Geeky September Song

Greetings V-fans!

Summer does not linger long, and we are now into the "roll up your sleeves and get back to work" spirit of September. Done is the mad dash travels and lazy cottage days - it's time to get down the the serious business of turning five months old next week. With age comes wisdom and responsibility, so I thought we should take a few moments to detail the new features being launched with Miz V 5.0...and to be as geeky as possible, I shall name them as D&D character traits (without numeric values, as I can't find my dice).

First, Physical Abilities:

Strength: Big leaps forward here - recent accomplishments include: holding up her own head, pushing up her upper body when lying on her stomach, pulling L's hair very hard until she yelled a bad word, pulling on fingers to sit up, and kicking a very heavy cookbook off the counter.

Dexterity: This area shows the greatest advancements and promises big things in the coming months. Notable achievements include: grabbing things with one hand, transferring objects from one hand to another, balancing on two feet with adult support, putting things directly in her mouth without passing Go or collecting $200 (she prefers her fingers to soothers, so she seems to have made hand/eye coordination something of a developmental priority), balancing in a seated position with adult support, actual jumping in the Jolly Jumper, attempting to use the front of the adult holding her as a rockwall for experiments in unharnessed climbing.

Constitution: Praise whoever, she's still very healthy and strong. She is teething with a vengeance though...nothing broken through, but it's clearly no fun to have bones trying to cut soft tissue. She chews on a lot of books and blankets. She's enjoying sleep early and often, much to our delight, and eats her fill frequently. Solid food introduction is just around the corner...

And Mental Traits:

Intelligence: She's a pretty thoughtful little gremlin. Time will tell the quality and calibre of those thoughts, but she is very alert and interested in everything going on around her. She does not brook boredom, however, and feels that at her advanced age she has already learned everything she possibly can from car rides, and therefore demands more rigorous intellectual stimulation. At the top of her lungs. Robust, little lungs.

Charisma: Strangers everywhere come up to her and declare her adorable. Some people actually thought she was a doll (which makes me look like a crazy lady who pushes around dolls in strollers, but I digress). She's quite good tempered, still likes meeting people, and is generous with her smiles. She does do grumpy very well too, especially in the afternoons, but overall she's pretty cool.

Wisdom: We're waiting on her words of wisdom, but she's working towards a communication system. She has mastered Dolphin squeaks and has progressed to call and echo raspberry conversations. Also new this fall - consonant and vowel sounds (voluntary and involuntary) such as Doo and Gah!

Based on this, she's probably a Mage or a Thief. We'll wait til she can consult a manual herself to declare a major like that.

As for Alignment, the jury's still out. But my money's on Chaotic Neutral - she'll keep you guessing til the end.

New Wheels

As Miz V settles into her third month on planet Earth, she has enough neck control to sit up for measurable periods of time. This is excellent news, not simply from a development standpoint, but also from the child-conveyance-device perspective.

That is to say, she can now fit into a lightweight stroller.

It's umbrella time! While her apple green convertible pram is still the bees knees as far as we're concerned, it is a bit broad in the beam. Wide. Spacious. Roomy. It is awesome for big outings, but would make serious enemies on public transit. So, let's explore options...Which lightweight stroller should she fit into? Which would fit our budgets? Which would Laura be able to push without unleashing a string of expletives at her darn thumbs? There was much debate and research around the realm, with many websites scoured and product reviews scrutinized...

We spent the morning running the gauntlet of stroller showrooms. Miz V was very patient about being plunked into seat after seat like a sack of flour, poked and prodded by one 5 point harness after another. In the end, her favourite was the same as mine: the Maclaren Quest Mod.

I like it because it corners like a Porshe on rails, and I can collapse it with one hand. This was the only two handled stroller that I could steer without twinges of pain. It also feels very sturdy - the knock-offs we checked out seemed ready to disintegrate in a slight breeze. But it's quite light - around 12 pounds. It should work for the next three years easy.

Miz V likes it because it goes fast. The girl has a need for speed, my friends.

Shaking my head, I refuse to tell you what I paid - suffice to say that since it was the 2007 model, the inflated retail price had been reduced by $95...but on the bright yuppie side Miz V at last has her British brolly stroller and can hold her head high among the Bugaboo set...cross your fingers the other 3 month olds don't taunt her for having last year's graphic print...(please note the previous comments are extremely sarcastic and should be read in a heavily ironic tone.)

More places to go!

V meets the Mango

Matt's buddy Michal and his family came over last weekend for bbq and to hang out. Michal commutes downtown in a Mango velomobile. He brought it by as he's sold advertising for the sides and was applying decals. Matt decided to let V sit at the wheel and start getting a feel for the type of vehicle she has to look forward to when she grows up, given the direction of fuel costs.

V loved it! She sat in it for over twenty minutes, kicking and gurgling and looking around. The narrow recumbent seat was at the same angle as her blue bouncy chair, so she just kept kicking and jiggling.

Doyle was less enthusiastic, and would prefer the Mango not occupy his driveway.

This video shows the Mango and the Kapral family working on the decals. Featured are Michal, his wife Dianne, their older girl Annika and younger girl Lauren. And seated at the controls - Miz V. Note that she has almost kicked off the purple socks Grandma Donna made her

She Shoots, She Scores!

No need to worry that Miz V will be unfairly influenced by our natural inclination towards rarely televised sporting events- Auntie K is ready to pick up our slack! This morning we visited the Hockey Hall of Fame, and while V dozed through much of it, she did touch Lord Stanley's Cup (there are 3 cups, the original which is kept in a temperature controlled room, the official league cup which is on permanent display in Toronto - see above - and the presentation cup which is currently serving jello shots in Detroit.)

To tell the truth, V was more impressed with the high quality halogen lights which illuminate the various hockey treasures than with Paul Henderson's jersey from the Summit Series, but K insists this is a good start. She should have perfected her slapshot by August, tops.

Baby's First Bike Race

Tonight Miz V braved the grey skies to check out the Toronto Criterium.

A criterium is a short course closed circuit cycling event run on blocked-off city streets. The Toronto race was run in the St Lawrence Market area, right near Matt's new office. V and I met him after work to check out the race.

Matt wore V in the carrier under his jacket - the weather was a bit too chilled so this arrangement worked well. She's really into "looking" at the moment, so she was facing out so we could yell "BICYCLES" at her whenever the pack raced past. She seemed to take it all in with her now-patented arch look of cool appraisal.

As you can see, the sight of the little miss in her daddy-kangaroo pouch was pretty freaking adorable.

So adorable, in fact, that she drew a lot of attention as we wandered around to watch the cyclists. She attracted paparazzi and shutterbugs throughout the evening, many people taking pictures of her watching the race. She may even end up on the brochure for next year's race!

Ya gotta love a good bike race.

Doyle Vs The Belly Mice

I awoke this morning to the strangest situation yet.

Around 6 AM, I felt a weird jumping in the belly. Not just kicking or clawing, a jumping. I opened my eyes to see Doyle, the intrepid black cat, standing on top of my belly and stalking the little ripples and kicks that the very active little person was inflicting on the top of the belly. The kicks are now big enough to be visible through my clothes. Doyle must have noticed the squirming, and took it for an exciting hunting opportunity. As the bebe practiced high kicks, Doyle pounced and kneaded. This went on for about five minutes, as I wasn't very awake and kind of surprised so I didn't really want to move. When I finally rolled out of bed and shooed Doyle off, he was quite annoyed that I had ruined the game.

Doyle's been trying to get my belly to mush down to a more comfortable catbed for a few months now, but this was different - he was clearly in stalking mode and believed there were belly mice to be mined in them thar pyjamas.

Wait till he gets a load of the real thing.