Peanut's Page

Jumping ship

2006-04-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2006-04-24T06:14:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!

2006-04-20T05:48:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2006-04-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-04-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2006-03-27T07:16:00.000-08:00

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!!!

Meals and her Buddies

2006-03-24T11:16:00.000-08:00

So yesterday my friend Leigh babysat for me. Leigh’s son, Ronan, is about 6 months older than Amelia and the two of them are pretty cute together. While at "Camp Leigh" they played in Leigh's backyard of kiddie fun and Leigh was even brave enough to pack them both up and take them for a play at the park. She tool some pics for me, I thought they were pretty cute. Also here are some pics of Meals and Dex. I have never seen a more attention staved cat. He will take it where ever he can get it.

11 months…OH My!!!

2006-03-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe next month Amelia will be a year, how time flies!!! No more baby all little girl. I have found that in the last couple months Amelia has really developed a personality, she is such a ham and very devilish. She loves getting attention and flirts with everyone when we are out shopping, she likes starting people down till they look at her then smiling and then hiding her face in my neck and pecking out smiling. She understands a lot and if you say “no” she looks and either scrunches her face in protest or turn and smiles and tries to do it again. She knows “fishies” , I give her those fish crackers for a snack every once and awhile and if I ask her if she wants some fish she will do the high speed crawl over and then stand at my legs till I give her her fish. She has started saying cat this month, well “TAT”. Amelia loves harassing Maisy, poor Maise doesn’t want to have anything to do with Amelia and usually makes a quick exit. Dexter is staved for attention and will flop right in front of Amelia and she will ignore him. She does like harassing Dex when he is asleep, she usually starts by tapping him and petting him abit then it quickly turns to pulling his legs or trying to lie on him (this is when he takes off). In the last couple months Amelia has developed a deep love for her blanket, it now has to come everywhere with us when there is sleeping involved. She likes to chew on the corners and feel the satin edge, very cute to watch but abit troublesome if I forget to bring it, eep. This month Meals has become more comfortable standing on her own and she is also getting much better at walking. She walks quite comfortably if we hold her hands and will even walk if I just hold the straps on her overalls but as soon as she feels you let go she sits down. Ah well all in time. She is still holding strong at 4 teeth, the two ups are really out now, no sign of any others yet. She is still sleeping very well and rarely give is a fuss except when we are in an unfamiliar place. She will got down for naps anywhere but going to bed at night in a playpen results in a couple major meltdowns before one of us gives in (right now our record stands at about 50/50). This month she has been waking up earlier in the morning which I am finding a bit rough. I have now got into the habit of going to get her then bring her and her blanket back to bed with me and we both lay and nap for abit before she has had enough and I get climbed on. At first I didn’t bring her blanket with us and she never napped it was just playtime but since I sorted this blanket thing out we both get abit of a sleep in. She is still eating well but she is getting more particular and at times she puts up quite a fuss if she isn’t the mood for what I am feeding her. She has now discovered she can take the food out of her mouth and on a couple occasions she has pulled food out of her mouth with her fingers, bah!!! Oh well she doesn’t do it very often. She other favorite trick if she isn’t impressed with me is wiping the inside of her mouth with her sleeve, BAH!!! That one really drives me nuts.

Amelia Helen Reitsma - 11 Months

Silly Girl

Jeff’s Home!!! Let the Blood Letting Continue

2006-03-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

I survived my week with Jeff away, actually it was a very nice week and very busy. Julie joined Meals and I for dinner on Tuesday night and made us a fabulous dinner and Wednesday night we went out with John and Denise. Thursday night Jeff got in late, it was nice to see him and hear all his adventures and the steal mill. Friday after work he finally got to see Meals before he ran out for poker. The night before I had told Jeff how Meals started walking on her own if you hold on to the straps of her overalls, he had to see this for himself and as she was walking along he let go and she promptly fell over hitting the bridge of her nose on her toy box and getting a little cut and bruise, ah Daddy’s home. Poor Meals poor Jeff. This weekend, we did some errands, got a new DVD player for the basement and did a bunch of groceries followed by a ton of cooking. Jeff made all sorts of baby food for Meals while I nurtured my mania and organized and labeled the stuff in our kitchen cupboards that were filled with all sorts of little baggies of spices, nuts etc. So Satisfying!!! Jeff made lots of yummy stuff for Amelia including a chicken and broccoli in cheese sauce which I must say is very tasty. Meals was a very good girl while we did all of this and she played in the kitchen opening and closing all the doors and drawers. Saturday night we went out for dinner with John, Denise and Julie, John and Denise left for the Caribbean early Sunday morning so they needed to see Miss Meals one last time before they were gone for a week, Jeff and I really have just turned into the conduit for the grandchild, ha ha. Sunday night Julie hosted Sunday dinner and it was Southeast Asian themed, OH YUM!!! We had quite the feast and lots of laughs. This past week I have started trying to get Meals to drink her bottle on her own, until now we usually hold her while she drinks but seeing as she is off the nipple and on to the sippy style I figured it was time. it makes me laugh ever time I watch her leaning against the pillow looking like a couch potato.

Road trip…Brockville HO!!!

2006-03-13T05:55:00.000-08:00

So this weekend Jeff, Meals and I headed up to Brockville with Jeff’s parents and Julie. We all went to visit Bill, Betty and Super Pake (Jeff’s grandfather). Friday night we stayed over at Jeff’s parents so we could get an early start the next morning. Meals napped and played on the long drive up to Brockville. We had a wonderful visit with everyone, we went for a walk in downtown Brockville and we relaxed in Bill and Betty’s beautiful house. We came back yesterday morning and then went to my parent’s place for dinner. This past week I picked up a box of blueberries at Costco and we started giving them to Meals as a snack or dessert, oh MAN!!! Jeff has now nicknamed our daughter Blue Bum the pirate, I didn’t know the human body could produce something that colour!!! You know that popular colour of car or SUV right now, gun metal grey or blue, well yup that is the colour, it is truly offensive. Aren’t you glad I shared? This week Jeff is going to Sault Ste. Marie for work, he leaves tonight and is gone till Thursday night. Eeep it is going to be a long week without him around, luckily I have a lot planned this to keep us busy hopefully it will go quickly. In the basement, we have got abit more done; Jeff and John put the sweep under the door, which has really warmed things up down here. We have got our old TV fixed and we now have it all set up, yipeee. Finally, I got the shelves painted in the Harry Potter room and have started putting things on them. Amelia finds it quite offensive that I am trying to organise her toys and when I put her down she makes a beeline for the shelves. She pulls all her books down, she does it with such vigour she really does seem offended by it. Any sort of order seems to disgust Amelia and one day this past week I made the mistake of leaving the full laundry basket in the basement. I was working on the computer and I felt Meals bump into my chair, I turn around and she has manage to crawl over and stand up at the back of the chair with leg of the bike shorts pulled down over her head. I had a very good laugh. I took them off and a few minutes later I found her with them over her shoulders AGAIN!! Apparently she was quite attached to them. I find Amelia is developing so much personality in the last couple weeks, she is very vocal and now she will even try to imitate you when you repeat a word to her. She is also big on reaching for things and as of the last couple of days she will open and close her hand if you don’t comply quick enough. This weekend she also started nodding her head, not for any reason I can tell but when she is playing by herself I’ll look over and there she is nodding away. She knows the tones of voice I use when I say her name when she isn’t supposed to do something and she will turn around and look at me and scrunch her nose and me and scowl, it is very frustrating but also kind funny.

Two Fat Lips and a Battering Shoe

2006-03-06T09:06:00.000-08:00

Ah another Monday… and another week closer to the end of my official maternity leave. I can’t believe that I will have been off for a year by the end of the month, scary stuff. I have decided to stay off till September so I can enjoy abit more time with Amelia and so we can put her into this French day-care that doesn’t accept kids till 18 months (plus lets face it isn’t too bad having another summer off). Meals and I had another nice week together, we went out for a couple walks, went to the gym (and she went in the day-care) and even went to a playgroup. Meals also discovered a new toy this week, and guess what there are two of them!!! She loves playing with her shoes, the green ones with the laces, from Tuesday to Friday she was dragging one of them all over the basement with her at all times. Her favourite is pulling them under our makeshift sawhorse table and swing the shoe around by the laces and battering the subwoffer, fun fun fun. Her other favourite toy right now is this dog that you can pull the ears and the tail and it expands and vibrates and barks as it compresses again. Meals isn’t strong enough to pull it so she is constantly bring it to one of us to pull it for her, rather cute actually but it does get old pretty quick. On Tuesday afternoon Meals got the first of her two fat lips of the week. She was climbing the stairs and bounced her chin off one of the stairs and bit her lip, I was with her but I wasn’t quick enough to catch that little slip. There were many tears. We have now moved a couple chairs in front of the stairs to put an end to the climbing. She still checks out the stairs to see if there is any way through but so far so good. For people that think we are totally nuts and why don’t we just put up a gate, well we have weird stairs that are very opened and there is really nowhere to attach the gate on one side and I really don’t want to have to invest in this crazy $$$ fireplace gate, so for now we are improvising. Besides with the basement done the stairs aren’t really much of an issue anymore. Tuesday Jeff and I also had our first regular week day dinner at our table again. For the last 10months the table has been pushed against the wall and has had all the computer stuff on in but now that the computer and all the toys have come down to the basement the table can actually be used again and not just for when company comes. It was so nice to have the option of eating like grownups again (I say option cause its not like we do it all the time). We sat at the table and moved Meals chair up to the table too and we all ate together, such a nice change. Friday Jeff stayed home for work sick; he was very sniffily and feeling pretty crap. We spent the day in the basement, Meals playing, Jeff napping on the couch and me working on my album for Amelia. Other than Jeff’s sickness it was a lovely day, I even got to run out and get my haircut, yeah!!! This weekend we had Dave and Fiona over for dinner on Saturday night and then we hosted the family Sunday night dinner. There was a lot of cooking afoot this weekend and that was the scene of the second fat lip. Poor Meals ended up trying to climb Jeff’s leg while he was cooking, he turned to get something she slipped and bounced her face off the tile, more blood and another fat lip. SOOOOOO sad. She couldn’t have been very upset with him though cause he was the only one that would do for the post trauma cuddles. This time it was dead centre of the upper lip, the swelling went down quickly and she seems right as rain again. Meals is standing up on her own more, much to her dismay. She gets very upset with us when we make her stand on her own but we are both pretty sure she can do it she just doesn’t want to and Wednesday night it was confirmed. We were eating dinner and she was playing on the floor pushing this box the size of her around then all of a sudden she picks the box up off the floor and just holds it there then puts it down and does it again. WHAT A GOOF, if she can stand up holding a box as big as she is I’m pretty sure she can stand on her own, I think she just likes the safety net of holding something. This week she has also started saying what we think is cat, well “tat”. Not totally sure but usually that is what is yelled when Dex and Maisy come in the room or when she gets one of them cornered.

Check out these legs

Snuggles, Kisses and Basement

2006-02-27T06:31:00.000-08:00

Meals has been very snugly lately, not really for any reason it seems (well maybe her teeth are bugging her), it is so cute. She is also much more undiscerning with her kisses (with are more just open mouth suction cups). This week was also the first week we really used our basement. On Tuesday my dad was in town on business and came for dinner. He hadn’t see Meals since well before Christmas so I think he found a big change in her. Amelia certainly put on a show her him, the highlight was her standing at her toy box staring into it bending her knees and grunting every 5 secs or so, I don’t know what was going through her head but it was very funny. Wednesday I had abit of a rough day, Meals was being a terror and was totally obsessed with the stairs, even if I sat on the floor and played with her she was still not interested and after a minute she was back at the stairs. I got so frustrated!!! Then the cats started yelling at me for attention too and I lost it. That night Jeff and I cleaned the basement and moved all the tools out and move the computer and toys down there and Thursday was our first day in the basement, even with no TV down here it is like a holiday. Everything is baby proofed and there isn’t much mischief for her to get into. On Thursday night we ran over to IKEA to pick up a side table and a entertainment unit (for the TV, once it gets fixed) and now other than waiting for our desk and abit more painting, the basement is pretty set. Of course we left the two IKEA boxes on the floor on the tile and the next morning Amelia maybe a beeline for them and was on top of them, Mischief found!! On Friday night we had out neighbours Leigh, Rob and Ronan up for pizza and wine (our first entertaining in the basement). It was cute to watch Meals follow Ronan around. Saturday evening I had my gourmet group over for dinner, Jeff had his office party and Meals had playtime over at Grandmanam and Pake’s. I spent Saturday cooking and cleaning and Jeff and Meals helped me. The theme this time for my gourmet group was appetizers and cocktails, made for a very fun night. As you might expect Sunday was abit of a right off for me I spent the first couple hours of the day lying on the couch in the basement napping while Jeff played on the computer and Meals played with her toys. It was so nice to just relax and not have lots of things to do that day. It was the prefect morning (with the exception of the headache) with all the family just lounging, even the cats came for a snuggle on the couch. Yesterday afternoon we did some errands then went over to John and Denise for Sunday dinner, yummy as always. This week we don’t have much on, hopefully I will finally get the last of my painting done. In the past week in addition to snuggles and kisses Meals has also started grunting, babbling a lot more. Her other favourite thing is to find things on the floors eg. toys, lint or other things she shouldn’t have and then bring them too me, it is rather cute. She quite delighted if I pretend to chew it then she usually wants the treasure back after a minute.

10 months

2006-02-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

Another month gone by and what an eventful month it was. Meals is growing along. With the addition of two new teeth this month she is now up for four, well two full on teeth and two little nubs. I think the teething has caused some of the fussiness and clinging in the last couple weeks but is kinda hard to tell what is a result of teething and what is just from travelling, changing schedules and adjusting to less attention on the return (no Meals I can’t hold you 24/7). Amelia is very mobile and into everything. She has now worked out how to open the kitchen cupboard doors and drawers, there have only been a couple pinched fingers but I am sure there will be more, ugh. This month her big achievement (at least I would think in her mind) was learning to climb the stairs and in the last couple weeks she figured out to go back down too. She is walking around at all the furniture, cupboards and peoples legs. She doesn’t like standing on her own and when we try to make her there are many grunts and tears but she seems to be able to stand on her own just fine for those few seconds before she either squats down on the floor or throws herself at us. Amelia has also developed a very funny high-speed crawl that involves much more bum wiggle than the regular crawl; she kinda reminds me of a very excited Labrador Retriever, maybe she has been spending too much time with Jasper. She has started saying Dada, she was very excited and proud of herself when she figured it out. When she is mad at me or frustrated she makes a “nanana” noise and recently she has started going “rarara”, no clue what that is about. Amelia still hasn’t developed the very picky palate I had as a child and she will eat most things. Amelia hasn’t figured out that she can take things out of her mouth or spit them out. It is wonderful. As long as we can get it in her mouth it will go down, however getting in is sometimes a change. This month she developed a deep and abiding love for bread in any form. While in Cuba we would keep her quiet during dinner with buns, at first we would give her little pieces but by the end of the trip we would just rip it in half and she would go to town. I also tried her on liver, YUCK!! I won’t eat it but she seems to like it, apparently both Jeff and I grew up on the stuff but neither of us will touch it now. Since we have returned from Cuba I have started giving her some cheerios or fishies in a Tupperware for a snack on the floor and during meals I give her a spoon with abit of food to play with while I feed her. The cheerios and fishies all end up on the floor and are eaten from there and the Tupperware turns into a drum, oh well I’ll keep trying. On the spoon front at first as you can imagine it was very mess with food all over and lots of pinching the food with her fingers. After a couple days of food flinging she started to catch on and now she gets the spoon into her mouth and as long as the consistency of the food is thick enough the food gets in too. For now I just refill her spoon for her and give it back to her, she usually gets one spoon in for every three of mine. I have not started giving her bowl privileges yet and if the cheerios and fish are any indication she won’t be getting the bowl for quite awhile. This month Meals also swam in the ocean and played in the sand for the first time, what fun. I think she quite enjoyed her first hot vacation and thrived on all the attention she received. She is quite the little ham with smiles for everyone.

Amelia - 10 Months

If you look close you can see the little nubs of teeth.

Home Sweet Home

2006-02-20T06:12:00.000-08:00

Well I love going away but it is rather nice to be home and getting back to normal life, although I could do without the weather. This weekend was busy with basementing, shopping for furniture for the basement and cooking. Meals was very out of sorts on Friday and Saturday, very clingy and lots of crying. I couldn’t figure out if she wasn’t feeling well, if she was just over tired or if she was in withdrawal from all the attention she received in Cuba. By when she even cried through her bath I was starting to think something was really wrong and I was going to make a doctors appointment on Monday. Luckily she had a good sleep that night with a long sleep in and Sunday she was back to our normal happy baby, thanks goodness. Jeff and John did the last of the electrical on Saturday, installed the baby gate for the basement AND help Daryl bring my parents couches over to our place, YES we have funtiure!!!! Yeah!!! On Sunday we went to our favourite furniture place and ordered a desk, now we just have to wait the painful 6-8 weeks till it gets delivered. BOO!! Last night we hosted Sunday dinner for our family and Dan and Gwen. It was lovely to finally have these two over and get a chance to show Gwen all the hard work Dan has been doing in our house. Dinner turned out very well (after an initial rough start for my soup). Today we are off for a walk with Denise and tomorrow my Dad is coming over for dinner. Yippee!! More pics from Cuba....

Adiós Cuba!!!

2006-02-17T05:14:00.000-08:00

Well after a week of holidays we are back to real life again today. We had a wonderful holiday although some iffy weather at times. We left for Cuba last Thursday, leaving the house at 3:30 in the morning, ouch. We thought maybe if we packed up that car and got everything ready then went and got Meals and put her right into the car and left that we might get her to stay asleep… Yeah right she knew something was up and spent the entire drive to the airport smiling at us with the “Super Smile”. We were VERY happy when we checked in and found out that we had an extra seat for Meals. During take off she fell asleep and slept for about an hour, yippee. We had a great flight down after, Meals woke up she played and smiled at everyone. Jeff and I are both very happy that the change in pressure doesn’t seem to bug her. We arrived at our resort to a rather chilly day (only 19, eep), we checked out the resort and had a bite to eat. I must say I was rather stressed out cause I had read and been told by so many people to be careful about what I fed her etc. By the next day I had given up and other than the water (just bottled for her) Meals was eating everything, the stress was down, Meals was happy and no problems occurred. Our first couple nights there were rather stressful for Jeff and I, Amelia didn’t want to sleep and the second night she was up till 1am crying off and on. This is not normal for Meals or us and Jeff and I were vowing that we would never go on holidays again till she was out of the house. After the second night we moved her crib so she couldn’t see us and we went back to normal house rules, after two enforced naps she was back to normal and went down without a peep the rest of the holiday, thank goodness!!!! With the sleep sorted out Jeff and I were feeling much more relaxed, everyone was very kind to us offering to take Meals to play or going back to the room for nap time. We had so much fun playing with Amelia on the beach, we had to remind her many times not to eat the sand (she only listened sometimes) but it was fun none the less. Her first time in the ocean she wasn’t so sure but the second time I took her in and my mom smiled and jumped around like a seal doing tricks and she stayed very entertained and happy and after that the ocean was fine. Unfortunately with the weather being on and off the pool just didn’t heat up enough for Melie, we went in one day but didn’t spend much time there, the ocean was more fun. The resort was beautiful and the staff was soooo friendly, everyone knew Meals name and Jeff and I heard more than one “hola, Amelia’s parent’s” ha ha. Meals received the grand tour of the resort by the staff; as soon as we would take her out of the highchair after she had eaten she would be swept up by one of the servers and taken for a tour. One of the barmaids in the lounge was so talented she would sweep Amelia up with her tray in one hand and Meals in the other, they would go back and get drinks and say hi to the guys in the kitchen then come back with a tray full of drinks. I was a little nervous about my daughter deciding to grab one of those pretty drinks but it didn’t happen. It was very embarrassing when they would bring her back and she was cry and not want to let go, I think she would have like to be adopted and lived on the resort with all her friends. There is no question that at least for now Meals doesn’t have a shy streak. I have a feeling mealtime is going to be abit of an adjustment for Amelia now that we are home. The trip home was pretty grating with over a 2hr delay in the nasty Cuban airport then arriving in some rather depressing Toronto weather, yet still very nice to be home and only one day and the weekend, yippee!!! Well wew were away Meals also got her two front teeth while we were away, we are calling them her cuban teeth, good for opening rum bottles and chewing on cigars. Meals also has started eating bananas like a little monkey (not mushed), she is now alittle banana vulture I think she can hear then pealing of a banana and rushes over. Oh and while we were gone Jeff started an intensive train in "Earmuffs" she is starting to catch on...

2006-02-08T07:58:00.000-08:00

Mom all ready to Cuba!!! Let's go!! Yup we are off to Cuba tomorrow morning!!! Yipeee!!! Can't wait. So yup we'll be back next Thursday. Ta ta

2006-02-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

I'm comin' to get ya.

2006-02-08T07:53:00.000-08:00

Playing with blocks.

2006-02-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

More carpet and some Harry Potter room shelving.

2006-02-06T08:37:00.000-08:00

Amelia exploring her new room (Denise supervising).

2006-02-06T08:35:00.000-08:00

Two of my babies enjoying the new carpet!!

2006-02-06T06:54:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post this last week, here is one of the pics from swimming.

“Dada”s little girl

2006-02-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy week in Meals’ world, she has learned to climb the stairs and she has started saying Dada. The stairs thing started so quickly, you could practically see the wheels turning. In the middle of the week she finally noticed the stairs, I knew it was coming but I was dreading it. Until then she had just checked out the kitchen but usually stayed pretty close to the toy box or the coffee table. Well at first she just hit the stair then she stood at it then sure enough she tested out the first step. For that day she just did two stairs, still in pretty safe range. Well by Thursday when Denise babysat she made it to the top and had explored all the bedrooms. Since Thursday Jeff and I have been doing a lot of stairs. She has a system she gets up at the stair bangs it twice with her hand then gets her knee up and then the other. The two bang happens at ever stair, Denise things she is testing it saying “hello, you strong enough? You know I am a big baby”. The other big event was her saying “Dada”, it was pretty cute we were driving to Sherway to do abit of pre-vacation shopping and we were talking and Meals was babbling in the back then all of a sudden there was a dadada followed by a huge crackle, seems she was pretty pleased with herself. After that the dada’s were pretty free flowing, Jeff went to pay for something at the cash while Meals stayed with me and there were many “DADADA”. Oh did I mention that in the last few days Meals has been turning into a daddy’s girl. I was out for a fabulous dinner at Canoe with some girlfriends on Thursday night and Friday I helped a friend out and babysat for her, so both nights Meals and Jeff had the house to themselves, those two nights were all it took (that and I pretty sure the high energy horse play that Jeff partakes in) and Meals was yelling for Dad by Sunday. After 9 months of being the loved one it is abit sad for me to pass the torch but it is pretty damn cute to watch so I’m over it. Well in other news the carpet is going in in to basement as I type, Yippeeeeee!!!!! (and some other less appropriate shouts of excitement). Jeff and John finished of the shelving in the Harry Potter room (the room under the stairs the is going to be toy storage/little desk for Meals and lots of shelves for books etc.). It looks friggin’ amazing!!!!! The guys did a fantastic job, I can’t gush enough. When I came up with the idea of finishing that little closet (drywalling, carpeting etc.) it was met with less than enthusiasm but being the pain in the ass that I am it got done and I am soooooo happy it did it looks so cute and there is so much storage and it adds a uniqueness to the basement I think. Everything in the basement looks great Jeff, John and Dan and his crew all did a beautiful job. I can’t wait till Meals and I can move down there during the days. What else, there has been a lot of preparation for Cuba going on (we leave Thursday) eyebrow waxing, pedicures etc. you know all the essentials J but I still haven’t even started packing, eep. I have been a little obsessed with the basement and have been putting all my spare time into that so the next few days are going to be full of packing and organising. So many things to bring when travelling with a baby thank goodness all the grandparents and Julie are coming with us so I can spread some of her stuff around. I also have to get the furry babies bags packed for a stay the winter camp over at my parents (my grandfather is coming down from Kingston to babysit the herd). Dexter and Maisy have been ramping up their usual craziness lately cause I think they are getting excited to go see Basil. OH and Mr. Dexter my lovely little cat has taken to getting on the kitchen counter and drinking of the sink, BAH!!! I have a cat that likes to drink on the counter and a daughter that likes to eat out of the cat bowl, what is wrong with this picture!!! Last night we were off at the home of the mega TV (aka John and Denise’s) for some Super Bowl viewing and some homemade pub grub. We all actually watched the game this year and stuffed our faces. Meals explored the house with Pake close in toe, this whole stair thing is really opening up whole new worlds for her.

Stairs!!

2006-02-06T05:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry i did it again, I turned to camera the wrong way. Anyways as you can see Amelia is climbing the stairs, CONSTANTLY!!! for now we follow her up everytime (which is quite a few times), we aren't really sure what we are going to do about our stairs yet, our basement is almost finished and that will be totally babyproofed and I think we are going to see how things are once we are settled down there. For now we are just doing lots of stairs.

Baby Mania

2006-01-30T07:15:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-27T06:36:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-27T06:12:00.000-08:00

Meals and her Hippo out for a stroll

2006-01-24T08:17:00.000-08:00

Just Another Manic Monday!!

2006-01-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

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!!

2006-01-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

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

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

2006-01-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-01-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-01-09T07:06:00.000-08:00

"I think I like this white fluffy stuff"

2006-01-09T06:59:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-09T06:58:00.000-08:00

"I'm comin' to get you mom"

2006-01-09T06:41:00.000-08:00

Peeking through the soon to be cat door.

2006-01-06T06:33:00.000-08:00

More playing, check out the shoes.

2006-01-06T06:32:00.000-08:00

Happy baby playing at her music table

2006-01-06T06:30:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

Funny Faces!!

Happy 2006!!!!

2006-01-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

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.

I got my Walkin' On

2005-12-31T08:31:00.000-08:00

okay so maybe not walking more like shuffling with a walker but baby steps... literally. Bad angle on the video I know, sorry.

Naked Christmas Baby

2005-12-31T07:45:00.000-08:00

The Naked Christmas Baby

Happy New Year!!!!

2005-12-31T07:01:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful Christmas full of family, pressies and food, what more could a girls ask for. Amelia liked her toys but as expected LOVED all the bows, we all had our bows removed for us before opening. very funny. Meals got a ton of wonderful pressies including a very cute winter coat and a beautiful wooden sleigh. We had Christmas Eve dinner at John and Denise's with us, Julie, my parents, my brother and my grandfather. Christmas morning we did our pressie opening at John and Denise's then went to my mom's for more, fun fun. Christmas dinner was at my mom's, very yummy!!! and Meals enjoyed it too, she has turkey, broccoli and potatoes. All in all it was a fantastic first christmas for Meals. Okay I have been very lax in my posting lately but ah well quite understandable. Meals has been VERY busy, she has been learning all sorts of stuff. She has started saying Mama but it is in no way related to me, just basically she has managed to get the "M" sound and the "A" sound together. It is very funny to watch her she looks like a little old lady with no teeth and if you look at her and try Dada she looks back and flaps her arms and goes "ma ma ma ma" with a big smile. She has also started waving, not to me or on command in any way but when we are out she will wave to the sale people or stangers it is quite cute cause she is so coy about it, her hand comes up and she cocks her head to the side and grims then wiggles her fingers, makes me laugh everytime. In the last couple days she has managed to start going from crawling to sitting up. In the last month she sits half up then kinda holds herself up on one arm but now she can actaully get all the way up. Okay and the big news!!!! She is taking steps either holding our hands or pushing her little stool around, it is sooo funny!!! In the last week she has become very good at pulling up on things, her little music table, the coffee table, chairs etc... Earlier this week we got her this little green stool at IKEA and she pulls up to that and then pushes it around the floor. During the boxing day sales I got her a new little pair of walking shoes that were on sale for half price, I think they are helping to keep her from walking on her toes and supporting her ankles.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

2005-12-23T11:54:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, gets lots of great pressies and eats lots of food. Lots of Love and MERRY CHRISTMAS, Alicia, Jeff and Amelia

Few More Pics

2005-12-22T08:42:00.000-08:00

Finally I pic with Auntie Julie!!!!

Meals New Highchair at Pake and Grandmaman's.

8 Months...oops

2005-12-22T05:32:00.000-08:00

Okay I am a bad mom I forgot she turned 8months the other day. I have been so good about making sure I get her monthly picture but alas I was a day off this time, ah well. This month Meals has been getting fast crawling around and she is now pulling up to her knees easily and most of the time she can get up to a stand. Another new addition this month are her two bottom teeth, they are really easy to see now and they look kinda cute. She is still a very good eater she will eat little peice of chicken and boccolli seems to be her favorite veggie. I fed her some rissotto a few weeks ago and she really didn't think much of that. Oh also she may have also tried ice cream and a TINY little crumb of chocolate brownie, I know I know bad bad bad. She has also started making a new noise/face, she scrunches up her nose and breathes in and out making wheezing noise it has very funny but not very ladylike and I am worried with this runny nose she is developing things could get rather dangerous. Oh this month Meals also dicovered presents and she has dove into that one head first, she LOVES the ribbons and paper. There is one present at my parents, luckily is for her, that is missing the tag, all the corners are soggy and ratty and the ribbon has long since dissappeared at least she keeps going back to that one everytime. Here are the one day late pics, ha ha.

Christmas Countdown

2005-12-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

Morning All!!!! Less than a week till Christmas and two days till Jeffy-Weffy’s birthday and the Indian Fiesta!!! and I have finished my friggin’ Engineering exam, YEAH!!! This past week we stayed at the Reitsma Resort from Sunday night to Thursday afternoon while cats went to the Winter Camp at Chez Frasontain so we could all avoid the dust of the sanding in the basement. Denise was wonderful, taking care of Meals for me during the day and allowing me to read my eye gougingly boring textbooks. After her days with Grandmanam, Amelia has become very accustom to a high level of attentiveness and now that she is home and back to the real world I think she is going through withdrawal, both Saturday and Sunday night when we saw Denise Meals was practically jumping into her arms. Our basement is looking FANTASTIC!!! Everything is almost done and the guys are coming over tomorrow to finish off a few things. NICE!!! I can’t wait to get the toys out of our livingroom and have my diningroom back. This weekend was pretty good. Friday night Jeff ended up staying home and helping me with Meals and trying to distress me by answering and asking me questions for my exam the next day (I don’t know why I was getting so stressed it was pass or fail and pretty straightforward but the prospect of any exam usually winds me up). So Sat Meals and Jeff spent the day together and I wrote my exam. Saturday night the three of us went for dinner at Il Fornello with John and Denise and Bill and Betty. It was great to see Bill and Betty for the holidays. We had a very nice dinner but Meals wasn’t really in the mood and for the first time sine she was about a month old we had to leave abit early. She hadn’t napped well during the day and we think her teeth are bugging her but there was the start of an impressive melt down so we made a run for it (lucky for us we had finished eating). Sunday the crabbiness continued and by the evening we had the Ambosol out (she really didn’t think much of that) and the baby Advil. Poor Meals. Saturday night Mom and Rich arrived home for the winter wonderland of Quebec. Sunday morning they came over for a visit, yipeee Uncle Richie is home. Yesterday Jeff and I did errands and then came home and started de-dusting our basement. I bought the paint for the basement and I am hoping to paint by the end of the week. I got this kinda crazy limey green colour for the one back wall (the rest of the walls are going to be cream). I tested the colour and I think I like it but it is much crazier than I usually go for so I am a little nervous. Last night we had dinner at John and Denise. J&D had just bought Meals and new highchair for their place and it is pretty swank-a-lank. She looked so cute in it and she sat up and enjoyed her lasagne in it then sat and played with her book quite happily while we had dinner. After dinner J&D and Jeff, Meals and I went to the airport to meet Jeff’s sister, Julie, who was flying in from Australia. Julie hasn’t met Meals before so it was rather exciting. It is so nice to have both our siblings home!!! In Meals world this past week, she has been having some trouble with teething and has been abit crankier than usual. She has also fingered out how to pull up on things, in past weeks she had figured out how to push up on things, namely us, but now she can actually pull herself up to her music table and our coffee table, kinda exciting. She will also take steps if you hold her hands, much to all our amusement. Also there has been some talk that she may have figured out how to wave at people but it is abit of an arm flapping so I am still not convinced. She has started playing Peek-A-Boo with me eyes, she sits on my lap and puts her bib or face cloth over my eyes then pulls it away and yell Peek-A-Boo much to her delight. Sorry no pics today, maybe later in the week.

few more....

2005-12-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

More pics from Last week

2005-12-15T15:43:00.000-08:00

Hey here are some pics form last week that I didn't get to post cause I wasn't home.

More Pig Tails

2005-12-13T07:15:00.000-08:00

Procrastination

2005-12-13T06:38:00.000-08:00

Okay so I am supposed to be studying right now but Law is painful so I am slacking and writing a little update. Last week was very exciting at our house as you can see from my previous post we were getting the basement dry walled, YIPEEEEE!!!! The guys are finishing off this week and are sanding so we have moved into John and Denise and the cats have gone on a vacation to the Animal House (aka my parents). This worked out pretty well because I can get some studying done and Denise has been so wonderful and has been watching Meals (they are currently out for tea with Denise friends). Last week was relatively quiet other than the basement. On Tuesday Meals and I went and did a bunch of errands, one of which included going to get her Christmas pressie. For Christmas we decided to get her the Leap Frog Music Table so she can stand at it and bang away. Well, seeing as she doesn't know the difference she got her pressie right away and did haven't wait for Christmas. She has been enjoying the music fun to no end. The little table is great for her and she is very good at standing at it but every once and awhile she reaches for something too far to the side and takes a tumble. Ahhh.. the start of the bumps and bruises, poor little thing has a bruise on her cheek after one fall. I have now become more wary of letting her stand at it and I try to get her to kneel at it which usually works but sometime I look away and next thing I know she has stood up which keeps me on my toes. On Thursday night Denise babysat for us and Jeff and I went and saw Pride and Prejudice and then went for sushi, it was a lovely date night. This weekend we got a surprising amount of stuff done around the house with no basement requirements for Jeff. We got a lot of little chores and a TON of Christmas wrapping done. Sat night we rented Cinderella Man and The Ref, both of which were great. I have seen the Ref before but it makes me laugh every time. Friday night we also tried giving Amelia a totally self fed meal (well we gave her a bit of a top up of sweet potato), she had some bean, broccoli carrots and cheese sticks. It was very funny to watch and somewhat stressful (the whole choking thing), the broccoli was the clear fav and most of the beans end up in the bottom of her chair but all in all it turned out well. This week I also gave her mushed fillet of sole with OJ and carrots and she has REALLY seemed to like that and it is a good easy meat to prepare. Sunday night we had a wonderful dinner at my parents, mom made this wonderful stew, which Meals enjoyed too, and for dessert we had apple crisp and ice cream. Meals got to try a bit of both and if the open mouth sparrow after ever other bite we took was an indication I would say she liked it. Oh earlier in the week I also let her have a few little pieces of my banana bread earlier in the week and I let her suck on my apples a bit which she thinks is quite wonderful. After dinner Sunday night we came to Jeff's parents and have been here since. Meals has been very busy exploring and yesterday even managed to chase Bert (the cat) up the first step of the stairs (after that she got stuck). That's about it, if you can't already tell I am have a great time experimenting with food for Meals, I love to see her reaction and see what she will and won't eat, I am on a mission to have her eat Christmas dinner in some form.

Pig Tails

2005-12-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

I finally managed to get elastics in her hair and she doesn't seem to mind them. Her hair is getting long again and starting to get down in her eyes so I think the pig tails are going to be making an appearance more and more frequently, plus they are great for a laugh.

Dinner and Pressies

2005-12-12T06:10:00.000-08:00

No time for an update today but I thought I would post some pictures from last night's dinner at my parents. My mom has put a bunch of pressies under the tree already and Meals became alittle obsessed. Thanks goodness her favorite was one for her anyways because by the time she was finished with it it was rather soggy.

Yeah!!!

2005-12-09T07:16:00.000-08:00

Check out what I did this morning!!! Okay okay for those of you who live in the snowbelt and have to shovel your frontdoors out you can stop laughing now but seeing as last year while preggo I could barely manage to get the front sidewalk done without keeling over I'm feeling pretty good, YEAH!!! Baby come on!!!! Superstar!! Even did down the side and to the backdoor for the construction guys. Speaking of construction, my hero, Dan (our contractor extrodinair) and his crew started drywalling and mudding etc our basement on Wed. Here's one of the pics I took for electrical purposes but still you get the idea, this was pre-Dan... Now after 2 days check it out (and trust me nothing is square in our house this was quite a feat)!!! Here are the boys workin' hard.

A Tooth...

2005-12-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

… no wait TWO teeth!!! Well maybe not teeth more like little sharp spots in her gums. So yesterday Jeff got up and fed Meals then they both came back to bed with me, ahhh so nice. Well as usual Meals was chewing on my knuckle and I felt something sharp and voila one of her bottom teeth. This morning I was checking out the latest addition when I felt another one!!! Two teeth!!!! How exciting. Steak here she comes. Anyways, we have had a good week. I have been trying to study for my P.Eng exam, which is kinda painful, and I have been cooking a lot. Tuesday I had a craving for hearty Irish stew and homemade bread. Meals actually was very helpfully this time and sat happily eating her cheerios while I kneaded the dough at the very end. Jeff and I had the stew for dinner and later in the week Meals had some too and she seemed to really like it. Wednesday my stepmother was in town from Vancouver and came for dinner. I made a chicken and corn chowder and jalapeño corn bread (well actually Jeff made the bread). For the soup I poached the chicken and set some aside for Meals and pureed that up with some veggies. She wasn’t as big on the chicken dishes as she was on the stew but she ate it. On Friday we had Andy for dinner and we made ribs, yummm Jeff led the charge on the meal, but alas none for Amelia. Meals has been very busy with her new crawling freedom now, she is all over the place. At the beginning of the week she was getting stuck on the little riser into the kitchen and she kept sliding down but by the end of the week she had it under control and she is all over the kitchen following me around. This weekend Denise, Meals and I went to Yorkdale and met Betty and Maureen for lunch at Milestones. It was great to see them both and lunch was yumm, Meals behaved herself but didn’t think much of sitting in the little highchair and much preferred either sitting between us on the bench or being held by one of us. After lunch we did abit of shopping (I have a serious addiction to Mexx Kids, I’m only allowed to buy on sale though ) While we were enjoying a leisurely afternoon Jeff and John were at our place wiring our basement. MAN were they busy!! Our basement didn't really have anything, even the lighting was pretty minimal let alone phone lines or cable. They did a FANTASTIC job both Saturday and Sunday and it is almost all done. Hopefully later this week Dan the contractor that did the rest of our house will be coming in to do the drywall and mudding. YIPEEE we could have walls for Christmas and we could have a dining room back and semi toy and computer free by the early New Year. Last night for family Sunday dinner my parents were away in San Francisco and everyone was so busy this weekend we decided not to cook and instead headed to Il Fornello. When Meals was not even 3 weeks old Denise took us there for lunch, it was her first restaurant experience and this was her first trip back. This time as apposed to sleeping away in her stroller she sat up at the table in the highchair and ate her cookie and made eyes at the other people, what a change.

2005-12-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

I LOVE this picture I couldn't wait till monday to post it. This was Dexters first of I am sure MANY headlocks.

2005-12-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

This was my holding pen for little Miss busy body this morning while I was sorting laundry. She seemed to like it.

2005-12-02T08:56:00.000-08:00

Yummy Toast

Crawling

2005-11-28T06:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Winter!!!!

2005-11-28T05:48:00.000-08:00

So this week was filled with Christmas shopping and cooking. On Monday Denise and I went and got Meals a new car seat (an early x-mas pressies from her grandparents). We got a great car seat that seems pretty comfy. After car seat shopping we went to Yorkdale and met my mom and did abit of x-mas shopping. I was a little worried cause Meals had been rather cranky that morning and was missing her afternoon nap but she was fine, she sat up in her stroller with her favourite board book and flipped the pages opened and closed. Whenever she started to look like she was about to have a melt down we just had to say “clap clap clap” and she would clap away looking very pleased with herself. She also entertained herself but smiling at everyone that would look at her. One guy she was staring at wouldn’t look at her so she started craning her neck around in an attempt to follow him but alas he ever looked, I had a good laugh though. This Tuesday I had my gourmet group and it was Indian themed so I was making a couple curries, this week was also the week that Amelia decided to become very clingy. At times she wouldn’t let me out of her sight with out crying, other times she would cry until I picked her up. This makes cooking very difficult. Ahhhh!!!! It is very frustrating and this was the first time I have been ready to strangle my daughter. She has been getting better now that she can crawl and follow me, it has made for less crying but a lot more pant leg pulling. When she gets tried and fussy Mommy is still the only one that will do. This weekend was very nice, on Saturday morning Andrea and I went for a walk in High Park. It was a beautiful snowy morning and it was Meals first time in her snowsuit, soo funny. She wasn’t so sure about the whole thing, she kinda sat in her stroller staring at us with a look that said, “Um, mom what’s going on why can’t I move”. Saturday night we went to the One of a Kind show with Jeff’s family and then out for Mexican. I remember going last year and Jeff and I looked at all the people with babies and thought that will be us next year, I can’t believe it has been a year. On Sunday I went to the show again with Liv and Andrea and Jeff was in charge of Meals for the day. It was great to catch up with both of them and I get a second chance to sample all the food at the show, yumm. We were at my parents’ house for Sunday dinner and we had a very yummy meal and Amelia even got a chance to enjoy it too. I have decided to try to start to transition Amelia over to more real person food but the soft stuff of course. Last night she had some very yummy mashed sweet potatoes with citrus and some pureed green beans, she was going to get pork tenderloin too but she got hungry before it was cooked. I think this week well try her on some fish. I know this shouldn’t be funny but really it kinda is. Poor Meals had her first major injury well at least it was based on her reaction. She got her fingers stuck between the floor and her book, you might be wondering how one gets their fingers stuck under a book well it is quite easy when your other hand is on top of the book pushing down. There were many tears and snuggles after that, poor Meals… hee hee hee.

There has been many questions about teeth, nope none yet.

Down with the pumping, off with the crawling

2005-11-26T05:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a rather exciting day in our house, Meals started crawling on a regularish basis and I gave up pumping. Before she would do one or sometimes two little crawls in a row then back to her stomach but yesterday she figured it out. It is so cute to watch her, she is still pretty shakey when those hands come off the ground they shake in the air for a second. She made it into the kitchen for the first time, no more child free zone for me anymore. I'll try to post a video soon. Also yesterday I gave up pumping. After our trip to Montreal and some rather inconsistent pumping my supply took a nose dive, every since I have been toying with the idea of stopping and yesterday I finally had had enough. I feel so free, no more mmaammaa moocow for me!!!! I have been giving her formula every few bottles lately and she doesn't seem to care either way.

7 Months

2005-11-21T07:28:00.000-08:00

Okay I say every month passes so quickly but really this was the fastest month yet, eep!!! She is growing up so quickly. This month Meals has become very mobile, she pretty much gets wherever she wants too. She still isn’t crawling regularly but she will get a few crawls in every once an awhile. Usually she can’t figure the arms out and she kinds pulls herself along or gets up on her hands and knees then pushes forward with her legs, the good news is she has at least learned to do it slowly enough the she doesn’t do face plants anymore. She is also starting to learn about pulling up which is probably my fault for helping her stand up behind the chair, she has learn that he likes this new level and now tries it on her own. Yesterday we left her with her first real babysitter for a few hours while we went to Harry Potter with John and Denise. I went to get her after her nap and I took a minute to pick her up but I did sit her up and the next thing I know she has grabbed the bars and is half standing, eep!!! Good thing we have moved her crib down. She is also becoming happier sitting, she has been able to sit for awhile now but rarely does it for long before she flips back to her belly to go after something but in the last few days you sit her up and she will actually stay that way and play. This month she has become more interactive, she plays peek-a-boo and she has turned into a clapping fool. It is so cute to see her clapping away when the music starts on the excersaucer. Unfortunately she also claps while she is eating which is not so good and has resulted in a lot of food splattered on her and us. This month she went on her first road trip. It went fairly well but we now know she only lasts about 4hrs before she needs a break. She has started making more noises but this month her fav has been “mmmmmm”, Denise has been trying as hard as she can to change it to “mmamma” and sometime she will do it but not regularly, still awhile to go on that one. Meals does get very pleased with herself when she makes this noise though and thinks it is very funny when we imitate her. In recent weeks she gets very happy when you sing to her, her fav is the stomp your feet part of “if your happy and you know it”, this usually results in fits of giggles (I haven’t videoed this because that would also mean taping myself singing and really none of you need that). She is also infatuated with her books, there is one that I put on the floor with her and she will push it all over the place trying to open and close it and she loves when she finally manages to open the pages. I think she might have her Auntie Julie’s love of books, ha ha. This month Meals has also been developing a temper, she does not have very much patience and that is very clear when you don’t get her food in her mouth fast enough, eep. She has also become abit sucky with me lately, I am sure I don’t help it by indulging her but it has been a recent thing and not that regular, hopefully it doesn’t get worse. In the last couple weeks at times she has started getting fussy if she can’t see me while she is playing and I find I now spend a lot more time playing on the floor with her or sitting her on my lap to flip through books. Gone are my days of cooking meals while she played by herself. This month she has tried some more foods, she loves baby mum mums and I think her favourite meal so far has been banana and mango puree and her least fav has been cottage cheese and avocado which I tried this weekend and she wasn’t very pleased about. I was also surprise to find that yogurt was met with lukewarm reception, I thought all babies loved yogurt, ah well what do I know. She is still sleeping well, usually about 11hrs at night and 3 naps a day. I am trying to get it down to two more substantial naps but it is a slow go. I am not trying that hard though. After sleeping in the same room with her while we were away I also realized that she has become quite attached to her blankets, she usually falls asleep hugging her blanket while sucking on one of the edges and her thumb, I think it is quite cute. Dexter his very good reliable babysitter and in fact if her hears her crying upstairs he comes running and jumps right in the crib, he seems to love her and is always trying to get her attention. Maisy is still totally disinterested in her. Over all she is a very happy baby, she loves flirting with people while we are out shopping. I find it quite funny when I have her facing me and I think she is smiling at me only to realise she is looking right over my shoulder and she has some adult making a fool of themselves in public trying to make her laugh. She has made friends with one of the cashiers at Costco who came over to see her the other day and complimented her on her new haircut. This weekend was very nice, Jeff worked hard on the basement with his dad on Saturday while I did errands and Meals played and napped. In the afternoon, Jeff, Meals and I went to Queen West and did a bit of shopping. I have decided I have got to go back, so many funky shops. That evening we fed Meals and made gourmet pizza and then had a nice very nice quite dinner together. Sunday morning we had our first family nap, Jeff was wonderful and got up with Meals and fed her breakie at 6:30 then they came back to be with me and we all napped till 8:30, how relaxing. I thought one of the funniest parts was that Little Meals took up as much room as both of us with her little arms spread out wide. As I said above in the afternoon we went to Harry Potter with John and Denise, OH SO GOOD!!!! Meals behaved very well for her first babysitter (at least so we are told). My parents joined us for dinner and surprise surprise my dad arrived in town early for business and her came for dinner too.

Amelia Helen Reitsma 7months

2005-11-21T07:09:00.000-08:00

(sorry about the double pic but blog is messing up and won't let me delete on without deleting everything).

Pics from Montreal Visit

2005-11-21T06:51:00.000-08:00

Meals and Auntie Cherie

The Great Flying Meals

Out for dinner....

Montreal

2005-11-16T05:42:00.000-08:00

Home Again Home again... What a great holiday. Meals, Mom and I left Thursday and drove up to the Valleyfield region of Quebec to visit some friends and family. The drive was very long, made longer by construction and traffic jams. Meals was pretty good and slept and played most of the time but after about 4hrs she had quite the melt down, I ended up having to hold her till she fell asleep. Once we arrive Thursday night we had and wonderful dinner with Pete and Marlin. We also had a great visit with my Auntie Cherie, Scott and my cousins. This was the first time Meals met all of them and she was quite a flirt with all. After visiting we drove into Montreal Friday afternoon and met Daryl, John, Denise and Richard at the Bed and Breakfast. The B&B was in the east end of Montreal, my parents stayed in one of the rooms in the downstairs apartment but the rest of us had the whole upstairs apartment to ourselves which made for quite the party place. When we arrive I brought ALL our stuff in and I was setting up the playpen for Meals, I had her on the bed with some toys and I looked down for a second and I looked back up to see Meals falling off the bed, AHHHHHH soo scary, I felt HORRIBLE!!!! She is getting so quick now between rolling and inch worming she gets all over the place. It was only a foot drop or so and there were a few tears but after a little snuggle she was back to normal. I still felt like a horrible mother though. Friday night Jeff had to work Friday so he flew in and arrived around 8pmish, we had all had quite a few beers and I was getting late and Meals was not in the mood for going out so we order in Chinese. Saturday we were up and out shopping downtown. We were very surprised when we got downtown and found a lot of the roads blocked off and no parking on any of the streets, turned out the Santa Clause Day parade was on, how exciting!!! We first headed to Simons, ah soo good. John wasn't much for shopping so he was in charge of Meals and they went and watched the Parade. After shopping it was off for some smoked meat then a walk around Old Montreal and home. Jeff and I were a little nervous about having Melie out all day with no real nap but she was very good and napped a couple times in her stroller and with all the attention stayed in good spirits all day. Saturday night we went out for a FABULOUS dinner at a place just down the road from the B&B. Everything was fantastic. Meals was a little tried to begin with and wasn't so impressed about having to sit in her car seat but after being passed around and then given a well timed cracker while we were eating, it all went well then right to sleep when we got home. She was the smart one the rest of us stayed up and drank wine and talked. I was feeling a little slow on Sunday. Sunday Denise and I went for a walk on Mont Royal then were off to visit her brother, dad and family in Enbrum. Auntie Cindy bought Meals one of those fisher price rings that stack. I had one when I was little it was so crazy to see that they are still around. What a hit!!! Meals loves it, it is great to chew on and hit on the floor. Meals has become really into making noise, hitting things together or on the floor is very exciting. Then Monday we headed to Brockville for a visit with Bill, Betty and Super Pake. (Sorry Meals is having a melt down right now have to make this brief). Last night we got back home, so nice after packing so much stuff around (cribs, feeding chair etc.) I was happy to be home and back to familiar beds. Meals was very excited to get back to her saucer!! There was much bouncing and squealing. Last night she also figured out clapping and will now do it on command it is so cute. Okay must got calm the savage beast. I’ll post pics once I get them from my mom.

Clap Clap Clap!!

2005-11-16T05:22:00.000-08:00

Here is Meals clapping away. Please turn down your volume or ignore the high-pitched voice in the background, eep I hate hearing my voice in recordings.

2005-11-10T07:26:00.000-08:00

Look at my pretty sweater from my friend Violet in Aus.

2005-11-10T07:25:00.000-08:00

Look at me, Look at me!!! (don't get the wronge impression she didn't get up there on her own, she had help).

2005-11-10T07:22:00.000-08:00

Meals doing push-ups. 1...2...3...

2005-11-08T04:30:00.000-08:00

For Fathers Day I got Jeff a family photo session with the photographer that took the pics for our wedding. I got some of my favs in digital so here they are. Thanks Heather, http://www.heatherhoganphotography.com/

2005-11-08T04:26:00.001-08:00

Meals and Jeff sharing a giggle

2005-11-08T04:26:00.000-08:00

Three meals for Meals

2005-11-07T06:39:00.000-08:00

Well Amelia is now up to three meals a day. I started on breakfast and dinner a few weeks ago but this weekend we finally introduced lunch. As a result of this three meal a day thing I am running out of food options to keep things interesting (Meals probably doesn’t care but I feel bad giving her the same thing for lunch and dinner) so Sunday Jeff and I made a bunch of new baby food to try out this week. I made a mango and banana puree that was a HUGE hit then we made potato and broccoli that wasn’t quite as exciting, we also froze some applesauce and pureed apricots. I have bought some mini-yogurts that I think I am going to try out this week. Eep!! Seems so grown-up. We have had a good week, Wednesday Meals and I met Jen at Square One and did abit of shopping then we went back to their place and met Jeff there. We all watched the Raptors season opener and caught up. It was so nice and reminiscent because John and Jen used to live in the same building as me in Mississauga, the four of us used to get together all the time to watch T.V.. Now with kids and living farther apart it is hard to do as often but we always have a goodtime when we get the chance. Friday night Jeff and I went to the Just for Laughs comedy show with Andy, Kierstan, Dave, Damon, Carinta and Robin. Oh sooo funny, I had no expectations and it turned out to be fabulous (other than the butt pinching seats at Massey Hall). While we were out Meals stayed with my parents, Jeff and I got back to their place at about 10:15ish and much to our surprise we found our little daughter looking very pleased with herself on the floor with all her toys around her smiling away, hmmmm. She definitely was up past her 8pm bedtime, what a devil I think she might have Mini and Topo wrapped around her little finger. Saturday Jeff went to play street hockey in the morning and I stayed home with Meals. While Jeff was gone Meals had her first major tantrum in a long time and boy had she been saving up, what a show. There was much crying, whimpering, crazy breathing and sticking out her bottom lip. When I was little and I was pouting away about something my dad would turn to me and tell me that he could stick out his lip farther then me which would then turn into a competition and usually end with me trying to stifle my giggles and maintain my pout. Well looking at my daughter I think she can beat me in the lip department already, she is the Princess of the Pout!! I finally put her in her crib and she tried to keep up the yelling but quickly fell asleep. One tried girl. Saturday night we went up to Dave and Fiona’s in Guelph for dinner. Yummy dinner and lots of laughs. Since I have been on mat leave I don’t get to see Dave and Fiona everyday at work so it was great to see them. Meals didn’t think much of being put down in her playpen while we were all up talking so she ended up playing at the table while we ate and after dessert she was playing ON the table (I could make a comment of one of the previous videos I posted, the lying on the table and possible future professions but I think I will pass). Yesterday was the baby food extravaganza as well as some work on the basement by Jeff and John. Last night John and Denise came for dinner, we heard all about their trip to Texas and Meals entertained us all at the table. This week Meals, Mom and I are heading up to the Montreal region to visit relatives and friends on Thursday. Friday we are meeting up with John, Denise, Daryl and Jeff in Montreal for alittle holiday and some early Christmas shopping at Simmons. My brother Richard is also coming up from Bishops to meet us, I can’t wait to see him, after having him around all summer I am missing him so much now that he is back at Uni. After the weekend Denise, Meals and I are going to visit some of Jeff relatives on the way back so next Monday there will be no post, have to wait till later in the week. Meals in the big girl bath.

2005-11-01T06:25:00.001-08:00

Meals and her Pumpkin

2005-11-01T06:25:00.000-08:00

Out for a Walk!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

2005-10-31T06:13:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is having a ghoulishly good day. We had a great week; Meals got to spend lots of time with her grandparents. On Wednesday we had a surprise dinner guest, my dad ended up being in town for work and came over for dinner and a little visit with Meals. So good to see him, I wish he had more business out this way. Oh Thursday night Jeff and I took Meals for a walk in the carrier and we went to the park and pushed Meals of the swings. Check out the face!! On Friday Jeff had his poker night with the boys at our place so Meals and I vacated and went and hung out at my parents with Mom and Daryl. Meals is very fascinated with Jasper and vise versa, it is so cute to watch them. On Saturday morning Meals was playing in bed with us and she and Jeff started playing Peek-A-Boo with the sheet. So cute!!! On Saturday, Jeff and John worked on the basement and I ran around putting together my Halloween costume. Saturday afternoon Meals was all packed up and went for a sleepover at John and Denise’s. This isn’t the first time she has stayed over there but this is the first time since she has started eating solids. By all reports everything went very well, she was a little out of sorts after first but then seemed to settle in quite nicely. Well I hear Pake and Meals continued playing Peek-A-Boo on Saturday with much excitement and laughter from Denise. Saturday night Jeff and I went out Halloweening and partying, enjoying the fact that we knew we could sleep in as late as we wanted the next morning!!! For Halloween this year we dressed up as the cast of Gilligan’s Island with a few friends. Jeff was the Professor complete with coconut man-purse and coconut headphones, I was Mrs. Howel with my life-ring. I don’t have pictures at the moment but I have requested some. First we went to a house party then off to the bar, much fun and drinks were had by all. Jeff and I got home around 2:30am, sooo tired. Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day here and we enjoyed a leisurely morning, grabbed some greasy breakie then did some groceries and then headed out to Mississauga to see our baby and relax with Jeff’s parents. What a nice relaxing afternoon, Jeff had a nap and Meals, John, Denise and I went for a walk. We put Meals in her Halloween costume and packed her into the wagon and went for a tour of the neighbourhood. Meals flaked out about half way through the walk and kinda looked like a drunk’n bear, very funny. After our walk Meals had a play then another nap and Jeff and I carved a pumpkin. My parents arrived later and we all had a fabulous dinner. This week Meals started on bananas, sweet potatoes, avocado, green beans and baby crackers. The avocado and green beans were met with some confusion and faces but after we mixed it with some banana or rice cereal they went down no prob. Meals is now fully exploring the living room, it is totally futile trying to keep her on her quilt, her favourite is to go on the hardwood floors. It is abit funny though cause she hasn’t figured out how to got forward just backwards. This week I am off to get a couple baby gates, let the baby proofing begin, ugh!! She has also found her giggle and if you laugh at her she will usually giggle back. We has also found that big loud laughs scare her and she usually starts crying till you give her a cuddle.

Peek-A-Boo

2005-10-31T04:59:00.000-08:00

Videeooo Videeeooo

2005-10-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

Check it out, I can now post videos thanks for my friend Jen who is my website HERO!!! Here is one from the day Dexter and Meals were playing in her crib.

Breaking News!!!

2005-10-24T04:53:00.000-07:00

Another big first for Meals….she had her first grown up poo, ha ha ha!!! Oh god I am a loser but this was rather exciting cause it means she is actually eating. Actually Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning she gobbled it all up. I made pears again but this time added rice cereal and abit of breast milk but kept it pretty thick and she seemed to really like it, she would open her mouth for more and whenever I brought the spoon up she would turn away from whatever she was looking at to eat (big change from Thursday). I think this week I might try bananas or avocados but the trick seems to be adding the rice cereal. Oh the other exciting news according to Jeff is that Meals enjoyed her first Simpsons episode. I wasn't there to see this but Jeff tells me she and Jeff sat on the couch together both transfixed by Homers latest antics for a good 15mins (I think she was just waking up still :). This weekend Jeff and John made a lot of progress on the basement and I went shopping and to a cooking demo downtown with some friends on Saturday and Sunday did chores and we had a couple friends from university over for brunch. Jeff has been doing a great job on the basement, the framing is almost done, yipeee. It is so exciting to see the walls taking shape. Last night we had Sunday dinner at my parents and Meals took a big interest in Jasper (my parents dog). She was giggling and squealing when Jasper came close, it was so cute. Daryl took some pictures and I’ll post them when I get them. Today we are off to the doctors for her 6 month check up, ick another needle or two. This time I am not going to forget the baby advil. Sorry no pics today, I’ll post some soon.

6 Months

2005-10-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

Ah another month gone by, she’s a half a year, CRAZINESS!!!! What a month, new food, haircuts and loss of ear hair!!!! Meals has continued to be a happy baby that is quite content playing with her toys on her own or climbing all over Jeff and I. This month we got a jolly jumper for her which was big excitement for her, it taught her about jumping which she now has translated over to her excersaucer, she jumps up and down looking very pleased with herself. Her favourite toys this month have been her chew toys, I think those teeth are on their way. I bought her a squeaky toy that looks more like a dog toy than a baby toy but she seems to love it. That and she loves books, nope I am not thinking my baby is some genius, she loves chewing on them, hmmm, so special. Oh and she thinks the best part of any toy or baby paraphernalia she gets her hands on is the tag, hours of chew time fun. This month she has started talking alittle more, not really in quantity but more different voices and noises. This month we have seen a lot more facial expressions from the SUPER grin to the lips curled in and the tongue out. This month she has had her first real cold, and in the last week it has become worse, lots of chesty coughs and running noses. Poor Meals, she seems alittle slower than usually and quieter at times but she isn’t that fussed about it (except when I am trying to wipe her nose and she is doing something) She has become more mobile recently, she hasn’t started crawling forward but she goes backwards but only a few shuffles. Her new trick is to get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth then launch herself forward. It is abit disconcerting for a parent and there have been some loud clunks but she doesn’t seem bothered by it. She is abit of a rough and tumble baby, she loves horseplay time with Jeff and will lie on his chest then try to climb off his side to get upside down (one of her favourite games). She has also discovered the hard wood floors and that she can move around on her belly a lot easier on them, she also seems to like licking them, I don’t even know what to say about that. I have found in the last few weeks she actually is going places with a purpose, while I write this she seems to be on a mission to get to her exersaucer and chew the base, I have had to move her back 4 times now, ahhh!!! Now for the hair update, oh the excitement!!! First two hair cuts done and the ear hair is gone!!! I cut her little wispy mullet a couple weeks ago then yesterday she got her first real haircut. Jeff’s mom has been going to this one place for many years, Jeff’s sister goes there, Jeff went when her was little and now my mom and I have started going, so Tuesday night the moms and I decided to take Meals and get her haircut there too. It has been growing down over her eyes but even so Jeff and I have resisted cutting it because it looks so cute but we have finally caved. So on Meals half birthday the grandmoms, Meals and I headed to out to Georgia’s in Streetsville for Meals first trip to the salon and Mom, Meals and I all got our hair done. So cute I can’t believe how different and how much older she looks, it is abit monkish but still very cute. Now the ear hair, when she was born she had lushes locks not only on her head but also all around the outside of her ear, it was quite dark and about a centimetre long. Jeff was very concerned about it and was pulling on it regularly. Everyone was telling up not to worry because all her hair would fall out but as the hair on her head stayed and continued to grow we were not so sure and we were envisioning some necessary electrolysis in her teenage years but low and behold it disappeared!!! We don’t really know when it happened but all of a sudden it was all gone!! Food, so far Meals has had rice cereal, squash, potato and most recently pear. I don’t know about all of you but I figured pears would be the biggest hit but I was so wrong, talk about faces!!! Yesterday was the first day of the pears and there was a lot of thumb sucking and looking away, bah!!! Oh well. I think rice cereal seems to be the favourite so far, followed by rice cereal and squash. Sleeping has been about the same, she sleeps from about 7:30pm to 7am then three naps during the day. I have found that the naps have been getting shorter though but recently with this cold there has been an extra nap in the evening some days.

2005-10-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

Amelia Helen Reitsma - 6 Months (Boggers and all)

2005-10-21T06:25:00.001-07:00

Amelia Helen Reitsma - 6 Months

2005-10-21T06:25:00.000-07:00

Playing with Dad, yeah!!!

2005-10-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hee hee hee!!!

2005-10-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

Okay so this morning I was about to have a shower and meals woke up from her nap so I opened her door but left her in her crib. When I got out of the shower this is what I found.... I am probably bad for not throwing Dexter out right away but they were so cute and having so much fun. Dexter is so funny, I swear her is part dog he just loves attention of any kind. After this picture was taken Amelia steamrolled him and he continued to purrr and didn't move.

2005-10-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

I think I have lost my cat. Meals was pulling his wiskers and he was still purring and didn't move.

2005-10-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

Cook, Cook, Cook

2005-10-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

What a busy short week, Wednesday Meals and I headed up to Kitchener to visit my friend Liv and her three kids. It was so cute to see Meals with Connor and Brady who are just a couple months older than her and Emma who is three. Emma was very excited about having a new baby around, especially a GIRL!!! Emma had Meals giggling away, very cute. It was great to see and catch up with Liv. Wednesday night we came back and Jeff had brought home a jolly jumper that was given to us from a friend of his from work. We put Meals in and she wasn’t so sure at first but then after we showed her how to bounce she went nuts, there were lots of squeals and giggles, soo cute. That night we went out for dinner with a few of Jeff’s friends from high school, yummmm Indian food!!! Meals was very good and sat in her car seat and played with her toys while we ate. This weekend we did a ton of cooking and shopping for the cooking. This weekend we had our Sunday night get together with our parents on Saturday instead and we hosted. Saturday we spent a large chunk of time driving all over looking for ingredients and enjoying the beautiful day. That night we had a great dinner with lots of wine and laughs. Sunday was more of the same. Meals has been off this weekend, rather grumpy because of these sniffles and cough I think. I thought she was on the mend, her nose wasn’t running any more but then it came back with a vengeance this weekend, poor meals. This week she turn 6 months, Whoa!!!

2005-10-17T05:07:00.000-07:00

Grandmama and Meals, such pretty ladies.

2005-10-17T05:06:00.000-07:00

SQUASH!!! I don't think so....

2005-10-17T05:05:00.000-07:00

Meals and I hanging out

2005-10-14T05:07:00.000-07:00

This thing is kinda cool....

2005-10-14T05:06:00.000-07:00

I LOVE it!!!!

2005-10-14T05:02:00.000-07:00

It's a gaggle of kids. Emma, Brady, Connor, Meals and Liv in the background.