Finger Foods

Here's Mad showing off that she no longer needs her food to be pureed into a liquid consistency. She is loving Cheerios. Seriously, they entertain her for a good 30 minutes and she just gobbles them up! She's also tried pears, cheese, pasta, broccoli, acovado and banana.

Eeeew.

Mad managed to get into my purse, open my wallet and take out my cash the other day. I found her with a twenty in her mouth. Even though I know how dirty money is, I still took the time to get my camera to grab a picture.

Bath time fun

Here are a couple pics from last nights bath. She's still using her "baby bath" but it's of course in the larger tub. I figure that we use less water that way and she seems to like it. We've also added toys to the bath time routine....ducky, keys and a measuring cup. The face cloth still continues to be the favourite.

Baby Bonnet

Here's the little lady wearing a little bonnet her Nana gave her.

Clapping!

Madeline surprised me today by clapping when I clapped.....what a fun new game!

Grandpa's Bday

We headed up to Markham on Saturday to celebrate grandpa's birthday. Maddy met her second cousin Alekai for the first time. Even though they're about 5 months apart, they're almost the same size!!
Here are a couple of pictures Rob took....

Crawlin'

She's still not crawling forwards, but is getting closer. Many mornings I find her rocking back and forth on her knees in her crib. Mad is currently able to go from lying down, to sitting up and then into a crawling position.....and then back to sitting. She still crawls backwards and scoots around on her bum. Just waiting for the official crawl forward. No rush of course!!

Little Bear

Cozy stroller time.... A pre-walk giggle....

Looking suspicious of something....

Hey Little Lady

Nanny On Board!

The nanny I told you all about a few days ago is on board!! Woot! She starts April 27th. The first few weeks it'll just be her with Maddy and then the other family will be sending their little guy to join in around mid-June. I'm feeling pretty relieved to have found someone that I'm comfortable with. I can't even imagine how stressed I would be feeling right now if I wasn't sure about the person we had chosen.

Making Baby Food

Made a trip today to the Big Carrot today. Picked up some yummy organic fruits to make Maddy some homemade baby food. I think the "back-to-work" guilt might be setting in and I'm feeling this urge to make sure she's got a stash of homemade food, not just the jar stuff. I also picked up some Sweet Pea Organic Baby Food. Their food, along with Mother Hen Organic baby food, is amazing. It's all homemade-style baby food and it's individually frozen in small serving sizes, so you just pop a cube in the microwave and it's ready to go. Maddy had the chicken and veggies this evening and LOVED it. 2 cubes were consumed in a matter of minutes.
I'm excited to try the Beef, Barley and Veggies tomorrow night. Anyways, I pureed blueberries and strawberries and added a bit of banana. I also made applesauce. I'm a good Mum, right? Going back to work is fine. I can handle this. I just need to keep making baby food and there will be no guilt.

Hm.

It's Easter weekend. I've been inside for most of it (even though the weather has been gor-ge-ous). I'm working away on my freelance project. Trying to get it FINISHED!!
Michael has been great and spent a lot of time with Maddy this weekend so that I could focus. I think it was a bit of an eye opener for him. After a couple of hours he was wondering what he could do to keep her entertained. I think he realized that my days aren't as easy as they may seem. I really need to go somewhere for a whole day - I think it will make him appreciate me more. Okay. Must. Go. Finish. Project.

Nanny Hunting

We're on the hunt for a nanny. It's such a difficult thing to do. I keep looking at the resume's people are sending me and there's always something that makes them not perfect for the job of helping raise Maddy. It's actually quite stressful. I'm trying to find the right balance of young & fun combined with maturity & experience with infants. I want someone local (East end of the city), with first aid certification, ECE or teacher's college a bonus :)
I'm sure most people know of the crazy day care situation in Toronto. It's nearly impossible to get a spot for an infant or toddler. I've had day cares tell me the waitlist is 2 years long (and also offers to put any un-conceived children on the waitlist, just in case). So that, combined with Maddy's age, make getting a nanny the best solution for us.
Just last week a couple we know asked us if we'd consider a nanny share. We know this couple from when we lived in the condo. They had dogs and we had Winston, so we met through our dogs. They were pregnant at the same time we were and also ended up moving to the East end and we've kept in touch on facebook and email. Their son is about 2 months older than Mad. They both seem to be easy going babies so I think they'll get along nicely. So we're hoping to make something work with them because it would be nice for Maddy to have someone to play with each day and it would save some money.
So with this other couple, we met a great potential nanny yesterday. She's a kindergarden teacher with a daughter (1 year old). All 3 kids played nicely while the parents chatted yesterday (a good sign). The teacher would look after all 3 kids each day and we would alternate between homes (one month at our place, one month at their place). The woman seemed great - I got a good vibe the moment she walked in. Most people say that you'll know if the nanny is right for you in the first 2 minutes. I had a good feeling about here.
So right now we're just seeing if we can work out the logisitics. I will keep you posted!

My Freelance Work

I took on an April freelance project which has been keeping me VERY busy. I'm doing research and I basically enter the research into a spreadsheet. It's due April 15th and I'm looking forward to having it done. My eyes and head start to hurt every time I look at the screen now. Plus, I think Maddy is tired of playing in the basement next to me while I tippy-tap away on my computer. I try to only work on it during nap time and at night when she's in bed but sometimes it's just not enough time. The pics above are of Madeline entertaining herself with the remote while I work.

Trip to the movies

This week we took a trip to the movies to see "Duplicity". We met up with Heather and Nolan and Martha, sans Lachlan. Maddy sat like a big girl on her seat (which I kind of had to hold down with my own leg or it would fold up on her). She got fussy about a quarter of the way through so we stepped out into the hallway to have a little cry. I came back in, fed her a little and then she cuddled on my lap for the rest of the movie. I must have missed some important plot points when we stepped out though, cause I was not able to follow the plot at all! Even though I couldn't follow the movie, I was still entertained! Now that is the sign of a good movie :) I will have to rent it again to actually understand it.

Photo Shoot

Weekend Playdate

We headed to Cora's on Sunday for a playdate with Kate, Zoe and the baby in Pam's belly! Here are some pics...

Kate at the park
Maddy swinging in the sun....

Zoe almost sleeping in the swing

All the ladies on the swing

Pam, Zoe and the baby in Pam's belly

Back from Boston

I survived my first night away from Madeline. I left for Boston on Thursday around 8am (details to follow this week) and didn't get home until about midnight on Friday. I had a great 2 days and I was thankful that I was very busy - as it kept my mind off missing the girl!! Maddy stayed in Toronto to play with her 2 grandma's and Michael and from what I hear she had a great time.
Since I'm still breastfeeding I had to pump for the 2 days that I was gone. This was quite interesting!! I've never had to pump in a public washroom before. At one point there was a line forming in the airport washroom while I was in one of the stalls. I'm pretty sure people were wondering what I was up to (and what the strange noise was). It's situations like these that probably make women stop breastfeeding a lot earlier than they would like to.

Have passport, will travel.

We had Maddy's passport pictures done a couple weeks ago. Here are the pics! Was quite the ordeal to get them done as the Black's that we went to wasn't really set up for baby pictures. I had to balance her on the back of a chair (while keeping my hands out of the shot).

Moving on back

Mad now likes to move backwards while on her tummy. It's not quite a crawl....her bum is on the floor...but she can move pretty far. Crawling is likely not far off!