Santa Baby

No word on when we get the keys to the house.  In the meantime, though, Oma is here to help and she bought Juliet a "My First Christmas" outfit, so we tried on the hat.  So cute!

Baby Shower

Today, Juliet and I went to a baby shower for my friend, Anjana.  It was great because everyone at the shower was in baby mode so they all oohed and aahed over Juliet and wanted to take turns holding her.  She was good for the most part - she got a bit cranky when some people held her, but that's understandable because they were strangers.  My friend Rebecca was there and she held Juliet a lot and Juliet didn't mind at all.

Rebecca holds Juliet.

Anjana (left) and Gina (right), who hosted the shower.  In the background, Rebecca is holding Juliet.

Gina's sister made these awesome cupcakes.
That's a chocolate chip cookie as the mouth
and the eyes are a white chocolate wafer with
a chocolate chip for the pupil.  I took one home
for Leo and he thought it was cool, too.

 





Yesterday, Leo and I needed to run some errands for our upcoming move, so grandma came over to take care of Juliet while we were out.  They went swimming and Juliet got so pooped out that she fell asleep on the walk from the pool back to our condo.

Grandma and Goobs.  Note in the background our condo is full of boxes.

On Friday, my friend Christine had a girls night at her new house and I brought Juliet for part of it.  It's something we used to do more regularly - get a bunch of girls together, order take out, have a few drinks, gossip - but gets harder to organize as we've grown older and gotten married, had kids, etc.  Anyhow, it was really fun, and everyone thought Juliet was cute.  She had a bit of a rough day sleep-wise as she napped for only about 10 minutes all day and got really overtired.  We've since gotten her back to a better schedule and seems more rested.

Leo came to pick us up at Christine's and we got a rare photo of the 3 of us.

As always, I've saved the best picture until last.  Before going to Christine's, Juliet was doing some tummy time at home and was in a great mood and I got this picture:

P.S. We take possession of our new house tomorrow!  Yay!  We're not moving in right away but we're still SUPER excited!

Solid Foods

Yesterday I tried my hand at making some homemade baby food for Juliet.  It was fairly simple - I just baked some carrots (along with a little ginger and olive oil) and a sweet potato and then used an electric blender until it was smooth.

Juliet seemed to like the carrots (I haven't tried her on the ones with ginger & olive oil - just some plain ones to start) and ate them readily.  However, I'm not sure they agreed with her - I don't want to get too graphic but the contents of her diaper weren't so nice - so we're going to hold off solid foods for a few days until things calm down.

I let Juliet think that she helped make the baby food, but truthfully she just slowed me down. :)  I bought some cute little containers to freeze all the food I made.  Also, I know it's past Halloween, but I really like that sleeper!

Today was a busy day.  Juliet, grandpa and I went over to the US to pick up a ceiling fan for our new house.  We bought it from Home Depot (the US site) but they wouldn't ship internationally, so we had it shipped to a warehouse just on the other side of the border and then went and picked it up.  This is the first time we've tried this and it worked marvelously so we will likely buy a lot of stuff for our house that way. 

Juliet was a little cranky in the car (it was a 2hr drive) and so grandpa had to entertain her - it was quite endearing.  The funniest part was when she started to get REALLY cranky and so I just said, "we'll put on her favourite song" and as soon as I did (The Killers' "Somebody Told Me"), she totally stopped complaining and grandpa was surprised that it worked.  We're not sure why she loves that song, but she does.

Grey, Grey or Grey?

Sorry about the lack of updates recently.  I lost my camera for a couple of days but found it today, so yay! 

So, what have we been up to...let's see.  On the weekend, grandma came to visit and we all went to a children's bookstore in our new neighbourhood called Mabel's Fables.  We wanted to buy a book for Juliet that we would read to her as part of her bedtime routine.  We have a nightly routine so that Juliet knows it's bedtime and it seems to be working.  The book we got is called "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes" and it's pretty cute.

Leo and Juliet at the bookstore.  Juliet looks pretty cute here.

On Sunday, Anjana and Bryce came over and we hung out, had dinner and also visited our new neighbourhood.  Seriously - we are becoming stalkers of our new house.  This was the second time on the weekend that we went by the house.

Bryce holds Juliet (she's wearing a cute Dr. Seuss onesie from her Aunt Paula).  For some reason, when Bryce first got here, Juliet was "making strange" with him and would cry.  But after a short time, she happily sat with him and gave him lots of smiles.  This was a great turn of events since Bryce has a baby arriving in less than 2 months and we don't want to scare him off of babies!

We bundled Juliet up for our walk through our new neighbourhood.  The mittens kind of overpower her, don't they?

Today, Juliet and I ran a few errands.  We visited the current owner of our house to ask random questions about the house and we also visited a couple of paint stores to look at paint chips.  I want to paint our bedroom grey and have discovered that grey is a difficult colour to choose because so many greys look like other colours - brown, green, or blue-y silver.  Juliet was helping me choose (and she also wants a say in what her own bedroom will be painted!).

"Hmmmm....I like this grey.  But not that grey."

In terms of milestones, today Juliet has started to get onto her knees a bit when doing tummy time.  Leo has apparently been trying to teach her how to crawl, so I guess this is a bit of progress on that front.

LLL

Today was quite the busy day for me and Juliet.  In the morning, we went to a La Leche League meeting.  For those of you who aren't familiar with La Leche League, it's an organization of breastfeeding mothers that get together regularly to discuss and support breastfeeding.  Leo asked me why I was going to the meeting since I seem to have breastfeeding down at this point.  I wanted to go to the meeting for two reasons - now that Juliet has teeth, I wanted to get advice on what to do when she inevitably bites me, and also I wanted to discuss the introduction of solid foods with the other mothers.

So anyway, it was a good meeting and I got some good ideas and advice from the other moms.  There's another mom that goes to the group that has a baby 1 day younger than Juliet and that baby also has a milk protein intolerance, so I got some tips from her too.  Here's a picture of Juliet with one of the group's leaders:

Juliet: "That hair is just too tempting to resist.  I don't care that it belongs to the daughter of the LLL Leader."

After the meeting, Juliet and I went to Pain Perdu, a local french bakery (which, if you read this blog regularly, know is one of my weaknesses).  I had a baguette with ham and, of course, a pain au chocolat.

After lunch, I went to visit my friend Sylwia and we went for a lovely walk in a big park near her house.  Afterwards, we went back to her house and got caught up and then staged an impromptu photo shoot with the babes.  It was really fun as the babies are now at the age where they have sort of started interacting rather than just paying attention to the moms.

Gabriel and Juliet are clearly buds.

Gabriel: "Oh, just a sec - you got a little schmutz on your face, Juliet"

Sylwia holds the two babies.

6 Months

Happy 6 month birthday, Juliet!

It's hard to believe that Juliet is already 6 months old.  Yesterday, I took her for her 6 month check-up at the doctor.  She weighed 15 pounds, 2 ounces and was 66 centimetres long.  Both stats are apparently at the 50th percentile, so the doctor was happy with her progress.  Juliet got 1 vaccination (I forget which one) but was totally fine - she didn't even notice the needle going in.

Today we went to post-natal yoga.  Juliet was being quite fussy as she was really tired but wasn't able to nap while at yoga.  Luckily the other babies there were also being fussy today, so everyone understood.  At some point I was doing yoga and I looked up and I realized I was the only one left doing it at that particular time - all the other moms were tending to their babies.

One thing that's kind of new is that Juliet is getting more and more mobile.  She can really pivot while on her tummy.  I can leave her in one position, walk away, and 2 minutes later she's in a totally different position.  Soon she'll be crawling!  This is exciting but also daunting as we'll have to babyproof our new house.

On to the pictures...

Juliet sits really nicely in the Bumbo chair now.  Remember when she just sort of slumped over in it?

"Yay!  This is a fun ride on daddy's legs.  Weeeeeeeee!"

Packing, Packing, Packing

This past weekend we spent nearly the whole weekend packing for our upcoming move.  I can't believe we move 3 weeks from tomorrow!  It's funny - when packing you come across random items that you've nonsensically kept for many years.  For example, I found the receipt for the TV purchased by my parents in 1993!  Why did I keep it all these years?  I don't know.  I also found that we have like 50 mugs, despite the fact that only 2 adults live here and one of them does not drink hot beverages.  Needless to say, we have lots of stuff to give to Goodwill.

Juliet was really good while we were packing.  Leo and I essentially took turns amusing her while the other packed.  We got into such a groove of packing, we almost packed Juliet!

On Sunday night, we were feeling lazy and didn't feel like cooking, so Leo picked up some Swiss Chalet.  When he was done with one of the plastic containers, he started tapping it with his fingertips like a drum to amuse Juliet.  Juliet was watching him intently.  Then he put her fingers on the container and started tapping them to the beat.  She loved this game.

P.S. Sleep training is going pretty well - tonight she went to bed with no crying for the first time!

Mirror, Mirror in the Book

Last night Leo and I finally got to the point where we let Juliet cry herself to sleep.  It was very tough but she hasn't been sleeping well at all lately and has become completely dependent on one of us to either feed her or rock her to sleep.  Furthermore, if she wasn't in a deep sleep, she would just wake up as soon as we put her in her crib.  So last night we decided to put her in her crib while she was sleepy but still awake, and let her cry and hope that she would put herself to sleep.

It was very tough - she cried for 25 minutes - but eventually went to sleep.  We thought she might only be down for an hour or two - most of the time lately she only sleeps for 3-4 hour stretches at night - but last night she ended up sleeping 10.5 hours in a row which is the most she's ever slept in one stretch.  So, although it was difficult to do as parents, I think in the end she ended up being more well rested.  She even napped much better today which was surprising since she slept so much at night.

Anyhow, on to the fun stuff...

Today Juliet and I attended a pilates class.  It was my first time ever going to one, so I didn't know what to expect, but turns out it's a lot like yoga.  I like yoga better.  Juliet was really good, though.  The baby next to us screamed the whole time.  Not like a scream cry - screaming was just this baby's version of babbling.  I was happy that Juliet's coos are a lot more peaceful!


I thought I'd make this picture black and white to be more artistic :)

Later on this afternoon while I was making dinner, Juliet was playing with her little book that has a mirror and she noticed herself and just stared at the mirror.  It's the first time she's done this - it was really cute.  Then she started licking the reflection of herself in the mirror - it was so funny!

P.S. Juliet flipped from her tummy to her back several times today.  I'm not sure she meant to do it - it just sort of happened when she was trying to pull herself towards a toy - but at least we know she can do it!

Pain au Chocolat

Yesterday, Juliet and I visited our new house again since we had to meet up with the carpet guy so that he could take some additional measurements.  Afterwards, we needed to kill some time before our weekly mommy group so we strolled around our new neighbourhood and had lunch at one of the many french bakeries.  Here's Juliet with my pain au chocolat:

"Oui, oui -j'aime les pains au chocolat!"

At our mommy group, one of the speakers was a woman who started her own baby food company.  She passed around some samples so Juliet tried a few new foods.  She didn't seem to care for apple, but she really liked the butternut squash.

This morning, Juliet and I went to post-natal yoga.  Juliet was really well behaved (last time we went she was NOT!) so it gave me a chance to do lots of yoga.  I was so proud of Juliet because she spent most of the 1-hour class on her tummy and was quite content.  Just a few months ago she hated tummy time, but now she doesn't mind it at all.  I am still waiting for her to flip from her tummy to her back, so I'm trying to give her lots of tummy time so that she has the opportunity to flip.

Grandma came over during the evening to spend some time with Juliet and give me a bit of a break so that I could run some errands.  Grandma took Juliet for a walk and played with her when we got home.  I think Juliet had a great time!

"Hair is fun to pull!"