William and Jadzia's William and Jadzia T-shirts

My good friend Scottish Carol sent us these personalized t-shirts, one for William "the Best Big Brother in the World" and one for Jadzia which is very similar to one we had for William when he was a baby (only of course it says "Jadzia" instead). On the back of the onesie it has Jadzia's date and time of birth and weight, which makes it extra special. And, with a name like Jadzia, this may be the last item with her name on it she will ever own.

Thank you Carol!

In other news, something's up with our roof, lots of ice, lots of water, more on that as the story develops.

In other better news, today I tried on a pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans and they fit! Not as well as before, mind you, but the point is I got them on and zipped them up. Woohoo!

The Mounties are after me

This afternoon a man came to my door.

"I'm with the RCMP," he said, and showed me his badge all law-and-order style. "Are you Jennifer Filipowicz?"

The mounties are after me, I thought, how exciting! I answered in the affirmative.

"A few years back, did you have a child with Ricardo Somethingorother?" (I don't remember the last name but it sounded mobsterish).

"Um, no."

"Did you assume your husband's name when you got married?"

"Yes."

"And your maiden name is McKnight?"

"No, McNicoll."

"Okay. Disregard our conversation," said the mountie. As if I could! Then he said good day and left.

Five minutes later he knocked on the door again. This time he had a file folder with him. In it he had every address I had lived in since my parents' house. He also had my driver's licence number, only his file said that I had changed my name from McKnight.

I confirmed that those were, indeed, my addresses and drivers licence number.

"And you never lived in BC, or had a child with Ricardo the mobster?"

"Nope." I'm pretty sure I'd remember something like that.

The mountie looked confused. "I don't know why when I query Jennifer McKnight I get your information."

I shrugged. Actually this isn't the first time I've been mixed up with another Jennifer McSomebody. When I worked at blockbuster a former emplyee named Jennifer McNeil, accidently got paid for hours that I worked. This is the first time, however, that the commoness of my name gave me a real-life law-and-order experience.

My attempt at relaxation

Both of my children were asleep when my husband left for work (even though I reminded him that it's Saturday night and definitely not business hours). Imagining that I might have some time to myself, I decided to try out the relaxing oatmeal bath stuff I recently received as a gift.

I like my baths as hot as I can stand and as deep as can they be without overflowing. Unfortunately, the design of our faucet is such that water pressure diminishes as the heat increases. Usually I just let it run while I go do something else.

I set the water temperature to reasonably scalding, dumped in the oatmeal packet (which made the water look muddy), and left the bathroom with ambitions of doing laundry (or something). Just then I heard Jadzia crying.

I took her from her crib and began nursing her. We were sitting on the rocking chair in her bedroom and I could hear the water running across the hall. After a while I started to get nervous. What if the bath had filled up already? I could flood the whole house in scalding oatmeal water!

So I grabbed my daughter in one hand and grabbed her infant carseat in the other, and headed back to the bathroom. I figured I would nurse her while sitting on the toilet, then I would put her in her carseat so she could be near me while I bathed.

So my relaxing bath went something like this:

nurse baby
baby falls asleep
put baby in carseat
dip toe into scalding oatmeal bath
baby cries
pick baby up
repeat

I did eventually get more than my toe into the water. I lay in the relaxing bath for a good minute, maybe a minute and a half. It was very hot and very deep.

Party!

Today we attended a birthday party for William's future fiancée Zoe, who just recently turned two. The event was fairly low-key, three tots including the birthday girl, so even though it took place at an indoor playground it wasn't, unlike some other child birthdays, a sign of the extravagence of our times. We'd never been to Little Goobers before, so my normally dare-devil climbing son was at first a little nervous about trying out the giant treehouse and slide. Plus, he was distracted by many snacks provided by Zoe's Mom. Eating is his hobby you know. And he's not picky either, as evidenced by the above shot of him eating a styrofoam cup.


Lucky thing toddler parties are table manners optional. Here's William, fellow party guest Leyla (curls) and birthday girl Zoe opting to skip the candles and cake-cutting and go right to devouring the poor defenceless bunny cake.


William eventually got over his nerves and climbed everything climbable. He even went down the slide without an adult, which Zoe has never done (even though she's a regular). Of course that was after going down a couple times with me. Everyone was all impressed that I was climbing all over the play structure, despite having just given birth two-weeks ago.

Speaking of being impressive. My highly advanced daughter rolled onto her back during tummy-time on the couch yesterday. Kids aren't supposed to do that until they're three months old. I choose to believe my child is super-advanced, though most of the credit goes to the bounciness of the couch (which she nearly rolled off of).