Little Technology Fiend

Lately, Aimy has been going crazy for anything with buttons. My cell phone is a beloved toy, and she always reaches for the remotes in front of the TV. But what seems to be irresistible is a computer keyboard. Yesterday when we were chatting with my dad on Skype, she got distracted by the keyboard in front of Carlos's computer and spent a good 10 minutes happily banging away.

So one afternoon when she got particularly grabby for the remotes and wouldn't relent, I got out my old laptop and let her bang around... and here is the result.

So excited!

Pulling off the spacebar again...

Now what else can I do?

I have a great video of her banging away but unfortunately I can't seem to upload it onto the blog... maybe I'll be able to get it onto Facebook later.

In other news, I have been planning or working on a lot of crafty things lately, and in order not to clutter up this blog with updates on my projects etc. I have created a second blog with the intent of keeping family and crafts separate. You can find that blog at KT's Creative Corner if you're interested. I haven't done any updates there yet, but I will hopefully remember to share a link if I do add any content.

One week left until Carlos is on holiday! It will be nice to have him home for two weeks. We may go away for a short trip at the end of the first week but nothing is set in stone. Personally I am hoping we can spend the second week getting some well-deseved rest, and hopefully spending more time outdoors, if the darn weather starts to cooperate!

Baby #2

I haven't talked much about this pregnancy lately, mostly because there hasn't been anything exceptional to post. My brief period of nausea ended at the beginning of December and aside from some fatigue I have been feeling fine. All of my prenatal visits have been normal, the 2nd trimester ultrasound among them. It was great to have Carlos finally get a chance to see this baby moving around (I'd already seen him/her twice before). And move around, s/he did! The doctor kept saying things like "Here's the left foot, and... *moves ultrasound wand* here's the right foot. Oh no, wait, that's the left foot again." The baby was moving so much that, at times, I wasn't sure the doctor would get all the measurements done! Aimy's little brother/sister is definitely living up to the Squirmy name.

And no, we don't know the sex. When the doctor asked us if we wanted to know and I said "No" right away, he was surprised and told us we are in the vast minority. Most people are too impatient to go out and buy gender-appropriate baby stuff, I guess! What made me laugh was the ultrasound report. Under the heading for the baby's sex, it said "Normal". Good to know, at least!

I'll leave you with the (sort of) good pictures we have of the baby's profile.

Hands moving around, but you can see a nose!

Two clearer views of the little one. :)

Spring?

Well, something close to spring has been visiting us this weekend. After a month and a half of gray skies, rain, hail and wind, we've had two gorgeous sunny days in a row, with temperatures reaching 14°C this weekend and possibly getting up to 16°C tomorrow. We went for a beautiful hour-long walk yesterday along some of the back streets of our town, and today I took advantage of the sun to do some laundry and hang it outside to dry for the first time this year! I'll definitely be doing more tomorrow - there's nothing like the smell of line-dried sheets.

Aimy is so proud: she can eat applesauce
all by herself! (the lollipop is mine, but
of course Mama had to share...
with the wrapper on!)

Carlos has wound up with another cold... I'm hoping this one won't last as long as the previous one did. Otherwise we are doing fine, though if I want to get anything done in the evening while Carlos is sick, I have to keep Aimy close - otherwise, dinner is not a very pleasant affair!

Cooking with baby - the only way to get things done.
And she loves it!

And to those who say romance is dead, my dear husband has proved them wrong again. He surprised me with flowers on Valentine's Day (and even got a bouquet with lilies, my favourites!) and we shared a very artistic white chocolate and red berry heart-shaped cake. How sweet!

Yummy!

Gorgeous

And the lilies smell so good!

Project: Door Letters

About a year ago, Carlos and I went out shopping for some baby stuff and ended up visiting a local "culture" store. They have everything there from calendars to CDs to materials for arts-and-crafts. While we were browsing through the scrabooking aisle, some tissue paper and glue caught my eye. There was a whole rack of different colours and patterns, and beside it sat shelf after shelf of letters and shapes. And the idea came to me: I decided to make a set of letters for Aimy's bedroom door.

My starting point. 4 letters, a heart, 5 kinds of tissue paper,
glue, and a paintbrush.

The décopatch brand has a lot of really cool kinds of tissue paper, and I ended up choosing 5 that I thought would go nicely with my theme of green, yellow and pink. I also got some glue and a paintbrush.

It really is as simple as tearing a piece of paper off, putting some glue on the spot where the piece will go, sticking the piece on, and putting some more glue over top.

Base layer for letters: the music notes

Figuring out where to put each piece and having
enough of each colour on each letter was harder than
I thought it would be!

I did end up cutting out the flower pieces and music note pieces so that it would look neater. Some of the other pieces I cut out as well to fit specific spaces. I did mostly tearing for the heart, and some for the edges of the letters.

Nearly finished!

All done!

I finished the gluing in September but every time I decided to put the letters on the door, something always seemed to come up. Then we were away in BC... Finally, this past weekend, I found some double-sided tape and finished the job. I'm really happy with how they turned out (though I can't believe it took me so long to get them done! Time management and a baby do not always go hand in hand) and I can't wait to do the same thing for Baby #2.

Aimy's door!

Now she'll always know which room is hers.

Yum yum!

Over the last two weeks we have seen a big change in Aimy's eating habits. At the end of January she refused to eat baby food any longer and wouldn't eat much if we tried to feed her. No, our stubborn little girl wants to feed herself, and resorted to flinging food everywhere until her silly parents understood. We have switched her over to a "big girl" diet now and she eats virtually the same thing we do at every meal. So far we have had her try most of the dishes we eat and she seems to enjoy many of them. She will occasionally accept Carlos or me feeding her, but in general she wants to either use her fork/spoon or pick things up with her fingers. Fortuantely she is enjoying her new-found independence and hasn't lost her taste for flavours she had tried before (and has tried new things to boot!)

What IS this?

Yummy?

Not bad for a first try... even with an upside down spoon!

She's already not too bad at scooping!

Bubbles!

When we were visting BC, my mom brought a book home from the library about activities to do with your baby. One of them that caught my eye was play with bubbles, so when we were out the other day, we got a pack to see how Aimy would enjoy them.

I think the photos speak for themselves.

A little bemused by the first ones...

Then very amused!

Look at all those bubbles!

My favourite one.

In other news, the orchid the hospital gave me when Aimy was born is blooming! (See the Hospital Stay entry, posted on January 12th, 2012)  And here I thought I had killed it... There's another promising-looking bud on it too. I guess those glass plant watering bulbs do work wonders!

New Year's Day

On New Year's Eve, Carlos and I went to see The Hobbit at the local movie theatre. We decided to go to the VIP showing, since we can't do that in France. It was nice to be able to pick our own seat, especially when the theatre was full. The movie ended at 11:30ish and we were back home in time to ring in the new year before going to bed.

The next day dawned foggy and yucky, and we were disappointed, as we had planned on going downtown Vancouver with my parents. But we decided to head out anyway, and boy am I glad we did. The fog had almost cleared away by the time we got to Canada Place, and as we were walking around, the last of the fog lifted off the mountains and we got a gorgeous view of the snow-covered North Shore.

Christmas Trees at Canada Place

Lots of trees!

Grandma playing around.

We even had a surprise guest at Canada Place: a bald eagle hanging out at the very end of the wharf. Thanks to my dad for an amazing picture!

It was pretty cold out there but we still had a good time. Aimy slept for about 40 minutes in the carrier so she must have been warm enough. And I finally got to see the Olympic flame! (Even if it wasn't lit)

I had missed those mountains!