Hi friends and family,

We've gone ahead and built a new blog for our tiny treasure, considering the fact that this blog was originally intended to be more travel oriented. Please feel free to wander on over to get the latest, greatest Manu news:

https://manukenzo.blogspot.com

Big hugs to all!!!

Ladies and gentlemen...introducing Manu Kenzo Baron-Jerugim. He was officially awarded the cutest baby of all time award by our distinguished panel of judges (Severine and I). Go take a look...

https://www.mikejerugim.com/manu

Hi All! I haven't posted here in a while, but seeing as my lovely wife is currently sleeping and fit to pop at any moment, I thought I would post a few shots for curious minds.

As of today we have officially hit the 40 week mark. Nesting, to the extent that not having moved into our own apartment will allow, has been taken care of. The bags are packed for the hospital, and we are simply waiting for the little monkey to let us know when the time is right.





Isn't she pretty?

We have also occasionally been watching Raphael dance tango in the park, as there are gazillions of tango in the parks here, and Raph is becoming quite the tanguero! Go Raph, go!



More to come soon.....

Ah yeah, we finally did it! We moved to Montreal!!! YEAHHHHH!
We're very happy to start something new, explore new things, make new friends and have our new baby!
Things have been going well, we're staying at my parents' house for now but have been visiting apartments and hopefully found one that's just right, we'll find out later this week or next.
Mike has been interviewing for jobs and had an offer he's still waiting to finalize, so no comment about that until it happens.

I'm almost 29 weeks at this point, so there is only about 80 days to go... It passes by way too fast!

Here are a few left over pics from our trip to Montreal...

We just got back from Montreal and are getting into "slow prep mode".
Since we decided to move to Montreal we will be purging our apartment little by little, chipping at it everyday until we have the bare essentials to move with.
There is no precise plan other than the fact that I can't travel past my 7th month and really wouldn't want to pack and unpack when I'm too big, so we'll be going probably as soon as Mike gets a job offer and no later than mid-May.

So far we have chosen to take every aspect of this pregnancy very "naturally", meaning a natural birth, no epidural, help with hypnotherapy (hypnobirthing seems to be very powerful!) in a birth center if we can and if everything goes well. We saw an osteopath in Montreal who already has helped me tremendously, between headaches and my frequent trips to the bathroom. The hypnotherapist himself has been probably the best thing that could have been as he completely took away any fear I had and I now feel very calm, peaceful, and ready.
We also chose not to see an obstetrician, when we have a confirmation from the birth center, the mid-wives there will take us in and do all the necessary exams such as the ultrasounds that we might need, though as we mentioned in earlier posts, we don't want to have more than two and will have the first one around week 20 (that's how they do it in Canada anyway so it suits us!).
These are our plans so far, things can always change, but as I feel very well we believe everything is good with the baby, and everything will stay this way! These are also our affirmations so it can actually go that way instead of having our stress affect the outcome!
We picture our baby coming out like a Bodhisattva in meditation position! ;-)

These are the news....

Cute overdose day.

Today we made a day trip out to Bromont to check on the progress of the works that are underway in the parent's country house (that sounds so pretentious...how about their "house in the country"?). Anyhoo...the works seem to be going well, and when all is said and done a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house should metamorphasize into a 3 bedroom, 3 bath house, which should be much better suited to 3 families sharing it at any given time. Here are a few pics of the works that truly don't do the plans or the new configuration any justice at all, but you get the idea...


Here are some pretty, semi-snow covered shots of the property...

Today we went to have lunch at the Jean-Talon market, an indoor marketplace that is one of those places that is just brimming with the spirit of what this city is all about. Fresh produce, lush flowers, good, cheap food, and people gathered together in an orderly, stress-free fashion. We know that the only reason you all follow our blog is for the food porn, so here you go!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SABO SABO SABO SABO SABO!!!!!!!!

In case you're wondering, my lovely wife Severine's birthday is on the 9th. Nothing quite like dealing with airports and stuffy plane cabins while celebrating one's birthday, but Sev did admirably (especially considering that she's pregant to boot).

So we are in Montreal.
We arrived the day of my birthday, January 9th tuesday.
So far we've been hanging out with the family, chilling and plain resting!

For those who didn't get it yet (and you would be ones who don't really look at the pictures already posted!), Mike and I are expecting a mini human.

A few details for people who want to read about it:
I am 8 weeks pregnant (10 weeks for people who count like obstetricians, we count since the actual conception, not since my last period).
We call it shrimp until now because, frankly, it looked like a shrimp for a while. Now it looks like a small alien with a really big head, but shrimp seems to stick (we mean it in the absolute most adoring way!).
Actually we base this on pictures from books and other babies because we chose not to do an ultra sound yet as we read some really bad reports linking ultrasounds to autism. It says you can pretty much have 2, maybe 3, but that beyond that it's criminal. So since in Canada they don't give you an ultrasound until your 20th week, that's what we choose to go with!

Still, here are a few photos of other babies at the same stage, baring in mind that it's probably as a big as a kumquat: