Blink and You Miss It

I don't think I ever really thought about how much Baby A was going to change in a year. Or how quickly those changes would happen. When you first hold that tiny baby in your arms you know they are going to grow up but you really have no idea. On those long, long, LONG nights when they are crying for hours and there is seemingly no end in sight you never think things will be different. You think they will forever be this little, needy, helpless, lump. And next thing you know, they aren't.

I have 10 nieces and nephews and there is so much stuff that I never noticed. I wonder what I was doing. I never realized that babies go through developmental plateaus. They do the same things for what seems like a long time and then they will go through this learning/changing spurt when they start doing tons of new stuff. Baby A is going through a major one of these right now. It feels like she is morphing from a baby to a little girl right before my eyes.

There is the walking. Day by day she is taking more steps at once and taking them more confidently. The talking. Almost every day she'll mimic another word that someone says. It shocks me every time. Her hair is getting so much longer and thicker. I bought some tiny barrets for her today. I couldn't help myself. She is nursing less often. It's really only three to four times a day now. I'm still pumping in the morning but when I see how little milk there actually is I know the nursing is coming to an end. There is the way she plays with her toys. She really concentrates on what she's doing whether it is pressing buttons, playing with blocks or flipping through books. I can just see her little mind working away as she chatters to herself. I wish I knew what she was talking about.

Something that she has really started to enjoy lately is brushing her teeth with me. Whenever she sees me doing it she gets all excited and I know I have to get her toothbrush out as well. “Let's brush your tooth.” I'll say. She sits on the floor and watches me as I brush my teeth and she tries to move her toothbrush the same way. When it's time to put it away she always crys and gets really mad at me. I think she'd suck on that thing all day if I let her.






Anyway, I'm wondering when we'll hit the next plateau. It is hard to keep up with all this new exciting stuff she is doing. I am so behind with her baby book. First steps... Um... in August... sometime. Such a good Mama.

Let the Insanity Begin

Today is my first work day of the week. The first week since going back to work that I will be going in on Friday. The first time that Baby A will be staying with her sitter for seven hours. Am I nervous? Heck ya.

Know what else makes me nervous? Getting up early two mornings in a row! Thinking about it just makes me tired. I must have gotten lucky to have a baby that enjoys sleeping late. I've never been much of an early riser. I don't like to sleep the day away either. If I could I would get up at 9:00 am every day. It's the perfect time to get up whether it's summer or winter. And that also happens to be the approximate time that Miss A gets up in the morning. Unfortunately on the days when I work at 9:00 that just doesn't work.

Our usual Saturday morning routine is this. My alarm rings around 7:00 am. I sit up in bed and pump for 20-30 minutes. (it didn't used to take so long but my milk supply is dropping off) I take the milk to the fridge and make myself tea and breakfast. I wash my face (I usually try to save myself time by showering the night before) brush my teeth, apply my makeup and do my hair. (Sometimes it sucks to have a job where you need to look professional. I often wish I was a mechanic or a welder like Alex from 'Flashdance') If Peter gets up he'll usually get Baby A up, change her and bring her to me to feed. This ideally happens between 8:15 and 8:30 am. (It only takes me 10 minutes at the most to get to work) On these days I always feel rushed while she is nursing and I'm sure she can sense it. By 9:45 I usually strap her into her high chair and her Dada will feed her breakfast and on the Saturdays when he works, drive her to my sisters.

Things will be a little different on those Fridays. I will be driving her to the sitter, which although it is on the way to work, will take more time. This means I should probably get up at 6:30 am. Ugh. I'm hating it already. I should probably call the sitter this week to discuss details. I'm hoping that she'll feed her breakfast so that I don't have to wake her up even earlier so that I can nurse her and then feed her breakfast. I am pretty sure she has other kids that would be eating breakfast at that time anyway. If A doesn't have something of her own to eat when the other kids are she'll mooch or whine until someone gives her something.

Another thing I am dreading about this new schedule is that I will inevitably be late. Late getting ready. Late waking the baby. Late feeding the baby. Late dropping the baby off. And finally late getting to work. I'm not talking half an hour late here, I'm only talking about 5 minutes. But that is still late. I am certain that it wouldn't matter if I get up earlier, organized my time better or what have you. It is my Mama curse. I am doomed to forever be running behind. At least if I wasn't the type to be stressed about it that would be better. But alas, I do stress. And feel guilty. And wish I could just, for once, be on time.

If things just went smoothly and according to plan wouldn't life be delightfully boring?

Out of Sorts

I must say I am sitting here at the computer in absolute and total shock. My daughter, the sleeper iner woke up crying at around 7:30 this morning. 7:30. Crying. Neither of these are normal for her. I left her there for a while because generally if she wakes up crying she'll fall back asleep soon. She dozed but would spuratically cry. I sat my sorry behind up and commenced my morning milk pumping. Yes, I am still doing that. Would someone please put me out of my misery. Anyway, after I was finished I went to get her. She still seemed very tired. I took her to our bed and we cuddled and she nursed. When she was done she's usually happy, she was still unhappy and crying. I tried laying down with her in bed, no dice. She sat on my lap and sucked her thumb. Finally I tried nursing her again and she went back to sleep. So I put her back to bed at 9:15. That's crazy.

I realize I am as much a slave to routine as she is. I'm all thrown off. We should be finishing breakfast around now and getting ready to have a play. Instead I'm sitting here writing. When will she wake up? Will she still have an afternoon nap? Is this going to mess her up for the rest of the week? Oh please, not this week. This is the week I work on Friday for the first time and she goes to the sitter. Please don't let this be the week that the world turns upside down. Deep breaths.

I'm fairly certain her teeth are the culprit. They are still trying to come up. The only tooth she has is practically all the way in as you could see from yesterdays picture and her one toothed smile. I have been told that teeth come in pairs. Not in her case. Am I surprised that her teeth are (technically) late coming, came in the wrong order and not in a pair? Not really. This is my daughter we are talking about here. I'm just tired of seeing her in so much pain seemingly for nothing since there are no new teeth is sight. I have seriously thought about taking her to the dentist. If nothing else maybe he could reassure me that everything is 'normal' and that her teeth will indeed eventually come in. I keep worrying that something is wrong in there. Inside her gums. That her teeth are sideways or something and unable to come through the gums. That if only I got them checked out I could have saved my baby all this torturous pain.

I sound crazy don't I? This is what motherhood has reduced me to. A raving lunatic with delusions that her something is horribly wrong with her daughter's mouth, that she is destined to have one tooth forever and will be the only 3 year old with dentures.

Three Day Birthday Extravaganza!

Is everyone dying to hear about my birthday? Oh well, I'll tell you anyway. Friday night was my 'Party'. I am notorious for building things up in my head so much that the actual thing itself almost never lives up to my fantasy. The only thing this party was missing was 'Karaoke Revolution'. I was SO looking forward to it. Unfortunately my husband thought it had been taken care of and the wonderful host and hostess of the party were busy doing other things, like cleaning and baking cakes. I admit, I was disappointed but I carried on. Another thing that sucks about being told to butt out in regards to planning your party is that people get missed. I was very sad that my husband forgot to tell Nikkie about the party. She has helped me celebrate at least a couple of birthdays already I think! When we got home on Friday night I received a lovely telephone message from her wishing me a Happy Birthday, Peter and I both kicked ourselves when we realized what he had (or had not) done.




So the Party consisted of Pizza, Bubbly Non-Alcoholic Beverages and two different kinds of homemade cake! There were 14 adult guests and 4 babies. The joint was hoppin'! I honestly had a difficult time visiting with everyone, there were so many people. It almost felt like my wedding, minus about 85 people. I was really touched that so many people came to celebrate with me. Also for the trouble it took to plan it and host it. It was fun while it lasted but ended rather early since most of the guests had babies to get home to bed, including us. And I also had to work on Saturday, my actual date of birth.





One thing I hate about celebrating my birthday early is that the actual day can be a bit of a let down. Miss A wanted to be the first to wish me a happy birthday and woke me up with the sound of her screaming from her room at around 12:30. About an hour after we had gone to bed. Being woken up one hour after you have fallen asleep has to be my least favorite time. Two hours doesn't seem as bad, but one... She didn't really want to nurse, didn't want to cuddle. I was at a bit of a loss. A dose of Tylenol and a frozen wash cloth seemed to eventually do the trick. A little more nursing and back to dreamland. Only one hour of sleep that I would miss.

We had nothing special planned on Saturday. My darling husband gave me my gift which was a Willow Tree Family Ornament. It depicts a Father, Mother and two children. He assured me there was “no pressure”. My other gift was the first season of 'Lost'. This is one of our favorite shows. I was, of course, thrilled with my gift and he received many kisses of gratitude from me. I had a nice, manageable day at work and finished at a decent time. Picked up A from my sister's house and went home. We had a difficult time deciding what to have for supper but settled on going to pick up Pitas. Miss A who skipped her afternoon nap (because she is one of the most stubborn kids you will ever meet and refuses to sleep anywhere except her own bed) fell asleep on the way home at 7:00 pm. Because I am a kind and generous Mama I decided to let her sleep for exactly one half of an hour. Naps are not to be taken at 7:00 pm unless you are a newborn who does nothing but eat, void and sleep. It gave us a chance to eat our Pitas. We then had an unexpected visitor. A friend whose band was playing in town decided to stop in between sets. We had a nice visit, he took us out for ice cream and by the time he left it was bath time. Once Little A was tucked in for the night Papa D and I settled in to watch the movie “Blow Dry”. It's a pretty funny flick and I'm happy I have the kind of husband who appreciates that kind of movie.

And finally on Sunday my mother had us, my brother and his family, my sister and my niece over for supper. The food was delicious and the company, entertaining. For dessert my mom made Saskatoon Pie, my favorite. I also forgot to mention that my mom gave me birthday money on Friday morning. My last Friday off. I packed Baby A into the car and we headed to the mall. I bought five new shirts with my birthday money. Flattering shirts. Pretty shirts. I was getting a little tired of wearing the same three ones that I have been wearing since my last shopping excursion. Since I'll be working more, I'll need them.

That about covers it. I am thirty. It says so in my profile. I feel loved both in real life and in blogland. It is good to be loved.

I may not be looking any older but someone certainly is!

This Game Is Not Fixed

I wanted to thank all of you for your birthday wishes and kind comments about how I don't look old and stuff. It was very sweet that so many people that I don't even know personally took the time to stop in and wish me a Happy Birthday. And in case any of you are wondering, I don't feel a day older than 29.

The winner of this week's Say WHAT? is the wonderful, the brave, the AMAZING, Bon from The Mama. And she won fair and square. Not because she posted this on her blog just for me. Can you believe it? I'm not sure that I deserve it but it made me cry big, happy, grateful tears. It is nice to be loved.




A quote from Sixteen Candles seemed appropriate since one's sixteenth birthday is a milestone not unlike the milestone of one's thirtieth birthday. Honestly, I don't remember my 16th Birthday. Isn't that sad? I'm going to throw my daughter one rockin' 16th birthday party she'll never forget. Ha! I guess for now I should concentrate on her 1st birthday!





I watched this movie again a couple of years ago. It is really rather shocking when you realize what sort of things were acceptable back then that I really don't think are acceptable now. For instance this quote “I can get a piece of ass anytime I want. Shit, I've got Caroline in the bedroom right now, passed out cold. I could violate her ten different ways if I wanted to.” And this is a quote from the stud of the movie, the hero, Jake. Doesn't that sound like he's referring to rape? And yet he's the nice young man that Samantha ends up with. Hmmm? Also there is tons of blatant racism. I know we've got sexy music videos and pretty inappropriate things on television and in movies these days but for some reason it's just different. If you own a copy of 16 Candles, watch it again and let me know if you agree.

Anyway, for now Peace out.

Portrait of a 30 Year Old

Me. Thirty. No makeup.

Say WHAT? and my last day as a twenty something

Wow, what a week! What did I learn? I was reminded about jerks on the internet who get their kicks by leaving negative comments all over the internet. Including my personal video documentation of what my blood, sweat and tears amounted to. That, by writing about and posting a picture of my damaged armpit, I will get more comments than I have in weeks. And most importantly that if I imply that I may have doubts about my intelligence people will be quick to disagree and give me plenty of compliments. Thanks. (But I really wasn't fishing. I am actually pretty confident in my smarts now that I am almost 30!)

Anyway!

It's Friday again and that means it's time for my AWESOME game Say WHAT? In case it's your first time or you forgot how to play, here's the deal. I post a quote from an 80's movie and you all leave me your guesses in the comments. I can't stop you from using the internet as a resource but I'll ask everyone nicely to refrain. It's more fun that way! I will announce the winner on Sunday night and if the winner has a blog, I'll link them. If they have a profile picture I'll post that too.

Hmmm. The last Say WHAT? was on August 11... so that would make the last winner – Beth! From Total Mom Haircut. Did I ever tell you all how much I love that girl? I do. Love her. She is great.



Now for today's 80's quote. Not to give anything away here but I WILL say that it is very appropriate for this week.




“I can't believe my grandmother actually felt me up.”

There Is Hope For Her Yet

I was never a very good student. I always got very excited this time of year what the new school supplies and the new year and a chance at a fresh start. This year, I would think to myself, was going to be different. But it never was. A couple of months into the year I would fall behind, struggle and by the end of the year I would barely scrape by with passing grades. I have asked myself why on so many occasions. Why did I have such a difficult time in school? Now that I am much older (almost 30!) and much wiser I think I have some of the answers.

Neither one of my parents graduated from high school. While that makes some parents even more determined to see their own children graduate, causing them to have very high expectations for their kids and put a lot of pressure on them to do well. This was not the case with my parents. I didn't feel that they were too concerned with how I did in school. I knew they expected me to pass and even if my grades were barely passing, that seemed good enough to them. I often wondered if they had given me even the slightest impression that they actually would like to see me do better, that they would be proud even, if I would have tried harder. Knowing myself like I do I think the answer would be 'yes'. I believe I simply didn't try that hard because I never felt driven to do so. As a friend told me in an email today “You seem to do anything you put your mind to.” I only wish I had made up my mind to do better in school.

Like any kid though I had my strengths and weaknesses. Math – Major weakness. Anything creative was a strength. Imagine that. Subjects that fell in between those two extremes yielded the mediocre marks you would expect. Another major problem in my academic career was my social life. During the thirteen years I spent living in a small town I was incessantly bullied which I'm certain played a big role in my academic struggles. I know for a fact that it permanently damaged my self esteem. Along with being called ugly I was often called stupid. So I had nothing going for me. At least if I was simply stupid I'd have my looks to fall back on! Of course I'm past this now (mostly) and I can speak medium heartedly about it. But again it causes me to wonder about the potential that may have been wasted during those years.

Once we moved to 'the big city' my social life was again a distraction. Only this time it was because I had a lot of friends. I wouldn't have classified myself as being 'popular' but I got along with most people in my high school. I wanted people to like me so badly that I spent most of my time and energy making that happen. Since that had been such a struggle in the place I lived before I assumed it would be in this new place as well. It took me a while to stop trying so hard.

Suddenly I found myself in my last year of high school, needing to pass every class I was taking in order to graduate. By this time I had set my own standards for myself and although I had never done that well in school I was determined NOT to spend another year in school. I surpassed all of my own as well as anyone else's expectations and passed everything very comfortably. So comfortably in fact that I received a scholarship for being 'the most improved grade 12 student'. I had no idea they gave money to you just for finally getting your butt in gear.

So where am I going with this story? It all leads back to Little A. I want more for her. I am already thinking about what I can do as a parent to make her life easier. When she goes to school I want her to know that I will be proud of her when she lives up to her potential and yes, disappointed when she doesn't do her best. I will encourage her but not pressure her.

Her father is a genius. He will laugh when he reads this and tell me that I am ridiculous and shouldn't say things like that, especially on the internet. But that is only because he is humble. He is the smartest person I know. And the best thing about him? Even though he is smarter than me and a lot of other people, he never makes anyone feel stupid. To me that is a true sign of intelligence. When you don't have to make other people feel dumb to make yourself feel smart. I believe that intelligence can be passed on genetically and I am so grateful that Little A is going to benefit from her fathers great mind. He and I often joke that if she gets a nice balance of his brains with my social skills she's going to have a great life!

This post all stemmed from these pictures of A. She is in love with books. Often when I notice she's wandered off somewhere and is disturbingly quiet I will find her in her room flipping through pages in one of her books and jabbering away to herself. I know that she isn't 'reading' but the fact that she is so interested in her books gives me hope. On days when she's driving me batty because she's getting into everything I can always settle her down by sitting her on my lap and reading to her. Those are the times when I really feel like I'm doing something important. I feel like I might be making her future just a little bit brighter. So here are the pictures. She's sitting in her new big girl chair which was an early birthday gift from her Grandma.

A Terrible Idea

So in preparation for going back to work today (not Thursday as I stated in Monday's post when I was obviously on crack) I decided to wax my underarms. Before you freak out, I do it all the time, for several years now. To sway any of you skeptics out there I only wax about once every two months and that is it. I am not a slave to the razor. Well, my armpits aren't anyway. My legs however...

As many of you know, I am a hairstylist. I work in a very nice Salon and Spa. Unfortunately our spa currently has no esthetician. What does an esthetician do? Waxing. Among other things. So where does this leave me? Paying someone at another location to do it (which is a hassle considering I was once able to just zip upstairs for a few minutes in between clients and pay a fraction of the price with my employee discount) (Don't be jealous because my job has no benefits and no pension, when I get old I'll have to live in a tent) or doing it myself.

So which do you think I chose? Adopting my daughter's soon to be mantra “I can do it by myself!” I did that very thing. But you see I've done it before. I've done it a couple of times actually and was pretty successful. So doing it again last night was no big deal. Except that I tried doing it while watching an episode of 'Firefly' with my husband. Turns out good lighting and paying attention to what you are doing is key when ripping armpit hairs out by the roots. I didn't know what I had done wrong exactly but I knew that it hurt. So after punishing myself a little more I decided to quit.

This morning I surveyed the damage. Red, very red. Injured looking but still many hairs. I considered shaving, but as anyone who understands waxing knows, I would suffer a major set back in my waxing routine. I considered making an appointment with a professional to finish the job properly but I was too embarrassed for anyone (except the internet) to see what I had done to myself. Also, if I was the esthetician looking at my sorry pit I'd tell me to go home and let it heal before I would even go near the thing. (I really hope Plantain is reading this because I think she'll get a kick out of it and/or think I'm a total putz)

So, are you all dying to know what I did? Or do you think you can guess? If you guessed that I decided to yet again abuse my poor tender under arms myself you win. I totally lose. This time I was in the bathroom, in front of a mirror, in good lighting, paying attention to what I was doing. It still hurt but the pits are virtually hair free. Was it worth it? Um... not really. I think I'll probably shell out the cash and go to a professional next time. To think I once gave Bon advice about seeing a waxing professional. I think this is what they call, 'Poetic Justice'.

Anyway, because I wasn't quite humiliated enough and I'm just begging for people to tell me what a moron I am I'm posting a picture of my mutilated under arm.



And then to give you something pleasant to replace that awful image, a picture of my sleeping angel. The kind of picture I rarely have the pleasure of snapping anymore.

To Catch You Up A Bit

Getting back into this blogging thing is harder than I thought it would be... I guess I never really stopped but the YouTube thing was different. I haven't written about what's been going on with us lately. So let me catch you all up.

Our holidays were... interesting. They started off well with a visit to the in laws. There was a little stress at first trying to keep Baby A from climbing the stairs (I totally had no idea she could do that!) or ingesting the various dangerous, choke inducing or just plain icky objects that seemed to be everywhere. We're talking marbles, a bolt, small rocks, flies etc. The situation was quickly rectified once we headed into town to purchase a baby gate and I gave the floors a major cleaning/vacuuming. My in laws had been away visiting their other grandchildren and didn't have time to clean up before we arrived. Which was fine. I think my father in law was a little perturbed that I was cleaning their house but my husband explained that Miss A was putting everything into her mouth and I needed to be sure that it was safe for her to be on the floor. When it was explained to him that way he was no longer offended.

We went to the beach (Beach Baby) and to the amazing wave pool. A loved every minute trying to lick the water, dunk her face in, splash and so on.






My in laws also have two of these most wonderful chairs. I'm sure that many of you have them also. I am SO getting one before I have another baby. It's a rocking chair with an automan which also rocks. The chair can recline and it also has pockets for books, the remote control, a banana – whatever. I lived in these chairs while we were there. My baby who won't nurse or go to sleep anywhere but in our bedroom, nursed in these chairs and fell asleep, no sweat. Awesome!





Other exciting news – Miss A is walking. Kind of. Her record is maybe, seven steps or so. The last few are often running steps. She generally prefers to crawl since she is highly proficient at it and it is much faster. She does enjoy the clapping reaction the walking attempts often produce which is why I believe she continues to try. The girl loves to perform. She has recently discovered that laughing along with others is fun and also gains the attention of everyone in the room. It is very cute. Perhaps most exciting is that she seems to be saying, or trying to say a lot of words. There is a bear mirror in front of her car seat and we always say “Look, there's your bear!” and lately she'll say “bow” which TOTALLY means bear. And the other day I had Baby Einstein 'Neighborhood Animals' on. They said dog, she said “deg”. I thought I was crazy but then they say it again “dog” and she says “deg”. Shortly after that was “cat” to which she repeats “kit” and when they repeat again, so does she. I was flabbergasted, for real. Was she seriously repeating what was being said? That was as far as it went though because then the words became more difficult like “mouse”. Who cares about mice anyway, really. So yeah, that's crazy.



And finally, I am 29 years old and counting... This is my last week as a twenty something mama. As of Saturday I'm into a whole new age bracket. I'm okay with this. I am. I am. I'll have to change my profile – I am a thirty year old mama of one... It's all good. Secret plans are being made. Peter was having a conversation with our friend on the phone last night and I wasn't allowed to be in the room. I think/hope these plans include 'Karaoke Revolution'. I want to defend my title. This might be a tall order if The Big Fugr is in attendance.

A Wake Up Call

Holidays are officially over. Technically I don't go back until Thursday but the fact that Baby A and I kissed Dada goodbye this morning and we are on our own for the day means they are indeed, over.

I hope everyone that checked in enjoyed YouTube week. It really was a silly idea for me/us to try and do that while on holiday. I know that it doesn't have to be difficult – you can just grab a snippet of video and upload it. But you see, my husband and I are freaks. We must edit the video and possibly add music. This takes time. And patience. Patience tends to run low once the clock strikes 12 am which is usually when we would tackle the job. Staying up late was a trend. It was fun while it lasted but now we must get back to a normal bedtime!

Here a funny story regarding YouTube. Last week I receive an email notification that a comment was left on one of my videos. At first I am excited. Then I think, what if it's a negative comment? I'm glad that thought crossed my mind so that I wasn't too upset to see that, yes, the comment was negative. I was however, surprised that the comment had been left on a video that I hadn't posted on my blog. It was the first video that Peter uploaded when we signed up for YouTube. He uploaded it as a test. The video is another TKD video in which he edited together all of my board breaks from both my first and second degree black belt tests. He did it without my supervision and although I appreciated what he had done of course I had criticisms. I hate watching myself doing TKD on video. (except my second degree test, that wasn't so painful) My first degree board breaks didn't go so smoothly. And the three board power side kick footage he used from my second degree was from my first attempt in which I didn't break all of the boards. This is glaringly obvious to me and every time I watch it I think “Crap, I should have done that break the FIRST time!”

I never told him to take the video down. I didn't really think anyone would ever bother to look at it. Yet another example of my underestimation of the internet. According to YouTube it has presently been viewed a total of 93 times. Ug. And then to top it off I get this comment from “cooldudedan7” who informs me that I have “Horrible Technique!!!!!!!” Seven exclamation marks! Seven! So I replied to his comment. Agreeing with him, and thanking him for his comment (to sum up). But it bugged me. And he keeps sending me messages regarding my comment like “hello?” “What are you talking about?” and “What do you mean?” So I decide to Google 'cooldudedan7'. Low and behold I find that he is a compulsive negative comment maker. Especially on anything martial arts related. According to him everything 'sucks' is 'gay' or he uses profanity. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the 'cool dude' himself for opening up my eyes to the kind of people that are out there surfing the internet. It is good to be reminded every now and then!

So here is my “Horrible Technique!!!!!!!” in all it's glory. I didn't break the jumping front snap kick, fell after my flying side and twisted my ankle a bit (edited out), I didn't bring my hand back to my hip after my two board knife hand strike, my power side kick was okay, the last three were on my testing video except this is my first attempt at my three board power turning kick (which sucked). My 360 side kick and flying turning were pretty good I thought. I am sure that 'cooldudedan7' is a much better martial artist than I am but for some reason he doesn't have any videos of himself up. How odd. Maybe he's under contract or something.



Feel free to leave happy comments on my YouTube videos!

Beach Baby

Late again. I don't know what the heck I was thinking planning this crazy YouTube week on our last week of holidays. Oh I know, I wasn't thinking. And I certainly didn't have the foresight to know that we would all be a bunch of sickies this week. Blah.

Next week all will be back to normal. Working. Exercising. (let's cross our fingers on this one) And blogging. We are jumping back in with both feet. yay. I mean YAY!

So now for the finale YouTube. This footage is from early on in our holidays. Back in the good ol' days. Visiting the inlaws, taking it easy, going to the beach. This was Miss A's first time in the sand or in a lake. She had been strictly a pool girl up until then. As you can see she loves water of any kind and the sand, well, BONUS! Can you hear her doing a Mini Me impersonation? "EEEeee!"

This is my tribute to the ever nearing end of summer. When it's thirty five below zero this winter and I'm all sad I'll just fire up the ol' YouTube of A on the Beach and try to jump into the screen!

Mama D Plays DDR

Sorry I missed yesterday. We ended up being busy taking Peter to the doctor then taking him to get an x-ray and blood test. They thought he had pneumonia. Turns out it's only an infection. So anyway we were up last night getting this YouTube ready for you.

One day while the three of us were out for a walk we decided to go into Ruckers. We figured there would be lots of interesting stuff for Baby A to look at and maybe we'd play some pinball. Then we saw it. The Dance Dance Revolution game.



We had always been curious about this game so we figured, why not try it? The rest is history. We are hooked. We have been back several times. We even took The Big Fugr with us once. Then we thought what would be more entertaining than posting video of ourselves playing DDR on the internet? Nothing, thats what. On a separate occasion when we happened to have our camera with us there was this AMAZING young man named Dawson playing DDR. Watching him play gave me something to aspire to. (Not that I will ever put the time or money into getting that good) We struck up a conversation with him and asked his permission to video tape him while playing the game. He graciously agreed. This video has not been altered or sped up in any way. Check out his calf muscles! Seriously!

So this is todays YouTube. I hope you all enjoy!



The Mama D YouTube finale video will be up tomorrow. Till then...

Baby A is Born

To celebrate our last few days of holidays we all decided to get sick. Peter is running a fever, Baby A was up barfing (on me) in the night and I am... ahem... running to the bathroom. Excellent! And the real kicker is we were three hours away from home at a cabin with Peter's brother and his family. Miss A slept the whole way home which was sublime. I only wish I could have done the same!

Needless to say I'm not in much of a mood to write a long, beautiful story about today's YouTube, which I promised would be late. (I don't like to disappoint.) It's pretty self explanatory. We video taped me in her room as I was in labor, displaying my enormous pregnant belly then we cut to me literally just after having her. Little A is laying on her back, as calm as can be. My midwife is puttering around cleaning up. Then we have some other footage of the following day in hospital before we realized that we would be stuck there for several more days and our spirits were still up. Soundtrack credits to Coldplay.

"Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah they were all yellow,"

Anyway, the cute factor is quite high I think. It's hard to believe that just over 11 months ago she was just a little blob who cried all the time and didn't care for eating. I can't tell you all how happy I am that we are beyond that stage. I'd take the occasional temper tantrum over those early days in a heartbeat.

Mama D Does TaeKwon Do

Apparently YouTube is doing some work over there. It doesn't say how long it will be down but hopefully it will be back up shortly. I obviously picked the perfect time to do a YouTube week. Sheesh. We are going away for the night so I'll be posting a little later tomorrow.

Any of you who know me or have been reading a while, know that I do TKD. Not only that but I love it. Since I went to my first class over 10 years ago it has been in my blood. It will always be a part of who I am.

I started TKD when I was 18 and at 21 I tore my ACL in my knee. Over the next four years I had three surgeries, a scope, an ACL reconstruction and another scope. I attained my first degree black belt between surgery #2 and #3. My surgeon suggested after my last surgery that I should perhaps, give up TKD. I tried. It only seemed sensible. I was obviously not cut out for it, otherwise I wouldn't have injured my knee so badly. So I did other things, lifted weights, swam, did aerobics. When my urge to hit stuff again became too overwhelming to ignore I joined a boxing club. It just wasn't the same. I missed TKD too much. I decided to go back and 'take it easy'. It felt good, my knee felt strong. I kept training and eventually trained towards my second degree black belt. That test meant more to me than anything I had accomplished up until then. After everything that had happened with my knee I thought I'd have to quit and never believed that I would ever test again.

But I did. The test went so much better than I ever could have imagined. While doing my patterns I literally felt as if I was almost outside of myself. I was conscious of my heart beating, my breaths. My body was doing what it was supposed to do but it felt like it was in autopilot. Everything else went smoothly and I was thrilled. My self defence routine was against two people since as a 2nd Degree I am supposed to be able to defend myself against two people. AT the end of the routine one of my partners performs three different knife attacks which I must defend against. It felt so good to do all of my board breaks since they aren't something we practice often. They are done at the end of the test. If you watch me my body language shows my increasing giddyness with each break.

It was fun putting this video together. I usually have a difficult time watching myself do TKD on tape. I am highly critical of myself and pick everything apart. I can actually stand to watch this and don't criticize myself too much. YouTube always seems to mess up sound so my breathing is all over the place and you'll see the boards break and then hear the crack. Soundtrack compliments of Bjork and Jamiroquai.

Mama D Gets Married

So I decided to do a YouTube week. I've only posted one YouTube video before. I think it's a lot of fun but it is totally something that Peter does for me. He makes the YouTubing possible. So thanks babe!

When I thought about doing an entire week of YouTube I wondered what I should post. Random cute baby videos? Always popular. But what I decided I wanted was for it to be a chance for people to get to know me a bit. A glimpse into my life and a hint of who I am. There are so many of you out there who I feel I have gotten to know pretty well. I am amazed at how much I have grown to care about people who I have never met. When I began blogging I never expected to make so many friends and feel so close to people who are so far away. Anyway, enough with the sappiness.

Peter and I were married on September 14th 2002. We had been engaged since June 4th the previous year. I met him when I was 18 years old and attending hair school. I went to school with his brother's girlfriend who later became his wife. I remember the first time I met Peter in his brother's basement apartment. My friend and I went to the apartment after school and Peter and his brother showed up shortly after we arrived. I immediately thought he was cute and the fact that he was so painfully shy he wouldn't even look at me was only more appealing. I tried to be witty and I noticed he was laughing at my attempts. I was still dating my high school boyfriend at this point and honestly never considered the possibility of EVER dating Peter, let alone marrying him. His brother's girlfriend and I remained friends and for the following 2 ½ years I saw him occasionally while visiting with her.

On the July long weekend in 1997 I traveled two hours to visit my friend who was now married to Peter's brother. By the end of that weekend I think I'd pretty much fallen in love with Peter. I'm not sure if his brother and my friend had this planned for us but when I arrived Peter was there and he was around for pretty much the entire weekend. After my friend and his brother went to bed we would stay up talking for hours. When I left I asked for his address and I wrote him a letter as soon as I arrived home. The rest is history.

The next 5 years were full of ups and downs. A good portion of that time we had a long distance relationship. Sometimes it seemed as though it was never really going to work out between us, the distance was too hard. But breaking up never seemed like an option. We were just stuck with each other whether we liked it or not. That sunny June 4th afternoon when he went down on one knee and asked me to marry him was one of the happiest days of my life. But then our wedding day just over a year later blew that day away.

Peter edited some of our wedding video together with 'Lovesong' by The Cure playing. That was our wedding song and you can briefly see The Big Fugr getting ready to sing it in the backround during the ceremony.

It is strange looking back at this video and realizing how much we have grown up and changed since then. I look back at myself and think, hey, I looked pretty okay. But at the time I never thought so. Isn't that always the way? If I have changed this much in four years time it makes me wonder who I'll be in another four years...

Hip, hip Hurray!

This weeks winner of Say WHAT? answered first and with great confidnence. I'm guessing that means that she knows this movie well. I actually haven't, as I stated in my post seen this movie over and over. (That's what I get for being lazy and using copy/paste!) I've seen it a few times when I was younger and haven't seen it for a long, long time. From what I remember it was really good. So anyway, the winner. It was Beth from Total Mom Haircut. She has won before which makes sense because I know she's a big 80's music fan also. She is fabulous and so is her blog. Her son is gorgeous and I'm considering hooking up some kind of arranged marriage between him and Baby A. I'll have to discuss this further with Beth.



I think I picked 'The Goonies' this week because while at the inlaws we watched a documentary on child stars. One of them being Corey Feldman. I felt very sorry for him listening to him talk about his life. Although I think he faired better than Corey Haim. Martha Plimpton was probably my favorite thing about this movie. I love her. She's the only actress that Peter confesses to having a crush on that I'm NOT jealous of. She's that great!

Talking about the movie makes me want to go out and rent it so that I can watch it again. See if it's as good as I remember.

There won't be a Say WHAT? for next week because I have declared this week to be

MAMA D You Tube WEEK!

That's right, every day this week you will get a tiny glimpse into the thrilling life of Mama D, Papa D and Baby A. It's going to be a blast so come and check it out!

Say WHAT?

Okay, so I had big plans to blog while we were out of town at the inlaws. But then when I tried to sign in to Blogger I realized that I didn't remember my user name. How dumb of me. If I had known that I was such a moron I could have warned you all that I would be gone. I'm sure some of my readers may have noticed I still managed to comment on blogs with my other blogging persona – Mama D of 'The Mama D Experiment'. It wasn't a cheap ploy to get anyone to read my story, but if you did then that's cool. Anyway, on with the show...

It's Friday again and that means it's time for my AWESOME game Say WHAT? In case it's your first time or you forgot how to play, here's the deal. I post a quote from an 80's movie and you all leave me your guesses in the comments. I can't stop you from using the internet as a resource but I'll ask everyone nicely to refrain. It's more fun that way! I will announce the winner on Sunday night and if the winner has a blog, I'll link them. If they have a profile picture I'll post that too.



Last weeks winner was Jay from And then there were four. I was so excited that she won since I actually know her in the real world and am blessed enough to call her my friend. AND in her first week of blogging she has gotten more comments than I did months into my blogging career. Not that I'm jealous, much. Love that girl and I loved that she won.

Now for today's 80's quote. Yet another 80's film that I watched over and over. And over. It had something for everyone, brought out both the tomboy and the girl in me. Good Luck everyone and don't forget to come and check if you won!!




"This is ridiculous. It's crazy. I feel like I'm babysitting, except I'm not getting paid."

I Just Couldn't Wait

Okay, so here's the thing. Since seeing these I knew I had to sign up and do one of my own. And because I am now on holidays for two weeks (eeek!) I figured I'd have the time. So I did. And actually, although I usually rely on my husbands computer savvyness, I did this mostly by myself. I only needed a small amount of help. I am so proud.

Once I completed my masterpiece I decided that I should wait just one more little month and make it a birthday post. My montage would then contain pictures from the entire first year of A's life including birthday cake pictures and such. But the thing is, I can't wait. I want to post it now.

I'm like a kid at Christmas. I know what the present is and I can't keep it a secret. I have to show you. It's just too cool to wait for.

I guess I'll just have to add next months pictures and repost it then. How anticlimactic. Oh well. I hope watching it is worth ruining the specialness. To the right of the viewer there is a "View Larger" option. I prefer that to the tiny viewer.


So here it is. You might need a kleenex. Or maybe that's just me.

It's Great To Be A Winner!

This week's winner of Say WHAT? is none other than my real life and new-to-blogging buddy Jay from And then there were four! I can't think of a more fantastic way to enter the blogging world than to win a game in your first week of blogging! I couldn't be happier really. It has been so cool to head over to her blog each day and check out what is going on in her world. If I could get everyone I know to start blogging I'd be one happy Mama.



I thought this quote was appropriate this week what with my black eye due to the ass kicking I suffered. I loved The Karate Kid. If I hadn't lived in such a stinkin' small town with nothing to do I'm pretty sure I would have started taking Martial Arts back then.




As I said when I posted this weeks quote, this movie appealed to both the tomboy and the girl in me. My girl self had a gargantuan crush on Ralph Macchio after seeing this movie. My tomboy self wanted to learn Karate so I kick the butts of those jerks who were beating up my beloved Daniel-son. Looking at photos of him now, I guess he doesn't look a whole lot different, but I no longer find him that attractive. I think this could be because his boyish charm is gone. I know I watched this movie many times along with all the sequels except 'The Next Karate Kid' starring Hilary Swank. I should have really watched that one since I'm all about the tough girls.

So there you have it. Come back again next Friday for another Say WHAT?

Say WHAT?

It's Friday again and that means it's time for my AWESOME game Say WHAT? In case it's your first time or you forgot how to play, here's the deal. I post a quote from an 80's movie and you all leave me your guesses in the comments. I can't stop you from using the internet as a resource but I'll ask everyone nicely to refrain. It's more fun that way! I will announce the winner on Sunday night and if the winner has a blog, I'll link them. If they have a profile picture I'll post that too.



Last weeks winner was KEP from Giant Steps In Childcare. She answered in the nick of time, just as I was writing the post stating that we had no winner that week. Wow, I guess I stumped most of you. That was a first. I think this weeks quote will be easier for everyone.

Now for today's 80's quote. Yet another 80's film that I watched over and over. And over. It had something for everyone, brought out both the tomboy and the girl in me. Good Luck everyone and don't forget to come and check if you won!!



“No the problem is, I'm getting my ass kicked every other day, that's the problem.“

I Flickr

Did anyone notice my new Flickr Badge on the sidebar? Or the 'My Flicker' link? That's right, I did it. Finally. I joined Flickr. I have been wanting to for a while. I had to keep asking myself why? I can upload my photos onto my blog if I want to. So what was the reason. Honestly, I love those fancy badges with the little slide show. It's so cool. And I like the idea of being able to comment on my bloggy buddies photos. It's all about community, man.

Another thing I want to do is sign up for ONE. Another fantastic find through 'The Shape of a Mother'. This woman Darshani posted and linked to picture montages of her two daughters. Her youngest has had some serious health problems. I watched these montages and just cried, they are so beautiful. She also has a lovely website in which she documents her journey with her daughters health condition. Very interesting. I showed Peter the site and we both went to bed and prayed to thank God for blessing us with such a healthy child. To help us to always be grateful for what we have and to not take things for granted. I think Darshani is an unbelievable mother and an amazing person. Her post on 'The Shape of a Mother' was eloquent and profound. I was thankful to have had the opportunity to read it.

So, what are you waiting for? Go check out my Flickr. And you really have to check out that post and those montages. I dare you not to cry, I dare you. Then after you're done crying come back and tell me about it.

P.S. I seemed to have hit a nerve yesterday referring to myself as 'old'. For those of you lovely people who are in fact, older than I am, please know I was not referring to yourselves as being old. I only feel old in the context of being repeatedly punched in the face by an 18 year old girl. That sucked. I used to be the puncher, not the punchee. Anyway I decided my getting the crap beaten out of me was not because I'm old but because I hadn't eaten before class and also because I haven't sparred much since we began trying to conceive. I fully intend to be more 'on my game' next week and dish out some punishment. Or, at the very least keep my other eye from being blackened as well. Till next time, spring chickens.

So Much To Say

I have so many disconnected things I want to get down today. I guess I could start with telling any of you who care that I finally put another chapter up at 'The Mama D Experiment'. I can't tell you how often I will be updating from here on out because up until now I'd been posting chapters I'd already written. Like, a long time ago. I think my husband encouraged me to blog my story so that I would feel obligated to finish writing it. Since I have begun posting it I have written a little more but I have now caught up to myself. I am worried that the writing may just go down hill from here. We'll see I guess...

A real life friend of mine, Jay has just joined the blogging world. Being the freak that I am, I am SO excited. I wish all my friends would start blogs. I love to learn about them from a different perspective. I find it deepens the bond of friendship. At least that is how I've felt regarding my other real life blogging friends.

I met Jay at church and we have gotten to know each other better in this past year. It was nice having a friend who was pregnant at the same time. Her son is a few months younger than Baby A. She is the reason I started going to La Leche League meetings and I am very grateful to her for that. We've also been playing ball together. Giving high fives and cheering and so on. Fun. Yesterday afternoon, She and her two lovely kids came for a visit. In between nursing our kids, giving snacks and trying to keep the kids happy and entertained I think we actually were able to catch up with each other a bit!

Just before Jay left she was burping baby Lex so he'd be comfortable during the walk home. Baby A was hovering around them all curious about what they were up to. When she noticed Jay patting Lex on the back she enthusiastically began to help. We all had a good laugh at this. Those are the times I realize how quickly she is growing up and that she's really not a baby any longer. Last night while I was running her bath she was standing at the tub watching it fill up with water. For the first time ever she started to put her toys in tub. I was thoroughly impressed and also perhaps a little sad at yet another example of how grown up she is becoming.

And finally I must talk about TaeKwon Do. I have been attending one class a week on Tuesday nights. Going to TaeKwon Do once a week is not ideal but I consider myself lucky to be getting there at all. Gone (for now) are the days when I am there three nights a week for two + hours. I did it when I was young and single, then young and married. Now I'm just old. No, it's okay. I am.

I started TKD when I was 19 years old. A friend of mine was taking it so another friend and I started to take it as well. It wasn't long before I was hooked. Seriously. No matter what happens, it will always be in my blood. Way back then as I was moving up through the ranks I worked very hard and I did well. I went to a lot of competitions and won a lot of medals. Achieving my 1st Degree Black Belt was one of my biggest accomplishments. Achieving my 2nd Degree Black Belt was an absolute dream. I love (d) TKD and at one time I was a pretty talented martial artist.

Then I got pregnant. I continued training until the end of my 7th month. Although I had to modify my training I still did pretty well and could do most everything except some kicks and of course, sparring. (my favorite) I never expected to be able to get back to class so soon. Another thing I never expected was how 'rusty' I would feel. ('rusty' could also be interpreted as 'old') Last night I was literally hit in the face with that cold hard fact. While sparring one of my young whipper snapperish TKD buddies (who also just happened to have returned from competing at the World TKD Championships in Honduras) I took several punches in the noggin. I will say that I hit her back a few times and caught her with a wicked back kick. But when the match was over I felt the headache I had started class with become just a bit more intense. My jaw was tender and so was my ego. I used to be good at this. I also used to be younger. I drove home feeling depressed and noticed in my rear view mirror that my eye was blackening a bit. I haven't had a black eye since competing a long time ago...





Maybe my impending 30th birthday is bothering me more than I realized. Perhaps in regards to TKD, I just have to accept the fact that I'm not quite as good as I once was. It's a hard pill to swallow. I might be expecting a lot of myself. It's not easy to just pop in for a class once a week and be competitive with students who are there all the time. I should be happy I'm holding my own at all. But that's just not me. It's not enough, I have to be better.

No wonder I'm so hard on myself when it comes to being a mother. Funny how different aspects of our life give us clarity in other parts. I guess I need to chill. It'll be a challenge but I know I can do it.

What August Will Bring

The last month my Baby will be less than a year old. Once September is here she'll turn one and it's bye, bye baby, hello toddler. Who am I kidding? She's already a toddler. She toddles around. She's almost weaned herself. She only nurses about three times a day now. And only in our bedroom while I watch television. Sometimes I wonder if I've screwed up my letdown by feeding her in there the majority of the time. What if my milk won't let down unless I'm watching Canada AM, E Talk Daily or General Hospital? If I could actually feel my letdown I would know. Stupid boobs.

The other day I tried to feed her while we were at a BBQ. She flat out had a fit. I haven't nursed in public for a while and I'm out of practice so I admit I was a little embarrassed. I ended up putting her on the floor hoping she would just can it and play. Instead she rolled around on the floor crying. What a weirdo. She eventually stopped. I blamed fatigue but I think she was mad that I tried to feed her there. Maybe I'm nuts. Anyway, this brings us to our next point.

August is also the last month that I will not be working Fridays. Once September rolls around I will be working four full days in a row. Baby A will be going to a private babysitter from 9-4 on Fridays. This could prove interesting regarding breastfeeding. I'm not really sure what to do. I'm sure I won't be able to pump enough for all four days I'll be working. I know I can incorporate whole cows milk into her diet at that point if I want to... I'm just not sure. I may have to discuss this with my La Leche League Leader. She'll likely have some good suggestions. I haven't really bothered her with any questions since I was a new breastfeeder who was all insecure and freaked out. How far I have come. Now I coddle the new moms that come to our meetings.

I am not looking forward to my change in schedule. I have settled nicely into this one since January. I am working the perfect number of hours right now. Unfortunately I need to bring home some bacon so we can continue making our mortgage payments. I wish I was independently wealthy like Hugh Grants character in “About a Boy”. Why couldn't my father have written a famous Christmas Carol? Oh well...

One good thing August bring is two weeks of holidays for both Peter and I. I often find the anticipation is better than the actual event. I hope I am wrong in this instance. I want to have a wonderful time with Peter and Miss A during our first holiday since her birth. She is old enough that we can actually do some fun stuff with her. We are going to travel a little bit. Stay home a little bit. Work around the house a little bit. Peter is going to help me broadcast an entire week of YouTube entitled 'A Week In The Life Of Mama D'. How exciting. Actually, I am excited. It will be fun.

So my plan is to enjoy this month to the fullest because once it's over things in my world are going to change quite a lot.

Did I ever mention how much I dislike change?