A closer look

Merry Christmas Mr. Nate!

Nate with some of his booty from under the tree. He is still a little snotty from his cold. These fabulous little bath toys are courtesy of his aunt Heather, Uncle Juan and Cousin Erica. They have to be the cutest toys I've seen in a long time and Nate adores them (so doews Snoopy, he keeps snapping them up and trying to run away).

A day for boxing?

Boxing up the gifts? Boxing up the tree? Forget it--I'm keeping the damn tree for as long as it looks good (and it still does). I'm against boxing stuff, and really just boxing in general (so there!). We had a lovely day yesterday. It was purty mellow and all. Nate has a nasty cold that made him a little crankster sometimes, but mostly he was a dimmer version of his normally happy self. He really liked opening his first gift, but was kind of done after that. We unwrapped the gifts for him and he played with them the rest of the day. Our phone was doing really really wonky things yesterday for more than half the day, so if you tried to get in touch with us or were waiting for us to get in touch with you, we apologise (you can say you tried even if you didn't- one of those make Tirade feel good lies). I was thinking I'd try to go shopping today but I think I'll stay home, it just seems too stressful. Also making of the traditional post Christmas turkey soup, turkey pot pies etc will commence. And I feel like I haven't made nearly enough cookies yet. Justin got me a little book with 40 cookie recipes for my stocking and there are some very yummy looking prospects.

Cheer!

Lo y'all.

This seldom posting thing is a bit hard to get used to, and then when I have the time to blog I'm too tired to be my normal witty and chatty (well, chatty at least) self. I have five days off in a row folks, and that is music to my ears. Not that I had a really long week. I had a Christmas lunch, a kids party, and a lot of chatty catching up stuff this past week. Not to mention a cubicle to stuff full of useless bits of my life, a computer to break in, and a desk chair to re-adjust for my butt. Justin brought Nate for the kids party and we had a great time. Nate got to hang with Santa again and crawl around on the boardroom floor and watch his momma decorate a gingerbread house. Hopefully there will be pictures soon.

I'm really liking being back to work and it seems like Justin and Nate and Snoopy are having a blast without me (I'm just a teeny bit jealous, but seeing them together make my little heart go pitty-pat). Justin is working today and I've had a full dose of Natty-all-to-myself medicine (it is good for what ails me). I made Nate his own Christmas stocking today to join all of ours on the mantle, and tonight I sang him carols until he went to sleep (and almost cried). This being a mom thing is sometimes way cooler than I ever thought it could be.

'nuff said

Grrrrr

I was almost finished a lengthy post on my first day of work and then POOF, it disappeared into thin air (goddamn your eyes blogger). I am so not posting it again cause, y'all I'm tired. So in a nutshell:

I returned to work on Monday, not Friday.

Friday bad for some unknown reason (seriously they told me to come on Monday instead).

Work is pretty fun with some very nice people telling me that they are happy to see me and saying very nice things.

First day I missed Nate but not too much.

Second day (today) I was very very conflicted between liking my job and staring at pictures of my child feeling like I needed to run home and hug him immediately.

I like work though, and it's nice to be back.

Taa Daa!

Must lie down now.

Santa

A will of steel

So Nateski has some serious attitude. I mean I kind of expected it, but not for a little while longer. He has decided that no food will pass his lips that has not been stuffed in his mouth with his own little hands. This leaves me scurrying to find things he can eat (he has rejected diced carrots and squash so far). Today he ate little bits of broccoli for lunch with his mac and cheese and then later tonight managed some diced yams. If you try to feed him he goes from cheerful little dude to pisssy little so-and-so before you can but blink your pretty eyes. For pureed fruit he will sometimes make concessions. I am starting to realise that there may be some all out freaky battles in our house in the years to come. Today I found out that he like pizza crust a lot and that he is capable of spitting out pureed food quite some distance.

Tomorrow we are taking him to see Santa at the local mall. I'm kind of curious to see how he takes it. Did that just sound like some kind of social experiment? My little brother was terrified of Santa from the get go and never, NEVER liked him. Ever. All the pictures we have show me grinning my ass off while my brother, well, not so smiley. Anyhow, Nate is pretty laid back and I think he's gonna like Santa.

We shall see.

Only two days left

I'm returning to work on Friday. It's kind of a weird day to return to work, but I just picked the 15th at random and it turned out to be a Friday. As it happens, I was kind of smart to do it this way. I'll have a day to get oriented, the weekend off, then a week to work, then the Xmas break, (where I'll be off for some days), then a couple of days back and then new year. So it is kind of a graduated return to work. I was all smart without knowing it. It also gives Nate time to adjust a bit more to not having two parents home most of the time to do his bidding.

I have this huge list of stuff still, and am beginning to face the fact that I'll always have a huge list. There are a few more important things that must get done, but overall I think we are ready logistically (if not emotionally). My favorite thing off the list yesterday: baking. I made biscotti (my favorite and time consuming baking yummy). I'm gonna post some pics cause they turned out pretty well. I made candied ginger/dark chocolate, cranberry/white chocolate, and cranberry/almond/white chocolate. I'm hoping to get a bundt cake and a bunch of cookies done in the next couple of days, we shall see.

In the meantime I think I deserve a coffee, and some biscotti.

Anyone remember this girl?

One of the few pictures I have of myself from my teen years (I got it off of the halifax locals page, someone else posted it). I must have been about 16 or 17 then. Y'all, I'm old.

Reno joy addendum.

Isn't it lovely? Ok, maybe it's only me.

Reno joy!

Yesterday Justin and Paul planned, gathered, and installed shelving in our pantry (formerly a mush mash of scattered shelves baskets and bags) and in the living room. I am close to ecstasy, y'all. I know I've become all boring in recent years and this pretty much confirms it. I can't help it, I'm in the throws of a perpetual organisational orgasm (just in time for the holidays). I will post pictures, really I will. I'm that excited.

For all you u-tubers out there, check out this video posting by a friend of mine from waaay back (howdy Neb!). Good thing I wasn't consuming liquid at the time of viewing.

If you are fond of coffee (as you know we are), organic and fair trade practices, and want to support women owned and run collectives check out the Cafe Femenino Foundation and encourage your local independent coffee shop to check it out!

Students were giving out free hugs in downtown Vancouver yesterday, how cool is that?

A little weird, but cool.

Oh Xmas tree, oh Xmas tree

Or something thereabouts. We had tonnes of fun tonight decorating the tree with our friends Paul and Lori and Sosi! Nate didn't seem to care too much about the tree, but loved trying to eat the boxes that the ornaments came in. Sosi was completely adorable, hanging things on the tree and handing us, very carefully, the glass bulbs. We listened to lots of Christmas music and I tied a very un-manly-like bow around Snoopy's collar that Justin insisted had to be removed before he took Snoop for his walk this evening.

We had a really lovely day.

See, for the last few days I've been every once in a while saying to myself "I have to remember to talk about that in my blog." I do this often, and then I promptly forget whatever it was I was going to mention. it's been like that today. Crap. Oh well.

Mr. Nate is very well and fine. He's totally into mac and cheese now cause he can feed it to himself. The problem with this being that he can't eat mac and cheese every day and he gets mortally offended if I try to feed him non finger food from a spoon. Snoopy is loving this. He stations himself under and to one side of the high chair and waits for stuff to fly. Last night Nate managed a few bits of apple as well.

I feel like very soon he's going to ask me for a cheeseburger.

17 years ago

A horrifying thing happened. Y'all know what it was. It wasn't on the front page of any paper this year, nor was it the lead story on the local news. On this day every year I try to stop and remember the women who died in Montreal 17 years ago, as well as all women who have been or are beaten and killed for no other reason than that they are women. I am both incredibly pissed off and profoundly sad that women are still being stabbed, raped, shot, degraded, blamed, and mutilated (all while holding the world's economy on their shoulders). Having worked in the anti-violence movement for some time I have seen a bunch of changes, some good, and some not so good. What I haven't seen is renewed and significant funding in this country to ensure the safety of women fleeing violence and support for women facing violence, nor the condemnation of violence against women in the legal system. What I haven't seen is absolute zero tolerance for violence against women in all areas of life. This sickens me. Today in Vancouver jury selection for the Robert Picton trial begins.

So today, or whatever day you read this, hug your mom or sister or daughter or neighbour and value the women in your life. Thank the powers-that-be for the non-violent men in your life, raise your sons to abhor violence. Remember the women who have died.

The countdown begins!

Only 15 days until I must return to work, and 24 days until happy present day! Talk about sneaking up on ya! As usual I feel unprepared for everything, but I have a strategy for getting semi sorta maybe on top of things. I have clean bathrooms, which is a great way to start December (I'm being serious, clean bathrooms make me very happy). I have this great new mom's calendar what makes me feel like I am getting organized. I have a lovely husband that installed baby gates and curtain rods in my house (in addition to making me latte every morning).

Nate is having a bit of a crap time at the moment. He is teething again (the teeth on either side of his two front teeth) and they must hut like the dickens. Under his gum on one side is a huge blue/purple spot where he is bleeding under the gum. Poor little boober. He is standing up on his own now for at least a few seconds at a time. He does this mostly without knowing it, and when he notices he immediately falls down.

Snoopy has pretty much recovered from his tooth being pulled. Last week Justin noticed that his tooth was cracked and it turned out that he had split it in two. Six hundred bucks later our little Snoop is minus a tooth but in very good spirits.

Justin and I are currently in negotiations about how soon we can get the tree. I'd get it today if he let me.

I love Christmas.