Here and Everything In It

Fifteen Months And A Little Bit

What with Christmas, and tropical job prospects, and Christmas crafting, and general feelings of seasonal lethargy, Innis's birthday post is a little late this month. However, I plan to make this up to you with many adorable pictures. Like so:

If I had to sum this month up with one word, it would be "NOM." And I'm not going to lie, it could be because Innis has finally started to sleep through the night I've been getting much more sleep lately, and that's all I'm going to say. Although just one thing: last night I slept for nine hours straight. Ok. Enough. I never said that. DON'T LISTEN TO ME.

But seriously, the CUTENESS. This month, it's all about giving kisses. To everyone. And everything (yes, he's kissed the table several times, and the piano, and also the carpet).

This month has also been all about learning new words. Some examples:

Durdoh! = turtle

Baw! = ball

Burrh! = bird

Boooh! = book

(if you can imagine, all of these are usually accompanied with an emphatic finger point).

As well, he's improved his animal sounds repertoire to now include "oh ah oh ah!" for monkey, "maaaaaaa" for goat, and "baaaaa" (but also sometimes "maaaaaa") for sheep.

Every night after dinner, when I've helped him hop down from his highchair and asked him if he wants a bath, he says, "baah?" and toddles off down the hallway, up the stairs (with me trailing behind, of course), and into the bathroom where he'll start throwing his toys in the tub.

I feel like this is the first month we've actually settled into a routine. Like, Innis is now old enough to recognize that certain times of the day involve certain activities. Like breakfast, and nap time, and dinner, and bedtime, and as a result, things are going much smoother. Like, it's almost as though he WANTS to nap. Sometimes he even tries to tuck his own blanket around his tummy to hustle me along. It's ... awesome.

But, people. The tickles. And smiles. And giggles.

I'm addicted.

  

But sometimes the poor boy just needs to sit down and take a break (from me), and he has an uncanny knack for finding perfectly baby-sized seats to collapse onto:

Since being this squeezable can be exhausting.

Brad's sort of assumed the morning routine with the little monkey lately, so they go downstairs when Innis wakes up, have their power smoothies, and then do their workout together. I've been lucky enough to catch the tail end of this a couple times, and it is hilarious. Innis can do downward dog, and can kick, and makes valiant efforts to do leg lifts while lying on his back. And the whole time he's watching Brad and Tony (the P90x guy) so carefully, trying to mimic their movements.

Brad's also taught Innis to do "kung fu hands," but as of yet, Innis refuses to do them on command, leaving our video library sorely lacking. Sometimes I think we should just leave the camera running all the time, but then I think of the editing, and scrap that idea pretty quickly, since I'd rather hang out with Innis in real time than obsess over him virtually, although if there was time to do both kinds of obsessing, I'd totally be up for that, too.

But We Just Got Here ...

Just before Christmas, Brad was offered a really good job ... IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS. Let me give you a sneak peak at the tropical amazingness of this potential new employment:

So, yeah.

THIS DECISION IS SUCKING OUR BRAINS OUT.

We just don't know what to do. There are so many pros and cons involved in our decision of where we want to be for the next few years -- the biggest upside to leaving is, well, it's a job (something in rather short supply here in Canada), but then we'd have to leave our families again, which is extra hard considering we now have Innis.

Gah. We have until January 3rd to decide, with a late February move.

So please excuse the infrequency of posts (or emails or phone calls), as we seem to be effectively paralyzed with indecision at the moment.

So Good, Right?

This is one of those things where I really should probably be in bed right now, but instead I'm trawling the internet and crying because these Youtube videos ARE SO FUNNY.

 

 

They LOVE Me! They REALLY REALLY LOVE Me!!!

Or, um, today I sold my first Etsy item, and I reacted to this entrepreneurial sucess in a very calm, rational, and professional manner.

(JUST KIDDING! I ran up the stairs to where Brad was, yelling: I SOLD SOMETHING! I SOLD SOMETHING! ME! I DID! ON ETSY!!!!!)

Yay! Whoo! Whee!

And then I called Rebecca on a really crappy Skype connection, and she was like, "You stole something?"

Ha.

But this is the thing! The thing someone bought!

It's a cuff! Made of upcycled wool sweaters!

I SOLD A CRAFT!!!!!!

Hey! Who Put That 400lb Piece Of Furniture In Here?

At long last, our dear friend Orville has been laid to rest. Or dissembled into pieces and stowed in whatever convenient places we could find, but whatever -- he understands. I think his major wooden parts are in the shed, his ivory keys are in a Ziploc bag in my living room, and his, ah, internal organs are on our front porch, covered with a tarp, because they're pretty much made of solid metal and ... that's as far as we could move them (we're all class around these here parts, y'all, with our porch-stowing practices and whatnot).

And while it felt a little like we'd donated our piano to science and he was being unceremoniously explored for various medical purposes, when we took him to pieces, it was pretty fascinating.

(And here I should add that the reason Orville was being taken apart rather than moved in entirety like any 100+ year old piano deserves was because he weighed, like, 7oolbs, and while it took six men to move him in, we only had two (Robert and Brad) plus one lady (me!) to move him out.)

Here's what Orville looked like on the inside:

I was actually not terribly happy about this deconstruction, but a few weeks ago, Mum and Brad tag-teamed me in the living room with the intent of convincing me to get the piano out of the house before winter.

But why? I asked. Wouldn't it be a better idea to wait until the spring?

No, they said. Well, ok, Mum said no because she was convinced the piano posed a head-bumping hazard for Innis, and Brad said Orville was an eyesore. Ouch, said Orville.

I was immediately suspicious. Really? A head bumping hazard? Did this mean we should take the floors out of the house as well, since come on, at the time of this discussion the ratio of Innis's floor bumps to piano bumps was like 30:2.

(Funny side story: when we were at Tim's, and just after Innis took his twelfth flying leap across the kitchen floor that afternoon (his skull narrowly missing the corner of the fridge), Tim remarked that Innis had fallen over more times on our visit than Olivia had during her entire learning to walk phase. Yup. That's my son, the stuntman. He ain't ascared o'nuthin).

Since Brad and Mum rarely join forces against me and ordinarily choose to stand on opposite sides of any discussion for the purpose of controversy, I started to think that maybe there was a reason they were being so pushy. Like maybe there was a new piano coming? As a surprise? FOR ME?

But then I forgot about that. And then we went away for the weekend.

And when we came back, Mum and Robert and a whole troupe of sneaky ne'erdowells had moved THIS into my house:

Ha! Right into my living room! And it has a complete set of keys! And a handmade bum cushion, on a bench!

This was a very good surprise. A very good surprise indeed.

To Do List

You know how when you go away for a while, not even for very long, like maybe just a few days? And you get vacationer's amnesia? No? Well, you probably do know, you've just forgotten.

This is what happened to me last week as we drove to Toronto for our extended weekend minibreak visiting extravanganza. I forgot about everything. Job applications, bulb planting (yes, I realize it's December. In my defense, we've had a very mild fall and I'm entirely justified in my gardening procrastination), You Fancy Thing stuff, my Canadian Citizenship (just don't. Don't get me started), making and sending Christmas cards ... everything. All my errands and jobs and tasks just flew into the wind as we barreled down the 401. It was fabulous. I enjoyed six glorious days without a To Do List.

But then we returned home. And it all came back.

So for the last week, I've been planting spring bulbs, and filling out forms, and taking product photographs, and making/sealing envelopes, and sending out resumes (I'm Brad's secretary. It's, uh, pro bono), and trying to get a handle on the list of Christmas presents I've decided to make.

What I did not include on the To Do List I posted above my desk, however, was this. And by this, I mean Posting. And I have quite a bit to tell you -- like about Orville's replacement (Surprise For ME!), and Innis's new party tricks, and how cool that craft show was that I went to in Toronto with Meredith, and this really awesome site Rebecca sent me to today (oh, ok, here it is, all you Ryan Gosling Lovers), and Brad's upcoming job interview, and how Innis helped decorate his first Christmas tree on Sunday, and how we're both REALLY REALLY SICK with a cold to which Brad has apparently developed an immunity ...

(Can I just tell you that while I've been typing, Innis has been sitting on the floor underneath the desk, periodically kissing my feet?)

So this morning, I tacked "Post to HAEII" onto the end of my chore list, and alas, I DID IT! (it's like magic!)

But here's a cute picture of a raccoon we saw on our walk the other day, just to round things out a bit:

Stay tuned!

Extended Weekend

Hi Everyone! We just got back from a really great trip to see Meredith and Chris and Sidney and Audrey, and Tim and Tracy and Olivia and Colin and Victoria and Zach! And while I'd like to have a really good reason for not updating this blog in nearly a week (more than?), it was mostly because I was lazy, and also that I forgot my camera USB cord, which shouldn't have stopped me from typing words, but ... well.

(lazy)

We ate really great food, had lots of baby time, I went to the biggest craft show I've ever seen, window shopped in Yorkville (oooh!), Brad took Innis to the Royal Ontario Museum, and here are some pictures:

BEEFCAKE ALERT:

... and now back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Thanks to our awesome hosts!