Sleepytime

Sleepytime

It’s really hard staying up and working all day when I know all this sleepy husband/snuggly doggy action is going on just down the hall.

Snugglydog

“Come nap with us Tanie, nap with us forever….”

Why Can’t I Hold All These Feels?

A few weeks ago Sym drew these feelings flashcards to help teach Baby Laramie to express her emotions. They are just on paper and they’re pretty small, so I don’t think I’ll actually let the baby near them, but I think Symphony did a really good job rendering all these different emotions.

Feelings

click to view full size on my flickr

Weekended

I feel bad that I haven’t been posting any manis lately, but I’ve seriously been making SO MANY banners recently that I haven’t had time to paint my nails, any anyway working with x-acto knives=trashed polish.

Sunday Morning

Symphony spent this whole weekend at her dad’s, so I had tons of free, non-parenting time to get stuff done. And in a surprising twist, I ACTUALLY GOT STUFF DONE. I cleared away a bunch of clutter (especially on my desks, which are SPOTLESS) now, hung a little shelf just for glitter, and put a hook on the side of Taylor’s desk so he can hang his bag up instead of leaving it in a heap on the floor to get covered in cat hair. That’s all boring though, what I really did this weekend was watch fireworks and go to Ikea.

The Alley at Night

I’ve posted about this before, but every summer at the end of July/beginning of August Vancouver hosts the Celebration of Light, which is the largest offshore fireworks competition in the world. IT’S TRUE. For three glorious nights three different countries set up a literal barge-load of fireworks out in English Bay and then BLOW EM UP. On Saturday was Vietnam’s turn to blow stuff up, on Wednesday will be Brazil and then Italy next Saturday.

Flotilla

I wish I was fancy and had a boat (or a friend with a boat) but I’m not so I have to watch from land like a peasant.

Vietnam's Fireworks
Vietnam's Fireworks
Vietnam's Fireworks

On Sunday we both got up bright an early to go to Ikea; I had to pick up a few meters of fabric to send to my mom so she can get started on the crib/nursery set she’s making, a few other baby olds & ends, and a new nightstand for myself. I haven’t had one since I got rid of the old bedframe a few months ago and it’s annoying not having anywhere to put my book or my water and having to ask Taylor to plug in my phone on his side of the bed all the time.

Raskog Assembly

After seeing the Raskog kitchen trolley all over the internet I knew it would be prefect, but actually buying it was a total hassle! For some reason at the Ikea here it was with the full-service furniture, so you have to find an Ikea employee to print out a furniture request for you, then pay for it, then wait for it to be brought out. IDGI. The weirdest part is they didn’t even have one out on display in the showroom anywhere, so if you didn’t ask (and check stock levels online before you went) you’d never even know they had any.

That annoyingness notwithstanding, it was as perfect as I’d hoped (which is good since I didn’t get to look at it before I bought it!). The size & height totally work for the little space next to my bed (the closet is like, RIGHT THERE so I can’t have anything too big) and the colour matches my duvet cover (here used as a bedspread) exactly.

Raskog in Place

Sorry I don’t have a nice picture of it styled and staged all pretty with classy books and fresh flowers. My water bottle & stuffies will have to suffice.

I’ve seen some people online lamenting the fact that you can’t use this trolley as a bar cart because the shelves are too close together to fit liquor bottles, and to that I say… what? The center shelf is height adjustable! I put mine a little higher than center and I could easily fit a fullsize bottle of scotch on the bottom.

Raskog & Scotch

This particular bottle is twelve inches tall, but if you have any taller bottles you could definitely raise the center shelf a little more. Of course, I’m pregnant and I don’t drink scotch in bed (or ever) so my bottom shelf is being used for a much more glorious purpose.

Raskog & Georgie

One other thing from this weekend: on Friday I got the results of my gestational diabetes test from my doctor, and while my blood sugar levels and everything are all normal, my hemoglobin is low. I wasn’t surprised by this at all, I know I don’t eat enough protein or like, green leafy vegetables or whatever. Anyway my doctor put my on iron pills, which I’m not thrilled about since they can cause… bathroom difficulties. The pharmacist told me vitamin C would help me to absorb the iron, and to help inspire & remind me to eat better (or at all really, food is so not interesting to me right now) and take my vitamins I’ve decided to make myself fresh-squeezed orange juice every day. SO AMBITIOUS!

Sunday Breakfast

To help make this dream a reality on Saturday I bought four pounds or oranges and added them to the two-ish pounds of oranges and assorted grapefruits I already had. Then I made juice on Saturday, Sunday and again today, and now I have… zero oranges and zero grapefruits. YIKES.

Georgie & Bear

I hope you all had a nice weekend as well!

Symstagram

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1. Sym herself; 2. rainbow mani (done at a birthday party); 3. her friend’s Boston terrier; 4. baby clothes; 5. some kinda s’mores snack; 6. Dougal dog :3 ; 7-12. back cover pictures from the Sailor Moon mangas; 13. one of Sym’s drawings

25 Weeks

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I’m really happy with the pictures Taylor took this week! Of course I did my hair and makeup so that accounts for some of it but I think my constantly hassling him to take pics of me where I don’t look gross or deformed is bringing out the best in him. I also wanted to get more pics with/of Dougal because I feel like he’s been left out so far!

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My dress is from Forever 21 last summer, I was obsessed with it but it wasn’t on the Canadian website so I had my internet friend in North Carolina buy it and send it to me. I actually only wore it once last year, I think all the colours made me feel silly or something? WHO KNOWS but I’m re-obsessed with it now and I think I’ve worn it three times in the last week.

This week’s new makeup is my Revlon Lip Butter in Raspberry Pie. I still love the Candy Apple one, but after all the compliments I got on how nice I looked in my pink dress a few weeks ago I thought I’d try out some pink lip colour.

25 Weeks of my Face

Yes, when Taylor was processing the pictures he took I took some of my own AGAIN. Please enjoy a million pics of my face.

25 Weeks of Narcissism
25 Weeks of Poor Food Choices25 Weeks of Snooty Italian Soda

My super healthy lunch of a cinnamon bun & San Pellegrino soda. It’s Aranciata Rosa, the blood orange one. I gave one to Sym earlier and she was like, “Hmm, this is sweeter than the regular Aranciata.” I’m raising a pretentious snob you guys (not really).

25 Weeks of Dougal25 Weeks of Kichou25 Weeks of Claire25 Weeks of Georgie

I also took pics with all my fuzzy friends! Georgie and Claire were cool but Kichou and Dougal were NOT into it. Dougal in particular hates when I pick him up.

As much as I didn’t want it to be something I was worried about during pregnancy, I did have some concerns about getting super fat. I blame the media and also the patriarchy because MRD. Now, I don’t have a scale at home (I threw it away, actually) so I don’t know how much I weighed before I got pregnant, but at like, four or five weeks (when I had my first doctor’s appointment) I weighed more than I did at nine months with Sym. It’s fine I’m cool whatever, but I did have some apprehensions.

On the weekend I was trying to figure out how much weight I’d actually gained, and there was a lot of math involved because my doctor’s scale is in kilograms but I still think about weight in pounds. After some subtraction and multiplication I came up with a gain of around 8 kilograms, or almost 20 pounds. I was a little horrified because TWENTY POUNDS AT ONLY FIVE MONTHS???? Not cool, body. I know every pregnancy is different but with Sym I only gained 30 pounds altogether and I thought it would be pretty cool if I could keep my weight gain around the same amount, and amount which I think is totally reasonable.

Later that night I was thinking about it some more and realized I’d mathed it wrong and I’ve actually only gained 3.5 kilograms, or almost 8 pounds. So now not only am I stereotypically worried about gaining weight, I’m also bad at math. THE PATRIARCHY STRIKES AGAIN.

25 Weeks of my Belly

Sorry if this post sounds humble-braggy (or just regular braggy), I try not to be all about weight (I’ve had disordered eating issues in the past) but sometimes it just happens. Anyway it’s really about how I can’t convert kilograms to pounds in my head.

Oh My Glob

Taylor went out to buy his weekly round of comic books today and brought me back my own Lady Rainicorn and Lumpy Space Princess.

OH MY GLOB MELISSA

Woodland Nursery

Back when I first found out I was pregnant I almost immediately started planning out the baby’s room. The very day I told my family, Sym borrowed Taylor’s ipad so we could lie in bed and look at the Ikea baby furniture. It’s a good thing we did too, because Ikea baby furniture is all I’m getting! I looked at a lot of stores and websites and all the cribs were either super ugly, super expensive or some combination thereof. I’m jealous of all my friends in the US who can go to Target or order off Amazon and find cute, affordable things, because that is NOT the case here. After a lot of deliberation I narrowed my choices down to three cribs that I liked: one from Ikea that costs $140, and two that are $1000. GUESS WHICH ONE I SETTLED ON.

The baby’s room is the smallest in the house, so I didn’t want a load of big, dark heavy furniture crowding it. I like the Hensvik crib because it’s cheap but also a little cute, fairly dainty and white, and that the matching changing table converts to a shelf unit when you don’t need it for diapering anymore. The closet in the room is actually the biggest in the house, so I’m just going to get whatever chest of drawers and put it in there, out of the way, and the only other piece of furniture I need is a comfy armchair. Taylor and I tried out a lot and this one is was the most comfortable, and matches nicely with our colour scheme (I’m allowing one piece of dark furniture, since it’s fabric. HIDE THOSE STAINS!).

I knew right away I wanted a semi-woodland theme with browns, greens and a little red (nevermind that’s already the colour scheme in the living room AND the kids’ living room AND the future dining room), but I REALLY got into it when Taylor and I went to Ikea in May and saw the Vandring line. Somehow I managed to contain my delight and only bought three things: the duvet set (to use when the baby is bigger, obviously you can’t use a duvet and a pillow with a baby) and a couple of stuffies. My mom is making us a set of crib bumpers, curtains, a quilt and a pillow for the chair, so I have all that covered as well.


Vandring Hare & Rav soft toys

Of course, before I start filling the room with furniture I need to paint it. Thankfully I already came up with a colour scheme because the choices are overwhelming.

All the Paint Colours
I went with Benjamin Moore colours because that is what the hardware store by my house carries.

Since the room is so small I want a light wall colour, so to narrow down my choices I found the paint colours that I felt came closest to the three browns in my palette and then picked the lightest shade from that group. Here’s what I ended up with:

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l-r: Mellow Pink; Gentle Butterfly; Candle White

I’d basically planned to go with a light beige or cream, and the first colour certainly fits the bill there. I’m surprised by the two shades of pink (and I SWEAR they are different shades!), although I kind of like Mellow Pink. But could I paint my baby daughter’s room pink without feeling like a gender stereotyping asshole? I guess I’ll have to actually go to the store and see how these look NOT on my computer screen to decide.

Mommy Symmie Day

Mommy Symmie Time

Since I had a surprise day off yesterday I had a lot of extra time to spend with Sym.

Sometimes, with work and school and time at her dad’s and her wanting to hang out with her friends more, I feel like I don’t see enough of her. Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about when she was a baby and how we were always together and i really miss it, the three years I spent staying home with her were some of the best years of my life (only the Sym part though, everything else sucked LOL).

Sym at Lunch

To catch up I took her out for a special lunch, just me and her. We had a Japanese feast and talked and joked. She’s so funny and smart and kind, when she isn’t being a surly tween she’s so great to hang around with. Sometimes I still can’t believe that my tiny child has grown into this beautiful young lady.

Mommy Symmie Time

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Weekended

Towel Georgie

I feel like I did so much stuff this weekend but then at the same time I feel like I did nothing. On Saturday Sym and I went to a birthday party for one of the daycare kids, which was fun/funny. She was turning 4, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been to a party full of little kids and their parents- Sym’s parties nowadays are just her friends and a lot of shrieking. I guess I’m going to have to do it all over again though!

Immediately afterwards I dropped Sym at her friend’s birthday party (I assume for some of the aforementioned shrieking) and then met up with two of my sisters to hang out and go for dinner. It was really nice; I hadn’t seen either of them in YEARS. After they left Taylor and I took the dogs to the park and then watch right up to the penultimate episode of the last season of the X-Files before we both got too tired and fell asleep. Before midnight too, we are so cool.

On Sunday I had to go pick up more glitter for banners since I was totally out of a bunch of colours I needed. Of course I had to stop on the way to the craft store and buy some adorable stripey baby pants, and I had to stop on the way back to buy a fuzzy cozy teddy bear baby suit. I literally cannot resist buying cute baby things, IT’S LIKE A DISEASE. I also bought a sweet little impractical creamy-white cardigan and I WANTED to get some amazing white & silver hightop sneakers but Taylor put the kibosh on those (he’s kind of a buzzkill). FYI the pants and the cardigan were both also available in grey so I’m like, breaking out or something.

Baby Wear

After I got all the cute baby shopping out of my system Taylor and I watched the series finale and FINALLY put the X-Files to bed. The finale kind of sucked, tbh, like the last few episodes wrapped up some plot threads (sort of) and then the finale was basically a clips show? All the old characters (even the dead ones) got to come back and do a little expository monolgue complete with flashback clips, and then the ending seemed rushed and unsatisfactory. (If you haven’t seen it I tried not to be to spoilery here, but the show’s been done for ten years so if I was then DEAL WITH IT, I guess.) Anyway now we just have to watch the 2008 movie featuring XHIBIT and you know I’m excited for that.

Now I should be back to work, but in a burst of cleansing synchronicity ALL MY CLIENTS ARE STAYING HOME TODAY. That’s right: SURPRISE LONG WEEKEND. I have a whole glorious day off to work on the half-dozen glitter banners I need to make this week and (hopefully) start going through the closet in what’s going to be the baby’s room. Plus it’s raining. So it’s not really a relaxing day off, but I’ll take what I can get.

Doing Work