Happy Birthday Hubby, Vaccines, etc.

Yesterday was Stéphane's 32nd birthday (or, as he likes to call it, 8 years until he's 40) and we celebrated it a few days early with a Sunday brunch. Sunday turned out to be a pretty wild day because it snowed almost 40cm in Montréal and Stéphane braved the almost white-out conditions to get us to church in the morning, then to brunch afterwards. Our friends came as well which we thought was pretty great given that it was a perfect day for staying cozy in bed... Here we are at our new favorite breakfast place that happens to be right in the neighborhood! It's called Coco Gallo and the food is excellent. Note Liliane's cutie outfit and tights with the shoes built right in - a gift from Grandma. She of course was a big hit!

I had to miss the Christmas Carol evening at the church that night because it just didn't feel safe to drive around anymore. I was disappointed to let the choir down by not being there, but I hear that the evening went well even with some people missing. That's how it goes when there's a baby to think about I guess! I'll sing next year. I promise.

On Saturday we dropped Liliane off at her grandparents once again and snuck away to see The Golden Compass. I really enjoyed it although Stéphane wasn't super impressed. We spent the evening with my in-laws and got to see André and Danielle back from their two-week vacation in the south as well as Stéphane's other sister Johanne who was meeting Liliane for the first time. It's so much fun to see the family as in love with our baby as we are!

I finished my baking this week and today I'll start packing up for B.C. We're leaving on Saturday and I can't wait to get home! We're both a little nervous about the whole flying with a baby thing, but people seem to be pretty forgiving when the babies are so small.

I took this picture yesterday. She had been sleeping in her vibrating chair when I heard her wake up. Usually she sqawks for me to come and get her, but I didn't hear anything. When I poked my head around the corner to check, she was cracking up all by herself looking at the dangly thingys on her chair. It's been so much fun watching her start to notice things now that she can see farther! It answers the age old question: does a baby make any sound if she is smiling and laughing and her mother doesn't notice?

Monday morning we had Liliane's two-month check up with the pediatrician. She now weighs 12 pounds is measures just over 23.5 inches. She's in the top 80th percentile for her height and weight! I have no idea what that really means but it seems to be good. She was supposed to also have her vaccines then as well but due to the storm aftermath, the nurse didn't make it in so we had to go back yesterday. I have to say, it was pretty sucky watching my baby get needles poked into her chubby little thighs, but she got over it pretty quickly. She hasn't had any other reaction to the shots so far so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Last night Liliane stayed with our friend Colleen for a few hours while we went out for dinner to celebrate Stéphane's birthday. It was pretty chaotic yesterday - the city is still buried in snow from the storm and more blowing snow was falling yesterday afternoon. We were stuck in major traffic trying to get to Colleen's, plus we felt bad about leaving our freshly vaccinated kiddo with our friend, not knowing exactly how she would behave post-shots. We finally made it and even got a parking spot not too far from her front door which I took to be a good sign. Colleen shooed us out the door with promises to call as soon as anything seemed amiss. The baby did fine, nothing to worry about. Thank you Colleen, Emilie and Mikayla for taking good care of her! This is a picture of Colleen and Mikayla when they came to visit Liliane just after she was born:

That's about all I have to report for the moment. I probably won't post now until after we get to Vancouver. I'll have some time on my hands once we get there because I suspect I won't be seeing my daughter very often! Except of course when she gets hungry :) I can't wait!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Bunny

Liliane is completely fascinated by her bunny mobile. I can wind it up and she will lay there and watch with delight for quite a while (as long as I keep the music going!) Had to share how cute she looked this morning...

Snowstorm, Baking, Party, etc.

Wow, I can't believe more than a week has gone by already! Miss Liliane is 8 weeks old today. I got a check-up at the doctor's office yesterday and I'm in good shape. Liliane was a little fussy while I was on the exam table, but otherwise she charmed everyone. I think it's pretty cool to be able to visit the OB/GYN and actually bring them the product of all those months of appointments!

I took some pictures last week of the big snowstorm so here they are... This is our back balcony.

Stéphane shovelled it all away about two minutes after I took these. Sadly, the city of Montréal left our street full of plowed snow until YESTERDAY. Just in time for the next one: it's snowing like crazy right now.

As I mentioned, we didn't end up going to the movie premiere last Monday, but we did see a movie on Saturday. We left Liliane with Stéphane's parents and she was great. We were away for three whole hours and it's like she didn't even notice we were gone! I guess as long as she has her bottle and her grandparents, she is A-OK! I have to say, it was a pretty crazy feeling, leaving her like that for the first time. We weren't worried about my in-laws, we just felt weird actually going somewhere without towing along our little jellybean. Anyway, it was a great first experience and we are so thankful to Grandmaman and Grandpapa for their help :)

Last week I started Christmas baking with some shortbread:

Liliane cooperated by napping regularly so I could get them done as well as nanaimo bars, butter crunch and almond squares. Luckily, I've been able to give packages of treats away as gifts, otherwise I'd be eating it all... I've got a couple more things I'd like to make so we'll hope for more regular napping this week!

We got a new gadget for Liliane last week... My sister recommended it as good entertainment for the baby as well as a place that I could put her down, guilt-free! It's a blanket with arches of dangly things hanging over it. I'm sure there is an actual word for it, but since I seem to have permanent Mommy brain, I'll just show you the pictures of Lili enjoying herself:

She is starting to smile and coo more and more these days. Actually, today I was singing to her and playing with her on the change table (her #1 spot for good times) and she gave me a real smile - she registered who I was and responded to me smiling at her by giving me a big ol' grin. Wow, what a feeling!

Even though our hockey team is sucking right now (Go Habs Go!), Stéphane and Liliane still enjoying watching the game. She's super relaxed here all slacked out on her Dad...

On Saturday we went to Julie and Joyce's annual Christmas party and passed Liliane over to as many people as wanted to see her! She was a star and didn't mind being nuzzled and squeezed by so many of our friends.

Well, that's about it for our week. This week has been good so far with Lili and I finishing Christmas shopping with her first trip downtown yesterday. She pretty much slept in the carrier all the way. Tomorrow I'll go out to my work Christmas party so she'll be spending some quality time with Daddy. This weekend we are celebrating Stéphane's birthday and I'll be singing in the Christmas program at church. Our big goal is to get our B.C. gifts all wrapped and sent off by mail before Friday! Wish me luck!

Let It Snow...

Well, tonight Stéphane and I were going to have our first night out together (Liliane was going to stay with my friend Colleen and her two girls) but we chickened out. Yes, yes we did. It's too snowy and she just seems too little. What if we get stuck somewhere and she drank up all the milk I pumped and Colleen got stuck for hours with the frantic, screaming version of our baby daughter? All you parents out there (especially Colleen!) are laughing at me, the rookie, but come on, it's the first time!

This is the view from the apartment this morning...

We're expecting about a foot and it's still falling. And windy. Oh well, we'll have our night out soon. She is only going to be 7 weeks old tomorrow after all! This is how cute she looked snoozing this morning. I'm feeling particularly in love with her today because she slept from about 1AM to 7 this morning. 6 hours in a row! Wahoo!



On Saturday our friends Jean-Michel and Laurence came to meet Liliane! Here are two of the about 5000 pictures we took:



They brought her two pairs of adorable Christmas PJs (photos to come) and we had a lovely evening catching up. On Sunday we put some of our Christmas decorations up, although I decided that we wouldn't put up our tree this year since we'll be leaving for Vancouver in a few weeks. (That cheering you hear is Stéphane being grateful to not have to deal with the tree this year.) This is the teeny tiny tree that we put up on the end table instead:


I also had some fun this weekend treating thrush! Just in case you were wondering, thrush is a yeast infection in your breasts that is fairly painful although thanks to the Dr. Sears website, I figured out what it was before it got too bad. Luckily my sister (the baby guru - I call her AT LEAST once a day) had already had one so she told me what to do. Turns out that the cure for thrush is Gentian Violet - a super purple liquid (extrait of said violet) that goes on the nipple and in baby's mouth. It gets everywhere and looks pretty hilarious. Here is Liliane looking like I suddenly started dispensing grape juice:

I'm already feeling better and Lilane isn't any worse for wear - it does come off the skin eventually.

So today has been an inside day (heck, it's 4 and I'm still in my PJs) but when Stéphane gets home, we will all venture out for groceries. Stay warm everyone!

Family Dinner and Bébé Bacon

This Saturday we celebrated my sister-in-law Danielle's 50th birthday! The actual day is on Friday but since she and André will be chilling on the beach with drinks in hand by then (what a way to celebrate your birthday! ) we marked the occasion a little early. Liliane finally met her Godmother, my sister in law Nathalie...

as well as her Uncle Pierre, Aunt Debbie and cousin Kevin...

her Uncle Christian...

and of course her grandpère!

It was great to see everyone and we wish Danielle and André a wonderful vacation!

So Liliane is doing well, eating lots and gaining weight. She is actually growing out of a lot of her newborn outfits due to her little tummy... Stéphane has been calling her Bébé Bacon and these photos show you why!

She's so funny, she just loves being on the change table. She's going to be the kind of girl who loves the spa, I can just tell!

The breastfeeding has been going well and as I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been pumping my milk so that we can bottle feed her when necessary. That has been working out really well - she's taken the bottle a few times so she's all ready for next Monday when we'll she'll be babysat for the first time! My friend Colleen is going to take her for a few hours so Stéphane and I can go to a movie premiere. I've already got the milk in the freezer, ready to go, but I'm still nervous... and excited. I'll let you know how it goes.

Today the cleaners are coming (yay!) and I'm off to get a flu shot. I already had a shower so this day is already going well!

Liliane's New Quilt

My friend Ann-Margaret made Liliane this lovely quilt that I think we will actually put on the wall of her bedroom. If anyone has any good ideas for how to hang it on the wall, please let me know... Thanks again Ann for this lovely gift!

Visit from Vancouver

My Auntie Marg happened to be in town this week so she came over to see us. It was great to see her and I'm glad she had some cuddle time with Liliane.

I think we have fully recovered from our big day on Thursday - thank goodness for the weekend! Stéphane took our grunty little bundle out of our room this morning so I could get some real sleep - what a treat!

Liliane is a star!

Today was quite an interesting day - we spent it at Radio-Canada on the set of French TV series "Providence" because Liliane had a role in two episodes! She plays the baby of Kathleen, a character who abandons her baby with Max (the guy with the dark hair) who takes care of him (yes, she plays a boy, but that's OK - I kept her pink socks on just the same). My friend Nadine is the production coordinator on the show and she thought of me when the baby they had chosen didn't work out.

Stéphane was able to come with us for the first part of the morning which was great because we woke up to snow everywhere this morning and ice pellets falling from the sky. I was happy he was there to not only witness his daughter's first experience on set but to get us there safely :)
Liliane and I stayed until about 3 in the afternoon. Everyone was very sweet and kind and we were treated very well - she even had her own dressing room!


Yes, she does get paid (union minimum - $101 per episode) and we'll be putting that money in her education fund.



Here are some photos I took. Some of them are blurry but you get the idea...







She was a total natural and only got a little fussy at the end of the day. I cracked up when someone asked me if she had an agent... Maybe Stéphane and I will have someone to take care of us in our old age, who knows!

Family movies and Rocking Chair

This weekend we went to the movies to see "Fred Claus" - all three of us! On Saturdays and Sundays for the months of November and December, some of the theatres around here are offering "Movies for Families" which is the same concept as "Movies for Mommies". There was only one other couple in the whole theatre so it was practically a private screening. Their small baby didn't really make any noise and neither did Liliane. And the movie itself was great! Cute and funny and heartwarming, too. Even Stéphane didn't mind it. These aren't great pictures, but we thought we should document Lilane's first movie outing...

Not too much else going on... Woke up this morning to see snow! It has already turned to rain, but it's on the ground for sure. The next couple of days should be pretty slushy. Winter is indeed coming. Sigh. Oh well, in the meantime it makes me think of Christmas.

So Liliane is five weeks old today. This is the beginning of our third week at home just the two of us. I would like to say that we have a routine worked out but since her schedule seems to change everyday, we pretty much take each day as it comes. I try to go out with her at least once a day and at least plan something for dinner even if I can't start making it until Stéphane gets home. Some days are super easy, she falls asleep and I can put her in her vibrating chair (like right now) but some days she just prefers to be fussy and not fall asleep. If she does take a nap, it has to be on Mama and forget trying to put her anywhere else.

I took this of her yesterday when I could finally put her down without her waking up and squawking:

I almost forgot to post the picture of our new rocking chair! Here it is:

We also took these almost-smiley face pictures on the weekend while rocking in the new chair:

My goal tonight is to learn how to use the breast pump! I want to sing in the church choir for Christmas this year and Stéphane is up for staying home with the baby while I go to practice but he will need to be able to feed her! I'm hoping that it's not too difficult. I'll report back on that.