Yesterday was one of those days. Le Grand Monsieur is fighting a stuffy nose and congestion. Yeah, I gave it to him. It took me 3 days to kick it, hopefully the little guy can get it done quicker.
So Jen tried for an hour to get him down, no luck. Then he played for a bit before keeling over for 40 mins at around the time he should just be waking up. Poor guy. Poor Mommy.
So when I got home Jen had a bottle of Lindeman’s Bin 95 Sauvignon Blanc 2007 freshy ‘corked’ and poured on the counter.
From the website: The generous flavours and contemporary, easy-drinking style combines easily with food and most social occasions to deliver maximum enjoyment from the first glass to the last.
From the label: Lifted tropical flavours, with a crisp, dry finish.
The Sav Blanc hit the spot for Jen. Easy drinking, fruity and crisp. You could have it with a salad, mussels, fish - or on it’s own, after a tough day. Green apple and grass without a lip puckering tartness - that’s the difference between the Aussie and New Zealand Sav Blanc’s - the kiwi ones have a bit more mineral and gooseberry tang to go with them.
One other cool thing about this selection is it has a screw top. It’s all good, they’re cool now. Jen preaches the screw top as the best way to have just a glass and keep the bottle in the fridge door - for the next hard day.
Lindeman’s Bin 95 Sauvignon Blanc is “beyond a bargain,” Jen says, for ONLY $12.95 at your BC Liquor Store. You CANNOT get a local wine of this quality at this pricepoint. As we move into spring break, a long weekend and then summer - stock up and get some on standby.
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Why wait? Le Grand Monsieur will be 10 months old at the end of March. He’ll also be celebrating his first Easter by looking for chocolate eggs hidden about the City of Light.
Yup, we’re going to France with the child. Here’s the itinerary:
Paris for 2 nights, then a train to Caen where we pick up a rental car and drive to Honfleur. We have 2 nights at the mouth of the Seine before driving to Mont St Michel for a night. Then to the mouth of the Loire and the salt beds of Le Croisic. After a night there, we drive the length of the Loire Valley to St Georges Sur Cher for 4 nights before we drop our car in Tours and train back to Paris.
When Jen and I go to the pool for swimming lessons there’s 3 bags of toys, diapers and clothes between us. Can you imagine 2 weeks overseas? It’s going to be a challenge - but we’re up for it.
The first thing we needed to do was settle on a stroller. Currently we have a Mountain Buggy Urban as our main chariot of choice. It’s FAB for the trails and paths around our neighborhood, but, as we discovered on our trip to Portland in November, it’s HUGE.
It took up the entire trunk of our Pontiac Vibe for that weekend getaway severely limiting the amount of tax free goodness that could be brought home.
Our requirements for the new stroller were: lightweight, collapsing, has a tray, fully reclining, has storage room.
Jen went crazy looking for strollers. Up and down the web, all over Amazon, BabyCenter, everywhere. She hit up Target, Babies R Us and Craigslist. She read reviews, comments, feedback. EVERYTHING.
The contenders included styles from Quinny, MacLaren, Peg Perego and Kolcraft … but the winner is:
The Combi Helio DX - Wasabi (Waaasaaaaahbeeee)
It’s got a cup holder, a snack section, it reclines, and it has a longer bar than the previous edition (meaning you dont kick the wheels and you’re not hunched over when pushing)
They’re hard to find in Canada. We had to buy it online from Amazon.com and have it sent to a friend’s postal box in the US.
So that’s the big thing out of the way. But from reading reviews on Fodors, it sounds like the cobblestones of Europe do nothing for soothing a baby while sightseeing.
I guess that means we’re packing the Baby Bjorn too.
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My sister in law wrote up a post about how she has successfully navigated some parenting pitfalls over her 2 year career, notably she discovered the music you play your kids does not have to suck.
I totally agree. While we regularly spin some french children’s cds, complete with Frere Jacques lullabies and the like, and I did do up a mixed disc of Sesame Street classics, we’re trying to expose Le Grand Monsieur to something other than a steady diet of Raffi and Charlotte Diamond, mostly for our own sanity.
Here are some child friendly favourites you can drop into the mix, feel free to add your own in the comments.
The Beatles - 1: Yellow Submarine, Penny Lane, She Loves You, 8 Days a Week .. they’re all upbeat, simple to sing, full of rhymes and easy to dance to (for both of you).
Jack Johnson - Curious George Soundtrack: If I didnt tell you it was a kid friendly cd, you would never know. Jack’s laidback flip flop friendly music fits right in for a long Sunday drive.
They Might Be Giants: These guys are legendary for bringing cool music to the kids, they’ve already served up 3 albums, and a DVD of the stuff.
French Playground - Despite its kid-centric vibe, the disc is fun since every track stands out as great world muisc.
Barenaked Ladies - Snack Time: Their last album proclaimed Barenaked Ladies Are Men, and they’re dads too. The Scarborough Lads will serve up this kid’s disc on May 6.
While we’re on the topic of kid friendly stuff that’s easily digestable for adults, you should check out Working Dad’s ongoing series of posts about Children’s Books That Won’t Make Your Hurl.
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Zacharie turns 9 months old today. Yesterday we went to the doc (Dr Smillie - how cool a name is that?!) to get his measurements and check up done.
We also wanted some extra stuff done as we get ready to head off to France in 3 weeks. Woah, already?
So the stats are: 74cm long, and 9.33kg. He’s grown 20cm and almost tripled his weight since birth. That puts him in the 75th percentile for height, and 50th for weight - a nice tall, lean boy. Perfect!
Some other things about Z:
He LOVES to stand. We’ve been having him stand since he was born, always balancing him that way, and now that he’s been crawling for about a week and a half, he’s wanting to move to the next step. That means pulling himself up on anything he can find.
He likes to play peek a boo. He’ll pull a blanket or cloth over his face for a second, we’ll do a “Where’s Zacharie?” and then he pulls it down with a big smile, only to put it back up seconds later. This can go on a couple dozen times.
He’s very chatty. Ba Ba Ba Ba or Ma Ma Ma Ma are the sounds he makes, oh along with growling and grunting when he can’t get his way. We’re trying sign language, and he can make the sign for milk, and we think it’s in context, although part of it is just a movement he likes to make with his hand.
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My pal Meg likes to make lists. This morning, as I was playing with Z, I was reminded of some of his favorite things, so I threw them together in a list.
Richard Scarry Busytown poster - I sit in the chair with him standing on my lap and he climbs my chest to stand on my shoulders and face to get a better view - when he gets to the top, he flaps his arms and coos in glee. The best part? The poster is Jen’s from when she was a kid that we had reframed.
Trucks - He loves them. Garbage day is the best in his world
Apple Mango Tango - He has it for breakfast, a couple cubes of apple, one of mango and he’s off
Ikea Sparka Soccer Ball - This is, quite possibly, the GREATEST children’s toy ever created. It’s a super super soft soccer ball that is machine washable. We can throw it back and forth, he can chew on it and it is his favourite toy. Bar none.
Eating things - He’s teething, so everything goes in his mouth
Silvery fish - He loves standing at the windows of the Aquarium waving as the salmon swim past
Books by Sandra Boynton or Olivier Dunrea - He loves the ones about Hippos and Gertie
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Blah.. blah .. blah .. blah. Oscars schmoscars. Do we really care?
No. But it is fun to watch. And bitch.
Best line of the night to Jon Stewart: “You know what we do in commercial breaks? Huddle together and make catty comments about what you at home are wearing.”
Nice. Perfect. Cause I know you were all like “Who?” and “Eww” when Tilda Swinton won. And when Daniel Day Lewis was interviewed on the red carpet you took a ruler up to the screen to measure his hoops and recoiled in horror when his date’s dress was fully revealed.
Okay, nastiness out of the way, we all know it’s really about the parties afterwards. My son Zacharie will do his best to demonstrate how the night will go for many of the nominees.
Before.
Outfit picked by Rachel Zoe, hair done by Ken Paves.
After.
Damn, that LiLo knows how to show a boy a good time.
If ya want a really fun way to watch the show, get on Twitter. Everyone is randomly firing up feedback and one liners and exclamations and disappointments. They say the whole world is watching, and if you’re on twitter, it really feels like it’s true.
You know, stuff like this gem from Meg Fowler: “I’d like to accept my award for Bourne Ultimatum, but I’m busy f**king Matt Damon!”
See ya next year!
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We found out Jen was pregnant in late Septmeber, 2006. By November, some 6 months before our son was born, we had started to put his name down on daycare waiting lists.
Such is the state of babysitting in 2007. You’re not a human being in the eyes of the law, but you’re all good to be on a daycare waiting list.
We are now on 5 different waiting lists and we’re getting closer to the end of Jen’s mat leave. She’s back in May and we still don’t have a guaranteed spot for Le Grand Monsieur.
We had our first interview yesterday.
Jen was nervous. She’d forgotten her list of questions at home. I tried to reassure her it was just one of those things. You “have a feeling” when you walk in. An instinct will tell you if it’s an okay place, or not.
I mean, how else do you say “I would like my son, the ultimate love of my life, to spend 75% of his waking hours in your care.” It has to be trust. It has to be instinct. There’s no other way to get it done.
The state of daycare is what’s really disappointing. We almost have to take the first space that becomes available. We’ve been on waitlists for 18mos and still nothing has opened up.
Jen and I are lucky in that I work in radio and can be home most mornings, while she is in sales and can do work from both home and the road. So we have the ultimate in flex schedules, but we still need someone to look after him, and at 11 months old, that’s almost like saying “we need someone to raise him.”
She hands us a schedule of when meals and changes happen.
“She only changes them 3 times a day,” Jen says. I don’t get it. “I never let him sit in a wet or dirty diaper,” says Jen. “Will she?”
I’m not sure. She’s got 5 other kids to look after, and my mind immediately runs to Jon and Kate Plus Eight. How can 1 person do it?
The menu includes chicken nuggets. Hmmm. Sounds like Le Grand Monsieur is going to be brown bagging it. I make all of Zacharie’s food. A friend turned us on to Annabel Karmel’s books and I do the boiling and pureeing and freezing each week. It’s dead easy. I don’t know why people buy the processed stuff.
Maybe its easier to throw your child in care when the kids start toddling and can take direction and get around on their own, but Zacharie is just.a.baby.
Ideally, Jen would stay home. She wants to stay home. She loves her job, but she loves her son more. I mean, who can blame her?
We have friends who have not gone back to work after their mat leave ended, and I don’t know how they do it. Maybe it’s because they got in the housing market 3 years before we did - that means about $250 000 less on the mortgage, and if we had that kind of equity, one income would be doable.
While we’ve been doing fine on E-I since Jen’s been off, not falling behind, we’re not necessarily getting ahead either.
So we will continue the search for care and look for someone worthy of raising our son.
Which is pretty much impossible.
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When babies are born what comes out is gluey and sticky and much like tar. Then it gets a little wetter and grainier, kinda like mustard. These first phases may be tough to clean up, but they don’t really smell.
Once they started eating real food, the smell comes, but the clean up is easier. The #2 is solid little log that easily rolls out of the diaper and into the toilet - but you need a hazmat suit to get close enough to roll it out.
Today, while cleaning Zizou, I saw the log and was reminded of this fun song from Ren and Stimpy:
Yes, everyone loves a log.
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Some other things about Z:
Richard Scarry Busytown poster - I sit in the chair with him standing on my lap and he climbs my chest to stand on my shoulders and face to get a better view - when he gets to the top, he flaps his arms and coos in glee. The best part? The poster is Jen’s from when she was a kid that we had reframed.
Jen was nervous. She’d forgotten her list of questions at home. I tried to reassure her it was just one of those things. You “have a feeling” when you walk in. An instinct will tell you if it’s an okay place, or not.
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