:: mon petit amour :: {canadian baby blog}

:: panko almond crusted fish tacos with pico de gallo and dill crema ::

2013-05-01T21:24:00.002-07:00

At the request of some Instagram friends (where I spend most of my time these days) I am blogging this ah-mazing recipe.

My favourite treat when we go to the Farmer's Market is a very expensive plate of fish tacos. I've been nervous to try my hand at it, but I am so glad I did. I daresay these are even better. I love the extra crunch of the almonds on the fish, and the lighter flavour when it's baked as opposed to fried.

First, Hunter and I decided to make our own corn tortillas. Daddy has been working late the past few weeks and it helps pass a little time while we wait for him to get home. I bought Maseca (a fine corn flour) at Superstore and it is so easy! You just have to add water to make dough, roll into balls, press them (we used a glass pie plate to press them between plastic wrap and our Silpat) and then cook them in a cast iron pan. Easy peasy and fun for the kiddo to "help" with :)....although I am now coveting a tortilla press - anyone know where can you get one in Calgary?

Our new favourite fish tacos
adapted from a sweet pea chef

Pico de Gallo

2 medium tomatos
1/2 red onion
1/2 tsp jalapeno (Hubby had to warn Hunter not to take bites out of this because he regularly eats bell peppers like an apple right out of the fridge - yikes!)
4 sprigs cilantro
1 green onion
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/8 tsp each of salt, pepper and cumin
a bit of lime zest

Chop it all up and mix together. You know the drill. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Dill Crema

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup yogurt
2 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp jalapeno pepper, minced (or more if you like it hot!)
1/2 tsp each cayenne, kosher salt, cumin
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp freeze dried dill

Mix it all together and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Baked Panko Almond Crusted Basa

3 basa fillets
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water
1 cup panko
1/2 cup chopped almonds (I pulsed mine in the food processor)
a few shakes of kosher salt, pepper and cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Cut the basa into 2-3 inch strips, dip in egg and dredge in seasoned panko almond mixture. Cook for 15 minutes or until the fish flakes when you check it with a fork.

We spread each tortilla with dill crema, topped with fish, pico de gallo, sliced avocado, and coleslaw mix (you could chop your own cabbage if you want - I was lazy since there was already a lot of prep for the other parts of the recipe). They were so so so delicious and tasted so fresh. The dill crema was my favourite part. I'm thinking this will be a regular summer recipe :)

:: things i love sunday ::

2013-01-20T12:58:00.002-08:00

First, thank you for all the lovely congratulations on our sweet little girl. We are just loving life as a family of four, and I can't get enough cuddles and kisses with this new bundle. She is just perfect!

I've had so many ideas for posts lately, but precious little time to sit and type between nursing our little piglet and playing with big brother. She's having a nap now, and H is out swimming with Daddy, so here's a little round up of things I love on this lazy Sunday afternoon.

- this amazing vegetarian cassoulet. Who knew carrots, kale, and white beans could taste so delicious?

- Downton Abbey. I am so loving Season 3. Are you watching? No spoilers if you cheated and watched it online!

- Toca Boca Apps. Hunter gets some phone time while I'm taking care of the baby, and he just loves all the Toca Boca Apps....especially Doctor, Hair Salon, Band and Monsters. We also love the apps from Night & Day Studios - he has been playing the Peekaboo ones since he was about 18 months old, and he is really loving the Eric Carle inspired My Very First App lately for counting and memory games.

- my Nespresso machine. Seriously...I love that thing. Yay for lattes every morning for this bleary-eyed mommy. Best investment ever....now if only I can teach myself to make latte art early in the morning!

- the gold polka dot decals I just recieved from UrbanWalls. I am so excited to put these up in Scarlett's room. Danielle is the sweetest, and has an awesome blog here. Stay tuned for pictures once I muster up the energy to finish off her nursery!

:: she's here ::

2013-01-04T20:45:00.001-08:00

Miss Scarlett Clare arrived on Boxing Day. 9 pounds, 1 ounce of pure perfection. We are so in love and this mama can't wait to shop the girl's section - finally!

We are resting up and enjoying the cuddly newborn days. I'll be back soon :)

:: around here ::

2012-12-14T19:38:00.001-08:00

It finally looks like Christmas at our house. After almost a month of at least one of us being sick, we mustered up the energy to grab a tree at Ikea, string up the lights, and decorate in our ~~mismatched~~ eclectic style. I like the look of matchy trees, but I really love the look of our tree full of treasured ornaments in all shapes and shades. It reminds me of my childhood, and how much I loved pulling out each ornament and remembering the story behind it. For that reason, I buy a new ornament each year to symbolize that year. I have a Frog Prince for the year we got engaged, wedding ornaments from our winter wedding, but I think my favourite one has to be the super simple Crayola Model Magic footprint ornament we made with Hunter when he was just days old. If you have a wee one, you have to pick some up at the craft store and do it. DIY instructions here.

I'm finding it hard to believe we will have a new pair of tiny feet around so soon. I'm 39 weeks today, so the baby could be coming anytime. I'm nervous, but mostly excited. I can't wait to share my nursery pictures once he/she arrives and I put the final touches on the vintage storybook decor.

Hunter doesn't really understand how to spread out the ornaments and went with the "more is better" mentality and loaded up the branches. He was especially curious about the candy canes (which are super old from last Christmas!) and accepted my explanation that they are pretend and can't be eaten. I didn't think knowing how old they were would stop him. Truth be told, I fully expect him to unwrap one and taste it :)

I tried to get the looking at the tree pinterest picture.....but I'm going to have to fiddle with my settings more. I haven't picked up my camera much lately and I feel like I need to revisit my Photography Concentrate tutorials before the new baby arrives (among 124557 other things of course!)

Maybe my next blog post will be a baby announcement?

:: Cyber Monday - save 40% on Photography Concentrate ::

2012-11-26T09:11:00.001-08:00

where are all the deals hiding?

If one of your goals is to learn how to use your DSLR camera better before the holidays, you will want to visit Photography Concentrate to nab a few of their awesome e-book tutorials for 40% off! Sale ends tomorrow. I absolutely loved Essential Camera Skills, and I am now working through the Lightroom Tutorial. Such a great way to support Canadian small business too (they are from Edmonton).

Happy online shopping. Have you found any great deals today?

p.s if you are all shopped out (or maxed out), check out some of the great free stuff on Photography Concentrate's site. I am especially loving the presets for Lightroom they just added :)

disclosure: this post contains affiliate links to Photography Concentrate. Any income I make from them goes into my camera bag & lens fund :)

:: no time to blog - too busy nesting ::

2012-11-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

a few things I have ready to put up in the nursery!

After dealing with a man cold and then a mom cold (which one was worse? guess!) over the last two weeks, it only seems natural that my nesting instinct would kick in as soon as I felt remotely better. My drive to purge, clean & organize has been ridiculous this week and I've accomplished many random tasks and seem to lay awake at night thinking of more! So far I have:

- cleaned out and organized all the under-sink cabinets (kitchen, bathrooms)
- organized all my craft supplies into clear containers (for all the crafting I'll have time to do once the baby is born - ha!)
- organized all the christmas presents I have already bought into piles and made lists of what is left to buy
- cleaned out our files (that was a huge one!)
- made one of these pinterest binders with all of our manuals & reciepts for items.
- cleaned & organized our fridge and freezer.
- put together Hunter's new double bed in his room with the most awesome plaid sheets ever.
- put up some of our Christmas decorations....the snowy weather tempted me and I couldn't wait any longer!

H's new bed

But most importantly....we painted the nursery the most beautiful pale pale blue (Promise by Sarah Richardson for Para Paints) and today we will be putting together the crib and hanging a few things on the walls. Our vintage storybook theme is coming together nicely and I think it's going to be the perfect gender-neutral room for this librarian mommy.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I hope to be back with some nursery sneak peeks soon :)

p.s Just so you can appreciate how huge I am while scrubbing & organizing my house, here is a comparison picture between 40 weeks with Hunter, and 35 weeks with this baby. I'm hoping I don't get much bigger in the next weeks!

:: sick days ::

2012-11-16T21:14:00.001-08:00

There goes my post a day for November! I caught a terrible man-cold from my hubs and I've been feeling yucky all week. I'm on the mend now but I have no voice. Little H keeps telling me to "talk louder mommy!", but I'm trying to stick to whispering so my voice will come back.

We got to have lots of cuddles this week though. Hunter is loving playing doctor lately, and also "mivwives" where he checks my belly and listens to the baby. I just love this boy.

Plan for the weekend is to start on the nursery finally. Only 5 more weeks to go!

:: a poppy is to remember:

2012-11-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

If your kids are wondering what Remembrance Day means, and you are looking for a simple book to start the conversation, I would highly recommend taking this one out from the library. The illustrations are ambiguous enough to not be too scary, and the message is perfect for young readers.

Will you be attending any services tomorrow?

:: crafty friends ::

2012-11-07T20:06:00.001-08:00

We've had a standing playdate with H's best mate for almost 3 years now. We all look forward to our sanity-saving Wednesday lunch and coffee while the kids play. I had to snap a picture of their Pinterest-worthy pumpkin today as we left....it needed to be remembered before it got sent to the compost. Isn't it awesome? Love my crafty friends!

:: cutest little elf ::

2012-11-06T20:41:00.001-08:00

Thank you Old Navy for making such cute Christmas pajamas (they come in a Santa suit too). We are totally in the Christmas spirit already!

We received our elf on the shelf this week too, named him Jinx, and are already enjoying his hiding places each morning. I'm hoping Pinterest won't let me down and I'll have plenty of ideas to last until Christmas!

Tell me I'm not the only crazy Christmas lady out there? No lights, decorations or tree yet (probably after H's birthday in early December) but we are already excited and planning for our favourite time of year....oh, and the baby thats coming then too! :)

:: the instagram pregnancy ::

2012-11-05T20:20:00.001-08:00

Definite lack of real camera pics this time around. Thank goodness for instagram :) where have the last 33 weeks gone?

:: a house where everything has a home ::

2012-11-04T19:29:00.003-08:00

I think I might have started nesting today.

I started the day with a to-do list...a bit of cleaning, laundry and paper filing, and ended the day feeling tired and sore after hours of re-organizing kitchen cupboards, dusting blinds, organizing and labelling toy bins, vacuuming dust bunnies and gathering old baby stuff for a sale later this month.

The extra hour was very helpful in getting all these things done - thank you Daylight Savings :)

In the last few years, my Hubs and I have been trying to unclutter, organize and keep our tiny little living spaces relaxing to look at and spend time in. We've found that it takes many (many!) cycles of purge/re-organize in order to finally get a space to work. The kitchen cupboards that I worked on today have been organized in a few different ways and I am hoping this latest one will be the one that helps them stay tidy.

In preparation for the chaos of a new baby, I'm determined to get the last few areas of our house organized. When everything has a "home", I find it's so much easier to have H help out (he loves to put things away in the "right spot" or labelled bins) and avoid the clutter build-up of random stuff that doesn't belong anywhere.

I'm a bit of a sucker for organizational books, but the two I like the most are Unclutter Your Life in One Week
by Erin Rooney Doland (editor in chief of the awesome blog Unclutterer) and Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living by Tsh Oxenreider (founder of SimpleMom Media). Doland's book is a practical one week approach to simplifying and organizing your time and space at work and at home, and it's one I can read once a year for fresh inspiration, and Oxenreider's book is a more wholistic approach to living a simpler (and more organized) life. Both are immensely helpful when you are feeling ready to purge/organize/simplify....which always hits me once the weather turns cold.

The plan for next weekend is to do some more organizing in our basement, creating a little play area, laundry area, seasonal storage, and craft area. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, here are some inspiring images from the Queen of Organization - Martha Stewart.

craft closet

stairwell pantry - love this!

:: in praise of the public library + 4 ways to find the elusive good book ::

2012-11-03T21:10:00.002-07:00

best place to be, surrounded by books on mommy & daddy's bed

I grew up within walking distance to a public library, and having my own library card gave me such a sense of freedom. I remember going there multiple times a week in the summers, taking out as many books as I could carry, and returning days later for more. It was such a wonderful feeling to know that I could take out so many books for free, especially because money was always tight when I was growing up.

I still get a sense of glee when I walk into the library. So many books! So many movies! So many options......and I can try them all if I want! Hunter loves going "shopping" at the library too, because I always say yes to his suggestions, unlike the "no" he hears so often in the toy section of the supermarket (why did he have to figure out where that is??)

As a teacher-librarian, a big part of my job is helping my students find the elusive "good book". Not everyone feels a sense of glee at the library.....I find many of my students feel overwhelmed and anxious by all the options, and need a few strategies so they don't end up leaving empty-handed.

We love visiting the public library as often as we can to grab a bag full of new books. Here are a few of my favourite strategies to find a good book when you don't really know what you are looking for:

- choose a letter from the alphabet (your first name or child's first name) and browse that section in the picture book section looking for some new gems. I'm always amazed by what I find when I concentrate on one letter/section. You could work your way through the alphabet weekly this way too - a fun project!

- don't forget about the non-fiction section. We love to take out books about animals these days and there are some really awesome ones to be found in the non-fiction area.

- see what else there is by a favourite author. You can go for a classic author like Margaret Wise Brown, Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak or Eric Carle. Or, try and find something new by a contemporary children's author, like Peter Brown, Mo Willems, Jon Klassen, David Shannon or Melanie Watt. We also love the gorgeous non-fiction books by Steve Jenkins.

- ask a friend, or the librarian, for a recommendation. There are lots of great blogs and booklists floating around the internet. I especially like the Children's Book a Day Almanac, and her recommendations found here....or print off a list like this one of 100 picture books from the New York Public Library.

- and then, once you have a bag full of books to enjoy at home.....find a good book for you to read and let your kid play with the huge chess set to his heart's content!

All this being said....I must admit that on an average trip to the library, we take out 20-25 books and of those, there might be 3-5 that we love enough to consider buying for our own personal collection. There are lots of wonderful books out there, but it takes trial and error and many full library bags to find them!

Do you and your little one like to visit your public library? Was it a big part of your life growing up?

:: things i love friday ::

2012-11-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

- taking my little wild thing to school for the Halloween parade, and then reading with him in the library. (thanks again to Pottery Barn Kids for the costume. He just loved it and my students especially adored it!)

- this gorgeous newborn/family photoshoot on bleubird blog.

- the giftaways going on at my friend Sara's blog Saige Wisdom

- feeling so inspired by this book. The author, Brene Brown (of TEDx viral video fame) is hosting a read-along on her blog here.

- looking forward to a Starbucks red cup treat (I'm unabashedly in Christmas mode already!) and a pedicure tomorrow morning after a long week.

:: nablopomo - National Blog Post Month 2012 ::

2012-11-01T16:30:00.002-07:00

Hello out there.

After a long, beautiful summer and a short, but gorgeous fall, we have entered into the snowy & cold months and with it, for me, comes a new desire to be creative and connect with others (and drink hot cocoa in front of warm fires with a cozy blanket - perfection!)

I heard about NaBloPoMo (that crazy mouthful means National Blog Post Month) through an online forum, and I thought it might just be the perfect way for me to get back into the groove of blogging again.

All you have to do is blog every day for the month of November. It can be about anything you want, or you can use some of the writing prompts found here or here.

My blog has always been a bit of a mish-mash. Some personal posts, some mommy stuff, some product and book reviews, some recipes and all sorts of miscellany. I'm thinking this month will be more of the same, just with a bit more frequency. I'm hoping to finally post a few things that I have scrawled in my notebook and catch up on a few giveaways that have been on the back burner.

If you blog, I'd love a link to your site - leave it in the comments....because I am hoping to also be a better blog reader/commenter to my bloggy friends :)

OK.....post #1 - done! Wish me luck as I endeavour to type my heart out this month :)

(NaBloPoMo is run by BlogHer, and seems to be inspired by NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month.....another project I've always wanted to try....though I'd probably rather write a picture book!)

:: where the wild things are ::

2012-10-31T08:16:00.002-07:00

I'm so excited to take my little wild thing out trick-or-treating tonight. This is the first year that he really understands Halloween and he just loves his costume (thank you Pottery Barn Kids!)

If you are already thinking of next year's costumes, keep an eye on the PB Kids website, as they are all going on sale. The costumes are really well made and super cozy, and judging by how much his has already been worn, it's going to become a staple in the Tickle Trunk of costumes for playing dress-up.

Happy Halloween!

:: a favourite halloween read - over in the hollow ::

2012-10-29T20:09:00.002-07:00

Over in the Hollow by Rebecca Dickinson

I read this lovely book to one of my classes today, and it is such a cute and fun (and not too scary) Halloween rhyming read.

There is something about books that rhyme that seem to really engage younger kids. This one highlights all the typical Halloween characters (ghosts, vampires, owls, bats) with colourful and not too spooky illustrations.

I am thinking it needs to be added to our little library at home soon!

Do you have a favourite Halloween book?

:: halloween crafternoon - 5 easy crafts ::

2012-10-09T15:04:00.002-07:00

Max costume courtesy of Pottery Barn Kids (they ship all their awesome costumes to Canada now!)

Hunter's gorgeous Where the Wild Things Are costume came in the mail today so it seemed appropriate that we do a little Halloween crafting to get our house spooky! Here are 5 Pinterest crafts that we are working on:

Extra long socks over pool noodles makes for a cute little porch decoration. Our pool noodles were super floppy though, so I am going to try and add some heavy duty wire or a stick to hold them up better.

4L milk jugs + twinkly lights make super cute lanterns going up your sidewalk!

I love this easy door decor - if only we had a door that was a solid colour with no window!

This sweet footprint craft can show off the tiniest to biggest feet in your household.

Here is our take on the Pinterest inspired mummy lanterns, complete with a little baby in this Mummy's tummy! These are so fun and easy and look great with electric tealights inside.

Have you started prepping for Halloween yet?

:: from auto + jpeg to manual + raw in 3 hours ::

2012-09-23T20:16:00.001-07:00

I bought a DSLR last year right before Hunter's birthday, fully intending to "teach myself" how to use it properly right away. Fast forward to almost a year later, and though I had figured out a few things through helpful friends and Pinterest tutorials, I still had no clue about shooting in manual, and what all the fancy photography words I was reading about really meant.

I think I found Photography Concentrate through Andrea of Pink Sugar and the awesome blog pinksugarland. It was one of the those random stumble across websites that you are so so glad to find.

I love the clean, organized layout, and the friendly, conversational tone of all of the posts. Most of all, I love that Rob & Lauren believe that everyone is a photographer. Whether you are just a mom like me, wanting to get the best shots of her cute kids, or someone more serious about their craft, we all just want to get the most beautiful captures of day to day life.

Which brings me to the pictures of Hunter's tractors :)

I decided to buy the Essential Camera Skills course, and while my little prince slept, I learned about focus points, ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, White Balance, and all the terms that had intimidated me before. As a teacher, I totally appreciated the lesson/hands-on exercise/pop quiz format. The layout makes it really easy to go back and review lessons too (which I know I will be doing often!)

Then I went upstairs to bother my poor child/model with some sleeping shots. He woke up shortly after :)

I took some more pictures later that night, and having finally converted my camera to take pictures in RAW mode, I saw firsthand the reasons why you should be shooting in RAW. This orangey picture was so easy to fix in Lightroom because it was in RAW mode! Hooray for being able to fix my newbie blunders so easily!

Presto! No more orange!

I'm pretty excited to stop using my flash. I rarely love the pictures taken with it.

My poor kid is now going to be subjected to many photoshoots as I practice my skills shooting in manual. I feel a little like a kid who has just learned something new. I'm muttering under my breath about aperture, shutter speed and white balance as I try to get all the right levels for the shot.

Sometimes, I get so caught up that I forget something crucial, like focusing on the right thing (crying face) and miss the moment. Plus, it was probably mean for me to be giggling and taking pictures of the temper tantrum instead of helping. Oops.

But every 1 in 100 pictures or so, I get something cute (even if his face is out of focus....I still have a lot to master!)

I'm really enjoying the learning process, and I am so thankful that the course finally gave me the knowledge & confidence to try shooting in manual mode, especially since I will have a cute new model arriving soon :)

If you want to buy Essential Camera Skills - you can do so here or by clicking on the new banner on the right hand side. They also have lots of great freebies and informative blog posts on their site.

I've signed up to be a part of their affiliate program, because I think they are so awesome. Any money I make from readers buying their courses will be put in the new camera lens fund :)

:: wholehearted parenting ::

2012-09-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

My roles as teacher, librarian and parent come together in my tendency to be a research mommy. I always have a parenting book on the go, and I try to stay humble enough in my own abilities as a parent to always seek to understand my child and improve our relationship and my parenting skills as he grows.

I stumbled upon Brene Brown's viral Ted Talk via Design Mom a while back and I devoured her amazing book The Gifts of Imperfection. It is a must read, not as a parent, but just as a human being. It has really changed the way I look at myself, my students and of course, my little boy.

She has a new book out that I can't wait to read called Daring Greatly, and she has this lovely parenting manifesto available for free download in 8x10 on her website.

If you are interested to see the parenting books I have been enjoying lately, you can view them in the parenting section of my Amazon store.

:: nesting & nursery 2.0 ::

2012-09-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

ABC Art Cards by Julie Morstad

Watercolour Map on Etsy

There is something about fall that gets my creative juices going. I think it's probably back to school and having to prepare for a new group of students and the intoxicating smell of new school supplies. I have been in a" morganizing" mood lately and I can't stop thinking about our newest nursery.

We got the bedroom cleared out today and that makes me infinitely more excited. I am hoping to paint the inside of the closet with some stripes (inspired by Jen's housewinks post) and I've picked up these gorgeous alphabet art cards by Julie Morstad (illustrator of the books I raved about here and here) and this watercolour map of the world first spotted on a house tour featured on Design Mom.

We will be using Hunter's old crib (Gulliver - Ikea) and I'll be squeezing in our queen size guest bed in there too since I found we needed a bed for co-sleeping in the first months (okay, first year really! Maybe this baby will be my super sleeper?). Everything else - dresser, clothes, etc) will have to fit into the closet because this room is so super small. I'm looking forward to the challenge though and of course, I will keep you all updated.

Hope you have had a fun long weekend. Organizing and dreaming of decorating new rooms is my idea of fun - so we have had a lovely one!

:: summer bucket list ::

2012-08-26T21:08:00.001-07:00

Well, today was my last day of summer vacation. Although I always love the anticipation of a fresh new school year (that may be the reason I became a teacher - I love September!) I am a little sad to see this summer go.

It's been a wonderful few months at home enjoying time with my little man. I thought I would have time to really get back into blogging but we've spent most of our days enjoying the sunshine, playing with friends, eating copious amounts of fruits and checking things off of our summer bucket list.

Do you make lists? I usually make one at the beginning of each summer with a few projects we want to accomplish (this year it was our back garden and pergola) and fun things we hope to do.

Here are a few memories we made so far this summer:

kept growing this new little baby (hunter insists it's a girl - we'll see...)

brought this dapper tot to a few weddings.

enjoyed summer walks with hunter's favourite dog friends.

went out to the country for long drives and animal watching.

built a pergola and garden that makes me smile every time I look out our back window.

took our little cowboy on a horse ride for Stampede (& ate lots of pancakes!)

had a picnic in the woods

complete with "smarshmallows"

played at the splash park, lake, sprinkler, pool....anywhere there was water, he was jumping into it.

went for a few walks in the mountains.

had the most wonderful summer yet.

So, that's why I haven't been blogging. We've been having too much fun....I actually think I will be better once I am back in the routine at school.

I hope you had a lovely summer with your littles too. Did you go on any big adventures or just stick close to home like us?

p.s I have been blogging over at Lily Moss - I'm now into week 7 of 15 weeks of prizes....feeling very spoiled each week as we go and pick up our newest surprise!

:: top 5 best bedtime books ::

2012-08-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

As you know, I absolutely love to read, and I am a teacher-librarian, so reading is very, very, very big at our house. We love our trips to the local public library and plowing through piles of new library books. We almost always discover a new book to love with each library visit, but no matter how many books Hunter has littered around his room, he always seems to request a few favourites at bedtime.

1. Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site (Sherry Duskey Rinker, illus Tom Lichtenheld) - This is the perfect addition to any construction vehicle lover's library. The beautiful illustrations show the machines calming down for the night, (even snuggling teddy bears and blankies) and has the gentle rhyme of a typical bedtime book. I truly don't get tired of reading this one, and I could probably recite the entire book from memory!

2. I love you Stinky Face (Lisa McCourt, illus. Cyd Moore) - This was a book I just happened to pick up in Shopper's Drug Mart of all places, but it has become a favourite with it's sweet message of unconditional love, no matter if your son turns into a stinky swamp monster, or terrible dinosaur, or a skunk named stinky face :)

3. Slinky Malinki (Lynley Dodd) - we discovered Lynley Dodd's world of playful rhyme and mischevious dogs and cats when we were gifted Slinky Malinki for Hunter's birthday. I don't tire of reading this rollicking tale of a pilfering cat, and though I am sure Hunter doesn't understand many of the wonderful words she uses in the book, he is going to have one amazing vocabulary for creative writing if he keeps reading her work!

4. When you were small (Sara O'Leary, illus. Julie Morstad) - this is a new discovery after finding this book at the public library. The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous (many of them would be so lovely framed in a nursery!) and the sweet story about Henry's parents' recollections about where he came from are imaginative and perfect for bedtime. (I know I just wrote about this one, but it is just that good!)

5. Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak) - We had to have one perfectly classic book in our Top 5, and Where the Wild Things Are is one that I am sure Hunter has memorized by now. He often tells me "I'll eat you up, I love you so" and just melts my heart.

There are so many more I could add to this list, and it has changed so much from when he was smaller! What is your favourite bedtime book?

:: wordless wednesday - 20 weeks ::

2012-08-08T21:51:00.002-07:00

:: things i love friday - food ::

2012-07-27T14:34:00.002-07:00

After battling all-day sickness for a few months (thank goodness for Diclectin!), I'm happy to have my appetite back. The past few weeks I've been off work on summer break, and I feel like it's just been one big cycle of crave, eat, think about food, eat, look on Pinterest for food, make food, eat. This baby must be going through a growth spurt! I can barely watch the food network anymore - it just makes me hungry!

The cravings haven't been all bad foods, but I've had my fair share of "treats" in the past weeks. Here's the lowdown on my cravings this time around. What are/were your pregnancy cravings like?

The Good

- cold cut up fruit (watermelon, berries, apples, apple pears, grapes, oranges, grapefruits....anything really!)

- salads. Some recent faves are goat cheese/arugula/walnut/date, grilled veggie/crostini, and watermelon/feta/basil/kale mix

- homemade greek chicken wraps with tzatiki, feta and lots of veggies. Can't get enough (pasteurized) feta!

- veggie subs with extra pickles.

- Julie & Julia inspired bruschetta

- cold water with lots of ice and sliced lemon or lime (bonus: gets the little bean moving around a bit - love this!)

The Bad

- Big Macs. I hadn't ever even had one until I was pregnant with Hunter and just had.to.have.one. Makes me wonder if I am having another boy?

- Burgers in general. Love the Whole Truck Burger from Alley Burger - it is to die for. Another preggo must-have is their pickle on a stick.

- French Fries. New York Fries are a favourite. And poutine (another thing I had never tried until pregnant with Hunter!)

- cheesy, gooey, baked mac & cheese. Good thing it's too hot to make something like this right now!

- butter chicken & naan

- ice cream

- starbucks iced tea lemonade, or my dirt-cheap homemade version (strong tea + lemonade + lots of ice cubes)

Do you believe that cravings are different when pregnant with different genders? Since we aren't finding out this time, I am super interested in all the old wive's tales.

So far, my cravings and aversions have been pretty much the same as when I was pregnant with Hunter. I'm so excited to see if this new baby is a boy or a girl!