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Dan got his marks yesterday and passed all his courses!!!

We’re going through a rather expensive phase where we’re trying to fix, upgrade and replace as many things as possible before April and we ended up spending far too much time shopping this past week.

We managed to survive a trip to the big I Thursday. Dan’s parents kindly sent us some gift certificates and we had some serious upgrading to do in our apartment. We caught the bus (and it actually went fairly well considering how crappy the west island bus service is), got off at the right stop, and got there only 30 minutes after it opened. We spent a fair amount of time there since we both knew it would probably be our only visit for the next few years. We ended up getting a dresser for the bedroom (actually it’s the first real dresser we have ever owned, the first one was from when I was a baby and then we bought a cheap vinyl thing from Ikea for like $10 a few years back), a “record shelf” for Dan (pics later once his room is organized), a little stand for the Commodore 64 monitor (i.e. the “TV” although the last time we watched live TV on it was a month ago) and other electronic bits, a rail for hanging things in the kitchen, two shelves and some boxes. I think our apartment is starting to look more “grown up” now, which is really good.

I think we also inadvertently solved our changing table (or lack thereof) problem. The day before we went to Sears and among other things found a “Sleep rite” thingy which is two blocks of foamy material attached together by a strip of cloth. The blocks go on either side of a baby and keep it sleeping on its back. But it also works to stop a baby from rolling off a surface, so now I can use any surface as a changing table. So I think I can use our old dresser - I will just put a changing pad on top and use the foam blocks. Not only that, but most of the changing tables don’t have drawers and we were not sure how to handle that, so I can use the drawers in the dresser to store her clothing and the diapers. Perfect!

Yesterday we went to a children’s furniture shop in the creepy mall by my work (in the vain hope they might sell cosleepers) and ended up buying a nursing pillow. I wasn’t sure how useful these would be but it turns out they are quite handy. So anyway we saw one we liked and there was no price. We asked the owner had he said the price, which was higher than I had seen it in other places. He then proceeded to barter with us, saying there was no tax and that he would give it to us for $5 less if we paid cash. So I guess we bought a black market nursing pillow!?? There is also a store there entirely dedicated to child safety and I think we might be going back there in a few years for a stove guard. The owner was really nice and also gave me info on child safety / choking / CPR courses so I should try to sign up for one.

We also made a grudging trip to Wally World to look for replacement filters for our air purifier. Of course they didn’t have them. This store is so frelling useless I really wish I wouldn’t waste my time trying to find anything there. I usually reach the point where I can’t find something anywhere else and go there as a last resort but I am always dissappointed (and grouchy).

I also bought a new pair of glasses yesterday. It has been in the back of my mind that I needed to get a second pair since my other pair are at least 4 years old and if anything should happen to them I would be in real trouble. Also one of my eyes improved a bit so it was a good excuse to get new lenses. The optometrist by our place had really expensive frames (I think I saw only 1 pair for less than $300) so I went to another store where I always checked out the frames from the display. It was a much better deal and I even got a 30% discount on the price of the frames. And oh my are they ever stylish.

I can’t find anything locally for co-sleeping so I think we will have to put an online order through soon. Also I wish I could find something like this crib attachment which I used to play with. The ball turns and I would use my massive feet to spin it around for hours at a time (yes I really do remember playing with it, in fact I have quite a collection of memories from very early childhood including drinking the bathwater and ripping out the shag carpeting in my room with my amazingly strong grip, but not so much from the ages of 4-6 - I’m funny that way). Unfortunately all the crib attachments today have lights and music which are not only annoying but I think miss the point a bit. A spinning thing for of coloured plastic balls is just as entertaining as a light up singing star and it doesn’t require batteries. And turning a spinning ball thing is a good way to learn how to use one’s hands / feet! Oh well.

We spent the day in today, mostly hanging out (”slobbing around” in Red Dwarf language) and it was a very nice change. We made a big breakfast with bacon, hash browns and french toast and then read for a bit. I am reading a collection of select 20th centufy novels, plays and short stories. I finished “Saint Joan” by George Bernard Shaw and quite enjoyed it. Then we got out the box of photo albums and keepsakes from my mom’s place and looked through them. My mom made an incredible baby book for me and we had a lot of fun looking through that. There was a page with my footprints and handprints. I had really massive feet! They sure don’t make baby books like that one these days.

Then we looked through some other albums and I found a book my mother put together with information about her various family members that had passed away. I found out more about my uncle Alan, who died of leukemia when he was only 10. She had photocopied some of the letters he wrote from the hospital and also a letter from the school where they had sent my grandparents some money to help with the cost of his hospital stay (in the days before public health care). It was really sad to read about. After that the family decided they couldn’t keep the farm (my grandfather was also frequently ill) so they moved to Medicine Hat and my grandmother worked in the hopsital there; my grandfather was too ill to work. He died not too long after that. What makes it particularly sad was that there was so little in the way of medical intervention back then - my grandfather had pneumonia 5 times during his life and still worked hard on the farm despite how sick it made him.

I also have my mother’s baby book and it was really interesting to see how different her childhood was from mine and from that of kids today. There was no doctor present when she was born (at home) and I doubt my grandmother even saw a doctor when she was pregnant with any of the children. My mom’s birthday presents were usually “The Royal Bumps” (i.e. birthday bumps). How different things are now! Parents can’t get away with giving simple presents anymore (”but mooom, Angie got a new ipod!”). I have personally had so many doctor’s appointments I feel like I’ve seen someone every 2 weeks. Since September I have seen my obstetrician 5 times, the dentist once, the optometriest once, my family doctor twice, had two blood tests and 4 ultrasounds! I used to grumble when I had to take off an hour early to keep a doctor’s appointment and now I’m used to taking a half day off and waiting 1-3 hours for each of these appointments.

Yesterday we had a little picnic in the park and the weather was very mild. It snowed today but we will see if it lasts - I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it is already gone. Tomorrow we’re planning to go out in the (late) morning and then eat out for dinner. We still have to make the anise cookies sometime this week, not sure when that will be yet.

Here are the Christmas photos, so far

Ahhh … I just got home from my last day of work until Jan 2nd. Thank goodness for a break! Too bad for Dan he’s still working on his essay, because I don’t have any work to do tonight! Plans for the weekend will be something like this: sleep in and relax tomorrow, maybe clean up a bit and take some photos of the apartment. Sunday will be the big Christmas meal (the usual Lamb recipe) and then we will go to the Christmas eve service at Christchurch cathedral downtown. After that we will probably do some phoning and/or video conferencing and then open presents. On Monday we will make the anise cookie recipe that Dan’s Oma gave us. We will probably have chestnut soup for supper again too. More tele/video conferencing and relaxing. Then during the week it’s down to business!

I just checked my spa*m and saw that I received one from “protein molecule”. Now I know proteins are very imporant things, but gee I never thought they were intelligent and had email accounts. I hope it was my favourite protein.

Speaking of sweet I had to take a glucose test today and drank a nasty orange flavoured thing with 50g of glucose in it. Yuck!

Dan had his last exam on Friday, which means he is technically done the semester except for writing a music history paper which his teacher very kindly let him postpone. So for the first time since I don’t remember when, we actually have the weekend together. We are going to turn our apartment (which is a total disaster right now, I am going to take before & after pictures later) into an organized, christmas-decorated sanctuary. Well, we will try at least.

Last night we decided it was time to get new pillows so we went to the Bay downtown. I absolutely hate shopping at this time of the year and was expecting it to be really bad, but in fact it worked out great. They had scratch & save coupons and we got 50% off our pillows. The best part was that it wasn’t crowded at all! Because we had such a good coupon we looked into a new comforter too, but didn’t find anything we liked. I was surprised to see some brands of bedding were so expensive - one brand had one pillowcase for …. $125.00. Yes, seriously. So that’s $250 for two pillowcases. I can’t imagine how much the duvet cover must have been!

Dan got “quarantined” again yesterday afternoon - this time something big happened at Berri-UQAM metro station and the police had cordoned off big sections with police tape. Eventually they lead him and some other people out from where they were to the platform of the orange line and he was able to get home. Whatever happened messed up the system for hours, so it must have been quite serious.

Kicky has been tickling me a lot lately. Of course she doesn’t care where her feet are pointing when she’s kicking, but it sure makes a difference to me! She is also starting to respond to sound and touch - just this morning Dan rested his head over where hers was and she punched him.

We switched the door position on the fridge this week but the freezer door isn’t closing fully now. Will have to take a closer look later. In the meantime I have put a cloth in the space so the cold air doesn’t come out.

Image from … yes … Cute Overload (don’t ask, it’s a long story)

A strange thing happened this weekend. For the first time since I returned to Montreal on Oct 28th, I actually feel like I caught up with some of the things I needed to get done. It has been and will be be a busy weekend still, but I have been doing things as they come, not catching up on things I should have done three weeks ago.

Tonight is the work Christmas party so in a few minutes I will have to go and try to find something that fits me without looking really bad. Speaking of work, the big changes that were planned are still happening, but my boss has done his best to keep as much in our budget as possible. In the best case it wouldn’t affect what I am working on at all. We will have to wait and see.

I and one of my co-workers will be travelling to France for a week in January to get a hands-on training session with some quantitative PCR people. It will be in Clermont-Ferrand which I visited in 2004. I am really looking forward to meeting with the people there.

Dan is writing a children’s story for his English class and it sounds quite good. It’s about a duck called Isaac. I can’t wait to read the final version!

We went to a concert Thursday night that featured music written by one of his teachers. It was cool stuff. Beforehand we ate at a nearby bar/restaurant which was quite disappointing. After having carbonara sauce in Rome I like to order it when it’s on the menu, but alas, every other time I have had it the cook has no idea how to make it properly. What I had was basically milk thickened with flour and bits of fresh parsley added in. What about the egg and parmesan??? Sheesh. Anyway, during our conversation we started talking about TV shows we watched when we were kids and I told Dan about Reading Rainbow, which he had never seen. The awesome intro is available here for your viewing pleasure.

I have the week off between Christmas and New Year’s day, so there are a few things that we have planned:

• Relax
• Cook Christmas dinner and make anise cookies (half the recipe this year)
• Clean behind / under the stove
• Go to Ikea and get a few things including a changing table / dresser
• Re-arrange living room for crib and dresser
• Organize closet in Dan’s office to store things which are currently sitting in the living room
• Do the filing (which hasn’t been done since August)
• Look through my baby book, albums and photos with Dan (we brought them back from my mom’s place)
• Reverse the doors of the fridge and freezer on our new fridge so they open without hitting my chair
• Scan my mom’s drawings and take photos of her paintings, post on Flickr account
• Fill out and mail forms for cord blood banking for Kicky

We have a new gymnast in town! Taken Monday Dec 4th.

Some interesting facts:

• My waist size is now the same as Dan’s
• Kicky is 20 cm head to bum, not counting those long, strong legs of hers. That’s awfully big if you measure it out in a ruler! She also weights about a pound now, only 5-6 left to gain.
• I have gained a net of 2 pounds so far. Not bad! The doctor thinks this is right on, nothing to worry about either way. Let’s hope the trend continues.
• We will be 23 weeks this week, leaving 17 to go. Yes, if you can believe it, that’s all. Oh crap, it’s too soon!
• She gets the hiccups at least once a week

I finally feel like I have started to catch up on things. There was, believe it or not, some time for relaxing and socializing this weekend. Tony and Julie had a “worst movie ever” contest last night, to which everyone but us dutifully contributed. Everything from ninja cheerleaders, a Vanilla Ice in love movie, to a horrendous bum-shaking dance scende with Jean-Calude van Damme. The winner ended up being Tony’s entry of … yes, you guessed it … the “Star Wars Christmas Special” which nobody associated with the Lucasverse wants to admit even exists. He was able to get a copy off the net that someone videotaped back in 1978. Not only was the movie painful to watch but the commercials were just as bad, with a particular fixation on underwear but in the most embarassing way possible. Did I mention this was the year I was born?? Anyway, it was also great to see people that we hadn’t seen since September, especially since we hadn’t connected in person since we announced our big lifestyle change.

We had freezing rain on Friday night and by 8:00 the power was out in our nighbourhood. I had been nervously anticipating it all day and fretted uselessly that we would be without power for the whole week and that all our food in the freezer would go bad and that Dan wouldn’t be able to do his homework. Well 23 minutes later the power was back on and everything was back to normal. By Saturday morning there was no evidence of a any ice or water in our neighbourhood. Everything that was encased in ice (cars, bicycles, trees, signs) the previous night had been freed. Today it was the first real snowfall and it was warm, windless with big fluffy flakes falling, like how American TV producers imagine winter to look like. It raised my spirits tremendously.

Dan was quarantined for about half an hour this week. It never made the news, but a “white powder” apparently “exploded” at his school on Wednesday and as he was leaving his building he was stopped by a firefigher who said he “may have been contaminated”. In the end I guess they decided it wansn’t something serious and let everyone go.

So we received our new fridge, thanks to our landlord. Dan happened to be home the day of the switch so he was able to clean behind/underneath the old one before plugging the new one in. When I called he answered the phone with a sneeze. Let’s just say he found a nickel from 1964 and it seems there is a good chance it has been there since then. The new fridge is really low and the fridge part is a bit small. Also the doors open the opposite way which means it hits my chair. But they are reversible, so we will switch at Christmas. And instead of being a “disposable Danby” it seems to be a quite decent quality fridge. It’s even staineless steel! Now we have tons of freezer space.

Kicky now has a gallery. More will be added later.