First haircut

Tonight Brea had her first haircut - well, her first non-Mama butchering her hair, haircut. She did very well. Daddy was a trouper to offer his lap so that I could take the pictures :o)

Meeting fab hairdresser Catherine!

Distracted by a book.

Snip, snip!

Catherine made the mistake of asking about her nose
- Brea had to show her finger prowess.

Catherine also asked about her bellybutton.

Taking a look at the finished cut.

All done! What a pretty girl!

Brea the Adorable!

Thought I'd share some Brea moments with you.

• She loves music. Tonight we watched some Kideos on the computer while Daddy was out at his practice, when we got to Sesame Street's Sing and I started singing along, Brea joined in too - she kinda "ahhhed" through the la, la's but it was so sweet.
• She is a great helper in all kinds of things: she loves to take the laundry from the washer to the dryer, she helps with emptying the cutlery tray in the dishwasher, and she LOVES to pull things out of drawers while I try to put things away - her current favourite is my sock/underwear drawer - there's nothing quite like finding bras trailing down the hallway.
• She is consistent with a few words: woof, fish, shoes, uh oh. I guess animals and fashion rank above Mama and Dada.
• She is a pro with buttons, all kinds! She figured out how to work the clock radio in our room and will turn on the music to dance daily. She's extra good with the remotes and will somehow get the TV to do things that Daddy had no idea it did.
• She continues to love books and reading and can sit for a long time flipping through pages and pages.
• She's recently discovered her nose and will stick her fingers up it very happily if you ever ask her "where's Brea's nose?"
• When we are going out, Brea will go to the closet and pull out our shoes to bring to us. Somehow, she feels that my runners go with everything.

She is such a joy and we love every moment with her. Brea, you are the most adorable, lovable, little girl :o) We love you so much!

Craft Fairs

The thing I like most as Christmas approaches is the Craft Fairs that start popping up everywhere. I have plenty of crafty friends and family members but with Brea, it's hard to find time for me to be creative. So I like to live vicariously through others and see the amazing talent that's out there. I was SO lucky this past weekend to be able to stop at a fair at a nearby high school and had the chance to discover Stacey Firth, creator of Zoolets. Her website isn't quite up yet but she has an Etsy page in the meanwhile. She makes the cutest door plaques, growth charts and prints! I've been searching for something like this for a while now to adorn Brea's room and she was so great to accomodate the creation of a personalized sign for Brea. As many of you know, Brea LOVES dogs or as she calls them "woofs". I talked to Stacey and she designed this super cute plaque just for Brea!


I can't wait to get it and hang it on her door! Brea was excited too, she let out quite a few appreciative "woofs!" when I showed her the preview :o) It's always so great to be able to support local artists.

Hallowe'en!

I had big plans this Hallowe'en. We were going to visit my school, maybe make it out to the Pumpkin Patch, hopefully meet Malaya and Kaitlyn at StrongStart but unfortunately, Brea's cold came back. We went to the doctor's office on Friday instead of the festivities. Luckily, her cough is just from all the snot running down her throat at night and nothing worse. I was worried because it's been keeping her (and us) awake at night.

So, my fab hubby had great plans for my birthday - we were going to have some friends over but due to sick baby and very tired Mommy (who was up every 1.5 hours with sick baby during the night) - we had to postpone the celebration. I had a very restful day instead, vegging and such. Then I pigged out on pizza... my fave!

In the end, Brea was well enough on Saturday so we joined Reg, Jin and Kaitlyn to go Trick or Treating at the mall. It was super busy but it was really nice that Brea got to see her friend. Brea was thrilled to be a Dalmatian puppy this year as "woof" is one of her favourite sounds to make :o) We thought she was super cute wagging her tail as she waddled through the mall. Craig had even planned a surprise for me. When Brea and I stopped at Jin's store - Kings Jewellers, I got some special TREAT! The "candy" that thumped into Brea's bag was a jewelery box with a gorgeous white gold heart locket! I was so surprised, I think my exact words were: "I got a box!?" I'm going to have to find the perfect pictures to go into it :o)

Woof!

Wagging a tail

Cowgirl Reg, Ladybug K and Busy Bee Jin

A tuckered puppy

Making friends

A Smiley Jack

Apple Fest 2009

We were lucky to be able to make the Apple Festival this year at UBC's Botanical Gardens. It was a bit of a long drive since we live so far out now but Brea took it really well... she must have been excited 'cause I was! There were lots of people there and the place was busy despite being a little bit drippy. We sampled the apple cider and apple pie before I got cracking on the apple buying. I didn't take the apple tasting challenge this year since Brea is still new to the chewing of crunchy apples and 60 varieties would have been too much for her but next year will be different :o) I walked away with a few scrumptious bags of Shamrock (tart and sweet), Rubinette (delicious desert apples), and Yoko (crunchy and sweet). Yum!

Getting ready to trek to the apple site.

Brea eyeing the caramel apples.

Brea Appleseed

Wordless Wednesday - Clean Up!

Taking a cue from her cousin... nothing like starting them off early!

Cold, cold, go away!

My oh my, it's been such a lovely weekend for Thanksgiving but alas, mommy and baby have nasty, yucky colds! I had my fingers crossed that the cold Craig had been harbouring would pass us by but no such luck. Brea's had the brunt of it and has been drippy and coughing for the last few days. I managed to hold off a bit longer but it was inevitable. I think the cold has sapped my brain as well. I went to the drug store today to get a vaporizer. We do have a cool mist humidifier (Crane's Frog Cool Mist) but I thought the steam might help a stuffy nose and cough better.

I settled on the Vicks Steam Guard Vaporizer. There are so many to choose from but this hearkened back to my childhood days and I figured, if it made me feel better then, I'm sure it will work for Brea now. As an added bonus, both the humidifier and vaporizer have plastic that is BPA-free!

But as I said, the cold leached my brain and when I got the box home I couldn't get it to work. I actually took it back and exchanged it for a second one that I ALSO couldn't get to work! Finally, Craig took a look... he's been pretty busy the last two days with his new toy, the iphone, but he managed to drag himself away when my cries of frustration got too loud to be ignored.

Apparently, I can't read instructions! The vaporizer works differently if you have soft vs hard water. In our case, with soft water, salt needs to be added to get it to work. I neglected to read that part even though it was not only in the instruction booklet but also on the box tabs when you open them - very obvious, just not for me. Sigh...