A change in tone!

Do those of you remember back when your child was just a few minutes old, and the things you use to say him/her from that point forward? You know... things like 'your so precious, your beautiful, your just perfect'. You would say the nicest things to your baby in the 'I love you so much, your the most precious thing on earth to me' tone.

I faithfully used that tone for 9 months... but somewhere between 9 and 10 months, I developed this 'I love you so much, your the most precious thing on earth to me, BUT if you do that one more time, I am going to lose my mind' tone.

I find myself losing the infancy tone... the tone that says 'you couldn't do a single thing wrong, because your just so cute and lovable'... the tone that is so reassuring, so wonderful to use, so exciting to hear.

Yes... that tone has packed it's bags, loaded up the car, and taken off for a long long vacation. That tone has paid last month's rent, returned to keys... just in time for me to rent out the place to the 'if you do that one more time, the neighbours are gonna call the cops on me' tone.

I am not sure when this happens... there was no warning, but I almost wish that I had been warned, as I would have savored the final mutterings of the loving tones if I had known they would die an abrupt death!

E isn't by any means bad... but he's busy. He's more curious, he's more adventurous, and he knows how get a rise out of me. The last couple of days, I have been trying to bring back the infancy tone, but I am learning that if I don't use the 'drop it or else' tone he just laughs and does it again as if its okay. There is such a fine line for teaching discipline, without in fact, having the neighbours call the police on you!

You've been there... right? Tell me you've been there!

Return to Sender

Today, I picked up the mail, and noticed two pieces of mail in our box addressed to the previous owners.

This drives. me. nuts.

Why?

Because we moved in our house four and half years ago.

In the first six months that we lived at this address I was vigilant about writing RETURN TO SENDER on the envelopes and putting them back in the mail. I actually hoped the tenants at our previous address were doing the same (shout out to the Sellers). But, after four and half years, if you haven't changed your address, I don't think you are entitled to the mail.

And what's more annoying is that the companies who are still sending out the mail haven't realized that they have been sending their mail outs to the wrong address for four freakin years.

Specifically Scotiabank, Sunlife Insurance, and Royal Bank are still mailing what looks like account statements to this address. I think to myself, how good is your customer relations if you don't know the proper address of your clients for four years.

I really have to laugh at Sunlife.... because every year at Christmas, the insurance agent goes to the trouble to send the previous owners a Christmas card, and a calendar, and a magnet... but all they do is end up our recycle bin.

I guess in the world of online business, snail mail is really not necessary, so the previous owners probably aren't missing out on much as I imagine they are keeping up with their finances and insurance on the web. But... this doesn't help my problem with the amount of mail we receive that is not for us.

I think its bad here, and we are only the second owners of this house - I am sure apartment people have it 10 times as bad if they are the 5 or 15th people in the place. Isn't it just annoying on all accounts?

See where all your bitching gets you!

I was originally going to call this post 'THANK YOU', but PC's sarcastic comment when these arrived via delivery service yesterday was just too funny.

Apparently someone read my post 'The one about the vase!', and was feeling mighty sorry for me as I received a bouquet of fresh flowers, delivered yesterday, with a card attached that said:

'Sara... because PC never will'

PC was the one who received the delivery, and when he read the card... he took one look at me and said 'Who'd you bitch to? See where all your bitching gets you'! That to me was priceless - and the appropriate title for the post!

The flowers are beautiful and look lovely on my coffee table, but the funny part was... my biggie *crystal* vase is still in use at the neighbours, so I had to put the bouquet into my smaller, non-crystal vase - but they still look lovely, don't they?

I don't know who my secret sender is ... but whoever you are, just know that I do very much appreciate the flowers... it was a lovely gesture, and every time I look at the bouquet I just smile!

I think my next post will be about how PC never buys me anything from Tiffany & Co. ... I have a lovely jewelery box with no jewelery in it!

No pressure, secret sender!

We went out last night... !

PC and I, and my BFF Clapper 'went out last night - like we swore we wouldn't do! Drank to much beer last night... a lot more than we wanted to' ... all in the name of Kenny Chesney!

What a great concert... there is something to be said about country concert-going fans, they get a little crazy in a good way!

We had such a great time and KC did not disappoint! He still isn't any better looking in person, but he sure knows how to entertain a crowd. High energy for two and half hours straight. Good times!

We hadn't planned on going to this concert, but we snagged floor seats on Monday morning, and I think that made the show. KC came out on a moving camera/chair and was right over top of us at one point. I actually spilt beer in my eye trying to get the shot (LOL!). He was worth every penny, and his opening acts Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert made for a jam-packed concert package.

There isn't much more to say above and beyond 'FUN FUN FUN'. We did snap some pics so ... I will let those illustrate my thoughts better than my words would! I will say, if you enjoy country music and haven't had a chance to see Kenny in concert - GO! He wasn't named entertainer of the year, 4 years in a row, for nothing!

I love hoodies

I have a tendency to be a bit over the top when I find something I like. If you've known me a while, you may recall the phase where I LOVED (past tense) everything Winnie the Pooh. I had to have EVERYTHING Pooh... and soon everyone caught on this and ensured that I had everything and anything POOH. Now I hate it with a passion (well not hate, but definitely I am sooooo over Pooh Bear, like 10 years over him!), and I think its because I just got Pooh'd-out in such a short time frame.

Then it was flip-flops... and trust me, the flip-flop thing is still going on, although I don't totally freak out when I see something in the flip-flop theme - I causally assess it, and ask myself, will I still like it/use it in 5 years. If the answer is yes... then I buy it, if the answer is no... then I walk around with it my cart for 30 minutes, and ditch on the last shelf before the cash!

But...now 'my thing' is hoodies.

Can a girl... a.k.a. me, possibly have one too many hoodies - I think not.

A hoodie... is the ultimate comfort clothing item for me. I believe that you aren't completely 'vegging out' until you are chillin in your favourite hoodie!

Since being on maternity leave I have accumulated quite a few hoodies (in addition to the dozen I already owned before getting preggers!)... I remember the week before E was born, I was in ROOTS and saw this red hoodie that was on sale, and I had to buy it, even though my belly wouldn't fit into it at the time - it just looked so comfy and it was the one piece of clothing I looked forward to wearing after giving birth.

Then came a new Lulu hoodie, which I purchased with a birthday gift card (from PC). After that, PC brought me home an Under Armour hoodie as a his 'Thank you for letting me spend a weekend away with friends while you were here with E alone' gift. I liked the hoodie so much that I purchased the same UA hoodie in Florida - only in a different colour.

I also love the simple GAP hoodies so much that I own three of them. While away this past month, I almost purchased another one, but knew PC would freak out if I did, as he had told me close to a dozen times 'if you get another hoodie, I'm buying a golf club and a watch'! You see... golf clubs and watches are his things... (along with belts, and shoes, and ties... but that's a whole other post), and each of us thinks that other shouldn't get any more of their thing - but little does he know, I put it on my Christmas wish list... so he won't be able to say a thing when it turns up under the Christmas tree as a GIFT!

I don't know what it is that draws me to hoodies... I think I have been on maternity leave too long, wearing too many comfy clothes... because while some people invest in accessories and expensive clothes for work, I like to save up for a good hoodie!

What is your fashion thing... doubtful that its hoodies, but if it is, know how cool I think you are!

Don't touch, stop, NO!

If I had a dollar for every time I said 'Don't touch', 'Stop', 'No'... I could afford to stay home long after E starts high school.

Honestly... I sound like a broken record, and I know its only going to get worse, as we have just started into this phase (which some parents will say lasts 18 years)!

E is fairly good at listening right now (I will probably groan when I read this in 6 months). You raise your voice the tiniest octave and he looks at you funny... thinks about what he is doing, and either tries it again while still looking at you or moves on without thinking twice about what he was just doing.

When we returned home from vacation, I couldn't help but notice how much he has changed in the last month. Before we left he was crawling but you could keep him confined to the living room. Now he is all over the house, touching everything he can get his hands on, and pulling himself up on every unstable piece of furniture we own. Long gone are the days where I could whip up a blog post while he was playing happily on the mat. Sometimes I think he sees me open my laptop and that cues him to 'go wild', make noise, do something he knows he shouldn't (I actually love this, because it cements the fact that my blood is running through his veins)!

You gotta love the parenting magazines that advise on 'letting them explore their new world of freedom'. The ones that tell you to refrain from saying 'No', 'Stop' and 'Don't' ... but honestly, there is a small vocabulary of synonyms for these words - (and I can just see E in kindergarten telling his friends 'never'', 'halt', 'thou-shall-not') - and let's face it, they all mean the same thing at the end of the day.

I made a tweet about this exact topic, and I did get a few responses... most notably from a reader (should out to Baby Mama Kristy Boyd) who said that she uses 'Away please' and 'No thank-you'... which is more polite and something I wouldn't mind hearing E tell others when he does start talking. I need to train to myself to not immediately react with the standard words... but I usually blurt out Emery No. Emery Stop. Don't touch Emery, and then try to revise my statement to 'Emery, please stop touching that, how bout we play with x instead' - of course my good mothering statements always come second!

I am sure I am not the first nor the last new mom to deal with this... does anyone out there have any good advice for running interference when your baby is doing things you don't want them to be doing?

The one about the vase!

Isn't just wonderful when your husband buys you flowers and surprises you with them? I love love LOVE getting fresh flowers, but I can actually count on one hand the number of times PC has done this for me... he reserves flowers for MAJOR f%&$ ups I guess - and apparently, according to PC's flower buying record, he hasn't done anything wrong in quite sometime!

The other morning, we had a knock at our door, and it was one of our neighbours. He was wanting to know if he could borrow a vase. I like this neighbour, and I had no problem lending him one. Apparently he had bought his wife a beautiful bouquet of flowers for their anniversary and didn't have anything to put them in.

I opened our 'useless' cupboard and grabbed an IKEA vase that I have had for a long time. He looked at it and said 'this will work... but, do you have anything bigger?'

I knew that I did have a bigger vase, I remember getting it as a wedding gift... so I said to him 'I know I do, but give me 10 minutes as I will have to look for it'.

I smirked at PC and said to our neighbour... 'you can tell how often I get flowers around here!'

So... off I went looking for the big vase. I headed downstairs to the basement and after checking a couple of hiding spaces, I did find it on the top shelf of the closet, in its original box.

It turns out the vase we were given as a wedding gift was crystal... and I thought to myself 'wow, this is nice', but didn't think twice about not lending it to our neighbour.

I brought it upstairs and set it at the door, and along came PC. He opened up the box and said 'This is crystal? Wow. Your going to lend them the crystal?' in a shocking tone.

Quick to reply, I said 'it's not like it's getting any use around here! What is the worst that can happen, they break it, and I have a broken crystal vase and still no flowers to put in it - oh no!'

There was an eye roll on PC's part, but that was the end of the conversation, as clearly he nothing fire back with!

1 - 0 SC.

I quite enjoyed this conversation... although I think PC would have preferred our neighbour knocked on a different door that morning!

Back from va-cay!

I'm back.

Back from vacation (yes even those on maternity leave take vacation contrary to the belief that maternity leave is a year of vacation!)... and back to reality.

I have been trying to figure out what to bl0g about... the first post back should be a good one, but every time I think about blogging, I just feel like I have nothing to say.

Yes... we had a good couple of weeks on the road. We did a lot and yet we did nothing too, which was why it was so good. I think we were glad to get home after being gone a few days shy of a month... I have pictures out the ying-yang of E and all of things he did... but I am not inspired to write about those things right now - maybe because I feel like I have to cover three weeks of our busy lives into a single blog post (I will get to posting the pics, but not today!).

There are a gi-zillion things on my mind right now... most notably returning to work, the transition to daycare for E, my work wardrobe (!!!), my eating habits, how PC and I will adjust to me returning to work full-time, the cost of daycare, our extra-circular activities, the state of my house... this list goes on, and on, and on.

To update on a few things:

• Daycare: we found a wonderful lady who is going to watch E, she lives not to far from us, and just seems like a great person. She only watches one other little boy, so E will have a playmate, but yet will still be well-cared for which puts my mind at ease.
  

• The cost of daycare is such an opener... isn't it? I know that I do want to work, and that working vs. staying at home is much more profitable for our family, but nonetheless to think what we could do with the money we will be spending on daycare is such a scary thought - and more reason not to have another baby in the short term!

• Returning to work... a scary thought, but its going to happen. Here's the kicker... my return to work date is October 5th... a Monday which is nice, but E's FIRST birthday. I was like: are you kidding me? I feel very lucky to have been able to be off his entire first year, but that's a little harsh isn't it - sending me back on my first child's first birthday. I am going to see if I can work out a deal with my boss to maybe go in a day the week before and get set up and then be off with E on his special day - I will keep you posted.

• Speaking of going back to work... I feel like I will be starting a new job with my return. I think I can count on one hand the number of people that are still there from last fall. A lot and I mean A LOT of people have since taken other jobs in different departments. I know when I show up 90% of the staff will be like 'whose the new girl?', and I am sure that will piss me off cause I won't be in the loop, I will have to earn my way into the loop! The bright side is... its a new job that I *should* know how to do, so hopefully it won't be that bad - and I am looking forward to feeling like an expert on something other than E's daily schedule!

• I am slowly learning that 'keeping house' with a baby on the move is virtually impossible. How can someone so small make such a mess! On top of that, since the majority of the time I spend picking up after E, I don't have the energy to file the mail, put my own stuff away, or organize my way out of a wet paper bag. I seriously need to get a handle on this, or else I will never allow any visitors in my house again!

• My work wardrobe is such a task. I haven't wore dress clothes in over a year. I think I may have put on a pair of dress pants for Christmas Eve mass, but aside from that - nothing. I hate trying on clothes from a year ago while having to cross my fingers that I can still get the button done up on the waist. I did this last night, and surprisingly there were only two pairs of my 'skinny' pants that just don't fit - unless of course I don't plan on sitting down the entire time I am wearing them. PC and I did some shopping in the states while we were away and I purchased a couple of things for work ... but beyond that I am left wondering if I am going to look like a 'Mom' when I return to the office, instead of the young, hip, cool team member I was before I went on mat. leave (*laughs*) - this one is to be continued, I guess!

Alright, E is napping, while I am posting this (which is why I don't get anything done around the house)... so I had better get something to eat before he wakes up or else those skinny pants will be fitting in no time.

Hoping to get back on regular blogging now (no promises though), so check back again this week and maybe I will have some pics up from our vacation!

Cheers, and thanks for coming back.

10 Months and Personality!

In the midst of summer vacation, my sweet baby boy surpassed the 10 month mark. E is now into double digits... and closing in on a year at lightning speed.

This past month we have hardly been at home... we are currently on the road in Michigan - and I am bringing you the 10 month update as best I can, in the short amount of time I have on free wi-fi!

At 10 months, E is changing daily. It really is crazy to see everything he is learning as each day passes. He has gone from the smiley happy baby, to a boy who is now learning he can express himself in ways other than just with a grin. Don't get me wrong, he is still fairly easy to please and happy most of the time - but we are now seeing a few signs of upset squeals when he doesn't get his way. His personality is emerging more than ever before, and it is interesting to see what things he likes and dislikes.

He is picking up speed on the crawling front. The best past time for him is rolling around Daddy's golf balls on the floors and then taking off on an adventure to get them. Just this past week in Grandma and Grandpa B's trailer E started to pull himself up certain things... it won't be long before he is standing unassisted.

Eating just keeps getting better and better for E. He has started on some crackers and finger foods... and loves to feed himself. We are slowly getting to 'real food' ... I am going to start him on yogurt, cheese, and toast in the next few weeks... so that should be fun.

E is still loving the swing... he could do it for hours on end if you would let him. He played in the sand for the first time two weeks ago, while we were at the cottage, and successfully ate his first mouth of sand. It wasn't long before he realized that is was disgusting stuff, but of course every boy has got to try it!

He also had his first ride in a boat at the cottage, got to go fishing with Daddy and Grandpa C for the first time... he loved it! I have pictures to document all of these firsts... but I will have to save them for another time.

For now... I have the results of the 10 month photo shoot. We weren't in the comfort of our own home for this one, but we made do. I especially like the first shot where you can see how much E has changed since his birth announcement. As well you will notice the many personalities of E that are emerging in these photos! He's too much when you bring out the camera!

Happy 10 months E... Mommy and Daddy love you!