Every holiday season, I always like to think of different ways of how we can give back. This year, I have started a tradition with Luna to give back to children her age. It’s a simple shoebox project organized by the Samaritan Purse.

All you have to do is find an old shoebox. Determine the child’s age category and if it’s a boy or girl. I decided to give it to a little girl with the same age as Luna. That way, Luna will have a sense of connection with it and understand that she is helping another girl her age somewhere far far away and she’s making her own small difference in this world to help a child in need. Once you’ve determined the age category and sex of the child, all you have to do is fill in the box with all sorts of things. So off we went to our local shopping mall. While choosing what items to buy, I kept on thinking of the basic necessities a girl Luna’s age needs most. If Luna was this girl, what would she need? So I filled the box with pink & white socks, little girls undies, shirts, colourful pencils, drawing notebooks, colourful hair ties, soap & a toothbrush. But how can I not give a child fun things too? So I included some stickers, candycane and a small teddy.

Luna helped me pack the box with all the things we bought. Then once everything was tucked inside the box, Luna took the teddy, gave it a quick little kiss and a hug before we squeezed it back into the box.

When we dropped it off, the lady said that the children in Ethiopia should receive them by January. Oh, how I wish I could see the little girls face when she opens her box. A special gift from Luna to another little girl living on the other side of the world.

My little girl is growing up. I finally finished Luna’s year book two and is on it’s way! I can’t wait to see it printed. It’s so nice to see her monthly photos side by side and to see the comparison from year one & year two. You can see how she’s so much more playful in year two and her personality shows more. I almost gave up on these monthly photos and only missed 1 month (month 21) but I’m so glad I continued doing it and plan to continue until she decides she’s had enough. I’m debating if I should keep the red chair & alphabet poster for her year 3 monthly photos or completely change it up. What do you think?

It gets a little harder to get her to sit down for long periods so towards the end of year two, I had less than a minute to capture her sitting on her chair. Mmmm…. I’m already late for her month 25 photo. Gotta get on it!

Last monthly photo for year 2! Luna turned 2 a couple weeks ago while we were in Mexico and it’s hard to believe that our little girl has been part of our family and this world for 2 years. It’s such a wonderful age as she is even more aware of her surroundings and is always so excited to discover the world with a favourite saying that repeats a million times a day: “what’s that?”. She wants to know about everything she sees, feels & touches.

Some of her other favourite sayings are: “I’m mommy & daddy’s baby”, “I’m stuck”, “are you ok?”, “daddy at work”, “mommy, daddy, papa, coco… happy”, “daddy hold me”…. it’s always so sweet hearing her cute little voice as she expresses her thoughts & feelings.

I had also promised myself that I would continue doing her yearly book to document her life year by year. As soon as I finished her 1st year of life book, I immediately started working on book 2 which is almost done.

We are so proud of our little girl and so happy to see her growing up with so much joy & love for life. We are all very excited to see her continue to grow as we enter a new chapter of her life.

As Luna grows, our space grows with her too. We’ve changed our studio space numerous times to continually adapt to our ever changing lifestyle. Before Luna came to our life, our studio space was mainly used to work. When Luna came, we had to share the space with her and had to move furniture around to make room for her to crawl around. Now that she’s a little toddler and is more mobile, we’ve changed the space again to adapt to her needs and created a little fun art/play factory for her.

Luna loves doodling and being read to. So she now has a little art table, a reading rug, storage for her toys and a place to feature all her art work. We also created a family picture board where we’ll continually add photos of our family. She loves looking at it and screams out “mommy’ & “daddy” as she points to our photos. Luna loves spending time in here and every time she walks in, she goes straight to her artwork hanging from the ceiling and screams out “nice!”.

I always find it important to create different spaces in the house based on the activities that we would do in them. Luna knows that this is her space and it’s a place where she can freely explore, discover & play.

I’ve been doing these monthly photos since month 1 and for the first time, I missed last months photos! Woops. But I hope to do these monthly photos as long as I can – or as long as she is willing to cooperate.

Luna has been saying a whole lot of words lately. She’s become our little chatter box and is known to be a social butterfly at daycare. Luna is at a stage where she copies everything we do and tries to mimic it all her own way. Luna loves spending time with all her cousins and constantly looks for them when they aren’t around. She’s also obsessed with brushing her teeth and washing her feet. Luna is happiest when she’s able to express herself fully and LOVES being surrounded by a lot of people and enjoys dancing to music.

Who doesn’t love bubbles? We spent the afternoon/evening last Saturday at the Jazz Festival and Luna, being the social butterfly that she is, made friends with people blowing bubbles.

Our very good friends are here visiting from California and we had the loveliest family style picnic in the backyard last night. They’ve been gone for a year and we’ve missed them so much. We spent the evening exchanging a whole lot of stories while nibbling on caprese salad, homemade bread, paté from Provence & homemade mushroom pizza. And, you can’t end a backyard picnic without ice cream in pink cones!

Deep Cove, in North Vancouver is one of our favorite places to go to. Every time we’re there, Mommy & Daddy have to stop into Honey’s Donuts for what many regard as Vancouver’s best donut. We didn’t want Luna to start the day with all that sugar so she got a savoury scone instead. Kind of a raw deal, it’s true, but, on the up side, her Captain’s chair is the best seat in the house.

When I was shopping for a diaper bag, I didn’t like what I was seeing. They were either gigantic and quite tacky or modern but really expensive. I couldn’t get myself to purchase a bag for $150 or more that could only be used for a single limited-time purpose. So I always use my existing tote bags to carry Luna’s essentials when we would go out. I mean, you really just need to bring a few diapers, extra clothing, wipes and a changing pad. As the months went by, my diaper tote became a carry-all for her basic needs & some toys. Then, it became a lunch bag. Now, my tote bag fits all my things, Luna’s things and also our snacks! And, they hang perfectly on most strollers. I rotate between Eye of the Storm, Dreaming of Marrakesh, Seawind & Willows or Trees, Bees & Teepees. They’re perfect for your daily outings with the little ones in tow. And best of all, neither of you will out grow them.

This weekend, we were at the Mayfair, a yearly fundraising event for our nephews’ school. There were rides, food vendors, old-time carnival games, live music and a thrift market. At the market, we found some cute wooden toys for Luna including this vintage wooden bear for one dollar. He’s a noble little creature who says his name is Mr. Bearbear. This is his story.

Mr. Bearbear lives high up in the forest trees. On a bright spring day, he felt a calming breeze full of Seawind & Willows billowing by, beckoning him towards the beach and seashore.

At the beach, Mr. Bearbear did what all bears do. He nestled into the warm sand staring out at the waves and boats.

He sat on a log and quietly smiled at the gulls that flew by. “Now this is living,” thought Mr. Bearbear.

Suddenly, without warning, a Polka-Dotted Giant picked up Mr. Bearbear.

The Polka-Dotted Giant threw Mr. Bearbear to and fro. Mr. Bearbear wasn’t hurt but he was all twisted and tangled up. The Polka-Dotted Giant did not have a gentle touch. She only knew of joy, love and excitement.

After seeing Mr. Bearbear twisted up, the Polka-Dotted Giant realized Mr. Bearbear was too delicate a creature for this kind of Giant-sized rough play. She put Mr. Bearbear down letting him sit gently in the sand.

And the two of them lived happily ever after.

Luna loves going for walks around town. She prefers walking outside and gets angry when we go into a store. It’s fun watching her feel so proud of herself walking with everyone else. It’s also funny to see her stop at certain stores to admire their window display. My little window shopper. Our walk around town is very slow though that I sometimes feel like I’m sleep walking.

I love making things for people but making fun things for little people is even more special. We were at our friends’ girls birthday party yesterday and I wanted to give them something creative and productive. So I came up with an idea of an artist kit. Awhile back, I found these great wooden boxes at a local crafts store and I loved them so much that I bought a few. I decided to use those boxes and stuff them with all sorts of art supplies like oil pastels, paint, glitter paint, brushes and a wooden number 3 as it was their 3rd birthday. I then personalized each box with the first letter of their name. ‘O’ for Orla and ‘L’ for Lucy. I know little kids appreciate anything that is made especially for them – and after all, turning 3 is quite special!

I used bakers twine to bundle a little canvas with each box and then sewed a wooden button around the middle of the twine to finish it off. Happy 3rd birthday Lucy & Orla. We can’t wait too see your masterpiece!

We were at our friends little girls birthday party yesterday and we all had so much fun. The party was held at Jump Gymnastics in Yaletown and definitely a great place for a party! Luna was too little to jump on the trampoline but she got to try balancing on the beams, hanging on the bars and playing with lots of balls. After all the jumping, running and an hour full of activities, the party ended with lots of sugary treats for the little people. Luna ate a slice of cake, a mini cupcake, two cookies and a giant marshmallow all to herself! She spit out the only non-party food on her plate – a strawberry!

My mom insisted that I buy Luna proper walking shoes that has ankle support. They didn’t have it in white so Luna is stuck wearing boy shoes. Though, I don’t really mind the navy colour… they look pretty cute on her.

Thanks to Lucy and Orla for the beautiful Valentines card for Luna. Today was spent chatting away with Tracy as the girls spent time playing and eating a whole lot of croissants! Gotta love those carbs. I can’t even count how many croissants the little girls ate but it kept them happy.

A bookcase full of treasures for Luna to destroy! She can stand here for quite a long time rummaging through our stuff. Our things must be more exciting then her little toys.

The past few days has been exploring the house in circles. Luna has started walking with me holding her lightly on one hand. Imagine how exciting this is for her to be able to explore on both feet! She has to go to every single room, wave to herself when she passes a mirror then sits on her little rocker for a few seconds in her room for a little break. The walking continues after that around and around the house! Non stop.

She has also decided to make my favourite necklace (a necklace I wear everyday) her favourite too. She puts it on as soon as she wakes up and wants it on all day. I want my necklace back Luna!

Today, we had our friends Francis, Tracy and their little girls Lucy and Orla over and we devoured my various homemade pizza, lots of coffee, belgian apple torte and Francis’ homemade biscotti. We had a great time  eating and exchanging stories while the girls enjoyed their elephant pizza and play time together.

One afternoon, I decided to have some outdoor playtime with little Lily so her very pregnant mother can get some rest. Lily, Luna and I got all bundled up and played at the beach and park by our house. We collected some feathers and leaves and ran around to keep ourselves warm. It was great fun to hang out with little Lily and watch her skip, jump on the swing and say hello to the dogs walking by. It made me feel like I was 3 years old again.

I would like to introduce Luna’s favourite buddies from Left to Right: Elephant, Teddy, Ducky, Ollie, Sweet Pea, Little Lamb, Punky and Owl. These are her stuffed friends that keep her company. Little Lamb is her favourite as she stays with her in her crib during naps and throughout the night. Little Lamb also gets the most hugs and kisses from Luna and without Little Lamb, naps and sleep time just wouldn’t be the same.

Today was spent at Francis and Tracy’s place for a little Lucy, Orla and Luna playdate and for the big people to re-connect. Francis and Tracy made us some fabulous sandwiches, banana bread and homemade apple tart made on a whim by Francis himself. We brought Peter’s yummy rosemary parmesan baked polenta chips and a couscous salad. Food with lots of chatting and laughter makes for a perfect weekend, again.

After lunch while the kids played and the two big boys chatted in the living room, Tracy and I had some time to talk mom to mom. It’s rare for two moms to be able to sit down and have a nice conversation without kids climbing all over us. Tracy and I both come from the creative industries so it was nice to be able to talk to a mom who understands the need to not loose your creative self-identity. I think it’s always a challenge to find the right balance of motherhood and rediscovering yourself again. While there are many challenges, there’s also lots of  opportunities to chart out personal passions and steer life in new directions. While there will always be decisions to make and paths to find, I believe we have the power to shape our dreams and nurture a family at the same time.

I feel like this past year, I’ve had the time to re-discover who I am again as a creative person. Even with limited alone time, I feel the most creative I have ever been in years and ideas are bouncing out of my head. I’ve learned to really stay focused and to continually remember all the things I want to achieve and to only work on things that bring me closer to what I want to accomplish in my life. With all the choices that I am constantly faced with daily, I always have to stop and ask myself this question, “will doing this bring me closer to my goals and aspirations in life?” If the answer is no, then I turn around and simply don’t do it. If the answer is yes, then I jump right on it.

Though things will continue to change while Luna grows and our family grows with her, I feel it’s important to staying focused on self-defining what matters in life. There’s no simple solution but the answers become a little easier when you’re surrounded by good friends and supportive households. The big people are growing up as much as the little people. As they should.

This past year, I’ve been working on a special book documenting Luna’s first year of life. When we had Luna, everyone kept on telling us to take a lot of photos as the year will go by really fast. Well, we did and we took A LOT! In this digital age, I was a little concerned that the photos we were taking were just getting lost in our computer. I grew up (Which I’m sure all of you did too) where we had tons of albums at home documenting our life. I think that’s been non existant lately as our computer has become our photo album. But I don’t find the satisfaction looking through photos on my monitor screen – I feel less attached to the photos I am looking at. It’s just not the same. I want to be able to hold a book, go through the pages, feel the paper… it’s more intimate and feels more special.

So I came up with this idea and jumped right on it the first month Luna was born. It’s a 276 page book with different chapters for every month of her life. Here’s a little write up taken from the book:

To my daughter Luna,

I made this book, for you, to document your first year of life. Whenever you were having your afternoon naps or dreaming away in the evening in your cozy room I would be working on this book – creating something special for you to have. For such a little person, you sure have taught me so much about patience, love and to see the world with fresh eyes. When we first laid our eyes on each other when you were born, it was as if you knew who I was already and I felt the same. The love that I feel towards you is so powerful that I always have a hard time describing what it feel like. This book shows how much you have impacted our lives and how much love you have brought into our lives too. I hope that when you grow up and look at this book, it will be a nice reminder of all the special moments we have shared with you during your wonderful first year of life. All the milestones you had accomplished, your first frustrations, first solids, first rollovers, first vacation, first birthday… everything you learned and discovered, we were always there beside you, watching you discover your world and grow to become such a beautiful little girl. We are so proud of you, our dear daughter and thank you for coming to this world to be part of our lives.

Love, Mommy

I plan to do one for every year of her life (crossing my fingers), kind of like an encyclopedia with different volumes. It’s really not that much work. I just take a few hours per month working on a few pages. Looking through this book now after a year has past, I can’t help but get a bit emotional as it’s really been such a special year. We now look forward to what year 2 will bring!

If you haven’t noticed, we take monthly photos of Luna. This idea was inspired by a story my photography teacher had told me back in highschool. It’s too bad I can’t remember who the photographer was but he took a portrait of his son, each and every day, during his first year of life. As a present to his son, he put all the photos together as a poster from day 1 to day 365. Normally, it’s hard to notice the little changes on a daily basis but with him documenting his son’s daily development he was able to capture all the little changes you ordinarily wouldn’t notice.

Years had gone by and I had never forgotten this story. When Luna came to this world, I decided I would do the same. Well, the responsibilities of parenthood took it’s course and I realized that taking the exact portrait photo of her everyday seemed like such a big task to a new mother. So instead, I decided to do a monthly photo of Luna with different patterned fabric background every month. With my love for pattern and fabric, I decided it would be fun to use a different pattern every month to make the photos fun and whimsical. Now that I look at these photos after a year had passed, it is amazing to see them all side by side and see the little and big changes the first 12 months have brought.

Twelve months was my end mark for doing this but I find it fun to do and I want to continue. But I need to find an easier way to do it – like a quick snapshot every month of her in the exact same location. Maybe sitting on one of her chairs in a corner of a room? Mmm…

What an amazing 12 months it has been. Just a year ago, our little girl was born. She was so little when she came out and although she’s not that tiny now, she will always be our little baby. Luna has developed 4 teeth now and mostly refuses being fed by a spoon. She would rather feed herself finger food which for Peter and I, means major cleaning up after every meal. Luna traveled for the first time with us to Mexico, and she surprised us by being such a great little traveler (she slept for most of the 5.5 hour flight and happily waved and smiled at people around her).

At 12 months, she’s finally crawling and loves exploring the house. She finds going through our bookshelf and ripping pages from magazines and notebooks to be more enjoyable then playing with her toys. We’ve also realized just recently, that Luna fancies birds. When we were in Mexico, Peter would take Luna out and point out the birds flying in the sky. Surprisingly, she remembered that experience and gets excited whenever she sees any type of birds whether real or not.

Luna also enjoyed her first birthday party. She was so excited all day and was happy to play with her baby friends. It was as if she knew that it was her special day. We are also surprised to see by how many words she understands now. Like: “hi”, “bye”, “balloons”, “clap your hands”, “don’t eat it”, “birdie”, “eat”, “play the music”, “shake it”, “brush your teeth”…

It’s been a fun first year and we are looking forward to more growth and adventures in year two!

We celebrated Luna’s birthday this weekend at home with family, friends and a whole lot of balloons hanging from the ceiling. We filled our dining table with food and treats for everyone to enjoy. It was a sweet little homey celebration and seeing Luna so happy playing with all her baby friends and being surrounded by so many balloons makes for a perfect 1st birthday.

On the dessert buffet menu: Chocolate mousse in little cups, marshmallow swirls in sticks, cupcake, yoghurt raisins, old fashioned lollipops, brownies, m&m cookies, strawberry wafer sticks, vanilla birthday cake and an assortment of little round mousses. I was happy to see it almost wiped out by the end of the party.

For the goody bags, I used little brown lunch bags and filled them all with a package of yoghurt raisins and sweet berries. I always have a lot of great little fabrics lying around my studio so I cut up two different fabrics using pinking shears to cut the edges. Pinking shears create a saw-tooth pattern that’s graphic and fun. Then I printed thank you notes on thick watercolour paper using my epson printer and cut the edges with pinking shears as well. Mini red & blue clothes pins were used to hold the thank you note and fabric in place. To finish it off, I wrapped bakers twine around the bag and tied it up like you would a ribbon.

It was so fun making these goody bags and the best thing about it is that it’s cheap and really easy to put together. There’s also a folky but modern feel to them which I really love. The little packages of yoghurt raisins and sugar berries were individually wrapped with paper I already had at home. For the yoghurt berries, I used these newsprint zine magazines we bought awhile back from WeWorkForThem. The sugar berries are wrapped with picnic cloth patterned paper that I’ve been waiting to use for a special occasion.

Below is the balloon-themed e-card invite we sent out. We hung up balloons on the ceiling of each room which created a sculptural mobile ceilingscape. It’s so fun and festive were keeping them up until they all deflate or fall down on their own.

Using inkjet sticker paper, I also created customized water bottles and cups. Each water bottle was a solid block of color with a celebratory word on it like “HIP”, “HOORAY”, “JOY” & “LOVE”

If you haven’t noticed yet, I have an obsession with wrapping and packaging things. I will make all the effort to wrap a loaf of homemade bread, fresh cookies, herbs etc… to give to friends. I also love the feel of paper and fabric together. I guess it’s the smoothness of the paper and the raw texture of a fabric that always seems to work together nicely.

This little present was a wooden alphabet ‘A’ train for little Avenir. The fabric and paper gives a homey feel while bakers twine wraps the preciousness inside and seals it with love.

We just came back from a fantastic first family vacation to Mexico. We spent a week in the Mayan Riviera and was absolutely spoiled by the white sandy beaches Mexico has to offer. We spent our days having long afternoon siestas by the pool or morning walks and swims at the beach. Mexico, we miss you and we will be back!

Luna is starting to amass quite the collection of toys. In addition to the playroom where we keep most of her toys, we have satellite collections of toys in the den, kitchen and her room – the places where she spends a lot of time in. To keep things neat and tidy, we’ve been storing her toys in baskets and felt boxes we’ve collected. Today, we found a new basket at, our favourite garden store, the Prickly Pear. They have a collection of handwoven baskets from Ghana. They’re bright, colourful, all one-of-a-kind and have a raw earthiness to them. It’s the perfect size for storing a small treasure trove of toys while doing double-duty as a decorative curio.

My afternoon was spent with Chloe and her little Avenir. It’s so nice to have these simple mommy’s day where stories are shared about life, home, family, food…  as we sip coffee and nibble on snacks and Chloe’s yummy grilled cheese basil sandwich.

Chloe lives in a beautiful two bedroom apartment in Downtown with her husband Julian. They have done a great job incorporating Avenir’s toys and play space within their home. It’s always nice to see people live the way they’ve always lived but made minor adjustments to blend baby necessities into their space and not making their home look like the toy section of a department store. I think that’s always a challenge that people have – how do you blend in your baby’s play space and still keep your home look like it belongs to the family and not solely to the baby.

In Chloe’s case, Avenir’s toys are all stuffed in this awesome apple pattern bag in the living room. It’s a simple idea and totally works. I’m always thinking of different ways to store Luna’s toys and I think this is brilliant. For a ‘small’ play space, she’s got this sheep skin rug in the living room where Avenir and Luna spent most of their time playing. It’s funny how they kind of just stayed within that area. Throws were also stacked neatly on a vintage chair on the corner of the room for anyone to use.

It’s a comfortable space to be in where Chloe and Julian still have their space to be adults but yet Avenir has his own space to play and grow.

It’s never too early to be a Jamie Oliver fan. What’s for dinner Luna?

I’ve been wanting to make this simple bunting project for quite sometime now and finally had a chance to work on it yesterday. We changed our internet and cable tv provider so I was stuck at home yesterday waiting for the new carrier to hook us up and get it working again. Without internet, I couldn’t help feeling like I had nothing to do. But I shook that idea off my mind and decided to to take full advantage of my day at home and went back to the simplest pleasures of life – back to the sewing machine! So I sewed all day and finally made this simple bunting project that’s been lingering in my mind.

Ariana, from Crow Rooster Crow inspired me to make this gorgeous bunting. Hers are made from vintage cocktail napkins but I thought it might be easier for me to source fabric instead of searching for vintage napkins. So off I went to the fabric store over the weekend and went straight to the clearance bin where I found these scraps of fabric that seemed like they were just waiting for me to take home and bring them to life.

To make the bunting, I cut my fabric to about 7″w x 9″h. Repeat this until you have enough. The seams I just eyeballed which I think are about 1/4″. Once you’re done sewing the seams on all your fabric, evenly space them along the bias binding tape (I spaced them out about 2″ apart), folding the shortest edge over, and pin in place. Then sew the flags with a straight stitch and voila, you’ve got your own handmade bunting!

I love having them hung up in our dining/kitchen area. It brings a lot of colour to the space and I also love how the light from outside shines through the fabric. When I first hung it up, Luna kept on reaching up wanting to touch them all. She also couldn’t stop admiring all the different colours as she ate her dinner last night. So I couldn’t resist and made a smaller version for her room and hung it up by her window. I think it’ll be a nice sight for her to wake up to every morning with the sun shining through all the different coloured fabric.

This is a simple project that anyone can do. Happy sewing!

Recently, we went to my friend Janice’s birthday party for her little boy Kai who turned 1. The party was filled with little packages of popcorn for everyone to help themselves with, party favours in blue packages filled with their favourite teas, water bottles with custom labels, cupcakes and other yummy treats. I like how everything was cute and on-theme. It was lovely how it all came together. With a little imagination, it’s not really that hard to do. It’s mostly finding readymade packaging and re-imagining it by dressing it up with some ink jet stickers and nice simple designs. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Janice is a professional graphic designer (we both worked together at Kevin Louis Design before we went on mat leave). Kids birthday parties are a fun way to make and experiment with DIY projects. And, it’s also an excuse to treat yourself with all the sweets you wished you could eat everyday. Happy Birthday Kai! Thank your mom for a lovely party.

Photographs taken by Jason & Lena from Jaylena Photography.

Aside from jumping at home in her jolly jumper, Luna has found a new favourite activity – swinging! I take her to the park on our daily walks to give her a little play time. She loves being pushed quickly and giggles every time the swing comes close to me. Then, she’ll put her feet up and just hang out. This is what summer is all about in Luna’s world.

We spent a full day at the beach yesterday as it’s been scorching hot! I really love summer. The days are longer, the smell of bbq surrounds the air, birds chirping away, ice cream everyday and long days at the beach. It always feels like I’m a kid again. Hope everyone is having a great summer too and not melting from the heat.

Back at Little Nest today for a nice summery lunch with Stacy and her little guy Cohen. Luna and Cohen are only 2 days apart. Though, they still don’t know how to play together yet but hopefully soon they will. Summer is finally here and it is hot outside! A nice lunch at Little Nest and wandering around Commercial Drive made for a perfect day. Hello sunshine – we’ve missed you!

Life is so interesting from my little red chair.

Luna’s new friend – Ralphie! I spent the day with Nicole today and we had a fantastic time chatting away. Luna seemed to have also enjoyed her new friend. She’s not used to seeing dogs as we don’t have one at home and I was surprised how good she was with Ralphie considering how gigantic he is compared to her. I think Ralphie likes her too.

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Another note:
A great little feature of our Weekend Art Project over at How About Orange.

Luna is now 6 months old! A lot to report this month. Luna has started her solids 4 weeks ago and is now eating carrots, organic whole grain rice cereal, sweet potatoes, broccoli and banana. She likes them all except for broccoli. Although, she didn’t give up right away. She tasted a few spoonfuls with a nasty look on her face until she made up her mind that it’s not a taste she fancies. Perhaps it’s not sweet enough? I think she gets her sweet tooth from me.

Luna also started rolling a month ago and is so proud of herself and likes to show it off. She rolls from her tummy to her back and is able to do it on each side. Amazing! We are so proud of her. She has also had a few giggle fests which she seems to only do with me in the room. Peter hasn’t really seen it yet (not the full blown one anyway). Perhaps she’s practicing with me first before she goes public with it.

We also go to the library on Fridays for Mother Goose where we sing nursery rhymes while sitting on the floor in a circle with other moms and babies. Luna loves it! She loves being sung to, loves the dancing movements I teach her and just loves seeing other babies. I think Luna just loves being surrounded with music as we always have music playing throughout the day at home (we listen to some of my favourites like Jeremy Jay, Cut Copy, The Juju Orchestra, Tender Forever, Nouvelle Vague, Carla Bruni, Pheonix…) and when Peter gets home, he sings to her with some James Brown classics. I’m also starting to re-learn some of the nursery rhymes I used to know which we sometimes have it playing at home. I find that I have the song ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ on loop in my head!

Luna has also started her swimming lessons a few weeks ago. As soon as I put her in the water on the first day of class, I was surprised to see her so content in the pool. She wasn’t scared at all and started kicking her feet right way. It’s a half hour class on Saturdays and babies are taught to float on their back (with me holding her at all times of course), float on their tummy, submerge their whole body completely and just feel comfortable splashing in the water. We’ve been to a few classes and she’s never cried once!

Lately, I find that having her sit in one of her chairs or lie on the floor with a few toys isn’t enough entertainment for her. She really likes to play and loves the attention it brings. So we finally bought her a jolly jumper which we hung on the ceiling of our dining room/kitchen area and she loves it! As soon as we put her in, she’s so happy and starts jumping right away, screams with delight and doesn’t stop jumping until I take her out. It’s such a joy watching her so happy. Jumping on her own without anyone holding her up must be such an amazing experience for her.

Luna is such a joy and we now look forward to see and experience what month 7 brings.

Another note: I’m a big fan of Readymade magazine so thank you for featuring our Glass Pill Bottle Mini-Centrepiece in your blog!

Luna likes to play with her stuffed animal friends. She likes to be surrounded by them. She’ll pet their faces, give them baby hugs, jostle them around and…bite their ears. Come to think of it, Luna might only be friendly to them because she gets to chomp on them and they don’t fight back.

Aoi, daughter of our friends Doni and Genevieve, celebrated her 4th birthday today. We wanted to get Aoi something creative for birthday gift. We found a wood box at Rudy Dog’s Art House and filled it with various activity items from the store such as letter puzzle pieces and sticker sets. One door down from Rudy Dog is Collage Collage where we filled the rest of the box with crayons, necklace beads and little toys. We glued some of the letter puzzle pieces to the front of the box spelling out A-O-I in a crossword pattern. The box was tied up with a red ribbon and we attached a wooden gift tag to the ribbon with a mini-clothespin. We love the wood box. It’s only $3 which is cheaper than a sheet of wrapping paper and it’s reusable!

It’s never too late for an Easter greeting. Hope everyone had an awesome Easter celebration filled with lots of chocolates & yummy food!

We’ve been on a lookout for a high chair for Luna the past weeks. Instead of buying a brand new high chair, we decided to go for a used one and customize it. I found this wooden high chair on craigslist for $25.00. It had a nice shape to it so I bought it, sanded it, primed it then painted it red. A small can of paint was $20.00 so all in all, her high chair only cost us $45.00! It’s a great looking high chair for a small price tag. And, it was customized especially for her.

We like to leave Luna on the floor so she can feel free to do whatever she wants. She can roll, babble, chew on her toys or just put her arms behind her head and relax. Life is so good in her world.

Another note: Hello to GrassrootsModern. Thank you for including our Weekend DIY Project in your blog.

Our little Luna is now 5 months old and growing! She is now very curious to see and hear everything that surrounds her. Even when she’s all tucked inside her ergo baby carrier as we go for our walks, I see her head popping in and out wanting to see all the lights, colours, movement and noise around us. There’s so much for her to see and she’s taking it all in. Anyone who talks to Luna is treated with the biggest smiles and baby giggles. Luna also loves sitting in her bumbo chair and feels proud to be sitting up by herself like a big girl. When she’s by herself and wants some company, she has learned to call out to us with her super loud high pitch baby sound that can be heard all the way in the back of the house. Luna has also been treating us with what we call her ‘happy dance’. When she’s really, really happy, we find her lying on her back wiggling her shoulders and legs while bobbing head from side to side with a grin on her face. This always makes Peter and I laugh. As of today, Luna has also started her solids. I fed her with her first organic whole grain rice cereal and she happily ate almost a whole tablespoon with no complaints at all. That’s our girl!

Luna spends a bit of each day playing on the floor. She really enjoys herself, now that she’s able to grab onto her toys and rattles. Amongst her favourites are these stuffed cubes that my sister made for her. The cubes are super soft, squishy and light as a feather. Luna likes to grab them and jostle them around. She also likes anything that shakes, rattles or squeaks.

A few times a day, we’ll turn Luna over on to her belly. She’s been trying really hard to roll over. She’s now able to hold her head up high and kick her feet around. For the first few minutes, she’s so happy and proud of herself for trying new things. She tries every maneuver her young mind can think of but she just isn’t able to find the right combination of body mechanics to rollover. After about five minutes, Luna starts to get frustrated and we turn her over. We clap our hands, tell her she did a great job and she’s all smiles again. One day soon, she’ll figure it all out and she’s going to be really proud of herself. And, of course, we will be too.

Dinner last night was at Munch in North Vancouver. What a fantastic place! I had a nice creamy seafood risotto with a glass of Malbec and Peter had a bison burger. I could have seriously had another plate of that risotto but was too embarrassed to order another one. Well, I’m going back with my friend Sisi for lunch next week so I could have my second serving then. It’s nice to have a place like this in the city where Peter and I can enjoy a really good meal and not have to worry if Luna cries. How many places have a play area for kids and a full bar for adults? Yippee! We’d definitely recommend this place to other young families too.

Four months, already! Lots of developments to report this month. Luna still loves to smile and has added cute silent giggles to her repertoire. Very recently, she’s added a tiny baby laugh to her giggles but that’s only happened twice so far. Luna likes to babble with anyone who talks to her. We call it “conversating”. I know that’s not a real word but she doesn’t speak real words so it fits. Luna has outgrown her bassinette and moved into a crib. Luna can’t do a full belly-to-back roll, yet. She can manage a 3/4 roll but if we put her flat on her stomach she gets frustrated that her body can’t accomplish what her mind wills it to do. Maybe next month, Luna. Even though Luna can’t roll yet, she can travel quite some distance by wiggling and kicking around. When we leave her on a mat for a few minutes it’s quite surprising where she ends up. In month four we’re using a Baby Bjorn baby carrier for the first time. Luna enjoyed being carried snuggly through Vancouver while we checked out the Winter Olympic sights. Lastly, Luna really enjoys being sung to. Her favorite songs in month four are James Brown’s “I Feel Good” and Lionel Ritchie’s “Say You, Say Me”.

Toys don’t really interest Luna in this stage of her life. She prefers human interaction and we’re happy to give her lots. However, we can’t be with her every second of the day so we got her a baby gym so she can entertain herself. Friends also tell us it’s good for hand/eye development. Luna seems to really enjoy it. She took to it right away. It’s definitely the best $25 we spent this week.

I love our mornings! As soon as Luna wakes up, she calls out to us with her cute baby sounds. And when I hear her, I lazily get out of bed with my eyes half open to grab her and lay her beside me. But I’m usually woken up to find myself giggling as I see my little Luna somehow wiggled herself out of her blanket and out of her pants laying sideways at the top of the crib with no pants on. Amazing, how did she do this! Then I grab her to lay her beside me as I watch her slowly look around still half dazed observing what’s around her. Then it’s followed with a few stretches with the sounds of her limbs cracking away. Then she stops, looks at me, and gives me the sweetest morning smiles and giggles. These are the little special moments we share together. A start of another great day!

Luna is now three months old! She is such a happy baby and entertains us with non stop smiles and laughter. She has a daily routine now where she naps at certain times of the day, then has her play time for about 1.5 hrs before yawning starts again and she’s ready for her next nap. As soon as she wakes up from her naps, she cries for milk and once she’s done feeding, we are treated with the loveliest smiles from such a little person. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that little head of hers as she seems to find everything so utterly amusing. It’s a joy to see our little Luna so happy in her environment. It makes us realize even more that we have created such a lovely environment where she feels so safe & loved.