Grandma's Secret

I haven't posted in a few days because both Juliet and I have come down with a cold and so we're both feeling a little under the weather.  We didn't go to yoga this week, but we did go to the mom group on Tuesday.  Juliet had been really fussy before we left - I think she cried for an hour, which is the longest she's ever cried.  I was debating not going to the mom group but decided to go anyways, and Juliet stopped crying as soon as we left the apartment.  Maybe she was just bored and wanted to get out.

On Wednesday, grandma dropped by for a visit to give me a break and give her a chance to visit with Juliet.  I think grandma must have been telling Juliet juicy secrets - just look at her expression:

Today was rough.  Juliet hardly slept last night due to her cold and then she hardly slept during the day.  I tried for 3 hours to get her to nap but each time she would only last about 5 minutes before waking up crying.  As I type this (11:06pm) Leo is pacing the apartment while carrying her to try to get her to fall asleep.  I hope tomorrow's an easier day!

A Runny Mess

Juliet had a busy weekend and so today we're just being lazy and staying in.  Right now as I type she's napping on our bed and I'm sitting on the bed typing.  She's a pretty good sleeper at night but daytime naps are another story.  For instance, today she would only be able to fall asleep for 2 or 3 minutes at a time unless I was holding her.  Then I found that I didn't have to be actually holding her - I could lay next to her or even sit beside her on the bed, and she would be fine.  So that's what I'm doing now.

Anyhow, on to what we were up to on the weekend.  On Saturday, Leo, Juliet and I did a little shopping at Dixie Outlet Mall (I got some yoga pants) and Babies R US (we got breathable bumpers for J's crib).  Later on, Leo made plans to go out with his friends so I decided to take Juliet to grandma's for dinner and a sleep over.  Juliet and grandma spent some quality time together and grandma took her for a walk.

Grandma took this picture while playing with Juliet.  She showed Juliet how to grab onto little hanging toys and Juliet learned quickly.

On Sunday, we went to our friends Chrissy and Trevor's house for a little dinner party with another couple.  It was great to catch up with everyone and Chrissy was very good with Juliet.  She was a little awkward the first time she held Juliet, but that was when Juliet was only a week old so it is understandable.  But this time, Chrissy was talking and playing with Juliet and seemed much more comfortable.

BEFORE - Chrissy with Juliet when Juliet was a week old.  Sort of awkward (sorry, Chrissy!).  Also look how different Juliet looks!

AFTER - look how great Chrissy is with Juliet now.



Juliet sits on Leo's lap at the dinner party.

Oh ya!  I almost forgot - I made an apple pie for the first time EVER using Leo's nana's recipe.  I brought the finished product to the dinner party.  Those of you that are long time readers of this blog know that a couple of months ago I visited Leo's nana to learn how she makes her famous apple pie and date squares.  So, how how did it turn out?  Well, I don't eat apple pie, so I can't say for sure.  But I'm told it tasted good even though it looked like an absolute disaster.  It looked OK until we cut into it, at which point it just dissolved into a runny mess.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this problem, please leave me a note in the comments.

I bet you guys thought 'A Runny Mess' refered to a Juliet diaper disaster.  Ha ha, I tricked you! :)

Salsa Babies

Yesterday, Juliet and I attended a Salsa Babies class.  I wasn't sure exactly what it was - I was attending as a guest of my friend Sylwia who joined this class which runs 8 or 10 weeks.  Turns out it's a class of about 20 moms (and babies) who do salsa dancing while wearing their babies in a carrier.  It's kind of similar to aerobics, although not quite as bouncy.  I don't have any kind of dance background, so I sort of felt like I had two left feet.  The instructor would have to show us the choreography a couple of times and even then I didn't always get it.  I think it's the sort of thing that would be really easy to pick up if you had taken dance classes as a kid, but it wasn't so easy for me.  I made a mental note that we should put Juliet into dance classes so that she's not a klutz like her mom.

Nonetheless, I had fun and I think it was a great workout.  By the end, most of the babies (including Juliet) had fallen asleep in all the carriers because of all the movement.  And I was so sweaty that Juliet was wet from all the sweat and I thought she had leaked through her diaper, but really it was just my sweat that soaked through to her.  Gross!

Here are a few of the moms I met, along with their babes.  My friend Sylwia and her baby, Gabriel, are on the far left.  I don't know why I'm standing funny in this picture.

Sylwia's husband, Mitch, holds Juliet.  He's really tall - like definitely way over 6 feet - so I think Juliet was seeing the world from a high place for the first time and was mesmerized by the view.

Ladies Who Lunch

Today, Juliet and I went to post-natal yoga again.  Unfortunately, Juliet did not seem to have a good time at yoga and she cried/fussed most of the class.  The instructor is really good and she generally will try to amuse fussy babies so that the moms can continue to get a good workout, so she ended up carrying Juliet around for most of the class.  I still got a good workout but it was pretty stressful to have the only crying baby in the class even though I know the other moms understand.

Of course, right after the class was over, Juliet fell asleep.  If only she could have fallen asleep an hour earlier!

Afterwards, we went for lunch on Bayview and then met our real estate agent, Paulette, to look at a house.  The house was in our preferred area but was way too small.

I had lunch on the patio of Rosie's Kitchen on Bayview.  Juliet and I are officially Ladies Who Lunch. Or maybe I should say Babies Who Lunch!  Well, I'm not a baby so on second thought that doesn't really make sense.

This is the house we will not buy.  It looks big, but it's not.  Doesn't it look like it belongs in Arizona or something?

Last night, Leo and I took Juliet swimming again.  She reacted the same way she did the first time she went swimming - she was pretty indifferent to it.  Which is better than hating it, I guess!

"No, I'm not having fun."

Mommy Group

Today, Juliet and I attended a local mommy group for the first time.  Normally I would have thought this type of thing would be lame, but this particular group seemed interesting.  Each week they have a speaker of some sort to teach you something (e.g. make your own baby food) and then the second part of the class is some kind of interactive activity with your baby.  For the first class, the interactive part was singing and playing with your baby, which we all know Juliet loves.  There were only about 6 of us in the group, so it's a nice small group where you can easily interact with everyone.  Even though all we did today was go to the mommy group, somehow it seemed to take up the entire day.  Oh, the joys of being off work. 

I remember my friend Dave told me about his friend who was living in the US while his wife went to school there and he couldn't legally work for a year or so.  His take on unemployment was that you can take the smallest outing, errand, etc. and make it into your day.  Need to go to the post office?  That's your day.  Need to pick up some dry cleaning?  That's your day.  That's what I find myself doing with Juliet - picking an outing each day and making it a day.  It seems to work for us in terms of getting out of the house and feeling at least somewhat productive.

Juliet was awake and alert for the whole class but fell asleep at the end.

The donut came in handy as Juliet laid down on it while I sang to her.  Then she fell asleep on it at the end.

Out of Stock

Now that Juliet has proven she can flip over, she just won't stop flipping.  We have to be really careful with her now in terms of having her on the bed or the change table since she could flip off at any moment if left unattended.  Another milestone that Juliet has reached in the past couple of weeks or so is that she's able to grab objects without much trouble.  You can hand her something (e.g. Sophie) and she'll hold onto it.

This past weekend, amongst our other outings, we were on a quest for diapers.  We found out that Walmart was having a big sale, so we went to FOUR Walmarts looking for our favourite diapers.  If someone had told me 6 months ago that I would be spending my weekends scouring the city for a good diaper deal, I would have told them they were crazy.  But alas, this is what I have become!  The worst part is that all four Walmarts were sold out of our size of diaper.  The good news ending, though, is that I found out Superstore was having a similar deal and so I was able to score some sweet size 2 diapers after all!

Here are some pictures from the parts of the weekend when we weren't at Walmart:

Hangin' out with dad on Friday night at home.

On Saturday we went to Emiko's birthday party (she's two).  Emiko is Miwa's daughter (above, with her dad, Jeremy).  Miwa is my friend who lent me most of the baby clothes (and gear and toys) that Juliet wears.  Luckily for Juliet, Emiko has great style!

While we were at the birthday party, Leo got Juliet to stand up while holding a toy.  Impressive!

On Sunday, we had a lovely dinner at grandma's.



Juliet's great aunt Cathy and great uncle Marcelo were there and showered Juliet with kisses.  Poor Juliet gets so many kisses she has become bored of them, as evidenced here.



The Not-so-elusive Flip

I finally saw Juliet flip over today!  I had put her on her back on her playmat thingy and walked away for like 5 minutes and when I came back to check on her, she had flipped onto her tummy.  Once again, I thought to myself that I was never going to actually see it happen, but when I put her on her back again, right away she flipped over.  So I did it again and again, and each time she flipped for me!  Yay!

"What?  This is what you were waiting for me to do???  It's so easy I could have done it in my sleep."

I wasn't sure what her technique for flipping was, but here's what she does: from her back, she wants to play with her toes so she brings her feet to her mouth.  This makes her off-balance, so she ends up on her side which she then rolls over onto her tummy.  So, I'm not sure it's totally intentional, but whatever!  At least she can do it and I have finally seen it for myself. :)

Other than that exciting news, yesterday grandpa and Aunt Shona invited us to the annual corn roast at this club that they belong to.  We took Juliet along and just put her in the carrier.  She ended up falling asleep in it while I ate my corn.  She was very well behaved and let random ladies and a little girl hold her.

"Zzzzzzzz"

And I totally forgot to mention in my blog update a few days ago that Juliet had her 4-month check up and vaccinations at the doctor last week.  So, as of last Friday (exactly 4 months old), Juliet was 13 pounds 12 ounces and was 62.5 centimetres long.  Apparently, those both put her in the 50th percentile.  She cried when she got her shots - especially the second one which was for pneumonia - but there were no real adverse effects except for a small bump on her leg at the site of the injection.

Gelato

Today, Juliet and I went to post-natal yoga for the first time.  There were four sets of moms and babies there and all the babies were right around 4 months, so Juliet fit right in.  I wasn't sure what would be involved - do the babies do yoga, too?  What happens if they start crying? - so I was a little nervous, but everything went fine.  I'd say about 75% of the time, the yoga is for the moms only and the babies just lie down and rest or play, and 25% of the time the babies are involved somehow.  As an example, we used them as "props" when we sort of bench pressed them.  And we sang to them which they really seemed to like.  Juliet was probably the most vocal of the bunch - she didn't cry but she babbled almost the entire hour.  I didn't get a picture at yoga, but I'll try to get one next time.

After yoga, we made a pit stop on Bayview and I did my usual Bayview shop (cookies from Epi, scones from Cobs, fish from De La Mer) and I couldn't resist stopping at Mad Italian for a gelato.

Here we are on the outdoor patio at Mad Italian

Afterwards, we came home and had a nap because, you know, it was a tough morning of yoga and gelato.  We got up just in time to have a visit from grandma who took Juliet on a nice walk.

Juliet fell asleep on the walk and grandma snapped this cute pic of Juliet with her lambie blanket.

Swim Fan

It has been a few days since my last post and I have so much to catch you up on!  Firstly, we took Juliet swimming for the first time this past weekend.  We have a pool in our condo building and it is a saltwater pool that is kept fairly warm, so we thought we'd take Juliet in and see how she'd do.  We thought we'd be in the pool for 5 minutes maximum since Juliet doesn't exactly love the bath, but turns out she did pretty well in the pool and I think we were in there for about 20 minutes.  Truthfully, she seemed kind of indifferent to it - she didn't cry but she didn't exactly laugh either - but that was a good enough reaction that I think we'll continue trying to take her swimming on a regular basis.


Leo tried to teach her to go on her stomach and kick her legs.




Her bathing suit is so cute - pink with ruffles.

 I sort of got ahead of myself there, so let me go backwards and finish updating you on our trip to Oma's last week.  Last Wednesday, we went to visit Juliet's great Nana and had supper at her place.  It's always fun to visit with great Nana and hear what she has been up to.


Juliet with great Nana.




Juliet sits with Oma at great Nana's.  Right before I took this picture, Oma had a spoon in Juliet's hand and was pretending to demand food by rapping the table with the spoon.  "Give me food!"

 Juliet was really good in the car on the way home from Oma's.  She was quiet for the first half hour and then slept for the rest of the 2.5 hour drive.  I think the key with car trips with her is that we have to leave fairly early (by 10am-ish) so that she'll sleep most of the way.

This weekend was nice so we went for a walk on Bayview on Saturday.  Then, we went to Queen East to my favorite burger joint in Toronto - The Burger's Priest.  We tried out using the stroller without the car seat attachment for the first time since Juliet's such a big girl and able to hold up her head.  She looked pretty tiny in the big stroller:


It was so nice out that we decided to pick up some beer and wine for later :)

 On Sunday, grandpa and Aunt Shona came to visit and brought a swing so that Juliet could try it out.  Her reaction was similar to her reaction to swimming - sort of indifference.  She was sort of cranky for some reason and poor grandpa seemed to take it personally.  It's hard not to take it personally when you're the one she cries with, but sometimes she's just cranky and it's the luck of the draw if you happen to be carrying or sitting with her at the time.


Here she is in the swing.  There are two little stuffed frogs that hang down, which Juliet promptly shoved into her mouth.  Mmmmmm...frogs legs...

 And finally, here's a close up shot to end today's update - check out those eyes!  Whenever we're out with her, they're always the first thing that people comment on.

Oma, I can fly!

Yesterday, Juliet and I drove to Oma's for a little visit.  Juliet was pretty good on the drive but was a little fussy for the last 20 minutes or so.  I don't think there's anything more frustrating than to be driving with a crying baby in the back seat where there's not much you can do to calm them.  I know Juliet likes it when we sing to her so when she started crying I cranked up the music - The Killers' Somebody Told Me - and sang really loud to her.  For some reason, it worked.  Turns out she likes really bad, loud singing.

Once we got to Oma's, we spent the afternoon and evening playing with Juliet.  It's only been a month since Oma has seen Juliet but she says that Juliet has changed quite a bit - she's a lot stronger and more mature.  She can bear a lot of weight on her legs and holds up her head really well.  She even flipped from her back to her front for Oma and Aunt Laura.  Of course, I was in the other room and missed it!  The elusive flip...at least for me.  I still haven't seen it actually happen - I've just seen the before and after positions.

Anyone with a 4-month old baby knows it's a challenge to capture a great smile on film, but Chris got this great shot of me and Juliet:

Happiest baby on the block.

Vogue!

Yesterday, Leo, Juliet and I went to visit Anjana and Bryce at their house in Waterloo.  Anjana made us a lovely Indian feast which we enjoyed very much (and we even took home leftovers).  We slept over at their place and Juliet was really well behaved and slept well.  She has been sleeping in until about 11am (after a feeding at around 6am).  I really can't complain.

Juliet just woke up from a nap on Leo's lap and was very groggy.

Anjana is about 5 months pregnant so she enjoyed practicing with Juliet.  Anyone that knows Anjana knows that she will be a natural mother :) 

"Strike a pose, there's nothing to it: vogue!"

On our way home, we visited Bryce at work - he's a firefighter - since he wanted to check out our brand of stroller (Bob Revolution) and test it out.

Is there anything sweeter than firefighters and babies? 
Yes - firefighters WITH babies!

After we got back from Waterloo, our friend Tony came over for dinner and met Juliet for the first time.  Most of his friends from high school have all had babies already, so he was very comfortable holding and playing with Juliet.  Once she was getting fussy with me and he told me to pass her over, which I did.  She then promptly stopped fussing.  Very impressive, Tony!

"Please don't eat me."



Mommy Chat

On Friday, we went to visit Juliet's grandpa and aunt Shona in Oakville.  Leo took the GO Train to Oakville after work and so I asked my dad if I could leave Juliet with him while I went to pick up Leo from the GO station and run an errand.  He was like, "Well, is she going to cry?"  I couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't cry! 

My dad ended up agreeing to have Juliet stay with him and, of course, she ended up crying.  Luckily, Aunt Shona came home from work soon afterwards and was able to calm Juliet down.  We would like to use grandpa's babysitting services in the future so I hope he's ok with the possibility that Juliet might get fussy under his watch.

"I'm a baby -  sometimes I cry."

After visiting grandpa and aunt Shona, we went to a housewarming party for Toby and Christa, also in Oakville.  There was another mom there so she tried to talk to me about mom stuff.  I have learned that even though I'm a mom, I don't want to talk about mom stuff with strangers.  If I don't know you, I don't want to talk about your awesome daycare, that you had to work hard to give your baby a soother (?), and how many words your baby can say compared to your friends' babies.

I escaped the mommy to go hang out with the boys and Juliet.  I never thought I would prefer watching sports to something else, but apparently watching sports is preferable to banal mommy chat.

Yesterday, we went to Chrissy and Trevor's new house for dinner.  We wanted to have wine with dinner so we walked to their place and it ended up being a half hour walk.  I'm glad that we now have friends living so close by - it was nice to be able to walk there as opposed to drive.  Although it did feel kind of strange walking home at midnight with her in the stroller. 

Mmmmm...Trevor made chocolate mousse for dessert.

Today, we tried Juliet in the Jolly Jumper for the first time.  She didn't really jump per se, she just sort of stepped around in circles.  I think she'll enjoy it as part of her daily routine.  We need to teach her to walk flat on her feet since she tends to walk using the tips of her toes.  Maybe she'll grow up to be a prima ballerina!

The Elusive Flip

Juliet just flipped from her tummy to her back again!  It happened about 5 minutes ago.  Unfortunately, I totally missed it because it happened when Leo was doing tummy time with her.  He called me over to see it and we tried to get her to do it again, but she doesn't appear to understand English enough to flip on command.

I had tried to get her to do it earlier today during tummy time, but she wouldn't do it then.  But I was happy that for the first time she seemed to be enjoying tummy time.  She actually smiled during tummy time.

"Please don't vacuum me!  I'll be good and flip for you!"

Earlier today we met my former colleague, Jim, for breakfast.  I had roused Juliet from her sleep earlier than usual so I wasn't sure if she would be cranky, but she was really quiet through most of our breakfast. 

"I would have liked to have tried some eggs and bacon, but I guess the milk was ok, too."

And to finish off right, here's a closeup pic.  The lighting was just right in the condo so that I was able to capture the beautiful blue-gray colour of her eyes: