Wednesday, December 31, 2008

From the best of Craigslist...

To the Minotaur that lives above me.

Date: 2008-06-26, 10:36AM CDT
First off, I must say that I admire your courage. It must be hard living in the world today as a lady-beast. Society judges, oh lord do they ever.


With that said, let’s get down to business. Over the past year, we've had a funny sort of relationship, you and I. When I first moved into the place, it was rather peaceful. It was an exciting time in my life, as it was the first time I would be living by myself. Then came the day that I first heard it. What did I hear you ask? It was sound of your hooves galloping across the hardwood floors of your living room. At the time I thought, “No big deal, surely it can’t always be like this.” Oh was I wrong. It turned out that every time I was at home, you would be up there, stomping around, like the wild lady-beast that you are.


After a few weeks, I determined through a process of elimination, that you are in fact, a Minotaur. It only makes sense.


FACT. Minotaurs have hooves, and that’s sure as hell what it sounds like is hitting the floor when you gallop around.


FACT. A Minotaur posses great strength, the kind of strength that can be felt by a guy laying on his couch, trying to get into a good book. The kind of strength that shakes the dishes in his cupboards. The kind of strength that can wake a guy out of a dead sleep, EVERY FRICKIN MORNING. I didn’t even need to set an alarm clock to wake up in the morning. Instead I wake up to THUMP THUMP THUMP. THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP. THUMP THUMP THUMP. I’m not a light sleeper by any means; I sleep right through the viscously loud police, fire truck, and ambulance sirens every night. I was lying there one morning, frustrated, counting the trips you took between your bedroom and your bathroom. 17. 17 god forsaken trips between the bedroom and the bathroom. Really? Are you kidding me? What could you possibly be doing?


FACT. Minotaurs are half bull. Bulls are aggressive when taunted. Apparently, the time I went upstairs, politely introduced myself, and asked you rather nicely to please quit stomping around, was a taunt. That’s when you got aggressive. You called the landlord and told him that I was complaining about your noise. When he told me about this, he said his response to your complaint was, “Quit making so much noise then.” Brilliant. Go Mr. Landlord! I tried keeping him out of this, but you felt it important to drag him into it.


After a few more weeks of you recklessly stomping around, I made another attempt at a civil confrontation. It failed. It failed because you stomped your way to the door, and you didn’t open it when you saw who was standing there. I know this because I heard your hooves clippity-clop their way to the door. Way to avoid confrontation.


To my surprise, the stomping ceased the next day, and I awoke to peace. “Amazing,” I thought, “It must be a midsummer miracle!!” A few days passed, and I ran into my landlord in the entry way. He mentioned that he received another angry phone call from you. Said that you felt threatened by my confrontations, said I scared you. Strange, since not once did I ever raise my voice or try to be anything but civil. He then mentioned that he told you to buy some slippers to wear around your apartment. Genius! It freakin worked!! Hell yea, Mr Landlord! High five!


Fast forward 11 months. The stomping has returned. No doubt in my mind the hooves have worn through the delicate fabrics of the slippers and are now, once again, banging against your hardwood floors.


Please, for the love of sweet baby jesus, run down to the local Target and purchase yourself another pair of hoof mufflers. I know you can run with those strong legs of yours, probably real fast like! Target downtown is all of 10 blocks away. Go Minotaur, go! Overcome the odds, society is watching! (and judging)

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Ho! Ho! Ho!

We went to see Santa today. I LOVE this Santa. He's at The Bay, Queen St. location. He's very authentic and great with the kids. Christian didn't want to sit on his knee this year, wanted to just stand beside him, but at least he wasn't too afraid to talk to him this year. Jacqueline did surprisingly well. She's not at the making strange phase yet, but she was very cranky due to lack of nap, so it's pretty much a miracle that she actually sat there quietly, or....maybe it's the magic of Santa??!! :)
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Got Milk??

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Saturday, December 13, 2008

4 months

Well, 4 1/2 now. Jacqueline weighs 13 lbs & is about 24.5 inches long. Thank goodness her growth in length has slowed down some...she was outgrowing her clothes much too quickly! She's been in 3-6 mo since about 2ish months and is into some of the smaller 6-12 stuff. It's mostly her torso; she's got short legs, so her tops are getting small faster than the pants!

Developmentally....she's rolling both ways, beginning to laugh, although still only occasionally. She can grab things held in front of her and she puts everything in her mouth! She's drooling like crazy and likes to gnaw on her hands (or mine) so I think she's beginning to teethe, although I think it'll still be a while before we'll see any teeth. Still sleeping through the night (knock on wood) but her bedtime is later than Christian's was at this age. He'd established a 7:30 bedtime of his own accord (i.e. after that feeding, he wouldn't wake up till the morning) but she doesn't go down till 10 or 11pm. however, she'll often wake to eat around 6 or 630, and then go back to sleep till 8 or 9 (which means I get to go back to sleep too, unless it's a Tuesday or Thursday and I have Christian home with us!) She wakes happy too - I'm usually awoken by her babbling to herself, waving her arms and kicking her legs, although I'm sure that it would progress to full on cry if that didn't work.

She's really starting to notice everything around her and finds it all very interesting. She's very vocal - lots of coos and gurgles, starting to make a lot of consonant sounds...ga & gee being the prominent sounds these days. Christian was a very quiet baby, hardly ever babbled, so I can't wait to see how her language develops. We'll be signing with her as well, just starting to do a few now (mainly "milk").

She still looks a lot like Christian at times, but she looks different too. Here's a 4 month comparison shot. His face was much more round and his cheeks chubbier.
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Saturday, December 6, 2008

Christian funnies


"Does a kangaroo have a mother?...yes a kangaroo has a mother, just like me and you" and goes through several different animals. Hugo was reading this book to Christian a while ago. When he got to the page with the fox "does a fox have a mother?"
C: Excuse me daddy, excuse me? (we have been trying to teach him not to interrupt and to say excuse me, to let us know he needs to talk to us, instead of just butting in)
H: yes?
C: that's not a very good drawing of a fox, Daddy. It looks more like a horse.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Following in the footsteps of her brother, Jacqueline did her first roll tonight, at 9 days short of 4 months, and it was back to front, just like Christian (according to the books, most babies do front to back roll first, supposedly because it's easier for them)

I put her down on her playmat on her back. She's been trying to roll from back to front for the past couple of days but always gets stuck on her side. So tonight, when she was trying to roll again, I ran downstairs to get the camera and here's what I came back up to see:



So I flipped her back over and got this video of her second ever roll (check out her major bald spot!): First Roll

Friday, November 14, 2008

to be this happy.....

as adults, do we ever get to experience such unadulterated joy? clothed, fed and loved...if only things could always be that simple.
 
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I love this monitor! Got it from Costco a while ago, and it's so great to be able to see her sleeping when she's upstairs. It can receive from up to 3 cameras, and it has night vision too, with a pretty clear picture, and is also motion activated, so beeps when she moves. Will be adding a camera for Christian's room too. I'm sure that will come in handy at times. Works great to monitor the front door too :)
 
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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Three Months

How can a quarter of a year have gone by so quickly?!

Jacqueline is growing and changing every day.

- She had her 3 month Dr. appointment. She measured 24 inches long (70th percentile) and 12lbs 5 oz (28th percentile). Her growth rate is beginning to slow, which is normal for breastfed babies. At 2 months, her length was 23.5 inches (84th percentile) and I was beginning to be concerned that all those sundresses she has for next summer would be fitting her in December! Hopefully she'll settle into a size that will have her wearing clothes that correspond to her age, otherwise, the clothes I've bought for next summer might be too small!

- she's a very happy baby - smiles a lot. Seems like she might be a morning person as when I go to get her when she wakes up she's all smiles (unlike her mommy!)

- she's very "talkative" as well. lots of coos and gurgles. she'll even carry on a conversation with you if you make sounds back. Christian was a very quiet baby by comparison. He didn't do much babbling at all...the strong silent type...to the point that I was even a bit concerned because he literally didn't make a peep (except for crying) from about 7-9 months of age.

- Her favorite person is definitely shaping up to be her big brother. Now when she sees him, her face just lights right up. He's so good with her...sings to her, kisses her, plays with her. I hope it continues as she grows, because it's a beautiful thing to see.

- She's beginning to try to roll. she can get over on her side from her back but hasn't figured out how to get all the way over. She's almost holding her head up too. She can hold it up for quite a long time, and turn her head to look around, but eventually she'll get tired and it will flop down again (have to be careful with that, as Hugo and I have both gotten some pretty good knocks in the face/head as a result of that). Even the flopping over is going away quickly though - there's a definite improvement in her strength/ability every day

- And among her most popular accomplishments...(knock on wood here)...she's been sleeping through the night since about 12 weeks! She'll usually go from 8-10 hours each night, waking around 6ish for a feeding and then usually right back to sleep for another hour and a half to two hours. It's so nice to know that once she's down for the night I have some time to get things done. This is a bit earlier than Christian slept through, but I also won't take it for granted because Christian began waking again at 5 1/2 months, so I really don't expect this to last.

That's about it for now. Here's some 3 month pictures that I took a few days ago. I was hoping to get some better ones than this. it was a gorgeous warm day and perfect for taking some shots outdoors, but unfortunately, her patience wore thin pretty quickly so this is as good as it gets.





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Friday, October 31, 2008

Halloween fun

Hope everyone had a safe & happy Halloween! Jacqueline & I handed out candy, while Hugo took Christian trick-or-treating. Christian had a blast & even went into a haunted house one of the neighbors down the street had set up. I carved 2 pumpkins. Christian picked out the scary face pattern...

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Roarrrrr!!!

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Monday, October 27, 2008

Born in Africa

This was our conversation with Christian this evening....

C: Excuse me, excuse me...I want to tell you something (we've been trying to teach him not to just interrupt, so have been asking him to say "Excuse me" if he wants to get our attention when we're talking)
Me: yes?
C: You know when I were a kid in Africa? I saw a mouse.
Me: When were you in Africa?
C: No, no, no....I were born in Africa.

Hugo: No, you were born in a hospital. (then tries to explain where by telling him it was near the playground with all the mushrooms)

A couple of minutes later, when I came back into the kitchen, Christian tries to tell me the story again:
C: After I were born at the playground with all the mushrooms.....

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Thanksgiving

Monday October 13, Hugo's parents (Oma & Opa) took us to Oakview Terrace for Thanksgiving brunch. It was another beautiful Thanksgiving day (although not quite as warm as last Thanksgiving when it was over 30C). After the brunch was over, the kids enjoyed playing on the grounds. I was planning get some nice portrait-y shots of both kids, but unfortunately, Jacqueline played Sleeping Beauty for the entire time, so just got some of Christian, and shots of Jacqueline at Oma & Opa's house would have to suffice.


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Stingray Bay

We went to the Toronto Zoo a couple of weeks ago, to catch the Stingray Bay exhibit before it closed on October 13. Prior to going in, we were asked to wash up to our elbows with water (no soap) and to remove any jewellery on the hand/arm you're putting in to touch them. We were only to touch their backs as they swam by. Surprisingly, they were very slimy feeling. It also happened to be feeding time. The zookeeper handed out small fish, and you had to hold it between two fingers, palm down, with the fish sticking up above your hand. Not being too keen on handling fish, nor having a stingray eat from my hand, I passed, but Hugo is always game for this sort of thing, so he tried it. Could those rays ever sniff out the fish. Even before anyone actually put fish in the water, I'm sure they could smell the fish the keeper was carrying, because they all seemed to get excited; swimming around more quickly. Once the first fish went into the tank, they were darting right over to the people holding it. We got video of the rays eating from Hugo's hand. Check it out here: Stingray video

Monday, September 29, 2008

A first and a funny

Christian's first drawing that actually looks like a drawing....




he also comes out with some pretty cute/funny things these days. Here's one of his recent, said as we were having fish and chips for dinner the other night:

"Remember that day when I were (sic) squeezing ketchup all by myself, without any help? I loved that day."

oh, if only life were so simple now...
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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Can you see the difference??

Just for fun, I decided to match up some pictures of Christian and Jacqueline at similar ages and poses. Although there are definitely differences between them, it's amazing how alike they look.


a few days old in the carseat. Christian is on the left.

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They have almost identical expressions here....(in case you couldn't tell by the floral outfit, Jacqueline is on the left) They are both about a month old.


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Approximately 7/8 weeks. Christian looks a bit more devilish in this one (he's on the left)
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And this one just for fun....each of them after having a Gentian Violet treatment (for thrush). Christian's lips were much more purple. I got smart with Jacqueline and applied vaseline to her lips/mouth so the purple wouldn't stain as much.

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Sunday, September 7, 2008

Welcome to our new blog

Since the arrival of our newest family member, I thought it appropriate to start fresh. Here you will find updates on the family, photos, and anything else that comes to mind. This will be a little bit of everything.

Check out the post below to read Jacqueline's birth story.
Links to pictures of both the kids are in the links to the right.
Links to Christian's old blogs are also in the links.


If you would like to be notified of updates to the blog, you can enter your email address in the Change Detection box to the right. Once you've done this, you'll receive an email every time the blog changes.

Feel free to leave comments - we'd love to hear from you.

Enjoy!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Birth Announcement

Finally got around to placing a birth announcement in The Toronto Star last Saturday. A copy of it is posted below.

Centre Island

Tuesday after Labor day, Hugo took the day off and we all headed over to Centre Island It was a beautiful, clear, hot day. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the ferry terminal, we discovered that Centreville was closed after labor day. Since we'd already paid for parking, we decided to head over anyway. We visited Far Enough Farm, and Christian enjoyed seeing the animals there, particularly the turkeys and the peacocks. He also had a blast "driving" the big tractor

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After we had our picnic lunch, we walked across the bridge and through the gardens, Christian stopping to smell the flowers along the way. On the other side, we found a splash pad and playground, and Christian had a ball running through the sprinklers:

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Meanwhile....


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So despite our little SNAFU with the rides, it turned out to be a great day overall.