From Bean to Sprout

On Saturday, Henry was feeling much better so we decided to join Marty and Josie at the Carleton Place Santa Claus Parade. We got there at 5pm and the parade was so long that we left at 6:45. I enjoyed the parade but at the same time couldn’t believe how commercial these parades are. As a kid, the Santa Claus parade was awesome, as an adult I felt all jaded seeing all these businesses stringing a few lights on their truck to advertise their business. Josie made out like a bandit though with all the free candy she got. They weren’t giving out as much candy to the adults although one business “Reid’s Dairy” was giving out free cartons of chocolate milk and I was all over that.  I thought it was pretty clever that they were giving their product instead of little candy canes or lollipops. Many of my pics are crappy due to the lighting…Can someone explain why they moved parades from 10am to 5pm?

Getting ready for the parade

The lit up main street

Josie getting excitedfor the race

Police starting the parade

Henry not sure what's happening

OHMYGOD It's Lil' Sebastien! (for those 5 Parks and Rec fans out there)

Almonte dance troupe. They had to have a lot of stamina dancing for almost two hours straight.

Bet this high school musician never thought he'd become blog famous!

Dad's having a good time

These were creepy dancing elves. I know the pic isn't great but they were pretty scary looking.

I was pretending to take a pic of Chris here when in fact I was taking a pic of the lady behind him who had her dog in a baby carrier. That made my night.

Our fleeting glimpse of Santa after waiting almost 2 hours for him he blew right by us. Couldn't get a great shot.

So it sounds like I’m bitter about the parade but I actually really enjoyed myself. I just wish it had been a little shorter.

Poor little fellah is still sick. I feel so bad for him. He’s super warm and keeps whimpering. A combo of Tylenol and Advil seems to help a little but the only thing that will cure this baby is time.

I feel cruddy mom

I just want to lie here

Sick Henry makes Mommy sad

Today we were stuck at home for the day with all the snow. We don’t have our winter tires on yet (we have an appointment next Tuesday) and it’s very unwise to drive in the snow with the summer tires. Anyways, even if it had  been nice out today we would have been stuck at home regardless since Henry is sick. He woke up a little warm and after taking his temperature, my fears were confirmed, the little guy had a fever. The fever didn’t stop him from getting excited about the snow.  Although it’s technically not his first snowfall, it is the first time he was somewhat aware of it. He thought it was pretty neat.

What is that stuff?

The view outside our kitchen window

How come you get to hang out there and I'm stuck here like a sucker!

Did you see it Atti? Eh? Did you see it?

This stuff is AMAZING!

Once Henry got over the novelty of the snow, Henry let the fever take over and turned into Mr. Cranky Pants. I felt bad he was sick but at the same time he was pretty cuddly with me which was nice. I tried to make the best of our time indoors and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I’m hoping to give some to my neighbour Pam who always bakes us some muffins.

so gooey

My cooking didn’t stop there. Chris’ mom sent us a link to this great recipe website called The Hungry Mouse, we decided to make the Roasted Garlic and Spinach Pizza from the website for our dinner. It did not disappoint.

the whole house smells like garlic

Even better cooked

Henry went down for the night around 6pm, he was just exhausted. I gave him a bit of Advil for the night, hopefully it helps him sleep better tonight.

One of our baby shower gifts was a Canada track suit from the Bay that I guess was originally created for the Olympics. It finally fits Henry just in time for him to show off his Olympic talent. He gets a gold medal in standing.

Yeah I train about 7 hours a day (these are actually the first pics we caught of him standing on his own)

check me out

Even us athletes need to take a break now and then

For some reason, Henry’s hair has become super pouffy (I know that’s not technically a word but that’s what describes it best). It kind of holds up about an inch off his head. I think it might be time for a *gulp* haircut.

don't you dare touch my hair.

I think while I was pregnant, Purrl and Ginger did a bit of genetic splicing while I was sleeping and incorporated a bit of their DNA with Henry’s. He takes after them a lot. He always wants to go outside. He squeaks when he sees animals outside. Today he was imitating Ginger when she was barking. He also is very crafty, just like Purrl and I seem to be able to get his attention if I shake some treats (aka cheerios) at him.

They’ve formed a bit of a gang and have left Atticus out (or he chooses to be left out). In the morning they tend to chill out by the back door and I somewhat feel like they’re conspiring against us.

Is she looking at us? Act cool, pretend we're looking outside.

What? What are you looking at?

Fine, I don't even want to hang out with you guys, so there!

Again, I'm doing nothing but standing here, minding my own business

Oh, hey there... Have you been here the whole time?

Henry's honour guard

I think I should whisper our next move in your ear... Mom's listening in.

We had a pretty good weekend. Swimming and a bit of shopping on Saturday and yesterday we drove out near Perth to visit with our friends Amy and Kevin and their two boys Carson and Ashton. Henry went nuts for all the toys they had. They have this mini exercise trampoline that is the perfect height for Henry. We’d put toys on it and he’d kind of shuffle around it in circles. Meanwhile I made a new boyfriend with Ashton. The second we got there he came out and insisted I hold his hands and play with him. He was giving hugs and trying to cop a feel a few times as well. He’s quite the lady’s man. Ashton would do this high pitched scream from time to time that I guess Henry found awesome since he’s started imitating it today. He’ll go into these super high squeals and they just get higher and higher and louder. Thanks Ashton! :-p

They’re both masters of the art of distraction. I find 70% of my time with Henry these days is distracting him from touching(poking, tugging, pulling, hitting, etc) things that could kill him. He’ll make a beeline for electrical outlets (he’s figured out how to remove the child safety plugs) and I’ll violently shake a rattle to get his attention. I feel like I’m always saying “Henry, NON!”. The other day while getting ready to go to the doctors, I was putting on my shoes while Henry crawled around. He crawled super quickly to this little table thing that we have that holds Ginger’s food and water dish. Well within seconds he had pulled the water dish out of its hole, lifted it up and flipped it spilling water all over the floor and himself. I didn’t have enough time to get up and stop him so I could only yell, “NOOOOO!!!!” as I watched it unfold in slow motion.

What can I pull out of this coffee table that's breakable? Oh you took out all the fragile stuff? Ok, I'm going to rip up some magazines then.

Let's try and get tetanus by dragging my fingers up and down this vent thingy...

Ooohh, these look interesting.

contemplating.... what else could I try and get into?

How sturdy is this gate? I'm going to test each part for possible weaknesses, just like those velociraptors did in Jurassic Park. Got to admire their never give up attitude.

I betcha I can put some interesting things in there.

So is this a baby thing in general or a boy thing or a Henry thing?

On Thursday I attempted to take a few pics of Henry to make a Christmas card that we could send out to friends and family. I never thought taking a staged photo would be so difficult. It took almost 2 hours and I took about 300 picture and got about 4-5 decent ones. I was getting so frustrated with Henry but had to keep reminding myself “He’s just a baby, he’s not ripping down the backdrop to piss you off, he’s doing it because he’s curious”. At one point Purrl came down and sat perfectly still by the backdrop almost to rub it in my face that she can do it and Henry can’t (At this point, Henry had crawled away with garland wrapped around him and was trying to climb the gate to go upstairs). To calm down a bit, I decided to make a collage of the failed photo session.

Bah Humbug!

Not to make this whole thing pointless, here are a few of the good shots. Oh and the Purrl shot.

Why are we doing this?

This is Henry in the process of ripping the hat off

Trying to distract Henry from completely destroying the set by shaking his water bottle up above me

He thought it was funny for about 5 seconds then demanded I hand him his water

Had to give in to avoid a complete meltdown

Tried to use garland thinking he'd be so distracted by this that he wouldn't be tempted to crawl away. He ended up wrapping it around his neck and trying to strangle himself. Message received loud and clear Henry!

This isn't so hard. Take a shot of my good side.

Today was family swim day at the Kanata Leisure Center. Meaning parents could bring family members and take as many pictures (of their own kid) as they wanted. The place was crawling with grandparents and every few seconds you’d see a flash go off. I had completely forgotten it was family day until Chris reminded me this morning, so I brought my camera and off we went.

Safety first if you're going in the deep end.

Hey Mama, are you sure you're allowed to take pics?

Going down the slide for the first time

I'm floating on my tummy like a big boy!

Trying to get away from the flash photography by hiding under the fountain

Oh no, daddy's secretly working with mom for these photos. Et tu daddy? Et tu?

Nothing takes the edge off after a long swim lesson like eating floating foam puzzle pieces

Trying to convince Henry to crawl in the water by pushing his puzzle piece just out of arms reach

crawled to the edge of the pool to grab a ball instead

I feel like I got my money’s worth of pictures today, no longer need to take secret grainy spy looking pics of Henry’s swim lessons.

Now that Henry sleeps through the night (pause as I knock on wood), I find myself enjoying our mornings together so much more.  He usually goes down for the night between 6:30 and 7:00pm then wakes up around 5am for a quick feed then back to sleep until 7am. We then kind of hang out in bed together playing. He loves climbing up our headboard and looking behind it. He’ll often whisper “dada?” like he’s looking for Chris behind there. It’s also the time of day where I get most kisses from him. He’ll just attack my face with his open mouth and drool all over me. It’s kind of gross but I love it.

We then mosey on down to the kitchen and I let him play while I prepare our breakfast and we listen to the Bob FM morning show.

I'm gonna rock out while you get my breakfast ready mom

We then sit down in the dining room and have our breakfast together. Often with Ginger hanging around hoping for food to drop from Henry’s hands or tray. She’s rarely disappointed. Lately Henry’s been incredibly chatty during breakfast so it almost feels like we’re gossiping over a meal.

"Did you notice Atticus has put on a few pounds mom? He says it's a hibernation/winter thing but I think he's just letting himself go"

I’m trying to cherish these lazy mornings as much as I can. The return to work countdown clock has begun. I go back in less than 3 months and will really miss these moments.

I'm going to sneeze!!

He's so cute I want to bite him!

We had a 9 month check up yesterday and Henry weighs 19 lbs and 12oz, so basically almost 20lbs. He’s getting so big. He also measures 75 cm so he’s right on track to being tall like his daddy (or maybe taller!).

Henry has turned into a bit of a mama’s boy recently.  He cries for a bit whenever Chris picks him up and takes him away from me. Even when it’s just the two of us and I walk out the room for a bit, he starts to panic. I’m trying to not encourage it by continuing to walk away or not taking him back the second he starts crying. I’m hoping this phase doesn’t last too long.  It makes me feel bad for Chris and I keep telling him “don’t worry, at some point he’ll go through a daddy phase as well and I’ll be the one left out” but I don’t think that phase will happen for a few more years.

Mama's boy giving the cold shoulder to the photographer.

We’ve discovered the perfect distraction for Henry while we prepare dinner. Now that he refuses to be in his exersaucer and wants to crawl around everywhere, it was tough getting things ready for a meal with one eye on a kid who seems to have a death wish. Enter: The Piano!

Mama, did you know that this thing here makes noise? Every single time I touch it!?!? It's AWESOME!!

He loves playing the piano. We strap him into his booster seat and start him at the high keys and then gradually we push him to the lower keys so he doesn’t get too bored with the same sound. Now I know this is probably wishful thinking on my behalf, but he seems to have an ear for music. I’ve heard him play complimenting keys as well as chords. Maybe he really is a mama’s boy. I love the piano!

Is this the right positioning?

Speaking of dinner, Chris made an amazing meal on Saturday night with our slow cooker.

Pulled Pork Anyone?

We had a great long weekend. I did some running and I have something to ask my fellow runners out there (WARNING, some TMI is coming your way). Every time I run, I feel like I have to pee. It doesn’t matter if I use the washroom before I leave the house, I inevitably get this huge pressure in my bladder. It’s maddening. It only happens during the run parts, not the walk ones but I’m quickly running out of walk parts. I keep having to mentally scold myself saying “hold it, hold it!” as well as “you’re 30 year old Melina, you cannot pee in your pants even if it is in the name of fitness!!!” Does anyone have any tips? Like is there a better time of day to go running? I try and go in the morning, maybe I should go in the afternoon? Could this be a latent result of childbirth that I wasn’t aware of since I never ran before? It’s totally killing my form. Have you ever seen someone running while simultaneously trying to keep their legs crossed? It’s not a pretty sight.