Photo: Red and purple field, Tulip Festival, May 16, 2009
Book: The Babytalk Insider’s Guide To Your Baby’s First Year
Title: The Babytalk Insider’s Guide To Your Baby’s First Year
Author: Stephanie Wood and Kitty O’Callaghan, contributing editors, babytalk magazine
Source: Ottawa Public Library
ISBN: 978-0-446-69804-7
Available online
Notes: This book’s main message, it appears, is to calm the parents down by telling them not to stress about pretty much anything except putting the baby to …
Belly cast
In August (about a month before my due date, and a bit more before Alaric was actually born), I travelled to Julie Keon’s studio in Cobden for a belly casting session. The result of this session was a white body cast from shoulders to top of the legs including the arms and hands, made with hospital grade plaster-gauze strips. The cast remained with Julie for a few weeks to be completed, strengthened and painted the shade of blue I have …
Puzzle: Coliseum, Rome, Italy
Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.69cm x 39.37cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Wonders of the World series
Location: The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium, Italian: Anfiteatro Flavio or Colosseo), is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering.
Occupying a site just …
Puzzle: The Sleepy Shopkeeper by Mike Wilks
Size: 550+ pieces
Dimensions: 46cm x 61cm
Producer: Great American Puzzle Factory
Author: Mike Wilks (b. 1947, London) is an artist, illustrator and author of nine books including the global bestseller The Ultimate Alphabet (Pavilion Books, 1987). [Wiki]
Note: Puzzle within a puzzle – find over 1000 things that begin with the letter “S”. “Who would think that here in the nooks and crannies of the sleepy …
Puzzle: A Court Reception
Puzzle without any missing pieces:
Size: 650+ pieces, 3 pieces missing, 3 pieces damaged. Update: Sincere thank you to Cliff from Albany, NY who sent me the missing 3 pieces. His puzzle was missing 5 different pieces, and so between the two of us we could put together a complete one.
Dimensions: 48.26cm …
Puzzle: Citadel by Kirwan
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 50.8cm round
Producer: Grand Toys, No. 6191
Artist: Kirwan – His images are political, surrealistic, and humanistic. There are paintings, book covers, cards, calendars, architectural design, many other illustrations and sculpture. [Kirwan Studios site]
Drawing: Citadel, ©1978 and 1994. 36″ round, oil on canvas over wood.
Box: photo
Puzzle: Grand Teton
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, National Parks series
Location: Grand Teton National Park is a United States National Park located in northwestern Wyoming, south of Yellowstone National Park. The park is named after the Grand Teton, which, at 4,197 m, is the tallest mountain in the Teton Range.
The origin of the name “Teton” is not definitive. One possible origin is that it was the name given …
Puzzle: North Cascades
North Cascades National Park is a U.S. National Park located in the state of Washington. The park is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Service Complex. Several national wilderness areas and British Columbia parkland adjoin the National Park. The park features rugged mountain peaks.
Puzzle: Victorian Splendor
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: cm x cm
Producer: Springbok
Poem: If I could select any house in the world
or the dwelling that I would call home,
how quickly I’d pick a Victorian manse,
a house with a high stained-glass dome!
I’d surely want turrets and towers, all rounded
and stretching straight up to the sky,
and right on the top of the tallest of all
my …
Puzzle: After the Shower by Kevin Daniel
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 45.72cm x 60.96cm
Producer: Karmin International
Artist: Kevin Daniel
About the Artist: When Kevin Daniel began dabbling in paints and completing portraits as a young man in the early 1960s, he had no thought that he was nurturing the beginnings of a profession that would last a lifetime. As he studied the Renaissance masters’ paintings and portraits from books and museums, his thoughts were only on how much …
Gallery: East Coast, Canada, July 2009
Puzzle: Tea in the Sunroom by Janet Kruskamp
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 48.1cm x 68cm
Producer: RoseArt, Masterworks series
Artist: Janet Kruskamp
Painting: Enhanced Giclée, 22″ x 28″
Puzzle: Sunset Blaze by Viktor Shvaiko
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 48.1cm x 67.9cm
Producer: Mega, Limited Edition series
Artist: Viktor Shvaiko
Box: photo
Painting: 30 x 50 giclee on canvas, hand embellished
Breastfeeding
Early on in my pregnancy, when my doula asked me whether I was planning to breastfeed, I was baffled by this question. Being raised in Russia, I did not understand what was being asked. I am having a baby, the baby needs to be nourished, that’s what the breasts are for, hence – yes, of course I would be breastfeeding.
After reading more literature regarding postpartum, I realized that in North America formula is for some reason considered a viable alternative to breastfeeding (and not just an emergency measure), and breast- versus formula-feeding is a hot political topic. Leaving out …
Photo: Britannia Beach, Tree, November 11, 2010
Alcohol and breastfeeding
The issue of alcohol consumption while breastfeeding is one of the most debatable ones and it is hard to find reliable information on it. However, I was able to dig out the following:
There is a rough calculator of the length of time that alcohol will be present in breast milk, depending on the number of drinks and the mother’s body weight. As a general guideline, it takes as long for alcohol to clear the milk as it does for the blood alcohol level to subside. Alcohol taken with food takes longer to clear out of the system. …
Tongue-tie and breastfeeding
The first issue I had to face was that my baby was born with a tongue-tie. This is a (often genetic) condition where the frenulum (the little piece of skin attaching the tongue to the bottom of the mouth) is too short and does not allow the baby to fully stick the tongue out. In severe cases, the tongue looks upside-down-heart-shaped and can prevent the person from being able to perform motions many of us take for granted, such as licking an ice-cream cone. In moderate and severe cases, the tongue-tie can interfere with breastfeeding by impeding the latch, and …
Photo: Britannia Park, Tree, Horizon, November 11, 2010
Photo: Ottawa River, Sunset, November 11, 2010
