So far

Obviously life has changed enough for me to not be able to blog... Although I wasn't doing a very good job of it before Piper came along either.

I have to admit that life with two kids isn't that much different so far than life with one kid, except I have to be a little better at time management, and it takes me longer to get out the door each day. (Can I just have a side rant for a second? Our elevator still isn't working after the flood. So I have to lug a carseat and a toddler down and up three flights of stairs every time I want to leave the house. Sometimes Zoey walks, sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes I carry Piper in a carrier, sometimes in the carseat, but holy hell its really getting to me. Add winter coats, which are both hot and slippery, and you have a recipe for disaster. Also, forget every coming home with anything other than a backpack and the kids. No coffee, no groceries, no shopping errands... GAH it's KILLING ME!)

Ok so maybe my patience has decreased a little too since having our second child. But so far, not nearly as hard of a transition as when the first baby came along.

Zoey and Piper are becoming good friends. Zoey loved her from the start, but now Piper can interact with Zoey and they just love it. One day, when I didn't have the carseat cover over Piper's seat (she can still see out, but it's like she has a little warm cave to protect her from the weather), she and Zoey laughed at each other in the car. There are few sounds that are sweeter, let me tell you.

Zoey is getting really good at using the toilet, so she gets to run around in underwear all day. I don't know what it is, but losing that bulky bum really makes her look grown up! She also had her first haircut, and she sat there a little stunned, which made the whole thing quick and easy. She is singing and dancing more than ever, which led me to sign her up for a little class once a week starting next week. Unfortunately I didn't realize until after we signed up that I couldn't bring Piper with me, but luckily my mum is free and it's right by her house, so she can watch Piper for the 45 minutes while Zoey and I dance away. I can't wait to see if she likes it.

Piper is a pretty mellow baby. She sleeps fairly well, eats fairly well, and loves looking around and smiling. Her hair is growing in much lighter than her existing hair, which makes for an awesome hipster combover thing. She has way more hair than Zoey had until she was about 1.5 and it's definitely curly. I am eager to see what it looks like in a few years.

I am slowly but surely getting back into exercise. Time is a contributing factor as well as me not wanting to take away from family time. I signed up for the St. Patrick's day 10 km so we will see how that goes. I picked up a double chariot on kijiji and love it so far. I'm going to swim as well so hopefully I can get a little fitter. The body isn't bouncing back as quickly this time around but that's to be expected I think. I'll take it slow but try to keep my motivation. Not the easiest thing out there!

Now I have to try to stay awake until 9:30 so that I can take advantage of the night owl swim prices.  The last 90 minutes of the day is only 7$ for a drop in at the talisman centre (a couple of blocks from my house) so that means 9:30-11. I don't normally stay up past 9 so here's hoping I don't fall asleep in the pool!

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.