Oh, wait! You mean you’re supposed to add content to a blog? Oh crap. Blogging: I’m doing it wrong.
Well, we’re moved. We’re here, we’re in, we are so so so happy to be here. Our house is lovely.
Things I’m not totally fond of:
bathroom lights and plugs not functioning, laundry room lights and plugs not functioning, assorted random electrical outlets in various rooms not working. They all worked during the home inspection, which means that the seller is responsible for paying for the cost of repairs. However, can I just say something? It is crazy annoying to not have lights in your bathroom.
it’s louder than I was expecting. We live on a small cul-de-sac just off a fairly main road. I knew it was a main road. But it’s a also a ambulance, fire truck, and police route, and it’s also downhill from us – thus, all road noise travels up and into our house. Of course, we have all windows open since it’s summah-time here, and did it keep me awake the first night? Yes. Has it kept me awake any other night? No.
our backyard is not fenced and a travelling toddler likes to explore when we’re in the backyard (which is frequent) so I must be constantly vigilant as to his whereabouts, lest he find the holes in the hedge or wander around to the front of the yard or open the gate to the parking space – all of which spill out into the alley.
Things I Love:
No dang strata. I can do whatever I want and I don’t have anyone living above / beside me. I don’t need a key to get into a gate. I don’t have to walk up two flights of stairs to get to my mail box. I don’t have to propose to anyone to do anything to our house.
Living right across the street from a park with a tonne of amenities like a spray park, outdoor pool, playground, bathrooms, playing fields, walking trails.
Backyard Naked Lawnmowing:
Naky!
Having space. Having a room we call “Hobby and Craft Room” where the bikes and sewing machine will live. Having to shop for furniture like SEWING TABLES and BOOKCASES and SUN ROOM FURNITURE. There are not enough hours in the day for all the online browsing I need to do.
Man, there are so many things I want to share these days. So this is a real mixed bag, and lots of photos. I’ll explain as we go.
Back at the beginning of August, we went over to the Island to have a weekend at Mill Bay. Ross’ aunt was generous enough to let us stay with her – she lives in a private little cottage community right on the edge of the water. It was stormy most of the weekend. The reason we were there was to see a long time family friend – Kim – and it was a lovely and relaxing weekend. Kale had a running theme that weekend:
Although they both appear to be incredibly suspicious of me and my camera, and the instant they turn on the cute together, and I whip out a camera, they both flee, and I get blurry pictures. The best pictures are outdoors. I think I need a new camera if my only good shots come from the outside.
Note: isn’t that a sad, sad, sad little playground? One bouncy apparatus and two baby swings. There is also a climbing thing, but its for big kids.
We hit the Island again this past weekend, only this time it was north to Strathcona Park for a wedding. We stopped off at the Parksville Health Unit to say hi to some friends first, and although I’m sure its incredibly illegal of me to post this photo I took inside the building without VIHA’s permission, I’m a rebel and it’s cute. Kale was stunned when I raised up the boom of that little truck.
But the weekend was really about the wedding. So Saturday morning we headed north to Strathcona Park Lodge and the sun came out and the wedding was able to proceed on the beach. Afterward, there was a beachside appie hour and Kale played peekaboo around the benches:
I feel like I am finally coming up for air. I feel like I am finally getting some headway and falling into the routines of my life. The market is winding down and while that means I might need to do some extra shifts at my former full time position, I feel the pull of autumn and winter coming. The air is crisper, and my feet get chilly, and I’ve pulled out the mint tea, the down vest, and Kale’s fleecy. It’s been such a great summer.
We’ve been eating bullet shaped minced potato pieces (IE: knock off brand Tater Tots) lately, and the last of the package was getting a bit freezer burnt tasting. I decided it was high time to try what I consider to be the tomato sin, ketchup.
Now, I’ve hated ketchup a long , long time. Ketchup belongs on hot dogs only (which are already nasty and if you choose to eat a hot dog you might as well add in ketchup), and occasionally fries. But people who slather all of their food in ketchup amaze me – not only are they eating NASTY sugar filled BLECK, but it doesn’t even taste like tomatoes! But Ross likes it, occasionally a guest will request it, and so I begrudgingly keep it in our fridge. When this container is out, I’m planning on making my own so that I can make it less sugar, more tomato.
But to make this container run out, we need to eat it.
And freezer burnt bullet shaped minced potato pieces seem like a good way to try and use up the tomato sin.
And I am super disappointed to report that Kale LOVES ketchup. Ross will be thrilled.
Posted by Jen | Under Daily, Jen, Kale
Monday Aug 24, 2009
Kale was given a sweet little gee-tar for his birthday from his great-grandma. It goes with the awesome drum that his Nana gave him. These two items are some of the more popular items from Kale’s birthday gifts – and get heavy play with regularity. The little song that comes with the guitar, especially, is incredibly catchy and Ross and I both find ourselves humming along and singing the little tune. I often think about the woman who was hired to sing the little jingle, and I think about how many takes she must have had to do to make it suitably cheery for kids but still reasonably authentic, without veering off into Too-Husky-Land.
In any event, my friend Sharon popped by the other day with a gift for Kale, as she hadn’t been able to make it to Kale’s party, and she had also bought the Leapfrog Learn N Groove Guitar, and so last Wednesday, Kale and I headed over to Toys R Us to exchange it.
The third item in the set is a pair of maracas. One of them is empty, and is nothing more than a plastic maraca filled with something rattly, which is awesome in it’s own right. The other one is electronically controlled, and responds to motion to either count, say colours, or play random noises. Kale is pretty happy with the maracas – he likes shaking them and banging them.
I also bought Kale a little present I wasn’t planning on – a present from me to him. I saw it and I remembered this toy from my childhood – maybe it wasn’t my toy, but it was a toy I saw while young and a toy I remember fondly. I’m talking about the Chatter Telephone.
But this isn’t a post about what toys Kale likes. This is a post about packaging: how much and how annoying.
We got home from Toys R Us – and admittedly I don’t often shop there, but it was an exchange so there we were – and Kale was grousing from having been strapped in the car for as long as he had been, and he was careening around the house like he does, anxious to be a part of whatever fun thing I was obviously doing on the table. So it was relatively important that I reward him for being a happy go lucky monkey, and quick-like.
Chatter Telephone: 30 seconds. Slice through one piece of transparent tape. Open box, remove tissue paper. Hand toy to child.
Leapfrog Learn N Groove Maracas: 5 minutes. Slice through five separate pieces of transparent tape. Open box. Slide out cardboard insert. Undo four separate twist ties. Remove plastic wrapped advertising booklet. Remove plastic grommet / brackets from twist ties. Unthread twist ties from maracas. Remove small plastic tab from battery cover of toy. Turn on. Hand toy to child.
Jesus H Christ on a cracker. What is with the packaging? Why was all that necessary? I realize that part of it is for display, so that it doesn’t move and can handle childrens’ fingers poking and prodding. And I realize that some of it is for shipping – China is a long way away by boat and god knows there is a lot of wave turbulence the maracas have to undergo while crossing the Pacific. But seriously… is that much non-recyclable packaging and worse yet, advertising required in my box when I have already given them my money and don’t need to be convinced to buy more? Having been given three separate toys in the last few months made by Leapfrog I can safely say that they are all packaged that way. I’ve only ever purchased the one Fisher Price toy, so I can’t say with certainty that they are all as simply packaged. But I can also safely say that I’m definitely going to make my next toy purchase Fisher Price simply based on the past experience we’ve just gone through.
I have a friend, Harry, who was our photographer at our wedding. Harry is a great photographer, who captures some amazing candid shots at our wedding, including shots like this one:
In any event, Harry took one of the first great pictures of Kale. Like any new parents, Ross and I took about eleventy gazillion photos of Kale when he was nothing more than a blob of baby that did nothing but be cute and lie there and blink at the LIGHTS and the ACTION and the NON-WOMB he was in. Harry took this picture:
Since Kale’s become decidely… mobile, the amount of pictures we take has decreased a hundred fold. Primarly because ever single shot I take is blurry with our ghetto Sony camera. Ross’ work camera, a lovely little point and shoot Nikon, tends to take good pictures, but it goes to work with him and so all the cuteness I try and capture of film every day is blurry. if its not blurry, he is not doing anything especially interesting. A recent outtake:
In any event, my friend Shauna had a photo shoot done with Linda and Wally from WLK Photography a while back, and she told me that Linda and Wally were still looking for subjects to add to their portfolio of baby pictures. While I realize the Canadian Baby company is a pretty popular type of photo for babies, I don’t really care for them. I find their weird props and creepy poses too… adult. Different strokes, different folks and all that. Anyway, so after seeing the nice shots of Bonnie, I contacted Linda and asked about a photo shoot. She was still looking for subjects, so I signed us up for a free shoot and in June, a few weeks before Kale’s first birthday, we had a shoot at one of my very favourite places in New Westminster, the Japanese Friendship Gardens. This is actually one of the places I considered getting married at before we chose to have the wedding on the Island.
In any event, here is my favourite as a result of that shoot:
If there are any photos you’d like a print of, I’m going to be ordering some 4X6s from London Drugs, and a few larger higher quality ones from Wally and Linda. Just let me know if you want me to add something to your order.
And it should be noted that Harry (twitter is @harrypehkonen) is available for hire as s photographer if you need one for an event, and I’ll be asking him to photograph Kale some more sometime soon.
My computer is saved! Sort of anyway. After $500 and a new CPU and a new motherboard and an unnecessary hard drive, my computer and it’s documents have been saved. To celebrate, here is an awesome picture, courtesy of Linda at WLK Photography. We will be back to normal soon.
What I find most amazing about these pictures is not just the growth of Kale, but also how both Ross and I appear to have changed. A baby changing is inevitable, and expected. I think I didn’t consider how much I would change. I’m going to continue to take these pictures every 6 months until Kale is 5, and then every year after that. But here is a year in pictures.
On June 22nd, 2006, my dad passed away after an 18 month battle with prostate cancer. He died peacefully, with dignity, lucid, and happy. He had made peace with both of his children, his wife and two ex-wives (including my mom), and I hope, himself.
Dad and I – he had fallen and bruised badly and was swollen from the cancer drugs. His gums were hurting, too, so he didn’t smile much for this picture. He elected to discontinue cancer treatment at this point, and died a happier man shortly afterward.
Not a day goes by when I do not think of my dad, and how Kale, whose middle name is my father’s, will never know my dad. My dad was not a storybook father. He spent many years as a drunk. He was sometimes emotionally distant and I remember he worked a lot and was not necessarily there for me as a child and teenager. But when he died three years ago, he was my friend, and the past was in the past where it shall forever remain.
My dad had a great sense of humor, was a remarkably good dancer, lived a hard working life, and was respectful of the outdoors, especially the water. The jobs he held at various points in his life amaze me. Some of my fondest memories are either camping or boating. Dad had a heritage of mixed race – he was part Metis and part Caucasian, and as genetics would have it, so are my brother and I.
Jim and I July 8th, 2006 – the day we (and many friends) scattered Dad’s ashes in a special spot Dad had selected himself, off the shores of Nanaimo. You can’t see it, but I’m holding a Lucky Lager. Jim and I felt it was fitting that we buy a case for the boat ride and “pour one out for Dad”. He was a fan of Lucky Lager and it meant something to my brother and I to do this silly act.
A number of years before Dad was even diagnosed with cancer, he and his wife sold everything and retired to Costa Rica. My dad was the happiest I had ever seen him in his entire life, and it is in this frame I have memorized everything about him in my heart. He unexpectedly had to return from Costa Rica when his wife got ill, and it is a testament to his good nature that he simply returned, found a job, and came out of retirement to put food on the significantly more expensive table in Canada.
I miss him every day, but since Kale was born I miss him harder. Sometimes I forget he is gone and I think passingly to myself that I should call him and tell him about whatever milestone Kale has passed and tears well up when the logical part of my brain reminds me that he’s gone. So I tell him with my heart, and know that he’s with us.
PS: Ironically, it is also Mooki’s birthday today. She’s 10. She’s currently snoring on the bed, on Ross’ pillow, as I type this. She looks good for an old lady.
A week ago, I made the comment to Mom that I was trying to blog three times a week. Gone are the days when I could post long diatribes on a daily basis, and quite honestly, I do miss those days. Now, I’m lucky if I can get my three entries for the week sorted out. You may have noticed my last entry was six days ago, so by the power of Math, I think we can safely say that I was unsuccessful in three entries a week. Boo hiss. Also, my friend Melanie recently posted about the idea of Mommy Blogging versus Blogging. Because, well, now that’s what I do – I’m a mom, and I blog, and my life more or less revolves around my kid, so uh.. it makes sense. I knew that I would be a Mommy Blogger when I was pregnant, and when Kale was born, we registered this new domain name and I closed and deleted my old haunts and while there are a few moments of nostalgia here and there (usually for the days when I swore freely on the old blog because I am trying to teach myself not to swear so much), I can’t say I miss those parts of my past.
I find it’s a little bit feast or famine – some days I can sit down at the computer and churn out tonnes of content for both this and the other blog I write at, so much content that I can schedule it’s posting throughout the week and then forget all about it. Other days, I’m lucky if the thought crosses my mind “ooh this would make a good blog entry.”
So what has been goin’ on here at Chez Arbo?
I guess the biggest news is that Kale is standing all by himself. When he is focussed on something (like, for example, holding as many pieces of food in his hands as possible) he forgets that he is supposed to hold onto something and can free-stand! Then he realizes he is supposed to be holding on and onto his butt he falls. But he’s standing!
Today I booked our flights to Calgary for Christmas to visit my brother Jim and his wife Loralie. It’s a good time for us to go – at 18 months, Kale will still be free to fly, and it’s a short enough flight that we deal with whatever his reaction is. Plus, the weather will be awesome – dry and cold and snowy, hopefully, instead of typical Vancouver rainy blah yucky. Jim and Loralie and I talked about booking a night at a rustic cabin (maybe Christmas Eve?) at a nearby ranch for a real “country Christmas”. I’m also going to be able to visit Melanie and meet her A. Door. A. Bull. daughter, Moira, and Ross and I can see our friends Mike and Helen, who were the couple whose wedding we all attended last month. I’d also like to try and see my friend Jennifer and her daughter Jade, as well as a visit up to Carstairs to see Pam, a friend from high school. For 7 days, we will likely be busy with many friends and lots of visiting and I am really looking forward to it.
This past May long weekend, we went to the Island for a planned surprise 60th birthday party for my stepdad, Rick. He was genuinely surprised, and it’s a testament to both my mom and my mother in law that this party happened hitch free. I started planning in back in September, people, but without the Moms, it never would have happened. They were the hostesses with the mostesses and it was all their effort that made me look good. The weather co-operated nicely, Kale was a superstar traveller (which we paid for tenfold last night when there was the TWO DANG HOURS OF SCREECHING AT 1AM – Ugh!), Mooki got a respite weekend at my folks’ place away from Kale, and I got a sunburn. Some pictures:
Mooki “guarding” the picnic table at Mom and Rick’s:
Mooki is not dead, nor is she hunting. She was asleep in the grass with no leash on – a novelty for her since we only have a paved patio for her to sleep on.
My friend Melanie posted a video of her daughter Moira checking out a product called a SnackTrap. It’s pretty entertaining – Moira more or less figures it out but still complains somewhat pitifully to Melanie about it. I bought Kale a similar product a few weeks ago but only introduced it yesterday (Product Review forthcoming). Anyway, Ross took this video of Kale the other day. We bought a new frying pan and of course the funnest thing in the whole world is a new box, so we offered it to him. It was apparently fun for a while, but then it bit him on the head and we fell apart.
I have a hard time not laughing at him.
I also wanted to share this picture of Kale, barefoot, in a t-shirt and shorts. It’s from Monday when it was beautifully warm. We had been outside for almost the entire afternoon and I decided it was time to come in because I was starting to burn. There is something about this picture I really, really like.
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