ball...

Here is Elray with his ball again. He carried it with him almost everwhere over Easter. It was his favourite. I say "was" because it vanished on the trip. We are now in search of another. It was the perfect ball, it came with a toy that Grandma Joan brought him for Christmas. So if we want to get the exact one we'd have to buy the whole toy. Rats. It was so soft and had little indentations which made it easy for his little hands to grasp. Thus begins a game of trial and error to replace the perfect ball...
We are going to try one of Darren's hockey balls, at least it's the same colour.

First sushi!

He loved the sushi. Most kids do - I mean, what's not to love? sticky rice and avocado with a little nori? Looking forward to expanding his repetoire.

Nanaimo at Easter slideshow

Nanaimo at Easter slideshow on Flickr

swinging

swinging3, originally uploaded by Augusten Elray.

Believe or not, this photo was taken with my phone. Yes, PHONE. as in cell phone. I love technology. Check out my awesome pink phone online.
At the park on the way home from babytime at the library. He LOVES the baby swing. Check out flickr (click on the photo) for more swinging adventures.

Easter Bunny a pagan tradition?

OK, I really want to believe this story that the Easter bunny originated as a pagan belief:
Easter Bunny story from about.com
It seems, however, that there is no evidence of this pagan tradition anywhere in writings prior to 1990 (wikipedia article). Rats.

Laika and Elray

Laika and Elray, originally uploaded by Octopus Prize.

Over the long weekend, the cousins found lots of chocolate eggs and bunnies from the easter bunny, the adults couldn't stop eating them (the eggs, not the cousins). Laika paused for a moment to give Gus a snuggle. He had no idea what was going on.

multi-tasking

Last night Darren came home to find me multi-tasking:

Eating nachos and breastfeeding.
Now that's a supermom for you.

Musical Treats from North of 53

Musical Treats from North of 53
thank you. keeping up with the cool kids just got a whole lot easier.

Burnaby Lake

We went for a short stroll around Burnaby Lake today - we didn't have much time as Darren had to go change a light bulb, so Burnaby Lake was perfect as it is only about a 10-15 minute drive. Too bad it's not quite far enough to not hear the city. It was good nonetheless. Here are a few photos:



Click on any of the photos to see a bigger image. You can see a few more photos at flickr.

Stayed tuned for scenes from Vancouver Island where my mom lives - we are going there for Easter weekend and from a hike in Pitt Meadows - we hope to go there when I get back from the Island.

Talking 2.

The Dictionary of Augusten.
or more like a bilingual Augusten-English/English-Augusten Dictionary.

hch (pron. like "ich" in German, as in "Ich bin ein Berliner." but exaggerated to sound like the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark). - I want breast milk.

mbuh-mbuh (mbuh-mbuh) - mama.

dedede (deh-deh-deh) - not to be confused with dede (see previous dictionary entry). Usually paired with some crazy swinging of the head. Translates to: dancedancedance.

Childproofing

Today, we started the long road to making our house safe for baby. After he tried to stick his finger in the electrical outlet three times in one day we decided it was time. (Darren shouldn't have drawn the cute bunny face around the outlet.). So far we've covered two outlets, and put a squishy protector over the corner of one of our shelving units. We also bought a new crib. Teresa loaned us a fantastic crib, but unfortunately we couldn't fit it anywhere but in front of the window in the baby's room - which means he can grab the curtains. And pull.
He's pretty fast at getting around these days so it's only a matter of time before we do even more childproofing. I think we'll need a gate to keep him out of the kitchen and maybe another to keep him out of the cat litter. I can't forsee anything else - some of those childproofing ideas are just a bit too much - like a toilet seat lock. Close the bathroom door instead. Seems easier to me and besides it's bad feng shui to leave your bathroom door open (and bad feng shui to leave the toilet seat up - means all your money will go down the toilet).

News Flash: Vancouver 3rd best place to live in world

News article: Vancouver 3rd best place to live in world
Again!
Of course, it's mostly due to our "natural environment and recreational sites". All of which we are looking forward to taking advantage to this summer. I've gone through our copy of Best Hikes & Walks of Southwestern British Columbia and bookmarked all the "easy" hikes under 2 hours - since we'll now be doing all of them with a baby in a backpack. I put special blue bookmarks in for the ones I can go swimming at! Expect lots of great photos of Gus and Darren and I having various outdoor adventures this summer.

Other cities on the list: Toronto came in 15th (up one spot from last year), all Canadian cities on the list were well ahead of US cities - Honolulu came in 27th and San Fran in 28th. Baghdad came in last for the third straight year - Thanks George Dubya for really f#%$&@g that one up. Your lousy invasion started three years ago - not a coincidence at all. For first hand account of how much Baghdad sucks right now read Baghdad Burning an awesome girl blog from the heart of Baghdad. or get the book, Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq by Riverbend from your library or local bookstore. It's winning tons of prestigious awards these days including third prize in the Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage, and now shortlisted for 2006 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction. She also won a Bloggie for Best African or Middle Eastern Weblog.

Sasamat Lake

The three of us went on a short 1 hour hike around Sasamat Lake yesterday. I took my first swim of the season. You can see my wet hair in the photos as proof... and the little brown spot on my nose from the hot cocoa/kahlua afterwards! it was more of a dunk than a swim to be honest as the lake was ice cold. Actually two dunks as Darren informed me after my first swim that it didn't count because I didn't put my head in. Thankfully, the sun was there to warm me afterwards. Augusten slept through most of it.
I think it is the beginning of a family tradition - we are going to try for weekly hikes (and maybe swims too) now that the weather is nice.

For those of you who don't know Vancouver, Sasamat Lake is a short 40 minute drive from Vancouver, check out the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) website

chasing the ball

New slideshow! chasing the ball

Newset slideshow: 3/29/06 through 4/4/06

3/29/06 through 4/4/06 slideshow
Thanks to both grandmas for the cute outfits! Pooh from Grandma Joan and the striped Baby Gap dress shirt from Grandma Anne (or maybe it's Baba?). We spent a few days in Victoria with my mom - the photos on the bench with the trellis in the background are taken in the rose garden at the Empress Hotel in Victoria.