Top Ten Reasons You Know You Don't Get Out to the Movies Very Much

1. You are so excited to be going out that you wear high heels.

2. You forget to eat lunch before you go because you are so busy getting everything ready for the babysitter and are starving so think, "That's okay, I'll just grab something at the theatre" only to realize that the hamburgers are $13.

3. On the way there you think how nice it would be to just pull over and have a nap in the car instead.

4. You finally use the free movie passes you've had since last Christmas.

5. You keep your cell phone in your hand during the movie so you can feel it vibrate just in case the babysitter calls.

6. You periodically check the cell phone just in case the babysitter called and you missed it.

7. You text the babysitter in the middle of the movie just to make sure your phone is still working.

8. You keep having the urge to turn down the volume on the movie because it might wake the baby.

9. You cry whenever the scene shows a distraught baby. Even if it's only in the background and no one else in the theatre even noticed it.

10. When you tell people what movie you saw they say, "Oh, I haven't gone to see that one yet," and you think "that one?? I haven't seen any!"

The Paramedic Struggle

As most of you know, our plight with the BC government over our ambulance service has been long and disappointing. Last year we went on strike, asking for more ambulances to remedy the long response times (too long when a loved one is seriously injured) and overworked paramedics (for example, we often don't even get a proper lunch break in our 12 hr. shift) as well as higher wages to be on par with the other emergency service workers such as police and firefighters. (We currently make less than garbage truck drivers, and in many cases, less than minimum wage.) We were legislated back to work by the government without any bargaining. And now things are only getting worse. We will soon be losing more ambulances and paramedics in BC. If you live in BC, please go to the site below and send a letter to your MLA. It's easy, just enter your name and info and hit send.

http://www.saveourparamedics.com/letter.php

Everyone's Fighting for a Piece of Lap

Peekabah

We are astounded by how many new things Esmé is learning every day. She is so determined and doesn't stop moving from the moment she wakes up until she finally gives in to sleep at the end of the day.

She's been doing a lot of standing around lately. She does have to hold on to things but will often forget that little detail, thinking that she is capable of exploring a toy with both hands while standing. And so her head has met the hardwood floor more times than we can count resulting in several bruises and one bloody nose.

Most of her standing is of course done while desperately clinging to my legs when I'm in the kitchen.

Esmé likes to chatter quite a bit, most commonly saying "bah bah!" which seems to have many different meanings. Three months ago she started saying the word "mama" but it was just random sounds. (Although it still tugged the ol' heart strings.) But lately she seems to only say it as she crawls toward me and when she wants comfort and is reaching out to me. The word varies a bit, amma, mamama, etc. but I think we can safely say that it's her first word!

Then, a few days ago Kyle was playing peekaboo with Esmé, a game which we've recently discovered to be more fun than Disneyland. They were having a great time and we were all laughing together. Then suddenly Esmé blurted out "Peekabah!" Kyle and I froze and stared at each other like, "Did you just hear...? Did she just say...?" And so her second word was delivered.

Like most parents, we are pretty much convinced that our child is a genius. Until, that is, she does something like this...

Or this...

(This is after she pulled a blue chalk painting down on top of herself.)

So maybe she's not a genius, but she sure is entertaining.

Mother's Day at the Beach

I had a revelation this Mother's Day. It is a day for children to celebrate their mothers, cut 'em some slack. But these very children are the ones that, at the end of even this day, cause their mothers to be just as exhausted and as any other day. You don't get a day off if you are a mother and you don't get a Mother's Day if you're not one. I think this holiday is some kind of twisted paradox.

Coriander Baby

As I was wandering through the baby food aisle at the grocery store the other day, staring at colourful boxes of rice cereal and jars of strained squash, I began to wonder how people on the other side of the world do things. So I emailed my sister in Iran to ask her help in finding out what Iranian mothers feed their children.

In my experience, I know that Iranian women are naturals in the kitchen. They cook three large meals a day completely from scratch. The recipes are all memorized, passed down to their daughters and perfected generation after generation. They don't own any measuring cups or cookbooks and all the ingredients are bought fresh, organic, free range, local, and in season. The result is, of course, nutritious and mouthwatering meals that quickly become addicting. (I'm getting hungry just writing this!)

So do Iranian mothers use dehydrated rice cereal? Well, my sister asked her own mom and here are the recipes she sent me. Notice the same nutrients (iron, vitamins, etc.) that we fortify our baby food with is all naturally derived. And they use spices!

1- Can you buy bone of sheep there? If you can, two bones that are 10cm is enough, first put the bone in the pot with three or four glasses of water, then add a little salt and turmeric, and let it cook with a very very small flame around 7-8 hours (you can make it from night till morning but be careful that it doesn't burn.) The bone broth is very delicious for baby especially when their teeth are coming in and it makes their bones strong.

2- Barbecue lamb tenderloin for two minutes, then push it in a glass till the water comes out. Then put it on the fire again for one minute and again push it in the glass, do this work till the meet doesn't have any water left inside. This lamb broth is very energetic.

3- First soak around 15 raw almonds in water till you can peel them. Then grate the almonds. Grind uncooked rice till it becomes a powder and then put the powder of rice and peeled almonds with one glass of water in a pot and let it cook. You have to stir it while it's cooking because it may burn. When this becomes thickened you can put a small amount of sugar in just to make it more delicious. This is a good first food for baby.

4- Put one small potato, one small carrot, one small tomato, with a little rice, coriander and lentils with water and cook it. Then blend it. But for the first time only give one or two spoonfuls to the baby and the second time make more and more, because this type of food has many different ingredients and it may bother her stomach if she has too much at first.