A Most Beautiful Weekend

Posted on May 23, 2012 by amanda

I’m not sure when we last had a Victoria Day weekend (or May 2-4 weekend as many of us like to say, partly because it always falls close to May 24th and partly because it usually involves a 2-4 of beer) that was as beautiful as this one. Calendar be-damned, this is typically considered to be the first long weekend of summer, and yet it is usually cold and/or rainy… perhaps as Mother Nature’s reminder to us that it is not yet, in fact, summer.

Well, you would not have known it wasn’t summer this past weekend. From Friday straight through Monday, it was blue skies, plenty of sunshine, and nice warm temperatures. I know we were not the only family enjoying every possible minute of it outdoors!

On Saturday morning, I ran out for groceries and then came home and cleaned up the house (with Neal’s help) before my in-laws arrived in the early afternoon. It wasn’t too long after their arrival that our neighbours invited us to their place for a BBQ. We had already taken out our meat to defrost, so we just carried it all over and cooked it at their place. Claire played with the kids (including my father-in-law, hee!), and after I put her to bed after supper, Brad started up a fire outside so that we could continue to enjoy the awesome evening and we topped it all off by roasting some marshmallows over the flames to make s’mores.

As Sunday was as beautiful as Saturday had been, we decided to go for a nice long walk. We headed out around 10:30 and I think it was after 1pm when we got home. We took one of the nearby paths that took us down past Settle Lake, then headed over to the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm. The last time we were there, Claire was only six months old, so it’s doubtful that she even realized that those large things in front of her were animals. She is much more observant now, which made the visit even more fun. She was actually quite mesmerized by the chickens, and we spent quite a long time there!

The sheep, however, were quite boring.

But, do you know what animals are NOT boring? Baby goats

Honest-to-god, I really had to restrain myself from opening the door to that pen because all I wanted to do was go in and play with them. They were so adorable, jumping all around! If only I had had a jacket with me, I might have sneaked one out – at least I would never have to mow the grass again!

On Monday, we headed over to Walmart and Chapters for a couple of things, and then we hurried back home so I could make pizza for lunch before my in-laws had to pack up and go home. They left around 2pm, and then Claire and I took Neal in a little after 4. It was mighty quiet and lonely in here afterwards, especially once Claire went to bed!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. The only thing that would have made it better is if it had been a wee bit longer!

***

And not having anything to do with this entry, but being much too momentous not to mention…

Claire. Is. Walking.

It hasn’t been much, but a few times tonight I would look away only to turn back and see her waddling across the room for a few steps, or I would realize that she had crossed a distance without crawling where there was nothing to hold onto. We had been setting her up in a standing position and then encouraging her to walk towards us, but this was the first time when she chose to do it on her own! I knew it was coming soon – she just needed to build up her confidence!

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Mother’s Day Number Two!

Posted on May 13, 2012 by amanda

This was a fantastic Mother’s Day! In fact, I enjoyed this Mother’s Day even more than last year. This time last year, I was still recovering from the C-section, and I was sleep-deprived and still learning the ropes and what it means to be a mother. I doubt very much that my new role had fully sunk in and that I really even felt like a true mom.

A year makes a huge difference. I’m not (usually) as sleep-deprived as I was in those early months, and now I feel like a mom more than anything else. Plus, I have really gotten to know this fantastic little girl I have been blessed with!

Mother’s Day celebrations really started on Thursday when the daycare gave out mugs to all the mommies. On one side is this:

On the other side is Claire’s hand print, but it doesn’t come out well on the camera, so you’ll have to take my word for it. And inside were Hershey’s hugs and kisses

And the pretty girl who gave it to me…

We were also blessed with some really beautiful weather this weekend. The forecast has been calling for showers on Saturday, but when I woke up all I could see were blue skies and sunshine. It did cloud in later on in the afternoon, but we had sunshine for most of the day.

Neal cooked us delicious omelettes for lunch, and since he would not be here for supper on Mother’s Day itself as he goes into the base before supper on Sundays, he made us Masala pizza for supper on Saturday – it was great!

While Claire napped in the afternoon and Neal did some homework, I went out and did some major weeding in the front flower garden. There is still plenty to do, but it doesn’t resemble a jungle quite so much. I had planned to go out again today, but it just didn’t happen; hopefully I can get it cleared up enough though that I can buy some flowers next weekend and stick them in. I was delighted to see that my supposed “annual” Mums are coming up again this year! These same ones keep popping up, which is fantastic! I may not be able to keep a rhododendron alive – despite that fact that pretty much every second person around here has one! – but I can grow me some annual Mums as if they’re perennials!

As for one of the reasons why I didn’t get out in the garden today? Well, I did throw supper in the slow cooker and cleaned up a bit and wanted to relax on the back deck for awhile, but it was also because it seems that a weekend would not be a weekend if someone wasn’t sick, and it’s Claire’s turn again.

When you're this tired, you sleep where you can

She might not be actually sick. She had a fever off and on today, and her nose is running like a faucet and she is incredibly tired, but I’ve been suspecting a tooth for a few days. She had a mysterious fever earlier this week that went away, and her cheeks have been red off and on. When I brushed her teeth tonight before bed, I stuck my finger in and felt around, and found that a tooth has, indeed, cut through her gums – just not on the side I thought it would be.

It was a lovely Mother’s Day anyway, and if nothing else, her exhaustion meant that I got to have some extra cuddle time with her. She also gave me this adorable card –

And she also gave me this mug I really wanted, with a bunch of pictures of her and us as a family. That will be coming with me to work tomorrow!

Claire really is the funniest, and most lovable little girl I know. If I am a good mom, it’s only because I have a wonderful daughter who makes it so easy.

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Feeling Organized

Posted on May 8, 2012 by amanda

This week is MUCH better than last week! Of course, considering that a) it was my first week as a weekday “single parent” while Neal is on his PLQ course through the week, and b) I was incredibly sick, it wouldn’t be hard for this week to be a winner. I actually almost think it was a blessing in disguise that I was so sick during that first week, because otherwise I might have felt overwhelmed at everything I have to do on my own. As it was, I was in a bit of a haze, did the bare minimum so that I could crawl into bed by 9:30, whereas this week I feel like I have more energy to put towards all of those things I have to do on my own.

It also takes acceptance. This applies not only to these weeks while Neal is on PLQ, but to my return to work in general. I am not going to have as much time with Claire. I am not going to have as much time for me, to relax, because once she is in bed, I have to get a bunch of other stuff done. I am not going to be able to get to daycare to pick her up as early as I would like – which is immediately upon finishing work – but there is nothing I can do about that, particularly now that I am dependent upon the ferry and a bus that take me to the spot where I park the car.

Truth be told, I don’t think I arrive at daycare that much later than I do when Neal picks me up after work. Today, I had picked Claire up, chatted with the daycare staff, and we were in the door here at home by 5pm. Really, that’s not too bad.

One thing I have noticed this week (okay fine, it’s only Tuesday) is that when it’s just me and Claire, I actually spend more time with her than when Neal is home. There are so many things to do when we get home, and I think that because I know that Neal is here and can and will play with her, I end up doing all of those other things. Now, because I am the entertainment, I ignore all of those other things until after she has gone to bed, and I enjoy my time with her.

I usually make something big on Sundays that will carry us through a few suppers in the coming week. That generally means that I only have to cook once during the weekdays, because for that mid-week meal, I also try to come up with something that will cover more than one supper. This is even more important while Neal is away; Claire tends to be a little cranky and clingy when we get home, and her mood is not helped if she is hungry.

This was a bit of a concern for tomorrow, as it will be a cooking day. I am making beef enchiladas which aren’t difficult at all, but do involve some prep time. I decided to get as much ready as possible this evening by chopping up the green and red peppers, shredding the cheese, and setting out all of the non-perishables and my required cookware on the counter. Claire will still probably whine, but at least it shouldn’t take as long for me to throw everything in the pan to brown the meat, then roll the mixture all up in the tortillas and shove the pan in the oven. And then we can play during the 20 minutes that it’s baking!

And even with the extra work of chopping vegetables for tomorrow’s supper, I managed to play with Claire, get her to bed, have a shower, pull out my clothes for the morning (which also involved trying some stuff on), and do the dishes, by just before 9pm. I was going to watch the latest episode of “Once Upon a Time”, but alas, Claire woke up and needed some snuggling (possibly because she misses Daddy? This is the second night in a row this has happened), and now it’s almost bedtime – 5:30 a.m. comes awfully quickly!

***

In unrelated news, I had a great find on Sunday! I was driving Neal into the base in the late afternoon before supper, and I noticed that a baby slide had been put out on the curb for garbage pickup the following day. I dropped Neal off, and then when I drove back, I put the four-ways on and jumped out of the car to inspect the slide. Other than a few marks, there is nothing wrong with it at all.

Claire now has her own slide in the backyard!

Now if I can just find a swing set by the curb!

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This Plague Can Leave Anytime

Posted on April 30, 2012 by amanda

I’ve basically spent the entire weekend being sick, but I thought – I hoped – that I was on the mend yesterday. I actually felt slightly better yesterday morning and I threw supper together in the slow cooker (which was a total dud and I will be coming up with something else for supper tonight!). I also managed to wash the floors (which were disgusting – the by-product of having a baby who loves to throw food on said floor!) and the bathroom. But by the afternoon, I was feeling sluggish and not very well. Claire usually only has a nap in the mornings on weekends, and I had spent that time doing chores, and Neal was getting his stuff ready for his PLQ course (NOT the one in BC, thank god; he’s staying in the barracks in the city and will be home most weekends). And let me tell you – I suddenly realized just how busy Claire is!

Just before supper, Claire and I drove Neal into the barracks, then came home and had our supper. It was a veggie stew and it was awful. Well, Claire seemed to enjoy it, but it had too much of a cabbage taste to my liking, and as I learned later in the night, having cabbage in my diet right now is probably not the best idea.

Putting Claire to bed was pretty easy, thank goodness, and I got showered and ironed my work clothes for the morning, had a snack, and was in bed reading around 9pm.

And then I woke up at least 10 times to hurry into the washroom. One of the last times was when I realized I was probably not going to work today, and considering that I don’t feel really much better at this point, there was no doubt in my mind. I would probably take Claire to daycare for part of the day if I thought I could drive there without ‘incident’, but I don’t have that confidence. It’s unfortunate because a) I’m paying for the day anyway, b) she would probably have more fun with unsick kids and adults than being at home with her sick mom, and c) I would probably get more rest that way. All i can hope though is that she has a nice long nap later on this morning and at that point I will lie down and nap as well, and that I will feel better by tomorrow!

(As an aside, I also have no idea what I’m going to have for supper because I know I can’t eat that stew I made. I took out some chicken breasts last night to thaw so I could make a chicken stew thing that’s pretty quick and easy and would only require me to buy a couple of groceries, but when I got up I realized I had forgotten to put them in the fridge before going to bed. They might be fine, but I’m not taking any chances!)

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House of Sickness

Posted on April 28, 2012 by amanda

What a month this has been. Claire caught a cold at the very beginning of daycare and her nose hasn’t stopped running since. She has also had two eye infections, and then this week she developed a fever followed by a rash. The beginning of this week was really rough – she was awake a lot on Sunday, and then her sleep was even worse on Monday night, so much so that we ended up bringing her into our bed. She still woke up countless times during the night, but at least we were all together and we could all catch some sleep in between. On Thursday night, she woke up often, and then decided she wanted to play at two in the morning.

The fever and rash appear to have been roseola. Supposedly something like 90% of kids get this, and it is contagious, but since it’s not particularly risky, our daycare still accepted Claire. The spots are nearly completely gone, and didn’t bother Claire at all. Her mood has been improving, and at last, I am seeing that happy baby I know so well. She still isn’t eating huge amounts at lunch, but since her appetite really diminished earlier, I guess it makes sense.

Also earlier this week, after having turned her nose up at lunch at daycare and only wanting baby cereal with fruit for supper, she ended up eating quite a lot. When she finished her dessert (yogurt and fruit), she was squirming in her seat, so I brought up onto my lap while I finished my frozen yogurt. All of a sudden, she was throwing up a la Monte Python, The Meaning of Life “The Autumn Years” (word to the wise for the uninitiated – don’t watch that video while eating). She seemed to feel totally fine after that, though, so we figured that she just ate too much and her belly protested.

Well, maybe not. She’s fine, but I started feeling achy and had a bit of a fever last night, and I felt a little nauseous while getting groceries. After putting Claire down for a nap when I got home, I decided to have a nap. It was only supposed to be for 45 minutes, but ended up being an hour-and-a-half. I had some lunch when I got up, but since I was still feeling nauseous, I only ate a little bit. I guess it was a little too much because not long later, I was kneeling in front of the toilet.

My belly feels slightly better – I managed to keep down a piece of toast with peanut butter earlier, and I might try a little bit of supper and see how it goes. I am still really rundown and can’t wait to go to bed. Our plan was to watch “X-Men First Class” tonight, but I think it’s a long movie, so maybe not.

Oh, and one of Neal’s eyes is irritated and red, so he might have an eye infection (lovely timing since he’s going on his leadership course on Monday!) and he is putting Polysporin eye drops in just in case.

But! The positive thing is that Claire seems much more like herself. I am very happy to see her smiles!

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Sad Baby = Sad (and Worried) Mommy

Posted on April 23, 2012 by amanda

Claire is, normally, a happy smiley baby. I can’t tell you the number of times I have been told, by both friends and strangers alike, how happy she is. Sure, she gets pissed off just like everyone else, and she makes sure you know when she is upset about something, but those moments are few and far between, and there are usually very distinct reasons for the crankiness – she’s tired, she’s hungry, she’s frustrated about something. The rest of the time, she smiles, laughs, claps, and she loves nothing more than to make others laugh.

It didn’t take long after she started daycare for her to develop a cold, and I have written about the TWO eye infections she has had with this same cold since she started there a few weeks ago. But for the most part, she was still the same happy baby she normally is.

On Sunday, she was a little cranky when she first got up, but it seemed to be only because she was famished. Neal was on duty on Saturday so after breakfast and doing a few things around the house, she and I went and picked him up. She went down for her nap in the late morning, and when I got her up a couple of hours later, I immediately knew she had a fever. A quick check with the thermometer told me I was right.

For the most part, she has been between borderline feverish or heightened temperature, and a low-grade fever. Yesterday afternoon and evening, she only wanted to be held and would become very upset if she was set down even for just a minute. This is very unlike Claire – she is always on the go, and will only tolerate short snuggles and hugs before she squirms to get free.

Because Neal worked on Saturday, he was off today, which worked out well since Claire was in no shape to be going to daycare. Last night she woke up at 1 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. Neal said that although she was a little cranky, she still played a bit this morning, but then this afternoon and evening she was back to wanting to be held the entire time. Because her nose is so blocked and she can really only breathe through her mouth, she is not interested in drinking much of anything, and the only things she will eat is baby cereal with milk and fruit, or yogurt with baby cereal and fruit.

She didn’t drink much tonight when I put her to bed, so I am expecting she will wake up at some point. I just hope that overnight her nose will drain and she’ll be better able to drink something and some of her energy will return. Otherwise, I don’t know if she will be going to daycare tomorrow.

I just want my healthy, happy baby back.

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The Human Petri Dish

Posted on April 16, 2012 by amanda

Returning to work has been much easier than I expected. Even just thinking such a thing causes a twinge of guilt, as though such a thought makes me a terrible mother, but I have started to accept that although I do hate being away from Claire all day, I do enjoy going to work. It certainly helps that I really do love the daycare she’s in. Although there are a ton of kids of varying ages (separated by age-specific rooms), the director of the daycare knows Claire’s name and has made a point over the past couple of weeks to make sure Claire is all right, and even that I am all right with everything.

What I don’t love about this whole situation? This never-ending cold Claire has caught (and subsequently passed along to me and Neal). Even worse is the fact that with this one cold, she has had two eye infections!

She had one last week that had a yellowish discharge, so we started putting Polysporin eye drops in four times a day. The discharge cleared right up, and we decided that Saturday would be the last day for the drops. On Sunday, though, she woke up with some slight swelling on her right eye, so Neal put some drops in. When she got up from her morning nap, it was much worse. We were heading out for brunch, so Neal spoke to the nurse at 811 while I drove, and she recommended that Claire see a duty within 24 hours.

So after brunch, off to the duty doctor we went. There is some fluid in her ears, but no infection, so it appears to be limited to her right eye. He prescribed gel drops twice a day for a week.

At least Claire is really good about the drops. Since she’s only one, I had expected it to be awful, but we have succeeded in making a game of it, and she usually laughs after the drop hits her eye. Obviously it’s harder if she’s cranky already, but otherwise it’s pretty easy.

There is no discharge this time around, just the swelling, which makes her look like she got into a fight. It was still red when we picked her up from daycare* today, but the swelling had gone down a fair bit, so hopefully by morning, there will be no sign of it.

* We are very lucky with our daycare. As long as Claire is being treated for the infection, she’s allowed to be there. I’m not sure about pink eye since it seems like it might be even more contagious, but since that’s not what she has, we’re okay.

Claire at the fanciest restaurant she’s been to, sporting her classy swollen eye. She’s still the prettiest girl ever though!

Posted in Baby Talk, Daycare, Health, Workin' Momma | 1 Comment

One!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by amanda

One year ago yesterday, Neal and I welcomed an amazing, beautiful, funny little girl into our lives.

On the one hand, it blows my mind that a year has already gone by, that so many changes have taken place. But on the other hand, it feels like Claire has always been a part of our lives, and it’s hard to remember what life was like before.

We were planning to have a medium-size birthday bash here for Claire, having invited a few close friends and family. As it turned out, it ended up being a party consisting of me, Neal, Claire, and my in-laws who had driven down from Saint John for the long weekend. Not surprisingly, Claire came down with a cold not long after starting daycare; in fact, I think she caught it during the orientation week. Possibly thanks to her (gross) habit of smooshing her boogers into her eyes, she developed an eye infection. We suspected something was going on a couple of days before, but we were hoping that the crusties fusing her eyelashes shut were just a combination of what everyone calls “sleep” and her eyes running a bit more due to the cold. But on Saturday morning, one of her eyes was puffy and slightly swollen.

I called 811 and spoke with a registered nurse. She told me we could treat her at home for now, unless the condition worsened, by using Polysporin eye drops. I don’t think it was pink eye, because her eyeball wasn’t pink or red at all, but rather a generic eye infection. Thankfully, the eye drops cleared up the pus within a day; as is usual for antibiotics – including the over-the-counter types – we will continue the treatment for 7-10 days.

It was disappointing to cancel the party, but for one thing, it’s not like Claire knew about anything. If this had to happen any year, this was probably a good one. For another, we celebrated anyway by hanging up some decorations, dressing Claire in a fancy dress she got at Christmas from her Aunt Carolyn, and eating the cake I had baked and decorated the day before.

Peek-a-boo!

Opening presents!

My big, happy girl

Family photo!

I figured that since Claire’s birthday fell on Easter weekend this year, a bunny cake was called for.

Cake!

Posted in Baby Talk, Stuff | 5 Comments

Week One Down!

Posted on April 6, 2012 by amanda

We all made it through Week One of me being back at work! It wasn’t much of an adjustment for Neal, of course, because he was already going to work; he just had to get up a little earlier. Claire did really well, and has been showing progress everyday. On Monday, she refused to nap except when they all went for a walk in the stroller. Subsequently, she kept dozing off at supper:

But as the week wore on, she became more and more comfortable. On Thursday she actually had two naps! She is also eating really well, which makes me happy. She still cries when we bring her there in the morning, but yesterday her cries were a little less sad, and even before we left the room, she was starting to calm down. Strangely, she also cries when we go to pick her up. The ladies tell us they’re tears of joy.

As for work, I have to say… that I’m actually kind of happy to be back. The rational side of my brain tells me that that’s not a bad thing, and it doesn’t mean I’m a bad mother. But I do feel guilty about it. Don’t get me wrong – I HATE how little time I get with her in the evenings. We get home, have supper, and then there’s only a little bit of time for play before it’s time for her to get ready for bed. But I do enjoy my job, and I also enjoy being around other adults again.

I’m not in the same spot as I was before. I’m now on the second floor of our office (so the 22nd floor of our building), which has far fewer people on it. I will admit that when I first heard about it, I was a little sad because I used to be able to see the harbour from my old spot through one of the lawyer’s windows. Now I don’t have any windows around me.

But now that I’m there, I’m really happy. It’s nice and quiet, and I have personalized my desk, possibly more than before. I managed to take one picture before the camera battery died, and then once I put it on the computer, I realized there were court documents on my desk that showed up in the picture. It’s extremely difficult to make out any names, but ’tis better to be safe than sorry. So I’ll snap a picture next week.

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Back to Reality

Posted on April 1, 2012 by amanda

I go back to work tomorrow.

It’s crazy to think that more than a year has gone by. My last day of work was March 18th, 2011 thanks to a bunch of vacation days and banked time I had at the time. But what is really strange is, in fact, how un-strange it feels to be going to work tomorrow. It’s as though it hasn’t been a year-plus that I have been away, but just a longer vacation, like a month or something. I don’t feel as though I have lost a lot of my foreclosure knowledge, although I’m sure that some review of the training manual I created for my replacement will be necessary. I’m going to be in a new spot, on the top floor of the office building, but I’m working with the same lawyer (thank goodness!), and although there are some new people working at the firm, many of the people are the same.

That’s not to say that I’m not a little nervous about the return. I am still pretty much the same person I was this time last year, except for one fundamental change: I’m a mother. There will certainly be some adjustment going on to this new life of picking Claire up at daycare, cooking and eating supper, bathing and playing a little bit with Claire and then putting her to bed, getting our stuff ready for work the next day, and getting our butts to bed at a decent hour so that we have the energy to do it all again the next morning. I’m pretty good at adapting to change, however, so I just have to remind myself of this fact and trust in myself.

There’s something else though, something that I’m struggling with a little bit. There is a part of me that is actually looking forward to returning to work tomorrow. Maybe that doesn’t sound like something that one would ‘struggle’ with, but the irrational part of my brain yells at me for being a ‘bad mother’, because how could a ‘good mother’ want to leave her child all day in the care of others? I know this is silly, of course. By working, I am helping to provide a more stable financial life for all of us, and as Claire grows, I hope that my example will teach her that she too can have a career and a family, to be independent and not wholly reliant on a spouse.

And, despite the fact that I am looking forward to my return tomorrow, I also have to admit that if the government were to contact me and say that I could have another six months or year at home with Claire and I would continue to get EI during that time, I would jump at the chance. I have just accepted the reality that this is when I have to return to work, and I am extremely fortunate to have a job I truly enjoy with a great firm.

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