merry christmas

to all our friends and family, near and far, have a fuzzy and warm christmas this year and may all your dreams come true in the new year!

love,

jason, rosie and conrad!

baby bottle blues

for the last few weeks we have tried to give conrad the bottle but with very little success. we introduced it to him awhile ago now and he took it with out any fuss so we didn't think it was an issue but i guess we weren't giving it to him regularly enough. wah! i now totally feel like i've sort of failed as a mother in this area and i know that it sounds very silly but doesn't every parent want to raise the perfect-ist little child? we're going to try and try but it's just sooooooo (multipled by infinity)sad to see little conrad cry so hard.

i don't get it, the milk inside the bottle is the same stuff from my boob but he just won't have any of it and it makes me so sad. we tried using a couple of different nipples and "transitional" cup which is a basically a sippy cup but with a soft nipple like mouth piece. horchie had to resort to using an eyedropper to feed once while i was away. we bought another more traditional sippy cup but we haven't tried it yet so wish us luck. so all you new moms out there, introduce your little one the bottle once you've established breastfeeding. one of the new mom's i've met used the bottle every three days and now her little girl lets anyone feed her by the bottle. sigh. if anyone has anymore advice for me about introducing the bottle to the little monster, please, please send it my way! i need all the help i can get.

here's an arty one for you folks!

babies everywhere!

it sure has been a long time since my last post. with horchie busy meeting his deadlines it seemed like he was tethered to the computer but now since he's on paper boards now the computer has been freed up and now it's just finding the time to post. i thought i'd be posting every couple of days but the reality of it is, babies are a lot of work. there's lots to catch up on but first let's tackle all the baby announcements.

finally! i think all the november babies have finally popped. the first to come out of the flood gates was little fraser wallace. and boy, did this little guy come out in a hurry considering he was one whole week late! by then linds was super ripe and ready and luckily she didn't have to wait until the entire 10 days. i've forgotten how delicate and light newborns are. with all the talk of big heads, i was prepared for little fraser to be conrad-sized but luckily for linds he was 8lbs, 2oz. conrad's just about 14lbs now but little fraser seems just that, little, by comparison. he's so sweet. you guys have done good, congratulations!! happy 2 week birthday, fraser, and welcome to this world.

(photo above courtesy of cindy o....great pic!)

and my, oh, my. just as shuh and i were enjoying our tea and cookies at the ballet, amy called with the exciting news that ginny and jason had a precious little baby boy! i was POSITIVE that ginny was going to have a little girl! i thought ginny and i looked the complete opposite while we were preggers so this is why i was convinced that a little girl was on the way for them, so convinced that i wagered a friendly bet with nancy. now i owe her lunch. hmph. nonetheless, i am excited for you guys! i didn't think babies could come smaller than conrad did. jaden (another boy!) weighed in at 6lbs, 6oz. he was so tiny and so much hair! can't tell who he looks like, though i think more like jason than ginny for now. congratulations!! you guys done good too (and look good too)! and little jaden is even waving for the camera. what a ham!

it's so amazing how fast conrad has grown in a mere 3 month period. (by the way, he celebrated his 3 month birthday on tuesday!) everything about him just seems so non-newborn. i'm straining to remember if he had little newborn cries like fraser and jaden. hearing those cries just melt my heart. conrad was so wrinkly when he was first born. those wrinkles under his eyes and forehead especially made him look like a little old man, now he's a plump little monster. no more elephant knees, sigh...but enough about conrad (for now) and on with new babies!

and the only girl in the pack, addison rae. she was 6lbs, 15oz and with parents like todd and ashley, of course she is cutie.

my dear friend jamie and his wife also added another little boy to the boy explosion, kaian. not too many details but they are on the way! don't blink. not even once or else those precious little babes will be 3 months before you know. congratulations to all the new parents!

here's a couple of conrad but that's all for now cause if i don't publish is post now it'll be another month before i do...catch-up will just have to wait!

conrad's newest fascination is with his fist as seen here. thank goodness for cheap entertainment.

all hallow's eve

the days leading up to halloween felt more like christmas and i was one of santa's little elves madly sewing the little monster's halloween costume. i couldn't let halloween go by without dressing him up! so what did we dress him up as? take a peek below:


all i could talk about while being pregnant was hotdogs so of course conrad was going to be a hotdog! and what a cute little hotdog he was! we went to the parent tot drop in session and almost all the other babies were dressed up too but to our dismay there were 2 other hotdogs there already! it was like going to the prom in your best ballgown only to find that there are 2 other girls with the same ballgown. there were pumpkins, turtles bugs and bears. conrad wasn't a very happy wiener during this photo op, he cried the whole way through. oh, conrad!

we helped dave and linds hand out candy to the kiddies as we feasted on chili. it was delish. linds is getting close now and her belly is big. we can't wait to meet you little waltsie, everybody's anxiously waiting your arrival!

conrad also got to meet our transplanted west coast fashionista, anita! even though her nieces and nephew are all grown up she's still got that baby charm or dare i say conrad's got the lady charm.

it's a short entry this time, sorry folks, that's all for now. signing off with a photo of conrad hog #1 and another of conrad because he is just so darn cute.

rain...

...rain, go away. come again another day.

holy recap, ro-girl!

feels like it's been more than just a few weeks since my last post. between nursing, diaper changes and sleeping there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to do other things like proper dental hygiene. forget about sexy, i'm bringing fuzzy teeth back.

jay's been working from home which has been awesome but he now hogs the computer but i guess i can't complain too much since he's bringing home the bacon (finally!) so by the time he's finished up it's way too late to even comtemplate a blog entry.

so what have the horychun's been up to? well, i've gone a bike ride to the doctor's up at lougheed mall when the car was in the shop. just a quick little jaunt right? can't be that bad. well. it was bad. but the time i got home from the 10km ride i was basically foaming at the mouth. my head was hurting and i was close to convulsions. can you believe i thought by throwing on a pair of cycling tights that it was going to be a breeze? i mean, i did only have to push for 15 minutes,right? easy peasy, right? well, if i was going to foam at the mouth i was going to look damn good doing it. (sorry, no photo verification for the previous statement.) it was funny in hindsight though. isn't everything?

i also took my first real break from motherhood. i pumped and pumped. i was ready, but i was also very anxious. i was outside of the the 5 kilometer radius that i was comfortable with, plus i didn't want to be that schmuck who leaves their cell phone on during the performance. so not only was i going to be all the way downtown but also out of celluar range. me and my ballet buddy, bronnie, attended the ballet BC's season opener at the ford centre for performing arts with the national ballet's giselle. my first real classic. it was beautifully performed with the goh academy's chan hon goh as giselle. there was also a performance before giselle, polyphonia, which i was equally impressed with. i did really enjoy this time for myself but i also called home at every intermission. i'm a mom now, i'm allowed.

thanksiving was turkey-less but conrad did meet his auntie rita who came out from cowtown for the weekend. she came over to watch the hockey game and make dinner for us. we had macaroni and cheese! she used a recipe from the best of bridge cookbooks. basically, it's a series of recipes that are shared among ladies who play bridge together. these ladies must love their cheese because it called for three kinds! best of all it called for velveeta! i was very excited because in my 30 years of living i have not had velveeta. processed cheese slices, sure, but not a whole brick of it! now, i've had this conversation with my friend, munsie, and correct me if i'm wrong but velveeta used to be on the shelf with the lard in the grocery store. apparently it's now found in the refridgerated aisle with other cheeses so it must be good for you now. but anyway, it was mm-mmm good. (munsie, if you come over i'll make you a velveeta grilled cheese sandwich.) for those who for haven't had velveeta before or have the hankering for some processed goodness check out this recipe: gourmet macaroni and cheese.

there has also been an improvement with the television sitch. still no cable but we signed up with zip.ca. movies sent to your doorstep...now we really don't need to leave the house! we did the 2 week free trial and the DVDs were flying into our mailbox but now since the trial period is over the service has slowed down considerably. i guess that's how they reel (heh heh) you in but i'm not complaining, we can hardly sit down to watch a movie in its entirety and the no due dates works for us just perfectly.

bored on a sunday night? i highly recommend cbc's new reality TV show, triple sensation. i had some harsh words about reality television in one of my earlier entries but this one is good. it's not a slag-fest (horchie's words) like the others, we don't need another clay aiken. if you like broadway you'll like this. so, to be a triple sensation you need to able to sing, dance and act and these contestants all have chops. i'll say no more, you can tune in at 8pm.

conrad is now a whopping 11.5 pounds! his flakey face is almost all better but his cradle cap has migrated to where it's supposed to be, the top of his head...the whole area! my poor little buddy! he's been having lots of fun though. we've started going to a parent/infant drop in at eileen daily pool. it's nice to get out and meet other moms and babies and guess who i ran into there...teresa and little olivia chang! it's been so nice to have other new moms to share this experience with and i CANNOT wait until to meet all the november monsters. congrats to teresa and jason, olivia is too cute!

last night the 3 of us also went to the ricky, titans, george wrap party. it was conrad's first time in a pub, he's such a bad-ass. no drinks this time, little buddy! it was a whirlwind visiting session. conrad and i didn't make it too far past the entrance but it was great those we did and sorry to those who we missed. we'll see you all very soon!

we've been reading lots and conrad's faves that make him smile the most are two old school classics: where the wild things are and the very hungry caterpillar (thanks anita!) and how to catch a star by oliver jeffers. a big thanks to ty, terilynn and the girls for sending this great little book. check out oliver's website, he's a super talented artist.

take a look at how the monster's growing (sigh): don't you just love the conrad sized carrot and the invisible cell phone?

holy, baby model! work it, conrad.

aww, what a great dad.

happy one month

doesn't feel like a month, does it? conrad's one month birthday has descended upon us. he's already over 9lbs after our doctor's visit at the beginning of the week so there's no doubt that he's put on a couple more ounces since then. they sure seem to grow up in a jiffy...sigh, if they could just stay small. there are times i think he's grown even just after a nap. his jowels make him look like a little bulldog. he's just so cute! the rash on his forehead is actually seborrheic dermatitis aka cradle cap and unfortunately it's not pretty and it lasts from 4-6 weeks. so just a note to future moms: get your announcement photos before the 20 or more rashes appear or else you'll have flaky baby pictures, which will still be cute but just flaky. conrad's weight is about average on his growth chart but his length is just a little below the 50th percentile which is no surprise since his parents aren't freakish giants.

he looks way bigger in his car seat. did you know that a baby's head is roughly 2/3's their body weight? fun fact, huh?


everyday i find new things about little conrad. for example, i was smelling his wee little hands and was surprised that instead of sweet smelling baby hands they were kinda stinky sour hands. i was shattered! our angel (really he is!) has stinky sour hands! even so we still have him wear his silly mitts to prevent him from gauging his precious little eyeballs out which probably contributes to his stinky hands as well as the fact that he has his fists clenched all day.

a crying baby beckons...until next time. happy one month birthday, monster.

telly scramble

so the new telly season has just started...not that it means much to me because we don't have cable but thank goodness for our rabbit ears we get the CBC (of course), cityTV and, albeit crappy, chek 6 island and KVOS. however, we do get an exclusive station here, conradTV. the only downside is this channel doesn't work with our remote control.

we take what we get so it's usually CBC and that comprises of the national, the hour (love strombo) and other quality programs that our beloved national broadcasting corporation produces. little changes on the CBC but a pleasant surprise this season is the martha stewart show in the 11am timeslot. hallelujah! my savour to daytime telly! as sad as this may sound, there is absolutely nothing on daytime television and it's not because we only have 4 channels.

cityTV, however, has made copious changes to their lineup. they have replaced star daily with wheel of fortune and re-runs of friends with jeopardy! how am i supposed to get my daily dose of entertainment news!?! i can live with jeopardy but wheel of fortune?!? now i'm forced to watch eTalk daily on chek 6 which i have previously mentioned comes in pretty crappy but your eyes gradually gets used to the snowiness. this channel makes everything else look like high def!

as a self-professed ANTM junkie, i was not too impressed with this season's premiere. it was very lacklustre. the girls were blah and the future theme sounds lame. i was not even interested in visiting the website and tyra looked fat. very disappointing, enough said. when is reality TV going to be over? the saving grace? the fifth estate...thank god for investigative reporting.

my tv woes aside, my little milk monster is growing before my eyes. he's starting to get sausage fingers, chubby cheeks and a double chin. the last time he was weighed, conrad was at 7lbs15oz and we're visiting the doc's next week for his one month check up so we'll get a new update. i can't believe it will be one whole month already. the days go by so quickly i wish i had a rewind button. the poor little fella has a bit of a rash on his face. at one point it got so bad it looked like he had a little red mask on. so off to the doctor's we went, as anxious parents that we were, and all was good. apparently there are about 20 different newborn rashes...who knew, because they only list about 4 of them in the books.

his tear ducts are starting to produce teeny weeny tears and it makes it even more sad for me when he cries now...and the boy can cry. i think he is coming out of his sleepy newborn stage (sigh) and is coming to terms that he won't be able to crawl back into the womb where it was basically perfect and i can't blame him especially when there are chinese ladies talking in high pitch gibberish, constantly fawning over him when my mom had a little viewing of our little guy last week. it was a hoot if you liked pickled eggs and pig trotters, ginger soup and chinese ladies.

other than that he eats well (very well), cries well and poops and pees well. life is good if you are a baby, specifically, life is good if you are conrad but life is also very good if you are me. he makes me laugh daily. i really didn't think that i would enjoy motherhood as much as i do. i mean, i was very apprehensive about it but it's been so great that i can hardly remember what it was like before him. cheesy, i know but i know you'll keep coming back for more.

and look who came for a visit! the travers pack but minus the pooch. sorry you had to miss out, ribsy! we'll have to visit you out in the hammer. it was great seeing you guys!

finally, our dear friends, josh and naomi, broke the news to us...well, me really because horchie knew already (he's a really good secret keeper) that they are expecting! i couldn't be more happy for them. congratulations, guys! we can't wait to meet your little, big bundle of joy. yay for another little buddy for conrad!

and another round of congrats to corrina, the girl who likes to fill out forms, who is also expecting! i can't believe the number of people who are having babies...watch out or you might catch it.

farty mcGee

thanks for comments, guys! things have somewhat settled down around this neck of the woods. the first couple of nights were pretty rough. l'il conrad had extended lung exercise sessions into the most ungodly hours of the night. he certainly does have a very good set of pipes. but we are now very relieved that he is sleeping well between feeds although we still need to wake for scheduled feedings. he has also unknowingly made diaper changes bit of a game for jay and i. he, so far, has farted in both of our faces and displayed a very impressive fountain show, one would even compare it to those seen in las vegas minus the lights display. it's a pretty fun game so i'm throwing this invitation to those interested in taking part.

we've have two outings already, both times to the doctor's office. why is that there are so many GPs who are lazy? i have countless horror stories (my own as well as others) of doctor's who show the utmost disregard for the very reason for our visits, healthcare. my family doc weighed conrad at our request only because "we wanted him to". so he pulls out his scale that probably hasn't seen the light of day since i don't know when. i was very unimpressed, but i have been for awhile but now that we have a little family this healthcare business is a bit of a priority. so if any of you guys would like to recommend your GPs to us please, please give us a shout!

this is conrad's second car ride since coming home from the hospital and as you can tell he's not too impressed and a few more other pics as well. i really like the sleepy time ones.

so, as i was dressing conrad after one of his feeding sessions i noticed that is umbilical cord stump had fallen out. it wasn't in his diaper. it wasn't on the bed. it wasn't anywhere. i don't know what we would do with it but i was a little disappointed that we had lost this little piece of him. this little piece was the one piece of evidence that we were once attached to each other. but there was a pleasant turn of events in this seemingly sad story. the little stump was stuck to my robe. phew. so here it is in all it's glory.

2 + 1 = 3

i can hardly believe all the events that have happened in a mere matter of days. jason and i are honest-to-god parents to our new baby boy. we have a baby...a baby boy! it is still so surreal. being at the hospital was like living in a little bubble, i was getting too used to hospital gowns that left my backside exposed and people in hairnets delivering my food...but of course in a good way. after 2 days at the hospital it felt a bit bizarre when it was finally time to leave and actually make our journey back home which seemed so far away, but we were ready, armed with our newest little wee pet, breast pump and what very little we knew about being parents. the only thing we didn't have was my pants. i'm blaming this on jason, in transition somewhere along the way he lost my pants. thank goodness that he packed his shorts in our bag because i would have been going home sans pantalons. our schedule is a little on the hairy side so here's the coles notes version on how the events unfolded and of course pictures of our new bundle of joy:

1. water broke on sunday, august 26. went to the hospital. false alarm. got sent home. no changes to the due date, still september 8th. had fish and chips for dinner.

2. gone to bed. jay's working on his board. contractions start at 2am, august 27. jay: still working on board. got no sleep. contractions continue and are really starting to hurt. (REALLY hurt.)

3. go to the hospital at 1pm. get assessed. 4-5cm dialated. contractions ongoing. moaning starts.

4. moaning continues.

5. tried laughing gas to take the edge off the pain. contrary to the name, this gas does not make you laugh.

6. 8cm dialated, water not broken. must manually break water.

7. doctor breaks the water. i dialate to 10cm in no time flat - "OK! push!"

8. 15 minutes of pushing and baby comes sliding down the birth canal as if it was a water slide. (OK, maybe not that easy or painless.) i'm also the new golden girl in the delivery ward. (OK, maybe not the entire delivery ward and maybe just in Delivery Room 5. i'm not known to brag but...eat your heart out girls.)

i guess many, if not all, of my posts will be about Baby so i'm sure a few of you folks out there reading this will get a little squirmy about poops, breasts and placentas and all the many things that the Chinese like to do with them...kidding. i'll be in my own little bubble for awhile but please don't forget to leave comments for me as this will probably be my only link to the outside world.

this has been a truly amazing experience for me, from the entire duration of the pregnancy to labour and delivery, and now i get to start a new life with my new little family. i couldn't have asked for anything more, except for a japadog around week 25. thank you, from the very bottom of my heart, to all our family and friends for all the gifts, love and support.

and now, what everyone's been waiting for...introducing our newest, littlest family member, Conrad Hudson, born on august 27th at 20:35, weighing in at 6.6lbs:

conrad says, "thanks, nicola for the super, cool, awesome, wicked toque!"

we did end up finding my pants. they were in the laptop bag. (and no, they didn't leave a second baby in my belly.)

summary: week one of a beautiful thing

you know that saying, "time flies when you're having fun"? it sure is true! SO much fun! the best feeling is when you don't even know what day it is, that's when you know you are having fun. i must say it was a busy week. my sister as well as friends from australia came into town so there was a lot of lunching and dim summing, needless to say, i think i've had my dim sum quota for the remainder of the year.

monday was a very productive day. my sister offered to do the baby announcements for horchie and i so i went over to my M&D's to help her out, but not before lunch, so nurse amy came out with us and also helped out with the announcements, it was a typical first day of school. i want to post a photo of the final product but i'll keep it a surprise, just like baby. thanks, rita, they look fabulous.

and the nesting begins, i've been organizing around the house and made this shelf for a shelf, it was starting to get a bit unruly. much better!

did a bit of shopping on west broadway. there is this great little shop called stepback and it carries the cutest merch. check out my loot:

i know it's going to be awhile until baby goes to school but the illustration on the cover of this keepsake book was too irresistable. i can actually collect baby's school artifacts from kindergarten to grade twelve! i think grade twelve is pushing it just a little but you never know! i've been in a bird phase as of late so i also picked up a few vintage postcards of birds to decorate baby's room. i love the baby blocks. there weren't too many letters left, lucky for baby! i don't think you'd find very many baby blocks nowadays with swiss army knives on them.

and aside from buying fun things for baby we've finally got some of the big things out of the way. we finally put the crib together and moved both the that and the change table into our bedroom. it was a bit peculiar to actually do this, but we are having a baby afterall. sometimes it is still very surreal that all i'm doing now is waiting for a baby to be born...and it's inside of me. i don't feel anything too different yet, there have been a few people who have said i've dropped but i don't feel like baby's dropped. i thought i might have been having braxton-hicks contractions, which are basically fake contractions but both my doc and i agree that it's most likely gas. pffft!! and we got the car seat. it's temporarily in hondaleeza right now but we'll move it out once we get our hands on andelica.

and the weekend wouldn't be a weekend if we didn't drop by the garden. we've eaten all the spinach and lettuce now so all that's left is swiss chard, beets, carrots, beans, broccoli and potatoes. we're kind of disappointed that the beets aren't doing that great. they are on the small side, very small side, but on the upside we have gotten some really big carrots. And the beans are going off the hizzle! we'll need to go back soon and start harvesting them perhaps for pickling purposes. the aphids are really annoying, first it was the chard, now it's the broccoli. i'll need to spray them down with soapy water next time were there.

and burnaby blackberries rock! we finally made jam with last year's harvest. horchie and i have gone out a couple of times already and the haul was very fruitful indeed. the official running total is 2lbs 15oz. living off the fat of the land, that's what i like.

the long awaited second entry

finally, i didn't think i would ever get to this second entry. much has happened so let's start with the last camping trip before baby decides to pop. ahh, it's aug long and time to head up to grizzley. for the last two years horchie and i have missed out on the grizzley action due to wedding action instead so we were really looking forward to this trip after this hiatus. YAY for the aug long spaghetti dinner! after everything was packed and ready to go it was 8pm when we finally hit the road...almost forgot our sleeping bags...can you imagine?!?!? despite the late start we arrived at camp C at about 3:20am...good driving, horch! we didn't make it out to the interlakes rodeo this year but instead everyone was in attendance for the 1st annual grizzley frisbee golf tournament! random team pairing resulted in me and grizzley bob as the first team to throw our frisbees. check out this impossible shot that grizzley bob totally made possible with the help of long limbs, something that i definately lack, plus i think i would've been way off centre if i tried to lie on my belly.

Here's some more good times had by all: davie-cakes down the straightaway.

the duchess of lindsor caught in the moment of contemplation at grizzley flats.

aside from all the frisbee fun there was much fun had on the lake, check me out in this gratuitous swimsuit photo, look out for in me the next sports illustrated.

we also got a chance to drive up to timothy lake and check out scott and colleen's pad...DUH!! why didn't we bring swim suits??? this is what we missed out on:

it kicked ass that davie-cakes, the duchess of lindsor, horchie and i were able to take the tuesday off. the day slowly clouded over but it's always sad to leave grizzley. the ride home as slow as usual (not in a bad way, penelope!) but was extra nice since we didn't need to deal with the long weekend traffic jam. so long for now, grizzley, i don't think we'll make it back for labour day weekend, heh heh. until next summer.