Euan's 1st Christmas.

We had a great time over Christmas it was pretty quiet and we did not do too much. We got up and helped Euan open his presents, built up his toys and skyped with both sets of parents which was very nice. We went to Burnaby Lake, fed the ducks and then came home. Christmas dinner was Roast Beef and it turned our really well, we were all very surprised.
This pic is a little blurred but thought you would like to see him using his car. Its actually a walker but can be used as a little seat too. He used it a fair bit on Christmas day but has not really used it since. Hope he gets into it soon and learns to use it properly.
This pic is just very cute, so it had to be included.
OOH exciting!!!!
First thing on Christmas morning when he came down to his presents. There are quite a lot there for a 10 month old. I swore i would not do it but i have to say in my defence it was all very cheap.
This was on Christmas Eve after bringing the bigger presents downstairs, after Euan had went to bed.
Euan watching one of his baby Einstein dvd's.
One of his favourite moves at the moment crawling and climbing inside the exerciser, once he gets in there he is very stuck and he cant get back out again.
The Olympic rings overlooking Canada Place.

The video is really the only exciting one that I have taken for a little while. Its just after we came downstairs on Christmas morning and its just looking at him with his presents.

Winter time..

Well dont have too much to update. The pictures we are putting up are mainly from a baby gym called motoring munchkins.. it was a little too old for Euan but we went around playing with the toys and he seemed to quite enjoy being inside this car getting wheeled around, as you can see from his smiley face. He already has the bad driving habit of putting his arm behind him on the seat, hes going to pick it up quick! The other pic is one that Steven though would be funny, you know he likes to stick things onto heads, it used to be the cat now he has a person he can do it too. Euan did not actually seem to mind too much and he thought it was quite funny. This could be your little Christmas present sent by air mail!!! The first pic is from the Rogers Santa Claus parade we were standing like this on the street for about 90 minutes in downtown Vancouver, Euan was pretty good, he was crying towards the end as he was bored plus it was freezing, he was nice and toasty, Steven and I were cold so we left and went to a restaurant for lunch/dinner instead. We missed Santa but I dont think it really mattered.

I am uploading 3 videos, 1 is of him just playing with a toy and making noise its not particularly interesting but I though you would like to hear him a bit more. There is a video of him touching the cat, he had just woken up from a nap and its pretty cold so I had him under the cover while he was sleeping, as today he has his first cold. The last video is of him clapping his hands, we have been trying to get him to do this for ages, with no luck and today he started doing it with no prompting and it now seems to be one of his favourite tricks today. Its a little bit clumsy still but mummy and daddy were both very proud.

We have not been up to that much lately.. its to snow all weekend so not sure what we will be getting up too hopefully something exciting. This week we went to a playdate with our friends Francis and her little girl Elise, she invited us and another 6 mummies and there babies so it was pretty noisy but great fun, on wed we went to the cinema and the film was awful so we walked out after 40 minutes and came home. Yesterday I went to Metrowtown to buy a toy for Euan for CHristmas and ended up buying him a little phone toy that he can play with now. I swore that I would not be the kind of mum to spoil my child like that, but when I was there I couldn't help it.

This weekend Steven is off so hopefully we get to do some exciting things, as I said before it has been forcasted to snow all weekend, so not sure what the roads will be like. I want to go and see Santa to get a picture with Euan on his first Christmas and maybe ride the Christmas train in the late afternoon once its dark. There is a special event on tomorrow morning at the aquarium for members starting at 8.30, its very early in the morning and Euan has a little cold so we will need to see how he is tomorrow morning. We will put up our Christmas decorations on Sunday so that will be interesting but nice, looking forward to seeing Euan's face when he sees all the lights on the tree, he loves trees so I dont think we will be able to keep him away from it, it will be just another obstacle to drag Euan away from every 5 minutes.

Fun in the Snow.

Today we decided to head up grouse mountain for some fun. There has been quite alot of snowfall, think they said there base is already around 100 cm so today was the first day of ski season. We thought we would take Euan up for his first experience in the snow. It was about -3 but not too bad at the top. He seemed to have a good time, although he was a bit wet at the end.

The fall and mobility

Well everyone I know its taken a long time to get some new posts on here. I was waiting for something exciting to happen. So Mum and Dad and Anne and John here are some more videos and pictures. Its been great season so far. Stevens parents were over visiting which was fantastic, we all had a great time, they enjoyed seeing there grandson and all the sights of Vancouver and we were all more than a little sad when they left to go home. We have not done too much since then

I have posted up 5 pictures all from the end of October until now. The first pic was of the carved pumpkins outside the house with Euan in his costume.The 2nd and 4th pictures are just for you Uncle John and Tam if your looking!! ;)The 2nd pictures was out on the balcony, i thought he might like to play in all the leaves which he did he had a great time but got a bit dirty, so afterwards daddy had to wash and change him and i swept away all the leaves. The 4th pic was obviously halloween he was dressed as a little devil, Stevens mum picked the costume. He was very cute in it, you cant see the outfit too well in the pic but his pose is pretty good. The 5th pic was at the pumpkin patch we went there to pick out to adult pumpkins and a baby pumpkin, we brought them home carved them and put them at the doorstep.


This week has been a big week in terms of baby development. Euan has learned to crawl and pull himself up to standing all in the same week and he is going to be a bit of a minx i think. Yes Mum and Dad I am sure when you read this, you will think i have my just deserts :) He is so much fun right now keeping us very busy and entertained.

Not much to say, we have now finished our swimming lessons and Euan passed, so he has his first certificate of achievement, lets hope there is many more to come, and he can now move on to the waterbabies 2 class. I have not been going out that much lately, weather has been hot this week with a bit of a downpour today. We have been in playing with lots of toys. So to Mum and Dad here you go some more videos, mainly Euan sitting up playing with toys and doing a bit of a backwards crawl type of move. I dont have many plans for the coming week, this is a bank holiday weekend for Labour day what ever that is! Steven is off Monday so we might do something depending on the weather, Euan has his jags on Tuesday and i have 2 friends coming over on Friday with there babies so thats going to be a bit hectic but nice. Dad just for you there is a video of Steven, Euan and Meg, its the closest they have sat together since he was born.

The park

Not much has happened since the last entry, got up this morning and looked at the internet was surprised to see that Lance Armstrong had done a bike ride in Paisley, it looked pretty busy. The picture on the Scotsman internet site was up the high street, I wonder if he cycled past the co-op. Maybe my Dad got to see him, must remember to ask at the weekend. He is staying in Paisley too somewhere up the school wynd by the looks of it. Excellent.

Nothing much to tell you about as I said, swimming lessons going well, the plan now is once the babies are used to submersion, the next stage is to submerge them and then let them go propelling them towards someone else, so Steven is going to come into the water tomorrow.

Didn't do much today, I had to go up to the mall to buy something for dinner and bought a little jumper thing for Euan, I was very restrained today. Once Steven got home from work, we went up to the park which is next to the house to put Euan onto the swings, he seemed to quite like it for a few minutes and then he became very un-impressed with the whole situation. We went on the see saw and then came home, among a nice little walk in the trees which he seemed to like.

Steven is off for the next 2 days, tomorrow is the swimming lesson at 5 so we cant really go to far for too long, and not sure what we will have planned for Friday, hopefully something nice. I have some videos to post, mainly videos from the park and one from him on his activity centre, and one while we were blowing some bubbles around. There is one picture too basically of the pool at our complex, it just looked so nice tonight!

Saturday

Dont have much to say really. Euan is asleep right now lying over my left arm, when he wakes up its going to be feeding time. I dont have any plans today which is nice, Steven and I have been fighting a viral infection for a few weeks and i would like nothing better right now than going to bed for a nap... ah sounds like bliss.
I got 6 dvds out of the video shop last night so will watch something this afternoon when euan is in bed for his nap. Last night we watched 'Stone of Destiny' it was pretty poor, Steven thinks its taken over from Sliding Doors as his worst film EVER!!!
The only other exciting thing to happen is that we now have a family GP, 3 years in Canada and we have managed to find a GP its great! Looking at some websites for a bigger house with a garden, so who knows we may be house hunting soon.
Hope you all have a great weekend, off to feed the boy!

The torpedo

Steven was off today so it was nice, we went to a recycling place to return lots of pop bottles and cans, we stood in line next to lots of smelly bottle bums and dumpster divers to get our grand sum of $5.35. We are going to save it and then treat ourselves to something nice.
We also decided to go to a store selling lots of british crap and spent $116 on baked beans, soup, an assortment of crisps and sweets and some out of date taxi biscuits, jammie dodgers and salad cream, what a bargain!!! Euan was rather taken with a golliwog toy, but thought we probably should not buy it for him although he did like it. See pic above... the everton part was for Stevens sister in law Julie.
Today was lesson #4 of 10 in the swimming lessons and he did brilliantly today, he was submerged under the water about 8 times.. and seemed to quite like it, i also got to wear some goggles as the instructor ducked him under towards me twice and i could see his face, the idea is that they see your face and it relaxes the babies, needless to say Euan was looking at something else but he seemed fine.

Lazy days

I have not left the house since Friday and its now Tuesday, have spent the days watching tv and generally relaxing, I was tired and Euan was too so we have had some lazy days. I have a swimming lesson today so I need to leave the house reasonably soon to get there. I thought I would upload some videos of Euan for the folks at home to see, esp Mum and Dad. I have one of him feeding, and one on the jolly jumper, one of some fart noises and when Steven gets home will put one on of Euan laughing (to show mum and dad that he does laugh and smile)

I am starting to get stressed out thinking about childcare we have no idea what we are going to do with him, I still have 7 months before going back to work so i should try and not stress about it for a wee while yet but its hard not too. I am actually quite looking forward to getting out more and being back at work, although i am sure when i am back i will wish i was off again. I am trying to look for another job with no nights and weekends to make it a bit easier but there are actually not many nursing jobs out there right now either.

Anyway will upload the vids and then bash on, got some washing to do...

Swimming lessons

So as you can see, i have not been writing too much. Basically I have not been doing anything besides swimming with Euan and trying to keep cool. The weather has been really good but far too hot, its been over 30 degrees in the house at night time so trying to sleep is pretty hard. Euan has been suffering the most, he has been practically naked for days and we have fans in all the rooms, which have not made much difference. Thankfully its now a little cooler so doing a few more things around town, went into Vancouver today to a record store, and to the apple shop so Steven could buy some ear phones. We carried Euan in our Ergo baby carrier which was nice. Not much else has happened we are still feeding Euan, the mornings are great with his rice cereal but his solid in the afternoon is not going down so well, we have tried carrots and sweet potato and neither were a winner, we will keep going. This week I had a girl round, Francis and her little girl Elise who I met at the music class so that was nice, we had a nice playdate, Euan and Elise were holding hands so it was very sweet. The most exciting thing to happen this week is we started swimming lessons, its every tues and thurs evening for 5 weeks, and apparently by the end, Euan should be able to swim to the edge of the pool which I am very dubious about, and he should be very used to submersion in the water.... hmmm I am not convinced. Steven is off tomorrow and was trying to convince him to head to the outlet mall in the states, but he is being sensible telling me that the last thing we need is to go on a shopping spree. He is right, but it would be nice.

Feeding time

Thought that family at home might like to see this pic. We have started feeding Euan earlier than we are supposed too but he loves it and its not causing any probs, feeding time is a big hit in this house. We are using rice cereal and he has tried a little mashed banana which he hated and a little apple juice which he hated, the rice cereal goes down well. Its very hot outside today so we are just staying indoors, I was going to take Euan too the pool but its just a little too hot to go out. It is however just as hot indoors, so we have lots of fans on constantly. I am catching up on some tv that I have taped, some trash like make me a supermodel which i love and catching up on merlin aswell which is really good.

Have been on the phone to Natasha this morning had a nice conversation and then had a good chat with Davina who I am meeting tomorrow for a walk around, picnic in and ? swim in stanely park, its supposed to be mega hot aswell.

Spanish Banks Beach

Today was Stevens last day off before going back to work, his 2 precious days off fly past so quickly so we try to make the most of them while we are here, roll on Stevens 3 week holiday I cannot wait. It was pretty nice today so we decided to go to the beach and have a dip in the Pacific. We got there and set up our spot, we all had some lunch and then we went for a dip in the ocean. It was pretty muddy looking but nice and refreshing. Once we had finished went along to West 11th Ave and went to Rangoli, its a cafe attached to Vijs Indian restaurant and we bought some take away to heat up later. We also had to buy a new carseat, why are they so expensive its rubbish. $355 later we come out with a Britax Marathon and came home. Steven and I are settling down to our yummy Indian, Euan is in bed. We put him into his own room last night so will head to bed shortly and watch a movie. What a perfect day!!

I am excited

So my friend Jen is coming round at 7.30 tonight to babysit for Euan, we will have him bathed, fed and in bed so hopefully it shouldn't be too bad. I cant wait its going to be the first time out the house without the wee one since my parents were here in early March. I am currently cleaning and tidying got to make the house look reasonably good. I have my dress picked out, need to shower, put on makeup, straighten hair then organise Euan. We are not going out for too long for dinner, then maybe walk along the beach, we will see. Really looking forward to it.

One night out in 5 months not too bad. Stevens parents come over in September so going to have a few nights out then too, yay for in laws coming to visit.

Its very hot still 30 degrees most days and its going to be like this for a long time, the house is so hot we really need some air conditioning, just have to make do with the fans at home.

Quiet time

I have been to the pool with Euan, Jen, Harris and Freya it was nice, were there for a little while then all the kids needed to nap so came home. Its super hot but so nice, Im so thankful to be having all this time off for such a great summer. Euan has been fed, played with his new favourite toy and he is now napping (nap time during the day is such bliss). Thought I would update the blog and now going to read for a little while and have some lunch until he wakes up. This maternity leave is awesome I am already dreading going back to work.

Pool again

So its Monday almost 1pm and going to the pool again, its supposed to be around 30 degrees today wow how hot. My friend Jeniffer and her kids Harris and Freya are coming around to play in the pool today so we are going to have lots of fun!

Ok so Its Sunday, I hate Sundays, everyone I know spends time with there partners and family, my husband is working and my family live 10000 miles away. SO I spend my Sundays primarily on the internet, and looking after my son Euan. Today has been ok so far, got up fed Euan and then fed myself watched the playoff of the British open in Turnberry and sorry to say Tom Watson lost! I have since spent some time skype ing with parents and now on the internet again.

Not sure what I am going to do today, I really should go to the supermarket but its just so hot. Euan is napping right now and I think when he wakes up we might take a walk up to our pool and have a little dip. I am lucky enough to have a pool in the complex in which i live its fantastic.

Anyway off for now, will blog again tomorrow.