The One Where She Is Sick

Today I had to be a 'real' mommy (not that I am not usually a real mommy, I just had to be THE mommy today, you know, do the things that only a mommy can do). My baby girl is sick with a cold. She woke up with so much goop in her eyes that one was actually glued shut. Her nose is running and she hates to have it wiped, so its a fight every single time. She just wants to be cuddled all the time, which I can easily do. So I did it. But to add insult to injury, she also had to go for her 6 month shot today, because *someone* slacked off when she actually was six months old. That just made everything worse, and of course there was the *how could you let her do that to me???* look and scream. I hate that look and scream. I think next shots, its Daddys turn.
Our day went like this:
8:00 get up, shower, get ready to go.
9:00 go to Paola's for a quick coffee and put Liams baptism pictures on her computer
10:00 shots
11:00 home for a nap
12:30 wake up from nap, cry, try to eat lunch, spit it out and cry
1:00 back to bed for second nap
3:00 wake up from nap and be happy. even smile a little
4:00 cry and make mommy think she needs another nap. scream when she gets put in her bed for said nap
4:15 get up from nap and cuddle with mom
5:00 bath
5:30 try to eat dinner, spit it out and cry
5:45 cuddle with mom then go to bed
6:15 wake up screaming. cuddle but scream at same time
6:30 go for a drive in hopes of making her fall asleep
7:15 get home. eat a small bowl of cereal
7:45 go back to bed. scream. get picked up and cuddled and rocked until
8:45 when she finally fell asleep. back to bed
8:46 mommy pours very large glass of wine.

Sick babies are heartbreaking. I just want to make it better. Here's for hoping it gets better before Saturday when we leave on a 13 hour road trip up north to visit our friends Andrea, Ryan, Natalie and Cade. Gahhhh, imagine that road trip with a sickie... it makes me chug my wine and pour another glass just thinking about it.

Here's the closest thing I got to a smile today.

Tomorrow will be better. Now I am off to get some sleep in case this turns into a rough night too.

Wordless Wednesday

made with love

Which One Are You?

 Today is a good day to "De-Lurk"... I have seen this comment on many a blog in my blog reading days and have always thought it was funny. I would think to myself... who cares who is reading your blog?? Why do you need to know... I obviously didn't understand the importance of knowing this info. Nor did I understand how happy it makes people knowing that someone - ANYONE- reads what you write (thank you Andrea for you comments!!)! So today... is the day I would like anyone reading my blog to let me know, and I thought I would make it easy to do so by          
1) allowing people that don't have a google account to be allowed to comment
and 2) asking a question that you can answer so as not to feel like you have to write something ridiculous... just answer the question!
and 3) by telling you all to de-lurk. So thank you.

This one's for you Rim (thinking of your play group moms!!) - I want to know which Park Mom you think you are, or if you aren't a mom, what kind you think you will be one day or which one you would like to be!!
This was written by the fabulous writer/blogger Kelle Hampton. You can check out her blog here

This is what she says...

"Our park is where it happens at 4:00 in the afternoon. They come trailing in--moms of all sorts--when the sun sits high and the playground mulch is dry and scorching in the afternoon sun. They come pushing strollers, dragging pony-tailed toddlers, wearing blue-eyed boys that peek out from slings that are snugly pressed against their chests. The proverbial park mom. She smiles and smoothes the ponytail sprouting from her perfectly placed baseball cap. She evenly dodges her glance from slide to swings to see-saw to keep careful and equal attention on all three of her kids and if, God forbid, one of them say, falls off a swing, she's there in a New York minute to spray some antiseptic spray (conveniently stored in an easy access pocket in her diaper bag next to a stash of fruit snacks--organic, of course--and wipes) and kiss a boo-boo. She is completely put together, this Park Mom, and when it's time to pack up and leave, she gives a little whistle and all three kids line up obediently, like she's Captain Von Trapp, and follow her to a freshly-washed SUV.

Then there's another kind of park mom...and, I have to admit, this is why I come to the park. I relate to these ones--these "other kind" of moms--and watching them entertains me in a way none other can. These park moms arrive "in style", as I like to call it, dragging garage sale wagons full of happy kids with messy clothes. They look "lived in," shall we say, slightly unkempt but suggestive of a day's worth of fun. Paint stains. Peanut butter residue. Skipped-a-shower braids. These moms pretend to search diaper bags for fruit snacks to look put together when, really, they know damn well they'll only find crumbs. They forget their wipes and use their sleeves. They keep an eye on Jimmy while losing track of Little Bobby. And my favorite? Oh the entertainment of watching them leave the park. Round up the kids. Call it quits. They start with a plastered smile as they call up, "Time to go! We have to make dinner! Daddy's coming home!" as if the smile somehow tricks the kids into thinking leaving the park to go make dinner is actually fun. But then it gets better. After two fake-happy round-ups, it starts to get ugly. Like, "I'm not kidding. We're leaving. No more slide." and the smile gradually fades. Of course, Jimmy and Bobby know this is all part of the game because, they've been here before, and they know all too well they have like 5 free passes before she really gets mad. So, they slide. They swing. They ignore. Until Other-Kind-of-Park-Mom completely loses her cool and everyone in the park watches as she drags her garage sale wagon, stomps her feet and embarrassingly screams out, "That' it. Get over here now. I'm not gunna ask you again" followed by that stupid ploy we've all done at one point or other in our parenting...the fake "I'm leaving" and the exaggerated stomp out. As if we're actually going to leave our kids. Of course, by this time, me...the innocent park by-stander is completely laughing and waiting for the big finale. The poor, frazzled mom who finally scoops up screaming grown toddlers and drags them through the blazing hot park mulch, into the parking lot and through the doors of a dirty minivan that smells like day-old Happy Meals."

I LOVE it! I laughed out loud, read it to my mom and contemplated which one I am. I like to think Mom A for the reasons of preparedness and control. But I also like to think Mom B for the fun kids and the lack of control. In reality I think I am little of A and B. I usually am prepared, maybe not with antiseptic spray or organic snacks, but with regular snacks and of course wipes - that's just good sense. But I have also been known to sport the skipped a shower braids, and certainly don't drive a fresh from the car-wash SUV. My mom thinks I may be a vision of Mom A right NOW, with only one child to control, but that will quickly change if child number two ever comes along. Good to know what she thinks of me! I think?? its a compliment...
So let me know which you are!! And also maybe if you agree with which one I think I am!

The Boring One

Tonight, I have nothing to say. Our day are went by with little adventure and barely any enthusiasm. I wont yet venture as far to say that The Tooth Fairy listened, but I will say that we are surviving it. We are handling the runny nose and the diaper rash. We are getting by with less sleep, and I can even admit that the 6:30 wake up time (which is new)  isn't that bad. I catch up on all the Internet gossip, I read all the blogs that are updated the night before, I check facebook and I watch my Missy happy as can be. Mornings she is always happy. She plays and laughs and eats and talks. I drink coffee, watch her play, eat along side her and we talk. This is when I hear the Hi's and the Whats This? This is when we have some of our best Maizey/Mommy moments. Don't get me wrong, I do LOVE it when Brian's home and he gets up with her, and I get to sleep in, even if only for half an hour... but there still is something wonderful about our mornings together. We are surviving this teething game and even having a little fun in there as well. She was less clingy today, so I recruited Nana (Brian's mom) to baby-sit so I could go to a yoga class. She ate well, had good naps and was in general, her usual self. The white bump is back and there is a small area that looks like the cutting of the tooth, so now we wait... and hope that it will finally come through!!
 I have been working out lots still and even joined a challenge put on by my cousins wife. 6 weeks... but I am really not that dedicated. And by not THAT dedicated, I mean not dedicated AT ALL. So little, in fact, that last night at 9:00 we were going to watch a movie and I drove to the gas station that's just up the street to get a bag of chips. I didn't even walk. I really need to get my mojo back for this, because there is a big pot of money to be won for this challenge, and it would look fan-freaking-tastic in my wallet. This is where my work out friend jumps in and pulls me out of this slump. She is doing her job well, but these days I am not that easy to convince. I will get back to that place. It just may take some time.
  I went through my gigantic container of shoes, you know the one that the shoes get traded out of every season...yet never sorted through to make sure they still fit. Well I did it. And guess what. My feet grew a small bit (probably when I was pregnant). Just enough to make some of them verrrry uncomfortable. There was also some that I would never wear again, but previously couldn't stand the thought of getting rid of. There were also some that were in such bad shape that they just needed to be thrown out. There were also some that I was keeping purely for nostalgia. So I did it. I picked out the ones I really wanted to keep. I threw the gross ones out. The rest, I donated to a shoe drive here in town that sends them to Swaziland, Africa. I didn't even cry. How strong am I?!
  That's all. I guess I didn't have NOTHING to say, just not a LOT. But I do have some cute pictures to post. That should make up for the not so interesting tales of our day.

she just loves to kick off a sock.

happy girl

little red riding hood

riding around like a princess is tough work

this is what she looks like at the end of a run. it must be exhausting for her

this is what we look like after a run. it IS exhausting for us

More Like Tooth Pain In My A**

I thought this day would come. When I would have to speak inappropriately to someone that I had formerly not had any problems with and therefore would have considered a friend, in protection of my baby girl. I just didn't know it would come so soon. I mean seriously... shes only seven and a half months old. I thought it would be when she went to Pre-School and was getting bullied. Or maybe even older, Grade One, when the cool girls wouldn't let her play with them at recess because they were part of the super cool Dora Backpack club and hers was a no-name plain pink one. Or better still, not until Junior High when all they would let her be was the bench warmer for the basketball team because she wasn't one of the lucky ones that had a major growth spurt the summer before, and was still an almost midget. No, it happened already. Today in fact. I made sure Missy was out of ear shot, I stood in my very own kitchen and I quietly, but very forcefully told the Tooth Fairy to F OFF. I told her to come back when she was ready to be nice. When she was ready to do things like leave money under pillows and sprinkle magical dust on pillows to bring wonderful dreams. Not when she was going to let a very small, yet very real tooth cut my baby girls gums, only to a few days later, retreat back into its stupid home. Not when she was going to cause my normally sweet, fantastically behaved child to be gripped by this horror that is called teething. Not when she was going to cause my Missy to be woken countless times at night, screaming and in pain. Not when she was going to cause my normally happy to nap child to become the master of not sleeping... EVER. This is what I told her. So now I wait. I wait to see if she listened. Or if she will be brave enough to try this again. I hope she understands the wrath that is a protective mommy. It would be in everyone's best interest to listen.

That'll Learn Her

I was pretty sure that I would never be one of those parents that read all the books and tried to follow exactly what they said. I knew that I wouldn't try to do everything the "right" way and would instead just do what I felt was right. Maybe its because that's the way my mom says she did it, and I clearly turned out perfect, so it obviously wasn't the "wrong" way... right?! I knew I wouldn't be big on coddling, and whining really bugs me, so I knew I wouldn't be prone to giving into it. Maizey was only a few weeks old when I was discussing the whole being a mom thing with my friend Paola. We laughed when I told her that I'm pretty sure Maizeys first words would be "you're fine", because she hears it so often! Don't mistake that for a lack of love and affection because she seriously cleans up in that department, but more like she gets talked to and played with and read to and loved - but not coddled or babied. That sounds weird (especially now that I write it), because I KNOW shes a baby. But she is still treated like a person. When she cries on the floor for her toy, we help her to reach them, not pick her up, and its usually preceded with a "you're fine". See what I mean? This, in turn, has worked out in our favor. Maizey can be left to play with her toys by herself while I workout, while we make dinner, get the laundry done, sit on the computer reading blogs all day, *ahem* I mean, pay bills and research RESP's and Universities suitable for our angel, etc. She lays in her bed in the morning wide awake, talking to herself and I get a few extra minutes of sleep. She doesn't need our constant attention. So at times when she does need our constant attention (i.e days when she isn't feeling well), we hardly know what to do with ourselves and this demanding child. But that's another post for another day.
So, on to the point of this whole story. The point is, when she does cry out, I tend to ignore for the first few minutes to see if she will stop crying, or move on to playing with something else. But lately, shes been crying out a lot more. It all began when she started pushing and pulling herself around and its recently become much worse, its now when we put her down for her naps also. So I have been having a harder time ignoring her, because it turns out... she cries out for reasons like - she has backed herself under the couch... and cant get out. Or rolled over in bed and got her legs stuck out of between the bars... and cant get out. Or she has pushed herself behind the door in the bathroom and cant get her head turned around to see where to go (that, of course, only happens at the most inopportune time- me in the shower)... and cant get out. Some parents would rush to their child's rescue as quickly as they could, comforting them and picking them up. I, on the other hand, do exactly the opposite. I *usually* check to make sure she is actually OK first... and then run to grab my camera to get some pictures, or if I am lucky, a video. I got this video a few weeks ago! I think its priceless.



It almost sounds like she says "help" at the end! I can assure you, no one was hurt in the making of this video!

A Baptised Yoga Sleepover

Every day is different.

Every day she is different.

Every day she changes and grows and learns more and more and more.

This kid amazes me.

To date, her tricks include: copying the lip smacking, dancing, giving five and waving.
When we aren't paying close attention, we hear little "HI"'s coming from her and 'Dad' and 'Mom' and we THINK "whats this?"... it may all be in our imagination, but we don't care... its fun to think it anyways. She pushes herself all over the house, shes starting to pull herself around also. She pulls her butt up in the air and tries to go from sitting to her tummy/crawling stance in one fluid motion, but cant quite get her other leg around behind her. She tries to pull herself up onto things (like our legs) and is getting stronger every time. When we try to teach her the movement for crawling she giggles uncontrollably. She now has three teeth and just cut her fourth today. She shows more emotions all the time - anger, annoyed, frustrated, happy, excited, sad and upset - sometimes all of them within a few minutes. She loves to eat and spends a lot of time doing so every day, and she eats A LOT. She ate half of a butternut squash and half of a chicken breast for dinner the other night. It was a lot of food. Like the equivalent of us eating 6 whole squashes and a whole chicken. Its no wonder that she has now gained almost 4 POUNDS in the last 2 months. Needless to say there is no longer a weight gain issue. When she is sitting up, she somehow manages to scoot herself to her toys or small pieces of lint and/or dropped food *ahem* not that there is dropped food on the floor very often...(hides embarrassed face). She entertains herself for long periods of time with no concern for the fact that no one is playing with her. Shes my little independent girl.

We had a busy weekend. A baptism for a little friend, at which the end of there was copious amounts of delicious home-cooked food. A birthday party at the yoga studio, which was a private yoga session. And an overnight visit from my Mom. We LOVE having Grannie here. We sat around and visited, went for a walk, went out for lunch, drank terribly made latte's, and sat in the sun enjoying a cold beer. The weather has been beautiful and I even got a bit of a sunburn today!!














And that, my friends, is what a perfect weekend looks like.

It IS Always Better When We're Together

I spent the last 3 days putting this together. I have about 6 hours invested in this thing. It was supposed to be up yesterday for Wordless Wednesday. Ahhhh. Sorry about the crappy quality, we are still learning!

Home Sweet Home

We are home. We are relaxed and vacationed. We are exhausted. We are in need of someone to do a few loads of laundry for us. We are happy. I could not have asked for a better trip, better weather, better travel companions, better food or better accommodations. It was great, no... it was better than great, it was PERFECT! I have many stories to tell, but I will save them for tomorrow, as I really am tired, and it really is wayyy past my bed time. But check back, because I have something fantastic in store for my next post! I missed my little blog and am really looking forward to updating it with all of our adventures.
On a side note, my good friend Christy had her baby this evening. A little girl, 6lb 12oz (pretty much exactly the same as Maizey) and perfectly healthy!! I cant wait to meet her!

The One Where We Are Busy

These kind of weeks are my favourite. The kind where everyone is home for the long weekend and we see friends we don't get to see very often and we get tons of visiting in, and we don't do anything but drink coffee (as previously mentioned - our favourite thing to do!) and sit around and not do dishes, or clean bathrooms or fold laundry, or really do any of the things we should be doing to get ready for our first family vacation - ya those kind. The lead up to the weekend was exactly the same... all my good intentions went up in smoke at the facebook message that said 'coffees on and the Easter bread is cut - come on over' and just continued when I got the call that said 'join us at strong start', which led to more coffee and delicious treats and even more visiting. I had every intention of having all my (term used veryyyyy loosely) spring cleaning done before Sunday when we were to leave for Vancouver Island. In reality, the kitchen is "spring cleaned" and that's where it ended, but that being said, when I mentioned to Brians Grandma that I "spring cleaned" the kitchen, she said "Isn't it amazing how much space you have once you get the cupboards all cleaned out and organized?" I replied with an over-enthusiastic "I know..." but really I was thinking in my head "my "spring cleaning" doesn't actually involve cleaning out and organizing the cupboards...oops". Regardless, I got in some quality catching up with friends time and they got to see Maizey and see how much she has changed in the weeks and months since they saw her last. I did manage to get some things done in the end, so now that Saturday night is here and I am home alone, left to do all the packing and getting ready for the trip - its really not that bad. We (yes, WE!) got the laundry allllll done yesterday and packed our suitcase, Brian got the truck cleaned out and ready to go and I picked up the snack food (more apple slices for us!). This afternoon after the coffee crowd left, I got Maizeys suitcase packed, the house ready for us to go (i.e no food in the fridge to grow into something hideous for us to come home to),Missys bag of tricks ready, and the last of the research done for Victoria (yes I am a researcher kind of trip person - not that I am not spontaneous, I just like to have some good ideas - DONT JUDGE ME!!), and we even went for Easter dinner at Brians parents. Mmmmm.... turkey. I have pictures to post, but its late, so I will do it when we get back. Maizeys cousins just love her to pieces and love getting close to her! She loves it (usually). I think they are going to grow up being good friends!

I am so excited for our fist family vacation! We are heading to Vancouver Island for eight days. Brians brother lives in Nanaimo, and my friend and one of my most favourite people in this entire world lives in Duncan, so we will be visiting both of them for a few nights each. Brians brother hasn't seen Maizey since she was two weeks old, and quite frankly, kind of boring (to a guy anyways), so it will be great for him to get to spend some time with her. This will be the first time my friend gets to meet Maizey and we both could not be more excited!! I just know Maizey is going to love her like I do! We are also spending 4 days in Victoria, a city that I love, but haven't had the opportunity to spend a lot of time in, Brian either. So we will be full blown tourists, without the tacky hats. I CAN'T WAIT!!! Being a tourist is what I do best (along side talking uncomfortably loud. That's another one of my fabulous skills). So that is where we will be. I will be back in eight days with tons of pictures, hopefully some good stories, like all successful vacations have, and lots and lots of great memories! Until then... Happy Easter!


someone was tired after her long day of visiting