The wee babe started walking the day AFTER the big birthday party here, so January 22, 2012. That makes 12 months and 18 days.
It was a fantastic moment for our family. All of us just happened to be hanging out in the living room. We had a CD playing that our friends Kelly and Sarah made for her for her birthday the day before and it just happened to be a Bob Marley song playing.
She was holding two small board books – one in each hand – that our friends Jeffery and Lisa had given to her at her birthday the day before.
She took 3 steps.
My hubby and I cried.
We had a moment – our baby was growing up right before our eyes.
What were your baby’s first steps like? Did you miss it? Did you cry?
Not too much new to report on the developmental side of things.
She’s eating almost the exact same things as us now save for the few things that aren’t right for her age (strawberries, honey, nuts, etc…) but she like chicken curry, olives, and salmon to name a few.
She’s seems to be more on her feet than on her knees these days. The hubby is sure that she will be walking within the next week and a half (her first birthday if you do the math).
Other than that, she’s seen and felt snow which she didn’t like that much, she seems to be getting a little more of a temper these days and we’re on day 5 of completely being finished breastfeeding. No turning back now.
I’m looking forward to her first Christmas in just 2 short days.
So we don’t have a car. Which makes getting around a little tricky. Luckily, the weather here in Switzerland is downright amazing. Coming from the wet coast where I understand it’s snowing as I write this… I look out my living room windows to the gorgeous mountains facing me, blue lake, cloudless sky and dread just a little bit to return to Victoria. I’ll have to get the sun to send me a postcard when I leave here.
Anyway, back to the no transportation. In order to take advantage of the beautiful weather and scenery, we walk around the area.
When my mom came to visit 2 months ago, we walked to Montreux. We also did a photo shoot around Vevey. She’s as big into taking photos as I am (maybe even a bit more!). It was a peaceful, warm sun filled day, both days.
Additionally, our family caught a bus to Chateau de Chillon and then walked back beside the lake – it was stunning. Although, I think I can’t take any credit for the photos on our walk from Chateau de Chillon – I’m pretty sure it was all the hubby’s handiwork behind the camera.
And there you have it, three photo galleries for 3 amazing days. Enjoy
We had a pretty good sleep last night. My back was killing me from the walk up the mountain and the bed was too hard so I woke up fairly stiff hoping that it wouldn’t hinder my trip around Montreal today by foot.
We woke up kinda late: 8:30am and got a start on coffee and a big breakfast (eggs, toast, hashbrowns). We took advantage of the kitchen that’s for sure.
We got ready to go and headed out. the tweenager had done some research last night and figured out some options for us to visit in Montreal. We started with some shopping on St. Catherine’s street. Even though we needed to haul the stuff around everywhere, we wanted to do it before we were too tired and hot to try on clothes. I found one of the wedding dresses I’m going to wear.
We walked over to Old Montreal which took about a half hour. Old Montreal is quaint and the buildings are very similar to streets in Europe. It really feels like you are in a different country than Canada. Everything from the building structures to hearing French spoken all around. I’m almost suprised that they don’t have their own currency.
I was destined to find more poutine today for lunch (wanted to try as much poutine as possible since we’re in Quebec) and I wasn’t dissapointed. We were just going to eat poutine but we stopped in at 3 Brasseurs for some wonderful beer, a goat cheese chicken burger and yummy poutine. I didn’t want to share even one bite.
After lunch, we did a taste testing of some cider and maple syrup. We bought both.
We headed over to the metro which seemed to be the coolest thing so far for the tweenager. I’m really suprised by the lack of stroller/wheelchair accessibleness in the city. We couldn’t find an elevator anywhere in the metro so we had to hoof the stroller up and down the stairs. Ugh… Also, a lot of the doors in the city weigh about 50 pounds to open with barely any wheelchair buttons. Now that I drive a stroller everywhere, I like my wheelchair buttons and elevators.
We got to the Olympic Stadium where the summer Olympics were held in 1976. We headed over to the Biodome where there were a lot of different animals and 4 different climates. It was pretty interesting. We had had plans to visit the Botanical Gardens as well but it was already 5pm and I understand that it would have taken another 2 hours. So we kyboshed that.
After that we had snacks outside on the grass in the shade and regrouped for the trip back to the apartment. Back into the metro, back home.
We had decided to have breakfast for dinner tonight (pancake mix that we had brought from home) but unfortunately, the mix was old and bad now. So we abandoned that idea. So we had left over pasta from last night and cracked open some Mac n Cheese from our reserves. We had a tiny bit of salad left over from last night and we had bought fruit to have a fruit salad so it all worked out ok in the end.
I’m about to have a shower and wash away the day. My feet are sore and suprisingly my back isn’t doing too badly.
Tomorrow we’re off to Quebec City where we’re not really going to spend much time there. We not even going to sleep there tomorrow night. Maybe it’s a mistake but I really want to get to Fredricton to see my parent’s friend and he’s tempted me with a lobster dinner….!
EXPENSES:
Sleeping: AIRBNB: $110
Items lost: Left at Allison’s: white knife and strawberry jam. Wee babe disposition: Quiet and happy in the stroller. loud when we got home.
Weather: A little too hot. 28 degree.
Stress level: Fab.
We said good-bye to Allison and Dave this morning. Thanks so so so much you two for putting all of us up at your condo. We LOVED your place.
We drove to the clinic where the wee babe got her 6 month shots. She did really well and barely any side effects all day. She was a little tired but no fever. If anything she had a laughing attack in the afternoon that lasted close to 10 minutes with the help of her big sister egging her on. It was hilarious.
A fourth tooth showed through for us finally with not a lot of angst either. She’s found her fingers and seems to have them CONSTANTLY in her mouth. It’s pretty cute. Ask me in 2 months if it’s still cute.
We got in the car and drove the short drive to Montreal. My hubby discovered something called “Airbnb“. Have you heard of this before? It’s like a cross between BnB’s and couch surfing. You search for the city you’re going to be in, put in a price range, add in some extras that you would like and WALLA! You place comes up. You basically can rent an appartment, house, room depending upon what you need. It’s really cool.
The only drawback of the place is that the parking kinda sucks. And from what I understand is that it’s not usually so terrible. There appears to be festivities happening on the little street so we had to park far away. Should make packing the car interesting.
So we’re staying in a two bedroom apartment in the heart of downtown Montreal. It has a kitchen, living room, bathroom, air conditioning, a huge TV, and internet. We are staying for two nights and it’s costing us $220. I think this is a killer deal for all that’s included. If you wanted to stay in a hotel with all those amenities it would be way more expensive. I’m really impressed with what my hubby found. I just hope we can find something equally as nice elsewhere.
We set out to find lunch and I HAD to have poutine. So we set off to find some. We found it, but I can’t say it was any better than poutine that I’ve had in Victoria. I was a little disspointed but it was still good.
The tweenager and I were tired from the day before and just wanted to rest for the afternoon. The hubby and I looked at what we were going to do for the next day and looked a bit at our upcoming itinerary. We’re going to play it a bit by ear.
My hubby was itching to get out and experience Montreal so he went for a walk and checked out Rue de St. Catherine’s and picked up some groceries for dinner. It’s nice to finally have our own functioning kitchen. It was nice with Dave and Allison’s kitchen but we didn’t want to make a mess
After dinner, my hubby wanted to walk to the top of Mount Royal. So at around 7pm we started on the big trek up the mountain. We didn’t know exactly how to get up there. I think we were thinking to hard about it. We decided to hike through the woods. Unbeknownst to us, there was a huge Galloping Goose like trail just over the hill but we thought it would be better to hike the stroller up the stairs and through the muddy trails. Sigh… It didn’t take too long to figure it out but it sure didn’t help with the walk.
It was a really nice evening and a beautiful walk over looking Lac de Castor and the city of Montreal.
Back down the hill and back to our Airbnb where we Skyped with my mom and all had showers and into bed. We were knackered.
EXPENSES:
Sleeping: AIRBNB: $110
Wee babe disposition: Wonderful as usual. Almost a little more hilarity than usual.
Weather: Nice 28 degree.
Stress level: Fab.
Last night we had a fire around the campsite. It was nice and warm. Tank top and shorts. Same thing we slept in. It’s a bit uncomfortable in the morning when you’re kind of sticky from the humidity I guess. But I’m not complaining.
We made some sandwiches and ate some breakfast and hit the road to Toronto.
I really don’t know how you would do it, driving around on the freeways without a GPS. There’s no signs say “Toronto” anywhere. It’s almost like the signs are now designed to work with the GPS units.
Once we arrived downtown we looked for parking. There’s parking EVERYWHERE. The first spot we saw we asked about price. Turns out that U2 was playing in Toronto that night. Man oh man, how much did I want to go. I heart U2. But with the wee babe and probably the price of the tickets, it wasn’t meant to be. But you could feel the vibe in the city that day.
Once parking, we unpacked the car and loaded the stroller. First stop CN Tower.
The heat wasn’t too bad at this point. It was around 10am.
The price for the tower was crazy expensive. $99. To go all the way to the top. Which we had to do. It wasn’t too busy either at this point.
I admit that I was feeling a little queasy and I felt a little intimidated standing on the glass floor. But the view was pretty cool. Bird’s eye view to say the least.
We ate our lunch at this point in a little couch area in the CN Tower which was neat. Bathroom break, diaper change and we were on our way again.
Now the heat was stifling. So about a half an hour later we stopped in at a Starbucks to pick up some iced drinks. We still had a gift card left over from our wedding (two years ago!!) and coincidentally we didn’t even remember that it was our 2 year anniversary until the next day. Doh!
Toronto reminds me of Vancouver only a bit bigger and HOTTER.
Off to Eaton’s Centre to do a little shopping. The tweenager found one of two dresses we need to get her for two weddings we’re attending in Switzerland.
The hubby picked up a hat. It’s a fedora. I’ll get a photo soon.
After that, back into the heat and off to Chinatown where the smells and atmosphere changed again.
The onto Kensington Market. Wow, the heat was really getting to me at that point and I was a bit worried about the heat for the wee babe so I stopped to breast feed her to make sure she was getting enough fluids. We had also packed a bottle with water for her.
I think I hit my peak sweating capacity in Kensington Market. Stupid me, I thought it would be a good idea to do some clothes shopping then too. Just one reason why you should always launder your clothes before you wear them after purchasing.
I’d had enough with the heat and we’d made a reservation at Milestones as we had a gift card from the hubby’s work. So we booked it there a half hour early to sit in the air conditioning and cool down.
All in all we were on our feet from about 10:30 to 4:45 so we were exhausted and hot. I can only imagine how we looked and smelt. I had the whole sweaty butt crack again.
For our anniversary dinner (that we didn’t know it was our anniversary but it worked out perfectly anyway) I had steak. MMmmmm…. It was delicious.
Luckily, the car and Milestones wasn’t that far away so we trucked back to the car just after 6 and packed up and headed home.
After we got back to the campground, the tweenager absolutely needed to have one last swim in the pool, so I fed the wee babe. After the tween and the hubby returned I headed off for a well deserved shower.
Early to bed so we can be early to rise for our 5 hour trek to Ottawa to visit Allison and Dave where we fully anticipate taking full advantage of their hospitality. Laundry, showers, electricity Oh MY!
We may have missed U2, but it was still a beautiful day.
EXPENSES:
Camping: $32 Dinner: $77 CN Tower: $90 Parking: $12 Item lost/found:Gold Necklace Wee babe disposition: Really good considering the heat. I worried more about if she was hydrated enough. Weather: Stinking HOT and humid: 32 degrees. AGAIN. Stress level: Pretty even keel.
