Summer is here!!

I can always tell that summer is here when there are so many events and festivals to choose from. This weekend we hit two of them and there were many others we could have gone to. Initially we planned to go to the Greek Day Festival on Saturday, but after a long drive to West Broadway we quickly realized that we must have had the dates mixed up! We pulled over to feed Maddy because by then she was quite hungry and then made our way to the Dragonboat festival. We were planning to go see the races on Sunday (for the finals), it was just as well since we didn't really get to see too many races. It was nice to be at the races again, but a really different feeling when you don't have to race. It's really easy to miss the sport when it is bright and sunny out. I remember kind of enjoying the practices in the rain before, it was like an adventure. Crazy, I know. Well I'd definitely be a 'fair weather' paddler now if I were to return. We saw our old Team Storm, but only a few familiar faces. Mostly, it was fun to see friends who still paddle and to hang out with them for a little bit. Maddy loved to be in the crowds, so many people for her to watch!

Posing for photos with Ed and Liezel



On Sunday we tried for the Greek Day Festival again and we were much luckier! We got there early and the street was not too crowded. We had some yummy souvlaki and those greek donut hole things (sorry I don't the name). It was really nice to be out in the sunshine again. Maddy got to see bubbles for the first time, but we're not sure if she really like them. They had dancing, music and lots of food. It was a great family event and they had lots of activities for young kids. It'll be fun to go back next year when Maddy can get in there and play some more!

"Give me 5 more seconds and this will be in my mouth."

"Aww, c'mon mom, this is embarassing!"

An Awesome Birthday

I had a great birthday and really couldn't ask for anything more. It started off with Josh surprising me in the morning with balloons everywhere. Our usual routine is to get up at 7:00 and he goes to get Maddy and brings her to our room for feeding. Today I was still trying to savour the last minute of sleep when he brought her in. I opened my eyes and there were balloons stuck to the walls all around the room!! I was quite fun. Maddy was SOOOOO intrigued by the balloons that she forgot all about how hungry she was. It was so cool to see her discover balloons for the first time. I think she is still a little wary of them but she wants so badly to play with them.

Maddy and I went to Mother Goose in morning and she had a great time. She woke from her nap earlier than usual but I hoped that she would make up the time in her afternoon nap. It was so nice to be outside in the warm weather while she napped before Mother Goose. It got quite hot and finally it felt like summer again. After Mother Goose and lunch she went down for her second nap, but it didn't last as long as I had hoped. Change of plans!! I packed up some toys, some watermelon and a blanket and we spent some of the afternoon under a tree at the park across the street. Since she had so little sleep I was praying that she'd go down for a cat nap. The deal was, if she did, we could go out for dinner. If not, then she'd have to go to bed early so it'd have to be take out. She's been fighting this nap for the last little while, but maybe she knew it was mommy's birthday because she went down with little fussing. Yippppeeee!

I called Josh and told him the good news and he came home early. We went to my favourite Shanghai restaurant for noodles and potstickers. YUM!! What a great day! Thank you to everyone for all the birthday calls, emails and Facebook messages. It was a wonderful day.

"Swim so wild and you swim so free"...

Ok, so maybe she doesn't swim so 'free', but she sure is cute!

Yesterday Maddy and I went to the Aquarium to see the new baby beluga. For Christmas my brother in-law, Philip, gave me a membership to the Aquarium and it has become a great place to take Maddy when the weather is not so great. (There are only so many times you can hang out at the mall without going crazy). We've been a couple of times and mostly we just camp out in front of the beluga tank while I feed her. Well, not this time!! I have to say that I was really impressed with all the efforts they are doing to care for the baby beluga.

You have to line up to go into the downstairs viewing area. The line up wasn't too bad, I'd say we waited about 15 mins. When you get down there, you are not supposed to speak, and if you have to you are asked to whisper. They ask you to turn the flash off your camera and even ask you to take a test shot before going through the curtains to the viewing area. At the first window, there is a staff member who gives you facts about the birth and how mom and baby are doing. The whole time, there are other Aquarium staff members who are watching and recording every move mom and baby make. After a short time at the first window, they move the group (about 30 people) to the second viewing window. Here, you can ask questions if you have any. While we were at the second window the baby went to nurse from the mother. It was really neat to see and I even learned that the nursing is less of the baby sucking milk, but more about the mother squirting milk into the baby when she is latched on! While we were there you could here the staff reporting every move, including every time the baby nursed. "That was 20 seconds on the left side". It's nice to know that they are really doing everything they can to give the baby the best chance for survival.

Here is a shot of the baby nursing.


Understandably, the Aquarium was really busy, so when Maddy fell asleep I decided to go for a walk around Stanley Park instead of cruising around the Aquarium like I usually do. I found myself at the petting zoo and I decided to go in and 'surprise' Maddy when she woke up. At first I was quite excited and I couldn't wait for her to wake up, but the longer I was in there, the worse I felt for the poor animals. :) The poor things have so little room in there. There were some pigs that were in the same pen as two donkeys. Upon closer inspection, the pig was eating the donkey's poo!! Do pigs eat poo?!?! To top it off, he got really mean and vicious when the donkey tired to get in on some of the poo action. "Easy there big fella, there's plenty of poo for everything!"

"Please sir, may I have some more (poo)?"

When Maddy woke I took out of the stroller to see all the animals we read about in her "On the Farm" book. I think that she was a little grumpy or groggy because she wasn't impressed and didn't really like it. Maybe it was the hairy chickens that freaked her out. I have to admit they were a little scary looking! She warmed up a bit near the end, but we didn't stay long.

The hairy chicken

As the school year comes to an end, it's dawning on me that my year 'off' with Maddy is quickly coming to an end. I want to spend the next two months doing a lot of stuff like today to really enjoy every minute of it. If anyone has any ideas for other field trips I'd love to hear from you! If only the weather would cooperate!

Father's Day Camping Trip

So many new fun things this weekend, I don't know where to begin.

I guess I'll start with the newest addition to the Blommestein family. Our Westfalia Vanagon! We really loved the Westy on our trip to Hawaii so we've (read: Josh) has been searching Craiglist for the perfect one for us. After what seemed like a long time, our little Westy is finally home. It sleeps four, has a sink, fridge and stove and will be our home away from home for the next little while. We're hoping that we can take it on weekend trips around to different parts of BC and when the kids are older we can do longer road trips.



We decided to take this weekend to do our first trip in the Westy. A perfect way to spend Josh's first Father's day. Since we had a Father's day brunch with the Lee-Youngs on Saturday we decided to head out right after. Maddy fell asleep by the time we hit the highway so it was perfect. We camped at Nairn Falls Provincial Park. It's just 22 km north of Whistler. It was a great a place to camp and I noticed that camping season is already well on it's way. We made a pit stop at Alice Lake to feed Maddy and those campsites were fully booked. We had a great campsite, it was the last one by the river's edge, so we had a built in noise machine for Maddy! By the time we arrived it was already 5:30, but all we had to do was pop up the roof and our 'tent' was set up. I made our very first meal, macaroni and cheese with ham and corn, and it was just as easy as making it at home. Maddy was very good. She sat in her carseat while I did the dishes and Josh set up her crib and our bed.



We tucked in for the night when Maddy went to sleep, so it was an early night for us. It was really cosy as we read in bed while she slept. She woke up crying a couple of times, once for her usual dream feed, but another time around midnight. We think she was scared because it was so dark, so we turned on the headlamp and she seemed to fine for the rest of the night. The next morning when we peered over the side of the crib, she was smiling up at us just like at home. We made it through the night!! After breakfast we packed up and drove to Whistler for the day. It was a beautiful and we just walked around the village and watched the mountain bikers come down the course. It wasn't as busy as I thought it would be since it was Father's day.



For Josh's first Father's day, Maddy and I used iPhoto to make him a book filled with pictures of the two of them. I think Maddy was definitely 'in' on the secret present because when she woke she didn't seem as eager to eat as usual. Normally the minute she sees me, she has only one thing on her mind, 'MILK!' She was quite calm, so we gave Josh his present before breakfast.

It was a really short trip, but a great way to celebrate Father's day and break in our new Westy. We hope all the dads out there had a great Father's day.

Proud Parents

So it's a little unorthodox to comment so much on this topic but today we're soooo proud of Maddy. Over the course of the day, she not only had her usually poop on the potty, but she also peed in the potty FIVE times!! Ok, enough on the topic. We're done. Yay Maddy!!!

Baby Shower for the LeWongs

On Sunday we co-hosted a Jack and Jill baby shower for Patrick and Louanne who are expecting mid July. It's amazing how quickly the time has flown by since we found out they were pregnant. Louanne looks amazing and said that she is just beginning to feel the awkwardness of carrying the extra weight. I think she looks fantastic.

The shower was held at Yvette and Brian's house (thanks, you guys for hosting) and like most of our get togethers now, there were lots of babies/toddlers. Liezel and Ed organzied all the food and it was sooooo good. (We both went home and didn't even bother with dinner :) We played a game where Louanne and Patrick had to match childhood stories from their guests to the correct person. I must say that I was really impressed with how many they got right. It was fun for us too because people were encouraged not to tell anyone else at the shower their story, so we could play along and make our own guesses.



It was a very nice afternoon with friends and we wish Louanne and Patrick the best of luck as they embark on this new journey. We look forward to playing with Maddy's new girlfriend. For now, get lots of rest and enjoy each other's company until 'Poupoune' arrives!

I'm a Big Kid Now!!!

When I was pregnant, Josh and I went to a friend's house for dinner. After dinner our friend took their 8 month old son to the toilet, made a noise and the baby pooped in the toilet. I was amazed!! They said that it was much cleaner and that their sister-in-law had taught them how to do it. I made a mental note about how great it would be to not have to clean poopy diapers, especially when the baby is eating solid foods.

After Maddy was born I heard about the idea of 'elimination communication' through a parenting group. Many people dismissed the idea because they said that it was more about training the parents than it was about potty training the baby. Recently, Sandra told us that they were going to try it with their 3 month old daughter. After hearing about her success and how it wasn't too hard, I decided to get a book and give it a try. The book was really interesting and it made some points that really made sense to me. It talked about how babies, like all mammals, are born with the instinct to not soil themselves, but we train them to poop and pee in the diaper. They soon learn that (in the diaper) is where you are supposed to go. They also forget how it feels to hold and relax the muscles down south at the appropriate times, and that is what potty training is all about. So the idea with EC is to not let the baby forget what it feels like the do their business without a diaper on.

We started with Maddy about a month and a half ago when she started solids. My goal was only to catch the poops. All we did was to give her some 'diaper free' time and watch her. (Since we use cloth diapers, we were already doing this each day because the cloth diapers do not keep her skin as dry as a diaposable.) If during this time, she peed or pooped we would say a cue word so that she'd learn to associate the sensation of going with the cue word. When we thought she had made the association we started to put her on the potty each time we changed her diaper. After that she just did it. The more she pooped on the potty, the more she started to prefer it. I now think that she waits until she is on the potty to do the #2! :) We are at the point now where she has more poop hits than misses and she even get a few pees in there too. For me, I'm really happy to not clean poopy butts and cloth diapers AND I just think she looks so darn cute on sitting on the potty!


Here she is today. We had pictures from before, but she's just learned how to sit on her own for short periods of time so we don't have to hold on the potty anymore. Monkey, Froggy or Bunny usually keep her company.

Pearly Whites

I'm so excited to report that Maddy has cut her first two teeth. I didn't really notice too much of a difference but perhaps they've been coming in slowly. On the drive back from Revelstoke I could feel the one on the right and today we can feel both of her bottom front teeth. Maybe that is what her bit of fussiness was all about. If the rest of her teeth come in like this, we'll be the luckiest parents ever! Somehow I don't think that'll happen, but I'm very grateful for the way these ones came. I'm still trying to get a picture and I'll post it when we can. She usually gets all serious when the camera comes out so it may take a while. I think I'll have to hold some food out in front of her so that she'll open wide!!


This was the best picture I could get. They look a lot bigger in real life, but maybe that's just because I'm the one who is still nursing her :)

Free at last!!!

This weekend we went to Revelstoke to celebrate a very important milestone. Josh's dad, Herman, retired from working at the BC Hydro Dam. They had a beautiful retirement dinner for Herman and two other co-workers. It was really nice to go and listen to all the nice stories about dad and enjoy a nice dinner. Some of his co-workers sang a song for Herman and you really had to be there to enjoy it. I wish we had our little camera with the video option, but hopefully they'll be able to get the lyrics. They really put in a lot of effort and it was truly touching.



We also had a great weekend visiting with the Blommesteins again. It was nice to have everyone together and it felt just like Christmas with the Mickey and Friends Christmas Carols playing in the background (our nephew Kaes loves that CD)! It was also really nice to see Kaes and Maddy together. It was great to hear Kaes call Maddy's name and it's hard to believe that come Christmas, they'll be able to 'play' together.



The weekend was over way too quickly but we were so happy to be able to share in the celebration. Congratulations dad, what an accomplishment! Since Maddy arrived, Josh and I have longed for "Freedom 35" but somehow without the help of the lottery, I don't think that'll happen! Enjoy every moment of your new freedom.