Happy Holidays!

It has been well over a month since my last post..but there is a reason for that. I was up north at Ryan's parents place taking care of our Christmas Tree business and there was no internet. Although it was nice to be out of the city for awhile just Brendan and I, man am I ever happy to be home.

We finally finished tiling the bathroom and we even had our first bath in the tub.. now on to mudding and taping, vanity shopping and decor. Didn't Ryan and his brother-in-law do a great job!?


As for Brendan's latest developments.. he is loving his tummy time now. No crawling yet but he likes to flop down onto his tummy to get toys he has knocked out of reach and roll all over the room. Even more exciting is that for the past 3 days he has been saying "ma" or "mama" non stop. So I guess his first word is Mama! (sorry Ryan). Christmas was a hit. Brendan was spoiled rotten and he seemed to enjoy ripping the wrapping paper and playing with his new toys. I am so happy that he was old enough to somewhat interact with his gifts and enjoy getting them. Here are some Christmas pictures.

Back with the flu!

Well we're back from our trip out west. Despite the non-stop rain we had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Brendan slept the entire 4 hour plane ride there and then let us have a fabulous late night meal at the Subeez Cafe downtown. I thought we'd look like crazy folk out with our baby at almost 10pm in a noisy restaurant. However, there was another couple there with their baby who looked scarily similar to Brendan so I guess we aren't that bad after all. So thank god for evening flights. We did a fair amount of hiking and we splurged and took the sky ride up Grouse Mountain. Brendan loved being outdoors and the weather didn't even phase him.


They had orphan bears on top of the mountain. Ryan got incredibly camera happy so we have about 50 pictures of these bears. The keeper was there at the same time as us so we got to chat with her about them and I got to throw them some apples, sweet potatoes and carrots.

Lil'B enjoying his brand new Maclaren stroller.

One of the only family shots we got on the whole vacation.

This is what happens when you leave baby unattended with daddy's wallet (he decides VISA would make a wonderful teether). I can't believe we thought this was cute - holy germs!.

Baby's first plane ride.. well technically second since it was taken on the way home but still. Nursing on the way up and down was a saviour.

Some gorgeous shots of the rockies taken from out plane window... they really are amazing


Today Brendan goes for his 6 month shots. Hopefully we don't have another episode of screaming uncalmable baby on our hands this afternoon. It just breaks my heart to see him so upset and not be able to tell him that it is for the best. As for me, I seem to have gotten the flu somewhere along the way. Hopefully a healthy dose of fenugreek tea will get me back to normal ASAP. For now I am going to try to rest rest rest.

We're outta here!

Yay! We're finally leaving for Vancouver tonight. I say finally as if I've been waiting for this trip for a long time when really we booked it less than a week ago. I like to think we can still be spontaneous even though we have a baby now. It's kinda nice. On the one hand I'm all for spontaneity like in the case of booking a trip last minute or making impulse buys such as the new camera last week. On the other hand I'm a total planning freak. On our trip to Washington, DC in 2007 I planned our daily activities right down to the restaurants we would be eating in. This time around it is much the same. I think I just feel as though we should get as much as we can into what little time we have in these places and not miss out on anything.

This week's highlights:

Obama winning the U.S. presidential election. It is just amazing to have witnessed this remarkable event in history.

Another highlight was the birthday of a friend and my first night out alone. Last night I went out for a drink with her and some other friends from university to celebrate. I can't believe how much we've all changed since we first met a few years ago. Where does time go? Unfortunately I had to skip out on the karaoke because I had to get home to Ryan and Brendan. I was so proud of Ryan getting Brendan to sleep on his own. I know he can be unbelievably difficult to settle at times which is why I am happy I landed someone so patient (both with Brendan and myself on my bad days). Another plus this week week.. Brendan only woke up once at 4am last night and conveniently it was when I had to drive Ryan to the train.

Halloween Weekend

Friday was our first Halloween with Brendan and at our new house. I originally wanted to make Brendan a costume (specifically a pumpkin) but that never ended up happening as I've been so busy with everything else so I broke down and got him a costume. I couldn't believe that the only reasonably priced baby costumes were Winnie the Pooh characters. So Brendan was a "Tigger" for Halloween.



We thought it would be cute to sit him in the candy bowl.. he loved it.


He really can't wait for next year when he can maybe actually eat some candy and go out trick-or-treating

Saturday we spent all day drywalling what will be Brendan's room.

Sunday we went downtown to MEC to get some gear for our upcoming trip. Afterwards I talked Ryan into walking to my favourite vegetarian restaurant Fresh only to find out when we got there that we could've gone to the one that was only 1km away from where we parked, not 5! Anyway, we both enjoyed our meals. I had the green goddess bowl with sweet potato fries and a wheatgrass shake and Ryan had the spicy black bean wrap, fries and a Steam Whistle. mmmmmm. Brendan also thoroughly enjoyed the restaurant and let everyone know by letting out high pitched squeals the whole time and trying to grab everything in sight.

A side note.. I bought a pair of Lululemon pants while we were downtown and it is true, they are so so comfortable and figure flattering.

(It also didn't occur to me that mention of Jake has been lacking from the blog. Here is the wonderdog! Small but mighty.)

Sleeping Woes

The past few days have been a bit nightmarish. Brendan has had a consistent low-grade fever between 99.4 and 101. The first day, I woke up in the middle of the night to find him boiling hot. Me being the biggest worrier ever took him to the doctors of course on day 1 of fever. The doc checked for an ear infection among other things and thankfully he was fine. Day 3..fever still present and still no sign of anything remotely wrong with his immune system according to the doctor. Yes I went back. Therefore we have come to the conclusion all the fussiness, sadness, and clinginess must be because of his teeth (Please won't they poke through already). All week he was waking every 1 1/2-2 hours in the night to feed - come to think of it, this has been ongoing from about 3 months ago when for a couple weeks he was sleeping 6 solid hours. This was not good for my attempt to keep him in his crib all night and he ended up sleeping with us again due to me being utterly exhausted and him being so fussy that anytime I put him down he would protest, no matter how deep a sleep he was in.



















(He really is about to cry in the picture on the left but I had to take a picture of this sleeper, it is just so darn cute.)


Last night I got home from my evening class to a miserable Ryan who was tired and couldn't get Brendan to calm down let alone go to bed. Finally, I nursed Brendan to sleep by 10:30pm and went to bed. I woke up at 4am to the sound of Ryan's alarm for work. I couldn't believe it. The first time B had slept 5 hours straight in a veeeeery long time. Could this be the start of something good? Have I finally reached the end of the worst period of sleeplessness in my life? Here's to hoping, right?

Some great news is that we spontaneously booked a trip tonight. For NEXT WEEKEND. Ryan is taking Friday off and we are going to Vancouver for the weekend. That's right, jetting across the country for a weekend. But we really do deserve a vacation. We're so excited for Brendan to experience the ocean and mountains and are hoping he does well on his first plane ride. The 7 hour trip by car to Temagami this summer wasn't so fun. And it looks like good ol' jet lag might take a toll on the maybe new sleep pattern we have developed.





Ahhh.. Things that make me happy besides spontaneous vacations. Yet another flower bloomed from my hibiscus :)

Camera Happy. Pictures of our renos!

Every Monday, Brendan and I go to Salsa Babies where we spend an hour with other moms learning salsa dances with the babies strapped in front carriers. I absolutely love this time with him. I haven't been to the class in two weeks because of Thanksgiving and then car troubles last week. I honestly didn't realize how much Brendan had grown - my back was killing me by the end of the class. This week was also different because Brendan wouldn't stop making noises and smiling at all the little girls. He really is growing up!

Afterwards, we headed over to the house so I could take some new pictures as just about everyone I know has been bugging me to see the progress.

Note our new front door installed by Ryan and his dad. Also the beautiful white mailbox (formerly a tarnished brass one that I decided to paint over when painting the new doorstep)

Our living room/dining room complete with inherited 70's plaid matching sofa and chair, solid hardwood dresser I made Ryan carry down the street off of someone's curb - new dressers are expensive and I saved this one from the dump. Oh yes - and our brand new insulation, electrical wiring, plumbing, framing and drywall.

The future kitchen! It just so happens our fridge and stove (also inherited) match our 70's furniture.

This is one of my favourite features of this old house. The staircase and the banister. I can't wait to see them refinished.


Alright so there is a story behind the bathtub you see here. We were out shopping for supplies and I saw this tub on display in the store and begged Ryan for this 2 person, 6ft long tub. It didn't matter that we only had one very small bathroom on the second floor for our whole house which he reminded me of. I had to have this tub anyway. We ordered the tub and then got home and took some measurements and surprise surprise, the tub wouldn't fit into our tiny bathroom. And this is the story of how Brendan's room got a foot and a half smaller :)


Finally, another favourite part of this old house. The attic loft which we hope to make the master bedroom eventually. Isn't it lovely.

So I Skipped September..

September was an incredibly busy month for me. Yeesh. But I am going to try to post more. We've come a really long way with the renovations on our house and we should be moving in by the end of this month! YAY.

Other news. Brendan is getting HUGE. 6 months have gone by so fast. He's eating real people food now. Well pureed but it's still exciting, right?! So far he has loved everything (organic rice cereal and barley cereal, peas, squash, and carrots). I've been pretty good about making my own baby food but failing miserably on the cloth diaper front.

First taste of rice cereal

This weekend was particularly busy for us but good. Ryan arrived home from a week away hunting with his dad and brother-in-law (they were successful so we have a ton of sustainable organic meat coming our way).  I was really happy that he had a good time and he definately deserved and needed the break but with Brendan teething and all, he picked a hell of a time to leave me alone! I have oh so much more respect for the single parents out there!

We also bought a new Nikon Cool Pix camera recently. Both of us have had less than great digital cameras so we thought it was about time we invested in a good camera. Brendan is growing up so fast and we can't borrow other peoples cameras forever. This is good news for my blog which will now have far more (and better quality) pictures.

My beautiful hibiscus plant

My Very First Post

So! I have officially started my own blog. After being a blog reading addict for the past year I felt as though it was definately time for me to start my own blog.

This year was one of many many changes for me. In October 2007, I found out that I was pregnant. Thankfully, I had all the support anyone could ever hope for from Ryan (my fabulous boyfriend of almost 3 years) and all my wonderful friends and family. In the winter, we made the difficult decision to move to Oshawa in order to be closer to my family and closer to Ryan's work, as he works in Toronto and the commute from Peterborough just sucked! Anyhoo.. to top it all off, we moved in with my mom the last week of April when our apartment leases were up in Ptbo so that we would have a place to stay until we could find a new home in Oshawa. Not even 3 days after we moved in our son decided to make his arrival 4 1/2 weeks earlier than expected! While taking care of our newborn baby, we started house hunting and stumbled upon a beautiful century home in a great neighbourhood and SURPRISE! It was in our price range. Thus the new parents became new home owners in July.

Currently we are knee deep in renovations because our dream home was indeed in need of some major TLC. Thankfully Ryan is quite handy and we have been able basically rebuild the inside of the house almost entirely on our own (pictures will follow soon). I must admit, I have learned quite a few things during the process.

Now that I have recapped the past year of my life in a nutshell, I can't wait to chronicle our adventures in the wonderful world of blogging.