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Evelyn is now 5 months old and as amazing as ever. She is VERY close to learning how to crawl. For the longest time she just stuck her legs out behind her when she was on her tummy but today she bent her left leg and tried to push off the ground. Unfortunately she was on our wood floor and didn’t move anywhere, but it’s a start!

She’s actually been a bit grouchy this past month. Maybe it was her dislike of the big changes in her environment from the trip, maybe she misses Dan now that I am home again or maybe she’s teething (I can see the teeth moving up her gums but they are not out yet). She went on a “cooing strike” and would only whine and razz. However since Friday last week she has been back to cooing and it’s so nice. She also seems a bit less grouchy and more interested in us, so I think whatever has been bothering her is passing.

She is very good at sitting up and should be able to sit on her own soon. She does very well in the high chair and doesn’t need blankets stuffed in to keep her upright anymore. She really enjoys the books we read to her (right now her top favourite is “The ABC of Canada” which my cousin sent her) but she also really likes the Clifford book we bought with the gift certificate my half-brother gave us. Every night I read her “Pat the Bunny” and she likes the interactivity (patting the bunny etc.)

She sleeps for something like 9-10 hours at night now. I can’t believe how lucky I am. Having a full night’s sleep is such a wonderful thing. The only downside (and believe me I am NOT complaining) is that she doesn’t sleep much during the day. When she gets a bit cranky I take her out for a walk as the weather has been very nice lately. I want to enjoy every minute I can with her outside before it gets cold. I bought a snowsuit this week, as I realised it won’t be long until it’s -25 or colder. I have some winter clothing that my Dad bought that will be good for fall but I knew I needed another layer. It was a bit of a difficult choice trying to decide whether I should get a bunting for the stroller or a snowsuit, but I finally decided on the snowsuit since I can carry her in the sling with it. When it gets very snowy and messy here I don’t think I will be using the stroller too much.

Our friends Joseph and Claudia invited us to a multi-family garage sale this weekend and I bought a little sled, so it will be fun pulling her in that when we go to the grocery store or the park in the winter!

Evelyn has also learned to roll over, much to my chagrin. This means she can roll over in her crib while I am sleeping and I worry that she will fall asleep on her tummy. We have already had a few incidents like that. Those foam blocks you can use to stop your baby from rolling over don’t work AT ALL with her. She either rolls over between them or kicks them out from under herself. The only thing I have found to stop her is her new “sleep sac” which I bought at the consignment store. It is basically a little sleeping bag with an opening for her head and arms. It is designed so that it can’t slip over her head. It has been most useful now that the nights are cooler and she seems to be unable to roll over when she’s in it, so I will continue to use it.

I recently decided that it was time to protect her privacy, so I have blocked the photos of Evelyn that I have on Flickr. Friends and family members will have permission to see them. If you visit this site and I haven’t emailed you yet, just contact me and I will give you instructions on how to access the photos.

It’s really a season of babies! Two of my friends are expecting and one just gave birth to a lovely girl. I also got in touch with many people I knew in High School and most of them have babies too! Cute overload.

It’s inevitable - as soon as you take your baby outside people have one of three reactions.
1. “Oh what a sweet/cute baby!” This is welcome as long as it is within reasonable limits.
2. Annoyance (thinking: “What’s that baby doing here”), but thankfully this is often not vocalized so I can ignore it.
3. Advice, usually unsolicited and unwanted.

It’s the third one that’s really starting to bother me. Sometimes it is well meaning and presented in a friendly and helpful way, but usually it is accusatory. There is one person who lives near us that seems to think she has a right to give a running commentary on what we do with Evelyn and from the look on her face I think she hates me (or maybe all of us) with a passion. Ok strangers, guess what. I don’t really care what you think. Unless I am doing something patently dangerous or stupid, please hold your tongue. You have no right to interfere and criticize. And if you do see something that you’re genuinely worried about, don’t be hostile … try starting with #1!

My mother always made this amazing fruitcake for as long as I can remember. I don’t know where she got it from (likely a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook) but it is really delicious. Most people think fruitcake is dry and flavourless, and frankly most fruitcake is. This recipe, however, avoids the problem by adding brandy to the cake and by baking it with water in the oven. With Dan’s prompting, we made the recipe for the first time this year and it turned out very good. There was half a fruitcake left in my mother’s refrigerator so we kept some to compare the two. The only difference was that my cake was too young (it should sit in the brandy longer) and the mace was a bit stronger because I could only find dried mace flower and I ground it myself.
Here is the recipe, as my mother wrote it to me in an email about a year ago.

1981 Medium Dark Fruitcake

Fruit mixture
2 pounds (4 cups) mixed candied fruit, half red cherries, half green cherries, citron peel (your choice) - cut cherries in half
4 cups raisins, seedless, half dark and half golden
1 cup brandy
1 cup blanched whole almonds
1 cup chopped pecans or pecan halves
1/2 cup flour
Batter
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
5 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups alll purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon EACH cinnamon, allspice and mace
1/2 cup strawberry jam

Mix candied fruit and raisins in very large bowl or container. Pour over brandy and let mixture stand at least two hours, or overnight, or two or three days. Stir once or twice.

Prepare cake pans (use two springform pans of the same size), grease with shortening and cut lining from wax paper, for bottom and sides of pan, 3 layers of wax paper for each pan. Add almonds and pecans to fruit and toss with 1/2 cup of flour. Cream butter with sugar. Add brown sugar and cream thoroughly. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then add flavorings. Combine remaining 1 1/2 cup flour, baking soda and spices. Add to mixture and mix well till evenly blended. Stir in jam. Mix in floured fruit until all is moistened. Spoon into prepared pans and pack smoothly.

Put a pan of water on bottom shelf of oven and bake the cakes at 275F for about 3 1/2 hours (about 4 hours in Calgary) or until cake is firm to touch and skewer in center comes out clean. Cover cake halfway through baking with inverted baking sheet, brown paper or tin foil for 3/4 to 1 hour, this prevents excess drying.

Cool cake 30 minutes before removing from pan. When completely cool, poke many holes with skewer or nut pick through to bottom of cake, on edges and all over cake, drizzle with a couple of tablespoons of brandy, or more - 1/2 cup brandy each cake is not too much.

Have four lots of cheesecloth cut, heat remaining brandy, soak cheesecloth in warm brandy, one piece at a time, wrap around cake, two brandy soaked clothes for each cake. Overwrap in foil, store one week before slicing. For easy thin slices, chill cake. Store in refrigerator, will keep a few years because of the brandy. Makes two cakes.

Ok so those “open pyjamas” I described are actually called Chemisettes. It is very hard to find anything for babies larger than 3 months, but we found a 2 pack at the Gap today which were for 3-6 months and actually look it. We also bought Evelyn some glow in the dark skeleton pyjamas!