dafeist

2009-04-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

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it's been so long...

2008-07-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

What have we been doing lately?
Not knitting, no... Summer's just barreling through and it seems like I have no time to do anything. So instead of knitting the Noro socks I had my eyes on, I've been spending time with Renovatin' Nico and trying to accomplish things that don't seem to be getting anywhere. Sounds vague enough? That's my story and, er, well, you get the idea....

We had this great day planned for the family yesterday that had been in the works for some time. We had gotten our Granby zoo tickets (thanks airmiles!), had packed healthy snacks and lunches, had everything ready to go... Then the rain forecast happened. So instead of wasting our precious tickets on a maybe-rainy day, we went to the Biodome instead. Hey, isn't that the purpose of our yearly pass anyways? So while Liam ran through the place, Romi refused to take interest in anything. She ignored the fishes and birds and just had fun walking through the place (against traffic of course)... It was fun anyways.
Here's Liam asking for a "little snack" for the french speakers!

End of an era?

2008-06-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

Makes me sad to think about it... But I've started to sell off my beloved diaper stash.
I said goodbye to Goodmama's a few months back.
Now it's goodbye Firefly's, Clover's, Mutt's, BabyBeehinds... Sigh.
No good keeping all these diapers when I just use them on weekends, right? Since CPE's (daycare) are cloth-haters, I must make do.

I've been using g-diapers for nights (since they're flushable) but they are expensive, & buying 7th Generation from the US for daycare, but will be switching to Nature Baby Care as soon as I've used up the 7th Generation.

Why? Because 1.they're selling here in Canada 2.they are plastic free 3. compostable 4. no dioxins.
So the switch to disposables is being made in the most ecological way I could find.

We also visited friends over the weekend. The kids were all well behaved around the table, and boy was there food!!! Liam ate and ate and ate. And we met the new addition, an almost 4 weeks old Kelsey.

renovatin'

2008-05-25T17:06:00.001-07:00

We had a great week!! Started last week or so. Nico painted the nasty mustard yellow decrepit brick black. We had too, the addition we built looked like it had been stuck on the duplex with crazy glue. So Nico redid the grout and shocked the heck out of our upstairs tenants (added bonus). Notice our newly planted Ginkgo Biloba in the forefront- the oldest tree on earth!

Next time, pictures of our newly finished deck!!

Kisses from our girl, just cause.

And Liam's crowning achievement: he finally gave up his night binkies!!! Yes, we are horrid parents that let our 3.5 yr old sleep with a binky. But how could I say no when he slept so well with them? And he was terrified of losing his binky... But fearing that the separation angst would grow as he aged, we took out the big guns. An exchange. A firetruck. A trip to the firestation.
The fireman was very accommodating and took Liam's ziplocked treasure with the promise that a truck would be forthcoming (I was waiting outside with it, it was donated to us by a kind coworker seeing how hard I had been searching for a solid truck that could take a beating). He sleeps with it every night and hasn't asked for his binky since (ok, he asked Nico but I wasn't there, so it doesn't really count).

We had fun eating ice-cream, miss coconut was laying musical chairs tasting everyone's cone!! Zélia's biscotti ice cream was the clear winner. And this was way past her bed time. And she still fell right asleep. So there.

Look at those 2 teeth!! So cute. Even if she's crying :)

...

2008-05-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

Spring is here. For real!!!
We planted 3 trees and transplanted our lilac in the front of the house, I planted sugar peas and radishes (my first attempt at gardening, other than herbs) and we cleaned the BBQ.

And since I called in sick from work today, I finally have time to post while drinking my ginger ale to ease my woozy tummy.

Romi is doing amazingly well at daycare, she's a doll! All the staff seem to just love her. I'm still pumping at work so it's like I'm with her during that time... Somehow.

Bonne Fête Romi!!!!!

2008-04-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

One year old today. I'm not as sad as I thought I would be, maybe the daycare integration took care of the separation angst. I'm still super sad though, just not *as sad* as I thought I'd be. But I'll miss her like crazy. And now that I'm writing this out, I'm feeling soooo nostalgic and broken. Cause no one will ever love her as much as I do.

On with the show.

Here's a retrospective look at what we went through one year ago today. It started off rough with a fractured femur 2 weeks before I gave birth to Miss coconut... And Liam came home with a spica cast 3 days after I gave birth.

Our stay in the hospital:

And even though I was saddened due to my induction (pre-eclampsia), and I was stuck in the nastiest of all hospitals (Royal-Victoria), and that we had an injured boy at home, it was still the best day of my life. I can speak for Nico as well as myself when I say that our 2 kids are the best thing that ever happened to us. I won't go into the cheesiness, but it is what it is. And we are, finally, a family.

Spring time

2008-04-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

Can you hear the birds chirping? The sound of water dripping from meting snow? Yes, spring is here!!! It came so suddenly that I never saw it coming. And now it's here. And I'm happy.

See the crocuses?? Proof!! Proof of spring!!! And my tulips were growing beneath the snow. I'm always amazed that plants know when spring has arrived and grow under snow.

Miss coconut started daycare last week, and along with my broken heart, this has resulted in a cold and a stomach virus. I've never seen so much vomit. Ever. Out her nose, everywhere. 4 hours straight, non stop. It was an experience. She's adapted fairly well to daycare but is nursing like crazy at home, so I suspect she's dealing with attachment issues. As I am. I feel terrible every time I leave her there. And I hate putting her in paper diapers instead of cloth. But the daycare doesn't do cloth diapers.

But here she is, on a glorious spring day, getting the hang of walking outside (weird how she walks better inside than outside).

And for some spring inspired knitting: market shawl. I like the easy pattern and love the Noro Cashmere Island yarn. Shades of fuschia, teal, black and navy. Yum. This was my "before knitting a Clapotis" project.

Mittens galore!!

2008-03-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Could this be an obsession in the making?
I'm on my 3rd pair of Noro mittens. Scary, no? It seems that I'm the type of knitter that wants to do something over and over before moving on. It's kind of pathetic. I need to get hooked on socks quickly, at least before summer comes, to obsess over something a tad more useful.

And Liam's obsession du jour (he loves cow udders - nursing nostalgia perhaps?):

Easter was a blast even if I didn't knit the little bunnies I had planned to... Busy doing mittens will do that to a gal.

We did not give miss Coconut any chocolate (yeah, I know, I'm an evil mother) yet I found remnants of green foil in her diapers the next day. Go figure.

Here she is with her new accomplishment - sticking out her tongue. All.day.long. If she wasn't so darn cute, it might be weird, but she's so yummy that we're enamored with this new "milestone"!!

March is cruel

2008-03-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

I wish I had something witty and fun to say, but I have to admit that the snow is really getting to me. I feel like winter is dragging on and on and on. And now the latest 35cm of snow actually covered a third of my living room window. Cruel.
Liam and Nico came back from playing in the snow last night with a new friend. He had been abandoned and nearly destroyed, so the two of them decided to take him home and put him back together. Doesn't he look happy?

So today I decided to bow down to the gods of winter. I accept that there will be snow till June. I will not think about flip flops and tank tops for another 6 months, and in so doing, decided to make Nico a pair of his very own Noro mittens. Woo-hoo him. I am amazed that I remembered how to c/o 2 mittens on one magic loop. Kate must be a much better teacher than she gives herself credit for. Cause I have a serious case of the mama-boob-brain, meaning my smarts are on hiatus while miss Coconut is draining me of all my liquids and, well, sleep.

Felicity

2008-02-28T05:10:00.000-08:00

I admit it. I used to watch the show. And when I'd visit NYC, I'd go to Dean & DeLuca just, well, cause. I bought a few souvenirs for Zelia as well. Cause she was even more hardcore Felicity than I was.
So here's my Felicity. I'm going to make an amended version for Nico... It's such a fun, fast knit. Doncha love hats?

Here's Nico's finished version. Notice how there's hardly any slouch, well Nico vetoed the slouch on his hat. Big baby.
I really like the Berroco Ultra Alpaca, it drapes really nicely and makes a warm (but not too thick) hat.

Ok, fine, she looks like him...

2008-02-25T08:31:00.000-08:00

I have to face the facts. Miss Coconut is Nico's spitting image. I've got proof. No matter how many people that tell me she looks "just like you!" I can no longer deny the resemblance.

And I just finished a Noro hat for Liam. As a bonus, here he is actually *gasp* smiling!!

sourire!

2008-02-22T06:08:00.000-08:00

As soon as the camera turns on and we tell him to smile, this is the face he makes!!
He looks so serious, doesn't he? And don't you just love his choice of footwear? We should move to the suburbs, the shame.
Yes, Nico is checking the floorboards in this picture. The man is obsessed with his handywork.

J'adore Liam le soir à l'heure du dodo. Dès que c'est le temps de partir, il exige une calin, un bec et un bisou. Par la suite il met ses petit bras à l'entour de mon cou et me dit : c'est une clôture! T'es pris. Tu peux pas sortir.
Pis ça veut dire que je peux vraiment pas partir. Pas le droit de briser sa clôture, oh non. Ça serait le drame assuré!
Il est le petit garçon le plus affectueux du monde entier!!

the pool...

2008-02-21T06:03:00.000-08:00

Went to the pool this week with miss Coconut with a dear friend and her lovely daughter Sofia.

She seemed to like the water well enough but was on me like velcro! She loved the shallow area and was crawling around in it, she was such a doll! I think the chlorine water is not the best for her eczema though, so I think I'll have to limit the pool with her :(
We have another pooldate this weekend with Liam (aka dafeist) and Sofia's older sister. I think I'll keep miss coconut home.

10 months old today!

2008-02-13T05:34:00.000-08:00

Noooooooooooo!!!
Stay small!! Don't grow. I'm just.so.depressed. She is my last and she won't stop growing. I never thought having children was such a bittersweet experience. That every milestone brings some joy and some sadness. That seeing them grow makes me want to hang on for a little bit longer than I should. I wish I could stop time. I wish I could go back and re-experience liam as a baby. To give him what I didn't know he needed at the time. Why am I so darn nostalgic?

This is miss coconut 1 year ago (I blatantly copied Kris's idea, hope she doesn't mind!) :

varia

2008-02-07T07:10:00.001-08:00

Merci matante. Pour le méga beau chapeau.
Looking dazed and confused like a Britney Spears wannabe, here's miss Coconut sporting her wonderful faux-fur-white-trash hat. She's such a star!

French toast for supper? Sure hon. Am I not the most glorious mom that ever lived!?!

Can you feel the love? This is the extent of sibling interaction we get at this house. I am soooo envious of people posting pictures of their kids sleeping together or playing together, or just plain not hurting one another. Not me. My son pinches, scratches, pushes miss coconut every chance he gets. All under the veil of over excitement and not from outright aggression, but it still breaks my heart.

In her new car seat...

2008-02-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

I jumped through hoops to get a silly print for her new carseat!! We realllly wanted the cowmooflage but it wasn't available in Canada for the Britax Roundabout. So I ordered it from the states. After going through hell to get the seat from UPS without having to pay their brokerage fee, we have our seat!!! So soft and lovely and comfy. We love it!!

Here she is babbling in her car seat. Sorry, the camera motion might make you nauseous!

2 mittens on magic loop. Didn't think I'd get through, but I'm nearing the end!! I love knitting with Noro, the colors are just so much fun! Not the softest yarn, but for mittens I don't care. I just like the bright, non-matchy effect it has. Hopefully they won't be weirdly mismatched. Considering on side has 4 more stitches than the other. Don't ask.

My first pair of (successful) mittens!!

2008-01-23T05:57:00.001-08:00

This is Kate Gilbert's Gifted pattern, super duper easy and QUICK!! Love it. And best of all, Nico loves them too! I used chunky alpaca and some black Galway to get gauge. Mitts are a tad big, but warm and fuzzy. I think I'll make myself a pair next. Yum.

Here are a few more pictures of miss coconut:

Standing

Falling

And for fun...

2008-01-23T05:47:00.000-08:00

Après les problèmes avec notre téléphone/boîte vocale qui ne fonctionne pas, maintenant j'ai des problèmes avec l'internet. Je devrais retourner avec un vieux téléphone avec un cadran et une connection internet téléphonique! On se rappelle du bon vieux temps quand on ne pouvait pas recevoir des appels pendant qu'on était sur le web, et la belle musqique que notre ordi faisait en se connectant! Ahhh les beaux souvenirs :o)

Mon projet d'hiver (Seaweed) se continue lentement... C'est comme un peu plate comme project, ribbing, ribbing, ribbing. Beurk. Mais une fois complété, Nico va être capable d'utiliser le porte-bébé sans mettre le manteau sur miss coconut.

Dadou

2008-01-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

Was Liam's favorite word when he was a baby (he even named his fave toy elephant mr. dadou) and now it's Romi's!!
After much prompting, here she is, saying it for the camera :o)

les shakes

2008-01-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

Je vais tenter de mon mieux de réduire ma consommation de café au minimum. Est-que mes 3 cafés par jour sont la cause du sommeil fragile de Romi? On va s'mettre le coeur net!

Jour 1: Incapable d'arrêter ma consommation de caféine à 100%. 1 café le matin. Cause perdue? Ben non, on fait donc un premier tests de quelques jours avec seulement un café par jour.

crack baby

2008-01-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

I drank 3 coffees in a few hours. This is Romi.

Sad

2008-01-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

You know it's a sad day when you have to sell 2 of your beloved diapers. A gnome Muttaqin and a Goodmama. Why? Cause I went overboard with purchases. And these were the least painful of the lot that I could part with. The Mutt isn't a knit print, so didn't stretch as well as my others and the Goodmama faded after the first wash so I was scared to use it in case it faded anymore.

Oh how I loved the Gnome print. I stalked for it, felt the thrill of the hunt, hands shaking, blood pressure going sky high while I refreshed my computer screen at 7:59:59pm. I got it. But I never realized it was a woven print. Until it came to live with me :(

Those of you who share my love of diapers can surely empathise. Lets all take a moment to wish these 2 diapers farewell, and hope they will land in a loving new home.

OMG!!!

2008-01-05T18:52:00.001-08:00

He peed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Liam the boy-who-will-not-potty-train peed 3 times in his potty today!!! Could it be the beginning of the end? We went diaperless today and while I had to prompt him to use the potty and bribe him with raisins so he'd stay on it, it worked! Not one accident and 3 sweet victories. I know it won't mean much to most of you and you might be snickering that the boy should've been potty-trained a long time ago, but he would just refuse to use the potty. Ok, potties. But he did today. And I am the happiest mama in the world!!!

Bonne Année Grand Nez!

2008-01-04T06:37:00.000-08:00

Une nouvelle année qui débute... Je peux pas croire, déjà 2008?

Lazy. That's what I am. Lazy. Lazy. Or is it tired?
I haven't written anything in ages and I'm kinda feeling bad about that. Kinda.

But Liam has been home for the holidays, which means, no computer time unless it's during naps... Speaking of which:

Isn't eat the yummiest when he's sleeping? *sigh*

Let's see. I am presently bouncing Romi on the exercise ball in my Kozy MeiTai trying to get her to fall asleep so I can type this. She is pulling my hair in protest. Why won't she go to sleep?? Doesn't she realise that if she won't sleep now, then the whole day is going to be a mess? I'm about to give up but I have to go to the market but if she hasn't slept she will be so cranky that I'm fearing a total meltdown. Not a fun prospect in below zero weather with a baby stuck to my chest in a baby carrier. Where's summer? Oh how I miss thee.

Wait a minute! Her eyes just closed for a millisecond longer than before... Could she be on her way to sleeping? Nope, false alarm.

I'm a bit late with this, but we had a great christmas. Decided to forgo the conventional christmas supper and replaced it with a christmas brunch. It was soooo much more enjoyable than last year! Lets face it, kids past 5pm are no fun. So why torture myself?

Morning is where it's at.

Here's a picture of the 4 siblings together. A rare occurrence.... I think it's been years since I've been photographed with my brothers and sister, and yep, you guessed it, every picture is blurry. I need to give Nico a crash course on how to use the manual settings on my camera...

And the rest of the gang (minus my 2 kiddos since they were, by that time, finally napping.)

La neige!!

2007-12-11T05:06:00.000-08:00

I'm scared the snow will end up covering our windows!! Darnit, the stuff did not melt. I guess I can deal with it. Until January. Then that stuff needs to GO!!

beets -yum!

2007-12-07T17:21:00.001-08:00

tricot...

2007-12-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

Bon, je suis rendu la pro des tuques, ok, juste certaines tuques, mais quand même. Et là je tente ma chance avec des bas... Mais c'est l'enfer. Car je les recommences toujours. Je les fais trop grands, trop petits, trop bizarre... Bref, à date, pas génial mon affaire.

Je suis dans la réorganisation de mes photos de projets... Alors en voici quelques-un...

C'est l'hiver...

2007-11-30T09:06:00.000-08:00

Ben oui. On savait bien que l'hiver allait s'installer ici, mais j'étais sous l'impression que ce serait plus tard qu'au mois de novembre... Bon, on a pas le choix, on va vivre avec... Mais bout de viarge que j'm'ennuie de l'été et de ma cours plein de soleil...

Romi is now EVERYWHERE she shouldn't be. It's getting to be exhausting now. The girl crawls, stands, pulls stuff off the shelves. Finds dust bunnies, ok eats the dust bunnies (and everything liam leaves in his path). She makes a beehive for the table, crawls underneath and eats whatever crumbs she finds there. Gross, I know. I'm gonna need to do some serious reorganisation to contend with her. Liam never crawled, so I wasn't expecting this. yep, I'm an idiot.

Oh and I've done the one thing I had promised I'd never do : I put a bow in my sweet daughter's hair... Just to see. You know. Shhhh, don't tell Nico ;o)

Un p'tit vidéo?? Ou même deux?

2007-11-11T13:57:00.001-08:00

November blah

2007-11-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Where did summer go? It's freezing out, and I have clothes on the line supposedly drying, and little snowflakes falling. WTF??? It wasn't supposed to come that fast, but hey, I say that every year.

Romi's been sick the past few day... Ok, make that weeks. Sleeping has turned into nursing marathons and I.am.so.tired.already.
And she's crawling.
And she gets annoyed when she gets stuck somewhere. So she's not as happy as she once was. But she is growing up to be as charming as ever. Weird how she can be cranky and yummy at the same time...

New start

2007-10-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are. Halloween's in a few hours... Liam is now 3 yrs old. Sniff. Where has the time gone? Nico made the most scrumptious ladybug costume for him last night while I knitted a headband to hold his antennas. Of course last night he explained to us he wanted to be a butterfly and no longer a ladybug. To which I replied that butterflies eat broccoli. And ladybugs eat candy. So he decided to stay with the plan. Good choice.