‘Tis the Season, Part Two

Posted on January 1, 2012 by amanda

You can read the first part of our holidays over here.

As I mentioned, we went to Saint John for a few days, and then came back home. We did some quick cleaning before Neal’s parents came down two days later. It was really nice because they ended up staying with us for a week, so we had a really nice visit. We’ve gotten so used to seeing them about once a month thanks to long weekends that it’s going to seem strange to wait until Easter, although Cathy mentioned that they might be able to make a long weekend sometime before that if they have enough vacation days left.

The day after Cathy and Carl arrived, we had a nice big snowstorm. I always feel sorry for people who have to travel in bad weather around the holidays, as I have been through it. One year when I worked at the Dollarama over the holiday season, my parents and I had to wait until Christmas Eve, after I was done work, to travel to my grandmother’s. It started snowing in the morning and didn’t let up all day or all night, but I was determined to be there on Christmas Eve so that I could wake up at my grandmother’s on Christmas morning. In hindsight, it was probably pretty stupid to drive in those conditions – I couldn’t see very far ahead at all, and I was making my own tracks on the highway; a drive that normally took one hour and fifteen minutes took us three hours that night – but we made it in one piece.

But figured that this year, at least there were a couple of days before Christmas, so if people were traveling, they could postpone it for a day. Anyway, since Claire was absolutely delighted last time it snowed, I bundled her all up and brought her outside. She didn’t seem to be as sure about it this time around, but I think she still had fun.

Carl and Neal built a snowman for her:

And she really seemed to enjoy eating the snow:

I decided to borrow a tradition for Christmas Eve for my sister. I let Claire open one gift: her Christmas pajamas. I’m going to do this every year, the same way that Sherry does, because I always really liked it.

After we got her to bed, we poured some drinks and started up the Playstation Move. When we were getting ready to shut it down and head to bed, we got Cathy and Carl to play gladiator against each other. Cathy beat the crap out of Carl! It’s amazing we didn’t wake Claire up with all of the laughing going on!

Before we headed to bed, I suddenly realized we hadn’t set out the cookies and milk for Santa and the carrots and water for the reindeer. But since it’s not like Claire could write the letter herself, I figured it wasn’t a big deal, and I got it all together.

And in the morning…

As expected, Claire didn’t know what to make of Christmas morning or present-opening. Most of the time, she was more interested in the wrapping paper, and she may have been a little overwhelmed by toy after toy after toy, not knowing why she couldn’t play with what she had in her hands. But she has had plenty of time to play with her toys since then!

This is something Santa brought her

Although I was more interested in opening all of Claire’s presents with her, I did get some nice gifts as well. Claire got me a “Swivel Store” for my spices so that I can hopefully get myself organized. Neal bought me a really nice watch and A Dance with Dragons, the new book by George R.R. Martin (which I am reading and loving now!). I got a new MP3 player, some nice clothes, a special meatloaf pan that makes it easier to get the meatloaf out and also allows the fat to drain off (which I used tonight – it’s fabulous!), some gift cards, and so on and so forth.

I think we all did quite well!

After Claire had a much-needed nap, I got Neal to take a picture of the two of us. Since I’m so often behind the camera, I find I don’t have all that many pictures of me with my daughter. Oh, and no – I’m not giving you (or Neal) the finger in this picture. I’m so used to Claire grabbing some of my fingers to play with that I didn’t think about which finger she had chosen.

The turkey and fixin’s came out great as well, and we had enough leftovers for two lunches of hot turkey sandwiches!

Claire decided to imitate her cousin Lara by having her eyes shut for every picture I took of our table

The next day, we headed over to Sherry’s to exchange gifts with her, George and my nieces.

After having lived here for six years before having family around, it was definitely really nice to be able to pop over to their place on Boxing Day!

Phew! So much going on in so few days, and now it’s all over! Neal and I took the tree and other decorations down this morning. The living room looks quite bare, but it’s also nice to have it feel a little bit more organized in there.

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‘Tis the Season, Part One

Posted on December 30, 2011 by amanda

The holidays this year have been nice and long, and since it’s only December 30th, we have a few more days to enjoy! The military slows waaaaayyyy down over the holidays, and between the days they automatically give to their service members and Neal’s leave days, his last day of work this year was on December 16th, which also happened to be his birthday. He often gets a nice long stretch like that in December, but I don’t get to enjoy it all with him as I am normally working until some date closer to Christmas, but since I’m on mat leave, I didn’t have to stew in jealousy!

We didn’t do very much for Neal’s birthday because we were going to Saint John, New Brunswick the next day. I did make one of my homemade pizzas and we shared a bottle of wine and a small cake that was labeled “Death by Chocolate” in the store. Then we got Claire into bed, finished packing and went to bed nice and early.

The drive both to Saint John and back home were great. The weather cooperated, and since Claire is bigger now, she was able to see out the windows a little bit. And then she fell asleep, so that was great too. She didn’t eat very well on the trip though, because whenever we stopped somewhere, she was always too busy looking around at everyone else to eat; we were able to get most of the solids into her, but her bottle was another story. I wasn’t too worried though – it’s not very far, and two days once in a blue moon aren’t too bad.

We only stayed until Tuesday, so it was a busy few days. One of the days there, Claire didn’t nap at all. She did rather well, considering, but she really conked out that night, and at least she did nap the other days. I can’t remember now, but it was probably only once each day, but that’s not too bad. She often only goes down for one nap here at home anyway.

We visited Neal’s Nan and Gramp McCarthy on the first day – the napless day. At one point, Nan brought out a plate of cookies for us to munch on, and I just happened to look over to see Gramp trying to give Claire a small piece. I stopped him, saying that I don’t give her sugar yet, other than what she gets naturally in fruit, and he said, “We always ate sweets when we were babies, and look, I’m still here!” This came to mind several times over the holidays when we’d be about to do eat an extra sweet or something, and Carl would say, “We used to do ‘x’ when we were kids, and look, I’m still here!” Ah, poor Grampy. He just didn’t want Claire to miss out!

I think it was that night that Brian, Jaime and one of their sons, Scott, came by the apartment. Neal and I normally go down to their place for a few hours in the evening, but what with the holidays and the short time we were going to be in town, it just couldn’t happen this time. It was nice to see them, though, and they even let Claire open their present to her.

The next day, we brought Claire to see her Great-Nanny and Great-Grampy Porter for a couple of hours, and then we swung by to see her Great-Nanny Guthrie, Great-Aunt Nancy and Great-Uncle Pete. She had had a nap in the morning for awhile, so she was in really good spirits the whole time (except whenever she saw cats; she not too sure about animals yet) until we put her in the car to go back to the apartment. She then hollered and screamed for a few blocks, and then finally conked out. She wasn’t too happy when I got her out of the car when we got back since it woke her up, but her mood improved once we got her inside and she had some supper.

Sitting with Great-Nanny Porter

Having a good little chat with Great-Nanny Guthrie

With her Great-Aunt Nancy

The next day, Tuesday, we came back home. On Wednesday, we did some quick cleaning, I went to see a specialist about my thyroid (nothing really to report yet. I’m supposed to go for a scan in the New Year so they can determine if there is actually something going on with my thyroid that needs to be corrected, or if it’s postpartum hyperthyroidism, which should correct itself eventually), and then Neal’s parents came down on the Thursday.

But that will be the subject of “‘Tis the Season, Part Two”!

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On the Move

Posted on December 16, 2011 by amanda

Well! Since my last post a week ago, Claire has improved her ability to crawl! She’s still not super-fast, but she is much faster than she was last Friday. It really started on Monday, when I enticed her to crawl toward some blocks I had piled up, knowing that she wanted to knock them down. Sometimes she will see me in her room at the end of the hall, and she starts to make her way towards me – it’s pretty exhausting for her right now, though, so she usually only makes it close to the end of the living room before she either gives up and plays with something close to her, or I feel bad and go pick her up.

It has also meant more bumps and falls. I keep telling Neal that he needs to stop worrying so much about the hardwood floors that are in the living room, hall, and our bedrooms, because she’s not going to stay in one place anymore. It’s not that I’m heartless; it’s just that I know there’s not much we can do, and it’s all part of mastering mobility. I’ve discussed it with lots of other parents, and everyone goes through the same thing.

One thing that does worry me a lot is when she crawls over to the coffee table and tries to pull herself up. She did that on Monday, lost her balance, and fell to the floor. She was fine – she cried for maybe a minute while I held her, and then it was like it had never happened. I’m also more nervous about her falling on the bathroom or foyer floors, as they are now porcelain tile.

Now, when I bring her into the bedroom while I’m folding laundry, I no longer put her on the bed. She moves around so much that it’s much safer to leave her on the floor. At least the fall won’t be as big if she does tumble!

We’ve upped our babyproofing, and it means some changes to how I do things around the house. Over are the days when I could put her on her mats surrounded by toys and figure she’d be in more or less the same spot when I came back into the room. So if I’m doing something that makes me leave the room for more than a minute or two, I bring her with me. Or, if I’m going somewhere where it’s not easy for me to peek in, such as going down to the laundry room in the basement, she comes along.

But the changes and the fact that I’m running a little bit more than I used to matter when I see the look of pure delight on her face when she crawls.

Oh yeah. She also pulls herself up to her knees in her crib. The mattress has since been lowered to the next level

Some other firsts:

* Everyone survived Neal and I going to my work party last Friday evening. Well okay, it’s not the first time Claire has been away from both of us, but it was only the second time, and the first time it was Neal’s parents looking after her, it was only for an hour, and she was napping for most of it. Nina said that Claire cried a fair bit when she was going to bed, as we expected, but finally settled down, and she slept through until the next morning. The party itself was a blast, as usual!

Distracted by the Berkmans while Mommy and Daddy left to go to Mommy's party

* She has sat in the kid’s part of the shopping cart a couple of times, rather than being pushed along in her stroller. Don’t get me wrong – she loves being in her stroller, especially now that she sits facing forward where she can see everything, but ohmygod, she literally SQUEALS with delight when she’s being pushed around the store in the cart.

* We joined some friends on Wednesday and went to the pool over at Cole Harbour Place. We’ve dipped her feet in a lake and the Saint John River, and she was not pleased with either experience. But she loves her bath, and they keep the kiddie pools a little warmer than the adult ones, so she had a total blast, splashing around.

* And, what I have been looking forward to all season! We took her to see Santa yesterday! Neal took the day off so that we could go in the early afternoon before the big line-ups started. She developed an aversion to being held by other people quite early, when she was about four months old, but she has been improving a lot recently. But although I had some hope that maybe she wouldn’t totally freak about when sitting on Santa’s lap, I also knew that it was really common for kids to do that.

She didn’t cry! She only smiled a couple of times, and they were never caught on camera, but she didn’t cry! Her lower lip started to jut out a teeny bit at the end, but there were absolutely no tears! I was so proud of her!

Posted in Baby Talk, Family | Leave a comment

8 Months Old!

Posted on December 9, 2011 by amanda

I know, I know – every month I’m shocked at how old Claire is now, but this month is no different. She’s eight months old now! Sometimes it’s hard to believe that this little girl who is becoming increasingly mobile, is developing a sense of humour, is eating lumpier food in preparation for finger foods is the same teeny baby we brought home.

So here’s some new stuff:

* She now has SIX teeth coming in. There are two on the bottom, and four coming in on the top. So far so good as far as teething is concerned, though I understand that the molars are the worst. But I’m not going to worry about that yet!

* She plays her own version of peek-a-boo. For awhile now, when playing, Neal or I would drop a receiving blanket or her blanket bunny on her head, and she’d yank it off and laugh. Or we’d put it on our own heads for her to yank off. Now, without prompting or reminding from us, she will grab the receiving blanket, and hold it in front of her face, then quickly drop it, smiling at our sounds of amazement and laughter.

* She’s clapping now – have I mentioned that? If she throws one of her small toys a fair distance, she claps. She also claps when she is able to get back onto her bum from lying flat on her belly.

* Speaking of, she’s just learned how to get herself back onto her bum over the past few days, which makes life a little easier for Neal and I as she can just get herself up when she’s tired of being on her belly instead of crying for us to come over.

* She’s also swiftly learning to crawl, and that’s new to the past few days as well. It’s slow-going, involving her dragging her knees or having one leg bent across her and the other stretched out and kinda shimmying along. I don’t know if she fully realizes what she’s doing, that she’s able now to move all around her mats and get whatever toys she wants (or the Playstation, much to our dismay) all by herself. Neal remarked the other night that “She moves all over the place!” to which I replied, smiling, “Um, yes I know.”

* She never stops moving. Seriously – the days of being able to sit with her on the couch, cuddling quietly are OVER, at least for now. If she’s in our arms, she squirms, wants to move, to bounce on our laps like we’re a horse, or for us to hold her hands so she can stand. If she’s on the floor, she’s crawling/dragging herself all over. She plays with one toy, then gets distracted by another and plays with it, then gets distracted by yet another, and so on and so forth.

* Her mats are close to her vibrating chair, and she loves to crawl over and use it to pull herself up to look inside it, such as she is doing now as I type this.

* So far so good as far as the Christmas tree is concerned. Although the little red light on the Playstation grabs her attention, the MILLION lights on the tree don’t. Strange, but I’m not complaining!

* Although she’s definitely improving with sitting and moving, it’s not foolproof. She has taken many a spill, mostly on her mats, but sometimes on the carpet when she ventures off, and once on the hardwood floor itself. I hate it EVERY.SINGLE.TIME, but I know there isn’t much I can do. When she was first learning to sit on her own, we were able to put some cushions around her, but now she just moves too much. If she’s near the hardwood, we try to put a pillow down there, but otherwise, there ain’t much we can do. I think that I’m becoming slightly more blasé about it than Neal, simply because I’m home with her all day. Considering that I’m the worry wart in this family, it’s interesting to see him get a little nervous.

* I don’t know her exact weight, but we used our scale and she’s around 18 lbs, and she’s about 27.5 inches long. She is running out of pants and crawlers that fit her properly, so I foresee a visit to Value Village in the near future!

This was taken yesterday. Claire dropped some of her toys on the floor, and was then trying to move out of the chair to get them. Thank goodness she was strapped in!

Taken today, playing with her chair. Also flirting with danger - see how she's sitting on the hardwood floor?

Posted in Baby Talk | 3 Comments

Jittery and Tired

Posted on December 8, 2011 by amanda

My work Christmas party is tomorrow evening. Cocktails start at 6pm, with dinner set for 7pm. I look forward to this every year because it’s always a good time, plus the food has always been spectacular, even with changes in the venue.

I’m really looking forward to it this year as well. For one thing, it gives me an opportunity to get a little dressed up. Since I had Claire the most “dressed up” I usually get is when I sport a pair of jeans and a nice shirt instead of the much more common track or jogging pants. Instead of showering in the morning the way I usually do, I’ll wait until the afternoon, when Neal gets home (he’s going to leave work early) so that he can watch Claire while I take my time doing my hair and putting my makeup on.

But, in spite of how much I am looking forward to this shin-dig, I also have a nice big dose of dread and anxiety. Neal and I are both going to the party, but it’s not open to children, so we’re having our neighbours, Brad and Nina, look after Claire. Don’t get me wrong – I trust Nina and Brad wholeheartedly; they have two children themselves, and so have changed plenty of diapers, given plenty of bottles, and put their own to bed a million times. I know that Claire will be fine.

But then, anxiety isn’t logical.

I’ve been away from Claire plenty of times, mostly when I have run errands, but a few weekends ago, I went to a Mother Blessing for a friend. But Neal is always home with her. He and I left Claire with his parents ONCE, it was only for an hour (we went for dinner for our anniversary), and she was napping most of the time. So for one thing, she had had a full day to get used to Nanny and Grampy again, and for another, she might not have even realized we were gone.

She’s going to know we’re not home tomorrow. I’m almost always the one to put her to bed. She freaks out when someone else she doesn’t know really well holds her even when she can see me.

She will be fine. I know, I know, I know. She may cry holy hell when we leave, but she will settle down. Brad and Nina are going to bring Maddy and Kayden with them, so they should be able to distract Claire. Claire tends to do better when she’s playing on her mats when someone comes up to her, so that’s my plan. I’m going to set her on her mats, have the kids play with her, kiss her goodnight, and leave.

(And probably cry and freak out a little bit once I’m out the door, but that’s a different story. Thank god for free drink tickets!)

Every parent goes through this, particularly if they haven’t left their baby with others very much. I mean, I sometimes find that I really miss her when I’ve just gone to get groceries, and I can’t wait to get home. I just didn’t think it would be this hard for me!

I think that this has contributed to my horrible sleep the past couple of nights. I’m not one prone to insomnia, but on Tuesday night, I only fell asleep between 1 and 2 in the morning. Last night was slightly better; I went to bed around ten, couldn’t sleep, Claire woke up a little after 11 so I changed and fed her and put her back to bed, and finally fell asleep around midnight. I know that no matter what, I have to go tomorrow if only to nip this anxiety thing in the bud. (Plus, I do want to go; I know it’ll be fun)

Sigh.

Posted in Anxiety Sucks, Baby Talk, Mommyhood | Leave a comment

Why We Have Kids

Posted on December 6, 2011 by amanda

The issue of bullying has been coming up a lot lately. Bullying has always been a problem, but it does seem to be worse today, leading even to suicide. Is it actually more rampant, or is it only that we are more aware of it? In a discussion of the issue on Facebook this week, a friend of mine theorized that the real problem is that thanks to social media in the form of FB, cell phones, etc., kids can’t get any reprieve from the bullying. When they leave school and go home, they are still bullied through awful, hurtful comments.

I was bullied when I was in elementary school. I wasn’t beat up, but the girl (who will remain nameless, as this isn’t a smear campaign) threatened to do so on a regular basis, despite my many attempts to be her friend. She did live near me, so I thought it would be nice to have a friend close by to play with. I guess she didn’t think so. To this day, I don’t know why she hated me so much, but obviously she did.

In any case, at least I was able to leave school and go home where I felt safe. That’s not to say I wasn’t tormented while at home, of course. Things moved along the grapevine even before smartphones. I would hear from a friend of mine who had heard it from someone else who was friends with the girl who hated me (because, funny enough, she and I did have some mutual friends) that she was going to beat me up the next day. Never mind the fact that she had never followed through on this promise, other than to have some other people join her to gather around me and kick some snow at me and call me names. I was young and scared, and I always worried that this time, she really did mean it.

It did get worse on one occasion, in the latter years of elementary school. I’m not going to get into specifics, but it basically ended up with me running home crying, and then my sister storming off to… I don’t know, beat them up? Thank god they were gone by the time she got there, as she was considered to be an adult by then, and they weren’t. Man, what a mess that would have been!

Anyway, funny enough, it was after that incident that I finally grew a pair. Maybe it was because it did get worse that time, but I got through it, so I became braver after that. And once that fear disappeared, especially by high school (we don’t have junior high in Quebec), I was no longer afraid of her. With the absence of fear, she finally left me alone. We still butted heads from time to time because a) our high school was pretty small, and b) we sat with some of the same people (well, the nicer ones who were friends with her). Then she left that school and went somewhere else.

So, we have the bullying. We have parents who allow their young daughters to wear skimpy clothes, or bathing suits with pre-made “breasts” in them. We have teenagers soaking tampons in alcohol and inserting them into their nether regions (boys and girls) to get drunk faster and without the smell of alcohol on their breath. And yet, we continue to have children. In discussing both the bullying and the alcohol-soaked-tampon issues, two different people mentioned they would not want to be raising a child in this day and age. There is peer pressure, and there is an increasing lack of respect for authority among our youth.

So why do so many of us continue to have children?

I don’t know what the solution is, but I have had a daughter, and I will never EVER regret it. But that’s not to say that I am not worried about these things. Can we say, however, that worry about what the future holds for one’s child is a new plight for the parent? I don’t think so. In the past, there was a great deal of danger. Bullying and peer pressure, dabbling in drugs and alcohol, none of that is new. It existed in the past, it exists today, and it will continue to exist in the years to come. I will do everything in my power to teach my daughter to respect authority – maybe a little dose of fear will help as well? It sounds awful, but I think one of the problems today is that the youth does not fear the police and think they can get away with anything. I know that to this day, I’m a little nervous around authority figures.

I will teach Claire to have respect for other people as well, and if – god forbid – she is bullied herself, I will teach her that it’s okay to defend herself. Perhaps not the most Christian response in light of the whole “turn the other cheek” philosophy, but then, I don’t consider myself to be Christian anyway.

In the end, one of the reasons I decided to have a child was for hope. That is what a child represents, all of the hope the future may hold. I understand that it is MY responsibility to teach my child right from wrong, and regardless of the fact that I have a career, my most important job is as a mother. I will teach her that nothing gained through harm to another is worth having.

Posted in Family, In the News, Mommyhood | 1 Comment

All Finished!

Posted on November 28, 2011 by amanda

As I mentioned here, we had our bathroom re-done. Since we were buying porcelain tiles for the bathroom anyway, we just bought a little extra and had the same flooring installed in our foyer.

The construction made last week go by really slowly, and Claire was not terribly fond of all of the banging and sawing, but let me tell you, it was worth it!

The old bathroom, complete with yellow counter (including seashell-shaped – say that 5 times fast – sinks), toilet, and tub à la 70’s:

FYI - the dark specks in the bottom of the tub were from the henna tattoo (you have to brush off the excess once it has dried) - lest you think I never clean

The new bathroom:

Counter and sinks installed by my hubby!

I had a nice soak in there last night, complete with Epsom bath salts!

And the foyer, which is now completely updated thanks to the new flooring:

A few weeks ago, we also changed the lights in the kitchen and dining areas.

The old kitchen light didn’t bother me as much as it did Neal, who really seemed to detest it. I’m sure it also bothered our tall friends!

The light in the dining area was not our style at all, and while we use the ceiling fan in our room and occasionally in Claire’s room, we never did in here.

The new kitchen light is not only obstacle-free for our giant tall friends, but it also made the kitchen seem larger.

And the new light, complete with dimmer switch for nice romantic dinners, is much more elegant.

As nice as it is to do updates, I hope that’s it for renovations for a little while!

Posted in NaBloPoMo, Reno's | 3 Comments

Fuzzy and Out of It

Posted on November 26, 2011 by amanda

Some of you know that I take a low-dose antidepressant (Effexor) for my anxiety. I’ve been taking it for about two-and-a-half years, and it has made such a difference in my life. At first, I didn’t want to take anything, but as time went on, and my anxiety grew stronger, I realized that I did, in fact, need a little help. It’s just enough to take the edge off, so that I don’t fixate on things so much. My mental illness and the drug I take to help me fight it (almost like my armour), are not things that I hide from people.

The only problem with taking this antidepressant is when I forget to take it. I usually take it at night after supper because we generally eat around the same time every night. I guess I eat breakfast at almost the same time everyday now that I have a child, but back when I first started taking Effexor, I was up early during the week and slept in on weekends. I also chose supper because, as my body first started to get used to it at the beginning, it was hard on my stomach, which is why they recommend you take it with food; supper is my largest meal, so it seemed like the way to go. There are times, however, when I’ll suddenly realize that I forgot to take it just when I am heading to bed, and I take it then.

Sadly, I not only forgot to take it at supper last night, but I only thought of it this morning. At breakfast, it was too close to when I normally take it at supper, so I have to do without today. Unfortunately, Effexor has a pretty short half life, so I was feeling the effects of withdrawal even first thing this morning.

There is a general feeling of anxiety and jitteryness, and also this weird fuzzy, out-of-it sensation. I’m also really tired and honestly, I would love nothing more than to curl up and sleep. I’m not sure if the anxiety side would allow me to, even if I were to give into the temptation. I certainly don’t want to rush any part of the weekend, but at the same time, I cannot.wait for supper so that I can take my next dose and start feeling normal again.

It’s when I forget to take a dose that I realize it will be a LOOOONNNGGG time before I try to go off the medication, if I ever decide to. I think it was Dooce who once wrote that she doesn’t know why she would ever stop taking her own medication (for depression, I believe) when it makes her feel normal, and I can’t help but agree with that. I definitely support anyone who does choose to stop taking medication for mental illness, but I also completely support those who decide to take it forever.

Posted in Anxiety Sucks, NaBloPoMo | 2 Comments

Interesting Day

Posted on November 25, 2011 by amanda

Yesterday was, er, interesting.

I got up just slightly earlier than I normally do, since the guy renovating our bathroom and laying down the tiles in the foyer was supposed to be coming. At nine o’clock, the phone rang. It was that guy’s boss, calling to say that the guy was stranded due to the snowstorm we had on Wednesday. He lives in the Annapolis Valley, which is a) pretty far from here, and b) more inland, and therefore probably got more snow than we did (and we got a fair amount!).

Obviously, I was disappointed. I understood, and I wouldn’t have wanted the guy to get into an accident just to get here, but still disappointed. I was hoping that the very last of all that needs to be done would be finished today (Friday). We have an appointment on Saturday morning at Canadian Tire to get our winter tires put on, and the plan was for all of us to go and get some shopping done as Walmart is right next door. Chances are, however, that the grout for the foyer is going to have to be put on tomorrow, so Claire and I will be staying here while Neal goes to get the tires changed over, and then we’ll all go out shopping on Sunday. Not the end of the world, but still a kink in our plans.

It’s still possible it will all be done today because they might use a quick-set for the porcelain tiles which would mean he could do the grout later on today, but we had him lay down Ditra (a waterproof layer), and their website recommends a latex-less thin-set (aka longer setting) cement-type stuff. So when he gets here today, I’m going to have to ask him if the quick-set has latex in it or not, and make sure he’s comfortable using that because you have to be frigging fast to get all the tiles down before it dries.

Claire and I have been going to a free “Baby’s First Books” program at the library over at Cole Harbour Place, which is normally only a 5-minute walk away. I go down to the end of our street, go part-way down the next street to a short, straight path that brings me to the main street that Cole Harbour Place is on. Cole Harbour has a lot of paths, which Claire and I have enjoyed immensely during the Summer and Fall. Sadly, most of those paths have signs stating that they are not maintained in the Winter. This path that we take, however, has no such sign, and it is often plowed because a lot of people take it to get to the high school and to the bus stop.

Feeling hopeful, I packed Claire up yesterday morning and we struck out for the library. We got to the path at the same time as another woman and baby, Kristen and Zander, from the program. The path was not plowed at all, and there was a big snowbank in front of it from when the street plow had gone by. We later admitted that neither of us would have attempted it if the other person had not been there. We were struggling to get her stroller over first when a man in a car stopped and jumped out to help us. He got both of our strollers onto the snow-covered path, and then we had drag the strollers backwards to get down. We got to the end of the path to discover that the sidewalk down there – that leads to the light and the bus stop – was not plowed either. So we dragged our strollers backwards some more.

After the library program, Kristen and I decided we would avoid the path (which is somewhat uphill) and take the loooooonnnnggg way around, as we could be on sidewalks. Admittedly, the sidewalks were better than the path, but not by much. I don’t know who did the plow job on those sidewalks we were on, or what he/she was smoking at the time, but they were awful. At one point, we even walked on the road, watching for cars, because the sidewalk was so ridiculous.

So a normally 5-minute walk to the library took about 20, and the walk home took at least 45 minutes. Suffice it to say, I definitely got a workout yesterday!

I’m hoping that today will be a little better. Hopefully the guy will show up and make some real progress – at the very least, hopefully the bathroom can be completely finished (baseboard, caulking, cleaning up the tiles a little more) and the foyer tiles can be laid. Claire and I probably won’t go for a walk, but I think I’ll bundle her up and take her outside to play in the snow since she enjoyed it so much the other day.

Every picture I took of her out there had this same delighted smile on her face!

Posted in Baby Talk, Bitching | Leave a comment

Growing Up

Posted on November 23, 2011 by amanda

I remember how, for the first three months of Claire’s life, not much changed. She grew longer and put on more weight, and she became stronger so that she had more head control, but it was a fairly slow progression. Now, on the other hand, it seems like she is always learning new things.

She can sit up on her own. She does still fall over, but it’s usually only when she is reaching for something. Otherwise, she can sit on her mats for a long time.

She has also learned how to throw. We play “catch” together with her small stuffed fish or her small plastic blocks. Sometimes it goes wildly to the side or even behind her, but she is really quite good at throwing, considering that she is only seven months old. She is also learning how to clap, and it is the cutest thing ever. She also seems to understand when to use it – whenever she throws something, particularly if it goes far, she claps with a smile on her face.

She is also starting to scoot on her bum. I have suspected it since she isn’t always in the same place I left her, but it was blatantly obvious yesterday (although I, yet again, did not see it. It seems like she only ever moves when no one is watching). I was talking to the guy renovating our bathroom, and when I turned back toward the living room, she was not on her mats at all. She had moved onto the hardwood floor, and was still sitting on her bum, so I know she didn’t simply roll there. Neal also saw her scooting last night; as usual, I was looking away. I swear, I’m going to just stare at her today!

I can’t believe how quickly she is growing up and learning all of these things. She loves to stand as well. We hold her hands, or we set her up by the coffee table to hold on, while we sit behind her and have our hands almost touching her since her legs do get tired. But she is really quite good at it!

I have to admit that I love all of these changes, because it is allowing her to do more for herself and I’m always so proud of her when she learns something new. And yet, it is also a constant reminder of how quickly time is zooming by, and that makes me sad. I just try to focus on the happy side, and there is so much of that. All of these changes are allowing me to see just what a funny little girl my daughter is becoming.

Posted in Baby Talk, NaBloPoMo | Leave a comment