Saint John Visit and “Me” Time

Posted on January 4, 2013 by amanda

I have to say that I have loved every minute of this two-week break from work. I enjoy my job and I work with some wonderful people, but I needed the break.

We went to Saint John, New Brunswick on December 29th and did a bunch of visiting with Neal’s family. The city was hit with a snowstorm on the 30th, so most of that day was a write-off as we were snowed-in until the maintenance guy came around and plowed out the apartment building’s parking lot. We did, however, manage to get out that evening after supper for a quick visit with Nanny and Gramp Porter.

On New Year’s Eve, my in-laws watched Claire and put her to bed so that Neal and I could go watch the hockey game with some friends of ours who generously gave us some extra tickets. The Saint John Seadogs were playing the Moncton Wildcats, and the Seadogs won! I’m sure it would have been a very interesting game had the opposing team been Halifax. I’m not sure where Neal’s loyalties would have lain, but I know I would have been cheering on the Mooseheads!

We got back to the apartment a little after 10pm, and we baked up some appetizers to have with some wine. We all rang in the new year in our pajamas, but that’s okay with me. I have never been a big one for New Year’s Eve anyway.

The following day we visited with Nanny and Gramp McCarthy as well as their kids and grandkids for a bit, and then headed over to Nanny Guthrie’s for a ham dinner.

On the 2nd, we packed up and came home, though not before stopping in at the Irving restaurant for breakfast. Those restaurants are seriously among my favourites – I’m not a very fancy person!

Yesterday I left Claire home with Neal and I went out to the mall to do some clothes shopping. I am not a big fan of spending much time in malls, but it was a rare day when I was in the mood and I managed to get a few things for work that I’m quite pleased with. Neal brought Claire to daycare today so that she can be eased into the routine again (she went a little later than usual and we’ll probably pick her up early), and so far I have spent the morning making two soups: my “creamy” (no actual cream) broccoli soup and a turkey soup using some leftover turkey that I had frozen. I also plan on taking the tree down before Claire comes home and do some cleaning.

Then on Monday, it’s back to normal again with both Neal and I heading back to work. And as much as it might be nice to have a few more days, I really feel like I have had a good break and will be able to return feeling refreshed – that is, until I open up my inbox and see the hundreds of emails!

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Jingle Bells!

Posted on December 27, 2012 by amanda

I loved Christmas last year because it was Claire’s first, but honestly this one was even better. Last year she was pretty oblivious to what was going on and was just confused the entire day. She didn’t really understand anything about Santa coming this year, but she got the hang of opening presents pretty quickly.

We started the festivities off by borrowing a tradition from my sister (as we also did last year) – on Christmas Eve, Claire opened a present from me and Neal: some snazzy new pajamas that she wore to bed.

She went to bed pretty easily and the grownups spent the rest of the evening playing Pictionary – my father-in-law would like for me to inform everyone that he and Cathy won. Ah well, I just think that means we need to have a re-match!

I was pretty excited about Christmas morning, but thankfully I managed to fall asleep. I was the first to get up in the morning – I think it was about 7:30 or so – and made the stuffing and took some pre-chaos pictures. I think we all did rather well.

Neal then made us a wonderful, yummy brunch of eggs, sausages, toast and home fries. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I smelled the food!

We puttered around the house, playing with Claire and her new toys for the rest of the day until it was time to settle down at the table for our yummy turkey dinner. This may not be the most humble of statements, but I make one kick-ass turkey!

And oh yeah – it was also my birthday. Goodbye 32, hello 33

On Boxing Day, we had a Second Christmas and went over to Sherry and George’s. We all had a blast, and no one less than Claire, who got a really cute tea trolley set and danced and danced and danced the evening away (and also ate copious amounts of chips). As my mother-in-law put it, Claire was drunk with happiness, and letmetellyou, she was definitely hung over this morning!

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Breaking Hearts

Posted on December 16, 2012 by amanda

I have been wanting to post something here all weekend, but words fail me. What can any of us say when such a tragedy has happened as took place on Friday in Connecticut?

I have had to limit my exposure to the news because whenever it’s on, whenever I spend too much time thinking about those beautiful, innocent children who were murdered, and for those who survived but whose innocence died, I can’t stop crying.

I think about my own child, so happy, so full of life, so oblivious to the horror in the world and I want to keep her inside with me where it’s safe. That’s not the answer, though, so I have settled for hugging her a little more often than normal.

My thoughts, my love, my heart go to you, Newtown.

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Reunion Weekend 2012

Posted on December 2, 2012 by amanda

I waited for this weekend for three months and three days, and it didn’t disappoint! We didn’t do anything super-dooper exciting, but just having my husband home and reuniting him with our daughter was exciting enough.

I was very thankful to work last Wednesday. Neal was only scheduled to get home late that night, so it would have been torture to be home all day. Unfortunately, after a couple of delays and some rerouted flights that led to a long cab line-up, Neal only got home just before two in the morning. I’m amazed that I stayed up as it was well-past my bedtime, but I was too excited to sleep anyway.

On Thursday morning, the reunion between Neal and Claire went well. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but after being a little shy for all of ten minutes, Claire warmed up to Neal. In fact, for awhile she would start crying whenever he went downstairs or outside, but she seems to be getting a little better with that.

On Friday, we went to see Santa. That went… Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Decorating the tree on Sunday went much better. Claire is quite taken with the tree, but so far she hasn’t been too bad with touching the decorations. We just made sure we put the breakable ones up top.

It was supposed to get a lot warmer today, but obviously that did not include this morning. The thermometer on the back read 4 degrees Celsisus (39.2 degrees fahrenheit), but it felt much colder than that. The wind was cold and damp, and I was thankful for my hat and gloves when the three of us went for a walk. We checked out a nearby lake that usually has a bunch of ducks, but I guess the cold weather lately drove them away, so we headed to the park instead where Claire had a blast going down the slide and being pushed on the swing.

It is so unbelievably, indescribably wonderful to have Neal home. Not only for the help he provides – which is very much appreciated! – but for his company as well. I love watching my husband and our daughter together, and I love being able to curl up with him on the couch to watch a movie after Claire has gone to bed.

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The Waiting Game

Posted on November 28, 2012 by amanda

Here I am, sitting on the couch at 11:20 at night. It is well-past my bedtime and particularly on a Wednesday, but alas, I have a very good reason to be waiting up.

At the end of August, I drove Neal to the airport. He was going out to Victoria, British Columbia for three months for a military course. I tried to be brave, I tried to hold my emotions in check particularly because we also had Claire with us, but in the end, when it was time for him to walk through security and we had to say our ‘goodbyes’, the emotions ran over and I started to cry. I cried even as I pushed Claire’s stroller back out to the parking garage and put her in the car. Then I pulled myself together for the drive home.

Tonight Neal is coming home. His plane should have landed already, but of course, it is delayed. I have the airline’s website up and every so often I check it again to see if the delay is even worse. God, I hope not – this last leg of his journey isn’t that long, after all!

The last three months weren’t as bad as I thought. Indeed, they weren’t as bad as they were a few years ago when he had to go to Victoria for the same amount of time, before we were married. One might think that having a child would make it harder, as I was on single-parent duty, but in fact, having Claire probably made it easier. For one thing, I was a lot busier, but for another, I was never lonely. I had company for the past three months and to boot, I had excellent company – company that made me laugh and smile on a daily basis, company that gave me hugs and kisses, company that reminded me just how fortunate I am.

That being said, I have missed my husband terribly. He is my best friend, my love, my soul mate if such a thing exists. We have such a wonderful relationship. Tonight I have found myself thinking about various moments, such as:

* The night we met at The Lower Deck – as many of you know, we met in line at a bar on Saint Paddy’s Day. We chatted as the line moved ahead, and just inside the door he bought me a beer from a (very smart) worker who had just stationed himself there to quench everyone’s thirst after the wait. Then Neal went off to find his friends who were somewhere inside while I went to a spot at the bar where I could see the band. I was a little disappointed because this guy I had just met seemed really interesting, but now he had gone off and I doubted that – in the crowd – I would see him again. But lo and behold, he found me only a few minutes later and brought me over to join him and his friend. That was a life-changing evening.

* Fast-forward less than a year when Neal and I were spending New Year’s Eve in Saint John, New Brunswick with some friends who had rented a hotel room downtown so that we would all have a good view of the fireworks. The room was filled with people, many of whom had kids. I remember how, at one point, Neal was kneeling on the bed while a bunch of kids climbed all over him and tackled him. I knew, in that moment, that he would make a wonderful father someday.

* The first couple of days that Claire was born. I had had a C-section, so it was pretty hard to get in and out of bed. Neal took over the task of bringing Claire to me when I was still trying to nurse her and he changed almost all of her diapers in those first few days. One night, in the middle of the night, I watched from the bed as Neal went over to the bassinet and took Claire out, cradling her in his arms as he soothed her with his whispers. I fell in love with him all over again in that moment.

It is the memory of these moments, and the absolute love I have for him that I will stay awake and wait for him to come home instead of crawling into bed or even lying down on the couch for a snooze. After all, neither of us have to go to work tomorrow or Friday (and Claire won’t be going to daycare), so we can have some quiet (and lazy) family time.

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A Fun Saturday Tuckers Out a Toddler

Posted on November 25, 2012 by amanda

Here we are at the end of the last weekend before Neal comes home. Last weekend was pretty quiet, spent mostly doing chores and running errands with a nice walk thrown in, and I did enjoy it. But had it been as quiet for me this weekend, I probably would have driven myself crazy, knowing how close I am to seeing Neal.

Friday night was pretty usual – I did a little bit of cleaning after Claire went to bed, chatted with Neal on the phone, and then watched “Downton Abbey” – or, at least, I tried. The episode went on a bit of a fritz, and because it was getting a little late (for me), I decided to give up and try another time.

On Saturday, I got up around 7:30 but I let Claire sleep until 8 a.m. because I knew she would not be having a nap due to our afternoon plans. I tidied the house up a bit, gave Claire breakfast when she got up, and then Hannah, the teenager from across the street, came over to watch Claire while I went to Hyundai to get the winter tires put on and the oil change taken care of.

I probably could have gotten my neighbours to watch her, but Nina’s Christmas party is the same night as mine, so we won’t be able to watch each other’s kids. I’ve booked Hannah to watch Claire that night, but since Claire doesn’t know her, I thought it might be a good idea to have them together for a few hours during the day before Hannah has to tackle bedtime. It was an hour-and-a-half wait at the dealership, but that was what they had prepared me for. There was a guy in there with his two sons aged 7 and 9 who had been told the wait would be less than an hour, and it was definitely more than that. The kids were bored stiff and started getting pretty rambunctious, and watching them and the father made me VERY happy that I hadn’t dragged Claire there. Instead, I got to drink some free tea, and read and write for awhile.

After my appointment, I stopped to get a very nutritious lunch at McDonald’s for me and Claire (snort – I rarely feed her McDonald’s but sometimes you are just in that much of a rush!) and filled the car up with gas, and after we ate and I changed Claire’s outfit, we headed over to Sherry’s for Breanna’s seventh birthday party!

Claire had a BLAST. She warmed up to George more than ever, which I think made him pretty happy – his height probably helped as he could lift her up so she could touch the ceiling. She got me to pick her up at one point and started reaching toward the ceiling. I laughed and put her back on the floor telling her to go find Uncle George, which she did!

It was pretty loud having a bunch of six- and seven-year-olds, but it was good noise – laughter and squeals of joy.

She even took part in pin-the-nose-on-Sponge-Bob!

On the drive home, the lack of proper nap and a fun-filled day took its toll on Claire. She not only fell asleep in the car, but she was conked out. I was able to get her out of the car, upstairs, take her shoes and coat off and sit her in her chair without waking her.

All partied out

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What’s New With You?

Posted on November 21, 2012 by amanda

Hi! It’s been awhile… since September… Anything new?

I didn’t plan on not updating for the past two months, but I usually like to include some pictures with my entries, and after my laptop freaked out and the IT guy at work fixed it all up, I wasn’t able to re-load Photoshop. I’m not sure why, but it just conked out after awhile. I still don’t have photoshop, but for some reason, it only occurred to me today that perhaps I don’t actually need Photoshop to post pictures here. Perhaps I could just, y’know, post them. I tested my theory, and voila! It works!

No, I’m not sure why it took me two months to figure this out, except to say that it’s been a little busy around here. I probably only thought of it today because I’m home with Claire who has an eye infection and I’m at a bit of a loss because this wasn’t a scheduled day off. I’m sure I did mention way-back-when that Neal went out to Victoria, British Columbia for a course at the end of August, and he is due to return next Wednesday (WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!), so I have been on single-parent duty for that period of time. It really hasn’t been all that bad. A coworker of mine has often said, “Amanda, I don’t know how you do it”. Well, it helps that Claire really is pretty great kid and there’s the fact that it’s not like I had a choice. Things needed to be done, so they were done. Plus, I have talked to Neal on the phone every night (all except one when we both had things going on and the timings just didn’t work out) and we’ve video chatted on most weekends so that he and Claire could see each other. It’s not the same at all – I would be lying (very badly) if I said that I have missed Neal terribly and that I CANNOT.WAIT for him to get home next Wednesday. But that’s the main part of it – I miss his company, and I feel bad that he is missing all of the nifty things Claire is doing now. Sure, there have been times when I have thought about how I could really use an extra pair of hands, but honestly, those times have been few and far between. Most of the time, Claire just makes me laugh my head off.

So what has been going on since September? Among many other things:

We went to Willowbank Farm which was a huge hit

And picked some apples there:

And went on a hayride

And then there was Halloween when Claire dressed up as a butterfly:


(And wouldn’t take her fingers out of her mouth, thankyouverymuch teething)

And Nanny and Grampy came to visit a few times, including Remembrance Day weekend

There have been so many more things – how could there not be in two months with a toddler?

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Transition

Posted on September 15, 2012 by amanda

I think that everyone knows how proud I am of my little girl – the fact that I talk about her a billion times each day is a pretty good sign. But every so often, she does something that makes me feel even more proud than I was before, and it’s surprising that such a thing is even possible!

A couple of weeks ago, Claire’s daycare decided that it was time for her to begin the move from the “Baby Room” to the “Transition Room”. As the name suggests, the “Transition Room” is basically the room in between the one for babies and the one for two-year-olds. Other than posing new, refreshing challenges for the kids, the two biggest differences between this room and the baby room are that they can now use the daycare’s playground (which has a fence and gate so that no little ones can escape) rather than just going out in the stroller, and that instead of napping in cribs, they sleep on mats once a day.

I thought that the biggest obstacle would be the mats. When the workers told me that my daughter would not be contained during nap time by bars, I nearly laughed. I could very easily imagine Claire getting up and poking all the other kids or going to play with the toys. I obviously forgot that these are MIRACLE WORKERS.

There were absolutely no problems with Claire moving from one room to the next. She slept on her mat for a good two hours – this is probably helped by the fact that the other kids who have been in the room for awhile are all lying down quietly to sleep, so she just followed suit. A lot of kids also go through a difficult adjustment phase when they first move over; when Claire and I went to meet the director of the daycare before she started, I remember hearing one little girl WAILING, and the director explained that she had just moved over to the transition room and that this was fairly common.

So when they first told me their plan, I felt a little apprehension which was totally unnecessary. For one thing, I think Claire was ready for something new, and she also recognized some of the kids from the baby room. One little boy, Austin, apparently ran right over to her when he saw her the first day. Then there is the playground. In the baby room, they would get out, maybe, once a day in the stroller. It was usually in the morning because kids are picked up at different times in the afternoon, so it’s not like they can just leave the daycare centre in those hours, so if the weather was crappy in the morning, they were stuck inside all day. With the playground, as long as the weather cooperates, the kids are outside twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. And so far, there has only been one rainy day, so every other day when I go to pick Claire up in the afternoon, she’s outside having a blast. That kid would live, eat and sleep outside if you let her!

And really, Claire adapts pretty well. It only took about a month for her to get used to going to daycare, and now she absolutely loves it. I know she notices that Neal is gone, but she isn’t acting out or sulking. Yes, she has quite the temper when she doesn’t get her way, but overall, she’s pretty laid back. Still, pride swells up in my heart when even the daycare workers comment on how quickly Claire moved over to the transition room full time.

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Purging

Posted on September 3, 2012 by amanda

In an effort to purge myself of some negativity that has been surrounding me today, I thought I would write some of those feelings out here. Then I’ll head to bed and tomorrow will be a new day.

I don’t know that anyone or anything can really, fully prepare you for the hardship of being a military spouse. Don’t get me wrong – our Canadian Forces members are paid relatively well, they get awesome pensions, we all benefit from the health insurance (particularly the spouses; we have different, and better, coverage than military members so that, for instance, I am covered for massage therapy whereas Neal isn’t. Go figure). And that’s not to mention the job security, and in our current economic climate, that is HUGE.

But the ability to really see all of those perks becomes poignantly difficult when that member of the forces goes away for an extended period of time.

I don’t want to give the impression that I’m crumbling away here, or that I’m crying everyday, that I’m a mess, etc etc. I pride myself on being fairly self-sufficient. That’s not to say that I don’t need help from friends and family once in awhile, but I’m quite capable of finding that help. And the instances of needing that help are pretty few and far between – at the moment, all I am thinking of is when I need someone to watch Claire while I mow the lawn (thanks, Nina and Brad, for watching her on Sunday!).

So I think I’m doing rather well. I go to work, cook supper and eat with Claire, play with her, get her ready for bed, take care of the house and myself, hang out with some friends. But that’s not to say that it’s not hard, sometimes. I miss Neal every single day. I miss his wonderful company and I also, yes, miss the help he was always more than happy to dish out. We talk on the phone every day, but it’s not the same as being able to wrap my arms around him and feel his close around me. Or sitting down to watch “The Colbert Report” with him after Claire goes to bed and we’ve finished all of our chores. Or being able to talk about our day while driving from work to go pick Claire up from daycare.

Thank goodness for Claire, though. For one thing, she’s pretty easy-going. Oh, she has a temper, but she usually gets over it pretty quickly, and she mostly just wants to have fun and make me laugh. For another, she keeps me company. The last time Neal was in BC for three months, we weren’t even married. I remember looking forward to the work week and almost dreading – yes, dreading! – the weekend. At least when I was at work, I was busy and it was a time when I wouldn’t normally see Neal anyway. The weekends were just too quiet and lonely. Not anymore! I still really miss Neal, but my weekends are really busy as well and I have this incredible little person to play with.

I don’t know. Maybe this feeling of sadness and negativity is here because our three-year anniversary is coming up on Wednesday, and it’s the first one we’ve spent apart. And maybe the time between now and November won’t seem so long once the countdown gets into the single digits.

Our early celebration of our anniversary at The Colby (Excuse the graininess - taken with Blackberry tablet in low lighting)

Our early celebration of our anniversary at The Colby (Excuse the graininess - taken with the Blackberry tablet in low lighting)

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Vacation 2012!

Posted on August 27, 2012 by amanda

Since I haven’t updated this blog since the middle of July, I have a few entries ‘saved up’ (by which I mean that I’ve stored the topics in my brain). There was Sherry and George’s wedding, our early 3-year anniversary, and the fact that Neal has just gone out to BC for 3 months (boo!), but in the interest of being chronological, I’ll start with our vacation in Saint John, New Brunswick, which took place over the long weekend in August.

I don’t have my normal three weeks’ vacation this year because I just returned to work from maternity leave in April, so we ended up having a short vacation. I’m hoping to use some at Christmas – I only need two days’ of my vacation to get the time between Christmas and New Year’s off, and then I also want to make sure I have some extra days here and there as I am on single-parent duty until the end of November, so if Claire gets sick and has to stay home from daycare, I’ll be the one staying home with her. I also don’t have the usual number of sick days due to my recent return to work, so it’s nice to have a little bit of padding in case I end up using all of my sick days before the end of the year (thank goodness our ‘year end’ is actually at the end of the year, so I get a whole new batch of sick and vacation days come January!). It’s also nice that I don’t have to use up all of my vacation and banked time before the end of the year either, as I am allowed to carry it forward to the following year.

Aaaaanyway… all of that to say that we used the long weekend to our advantage, and only had to use vacation days for the Friday, Tuesday and Wednesday that we wanted to have off. We packed up the car on Friday morning and made the drive out to Saint John.

I was wondering what it would be like this time. Claire was only about 8 months’ old when we went on our last trip to Saint John, and she is much more aware now. Which, yes, means that she can look out the windows of the car, but sadly it also means that she might get bored more easily and annoyed that she can’t move around the way she normally does. There was, however, no need to worry. She slept for a good portion of the journey, at least the first half, and then we stopped in Moncton for lunch. It’s then only a little over an hour to get to my in-laws’ place, and Claire was really good for that part of the drive as well.

The easy, enjoyable drive was just a precursor to a very enjoyable vacation in Saint John. The weather cooperated, and we managed to have a mix of both visiting and doing vacationey-type stuff such as when we went to Saint Andrews (a beautiful tourist seaside town) and to New River Beach. Visiting is always nice, of course, but I also really enjoy seeing new places. I had been to Saint Andrews one other occasion to go whale watching, but this time we went to the newly renovated aquarium that has huge tanks as well as a touch-tank area.

Cuddles with Nanny when we first arrived:

At the Harbour Front restaurant in Saint Andrews – they make some really yummy seafood chowder!

This band – O’ Savannah – was awesome. I regret not buying their CD when we were in Saint Andrews, but they have a website, so I might buy it!

Checking out the touch tank at the aquarium in Saint Andrews. I’m not sure if this is the star fish that, when Neal gave it to Claire, she flung it unceremoniously back into the water.

Cuddles with Grampy – she was definitely Grampy’s girl that weekend!

Helping Great-Gramp McCarthy with his puzzle.

With Great-Nan Guthrie

We hadn’t brought Claire’s bathing suit when we visited Great-Nan Guthrie, but we did have some Little Swimmers diapers (special swimming diapers that don’t swell up to three times the original size when wet, for the uninitiated) – impromptu pool party!

Possibly the reason she was Grampy’s girl that weekend? She loves nothing better than when someone acts goofy around her!

New River Beach – unfortunately, we chose the only foggy day to have our beach day, but we had fun anyway!

Great-Nan Porter wanted to come with us to the beach so that she could watch Claire doing her own thing.

One night while we hung out after Claire went to bed, Cathy dug out a box of old photographs she had from her grandmother. There were various pictures of her grandmother and family in England, and unfortunately, as is often the case, there were many unidentified people (folks, write on the back of your pictures so future generations know who those people are!!!). This is one such picture, though you would almost swear it was a old-fashioned photo of Claire. People have said that they see me in her a lot now, and in many respects I agree, but then I see this photo and realize that a lot of her features are definitely from Neal’s side!

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