Day 7 & Other Stuff

Day 7: A picture of me with the person I've been closest with the longest. I'm going to go ahead and say that's m'Mama. Here's a picture from about a year ago, with me, my girl, and my Mama - and of course Declan was there, just still on the inside. Hard to believe how much Talia has changed in a year, and now Declan is almost a year old and there's another babe in there!

What else is new here at the Raine Drop? Well, I have to say, I'm usually a big fan of winter. Number 1 supporter, even. I love all the winter things: sweaters and hot drinks, skating and playing in the snow, sleighrides and Christmas lights...... love it all. And yet, this year I'm feeling seriously close to being done with winter already. How can this be?

I think it's because I am so worn out from lugging m'babies around. I'm trying to be a healthy role model, trying to instill the benefits of living in a small town in the kids, blah blah blah, so I try to walk whenever we're going someplace here in town. The weather has been pretty great all fall and even since we got snow, it's been fairly warm. So last week I pulled both kids over to Playgroup and back on the sleigh. Abacus did not approve, and I had annoying Braxton-Hicks contractions for the rest of the day. A few days later, Declan and I ventured out to do some shopping and I had the worst time pushing the cart through all the snow. Today again, I had both kids with me to go to Superstore, so I needed a cart. Of course at Superstore you can only get carts outside, and it was really busy so we were parked about a mile away from the store, and it almost killed me to get the cart inside - never mind to get it back out to the van, full of 50lbs of kids and all our groceries for the week. Then of course there is the hassle of getting the kids into boots & snowsuits, then cramming my little abominable snowmen into their carseats, which NEVER tighten enough with a snowsuit on...... sigh. I'm just worn out. I need a day of staying home & doing nothing to recharge my batteries and rekindle my love affair with winter.

In other news, I took Declan to the dr. today, half expecting it to be another wasted trip of the "it's a virus, it has to run its course" variety. Imagine my surprise when we left with a prescription for a double ear infection, a different prescription for a yeasty-looking diaper rash, a referral to the top Pediatric Allergy & Asthma doc in the province, and a referral to the Child Development Clinic.

The first referral is because we suspect Declan may be allergic to the pups. He's coincidentally part of the CHILD Study, which is a 5 year long national study re: allergies & asthma, so because of this our regular dr. was able to get him in to see the specialist - the formal referral guarantees that Declan will be seen by the top guy, as opposed to some of the other (very good, I'm sure) docs that are running the study, and he will likely receive his allergy tests (that are a part of the regular study) earlier than planned. As an added bonus, this guy can apparently diagnose or rule out asthma in kids as young as Declan, which doctors don't typically do, so that will be good to know - my Mom claims Declan is just like my brother was before he was diagnosed with asthma as a child.

The second referral is because Declan doesn't use his legs at all. He *can* use his legs, and he seems to have average muscle tone, but if he's in his exersaucer/jumper/walker, he just dangles and refuses to put his feet on the floor. When he's in his walker he will use his arms to grab on to furniture to pull himself around the room, but again lets his legs dangle. He has also not rolled for about 4 months, and can't stand being on his belly so he has no interest in even attempting to crawl. Now, I'm not terribly worried about any of this, since Talia was very similar and didn't start walking until she was almost 18 months old. But we're getting him checked out anyway, because a) we won't be doing him any favours if there IS a problem and we don't discover it for months and b) I don't have anything going on so I might as well run him all over the city for appointments where we'll find out everything is fine. (Just kidding..... sort of.)

I also received notice today that our wonderful daycare will be closing after Christmas, which is really too bad. I already have a lead on another home daycare, though, so hopefully that all works out!!

Day 6: My Favourite Book

It's been my favourite book for many, many years.

Day 5 and Christmas Prep Begins!

Day 5: My Favourite TV Show


Dexter, since I usually stay up late on Sunday nights to watch it even though I'm exhausted from the weekend. Dexter Morgan is a serial killer, but it's okay, because he only kills the bad guys. :P

Yesterday Rainer and I had our anniversary date. My good friend Lisa fell in love with Talia when she was born, and used to always show her Mom the pictures I post on Facebook. Her Mom decided that they needed to have that little girl in their lives, and told Lisa that they had to babysit for us. So they have been Talia's adopted grandparents since she was about 6 months old. She's even had a sleepover there! Of course, now they take both kids and have a great time spoiling our babes. Yesterday they had the kids all day - we dropped them off around 9am. We ran a bunch of errands, did some Christmas shopping, saw a movie, did more shopping, and went for dinner before picking them up around 7:30. It was a fun and productive day that really wore me out!!! But I'm glad we've got the majority of our Christmas shopping done - now, on to baking!

Today was just a quiet day at home. We tried to get a nice picture for our family Christmas card. We were less than successful. Declan was super cranky and apparently hates sweater vests as much as his father does. Talia thought it was a big game to look away at the last possible second, of course the one picture where she actually looks at the camera is the one where Declan is rolling his eyes! I thought maybe I would be able to get some individual photos and choose a different card design, but Declan looks like a drunk Santa in a mug shot and there was just NO WAY Talia was willing to wear her Santa hat. Here are some of the rejected photos:

Sigh. Maybe this year everyone will just have to take our word that our kids are super cute!

Day 4: Picture of Me as a Child

Here are a few I scanned together last year because my mom wanted to see a comparison between Talia & me at the same age. I don't generally think either of the kids look like me, although when I look at baby pictures of myself, I see Tally's little face staring back at me fairly often - especially in the pictures that are full of attitude!!!!

Day 3: Favourite Movie

Anne of Green Gables - Megan Follows version, of course.

I can't wait until CBC shows it over the Christmas holidays. In fact, I wish I was curled up, watching it today instead of running around all over the city.

Declan and I headed in to the city this morning. I will admit I felt slightly granny-ish when a young guy blew past me on the highway, but I was totally vindicated about 10 minutes later when I came across him and his little Matrix in the ditch. Heh. Slow down, dummy.

My day has actually not worked out as planned. I wanted to renew my Autopac but the place here in town hasn't been plowed out yet - there was literally only 1 long trail leading up to the owner's truck, which was parked in front of the front door. Since I had no recollection of what the parking lot looked like underneath all the snow, I didn't know if I had room to turn around, if I could loop around, etc. And they are way too far off the street for me to park on Main Street and carry Declan through the snow, so I decided to just do it at the place in the mall.

We got to the mall and I didn't find a couple of things I was looking for, but then did find some things I wasn't really looking for, so that was okay. We were all the way over by the food court when I caught Declan throwing his cup over the edge of the cart onto the floor - I totally forgot that's his favourite game these days. So that sent me on the worst scavenger hunt ever, retracing our steps to find his toque, my toque, and only 1 of my awesome purple mitts. Boo hoo hoo.

When we were all done, I realized that I had forgotten to drop off Rainer's skates to be sharpened while I did my shopping. Sigh. So I dropped them off, then had about 1/2 an hour to kill, so I thought we would go have lunch. I got some pasta & veggie dish that wasn't appealing at all to the baby on the inside, but is the kind of lunch that Declan usually would eat every speck of and look for more, so I thought we could share. Well. Declan decided he would have NONE OF THAT, thank you very much, and Abacus seconded that motion. At least Declan made some new friends as he flirted with the old ladies at the table next to us, but all in all, lunch was a giant bust.

So I picked up Rainer's skates and then we headed out to the car. The Wal-Mart parking lot had been cleared at some point in the last 12 hours or so - enough that it was okay for driving but impossible to push the cart through. My cart was loaded with the diaper bag, Rainer's skates, a bunch of Christmas shopping, 2 cases of wipes, and Declan, so I decided I couldn't really leave it behind (although I was very, very tempted.) Some lady beside me said "You have to pull it from the front, like this!" and pulled on her own cart. She got it moving, but the bags she had sitting in the baby seat tumbled out onto the ground. Sigh. She was clearly right, the only way to move that cart was to pull, so I got D out of the seat and carried him while pulling my heavy cart through the snow. Did I mention that I'm about 23 weeks pregnant and can barely manoever myself through the snow? Double sigh. When I was about halfway to my vehicle, some shifty-looking guy offered to help me. I decided if it turned out he was just trying to rip me off, I didn't need anything in the cart that badly, and told him to go for it. When we got to the van and I thanked him, he said "I was sort of hoping you'd let me carry the baby." LOL! Thank you, kind stranger, but not in a million years would I have handed over my baby to you.

I got Declan all strapped in and my cart all unloaded and realized I'd forgotten 2 of the main things I went to the mall for in the first place. Frig. Oh well, Rainer can live without an anniversary card this year, and he can pick up Declan's eyedrops from the pharmacy in his office's building. Then we got back to town and I drove past the still-not-plowed-out insurance place, and realized that I didn't take care of my registration, either. Double frig. (Seriously, MPI? In this day and age, can't I just renew on-line and you can send me the stupid sticker?)

Anyway, things could always be worse. It's Thursday, after all, which is my favourite day of the week! Happy Thursday, everyone!!

Day 2: Favourite Song

I don't really know if I have one favourite song, so here are a few of my favourites:

Click here for my favourite Christmas song, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings" by Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan

Here is the first song from our wedding.

Here is the song we wanted to be the first song at our wedding, ha ha. That would have been so awesome. We settled for walking in to the theme from Rocky, but still.

I once listened to nothing but this on repeat all the way from Halifax to Toronto on the world's most terrifyingly turbulent flight. It kept me calm when my window FELL OUT AND LANDED IN MY LAP. (Turns out it was just the fake inside window, not the actual window that was keeping me from being sucked out of the plane. Phew.)

And of course, no favourite song list is complete without a little Sesame Street. Thank you, Talia, for opening up a whole new world of hilarious music to me.

All About Me in 30 Days

I found this little project on a blog recently and I thought it might be one of those that I can handle. I mean, I really like the *idea* of that "Picture a Day for 365 Days" project, but let's get real, shall we?

Anyway, here's the list:

Day 1 - a recent photo of you

Day 2 - your favourite song

Day 3 - your favourite movie

Day 4 - a photo of you as a child

Day 5 - your favourite tv program

Day 6 - your favourite book

Day 7 - a picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

Day 8 - your favourite quote

Day 9 - your dream house (description or photo)

Day 10 - a photo that makes you happy

Day 11 - a photo that makes you angry/sad

Day 12 - something you are OCD about

Day 13 - a description of what's currrently in your diaper bag/purse

Day 14 - a photo of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day

Day 15 - a photo of yourself and a new friend you met this year

Day 16 - a song that makes you cry

Day 17 - your favourite website

Day 18 - a photo of your favourite memory

Day 19 - a picture of somewhere you'd like to travel

Day 20 - a talent of yours

Day 21 - a hobby of yours

Day 22 - a photo of your wedding/future plans

Day 23 - a photo of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

Day 24 - a recipe

Day 25 - your worst habit

Day 26 - a photo of where you live

Day 27 - a photo of someone you could never imagine your life without

Day 28 - your hopes, dreams, and plans for the next 365 days

Day 29 - a picture of something you want to do before you die

Day 30 - it's Christmas Eve! a photo of what's under your tree this year!

And here we go:

Day 1: a recent photo of me

Tis the Season

We always wait until Remembrance Day is over to slowly inch our way toward Christmas prep. Our Christmas lights are up and Talia is head-over-heels in love with Santa. She doesn't understand why he's going to bring her presents, or how he changed from being the ratty chew-toy in Bert's bed to being the awesome glowing dude at the front door, but she is all in, anyway. Here we are, watching her personalized video from Santa with our matching curly bedheads this morning.

So Talia's enthusiasm for Santa and all things Christmasy is making us all catch the Christmas spirit quickly this year! And our snowstorm this week has helped, as well. It never seems like Christmastime until there is snow on the ground. Rainer has a rule about only playing Christmas music as of December 1st, but we have moved the date up this year and are enjoying Raine Family Dance Parties to Christmas carols (with alarming regularity, truth be told.) I've started to pick up a few things and we hope to get the bulk of our shopping done this Saturday. We've decided to forego gifts for the adults this year in both sides of the family, since it is really all about the kids, so that cuts down in our brainstorming and shopping considerably.

Talia is coming along nicely with her skates, we didn't make it to the rink today but she has been practicing walking around the house wearing them (with guards on) and is even brave enough to walk short distances by herself now.

Declan is starting to talk at the ripe old age of 9.5 months - he says Da-da, ta (when playing a game of ta-ta, which involves him giving you whatever is in his hands and laughing his head off), yeah (when you ask him a question such as "do you want some more supper?" or "are you playing with [whatever he's playing with] ?") and he even says Tal sometimes when playing with his big sister. Still no inclination toward movement. He is perfectly content to let his legs dangle in his jumper/exersaucer/or walker and be pulled around by his sister, or occasionally he'll use his hands to pull himself along the furniture when he's in his wheels. I'm sure the start of his speech is just the next step in conning us all into doing his bidding, while he remains as sedentary as ever. Smarter than all of us, and not even a year old.

Today I printed my Mom's annual Christmas letter and ordered her Christmas cards, and it has inspired me to send our own family update this year....... maybe......... if I can get my act together in time! We also ordered our community calendar - we had to add Declan this year and the guy doing the order repeated the spelling about 3 times - I feel there is about a 20% chance of our little guy's Irish name appearing correctly dans le calendrier francais. (Sacre bleu! What is with Blogger only randomly accepting french accents or symbols when it feels like it??? For shame, Blogger, for shame.)

I'm even starting to think of our Christmas menu as we're hosting this year. We've decided that our kids should have memories of waking up on Christmas morning here, in their home. It seemed like a really good idea until I realized that has just doomed me to ALWAYS COOKING CHRISTMAS DINNER. Ah, well. That way I can make whatever I like and don't have to be polite about eating someone else's weird, I mean, special traditional favourite. (I'm lookin' at you, Rainer.)

Skating!

The big day has finally arrived, Talia hit the ice today!!

We got her all decked out with new skates & a helmet yesterday. Public skating here in town is free for an hour on Sunday afternoons, so we headed over just after lunch. Yes, that is exactly when naptime usually starts, so we thought we may be in for a not-so-fun time.

Talia was super excited and kept asking us "Mommy, you comin' skating wif me? Daddy, you comin' skating wif me? Brutter, you comin' skating wif me?" She really likes her pink helmet and can't take her eyes off her skates when she's got them on.

So since this was her first time on skates and all, she was terribly wobbly. She thought it was super cool when Daddy picked her up and zipped her around the rink. She thought it was super lame when one of us went with her on the ice, but when we each took a hand she started to get the hang of it and walked all around out on the ice.

We had a pretty good time! Declan, chill as ever, hung out in his stroller while Rainer & I had Talia out on the ice together, and we watched the action when Daddy had big sister out by himself. Talia had moments when she really liked it and moments when she was really "ALL DONE SKATING!!!" We lasted about 25 minutes, which I think is great for the first try. We're not expecting her to be jumping and spinning by the end of the season, but it's a fun family activity that Rainer and I both love, and we want to be healthy role models and expose the kids to all kinds of sports at an early age.

The only thing that wasn't great about the day was when we were leaving, I was walking out behind a woman I recognized from Run Club, and her friend said to her "Did you see that guy with the 2 year old out on the ice? That's so friggin' ridiculous!!!!" Sigh. That's a small town for you. Rainer and I were clearly the only parents on the ice that could actually skate, so Talia was in far safer hands than the 3 year olds whose parents were barely managing to not fall on top of their kids. Sheesh. Anyway, imagine their disapproval had they known that Rainer & I were both on the ice before we were 2, and that I was skating around today at 22 weeks pregnant!! Ha!!!

Random Fall Updates

DECLAN

- Declan is just a few days shy of 9 months old. He's starting on cow's milk and is only nursing once or twice a day. That makes me sad, because m'boy is really into boobs, but the fact is that the pregnancy hormones are fighting with the milk hormones, and the pregnancy is winning. I don't have much milk left, so even when I do nurse him all day long, I'm topping him up with formula anyway. And of course my little prince needs the expensive $30/can formula, not the generic $8/can formula. I will not be sad to see the end of that stuff at our house. I mean, I know formula has saved a lot of babies' lives (including Declan's, probably) and I do not care AT ALL if someone has to, or chooses to, feed their baby formula - but for some reason it has been really hard on me to give it to Declan. Probably because I feel like he's being rushed out of baby-hood since there is another on the way, and think that if it weren't for me being pregnant, he could have continued his great love affair with the boob for much longer.

- Declan had his 9 month appointment this morning. While he continues to be massive to us (in comparison to his sister at this age) he is only 17lbs (5th percentile) and just over 27 inches (10th percentile.) Our hilarious doctor was all "He must seem like a giant to you.... how does your husband feel???" Poor Rainer, he keeps holding out hope for a giant Rainer Jr., but it looks like the McQueen genes reign supreme with the first 2 babes!! Declan also has 2 teeth and no interest in crawling. He won't even roll anymore! Now that's lazy!!

- Declan is on table food and doing great with it. We went out for lunch today and he had his first meal off the kids' menu. (Kids' menus are full of garbage, by the way. I mean, really? I'm not going to order my kid a corndog and fries. I'm just not.) Anyway, he got a plain mini-hamburger, broccoli, and applesauce and he ate the entire lunch. I don't know where he puts it.

TALIA

- Talia is doing great. She talks a mile a minute and is always making us laugh with what comes out of her mouth. She insists that she wants "anutter brutter" when we talk about the new baby. Rainer thinks she is going to end up with an army of tiny brothers, who she will train to do her bidding.

- Talia is completely diaper-free during the day, including her nap. She has a bad habit of taking her diaper off in the middle of the night but can't make it until morning consistently, so that has been greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat. Oh well, I wash diapers almost everyday anyway, so what's one more load of laundry?

- We are 100% in the midst of the "I do it mineself" phase, which means we are late for many events and get there with clothes on backwards and shoes on the wrong feet. But hey, as long as she's wearing pants, I am not complaining. Did I mention that her favourite thing to do is take off her pants & panties and ask people "See my pee-pee?" BECAUSE IT IS.

ABACUS

- Okay, here's the thing about Abacus. I suggested Atticus as a name the other night and Rainer, accountant that he is, heard "Abacus." That's just funny, because who likes math that much? We hadn't come up with a good "on-the-inside" name for the baby yet, so Abacus has sort of stuck. But the more we use it, the more people think it's for real. IT'S NOT. So sorry, but don't get your hopes up.

- We had our 20-ish week ultrasound this morning. I had thought I was 20 weeks, 1 day along today and that's exactly what the measurements came back as. My Dr. did not believe me, as my exclusive breastfeeding of Declan at the time of conception and my morning sickness hitting really early - too early, in her opinion - made for lots of back-and-forth when it came to settling on a due date. In any case, I will take great pleasure in telling her to suck it at my next appointment. (Lovingly, of course, because she really is awesome and hilarious.)

- Abacus looks healthy as a horse and is on track to be the same size as his/her brother and sister were. Poor Rainer, looks like he's zero for three when it comes to our kids' genetics. Seriously, was he involved in this at all???

- And in our first EPIC FAIL of parenting where Abacus is concerned, we didn't get ultrasound pictures. In our defense, usually they give you a form to fill out when you first get there AND the tech asks you if you want them. This time we got no form and the tech didn't mention it, and we didn't think about it until we were at lunch afterward. Poor, poor, third baby. The neglect is beginning already.