Happy Anniversary to Us!

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on Tuesday night. We went to this restaurant that we have been meaning to try for a while. It's called Robin des bois (The French version of Robin Hood). It's pretty cool because it's run by a non-profit organization and all the profits are donated to various charities. The servers (and the chefs?) are all volunteers but it's set up like an upscale, trendy restaurant and the food is delicious. We had a great time despite the fact that it was super hot and humid in Montréal that night. Luckily we got a table right under the air conditioner for me... Here are a few pictures of us celebrating!


Red wine for Stéphane...

Fizzy pink grapefruit juice for me.



Maybe a little too dark without a flash, but I like this shot of Stéphane with the blurry server in the background.



They brought us our dessert with a candle since it was our anniversary! Stéphane ignored our "no gifts" policy this year and got me a card anyway. Way to make me look bad!

We had a great evening reminiscing about our wedding day - already 3 years ago! This morning Stéphane reminded me that exactly 3 years ago we were on our way to Hawaii. I sure feel far from wearing a bikini right now! At least we have something else exciting to look forward to these days :)

Spoiled - Part 2 Montréal Baby Shower!

Today was my East-coast shower and what a shower it was! Hosted by my friends Paola, Puelo and André at Puelo and André's lovely apartment, we girls spent a decadent afternoon together talking babies (and kinds of other girlie stuff), drinking pink drinks and eating very, very well.

The Guests
There were about 20 of us altogether including my mother-in-law Denise,
My sisters-in-law Danielle and Debbie and my niece Melissa,

My dear friend Deb all the way from Gatineau,

And a bunch of my gorgeous girlfriends from Montréal!

This is Julie and I doing our baby bump photo again - I still win! She's due at the end of February so hopefully I'll be back to regular size by then :)

The Food

Delicious savoury treats (I must have eaten about 25 crabcakes) and cupcakes for dessert!

I splurged and it was worth every mouthful...

The Game

The idea was to sample the five different types of baby food and identify them. There were some yummy choices (apple and raspberry) and some horrible-sounding ones: broccoli and cheese casserole purée anyone??


There were two winners in the end (yay Julie and Caro!) they got treats from Lush for being so clever :)

The Gifts!

I got a huge basket of all kinds of girlie baby swag - here it is all laid out on the couch once I got home:

And here I am sitting under my flower arch opening some of the loot...

Not only did I get prezzies, but everyone left with their very own gift box containing a candle, some bath salts, chocolate and bubbles!

Here is Julie showing hers off:

The Host(ess) with the Most (ess)!

Thank you thank you thank you Paola, Puelo and André for a really, really lovely afternoon.

You guys make a great shower-planning team!

This is me when we first arrived - a nice side view, yes?

And this is me at the end of the afternoon - a little tired and feeling twice as huge!

I'm completely beat so my sausage legs and I are heading to bed. I do have two leftover cupcakes in the fridge, but seeing myself in all these photos has convinced me to perhaps pretend that they are not there... We have a big week coming up - it's our 3-year wedding anniversary on Tuesday so we're going out for dinner to celebrate, plus we have our second pre-natal class on Wednesday. I have Aquafit on Thursday and at some point we have to get more groceries! We also have a movie pass or two to use up sometime before we officially become parents... And aren't I supposed to be relaxing in there somewhere? I like it this way - but I think next week will definitely be quieter. Night night!

Spoiled

I wanted to post a picture of the flowers my sweet husband brought home for me on Friday night. I was off on Friday but spent the day organizing and making many phone calls (mostly baby stuff) and I was completely worn out by the end of the day (despite not changing out of my PJs until around 2). I may have been a little grumpy sounding when he phoned to tell me that he was on his way, so he stopped and brought me this lovely bouquet (love those lillies!) and some peppermint foot cream for my freakishly swollen feet and legs. Awwwww!

Today was really, really warm (27 degrees and humid!) so we didn't do a whole lot but we ran a couple of errands and got our hair cut. This afternoon was all about napping (thank goodness for the air conditioner!) and tonight we're taking it easy as well. Tomorrow is my baby shower so I'll have lots of photos to post.

Busy weekend!

Tuesday night already and time for a blog update! I planned to do it last night , but we spontaneously went directly from work to see the new Cronenberg film "Eastern Promises" which we loved. What an amazing movie. Be warned, it's violent, but it's brilliant.


Anyway, this weekend we did indeed go on a big baby shopping spree on Saturday at Babies R Us. We got crib linens, diapers, a mobile, two bibs (one that says "J'aime Maman", the other one says "J'aime Papa") and a whole bunch of other stuff. If only we could find a rug, we'd be set! Or almost anyway. The furniture (including crib) will arrive on October 6th so I guess then we'll be REALLY ready.


Saturday night we celebrated our friend Joyce's 33rd birthday at their house with a bunch of their friends. Her partner Julie (who is also my regular massage therapist) is about 4 months pregnant right now so when we get together, we tend to talk babies! Here are some photos of the evening....



Stéphane and the super party glass that lights up (our birthday gift to Joyce last year).


Julie and Joyce and their first family photo!


Bump comparison... I think I might win this one :)

Sunday was a day of relaxing and going again to the movies! We saw "Across the Universe" which was gorgeous and of course the music is amazing (especially for us Beatles fans) although the story is a little weakand it runs a little long. Worth seeing, though, especially in the theatre. After getting our groceries and eating sushi for dinner, we called it a day.

Today we had the joy of confirming that our landlords have sold the building to their daughter! We had an official sit down with them and made the transfer official. We know her fairly well since she's been living on the ground floor for a few years now and we have always had a good relationship with her. She was very sweet and promised us that we would keep things simple. This is a pretty big relief for us since we've had a problem or two with her parents (as my blog readers know from earlier this summer) and frankly I'm just thrilled that I don't have to talk to them again! We've got a few too many things on our minds these days to worry about that on top of everything else :)

Time to watch LA Ink and eat sugar free jello! G'night!

Social butterfly week

Wow, is it Friday already? This week was a little busy, starting with the Gémeaux awards last Sunday. The Gémeaux are the Québec version of the Emmys and my company had quite a few nominations and the company where I used to work won for a documentary that I worked on as well so it was a good evening. Stéphane found me this ensemble at Thyme Maternity so huge as I feel, I was at least a little chic...



This is me with my pal Brigitte...




And this is Brigitte with our pal Paola (and several Québec stars in the background).


On Tuesday we had our hospital tour and breastfeeding class which was scary and exciting at the same time. I didn't take any pictures (sorry Mom) but we feel very well informed and the birthing centre at the hospital is very new and comfortable. Tuesday evening we had our first pre-natal class! It was just the two of us with our amazing instuctor so we were able to ask all the questions we wanted without feeling too self-conscious. We will go back next week as well and get into the nitty gritty of the actual labour. I'm feeling pretty zen about it all, although I'm not sure I can say the same for Stéphane!

On Wednesday, Stéphane scored us tickets to the premiere of "Silk" which is Québecois director François Girard's newest feature. It's a BEAUTIFUL film and we had a good time. I ended up sitting beside the Mayor of Montréal (OK, he was across the aisle, but still) and Stéphane had a good time introducing me to a bunch of his new co-workers. We knew quite a few people there and the party afterwards was very classy. A little too much sushi circulating for a pregnant girl like myself but I enjoyed my Perrier :)

On Thursday we met up with our friends Eric and Tina for Thai dinner. Eric and Tina are the ones that got married in May in California giving us a a great reason to have our holidays out there. Tina will be moving here at the end of October, but in the meantime she came out for a wee holiday since the newlyweds haven't seen each other since their honeymoon! We had a good time catching up with them and hearing about the big plans for the move. Eric and Tina came bearing a gift - they got us a super cute lamp for the baby. It's shaped like a turtle and projects stars on the wall and ceiling. So cute! Baby girl was doing a lot of kicking as we were eating so Stéphane finally got to feel her moving around. Usually as soon as I put his hand on my tummy she stops moving!

We took these pictures after a delicious dinner:



So that brings us to today! In theory I was off work (although I ended up spending the afternoon in a meeting, oh well) but this morning I used a gift certificate I got from work for my birthday to get a massage and wow, was it ever great. My massage therapist really worked on my sciatic nerve and the difference is amazing. I am hoping to squeeze in another one or two before our kiddo makes her big debut...

Tomorrow we will do some more shopping for baby stuff (crib linens, etc) and our social week continues with a birthday party in the evening. We are definitely taking advantage of our last few weeks of free time!

Date Night and More Tummy (for Jen)

My sister asked for a real side view of my bump after I posted the last pictures so we took some last night. I think we've got it from every possible angle now!



Stéphane finished painting the white trim in the baby room last night and we finally got to cross that item off our big baby To Do list. To celebrate, we went out for dinner and a movie. I know it seems like we go to the movies a lot, but what can I say, that's our thing :) We had salad and pizza (me) and pasta (Stéphane) on a terrace in the middle of the action on St. Denis street, then saw a new Québecois film called "Bluff." The movie was excellent and the theatre was full which always makes us proud of our local industry!

After the movie we stopped for coffee at Starbucks and I splurged on a pumpkin spice latte. I have had so little sugar lately that it was a very big treat for me!

Here is a picture of my handsome husband dressed up last night in one of his new shirts:



Altogether a great date!