The Hobnob Challenge

Matthew has a sweet tooth. There is no denying it. I, on the other hand, do not. In Canada, I rarely bought cookies because inevitably, I would eat two or three out of the whole box, and Matthew would eat the rest, in about a week. He has this condition where he will eat whatever is in front of him - no matter what it is. If you have a box of Ritz crackers, he'll eat them. If it's a box of cookies, he'll eat them. This works with everything though, so if you put a bag of carrots in front of him, he'll eat them too.

There is one kind of cookie that I really like though - but because it is British, it's not a cookie, it's a biscuit. They are called Hobnobs and they are these crunchy, oat-y biscuits of deliciousness. One of my favourite things about them is they come in a tube, not a box. For some reason, this speaks to me.

On my first grocery shop (remember, the 4 carts, trolleys?) I bought a tube of cookies. I had two with tea that night - we were playing 'British'. Matthew polished off the rest of the tube (about 20 cookies) by the end of that week. With my first online grocery shop, I accidentally bought 3 tubes (whoopsies). I had originally clicked to add one tube to my basket, but then saw that they came in a double pack for cheaper. So I clicked that into my basket too, and forgot to delete the single tube.  It's a good thing I'm getting better at the online shopping, because Matthew ate all three tubes of cookies - except for probably 6 - in about 10 days. :) Love him! When I brought this up, he got a bit bashful, and decided he would not binge on Hobnobs ever again.

Here's the thing. I have invited some girls over next Monday for tea after our playgroup (yeah, I said tea - when I said coffee, all 3 of them said, 'we don't drink coffee', so I had to say, 'oh, I meant tea!!' even though I really meant coffee...), so I had to buy some cookies to give them. To those of you who might bake cookies for when you have guests, I have to tell you I'm a terrible baker. Matthew won't even eat the cookies I make. :( So I bought some more cookies - a 3 pack this time because I thought they were 3 different kinds of Hobnobs. Turns out, I need to learn to read a bit better because the packaging clearly indicates they are, in fact, just 3 different kinds of biscuits. 

So, Matthew has enrolled himself in the Hobnob Challenge: Can he make it to Monday without eating all three tubes of cookies? Only time will tell...

Experimental Video

I just figured out how to use the video recorder on my Blackberry. We have been here 6 weeks and I only just realized my phone had a video camera. Awesome.

Here is my first video of Elizabeth. We were having lunch, and this is a very typical lunchtime conversation. Her smile at the end is kind of to die for. Enjoy.

On Hair & Hostesses

A few days ago, my hair was awful. As in embarrassingly long roots, dead-dead-dead ends, and just blah all over. It was terrible. I have a great colourist & stylist in Edmonton, but what with a trip to Mexico before Christmas, then Christmas, then packing & moving & going-away events, getting my hair done before we left was just not an option. Then we arrived here, and it was even less of an option, as things like unpacking, getting Elizabeth over jet-lag, and finding grocery stores became more important.

So I got my hair done, finally, on Saturday. It was heavenly. Now I look like this:

It was great to sit in a room full of adults & no children for 3 hours. I chose a salon based on the fact that they use the same colour products (Loreal) as my Canadian salon, and my Canadian stylist, Toccara gave me my formula to give him. I thought that was incredibly clever of Toccara to suggest. PS It is not lost on me how saying "Canadian stylist" gives the impression that I also have an "American stylist" and a "French stylist" etc etc. :)

There were 4 other women having their hair done at the same time as me, and all four stylists were men. Two of them were older, and clearly the owners/managers of the place. And while Ryan (aka English stylist) was doing my hair, all on his own, the two old dudes each had an 'assistant' - as in, a girl who stood there and handed them the foil piece that was on the little roll-y table right beside them. I couldn't get over this, and kept almost laughing. These old dudes (as in, probably 50ish, so not old) couldn't even pick up their own foils??? I love it! And then, then, old dude #1 (who looked like Super Mario but in a purple plaid shirt) got his 'assistant' to put the pieces of foil onto this tablet thing that looks like the wooden trays they use for tapas at restaurants:

and then he painted on the dye for his lady's hair, and held it out for her to take & put another piece of foil on. It looks like a paddle. I found this whole situation with the 'assistants' pretty hilarious - especially because it seemed like all they did was look at themselves in the mirrors, primp their hair and pout their lips the whole time. They each got in trouble twice for being too slow - at handing over pieces of foil. I hope Elizabeth never turns into one of these girls.

On a separate note: I love how you can become BFFs with your hair stylist in just one cut. Ryan was really funny, and I already know so much about him - all about his ex-boyfriends, his new boyfriend, his new hair cut, his flat, his commute to work, his jean size, his exercise regime... I am probably going to go back to this salon for the duration of my stay in England, even though it is (a) too expensive for us to really afford, (2) a little bit far away from our place, and (c) full of stupid assistant girls.  I just realized why I was so drawn to these assistant girls - they make me think of the hostesses at Joey's downtown - and how it takes 4 girls in too-high-heels and headsets to get you to your table that is still full of dirty glasses.

All About Elizabeth

Pigtails!

Okay, the formatting for this entry is going to be a little bit sad and pathetic. I tried on my own to get all these photos to be in a grid, or at least side-by-side, and couldn't get it to happen. Big, fat thumbs DOWN to blogspot for that.Would it really be that hard to write a bit of code so every time your mouse hovered-over a photo, the cursor turned into a little four-arrow-compass thing, and you could just drag and drop it wherever you wanted? I don't know anything about computer programming, clearly, but come on now.

Matthew also tried to "edit HTML" and got a table inserted, but I am impatient, and it was taking more than 20 seconds, so I told him that I'd suck it up on the poor layout. If anyone knows how to get photos side-by-side, please let me know. As a side note, the demo HTML table that Matthew found online and started modifying for this post had columns titled "Superhero" "Superpower" and "Favourite Food" and then the rows were "Chuck Norris - Hidden Beard Fist - Knuckle Sammiches" and "Patrick Swayze - Pelvic Thrust of Doom - Quiche". I love internet geeks!!

So today is a big update on Elizabeth. I have had multiple requests for recent photos, so here you are: 14 photos of her! :) It took me about 20 minutes to pare down the pics I'd taken to just 14. Feel free to skim the text & stare at her photos. My feelings won't be hurt.

Hello beautiful blue eyes!

Matthew taught her how to "cheers" with her sippy cup. It is a great game.

Saying bye to Daddy in the mornings. It is already green here, and warm enough to go outside at 7:30 in only her jammies.

I wanted to get a photo where you could see Elizabeth's two bottom teeth just poking through - can you see them?? I even chose size "large" for this photo to help you out. Note the marmalade on her nose - she is a big fan of toast & marmalade.  In order to get this pic, I just had to give her a spoon and then she started gesticulating and (basically) yelling at me. Maybe she's going to be a teacher. Or a conductor. Orchestra conductor, not train. Although, she does love trains...

Her new favourite toy: not the car, the empty freezer box. We have it as a tunnel/house right in front of the door leading from the kitchen to the back garden. In the evenings, when we're making dinner, she crawls in there and talks to "that baby" in the reflection. Usually she brings her other favourite toy: the empty milk jug. Why do we buy toys again??

Elizababy is all about kissing lately. Big fat, slobbery, really wet kisses. It's really nice when she gives you a spontaneous kiss, but I have to keep a kleenex in my pocket all the time to wipe all the drool off. I also have stains on the shoulders of all my shirts where she kisses shoulders & necks. Elizabeth is a loving girl.

Heeeeeey, look who stands up on her own!! It's hard to tell from this photo, but we have a tupperware beside her cardboard house, and she will stand up on the wall,  and then cruise from the wall  to the tupperware, and then to her little house... Soon she will make the jump from the house to the freezer, and then along all the kitchen cabinets. I am not super stoked about her almost-walking status. I want her to stay a baby forever.  PS I am aware of how huge that onesie is around her waist, but it's all snuggly and soft and cute. She is currently wearing British size 9-12 month shirts (aka her appropriate size) and Canadian size 3-6 month pants, sometimes 6-9 months. She is going to be tall & slender (just like her Mum, hahaha!!!)

This is what she looks like after her naps - a super happy, laughing little baby. She usually wakes up and talks and sings and plays with her toys in her crib for about 20 minutes before she makes grumpy sounds. Her crib toys are named: Ugly Doll (behind her right side), Giraffe (obvious), Pooh & Tigger (unseen - but you can probably guess what they look like) and Steve (the bunny behind her left). Matthew named Steve.

This is her dancing when her mobile gets wound up. When the mobile is on, it means waking up time, not sleeping time like most kids. Elizabeth lo-o-o-o-ves it.

We're trying to introduce finger foods more and more. We use the vacuum a lot. She loves to test gravity. A scientist already.

This is the setup when we skype - she usually stands there and brings up one or two toys at a time to show them off to whoever we're talking to. She has a gift for choosing the noisiest toys ever. (I am pretty sure we are watching The Office here though - the theme song to The Office is probably Elizabeth's favourite song. She loves it and bounces and dances. She's already got great taste in comedy TV!)

Getting ready to go out. She finally fits into the coat her Daddy gave her for Christmas. :) Elizabeth loves the bike, and we go zipping around all over the place. I have mastered roundabouts (aka traffic circles).  I must admit to being so proud of  this - I have to go on the wrong side of the road, in the wrong direction, and indicate when I'm staying in and exiting the roundabout. Pretty impressive with a baby behind you, don't you think?

 We are having a lot of fun with Elizabeth lately. She is just so much fun! It sounds cheesy, but it's true. One last thing: we have a copy of 'Brown Bear, What Do You See' by Eric Carle, which is an interactive version with little slide-y sections where you uncover what Brown Bear/Red Bird/Yellow Duck (etc) sees. Elizabeth totally knows how to read this book. She has mastered the sliding. We read it about 800 times a day. I am proud to say: I don't even need the book anymore to know who sees what. White Dog? Oh, he sees Black Sheep. And Black Sheep? She sees Gold Fish. It's true, I'm kind of a genius. Hopefully Elizabeth takes after me for smarts...

Mum of the Year? Probably Not...

My cousin Emma came to visit us this week with her two children, Millie & Henry, and they stayed overnight. We had a great time with Emma & the kids. The best part was that it took Emma an hour & a half to get to my front door, whereas even 2 months ago it would have been an 8 hour flight.

Millie's hardest decision in life so far: choosing which sweeties to buy with the pound coin from her  Nanny & Grandad

Emma having fun on the carousel thing at the playground.

Emma almost puking on the carousel thing at the playground

Obviously you have to wear all the hats in the house at the same time. Especially when wearing pajamas.

"Yeah, I'm on a swing. No bigs. Yeah, I also kicked off one of my boots. Figure it out, people! It's fashion!"  

But the point of this post is actually about Elizabeth's crib. See, my cousin Ross came to visit us in January,

and when we tried to move Elizabeth's crib out of her room so he could sleep there on our extra bed (hint, hint, to anyone who is considering visiting!!), it wouldn't fit out the doorway. Even with a lot of  maneuvering and pivoting, and the best engineering Matthew could do, the crib was too wide for the door frame. And now, I have to point out that it is funny that my cousin's name is Ross, and everytime I think of that evening moving the crib, I also think of the episode of Friends with the couch and Ross yelling, "PIVOT!"

I love that this came up on Google Image when I searched "friends pivot" :)

This time, we didn't bother pivoting even one time; Matthew took the crib apart and put it back together in our room. So that brings us to this evening, when Emma & her kids have left, and Matthew is out with his new lab group for the evening. I had to decide: leave her crib in our room again tonight, and suffer through her super loud, noisy sleeping (has anyone else noticed how loud babies are when they sleep??), or take it apart and put it back together myself, and take care of Elizabeth at the same time? Um, hello, is this even a choice?  I can totally take apart and put together a crib!!

And guess what - I totally can do the crib thing. No problem! It's the "taking care of Elizabeth at the same time" part that is hard. Which is why my baby has a bump on her forehead about an inch and a half long. Because when I was balancing the bottom part of the crib on my knee and allen-key screwing the side into the headboard of the crib (you might have to read that sentence a couple times to actually visualize what I mean), Elizabeth decided to stand up using the crib as a support. Which meant I couldn't move because then she would fall - but also meant I was semi-trapped when she decided to let go and stand up on her own, and then fall down on her own. And clearly, she chose to land on her head.

Taken about 10 minutes after the 'incident' - can you see the bump? I swear, she was fine after about 2 minutes of crying. And her pupils dilate equally, and she responds to her name, and she follows commands. She  did 'more' in sign language when I gave her cheerios just before this photo. She's fine!

I realize this photo makes her look a little cross-eyed but she really isn't. She really is fine.

So.... does this make me a bad Mum? Or a good furniture-putter-togetherer? It's a bit of a toss-up, really.

Unfortunately, I am a Good Shopper.

Yesterday Elizabeth & I ventured to a shopping area called the Grafton Centre. It is two pedestrian boulevards with a shopping mall connecting them.

I wanted to get Elizabeth some plain long-sleeve onesies to go under her shirts, because I worry about wind getting under her jacket and making her tummy and back cold when we're biking. Matthew would say that I worry about that happening to Elizabeth because it happens to me. And yet, I'm not buying myself any plain long-sleeve onesies...

So I packed the diaper caddy into the backpack, along with the Baby Bjorn to carry Elizabeth around while we shopped, and we biked over to the Grafton. Then in Primark (kind of like Old Navy-ish), I couldn't resist, and ended up getting her two new shirts, two 3-pack onesies, two pairs of leggings and some socks. She pretty much needed them. Then, on our way back to the bike, I passed about 8 charity shops - in England, they don't have Goodwill or Salvation Army type stores, they have multiple charity shops and each one funds a different charity. We stopped in at the British Red Cross shop, the British Heart Foundation shop and one for British Homeless people. (I can't remember what it was called, but if you say "British Homeless People shop", it sounds like that is where you buy British Homeless People.) I just like to browse in these shops, and actually, they are a great place for baby toys. Elizabeth fell in love with this plastic train that choo-choos when you push the button, and has wheels and spinny things, etc etc. And it was a steal at £1.50, so obviously, into the backpack it goes.

Then I got back to the bicycle and had a little moment - was the backpack too big and fat now? Was it going to smash E in the face as we biked? I took out the Bjorn, and wore it on my front, and then put the backpack back on, but was still worried about it. I actually asked a lady with a stroller to check for me as I sat on my seat - she said, "Oh, you've got about 3", just lean forward while you ride!" Thank goodness I asked a non-judgey Mum instead of one who would just tsk-tsk and say something un-helpful like, "well, I wouldn't ride home like that, but if you want to, I guess it's okay." (Because even if I had asked a judgey Mum, I was still totally going to ride home like that.)

As I was cycling home, I realized we had nothing for dinner. Hmmm, what to do? Go to the grocery store in town, or wait til we get closer to home and go to the neighbourhood one? Elizabeth was practically asleep already in the bike seat, and it would have been more challenging to wake her up once she was actually asleep when we got closer to home. So, off the bike we get again, and into a grocery store we go.

It was in the grocery store that I realized the train toy was choo-choo-ing from inside the bag - all afternoon I had thought I was setting off anti-theft alarms in shops. Whoopsies.

The meat section had a three-for-£10 deal, so obviously I had to get that. And then I remembered we didn't have any bread. And after I bought the groceries, I got back to the bike and realized that I am not brave enough to bike with a grocery bag dangling from my wrist. . .  What to do? Obviously, smoosh the bread into one of the mesh side pockets of the backpack, and then put the 3 packages of meat into the Baby Bjorn, and bike home. Ha!! I wish I had taken a photo of my meat baby!

A Little Bit Too Young

Yesterday I took Elizabeth to the local community centre for an activity called "Family Fun Time". We went with my new friends (!!) Ignacia and Javiera. Ignacia has a four-year old son Francisco and twin daughters Olivia and Florencia, who are 18 months.  Javiera's son Manuel is three, and she is expecting her second son in March. Elizabeth is a lot younger than these kids, but totally loves playing with them.Well, mostly they play, and she crawls among them and randomly picks up a toy to eat. But she laughs and giggles a lot.

We went to a music class with Javiera and Manuel, and for the first half-hour, Manuel would put a bell or a tambourine about 5 feet in front of Elizabeth and she would giggle and crawl to it, and then he'd run ahead and put down another instrument and she would crawl to it, and giggle more. It was ridiculously cute.

But at the Family Fun Time, I realized that Elizabeth is a little too young for the ball-pool. I kept trying to put her in it with Olivia, and everytime, she looked at me like this:

Still a little bit too young, I guess...