Koala Mama

Today Istra and I went on a rather long jaunt across the city. We went to the west end to the OHIP office to get Istra a real health card.

I was expecting to have to wait in line for quite a long time there. The last time I went there for my own health card I waited for probably close to an hour. I was even prepared to have to nurse Istra in public if we were waiting long enough. Luckily, the lady at the reception desk took pity on me (and Istra) and gave me one of the "special numbers"--that is, the numbers that essentially allow you to butt in line in front of everyone who has already been waiting hours. I presume she did this because Istra is so cute and little and possibly also because there is a heat alert and I probably looked pretty sweaty and gross.

So with Istra's health card taken care of (it will arrive in 2 weeks in the mail), I headed up the street to Islington United Church to meet the Koala Mamas. I was the first one there besides the founder of the group, Melanie, who just had her second baby around a month before Istra was born. I was expecting a baby a little bit bigger than Istra, but was instead surprised by a 17-pounder that, quite frankly, frightened me! I immediately started wondering if Istra is going to be this big in a month... but no, Melanie assured me that her son is the same size as most six month olds and that Istra probably won't be packing on the pounds so quickly. Actually, Melanie's son was bigger than one little girl that showed up later who apparently was a year old. Yikes.

I had a short but pleasant visit with a few moms, but in this heat I didn't want to be out past noon and quite frankly was looking forward to getting home and parking myself in front of the air conditioner. So I ducked out on the Koala Mamas after around an hour and a half.

Istra and I were out of the house from around 8:30 to 12:30 and I think we did pretty well--successful excusions like this are good for my confidence. I had Istra in the Gypsy Mama gauze wrap I got a couple weeks ago and she slept all the way to the health card office, where she woke up, looked around for a few minutes (and dazzled the clerk with her cuteness) and then went back to sleep. She cried briefly when I got to the church and only because she was either hungry or thirsty. The trip home was also remarkably uneventful. The wrap is great because even in this heat it doesn't add too much bulk and the fabric is so thin that I can pull it up over her head to protect her from the sun and she can still breathe.

Istra was wearing blue today (to match her eyes) and several old ladies commented on how precious my little boy is.