Slow day here at Chateau McRaine. Littlenose is settling back into our daily routine. Right now she is whining at me over the monitor. Loosely translated, the message is:

"Hello! You there! Come and get me! I think it has been made abundantly obvious that I am meant to nap in the arms of a nice older woman! Wait until the one you call 'Grandma' hears about this!
Your head will roooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It's nice to be home.

Merry Chrisrainemas!

One Christmas down, one to go. So far, Tally and Santa are getting along like a house on fire. She has been incredibly spoiled by the McQueens, and is soon to have the same treatment from the Raines, I'm sure. She loved all the attention and constant cuddles, but did NOT enjoy how Mommy strayed from her everyday diet - Santa should have left some tummy drops in her stocking! He did, however, leave everything she needs to start on some foods besides breastmilk in January. So, soon I will be able to eat whatever I want without being rewarded with a screamy baby - lock up yer fridges!!!!

Even Bert and Ernie escaped the daily December threat of coal in their stocking! Here they are, happy as little clams with their new toys. (Of course, they would be just as happy with one of Raine's dirty socks or sniffing each other's butts, but hey, it's Christmas.)

Happy Holidays, everyone!

BFFs

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my Mom on the phone, telling her the latest funny baby Tally story, and she laughed and said "Isn't that sweet? She'll be your best friend for the rest of your days!!" This made me think 2 things:

1. It must be true, or my Mom wouldn't say it. The lady used to be a nun, she don't tell no lies, yo.

2. That must be how my Mom feels about me. Sweet! Take that, older brother! I'm totally Mom's BFF. And I'm now Tally's BFF. Two BFFs! Everything's coming up McRaine!

Here is a picture of me breaking the news to Tally that we will be best friends the rest of my days. It took her a few months to warm up to the idea.

Silent Night......... yeah, right

Ah, the holidays are upon us. Those of you who know my husband know that this means for the next month the Peanut and I will be serenaded by him, singing all the hits: "Oh Chris Raine's Tree," "Here Comes Treeny Clause," and of course, any and all topics he can fit into "Auld Lang Syne," such as:

"Should Daddy change your bum, stinky girl

Or is it Mommy's turn?

You stink, you stink, you stink, you stink,

It's a good thing you're so cuuuuuuuuuuuuute!"

Merry Chris Raine-mas, everyone.

Long Winter's Nap

Raine and Talia have a game they play, Daddy sings "Super Baby!" and flies her through the air like a superhero. Talia loves it, everytime. Little does she know, her super power is sleeping. She routinely sleeps through the night only to go back to bed for a four hour nap almost every morning. All that napping wears her out, so she follows it up with another few hours in the afternoon, and then grabs a quick snooze after supper, before bedtime. Here's a pic of her catching 40 winks over the course of 5 HOURS the other day, in the middle of the living room floor, as life went on all around her.

Unfortunately, her other superpower is socializing, so when we're out and about she's far too busy making eyes at everyone to have a sleep. So you will be unlikely to witness Super Baby in action should we be out visiting at a location near you!!

Back from the Land of Half Perms...

Well, Littlenose and I are back from our big trip to mommy's hometown. We were pleasantly surprised to see several people still rockin' the half perm. Some things never change. Awesome.

We had a quick trip to visit Grammie and Grampy this week. Check out these pics - Grammie playing patty cake, Grampy whispering farming secrets to his grandbaby, and Littlenose with a soother in her mouth and one in her hand - otherwise she spends all evening "pulling the plug" and ticking herself off. Thanks to my friend Jac for the 1 in the mouth, 1 in each hand tip!

To give you an indication of how our visit went, here is a transcript of a conversation I had with Grampy just a few months ago when the Internet came to the Parkland....:

M'Dad: Suse!

Me: Dad!

M'Dad: Suse, I need some help with the computer!

Me: Don't you have Kent's number? Ha ha ha ha ha!

M'Dad: C'mon, I need to know how to get to that YouFace.

Me: What?

M'Dad: You know, YouFace. You can go there and look people up and see what they're doing and stuff. I tried to click there and I ended up in some god damned singles club!!!

Me: Oh! You mean Facebook!

M'Dad: Yeah, whatever. How do you do it?

Me: Well, don't click on anything that says LavaLife. That will keep you out of the singles club. Then you have to sign up and make a profile for yourself, then you can add people as friends and they can see the pictures you add, read your status updates, stuff like that.

M'Dad: What?!? Who the hell would want to read about me?

Me: Bingo.

Someday m'baby will have conversations like this with me. Sigh.

Consider us showered.....

Whew! Busy day yesterday. Talia and I were lucky enough to take in 2 tea parties yesterday. First, we met up with our friends Tammy, Michelle and Kade for the Caddy Lake Tea - a couple of hours of craft sale, bake sale, mystery jar bar, "OMG, your baby is so tiny!!," enjoying tea and dainties, and one little girl's burned hand - boo. I took a chance on a lumpy, foil covered, very heavy plate at the bake sale only to be pleasantly surprised by an entire pan full of chocolate chip cookie bars. Victory was mine.

After the Tea, we zipped over to Auntie Shannon's house where we were spoiled, spoiled, spoiled!!! Good friends, good food, guaranteed good times. How can you go wrong at a party with not one, not two, but three beautiful babies to snuggle with?? Not to mention a variety of small children with balloons, a diaper cake, and fairy wands. What a perfect day. Check out these pics - Mrs. Mc's specialty, the diaper cake, followed by gorgeous Hannah the baby whisperer (this is right before she asked me if she could take Talia home with her), and finally Auntie Shannon, giving Talia a super safe toy for a 4 month old baby.

Thanks to all you rule-breakers who did not let your presence be your gift, and special thanks to Shan, Erin and Courtney for putting on a great afternoon!

Peek-A-Boo-hoo-hoo

Yesterday my little friend and I spent hours and hours playing peek-a-boo. The Monkey loved it. She laughed and giggled and squealed all day long. When Daddy got home, I thought it would be great to show off our new game, so I started hiding, thinking smugly to myself that Daddy would be so impressed...... too bad Monkey was not! One round in, she screamed and cried and was inconsolable. Bad Mommy.

Yesterday we also bailed out on Shan, it was Bring a Friend night at the Running Room, but was also Get Your Face Scratched Out By The Ice Storm night, so I decided it was not the best evening to get back into running. Fortunately, The Monkey is ready for any and all ice storms. Check out her fancy new snow suit!

Ow, my freakin' ears...

Yesterday my Monkey and I packed up our colds and took them to the mall to meet our friends for some mall walking, now that our Stroller Fit class is over. Little did we know, it is Fire Drill Week at the mall. This means that the fire alarm goes off between 9:15 and 10:00am everyday, all week. And I don't mean it randomly rings for 30 seconds at some point between 9:15 and 10:00am, I mean it rings continuously. At full volume. For the full 45 minutes. Yikes! Our babies were not impressed, so we ducked into Wal-Mart to spend a lot of money, I mean, get away from the noise. It's clearly the universe telling me not to exercise.

Things that happened at the mall yesterday:

- the aforementioned fire alarm

- strangers stopped me to chat about my extremely good lookin' baby and point out she wasn't wearing socks

- 2 people complimented me on Monkey's skin colour and asked what ethnic background her Daddy is - and did not seem convinced when informed he is a plain old whitey from Ontario

We came home from the mall to be greeted by a call from the PC Party of Manitoba. They call here about once a month or so, just to check in. Now, those of you who know my good friend Erin also know that Erin likes to do things like sign up vegetarians to Meat of the Month clubs, etc. I can only assume that she has somehow signed me up with the Conservatives. I'm onto you, Erin!!!

ps - if you are following this blog, you may have noticed I'm trying out a variety of nicknames for the baby in an effort to get away from calling her "Stinky." Any suggestions are welcome. I'm clearly Mother of the Year.

pps - if you want to talk to Monkey, she is now taking calls - here's a pic of her chattin' up her Grammie

Ernie, you look delicious....

We are in dire straits for groceries around here, Bert and Ernie are in danger of being eaten if someone doesn't get to the store ASAP.

We are under the weather at the McRaine house. I am sitting here at the computer, listening to my peanut whistling away her nap on the baby monitor. What to do for a stuffed up baby? All she wants is her soother, only to find out she actually wants oxygen more, so she spits it out to breathe, and then wants it again..... a vicious cycle, I tell you. I hope we are all ship-shape later this week when we go running with Shan and Sooz!

Happy Hallowe'en from the littlest Raine Drop!!

(Contrary to what these pictures would have you believe, she actually liked her costume for most of the day.)

Now, time to brace myself for the excited squeals of Bert and Ernie everytime a trick-or-treater comes to the door. It's going to be a long night, folks!!

Well, Hallowe'en is upon us. Here is a pic of my Screaming Penguin. Tomorrow we'll be making the rounds to mom's work, dad's work, uncle kent's work, and cousin Landon's house. Phew!

Right now my babe is sleeping and I'm making mini chocolate muffins for Raine's Food Day. From scratch. Then I'm going to frost them with Jack-o-lantern faces. Food Day is a giant, day-long potluck, and anyone who knows Raine knows that he thinks potlucks are "miscellaneous dishes from miscellaneous people." It's funny to think of all those stuffy accountants and merchants having a Hallowe'en party with preschool-ish snacks. (No offense, honey.)

Bert spent a good portion of the last week bringing the baby objects to play fetch with - his Tigger, a bone, his rope knot, etc. He sits there, hopefully nudging the baby's foot with these items for up to 10 minutes at a time. When I try to intercede and play with him he has no interest. Sadly, since the baby has yet to take him up on his offers to play, Bert's self-confidence has plummeted. Poor little depressed chug. Maybe dressing up as a cowboy will help him out!

ever have one of those days?

When you have a baby, you can cram a bunch of action-packed stuff in the early hours of the morning. Don't believe me? Here's a few pics of my short little friend, one morning when we got up around 7am, ate, went in the exersaucer, had some tummy time, played in the bumbo, rode Bert like a horse, went in her jumper (nothing jolly about it that morning) and minutes later, all crashed out by 9am.

Yesterday I had no power for about 6 hours. I'm pretty sure Mr. Pink House Key had something to do with it, as in my mind I think his job at Hydro involves a large board with Monopoly-sized houses, and he picks and chooses who is lucky enough to have power. Anyway, I was just debating whether I should pack up my sleeping babe and head into the city, (or as I was calling it by then, the land of heat and lights) when my watchdogs alerted me to the fact that the hydro men were in the backyard. Victory was ours! Take that, Pink!!

PS - If anyone out there needs a wig, please let me know. Between me shedding out the last of my glorious, thick, pregnant lady hair, and my babe shedding the last of her gorgeous, thick, pregnant-mom-heartburn-inducing hair, we have enough to set up shop. Sigh.

it's a dog's life

Nothing much is happening around here today so I thought I'd turn the blog over to Bert and Ernie:

Bert's Blog:
7:30 am - Daddy leaves! I'm so excited!
8:00 am - Mommy gets up! The baby gets up! The baby eats! I'm so excited!
9:00 am - The baby went back to bed! I'm so excited!
9:05 am - noon - (daydreaming about the bear riding a unicycle while the Tetris theme plays in the background)
Noon - I went outside! I peed on the BBQ, the deck, the pool, the fence, and Ernie! They're all mine! I'm so excited!
12:30 - 2:00pm - I'm sleeping in the sun spot! I'm so excited!!
2:00 - 3:00pm - The hydro man is here! I can see him through the window! I think I'll bark uncontrollably for an hour! I'm so excited!
3:30pm - I humped my brother! I'm so excited!

Ernie's Blog:
7:30am - The Tall One leaves. One down, two to go.
8:00am - The Short One and The New One get up. The New One is noisy. And is allowed on the furniture. Who does it think it is?
9:00am - noon - The Dumb One is thinking about that damn unicycle again. How did I end up surrounded by these morons?
Noon - Ugh. The Dumb One made an ass of himself by urinating all over things that are clearly MINE. I will follow behind him and mark these items accordingly. Hello, what's this - HEY! WAIT A MINUTE!! THE DUMB ONE PEED ON ME!!!!!!!!
12:30 - 3:30 - The Short One somehow managed to lure me into this kennel AGAIN. Curses, I am no match for her siren song of liver treats...
3:30pm - Was just violated by The Dumb One. I hate this house.

Why Aren't I Sleeping?

This is my very first blog entry! How 2006!! Clearly, I want to be just like my good friend Ms. Pink House Key. I am sensing that "Why Aren't I Sleeping?" will be a common theme. Perhaps that would be a better name for this blog....

Well, hockey season is upon us again. Bert is taking it the hardest, when he sees Raine come upstairs with his giant "pack-pack" of equipment, he freaks out and humps his brother. I thought getting those boys fixed would decrease the humping, not increase it. Hmph. This pic is Raine with his pack-pack from last year, before the house renovations. We no longer have the arch or the faux brick.

The Little Lady, as her Daddy calls her, managed to grasp a toy and get it to her mouth on the first try tonight. Our little peanut, growing so fast. Watch out pups, your tails are next!