christmas in pictures

christmas eve on my parents balcony...i believe gabe's expression says "WTF am i wearing mom?!"

surrounded by his presents, 5 minutes before he fell asleep

a christmas smile!

sleeping with cousin max

visiting gabe's great-grandma and aunt arlene

the lok family (minus mom who had to work)

the 16 pound ham and 18 pound turkey!

with cousins brianna & bethany, and finally proud grandpa!

merry christmas!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS
from the Lok's :-)

let it snow!

the weather hasn't been my friend today...we were supposed to be out for lunch and dinner, but thanks to the snow everything got cancelled. so we bundled ourselves up and headed for a walk in the snow to pick up groceries. i've decided there should be snow tires for strollers...it was like driving a car...we hit some skid marks, we veered off onto the grass a few times, and when we had to blaze our own trail, we got stuck :P oh well. gabe was none-the-wiser and slept for most of the walk.

(all bundled up...don't worry, i did cover him with both hoods and a raincover!)

while we still don't have a daily routine, i've started to recognize the need for naptime. on monday, after being up for almost 5 hours, gabe was just a devil! i've never seen him so cranky before, but i've learned my lesson. on tuesday my little man took 2 naps in his bed. and he's asleep right now, too! he'll be well-rested for our evening of trevor linden celebrations :-)

i've never been a morning person...until now. after a 9 or 10 hour sleep gabe is well-rested, and if i catch him at the right time, he's so happy to see me and gives me lots of smiles :-) yesterday i got all teary-eyed because he gave me smile after smile, it was so exciting! i tried to get a picture of him today, but he's not a big fan of the camera first thing in the morning so i only got one smile.

it's christmas-time!

such a busy week we've had...setting up gabe's bank account and RESP (i think he's richer than me :P), prenatal reunion, pete's birthday, shopping on commercial drive, aunt mary's birthday celebration, chiro, 2 month shots, visiting chris' "office", nora's christmas playdate and the PADS christmas party! phew, i'm exhausted :-)

i was really anxious about gabe's 2 month shots...i didn't know if i was strong enough to be in the room with him, so chris came along. turns out, i was fine...and so was gabe :-) i brought along a small bottle of milk and he started drinking as the injections went in. the first one he had absolutely no reaction; after the second shot, he started crying and gave up on the bottle. by the time his fourth shot was done, he was howling! oh i felt so bad for my little monkey, but i managed to not cry, and gabe managed to finish his bottle, and then i topped him up myself. i was a bit worried in the afternoon because he slept for 4 straight hours...very unusual...but once he woke up, he didn't stop crying. poor guy...his left leg was completely swollen and tomato red. my dad was convinced it would be a long night for me and chris, but fortunately by bedtime, everything was back to normal and gabe slept his normal 9 hours!

wednesday was a great day...during tummy-time, gabe fell asleep on the playmat so i managed to put him in his basinette for a 45 minute nap! it's the first time he's done that for me...usually he cries and wakes up when i put him down during the day :P after he was much refreshed we had a playdate at nora's house :-) good times! gabe was holding onto one of the toys on nora's playmat and was loving it. i'm going to add some links to his toys so he can grab them at home. to end the day, we headed off to the PADS volunteer xmas party. it was great to see all the volunteers, and gabe was a big hit! i think he garnered more attention than the dogs did!

say cheese!

gabe is 2 months old today!


the newest development over the past few days is smiling! yup, our little guy has started to smile at us :-) his first smile was at his great-grandma (above). he's smiled at least 3 times that we've witnessed, but the camera's never around when he does it. hopefully he'll become more predictable with his smiles and we`ll be able to capture it!

he`s also starting to make little noises...it`s so cute. we`re not sure what he`s trying to tell us, but we`re listening intently.

i`ve finally realized that gabe`s flaking scalp is due to cradle cap. i was surfing the internet and found an easy natural remedy...a 15 minute scalp soak with olive oil before his bathtime. we`ve done it twice on him, and noticed a slight improvement. i also bought dimpleskins avocado soap to wash his face and hands. i`ve only been using warm water until now, but his skin`s been drying out, and he gets a bit smelly from the vomit :P the soap has helped a lot...followed by aveeno baby lotion. i don`t think i`ve been moisturizing him enough...he`s definitely inherited dry skin from both me and chris :P

it's all about the output!

today gabe is 8 weeks old!

@ PADS with service dog-in-training, maisie!

• our little monkey is filling out and getting some meat on his bones. at approx. 11 pounds he's definitely a healthy boy :-)


• it's hard to tell how much to feed him...some days he'll feed for 20 minutes, and some he'll go for 40 minutes. then there's the in-between feeds where he does his projectile vomit. we were out for dinner last weekend and he threw up on himself, me and the floor. nice!


• i've officially been pooped on. after a breakfast feed, he had a lot of gas with 3 poops, and the last one was too much for his diaper and it ended up on My Brest Friend and my clothes. double-nice! another time i was burping him when he pooped and somehow it all ended up his back...virtually nothing was in the diaper...go figure :P ironically both times he was wearing disposable diapers...


• we continue to have much success with our cloth diapers, even using them when we go out. it's not much different than disposable, except that i have to carry them around until i get home. after you've been pooped on it just doesn't matter anymore :-) when we purchase our 6 month diapers, i'm thinking of switching to cloth wipes, rather than the huggies we've been using. i may be able to eliminate garbage altogether!


• i'm thrilled to fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans again! i finally have clothes for everyday wear...i think i was a bit hasty earlier this year and cleaned out my closet, thinking that i'd never fit my clothes again. just another excuse to buy new clothes, especially when someone else is paying the bill ;-)


• gabe is extremely alert during the days. when i put him on the changing table and i talk to him, he gets so excited and flails his arms and legs around. i think he's getting close to cracking his first real smile!


• monkey-man is also getting stronger every day...his neck is less floppy than before, and we can stand him upright and he starts bending his legs up and down.
  
• it's still november, but my parents have gone to town for gabe's first christmas...buying him outfits for every holiday function we have! to be honest, i can't wait to dress him up either :-)

nkotb forever!

what a fun night! it was like i was 13 all over again :-) pris & i went to the new kids on the block concert @ gm place and had a hella good time! my fave kid, jordan, was his usual hot self, and i couldn't help but take a hundred pix of him! i literally took over 100 pix at the concert...it was a bit ridiculous. i even took video clips :-) ah, it was fun to be young again. and then it was back to reality and my breastpump :P

and on the topic of reality...chris got a big dose of it for himself. he was on daddy-duty for the 2nd time (the first time was a few weeks ago when i went out for van`s b-day brunch), but this time he had to do bedtime on his own! when i got home from the concert, chris looked wiped! apparently gabe was having a crying fit last night. i told chris, welcome to my EVERY day :-)

6 week check-up

we had our last visit with the midwives today. i can't believe it's been over 6 weeks since gabe arrived. he's pretty excited, too!

gabe's grown 5 cm longer than his birth height, and he's now a whopping 10 lbs, 10 oz! and the BEST news this week is he's slept through the night for 5 straight nights, ranging from 7 - 9 hours!!!! holy crapper! speaking of crap, even his diaper changes have diminished throughout the day :-)

to celebrate our 6 week mark on saturday, gabe and i ventured out on our own for dinner with some friends. it was the first time i had to carry the carseat and load the car. my recovery from the c-section has gone pretty well, but unfortunately i`m still having problems with my back. hopefully a few more chiro sessions will fix that up!

the old me is back!

woot-woot! i had a feeling a couple weeks ago at our postnatal check-up, but yesterday confirmed it...i can fit my pre-pregnancy clothes! i was lucky and only gained 22 pounds during pregnancy, so when 8 pounds 10 ounces was gabe, the remaining weight just melted off :-)

even though i didn't enjoy pregnancy, i did enjoy all the maternity clothes i got to wear. so now i'm sad they don't fit me anymore...i keep wearing my green capri pants, but they just keep falling down when i walk :P i've been going through my closet but everything is so "work-related", that i don't even know what to wear for the next 10 months...i guess i'm going shopping!

5 weeks old

gabe's first month - catch up time!

seriously, i don't know where the time goes! actually...i do. diapers, crying, feeding, diapers, burping, throw-up, diapers, crying, feeding...

we sort-of celebrated halloween and dressed him up in his festive onesie. cute hunh?

last weekend was super-busy! we took gabe on his first skytrain ride to downtown for the baby fair. what a great day...we scored some freebies from london drugs, a case of formula (at least we have back-up if we need it), we bought a highchair and a babysling. then in the evening gabe was the centre of attention at his one-month party held at kirin. dinner for 100 ppl...craziness!

we've been suffering from long nights. gabe isn't too keen on me putting him to sleep at night. as soon as he lies down he'll start crying again. we've spent several nights sleeping on the couch together :P BUT...last night i put him down for bed at 12:42 a.m. and he didn't wake up until 8 a.m.! perhaps turning 5 weeks old is a turning point for us! we still need to work on gabe's day/night confusion.

other highlights include the continued success with nursing, bottle-feeding and pacifier-use. gabe has now discovered his hands and will occasionally suck his thumb if i don't feed him right away. and we are now on day 4 of cloth diapering! it makes so much cents (i'm so witty!) to use them at home, and i've bought some really cute monkey doodlez and bumgenius, so it just makes them more enjoyable to use. i was really ambitious and bought the prefolds (similar to what our parents used on us) with the diaper covers. gabe has adapted really well to cloth, and it has actually reduced his diaper rash. however, we still use disposables at night and when we venture out of the house!

we've also had lots of playdates with other babies...grace, brenden, luke, alyssa and sophia!