Eggs Kenny

Sweetie McPie made me a special treat for breakfast this morning. He christened it Eggs Kenny:
Sliced tomatoes lightly breaded and fried, topped with sunny-side up eggs, then drowned in last night's soy-lemon chicken gravy. (Without the tomatoes, this dish is known as "cradle-to-grave".)

Lucy Waverman's soy-lemon gravy is To Die For. We've been known to do shots with the leftovers, before we discovered it was great over eggs. (You think I'm kidding?) So simple and quick, but so very incredible you have to try it to believe it. Drippings from roast chicken (we use organic legs from former residents of Saveur des Monts), a cup of chicken broth, a tablespoon (or so) of soy sauce, one or two tablespoon of fresh-squeezed lemon juice... simmered together and thickened with a little cornstarch.

Here I am!

Back at home after an almost-two-week vacay, plus the busy-ness that leads up to and concludes such a trip. So much to say, such a small window of time in which to say it (plus I haven't had breakfast yet and am starving, but Tim sleeps NOW).

I'll work backwards.

Yesterday [Okay, two days ago, because it's taken me multiple days to write this post; now typing one-handed with baby on lap], Tim (at nearly 3.5 months) had his 2 month vaccination shots. (Oops. My bad.) Poor little sucker. Dosed with Tylenol, he slept a lot in the afternoon, and I went happily off to frisbee. And returned to a Dad harried by a baby who'd been SCREAMING for 2.5 hours. (Tim isn't a huge crier, and very rarely SCREAMS.) Next month when he gets his 4 month shots, I will be sure to stay home. He seemed soothed by the boob. (But who wouldn't be?)

Our trip to Nova Scotia was a grand success. We stayed with my sister and helped her prep for her wedding. The wedding was good times -- I narrated the handfasting ceremony and delivered the matron of honour speech (which drew the requisite tears) with next-to-nil prep. Tim wore a tux to match his cousin Lucas and looked tres handsome.


The boys were extremely well-behaved. Here they are with Dad and Grandpa Tim.


My sister had copies of Secrets of the Baby Whisperer and The No-Cry Sleep Solution and I "read" (ie: scanned) both. They say about the same thing, but with a slightly different tone (militant vs. motherly). I learned that we are pretty much on track with baby-sleeping, and picked up a few tips that have been helping. Thus the blogging!

Ben and Constance joined us after the wedding, and we spent the better part of the week at the Farmhouse Inn, enjoying a lobster dinner, a trip to the Zoo, and an amazing day at the Beach with Aunt Julie, Uncle Scott, Grandpa and Linda. I think it's fair to say that the rented minivan with DVD player and TV screens was the highlight of their trip. at various times, each of the kids was heard to say "This was the best day of my life!" That says "success" to me. :-)


On the trip home to Ottawa, we stopped for lunch in Lunenburg on the way to the airport. Tim hadn't had his daily poo and was getting a bit fussy. McPie predicted that Tim would shit himself silly on the plane. Famous last words. Shit he did -- what I call a "shoulder-shit". And we were on a tiny Porter Air turbo-prop with no change area. (We'd been invited to try changing him where ever we like, with the indication that our seat-trays would be ideal.) Ha! McPie scoped the bathroom, and successfully completed a McGyver-like diaper change on the toilet seat. Although both fellas were somewhat traumatized bt the experience, McPie now brags about being able to apply a fresh onesie with one hand.

We arrived home Sunday night after the grocery store closed and we A) hadn't eaten supper and were all starving, and B) had NO food in the house. So we stopped at the Depanneur and did our best -- Special K, milk, cheese curds, and pineapple juice. At home, in front of his 10 pm bowl of cereal, Ben put his head in his hands and exclaimed, "Oh my god. This is the baddest supper we ever had!"

We've been to one grocery store pretty much every day since we got back.

Return to form

I'm enjoying, lately, a renewed enjoyment of vices of yesteryear: coffee and beer. Don't worry, I'm not the worst mother in the world. The coffee is primarily decaf (also organic and fair trade), and I only have one beer a day. But oh! The enjoyment! I normally have a latte first thing in the morning, but have added an extra one (either latte or brew in the coffee press) after McPie leaves for work. It accompanies me while either pumping breastmilk (if Tim is napping or calm in his chair -- I wonder if he's jealous when he watches me pump?), or changing diapers, or on a video skype call with my sister.

We never used to drink much beer around here; we are wine drinkers, with the odd beer after frisbee or while doing yardwork in the summer. But now, each day around 4 o'clock or so, I get the craving. Just one refreshing brewsky while I bounce the baby on the ball while watching Angel on DVD with the kids, or folding laundry or prepping supper... (Did I just write "brewsky?") The beer signals the end of the alone part of the day, and begins the family part of the day and the anticipation Dad coming home.

It's true, I drink alcohol while nursing. My mom tells me that she was told to drink beer while nursing my sister, to help with milk production and flow. While this may be another outdated axiom of the previous generation (like "crying is good for their lungs")... This one I like, so I'll take it as mother's wisdom.

Anyway, these are a few little pleasures that help perk up the sometimes-tedious days, when I'm not getting an enormous kick out of diaper changes*. (There is also streaming video of Grey's Anatomy re-runs, which make me glad I spent years not watching TV -- now I have something to do while folding laundry or cajoling the baby into a nap!)

Timothy, too, has a newfound simple pleasure. He's finally old enough to be fascinated by the lights and sounds of his swing!



*I'm actually serious about getting a kick out of diaper changes. There's not much cuter or sweeter than a naked baby, and Timothy LOVES his change table. It's the one place he can be counted on to laugh and "chat" and be generally playful. We spend a lot of time there.

Working out the kinks

If I'd written this on the weekend, I'd have written about how the baby is finally starting to sleep well-ish at night... Not a lot at a stretch (cause he still has a tiny tummy that needs refilling regularly), but awake less and less in between sleeps. However, he woke up every g-d hour last night. As if he needs a growth spurt (he's getting huge, quickly.)

Anyway, the overall trend is for the better, and of course we're learning to live more easily with his schedule. He naps a lot in his wrap, and thanks to the glorious art of swadddling, brought to us this past week by Tim's Baba (my mom), he's now able to sleep on his own beside our bed (yay for space to sprawl!), and we have had some growing success at putting him down in his bassinet for naps. Yay for naps! He napped the whole time that I was at the gym yesterday. Also, he's more and more content to sit for extended quiet times in his bouncy chair (like 15 minutes!) without having to be asleep, thus enabling me to do such exciting things as shower, put laundry in the dryer, or fix a cup of coffee. Mmm, coffee.


See? Even Timothy thinks he's a superstar, with all his new tricks.


My mom's visit this week was not unlike a tropical vacation in that it allowed me to relax and unwind in a way that I can barely remember being able to do! An extra set of hands -- hands that wanted nothing more than to hold a baby -- made a world of difference. Which makes me all the more excited for the coming summer.

Awhile ago, I wrote that waiting for the baby was like waiting for Santa to come. Now, I'm waiting for another Christmas Eve-type event, only this time, I know the day. July 26 is Sweetie McPie's last day of work until Labour Day! It's true, we get to do this summer together, two parents, four hands, no work, all play. Just because. Timothy is going to learn the fine art of morning coffee on the front porch, afternoon workouts in the park, and relaxed suppers on the patio. All stress-free. How awesome is that?

Night and day

In the night, Timothy sleeps in bed beside me. (Very cozy!) True to the parenting books, I am able to somehow sense when he's about to wake up, and usually wake up just before him. He wakes up making the cutest little sucking movements with his mouth as he stirs -- he's ready to eat before he's fully awake. I'm now able to get him feeding before he even opens his eyes. In the last couple days, I've opted to not get him up for a diaper change, which is beginning to let me put him right back to sleep afterward the snack. And quicker back to sleep for me.

During the day, Timothy has a similar sleep synchronicity with me... unfortunately, it works in reverse. When he's drifted to sleep and I lay down to nap with him, he has the innate ability to sense when I'm about to drift off -- at which point he wakes up and gurgles (or cries) for attention. I could be lying awake for half and hour or 5 minutes, it doesn't matter: as soon as the drift begins, up he wakes.

As a result, I don't get many naps. Maybe once or twice a week. Which sucks when your night sleeps occur in only two or three rounds of two hours at a time. (We've had a few three hour stints, but they are still inconsistent.)

On the other hand, Tim consistently conks out when I put him in my Moby wrap, so he at least gets his naps in, and I get the freedom that comes from baby-napping. The only things I can't really do when he sleeps is nap myself, and shower.

The other morning, though, I slid out of bed and left him sleeping:

Heslept in long enough for me to make my coffe in peace.

Sigh. One day, I'll have something more (and more interesting) to write about. But this is all the news these days...

My tax dollars at work

I've written before about my positive experiences with the civil services in Quebec. It turns out that the goodness of this province extends to the administrative elements of having baby. Now, I have no idea what to expect -- perhaps it's exactly the same in the rest of the country, but I have been very impressed with how streamlined much of this process has been. A process that I assumed would have me running around to government offices, waiting in lines, paying all sorts of admin fees.

So far, I've declared Tim's birth, received a birth certificate and health card, and registered for a child tax benefit ($$ deposited monthly in my bank account!) with a lick of a stamp and few mouse clicks. I didn't have to look anything up -- all the info I needed was provided to me by either the midwives (a government service), or just out of the blue in the mail from the government itself. Cool, huh? Not to mention that every services comes with an English translation.

But the big (giant!) surprise bonus of living in Quebec has been qualifying for maternity/parental benefits. I am not even kidding. After quitting my job 7 months before having a baby, the government of Quebec STILL considers me eligible for a year-long maternity "leave".* And Quebec pays better than the Feds.

So, besides the lower cost of housing, groceries and beer, there are all these additional bonuses, and one day, I will reap the further benefit of subsidized daycare. I tell ya, do not listen to anyone who gripes about having to pay higher taxes in la Belle Province. It's money well-spent.

Timothy approves!

Once word gets out, I am certain that Hull will become the next Westboro. ;-)

* A few years ago, Quebec won the right from the Federal government to administer it's own Parental Insurance Program. Awesome.

Where the day goes

Darned if I know how time flies. The days seem so short these days! I'd have thought they'd seem slow because of the repetitive nature of my activities. Or may maybe it's the sleep deprivation factor (we got three hours in a row last night for the first time! Go Tim!) At any rate, the hours of May are certainly fleeting -- so fast that I can rarely string together enough free ones to write things here.

And... I hear the soft grunts and sighs of a waking infant. So much for an update.

Okay, quickie before all-out wailing begins (Am I a bad mother?):

Getting to the gym a couple times a week thanks to a husband who'll put up with a suddenly starving and crying baby. I've started bottling my milk, though, so McPie now has some heavy artillery.

Frisbee starts tonight. As there will be running involved, it remains to be seen whether I will survive to tell about it!

Tim's starting to adapt little by little to sleeping in a bassinet (part of the night, some nights), and his crib (naps or just chillin' during the day). These baby steps (ha ha) will eventually lead us into a life of increased sanity. He is pretty cozy to sleep with, though.

Kid loves the bath. We'll probably get around to giving him more than one/week soon.

He loves his mama, too!