Jumping ship

After a couple of very frustrating hours this morning where I jumped between thinking I had lost my whole blog or that the magical blogger fairies were just messing with me, I finally gave up and decided to move to wordpress. Jen my webpage guru and hero made the switch a few weeks ago and I have now decided to follow. Our new site is: http://reitsmafraser.wordpress.com/ Come visit…

1 Year Old!!!

Another busy month in the life of Amelia, the highlights being learning to walk on her own and her first birthday party. Meals took her first steps on her own this month and although she isn’t tearing around the house yet she is walking by herself more and more. She usually walks on her own when she is carrying a book or a toy and she is going from one couch to another; she doesn’t feel like bending down to crawl the few steps and now walks over on her own. She still kinda looks like she is in a drunken stupor but getting less drunk every day. She went through a rough patch with eating in recent weeks but has got through it for the most part and is back to eating most stuff we give her but sometimes is takes a VERY long sit in her chair. After the initial pancake rejection, pancakes have now become a fav. This month she has learned not only how to nod her head but also how to shake it which she does on a very regular basis. I think she knows what she is doing because she seems to nod and shake at appropriate times (most of the time). I am not sure if she has anymore words, there are some sounds she makes regularly but I haven’t really noticed a trend in what they are associated too. Mama she defiantly has down, when she wakes up from a nap or doesn’t want to go down for one I hear “MAMAMA” over the monitors. She can also parrot much better now when she wants, she has repeated number of words but I don’t think she retains them. She is starting to learn the meaning of more words now and I can send her on little missions, hee hee hee very nice for me. She got her first doll from Denise for her birthday and she is very good a going to get it for me if I ask for “Dolly”. She also knows her cow but it is much smaller and harder to find in the toy box.

She has become much more snugly recently, she crawls up in my lap and tucks her head under my chin and sucks her thumb, sooo cute. It is very nice cause before needing a nap was indicated by lots of crying and frustration but now I get a little snuggle then off to bed without a fuss. She continues to be a very good sleeper and other than some early wake ups at 6:30am I really can complain. Amelia is up to 6 teeth now, 4 up top and 2 on the bottom. This Saturday we had Amelia’s birthday party, we invited a bunch of friends and family and end up with 24 people for lunch. Meals was not put off by all the people at all, she wandered around played with Emma, Leah and Ronan and was very happy even after missing her afternoon nap. She was very intrigued by her presents and quite enjoyed opening stuff, after the first couple she lost interest though and started flipping through her new books. Thank you everyone for coming and for all the lovely pressies. She also really enjoyed her cupcake, on Thursday night (her actual birthday) we went to my parents and Denise brought chocolate cupcakes, while we ate dinner she got free range on the cupcake, here are a few pics of the results. Oh my…. With all this birthday celebration came the discovery of lego!!! We got her a little kit and John and Denise got her a big tub, and so far she loves it. Right now she doesn’t quite get the putting it together but she likes to bring it to me to put together and then she destructs. The rest of our weekend was pretty relaxed, after everyone left on Saturday we cleaned up then went a watched TV in the basement, we tried to watch Syriana but we were both too tired to watch the rather complicated plot and we passed out. Yesterday we went shopping at Sherway and bought some stuff then went and to John and Denise for a relaxing afternoon and a lovely dinner (so nice to have everyone back and get back into our family Sunday night dinners). I have a bunch more pics to post from the party etc. but I have to run to get ready for Meals doctors appointment this morning. Post more later.

Happy Birthday Amelia!!!!!

Happy Birthday Amelia!!!!! She’s one, she’s one!!! It has been a whole year now!! CRAZY!!! This year has passed sooo quickly. Well Amelia’s birthday season started a little bit earlier than today. My dad was in town on Monday night and she got to open the first of her presents and then from there I took over and opened a couple more (what can I say I have no willpower). Here are a few pictures of Meals opening her first pressie and playing with her tractor and cow with Poppy (now Meals has a even smaller version of my dad’s tractor Pepe).

"Cats do you want to see my present"

Tractor time

Here is the birthday girl this morning in her new outfit from Uncle Claude and Aunt Cindy.

Well I’ll write me monthly update later for now my presence is being "requested" for some lego time.

Happy Easter!!!

I love long weekends especially when I forget they are coming. It was so nice to have Jeff home on Friday, we took it pretty easy that day, did some cooking and relaxing. We made Amelia yogurt pancakes with mixed berries for lunch that day, I thought she would love them we were only half right. We gave them to her and she promptly picked out all the blackberries (which we give to quite frequently as a treat) and then sat there and played around. We got a couple of pieces of pancake in her mouth and there was MUCH screaming and fighting, this went on for about 30min. Finally I don’t know what happened but she had a piece and for the next 5mins kinda looked at it and you could almost hear her thoughts, hmm it is tasty but I really have committed to this tantrum… what to do, what to do…. The yumminess won out and she gobbled it all down. YEAH another point for the parents :) Actually since my post last week declaring her Satan’s Spawn she has got much better again about eating, we have had many tearless meals and usually if you give her her own spoon or fork to use too she is quite content, ha ha we even had her eating this crazy shepherd’s pie we made, yeah!!! Anyway I digress, so yeah Friday we did some cooking then in the afternoon we went for a walk down on the Lakeshore, it was abit cloudy but still very nice. That night we rented King Kong, I was not excited to see it at all but I felt I should. It wasn’t as bad as I thought but I didn’t love it, seemed Peter Jackson wanted to play with all his toys and tried to fit them all in to the movie, there was just some stuff that I thought could have been covered in half the time, and what was with the giant bug scene was that really require?? Saturday was my birthday and Jeff supported and endured all the chores around the house I wanted to do. We did some shopping and we worked on our yards (front and back). That night we went for sushi with Julie and then home to watch Pride and Prejudice, yeah sushi and P&P two of my favs. Sunday was more yard work, we are regrading our backyard, right now it is all wavy so before we put the deck in and re-sod we wanted to flatten it out, this weekend we managed to get half the yard done, YEAH!!! It is a bit weird to say but the plain flat dirt looks so much better than weed infested dirt patched old yard :) While we worked we put Meals in the pool again, it was very funny watching her trying oh so hard to reach her little fingers over the side to the dirt, she did manage to get abit and of course it went right in her mouth, ah well I am sure I ate my share of dirt at least she didn’t manage to get any worms. So this week Meals turns 1, on man how time flies, this time last year I was a beached whale whining at Jeff from the couch asking if this thing was EVER going to come out. She has been walking more over the weekend but as lost a bit of the initial excitement and isn’t quite as keen. Today she seems obsessed with trying to stand on her rocking chair, not good. This morning I looked over and there she was quite pleased with herself standing on the seat, bah!!!!! Of all the chairs it had to be the one that rocks. *sigh*

Snack time

W is for Walking

Yesterday day Meals took for first solo steps. It has seemed like a long time coming to me because she has been walking around the furniture since before Christmas but I guess she just wasn’t ready yet. Poor Jeff still hasn’t seen it even though. She walked for the first time after dinner last night and Jeff is almost always home then but last time for the first time in months Jeff had to work late and didn’t get home till after she was in bed. Oh yesterday our desk that we ordered weeks ago arrived, yipeee. I think it is looking pretty sweet, so much tidier without the table top and saw horses, but I was starting to get used to them.

Satan's Spawn

We all had a very nice weekend here. Friday afternoon Julie, Meals and I went shopping at Home Sense then Julie came back to our place and we all had dinner together and watched Memoirs of a Geisha, it was excellent. While Julie was over Amelia managed to get into her purse and get out her work tag and put that on as well at Julie’s scarf. She puts everything over her head, is that weird or is it just me??? She did look pretty cute but talk about dangers, hmmm. Saturday morning, Jeff, Melie and I went for a walk in High Park. It was beautiful and sunny but brrr abit on the cold side. The Spring Runoff was on so we cheered on and dodged the runners. Saturday afternoon Jeff cook for Damon’s 30th birthday pot luck and I played with Meals and tidied the house etc. Damon’s Birthday was very nice, it was great to see a bunch of friends who we hadn’t seen in awhile. While we were out Julie babysat Meals for us, she was even brave enough of take on bath time :). By all reports things went well. Sunday was gardening day for us; we went to Plant World to get expert advice on what to do about our lawn. I am always amazed by the people that work at the nurseries and plant stores, it never fails I always go with a huge list of questions and not once have the people there not be able to help me. I don’t know how they retain all this knowledge about all these different plants etc either that or they are all very skilled at talking out of their ass. As usual the guy we talked to was VERY helpful. I wish I could figure this whole plant/gardening thing out, I wander around looking at all the pretty plants and flowers in awe, I even have a book but still I am totally overwhelmed. After our trip to the plant store, I potted my little rosemary plant (the only thing I knew at the store but I did have to get very clear directions on the care) and Jeff racked the front lawn. While we were both doing stuff on the front lawn we borrowed out friends kiddie pool and put that on the front lawn with toys in it and Meals played, she did take one header out of it but she wasn’t that fussed about it. Sunday afternoon/evening we went to IKEA and got a new carpet to replace out dirt infested rats nest of a flikarti rug in our living room. I still went for the impractical cream but this time it is much easier to vacuum. We were a little worried about the smell of sour gas/farts that the new carpet emitted but by this morning the smells seems to have gone, thank goodness. Sunday night we had dinner at Julie’s apartment, yumm yum yumm. I made brownies for dessert, big mistake, someone PLEASE come and take them from me….. So this week in Melie news… Well lets see not much new other than the fact that my daughter has turned in to the DEVIL’S CHILD when it comes to eating, BAH!!!! I don’t know what we did, she used to eat everything now it seems like she has figured out that she likes some things better than others and she is going to put up a fight until she gets what she wants. I can currently here my mother laughing all the way from South Africa, I guess Amelia comes by it honestly and all I would eat was blueberries and yogurt, eew I can’t imagine what the output from a diet like that would be…. Okay bad visual. Anyways back to my troublesome toddler, all I have to say is BAH BAH BAH!!! She won’t even try things before she has her lips clamped and turns away, seems the only way we can get her to willingly open her mouth is to cheer for her when she does eat something and I can’t imagine how this is going to screw her up as a teenage. She has also mastered putting things in her mouth then pushing them back out, grrrrr. Meals woke up this morning with a cough and sniffles, poor thing. She is abit crankier than usual and more snugly but she seems to be fairing pretty well. Well beautiful day today so I think we will go for a walk. Ohohoh tomorrow our last piece of furniture for the basement arrives, our desk, I can’t wait no more sawhorses and wood slab. YEAH!!! Poor Meals may no longer be able to sit on her thone under the desk (the subwoofer).

Happy Birthday to Me!!! well kinda.

What a wonderful weekend. On Friday night we headed over to John and Denise for what I thought was going to be a quite dinner. Well turns out it was a surprise birthday party for me (my birthday is on the 15th but all the parents are going to South Africa for 2 weeks and won’t be here for it). It was a wonderful night and I was totally surprised. I got lots of pressies and my mom made me my all time favourite booze ice ream cake, soo yumm. I have such a wonderful family. Saturday I was feeling alittle slow after too much wine the night before but everyone else was up and busy getting Julie moved into her new apartment, lucky for me I was just in charge of Amelia. Meals played then had a long nap and I watched a movie. That afternoon Jeff and I did some errands and started doing research for our deck (we are hoping to build it this summer). In the evening Jeff and I went over to Julie’s new place which is looking FANTASTIC!!!! She is in Queen West right by the Drake, her place is so cute and her area is great. Seeing as everyone but me had a busy day of moving and IKEA assembly we went out for dinner, it was tres yum and tres cute little restaurant by Julie’s. Sunday I gardened, I got very muddy but I got our roses ripped out and got all our trees etc. that we planted last fall fertilized and watered. Sunday night we went out again around Julie’s to this funky pub with great food. We said goodbye to all the rents before they left today on there big adventure. This past week Meals was pretty cranky, it was driving me alittle nuts. I didn’t knot what her problem was, well I finally figured it out. I am such a clueless mother some times… Saturday morning I noticed that she has a new upper tooth poking through; that would also explain the nasty diaper rash she had too. Meals has been a little sponge lately, Thursday night we went to the One of a kind show. Meals was making friends with one of the artists and as we were walking away she said bye to Meals and Meals said bye back. The artist thought that was rather cute and Julie Denise and I all were kind shocked seeing as we hadn’t heard this before. Last night on the way to Julie’s my mom taught Meals to shake her head for no, she has been nodding for awhile and it is becoming more frequent but she hadn’t worked out no yet, it is rather funny. Oh and I got out Amelia’s hippo again, I had put it away for abit because she wasn’t that interested in it but now she is addicted. She loads it up with her lastest treasure (usually my water bottle or Curious George etc.) and pushes it across the room till it hits something then she turns around and looks for me and waves her hand for me to come over and fix it for her. In the last couple days she has started pushing the nose back out when she gets stuck but this is only after I refuse to come move it for her. She has started taking one of two little steps on her own but they aren’t very confident and usually it is more a throwing herself into our arms. Not much on this week, hopefully the weather improves again and I can do some more work in the backyard.

Spring Cleaning!!!

This weekend we did some cleaning and yup Sunday even felt like spring!!! Saturday Jeff and I cleaned out our storage room that was starting to look like just a dumping ground. Once the renovations were almost done and the carpet guys were on their way we shoved all sorts of stuff in there and we couldn’t really walk to the back anymore, it was very frustrating. Well Saturday we overhauled it, we took a ton of stuff off to Goodwill and we re-sorted, packed and now not only can you make it to the back but there is actually nothing on the floor. I am a nut for organising, I am so satisfied when I am done. Sunday was round two of organising, Jeff and I cleaned out the slanty shanty/Jeff’s workshop. During the reno’s that little room also fell victim to the dumping ground syndrome but that was even worse, you actually could barely get in the door and then to get in you had to climb on wood and insulation. Well to get things sorted we had to take everything out, our backyard looked like a yard sale of tools and wood. We didn’t get everything done that Jeff wanted to in the time Meals napped but you can walk (on the floor) all the way to the back and you can even open the cupboards. There is going to be a need for another big dump run but Jeff has his work shop back. Next week we start on the back garden; my mission to actually have grass this year… Saturday night we finally rented March of the Penguins, it was very good. We also got Must Love Dogs which was much less than good. Ah well. Sunday night we hosted Sunday dinner and we had a Mexican theme, enchiladas, black beans, pomegranate margarita’s and chocolate banana chimmichanga’s, all so yum. Meals was very frustrating and very funny this weekend. One of her new tricks is if you ask her if something is good she will nod her head. This morning I asked her if she could say “mama” and she nodded and said “yeah”, I was abit shocked. What an ass though. I am not holding my breath that she actually understood what I asked but I think she understands some of it. On Saturday night after our day of toiling we were sitting in the living room Jeff was on the couch and I was in the chair across the room. Meals found a piece of paper that I would rather have stayed dry and in one piece and Jeff told her to give it to me, she shuffled along the table and reached it out to me and as soon as I reached out to get it she pulled it back and shuffled back to Jeff, again Jeff told her to give it to me and again she pretended to then shuffled away. This was very devilish of her but also very funny and it was surprising how much she actually understands. For awhile now she has known, “hands up”, “not in your mouth” and “no” but apparently she actually does know what we are talking about sometimes. She is standing on her own now without freaking out and she will now walk just holding one hand, it is rather cute. After spending a day with Ronan she now seems to think walking is cool and shuffles from one piece of funiture to another trying not have to crawl. On the frustrating front she was very clingy this weekend and abit out of sorts probably because she also wasn’t that into sleeping this weekend. BAH!!!