Christmas Eve 2015

 

AHHHH!!! 1 more sleep till Christmas!! I’m sorry for the lack of posting on Monday but our whole house got hit with sickness and my 100% focus was on getting us all better before Christmas. While I am certain we will all still have a cough for Christmas morning, it is ALOT better then what we have been battling the week before!

I can’t believe that we are about to celebrate our first Christmas with our boy! I am SO excited to start traditions and memories of Christmas with our little guy! We know that Sam isn’t going to remember anything from this year, or know what really is going on, but Ryan and I will. We will forever have the memory of our first Christmas with Sam.

For a while, I wasn’t sure I was going to get everything done in time for Christmas. I was on a good path and then got sick as well. Thankfully, during a few good nap times, I got everything I needed done! As I sit here now, the food is made, presents are wrapped and we are ready for the big day!

Santa came early for me! As you know, I have been taking piano lessons since the Fall. I have always loved music, took a few lessons as a little girl but never thought I’d get this opportunity again. I’ve fallen in love with the piano and hope to continue with lessons next year. It’s been amazing how fast it has all clicked for me. The only problem with the piano lessons was the practice. I have a electric keyboard but it doesn’t have any pedals. So, in order to practice on a real piano, I would go to my parents house at least once a week.

A piano can be a huge expense! On Saturday, Ryan told me that he was taking the morning and going to get his Christmas shopping done! I was SOO sick that day! The night before I had only gotten 1.5 hours of sleep and I was SO glad to lay down after Sam went down for his afternoon nap. Not even 20 minutes into my nap, Ryan came and woke me up. He had an enclosed trailer parked in our driveway and his Dad and friends outside. I was sure he had bought some sort of four-wheeler…

When he opened the door I was shocked to see that it was actually a PIANO! This 1922 Mason-Risch piano was moved inside and I have been spending ALL of my spare time tickling the ivory’s! It is so much better to practice with my own piano! The sound of this old piano is amazing and I can’t wait to get it tuned in the New Year!

Ryan has always been my biggest supporter when it comes to music. When practicing with my keyboard, he’ll often come down just to sit and listen. He organized and orchestrated the whole pick up and delivery of this piano that he got for free! We have been hanging out around it lots since it arrived. He will hold Sam and I will play them song, after song.

I’ll probably take the rest of the week to enjoy time with family and friends over the holidays! I hope that you all have an amazing Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

xo

Tools To Handle Baby’s First Sickness

 

Happy Friday everyone! Wow, am I ever glad to see this day come. Not going to lie, been a rough week. My poor boy has been teething, has thrush, got his immunization shots, and got sick. His sickness developed from a fever to a full blown cold. The cold went to his eyes and yesterday the mucous was oozing out his eyes so badly that they were practically closed. It’s been tough. Not going to sugar coat it. When you plan for a baby, you register for all this fun, cute and fancy things. Play pen, bibs, bottles and etc. What you don’t think about is real life and with it the sickness that comes. It’s not easy when your little one is under the weather, but here are the things that helped us cope a little.

1. Children’s Morton, Tylenol or Advil. Take your pick! Just have some on hand. Always have a spare unopened bottle somewhere too. You never know the time of night your baby is going to wake up with a fever of 103. Oh, and if your child is like me, get the dye free kind. The ones with dye make me WIDE awake!

2. Humidifier. This is something that I didn’t put on my baby registry because I thought I wouldn’t need one. HA! You will do anything to make your little one sleep better when they are sick and this little machine works wonders! Basically, it moistens the dry air and will therefore prevent baby sniffles from getting crusty and hard. Better breathing equals better sleep! This is the one that we have.

3. While you are getting your humidifier, look around. If you spot Vicks Vapo Steam Liquid Medication, grab it! A bottle lasts a while because you only use 1 tablespoon at a time. It will work with any humidifier! You place 1 tablespoon of the Vicks directly into the humidifier water before you turn it on. It gives the air a light Vicks smell that really helps suppress a cough and clear the sinuses. Life saver for a little one who is too small to take anything to help a cough!

4. I bought some cloth diaper wipes as a fluke. It came with my bundle of diapers and I thought they would just collect dust! I was SO wrong. They have been so handy! I started using them around the time that Sam was 3-4 months old as mini spit up rags and now I use them instead of Kleenex. They are soft, small, absorbent and very washable! I wet one with hot water to use on Sam’s nose and now a clean one every time I need to wash the junk from his eyes. The soft material has prevented any redness under his nose.

 

5. Snot sucker of some sort! The Freda is our favourite! Honestly, it’s disgusting but you will do anything to give your little one some relief.

6. Lastly, you need a good TV and a comfy place to sit. Be prepared (something I’m not good at) to let things fall to way side because your sick little person probably just wants to cuddle with you and relax. They won’t want to be out of your arms because no gadget in the world can replace the comfort of their Mommy. Order supper in, forget the laundry and just sit back with your baby.

Happy Friday!

xo

2014 Inductee’s Onto Lindsay And Ryan’s Christmas Tree!

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope that your week has been flying by! We have a such of sick people laying low indoors so far! I’m very thankful that we got sick this week rather then for Christmas!

I wanted to share with you the special Christmas ornaments that have been added to our Christmas tree this year! Ryan and I love to collect ornaments that have special meaning to us so that every Christmas we can open our ornament box and reflect on the good times.

This years first ornament is a special wooden angel given to Sam (before we knew Sam was a he) by our minister! It is an ornament that she purchased from her trip to the Holy land and brought back for all the children. I thought it was so sweet that she let me choose an ornament as well even though Sam was still in my belly.

This ornament is from Sam's Nana. She purchases us a special ornament for our tree every year and I loved this fun nutcracker!

Our most important souvenir from any trip that we go on is a Christmas ornament! It floods back memories from the trip every year that we put it on the tree. Last winter we visited Jamaica to attend the wedding of friends! It was a gorgeous location and our last trip before we became parents!

This year, Sam got to put on his very first ornament! A little building block that we had made with his name, date of birth and other birth information! This will be his special ornament to put on the tree every year!

We received this ornament last Christmas from friends Josh and Amanda. I think it’s so fun to have an ornament that has the nickname that we used all along during the pregnancy! Amanda and Josh were actually Sam’s first visitors to the hospital!

Lastly, an ornament that I made last year for Ryan. It has the sonogram picture of Sam on it and some information on the back.

It has been a big year for some major life changes and some special ornaments to reflect that! Ryan and I sat back and talked about how our ornaments will soon be ones that Sam will make in school! It is going to be so fun to see the ornaments that are to come and tell Sam about all the adventures each of the present ornaments have. Each one tells a story.

Our 2014 tree

xo

Busiest Weekend, EVER!

 

Happy Monday! Wow…what a weekend! It was SO jammed back with stuff that last night all three of us were exhausted! Sam was down to bed by 6 and Ryan and I followed at 6:30! The good news is that all of the stuff was lots of fun! It’s just too bad it all landed on the same weekend!

The weekend started out with a night out for me!! I can’t remember the last time I had been out of the house alone! Ryan finally had a night off and stayed home with Sam. I headed to the last book club meeting of 2014! We were having our annual potluck supper before beginning the discussion of our latest read, The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. The book discussions must have been really good because I started to lose my voice!

On Saturday morning we were up and getting ready for another busy day ahead! I had a political meeting in the morning and then Ryan had plans after I got home! It was cute when I realized Sam and I were both in plaid and decided it was picture worthy!

Sam went down for an afternoon nap and I got to work on finished some food for our annual girls Christmas potluck. It’s always great to see these girls and this year there are 3 extra little people! Sam, Hayden and Hannah! It’s amazing to think of how much the group has changed and all the special little people that I have the honor of getting to watch grow up.

After potluck I had to drop off Ryan to his truck because he was going to be driving it in the Quyon Christmas parade! Sam and I found a place to park so that we could watch it all! I was worried that the loud sounds and bright lights might scare my boy, who was up WAY past his bedtime! But he was a champ! Unfortunately, we didn’t go sit on Santa’s knee because by that point it was even more past his bedtime and we were both exhausted from our busy day! 

Sunday morning Sam and I skipped out on church because I had no voice! It was best to rest as that afternoon was our Christmas lunch and celebration with my side of the family! I finished getting more food ready and then headed over for around lunch time! As usual, Santa Sam drove…

We had a delicious turkey lunch! And it was only so long before we could keep these crazy two away from the presents…Ha ha!

We spent some time exchanging gifts with my brothers family! His older two are at the PERFECT age for the magic of Christmas! It was hilarious to watch their excitement over the presents!

Future friends and trouble makers!

Sam didn’t have much of an afternoon nap so it was early bed for him! It was hard to keep him up till 6 because he was so tired! Thankfully, he was in good spirits! Once Sam was settled into bed, Ryan and I watched The Great Gatsby. It was a nice way to finish off a busy weekend!

How was your weekend?

xo 

5 On Friday

 

Happy Friday everyone! This week has gone by in a blink! It was one of those weeks where I made a list of things to accomplish, just to make sure I didn’t forget anything! I don’t say this very often but at the beginning of the week I was wishing the weekend away. It was overwhelming how much is going on this weekend! It was more like chaos instead of Christmas cheer! Thankfully, my attitude has changed after getting most of the items on my check list crossed off!

1. One of the things that I accomplished this week was finishing my Christmas baking! I made all of our favourites and some extras for the church! This year they are having a great fundraiser, selling baskets of homemade sweets! I was asked to supply 5 dozen cookies. Easy….or so I thought! You see I always make my sugar cookies with royal icing but usually I just slap on the icing! Knowing that other people will be eating and judging my sweets, made me extra careful to make sure they were perfect! Thankfully, I am THRILLED with how they turned out!

2. The other part of my busy week included wrapping! This is actually one of my favourite Christmas jobs! But having to do the wrapping without my normal Christmas movie background made me mad. Yes, I am actually mad while wrapping these presents out of my typical routine! The only thing that made it better was this cheerful Christmas paper that I bought last January at 75% off!

3. It is an adventure now feeding Sam! You never know what the little wiggle worm is going to be up to! The days of peaceful nursing sessions in front of the TV are LONG gone!

4. Last week I was sitting at the pharmacy waiting on Sam’s prescription when display of lipstick caught my attention! Usually I am a lip balm kind of girl but decided to grab some for a little change! I picked out a BRIGHT red color and has only worn it twice but I love it! I’m still a little shy wearing it but I think I’ll get use to it!

5. Well, I think my dream of a green Christmas gone! We got a big dumping of snow Wednesday night and I don’t see it going anywhere within the next 2 weeks. When I woke up this morning Ryan still hadn’t arrived home from his night shift. I decided, since Sam was still sleeping, that I’d do him a favour and do the snow shovelling! It was a mess! The snow was heavy and I am SO uncoordinated with a shovel! This was basically me….

Nothing says Happy Thursday like a face full of snow at 5 Am…ugh! Ha ha!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

xo

Samuel–8 Months

 

Stats:

I don’t really have any official numbers but Sam is getting tall! We went to the children’s hospital this month for a follow up. The nurse weighed you there and it said you were 16.8 pounds, 2 whole pounds less then last month? I was VERY confused so we came home to use the scale and back up to 18 lbs. It got me really worried that my breastmilk was gone and he was starving! I began operation, “fatten up Sammy” and you still eat the same amount of time. I’m thinking he is just going to always be a long and lean little dude (big feet as well!)

Wearing:

We said farewell to 6 month clothing this month! I was still able to squeeze you into some onsies with an extender but not anymore! You re at the tail end of your 9 month clothes as well! Mostly into 12 month stuff but it is a little big on you. As usual, your 9 month PJS are too tight on your long legs so you are wearing 12 month jammies! You are pretty much out of size 3 shoes and starting to wear size 4! We ran out of size 3 diapers and so instead of buying more we just switched you to size 4’s!

Getting dressed in the winter= pain in the butt! The wardrobe part is super cute but then we have to cover it all up with snowsuits and coats! It’s not fun!

Sleep:

No tough love this month because I wanted Sam to eat as much as he could to try and gain some weight. He is very consistent with his times. Bed at 6:30, up at 11 to eat, again at 1-3 and up for the day around 6:00! It’s a lot but those night feeds are all of about 10 minutes total! I can do it with my eyes closed now! Thankfully,  Sam is an AMAZING napper! 9 AM nap for about 1 hour and then a 2 hour nap at 1 (usually).

Eating:

If there is any month that I almost threw in the towel with breastfeeding, it was this month! Actually, I was going to do it mostly out of guilt thinking that Sam was starving because I had so little milk supply left. I actually took a night off and let Ryan give him some pumped milk to see how much I could pump. I was able that night to get a full bottle and then became even more confused! So I’ve increased his feedings during the day in hopes to get him to fatten up! We’ll see this coming month at a nurse appointment! The last couple of weeks I have began to come to terms that if he hasn’t gained weight, then I am going to switch to formula.

Sam is still an amazing eater of solids! He gobbles up his purees three times a day and after each meal, I throw some real food on his tray and he attempts to eat it! Usually he just ends up sucking on this food but it’s good practice!

Appearance:

Oh my little man! That is exactly what you are! All boy and very little baby appearance to you anymore! It is even more so with you fancy “big boy” hair!

I think you know you are a little charmer and that you can get your way easily with this big brown eyes! For the most part, we only see you smile!

Likes:

There is SO much that you like now it’s hard to keep track of it all!

I think bath time would be number one! You get SO excited everytime we are even near a bathtub now!

You love to roll around on the floor and get into mischief by getting under the furniture!

You are all boy and it is clear by the toys that you like the most! Anything with wheels or anything in the shape of a ball (that you proceed to throw).

This is pretty embarrassing but you have found your “third leg” and your hand instantly tries to find it when your diaper comes off! Ugh…#boyproblems

Dislikes:

You are so not a big fan of getting in and out of your car seat! Not to mention getting into and out of your snowsuits! I guess you hate being tied down!

You get SO mad when you try to crawl or go somewhere but you can’t. We won’t be able to stop you once you do figure it out!

Milestones:

First snow fall on November 7 plus your first road trip (of long distance) to visit family in North Bay!

Not so fun milestone, but on November 11 you got your first flu! It was a miserable day and I would have done ANYTHING to be sick for you!

Your first time back at the camp with the boys was on November 15!

We bundled up for our first walk with the sleigh on November 17!

You learnt how to wave (or so we think) on November 18!

We started decking the halls and helped us decorate  your first Christmas tree on November 30!

Geez it was a tough month because on December 2, a day before you turned 8 months old, you developed Thrush!

Mommy:

This month had it’s challenges in the world of Mommyland! Between illness’ and Sam being very clingy, there were times where I grew patience as a Mom. The thing that was the biggest test was depending on my gut again as to what to do in tough circumstances! Don’t worry, there were still there times that I called on my mother for a second opinion! ha ha!

The other big change this month is dealing with Sam for 100% of the day and night by myself. Ryan just wasn’t available because of his schedule switching to nights. There are many days where there is no break. I grew a huge appreciated for single parents! I really don’t understand how they do it!

The holiday season is just around the corner and even though it is so busy, I am trying to make everything extra special! It’s our first Christmas with a little one and I am so excited to participate in all the traditions in the years to come!

Daddy:

It’s been easy this month to appreciate Ryan for all that he does do. It’s clear that Ryan and I are very different in parenting and housekeeping styles but he does wonderful. Sam literally lights up and starts giggling the instant that he sees Ryan! He knows with Daddy around, there is about to be some serious play time and fun happening!

Ryan was wearing himself out by getting less sleep so that he could see more of us. Thankfully, we have worked out a great schedule!

Ryan’s main jobs with Sam are bath and feeding solids! He loves to get in there and help with whatever he can.

Other:

This month there was a lot of major growth in your motor skills. You can sometimes stand up by yourself, roll to whatever you want and crawl backwards!

My goodness you love music! You are admire all music and like to try to create your own!

Letter:

My Dearest Sam,

Happy December! It’s going to be a very exciting month! You don’t know it yet, but there are so many fun years ahead as we celebrate Christmas as a family! Mom and Dad have a couple wishes for you and Christmas. One, we hope that we are able to teach you the true meaning of Christmas and two, that we make some wonderful memories for you.

You have no idea how much you bring to our lives. Your silly smile can brighten the most rotten days! Some of the best days are the simple ones. The nights on the floor in the livingroom watching you explore, splashing in the bath and last snuggles before bed.

You see, Dad and I always knew that we wanted to have a family one day. What we didn’t realize was the amazing impact it would have on our lives.

I love you!

Love, Mommy

xo