Parenthood is full of magical moments. Like today, when I was sitting with my daughter in the living room, her on her mat, me beside her. We were discussing Nietzche's theories, of course, as we often do, and then moved quickly along to another favourite topic, the relationship of mother to monster in the Beowulf saga. And then she burped. And then she leaned forward and I juuuuusst managed to pick her up in time to prevent the poop from coming over the top of her diaper and onto her pants and shirt. Score! Less laundry for me!

Yep. Magical.

Oh, Vancouver!

What on earth are you doing?? What is THIS? It's NOVEMBER for God's sake!!! I've never known you to be this cold, this crazy.

But as an aside you have a great sense of humour. Two years ago you gave us a splendid white Christmas with feet of snow. This year, snow earlier and in greater quantities than I can remember as a long term west-coaster.

But last year? Year of the Winter Olympics?

Flowers in January.

Bravo Vancouver. I tip my hat to you.

Eating myself out of house and home

Yesterday I made chicken soup from almost-scratch (used a cooked rotisserie chicken), and then made an apple crisp / crumble (you know, the cooked apples with oats and stuff on top) and THEN made some chocolate chip banana cookie bars.

In keeping with this flurry of activity, I also ate two large bowls of the soup for dinner, along with ... several spoonfuls of crisp, several cookie bars, some gummy bears, some nutella, some cheese, and pretty much whatever else was on the counter in the kitchen that was remotely edible.

I don't know if it's the cold or the season or the constant nursing or all of the above but somebody stop me! I'm out of control! This is worse than being pregnant! Because, you know, unlike when there was a baby in there taking up space, now there's so much more room.

November in Vancouver 2

It's cold and snowy but clear and sunny ... Frankly I'm just completely puzzled by this November. Starts off sunny and warm, ends with sunny and snow? Where am I? Where are my cold rainy grey days? IS THIS A SIGN OF THE END TIMES???!

Just in case you were wondering

The correct kitchen implement for removing slices of apple from the small neck of a metal water bottle (yes, that exact one!) is a chopstick. You'd think that tweezers would be good, for gripping, but they are too small to effectively grasp the apple. You'd think that the cheese knife with the hook end would be good for grabbing. But no, a simple chopstick to poke away the slices you don't want and encourage the one slice you do want does the trick admirably.

Also, it gets easier when there are only three or so left in the bottle, as opposed to the original 10. This easy task will only use up 15 minutes of your day!

Just my public service announcement for the day.

Weirdnesses

So I'm shopping in the grocery store this morning. My daughter is in a sling, with a hat. I get comments on her a lot -- she's a baby, for one thing. And she has big blue eyes, and that draws people in. So I'm standing in line to pay and a stranger comes up -- an older lady. White hair, but not elderly, so maybe 60-ish? 70 maybe? And she coos at the baby. This in itself is not surprising.

But then ... then without even initiating another conversation with me ("how old?" "boy or girl?" You know. The usual.) she leans in and says conspiratorially, "Breastfed?"

And I stammer out yes because although I'm shocked and I think it's a little inappropriate, I'm trained to be nice and so I answer.

And she pats my shoulder (!!) and makes approving noises and then makes a few other comments and goes on her way.

But here's the thing: As I've already said here I'm still breastfeeding our daughter and I'm not exactly shy about it. I'm a vocal supporter of same for other mothers as well, so I can't quite understand why I thought her asking me was weird. I mean, if I'll tell the wider internet, why not some stranger in the grocery store? And it's not just the internet -- most friends and relations know I breastfeed too.

Was it that we weren't chatting? That that was all she asked? I am perplexed.

* * * * * * * *

Speaking of weirdness, turns out my daughter's quirky love of broccoli wasn't a one time thing. We had some for dinner on the weekend and she went nuts over a stalk again. And the next morning, we put some on her high chair tray with some other toys. Guess what she went for, with shrieks of delight? The broccoli.

Today however, I'm encouraging her fickleness, and managed to get dinner prepared while she was absorbed for 20 minutes with a slice of apple.

Now if she'd just eat something.

Hungry

When my son was nine months old, I took him to the doctor. I was panicked. Worried. Confused. "He won't eat!!" I exclaimed. "nothing! Just breastmilk!"

The doctor paused, as if waiting for me to state the actual problem.

"He won't eat! He spits everything out! Or gags! He's nine months old! Shouldn't he be eating by now? I've been trying for three months!"

The doctor said ... "is he healthy? Is he growing?" When the answer was yes, she merely shrugged. "Some babies don't eat at six months. Some take longer. He's fine."

And indeed he was fine. And still is, and in fact is a good eater by preschooler standards. But he didn't willingly ingest solid food until he was 10 months old, and didn't get significant calories from solid food until a year old. He was over 20 pounds by that point. Heck he was 19 pounds at 4 months. Nine months in I would eat brownies every day and still lose weight which sounds like bliss until you are faced with the reality of trying desperately to nourish yourself as your body struggles to satisfy the relentless hunger of a growing baby. The constant constant hunger. The tiredness. The inability to do anything without the baby because he / she will not eat anything and I cannot pump.

My daughter is now staring down seven months old. Despite a promising start -- showing interest in food as I ate, wanting to touch it, making chewing motions -- she too has rejected all attempts to introduce other foods. This weekend after a molecule of avocado went in her mouth without her grimacing, I attempted less than half a babyspoonful and she then gagged so much I had to seize her from her highchair ... And then the gagging made her vomit all over the floor. Spectacularly.

Unsurprisingly, despite the fact that my daughter is far smaller than my son, I found myself this weekend in the kitchen eating cookies / yogurt / crackers mounded with hummus / apples by the fistful. I've even (gross!!) been eating Nutella by the spoonful which is not only gross but puzzling given normally I hate Nutella (yes I realize that's weird).

It seems altogether likely that March will roll around before she deigns to let the tempting morsels I lovingly prepare for her cross her lips, and the next three months may well be a fury of gobbling on my part. It's fine. I knew this was possible, even likely. And being able to eat ANYTHING is a delight I admit. And how else will I get my work wardrobe to fit again?

But man. It sucks to lie in bed two hours after dinner with a growling stomach, thinking only of what I get to eat next. I'm SO HUNGRY!!!