A Monster Board for Malaika

It's been really fun hearing about my friends having babies lately.
There are two in particular who have just arrived and I'm so excited to meet.

Little baby Malaika was born at the beginning of August and another little girl just yesterday.
Part of the fun for me, I must admit, is any chance for a party - baby shower included. I have just finished the first gift to be given when I'm back on the Island next week.
I got the idea of a felt board (bits of felt that attach to a board) from my fantastically creative neighbour and friend and added the Mama G or should I say Gaga monster inspiration.

I cheated slightly and bought the board from Collage Collage but it would be really easy to make (just stretch a piece of felt around a wooden frame and presto). Then I cut out monster bodies, eyes and mouths from multi coloured felt along with random shapes and just pressed them against the board. Fun!
The next project is an owl mobile...more on that later.

Little E has been loving her morning "moothy" lately.
Daddy C gets up with her and prepares a beautiful blend of banana, frozen blueberries, yoghurt, almond milk, flax oil, hemp and chia seeds, kale (perfect vehicle for greens) and whatever other fruit we have lying around. It's the only thing that fizzles the little fire cracker at 6:30 am. With beverage in hand, it's mute mouth to straw.

A Little Flower

Here is a cute little/big photo that a friend of mine sent me from the wedding we went to on Hornby a couple of weeks ago.
Since I am being a lazy bum tonight I'm hoping this will tide the old blog over until tomorrow (when I reveal the baby shower gifts I've been working on - in other words I'm not really lazy ok?).

Sweet Moments

Despite having very busy summer days, I have been noticing precious moments in time that I will try my best to hold on to.

For instance, today at the park, Little E wanted to sit on the big person swing with me. She nestled in with her back to my tummy and her head on my chest beside my shoulder and hummed.

Then this afternoon, while Daddy C and his team were roofing, Little E sat on her Grandpa's lap for at least 45 minutes waving and yelling "hi Daddy"! She misses him when he's not around.

I had a fantastic girls night with one of my oldest friends and my two darling sisters last night down at English Bay - sundowners. We watched the sun go down, talked about our lives and opened gifts from London.

Here are some photos of Little E at the park with Auntie and said Friday night...

Down to One?

I think Little E may be moving down to one nap a day.
She went down fine for the morning slumber, but once again the afternoon was a struggle.
In case you're interested I found this article on nap changes...

If you're not, then you may find these photos appealing.
Little E and Parker dressed up in matching dresses; very cute and even more twinny than usual.

Moments of Pride

The past couple of days have been so much fun with my lovely sisters and so busy with Little E.

Daddy C has been working with some guys to re-roof the house, so the little girlsy and me have been on a female only adventure.

Saturday we went to the Trout Lake market then back to the house for a farm fresh lunch with the Aunties and Uncle in law. Between outings Little E tried to nap, but didn't get very far because of all the banging above her head. It was pretty bizarre nodding off to sleep that evening and catching a glimpse of the evening sky peaking through my closet.

Saturday afternoon I became fast friends with a random couple over (or should I say in) dog poo...
We were at a block party and Little E was restless (due to the lack of sleep). I noticed an inviting and colourful blanket set out on a lawn with toddler toys strewn about. When the mom came out with her little boy I asked if he'd like a playmate. She happily obliged and as we were chatting and I was adjusting my position, I just barely avoided sitting in a runny smear of dog poo by stepping in it with my bare foot. Luckily her attractive husband came out and brought some water and paper towel for me to use to clean up, unluckily as I was doing so Little E stepped in it too.
These were not my proud moments by the way.

There were two things that happened today that gave me great pride. The first was Little E announcing and pointing as I was buckling her into her highchair - poo. Of course, I would want to be cleaned up before lunch too. Smart little girl.
The second was her climbing advancement. At the park today I looked over to see her half way up a wooden climbing wall. I rushed over with my heart in my throat and spotted her as she climbed up to the top. I will get some photos of that feat next time...

Off to the water park again tomorrow!

Hooray Auntie Char!

Hooray!!!! Auntie Char is here!
That's Little E's Auntie - my sister, fresh off the plane from London, England.

She is such an inspiration. An incredibly intelligent gal, having done her masters degree in Sweden; she will debate the socks off of anyone bold enough to try, and then get downright silly and giggly.

When she walked in this afternoon it could only be described as trippy!
For a couple of minutes, I felt like I had been split in two and my other self was standing beside me in our living room laughing like me, talking like me, moving like me. It was great to see her.

Little E must have recognized the excitement right away because she started laughing and getting absolutly animated. Perhaps the visits with Auntie Char on our picture wall over the past few months could have helped.

Speaking of Little E. We had two adorable moments (that I have time to name) today.
One, I will have to describe because I forgot the camera: we were at the water park again. Little E scrambled (with a little help from Mama) into a seated position on a rock on the side of the stream. She sat perfectly upright like I used to do, with a cherry gripped tightly in each hand. She was in her blue bathing suit with a blue sun hat and miraculously perched (for the longest stretch ever) upon her nose were her pink sunglasses. From there beside her Mama she observed the other children playing for a very long time. Ahhhh it was quite restful.

Two, I captured on film. After two very successful naps she was in an unusually good mood this evening! While I was making dinner Little E amused herself by climbing up onto her rocking chair in her room (where we always read) with her new favourite book (Happy Baby Words) and flipped through it solo. I had to sneak over and take a couple of shots...

Fearless

If I may offer one small piece of advice...don't ever weed eat in shorts.
There was no dramatic slice of a shin or anything, but let's just say now I know why they're called blades of grass.

Little E is fearless.
She climbs on the playground jungle gym, the chair up to the table, and would have scaled the lawn mower had two of us not swooped in to avoid that learning experience. Overall it is a lot of fun watching her achieve the huge feats of exertion that her climbing requires. I just end up practicing cat like reflexes and growing my mother back-of-the-head eyes.

Finally, today we had a check in at the Naturopath. Happy to report that he is confident the Lyme scare is completely behind us. I spoke to him about the plans for making baby number two and he said (no surprise to me) that if we are ok being casual about it then nursing is fine. If we have more of a sense of urgency then weaning will be necessary. Considering I have only had one period and it hasn't been back, it makes sense.

The emotional aspect of weaning hit me again when I faced the reality. I realize that unless I do what I've heard tales of other mom's doing (go away and leave Daddy C to fend) then it will take some work.
Any advice??

Here are the most recent water park photos

Finishing up

I thought I better just finish up the recap on the Island trip before I get too far behind...it was so much fun with some great pics to prove it so here goes.

After spending a fabulous couple of days on Hornby Island "camping" on Granny's sailboat we headed over to Denman. I should just mention that we were on Hornby for a wedding and thanks to Auntie Soph and of course Granny we had our first night together away from Little E until morning! We rushed back by 8:00am thinking things may be in complete ruin and Auntie had just put her down for a nap. Could have slept even longer!

Anyway, after a romantic and fun weekend we made our way to GG's house for some R and R on Denman Island. Ate good food, swam in the lake and visited with old friends; all in all a fabulous trip.

Here are some remaining shots...

New Days

It has been an incredibly fulfilling couple of days. I was on track to recap the Island adventure and then poof, out of the blue came an amazing and totally spontaneous weekend that I feel compelled to share.

We had a totally family themed weekend, but with my in-laws who now officially feel like my family too. I even had an emotional couple of tears of joy during a tour of Chris's uncle's home and studio after a dinner fit for kings.

Saturday was a market experience with Granny (Chris's mom) and then said dinner of crab, salmon and  accoutrements, wine and dessert that only an artist would select. We toured Uncle Doug's house (because it's a movie set in itself) and fell in love with a painting that we managed to convince him to sell us. I will show you here once it has come into our care. We also had a tour of his studio where he works on a number of the pieces you inevitably see in some major films, laughed hysterically and shed said tears.

Today we ate brunch at Glowbal in Yaletown and visited the Vancouver Art Gallery. A fabulous show on right now featuring the influential surrealists. Little E kept us from staying long enough to become zoned out but not long enough to really satiate the artistic inspiration. Although she seemed to really identify with a few of the pieces, exclamations of - baby, boy, boobies - rang through the contemplative space.
Tonight we made a delicious meal and participated in a little art practice that my sisters and I used to do when we were little and that we saw at the gallery today: fold a piece of paper into the same number of spaces as people present, each draw something in your slot without the others seeing and then fold it over and pass it on, make sure you have a line or two extending into the next space for your friend to continue, then open it up and marvel at your creation. Presto, a surrealist masterpiece!

Water Park Wonder

Little E had a fantastic time today at the water park just up the road from us at the newly decked out Norquay Park. There was a whole water spraying section and a little human-made stream for the small ones to paddle in.

We met all kinds of people there thanks to Little E wandering around waving and smiling at everyone. She managed to score some mac and cheese from another little girl kind enough to feed her off her hand like a little bird. Then of course the salmon, steamed green bean salad and sweet potato pancakes that I brought were simply not good enough.

Here are some photos of the water park we visited in Courtenay when we were there (I forgot the camera this time, pooh). But she had a blast there too of course.
p.s. she does smile quite a lot, I just don't manage to catch it on film all that often...she's probably just thinking about the sonnet she's composing.

Back in Action

We just had an epic trip to Vancouver Island and today was rather a whirlwind of work, unpacking and grocery shopping.

In other words, I won't write much tonight but instead just dazzle you with photos of Little E in her Granny's garden the first day we arrived in Courtenay. (We had two fantastic days there and I will fill you in on the goings on when I have more stamina...)
For now, just cuteness!