Unfortunate Incident

If you're currently eating, you may want to save this one for later.

This is one of the things that adds flavour to parenting. One of the things that people who don't have kids never have to deal with (unless you're at University, then all bets are off). One of those things that you can probably look back on and laugh at, but at the time is so horrifying that you can barely keep from crying. 

Here it is...

I decided to give Fiona a bath before bed to wash off the chlorine from earlier. Fiona loves to poo in the bath, and it's not ideal, but not a major disaster. Today, I saw those telltale bubbles rising and spied a tiny little poo, so I pulled her out, rinsed her off, and called it good. I laid her down on the changing mat on the floor so she could squirm around and dry off while I dealt with the bath. I came back, and found a clean, dry, happy baby wriggling around. I turned my back for a very short time to get her pyjamas out, and when I turned back, to my horror, I found that the bath poo had not been the end of it. I won't go into details, but if you imagine a hippo wallowing in mud, you'll have a pretty good idea of the situation.

So I scooped the bulk up, and left to deposit it in the toilet. Unfortunately, due to the insubstantial quality of the product, some missed slightly and landed on the floor. And I'm sorry to say that despite my best efforts, Brodie got it. 

So then I ran a second bath... Here she is. 

I don't think she is sorry... 

And during all this, where was Ben? Running around cleaning up poo? Lending moral support even? No. His projector came today so he was in the basement, and apparently shrieks of horror and cries for help can't be heard down there...

Watercousins!

Today Ben had a day off work, so the three of us met up with Cathy, Ryan, Emily, Andrew, and their friend Ethan to go swimming at the Y, where Cathy works. Fiona loves to splash around in the water and float on her back. 

Fiona is particularly fascinated with Ryan's goggles. It's very funny to watch. She examines them closely, then slowly reaches out and touches them. Before long she's pulling on them and Ryan is in danger of losing an eye!

Credit goes to Aunty Cathy for the pictures!

Fiona and Daddy

Ryan and Andrew

Fiona loves to splash. Occasionally she gets too excited and splashes herself. She doesn't like that so much.

But mostly she just had lots of fun!

Emily, Ben, Fiona, and Ryan

Thanks for the fun time you guys! Next time we'll have to try to sneak Brodie in... he'd love it!

That doesn't make any sense! #1

Often, I find myself bamboozled by the world. Things happen, and I just don't understand how someone could think this was a good idea. So this will be the first post in my 'that doesn't make any sense!' series.

So babies don't stay the same size for long. Recently Fiona has grown, and no longer fits into most of her pyjamas, or her sleep bags. I love the sleep bags. They keep her warm without me worrying about her getting tangled up in a blanket.

So last week we got all bundled up, and ventured out on the train to the mall to buy some bigger pyjamas and bags. 

We got to the shop that sells them, and the extra helpful sales assistant asked if he could help us. I told him I needed 9 month plus sized sleep bags. He informed me that they only make them in size 0-9 months. So, what, babies older than that don't get cold? Ok... so where are the fleece pyjamas?

This is where it gets nonsensical. He tells me... all the fleece ones are on clearance in the back. Ok... initially, I was happy with this... I LOVE a bargain. But, there were no 9 month or more sized pyjamas. None. Not a single one. 

Enter sales assistant. "Did you find everything you were looking for?"

Me: "Well, no... are these really all the fleece pyjamas you have?"

Sales assistant: "Yes... we had to make room for our spring stock, and they get picked over pretty fast"

Ok, hold up. What? It's spring? I'm sorry, I must be confused. How is it spring? It's the middle of January! It literally hasn't been above freezing ALL MONTH! If it doen't hit 32F (0C) by Saturday it will officially be the second month in HISTORY to not be above freezing all month. And you're telling me it's SPRING?! No wonder they're picked over, we're living in a frozen tundra and you're only selling lightweight cotton pyjamas! THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!

Of course, I am not very confrontational, and only thought these words. Out loud I said "mumble mumble january ok, thanks..." I'm a wussie. 

Here is a picture of what Fiona wears to leave the house at the moment. Except this month, she's also been wearing a hat, mittens, booties, and two blankets.

This trend was repeated in shop after shop. I found swimsuits, sandals, sundresses, shorts (I guess spring/summer clothes to be alliterative) but very few clothes appropriate for the 3-4 months of winter that we have left. I managed to find some fleece pyjamas on sale here and there, but really. Come on. Spring. 

I really should probably be buying summer stuff now, because by the time summer actually arrives, they'll probably only be selling fleece pyjamas.

Ben's Movie Room

Since before we even moved into our house, Ben has always talked about how much he would love to have a movie room. His plan was to have a big screen and projector, and a good (read - LOUD) sound system. This was always one of those may or may not plans, until Fiona was born.

As it turns out, waking a baby with a movie explosion is not a good idea. Baby gets upset. Movie gets paused. Louise deals with baby. Louise gets upset. Not a good situation. Since Fiona was born, Ben has been 'managing the remote' which involves predicting when the movie is about to get loud, and reducing the volume accordingly. This drives Ben crazy. Ben gets upset. Not a good situation. We've been avoiding movies and only quietly watching reality t.v. for months. Something had to change.

So the movie room plan was hatched. 

For the last month, Ben and his Dad have been building walls to make a movie room in the basement, and it is going really well! (No, of course I am not surprised. I had the utmost confidence.)

This is how the basement looked before we moved in:

This is my version of the plan for the renovation (to help the next pictures make sense). The red lines are the walls that are being added. The blue things are doors. Yes, I took art class in school. Yes, I passed. Thanks.

These are a selection of pictures illustrating the basement progress so far..

Removing the wood under the stairs to put up a wall. 

The frame for the new wall:

The other framing:

So it's really coming along! The heating man is coming tomorrow to put heat in the room, and then it will be much more habitable! Stay tuned for updates!

And of course, Ben being Ben, he has already purchased the electronics required for the ultimate movie system. We're just waiting on tenderhooks for the projector to arrive. No walls, no heat, no problem. We've got a really big screen.

We have a scooter!

Fiona has been working really hard recently. She's been lying on her tummy, waving her arms and legs like she's flying. This does not get her far. Then she gets angry and screams at me. Yesterday, she finally achieved some level of coordination and scooted herself forward a few feet. She must have practiced in her dreams, because by today she had almost perfected what I will call "the caterpillar".  

She needs to feel like it's worth the effort to do this though... you need to entice her across the floor with an attractive offering. Her toys don't usually cut it. She wants the cell phone. She doesn't love anything as much as she loves my cell phone. In the video, I move the phone half way through, which is why she stops and changes direction.

I should probably start baby-proofing soon.

Welcome!

Welcome!

This blog is probably going to be mostly about Fiona. I don't have much time to do anything else right now. She's sleeping right now, so I'm creating a blog for her. I think I need a hobby...

These are the Hamers - Louise, Fiona, and Ben.

For many months now I have been keeping up with the blogs of others, and enjoying knowing what they're up to, and thinking 'that's a great idea, I should do that!'. As many of you know, I'm the queen of procrastination, so I'm finally getting to it. The thing that finally pushed me over the edge was that Fiona started scooting around on her tummy yesterday, and I was so excited, I wanted to tell everyone about it!

There will still be regular uploads to Flickr, but this way, when we have exciting adventures, you can read all about them too. 

Also, reading this is mandatory. Mum and Dad, if you care about your only grandchild at all, you WILL read my inane snoozeworthy accounts of our day to day activities :-)

Thanks!

Louise