Only a week old, and already Katie is her own little person. She looks less scrunched, less red, less comatose. She looks more and more like me as a baby girl. She has my chin and my lips. Definitely has my eyebrows and my toes. And yet, with all these differences, she still looks remarkably like Miss Maddie did as a newborn too. My girls.
We call Katie our little squeaker. She is the loudest sleeper I have ever heard. Snorts and snuffs. Squeaks and squeals. It's amazing she doesn't wake herself up.
Tonight we leave for our first road trip to Kingston to visit family for the long weekend. I feel brave and I feel stupid. I remember my first trip down to visit the grandparents when Maddie was almost a month old and I hated it. It took over 4 hours (on what should be a 2 hour drive) because she needed to eat twice and cried so much I kept pulling over and trying to make her more comfortable. I remember thinking I would *never*ever* do another trip with such a young baby again.
Make me proud with your sleepiness Katie...
xxoo.S
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Peeking out from the cocoon
As I'm sure you've guessed by now, we have our new little addition to the family. Katharine (Katie) Jeananne was born on her due date - June 23rd at 10:22pm. Weighing in at 7lbs 12oz and a shorty-short 19-inches long. She looks like me, she looks like Maddie, she looks like her Daddy. She's ours alright...
It all started the day before with what I kept calling "pre-labour" pains. Crampy, irregular and nothing to write home about - but I did decide to start putting the Maddie babysitters on call, in case something did start to get a bit more advanced. After being in labour with Maddie for over 3 days, I figured I had some time to work with.
Turns out I was right - and got to enjoy full-on contractions (that weren't progressing) all through the night. By the next morning everything was about 10-12 minutes apart, so I told the Hubs to plan on working from home, but I expected we had until late afternoon or so. By about 11am everything started to go a little pear shaped - contractions got stronger, less tolerable, and faster in timing. At this stage, the Hubs was frantically trying to put out a few work fires that had cropped up, and I was unsuccessfully trying to "distract" myself with bad daytime tv.
A call was put in to the midwives around 2pm and based on what they could tell over the phone, they decided to forgo the at-home check-in visit and just meet us at the hospital for 3:30pm. I wish I could tell you that I got there and it just popped out like a greased watermelon - but yeah, I already gave away the time of birth. So fast-forward another 6 hours of labour - I did my best to go "au natural" but 7 centimeters and 4 hours later I broke down and begged for drugs. The epidural went in around 8pm, my water broke while the anesthesiologist was still in the room and I was ready to start pushing just before 10pm.
All in all? If I can compare labour with Maddie? It was same-same but different.
Long pre-labour contraction lead-up in both cases (granted it was much longer with Maddie, but I'm clearly not one of those girls that wakes up in the middle of the night, gently wakes the Hubs with a whispered "It's Time.").
With Maddie I got the epidural right away and spent almost 12 hours of labour laying on my side on a hospital bed, with a pitocin drip while everyone closely watched the fetal monitor which was slightly freaky. But painless. With Katie - well I tried everything humanely possible to get through labour without the epi - shower, jacuzzi, massage, walking, not walking, laying down, sitting on labour ball, nitrous oxide gas... only to breakdown and ask for it because I hadn't progressed a single centimeter in an hour and that my friends, is hella-deflating when you've battled through what you thought was "transition".
With Maddie, by the time the "pushing" stage got there, my epi drip had run out - so I did that part "au natural" and damn - it was painful. With Katie I was so numb that I had midwives on either side of me holding my legs up so I could actually attempt a push. I didn't feel her come out at all - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think that part could have gone faster if I could actually feel what I was doing at that stage. Not that I'm complaining...
Maddie came out not breathing, had to be suctioned and was whisked off to the warming tray before I could barely glimpse her. Katie came out wailing, was immediately put on my chest and started rooting for the breast almost immediately.
Hmm, now that I explain it like that, I'd say less same-same and more different-different is really how the two experiences stack up.
Big kudos go out to the midwives - if you are considering a pregnancy and haven't thought of a midwife - I would highly HIGHLY recommend it. They're not an added cost - completely covered by OHIP, and they're not all granola-touchy-feely. But it was really a more personal, private, considerate experience than I had before - which was a lot more "medicalized", I realize now.
And the bonus with midwives? You can check out of the hospital as early as 3 hours post-labour. We were home that night by 4am (because it took me 2 hours before I could pee on my own - and that is apparently a pre-requisite to get out of the hospital). It didn't feel strange to leave so early - in fact it was a relief. I got to sleep in my own bed, see Maddie before going to daycare that morning, eat my own food (and not have to eat hospital food!) and did I mention sleep? In my own, comfortable bed? Yep, that was sweet.
Katie has been a darling so far - she slept a tonne when we first got home. And then she wanted to eat. And Eat. And Eat. Andeatandeatandeatandeat. It got a little hairy and scary and teary and hormonal. And then I broke down and let the Hubs give her some formula... and that didn't make a difference. So she and I took to my bed and just ate and slept and ate and slept as much as she'd let me.
I realize we are making all the same mistakes we made before with Maddie - and we really do plan on getting her in her crib and sleeping on her own... in a week or so... Yes, I'm a total sucker...
I'll leave you with some pics. I'd love to show you the classic post-push baby shot with Mama, except the Hubs didn't notice my nipple-slip in every.single.shot. Classic.
It all started the day before with what I kept calling "pre-labour" pains. Crampy, irregular and nothing to write home about - but I did decide to start putting the Maddie babysitters on call, in case something did start to get a bit more advanced. After being in labour with Maddie for over 3 days, I figured I had some time to work with.
Turns out I was right - and got to enjoy full-on contractions (that weren't progressing) all through the night. By the next morning everything was about 10-12 minutes apart, so I told the Hubs to plan on working from home, but I expected we had until late afternoon or so. By about 11am everything started to go a little pear shaped - contractions got stronger, less tolerable, and faster in timing. At this stage, the Hubs was frantically trying to put out a few work fires that had cropped up, and I was unsuccessfully trying to "distract" myself with bad daytime tv.
A call was put in to the midwives around 2pm and based on what they could tell over the phone, they decided to forgo the at-home check-in visit and just meet us at the hospital for 3:30pm. I wish I could tell you that I got there and it just popped out like a greased watermelon - but yeah, I already gave away the time of birth. So fast-forward another 6 hours of labour - I did my best to go "au natural" but 7 centimeters and 4 hours later I broke down and begged for drugs. The epidural went in around 8pm, my water broke while the anesthesiologist was still in the room and I was ready to start pushing just before 10pm.
All in all? If I can compare labour with Maddie? It was same-same but different.
Long pre-labour contraction lead-up in both cases (granted it was much longer with Maddie, but I'm clearly not one of those girls that wakes up in the middle of the night, gently wakes the Hubs with a whispered "It's Time.").
With Maddie I got the epidural right away and spent almost 12 hours of labour laying on my side on a hospital bed, with a pitocin drip while everyone closely watched the fetal monitor which was slightly freaky. But painless. With Katie - well I tried everything humanely possible to get through labour without the epi - shower, jacuzzi, massage, walking, not walking, laying down, sitting on labour ball, nitrous oxide gas... only to breakdown and ask for it because I hadn't progressed a single centimeter in an hour and that my friends, is hella-deflating when you've battled through what you thought was "transition".
With Maddie, by the time the "pushing" stage got there, my epi drip had run out - so I did that part "au natural" and damn - it was painful. With Katie I was so numb that I had midwives on either side of me holding my legs up so I could actually attempt a push. I didn't feel her come out at all - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think that part could have gone faster if I could actually feel what I was doing at that stage. Not that I'm complaining...
Maddie came out not breathing, had to be suctioned and was whisked off to the warming tray before I could barely glimpse her. Katie came out wailing, was immediately put on my chest and started rooting for the breast almost immediately.
Hmm, now that I explain it like that, I'd say less same-same and more different-different is really how the two experiences stack up.
Big kudos go out to the midwives - if you are considering a pregnancy and haven't thought of a midwife - I would highly HIGHLY recommend it. They're not an added cost - completely covered by OHIP, and they're not all granola-touchy-feely. But it was really a more personal, private, considerate experience than I had before - which was a lot more "medicalized", I realize now.
And the bonus with midwives? You can check out of the hospital as early as 3 hours post-labour. We were home that night by 4am (because it took me 2 hours before I could pee on my own - and that is apparently a pre-requisite to get out of the hospital). It didn't feel strange to leave so early - in fact it was a relief. I got to sleep in my own bed, see Maddie before going to daycare that morning, eat my own food (and not have to eat hospital food!) and did I mention sleep? In my own, comfortable bed? Yep, that was sweet.
Katie has been a darling so far - she slept a tonne when we first got home. And then she wanted to eat. And Eat. And Eat. Andeatandeatandeatandeat. It got a little hairy and scary and teary and hormonal. And then I broke down and let the Hubs give her some formula... and that didn't make a difference. So she and I took to my bed and just ate and slept and ate and slept as much as she'd let me.
I realize we are making all the same mistakes we made before with Maddie - and we really do plan on getting her in her crib and sleeping on her own... in a week or so... Yes, I'm a total sucker...
I'll leave you with some pics. I'd love to show you the classic post-push baby shot with Mama, except the Hubs didn't notice my nipple-slip in every.single.shot. Classic.
Proud Daddy
Swaddled
Family shot (yes, she's totally on my boob in this picture)
Nekkid baby bum.
Me - looking like I've had zero sleep. Oh wait...
I will do my best to keep the pics and updates coming... we're still feeling very "new" over here and the days are still a bit of a blur. All the Grandparents have come for their visits and we are now on our own... luckily they left us with a rather massively-packed fridge. Which I am doing my best to currently eat my way through...
xxoo.S
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Making friends
Our neighbours (no, not them) have three children - ages 1, 4 and 7 (ish - I think)... the middle child is the only girl and is probably one of the most adorable, patient little girls I have ever met.
Reason for me raving over her?
She is Maddie's new B.F.F. And any kid that is lovely and patient and kind to my Miss Madds is a fabulous little person in my books.
But what's been even more heart-warming has been watching this little friendship develop. Just a few months ago they barely noticed each other. Well, that's not quite true, this little girl has been quite interested in Maddie for a while, but Madds has been shy, still very toddler-esque, not really noticing that hey, kids live next door. Kids that she could play with. Kids that could be fun!
And then the other day she ran over and introduced herself and that.was.it. Now if said little girl is outside, I watch Maddie practically hum with excitement. Seriously, she is enamoured with this little girl.
Mind you, she's still 1.5 years younger - which maybe makes the adorableness of their friendship so cute to me. Because essentially Maddie just mimicks, follows and repeats whatever her friend is doing. Hence my gratitude to the patience and kindness of this little girl - because even just being 4 years old she gets it. She gets that Maddie is younger, but still wants to hang out with her. And she gets that perhaps Maddie isn't as sophisticated in her mental capacity or physical prowess, so the little girl just tailors their activities to suit Maddie.
Maybe it's me being pg-hormonal. Maybe it's that I was such a socially awkward little kid (and still am - good lord, but I hate making small talk). But watching another child act so benevolent with their friendship, to watch two children that really are at two very different developmental stages, strike up such a lovely, fun, playful friendship?
It's effing adorable.
And watching Maddie so full of confidence, so without reserve, so open and friendly and so essentially, unlike me, as a child?
Well, that makes me feel like we're doing a pretty good job at this parenting gig,
xxoo.S
Reason for me raving over her?
She is Maddie's new B.F.F. And any kid that is lovely and patient and kind to my Miss Madds is a fabulous little person in my books.
But what's been even more heart-warming has been watching this little friendship develop. Just a few months ago they barely noticed each other. Well, that's not quite true, this little girl has been quite interested in Maddie for a while, but Madds has been shy, still very toddler-esque, not really noticing that hey, kids live next door. Kids that she could play with. Kids that could be fun!
And then the other day she ran over and introduced herself and that.was.it. Now if said little girl is outside, I watch Maddie practically hum with excitement. Seriously, she is enamoured with this little girl.
Mind you, she's still 1.5 years younger - which maybe makes the adorableness of their friendship so cute to me. Because essentially Maddie just mimicks, follows and repeats whatever her friend is doing. Hence my gratitude to the patience and kindness of this little girl - because even just being 4 years old she gets it. She gets that Maddie is younger, but still wants to hang out with her. And she gets that perhaps Maddie isn't as sophisticated in her mental capacity or physical prowess, so the little girl just tailors their activities to suit Maddie.
Maybe it's me being pg-hormonal. Maybe it's that I was such a socially awkward little kid (and still am - good lord, but I hate making small talk). But watching another child act so benevolent with their friendship, to watch two children that really are at two very different developmental stages, strike up such a lovely, fun, playful friendship?
It's effing adorable.
And watching Maddie so full of confidence, so without reserve, so open and friendly and so essentially, unlike me, as a child?
Well, that makes me feel like we're doing a pretty good job at this parenting gig,
xxoo.S
Monday, June 21, 2010
Maddie bits
We all know the only child status Maddie currently enjoys, being the centre of our world, little princess ruler of the household - yeah, the end is nigh on that one for sure... And instead of another post lamenting just how she's going to handle it, what kind of change it's going to make to the family dynamic, yadda yadda yadda - well, instead of all that, I'm just going to list some of her latest quirks, so I can look back and feel all fond and loving and reminiscent about what I'm sure to start lamenting as "the easy times"...
- We've passed the stage of when she used to start all her sentences with "Maddie", but she still hasn't figured out how to use "I" properly. Instead it's "my". As in "My come too!". For a while I thought she was still saying "Maddie" just really fast, then I realized, nope - it's "My".
- Speaking of toddler-speak-grammar - I still love that she uses the word "TOO" to preface anything she wants to show enthusiasm for. As in "I love you tooooooo much Daddy" or "That's tooooooo funny Mama".
- Luckily we haven't passed the stage of her totally catching on to our Jedi-mind-tricks just yet. Want her to get her ass upstairs for bathtime? Challenge her to a "race" up the stairs. Get her to stop whining and grumping and just losing her shit in general? Challenge her "not to laugh (or smile - that works too)". Want to get her to follow you somewhere (like out of the store)? Start walking away and say, "Oh, I guess I'll have to leave you here". Sidebar? She totally uses this last one on me all the time when she wants me to come with her. Threatens to leave me there - like, I'm afraid of being left alone while I laze about on the couch. Nice try, kid...
- I'm sure I've talked about how "binkie-obsessed" she is - but have I ever told you about "binkie rubs"? (Sounds like a downtown massage-parlor specialty, doesn't it?). It started a while ago, when just one binkie wasn't enough for our dear Madds. She had to have 3 in her hands at all times (or at least during a "binkie-designated-time"). And when she got tired or upset, she'd suck on one, rub one against her cheek with one hand and hold the other in the other hand. It's now progressed to when she gets tired or sucky or miserable and you're holding her, that she'll attempt to make you feel "better" too with a binkie-rub. Kind of adorable in a weirdo-omg-how-will-we-ever-break-this-soother-habit kind of way...
- Her imaginative play skills are kicking into high-gear. Which also means more and more independent play. And me chuckling to myself, while I make dinner and listen to her re-enact arguments or bedtime rituals with her dolls that we do on a nightly basis - but with her acting the part of "Mommy". And don't get me started on the adorableness of when she practically rolls her eyes and tells me "It's just for pretend, Mama" if I ask her about what she's doing.
- One of her favourite snacks is frozen peas (she comes by this naturally, I`m a big frozen food eaten in frozen state fan) - but now as she discovers different snack foods, that she loves, like raisins for example (and yes, she's 2.5 years old and only getting into raisins now because she hated them when we tried them like a year ago and I just never really tried again) (because I'm lazy) (and I don't much care for raisins)... but now she LURVES raisins - except she doesn't just call them raisins. They're called "frozen raisins". Because anything that good, must be frozen right? Yeah, maybe this is only funny to me...
- This last one she'll probably hate me for when she's 14 and reading all my documentation of her little "quirks" - but whatevs, it has to be shared... With all the potty-training going on, Maddie's been spending a lot of time pant-less, because either she recently had an accident, or whipped off her undies during the last potty-run and refused to put them back on (yes, this is a battle that rages because my daughter's a nudist, plain and simple). So the other night, while eating dinner, I actually had to use the words "Do not put peas in your vagina!". Frozen peas? Really Maddie? Really? Because, up the nose is bad enough...
xxoo.S
A day late and a present short...
So, Father's Day was yesterday.
Let me tell you, I had big plans of writing a sappy post about how awesome of a father the Hubs is. And I had big plans of making a card with Maddie and being all crafty. And I had big plans of surprising him with a new golf bag + box of balls and a blessing to take off for 9 holes. And I had big plans of actually getting some Father's Day cards out in the mail on time to the Grandpas in our life.
And I failed... Because even being off for the entire week wasn't apparently enough for me to get my ass in gear and prepare for any of the above "plans".
Instead the Hubs got some last-minute purchased cards, a promise of a golf bag in the near future, and a 2 lie-ins this weekend. Oh, and Grandpas? Your cards should arrive today... Promise.
But just for the record? He is a pretty awesome Daddy...
xxoo.S
Let me tell you, I had big plans of writing a sappy post about how awesome of a father the Hubs is. And I had big plans of making a card with Maddie and being all crafty. And I had big plans of surprising him with a new golf bag + box of balls and a blessing to take off for 9 holes. And I had big plans of actually getting some Father's Day cards out in the mail on time to the Grandpas in our life.
And I failed... Because even being off for the entire week wasn't apparently enough for me to get my ass in gear and prepare for any of the above "plans".
Instead the Hubs got some last-minute purchased cards, a promise of a golf bag in the near future, and a 2 lie-ins this weekend. Oh, and Grandpas? Your cards should arrive today... Promise.
But just for the record? He is a pretty awesome Daddy...
xxoo.S
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Taking a day off
Who knew a toddler was so.... tiring???
Kudos to all those home daycare providers that actually choose to spend their time with more than one - holy crap, how do you do it and not fall asleep immediately at 6pm every night.
And how are all your houses so clean??
I've thrown up the white flag. Surrendering. Today Maddie is going to daycare. I am spending the day a) shopping for her "present from the bebe", b) taking a bath, c) sleeping, d) attempting to clean the debacle that is our kitchen after my mass cooking episode yesterday, e) sleeping, and f) you guessed it, sleeping.
I can't believe that I thought I would take Maddie to the zoo this week. I can't believe I thought I'd be able to have her home and finish a thousand million to-do's at the same time. I can't believe the guilt I feel at shipping her off to daycare after being home for only 3 days of mat leave.
But don't worry. I don't feel so much guilt that I'd actually change my mind and not send her today. T-minus 60 minutes...
xxoo.S
Kudos to all those home daycare providers that actually choose to spend their time with more than one - holy crap, how do you do it and not fall asleep immediately at 6pm every night.
And how are all your houses so clean??
I've thrown up the white flag. Surrendering. Today Maddie is going to daycare. I am spending the day a) shopping for her "present from the bebe", b) taking a bath, c) sleeping, d) attempting to clean the debacle that is our kitchen after my mass cooking episode yesterday, e) sleeping, and f) you guessed it, sleeping.
I can't believe that I thought I would take Maddie to the zoo this week. I can't believe I thought I'd be able to have her home and finish a thousand million to-do's at the same time. I can't believe the guilt I feel at shipping her off to daycare after being home for only 3 days of mat leave.
But don't worry. I don't feel so much guilt that I'd actually change my mind and not send her today. T-minus 60 minutes...
xxoo.S
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Early morning adventures
So aside from being super-awesome of late, in a great mood, sleeping like a demon and potty-training like a rockstar, Maddie has learned another cool trick.
Getting out of bed, opening her door, and wandering around the house in the early-morning hours.
I remember all my anxiety leading up to the transition to her "big girl" bed - would she fall out, would she hate it, would she jump out of bed every chance she got and never sleep. And then the transition turned out to be the easiest thing in the world... and I was all like, what's with the hoopla people?
Now I get it.
She's known how to open and close doors forever. And she learned how to climb in and out of her bed fairly quickly (why did I ever praise her when she was doing this??).
And then last weekend, she put two and two together. For a while (before she got comfortable with getting out of bed on her own) she would just sit up in bed and call out for me in the morning. Then she started getting out of bed and going to her door, knocking on it, calling for me.
Either of these two was entirely acceptable ways to wake up in my opinion.
Waking up to a stealth-like-ninja-child creeping into my room silently and staring at me from the side of the bed? Not the most relaxing way to wake up.
Even less relaxing? Waking up to an open-doored, empty bedroom and having to search the upstairs for my toddler, who has been up for who knows how long? Very much not relaxing.
Am realizing, as I type this, that I sound like the most irresponsible parent in the world... I'm actually a very light sleeper and have a pretty good mom-sensor as to her wakefulness, so I'm pretty sure she's only ever been up for 5 minutes on her own at the most...
Anyhoo - I should probably note, we ALWAYS have the child-gate secured at the top of the stairs. And all the bathroom cupboards are child-locked. So the worst she can really get up to is pulling out all the towels from the linen closet, going into the baby's room to snoop around the new toys/clothes/bags strewed across the floor, or climb up on the blanket box to look out the hallway window. Pretty benign adventures.
But still a little jarring and so looking online as to what other's suggest I come across two options. Either lock (or secure) the bedroom door (i.e. using those child-proof door-knob covers), or put up a child-gate on the outside of the kids door.
Now the first option, essentially locking the child in their room, while the safest of all options, is not an option (for me). Not that I have an actual phobia about being trapped, but holy shit, that would scare the hell out of me personally and so I really don't fathom doing this to my little miss.
The second option - the baby gate outside the door - well, more humane in at least they see why they are trapped - but still... I can't help but feel like we're moving backwards a bit? And also, the baby gates we currently have from the earlier baby days are too thick to work in the door jamb with the door closed, so yeah... it means we have to go out and buy a new safety gate, just for this.
Unless there's another suggestion that I'm totally missing?
xxoo.S
Getting out of bed, opening her door, and wandering around the house in the early-morning hours.
I remember all my anxiety leading up to the transition to her "big girl" bed - would she fall out, would she hate it, would she jump out of bed every chance she got and never sleep. And then the transition turned out to be the easiest thing in the world... and I was all like, what's with the hoopla people?
Now I get it.
She's known how to open and close doors forever. And she learned how to climb in and out of her bed fairly quickly (why did I ever praise her when she was doing this??).
And then last weekend, she put two and two together. For a while (before she got comfortable with getting out of bed on her own) she would just sit up in bed and call out for me in the morning. Then she started getting out of bed and going to her door, knocking on it, calling for me.
Either of these two was entirely acceptable ways to wake up in my opinion.
Waking up to a stealth-like-ninja-child creeping into my room silently and staring at me from the side of the bed? Not the most relaxing way to wake up.
Even less relaxing? Waking up to an open-doored, empty bedroom and having to search the upstairs for my toddler, who has been up for who knows how long? Very much not relaxing.
Am realizing, as I type this, that I sound like the most irresponsible parent in the world... I'm actually a very light sleeper and have a pretty good mom-sensor as to her wakefulness, so I'm pretty sure she's only ever been up for 5 minutes on her own at the most...
Anyhoo - I should probably note, we ALWAYS have the child-gate secured at the top of the stairs. And all the bathroom cupboards are child-locked. So the worst she can really get up to is pulling out all the towels from the linen closet, going into the baby's room to snoop around the new toys/clothes/bags strewed across the floor, or climb up on the blanket box to look out the hallway window. Pretty benign adventures.
But still a little jarring and so looking online as to what other's suggest I come across two options. Either lock (or secure) the bedroom door (i.e. using those child-proof door-knob covers), or put up a child-gate on the outside of the kids door.
Now the first option, essentially locking the child in their room, while the safest of all options, is not an option (for me). Not that I have an actual phobia about being trapped, but holy shit, that would scare the hell out of me personally and so I really don't fathom doing this to my little miss.
The second option - the baby gate outside the door - well, more humane in at least they see why they are trapped - but still... I can't help but feel like we're moving backwards a bit? And also, the baby gates we currently have from the earlier baby days are too thick to work in the door jamb with the door closed, so yeah... it means we have to go out and buy a new safety gate, just for this.
Unless there's another suggestion that I'm totally missing?
xxoo.S
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
My conundrum
Another neighbour conundrum for you. Same neighbours in fact. Shocking, I know...
So here's the set up:
Our neighbourhood is in love with their lawns. About 80% tend, fertilize, weed and seed on a regular basis. Makes for a lovely looking street, unless you're part of the 20% that have weeds growing, well, like weeds, at the end of your lawn.
Hi! That's us!
And it's not really just the competitive bitch in me that hates the state of my lawn (although knowing that my lawn does not look like Mr. Fantastico's up the street does annoy me every time Maddie and I walk to the park)... I truly don't like weeds, and do truly care about the state of my lawn. Maybe because I haven't had a lawn in so long to call my own? So, before I get into it, let's not question the sanity of being obsessed with a dark green, lush, weedless lawn - it is what it is, and being questioned on why I even want it, is not going to help the story...
So ... last year we paid a service to do things to our lawn. Like fertilize, and aerate and seed. They were... expensive. And they were... not great. As in, didn't come unless I called to harass them. Spread seed so haphazardly that I'm still (this year) picking grass out of my gardens. Needless to say, we decided that we'd take care of it ourselves for a year and see if we could do better.
We bought weed & feed. We bought on-sale black earth, peat moss and sand - Hubs mixed up his own top soil and seeded the living hell out of the lawn. And we weeded. Oh, we weeded. Using the fancy stand up, take a thousand pounds of turf with your weeds $50 weeder. On my hands and knees using my old hand-shaped-like-a-screwdriver weeder.
We put a lot of hours into (attempting to) making our front lawn healthy again. And after doing all this work, it didn't rain for 2 weeks. Which meant we had to water, and water, and water, and-water-and-water-and-water-and-water. And let the grass grow. Give the seedlings time to take hold, get their grip on the new soil and grow a bit.
Which means we didn't cut our lawn for a few weeks.
Yes, seems like a long time - but really, until we got some rain just last week, it wasn't all that forest-y.
But yes, after the weekend, our grass was crazy. Long and wild. Needing a good haircut. Kind of like Maddie (until yesterday).
You know where this is going, right?
So, picture your typical 'burbs set up... We have a driveway. To the left of the driveway is our front lawn, house, walkway, front step etc. And to the right of our driveway we have a 2 foot-wide strip of lawn that goes up to our backyard gate. And on the other side of this narrow strip of lawn is our neighbour's driveway.
Yes, THAT neighbour.
Again, may I reiterate... we were in perfect knowledge that our lawn needed cutting. Well, to be fair. IIIIII was in perfect knowledge of it. I think the Hubs was using the "we need to let the grass take root" excuse out of mowing the lawn a little far... and when I nagged him on Sunday about doing it he made some kind of mumbled promise that he would take care of it this week.
And you know what? I'm 9 months pregnant. I'm NOT mowing the lawn. This "chore" falls clearly into the Hub's camp of responsibility. Always has. Always will (with a few exceptions of when I thought I'd try my hand at mowing. Guess what? Mowing the lawn is not as fun as it looks. 'Effing shocker.)
So boop-boop-sha-loop, Maddie and I take off on a morning full of errands yesterday morning, and what do we come home to?
A freshly mowed small strip of grass between our driveway and our neighbour's driveway. It was mowed within an inch of it's life (because they have healthy grass/turf/whatever, you see - so they can mow it down to the lowest level and it lives just fine - crappy grass? Ain't like that.). The lawn below the sidewalk and all the way up to just where our driveway starts.
Essentially, the part of the lawn that you'd notice while walking or driving by.
Just to be clear. It's not like she did us the "favour" of mowing the entire strip of lawn on that side of the house. She didn't mow all the way back to our back gate (which you can't really see from the road). NO. Just the VIEWABLE portion. That is also attached to her driveway. BUT IS NOT HER LAWN.
Get where I'm going here?
Enter pregnancy-hormone-induced-RAGE. Coupled with MORTIFICATION that my lawn was so clearly such an embarrasment to her, that she felt that it was in her best interest...nay...The Neighbourhood's best interest that it get cut.
Mortification - coupled with rage? Not a great emotion to wear for the rest of the day.
And I know it's really not a big deal. Something I should just laugh off, because, really? Dude? Who cares that much about their neighbour's lawn? And who has the balls to do this? To actually cut someone else's lawn?
And I want to laugh it off. Truly I do. I want to be the "bigger person" and "find the humour" in the situation and "scoff at the ridiculousness" of it all.
Except I can't. I envision myself going over and picking out some of her stupid pink petunias and seeing just what her reaction would be. And I would respond, "Oh, I just thought I was helping. Making it look better. At least, in my humble opinion of how a garden should look."
And (luckily for her) I haven't seen her as of yet. And yes, I know that it was her, and not him - because I've never seen her douchebag of a husband shovel the driveway OR mow the lawn. I'm not sure he does much of anything outside, except sit in his car and smoke and throw his butts on our lawn.
But when I DO see her? Ohhhh, I'm saying something. At least I'm pretty sure I will. Because it's 24 hours later and I'm still pissy about it. Like raging-Hulk-slashed-with-humiliation-style-of-pissy. And I also don't think that it's something I SHOULDN'T address. Because shouldn't she be aware that indeed, that's not fucking okay to do?
Or am I crazy here? Do I need to reign it in? It's entirely possible that these are pg-hormones and not rationality reacting. But I'm pretty sure I'm right. And before you ask, is it worth it, causing neighbour-strife to be RIGHT?
Yes, yes it is. Because these neighbour's are clearly not coming over for tea anytime soon. I don't think if I burned this bridge, I'd be regretting it at all...
xxoo.S
So here's the set up:
Our neighbourhood is in love with their lawns. About 80% tend, fertilize, weed and seed on a regular basis. Makes for a lovely looking street, unless you're part of the 20% that have weeds growing, well, like weeds, at the end of your lawn.
Hi! That's us!
And it's not really just the competitive bitch in me that hates the state of my lawn (although knowing that my lawn does not look like Mr. Fantastico's up the street does annoy me every time Maddie and I walk to the park)... I truly don't like weeds, and do truly care about the state of my lawn. Maybe because I haven't had a lawn in so long to call my own? So, before I get into it, let's not question the sanity of being obsessed with a dark green, lush, weedless lawn - it is what it is, and being questioned on why I even want it, is not going to help the story...
So ... last year we paid a service to do things to our lawn. Like fertilize, and aerate and seed. They were... expensive. And they were... not great. As in, didn't come unless I called to harass them. Spread seed so haphazardly that I'm still (this year) picking grass out of my gardens. Needless to say, we decided that we'd take care of it ourselves for a year and see if we could do better.
We bought weed & feed. We bought on-sale black earth, peat moss and sand - Hubs mixed up his own top soil and seeded the living hell out of the lawn. And we weeded. Oh, we weeded. Using the fancy stand up, take a thousand pounds of turf with your weeds $50 weeder. On my hands and knees using my old hand-shaped-like-a-screwdriver weeder.
We put a lot of hours into (attempting to) making our front lawn healthy again. And after doing all this work, it didn't rain for 2 weeks. Which meant we had to water, and water, and water, and-water-and-water-and-water-and-water. And let the grass grow. Give the seedlings time to take hold, get their grip on the new soil and grow a bit.
Which means we didn't cut our lawn for a few weeks.
Yes, seems like a long time - but really, until we got some rain just last week, it wasn't all that forest-y.
But yes, after the weekend, our grass was crazy. Long and wild. Needing a good haircut. Kind of like Maddie (until yesterday).
You know where this is going, right?
So, picture your typical 'burbs set up... We have a driveway. To the left of the driveway is our front lawn, house, walkway, front step etc. And to the right of our driveway we have a 2 foot-wide strip of lawn that goes up to our backyard gate. And on the other side of this narrow strip of lawn is our neighbour's driveway.
Yes, THAT neighbour.
Again, may I reiterate... we were in perfect knowledge that our lawn needed cutting. Well, to be fair. IIIIII was in perfect knowledge of it. I think the Hubs was using the "we need to let the grass take root" excuse out of mowing the lawn a little far... and when I nagged him on Sunday about doing it he made some kind of mumbled promise that he would take care of it this week.
And you know what? I'm 9 months pregnant. I'm NOT mowing the lawn. This "chore" falls clearly into the Hub's camp of responsibility. Always has. Always will (with a few exceptions of when I thought I'd try my hand at mowing. Guess what? Mowing the lawn is not as fun as it looks. 'Effing shocker.)
So boop-boop-sha-loop, Maddie and I take off on a morning full of errands yesterday morning, and what do we come home to?
A freshly mowed small strip of grass between our driveway and our neighbour's driveway. It was mowed within an inch of it's life (because they have healthy grass/turf/whatever, you see - so they can mow it down to the lowest level and it lives just fine - crappy grass? Ain't like that.). The lawn below the sidewalk and all the way up to just where our driveway starts.
Essentially, the part of the lawn that you'd notice while walking or driving by.
Just to be clear. It's not like she did us the "favour" of mowing the entire strip of lawn on that side of the house. She didn't mow all the way back to our back gate (which you can't really see from the road). NO. Just the VIEWABLE portion. That is also attached to her driveway. BUT IS NOT HER LAWN.
Get where I'm going here?
Enter pregnancy-hormone-induced-RAGE. Coupled with MORTIFICATION that my lawn was so clearly such an embarrasment to her, that she felt that it was in her best interest...nay...The Neighbourhood's best interest that it get cut.
Mortification - coupled with rage? Not a great emotion to wear for the rest of the day.
And I know it's really not a big deal. Something I should just laugh off, because, really? Dude? Who cares that much about their neighbour's lawn? And who has the balls to do this? To actually cut someone else's lawn?
And I want to laugh it off. Truly I do. I want to be the "bigger person" and "find the humour" in the situation and "scoff at the ridiculousness" of it all.
Except I can't. I envision myself going over and picking out some of her stupid pink petunias and seeing just what her reaction would be. And I would respond, "Oh, I just thought I was helping. Making it look better. At least, in my humble opinion of how a garden should look."
And (luckily for her) I haven't seen her as of yet. And yes, I know that it was her, and not him - because I've never seen her douchebag of a husband shovel the driveway OR mow the lawn. I'm not sure he does much of anything outside, except sit in his car and smoke and throw his butts on our lawn.
But when I DO see her? Ohhhh, I'm saying something. At least I'm pretty sure I will. Because it's 24 hours later and I'm still pissy about it. Like raging-Hulk-slashed-with-humiliation-style-of-pissy. And I also don't think that it's something I SHOULDN'T address. Because shouldn't she be aware that indeed, that's not fucking okay to do?
Or am I crazy here? Do I need to reign it in? It's entirely possible that these are pg-hormones and not rationality reacting. But I'm pretty sure I'm right. And before you ask, is it worth it, causing neighbour-strife to be RIGHT?
Yes, yes it is. Because these neighbour's are clearly not coming over for tea anytime soon. I don't think if I burned this bridge, I'd be regretting it at all...
xxoo.S
Oh, hi there!
I've been silent for a while. Well, what can I say? Last week was a bitch. I got sick (again! I know, play another record, right?). I was working like mad, trying desperately to wrap up loose ends and feeling guilty all at the same for all those loose ends that I really was going to have no choice, but leave loose. All in all, it was hectic and crazy and not awesome.
So instead, let's focus on what is awesome. It is Tuesday. I'm 2nd day into mat leave. I have my massive to-do nesting list created (yes this is a good thing, I'm anal and love my lists). And I've got my little Miss M home with me from daycare for her own little "mommy-vacation" for the week.
You know how I always write about how much of a Daddy's girl she is? Well, this past week and half, she's changed her tune quite dramatically. She's all about "momma momma momma" lately. Momma has to play with her. Momma needs to do bath time. Momma has to read the bedtime stories.
In return I get the softest pats on the cheek and a little girl that looks right in my eyes and tells me, "I lub you TOOOOOO much Momma."
Heart. Melting.
Also in the realm of awesome?
So instead, let's focus on what is awesome. It is Tuesday. I'm 2nd day into mat leave. I have my massive to-do nesting list created (yes this is a good thing, I'm anal and love my lists). And I've got my little Miss M home with me from daycare for her own little "mommy-vacation" for the week.
You know how I always write about how much of a Daddy's girl she is? Well, this past week and half, she's changed her tune quite dramatically. She's all about "momma momma momma" lately. Momma has to play with her. Momma needs to do bath time. Momma has to read the bedtime stories.
In return I get the softest pats on the cheek and a little girl that looks right in my eyes and tells me, "I lub you TOOOOOO much Momma."
Heart. Melting.
Also in the realm of awesome?
- Sproggy's room is almost done, just some shelf installation and basket buying and artwork-making (this is the rainy-day activity Madd's and I are going to tackle this week).
- We have the carpet-cleaning guy booked for this Friday (because you can't truly NEST without some steam-cleaning of some kind, right?)
- I cooked and baked like a demon yesterday, and have a few more things to get done today - which means the freezer will be sufficiently stocked for.... oh, the first couple of weeks of newborn-hell, anyways.
- Maddie decided to sleep in all weekend until 7:30am (or later) and take 3.5 hour afternoon naps and that? Was so incredibly fantastic. Especially as Hubs was at a golf thing until late on Friday, cottage all day Saturday until the wee hours of Sunday and therefore slept in on Sunday - so essentially I was on single-parent duty for the majority of the weekend, which, with all that sleep, didn't seem so hard after all.
- Maybe it was all the sleep, but the little glimpse we've had recently of the "terrible-twos" monster seems to have disappeared. She's been a darling of late, very agreeable, very happy - just generally a pretty awesome little kid.
And last but not least? In the past couple of weeks, we decided to try our hand at potty training one more time before the baby arrived. Maddie showed interest in it, our daycare provider suggested it be a good time to try again, and so we did. And the first 2 weeks. Went okay... She seemed to do far better at daycare and save up all the "accidents" for the hours between 6-8pm.
But with little pep-talks from our daycare provider to keep our spirits up (and her promising that soon, very soon, everything would just "click" and Maddie would just all of a sudden put 2 and 2 together and be able to tell us when she had to go - vs us having to ask every 20 mins and try to cajole her into "trying" again)... we kept with it and blammo! Everything seemed to click into place as of yesterday.
She told me she had to go before we left the house on our errands yesterday morning, she told me she had to go while driving in the car (and DID go in a Tim Horton's bathroom with no issues - I was so proud I bought her 2 Timbits as a reward), and she told me she had to go poop before naptime. So, while she wore a pull-up the whole day (yes, it's much better to "train" in underwear, it's a helluva lot easier when out and about to be using a pull-up), she didn't have ONE accident. And I also learned, she can hold it for about an hour and half - sometimes two. So yeah, that's probably why she resisted when I was asking her every friggin' 20 minutes. I'd get annoyed too.
Anyways - so we've passed that hurdle. She can now tell us she has to go (which is so much better than me having to check with her a thousand times a day), and seems to be totally down with being a "big girl who doesn't wear diapers".
I realize by simply writing this and bragging about my potty-genius, she will now totally revert and pee all over my shoes while we're out today ... but whatever... I had to share.
Off to run more errands and see the midwife... enjoy your day at work... suckas!!!
xxoo.S
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
37 weeks
Um, nothing has really changed since last week....
- Still have lots of energy back (altho fell asleep at 9pm on couch last night watching Sherlock Holmes - which is a surprise since RDJ is a big celeb crush for me)
- Feeling as big as a house - like, belly skin couldn't get tighter
- In fact, I suspect I've got some stretch marks on the underside that you can't really see all that well, but there definitely are some little red, angry looking squiggles... oh to ever wear a bikini again?
- My ankles swell - but only sometimes. In fact, now that we have AC back, 'tis not so bad - so we'll see how that goes.
- I've been crampy lately. But don't get excited - I remember being so crampy in the final month last time that I was CONVINCED I was going to give birth at least 2 weeks ahead of schedule. Instead I went 6 days late...
- I have discovered the refreshing joy of lemonade (especially PINK lemonade - which Maddie also lurves) - yay summer.
Yup. That's all I've got. Oh and this is my 2nd last week of work. Countdown is officially on. Which means I'm crunching about three months of work into 6 days... because I'm dumb and conscientious and think people really care and shit...
xxoo.S
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