The Battle of the Bottle

Posted by Kate

Well, there will be no more bottle usage in our house. Not that there ever was, really. I have been trying to teach Connor to drink from a bottle so that I could leave him with Dave or Jillian or Brieanne every once in awhile without worrying that he was screaming with hunger. I am tutoring a bit now, and I have to leave him for about an hour and a half twice a week. I try to feed Connor right before I go, but I wanted there to be a back up just in case. We tried a few different bottles and nipples, but he could not get the hang of it. Probably the problem was that I didn't try hard enough. I only tried sporadically, since I am not going back to work for a long time, and it was not imperative that he learn how to do it. And knowing that it took Garrett three weeks of trying every day before he got it was not very inspiring.
On Wednesday morning I was trying with a Gerber bottle (which he actually drank out of the first time, but then would never do it again) and I'd just had enough. I remembered that I had one sippy cup, so I poured the milk in there and gave it to Connor. He thought it was great. The holes were too big on that particular cup and the milk poured everywhere but it seemed like it had potential. I bought another cup that the milk doesn't come out of so fast, and Connor has successfully used it three times. It is still pretty messy and requires the removal of all clothes but I feel like we've actually found something that works. He even reaches for the cup when you take it away from his mouth! So, when you all volunteer to come take care of Connor while I go shopping, you will be able to feed him. : )

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Happy Four Months

Posted by Kate

Today is Connor's four month birthday...anniversary? Anyway, he was born four months ago today. And the day has been quite an auspicious one: He rolled from his back to his tummy for the first time, he drank from a sippy cup and his picture appeared in the Herald's "Babies of 2004".
Congratulations, baby.

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Here is Connor on his first day in the world... 

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And here he is now! 

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Well I finially got my 1st season of MacGyver today! I'm so excited! I always loved this show and it wasn't untill recently that Spike has started showing it again and I was finially able to see it again. I know some of you folks that have satelite have been able to see it for a long time now, but I'm not one of those folks. 

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Hurray for more free stuff!

Posted by Kate

Another free thing that I got from the Welcome Wagon was a free Creative Memories class for a friend and I. Creative Memories is a scrapbooking enterprise, which is where you take your pictures and cut them out in fancy shapes and use different backgrounds to make album pages. It is pretty neat, but once again, pretty expensive. You can buy the same sorts of paper, stickers and tools at Michaels or Walmart. Of course the people who sell Creative Memories stuff say don't buy that because it doesn't last as long. The Creative Memories products (like markers, scissors and hole punchers) are really good, and will probably last 50 years, but I say do I really want markers that I will still use in 50 years? No! I want different, new ones by then! Anyway, Jillian and I had a fun time, and my friend Deon was there, which was a nice surprise. Connor came with us, and was quite agreeable. I did buy a corner rounder, which cuts the corners of your pictures to make them look fancy, and Jillian bought some stencils. For the rest of the stuff, I guess we'll stick with cheap old Walmart.

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Dead fish

Well the fish died today. About a week ago I noticed what looked like a red spot about half way down his body. He seemed to be doing fine though so I wan't worried about it. Then throughout the week it got really bad. The red spot kept getting bigger and then everything around this spot started falling off. Actually it was quite nasty.

This afternoon I looked in on him and I noticed that he was kinda swimming kinda backwards and upside down on the top of the tank. So I got out the old little net to send him to the great fishtank at the bottom of my toilet and he started to swim a little. He was swimming all weird and he didn't look good so I caught him in the net. He wasn't moving so I figured he was dead and I dumped him in the toilet. He then started swimming around in the toilet. FLUSH! Oh well.

He was a good fish though. We got him in the summer around June and lasted through the move to Alliston and all that. Kate got him for $0.19 so I think we got our money's worth outta him.

Well gotta go make pizza for dinner. Pepperoni, double cheese, and anchovies...

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Emilio Rodriguez Rocks

The other day I was at work and I over heard one of the guys I work with telling another guy about a movie. This is what I overheard...

"Hey! Have you seen the Three Musketeers? There's this one guy in it that keeps saying "Hello... My name is Emilio Rodriguez... You killed my father..." it's a great movie. You should see it!"

I almost puched him in the face. I had to correct him. "Hello... My name is Anigo Montoya... You killed my father... Prepare to die." This is the correct quote. And the Three Musketeers??!?!?!!?!? FOOL!!!

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Barbie and....Bibles?

Posted by Kate

I just had a weird internrt thing happen: I wanted to read my sister Jillian's blog, so I typed in the address: www.barbiewannabe.blogspot.com. And I got sent to a website called Abundant Bible! It was all about the Bible and Christianity. And I thought "Wha happen?" So I checked the address again and found that I had typed www.barbiewannabe.blogpot.com (note "pot", not "spot").
So, I have two observations: First, thank goodness if you mis-type Jillian's address it goes to a decent website. But second, why in the world would a site about the Bible have an address of "Barbie Wannabe"?
This is a very strange phenomenon.

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We Need a Table!

Published by Kate

We need a kitchen table. Yes, we're on our third apartment of married life and still eating in our living room. Well, actually we had a table in our place in Toronto but I mostly used it for a desk. And in Aurora we had our great kitchen counter and we ate at our picnic table in the summer. But now it is winter and the picnic table is a little chilly, not to mention far away in the back yard. I have decided, though, that when Connor starts sitting and eating in a high chair we must model good eating behaviour and sit at a table. Dave agrees with this, although I don't know if it has completely hit him yet that there will be no more Seinfeld during dinner. There is enough room for a small table in our kitchen, we just haven't been able to find the right one yet. Sears and Ikea have neat ones that mount on the wall and fold down for space-saving. I wish we could get one of those because we could put it at wall height and use our nice bar stools that we bought in Aurora. Unfortunately this is an old house and the walls are filled with rubber...well, they're probably filled with plaster and that means you can't put a nail more than two inches in before it stops and wobbles around. I suppose there is some way to get around that, but we probably won't be here for so long that we would go to such measures. So I will keep looking.

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Car Seat Blues

Posted by Kate

Yesterday I got Connor's big carseat put in my car. He was 27 1/2" at three months, and the infant carseat only goes to 26", so I have been after Dave for awhile to put in it. He kept saying that he would wait until it was warmer, and then when it was warmer he wouldn't do it. I got exasperated, because I didn't want to take Connor anywhere in the car (although it had been pretty warm, so we were walking everywhere) and decided to do something about it myself. We have an Ontario Early Years Centre in town , and their staff will help out with carseats, so I booked an appointment with them. I have been going to the EYC for a new parents' group since Connor was about a month old and it is a really great place. The whole experience was great for me: Janet and Marie put the carseat in my car while I watched, and someone else took care of Connor inside. It was not so great for Connor though--actually it was probably traumatic for him. First you need to know that he dislikes wearing clothes. In the house now he usually just wears an undershirt and socks, but sometimes even the socks come off. He cries when he has to wear a sweater. But we had to make sure that the straps were at the right spot, so I piled on his undershirt, pants, shirt and outside sweater, while he was inside. Then I strapped him into the carseat, which insulted him even more. It took him quite a few minutes (and undressing down to his undershirt) to calm down after. But he had to put it all on again 15 minutes later so we could go home. It was really cold outside and that scared him. So he was crying and flailing while I tried to do the seatbelt up, which wasn't very fun. He was so tired from all that that he fell asleep 30 seconds into the one minute drive home. I think we will take a break from the carseat for a few days.

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Never mind the hands. Connor has now found his feet! 

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Blast off! To me, Connor's new carseat looks like he is strapped into a seat in the space shuttle.  

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Hurray for Free Stuff!

Posted by Kate

When we moved to Alliston we had the Welcome Wagon come and one of the free gifts was a session with the local Mary Kay consultant, Sharon. She called me before Christmas and asked if she could come and do some demonstrations. I could also invite some friends. I asked Jillian to come, and then Joanna just happened to stop by my house on that day so she stayed. The first time we did hand and face treatments, and she put some really simple makeup on us. That was great, because we are all so pale in the winter and the bronzing powder actually made us look tanned and healthy! Then she came again last night and did some fancier makeup stuff. (Pictures follow). It was fun, but way too much work. I will never wear that much makeup! It didn't look bad, I just can't be bothered to put on more than blush and maybe mascara. All that stuff about foundation, concealer, powder, cream...blah. Mary Kay products are pickin expensive (especially when you're on maternity leave) but since I was the host I can buy $75 of stuff for $25, so maybe I will choose some hand cream or something. Sharon was great, though. She didn't make us feel pressured to buy anything at all. Her goal was that we would have a good time and learn something. And Connor loved her too. He must have been so tired from smiling at her that he fell asleep at 6:30!

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Here's the new us. 

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We look lovely, but we can't see! 

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Chompy

Connor really loves to chew on things these days. Well, not anything. Mostly just his bibs and his fingers, as you can see from the pictures below. Jillian and Joanna can't believe how much he chews or how much he drools now! He will also chew on other people's fingers: You think it's so cute that he's taking your finger in his hands, lookin at it and pulling it towards him...when Aaarumph! He stuffs it in his mouth and starts chomping away. He actually makes that sound sometimes. Sometimes he is so frantic to chew that I give him the pacifier, but he spits it out unless I hold it in. Aah, the joys of being three months old.

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Mmmmm, fingers. 

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Mmmmm, bib.  

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Here is Connor with several of his toys: rocking chair, wrist rattle and Puppy. Puppy was the first thing he ever "played" with (held and looked at).  

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Here is Connor on Christmas Eve. 

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Look Mom, I can blog!

Since Dave has been slacking on the blog front, I thought I would try it myself. I don't know how to change the part at the bottom that says it was published by Dave, so I will say it here: Published by Kate. Maybe I can even remember what he showed me about putting up pictures. Well, probably not. So thank you to all of you who have checked our blog for the last two weeks, only to be disappointed by nothing new. You're finally being rewarded!
We had a lovely Christmas. Spent Christmas Eve and Day with my family, and then went to Sarnia on Boxing Day and stayed until New Year's Eve. Connor was oblivious to all the festivities, but liked visiting with all his grandparents and aunts and uncles! He recieved lots of cd's, so now we listen to Sharon, Lois and Bram in the kitchen, Bible songs in the living room, and Veggie Tales in the bedroom. Actually, the one that he really responds to is by Fisher Price, and called Dance, Baby, Dance. It is nursery rhyme songs (like Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and London Bridge) set to a dance beat. Like dance music from the nineties--remember that? There are no lyrics so I have to sing a long, which he likes, and there are sounds of babies laughing. So its a good time for Connor, but we'll see how long the adults can handle it. Connor also recieved enough toys that I had to make us a toy box out of my favourite of all containers, a Rubbermaid bucket.
Okay, Dave says not to go on and on and on, or none of you will read this. The end.

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