Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

We celebrated in style (being Liam's first Christmas) and went upisland to Courtenay with the family where we stayed at a golf resort called Crowne Isle in a villa. We arrived a couple of days before absolutely loaded to the hilt with gifts (Ian's biggest packing challenge yet!) plus all of our usual paraphernalia. We have become more refined since our early baby travelling days and have narrowed down our stuff to about 3/4 of a car full now (hey - that's good for us!). After an uneventful drive up - except for one meltdown half way where we had to stop in the biggest mall on the island on the busiest shopping day of the year in the middle of a nasty rain storm with Liam screaming his head off and us dodging cars like mice in a maze while we bolted for indoors - we settled into our cozy digs and unpacked our 10 days worth of stuff for 3 days. Unfortunately Sir Snotsalot had yet another cold with a nasty cough and so did mummy so we decided to stay put and ordered room service before crawling into bed. The resort did not have cribs (??????) but luckily we had a king sized bed so we all squished in just fine - well Liam was comfy in the middle anyway while we dangled over our respective sides (something we've become very accustomed to).

Christmas Eve morning we went out for breakfast followed by a bit of shopping at a baby boutique store where we picked up some silicone feeding spoons. At lunch I discovered that Liam just loved the rubberiness of the spoons and would bite as hard as he could on the spoon without letting go. Rather like a puppy with his chew too. Unfortunately when he did let go the contents of the spoon would catapult and land up everywhere (mostly on me of course). After about 3 catapults I started dodging the flying mashed up peas like a monkey doing the break dance. By afternoon the rest of the family had arrived and we enjoyed a pasta dinner cooked up by Grandpa Derek followed by gift opening. Liam got thoroughly spoiled by his grandparents and Aunty Caylin - amongst other things he got a TMX Ernie - you press his tummy and he bends over and starts talking, then flips on his back, kicking his legs and asking rubber ducky (his friend from Sesame Street) for help, then flips back on his feet and says thanks! At first Ernie scared the crap out of Liam and he started crying, but after a while he warmed up to him and played with his fuzzy black hair. His favourite toy was a little car that you sit on and has a steering wheel with all sorts of lights and buttons. He's too small to push it around yet but loves the steering wheel which we put into his lap so he could entertain himself with all the flashing gadgets. He also got a set of big, bright reading books with animals, words and colours and from us he got a Hokey Pokey Elmo book, Dancing Elmo book with buttons you push throughout the book that make various noises, a polar bear that you put over the bath tub that shoots water through it and also protects his head from accidentally hitting the tap and a gorgeous Paddington Bear like woolly coat with wooden buttons. Ian had also picked up a Canucks hockey tracksuit in Vancouver a few weeks before which he looked too adorable in. All in all he loved all his new toys although I did spend a large amount of time trying to get the wrapping paper out of his mouth! We finished off the night with drinks and a few rounds of mexican train, a dominos type game my parents learned in the Domninican Republic.

Christmas morning dawned cold and windy. Liam woke up at around 5am and after a milk breakfast decided to give me an early Christmas present of barf over my shoulder and down my back (in the bed of course). After a rinse down in the shower he was wide awake so I resorted to having to get up and make myself some strong coffee. About 3 hours the rest of the family surfaced, ate breakfast, opened a few more presents and then got ready to go up the mountain for a half day of skiing. Since Liam and I were still snotty & coughing we decided to stay behind and play with our new toys. An hour after everyone departed Ian called me from the lodge to say that it was an absolute blizzard and you couldn't see in front of your face - it had taken them almost an hour to drive up the hill. So everyone came back around lunch and we spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around before dinner at 5pm. Dinner was a lovely buffet put on my the resort and we were joined by Grandma Marg & Uncle Tom. While we enjoyed our food & drinks accompanied by a piano player in the background, Liam sat in his high chair and munched on Mum Mum's (his favourite snack) looking ultra cute in his grey wool pants, shirt, tie & argyle sweater. After stuffing our faces we headed back to the villa for more gift opening and more spoiling for Liam (who got some new t-shirts, pajamas & a set of blocks) and more drinks and games. All in all it was a great day and a wonderful first Christmas for Liam! Christmas is so exciting when you have a child - can't wait till he's older and gets all fired up for Santa coming - better remember to eat the cookies and drink the milk!

Week 35

This week has been so much better than the last two and although my mouth wound is still not healed and won't be for weeks I feel night and day different. God I never want to go through that again - it was complete hell.

Liam is 8 months old today - can you believe it? I know I sound like a stuck record when I say that but WOW, time IS flying. His second tooth has made its appearance and I'm sure the top ones are itching to come out. He is a little eating machine and we are burning through baby food faster than you can say boo. He now has a full bowl of cereal with fruit for breakfast and cereal & veggies followed by a jar of fruit (or a big piece of fresh fruit) for lunch & dinner. We have also tried chicken, turkey & beef and fish will be next. The chicken & beef blends don't taste all that bad but the turkey tastes like dog food. He doesn't seem to care though and woofs (no pun intended) down everything,ocasionally spitting stuff at me or sneezing with his mouth full. He is very quick on the draw and will grab his bowl of food if you're not paying attention - a couple of days ago he got a hold of the corn & oatmeal and dumped half of it on his tray. He stuck both his hands in the mess and started finger painting. I gave up on the situation and let him doodle - he had corn right up to his nose, I was covered in corn, it was a corn fest. His favourite foods are still carrots, bananas & prunes. He is a poo maniac & can produce up to 6 log poos a day. Ian & I have become poo obsessed and compare diapers, especially the big ones - it's like their trophies or something ("hey - come check out the size of this one!"). Once we started the meat it was game over in the stinky department. They just reek. You have to be really careful when changing him at 3am in the dark that one doesn't get away and roll onto the change pad. Done that a few times and got something squishy between my fingers (of course I'm the type of person who instantly sniffs my fingers if I can't see what's between them - stupid me).

As soon as we got into the sleep-through-the night-routine it was all over and we were back to getting up multiple times throughout the night. Combine the teething with my whole tooth issue (his are coming in, mine are coming out) and it equates to weeks of crappy sleep. I'm starting to feel like I am never going to get a good night's sleep ever again. I know I've said it before but I hate not having good sleep - I'm perpetually cranky, edgy and on the verge of a meltdown at least once a week. Lately I also feel angry and am seriously considering blowing up the punching bag we have in our basement so as to relieve some pent up stress. Sometimes you just want to stuff your head in a pillow and scream. Ian's on board with the punching bag - whatever makes me happy. He's a good man. Every morning he takes Liam so I can sleep in and the two of them watch Liam's favourite show: Sesame Street. He loves Elmo and recognises him in stores - it usually turns into a tantrum if we try to take Elmo away. Actually that goes for everything now - he freaks if you try to take something away that he wants. Sigh - I had no idea it started this early. I need more sleep so I can cope.

Today Ian took Liam to a care home to give a senior we'd adopted for Xmas named George some gifts we'd bought. George had a stroke a few years ago and has limited mobility - unfortunately he has no family and never has visitors so it was a treat to get a visit. Apparently the nurse said he doesn't talk or react much to people but as soon as he saw Liam his face lit up and he reached out for him to come and sit closer. While Ian held him and he played with the ribbon on the gifts George rubbed his back. It made his day. One of the old ladies in a wheelchair in the room across the hall spotted Liam and called over all her other friends. Next thing the entire hall was baracaded with old ladies in wheelchairs wanting a glimpse of Liam. I was glad that he had such an impact and made a few old people happy for a day.

Tomorrow we are hosting a dinner for Randy & Lynne who are my parents Caribbean friends that sailed everywhere with them. I'm looking forward to finally meeting them and hearing all their stories. They are currently docked in Puerto Rico and down for Christmas to see their kids.

Sunday we pack up and we're on our way up island to ski for Christmas. We'll be staying at a resort and taking a shuttle up to the ski hill on Christmas day followed by a dinner buffet. Should be fun!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Week 34

The tooth saga continues......

I was still in a lot of pain a week after my extraction so it was back to the good 'ol dentist. Turns out I had dry socket on top of the infection in the bone of my jaw (I didn't realise it but they had to remove some bone with the tooth last week - yes, very ouch). So now I'm going back every few days to have the wound cleaned and packed with material to help the healing. Not to be too graphic but they have to re-bleed the clot each time (without any freezing I might add) as the blood clot just isn't forming properly (thanks diabetes). I was miserable sausage for 10 days straight but started to feel better after the second "bleed" on Friday. Life is coming back. Slowly.

Friday Liam & I were invited to one of the baby's in our mommy group's first Christmas party which was quite cute. We sat around exchanging secret Santa gifts and drinking rum & egg nog while trying to get all our little ones under the tree for a Xmas photo. Of course Liam had to be the uncooperative one and balled his eyes out. Oh well - it gives the photos more character. For his secret Santa gift he got a lovely fuzzy brown jacket - perfect for when we take him up the mountain over Christmas. The babies are all so big now - even the youngest is now almost 6 months old. Crazy. They are almost all sitting up now except for Liam who hates sitting. Everytime you try and make him sit he goes stiff and tries to stand. He can sit if he wants to but leans forward over his little feet and then after a while gets tired and tips sideways. Have to work on the abdominal strength.

Saturday was my company Christmas party - unfortunately Ian couldn't come because my parents had their company Christmas party on the same day at the same time in the same hotel. What are the chances? Anyway - it was mommy's first night out alone in 8 months and I went down with a bang. By the end of the night I had overdosed on wine and was jumping in my way-too-high-but-oh-so-pretty heels again and telling everyone how much I loved them (apparently). After my parents dropped me off and I nearly lost my balance getting out of their minivan, I stumbled through the door at about 12:30am reeking of booze and face planted onto the bed out cold. 4 hours later Liam woke up for a feed and shocked me out of my coma. I remember thinking all that alcohol couldn't be good for him in my milk but promptly fell asleep before I could feel guilty about it. 2 hours later I was up for the day feeling like my head was going to explode. Sure it's fun when you're at the party but the aftermath is so not worth it when you have a baby.

Week 33

This has got to have been one of my worst weeks in a long time. I woke up on Monday at about 3am in the most insane pain and after checking out my face in the bathroom mirror realised that it had swollen a fair bit on one side. So it was back to the dentist where they did an emergency tooth extraction. I'm telling you now I would rather go through childbirth again than have that procedure - it was that bad (oh and I have forgotten what childbirth was like but who cares). My dentist took one look at my swollen face and yanked the sucker out after sticking the freezing right into the absess that had formed. I thought I was going to break the assistant's hand I squeezed it so hard. 20 minutes later and my face had swelled to football size. I looked like a domestic dispute case. Had to walk through the mall with gauze and string hanging out my mouth with people giving me that "what the hell happened to her" look. The next few days were even worse; not only was I not sleeping, but had to take so many drugs my whole body started to shut down. And to top it all off I still wasn't breastfeeding and Liam was fighting the bottle with all his little might. He seemed to be scared by the swelling and couldn't understand why I wasn't able to smile at him. I would literally look at him with glazed eyes and drool coming down the side. Mommy had about as much life in her as a vegetable. Ian ended up taking a few days off work to help out - didn't have much choice after he phoned on the morning of day 2 and I was having a complete meltdown while wandering around in my fleece pajamas & fluffy cloud slipppers looking for my pain pills. After 4 days of screaming everytime he was denied the boob I finally gave up and fed him. That afternoon I saw my doctor who promptly informed me that the dentist was wrong and that the drugs were perfectly safe for breastfeeding. Bloody hell.

Today was my mom's company annual Christmas party for kids at the Butchart Gardens. It was snowing when we arrived and the gardens looked magical with all the decorations and lights. The company had rented out the restaurant complete with entertainment, a kids buffet and Santa. Liam wasn't too sure about the whole big man in red thing and apparently was very serious while receiving his gift - a rattle with lots of hanging legs and arms. Unfortunately Ian & I missed it as we decided to go for a walk around the gardens and arrived back 5 minutes late - dammit. They had also rented out a skating rink which Ian, Caylin and Derek enjoyed while my mom, Lian & I watched from the side. All in all it was a lovely day and Caylin & Liam had a great time.

Week 32

This weekend was our first big party weekend since before Liam was born and the first time we left him for a late night out with his very delighted grandparents. Friday night was Ian's company Christmas party at the Bear Mountain Resort - felt really great to get dressed up and go out somewhere just the two of us - a nice change from the usual barf & drool covered attire I've become accustomed to. The setting at the resort was gorgeous - while Ian had to work organizing speeches and awards etc. I sat around and drank a lot of champagne. By the time dinner came around I was stumbling on my way-too-high-but-oh-so-pretty heels and by the time the dancing started I was jumping in my way-too-high-oh-so-pretty heels. Ian ended up driving us home (hey - I did it for 9 months when I couldn't drink so he owed me) picking Liam up along the way. It felt strange to be the one fetching my child from my parents after a night out and really grown up at the same time (even if I did walk into the Japanese Maple tree while stumbling down the dark path to their front door). Needless to say I felt rather under the weather the next morning - not helped by Mr. "I'm going to wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5am despite my alcohol induced feed at 12am".

Saturday was our friends wedding at the beautiful Empress hotel - we dressed Liam up in a white shirt, plaid tie, wing tip black shoes and plaid hat and took him to the ceremony where he attracted lots of attention (we are used to this since our kid is very cute). The ceremony was lovely and the bride looked absolutely gorgeous in an Audrey Hepburn like dress with white fur shawl. Since there was a few hours in between the ceremony & reception we dropped him off (again) at the grandparents and showed up just in time for cocktails where they served blue champagne (I got through half a glass and had to put it down - too many the night before) before serving dinner in the most beautifully decorated all white Crystal ballroom. At this point my tooth was starting to really hurt me (it had been bugging me for a few days) and I kept reaching in my purse for Liam's orajel which I squirted repeatedly in my mouth. By the end of the night I was in immense pain. Today I crawled into the dentist office and got them to freeze my mouth while sobbing in the chair. They have put me on antibiotics and told me not to breastfeed Liam - he is just pissed and screams blue bloody murder when we try and give him a bottle. Should be a fun week since I have to take these things for 7 more days. Plus I'm on Tylenol 3's for the painand stoned out of my tree. At least it dulls the pain - on Wed they'll pull the stupid tooth out and call it a day. Lovely.

Week 31

I'm totally exhausted (hence the late blogging) - this teething thing sucks. Liam is now working on tooth number two and is not happy about it. I feel like a limp noodle - all the energy is sucked out of me trying to keep keep up with the constant fussing and by the time Ian comes home at the end of the day I'm like a lifeless barbie doll. My whine meter is constantly on high - I'm amazed the poor guy hasn't run for the hills. The only saving grace is that since last Thurs Liam is sleeping through the night - he now goes to sleep at around 9pm and usually sleeps till about 6:30am. I would have gone off the deep end for sure if I wasn't sleeping in addition to the day-to-day challenges. Like I said before - you only get to sleep longer at night so you have more energy to deal with the day and trust me - you need it!

Coincidentally the sleeping through the night thing started when we switched to Johnson & Johnson Bedtime Bath with lavender - the bottle advertises "proven to help baby sleep better". Damn straight - knocks him right out - thanks Johnson & Johnson! In typical Lucy fashion I failed to read the instructions and did not realise that it was bubble bath and not baby wash. Couldn't understand why the stuff smelled so strong and made my skin all tingly. I had practically overdosed Liam in lavender - he looked like a minature bubble Santa. No wonder he slept so well! I need to start marketing my own brand of lavender product called "conk your baby out" so I can make my millions and realize my dream of becoming a country club elite.

Friday we had our Christmas portraits taken - went really well and we got some lovely shots. The place was a zoo with all the kids in the fancy outfits and stressed out moms chasing them around and trying to keep them clean - makes me grateful that my little man, although fussy at times, cannot move (yet). The photographers are obviously very used to doing these kinds of portraits and only took about 20 mins. She probably would have been done a lot quicker but I kept jumping in front of the camera making absurd gestures mid-air with fuzzy toys in an attempt to make Liam laugh. At least I wasn't walking around with a duck on my head like some of the other people I saw. After spending an absurd amount of money (what? all the pics were sooooo cute!) we met up with Grandma Marg and headed to the Empress to look at the Festival Of The Trees. There was a craft fair on at the same time so we browsed the various booths and picked up some goodies. Was sorely tempted to get the "Bitchy Babe" aromatherapy wand (for moody women - apparently Ian thought I really needed it) and fell in love with the wine jelly stand. Picked up a jar of cabernet sauvignon (toast for breakfast anyone?) and sampled the chardonnay. Just divine. We ended up scarfing half the jar with crackers and pear blue cheese the next night. Yummy!

Since the next few weeks are going to be pretty busy we decided to get into the Christmas spirit early and put up our tree and decorations. Liam just loves lights so we got multi-coloured twinkle lights (bye-bye Martha Stewart tree) which he spends a fair amount of time staring at. Also picked up a stocking for him with a penguin head which he spotted in a store and fell absolutely in love with. I tried to take the penguin stocking away from him and he screamed blue bloody murder. So I bought it (I'm weak I know). So our living room looks warm and festive now and I've pretty much finished wrapping all the gifts as well. Look at me - Ms. Organized! I mostly did it all earlier to avoid the stress later on. Time is precious when you're a parent so you shop when you have the chance and get it over with. Of course I'll take the title of super mom any day just as long as I can keep fooling everyone into thinking I've got it together!

Week 30

It has arrived ladies & gentleman - the first tooth. After a rough few days off sweating, screaming & drooling, the tooth finally made its grand appearance and is now clearly visible. Unfortunately Mr. Bitey has emerged and breastfeeding has become a painful undertaking as Liam now takes a good chomp towards the end of his meal. It hurts just as much as everyone tells you it's going to and there is nothing you can do about it - not like you can take a swipe at your kid for sending a stabbing pain through your boob. So as I've learned with so many other things in mommy world - you simply just grin and bear it. Or you scream out loud which is much more effective at relieving your frustration.

Liam is currently bouncing in his oh-so-favourite jolly jumper and screaming at his hand. From time to time he catches a glimpse of his digits and freaks out. This equates to blood curdling screaming. We have also discovered that if you try and take something away from him that he doesn't want to let go of he screams too. I think we are going to have an issue with sharing when we are older.

Thurs we headed over to Vancouver for another daddy related business trip - we tag along since the hotel rooms are free and it gives us a change of scenery for a few days. This time round was a bit of whirlwind but still fun. Friday night Ian and his work colleagues were hosting some students from UBC and taking them to a Canucks game so I volunteered to take care of his bosses two kids aged 4 and 6 years old for a few hours. Apparently I think I'm super mom all of a sudden and could handle two kids and a baby for 6 hours. The first thing his boss said to the kids when she left was not to jump on the bed, so the first thing I did was start jumping competitions to wear the crap out of both of them and make them mellow - WRONG! The jumping only got them more hyperactive which led to getting thirsty and dumping their water bottles over their heads to keep cool. In her enthusiasm the 4 year old accidentally dumped a bunch of water all over the night stand and onto the floor. Apparently she must spill a lot since she promptly started cleaning up the mess with Liam's wet wipes. After about 30 wipes the night stand was back to its original state but the wipe attack did not stop there. In about five minutes the bag of wipes had depleted to almost nothing, everything in the hotel room had been cleaned off and she had used the squares to cover herself head to toe like a mummy. I was poweless to stop the madness so I just watched everything go to heck. By dinner time and 2 hours into baby sitting I was already exhausted and I still had 4 hours to go. Luckily the 6 year old was also going to the hockey game so surely it would be easier with just the 4 year old and Liam? Not a chance. I ordered dinner and a big glass of wine and after allowing her to feed Liam and flicking bits of carrot all over the carpet & myself (Liam was oozing large globules of carrot down his face at this point) decided to chuck both of them in the bath. Once the PJ's were on Liam had some milk and went to sleep and we settled down in bed to watch some TV. 10 minutes later Liam woke up and just as I picked him up he projectile vomited all over my face and down my body. The 4 year old took one look at me and said "holy smokes" while I desperately tried not to squish vomit into the carpet en route to the bathroom. Just as I stepped into the bathroom he decided to projectile vomit a second time (I should learn to carry my kid outwards instead of facing me all the time). That was it - there was so much barf the entire floorwas covered and I looked like I had been painted yellow. There was nothing I could do but strip butt naked and get into the shower. The 4 year old didn't think much of my streaking by her in my naked glory with my naked baby and continued to watch TV. So now Liam is wide awake and the 4 year old decides to catch a second wind and starts jumping up and down on the bed again. She did this for almost 2 hours with me desperately trying to rock Liam to sleep - unfortunately he was so entertained by the small pink streak pinging off the walls there was no way he was missing out on the fun. By 10pm I was ready to curl up fetal and start sucking my thumb. Fortunately the 4 year old decided she was tired and promptly started giving me instructions on which lamps to switch off, where to stand and how much noise to make before she fell asleep. 15 minutes later eveyone arrived back and by 11pm Liam finally went down as well. It took me all of 3.2 seconds to pass out once my head hit the pillow. Multiple kids? FORGET IT!!!!!!

Week 29

It's 9pm and we are in our usual night time routine - jolly jumping the crap out of our child so he'll conk out and go to sleep. Lately we cannot get him to bed until at least this time, although he is sleeping longer (thank God). At the current moment he has decided to exercise his lungs and is screaming so loud and at such a high pitch he sounds like he's going to go up in a puff of smoke. Not to mention our eardrums are splitting - we're talking nails down the chalkboard kind of stuff here. At the same time he's screaming he's literally pinging around in a blur of orange & white pj's. Welcome to the new night time routine - it's rather hellish. Not to mention I've changed my own pj's twice already after Liam blew chunks of peas & brown rice mixed with breast milk all over me. Yummy.

This weekend was another long one due to rememberance day so we had 4 days off together which was great. As we do each year we went to the memorial ceremony and while Ian & Liam wore their matching English hats, I wore my poppy in my hair (Liam developed a thing for poppies and kept trying to yank them off our clothes so I had to get creative). After paying our respects to the war veterans we went to blow up 18 helium balloons for Aunty Caylin's 10th "Diva" birthday party. Trying to stuff 18 balloons in our small Mazda was no easy task. Unfortunately there was no space in the front seat so I squeezed myself in the back seat with Liam while Ian stuffed the balloons around us. While trying to yell directions with my head wedged sideways and my arms madly grabbing strings and balloons from Liam's chubby little hands & face (he kept trying to yank the strings towards him & lick the balloons) Ian navigated to the party through mounds of latex. We made it in one piece and spent two hours with 10 highly energetic girls who were pampered with glitter, tattoos and nailpolish. Needless to say we were pooped afterwards and rather glad we have a boy.

Liam is cutting a tooth for real this time - started a few days ago with excessive drool production coupled with extreme fussiness and a lack of interest in his solid foods. I can see the white nodules and split in the gums. Welcome to hell. I've been sticking everything in the freezer (including his soothers) and stocked up on baby Orajel. Ian decided to give the Orajel a try and got rather drooly himself, although not as drooly as earlier on in the week when he had to get 4 fillings done and told me his mouth was "fwozen" and asked me to put on a "fire wog". Friday night Liam was rather hungry so I stuffed him full of peas & barley. Big mistake. Just as we were about to finish the bowl he started gagging and spat up green barf. I got up and as I walked to the sink to get a cloth he projectile vomited all over himself, the high chair and the floor. It was like watching a horror movie - the stuff shot out in a stream so big I had no idea that much barf could come out of something that small. There was so much pea puke I had to shove the high chair in the shower and then scrub the floor multiple times while trying not to hurl. Ian took the easier route and cleaned up Mr. Pukey. I'm never eating peas again.

Week 27

Liam is fast becoming a seasoned traveller - we just returned a few hours ago from a nice, relaxing 4 days in Whistler where Ian had a conference at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, a lovely typical ski resort hotel at the base of Blackcomb Mountain. After settling in we decided to venture out in search of dinner and quickly found out that we had forgotten to bring Winter jackets - dumb city folk that we are - in about 5 minutes we were freezing our asses off (Liam was fortunately well prepared thanks to Mommy and was bundled up like a snowman). So the dinner mission turned into a "I've gone completely numb and need a jacket right now I don't care how much it costs"mission. Luckily I found a nice down puffy number in about the third store we walked into and was warm & toasty in no time. Unfortunately Ian didn't find anything but he's like a seal and far more likely to survive in such cold conditions. Plus he has way more body hair than I do. After a nice pasta dinner and some wine we headed back to the hotel and tried to put Liam into his hotel crib which looked more like a jail cell with its stark white metal bars. Being used to more upscale digs he refused to settle down and eventually rolled to the edge and got stuck in the bars. So he was promptly removed from his cell and into a much nicer queen size bed. Of course this meant that one of us had to sleep with him so we took shifts and ended up sleeping in separate beds the entire time - how romantic. Made no difference to the length of time Liam slept which is still every 3-4 hours. Sucky. Not even a huge plush queen size bed could lull him into longer la la land. His internal clock is simply programmed to wake up at precisly between 3-4 hours and he's ravenous by then. We have decided to start upping the calories during the day to see if that will help since the breastmilk is definitely not cutting it.

Fri morning we went out for a walk & saw a black bear grazing for berries on the mountain - apparently she has a couple of cubs but they were stashed away in the nearby trees. Not wanting to become a food source we kept our distance but it was still cool to see - we got so used to bears when we lived in Whistler it was hardly a big deal but after a few years of being away the novelty was back. Speaking of cubs while Ian went back to his conference I met up with my girlfriend Kristal and her baby Kamryn who is 3 weeks younger than Liam - Kristal and I used to work together in Whistler and have kept in touch ever since I left. It's amazing how much more advanced little girls can be with development. While size wise Kamryn and Liam are a pound apart, Kamryn already has 5 teeth while Liam is Mr. Gummy and has yet to produce a tooth. Kamryn is also drinking out of a sippy cup and has tried more foods. Liam is a boob boy and not too fond of solid foods so far. They did attempt to hold hands which was rather cute - other than that they just kind of checked each other out & didn't say much (probably couldn't get a word in edgewise with their mommies yabbering away and catching up). After a few desserts for lunch (I'm not the only one with a sweet tooth) we met up with Ian on his break and hit the village for some shopping & to hook up with Aunty Jo. Since it was so cold we got Liam the cutest Helly Hansen toque which was more of a hit than the wool hat with flaps Ian brought back from Toronto (although the flap hat is just gorgeous and worth the fussing). We were sorely tempted to get the Helly Hansen ski jacket but figured we'd wait on that one and see how big he gets first. Helly Hansen is not cheap! After a day of shopping around & Ian being in and out of his conference we rather beat so we stayed in and ordered pizza & conked out early (huge party people that we are).

Saturday Ian finished up after lunch so we went back to do - yes you guessed it - some more shopping and ended up picking up some warm mittons for Liam (I was on a roll with the warm items), a pair of Adidas shoes (size 3 - soooo adorable & expensive - oh well - soooo adorable) and a nice Helly Hansen fleece jackey for Ian. What can I say - we like Helly Hansen. Then it was off to the spa for me while Ian & Liam went for a swim and had some mano a mano time. While I enjoyed a manicure and an eyebrow/eyelash tint (so I don't have to wear makeup every day but still look like a have makeup on) they hit the health club and then went for a walk in the village. Was wonderful to have some alone time and be pampered - I really need to do that more often! After oozing my way out of the spa we sat in the lounge near the big fire place and enjoyed a light dinner & drinks to live music. Liam seemed to enjoy the atmosphere and high pitched squealed at the top of his lungs. Felt kind of sorry for the snuggly romantic couple on the couch next to us but oh well - such is life when you have a little tike that likes to exercise his lungs.

This morning we decided to wake up at the crack of dawn and catch the early ferry back over to the island so we could do some more shopping (because we hadn't shopped enough you know). 4 hours of travelling & 4 hours of shopping plus 2 hours of travelling back to Victoria later we were once again beat (gee I wonder why). I'm improving in the amount of stuff I travel with and only three quarters of the car was full this time (shopping included). I managed to only pack 50 diapers, 12 outfits, one bag of toys, 4 blankets, 1 stroller, 1 bouncy chair, 4 colourful tugboats, baby wash & 10 cloths and cereal with Winnie-The-Pooh cereal bowl. That's a big improvement in my books. Plus of course we accummulated a fair amount of items while on our shopping spree. Not only did we pick up the items in Whistler, we bought the remaining pieces of Liam's Christmas outfit which takes cute to a whole new level. While in Toronto Ian bought him little grey wool pants with matching argyle sweater & the little flap hat - we saw the exact same store in Nanaimo today and couldn't resist adding the plaid tie, plaid socks, plaid sport hat & shiny black shoes. He is going to look so gorgeous everyone is going to want to eat him up. Thank God I have a 1 GB card in my camera - I'm going to go trigger happy for sure.

While away I suddenly realized that it had been about 5 days since Liam had a "bowel movement" - they say babies can go about a week before it needs attention. I started having visions of trying to put a suppository where the sun don't shine which did not appeal to me at all when we finally pulled into the driveway and while walking up to our doorway smelled something that resembled bad sewage. Thinking that the neighbours across the street were draining the toilet in their RV I ignored the smell until we got inside where the smell was worse. After eyeballing the cat to see if maybe he hadn't cleaned his own ass properly Ian flipped Liam over and noticed the all too familiar brown stain oozing through his baby blue Winnie-The-Pooh pants. It smelled so bad we were both gagging and Ian took off claiming that he needed to bring in our stuff and leaving me to deal with the blowout of the century. A week's worth of back up has to top my list of the worst poo to date. While trying to take his sodden diaper off the poo smeared all down his leg and I started yelling for Ian to help me. Fat chance - Ian passed me paper towel from a good distance while gagging at the same time. Since I was laughing and gagging at the same time (it was seriously the grossest thing I've done in a long time) I got Ian to take a photo which he did with one arm over his nose. Eventually we got the diaper and pants off and hauled Liam into the shower where we rinsed off his entire lower half, soaped him down and rinsed him off again. Unfortunately 5 minutes later we had an after shock off poo flow but it wasn't nearly as bad as the earthquake preceding it. I guess it's safe to say we are officially not backed up anymore and we are never going to feed him meat. Ever.