What would you do?

I was at the grocery store today (yes, I'm insane) and there was a little man standing ahead of me. He turned around and faced me, one eye fixed on my nose. The other eye wandering off in the distance. Was he looking at me? I didn't know what to do, so I read the label on my bread about 8 times.

LOOKIE LOOKIE LOOK!

A new template! Is it me, or is it too pretty/cool/edgy for me? Its been well established that I am a fan of black, clean lines, classic looks, so this makes me a complete poser. Yes, I am trying to be cooler than I actually am....or maybe I'm overthinking the importance of my back drop. What do you think?

My favourite things of 2007

2007 is over in less than 5 hours. This was a BIG year in our house, with the arrival of Cade in February. I can hardly recall pre-baby life. What did I do with my time? How did I ever think I was busy, tired, hungry (or pick any other complaint that childless people have)? Cade has gone from this tiny little lump who was scared of burps, clapping and a variety of other noises, to this walking, babbling, inquisitve little PERSON. He is a person! We can hardly call him a baby anymore, since he toddles around the house like a real life toddler. I miss my baby! That said, the little person is pretty cool, especially when he holds my hand and we walk together. Cade is by far my favourite thing about 2007. Here is a list of a few other things I liked (things that have nothing or almost nothing to do with my little person):

1. Not having to listen to people yelling at me at work. (This does not refer to my peers/supervisors, but to the clients-and if you work with me you understand.)

2. Grocery shopping on a weekday in a quiet grocery store.

3. The discovery of internet shopping. Yikes.

4. I discovered Friday Night Lights. What can I say? I like football so I tried it out. Before you make fun of me-its critically acclaimed-FOR A REASON. Oh and if you watch it, check out Riggins.

5. Watching my husband become a father. So cliche-but I could NOT imagine Tyler with a child pre-Cade, now he is super dad.

I'm sure there are many more but its getting close to my bedtime so my brain is turning to mush... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happenings in Our House

We did it, we arranged a dayhome, Cade will be there I'm at work. I was approved for part time work! We saw 5 different places and spoke to about 8 million providers. It was such a stressful process, but we think we found someone that we can feel relatively comfortable with. I say "relative" because we won't feel completely comfortable with anyone but ourselves! Tyler would ultimately like me to stay home, so we are hoping for a big raise for him and for our new home business to bring in the big bucks. So heres to "what ifs".

Tomorrow is New Years Eve. We haven't ever been big New Years people. Tyler often has to work and I have passed the age of hanging out in a bar, slurring my words and desperately looking for a cab ride home. Nevermind that cute little person sleeping in the next room. This year Tyler has the night off but he works the next morning, so we are going to have a nice meal after Cade hits the sack. I should be slumbering by 9:30 p.m., like a good mommy.

Speaking of the sack-we are working on the sleep issue. I bought a book that encourages a middle of the road approach which is laboursome to say the least. Its basically pick up/put down, over and over again. I had to modify the approach because Cade became not only upset but hysterical to the point of hyperventilation. That said, after a total of three hours over the course of last night, he slept in his crib. I had the bed to myself (Tyler at work)! No kicking, hair pulling or flailing about. I'm hoping tonight goes a bit better, because its amazing what 4 or 5 hours of consecutive sleep can do for a person. Cross your fingers for me.

Cade's 1st Christmas Pics

Hi people,

Cade here, coming at you on boxing day morning. Just wanted to post some pics so you could see my 1st Christmas experience. I got a ton of gifts, everything from toys to clothes, books and furniture (huh? was this for me or mom?). I was so well behaved, apparently this dude named Santa gave me these gifts and I've heard that if I'm not good he'll put me on some list that excludes me from next years gifts. So I thought I would be really good since I quite enjoy playing with my new loot. Hope you all had a merry Christmas. I'm off to nap an then I'm pretty sure mom mentioned something about shopping today. Seriously, enough shopping.

Cade

Full of Festivity

Its currently 6:32 p.m. on Christmas evening, and Cade has just settled into bed (napping a total of 1 hour and ten minutes in 13 hours just doesn't cut it when your 10 months old). Tyler had to go to work at 4: 00 p.m. and my dad went home after dessert (early dinner). I am currently preparing an eggnog/coffee mixture and throwing in some of Cade's laundry, since motherhood doesn't stop on a holiday. I'm also contemplating more dessert because I figure that today is a perfect day to be a pig. Cade was absolutely spoiled today. Yes, yes, pictures will follow. He was great during the opening, we had him in his highchair and we "helped" him open gifts. My husband bought me an extravagant diamond necklace, which I won't be able to wear very often but looks excellent hanging around waiting. Its very pretty! I got a bunch of other treats from family and friends and am now planning my gift card/cash spending spree called boxing week (not day anymore). So now I think I'll finish my tidying up and look forward to Tyler's day off tomorrow so we can spend some more time together.

By the way-I am having a ME day on the 27th. Crazy, my first full-ish day of ME time. Ahhh. Shopping with Cara and a leisurely lunch with Ainsley and Suzan. Sounds like Heaven. Oh, almost forgot-I didn't get my Tofurkey, I forgot to defrost it. So I am making it tomorrow and eating it with leftovers, maybe I'll sneak some on to Tyler's plate. He won't notice...right?

Christmas Has Arrived

This was my attempt at making a gingerbread house (from a box!). Apparently an earthquake hit. I took a picture to put in Cade's scrapbox so that he will understand why mommy doesn't make gingerbread houses.

Christmas eve is tomorrow. Its going to be a different Christmas this year, Cade's here! I am looking forward to watching him play with all of his new toys, reading him his new books, and dressing him in his new clothes. I can't wait to take pics of him surrounded in gifts. He is going to be so spoiled, which-although admittedly commerical-makes me happy. All the gifts are wrapped, hiding downstairs and ready to go. We are having a few people stop by tomorrow afternoon and on Christmas we are having the smallest family gathering ever. By smallest I mean our little family and my dad. Neither my brother, nor my mother are coming, and my grandmother decided to spend Christmas with her boyfriend's family. I'm sad my family won't be here to celebrate Cade's first, this is my most important Christmas ever since I am now a mom, but I'm glad Tyler got most of the day off and that my dad is coming over. We are still having a full meal, I even bought a Tofurkey to try (the men are not eating my Tofurkey, I didn't even bother to ask if they would). I'm going to make the best of our small gathering and enjoy the quiet, good food, and good company. I promise to post a ridiculous amount of pics. Merry Christmas to all!

The baby walks.

Two posts in one day. I have been bored. Yikes, never thought I'd get to say that again. The thing is my precious little 10 month old had his first double nap day (for 1.5 hours each time and not 15 mins) since birth. I am exaggerating of course-he sleeps in the car too. But this was all at home. I didn't know what to do with myself. Cleaning was mostly done, laundry too, so I surfed the net, lurked on Facebook and came back here.

Now to the purpose of the post-My baby started walking. Weep weep weep. A month or so ago he really discovered his walker. He went nuts, running around the house, laughing like mad. Then a few weeks ago he attempted one or two steps sans walker/chair/laundry basket to push. These past few days the walking has increased to 8-10 steps before landing on his bum. I'm so proud and so sad.

Another note-I'm still looking for good child care. The area I live in is overloaded with babies. There are one million people in the surrounding area and apparently all of the women had babies this year. We have been on about 7 waitlists since April-ish. I checked out this daycare today and read their compliance notices. One said that on a random check 10 babies were left with one person, two crying and no assistance provided to them. This was 2.5 the ratio so they scored LOW. I almost cried when I read this, and I'm not much of a crier! I also visited a dayhome today and met a nice lady. A few more questions need to be asked but otherwise I think we will go with her. She is a mother of 4 and a young grandmother of three. She was great with the kids there and attentive to Cade. Her house was clean and she was fine with us providing Cade's food or with her and I working on a menu together. It will add 50-60 minutes (total) to my commute but good care is worth it. We'll be meeting with her tomorrow so I'll report back for my one commenter (THANKS HEATHER!) and many lurkers.

Later on....Wow I need to go to bed, I posted this pic a few weeks ago. Oops.

On a roll...with Fudge

Wow three posts in a week...

I have been making Rachel Ray's fudge for years. Its always a hit but its not really like real fudge, more like a good chunk of chocolate with various other things peeking out. This week I added something new, and VOILA-a better version of Rachel's fudge. It takes 5 minutes, maybe 4. It is SO easy that even I can make it.

Here it is:

1 can of condensed milk
1 bag of chocolate chips (pick your favourite: white, milk or dark)
1 bag of butterscoth chips (or you can use Skor, Toffee etc.)
1 small bag of your favourite nuts, or dried fruit, candy cane, cocount, whatever you like (you can put in two bags worth but it will be chunky)
The secret add in....1/2 a cup of eggnog (makes it SO creamy, I wonder if heavy cream would work too?)

Melt all chips in a pot, pour in condensed milk and eggnog. Turn heat off, stir well, add in your goodies and stir, stir, stir. Poor into a pan, mini-muffin tin or whatever you like. Put it in the feezer for an hour or two. When you take it out you'll need to run hot water on the bottom of your pan for about 20 seconds, it will slide out and you will eat so much that your scale will give you a 2 pound gift the next day. It makes about 20 1x1 inch cubes and would be a fantastic homemade Christmas gift for about 8 bucks. I store mine in the fridge but room temp works fine as well. Enjoy.

I Promise...

...to NEVER buy a minvan. I would promise to never drive one, but rental companies could make me into a liar. I hate minivans. I don't care if they are practical. I would rather walk.

...to find more ways to decorate without neutral colours. I tried today, I bought Cade a new carpet, in RED. Tyler took one look at it, then looked at me, and informed me that it was SO ugly. So in the interest of not hearing any further about our new ugly carpet it will shortly become our returned ugly carpet. Sorry Ikea.

...to bake cookies out of tubes from the dairy section. Why? You wouldn't want to try anything I bake from scratch. I can't bake worth shit. Or should I say my baking tastes like shit. Not that I eat shit...

...to make fun of myself of a daily basis. This involves laughing at my own neurotic behaviour. Examples: obsessive cleaning and arrangement of items in the house, colour coordinating my closet, repeatedly straightening the bed, repeatedly opening and shutting Cade's curtains (nap time-wake time-nap time-wake time). What a loser!

...to leave comments on blogs, unless maybe they are food blogs. I'm convinced the foodies don't care about my salivating over their bread pudding or creamy macaroni and cheese. Speaking of losers, don't lurk.

Mmmmm bread pudding.

A Very Baby Christmas

Cade's first Christmas is 9 days away. His gifts are wrapped and tagged and hiding in the basement (must wait for Santa to relocate them). The house is ready, the pre-packaged cookies are baked (you wouldn't want me to bake from scratch) and we are festive around our house (Christmas music is relatively constant). If your not festive our house would make you ill.

Last week the moms group came over, with babies and partners. We had a potluck and gift exchange. It was fun and all babies, except mine, were happy. (Nap required mid-party). Cade snagged an awsome gift, Jen-if your reading-we are still sorry! The cutie in the jean dress and stripped shirt is my future daughter-in-law.

Sleepy Momma

It wasn't 5a.m. I was 3:30a.m, after being up 6 times!!! Not sure why because the night before it was one time to eat, which makes more sense considering his near 10 months. Maybe a sore tummy, he was rather pukey this morning. I'm tired, he went down for a nap and I think I'll follow that lead. Another misc. pic by the way-Cade with his grandma.

I love my kid

Do you ever have those moments where you look at, or think of, your kid and feel so much love for them? I just had one and he is sleeping. Maybe thats why??? I must go sleep now, 7 hours until he wakes for good and 5 if I'm lucky to the next meal. Ahhhh, motherhood. Love you Nutter Butter.

Too busy to post!

Its been awhile but we are still here. We took a little trip out of town and have been busy getting ready for Christmas since our return. Here are some pics of said trip and decorations (before and after of course). We also went to a local tree exhibition yesterday. It was nice but not a lot for a 9 month old to do.

Cade started walking with his walker and is getting up once at night now (for the most part) although he still likes anytime between 4:00a.m and 5:00a.m as a wakeup time :( As for the walker, its more of a run, up and down the hall and running into everything. Apparently the kitchen chairs and highchairs make suitable walkers as well.