beautiful day **catch up post**

last monday turned out to be a beautiful day so conrad and i set out for a mommy and baby snowshoeing adventure. boy, i thought we'd never get out of the house. it was a whirlwind start to the day of gathering extra clothes, extra warm clothes, toys, diapers, boots, gloves, ski pants, etc. by the time i had finished packing it looked like we were going away for days but really, it was only a 1.5 hour excursion! but like the boy scout motto says, be prepared!

it was our first time snowshoeing and i was kind of nervous as this was the first-ish time for serious physical activity...aside from the time i had to bike to lougheed mall but let's not talk about that because i get nauseous just thinking about it. we had been looking forward to it for ages because our friend, janey, is the leader of the pack, plus it was cancelled the previous week due to poor weather, but not last monday. it was glorious. the day couldn't have been more perfect and i wasn't foaming at the mouth at the end of the hike.

view of mount baker on a clear, sunny day. breath-taking.

me, conrad, ash and addison hamming it up before the big trek

how fun is it having pals on mat leave together? linds, frase, ash, adds, christina, deighton, me and con. super fun!

our fearless leader, janey. check out all the gear she needs to pack plus 20+lbs quinn!

celebrate with snow buddies

5ive months. yes, folks, it has been five months since the wee monster first entered this world kicking and screaming. the day started yesterday with a slight sprinkling of snow which then progressed to cotton balls and in mere hours centimeters became inches. once the snow lightened up we braved the elements for a birthday stroll in the snow. what the stroller needed was ski attachments. i wonder if that exists...a possible business venture? probably not. but anyway, back to the monster. he was lucky enough to celebrate this one with some snow buddies. what a lucky little boy. i know i've said this before, but where has the time gone? my little baby is just growing up too quickly. parents tell me all time just how quickly it passes by but this is unreal. he will be 6 months in just a few weeks. that's half a year! he's still a pretty serious little boy but he starting to get more giggly and smiley. in the past week he's starting to roll over from back to front. he was pretty elusive about it at first, we'd just find him on his belly but we've caught him doing it a couple of times now.

rrowrr! nice snow lions.

yay for snow buddies!

it is astounding just watching how much my little monster's gross and fine motor skills develop. he's been grasping things for awhile and now he's rolling over and grabbing hold of his little feets. he can't sit up on his own yet but i'm sure that's just around the corner. oh my sweet boy.

music class! conrad and i have been going to music class at the eileen daily community center. it is so much fun! we moms just sing-a-long and dance with our babies. we even have a daddy in our class. i think that is so great! i wish horchie was so lucky but it's definately better for him work-wise with less distractions. soon it'll be time to sign up for water babies! i cannot wait for the summer to roll around, we'll be living in that pool of ours.

so what's up with the weather? there has been so much snowfall in the last two years that it seems like something fishy is going on. the last time i remember this much snowfall was when i was in highschool and class was cancelled for a whole week. yes. definately makes you wonder what's mother earth has in store for us.

hanging out as central park. don't get your feets stuck in the pond, silly gulls!

hanging out at deep cove. don't forget to stop in for a donut at honey's. mmm, to die for.

ever so serious

here's half a roll for you

BFF

two boys. too cute.

baby girl(friend)

dripping wet and cold. that's how i answered the phone yesterday morning to the fantastic news, good thing i got out of the shower for that one. loong and shuh have welcomed their new baby girl! she sized up to conrad almost identically upon her arrival. oh, she is precious. looks like she's a good mix of mom and dad. so far i think she has loong's eyes and shuh's lips. we can't be happier for this little new family. no name yet, but we're anxiously waiting. congratulations, chan clan!

oops, wrong baby!

baby girl

conrad met his little girlfriend and even got to see her naked as the nurse bathed her. how's that for a first date! (you snooze, you lose, jayden!) good thing both sets of parents were there to chaperone. just look at them!

papas hanging out with their babes

(and clearly my baby brain still plagues me as i don't have a picture of shuh to post. how could i forget to take a family pic?!? so duh.)

perohy dinner

finally, i will not have to make another perogy until next year. don't get me wrong, i LOVE perogies, but only making the first 50, after that it gets tedious but then you get all these great compliments and it's all worth it. so i think our annual perogy dinner went off without a hitch. every year horchie and fret that we don't have enough food so i hope everyone just wasn't being nice when they said they had enough to eat. the menu was the usual, for us anyway:

mushroom and onion perogies
sauerkraut perogies
potato and cheddar perogies (of course!)
lazyman cabbage rolls
borscht
kolbasa (all the way from manitoba!)
maybe next year i'll tackle babka for dessert and host a pysanky workshop in the afternoon...hmmm, but maybe i should just stick to perogies for the time being.

the townhouse was jammed packed. i can't believe how many kids there were running around! i think the final count was at 10 and that's not including the little ones that are still on the way! the best part about throwing parties is the free babysitting. by the end of the night i was missing my little monster. he had gone down for a nap earlier on the evening and missed some of the action. poor amy su held him in her arms until he fell asleep. her little stick arms were jello for the rest of the evening. conrad returned in good spirits after nap sporting a "heartbreaker" onesie. watch out girls.

we were hoping to squeeze in some wii action but our new tv didn't get shipped in time for the festivities and i was hoping we could play with joshy's new guitar hero that he got for christmas. darn! and poor little maddy had to watch franklin on the crapbox. like mel said, "it's like watching tv star wars style all the time."

so there was much eating, drinking and merriment that night. thanks, folks, for the great turn out and ukie prezzies. until next ukrainian christmas.

merry ukrainian wii-istmas

oh, yeah. i've been good this year. ukie santa gots me a wii!!! let the games begin!!

lights out

the winds turned up a bit on thursday night but it was no where near the winds of the windstorm that lashed throughout the city last year, but nevertheless wind warnings were issued. i had put conrad down for a nap and waiting for jay to come home from work when...btzzz...the lights go out...but came back on again....phew...but then go out again, dammit. so i fumble in total darkness, trying hard not to stub my toe on countless baby items strewn on the floor, to light some candles. the first thing i do is check on the monster. funny that i checked on him, it was only the lights that went out. called linds and they still had their power. hmph.


luckily we had plans to go out for dinner to sushi garden (yum!) but by the time we came home the power was still out, so monster slept with us for the first time so he wouldn't be too cold in his little crib. it was fun, like we were camping. i can't wait until for summertime. for a little person, he's a big bed hog. he'll shimmy right close to you until you're just on the edge. silly boy.

MMVIII

christmas and new year's has come and gone and leaving in it's wake is one unfinished storyboard, one booty that's gotten bigger (not my booty), one big zit and one sleepy baby. the winner of the biggest christmas haul this year has got to be conrad, from books to cd's to toys to coins, the kid's got it made. i must say i was pretty excited when i helped him open his very first tupperware toy (thanks donna and blaine!).

he, on the other hand was pretty unimpressed by this whole scene called christmas. an honourable mention goes to the transformer edition of mr. potato head. it really does "more than meets the fry"! thanks, millie!

the two cousins

it really was a wonderful first christmas together. once again the turkey we ordered from 3P was DELICIOUS. i will never buy a frozen turkey again! i'm not usually a white meat person but you'll never know the difference with these non-medicated, free run turkeys. here's a virtual sampling of our christmas dinner menu:

14lbs of turkey goodness + stuffing
wild rice and cranberry stuffing
baked squash slices
garlic mashed potatoes
steamed carrots + brussel sprouts

doh. amidst all the cooking and prepping fury we did not take any photos of this scrumptious meal but for the record, it was damn good. you know there is this thing about brussel sprouts. now i don't know know what it is but there is this thing that you need brussel sprouts to make christmas and thanksgiving dinner complete. i can't say it's a nostalgic thing because i probably had brussel sprouts for the first time about 6 six years ago. maybe it is because they look like cute little martian brains, i wonder if this is attributed from my chinese heritage, but anyhow, i do like the little green martian brains, but once a year is enough for me.

and of course this year, like every year, the kwan's went out for dinner on christmas day. but we tired something new this year, and for those who know anything about my dad, that is a big deal. we went for shanghai-nese food as opposed to cantonese. crazy, huh? shanghai-nese instead of cantonese. talk about living on the edge! the joint was in richmond and for those who know me, know that richmond is strictly on a need-to-go basis. oh, what a headache. right off the bat we got lost and it was snowing and the rav line construction was a big pain in the butt. like i said before, on a need-to-go basis. thank goodness there is an ikea in coquitlam. the food was pretty good but it was nothing to rave about. i was looking forward to the more homestyle foodstuffs such as dumplings, fried noodles and bread but it was more fancy shanghai-nese food, i would say more cantonese-style shanghai-nese food.

for several years now, jay and i have been celebrating ukrainian christmas. this was a result of the inability for both of us to buy and wrap christmas gifts on time (overcrowded malls were also a big turn-off). so, being the procrastinators that we are, we decided that ukrainian christmas was more our style, plus there's the added bonus of buying cheap gifts! this year will even be simpler as we'll be purchasing a new tv as our ukrainian christmas presents to each other. this is after being swindled by my mother for our tv that we had bought from girl when she decided to move to victoria. what a great little tv. it lives in my mom and dad's room now. grr. the tv we swapped for is an absolute shitbox. the picture is stretched to shit, and because we're still doing zip.ca we've been watching movies where the characters are midgets with humungous foreheads. anyone really desparate for a tv? we've got a winner for you.

christmas break is anything but relaxing. so much running around and visiting and such. my sister came back from cowtown as did my mother-in-law (MIL) and anita. i'm glad anita dropped in for a visit because we missed out on dinner at la bodega to meet her elusive BF, who apparently has glimpses of loong, aka conrad hog #1, in him. how can that be?!? loong is but one in a million! alas, we'll have to wait until we meet again.

we rang in the new year again with dave and linds....with fondue again! just like last year but with two new babies and minus the sauna, mandingo's and a dude passed out on lac de roche. ah, good times. dev, christina and their little one, dayton, were also on hand to celebrate. wow, who would've thunk that all six of us would be celebrating new year's eve with our babies. insane in the membrane. conrad, being the little monster that he is, refused to go down like his little pals, so the mad little partier counted down with the adults and stole some kisses from the gals. what a flirt!

the 3 pals hanging out on the couch, with conrad in his regular spot, "the crease"

so here's to a healthy and happy 2008, everyone!