Family Time

Yesterday we had a little family party for Sam and his Grandma. We had a light lunch with a not so light chocolate cake for dessert. I tried a recipe from Nigellas book 'Feasts', I have found that her recipe's work very well, tastes great and easy to make at home. It's her quadruple chocolate loaf recipe but I baked it in a bunt pan and topped it with some creme chantilly and fresh berries. The cake turned out good, could have been a little less dense but I can easily alter the recipe to change that in the future.  It tasted great and I have to admit to having more then one slice. Unfortunetaly, Sam's uncle and aunty were sick and could not make it but luckily for him his cousins were well and came out without their parents anyways. It is so amazing to see Sam with his cousins, he is so happy around them! They really do play well together. His oldest cousin, Anika, is 5 and very sweet with him. She takes his hand when he is a little unsteady on his feet, makes funny faces to make him laugh and gives him lots of hugs.  We ended up staying for dinner as well, the kids had a bath in the jacuzzi tub before dinner. Grandma and Grandpa's bath toys are way better then ours, they have cool submarine boats, divers etc. Zach went out before Sam and Anika turned on the jets as they were little scary for him but Sam and Anika loved the jets. Grandma poured in soap which they loved, Sam eat his fair share of soapy bubbles and almost got "swept away' by the jets. Thankfully Anika was right there to make sure he didn't fall though, such a responsible older cousin!  After a fun filled busy day we arrived back home just before 8pm with a tired Sam who went straight to bed. Colin and I were exhausted too and called it a night not long after Sam. //Nina

Climbing little monkey

We have been busy today. We went for lunch down at the quay, Sam walked around outside trying to catch the pigeons. Sam is always one step ahead of us but he had nothing on the pigeons. After lunch we went to see Dr.Chan, our family doc, Sam had his 1 year check up. Our little boy is growing fast and is learning new things every day.  I turned my head for a second this evening and Sam had climbed up on the coffee table! What do you do when you have a little monkey who climbs on everything? We can't get rid of all our furniture but as soon as we baby proof one thing he find something else to scare us with. The coffee table had been strategically placed in front of the fireplace and blocking our side table by the couch for a reason. Now what do we do? //Nina

Park Pictures

The sun has been shining for most of the day so we got our jackets on and headed out to the park! //Nina

Puppy Love

Yesterday I pick up Sam from daycare and noticed that he has an envelope in his box. In this envelope was a bunch of valentines cards he had gotten from his friends. They are so cute!  I am that clueless mom that had no idea that kids do this here. Is this a north american thing? Must be, at least that is what I am using as an excuse that I did not know about it. I am sort of double about valentines for kids. One part of me thinks it's incredibly adorable and one part of me wonders if it is really healthy. How do you make sure no one is left out? Do you make kids send mandatory cards to each other- what's the point then? Do you have a no card/present policy at daycares? But that's no fun either. Or maybe they could have a secret valentine like a secret santa idea? I don't have the answer but I feel a bit double about it. Regardless, my heart melted when I saw these little cards he had gotten. //Nina

Valentines Hero's

There's a group of guys at UBC that went around to random girls houses on valentines day night and sang to them. The video has gone viral and they made the morning news this morning. They are so cute! Sam was clapping his hands when they were singing, he really liked it. Enjoy. //Ninahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzq9wIi2y1Q

Sunday Stroll

 Forget it Mamma, I'm not standing still so you can get a photo...

Just wanted to post some of photos of Sam on our outing to the grocery store. It felt good to be outside after being inside for a while. We left the stroller as Sam loves to walk, that way he gets to say hello to all the dogs we meet. Now we are back home obviously and we are listening to a cd Sam got for christmas, 'Big music for small ears'. It's a collection of famous classical music, right now the cd for resting time is playing. It has proven to calm Sam down and it's also very nice for us to listen to. Very relaxing. Perfect for this cold sunday afternoon. //Nina

Brotherly love

 Park Guell, Barcelona.

Just got off the phone with my brother, he just got home from Thailand. So jealous! I wish he could send some of that healthy looking tan he's got going on my way, I need it. My brother and I are only 2.5years apart in age. While growing up we could not stand each other, loved each other and did have lots of fun together. You had to when you spent the summers in a small town on an island where there were no other kids. Once we got older we really got close and we still are even though we don't get to see each other very often. He has the funniest sense of bizarre potty humour that always makes me laugh! Anyways, I love my bro and miss him. Here are some pictures of us when we went to Barcelona a few years ago. //Nina

Shitty weekend

The night to friday Colin got the tummy bug that Sam had, he had a rough night but I felt fine. At 6am we were talking about what I should do, drop Sam at daycare, go to work then fly out to Calgary with Sam and Colin would follow when he felt better. About 5min after that conversation I started violently vomiting and thus our plans changed. Everyone stayed home and no trip to Calgary. I am so bummed out about it. It's bad enough to feel like you are going to die, lying on the bathroom floor with the shakes, but that it has to happen on one of the few weekends  we have really exciting plans makes it just so much worse! We survived yesterday which I am sure will go down in our family history as probably the worst day ever. Today,  we are better but exhausted but regardless of how tired we are we have had to sanitise both bathrooms from top to bottom and wash every piece of clothing, blanket, sheets, towels etc to feel a little less gross. I got a message from my mom reminding me of the 1st meal me and my siblings would have after a stomach flu and it really made me crave it, bad! Since I do not have the ingredients of making fish balls with becamel and potatoes I started thinking about other food favourites I had as a kid. Macaroni pudding was high up there and since I had everything I need for it plus the little labour involved in making it I decided to make it. It's still in the oven and we'll see if I am actually able to eat any of it today as I have been going from craving food to being completely repulsed by it. As I am typing Colin and Sam are vacuuming, Sam is being very helpful by holding the electrical wire and making mamma nervous that he's going to put it in his mouth. I better stop typing and help out. //Nina

Upside down Inside out

Sam had a trying night last night, poor little bum. His tummy hardly gave him any breaks so he did not get much sleep. At 7am this morning Colin and I was walking around like zombies while Sam was happy to be up, not seemingly bothered at all by the nights affairs. It is so nice to see him back to his happy self but his tummy is still bothering him and he refuses pretty much all solid foods. He is drinking water like a champ though which helps. My slow moving body has managed to do a mountain of laundry somehow (this happens when your kid has a night of vomiting) and I just started packing for our weekend in Calgary and I have to get enough motivation to make dinner which I have non of at the moment.  //Nina

Happy Birthday?...well..parts of it anyways

 After the pool walking to the car

 Below- On our way to dinner

Samuel's first birthday started out with singing, blueberry-banana pancakes and lots of play. After his 1st nap we took him to the pool where we played in the water, had lunch then played some more. 10 minutes before we were going home a woman, clearly mentally challenged, came up to us and was very interested in Sam. He did not mind until she very quickly and forcefully started pressing his head down, he was sitting in a floaty toy that both Colin and I were holding onto. We physically had to remove her and I picked up Sam immediately and walked away from her. Obviously, Sam was terrified and we were a little shaken up too. The woman meant to harm, I think she wanted to get Sam closer to her and it went wrong. Colin tried to explain to her that he's just a baby that cannot swim but I think that was a lost cause. Since we did not want Sam to be scared of water we walked over to a different part of the pool where we hid with him for a few minutes before going home. Sam was fine shortly after but I have never seem him so scared before. For dinner we went to our local sushi joint, it's so close we don't bother with the stroller anymore, Sam loves to walk anyways. Dinner was not a huge hit, Sam was not very into his food which is unusual for him. No, he did not eat sushi. We brought his own food. He was fidgety and not his happy self. On our way home we noticed the library was still open and stopped by for a visit, Sam loves the library. He was so happy, walking around checking things out as he always does when disaster struck. In a matter of a second he went from happy kid to vomiting violently...The carpet was covered and my first instinct was to pick him up, he kept puking after I picked him up so I got covered and I mean covered. I cannot describe in words the magnitude of this puke. I have never seen anything like it and from such a small person!  The staff was so great and helped us, Sam ended up pretty much ruining a bathroom too. The 'out of service' sign had to go up until they could sanitise it. Once we got home, everyone got cleaned up and a load of laundry had started the puking fest continued. He is now sleeping and we are bracing ourselves for the night to come. So all in all, pretty good birthday, eh... At least he did have a great party this past weekend and of course the stain on the library floor marking his territory. //Nina

Happy Valentines Day

What a difference a year makes, last year on valentines we had made dinner reservations to go out but ended up having to cancel as I was having what I thought was bad braxton hicks. We ended up ordering in but did eat in candle light, it turned out really nice except for the pains in my lower abdomen. I was really disappointed to have to stay in though. I had been ordered to stay home and take it very easy (my one job was to not have a baby yet) and had not left our apartment since my hospital stay and I was starting to get a bad case of cabin fever. Going out for dinner was a really big deal for me then but those braxton hicks I thought I was having turned out to be early labour pains and Samuel arrived the next day. Probably a good thing we did not go out.. One year later, we are eating under much more chaotic circumstances with a one year old running around. Yes, he can run. Now our dinners consists of usually one of us standing and/or the other cleaning food thrown on the floor by Sam. It has happened that one of us eat in the bathroom while Sam has his bath. Romantic, eh! But I am not complaining, I am happy to stay in tonight-infact I prefer it. Colin and I have a nice dinner on the stove, we will eat together tonight thanks to baby Einstein while admiring the beautiful roses I was lucky to get : ).  Hope you have a great  valentine, I am. My husband rocks and I am lucky to get to spend this night with him. // Nina

Party Time!

Yesterday we celebrated Sam's 1st birthday with friends and some family. We rented the party room in our complex and it was well worth it (not that is was expensive but anyways)!  We spent the morning decorating, blowing up balloon's and getting the food ready. I love having parties so I was in my element. The students at the culinary school I work at donated their practice cakes that I also put out, my brother in-law Derek (has a sweet tooth) quickly started grading each cake : ). Sam and I, as you know, had been baking as well. Our cake was the chocolate/banana monkey cake. Once the first guests arrived Sam was a bit shy and not quite sure of his surroundings, that quickly changed as soon as his 2 cousins walked in, all of a sudden he was fine with all the people and started playing with the kids.  We did a fishing game for the kids so they could fish up their goodie-bags, actually, uncle Sean and uncle Dan was the party leaders on that one. Sam had a bit of a melt down when everyone was surrounding him taking his picture and he could not see mamma or daddy for a second but other then that he was a happy little boy. It was a busy party with lots of kids but my husband noticed that Sam was no where to be found at one point, where was he? He was taking a break inside his tunnel chewing on a crayon (non-toxic btw), it was so cute Colin had to take a picture. Our amazing friends stayed and helped clean up once all the little kids had gone home, again, amazing friends!  Thanks for everyone who came and thanks for all the amazing presents! Sam has been playing with them all morning.  //Nina