Cookie Decorating

So this past weekend we had a Christmas open house for a few of our friends and I made a bunch of sugar cookies for the kids to decorate. The kids decorated probably no more than 10 between them, and then the adults took over. But the point was that cookies get decorated and then eaten and taken home, so I guess we'll consider it a success!

Here are some pictures I was able to snap mid-action. Of course these kids were all 4 and under so there was plenty of grown up help/overseeing/intervening! Somehow I missed getting pictures of any of the adults decorating. I think I was buzzed on sugar by that point and didn't think about it.

Mady spreading on the purple icing. The girls were thrilled with the purple. I figured that may be the case when I picked the colour. With so many little girls, you can't really go wrong with purple!


Janelle and Joshua picking sprinkles


Megan's Mom helped her to decorate her cookie, but her face in the second one covered in icing, I think depicts that she was pleased none the less.



Makenna with help from Mom


Sweet Aralynn was eating a cupcake while the decorating happened, but got into the cookies later

Christmas Decor Crafts

I have been so inspired from Blog-land this Christmas to make stuff to decorate my house that I have officially run out of time to do all the projects I wanted to complete. So I started a list for next year and am going to start on some of them as soon as Christmas is over! This way I can enjoy Christmas, without annoying others, for the whole entire year! Ha!

I love the subway art idea, but wanted something that looked a little different. I took the words to one of my favourite carols (it's the second verse) and scrambled them. They came out kind of tree-shaped, so I framed it and put it on my mantle.



I saw this curly ribbon wreath tutorial way back in the summer when I first started reading blogs and was so excited to use the idea for Christmas. In my exuberance I didn't read the instructions and bought all the ribbons before I realized that she used the pre-made bows to do hers. It just meant a couple of extra steps to make mine and few more hours work, but I love the sparkle to it. Now I have to find a way to store it so it doesn't get squished!





This weekend we had friends over for a Christmas party and to decorate cookies. I made this cake, inspired by this post. It's so cute and so easy, I couldn't NOT make it!



And today I whipped up my advent calendar. I followed this tutorial, except she turned her stockings inside out, which I think looks nicer, but my burlap was just splitting when I tried. So after ruining the first 4 I tried, I gave up and decided to go with the "raw" look. I think they still turned out cute.








I'm decorative-challenged as you would notice if you looked at the rest of the walls in my house (pretty much blank). It took me 3.5 years to hang a clock! So I'm hoping over the next few months blog-land will come through with enough ideas to help me pull my rooms together. We'll see.

Flowers, Ladybug and a clock

So these three pages I thought were going to be the death of me. They're not HARD per se, but let's just remember that I'm still (re)learning to sew. And apparently embroider.


Clock
Let's start with the clock. It was all going so well until I realized what I did wrong with the numbers. I had done 12, 1, 2, 3 and then started thinking ahead. Uh Oh! Do you see it? Take a second if you don't right away.



I had started facing my numbers to the centre. Had I continued in this fashion my 6 would have looked like a 9. I'm not good, or fast at embroidery so instead of pulling it all out, I cheated and turned the bottom half of the clock's numbers. Then I Googled to see if there were any real clocks that are done this way. There aren't. Just so you know.

I used real clock hands (I got mine from Lee Valley Tools) and layered them on the felt that had a tiny grommet (used for scrap booking) through the centre. I couldn't find a brad big enough so I used a scrap booking one as well. The prongs of the brad were getting caught on the felt of the clock (but not the background) so I cut a piece of plastic from a yogurt container lid and inserted the brad through that after going through the grommet on the clock face. Then I stitched the whole thing to the page.

The pocket below the clock is going to hold cards with digital times on them (and then an analog clock on the back showing the correct way to show the time). This was my sister's idea (Thanks Jenna!) so that kids will learn the fluent "conversion" of how to read both times. I found a free font on dafont.com called Digital-7 that looks like a digital clock that I'm making the cards with. I'm starting with times on the "15" increments and as she masters them I will add/switch them for more difficult times.



Ladybug
The Ladybug wasn't a hard page except I'm using a machine that was my Grandma's. She never showed me how to use it. So I had to figure out which was the zipper foot (which involved multiple phone calls to my mom and a Google search for the machine's manual) and then the new presser-foot messed up my tension (or a certain 2 year old!) and it just made for a long afternoon. Once that was all sorted out, it went pretty quick. The spots just snap onto the body of the bug and are stored inside. I found the picture on-line months ago. Sadly I don't have the site to credit, but I have the image if you want it as a template, so let me know.





Flower Vase
Oh the grief of this page! The vase, stems and buttons were easy. Even the flowers weren't hard to make. Just those button holes! And my machine's tension was acting up, so that didn't help (turns out it needed oiling and there was some user error involved too). I have a button-holer attachment that makes it really easy to make the holes. Once you get the crazy thing on! And then I had to switch the colours 5 times. I was more than slightly annoyed by the end of it. But I got it to work and I'm quite pleased with the result. I love the vase. I found the spotted felt at a dollar store (along with the pink leopard print used on my phone). I think it just adds a bit of fun to the page.

Just a tip if you do this page. Use interfacing in your flowers so they don't overstretch!






So those are my latest pages. 3 more to post and the book is done!

BreastFeeding is natural, right?

Well yes and no.

I'll explain below. It's time for a rant!

If you're pregnant, nursing, not nursing but wish to, support breastfeeding, or know anyone in these categories. Read on! Sorry if it gets long. Sometimes concise isn't in my vocabulary.

So I think one of the biggest myths is that breastfeeding is natural. Don't get me wrong. It is. It's the most natural way to feed babies. It's how God planned it to be. But when pregnant women hear that, they interpret it to mean that you insert your boob into the child's mouth and voila! Instant feeding. When in reality, it goes more like this:

1. Sit in your chair. No, not that one, the one with the perfect angle and arm rests. The one that the foot stool fits your feet perfectly. Or dictionary. Whatever is your foot-booster of choice.
2. Grab your nursing pillow(s) and the one for behind you back. And the other six you need in their precise locations.
3. Remove all clothing from the waist up.
4. Have someone strip the baby to the diaper and hand them to you.
5. Wonder if there will ever be a day that you will be able to nurse without your chair and pillows just so and while leaving your clothes on.
6. Hold baby in left hand and breast in right hand. Guide baby to the breast. Wait for the wide open mouth.
7. Second guess if that really was the widest your baby can open, only to realize you missed your perfect moment.
8. Realign. This time you get the baby on, but its not on your full breast, just the nipple. Almost pass out from the pain. Try to pull the baby off, not realizing a child so small can have such an amazing suction. Oh the insanity! Scream for the pain!
9. Insert pinky in a panic in the corner of baby's mouth to release the suction.
10. Examine your hamburger nipples which are now bleeding.
11. Cry.
12. Repeat steps 5-11 three more times.
13. Break down sobbing, wondering if you're the only "broken" woman in the world and how that lady at walmart made it look so easy while she nursed and shopped AT THE SAME TIME!.
14, Scream in frustration. Look at the clock and realize you've been at this for an hour. Scream again.
15 Console your baby who is now beside themselves for the hunger they feel and the screaming from their mother
16. Give up and give them a bottle, feeling like the biggest failure of a mother ever.
17. Pump to relieve the engorgement or to help bring in milk.
18. Cry and apply lansinoh to your nipples.
19. Collapse in exhaustion and sleep for 1.5 hours.
20. Repeat.

See? Not very natural. I lived this scene every 3 hours for 7 weeks. As Mady was born premature and without the ability to suck yet. She had to be fed through a tube, then a bottle and then finally learn to feed at the breast. Luckily I had lots of milk, so I was pumping and giving her the bottle of that, but some don't have this blessing.

(Mady in the NICU feeding through a g-tube)


(Mady feeding at home with a bottle)


When I talk to a pregnant lady and ask if she's planning on nursing, I know how successful she will be based on her response. A Mom who says "Absolutely yes!" with determination will most likely get it to work. Those who say "Well, I guess I'll give it a try" Probably won't. Breastfeeding takes stamina and determination. But it can be done. And it should be done. There is NOTHING on this earth that is as good for babies as breast milk. Nothing. Don't kid yourself.

So what's a new mom to do?

1. Well first learn about breast-feeding from good sources (Can we all just take a minute now to burn our copies of What To Expect When You're Expecting? It's a crap book written to instil fear instead of empower and they don't give you good breast-feeding advice). I read only crap breast-feeding books so if someone has good ones to recommend please do so in the comments.
Talk to moms who nurse. Get them to SHOW you how its done. Go to Le Leche league meetings (you can do this when you're still pregnant). Oh and I've said this before, I'll say it again: Do NOT under any circumstances take breastfeeding advice from someone who has never done it. That's like learning to drive a stick shift from someone who has just read about it or watched other people drive a car. No matter how nice your labour and delivery nurse is, if she didn't successfully nurse a child (meaning months or years, not days) kindly ask her to send in someone with experience. And male doc/nurses? Just walk away. Sorry guys, you don't even own the equipment!
2. Rally a support team. As much as it's great that your husband is fully behind you using your body to feed your kid (of course he is, its free and gives you big boobs). You need someone who has done it that you can call at 3am when it's not working and cry. Someone who will talk you out of giving up and give you advice and tips and encouragement. Really. You do. You will be hormonal and irrational and frustrated.
3. Seek help. Don't give up. I get so frustrated hearing of mom's who tried to go it alone and it didn't work. There is help available. Go to breastfeeding clinics, see a lactation consultant (or 5 like me). And get help! (A note to the Canadian government: It's ridiculous that some provinces have to PAY to see a lactation consultant. Breastfeeding leads to less health problems in the future so its actuaaly going to cost LESS to cover the LC than to pay for all the treatments these people will need later in life).

So what if after all that it doesn't work? You tried, but "failed." Are you stuck using formula? No!

Enter Eats On Feets. This is a new group. It's on Facebook and it connects families who need milk, with mothers willing to donate it. I joined this week and have already matched up with a mom of twins.
Edit: Eats on Feets has changed their name to Human Milk 4 Human Babies. You can search for a local chapter on Facebook.

I joined for 2 reasons:
1. I had to throw away a lot of breast milk after Mady was weaned that expired before we could use it. I cried, knowing there are a lot of babies who could have used it. Sadly Canada only has 1 milk bank. It's in Vancouver and there was no way to get them the milk. The downside of milk banks is that the milk goes first to the sick babies (a good thing!), but it also means that healthy babies who's mother's don't produce enough can't get the milk (or if they find one they can purchase milk from, it's $3-5 an ounce! At 25oz a day, that's a little hefty!). So I joined because there are plenty of babies who need milk. Babies who would have to live off of artificial human milk otherwise (why are we not concerned as a society to make it so normal to feed our kids something called "formula?" Wouldn't we totally push back if the answer to "what's for dinner"? was "calibrated fake food"? Formula should be reserved for the VERY few who can't have breast milk. And there are VERY few... It should not be the norm for so many babies. But that's a rant for another day). The way I see it, I have milk to give, so why not give it??
2. I joined to send a message. To our government that human babies need human milk. And if they aren't going to make it available to those that need it, and ALL those that need it at that, then we will do it our own way.

(Kate's thighs. A true testament of Breastfeeding!)




I know there are those of you concerned about the "risks." The truth is, they are very small. Most mothers nursing babies are not sick with disease and if the donee is worried, they can ask the donor to be screened. Donors of breast milk are concerned about babies, they want them to have the best. But if the government it truly concerned, instead of putting their effort into warning ads and articles, they should be putting their resources into places to pasteurize the milk and then give it back to families (for free!). Just like a blood donation in Canada is given from the source and to the source freely (I'm sure there are costs, but they are covered by our health care), so should breast milk! Only a percentage of people need blood every year, but we are bombarded with begging to get us to donate. EVERY baby needs breast milk. The same campaigns and support should be applied. Women need to not just hear that "breast is best", but that it's natural. Breastfeeding comes with the package if you want the baby bump. And if you can't produce enough for your child, there is enough milk to go around. Because there is!

So if you're a Mama with milk to give (fresh or a stash in your freezer that needs to be used up) or you're a family in need of milk, head on over to the Eats on Feets page. And if you don't fall into these categories, but want to help spread the word, please do so. Post on your Facebook, tell your friends. Help remove the stigma that sharing life's more precious resource is a bad thing!

Oh and ps- if you chose not to breastfeed your baby because you just didn't want to, please just own that you didn't want to and don't use the excuse "I tried, it didn't work." Some of us put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into learning the art (and it is an art!). And you insult us when you say that. We will have more respect for you if you just admit that you didn't want to. (this is not directed at those who truly can't! My heart breaks for you!).

(Kate's crazy double chin!)


Let's feed those babies!

Cupcakes, Ovens and Picnics

I know its been a little quiet around here. I've been madly working to get the quiet book pages done. I'm one of those people who works well under pressure (in fact, I often need it to be productive), so I have to make self-imposed deadlines (do you do that?). But it worked out for me because as of this afternoon I finished! So now I just need to post all these pages. And stitch them together.



Cupcake Oven

The cupcake oven was a page I saw here, and fell totally in love. Mady loves to pretend to be a chef. And she loves parties. So I knew she would love an oven with cupcakes to bake. My sister designed the oven, so I can take no credit for it. And I didn't have thread in this colour of pink, so I decided I would be all fun and do a contrasting colour. Forgetting that it means all mistakes/not pretty parts, are very visible. Whatever. This book is my "learn to sew" project, so I'm over the whole trying to make it perfect thing. So don't judge the stitching, just enjoy the cuteness!

Oven:


Cupcakes:


The window of the oven is a piece of vinyl so you can see inside. And the cupcakes are on a grey cookie sheet. Okay, so you have to use your imagination, but it gives the illusion, right?? I didn't make the cupcakes, I found them at Michaels. They have sticky backs, so I just stuck them to another piece of felt. And then the "wrappers" on the tray are just slightly bigger so that they are little pockets for them.



Put the cupcake in the oven:






Picnic Basket

Mady's favourite way to consume food in the summer is via a picnic. We have also recently started to teach her how to set the table. She can get the correct items to each person's spot at the table, but we're still working on placing them nicely and in the correct order. So, when I saw this picnic page with the table setting, I had to add it to the book (do you see how its so easy to make so many pages??). I followed her tutorial on how to make the page, but I made my own patterns, using hers as a general guide.

I traced some play kitchen utensils to make the fork, knife and spoon and traced a little plate from my own kitchen for the plate. That meant my basket needed to be a bit bigger than the pattern. I also went in search of the smallest buckle I could find. This was it, so I needed to make a basket that could fit the stuff, and looked right for the size of the buckle. It all barely fits on the page, but in the end I was quite pleased with it all.







And that's it, for now. I'll post the rest of the pages I finished over the next few days. And then we will have a break from the quiet book posts while I stitch them all together.

Christmas Traditions

It's no secret that I love Christmas. Not just love, but LOVE Christmas. I love it more than any other holiday. I think this because Christmas has a lot of traditions attached to it and (at least in my family) the other holidays don't really have things that we do EVERY SINGLE YEAR.

There are some traditions that started when I was a child and I have loved them so much that I will continue them with my kids. Other traditions are things that I have always wanted to do and so am doing them with my kids. And lastly there are ones that I am choosing to do for practical reasons of making my life easier. Below are some of my favourite traditions. I love to hear how you celebrate, so please share yours in the comments.


Traditions from my childhood that I will carry on

Every year, typically around the beginning of December we would invite another family over for dinner and then afterwards make Christmas chocolates. It's pretty simple. Melt chocolate, pour in molds. Chill. We had fondant, caramel and other things to dip the chocolates in or mix into the chocolates should your heart so desire. I loved this one because it was a good opportunity to get to know another family better and spend time together as a family. And there's chocolate involved. Need I say more?

I always associate a lot of food and a lot of baking with Christmas. I start early. Usually the end of October and will spend a week or two filling the freezer with all kinds of sweet treats. There is always: Whipped Shortbread, Sugar cookies, peanut butter marshmallow squares, fudge, nanaimo bars, brownies, jewel bars (Mark's favourite) and then I take requests.

On Christmas Eve, after we attend the Christmas Eve service, we always come home, eat goodies and drink egg nog. I love the nog! Though it can get to be a bit much, so I won't keep too much of it around prior. This one is hit and miss right now as we go back and forth between the families so depending on who is hosting means that we will do their Christmas eve tradition. I wouldn't mind adding to it that we play board games or something.

The Christmas Dress. I don't remember if we had one every year. I'm pretty sure we did, but I always loved getting a new dress at Christmas that I then either wore the next Sunday or to the Christmas eve service. That part is foggy. In our family, the girls will wear their dresses to our Christmas eve service.

The progression of a Christmas Dress:





New Traditions for my family

I mentioned in a previous post about my tradition of when to decorate. This started one year with my sister and it was so much fun that I have since continued it. Basically what happened was we went to IKEA in October. We had recently moved in together while attending college. We thought our cute little basement suite needed a cute little Christmas tree and while we were shopping that day we found THE cutest tree. We bought it and were so excited to bring it home and decorate it. However, it was October and we thought people might think we were a little crazy to decorate for Christmas in October. Even November 1st might seem early to some people, but how could a person argue it if there was snow on the ground? So, we decided that the first snow fall in November would mark the start of our decorating. Then we got worried. What if it didn't snow in November? So December 1st was the default just in case. We got lucky. It snowed November 1st that year. Since that year (about 8 years ago) the latest I decorated was last year and I think it was the last week of November. Usually it's the first week! I have so much fun with the anticipation of this tradition. I always put on the Christmas music while decorating. And there is no better feeling than snow falling and decorating for Christmas.



A fun little tradition that started one year when Mark and I were driving around looking at lights. We rate them. From 0-10. Points are awarded/demerited for light straightness, pattern of coloured lights consistency (and points are taken away if the coloured lights are weathered looking from being neglected and left up all year). We like use of creativity. We hate blow ups. We hate when icicle lights are used places icicles can't possibly form (I saw someone put them sticking straight up from their fence). We take away points when you use those pre-made squares of lights (good idea) and don't cover the whole tree, just a patch. We like when people put them nicely on those really tall trees and use a ladder, not just throw the strand up there. We take away points for stringing the extra lights to the plug or not going all the way around the window. Really, we're picky. Actually, I'm picky. Mark gives pity points for trying. I will give a house with one strand of lights that's straight a perfect 10 because I believe its better to do it right (even in a small way) than to do a poor job. If your drive by my house, you will notice I have no lights hung. Ever. I couldn't meet my own standards and it would bug me. But it sure is fun to play judge!

This year I'm going to start an advent calendar. I'm making one that little treats can go inside. I may switch it up each year depending on the age of my kids and their interests and do things like put slips of paper with activities to do together, books to read, movies to watch etc. I haven't decided for all of eternity yet. :)

Traditions that are Practical

I always wanted the tradition of opening gifts on Christmas eve as a kid. But as an adult, I don't want that to happen. I like the anticipation of waking up on Christmas morning to open gifts. So we have one gift for our girls for Christmas Eve and it will always been the same. Christmas Pyjamas, because then in the pictures, they will never look ratty.



I also have started giving my girls an ornament in their stocking each year. Mady's are the theme of Angels and music and Kates are snowmen/flakes and I may throw in Jingle bells. We'll see. I do this so that it's easier to fill the stockings (and it helps them have decorations when they move out). If I have certain things that are always in the stocking then I'm not running around trying to find stupid trinkets to fill it each year. This means less stress for me!

The Arts

We are a very musical family. Mark has played (violin) in the orchestra at church. I have either sung in the choir at church, school or like this year in a community choir pretty much every year, so Christmas is filled with putting on concerts (this year between us we will have 2 weekends of concerts, 7 in total). We love it!



What's Christmas without music and movies? Last year I watched White Christmas and Holiday Inn for the first time ever. I have added them both to the "watch every year" list. I don't know that I have other ones that I HAVE to watch every year, but I do like to flip through the guide and find Christmas movies to watch on a night when I have nothing to do.

Christmas music starts playing in my house in the summer (usually one week) and then I take a break until September and then it starts up again (usually that's practice music for the christmas concerts). Once (Canadian) thanksgiving passes, my iTunes gets turned into Christmas music central and it plays all day.

Yup it's True!

Sadly there are some things I have to admit to be true in my life. Such as:

1. 5 years ago my co-workers threw me a Pampered Chef "Pampered Bride" shower. One of the gifts I chose was the rice cooker for the microwave. I have never made rice in it. I use it for the sole reason I picked it: to make the chocolate lava cake that was served that night. In 8 minutes. In the microwave. I'm sure rice would be good, but cake. In 8 minutes. Sold!

2. If we're friends on Facebook you have seen my posts lamenting the lack of snow and my rule about using the first November snowfall as my cue to pull out the Christmas decorations (which finally happened yesterday!). You may have been led to believe from these posts that I love snow. Sadly (since I live in a very wintery climate), this is not at all true. I despise winter. I keep this tradition up partly so that there is at least 1 snowfall in the year that I can get excited about. But now that it's here, I would be more than happy if all the snow went away. Or if I got to move to a beach climate.

3. I have always wanted to be a Mom, but I obviously missed the part on the application where they mentioned the lack of sleep. I have discovered that I CAN function on less, I just prefer to function on 9 hours. Every night. That hasn't happened in a very long time.

4. I have literally no self-control when it comes to eating sweets. I often say that I have no metabolism, but if that were true I would weigh a thousand pounds. I'm not kidding. Really, my metabolism is amazing and I should thank it every day that I can still enjoy whatever I want. Because really, if you saw the crap I eat (and the amount!) you would be amazed too. If I were to actually succeed in keeping away (or at least limiting) my sugar intake, I would probably be one of those size 0 people. Good thing I'm perfectly comfortable being a size 10. (which is not what I am at this very moment thanks to having a baby. But getting very close. Thank you again, Metabolism.)

5. I love Christmas which such a passion that I plan for it all year long. Yup, all year. Maybe not obsessively in March, but it's on my mind. I'll tuck away little ideas. I'll pick up stocking stuffers. Christmas is not a day to me. It's truly a season. It officially runs from November 1-January 1. I don't mind seeing Christmas displays in September because the Christmas prep can't start when the season starts, you have to be prepared BEFORE. So I listen to Christmas music in July and get all my Christmas shopping done early. Yup, I'm one of THOSE people. I don't judge you if you don't. I just don't understand how you enjoy yourself at all in December.

6. If I never had to do my hair again and it could look good all the time, I would be the happiest person alive. I'm not one of those "throw it a pony-tail" people. But that's only because I'm too lazy.

Tic Tac Toe and a Teddy Bear

The next two pages for my book went together pretty fast.

Tic Tac Toe





This is pretty standard. I sewed ribbon to the felt to make the playing board and when I stitched it to the page back I left the top open to be a pocket to hold the pieces. I did mine as the standard X and O pieces, but you can use anything. My sister made one with baseballs and footballs. So cute!


Teddy Bear





Such a handsom bear, don't you think? This is another tying page. Pretty self-explanitory. The hardest thing about this page was finding shank google eyes!

Kaitlyn's 4 months pictures

Kaitlyn is four months old already! I set her up for her little photo shoot because she was being all happy and smiling. As soon as I set her monkey next to her, all smiling stopped. Seriously, the girl wouldn't crack. Not once. I was doing all those mom tricks where you make faces and noises and talk in that stupid voice. Nothing. So, here we have solemn baby pictures yet again. Really she does smile, it's just not all the time like some kids. Mostly when she tells me her nightly “stories” about her day. I love that she does that.



She continues to put on the poundage. I don't actually know how much she weighs, but I'm sure it's around 17 or so pounds. We laughed at ourselves when we bought the baby car seat for Madelyn, getting the one that went up to 30 pounds so our baby wouldn't outgrow it at 4 months, and then having a tiny premie (Mady still fits in the weight restrictions for it, just not height). Now with Kate, we're so glad we did. I don't think we'll make it all the way to a year with this seat even then. How crazy that she will probably pass Madelyn in weight even though she's 2 years younger. And my arm may fall off long before then from dragging around the bucket seat (I already don't carry it unless I HAVE to). But it would be nice to get a few more months from it. I really would prefer to get another seat like Mady's that converts to a booster seat for later, but her's can't rear-face so I don't think we'll be able to get the same style.



Kaitlyn loves to watch Mady play. This is fun most times, not so fun when they're both supposed to be napping and Madelyn decides to entertain Kate and keeps them both up. Sigh. At least they like each other. Madelyn will often tell me that Kate is her best friend (I've been telling her that since I was pregnant). Whoo hoo! Hopefully the “brainwashing” keeps up through the years. Especially when her “little” sister is bigger than her!






Madelyn adores Kaitlyn so much, that she wanted in on the pictures. Wait, make that Madelyn adores Madelyn so much that she wanted in on the pictures. She doesn't understand when things are not all about her. So here is one I took to appease her.














Kaitlyn, you're so much fun to have in our family. I love your little talking voice. I love your giggles. I love when you splash in the bathtub and it startles you. I love your chub. All of it.