Operation Down Low: Complete(or Separation Anxiety Bites The Big One)

Chance's crib is now on the lowest position. He is starting to pull up while he is in the bath tub, which means it is probably not too far away in the future that he will start doing it outside the bath tub. So we decided it was time to lower the mattress. Unfortunately Cam was sick on the weekend so we did not get the job done while there were two of us to handle Chance and the crib...so I did it this morning.

The whole time Chance was screaming bloody murder in his rocking giraffe. (Did you see that? I made a link!) So I took him out of the giraffe and let him run around with his toys, but my goodness that was even worse! I just tried to get the crib mattress lowered ASAP! When I was done I picked up Kiddo and he slimed my shoulder and arm - snot snot everywhere. He had just worked himself up into an absolute lather. He has been like this for the last week or so - suddenly he decides it's not OK to be on his own and needs to be picked up now. Not now, but NOW.

It took 15 minutes of rocking and cuddling to get the hiccups to stop. Now that the crisis is over, he's in his crib, happily motoring around with some toys. Stinker.

This morning Chance ate butternut squash for the first time. I bought the squash last weekend at the Calgary Farmer's Market, and steamed and pureed it last night. He didn't mind the squash, but I still think that sweet potatoes and bananas are his favorites.

Tomorrow Chance gets his 6 month shots at 8:30 in the morning. We've been fairly lucky so far, no fevers or excessive crying. Hopefully the trend continues....(knock wood)!

Shoot shoot shoot!

1) I lost a contact lens. Hopefully I can see an eye doctor today so that I can get contact lenses ASAP. I feel like a dweeb in my glasses, especially since I lose a significant amount of peripheral vision, so I bang into corners, walls, etc.
2) I spilled breastmilk all over the kitchen this morning. I smell sour milk everywhere! I will have to mop again and definitely bring out the bleach!

Another Date With Ayla

This morning after Chance woke up from his (20 minute) nap, he spit up on the floor. While crawling. You can imagine the mess. If you can't, here's a photo. Niiiiiice. Needless to say, I was compelled to wash the floors today.

Chance and I returned from IKEA with $49 in toilet brushes and recycling bins. OK there were some other things that we bought too. Chance did well hanging out in the Snugli for 2 hours (we stopped for a break halfway so that the babies could stretch their legs and the Mommies could grab a bite to eat). Chance and I got through the checkout first (Ayla and her Mommy had to go back upstairs to get a TV-stand, so we ran home quickly and started up the coffee pot and then got Chance some lunch as he was getting close to being quite hungry.

He did not freak out in public, despite he was 3 hours from his last nursing and running on 45 minutes of sleep in an 8 hour period. What a trooper. When we got to the house he nursed but would not go to sleep. What a stinker!

Anyways, he was more than happy to play with Ayla. The kids were awfully cute together, playing with toys and prattling back and forth. We lined them up for the usual photo, the amount of change from the last photo is insane! Chance finally crashed around 4:30, and slept for an hour. He woke up like a bear, though, so dinnertime was....challenging. Let's just say that some cereal is better than none, and bananas taste better than carrots and applesauce.

Bathtime was pleasant, and there was a bit of wrestling getting diaper and jammies on, as per usual, but the sandman came and soon our little Chance was sawing logs like a lumberjack!

Walking this week was quite enjoyable due to the nice weather. Chance and I got out nearly every day!

Milk Paranoia

I fed Chance barley cereal and fruit this morning for breakfast - he didn't seem to mind it, but got full after 2/3 of the cereal and then reacted quite grotesquely to the pears that he usually doesn't mind. He didn't even want bananas. As I was rinsing out the dishes, the smell of sour milk wafted up in the steam, and I just about gagged. I smelled the bag of milk I had poured into his cereal and it was FINE. Just tricks your mind plays, I guess.

This morning I am going shopping with Chance (of course), my friend Courtney and her baby Ayla. We're going to IKEA - there are several household things we both need, not surprisingly, more storage!

Chance woke up at 6 AM this morning with a loud gasp, just as Cam accidentally slammed the bathroom door. Oh well, he would have been up shortly anyways. Daddy was up early this morning, possibly because he is taking off 1/2 the day to go play corporate floor hockey.

Papaya? No Thanks!

Papaya was on sale at the grocery store. So I bought one. I cubed it, steamed it, pureed it, and then fed some to Chance. One spoonful. Gag-o-rama.

Scarlet's food is now kept in the basement. I don't think he actually ate any, I heard him tip the bowl and had the camera handy so NO my child was NOT eating cat food while I looked for the camera and took the picture.

Yesterday Chance and I went to the grocery store, in the car. I carried him in the front carrier (Snugli) and my oh my he made friends. Including one crazy bat at the tomato stand...who followed us to the salmon fridge...and the milk case...yeesh.

Flowers from Chance

Last night Cam went to get Chance when he woke up from his before-supper nap. Cam called from Chance's room "Come here, you've got to see how cute he is!". So I flipped the potato pancakes and wiped my hands and then went to see, and this is what I found. Apparently the flowers are from Chance, just to say what a good Mom I am. We are going to plant them in the front flower bed in a few weeks, hopefully the frost will allow for them to be planted. Last year Cam's sister Rennal bought us a yellow potted mum and it lived all summer long. It didn't bloom, but it lived. I'm calling that a victory.

Also Chance has now tried pears and broccoli. Broccoli for breakfast today. Yummm.....I actually missed a few shots of him gagging, but after he got over the texture, he seemed to like the flavour. He really seemed to like the colour, and spread it all over his tray. Chance got very frustrated during breakfast and kept trying to grab the spoon from my hands. I gave him his own spoon, which worked well for a few minutes, as he would open up for "his" spoon and I would pop the food in. I guess it will be soon enough that he's ready to feed himself finger foods, what with the new teeth and all.

Disney Wouldn't Approve

First Tooth...er...Teeth!

Two teeth, in fact. The lower centre teeth popped through today. Chance has been exceedingly angelic as of late, I am joking of course when I say "I wish he would be teething all the time!" There must be some relief for him lately, as he has cut down from 4-30 minute naps to 3 naps - 2 lasting nearly an hour and a half and the third one just before suppertime lasting 20-30 minutes.

Date Night Cancelled :(

Babysitter called. She has a cold. I appreciate the consideration. Oh well, we will have to go out another night...

To tell you the truth I'm not all that disappointed (is this the control-freak mom in me talking here?)

Growing like a weed!

I just put Chance into a new 6-12 month outfit for the very first time. Blue stripes. Winnie the Pooh. Cute! What do you mean it doesn't fit???

That's right. Our little boy is SO long in the body that he doesn't fit this shirt intended for babies twice his age. What a stringbean.

We woke up to snow this morning. Freezing out. Brr. Seriously, this is my backyard, not Russia. It's April the 20th people, why can't you little snow-fairies retire for the season?!?!?!

My little Sunny Boy was in his crib though, waiting to be freed from his flannel prison. What a cutie.

Food, glorious food!

The whole world of food is opening up to Chance! Today he had his first freshly made sweet potatoes - I think they look and taste better than the bottled stuff and Chance seemed to agree!

Also he ate yellow beans for the first time this morning!

Motoring skills have improved daily, although "reverse" is still a mystery to Chance. If he gets himself in a corner he needs to turn around on his belly before it's too late - then he's stuck for good!

The weather has been BLAH for the last 2 days. Rain, sleet, snow, yuck.

Warm Fuzzies

This morning Chance and I watched a Christmas movie together, still in our jammies. Well, Chance rolled around on the floor with his toys, and I played too, but the movie was playing in the background. I could follow it because I had read the book, Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. It was a cute movie. It only got 1 star, a shame, I thought it was pretty good and stuck to the book quite well. Anywhoo, I digress.

Halfway through the movie I picked Chance up and tried to feed him carrots and applesauce. Nuh. Nuh-uh, no way, Mom are you NUTS? OK, no breakfast. He nursed first thing this morning so that is probably why no appetite for breakfast. No big deal. We went back to the living room, continued playing, the movie was still going. After a little bit, Chance started whining and doing his "I'm getting tired" signs = rubbing face on the floor, grunting a bit, not being able to motor around as much, etc. I picked him up and we cuddled on the couch while the movie finished. He fell asleep within a few minutes. It was so nice. I just inhaled every moment. The fuzzy head of hair rubbing under my chin and the smell of the baby shampoo and the little fist clenching my thumb.

I was filled with a heart-warming fuzzy feeling that went past the holiday-gingerbread-and-hot-chocolate-in-a-snowstorm type of stuff from the movie. This is what I missed this Christmas. This Christmas was all about trying to get the baby to stop crying and watching his impossibly small body spasm with gas pains and won't he ever sleep? and waking up 3 times in the night to feed him and feeling constantly guilty and genuinely depressed. Was I depressed?

I don't know. I know I cried a lot. I found it difficult to laugh and smile, I just chalked it up to not enough sleep. I guess there's not a lot of merit in worrying about it now. I'm just so happy that I feel so good about my baby now.

Date Night

Cam and I are going out for a date on Saturday. We're going to see a movie. Or go out for dinner at a nice restaurant. Something! Anything!

Chance is going to stay home with a babysitter. Babysitter is coming over to watch how we do bathtime/bedtime with Chance, so if next time we want to leave before bathtime-bedtime she is familiar with it. I'm a bit nervous about leaving my baby, but I know that we should do it so that he's not freaked out by the occasional babysitter.

Well it looks like the video works now, I don't know what changed.

Here is a pic of Chance eating carrots yesterday, and one of him in his jolly jumper.

Little Victories

1) I did my taxes last night, again. I always do it twice. I'm really glad I do it this way, because I usually find a mistake, or an extra donation tax receipt, etc. Well last night I found a mistake. An $8, 339 mistake. The result is that instead of paying $500, I will actually get a refund. Woohoo!

2) I successfully managed to load a video to YOUTUBE. I was supposed to make a link from here to there, but it only works for some people. Anyways, it is on www.youtube.com - search for Chance crawling.

Scratch that. The video shows up on YOUTUBE but I can't watch it. I put in a help request. I'm sure I'll hear from someone next month!

3) Chance slept through the night. Well, at least I didn't have to feed him in the night. He woke up at midnight, cried for 10 minutes, went back to sleep, and didn't make a peep until shortly after 6 AM. I then nursed him (gladly) and he went back to sleep until almost 8.

Trying to embed video

These video features are only available to high-speed internet customers (Sorry Grandma and Grandpa Demmans, you would be here all night!)

Fun Weekend

The weather was absolutely great this weekend and I think we took advantage of it, full-force!

On Saturday morning Cam took Chance while I went for a bike ride in Fish Creek Park. I took a spill off my bike while going down a muddly slope into the valley - I left the house wearing all black and came back wearing all mud! Actually most of it dried and fell off by the time I got home.

Chance took a nap that lasted an hour and a half that afternoon, so I was able to catch quite a big nap myself in order to prepare for Saturday night - when I LEFT THE HOUSE. I met with a bunch of girlfriends at a kitchen assembly place and made a month's worth of meals in a span of 2 hours! It was a ton of fun, and we will probably get together to do it again soon!

On Sunday we spent a lazy morning out in the back yard, sunbathing and watching the cat eat all the grass she could. Later we took a walk to the grocery store to buy BBQ stuff for burgers. Oops we forgot the BBQ sauce, but made our own (isn't the internet great??)

Chance ate carrots for breakfast this morning and he seemed to like them, despite a few grimaces at first! Right now he is wiggling away on my lap trying as hard as he can to get his hands on the keyboard, phone and camera!

Peas, Please!

We serve peas for breakfast around here. And the baby loves it! In fact, Chance liked peas so much that he actually grimaced when he was given bananas after he finished 2 servings of peas.

Chance is growing tons and his clothes are the proof! His 3-6 month sleepers are quite form-fitting these days and I wouldn't think all that comfortable to sleep in (especially the ones with feeties). We have recently switched him into 6-9 month sleepers which either fit perfectly or there's still a little room to grow.

Chance received a sippy cup from Grandma Demmans. It is made by the same company as my breast pump so I can screw the cup right onto my pump if I ever want to. So far Chance is happy to just chase the cup around, but when I hold the right end up to his mouth he latches right on and tries to suck out the water. I used cold water from the fridge and I think the combined shock of the temperature and "hey, that's not milk!" took Chance a bit by surprise, he gave me a dirty look like he thought I was trying to trick him! He tried to help hold the cup for me when I was helping him drink from it. He's growing up fast!

Today it is supposed to get quite warm, 17°C, so I am going to go for a bike ride while Daddy stays home with Chance.

Mobility Rocks

Chance LUVS his newfound freedom. He can go see whatever he wants. He has been doing donuts on the office floor for about 10 minutes:

Hmmm...what's over here? A baby bath, eh? Wow it makes a loud sound when I bang on it. Hey look! My book! I love my book. I love to squeeze the pages, they crinkle. Hey, if I bang the book it makes a different sound! Cool. WOW! My blanket has ribbons in it. If only I could untie knots, all these bows would get undone. Oooooh...my giraffe....my blue fuzzy giraffe.....ahhh so soft....HEY! There's that bath tub again! Wow! Huh? Mom's smiling at me? Oh hi mom. You look nice! That walk today was A-1. WHOA. My book. I love my book....

We got Chance a new bath tub because we left his old one at Gramma Jo and Grampa Phil's house at Easter. Oops. But this one is double-ended. One end is a recliner seat and the other end supports Chance in a proper sitting position. Grandma Lillian sent a bath ring for Easter but Chance doesn't seem to like it much yet. Till then we will continue with the baby tub.

Couch Rabbits!

I found a rabbit in my couch! A purple rabbit with a purple bow holding an orange carrot. He has a pink nose. Neither Cam nor I know where this rabbit came from! Gramma Jo would not cave during interrogation over the phone, and they are the only ones who have been in the house. So, it seems, this little fellow picked our locks, by himself, and then wedged himself into the couch cushions. What a prankster.

This morning Chance ate green beans for breakfast. Not a great deal of green beans, perhaps 1/2 an ounce, but he seemed to like them.

Returning to Calgary means returning to snow, I guess. We have had 2 white mornings so far, but all the snow melts by the afternoon. The return means getting reacquainted with all the toys we left behind. He seems like he genuinely recognizes them, others he seems to be rediscovering with great enthusiasm.

GAG! ICK! GROSS! BARF!

As I was unloading groceries from our walk today, I noticed something in the bottom of the bag. I thought it was a chip of glass from a bottle (had bought some teriyaki sauce), so reached in and grabbed it. That's when I realized it wasn't glass, it was the cashier's stinkin' false fingernail. I yelped and scared the crap out of Chance, who had been happily scooting on the kitchen floor. He zipped 4 feet across the floor in a second flat, his arms and legs were just GOING. After I stopped gagging I washed my hands 3 times and then picked him up to comfort him. Yech!

Home Again

Well it feels great to be home in Calgary. Despite the snow and the yowling cat, home is where the heart is! Chance had a bit of trouble adjusting to his crib, so was up about 3 times last night (11:30, 2:30, 4:30...ugh). He slept in his crib until 7:45 though, then had a big breakfast, which got him off to a roaring start today, chasing after the kitty and hopping around in the jolly jumper.

Currently he is working on his crawling skills behind me here in the office. It is still more of an army drag than anything, but occasionally he gets his rear end up in the air and uses the legs to push/froghop.

We had a great time in Regina at Gramma Jo and Grampa Phil's house. I know Chance will definitely miss having his own remote control to chew on. And we will soon pick up the exersaucer that Grampa Phil insisted that he would buy us. I know Chance really seemed to enjoy the one that Grampa Phil borrowed from his co-worker.

A big shout out to all Chance's fans at my Dad's office. It was great getting to meet you last week.

All the visiting was great, but I'm glad it's over, back to our own routine here now, yay! Today Chance and I are going to walk to the liquor store (that sounds terrible!). I am throwing a kitchen party at a meal-assembly place next weekend and they don't have a liquor license, so I need to pick one up this week. Apparently they can be difficult to find so I am getting started today.

Extreme Knitting

My mom is very crafty. She can make things. She sews, she cooks, she quilts. She knits. I thought I could learn to knit while I'm visiting, you know, while Chance naps, and in the evenings. I'm starting to have my doubts. We started yesterday afternoon, with regular knitting needles. My fingers proved to be too clumsy with those, so I was demoted to afghan needles. Last night Mom and I just about peed ourselves while I wrestled with my stitches. I nearly gouged out my eyeballs with the needles. 20 minutes and 15 sloppy stitches later, I dropped the knitting needles and they all slipped off. Dammit.

Meanwhile, we have introduced Chance to applesauce. He didn't care much for the home-made variety but found the store-bought kind quite palatable after a few tries, especially when mixed with bananas.