Snow, Snow, and more Snow

The past few weeks have been particularly crazy in regard to the weather here. Ryan hasn't been working as much due to the cold, snow, and general lack of work. The economic here has really slowed the construction sector down and he was lucky to keep his job. Unfortunately, our friend got laid off which is no good. I must admit that I do kind of enjoy it when Ryan comes home early or just doesn't have to show up one day for work. It is really nice to be able to see him and not have to always work on the renovations or do regular house work. But the lack of money sure does stink and to much disappointment, Ryan will no longer be able to take the time off that we had planned to go visit his parents in Florida next month.

All the time we have been spending renovating has left me missing Brendan a little and wondering what it will be like once I start working soon. He is becoming so independent. He plays really well on his own and is taking the bottle really well (we are down to two-ish breastfeeds a day). He is also becoming a little chatterbox and says mostly ma's and ba's but no dada's yet. He can scoot around backwards on his little car which is really cute.

Progress at the house has been going a mile a minute. Last weekend we got the hardwood upstairs mostly done and all of the bedrooms painted. This weekend we are painting downstairs and tiling the kitchen and hallway. Next weekend will be the big move I think! A friend of mine, mentioned to me that she had reupholstered her chairs herself (a nesting urge!) So that is another project I am going to attempt to undertake just as soon as we get settled in. I will be so happy to finally slow down and start to enjoy our house that we've been working on for 7 months in every spare minute.

In other news, I signed us up for a food share this summer from a local community sustainable agriculture operation. I can't wait to start recieveing farm fresh, minimal pesticides, local fruits and veggies weekly. I also found a farm that offers organic beef.

The snow piles here are getting so high, we are running out of space to put all the snow that wont let up. Tomorrow.. I think I will take Brendan for a ride in his sled..and maybe get a vanilla rooibos tea latte from Starbucks for myself :)

An August wedding sounds just lovely...

You read it right - we're getting married! :)..  We've set the date - August 15th this year!! Nothing too big. An evening wedding at the church and a cocktail reception afterwards. Brendan will be our little ring bearer. It only feels like the next natural step after having Brendan (well I guess Jake was first), getting a house, and being together for awhile. But still I'm pretty excited. It will be nice to formalize our relationship and the prospect of spending forever with Ryan makes me feel very very lucky.

The Rock

Besides this, the following are what we have been up to lately:

Finger painting - loved it!

All ready for swimming lessons!

Renos are really coming along now. We're actually painting! Voila new bathroom!

The kitchen is coming along nicely too. Note the fabulous pot lights.

In other news... Brendan is almost sleeping through the night!!! At our recent visit to the pediatrician, I mentioned my difficulty sleeping through the night. Yes MY difficulty. She informed me that the reason why he was not sleeping through the night was because I was feeding him during the night and that for a baby of his size - she did say that.. my son is officially "chubby" - he shouldn't need to eat more than he does during the day and there is no reason why he cannot sleep 8 hours without food. And here all this time when I could've been peacefully sleeping 6-8 hours. So we had one night of me weaning him off nighttime feedings by just comforting. Absolutely no feeding and him very upset with me for a whole hour and then the next night.. slept a full 6 hours. Last night.. woke up once. I went and rubbed his head and he fell right back asleep until the morning. Why don't people tell you these things!!!

Happy Happy New Year!

Well.. this is my first post of 2009. The last leg of my winter vacation was pretty hectic and included a bad case of the stomach flu for all of us. For New Years Eve day we went to Ryan's sister's just outside of Newmarket for some outdoor fun. We were hoping Brendan would enjoy riding around outside in his new toboggan but it was too cold out and he got pretty angry pretty fast. All in all we spent more time bundling him up then he spent actually outside. Ryan enjoyed playing some pond hockey with his family and I enjoyed standing on the sidelines by the bonfire and drinking mulled wine from the Coleman stove (unfortunately my skates cannot be located as they have been lost in the move - for now).

I spent the rest of the holiday frantically trying to finish my already late literature review for my thesis project. I am happy to say that I sent it away to my professor last night so I'm feeling pretty good today.

Brendan is growing, growing, growing. He has been trying all sorts of new foods and seems to love the Stonyfield Farms Organic "Yo-Baby" yogurt. He has also taken a liking to melon and loves it in the mesh feeder. It would appear that Brendan will have a ton of new friends in 2009. It feels like everyone I know announced over the holidays that they were having babies this summer. Ah yes.. 2009 should be an exciting year.