Yackety yack

When I was a teenager my parents couldn't pry the telephone away from me - I spent hours upon hours upon hours talking to all my friends. It was especially important for me as a teen because we lived in a rural area and I went to a regional high school so I didn't really have any friends who lived within walking distance from me.
Even when I moved to Ottawa, I would spend hours and hours on the phone. There were countless nights I spent the entire night talking away (back in the days when I could just cut class if I was too tired to get up the next day ;)
And suddenly, in the last couple of years, I realize that I don't like talking on the phone any more. Have I just grown to dependent on online chat and email? It's possibly, although in reality I've been online chatting for so long and a lot of those overlapped with the phone years. Is it just that I have so little down time compared to before that I have a hard time talking on the phone because it's just one thing, and if I'm chatting online really I can be chatting with more than one person, watching tv, reading blogs, etc?
I think the latter might be the most accurate theory and I think it's a bit sad that I rarely give anything my full attention anymore - everything is a bit diluted and that sucks. But I'm not sure I have it in me to stop doing it either. But I'm trying lately, so that's a start. ;)

Wordless Wednesday - vacation fun

Dear doctors who work at the clinic

Do you hate being a doctor, or just working at the clinic? Because every single one of you is a crusty ass when dealing with patients (I'm assuming it's not just me and my son).

Because seriously, saying "Oh it's just a light" in an annoyed voice to a 22 month old when he's not fond of a person he met 10 seconds ago sticking a strange implement in his ear is ass-like behaviour. And you getting a .25 second glimpse into my son's throat and then diagnosing strep seems slightly sketchy too - although I will give you the benefit of the doubt on that one.

Seriously annoyed mommy.

(Kiernan will get his first dose of penicillin ever (I think we've done quite well getting to 22 months without needing any antibiotics) after his nap. I'm allergic to penicillin (but just in a rashy way, not swell up and die kind of way) so I'm a bit nervous. The joys.)

Kaboom

My laptop seems to have self destructed. sigh.
It gave enough warning that all photos were backed up, but my 1000s of Apples'n'Oranges emails - not so much. I'm hoping that laptop might give us one or two more breaths to get them out and then off to the shop it goes where fortunately all should be covered by warranty.
How will I survive without my own computer for the most likely millions of weeks they will keep it away from me?
We're leaving on vacation until the weekend and then I'm back at work next week so I'm not sure how much I'll be online. Miss me lots but keep coming back - I have all kinds of BFF things to say (including a post all about the value of expensive hotels) and I may whine and complain about how Kiernan has decided to wake up in the night every night for no apparently reason and not go down for hours.

BFF - the mini update

I've driven approximately 1500 kms in the last four days and am very very sore and tired and zonked but couldn't not leave a quick post, especially after I was claiming I'd be posting the whole time I was gone. ;)

I have lots to say but it's going to have to wait. I met so many fabulously amazing bloggers and had a great time drinking too much, going on a wine tour, out for dinner and on the maid of the mist. Being hung over, not so great ;)

Coming home was great - especially when Kiernan realized I was home (almost shockingly) and gave me the best big hug ever!

I'm taking the easy way out and not doing all the linking and the storytelling now - so instead here is a taste of the weekend via photos:

Blogher pffft - BFF here I come!

Last year I spent the entire weekend of the BlogHer conference feeling horribly jealous that I wasn't taking part.

This year Blogher was even further and I really couldn't justify the trip to San Francisco... but then a couple of Ontario gals decided to have Blog Friends Fest in Niagara Falls for a bunch of us who can't make it. DOABLE!

So we're off! Vicky and I are leaving this morning and will use the opportunity to do some Apples'n'Oranges stuff on the way down and back up. I'm bringing the laptop, camera, and flip so expect to hear from me - this is a blogging thing after all - you can't expect me to go silent for 4 days. I'm going to my people, the ones who understand the never ending need to check email, blog about something and understand it's more relaxing to have your laptop with you everywhere you go than the alternative ;)

vlogger in the making?

I got what I wanted for my bday

so watch out - i may stop using words and just post all kinds of silly videos of my kid ;)




Not his best rendition - but the best I got so far

Kids' museum in photos

We had so much fun at the kids' museum (part of the museum of civilizations) today. The bob the builder exhibit was the best part!





Kiernan felt this slide was too wussy so walked down instead :)

Fun at the farm!

It was a gorgeous day to go to the farm!

Peering at the horses.

This is Kiernan's "I'm having fun face" I swear ;)




Look at the baby cow! No, I don't want it to lick me. Mommy, you do it.

Cows mommy! Cows!

Cow too close! Cow too close!

Petting the goat while it is behind a fence and mommy is holding my hand is ok....

Slides - they win every time ;)

Tomorrow - maybe the children's museum... maybe cosmic... who knows ;)

On vacation!

I'm on vacation until the 28th - YAY! We've got tons of activities planned and I have my camera ready! So unlike all those other people who are all "I'm on vacation so I have no time to blog" I'm all "you're gonna get sick of all the photos I'm going to publish because that may be all I post, but there will be lots of those!" ;)

Stay tuned for tales (aka as photos) of the experimental farm, blog friends fest, parc safari, and lots and lots of Kiernan :)

Matching socks - who would have thought?

My birthday is this Thursday and it kind of crept up on me... crept up as in I only realized my birthday was coming up a few weeks ago, and trust me, in the past, I had WAY more than a few weeks to dwell on my upcoming festivities :)

I always plan/planned my own birthday party - basically because I figure I know what I want best, why let someone else try to figure it out, and very possibly get it all wrong? Same with birthday presents... may as well let people know what I want (and in return I like to be told what people want)

So this year I realized I'm growing up. It's been years since the annual Larapalooza cottage party that invites were sent out for in January. With these parties went the tendency to drink copious amounts of alcohol in honour of my birthday. Instead we started going out for dinner somewhere nice with friends, and having cake afterwards. This year, not even that is going to happen... and I'm totally fine with that.

I'd always heard that as you get older your birthday gets less and less important and I'm seeing just how true that is. I don't feel the need to do anything particularly special - there isn't really a lot of time and it's too difficult to try to figure it out. And I don't need gifts, just for the sake of getting gifts. Unless there is something that screams "LARA" to you, feel free to just wish me happy birthday, or maybe we can go out for dinner some time.

So I started thinking about how I'm growing up - I will after all be 32 in a few days...
Gone are the days when I had no responsibilities, I cut classes and slept all day, and was a rather good partier. Gone are the days when I made an effort to be a quirky dresser - I now feel kind of silly when my socks look like this (although it does still happen on occasion ;)

(not my socks... random online photo that looks like something I would do. I do not own a cat)

I'm looking forward to dinner out with Eric at my favourite Chinese food restaurant this Thursday night. And to heading to Niagara Falls for Blog Friends Fest this weekend (SO EXCITED) and I'm not disappointed at all that there isn't any big happenings for my birthday - and that's kinda weird ;)

car seat stuff

Before Kiernan was born I spent a lot of time agonizing about not having the inclination to do real research on what the best everything I should get was. So, I took the easy way out and went to the specialty shop in town and had a 1.5 hour conversation with a very knowledgeable staff person about the pros and cons of a LOT of different car seats and strollers. In the end I felt very comfortable with our choices.

We chose the Graco 30 lb bucket, since most kids outgrow the 20lb bucket before they turn one and are allowed to be turned front facing. This, we thought, would avoid us having to have one of the mondo car seats facing backwards and leaving the person in the front seat with little to no room. I highly recommend this car seat for all of those reasons btw - being able to transport the bucket with sleeping baby is FAR more convenient than having to get them in and out of the bigger seat - hear that pregnant friends? ;)


What we didn't bank on was Kman being such a tiny guy... by one he hadn't hit 20 lbs, in fact I believe it took him until almost 17 months to hit it. We only switched him out of the bucket when his big pouffy snowsuit wouldn't fit into the straps anymore and now that it's summer he could probably fit back into it again if we wanted him to :)

But all of this is just an introduction to what I really want to talk about - which is that Kiernan, at 22 months, and in his big car seat, still sits rear facing (so ha ha on us since we're still sitting squished in the front seat in front of a big car seat ;). And I feel like I spend a lot of time justifying/defending that decision...

When K was about 13 months old we did a baby show for Apples'n'Oranges and they were doing car seat clinics. I sent Eric over to take part and he came back with enormous amounts of information - most importantly that your child should stay rear facing as long as possible - ideally up to 30 lbs. And they really convinced him that this was what you should be doing, because until a kid weighs 30 lbs they don't have the same strength in their body to withstand the impact of a collision facing forward - facing backwards the seat takes on most of the impact. They also told him that it didn't matter if their feet touched the back seat - it was still much safer that way.

Kiernan is somewhere in the 23-24lb range now - so he's big enough to legally be facing forward. But for his safety, we've chosen to have him continue to sit backwards - although we've agreed that by 2 we'll probably turn him around. What did you do? What would you do? Do you think people question me to justify why they turned their kid around as opposed to thinking we're weird? Do you think I'm being overly sensitive and they're probably just being curious? ;)

Wordless Wednesday - crocodile huntin'

Being crazy funny

This is the kind of stuff I wish I wrote. Seriously, I wish my brain worked like that more often and that b I wrote it down. Like really - maybe I should have written this post instead of letting Eric be the funny one ;) I mean, I was the dumbass, shouldn't I get the credit? :)

Canada Day photos after all

Guess who's a liar liar pants on fire? That's right - Canada Day photos. I took this on my cell phone and really didn't think they'd turn out this well. Look how tiny he is! ;)

Canada Day Photos

Here are the photos I took when we went to Petrie Island for Canada Day





















That's right - nothing folks. Remembered the camera, forgot the memory card. I pouted. And tried to convince myself something can be fun even if you don't get to take photos to remember it by later. But it was hard ;)

Petrie Island on the other hand was very cool and we'll definitely be going back next year!

Strawberry picking

Today is a holiday. On a Tuesday. And don't get me wrong, I love a holiday. But it's weird to have on a Tuesday ;) So I took Monday off. But Eric didn't, so I planned a little mommy and kids outing to pick strawberries. We had a blast! It was so much fun to be out having fun with a group of moms again - made me long for mat leave again. Except it's even more fun because Kiernan was old enough to have fun and participate.

This is my favourite photo of the day :)


But I can't stop there. Here's some more strawberry face.

And some "Kiernan the helper"


Hanging out in a strawberry patch (is it a patch? a field? Whatever it is, fortunately we didn't get the mucky row)


Having fun sitting on random piping waiting for the wagon to come and get us.

Cute shot of feet - is it that the bigger your kids get the smarter you get about dressing your kids for strawberry picking? ;) K was actually fine in his shorts and sandals - but I think I WOULD use boots next time.
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Now... what to do with all those strawberries?!