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Baby

I hope all you Moms out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  Mine was … well… another Sunday.  I should clarify, I was woken to J and his Rainbow Book he made at school.  It was beautiful, he actually drew flowers for me.  And he sang me a wonderful rainbow song, twice.  My day started out great, it just seemed to pitter out after that.  So, to give myself a little treat, I bought a new magazine today.  It just caught my eye, not only for the name, but the delicious photo on the front.

I rarely buy a magazine for the first time without flipping the pages, but his one I had to have, at least once.  Anna Magazine is a Canadian production.  A woman in Winnipeg, started it in her home.  It is a quarterly magazine and is in it’s second year.  This issue is issue number six, so it is still very new.  My personal review is that it has potential to be great.  It is reminiscent of Donna Hay magazines, which I love.  The photos are fabulous and the recipes are divine.  I just found that it was lacking a little in content.  I do appreciate the mostly Winnipeg advertisements, but like a few other Canadian magazines, those ads are location specific.  In other words, if you aren’t visiting Winnipeg, they won’t help you.  The magazine is divided into sections and it took me a few sections to realize that there was a title page and then another page following that would have a little blurb about that title.  Once I figured that out it wasn’t too bad, but a little distracting.  It was fresh and clean looking, but for $8 (the same price as Donna Hay’s magazine) I would like just a little more.

 J and I had “some work to do today” as he kept telling me over and over again.  His school has a collections fair every year for the Junior and Senior Kindergarten Kids.  J chose to collect keys.  And by collecting, he asked his Dad and I for keys and I found a few and his Dad brought a box home from work.  The box sat on the island for two weeks.  J would take out the keys, sort them, show them to friends but we did not put it all together on display.  Until today.  The fair is tomorrow.  Yes, I think it is safe to say I procrastinate a little.  I didn’t mean to, it just happens sometimes when I am doing too many things.  But, Friday I made a list of things to finish. And today with the collection we crossed off the last thing.   J glued each and every key on that piece of wood.  They are separated by silver and gold colours and by the categories Work, Home and Car.  J wrote each word on a sticker and we stuck them on the wood in between the silver and gold keys.  I was quite proud of him as he couldn’t even write one letter when he started school.  He is very proud of his collection, so don’t be surprised if you see another photo from the fair tomorrow.

 And little Miss Apple.  Well.  She is giving me a little bit of a hard time with sleep right now.  You see it is all my fault.  There were times that I was so exhausted that once J was in bed, I would let Hubby take her downstairs where he would put her to sleep in front of the tv.  That is just the wrong thing to do.  By six months J had his little routine and was in bed by seven every night.  Apple is now eight months and went from going to bed at seven to almost nine most nights.  I wanted to put a stop to this a while ago, but again I was too tired to worry.  Now, I need to break this habit and it is wearing me down.

I know there is only another month and a bit of school, so hopefully things will work out for good this summer but, right now, Apple is still having two naps most days.  But, I think she only needs one.   Her wake times are going from four hour stretches to five or six hour stretches.  Unfortunately she falls asleep around 9:30-10am and I have to wake her up at 10:30am to pick up J from school.  This leaves her with not enough sleep to make it to bedtime.  Thus, today she had a catnap at 3:50pm.  I woke her up after 20min and even put her in the playpen with us in the family room so she wouldn’t get too comfy.  But she didn’t go back to bed until 9:15pm.  This makes for a very long day for me.  Combine that with the fact that she doesn’t want to go to sleep for me, her mother, makes it a little tough.  But, in a week and a bit I am going to be flying to Regina in the evening and I need to be able to soothe my baby to sleep!  Not that I expect a magic answer here, but I thought I would share my nap/sleep woes with you all because you just never know who might have a great suggestion.

And with that said, it is now almost 10pm, my bedtime, so I bid you all good night and hope that tomorrow brings me one step closer to getting Apple in bed a bit earlier.

7 comments
Categories: About Me, Baby, Reading

A few Shout-Outs

It is not so often that we read of good customer service. Usually we read or write rants about how badly we were treated. This is why today, I feel like I have to make a few mentions of awesome service. So good that I just want to buy more from them.

The first one is for Apple. I have heard so many people talk about their Apple products with such love over the years, that I thought it was a big joke. I was a die-hard PC person until last year. My Littlest Sister let me play on her MacBook, and I got hooked. I did a little research, Hubby did a little research and viola, I was a proud owner of a MacBook myself.

When I got my new computer, Apple was releasing a new OS, which was not on my computer, but I qualified for an upgrade. All I had to do was fax off a requisition and voila it would appear in my snail mailbox. Well, Hubby faxed it for me, got a confirmation and we began to wait. And wait… and wait…. I figured it was never coming but I wanted my copy before I called. When Hubby pulled it out of his bag he realized that the confirmation was exactly the opposite, it was a printout saying it hadn’t gone through. My time was up, I wasn’t getting my new OS.

One day while I was catching up on all the little things around here I decided to call Apple. Thinking I would be on hold for ever I waited until My little Apple was napping. Well, within minutes I was talking to a very nice help desk agent. I told her what happened, figuring I would have to fax her a copy of the fax and she said, “Sure thing , we will mail that off to you today.” I was shocked. Never have I had such wonderful, no questions asked service. I had an email confirming the shipment within an hour and another email the day after it arrived. Now, I know exactly why everyone has raved about this company for so long. I am sure there are horror stories to tell, but I haven’t heard any yet. So, Apple. Today I salute you.

The second shout-out I have is for the store Milkface.   I needed a new carrier for Apple.  The one I had from when J was a baby was ok for J because I only carried him once every few days in it and I only did it for three months.  He was so big we had to switch to a backpack way earlier than Apple.   I carry Apple at least twice a day around the house as well as at friends and outside.  So my carrier with one strap that went over my shoulder was really starting to give me kinks in my neck.

I did a little research and decided to visit the Milkface store here in Ottawa.  They have a wonderful website and an even cuter store.  The two women who took care of me and Hubby and Apple and J were just wonderful.  It is so rare to get such great personal service these days that there was no way I was leaving without a carrier.  I found one that I truly love and even Hubby thinks he might use it.  Apple can face in, out, sit on my hip and on my back.  It is good up until 55lbs, which is what J weighs, so I don’t think I will be using it that long but, it is good to know.

They also have these cute reusable bags (see photo above) and I got some wonderful non-lanolin cream for my chest as it has been giving me trouble.  So, Ladies at Milkface, today I also salute you. Thanks for the wonderful service, I will be back.

13 comments
Categories: Baby, Misc., Technology, Uncategorized

Wearing Apple

I found this new (to me) site during the 5 Minutes for Mom Blog Party called Adventures in Babywearing. I was instantly drawn to it as I seem to wear Apple for a better part of the day. Whether it is to walk to school (when the roads are clear), to vacuum or to go to the Sugar Bush, Apple seems to be strapped to my body. I do have a sling, but for the most part I just use the carrier. I did the same for J, but somehow I wore him more for shopping trips or walk abouts downtown. Remembering this actually makes me feel sad for Apple that she hasn’t seen as much of our wonderful city as J did, but with him in school it just isn’t possible.

They are putting together a blogroll of babywearing Moms, so I thought I would sign up. Since this may just be the last time I get to wear one of my kids around the house all the time, I am going to milk it. If you are a babywearing Mom stop by and check them out.

11 comments
Categories: Baby