7 posts tagged “happy”
Flora turned six months old yesterday! Watching a baby grow really lets a person see how quickly time can pass. September feels like a lifetime ago, yet the time has gone so quickly. I think Sean and I have adjusted to parenthood pretty well. We have our little routines and rituals and we all get along most of the time. I think we're a happy little family. We've been lucky that Flora has been an easy baby - no colic, naps well most of the time and gives us lots of smiles. The smiles make me think we're doing something right.
Speaking of smiles, she is starting to ham it up for the camera now, getting excited and smiling instead of just making WTF faces. I got a few great smiley pictures of her yesterday, where I normally only get one where she is in halfway between smiling and serious. It's not a toothy grin yet though - Flora doesn't have any teeth, but she is chewing, drooling and sucking on her hands all the time, so teeth are probably imminent. However, my mum tells me that I didn't have any teeth until I was over a year old, so Flora's teeth could take their time too. As long as I don't discover her tooth by receiving a bite on the boob, I'll be happy.
I'm still breastfeeding, but Flora started on cereal almost two weeks ago. She is slurping it up like a champ, and I plan to start introducing vegetables by the end of next week. I'm amazed - and proud - that breastfeeding went so well for us. She was exclusively breastfed until we started cereal. When I was pregnant, I had hoped to nurse for about six months. Now I plan to do it for as long as I am able and she is interested. I do go back to work in mid-June though, so that may put a kink in my supply. I don't want to pump at the office. I'm not embarrassed to do it, but I don't think I'll be able to take enough time to pump enough milk to make it worth my time. By that point (she'll be nine months old), she'll be eating lots of solids and if I can nurse in the morning and at night, I think we can make it work. If I have to supplement with formula during the day, that's what I'll do, but I do admit that I will be disappointed - I like her being an all-booby baby. It astounds me that I was able to provide her the nourishment and nutrition she needed to more than double her birth weight in under six months. Now, if she could only stop taking that nourishment and nutrition at 3AM, we'd be all set.
She's very observant and doesn't miss a trick. She's starting to get chatty - mostly "ba", vowel sounds and the occasional "mah, mah MAH!" when she is frustrated. She also continues to blow lots of raspberries and has varied up her technique to include raspberries that sound like either purring or farts. (My kid makes fart jokes already! Awesome!) She's not quite laughing yet, but she makes noises and smiles at laugh-inducing moments so I think she is really trying.
She's starting to stay awake when we go out in the stroller so it will be nice when I visit both my and Sean's offices. The last time I visited, she slept through the entire thing and no one saw her eyes. We're looking forward to visiting both places when it warms up a bit.
I may be a little biased, but Flora seems to be shaping up into a good kid. I think we're going to keep her.
I can hear her waking up from her morning nap so I will leave you with a video I made yesterday to commemorate her six-month half-birthday.
Flora's first Christmas went reasonably well. Sean brought Flora and I down to his mum's on the 17th to spend some pre-Christmas time with her and my parents. He had to go home on the 18th and finish his work week. The extra visiting time was great, but we were very happy to see Sean when he finally got back to his mum's on the 24th.
As usual, we split our Christmas celebration between Sean's mum's and my sister's place. Christmas Eve must have been hard on Flora because she spent most of the evening crying her little heart out. None of us could figure out what was bugging her, and it made me cry to see her in such distress. It was probably a combination of gas pains and too much stuff going on. Being passed around from person to person for comfort probably didn't help either. She finally fell asleep and we went back to Sean's mum's.
Christmas Day was much better. Her Christmas outfit from Grandma Janet was a big hit. Flora liked to chew on the fur trim and ended up getting some gravy on it when Daddy and Grampy Doug were sneaking gravy into her mouth (as sneaky as feeding her at the Christmas dinner table can get). I didn't think she should be having that gravy, but she seemed to like it, so I guess she'll like her condiments when the time comes! Grandma Faye gave her a Christmas outfit too. We didn't get it until Christmas Day, I wondered if I should be changing her outfit halfway through so that both outfits would be worn. We didn't end up doing that, but I did put the outfit on her on the 27th after we got home. Naturally, every time I tried to take a picture, she got cranky.
Despite everyone telling us that they weren't going to get Flora much for Christmas (since she's so little and won't remember it), she got spoiled with many gifts. I don't even want to list it out because it's a little embarrassing (and I don't want to unintentionally slight someone by forgetting something). Flora is lucky to have so many people who love her. Sean and I got spoiled too. My mom picked up a video camera for Sean and I, which was quite a surprise (she said she got a good deal when she went to the States on Black Friday). We're still getting the hang of it, but it's quite a neat little toy. It will be great to use to share video online of Flora doing interesting things.
We came home on Boxing Day, and after over a week away, I was glad to get home. Sean is off until January 2nd, and the three of us have just been hanging out and relaxing. It's been a great end to a very exciting year.
Skeletor is finally moving! No kicks yet, but I've been feeling her move on and off all weekend. I was beginning to wonder if I was missing something. Hooray!
I've been keeping my distance from this place lately. It's been hard to share what's going on in my life when the biggest, most life-changing-est event ever to happen to Sean and I was something we wanted to keep to ourselves until we were ready to share it, first with our families and friends, then with the world at large.
Sean and I are incubating a little critter. Said critter is due around September 8th.
We are starting to get really excited. We're a whole lot of other things too, but happy and excited are the big ones. It got easier to be excited and happy once we passed the first trimester and started telling people. My mother is ecstatic - this is her first grandchild, and while she has never pressured my sister or I for grandchildren, she admits to feeling relieved that she finally gets to be a grandmother. Sean's mom is happy too, and has already begun knitting and sewing for me and the critter.
We don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet. We want to find out as soon as we can - we're dying to know! I ask it if it is a boy or a girl and it doesn't tell me. Maybe we'll work out a system of "one kick means yes and two kicks mean no" and I'll get some answers.
I'm just over three months so I'm not showing much yet. I'm a big girl so I had a good-sized set of boobs and belly to start with. I did look at my belly today, and while I don't think it's bigger, it does seem to be changing shape a bit. It feels a little different too.
I still can't believe that I am going to be someone's mother in less than six months. Mothers are smart, mature, organized and generally have their acts together. I hope I can rise to the occasion.
I've been singing this song all week, even though my name isn't Lisa.
I turned 29 today for those of you that are wondering. Not a significant milestone since it's not divisible by five, but sort of a big birthday since 30 is right around the corner now.
I've had a really great day. I did spend the bulk of my day at work, but since it was a Friday before a long weekend, I was able to leave early since the office was a bit of a ghost town by that point. I was supposed to be super busy doing all sorts of last minute stuff, but things ended up being done really quickly or put off till next week - rock! I took advantage of the extra time and took the subway up to meet Sean at one of our favourite restaurants for my birthday dinner. We both came home very satisfied, and we've been chilling out at home ever since.
I got lots of great, thoughtful presents from my family and friends (thank you all!). Sean really spoiled me this year. He bought me a new camera (which I have been drooling over for awhile now), the four Harry Potter books I didn't have and tonight's dinner. He was so excited to give me the camera, he gave it to me on Monday night "so I'd know how to use it by the time my birthday came". My parents sent me money which I intend to spend on clothes tomorrow. My aunt and uncle also sent me money, which I spent on a memory card for the camera. Sean's mom gave me a beautiful set of earrings which I have been wearing for awhile now since she gave them to me early. My friend Carrie gave me movie gift certificates which I will save for something special I want to see.
I've also gotten lots of really nice birthday phonecalls, messages on Facebook and in person. Those kind messages mean a lot to me and I am so thankful to have such thoughtful friends and family. I hope I can be such a good friend back to all of you!
Love and hugs to all!
Gardening season is approaching quickly. I did some weeding and pruning last night, but haven't really done much else in my garden yet. My perennials are looking promising - pretty much everything from last year is back and growing. My ivy took quite a hit due to the frigid temperatures we had this winter. I lost a lot of pieces from that plant this spring. Hopefully the trim I gave it encourages it to survive. My clematis is looking very promising. It is growing leaves like crazy. I hope to see blooms for it for more than two days this summer. As long as I manage to get a picture of those blooms this summer I will be thrilled. I was so mad when I missed them last year.
I'm planning to get the flower beds edged this week. That will make everything look so much neater - like real gardens! Outside of that, I am just daydreaming about what flowers I want to have in the garden this year. I know what kind of hanging plants I want (pink impatiens - they do so well!), but I'm not 100% sure of what annuals I want. I need plants that don't need a lot of babying and can possibly handle abuse (I'm not always a consistent waterer). Suggestions are welcome.
Suggestions are also welcome for tomato varieties and herbs. I usually plant lots of Genovese basil, cilantro, oregano and sometimes rosemary in pots because I use them in nearly everything I cook in the summer. I also have chives in the ground that are on their third summer and they're looking great! What other herbs should I put in? Should I plant my basil in the ground? I have a nice sunny spot for the tomatoes and herbs, but they don't get as big as they should. (Probably due to that inconsistent watering problem I have).
Tomato varieties I have tried include Early Girl, Jet Star, Sweet Millions (cherry tomatoes). They do okay, but I don't get nearly the amount of tomatoes that I probably should. Again, this is probably due to watering/fertilizing issues, but any recommendations for successful tomato crops you've had (especially if you're from the Toronto area) would be welcome.
A really good weekend was had at the melissa-and-sean homestead. The weather was gorgeous, so we spent lots of time outside. We got the yard cleaned up which was my major goal for the weekend. We did all the usual weekend errands and chores, and a few out-of-the-ordinary jobs (like washing curtains), so it wasn't like we did anything particularly exciting. However, being able to sit outside afterwards in shorts and a t-shirt with a cold drink to hang out with Sean and the dog was wonderful.
The cat was mad that he couldn't come out too, and meowed at the door loudly to show his annoyance. He forgets that he is an indoor cat. We did feel bad about leaving him inside though, so Sean picked him up and brought him out to sit with him in the chair. He was very squirmy and just wanted to get down and run away! (Earlier attempts to bring the cat outside have ended up with us going to look under our neighbour's car to find the cat hiding under it since he knows we can't reach him.) The cat was then returned to the house where he angrily meowed some more.
Spring fever is in full swing at my house. Just wait till gardening season starts!
