Noah in Neverland.

I think all of you have probably seen the creative mom's photos of her son called"Wengenn in Wonderland" by now. I think the photos of her son posed as everything from a circus clown to a babushka doll have been viewed a million times. If you haven't, you should, check this out.

So I have the greatest and also the most creative friends in the world and they were inspired by this creative mom's photos and threw a baby shower for Noah and me with this theme. I was pleasantly surprised that Noah was so cooperative and let each person set him up for the photo scene they had planned for him. He didn't even protest when he was posed as a baby merman with a pink glittery tail. It was such a fun idea for a baby shower. Which photo is your favourite??

Noah's ark

Picking apples

Merman in a fish bowl

Snowboarding

black, white & pee.

One of the perks of having a newborn is that they can't run away or whine when you want to a take photo of them. My favourite newborn photos are the black and white shots of a newborn in their birthday suit being held by daddy's big strong arms. So since you can learn to do anything on the internet, I read a few blogs about tips for getting good pictures and it said to make sure the baby was fed and asleep and in a warm room and something about lighting but I'm not a photographer so I omitted any technical advice. So yesterday morning, I made sure Noah had been fed, he had been asleep until I took his pajamas off and I figured I'd be done the pictures before he knew he was naked and cold. And as for lighting, well the lights were on in our bedroom. I figured that was as good as I could get. I got Simon to hold Noah in his forearm and before I could even snap a photo, Noah started peeing all over his arm. I actually have a photo where you can see the pee dripping off Simon's arm. The blog did not say what to do when child starts peeing and I was laughing too hard to take pictures but managed to compose myself to take a few good ones.

this is one of my favourite post-pee pictures

So far it had only been a 2 minute photo shoot and since he peed already I convinced Simon to just wipe off his arm and put Noah against his chest and again literally 5 seconds after Noah was on Simon's chest, he peed again! This time the pee didn't stop for almost a minute, I had to run to get reinforcement towels to save our carpets.  So between giggling and mopping up pee, I managed to capture a few more daddy and son moments. I think if Simon wasn't soaked in pee, it would of been more a lovely bonding moment. Ha ha.

So thank you Simon for being such a good sport about it and enjoy these black, white and pee-stained photos.

hello little monkey.

Hello little monkey!

You are 11 days old today. It's been awesome having you here. Thank you for coming a million times faster than your sister did and waiting until we were at the hospital to make your grand entrance. I think Daddy was worried for a bit that I might break his wrist in the car ride to the hospital.

Friends with multiple kids tell me that the second baby is usually easier and so far I think they are right. Not sure if it's because we have more confidence as parents, if we're distracted by your older sister to worry as much or if you are actually an easier baby. Either way, we are glad that you are a pro eater and are putting on the pounds quickly. You are starting to figure out that you should be awake during the day and sleeping more at night but you still get confused with that one and want to eat all the time at night. I'm glad at least you go to sleep right away after your tummy is full and I don't have to soothe you to sleep. You have a much bigger appetite than your sister at this age. We call Natallie our little "Nallie bear" and we joke that you are no little bear, you are more like a giant panda! If you keep eating at this rate you'll be bigger than your sister in no time. You're just about 10 pounds now, your sister is 2 years older and only 15 pounds more than you are!

I'm so glad you are here, little monkey. I've been sitting in your room in the last weeks of being pregnant wondering what it would feel like to bring you back into your little jungle room. Hope you like lime green because we've decided it's your signature color. Your grandma quilted you the most adorable monkey quilt, it matches your room perfectly. And hope you like the monkey decals, I stayed up til midnight one night working on it.

You are a chubby little monkey, I love you so much already.  I know it's only been 11 days but thanks for making them awesome.

Love you to the moon and back!

XOXO
Mama

Dinosaur-sized bubbles.

Baby is due in 2 days and honestly, I really thought that I would of been in labour by now. But I'm not, so what do you do when you're waiting for baby? Make 10 foot gigantic bubbles of course. If you know Simon you know he is a creative guy and once he has an idea there is nothing stopping him. So with a trusty YouTube how-to video and a recipe from the internet, we set out to make dinosaur sized bubbles for Natallie. If you're wondering how to make the bubble solution it's just 3 simple ingredients: dish soap (we used Dawn), water and light corn syrup. Then Simon made his bubble blower contraption with 2 ski poles, cotton rope and a weight. The results were AMAZING! Unbelievably huge bubbles that Natallie LOVED!  Just a word of caution that the bubbles are really sticky and don't let the solution get in your eyes. If you are doing this with kids, you should have them wear sunglasses. We learned that the hard way with Natallie sobbing and now she says "bubbles, no eyes, no eyes!" But other than that, it was an spectacular! If you have kids (or not), you should totally try it:

And now some artsy, edited ones:

This is my favourite one:

 

 

 

So what do you think???  I know you are all waiting for me to blog about the new baby but since it hasn't happened yet, the next best thing is giant 10 foot bubbles right????

last chance photo shoot.

Dear little baby:
  This Tuesday marks 37 weeks which is technically "full term", its still 3 weeks until you should make your official exit from inside and if you want to come a bit earlier. I'm OK with that. I still have some fun summer things planned for the last week of August though, I really want to take Natallie to see the Super Dogs show at the PNE and there's this improv show at Granville Island that your dad and I are planning to go to at the end of Aug so anytime after Aug 30th would work out well for me. My friend Debbie might bake some of those "labour inducing" cookies she made for me when your sister was born, I ate a dozen of them the night before my due date and went into labour that evening. I don't know if it was the cookies but who would turn down an excuse to eat a dozen delicious cookies? Well one thing on my to-do list before we officially meet you was a family photo shoot at the beach. Your auntie Rainbee took some awesome pictures for us. I think partially it was because Natallie was so happy to be at the beach at sunset instead of in bed. I didn't realize how massive I am until I looked at these pictures. No wonder I can't sleep at night. Seriously! How do I stand up straight?! My belly is so out of proportion to the rest of my body! Anyways, I'm glad you are growing up really big in there and I am hoping we'll get to meet you really soon and then we'll go back to beach and take some more photos. Anyways, you keep squirming away inside and we'll get to hold you oh-so-soon! Love you to the moon and back!

all smiles in the sunshine coast.

Simon's aunt and uncle live in Halfmoon Bay in the beautiful Sunshine Coast. They have invited us to visit them since we got married and I don't know why it took so long by seven and half years later, we finally got around to it. We figured with baby #2 due just 4 weeks away, we better seize the day and visit while it's still relatively easy to travel with just Natallie.

Us with Antie Cheryl

 

Natallie helps Uncle Danny water the flowers

 

Auntie Cheryl and Uncle Danny have a house in a beautiful location and a huge flower and vegetable garden. They also have quite an interesting set-up as they only live at home about 6 months of the year. During the fall and winter months, the are travelling around in their RV seeking sunshine usually in California. How cool is that to always have perpetual sunshine?

                                  

 

                                   

                           

so many pretty flowers!

Auntie Cheryl's & Uncle Danny's home for half the year

 It was the "Sechelt Rod Run" the weekend we were there. Apparently this is a really big deal. On Friday, we saw people sitting on lawn chairs on their front lawn as the parade of classic cars and hot rods drove down the main highway. The spectactors wave at the passing cars and the drivers all wave and honk back. We decided to join part of the action and pulled over and sat on Simon's truck tailgate. Apparently you can make anything fun for a toddler because Natallie loved waving and saying "hello" to every car that passed by.

Who knew Natallie would enjoy waving at cars so much?





Natallie got along with Auntie Cheryl & Uncle Danny right away. Probably because they also have a overly friendly dog named Spica and a big cat named Percy (seriously, the cat and Natallie weigh the same!) Natallie had lots of fun chasing them around and was so amused by the doggy door, I was surprised she didn't crawl through it herself!

 

The next day, we went to the car show with Auntie Cheryl & Uncle Danny. One thing we regret was forgetting to bring the stroller. It was long ways to walk and with me already carrying 25 pounds in front, the last thing I wanted was another 25 pound Natallie on my hip so Simon carried her almost the entire time. We occasionally put Natallie down to take photos of her in front of really cool cars but she kept wanting to touch them so our strategy was to get her to make silly faces so her hands would stay off the car. It worked and after a few pictures, as soon as we put Natallie down in front of  car, she would make a silly face and stick out her tongue before we even asked her to!



 

 

 

I don't know anything about cars but according to Simon, it was a really good car show. There were hundreds and hundreds of them. I can't write captions on any of these because I have no clue what kind of cars they are, if I wrote captions it would be something lame like "orange car with cool flames" or something like that.

There was a classic car that had a Popeye and Olive Ol' figurines next to it and Natallie made friends with them quite quickly.

 

 

After the car show and a quick nap, we took Natallie to Cooper's Green Park/Beach. I was anticipating that Natallie would love the water but apparently, it was just like when we took her to the beach in Seattle...for some reason, the ocean is a frightening thing and she wouldn't go in past her ankles. Part of me wanting to just throw her in the ocean and that she would just love it but I resisted and let her have fun with Simon just throwing rocks in the ocean. But one of these days, I really am just going to chuck her in the ocean!

Do you want to go swimming?? Noooooooo!

4 weeks left to go!

We had no problems with the ferry wait on the way to the Sunshine Coast but the way back was a different story on the way back. We arrived at the ferry terminal at an hour and half before the sailing and was told that it was already full and we'd have to wait for the next one which meant over 3 hours of waiting at the terminal. Luckily, Natallie was so, so, so good and was happy to play in the car for an hour and then eat over-priced hot dogs after. When we finally got on the ferry, Natallie was a cannon ball of energy running up and down the ferry and L-O-V-I-N-G the wind. It brings back memories of how much my sister and I loved the wind on the ferry. These pictures don't do justice to how squealing with excitement she was so you should watch this video clip too!

 

 

 It was a great weekend and it will definitely not be another seven and half years until we visit again!