...according to me

mmmm....mmmm....GOOD!

Ingrid looooooooves lasagna! Even more than that she loves feeding herself lasagna.

 

 

She went directly from the high chair to the bathtub.

Interestingly, Ingrid pretty much loves all things tomato-y, except tomatoes themselves.

Paranoid

Ingrid coughed a few times this morning. I am now convinced she has the swine flu.

I knew I shouldn't have gone to the mall yesterday, darn it!

And, just to add insult to injury, Ingrid bled again this morning. She was chewing on a rubber ducky while I was changing her diaper and made her gums bleed. Poor baby. Teething sucks!

I just broke my baby

Ingrid has a fat lip. It's true - you really can't turn your back for a second when your have children. That's the last time I'll eat a bite of waffle from the counter while Ingrid plays on the kitchen floor.

There was even a little blood. But she only cried for a second. Probably more fright than pain. I just had a healthy dose of both, though.

Feeling like the world's worst mother. Sniff.

Saturday

It was a beautiful day on Saturday. Warm, rainy, breezy. SPRING!! Here's a photo recap of our day.

1. It was the first truly nice day here in so long. Dedrek was itching, itching I say, to get out and plant something for ages. (I just realized the typo in Derek's name there but I kind of like how it looks so Dedrek it stays!) So we got ready and headed out to check out some plants at Home Depot and Make It Green.

Can I come, too, Dad?

 

2. She's flexible and tasty! A total sweet machine.

 

3. Derek, in his glory.

At Home Depot we bought some strawberry plants, blueberry bushes, a Butterfly Bush, another plant or two that I can't recall right now, a few bags of soil, and a container of Bonemeal.

Derek dropped Ingrid and me back at home and went off to the Make It Green nursery and bought a delightful looking Prairifire Crabapple Tree.

4. I decided to try my hand at growing my own strawberries and tomatoes this year. Just to see if I can do it. I have no designs on actually feeding my family on home grown veggies. And on the off chance that my produce is actually edible, I decided that I wanted to use organic fertilizer instead of the chemical ones that the stores push. So Derek asked the folks at the nursery what kind of fertilizer would be best. He came home with an 18kg bag of sheep manure. That's SHEEP MANURE. For my measly four strawberries plants. There's no picture because, ewww, who wants a picture of sheep manure?

5. Watching all the gardening activity and blowing bubbles with Mom.

 

Ingrid became much less intrigued with the bubble blowing once she grabbed the wand and shoved the icky, bubble producing, soapy, business end into her mouth. Mmmmm... tasty.

6. Ingrid was fascinated by her first few touches of grass.

 

She kept feeling it over and over. It's amazing how having a child can re-open your eyes to the things we take for granted every day. Today was probably the first time since I was Ingrid's age that I took the time to actually feel the grass, too. Simple pleasures.

7. This is probably a little too much information but I think it's cute so here goes.

 

During the week or when Derek is otherwise occupied on weekends and evenings, when I have to use the bathroom and can't take Ingrid in with me I sit her outside the door and keep it ajar so I can keep an eye on her. A few weeks ago she started playing peek-a-boo with me, ducking back and forth with just the right amount of pause in between. It's really the cutest thing. It's like she does it in slow motion. She laughs hysterically when I say peek-a-boo!

8. All done!

 

Crabtree planting complete! Good job, Dedrek! Can't wait for the pretty pinkness to bloom!

ETA: Derek broke no less than two tools, a tamper and a pick, trying to unearth a big rock. Derek loves finding rocks. It's like a treasure hunt for him, I think.

9. Sunday, we had a category F0 tornado blow through Ottawa. We didn't see much of it out here in Kanata but Nepean and around Britannia were hit pretty hard - trees catching on fire from downed power lines, roofs (or is it rooves?) blowing off houses, trees being uprooted...  I love wild weather and the promise of thunder and lightning had me giddy with anticipation all day. So when the wind started to pick up I loved it. Just as we were about to sit down to eat supper I looked out the window and it was like someone had just turned on a very, very powerful, giant vacuum. The wind picked up tremendously and debris from the construction behind us went whirling about in the backyard. I can't remember seeing such a sudden, raging (although short lived) windstorm before.

And I can't imagine what an F5 category tornado must look like. Scary! Mercifully, we went unscathed.

Wanna play?

 

Pretty please?

that sprongy thing

Yesterday while I was preparing Ingrid's bath, she scooched herself off the towel covered mat and made her way, butt-naked, across the bathroom floor (granted it's a pretty small bathroom) after spying thatthing behind the door that, when flexed and released, goes "sproooonnnngggg". She loved it!Every time she did it, and there were many times, there'd be uproarious laughter. Mostly from her but a little from me, too.

She also decided to play some games with me while in the tub. Normally, I like to bathe Ingrid in the evening as part of her pre-bedtime routine. But today after she mashed some sweet potatoes with her hands and smeared pasta sauce all over her face and neck I decided a late afternoon bath was necessary. Thinking she was thirsty I brought her sippy cup up with us and laid it on the sink counter. Well, she spotted it and decided she wanted it, pointing at it. (She's recently started pointing at things she wants! So cool to see her developing so fast!) So I reached back, grabbed it and offered it to her. She just looked at me, sheepishly, and laughed. I put it back. She raised her sweet little hand and pointed at it again. I passed it to her again. By this time I caught on to her game and indulged her a little while longer. She thought she was hilarious. And for the record, I think she's hilarious, too.

She's a real treasure. I love that little munchkin, sooooo much. Even when she refuses to eat and won't get in her stroller. Yes, even then.

Motherhood is...

Today was one of those days. Ingrid and I just weren't getting along. She was frustrated and so was I. She wouldn't lie down for a diaper change, insisting that she sit straight up making the job downright impossible. She wouldn't eat more that a bite of cereal. Nor banana. Nor pear. She flat out refused my homemade macaroni and cheese, toast, tomato and baked chicken that I prepared for her lunch. She took a bite of pasta and sauce but then turned her head away, as if in disgust. I felt like I had struck gold with yogurt after three successful spoonfuls. But then she stopped. She just wanted to nurse. My ten month old baby nursed just like she did at one month. Constantly. All day long.

Between 8 and 9am, she needed three diaper changes. And I mean needed. She cried and fussed the whole time during our very short, early morning walk. She fought off the obvious sleep in her eyes, for hours. She kept pulling herself up to things and getting stuck in semi splits positions. Every now and then she'd flop down on her bum and cry. Or else she take a much bigger dive and bump her head. And she cried. Ohhhh.... did she cry. And not for any particular reason it seemed. She just wanted to cry. A lot. Loudly. Longly. She cried so hard one time that I thought she had stopped breathing. For no apparent reason except that I sat her down on the floor while I prepared her lunch. She wanted to be up. She wanted to be down. She is making it very difficult to brush her teeth, almost always biting my finger with every attempt.

By 2:00 I'd had enough. We were both tired and I was counting the minutes until Derek retured home from work. She fell asleep before he got home and slept for almost three hours. I took the much needed break and went to the post office. While there I decided to buy a Mother's Day card for my mother. This is what I found.

"Motherhood is watching a sleeping child and not remembering how you were before this tiny miracle came into your life...

It's kissing away sleepy teardrops and singing precious lullabies. It's being able to fix a broken toy and gently bandage a knee. It's having a childlike imagination that plans backyard treasure hunts and telling the most wonderful bedtime stories. Motherhood is the perfect blend of being strong-willed and gentle-hearted, of wisdom, innocence, and love.

Motherhood is the most important job of all."

I don't know who wrote it. It's a Carlton card. It's neither profound nor hard hitting. But I needed this. I needed that reminder.

So I bought the card. I drove home nearly in tears with the renewed realization that the moments, all the moments, are fleeting. I appreciate each and every one of them. Even the hard ones.

an emerging personality

Ingrid is, generally, a very easy going, mild mannered kind of baby. But she knows what she wants and has started to "verbalize" it to us.

For instance, this morning I chopped up some strawberry and banana for Ingrid to eat after her cereal. Usually, when it comes to these two favourites she will eat which ever one is offered to her, with no particular preference to order. Today she was dictating to me which ones she wanted, shaking her head or blocking me with her hand whenever she wanted strawberry instead of banana and vice versa. This went on for a while. There seemed to be no particular pattern. Just wanted what she wanted.

Then tonight, Derek mentioned that Ingrid will only let him read to her certain books at bedtime. Her bedtime routine sees Derek reading books upon books to a sleepy Ingrid perched upon his lap in the rocking chair in her room. Lately, though, she has just a few that she prefers and wants him to read to her.

And just so I will remember them when she's grown and can read her own books, these are the ones she currently favours:

• Goodnight Moon
• Snuggle Puppy - Sandra Boynton
• Dinosaur's Binkit - Sandra Boynton
• I See a Monster
• Barnyard Dance - Sandra Boynton
• Moo Baa Lalala - Sandra Boynton
• Jingle Cats

Obviously, we're big Boynton fans.

Did you know...

that an errant strawberry that finds its way into the laundry machine doesn't, in fact, ruin the clothes in the tub? Did you also know that it maintains most of its redness?

Lots of interesting treasures find their way into my loads. It's not only puffs, but whole chunks of strawberry and bananas, too.

trouble with a capital T

If this doesn't spell trouble I don't know what does!

 

 

Yes, those are pigtails. And yes I love them!!

We went to a craft fair this weekend and one of the vendors stopped us to have a look at Ingrid as was visibly surprised to learn that she was only 10 months old. She said she looked more like two years old. WHAT!?!?!?! She said it's because she has so much hair. Hmpf to that!

No matter how old she looks, I think she's adorable. Adorable trouble.