Then and Now

One year later, alot changes yet I still persist in dressing my daugther up as a fuzzy animal for Halloween.

and wagon rides are still a big fan fav…

18 Months

Last Friday Amelia turned a year and a half. For the most part I am really enjoying Amelia these days, she does the funniest things at times, other times I could kill her but for the most part she is really quite fun to be around. It is so satisfying to finally be able to speak with her (abit).  Her vocabulary seems to be exploding now, in the last few days she has added hat mits, upsdaisy (up-a-day-day), cup, and the list goes on. This morning she was being dressed and she started asking for “han, hank”, I was so confused what did she want that she called hank, turned out she can’t quite work out blanket and instead she is calling it Hank, Jeff and I both think this is very funny.

Amelia continues to really enjoy daycare, her and Macy are still best buds and Heather tells me that whenever they see each other they squeal and give each other hugs, so cute.

This month ended my successful fight against Dora the Explorer, I am so naïve… I am not a big fan of the whole branding thing (except curious George which for some reason in my mind seen wholesome) and have been pretty anti-dora, Amelia has never watched Dora or doesn’t have anything Dora and to the best of my knowledge didn’t know who she was. The day before yesterday we showed up at Heathers in the morning and Heather had made loot bags for Macy’s daycare birthday, the bags had Dora on them, Amelia immediately pointed and said Dora!!! I have not clue where that came for!!!  Maybe they are projecting TV wave right into children’s heads know, I just don’t understand!!!  I was shocked but it was pretty funny, I am so naïve to even think I could avoid the phenomenon.

Not much else new, Amelia’s 18month appointment went okay, she is fine and progressing normally but she freaked this time we were there and wouldn’t let anyone touch her without screaming, including just standing on the scale.  She also has abit of a cold and couldn’t get her shots, I think I am going to wait till the flu shot is out then get all of them at once.

Amelia is still into books, sorting etc but now miracle of miracles Heather has started teaching her to tidy and if you sing the made up tidy song for her she will actually pick up her stuff, thank goodness cause the 50 piece puzzle ALL over the basement was killing me.

Last night Meals was off to Mini and Topo’s while Jeff, Denise, Julie and I went to chocolate class for Julie’s belated birthday pressie. YUMMM!!!  We didn’t really get to see Meals yesterday cause she was asleep when we picked her up.  This morning was the first meltdown in weeks when dropping Amelia off at Heather’s it broke my heart, I think we were both feeling like we hadn’t seen enough of each other.

Okay work is still nuts soo much to do.

 Oh our work around the front and side of our house is coming along and looking great, I’ll take pics when it is all done.

Amelia starting her her Christmas list, it is no Toys R Us cataloge but Lee Valley seemed to interest her.

I’m a bitch, I’m a bitch, Oh the bitch is back…

Ah nothing like a little Elton John to start your day or alternatively having it as your own personal theme song when you daughter wakes up in the morning.  Not that I am calling her a bitch but well… no wait yes I am.  My daughter is hell on wheels this week. Grrrrr…  She is finally filling in those eye teeth holes and even the “cheery, the world is wonderful and your daughter is an angel, lying through her teeth” Heather has admitted that Amelia has been less than sweet and even abit ornery J I do have some compassion for the child cause she has the diaper rash to end all diaper rashes, her mouth hurts and she is stuffed up but that is no reason for refusing to drinking milk from a glass yet continuing to yell for milk or sitting in her car seat quite quietly then at regular 2min intervals making possessed by the devil guttural yells.  She is also become quite accomplished at throwing trantrums now, they usually centre around milk and her demands for it or bath time and her obsession with her face clothes (we now require 3 face clothes to give the child a bath), on Monday her mood was so foul she was in bed by 6:50 mind you she slept through the night so I guess she needed it.  This morning she added a new phrase to her repertoire of “No way”, I am quite happy for her that she has started putting words together but “no” was grating enough…

Well this past weekend was quite nice Friday night was quiet then Saturday John and Jeff sanded the floor in our wallway upstairs, if has been in rough shape ever since we ripped up the horrible carpet that was there when we moved in (we ripped it up before we moved in but never got around to finishing the floors).  Jeff and John did a great job and this weekend they are ready for varithane. I took Amelia out of the house to get her away from the dust, we ran errands in the morning then met up with Denise and Julie at Sherway in the afternoon for abit of shopping, moslyt for Amelia’s Christmas pressies J Saturday evening Amelia went for a sleepover at the Reitsma Baby Resort while Jeff and I went for an amazing dinner at Thuet followed by my mother’s day pressie of Wicked tickets.  Both dinner and the musical were amazing and Jeff and I had a great time out just the two of us, ah remember the days of being DINKS (double income no kids).  Sunday morning we got to sleep-in till we were ready to get up (well poor Jeff got to sleep till I decided it was time for the gym).

After the gym we meet up with Dan our Man about the plan to prevent our house from falling into the neighbours yard (not sure I mentioned this before cause well I was in denial and abit shellshocked but yeah we had some major erosion issued down the side of out house and no our house isn’t falling over). Anyway last week the work began and stuff was ripped up now the guys are in the process of putting it back together. Dan and Tony came by on Sunday morning and we ironed out the final plans which lead to some rather major stress on my part cause I could not visualize this one thing or make a decision on how to change it. In the end it was all sorted and work has progressed and it is looking good.

Sunday afternoon Jeff picked up Amelia and unfortunately the problems with the teeth had started and she wasn’t in the best of moods. We did a bunch of cooking and clean Sunday afternoon and had a quiet dinner just the three of us Sunday night. 

This week has been flying by and we are already on Thursday. This weekend it looks like we will have to vacate the house in order to varithane so the whole lot of us are descending on my parents on Friday night, cats included.

Here are a couple pics from John and Denise of there outing to the park.

Happy Turkey Digestion

Oh long weekends I am I going to survive without you for two months… We had a wonderful weekend, from the weather, the company to the food.  Friday night we had dinner at Jeff’s parents because Denise had been babysitting Amelia for the day.  Actually Denise took care of Amelia on Thursday too because she was recovering from her never ending puking from the night before. Good news Amelia is feeling much better, by Thursday she was mostly better but still not eating much and by the weekend she seemed much better (the exception of being a bit picker than before). Anyways, so Friday we had a nice night with Jeff parents although after a very stressful week of work and a lot of working at home in the evenings and Meals issues I was totally bagged and could barely keep my eyes opened.

Saturday we headed out to St. Jacobs Farmers Market and Elora Gorge with the usual family and the visiting, Gramps and Manny Rich. It was very cute to see how doting Rich with Amelia and how quickly Amelia remembered and because quite attached to him, awwww.  The Market was insanely busy but I guess to get expected on a beautiful day on thanksgiving weekend, oh well.  We all got a few things then headed to Elora.  We went for lunch at the Elora Gorge Inn which we have been to before and has been get but this time the service was quite bad and the food was marginal.  One bonus was that we got out own private corner so Amelia could run around and look out the window at the ducks (any sort of feathered creature is a duck right now).  Amelia’s name for my grandfather is GoGo, which she caught on to very quickly and walked around saying it all weekend.  I think the grandparents might be starting to get a bit anxious about having her say their name, ha ha.  Saturday night, we went to our friends Danielle and Rory’s for dinner. Rory’s parents were in town on their way home from Trinidad and we all had a pre-thanksgiving day dinner.  Before we left from home Amelia was in a foul mood after only having a couple shortish car naps that day and on the way over she was throwing a major tantrum complete with “possessed by the devil”-type noises. Jeff and I were both thinking it was going to be a very short dinner but as soon as Amelia had a new audience she was happy again and she played happily by herself most of the evening with the help of Finn the cat and Rory and Danielle’s miscellaneous things basket, who knew a kid could have so much fun with a hair clip, a pen (closed) and a key with a light in it.  

Sunday was turkey day but it started off with a long bike ride downtown and back with Amelia, Jeff, Rich and I.  It was abit of a chilly start at 9:30 but we soon warmed up (and Amelia was pretty bundled) and we headed down to the lake.  It was a stunning ride and because it was earlyish it wasn’t too busy. We got home just before lunch so we ate fed Meals and headed out to John and Denise to help with the cooking and relax abit. Dinner was fantastic as usual.  I got Amelia dressed up for the evening and I put her in a dress of mine from when I was little that was my cousin Melissa’s before that.  I thought she looked pretty cute and was quite pleased with the whole thing until my husband informed me that the “antique” dress she was in lost a button. BAHHHHH it wasn’t the button loss it was the antique, grrrrrr!!! J

  Monday we helped John and Denise put the pool away then went home and did a ton of house work and tidying then had the yummmy family tradition turkey burgers for dinner (think they might be as good if not better then the actual meal). 

Now it is the week again (but at least it is a short one) and it has been abit busy.  This weekend we are going to attempt to sand our hallway floor upstairs what has been unfinished since we moved in and Jeff and I are off to see Wicked as part of my birthday present, I CAN”T WAIT!!!!!

Puke City – Revenge of the Sweet Potatoes

So we are all feeling abit sleepy this morning, Amelia started puking at 7ish last night and continued till about 12:30.  I think this was the first time Amelia has really puked, she has spit up before and there were those posesed by the devil style projectile vomits when she was first born but not much since then, this was very hard to watch.  We are not totally sure what it was we think maybe it was the sweet potatoe that was a few days old but we aren’t sure. The irony of it all was that last night for the first time ever we gave Amelia a bath before dinner then notonly during dinner did Amelia decided to put her partially empty bowl on her head but she also threw up all over herself and Jeff which resulted in bath two of the evening. After bath two and a little play time (playing chase me with a ribbon and dexter) we put her to bed thinking she was all better.  I checked on her 30mins later and she was asleep covered in vomit (sorry for the visual on that one) which resulted in bath three.  Poor thing. After a few emergancy phone calls including advice from Jen re:gravol under two and lining up Denise for babysitting today, we all end up going to be in our bed.  There were a few more issues later but it didn’t result in anymore baths.

She seemed okay this morning but she is spending a lovely day at home with her Grandmaman.

CURE FOR BREAST CANCER ELUDES 15,000 TORONTO RUNNERS

–Organizers completely flummoxed by lack of discovery; “screw this” blurts out volunteer–

Ok.  Now that Mr. Guest Post has offended a few people, let’s launch right into the greatest post in the history of civilization.

So two weekends ago, lots of happy fun times.  Delinquent Jeff went off to play poker on Friday (lost in spectacular fashion) and then to play handyman (injury-free) with Damon on Saturday.  All the while, poor Alicia and Amelia lamented the absence of their wonderful Jeff.

*tumbleweed*

This past week, however, was a whirlwind of excitement and non-deadbeat behaviour of all kinds.  We have been lucky enough to be caring for Rory & Danielle’s lovely cat Finn until yesterday (about 10 days all up).  Finn is very fun, he is a ball of energy and snuggles and jumping, Amelia thought he was the greatest and very much enjoyed giving him pets and kisses.  In addition to this, Meals has been beset by all manner of cold and flu-like symptoms, with the key one being the runny nose that ends up getting all crusty around the nostril region and looking like absolute DYNAMITE.  Add to this her newfound love of dancing in circles (spin spin spin), stepping in animal feces at the park (with her shoes on, ya sicko), and adding “bye”, “ok”, “all done” and “uh oh” into her daily jibjab and you have a pretty full-on sensory experience with Amelia.  It has been lots of fun.  Amelia still is struggling with the notion that “bye” is best said BEFORE you leave, not in the car as you drive away, though she is being suitably chastised for this and is bound to come around sooner or later.

This past weekend was good as well.  Friday night we were out in Mississauga for dinner with the Reitsmarents, solid times as per usual.  Saturday we embarked upon shopping galore, with birthday, husband clothing and (brace yourself) xmas stuff all on the menu.  Sherway didn’t know what hit it, nor will our still-smouldering Visa card.  Saturday night we were in Oakville, over chez John & Jen to catch up with them and to play with Emma & Leah who are absolute jokers.  Amelia gets on well with them once she gets over her initial awkwardness and there was lots of laughing, dancing, giggles and pretty much excellent behaviour from all.  No meltdowns or sharing-related beatdowns.  Sunday we Ran for Cure, mainly because I like to spur my wife into saying inappropriate things about cancer sufferers.  We did a nice run with Leigh (our super fun happy neighbour who is too fit for her own good) and Alicia and I managed to stumble across the line in 29:22, under our 30 min goal.  Woop.  Then off for a nice lunch downtown with the rents (who walked for the cure).  Sunday night, we were in Mississauga again to celebrate Wendy’s birthday (hooray for Wendy!) and had another lovely time.  All in all a super weekend.

This week, Thanksgiving rolls around, and with it, Rich and Grampy Stanger are in town to regale us with stories of high-living in Lennoxville and Kingston, respectively.  Should be solid, especially as Alicia is having a rough week work-wise and will need the entertainment and/or a serious hand up from our friend Alcohol.  Look for pictures of Amelia and/or Alicia with a turkey on her head or something equally unsafe on Tuesday. 

Here are some of the pics from daycare, there are tons more uploaded in flickr but I have attached some of my favs.

Amelia and Edward Chillin’ at the park

Bath Time for the Babies – Amelia’s baby is getting a good washing

She is such a girl she LOVES her purses

Out for a wagon ride munching on strawberries

Amelia’s first pony tail