Meeting "ha-da-bugee"

Today Sooky and I took Marley to meet her grandfather for the first time. It was a bit of a production getting the carseat and stroller all packed but once it was all done we were off. The weather was a bit snowy but Ms. Marley was well bundled and we enjoyed visiting dad's grave. Its hard to believe that 10 years have gone by since he passed away. I often forget that he wasn't here for my brother's wedding or hasn't met any of his grandchildren. It seems like he's been around for everything and only when I go to visit his grave do I realize how long he's been gone. Well today we added one more memory together. It was nice to see you dad.

Starting Solids: Brown Rice Cereal

As the title suggests, today Ms. Marley started solids. She has been extremely curious whenever we are eating, always staring as we put the food in our mouths, so I was very interested to see how she would take to her first "solid" food. I mixed the cereal with breast milk and put the first spoonful to her mouth. At first she didn't open, just let it touch her lips and then licked. Next thing you know I see a little hand reaching for the spoon and she's dragging the spoon to her mouth again. After that, it seemed as though I couldn't get it in fast enough. She would open her mouth and stick out her tongue as soon as the spoon approached and continued to try to grab the bowl and spoon and bring it closer to her mouth. Starting solids seems to have been a success.

On another note, Gerwyn and I (okay mostly Gerwyn) wanted to "research" what Marley would be eating. He purchased a variety of jarred "first foods": strained bananas, pears, apples and blueberries and put them all out on the counter for a "taste test". I was a little grossed out at first but then when he pointed out that we should know what her food tastes like, I decided to give it a try. Turns out, its pretty darn good! We actually fought over who could finish the bananas and pears and the apples and blueberries were tasty as well. Due to its sweetness, I think I'll leave these off Marley's menu until after she's tackled the veggies. Judging from her father's reaction, I'm pretty sure she'll like them.

A dinner date

Friday night I had the pleasure of finally meeting my friend Saadia for dinner. We had been planning to get together for awhile and now that my "alone" time is few and far between, I especially appreciate time alone with my girlfriends. We had appetizers and drinks at the newly renovated Joy Bistro. The food was good and the company even better. Thanks for a lovely evening Ms. Rayman, looking forward to our next one.

Gymboree for three!

Wednesday I met Sally and Susie for a free Gymboree class in Thornhill. It was a long trek to Promenade Mall but the class was quite fun and well worth it. There were 15 babies in all and it was hilarious to see them all interact. We got to sing songs, play with a giant parachute and blow bubbles.

Between these fun activities and meeting the gals for lunches, I don't know how I'll ever go back to work...

Weekend Events...

Family day weekend was spent with... family! After recovering from a mild case of a flu bug on Saturday, Sunday we went to a baby shower for some of Gerwyn's extended family. Marley got to meet many new people and I got to enjoy some quality time with the buffet. :) Monday we met MelanNorm for a spontaneous lunch at Joey, a restaurant at the Don Mills Centre. We indulged in a deeleecious meal and even finished off with dessert, an amazing warm banana cake with coconut ice cream and molten chocolate lava cake.

A day at the movies...

Yesterday a group of my mommy friends decided to try the "Movies for Mommies" at Rainbow Theatres near St. Lawrence Market. Basically its a movie where parents and babies are welcome and they have changing stations, bottle warming and brighter theatres. It was quite the experience. As soon as we arrived, we noticed the "parking lot" of strollers outside of our theatre and once inside, there were babies everywhere! Babies crawling on the floor (yes, I thought that was kinda gross too), babies in the aisles and babies being fed in the seats. It was babypalooza.We watched "Just Go with It" with Adam Sandler. Not the best movie, but we were going just to get out and spend time together. After the movie we stopped at Letteiri for some coffee and treats. All in all, a fun experience, looking forward to next week's movie!

Just another day at the office...

Today we decided to follow Gerwyn to his office while he finished off a project. In all the years of knowing him, I have never been to his office and since most of the time he works from home, even doubted its existence. Well today we finally got to see where the bacon comes from. (As in "bringing home the bacon", get it??!)

Since the office was at Yonge and Davisville, we decided to spend the rest of the day at Yonge and Eglinton. The weather was a bit mild so we perused the stores and had lunch at my favourite burger place, South Street Burger. The burgers are organic and hormone/antibiotic free and they have a ton of gourmet toppings (carmelized onions, avocado, crumbled blue cheese) that are FREE with your burger. It was deeleecious! After lunch I bought a new knapsack at Lululemon. I had been looking for a knapsack to buy to use as my diaper bag. Diaper Bags themselves are quite pricey (almost $100) and it just didn't make sense for me to spend that much on something that I would only use with a baby so I wanted a regular knapsack with lots of pockets that I could use afterwards as well. My new Lulu bag has lots of compartments, comes with a separate insert for "wet" stuff (which works out perfectly since Marley makes plenty of her clothes wet) and afterwards, I can use it for yoga as there is also a compartment for your yoga mat. Perfect!

Now we are home and contemplating dinner. We were going to go grocery shopping and cook but after our long day out and about, I think we'll just order in our usual Casa Sushi.

Baby its cold outside!

 

This week has been an exceptionally cold week which has kept the two of us inside and bored! I look forward to getting out but it was just too cold (minus 20 with windchill) to subject Miss Marley to the true Canadian winter. After a full week inside though, I decided a quick walk wouldn't hurt so today I bundled the lil lady up (see pic above) and we made a trek to Lil' Peeps, one of my favourite kids' stores at Queen and Broadview and then popped into Ed's Real Scoop to take advantage of their pint sale. If you buy 10 pints you get one free, and I'm well on my way to filling up my card! Today we bought Strawberry and Ferrero Rocher, both homemade with all natural ingredients and both deeleecious!

As you can see, the cold Canadian winter didn't stop Miss Marley from falling asleep in her stroller. Although all bundled up like that, I think I would fall asleep too. What a nice life...

Happy Birthday Norm!

 

Yesterday we had impromptu birthday dinner for our friend Norm who turned 36! After our KFC pig out fest, Norm decided he wanted to do something similar for his birthday so they brought over Church's Chicken and we fried chickened it up! We had chicken, wings, biscuits, fries, macaroni salad and pickles and hot sauce. Apparently the pickles and hot sauce are the only way to enjoy fried chicken and I have to admit, it was pretty darn good. We had never tried Church's before so were excited to compare it to the good ol Colonel. It was definitely different and definitely finger lickin good, but we will still keep a warm place in our hearts for the original. What I loved the most about Church's was their deeleecious biscuits! I have a feeling they are deep fried, but man, they are craveworthy! We look forward to this becoming an annual tradition for Norm so we can indulge again next year. We finished off with a homemade ice cream cake from Ed's Real Scoop. Even though I'm cutting back on sugar, I couldn't resist a piece (or two). Ed's is my weakness! Thanks for bringing the celebrations to us MelanNorm, we had a great time!

Suuuuuuperbowl Sunday!

Sunday we had our annual superbowl party. Well nothing major, just a few of our close friends for food and football. I have to admit, I had been looking forward to this game for awhile since I had followed the entire season alongside my husband. I spent the day making chili, chicken wings and heating up pizza and hors d'oeuvres. As our first few guests arrived I realized that what I loved about superbowl was the opportunity to spend time with friends more than the actual game itself. I ended up missing most of it while chatting with saadia, mel and sally upstairs.

The Big Carrot

Yesterday was my first visit to the Big Carrot. The Big Carrot is an organic/health food grocery store located on the Danforth. My cousin Mad used to shop there often when she lived here and I was always interested in the products she would bring home but I just never got a chance to visit. After creating a list of items that I know I wanted, I finally made it and boy, was it worth the wait! I could have spent all day there, unfortunately I only had about two hours. For anyone who is on any special wheat free or sugar free diets, or just interested in eating a bit healthier, I strongly recommend you go. They have an entire health and beauty section full of all natural and mostly organic products. I spent one of my two hours in there alone. They had so many options and were happy to provide free samples for me to take home and try out first. Then I hit the grocery aisles and grabbed my items before my curfew hit. I didn't have enough time to look at everything but at least I got my necessities: Agave Nectar, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, a natural bathroom cleaner to wash Marley's bathtub and some Naturally sweetened blueberry yogurt and jam (no refined sugar!)

Looking forward to my next visit!!

Down and Out...

Sunday night I was struck with the one of the worst cases of food poisoning I think I've ever had. After feeding Marley at 4 am, I got into bed and all of a sudden felt terrible. My entire body started aching and I had the chills. Then the nausea and rumblings in my tummy hit and it was all downhill from there. The rest of the night and morning was spent crawling back and forth to the bathroom. Luckily Gerwyn was not too busy at work and was able to take care of Marley as I was not even strong enough to pick her up. He brought her in for the feedings and then it was back to bed for me. It has been at least a few years since I've been that sick, and boy did it make me appreciate being healthy!

Today (Wednesday) I'm back to feeling 100%. However this morning I was awakened by a swift kick to my nose and then of course, it started bleeding. Although I have been putting Marley in her crib at night, by 7am, I bring her up to bed so I can catch a few more zzz's. Now that she's much more agile, she likes to toss and turn and often ends up horizontal in our bed. And this morning, my little troublemaker gave me one of the worst nose bleeds I've had in awhile. It took a good hour for it to stop bleeding. Unfortunately today Gerwyn had some work projects to complete so I had to figure out how to feed and burp her using one hand. It was a challenge to say the least! The photos above were taken this morning once I managed to stop the bleeding and recover from the massive loss of blood...

Lunch at mom's

Sunday we visited my mom's for a family lunch. Marley got to play with her cousins which is starting to get more entertaining as she becomes more aware of her surroundings. My mom was watching both Marley and Elijah while the rest of us ate lunch. She would hold Marley on her lap and try to play with Elijah while he sat on the floor but he would always try to climb onto her lap and move Marley out of the way. Whenever I put both Marley and Elijah side by side, they would have a swatting contest to see who could scratch and swat at the other the most. Although Elijah is almost double Marley's size, I think she'll be learning how to fend for herself quite soon.