Settling In

We continue to settle into our new home and have been quite busy cleaning, painting, and unpacking.  This past weekend we spent all day on Saturday just running errands like going to Home Depot and Costco.  There's still a lot to do but the house is starting to take shape.  Juliet's blinds got delivered and installed yesterday and Leo & grandma set up her crib last night, so right now Juliet is napping in her room for the first time.

Yesterday, Juliet and I went to a mommy group in our new neighbourhood.  Part of the class was "baby yoga" but Juliet had a mind of her own and didn't really want to participate.  She wasn't fussy or anything - she just didn't want to move her limbs the way the teacher was trying to get us to do.  I don't blame Juliet, though - it was pretty silly.  Last week's class was better - the lady that runs a local music/singing program was there and Juliet liked that much better.  She liked it so much that we decided to sign her up for classes on Saturday mornings.  This is something she'll do with Leo so it will give them some quality daddy-daughter time.  It starts in about 3 weeks.

Grandma came over on the weekend to help with painting and again last night and she gave Juliet a bath.  Juliet really likes baths, now.  In the early days sometimes she would cry but last night she liked just splashing around.  I think she's getting big for the separate baby bath tub - we'll move her to just the regular tub pretty soon.

Juliet sticking her tongue out with grandma.  Grandma brought over a Christmas tree but we don't have it set up properly - only 1/3 of the lights are working.  Ah, another thing on our to-do list.

The tongue theme continues.  Juliet is sort of sitting by herself - she's still wobbly but she's getting there.

I thought I'd put this closeup so that you can see her pretty blue eyes.  Note that you can tell this picture was taken post-bath since her hair is combed to the side. 

Career Day

Today was Career Day at my mom's (Juliet's grandma's) school.  My mom asked if I would like to participate and give a speech to some grade 8 students, and so I agreed to go.  I brought Juliet along with me and she hung out with grandma while I did my talk.  Juliet was in a great mood and smiled at almost everyone she met at the school.  Both the students and the teachers fell in love with her and her smile - it was funny, as we walked the hallways with her, all I heard were ooohhs and ahhhs and "oh, look at the cute baby!". 

On a side note, Juliet is 7 months old today.  Just today she has started to pull herself forward.  She's not crawling per se, but she's using her forearms to pull herself forward.  Crawling doesn't seem too far away.

Grandma proudly carries Juliet through the hallways at school.

Juliet hung with me before my speech.  She gave me a bit of a pep talk, so that helped.

Tongue gymnastics

Juliet gave big smiles when hanging out with grandma during my Career Day talk.

Thank YOU!!!

The past 2 and a half weeks have been crazy but I wanted to post an update and send out a huge THANK YOU to all of our family members that have helped us tremendously with our new house.

Juliet's grandparents and aunts came to Toronto throughout the past 2 weeks to help out with getting the house in shape.  No job was too small - they cleaned walls, painted, cleaned toilets (yuck!), filled holes, folded packing paper, raked leaves, installed ceiling fans and light fixtures, removed window coverings, scrubbed washing machines, and so much more.  And they also babysat and amused Juliet while Leo and I attempted to get stuff done. 

The house isn't ready for primetime yet, but it's in a lot better shape than when we first moved in.  We've only painted a couple of rooms (Juliet's and the master bedroom) but with new carpets installed, some much needed cleaning, and some new light fixtures and switches, the house is looking a lot more modern.

Juliet has been really good throughout this transition.  She's been really happy and smiley almost all the time (she only gets cranky when tired or hungry).  Her sleep patterns are totally off, but that's understandable given our lack of routine lately.  We haven't put her crib back together yet so most of the night she ends up sleeping with us in our new kingsize bed (!), but we'll need to do sleep training again once she's back in her crib in her own room.

And now, here's what you came to this blog for - the pictures:

Oma cleans the kitchen cupboards while watching over Juliet.  I think Oma went through 4 boxes of magic erasers!

Old carpet - yuck!

New carpet - yay!

Last night in the condo before we moved - Grandma came to help watch Juliet while we packed and supervised the movers the next day.

Juliet gives Oma a big wet kiss in her new room.

Juliet flies with her Aunt Paula.  Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Grandpa takes down some ugly curtains in the guest bedroom.

Grandpa and Juliet bask in Chris's handiwork (he installed the chandelier).

What?  What's going on here.  I didn't take this picture.  Apparently when I wasn't looking, Oma and Leo gave Juliet some wine.

Juliet and her dad on the staircase.  I think she likes her new home!

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.