Update - Hallowe'en, shoes, and more!

Tabby is growing so fast, it's hard to keep up.  Some of the latest things I don't want to forget:

• Tabby clomping around in my high heels
• Tabby swanning around in Chris' bright green soccer pinny
• Tabby eating piles of pickled ginger, miso soup and edamame, and even cucumber with wasabi!
• Tabby wiggling her noodles across the table making snake noises "sssss!"
• Tabby climbing on the shopping cart to ride at the front holding onto the cart like a big girl

Tabetha in handknit coat, made by mama

Mama's shoes!

Kisses from the black kitty for Hallowe'en

Peacock baby 

The good stuff

A very dear friend of mine recently told me that she is expecting!  I am ecstatic for her and her husband, and it got me to thinking about the things we were given or that we bought/borrowed/stole that were fantastic when Tabetha was just a wee beeble.  I think I'm going to break this up into three posts - the stuff I'm glad we had, the stuff that wasn't worth it or that didn't work for us, and the stuff I wish we'd had!



Car seat
When Tabetha was an infant we had the Maxicosi Mico, and I still don't think there's a much better  infant seat available in Canada - and you have to spend twice as much to get something that comes in the same range.

But!  You do not need an infant seat at all!  When Tabby was just about 4 months we got a Sunshine Kids RadianXT (the company now goes by Diono) and it is safer than an infant seat, it is good from 5 to 60 pounds, Tabetha liked it better, and it gets rid of the temptation to carry the baby around in the infant seat, which isn't particularly good for baby  and can give you a wicked case of carpal tunnel.  If I were doing it again, I would skip the infant seat and get a really high quality convertible from the start.  They're steel framed, not plastic, it saves money in the long run, it's just a better idea.

Baby carrier
A good baby carrier is a must, and in my opinion, the Babyhawk is the best.  I've written about it before here already though, so I won't repeat myself.  :o)

Diapers
Contrary to popular belief, cloth diapering is just as easy as disposables, it's cheaper, and you do NOT have to touch anything gross (or at least not anymore than with disposables).  In this house we love love love our AMPs and BumGenius.  In both cases I like the one size - one size diaper from birth to potty training.  Easy.  AMPs fit newborns better and come in more and nicer colours - and leak a little less BumGenius are a bit more daycare friendly and have a couple super awesome patterns.  yum!  For me, the critical factors are snaps instead of velcro, one size, adequate leg elastic, sturdy construction, and cute colours.

Diaper bag
My diaper bag is a Petunia Picklebottom touring tote in Frolicking in Fez.  It is GORGEOUS.  I take it to work and get MANY compliments on it.  It wipes clean.  It has nifty little stroller clips.  It's the perfect size.  I adore it.  They are expensive.... but sooo worth it!

Okay, I guess this part will take more than one post.  More to come!

Lazy update

A lot has happened since I've posted regularly.  We had some trouble at the daycare Tabby was attending and made the decision to move her to a different facility.  Thankfully we stayed on all the waitlists iI signed up for a year ago, because we got a spot just when we needed it most.  I wrote a post about all the reasons why, but in the end, it wasn't the right place for us.

I'm already much more excited about the new place, and not just because it's a block away from my office and well over $200 a month cheaper - the level of professionalism and care she is getting is just miles above.

We've been busy doing summer things in these short, fewer-than-usual weeks of nice weather.  Tabetha has had her first cob of lovely Silver Rill farm corn, her first dunk in the ocean, her first run around the yard naked, her first ice cream, her first time touching a horse, and so many other things.  Fall is coming fast now, though - the chill is in the air in the mornings.

Which leads to another thing I've been doing instead of writing - I took up knitting.  I taught myself by way of Youtube videos because I didn't know anyone who knits continental, but I've joined a local knitting  circle as a means to get out of the house once a week, and I'm really enjoying it.  It's amazing to me how much can be done just with two basic stitches, let alone the fancier stuff.  I am very excited about making things for Tabetha and for gifts.

But even I can't type and knit at the same time!

Anyhow, I've forgotten the camera for a few crucial events lately - such as the trip to the fall fair and today's swim at the beach - but I've captured a few really super moments too.  And made slippers.

Jammies

It's funny. I loved pyjamas with feet on Tabetha.  When she was tiny, I even went out and found a pair of little pants with feet so that when she was wearing little dresses I didn't have to worry about her chubby little ankles getting cold.  As far as I was concerned, Tabby was going to wear pyjamas with feet.  I was going to send her off to university with a supply.  I mean, I knew she'd want jammas without feet eventually... maybe sometime after being elected to the house of commons, getting married, and being the first woman on Mars.

But in the last month or so she has start freaking out when things are on her feet.  She has these overalls with blousy legs, and if her feet go in and she can't see them, she completely freaks out.

Plus, she's outgrown the largest size of Pekkle footed jammies from Costco...

So now, Tabetha has NO jammies with feet.

And I am sad.

Catch up, another long weekend, and Tabby's first trip to the lake

Highlights of the weekend:

• Tabby cruising around the party stealing bites of everyone's food, from hamburgers to wasabi quinoa salad
• Tabby wandering around with sidewalk chalk marking everything (and everyone) in her path
• Tabby catching the remote control car and dragging it back to the bbq, like every proud hunter
• Tabby staying home with grampa Gord and grama Jo while mommy and daddy went to Filberg festival and bought her presents
• Tabby's first splash in McIvor lake
• BBQ on the foreshore in the glorious sunshine

and the lowlight of the weekend:

• Tabetha vomiting in the car while on the highway
• Tabetha vomiting in the car while on the highway - again

Things are going well here.  Tabetha has two new words (Daddy, book) and has learned to use inflection to ask questions - so now?  everything she babbles?  is in the form of a question?  Yes!  Tabetha is now ready to be a contestant on Jeopardy!

Sinful luxury

Tonight, I did something that felt sinfully luxurious.  Naughty even.  I revelled in it, and I didn't feel a bit guilty.

I went grocery shopping.

Alone.

It used to feel like a chore.  Now?  It's one of my favourite things.

My daughter climbs slippery slopes

Tabetha is physically brave and adventurous in ways that astound me.  On Saturday she figured out that she could climb up the slide, lay on her tummy, slide back down, and do it all over again with great glee.  She isn't even 16 months old yet!  I'm so glad that mini-me inherited that from her daddy. 

Car seat controversy

Most parents are probably aware that there are new american recommendations suggesting that babies be kept rear facing until 2, rather than just until they are 12 months and 20 lbs.  Tabetha is now 15 months and over 25 lbs, and still rear facing.  We've discussed turning her to face forwards when she reaches the average weight of a 2 year old - about 27 lbs for a girl.

Those same recommendations are now saying that children should be in booster seats until approximately age 12, which seems absolutely ludicrous to me.  I didn't have a lot to base that feeling on, though, until I watched this video.  I really recommend watching it - if nothing else, there is some really surprising footage of actual crash tests that I think you should see.

Now, Steven Levitt and the audience spend a lot of time focused on the younger age group, which was initially where my thoughts went too - after all, I don't have an older child.  As I was thinking more about it though, I started wondering whether it was age that was the determining factor?  size?  what about rear vs. foreward facing, did that impact the results?  the answers aren't in the talk, so I've turned my attention to the other end of the spectrum.

Booster seats range from $100cdn up to $300cdn+.  Children can be moved to a booster once they are 40 lbs and about 40 inches tall - generally around 4 and a half years old.  They have to stay in one until they are 9 years old or 4'9" tall, whichever comes first (in British Columbia - local laws may vary).

If Steven is right and normal car seat belts are just as safe or safer than car seats after the second birthday, why exactly are we spending the money?  And more to the point, where are the studies proving Steven wrong, and justifying our governments MAKING us spend this money to possibly make our children less safe?

Canada day long weekend

It's not quite over, really, but it's been so packed with good times and firsts that it seems like a good time to sum it all up.

Tabetha has now gone 8 days without nursing to sleep for her nap!  Normally she only does that at daycare.  This weekend she has nursed only at night and first thing in the morning, and my goal is now to day wean, I think.

Mom and Don have been down visiting since Thursday night and it's been great.  They've really enjoyed tabetha being old enough to take to the park without us, and we've enjoyed it too!  Plus, it's finally been lovely warm weather.

There are lots of things not in these pictures - Tabby playing with her new IKEA kitchen, grandparents reading her stories, Tabby eating chinese food at Ho Tong and bbqed hamburger on the front lawn - but it's been a wonderful weekend and the pictures do show that.

First day of summer

Not really, but one of the first we've had that's been sunny and pleasant and a weekend!  for some reason Tabetha LOVES shoes.  I have a little Imelda Marcos over here.

Dear Tabetha: 14 months

Dear Tabetha

According to the calendar, you will be 15 months old in just a couple of weeks.  I say according to the calendar because it just doesn't seem remotely possible that so much time has passed.  The last three months especially have been amazingly quick, now that you're in daycare and I am back at work.  I think it's partly because you're one of the youngest kids (the oldest is just over 24 months) but you keep up just fine, and you're always coming home with new tricks.

You are rapidly becoming a toddler.  You walk like a champ, and sometimes you already refuse to hold my hand.  Your knees are bruised from tumbles, but it doesn't seem to concern you in the least.  Some of the things you've done recently that I don't want to forget:

• This morning your daddy came up and got you, took you downstairs, changed your diaper, and put you into your high chair before you woke up.  Sort of like saturday, when you fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep when I got you out, took you into the store, and tried several pairs of shoes on you.

• This evening I started singing "Baby Beluga" to see if you would dance for me.  You did, but not until after you brought me the "Baby Beluga" boardbook, in case I forgot the words I guess.
• You love trying to feed your Stella doll with your water bottle.
• You bring books to us to read.  If we don't take them from you immediately and start reading, you hit us with them two or three times.  If we still don't obey, you collapse to the floor and start howling like your heart is broken.
• You love to put your dolls on your wheely mouse and push them around.  If they fall off, you just put them right back.  In fact, I think you like that more than actually riding it yourself!

• You recognized grama Sherril on the computer!  you waved at her and carried on a "conversation"
• Saturday night at supper you ate tamago on brown rice with wasabi, tempura yam and zucchini, teriyaki chicken and veg, sunomono salad with crab, and pickled ginger.
• You won't even put mango in your mouth.  No one knows why.

There are so many other little things that happen every day that make me smile and make me so glad to be your mama.

May long weekend

We headed up island for the may long weekend, our first trip since I went back to work.  We went up to visit family.

The trip was really almost perfect from start to finish.  We decided to make it easier on ourselves by coming home from work, having supper, bathtime, baby jammies, etc and then instead of putting her to bed, we put her in the car and headed for Campbell River.

It worked great.  The holiday weekend rush was over, and there was a Canucks play off game on, so the roads were beautifully deserted.  The trip took just over three hours, we got to my Dad's, unpacked, and got a decent night's sleep.


Saturday the weather wasn't wonderful, but we still had a great time playing at the park. It was the same park I used to play at when I was a little kid - though it's had a complete change in equipment since then - so it was really fun to go there with my Dad and Jo and see Tabetha playing there, too.  In the summer I want to take her to swim in the outdoor pool, but it wasn't open yet and it's much too cold yet anyhow.

That was pretty great, but I think my favourite part of Saturday was after supper when Chris and I went to the movies to see Thor, and Tabetha stayed home with Grampa Gord and Grama Jo.  She had a nice bath, looked at books (Apparently she spent some time looking through a song book and singing and dancing to herself) and by the time we finished watching the movie and came back, she was happily asleep in her lovely new Valco playpen, which seems a whole lot nicer than the playpens available in Canada.  If they ever release it here (we bought it second hand from a family who brought it over from Australia) I think they'd make a killing.

It was awesome.

Sunday had two main adventures, starting with brunch at the Kingfisher Resort which I recommend VERY highly.  The food was wonderful.  I'll probably forget something, but Tabetha ate:

• scrambled eggs
• cheese omelet
• blueberries
• blueberry muffin
• quince
• canteloupe
• smoked salmon
• prawn
• crab
• sunomono salad
• cottage cheese
• hummus
• watermelon
• bocconcini
• tomato in pesto

I can't even remember what else.  She was an eating machine, and she was storing up energy for...

Her first steps!

It was so exciting.  Finally!  She walked!  We were all very proud.  Of course, her current attitude seems to be that she did it once and therefore doesn't need to ever do it again, but hey.  We know she'll get there, and Daddy captured it perfectly.

Sunday also involved music and a trip out for some mexican food.  Tabetha enjoyed some refried beans, quesadilla, enchiladas, guacamole and rice.  How did I give birth to such a culinarily adventurous child?  I won't even eat half the stuff she ate that day.

The trip was much too short.  Monday we headed back for home.  We set out from Campbell River around 11 am.  We were fortunate in that Tabby fell asleep before we even made it to the highway, which was fantastic.  We stopped in Nanaimo for lunch and a trip to the park to burn off some baby energy.

Tabetha enjoyed colouring on the table mat (though we sometimes had to stop her from eating the crayons) and she enjoyed her glass of milk and her grilled cheese sandwich, and she warmed up to the grapes by the end.  

The park was super, though I think she'd've liked to have stayed longer - I was pretty sunburnt from the day before, though, and we wanted to head home.  We had to stop again in Duncan because she had just had it.  A snack and a drink and a few times walking around the Dairy Queen set her to rights again, though, and eventually we made it home.

I could certainly have used a day to do laundry and rest when we got back, of course, but it wasn't as much work as I was afraid it might've been.  It was great.

Review: Valco Astro high chair

We have had high chair woes since Tabetha became old enough to eat.  We ordered a high chair in September, it never came, finally in December the store lent us one (see Pali Pappy review) and then finally a couple months ago we gave up on it and ordered something else.

It arrived last Thursday and I was VERY excited.  I hated that wooden one, couldn’t wait to return it.  We had supper, I gave it a good scrub, and we took it back to the store to pick up our lovely new one.

I was tempted to review it after just a day or two of use, but I decided to wait a little longer, see if the infatuation wore off.

I know it’s only been about a week, but...

I love it.

LOVE.

The Valco Astro isn’t an expensive high chair.  It retails at around the $160cdn mark, which is pretty similar to the price of a Graco or similar high chair at Toysrus.  What you get for the money, however, isn’t very similar at all.  The quality of the materials and assembly is much higher – other than the tray you don’t see a lot of plastic, you see a lot of fabric and metal.  It has a wipeable fabric seat (I chose the cirque pattern and I’m very happy with it) a nice big tray, a reclining seat back, a five point harness, and the ability to easily fold it quite small either for storage or transportation.  Tabby obviously finds it very comfortable.  I like that in addition to the 5 point harness there is a broader piece of fabric that keeps her from being able to slide onto the floor even if I don’t take the time to do up the harness. 

I also find that we lose a FRACTION of the food onto the floor that we did with the loaner.  The cats are sad, but the vacuum is happy and so am I!  Our enterprising black cat used to stand up with his paws on the seat and steal food right out of her lap; now he can’t. 

The high chair we had borrowed didn’t have a tray and it didn’t stay together particularly well; this one does, on both counts.  The last couple of nights I’ve moved it into the kitchen while I cook and let Tabby munch on raw veggies and grated cheese etc while I cooked.  It kept the hungry girl happy, I enjoyed being in the kitchen, and Chris was able to be out running errands. 

 

We did find it amusing one meal because we had her dressed in a black and white top, and against the patterned fabric it looked like she was wearing stealth baby clothes.  Bonus!

What I love about it:  almost everything.

What I don’t love about it:  it’s nitpicky, but I wish it was a tiny bit lower – I would like the option of pulling her up to the table instead of using the tray, but it simply doesn’t fit.  Frankly, though, that’s pretty minor.