Wednesday 30 January 2008

Down with Mother Nature!! Boo!!!

I was SOOOOO looking forward to fleeing the country, I mean, shopping in the States with Jeremy and Mary today. I really need a "mental break" day and this was supposed to be it. Well, Mother Nature had other plans. There's a flash freeze warning, a wind warning and a blowing snow warning. All just for today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Nope. Both of those days would have been fine to take this trip. It's just today that's complete shite. So, my "mental break" day is going to turn into a "mental breakdown" day. At least Jean-Paul is home for most of the day. He had booked it off work so I could go. All he has to do is Mad Science for a couple hours then he'll be home again.

You see, EVERYTHING was set for today. Jean-Paul booked off work, his dad was coming to watch the kids while Jean-Paul did Mad Science, the car was all gassed up, I had the proper documents ready to go. Even Zachary got up at 6:55 this morning, which would have been perfect if I was going away. Not so perfect when we wanted to sleep in a bit. Yesterday we had to wake him up at 7:30 to start getting ready for the day. Watch him sleep tomorrow morning, too. But not today. How do they sense these things?!

I was even looking forward to just getting in the car and driving to meet Jeremy and Mary - on my own, no kids in the car. Even that was going to be part of my wonderful day away.

Enough with my lament. Such is life in wintery Canada. We all know that. Mother Nature just likes to remind us of that every once in a while....

Monday 28 January 2008

A Hard Lesson!

Well. It happened. Zach had "baby's first fall", which has lead to "baby's first boo-boo".I was making dinner (I know, shocking!) and Zach was playing with pots and wooden spoons on the floor beside me. All was well and good until Daddy got home (not that I'm blaming him). I was just finishing up with the pasta side dish as Jean-Paul went downstairs to see Alex. Zach had been right beside playing. Then I heard "thump!" and "waaaaaaaa!!". I knew EXACTLY what had happened and my heart went in my throat. I ran to the stairs and Zach was lying at the bottom. Jean-Paul got to him just before I did. He had tried to follow Daddy..... He seems to be fine. Just a red mark beside his eye. No other marks have shown as of yet. He doesn't seem to be sore. Nothing's broken. We're very lucky! He, of course, chose the biggest set of stairs we have. Luckily this is a back split and it's not a full flight. Man, do I feel like the worst parent in the world tonight, though!

So, hard lesson learned. A gate doesn't do a hell of a lot of good when it's sitting NEXT to the stairs. We're going to have to make sure the gate is closed whenever Zach is not contained somewhere. Even if we are "keeping a close eye on him", because distractions happen. I just thank god this wasn't way more serious!

The pictures were taken while Zach was having his first taste of ice cream. (I think Mommy and Daddy were feeling a bit guilty about the fall.) Black Cherry licked from Daddy's finger. Mmmmm. He even said "Yum!" quite clearly!

Sunday 27 January 2008

Thanks a bunch!

My parents visited today. Jean-Paul's been working at a wedding show and he's been working long hours. I've been feeling the tiredness of dealing with a wants-to-be-with-mommy, sucky, no-crib-sleeping baby. (Zach is feeling better today, although, right now he's on the couch with Daddy. He woke up crying and wouldn't settle. I think the teeth are bugging him, too.) It was nice to have a bit of a break today - even if it was just to the grocery store and Rona. (Thanks for picking up the tabs, Grandpa!) Grandma was a big help, too. Zach was more than happy to snuggle into Grandma rather than Mommy. Thanks for dinner, too. Alex thought pizza would be good, so she and Grandpa went out and got the 'za. Alex was quite proud that she had her own little pizza all to herself.

My throat feels as if I might be getting sick, too.... Hope not! Carla-Ann is supposed to visit on Tuesday. She's a friend from back in my newspaper days (and beyond). And then Wednesday is my shopping excursion to the States with Jeremy and Mary (you hear me, Mother Nature!? No squalls that day. No flurries, please.....)

Monday 21 January 2008

Here he is. Mr Mobile himself.

My 9-month reflection

Zachary is 9 months old today. Wow. How did that happen? I must have blinked. Dammit! I knew I shouldn't have blinked!! And what the hell happened to Alexandria?! She's 3 1/2!!

As much as it's frustrating, as much as it's exhausting, as much as you want to scream (and sometimes do), as much as you want to bang your head against the wall, it's all pretty awesome, too.

I had my "yup, this is pretty wonderful" moment today. I was sitting in the recliner with a sleeping Zach curled up on my chest, crooked in one arm. Alexandria crawled up, found a place nestled under my other arm and snuggled right in beside me while she watched a movie. That's a pretty cool feeling. I wish someone had been able to snap a picture of that perfect moment. I'm afraid to blink again.

The government can kiss my ass!

I was going to tag this onto my other entry today, but thought it should have it's own.

Well, I got a letter in the mail today from our beloved Canadian Government (Revenue Services). Seems I may owe them money back from my maternity leave with ALEX. Yes. They are now deciding that they overpaid me two and a half years ago and would like some money back please. You see, as with anything government-related, it is not easy to figure out when exactly the maternity leave commences and terminates. You get 15 weeks pregnancy leave (only mom can take that) and 35 weeks parental leave (to be taken by either or both parents). It is just me or does that add up to 50 weeks? So, when I returned to work, I returned 50 weeks after I'd left. Well, there's a 2 week waiting period. I thought it was just a waiting period before your benefits kick in. Apparently it's added onto the 50 weeks, so the leave is actually 52 weeks. So, not only did I return to work 2 weeks before I should have (and lost out on two more weeks to be home with my Baby Girl), I may now owe the government the money they paid me for those two weeks. Talk about adding insult to injury. So, now I get to call Revenue Canada and try to sort all this out...... Blah.

Monday 14 January 2008

Why you can never leave babies alone.....

Just LOOK at the trouble Zach got into!
He just CAN'T be trusted at all!!Just chillin' on the couch with the Playboy and some gin.Shaken, not stirred!OBVIOUSLY drunk!

Our trip to the R.O.M.

We took the kids to the R.O.M. on Wednesday. We started at the mall, took the subway down, spent about 2-3 hours at the museum (Dino exhibit and kids' zone). Then we subwayed back to the mall for a bit (food and to wait for traffic to ease) before heading home. Alex LOVED the subway ride. She's been missing it. The dinos are in the new area of the museum. They have the largest dinosaur skeleton in Canada - Gordo the Barosaurus.Wanted to get a better shot of this, but the battery died right then. (And the back-up battery? Not charged!! Arrrgh! Didn't get any cool shots in the Discovery Zone :( She dug for fossils and everything. Had a blast!)

CSI: Sin Kitty

Well, we borrowed Drew and Cary's black light and went into the playroom, CSI-style to look for cat pee. (A bit hard to tell from baby spit-up). The blocks are set on what we think are "kitty marks". Thanks Max. Oh, and the white stuff on the left side of the second picture is where for sure Max peed - really likes the entry into the laundry room... just a few feet from his litter box..... The white stuff is baking soda to help absorb it. Did I mention I hate the cat?

Sunday 13 January 2008

i'm lovin' it


Yes. Baby's first McDonald's. Zach, Alex and I went there for lunch yesterday. I decided to eat first (rather than feeding Zach and then eating or trying to both at the same time). Crazy me for wanting my food warm, eh? Anyway. To keep him happy while he was sitting there in the highchair I gave him little bits of my bun and little bits of Alex's apples. He LOVED the bun and was fairly keen on the apple, too.

(Oh, the picture? Obviously that's not Zach. It's just a picture I found when I google-imaged McDonald's).

Tuesday 8 January 2008

Our answer....

We had a dilemma. What to do with all Alexandria's "not suitable for children under 3" toys? ....especially since Zach gets into everything! Well. We put up the wide-spaces gate, so all her toys stay on one side and the other side is the "Zachary-safe zone". Alexandria thinks it's pretty cool she gets to play in the whole playroom and Zach only gets half!

The five, I mean, four kids playing "together"



Drew, Cary, Lilly and Aidan were over for dinner last week. It was nice to get together for a visit. The boys are getting old enough to be a part of the action now!

Drew came back over later for a playdate with Jean-Paul. The boys had fun with their video games.

Thanks for the 'sit!

Thank you to Jeremy and Mary for babysitting Zach while Grandma, Alex and Mommy went to see "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". (And sorry Zach was a bit of a grumpy bear.....)

Mr Milestones

So, Zach is now officially pulling up. Lots. He's also trying to get up stairs and into everything in sight (and not so in sight - at least to us! Reminds me, I have to clean under the fridge....)

His weigh in yesterday was 7.12 kg (so 15.7 lbs) and he's now 69 cm (or just over 27"). Which means he's outgrowing his infant car seat. I was hoping he'd be in that until he was a year old so we wouldn't have to deal with the huge car seat that will need to be rear-facing (therefore using up a lot of space in the back and making it nearly impossible to sit in the seat in front of it....). He is gaining weight, but not at the rate he "should" be. (Alex did the same thing at this age, too). We're trying some different tactics for food, changing his feeding patterns to get him back on the right track. I'm not worried about it. He's still gaining height (is that you say it?) at the "right" rate, so it's not a crisis situation or anything. One thing that was suggested by the doctor was to stop the nighttime feedings (we'll see!!).

(We're back to our old doctor again. We just like her so much better! The drives a pain, but it will probably be worth it in the long run.....)

Zachary has also started eating some finger foods, such as Cheerios and Special K. We're going to try ground beef and see how he likes that, too....

Here are some pics of Mr. Standy-Up.

A Prancing Triceratops...

This is what happens when Alexandria gets dinosaurs and Barbies for Christmas...

Tuesday 1 January 2008

"You're not Elliot! You're Daddy!"

We were all in the family room and had just turned on the tv. Coronation Street happened to be what was on. Jean-Paul started speaking in a British accent - or tried anyway ;) Alexandria looked at him and said, "You're not Elliot! You're Daddy!!" Jean-Paul said, "Listen to the people on tv. Do they sound like Elliot?" She listened and giggled, "Yes!" Did I mention she's a cutie!?!

(For those of you not sure, Elliot is Jean-Paul's Brit brother-in-law - courtesy of Michelle)