march 2009

march 27

we now have the other 70+ family portrait shots to look through and choose from on leann's server. it's very difficult to pick the best - making sure that the 5 of us are looking at the camera and smiling nicely [or in zoe's case not screaming!]

zoe slept for a miraculous 7.5 hours last saturday. 7.5 hours of blissful joined up sleep all in one go. i don't think i've managed that since the end of last summer. i know all too well not to count may chickens though and she has been worse than ever this week - up every 1-2 hours to feed. the few times she did go a bit longer i had unusual visits from aly [bad dream about black holes] and toby [tummy ache/growing pains]. her latest trick is being able to hold toys [if only for a minute] which is very handy because she has just got to the age where she really wants to be entertained when she's awake.

i happened to be reading the french on a cereal box the other morning [as all good canadians should] when i discovered, to my delight, that 'snap crackle pop' translates to 'cric crac croc' in french. fascinating! this led me to look up animal sounds in different languages as i remember being highly amused by the french translations of animal sounds in the past. here are a few i found...

pig

french: groin groin
japanese: boo boo
swedish: nöff-nöff

cat

french: ronron
german: srr
hungarian: doromb
japanese: goro goro
russian: mrr
spanish: rrr

dog

danish: vov-vov
dutch: waf waf
hebrew: how-how
italian: arf arf/bau bau
japanese: kian kian

rooster

dutch: kukeleku
french: cocorico
greek: kikiriku/kikiriki
italian: chicchirichi
japanese: ko-ke-kok-ko-o

now you're wondering how i have time to look this stuff up after all that complaining about getting no sleep.

march 17

hooray, leanne has put a few shots up on her blog.

march 15

the girls

my biggest baby is away for the week at a spring break camp from tomorrow. good luck to her since it was snowing earlier today! she's a bit worried that she'll miss her little sister too much [not any of the rest of us though!].

saturday we used our christmas present from colin and dani and went to get family portraits taken by leanne scherp. zoe wasn't at her most cooperative [and neither was toby at times!], but leanne was great and i'm sure she got some good shots. sascha and i were commenting how frustrating it is not being able to view the photos instantly because we are now so used to being able to do that! she promised to have a few preview shots on her blog, http://www.leannescherp.blogspot.com/, in the next few days, but it will be a couple of weeks before we can view the rest online.

we reluctantly took the children to chuck'e'cheese today which was actually not as bad as i expected. zoe was very very happy to just sit and stare at all the flashing lights so it was a lot more peaceful than i expected. the children had a great time as always. we also went to toy traders on the way home which is a great toy store. they are already plotting what they can trade in next time we go. we finished off with a trip to tim hortons, then watched the shuttle launch live on tv. i'm very jealous that my parents got to watch it really really live in florida. i'm such a space geek. maybe i could still be an astronaut when i grow up! all in all, it was a lovely family day.

it's going to be strange just having toby and zoe at home next week. i'm planning an elaborate treasure hunt for toby inspired by the39clues which is a multimedia clue-finding game that the children and i are reading and playing online

march 9

aly and toby in the rain at queen elizabeth park

toby and i have got a new hobby - classifying galaxies on galaxy zoo. you get to classify real live [as yet uncategorized] galaxies. apparently humans are better at this than computers. toby is also working on making his first computer game. i remember working on very elaborate plans for a gem collecting game with my friend becky when i was about his age. fortunately for toby, things have come a long way since then and he actually has a hope of having his plans became a reality with a bit of help from his dad.

zoe and sascha watching the hockey

zoe is doing great. she weighs a little over 12lbs now. her head and shoulders are very strong and she is starting to be able to hold objects for a little while. as for drooling.. she's an expert. she's still feeding every 3-4hrs at night and almost every 2 during the day [since feeding on demand is the official wisdom at the moment] but they are quick feeds so very manageable. i was feeling guilty about being excited about her being able to do new things because last time around i spent way too much time wishing they could feed themselves, or speak, or be done with diapers etc etc. but then i realised it's not so much about making my life easier or wishing she would grow up quickly, but is all to do with the reward of teaching such a tiny human being. it's an amazing feeling to see that first smile, or the first time they clap, roll over, sit up, or call you mommy. it's a feeling that's hard to beat.

now that i'm mom to a baby again, it's probably time to look at parenting section on this site again - so no looking until i've had a chance to update! the whole website could do with an overhaul. hopefully i'll get to that sometime during my year off.

sascha did his superdad impression this weekend. toby had 2 hockey games and one practice and he had to leave work early in the snow today to take him to another away game. he and toby had to be up at 5.30am [4.30am in old time since the clocks just went forward] on sunday morning for an away game in another city. toby is usually goalie which adds even more time to the preparations. rather him than me - leave me snuggled up in bed feeding a newborn any day! the hockey season is almost over but toby is signed up for ball hockey this year. i just hope the times works out a bit better for that.

me and my 'ickle sister

mike, kellie and zoe

mike at dedutch on pancake day

march 3

kellie and mike went back to london on sunday evening. it was a lovely visit. the weather had been fairly good for the time of year. sascha and i even got to go and win some money at the casino while they babysat [AND had to change a diaper - horror of horrors!] we ended the trip with brunch at our favourite restaurant at the top of the harbour tower downtown - top of vancouver

at the bloedel conservatory

we spent a very happy pancake day evening at dedutch. dutch pancakes are a little thicker than english ones but a lot closer to the real thing than the usual american ones. aly ordered a fruit loop pancake and i ordered a turkey bacon mushroom pancake and we were both surprised to find the contents embedded in our pancakes [previously i'd only ever had the bacon etc. served on top of the pancake. they were very tasty though. of course, i'm not supposed to eat pancakes at all since they are the epitome of everything i'm intolerant to [wheat, milk, eggs!] but since i do have a little bit of each every week, i decided to use up my week's allowance for pancake day.

aly's new hairdo

aly and i went for haircuts while kellie and mike were here to watch zoe and toby. mine is very boring as usual and aly's turned out beautifully. she had just enough hair to donate to charity again [and even got a present for doing so at the new hairdressers we went to].

at the vancouver aquarium

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