text-align: center;Lilypie 1st Birthday Ticker My eternal quest for a hobby: January 2007

My eternal quest for a hobby

Monday, January 29, 2007

Rolling

Ellis has finally gotten the knack of rolling from back to front. He spent the weekend practicing and now hurls himself back and forth on the bed. I'm having to be more diligent about ensuring he is between me and Cyp and can no longer leave him precariously perched near the edge. He prefers resting on his stomach and now spends a lot of time propped up on his elbows doing the "seal" as Tracey refers to it. Uncle Max was also demonstrating to little guy how to crawl last night. Should have had the camera. Ellis was facinated.

posted by Renee @ 7:24 AM 0 comments

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Birds and Nerds


We went to Cyp's favourite destination again - the Riefel Island Bird Sanctuary. It was an experiment to see how Ellis feels about birds. I'd taken Ellis for lunch on Friday with Ellen and we sat outside as it was a beautiful day. There were little birds flitting around eating bread crumbs and Ellis freaked out. As soon as I turned him away from the birds, he'd stop freaking and when I pointed him at the birds, he'd freak again. So off to the bird place we went and he did okay. He wasn't nearly as happy as with dogs and cats, but I think he likes ducks. I don't think he likes his new carrier though as he kept trying to fling himself out of it.

Now, I've posted a pic - the vain part of me did not want to do it - look at those neck wrinkles (I'm not talking the bird here) and I think the new carrier makes my butt look big. It's a good one of Ellis and the bird though.

posted by Renee @ 7:28 AM 0 comments

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Cousins



We went to visit Cousin Emilie and Aunty Tracey this past week and it was loads of fun. On our way there we stopped at the Happy Cat Haven and got to visit with love starved kitties. Love starved kitties appreciated Ellis a lot more than his own kitties Lucy and Stanley and Ellis appreciated the loved starved kitties a lot more too. I never heard Ellis laugh so much. I seriously considered trading in one of our cats and picking up a love starved one (don't let Lucy or Stanley read this blog). NB got a new kitty herself which I'm dying to meet. We were then off to Tracey's where the fun continued. I'm not sure, but dogs might be even more fun than kitties - especially when they bark loudly. Odd that a kid would like that, but Ellis liked fighting (ok, playing - but it seemed like they were fighting) dogs and barking Bailey. We learned a lot at Aunty Tracey's - what food is good to eat, basically anything that Aunty Tracey cooks, but Ellis was partial to curried chick peas, the proper way to have a bath (thanks for sharing your cool toys Emilie, the right time to go to bed (7 pm as opposed to 10:30 pm - hence the longer blog post), how to go for walks in the woods, what a real bedroom is like and what swimming is like. We packed a lot into 4 days. It was fun. We were both sad to come home, but we had to come back for dirty diaper pickup and for our signing class. Do you think Aunty Tracey and Cuz Emilie will let us move in with them?

posted by Renee @ 7:49 PM 0 comments

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Carrots and a HORRIBLE Nightmare

Little guy had carrots last night. He's been getting quite grumpy right around dinner time the past couple of nights. Cyp and I have been shuffling him back and forth (no - you take him) until as a last resort we (ok usually Cyp) takes him for a walk. Last night I went as there was a McDonald's ice cream cone thrown in at the end of our destination. So, NB and Keith were over last night and Ellis was ramping up and he was staring so hard at our dinner that I had a brainwave. I went to the cupboard and pulled out some carrots in a jar (leftover from Tracey's baby shower, over a year ago, yes I'm a packrat too), opened them up and started to give them to Ellis. NB said "you have to try them mom" (I guess so little guy knows he's not being poisoned), so I did and they weren't as bad as I thought. I don't think I needed to try them though as little guy pretty much grabbed the spoon out of my hand and started mowing down on them right away. As I fed him I had kinda a sinking feeling as I realized that my relatively easy life is going to be a lot harder now. I'm now going to have to figure out what he wants to eat everyday and if I thought I had laundry issues before, I realized I had been seriously deluded as I started at his carrot incrusted sleeper that I had just put him in. Cyp was looking a little carrot incrusted too. I also realized that perhaps that is why he keeps getting grumpy these days when I'm out to eat. He wants to eat!

Part 2

So I had a horrible nightmare this morning and it was toooooo real. I was drawing the bath for little guy and I put him in it and then I went to sort my and Cyp's change (a slight obsession of mine). I suddenly realized what I had done and I ran back to the bathroom in a panic and there he was in a bucket, water over his face with his eyes closed. I hauled him out, turned him over, his eyes opened and I woke up instantly and felt sick sick sick. I still feel sick when I think about it. I started to think about it - I went to work yesterday and told them I'd be back in twelve months (as opposed to ten, which is what I had originally indicated). I think my subconscious is telling me that I'm abandonning little guy for money, but I'll tell you subconscious, that was not a very nice way to bring up that issue with me.

posted by Renee @ 6:27 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 17, 2007


Cyp and I like to argue over who takes the pictures and even though this one seems to be a Cyp extreme close-up, it's actually a Renee extreme close-up (after all, Ellis does have flawless skin - he could be a supermodel). I went to choir again last night. It's getting easier going - I no longer fret the entire time about how dad and little guy are doing. When I got home though, no one was here and I did start to worry. I started imagining all these horrific scenarios. The main scenario being that dad and little guy were run over by a crazy driver. The door opened at 10:10 though and in they walked - Ellis looking very rosy cheeked. Cyp had timed it to the minute as I told him I would be home by 10:10.

posted by Renee @ 8:26 AM 0 comments

Monday, January 15, 2007

Cat

Ellis is now noting the cats - he gets quite entranced when he sees them. He's also been trying little tastes of things - Sat. night he had a bit of lasagna (thanks to Aunty Tracey who made me a lasagna for Christmas and thanks to Dot for not giving it away as it was in her freezer). He seemed to like it. Last night he tried a bit of guacamole too. We also brushed his teeth last night for the first time. He didn't like that. All these new routines, he's becoming quite the time consuming hobby :)

Don't get to blog as much anymore. He did figure out how to roll from his back to his tummy today. I'm hoping this will help him sleep better on his own as he seems to prefer sleeping on his stomach - more cozy. Supposed to snow again tonight. I kinda miss the rain.

posted by Renee @ 4:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 12, 2007

Can't Sleep (again)

Yup - it's 4:30 am and I can't sleep. Ellis is doing fine (actually, he's not really - he's cutting two new teeth and I think screamed louder than ever last night, plus I think he's been waking up every hour the past couple of nights - he has managed to get back to sleep this morning, but I have not). I think we're going to have to kick him out of our bed, but the thought of the pain we will have to go through to do so prevents me from starting the whole process. Plus, now we have the teeth issue - my dental hygenist aunt told me she had never seen teeth decay in an infant that was the result of night time nursing, but our friend Susan said she knew of a baby that developed a tooth abscess (sp?). I am not looking forward to cutting Ellis off. Maybe I'll have to placate him with food. On that front, he weighed 19 pounds 6 ounces and was 67 cm long yesterday at drop in. He is no longer rocketing up in the weight department. I think I'm getting a new baby carrier (that goes on the back) and I'm also thinking about the jogging stroller again, but I borrowed my sister's last week for a little spin (felt like I was having a heart attack after 4 blocks) and it took over the little room that we had left in our apartment. So maybe not. Going to go surf now to look at them again.

posted by Renee @ 4:48 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Yay! Vacation!


Well, we took the little guy on vacation. We went skiing with the fam - thanks Grandma Dot! Suprisingly, it was very relaxing and I got in a lot of skiing - there were various people on the trip to keep little guy entertained. Now that we're back home, we're suffering a bit as it's just me and him again. Have to think of exciting things to do so today we went.... Grocery shopping! May even manage to make dinner too. Sigh, that was the other nice thing about going away. We only had to make dinner one night, plus we gorged ourselves at happy hour. Ok, I gorged all day long (thanks aunty Susie for the chips and peanut butter bars and the almond roca). Haven't had to go into withdrawal yet as grandma Anita brought over our annual Christmas cookie tin the day we got home.
The only thing not relaxing was the drive up and back - we now have one cracked windshield on our new car. Sigh. Oh well - it's only money and we all made it up safely there and back which was the important thing.

I'm glad Christmas is over (You'll note that there's no commentary on Ellis's first Christmas). Too bad friends don't come to visit just cause they want to- it would be good to see everyone without the stress of Christmas. Maybe we'll go visit friends. Still debating - hate flying.

posted by Renee @ 4:04 PM 0 comments