happy fall!

we've been so enjoying this season. it has been glorious here in Montreal, just glorious. we're keeping busy making and eating turkey, colouring lots of pictures, collecting all of the leaves, and chasing all of the pigeons. we can usually be found hanging out at McGill bugging daddy/eli basking in the glory of all the cooing students/me wincing at the awkwardness of all the staring students. we also like Westmount Park, that's a good spot. recently eli has been despising his stroller (that self-sufficient two year old attitude is really starting to show itself) so there isn't as much traipsing around the city as we'd like, simply because it's now necessary for eli to walk on his own. but, we're still trying to enjoy as much freedom as we can before winter comes and slows us down. so, we're off! happy friday!

follow some of our adventures here: http://instagram.com/em_sob

BITS + PIECES

this tiny man has been "helping" with everything lately! 

also he has been super cute.

he's been working on his top and bottom eye teeth. it's been a rough go, but they're starting to poke through so i think the worst is over.

post-nap reading on the bed. eli is such a scholar, reading Steinbeck.

mostly we have just been waiting for spring to arrive. the apartment seems to get smaller and smaller with every new snowfall. we've been a bit stir crazy, but dada has his school break so we're all thrilled to have an extra play mate all day long!

a new year!

goodbye holidays. we're back in montreal after a wonderful visit in the west. (okay, the flu at the end wasn't so wonderful...but other than that!) eli had such a blast playing with so much family! lyndon and i are both one of five children, so there were a whole lot of aunties and uncles to drag around the house and make demands to. but really, he had such a good time. and he surprised everyone by loving santa! he didn't wanna leave his lap! he was so intrigued by this whole beard business, he would have been happy to be alone for a bit so he could investigate. by the end of the trip though i was itching to get home. we all got the stomach flu (why christmas season must you do this to us every year!?!) and then flew home the next day pale and exhausted. eli's a good sport on planes for the most part, so i don't blame him for having a bit of a freak out when we had to wait in a 45 minute line up for a cab after the 5 hour flight. all in all though, i would say it was a successful christmas. i'm already excited for next year. eli will be past the free flying age and with ticket prices being so very expensive, we'll most likely have our own little montreal christmas. and that sounds pretty fun too.

(oh, and eli got 4 molars for christmas. and a bang trim. sniff sniff.)

gift guide: littles

one:: we all open up pj's on christmas eve to wear that night.
two:: socks are so practical, and these ones have dino's on them!
three:: eli is always in need of a few more bath toys.
four:: these were an easter gift for eli last year, but we lost most of the eggs in the moving process. he loves them and i thought it was time for a replacement set.
five:: the babylit books are so sweet! we have moby dick.
six:: fisher price is a must. we got eli the farm for christmas since we're in the city now and missing that. (although, i found mine at winners so it was a better price. go winners!)
seven:: i've been on the look out for a nice and natural bubble bath for the little man (who has super sensitive skin.) he loves bubbles, but everything so far gives him a rash. i'm hoping this will be the end of the search!
eight:: this last week has been so cold (-20's eek!) so a nice warm winter jacket was the last thing on my list for eli.

some thoughts.

now don't get me wrong, i love christmas. i have always loved the christmas season and it's special way of bringing everyone together. i grew up the youngest of five kids, so sibling had already left home by the time i was older and could really enjoy their company. i remember being so genuinely happy every christmas when my big brothers would travel home from every direction! now i'm the sibling coming from afar, and i'm a little scared. i'm excited of course, but i'm also nervous. since we're such a young family, everything's different for us. the nice thing about being so far away from both of our families is that we get to be our own little family. i worry that we'll just be thrown back in with the mix when we go back. i worry that we won't figure out how to maintain our family status and start our own traditions with eli. how do you have your own christmas while staying with in-laws? and even my own family? normally, it would be fun to have grandma and grandpa be apart of christmas morning with eli, but then we have all of our siblings, many of them older than me and lyndon! man. can't this just be a nice, stress-free holiday? or is that just an oxymoron once you're a family?

snow!

these last few nights we have had our first real snowfalls of the season! snow is magical, truly magical. both me and my husband are from the west, so although the cold is so harsh and strange, we will gladly accept it along with lovely white fluff falling from the sky! we have a tiny little deck off of our apartment that usually looks out into a dirty parking lot (okay, and a pretty building across the way), but it's been beautiful lately! we just sit and look out at the winter wonderland we are in. eli hasn't quite figured out how all of this wet stuff ends up on him, and is puzzled. but he did enjoy making hand prints in the snow atop our barbeque tonight, so i think in time he'll learn to love it. i think our uncovered deck is just big enough for us to make a mini snowman on when we get a big haul of snow (which is supposed to be soon!) all in all, we love snow!

tiny snowflakes on a tiny boy.

new post-bath tradition. (when it's snowing.)

montreal, you're pretty.

This little boy got sick again. I don't blame him; it's about -10 out right now. We've been learning how to battle the cold with lots of soup and a cute bundled baby. (I love a good bundled baby--that's my favourite thing about our daily walks, seeing all of those cute chubby babes in their snowsuits, hats, scarves and mitts!) And we've been starting to think up some nice small christmas decorating ideas for our teeny apartment. We'll be heading west to spend the holidays with our families, but I feel like we need to have something up! Our neighbourhood target just opened up, so I get the feeling we'll be heading back over to that mall a few more times in the upcoming weeks. They also sell Annie's mac n' cheese there!!! We haven't been able to find it anywhere else, so we're happy. The only other thing I haven't been able to track down here in Montreal are good diapers. Seriously? What is with the lack of a decent chemical free diaper? I am so used to my west coast all-natural stores! I miss my Seventh Generation diapers that don't smell like they've been soaked in Febreze. I need to make some serious mommy friends stat.