If These Walls Could Talk

I’ve been thinking about the day I’d write this post for months. Maybe even years. In my head, I’ve been thinking about how I would convey these ideas for as long as I can remember.

For me, buying our first home has been such a bittersweet experience. Yes, I am stoked to have our own place. We’re ready. We’ve been saving and planning for this for years. I’m ready for that. Yet at the same time, the apartment we’ve been living in for the past 5 1/2 years isn’t just any old place that we’ve been killing time. It’s not a crappy high rise building that allows us no space of our own.

The place we’ve been living up until now, although not owned by us, is our home. Our first home, really. Although we did live in one teensy weensy basement apartment in town for a few months right after we got married, this is the place we will remember when we think about our first home.

And so as I’ve spent the last few weeks/months thinking about the prospect of moving and planning for that to happen, I’ve started thinking about so many of the stories that are contained within the walls of this home.

If these walls could talk, they would tell of a young, newly married, head over heels couple who found themselves without a home just three months into their marriage due to a flood in their first apartment.

They would tell of a young woman who was in the midst of undergraduate exams, stressing over finding a place to live and feeling heart broken over having no place to spend their first Christmas together.

They would tell of a generous and gracious family who made accommodations for this young couple to move in within a week, in order to be settled and comfortable before the holidays.

They would go on to tell of years and years of generosity and kindness being bestowed on the young couple by the family who lives upstairs.

If these walls could talk, they would tell of a tiny little black lab, border collie mix who stole the heart of a girl who hated dogs and became her first baby. They would tell of weeks of sleepless nights, house training and cuddling as the dog hater fell in love with her sweet little puppy.

They would tell of years of writing papers, studying for exams, preparing grant proposals, applying for grad school, conducting field work, writing and defending two theses. They would tell of a BA and an MA. They would tell of a husband who supported his wife through it all.

 

If these walls could talk, they would tell of a wife peeing on a stick on a total whim at 6 am one Sunday morning and then startling her husband awake as she jumped on him and screamed, “We’re having a baby!”

They would tell of nine months where a couple grew together in anticipation of their first child’s arrival. They would tell of morning sickness, nursery decorating, belly kicking and some hot, hot summer days that resulted in the wife cooking dinner in her skivvies.

If these walls could talk they would tell of a husband and wife making big decisions for the man to leave a steady, consistent job in order to follow his dreams and start a business of his own, doing what he loves most. They would tell of the best decision they ever made.

If these walls could talk, they would speak of this couple laying their eyes on their first born daughter for the first time when she was brought into the world on their very own bed. They would tell of this couple becoming a family as they fell head over heels in love with a tiny 7lb 10 oz package that they called their own.

If these walls could talk, they would tell of sleepless nights, breast feeding battles, excitement over milestones and a deeper joy than can ever be explained as this family experienced the first year of one little girl’s life together. They would tell of first smiles, first steps and first words.

If these walls could talk, they would tell of this couple’s decision to add another child to the family. They would tell, once again, of a wife taking pregnancy tests and sharing, with excitement and with her one year old by her side, the news that her husband would be a father one more time.

If these walls could talk, they would tell of another pregnancy filled with (more) morning sickness, anticipation and eager excitement. They would tell of an overwhelming joy that was experienced as they prepared to make their first baby a Big Sister.

If these walls could talk, they would tell of the stress and anxiety and excitement over purchasing their first home.

If these walls could talk, they would tell of the birth of a second beautiful, beautiful baby girl. They would tell of a mom, and a dad, and a little girl all falling head over heels in love with the newest member of their clan.

If these walls could talk, they would tell of five anniversaries, six Christmases, thirteen birthdays, two mother’s days and two father’s days, along with countless other holidays and celebrations – all celebrated together.

They would tell of a couple who loved hard, fought hard, worked hard and prayed hard. They would tell of tough times and of fun times. They would tell of joy and of pain. They would tell of mountains and valleys.

If these walls could talk, they would tell you of a young family who developed their roots in this home.

Tonight, we will sleep in this home for the last time. The home that has been so formative in building “us”. The only home my girls have ever known. And that, for me, is oh so bitter sweet. So, as I look around and see empty walls looking back at me, I know they are not empty. Not at all.

If these walls could talk, they would tell you that they are filled with the stories of us.

Some Things on Monday

On the weekend, Evan and I got to take the evening and go on a splendid date together. It will, more than likely, be our last before Bambino #2 arrives, so I soaked it up to the fullest.

We did it up romantic style by going to the States and hitting up Lowe’s for paint for the new house and Target for nursing bras, newborn diapers and maxi pads. We also came home with a stack of paint chips a mile high. The definition of “date” sure has changed.

Evan was trying to hurry me along in Target (world’s worst mistake a husband can make) so I sent him and my pharmacy item list off to gather things while I tried on nursing bras and camisoles. I was just trying to do him a favour by killing two birds with one stone. Of course, when I tracked him down after I was finished in the fitting room, I was told that “Target didn’t have anything that was on my list and the only things he managed to find were a case of beer and four cases of pop. Besides, do you know how many types of pads there are?” Men.

At least we finished the night off by enjoying a delicious dinner on the patio at The Cheesecake Factory. Spending nearly two hours, uninterrupted, on a gorgeous night on the patio? Perfection.

The nicest part about the date was that Evalyn was at a sleepover at her Auntie’s (for the very first time) so we had absolutely no time pressure. It was really nice. Just to be. Us. For a few hours, no diapers, no singing Happy And You Know It, no sippy cups and no snack traps. Just me and my husband. Bliss.

~~

Another important thing happened this weekend – I realized that I’ve reached ‘that point’ in pregnancy. You know? The point where complete strangers look at you in public and their face reads “Oh. Oh, dear. You poor thing”. Clearly, I’m waddling.

It started on Friday night when I visited a fresh new snuggly at the L&D department in our local hospital. Pretty sure at least four nurses and one hundred other people in that hallway were looking at me like, “Hm, are you here or are you just here?”

Then at the mall, I watched a security guard keep his eyes close on me as I waddled walked past him looking for my husband. I’m not sure if he thought he was going to have to catch my baby or what.

But, honestly. Maybe it’s just my heightened self-consciousness. Probably not.

~~

I’ve already reached the point in pregnancy where clothes? Yea. They just don’t really work so well anymore. The tops I wore right until 40w5d with Evalyn barely stretch over my belly anymore. So, coming up with a decent outfit to go out in public in can be a challenge. Thankfully, my husband is helpful. And honest. Some women may not like the level of honesty I get from my husband, but me personally? I’d rather him tell me if something makes me look like a whale than let me go out in public and pretend I look fabulous.

So when I got dressed on Saturday night for our date and came out of the room to get his opinion, I was appreciative of the fact that he told me the outfit didn’t really work so well on the current configuration of my body. What I was not appreciative of, however? The fact that I wore the exact same outfit one week ago without him seeing it. Fail.

~~

Yesterday we celebrated the upcoming arrival of one of my BFF’s first babies at a lovely baby shower. We managed to wrangle together the four of us besties and our off spring for a photo op. Notice a trend?

And, no, the one second from left is not already lactating. It’s just baby drool. I can’t tell you how I’m excited that we’re all sharing this journey together. William is currently 5.5 months and with the other 3 on the way, we’ll all welcome our little ones within 9 months of each other. Awesome, right?

We’re hoping for 4 boys so we can start putting together an awesome hockey team.

Like Me, Like Him

As Evalyn transforms from baby to little person, we are starting to see her personality shine more and more. Of course, she’s been a little character since early in her infancy but as she starts to gain independence and language skills, we see ‘who’ she is becoming more and more apparent every day.

One of the best parts of this is seeing characteristics, behaviours, attitudes and the like that oh so clearly come from either myself or her Daddy.

From me? She gets the quirk. Evan says there’s no hope for her to be normal with a mother like me. But, that’s okay. Because what fun is there in being normal?

If you know me, one thing you’ll know is that I tend to sing. Despite the fact I might break your ears. I sing, a lot. I make up songs. And they are usually bizarre. Apparently, it hasn’t taken Evalyn long to pick up this habit. Girlfriend sings all.the.time. And she is definitely starting to figure out the concept of making up songs. Let me tell ya, hilarious.

Yesterday as we were driving to church her song went a little something like this, “Go-ning to church. Go-ning to church. Eea see Je-us. Go-ning church. Where Je-us go? Where Je-us go? Ah work, ah work”.

Another thing I noticed she’s picked up from me is a penchant for silly nicknames. Since she’s been born I have developed a long list of strange names that I call her, most that make no sense at all. One of the best? Chicken Boomer. Who knows what that even means. And yes, of course, there is a song to go along with the. So you can imagine my delight the other day when she walked up to me and said “Hi Chicken Booma!”

Of course, she isn’t so lucky to get all of her characteristics from me. There are some that come from Daddy. Like, her “sour” face. And her love for the outdoors. She’s not even a little bit afraid to walk around in the mud, dig in the garden or carry worms around. (Um, gross). She likes to ride on the tractor with her Daddy, fiddle around in his workshop and help him whenever he’s “fixin’ “. She will say “Eea woe-kin. Eea fixin’”.

She’s already showing an interest in sports, which, if you know us at all, we can safely say comes straight from the Daddy. She has his temper (although he would probably say this comes from me), his determination and would be happy if we never made her come inside.

She is, at the very same time, both of us. A little bit of me and a little bit of him all rolled into one tiny piece of perfect.

Blogland? I need to come clean…

It’s time for me to come clean. I need to ask for your forgiveness. You see, I haven’t been entirely honest with you over the past few weeks. I haven’t been lying to you, per se, but rather, I have been purposefully withholding pertinent information.

Remember a few weeks back when we got food poisoning? And then Evalyn gave us the worst week we’ve ever had with her while she cut eye teeth?

Well, friends, that is not all that was going on during that week. Other big, big things were happening in our family at the same time.

Clearly, I’m already pregnant, so that takes the #1 automatics guess off the table.

Any other guesses?

Yep! You guessed it.

~~

We bought a house!!

In fact, when I wrote the post about our food poisoning, I mentioned that we were sitting in a meeting when Evan first leaned over to me and told me he wasn’t feeling quite right. That meeting? Was with our realtor where we were putting an offer in on the place we had seen just before. The reason we had the lunch that made us sick in the first place was because we were having a busy day getting ready to go see the house.

And then on the Friday of that week, once we had recovered from that, and were moving on to eye teeth hell, we got word that our offer had been accepted.

It has been a long process since that day, getting everything sorted out and finalized, but now, we’re finally ready to say with confidence that we will be home owners at the end of May.

The house is a fixer-upper, to say the least. I’ll share some before pictures sometime in the near future.

I’m coming to realize that buying a house – especially your first house – is a big deal, folks. A big, big deal. I’m already losing sleep as I spend my nights having nightmares that when we move in we discover that the basement is infested with moles (?) and seeing numbers fly around in my head as we budget for the renovations that we are going to do immediately and those that are going to be saved for in the future.

But, at the same time, we feel so at peace with our decision. Already, even before having the keys in our hands, I can see how God has worked His mighty hand in this whole process – right down to the littlest details. Perhaps that’s another post for another day.

I hope you’ll stick around for the next few months years as we set out on our very first house renovating project. I’m certain there will be ups, downs, laughter, tears, perhaps a small argument or two and many curve balls along the way – and I’ll hopefully be here, documenting it all as we go.

The First Overnight

This past weekend, the hubby and I took the opportunity to escape for a little, one night, mini-getaway. It may not seem like a big deal. But it was. It was the first time in her 16.something months of life that I left her overnight.

Surprisingly, in the hours leading up to leaving, I wasn’t even nervous at all. Which is, obviously, a good thing. It showed me that we were all ready for this and that I knew that she was going to be in great hands.

We didn’t go far. Which was fine. We just scooted over to Niagara Falls, had dinner, went to a really great Beatle’s tribute show and stayed over. The next day, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, did some shopping and saw The Vow. Despite the fact that I did not sleep well in the hotel and was wide awake earlier than Evalyn and I normally get up, it was a refreshing, rejuvenating break from the day to day.

And despite the fact that hubster and I didn’t take a single photo to document the time we had away, we do have some photographic evidence to show that Evalyn was no worse for wear during her evening, night and day without Mommy and Daddy.

The best part of our time away was coming back and seeing how excited she was to see us and hearing about how good she was while we weren’t there. She had a blast with her Auntie M and Auntie L and we so very greatly appreciated the time away.

Our Story

I’ve blogged about our love story in the past. A few years ago, as we were approaching our 3rd anniversary, I wrote a fully detailed 7 part story highlighting how we met, became friends, fell in love, got engaged and became man and wife. Seven parts might seem like a lot but it was necessary considering we had about 12 years to cover between our first introduction and the day we walked down the aisle.

Nearly three years has passed since I wrote that story and a lot has changed in those three years. We’ve graduated from 2 degrees, started a new business, started a new career, welcomed a child and became pregnant with our second. Oh yeah? And, more importantly, I’ve met a ton of new blog friends who have likely never heard or read the story of how we came to be Us.

So today I’m linking up with the lovely From Mrs to Mama who’s hosting a Love Story Linkup between now and Valentine’s Day. Of course, I can’t cover every thing in one post, so I’m giving you a sort of summary and, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll follow the links and read the entire story.

Our story begins when we were about 8 years old and met at a youth rally and then continues when we became friends at summer camp. It gets even juicier when I began stalking him and taking sneaky photos with him in the background because I was too chicken to actually snap a photo of the guy. The next few years passed with us seeing each other a few times a year, at youth rallies and summer camp, and me being too shy to ever say more than Hi to the cute boy with the hat from Papua New Guinea.

Part two takes us to three years in high school where we were in the same class at a Christian Boarding School where we went from being best friends to worst enemies every other week. Here we struggled together as both of our mom’s faced breast cancer and we learned a lot about life and each other. During this time, Evan went through a rough patch and I found myself hurting for him in a way I couldn’t understand.

Part three is where the story gets really good when the high school hottie confessed his love for me just one week before graduation and just one week before we walked the aisle at commencement together as Mr and Mrs GL. Trust me, you gotta read it to believe it.

Next up, we go through a summer of separation where I battled confusion, entirely unsure of what my future would hold in terms of university and a pending relationship with the boy of my dreams. The summer ended with him coming home from his job at camp and asking if he could visit me.

In part five, we date. We fall in love. And it is just mushy and beautiful. Go, go now. Read.

Part six is probably the best portion of all, where my sweet love put together the most elaborate plan he has ever conspired and somehow completely surprised me when he proposed to me on horseback. This portion of the story even includes photos of scrapbook pages since it took place way back in the olden days when we didn’t have digital cameras.

In the last part, I became his wife in a wedding celebration that completely made all my dreams come true. We committed our lives to each other in front of our family, friends and our God. And we’ve never, ever looked back.

Christmas in Short Form

As evidenced by the lack of posting over the past two weeks, it’s safe to say that we’ve been enjoying our holidays. We really, really have. Despite the fact that traveling exhausts our wee family and we’ve been battling a few different types of sickies over the past month, we did our best to soak up this holiday season. Having time off from work has rejuvenated me so much. I’ve read an entire book series, finished and ordered Evalyn’s first year photo book, done some much needed reorganization around the house, and napped. A lot. It’s been wonderful. And since the holiday season has flown by without so much as a single blog post from me, I decided to just write a little quicky to sum up the last three weeks of our lives.

I spent so much of my time savouring the moments and the details that I found I was left with relatively few photos. But that’s okay. Because I was there, in the moments, always.

We kicked off our holiday season by traveling to visit Evan’s family. We played with cousins. We ate. We danced. We decorated Nana’s tree. We opened our Christmas PJs and book. We opened our stockings. We didn’t sleep, at all. We cut our first two molars. We opened gifts. We played outside on the sled. We had fun.

We then came home for almost a week before heading to my parent’s cottage in the Muskokas for Christmas weekend. While we were there, we played. Hard. We didn’t sleep, at all, again. We got two more molars. We had a cold. Mama had a cold. Daddy was getting over the flu. We rode a reindeer. We decorated the most Charlie Brown’ish tree that you ever did see. It was perfect. We got a kitchen and some play food. We walked in the snow. We loved on our Nana. We kissed our Uncle. We played. We played. And we played some more.

We came home on the 27th, a day earlier than we had planned, because sleeping was not happening and we were all too exhausted. Despite that, though, we had a good time. The past week at home has been spent enjoying lazy days. Cleaning up from the chaos of Christmas. Ringing in the New Year with good friends.

This week, Evan is back to his regular schedule and Evalyn and I are working on getting back to ours. She goes back to daycare tomorrow, and I have work to do to tie up last term and get ready for the new term to begin next week. We’ve enjoyed our small break from reality, but I’m ready to get back to normal.

Welcome, 2012! Here’s to a great year.

The One Where My Husband Owes Me. Like WHOA.

So. My husband is away right now. Up in his hometown hunting at his cabin. Eva and I were supposed to go with him, to visit my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and Eva’s cousins, but the cousins have the chicken pox so we decided to steer clear.

Yesterday, it poured rain all.day.long. Like, poured. As in, feet getting soaked because of the deep puddles on the driveway in the potholes.

Around 8:30 p.m., my sweet husband sent me a hey tell saying that he just realized he forgot to lock the chickens up in the coop before he left and could I please go out there and make sure they were inside, and shut the door?

A little background information – we live on a farm and we have chickens. Some for eggs, some for meat. These are the husband’s domain. I will cook and eat the eggs and the meat but I will not take care of the chickens. I do not feed them, I do not go in the coop, I do not collect the eggs. Heck, if I can help them, I don’t even look at them. I am not in with the birds. I dislike birds. A lot. They give me the creeps. So, my relationship with the chickens goes only so far as seeing the evidence of them once they are brought into the house in the form of eggs or roasting chickens.

Needless to say, I wasn’t very happy with his request. I made every excuse in the book why I wouldn’t be able to go out there to check them. It’s dark. It’s raining. I’ll get cold. Hello! I AM WITH CHILD! Finally, he convinced me it had to be done. So, I bundled up in his coat, a pair of my boots and a flashlight and headed back to the chicken coop. He promised me I wouldn’t even need the flashlight because the motion censor light would come on once I got back there. It didn’t.

And I was greeted by flooded grass. As in, 2-3 inches of water sitting on top of the lawn. And my boots were not waterproof. So I went back inside, called him and told him I just couldn’t make my way back to the coop. I’d never survive. He told me to put on my big girl panties, put on rubber boots in the garage and go back out. At this point, I had run out of excuses. So, I donned some boots that were about 32 sizes too big and trudged my way back again. And into the nasty, stinky, chicken poop infested coop.

And what did I find? A LOT OF CHICKENS WERE NOT INSIDE.

We just got new chickens on the weekend, so I guess they don’t know the place well enough to know where they were supposed to go to find shelter and get inside, so instead of walking into the warm, cozy coop and cuddling up with their neighbours, ten or so of them were huddled together on a pile of cinder blocks in the back corner of the outside of the pen. Right against the wall of the coop. But, the opposite wall of where the door is to get inside. They were wet and shivering and squawking. I tried to herd them off the cinder blocks and chase them into the coop so I could shut the door. No way. These guys were not moving.

So, I did what I had to do. And to this moment, I’ll never know how it was possible.

I picked them up, one by one, WITH MY BARE, SOAKING, FREEZING COLD HANDS, and carried the little buggers to safety.

It was disgusting and creepy and scary. But I had no choice. I couldn’t leave them out there in the freezing cold rain to die? Well, they probably wouldn’t have died, that’s a bit over dramatic, but still … it would have been heartless to leave them.

Needless to say, my husband quickly got an angry text, that may or may not have included one or two words I’m not overly proud of, telling him that he is LUCKY I SAVED HIS CHICKENS and that he owes me big time. I believe my exact words were, “My wish is your command for like a YEAR”.

I wish I had photos to give documented proof of this expedition (and trust me, you wish I did, too) but you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Old McLucy is back. In full action.

The Story

Evan and I have always knew that we wanted kids. Emphasis on the “s”. And, we always thought we wanted to have them close together. Then, when Evalyn, who was a great big giant wonderful surprise, came along, we weren’t sure what would happen with the spacing between our kids.

When she was an infant, I started to think I wanted to wait a few years until we added any more to the mix. Evan, on the other hand, was ready to get going when she was around six months old.

The problem was (is) the apartment we live in really isn’t big enough for another. I wanted to wait until we for sure had a house to move into before we started trying so we didn’t have the time pressure. He didn’t care so much.

But, right around her first birthday, I started getting the itch. We started discussing. Eventually, he convinced me that if we tried, and were successful, that we would figure it out. God would provide. He’s always provided for us up until now, we can trust that He will do the same as we continue.

So, we threw the pills out the window and as each day passed, I hoped more and more and more that we would be able to have another baby. Because of my work contract, and the rules of maternity leave in Canada, we had a very limited window to get pregnant in, or else we’d likely want to wait another year.

I wasn’t sure what to expect since, you know, “things” haven’t been quite the same since Eva was born. Needless to say, after a week or more of going between “I think I must be pregnant” to “No way, I’m definitely not pregnant” and seeing a number of negative tests, I finally saw, clear as day, what I’d been waiting for.

On Friday, October 21, my heart became Mama to two babies. And what a day that was. I am certain I experienced every emotion under the sun. From elation, to guilt, to fear, to joy, to anxiety, to uncertainty, to more joy, to more excitement and the lists continues (all of that for another post, another day).

Since I totally failed on my hopes to break the news to Evan in a special way when I found out about Evalyn, I decided to try to make up for it this time. So off we want to find the perfect way to tell Daddy. Apparently, around here, I’m a few years too early because the only Big Sister shirts I could find started at size 4T. So, we went a different route.

Evalyn got a brand new book and we stopped in at Daddy’s work to tell him our big news. Although he knew the ups and downs of the week and that I had been testing like a crazy person, I think he was still surprised to find out it was actually true.

I called him and told him to come meet me outside of his job site because I’d made something for him. He expected cookies.

What he got was a whole lot more.

Family Photos

A few weeks ago, we ventured off to spend the day with my brother and his wife. We had a yummy lunch, my dude put together a quote for their kitchen renovation, and then we headed off to the park for some photos before going out for dinner.

I have said it so many times, but I’ll say it again – I’m so lucky to have a bro who enjoys photography. He’s done us so many favours, doing family photos, newborn photos, maternity photos and the list goes on…

So, I’ll let the photos do the talking. Here are some shots from our day.

Despite what these photos suggest, Evalyn is not a fan of sitting in the leaves. As soon as I put her down in them she looked up at me and starting saying/signing “Help. Help. Help”.

Her face. Kills me.

Duckies in the park.

My heart.

Five

Today marks five years since I became yours. How do I sum up five amazing, fun filled, adventuresome, roller-coaster years in one measly blog post? Wasn’t it just yesterday that I walked down the aisle and took your hand?

You are the one I laugh with, fight with, work with, grow with, and live for. You are living proof that a girl’s dreams can come true. You have made me a wife and a mother. You have made us a family.

You rock my world, ECPC.

Love 2 you. Here’s to the next five…

xoxo, Luc

What Life is Made of

Forgive me in advance as I’m about to embark on the sappiest of all sappy posts. But? I just can’t help it. My heart is just so full. So deal with it.

It’s Monday morning. Usually Monday mornings are filled with rumbles and grumbles about starting a new week. But not today. Today, I’m eager to get things accomplished and have a great week. That’s what happens when you have an amazing weekend that fills you up with energy and life. (See? Uber sap. Don’t say I didn’t warn you).

On Saturday night, Evan and I got to spend the evening out together celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary. The actual anniversary is not until the 12th (so no worries, you still have time to get those presents in the mail), but we celebrated early because of other commitments next weekend. I got dressed up. I (gasp) did my hair and makeup. We dropped the kiddo off at her auntie’s midafternoon and headed out. We scarfed down enjoyed a delicious Italian meal. Salad, Italian wedding soup, rice balls, calamari, crispy ravioli, surf and turf ravioli and penne rustica followed by – are you ready for this – a dessert pizza smothered with nutella, strawberries, bananas and whipped cream. Could there be anything better? I think not.

After dinner, we waddled back to the truck and headed to the movie theatre. Seeing a movie wouldn’t be our traditional anniversary date – I always want to do something a little more interactive, but now that we have a kiddo? Seeing a movie? Bliss. Especially when that movie is the final instalment of Harry Potter … a love that we’ve shared since the beginning of our relationship.

We’ve come to appreciate nights out so much now that we have a baby. Obviously. No screaming to control during dinner, no one throwing food on the floor, no faces to wipe (well, except mine, since Evan pointed out that I had managed to get sauce all over my forehead), no butts to wipe. Just us. Me and him.

The best part of a date night is coming home and finding out that the kiddo was an angel for her aunties. No fussing. No trouble. No acknowledgment that mommy and daddy were even missing. That makes the date even better.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the weekend got even better. On Sunday, we packed a picnic and headed to Happy Rolph’s Petting Zoo after church. Evalyn fell asleep on the way and snoozed through half of the picnic but woke up just in time to see all the fun animals.

At first she wasn’t sure about the goats, but quickly got excited. We saw baby goats, sheep, pigs, llama llama red pajamas, donkeys, a cow, a horse and chickens. She was pumped. Although, as you can see in the middle right photo, she thought those chickens were old news!

Our weekend finished off with an afternoon and evening spent with our best friends. The boys did work, and the girls watched some Wiggles (keep your eyes peeled for a supah cute video of girlfriend getting down to the Wiggles), we ate Chinese food, went for a ride on the swing and enjoyed our day.

After weekends like this, I realize how blessed I am. To have family and friends to enjoy life with? There’s nothing better.

This and That…

A few random tidbits to end the week off…

Eva and I were lucky enough to spend the last few days with her Aunt Logi, my sister-in-law, while my brother is in India for business. We swam, played, walked, shopped and had an intense game of Mexican Train. What fun! Eva is definitely starting to know and remember people which I love. So much fun to see her recognizing her family members and other special people.

~

We finally got around to doing some baby proofing. I always said, Oh, I’ll do it soon. I’ll do it soon. And then, suddenly, here we are, and I should have “baby proofed” 3 months ago. But really, there’s not a lot that needed to be done. It was mostly just the kitchen cabinets. I always said I’d never lock them … I’d just teach her she can’t go in them. HA! Girlfriend was obsessed with getting into them and it was just getting ridiculous (and a little unsafe) for her to be constantly pulling things, like you know, the food processor, out. So, they are locked and this morning I waited anxiously for her to make this discovery and of course, she waited until well after morning nap to even really bother with them. And let me say, once she did figure out that she can’t get in them anymore, she was not such a happy camper. BUT once she realized she couldn’t get at them, she ended up sitting and playing with her TOYS (gasp!) for 30 minutes straight.

~

Mealtime has become somewhat horrible. Lately, when I put her in her chair with her meal, she starts devouring whatever is in front of her for about 3-5 minutes and then suddenly, it’s like a switch is flipped and she starts freaking. Not just whining and complaining. It’s more like, raging, someone is ripping my limbs off type screaming. As far as I can tell, it’s not that she doesn’t like the food, because she eats it and mmms and smacks her lips at first and it’s not that she’s full, because she sometimes calms down and just keeps eating and if she doesn’t, when she gets down and finished ScreamFest 2011, she smacks her lips and signs for food again. She rarely lets me spoon feed her – except yogurt and fruit in the morning as long as there is some pancake, toast or cracker on her tray that she can eat with her hands while I sneak the spoon in between her bites. But at lunch or dinner? Very little spoon feeding happening.

So what’s the deal? Is she bored? Does she want something different to eat? Does she just want to be a brat? Any advice?

~

We have chickens in the coop again. Evalyn loves them. She will stand outside the coop and watch them and squeal forever. And, much to my dismay, she even wants to go inside the coop with them (um, hello, gross. There’s POOP in there kid). I keep telling her she should want to go shopping and get her nails done and do girly things but I’m afraid Evan might get his way and have a little tomboy. Sidenote: The rage-filled limbs being ripped off screams often happen when we peel her away from her chickens, too.

~

I’ve officially begun thinking about first birthday stuff. How is it even possible that this is on my mind? Less than 2 months and we’ll be celebrating her first year! I’ve already made a few small first birthday party purchases and have a ton of ideas floating around in my head. Eek. Exciting.

~

Evan was in a car accident the Saturday before we left for Ottawa. No one was hurt but his truck needed to have some repairs. So, it was in the shop all week until last night. On Wednesday, my car started making a bizarre rattling noise that Evan was unsure of, so as of today, my car is in the shop. Aren’t car troubles just the best?

~

Happy Friday, friends! Love you all.

First Family Vacation

We’re home. We had a blast. I want to be on vacation with my family forever. Except, in that forever, I’d like my baby to sleep at night while we are away. Because, honestly, aside from the fact that she did NOT sleep at night while we were away, it was perfect. We walked miles and miles, seeing sights, shopping, picnicking in the parks – and just all together having a good time. A good, good time. Just the three of us.

Now that we’re home, I feel like Evalyn and I are going through a Daddy withdrawal. We got so used to having him with us all day for 5 days straight that life is kind of boring now that it’s just the two of us again.

I’m normally not a huge fan of vacation recap posts but for the sake of memories, I’m about to do just that. As I mentioned last week, we made a quick change of plans – very last minute – and headed to our capital city, Ottawa, instead of going camping. And lemmetellyou, we are glad that we did. Thanks to Jen, we found an amazing deal on travel zoo for a suite with a full kitchen and living/dining area. This meant that we could still keep our vacation relatively cheap by eating most of our food at the hotel and also, we could sleep more comfortably by putting up the playpen in the corner of the living room area instead of right beside our bed. Although, in the end, that part of the arrangement was kind of pointless since she ended up in our bed a good portion of the time anyway.

We left around 9 on Wednesday morning, stopping for a quick McD’s breakfast and iced coffee on the way out of town. We stopped for about an hour for lunch and to stretch our legs (okay, and to buy some new shirts at Old Navy for Evan) and then continued on. The trip took much less time than I expected and we were pulling into the hotel parking lot just before 3.

We settled in, had a quick snack and then headed out for the evening. We wandered around the By-ward market for a few hours. I stopped at Lush to pick up a few bath fizzies (yum) and we stopped at a nice little Pub to have some dinner.  After dinner, we walked a little more and then headed back to the hotel around 7. Eva went to bed and Evan and I ate junk food and watched a movie in the room.

Let me tell you, traveling sure is different with a baby in tow. Normally, when seeing a new city, I would leave my hotel at 8 am and not return until well after dark, in an attempt to see every single thing there was to see in two days. That’s just not possible anymore. But, that’s okay. We just decided to relax. Take in a few things and not over do it. We stuck to places we could go that were within walking distance from the hotel and quite honestly, those were the most important places to see anyway. Neither Evan or I had been to Ottawa since middle school so it was all new to us again.

On Friday morning, we all slept in until past 8 (although, sleeping in takes on a different meaning when you were up all.freaking.night) and woke up to find that tooth #7 had decided to join us for our vacation. We made a big breakfast in the room and then headed to the pool for a swim. I put the babe down, and we got ready for the day, packed a picnic lunch and relaxed a bit.

Once she was up, we were off to Parliament Hill. We wandered around there, seeing all the statues and buildings and had a picnic lunch with Sir John A MacDonald. In the collage below, my very favourite picture is the one of Eva and I in front of the “Women are Persons” monument. This monument honours the famous 5 – five women who worked hard (and were successful) in securing a place for women in the senate. Many freedoms my daughter will enjoy are a result of the work of these ladies.

After seeing Parliament, we walked through the mall a bit and headed back for nap #2. After the nap, we decided to stay inside for a while since it was balls hot so we went swimming again and cooked an early dinner in the room. The evening was spent wandering more of the market and eating ice cream. Eva was more than happy to share her first ice cream cone with her Daddy. We also walked along the river and Eva had a chance to dip her toes in the canal.

On Friday morning, we got up early, made breakfast and went for a walk in Major’s Hill Park. It was a beautiful, cool morning – just perfect.

We packed up while Eva napped, checked out and were ready to go. Except we had one more stop to make. Because they only took cash and we didn’t have any the night before, I hadn’t had a chance to get my beloved Beaver Tail yet. So, yes, I had to stop for one on the way out of the city (you can see me stuffing my face in one of the photos above). I also stopped at one of the shops I’d been in earlier to grab a few souvenirs and off we went. We went to Dow’s Lake for a picnic lunch and a walk and then headed off to Cornwall for the next step on our journey.

Evan’s sister, Amy, got married on Saturday so the last portion of our trip was full of wedding fun. We got to the hotel in Cornwall in time for a swim and a nap before the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. And on Saturday, we enjoyed celebrating as Amy and Stuart committed their lives to each other in an extremely beautiful wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, I don’t have very many photos from the wedding. With a husband in the wedding party and a crazy 10 month old scooting around, I didn’t have an extra hand to snap photos. But here are a few of my wee family from throughout the day.

The wedding reception was so much fun and thanks to Auntie Marcia and Auntie Linda, I was able to put the baby to bed and enjoy some time partying it up on the dance floor sans baby.

Sunday came quickly and after enjoying a delicious brunch (waffles, yum), we packed up and hit the road. Again, we stopped for lunch and a leg stretch and made it home just before 3.

We were all amazingly tired when we got home. Five busy days with not a lot of sleep will do that to you. Evalyn went to bed around 6:40 and, to be honest, we followed shortly after. Ev fell asleep on the couch at 7 and finally managed to make his way to bed to go to sleep for good at 8:30 and I crashed then, too. And at last, we slept for longer than 2 hours at a time.

Although this vacation was short – it was so special. We’ll always look back and remember it as our first family vacation. My heart is so full.

Vacation!

Here I am, just checking in to let you know that I’m on vacaaaaaaaaa! Months ago, we had planned to go camping for our family vacation. We had booked a site at one of Ontario’s nicest provincial parks and had borrowed a pop up trailer from some friends of ours. We were set to leave on Wednesday morning around 9. It was Tuesday evening and we were basically all packed up and ready to go when Eva started getting really fussy about an hour before bedtime. We were in the midst of the hottest week of summer and it was only supposed to get hotter. To add to that, the past two weeks Eva has been going through her most difficult bout of teething yet. She has been in rare form.

Just as I was getting ready to put Eva in a shower to cool down before bed, Evan and I kind of just looked at each other and said, “What the heck are we doing?”

Isn’t the point of vacation to have a good time? The point is not to be miserable the whole time as you’re trying to entertain a hot, teething, unhappy baby, who likely wouldn’t even sleep. We figured we’d end up driving around through the night to avoid waking up other campers in the surrounding campsites.

So, within a matter of 10 minutes, we cancelled our campsite and booked a hotel suite in Ottawa for the two nights (thanks to my friend Jen for finding us such a great teal from Travel Zoo).

We’ve been here in our capital city for just over 24 hour and are having a really, really enjoyable time.

And? The fact that I was up half the night with a shrieking baby who woke up this morning with a brand new tooth was more than enough proof to me that we made the right decision and that the extra money spent on the hotel was worth it. Dealing with that in a private, air conditioned hotel room is bad enough. I don’t even want to think about what our time would have been like dealing with it at the campsite.

We’ve been swimming, walking, touring, shopping, and eating and having a blast! This is, really, our first official family vacation. The first time we’ve gone away anywhere – just the three of us.

Tomorrow we’ll head off to to our next adventure as we celebrate with Evan’s sister as she marries the love of her life. We’ll be back next week with pictures and stories to document our vacation.

On Work Stuff

Right now, I’m living it up as a SAHM mom to my babe. How long this will last is up in the air, but right now, it’s what I’m doing. For now, here’s our story.

In Canada, women are entitled to one year of paid maternity leave. However, apparently, one has to be working before giving birth in order to receive these benefits. Who made that rule?

Because I was in grad school full time, and only TAing part time when we were blessed with the greatest surprise of our life, I hadn’t worked enough hours to meet the cut off to be eligible for mat leave. So, that being said, while I’m on maternity leave right, I’m not really on maternity leave. I’m on self-appointed maternity leave, if you will. We decided despite the lack of maternity benefits, we felt it was best for me to stay home for at least the first year of Evalyn’s life and decided to make it happen. Shortly before she was born, Evan started a new job and this gave us a little bit of flexibility in that regard.

In January, I returned to work part time (very part time) as a teaching assistant at my university. I was responsible for two seminars. This meant one evening a week I was on campus leading seminars while I was able to do the majority of my other work from home. Between naptimes, bedtime, and Daddy time, it was more than manageable for me to put forth the effort and time necessary for the job. It gave us a little more wiggle room but was just temporary, as the semester ended shortly before Easter.

Until now, I have been making serious use of the denial mechanism when it comes to contemplating what I will be doing when her first year is up. You see, I have a heart to stay home with my baby/ies (because yes, there will be more). I have known since forever that I want to be a SAHM and the small taste of this role that I have had over the past 8ish months has instilled that even further. I believe that God has placed that desire on my heart for a reason and if it is what He wants for our life and for our family, it will work out. Somehow. Right now, though, I just can’t see how.

My plan is to apply for more TA positions in the fall and see, with a few more classes, if we can make it work. If not, I may be looking at finding full time employment – which is another battle in itself, since I have no job to return to. Secretly, I keep hoping that some amazingly flexible opportunity for me to work some and still be home most of the time will land in my lap. But? That is likely not going to happen.

So, friends. Will you pray for me? For us? That we will have the wisdom to make the best decision possible. And … that somehow, someway, the desires of my heart will come to fruition?

Baby Muffins and More

On the weekend, I tweeted about making some baby friendly muffins for Eva and quite a few of you said that you’d like the recipe. I got this recipe from my friend, Trish, who makes them for her little girl. (Trish – if you’re reading, thanks for the recipe!) My sister also makes them and has had good success with them.

They are a great on the go snack and are perfect for letting your little one practicing feeding him/herself. Eva wants so badly to feed herself but has trouble coordinating herself to get food into hand into mouth. Especially since many of the foods she is eating are slippery and difficult to pick up. Little pieces of these muffins on her tray have been working perfectly.

Here’s the recipe:

2 cups mashed banana (about 5 bananas)
1/3 cup applesauce (I added a bit more)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups brown rice flour

Mix all ingredients until well blended and smooth. Pour into greased muffin tins. Bake at 350 – for about 20 minutes (regular muffins), or 8 -10 minutes (mini muffins).

I plan on experimenting with throwing in some grated carrot and/or zucchini and possibly blueberries. My sister said she adds a little bit of butter and sometimes chocolate chips. I’m sure there are lots of variations that would be possible.

***

What else is new with us?

We enjoyed an amazing weekend full of time with our friends. Glen and Rachel ventured up from Ohio for a visit before their little one makes her arrival in September. On Saturday night, there was a house warming party for C-Biscuit and Big Burd so we all enjoyed that. The theme was “Superheroes” and we were supposed to dress up.

I got really creative and went as Super Mom. And do you know how hard it is to come up with a superhero costume for a baby?

One trip to Once Upon a Child and $2.50 later, Eva made her appearance as “Super Peacock”.

***

I had a wonderful first Mother’s Day. Eva surprised me with a beautiful gift of sleep. I brought her home from the party to put her down around 7 on Saturday night and then left her with a sitter when I went back. I only stayed a few more hours, and came home so I knew I’d be back in time to feed her. But, she never woke up. So I went to bed. And then … it was morning. For the first time ever, she slept straight through the night. 7pm-7am. Happy Mama’s Day to me. (For the record, it did not continue last night).

Evan and Eva got me a new bread maker for Mother’s day so I am very excited to resume my bread making. By 8:15 this morning, I already had a batch of cheddar beer bread in the oven. Yeah, that’s right, I cracked open a Bud Light at 8 am on Monday morning.

***

The weather this weekend was beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that I have a sunburn. Yikes. Time to start being careful. The forecast is calling for a string of nice days, so I’m hoping to get out lots and lots.

Bring on the sunscreen!

Happy Monday, friends.

Trouble with a Capital “E”

My girl is t-r-o-u-b-l-e.

Already.

Trouble with a capital “E”.

Heaven help me.

I’m in for it.

Here is a little run down of the past two days since we’ve been home from Nana and Papa’s:

~ She ripped the spacebar off my keyboard. Thankfully, the Dude was able to fix it … after only trying for about 30 minutes.

~ She has scoot-crawled over to the trash can in her room and tipped it over approximately 456 387 times.

~ She has attempted to STAND UP in the bathtub approximately 456 388 times.

~ She has had approximately 456 389 temper tantrums (I never knew a 7 month old could even have temper tantrums. But they can. Trust me) over things such as me closing the computer after skyping with Nana, me taking a book off her high chair tray, me attempting to give her one too many peas, me moving her away from the humidifier in her room, and me turning off the music on her jumperoo.

~ She has laughed at me every single time I mutter the word “NO” to her.

This kid?

Is way.too.much like her father.

Young Love

Yesterday I was looking through some old photos and I came across some gems. I shared two of my favourite pictures of Evan and from wayyyy back when with my Tweeps.

The first one was taken in June 2005, when we returned to our high school to walk in commencement and crown the next year’s citizens of the year.

This one was taken a few months later, in August. This was taken before we went on what may be the most significant and memorable date in our history. We had set some financial goals that we wanted to achieve before considering marriage, and when we achieved those goals, we celebrated. We went out to The Keg and I ate so much that I made myself ill. It was glamorous really. He should have run away screaming then, but bless his heart, he didn’t. Mind you, I should have run away screaming when he wet the bed on our ‘first date’, but I didn’t do that either.

What can I say? We were meant to be.

See? It’s true. We used to look like that. I can hardly even recognize those two people six years later.

I may or may not get in trouble for saying this but the coordinating outfits? Always Evan’s idea.

After showing these pictures, I got to see Young Love photos from lots of my tweeps. And I loved them! So let me know if you’ve posted some photos, I’d love to check them out.

My Shrinking Baby

Last night was a difficult night. I’m talking up 5 times, no more than 1-2 hours of sleep at a time kind of difficult.

Something was clearly bothering her. She had a bad case of the screamies – which isn’t normal. Most of the time, if she has a bad night, she is just awake and wants to party. But last night? No partying for her. She was ticked.

And somewhere amidst the rocking, cuddling, gripe water, singing, bum patting, tears and other futile attempts to soothe my baby and get her back to sleep – I got frustrated and discouraged.

Now I know in my head that her rough night could have been caused by teething, a sore tummy, being too hot, being too cold, or something else or something else or something else.

But sometimes, in the thick of it, you feel like it’s your fault. Like you are doing something entirely wrong. And that’s how I felt last night.

So I woke the hubby. Scratch that. I tried to wake the hubby.

I told him I needed help. I didn’t know what was wrong with her. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. I felt like this was my fault.

His response?

“Don’t worry Babe. She’s just a baby. She is growing and shrinking. Growing and shrinking”. And he rolled over.

Hm, okay.

Well – the growing part I was aware of. But the shrinking?

I was unaware that my baby was shrinking and that this may or may not cause her to sleep poorly. I’ll have to tuck that one away for future sleepless nights.

Needless to say, my dead-to-the-world-doesn’t-hear-a-thing-and-talks-like-crazy-in-his-sleep husband was impossible to wake up last night.

At least his shrinking baby explanation lightened my mood a bit and gave me something to (kind of) laugh about.