I take so many pictures and would love to share them all but don't feel that I have the time or my friends have the patience to warrant posting them. It can be so difficult to decide which to share and which to leave in obscurity. So today I am going to indulge myself and post a whole stream of pictures from one afternoon. Enjoy!

"What, no more?"

Tasty

What?

Recent reading

I may have mentioned this before but during my degree I made myself a rule only to read books on the course lists (after all, they're exactly the books I wanted to read in any case so it wasn't a difficult rule for the most part). Having emerged from both my BA and my MA I now have no rules as to reading lists so have been following whims and suggestions. I also have the desire to fill in some of the blanks and read some more of the 'classic' books one would expect to have an acquaintance and an opinion about having fallen out the other side of an English degree. So recently I have read (among others I may not remember at this moment): Eliot's Daniel Deronda, Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Gaskell's Wives and Daughters, and James' Portrait of a Lady. Even having just read them I find this list quite attractive. Now I'm reading some essays about Daniel Deronda and Portrait of a Lady. It feels good to be back in the swing of literary studies especially with September just around the corner. I'll have a few years off from the imposition of the school year but I don't think I'll be able to break the habit of feeling studious at the arrival of the first chill in the air.

his ears are burning...

someone must be talking about him

Cold day

Instead of visiting the grave site on the anniversary of my Grandma's death we decided to remember by gathering to continue a family tradition of racing tiny home-made boats across a small backwater nearby. It's what she would have done. The day turned out appropriately gloomy and cold (contrasting with the beautiful weather we've had all summer but understandable considering the proximity of the hurricane) but there was warmth in the gathering. I am so glad we did this.

beach babe

Messy Boy

This is some of the results of self-feeding sessions.


You should see my walls and floor...

Thinner

The title of one of the Stephen King books (made into a movie too, I think) popped into my head as I thought of this post. I believe the story goes somewhere along the lines of a fat man being cursed by becoming thinner. This doesn't seem too scary (isn't it the goal of many?) until lack of control enters the picture. No matter what he eats, he keeps losing weight. I don't know how it ends but one can see the potential for some sort of starvation amid piles of food. Hmm. Come to think of it, that isn't quite the picture I might want to draw here. Maybe we should drop that association but in some strange way it is slightly applicable.

Taking note of most of my experience and observation I had prepared myself upon my pregnancy never to have the same body as I had had previously. I am not claiming to have had an amazing body at any point. I was strong (spending years engaged in physical labour will do that to you apparently) but not with the sculpted look of a gym-bunny. I was for the most part pleased with my body: it was not ugly and it accomplished much of what I need it to. I always felt I should eat a bit more healthily and perhaps shed a bit of the extra fat I seemed to have hanging around but it never worried me. But upon entering pregnancy I was fully prepared to resemble a beached whale for most of the term until giving birth at which point I would start to tend more to the penguin aesthetic.

Imagine my surprise when during pregnancy it mostly looked like I was a little girl imitating pregnancy by holding a balloon under my shirt. I can say this in no way to boast because it really had nothing to do with anything I did. Apparently each person's body responds differently to pregnancy and I was one of the lucky ones who had few discomforts under the physical appearance head (note I say nothing of the unseen but much-felt discomforts that fall under other headings). Being unable to engage in the same level of physical activity during my pregnancy I unfortunately lost much of my muscle mass so in the end gained few actual pounds even by the end of the pregnancy.

They say a quick and easy way to shed ten pounds is to cut off one's head. I decided to give birth instead and, although not an easy procedure, in the end it was quite as effective with a better chance of surviving the ordeal (although it may not seem so at the time and, really, at times in our history it didn't hold a great survival rate either). So I dropped the package and finally had room in there to draw breath again. I was left with a bit of a belly and extremely thin arms (in my books). I paid little attention to my weight gain or loss because there was suddenly someone else whose weight seemed more important. I watched him grow and gain with pleasure and awe.

I happily saw my belly subside but bemoaned the loss of my muscles and, although carrying around a child is a fairly good work-out it still doesn't compare to shovelling gravel and lugging half a ton of flagstone around daily. I started to notice that I was losing weight in more than just my belly. My pants were requiring a belt more frequently and a couple pair I had been considering donating because they were a bit small on me before I became pregnant (and, as I thought, would never fit me again) were fitting me quite well.

It wasn't until my boy reached about twenty pounds when, seeing the bathroom scale at a friend's house, I decided to weigh myself to see just how much weight I had lost and I discovered that I had lost as many pounds off my pre-pregnant weight as my boy weighed!

Oh the wonders of breast-feeding! I can eat as much as I like and it all gets passed along as good fat to my growing boy! Of course, I am also more conscious to eat better foods now that I am introducing him to food so that may account for some of it too. A friend who is a year ahead of me in the motherhood line also mentioned to me to beware after weaning because it can just as unconsciously creep right back on (and this time it is more certain to creep on in the form of fat as opposed to muscle) but I'm currently enjoying the fat of the land while I can.

So it turned out to be true that my body would not be the same after having had a baby but instead of going the way I had anticipated I got back the body I had at fourteen (just before starting my first physically-demanding job). It's insane. I don't want to appear smug to those who have had trouble with weight gain or loss. I personally, although never to the extreme, have gone through times when I know I should lose even five pounds to be more healthy and have had an extremely hard time accomplishing such a goal. This is one of those things that has happened to me without any virtue arising from within. But I suppose I should enjoy it while I can. I never thought I would have to go out to buy an entire wardrobe of smaller clothes, though. Thank goodness for second-hand shops!

It's about the details

This is simply how I shall remember the moment.

Poor Nooner

Our cats are a definite hit with the youngest member of our household. Their appearances into his field of vision are always greeted with some sort of squeal. Midnight will simply make her way back to a quiet hidey-hole at first opportunity but Nooner is much more tolerant of infantile attempts at caresses. Eventually if she doesn't feel up to being mauled she will walk off but she tolerates him longer than one might expect. Imagine the little guy's delight when waking from a nap this morning he discovered his favourite live-action teddy-cat sleeping close by on the very same couch! If she did not enjoy the moment to the full extent as he perhaps she was simply too lazy to move.

Reading

My little man is currently fascinated by his board books. He likes to turn the pages himself and not only is fairly good at getting them one at a time but also consistently will turn them the appropriate way (without my prompting). It is so cute to see him reading by himself.

Orange and blue

Today's rainbow

Sleep

When the little guy was littler there were a few times that I attempted to have him fall asleep by himself (without me feeding him) and it worked sometimes and didn't others. This summer has been so busy and we've been out so much of the time that I haven't even tried in quite a while. I have thought about it and hope that it doesn't mean the habit makes weaning etc difficult but I haven't worried too much about it. Then the other night he was fussy and restless so Daddy held him for a minute or two and he seemed better. When I looked over I found that he had fallen asleep in Daddy's arms. I know I won't be trying this every night/naptime but it's good to see that he still is okay with alternate routines. Oh, and it's adorable!

The Thinker revisited

He has so many different expressions! It's difficult to catch them all but I try...

Lupins

In the Grass

Busy

I have started to realize that the moments in my life that aren't busy are and forever will be the exceptions. But do I really want it any other way? I actually doubt it. These past couple weeks we've been blitzing James' mom's place getting it ready to sell. Just prior to that I spent part of a week helping get Grandma's house ready to sell. As of now my Grandma's is sold and Logan's Grandma's house has had its first showing. I have a whole day at home to start sorting this place out. So much can be neglected when one spends no more than one waking hour per day at home. But it does give satisfaction to know that things are being accomplished.

On a different note, I just noticed my last post title is Choral Bells and I'm not entirely sure if that is the proper spelling for heuchera's common name. Looking at it now I do believe it should be Coral Bells. It isn't surprising that my mind would gravitate to the musical interpretation but I think I was wrong. But the pictures are beautiful nevertheless.

Choral Bells

I have never had much appreciation for heuchera beyond some of the interesting leaf colours that have been developed but I took these up-close pictures of the flowers and they actually turn out to be beautiful when viewed this way. Who knew?

Writer's Block

I love fiction and have always been puzzled with my evident lack of talent in producing it. I think it is common with writers to find it difficult to get past the initial problem of beginning. But having spent at least six years honing my writing skills (mainly through essays) I don't think that or any other technical aspect of writing is the problem. Style and technique are things that with discipline and practice become less difficult. I also have very little problem stringing together sentences; I tend to be verbose more than otherwise.

It struck me today, however, that a deeper problem for me is that to create one particular character, for instance, is to exclude all other possibilities for that character. Descriptions essentially limit possibility. I enjoy reading of other peoples' created worlds because it opens new worlds to the imagination but to create one myself is to exclude all other possibilities. So I suppose my being a reader who cannot herself write is in a way rather a selfish position.

Maybe knowing this will help me overcome my writer's block. I guess we'll see!

Cheese

I finally have a picture where you can see the top teeth too. I think the bottom ones are beyond adorable and the top ones are cute too (but not quite as extreme on the cute scale) but since they're there I like having picture proof...

Speaking of picture proof, we've been meaning to get a video camera ever since he was born but haven't got around to it yet. I have also been meaning to switch my phone plan but that I finally accomplished last week. As I played around with my new phone I discovered it had a video option. Thinking of it now, my previous phone (perhaps all of my previous phones) had the video option but I never used it. Importantly, though, this current phone also comes equipped with bluetooth so I am able (really, my husband is able) to transfer them to my husband's laptop without having to buy some sort of cord. So I've started taking videos of as many of L's accomplishments as I can. The quality is pretty low but the subject is the best!

Happy Dominion Day!

Fever

Seemingly (to me) hard on the heels of his first set of teeth, my man is now cutting the top two. It's more rough on him this time with a low-grade fever and more evident pain and restlessness as a result but he's still taking it like a trooper. Even during the worst of it people who have met him for the first time have remarked on how happy and calm he is. He is such a blessing and joy. Another side benefit (for me) of his feeling under the weather is that he is more clingy and cuddly than usual. I generally like the fact that he is more than happy to go to or be entertained by other people but now that I have it it's nice to have a mommy's boy for a couple days (but I wouldn't want it to be like this all the time). I do hope he's over the worst today, though.

Pony

Oh my!

"Every child should have a pony"
So began one of my favourite books as a child. It is a simple story about how a mother got a pony for her children one Christmas. I didn't quite know why I liked it so much but for several years in the week before Christmas I imposed upon myself the tradition of reading one chapter a day leading up to Christmas. Well now our little guy has his own first 'pony' and seems to enjoy it quite a bit. When you squeeze the ears of this pony it dexterously will make trotting noises and sinisterly will sing a la-de-de-da song (very sinisterly when you begin to realize that the song is then stuck in your head the rest of the day). In general I have been trying to keep a limit on the toys that we acquire for him but for some reason I had a hard time saying no to this one :)

Stuck

As a result of the superiority of his backwards creeping to any forward movement, he frequently ends up in this predicament these days. His mobility is definitely increasing, though, and it won't be long before he'll be proficient in both gears (not to mention walking).

Eureka!

Father's Day

A few pictures

simple gifts

One of the perks of marrying a landscaper is the abundance of flowers that seems to come with the territory.

(another is the great tan...)

Dinner

Oatmeal cereal to start


With raspberries to finish

Changes

We visit James' brother and his family quite frequently (at least a couple times every week). They have been renting a house with about an acre of land and it's been great to have a place that's still quite close but where we can head outside and where the little guy can play with his cousins. Recently, however, they have been looking into buying a place of their own and have just put down a conditional offer on a house further outside of the city. While we are happy for this step and looking forward to visiting them at their new house there is still sadness at the thought of leaving the house they have inhabited for many years. We went for a walk along (and through) a nearby creek with our older nephew over the weekend. This may have been the last of the walks in this creek but apparently the new house has a creek right on the property so I'm sure it won't be the last of our creek walks!

Teeth!

He's had these for a few weeks now but I just haven't got around to putting anything up on here about it. The first two teeth came in at the same time and didn't seem to give him more trouble than one fussy night (or at least didn't give me more trouble than that) but I believe his top ones are starting to rear their heads and he's been fussy and not sleeping well for the past few days so hopefully they poke through before too long. I think these teeth are an adorable addition and make for some really cute faces as he tests out the new feeling in his mouth. Thankfully we haven't had too much trouble with biting yet so over all it's been a positive experience.

When I discovered the first tooth (not having realized it was coming through already) it gave me a pang to think he's already reached another milestone but at the same time I'm so happy he's developing as he should. He's getting to be a big boy already!