7 month weigh in

We just went for Marley's weigh in today and turns out she is in fact growing, woo hoo! She gained a full pound since our last check up, she's now 16.2 pounds. The nurse said she's on the lower end of the scale (at the 26th percentile) but since she's gaining there's no need to worry. She's also pretty well mastered the art of crawling/sliding around so I suspect she'll become more svelte with all this additional exercise.

Happy Easter

This weekend we celebrated Easter with a variety of activities. Thursday I met my brother and mom at Grams, Friday I met all of my cousins for lunch at Wah Sing followed by an Easter egg hunt and games at Sooky's place afterwards. Saturday I visited Grams again and then went to my mom's for lunch. The collage is a bunch of different photos from the weekend. Most of the pics are blurry, apparently I'm a terrible photographer! It was great to see the kids interact. My nephew Elijah is just starting to walk (or thump) around and he and Marley are hilarious together. They basically take turns hitting and scratching and pushing each others hands away from the toys. Wait til they are old enough to chase each other around! I definitely had my share of treats. Indulged in 3 of Carol's white chocolate lemon cupcakes and pigged out on chocolate (not to mention all the Chinese food from Wah Sing!) Today is chore day, so much to catch up on with all the busy activities of the weekend. Hope everyone else had a great Easter!

PrOOnes

Bathing a baby alone is definitely an artform. With iron fortified cereal comes constipation and the solution is Prunes. But PrOOnes = poo, and large amounts of it. I was going to take a photo of my bathroom to show you all the aftermath but I figured there might be people eating while reading and I wouldn't want to do that to you. Let's just say its bad news. The poonami goes up the back and out the neck and unfortunately its become a regular occurance. Combine that with a super squirmy baby and I have no idea how you are supposed to get the bath done in one piece. I wish there was a manual. Maybe some of you can give me tips? Between taking off her clothes and trying not to get poo all over myself or the bathroom, plus turning on the water so its warm when she gets in and then figuring out how to bathe her slippery body and get her in a towel, the logistics are just too much for me! I'm glad the prunes can relieve the constipation but I'm not so happy with the crime scene that's left afterwards...

Making baby food...

Now that Marley is on solids, I've been researching some baby food recipes to try. I've become quite lazy and enjoyed using the PC organic jarred baby food but I figured now that she's going to be eating meat, I would attempt to make my own. I purchased the organic grain fed chicken breasts from Rowe Farms, poached and then cut up into small servings before freezing some and pureeing the rest. My first recipe was chicken, creamed corn and garlic. Threw it all into the processor and blitzed however the quantity was so small, the blade was not able to fully puree the chicken pieces. So it turned out kind of "stewy". I still gave it to Marley anyway but she ended up giving me her gag face (or actually gagging) so first attempt appeared unsuccessful. Now I was left with this chicken corn mush. I would normally just throw it out, but seeing as how I spent good money on that very expensive chicken, I decided to get creative while looking for something to eat for my lunch. Boiled some pasta, threw in some melted butter and the chicken corn mush, added some dried dill and grated parmesan. The result was not too bad! However I think anything tastes good when its covered in cheese. 

A visit to the Dearbourne Cafe

Thursday I decided to finally pay my cousin Meredith a visit. We are practically neighbours and both on mat leave, hard to believe it took us over 4 months to get a visit together. Mer provided lunch (as Samara said "the Cafe is open!") and then we went to Withrow Park so we could veg in the sun and try to get Marley and Talia to sleep while Samara ran around on every slide, ladder and toy in the park. We are hoping to make this a regular weekly routine, looking forward to next week's adventure!

Marley's new toy

We finally bit the bullet and got ourselves the "circle of neglect" as my cousin Meredith calls it. Ours is a little supersized, if you're gonna neglect them, might as well maximize your time with as many distractions on one contraption as possible.

Little J

Here are some cute pics of Sally's 4 month old son Jacen during their last visit. Since Jacen doesn't yet roll around, he was safe on the couch while his mamma finished up something around the house. Its amazing how quickly they grow, gotta enjoy these "stationary" days while you still have them Sally!

First Swing!

It was our first time on the swings and except for Marley trying to eat her seat, all went pretty well!

Just hanging out...

This is Marley and her two boytoys Sully and Jacen on the swings.

Meeting Miss Scarlett

Here are some pics from our visit to Evelyn's house to meet her newest addition. You might not be able to tell from the photo, but Scarlett's eyes are currently grey. Mom is hoping that they will stay that way but we shall see in the coming weeks... thanks for a lovely visit Ev!

Marley vs. Kahlua

Yesterday Marley and I finally got to meet Evelyn's new daughter Scarlett. While we were there, Marley got to spend some good quality time with Evelyn's dog Kahlua. Kahlua is very friendly so of course she had no fear in going up to a small potentially dangerous baby. And Marley clearly held her own by grabbing poor Kahlua by the mouth and dragging her, screaming in her ear and pulling her hair. Luckily with Ev's two kids, Miss Kahlua is already quite used to this kind of abuse. But she also got a few good licks in herself, actual licks of course, licked Marley's hand, her face, and I'm sure she even got Marley on the mouth. Good to know that Marley isn't afraid of dogs. But then how could anyone be afraid of adorable little Kahlua.

Almost there!

Looks like someone is on the move! Miss Marley is just in the process of learning how to scoot. She starts in a crawl position on all fours and then just propels herself forward and ends up on her belly. But it does get her to where she wants to be. I put a bunch of toys in front of her and using this method, she was able to get to them. I have a feeling I'll need those baby gates very soon... And yes, her hair is looking like a 1970's male pop star, we must get that hair cut soon too!

A new food discovery...

Gotta love multicultural Toronto! Our neighbours pointed us to a new find at Gerrard and Pape called Pizza Pide. It looks like a regular pizza joint but when you look at their menu you'll notice that they offer Turkish style open faced calzones that look like pizza canoes with seasoned meat inside. There are 20 different varieties and they are all under 10 dollars! Today we only tried one, it was a 'sampler' that had five different sections with each featuring a different combination. It was deeleecious and we are looking forward to trying the next 19!