grandad

My father is probably this blog's biggest fan. I get plaintive phone calls when I haven't updated in a few days. It's pretty cute. I'm not the only one who things my dad is awesome though, Leila grins from ear to ear when he comes in the room. Here she's all curled about and about to fall asleep at the breakfast table.

auntie manders

Amanda is getting married tomorrow.

One of my first memories of Amanda is her explaining why she'd broken up with her ex, "he just didn't read you know? I couldn't handle it." I totally knew. The love of your life has to read. You have to be able to talk about books. It's one of the greatest joys in life. I'm so happy Amanda found herself a wonderful book loving, baby friendly, charming eccentric in Matthew.

And for the record, when your friends have a baby take a page out of Amanda and Matthew's book and come over with: enough stew for three meals, rolls, salad and homemade salad dressing, corn chips and dip. Oh and pizza to eat that night. Yeah, they pretty much rule.

Here's to the two of you, your generosity and warmth make the world a kinder place.

oxo

missing: one psychedelic elephant

Leila's blue plush elephant with orange plastic ears is missing! This travesty occurred because I foolishly allowed her to take him on a walk with us after she protested loudly when I removed him from her hands. He is probably somewhere on the sidewalk between our house and Hastings and Nanaimo.

Blue elephant is a delicate creature prone to singing nonsense songs about rainbows and diamonds in the sky with his hippopotamus girlfriend called Lucy. He lives entirely on a diet of baby drool and by now is probably very hungry.


If you see this elephant approach softly he is quite small and easily frightened by non-babies.

Reward offered for his replacement or retrieval. Brethren available at Ikea for 99 cents.

The only known photo of Mr. Blue Elephant with a very sad Leila 

(note that even in the depths of despair she is still clinging to him).

coffee angst

So I've been trying to drink coffee again. Aside from one brief foray months ago when sleep deprivation got the better of me, I've been off it since I found out I was pregnant. I love coffee. But I am currently sitting here three hours after having half a cup and my stomach is twisting itself into the most awfulest of knots and I feel a little bit like a kid who borrowed her friend's ritalin. Ugg, I'm totally going to be one of those decaf drinking moms. Gross.

half a year with you

Dear Leila,

Tomorrow you will be six months old. It really feels like a long time, and not just because I've barely slept. You're really your own person now. You smile all the time and you're laughing more and more everyday. People keep commenting on what a happy baby you are, it's wonderful. You and your dad are getting along better too. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see the big smiles you give him when he gets home from work.

To say that you were a demanding baby doesn't even come close to explaining what the first six months were like.  But now, now I feel like you genuinely love me. You curl your chubby little arms around me when I'm holding you, and reach out for me when you want to be picked up. You giggle and bury your head in my chest when I tickle you.

These instances don't really do justice to the change that's taken place over the past couple of months.  There were nights when I would stare out at the water after you'd gone to bed wondering how this had happened. How we'd ended up here, the three of us each seemingly lost and inconsolable. But now you wake up burbling to yourself instead of crying, you splash in your bath instead of wailing, and in return we love you with the kind of love you feel when you know it is being returned.

oxo

Mom

days like this one

You know that friend you have you who is ridiculously organized and does everything perfectly? She always has her pictures in nice frames (not in a file on her desktop called "to develop"), her bathroom smells nice, she's impeccably dressed, and everything she cooks looks like it just fell out of Gourmet magazine? Well, when that friend throws you a party, let me tell you, it rules. A lot. I'm lucky enough to have two such women in my life, one of them threw me a baby shower (mad props Spankie) and Kate took over in the wedding department.

Gorgeous hand-painted sign courtesy of the lovely Elise Quarmby, artistic genius.

My dear friend Katie threw me an "unbridal shower" today and it was just lovely. We all got together and had tea and played games, and open presents (even though I told them not to bring any), and then they all kicked my ass at croquet. In my defense, I was winning before I put a very sleepy, grumpy Leila is the front carrier and obstructed my view of the ground. The funny thing was, I noticed a number of my favourite songs playing in the background and thought, "hmm that's funny, how the hell would Kate have got a hold of The Weakerthans, Flogging Molly and Blondie?" Just as I sitting congratulating her in my head she told me that my lovely friend Jeff Wint had made a play list as his contribution to the afternoon. Awesome.

But I digress. It was so nice to spend an afternoon with my favourite girls. It was also lovely to have a whole bunch of other willing hands to hold Lise while I went to the bathroom or opened my presents. I feel very lucky to have such wonderful friends. I know this post isn't really about my baby, but sometimes I get so wrapped up with her I forget the rest of my life and today was such a lovely reminder of the great people I have in it. So thanks everyone, you guys are great.

Kate & Me, oh and that baby too.

(Photos taken by Cindy Bouchard, thanks!!)

solid(ish) foods

I know you're supposed to wait until babies are six months old to feed them solids. However, almost everyone I know has started earlier and their babies seem to be fine. So after Leila made yet another mad grab for my cereal this morning I was all: "fine, I'll get you some." And she was all, "thank god woman, I've only been asking for a month."

I was expecting her to be really bummed on her rice cereal with breast milk combo that looked like something a momma wolf would regurgitate for her young, but Leila was surprisingly into it. She grabbed the spoon right out of my hands and attempted to feed herself, which worked to a degree, but she hasn't yet mastered the refilling concept. We'll have to see how her stomach handles it over the next couple days, but so far she is stoked.

"Woman, I can do it myself!"

"Please, Sir, can I have some more?"