More shoes?!
So once again I am plagued by the “I let real life get in the way of my blog” guilt. The title of my website pretty much says it all. I really don’t know where my time goes. I haven’t uploaded photos to Flickr in I don’t know how long, mainly because of the daunting task of removing the red eye from the majority of shots. Why when I use the red-eye setting do I still have this issue? grr
Let’s see, what’s been up lately? Well, on Sunday we went to the Mama’s and Chicks Spring Show. I managed to get a free ticket from the woman in front of me who had an extra one. Hubby went in ahead of me while I stayed behind to fill out ballots for the prizes, but when I joined him I thought it was funny that he said ‘everyone’s trying to sell me stuff’. Well duh. That’s sort of the point of the show. I really wanted to get a wrap to carry baby D around, but was told numerous times ‘absolutely not!’. I have gone the sling route before and been totally unsatisfied with them. While I was still pregnant I got a ring sling, which I found fairly complicated to use and just didn’t feel confident enough to be hands free. So then I got a snuggly type of carrier which was seemed too small even though baby D is on the small size for his age, so that was out. Finally I saw a hip carrier at Walmart on the cheap so I tried that one and found that the strap was cutting into my neck so I returned it. The wrap at the show was a ‘Cuddly Wrap’ and hubby was not about to shell out $65 for a long piece of fabric. We did however manage to pick up a couple of things: a ‘Gertie ball’ the ones with the nubbies all over, a travel placemat, and a pair of SqueakyFeet. I love these shoes, as I am slightly baby shoe obsessed.
They have little squeakers in the heel so that with every step you know where your child is (or at least have a rough idea). The squeakers can also be taken out if/when I get sick of hearing that much squeaking.
Monday we all (our little family of 3, plus my Dad and my brother and his wife) went out for dinner before my Dad left for Germany. I’m not much for Greek food, but since my Dad likes it that’s what where we went. It was actually very yummy. I wasn’t overly impressed with my brother and his wife. But then I rarely am. They just seemed so distant. When my Dad tried to talk to them they didn’t seem interested.
Yesterday morning I got a call from my friend Nancy to meet her to go shopping. I didn’t have very long since my Dad needed the car to go out for his weekly lunch date with the guys but I did manage to meet her for an hour. I really wanted to get those foam puzzle mats for the deck since it’s pretty old and I don’t want baby D crawling around and undoubtedly getting a splinter. I had in my mind that they would be multi-coloured, but the store only had 1 set of blue. Nancy mentioned that she has a set of mats with the letters on them and would bring them to our parenting group on Thursday.
As for now, I’ve just gone over everything that needs to be done around the house with my Dad. He (mr. generous) is actually giving us $80 to buy plants for the garden! So we are just about to take my Dad to the airport where he’ll be flying to Germany and staying for 5 weeks. It’s so weird every time he goes though. We get really close just before he leaves. Like we’ve been doing dinner together (our 3, plus Dad) for the last 4 nights. Then over the 5 weeks he’ll be gone, we get into our own routine. Like free car for me - yahoo! And when he finally gets back, the relationship is a bit strained. Hope we can plow through that this time around. Anyway, off to the airport…
Dust off the old barbeque
Yesterday was the second day that I took advantage of the weather and got baby D out in his portable crib. It was another beautiful day and I was trying to get a little more sun to even out the burn I managed to get on my long hour and a half walk on Monday. I love that my son likes the outdoors so much, but then I suppose he’s just a contented type of kid all around. I was only out for about half an hour when my Dad came out and started doing some more yard work. Late last week we worked in the front yard raking the last of last year’s leaves and trimming up the hedges that needed so much help. Yesterday was all about the backyard and pulling weeds, raking the caterpillarery things that fell off the tree and transplanting a hedge from the front yard. I became obsessed with the mini trees that seemed to be sprouting all over the backyard. In trying to get rid of them I cut and pulled out roots that were about 2 inches around. There is some serious root system running through the entire backyard so I wasn’t going to get it all out by any means. When I went out from my kitchen, on the step down to the deck was a brown paper bag. My Dad had bought some bulbs for me to plant. He got purple gladioli and pink lilies. I can’t wait to plant them, but the problem will be the fact that we have no idea what’s already been planted.
By the time hubby got home we had pretty much finished for the day so I got him to cook up some hamburgers and we had our first barbeque. Before dinner I took the little guy inside to get him out of his shorts and tee and put on his jammies since it was starting to get cool. I had to be reminded that it is only April still. Sounds funny, but it just seemed like such a summer’s day.
Not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but I have been working on and off on bringing back all my old posts. It’s a nostalgia thing really. In reformatting the entries for mysql I came across an entry that mentioned my new layout on August 29, 2005. I couldn’t remember what it looked like so I had a look at my past-domains page but I didn’t have a pic for that layout. Now I just can’t have that! So I ended up spending an exorbitant amount of time getting the pic. Thanks to Web Archive an oh so cool site that records static copies of the internet, and Firebug a very neat Firefox plugin, I did manage to get what I needed. My sanity has been protected, but unfortunately my beauty rest suffered for it. I can’t believe I’m up already considering I didn’t get to sleep until around 03:00!
Real life happened
Well once again RL has gotten the best of me. Between the beautiful weather and everything I’ve had going on lately, I just haven’t felt like blogging. In fact, this is the first time in the last 4 days that I’ve even been on the computer! Now that’s some kind of record!
I’ve been spending a lot more time outside lately, mainly because spring has finally made an appearance in Toronto, but also because I’ve been work in the yard. Last year the snow descended before we got the leaves to the curb. We did manage to get them all raked into a pile, but that pile’s been under snow for the last 5 months so I had to get the wet leaves off the lawn before there was no lawn left. Hubby thinks the mark left behind looks like a crop circle. I’ve also been out trying to get some exercise and making sure that baby D gets some fresh air.
Sunday was baby D’s very first birthday so I spent last week getting everything that I needed. Okay, so I didn’t need to get 2 rolls of streamers, a garland, a table centerpiece, party hats etc. but I wanted to so essentially that’s the same thing then. I had my mum and dad, my brother and his wife, my aunt and uncle, my grandmother, my great uncle and my cousin-once-removed (aka my mum’s cousin) over to share the day with us. It was a good time and he thoroughly enjoyed showing off for everyone. And I never got tired of hearing what an amazing child I had, or how lucky I was. He got a bunch of clothes, a couple of Robert Munsch books, stacking rings, a bunnykins birthday plate and the Fisher Price Amazing Animals™ Musical Activity Barnyard which he absolutely loved. He also got this pool toy which is a floating car. Uber cute. I can’t wait to take him somewhere where he can use it. It was an enjoyable day, but I find it rather exhausting. From the housecleaning before the party and the running around making sure everyone is fed and watered to the cleanup for what seems like days afterwards, it’s not something I plan on doing terribly often.
This morning I got up at 04:40 and was out of the house with baby D in tow to drive across the city to attend a car clinic put on by my favourite morning show. I got an Alpha Omega 3-in-1 car seat as a baby shower gift before baby D was born, but haven’t used it yet as I was still using my infant carrier. I’ve been whining about getting it installed for the last month or so because baby D’s feet are now hanging over the edge of the infant carrier. So anyway, yesterday I was watching Breakfast Television which I haven’t done for a while, but luckily I tuned in on the right day because they talked about a car seat clinic happening today. Unfortunately it was across town, but I felt it was worth it to make sure my new seat was properly installed. To make a possibly long story short, we (me and baby D) managed to get ourselves on tv 3 times and we won Blue Jay’s tickets. How cool is that? I managed to talk to one of the hosts briefly about his young son and he showed me a picture of him on his Blackberry. I am completely exhausted now, but it was so worth it. I feel really pleased that he’s in a much better car seat and that it has been installed properly.
You have reached the blog of kasper. I live outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
and have been blogging since 1999. I am newly married, though have been with the same guy for nearly 13 years.
We have a son (baby D) born April 13th, 2007 and have all moved into our first home. Though I don't tend
to stick to one thing, I've been known to enjoy the Sims2, knitting, webdesign, reading, music and movies.
