Monday, March 24, 2014

11 months!

Like, a few days late.  Sorry!  I feel like I write these in my head all month, but when it gets down to it I haven't had much computer time lately.

That's not her "official" 11 month photo (it's a few days before) - but dang if it just doesn't tug at my heart strings every time I see it! 

Eating
She generally eats everything now.  I haven't given her wheat (besides the 'floor toast' incident at play group).  I think I will wait until her first birthday, she'll get to have a bit of her birthday cake.  Also, I'm starting a huge kefir kick, and did you know you can make kefir sourdough bread?  Like, for reals.  Coolio.  So she may get some of that.  (I am aiming to have some homemade kefir-sourdough bread and butter for her birthday.  Neat, right?  If I was super fancy I'd make some kefir-cultured butter too.  Woah.)

She doesn't like avocado!  She's like, the only person ever to not like avocado, right?  hahah.  She seems to like everything else.  Well, besides some of the packet babyfood.  But in all fairness, some of them sort of are icky.  We mostly only eat those in a pinch.

Cloth Diapering
Still good!  Our dryer broke several weeks ago.  I thought this was going to slay me, but it turns out I just have to be a wee bit less lazy and a tiny bit more creative, and we're good to go!  Diapers take ~24hr to dry (in our basement in the current weather), so I have to plan for an extra day of diapers.  It just means I use covers once in a while.  And I gave up our fancy inserts for a while, I was worried about them drying too slowly.  I use prefolds as inserts, size 2.  They can hold like 5000 cups of liquid.  :)  I may never go back.

Milestones
She seems like she 'gets' more communication with us now.  Like if I say "Come here, Mommy will read you a book." she knows what's up, and she comes on over.

Speaking of "up" - she can totally say "up" and she knows what it means.  :)  First "real" word, I would call it.  She says "hi" appropriately too, come to think of it.

She is very solid on the 'milk' babysign now.  We babysign lots of foods at her, but none are coming back yet.  Many are a bit tricksy to do, I wouldn't expect them for a few months.  I would think maybe 'cheese' would come next?  (Still an excellent hi-fiver and bye-byer)

She's not walking yet, but getting there.  A very good cruiser.  We can play "walk to Mommy" game, but that's mostly her falling at me and getting cuddles.

Favourite Songs
This french song a friend taught us.  Very fun.  Pirouette Cacaheaute.  We sing a slightly different tune though, haven't found it on youtube yet.

'Mr Bears says Hello' (cutest name ever for a class, right?) starts this week, so I'm sure we'll be learning new songs soon.  Any good advice on a days of the week song?

Baby Health
Fantastic.  Nothing to see here.  ;)
Seriously, super good all month.  She still has just her two little bottom teeth, so no teething even.

My Health
Remember I said you should go see a Pelvic Floor Physio?  Yes.  Do.  She fixed my lady problems.  I am going to cancel the gyno appt.  (Don't need any more peeps up in my lady parts, you know?)

Still no sign of AF.  I plan to return to work on May 20th.

Sleeping
She is lately a sleeping CHAMPION.  This is a really great phase for us.  She now sleeps from about 7:30pm to about ~6am.  She'll feed, and then go down again until 8-9am.  :)  AND, she takes two 2hr naps in the day.  Without much fussing usually.

Magic.  I am almost afraid to speak of it lest it disappear.  I know babies go in phases and this won't last forever, but we're enjoying it for now.


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

$20 well spent

A very lovely thing happened today, so I thought I'd share.

____________________________________________________

Pips and I were out for a walk this afternoon.  As we were walking by a subway station, an old woman approached us and asked for a token or change.  I did my usual jerky "sorry, don't have any" and made to move on, but she was rather persistant.

So, I looked for a token to give her.  As I was looking for a token, she told me her pension had stopped because she hadn't filed her taxes, but she had just filed them and it would be starting back soon, but she was just in a bad place.  She also showed me this massive bag of broccoli that she got for $1 (it was starting to turn).  She said she's cook it with butter and maybe a potato and she'd be fine.

I didn't have a token, but I gave her what I had - and that was like $0.40.  Not much.  She said thank you and we parted ways.

But as I was about to turn the corner, something made me pause and look back.  A thought went through my head - drug addicts don't buy broccoli!  Now, I know there is a whole school of thought that says it isn't your business what someone does with any money you give them, but it rubs me the wrong way to give someone money for drugs or booze when they have addiction problems.

And I started to feel guilty.  I did have my bonus $20 in another part of my wallet afterall.  You know the $20 you keep because you run on very little cash and there are times you need a bit of cash money?

So I went after her and handed her the $20.  And lo!  I think she was overwhelmed for a bit.  She said "PRAISE JESUS!  Jesus brought you to me!" - and I have to wonder - maybe He did.  She said Jesus would bless me for this, and I replied that He already had, giving me my baby.

Really, I would probably waste $20 in the blink of an eye, it's not that big a deal - I don't want this to come across as me thinking I'm so generous or anything.  At church you always talk about helping others, and here was an easy opportunity for me to do so.  She clearly needed a little bit of help to get by.  She even said "It's not for drugs!" at one point, and I was like "I know!"

We hugged.  And I tell you, I had the BIGGEST smile on my face the whole way home.  It was really moving, her response.  And it kind of makes you wonder - what did make me pause and turn back to her?

All in all, I think I got my money's worth!  Nice way to start lent!  :)

Appleseed grows

Lilypie Maternity tickers