Just another one of those nights

It has been one of those nights. Clearly since I'm blogging at 3:30am. We just broke a fever finally and my little man is finally sleeping for now. 11pm he woke up quite distraught but once I got him he seemed fine. He was boiling hot to the touch so I checked his temp. - 102F. Do you think I could find any fever medication for him...nope. Ryan suggested I put him back to bed since he was chatty and otherwise seemed fine. He happily took a bottle so had no diminished appetite. He woke up again at 1am at which point the fever was still there and I had to go out to the nearest 24 hours Shoppers Drugmart to get some medication. After I gave him the medication I could not get him to go back to sleep. The sad, sick little boy in his crib was a happy, extremely talkative energetic little boy outside of his bed. Clearly this boy just doesn't want to sleep. Therefore I sat in emotional dilemma...on the one hand I reminded myself that I have a sick child with a proven fever that needs all the love and nurturing I can give him. Yet on the other hand part of me thought that he was totally playing me since he's as happy as ever outside of his bed. It was really an emotional battle. Not for Ryan though. If Brendan is eating, talking and wanting to play - regardless of fever - Ryan is more than happy to go to sleep with his mind at rest while Brendan is fussing in the other room because "he must not be that sick if he wants to play" I think fathers must be wired differently. My emotional motherly side says make the child happy and my rational outsider viewpoint says.... most likely the husband is right.

Whoever said being a mother is easy clearly hasn't had kids.

Maybe I do have a crafty side!

May I present.. MY VERY FIRST COMPLETED BLANKET! (ignore my 70's recliner) I've always loved doing artsy/crafty things. However... most of the things I have attempted have not turned out so nice, I've gotten bored or I've quit after experiencing slight difficulty aka. knitting, crochet, even cross stitch but this... this blanket was foolproof! You'd never know it wasn't quite rectangular or the fringe isn't evenly spaced. This was a project I started in the summer for Ryan's cousin's daughter who is 8 months younger than Brendan. We got one for Brendan last winter from a family friend and absolutely loved it. The one I made has a pink fleece side with hippos on it and a flat purple side. I was complaining to Ryan tonight while I was finishing it off about how I hate measuring and I couldn't get anything even and never to let me start crafty projects again because I always end up not liking them or failing horribly. WELL let me tell you, when I finished doing all the knots I was so proud I decided I will just have to make more. You can get the directions for yourself here. These would make AWESOME christmas gifts as you can choose a million different patterns and colours of fleece.

Now for the Halloween pictures of my little skeleton. We just layered him underneath and put his coat on and left it open. He can be a skeleton every night now because his costume was a pair of $10 glow in the dark pyjamas! His hat was $1 from the Dollarama and his bucket also $1. Can you tell mom doesn't like to spend a lot on costumes and loves to repurpose yet still be unique. Believe it or not I had a ton of people ask me where I got his costume.. and my slightly embarassing response in my head was "they are actually $10 pyjamas because I'm too cheap to spend $40 on a one time use kids costume". Actual response - "from Walmart" 

New Moon, New Start

Since being sick all week has left me bored and in bed I decided to pick up my half read New Moon book from the Twilight Saga. Brendan has been staying with my sister this week so he doesn't catch the flu. In my eyes avoidance is a far better precaution than vaccinating with a questionable vaccine.

I started reading New Moon months ago only to become uninterested and put it down. It seemed like perfect timing to start reading it again right before the new movie comes out this month. Although I thought the first book was wayyy better than the movie. I think the movie coming out sometime mid-month might just out do this book - or I hope so anyway.

In other exciting news.. I have decided this year we will make the most out of our health benefits. Ryan's plan covers massage and naturopath doctors so I will be going to both! Since having Brendan 18 months ago I haven't quite felt 100%. I don't know if it is from the new stress of being a parent or changed eating habits (I never felt healthier than when I was pregnant and eating very well, taking vitamins, getting appropriate amounts of exercise). Once Brendan was born I felt like I didn't have the time to eat healthy the way I had while pregnant. I would just scarf down anything quickly while he was napping for 20 mins - truth be told I probably lived off grilled cheese for the first 3 months. Now he is starting into that picky kid food stage where he prefers finger foods like grilled cheese or fish sticks which has made it even harder on me to eat well. I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I breast-fed Brendan solid for 8 months. During that time I lost all of my pregnancy weight gain and then some. When I was pregnant I only gained 25 lbs. Brendan was a month early. I haven't been able to gain any weight back. Surprisingly.. because the way I've been eating has been a far cry from healthy and balanced. I have been eating way more meat which I am not happy about and I really do notice a big decline in the way I feel but I have needed the extra iron in quick doses. I'm hoping the naturopathic doctor can help me to get back on track so that when we are expecting baby #2 I am in great shape nutrition and otherwise.

Books, Books and More Books

Recently I have become addicted to a book trading website - BookMooch!. This website allows users to trade books they no longer want for points. These points allow you to "mooch" books from other people. So far I have sent 2 books (one to Italy and one to the US) and it didn't cost me too much. I have already recieved the Time Traveller's Wife which I am so anxious to read and am waiting on another book for a Christmas gift. Whoever came up with this site was a genious! Now I just need to find the time to read them and get them back on my list to give so I can recieve some more good reads!

Brendan got a box full of kids books from his cousins. I have decided I will read every book in the box to him between now and Christmas. There have to be some that he likes. Right now he is far to busy to be interested in reading with me but I'm going to read them to him regardless, even if he just plays while I read. This morning I made and canned homemade applesauce from the apples Brendan and I picked a couple weeks ago. It felt really nice to get back to cooking and baking. We have been eating too much convenience food lately which has left me feeling less than healthy and energetic and my eczema rediculously worse. So my fall resolutions... back to the basics..more me time.. get organized for Christmas

Getting Back in the Groove

I realize that I haven't posted on here in oh so long. We've been so incredibly busy since the wedding but I'm BACK!

Re-cap of September:

- My first month back home not working. Yay!

- Our first month trying for baby #2..unsuccessfully but fun anyway :)

- The long weekend we went 5 hours north to the family cottage. Brendan wore his life-jacket that we got him from a yard sale for $2 this summer the whole weekend and loved it!

- Brendan's first haircut (see below!) we went to a kids chain called Melonheads - what a great first time experience! He sat in an airplane shaped bucket seat and played with toys and bubbles, there was a tv on the wall playing cartoons, the hair dresser cut away at his hair while he played, at the end he got a free ride on their resident rocking horse and a certificate with his picture and first lock of hair.

Yeah.... my kid wouldn't wear the cape!

- I joined a local mom and baby group on Facebook and did a mall outing and met lots of other moms and babies. Mostly boys and mostly younger than Brendan. This made me realize that there really aren't too many stay at home moms out there. After talking to many of the ladies I came to the conclusion most really don't want to go back to work, some dreading it but really don't feel that they have any option otherwise. I feel incredibly priviledged to be able to stay home with Brendan and that it is a choice. For whatever reason, I still always feel the need to mention to other women who inquire about my decision to stay home that I do have a university degree..unfortunately they are always surprised to hear this. I hope that in the next few years there will be a shift in thinking and that the stigma now associated with women who stay home to care for their children as being less educated or lazy might be put to rest. Dr. Phil the other day had a show on Stay at Home Moms vs. Working Moms and concluded that working moms have better socialized and rounded children?! I do understand the benefits of daycares for social interaction but what about the stay at home mothers who go out and do activities with their children and teach them manners and other important socialization skills one on one? Apparently in Dr.Phil's books that counts for nothing. sigh.

Wedding Day! (mixed up)

T-Minus 1 day!

Sooo my big wedding is tomorrow. Lately I've been going a little crazy with the planning and find myself wishing that the wedding was just over - as awful as that sounds. All of the plans I had in the beginning...most of them I put into action but many of the final details have just been decided by me going with whatever was easiest. A decision I do not think I will regret. Man this wedding planning is hard work! Exciting news on the food front. I have been harvesting a lot from my garden these days. 1 summer squash (another on the way), a handful of grape tomatoes, spring greens, radish, calendula, and herbs. YUM. My CSA food share has been more than filling in the rest of our fruit and veggies and Ryan's meat from last fall's hunt is just about finished.

Ryan picked up our tree favours earlier this week and they turned out far better than I had expected. We ended up paying a little extra but the farm wrapped each tree very nicely in a burlap sack and tied a dark purple ribbon around the top. Just have to finish printing out our instructions for the trees. I am hoping to get a final budget for our wedding posted after the wedding a la 2000 dollar wedding blog style.

Tonight we are hosting our rehearsal dinner at our house. On the menu:
BBQ Chicken
Baked Potato
Corn on the Cob
Homegrown tossed salad
Caesar Salad
Key Lime and Lemon Meringue Pie
Strawberries from our foodshare

I'm really looking forward to relaxing on that beach now...