PORTRAIT OF A 4 YEAR OLD

Canning Weekend

Pierrette and my mother have been canning tomatoes, salsa and ketchup all weekend with occasional support from Lisa and I (I've mostly been handling the child care end of things.)

We started with 7 bushels of tomatoes. Maybe Pierrette will post a photo of the entire stack of finish product.

April is Almost Gone

I can not bealive it's already April 21st.  April is a big month around here, you have garden prep, spring cleaning, my dad's birthday, my mom's birthday, my best-friend Lisa's birthday, my father-in law's birthday, this April also marked the one-year anniversary since my grandmother passed away.

Remembering Grand-memere

I am so glade that Christophe had a chance to meet his grand-memere it's not everyone that get to do this.  I think grand-memere was even more excited then me when she got to meet Christophe for the first time in 2008.  I always feared that she would never get to meet any of my kids; I am not sure as to why but it was important to me for her to be able to see me as a mother.  I think it might be because I learned so much from her as I was growing up - she is the one that showed me how to sow and hem; to garden; to cook; to make simple games for play; to clean house; to love unconditionally.  All traits that help shape and define me as a mother (ok maybe no sowing - I would love to have more time to do this) on top of all the traits that my own mother passed on.

She also though me to reach for the sky and that no matter what you can accomplish anything. She is a published author. She tough me to speak my mind to be honest and do what feels right to me for my son and not what others are necessarily doing.

She touched everyone that come in her life; and excepted everyone as they were.

As much as I try not to mourn on death - as I am certain grand-memere would not want me to, but I can't help but think of her this month a little more then I normally.  Honestly I think of her almost everyday; she is with me all the time in every little thing I create with my hands.

Christophe knows who she is by image only and I think he even understands that he can not see her anymore.  I sometimes ask him "ou est grand-memere?" (where is grand-memere?) and he points to her portrait in our living room and says "bye bye" or other times just points.

Thank you Yvon for painting this...

Looking Forward To

Seeing my family in a few weeks...

I feel like I am ignoring you

I feel so guilty, that I have not posted in almost a week (I think).  Life's been busy - so I guess that is good for us.

Back Yard

We have been spending pretty much all our spare time working on the back yard.  Today I picked up some patio stones to set up an area for our BBQ.  The last 2 weekends were spent building a box around the garden.  Next step after the bbq area will the the walkway - or if the weather is still behaving planing the garden.

Here is a picture of our littlest helper pounding away with his hammer.

My Seedlings

My seedlings are growing like mad - they are ready for the garden but the garden is not ready for them.  C Monster loves watering them almost every morning for me.  He is perticularly proud of teh edamame since he planted them himself.

Family

On the weekend we visited Tara and her kids (Geoff's sister) C Monster had so much fun and I think B and S Monster also really enjoyed his visit. Tara and her family are so great they keep pretty much everything from their kids for us - she is the reason we almost do not have to buy any clothing.  This weekend we got to take home a tricycle for C Monster - he loves it.  This time we booked our next visit with them right away we often go almost 6 months without seeing each other - I can't let that happen again.

Cat Food

C Monster loves feeding the cats. We turned our head away from him for a minute and he had one dish packed to the brim;  when I told him to put some in the other bowl - he did ; but it was the water bowl.  Note the nice mess he also made... However if it was not for C Monster I think many days the cats would not eat as I am always forgetting to feed them.  Every day when C Monster sees their bowls he says "Bo num num".  Bo is one of our cats.

Looking Forward To

The peanut butter cupcakes I am baking for my moms group that is meeting at my house on Friday.  If they turn out to be yummy I will post the recipe.

Tulip / Maple / Aunt Tara's

Tulip

Saturday this week was packed full of fun. We started the morning with breakfast at a local diner: The Tulip. When we were getting ready in the morning I asked C Monster what he wanted to eat. I went through a list and he said no to everything; so I asked him "do you want to eat at a restaurant," and he said a very enthusiastic "yeah" - off we went.

Tulip is your typical diner, good food, good prices. The service has always felt a bit rushed to me but I don't blame them as they are crazy busy all the time. They do not have a kids menu, we just share our meal with the C Monster.

After a great brunch C Monster and papa were off to the gym while I got some time to work on my LLL application.

Maple

The hunt for an organic Maple Syrup Farm open to the public in Ontario started almost 3 weeks ago. I only found a few farms:

McCutcheon's Maple Syrup
Robinson Maple Products
Hoover's Maple Syrup

We ended up going to McCutcheon's mostly because they were the closest to our home - a very close 1 hour and 45 minutes drive. I think the drive was worth it.

First of all, if you are looking for a tourist attraction with rides, a pancake house and all that you are in the wrong place - this is a true working farm run by a great family.

When we got there we were greeted by Mr. McCutcheon; he started the farm in the 70's and from my understand it is still to this day family run and operated. His daughter was also in the store - she helped me with my purchase. The store is a loose term as it is a section of the processing building for the syrup that they have a cash and products set up for display. They are open during the season everyday from 1 to 5pm. - I would call ahead just in case especially if you are traveling a few hours like we did.

We ended up purchasing 5 bottles of syrup a total of 8.6 litters (yes we use a lot of syrup in a year); I also picked up a jar of maple butter and a few maple leaf candies.

After our shopping was done we took a look at the processing equipment that were all dormant that day - we chose the first day in weeks were the sap was not running. However while we were there the pump did kick in once and C Monster got to see the sap rushing in. - the little sap there was. Mr. McCutcheon offered us a sample of the sap to taste. It's taste just like water with a little sugar added - it's amazing that someone figured out that you could make such a fantastic syrup from that.

Then off for a walk in the woods - oh no a stop at the heavy machinery. C Monster loves all types of trucks - when Mr. McCutcheon offered to let him climb in, I think it made his day. After 10-15 minutes of ridding the big rigs; we kinda convinced C Monster to go for a walk in the woods.



We only walked for 30 minutes of so; next year I would like to come earlier so we can stay longer and enjoy the outdoors a little more with C Monster. We looked at the sap running in the pips and tried to follow it to determined witch tree it was coming from - I gave up as there were way too many trees. C Monster played with some sticks, looked at moss growing on trees and even tried to eat a piece of a tree.

This is definitely the Farm we will come back to year after year - a great big thank you to the McCutcheon for sharing their great Sugar Maple Farm with us.

Aunt Tara's

On the way home C Monster was begging to get out of the car so we called Aunt Tara and guess what: she was home. It's neat to watch C Monster play with her kids now as they interact with him and vice versa - instead of the ever so popular reaction kids have to babies: he is cute but what do I do with him? C Monster had a double bonus as Grandpapa Roy was also there.

The kids played; I sorted hand-me-downs.

When were ready to leave the kids followed C Monster outside and they had some races from a good 15 minutes or so. Of course C Monster came in last he was against a 5 and 6 1/2 year old (Sorry Tara if I got the ages wrong). However he had a blast and it was so much fun watching them.

Looking Forward To

Seeing Tara and the Kids again in a few weeks.

Visiting the Zoo

A nice side-effect of contract work, is that you can shuffle your time around or simply not work and not bill, as long as that's in keeping with the terms of your contract and the expectations of your client. You may not get paid vacations, but you have the option of just taking a day off. As a result, I did just that on 30-Sep-2009, and went to the zoo with my family and friends.

I brought my camera, as I'm wont to do. I was able to shoot some pictures of a month-old baby gorilla:



I was also able to get this picture of a butterfly which I'm pretty partial to:


There were of course some other nice photos, including the kids:

HAPPY FAMILY DAY

In Ontario we have a new statutory holiday, Family Day. Family Day is celebrated on the 3rd Monday of February.

Happy 2nd Family Day.

The first ever Family Day in Ontario was on February 18, 2008.

In honor of Family Day lets look at a definition of Family that I like:
"two or more persons related by birth, marriage, adoption, or emotional ties."

Holiday Vacation in Moncton Part 1

After the painful flight to New Brunswick we (Christophe and I) spent the first part of our trip at my sisters Cathy's house. I just love her place, she lives out of the city on a large property that was once most likely a farm.

Christophe spent his days chasing Coco the cat, learning how to climb stairs (supervised of course), playing with my sisters dishes, watching the blue jays and chickadees eat from the bird feeders and most importantly playing and getting to know uncle Quinn and tante Cathy.

My sister also waited for us to put up her tree, the video below is of Christophe playing or "helping" with the unpacking of the decorations.

While at my sisters we when to the local health food shop so I could pick up a few necessities to maintain a somewhat healthy diet while I was there. Organic snacks for Christophe, Organic beans, hemp seeds, salba seeds...

I am please to say that I introduced hemp and salba seeds to my sister, she kept the left overs for herself. I often sneak both of these seeds in Christophe's food; add to oatmeal; roll fruit in them. Hemp seeds are a source Omega-3, Omega-6, Omega-9 and vitamin E; it's also a complete protein. Salba is a source of calcium, antioxidants, potassium, iron, Omega-3, magnesium and brand.

Whenever we spend time at my sisters house it reminds me how much I love nature.

We just finished waving goodbye to memere and pepere they are off to the airport to return to Moncton. It's weird some of the time while they are here I feel overloaded and wishing for quiet but as they left I got all teary eye. I have not gotten teary eyed saying goodbye to my family in years; I remember when I first moved to toronto I would cry quietly every-time I left Moncton. Now Toronto is my home and I almost never miss Moncton. I think the sadness comes from the fact that I know Christophe loves his grandparents and I wish they could spend more time together. They get to see each other 4 times a year for a few weeks but so much happens between each visit, next time they see him I am sure he will be crawling or walking...

grand-memere

As many of you know we are in Moncton now.

On Friday afternoon we went for a walk up the street from my parents house to meet Christophe's great-grandmother. We have visited with her every day since then, it's just a short 10 min walk. I want to make sure he gets to see her as much as possible.

Growing up, my memere (grandmother in french) was like another mom to me; she would look after me when my parents were at work and sometimes I even just wanted to go visit for the fun of it. I was lucky to be surrounded by so much love when I was at her house and I want my son to have an opportunity to see that as well.

When I was little I used to say "Maison memere; maison heureuse" (grandma's house happy house).

Before heading out to see memere we call first to ask my uncle guy to stop smoking. My uncle is an amazing artist but also a chain smoker. He is great and goes to smoke outside while we are there; he is also the reason why we only do short visits each day. As much as he smokes outside while we are there and otherwise only in the basement, there is still a bit smoke left in the house.

The first thing memere said when she saw him was let me sit in the rocking chair so I can rock him. I don't know why but seeing them together made my heart just melt. She rocked him and we talked about stories of her motherhood and children when they were little. I saw a side of my grandma that I had never seen.

I think being far away from my grandma is the hardest part about living in Toronto.

Memere and pepere

We had a few busy weeks, my mom and dad arrived early in the month for a visit and stayed till last Wednesday. It was great having them around to help out.

My dad did al sorts of stuff around the house including finishing the Nursery (thank you so much); I will post about the nursery separately. My mom help with cooking and cleaning. Both of them also spent tones of time with Christophe.

One of the more eventful days was when we ventured out to the Eaton Center to visit with Suzan and Ed (my aunt and uncle). We ate out at a sit down restaurant, I breast-fed in the mall, we did some shopping at the Disney Store, Indigo, the Bay and Sears; I was so tired when we got home.

My dad bought Christophe the greatest toy - Fuzzi Lovebug.

Most of the days where not as action packed they involved walks in the afternoon and naps in the morning.

Well we miss you mom and dad; looking forward to the next visit.

Pregnancy Rant

Now that I have past the 8 month mark I am going to share all the things I have learned and discovered about being pregnant. (Well at lease for me because I am led to believe the experience is different from person to person.

WARNING - some of you may think some items are gross or to descriptive...

• Minty toothpaste can make one want to puke, all natural toothpaste is much better
• Lemonade - yummy
• Heart burn - not so yummy (Can you believe I never had heart burn before)
• Cal Meg by Genestra is a great remedy for heart burn until you experience the evilest of heart burns then Tums become your best friend
• Smoothie Tums taste better then all the others
• Scrambled eggs - yummy
• Scrambled eggs with vegetables (kinda like a deconstructed omelet) - YUMMY
• Sacrificing things you love because you know there is another person inside of you
• Unconditional love for someone you have not even met yet
• Crying for no apparent reason
• Crying for what seems to be a good reason at the time however your husband thinks you have gone mad
• long soaks in the tub are amazing
• The feeling of a little person kicking you in the ribs (somehow this makes me smile even though it hurts)
• Restless legs syndrome - RLS (now I understand how Geoff often feels)
• Magnelevures by Unda is amazing for RLS - however very expensive
• That raspberry leaf tea taste pretty good; however after 2 months of it its the worst drink on earth
• A re-appreciation for raspberry leaf tea once my naturophath switch me to raspberry leaf tea extracts
• When you are pregnant you always seem to drop everything (force the lady with the big belly to bend down)
• Pee pee pee that is all I have to say
• Yeast infections (would you believe I never had one until I was pregnant)
• The stomach flue is never fun however; it is really bad when you are stuck on the bathroom floor and can not get up due to the combination of a big belly and no energy.
• Extremely cut little boys clothing
• Everything in the world seems to have toxic chemicals in it
• Baby toys are fun and cute and expensive
• That everyone wants to touch your belly
• That everyone has something to share about there experience with children, even people who do not have kids
• The whole world is pregnant (every wheres I go I see women with swollen bellies; I guess you just don't notice them until you are one of them)
• Pillows lots and lots of pillows are the only way you can get comfortable
• Carpal tunnel syndrome and how to cope with it
• Hip pain ( I guess this is a good pain; since your hips need to widen to let baby threw)
• Maternity underwear rule they are so comfy (I think I may even continue wearing them after)
• Yoga is a saving grace
• Shiatsu is complicated when you have restless legs ( it's hard to stay still for the therapist to work)
• Not to be afraid to ask for help
• How much my husband really loves me
• Having a TV in the bedroom is really not that bad even though I fought it for 7 years.
• There is nothing good on the after midnight
• Doing dishes when you are "fat" hurts your back
• I can no longer reach the bottom of the washing machine
• Watching other peoples kids make me smile
• Finding baby clothes in my laundry is neat
• Opening and installing your car seat kinda makes everything feel real
• Having a car seat in your car is weird
• Selecting items for your wee one is made way too complicated by an over saturated market full of junk and useless items for babies
• Everyone and there sister will have an opinion on a home birth ( not always a positive one)
• Midwives rule
• One can never drink enough water
• Seeing your baby for the first time (ultrasound) is the best feeling in the world
• Leaky breast
• No belly button
• Confirmation that the brown spot at the bottom of my belly button is really a birth mark and not dirt stuck there for 29 years (oops I just gave away my age)
• Spicy foods give you heart burn however I crave them so I seem to forget this one over an and over again
• Anything related to babies on TV will make you cry
• Sore shoulders from sleeping on your side
• Nesting
• Lopsided bellies - this one makes me smile
• It is amazing how much energy you can have when you are an insomniac; however eventually you crash and sleep.
• That good friends are hard to come by and we are lucky we have a few (you know who you are)
• How much Geoff's family is really mine too
• How much I miss my mom and dad
• That the world does not stop if you leave work at 5pm
• How to say no (sometimes)
• A stuffed up nose - all the time
• Being able to eat all sorts of things that I used to have intolerances too, baby gave me super stomach .

I am sure I can go on and on forever but we will end it here.

Surprise - Baby Shower

On Saturday (February 9th) my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law threw me a surprise shower. I was a bit suspicious, since no one had mentioned they were giving me a shower, that this might be one, but I kept on telling myself that it was not going to be one, just in case it wasn't. I have to admit that deep down inside, I wanted it to be a shower I am guilty of this.

When we got there, I saw my friends car and it gave it away, but I did not mention anything to Geoff. However, when we got to the house I was overwhelmed as to how many people were there: the house was full to brim. Thank you all so much for coming.




Both Geoff and I had a great time. As we place all the presents in their rightful place in our house we will post some pictures, so all of you can brag about the wonderful loot you got baby Wiseman.

On the weekend we positioned the Frog Pod, a very fun contraption to place Baby Wiseman's bath toys and shampoo away in.

What would a baby shower be without games? Tara had a few up her sleeves, a very fun crossword puzzle that I still think to this day is unsolvable, however I did give up halfway when Rebecca and Steffan came down with the little one. She is so adorable.


I also judged a blind-folded diapering contest. There were three teams: young men, young ladies and relatives. The boys gave the ladies their moneys worth.


However it was Danielle for the young ladies that came out on top. Recent years of tons of cloth diapers on Morgan and Leah paid off:



Thank you all once more for a great day. Like every good baby shower, it ended by rolling up a small child in a carpet:
Barbara has already posted her photos of the shower to her Flickr account; Geoffrey's will follow soon.

Christmas Eve

I can't say I don't wish I was out east today with my family but I have to say it was nice waking up in our comfy bed this morning and watching TV in bed with geoff while munching on a few chocolates from our stockings. Typically we would be in Moncton by now but as I started my third trimester today and there is controversy over flying when you are in your third trimester I decided to stay in Toronto for the Holidays. Better be safe then sorry. Like I tell everyone it's only 9 months of my life I can make sacrifices for baby. We are planning on opening our gifts tomorrow morning. (mostly sent to us via mail by my family - Thanks mom, dad, grandma and sis you help make the tree with all your presents :-) We will make sure to take lots of pictures to send back to my family.

Baby has been good he is getting more and more active, I typically feel him kick every hour if not even more often. This made me worry a few days back when I realized I did not fell him all day. I was probably just to busy and did not notice him, because as soon as I lied down to do a kick count he started moving about. My midwife said if i don't remember baby moving around I should have something sugary and citrus like orange juice and lie on my left side and count how frequently baby kicks. Supposedly sugar and citrus foods then to excite babies. Mine definitely like clementines but even more then that caramels... He is definitely enjoying his morning chocolates we had today as i think he must of kicked at lease 40 times since I started writing this.

Happy Holidays to everyone and I hope you all have a great time with family and friends over the next few days.