The Smelly Guy on the Bus

Waiting for Trogdor

2012-02-06T23:12:00.002-06:00

It's about a week and a half until I'm due to produce the third male heir in this family, so about three and a half weeks until he actually emerges. My lap has been reduced to a third its normal capacity, which makes my arms just a little too short to put a snowsuit on a squirmy Malcolm. It's absolutely hilarious when he runs away while I'm trying to dress him in anything. For him, anyway. Tonight while I was reading the boys a story before bed (with Luke in the top bunk getting his pjs on) Malcolm was attempting to use my belly as a step-stool in his climb to the top of, I'm not sure what, Mount Mommy? Trogdor will be wise to stay in as long as he can and build up his weight before he has to contend with his older brother. If he's lucky, Lucas might intervene on his behalf. If not physically, then with a detailed real-time report to me. That's how I found out Malcolm had climbed to the top bunk on his own. "Mom, look what Malcolm just did all by himself!!" was what I heard from the boys' bedroom. The other day it was, "Mom, something got spilled all over the floor!!" Will this third boy be more like his cautious and mostly obedient oldest brother, or will he be the wild sidekick Malcolm needs to help him test the flying apparatus he invented by leaping from the roof?

Idiot cat

2012-01-22T10:37:00.002-06:00

The cat has won the war of the laundry room door. I wanted to keep it shut, to keep Malcolm from finding the tools and half-empty cans of paint and solvent in the cabinets, and from eating cat food and/or litter. Matt installed a pet door that Theo happily uses to escape the laundry room, but would never use in the other direction, even when enticed by cat-treats. I know his brain is the size of a walnut, but the laundry room is the one place Malcolm couldn't chase him when he's on one of his squealing and head-butting rampages. Instead, Theo meows and moves about five feet away, hoping Malcolm won't see him crouching in a different spot on the carpet. Anyway, Theo won by freely urinating on any soft pile of blankets that was available when nature called. If it was going to be too cold to go outside, and the laundry door was going to be closed, it wasn't his problem if I had to do a little extra laundry. So now the door stands ajar, except for the few hours a day that Malcolm is unsupervised in the basement. There's nothing like a week of -29 degrees to make you want to punch your cat in the face.

2012: Anxiously awaiting the apocalypse

2012-01-13T20:42:00.002-06:00

So Christmas came and went. We all ate too many cookies, and got too many presents, and saw just the right amount of our families to tide us over until the next holiday. We made gingerbread cookies with way too much icing with the Griener cousins, slowly cooked various meats in fondue pots, and had a pretty good time on Christmas eve.

Matt and I bought ourselves a dual screen dvd player for the van. On Boxing Day even, despite our usual practice of never entering a retail establishment until at least a week after Christmas. It's for the boys to watch, but we get the benefit of a quiet 4.5 hour drive, instead of one punctuated by "I'm hungry" and "read me a story" and "I'm sure I don't have to pee at the Killam Subway" and "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Get out, done, done, done," which is how Malcolm indicates he's finished with a ride in the van. I even got to sit in the front seat like a grownup.

My brother got engaged on Christmas eve to a lovely lady with fraternal 8-year-old twins, and Lucas is beyond thrilled to spend time with them at the farm. I hardly heard a word from him while we were there, as he was so busy following Jake around and playing with legos and other big-kid kinds of toys. So much more fun than hanging out with your 20-month-old baby brother. Said baby brother was happy to snuggle and play with Great-Grandmas, Uncles, Grandparents, cousins, and occasionally his parents, so he didn't feel at all left out.

Now we're back to the usual routine, except Malcolm has been graduated to a big bed in preparation for baby Trogdor's arrival in February. It's actually the bottom half of a bunk bed, but we're not going to move Lucas in there until Malcolm stops waking up in the middle of the night for a 10 minute yell-a-thon. At first, he took advantage of his new freedom to tear apart his room instead of going to sleep, but now that has become passe, and he's more interested in taking charge of his bedtime routine. He says as I'm dressing him in his pj's "How bout, um, shirt on." Then he proceeds to pick out his own bedtime stories, lets me read through 1.5 of them, hops down and waits for me to turn out the light. I ask "ready to hop into bed?" He grins and jumps onto his pillows so I can tuck him in. Works for me.

I know it's been months.

2011-12-04T22:42:00.003-06:00

There didn't seem much to write about. Lucas got over his anxiety about using the bathroom at school, which was the main source of his anxiety about school in general. Malcolm has been learning at a rapid pace which of Lucas' buttons will produce the best reactions, and the bickering over toys and space and power and attention has been pretty much non-stop since October. Sometimes they play together, but often Lucas runs to his room with a prized toy and slams the door behind him. His only hope is that Malcolm doesn't learn to open doors for a long time.

They went trick-or-treating on Hallowe'en, down the one block to Gran and Grampa's house and back. We were perilously undersupplied for the hordes of children that came to our door this year, so most of Luke's stash was given away at our door after he had gone to bed. When he's older, he'll be more careful to take an inventory or keep it in his room or something. Malcolm enjoyed the opportunity to go to strangers' homes and invite himself inside for a few minutes.

Now it's almost Christmas, and we enjoy going for walks after supper to look at the Christmas lights. Once again, we were not proactive enough to get any on our house this year (plus, the only power outlet is way at the back of the house), but some of our neighbours have decorations. One house has these giant plastic candles that Malcolm loves to sing to, "happy to you, happy to you, happy to you..." He just learned the birthday song last week. Lucas is very excited about everything Christmas, except for the possibility of having to use a public bathroom on the long drive to Duchess. "Maybe I will just pee before we go, so I don't have to see the toilet in Killam..." It's not that bad, Luke. You should see the one in Viking!

Pee-School

2011-09-18T09:29:00.002-06:00

Blarg, three days of preschool and we're already suffering the first cold. Lucas, despite enjoying the activities of school, told us after the first day that he never wanted us to take him there again. The second and third days were preceded by some tears, followed by grim resignation. On the third day I forgot to make him go to the bathroom before we left the house, so I assume he spent the three hours at school doing the "I-don't-have-to-go-pee-I'm-just-doing-this-for-fun" dance. However, on Friday all he could talk about was school, and he seemed disappointed that he wasn't going that afternoon. We'll see how next week goes. I don't imagine he'll be fully adjusted to the new situation until sometime in October.

Mac Attack

2011-09-04T19:33:00.003-06:00

Malcolm Soon-To-Be-In-The Middle, aka Big Mac Attack, has finally conceded that walking may be preferable to crawling, if everyone is going to insist. Since coming to this conclusion, he's been a much happier 16-month-old, content to wander freely through the house, moving objects from one room to the other, dismantling the alphabet foam playmat, chasing his brother and the cat, and generally being underfoot. It's a good life. Walking has also improved his experience of the backyard, which until now meant coming inside with small rocks and woodchips embedded in his hands and knees, and a diaper full of sand (not pre-digested). Luke is proud of his little brother's achievements, but doesn't like how fast he can get himself in the way and into Luke's toys. On good days I can convince him that they're playing tag.

Folked

2011-08-07T19:45:00.002-06:00

It's Folk Fest time again, so we followed Gran and Grampa with their tarps and cooler and raingear to Gallagher Park for a few days of music. Luke is old enough now to stay for the day on Saturday and Sunday, and Malcolm got to come after his nap, along with his designated parent. The boys had some good times dancing and eating festival food and looking at all the crazy things that appear at the Folk Fest: hoola hoop dancers, stilt dancers, smelly hippies, old hippies, ironic-sweater-wearing hipsters, and nose-flute playing Hawaiians. Good times.

Malcolm is still inching his way closer to independent walking. His favourite food is "bappo" (apples), and he lets me know whenever he sees a dog "Woof!" or cat "Maow!" His mantra for life is "happyhappyhappy!" and most of the time, he is.

Luke is counting the days till his fourth birthday. I hope it's not a huge letdown when he doesn't get the $400 "quiet juicer" that he's been asking for. He gives Malcolm hugs when he fusses, and looks at books with him sometimes. He can read small words now, so I'm looking forward to the day he will read the books to Malcolm too. He also recently overcame his fear of slides, which makes the park about 10 times more fun. Malcolm loves to slide too, whichever way he ends up going down. Head first? No problem.

Baby talk

2011-06-09T20:25:00.004-06:00

Malcolm looks out the window behind him at breakfast and declares "BONG!" He wants to play with the ball he can see in the grass. "BONG! BONG!" He would also like to play with "kee-ka" if the cat would stay still long enough to be mauled. These things, besides the sandbox, are his very favourite things in the world right now. The sandbox, which he is attempting to move into his bedroom one shoeful at a time, is a place where he can eat bugs and handfuls of sand. I'm not sure if it's the mineral content, or the pleasant graininess of it, but he eats it like candy. I am sure that it hasn't been turning into pearls on the way through. He has other words too, like mommy and dada, mook (milk), bird, book, and Kwas (Lucas). It's fun to watch another kid pick up the first rudiments of language while his older brother is saying things like "I wouldn't like to mention it, but perhaps we could eat outside." (He's been into Winnie the Pooh lately). I can only imagine the conversations they will have in about a year.

Ft. Awesome

2011-05-06T16:00:00.004-06:00

I have eaten too many Easter chocolates, and it's well past Easter. Malcolm had his first birthday cake, and after initial revulsion, ate the whole thing. Lucas has been stuffing himself with meat, starches and applesauce for a week, so you might be able to guess that we are at the farm. He's not looking forward to going home tomorrow. I will miss hearing the birds all day, but not the wind.

We lost a kite earlier this week to an ill-advised kite-flying in the front yard with strong winds. First it was stuck in a tree for a while, then blew into the power lines before the string finally snapped and released the kite to find its final resting place. I imagine it will be living in some farmer's shelterbelt for the next decade or so.

The boys got to play with the friends and cousins they only see while at the farm. Lucas was nervous, but had fun in spite of himself, and Malcolm was delirious with the stimulation. As soon as he can walk, he will be right in the middle of the big kids, getting in the way and head-butting everyone with glee.

Spring?

2011-04-03T10:23:00.002-06:00

The snow is melting, the sun is shining (sometimes), and the Christmas cactus is blooming! Easter must be coming soon. There has been so much snow we have noticed a few small leaks in the unfinished parts of our basement, but nothing adding up to much. Malcolm has struggled his way to pulling himself up on low furniture, and answers the siren call of the stairs every time we're in the basement. You can see how determined he is to get upright, and how frustrating to fail over and over again. He would probably have more success, and less painful failures if we had an area rug upstairs. Maybe he will be walking by the time the rest of the snow has melted.

The Depressing News from Lake Woebegone.

2011-03-27T19:28:00.003-06:00

It's that time in March when it really, really should be spring, but instead it's -5 and windy and there is still half a metre of unmelted snow. Matt is threatening to move to Australia. I pointed out that New Zealand has no snakes and poisonous spiders, but it is on a fault line, so I guess we're even. Either way, it's apparently not that hard to get admitted to the Bar there with a LLB from Canada. I think the kids might miss their grandparents, and vice-versa.

Malcolm is topping off this season of perpetual illness with a nice stomach virus, which he kindly shared with me and Matt. I'm still holding out hope that he hasn't shared it with Lucas. He's mostly over it, but not handling milk as well as I'd like, so I'm still on alert for barf and barf-related sounds. We had to run out of our last music class for the season when Malcolm filled his car seat with some recently consumed milk. Barf is also Luke's favourite word right now, along with "actually."

If winter ever ends, I'm looking forward to planting the garden, and seeing if the cherry tree will bloom this year. Normally I would have started my early things inside by now, but since it looks like we're entering another Little Ice Age, I haven't been motivated. The leeks will have to wait till things start to look hopeful again.

Here's a picture from Phoenix, where we should have stayed for a little longer.

Home Again

2011-03-21T14:32:00.003-06:00

We're back in the Winter Wonderland, even though it was officially spring yesterday. Not cool. Malcolm and Lucas managed to be the only kids not crying on the plane on the way home, thanks in part to Uncle Brendan who flew home with us. We're back to music class, and Gran and Grampa, and the occasional playdate. I also managed to sign up Lucas for preschool in September, and he's already fretting about it. It's only two afternoons a week, so I hope he doesn't hate it too much. He's also trying to figure out the world of words. He pointed to the word "blue" in one of his books yesterday and asked, "is that a quiet 'E' mommy?" I don't know how I'll get him to interact with other kids once he starts reading on his own. I shouldn't be too shocked, as that's how I coped with kindergarten.

Malcolm has been sick week on and week off since January. At least his spirits stay high, and he's still full of energy to explore and taste everything he can get his hands on. He was also showing off his Great Grandma's knitting. I think the hat makes him look like a little garden gnome.

PHX

2011-02-27T20:07:00.002-06:00

So the boys and I, and briefly Matt, have escaped the cold and snow and wind of Edmonton for a couple of weeks. We flew (quite peacefully, and without tears) last Sunday to Phoenix, where my parents have a winter home on a golf course in the middle of the desert. Almost everything that grows here has wicked thorns, but that hasn't stopped us from having water fights in the backyard, or going for walks to see the giant cacti, or going to the local parks. There are tarantulas here too, but I haven't seen any myself yet. We have seen lots and lots of adorable bunnies. The rabbits here look like babies even when full grown, unlike the giant jackrabbits that are all over Edmonton. There are also funny little quail running around, and all kinds of other birds chirping all day outside.

As if there weren't enough wildlife in the backyard, we went to see some more at the Phoenix zoo on the way to dropping off Matt at the airport. Luke was game to see all the animals, but once it became necessary to use the bathroom there, he became very worried. Rightly so, because the toilets there were automatic, and I didn't think to cover the sensor when we went in. Trauma of all traumas, the toilet flushed twice while we were in the stall, and Luke screamed "PLEASE GET ME OUT OF HERE!" until he had peed and washed his hands and ran out the door to find Daddy, hands clampled firmly over his ears. It was all he could talk about for the next two days. Anyone who asked him about the zoo was told "I didn't like the zoo toilet."

The last few days we've just been enjoying the warm sun, playing in the kiddie pool, and with the loud battery-powered toys Grandma picked up at garage sales. Malcolm had a relapse in his sinus infection, so we got to experience the American healthcare system firsthand. $99 up front will get you in to see the doctor, more if anything besides a routine consultation is required. The doctor and nurses were very nice and competent, but I get the feeling people get over-prescribed here. He gave us antibiotics for the ear infections, and a steriod normally used to treat asthma or allergic reactions for his nasal congestion. It's pretty useless, because it's so bitter you'd have to mix it with a gallon of sweetener to make it palatable. My only regret is that I didn't have the camera while Malcolm was making his "why did you put this in my mouth, it's the worst thing in the world" face. Anyway, I've given up on trying to give him any. Fingers are crossed that he will get over this before we have to fly home.

Here's something I didn't know existed before I went to the Walmart in San Tan Valley - coloured bubble soap.

Mortimer, BE QUIET!

2011-02-01T20:19:00.005-06:00

I recently discovered the modern-day miracle that is books on tape for kids, or its current manifestation, mp3s on ipod. Listening to Robert Munsch read his own stories makes you wonder why no one guessed that he was on drugs the entire time. It's insane, and Luke loves it. Also, he doesn't understand that no one else can hear what he's hearing on the headphones, so he asks me questions about the stories and shouts along with the words. It's hilarious. Hopefully it's just as entertaining to everyone else on the plane when we fly to Phoenix later this month. Anyway, it's made this most recent cold a lot more bearable for Luke and everyone around him.

Malcolm, meanwhile, is busy popping out the next five teeth all at once, chewing and drooling like a misbehaving dog on everything. He even goes for the shoes at the front door. He's the one I'm worried about flying with most (even with Luke's public bathroom phobia) because he hates to be still or held in one place for any amount of time. Unless I stand him on my lap to gouge my eyes and slap my face, he wants to be crawling and exploring. My only hope is that we're traveling at his bedtime, so cross your fingers that he sleeps.

Why?

2011-01-16T10:48:00.003-06:00

Lucas is well into the "why" phase of the thrilling threes. He likes to stretch it out to have two or three syllables, and say it after everything we tell him.
"It's time to brush your teeth." "Why-y?"
"What would you like for lunch?" "Why-y-y?"
"I think Malcolm is hungry." "Why?"
I've stopped trying to answer most of these whys. I think he just wants to see what kind of answer we can come up with.

Malcolm is busy climbing into boxes, into the bottom of the exersaucer, and even trying to get into his car seat. This will be the child we have to pry off the bookshelves halfway to the top. Fortunately they're already mounted to the walls. He also likes to yell at the top of his lungs when things aren't to his liking, and sneak away to explore forbidden rooms when I have my back turned. He has a very charming smile, though, so it's hard to get mad at him.

We're all getting a little cabin fever with the -20 and less temperatures, so that Lucas is even willing to go outside bundled up like a snowman for half an hour of fresh air. The giant piles of snow are also a good reason to go. He helpfully pulls snow onto the sidewalk after I've shoveled and declares, "I made a BIG mess!"

Festivities

2010-12-29T22:00:00.005-06:00

I am posting from the homestead on this miraculous December 29th. Today we had a playdate totalling six kids under the age of four, and there was minimal drama. No fights or hard feelings, and the highlight of the morning was a furniture box cut with a door and two windows. We like to call it "The Hot Box." The game is to cram as many people in as possible (one adult and two children) while the other children open and close the doors and windows squealing wildly. Lucas, who abhors noise and commotion (unless he's the source of it) managed five whole minutes in the box before he needed to come out. This has been the culmination of our Christmas celebrations, and the kids are starting to get a little worn out from the stream of activities and visitors. Griener Christmas started on Christmas Eve with gingerbread cookie decorating/eating with cousin Alice, followed by fondue/present extravaganza at the in-laws'. Christmas Day was turkey dinner and Boxing Day was pizza at the in-laws' again. Then we packed up and drove the scenic highway 36 to Fort Awesome. Lucas christened the Killam Subway Ladies Room and has been telling everyone he cares about, "I peed in a Public Toilet!" (It's something he's been dreading for a long time.) We ate the traditional Christmas Ribs and had another present opening extravaganza and there was even some sharing with cousin Tennessee. We're heading home from the farm tomorrow and looking forward to some normal kinds of days.

Malcolm is happy when someone pays attention to him, even if it's just the baby in the mirror.

A Monologue on the Life Cycle: By Lucas

2010-11-04T19:17:00.002-06:00

"If my teeth are broken when I go to the dentist, then my teeth will fall out. If my teeth fall out, then I will get smaller and turn into Malcolm. Then Mommy will have to carry me and you [Daddy] will have to push the stroller! But I have to get bigger so I can pee in the toilet with the white toilet seat that doesn't have any letters on it."

Chameleon Tire

2010-11-03T20:06:00.002-06:00

So we went for a last-minute first visit to the dentist today. Two days ago a bout of wrestling in the basement with Daddy ended with a knee in the chin for Lucas. Yesterday he was crying about his teeth being sore, so I made the appointment. Fortunately the visit didn't involve any power tools, and there's nothing wrong that a little painkiller won't fix. Anyway, it wasn't a bad first exposure to the dentist - no crying, screaming, or blood. I can only hope things go as well when I finally take him to get his hair cut.

Lucas also came down with a cold last night, and he has been whining and spreading his germs prodigiously. I am certain we will all be sick by the end of the week. Fortunately for everyone, Malcolm is still the King of Sleep even when sick.

Lucas noticed that one of the lights was burned out the other day, and mentioned that we would have to go to Comedian Tire to get a new one. I didn't understand what he was saying, and he clarified, "like on the animal show, with the long tongue."

Stuff.

2010-10-19T19:29:00.004-06:00

How can I begin to impart all the hilarious things Luke says every day?
"The man can't sing in this one because his mouth is too hard."
"Malcolm can't drive a car because he doesn't have any teeth yet."
"Mommy, I just don't like your singing."
"I can't pee in the toilet until I'm really REALLY bigger."
Luke has categorized all adults as "guy who pees in the toilet" and uses the phrase like a pronoun.

Anyway. Malcolm is sitting on his own for longer and longer stretches, but has decided recently to wake up earlier and earlier for his morning feed. This morning it was back to 6am, and we felt like we were sleeping in.

The last week the boys and I were in Fort Awesome getting some Grandma, Grampa and Uncle time. There was a large cardboard box house to play in, and the weather was nice enough to spend some afternoons in the hammock. Not sleeping, but pretending to be caterpillars in a cocoon, or sailors in a boat. There were flocks of black birds hanging around the house all week, and Canada geese flying over constantly.

This is what it sounded like outside:

Good question.

2010-09-16T21:22:00.003-06:00

While watching Iron Chef America with Matt, Luke starts karate chopping himself all over. "I'm chopping myself! I'm chopping myself into pieces! I'm chopping my fingers off!" Matt says "so what will you grab things with?" "I'll grab nothing," Luke replies. "I'm chopping my head off!" He thinks about this for a moment and says, "What will I smell with?"

Scatalogical

2010-08-30T14:37:00.004-06:00

So Malcolm is nearly four months old already and sleeps like a rock star. I won't get into details, but there has been a 14 hour uninterrupted stretch in the last week, and he has three naps a day. The last two weeks the boys and I have been at my parents' farm/sunflower plantation in Fort Awesome, and Mom and I put Lucas through potty boot camp. Waiting until he turned three seems to have been a good strategy, since he had all the theory and bladder control mastered by the time we actually made him sit on the pot. Dad was pretty jealous, as on the first day he held in his pee for five hours before finally relenting and going on the pot. In two weeks we went from wrestling him into a sitting position with his pants down, to him telling me that he was going to go all by himself. Not bad at all. He's still terrified of sitting on a real toilet or going anywhere near a public bathroom (way too noisy), but we've made great strides. Anyway, as my family can attest, he now enjoys a good conversation about pots, underpants, and who at the table has a penis.

We had a mini family get-together on the weekend to eat too much food, and decide who would get the various things Grandma and Grandpa put into storage. Lucas actually played very nicely with his two year old cousin Tennessee, instead of crying whenever she came too close. In fact, there were four kids under four at the party, with no conflicts for the entire afternoon.

Summer is almost over, the neighbourhood kids have been smashing our windfall apples on the driveway, our cucumber plant is about to produce its first fruit, and I have a dozen or so jars of homemade strawberry jam in the pantry. I started out with 28, but then I was giving them away to everyone who came by to visit. Matt starts school again in a week and a half, and I enrolled the kids in a music class that starts at the end of September. Lucas has had an ongoing obsession with garage doors for the past two or three months, which made the farm even more interesting - garage doors with windows, and giant quonset garage doors to watch going up and down, up and down. Here he is turning his placemat into a garage door.

Hilarious Lucas quote from the weekend:
Christine: Girls are pretty annoying, hey?
Lucas: Indeed.

Past Due

2010-07-19T21:20:00.004-06:00

Life has been careening along at its usual pace, with two kids to keep fed and dressed and slept and bathed and entertained. Thrown into the mix is Matt's sooner than expected knee surgery, and by the time everyone's needs are taken care of, it's time to go to bed. Fortunately we have lots of family help, so no one is suffering for lack of snacks, showers, or diaper changes. Malcolm has recently discovered the opiate of infants, his two thumbs, and has become an epic napper. I now have to go wake him up from naps to make sure he eats. He only wakes up once during the night, so I keep counting my lucky stars. Lucas continues to be his hilarious, albeit somewhat frustrating self. "I don't want to ask for more toast, mommy, I want to whine for it!" Every time I hum a little tune, he asks "what does that mean, mommy?" He isn't satisfied until I provide some answer other than "nothing" or "I don't know, honey." Usually the name of the song is what he's going for. The garden is producing away, but we're too tired or busy to do much harvesting. If anyone in the Edmonton area would like some swiss chard, you are welcome to come get some. Matt had the forethought to make up some meals for the freezer before surgery, so I haven't had to do anything more complicated than turn on the oven, or put some soup on the stove. If I was an incompetent cook without two kids to look after myself, I certainly wasn't going to get any better with distractions. Anyway, things are going better than I expected, and the summer is rapidly disappearing and we haven't even been to Edmonton's crappy zoo yet. That will be Wednesday's adventure, I guess.

Hair

2010-05-24T13:59:00.004-06:00

Lucas: Daddy, you have hair on your legs.
Matt: Yes, I do.
Lucas: You have to go to the doctor.
Matt: Why? Because I have hair on my legs?
Lucas: Yes. The doctor will make the hair go away.

Two-year-old logic: Mommy went to the doctor, and mommy doesn't have hair on her legs. Ergo, the doctor removes leg hair.

The arrival.

2010-05-14T20:30:00.002-06:00

So Malcolm arrived, finally, on May 4th. So, not quite Cinco de Mayo, but pretty close. It was a much easier labour than his brother's, which isn't too surprising. He even let me sleep for some five and six hour stretches the first couple of nights. Lucas is getting used to the idea, and having Grandma around for a week was a huge help. Not only was she entertainment for Lucas, she cleaned the whole house! Now I'm on my own during the day, but it's not as hard as I thought it might be. Lucas does get pouty from time to time, and there is definitely some crying from both boys, but it's getting better. Lucas has decided that Malcolm should be fed a bottle of vanilla extract and then he can have the baby's milk.

Anyway, here's a picture of the newest boy.

Overwhelming cuteness.

2010-05-02T20:34:00.004-06:00

In the past few days, Lucas has been spontaneously announcing, "I love you, mommy. I love you." And this has really surprised me, because I'm apparently very cold and insensitive, and haven't been pronouncing my love for him at every occasion. So, I finally asked Matt today where he is getting this from, or is it just something he came up with on his own? Matt just looks at me and says "Me. He gets it from me." Of course, that makes sense. Griener men have been raising momma's boys for generations. It must be a little disappointing that all of Matt's affection has just been reflected on to me, rather than returned to himself. Any way it turns out, though, it's really cute. I think he might be buttering me up for extra favours, like sitting on my lap during supper, and watching more of his favourite tv shows. Lately we've been spending a lot of time playing tea party, thanks to a book from the library we've read about 50 times in the last three days. He does have his obsessions, but fortunately most of them peter out after a week.

Griener momma's boy #2 likes me so much, he's decided to stay in the womb forever. Once my due date had past, I was hoping for a May Day baby, but I think I'll be lucky to have a Cinco de Mayo boy.

Spring rabbits

2010-04-22T12:12:00.005-06:00

It's warm, the raspberry canes are leafing out, and our cat is feasting on baby bunnies - it must be spring. Theo's fur has also turned into one giant mat over the winter, so we had him shaved. He now has a hilarious skinny torso, with giant head, tail, and legs sticking out. He feels shame.

It's t-1 week until Homer's due date, so I expect to go into labour at any moment. I hope he holds off until Tuesday, when Matt is finished his exams. Probably we'll be sitting around in May wondering if this baby is ever going to come out. I started my maternity leave this week, but have been telling Lucas little white lies about going to work, so he has to go to Miss Mandeep's house for the day, and I can run errands. I guess we're prepared for Homer to arrive, except for all the things we likely forgot. Mom came up last weekend with enough onesies to clothe octuplets, and bought us a beautiful (and mesmerizing) glider rocking chair.

Lucas is up and down these days, wondering when the baby will come out (and Grandma arrive), now with a cold on top of it. He will, I think, initially be very happy to be home every day, and then bored by our lack of electronic toys and the bother of a crying baby. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Updates

2010-04-02T14:52:00.004-06:00

Fetus (aka "Homer") Griener has officially dropped into the most uncomfortable position of pregnancy, requiring me to waddle at a snail's pace (or Lucas running pace) wherever I go. He has a favourite kicking spot on my left side that has become very tenderized, leading me to think he might try hatching rather than birthing. Only four more weeks till D-day and two more weeks of work.

Lucas is having a wonky week, mood wise, so it's been a little stressful around our house. Too many screaming fits for my liking. On the plus side, he's memorized his entire alphabet, upper- and lower-case letters, so he is entertained by naming all the letters he can see when we're out and about.

Random Lucas quotes:
"We are all animals. I am a manimal."
"The cat's crying. I will give him a big hug and a kiss."
"I don't like that!" x 1000

So, it's really warm, and almost all the snow has melted, and my order of seeds is sitting in the basement yearning to be planted. Matt wanted to move the deck 8 feet to the east of its current position, but it turns out the previous owners built it over the concrete rubble of an old patio. Now the plan is to just strip the peeling blue paint and re-stain it. We won't get the extra garden space we wanted, but the deck won't look horrible either.

At this rate, I'll have to change my blog title to "Hilarious Tiny Musings"

2010-03-15T20:46:00.001-06:00

Lucas, pointing to a creeping juniper on our way home today: "Oh look, the tree is sleeping!"

Makes sense.

2010-03-13T21:19:00.003-06:00

Lucas, while sitting on the arm of the big green chair downstairs:

"I don't wanna sit on the arm of the chair, I wanna sit on the HAND of the chair!"

And slides down to sit on the seat.

Lucas: I don't WANT a baby.
Me: Well, it's a good thing I'm having a baby, and not you.
Lucas: Yeah! And when the baby comes out, it can go in the baby's room!

You never know what form bullies are going to take

2010-02-26T11:52:00.006-06:00

Lucas likes to walk home from his Dayhome now, especially if it's warm outside. The other day he stopped at a parked Honda CRV and had an animated conversation with it.

Lucas - Car, you stay here. I am going to our house, over there! [Animated arm waving]
CRV - ...
Lucas - Car, stay here, outside.
CRV - ...
Lucas - Puddle, you stay down there. We are going to our house, over there!
Puddle - ...

This continued on for about five minutes. It took a lot of convincing to get him away from the car, so I have to assume that the car was being pretty obnoxious, even though I couldn't hear what it was saying. So, our three block walk from Miss Mandeep's to our house takes from 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the various inanimate characters we meet along the way.

Luke is in the "I wanna do it myself!" phase of toddlerhood, except when it comes to anything that I would be happy for him to do himself. It makes getting ready in the morning a constant struggle. Only 33 more work days until mat leave! Having a baby in the house will pose its own challenges, but it will be nice not to have to be anywhere in particular in the mornings. Not having to put on winter clothes to go outside will also be a nice change.

W

2010-01-22T15:07:00.003-06:00

Who knew that a week and a half of vacation would lead to twice as long readjusting to the old routine? Now we do! Lucas tells me every morning that he doesn't want to go to Miss Mandeep's house, and stretches out breakfast for as long as he can. He does have fun when he gets there, but this morning routine is getting pretty tiresome. The tenacity of a two-year old is pretty amazing. He also believes that I have magical powers, and it's just out of spite that I don't turn the sun on at his request, or put his toast back together. Only three more months until I don't have to force us both out the door 5 days a week! Homer is growing steadily, and doing his best to keep me up at night already. He has a kick-a-thon every evening at nine o'clock for about an hour.

At work, I am once again amazed at the inability of some people to follow directions. Surely 17 year olds, who have grown up with the internet, would understand that if you don't enter your real e-mail address your password will never arrive. Ah, but it's almost the weekend.

So long, Oughts.

2010-01-11T13:56:00.004-06:00

So Christmas came and went. We had our first scream-free drive to Duchess (not counting a harrowing diaper change in the Killam Subway bathroom), our first Christmas where Lucas understood what was going on with the shiny packages under the tree, and our first cousin rivalries over toys. It was good, overall, and Lucas had such a good time on holidays that he had a terrible week adjusting back to the regular routine. He's mostly over it now, but on Monday he was still crying when I left the dayhome, which is a good start to both of our days. Matt passed all his Law midterms comfortably, and came out with three As, two B+s and a B, so he's decided to stay in the program. Also, Matt painted over the horrible blue and brown spongepainting in the nursery with a nice yellow, so we're about halfway to a finished room.

I had a great video of Lucas gasping dramatically while opening presents (it was easy to get, because he did it every time, and can even reproduce it when talking about Christmas now), but it was lost when the camera battery died mid-video. Anyway, our son is a ham.
For New Year's, being a couple of wild and crazy guys, we had Matt's parents over to eat chicken wings, watch the NYC ball drop at 10pm, followed by some Spanish sparkling wine. Well, I had Ginger Ale.

Chrimmastime

2009-12-10T12:52:00.003-06:00

So, it's thoroughly dead on campus these days. It's friggin' cold outside, and everyone is either staying indoors to study, or staying indoors to write exams. It's pretty much a tomb at the lab, and it's a nice change of pace if I get a visitor. However, the lack of human contact means I have lots of time to work on various projects in Illustrator, including the annual wall calendar. Here's what it looks like this year:

We're about 1/3 of the way through Christmas shopping, which is something I enjoy doing for small children, but dread doing for adults. Kids under 3 will like whatever you get, and they probably don't have it already, but most of the adults I know just buy the things that they want, and so have few (affordable) options left open for gifts. Maybe I'm just unimaginative. According to the television, I should be buying iPods and flat screen tvs for all of my relatives.

Lucas is enjoying the Christmas lights and Christmas music, and he doesn't even know yet that presents are involved. I made a stocking this year for Lucas and a future stocking for Homer (ETA April 29, 2010) and we may even get a Christmas tree for the first time ever. We have a small cache of ornaments people have given us over the years, and it seems like we might have enough now to decorate a small shrub.

End of Term Whining

2009-11-23T14:30:00.002-06:00

It's the end of November, which means it's time to browse through Chapters to find books to order on Amazon for Christmas presents. It's also time for course evaluations, and reading through amusing student comments about the experiment for credit sign-up website. I enjoy it when people make suggestions to add features that already exist on the website, or to somehow make being a university student even more idiot-proof. Provide a map, they say, ignoring the links to directions in the reminder e-mail (oh yes, they get a reminder the day before each appointment), and the various other map sources available on campus and on the university website. I wanted to do my experiments at noon, but the times were always full! (Surprise - welcome to the concept of scarcity). I was at a disadvantage because I don't bring a laptop to school (despite the numerous computer labs on campus) and couldn't sign up until the evenings! Mind you, most of the students had no trouble finding the labs or using the website, but there's always a handful that make you wonder how they managed to apply for university in the first place.

Another funny thing is the LRT driver who thinks he's an airline pilot, giving morning announcements about the weather, local sporting events, what a wonderful day it's going to be, and other random musings to all of us trapped on the train. Anyone else had this driver? I feel a little embarrassed for him, and also that maybe he needs someone to talk to...

Updates

2009-10-27T12:07:00.009-06:00

Apologies for the hiatus, anyone who cares. I was just enjoying not being stressed out about life for a while, and I didn't think about updating my life on not Facebook. The biggest news is that Lucas won't be enjoying the singleton life for too much longer. A sibling is scheduled to arrive at the end of April, bringing with it many tears and much jealousy for Lucas. Or perhaps mild curiosity and then indifference, as the cat has chosen to react to new family additions. The pregnancy is going well and I have so far avoided the swine flu, although the combination of first trimester tiredness/nausea did not improve the Great Transition September. Good timing.

Matt is breezing through his first semester of Law, but with virtually no feedback in the form of assignments, quizzes or midterms, it's hard to tell how you're really doing. He has midterms in most of his classes in December, but they will only count if he does worse on the finals in April, so they're mostly a safety net/practice run. I have learned that Property law uses a ton of archaic words that never mean what you think they should, Criminal law is suprisingly boring, and that in some places you can sue for your relative's pain and suffering endured before death (imagine profiting from your dead child's pain and suffering!) but not in Alberta.

Lucas is improving his pronunciation daily, no longer calling his turtle "turtloo" and keeping banana to three syllables. "Deer" is still hard to say, so he would rather it was called "giraffe." There are still some misunderstandings with new words that sound a lot like ones he already knows. I don't have yoga pants, he insists, but yogurt pants, and to the gym I wear a different broth. Chicken pot pie was disastrously misheard as apple pie but eventually eaten and enjoyed anyway. In other developments, anything can be turned into a cell phone if you just stick it in your ear, and Bunny prefers to be kissed on the nose rather than punched.

Survived.

2009-09-26T19:48:00.004-06:00

Our transition month seems to be at an end, with Lucas now enjoying playing at dayhome, eating at dayhome, and arriving at dayhome. He even asks on Saturdays and Sundays if he can go to Miss Mandeep's house, because Mom and Dad are boring. It's true, we have only a fraction of her toys that make noise and light up, and no other kids around being crazy. I'll make my peace with that. Anyway, things are a lot calmer around here, with a settled routine and a (mostly) happy kid.

Work is kind of crazy though, with student research assistants to train, three large classes of students to get through 3 hours of experiments each, a conference abstract book to put together and a large grant final report that involves a lot of cutting and pasting into a government website. Fun times. So far I haven't had too many complaints or panicked e-mails from students, which is good, only the usual "I can't figure out how to use the on-line sign up website" questions, even though I went to each class to give a tutorial. Thanks for paying attention, kids.

Now it's incredibly windy outside, the boy is in bed, and the cat is starved for attention. Time to watch some Mad Men.

Oy, the transitions...

2009-09-02T20:01:00.002-06:00

It is September, and after a pleasant summer of not doing very much in particular, everything is coming to an excruciating head. Matt is starting Law school, after more than a year of stay-at-home parenting, and Lucas is starting dayhome, after two years of being an incurable momma's boy. Also, I am not sleeping. So, good times all round. Lucas is okay most of the time while he's at Miss Mandeep's house, except arriving and at mealtimes. He finds feeding himself very stressful, because it is far slower than having an adult shovel food into his mouth as fast as he can eat it. For the past two days he has eaten next to nothing at dayhome, and come home ravenous and grumpy. We're hoping that some extra self-feeding practice at home, and getting used to his new situation will mean that behaviour disappears sooner rather than later. Cross your fingers, everyone. We are all worn a little thin.

2

2009-08-11T10:26:00.003-06:00

On the eve of his second birthday, Luke decided that his name was "Lucas Mountain Climber." Well, that's how it sounds when he says it, anyway. I completely failed as a mother by not bringing a camera to his party, so pictures will have to wait until I can beg some jpegs from my more responsible relatives. One picture will be of Lucas crying as his cake is placed before him with lit candles. I don't know if it was the fire that was the problem or the intense pressure to blow them out, but it was too much. After the candles were extinguished and pieces cut, Lucas proceeded to inhale his piece of cake, which led to a sugar-fueled playtime/present opening. He was very happy with the planes, trains and John Deere tractors theme that emerged. If anyone thinks we don't condition boys to like machines, they've never been to a little boy's birthday party.

Surprise!

2009-08-02T14:42:00.005-06:00

It's August, so I'm picking about an icecream pail of green beans every two days, which is a little more than we can eat fresh. So today I decided to make some dilled beans with the surplus. I dug into the box of canning jars that hadn't been opened for about two years and found a nice little colony of spiders. Some were dead, and some were still moving, which was extremely pleasant. Of course I kept the live ones to make a worm-in-the-tequila equivalent, but with green beans. It really improves one's virility, or so I'm told. Last week I made 10 jars of raspberry jam (spiders not included) and I hope to make it to a U-Pick so we can put some strawberry jam up as well.

Luke is thoroughly enjoying a new toy we discovered - a giant bowl of water, with a couple of cups for dumping water down your front. Sometimes when you're trying to fling water out onto the grass, it hits you in the face instead, which is hilarious.

Once again, in Fort Awesome

2009-07-28T12:49:00.005-06:00

Luke was asking about his grandma yesterday. "In a kitchen?" he wonders. "In bafroom?" "Downtairs?" We made the drive to Fort Awesome on Thursday after work, and Luke conveniently didn't have a nap, so we could arrive around 9:00 and put our wired little boy to bed. This weekend was a 60/30 birthday party for my dad and brother, so we got to see the 2/3 of the family who could make it. Luke was not impressed with his playdate with Maryn, who is about 9 months younger, but way more active than him. He was also not impressed by Tennessee, who was horning in on his gramma time for two days. Eventually he decided it was better to sit in Gramma's lap at all, even if it meant sharing with this strange red-headed girl. Tennessee was just happy to play with Luke's toys and follow him around as he made various battery-powered things light up and make noise. In fact, she was just happy no matter what was going on, as long as Luke wasn't pitching a fit. So, despite the usual horrors of long drives with toddlers, it was a good weekend. But Luke misses his gramma.

Hi, Dumpy Dumpy!

2009-07-19T15:39:00.004-06:00

We went to the Valley Zoo today to entertain the Lucas, and because those of us over two were getting tired of muddy-bum creek syndrome. I had been lead to believe that the Valley Zoo is possibly the worst zoo in the entire world, but it turns out that if you're under three, its pretty great. It kind of has a Mother Goose nursery rhyme theme going on, as you walk under the portcullis to the admissions booth, and are then greeted by a giant Humpty Dumpty. Luke would have been happy to just sit and talk to and feel Humpty for a couple of hours, but we had paid $20.00 to see some captive animals, so we eventually pried him away.

At the zoo there are university students whose summer jobs are to carry around small animals to show the children and their parents. We met a large rat, and an iguana that Luke was brave enough to pet. One was walking around a ferret, and there was a family of ducks wandering around, flaunting their freedom in front of the other animals. Luke enjoyed the rodents and owls the most, and we spent some time watching these prairie dogs. They were feasting on a tree that had blown over in last nights massive storm. If they were smart enough, they probably could have even escaped...

So after the zoo, and a short trip to the godforsaken Mall to have lunch and throw coins at the frogs in the Deep Sea Adventure, Luke was pooped. I hope he has enough energy after his nap to hepawandy.**

**help with laundry

More stuff

2009-07-12T13:55:00.002-06:00

As we approach Luke's second birthday, it is more and more apparent that he is a little boy and not a baby anymore. He has decided that he is big enough for a big person chair, even though that means his plate is at eye-level, and his favourite activity is throwing rocks in the creek. His favourite word is "NNOO!" followed closely by "fireplace," "ladybug," and "Tiboshens" (Tim Horton's - yes, he has brand loyalty already - at least the first logo he consistently recognised was the Edmonton Public Library's.)

This weekend Matt and I got a 24 hour parenting break to attend our friend Kristine's wedding in Dickson. It was strange to be going for a long drive without trying to entertain Lucas, or have to plan around his afternoon nap and early bed time. Parts were actually a little boring. The wedding was fun, and we took the meandering 2A back to Edmonton to check out the scenery. Lucas didn't seem to have missed us too much when we picked him up yesterday. He had done all his favourite things with Gran and Grampa - the creek, Tim Hortons, the park, and Game Game.

He's getting a pretty good arm...

Oh, Game Game

2009-06-22T13:02:00.003-06:00

It finally rained, mostly because I watered the lawn yesterday, but perhaps also because Luke's rubber boots arrived in the mail from New Orleans. Weather works like that, right? So, while Matt was at the dentist this morning, Luke and I went out into the back alley to stomp in puddles and play Game. Game involves gathering small rocks and dropping them into the storm drains, and then mimicking the sound they make. Bloop! Blup. Pwip! Uncle Brendan can make these sounds with his mouth, but when he's not around we have to do it the old fashioned way. "More rock" says Lucas, when I run out of the handful I took from the graveled play area in our yard. Matt thinks that if Luke stayed two for another hundred years, all of our rocks would end up in the sewer and that portion of the pipes would become completely blocked. "Oh yeah!" says Lucas.

A new word

2009-06-11T20:34:00.003-06:00

Have you heard of this newfangled device called the Monkeywave? When your food is cold, you can gesture wildly at it, indicating your desire to have your food inserted into its cavity by your parents. After just a few beeps, some humming, and a few more beeps, your food is now beyond scalding! Make sure to tell your parents to close the door, or precious monkeywaves might escape.

Alligators and Fire Ants

2009-06-06T19:12:00.006-06:00

So, we all survived the trip to New Orleans, although Luke and I came back with colds (or possibly swine flu) and despite the United ticket agents being determined to send us only to Denver (both ways!) It was a lot of fun, and we packed in a lot of sight-seeing, so we're all pretty tired. We went to the Audubon Zoo, where we saw elephants and Lucas's favourite, RACOONS! Also, Lucas was bitten by fire ants during a photo op (not fun). We also went on a swamp tour in Honey Island Swamp. No one was eaten by alligators, although we did see many of them, including "Big Al" who appeared to be eating one of his numerous wives or offspring. Lucas enjoyed watching the alligators eat marshmallows (num num num!) and my arachnophobic sister-in-law really enjoyed the large wolf spider we saw. They can leap up to six or seven feet! We were well within leaping range, which we were all very happy about.

There was also a wedding in a great big Catholic church, but Lucas was pretty tired by then, so he spent most of it walking around outside, and skipped the reception entirely. As did I, which is too bad, as I hear it was a lot of fun.

Later we went to Oak Alley, which used to be a plantation, and to the Aquarium, the Insectarium, and the French Quarter. Lucas really enjoyed the Aquarium and Insectarium, including the cricket cookie he ate, and the sting rays we saw. I got to pet one, but Lucas's arms were too short to reach them in the tank.

It wasn't as hot as I thought it would be - only in the high 20's - but it was enough to make Luke cry when we stepped out of the airport. He got used to it, and exercised his sweat glands, and turned a darker shade of tan. Good times.

Imaginary friends

2009-05-20T10:41:00.004-06:00

This morning Luke's bunny friend had to be diapered, to convince Luke that it was okay to get a change from his soggy night diaper. Bunny also enjoyed a meal of yoghurt the other day (and a face washing) and likes to be carried around by his ears, and go to the park to be pushed down the slide. This is surely a boy who will make himself some imaginary friends. Imaginary friends are better than real ones anyway, since they never want a turn at playing with your toys, or sitting on YOUR red jeep at the park. I like that bunny is such a close confidante and advisor, since he plays double agent for me. "Bunny is hungry, Lucas - can you feed him some carrots?" Bunny gets a taste of carrots, and so does Luke.

It is a cool and miserable spring, which is apparently perfect weather for my radishes, which have sprouted and are thriving. Soon enough we will have more radishes than we could possibly eat, since I still haven't developed any sense of moderation when it comes to planting the garden. Ten rows of radishes all ready at the same time is a good idea, right? These are fancy "watermelon" ones that are white on the outside and red on this inside. I don't think they taste any better, though.

In a week we will be flying to N.O. for a wedding/family visit/holiday. I am dreading flying with Luke again, but looking forward to the rest of the trip. We will be taking our juicy morsel on a swamp tour to bait the alligators, and likely also to the Audubon Zoo, the aquarium, and the French Quarter. I hope we can all cope with the heat and humidity! I am sure we will be coming home with at least one stuffed gator wheedled at a gift shop somewhere.

Foofoo

2009-05-12T20:27:00.002-06:00

Lucas is a strange duck, food-wise. He refuses to eat berries, but devours mushrooms of all kinds. To get him to eat green vegetables, we hide them behind the mushrooms. So weird. Orange vegetables are good, and always have been, especially from the squash family. The strangest thing, and his favourite supper ingredient, is tofu. He gets very excited when he sees it on his plate, and demands to eat all the "foofoo" first.

The doctor said my nose wouldn't bleed so much if I kept my finger outta there.

2009-05-07T21:24:00.003-06:00

It's finally spring, although since I put winter clothes away, we'll probably have a blizzard. Lucas is taking advantage of the warm weather by taking us to the park every day to say hello to his friends Swing, Jeep, Sand, and Slide. We also say goodbye to each of them when we leave. He's also starting to demand semi-nudity, and is starting to figure out how his pants might come off, so stay posted for a story of how our two-year-old strips naked and poops in Daddy's shoe. I hear they do that.

Lucas is starting to use two and three word combinations, like "bye bye slide" and "up sit read" and "MORE SOUP!" He's still not into feeding himself anything that requires utensils, so I figure he'll get to that once he's mastered English.

I also had my job permanentized for a year, so I'm no longer a poor casual worker at the University. I get my own keys and benefits, and am recognized as a real human being by the HR department. It's only been a year in coming, so huzzah!

The other night Matt officially became an old man. It wasn't by spreading the snow around on our lawn so it would melt faster, or methodically dethatching the lawn this spring (both of which our 75 year old neighbour did), but it happened while chasing some kids off our lawn. Well, not really kids - more like a couple of drunken 20 something girls, one of whom was peeing on the grass. We wouldn't have noticed except for the loud conversation they were having right outside our bedroom window at 12:30. I felt like we did when we lived off Whyte avenue and the bars let out on Saturday nights. You stay classy, Edmonton.

Officially a Mac twit

2009-04-24T15:46:00.002-06:00

I haven't been posting pictures with my blog for a little while because I've been waiting for my new computer to arrive, which would be faster, sleeker, and come with a full complement of keys. Two months later, it has finally arrived, so here's a picture to celebrate.

This would go great with guacamole!

2009-04-18T21:25:00.003-06:00

It's been a full weekend already. We got rid of our broken barbeque and a dinged-up garden shed, and cleaned up all the leaves and dog poo from the lawn (thanks, previous owners!) Also, we learned an important lesson in parenting: if your child is screaming at the table with a mouthful of food, it is better to stop the screaming in any way possible, to prevent the child from inhaling the food, and then throwing up all over you. It takes less time to placate the child than clean up the ensuing disaster. Early bath? Check. Replacement supper? Check. Accidentally eat a little vomit? Check. Post bedtime booze? Check.

Anyway, here's hoping tomorrow is better. We have babysitting, so it's time for our monthly night out. Dinner, and the Wizard of Oz! I'll be wearing my ruby slippers.

And you're out with your friends in your new Mercedes Benz and you're . . . ON DRUGS!

2009-04-05T13:31:00.003-06:00

I've had more crazy dreams lately. In one, I went to a bar with Matt and some of our friends, some of whom were characters from How I Met Your Mother - Lily and Barney, I think - but the theme of the bar was that you got an injection of something before your drinks. The drinks were all brightly coloured three-layer concoctions, and I think the bottom layer was cream. Anyway, I remember feeling very drunk in the dream, not certain why I was there, and wanting to leave. While napping the other day I had a dream that I was napping, and couldn't wake up from the nap. I really wanted to wake up, but I felt so lethargic and blind in the dream, that I couldn't wake up from the dream nap. It was such a relief when I finally woke up from the actual nap! Is someone giving me drugs without telling me? Doping me for the Olympics or something?

It's finally above zero during the days, so I'm going to start some seeds inside, and hope that the weather will be warm enough in four weeks to plant seedlings outside. Luke will be sad to see the snow disappear, because that will be the end of his "more snowballs" game. It involves getting an adult to make snowballs for him to smash on the sidewalk. Then he says "more ball!" and so forth until he is dragged back into the house before all of our fingers freeze off.

Shoes!

2009-03-28T14:45:00.003-06:00

This week Matt and I have noticed that almost everything that comes out of Luke's mouth (besides drool and food) is a word, or very close to it. This marks a change from his previous communication strategy, which consisted entirely of grunting, and then grunting louder. Now we can figure out what he's getting at before he's frustrated enough to start screaming, which is pretty convenient. Another of his new tricks is throwing all of his stuffed animals into the crib before bed, so he can have an hour-long committee meeting before he falls asleep.

It's all sunny and melty outside, like spring might actually come this year. For a while there I thought we might skip spring and summer altogether and go straight back into fall. I bought Luke and myself some rubber boots today so we can go splash in some mud puddles. He already got a start in that today, but in his new running shoes, which was not what I was hoping for when I bought them this morning.

Work seems to be slowing down, even though there's only a week and a half left of classes, so students should be panicking about getting the rest of their experiment participation credits in. I guess most of the people who have left it this late don't really care about that 1 or 6%. My guess is that those are the same people who will find that they really could have used it when they get their final grades back. Some of them are also people who haven't looked at their syllabus since January, and only just remembered that this component of the course existed at all. Oops.

No no pie num num!

2009-03-22T21:08:00.003-06:00

I'm going to mark today as the day Luke made his first sentence. We were having little tarts for dessert at supper tonight, and to stop Luke from overeating after he had already stuffed himself with ham, Matt took half of his pie away and started to eat it. Luke, amid a stream of word-like protests, said "no no pie num num!" I think it's pretty clear what he meant.

Whoah!

2009-03-17T11:39:00.004-06:00

I'm staying home from work today to give my foot a rest. I broke a toe a week and a half ago, stubbing it mightily on a wooden chest in the living room, and it had been healing nicely until I stepped awkwardly on it yesterday. It is even more broken than before, if such a thing is possible. Hurray! In the lab, the doors are always locked, and accessible only by card-swipe, but I am supposed to be getting a button that will unlock the door remotely. It's not here yet, so I will have to hobble to the door for each participant that shows up for research. It didn't feel worth it to go to work today.

Lucas is a hilarious mimic these days. My favourite is when he does something like spill a mouthful of milk down his front and says "whoah!" Another favourite is how he walks around and says "hmmm!" like he's just had a very interesting idea that he will write down later. He has discovered the washing machine this week, and has created a dance to go along with the clothes he can see tumbling. He is obsessed with lady bugs, which he calls "bugbug".

Murmel murmel murmel

2009-03-11T15:04:00.002-06:00

Okay, it's March, so I guess I should post on the ol' blog. Luke caught the cold that I caught in Utah, so he's been stuffed up for over a week now. He still sleeps well at night, but by the end of the day, he's pretty sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I'm sick and tired of winter. Stupid, fat winter. We hates it. It's turning me into Gollum. Soon my hair will fall out and I'll start eating raw fish and wearing a loincloth.

We still haven't made it to Calgary to see our new niece, so she'll probably be a solid two months old by the time we meet her. Statistically, she should be over the 6 week crying peak, so that will be okay, but she might not have that newborn smell anymore.

I ordered a new iMac to replace our aging and senile laptop, which is going to have its hard drive erased for rebirth as a Linux computer. No more Windows! I am sure this will be the key to our future happiness.

By the river of Babylon

2009-02-19T10:47:00.007-06:00

When I was very small, my family all went to the Grand Canyon while I stayed in Arizona with my grandparents. Our trip to Zion was like that for Luke - it wasn't going to fit into his napping schedule to bring him along. I hadn't really heard much about Zion National Park before, but it's pretty impressive. You get the same kind of feeling as sitting in the front row at the new theaters. Everything is so large and close you get a permanent kink in your neck from the experience. It makes Dinosaur Park look like a tiny scale model. You drive up into the mountains, and end up in the midst of some giant red cliffs with a little creek at the bottom. This waterfall was actually all snow by the time it hit the bottom. We also saw some squirrels and wild turkeys.

Double your monkeys means double your pleasure!

2009-02-17T21:11:00.006-06:00

So we're in Utah. My parents convinced us (ie. me) that we should come visit them in their winter digs in St. George over reading week. We had our (very justified) misgivings about flying with an active 18-month-old boy, but after a mere six hour ordeal of early waking, US customs, being stuck on a plane with a hysterical child, and a two hour drive through the desert, we made it. On the plus side, we got to go to an In-N-Out burger of Lebowski fame, and that was pretty great. Luke was pretty happy to see his grandma, which was a relief to my deadened arms. 26lbs is pretty heavy after a couple of hours.

The weather here is spring-like, and the views are amazing. Luke enjoys running in and out of the house without a snowsuit wrestling party, and the adjacent playgrounds. This morning we went to the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum, which was interesting - full of dead ungulates and bears and wildcats. Luke succeeded at his first attempt to wheedle a toy from the gift shop out of us, thanks to some puppydog eyes, and the generosity of uncle Brendan. Now he has two monkeys to carry around and kiss.

Terrible

2009-02-01T15:43:00.002-06:00

They're called the terrible twos, but they really start somewhere after 12 months, and can last until they're three. Luke's favourite word now is "no" and he enjoys being contrary. Some days he wants to be treated like a baby, and some days he wants to do it by himself. Did I say days? He waffles between these modes by the hour - sometimes by the minute. Well, despite his suppertime temper tantrums, he's still pretty cute a lot of the time. He's made a game of pulling the couch cushions off and curling up on the springs with a few choice stuffed animals. He has a whole repertoire of animal sounds, including fish and bunny, and likes to be quizzed on the whereabouts of his body parts. He carries around a big wooden pepper mill like a royal scepter, scattering pepper bits and sneezing wherever he goes. He's free with kisses, but only a few special people are allowed to hold him. Luke now has two little girl cousins, as Matt's brother's wife had her baby this week. It will be good for him to have the attention spread out a little.

I don't want to go to Neptune. I'll be cold . . . and heavy.

2009-01-17T20:31:00.002-06:00

Luke wants to listen to the first 60 seconds of "Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes" over, and over, and over, and over. When the critical point in the song has passed, he points at the stereo and says "awa awa" until it gets reset to the start - it's his rendition of the back-up singing. "Ahee Ahee" means, I'm looking for my monkey, and "ba ba" can mean pumpkin, grapefruit, orange, or bath. The other 95% of his utterances consist entirely of "Mmaaa! Maaaa!" I'm not sure if he's calling the cat, or pretending to be one.

Work has really picked up - we have three times as many students as last term who need to fulfill three hours of experiment participation for credit. That also means three times as many students who don't understand how to work the online sign-up system, and ask me to just do everything for them. This time I had the foresight to just have a stock reply e-mail ready. Seriously, though, how many 18 year olds haven't figured out the internet? Also, we got some new equipment that needed setting up, so that was keeping me busy too.

'09

2009-01-06T15:08:00.003-06:00

'09 has proven to be a little disappointing so far. Already I've had to spend more time on hold with Telus, after they rejected Shaw's request to port our phone number. The reason? Telus had a pending work order on the account (which I didn't request). When I called Telus about it, and I finally got through to someone, they got very defensive and blamed Shaw for missing details or making spelling mistakes on the form. Only when I demanded that the agent check for work orders did she find that, indeed, there was a work order pending. Sigh. Now, I have to wait another 10 days for the land line. It makes me wonder if it would have been easier to just get a new phone number and change my contact information with everyone. Again. Also, we lost one of our house keys, and it's a fancy lock that can't be replaced by simply cutting a copy of one of the other keys.

The dregs of '08 were all right - we spent them in Fort Awesome with my family. Luke warmed up a little to his baby cousin, and we all ate far too much. It was too cold to take Luke out to see some cows, but he was pretty happy to wander around inside and play with his Christmas presents and hang out with Grandma. We learned that Luke will fall asleep in the car only under the influence of heliomammalianism (the tendency for animals to fall asleep in a warm, sunny spot) so we were successful on our way down, but not on the way back.

Now I'm back at work and the term hasn't yet gained enough momentum to be crazy-busy. My cousin Rachel has moved in with us, who should be good company for all of us, large and small, hairy and smooth. I've heard that she's a stress-baker, so I plan on gaining some serious weight around exam time.

A Holiday Post

2008-12-26T14:51:00.004-06:00

Happy Boxing Day, everyone!

Our Boxing Day miracle was a happy kid for an entire morning (interrupted only by a colossal fall into a door jamb, coupled with a tube of butt-paste in the eye) and not leaving the house for Boxing Day sales. We bought ourselves a new tv for Christmas, but since we did it via the interweb, it won't arrive until the new year. It's worth it not to have to do any shopping today.

We're almost entirely unpacked at the new place - just some curtains and shelves to be hung, and a few boxes to tuck away into a corner for the next 15 years. Luke seems to like his new house, with the extra elbow room pretty much everywhere except his bedroom. His new room is almost a third the size of the old one (which was ridiculously huge, in hindsight), but he just sleeps there, so it doesn't much matter. He likes to stomp around the house to see what each type of flooring sounds like, and is still obsessed with walking us up and down the stairs. Theo seems to be past the whiny/barfing/hiding in caves stage of the move, and has moved into the sitting in windows all day stage.

So we've had one Christmas, and Luke is very happy with his new toys. I think the cabin fever was really starting to get to him, but a box full of neon toddler blocks, bongo drums, and psychedelic books are helping to pass the time. In this weather we can only go for 10 minute walks, and that's only if there's no wind. I got an 8GB memory card for my camera, so you can expect extra-long videos of our insane midget on Facebook. In a couple of days it will be time to drive to Fort Awesome, to eat more and open more presents. We're going to leave after lunch, gambling on the slim hope that Luke might fall asleep in the car for a few hours. Cross your fingers.

So tech savvy. He already knows that our 4 year old laptop is only good for sitting on.

Fun Times

2008-12-19T13:16:00.003-06:00

I'm not sure why I signed up with Telus when we moved back to Alberta. Maybe it was because we never had any problems when we just used their phone service. Maybe it was because it was so convenient to get digital cable and internet from Sasktel, we thought a private company should be able to do that just as well. We were wrong. After hours of sitting on hold with Telus, and multiple missed appointments by Telus, and one greasy customer retention agent, we have finally severed the ties. After our final bill, we will no longer be contributing money to the corporate disaster that is Telus. One thing I will grant them - they did waive the usual $120 fee for breaking a contract early. Even Telus isn't so blind as to overlook the systemic problems we've had with our account. So the outcome is that we have new Shaw e-mail addresses, and our phone number will remain the same, although it won't be connected until January 4th. I have pretty reasonable expectations that a Shaw technician will actually show up for this appointment, though.

In other news, it's moving time again! Yay for -20 and snow while porting heavy furniture items. At least it looks like we're going to get this done before the daily high is -29. Also, we've already moved all the books, so it won't be that bad. Thanks to our various family members and friends who are sacrificing yet another Saturday morning to our wanderlust. Coffee, hot chocolate and donuts will be provided.

Funny Things

2008-12-12T07:29:00.004-06:00

Lucas thinks it's fun to pick up the phone, randomly select a number from the previous caller list, and hit 'talk'. Then, he holds it up to your face and says "Hi! Hi!" while the number dials. You'd almost think he knew exactly what he was doing, but I'm pretty sure it's still a fluke when he gets the right combination of button-presses.

Yesterday he wandered through the house calling "mia, mia, mia, mia" until I took him downstairs to find the cat. Then he patted him on the face, and turned his attention to changing the time on the clock.

Also funny is Lucas in his new housecoat.

Baby Jawa

Don't hassle the Hoff

28

2008-12-08T20:49:00.004-06:00

It's pleasantly quiet at the University now that classes are over, and the undergrads are stressing about finals. It feels like Christmas with the sheet ice hidden under a thin layer of snow. Unless I've forgotten someone, I'm done Christmas shopping for 2008. It turns out I'll be able to put the beets and calendars to good use in our new house, occupying storage space until their unearthing some time in the distant future. Maybe the botulism in my homemade preserves will be what turns the tide against our alien overlords.

Since this is our eighth move in seven years, the thrill of packing up and moving on has died, allowing me to comfortably procrastinate about doing any pre-moving prep. We get our keys in a week, and then plan to be done moving by the following Saturday. So far, the number of boxes I have packed is less than or equal to zero - not including the boxes we never unpacked from the last move.

Lucas is experimenting with what we linguinis like to call an alveolar lateral, and regular people call "l". Instead of "da da da ba ba ba," he has expanded he repertoire to "didleaddleiddle," and so forth. Pretty entertaining.

Observations

2008-11-28T21:53:00.004-06:00

A few observations:

1. The T-Ho's flavour of the month, "candy cane" doughnut = surprisingly minty? I'm not sure why the rest of the doughnut is chocolate, though.
2. Obnoxious and loud people who cut in line to order their extra large triple triple should probably fail their biology midterm. Here's hoping, anyway.
3. Buying a house for the third time is kind of anti-climactic. Now instead of worrying if there will ever be a house out there that suits our preferences and budget, we get to worry about getting all our junk moved before Christmas. It's going to be a busy December. Maybe we could kill two birds with one stone, and just wrap up some random boxes of storage stuff and put that under the tree. It'll be a surprise for everyone on Christmas morning - "2 year old pickled beets and a collection of old calendars! How did you know?"

I couldn't get away without posting a Lucas update, so here are a few observations on our insane midget:
1. "Bah" is said when someone leaves, goes near the door, or puts on their jacket. It is also said when he's finished his food and wants to leave the table. It is also the sound a sheep makes.
2. He is pretty sure about where his head, ears and belly are, but thinks that noses only exist on other people.
3. Favourite books like "In the Night Kitchen" and "My Puppy Playtime" need to be read over and over. Some books are a little too stimulating, and had to be put away. Something about pandas really makes his blood boil.

1-800-DOCTORB - The B is for Bargain!

2008-11-11T11:19:00.003-06:00

So we went out and got a family doctor today. It sounds like a shopping trip, but actually, it was a meet and greet with a potential doctor at a new clinic not too far away. The office is all sleek and modern, with the only consideration for the existence of children being a broken basket of old Parent magazines and a couple of school primers from the '50s. Awesome. It made me miss the Community Health Clinic in Saskatoon, which not only had friendly nurses and female doctors, but a little walled toy area. So, instead of playing in a contained area, Luke spent his waiting time wandering around and exclaiming at interesting people. He finds older Asian gentlemen to be particularly interesting and exclaim-worthy, so it was just our luck that someone of that persuasion was also waiting there. Anyway, despite the inhospitable waiting experience, we signed up with a doctor who seems to want us to have a full physicals with bloodwork and everything. Weird. It makes me feel old.

Chooks

2008-11-08T21:09:00.004-06:00

Thanks to the generous administrators at the Linguistics Department, I don't have to work on Monday, so woooooo four day weekend! What will I do with my time? We're not even driving across the province, which is very unusual for a long weekend. I think I'll go crazy and clean the bathrooms or something. There's Something About Mary is even on tv right now, so get on the party train!

Seriously though, Luke is hilarious. When asked "what does a cow go, Lucas?" he obligingly moos. Or "boos," it depends on his mood. He has unscrewed the lid from the Vicks VapoRub jar, turns up the volume on the stereo (he finds the sudden loudness very upsetting), unshelves his books five times a day, devours pomegranate seeds, and loves a good game of chase.

A short conversation

2008-11-02T15:07:00.000-06:00

Me: WATER bottle.
Lucas: BAH bah.
Me: WA-ter BOT-tle.
Lucas: BAH-buh BAH-buh.

The answer

2008-10-31T09:53:00.001-06:00

Mild interest, followed by a long drink of water.

Keep your enemies so close that you're almost kissing.

2008-10-30T22:10:00.006-06:00

This week Matt brought home a pumpkin for Hallowe'en, and it's been sitting in the middle of the living room, becoming Luke's best vegetable friend. The pumpkin's name is Bah-Bah, and it likes being patted on the stem, rolled here and there, and this evening I scooped out its brain and carved it a face. I'm not sure if Luke will find that hilarious or horrifying. We'll find out tomorrow, I guess.Speaking of the little man, he has grouped the universe into three categories, maybe four: Mama, kitty, and dada (possibly also Dadda). He may have said "ayedeyduh" (alligator) on the weekend, and my mom insists he said "ama" (Grandma) at Thanksgiving, but it's hard to tell what's a word and what's not these days. He talks pretty much constantly. He also enjoys testing various things for their suitability to be hats, what sounds better when banged with a wooden ball, and wandering around with a bottle of nose drops in one hand and a spoon in the other.

5 Influences

2008-10-23T19:38:00.005-06:00

Sean tagged me to do this.

1. Strongbad - teaching me to use my skills for awesome instead of for good.
2. Theophrastus Bombastus von Hochenheim (the cat, not the scientist/alchemist) - showing me that everywhere is appropriate for draping yourself into a kind of lumpy carpet, and that most people's faces are severely lacking in cat butt.
3. Dwight Schrute - bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica. It's pretty self-explanatory.
4. Infomercials - they're so fascinating and informative! ShamWOW!
5. Gravity - keeping me grounded, so that I don't go hurtling into space each time I catch a little air.

Oh yeah, I tag Nate, Jer, and Kristin.

Picasa

2008-10-19T10:08:00.001-06:00

Matt downloaded Google's free album software Picasa, which has an "upload to Blogger" function that I am currently trying out. Woo, special effects! Here I am on our vintage couch with the smooth baby and the hairy baby.

Speaking of the smooth baby, he's really gained confidence in his walking, and frequently walks across the living room from his stereo to the coffee table, or to me or Matt. He still walks with his arms up in the air, holding on to some imaginary adult hands.

Travels

2008-10-14T20:11:00.004-06:00

Last week was the Sixth International Conference on the Mental Lexicon in Banff, and we all got to go along to help keep things organized. Luke did pretty well for a five hour drive he didn't sleep a wink of. In Banff he got to flirt with fellow organizers Heather and Elizabeth and see some really big kitties (deer actually - it would have been a much different story if we had actually seen a big mountain kitty). Luke also got into his first of two baby fights with 15 month old Sean. Luke lost, but he took away some valuable experience to use in his next fight, which was with Jude in Duchess. That time he went with the old "swipe the pacifier" move for the TKO. The only touristy thing we had time for in Banff was a swim at the hot springs, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed, despite some preliminary crying.

So, since it was Thanksgiving weekend, we drove to Duchess from Banff (stopping in Calgary to see Tom and Abby, and for Luke to sleep on their bedroom floor for a couple of hours). We got to see our new niece Tennessee and her handlers, as well as a bunch of other relatives. We ate a lot of food, especially Luke, and good times were had by all. Uncle Brendan and Uncle Tyler taught Luke the "put things on your head" game, and Tennessee anointed my shirt with eau de diaper.

Luke apparently took eight steps into the middle of the living room all by himself today! Maybe tomorrow it will be nine?

Ok, awesome.

2008-10-02T20:58:00.005-06:00

So the cat is the frequent victim of Monster Jam Hands, who attacks while eating breakfast. We notice a tint of red on his ears or tail or whiskers, where he's strayed too close to Luke in the high chair. He doesn't mind much. It doesn't interfere with his daily agenda of lying on the couch, and then later, lying on a different couch. Just now he was squaring off with a small spider in the basement, backing away and shaking his paw. "Is it on me? It feels like it's on me!"

This is a paragraph about Matt. Every time he sees me blogging, he says I'm writing all about how horrible my husband is, and all the terrible things he does and says. So, I thought I'd dedicate a portion of this post to that. Today, the horrible things he did include spending the day with our one-year-old, going for a walk with said one-year-old, making supper and hand-feeding the voracious Burger Monster, and then cleaning the kitchen. The worst part was when Luke gave him a big, long hug goodnight before I took him (Luke) upstairs for his bath. I don't know how I've managed to make it seven years with this man. It's pretty much a living nightmare.

Speaking of the Monster of Various Names, he's into a real kissing phase right now. He gives these huge, gape-mouthed kisses on any available part of your body - nose, neck, legs - whatever. The only downside is that he hasn't quite got the subtle differences between kissing and biting...

Warning: The enema you are about to enjoy is extremely hot.

2008-09-26T20:29:00.004-06:00

Once again my mind has drawn a blank.

Oh yes, we have finally given in to the cat, and allow him outside hoping that he will now be less annoying. Unfortunately, he now whines even more insistently to be let out, since he can reasonably expect that we will respond, only now he does it 20 times a day. Sigh.

Luke still has his cold from a week ago. It doesn't bother him that much, except when trying to sleep. It's pretty hard to breath and suck your thumb when your nose is stuffed, and since that's his primary comfort when falling asleep, well, sleep hasn't been going so well. Once we figured out he needed about 10 minutes of upright snuggling to clear his sinuses before lying down, things improved. He is obsessed with pulling all of his books off the shelf and going turning their pages one by one. He even has them right side up most of the time. No walking yet though. I'm not sure if it's because his head is so big, it keeps him off balance, or that he just loves the game of walking adults around so much. Anyway, I'm sure he'll set off on his own soon enough.

In other news, I tried to give blood the other day at the Blooditorium, but the nurse managed to pierce all the way through my vein. It did raise a spectacular bruise on my arm, but I didn't get to finish donating. All in all, a huge waste of time.

Smoot

2008-09-13T20:36:00.005-06:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks at work, so my motivation to type on the computer at home has been pretty low. In fact, it's still pretty low right now.

Anyway, I just finished reading Watchmen (not because of the movie trailers, but because Matt kept bugging me to do it). It's the only graphic novel (ie. extended comic book) to win the Hugo, so I figured it would be pretty good. It's a great read, if you're looking for a totally depressing look at the human condition with morally flawed super heroes who don't actually have super powers. Well, one of them does, and he has pretty much any power there is, but the rest of them are weirdos in tights. I'm now reading Buy, Buy Baby: The Mass Seduction of Our Youngest Consumers, and How It's Changing the American Family. Essentially, the book has vindicated our decision to put the tv in the basement (away from Luke) and to not buy Baby Einstein videos. If we can keep him away from tv for another year, we will have done our job as parents, apparently.

In Luke news, he's starting to understand more and more of what we say to him, and is perfecting his cruising abilities. He's not quite ready to head out on his own yet, though. We're pretty sure he says "itty" for "kitty" and he loves to play the piano at his grandparents' house.

Arson...probably

2008-08-28T19:16:00.004-06:00

Last weekend I was able to watch firefighters in action twice! Once was on the way to the park with Luke, where they had two fire trucks out, and a couple of guys on the cherry picker watering the little valley with the fire hose. It was pretty. The second time was later that day, when the recycling dumpster outside our building caught fire. I didn't manage to turn the camera on in time, otherwise I'd have a photo of flames shooting eight feet out of the dumpster. Pretty spectacular.Luke got his one year vaccinations today. Since he had his first year's shots in Saskatchewan, he hadn't received the meningococcal vaccine, which they give in Alberta. This meant three shots this time - one in each arm, and one in the leg. He did not have fun. Thank goodness for those wire and bead toys they always have in the waiting rooms of these places. It's pretty much Prozac for Luke. Luke was also happy to be moved to his forward-facing car seat this week - car rides are way more interesting when you can see where you're going. The windshield wipers are also pretty great.

Happy Birthday to Youuuu....

2008-08-18T19:24:00.008-06:00

Luke turned one a little while ago, so happy birthday, little man! A big happy birthday as well to Jim Best, whoever you are. It might be a good idea to let your friends and family know that you've moved, so you can get your birthday cards. Anyway, since Luke's birthday is already a moveable feast due to its proximity to the Folk Fest, we celebrated on Sunday. Both sets of grandparents were present, as well as the paternal aunts and uncles. He had a good haul of classic wooden toys and puzzles, and a couple of hand-knit cardigans to boot - he's going to be nice and cozy this winter. It was ridiculously hot, thus the baby near-nudity. In this picture, he's thinking hard about grabbing the glowing thing on the cake.

Earlier in the weekend, Matt made waffles with whipped cream and blueberry sauce for breakfast. Not only was it delicious, Luke had a hilarious post-breakfast face. Matt describes it as the quintessential "Martin" look - a heavy mustache, coupled with a baleful stare. Awesome. I think he's just really, really full of waffles.

We also got to visit my cousin and his recently xeriscaped yard. Now that I've tasted sea hawthorne berries, I want to plant one of those trees in my next yard. Also, I would love to have an underground drip irrigation system fed by a giant rain barrel. Since this post is all about Luke, he practiced flirting with my cousin's wife, ran loops inside the house, and drank half my iced-tea. A pretty good outing, as far as he's concerned.

June 2008

2008-08-07T15:47:00.001-06:00

Mementos

2008-08-03T10:45:00.013-06:00

So, one of the gifts I received at Luke's baby shower last August was a calendar that has empty pages where the picture usually goes, presumably for the parental units to fill with photos of their new offspring. I dutifully made little collages for each month using Paint Shop Pro, and it's easy to tell that I was pretty bad at it at the beginning. I wouldn't say my skills have now developed to a level of mastery, but at least now you can generally see what is going on in the pictures.

August 2007 - You can't see it in this picture, but when I glued this to the calendar with Elmer's white glue, it bled through to the front, leaving pink streaks everywhere. Awesome. This is true of September and October as well.
September 2007 - This one is clearly the worst. Just terrible...

October 2007 - Matt likes this one, but since it was ruined by the glue, I will have to print it again.

November 2007 - I finally got a regular glue stick, and decided to go with a more traditional layout. Boring, but clear.

December 2007 - Woo, fun with text!

January 2008 - It looks from this page that he only has three outfits.

February 2008 - Here's where I start fooling around with backgrounds.

March 2008

April 2008 - Whoa, I got a little carried away with the picture tube tool!

May 2008 - This is the last one, as I still haven't made June and July.

So, it's pretty clear I shouldn't quit my day job to design baby scrapbooks, but I find this more enjoyable than cutting out adorable shapes from coloured paper to make a real scrapbook. I have one of those for Luke, and so far I have completed one page. It's pretty bad.

In other Luke news, now that he can walk while holding onto an adult's hands, that is all he wants to do. This morning we did about five laps through the kitchen and living room, stopping occasionally to examine things, bang on chairs and tables, and yell at the cat (he yelled, not me). It's pretty exhausting for both of us.

A post from the frontier

2008-07-27T19:48:00.005-06:00

We're in Fort Awesome for my cousin Heather's wedding this weekend. It wasn't as hot as we had feared, so no one passed out during the ceremony, and the doors to the Heritage could remain closed to the smell of feedlot outside. (Actually, Saturday happened to not be a day of extra aroma in Brooks, so it wouldn't have mattered). Matt and I left the reception early, a privilege of the parent with a small child with an early bedtime. On Sunday, my parents hosted all of our family who were still around for a BBQ lunch. Luke had a lot of fun at both events, gnawing on a corn cob for about an hour at the reception, and attacking my cousin Lisa's legs at the BBQ. Later, Mom set up a hammock in the back yard for a swing and a loll in the afternoon. Luke played with Patches, a very attention-starved cat who tried to eat his toes.

So Luke has gotten into the wonderful habit of waking up only once in the night (before midnight even) for a bottle, or, even better, waking up no times in the night. We were afraid our trip to Fort Awesome would ruin this, but so far he has slept very well. Except for last night, after the wedding, but I blame that on his having drunk about a gallon of water before he went to bed. He was pretty wet at 4:15am when he was complaining for a diaper change. Anyway, his sleeping through the night is pretty much the best thing ever.

Well, the battery is about to die. Until next time...

Scooping out frog brains

2008-07-10T21:24:00.004-06:00

I'm back at my old job at the CCP three days a week. Most of the days I'm there, I am faithfully entertained by two year old Cama, the daughter of one of the doctoral students. She's pretty cute, but she grazes my desk for office supplies and requires my approval for all of her crayon drawings. I can see what taking care of Luke will be like in a year or so. I brought Luke to campus on Tuesday to show him off to the students and staff in Linguistics (who weren't gone for the summer), and he and Cama had a spontaneous play-date on the floor of the lab. Luke was very excited about her, but Cama wasn't so sure about this baby who was grabbing her toys and trying to feel her face. He has a lot to learn about how to attract a lady.

Since Edmonton is just one giant construction site, I've decided it's not worth it to risk my life biking to work. There aren't any good routes any more, and my father-in-law has pointed out that avoiding buses on narrow streets isn't a lot of fun. So, I'm taking the lazy route of not buying a bike, and bussing to work. Interesting story, huh? Oh wait, the other thing...tedious.

We have a set of frog-themed baby dishes from Ikea that has a sippy cup, a bowl, a spoon, and a bib - you can see the cup in the pictures below. Matt always feels like he's scooping out frog brains when he's feeding Luke from the frog-head bowl. Luke doesn't mind - he's too busy chewing on the succulent frog eyeballs.

Here he is, devouring a plum:

There and back again.

2008-07-01T20:53:00.006-06:00

We had gotten settled enough in our new place this week to make a trip down to Fort Awesome to visit the little man's grandparents and uncles. Luke doesn't travel well, but he recovered fairly quickly, and spent some time bonding with his maternal relatives. We got to see my parents' new house, farther off the 550 on a gravel road that my dad says is quite diligently graded. In the new location, the wheat field starts only 15 feet from the back of the house, and there's a dugout pond that attracts all kinds of birds. It should be good for skating in the winter, too.

What with all this outside human contact, Luke is becoming, if not outgoing, then more tolerant of strangers. That's good news, if we ever hope to get a babysitter for him. He sleeps really well in our new place, which is quieter and cooler than our old house in Saskatoon. We are also quite close to the Whitemud ravine, which is nice for shady nature walks on hot days.

So, my month long holiday has come to an end, and I start my new (old) job at the Centre for Comparative Psycholinguistics tomorrow. I really need to get a bike, so I don't have to ride the bus all summer.

Fine.

2008-06-13T21:10:00.003-06:00

I've been tagged twice, once by Erik and one by Andrew, so I guess I'll do it. It sure doesn't take much pressure to get me to cave these days.

The idea is to share six unimportant things about myself and then to tag six other people to do the same thing.

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your entry

A) I would rather spend more money on something I picked out myself than get a great deal from a pushy, hard-sale salesperson.
B) One glass of wine is more than enough.
C) Ever since my bike was stolen, I look at people riding bikes to see if it might be mine. It wouldn't make much sense to continue this practice, as my bike was stolen in Saskatoon.
D) I have a home-knit Norwegian sweater in my closet that I never wear, but will probably never get rid of, as it was made just for me.
E) Sprouted wheat bread tastes like sprouted ass.
F) I'm on the squirrels' side.

So, I guess I'll tag Kristin, Jer, Nate, Anno, Sean, and Jo. You know who you are.

Wasting away in my gorilla suit

2008-06-12T20:25:00.003-06:00

It's been almost a week since we've been in touch with the digital world, so I'm getting my fill tonight. The shakes are slowly going away with each byte...

We made it back to E-town in one piece, including all of our stuff, except a few screws I forgot to take out of the wall in the pink house in Saskatoon. Also, the new owner will inherit a big pile of branches, some half-decomposed compost, and a crotchety next-door neighbour. Thanks to our moving crews in both provinces, our baggage can continue to clutter our lives for years to come. We got rid of a lot of stuff before the move, but it's amazing how it seems to multiply once you try to parcel it into moving boxes.

So our new place is nice - we have friendly oriental neighbours who grow bok choy in their yard. Going back to renting is strange, because all of our house problems are fixed with a phone call. And then a reminder phone call, and maybe a few days later someone might make it over to fix the damn light in the bathroom that's about to give me an epileptic fit. The townhouse is bigger than our house in Saskatoon was, but all the fixtures are cheap, and one of the neighbouring units appears to be full of nineteen-year-olds getting high and practicing their nunchuck skills in the courtyard. It's nice to be back in our old neighbourhood though, and close to family again. Driving is fun, as every major route in the city appears to be under major construction, and we remember how to get everywhere again. Matt thinks we should keep the Saskatchewan plates for a while, so people will just expect us to drive like we're from out of town. I nearly turned North on Calgary Trail South this morning. (!)

Here's a picture of Luke on his bachelor day with daddy, enjoying breakfast al fresco.

An unquiet week in Lake Woebegone

2008-06-02T20:32:00.007-06:00

So a lot has happened. The weekend before my last day of work, Luke came down with a stomach virus, which he generously passed on to Matt and me, so I spent a total of one hour at the office on Tuesday. I had reached the point of keeping my food down and in, but still felt horrible enough to cop out on helping pack up the office.

Anyway, we all recovered just in time to take Luke on his first airplane ride. We flew to Ontario for Matt's cousin Joe's wedding, and despite our trepidations, Luke did really well. He enjoyed playing on our laps for three hours, especially the heavy turbulence coming into Toronto (hee hee, do it again!), and was not upset by the 11 strangers in the house we were staying at. He did, however, get very little sleep. The combination of sleeping in a strange room, in a noisy house, and all the excitement and travelling, meant he didn't get near enough sleep for three days in a row. He coped very well until Sunday, when he crashed and finally slept two hours on the plane to Winnipeg. He met his Miller great grandparents, a couple of great aunts and uncles, and some cousins-once-removed. Good times were had, and today he's spent most of the day sleeping it off. He even let me sleep in this morning.

Now, we have five days to get our loose ends tied up and our stuff packed to move back to Edmonton. So far, I have packed exactly zero boxes. Let me know if you want to help at either end - we don't have as many books this time!

And another thing

2008-05-23T10:16:00.003-06:00

So just before we listed the house, the doorknob on the bathroom door broke off. Hopefully that's the last thing that falls apart before we move. We are renting a U-Haul, so odds are good something will go wrong with that. Anyway, shortly after listing the house, and about six showings, we accepted an offer. Sweet.

Luke is standing up with support now. If you hold his hands while he's sitting, he'll pull himself up to a standing position, and hang off of you until his legs give out. It's pretty cute, because he leans in for lots of hugs, and is very excited to be standing up. Soon enough he will be able to cut a swath of baby-height destruction wherever he goes.

Only one more day of work, and the Department had their move bumped back two days, so I don't have to spend it madly packing office supplies. Hooray!

Things fall apart

2008-05-07T20:30:00.004-06:00

The laptop has lost its left ctrl key. What's going to go next?

Luke has mastered the art of army crawling, raising his status from "speed bump" to "perilously underfoot." The door to the basement needs to be closed, and a close eye kept out to make sure he doesn't drown in the cat's water fountain. When I'm dressing him after his bath, it's on the floor while he crawls around naked making motor boat sounds. "Bbbbbbbbbbbbb! Bbbbbbbbbb! Bbbbbbbbb!"

Preparations to sell the house are coming to an end. We finished the basement painting project - Ralph Lauren "Suede" looks pretty good - and Matt has almost finished putting down new sticky tiles in the laundry room. It's like a really big, really easy puzzle. The flowers we planted last weekend have survived the nights so far, and the grass is coming in. The only thing left to do is re-carpet the basement stair treads that were shredded by the cat (i.e. all of them). Also, we actually have a place to live in Edmonton when we get there. We have a townhouse in the Lord Byron complex lined up for the middle of June (grandparents adjacent).

I guess it's time for me to start obsessing about getting things packed and ready to move. Hoooray!

boring house things

2008-04-26T20:34:00.002-06:00

Matt points out that we never do the cosmetic improvements to our house until it's time to sell it, so we never get to really enjoy them. In this house, it's stripping the awful wallpaper in the basement and painting it. So far, we've stripped the 2 -3 layers of wallpaper (one layer was aquarium themed - awesome), primed, and applied some paintable caulk around the baseboards and trim. Tomorrow, it's painting with our fancy "suede" paint, which will hopefully cover the walls' many imperfections. Also, we didn't do a completely thorough job of stripping the paper.

Well, we decided to take the lazy way out, and not tear down the garage. It appeared that with the time we had left to get the house ready to sell, we weren't going to be able to do something nice with the empty spot. And we would have to find somewhere to store all the stuff in there.

We've completed another step in our plan of destroying everything we own so we don't have to move it. Last week when Matt was repairing the washing machine drain pipe, he unplugged the freezer (on the recommendation of the pvc cement can). A few days ago, when he went to get some meat out, he found a freezer full of luke-warm and mushy food. Woot. I guess we don't have to make an effort at eating things out of the freezer before we move. It was mostly soup-bones, though, so not such a big loss.

In other news, work is boring. There's never much to do at this time of year, during final exams, and then the break before Spring term begins. I spend a lot of time playing scrabble on Facebook. So, my days at work are really like my days off - I do way more on my days at home with Luke.

So tired. Have to paint tomorrow. The end.

Some points of interest

2008-04-20T13:11:00.005-06:00

We've noticed that Luke has the most irregular days, and naps the worst on days when we're both at home. We're not sure if it's the allure of hanging out with both of his parents that keeps him up, or that we're just bad at parenting by committee.
It's wetly snowing outside. I'm happy for the moisture for all all the grass seeds I spread on Friday, and my tulips coming up, and my perennials reviving from the winter. The snow is crunchy and slippery, though, and looks too much like winter, so for those reasons, I wish it would rain instead.
We're having the garage torn down at the end of April. Well, it's more of a glorified shed, but you can fit a Corolla-sized car in there if you need to. Anyway, it was built without a permit, leaks, and leans toward (and encroaches on) our neighbour's property. The neighbour we don't really talk to anymore, since he impounded our cat. Anyway, even though we could just leave it for the new owners to deal with when we sell the house, it seems better to just deal with the problem ourselves.
If you decide to use cloth diapers on your baby, be prepared for him to outgrow his outfits way sooner, as they are designed for sleekly fitting disposable diapers and not the giganto-bum your baby will have in cloth ones. Luke's into his 18-month-size pants already.
It was ridiculously easy to get rid of the floor of our garage. It's made of interlocking patio bricks, and after advertising them on Kijiji for about ten minutes, I had three people willing to dig them up themselves, haul them away, and pay us $100. On second thought, I should have asked for more money.
Luke is not crawling yet, but is trying every other strategy to get from A to B. Like hopping both knees forward, and collapsing; rolling; pulling himself forward with just his arms; and complaining until someone moves his toys closer. My favourite is when he uses his head as a support to get his knees under him and then moves into Downward Dog and tips over.

2 legit 2 quit

2008-04-03T20:01:00.005-06:00

So our strategy for moving this time involves smashing all of our glassware before we pack it up in a shockless U-Haul and drive it cross-prairie. This saves us from the disappointment of unpacking broken glasses, and has the added bonus of reducing the amount of tissue paper I need to scrounge up to fruitlessly pack fragile things. Also, we get to enjoy breaking them ourselves. Seriously, we're down to two wine glasses, and about five regular glasses. But it goes well with our plan to get rid of our crappy furniture rather than move it, and buy new stuff when we get to Edmonton. We haven't ever bought new living room furniture, so I guess this is how we will scratch our seven year itch. We got rid of one love-seat last weekend through FreeCycle, so there's only two more to go.

Being back at work is interesting. I'm sharing the job with a temp - fortunately a very experienced and capable temp - but it is very different from doing it all myself. I have no idea where anything is anymore, people ask me about all kinds of things I've never heard of, and since they switched my computer from the Mac to a PC, all of my links are gone. GONE! Plus, how can I neurotically check my widgits twenty times a day? Well, no matter how bad (or good) it is, it's only for another two months.

Well, Matt has declared that this post is already of an eye-brow-raising length, so here's a picture.

Easter

2008-03-25T19:21:00.005-06:00

So we drove to Edmonton in the night. Luke goes to bed at around five, so we got the car all packed up, went through his usual bedtime routine, and then took off. Well, forty-five minutes later we finally managed to escape the traffic of Saskatoon with our house keys in good hands and some Tim Ho's for on the road supper. We drove through fog for some time around Lloyd, and even saw a mysterious moose just standing in the ditch. It was all foggy and twilight zone-esque, so I can't be sure if it was really a moose, or just a mass (two person) hallucination.

The weekend in Edmonton was fun, although Luke made strange, as we expected he would. It wasn't until Monday that he was willing to let anyone beside me and his father hold him. He also got up on his hands and knees for the first time on Monday, leading us to believe his stationary baby phase won't last much longer. Luke stuck to his routine pretty faithfully, sleeping about 4 hours in the day, and 12 hours at night, and was generally pretty happy and cute. Anyway, we saw family and ate Easter food, and drove around southwest Edmonton looking for townhouses for rent. There are certainly a lot of them for sale. It will be nice when we are back for good, and Luke doesn't need a whole weekend to get used to everyone.

On our drive back, we got to drive through heavy wet snow (again in Lloyd - I think it has its own weather system), but no moose this time. We got in at a reasonable time, but I slept terribly, and didn't go to work today. Woot. I think I picked up someone's cold along the way.

Moving...again

2008-03-17T09:45:00.003-06:00

So, we're moving again. It turns out moving across the country with a small baby in tow doesn't appeal to either of us anymore, especially since it was in the opposite direction of said baby's devoted grandparents. We're committed to hanging around S'toon until the end of May, to keep our employers happy, and then, if we have a place lined up, it'll be U-Haul time. Whee! Boy, given the number of times we've packed up and hauled off, an objective observer might think we enjoy moving. Well, let me assure you, we don't. It will be even more fun this time with a baby and all of his paraphernalia.

Since we'll be back near the U of A, I'm tempted to go back to school to do Speech Pathology, or some other program that leads to an actual career. However, what with little L, and the possibility of more munchkins, it may make more sense to wait until my spawning years are over to finish my education. I suppose I have my whole life to work, and all. Sometimes it feels like it would be more convenient if either sex had the ability to get pregnant, so we could take it in turns. Ah well, I guess we'll just have to work with the biological limitations we were given.

Anyway, it will be nice to be back near family and friends and familiar places.

Vertigo

2008-03-09T20:50:00.003-06:00

We're watching the Alfred Hitchcock movie Vertigo - well, I'm watching between sterilizing bottles, hanging diapers and blogging. It's not bad for an old movie, even if the suspenseful score has nothing on the atonal music used in modern thrillers. I'm supposed to be in a "whirlwind of suspense," but at most, it's an intriguing mystery. I have a feeling the main character's fear of heights is going to take a pivotal role in the climax of the movie. Also, it might be just my opinion, but some sort of serial killer or swamp monster would be more frightening than a crazy lady who is possessed by the ghost of a sad, dead spanish girl who wants to jump in the San Francisco Bay.

Um, so it has warmed up again, and L and I can go for long walks in the stroller. It's all melty and icy out, which makes it fun, especially when some considerate citizens haven't shovelled their sidewalks all winter. It makes me feel like whipping ice chunks at their houses.

I'm going back to work next week. My supervisor called me - apparently the department is in dire straits secretary-wise, and asked if I could job-share with their current mat-leave replacement. Since Matt isn't that excited about his filing job, he was willing to stay home two days a week so I could go interact with adults again. So, Tuesdays and Thursdays, he gets to be a stay-at-home dad, and I get to leave the house. It should be good.

Nothing much

2008-03-03T09:14:00.003-06:00

The weather has turned cold again. We were taunted with a few balmy days approaching and exceeding zero, and now it's below -10 again. Not cool. I'm going to have to get a weather shield for the stroller so little L and I can go outside even when the weather isn't perfect. He's not a big fan of cold wind in his face, and although he hasn't yet experienced rain, I can make a pretty good guess that he won't enjoy that either.

This weekend we went out for a couple of walks, since it was so nice, and L got to look around outside, which he enjoys thoroughly. It gets pretty boring looking at all the same things in our little house. The spring Saskatoon Leisure Guide is supposed to come out soon, so I'm thinking of signing up for some mom 'n tot swimming. I guess that means I need a bathing suit. That fits. Woot. There's nothing like trying on bathing suits to crush your self esteem after your body has produced offspring. I need to get some women's swimming trunks like all the hip surfer girl wanna-bes are wearing. They leave a little more to the imagination, at least.

Theo seems to sense that spring in approaching, too. He spends more time crouching at the front door, sniffing at the draft that comes through. Also, he's been doing more wind sprints up and down the stairs, over the couch, and through the kitchen. I think he's getting in shape for the spring hunting season, wishfully thinking that he'll be allowed outside. Sorry, cat. You'll have to content yourself with windowsills for another summer.

Daddy's little fatty

2008-02-25T13:51:00.005-06:00

Have I mentioned that little L is turning into a roly-poly baby? Not in the grand scheme of things, as he's only in the 25th percentile for weight, but at 15 pounds, 10 ounces, that's a leap of 20 percentiles since last month. Must be all the banana beef oatmeal surprise. He's got a pronounced second chin, and sturdy little thighs, and this blubber made his six month shots go a little more smoothly than his previous ones.

Also, since I failed to find a suitable housecoat for Matt's birthday present, I've been scouring the net for online options (read: looked at the top ten results of a Google search "men's robe"). The only nice flannel ones I could find came from American vendors, and only one will ship to Canada. It's nice that the dollar is at par, so the real price won't come as a surprise with my Mastercard bill. Anyway, it sure is fun to give your address to the American customer service agent. "Saskatoon? Could you spell that? Okay, and what province? Saska- uh... and how do you spell that?" I could say, just like it sounds, but I don't think the package would ever get here.

Feeding

2008-02-20T13:46:00.003-06:00

The introduction of solid foods to Little L's diet has been a learning experience for both of us. L is learning how to eat off a spoon, how to grab the spoon and whip it across the kitchen, and how to turn his bowl upside down. I'm learning how to navigate the feeding process like one of those tricky mini golf holes, with the windmill that knocks the ball out of the way, and the hole that has even odds of spitting out the ball. Except, this windmill will grab your club and fling it away, requiring a stock of three or four putters to complete the hole. I've discovered that, like most babies, L would prefer to eat only fruit and vegetables in the category "orange." I managed to get some "beef and broth" by him this afternoon by mixing in a healthy dollop of pureed banana. Now, beef, oatmeal and banana isn't something I would find appealing, but L thought it was a-okay. So was cereal, chicken and vegetable casserole and apricot all smooshed together. I wonder at what point kids move from loving an indeterminate mix of mush to demanding complete segregation of their foods. With the crust cut off, and no toppings on their cheese pizzas.

Stuff

2008-02-18T20:19:00.005-06:00

This can't be the first post I've called "stuff" but I hit a creative low at about this time of the evening. Now that I have all this time in the evening, I feel like I should be more productive, so I'm blogging. It's pretty much the least productive thing I can do, in practical terms. Oh well. Since Little L has taken to the bottle with enthusiasm, I can let Matt take some of his feedings when he's home. It's kind of liberating, but it feels like L's phase of being a little baby is over, since he doesn't need me so much any more.

Mom and Dad came up for the weekend to visit the grandchild and babysit while Matt and I went out. Matt's birthday was last week, so we went out for sushi and a movie to celebrate. We saw Juno, which was great, and the sushi was pretty good too. Little L goes to bed at 5 pm now, so all mom had to do was give him his 8 pm feeding and put him back to bed. He still wakes up every 3 or 4 hours for a feeding, but sometimes it's 5 or 6 hours. I still have hope for an 8 hour sleep before he's a year old.

Anyway, L is still making strange with anyone and everyone, but my dad is pretty consistent at scaring him with just a look. He figures he should get his eyebrows waxed for next time, to see if that makes any difference. You can see from the picture that he managed to hold him for about a minute, when armed with a bottle. Mom sounds a lot like me, so she usually manages to make friends within a few hours of seeing him again. Mom and I finished the nursery curtains I had started, and Matt hung them and rearranged the furniture, so it's quite a nice little room. I'd take a picture of it, but it's currently occupied by a sleeping Little L.

Big L should go sleep too. That midnight feeding comes up faster than you'd think.

1/2 Birthday

2008-02-11T08:31:00.000-06:00

It's been six months today since Little L made like a baby and headed out. For his birthday he received two teeth from the Tooth Fairy (I understand that they're just on loan for six or seven years) and the ability to steam-roll anywhere he wants to go (from the Gross Motor Control Fairy). That is, anywhere within a few feet of where he started. Even so, he's becoming quite a hazard. It's time to start thinking about baby proofing the house, I guess. Matt bought a couple of wall-mounted shelves for CDs and things, but they're still sitting on the living room floor. Then there's the baby gate to purchase and then figure out where to put, preventing the baby from falling down the stairs but still allowing the cat to access his litter box. Theo's pretty spry, though, so he should be able to manage wherever we put it.

It's still ridiculously cold here, so Little L and I went to the mall again yesterday to get out of the house. No matter how pathetic the mall in Saskatoon is to me, he's very interested in all there is to see. The Centre at 8th has murals painted and little galleries all through this underground tunnel that connects the two halves of the mall. It also has various kiosks with flashing lights, mall-walking grandmas, and stores with brightly coloured toys and candy. Also, if I forget to bring my wallet, like I did yesterday, I'm in no danger of making it an expensive outing. It's probably not a good idea to drive the car without my license too often, though.

My parents are coming to visit on the weekend, so once again I'm conscripting my mother to help me sew curtains. It's hard for Little L to take his afternoon nap when his room is filled with the afternoon sun. I found some nice blue material with teddy bears, butterflies and dragonflies, which should make his room look more like a nursery and less like a collection of random furniture, bookshelves, plants and a crib. Woot!

Sleep

2008-02-03T12:08:00.000-06:00

Parenting has radically changed for me in the last week or so. Up until very recently, little L was sleeping with me all night, having little snacks and nursing himself to sleep every time he woke up. This worked really well for his first three to four months of life. However, in the last month or so, he starting waking up more and more frequently, until he was nursing every 45 minutes in bed. We were both pretty frustrated about the lack of sleep going on. Matt bought a sensitive new-age book on helping your baby to fall asleep on his own, and we gave it some serious consideration. We made a bedtime routine, moved his bedtime earlier, tried to attach him to a "lovey" of some sort. Unfortunately, I ran out of steam before any of this really worked. Now some of you will smugly think that this was ever the only way, and some of you will cringe, but we let him cry it out. It sucked. But... it worked. He's gone from sleeping with me for every nap and night-time, to sleeping in his crib, with only a little crying before he falls asleep. He's actually having long naps, and 3-4 hour sleep intervals at night. He goes to bed sometime between 5 and 7 pm, and Matt and I have the evening to ourselves. And in the morning, we have a happy, well-rested baby. If there is one book I wish I had read while I was pregnant, it's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weisbluth. I might have been able to prevent little L's poor sleep habits before they got out of hand. Anyway, we are all enjoying much better sleep at our house.

In unrelated news, my Early's seed catalogue arrived on Friday, and now I have a serious case of garden-lust. Sure, it's -30 outside and snows every other day, but I am looking forward to planting Russian fingerling potatoes, pak choi, and lots and lots of peas. In a month it will be time to start my tomato plants and whatever else I'm going to experiment with this year. I'm also curious to see if our tulip bulbs come up, and if the perennials I planted last year survived the winter. One nice thing about all this snow is that the plants have a good boost of moisture in the spring when it all melts.