Does This Baby

Over a year ago, I was an urban mom, pushing my urban baby, in my urban stroller, through hip and trendy Vancouver. I was so, Sex and The City Mom. This weekend I'm looking forward to house hunting in the suburbs. OMG, yeah tell me about it. My baby needs a yard, and our money can only buy us something good out in the burbs. We've thought about all the different ways to buy a home in Vancouver, but when it comes down to it, we want a house, we want dirt, a plot of land of our very own, to do whatever the hell we want on it, without needing permission from any strata. So high ho, high ho, it's off to the burbs we go. Luckily, the mall out there is home to the new Sephora, and an H&M.

Eloise has been taking Sign Language classes since she was about 9 months old. I did the first session with her while I was still on Mat Leave, and my sister/nanny just finished another session with her recently. There are many studies that suggest Sign Language is a great tool for babies to communicate with before they start taking. Basic signs for milk, eat, sleep, and more show up in a lot of the kiddie programing on TV. So image how proud I was, when Eloise started using her first sign.... hat. Yup, hat. She doesn't tell me if she wants milk, or more, or if she's tired, but she'll tell me, by patting her head, that she sees a hat. Probably, the most useless sign for her to pick up but I don't care. That's my girl!

I went out for a catch up lunch with two of my mommy buds. One of the mom's and I are still breastfeeding, either because we're wimps, or martyrs, I haven't decided which yet. The bi-product of breastfeeding beyond a year, is that I'm skinny now, and I don't really work out. Of course I'm totally weak, and useless too. I can't open a jar of pickles to save my life. I talked about how even though I can fit into my size 25 jeans, I'm not feeling shit hot. My other non-breastfeeding mommy bud told me to shut the fuck up.

Hubby was reading the Georgia Straight this past weekend, and found that my one of my favorite pop bands is coming to town, Dragonette . They're playing Wednesday night, doors open at 8pm. Before I finished thinking about what if, I didn't have a baby to breastfeed to bed, and what if, I didn't have to work in the morning, he suggested I go. Me: Huh? What? Really I should go? Do you think? What about Eloise? What about work in the morning? Him: GO! He knows me better than I know myself. Or maybe he just doesn't want me to complain about how I missed another fun event because I'm such a selfless, devoted mother. I bought tickets this morning so I couldn't change my mind. OK not as devoted after all. Wish me luck.

I went to see a doctor, after waking up two days straight with a swollen and painful right foot. I hadn't done anything to cause it injury. The doctor told me it was Gout. I looked up Gout on Google while he wrote me a prescription. Gout mainly appears in elderly people and alcoholics. According to Wiki I have it because I'm producing too much Uric Acid, or  my bloodstream isn't getting rid of it fast enough. So the Uric Acid settles in the tissue of certain joints, commonly the big toe, and crystallizes, ew, hardens, and causes pain. I got a $15 prescription of pills, and am feeling 100% better. To avoid another Gout attack I need to stay away from the red meat, and alcohol.  

Eloise was so distraught the first week I went back to work, that she made herself throw-up all night Tuesday. I stayed at home with her on Wednesday. She wasn't well until the weekend. That was the longest week of my life. There were no illnesses making me feel guilty about being a working mom, on the second and third week, so they flew by quickly. And now I think I'm finally back in the swing of things. However, I'm still trying to get used to wearing high heels again. I'm going to invest in some Dr Schol's insoles.

I go back to work, tomorrow. OMG! People have been asking me how I feel about it. My general response is, "Excited, because I really need to start exercising my brain." I didn't realize how dumb I'd gotten this year, until yoga class yesterday. I've been taking yoga on Tuesday nights for the past 4 months. It's been great for my body, and an awesome excuse to leave the house without my baby. However, since I'm going back to work, I figured that I might actually want to spend evenings, after work, with my child. So when I signed up for my next series of classes, I decided to do a weekend class, Saturdays 1pm to 2pm. At the first class we started a little late, because of new registrants, signing of waivers, and payment processing. To my surprise, the instructor went an hour over. I guess it was to make up for the late start. I had only paid for an hour parking, so I was a little nervous when I walked out to the car. The Universe gave me a free pass t...