Saturday, July 30, 2011

This smells like South Africa!

So as of today we are trying to stick to our healthy diet again... We never really stopped following it exactly - we just got a little lax with sticking to the rules. Thanks to this new found commitment to getting slim and healthy I made sure that we got our two servings of fruit in today. We had a banana with breakfast and an orange with our dinner. I cut the orange up into slices because I'm not really a fan of peeling them.

As soon as the knife broke the skin on the first orange and the gorgeous fruity scent tickled my nostrils I thought to myself, "This orange smells like a South African orange". Imagine my surprise when I spun the orange around and actually saw "South Africa - Navel" printed on the teeny little sticker. I don't think I've ever had such a strong reaction to a fruit before. It sent me on quite the little trip down memory lane!

I've never really thought about the dissimilarities of fruit that are grown on different continents. I guess it does make sense though that fruit trees put a little something of the land they grow on - into their fruit. I wonder if there are any studies done of the "continental flavourings" of fruit!?

Countries flavour more than just the fruit they export. Even people tend to have a "flavour".. and NO I'm definitely not condoning cannibalism - ick! This flavour or quirkiness is why immigrants delight in meeting people from the same countries. One of my favorite things about Ontario is the multiculturalism here - I love that so many people from so many different continents/countries/walks of life, are for the most part able to live in harmony!

Wow was that even a tangent - all because an orange smelt like South Africa :)

I think I'll have to end off here with a question for you: What flavouring did your country of origin leave you with?

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Gluten Free brownies :)

Yesterday was another sleepy day, but the little Diva and I did get some baking done before visiting Dadoos and Dada. We went over there for a lovely evening after the hubby got home from work. I loved the spicy dinner but I'm thinking that the Diva's crabby pants today may in part be blamed on my spicy indulgence last night :D Oh well - one half of her heritage is spicy so she'll have to get with the program!!

Back to the baking:

The little Diva sat in her highchair in the kitchen, munching on cheerio's while I got the Gluten Free brownies flung together. I used the El Peto mix and was pleasantly surprised. I'm usually a "from scratch" person so I feel a little iffy about "box" cake mixes. BUUT this one really did deliver. The only issue I has was that the box said to cook the brownies for 20 minutes at 325 degrees. For whatever reason - this temperature and timing did NO cooking whatsoever. I ended up hiking the temperature up to 350 and cooking the brownies for a further 20 minutes which totally did the trick. I hope that the box simply had a misprint and that there isn't anything wrong with my oven - I"ll have to whip up another batch of something yummy to test it I guess!

I iced the brownies with an icing made from icing sugar, lots of cocoa powder and water. I sprinkled walnuts on top of this and we were set. The refrigerated brownies were AWESOME with coffee this morning. Speaking of coffee - I have, for the most part avoided caffeinated coffee and an still surprised by the strength of the cravings I get at times. I just have to smell coffee brewing and my mouth waters - decaf really doesn't quench the craving. Oh well all I can say is thank gawd I'm not addicted to anything stronger than coffee - because if the coffee craving are this bad I'd be sure to be a repeat offender on worse addictions!!

Anywho as per usual I'm pretty beat - The Little Diva had a rather clingy day - so I think I'll call it a night before her toofies have her back up and needing more snuggles. We're looking forward to seeing Granny and Grandpa tomorrow!! Sweet dreams to all!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Sleep is totally overrated - no wait I mean UNDERrated!

As you can imagine from the title to this post - Our household is a wee bit sleep deprived at the moment! It all started last night when I pulled off an almost picture perfect "get the Diva to bed" performance. She was bathed, fed and fast asleep in bed by 9:10pm! The hubby and I watched the latest episode of "True Blood" and thought we'd get to sleep early. What could possibly go wrong?

...

The little Diva woke up at 4am and I fed her. This in itself wasn't hugely out of the ordinary - since she started teething she's been waking up in the early mornings for a snuggle and feed and then she GOES BACK TO SLEEP... This morning though, she decided to mix things up a little and somehow remained WIDE awake through her mid-morning snack. I tried in vain to walk her to sleep and then Daddy gave it a shot. By this time it was 5am and I sent him back to bed hoping he'd get some sleep before the work alarm went off. I spent another hour alternating between walking, rocking, and feeding the little munchkin. There was some pretty crazy thunder and lightening that slowed down around 5:30am and I'm sure that had something to do with her not getting back to sleep.

I eventually did get her snoozing and snuck into bed. The poor hubby was still awake but was able to get in a few more hours of sleep before work. All in all though, we were a pretty chipper group today despite the lack of sleep. The little Diva was her usual happy self for the most part and when she got cranky a teether and a nap eventually fixed the grumpy attitude again.

As can be imagined we really didn't do much today so I'm hoping we all get some sleep tonight so that tomorrow can be a little more adventurous. I'm thinking we need to get the little Diva a sand box/turtle so she can learn a little more about different textures. She's got over her grass phobia and instead of standing on one foot like a flamingo she now sits herself down on the lawn and pets it with both hands. I'm just worried she's going to try taste it - but so far we haven't had to do lawn extraction from her cute little mouth!

We did chitchat to the neighbour a little today while watering the lawn and when she reached out and shook the little Diva's hand I'm happy to report I didn't actually slap her (A few weeks ago I'd have been running backwards before her hand could make contact with ANY part of the little Diva). I mean I did come back inside and wash the Diva's hand but I didn't freak out. Step by slow step I'll ease back on the germaphobia... If the neighbour had been coughing or looked sickly in any way I can guarantee she wouldn't have got close enough to shake a hand.

On that note though - the sleeplessness is starting to catch up with me and I better call it a night.

Sweet dreams to all :)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Sleeping like a baby?!

Whoever it was that coined that phrase, "sleeping like a baby" obviously never spent an entire night watching the average baby sleep! Well ok, let me be more specific - teething babies do not "sleep like a baby". And yes - sleeping babies do look very peaceful; but if said sleep doesn't last for more than a few minutes it really can't be called sleep - can it?! OK, ok this may be the 'sleep deprivation' and 'caffeine depleted' part of my brain talking - I really don't mean to sound like a whiner extraordinaire. I just don't always function too well on fractured sleep and no coffee.

Our poor little Diva is currently dealing with 4 top teeth that are fighting their way out of her gums and it's making her a little cranky come bedtime. The poor little pumpkin is waking up several times a night and really just needs some comforting to get back to sleep. On a whole though she's pretty chipper for someone who is dealing with sharp little pearly whites breaking through their gums! I know I'd probably be a big slobbery, frustrated, bawling mess if I had to deal with teething at my age. I know this phase will pass fast enough and before I know it we'll be packing her off for her first day of school. So I try not to will the cranky parts to pass too quickly because I'm already feeling the need to hit the pause button some days. It truly TERRIFIES me how quickly the days fly by.

The little Diva's vocabulary is growing every day. She spent the better part of today practicing to say "Grampa". It really is too cute. Even the cat's were "Grandpa" today. A few days ago they were Granny. She doesn't however say "granny" - she simply calls her "Guh".

She's pulling herself up against everything and has taken to lunging at people - so I'm sure it will only be a matter of days before she takes a true "step" and then my days will be spent running instead of crawling after her. I marvel everyday how someone so small can have SO MUCH energy. She never sits still and ends up super cranky when I have to tell her "No - you can't jump off the bed" or "No I don't think you should try pull off the cat's tail", or "no you shouldn't nose dive onto the concrete varanda". She has quite the little temper but I'm told this is perfectly normal for her age. She's starting to learn she can communicate and she's big on exploring. To her little mind I'm always telling her "no" and she can't reason with me or explain why it is she NEEDS to nose dive out of my arms and into the garden!!

We had a lovely evening with her Dadoos and Dadda (the hubbies mom and dad) tonight and I FINALLY got her to say "dadoos". It's hilarious because I KNOW that she knows all these amazing words (and she KNOWS that I know) but if I ask her to show off to others and say them she totally clams up and makes me look like a liar! :D I'm assured by the sister-in-law and my brother that ALL kids do this though!!

Anywho I think I need to end there for tonight - I need to do some research and find out if there are any "preemie friendly" mom and tot's groups in my area because the Diva and I definitely need more things to do other than the once weekly swimming lessons!

Sweet dreams or Good morning to all - I'll be back again soon
:D

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

On watering lawns and neighbourhood cars...

To say that our front lawn looks like the Sahara is almost an understatement. The dust patch in the middle of the brown withered grass was getting bigger each time I looked at it. I think there were a few instances where I blinked and actually CAUGHT the patch expanding. It's not that I haven't watered it at all... - really I swear I have. What's worse is that I've probably watered it everyday now for a few weeks. It's just that I tend to do the watering when I have the little Diva in one hand and the hose in the other. She tends to get heavy pretty fast. She does enjoy being outside and getting to help out in the garden though so it's been fun - it just hasn't been that productive.

My focus on the ever expanding desert out front only intensified when my brother pointed out last weekend that my Alberta Spruce (I think that's what he said it was) was thirsty and on the verge of getting crispy. So now you have the background story. I've been mentioning purchasing a sprinkler (that ACTUALLY fits on the hose connector we have out front) to the hubby for a couple of days now but hadn't actually gotten around to picking one up. I was super happy when he came home with one tonight!!

I got it all connected and nicely placed in the middle of the sand patch and then the fun started. I had to inch into the back of the garage past my now larger car (The old one couldn't hold anything more than the Diva's stroller in the trunk!) to turn on the water. I turned the tap all the way on and then the hubby a tad on the hysterical side started yelling - "NOT SO MUCH, TURN IT DOWN - MORE DOWN - MORE DOWN - MORE DOWN!!" I looked up and through the open garage door, past my car and say a GIANT plume of water gracefully watering the lawn, halfway up our tree and over the hubby's car parked on the driveway.

I turned the water down to barely a trickle and even then had to move the sprinkler a little more to the right :) I was in hysterics when I saw just how much I'd "watered" on my first attempt. The spray had showered both the car on our driveway and our neighbours car - thank Gawd our neighbour wasn't still sitting out there because she would have been SOAKED! I also watered the front door of the neighbours on the other side!! All in all an hysterical watering experience.

I left the sprinkler on for a good little while and here's hoping the lawn can be revived..

Until next time - take care :)

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

On Absences and Budgets...

So it's been a while since I've typed a little here, but I'm back! I had my citizenship test this morning and have been madly studying for the last week - hence the hiatus. I know a lot of people say they just read the book once or twice and they're fine but I'm not one to do half a job when it comes to studying. I hate feeling unprepared. It really was a lot of waiting around for a 10-15minutes 20 question multiple choice exam. The examiners check everyone's documents, make sure you can carry a conversation in English and once everyone has been checked you write the exam. I'm pretty sure it went well so I'll check the mail daily and hope that I get an invite for a citizenship ceremony soon!! I am definitely looking forward to taking a more active role as a citizen - especially now that I've studied and understand how the government and voting work. Just think - by next Canada Day I should be Canadian!! I'm thinking a party will definitely be in order :D

The hubby and I are currently working out a budget. I'm not planning to go back to work right after my maternity leave ends so we really need to start planning for when that EI stops coming in!! I'm also starting to think I really need to get some kind of "work from home" gig figured out for when the cheques stop too. It'll have to be an evening and weekends thing... at least until the little Diva gets older. I'm looking forward to this - I need to get back into a workout routine too - all important things that have been a little neglected since the insane summer we had last year.

The Diva is getting more autonomous and I'm ready to get back into making healthier meals and making sure we all take better care of ourselves - in the little moments where she can entertain herself in her playpen. She's teething at the moment though and her 4 top teeth seem to be fighting it out up there so she's a little too clingy for playpen time at the moment. She needs and wants her mommy and as frustrating as her tantrums can be - I absolutely love that I can be the one she needs when she just needs a hug and a neck to hang onto like a lovable little spider monkey.

Here's to making small positive changes every week. I think my first "change for the better" will have to be getting back into a workout routine- so tomorrow I WILL run on the treadmill :)

Sweet dreams till tomorrow - here's to an AWESOME Wednesday filled with all kids of opportunities.