Testing Out The Crib

Today, we had a busy day. I had my chiro appointment in the morning, then went to Metrotown after to return some stuff from holiday shopping. Then, we took a drive out to visit Sue, and have a play date with Ethan and Hayley. It was a great bonus that I got fed lunch, as well as some Filipino treats that Roland's parents brought back from their recent trip to the Philippines.

When we got home, it was time for Maddi's nap. Since she's growing so much and I'm not sure how much longer she can sleep in her bassinet, I decided to have her nap in her crib. I've tried to do this before, but she only lasted five minutes. Today, she actually slept in her crib for a full nap! Doesn't she look cozy in her sleep sack? Thanks grandpa and nana - the sleep sack keeps Maddi warm and mama loves the colour and design on it!

A Night Out With The Ladies!

While Jason was away on a business trip, we planned for a girls' night out... Maddi included!

This photo was taken at Tropika on Robson, where we had dinner.

I thought that nursing Maddi right after we ordered would be a good idea; then we can hopefully just leave her to play in her car seat and I could enjoy dinner with the ladies when the food comes... not realizing the food would come so soon!

I had just gotten ready to nurse when a waiter came with our first couple of dishes. He was surprised to find me getting ready to nurse and quickly put the food on the table and walked away. The second waiter that came, however, was pervy according to Nat and Amy... not even looking at where he's putting the dishes he brought but totally staring at me!

So, I checked out the bathroom to see if it's clean and would be an ok spot to nurse Maddi. It was, and the staff were helpful enough to give me a chair to nurse Maddi in. They also told me it's ok if I use the only guest bathroom for a while, as they can direct other guests to the staff bathroom.

I must say, that even though not all places in the city are equipped with proper facilities to nurse and change a baby's diaper, most are very accommodating to help give you the privacy a mom needs as well as a make-shift area to change a baby's diaper.

After dinner, we stopped at Blenz for hot chocolates... and they use BELGIAN chocolates in their hot cocoas! Yumm!

Maddi was a bit fussy at dinner, but napped the rest of the night out.

A Play Date With Baby Natascha

This morning, I messaged Crystal to see if she and Baby Natascha would like to come over for lunch. I told her Anne and I made curry last night... or I also have stuff for congee. Crystal got excited over congee, so that's what I served for lunch.

When they arrived, Baby N was sleeping - as usual! I have not seen her awake yet! Halfway through lunch however, she did wake up and I got to see her beautiful greyish blue peepers!

Maddi had a hard time napping today... only sleeping for 20-30 minute stretches. She finally fell asleep again at 4.30pm and finally slept for over an hour!

Sean's mom came for a visit around 6pm and joined us for dinner... then it was bedtime.

We spent the whole day at home today... some days, I don't mind.

Another Visit From Alicia

Alicia is my most amazing Hypnobabies doula - thank you, Crystal for recommending her to us. I will never forgot how she was there for me; such a wonderful memory and experience! And I am glad to be able to keep in touch.

A couple of days ago, I messaged Alicia to let her know I have pictures to give her and wondered if she can come by for a visit or if I should mail it out. She decided to come for a visit and see how Maddi has grown.

We love it when you visit, Alicia! We hope to see you again soon!

Later that night, since Henry was away on a work trip... Anne came over to hang out with us. We went to Yoko Yaya to see if they have any more knitting needles for our knitting night next week, then to T&T to shop for ingredients to cook dinner with. On tonight's menu - yellow chicken curry and green tofu curry.

I always get excited going to T&T, I feel like a kid in a candy store... I want EVERYTHING! Since we can only get as much as what the undercarriage of Maddi's stroller can hold, other than what we need tonight, I only got a couple other stuff to have congee with. I'm excited!

Mama Quiet Time

Today was a quiet day. I went to my appointment with Dr. Sukhi in the morning, then came home to have lunch before meeting an old friend who I haven't seen for a while to chat about a side business I'm considering. However, she had to stay home with her dad who was not feeling well. So we just had a short chat over the phone instead and had the rest of my afternoon free.

Maddi needed to nap, and usually, I can't just lay her down. She loves to be held. So she usually naps in the carseat or stroller while I'm out and about or I carry her in the Moby wrap. However, when I laid her down on the couch to put the Moby on, she just stayed sleeping. Jackpot! Mama gets to have her own quiet time... with some English tea, French cookies, chocolate, classical music in the background and a book - The Artist Way.

Discovering Thierry

I got on to Foursquare early in 2011 because L'Atelier offered a big discount to new clients for checking in on it. I don't remember to check in most times, unless I'm with my friend Sonia who's crazy over it.

However, for some reason, I've been remembering to check into places I go in the past week. And once I saw myself ranked against my Foursquare friends (you get points for checking into places, and ranked among your friends based on number of points you gather within a 7 day period), my competitive nature kicked in. All of a sudden, I am out-ranking Sonia! Woot woot!

Anyways, I've brought up Foursquare because that's how I discovered Thierry Patisserie.

I've been cooped up indoors for most of the day; so when I discovered Thierry, I sent out a spontaneous invitation to a couple of girlfriends to go check it out with me. And naturally, Sonia was one of them. In the end, she was the only one who can make it.

Tonight, I got to take a walk and check out this fabulous tea and treats place. They do have really good macarons! Also quite good coffee! And this came as a surprise to me, but they serve wine and liquor! Not that I'm a big drinker; quite the opposite, but I just thought that was a clever twist for a tea and treats place.

All in all, a wonderful night of play and simple pleasures, with a great girlfriend to share it with.

I do feel quite lucky to have girlfriends that can come hang out with me in a moment's notice. You know who you are, you are all awesome!

Meeting Jamie

After seeing photos of Jamie on Facebook for several months... we finally got a chance to meet him in person! So awesome to have the opportunity to see Tanya, Uli & Jamie while they are in town visiting from the UK for the holidays.

The day started with dim sum. However, since it was wet out, it wasn't the best day to be walking around. So, we ended up hanging out at Anne & Henry's. Of course, Uli and Tanya stopped by Caffe Artigiano for coffee on the way.

Jamie is getting so big, he was crawling everywhere... and oh so close to walking!

Thanks for the visit, safe travels back to the UK!

An Afternoon Tea Affair

Today, I woke up at 4.30 in the morning. I decided to get out of bed and join Sean for a bowl of cereal. When he left for work, I went back to bed. Luckily, I was able to fall back asleep and didn't wake up until 9.30!

I didn't really have much planned today, although somehow the day seemed to just fly by. I had a chiropractic appointment at noon, stopped by my work to drop off a doctor's note, then headed home for a little while before I met up with some girlfriends for an afternoon tea date at the Vancouver Fairmont Hotel. I walked there as I'm trying to make sure I walk for an hour each day.

The picture is of Anne's vegetarian set and my preggy-friendly set of afternoon tea delights! Tea always takes me to my happy place... and I'm glad I got to squeeze this in before Maddi comes.

Fancy Feast

Another busy day! It's good to keep busy.

Started the day with a bang trim at Is Salon - was sad to find out that Jeffrey no longer works there =( He's gone to somewhere better though, so I'm happy for him.

At noon, Sean and I met at the Yaletown Marina with Tamara for our maternity shoot. It's good that our shoot with Angela was at a beach/park scenery and now we'll get something different with the urban environment. Tamara's already put a couple of pictures up tonight, I can't wait to see the rest of them! Thanks for doing this for us, Tam!

After the shoot, we took my Honda Civic to our sales guy that I bought my new car from in the North Shore Automall. He offered to clean it up a bit for us, take some pictures of it, help us price it and post an ad for it on Craigslist. This was great, because I discovered that I could get a lot more than what I thought I could get for it.

After the automall, we chilled at home for a bit before heading out to Chez Addy & Frank's. They recently got this kitchen appliance that made pretty much our whole meal - from the bread we had for appetizer, the pumpkin soup, the beet salad, to the ice cream for we had for dessert. Such an awesome meal, and everything was so beautifully plated too! I was a very spoiled guest... sooo full! We ended the night with a game of Apples to Apples. Adeline and Frank, thanks for having us over and being such incredible hosts!

Pumpkin Pie

I started the day with a chiropractic appointment at noon, then stopped by Motherhood at Park Royal Village, picked up lunch, then I was off for another visit to the North Shore Automall - I am getting a new car! It's on order and won't be here for another week or so... it's not really all finalized until it gets here. Hopefully though, it gets here before Maddi comes. It would be nice to take her home from the hospital in the new ride =)

After the automall, I stopped by Angela and Cliff's to pick up "a bite" of pumpkin pie that Angela promised to leave for me. This must be my year for homemade pumpkin pies! I have been eating pumpkin pies for years now, but this is the first year I've ever had homemade ones - first by Ravi, then by Nat, and now by Cliff.

This was the "bite" of pumpkin pie Cliff and Angela gave me - thanks, you guys! Enjoying a piece right now... and since I have almost half the pie, I have 3 more slices for the next few days! =)

Apple Crisp

The weather has changed recently. It can get pretty chilly out, Starbucks has been serving pumpkin spice lattes, Thanksgiving dinners, Sean's brought up the couple of boxes of our Halloween decor from the storage and we got a pan of yummy apple crisp from Sean's mom. It's FALL!!!

On this Fall day, I woke up at 3.30am for some reason. Usually, whenever I do wake up in the middle of the night, it's usually just because I needed to go to the bathroom and I am usually able to fall back asleep right after. However, this time I somehow couldn't fall back asleep. I stayed in bed anyways until 7.30am, when I decided to finally get out of bed.

I started the day with some breakfast and put in some productive hours organizing my office. I had an acupuncture appointment in the afternoon, then put in more hours organizing the office. All that paid off and I am now done unpacking my office stuff and the transfer to the den is complete!

Spaghetti Squash

Today wasn't necessarily busy, but somehow we were out for most of the day. Sean had the day off, so we spent the day together, which was nice. We slept in, then started the day with pancakes.

He dropped me off at my chiropractic appointment in West Vancouver, then we stopped by my office for a quick visit to drop something off. We then had a visit at the North Shore Automall and test drove some vehicles. I think I might be getting a new ride! Eeeee!

On our way home, we stopped to pick Anne up. She made us dinner - and we even have leftovers!!! I've heard of spaghetti squash, but I've actually never tried it. So tasty! I am looking forward to having some of the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Thanks, Anne!!!

p.s. If I do get a new car, I would be selling my 1997 Honda Civic. Msg. me if you or anyone you know would be interested!

Two Turkeys

Our maternity shoot for this morning got postponed to next week, so I slept in after a late night at Thanksgiving dinner #1. Had a lazy afternoon just posting photos on Facebook and my blog. I wouldn't want to be behind, so trying to keep up to date. I know I won't have as much time when Maddi comes. I didn't eat much all day as I was trying to save room for tonight's Thanksgiving dinner #2.

It was awesome to spend Thanksgiving with friends, old and new. Look at this long table!

As always, there's an abundance of food when Nat has anything to do with it. We didn't just have a turkey, we had TWO turkeys!... and a ham, stuffing, veggies, corn, potatoes, and FOUR pies! Nat made a pumpkin pie with the traditional crust, a pumpkin pie with graham cracker crust, pumpkin cheesecake and apple pie!

I was trying not to make the same mistake as the night before and not eat as much. I was good for dinner, but I had to try all the pies! Lucky that Maddi hides how big my food baby is... maternity pants are perfect for turkey dinners!

Suckalicky!

Since Maddi can come any time, we didn't make plans to host Thanksgiving dinner. We ended up getting invited to two dinners - one today, and another tomorrow. We were also invited to a turkey chili Football Sunday afternoon, which we unfortunately had to pass on - sorry Sonia & Jeff! Lately, whenever I do too much... it feels as if I could go into labour. I am not quite ready for Maddi to come yet, so I'm trying to take it easy. Also, I've been pretty tired.

Today was a pretty productive day, though. I organized a big chunk of my filing cabinet, just a couple more hours work on it and I should be able to move on to organizing another part of my office. We also had a housekeeper come and clean the whole place, so that is one more thing I can cross off my to-do list.

At night, we drove out to Thompson & Dana's house in Port Moody for our first Thanksgiving dinner of the weekend. It was awesome to catch up with some friends we haven't seen for a while and enjoy such an abundance of insanely good food.

Thanks for hosting such an awesome turkey dinner, Suckalicky!

The Helm

Today seemed to be a busy day although I didn't really accomplish much. I went to my chiropractic appointment, picked stuff up at Staples that I needed to organize my office with, then hung out with Anne.

Anne & I were watching The Opener on tv and The Helm, a Vancouver farm-to-fork concept restaurant was being featured. Since it was getting late (and dark) and I still don't have a photo for the day, we decided to take a walk and check out the restaurant. There was hardly anybody in there and it's a Friday night... I wonder how they stay in business?

Burger Cake

Slept in and spent most of the day in my pj's. Putted around the house a bit, updated my blog, then it's pretty much time to leave for Nat & J's for a BBQ.

We decided to have a BBQ this weekend since we over estimated on food, AGAIN, for Nat's shower last weekend. It just so happens to be Lev's birthday tomorrow and Nadia's birthday on Monday... so it worked out perfectly.

Nadia & Rob left early since they had to get Stella home for her bedtime, but the rest of us stayed to play bingo, hang out and enjoy this fabulous cake. I've never had lettuce in my cake before, but I guess there's always a first for everything.

Ice Cream Better Than I Scream

Ice cream has always been one of my favourite treats. And apparently, I can afford to eat it. At my doctor's appointment today, instead of gaining 2 lbs. since my last appointment two weeks ago, I've lost 3 lbs! I did notice that I didn't have as much of an appetite lately, but I didn't think there's been much difference in what or how much I ate. Perhaps the scale at the doctor's office was off? The doctor did assure me that I didn't have anything to worry about as baby is healthy and very active.

Today was definitely a lot better day emotionally. It was very helpful to come to the conscious realization that what I'm about to step into is far more important and significant in the grand scheme of things than saying goodbye to a job. I knew that, but it's different to REALLY know that! And, as much as I need to acknowledge my loss, I need to focus on my new upcoming role as a mother to a baby that will need to rely on me completely.

Thank you to everyone that has lent me an ear and given me tremendous support as I go through the emotional roller coaster that pregnancy hormones can sometimes take you on.

Ramen!

Today was another day with the sore back. All day, I looked forward to my acupuncture appointment with Sonia after work. Just the opportunity to lay face down was such a treat! I would love to have a pillow with a hole like the ones I lay on at her clinic, at my chiropractor's clinic and at the spa when I get my massages.

The treatment was great, such a great way to just relax and let her take care of me. I was her last patient, so we decided to go for ramen after my treatment. It's been a couple of weeks since I had a craving for ramen... this was definitely a home run for hitting the spot!

A Sushi Date

On my way home, I felt a craving for some ramen. I also know that hubby has been craving sushi. In light of my post from a few days ago - realizing that it would be wise to cherish these last few weeks of being just the two of us, I called Sean on the drive home from work and asked him out on a sushi date.

We walked to the Japanese restaurant across from our place. Although a bit disappointed that they don't have ramen, they did have udon. We ended up with a feast. First, we ordered a 42-piece sushi platter and vegetable udon soup. When Sean realized that there was no sashimi in the platter we ordered, we ended up getting a 6-piece sashimi combo since that's what he's been craving for a while now. Can't believe my hubby who wouldn't eat sushi just over a year ago, now craves sashimi!

It was waaaay too much food, but we managed to finish everything... then we both rolled our way home. My belly was rock hard and it's not all baby; 3 hours later, I'm still full! And Sean, he was the piggy that burped all the way home!

Thanks for being my date tonight, baby!

La Casa Gelato

My friend Amy's mom is in town and since her birthday was just around the corner, we decided to go out for dinner to celebrate. After dinner, we came up with the brilliant idea to go for a gelato stop at La Casa Gelato.

This place is definitely up there as one of my favourite places in town. Being a gelato place that offers over 200 flavours, how could it not?!

One of the flavours I usually get is durian. Yes, the stinky fruit... you can usually tell which one it is because it'll be the only flavour covered. It is an acquired taste, not everyone likes it... but I most definitely enjoy it!