

Otherwise, things were pretty much the norm. We went to Mexico last February for Ted and Jamie’s wedding – which was totally awesome. I love group trips!!! We basically chilled on the beach for 7 straight days with no guilt because we had been to the area before and didn’t really feel the need to go on any side trips. The wedding was great and of course Jamie (and Ted) looked gorgeous.

Another important event was Dan and Andrea's wedding in Toronto in October - it was also a fantastic time. Being D&A (or Dandrea), they had to do things their own way, and with a very detailed plan for all of it. But the planning definitely paid off and they had a really great afternoon and night, with a very fun party. 2007 was a good year for brothers getting married!

(Maybe just ignore the fact that I am wearing the same dress at both weddings...it was a comfortable dress whether pregnant or not and they were two totally different crowds!!!)

And we just saw the movie Juno – we both really enjoyed it. It was funny, without being farcical, and touching at the same time. I had to cry a little at the end (I am pregnant after all), and she did just give birth. And of course, I always enjoy movies with the subject of my girl crush, Jennifer Garner. Sigh…

Maybe I will try to write up a couple more restaurant reviews soon – considering that we may not get out to nice places much more in the near future. But then again, we do like to eat an awful lot, so I imagine we will make good use of the grandparent babysitters!

Here’s to 2008 – hope everyone has a happy and healthy new year!