cokoandlime's Xanga

Life at 17.5 months. For all of us.

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:32:28 GMT

So a recent fb status of mine was "What to wear to a winter wedding?" It was only fall, but the snow on the ground said otherwise. Good thing my buddy Bonnie and I had hoofed it all the way to Cross Iron Mills and obtained a decent Forever XXI dress for an even more decent price.

Here I am in my warm attire:

I'd like to point out that this dress is way too short if your legs are bare, but with tights no dress is too short!

Daniel Yeung and Connie Cheng's wedding was the hugest banquet I'd ever seen. Around 70 tables, (650-something guests!)and all of them jammed into the Shaw Conference Center, in the newly renovated section. There were huge floor to ceiling windows...and the ceilings are multi-stories high! I didn't know the bride and groom too well, but I sure seemed to know a lot of the guests. It was pleasant to see everyone again.

One thing I really enjoyed about the wedding was how hospitable the host families were. Besides big-time prizes (ipod touch!), the father of the groom stating in his speech that he wanted the guests to feel welcome and loved, and the constant reminder that God was the real host of the night, I was always surprised by how comfortable and welcome I was at a wedding of someone I barely knew. I got to chat a bit with the groom's sister, and I was really delighted with how socially "ept" and non-standoffish she was. Sometimes people playing important roles (bridesmaid) don't take time to talk with the strangers. Being a stranger, I was really impressed.

Speaking of feasts, we just had an ASK Thanksgiving dinner over at the house. I got to play Executive Chef, with a number of talented and really hardworking sous chefs running up and down the stairs between the two ovens. I wish I had demanded they call me "Chef" everytime they addressed me, but I think that might have been a bit too much. We had a quick little meeting in the morning, going over the menu, divvying up duties, and then addressed the problem of a still-frozen turkey that really really needed to get into an oven so we could eat it on time. Fred was jaw-struck (not even awestruck...JAWstruck. His jaw dropped open so many times.) at how fast that baby cooked in the convection oven. From an estimated 5 hr. cooking time down to 3.5 hours! We were done an hour early! Here's our baby, whom I shall call "Barbara" for now.

Barbara.

And this is Candice, spearing Mr. Honey Ham. Thanks to Phil's recipe (that is so easy you could doing it while driving a car), we had more than enough meat. And something that Christopher went ape for.

So enough about food.
What about Christopher? What has that little guy been up to?

Well, first of all, he's not little.
A recent trip to the weighing scale shows him livin' it up at 29lbs...and I can't remember his height, but if he lifts his chin he can rest it on the dinner table. Scary.

He's started picking up his chairs and moving them to wear he'd like to reach up high.
This is something I always see during the day.

The chair is there so he can do the following things:

how wet do you think my sleeves and shirt get after this episode?
hint: i have to change my shirt.

He does this with his bookshelf, the kitchen sink, and other places...including H&M, Zara, and other stores that leave their step stool out.

Other hobbies include:
Colouring at his height-appropriate chair and desk.

Watching the Backyardigans. He requests it at LEAST five times a day. IT's so disturbing. (the amount of requests, not the videos.)

Weeeeee are your friends the backyardigans! Tooooogether we're the backyardigans!

Getting in and out of the wagon. (or any car-like toy he can get into.)

Chris likes to hold on tight with one hand when we're off and running!

Today the temperature shot up to 11 degrees (and it was patchy sunny too). In a cloudy miserable week of below zero temperatures, today and tomorrow are what I'm calling the "last chance!" days. I'm going to get out there, walk, play on the playground, and make sure Christopher gets outside without his gloves and toque! Who knows how many centimetres of that white stuff next Monday will bring?!
I haven't even changed my car tires yet!

What else have we been doing?
Jon got a tetanus shot. He's also visiting Calgary and eating Steph adn Chris' cooking while doing manuscript training for urbana. I am so jealous. (that he gets to eat steph and chris' cooking).

Well, Grandma came by for a visit last week. We did quite a bit with Grandma in town. We hit the mall, hit grocery stores, and ate at Swiss Chalet. (LOL! doesnt' this sound like quite a blast?)

playing in Christopher's room

We even visited Kat King's newly reno-d apartment.

Just kidding. It's just another picture of Anthropologie again.

Christopher walked six blocks of whyte ave without a stroller. He was really good about staying out of traffic, but really bad about not licking windows. hmmmm.

Can you guess where this store is?

Greyson came by for a visit today. I feel a little relieved; besides sunday toddler room time, Chris hasn't had a proper playdate in over a month and a half! I think Chris was pretty shocked that a peer actually came over.

We've just been going to malls and libraries to pass the time, and after a while it can get weird.
We've hit the Disney store every time we go to WEM...and Chris likes to pick up the baseball, the football, the little sippy cup with sparkles, and THIS. At least it's blue.

Christopher will drag this suitcase/bag with him throughout the store until I start to worry that he's getting it dirty, and I have to chase him adn take it away from him several times before I get sick of doing it and just drag him out of the store.

Our last visit was to Uncle Waison's house...to watch the game, meet his family, and eat their food! They considerately baked Western-style food for us, but upon further conversing I find out their real heart is in their regular Chinese cooking, and none of this lobster-stuffed baked potatoes and fried chicken fingers they're feeding us! I convince them to bring out their leftovers so I can try their real food. LOL. (it was pretty tasty!) The Oilers lose to Chicago by one point.

Tomorrow is a high-culinary-anticipation day. We start with lunch at Greyson's, which includes papa murphy's stuffed pizza. YES!!!!!! Then for dinner we visit our friends Matt and Jill's house for a bbq! (I'm pretty sure it'll be the last one of the season!) My stomach is hopping with excitement! In fact, it's hopping so much I am pretty tempted to go and make some instant noodles. They will feel really good going down, considering I ate THIS while writing this note.

(these are the leftovers from Monday's thanksgiving dinner....with home-whipped whipped cream!)

Well, goodnight everyone! To my books and instant noodles it is!
(What I plan on reading within the week...since the Guernsey is due in 7 days...and the other only takes two days to finish!)

it pays to place kid items at kid-height

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:53:21 GMT

I'm excited to announce that today I saw Christopher take off his sweater (with a little help) and throw it to the floor. Wait, that's not it. After he threw it to the floor, he bent over (at the waist, of course), picked it up, and walked it to his room. He scrunched it up and put it in his clothing basket!

I was so happy I hugged him.

Right now Christopher's height is: his ear touches the corner of the dining room table, and everytime he walks near it without being careful he bangs his ear into the table. poor kid.

Nightmare Vomiting

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:00:48 GMT

So you know what's nightmare vomiting? It's a super public puking.

This happened to Christopher today at T&T. I should've known better than to drag a sick child out with me, but hey, I wanted to make chicken soup, and we didn't have onions or carrots, and what is chicken stock without onions or carrots?!!

We were nearing the cabbage when he puked all over his cart, his fleecey, and then he drenched his bear bear. (NOOOOO!! Not Bear Bear!!!)
I hadn't brought extra clothing or an extra bear.

With the help of a super nice security guy and a number of those clear produce plastic bags, I wiped him down, wiped down the cart, and then a janitor appeared out of nowhere and, using a dust pan and broom, cleaned up the floor. Whew.

Lots of unhelpful passerbys, however, did stroll by and give me amused looks (or bemused looks). Thank you, Mr. Napa Cabbage. Thank you, Mrs. Eggplant.

I made Christopher wear his long-sleeve tee (no jacket!) all the way home in today's super cold and windy weather! Aaaah!

So now it's back to alternating vomiting and diarrheaing (super stinky!)....I fed him nothing but tofu and apple juice all day.
Hopefully he doesn't puke in the night again. It's hard to clean the mattress. =(

And to think I was scared I would be bored today! *scoff* Hardly!

Two minutes till Glee...any of you watching?

ps. No pictures today. It's just too gross.
pps. Extra bonus gross story:
So Jon threw all of yesterday's pukey sheets and pyjamas and cloths in the wash last night, and when I pulled it out of the washer today, there were these really weird soft brown flower-petal-like things all over the clothing and washer. There was also bits of cheese. These were the contents of Christopher's stomach....laundered.
I couldn't figure out what the flower petals were until I rolled them in between my fingers. They're grape skins. That's what they look like in our stomachs, folks!

Dr. No

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:48:34 GMT

Today Christopher learned to say "No." with proper intonation, the proper phoneme, and improper usage.

Would you like some strawberries? "No no no no no no no!!"

Would you like a diaper change? "ohhhh nooooo! oh no oh no oh no oh no!"

Will you please get off my chest? "noooo nooo nooo nooo."

Let's read this book! "NOOOOOO ! NOOOO!"

Will you wear this fur hat? "NO!"

Do you want to play with Daddy? "NOOOO!"

He enjoys making that noise so much it's hilarious.

I'm trying to teach him "help!" "please" or "yes yes yes yes yes yes!" ... give the poor kid some more vocabulary so he's not always saying 'no.'

I keep forgetting he's using it as a fun new word, and I keep taking it very seriously when he uses the negatori. But September 18th, his 17.5th month of life, Christopher learned to say "no."

Lent

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:17:41 GMT

Enter Lent.
Our household is going to do it together so we can keep each other accountable, grow together, and then, after 40 days, celebrate together. =)

For me, I considered a few options.
40 days of trying to give up:

a) shopping
b) coffee, chocolate, and fastfood
c) facebook and tv
d) blunt remarks that have no care for how it might make people feel.

I'm not sure how I will go about measuring whether I did it or not, but I have decided I won't think too much upon where I slipped up, but focus instead on, as Kat put it, how I might "use wittiness to build others up".

A quick little quote from Christine Sine (thx to Kat!)
"Lent is not really about sacrifice or deprivation. In the early church, this was a time of preparation for those about to be baptized. Today it is more often regarded as a season of soulsearching and repentance for all Christians as a preparation for the joy and celebration of Easter."

Jon calls the "joy and celebration of Easter" part the "sharing in the resurrection of Jesus" at the end of Lent.

I might call it "giving something up and finding sufficiency in Jesus--and then our character growing in Christlikeness is the bonus."

cauliflower and giggling!

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 05:40:15 GMT

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock...

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:50:14 GMT

That's the song I kept requesting whenever we sang Christmas songs together. =b
At first it was "ohh-ohhh, Star of wonder, star of night, star of royal beauty bright..." but it actually turns out to be a downer if everybody isn't yelling at the top of their lungs - belligerently.

So, I'm not posting a year in pictures, but I'm posting new ones!
Yes, the only reason I whip out a camera is Christopher, but it doesn't mean the pictures are ALL of him! (well, sometimes they are.)

Here Chris meets Tyrone, and they enjoy the wafting of Starbuck fumes but never get to try any.

"Why can't you get that TPS report to me again?"

Merry Christmas and drooly new year!

Christopher popped both collars later on in the day. It was pretty stylin'.

Today we had dinner with Real Auntie Chrissy (RAC) and Real Uncle Julian (RUJ). Together, they make "Raj."
Dinner w/ Raj is always fun, as is dindin with the grandparents.

Because yesterday was the big sh-bang turkey dinner, today was T&T take out (cha siu and soya chicken) with potstickers and a yummy yummy salad.

What is your favourite salad? This was surprisingly refreshing and yummy.

Lettuce leaves, apple, avocado, cucumber.
Dressing made of lime juice, honey, olive oil, and salt. Can it get any easier? No. Can it get any more refreshing? Not unless you drench it with ice and watermelon cubes. But then again, I don't like watermelon. ---which leads me to ask, if you're watching Top Chef, how did Ariane win with those slices of watermelon?

Enough rambling!
A Merry Christmas to you, and may family and friends all be near by!

ps . latest books:
Susan Cooper: The Grey King
Joe Haldeman: Camouflage (it won hugo and nebula awards!)
Red Moon Rising (book on prayer...it's awesome!)
Jean Vanier: Becoming Human. If you're filled with despair or hate, I think this would help you ... become human. lol. It was written as a Massey lecture. It's well written!
Sandra Boynton: Birthday Monsters. If you've ever read this 10-page suspenseful thriller, you'd agree that the main character has more TUCK YUEN in him than anyone else!

What a sitting baby can accomplish...

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:54:49 GMT

A sitting baby can ride a horse.

.

A sitting baby can eat solids. This here on Chris' face, this mixture of orange (carrot) and green (peas), creates brown.

.

Can you also poo in style?

.

TWIm: at 6 months

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:32:42 GMT

Today is the first of many things.

1) first time eating peas!

2) first time trying out the mini-size toilet seat on the toilet

3) first pee into the toilet!

4) first super solid poo (more like really really thick paste….that has dried out and caked onto his bum)

5) first time playing catch! Christopher catches by throwing both arms downwards towards the object–about one second after the object has landed in his lap. It’s hilarious. He loves it, and he smiles widely, but those arms are still one second behind!

6) The first black president to be voted into office! Wow Obama!

Ahhh, a day of firsts!

Tuesday, October 7 2008, 10:10pm

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:48:08 GMT

It is so windy outside that I swear the door is gonna fly off the hinges!

The sturdy apple tree branches rooting up from the ground are even swaying fiercely. Mind you, these are not spindly little sheaves of wheat but huge thick branches. And they're flying around like joysticks on a Twinbee game!

Tonight is gonna be snow and rain showers, with a "feels like" -2 degrees.

NOOOOOO!!!Must get snow tires.