London Fog

A month ago today I was on an 8-hour plane ride home from London England with Mike and Adam after attending my cousin's beautiful wedding and visiting with family.  I had intended on writing about the trip shortly after returning but then things got busy and I kept putting the writing on hold. Now it's all sort of a fog, that 5-day whirlwind trip, but I'll do my best to re-cap.

Needless to say I was nervous traveling overseas with a clingy, curious, wriggly 10-month old baby. It didn't help that Adam had a fever and was throwing up just days before we left. Luckily that all cleared up in time for the trip.  As it turned out, to our relief and delight, the plane rides there and back were relatively straight-forward.  Okay yes, Adam had a meltdown all throughout the safety demo and take-off but then he was snoring (loudly) by the time we were at altitude. That was a relief for everyone on the plane no doubt, and even Mrs. Dagger Eyes sitting beside us eventually relaxed her eyebrows.  I, on the other hand, was stiff as a board having Adam sleep on me for the entire flight.  Looking back I'm sure I could have put him down or passed him to Mike at some point but I was just cringing at the thought of him waking up all the passengers so I simply (or maybe not so simply) stuck it out.  Gold star for mama.  Fortunately on the flight home we made use of the bassinet I reserved with British Airways. 

Lesson #1.  If you can reserve a bassinet for the flight, DO it, then USE it.  

Never mind that the bassinet is too small for a 10-month old baby.  USE IT.  Your body will thank you.

Flight home

Flight to London

Against my family's persistent objections we decided to rent a car which would make getting around with baby and gear much easier.  We rented a car in Melbourne where you also drive on the opposite side of the road but in Australia the steering wheel is at least on the left-hand side.  In London Mike had to get used to right-hand steering on top of driving on the left side, not to mention numerous intimidating roundabouts. He navigated like a champ though, and having the car gave us the convenience and flexibility that is oh so important when you are traveling with a baby.  I was grateful for it on the day of the wedding when we were running to and from hotel, ceremony, and reception with long breaks in between.  

Lesson #2. Don't underestimate the importance of convenience when traveling with a baby.  

It also meant that we could rent a car seat instead of lugging ours with us from Toronto.  

Lesson #3.  Rent or borrow baby gear as much as possible.

We rented the car seat and borrowed a travel crib.  It's questionable whether we really even needed to bring the stroller. It came in handy for his naps on the day of the wedding but for the rest of the trip I just used the baby carrier.  London subways are a nightmare if you can't use stairs.

Leaving Blackhorse Station

On the day of the wedding it was cold but beautifully sunny outside. Yes that's right. Sunny...in London. Oh Sue, you were a very lucky bride!  I mean, aside from scoring an awesome husband of course. The ceremony was at Fanhams Hall in Herfordshire - pure elegance and charm.  The reception was at a Chinese restaurant and they had one of those popular photo booths set up.  So much fun!

Lesson #4.  Every wedding needs a photo booth.  

Lesson #5.  Smile for the camera or else you'll be labeled the grump.  

Yes Adam, we're talking about you.

Once the wedding was over we really had just two days to visit with family and explore the city so we packed in as much as possible.  We went for fish and chips, visited the Tower of London, rode the London Eye, and walked around Oxford Circus.  I even saw Billy Elliot the Musical with my cousins for a girls' night out. The movie had made me cry and the musical did the same.

Lesson #6: Do touristy-things when you're a tourist because heck, why not!

I look like Mary Poppins visiting the London Eye

Adam laughing at the guard's hat

Mike laughing at his own hat

Who's not laughing at this guy's hat?

And finally, I just want to say that after having traveled with Adam to London it was definitely worth the trouble.  He adapted easily to the time change and different faces and settings, and we got to spend a wonderful few days seeing London with family.

Lesson #7:  Traveling with a baby IS possible!

Oh For Juki's Sake!

Sad. All of November come and gone and I didn't even have a chance to write anything new!  It was a busy month, that's for sure.  And Adam spent three of the four weeks sick with some virus.  The incredible part was that the only time he was healthy was during the five days we were in London England for my cousin's wedding (smack in the middle of the month).  And thank Goodness for that because a sick 10-month old would have made the 8-hour flight seem even looonger, I'm sure.  So I am grateful for that but I'll write about London another time.  This post is to celebrate the very satisfying victory where six weeks after posting about my newly-arrived Juki, I finally got it working.  Good grief is right!

When I first opened the Juki I was so intimidated about threading it. I think it took me 10 minutes per thread to make sure I didn't miss any guides or loops.  Now I can honestly shrug my shoulders at having to re-thread the Juki.  That's because I've done it dozens of times over the past few weeks.

Now, to clarify, I didn't spend all of the past six weeks troubleshooting the Juki.  As I said, we were busy with London and nanny interviews (don't get me started) and a long list of other things...but whenever I could find some time during Adam's naps I would attack the Juki. And I always lost.  The thread just kept breaking on me when I used the pedal and I threaded and re-threaded and tri-threaded that thing to death.  I fiddled with the tension, I used the manual wheel. I went crazy.  Every time I got to a point where it looked right with the manual wheel I'd give the pedal and go but the thread would break after about two inches of serging.  Frustration set in.

I started suspecting that my thread was just weak, seeing as I picked the spools up from the bargain bin at Fabricland.  I talked to a few people about serger thread and they said there was nothing special about it.  That threw me off.  Finally I read online from a fellow blogger that the quality of thread was very important for sergers because of all the fast-moving complicated parts.  Worth giving it a try right? 

So the last time I was up visiting my parents I grabbed my mother's bag of old thread spools and found what I thought was decent quality thread (at least better than the discount ones I bought to "test" the Juki).  They were mismatched in colour but I didn't care. I just needed to test out this theory, and besides, different coloured thread would help troubleshoot any tension problems.

Well guess what?  After threading the Juki with the new spools of thread it hummed beautifully on the very first try.  

The winning piece (centre) surrounded by scraps displaying previously failed attempts

 For Juki's sake...it was the thread all along!  Lesson learned? Don't cheap out on thread, it'll cost you hours of frustration.

Thank you Sweet Verbena.

Sweet satisfaction.

Separation Anxiety and Other Unhelpful Terminology

If you are currently pregnant or entered recently entered motherhood then you are probably receiving emails from babycentre.ca.  Actually one of my co-workers whose kids are seven and five are still getting weekly updates on their child's development.

I think the website contains a wealth of useful information but I've also come across some terminology that sounds kind of silly to me.  And in new-mom circles I've heard these terms used often to describe the new phase their baby has entered.  One of the things mothers are often asked is how her new baby is sleeping.  One mother will explain that her baby has been sleeping through the night for months but has recently decided to wake up every hour or two crying.  "Ahhh....it's sleep regression" another mother will nod, knowingly.  Sleep regression? Isn't that just basically saying "Ahhh....she's no longer sleeping well".  You don't need a term for it, do you?  Or is having a label just cuter than saying "Ahhh...it's sleep-not-well".  I am relieved Adam has not entered this phase (yet).

"Somebody pick me up already!"

How about Separation Anxiety?  Now that is a phase Adam entered three weeks ago.  It's funny when I tell people that Adam has become very clingy and cries when I leave his side.  "Oh don't worry, it's just separation anxiety," they reply.  Well, yes I know, I just told you as much. Explaining that he's uneasy about being apart from me is not new information.  It's about as helpful as telling an eczema sufferer that she has dermatitis.  Dermatitis: an inflammatory skin condition.

They say separation anxiety strikes around nine months which is dead on for Adam, although he experienced something similar around seven months for a few weeks.  That was fun.  Last night I was exhausted after another day of entertaining and soothing a clingy baby joined at my hip, all the while trying get a few things done....like go to a doctor's appointment, pick up some supplies from the sewing store, make and eat food, clean sticky toys.  But then around Adam's bedtime I was holding him up to play with the buttons on our thermostat and he turned to me, cooed, and gave me a big wet kiss.  I've been teaching him how to blow kisses for about two weeks and he's great at pursing his lips like a fish and smacking them loudly.  It's adorable. But this time he was leaning in to actually give me a kiss on my nose.  He did it several times in a row as if to say "Mama I love you" or "Mama your nose looks delicious".  It was the sweetest thing in the world.

The Art of Juki

I finally cracked open the box and got out my new  Juki today.  That's right, the time has finally come for me to own a serger!  I am so excited!  You wouldn't have known it if you had seen the box lying by the front door unopened for about a eight days.  The week when it arrived was somehow filled with activities and involved a lot of rushing here or there (although for the life of me I can't remember what all the fuss was about now)  I was forced to neglect my Juki until I could clear space in the sewing room which I promptly did yesterday after completing Adam's Halloween costume.  Actually I had a small window to open the Juki last week before Adam woke up from his nap so I tore open the box....only to find a smaller box (pictured above) inside.  Doh.  Then Adam woke up. 

I spent a bit of time online reading about different sergers before I settled on the Juki MO-654DE.  From what I've read it's a workhorse, small but powerful with quite a number of features.  Here's another detailed review of it.  The choice was between this and the Brother 1034D which is more affordable and known for being very user friendly.  Ultimately I thought the Juki would take me further in my sewing and wanted to put in the investment.  I searched online for deals, sales, coupons, etc.  Didn't find much other than full-price models which run several hundreds of dollars.  I finally settled on buying a store model on eBay (new but opened from box for display purposes) which was being sold at a discount.  Of course, when I was presented with the C.O.D (collect on delivery) charges it was like a slap to the face.  I've never seen a C.O.D for that amount. It basically wiped away the savings for buying a store model.  Although I didn't really have any other option since all other Juki's I found were also being sold from the U.S. and would have had just as high a collection fee.   There may have been one or two older Juki models being sold for a bargain in Canada second-hand but since I don't know anything about sergers [yet] I didn't want to risk buying a dud (and not even realizing for months while I tampered with it).

I've gotten as far as removing it from its packaging and drooling over it.  Now I just need to read through the manuals before I start so I don't do something foolish and muck it all up.  It supposedly came already threaded and ready to go but I should flip through the manual first just as a precaution.

English anywhere?

Yay, at least some English on these pages

Perhaps I'll be doing more skimming than reading...

Babysaurus Rex Part Two: The Torso

Aside from making the semi-successful pumpkin granola this weekend I also finished off Adam's dinosaur costume.  Last week I started with the head. Then, after three attempts at the inner lining I finally got something that fit properly around his torso.  I mostly sew during Adam's naps and this means I can't try things on him as I go along.  I try to use some of his shirts as guidelines and sketch up pseudo-patterns to follow but it's not really the same as having a physical model to try it on.  However once I got the sizing down the rest was just a lot of fun.  

I wanted a round, stuffed belly for the dinosaur as well as a stuffed tail and spikes all down the back.  I debated for a while about where to put the opening for the torso and didn't like the idea of a zipper running through his belly or interfering with the scaly spine.  In the end Velcro did the trick and I used it along one side of the torso and shoulder strap to secure the costume together.  Velcro is certainly simpler than installing a zipper and I should have thought of that from the start!

Scrap fabric for inner lining

Velcro closure along the side

Orange felt for the spikes

Tonight Mike helped try the costume on Adam and check the fit.  Halloween is gonna be awesome!

"Raaargh!"

Thanksgiving Granola with Pumpkin

Happy Turkey Day everyone!  The Thanksgiving long weekend always means a traditional turkey dinner with Mike's family and a very non-traditional feast with my family.  But good food is good food and I'm very grateful for it all.  In fact, I am quite happy to have the mix because otherwise the second dinner would just be a rerun airing too soon after the show.

My family celebrates Thanksgiving and Christmas in true Chinese fashion - with a potpourri of your favourite dishes (all delectable but in no way related) and enough food to pack lunches for a week.   On Saturday night my aunt made turkey for her first time.  I would have never guessed it.  The turkey was yummy...as were the grilled vegetables with mustard dressing, the crispy shrimp pancakes, the smoked salmon with red onion, my mom's signature steamed sticky rice with dried shrimp and Chinese sausage.  And just when I started to dream of elastic waistbands my aunt handed me a steaming bowl of pho with beef brisket and coriander.  Heaven.

Now for the traditional.  I never had a real traditional Thanksgiving dinner until meeting Mike.  His mother makes wonderful turkey and in just a fraction of the regular time because of their convection roast oven.   For the 14-15 lb turkey we had last night it took less than 3 1/2 hours in the oven.  I always enjoy the turkey, the stuffing, the turnips and mashed potatoes.  Dill pickles and cranberry sauce add a pop of colour and flavour.  And then dessert.  Mmm pumpkin pie. My very first slice of pumpkin pie ever must have been made by Mike's grandmother Joan.  Her pies are superb, mostly because of the incredibly flaky pastry.  Last night's pumpkin pie had a pretty braided crust and was delicious as always.  Lucky us - we got to take the other half home.

The only baking I got around to this long weekend was a pumpkin granola using a recipe from Looneyspoons, my go-to book for cooking these days.  It seemed appropriate for autumn.  Unfortunately the end product didn't quite live up to what I had envisioned after smelling the pre-bake mixture.

I didn't follow the recipe to a tee...yes, perhaps that's why it didn't turn out properly but I swear I thought it was close enough.  I figured I couldn't really go wrong with this mix of ingredients: rolled oats, shredded coconut, cinnamon, almonds, pistachios, raisins, ground flaxseed, honey, butter, mashed pumpkin, and vanilla.  

unsalted pistachios

Actually the recipe called for almonds or pistachios but I used both and just made sure the combined amount came out to what was specified in the recipe.  I didn't have chocolate chips on me, added pepitas (pumpkin seed) which weren't called for...and surprisingly I couldn't get dried cranberries at the grocery store so I substituted with raisins instead.  See? No major changes.

pepitas

The recipe specifically says not to use pumpkin pie filling but canned mash pumpkin so this is the kind I picked up from the baking aisle.   I used a third of a cup with honey, vanilla, and melted butter to create the ooey-gluey goodness which should have held the granola together.

Next step: mix, mix, mix!

While the oven was preheating I remembered I still needed parchment paper so I ran out to the corner store but found only aluminum foil or wax paper on the shelf.  Wax paper...parchment paper, same thing right? I grabbed the wax paper and headed home. Mike was skeptical.  I was getting out the baking dish when Mike read aloud from a Googled webpage that people who have used wax paper instead of parchment paper were often met with a burning smell halfway through baking their cookies.  Ok, I was convinced...better stick with the aluminum foil.

After 25 min in the oven at 350 degF the granola smelled divine thanks to the coconut, pumpkin and cinnamon.  And the granola actually tasted quite good but the main issue I had with it was the texture.  I was hoping for something crisp...brittle almost.  Instead it didn't hold together very well and felt a tad on the sweaty side.  Clearly there was a problem with my ratios of fruits to nuts to oats.  Or was it the missing chocolate which would have melted throughout the granola? Or did it not finish cooling before I sliced into it?  Too many variables.  Now I'll actually have to go back and follow the exact original recipe to find out where I went wrong.  I'll be sure to share the secret...but in the meantime let me just pop a few more of these granola crumbs :)

Babysaurus Rex Part One: The Head

Halloween is just around the corner and this year we are playing dressup!  Two years ago Mike and I attended a terrific costume party as Maverick and Generic Flight Attendant (guess who I was).  How funny was it when the host came out dressed in the same Top Gun outfit?  Looks like one of them had to be Goose instead.

Last year we wanted to get dressed up but I had trouble thinking up a good costume for my 7-month pregnant body.  I Googled a bunch of costumes for pregnant women but just wasn't in the mood to paint my tummy a pumpkin or a basketball....or fish bowl...or bowling ball. You get the picture.  We ended up just carving a Frankenstorm pumpkin and handing out candy to children in the rain.  No costumes.  Just nice, loose sweat pants with elastic waist bands - ohhh yea.

The really great part about handing out candy last year was that we got to see just how many children there are in our neighbourhood!  I was shocked. We ran out of candy waaay before 8pm and I'm sure we must have had at least 60 kids, rain and all.  I had no idea!  Now that I'm on maternity leave I'm getting to know the children in the neighbourhood and regularly see groups of them at the splash pad down the block (or at least I did in the summer).  It's great to know Adam will have lots of children around him as he grows up.  

We've decided that even though he won't understand what's going on yet, Adam is going to participate in Halloween fun this year.  He's going to get dressed up and sit by the door and "help" hand out candy. What is he going to be, you ask?  A Babysaurus Rex!

I got the idea from this site - now isn't the "fuzzy dinosaur" costume just adorable??  But paying $70+ for it at Pottery Barn Kids is much less than adorable so I'm going to make him one instead.  Yup...I paid a visit to Len's Mills and raided the scrap bin for fleece.  I would have preferred green but blue was on sale.  I'm sure a blue dinosaur is every bit as believable as a purple one, right Barney?

I've only finished the head so far but it's a pretty big accomplishment.  I modeled the inner lining after a hood on Adam's zippy.  I knew I wanted the head to be puffy so I sketched the outer shell to be roomier than the lining, creating a big pocket for batting.   After attaching teeth and spikes I was ready for stuffing - the fun part, right?  Actually it hadn't occurred to me (though it should have) that stuffing the pocket would turn it into a big awkward ball rather than a helmet-shaped dinosaur head!  There was no way it was fitting on Adam's head.  I also realized it only made sense to stuff the top portion of the head, not the part that sits at the back of where Adam's head would go.  Oh well, you learn by doing.

I ended up having to tack down a whole bunch of spots, essentially pinning together the inner lining to the outer shell.  This seemed to help shape the head back into a nice helmet-shape.  I'm eager to try the finished head on Adam but don't think it's a good enough excuse to wake him up so I'll leave it til morning.  On to the torso and tail - hooray!

Nine Months In, Nine Months Out

It took only 38 weeks to grow such a beautiful little person in my belly...and when another 38 weeks flew by that eager little person started to crawl for the first time.  What an incredible journey.

When I look at Adam's monthly photos I am taken aback by how much he has changed. Was he really so pudgy at two months?  And check out 3-4 months when he lost his hair - now that was an awkward phase.  I love month 7.  I wish I could remember what the joke was.

Adam got to celebrate nine months with good friends. No no, it wasn't a planned party...or at least, not a planned birthday party (I'm not that silly to celebrate nine months with cake).  It was however a planned slumber party, albeit probably the shortest one these kids will ever have.  It was only twelve hours altogether including sleep time but we were still delighted to have Brigitte and her family crash at our place on their way from Ottawa to Vineland.  And the babies were delighted to be reunited.

"Oh good, it fits!