top 10 of 2010.

I'm jumping on the mama blogger bandwagon and posting my top 10 pictures from 2010. There were so many to choose from! I decided to narrow my selection by only posting pictures that I took on my DSLR (and not my iPhone...I could make a top 100 with that).

Sorting through all of the photo's we have told me a couple of things:

1. My photography skills have drastically improved in the past 8 months
2. We should have got professional newborn photo's done (because almost every picture we took was blurry....kind of like our lives at that point)
3. Kale seriously needs a haircut

In no particular order, here they are:

 

Usually I do a quick edit of the photo's that I post on here with Lightroom 3, but this one is completely untouched. His eyes are seriously that blue. I used to be a total sucker for brown eyes, but this kid changed that the first time he looked at me. Everyone warned me that his eyes would change colour, but so far they're still a brilliant blue. They also told me all his hair would fall out. Obviously people have no idea what they're talking about.

My three boys. It's a miracle I got this shot considering our cat still keeps a good distance from Kale, but everyone was post-nap and I managed to sneak this one in. I honestly can't tell even convey how much my heart swells when I look at this. Seriously. It's swelling. Right. Now. 

This is Kale when he was just a couple days old after his first bath. Kale clearly was not a fan of the cold air that greeted him after he got out of the tub. Not much has changed except for the fact that this was probably the only time we ever used a baby towel. 

Kris has had this red toque since I met him 6 + years ago. I think he was probably wearing it the first time I ever saw him. Despite basically everyone he knows telling him to get a new hat and me buying him a new hat every winter, this one seems to stick around. I gave up on trying to get rid of it a long time ago. I've even warmed to it. It's like his trademark. Watching Kale put it on and take it off tells me that it might be staying in the family for another generation.

Kale was just over a month old here. Kris and I took him to the park and laid in the grass and warmed all our hearts with the sun. Those days of lazing around and just hanging out and embracing our new family life were so incredible. Just looking at this picture brings me back to that day and the happiness and the peace that was with us. 

I have a serious obsession with taking pictures of Kale eating and so it was really tough to pick just one. I think this cucumber was the first thing that I let Kale chomp on when his bottom teeth were coming in. See the grasp he has? It's only become stronger. Kids loves to eat. 

This is a pretty recent picture and probably pinpoints the week where his hair went from hippie-cute to out-of-control. I love the way he's looking up at the camera. I love how his little fingers are playing with the laces of his boots. When strangers see Kale, they comment on at least 1 of 3 things: (1) his hair, (2) his eyes, (3) his boots. This picture showcases all three. 

Chubby Kale makes me melt. I just want to eat him up. Suck on his cheeks. Gobble up those thighs. Give him nine thousand kisses. 

I love the look he's giving the camera in this picture. I love the hat. The bib. The cheeks! I love the fact that we were playing on the swings in the fall, while the leaves changed colours and the air was crisp. 

The uninhibited joy in his face and his hair blowing in the wind makes me giggle every time I see this picture. I'm so happy that Kale got to try out the swings this summer before it turned freezing and we've been forced to hibernate. I cannot wait until the spring to the see this face again.

wordless wednesday.

my boys.

baby-led weaning.

It's a Christmas miracle, folks! I finally finished and posted the baby-led weaning section of the blog! See the link up top? Click on that for general information about introducing solids, an overview of BLW, an in-depth post about our own experiences with BLW, and some food ideas and resources. I hope it's helpful for those who have had questions and who are interested in BLW as something for their family. If you need some additional convincing, just look at how cute Kale is practicing his BLW skills:

Cucumber.

Broccoli.

Oatmeal.

Yogurt.

Mango.

wordless wednesday.

say hi.

For the past couple days we've been waving "hi" and "bye" to Kale. He would look at us with a bit of a smirk as if to say, "I'm not your monkey," decide we're crazy, and then go back to smacking his blocks and drooling on our shoulders.

Today at lunch Kris was feeding Kale and saying hi and waving to him when he shouted for me to come quick. I thought for sure Kale had probably shaken a bit of samosa off his hand and Kris mistook it for a wave.

But he did it. He waved. His chubby little fingers WAVED.

I screamed. I kissed him. Kris and I high-fived. And then I ran for the video camera.....we are totally parents.

Warning - I do squeal at the end so you may want to adjust your volume.

weekday recap in iphone pics.

MONDAY. 

Monday was probably our busiest day this week and even it was pretty tame. Kale and I headed to the mall in the morning to start and finish our christmas shopping. In the afternoon we attempted to walk to the mailbox to send out our holiday cards and even though I bundled us up to the fullest, we still only made it to our neighbours driveway before aborting the mission. Apparently -13 is too cold for baby noses. I now understand why EVERY parent in my city owns a Chariot Carrier. Here we are in all our bundled glory: 

Kale officially has more winter outerwear than anyone else in this house.

I only look excited because we've been outside less than 30 seconds.

  

TUESDAY

Tuesday we stayed home all day waiting for Kale's new carseat to be delivered. Of course it didn't come until Wednesday. Ah well, at least I had someone cool to hang out with. Kale is really into looking at things at different angles these days. He likes to lean his head over as far as possible to see how things look sideways and if you lean your head the same way it usually causes a fit of giggles. He's also discovered that sometimes you can hide behind the thing he's looking at and he tries to stretch to see if you're there. Here he is trying to see me around the phone: 

"I know you're back there mama!" 

WEDNESDAY.

Kale's new carseat finally arrived! He hasn't actually grown out of his infant seat (we have one that goes to 35lbs.), but there was a good sale on the seat we planned to buy when he did grow out of it, so we jumped on it. Also, we were crossing our fingers that he would fall in love with the new seat and actually enjoy (or at the very least, not scream bloody murder) car rides. He was kind of into it at first, when it was still indoors. Later that night we tested it out on a trip to Aunt Niki & Uncle Karl's and it he was in epic meltdown mode the entire way. 

The pattern is called "cowmooflauge." How cute is that?!

THURSDAY.

Kris had the day off and weekdays with Kris home are pretty awesome. It's not like the weekend when we have a thousand things planned and errands to run. We got to take our time waking up and the three of us could play around in bed and snuggle and smother Kale with kisses. I took the morning to finally make my grand return to the gym and run a few errands and we all had lunch together at the pub. 

 "Guys, I'm totally over this. Stop with the camera"

Uh, cutest baby EVER. 

FRIDAY. 

Another lazy day of pj's and hanging out. I'm seriously soaking up these days because my return to work is only a few weeks away. Besides, this update would actually be complete without at least one picture of Kale and I napping together.

music man.

manic monday.

I really wanted this Monday to be a little less manic than last Monday. The fact that I'm heading back to work in a couple weeks is really starting to hit me and I'd rather take advantage of the few days I have left to hang out with Kale all day in my pj's than be running around town. Anyway, here's a glimpse of our day:

Kale woke us up at 6:45am and stayed up long enough for me to shower, get dressed and drink my coffee before he decided he wanted to go back to bed at 8:30am. I would be annoyed, but then he wakes up looking like this and my heart just melts:

 

I know I take entirely too many pictures of this kid in his highchair, but it's one of the only places he'll stay still long enough for me to snap a few. Most of his highchair photo's involve a lot of food smeared all over his face (and the tray, the walls, the floor, etc.) - so I snapped on pre-eat: 

 

After breakfast I stripped Kale down and started the process of getting him dressed. That's until the little man escaped and who am I to say you can't run around naked? Well, techinically, he can't run. He can't even crawl. But he loves to do this: 

 

We headed to the mall to pick up some gifts for papa and, as usual, the stroller acted as a glorified shopping cart: 

 

While Kale rode up top with his mama: 

 

By the time we got home Kale was ready for a nap. He did 30 minutes in bed and then demanded that the other hour and a half be done in my arms. Again, who am I to say no? 

 

Later that afternoon I bundled us up and enthusiastically headed toward the mailbox to mail our holiday cards. We got to my neighbours house before I realized that it was just way too cold. 

 

So we came home and I warmed up with a little of this: 

The end.

weekday recap in iphone pics.

 

Top left - It's hard to get a picture of Kale smiling because he becomes so entranced with the camera as soon as he sees it. Same goes for the iPhone. However, he loves riding in the cart so much that he can't stop smiling. You'd think a baby that loves the shopping cart would also love the stroller. They're similar, right? Not according to Kale. 

Top middle - Kale hates getting bundled up to go outside, as you can probably tell from the look on his face. I can't say that I'm a super fan either, but I just got a new winter jacket so I'm kind of excited (as you can probably tell from the look on my face!). 

Top right - I LOVE Kale's baby toes. I have a lot of pictures of those little guys. But baby toes plus kitten toes?!!? BWAAHAHAH! I lose my mind. 

Middle left - I cannot cook without a glass of wine. How we ate during my pregnancy I'll never know. 

Middle - Amazing, right? Kale is actually sleeping while in the stroller, bundled up. This wasn't even preceded by a meltdown - he just sort of drifted off in there. 

Middle right - The realization that I'll be heading back to work soon and won't be able to nap with Kale during the day anymore hit me HARD this week. Hence I napped with him almost every day despite Kris and I agreeing that we should try and get him to nap on his own more. I can't help it. I love a midday cuddle. 

Bottom left - Show Cat! My cat is so beautiful that one of his nicknames is Show Cat. I should also note that my cat could never be in a cat show because he'd try to kill all the other cats. 

Bottom middle - More midday cuddles. 

Bottom right - Show Cat loves Kris.Serious. BFF's.

Want to be my BFF? Give us a vote!

christmas traditions.

For the past few weeks a lot of people have asked us how excited we are to be celebrating Kale's first Christmas. Generally, people are nuts about Christmas. So when we give them a bit of a shrug and sheepishly tell them we're kind of indifferent, they sorta freak out.

For the past six years that Kris and I have been together, we've 'celebrated' the day in various ways. We've done it apart, we've done it with my family, with his family, and once we got drunk on homemade bailey's, ordered Chinese food, and played Connect Four all night. So the big topic of discussion in our house the past few weeks was how we were going to do it now that we have a baby.

You see, there are things we definitely like about Christmas. The big family dinner's, exchanging gifts, drinking too much, and watching the Griswold's Christmas Vacation. But there are also a lot of things we don't always enjoy - the big family dinner's, exchanging gifts, drinking too much.... not to mention the stress of traveling, the blind consumerism, and  awkward run-in's with weird uncle's.

With Kale we have the opportunity to start our own family tradition's and while we haven't quite figured out what that means for Christmas, we still have time to figure it all considering Kale really doesn't know what's going on. One thing we did start this year was participating in a local 'adopt-a-family' program. Donor families are matched up with families in our community that are struggling financially and purchase gifts from a list of suggestions. Kris, Kale and I had a really good time shopping for our adopted family and it felt great to drop the gifts off earlier this week to be wrapped and delivered by volunteers. I hope this is a tradition we can continue to do every year, along with some others that we'll figure out as we go along.

7 months.

Right now Kris is working on getting Kale to sleep. I can hear Kale registering complaints and Kris trying to talk sense to him. Seven months ago at this time the noises in this house were a lot different.

Weight: 18lbs. 12oz. (compared to 18lbs. 1oz. at 6 months)

Height: 27.5 inches (not sure what he was at 6 months)

What size of clothes is he wearing? 

It's all 6-12 months these days and he's getting close to growing out of a lot of it. I definitely need to move up a size with his undershirts, but honestly - I don't want to. Clothes for 12-18 months...that's 1 - 1.5 years...those aren't clothes for babies.

Milestones in the last month: 

• Another chomper! Kale now has two bottom teeth. They are soooo cute! I thought I loved his gummy pre-tooth smile, but a smile with two little pearly whites showing just melts my heart. 
• Sounds & repetition. Kale has started making a slew of new sounds. He loves to make high pitched noises and will go back and forth with you if you repeat the notes. Last week he started whispering "tsk, tsk, tsk, dah, dah, dah" to himself. I can tell that he's trying to repeat new noises that he hears and I know for a fact that this little man is going to be a chatter box one day very soon. 
• Mobility & Standing. Kale hasn't shown too much interest in crawling. He kicks his legs and arms when he's on his belly, but he hasn't been pushing up with his arms too much. He's started to do a backward crawl the last week or so and a bit of a bum shuffle. However, his favourite thing to do is practice standing up. He'll pull himself up on just about everything - the co-sleeper, the crib, the couch, our hands, my leg, the bathtub. The best is the huge smile he has when he gets up on his feet - he's so proud of himself! 
• Monkey see, monkey do. Kale has started to mimic some of our actions. One day I took two of his blocks and knocked them together and then he grabbed them from me and did the same. I just about died. He does it all the time now. 
• Eating!! Kale started solids this past month and has been doing really well. He's up for trying just about anything and the only thing he's shown disgust for is papaya. I'm really happy that we chose to go the baby-led weaning route. 
• Carts & High Chairs. Kale loves riding in shopping carts now and sat in a high chair for the first time at a restaurant.

Special outings in the last month: 

• Christmas party with his friends Hudson, Casey & Nathaniel 
• Brunch with Steve & Emily in Toronto

 What is his routine? 

During the week we have a pretty good routine, but it normally gets thrown out the window on weekends. On weekdays Kale normally wakes up around 6am. Kris usually gets up with up and they hang out until 7am while I catch an extra hour of sleep (I know - I'm really lucky). Kris usually puts Kale in the sling and makes his lunch for work, puts some coffee on, and changes Kale (because he ALWAYS poops when he wakes up). When I get up at 7am I jump in the shower and then Kale and I hang out while Kris gets ready for work. Kris usually leaves around 8am and Kale and I watch Arthur on TVO. Kale usually passes out before the show is over and goes down for his first 30 minute cat nap. They say that most babies will start to combine their two naps into one nap around this age, but not Kale. He still only stays awake for 2 hours - regardless of how long his nap is.


When Kale wakes up from his first nap, I strip him down and he has his breakfast. It's normally oatmeal or yogurt and some fruit. I have to strip him down because he's such a messy eater! After breakfast I clean him up and then get him dressed for the day. Getting dressed can take a long time because he really doesn't like it and so we usually put on one piece of clothing, play for a bit, put on another piece, repeat.

I try to clean up around the house in the morning, depending on the kind of mood Kale is in. Sometimes he's happy to sit on my hip while I vaccum, or play on the floor while I put the laundry away. Other days he wants my undivided attention and nothing gets done.

I usually lay down with him for a late morning nap or sometimes I do in the afternoon because he'll nap longer if I'm there. Besides, who doesn't like a little siesta?

Kale and I play in the living room for a good portion of our day. I usually put out three toys for him to play with and when he gets bored with those, I exchange for another three. He gets overwhelmed if there are too many toys out and I can't stand tripping over little toys anyway. Lately Kale's favourite toys to play with are wooden blocks, a tambourine and the kitchen whisk (technically not a toy - but he loves it).

Kris gets home between 5:30-6 and takes over hanging out with Kale while I get dinner ready. Since Kale started eating solids we normally take him directly from his highchair to the bath to clean him up. After we get him ready for bed and usually hang out in the living room until he's ready for sleep. Kale's bedtime is totally dependant on when he took his last nap. If he woke up from his nap at 4, he's ready for bed around 7, but if he crashes earlier than 7, he'll wake up and won't want to go back down until 9. It really doesn't matter when he goes to bed and it never effects his wake up time (6am).

Kale's favourite things to do: 

• Yell at the cat. Nothing makes Kale more excited than seeing the cat. Every time he see's him it's like the first time. If only the cat felt the same about him. 
• Look at himself in the mirror always guarantees laughs. 
• Snuggle. Seriously, Kale is a snuggle monster. He basically sleeps as though he's glued to me at night. 
• Play with plastic bottles. We try to only give Kale wood and cloth toys, but he has a special place in his heart for plastic. Whenever I finish a bottle of Vitamin water (which is A LOT), I give him the empty bottle and he goes gang busters for it. 

Here are some of my favourite pictures from the past month: 

 

manic monday.

I woke up this morning singing Manic Monday and that's exactly the kind of Monday I had. I normally don't try to run too many errands during the week because Kale continues to hate the car seat and now that it's getting cold it's harder to wear him and he hates the stroller too....So basically we take it pretty easy during the week and do the bulk of our running around on the weekend when Kris can help out. That being said, there are some things that NEED to get done during the week and who wants to be stuck inside all day anyway? I just have to be strategic about how many times we'll have to get in and out of the car because buckling him into his seat is a MESS. So today we had two things that had to get done - post office and grocery store to pick up a gift certificate. Simple, right? Ugh....so wrong.

When I asked Kale what he thought about getting out of his pj's and hittin' up Canada Post, he gave me this cute little grin:

 

Turns out he was pooping. Sigh. 

I figured I'd put him down for a nap before we left and since he refuses to nap longer than 30 minutes without me, I laid down with him and he spent the rest of the morning like this: 

 

Eventually he got up, dressed and bundled up for the outside. I was a little excited about the cold weather because I finally got to wear my new winter jacket. Kale on the other hand, is not a fan of the snow suit...

 

We hit up the post office and when we got back out to the car he refused to get in his seat. He stood up in his car seat, knees locked, and screamed. I promised him only one more short trip to the grocery store and he wailed the entire way. However, when we actually go there he got to ride in the cart, which he LOVES. I need to get one of those cart covers though because I know those things are covered in germs. At one point I was looking at something and when I turned back to look at him his head was down. For a split second I thought he'd fallen asleep. Umm, no... he was sucking on the cart. So gross. I'm not going to win mom of the year for that one. 

After we left I figured I already had him in the car, why not go visit Lexy and Hudson. Except she lives across town. Half way there I was totally regretting my decision because Kale was having a huge meltdown and I was desperately seeking a shot of whiskey. We eventually arrived alive and sober, but with shot nerves and a very sad baby. Hudson took over and cheered Kale up and by some miracle, both boys fell asleep at the same time. Fast forward five minutes and the four of us were snuggled in bed watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

It didn't last long, because both boys are infamous cat napper's, but it was a sweet moment. Kale woke up first and pooped again, but this time it ended up all over his undershirt so I had to strip him down. Hudson woke up to his friend naked and rolling around on the floor. 

Despite the cold weather we figured it would be good for them to get some fresh air so we decided to head out for a walk. I decided to try the stroller since he's been doing ok in there lately and it was just too bulky to wear him with all our winter gear on. Kale was clearly unimpressed from the start. 

 

It was a short walk because both boys were fussing and the wind was pretty cold. When we got back to Lexy's I decided to head home since Kale was already dressed to go. He had another EPIC MELTDOWN on the way home. To the point that I was swearing up and down that we wouldn't leave the house again. I was so happy to get home and have this little guy smile while beating on his tambourine. 

 

And this has been another manic monday....