4 months old

Oh dear. The curse of the second born. Mummy has been bad at updating the blog. So at her 4 month well baby Tabitha weighed 16.06 lbs and was 24 inches long. She is now almost rolling over - but only on our bathmat and no where else. She has become interested in her toes and is quite good at manipulating objects with her new found hand use. She has been trying out the exersaucer and quite enjoys it. Her newest thing is pulling on Mummy's hair and trying to put it in her mouth. She may have started on the never ending teething bandwagon.

2 months old

Tabitha now weighs 13lbs 2 ounces and is 24 inches long.

6 weeks old - final visit with midwives

Tabitha is now 11.5 lbs. She is 56 cm long. She is growing well and has started smiling at people. Went to lactation consultant re thrush and overactive letdown. Have some tips and will do gentian violet. Much chubbier than Finn - many chins.

4 weeks old

Tabitha is now 10.5 lbs. Breastfeeding is going well and Finn is back from visiting his Nana and Papa. Tabitha sleeps well but only if on Mummy or Daddy. Hope to work on this. Seems like she will may be like Finn - needs help to get to sleep.

10 days post partum

Tabitha is now 8 lbs 7 oz. Her cord has fallen off.

Introducing Tabitha Jeanette

Here is her first blog post. Tabitha was born on August 16 at 3:38 am, minutes after I called the midwives. Zoe and I managed to do it by ourselves and the paramedics showed up five minutes later. Thankfully we were planning a home birth.

For the record, Dad's first hand account:

Zoe woke me to get the bed changed at around 2:30. It took a long time and two tries to get it done properly (ie the "to remain clean" bottom and top sheets covered by a couple shower curtains and some thrift store "to get very dirty and thrown out" sheets) - Zoe insightfully and acidly suggested that it might be easier if I turned on a light - it was. By 3:00 we were back in bed and I was listening to her contractions. The two I witnessed seemed close together and intense, so I suggested timing them. I timed two: 1:30 long, 4:30 apart and we decided to call the midwife, Hedieh. As I left to get the phone, Zoe's water broke and I heard her calling me over the dishwasher noise while I was on the phone. I got back upstairs to see a head... the baby's head. Hedieh told me to call 911 and I did. While on the phone with ambulance dispatch, Zoe and I managed to deliver the baby (Zoe did the delivering, I did the catching - one-handed, but really more a sliding to the bed than an actual catch). I had read up a bit on this stuff and tried to diligently do things right like check for the cord around the babies neck before she comes out all the way. The dispatch was reassuring, but not very helpful: "try to get the mother on her back" - um no, not with a baby head sticking out. She had to have asked me "how far along is she?" four times before I realized she was asking about gestation not about dilation - I must have sounded hysterical (no, never) saying "There's a head sticking out!" more emphatically each time, before she then asked "when is the baby due?"

Rumours persist that I may have dropped the phone on her, but there is no physical evidence to back it up. I got Tabitha wrapped up in a towel, told the dispatcher that we would no longer be needing an ambulance and was told that they should be outside... So I let them in. Paramedics woke Finn up, who was maybe a little worried, but easily delighted by the ambulance complete with flashing lights parked outside. Midwives showed up five minutes later and the rest was pretty routine. We impressed the paramedics with our vast and ready supply of towels and by the fact that our bed wasn't ruined. We were also, the only people that crew had seen to have delivered at home and not gone to the hospital.

Sunday morning - before we all had a nap for a couple hours.
Day 3 - Finn's first solo hold (and only so far).

Day 5 - back up to her birth weight and steadily gaining...

Regained birthweight

Tabitha is now back to 8 lbs.

July Catch Up

We've had a busy summer. Here are a few photos.

First our visit form our world-wise (weary?) traveller Catherine on a brief visit to Canada between leaving Uganda and moving to China.
Nancy and Luther tagged along for the trip. Finn and Luther compared curls and cuteness and played very nicely together.

Andrew and Finn joined the cousins at the Toronto Zoo for a day of fun and no napping.

Who wants to see the adults anyway?

Hey This is Our Neighbourhood - who knew?

"The Ward" named as one of top 8 best old neighbourhoods.

Dinner Antics

Zoe had her yoga class tonight, so Finn and I finished up dinner together. He's often a bit of a pain as meals get close to the end. We were having fajitas so there was all kinds of things on the table. I left the room as he was finishing his food to get wash up stuff, yellow plums for "fruit" (the course that follows the main dinner course) and fill the sink to wash some dishes. Finn was a bit loud and I ignored him, then very quiet, which must not be ignored. I returned to find him finished his dinner and quietly occupied licking the cheese grater!?!?!?!! Luckily nothing was grated...

Bedtime ***Warning*** May Contain Too Much Information

Finn has been lately calling me into his room early in the evening some nights - usually I think he was asleep or almost and woke up. He often complains about sounds - dogs, trains, buzzing noises and wants his rain sound on (a white noise thing).

I just got called back in tonight, about 10 minutes after I left. Tonight he wanted me to smell his "sausage fart" - he asked if I could bring something in to get rid of the smell. It was pretty stinky. I explained that we have a ceiling fan in his room for just such an eventuality and that it would blow away any and all fart smells (given time) that he could produce.

Finn's 3rd Birthday

We're a bit behind here (again). So I'm back dating this one!

Here are a couple of photos of Finn's 3rd Birthday party - a nice, quiet-ish affair. Family and only one friend who could make it (apparently a lot of people are still having weddings on Saturdays in July!) But it was just as well because two three year olds make a house seem pretty small on a rainy day, nevermind six...

Finn is still a big fan of cake.

Canada Day

We spent a relaxed Canada Day at Riverside Park. Thanks to the Rotary club, we enjoyed a petting zoo, a barbecue and Finn's first pony ride. There were some tears in the line when older kids were weighed and some were told that they were too heavy for the ponies! We thought that Finn was very brave to go with the strangers and be put up on the pony with us out of sight at the far end of the fence. Finn and I later decided that his pony must be named Butterscotch. Look how delighted he is. Unfortunately, I don't think we have room for a pony in the garage.

Church Bazaar

This picture might look familiar. Finn was somewhat better at driving and steering this time. His preference for pink motorcycles over blue however remains.

Finn also tried other rides this year. Here he is bouncing in an inflatable with our neighbour's grand kids.

Alone on a ferris wheel. The boy is much bolder and braver than certainly his father was at the same age... not that I remember.


A fun spill at the bottom of the GIANT slide. Thanks to Lucas who helped Finn go up and slide down (and didn't fall on him at the bottom!). We love this church bazaar - right around the corner with free rides for the little kids. We bought some raffle tickets to support the cause, but sadly didn't get lucky to the tune of a side of beef...

Summer fun

Nana and Finn pretend to put out a fire at the "Early Years Centre" while Daddy and Poppa paint at home.

Finn and his best friend Aria playing at the park. They have a shared love of screaming and running around. Sometimes trying for Mummys!

Spoons on noses. What for? Why not!

Mummy and Daddy's day

For both Mother's Day and Father's Day Cake was the big draw. Daddy's day was a Martha Stewart inside out strawberry ice cream cake.

Mummy's Day featured a vanilla and caramel ice cream cake with dulce de leche centre. Yummy!

Finn's ideal family

As heard at the breakfast table:

"If you had 4 kids you could feed them pancakes and pizza and cake and yogurt. Mmmm that sounds yummy"

Pee on a tree

Today, for the first time, Finn peed on a tree. Mummy is glad he was wearing rain boots. She really needs a tutorial. This is something Daddy's should be teaching their sons - no?

Catch-up photos part 3

Easter at Nana and Papa's. The highlight: Chocolate eggs!

Meeting cousin Rishika for the first time. He was somewhat interested.....

Feeding the miniature ponies that live around the corner from Nana and Papa's.

Finn's 4th year at College Royal (the first time was in utero). He loved this balloon so much. In fact the shriveled remains still occasionally chase him around the house.

Checking out the piglets at College Royal.

Catch-up photos part 2

Maple sap - it's boiled alot before being sold as syrup - right? Finn and family ate their weight in pancakes that day

Finn in his "big-boy" bed. The transition was surprisingly easy - and so far no midnight visitors to our room - in fact he is reticent to actually leave his bed even in the morning!

Finn discovers the art of mixology.

Some quality boy -bonding time

"Hey - what are you looking at" - Finn is officially potty trained. Of course this involves underwear on the head.

Catch-up photos part 1

We are all sooo pleased to be near this snake!

Toboganning Xmas day on the hill the snowplow made.

Reading with Uncle Stephen, Ishani and Samarra. Xmas in Chelsea.

The saggy-baggy kangaroo. Complete with Joey in the pouch.

Visit from Luther. In ball tent playing nice.

Musical genius?

Whenever I ask Finn which instrument he wants to learn to play he always says "guitar". He has a ways to go. Size-wise at least.

Yikes

Oh Dear. It's been far too long since we posted. I guess you could say life got in the way but really that would just be an excuse. It seem that posts dried up as soon as we conceived this latest one. That's right. Number 2 is on the way (that sounds rather rude). So instead of trying to back date all my posts and remember what we have been doing for the last 6 months I will post an assortment of cute photos and some posts I wrote but never posted. I will then try to keep this thing more up-to-date in case anyone is still actually looking at it. So here goes!

Money

This evening after bath Finn "stole" Andrew's pj's. He then demanded $5.00 for their safe return. Andrew complied and after accepting his money Finn said he was going to put it in his money grinder. Is this something like his coffee and milkshake grinder? What on earth does he think money actually is? Strange little munchkin.