I love Christmas!

Check out the Falcones getting down with the Christmas spirit. We're preparing for the Christmas tree a-gittin', a-gittin', a-gittin'; a Christmas tree a-gittin' this weekend.

Look out baby, 'cause here I come

She's a solid 12 lbs. 11 ozs today.

Definitely not like Auntie

How the hell do you get a baby who fights sleep (screaming and pulling and scratching...) to learn to fall asleep on her own? I would love to know how I'm supposed to put my baby down to sleep when she is "drowsy" and not fully asleep and have her actually go to sleep. The experts (by experts I mean M.D.s, Ph.D.s and Mothers) say put the baby to sleep drowsy, not asleep...will someone please tell that to my beautiful almost 4 month old daughter who hates sleep more than her bitter tasting Zantac medication and more than the sunlight shining in her eyes in the car.

The baby has ESPN

By the look on Navarre's face, she must have known the outcome of the LSU game on Friday. She must have ESPN. That's all I can say about Friday's game.

Another favorite...


Look dahling, the jacket's attached.

Greatest Picker Award goes to...

So, it's Thanksgiving and I'm getting ready to watch football. Well, between taking care of the screaming baby (she had a bad day today) and making cornbread dressing and a sweet potato pie with pecan streusal topping, I'm trying to get ready to watch football. Great matchup today with the Packers and Lions. NFL Today on Fox is on before the game with James Brown, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and Jimmy Johnson. There are military personnel in the studio asking questions.

One marine asks, "So guys, whose the best picker?"

I did a double take since I wasn't paying full attention. Jimmy asks for clarification, "The best picker or the best pick?"

"The best picker."

Jimmy responds, "Well me of course! I'm the best picker. You can't talk about the best picker without mentioning me."

While I'm starting to double over in laughter, I'm wondering if these guys are actually talking about the "best picker" on national television (I guess international since I'm watching in Canada) without mentioning Jim "let's kick field goals and never win a game" Mora, former head coach of the New Orleans Saints. That idiot had his finger so far up his nose every time the camera was on him he must have made it rich from the all the gold he dug instead of winning football games. I don't understand how the NFL Today guys could even have a best picker conversation without a mention of Mora. I remember counting how many times he would be picking his nose during games with my family on Sundays...aaaah, quality time together.

So, on Thanksgiving 2007, the best picker award goes to Jim Mora and Jimmy Johnson. Keep on pickin' guys. And, congrats to the Packers on their 10-1 start...Favre hasn't looked this good since...well maybe ever. Have you noticed no one has asked if this is his last year yet???

Oh, and I think one little girl had too much turkey today.

pictures for the fans out there

Yes, it's a girl...this is one of her boy outfits according to Jamie.

yum yum...here I come!

I think I'm getting a bit ahead of myself but since I'm not working outside of the home, I'm thinking I'm going to have time to do all of this baking this holiday season. I'm really looking forward to it. I love to bake. I went cake tasting with a friend of mine last week for her wedding. The woman baking the cake has her own business run out of her home. She's converted part of her basement into a fully functioning kitchen and "studio" for brides-to-be and friends to sample cakes. It was the cutest, most functional space I've seen in a long time. This woman works for a hotel two days a week and runs her wedding cake business, Layers. She does about 4 weddings every weekend. Why can't I do something like this??

I'm not sure I want to do wedding cakes though. The pressure of baking someone's wedding cake may be too much for me. I wasn't one of those brides that would have even noticed at my reception if something was slightly off with the cake, but there are plenty of them out there, and I don't think I want to deal with these women. Anyway, maybe I could use this time on maternity leave to get a business plan together that would allow me to work out of the home partime and bake the other time. I could be at home more with the baby girl and I would actually love what I do. After growing up with my family owning a small business, I've always said I wanted to be my own boss someday. I could start small with a stand at the Halifax Farmers' Market (this is the best farmers' market I've ever seen). Hmmmmm, something I'll have to look into. I think this will be my new year's project.

Nicole's handknits and Leslie's desserts...we could be a force to be reckoned with.

(Jamie - no comment on ending with a preposition)

Queen of the mountain

So, when I was a kid we loved to play King of the Mountain. My friend down the street had a fabulous dirt pile in her backyard, and we loved throwing each other down in the dirt to see who could reign supreme as the King or Queen - although we never said Queen when we played even though there were more girls than boys playing. Somehow it was fun getting thrown down a pile of dirt, and we would jump up looking for more dirt in the eye or dirty scraped elbows.

I loved to play in the dirt, both organized play as described above and spontaneous play. Digging in dirt was fun! You could find worms or rocks; you could make mud pies; you could try to get other kids to eat your mud pies, and you were filthy at the end of it. What could be better? I was beginning to think this type of play was not accepted from adults, excepts for maybe digging in sand at the beach - which is also a favorite pastime as long as there is a drink to go with that sand. But I was wrong.

I have never been enticed by gardening, but I planted spring bulbs in our front flower bed on the weekend. As I was raking dirt and digging holes and measuring to make sure my bulbs weren't too close to each other and were planted deep enough, it hit me...adults play in the dirt as much as kids; it's called gardening. I started by pulling out all of the annuals we planted in the summer and cutting back the perennials. I had to dig up our dahlia bulbs to store them for the winter. I enjoyed this more than I expected. My hands were dirty; my knees were wet from kneeling in the flower bed, and I was in heaven!! Ok, so maybe not heaven...my back was hurting from bending over, then about halfway through my husband suggested I get the padded cushion I bought for him to kneel on when he planted the summer bulbs. Anyway, I loved it!!

It also fascinates me that these tulip and hyacinth bulbs will lay dormant in the frozen ground all winter, then in spring these beautiful blooms will appear. I just can't fathom that anything in the ground during the winter here with snow piled on top of it can survive and produce such a gorgeous plant in the spring. So, not only did I get to relive a favorite childhood pastime of playing in the dirt (although I didn't get to throw anyone down a big dirt pile), I'm going to see the fruits of my labor in the springtime. The before picture is not too exciting, but wait until spring!

I will post pics of the blooms when they come up. For those of you who live in a warm climate, you really can't imagine the pure jubilation when you see the first green plants sprouting out of the ground in spring.

I was definitely Queen of the Flowerbed.

Exhausted

I'm exhausted today. I'm not feeling well. My sinuses are making my throat hurt...It's taking me longer to go to sleep after getting up with the baby around 4 am every night. I'm not sure why because I'm so tired, but that's probably the reason...because I'm so tired.

Anyway, not much happening today. We went for a walk this morning. Don't think I'm super eager to go for walks in the morning when it's chilly outside. The baby wouldn't sleep, but needed to sleep. I thought the fresh air and strolling would knock her out, and it did like a ton of bricks - that is right until I got into the bathtub, then crying. So, she's finally asleep again. We'll see how long this one lasts...

Oh, I don't think I updated Nicole's colonoscopy for everyone. The procedure went fine. She'll get results from some biopsies next week, but everything looks good.

Well hello stranger

Ok, so it's been a while since the last post. I'm not doing too well on the posting everyday thing. It seems like if there is somewhere the baby and I need to be...doctor's appointment, shopping, etc. then the post doesn't get done. I don't have a clue how my day is going to go before it actually happens, so every day is like an adventure. I think that's the best way to describe this motherhood so far. Also, my guilty pleasure - The OC - is on every night from 8-9 on Much Music (think Canadian MTV for you American readers). They started airing the show from its pilot episode and there is a new episode every week night. I'm glued from 8-9...it's pathetic. Anyway, this blog would have been posted an hour earlier tonight if it weren't for that.

I guess I should start with Halloween; that's where I left off the last post. We had a ton of kids, which wasn't a surprise. But I have to say, doesn't anyone believe in homemade costumes anymore?? Not necessarily handmade, sewn costumes, but you know the kind where you piece together a costume from stuff around the house - not the Buzz Lightyear store bought kind or the lion store bought kind. I was a bit disappointed in the costumes. No rock stars made from your Mom's oversized glittery striped shirt; no handsewn clown costumes; no witches with spanish moss hair - ok, we don't have spanish moss in Nova Scotia - but there wasn't anything close to that. I digress, Navarre was the cutest:) Now, I'm left eating the Halloween candy, and it's wrecking my weightwatchers plan of getting back to pre-preggo weight. I've instructed Jamie the leftovers are to be sent to Halifax West for jaded, or maybe just holiday lusting, English teachers to eat. Enjoy the pics of our pumpkins this year. It definitely wasn't anything compared to our 10 jack-o-lantern year, but it'll do.


Not much has gone on since Halloween. The craft projects are done for now. My next is a Christmas stocking for the baby. I'll do that in the next few weeks. The hardest part is making up my mind for fabric/embellishments, etc. My sister-in-law, Shaina, is coming over to sew some for her and her boyfriend...I'm hoping for cute and homemade, but not too obviously homemade, if you know what I mean.

I'm glad to say the Christmas shopping is going pretty well so far. There are a few key gifts left to buy, but I have an idea for most everyone on the list, except for the Louque names...ugh, I hate drawing names so late for that family. We draw at Thanksgiving (American Thanksgiving for you Canuck readers - ok, I just had to ask Jamie how to spell Canuck), which is way too late in my opinion. I'm excited about Navarre's first Christmas. Big will be up here for it too. Big is her grandmother, my mother...that is a long story that deserves it own post, so maybe another day.

Switching back to baby talk for a minute...we gave Navarre formula for the first time last night. I know; all of the pro-breastfeeding readers out there try to pick your bottom jaw off the floor. Honestly, I had a feeling I wouldn't last 6 months, but I wanted to. If she were more on a schedule or something, then maybe it would be different, but she's not. For mama to be sane, we need to do it. Not exclusively, which I'm happy about, but using the formula to give us some more flexibility and me some more sleep on the weekends was needed. She took it wonderfully; I swear if she could talk she would be screaming for more. I was very happy:) It didn't seem to make a difference with the throw up either, so it was great for everyone.

A few more things before I go fall asleep to Monday Night Football...Nicole had her colonoscopy today...I haven't talked to her yet. I tried calling but didn't get an answer. I'll try again before bed. I hope everything went well, and the results are good. She sent her beautiful niece a dress a couple of weeks ago. Well, I finally got her in it. See how cute she is, Auntie:)

That's all for now. I don't even know whose playing tonight. I do know that the Green Bay is 7-1 this season - Geaux Packers!!! Enjoy the pics...baby gumbo anyone??