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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

IZ - Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World

This has been stuck in my head for a week now. I just love this version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow; so I though I would share with everyone...

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Junk Mail

I feel like I am always on a uphill battle trying to control the amount of paper that comes into my house. Each time we receive junk mail addressed to us we contact the sender and ask to be removed from there list.

FYI for new moms out there do not give out your address to Tyme Maternity in there contest slip. I have asked them over and over to stop mailings and on top of their mailings you will get tones of stuff from Pamper, Enfamil and Nestly. Nestly is pretty respectful when you ask to be removed from there list other then the fact they sent me 3 coupons for free formula before they did so. (giving out free formula is against the WHO) I am still working on stoping the mail


Today to help curb the amount of paper we receive and try to save a few more trees we are going to make a few no flyer signs.

Steps to make sign:

1. find a paper flyer that was only printed on one side to reuse for printing
2. select one of the following images and print
No Junk Mail
No Flyers
3. cut out the image
4. (optional) laminate the image both sides using clear mactac - this will somewhat protect it from the weather elements
5. attache to your mail box

A few articles and web sites that I found interesting on the subject:
Government of Canada
Clean Calgary
Red Dot Campaign

Monday, April 28, 2008

Breastfeeding billboard


This blog entry regarding breastfeeding billboards really ticked me off today... Parentdish

Sunday, April 27, 2008

quick and easy summer drink


For those of you who know me you know you wont find any sugary or fizzy store bought drinks in my house. A great alternative to these are iced teas.

Cool and refreshing
Steep 2 tea bags of mint or speermint tea in 1 litre of water for 10 minutes. Remove tea bags let cool to room add 4 to 6 mint leaves and chill in refrigerator.

Gingery Tea
Steep 2 bag of rooibos tea in 1 litre of water for about 7 minutes. Remove tea bags add 4-6 slices of fresh ginger (leave peels on). Let cool to room temperature then chill in refrigerator.

Over the summer I will be experiencing with other teas and will let you guys know if I find any other pleasant mixes.

Image by: Arria Belli

first week on my own with my son

First of all thank you to everyone that has stayed with us over the past 2 months it was great having all the help.

So i survived the first week at home carring for Christophe on my own. I was able to go for walk every day, keep the house tidy, do laundry and play with Christophe while he was awake. This is all thanks to baby waring. Basically when Christophe is not awake he is attached to me in one of our slings; we have a carrier but i don't really like and neither does he.

The slings and carriers we currently own:

Rolz & Sassy ring sling in Grey Lace - I love the lenght of this sling, lots of extra fabric so it will grow with him. Very fashionable fabric also; I think i get comments on it every time I wear it in public. No padding on the rails so for very vigorous work around the house I prefer the heart to heart it holds baby Christophe head better; stops it from jostling about. Price wise not for mommies on tight budgets it retails for about$115.00 CAD.

Heart2heart ring sling in unbleached cotton - Not quite as long as the Rolz & Sassy so he will probably outgrow this one first. Great padded shoulder and rails makes it extremely comfortable for long periods of time. I also find the padded rails helps hold his little neck straight since he does not have full head control yet. Fabric choices are not as glamorous. Much more reasonable in cost; retails for about $70.00 CAD.

We also received from relatives a carrier from Evenflo. I could not find our model on the website because it is older; however it does not differ much from their current carrier. Personally I don't like it and neither does Christophe so far. I find it does not offer enough back support and he does not seem to like the fact that he is nit squished against me. I think he is just used to the slings. Geoff plans on giving it a shot to see what he think.

Munchkin Giveaway

If you like Munchkin Products check out this great contest brough to you by New Mommy Rant. You could win a great big basket filled with Munchkin Products.

Eight Weeks and Counting


Well, Christophe is now eight weeks old, and counting. Looking back, this is from when he was about half that, one month old.

And we present the nursery...























UPDATED - Looking for good deals

I love buying things second hand or gently used as I like to say. You save money and you stop things from ending up in the our landfills. On top of all the second hand stores in Toronto a great way to get good finds are Mom to Mom Sales. For anyone that is not familiar with Mom to Mom Sales they are like huge yard sales with multiple sellers and only baby and kid items.

Here are a few of the up-coming ones in the GTA. If anyone knows about any other sales please feel free to post them in the comments.

May 4 - Children Pillage in the Village I have never been to this one however once I have checked it out this year will let you know what I think.

May 31 - Greenmom Spring Market
- Seem like a great place to get all the new eco-friendly gear for your wee one

June 14 - Markham - Always a good one arrive early

Monday, April 21, 2008

Memere and pepere

We had a few busy weeks, my mom and dad arrived early in the month for a visit and stayed till last Wednesday. It was great having them around to help out.

My dad did al sorts of stuff around the house including finishing the Nursery (thank you so much); I will post about the nursery separately. My mom help with cooking and cleaning. Both of them also spent tones of time with Christophe.

One of the more eventful days was when we ventured out to the Eaton Center to visit with Suzan and Ed (my aunt and uncle). We ate out at a sit down restaurant, I breast-fed in the mall, we did some shopping at the Disney Store, Indigo, the Bay and Sears; I was so tired when we got home.

My dad bought Christophe the greatest toy - Fuzzi Lovebug.

Most of the days where not as action packed they involved walks in the afternoon and naps in the morning.

Well we miss you mom and dad; looking forward to the next visit.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Starbucks Buys Clover

I was just going to look up the Clover machine to pass on a review to my co-workers, and discovered that Starbucks just picked up the company. Interesting.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

10 Lbs and Video

Christophe's last midwife appointment went down without a hitch yesterday. He's 10 lbs, 4.65 oz, which means he's been gaining 1.5oz a day on breastmilk alone, great news for us. So there's no further concerns, and we can now pretty much go to feeding on demand, although there's no harm in encouraging him to eat during the day.

Flickr.com is now video-capable, so we'll have to post some video of Christophe sometime soon.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Breast-feeding Help

I have been meaning to blog about this topic for a few days now.

As some of you may know I had a though tim with breast-feeding during the first month, all is well now and we hope to keep that way. I know my problems were very minor compared to some other moms out there; however one thing I have learned and will share with any mom to be is you can not ever be over prepared for breast-feeding.

For me I was a bit nervous about the delivery and overwhelmed with the idea that Christophe's nursery was not completed so I had completly forgoten about breast-feeding and in reality I when to a breast-feeding workshop and said this looks easy it's going to be a piece of cake. Was I ever wrong.

Looking back at the last month or so I wish I would have done the following thing differently and I urge any new mom to consider taking this advice.

1. Read a good book on breast-feeding. Not a chapter in a book a completed book dedicated to breast-feeding; such as The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding: Seventh Revised Edition (La Leche League International Book) or Dr. Jack Newman's Visual Guide to Breastfeeding.
2. Consulting a lactation consultant as soon as baby is born. Most hospital will send a lactation consultant to your room if you request this. I had no clue about this.
3. Watch Dr. Jack Newman's DVD.
4. Watch Dr. Jack Newman's DVD. I can not stress this enough; I wish I would have watched this DVD before baby was born it is amazing.

And here is a list of the items I did to help increase my milk flow:
1. Pump, Pump, Pump. Not using one of those dinky little things you can buy at Babies'r'us but with a hospital grad pump that you rent. If you can afford the pump it's not a hospital grade pump. These are usually over 3000$ to buy that is why people rent them.
2. If there is a lactation clinic close to your home go over and over again. Make sure you have a concise list of questions to ask them so you do not feel overwhelmed.
3. Take fenugreek and blessed thistle.
4. Read and watch everything you can get your hands on about breast-feeding.
5. Last but I think this may be one of the most important ones - talk to someone that has been through a rough patch also there encouragement will make you feel loads better. (thank you; you know who you are)

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Early Days

The cats took to Christophe pretty quickly. Even in the first few days, Abel wanted to stay involved, often squeezing herself in between me and Christophe's co-sleeper:

In his co-sleeper, he'd be swaddled:The rest of the time, Christophe spent a lot of time with us doing skin-to-skin contact, still sleeping, sometimes with maman:
And other times, with papa:
When he wasn't sleeping, he was feeding, or asking for food:
Lots more pix on flickr, if you haven't been watching.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Play Place Review

After doing tons of research our not-so-expert minds decided that the 2 best Play Places out there for Christophe were the Dream Meadow by Haba or the Baby's Play Place by Bright Starts. We ended up selecting the Bright Starts one mostly due to cost and availability.

The reasons why we liked both of these were:
various configurations
grows with baby
can add your own toys
soft and comfy

Thank you tante Cathy for getting Christophe the Play Place. We use it every day for tummy time.

1 month has gone

I can not believe April 1st marks one month since little Christophe was born. Time has just flown by.

Today just after lunch and before the crazy wind storm picked up, we went for a walk to the post office. I had a few letters to mail. This was my first time out of the house with him solo. It's crazy how many people stop to ask how old he is and compliment me on my beautiful little boy.

Tomorrow memere and pepere arrive from Moncton to meet their first grandchild. They will be visiting for 2 weeks. I am sure they are anxious to meet Chistophe as there trip has now been delayed twice. The first time my dad had the stomach flu and the second time the flight got canceled due to engine trouble. They are not the first from my side of the family to meet the little one as my sister was here for a few days last week. We will talk about her visit in another post.

We are now waiting for papa to get home and make us some supper as I am using my new found skill at one handed typing while holding Christophe sleeping to write this.