Ok, so it seems like not that long ago I was writing about how Victor had just turned 4 months old, and now here we are, at 5 months! Time might be speeding up a little bit (or maybe it's just me feeling too busy and less organized...) Regardless, I figured I'd better update before I forget everything that has gone on in my little bébé's life in the last month.

So here we go:

*First off, the feeding/sleeping report: He's been doing great in the sleep department, he has slept through the night about 4-5 times (meaning he slept for around 6 hours or more...he once slept from 10:00pm to 6:00am!), but usually stays down for 3-4 hours at night. During the day it's still pretty unpredictable, he'll usually go down once in the morning for a little bit (after his morning workout in the JJ), and then in the afternoon and evening he'll probably have 1-3 naps of at least an hour. It's only been very recently that he's been getting harder to put down, for awhile there it was super easy, just a bit of rocking and then putting him in his crib, still awake in many cases. As for eating, he has been doing really well too, we're pretty much set on a 3-4 hour eating schedule (longer at night sometimes or if we're busy), and he has gotten super quick, he can finish in about 10 mins. Still using the shield, but I've pretty much given up on the idea of not using it. We're still exclusively breastfeeding, but will probably consider starting solids soon. All in all no complaints!

*Of course he's still not sitting on his own, so we bought him a 2nd hand Bumbo from a friend and he loves it! It's very handy to have, it allows him to sit and watch us as we eat supper or as I fold laundry (and it's a nice break for us too). Although he can't sit on his own yet, he definitely can move! Especially when he sleeps, we put him down with his head at one end of the crib and when we go to get him, he's completely flipped around to the other side, he spins himself around with his feet without any problems. He can roll from back to side easily and from tummy to back sometimes, but still not back to tummy. He LOVES to stand; in fact, I would say that he's standing at least half of the time he's awake (on our laps or wherever). His legs are crazy strong, people say he'll walk early...I'm in no rush for him to move though! When he's on his tummy he can hold his head quite high, it's quite cute, but he doesn't like being on his tummy for more than a few minutes at a time (this will probably be the case until he can roll).

*As you can see above, he has found his feet and finds them quite yummy :)

*He still enjoys the Jolly Jumper, looking in the mirror, being tickled and held, as well as all his usual games, but most of the time he just really likes to chew on things. Everything goes straight into his mouth! His motor skills are getting quite good (especially his grabbing/grasping/hand coordination), so we have to be careful at what he's grabbing at now. He's recently gotten into grabbing our faces, which sounds cute but actually hurts a lot of the time! He has a set of plastic keys that we got from a co-worker, these are by far his favourite chewing item as of late, but he'll take anything.

*Another 'game' he likes to play now is to sit in his Bumbo with a bowl of his toys next to him and pull them all out (which apparently is a skill he shouldn't have until 8-9 months, but who knows...) I try to let him play with whatever's around (as long as it's safe) so that he experiences objects other than his toys (my bead necklaces, a watter bottle, the remote control, yarn...)

*Recently we've re-discovered his little swing, which is good, it's a nice calming thing for him to do. I like the idea of not using items for awhile and then pulling them out later, I think he gets bored of using and playing with the same things all the time (like we all do).

*He drools. Oh my does he drool. No teeth yet though.

*Cloth diapering is still going really well, despite him being a bit more frequent with his 'morning surprises', ha!

*In the past couple of weeks he has found his 'skriek-ey' voice and uses it often. He squeals and screams quite loudly, even though he's not upset. He makes many noises and 'talks' with people, it's really fun (even though the screech-owl routine can get old pretty quick).

*Weight and Height: Will find out at his needles on Tuesday.

*He went through through a little 'stranger danger' phase, in which he became afraid of new people (and even people he knew like my parents), and would scream and cry if they came near him. Luckily I think it's mostly over, but at the same time I don't think he could just be held by anyone, he's wary (I guess that means he's attached to us, which isn't a bad thing.) It was kind of hard to have him scream at people like that though.

*It's sad to say, but my little rocker baby been losing his hair quite a bit in the last month, it's very very thin all around except for one strip on the top of his head, and it will probably fall out at some point too :( It makes me sad, I love his hair and am very careful not to rub his hair when he takes a bath or when we put clothing on him but he has cradle cap and it's been causing a lot of it to fall out. I just hope that it grows back soon! His skin is still so-so, he had some bad breakouts but it's mostly under control (with his parents I don't expect him to ever have good skin, honestly, ha!)

*He smiles every time he sees either me or Dan. Every single time. And I never ever get tired of it.

*Overall, July was a great month for us and for Victor, he handled the heat like a champ, learned new things, improved on skills he already had, and in a way, really seemed to go from an infant to a baby in my eyes. I looked at him often in the last few weeks and thought 'my, how he has gotten big/old'. It's the first month that I've thought that.

Sorry for the lack of good photos, I haven't done a 'proper' photoshoot with him since he was 3 months old, I really must get out and do one soon, I'm not taking enough pictures of my own baby it seems!

I can only imagine the changes that will be coming in the next month; he'll be getting more needles (boo), we might start solids, we're travelling on a plane for the first time, sitting, hopefully getting into the water more...it's going to be a busy and exciting 6th month of life for this little guy! It's been a wonderful trip to far though :)

Oh, and I need to work on his baby book. BAD.

Until next month,

G.

PS-The baby in the pics with Victor is Eli, my friend Sara's little guy, he's 7 months old...also, I made that owl blanket they are playing on :)

Summertime and the livin' is easy (and the bloggin' is lazy...)

Oh my word sometimes I hate technology...I spent 45 mins earlier this afternoon writing out this blog post and then when I hit Publish, an error came up and I lost it all!! Turns out it wasn't autosaving either. Eventually I'll smarten up and either switch to Typepad or write out my posts in notepad (like I'm doing now), and then copy it all over, that way I'll have it if something stupid happens like this again. Ugh. Anyway...

So I've been meaning to blog all week, I don't know how many times I said to myself that I needed to blog, but every time I sat down something either came up or I lost my motivation completely. I can't wait for the day when I'll be able to just talk to the computer and it will write out all my blog posts, and format them, and upload the appropriate pics to go with it, haha...but until then, here is a (somewhat) abbreviated verion of what's going on around here. Since I can't think of all the little mini posts I meant to write, I'll just go ahead and write out random points, pêle mêle style.

*Things have been going great overall around here, the summer just seems to be passing us by in some sort of blur, I seriously can't believe it's almost August! We survived the first heat wave (barely), and now we're waiting for the second. I've been enjoying any rainy and cool day I can get, but so far there haven't been too too many. There are no complaints from me this year about the summer weather, it's been good! I still can't wait for fall though...

*In exactly one month from today I will be flying across the country with the bébé to British Columbia to see my friend Heather get married! It's exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time (exciting to see my friend after a year and a half apart, nerve-wracking to fly alone with a 6 month old...) To those who have travelled with infants before, what are you tips? What to bring, what to do, how to handle strangers giving your pity/disgust looks?

*I'm not sure what we are filling our days with that is making time go by so quickly, our usual routine involves staying at home most days with a few occasional outing thrown in here and there. And yet, the past month I've felt quite busy and tired...I think it's all the extra "non mama" stuff that I'm doing, mainly photography and running.

*Speaking of photography, things are going great! For the past 6-8 weeks or so, I've had at least one shoot a week, and a couple of weeks I've had 2 sessions a week (which is my self imposed maximum at this point). I've been having a lot of fun and people so far have responded positively, so it's been really good. I'm still determined to learn from each shoot and try to improve with each shoot, because I know I'm still a LOOOONG way away from being where I want to be. But I'm discovering what I like and don't like, my 'style', my strengths and weaknesses, so these early days are still quite important for me. I'll try to blog more about this soon :)

*As for my other 'hobby', running...ugh. I'm still currently training for a 4 person marathon relay in October with 3 friends, and while I do enjoy the social aspect of getting out of the house, the running itself I could totally do without! I feel good while I'm doing it, but every second before and after are just terrible it seems. I also think that it's just a lot for me to take on at this point; we train together twice a week and then have 2 homework runs that we have to do on our own, so it's 4 days a week, which is a lot once you tack on a shoot or two, I'm out almost every evening. But I said I would be a part of the team so I will continue, but I'm really not sure if running will be my main source of exercise anymore, I need something new. But what?

*Creatively, I've gotten a few things done this past month, the most important being my vacation photobook and my A Week in the Life album. That's right, I'm done the album! I finished it last night, I only have one thing left to do (if I want, the inside of the album itself could be lined with cardstock...) I took pics of the album yesterday but didn't upload them yet, I hope to blog about it soon. I'm really happy that these 2 major projects are done, now I can get back to regular scrapping, I've missed it!

*Victor is doing really well, I can't believe that in a few days he will be 5 months old! I'll do a proper post on him with his monthly update, but so far he just keeps getting better and better every month, but at the same time I'm really starting to notice how old and big he is getting, and I'm starting to miss the tiny little baby he used to be (it had to happen at some point I guess!)

*Last Saturday we went to my sister's for the afternoon to hang out in her backyard. They have such a nice set up out there; there is a river that runs along the back part of their property, and there is a little beach down off the yard, under the shade of the trees, it's the perfect spot to put a few chairs and enjoy the water. They set up a hammock and a little raft to float in, it was just perfect. Victor enjoyed swinging in the hammock and then taking a snooze down on the bank of the river (in a laundry basket no less!), Dan and Steve enjoyed playing guitar, and I enjoyed taking some pics.

Here are a few (please excuse the quality on some, I've been inspired by Kara to shoot all my at-home pics in Manual mode from now on, I really need to get the hang of it!)

      

*Daphné also got her 10 little babies last week, they are sooo cute (though we can't get too attached to them, they are Meat Kings and not egg layers, after all...) She's got her own little hobby farm out there, it's so cool!

Well that's all for now, I'm sure there's more but like I said above, there are several posts I want to write out soon, including some online lovelies I've been eyeing lately, Victor's 5 month update and my A Week in the Life album, so hopefully I get the chance...

Dan is heading off to his high school reunion tomorrow (10 years, eek!), so while he's off doing that I'll be heading to my friend's house to have a little kiddie pool party (yay!) Then next week my sister and I (and Victor of course) may be going to our grand mama's house to visit for a few days, so I may not be around for a bit, but I hope to get back soon, I really hate it when my mind piles up with back-logged blog posts (yes, sometimes I think in terms of blog posts, after nearly 4 years that's just the way it is!)

I hope you all have a great, sunny and happy weekend. Any big plans?
G.

Blogging elsewhere...

I blogged last night about this wonderful guy over on my other pic-chah blog in case you're interested (I have been around, just not here!) 

[Click on the link or hit the "Press the Shutter" button in the sidear to see -->]

Be back later this weekend I hope, today I'm going over to my sister's to see her 10 new baby chicks! Some photos with Victor will definitely be in order :)

Happy sunny Saturday to you,
G.

Victor's Room (The details)

(Thrifted chalkboard with cute postcard from my friend Anna.  Hanging on Victor's door.)

So I've been saying for awhile now that I was going to post pictures of Victor's nursery, but I just haven't gotten around to taking any good pictures of the room yet (I tried once with my mom's camera but they were awful so I'm going to re-take them.)  And while these pictures aren't the best either, it's the best I can come up with for now so they will have to do :)

I wrote about my 'vision' for Victor's room before he was born back in November, and while the room of course didn't turn out exactly the way I had imagined, overall I'm quite happy with it.  Not knowing the shape/size of the room before making the plans made it a bit harder, but I worked with what I had and with what little money I had to spend (I basically got everything in the room from 1 of 4 places: Etsy, Dollarama, Wal-Mart and thrifted/gifted).

So without further ado, here are some close-ups of the room, full shots to come soon I hope!

1. The dresser: I got this awesome art-deco dresser off Kijiji for 80$, I love it and will eventually move it into our room once I re-do Victor's kid-size room in our [eventual] house.  I considered putting a change pad on the top but I figured it wasn't wide enough with the mirror and besides, we change him either on our bed or the couch anyway, so we didn't really need a change station.  Instead I keep a little wooden box I tole-painted (remember tole painting?!) with all his toiletry-type items in it, along with some other little decorations.  It works out really well actually because he loves sitting/standing on the dresser and looking at all the pretties on top and in the mirror.  The llama is real alpaca wool and was a gift from my sister, along with the Baby Blessing candle.  The touch lamp I actually got at a local home-depot type store I think for about 20$.  The print is Ashely g, the little ceramic owl is thrifted and spray painted, the leaf 'soother buffet' dish is thrifted, the black rosary hanging from the mirror is from my trip to Spain in '05 and the rosary in the little heart on the dresser (pink, ha!) is from my trip Italy last August, the picture frame from Wal-Mart and the "joy" ornament is a gift (I need to put a pic in there!)   

(Another view of the dresser from the door, along with the only window.  The curtain panel was thrifted a long time ago and the hanging owls were a gift from my friend Heather. I added them to an already existing mobile-type thing I made a couple of years ago, I need to take a better shot of it.)

2. Chair: Right next to the dresser is this chair, which Heather and I thrifted a couple of years ago (it was hers but she gave it to me when she moved.)  I wanted originally to have a glider or something in the room, but there's just not enough space, and this chair is actually just the right proportion for the room.  Heather had re-covered it in this blue flower fabric and I had been meaning to re-upholster it for a long time, but I find it suits the room now so I decided to keep it.  I recently took out some books and put them near the chair, so this is now our little reading area.

3.Crib/Mobile: I had the hardest time picking out a crib; I wasn't sure if I wanted white or dark wood, and whether I really wanted to spend a bunch of money on it or not.  In the end I went with the cheap white one from Wal-Mart :)  I actually like it though, it's super simple with clean lines and looks a lot like the Gulliver crib from Ikea, which was a close 2nd choice.  It also pops against the green accent wall.  Anyway, I knew I wanted to put some pom poms over the crib instead of a mobile (inspired by Ashley from Under the Sycamore, check out her blog, it's awesome!), so I bought a set of 3 from an Etsy shop...the colours are WAY off from the colours I had in mind (the neon yellow is supposed to be the same colour as the wall and the teal one the same colour as the owl on the dresser), but it was too late so I used 'em anyway, they're cute.  The Chinese lanterns are from the Dollarama, I stuck some scrapbook paper to the bottoms to cover up the cardboard.  I'm thinking I'd like to string a few paper chains down and around the poms, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

(White fuzzy 'Yeti' fur rug in front of the crib from Wal-Mart)

(Birth announcement print hanging next to crib, from Etsy)

4. Shelving:  On the long wall of the room (opposite wall from the window), I have a 7ft long low-lying shelf (it was actually the top part of a sideboard I had thrifted last year).  There I keep all of Victor's cloth diapers, blankets, bibs, receiving blankets, toys, books, basically everything non-clothes related.  I wasn't able to get any pictures of the entire thing, but I will get some soon and post.  Above the shelf is a big collage of frames/photos/mirrors, etc, which I'll also have to take a pic of soon.

(The shelf-I keep a pillow on top in case I want to nurse in the chair, and Victor's baby book is in the foreground displayed on a metal easel I got from Dollarama.  The little wooden car was hand carved and given to me as a present.)

(These buckets hold Victor's bibs and his hats.  They're also from the Dollarama.  The little clip on chalkboards were another gift from my friend Anna, she got them from a cool paper store, they're so cute, I have them all over the room! And of course Bill, Victor's newborn buddy.)

And, because I'm such a huge nerd and bored on this Monday night, here's a layout sketch of his room:                  

So that's that.  I'll post some full pictures of the room as soon as I remember to get my mom's camera again (and use the settings properly!)

Hope you enjoyed the little tour,

G.

Jolly Jumper Lover

Victor has been using the Jolly Jumper since he was about 2 months old (since he could hold his head steady enough basically), but it has only been in the last month or so that he has really started getting into it.  Compare the videos below and you'll see what I mean.  The first was taken when he was 3 months old (12 Weeks) and he basically just hung there and occasionally stiffened his body...then check out the next video taken this week at 4 months old (18.5 Weeks) and see the difference!  He looooves it now and can stay in there for 30-45 mins, bouncing and happy the entire time.  He goes in it at least once a day (usually first thing in the morning, we call it his 'morning workout'), but he's usually up for it at any time of day. 

Whoever invented the Jolly Jumper is a genius.

(PS-Sorry for the crappy video quality, these were taken on my cell phone, I really need to get some sort of cheap point and shoot that takes videos.)

Happy rainy Sunday to you, be back soon!
G.

Ways to keep cool...

We, like most other people it seems, are suffering through this terrible heat wave, and let me tell you, living in an old Victorian upstairs flat with windows that DO NOT open is making it even harder!  So we're trying to find ways to keep cool, such as:

*Fans-which don't do a whole heck of a lot, but it's something
*Hanging old, ugly, holey curtains that were being saved for broadcloth in the living room because they are red and block out the sunlight
*Iced coffees.  SO MANY ICED COFFEES.
*Escaping to the parents' house or Wal Mart...anywhere with air conditioning
*Cold washcloth "hats" (see above)
*Dressing in as little as possible
*Closing off the back part of our house and hanging out in our bedroom where it's coolest (I even moved the rocking chair in there from the living room)
*Hopefully buying a kiddie pool soon to dip our feet (and the baby) in...

It's still pretty miserable though.

How are you all beating the heat?  Are you one of the lucky ones with AC?

Magic.

From the session I had last night with my sister and her husband.  The light was INSANE.  And the couple was beautiful :)

Happy Sunday.

26. I'm afraid of being in wide open spaces, especially in the dark.
27. Actually, I'm kind of afraid of the dark in general.
28. I've had my heart broken once and never want to go through that pain again.
29. I have one sister, Daphné, and we're 18 months apart.  We've gotten along great all our lives except for one period from about age 14 to 19 or so (just teenagers I guess).
30. I only have 2 grandmothers left, but am only close to one (we're estranged from the other).
31. I have Marfan Syndrome, though it's very mild and we mostly just joke about it.
32. My first trip on a plane was from Montreal to Cancun when I was 8.
33. I have flown quite a bit but dislike it.
34. I always eat the caramel off the top of Mars bars before the nougat part.
35. I have little sympathy for hypochondriacs and people who are 'tired all the time'...get over it.
36. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a writer or an artist when I grew up.
37. When I was in high school, I wanted to be a translator when I grew up.
38. Now, I want to be a photographer and stay at home mom when I grow up.
39. I cannot understand (nor do I want to understand) philosophy, I just can't wrap my brain around it and find it to be a waste of time.
40. I'm a history nerd, but mostly only about Europe.
41. I am a Christian but have always been curious about Wiccans and their beliefs.
42. For the longest time, Braveheart was my favourite movie. Now I have a few, but they change frequently.
43. Dan and I have only gone swimming together maybe 5-6 times in the 7 years we've been together.

44. I speak English and French, used to be able to speak Spanish fairly well, and studied 3 years of German. I'd like to learn Gaelic and Croatian.

45. I used to not eat anything 'red' (meaning strawberries, raspberries, berry-flavoured drinks or candies), but now I do (even though I don't like berry or fruit punch).

46. I love Thai food and sushi, but am also not ashamed to say I like or eat Mcdonald's.

47. I ran a 10km in 2007 and am currently training for a 4-person marathon relay in October...but I don't like running all that much.

48. My favourite holiday is Halloween, though I hardly ever do anything on the actual day (hoping that will change this year with Victor).

49. I'm currently a bit obsessed with Henry VIII and the show "The Tudors".
50. I really love seafood but only kind of like fish.
51. I've stepped my toes in the Atlantic Ocean (from both sides), Pacific Ocean, Adriatic Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Mediterranean Sea.

Happy Saturday, and happy long weekend to all the Americans! :)

Until next time,
G.

Coupla layouts...

Besides the A Week in the Life album I'm still working on (well, kind of working on...), I've scrapped a few layouts to go into Victor's album. My mom and I are combining our pages to put into one album that we ordered, we're just waiting for it to arrive at the local scrap store.  Anyway, here are a few I've done in the past couple of weeks.

This one was based on a sketch, but I can't remember from where...anyway, it was a 'let's throw a bunch of random stuff from my stash on the page' kind of layout, but it worked.  And you can't go wrong with black polka dots.

And here's one I did just a couple of nights ago, based on the latest pencillines sketch.  A different style for me, but I really like it.

Here's the sketch:

As for WITL, I'm still waiting for the collage pages to arrive from scrapbookpictures.com (it's been pver 2 weeks), I feel like the poject has been stalled a bit.  We also ran out of black printer ink so I need to buy more before being able to print the rest of the journaling cards...c'est la vie I suppose, I want to get it done though, so it WILL happen!

Happy scrappy,
G.