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and pretty sure we'll be back on the weekend.
That's right. We're taking a little trip. Husband, baby and I are flying to Victoria for a couple of days on Wednesday. Husband will be attending the National *Husband's Occupation* Conference and Baby and I will just chill out. We will find out what it is like to fly with a baby. At least we'll get to board the plane first...
We've actually just returned from a crazy fun weekend with Husband's family. His whole immediate family were at his parents' place this weekend to celebrate his Mum's birthday. Including the sister and bro-in-law who live in Vancouver. Husband's dad flew them out with his air miles as a birthday surprise. Fun. It is rare for the whole family to be on the same continent, let alone in the same house. We had a good weekend playing, wiener-roasting, leading worship at church and eating, eating, eating.
Thanks to those of you who gave suggestions/support re: Baby's sleep issues. I promised an update, so here it is...
The next night he was almost back to his previous good sleeping pattern, but over the weekend it got bad again. My current theory is relating to Separation Anxiety. He just seems to need to be close to us (that is, he is not waking up hungry). Today, though, he had two 1 3/4 hour naps (totally unheard of for him) so maybe he will have a great night tonight. (oops, shouldn't have said that. now for sure he won't sleep...)
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Sorry, this has been the lamest post ever, but it was interrupted by a crying baby (surprise surprise) and a phone call with my parents. I'll let you know how our trip goes when we get back.
"Sleep is for Chumps" seems to be Baby's life motto.
It used to be that just napping was for chumps. But now it includes all forms of sleep. Let me describe for you the events of last evening.
7:30 pm - Begin bed time ritual for sleepy Baby.
8:00 pm - Baby is asleep in his crib. I know it is too good to be true, so I count on him waking up in an hour or so to nurse a bit longer. No problem.
8:45 pm - Baby wakes up, causing Husband to tape the last fifteen minutes of House so I can watch it when Baby is asleep again.
9:00 pm - Baby is asleep. Phew. Lets go watch the last 15 minutes of House.
9:less than fifteen (I know, because we are NOT done watching House yet) pm - Baby wakes up again. We finish watching House anyway, because, really.
The next couple of hours are a bit hazy. I know they included some walking, rocking, singing, lullabies on CD in Baby's room, and some crying.
11:30 pm - Okay, after some MORE nursing, Baby is FINALLY asleep. Lets got to bed and get some ourselves. He'll for sure sleep till at least five o'clock now...
12:30 am - CRAP. Husband collects blanket and pillow to go sleep in the spare bedroom so he won't be totally useless at work. I bring Baby into bed with me. Nurse him again. And again at 4:00 am. And he flops around a bit at 6:00 am.
7:00 am - Baby wakes with the completely cheerful expression of someone who has had a full night's sleep. I, however, do not.
Help, anyone??
Catherine, over at Everyday Life as Lyric Poetry, has started a bit of a discussion on Postpartum body image. So I thought I would contribute what I can.
I was always the skinny girl. Not slim or petite. Skinny. Now, you may not realize this, but the skinny girls get their share of flak when it comes to body type. "You're so skinny - it makes me sick" and "I hate you, you're soooo skinny" aren't exactly compliments. Yup. I was skinny. and flat chested. I rejoiced the day I finally hit 100 pounds.
So, when I got pregnant I was excited to finally gain some weight. This didn't happen at first, due to my lovely friend NVP (aka Morning sickness. aka 24/7 sickness). But, eventually I stopped losing weight and started gaining. I was thrilled to see some shape in my arms and legs. I outgrew my bra. I lovingly watched (and photographed) my growing belly. I felt, well, like a woman.
Now, six months postpartum, much of my new found "womanly" shape has remained. My Husband loves it, and doesn't fail to tell me so. I feel good in my new body. Granted, I had no trouble losing most of my pregnancy weight. If that had been an issue perhaps I would feel differently.
The problem is, I think, the two standards of beauty that exist side by side in our culture. On the one hand the tall, slim-yet-voluptuous magazine beauty (the standard that we as women tend to hold ourselves to) and on the other, real-life real-body beauty (the standard by which we measure the beauty of our friends etc.). A lot of the women that I think are very beautiful tend to be more on the shapely side of things. Most men like some curves. We don't expect anyone else to look like they stepped out of a magazine, so why do we expect it of ourselves?
So, what can we do about it? This, I don't know. But we can start by telling the women in our lives how beautiful they are to us.
ps. Check out Bub and Pie's post about mirrors for more on Body Image
A couple of sucky (sucktastic?) things happened today. First of all, Baby had his six month shots today. Now, this is actually a good thing, seeing as I don't want him to get crazy diseases, but it still feels bad to inflict pain on purpose. Secondly, I broke a glass. I hate when that happens. But, this is also not entirely bad. As Husband pointed out, it is one less thing to pack and move.
But a couple of really good things happened today too. I went to pick up my Sears catalogue order. Yay. This is what I got.
Aren't they cute? And only $12 a pair. That's 6 bucks a shoe! You can't go wrong. I especially love the little slip-on ones. That's why I ordered two colours. Also, I discovered this growing in our "flower bed" this morning. (It's really more of an over-grown weed bed with a couple of bulb flowers fighting their way through.)
Oh, and Baby is enjoying the letter "B" these days. "Ba. Ba. Bfff."
Oh, and Ottawa beat Pittsburgh.
Good night.
One of the reasons I love Spring is that you sometimes discover little treasures that have been hidden under the snow for months. Like this...
We found this the other day on the little makeshift bridge over our ditch. (Yes, we live in the sticks. Our town has drainage ditches instead of storm sewers.) It made me smile. And I will now always remember that Texas is not to be messed with.
(ps. We know several very lovely people from Texas, with whom we would never have any need to mess.)
Ah.
Sunshine.
Warmth.
Spring.
The high today is 15 degrees and tomorrow it's 20. Methinks spring, "the beautiful, capricious, reluctant, Canadian spring", with all its dilly-dallying, is finally here. Hooray!
I have been reading the Anne of Green Gables books again. I haven't read them for years. I think I can understand Anne better now than I could when I first read them. She is really a lovely girl. It makes me happy to read her adventures (and makes me want to travel to the East Coast...). I also have to wonder where all the beautiful names have gone. Ruby. Jane. Prillie. (There you go, Bren, just read the Anne books and you are sure to find a name.)
I hope all of you who have been plagued by a winter that just hangs on will be blessed with this warmth very, very soon.
TTFN
So, there is this interview thing floating around in the blogosphere and I thought I should participate. So I asked my good friend Bren to interview me. (This is kind of cheating, I know, since she and I have been friends since grade ten.) Here are the (very hard) questions she has asked me...
1) When you and Husband got married, did you have a 'five year plan?' If so, did you stick to it and why/why not?
(I could be really mean and answer this yes/no question with a simple "no", but I won't.) We did not have any sort of five year plan when we got married. All we knew was that at least one of us would go back to school and that we would probably wait about five years to have kids. Husband did his graduate studies at the University of Edinburgh in 03/04. We had Baby four and a half months after our fifth anniversary.
Although I like to have day to day things planned out, I would say that when it comes to the big picture we could be described as dreamers as opposed to planners. Like "Wouldn't it be cool if some day we..." as opposed to "Okay, in one year we will do this so that in two years we will be able to do that..."
2) Tell us about the Best Date Ever - since you got married.
This isn't really a fair question. Any answer that starts with "When we lived in Scotland" is going to sound super impressive. But that is how it will start...
When we lived in Scotland, Husband and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary. It wasn't really a date so much as a weekend excursion. We took the train from Edinburgh, where we were living, to Oban on the west coast. We stayed at a B&B and took the "Three Isle Tour" which took us to Mull, Staffa, and Iona. We got to see puffins and I waded in the water at a white-sand beach on Iona (which I paid for later with a nasty cold - it was May.) It was lovely and fun and a great break for both of us.
Second to that would probably be this date.
3) What's the greatest discovery you've made about YOU since becoming a Mom?
I suppose you probably mean a positive discovery, but I will give you one negative and one positive thing that I have learned about myself.
First, negative. I am far too dramatic. I guess I always knew this to some extent but it has been magnified by motherhood. I couldn't count how many times I have exclaimed, "That's it, I quit. I'm going to buy bottles and formula tomorrow!" or some equally silly thing. I think it helps me to see that of course I really can to it (whatever "it" may be - - breastfeeding, nighttime parenting etc...), but I know that it is really hard on Husband. He never knows when I am serious (I need your help) and when I am being a drama queen (just ignore me please).
Second, positive. I have always felt like I never really found my "thing". I was good in school, but not top of the class. I am a good musician, but not a virtuoso. I have dabbled in various types of art and even some sport, but never really found my thing. I have found it now. I love being a mom and, if I do say so myself, I'm pretty good at it. I have no doubt that this is what I am supposed to be doing. It is encouraging and gratifying to know that I am the best mom for my little guy.
4) What is your biggest fear regarding parenting?
Okay, this is a tough one. I don't think I can identify one fear that overrides all the others. I think of it more in the sense of my hopes regarding parenting. Dr. Sears defines the "successful child" as someone who is a blessing to others. That is what I want for Baby. I want him to make good decisions, be happy and healthy and be a blessing to the people in his life. I know that is kind of a cop-out answer. I know that as he grows my fears and concerns will change. It is all scary.
5) If you could change any thing about/in your life (besides always beating me by a minimum of two points on choir tests...) what would it be and why?
Every year come back-to-school time I have a few days where I feel a bit down, regretting the fact that I didn't finish my education degree at University. I don't regret transferring from University to the Bible College I graduated from, but I still think about what it would be like if I were a teacher. Now, I'm not sure exactly what I would change. Would I change my life so that I had become a teacher? or would I just change things so that I didn't feel regret each autumn?...
How did I do? Now, if anyone wants to be interviewed by me, let me know and I will come up with five questions for you (I know that most of my readers aren't bloggers but I thought I should ask anyway).
New and exciting things in Baby's life in the last couple of weeks include:
a) Baby got to meet his cousins for the first time last weekend. Husband's sister and her husband live overseas, but they are home for a couple of months. They have two boys - one is four and a half and the other is just over two. It was quite a sight to see them all together. They thought Baby was just the coolest thing. Wow.
b) Baby has been working very hard at rolling over. He has pretty much mastered rolling from back to front and can usually even get his arm out from under him. He has rolled from front to back only a couple of times by accident and hasn't totally figured out how to do it on purpose.
c) Baby is very close to being able to sit on his own. He can manage quite a few seconds at a time.
d) Baby got his first tooth last week and now the second one is starting to peek through.
New and exciting things in my life in the last couple of weeks include:
a to d) see above
e) It's still winter. No, wait, that's not new or exciting. Grrrrrr.
Ta Ta Fir Noo.
