We've been cooking a lot at home and haven't been going out to eat or getting take out, because H and I are trying to save up some moneys for this person:

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We did get bento boxes from Fujiya, while we were there to get groceries: 

There's a piece of salmon AND saba, and they tasted delicious. 

Great value. Best bang for your buck, if getting Japanese food!

 

Anyways, it's been a busy week. Baby S's naps are getting longer, but her wake time is also stretching out, so I'm spending more time playing with her, rather than working on this blog. What will happen to my attempt to post weekly, once we have to start moving next month?  

Today's haul consists of:

 

Royal City brown butter toffee and pumpkin cream cheese donuts, a cup of medium roast coffee from Heights Coffee Co., and The Bench Bakehouse cheese and onion twist.

Glenburn frequently hosts Royal City on Sunday mornings, and has now added in a new local coffee roaster from the Burnaby area to their line up. I've had Royal City donuts before, and really enjoyed them. The pumpkin cream cheese has a hint of saltiness from the cream cheese, and is delicious with the powdered sugar dusted over the donut. They've figured out a way to inject just the perfect amount of filling into their donuts, so that they don't explode and make a mess everywhere, but every bite has some filling. 

Good luck to the new coffee roaster. There's so much competition in town now, they'll really have to work hard to stand out. 

After Glenburn, we visited the Vancouver Farmer's Market, as we figured with COVID, it'll be better to shop outdoors. Very glad we did not miss out on this onion cheese bread, which we had with EVOO, truffle oil and balsamic vinegar: 

 

We also got one of their apple pie double baked croissants -  no photos as it has been devoured before I remembered my camera. Very flakey, with many crispy bits on top, as a croissant should be. 

The aftermath: 

So far, being back in Vancouver has been a mix of anxieties about the pandemic and meeting up with our loved ones. The grandparents were able to come visit and helped us babysit once or twice before gatherings with individuals outside of our household were discouraged by our lovely Dr. Bonnie Henry. 

It had been a while since the grandparents were left alone with baby S, and what an experience it was this time around. The use of white noise to help infants fall asleep is quite common nowadays, but both sets of grandparents were very confused when we instructed them to ask our Google Nest to play this loud annoying sound when putting baby S down for a nap. 

One set of grandparents asked Google to play "white music", and instead of noise, somebody (presumably a person of Caucasian decent) started singing. 

Both sets of grandparents had a tough time enticing baby S to take the bottle, now that she could recognize mom as the source of food and comfort. H and I received many calls to "come back home NOW," but every time we would tell them we're on the way, when really, we were still finishing up whatever we were doing.  

Baby S eventually calmed down with them, and by the time we arrived home, she was an angel again. 

I can't wait for our curve to start flattening again, so that our babysitters can return.

I'm currently craving a burger from The Hive Eatery. Food from hole in the wall places tend to be the most delicious... 

The Hive Eatery is just an order window on one side, and a pick up window around the corner, not more than 300 sq ft inside, so it definitely qualifies for hole in the wall status. Their menu is full of creative burgers, using fresh local ingredients. The Sweet and Sour Pork had a crunchy coleslaw that provided the texture to balance the pork patty, and sweet and sour sauce was just oozing out of the whole burger. The Cornflake Chicken burger was super crispy, just like cornflakes, and super juicy. No dry chicken here! Neither of them gave me that heavy feeling after eating a big greasy burger. 

Definitely pick up a few of these next time.  

Baby S has been sleeping a bit better these days, and her sleep cues are becoming more noticeable (or I'm just more familiar with them now?) She's never fallen asleep when she's around people or while she's playing on her play mat... How come other babies can fall asleep anywhere?!

The other night, as we were leaving the grandparents' home, she was getting fussy from being overtired and not getting her usual naps in. I was holding the car seat in one hand, and baby S in the other arm, because we wanted to reduce the amount of time she would be spending in the carseat, which she currently despises. H was busy packing away other things into the car. I'm trying to lift the heavy carseat into H's raised truck, while baby S is clinging to me, and Grandma tells me to "let the man do it". 

That's an old school thought I haven't heard in a while. Didn't bother me too much because Grandma is a cool progressive dog usually. I wonder what things I'll say to baby S that will make her ears perk up.