Gearing up for Christmas

So, just as I should be getting ready for Christmas, baking, decorating, making cards....
My husband is planning to tear down a wall in my dining room. To be fair, it was my idea, that he is bringing to fruition with a ton of hard work and serious man-hours.

This summer he re-roofed our house, with the help of his Dad who is absolutely amazing. It was a huge amount of work, but it saved us a lot of money, and while they were doing it they were able to roof over the sunroom. This sunroom has been a huge liability from the moment we moved into this house.

Sunrooms seem like such a great idea. Not so. They are too cold in the winter and become furnaces in the summer. They are the depository for dead plants and various odds and ends you can't find a place for in the house. Worst of all in this case, they leak. We were informed when we bought the house that there had been a leak in the past, but that it was all fixed and we had nothing to worry about. Not so much. Every single winter it has leaked. In Victoria it rains. A lot. It starts raining in earnest in November, and it doesn't stop until May. Well, it doesn't rain every day, but most of them.

So the big plan when doing the roof was to put a proper roof over this area, and build it into the house, then take down the wall to make it a part of the dining room, thus gaining me an extra 8 feet of length. It was my idea, and my father in law helped make it possible.
So now we are at the stage where the wall needs to come down, and probably the ceiling too to do the lighting. The carpet will come up and be replaced by gorgeous strand woven bamboo.

I can hardly wait to have my gorgeous huge new dining room. But here's the catch. It's nearly December. I want to start hanging garlands and stuff, not deal with a construction site in my living room/dining room area. I am very concerned that it will not get completed by Christmas.
I am worried about spending most of the festive season in chaos.
Part of me wants it done so badly, and the rest of me wants to tell them to hold off until January. Sigh.

Long time no post!

Wow has it ever been a long time since I posted on here. I am so bad at keeping journals.

So much has happened, M is 20 months old and the most amazing little person ever. She is talking up a storm, learning her numbers and letters, she can recite from her books and sing songs.
I am loving being home with her, so hard to imagine returning to the salt mines.

That said, I am working on some jewellery for a craft show this weekend, and it has been consuming my life. I am using my old business name, although of course I don't expect to make huge amounts of money, this is just to bring in some extra spending money. Plus it will give me a creative outlet. I have really enjoyed getting back into the swing of things.

Hopefully it will be worth all the effort.

Long time

Wow, I have not posted in forever! This is what happens every time I try to start a journal!
I start off all enthusiastic, and it soon fizzles out!

M is more amazing every day! She is now saying a few words besides Mama and Dada: Mum!,
daisy, hello, there, once she said "there they are!", also Nana, and nanananana (banana), bye-bye, okay, uh-oh!

Hmm, husband just came upstairs and says it's bedtime! He's right. More later...

Kisses and Tigers and Waves, oh my!

What a week! I have had that nasty cold all week and the babe almost came down with it but thankfully she seems to be ok now. My husband is still successfully fighting it off, although he could use some extra sleep to help with that.

Not much new in our world as a consequence. There has been napping, thanks to my Mum coming and watching the little one. We are still watching eagerly for the walking to begin, although a couple of steps here and there are all she's done as yet.

She now blows kisses and waves bye-bye and it's amazing how such little things thrill me! I keep asking for kisses and what the tiger says so I can hear her little roar. Sometimes I think she gets a bit fed up but she humours me anyway.

First Birthday (and first steps!)

We had her party on Sunday, it was a fairly quiet one, just family this time. Her cousin came over from Vancouver for the occasion, he is 9 months older than M and I think found her a bit boring because she can't walk yet. She had a little cake all to herself which she thoroughly enjoyed!
The shine was slightly taken off the moment because she was rubbing icing all over her face and into her eyes and she came up in a little rash which freaked Mummy out. She was back to normal before long though.

Today is the big day itself, and I am near-comatose with a nasty cold. So we are eating spaghetti with sauce I had in the freezer and trying not to hack up a lung! Daddy and I will have a smidgen of leftover cake, but no icing for M this time!

To celebrate the day, M took 3 steps by herself one time when I was reading a book, and 5 steps when I was in the loo... She sure knows how to pick her moments! Nana (my Mum) witnessed both times. Grandma (Daddy's Mum) came by for a birthday hug and a little visit so she had more than her share of attention today (as always).

Must get a couple of photos up here and get the pasta made before my dear husband gets too hungry. Myself, everything tastes like cardboard right now so I'm not very enthusiastic. If only I could keep that up!

In other baby news, M can now find several of her toys when asked, as well as the flashcard of the tiger, which she accompanies with a very lifelike imitation. Tiny roar, SO cute!
Interestingly, the little plastic monkey is the only thing identified as monkey, not the flashcard or the stuffed monkey. So she's assigned the name "monkey" to that one toy rather than being able to identify a monkey in other forms. Still, I think she's amazing and watching her develop every day is a joy.

Lucky Mummy, in spite of green slime and antisocial dripping nose!

First word (and a monkey)

Exciting news this week, the little one said "Up!" to Grandma on Wednesday! And when asked "Where's your Monkey?" she looks around and finds her little plastic monkey that goes with the Amazing Animals train. She's so amazing and she makes my heart sing just to watch her learning and growing each day.

It's that time of year again... flowers are beginning to bloom all over our beautiful city. It's still a bit chilly, but nice enough that we can congratulate ourselves for not living in other parts of the country, where friends and relatives are still dealing with (shudder) snow!

We are really so spoiled here. There is always a downside to anything, depending on your perspective, and mine is allergies. So the beautiful flowers have me using up tissues so fast I wish I had shares in Kleenex. Still, a dripping nose and uncontrollable sneezing is a small price to pay for living in such a paradise. I'll take it over snow and ice any day!

Another trip to the pool today with Nana and Grandma. Little Bun made friends with a nice lady and her 3 children, who were very good at sharing the pool toys. Although as my angel is still teething we had to take them away from her. Chewing on toys that have been in the pool is really not nice... I KNOW what kids do in there...

My new stroller came in to the store, but not until after the pool. Fortunately my mother in law had one we could use for the day, it definitely made the trip a lot easier although it didn't fold as small as the Zooper, I managed to stuff it in the locker, though.

Still so much to do for the baby's first birthday party, although I'm keeping it fairly simple with
trays of meat, cheese, veg, fruit and some buns... And of course CAKE!

Parties and Dresses and Zoopers, Oh my!

Why do things seem to sneak up on you sometimes? It's nearly my little one's first birthday, and I honestly have no idea what has happened to the past year! Oh yes I do, diaper changes, late-night feedings, watching her become the most amazing little person in the world...

So much to do for her birthday party. The most important thing to get done is her cake, I want to make that really special as it will be her first taste of cake! Something tells me she'll like it. The little monkey eats anything, especially if it comes from Mummy or Daddy's plate!
Nana bought her a beautiful dress to wear. She was going to make one, but then time has been evaporating on us lately and we found a beautiful one so that's one less thing to fret about this week. Less stress is good.

Today was much warmer than it has been in a while although still overcast. My Mum (Nana) and I took the little Bun for a walk. She had a great time, loves to be out in the fresh air. Then after a little nap (for her) we went to TJ's the Kiddies store in search of a decent umbrella style stroller. I want one for short trips as she's getting a bit heavy to carry very far and although she's well on her way she's still not walking. It has to be small enough to fit in a locker at the pool, but durable and comfortable for the baby. They are getting in a Zooper Stomp which I'm pretty sure I'm going to get unless it has some major problem when I see it. They didn't have one in stock so it's coming from Vancouver on Thursday.
(great kids store in BC: http://www.tjskids.com/)

Back to my planning and lists...

Playing catch-up

Well, I just started and already I'm getting behind!

I took my daughter swimming for the first time this week! We went on Thursday morning because my Mum and her other Grandma and Grandpa go then. (Seniors Day!)
I was afraid that she would be scared of the water and scream the place down, but she was amazing. And she loved it! She floated with her head against me, she went on a little boogie board with Grandpa pushing her through the water, she played with the toys. It was a great experience and now I have no excuse for not going back...
Regardless of how I feel about me in a bathing suit... : (
The Commonwealth Pool is really great for kids, there's a baby pool and a kid's pool with a pirate ship that's also a wave pool. Then there's two other full size pools for adults.
There were a lot of other Mums and babies there.

On Friday we met the Mummies and Babies for breakfast again, my little one was great, enjoyed sharing Mummy's breakfast but she was ready to be out of that high chair long before it
was time to go.

Today Grandma came over to hang out with the Bun while my husband and I went to the Times Colonist Book Sale. It's a HUGE sale of donated books with profits to the "Raise a Reader" fund. We had to wait about an hour to get in because we got there around 9:20 am.
There were actually people lining up at 1am which is just nuts!
We got 99 books, some for each of us and some for our girly girl. $111 dollars all to charity!

I am seriously considering going back tomorrow.... is that wrong?

Tonight we had friends over for dinner, got the BBQ going for the first time in months. It was chilly out but you've got to love a place where you can BBQ at this time of year!

Today my Mum and I took my daughter to Oak Bay Village. We had a coffee (mmmm java!) and wandered along Oak Bay Avenue and back. Oak Bay is what Canadians think England is like. I can say that because I used to live in England. It has the nice village feel that you find in England but it never quite convinces. I suppose because I know the difference. It is full of shops which cater to the elderly inhabitants of the area, but over the past few years it has been changing and new, cool shops are moving in. Check out Tourism Oak Bay: http://www.oakbaytourism.com/

I am looking for toys because it's my little Bun's first birthday coming up in March and I have been everywhere trying to find something interesting that is not too old for her. (no fiddly parts she can eat!) So we went into Timeless Toys, a lovely tiny little toy shop in Oak bay Village. Unfortunately the same problem as everywhere else... all the toys I liked were for ages 3 and up!
I'll have to ask some of the Mums I know what their kids liked at this age.

The Beginning

Well, I can't quite believe that I am doing this. It's 11:45 on a Sunday night and I am joining the millions of bloggers out there... for no better reason than idle curiosity to see how this works and if I can find some outlet for my creativity in this medium.

Much more to say but morning comes far too soon, I must get to bed before I turn into a Zombie!