The weekend, the battle of wills, and an evening sans bebe

We spent the weekend in Kingston - visiting the grandparents, including spending a day at my dad's cottage (which is actually a house, as it's winterized and is where he lives, but for some reason is still called the cottage, and anyways.....).

The day at the cottage wasn't as warm as we would have liked, but it didn't rain - so that was good. We spent the day outside - Maddie playing with all my old toys. That was a bit trippy, as I had barely remembered the toys - until of course I saw them again! Vintage Fisher Price is awesome - they just don't make toys so compact (choking hazard?) or with so many little pieces and bits (again, choking hazard?).

There was the classic A-Frame house with all sorts of little bits and pieces included.

And (this was the biggest hit with Maddie) there were Sesame Street Little People .... including her fave - ERNIE!

I was a bit nostagic seeing Mr. Hooper again - because, sad right? He's been dead for a while I think...

And then there was the pull horse - another big hit with Maddie.

She was pushing herself foward and backwards up and down the deck. And we adopted a bit of a vintage parenting attitude for the day - letting her just roam around instead of hovering over her to ensure she didn't push herself right off the deck (she didn't, and she had a blast - so lesson learned? Lighten up a bit and just let her play.)...

There were tonnes of other toys, puzzles and dolls that they had kept in storage as well. It was fun to pick through and go down memory lane a bit.

The only stickler to the visit to Kingston was Maddie's reluctance to take an afternoon nap. And by reluctance, I mean full-on army-trained resistance to the Nth degree. She sobbed and cried everytime I tried to put her down - regardless of how tired she was. I'm really hoping she's not trying to drop the afternoon nap, as um, she's not even 2 yet.

Since we had to work Mon-Tues of this week, but were coming back down to Kingston to spend a few more days with familly for the holiday and remainder of the week, we decided to leave Maddie down with her grandparents, while we enjoyed a few days sans child. We're working, so it's not too exciting, but we did hit up dinner and a movie last night. Movie = The Hangover, possibly the funniest movie I have seen, ever, in my lifetime. So do I recommend you go see it? Hell, yes.

Tonight we have plans to do a BBQ at a friend's house - hopefully anyways, as long as the rain holds off. It's funny how easily you can fall back into the pattern of free-wheeling, come-and-go-as-you-choose behaviour...

Life is a lot easier to manage without a little ankle-biter running around, but I keep getting a little pang of loneliness when I walk past her empty room. From all accounts though, she's having a blast at Grandma's, and I (hope) will be very happy to see us on Wednesday morning...

xxoo.S

PS - Canada Day pics will come tomorrow - she has the cutest damn dress you ever did see - let's just hope it doesn't rain...

Happy birthday to meeeeeee

Birthday pluses:

• I got to sleep in until 9:30 - ah deliciousness! Oh - and that's on top of a 4-th consecutive sleep-thru-the-night night for Maddie. Woo-double-hoo
• Got my annual Swarvoski ornament and a pair of slippers. Oh and some scratch cards - that I even won a couple of bucks on!
• About to go have a luxurious bubble bath and then head out for a mani/pedi (my bday treat to myself).

Birthday minuses:

• Maddie is in devil-child-state today. Currently napping (FAR earlier than she usually goes down - like 2 hrs earlier than she should be sleeping) because the calamity of being awake was JUST. TOO. MUCH. And we have a kids bday party scheduled for later today - goodlordhelpusall...

• xxoo.S

Busy weekend, busy baby

We just got through one of our busier weekends in a while. Spent Saturday doing stuff around the house and trying to convince Maddie to sleep. I don't know what was going on this past week with our little girl, but she was really out of character. A lot of crying in the early evening. Some temper tantrums. Weird feeding habits (one day going for 4 hours at a time without eating, the next day eating every hour on the hour). In general when she wasn't sleeping or feeding, she was whiny. Like half crying, half moaning, half squealing (but not in a good way usually). And hard to console. Try to give her more food, she'd get angry. Try to cuddle her to sleep, she'd get angry. Try to leave her to play on her own, she'd get angry.

I tried using Camilia a few times (it's a homeopathic remedy for teething that has been suggested to me by a lot of moms) - I think it worked. Or we started using it just as she was coming out of this weird phase she was in.

Saturday evening we had plans to go to a friends house from some poker playing and getting together with a few couples with babes (or ones on the way). It was good, except for the first time, like ever, Maddie was not the most well-behaved person in the room. In fact, she was the crying, fussy baby. Not that I care, I realize we've gotten it super easy so far, so a few fussy nights when we're out should be expected. It's just a bit disconcerting when you're in a strange house and she's wailing and you can't do anything to calm her down ... fortunately Seth seemed to have the magic touch that night and was able to get her chilled out enough to fall asleep for a little bit. She didn't want anything to do with me - that's okay, I wasn't offended... ;)

But since we got home kinda late on Saturday night, her sleep schedule was thrown right off on Sunday and she slept most of the day away. In my lap - ha. Which means I didn't get a whole lot done around the house like I wanted to before we headed out to a Superbowl party at a friend's house. Another child-friendly event, and this time Maddie got totally dressed up for it. Will have to post the pics soon as her little sweater dress is the cutest thing you've ever seen.

The party was good and we got to see a bunch of friends we haven't seen in ages, which is always fun. Maddie was behaving much more normally last night, so she wasn't too whiny and didn't have one temper tantrum (yay!). And even though she was out later than her bedtime again last night, she seems to be back on her sleeping schedule now. Currently down for her morning nap - actually I think I hear her waking up on the monitor.

So this week we have all sorts of things on our to-do list. Her doctor appointment is tomorrow - 2nd round of immunization shots ... scary! We were planning on going to the movies (mommy + me movie thing) tomorrow afternoon, but I had forgotten we had the dr appt in town, so we'll see what kind of mood she's in afterwards. Although this time I'm going to be smart about it and give her some tylenol BEFORE she gets the shots, which will hopefully help ease up the discomfort that she felt last time.

My plan for this week is to FINALLY finish the thank you cards for all the baby presents we received. Yeah, she's four months and I still haven't sent those out - yikes. Better late than never though I guess?

At last thing on the agenda - we are truly going to attempt to get Maddie sleeping in her crib this week. For naps to start with. We'll see how that goes. I'm silly nervous about it. Maybe because I realize that it's the first step to her leaving our room and I'm not sure I'm ready for it. I fully expect that she'll take the transition like a champ and I'll be the one sleepless and upset. Sad mommy.

Anyways - she definitely is awake now so I better go get her. We'll post more updates soon. Love to all!

S&S