Scrapblog

This site is fantastic – all the fun of scrapbooking without the mess! (Though I really do want to try “real” scrapbooking). All the same, check out my first try!

I’ll keep trying!

My last political post?

I kind of resolved (in my head) that I wouldn’t post anything else political and this blog would become purely Luke focused – but having witnessed (possibly) the greatest political decision by any Presidential candidate I thought I would have one last post! well done John McCain! This just might win you the election!

I said back in 2006 that the Republican ticket needed to be McCain/Rice – well this is just about the next best thing!

Not so fond of prunes …

Being an overly nervous first-time-solid-feeder, I was concerned about the “inner workings” of Luke after his particularly voracious devouring of 5 TBSP of rice cereal on Monday. As no signs of rice cereal were forthcoming, I decided to give strained prunes a try.

Here’s a picture of Luke’s unimpressed face the first time he tried something without his favourite beverage (namely breast milk – as that is all he consumer until Sunday, and then the rice cereal is mixed with it).

And here’s a video. I apologize for the lighting (I had the camera set on the table – unaware that the sun was creating such a glare). I went to press stop just as the little guy made the funniest face ever!

We’re going to try sweet potatoes tomorrow! I think he’ll love it. There are some pictures my Mum took today of my brother Julian feeding Luke – I don’t know that much got into Luke but they both seemed to have a good time! I’ll try to get them posted whenever my Mum’s camera and computer start to get along again.

Cairns Family Holiday – Final Installment

Well I did promise I’d post this final post back on the weekend, but here it is – a little delayed …

The first two pictures are for Tom and Sylvia (Nanny and Grandad).

On our way to the cottage, we passed a sign for Bloomfield Gardens – note that it says they’re “Luxury Town Homes”

Who am I to disagree?

(Actually they don’t look as bad in the picture as they did by the side of the road – but they’re teensy tiny pre-fab houses) – not the Bloomfield Gardens the Cairns’ family is used to.

Here’s the view of the lake from our screened in porch (a major plus when you’re in the woods – no bugs!)

We got Luke his own high chair on our way to the cottage too – for my Dad’s sake – we got it at the Great Canadian Superstore in Buffalo, NY (a.k.a. W_l_a_t)

He looks a little stunned in that picture – but he really enjoyed it!

Surprisingly – in neither of the two places we stayed (the Ramada and the cottage) was there a bathtub! And this after we decided against taking Luke’s baby tub because “of course there will be a tub!” Anyways – at least there was a little wash basin we used for Luke:

Here’s another shot of the lake:

Here’s a photo of Luke in post-bath bliss:

Here’s a shot of Tim and Luke enjoying kangaroo for breakfast:

“Look at me – a big boy in a big chair!!”

So that was the Cairns’ family holiday – we had a wonderful time relaxing – enjoying the Falls, the wineries in NY, the moon light over the lake and having time just the three of us before work started up again for everyone (other than Luke)

Luke’s 1/2 bday!

It’s hard to believe but it’s true! Our little boy is 6 months old today!!!

We weighed and measured him – it’s tough to be accurate with a home scale (i.e. I weigh myself then again holding Luke and subtract the difference). It would appear he’s in the 19-19.5 range and about 28.5 inches long. His head is 46.5 cm around – still getting bigger!!

He also got to try “real food” today for his first time – and it was a hit! Here are some pics:

“Mmmmm … rice cereal” (pablum) … 5 tbsp = 1 tbsp cereal + 4 tbsp breastmilk

“Gimme gimme”

“Lukey likes it”

“Pablum-drunk” (people call the expression babies make after nursing “milk drunk” – a kind of dopey look – if you have a baby you know what I’m talking about!)

“Mummy wow! I’m a big kid now!”

Tim fed him – you can hear and watch the feeding here:

He did really well. He ate half of his food! (2.5 tbsp – not bad for a first try!) We’ll keep trying rice cereal this week and try him on a vegetable later on!

An interruption from our holiday posts …

To post a couple funny videos of Luke this evening.

I think the little guy is looking to expand his eating repertoire – he’s hitting the bottle!!

First one end:

Then the other:

Alas, no luck getting anything out. Stay tuned – Luke gets his first taste of rice cereal tomorrow!! It should be messy!

Cairns Family Holiday Part Two

Well …………. after a good sleep for all – even with us all sleeping in the same room, we went out for a yummy breakfast. Tim thought Denny’s was only a few minutes away from the hotel – it turns out that is where it used to be, but now that site is just a parking lot. So we ended up walking down to Clifton Hill to find a Denny’s!

Here’s Luke choosing his meal:

What do you mean I can’t eat here?!?

Alright, I’ll chew on my toy:

So after realizing that the Maid of the Mist, Journey Behind the Falls, and most other attractions at Niagara Falls would be a) lost on Luke and b) raise certain safety concerns, we opted for the Cable Car Ride.

Luke is a little unsure as we set out:

When in doubt, suck a thumb …

The view from the cable car:

Then we went off to the other baby friendly “safe” activity – the Niagara Falls Floral Clock. While it was a clock, there were no flowers. Some small plant-like mini shrubs, but no flowers:

And what else would make a little boy’s day complete other than another look at the Falls (this time from the Observation Deck in our hotel). I’m glad we didn’t pay $5 per person – even though it was spectacular. But so long as you walk into the hotel with confidence, you could probably get away without paying it. Anyways, I digress … here’s Luke:

And last but not least, here’s a video of Luke enjoying his holidays:

Tomorrow I’ll post the final part of our vacation …

Cairns Family Holiday Part One

In the interest on continuing our current relaxing pace, rather than overwhelming ourselves with an overly detailed and extensive summary of our holiday, I’m just going to post for Part One.

Our journey began with Luke working out our trip on a map:

Unfortunately, Tim wasn’t paying attention to Luke’s directions – Luke wanted to go left, Tim wanted to go right:

With a toot of the horn, off we go!

We had booked a city view of the room in Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the city. Luke looked and looked …

Still looking for the city view ….

Oh – wait – never mind! Let’s take a look at the Falls View we got! (well the “good” Falls at least – sorry Americans – we don’t win at much as our current pitiful Olympic performance is demonstrating – but we have the best Falls!!) (Ironically, this was just after Tim and I had been talking about how we didn’t get upgraded like so many people we know!)

Luke absolutely loved standing up at the window and watching the Falls – well in fairness, it was usually the roof of the hotel next door several stories below, but just the same, he loved standing up all by himself!!

One last look before bed …

We’ll continue our trip tomorrow!!

Off on Holidays

We are off on our holidays! so for the next week or so updates will probably not happen! so to keep you all going here are a few Luke pictures!

check back for holiday pictures soon!

Olympics

I have really enjoyed the Olympic swimming – the clip below even got me off my feet and cheering! I never thought swimming would do that! The cheer and the jump off the sofa was almost as big as the European cup final (which really surprised me!)