Cousins = Good times (Big Fat Post on the rest of the B.C. trip)

When I was a kid living on 123A Street, the coolest family in the neighborhood lived up the cul-de-sac smack between Michelle 'n Erin's house and Glen's house. Why were they the coolest? Because they had a TRAMPOLINE. You thought I was going to say pool, right? Nope, we kept the bar low in those days. For us west-coast youngsters, a trampoline was the bomb.

My sister the Baby Guru and her husband Carl wisely bought a trampoline a few years ago for their expanding brood (5 is almost a baseball team, right?) and I just want to say THANK YOU because this is how much my daughter completely enjoyed herself on that trampoline. Or tramp, as we used to say back in the day.

Xavier's acrobatic stylin's:

Lunden's version:

Random adorable pictures of the almost-baseball team (the Hicks Homerunners!):

Klausine can even make TINKER-TOYS girlie:

After an excellent BBQ steak dinner (props to my BIL who could barely see out of his newly lasered eyes), Jen gave the two babies a bath together. She took a bunch of photos of them, but by the time I tore myself away from slacking I mean BONDING on the couch with the other kids, I got these of Calleigh:

I think I remember taking some video of them so I'll post that one day.

Liliane was invited to stay overnight (let me think about that for a nano-second... OK!) while I snuck away and had a nice night at my Mom's. And by nice I mean quiet. And by quiet I mean not waking up every ten minutes which is what happens if ever my daughter and I share a room.

The next day we ladies (SIL Bari, Mom and I) had appointments for pedicures:

So what, I have a thing for the flowers and the sparkles. I can still kick your butt.

WAIT! These pictures are of this brilliant coffee place that Julie introduced me to called the Wired Monk. There are a few of them around the Lower Mainland, but this one rocks because it's in a heritage house and full of super cool local artwork. I took my Mom there I think on Sunday morning before church. I was feeling puky thanks to getting smacked the night before by the weird gastro-virus that made its way through the whole family, but managed to get a couple of photos. And did I mention that this place is in CLOVERDALE? For those of you not familiar with the Greater Vancouver Area, Cloverdale is like farm country. Serious farm country. Where the famous Cloverdale Rodeo takes place. Where there are things like Feed Stores and Saddle Shops and Cowboy hangouts. Not your typical cultural hotbed nor a place I would think to go for good espresso and WiFi but who knew?

Monday lunch was also a belated birthday celebration for me! As a delicious surprise, my Mom ordered these cupcakes from our friend (and fellow blogger) Shawna. I am telling you, they tasted even better than they look. Gorgeous! What a treat!

Klausine took this one of Jen and I:


Finally I get a turn with the glasses:

Mama nerd, baby nerd!

On Tuesday morning my Mom and I popped into Shawna's to drop off her now-empty multi-level conveyer of cupcake deliciousness (and vessel of post-cupcake bingeing guilt, but that's not really HER fault) and snapped a few pictures of our kiddos together. Cutie Cole was born a couple of weeks after Liliane.

I could so take you. (in response to Cole's demonstration of impressive crawling skills)

Um, why aren't you wearing pink?


Tuesday night we headed back out to Vancouver for a BBQ at Dad's with the Hicks and Auntie Jean and Uncle Ray.

NOT PICTURED: Liliane throwing up for the very first time! She wisely timed it so that she spewed all over me with Jen as a witness so that SOMEONE could propel us both into the bathroom. It's hard to say who was more surprised, me or my teeny tiny Linda Blair imitator, but in any case, it was messy. She slept through the night then threw up the oatmeal I fed her in the morning after these pictures with Grandpa and Grannie Jill:

That was Wednesday morning. She and I headed off (once the flow of vomit slowed) to meet my Mom and the Hicks at the Queen's Park petting zoo and she got one more upchuck in on our way there. Excellent. Luckily, I had a change of clothes for her! I am learning. She has thrown up pretty much every day since then except for today (it's not quite midnight yet, fingers crossed) so that stupid virus is really taking its time.

So that was my trip. Or the parts of my trip and I remembered to bring my camera for.

NOT PICTURED: After a super fun romp at Queen's Park with her cousins (Jen has photos I think), Liliane and I said goodbye to both my Mom and the Hicks clan, then headed back to Stanley Park to meet Julie and her new squeeze Dylan. Adorable! They are so cute together! We had a fish and chips feast then watched Annie Get Your Gun while Dad took Liliane. I was so happy to see the whole thing (when we went on opening night Liliane did pretty well but eventually we had to head for the back where I could hear everything but missed some of the good moments) and my kiddo only started squawking loud enough for me to hear in the 16th row when it was almost the end of the 1st act. I gave her a bottle at intermission and she slept through the 2nd act and up until I was buckling her into the carseat when she woke up, threw up her entire bottle, then promptly went back to sleep. I had towels with me of course, just not ON her. Naturally. Sigh.

The good news is that I was pretty much over the flu. This is a relief because I wanted to concentrate completely on making sure that Liliane didn't do a repeat performance on the plane the next day. The bad news was that my grandparents were finally back from their trip that they took inconveniently at exactly the same time I was in town. Can't you people be flexible with your huge family reunions?? Apparently not. Anyway, my "plan" was to go and visit them on Thursday before our plane left at 2, but with a puky baby thrown into the usual get-packed, get-ready, don't forget anything, how many carry-ons do you have, did you check in yet? how early do I have to get to the airport, do I have any cash on me, is the flight on time, saying goodbye, feeling sad, did I forget anything? rigamarole, I just couldn't hack it. Had a nice chat with my Grandma on the phone instead with promises that we would be back for Christmas.

So that was it. I learned a lot about travelling with a baby by myself (it's hard) and a lot about rolling with changes in plans. Something I thought I wasn't so bad at until I got there. Hmmm. Plus I realized that I probably had some fairly high expectations (although to be fair, I don't think anyone imagines catching warm, pre-chewed, partially digested oatmeal in their hand as the highlight of a successful holiday) that couldn't really be realized since a) people were dropping faster than guests at an Agatha Christie dinner party from that weird flu bug and b) when it's YOUR baby, YOU are responsible. Especially when it's just YOU. As I type this I am cringing because it's so embarrassing to realize that I may have had some notion of simply breezing into town, handing Liliane off to all kinds of available, healthy relations with nary a care (which I did, and often!) but it's just not quite the same. Plus you just can't make PLANS like before. Or SEE people you thought you'd like to. Or maybe it's almost midnight and I'm too hot now in front of this computer to make any sense but I'm pretty sure that's what I mean. Oh well, nobody really reads this thing anyway, right? :)

On a cheerier note, Stéphane took this of us earlier tonight.

Smiling and hopefully evil flu bug free.

News from Lotus Land

Liliane learned how to clap since we've been here!  Here she is, demonstrating her newfound skill with the Baby Guru's husband, Carl.  He just had laser eye surgery hence the glasses.

It's been a little busier than I thought out here, hence my blog silence this past week...  Fellow parents: were you chuckling at my plan to come out to B.C. on "vacation" with my almost nine-month old all by myself?  Yeah, thanks for telling me.  It's not as easy as I thought!  I was a little worried about the PLANE of course (ended up fine, nice lady held her while I peed thank goodness and I passed her off to random flight attendants when I could) but even when we got here, we had sick family members to dodge, busy people to try and see, sleeping and eating to figure out (Liliane, not me), blah, blah, blah.  The good stuff is all in the pictures below: hanging out with my peeps in my warm and sunny hometown.  It's all good.

This is Crescent Beach with my Mom:

Hanging out with my Dad on the deck.

Grooving to Mika with Auntie Jaime and Auntie Bari.

Granville Island with Matthew, Bari and Jaime.

Still to post: Liliane with her cousins on the trampoline (hilarious), my birthday cupcakes (they were AMAZING Shawna, you are truly a domestic goddess!) and random adorable pictures of my nieces and nephews.

Photos you will never see because I forgot the camera: Liliane and I at Cultus Lake with her cousins, swimming, swimming and more swimming. So fun.  Spending time with West Coast Julie (friend of 31 years), me picking up the weird flu-like bug that's going around and Liliane spending the night with the Baby Guru and co.  

Photos that my SIL Bari took that I will eventually post: Liliane at the opening of Annie Get Your Gun at Theatre Under the Stars.  What a wickedly fun show - Vancouver readers GO AND SEE IT.  Family friendly, really good, my sister Jaime is in it, you'll be singing the songs for days afterwards.  Oh, and my Dad (now known as the "fierce stage commander" thanks to a brilliant review of the show by the Vancouver Sun) directed.  It's a family affair, what can I say.

Stay tuned!  

The Sunday Paper

On the weekends Stéphane and I have a morning routine: we read our respective newspapers (Mtl Gazette for me, La Presse for him) while leisurely sipping coffee, eating breakfast, chatting (more him than me, not so much of a morning talker), whatever. Since the arrival of our kinda pushy new roommate, we have been able to keep up the tradition, with a few adjustments...



Liliane's new favourite challenge is to grab whatever she can off the table from her highchair, and her most tempting target is the corners of our newspapers. We were feeling indulgent yesterday morning (read: we were sleepy) so we gave up trying to distract her with other things and went with it.



Finally I can check the market!









*Bad Parenting Alert* - we didn't let her suck on the newsprint. For too long.













*Bad Parenting Alert #2* note the ink all over our child and her highchair. And oops, the toast she is now eating. What I didn't snap is Liliane's next stop which was the BATHTUB. Mother of the Year down the drain once again!






She had such a good time flapping the newspaper all over the place and ripping it up. Again I ask: why bother buying toys at all?



It's Monday and my goal today is to finish packing BECAUSE WE LEAVE TOMORROW. Crap. I started pulling things out for both Liliane and I and the pile is already way too big. I'll wait for Stéphane to get home tonight to slap some sense into my packing-handicapped brain. You would think for someone who has done a fair bit of travelling in my life thus far that I would have the whole "what to bring" thing figured out, but no. Alas I do not.



To add to the fun, as I type this, sweaty workers are completely replacing our front door. I say sweaty because it's supposed to be 31 degrees today so it's probably up to at least 28 by now. Our landlord let us know that it was happening today but I didn't realize how much dust such a job would generate. Or noise. Good morning baby! Our entire front inside stairway is coated with a fine film of who knows what. We rescued the stroller and some pairs of shoes that were innocently caught in the storm but there is nothing like dust to really irritate a person on a hot day. Especially when you didn't think to take your stuff out of the hallway the night before... We need to buy our own place. And how.



Not sure how much posting I will do for the next two weeks - I'll try to stay in touch while we're away, if for no other reason to keep Stéphane up to date on all the good times. He is already worried that Liliane will forget who he is in 10 days. This video is an example of how much fun those two have pretty much EVERY DAY so I'm thinking after a week and a half with only the food/sleep/chores/comfort lady (a.k.a. Maman) and her B.C. family to distract her, she'll be happy to get back to the man who can crack her up like nobody's business. As will I. :)