Leggo my Viggo, New Job, Etc.

I'll start off this long overdue post with photos of Isabelle and Sébastien's new baby boy named Viggo. He made his arrival last Tuesday morning at 6 lbs, 7 oz after about 12 hours of labour. Isabelle actually started her contractions ON HER DUE DATE and was delivered BY HER OWN DOCTOR (which happens to also be my doctor who of course was not at MY delivery but I'm over that. Almost.) after what is considered a pretty short and sweet labour for a first baby.

The proud parents sent out this photo of their son who was maybe not in the mood to be photographed just now thank you very much.



I stopped in to visit today and took some photos of my own:



So tiny, so lovely. Mama and baby are well. Not sleeping much but he's eating well and gaining weight. Liliane didn't really pay too much attention - she was too busy crawling all over and hoovering any stray bits of lint or dust from the floors...

Speaking of crawling, my daughter does not simply SIT anymore. If she is on the floor, she's on her way somewhere. I never tire of this view:

I love watching her get places.

One of her favourite spots to explore is the treasure trove known as the pots and pans cupboard.

What is this rare beauty?


Surely it dates from the pre-Tupperwarian era...


Yet another specimen!

A rare, eggshell blue mini colander in the style of early 21st century Wal-Mart...





I took these after bathtime the other night. Liliane had a terrible day of teething on Monday so we were so happy to see our cheerful baby come back to us!





(Those bruises on Stéphane's arm are his manly paintball wounds.)



It's taken me a while to post because I've had a couple of things going on this week AND since my child was taken from me on the weekend and replaced by a whining, drooling, snarling, teething she-devil, I just didn't want to remember any of our recent activities much less take photos... Actually, we did have a lovely afternoon on Satuday with Julie, Joyce and Rosie while Stéphane was away with the boys. We witnessed Rosie's very first swing ride (which she loved) and enjoyed cocktails and snacks while the girls both slept. OK, Liliane woke up as soon as she sensed that I was sitting down for sustenance but she hung out and gnawed on pita, a fry or two and the lychees from our drinks. (No, they weren't IN our drinks, we rinsed them first :) Thank you Baby Tylenol for making that moment possible!

Sunday we went to check out a sort of Bio/Organic Food festival thing at the Circus school. As I type this, I realize how kooky it sounds, but picture a bunch of tents outside with bio/organic food samples, all-natural frozen yogurt being sold by nuns (I'm not kidding), a horse, a bull and some chickens for the kids to pet, face painting, sing-a-longs and hammocks for sale. All on the grounds of the Circus school who had erected some tents and displays for the occasion. I instructed Liliane not to do anything too cute because I forgot the camera at home but it sure would have been easier to explain the whole thing with some photographic evidence...

In the midst of all that, I got myself a new job. I wasn't looking for one you see, and it completely took me by surprise. I was planning to start back part time after Labour Day at my current job when this opportunity presented itself less than TWO WEEKS after seeing this particular producer's new film and being inspired to say out loud "I would really love to work with that woman." Ta da! Be careful what you wish for! To make a long story short, it so happened that she was looking for someone and she met with me on Friday, we clicked, she offered me the job, voilà. Her office is about a ten-minute walk from our house, the hours and days are flexible, she does amazing projects (feature films), she's a fellow anglophone who works in French AND her birthday is on the SAME DAY as Liliane's. Hello! You don't have to hit ME over the head with a 2 x 4! It was meant to be.

My current boss was wonderful about my big news. What is good news for me is kinda crappy for her but she was more than gracious. I am so grateful for my time there and for all my colleagues that I will miss miss miss. You guys rock. Please don't enjoy work too much without me. :) Also, if you are learning about my big career move for the first time as you read this please accept my apologies for not calling or emailing you directly (see the earlier paragraph on the teething she-devil). Thank you.

So the plan is the same - Liliane will start daycare the week of the 25th and I will start going to the office part time to get into the swing of it all. Stay tuned for how all of THAT goes down.

Otherwise... we're heading off to Nova Scotia on Sunday for a week of catching up with friends, introducing Liliane to everyone, meeting Julie and Kevin's daughter, playing on the beach, watching Liliane flirt with Sue and Dave's cutie Louis, having BBQs, drinking a little too much and generally soaking up all that summer holiday goodness. I may try and post while we're gone but if not, I'll have a ton of photos when we get back.

It's that time of year when fall is occasionally in the air, a hint of what is to come. It's my favourite time, when each hot and sunny day is that much more precious. Enjoy it, gentle readers. I for one will be forsaking my other chores to take Liliane to the wading pool right now, just because we can. Carpe diem and all that.

Officially Done With Winter, Awards Night and Haircut

What a snowy nightmare! We got another foot or so of snow on Saturday and was it ever fun trying to get around yesterday! There is so much of the white stuff around here that the sidewalks are piled up with packed snow and ice and getting to the street entails some serious Indiana Jones type moves over the snow banks. I didn't even take a picture of it because it's just too depressing... It's sunny and almost nice out today, but I can't get out with the stroller and it's crazy slippery under all that snow so I don't want to bring Liliane out in the carrier either. We're enjoying the day from inside! I actually tried to shovel off the back balcony (to at least get SOME exercise today) but a lot of it is frozen solid. Oh well, it will all melt eventually. In theory.

Back to the weekend... Our friends Laurence and Jean-Michel made it to our house on Saturday via taxi although they got stuck trying to turn on to our street so they ended up walking down the block. We had a great evening with them hearing stories about home-owning and sharing stories about baby-owning. I mean, parenting :) Here is Laurence with Miss Lili:

The roast chickens turned out really well! The gravy was really tasty, too, thanks to my fabulous roasting pan (thanks Mom!) No, Jen, I didn't end up browning them first (I tell you, I saw that somewhere...) but they got all yummy and crispy on their own. Another Martha success story!

I got my hair cut on Saturday morning and forgot to take a picture of it when it looked really nice, so here are Liliane and I in front of the mirror this morning...

First attempt:

This one's a little better (plus my new double chin is disguised!):

Okay, now you can kind of see:

This is Lilane being so over this photo exercise:

It's a lot shorter lighter around my long face so I don't look so droopy and draggy. I'm really happy with it, although we'll see what happens when I wash it!

I took these of Liliane this morning. Note the scratch on her face under her eye - I did that on Saturday when I was pointing to something on her face and she moved and ouch, there it was. She looked at me for a second and saw the horror on my face and let loose with a huge wail. Horrible, horrible, horrible!! Oh well, there goes my mother of the year award:

On Sunday we went to the Jutra Awards which is the Quebec equivalent of the Oscars. With all the snow everywhere it was a pretty big adventure to go get our Communauto, almost get stuck in the snow loading baby and all her paraphenalia into the car, driving out to Stéphane's parents' place in Laval, coming back and leaving the Communauto at the parking lot ten minutes away because there is absolutely no parking on our street, taking a taxi to and from the event, picking up the car and driving out to Laval at 12:30 to pick up the baby, get stuck at the top of our street, drive around and park a block away and schlep baby and all her crap through piles of snow, then Stéphane had to drive the car back to the parking lot and scurry home in the minus 14 degree wind. Ah, city living!

It was nice to get all cleaned up again (that's TWICE this week!) and hang out with people from work, do some networking and generally enjoy the after-party because it's one of the best there is. Last year I was about 6 weeks pregnant for this event and nobody knew about it yet, and I was so nauseous! Such happy memories :) This year we skipped the buffet but enjoyed the movie snack theme - popcorn, nachos, chocolate bars, Twizzlers and even Haagen-Daaz ice cream bars were all available for noshing. I avoided the chocolate fountain because that's just a disaster waiting to happen as far as my clumsiness and I are concerned and stuck to the Twizzlers.

Thanks to Stéphane's parents, we had a worry-free evening out and we so appreciate their willingness to take care of our little lovebug. She was still awake when we went to pick her up, but in all fairness, since all the clocks were ahead, she was pretty much on schedule for her usual sleepy time. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and neither of us woke up this morning until 10:30. Sleep is good. Now I've got chicken curry simmering in the crock pot for tonight and if I could just squeeze a shower in somewhere, this day would be just about perfect!

My Turn to Make Her Laugh!

This is from Friday night I think. She gets really giggly right around bedtime!

On Sunday afternoon Stéphane was hoping to inspire Liliane to get sleepy for her nap by lying down and showing her how much fun an afternoon snooze can be! She didn't go for it so we took a bunch of pictures instead...

Hey! I see you and your camera...

We managed to get to mass on Sunday morning and we were even almost on time! We had a chat with the preist afterwards and it looks like we can get Liliane's christening organized for the last Sunday in May. We have to check with her godparents to make sure that they can make that date, then we'll lock it down and start planning.

So the movie last night was OK ("The Other Boleyn Girl"). It reminded me of a low-rent version of "Elizabeth". Less subtle, less budget, more flashy. The actors were good. Worth seeing if you like those period pieces I guess. Two childbirth scenes which made me laugh a little (now that I'm such an expert, whatever) but I am a little sensitive now to seeing babies on screen... It's a miracle that baby or mother survived childbirth in those days - what a mess!

Lots of snow falling here today with no end in sight apparently. Liliane and I will get to yoga anyway (oh yes, I am determined to go today) and that's about it on the schedule for now. I'll report back on my yoga progress tomorrow.

Busy weekend

It's Monday again and I've been a busy bee today getting things organized so I can go to the movies tonight! Stéphane got me a pass to see a preview of "The Other Boleyn Girl" tonight so I had a shower AND got groceries AND made meat sauce for spaghetti AND fed Liliane her rice cereal (first thing in the morning is my new strategy - so far, so good) AND made bottles for tonight. Now that I'm typing it out, it doesn't sound like a lot but I did also take care of the baby in between all of that... Anyway, I'll let you know how the movie was tomorrow.

This weekend was full of all kinds of fun stuff, starting with attending Liliane's very first birthday party! Luana turned 2 and Manon and Victor hosted a lovely soirée. There weren't any other kids there besides the birthday girl and our little jellybean, so they both got all kinds of love and attention... Here are some of the photos we took:

Coat not even off and already hounded by paparazzi!



Opening presents (our Crayola stuff went over well!)


Cake!



Family photo



Sleepy bunny (and Papa's awesome sleepy powers!)



On Saturday we indulged in a little Quebecois comfort food called poutine which is a concoction of fries, cheese curds and gravy. You can get poutine all over the place, but it's not always the real deal. The cheese has to make a "squwick, squwick" sound pn your teeth when you bite it, the fries have to be solid, but not too thick (no wedges, please) and the gravy has to be dark and tasty. As you can understand by looking at this photo, poutine is a treat to be enjoyed every now and again only. And if you happen to be trying to drop some of your baby weight, maybe only once in a blue moon...

Saturday night was bathtime and we took these pix of Liliane with her bunny washcloth and towel just because she looks so cute!

I have more to add but it will have to wait until tomorrow as I'm off to clean up and head out to the movies!