You know what’s embarrassing? When you’re in a store, poking aorund for Christmas gift ideas, when “Footloose” suddenly starts playing over the speakers and you get so excited that you FORGET you’re in a store and start singing along. And you’re singing, like, LOUD.

I got a few snickers from nearby shoppers. Oh well.

Tonight I’m off to a party for a few hours and I’m leaving both kids with their grandparents. I’m trying not to think about the fact that I managed to get almost no milk for Breanna.

At least my hair looks good!

After almost a year and a half I finally went and got my hair cut. In an effort to avoid spending a ton of money, I contacted a hairdressing school nearby and inquired about their services. I will most definitely be going back. It was amazing. I got a wash, cut, and dry for nine bucks. It was a student who washed my hair and did the basic cutting but the supervising teacher did the consult with me (he told me that the style I wanted was great for me but that I should leave it one or two inches shorter than the picture I had brought in with me) and he also did the final touches and the styling for me.

I am so incredibly happy with it. I’m just enjoying the fact that my hair which was so ridiculously heavy and halfway down my back is now swinging lightly at about my jaw with lots of flitty layers. If you watch The View at all, it’s more or less the same style that Elizabeth has; although her beliefs often clash mightily with mine, I really love her hair.

Before:

After:

I seriously needed this.

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I am so envious of all the Americans who were celebrating Thanksgiving today. This is kind of silly when you take into consideration the fact that I already celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving last month, so it’s not like I missed out altogether. Still, everywhere I went online (and also on TV) people were talking about their turkeys and sweet potatoes and stuffing and pumpkin pies. I was starving for turkey dinner by 10 a.m.!

Since I was having serious poultry envy I did the best that I could do up here north of the border on a regular old Thursday. I made chicken and mashed potatoes and vegetables. It wasn’t quite the same but it was better than nothing! I laughed about it on the phone with my mother and she told me that you can even get cranberry sauce at the dollar store so next time we go I’m going to get some and a box of stuffing and I’ll serve it up next time I make chicken.

Really, I should just buy one of those turkey breasts or the Maple Leaf pre-cooked turkeys. I love turkey so very much that I look forward to both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I used to love it when we had to do the dinners at my grandmother’s house and George’s parents’ house too just because that meant twice the turkey dinners. I never got tired of the leftovers either. I’d make turkey tetrazzini and as many turkey/stuffing/cranberry sandwiches as I could. My dad and I used to make the sandwiches (though he would skip the stuffing and cranberry layers) by 11 that same night, both of us already hungry even after such a big meal.

And I could seriously go for a slice of pumpkin pie, especially my mother-in-law’s because she uses fresh pumpkin. Or maybe the pumpkin cheesecake I made one year; that was really good too.

I am so hungry. Time to make a cup of tea and go raid the cupboard for some soft Brownie Chocolate Chunk cookies or maybe a slice of Breanna’s birthday cake from the fridge. I hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

After a long day of asking eighty billion questions, most of which start with “why…?”

Sherry: If we ever win a lot of money, I know where I’d like to go on vacation.
George: Oh yeah? Where?
Sherry: I want to go to a Tibetan monastery.
George: What?!
Sherry: Yeah, one where everyone has taken a vow of absolute silence.
George: Ah.

Here’s my official disclosure policy for my weblog: I get paid to write occasional reviews of services and products. I am given access to a list of websites where the company is willing to pay X amount of dollars for my opinion. This might be seen as selling out or as incredibly obnoxious, but I’m willing to be upfront about it and tell you right now that yes, they are sponsored links. However, in order to make it acceptable to myself, I will only do it with links that I am personally okay with and that I am comfortable with. For instance, I passed up on a review for a service that essentially makes it easier for people to send out spam because I’m not okay with promoting that. On the other hand, I will write reviews for things such as the telescope review I did last week since I actually do have a real interest in them. So my policy is this: I will review but I will not promote things I am not in favor of and I will not pretend to have had an excellent experience if it is not true.

I plan on making a fancy cake for Breanna’s actual party in December, either a butterfly or a ladybug (probably the ladybug since although the butterfly is beautiful, it has a higher aggravation factor). However, I wasn’t going to let her real birthday go by without some sort of cake for her. I made a simple white cake in a flute pan, iced it pink, stuck Smarties around the edges (obviously she didn’t eat any of those!), and then put in one candle for her age and one more for good luck. Here, she sits and stares in fascination at her cake while listening to us sing happy birthday to her.

She then offered up some polite applause for our loud singing.

At first she didn’t know how to react. She isn’t fond of messy hands, often staring in dismay at them if they get covered in something gooey like applesauce, so she really wasn’t sure about the icing on her fingers.

Then George told her to put it in her mouth and she realized the cake was pretty good (even if she looks like she’s flipping me off).

It was good enough for another round of applause.

Then when she had decided she’d eaten enough, she discovered it was also really fun to dump it all over her tray.

Within about 15 minutes, the sugar hit her. She then spent a good ten minutes or so walking around and around the apartment, screaming gleefully at the top of her lungs. Screaming. After that it took her an hour and a half to settle down enough to go to sleep, after which she crashed in a sugar coma for several hours before waking very briefly in the middle of the night for a bit of good old fashioned milk. I don’t think she’ll be eating anything sugary very often if she loses her mind that much! On the other hand, she enjoyed the cake so much and had so much fun afterwards that it wasn’t bad at all.

I still can’t believe that she’s a year old. This time a year ago I think I was just finishing up my special snack; they had missed our room when they brought snacks around at 8 pm so I asked the nurse about it and she was so horrified that a ravenous breastfeeding mother hadn’t been given anything to eat for the night that she immediately went to the lounge and made me toast and brought it with some peanut butter and jam and a big container of apple juice. She was my favorite L&D nurse. Breanna was sleeping for a little while, so tiny in her plastic bassinet beside me and now she’s this big girl in two-piece footed pajamas, curled up with Elmo in her crib down the hall. How does time do this?

Since I can’t let her have too much sugar, I think I’ll go eat some of that cake now. After all, I can’t waste it right?

How did I make this beautiful girl?

The holidays are rapidly approaching know what you need? You need Santa Suits! Seriously, if you’re hosting a Christmas party, organizing a charity event, or just want some great photo opportunities, these Santa and Christmas suits are perfect. There are even kids’ costumes which would be well suited for a family photo for your Christmas card for relatives and friends. You can even suit Fido up in his own doggie Christmas costume.

Dear Breanna,

Today you woke up at 8:30 in the morning. At that very time one year earlier, w were just getting to the hospital and I was so close to having you. It would be less than an hour and a half until you would finally be born. It’s so hard to understand that all that happened a whole year ago when it feels like it was so recent. It feels like you should maybe be six months old at the most.

And yet so much has happened in the past twelve months. You learned to walk three months ago and that sure sped time up as I then chased you around and around. You hated food when we first started solids, but despite some protests from well-meaning observers that you “had” to eat something, you did just fine with breastmilk until you got to the point where you could chew up tiny, bite-sized pieces of real food. Once you were able to enjoy table food you were quick to try anything that you could get your hands on and to this day the only thing that you really disliked was the cottage cheese I gave you a month ago (well, you hated the rice cereal and baby oatmeal too but you’ll eat real rice puff cereal and real oatmeal so clearly the big issue really was texture).

You were the baby who made me work hard for my laughs. Although you loved smiling, you were more serious than your big sister and as a result, big belly laughs required effort. Silly faces don’t often work on you, but if I’m able to pin you down to the ground and blow on your tummy, gales of laughter ring through the room. On the other hand, your sister can make you laugh without any trouble at all.

Speaking of your sister, oh how you love Hayley. You follow her everywhere, you laugh at her, you clap for her, and you think she’s the most intriguing person in the world. Hayley loves you too even though she may confuse you sometimes when she goes into the bathroom and closes the door in your face or when she takes your toys because she wants to show you how she thinks you should play with them. She still loves you, believe me.

Playing is interesting with you. Although you love to play with me, with Daddy, or with Hayley, you’re also very independent, surprisingly so for someone your age. You frequently leave the room in favor of going off to play with the kitchen set in the other room, and you’ll happily play for quite some time with some blocks or the Little People stuff on the living room floor. It always blows me away, but on the other hand, it’s useful; I filled the bottom drawer in the kitchen with plastic containers, spoons, lids, and a juicer with no sharp edges, and it keeps you interested long enough for me to do the dishes or cook supper.

I hate comparing you to Hayley because you’re not supposed to do that, I guess, but I don’t do it negatively. Rather, I compare you because I’m fascinated by how different you can both be. When I needed to distract Hayley as a baby so I could cook supper, I would put her in the exersaucer when she was young enough, and I would put on a Baby Einstein DVD for her. Now that she’s older, she loves many shows on Treehouse and they still serve as a distraction when I really need one. You, on the other hand, couldn’t possibly care less about the television (well, other than the fact that you love to press all the buttons, which ticks off your sister). I’ve tried putting on a DVD for you from time to time but it never holds your interest. The only thing you like is the music from the theme songs for the various shows that Hayley watches; your favorite is Miffy, but you’ll also come running for The Big Comfy Couch).

Music, actually, is far more your thing than television is. You love when I play MP3s on my computer, when I put the country video channel on, and when Daddy plays his music. If he goes into the music room, your little legs carry you as fast as you can go so that you can stand in his doorway and dance. Sometimes you dance by bopping up and down, other times you sway from side to side. Occasionally you throw in a little butt shake or a wave in the air.

You also love when anyone sings to you. You like when Hayley and I sing kid songs to you, you like when Daddy sings his “Big Brebleens” song to you, and more than once I’ve sent you off to sleep by singing “The Lady Of Shallot” to you; I think it’s entirely possible that I have sung it to you more in the space of one year than Lorenna McKennit sang it in her entire life.

Today you unfortunately had to celebrate the beginning of your birthday by going to the dentist. Awhile back we noticed you had chipped your front tooth; it’s not bad at all and probably not noticeable to anyone who isn’t constantly peering at your face from an inch away, but we wanted to make sure it was okay. In the end, the appointment wasn’t so bad; you weren’t thrilled about people poking inside your mouth but it was over quickly. I asked if I could demonstrate the way that I brush your teeth so that they could tell me if I was doing a decent job of it. They were shocked. They said that they had never seen a patient as young as you who was so happy to have her teeth brushed. You laid there on my lap, smiling and opening your mouth wide so I could get them all cleaned and then you said, “ah? Ah!” and reached for it so you could have your own turn. That’s Hayley’s influence. You saw your sister getting her teeth brushed every day so as far as you were concerned, it was something fun and interesting. It sure makes my life easier!

You constantly make me laugh with the way that you walk around screaming in joy, the way you put weird things into the toy fridge, the way you give Hayley giant open-mouth kisses, and the way you come running like a cat if you hear the rustle of a bag of rice cakes (which is hands down your favorite food). In fact, the other day when Daddy came home from getting groceries, you walked past the bags and saw rice cakes inside and you immediately squatted down and yanked them out, toddling off with them.

Toddling. Toddler. I guess you already were a toddler when you took your first steps so long ago, but now you’re a toddler by age. I get email every week from babycenter.com about you and yesterday I got one about my baby; today I got one about my toddler. That’s you.

I want you to know that despite my massive nostalgia, I’ve done very well and although I came close many times, I only actually broke down crying once. You looked confused about it, but I promise it’s only because I love you so much and I’m so proud of you and how much you’re growing.

It’s hard to see you getting bigger so quickly but I remember that age one was a lot of fun. I am sad that you’ll never be the baby you were a year ago, but I’m looking forward to seeing the little girl you’ll become.

I love you.

Mama
xoxoxo

Playing with your new toy:

The tissue paper is always the best part:

Ooh, what’s this cool toy?

Birthday girl:

(Cake pictures tomorrow)