I shaved my legs

I shaved my legs today.

Is this worthy of a blog post, one might wonder? Yes, it is. Because I have a 7-month old baby. And that baby is teething. And shaving has never been high on my priority list. And finally, even if I had accomplished something grand today I wouldn't have had time to write about it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2015

Merry Christmas 

and 

Happy New Year!

I wanted to send Christmas cards this year but ... I had a baby instead. Well, the baby arrived 6 months before Christmas but I think it's still a valid excuse.

In March we moved to a larger apartment. We now have a mountain view, lots of light and no sports gear in the living room or the bedroom! I have a sewing room (that is also a guest room) and Randy has a man-closet. Maybe after our next move he'll have a whole man-cave.

Our highlight of 2014 was the arrival of Helen Emma in June. She is a very happy baby. It's been a fun seven months watching her grow and develop and seeing her personality start to come through.

We've had a lot of visitors: My parents came in June, Randy's parents came in September, and two good friends came in October.

We went windsurfing (and camping) on the August long weekend and on another camping trip in September. Helen and I went to Fernie in October for a wonderful (and long overdue) visit.

We spent Christmas in Ontario this year. Helen and I went ahead to my parents' for a week then met Randy in Carp. Helen enjoyed putting on a show for the grandparents: rolling around, making a mess eating solid food, splashing in the bath, and "talking". The snow didn't cooperate for cross-country skiing but we had a few walks in the bush. We returned to Vancouver on New Year's Eve so we celebrated midnight EST on the plane and midnight PST on the subway in Vancouver! New year's day was a beautiful, sunny day and we had a lovely walk in Lighthouse Park. It was a wonderful start to the new year.

Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver New Year's Day.

My delicate sensibilities

Five months after having a baby things are getting back to normal. Well, the new normal anyway, in our new life with a baby! Emotionally, however, I still have a little ways to go -- not that I was the tin man (tin woman?) before but I'm on a whole different level now. I'm still breastfeeding and still have a whole lotta momma hormones that make me very attached, ready to defend my baby from lions and able to cry at the drop of a hat.

While perusing movies on Netflix one evening I came across The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I don't know why I thought watching a movie set in WWII Germany was a good idea one month postpartum. Either I wasn't thinking (likely sleep-deprived possibility) or I was thinking it might be sad yet heart-warming, like It's a Wonderful Life. Nope. At the end I was crying. Not just teary-eyed, but crying. Lesson learned: no more war movies for now.

Another exhausted evening, another Netflix show (you'll notice a pattern emerging) but this time I looked through the documentaries. Surely a nature documentary would be fine; I am a biologist after all. Nope, not good either. Babies die in nature documentaries!! Not human babies, mind you, but that detail doesn't seem to matter. They showed a polar bear going off with a walrus baby and I felt soooo bad for the walrus momma! If it had been a baby goat that got eaten I don't know what I would have done. OK, nature docs are out.

Next up, a British TV series called Call the Midwife. I was doing okay until they told the story of a teenage mother whose baby was forcefully taken for adoption. The poor (fictional) girl cried and yelled for her baby, I cried, and my milk let down! Some other scenarios were a little too recent but I made it through (yes, the whole series. Randy spent a week working late and I was alone in the evenings with only Halloween candy to keep me company.).

Last Saturday our evening was a blank slate so of course we turned to Netflix (this could be a post in itself). I had heard a lot of talk of 12 Years a Slave but hadn't seen it so we settled in to watch. I know slavery isn't a happy topic but it didn't immediately conjure up images of babies dying so I thought it would be safe. Wrong again. I could see from the opening that the happy father was going to be sold into slavery and wouldn't see his young kids again, presumably for 12 years. So I decided to save myself the heartache and turned it off.

My sense of humour still seems to be intact so we're sticking to comedies for now!

There's something about babies

I had no idea how much attention a baby attracts! When we're out and about all sorts of people try to get a glimpse of the baby in her carrier. People have craned their necks going by on the sidewalk and nearly run into things in the grocery store trying to get a peek at the baby attached to the dangling legs. Many stop to ask about her: boy or girl? (I dress her in blue to cause confusion) how old? what's her name? This often starts a conversation, which is welcome in Vancouver where strangers are not usually friendly in passing. Sometimes these people are not those you would expect to be interested in a baby - reminder never to judge a book by its cover!

There's something about babies. Before I had my own, sure, I thought my friends' babies were cute, but I didn't take much notice of strangers' babies. I wasn't a baby person per se. Now that I have a baby I feel like I've joined a club, the club of parenthood, where baby people are honorary members. We've shared a common experience and when these other parents and grandparents see a baby they remember the babies in their lives, no matter how long ago those babies grew up. I have already caught myself doing this with a friend's newborn! Holding a baby must also make a person more approachable so strangers are more likely to stop and talk once the baby is spotted.

Before Helen was born I was always subconsciously on the lookout, but for dogs, not babies! I notice strangers' dogs, like to guess their breed, and plan my walks so they go by dog parks. I suppose this is how baby people are with babies.

Randy with a 10-day old bundle on Father's Day.

Me with a nearly 3-month old today.

My very own Silken pillow

I just finished my very own Silken pillow! A Silken pillow can be used as a nursing pillow or for propping a baby up on the floor. One of my friends in New Zealand had one shaped like a horse and when I returned home and friends and family started having babies I wanted to make something similar. Since I can't draw (even the outline of an animal) I got our Jack Russell, Silken, to lie on some newspaper and I traced her for the pattern. She was middle-aged at the time and thus able to lie still for long enough! I've made several for other people and it was fun this time to be making my own! I was pleased with the result and had a bowl of ice cream to celebrate. No pickles.

Silken posing beside the first Silken pillow.

My Silken pillow.

A pregnant woman's best friend

What is a pregnant woman's best friend? You're probably thinking dog ... goat ... husband? Not to make Randy feel that he's been replaced (he does give a very good foot massage) but as far as getting me through the workday right now, my compression stockings are my best friend.

And how's this for sexy?

It seems like pregnancy symptoms hit you at your weakest point. I had a varicose vein that had never bothered me and I would not have known about except that a doctor had pointed it out to me. Then I hit the 6-month mark of pregnancy and wham - bulging vein, spider veins, nasty pool of swelling below my ankle - and something had to be done.

Not only do I have these nice-looking ones, I also have thigh highs! Sorry, no photo. They came with special gloves to use to put them on (that are very similar to my furniture-moving gloves that I kept from the woodworking shop) and my latest technique for taking them off is to lie on the bed and call Randy.

They will be useful for a subsequent pregnancy (in good time) and maybe on long flights, then I'll pack them away until I'm 80.

Easter Weekend

I got some quality goat time on the Easter weekend! We went to Vancouver Island and spent a day in Victoria, then went to Parksville and Nanaimo visiting friends and family. We walked along the waterfront in Victoria and looked at the BC Legislature:

                                      


We visited Roger, the yellow-belly marmot that lives at the Empress Hotel. This is a very swanky hotel and Roger hitched a ride here about 5 years ago from his native land in the Rockies, presumably to enjoy a warm-weathered retirement.

Roger and some bee boxes outside the Empress Hotel

Then we went to a park where there was a (children's) petting zoo! You could go right into the goat pen and the only rule was that you couldn't pick them up - it is tempting with the little kids (kid goats, that is, not random kid humans). I chased away some young children and got some quality goat time!

 

There were other animals too, including peacocks and mice. The mice were alive and moving around and some were brown and black, all things I'm not used to.

The mouse enclosure

Mice safe in their kleenex box

We did visit people too, but we didn't get any photos of them...

We were lucky enough to stay at the Paradise Seashell Motel in Parksville where you get free mini-golf on their world-famous pirate-themed course with your stay!