Gat!

Tabetha has indisputably said her first word, and it is "cat!"  We know that's what she means, despite the lack of clear "c" sound because she then proceeds to squeal and chase the nearest four legged animal.  It's pretty wonderful.

Review: iCandy Pear

I don't actually own the iCandy Pear.  It would be a bit silly, in fact, since we have only one baby and the Pear is a double stroller.  But I did borrow it and take it on vacation, which is always a good way to get a really good sense of a stroller.

We had it for 5 days, during which time we used it in both single and double mode.  This was in November, and apparently I didn't take any pictures!

It's a big stroller.  There's no getting around that.  But because it's an inline, it does manoeuvre around racks and through doors really well, and in fact it steers beautifully.  In fact, the more you weigh it down, the better it steers!  In duo mode we would put the baby in the top seat and then use the bottom seat to hold coats and shopping - it wasn't uncommon for it to be carrying 4 adult winter coats plus a myriad of shopping bags without becoming difficult to push.

The Pear carries up to two kids in a LOT of different combinations - for each kid, you have the option of putting in the seat, a bassinet, or a car seat adaptor.  The top seat is larger than the bottom, and if you have two kids of different sizes, the heavier child goes on top.

At the time, Tabby was 8 months old, and went a fair job to filling the top seat, and that's the biggest downside to this stroller:  despite the fact that it's big and strong and can carry a LOT of weight, it won't carry a larger toddler at all, let alone two.

I loved: the lovely british style, the easy manoeuvring, the strength of the chassis, the easy conversion from single to double.  And the price is a lot less than I'd expected, too!  Plus you can get what they call "flavour packs" that consist of a cozy seat liner and canopy in yummy juicy colours.

I didn't love: the small seats, the slightly tricky fold.

All in all, a great stroller - especially if you make smallish babies!

Review: Pali Pappy high chair

When I first saw the Pali Pappy high chair, I didn't have a strong opinion one way or the other.  It's solid wood, made in Italy, and highly adjustable (I think the max weight is something ridiculous like 300lbs) but it costs over $300cdn, doesn't come with a tray (??) and some of the colours are well... a bit eye searing.  I also think the teddy bear cut out is ugly.

We've got it on loan while we wait for the one we ordered, and we've had it for almost six months.  (long story.)

My opinion?  Overpriced.

All the good points I mentioned above are still true, but here's the thing that's the dealbreaker for me:  over time, the hex bolts holding it together gradually loosen.  In fact, if not tightened regularly, the whole thing WILL just come apart.  And I know it's not just mine because the floor model at the store is doing the same thing.

Bottom line, I'm glad it's a loaner because if I'd paid over $300 for it, I'd be pretty unhappy.  I wonder if that's why they've taken it off their website?

The secret joy of the sick baby

Tabetha has been sick since wednesday.  When I picked her up from daycare that afternoon she was a bit warm, and I was informed she'd been really clingy and cuddly all day, which is not her usual behaviour, so I wasn't surprised that thursday she was feverish and miserable.

Now; of COURSE I would rather she were healthy and bouncy and happy.  However.

There is something about a sick, clingy baby who doesn't want to play or crawl or wiggle, who just wants to be held and sung to and cradled and nursed that's like a return to the first couple months of her life. (only without the blood loss, stitches, hormones or shellshock!) I have to say, it's a pretty good feeling.

Of course, today she is still feeling unwell but has chosen to express that with a sleep strike.  She's been awake for probably around 10 hours, which is NOT normal!  Normally she takes about three hours of naps a day, and today none of the magic tricks have worked.  Not nursing, not going for a walk in the stroller, not going for a drive, not white noise or even listing to "Cecilia" at top volume on endless repeat.

All she wants to do is play and wiggle and crawl - but she's very cranky and annoying.

Clearly this is my payback for luxuriating in my snuggly baby yesterday and thursday!  (though frankly, I thought having her vomit down my shirt was payback enough....)

the first birthday part 3

Wherein I will actually write something!

First birthdays have some established traditions.  There must, for example, be cake for baby to smear on his or her face.  There must be LOTS of pictures taken, some balloons, the rest is up to you.

Because I am crazy, I decided to be a little bit ambitious.  Nothing extravagant, but we know so many other babies around the same age.  So I invited six of them, with their parents of course, plus family and friends.  I planned 2 cakes, one chocolate zucchini one chai, both iced with stabilized whipping cream and joined by an edible rainbow, jars of rainbow candy, a fruit rainbow.  Music by the ever-talented Grampa Don.  A crepe paper rainbow wall, personalized loot bags for each baby, a WHITE dress, if you please, with a rainbow sash, for the birthday girl.

Because I am lucky and have wonderful family and friends, it turned out perfectly.  The babies were happy and well behaved.  The cakes looked wonderful and tasted delicious. The music was fun.  The rainbow wall was everything I envisioned.  And at the end of the day, Tabetha's white dress with the super-gorgeous rainbow sash was STILL white!

I am a very, very happy mama.

The first birthday part 2

I got the pictures from my sister!

These are so very cool

A colleague of mine discovered this tool and has been WASTING it on work purposes, when quite clearly, it is best used for creating embarrassing wall "art" with which to torture children later in life.  I want to play with this a little more and add a few more nicknames, but I totally want to hang this on her wall.

The first birthday

more pictures and some writing to follow, but for now....

It was wonderful.

Dear Tabetha: turning a year old

Dear Tabetha.

On Saturday you will be one year old!  That means that for a whole year we have managed somehow to keep you alive.  You have grown enormously, wiggled prodigiously, and been the Best Baby Ever.

You are a very opinionated little person, with very firm likes and dislikes.  Right now, some of your favourite things include:

• cheese
• whole-wheat macaroni
• fresh ginger
• halibut
• apple
• yam
• sticking your tongue out
• laughing when mommy or daddy puts something on your head
• practicing standing and walking

some of the things you DON'T like include:

• bananas
• rolling over in the middle of the night (you often whimper and complain)
• having your bonnet put on

The list of things you like is a lot longer, and I had to reach a lot further to find even three things for the list of dislikes because you are such an incredibly happy, enthusiastic, cheerful person.  When I grow up, I want to be more like you!

you face every day with a smile, even before you open your eyes.  When you see people you know, you get VERY excited and your whole body wiggles with the effort of containing so much sheer joy.    How cool is that?

Recently you have start doing something that I love.  You've started hugging your little dolly!  You rock her back and forth with her clasped to your chest, and I think it's adorable.  For the most part you are a very active, inquisitive kid, and it's neat to see you voluntarily sit still for a moment without having someone read "Aussie Lullabye" over and over!

You have now been in daycare for three full weeks and a day, plus the week we spent gradually transitioning you in before I went back to work.  I had no worries about you eating well, or having fun, all I worried was that you would not go to sleep easily for the ladies there.  I shouldn't have worried!  Apparently yesterday you went to sleep almost by yourself for one of your naps, and needed just a little encouragement.  Today we weren't so lucky.  You were having so much fun with music class and rocking toys and stacking cups that you didn't want to sleep at all.  It's all good though.  

One of my favourite things about daycare is hearing about things that you did and experienced when I wasn't there.  I love the surprise - you drew with a crayon?  you can DO that?  wow!  I also love the excuse to talk about you.  Every day when  I get to daycare you see me and you light up - no matter how much fun you're having, you crawl over as fast as you can to see me.  And it's wonderful.  I felt guilty for putting you in daycare for a little while, but now I can definitely see how good for you it is.

It's also amazing how fast you've started learning since you've been going!  You aren't quite the youngest - there's a little boy a couple weeks younger, and a little girl born one day after you, but the other nine are all older.  Not a lot older - the oldest is just under 2, but most of them are walking and doing things you can't do yet.  And you're not missing a thing.  It seems like every day you come home with some new skill for us to marvel over.

On Saturday many of the people who love you will come here to help us celebrate your life so far.  There are many, many more who won't be able to be with us, but I know they'll be thinking about you.  You are a profoundly loved little girl.  Your every milestone is celebrated, and I know this celebration of you making one full revolution around the sun will be too.

It's been an eventful year.  you have met many members of your family.  You have learned to smile, to laugh, to babble.  You can now wave and clap your hands, you can sit up, you can army crawl with a toy in each hand or up on your hands and knees when you want to really move.  You love passing things back and forth, endlessly, and you think it's hilarious to watch us talk into your play phone.  

You're a star in the pool.  You have basically no fear!  When other babies cry or fuss when water is poured on their heads, you just try to drink it.  

You love it when we pretend to drop you, when we hang you upside down, when we toss you around and rough you up.  You squeal with laughter and it makes us laugh, too.  How much fun could you be?

The only problem we're having is that you have discovered something new about the cats.  Specifically, you've figured out that Nox likes to hang around your highchair at mealtimes and scavenge food that you drop.  Now you like to lean way over the edge, and sometimes I think you drop food on purpose to see what he'll do.  It's only a matter of time until you discover the fun of feeding him by hand, and then we'll have to start shutting him in the bathroom when you eat!

Over the next year - and probably soon - you will learn to walk, to talk, and to do all sorts of other things that will delight and exasperate us.  Already sometimes we find ourselves trying desperately not to laugh - you like to be a clown, and anything we laugh at you will do over and over.

we love you, little girl.  Happy early birthday!

Review: Bumbleride Flite

Our daycare is only 500 metres from our house, but it is up a rather large flight of stairs.  It's too close to want to drive every day, but too far to carry her in work clothes.  Our other two strollers have two piece folds, making them very inconvenient to drag up the stairs at daycare - and frankly, they are expensive enough that I wouldn't want to leave them there anyway.

So, I did a whole lot of research.  (I know.... shocking.)  I wanted something not too too expensive, lightweight and easy to fold, with handles higher than a standard umbrella stroller and with a few more features.

I settled on the Bumbleride Flite, and then after hemming and hawing I got it in Vita, a gorgeous dark fuchsia with lovely grey. It came with the rain cover (though I'm not sure the 2011 model will), the infant seat adaptor bar, and a shoulder strap.

I love it.  She has LOTS of room in the seat, way more than she does in the Bugaboo Frog.  I can sling it over my shoulder when I'm carrying Tabetha, the stroller, and both our bags back down the stairs again (Chris drops her off, and does much the same in the morning) and it's easy for me to unfold and tuck her into before walking home.  We haven't flown with the baby yet, but when we do, I'm pretty darn sure this is the stroller we're going to take.

Best features:

• shoulder strap comes standard, and is fantastic
• easy peasy umbrella fold
• gorgeous colours and details
• removable, washable fabric
• awesome accessories available
• weighs only 11lbs!
• actually has some shock absorption, unlike most umbrella strollers

Worst features (and they're not that bad, or a disadvantage for everyone):

• handles are still low for me
• ride isn't AS smooth as what we're used to
• baby can't face me

So glad I got this.  If we have another kid, I'm going to be lobbying hard for a double version!  The carrycot is so cute... (I really need to remember to take some pictures of Tabetha in ours - though these are the same colour we got!)

***Update August 21, 2011 - We haven't flown with it yet, but a colleague of mine did - and was VERY happy.***

There's something fishy about this