Resistance Is Futile & Mickey Likes To Boogie

Well, I'm not exactly sure of when the first Twilight movie originally came out.  I put up a good fight for a few years, to not be sucked in to the vampirey goodness... But clearly, resistance was futile as is often the case with vampires.  After spending just over a week in Toronto with my sister and bro-in-law they have sucked me in.  Truth be told, I think it would have happened sooner had they not been newborn sleep deprived...

   

They DVR'd Twilight and New Moon which I watched back to back, and now I'm dying to find out what happens next.  Luckily my 32 year old  sister has all the books so I'm going to read Eclipse while I'm still in Toronto.  

On a cuter note, and likely of more interest to people...  Today was Nalini's Halloween dance-a-thon at her day care and apparently Mickey Mouse likes to boogie!!

And Part II

Happy One Week Nilesh

Today was one week since the birth of the cutest little prince on the planet.  For the occasion, Mommy, Daddy, Nilesh, Juhi Moasi and Arpita Moasi headed out to a "Mommy and Me" movie while Nalini was at day care.  Mommy was in great shape considering she just had surgery a week ago!

After the movie, we made a quick stop at Starbucks and the St. Lawrence Market downtown Toronto.  I fell head over heels for this market!  Basically like a permanent farmer's market with loads of really great quality and variety meats, produce and odds and ends kitchen knick-knacks.  I clearly do not give my sister enough credit, because I was amazed she was doing so well walking around this market for a bit 1 week post c-section.  She truly is a little bit of a rockstar.  Unfortunately, I left my camera home and wasn't able to take any pics of the market.  On the plus side there is this super cute video of the kiddies.

And ofcourse, I couldn't help myself to snap a pick of Daddy at the end of the day, and the tiring business of a new born.  

Happy One Week Birthday Nilesh!!

Nilesh's First Home Bath

To be fair this is post bath to respect his modesty.  :)

The NKS's!

With Mommy and Daddy and baby finally home from the hospital, life is already starting to settle into a semi-routine.  Nalini Krishna Singh and Nilesh Krishna Singh are enamoured with each other.  Although the kiddos, and especially Nalini have the distraction of their moasi's (aunts) life does seem to be returning to normalcy for Nalini.

The most noticeable difference between the NKS's is that Nilesh is a champ at sleeping so far.  For those who were around when Nalini was a newborn we all remember the days of creeping around and speaking in a whisper with fear of waking baby... and she was easily woken.  Nilesh on the other hand is completely content sleeping in the bassinet while mommy relaxed and watches tv, or chats with the moasis.  All in all, family seem to be doing great and clearly, Nalini is happy to have Mommy, Daddy and her baby brother home!

Nilesh Krishna Singh Joins The Family (Videos)

Baby Nilesh Krishna Singh joined us today.  Coming in at 6lbs 14oz, 21 inches, with daddy's nose, a full head of hair and the rosiest most kissable cheeks ever!!  In the first video he's in mommy's arms just after surgery talking to the doctor who delivered him.  The second video is of Nalini meeting her baby brother.  She's just been staring at him, and asking to touch his nose. 

Mommy, baby and Daddy are doing well.  (And mom looks pretty darn radiant for coming right out of surgery!!) 

24 Hours To D Day!!

The beautiful mama to be 24 hours before D day!  (Delivery Day)  :) 

FYI - By popular request, I'll be blogging every day during my visit to Toronto for friends and family who weren't able to be here for the birth, so please brace yourselves!  :) 

Going Green Done Right!!

Talk about recycling!  This is super cool!  One of my favorite bloggers posted about these amazing vintage furniture pieces made from old suitcases.  I am in love!! 

These are from designer Katie Thompson, and she does all sorts of remade furniture with different recycled things... Check out her website!  I have definitely book marked me these for our home!

Mixin' It Up Must Have

As most of you know I'm soon heading to Toronto to be with my sister and her family while they welcome their newest addition.  As such I've promised friends and family who won't be able to attend the birth, I'll be baby blogging non stop while I'm there...  So before all the baby post flooding starts, I thought I would write a quick post about something that is definitely on my must have list! 

Last Christmas there was a Kitchenaid Mixer under the tree for Jon and I.  I didn't really understand all the fuss over these babies until I used mine!  There is nothing it can't do from making pizza dough, to mixing up all types of batters... and it's taken all the guess work out of getting the right consistency with icings and meringue.  I absolutely love this mixer!  (And Jon loves the tasty treats that I whip up with it!)

My favorite thing about the mixer though, is my favorite thing about most things... Accessories!!!  There are SO many cool accessories to this mixer that I have got to get my hands on!  Here are my top 3!

The first one is kind of a two-fer.  It's The Fruit & Vegetable Strainer & Food Grinder Attachment.  This is the food grinder with the attachment for a fruit and veggie strainer (Yes... an accessory for an accessory!!)  This would be such a life safer to have with a little one around.  When the day comes, Jon and I plan to avoid processed food for our kids as much as possible, and will mostly be staying away from the store bought bottled "Gerber" style stuff.  We both really like the theory of baby eats what we eat...  So this is definitely a handy little gadget for when that day comes, both for grinding up meats, pastas etc, and for fruits and veggies to make a homemade applesauce without all the sugar and junk thrown in.  Not to mention, it would be perfect for puree-ing pie fillings, and other baked yummies.  

Kitchenaid is clearly after my own heart, because they have an accessory, for the accessory of the accessory...  Yeah, this is the Food Tray.  It just sits atop the Strainer & Food Grinder to give you a bigger surface area and be able to put more food through at once.  All about the optimization!  

And finally, my last mixer must have is the grater and slicer attachment.  There is nothing I hate more that grating...  I have no idea why, but I just really feel like we should be farther along as a society and should have come up with a better way to get little shreds of food rather than scrapping it repeatedly over a metal board.  Maybe that's just me...  But this, I love... and it slices too!!  Easy peasy salads all the time!!  Love love love!!

I think Kitchenaid saw me coming when they designed this mixer.  The list goes on and on for the accessories you can put on this thing.  At the end of the day these ones are the ones I think are most useful, and the ones that will actually get pulled out and used.  Yeah... they had to have seen me coming...

Seventh Generation For Our Generation

So Jon and I used to be Costco members but when it came time to renew our membership we made the decision that we just did not shop there enough for the two of us, to make it worth renewing the membership.  Although, when we stopped... there was one problem I had that I didn't foresee - which was my lack of Ecos Laundry Detergent that I LOVED from Costco.

It’s plant based, biodegradable, safe for septic systems, great for sensitive skin and is phosphate and petrochemical free.  We love this in our efforts to be "greener".  To Costco's credit they actually do an amazing job of stocking environmentally friendly and organic items.  In addition, Jon has very sensitive skin, especially to laundry detergent.  Tide may as well be kryptonite for him.  I had been stuck with unscented laundry until we discovered Ecos because Jon's skin just can't handle the harsh perfumes.  (Which is probably a good indication that just because I don't have a reaction, they're likely not great for me either.)  But Ecos is scented with natural magnolia and lily - a combination which makes the scent-phobic hubby actually very pleased with it.  I love it both in use and in the clothing after it’s been folded or hung.

So needless to say, I was pretty bummed when I ran out of my last bottle of Ecos and realized I couldn't get anymore at Costco.  I was even more disappointed when I found out that my huge bottle that I got at Costco for $17 was selling at Pete's Froutique for almost triple the cost, but 1/3 of the size.  Clearly I was on the hunt for a substitute.

Then I discovered Seventh Generation's Laundry detergent!  I love love love this company!!  Their mission is essentially that every decision we make, we should take into account how it will affect the following Seven Generations - and if the effects are negative, don't do it and figure out how to get the job done in a more planet friendly way. 

I'm not sure why it took me so long to realize they sell laundry detergent.  We've been using their household cleaning products for a while now and I love them.  At first I was skeptical if they were just as good as the "Lysol" and everything else I was used to... but honestly, I find they're better!  I love that I can walk into my kitchen and smell a clean kitchen... not bleach.  And I love that Jon can walk into the kitchen at all, right after I clean it.  Before the smell of any chemicals left him choked up.  

In our efforts to be greener, Jon and I had decided a while back that once baby comes along we will be cloth diapering.  (Not to mention the colors cloth diapers come in are so freakin' cute!)  I wasn't however so much a fan of the idea of using cloth baby wipes, and was thrilled that Seventh Generation makes chlorine free, phosphate free and scent free wipes.  We will definitely be using these!  

 

 And of course, I've heard from other cloth diapering mommas that when you're travelling, or on vacation to not try to be a hero and just skip the cloth and use a disposable.  Good advice I think for sure, but scary when you hear that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission launched an investigation because babies were getting chemical burns from plastic disposable diapers like Pampers Dry Max.

Which is why I was thrilled to find out Seventh Generation makes an environmentally friendly, chemical free diaper.  Definitely worth checking out for my mama friends who don't necessarily want to go to cloth, but feel a little guilty throwing away all those plastic diapers, and want to do it a little more environmentally friendly.

All in all, I love this company.  Jon and I are by no means as green or planet friendly as we should be.  But we are making small strides every day, and are more and more conscious of our decisions and how they affect our planet.  It's definitely much easier when there are companies out there like this that are taking the guess work out and just make it simple.

Trivial Pursuit To End Trivial Moments

I'm not sure if the stars are out of whack or what, but recently it has definitely felt like it's Jon and I against the world, and the score isn't pretty.  It's so easy to get swept up in all the difficulties that seem to be in your path sometimes.  But then, there's moments like this that make us realize that all the stuff that we convince ourselves has any long lasting effects on our life really does not.  

Last night at 3:00am after trying to figure out some plans for things we've got in the works right now, Jon and I were still up and still felt like we were in an endless uphill battle against the world.  Then Jon turned to me and pulled out the Trivial Pursuit from the coffee table.  Ahhh, beautiful Trivial Pursuit.

I have always been a board game lover, but there is something about Trivial Pursuit that really does make all the problems of the world seem... trivial.  I love this game so much.  I mean really... who can focus on any of life's "problems" when you're trying to remember "What state on the Mississippi River boasts the only diamond field in North America?"  (If you're thinking Arkansas, you're right!)  And what's the point of worrying when you have to think of "Is a Pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?"  (Clearly, it's a fruit.)

The thing that I really love about Trivial Pursuit, is that the one we have is the one I played growing up.  The "Young Edition" version that my parents bought circa 1980.  A lot of the questions are out of date and the game itself looks very... loved.  Playing it now, over 30 years since its creation, it's kinda retro.  Like a historical Trivial Pursuit.  :)

When we play this though, I love that not only is it one of the best distractions from all the day to day stuff that is so easy to get caught up in, but also the time that we spend together playing and just being care free.  I love that the memories I have of playing this game with my mom, dad and sister are now being enhanced as Jon and I create new memories every time we pull those pie pieces out.  No matter what life throws at us, we will always have each other, and we will always have Trivial Pursuit.   

Thanksgiving With The Monahans

This weekend we headed down to Jon's parent's place in Lockeport.  The few weeks leading up to the weekend have been a little stressful for Jon and I.  Lots of things going on with his work, and hopefully things leading to good news in the future, but still stressful at the moment.  At any rate, we both really needed a break to be home with family.  I've said a few times I'm so grateful to truly have family in my in-laws.  It really is a home away from home, and I'm always happy when we're able to head down there.  This time was no different.

Dad prepared a beautiful turkey dinner with all the fixings and I brought down a pumpkin pie.  Dad has recently been making home made wine (He's actually got me into the wine making this summer too!)  So after supper, we all got in to the wine and shared the most precious thing of all... family time.  :)  I love moments like this to remind us what's really important in life, and to give us renewed strength to keep pursuing the things that we desire from life.

It being thanksgiving, I also have to say that I am so thankful for all our friends and family who have supported us in tough times and celebrated with us in great times.  Without our friends and family we would be no where.  I'm also thankful to be blessed with a husband who is truly my rock.  He's such a good man, with such a sweet soul and I couldn't be happier to share my life with anyone else.  Together I know we'll be able to conquer anything we set our minds too.

These are some pictures of Lockeport.  Possibly a glimpse into why I feel so much peace there.

 

Christmas Comes Early In Canada

While growing up in New Jersey, it was SO painful waiting all the way through November before you could get to thanksgiving before it was finally time to get ready for Christmas!!!

Oh... but not in Canada!  That's right my American friends, Thanksgiving comes early in Canada, which means that so does the hype up to Christmas!!  This weekend is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada and it could not come a moment sooner for The Monahans!  It's been a relatively stressful few weeks for both of us and Jon and I are desperately looking forward to some time in Lockeport with the family.  It's been a little while since we've had a proper visit down and with everything that has been going on it'll be nice to take a moment to relax and focus on what's really important - family time!!  :)   

I have to say what I'm most thankful for this thanksgiving is having amazing family around me.  Especially my in-laws.  My parents live in New Jersey and very rarely are able to make their way up here to Nova Scotia so it makes such a huge difference to have in-laws that truly are family.  I feel so bad for friends when they grimace at the thought of spending time with their in-laws.  I'm so grateful to have an additional family in them, and a home away from home.  Can't wait to share some wine over board games... Me and mom in law are huge board game fans so hopefully I'll be able to talk hubby into some board games while we're home for the weekend.  I'll also be taking the first pumpkin pie of the season down with us!  YUM!

Although it's definitely easier some times than other....there's something beautiful in stopping and thinking about the things we're thankful for in our life.  

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving... whether you're celebrating this weekend or in November!   :)