vegas, baby!

this weather is just so dreary, but at least i have a vacation to look forward to! we're taking gabe on his 2nd trip to las vegas in march! i'm starting to sense this could become an annual thing...but this time he'll have a partner-in-crime, trevor :-) now, if we could only convince tyler to come along... ;-)

we'll be staying at the brand new hotel at city center, aria, across from the mgm grand. it just opened in mid-december and i'm super excited! the last time chris and i stayed at a brand new hotel was in china...it had only been open for 4 days and had no heat (it was february so we slept in all the clothes we had packed), no hot water, and no one spoke english :P

now that vacation #1 is planned out, i have to work on vacation #2 while my parents are in europe. ah, life is so hard sometimes :-)

new year, new stuff!

a new year deserves a new look! after 4 years i'm finally changing the look of my blog! unfortunately when i changed the template, i lost some of my sidebar information...rather than try to figure out what was there before, i'll save the space for new things as i feel inspired.

it's hard to believe it's 6 days into 2010 already. as usual i've made no resolutions, so i don't have to feel guilty about breaking them by january 31 :-) 2008 was all about pregnancy, 2009 was about getting to know our son and watching him become a little toddler. for 2010 i'm looking forward to gabriel's first words (he's said "mama" twice this week!), more toddler activities, family vacations (yes, that's plural!), and whatever else life throws at us. BRING IT ON, 2010!

it's like having 2 kids

it's been a great week with caber in our home, and gabriel is just loving it. but i have to admit, it's been a lot of work :P

"gabriel, don't pick the dog's nose!"

"caber, don't lick gabriel!"

"gabriel, don't sit on the dog!"

"caber, don't knock gabriel over!"

"gabriel, time to go potty!"

"caber, better go now!"

"gabriel, let's put our jacket on!"

"caber, dress!"

the funnest command has been "sit"...both gabriel and caber will respond and sit side-by-side...it's pretty funny :-)

merry christmas!

40 years!

40 years of marriage

2 children

1 son-in-law

1 grandson

and a bit of grey hair

PRICELESS!

holy smokers, batman! my parents had their 40th wedding anniversary this weekend, and we celebrated with dinner at hy's! if (er, i mean, WHEN) i make it to 40 years of marriage, and if i look 1/2 as good as my parents do now, i'll be in great shape! my parents have an active social life (they go out more than chris and i ever did!), they have season tickets to the theatre and the bc lions, last year they went to japan for 3 weeks with their friends and then to alaska with us on the cruise, they're planning for their next trip (perhaps the UK and France?) in the spring or fall, and they babsit gabe 4 days a week (and once in a while during the evenings so chris and i can go to canucks games, or on saturdays so i can get some errands done!).

back to the dinner celebration...it was gabe's first time in a fancy restaurant, and he was a superstar! he sat in his highchair from start to finish, with only a couple of outbursts. we had lots of treats for him, and he was entertained with the anniversary card, chris' iphone, and my itouch. gabe's definitely techno-savy...he's figured out how to slide the ipods to turn them on, and he's able to manipulate some of the games now.

toddlers these days are just too smart!

bah humbug!

i have to say that i'm really not a big fan of christmas. this year, i'm actually bordering on "hatred". and there's only one reason for it...chris works every single day in december and this year he only gets christmas day off. it's incredibly frustrating because i want to do all sorts of christmas-y things (bright nights @ stanley park, pictures w/santa, christmas party @ the aquarium), but because chris wants to be involved, it's almost impossible to find time before gabe has to be in bed. we did make it to the PADS volunteer christmas party a couple weeks ago, but we didn't get home until 9:30 p.m.!


since i still have my xmas shopping to do, i've had to drag gabe around with me, and forego his morning naps...which really messes us up because then he'll fall asleep in the car and i'll have to wait till he wakes up. thankfully he doesn't sleep more than 30 minutes in his carseat.

things were so different last year...gabe was only 2 months old so it was easier to take him out later in the evenings since there was no such thing as bedtime or a routine. last year was our first christmas as a new family, so it had a different excitement to it. that's not to say that just cuz gabe is a year older that it's less fun...it's just a less-daddy/more-mommy, different vibe.


adding to my doom and gloom, the olympics aren't going to make life any better. since the shop has to make deliveries into downtown vancouver, and they can only be done between 12-6 a.m., someone has to be at the shop to load up the trucks and close up after deliveries are finished. @#$%^&*!!!!!!

as if xmas wasn't chaotic enough, , we're bringing home a dog for the holidays! after we had beau for 2 weeks over the summer, i swore never to dogsit for more than 3-4 days MAX! funny how quickly i can flip-flop around when certain dogs are mentioned. so next week, we'll be celebrating xmas with caber, a 2 year old yellow labrador retriever. i actually had gabe's happiness in mind when i agreed to dogsit...anytime he sees a dog (in person or on tv, big or small) he goes insane with exitement. at least there'll be one happy person in our family at christmas!

14 months old!

wow, gabe is 14 months old today! it's been a challenge the past couple of days. gabe's developed some dry skin along with nasty rashes on his body and we're not sure why. he's also got a diaper rash and the cream that used to work doesn't seem to be working for him. we're going to cut out the "junkier" food he's been eating and get back to basics for a few days and see if that helps. we've definitely gotten more relaxed with feeding him and let him eat almost anything without adhering to the 3 day rule. at the very least we have a doctor's appointment for his 2nd h1n1 vaccine, so he can get checked out then.

on top of the skin problems, gabe's cutting 3 teeth which has made our life miserable. at time he's in terrible pain and has trouble soothing himself to sleep (we've temporarily reverted back to baby einstein - at 3 a.m., i'll do anything to get back into bed!), and he's also having meltdowns at the drop of hat! anyone who knows gabe, knows he loves to eat! i have to tell you, it's mind-boggling to see him refuse food!

asides from those issues, gabe's doing great! his walking has progressed into faster walking and now trotting/running. when we're out-and-about, and he's had a taste of "walking freedom", he hates being carried or strapped into his stroller. it's hard being out alone with him now, because it's a hassle chasing him while keeping an eye on the stroller and our belongings :P

speaking of our stroller, the hinge covers for our maclaren arrived today. and being a responsible parent, i promptly put the "warning" label on and zipped on the covers (the only reason i've done this is if we decide to re-sell it in the future). i'm done ranting about the stroller, so here's what it looks like now:

gabe still hasn't said his first word yet, but he continues to babble and vocalize. his sign language skills are ridiculous! he will say "please", "thank you", "more", "poop", "bye-bye", and "milk". he doesn't associate waving bye-bye and hello as the same thing...instead, if someone says hi to him, he'll tilt his head and pretend to hold a phone. he's also learned to shrug his shoulders and extend his arms out to say "i don't know!". and his openmouth kisses are a real hoot! fortunately he's kept his tongue to himself :-)

he also responds really well to instructions:

"gabriel, please sit down to eat" - he truly is chinese...he`ll actually squat to eat :P

"gabriel, do you have to go to the potty?" - he'll walk over to the potty area (at our home or at my parents house)

"gabriel, it's time to eat!" - he'll walk over to his hairchair and wait with his arms up.

"gabriel, go give grandma/grandpa a hug/kiss and say goodbye" - this gets my mom in stitches, cuz gabe will get confused after doing it to one person and he`ll hug and kiss his reflection in the mirror :-)

ah, my boy!

black friday, broke sunday

well, i did it...i had my first weekend away from gabe! as i was packing on thursday night waiting for my ride, i got anxious and couldn't really eat dinner...just the thought of leaving my little man behind was terrifying. but once i was in the car and we were headed for the border, all worries were left behind :-) it was thrilling to be away from him for 48 hours...no diapers to change, no routine/scheduling to think about, no temper tantrums...just me, my girls, and a credit card!


it was a jam-packed trip to the seattle-area with lots of shopping: wal-mart, target, costco, seattle premium outlets, alderwood mall, university village, the outlets @ burlington, and cascade mall. this trip was definitely different than 2 years ago...last time it was all about me and shopping for xmas gifts for my parents. this year i spent most of my money on clothes and toys for gabe's christmas. well, i did spend a "bit" on myself...i deserve it after all :-)

i got some great deals for 40-50% off which totally made the trip worthwhile. i think the best deals were at banana republic in u.village...tops for less than $10! my best "deal" was a $70 blouse for $18 and the $10 gap fleece pullover for chris. well, the kate spade purse for 40% off wasn't too shabby either!

since we got home late saturday night, i had to settle for a peak into gabe's room. but the arms-open-happy-face reaction in the morning was fantastic! sadly life got back to normal pretty quickly and i was dealing with a typical toddler...how quickly my two-day getaway went by... ah well, there's always next year to look forward to :-)


p.s. on a VERY HAPPY NOTE...gabe is fully weaned now! it was a 9 day (somewhat painful) process, but i've finally stopped producing gallons of milk and am (sort of) back to my old self! well, at least enough to stock up on some victoria's secret bras on the trip! haha!

tough choices

after much deliberation and discussions w/colleagues and reading articles, we decided to get the h1n1 vaccine for gabe. his first dose was last friday, and i have to say it traumatized me. it was the first time i'd taken gabe alone to the doctor, and the memory of his 12 month vaccinations was obviously still fresh in his mind. as soon as we got into our little room, he decided to walk off. once i had him on the table to get his shoes and pants off, he went beserk! fortunately it was only one shot so the doctor was really quick. once we left the office with a mum-mum in hand, all was forgiven.

then he spent the entire weekend with an on/off fever and was just plain old miserable and decided he wouldn't sleep...AT ALL! i felt so bad for the little guy knowing that my decision to vaccinate him caused so much discomfort (and a lack of sleep for me!). (side-bar...all of gabe's previous vaccinations went off without a hitch...no reactions, no side effects.) i've been told that kids who have stronger reactions to the injections *could* be the ones who suffer worse from the h1n1 flu if they weren't vaccinated (true or not...it's only a small consolation for me, but still i'm not convinced this was the best decision i've made). i also question my decision because (currently) chris and i have opted to not get the vaccine (we never get the regular flu shot either). so why would i force it upon my child? because it seemed like the *right* thing to do. because everyone else was doing it. because i would look like a bad mother if my child got h1n1 and hadn't been vaccinated. but the thought i can't get out of my head is that i didn't want the vaccine in the first place and i've just gone against what my doctor advised (even if he is in the minority of all other physicians).

i know it's *just* a vaccination, and a lot of ppl have been lining up for it but i'm really upset over this whole thing. i'm trying to get over it and accept what i've done, but because gabe's due for a 2nd vaccine in 2 weeks, i'm obssessing over it. part of me wants to cancel the appointment and let him be 1/2 protected (after all...healthy kids over 3 only need one dose, and they just made that announcement recently - having said that, the rumour is they changed this rule so there would be more vaccine to go around to other ppl), so who's to say that in another month or two the same won't apply to ALL kids? why would i put us through the pain of another needle and potential side effects? i hate that health canada is still conducting tests on the vaccine and changing the rules on-the-fly.

i know parenting isn't easy, but if i'm this upset over a vaccination, how in hells bells am i gonna get through the next 17 years?!

p.s. gabe's fever was finally under control on monday, but the next day he caught a cold...i don't think anything else could possibly go wrong at this point.

maclaren recall

so there's a recall on 1 million maclaren strollers sold in the US (national post story). the reason for the recall is that 12 children had their fingers amputated because they got caught in the hinges. and this happened when the strollers were being closed with the kids still in the stroller. WTF?! honestly, i don't even know how to close ANY stroller with a kid in it, let alone their hands flying around getting caught in the hinges behind them!

for now, the recall is maclaren-specific, but health canada hasn't taken the drastic step of issuing a recall (yet). however, all strollers have hinges and moving parts because they all open and collapse so what's not to prevent a child from getting caught in other strollers?

seriously ppl...common sense must prevail! in the meantime, i'm very interested in seeing what band-aid remedy maclaren has created, so i will be calling for the repair kit.