my little starfish

onto more pleasant topics :-)

gabe had his 2nd swim lesson yesterday and i'm so pleased it went better than his 1st lesson. while he shivered in the shallow end during the wheels on the bus, once we got into deeper water he sort of chillaxed and went with the flow. we even attempted to blow bubbles, but i think gabe just got a mouthful of water instead. at least this time he didn't choke himself and cry for the rest of the class :-) at the end of class he jumped off the "pirate ship" and i managed to dunk him twice and was so proud of him for not crying and freaking out!


and i'm thrilled that my parents are back from japan! i`ve got my matcha tea and whisk, and my nori will arrive in a month! yum yum :-) and i've already lined up my parents for babysitting 3 times over the next 3 weeks, and now i can finally get curtains hung for gabe's bedroom. while the morning sun has been waking him up earlier than in the winter, the bigger problem is at bedtime...he knows it`s still light out and won`t always go to sleep until it`s completely dark, even though he`s completely knackered.

i think it`s safe to say that the 3 of us are finally over our flu and we can finally really enjoy this beautiful vancouver weather!

pissed

finally, the craziness from tuesday night has gone away. all day yesterday our driveway was crawling with media reporters and photographers...grace ke had live updates from 5:30 - 9:00 a.m., rumina daya was gathering comments mid-morning to mid-afternoon, and cbc had their live coverage at 12 p.m., and the rcmp e-division set up their trailer in our parking lot while they conducted their investigation. today i went into the visitors parkade for the first time and was disgusted to see dried blood splatter still on the ground. 2 shootings in our visitors parkade in 3 years...i'm so pissed. for the most part i've always felt safe in the neighbourhood - taking skytrain home at night, walking the pups around the block at 11 p.m., during a rough night i've walked gabe in his stroller at 2 a.m. in our parkade! - but now when i even take the elevator, i just hope that no one else gets in with me, and if someone does then i hope to hell they aren't a "target" of some gang. i'm so pissed because the rcmp say on the news it was a "targeted hit" and the public has nothing to fear. are you fucking kidding me? on tuesday night there were easily 5 ppl within 70 feet of the parkade entrance and the suspect car who could've been shot in the crossfire! safe, my ass!

well, considering all the shootings in 2009, i guess nowhere is safe anymore.

gunshots...WAY too close to home!

ok, i really don't need excitement at 10 p.m. i now know what multiple gunshots sounds like and i don't like that knowledge. just after 10 tonight a whole round of gunfire erupted in our visitors parking lot. i saw a man running out of the parking lot (who could've just been an innocent bystander...i don't know) and shortly followed by a black minivan/suv type car. left behind was an injured man in a black luxury suv (possibly a bmw or porsche). fortunately there was a man out at street level when it happened and he managed to call 911 immediately...and within 2-3 minutes 10 police cars had swarmed our neighbourhood and blocked off all 3 towers.

being the curious neighbour i am, i scurried down to the driveway to get a closer look...and waited until the ambulances arrived to take the victim away. it's funny...the paramedics are always at starbucks during the day, parked illegally on our street, but tonight when someone actually needs them, they take almost 10 minutes to arrive. one of the news crews arrived faster than the ambulance. go figure! this picture was taken a few minutes ago after most of the commotion had died down...



it's been an interesting week along dawson street...on wednesday afternoon our street was completely shut down after a man died when he ran through a stop sign, hit a flatbed truck, and then spun into 3 parked cars. it took over 7 hours for the street to be re-opened, the cars towed away, and the mess to be cleaned up. the uprooted steel post the driver hit is a permanent reminder of what happened. and now tonight, more commotion on our street :P

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more pool time!

in addition to starfish swim lessons for gabe, i also signed us up for baby & me aquafit. we had our first session today, and it was pretty fun. i got my 45 minutes of exercise and gabe got more water-time. they have little inner-tubes with crotch straps for baby to sit in and moms would hold the inner-tube as we bounced around . there were only 3 of us in the class, so near the end when the babes were comfortable, we let them loose and they floated around us...it was pretty cute.

at the end of class we let the babes out and did some bubble-blowing and splashing in the pool. i thought gabe was miserable on friday due to his lingering cold, but he really doesn't like getting his face wet. he swallowed more water today and once he did that, it was GAME OVER! the miserable face was on and never went away. maybe we'll practice in the tub tonight. but we will persevere and keep going...i might even sign up for the july aquafit session!

and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to chris! his first bday as a daddy :-)

miss me?

i know, i know, it's been awhile since my last post. right after i recovered from strep throat, chris caught the flu, then gabe caught the flu, and lastly i caught the flu. fortunately before gabe and i got sick we managed to squeeze in coffee w/mama foof, an office baby shower, a picnic playdate at david lam park, and dim sum before it all went downhill. we had a rough few days last week, but we persevered and made it to gabe's first swim lesson on friday. unfortunately it was not his finest moment...after the first attempt at blowing bubbles he was miserable for the rest of the class...hopefully he'll do better next week.















sadly gabe and i are still somewhat sick, but i'm totally frustrated being stuck at home and i think gabe's feeling it, too. today was our longest outing...we went to the trout lake farmers market and lunch at little nest with pris and sandra! i was so excited about the market because i wanted inspiration for gabe's meals, but unfortunately there wasn't much in terms of fresh fruits and vegetables for babes. everyone was selling rhubarb though... so today, i picked up some berry honey, apples, and honey almond nouget. i'll go back in a few weeks and see what other vendors pop up. in the meantime, i need to do some research to figure out what herbs/plants i can grow on my sunless balcony (or indoors)...

my recovery is definitely taking a lot longer than anticipated because i can't take medication (argh! i miss the pill-popping days), and i'm not getting nearly enough rest during the day. gabe's been inconsistent during the day with his naps...they vary from 10 minutes to 3 hours! at least he's still sleeping through the night. it would be so much better if my parents were here to help, but they're in japan for another week :( bad timing!


on a happier note, gabe's 3rd tooth has popped out and a 4th isn't too far behind. just like his first teeth he didn't put up much of a fuss...mind you they coincided with the flu, so the miserableness might have been mingled together :-)

a bittersweet day

so sad...the canucks run to the stanley cup has ended. realistically i didn't think they'd make it to round 3, but in my heart i was really hoping for a miracle. oh well, we made a little money in the post-season and now i can get back to watching all my regular tv shows :-)

on a happier note, i'm convinced gabe has said his first "word", and that word is MAMA! more like "uh-ma-uh-ma-uh-ma-maaa"...but MAMA none-the-less! he repeated it a few times tonight, but it wasn't directed towards me. he would just respond to anyone who "talked" to him. i think it's ironic that on mother's day a year ago was the first time i felt gabe move in my belly, and now here we are one year later and he's starting to "talk"!




gabe has also started waving at himself :-) he was on the potty tonight and was waving his arm about when he discovered his hand and waved hello/goodbye. he did it last night as well in-between his nighttime feeding. so cute...and it's a backwards wave, so he literally is saying goodbye/hello to himself. so sweet!

an EP!C weekend

after much anticipation, gabe and i attended the EPIC Expo at the new vancouver trade & convention centre. we thought about being totally "epic" and skytraining down, but our timing was off and we ended up driving :( plus, i figured if i did a bunch of shopping, it'd be easier to pack the car rather than carrying a bunch of stuff. however, to offset our footprint, i took along my onya bags so i wouldn't need any vendor bags. yah!

there is just so much to see, do, and learn at epic but we zipped through most of it and focused on visiting nellie's all natural (i bought more dryer balls and laundry soda), domatcha (i bought the organic ceremonial tea), granville island toy company, rio rain (i bought a hoodie for $20 (regular $75!)), and bamboo naturals (2 great t's for gabe). the other highlights were the free samples of food: organic yogurt, locally-made potato chips, a variety of beverages, sweet treats, etc. next year, i'll make sure to take chris or my parents so we have multiple hands tending to gabe's needs. during a mini-meltdown, i took him to watch a puppet skit performed by parks canada...it's great that gabe enjoys visual activities!

to celebrate mother's day, gabe and i went to music class together followed by brunch @ the boathouse with my family. the food was delicious and gabe sort-of behaved for the most part :-) and that's it for today...chris is sick so we're having a low-key at-home evening.

happy mother's day to all the mommies!

7 months old!

wow, i've had strep throat since my last blog post, and i'm finally back to my normal self again. this is the longest i've been sick since gabe's birth, and it was pretty frustrating because i still had to be up-and-about keeping him fed, clean, and entertained. i felt like such a hermit, because we didn't have any playdates, storytime, i skipped music class, and no drop-in sessions. friday was our first outing with friends and babies and i had a great time :-) and i've lined up 3 playdates for this week...finally, life is back to normal!

gabe is 7 months old today! he's had lots of developments this month:

eating solids: after being on rice cereal for 2 weeks, we've made lots of progress with barley cereal, yams, carrots, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, and pears. we've put a hold on the meat (he ate a few bites at two separate meals but rejected it on the 3rd try) and peas (i didn't puree the shells enough and he spat everything out). since gabe no longer naps when we're out for dinner, i've been packing farley biscuits for him to munch on while we're dining out. he just LOVES to feed himself and is so pleased that he makes a complete mess everywhere :P he's also gotten better with the sippy cup and drinking water. yippee!

sign language: gabe understands the signs for "milk" and "all done". on one occasion we even caught him signing "milk"! believe me, i gave the little man exactly what he wanted i was so impressed :-)

crying it out: we've never really stuck with "crying it out" because gabe's usually pretty good about going to bed at night. however, a couple times a week he'll put up a fuss, and we'll cave in and let him watch baby einsteen until he's tired. i don't really like it because he watches enough tv during the day with me (his favourite is the oasis commercial with max the orange!). so now i'm going to stick with crying it out and hope for the best (the first night took an hour for him to cry it out).

early riser: i used to be able to sleep in until 8:15 every day and still have time to shower and eat breakfast before gabe woke up at 9-9:30. now with the sunshine coming out earlier, gabe starts waking up at 7 a.m.! but by the time i get up, shower and eat, he's gotten himself back to sleep! so i've reverted back to my old ways and sometimes i'll nap when he naps!

chatterbox: while we haven't made out any definitive words from gabe, he's definitely been chatting a lot more this past month. i get a real laugh when we're in the car, it's all quiet, and then out of nowhere gabe pipes up and reminds us that he's in the backseat alone!

elimination communication: i gave up on "potty-training" months ago, but once gabe started solids i became more determined to try again. we've had lots of luck, and at least once a day, i manage to catch his business in the potty. i thought i had the "signs" figured out: farting, bum-hopping, grunting...all that good stuff. turns out that sometimes that's all it really is and there's nothing coming out. oh well, at least we're getting into a regular routine of eating and then potty-time.

miscellaneous: gabe's developed great core strength and no longer requires the bumbo to sit in. with a pillow supporting his back, he'll happily play on the floor with his toys for 30-45 minutes. of course, that doesn't prevent him from crashing forwards or sideways onto his head :P when he's on his tummy, gabe's gotten into a habit in his crib of lifting up his head and flopping it down on the mattress (very dramatic). so when he has tummy-time on the carpet, he does the same thing but the hardwood is not so forgiving :( hopefully the repeated blows to his head won't cause permanent damage ;-) we also took gabe to the park for the first time...not too impressed with the swings...