December

It's mid December, and I feel like all I've been doing is working!  This month I've been gone for three nights at a time, which is taking it's toll on me. I asked for Christmas off, which I got, but in return I didn't get my short two day work shifts like I've had for the past two months. Working for four days, especially in the high travel and weather delay season, is physically and mentally taxing. Luckily things are great at home with Zoey, Matt and our nanny, so I don't have to worry about that. Also, being gone for four days means Zoey is weaned off breastfeeding, which I feel fine about. I wanted it to be a natural and gradual thing without being "traumatizing" for her, so this was a nice way to have it happen. I got home from my first four day and she nursed for about a minute, then just stopped and hasn't since. So that's that I guess!

When I get home on Wednesday, I'll be home until the 27th, so we can fit in all the holiday dinners and festivities. Zoey really likes Christmas trees and decorations, and I really think she will love opening her presents and stocking. She isn't walking yet, but she's standing on her own and crawling like a crazy woman! She is really starting to understand lots which makes life a little bit easier. She can say quite a few words, like "ya", "eau" (which is water in french), "uh oh", and she can shake her head for "no". She loves dancing and she sometimes sings along to music. I feel so lucky to have such a happy and hilarious daughter!

Hopefully my next post will have lots of pictures, but for now I'll leave you with happy and fun wishes for the holidays!

What I'm thinking about

As much as I don't want to post only about mum related things, it's hard not to since that's about all I'm doing.

• Zoey is still congested. I took her to the Dr today and it's only congestion and we just have to wait it out.  I'm relieved she's not actually sick, but I wish I could do more for her.  
• Tomorrow I'm doing a very mum thing: Going to Play a Latte, a playground and coffee shop thing.  It should be interesting.
• Zoey got a play mat yesterday from kijiji and she loves it!  She can't do much with it, but she stares at the toys hanging down, and sometimes bats at them, though I'm not sure whether that's on purpose or not.  Side note, my home is becoming a little more kid ish!
• I haven't gotten the courage to take her in the stroller for a run yet.  I'm not sure what's holding me back, but something is.  I need to just bite the bullet and take her out for a short run. (I like how I'm blaming it all on her, and not admitting that I'm nervous to run again and might not be able to run for very long!)
• I feel VERY family ish and grown up because I ordered christmas card / pictures yesterday.  I have always thought that sending out christmas cards is a very family / grown up thing to do, and have never considered it until this year.
• I would love to go to hot yoga again.  I need to do that soon!
• I also would love to get a manicure, but I don't want to bring Zoey to a nail salon and would feel really lame asking someone to watch her while I got my nails done.
• I've become obsessed with finding a well priced Keurig coffee machine.  I really want one all of a sudden!

That's about all that's on my mind!  Oh, that, and finding some long shirts so that I can wear tights and shirts and pretend like I'm wearing real clothes but really am wearing something that feels like pyjamas.

What's on your mind?

The hills are aliiiiiive...

Last night the Sound of Music was on (and of course I sang along), and the night before, Matt put on the Sound of Music record that he bought me (and of course I sang along to that) so I'm in Sound of Music heaven! There's just something about it that makes me so happy. I don't really know what exactly it is, but on the whole it's great and it makes me think of my mum and my sister and makes me smile!

Christmas came and went. Matt and I flew to Toronto on the 18th, which worked out flawlessly! We were really worried, since there were huge storms, flight cancellations, and all the flights to Toronto were sold out for about days. We decided to just go for it, so we packed an all day picnic, brought all sorts of things to amuse ourselves, and baked treats for the staff, and were mentally prepared for a full day at the airport. We got there around 4:30 am and by 7 we were boarded and ready to go on the first flight of the day! I had to sit up in the flight deck while Matt got some person stuck in the line-up's seat, and we were so relieved. As we were walking down the gate thing we were giggling and smiling and so happy! Anyway we got to Toronto and went straight to his little brother's hockey game, and then the Christmas festivities began. Christmas dinner here, there, at this Aunt's house and this other person's house. It was a lot but it was great. His parents were SO great about the whole gluten free thing. They were so careful, they'd watch every person and make sure they didn't use the same knife in two things, make sure no one touched this or that, it was awesome. Matt said we should take a page out of their book because I don't think we're even that careful. They even bought me a new toaster to keep at their place!

Christmas was fun at their place. His little brother got rock band, so we had fun playing on that for a while. Matt's parents got us a GPS for the car, which is really cool. We've already used it a few times and now Matt wants to take a road trip so we can use it more! My stocking was way bigger than any of theirs, and they all made fun of it, but Christmas came around and theirs were overflowing and basically had the same amount as mine. Anyway I got lots of nice presies and I had a great first Christmas away from home.

We made it home without a problem either, so all in all, standby travel at Christmas worked out really well. I thought it would be so much worse, and it really wasn't! Yay for us!

Now we're home, getting ready for Christmas number two with my family. We have new year's fondue, then on Friday we're doing Christmas with everyone here. It will be fun.

On a side note, I got a new coffee maker with my giftcard from futureshop. I would never have spent this much on a coffee maker, but since it was a gift, I decided to be frivalous. It's a kitchenaid coffee maker with a timer, a re-usable filter, a thermos pot, and a built in grinder. It's incredible. Our old coffee maker and grinder were the cause of much chagrin between the two of us. Matt hated the grinder, which really was terrible and would put grinds EVERYWHERE, and I was defensive over this poor grinder for no reason whatsoever. The coffee maker was once awesome, but the coffee started tasting really bad, and brewing all funny, and we tried a lot of things to make it taste better, but nothing worked. I still haven't gotten rid of it because it has an espresso maker attached and a frother, and I like making espresso drinks. I do have a stovetop espresso maker but no frother, so until I get something else, I'll keep it and pull it out when I need it. Last night we set the timer, put in the water, whole beans, and this morning at 5:30 I woke up to "burrrrrrrrrrrrrrwhirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgrinddddddddddddd drip drip drip" which made me giggle. Yay for new appliances!

I hope everyone has a good new year!