Friday, October 14, 2011

Photo Challenge, Day Six: From a Low Angle

Day six in the photo challenge was to take a picture from a low angle. Here's my boy, Bama, laying at the top of the stairs. What a sweetheart.
A lot of people ask me how our dog has adjusted to having a new baby sister :) In short, the answer is quite well! For the first week or two he was super anxious, running toward the baby every time she made a sound. He was really confused with the new crying creature, but he's gotten used to her and ignores her for the most part.

I feel guilty that Mr. Greybeard doesn't get the same attention he once did, but I try my best to give him a little love every time I walk past him. Hopefully once baby girl gets on more of a schedule we can make taking Bama for walks a priority. I think he's getting used to being #2. Sob.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Photo Challenge, Day Five: From a High Angle

Day 5 in the photo challenge was to take a picture from a high angle. When I walked out onto my patio this morning, I looked over the banister and saw something that might make an interesting picture.
The bottom of the picture shows the courtyard that is shared between the six units in our condo association and the top part is our next door neighbours' yard. Quite a difference between the two, no?

I am truly getting sick and tired of sharing space with people. Who knows when it will happen, but I cannot wait to buy our own house, with our own yard, no matter how tiny it has to be. One where Bama can run free, I can plant my own flowers, and I don't have to deal with annoying neighbours.

What you don't see in this picture is how hideous our courtyard actually is. One of our neighbours has no fewer than 20 wind chimes hanging, 50 magnets stuck to his eaves trough, rubber duckies????, dead plants, cow bells, and pinwheels. Lord help me.

Funny story. A few weeks ago, the weather started to get cooler and we started having our windows open at nighttime. It was rather windy for a few nights and I was half insane due to lack of sleep with a newborn, and of course, all I could hear was his #@$%&^* wind chimes. There is nothing more annoying than wind chimes keeping you up when you're trying to sleep. One night I got so fed up, I went down in my bathrobe at 3am and stood there until I found out which wind chime was the loudest, then took it down. I placed it on the dude's chair outside and of course it was back up the next day.

Well, the next night I went downstairs and took it off again, placing it on his chair, again. Funny thing is, this wind chime was hanging up really high, so there I was in the middle of the night, standing on a chair in my bathrobe, trying to remove it. And yes... back up the next day.

The next night, windy again. Damn windy city. I was seeing red. This might be a bit ridiculous on my part, but hey, that's what no sleep will do to you. I took it down again, this time writing a note asking for it to be permanently removed, and placed it on his front doorstep.

It's been down ever since, which I'm amazed about, because this neighbour is a real piece of work, to say it nicely.

I hate wind chimes.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Photo Challenge, Day Four: Something Green

The challenge for today was to take a picture of something green. There was lots to choose from but yes, lettuce was the winner.

Lately I'm loving this artisan lettuce from Costco. It's super cheap and comes with six heads of lettuce, three different types. I find it stays fresher longer than the typical romaine hearts that I buy, and bagged salad just tastes gross, don't cha think?

I'm really trying to step up my healthy eating, for a couple of reasons. Mainly because it's good for me! But we're also going away on (our first family) vacation soon and I hate looking back at pictures of flabby ole me. Maybe if I buy healthy foods that I actually like, I'll make better eating choices.

There you go, my public service announcement for the day :)


Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Photo Challenge, Day Three: What I Wore

This sums up what I wear each and every day!
Today's photo challenge is to show what I wore. One sure way to make the baby fall asleep is to bring her for a walk. I have a moby wrap and I like it very much, but this seven sling is super handy, quick to put on, and best of all - I can nurse Little m while I carry her! It is one of my greatest buys. The other night I actually fed her while shopping in Costco. Last week I walked down the sidewalk feeding her. I'm not sure if people realize that I'm breastfeeding because I do drape my shoulder with a blanket, so it may just appear as though I've covered up my sleeping baby? Do you think people clue in? Not that I care :)

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Photo Challenge, Day Two: Clouds

The weather this week has been glorious. We deserve it after putting up with such a dreary September. The photo challenge today was to take a picture of clouds, but alas, not a single one in the sky. The leaves are beginning to turn lovely shades and I've enjoyed taking Bama for long walks. It helps that the dearest darling daughter naps while we walk, and perhaps that's why we took two of them today! Speaking of naps, I could really go for one...

Monday, October 3, 2011

Photo Challenge, Day One: Self-Portrait



I've decided to participate in a photo challenge throughout the month of October, along with a whole bunch of other bloggers. I wanted to do this because 1) maybe I'll learn a little bit about photography, and 2) it gives me something to write about other than the baby! But as you'll see, I included Little m in my first picture, so that didn't work out too well, did it?!

Day One was to take a self-portrait. I've been wanting to take a recent picture of me and baby girl to compare to my last bump picture, so this was the perfect excuse.

I took the picture on the left on August 14th, three days before baby girl was born. I was 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. The picture on the right was taken today, 6 weeks and 5 days after giving birth. It's still so surreal to think that Little m was the thing growing inside me for nine months, kicking me all the time, and making me have to pee every half hour. I've said it a million times, but I still can't get over how amazing the human body is!



Sunday, October 2, 2011

Date Night(s)!

My parents were visiting this weekend and baby girl is somewhat proficient at taking a bottle now, so you know what that means? Date night!

On Thursday night, the husband and I headed to Gyu-Kaku, a Japanese BBQ place just off the Magnificent Mile. My parents actually gifted us a Groupon to this restaurant, and our first date night since Little m was born was the perfect excuse to use it.

I started the night off right by ordering a lychee shochu, which was quite tasty.
Notice the pinky? I'm fancy like that.

We ordered the prix fixe for our meal, and were served miso soup, salad, and a tuna volcano (basically a rice ball with spicy tuna on top) to start.
M took a picture of me taking the picture!
Our main meal included bibimbop, plus veggies and four different meats to grill on the bbq.
The food took between 1-4 minutes to cook and there were three types of dipping sauces to try. The filet was my favourite, mmm mmmm good.
And for dessert - smores!
I had dark chocolate and M had milk chocolate. Just like being at the campfire!
Overall, our meal was very good! Tabletop cooking is a fun experience, although I feel that it makes the meal a bit chaotic. You want to eat the food while it's hot but you're also concerned with putting more meat on the grill and flipping it at the appropriate times. You can't just sit back and relax! Well, I guess you could take your time eating and cooking, but we're piglets and like to eat eat eat!

Little m was so well behaved with my parents that we went out to the movies on Friday night for Date #2! It was so nice to get out, have a break from baby, and spend time with the husband!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

My October Goals

Holy smokes, it's October! You know what that means? Only three more months to complete my 36 in 365 goals! So far I've fully completed 10 goals and partially completed 8. Yikes! I have a lot to do in the upcoming months! I've decided to break it down into somewhat manageable chunks, so here's what I plan to do in October:

1. Leave a comment on someone's blog everyday. I actually started doing this in August, then had a baby, so that screwed it all up :)

2. Bring Bama to the dog park more often. I'm going to try for 5 times this month.

3. Leave Operation Beautiful notes. I've had the notes written since summer, now I just have to find places to leave them!

4. Complete a list of 101 things that make me happy. I'll try for 20 this month - 5 a week?

5. Take a long bike ride. I hope to do this when I'm at home visiting my parents, if the weather cooperates.

6. Complete a 30 day Wii Fit challenge. I'll start this today, but the 30 days will have to be broken up since I'm visiting my parents for a week.

7. Go hiking. Well it's not a typical hike, but I'd love to walk the Bloomingdale Trail sometime this month.

8. Blog a total of 200 times throughout the year. Hmm, pretty much impossible since this is only my 63rd post of 2011. Anyway, there is a blogger photo challenge going on this month that I'll like to take part in, so that would be 31 more posts if I can actually get my act together!

Oh my goodness.. these are lofty goals but I'm up for the challenge! What are some things you'd like to complete before the end of the year?