Friday letters

Dear Wind,

Don’t you know I have a baby and a toddler who, combined, keep me up through the night often enough? I definitely do not need you howling and pounding on my windows, stealing my sleep throughout the night. I also don’t need you waking up my toddler multiple times.

Love, Mad at You Mama

***

Dear One Child Me,

DO NOT plan and execute an elaborate first birthday party for your first child. Why? Because soon you will have a second child and that child’s infancy will zoom by in an instant. Suddenly you’ll realize that within a few months time it will be her turn for a first birthday. And you will also realize that you don’t have the time, energy, resources or money to throw another party for her. But your desire to avoid “second child syndrome” means that you know you will anyway.

Love,  Two Child Me

***

Dear 50 year old man who I witnessed buying a bright red, furry, heart shaped pillow yesterday at 4pm.

Nice Try. Better luck next year.

Love, Every Woman in the World

***

Dear Gwen,

I realize that standing up is so! incredibly! awesome! But honestly? When you’re sleeping? It’s best to just stay in a horizontal position. Trust me. It’ll work out better for all of us.

Love, Your Sleepy Mama

***

Dear Province of Ontario,

I do love that you have implemented a made up holiday in February. I mean, what is Family Day anyway? I would love it more, of course, if my husband didn’t have to work on this day and it could, in fact, be a family day. Don’t you know for me, every day is Family Day? All this means is that all the stores and fun things to do are closed so we have to stay home.

Love, This here SAHM

***

Dear Belgian Chocolate K-Cups,

My heart is yours. Forever.

Love, Caffeine Addicted Mama

Some things

Leave it to me to all but abandon this blog and then randomly pop in with the world’s most scattered, incoherent brain dump post.

We’ve reached the point where getting Gwennie changed is worse than wrangling a wild zoo animal. So that’s fun.

Hardwoods throughout the entire house + crawling baby = also fun.

Whenever I’m out, be it shopping or at a restaurant, or any public place, really, and I see a baby asleep in a car seat or stroller, I have to stop myself from staring with my jaw on the floor. Honestly, this really happens? My babies do not do this. Ever. Aside from very early infancy, neither of my girls have ever stayed asleep in the car seat. Sure, they’ll sleep in the car but as soon as we stop (even at a red light sometimes) awake. And to even consider falling asleep while riding in the stroller? Impossible. Evalyn did it once, around 10 months old, on the hottest day in the history of the world at the zoo. For 15 minutes. So yes. Babies sleeping in public places. Foreign world to me.

Evalyn has her first ear infection, well, make that double ear infection, of her life. In other words, this was highly warranted today.

We’re almost halfway through the month. How? I have no idea. I had a great old list of things to get done this month and so far that seems to be flying out the window.

As of yesterday, I’m obsessed with spring footwear for my toddler. Toms? Converse? What’ll it be?

Sleep talking is funny. Last week, when Evan came to wake me up to tell me the baby was up (seriously, I think him waking me up instead of my body waking up to the sound of the baby crying totally screws me up). I told him: “Bring the shelf in here. Let me dust it, that’ll help”. Then the next night, he woke me up at 2am and said “I think by tonight we should be ready for the wall prep”. And last night, I stood outside of Eva’s door and listened to her telling her baby a big old story about something. Who knows what.

I am tired.

That’s about all that’s inside my brain today.

remember that time

Remember that time my amazing sleeper decided that she was going to give me a few weeks of horrific sleep? Just to remind me how good I have had it? Remember that?

Remember that time that DST made my toddler wake up super early every morning, but eventually it worked itself out and she started having super duper long naps and I decided the early mornings can stick around just as long as the long naps do, too? Remember that?

Remember the time I was a walking zombie and asked my husband at 8:45 if he was ready for bed and he said he “could not go to bed that early as he had been feeling draggy at work due to getting too much sleep?” Remember that?

Remember that time I throat punched him for saying that? Remember that?

Remember the time I won the great stocking war of 2012 and bought 6 matching stockings so I will have enough for our current and future babies even though the husband thought this was stupid? Remember that?

Remember the time he said he is going to make me have 5 children just so that my stocking plan fails? Remember that?

Remember the time I decided that if it came to that, and I had more children than stockings, life would be too crazy to even think about stockings anyway? Remember that?

Remember the time that Gwen decided that rolling over and turning circles in her crib and playing with all.of.the.things.in.sight was a way better idea than falling asleep and many naps were spent trying to get her to sleep longer than actually sleeping? Remember that?

Remember the time that I discovered how difficult it is to find matching Christmas PJs in teeny sizes and toddler sizes? Remember that?

Remember the time that I dug out all of the Christmas books, DVDs and stickers on November 19th in an attempt to get my 2 year old as pumped about the holidays as I am? Remember that?

Remember the time that I was about 98% done all of my Christmas shopping by early November? Remember that?

Remember the time that I went a little crazy buying some new clothes for myself for my post baby bod? Remember that?

Remember the time that I was actually able to trade in my momiform for real person clothes more than once a week due to said shopping spree? Remember that?

Remember that time that potty training was the most annoying part of parenting so far? Remember that?

Remember that time that the husband and I got another date night just a few weeks after our last one? Remember that?

Remember the time that I had no time, energy or creativity to blog for real so I wrote some random ‘Remember that time” post? Remember that?

Happy Monday Friends.

Love, Zombie Mama

eva says more funny stuff

Okay I promise this will be the last “Eva says” post for a while. Or maybe not. Who am I kidding? At the rate she goes, this will become a weekly feature.

***

Eva likes to always let me know what’s going on with her sister. The best example is when G is screaming, Eva will clap her hands and yell, “Oh! Gwennie’s AWAKE. Gwennie’s AWAKE!” Thanks, hun. You know, the screaming didn’t tip me off. She’s also eager to praise her and get excited when Gwen learns something new. Right now, most commonly she jumps around and shouts, “Yook Mom! She’s holding a toy! Gwennie’s holding a toy!” I couldn’t let Gwen CIO even if I wanted to. As soon as the tiniest peep comes from her room, , Eva will say, “Dah sounds yike Gwennie’s awake. Yet me go check”. And in she goes.

***

Don’t be grossed out but I have a corn on my foot. Okay, be grossed out. The other day, I had my feet up on the coffee table and Eva saw it. She looked appalled and said “What is that?” I told her it was called a corn and she pushed my foot down and said “DAT is yucky. Don’t make me yook at it”. Ha. Similarly, a while back she pointed to a mole on my face and said, “Oh Mom. You got a sick right there”. Then when we were at the inlaw’s for Thanksgiving, Evan climbed in bed with her when she decided to wake up at 5 am. She put her arm around him and started rubbing his neck, her fingers came across a zit on his neck and in the pitch black she whispered, “Daddy. You got a sick”. Not sure where the word ‘sick’ came from – but needless to say,  zits have a new name in our house now.

***

On Saturday, we went to the mall as a family to get Gwen’s ears pierced. Then we headed across the street to meet my aunt and uncle for supper. On the way over, Eva wanted me to sit in the back between her and G. I told her I was going to sit in the front with Daddy and she said, “Once upon a time, Mommy sat right here beside me”.

While we were at the restaurant we were eating, minding our own business when she shouted, “Mr Noodle is here! Der’s Mr. Noodle” Finally, we turned around and sure enough, Mr. Noodle’s look alike was sitting at the next table. Maybe it was Mr Noodle’s brother Mr. Noodle.

***

She loves to sing, always has. And recently, there are more and more and more made up songs coming out of her mouth. For example, to the tune of “Mr Sun”, “Toys away, away, put my toys away. PUT! MY! TOYS away!” and always the favourite, “Kumbyah my Yord, I see penguins! Kumbyah my yord, Gwennie’s sleeping”.

***

For her birthday, C gave Evalyn a whoopie cushion. The other day, Evan got it out and was driving her nuts with it. She wanted to hold it and every time she got close to take it from his hand, he would make it fart in her face. She was getting so mad at him and finally, in exasperation, held her hand up to him and yelled “Daddy. Please. I ASKED YOU DON’T SQUEEZY IT ANYMORE!” He does the same thing with his “owie” (he lost a fingernail in an accident a while back and now it’s growing back – she is very fascinated by it – gross).  Every day when he gets home, the first think she does is asks to see his owie. She always wants to touch it but is scared because she knows he’s startle her when she gets close. So now she said, “I am asking you. Don’t move your owie!”

***

The other day, Caley and Connor were over for a visit. They were going to take a picture of Eva to send to uncle Craig. Caley gave Eva thumbs up and told her to do that for the picture. The rest of the morning, she kept asking both Caley and I to “do the finger stick”.

***

At the end of her nap, she always calls to me until I come to get her. The other day, it went a little like this: “Hey MOM! It's Eeba! Do you hear me? MOM! It's Eeba! In my room. I hear you Mom. MOM COME OBER DIS WAY?” and then a few minutes later, she walked out of her room wearing nothing but a diaper and socks. This was the first time she figured out how to open her door - which actually isn’t that hard since we don’t even have door knobs yet :). But, I will say that she was wearing MUCH more than just a diaper when she went down for her nap. She has since become quite the nudist, taking off her clothes at random moments. Like yesterday when I was making dinner and came into the living room to find her in the jumperoo, bouncing away, with nothing but a diaper on. She has even started taking her diaper off sometimes. I caught her the other day, in the washroom, “dumping the poop into the toilet” the way she sees me do it .Thankfully, there was no real poop.

***

When Eva gets in trouble we often say "Don't speak like that" so now when she says "sorry" and we say "for what?" she says "for speaking". I promise, we do let her speak. Sometimes.

***

One day when I picked her up from school, the teacher told me that when they sat down for snack, she got all serious and said to the other kids, “Kay boys. No talking. It’s time to eat.”

***

One day she slammed her head on the hardwood floor because she slipped and fell while having a fit. Her fit was because she asked for a banana and when I gave it to her, without the peel, she lost her mind because she wanted it “in da closet”.

***

G always laughs when we nibble her toes. I guess I can see how this could be misleading to Eva who walked over to her last week and bit her foot. Really hard.  The same thing happened when I was shaking a rattle toy in front of Gwen’s face and saying “boo” with it to make her laugh. Eva took it from me and hauled off and whacked Gwen in the face with it. Fail.

***

Eva loves to pray and to read the bible. The other day, she was reading her bible to her dolls and I heard her saying “Dis God’s word. The people say YAY God. Tell me da words. Tell me, what God made? God made the sky? I teach you about God. Now, we got to pray”.

*** 

I asked Eva if she would like to go grocery shopping today. Her response? "We go grocery shopping on Sun-der-day Mommy! ONLY Sun-der-day!" Also she has started saying lasterday, which is basically the best ever.

So What Wednesday

Today I'm linking up with Shannon at Life After I Dew for the ever famous, So What! Wednesday...

So what if having a baby has refuelled my addiction for the game Spite and Malice on my iPhone? That game has gotten me through many a night time feedings in my day.

So what if we went through the McDonald’s drive thru for an iced coffee and when Evalyn asked me “Where’s Eea timbit?” (donut hole from Tim Horton’s for all you Americans) and I said “We didn’t get one today” she responded by saying, “Okay. Just cossee for Mama da-day!” Hm, has she heard that before?

So what if my once super organized and efficient packing has turned a wee bit sloppy in these last days as evidenced by the box I packed yesterday and labeled, “Random Crap We Probably Won’t Ever Need Again”.

So what if we decided to buy a fixer upper, renovate,move and have a baby ALL! AT! THE! SAME! TIME! Seemed like a good idea at the time.

So what if I purchased an ErgoBaby Carrier with Gwennie’s gift money even though I have 8 other baby carriers of different styles? They all serve a different purpose, right?

In similar news, so what if I’m obsessed with babywearing?

So what if I had about ten other things to include on this list but my baby is crying and needs me so I’m signing off!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

I’m Pretty Sure…

I’m pretty sure I showered more when Evalyn was a tiny newborn infant than I do now. I won’t even tell you how many days I often go between showers. You'd disown me.

~

I’m pretty sure that cutting my hair to where I can barely fit it in a ponytail just weeks before giving birth to another child may not have been a good idea. I’m gonna be grubby (see above, also).

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I’m pretty sure I would like to close my eyes and wake up 3 weeks from now, when the baby is due to be born, and Evan has had time to get lots of work done on the house, without actually having to live these 3 weeks.

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I’m pretty sure it was rude for the Grandmother at the park to turn on the splash pad when (an obviously unsure) Evalyn and I were standing directly beside one of the soakers and there were no other kids in sight who were interested in playing in it.

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I’m pretty sure that while Evalyn and I are Daddy-less most evenings over the next few weeks, we will be making it a tradition to eat a Popsicle every night.

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I’m pretty sure that I might fall down like a ton of bricks the next time we go swimming. The weightlessness in the water is amazing. The opposite of weightlessness as I climb out of the pool with my toddler in my arms, however? Opposite of amazing.

~

I’m pretty sure that my Mom heart is never more full than when we are driving, listening to praise and worship music, and I hear Eva singing along. “My so, my so yust sing” (my soul, my soul must sing) are the sweetest words to my ears.

~

I’m pretty sure that this pelvic pain is the worst pain I’ve felt in my life. Not exaggerating. If this experience is like Evalyn, childbirth will be nothing compared to this pain. I can hear my bones grinding together when I shift my legs.

~

I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten more chips during this pregnancy than I have in my entire life.

~

I’m pretty sure I should be ashamed to admit that.

~

I’m pretty sure I’m not.

A Few Open Letters – Because That’s All This Preggo Can Muster Up

Dear Tactless People of the World,

Did you know that, “Wow. You look really exhausted?” is code for “You look like crap”? Please stop saying it. Also, while you’re at it, you may want to practice reigning in that eyes popping out of your head surprised look when you ask me how much longer I have to go and I tell you a month. It’s not nice. Instead, smile and say, “Oh, wow. I never would have guessed. You look so tiny!”

Love,
An Angry (apparently huge and exhausted looking) Preggo

~~~

Dear Baby #2,

Please go easy on me. There is a lot that still needs to get done before you arrive. So, be nice. You don’t really need to practice your ninja moves on my bladder, tailbone and lady parts. There will be lots of time to perfect your acrobatics when you’re an outside baby.

Love,
Your Mother

~~~

Dear Humidity,

Goodbye. I hate you.

Love,
This Sweaty Person

~~~

Dear Pepsi,

Why you gotta be so tasty?

Love,
Addicted to You

~~~

Dear Random Person I Have Not Seen or Spoken to in Fifteen Years,

Don’t try to “Friend” me on facebook shortly before my due date. I won’t accept it. It’s clear you just want to creep on my baby.

Love,
We Aren’t Really Friends

~~~

Dear Toddler,

Remember when you used to go to bed without screaming your head off? That was nice.

Love,
Peaceful Bedtime Loving Mama

25 Things About MOI

Last week, I was tagged by my girlfriend, Erica, to do this 25 things about me blog post. I love these kinds of posts. I love learning random, bizarre tidbits about all my bloggity friends. I hope you feel the same. If not, prepare to be bored. Apparently I must bare my soul around here more than I ever realized because even after pondering what I’d write for a few days, I was having a super hard time thinking of one thing, let alone 25, that I haven’t shared in this little space at some point or another. So, forgive me if you’re a long time reader and everything you’re about to read is old news, but many of you are new around here, so some of these are re-posts from past “About Me” posts.

1. I peed and pooped my pants a lot as a child for numerous reasons, including – but not limited to – being too shy to ask for help with suspenders, being victimized by my older brother who wouldn’t help me with my belt, being sick and pooping while throwing up and being scared poopless (literally) on an amusement park ride.

2. I have been horseback riding once – the night Evan proposed to me. I forgot to say yes.

3. I pierced my own belly button, with an apple and ice cube and a sewing needle in November of grade 7 at a bowling alley. I never told my parents. I took the ring out in June when I had to start wearing a bathing suit so they wouldn’t know (sorry, Mom).

4. When I was in Grade 1, my mom forgot to come to a Parent Appreciation Ceremony where she would receive a rose. I was crushed for life (you still owe me, Mom).

5. In grade 2, during story time, my classmates could see my underwear (white with red hearts on it) over my pants. They all teased me and I cried the whole way home. I never wore those undies again.

6. I always put the toilet seat down before I get in the shower. I’m afraid I’ll slip and fall in or drop my towel in when I get out.

7. When I was young, I killed our gerbils by feeding them bubble gum and ice cream. I think maybe one froze to death and the other one’s stomach blew up?

8. I love to be tickled (arms, feet, back, hair). My daughter has inherited this trait from me. If we tickle her arms or legs and stop, she will grab our hands and place them back on the spot we were tickling and start moving it for us. Exact same technique I try to pull on Evan.

9. I bite my nails.

10. I shocked everyone and got my nose pierced on my honeymoon. I still wear it almost six years later. I made Evan promise me he’ll tell me when I’m too old and uncool to leave it in.

11. I drive a stick shift.

12. I make my bed every single day, usually within 15 minutes of getting up.

13. I can only nap when I’m pregnant. Even when Evalyn was an infant, I had trouble sleeping during the day, despite how bad our nights were. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I napped during her infancy.

14. I am the farthest thing from an athlete possible. Two examples. My parents signed me up for t-ball as a kid and I struck out. Yes, t-ball is the sport where the ball is on a stand. Right in front of you. There is no skill required to hit it. The second example, we have a home video of my dad practicing golf with my siblings and I in a field that was in front of the house I grew up in. My brother and sister are both practicing their technique and swinging the clubs in the video. When the camera swings around to me, however, you find me sitting on my dad’s golf bag like a horse, singing “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain When She Comes”

15. I have serious trouble pronouncing canola oil. I have to stop and think about it and say it very slowly or else it comes out “canoily, oily” or “canola oila”.

16. When I was in 12th grade in high school I peed my pants in front of a group of friends for $40. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, mark my words. Best $40 I ever made.

17. I want to have 489082432 babies but I don’t really care for many parts of pregnancy. I love the belly and the kicks and the anticipation but I hate the sickness, exhaustion and body aches. If I could plop myself down at 9 months pregnant and just start out by giving birth, I’d be happy. Based on Evalyn’s birth, anyway, I love giving birth. We’ll see what I say after my second go.

18. I don’t usually drink hot coffee but in the spring/summer I can put away iced coffee’s like it’s my job.

19. If I could have one wish, I would make it so that potato chips, Pepsi and fast food were the top 3 healthiest foods on earth.

20. Speaking of food (uh oh, now I’ve unleashed the monster), my husband cannot understand my obsession with food. It’s not just a pregnancy thing for me. At any time in my life, my mind revolves around food. Once I start thinking about a certain food I want, I cannot be at ease until I get it. He laughs at me when I plan out where/what we will eat days or weeks in advance. His motto, on the other hand, is, “If it fills the hole I’m happy”.

21. I sometimes hate being married to a talented and skilled man.

22. My husband has two middle names and so does my first born. I love the way long names sound and I anticipated continuing this trend for my entire family. But, that’s not happening and baby #2 will only have one middle name.

23. When I was a kid, I switched the price tag on packages of stickers at the Dollar store so I got the ones that were supposed to cost $1 per sheet for 2/$1. Still struggling with the guilt from this experience.

24. I love a clean house but I sure as heck hate cleaning it.

25. I can wear kid’s shoes. Sometimes.

A jumble of thoughts. Or something.

I sit down to blog and lately, nothing more than a huge jumble of random thoughts falls out. So, here goes nothing…

~

I think it is so cute that Evalyn mixes up pronouns and says “you” when she really means “me” that I don’t even try to correct her. I already find it so bittersweet when she starts saying a word properly after mispronouncing it in a super cute way for a long time that I am in no rush to have her talk like an adult. She’ll get there. My favourite one is that she often says, “Mommy got you” when I’m holding her. Usually it’s when she’s being sucky, or is hurt or scared or something. Just last night she was having a hard time getting to sleep and I almost melted of the cute when I picked her up and she said “Mommy got you. Mommy got you, ah-ways”.

~

For a while, we were sort-of-kind-of doing the potty thing. She started showing an interest in noticing the potty and all of that jazz a few months ago and asking to sit on it, so I went ahead and bought a kid potty. We would put her on before bath and also whenever she asked. In the course of a few weeks, she peed on it four or five times. Just before Easter, she pooped while sitting on the potty and I’m pretty sure the splash (tmi?) scared her enough that she doesn’t ever want to sit on the potty again. Granted, she still talks about the potty non stop, tells me when she’s pooped and is actually kind of disturbingly obsessed with her dirty diapers. She wants to “yook”, “touch”, “bye bye dirty poo poo” all the time. Is this normal? Should I take this as a sign that I should crack down on the potty thing? Now whenever we ask her if she wants/needs to sit on the potty she says yes but then shouts ALL DONE as soon as we get to the bathroom. I kind of feel like I should just pack it up and put it out of sight until after we are adjusted to the new baby and settled from the move. Experienced moms, is this me being wise or just lazy? Honesty please.

~

I started packing today. Sort of. One box of my boots and three boxes of decorations from the walls, dressers, mantel and so on. Evan thinks it’s still too early. I keep reminding him that with every passing day I am becoming more and more pregnant. And soon will become more and more exhausted from a newborn. We get possession the end of this month. I am hoping to have lots ready to go by that point that can just sit in the basement/garage until the floors/painting is done. So, my house my be starting to look bare but I’d rather live in an empty, boring house for a few months than rush at the end. No?

~

The friend who runs Evalyn’s daycare is named Jessica. So, we always tell E she is going to go to Jess’ while mommy and daddy go to work and that I will pick her up at lunch time. She has started to add “See ya yunch-time” to her list of goodbyes to people. Also? She has started to call Jess Jess’. Hi Jess’. Thank you Jess’.

~

I suck at watching movies. I think it must be because I have the attention span of a camel. Do they have a short attention span? They must. My lack of interest or desire to watch movies drives Evan nuts. He doesn’t get why I can’t/don’t want to sit on the couch and zone into a movie for two hours every night. The other night we were laying in bed and he was watching a movie on netflix. I was “watching” too. Aka, getting up to get a snack, playing on my phone, doing some laundry, drifting to sleep and otherwise, just not paying attention. When the movie was about ten minutes from being over, it somehow caught my attention. But remember, I hadn’t watched the rest of it. And also, the angle of the laptop was making it difficult for me to see the screen. Our conversation went like this. Me: “Can you pause that when you have a second?” Evan: {pauses movie} “What?” Me: “Can you tell me what is happening in this movie?”

The response I got? Priceless. Sidenote: he did not have the decency to fill me in.

~

I hate when I write a blogpost and then a few hours later realize that I forgot to include the initial thought that sparked the idea for the post. It happened yesterday. I wrote about how I love watching Evalyn become a combination of Evan and I. What I forgot to mention was that the whole idea for the post came the other day when she insisted on dipping every bite of her dinner in Frank’s Hot Sauce. So like her father. So unlike her mother.

~

We can’t agree on this unborn child’s name. The girl name was selected within 34 seconds of finding out we were expecting and I am utterly and completely in love with it. The boy name was also selected but now I’m just not 100% sure about it so I’ve been tossing around new ideas. I found one that I fell in love with, but husband disagrees. I’m pretty sure the fact that I am convinced we’re having a girl, I love the girl name and we have no idea what the boy name will be guarantees I’m having a boy.

And while we were on the topic of names? Count yourself lucky if you never ever have to go through the process of naming a child with my husband as your counterpart. He is horrible.

~

My hormones are raging. I feel like the hormonal mess of pregnancy kind of levels out somewhere in the middle and then spikes again as you get closer and closer to the end. Lemme tell ya, it is a-spiking. Many unannounced tears, taking offense over simple, harmless comments, and all together weirdness. It is happening.

~

We bought our double stroller on the weekend. Long story short, I was quite simply done with agonizing over the decision. I found the one I had been eyeing on sale. I had a giftcard that meant I’d only have to pay $110 out of pocket so I took the leap. We went with the Graco Ready2Grow Sit and Stand. For the price, I feel like it will more than meet my needs for the next few years. I love the option of being a dual rider or a sit and stand. The thing that sucks? Tiny cars don’t believe in double strollers. I will have to take the child cup holder and the canopies off it to get it in and out of the car. Which will be a pain, but honestly, unless I was going to spend big bucks, there does not exist a double stroller that will fit easily in the trunk of a Mazda 3 hatchback and apparently (so says the husband), fitting a double stroller is not an adequate excuse for upgrading my vehicle. I have a feeling most of its use will be going for walks at our house anyway, so the in and outs of the car may be less than I’m used to. Quick trips to the mall just for fun won’t happen so much with two babies, not to mention the fact that we are now going to be living much farther away from the nearest mall.

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It’s May. Time to bring on the warm weather, m’kay, Mother Nature? I want to take my kid to the zoo before I turn into a sloth.

Updates

I’ve been sparse around here lately. Other than sharing the news about our house and a few little kidlet updates, I haven’t had much to write about. I guess you can say I’ve been living the moments instead of sitting down to blog about them. And by living the moments, I mean grading papers. Because honestly? What’s really kept me away from blogging is the ginormous stacks of papers taunting me. Work has been insane, yo. But speaking of that, first update: I’m almost done. I just picked up my last set of papers today and if all goes according to plan I should have them all done by Friday.

Then? Work is done. Done done done. And I’ll be able to focus on my tot, getting my house packed up, planning for renovations and birthing a child. And the best part? If all goes as planned, I won’t be returning to work for 15 months after s/he is born. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

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Next up, I promise I shall post some photos of the new joint soon. I’m starting to get really excited about what we’re going to do with each room. And with every ounce of excitement, comes another pound of anxiety.

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A few months ago I blogged about our horrific pool experience when I took Evalyn back to the pool after a 6 month hiatus? Remember that? Well, what I haven’t blogged about since is that immediately after that I decided to try to kick that fear to the curb and signed her up for swim lessons. We started 6 weeks ago. Today was the first day that she really, really enjoyed it. Sure, it’s gotten progressively better each week, but today was like magic. There was not a single tear. No “all done”s screamed for 30 minutes straight. No “sit down there”s while pointing to the benches on the side of the pool. Just splashing, kicking, following instructions and having fun. Today she even took four turns down the slide, and when she had a positive reaction all of the other parents, who have been witnessing the painfulness for the past month or so, cheered and hoorayed for her. It was sweet. And the best part? As we were pulling out of the parking lot, I heard her little voice from the backseat say, “Mommy? Mommy? Thank you. Thank you swimming”. Melt.My.Heart.

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Another little tidbit about her – this stage? The 17-19ish month stage? THE BEST EVER. Sure, it’s trying. She’s testing the limits. Learning how to assert her independence. Trying to see what’s what. But amidst all of that? She is just so stinking fun. We can have conversations. We sing songs together. We play pretend. And it is amazing. She amazes me and fills my heart in so many ways every day. Like today when I walked in the door after a late evening at work and she ran to me, lifted my shirt and said “Hi my broser! My sitter!”

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I’m now in the single digit countdown for weeks left in this pregnancy. It’s a funny feeling. Like, I feel like the baby will be here in no time at all. Yet at the same time 2+ more months of pregnancy feels like an eternity. Am I the only one who feels/has felt that way?

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I know when I set out to write this post, I had a few more things that I had planned to write updates on. But, of course, I forget what they are. So for now, I’m heading out to watch my belly dance.

Wondering…

 

Tonight I’m sitting here, just wondering…

I’m wondering if I will ever again see a time in my life where I can wear a top or a pair of pants more than once before laundering it because it’s covered in child residue.

I’m wondering if it’s possible to hear Evalyn put the word “honey” or “sweetie” at the end of a sentence without dying of the cute?

I’m wondering if my feet (and other things that are no longer in my range of sight because of this giant basketball) still exist.

I’m wondering if I’ll survive the next three weeks that are so packed full of work and other busy stuff.

I’m wondering if I’ll spend all of May and June being bored out of my mind because I’ll be all! done! working! (unlikely)

I’m wondering when this crazy “Mama only” phase will end and my spunky, happy child will return without me having to worry about her flipping out when I walk out of her sight.

I’m wondering why I spent Easter weekend eating as though I am eating for 200 instead of eating for 2.

I’m wondering why I’m even bothering to write this post because it’s kind of stupid.

I’m wondering if I’ll ever sleep again.

I’m wondering who this little one inside me will be.

That’s what’s going on inside my crazy brain. What about you?

Those Things She Does

Evalyn is at a particularly fun stage right now. Sure, she’s also at a stage that makes me particularly crazy, but for the most part? She is hilarious. I’ve always thought about how this blog will be a great place to document the hilarious things my kids say as they grow. People always say “Oh, you’ll have to write that down”, and this is just where I’ll do that. She’s not quite to the stage where she comes out with very many hilarious verbiages since she basically says only one or two words at time but still, she does some

This week she’s been especially, um, creative in her thinking and so I wanted to quickly jot down a few of the funny things we’ve experienced.

~ The other day I asked her to come lay down so I could change her diaper. She put her hands up in front of her head and said “HIDING”.

~Yesterday, she was quite cranky in the morning and went into her room and asked to get in “bed”. I plopped her in her crib and she pointed to a bin of stuffed animals and said “Toys”. I gave them to her and let her be. She was happy to sit in there and play with them. A few minutes later I popped my head into her room to see what she was up to. And? Girlfriend was attempting to climb out of her crib. Ie yi yi. Later in the day, she wanted to play in her crib again but this time, I wasn’t fast enough, I guess, because when I went to get her, she had both feet up on the bottom rail and was trying to climb in herself.

~ I was eating a bowl of Lucky Charms (no judgies) and she came over, pointed to my bowl and said “Dis” (this). I gave her a bite, cereal only, and she looked at me, plunged her hand straight into the bowl of milk, grabbed a marshmellow, shoved it in her mouth and said “No DIS”. I guess she knows where it’s at.

~ We were tidying up her toys, putting the stuffed animals all back into the bin. I’d tell her to go get the “sheep” and put it away. She went and picked up each one individually, but before putting them in the bin, both she and I had to give each and every one of them a nice big kiss.

~ She was playing with my hair and kept saying a word I couldn’t quite understand. After her saying it multiple times and me listening closely, I figured out she was touching my ponytail and saying “tail”. Now? If I need to get her to sit still to do her hair, all I have to say is, “Do you want Mommy to give you a tail like Nika?” Winning.

I just love watching her creativity and problem solving skills develop, even when it means she’s going to give me gray hair. These are the things I want to remember, always.

Things on Monday

A mindless post for Monday.

Things that make me happy…Christmas decorations, puppy chow and peanut butter balls.

Things that don’t make me happy…Eva’s Sunday switch from a 7 am wake up time to a 5:30 am wake up time, morning sickness, barf buckets.

Things that are cute…Watching Eva do the actions to “Who Made the Fishies Swim” and hearing her ask me to replace “Fishies swim” with all of the other words she knows.

Things that are funny…watching Evalyn “shake her booty”.

Things that are not funny…Telling your wife you forgot to pick up your daughter on her first day of day care.

Things that I am anticipating…Hearing sweet baby #2s heartbeat next week.

Things that I am dreading…The next two weeks of grading to get a few much needed weeks of holidays.

Randoms for Monday

* I do not understand daylight savings time. I had to ask Evan approximately 4902882 times if it meant Eva would sleep in later, get up earlier, go to bed later, or go to bed later. “So, when she goes to bed at 7, it will feel like 6? Or 8? Or what?” Sorry but my brain haz a tiny.

* Thankfully, even though E did try to wake up hours early on Sunday morning, I was able to trick her back to sleep and we all ended up enjoying that extra hour to the fullest.

* This weekend I spent Saturday morning at a baby shower. I put Eva down for a nap before I left and when she got up, Evan told me she said “Oh dada. Mama go?” See? She does miss me when I’m gone.

* We got to enjoy a super last minute impromptu (childless) double date with our good friends on Saturday night. Let me tell you, that night out? Was needed. What a great time. And I would be lying if I said that live in baby sitters weren’t the most awesome thing on the planet.

* The weather has been beautiful lately. We’re enjoying fall to the max. Trying not to think about what’s around the corner.

* Cinnamon Pastry K-Cups? Yes please.

* My mom is here for a visit. We look forward to these days so, so, so much. Spending time with Nana is good for the soul.

Happy Monday, Friends!

things that are awesome

Today is Friday. That is one thing that is awesome. That means Evalyn and I survived the week without Daddy. Wait, I didn’t tell you? He’s been gone since last Friday. He had a moose hunting trip planned and was actually supposed to be gone for almost two weeks, but left later than anticipated due to Gram’s funeral. Evalyn and I filled our week with tons of stuff so it flew by. But, even so, we are ready for Daddy to come home. More than ready.

So, aside from it being Friday, what else is awesome? I’m going to tell you.

Shopping with my mom is awesome. Has there ever been a better shopping partner? I think not. Having a baby who does well while shopping and acts like an angel even when you tote her all over God’s green earth? Also awesome.

Along the same lines, having small feet that fit into kids shoes is awesome. When we were shopping I was searching for boots. I searched high and low and found nothing I liked. I wandered into the kid’s section at Target to look for shoes for my little, and whatddya know? I found myself some boots. That fit. And are comfy. And were $22. Three pairs of boots for under $70? Um, yes, that is awesome.

Bonefish Grill is awesome. I’ve been waiting over two years to try that place. There is one in the mall where I often go shopping in the states, but the problem is that it’s only open for dinner and I am usually there during the day. When I drag my child around the state of New York take Evalyn shopping in that states, it usually works out to being too long of a day for her if we try to stay over until dinnertime. So, no Bonefish Grill. But? On Sundays? Dinner starts at 3pm. 3pm is not too long of a day, especially since Eva took an hour and a half nap in the Walmart parking lot {fear not, I stayed in the car while my mom shopped and then we swapped}. We had a light snack for lunch and an early dinner at Bonefish. And I was not disappointed. Not even a little bit. I will be returning. Even if it takes me another two years.

Having a baby who says HI to literally every single person whom we pass in the grocery store, mall, library, or street is awesome. Especially when she says it over and over again, louder and louder each time if they don’t respond.

This is awesome:

Having a tight knit family is awesome. Both Evan and I come from large families that are very close. Siblings, nieces, nephews, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents – the whole shabang. I’ve been reminded of the blessing that a tight knit, supportive family is a few times in the past two weeks. Family is awesome.

And, good friends are awesome. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I will definitely say it again: I have amazing friends. Not just decent friends. Amazing friends. Friends who will babysit my kid at the drop of a hat, friends who give me a gift card for a massage on my daughter’s birthday because they want to spoil me, friend’s who call me unexpectedly just to chat, friend’s who love my kid like she is their own. Those kind of friends. Seriously, awesome.

Having a baby who walks up to me, hugs me and says “Mama” is awesome. Actually, it’s even more than awesome.

Having a nightmare about getting chased through a very odd apartment building with my girl Crystal and waking myself up at 3am when I yell “HURRY, open the door” and then laughing at myself when I realize the stupidity of it all is awesome.

Pepsi is awesome. Chips and salsa are awesome.

And, once again, Friday is awesome.

Brain Fart Friday

Here’s what’s flying around my head on this Friday…

My iPhone won’t stop autocorrecting in to I’n. I don’t get this. I’n isn’t even close to being a real word. No matter how many times I change I’n back to in, it keeps happening. Frustration.

Something pretty spectacular is going down in two sleeps. I won’t say what. Just trust me. It’s pretty amazing.

Less than a week until I go back to work. The thought of this is starting to make me a little twitchy. Prayers would be mucho appreciated.

I cannot believe summer is coming to a close. This is the last “official” weekend. We’re heading to my parent’s new cottage and I’m crossing my fingers for great weather.

I’m counting down the days until Eva’s birthday party. It’s going to be so fun. I’m so excited to celebrate the first year of her life with those closest to us.

Speaking of her birthday, she’s going to be one in less than three weeks. Say what?!

I plan on getting my autumn decorations out next week. Too soon? I don’t care. Once labour day passes, all is fair.

I’ve been up to my eyeballs in canning and preserving stuff from my garden. I’ve done salsa (twice), peaches (twice), hot peppers, BBQ sauce, peach salsa and pasta sauce. That’s it for a while. After the birthday, I’ll do apple sauce and pears but for now, I’m taking a break.

That’s about all there is to say today. Happy Friday!

Tuesday Tidbits

You may have noticed that aside from Eva’s monthly update, I haven’t posted in over a week. No? You didn’t notice? Well, let’s pretend that you did so that I feel popular. Mkay? Anyhow… I just thought I’d stop in with a totally random post to let you know what I’ve been up to that has been keeping me away from blogland.

Last week, canning fest 2011 began when I spent the day with two of my girlfriends canning close to 40 pints of peaches. This was the same day that Eva decided that sitting on the door of the dishwasher and carrying a Coach purse on her shoulder were her favourite pastimes.

On the weekend, we zipped over to the states to pick up a parcel (yay, birthday party stuff) and do some shopping. I’m on the hunt for a new handbag and wallet for my birthday. Since I’m going back to work, I figured it was time. I haven’t really carried a purse other than a few hours here and there since Eva was born and I started toting my mom bag around. I found one that I loved at JC Penny but it was the first one I saw in the first store I looked so I figured I shouldn’t jump the gun. Then, Eva got tired and we decided we needed to hurry up and head back home, so we left. And I didn’t look in anymore stores. More on the purse fiasco in a bit.

On Sunday, my Mom was here when we got home from church. This was the first time that Eva, mom and I have had a chance to spend a few days together in nearly 6 months. It was well overdue. It was almost exactly a year ago that I wrote this post about spending time with my mom. Looking back, I remember those feelings so well. But now, spending time together is even more fun because I get to see how much Eva loves her Nana and vice versa. They acted crazy together and spent the last few days laughing non stop. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the fact that I got a little teary saying goodbye.

While Mom was here, we did a bunch of canning. Hot peppers, BBQ onion sauce, salsa and more peaches. We also left E and E at home and went shopping and out for Sushi. You know how when you’re window shopping with no money you always find a billion and seven things to buy but when you are shopping with a purpose (like, you know, to buy a new purse for your birthday) you CANNOT FIND ANYTHING? It was that kind of night. I looked in every.single.store that carries handbags but all I could think every time I picked one up? Not as good as that first one I saw in Penny’s. Rip snort. Why didn’t I buy it? I guess my love will just have to take me on another US shopping spree.

We were eating breakfast on Monday morning and I asked Eva if she wanted to watch Mickey Mouse Hot Dog song. She looked at me and clear as day, said, “Haa Dog”. My mom and I about died. And, of course, because we laughed, Eva thought it was the best thing ever. So she laughed. And said it again. And again. And again. And has basically been saying Hot Dog ever since. I must admit. I am less than proud that one of my daughter’s first words is hot dog. Ah well. Mickey Mouse wins.

That basically sums up what’s been going on around these parts. The tomatoes are starting to ripen, so I’ll be elbow deep in canning for the next few weeks, for sure. Grab your Tostitos and head on over because we’ll have salsa coming out our ears.

Oh yeah, one last thing. My baby walks now. A lot.

An Update on my Cray-Cray

Looks like I’m not as crazy as I once thought.

I’m not the only one who bites their baby’s fingernails. I’m not the only one who spends their day searching for and reorganizing sets of toys. I’m not the only one who can’t spell niece (For the record, spelled it correctly on my first try this time. Boom). I’m not the only one who drives through potholes. I’m not the only one who obsesses over baby socks. I’m not the only one who doesn’t iron. And I’m certainly not the only one who has frustrations with the timing of the cycles on their washer and dryer.

So, because of that, I thought that some of you would be happy to know that where there was one there are now two.

Found it this morning while changing Eva’s diaper and noticed that the foot of her sleeper seemed a little bunchy. I actually ran into the bathroom to show Evan, rather excitedly, that I had found the sock. Needless to say, he wasn’t as pumped as I.

Also, I found a fantastic (read: opposite of fantastic) way to overcome the issue with the washer and the dryer. It’s called put a load of laundry in and forget to shut the lid so the cycle doesn’t run through. Anyone else ever do this? I swear it happens to me at least once every few weeks. I never notice until I go out into the laundry room to switch it over. Then, I get angry. And that is never pretty.

Let me let you in on a few more of my (crazy) little secrets…

1. I don’t own a pair of baby nail clippers. I don’t know why. I guess I just never got them at a baby shower and then forgot to pick them up as one of my last minute essentials before she was born. The first time we noticed her nails were getting sharp, Evan bit them off and I thought, “Hm, I’ll need to pick up some tiny clippers”. The second time they got sharp, I bit them off and thought, “Hm, I still need to pick up some tiny clippers”. The third time they got sharp … you get the point. We have spent the past 8 months biting off her sharp fingers nails.

2. I can’t spell niece. Every single time I type it (including this time), I see that blasted red spell check line and have to go switch it. Apparently there is something about that “I before E except after C'” rule that exceeds my intelligence level. I also have trouble with other words that have an I, E, C string.

3. We live in the country and out here some of the roads are not in that great of shape. There are pot holes galore. Apparently I suck at driving because almost every time I come to a pot hole and swerve to miss it, I drive directly through it. Don’t tell my husband.

4. I am a particular person. I like things to go a certain way. I’m sure many of you are laughing at this, shall we say, understatement. This trait that I possess explains why I have been secretly proud of myself for making it this far without ever losing a single baby sock. That’s right – not one. Until last Thursday when I was folding Eva’s laundry in preparation for our weekend away and the hamper was empty. All except this little demon staring me in the face…

A sock with no match. Between last Thursday and now, the mystery of the missing sock has been driving me nuts. It’s taking everything in my power not to turn my house upside down in search of the missing sock. Seriously. Me = crazy.

5. Speaking of my crazy particular control freak characteristics,  Eva has a few sets of stacking cups. I’m sure you all know the ones. Different colours, each has a number and they stack inside each other. Simple. Well, only simple until Cup # 3 and Cup # 4 go missing and the stack is off balance. Looking at the stack and seeing that the patterns and sizes were uneven made me twitchy. I admit, in this case, I did flip the house upside down looking for the cups. And never found them. Until we went to E’s aunts house for dinner and found them sitting on the stairs. Because when they babysat they stole them. Not on purpose. Although that would be a cruel joke to pull on someone like me. Thankfully, the cups are back, the stack is balanced, and my life is at ease. Except for that darn sock….

6. I don’t iron. I own an ironing board and iron but can seriously count on one hand the times I’ve used it. I have a joke with people in my family who come here and ask to use my iron. When they ask where I usually set it up, I say, “Well, the first time I ironed, I put it here. And the second time I put it there”. I’m lucky my husband does physical labour for a living and doesn’t expect me to iron his coveralls.

7. And one last laundry related tidbit. I absolutely detest the fact that my dryer takes almost double the length of time to run through it’s cycle than the washing machine. Once again, don’t these appliances realize that I need balance in my life? When I am doing laundry and the washing machine is done and I still have to wait a thousand hours to switch the load because the dryer is not finished? Might as well send me straight into a tizzy.

Blog Fart Friday

Today, I’ve got nothing to say and a lot to say all at the same time so I have a feeling this post will be a stream of consciousness type post. Hence the title. It’s like a brain fart on the blog. A blog fart). Ahem…I’m just going to start typing and see what comes out.

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Did you see my post on the 3 Cs of Cloth Diapering featured on the Poop Whisperer the other day? No? You didn’t? Well, get your hiney over there and check it out. I pretty much answer ALL questions cloth diapering related (um, okay, so I don’t, but ya know).

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Yesterday was the Dude’s birthday. I did a bad wife thing and didn’t give him a present. Give me a break, I wasn’t supposed to get him a present. We just bought a new truck, we’re trying to rebuild our savings, and he bought himself some other fun stuff recently. It was a no present year. (However, if it was my birthday and I said no presents, and he actually took me seriously and didn’t buy me a present? Let’s not go there.) He thinks birthdays are lame. I think he is lame. I love birthdays and he can put up whatever kind of stank he wants to, birthdays will be a big deal in our home.

He came home for lunch yesterday with the guy he works with. I made them Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. And then I made his favourite supper, Chicken Tortellini for dinner. Heck, I pulled out all the stops and made an apple pie. I think that more than made up for the lack of present. Since we didn’t do much to celebrate, we’ll probably just get some carry out on the weekend. Maybe a couple times, for that matter.

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I’ve noticed recently that there are a few new followers kickin’ around these parts. Don’t be shy. Please say hello! I try to keep up with things and check out my followers but sometimes I get side tracked. We all like to make new friends though, right? So, please introduce yourself!  (Unless you want to stick to your creepy silent blog stalker ways. That’s totally okay. Sort of.)

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I’ve been totally obsessed with memory preserving lately. I’m not sure why. Maybe because my baby girl is growing up too.stinkin.fast and I’m afraid that I’m going to blink, she’ll be in college, married, and I’ll be a Grandma before I ever get a scrapbook made for her. So this week I got myself motivated. I got some pictures printed and updated many of the frames around my house. Now, there is actually evidence of her existence around our home (aside from the 537274 baby items that are laying around, of course). I also made and ordered a photo book from Shutterfly. It documents my pregnancy up to and including Evalyn’s birth. Of course, my blog is like a virtual scrapbook that she’ll be able to look back on when she grows up, but I want her to have some tangible things, too. I included the letters I wrote to her during my pregnancy as well as her birth story in the book. It shipped on Wednesday and I cannot wait for it to arrive! I also uploaded and started to organize pages for her first year photo book. I’m hoping to get myself caught up and then keep up to date each month so that when her first birthday comes (which won’t be for like, ever, right????) it will be done and ready to be printed. Otherwise, she’ll have 6 siblings before I ever get around to doing anything. It seems to be that my days of scrapbooking are over. But that’s okay. The photo books look nicer anyway.

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I have about six blog posts in my drafts right now. I keep getting great ideas of things to write about but when I sit down and write nothing seems to fit. Granted, most of these great ideas come to me at about 4 am when I have a baby on my boob and apparently my brain doesn’t function quite as well at that time of day. Maybe someday some of them will get finished. Maybe someday.

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And lastly, I love you all. I really do. Have a great Friday.