Autumn Monday

Our Monday morning... what a gorgeous, kinda chilly day. 

It's officially Fall now!

I love this park.  

I love that this beautiful green space exists a short walk from our home.  I really, really, really don't want to have to move away when we look for our new bigger apartment.  I love walking around the park with a coffee and a croissant from Clafouti.  I love watching the stupid dogs run around in the "dog bowl" (nickname for the offleash area which, did you know, is at the bottom of what used to be a big ol' mini lake/really big pond back in the day?)  I love the view of the giant tower in the distance.

...

Breaking my own rule about keeping this a pregnancybaby/Rowen blog....

How great are these boots?  I want them.  Technically I'm allowed a new pair of boots this year since Eileen peed on my old boots last winter, right?

A Tuesday

This was our Tuesday:

Rowen got a new dress...

and could barely stand still so Momma could get a photo of it...

 Late afternoon hangout at the Luna Cafe before Daddy went to go teach

Pushing my Bugaboo, no biggie.

Baxter keeping an eye on playtime while Momma attempted to clean up

A song from my Ballerina days came on the radio.  So we all danced.  Rowen's favourite part was spinning around while waltzing.

(We don't  know too much about Classical music but tune into the station throughout the day for Rowen since she seems to like it!)

Photos: We spend a lot of time at the park...

We've been hanging out a lot at the park these past few days...  

I LOVE Trinity-Bellwoods park and I will be sad if we have to move out of the neighbourhood when our lease is up in the tiny apartment this January.  (Sidenote: It's pretty amusing bringing my adorable Baby almost every day to the very same park that I used to be er, intoxicated in frequently in my more youthful days.)

The BEST soy latte in the city, for realz.  

I enjoyed my White Squirrel latte along with my a muffin while the Baby slept... which meant no rushing and shoving huge bites in my mouth or taking quick stealth bites to avoid little hands trying to grab my food!!

Another day, another park hang... practicing our sitting and Android skills

I baked Pirate cheesecakes.

Another day, another Family Dim Sum trip.  

Lowell: Do you have any change to leave for a tip?

Rowen: Hang on, let me check my purse Daddy.

Another day, another delicious "bao" from Banh Mi Boys.

I'm currently still obsessed with Banh Mi Boys!

BEST sandwiches (Vietnamese or otherwise)  in the Universe, no doubt about it!

Burger lunch

I had a strange craving for a burger yesterday.  (Strange because I generally don't eat beef).  I knew that I wanted a nice, quality burger.  Not a teeny, greasy bacon jr. from you know where.  I also didn't feel like trekking around since the weather was yucky, so we went for a family lunch at The Gladstone Hotel across the street.  Conveniently, it is the closest place that has a nice burger AND the closest restaurant to our apartment.  Kinda awesome that even though it was thunderstormy, we didn't need umbrellas because we live thatclose.

Mah burger 

Keeping the Rowen entertained.  She enjoys self-portrait time on our phones.

.  She was generally quite well behaved!  We were able to eat our food at a normal pace, without rushing and she only had a few outbursts of loud babbling.  It's funny... when we are at home, in the car, at the park, she has a very cutesy mellow voice.  And when we go to some places where LOUD BABY voice isn't as appropriate, i.e: quiet restaurants, the grocery store... she'll use her LOUD BABY voice.

She's so cute she can get away with quite a few loud babbling outbursts in pubic.  People don't seem to mind too much!

Photos: This week... Stratford, High Chair Times at Easy & General Cuteness

Last week, we introduced avocados to Rowen's menu...  it might have replaced carrots as her new favourite!   We also travelled to Stratford for a daytrip and had a mini Momma & Baby weekend.  

Stratford, Ontario is my most favourite town. Nothing has really changed there since I started going with my Mom in the summertime as a little kid.  We used to go and stay at a little Bed & Breakfast called The Deacon House, see a show at the Festival... usually the musical depending on which Shakespeare play was running and wander about town.  Wandering about town usually took, oh, an hour or so.  Stratford, Ontario is named after Stratford Upon Avon, the town where William Shakespeare was born.  So naturally, there is an Avon River in Stratford Ontario...

Which is one of the places The Heavyweights played as part of the Stratford Summer Music Festival.   They played on the river!  

Rowen and I tagged along on the first day.  Rowen met some ducks, we watched the Heavyweights' Noon show and then headed to Fellini's for lunch.

I LOVE FELLINI'S!  It is possibly one of my favourite restaurants and they haven't changed in the over 15 years that I've been going there.  The Chicken Parmigiana is my most favourite menu item.  And they have delicious "real" iced teas!  I almost couldn't get my chicken parm on this visit because it was technically still lunch menu time...but they made it for me anyway!  Thanks Fellini's!

Last Summer when Annie and I roadtripped to Stratford, I managed to finish this bad boy on my own. Annie patiently sat there while I chomped my way through this massive breaded chunk of chicken and mountain of yummy pasta.   Must have been one of those crazy hungry periods in between my constant pregnancy nausea... this year, I was only able to finish half!

Remember those pianos all over the city?  They have them all over Stratford too!

Lowell stayed over in Stratford the rest of the weekend. So it was just us girls for the weekend.

We had lunch with Ange at Easy...  another one of my most favourite places.  I think I've been going to the Parkdale location for maybe 7 or 8 years... the food never disappoints.  Oh, and the Banana Latte smoothie is ridiculously yummy and probably one of my favourite things ever. 

West Coast Toast, mmmm.  Essentially salmon eggs benny topped with caviar and dill.  And no wimpy sides here or having to choose between potatoes or a salad.... sooooo goood!

Rowen tried out a restaurant high chair for the first time!  She was amused by it but I did wind up holding her to avoid a restaurant meltdown as she was having one of her rare fussy, clingy days and it was close to naptime.  And hey, we survived public transit and a civilized restaurant lunch!  Score!  Thanks Baby!

Playing with Eileen.

"He said WHAT?!"

We went to the CNE on Monday!

Read more about Rowen's first CNE HERE!

And I know I've shared this photo already... but it's just such a crowd pleaser.  Lowell and I both changed our phone screens to this photo.  Our Baby is just too daaarrrrn cute!  

I felt a bit like I was cheating on Baxter the first time I bumped him as phone screen saver.  The Bax has been screensaver forever!  I felt bad choosing a Baby Pic over his, but I think he understands.  Or rather, he doesn't really understand well, anything.  So it's all good!

The Falls

I found this photo on the computer and I wanted to share it.  My Momma, her Momma and Baby Z... circa Spring of 1984?  I would have been around the same age Rowen is now.  This made me really excited to take her to Niagara Falls one day soon.  Most of you who know me know about my strange love affair with Niagara Falls!  (I certainly hope that she doesn't go through a weird casino-going Roulette playing phase like I did!)  As much as time is flying by WAAAAY TOO FAST, I  love being reminded of all the exciting things we get to do with her.

Happy Birthday Lowell!

The Baby bought Lowell some beer.  

I thought it would be funny and kinda nice since I haven't really been letting Lowell keep beer at home lately. Which kinda makes me a total jerk...cuz man, on my 24th many, many, many moons ago there was a literally a bathtub full of booze.  We called it the boozetub!  But I digress.   We got a 2-4 of nice Muskoka beers for Daddy's 24th. (Except we only got 12.)  

Super tall classic chocolate cake and a baby strawberry-rhubarb pie from Mabel's, one of my favourite places.  

One of my favourite lemon bars, possibly my favourite lemon bar in the city is from Mabel's! And their brownies are amazing so I figured their cakes must be as well.  They use real quality, local ingredients so that's a plus too.  I was way too lazy to make a nice cake so I bought one.

BUT! The wonky icing writing was done by me at home....

Her shirt says Incredible, Amazing, Incredible Dad.

Rowen very seriously composed a song for the occasion on her Baby Einstein piano.

Happy Birthday Lowelldish!  We love you!

Canada Day Cupcakes

Another day, another Ergo adventure.

Lately, we've been getting a lot of compliments about her pacifier strap.

Happy Canada Day! 

It wouldn't be like me to celebrate a Holiday without cake of some sort, right?  Rowen and I trekked to Dlish as planned.  I originally planned on picking up ONE of the special limited edition Canada Day red velvets (with cream cheese frosting and coconut mmm!)...  yet somehow when I got there, I found myself picking out a box of 6.  

Let it be known that I put half of them in the freezer "for Lowell when he gets back"!  And naturally, I'll be here to help him out with that.

Rowen is starting to show a real interest in food lately.  Whenever I eat, she watches intently.  I will sometimes pretend to offer her a bite of what I am eating (with an empty, clean spoon) and she readily accepts.  

Very, very, very soon, I know that I will have to learn to set a better eating example for her and not do things like eat three cupcakes for lunch. And not let her grab at cupcakes like they're toys. (But it's sooo cute and fun to see!)

Guess what else happened today??

After I left Dlish Cupcakes, I loitered around outside to check streetcar times on my phone.  I was feeling hot and lazy and to my dismay, the next streetcar wasn't coming for another 12 minutes.  So while I was contemplating where to go to kill time, my favourite cupcake man popped out and asked me to come back inside.  

So I followed him back into the store.  I was intrigued and excited!  He then offered me a first taste of their upcoming limited edition flavour... key lime!  I LOVE KEY LIME!  It was the perfect pick me up on a day when I was feeling a little bit down and worn out from Lowell being away.  I felt all silly and special with this secret new cupcake to try when I got home.

Yet another reason I file Dlish under "favourite places".  If you haven't been already, you should go as soon as possible please!

Keylime Cupcake. Key lime cake with key lime zest frosting and graham cracker crumbly top.  Yum yum yum!  

__________________

This week, Rowen has also started to show an interest in her feet. She's always enjoyed exploring and groping around with her fingertoes...but now she's actually aware of what she's doing.  She likes to throw her legs up in the air and wave them around like she just don't care.  

 Also, I'm pretty sure she is also about to cut a tooth anyday now! She's constantly shoving everything in her mouth and DROOOOLING.   Drooling like never before, especially seeing that she's never been a drooling baby.  It's very exciting and amazingly bittersweet watching her change.  She is growing SO FAST. Too fast!  I can't wait to see what she does next, as each new step has been amazing and adorable...but part of me wishes I could just hit pause for a little while.

Why hello there, foot.

Deep in thought at the park.

Kellie and I tried these delicious natural soda things on Saturday.  We got them along with an order of tacos from the brand new Barton Snacks on Queen West.  REALLY good! 

More on hanging out with Family in another entry later...

Floral Safari Rowen

Rowen's first time wearing a floppy hat.  It was pretty funny times for her.

When wearing a safari-esque hat, it's only appropriate to hunt lions.  And...cupcakes?

Gearing up for the cupcake hunt.

This is a Bacon cupcake from Yummy Stuff in Parkdale.  

They do some seriously YUMMY stuff there!  The Bacon cake made me curious... I was prepared for weirdness, but it was amazing and rocked hard.  The cake was a chocolate oatmeal thing and the frosting had that awesome salty-sweet taste going.  I want another one now and will need to go back soon.  I LOVE CUPCAKES!

The White Squirrel and Angela Brings Comfort Food

Today was Day 6 of "Momma's Temporary Single Parenthood While Daddy's on Tour".  It was a bit of a tough day as I received some sad news from my Family the night before just as I was headed to bed.  By the time I finally fell asleep, it was exactly the time that Rowen decided to wake up.

But, alas, being Momma to this beautiful little human certainly gives me seemingly super human strength some days.  No matter how tired or mad or sad, this face just makes it okay.

Momma put this funny pink romper on me.  It's so FUNNY!

This gal is my cure-all.

We decided to go for a walk before the crazy heat and humidity (oh the HUMIDITY) set in.  Momma needed a caffeine fix, so we set off for The Squirrel. 

The White Squirrel Coffee Shop is probably one of my favourites in the city.  It has a great vibe to it... I can't quite put my finger on how to describe it.  It's somehow both sparse and airy yet cozy and homey...if those things could be combined.  I remember going there on a wet winter day for the opening day... and for a good while, I was literally going every single day before work to grab an Americano and a muffin.  Conveniently, it was exactly in the middle of my former 90-second commute to work.  Anyway, my favourite is when the owner is there to make my drink.  And he was today! 

Also, the Squirrel has a feature that I never full appreciated until now.  They have this awesome walk-up window so you can order from the sidewalk and get your coffee (or ice cream!!) without going inside.  Every other coffee shop I can think of in my neighbourhood has a step out front and/or a door that opens outwards.  This makes maneuvering through the doors with a stroller difficult.  Factor in the possibility of having a full hot beverage on the way out and most times, I opt to just skip going in completely if I'm alone.  The window is great for stroller and dog peeps.  As well as smokers, as David the owner pointed out to me today.  I suppose smokers can use the lovely window as well.

The walk to The Squirrel marked my first real walk with Rowen in the Bugaboo.  And man oh MAN, I am in love.  Words... cannot describe what a WORLD of difference this is.  Actually, I lie and up next will be my entry entitled "Stroller Envy Begone - We Are Now Proud Bugaboo Owners, what!!" in which I will use words to describe how marvelous the Cameleon is.

Be still, my heart.

The day continued to get happier when Angela and Cory came by with provisions and open arms for Miss Baby!  Pot pie, Mac n Cheese and cupcakes.  Perfect foods!  Ange, how did you know that all I had eaten all day was a handful of cherry tomatoes at 5am and then a banana muffin with my soy latte?

So now, I suppose we've survived Day 6.  Lowell sent Rowen a video from the van, on the highway somewhere around Medicine Hat apparently.  She liked it and is now fast asleep and I might have to follow her lead very shortly.