here's to a wacky but wonderfully snowy christmas and a fantastic new year!

love, the horchies

blue steel

we got the email on last thursday. conrad had been chosen to participate in robeez's spring/summer photoshoot and since he's been practicing his blue steel, please see below.

i couldn't believe my eyes when i read the email, i had to log out and log back in to make sure i wasn't going nuts as my baby brain is still not functioning properly and sadly i have suspicions that it may never recover but that's a whole other post.

anyways, they didn't give too much notice as we received the email on thursday and the shoot was the following tuesday, which meant i had to book conrad in for a mani, pedi, facial and a massage on really short notice, afterall this could be our, i mean his big break.

i was really uncertain about how conrad was going to react once we got there, you know, the arrogant photographer, snooty personal assistants and other catty showbiz moms but he was as cool as a cucumber. he was like, "mama, you gotta keep your cool." before long he was running amuck in the green room, going through all the shoe samples, flirting with the older ladies and keeping it real with the other baby models. i didn't have to worry none, all i had to do was keep him from pulling down the set because that boy is sure fast on his feet now.

and he totally rocked it. it was totally like america's next top model with the art director going through the shots as they were being taken and the stylists were adjusting and re-adjusting conrad's wardrobe. like, totally. he was so much of a star that that they asked if it was alright if conrad could don a pair of bloomers and mary-janes to do some crawling shots. well, conrad wasn't about to be one of those girls who want to get into modelling so badly but not do nude shots, like c'mon. the only problem was he was not a crawler anymore so those shots might not make the cut. the photographer was even like, "you can stop being so easy going." totally rocked it.

after three wardrobe changes his work was done. i wish i was able to take a few more behind the scenes photos but conrad really kept me on my toes. so be on the look out for conrad's mug on the robeez website as well as any posters at your local baby store. hopefully i'll hear from robeez people once they launch the new spring/summer line.

mon nom est...

pour l'halloween mon nom est pierre laFontaine. j'aime mon beret, les biscuits et les baguettes (yum-yum) et les bananes aussi. joyeux halloween, mes amis!

birthday bonanza

even though the face painter didn't show up and the deal with the ponies fell through i think a good time was had by all. before we knew it the townhouse was busting at the seams with lots of birthday and baby action. conrad was so lucky to have so many peeps come to help celebrate his first birthday. though the day was hectic for us and we didn't get a chance to catch up with all our guests as we should've we hope that you all had a great time and hopefully the mini hamburgers and mini tacos were tasty enough for you to come back again next year! conrad wants to thank everyone for a super duper party, especially those who came from out of town! and thank you for all your lovely presents! let the baby parties begin!



poor little conrad wasn't totally himself as his teeth had been bothering him lately and he was a little more glum on the day of his party. it's my party and i'll cry if i want to...

cry if i want to!

but it's nothing presents can't fix! check out my haul (and my ugg booties)!

more presents! way to make good use of your sign language, conrad!

conrad has been so highly trained to eat good healthy food that he just didn't know what to do with his birthday cake!

peeps,

peeps,

and more peeps! (sorry all those who were missed!)

hooray for conrad!

what's a party without cupcakes! wanna make them yourself? click here.

birthday baby bonanza! hey, who brought the crybaby?

the best wrapping award goes to auntie amy!

thanks to my baba and auntie wendy and rita who came for my birthday!

and a very special thanks to lukas, the tiniest party-goer for making conrad's birthday extra special.

sweet success

the mommies on main show was a huge success for me. thank you to all my friends and family who came to lend some moral support because i sure needed it! i couldn't have done it without my two biggest supporters, jason and conrad, thank you! and thank you, thank you, thank you to my mom, MIL, SIL, bronwen for rescuing me from my panic attack, josh, naomi and max for being my first customers!, nancy and gerald for lunch, the mah's, flaura and claudiu, ginny and jayden! the weekend is kind of a blur to me now so i hope i haven't forgotten anybody.

wow! what a learning experience! it sure is different being on the other side of the table. it was very intimidating for me once i got to the hall. all the vendors looked very pro which made me feel very mickey mouse so i hid behind my table for most of saturday but i was glad to have some very nice people stationed around me but once i finally did venture from behind my table i quickly realized everyone was very friendly. phew! i am so glad (in hindsight of course!) i did this show. i received so many nice compliments and that made this whole experience worth it and just gives me a sense of validation and that feels good. i have a few more ideas i'd like to do but all i need now is time! i've opened an etsy store but i haven't had the time to stock it yet...i'm sorry! hopefully in a couple days because i'm just trying to complete a custom order for a mobile that i received after the show! can you believe it??? so hang tight and i'll be sure to update you when i have items up for sale!

and i can't post an entry without an update on my little monster. since my last post he really has grown up almost into a little boy. he's started crawling and pulling himself up against the bookshelf, kitchen cabinets and stereo. and he's got lots of hair now. he's still pretty serious but he has little giggle fits. and he's got this little smirk, you know, the one where you know he wants to smile but he doesn't because he doesn't want to give you the satifaction. what a brat but there is too much to tell. you will have to come over to see it for yourself otherwise you'll only have pictures to look at.

so long for tonight.

vote for your favorite hair-do!

carfree days on commercial

at the playground being cute

just being cute

everybody! just wait and stop crying! we just need one good picture!

hanging out with fraser at grizzley

hanging out with max. don't eat me, fergus!

hungry, max?

heads up, seven up!

you know that "first day of school" feeling when you are feeling like you are walking into a lion's den and you know they are going to rip you into shreds? yes, that day has come folks, it's finally the weekend for the mommies on main show so come down and save me from the lions! the show runs on saturday, 11am-6pm, and sunday, 11am-5pm. you can find us at the heritage hall on 3102 main street. there is a $2 admission but $1 dollar will be donated to the YMCA for programs aimed towards single moms.

also, super business mommy, ashley ramsay, of milklush will be at the show on sunday only! check out her cute quilts and indispensible MyPad! they are awesome!

hope to see you there!

belated shout outs

shout outs to my popo and auntie nancy who celebrated their birthdays on sunday!

popo, sang yut fai lok!

happy birthday, auntie pantz!

viva las vegas

so we didn't come home with any benjamins if you were wondering. i knew i should've cashed out when i was up 14 cents on the slots but you live and learn, right?!? jay and i didn't actually gamble much, not even in the way of slots. it was a long first day and we didn't get into sin city until the evening and it was still h-h-h-hot. lucky for us there were predictions for weather breaking records that week and sure enough the very next day was a scorcher, a record breaking 108 degrees. does anyone know what that is in celsius? no? well, you're in luck because i do. 108 fahrenheit = 42.22 celsius. i am not kidding. i must've been expecting the very worst because it it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be as did wendy. it was probably because of the humidity factor. gaad, humidity is just unbearable. we were worried little monster might kick up a fuss with the heat but he was a-okay with it, just a bit dopey but that might be because he poor little nose was stuffed up still.

who doesn't love a snot bubble?

and how awesome was it that the wong's were in the vegas the same time as us?!? we got to hang out with mrs. wong at their palacial digs at the palazzo until garret finished up at his conference. the room was crazy fancy and the view was incredible. we had all our swimming gear with us but the pool had to be closed that day due to high winds. unlucky for us. we went to the burger joint called stripburger across at the fashion mall. it was pretty good but not nearly as good as the burger brasserie at paris. if you want to taste the most AMAZING fries EVER, you need to go to the burger brasserie and try the petite frites. best. frites. EVER. but stripburger did have pickle fries. what are pickle fries, you ask. well, you're in luck again because i know. basically there just battered dill pickles. they were served with a ranch dipping sauce. seriously, anything is good deep fried.

nice view, huh?

i'm staying here tonight, uncle garret. i hope you don't mind sleeping in the other bed.

who is this strange woman feeding me?

wendy, amy and i spent a day shopping at the outlet malls. wendy's eyes glazed over when she saw the banana republic signage and power shopping mode kicked in. i was happy to get a pair of birks that i've had my eye on for some time now...for half the price! woo-hoo! but other than that there weren't too many good steals. amy stocked up on shirts for garret and baby stuff. (not trying to start any rumours, people! baby shower gifts! jeesh.) and wendy came away with a pair of kate spade sunnies that she had been coveting. and after the shopping fun was over we had to hop back on the bus to get home and boy it was an interesting journey. it all started when we missed the 108 so we waited and waited. a couple of buses had gone by, but no 108. then were was a lady with a gold capped tooth that came running up to the bus stop disappointed to that we let the bus go. "y'all do know that each and every bus that's passed get you back to the strip, right? i was runnin' cuz i thought y'alls gonna hold the bus!" and the adventure begins. we get on the next bus with this lady telling the entire bus that we've let multiple buses by without getting on thinking that only the 108 took us back to the strip. don't get me wrong she was funny and we probably owed it to her otherwise we'd probably still be waiting at that bus stop. and unlucky for us the driver of this particular bus was loud and quite unhelpful, yelling at the passengers whether we needed the next stop or not...hmmm...isn't that what the bell is for but anyway, no one was really answering her and so she got all pissy (probably because she had an undercut too, like how 80's) and started berating us tourists. then that got the gold capped tooth lady started again so we had it coming to us from both sides. i wish i had it on video because it was one of those things you try to tell people how funny it was but comes out sounding not so funny, so reading about it is perhaps worse than hearing it. sorry, y'alls, i tried.

my birks

jay and i got to go out and have dinner all by ourselves while my MIL watched over the monster. it felt really good to get out on our own. no serious conrad withdrawls. and we had some really good mexican grub that was really affordable seeing that it was situated in the venetian alongside the canal. so we wined (mmm, sangria) and dined as we watched the gondolas go by. how romantic.

actually, conrad was with us as we finished our dessert. tee-hee.

and after having paid her babysitting dues, my MIL had the lovely chance to see cher at ceasar's palace. so a good time was had by all in vegas until a baby gets locked in a hotel room and the front door has been deadbolted and the door from the adjoining room slams shut after the baby's aunt and mother return from a junk food run. yes. being the extra cautious dad, jay had locked our door from the inside while he watched the boob tube in wendy's side of the room as conrad slept in ours. upon our return, we triggered an air vacuum and the adjoining door slammed shut and our keys couldn't unlock the door so we had to call the front desk. pandemonium ensued (not really but i like to make things more dramatic for storytelling purposes.) the key guy came and unlocked the door but he also had to call security to verify that we were indeed the registered guests. poor little monster must've known something was up because he started crying but luckily drifted back to bed after a few minutes. phew. another lesson learned.

good times. good times.

i wish it was really paris. the tour eiffel and the l'arc de triumphe!

give me my beer, mama!

much better.

give me the diet coke, auntie wendy, not water!

photo op with baba at the flamingo

these two bananas cost us $2. can you believe that? bloody robbery. also that was the view from our balcony. not quite as good as amy and garret's.

vegas baby!

watch out, here we come!

how is your poo today?

never did i think that i would be so curious and concerned about poo, hence this early morning post. conrad didn't poo yesterday so after his middle of the night feed i was worried that he'd poo his pants so i stood outside his bedroom listening for grunts at 4:20am in the morning because i love catching his poo in the pottie. no, i am dead serious. you really get this satisfaction of knowing you saved yourself from cleaning some nasty s***. pun intended. but i also do feel bad when i do miss a poo, i mean, i don't think anyone enjoys crapping themselves and so i don't think babies like to either, which is basically the theory behind the diaper-free method. babies, apparently are born to communicate with us when they need to eliminate but because we lack this knowledge we miss the signals. so babies learn to to poo and pee themselves thinking that's what they're supposed to do and when it's time for potty training they're like, "whaaat?!? i thought i was supposed to poop and pee myself. what 'cha talkin about, mama?" some might see this as some hippie gibberish but based on the results that we've had so far i highly recommend at least trying this because it's doesn't require as much patience as you might think and it means one less diaper to wash and/or toss which the environment will love you for. our friend, janey, practiced it with her son and for awhile she said that he was going diaper-free at nights! we haven't had that kind of success with conrad but i am very pleased that he had caught to what the potty is used for...no, conrad, that is not a hat.

but anyways, back to the poo itself. what am i concerned and curious about? i'm curious and concerned about the firmness, the colour, the consistency, the frequency, what it looks like, is it smelling the same, etcetera, etcetera. and i'm sure there are many other things that one could look for in infant poop for example naomi was telling me that stringy-ness in breastmilk poo may mean an intolerance to something mom's eating. how would one test for stringy-ness? well, you rub the poo together (in the diaper but i guess you can use your hands if you were a tactile type of person) and peel apart. how's that for a conversation starter?

breastmilk poo rules. solid food poo sucks. breastmilk poo never bothered me, that's probably because his poo's now are basically like mini man turds. for short-while he was quite regular and i was catching close to 90% of his poo in the pottie. his poops of late, though, are getting a bit more sporadic with a lack of rhyme or reason. he went from twice a day to once a day to once every day and a half then all of a sudden 3 a day then back to once a day. i was a wee bit thrown and missed a couple here and there. ugh...but i will not this discourage me! i will not be satisfied until i catch all his poo's! plus, just look at how much conrad enjoys his time on the pottie (like every guy!).

hooray! thumbs up for the pottie!

sorry to disappoint but there will not be any poo photos to complement this entry. so how was your poo today?

happy mother's day

to all the moms, new and not so new, grandmom's, dog moms, cat moms and all the other moms i've missed, "happy mother's day". it started like any other sunday, that being lazy, just the way i like it. it was quietly celebrated with flowers, eggs benny and my two favourite boys.

thank you, conrad, you make my job so easy.

mmm...eggs benny. most delectable.

it's shameful really, but i licked the plate clean. that's one of the perks about dining at chez horchy's. it is not frowned upon here, in fact, it's encouraged.

my wee little boy seems to have caught his first stuffy nose. his poor nose is a bit chapped but he is otherwise in good spirits. it was only a matter of time before he'd catch something but we've been very lucky that this is his first and it really doesn't seem to bother him. the timing could have been a bit better as well because we're leaving for las vegas on sunday (ka-ching! mama needs a new pair of shoes!) so hopefully - everybody cross your fingers - he'll be better by then.

so i'm signing off this special mother's day post with my little ham. i hope your day was as special as mine.