A Morning with mom

I took some pictures of Bronson this morning while I was blogging the happy halloween entry. He was quite awake and happy - I've just got to share them because they are "so Bronson" :)

" Look how tall I am, I hardly fit this chair"

Bronson often sports this look coupled with deep concentration and sometimes a fart.

"Hey mom, I'm just goofing around!"

"Enough with the Physics lectures, already, I'm so bored"
"Really?" (sarcastic)

"Hey there little lady"

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday Bronson and I baked some Halloween cookies. I did most of the work, but he was my inspiration for the faces :)
Here's a sampling.

The Walk

Today Mom and Bronson took a short walk. For the first time ever, Bronson did not fall asleep at all during the walk. He was particularly interested in the trees. He's got the makings of an arborist. Here are some pictures of him enjoying part of the excursion.

[ I should mention that this is the first time he's worn a sweater on a daytime walk - mom was in a tank top and capris, but it certainly was a bit breezier today than usual, could autumn finally be here!??!?!]

1. Bronson checks out the scenery.

2. Bronson chooses a sickly tree.

3. Bronson asks the tree a health question.

4. Bronson listens as the tree answers.

NOW who googled 'arborist' before looking at the pictures of Bronson?

The Bath

How many people does it take to have a bath?

3 - one to be the cute baby, one to get peed on by the cute baby and one to take the tasteful photos of said cute baby.
Teri Lynne - we're coming for you this December! And you don't get to hold the camera.

1. Bronson sees self in mirror: "Hey good lookin'!"

2. Bronson sees mom in mirror "What another set of milk dispensers! For me?!?"

3. Bronson continues to admire good looking kid in mirror.

4. Bronson realizes that kid in mirror is having water poured over him, and is shocked and dismayed!

5. Bronson shakes his head and gives a little smile - "Poor kid" he thinks, "Doesn't even know what's happening to him."

THE END

(This has been a Baby Bronson short)

Saturday; Sleep, Soccer and ... Party!

Another Saturday and more goofing off. Bronson woke at 6:30am and we hung out for awhile. Then, since soccer didn't start until 2:30, we decided to take a walk and let Matthew sleep in. He hadn't gotten much sleep this week, so we thought it was fair. We walked to Michaels (4 blocks), then over to Target (4 blocks in the other direction), then down Lake avenue on the way home. We found a bakery/cafe called Wildberry, where we bought a loaf of fresh sourdough bread and a Chocolate croissant (aka pain au chocolat). As my ACG co-workers can attest to - I love the pain au chocolat. So, I'm sure everyone could understand my disappointment when 2 blocks away from the bakery, I pull it out for a bite and find they've only given me a PLAIN croissant! I chose not to dwell, however. I have decided to go back on Monday. I'll sit at a table with Bronson and have a pain au chocolat and think of the Amaranth folk possibly enjoying the same thing from 'La vieux cafe Montreal' or Bond Bonds just then in the office. *sigh

After our walk and lunch and waking dad, we went to Soccer. I'm still injured, I actually think that I've aggravated my hip injury sustained during labour with Bronson (Mom, you may recall having to push my hip in while I was pushing). Anyhow, the deal is, I don't play until I can do a 30 minute run on my own. If I keep trying on the soccer field I'll keep pushing myself for one more tackle-just one more until I can't run anymore, then I'll never recover. I have come to terms with this. I feel I'm being very adult about it. Good for me :)

We played the aeronautics team - wow. They were composed of italian and south american Premier players - I'm sure of it. They were like the team from the Nike airport commercial - they were amazing, however they had an Achilles heel...big egos. Which all in all made for a super interesting game, and we only lost 3-0 so I think it went very well. I was talking to one of the guys on our team - he looks an awful lot like our friend from Vic, Fraser. And I found that he also talks like Fraser... and though I've never seen Fraser play soccer (I know, what kind of a friend am I?) I'm willing to bet that he plays just like Fraser, too. [Matthew says Fraser only plays goalkeep and that I'm on crack - perhaps someone can clarify?] I kept waiting for a Sarah look alike to come pick him up, but she never did. Anyhow, point, missing Vic moment #2.

After recovering from playing and watching soccer and eating some food stuff, we headed over to Karin and Thiago's housewarming party! They're both grad students in the astronomy department (the department tends to be quite incestuous), and they have a really nice, small 2 bedroom house not too far from here. We, of course took Bronson, and he was up to his usual crowd pleasing antics - sleeping and whatnot. Actually, he did spend some time awake and give some nice sleepy smiles, so I shouldn't make fun :)
The party was Brazilian and Puerto Rico themed (Thiago's from Brazil and Karin is from Puerto Rico) - it was fun and lots of interesting food. Matthew was particularly excited about the Pisco Sour they were serving, he hasn't had any Pisco since Kurt drank it all at our engagement party :) [Pisco is an alcohol found in South America, apparently unlike anything you can find here, very strong and smelly - I've never tried it myself] Anyhow, very fun party, spoke to lots of interesting people. At one point, I looked down at the coffee table in front of me, and realized that it's the same one Sabrina and Mike have. Then I looked into one of the shelves, and sitting there was a game I haven't seen in awhile - Puerto Rico! This was homesick moment #3, missing playing Puerto Rico at Sabrina and Mike's place.

Well it's 3:45 now in the AM - Matthew tried putting Bronson to bed at a decent hour, 11pm, and somehow that's backfired... on me ?!?

I'll end with a disclaimer - I'm not really homesick. I am having moments where I'm reminded of Victoria, family and friends, however they aren't sad moments, they're nice, actually because I'm thinking about people and places out there that I know, and that know me, and it's nice knowing there's more than just the 20 mile radius that is Pasadena. I'm actually REALLY loving it here - we're in a great neighbourhood, and making friends through the astronomy department, and we're certainly never bored. There's plenty about Pasadena for me still to explore, and once I've done that, then there's LA - this adventure's only begun. Yes, I'm tired because I get little sleep, and it would be nice having close friends or relatives around to babysit every now and then, but it's not really a big deal, we just take Bronson with us everywhere, and he sleeps and it's fine.
I don't want anyone thinking that we're unhappy here - we're certainly not, but I also don't want anyone thinking that we don't miss them - we certainly do.

My baby, the Car

Gone is Betsy, our trusty Plymouth Breeze. She served us well that car, thank you Danielle and Uncle Doug. That car took us on many the camping trip, road trip to Manitoba, many trips up island to Port Alberni, our honeymoon to Tofino, surfing, to school at Camosun Interurban, to art classes across town. She ferried my paintings to shows, she filled to the brim for craft fairs. She took us to the hospital and back, then to the hospital again during labour. She was Bronson's ride home after being born. And of course, her last trip delivering us and our few prized possesions to California. She was a spacious car, and in the right light, at the right angle she was smooth and beautiful. She will be missed.

Now we have a spunky 2005 Chevy Cavalier. We were given two pieces of advice by our local friends before buying Chev' ; Don't buy an American car and make sure you find one with a dent in it to get a better price. Well, we took neither piece of advice. So now we have dentless Chev' and a 4 year warranty.
Chev' is alright. He's got a red line on the side of him, maybe half a cm thick and it drives Matthew and I nuts. Why? Why a red stripe on a silver car?!?
He's got good A/C, is smaller than the Plymouth (though most cars are), and is very responsive.

He also has a cd player, which is good because until now I've been repeating the same 2 songs over and over again to Bronson in the car to calm him down [HE likes my singing voice, AND my whistle!]. Yesterday night B and I made a dash to Target before they closed, to buy some necesities; printer ink and batteries for his vibrating chair. While there I looked for an appropriate childrens cd for us to listen to in the car, and me to sing along with, so that every trip is not a scream fest. I didn't really like any of the kids cd's though, so I ended up buying a Disney cd of the Princess movies theme songs. Matthew's not as excited about this as I obviously am. I can sing along to all of these songs, I must say, I do a pretty good Little Mermaid. Anyhow, I have a feeling that Matthew won't let this last for long, so I'm looking for any excuse to take a drive (I didn't dare bring it into the house). However, in my defense I do think that this complements the indie-rock Rheostatics children album that we listen to almost every day.

These are just some of my favorite things...

While Matthew naps with baby (literally, this is what they look like right now) I get a few minutes to update the blog!

We've bought a new car - unfortunately Betsy (the Green Plymouth Breeze) suffered some severe damage to her underside on the trip down ... expensive oil leak type damage. So we spent the weekend looking at cars and in the end we purchased a new [to us] car. Pics and more details to come, but let's just say that it has everything we wanted in a car; it runs well, will last for 5 years, and has A/C - so we're happy.

Matthew has to sleep with Bronson for a bit each morning while I pump, because if Bronson's around when I do that, then he gets really jealous of the electric baby stealing his food, and it's hard to keep his soother in, rock him, eat breakfast and pump milk all at the same time. So I foten put him in bed next to Matthew, and this is how they end up, curled together. When I finish I don't want to join them for fear of rocking the bed and waking one or both - so I do something for myself, like take a shower without having a screaming baby sitting outside the washroom, or cook eggs, or read a chapter of my current book .. or indulge in chocolate.

On the subject of chocolate, here's where the US has Canada beat. A regular staple in any grocery store are chocolate covered pretzels - they're called Flipz, and why Nestle hasn't sent them up to Canada is beyond me. They even carry them in Michaels - so that's sort of a one stop shopping place for me :) In Victoria the ONLY place that one can find chocolate covered pretzels is Bernard Callebaut, and they're seasonal, and so expensive that I've never actually bought them, although I've often gone there with the intent, I've always chickened out. Here they're a fifth of the price :)

Furthermore, they carry the biggest chocolate bar that I can reasonably buy and eat within a week - the Hershey milk chocolate 1/2 pound bar. It's huge! My first instinct when I saw it was to buy a bunch and send it to all my chocolate loving friends in Canada. Then I realized that they don't like shipping food across the border and also that it weighs a half a pound and so would be expensive to ship. Sorry ladies.

Well, Matthew's got to head to school soon so I should wake sleeping beauties - he's going on a fieldtrip to Palomar today to look at the telescope with his instrumentation class, they'll be back ~ midnight. Bronson and I are going to go to the library, then when I'm stocked up with books we're going to hang around and enjoy our newly cleaned apartment (that was my day yesterday).

In the spirit of Stu - Peace out.

Impromptu Baths and Soccer Games

...this is what little boys are made of :)

After several incidents this morning in which the diaper failed to it's job, an impromptu bath for Bronson had to be undertaken. Bath days are usually Thursdays and Sundays, and although they've been getting better over the past 7(!) weeks, we're still not at a point where we all enjoy it. Until today.
Bronson really grew overnight. Today he is much longer than he was yesterday (half as tall as his grandma!) and he is much more aware than before. There were no tears during bathtime today, all smiles and happy noises. If he knew how to laugh, he would've been giggling up a storm. He watched mommy in the mirror and found that really exciting, then he caught a glimpse of himself and was a little unsure of what to think, but he kept on smiling.
He even enjoyed being dried off, re-diapered and didn't seem to mind that it took 4 tries to find a onesie that fit.

This afternoon we headed out to the CalTech fields for the intramural soccer games. Our team - the Cataclysmic variables (oohhh astronomy folk) were very happy to see us as they only had 10 players... until we got there making it 11. Due to injury from playing last week when I shouldn't have, I had to sit out and watch the game, normally I would have been itching to play, but today was the hottest day we've had since arriving and I was sweating just watching, so I didn't really mind. One of the other players' daughters was there - Charlotte, and she loves Bronson, so she played with him and his toys for the game while I made sure she didn't get hit in the face with the ball.
Unfortunately, I wasn't looking out for Matthew, and he got nailed in the face by the ball - hard. I'm happy to say that my first thought was "Oh no, Matthew!" and my second thought was "We can't afford a new pair of glasses!", and not the other way around :)
Aside from a bloody nose and jersey, though, he's fine. He even finished the game off.

101 Cookie Cutters

Yesterday Bronson and I took an outing to Michaels .. to see what we could see. There we bought some wooden turtles and dinosaurs and flowers for me to paint, then decorate his rrom with. I took him in the bambini sling that I bought in Victoria. He loves it because he's held close to me, but can lean back and look up at the lights (he loves looking at lighting and reflections), I love it because it's easy to get him in and out of, he doesn't squirm or cry when he's in it, it leaves my hands free and it's pretty (pinky/orange floral because this one's my accessory - not his! Although people often ask if it's a girl when he's in it, but we know better).

We met a woma with a baby in a carriage, I glanced in as we passed and did a double take "Wow, that's a small one!" I said to her. She said mine looked pretty small too. I asked how old, and her baby was and it's 5 weeks. Bronson is 6 weeks. I said, he's a big boy and told her the birth weight. Her girl weighed 7 at birth and now was approaching 10. The kid looked so tiny, and I realized that my baby was never as small as this 5 week old baby. It finally hit me for real, even though I've been saying it all along - Bronson is a HUGE baby! Wow, geez.

We had a successful trip to Michaels and came back with many projects for me to do. Our best buy, however was a huge cannister of cookie cutters - 101 to be exact! There's everything from the ABC's to numbers to sports stuff to valentine hearts to halloween figures and christmas trees and Easter bunnies, and cowboy boots and dog bones... it's awesome! I'm really excited to get baking cookies, and I bet that these will be fun for Bronson to use for years to come.

Unfortunately, however, my Canadian friends and family, they're not so keen on me sending food over the border so you shall not get any cool shaped cookies lest you come for a visit :)

[That being said, I miss Bernard Callebaut chocolate very very much and won't be disappointed if it's all I get for Christmas in Canada this year :)]

First Tears

Today Bronson cried tears for the first time... they were unfortunately not joyful tears, and they just broke my heart.

We went to the Pediatrician.

And he got 2 immunizations.

One in each leg, now covered with character band aids; scooby-doo on the left and tweety bird on the right. The immunizations made him screech a new type of screech - I guess it's the screech of pain. The really bad part of the visit was the check up however, that's the part during which he cried unconsollably and seemed genuinely irate with the doctor checking to make sure his hips were properly aligned.
Dr. Schlundt was amazed at Bronson's strength, he nicknamed him 'Bronson the Bruiser'. I hope that doesn't dictate his future career choices [read: school yard bully, football tackler guy]

Anyhow, the doc was great, and the new stats are in:

Weight 13lbs 3oz
Length 23 1/2 inches
Head 40 3/4 cm

He's in the 80th percentile for his height, 95th percentile for his weight and 92nd percentile for his head circumference... which basically means, he's big for his age.

Anyhow, poor Bronson has been upset all afternoon as he's still tender about the needles, and everytime I change him on the table he wails because he's afraid that I'll give him another shot. He has no problem with Matthew changing him, though, so I plan to milk this :)

More Bronson pics from week 6



(Studying with dad)

Bronson: Weeks 4, 5 & 6

Over the past 3 weeks Bronson's been doing his usual; eating, sleeping, dirtying his diaper... Lately he's started crying without cause, as is to be expected. In week 5 he really started tracking things with his eyes, namely myself or Matthew. He's started sleeping longer, 5 hour nights on his own in his bed. However his preferred sleeping place is in the arms of someone, anyone really, but if it's mom it's even better because then dinner is nearby.
He really likes his vibrating chair, although he prefers if we're rocking it with our foot, as well as it vibrating.

This week (week 6) he's been showing some hand eye coordination, he often grabs my necklace, and he's definetly getting better with the neck support. Although he's gotten longer, his belly has also gotten bigger! He no longer automatically grips your finger when you put it in his hand. He's started to mimick, as well. I've taught him to air kiss, and when he's having trouble latching for food, I show him how he needs his mouth to open wide, then he does it. We've also been dancing with our hands, and he's been mimicking my smiles.
He's also started smiling for comforts other than gas, gentle tickles will do it, or playing. My favorite is when he's sleeping, he often opens his eyes a slit and looks to see that I'm holding him, when he sees where he is, he then smiles at me and goes back to sleep.

Our Apartment

Our apartment in Pasadena is awesome! When we left Victoria, Matthew and I were sad, we thought we'd never have such a great apartment again... but we were wrong. While the windows are fewer than in Vic, and our views consist of the apartment next door, or, the other apartment next door, the general layout and size of this place is super!

We have two bedrooms, one for B, and two bathrooms, that's right, the baby has his own full size bathroom! The kitchen is large and new-ish, there's a dishwasher and a full size fridge. The dining room is separate from the living room and lit by a chandelier, and the living room is huge. The balcony is fair sized, certainly big enough for painting on and drying paintings on. We have a tree already - my parents bought us an orange tree and it's doing fantastically - I'm hoping for oranges within the next year.
Out back of the building is a small grassy yard with a shady tree and a sandbox and childrens playhouse. All 10 apartments in the building are filled with families wherein at least one parent is a grad student at CalTech, so everyone is pretty much in the same boat as us, and often when Bronson's crying at night, we can hear other children crying too, so we don't feel that we're disturbing anyone at all.

The apartment is located half a block North of CalTech, a 10 minute walk from the Astronomy building. 12 minutes south brings us to the CalTech gym, pools and sports fields where we play soccer every Saturday on the Astronomy intramural team.

We're about 6 blocks from Target, a mere 3 minute drive... to the west is South Lake Avenue, a famous shopping area of town which Bronson and I walk to frequently (only 3 blocks). Lake Avenue houses bookstores, childrens toy and clothing stores, adults clothing stores, food places, neat shops, movie stores and our local grocery store; Pavillions which is an offshoot of Vons, which is an offshoot of Safeway. Basically, we're still getting Safeway brand stuff. Even the cucumbers here still come from BC.

To the West is Bronson's future nursery (the CalTech nursery), once he needs one, just 1 block away, the Pasadena City College, where I may take an art course or two, and the library. These are ~4 blocks away, however half a block to the west is a corner store/deli and a great park including the whole kid play area, basketball courts, tennis courts, a baseball field and picnic area.

Anyhow, the moral of the story is - we have lots of room to entertain houseguests, we're near a lot of great places to visit and you'd even get your own bathroom complete with tub and shower, so come one, come all to visit the California Stevensons.

I should also mention that our apartment came with an air conditioner (Thank goodness, even cloudy days are pretty hot down here)!

Baba & Gedo

I've been feeling quite... let's say domestic, of late. Baking, cooking elaborate suppers, decorating, cleaning and looking to entertain guests. The nesting continues, it seems.

Looking through my cooking books, I started to notice that there were quite a few recipes written by my grandmother (Grandma Kay, who would be Bronson's Baba) I started to mark the recipes that were from her and subsequently have unlocked a gold mine of all my favorite foods that she used to make me. Her slush and pizza dough and oat fudge bars... needless to say I've been thinking of her and cooking up a storm. I'm so surprised that after getting rid of 3/4 of our stuff and moving to another country I've been able to find family memories (heirlooms?) I never even knew I had.

Here's grandpa Tony (Gedo) and Bronson

Time with my family

Before driving down to California to meet up with Matthew, I spent a week living in Port with my parents and Bronson. It wa definetly very odd sharing my old room with my baby... but all in all it was a good visit - my parents got me hooked on about 6 tv shows in 2 days and Matthew had to work to undo it all once I got down here. So, no the California Stevenson's do not have cable, instead Jennifer has a dvd buying allowance amounting to about 2 show seasons/month and has already caught up on all there is to know about her current favorite show Gre's Anatomy.

Small towns are interesting little things, at a baby clothes store I was asked who the father of my baby was !!! and a trip to Wal Mart with my mom involves alloting ~ 30 extra minutes to show off her grandson to everyone she sees (I'm not complaining, I like to show him off too, I was blessed with a darn cute kid)

On this note - apologies Spence I think we got you in trouble with your grandma for not telling her you'd already seen the baby!

The best part about grandparents, aside from the wardrobe and etc's they provide the baby with is that their answer to the question "Will you hold the baby while I..." is always "YES!!!"

Grandma Diane


Grandma Val


Grandpa Tim


Grandpa Alan

Bronson's Baptism

Bronson was baptised on September 10th at Fairfield United Church - rumour has it that he was the youngest baby to ever be baptised there. He looked dashing in the crocheted gown he wore (par grandmere Lorraine), and got many compliments, he also got quite hot and had to change for the afterparty... I mean sunday school and coffee time (hence the onesie in the pics) :)



Bronson with his godmother Sabrina

Fraser & Sarah

Good friends of ours, fellow gamers, and now husband and wife!

Fraser and Sarah got married in Courtenay, BC on September 17th, the day before Matthew left for California. It was a beautiful wedding, and Bronson especially enjoyed the dance floor (he managed to sleep through his dad forcing him to dance to fast, loud music, but once we took him upstairs to bed, he woke instantly)

We had a great time and want to thank Fraser and Sarah for asking us there, and for including Matt in the party as a groomsman.

As wedding favours they gave out cds of their favorite romantic songs, currently my favorite cd.
One song in particular however is making me miss them very much - the song goes "If we're lost, we'll be lost together..." and it really reminds me of a story I heard about Fraser getting lost on a hike with friends and having a total meltdown. Fraser - I think you picked well with the Sarah choice - she'll do a good job of helping y'all find your way, so stay calm and dress warm :)

Here are picture of Bronson at 2 weeks old in his little tuxedo;

We have arrived!

Well, Bronson and I have arrived and settled in to our new abode in Pasadena. We've been here for almost 3 weeks now, we're completely unpacked and leading relatively normal lives...

Matthew's been doing the school thing, it's rather hectic, but he's holding up and Bronson has been concentrating on growing... he's outgrowing clothes and fitting new ones, and it's pretty exciting. As for me, I finally threw my back out - those who know me well probably put bets on how long it would take for that to happen, thank goodness it was after the 4 day drive to get here, nevermind the packing oh yeah, and the labouring and birth :)

My back felt alot better after 3 days of icing and lying around, so on Saturday I played half a game of soccer [Matthew and I switch at half time so that one of us is with Babe at all times], and that was a bad idea, now I'm pretty badly sore again and I've promised not to play next week on penalty of chocolate being withheld for a week.

Anyhow, to avoid the mishmash, I will follow this up with specific pieces about life over the past few weeks, after a quick mention that I'm painting with oil again! Yay! and I've done 4 new pieces and found an amazing art supply store called Blick, so I'm quite happy with the space our family has created down here. In fact, I think we all are.