A Bunch of New Stuff! Part 2

The humidity has finally calmed down around here and I can sit in front of the computer for more than five minutes without overheating... So back to the trip photos!

I got to Vancouver at around 1:30 on Wednesday morning and my Dad came to pick me up. I finally got to bed around 3 and woke up the next day to a gorgeous BC morning - sunny, warm and breezy. I parked myself on my parents' deck and did some catching up with Jill and some all-important tummy rubbing for the dog. We all went out for lunch to the Watermark Café at Kits beach which was GORGEOUS. I had never been there and the food was amazing, not to mention the setting.

After lunch I picked up my rental car and hit the road for Chilliwack! I got there around dinnertime and had a great time finally seeing Jen and Carl and the kids. I can't believe that they had two more kids since I was last there! Both Georgia and Calleigh are beautiful additions to the family. Here are some of the pictures I took while I was visiting...

I thought I heard someone was playing with a whoopee cushion and when I went into the living room to investigate, I found Xavier zerberting Calleigh's chubby tummy, much to her delight!

After spending the night and having a delicious pancake breakfast (with no maple syrup disasters! My big phobia...) I headed into Langley to have lunch with my Mom, then into Vancouver to see Oklahoma at Theatre Under the Stars. I'll post those photos tomorrow!

A Bunch of New Stuff! Let's Start with NYC

Wow, long time no blog! I just got back from a quick trip to see my family in both New York and Vancouver so I am finally updating this blog with some photos. It's WAY too hot in Montréal today for me to sit here and do it all at once so I'll just start with my day in NYC with Matthew and Bari last Tuesday. I arrived around 7:30 in the evening and my sister-in-law Bari came to pick me up. She drove us directly to an amazing Brooklyn burger joint to meet up with Matthew and, most importantly, eat. I got to see their gorgeous new apartment (and sleep on the world's most comfy air mattress) and we stayed up a little late just catching up.

The next day Matthew headed off to work and Bari andI went to get some of the yummiest iced coffee ever right down the street from their place. We headed into the city to meet Matthew for lunch and I took these pictures on the set of his show, 106 and Park, which is on the BET Network and located in the CBS building.






It was pretty cool to walk around in the building and see the set for Guiding Light and the studio fo 60 Minutes!




After lunch Bari and I went to see the Kwik-E-Mart on 42nd Street:





Did I mention that it was hot in New York that day? Well, it was, and my pregnant self was only too happy to go and see a movie (Bari's suggestion) instead of shopping, so we saw Ratatouille. It was cute. Not amazing, but cute. Then we headed back into Brooklyn, got manicures, I packed up my stuff and we all headed for JFK (and my 11PM flight to Vancouver) by way of an Italian restaurant in Williamsburg. Thanks you guys for giving me such a great 24-hour visit!

Too hot to keep this up today. I'll get back to it tomorrow night...

Housewarming and Pregnancy Bonding!

Yesterday we did some running around during the day (I picked up the new Harry Potter book!) and we headed out to a housewarming party in the evening. Our friends Jean-Michel and Laurence bought a duplex with Jean-Michel's brother and they moved in last month. They did an enormous amount of work - cleaning, painting and laying their own floating hardwood floor! We were impressed to no end. We had a good time catching up with them and hanging out on their lovely backyard patio. The weather yesterday was PERFECT - clear, breezy, maybe 25 degrees. Today is the same so we are thinking that we might have to stop working on the baby room project and do something nice outside! We'll see...

Here are some photos from last night:


The sun was setting through the windows of this nearby Orthodox church so Stéphane took this photo from the patio.

Us with the proud homeowners!


This is Isabel - she and her husband Sylvain are expecting a baby girl on October 6th! We haven't seen them since we found out that they are also pregnant, so I was super excited to chat with Isabel and compare notes. They haven't finished their baby room either (phew!) but since they got married only two weeks ago (congratulations!) they've had a few other things to think about... Note that Isabel has a gorgeous round belly that I envy. I know no two bellies are alike, but I wish mine would get with the program and start to look like that... If that's all I have to complain about, that's pretty good!

Off to pack now for a my NYC-Vancouver pre-baby tour getting underway tomorrow... Can't wait to see everybody!

Hanging out with Friends - Part 2

Last week we had our friends Sue and Dave staying with us for a couple of days along with their adorable son Louis. They were in town visiting Dave's family but we were lucky enough to get to spend some time with them as well. They're ahead of us with the whole baby thing so it was great to ask lots of questions! It was great to see them.





1,2,3 wee!

Louis making friends with the taxi drivers.



Sushi feast!

We're already planning our road trip out to Nova Scotia next summer - all three of us!

Hanging out wtih friends

I've been meaning to post these photos all week! Here are some from André's 60th birthday party on July 7th:

Surprise!

The DVD/photo montage we did (and everybody watching it)

Blowing out the candles!

Salsa demo




Party animal!

Happy Birthday serenade

An altogether swanky soirée! And the first time in ages I stayed up past 11PM...

We Saw Baby! (And it's definitely a girl!)

We got a 3-D ultrasound today and we really saw our baby girl! Here are a few of the best pictures:


Baby bum! (And confirmation that we can stop arguing about boy names...)

One eye open... (a little scary looking but cool at the same time, yes? I'm already checking for possible cataract issues).





Her thinking pose...


She was pretty sleepy and yawny and her face was kind of squished up against the placenta most of the time. I even got up and wiggled around to wake her up but she was pretty determined to get her nap. It doesn't matter, we completely enjoyed ourselves. We also have a DVD of the whole session that we'll be watching later.

Continuing on the baby theme, we checked out a store that's not far from where we live called Bébé Dépôt. They have all kinds of furniture and accessories, everything you need pretty much. We just wanted to get an idea of what was out there and how much things could cost. We were pleasantly surprised actually. Then I dragged Stéphane to Home Depot for a couple of things but he had the good idea to start looking at paint colors for the baby room. We're looking at pink (surprise, surprise!) but not TOO pink.

That's all the excitement around here for today! I still have photos of André's birthday party from last week to put up as well as some photos of our friends Sue and Dave and their adorable 14-month old Louis who were staying with us for a couple of days this week. Maybe after naptime...

Yesterday I finally made strawberry jam! I haven't tried it yet but as soon as I can convince my husband to go get us some fresh croissants around the corner, I will crack the first jar...

We both had busy weeks at work so we're already a little sleepy this weekend. Yesterday we finished off the video/photo montage that we did for our friend André's 60th birthday party last night. I will post some of those photos later today. What a swanky soirée! My feet however are very sore and swollen this morning which is why I am updating my blog right now instead of going to church :)

Otherwise today we'll be continuing the baby room clean-up/clean-out project and hopefully getting some groceries otherwise we may be having strawberry jam for dinner. It's cool and rainy here today so it's perfect weather for getting things done. Or lying on the couch all day.

If anyone has tips on how to soothe sore feet, please pass them along!

I got a present from my boss actually on Friday of Clarins Energizing Emulson for Tired Legs and wow, it's amazing. She noticed that my feet and legs were starting to puff up and she really enjoyed this cream when she was pregnant so she picked some up for me. Isn't that so sweet? My problem today is really my tired tootsies so I'm looking for something along the lines of "oh, just mix some baking soda with hot water and soak your feet for fifteen minutes and you'll be good as new." Something like that.

Happy Birthday to me!

So I turned 33 yesterday and really enjoyed my day! I got a bagels and OJ celebration at work in the morning, (instead of an afternoon cocktail - quite appropriate given my mommy-to-be state) went out for delicious Indian food lunch with my colleagues at work then dinner with friends in the evening. Stéphane also sent me these gorgeous flowers:

Here I am with my pals Paola, Joyce and Julie. Julie is also my massage therapist - I've mentioned her and her talent on this blog before. I was spoiled with lots of great gifts from these girls. My husband would like me to also say that this photo is out of focus because it was taken without a flash and it's not his fault that it's blurry.

Here we are with our friends Pierre and Ariel who brought me a gift certificate for Indigo. More baby books?

Yet another tummy picture:

I also got lots of lovely phonecalls and emails including ones from my best pals Julie and Julie (one on each coast) and was sung to no less than four times! My Dad's "French" version of Happy Birthday is pretty priceless.

Just got back from seeing "Transformers" and I have to say that it's a really great movie! We both highly recommend it - something that happens rarely... Good for kids and big kids that remember playing with Transformers!

One other thing I did today was to speak to the Rental Board and go through some of the things our crazy landlords said to us on Friday. Basically, we are right, they are wrong, they can't force us to do much of anything so we will be composing a very polite letter this weekend to inform them that we have reinstalled the air conditioner as per their request and won't be repainting the ceilings anytime soon. Among other things. Feels good to know that the law is on our side.

Got to get to bed! Tomorrow night I really have to make strawberry jam...