Baby Mania

Well Meals has had lots of playtime with friends this week. On Friday Leigh and I took Ronan and Meals to High Park for a play in the park and a walk. It was a stunning day and the kids enjoyed the swings and Leigh and I enjoyed the fresh air. Saturday we work on the basement, it was a very satisfying day we got a bunch of things finished and we finally put a bunch of the doors back up after they had been painted and we had put a cat door in two of them. With out basement door being off I have found there is a lot more dust in the house so I am quite happy to have it back on. The cats really don’t know what to make of the cat doors, last night we were out and we came back and Dex was at the top of the basement stairs meowing, he had figured out how to get down to the basement but didn’t work out coming back up, what a goof. On Saturday night we were supposed to be going up to Guelph to our friends Coby and Carrie’s but their son Ronan got sick and the party got moved to John and Jen’s. It was kids craziness!!!! Liv and Scott came down from Kitchener with their three kids, Emma, Brady and Conner then there was Jen and John and Emma and Leah and finally Miss Meals. I don’t think Amelia has ever been around this many kids especially such mobile kids. At first Meals just kind of sat there and played with toys with in arms length but after she had settled in she got into the mix. I think Jeff’s proudest moment was when his daughter was standing up in front of the TV transfixed by the Leaf’s game. We had a wonderful dinner and there were many comments about how our parties have changed. Instead of us all dancing in circles and falling over we all sat back and watched the girls do it. On Sunday there was more basementing then we were off to Dave’s 30th birthday at Carinta’s new place in Milton. What a feast Carinta prepared, so yummm. Meals was very well behaved and had lots of social time with everyone at the party. Unfortunately Meals has come down with a runny nose, it started Saturday afternoon and I didn’t think much of it cause it wasn’t very much but by the time we got home Saturday night it was flowing. Saturday night she woke up in the middle of the night screaming. This hasn’t happen in ages and Jeff and I were both bewildered and I must say we don’t deal very well with being woken up. She was actually up for a couple hours in and out of bed, ugh!!! I think it was the runny nose that was bothering her but who knows. She nose is continuing to run on and off but she is quite happy and full of energy so I don’t think she is in bad shape. Last night she slept well, thank goodness.

Scott and his gaggle of girls

Jeff Playing with Meals and "Big" Emma

Conner and Brady munching away

Emma and Leah, these girls are so quick these days I don't know how Jen get's any pics at all.

Meals and her Dad

Okay so during out prenatal classed we saw this video for the husbands about their reaction to the whole birth and parenting thing. It was all pretty funny, one guy said he kept the family happy by going to the pub once a week after work and not telling his wife and another guy who went on the whole time about the beauty and miracle of it all (gag gag). There was one guy who’s was just like “yeah it is a kid but we’re in charge of feeding it and reacting to its every whim, its more like a job” he didn’t really agree with the immediate bond scenario but he said once the kid started reacting to him differently than it did to everyone else that was when it all hit home for him. Jeff and I laughed a lot about it and there have been a few jokes since then about how “yeah it was just a kid, whatever”. Okay well if Jeff ever did have those sentiments well the day has come that there is no questioning that she reacts differently to him that other people. When Jeff comes home there is usually a squeal then high speed crawling to him, it is so cute to see. Jeff getting home usually marks the start of high intensity playtime. Jeff has started playing chase me with her, she doesn’t always get it but none the less there are many squeals (oh and it is only one sided chasing, he can only chase her the other way not so much). Jeff and Meals also like to share food, the other day she was sitting on his lap watching TV and he was drinking a glass of water, he let her have a sip then a minute later he finished the water while she watched expectantly well when he put the glass down the tantrum started, it seemed she thought she should get the last sip. When we gave her her sippy cup she wasn’t nearly as interested. On a sidebar to all this loving niceness last night our little hellion decided she was not into going to sleep and stood in her crib yelling for an hour or so, she finally passed out around 9:45pm BAH!!! Off to swimming today, Denise is coming to take some pics for me.

Bubbles for Meals

Meals and her Hippo out for a stroll

Just Another Manic Monday!!

ah Monday again. We all had a pretty good week and weekend here. Some of the highlights were Jeff's Gourmet Group for dinner at our place on Wed. night (for me the leftovers were the highlight). Meals and I vacated for the evening and went for dinner at my mom's for a girls dinner. On Thursday night we had our friends Mark and Chelsea over for dinner and they brought the BEST indian rotis, OH MY they were sooooooo tasty, I think I'm addicted. We hadn't seems Mark and Chels for quite awhile so it was great to catch up on all the goings on. Friday was swimming, fun fun fun. Meals had a good time again and I get a kick out of watching her play away. This weekend was more basementing for Jeff and John. On thursday I tackled the scary lumber yard and picked up the baseboards and door frames and them painted them all so this weekend the guys put them all up. What a difference baseboards make, it looks so roomish now. Just abit more painting then we're done!!! The carpet comes in two weeks. nice. On Sat Meals and I went shopping at Yorkdale with Julie and Denise. We were all getting ready for Cuba, lots of the dreaded bathing suit stores. Sunday was more stuff around the house and then a yummy sunday night dinner at my parents. Meals has been a little monkey the last few days during naptime, she plays in her crib and doesn't sleep or she has a 20min nap and thinks that's enough, bah!!! On Sunday Jeff found her standing up in her crib trying to bat at the mobile about 3ft above her and giggling away, what a goof. This morning she played up there for an hour, was I ready to cry "she much sleep!!!" of course she was very happy up in her crib then I finally brought her down she turned into a crank so luckily I took her back and now she has been alseep for over an hour now, THANK GOODNESS!!! Denise and I are off for a walk this afternoon then tonight Jeff and I are going voting and then watching the results. This is the first election I have been pretty good about following and I am looking forward to watching the out come.

9 Months!!

Whoa she has now been out of the womb as long as she was in, craziness. Meals is growing up so quickly, she no longer seems like a baby to any of us, she is 100% toddler or little girl. This month Meals experienced her first Christmas; she kind of missed the contents of the presents but LOVED the bows and ribbons. Amelia is getting around much better now, crawling is no issue and now walking around all the furniture is a regular occurrence. Towards the beginning of this month there was many bumps and bruises from tumbles because she couldn’t figure out how to sit down when she was standing but now she has figured out to bend her knees to sit down. She can stand on her own for short periods when she doesn’t notice but I find she is quite nervous about it as soon as I start to pull my hands away or lower them when she is walking she usually sits down. Now that she is standing and walking along things she has found more things to play with her current favs are anything I leave on the coffee table and the tea towels that hang on the oven, she loves pulling them down then sitting among them and swishing them on the floor. One of her other favourite past times is giving her reflection kisses in the glass on the coffee table and oven door, yes that’s my little narcissist. Oh and as of the last couple days she has learned how to climb my pant legs and when she is upset and I am in the kitchen cooking she climbs up and buries her face in the back of my legs, this makes making dinner quite the challenge. She is still standing up in her crib a lot and the other day I found her sitting up asleep in her crib, very disturbing. She is now saying mama and we think she may even relates it to me because she does it more when I am not around and usually she comes rounding into the kitchen looking for me whimpering “Mama”. She was doing “nanana” for a few days but she seems to have forgot that and moved on to “bababa”, I haven’t noticed that this actually relates to anything. She still thinks it is very funny when we say “dada” or “papa” to her, she usually looks at us gives us a big smile then goes “MAMA!!”. Oh and she has starting to find the volume control and she has been turning it up, my previously nice quite baby now goes through stores going “MAMA!!” or whatever the sound of the day is, umm yeah… oh her latest fav noise is smacking her lips, she crawls around and all I can hear is PaPaPa, it is quite cute. I think she is starting to understand more and she will turn for her name usually (unless she knows she is doing something she shouldn’t) and most of the time if I say come here and crook my finger she will come over to me but yet again if she is on a mission she will turn smile and continue where she was head but with increased speed (she is usually headed to play in the cat water). On the sleeping front I think I have FINALLY managed to get her down to two naps, this is rather new so I am probably jinxing it but yes the last 4 days have been only 2 nap days and normal non-crying bedtime, yipeee!!! It is so nice the naps are becoming longer again and I can actually accomplish things during the time she is down. I have been trying to get her to two naps since right after the holidays but there were a couple rough weeks where she wasn’t making it to dinner time with the two naps and it was leading to early evening naps and late yelling bedtimes, so needless to say I am happy about finally getting her to two naps with normal bedtimes. As for food she continues to be a great eater, knock on wood. I retied risotto and she seemed to really like it now. She also had Indian Dhal after Jeff’s birthday, that didn’t go over too well but then again I didn’t really love it either so I don’t blame her. She has become accustom to eating finger foods and there is MUCH less gagging, thanks goodness!! Lunch now usually consists of all finger food chicken, cheese, cheerios and fruit is a regular. Oh and thanks to her father she now loves bottle, last night she was like an attack dog climbing me to get to my bottle of ginger beer, can you say obsessed??? This month we have also started Water Babies and she seems to really like it, today is our second class, I can’t wait!! I also took her to her first playgroup, other than bowling over the other baby she was attempting to play with it went quite well. Apparently the toys there were just as tasty as the ones at home, yuck!!! Oh finally, her hair is getting very blond now. It is abit disconcerting she kinda has an inverse bad dye job, blond roots and dark ends. I have decided to keep cutting her hair until it is a somewhat uniform colour then I’ll let it grow. Can’t think of much else, I find she is really turned into a little person with the mischief, frustration and temper to go with it. I am starting to adjust to not having as much time to myself and I am getting used to spending a big portion of the day sitting on the floor with Meals playing. After she gets hurt and the required snuggles have been given I am required to sit and watch her play, I have made the mistake of getting up to do something and the tears immediately start again, I didn’t even realise she was watching!!

Classy Girl

I am so proud my daughter has figured out how to pick her nose, yeah…. I first I thought it was a one off but then it started to become a trend and we would pull it out and it would go back in, sometimes she even gives us a little smile while she puts it back in. AHHHHHHH!!!! I try to look for the silver lining by thinking “hey at least she has good hand/nose co-ordination” but really lets face it that is a bit of a stretch. Oh and to make matters worse she has taken to eating cat food!!! I knew the day was coming when she would notice the cat dishes but now she not only makes a beeline for the cat dishes but also scouts out lone pieces on the kitchen floor that the cats have decided to redistribute. I have now had to fish around her mouth for cat food twice and it is usually quite the battle to get Amelia to give up her prize, I have started to resort to pretending to brush her teeth (this she loves) and sneaking the nuggets out while I do it. What else has my little sweetheart been up too, on Friday we had our first Aquafit. I have signed up for it with my friend Leigh and her son Ronan. Leigh and I are supposed to do Aquafit while the kiddies float around in this rings and chew on toys, in actual fact I think we all spent more time playing with the kids in the water than listening to the instructor. It is a ton of fun though and Meals looks gorgeous in her little swimsuit, no pics yet but Denise said she would come watch soon so I will get her to take some pics. Right after our class there was public swim so we stayed for abit and played with the kids, Meals seemed to really enjoy it and even put her face in the water a couple times. I can’t wait for the next class. Meals is still busy walking around the coffee table and her toy box. She has got a few nasty bumps and there has been much snuggling required. In the middle of the week she feel and hit her face on the edge of the wine rack and she now looks like she has been abused with this bruise on her cheek. In other news, the basement is coming along, the carpet guy came by on Thursday night and measured everything and we have tentatively booked the install for three weeks today, YEEEAHHHH. This weekend I put the second coat of white paint on the main room and put the first coat on the stairs, just need to do a second coat on the stairs and two coats on the Harry Potter/toy nook. Jeff got all the tiling done and he did such a wonderful job, I am so proud of him he is so handy. All that is left other than the painting bit is painting and putting on the baseboards and doorframes. YEAH!!! There have been some rather demanding requests for pics so here you go, not quite done but more progress.

Looking towards to back of the house and the door to the backyard.

Looking from the backdoor to the stairs and storage room.

Jeff's fabulous tiling job and the backdoor I cleaned up and re-painted.

This weekend we had friends over for dinner on Saturday night, Jeff made fresh pasta which was very yummy as usual. Sunday night we had dinner at John and Denise’s, Julie cooked a phenomenal meal, lots of laughs were had and there was much talk of Cuba. Oh Saturday night we also watched the Wedding Crashers, sooo funny oh and I meant to write before we rented Crash last weekend and it was GREAT!!! I highly recommend it.

Silliness

Okay this video is abit silly and sideways but well it makes me laugh.

Extra!!! Extra!! Family swallowed by all consuming basement!!!

Nah just joking, the basement is kinda taking over our lives right now but there is an end in sight which is making us work that much harder. This weekend we had lots of help in the basement and taking care of Meals so I could do some painting. Julie and I managed to get the first coat on all the wall and Jeff and John got the cement board down and the floor leveled in preperation for tiling. On Monday Jeff took the day off and started laying the tiles, now we just need to grout which I think we are doing tonight. Meals is a very busy girls now full of mischief and obsessed with all things she shouldn't be, I CAN'T wait to have the basement which will be carpetsed and totally babyproofed!!!! This past weekend we also hosted Sunday dinner which suprisingly enough came off quite well even though 45mins before the family arrived I was door in the basement painting a door. As you can see from the pictures Meals enjoyed dinner too, especially the whipped cream that Mini snuck her, in fact she liked it so much that she took it upon herself to get some more. Meals hasn't been sleeping that great lately, I think after chirstmas her bedtime got pretty mixed up and since she has been less than happy to go to sleep this is made worse by the fact taht she stands up in her crib and either yells at the door or the montior. In the past even if she was crying before bed she was lying down so eventually she would just drift off, this standing has improved her stamina, bah!!! She does seem to be getting back to normal slowly but surely though. On the up side of her moving aruond in bed I do get a good laugh when I come into her after her naps and find her sitting up in bed with her blankets around her smiling away at me, that makes up for someof the screaming. oh yesterday was abit exciting for me, I was playing with Meals on the floor and she was standing at her toy box, she grabbed this toy and was holding it in both hands and she stood there all by herself for a few seconds before she realised what she was doing and dove at me. She doesn't seem to think she is ready to stand on her own she either wants to be holding something or my hands but when caught off gaurd she can do it. I was so proud of her but she seemed pretty confused by all the fuss.

Basement Mania

Sorry no time to write today I have to go help Jeff tile and do some painting. Our weekend was very busy with basementing etc. We are so close to being done we can taste it!!! so exciting!!! I'll write tomorrow.

Trouble seems to ensue when the grandparents are holding Meals during dinner. She gets to try all sorts of wonderful treats last night it was blueberries, kiwi and the grand finale whipped cream which as you can see from the pics went over very well. 

"I think I like this white fluffy stuff" 

Yum Chicken, Cheerios and Cheese, lunch of Chchampions!! 

"I'm comin' to get you mom"

Peeking through the soon to be cat door. 

More playing, check out the shoes.  

Happy baby playing at her music table 

"Hey Mom Leave me alone I'm Playing in my toy basket" 

Funny Faces!! 

Happy 2006!!!!

Bye bye 2005, and bye bye Holidays!!! Boo hoo I am back to normal life again, just Meals and I. We did have a very good end to our holidays, the start of our holidays we spent a lot of time on the basement and working away most days (seems it is turning into a holiday tradition I end up painting something, last year was the baby’s room now the basement) but on the 29th our friends Kath and Ahren from Vancouver arrived and stayed with us. Once they arrived we took some time off from the basement and relaxed and hung out with them. It was sooo nice to see them both and lots of wine was drunk. Our family had a very nice New Year’s, we were supposed to go up to Kitchener to Liv’s house but unfortunately both her boys came down with the flu over the holidays so instead the festivities moved to our place. Sean, John, Jen and the girls all came over for some snacks, cards and board games with us and Kath and Ahren. Unfortunately Emma and Leah were not in the mood to go to sleep at our place so Jen and Jen had to make a quick get away pre-New Year’s. The rest of us played trivial pursuit till midnight, we are such party animals, ha ha. Yesterday Kath, Ahren, Jeff, Meals and I went over to my parents for New Years brunch with John, Denise and Julie. So much eating!!! I forgot to mention another one of Meals other discoveries over Christmas, she has discovered her temper and is learning to through it around. Oh man!!! All those times my parents would tease me about my temper and stubbornness coming back to haunt me with my own children well that day has come!!! Ugh!!! Meals is turning into a little devil, for example she knows she isn’t allowed on the big floor vent but it never fails as soon as I turn my back she is crawling over there, when I call her name and say no she turns around smiles at me then speeds up. When I pick her up and bring her back to her toys there is usually a few tears. I think most of the whining the last couple weeks has been a result of frustration, she is mobile but not totally so she wants to do things herself. She has also started this Popeye face where she sucks her top lip in and shoves the lower one out, very funny. Finally, she has discovered her toy basket, she now crawls over to it stands up at it and starts flinging toys all over the place, I am trying to adjust to having toys everywhere and not just the select few that I have chosen for her to play with for the day. I can’t imagine what she’ll be up to this time next year, it seems she has been changing sooo quickly in the last couple months what a diffrence a year will make.