Wonders

There are wonders everywhere.

This morning, I lay in bed with Baby at my breast, and my husband spooning me as I watched the rising sun light up the Northshore mountains. Isn't that the most wonderful?

Baby tried yogurt for the first time and he loved it! No gagging- how wonderful!

Got my scrabble-butt kicked by my uncle Pascal who lives in Toronto! We're playing a game online and he used all his letters to spell s-t-a-l-l-i-o-n. How wonderful to play with a loved one who lives so far away!

After breakfast, Baby had his first swimming lesson! How wonderful it was to watch him clutch his plastic ball and float around with his dad!

 

 It's only 11:00am and already so many wonders!

Top 5 Mommy Tools of the Trade

1. My slow cooker! How wonderful it is to prep when Baby is napping and to smell dinner when we come home from the park! It's the best! Check out the web or Secrets of Slow Cooking for tasty recipes. The lamb tagine with raisins is amazing! (Thanks Dolly for this discovery)

2. The Kensington Library. I love my local library. No late fees for kids gives you plenty of time to find books lost in the car or under the couch. Our favorite book these days is "Gallop", a scanimation picture book. The library also offers cool programs like "Man on the Moon" a story time hour with dads and babies only. How cool is that?

3. Our dishwasher. To think that my husband and I almost bought a 101 year old, fixer-upper house without a dishwasher this summer.... what were we thinking? I love, love, love my dishwasher!

4. Cardboard boxes. Nothing new here. Best toys ever.

5. Smelly soaps.  I treat myself to a fancy soap every month. Off limits for my husband. ah ah! It's cheaper than a massage and smells like the spa!

An amazing Halloween treat

Here is why I can't complain about the library being closed and having to carry all of Baby's books back home.  I was privileged to see this beautiful bird just above me on the way home. I love living in Vancouver!

Getting Crafty

There's something about being on maternity leave and at home that gets you feeling really crafty! You want to use your sewing machine again, start painting or scrapbooking, and can your own food. You visit Etsy and you start dreaming about starting your own pink tutu making business. Why not, right?

I decided to start simple: to recover my white, stained, dining room chair seats covers. Easy right? First get some fabric, unscrew the seats from the chairs and then staple the new fabric over the seats, and then ta-da! New covers!

Day 1. Visited the fabric store, brought home fabric which was promptly vetoed by my husband. Good call babe.
Day 2. Visited another fabric store, picked out something similar to the original fabric but that has specks in it to hide the stains better.
Day 3. Drove to my mom's to get her stapler.
Day 4. Walked to Canadian Tire to get staples. They didn't have any that fit.
Day 5. Walked to Rona to get staples. The guy there laughed at me and said that they didn't carry staples for that stapler anymore because the model was too old and to try their competition.
Day 6. Drove to Home Depot to get staples. Forgot to bring the stapler but did bring the model number. They didn't have the right staples, but suggested to try others instead. They didn't work.
Day 7. Went into the storage room, suddenly remembering that I had my own stapler. No staples.
Day 8. Return old staples to Home Depot, try to find new staples for my own stapler. No staples.

You would think that after all this, all the while lugging, pushing, and carrying Baby, that I would give up!

WELL, I DID!!!!! (only after I had a major tantrum when my husband, who didn't know about all this, asked me why I hadn't finished my covers yet.)

This is a classic case of not listening to the universe! Until a stapler fully loaded with staples rings my doorbell,  I officially give up and I'm okay with it! At least I have the fabric!

On a more positive note, I have successfully completed other crafts since then. Thanks to my friend Michelle for inspiration and my mom for her help! I made some cute pants and a hat for Baby from a pair of old maternity pants and some curtains. I will not be on Etsy anytime soon.

The Case of the Wet Towels

I have attended "New Mommy Groups" and have met new moms and their babies as well as received good advice from the nurses there about safety, nutrition, development etc... but what about the really important issues like;


The Case of the Wet Towels:

Finally baby is napping. I get to take that long awaited shower. Ah! the privacy, the hot, steaming water and fresh soap smell! What bliss! And as I bring a towel to my face, Bam! The stink of rotten, moldy bacteria fills my nose. All the towels are still damp and moldy.

Solution:

1. Wipe myself down with a moldy, damp towel, effectively canceling out all the bliss of the shower.
2. Wipe myself down with the small, dry, dirty hand towel.
3. Silently blame beloved husband for not putting the towels in the dryer which seems to be the only way to prevent this moldy issue.

No one tells you at the new mommy group why this becomes such a big issue, why I want to cry over these wet towels, why talking to my beloved husband about it makes it seems like a much bigger deal than it should be. Like, come on, wet towels?  
Not the end of the world, right? But it feels like it is!

My good friend Carolina, who has 3 lovely daughters, listened to my plea, and reassured me that I wasn't crazy for crying about wet towels and that as a new mom, sometimes things like that can really put a damper (no pun intended) on your day. And it's okay to cry over it! And it's okay to lose your cool!

So lessons learned:

1. When you need advice don't ask the newbies, ask those with experience! Thanks Carolina for making me laugh about it all!
2. When you need dry towels, think of solution that works and just ask again nicely. Thanks, my beloved husband, for being on board with me!