Wordless Wednesday - Mont-Saint-Michel (Normandy, France)

Bon Voyage Kathy, Doug and Max! France awaits you.

8 months!

Happy 8 months, my beautiful girl!

Happy Earth Day!

I love that I live in such a beautiful country and especially in such a beautiful province on this planet.

When Brea was born, I researched many things in order to find what would work best for us and to make sure we had some green alternative. One such thing was cloth diapers. It really looked daunting at first but there was plenty of information to weed through and eventually after talking to friends and family... I decided it was the way to go. We chose to go with Bummis (a nice Canadian company) and it is one of the BEST decisions that we have made and I am so thrilled with the results. I am a huge advocate now and am so happy to share my new knowledge with any new parents.

We started off with Bummis "Cloth Diapering Kit" which consists of prefolds and covers. For about $150, it was more than enough for us to use and only do washing every 3 days. I have friends who use diaper services - a good alternative - but I found it wasn't any harder to do it myself at home. I checked out some detergents that works well with cloth and decided on "Country Save", Brea's never had any problems with bum rash. I do a short wash in cold and then a hot wash with detergent, the diapers come out clean (even with poop on it). Now that Brea is on solids I supplement the diaper with a bio-liner which is flushable.

There you have it, I am happier to know that the landfills are a little less cluttered and that my baby has a happy bum.

Wordless Wednesday - Bath time!

Squeaky clean!

Mommy Bloggers

I started this blog mainly for family and friends to follow in our life with Brea. It has been so wonderful to be able to stay connected with those who do not live near us and give them a chance to see what we have been doing. I haven't been one to go all out in terms of putting my blog WAY out there into the public eye, the closest was the blog party I was a part of where people from around the world participated in a chance to visit each others' blogs. During that party, I had a chance to discover that there are so MANY amazing mommy-bloggers out there. Many have a wonderful sense of humour, great advice and terrific ideas to share. I have been meaning to list a few of the blogs I've found for a while now so here goes:

The Home GourmEH! - A fab Canadian Mommy who shares her yummy dishes and a whole lot of great foodie advice.

Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile - A Mommy who shares wonderful book reviews through the eyes of her bookworm son.

Muthering Heights - A quirky and oh so funny blog from a Mommy that I would love to be friends with.

I am floored by this community of online people who share so much and I am so happy to be a part of it.

Wordless Wednesday

The path that leads down to Omaha Beach in Normandy, France where Allied forces landed June 6, 1944.

Easter

Cousins at play.

I hope everyone had a good Easter.

We had the joy of visiting family to share a wonderful dinner with. Brea has really enjoyed her time with her cousins and Auntie and Uncle. Nana and Grumpa were on hand as well and it was a scrumptious feast. Craig made a fabulous ham, Grumpa told us of a great recipe for turkey, and Auntie Signe brought a yummy pie!

Brea was super spoiled for Easter. She got such lovely presents from Mexico - including a beautiful dress and a cute beaded box and bracelet.

Brea in her lovely Mexican dress chosen by Grumpa.

A colourful beaded box for special treasures.

Thank-you everyone for making it such a great get-together :o)

Rolling, rolling, rolling

Brea has finally made the big roll from back to tummy!!! It has been in development this past week and this weekend, she did it! We had previously attempted to tempt her with toys, etc. to see if she would try to grab them and roll herself but to no avail. Apparently, the trick was to use her mittens! Every morning, Brea has a snuggle with me in bed and I pull off her mittens (she still rubs and scratches her eyest) and I put them up near the top of the bed. Her eyes always follow me when I do this. On Friday morning, she decided that looking at them wasn't enough, she wanted her mittens! So, she reached and reached and rolled over with her prize firmily in her grasp. The next day, she did it again. Daddy was very proud of his little girl. I was super proud too... until last night...

Brea has been fighting a nasty cold this past weekend and has been back in her bouncy chair (she can't breathe at all lying down). Last night, she woke up and I figured it was because she was all plugged up. I tried to hold her and pat her back and walk a bit but nothing was working. Finally, not knowing what else to really do with grumpy baby, I put her on the bed. That's when she started rolling! For half an hour, all Brea did was roll, from one end of the bed to the other. She just REALLY wanted to practice her new skill. I was tired and REALLY wanted her to go back to sleep. Sigh. What's going to happen when she starts crawling?!

Cousins

Brea's sun-kissed cousins just came back from their time in Mexico and stopped for a visit this past weekend. It's been a while since we've had the chance to see the brood and Brea had not seen her cousins since she was born. She was in a bit of shock at the beginning I think of their endless energy but Madison quickly won her over. Here's a few pictures of the afternoon:

Playdate!

It's playtime!!!

Last Friday, Brea spent a fun-filled afternoon visiting with her friends Susanna and Max! Big sis, Joelle was there as well to make sure all the little kids had their hands full of toys :o) Mama Lynda prepared a scrumptious lunch for the grown-ups and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

The girls sharing a giggle.

Susanna is one fab babe right on her way to crawling, I couldn't believe how strong she was pushing up on her legs and arms! Max was super cute sitting between the two girls and though he powered out for a short nap, Mama Kathy made sure he was the darling of the party with a crazy elephant hat :o)


Brea meanwhile was in awe of Susanna's many toys and of Big Sister Joelle who endlessly supplied them within arms reach - Brea certainly made use of her sitting skills by leaning forward and pulling many of the toys away from the other babes (she was a bit of a horder).

Joelle was so great with the babes!

Thanks for a wonderful visit!

Show me those pearly whites!!!

Chewing away on her soothie, that's what she does with them now.

Just wanted a chance to show her cute cheeks!

So this morning I was feeding Brea when she chomped down on me. Normally it pinches a bit but today it kinda stung. I looked inside her mouth and what is that peeping out from her gums? Her two bottom teeth are breaking through!!! No wonder she's gnawing on everything :o)

Wordless Wednesday

There's just something about a baby gnawing on a rat.

Passport!

Last week we went to get Brea's passport photo taken. We are thinking of perhaps traveling a little bit this summer, maybe into the States and thought it would be prudent to get a passport for Brea. At the very least it will be a good ID for her. It is the cutest picture ever! The photographer at Regal Photography did an awesome job. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to scan it before submitting the application so you'll just have to wait until I get the passport in the mail. Passport Canada is so quick now that the crazy deadlines from before have calmed down. We were in and out in a half an hour! Yay!

We had Brea's 7 month check-up last week - she's happy and healthy and her new stats are as follows:
Height: 72.5 cm/28.5 in
Weight: 8.6 kg/19 lbs

She is really starting to lengthen out and is now into her 12 month clothes!

Things are getting back to normal... Brea misses spending the whole day with Daddy but we are getting back into visiting friends and keeping busy with baby activities. I've been super happy with how things are going with solids and have been making plenty of food stuff to freeze for Brea. She is still focused on two meals a day with a lunch time snack but is slowly starting to eat more. She much prefers Craig to feed her, maybe he makes better yummy faces :o) Last night, Craig made a beef stew for Brea which I am pureeing today. We got the recipe out of "The Baby's Table" - recommended by the wonderful Mama Lynda.


It has some really great stuff. Craig looked through it too and remarked on how tasty many of the recipes sounded until the directions say to "put into blender/food processor and puree".