The van Whatever Family

On Friday, we reached a bit of a milestone for Juliet as she went to bed for the first time without my involvement, or rather, without being fed to sleep.  At night when we put her down for sleep, we have a whole routine which ends with me breastfeeding her.  I feed her until she falls asleep and then gently (and quickly) put her in her crib.  But on Friday night, one of my mom groups was having a wine tasting night and I had to leave before Juliet’s bedtime.  Leo did our whole regular routine on his own (butterfly song, key sleep-related words, story) and then attempted to feed her with a bottle.  According to him, it went ok, but he thought she was confused by the sudden appearance of the bottle – she never gets a bottle and she kept pulling off and looking at the door as she was wondering when her real food was going to walk in.  It was pitch black in her room and Leo thought milk was getting all over her face.  After a few minutes, Leo decided to simply rock her to sleep on his shoulder and that worked well.  So, all in all, it went pretty well and we all survived the experiment!  Hopefully we can both be a little more independent now.  

Trying to teach Juliet the concept of goodbye while I was on my way out to the wine tasting party.


Juliet came down with a cold this week so we didn’t go to all of our regular activities and sort of tried to take it easy.  But her cough has been persistent and it seems to be getting worse.  We’re going to call the doctor tomorrow just to make sure it isn’t anything more serious like bronchitis.

One activity we did attend this past week was music and it was the last class of the winter session.  For the first time, Leo let her crawl freely during the class.  Usually she just sits in front of Leo during the class, but all the other kids just run around so we thought we’d see what happened if he just let her go.  She liked the freedom and crawled straight towards the instructor.  Her favourite part was when she got to sit under the rainbow-coloured parachute.  We’ve already signed up for the next session of music, so now Juliet and Leo have to learn a whole new book of songs.

Today, Juliet had an interesting day.  We recently applied for Nexus so that we can skip the line when we cross the border to the US.  We often visit the US when we go to Oma’s (she lives right near the border) and in order to use Nexus, everyone in the car has to have a Nexus card so we had to get one for Juliet as well.  Part of the process for getting Nexus is passing an interview and getting a retina scan and fingerprints taken, so I wasn’t sure what they would do with Juliet.  Turns out they didn’t try to interview her (good thing because that would have been frustrating on both ends!) and there was no retina scan but they did attempt to get her fingerprints.  Needless to say, it didn’t end up working but anyhow she ended up passing.  When we were initially waiting our turn, the border official was like, “Oh, are you guys the van whatever family?  I’ll be with you in a few minutes”.  Very professional.

After our Nexus interviews, we went to grandma’s for pizza and beer with grandma, Juliet’s great aunt Cathy and great uncle Marcelo, and friends Dave and Ralph.  Juliet didn’t have any pizza or beer but she tried cucumber for the first time (she sorta liked it).  She tried to feed it to me and I couldn't even pretend to have a bite because I of course don't eat cucumbers.  Bad example, mommy!

Juliet hangin' with dad at grandma's.

One thing I've learned since becoming a mom - NEVER leave the house without toys!

March Break

Last week was March Break for most area schools and we're sort of in between sessions for things like swimming and storytime at the library, so we took a breather from our regular routine. 

One of the things we did was a road trip to visit Anjana, Bryce and Nayan.  Along the way, we picked up the curtains for Juliet's room so hopefully they will help Juliet have naps in her crib during the day.  Currently, Juliet only sleeps in her crib at night but during the day she naps while on walks or in the car.  Anyhow, back to our visit with A/B/N.  Juliet still looks like a monster next to Nayan.  When we put them beside each other on the couch, we put them far apart because I was afraid Juliet would eat him, or at least grab him in some way.  My fears came true when she head-butted him 2 seconds after we placed them together.  I can't wait until they're old enough to play together.  As a sidenote, it's crazy to think that Anjana and I met as roommates in first year university together and now we both have babies.  How far we have come :)

Ladies man, indeed!

Last week we also used our barbecue for the first time!  Juliet doesn't normally eat green things (she tends to take after me in that way) but she did have a piece of grilled asparagus.  Here she is with our first BBQed meal.

Mom, why are you constantly putting me in in Christmas bibs?

Yesterday, Juliet and I went to the mom group where the babies are watched by caregivers and the moms are in separate rooms.  Juliet continues to have separation anxiety in this setting and she was quite upset. I kept having to come back into the caregiver room to calm her (which was fine because the speaker was boring) but then our whole day was thrown off because she was so upset that she didn't want to nap for most of the day and then got overtired.  It was one of the most difficult days we've had in a while.  Eventually I gave up and decided that we should lay down and try and nap together and finally that worked and she got a bit of sleep.  The day made me weary of what it's going to be like when Juliet goes to daycare in a couple of months. 

Thankfully today was better and Juliet had a couple of decent (but not great) naps.  That's one thing I've learned about having a baby - my (and Juliet's) days are ruled by naps.  Bad naps = a bad day; Good naps = a good day.

Now for some "classic" Juliet pictures!

Last week Juliet's Aunt Paula sent me some pictures that were taken at Thanksgiving last year. There are some neat pictures and it's amazing to see how different Juliet looks in these pictures that were taken just a few months ago.

Hangin' with Oma.  Juliet didn't have very much hair back then, did she?

Sleepin' with Oma.

Oma putting a pretty flower in J's hair.

We went cosmic bowling (glow in the dark bowling with dance music) and Juliet did well with it!  She hung out in her car seat while we bowled and danced to the music for her.

Hero of Hidalgo

Hello everyone!

Yes, I know it's been almost a month since my last update.  My excuse is that my computer cord stopped working and it took over 3 weeks to get a new one.  Well, the new cord arrived today so I can finally post an update.

I have lots of updates.  The biggest news is that we took Juliet on her first big trip.  We went to a little island off the coast of Cancun called Isla Mujeres.  It really is a little island - it's only about 7 km long and about half a km wide.  It's sort of our "go-to" beach vacation spot so we were excited to bring Juliet there. 

Let's start from the beginning.  This was Juliet's first plane trip and to say that travelling with a baby is stressful is an understatement.  Juliet comes with so much stuff - diapers, food, toys, clothes, stroller - that there was barely any room for me and Leo to pack anything for ourselves!  But the good news is that Juliet did pretty well on the plane (4 hour plane ride).  Her ears didn't seem to bother her on takeoff or landing (she breastfed).  The main issue is that she got restless and had trouble sleeping while on the flight, which happens to the best of us.

Leo and Juliet wait for the monorail at the Toronto airport.

She looked so peaceful - she had no idea of the crazy journey ahead of her at this point!

We eventually got to Isla Mujeres using nearly every mode of transportation known to man (car, monorail, plane, car, ferry) and Juliet was a trooper.  We finally arrived at our rented condo and it was very nice.  In the past Leo and I would stay in a hotel room but with Juliet we needed a separate room for her to sleep in and some added amenities like a microwave to heat up her food, so we chose a condo.

Ok, now I have to tell the Hero of Hidalgo story.  The island has a pedestrian-only street called Hidalgo that is lined with open air restaurants and shops.  Every night after dinner, one of us would be carrying Juliet as we would walk back to the condo using this street.  One of Juliet's new favourite skills is waving hi/bye so she would excitedly wave to all the patrons dining outside and they would wave back.  Many of the patrons had likely been drinking for hours at this point, so they were especially charmed by Juliet and many would call out, "hi baby!" or "look at the cute baby, she's waving at me!".   I don't know if I'm describing it properly, but it was quite magical - it was like Juliet was the queen in a parade.  At some point Leo appointed her the Hero of Hidalgo.

This picture is really dark but this is Leo and Juliet (in non-waving mode) on Hidalgo.  Note that they both have the same super serious expression.

We generally had a pretty low key vacation where we ate out a lot, went for walks, and hung out by the pool.  With Juliet we obviously couldn't just veg out by the pool and read for hours on end but most days we simply brought a playpen outside and took turns playing with Juliet and taking her in the pool.

We love eating at the restaurants on Isla because they use simple, fresh ingredients and the cost is very reasonable.  I was a little worried about bringing Juliet to restaurants all week, but all of the restaurants were very accommodating and the other patrons fell in love with her.  Everyone would comment on how "smiley" she was and it was interesting to see how older ladies and gentlemen would gravitate towards her to get their "grandkid fix".

Here's Juliet with a couple of grandmas.

 

"Mmmmmmmmmmm margarita!  I can't wait to have one in about 18 years!"



This is us at our last dinner on Isla at an awesome Mediterranean restaurant called Olivia's.  They had the best hummus ever, which of course Juliet loved.

Here's another new thing Juliet is doing.  While you're holding her, she'll throw herself back because she wants to be dipped.  It's pretty funny but we also need to be careful or she'll just jump out of our arms.


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

  On one of our walks, we came across a shabby old blue door and decided to stage a photo shoot. 

Sidebar: the dress I'm wearing was a purchase made when I was on a family vacation to Hawaii when I was about 14.  Amen to the breastfeeding weightloss program!

And here are some pictures of Juliet in the pool, at the beach, and experiencing the ocean for the first time.  I think she was more intrigued with the sand between her toes than the ocean itself.

It was a fun but exhausting week.  Juliet just couldn't keep her eyes open while we were at the Cancun airport waiting to get on our flight home.  She slept for almost half of the flight which made it easier on us as well.

PS. Other new things:
- Juliet got a few new teeth - two more on the bottom, one more on top (7 total at this point)
- Juliet now attempts to feed us when she is eating a cookie - she'll hold it out for us to take a bite as well - and she loves this role reversal
- She's not really cruising yet, but she tries to pull herself up on almost everything
- I think she tried to say "Butters" but it came out "ba ba".  But that could also have just been random sounds she was making :)