Brain dump, mostly about Oscar

I've been really enjoying the arrival of spring. Yesterday, I seeded the garden and ripped out a lot of dead branches from the back yard hedge. I'm a little achy from hauling dead stuff out of the back, but it was definitely worth it. We also took a family 11km-or-so walk involving picking up coffee beans and conversation from Bytown Beanery and supper at So Good — the food was great at So Good as usual, but the parenting advice was a little unrelenting. I think we're more or less at the stage when babysitting seems like an option, between Oscar's more varied diet and his improved capacity to have fun. Baby's first babysitter is in the cards!

In the past month or two, there have been a lot of Baby's firsts:

• Baby's first flight of stairs climbed (the back steps)
• Baby's first few mouthfuls of dirt (in the back yard)
• Baby's first visit to a sugarbush (complete with a bit of tasty pancake)
• Baby's first concert (this week at Umi)
• Baby's first junior assistant scrutineer shift (actually coming tomorrow)
• Baby's first street demonstration
• There was also baby's first poetry reading in the winter — anyone have a black turtleneck and beret that would fit a 20 pound baby? Gifts of baby Gitanes are not encouraged.

There's almost always something Oscar can try at every meal, now, which is exciting. He likes his bready things, and seems unfazed by a little bit of spice or sour. Steamed rice (at So Good) wasn't such a good idea — most of it wound up all down Mama's left side. We gave him baby corn and broad noodles from the leftovers, though, and he liked those.

A month from now, I'll be back at work on a slightly reduced schedule (yay, family-friendly workplace!). I have mixed feelings about it, but I do miss work and the people there, and also the different time-scale that work-focus operates in. I hope we all adapt to the changed routine — we'll both be working for a total of a little over one full-time job's worth of time, so we'll need to be more efficient (or more likely, adjust some expectations) and Oscar will have to get used to more one-parent-at-a-time time.