5 Years

Cole's birthday is today and it made me think of when we started dating.  We became a couple a week before his 20th birthday 5 years ago.  It's amazing to think how much has happened in those 5 years- we dated, got engaged, got married, lived in 3 different cities together, created 2 babies together, I graduated university, Cole is more than half way through his degree... Some days it feels like all I do is laundry, dishes and diapers but when I step back a little- my twenties have been pretty full. 

Here is a look at our first year as a couple (you'd think because we were together for a year before we got married there would be more pictures...but we were never really camera people)...

The weekend we became an official couple- a YSA conference in Nanaimo, where we now live

On our way home from the conference- Mrs Riches Mountain Burgers (this was end of March 2008- we got married April 2009 and Jacqueline and Justin *not dating in the picture yet* married November 2012)

Carefree and Silly

Rainy Saturday afternoon at Cole's apartment

Cole meeting my parents (note: I had already lived in Victoria for a few years but this was the first time my whole family felt the need to come visit me....)

Cole's first trip to Vancouver to see my family- on the skytrain to the PNE

I think this was during our Thanksgiving trip to Vancouver

First Christmas together- Engaged and both living in Vancouver now

Engagement Picture

Engagement Picture

....also known as the best looking year of our relationship....

Escape Artist Part 2

Yesterday morning I heard K chatting away in her crib- a sign I usually have a few more minutes to lay in bed before getting her.  But before I knew it I heard a bang and a loud scream.  I rushed into her room and found her standing on the ground...outside her crib. 

I had just spent the last couple weeks agonizing and debating about whether we should move her into a toddler bed when we move to a new place in May or if we should wait till after the baby is born when she's closer to 2.  I eventually decided that I was going to keep her in her crib as long as possible.  We wouldn't need the crib for the baby for a while because he or she will be in the bassinet in our room for quite a while. 

This has pretty much been my experience for every transition K has gone through.  I stress out about the timing and then when I've decided to wait a little longer, she goes and does it even faster than expected.  I had never anticipated that she'd need a toddler bed before May.  She's not even technically 18 months.  K never got the memo that as long as we are still counting her age in months, she can feel free to still act like a baby. 

Toddler Bed Setting

So now we felt even if K wasn't quite ready for a big girl bed (or we weren't), it wasn't safe to wait any longer.  She has no real fear when it comes to acrobatics and we were worried she may injure herself in a serious way if we continued to let her stay in her crib.  This escape left her with a scratch on her forehead and a big red mark on her ribs.  We thought we should quit while we were still ahead.

Cole switched her crib into the toddler bed setting yesterday before nap time and K had her first two sleeping experiences in her new bed.  (We will buy her a new toddler bed when we move into the new house and put this bed back to a crib for the new baby).  During nap time she climbed out of the bed a few times and took a little while to go to sleep and then only slept for an hour and half.  That night she took an hour to fall asleep, spending most of that time crying while I periodically sat by her bed with her.  She didn't climb out once during the night, which we were really impressed with.  She did wake up a couple times after she fell asleep but it's hard to know if we can blame the bed switch since she's also got a cold right now and every time she woke up it was after a coughing attack- so she may have woken up upset even if she was still in her crib.  After I gave her some tylenol at her 4am coughing attack, she slept till 8.  Today's nap went really well- she only climbed out once right after I put her in her bed and after that went straight to sleep and slept for 3 hours (a long nap by K's standards). 

I feel happy and sad that she's adjusting.  I'm glad she feels secure enough to make this transition quickly and do something that probably makes her feel a little nervous.  I'm sad that it's happening so soon.  There doesn't seem to be much that's still "baby" about her.  It's all happening much faster than I'd like- she seems to be in a hurry to grow up.

Gender: F

I had a prenatal check up this morning- my first since my ultrasound.  The doctor asked if I wanted to know the sex of the baby and I said no.  Cole really wants to know but I like the surprise and I'm not ok with only one of us knowing. 

In the car on the way home, I could tell Cole was keeping something from me and I got it out of him that he thought he saw the sex of the baby by accident.  He's not much for keeping secrets.  I got upset because now one of us knew and because he didn't get it confirmed by the doctor, there was no way to know for sure if Cole really saw what he thought he saw without going back to the office and then we WOULD know.  I was bummed. 

But then in the midst of the conversation, it came out that the little letter classifying gender that Cole read came off a sheet of paper.  I then understood what had happened.  The only place the gender of the baby existed in the office was on the doctor's computer.  Cole happened to see a little F on a sheet of paper the doctor was holding as we left the office.  I had also read that paper- many times. That sheet of paper was MY medical records- the same sheet they print out at every visit that sits on the doctor's desk.  So the paper with the little F...was telling Cole that his wife is Female. 

So the gender is indeed F- but that is no big surprise...we already knew I'M a girl.  Our baby may be an F...but for us it will still be a surprise! 

KoKos

While we were in Vancouver for the Holidays, Cole and I took K to an indoor play house where she had lots of fun.  There was a toddler's area but it was pretty lame, so Cole took her up into the big kids area but had to climb it all himself.  She was great on the SLIDE by herself now- she's really got the hang of it. 

She did very well and so did Cole because I doubt in my pregnant state I could have been successful climbing through all the obstacles.  It was great to see her run around wild- I can't believe how fast she's growing up.  She thinks she's growing up, too, because everytime we tried to take her to the tots area she looked at us like it was lame....and it was.....and would bolt for the gate.  The slides she rides in the videos at the top of the blog were her favourite.  Cole took her on 2 other slides, one with her and one where I caught her- both a little too big for her yet.  I still think $8 is a little expensive to have a 1 year old run around...especially if we kept her in the area designated for her age, but I suppose since she got to experience everything it's ok.  Probably great for birthday parties.

Slide Video: http://youtu.be/d2QWtrjgZ9k

December 2012

The holiday season has come and gone- the last my little family will celebrate just the 3 of us.  Next year we are 4.  Our Christmas celebrations began on the 6th with tree chopping.  Ever since I can remember, one of my favourite family Christmas traditions has been chopping down our own tree.  When I was a kid my family would go with my grandparents and sometimes my Aunt and Uncle or our downstairs neighbour who was like an Aunt to me.  We'd have to drive a ways to find a tree farm- they didn't really exist in metro-Vancouver.  My grandma would always pick a tall, skinny, somewhat sparse tree and my family would find a big, fat, full one.  Then, usually on a Sunday or Monday for Family Home Evening, my mom would make treats and we'd listen to Christmas music and decorate it.  I can still remember the year my parents picked up the tree from Home Depot.  My heart almost broke.  But tree farms were not so easy to get to by then and the tradition of cutting down the tree died away.  Thankfully, on the island, it's still fairly easy to go cut down a tree and Cole cuts down a tree every years for us.  In Nanaimo, it's super easy as GoGo's is like a 5 minute drive from our house and all the trees are $25.  Last year, K rode in a snuggli; this year, she stomped around in the mud in her boots until they fell off and I ended up carrying her.  Her right boot is still too big.   I also made treats and we listened to Christmas music as we decorated our tree.  Then Kailey went to bed and we watched It's A Wonderful Life.  It took me till I was an adult, for some reason, to watch the movie, but now it's a family tradition every Christmas. 

Christmas Tree Hunting 2011

Christmas Tree Hunting 2012

Christmas Tree Hunting 2012

Christmas Tree Hunting 2012

Christmas Tree Decorating 2012

 I don't usually do Christmas baking- I'm not much of a baker- but this year I decided I felt like making some yummy treats and giving them out to some neighbours and friends.  I made Skor Bars, sugar cookies with butter cream icing, cranberry bliss bars, chocolate covered peanut butter rice krispie balls, butterscotch chip brownie cookies (I still don't know what to call them- I've never known a name for them) and later on for my visiting teaching sisters, I made a cranberry orange quick bread.  All pretty tasty. 

We got K to sit for the traditional Santa picture.  She did very well last year.  This year she was apprehensive but the photographer had K sit on Cole's knee and then had Cole lean out of the picture and had Santa lean in so you couldn't really tell Cole was there.  Worked really well. 

2011

2012- How much changes in a year!

Cole had the 21st till the 26th off so we headed over to Vancouver to stay with my parents.  We went to Stanley Park for the Christmas Train- K enjoyed herself and the rain held off.

My mom always hosts a Christmas Eve prime rib dinner with my grandparents (which I enjoy so much more than turkey).  That night K opened up her new pajamas (a fleece Tinkerbell nighty) and my parents also gave her a stuffed lamb. 

Christmas Eve Night

Christmas morning was more fun this year as K could actually participate.  She went running for the big stuffed pillow pig my youngest sister bought her.  She had enough attention for about 3 presents and then was wondering around.  I did manage to get 1 video of her opening a present to document the morning.  She received a new play kitchen, play food, shopping cart, some clothes, new running shoes, colouring books, and some stuffed animals, including her giant pig.  Cole and I decided not to buy gifts this year for each other as our Vegas trip was technically our Christmas trip, just taken a couple months earlier.  Also, we took ourselves to the Tigh Na Mara at the end of December and that was about all that we could financially handle this year with Cole still in full time school.  My mom me a fluffy new robe I had been wanting, Cole got a CFL book and as a family we received a new screen gazebo kind of thing for camping- to put over your table or sitting area to keep out of the sun, rain or mosquitoes.  We were very excited for this as we do a lot of camping but haven't found it a big enough necessity to pick up ourselves. 

Present Video: http://youtu.be/vBPYMGRAreQ

Christmas night we headed to my grandparents' house where we take a big family picture and eat a turkey dinner.  Turkey dinner is something I'd happily give up.  I really don't care for a roasted turkey.  K ate really well and also got a new doll from her great-grandparents.

My extended family

Our family of 3 1/2

Boxing Day my sister and her new husband came to visit and we all went to see Jack Reacher while my youngest sister (who had already seen the movie) stayed home with K.  The movie was far better than I was expecting (especially since I was expecting crap).  The previews are completely misleading about what the movie is about.  Cole caught an evening ferry and the rest of us went to a family friend's house for dinner.  K loved playing with their golden retriever.  She loves dogs.

On the 28th, my two youngest sisters (17, 20) came back to Nanaimo with me and K so Cole and I could enjoy some live in babysitting help and they could see K a little more.  That weekend we headed to Parksville to take advantage of a "Winter Warm Up" special, where we stayed in a spa bungalow and had $20 flex credit to use at the spa or restaurant.  We used it for dinner...which was disappointing.  The Cedar Room is pretty pricey and they spend a lot of time trying to appear fancy but when it came down to the food tasting good, I thought they could have spent more time on that.  The baked brie was more fig compote than brie, Cole's steak was overdone and mine was underdone, the vegetables had been little more than blanched and had zero seasoning applied to them, the garlic mashed potatoes contained no garlic as far as I could tell and the creme brule was just average.  If you're going to charge more than average, BE more than average!  The presentation was excellent but that annoys me more.  Food should not look prettier than it tastes- that's just disappointing.  The room, however, was very nice.  And I slept 8 hours and didn't even remember my dreams- it was the sleep of the dead.  Just what I needed.  

New Years Eve this year was supposed to be rung in at a friend's party but the hostess got sick so we made other plans.  Cole, my sisters, K and I enjoyed some pizza before Cole and I headed to a movie: we saw Life of Pi.  Normally I'm against movie adaptions of books (against myself watching them I mean) but I had heard so many good reviews and then I got one review from someone I trusted on the subject and decided there was nothing else out I'd rather see anyways.  It was really well done.  The book is still more epic and totally worth the read, but I commend Ang Lee on a job well done.  I'm re-reading Life of Pi right now for the 3rd time and loving it (it's January's book club pick).  It is such a beautiful book and I will continue to read it every 5 years or so, I'm sure.  Mostly when I recommend the book, people either come back saying they loved it or hated it.

After the movie, we came back home to play games with my sisters and hang out with K (who stayed up till midnight) and ring in the new year at home with family.  It was really nice.  K was happy to have us there.  She got antsy around 11pm but made it to the countdown then went  to sleep easily.  The video below is of K having a laughing fit that night.  Pretty funny- I came in a little late, but still got some good giggles.

Watch Laughing Fit Video Here.

Happy New Year!

Escape Artist

On Boxing Day my whole family, excluding my youngest sister Alexis who was home babysitting, went to the movies as has been the tradition for Boxing Day for the last few years.  Before the movie starts we get a call from Alexis telling us K was put down for a nap in the basement but shortly after she heard crying that sounded much closer than it should have.  She opened the door the leads down to the basement and there was K- out of her play pen.  This is a first. 

Later that night at bedtime, K proceeded to climb out of her bed multiple times all the way up till midnight and each time managed to get by whatever boundaries I had set up to keep her from climbing the stairs by herself.  It was a long night.

Last night my mom and I created a prison so that the great escaping act would not be repeated again.  It was successful and K was very angry but eventually fell asleep and slept 13 hours making up for the awful night before. 

Chair backs blocking every side of the play pen

The way to the stairs blocked by a couch turned around, a coat rack, a box and a big plant.

I pray that when we return home today that K does not figure out climbing out her crib as successfully as the play pen.  The crib is much deeper and higher off the ground than the little play pen at my mom's.  

The real trouble has begun...

Nap Time Heroes

Right around 10-12 months (K's age), I was feeling like a superstar.  I was feeling almost completely back to normal and had so much energy and K was napping like a superstar so I was getting so much done during the day.  I exercised and read and cleaned and cooked etc, etc while she napped for 2-3 hours in the afternoon.  Then September hit and I couldn't seem to keep awake and was napping again in the afternoon.  That's when I took a pregnancy test and saw the double lines.  Now I am EXHAUSTED! All the time.  Even while I'm sleeping, I'm exhausted because of those vivid pregnancy dreams. 

I'm not someone who gains all kinds of new, bouncy energy when I grow a baby.  I'm the tired blob on the couch.  The first time it didn't even matter, there was no one else in the house to watch- I could sleep all I wanted (especially after my sick leave).  This time, I have a 1 year old.  She still naps but now I HAVE to nap when she naps or I can't make it through the day.  I no longer feel like a superstar.  I don't exercise or read or cook while she naps anymore.  Now I sleep. 

Lately, I haven't been falling asleep when she does, I've been falling asleep closer to when she wakes up.  This is a big problem.  She's still essentially a baby- a baby who can climb and run and get into everything so I can't leave her unattended.  But I found the real superstar in the house- my PVR and PBS.  I'm so not above turning on the tv and letting it do some semi-babysitting for me...especially these days.  If any of you have seen my child, she's always moving, never still.  When I put on Sesame Street or Super Why, she is still and contained and quiet and not getting into trouble.  So lately, when she's woken up from a nap, I've blocked the living room off so she can't get to the rest of the house, put on Sesame Street or Super Why (sometimes both back to back!!!) and napped on the couch (in the same room as her).  It's a mom nap- every 5 to 10 minutes I wake up and make sure she's not doing anything bad and then go back to sleep.  It has been a lifesaver.

I still don't feel like a superstar: I'm still not exercising, I'm still a blob...but I'm not as tired.  And that feels like a miracle!