A little late, but here nonetheless

The title applies to both this blog post, and the arrival of our second daughter, Piper!

She was born on August 28 (8 days late) after a fast (!!!) and not too furious labour. I feel a little guilty saying that my labour was only an hour and a half, and she was born in just one minute of serious pushing. I'm so thankful I got to have both of my babies at home, this one with a nice, calm water birth. One of my midwives said I looked like I was at the spa, which I can promise was definitely not the way I felt, but it's nice to know that even in my most vulnerable situation, I can appear somewhat in control! This birth was so different from the first, in that I knew what to expect, and just went with the flow. Everyone was so calm and things just kind of happened. I feel very very lucky.

Since then, we have been adjusting to two kids, one of whom just turned two! I can't believe Zoey is already two! We had a fun birthday party, which I will save for another post (hopefully not too far down the road!). It's very hard to find time to sit at the computer, which is why I've been so absent.

Now, I'll shower you with cute babies!

Surreal

The last two months have been some of the most interesting of my life. I haven't posted because I haven't been at home, and I didn't really know what to say. But six weeks and one day after we left for our family reunion, we are finally home.

We went on vacation to Maine, which was amazing. Unfortunately, the day after we left, Calgary suffered a major flood, and our neighbourhood was one of the more affected in the city. We had no way of "saving" our truck or storage room, and we knew our basement (where both of those things were) would likely be completely underwater. Since we were helpless, we decided to just enjoy our vacation and deal with it on our return.

Blowing bubbles in Maine

Our family reunion was great. We spent some quality time with people we normally only see once a year (and more time with Matante Kristen of course), and relaxed at a lakefront house. I will admit it was a little sad being pregnant and not enjoying the plethora of cocktails that were going around, but I did get my fair share of Polar Seltzer, so I was content.

As we began our return home, I started to get more and more anxious. I knew we were in for a big mess at home, and sure enough, it was chaos. We stayed with Matt's brother the first night, and in the morning went down to our place to check it out. It was crazy.

That was my work luggage and the entrance to our storage room

Baby swing totally flipped over (that was on the floor somewhere else) and the bassinet and stand all disheveled

We were lucky enough to have lots of help that day, and managed to clear out the room and salvage our bikes, bags of baby clothes, and a couple of other small things. Our truck (only three months old, sniff sniff) was a write off, being submerged almost completely. Some of my amazing friends came and took all the baby clothes and washed, folded and sorted them for me, and that was so appreciated since it probably would have taken me a month to do it all.

We spent the following week with Matt's brother, then moved in with my Mum. My 89 year old grandma, who lives around the corner from us, is also staying there (key word: IS) so it was a bit of a crazy house. My mum is used to living alone, so I'm sure having her mother, her daughter, son in law and granddaughter was a bit of an adjustment. I will say, she is the most patient person I have ever known, and she proved that during our entire stay. Zoey absolutely loved staying with Grams, and every morning she climbed up the stairs saying "Heyo Grams! Heyo GG! Heyo Wiyo!" (Willow is the cat, who is super mean and scratched her) and helped get GG (Great Granny) her breakfast, feed the cat, and learned how to peel and orange. I'm happy that she was so happy there, and I was also thankful for the help chasing her around since I am getting bigger and bigger.

Having fun in the hammock swing at her uncle's house

Our entire basement in our building was trashed, so all the electrical, furnace, hot water heater, fire alarm, elevator etc. all needed to be replaced. We got updates, but it became increasingly obvious that we would be gone for a while. I was getting so nervous about my approaching due date (August 20) and couldn't wrap my head around the idea of bringing home a new baby to my mums, never mind potentially giving birth in her basement with everyone present. (I had a quick labour last time, so that was a very real possibility).

A great photo snapped on my phone after our photo shoot I'll post about later

Anyway, weeks passed, and finally, six weeks later, the power came on, the fire alarm got replaced, and we came home!! We worked really hard all weekend to get our place cleaned and baby ready, and I'm so relieved that we did. I feel "ready" now for the baby to arrive!

First night back at home!!!

What I have learned from this is that people are extremely generous. I find it hard to describe, and am very overwhelmed. People gave their time, their things, and their money to us. Some people we know well, some we know a little, and some we don't know at all. I feel unworthy of all the generosity, but so appreciative. There are many people who lost their entire homes, and we, luckily, only lost a vehicle and some "extras", so we know others need more help than us. But people have still reached out to us and given a little or a lot, and all we can do is thank them. This whole experience has made me want to be more generous since we just feel so loved by everyone in our lives.

I'll leave it at that. I'm 38 weeks pregnant and ready! Thank you for reading, thank you for tweeting, thank you for emailing and thank you for thinking of our family. We are so lucky to have you all "in our lives" and we won't forget it.

This one is for Sandra. She looks like a Von Trapp!

Three Things Thursday

I've been MIA again; such is the theme to this blog! I've been hot, sick of the rain, and pregnant. Also suffering from heartburn. But life goes on! As do my three things!

1. Matt and I can NOT agree on a girl's name for our baby. We are polar opposites it seems, and we think the other's suggestions are crazy. I love Violet, Piper, Lavender and Paige while he has issues with all of them. I think we will end up choosing one of his names, so I won't list them, but I'll give you his specifics: doesn't like names ending in "et", two syllables or less, and not Piper. PLEASE give me some suggestions! (I'll throw my specification in there, which is preferably not ending in "y" or that sound, since we already have a Zoey). We have a boy name already so no need to worry on that. This happened last time too - we chose the boy name right away, and waffled forever on a girl name. It's just killing me.

2. I'm so thankful the weather has turned around and it's no longer raining. I never knew how much I could hate the rain until I had a toddler chanting "walk!" 24/7.

3. I think Zoey might have some sort of nut issue. She threw up once when I put cashews in her oatmeal, and today she threw up after eating a homemade granola bar with pecans in it. This has never happened with peanuts though. Kind of strange! I wonder if it's a coincidence or not.

Can you think of any names that fit? Help!

Hilarious hair day

The condo version of a kiddie pool

Hallelujah!

The sun is out! FINALLY! Yesterday it snowed for a strange few minutes, but today, it's sunny! Already we have gone for a walk, played at the park, bought some gluten free bread and buns at the g bakery, and now Zoey is having a nap! All before 11:15 am!

I don't have much else to say... I know lots has been going on lately in the world, and I am very thankful that my family is safe, that my sister and brother and law didn't go to Boston this year, that I am healthy so far in this pregnancy, and that I have a hilarious daughter who is learning new things every day.

What have you done to enjoy the weather?

Three Things Thursday

Two for two TTT! I'm on a roll!

1. I did NOT get that chair. And I don't even want to talk about it. I'm that disappointed.

2. I just ate a gluten free bagel that was so delicious that I had to double check the package to make sure I didn't buy regular bagels. It's Glutino's multigrain bagel, and man it's good! I used to not be the biggest glutino fan, but their english muffins are delish and now I'm a bagel convert. (After looking at the website, neither product that I love is on there... Strange)

3. It snowed again today. Oye vey.

And since it's also Throwback Thursday, I'll leave you with a picture from my first solo excursion with Zoey. How the times have changed! Today I had to convince her to come out of the elevator for two minutes while I held two extremely heavy bags of groceries.

Three Things Thursday

My first Three Things Thursday! (I think...)

1. I am obsessed with getting this chair for Zoey. She is so over her lobster chair and I've been coveting the ridiculously expensive stokke chair for years. They are hard to find on kijiji and when they are there, they are still really expensive. Yesterday morning, one popped up for $50!! That's a good $100 less than most used ones, so I emailed the seller (twice) in hopes for a response. The chair in conveniently located in High River, where Matt works (and where most other Calgary shoppers don't live) so I hoped I'd be a shoo-in. Well fast forward to today when I FINALLY got a response which basically said "how high are you willing to go" since they got so many responses. The only thing keeping me from offering $125 is that it's disassembled, so there's no way to truly verify that all pieces are there. I wrote a response that showed my extreme interest, reminded her of quick pickup, but that also wasn't just a blank cheque, and I'm dying to hear back. The suspense is KILLING ME!

2. We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday which was actually our first one this pregnancy. We got confirmation that there was only one baby, and that it has all the normal limbs and organs. They don't give much more info than that (other than the sex, which we opted not to find out), so I guess I'll find out at my midwife appointment next week if there is anything concerning.

3. I think my heartburn has returned. When I was pregnant with Zoey I had awful heartburn for the whole second half of the pregnancy, and wouldn't you know, at 20 weeks and one day, I started to feel the slow burn again this time. I guess I'll be walking around with a bottle of Gaviscon in my purse. I feel like Elaine's co-worker from Seinfeld who walked around with tic tacs in their pocket and drove everyone nuts. That's me but with heartburn relief! Oye.

Spring!

Although I think it's supposed to snow tomorrow, we have really enjoyed our last few days of amazing weather. 

We are also thoroughly enjoying the long weekend. Now that Zoey can walk, she LOVES walking outside. If we carry her, she wriggles out of our arms saying "walk". She also says "hello" and "buh bye" to each person who passes. I am reminded each day why I love living downtown in such a great walking community. One evening after supper we walked around the corner to a playground and played for a while before bed. Delightful. 

Yesterday we walked to a park a few blocks away and Zoey spent quite a while exploring the playground. She is such a daredevil, just scrambling up the play structures and sliding down the slides all on her own. We then ran a million errands and took her to my mum's community garden and she showed her all around. My mum has been working on this garden for a couple of years and it looks amazing. It has sophisticated (to me) underground "plumbing" that collects water and then it seeps somewhere else and waters the gardens. I don't really get it but it's super fancy. Anyway she's there all the time and has wanted to bring Zoey there for a while to show her around. Zoey doesn't really get the concept of a hill yet so it was pretty funny to watch her all of a sudden start running down a hill or fall backwards when she came to an uphill. She'll get it eventually.

Today we walked to the diner for breakfast and then walked to a different park and she played some more. I need to film her walking on the tiny rocks some parks have because it is hilarious. (A few playgrounds near us have the solid rubber ground, which is really nice, but some of them have the old school rocks). The rest of today has been cleaning and napping. 

Tomorrow we will have a mini easter egg hunt and an easter dinner. I didn't want to give Zoey chocolate but I still wanted to do something fun, so I hit the dollar store and got a bunch of pom poms, foam shapes, plastic bracelets and little pinwheels to put in hollow easter eggs. We will hide a few and then give her the rest. I'm sure she will have no clue whats going on but oh well.

What do you do for easter? My dad has a sweet tooth, so the easter bunny was always very generous and we had lots and lots of candy to hunt for. One fateful easter, I stole one of my sister's "big ticket" easter chocolates and my punishment was that I couldn't eat candy for two weeks and had to give my whole collection to her. It was horrible. Although she was mad, I am pretty sure she snuck me some anyway since she doesn't love candy as much as I do. 

Have a great weekend!  I'll leave you with a few photos of Zoey walking down the hall of our condo building. If anyone has a welcome mat outside their door, she HAS to walk over it. 

What I've been working on

Totally haven't been posting. I'm tired and busy. And if you follow me on twitter then you know the reason why is that we are expecting baby number two!

I'm trying to be a little more regular with taking pictures this time around, but so far it's a total fail.  I will try harder. (And I'll also try to post more in general.)

13 weeks

17 weeks

I still have to figure out the best way to take those pictures... sideways makes sense to see the belly but front ways shows the quirky shirt more, so I'll experiment. Excuse the tired look on the 17 weeks photo; I was.

2012: a few thoughts and a look forward to 2013

I don't have a really insightful post ready and prepared, but between a whirlwind of working, snowstorms, and baby cuddles, I thought I'd take a second to reflect on this year. And what better way than in point form.

• We started the year with a three month old baby, not really knowing what we were doing but working mainly on instincts. I quickly realized that most of what I wanted to do was along the attachment parenting style. I wouldn't say everything, but a lot of what "felt right" for us fell into that category. This brought a few raised eyebrows but mostly support from those around us. 
• I started training again for a half marathon and though I completed a pretty good race in May, I completely fell off the running wagon after and have barely crawled back on it 8 months later.
• We took a couple of fun trips with family so that more people got to meet our happy smiling baby. We went to Montreal in March to visit Kristen and to Vermont and Toronto in June. Everyone loved Zoey and she loved them. I realized that traveling with a baby was harder than I thought it would be but not impossible. Good thing she's so cute!

• Matt worked up north for two ish months and I was alone with Zoey for two weeks at a time. That was probably one of the hardest things either of us have done in a long time. I was faced with many night time challenges (like teething, gas pain and growth spurts) and Matt had to be away from his new daughter and watch me struggle from afar. There were many times where I wanted to just let her cry and cry, but at 6 months old, I just wasn't prepared to do that, so I shushed and rocked and nursed her all night. We took many late night walks to get her to sleep after me trying unsuccessfully for 2 + hours. I would lay beside her quietly once she was finally asleep, not even wanting to cough in case she woke up and I would have to start all over again. It was hard, but the payoff was worth it, and now we have a little more money (from matt!) and a baby who sleeps wonderfully through the night and wakes up happy and healthy every morning.
• My return to work in October was harder than I expected. We found great childcare, but leaving my family at home still is very difficult, even three months later. I know that this job allows me much more time at home, but it's still hard picturing Matt and Zoey at home playing without me, while I sit alone in a hotel room. I thought I'd love the time to just relax by myself and sleep alone in a huge bed, but I really just feel envious of Matt at home and wish I was there too. I'm still waiting to get part-time status, which means I have to fly 30 fewer hours, so perhaps that will make it a little more enjoyable. 

• As much as I thought I'd get back into working out hardcore, I really haven't. I struggle to make it a priority and although I feel a little guilty sometimes, I mostly am comfortable with my decisions. I've gone to hot yoga a few times, I tried out the new spin studio down the street, and I signed up for a half marathon in February that I have barely trained for. Though I enjoy it when I'm there, the cost (of the first two) and the time commitment of running just isn't easy. Zoey, now almost 15 months old, isn't super keen on hanging in the stroller for more than 30-40 minutes. That means running without her, when Matt is home, and honestly, I'd rather be at home playing with them. I know in a year or two I may feel differently, but right now I'm content with low-moderate exercise. 

• This year I am looking forward to learning how to parent a toddler and teaching her new things. I really like looking at what she is doing and seeing if I can teach her something small that can make her playtime a little more interesting. I'm not huge on teaching her random things (like what sounds animals make for example) but I like to just add a little to what she already knows. It's fun to see her kiss people good bye, clap when she hears applause, say hi when the front door opens... it's a really cool thing to see her learn at her own pace.
• I REALLY can't wait until she walks! I know I wasn't in a rush before, but now that she's heavier, I'm really ready to have her walk beside me instead of always carry her. Time will tell.
• I think this year will be full of adventure. I can't wait to see what it brings!