Gingerbread Weekend

     Since Josh and I were married, we have made a tradition of making an original gingerbread house from scratch each year.

     Our first Christmas together we made a tropical getaway home (complete with palm tree) in anticipation of our upcoming trip to Australia:

(the outhouse was Josh's contribution. They are not actually commonplace in Australia)

    

    The year we came back from Australia we attempted a gingerbread castle. Unfortunately, due to unforseen circumstances, this was as finished as it got:

 

     The next year, we had just moved into our own very first home, so we decided to make a scale model replica: 

Josh felt the need to make it 'realistic' and add dog poop to the yard.

We even did the interior, too! :)

     Then, last year, we made a gingerbread treehouse:

including happy children creepy, drunken old men playing underneath (again, Josh)

     This year we wanted to do something relatively uncomplicated so Laura could help. We ended up doing 'Santa Visits the Great Pyramid':

Watch out for the Santa-eating cobra!

     We didn't actually end up letting Laura help with the pyramid, but she did help decorate cookies:

And she did a good job, too! <3

I'm Back!

Goodbye, first trimester, you will not be missed!

     This past week I was finally able to muster the energy and motivation to resume cleaning my house. Prior to this I had been doing the very minimum required to keep my family alive: coming up with some semblence of food to sustain us (which actually Josh did a lot of the time) and providing clean clothes only when every other item had been used thoroughly. You know, that kind of stuff.
     So this week has been a lot of catching up chores, and the list of things I would like to get done is still quite long. I'm still struggling with insomnia a little bit, but most of the time it is okay. Things are starting to look up - I even cooked some real meals this week! No more Kraft Dinner and cereal. I have generally started feeling better (but not great), and eating is still kind of touch and go. For a while there the only things I could stomach were apple juice and Raisin Bran. I think I have lost a total of 10 - 11 pounds (:S). Hopefully that trend will soon change. Laura has been happy about all the apple juice that has been around though, and now asks for "SHUICE! SHUICE!" on a daily basis. I don't think she is going to be too happy when I can start living without it again and it is no longer available. Also, I think I have felt some movement a couple of times, but nothing definite to report. Soon, though, I'm sure! I'm definitely feeling the belly, though! Here is a progression of belly shots with respectively-sized edible items for comparison of how big the baby is:

5 WEEKS

7 WEEKS

9 WEEKS

 

11 WEEKS

13 WEEKS

Rant-a Claus

     Call me a Grinch, but why do people lie to kids about the existence of Santa Claus?

     I've never understood why parents feel compelled to lie about some magical fat man who completes the seemingly impossible feat of delivering presents to every home in the world on Christmas Eve. I mean, I guess it creates a 'magical moment' for the kids on Christmas morning... but I think that moment could still be created in other, less deceitful ways. Plus, it is uber-disappointing when you finally figure out that your parents have been lying to you about said magical man for the last 6 years. Or, at least, it was for me.
     One Christmas Eve I discovered presents marked 'from Santa' in the basement in the wrapping pile. I was not a snooper - I'm not sure what I was even doing down there - but my 6-year-old-self's logic kicked in and I wondered how those presents could be there from Santa already when Santa isn't supposed to come until after I was in bed... That, and I had older cousins, who I am pretty sure ruined it for me.

      I also feel that the whole Santa business takes away from what Christmas should really be about. Kids generally have a one-track mind and it becomes all-consuming for them to be on their best behaviour to make the 'nice' list in order to get the material gifts that they want. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for best behaviour, but I would rather have the motivation be something more intrinsic and less superficial. The problem is, with our society, you can't get away from Santa. I don't want my children to think that they are being punished or skipped over because Santa doesn't leave presents at our house, but at the same time, I am definitely not going to push the issue. Once our kids are old enough to understand Santa and start asking about him, he might leave one or two gifts for them, but until then, I don't think it's necessary.

     I have read in many parenting books that traditions are very important to children - they give them a sense of belonging and what to expect. I, too, am big on tradition, and so want to create special traditions for my family that honour what we value. These are what create those ever-cherished magical moments, not a fat man in a red suit.
Our traditions include:

• painting ceramic Christmas ornaments each year so our children will have their own collection
• including a year-in-review letter with our Christmas cards
• putting up the Christmas tree/decorations the first weekend in December
• making a gingerbread house/ structure (from scratch) the second weekend in December
• Christmas Movie Advent
• New pajamas for Christmas Eve
• Christmas morning at Grandma's
• Taking down the tree New Year's Day

I'm sure there are more that I have forgotten, or that will evolve as time goes on, but it is important to me to keep them the same from year to year so they will become special memories for our children forever.
Merry Christmas!

Christmas is Coming!

     This weekend was full of fun-filled family/ Christmas activities. As usual, we took Laura to her swimming lessons Saturday morning, and she did better than she usually does when I am in the pool, which was nice.

Afterwards, we went and picked up her Christmas ornament she painted last week... it's very 'abstract', we'll say, but turned out pretty well, I think, considering it was painted by a one-year-old. :)

     After swimming we went to the bank for some financial advice, for which Laura was reasonably well-behaved, other than trying to make off with the paper from the lady's printer. Then we came home and had a quick bite and some naps. After I woke up, I made Laura a hat to go with her winter coat, and then we trekked off to the Santa Claus parade in town. I was only able to stay for about the first 20 minutes because I had to go to work, and I wasn't sure if Laura would be into it or not, but when Josh tried to bring her into the restaurant half way through the parade she demanded to be taken back out. So I guess she liked it. She was a little apprehensive of the loudness that was the emergency service vehicles, but felt compelled to wave to them nonetheless (below). Based on the amount of times she mentioned "Neigh!! Neigh!! Boon! Boons!", I'd say it is safe to say her favourite parts were the horses from the riding club, and the balloon store's float.

     Josh came into the restaurant for dinner after the parade (along with EVERYONE else who was watching it), and though the service was slow, Laura was very patient and did really well on her date out with Daddy. :)
     This morning we got a start on Christmas shopping and went for groceries and I was actually able to enjoy our family trip to the grocery store again without feeling the need to vomit. After, we went and picked out some Christmas movies to rent for the week, and came home for lunch. After naptime Josh and I discussed the possibility of going to see the new Muppet movie with Laura. She is only one and a half, but has a reasonably long attention span for movies she is interested in, and she is definitely interested in the Muppets, so we thought we would give it a go. Plus it was good way to put off vacuuming. She did about as well as I expected her to; she sat through about half the show contentedly eating Skittles, and then decided that traversing the giant set of stairs would be more entertaining for the second half of the movie. It was fine - there weren't that many people there, and she wasn't being loud, and most of the other patrons had kids with them. When the movie was over (it was quite cute, by the way, if you're wondering), we came home and Skyped Grandma and Grandpa so Laura could tell them about her weekend. She told them all about the "[Muppet] Show! Show!" and the "Neighs! Nine Neighs!" and the "Boons!!" and then proceeded to run around the living room on her Skittle high.
     All in all a good weekend. <3

Laura These Days

     I feel like Laura deserves a post all to herself just for an update on what she has been up to:

     She has been ever increasing her vocabulary, and although she seems to possibly be slightly behind her same-age peers, she still manages to impress us and make us laugh on a daily basis. She repeats words back that we say (or tries to, at least), and is always looking to use them in context. The other night (after our ultrasound) we were out for dinner, and I guess she was quite hungry. We had bread on the table, but I didn't want her to fill up on that, so we only gave her one piece. Next thing I know, she is reaching out for it saying, "Peesh! Peesh!!" (that is toddlerese for 'please'). It was soo cute, I couldn't stand it. She had never used 'please' in context before without being prompted! Of course I had to give in. <3 We have been working on using it in context this week, but mostly we still get "I WA DAT" ('I want that').
She also understands the idea of one and more than one, which she refers to as 'TWO!', regardless of how many there actually are. Either she is very excited about the concept of two, or she likes to make bad mathematician factorial jokes on a daily basis.

     The big girl bed... still not going so well. She sleeps on the floor behind her door every night. Which is fine, I guess. :S Her bed is now used for stuffed animal storage and gymnastics during the day. And, if it's possible, she sleeps even more lightly now than she did before, so any tiny creak in the floor wakes her up. It has made for some long nights. Thankfully if/ when she wakes up at night now, I can go in and tell her that, "Mommy is tired, and it is the middle of the night, so you need to go to sleep right now, because Mommy is going back to bed." She also gets a lot of, "Mommy is going for a nap now. You can have a nap, too, or stay in your room and play quietly." Both of which seem to work reasonably well. :) We are planning on moving her to her new room after Christmas. It will probably be a long and painful transition if the transition to her 'big girl bed' has been any indication, so we want to give her lots of time.

     Since I have been working, Laura has started eating so much better! She has hardly been on any purees, and has even started eating meat with a fork. She has also been eating much MORE food, and growing like a weed, accordingly. It's actually a huge relief to see her take real interest in making sure she gets enough. She is still nursing about 3-ish times a day (when she wakes up, before nap, and after nap), give or take depending on the day. I am starting to get the feeling that people are beginning to frown upon this, but it is still working for her and for me, so we will continue. And not that I need to defend myself, but even the WHO recommends breastfeeding until age two.

     Laura is enrolled in swimming lessons again for the semester, and as long as Mom isn't in the pool, she continues to enjoy them. If I am there, she whines and clings to me and doesn't participate in any of the activites even though she can do all the required skills. We did have to buy her a wetsuit, though, so she would be warm enough, and she still shivers by the end of the lesson. This kid needs some body fat!
She is also heavily into animal books and has developed a strong fascination with the moon. She likes to watch 'Mouch!' (Mickey Mouse), Pooh, and 'Memmo' (Elmo/ Sesame Street) and refers to The Count as 'Nine' because of this song on one of her DVDs. Very cute.

     We are starting to think about potty training, but so far Laura hasn't shown a whole lot of interest. Sometimes we can convince her to do a #2 on the toilet if we catch her quickly enough in the beginning stages, but we've definitely got a long way to go still. I am pretty sure she could do it, but she has to be motivated to want to, and so far she doesn't seem to be. I am in no rush, as we don't have to buy diapers, and I am concerned about it interfering with our trip in February. Potty training accidents are not something I particularly want to deal with while on vacation, so I might just wait until we get back. Having said that, she will be getting some big girl undies for Christmas. :)

     Also, I taught her to do this tonight:

Charming, I know :)

Baby #2!!

    So, I have mentioned already that I am pregnant again, but today it is official - we have pictures to prove it! :)

 

     I am supposed to be 10.5 weeks today, and baby was measuring right on schedule, if not a little big already (4cm crown to rump)! The technician told us that the heart rate was 169bpm, to which I immediately replied, "Oh! It must be a girl!" Josh was not impressed. (I think the old wives tale is that a heart rate of over 140 is a girl). Right now I would like to keep the sex a surprise since we found out with Laura, and I would like to try it the other way, plus I don't really care as much this time. We have a lot less planning to do, so it isn't as important to me. Josh would like to know, though, so we haven't completely decided one way or the other.
     Baby seemed perfectly healthy - as far as you can tell when (s)he is only 4cm long. I was surprised at how human-like it looked already! I was expecting more of a gummy bear appearance, but (s)he already has long legs and arms and defined-ish facial features. It was totally exciting! :)

Dadurday

     So, as I mentioned previously, I had rationed my maternity pay so that I was able to stay off with Laura for 18 months instead of 12. But, all good things must come to an end, and back in September I began looking for an 'evenings & weekends' job so that Josh would be able to watch Laura after work and we wouldn't have to send her to daycare. It took me about a month and a half, but I was finally able to land a job waitressing at a small Chinese restaurant downtown. It's nice because the dinner shifts are only three hours, so I'm not away from home that long, but boy, it can get busy on the weekends, leaving my pregnant self exhausted. I am scheduled to work the lunch shift on Saturdays as well as dinner, which means Josh is in charge of Laura for pretty much the whole day. Yesterday was the first time, and it went a little something like this:

     In the morning we took Laura to her swimming lessons, (I didn't swim because there wouldn't be enough time for me to change after), so Josh did the lesson with her. They actually did really well together, better than Laura has done so far this year.
     After swimming lessons, we rushed back to get me to work, and then Josh took Laura to the grocery store. They came home to drop off the groceries and have some lunch and then went back out to get some more errands done. After they were done, they came back to drop the car off to me, and I noticed that Laura had blood all over her hand and clothes.... not exactly what I was hoping to see on Josh's first day looking after her...

     "What happened? Why is there blood all over her?!"

     "Oh. Laura got a nosebleed... or else it's pomegranate juice."

     "What? This isn't pomegranate juice... and there is no blood on her face."

     Upon closer inspection, the blood source seemed to be coming from her finger.

     " Oh, I dunno then... I let her play with a measuring tape while we were waiting in the line-up for the car wash?"

     Awesome. "Okay... well, for future reference, you probably shouldn't let her play with those, especially unsupervised."

     Along with her bloody finger, Laura also had a runny nose. She was generally not in the best of spirits, so my boss, who had been monitoring the whole conversation told me I could go home early and just come back for the dinner shift. I happily agreed. The three hours I had been there I think I had served three tables, and there had only been a handful of take-out orders. She clearly didn't need me there.
     So, we all went home together and I got to cuddle with my sick baby. I even had time to sneak in a short nap. Bonus. After I got home from the dinner shift, I asked Josh how the rest of their day went. He told me Laura ate for about two hours straight after I left.
   
     "Oh, really? Good. What did you feed her?"

     "Sunflower seeds."

     "Oh? What else?"

     "Nothing, really. She just ate about a cup of sunflower seeds."

     "A cup?! Oh boy, that will make for some interesting poo tomorrow (and it did). Didn't you feed her any real dinner? Like meat or vegetables?"

     "No... she was eating the sunflower seeds and just kept asking for more."

  
     Oooookay, then. :S







     So, Daddy's first Saturday was a bit of an adventure, but I'm sure he'll get the hang of it. He actually did a pretty good job holding down the fort on his own. The groceries were bought, floor got swept, and I think he even made time to scrub the toilet. <3