Eli and I have something in common from this weekend. Can you guess which of the following is true?

a. We both pooped in our diapers
b. We both turned 31
c. We both ate cereal
d. Both a and c

If you guessed d, get the F out of here. The answer is, in fact, c. Big E tried cereal for the first time.



To say it was a success and that he loves cereal is a gross understatement. There was what can only be described as lunging at the bowl and spoon, followed by crying when we took them away.



To give you some perspective, he has never cried when we've taken anything away from him before, including the most beloved of his toys (Sophie the $25 hunk of rubber giraffe) and his precious washcloth in the bathtub. But just try to take this kid's cereal away from him before he gorges himself, and feel the wrath.



I get it. If I'd been eating milk and milk alone for five and a half months, I'm sure a little rice cereal would be like manna from heaven.

This week's writer's workshop prompt was to list 10 things you miss about being single, which is not an easy task for me. Not that I didn't enjoy being single, because I did, but it was not the healthiest time of my life. You can only subsist on draft beer, $10 white wine, and various forms of cheese before it starts to take its toll on your energy level and arse size. So the things I enjoyed about being single at the time (being drunk, shopping like a Kardashian, eating garbage) also contributed to me being unhealthy and poor. But the assignment is to list the good things about being single. Here's what I could come up with:

1. Having a flowered comforter and pink sheets on the bed. 

2. Unlimited TV access.

3. More closet space. 

4. Never having a middle-of-the-night toilet seat issue. (Oh wait, my roommate used to sleep with every random guy in the 902 area code and obviously if you don't care about who you're banging you're not going to care about things like putting the toilet seat down post booty call. You know what's worse than falling in the toilet in the middle of the night when your husband has left the seat up? Falling in the toilet in the middle of the night after having to listen to your roommate doing some dipshit she met at the Alehouse for hours.)

5. Not having to hide embarrassing musical selections, DVDs, Cosmo quiz result pages, etc.

6. Scented candles 24/7, including the really girly-smelling ones.

7. No debates about which family to spend holidays with.

8. Starfish sprawling in the bed.

9. Wearing the ugliest, most concealing, baggiest, flannely-est pajamas you can find.

10. Bodily functions sans embarrassment.

What do you miss about being single? Or if you're single, what do you miss about being in a relationship?

See this week's other writer's workshop posts here. Thanks Mama Kat!

It's been all baby, baby, baby over here and poor Rory has been getting the shaft so I thought I'd better do a quick update on him so you all don't think we forgot him out in the yard five months ago and he's been out there ever since, shivering under a pine tree or something.


Rory is now one and a half years old and still very much a puppy. He has tons of energy, is easily excitable when people come over, shows off, and occasionally does things that make me wonder if he's a bit "special". Example: he just wolfed down a hunk of Easter egg tin foil I dropped on the ground. I'm sure it tasted awesome and felt great on the teeth. I can't wait to find that shiny treasure in the yard later.

Other times he behaves like a respectable dog. He walks well on his leash unless we meet another smaller dog - in which case, he loses his shit (not literally...in a happy way). If we meet a bigger dog, however, he won't make eye contact with it and tries to hide behind me. He lies on his mat when we're eating dinner rather than hovering around the table waiting for food to be dropped. He's a terrific watchdog and always lets us know when someone's in the yard, and he's great company when I'm watching TV. 

A lot of people ask how Rory is coping with Eli. He's definitely a little jealous. He's sookier and clingier than normal, although mostly he seems curious about the baby and protective of him. He has done a few annoying things, such as chewing on Eli's burp cloths, which is especially irritating since he was never a chewer before. It's a lot like a toddler acting out when their new baby brother or sister is born. But if Eli cries in his crib Rory comes to me on the run with a really concerned look on his face, like "aren't you going to get that baby?" I think they'll end up being great friends.

It's frustrating when people have a baby and just give away their animals because it's too much work having both a pet and an infant. Obviously, in the case of things like severe allergies or the animal showing aggression, it's a different story, but otherwise, it just seems like a bad thing to do. I understand the feeling of being overwhelmed sometimes, when Eli is having a 500-decibel meltdown and Rory is whining and demanding attention. I hate not being able to spend as much time with Rory these days, although, hopefully, with the weather getting nicer and Eli getting bigger that will soon change. Rory's absolutely part of the family and he's not going anywhere.

So, this post is for you, Ror man. Even though you can't read and you still eat your own feces on occasion. You are always going to be our original baby!

 During our prenatal classes, everybody received one of these "baby predictions" worksheets where we were supposed to fill in the blanks with our guesses about when our baby would be born, what it would look like, how big it would be, and so on. I just found my sheet while doing some spring cleaning and it's funny to see how close I was with a lot of my predictions about Eli's big arrival.


Predicted date and time of birth: Friday, November 11 at 5:00 a.m.
Actual date and time of birth: Thursday, November 10 at 3:35 a.m.
One day off = not bad. And I had the wee hours of the morning thing right.

Predicted weight and height: 7lb 4oz, 21 inches long
Actual weight and height: 7lb 3.5oz, 20 inches long
Half an ounce and one inch off? Pretty good guess!

Predicted hair: A lot of brown hair
Actual hair: A lot of brown hair

Proof! I think this was his second day home.

Predicted eye colour: Blue (and I wrote "will change to brown" on the sheet)
Actual eye colour: Dark gray. Changed to brown.

Predicted behaviour: Active and crying a lot
Actual behaviour: Active...but he didn't really cry much. Then he had a growth spurt and he cried constantly and I felt like calling a priest. Memo to new moms: the "six week peak" is actually a thing. It WILL get better! They will stop crying!

Predicted gender: I didn't pick one or the other. I went from thinking Eli was a boy, to a girl, then back to boy over the course of my pregnancy. It wasn't like those moms who claim to *know* they're having a boy or a girl.

Here are a couple shots of the man from the weekend. We had a great time - did some shopping and went out for lunch on Saturday, visited friends on Sunday, and of course, lots of cuddles, dance parties, and playing.




Now it's Monday morning and before 8:00 a.m. he'd already pooped in his exersaucer. Apparently we feel the same way about Mondays. If I had an exersaucer I'd poop in it too. Boo Monday.

A good mail day.

I did a happy dance this morning when I found my Starbucks card for a free birthday drink in my mailbox. My birthday is a week and a half away (APRIL 29 SO PLEASE DON'T DELAY WITH THE PRESENTS) so I still have a few days to figure out what my free drink will be.

Here's the thing. I want to go all hog-wild with this birthday bevvy. I don't want to get the same old order I always get. And this is where I need your help. What's "your" drink at Starbucks?

If I'm getting a hot drink other than a straight old coffee, it's usually a plain ol' skim or soy latte or a nonfat mocha with whipped cream. I know. Nonfat WITH whip? That's like ordering a Big Mac meal with a Diet Coke. Get off me.

When it's time for a cold drink, it's either iced green tea (which is disgusting hot, but tastes 100% less like grass when it's iced for some reason) or passion tea lemonade, made with apple juice instead of the lemonade.

What's your favourite drink at Starbucks? Or if you hate the 'bucks, what kind of coffee drink do you recommend? 

Mr. Eli, you are five months old now, and you're a joy to be around. You wake up in the morning all smiles, and you're smiling and laughing all day long. You smile at strangers and at the dog. You laugh at random things, you laugh when you're tickled, when we make faces at you, when I blow on your belly. The only times you aren't happy are when you're sleepy - the rest of the time you are one cheerful little man.

Your big thing right now is singing. You sing in the car and in the stroller until you fall asleep. Your singing voice is soft but every once in a while you do a dramatic sigh and get loud for a few seconds.

You're learning how to sit up - you're not totally steady yet, but with the help of a pillow or someone sitting behind you, you're doing great. Sometimes you forget to keep your balance and you topple over. I set you upright again and don't make a big deal about the falling-over business unless you're startled and cry. I wait to see how you'll react and follow suit. If you're upset, I cuddle you. If you blow it off, I do too.

You love your exersaucer, dance parties, bath time, and going for walks. You're still cramming everything you can grab into your mouth. I'm hesitant to write this here for fear of jinxing ourselves, but over the past couple of weeks you've gone from waking twice in the night, to once, to the holy land - sleeping through the night. You're able to go from 7:00 to 7:00 now and IT. IS. SENSATIONAL. Thank you so much, baby boy.

(edited: I saved this post as a draft on Friday. Last night, you woke up I don't even know how many times kicking the side of your crib, talking, whining...sooo the sleeping through the night is definitely not a guarantee!)

I feel like we're having a happy little calm right now before a whole storm of new stuff hits. You'll be trying solid foods soon, and while I'm excited for you to experiment with new stuff to eat, it makes me a little sad. You're growing up. Right now, you still don't have teeth, so you can't bite your mama. And you're still immobile so I can plop you down and know you can't get away. We're trying to soak up all this five-month-old goodness while we can.

Some days I can't believe you've been here for five months and other days it feels like you've always been here. Regardless, you have made our lives better and we love you, little man.

(via)

In less than three weeks, I'll turn 31 and officially be in my 30s. It sounds horrifying, but somehow I'm pretty OK with it. I've accepted the fact that I'm old and haggard and and try to embrace my elderly ways rather than fighting them.

I play the "blonde or gray?" game in the bathroom mirror before going to bed. (They're blonde. But I still yank them out).

I have trouble staying up past 10 p.m.

I get mad when the kid that delivers the flyers walks across the lawn.

I said something was bomb dot com the other day and Peter made fun of me for a full five minutes and accused me of sounding "like a mom trying to be cool."

YOU KNOW YOU'RE OLD WHEN.

In spite of being a senior citizen in a lot of ways, I do feel pretty young. I think it has less to do with eating my vegetables and taking my vitamins, and more to do with enjoying Justin Bieber music and TV shows about 15-year-olds. It's impossible to feel like you're 30-plus years old when you're bopping to "Boyfriend" in the car or eating a Happy Meal.

My secret formula for staying young at heart includes:

Kid food. I love a nice meal - sushi, steak, anything with "a la vodka" in the description. But sometimes, you just want a peanut butter and banana sandwich for lunch with a glass of chocolate milk. Or a Happy Meal (especially if the toy is cool). Macaroni and cheese is also a good choice. The great thing about eating kid food when you're 30 is that you how to pimp it out. So, you bake some macaroni and cheese, but you add a little truffle oil. Voila, gourmet. Or you make fries in the oven and eat them with Belgian-style mayonnaise. Ooh la la!

Teenybopper music. There is a loooot of this on my iPod, mostly because the kiddies tend to make upbeat jams that are great to work out to. No one's going to break a sweat listening to Radiohead or Coldplay or whatever old people while they pre-plan their funerals and drink prune juice.


Buying clothes at stores I'm getting embarrassed to enter. I'm looking at you, Garage. I actually go in there and pretend to be buying things for my "sister" or "niece" but it's alllll for me. Why not? They have tank tops and t-shirts that are great for layering, cute shorts, and other basics and they're all priced for a high school kid's budget. I could go to Banana Republic and pay $70 for a pair of shorts or go to Garage and get them for $30. It'll be our little secret. (PS - I recently got these, this, and this.)


Saturday nights at home baking cookies, doing my nails and reading magazines. Did this when I was 14, still doin' it today. In fact, doin' it tomorrow. Guess what: if you're doing it right, baking cookies does not result in a hangover, needing to find a cab home, bad choices or being tagged in embarrassing and unflattering Facebook photos.

What makes you feel young? And who wants to come to my birthday party? We're going to play Dream Phone and maybe do makeovers.

First run after Eli was born. Worse than childbirth.

I've always assumed that running on the treadmill is easier than running outside. It makes sense: no outdoor elements, such as wind, to contend with. No hills. No potholes, dogs, and kids on bicycles to dodge. You're running indoors, in a controlled environment, on a flat surface, with a belt helping to pull you along.

But lately I've been really uncomfortable during and after my treadmill runs. Ever since I fell down in the bathroom at the gym, my right knee hasn't been 100%, and running on the treadmill seems to make it worse. If it's a short run, like three miles, it's OK. Anything longer and it starts aching and bothers me the rest of the day. However, I'm able to go 10-13 miles outside and feel fine afterward. By "fine", I mean like death. But at least it's a universal feeling of death that encompasses my whole body and it goes away after I stretch, have a boiling hot shower, and eat an entire box of macaroni.

I didn't go to the doctor to get it checked out (now THAT would just be silly) but thanks to Google MD I have diagnosed myself. I think that when I fell I pulled something in my knee and it's still a little sensitive. How's that for a diagnosis? Sup, science.

I did some research on treadmills too and learned some interesting tidbits:

• Running on the treadmill on a flat incline is akin to running downhill outside.
• Running downhill is harder on your knees than running uphill. 
• Running on the treadmill without varying your pace and incline means you aren't changing up your stride at all. Therefore your joints, legs, etc. are feeling the exact same impact with every step. It's easier for them to get overworked and overstressed. 

If you must run on a treadmill, there are ways to make it suck less. Varying your speed and incline throughout your run helps to mimic outdoor running and allows you to change up your stride, the same way you would naturally do. I tried a three-mile treadmill run on the weekend and set the incline to "random" so every minute or two it would change and I didn't have any discomfort during or after.

Fingers crossed that spring weather is here to stay and I'll be able to avoid the treadmill altogether. Five and a half weeks to go until the Blue Nose half!

Thanks to a sweet Easter snowstorm we weren't able to go to  my parents' house for dinner this year, but we still spent a nice holiday relaxing at home. Here are some pictures from Easter morning. We had planned to "take it easy" with Eli's Easter basket this year, but as you can see, we got a little carried away. At least he won't go naked this summer.

Easter haul

Only one toy and a whole bunch of boring stuff :)

Still half-asleep with an interesting morning hairdo!

Sitting up like a boss!

Sometime within the next few days, I'll be getting a new car. I will be saying goodbye to my Mazda3, which I've had for three years, and hello to a new Honda Civic. I've been planning on getting a new car for the past few months, and was leaning toward upgrading to a small SUV, thinking it would be better for toting a baby and all the associated gear around, but changed my mind due to the following:

• the price of gas. That shit cray. 
• when I go back to work in the fall, I'll be commuting most days. When I was thinking SUV, I was also thinking I'd be working from home 90% of the time. But my place of employment has a new (awesome!) studio in Halifax, and now that I'll actually be driving some distance to and from work, a smaller car is a more economical option.
• we've been managing just fine with Eli's seat, stroller, and other necessary baby-transporting junk in my small car so far. My parents carted three kids around and only ever drove mid-size cars and we all turned out OK. Ish.
• the big one: I suck at parking at the best of times. I could be parking a Smart Car in a space big enough for a school bus and still get sweaty palms. Bigger isn't always better, friends.

I always get a little sad at car trade-in time. You make a lot of memories in your car. (And I don't just mean the kind of back seat "memories" that result in having to install a car seat about nine months later.)

This is the car we drove to the hospital in when it was time to have Eli. I remember looking out the window as Peter sped like a lunatic to the IWK, feeling so excited but knowing things would never be the same. That the next time we got in the car, the empty seat in the back seat would have a tiny little person in it, and there'd be three of us, not just two.

That was a Wednesday night. On Saturday morning, we came home from the hospital with Eli snugly buckled in the back seat, fast asleep. Peter drove about 30 kilometres under the speed limit the whole way and we kept peeking into the back seat, unable to believe they actually let us leave the hospital with a baby. I remember him wondering aloud if we should take the highway home or go the "back way" because it would be safer. It feels so funny now, because we drive on the highway every single day, but that first day we definitely breathed a huge sigh of relief when we arrived home safely with our tiny boy.

There has been much singing, swearing, and flipping off of other drivers in that car. Speed limits have been broken, illegal texts have been sent (not since the baby!), good coffees and shitty coffees alike consumed (and spilled on the seats). Music has been played loudly. Lately, the music has been a little softer and a tiny voice chimes in from the back, in between naps.

I'll miss my little car, but I'm looking forward to all sorts of memories in my new one. Kickin' in the front seat, chillin' in the back seat, Rebecca Black style.

watching: Mad Men season 5 and ANTM Cycle Eleventeenhundred
wearing: lots of skinny jeans, leggings, flats, and tank tops with cardigans - comfy, casual things that work for hanging out with a baby all day, but a step up from the old yoga-pants-and-tshirt days.
eating: creme egg brownies, homemade tortillas with avocado and lime, and veggie burgers, since I'm a baby who's scared of pink slime/e coli
excited for: Easter weekend, Mother's Day, and spring weather and sunshine
buying: Essie nail polishes. They have the nicest colours and they last forever! $11 seems like a lot for a bottle of nail polish, but since it's about 1/4 the price of a manicure I'm pretty good at justifying buying them.
worrying about: the price of gas! Leave it to me to worry about something I have absolutely zero control over. And getting my taxes done. I don't know why this stresses me out, but it does, every year.
drinking: Starbucks blonde roast. Eight more stars till my gold card! BALLER
reading: 11/22/63, aka the longest book of life. But I'm almost finished and it's really good!
wishing: that I had a tan. And that someone would just show up and clean my house from top to bottom. Spring cleaning is going...meh. I would rather be doing anything else.
proud of: running 13.1 miles on Sunday - it wasn't a "real" half marathon but at least I completed the distance and didn't die!
thinking about: playing around with a different hair colour. I'm considering blonde, except this time, I won't saturate my head with Sun-In and then sit outside for three straight days. It scares me a little though. All that maintenance!
obsessed with: Instagram, Draw Something, Pinterest, and this guy:

BRB guys, just heading out on a safari, K CYA!!