Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Violet has discovered she has hands!
I am excited to announce Violet has found her hands and is starting to understand that she gets to control them! On January 16th we were at Carey and Chris's house for an evening visit of Ben Than and games. Violet was in their bouncy chair and pulled down on the toy for the first time to create a cause-effect response. I am sure she had NO IDEA that it was her hand as she was very startled that the animal made noise. Through that evening she started to pull and push on things. Since then, she has been studying her hands. I mean it, studying. It is so cute. She holds them in front of her and just looks at them, moves them a little and them stares at them some more. She is holding items and bringing them to her mouth too. I know this is a milestone for all kiddies but no one told me it would be so darn cute to watch.
She also rolled from front to back on January 27th...first roll and I missed it! I set her down on her tummy to play with a few objects and walked over to the computer to check my email...looked back at her and she was on her back staring at me with a huge grin. She has not reproduced the movement since then. She has almost rolled from back to front a few times and can do it with a little bit of help from mom. So exciting!
Here are a few recent pics.
Cute little smiles for mom, just discovered the purple elephant underneath her!
These smiles are all for Daddy. It was so cute, Vi would look at Andrew and have a huge grin, then look away. It lasted for about 10 minutes and had us in stitches.
Sometimes hand-me-downs don't quite fit at the right time, but it keeps her warm!
Chillin' in the bumboo with mom.
Hand in the cookie jar! Totally fell asleep in this position.
Sadie loves to cuddle with Vi.
Sadie also loves to hold the baby every time she is around her.
Snuggle time for mom.
First visit to the market with mom and dad. In love with the hat!
Out for dinner with Auntie Candace!
Cruisin' in my car seat!
This is my serious face.
Out for tea with mom at Chapters (I think Judi and Sophie are on the other side of the camera)
Sylvia home for her wedding tea, first time meeting Vi. January 3, 2009.
Meeting Jude for the first time, in December 2008.
She also rolled from front to back on January 27th...first roll and I missed it! I set her down on her tummy to play with a few objects and walked over to the computer to check my email...looked back at her and she was on her back staring at me with a huge grin. She has not reproduced the movement since then. She has almost rolled from back to front a few times and can do it with a little bit of help from mom. So exciting!
Here are a few recent pics.
Cute little smiles for mom, just discovered the purple elephant underneath her!
These smiles are all for Daddy. It was so cute, Vi would look at Andrew and have a huge grin, then look away. It lasted for about 10 minutes and had us in stitches.
Sometimes hand-me-downs don't quite fit at the right time, but it keeps her warm!
Chillin' in the bumboo with mom.
Hand in the cookie jar! Totally fell asleep in this position.
Sadie loves to cuddle with Vi.
Sadie also loves to hold the baby every time she is around her.
Snuggle time for mom.
First visit to the market with mom and dad. In love with the hat!
Out for dinner with Auntie Candace!
Cruisin' in my car seat!
This is my serious face.
Out for tea with mom at Chapters (I think Judi and Sophie are on the other side of the camera)
Sylvia home for her wedding tea, first time meeting Vi. January 3, 2009.
Meeting Jude for the first time, in December 2008.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Nikon
Nikon, well actually, Henry's called the other day to let us know that Nikon will not be repairing the lens under warranty (totally expected). We are to call Nikon to tell them what to do with the lens, which we haven't done yet. This sucks.
For fun, I emailed Henry's on the weekend to ask about how much our camera would be worth for an upgrade - they have an upgrade program that gives you credit to upgrade to a different (better) camera. And guess how much that 1.5 year old $700 camera (body only) is worth according to Henry's now? $160. Yep, that's IT! I laughed out loud when I read that reply. I will NOT being "giving away" my camera to them for that price. What a complete joke...
Anyway, since we don't feel like shelling out $500+ more dollars for a newer camera (assuming that we can sell this one for $300-400), I think we'll be looking at the used market for lenses and keeping our D40x. I found a few on kijiji last night and received one reply so far - for a 18-70mm lens. Ours was an 18-55mm, so that would be a nice little upgrade for some added zoomage while maintaining the same closeness. Yes these are technical terms. :P
So anyway, the guy in the reply said to search for the same lens used online and he'd beat the price by $10-20. It retails for ~$399. I found it last night for under $200. So we might go that route.... not sure yet, but under $200 for that lens seems alright. Especially if the Nikon offer to repair our lens turns out to be $200 or more, as the Henry's rep thought (it's only worth $150 new, if that).
So, what's the lesson here? Don't break your SLR Lens!!
For fun, I emailed Henry's on the weekend to ask about how much our camera would be worth for an upgrade - they have an upgrade program that gives you credit to upgrade to a different (better) camera. And guess how much that 1.5 year old $700 camera (body only) is worth according to Henry's now? $160. Yep, that's IT! I laughed out loud when I read that reply. I will NOT being "giving away" my camera to them for that price. What a complete joke...
Anyway, since we don't feel like shelling out $500+ more dollars for a newer camera (assuming that we can sell this one for $300-400), I think we'll be looking at the used market for lenses and keeping our D40x. I found a few on kijiji last night and received one reply so far - for a 18-70mm lens. Ours was an 18-55mm, so that would be a nice little upgrade for some added zoomage while maintaining the same closeness. Yes these are technical terms. :P
So anyway, the guy in the reply said to search for the same lens used online and he'd beat the price by $10-20. It retails for ~$399. I found it last night for under $200. So we might go that route.... not sure yet, but under $200 for that lens seems alright. Especially if the Nikon offer to repair our lens turns out to be $200 or more, as the Henry's rep thought (it's only worth $150 new, if that).
So, what's the lesson here? Don't break your SLR Lens!!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Ice Fog Rainbow
I meant to post this earlier this week, but forgot.
Last Friday morning I was driving to work in the bitter cold and came across this cool ice fog rainbow on the way out of Baden. This was when the temps were into the minus 20's plus wind-chill. brrr!!
Taken from my Blackberry while driving so the pic isn't as cool as it could have been, but still kind of cool.
Last Friday morning I was driving to work in the bitter cold and came across this cool ice fog rainbow on the way out of Baden. This was when the temps were into the minus 20's plus wind-chill. brrr!!
Taken from my Blackberry while driving so the pic isn't as cool as it could have been, but still kind of cool.
Making Strange
Violet is officially making strange with people she hasn't met, or seen in a while. We hate it, but know it's a phase and it happens with every baby.
It started a few weeks ago with Marn's friend, but we weren't sure if that was just a fluke. Then again to Tony at Mackenzie's birthday. Twice.
This past weekend we went to Dad's house for a quick visit and she cried at him, Barb and Jordan for at least 15 minutes. It's worse when she's tired or hungry which she was then, but even after feeding she cried at them on and off - even just looking at them in our arms!
Mom came over this past Tuesday to watch Violet for a bit in the afternoon before I got home from work and while Marn went to physio for her knee. She absolutely bawled at her apparently. Mom said she didn't cry that long, but we all know that Mom's perception of time when baby's are screaming in her ear are off. She could have screamed for 45 minutes straight and Mom would say it was only 5 or 10 minutes. (see Madison at Violet's age! lol)
When I got home, Vi was sleeping. When she woke up, I gave her to Mom and Vi smiled at her, no tears or fear at all, so that was nice.
So, a little warning for family and friends who might not have seen the little pumpkin in a while -- She WILL scream at you and not want to be with you. Get over it, or come for visits more often! ;-)
She's also fighting bed time a lot right now. Marn wants us to try and put her down a little earlier than we have been, but she's not having any of it. Last night she fought it for at least an hour and a half between the both of us giving it a shot. Marn finally gave in and fed her a little bit, then put her down without issue... But that was 2 hours after we originally tried! She actually fell asleep twice for me when I tried, but woke back up with an arm jerk, or startle reaction when she realized that she fell asleep. Annoying. We're still wrapping her up tightly in a swaddle because of that. When she breaks free, she usually wakes herself up.
It started a few weeks ago with Marn's friend, but we weren't sure if that was just a fluke. Then again to Tony at Mackenzie's birthday. Twice.
This past weekend we went to Dad's house for a quick visit and she cried at him, Barb and Jordan for at least 15 minutes. It's worse when she's tired or hungry which she was then, but even after feeding she cried at them on and off - even just looking at them in our arms!
Mom came over this past Tuesday to watch Violet for a bit in the afternoon before I got home from work and while Marn went to physio for her knee. She absolutely bawled at her apparently. Mom said she didn't cry that long, but we all know that Mom's perception of time when baby's are screaming in her ear are off. She could have screamed for 45 minutes straight and Mom would say it was only 5 or 10 minutes. (see Madison at Violet's age! lol)
When I got home, Vi was sleeping. When she woke up, I gave her to Mom and Vi smiled at her, no tears or fear at all, so that was nice.
So, a little warning for family and friends who might not have seen the little pumpkin in a while -- She WILL scream at you and not want to be with you. Get over it, or come for visits more often! ;-)
She's also fighting bed time a lot right now. Marn wants us to try and put her down a little earlier than we have been, but she's not having any of it. Last night she fought it for at least an hour and a half between the both of us giving it a shot. Marn finally gave in and fed her a little bit, then put her down without issue... But that was 2 hours after we originally tried! She actually fell asleep twice for me when I tried, but woke back up with an arm jerk, or startle reaction when she realized that she fell asleep. Annoying. We're still wrapping her up tightly in a swaddle because of that. When she breaks free, she usually wakes herself up.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
SLR update
Well, I didn't see the comment from my friend Sarah before right now, otherwise, I would have taken the lens to her sister to have a look...
So, because I didn't see that, Marn took it back today to the Henry's in Waterloo where we bought it, and the first thing the girl asked Marn was, "did you drop this?". Great...
She didn't think Nikon would repair it under warranty as she thought they'd rule it "abuse" or whatever and not a "manufacturer defect". We'll be playing the waiting game now; 2-3 weeks before they get to it, then 4-6 weeks to repair it, if they choose to repair under warranty. If not, they'll call back with an estimate to repair, to which the Henry's employee guestimated would be about $200. Considering that the lens is not nearly worth that, we won't be having them repair it if it comes down to that -- a newer (Vibration Reduction) version of that lens can be purchased new for less than that!
So, know anyone looking for a nearly new D40x Body? You can buy the whole kit these days for around $500.... new!
and to think we paid over $1000 for it. ughh! SLR's have come down SO MUCH in the last 2 years it's sickening, especially when we're thinking of hawking it off for something else - not an expense we want to deal with right now!
So, because I didn't see that, Marn took it back today to the Henry's in Waterloo where we bought it, and the first thing the girl asked Marn was, "did you drop this?". Great...
She didn't think Nikon would repair it under warranty as she thought they'd rule it "abuse" or whatever and not a "manufacturer defect". We'll be playing the waiting game now; 2-3 weeks before they get to it, then 4-6 weeks to repair it, if they choose to repair under warranty. If not, they'll call back with an estimate to repair, to which the Henry's employee guestimated would be about $200. Considering that the lens is not nearly worth that, we won't be having them repair it if it comes down to that -- a newer (Vibration Reduction) version of that lens can be purchased new for less than that!
So, know anyone looking for a nearly new D40x Body? You can buy the whole kit these days for around $500.... new!
and to think we paid over $1000 for it. ughh! SLR's have come down SO MUCH in the last 2 years it's sickening, especially when we're thinking of hawking it off for something else - not an expense we want to deal with right now!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Our SLR lens...
I grabbed our camera yesterday to take a pic of Vi and Marn snuggling on the lazboy and noticed that the lens was not zooming. It's a manual zoom, like all (most?) SLR lenses. It wouldn't budge. It would still focus, however, but this really disturbed me as it's only 1.5 years old, and wasn't exactly cheap! (although reviews would tell you that yes, these base packaged lenses are in fact cheap). Anyway, I'm sort of sighing a bit of relief because we bought the Nikon instead of Canon which comes with a 5 year warranty on all of their lenses (and 2 years on the body), where the Canon's come with only 1 year for everything. I don't know yet if this will be covered under warranty, but I'm hoping so (possibly something to do with point 4 in the warranty form about neglect, accidents or misuse...) Anyway, if Marn flashes a smile, brings a happy Violet and we get a nice rep at Henry's to look at it, maybe we'll get lucky? 
So, I'll be calling Nikon and/or Henry's to see what our options are. Of course, "I don't know what happened to it - I grabbed it out of the bag and it wouldn't zoom!", but Marn did mention that she thinks she may have dropped it off the table, or it fell out of the bag when she grabbed it, or something to that effect. But, "it just started happening" is the official story. That 5 year warranty better be worth our decision to go with Nikon, or I'll never purchase another Nikon product again -- on the basis of said "warranty", at least.
This sucks. Lenses (good ones) are NOT cheap! and I don't want to have to be forced to purchase another for it right now. If we do, we might have to look into upgrading / exchanging it for a Canon, which we've also talked about doing (then could share lenses and accessories with Dave and Candace). Although repairing it may not be too expensive if it comes to that.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Violet
We need to post pictures of Violet more often. We know this.
To our defence, the computer is not 100% back yet, which is all my doing because I'm still deciding on what version of Linux to run. I'm a little torn between Mandriva, which I've talked about and Kubuntu (Ubuntu). I have both installed and I like things about both distributions. I like the software and management better in Mandriva, but things seem to just work a little better in Kubuntu - things like power management (sleep - hibernate), and user switching. So that's making me lean towards Kubuntu.
Anyway, all of this tech-babble just leads to one thing. We still don't have a computer with everything back on it (although our files are safe on the new hard drive), and Marn is getting annoyed with my indecisions regarding it. She doesn't care, she just wants it to work :)
Anyway, Violet is still a great baby. She couldn't stop smiling yesterday - we don't know why. She just smiled all day, every time we looked at her. Maybe because she was laughing inside thinking to herself how she wasn't going to sleep at night and keeping us up trying to settle her. Now, let me qualify that. Saturday night, Marn decided (I had decided a few weeks ago!) that it was time to put her in her room over night. It went beautifully. Sunday night, not so much. It seemed like every time you put her down, she'd wake up fussing in her "pathetically cute" little way. Pick her up and she'd go calm, quiet and fall asleep in about 1 minute. Put her down and 5 seconds later, fussing. It went on for about 2 hours, which might be the longest she's ever gone being "fussy", especially at night. At 1:30 am, Marn came in to relieve me from trying. She gave up another 30 minutes later not knowing what to do. We didn't swaddle her that night, but I think that was our mistake. She's going through the "jimmy" arms and legs phase (she's constantly hitting herself and us) which I think is waking her up, so I mentioned to Marn to try and swaddle her to see if that helps. Once swaddled she fell asleep and didn't wake until morning (about 7am). Or least, that's what I remember! If Marn got up to feed her earlier than that, I didn't hear.
She's also starting to play shy, we think. Tony was the target this weekend. We went over for cake and ice cream for Mackenzie's birthday, Violet was happy and smiley. Then has a look over across the table at Tony. Her lip starts quivering then gave him the saddest look and starts wailing (again, I have to qualify the "wailing" - cut any normal kids scream in half, and that's Violet). We think she does this when she's either tired or hungry. She was hungry as she just woke up. It was still funny because she smiled at everyone else! She did it twice to him... haha
That's also the second time she did that to someone. The first was one of Marnie's friends show came over to meet her the other week. She was holding her, then Violet turned to look at her and started crying....
Violet is also really starting to grow some hair, even since Christmas! It's about an inch on top now (maybe a little less) and really starting to thicken up. She's also really starting to explore things around her and taste them. Yes, everything-into-the-mouth has started, and her tongue is constantly out now trying to taste and feel. That really started this weekend. We had her in a snow suit at the market on Saturday and the whole time she had her tongue out trying to feel or taste the jacket. It was pretty funny... The funniest though is when you're holding her and she tries to eat your chin, nose, cheek or hand. She digs her whole face into yours trying to suck, bite, lick, whatever.
We have about 550-600 pictures to unload from the camera's, and 2+ hours of video to try and hack together onto DVD, so I'll try and get on that soon...
To our defence, the computer is not 100% back yet, which is all my doing because I'm still deciding on what version of Linux to run. I'm a little torn between Mandriva, which I've talked about and Kubuntu (Ubuntu). I have both installed and I like things about both distributions. I like the software and management better in Mandriva, but things seem to just work a little better in Kubuntu - things like power management (sleep - hibernate), and user switching. So that's making me lean towards Kubuntu.
Anyway, all of this tech-babble just leads to one thing. We still don't have a computer with everything back on it (although our files are safe on the new hard drive), and Marn is getting annoyed with my indecisions regarding it. She doesn't care, she just wants it to work :)
Anyway, Violet is still a great baby. She couldn't stop smiling yesterday - we don't know why. She just smiled all day, every time we looked at her. Maybe because she was laughing inside thinking to herself how she wasn't going to sleep at night and keeping us up trying to settle her. Now, let me qualify that. Saturday night, Marn decided (I had decided a few weeks ago!) that it was time to put her in her room over night. It went beautifully. Sunday night, not so much. It seemed like every time you put her down, she'd wake up fussing in her "pathetically cute" little way. Pick her up and she'd go calm, quiet and fall asleep in about 1 minute. Put her down and 5 seconds later, fussing. It went on for about 2 hours, which might be the longest she's ever gone being "fussy", especially at night. At 1:30 am, Marn came in to relieve me from trying. She gave up another 30 minutes later not knowing what to do. We didn't swaddle her that night, but I think that was our mistake. She's going through the "jimmy" arms and legs phase (she's constantly hitting herself and us) which I think is waking her up, so I mentioned to Marn to try and swaddle her to see if that helps. Once swaddled she fell asleep and didn't wake until morning (about 7am). Or least, that's what I remember! If Marn got up to feed her earlier than that, I didn't hear.
She's also starting to play shy, we think. Tony was the target this weekend. We went over for cake and ice cream for Mackenzie's birthday, Violet was happy and smiley. Then has a look over across the table at Tony. Her lip starts quivering then gave him the saddest look and starts wailing (again, I have to qualify the "wailing" - cut any normal kids scream in half, and that's Violet). We think she does this when she's either tired or hungry. She was hungry as she just woke up. It was still funny because she smiled at everyone else! She did it twice to him... haha
That's also the second time she did that to someone. The first was one of Marnie's friends show came over to meet her the other week. She was holding her, then Violet turned to look at her and started crying....
Violet is also really starting to grow some hair, even since Christmas! It's about an inch on top now (maybe a little less) and really starting to thicken up. She's also really starting to explore things around her and taste them. Yes, everything-into-the-mouth has started, and her tongue is constantly out now trying to taste and feel. That really started this weekend. We had her in a snow suit at the market on Saturday and the whole time she had her tongue out trying to feel or taste the jacket. It was pretty funny... The funniest though is when you're holding her and she tries to eat your chin, nose, cheek or hand. She digs her whole face into yours trying to suck, bite, lick, whatever.
We have about 550-600 pictures to unload from the camera's, and 2+ hours of video to try and hack together onto DVD, so I'll try and get on that soon...
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