My Girls

Sara-Lyn

I have a hard time believing how much Sara has grown over the last five months. She has changed in so many ways. Five short months ago she was so small and delicate. That first night in the hospital the only way I could get her to sleep was curled up in a ball in my arm beside me. Now she is as long as my torso and can hold herself upright. Five months ago she would sleep making little squeaks as she snuggled against you, now she wants nothing more than to be awake, being part of whatever is happening. I'm amazed by her everyday. I love how graceful she is towards Hannah. She tolerates every hug, pat and kiss. She gives a smile to anybody who looks her way, but she is selective with who she will talk to. I love hearing her giggle, which only Hannah can invoke consistently. Sara is happiest when she is included in whatever is going on around her, she wants to sit at the table with us at meal times, when we read books or play on the floor. She watches Hannah so intently that I know she will be crawling soon enough to keep up with her big sister. When she is in her jolly jumper she puts her whole heart into, often jumping before I even have her in the thing. Everything gets thoroughly examined both with her hands and her mouth. I love how at night after I have fed her she will still snuggle, pushing her face against my neck. I love the smile she gives me when I walk into the room. There are so many things about Sara that amaze me it would take a month just to write them all down, and by then there would be so many more new ones.

Hannah

Hannah is my big little girl. She is becoming more of a big girl everyday. Each day she tries to gain a little more independence. I am so proud of how she: picks out her own clothes; puts on her own socks; goes potty by herself (sort of); Drinks from a big girl glass; reads books by herself; goes to bed easily; and the list goes on. Her recent discovery of the words "NO" and "mine" frustrate me, but I understand that she is becoming her own person, and this is all part of it. I love how thoughtful she can be of other people, concerned if they hurt themselves, and upset if somebody is missing out on something exciting. I love how concerned she gets when Sara is upset, and how helpful she is in giving Sara her toys back when she drops them. Her excitement about life is infectious and she can always cheer me up. I love how she still needs me to hug her when she hurts, and tuck her in at night. Hannah is my brave girl, she wants to try everything out. At the park she climbs to the top of the tallest slides, and runs across the swinging bridges without hesitation. She has learned to climb up various types of ladders including a rope ladder. She is shy of strangers but once she knows you, she is always willing to give away hugs. Hannah amazes me with her ability to find fun in anything, from running around in circles in the yard to reading a book by herself. She loves to smile, and I don't know anybody who can resist smiling back.

cooking disaster

Well I had my first true disaster last night with cooking. I essentially made dog food, it smelt like dog food, tasted like dog food, and I'm sure if I would have analysed it, it probly even had the molecular content as dog food. So I will drop that recipe and start completely fresh. Hopefully the next attemp taste a little better.

Parade

We went to the Santa Clause parade this weekend, it was an enjoyable experience we wondered around the staging grounds for a little while, and then took our places to wait for the parade. Hannah was fun to watch at the staging grounds she would slowly approach the various mascots until they noticed her and stuck their arms out for a hug, the she would shake her head and step back. When it was time to go find a place to sit though she didn't want to leave. She had a blast watching the parade itself too. I think she got the most fun out of the dogs, and a float that had two bucking horses on it. But what kid wouldn't love a whole bunch of people waving just at her. We rode the C-train to get downtown and back. It was Hannah's first time on Light Rail Transit. She got rather excited when we crossed the river. For her anyways it was a day with lots of new sights and sounds. Sara also enjoyed the parade, probably more for the fresh air and bright colors then anything else. But it just proves the point that you are never too old or too young to enjoy a parade.

Pictures

Superstore

I have offically given up on Superstore. I had decided that I would try shopping at Superstore more often, not because they're cheap, but because their carts fit both my kids without having to worry about somebody sitting on the bread. So today I went there early in the morning to avoid the craziness that is Superstore. I had three types of beans that I wanted to purchase, but as I walked by the beans section, I grumpily discovered that they were sold out of all three types of beans I wished to purchase. This was rather annoying as it meant I had to go somewhere else to buy beans, and honestly how do you run out of beans. I was so annoyed I grabbed milk and cheese, paid for the stocking stuffers I had picked up for Hannah and Sara and left. Of course after getting home I realized that I still needed all the stuff on my list so I spent the afternoon at Safeway grocery shopping for a second time. But at least I was able to find everything on my list, and in most cases actually had multiple brands to choose from.

Undecided

I am undecided whether this last weekend was a good weekend or not. On the fun side we went to Edmonton and enjoyed some time just relaxing and visiting with family. We also went to the Waterpark and had a great time splashing in the waves and going down slides. Even Sara got into the fun and spent some time frolicking in the water. Hannah loved the slides and showed great fortitude even when facing foot high waves. Both kids behaved well during most of the trip, and even on the drive both ways they were both phenomenal. But as mentioned above, this weekend was not all peaches and cream. It started on the way down to Edmonton with our van misbehaving. It wouldn't shift out of 2nd, at least not consistently anyways. So it took us a little longer then expected to get there as we couldn't go above 70. We were hoping to get it fixed on Saturday but remembrance day made short work of that idea. The second mishap was that because of the CFR, there were no hotel rooms to be had in Edmonton, (We booked a week in advance) So we were forced to accept smoking rooms, and were lucky to get those. But this meant that I had to listen to Dan cough and snore all night. Thankfully after the waterpark I was so tired I pretty much passed out and was dead to the world for a few hours at least. Then of course there was Hannah's cold which had been pretty much gone when we headed down there, but the swimming and smoking have given the bugs new strength. And last was the drive home which started out fine, we had hope for about 45 min. the van ran great but then we dropped into second and that was it. At least until Red Deer when after stopping for supper it gifted us with another half hour of 110 km/hr. So now we are home faced with fixing our transmission (praying it is just a sensor) but fun memories of the waterpark. I think I will concentrate on the fun parts and write it down as an enjoyable weekend.

Playdate

Well I successfully hosted my first playdate today. Who would've guessed there was room for 10 kids and 7 adults in my house. apparently there is, and I have enough toys to amuse 10 kids ranging from 4 1/2 months to 4 years. The other thing I learned today is that my table is not tall enough to stop little wandering hands from finding the snacks. And hosting a playdate is a great way to restock your baked goods supply.

Happy Halloween

Volunteers?

I am sending out a request for some volunteers to try some recipes I have created. The job is pretty simple, buy ingredients, make recipe, eat food, email me your opinion on taste, looks, ease of preparation, and any suggestions for improvements. If your interested let me know, and I will be glad to provide you with a little more information.

Procrastinating

Yesterday I went shopping and bought a really neat seat protector for the van, it goes under the carseat, has a toy box attached, drink holders and just random pouches. I was so impressed with this find, that I decided to clean and vacuum the whole van, so I dressed up Sara and Hannah and went out into the relatively nice weather and cleaned out the van, and I took everything out, even stuff the belongs in the van. I couldn't vacuum however with Hannah running around our front yard as I doubted my ability to watch her and vacuum simotanously, (I am only human after all). So my plan was to vacuum after they were in bed, and then reassemble the van. But well bedtime came and I no longer felt like vacuuming. So I procrastinated, and now I wake up today and it is snowing, and not just snowing a little, but the ground is covered, the van is covered, the trees are covered, and it is still snowing. I think the universe has turned against me and is teaching me a lesson about procrastination. Well I get the point, so if the snow could just melt I will go outside and finish what I started. (Sorry about my little rant, but I really wanted to try out my new seat protector)

Carpet adventures II

Well I decided I should post to update everybody on the result of my cleaning spree to my carpet. I did try the magic eraser on the chocolate soy milk, and it worked, but unfortunately it really chews up the eraser, and I ran out of eraser before I ran out of stain. I then tried a concentrated mixture of water and dish soap. And it actually worked, I was rather surprised by this as I have tried more powerful cleaners to no avail. So the two mystery stains are gone, and the chocolate soy milk stain, while it is substantially lighter has unfortunately come back, so it will be off to Walmart to buy the stuff suggested by Lynne. And I have actually not even touched the crayon yet, because well dragging out the iron sounds like a lot of work, and I am afraid water will just smear it.

Your know your tired when

Do you think I can safely blame this dumb moment on being sick:

As I was cleaning the livingroom, I put one of the fisherprice men into the fisherprice house. I of course used in the first available entrance, the chimeny. I go about putting books back into the book shelf, when I spot this man again, so I put him away again. I did this about 6 times, each time getting more annoyed at Hannah. Finally after putting it back into the chimney for the sixth time I realized that the chimeny just shoots the man back out the window on the side of the house.

I could perhaps pretend that I didn't know that that is how the house worked, but I've always known that, and usually I have enough sense to open the roof to put the men away.

BOO!

Somebody is taking this halloween thing to far. In the last hour I have been scared by:

a mouse in the garage

Freaskish hail suddenly hitting the window

two spiders jumping out of towel, in the basement, at me

I think I should just park myself on the couch under a blanket for the rest of the day, or I might end up with a bat in my hair.

Everybody loves a picture

Why I will never own a house with carpet?

I have some questions for my many faithful readers.

1. How do you get chocolate soy milk out of a carpet?

2. How do you get crayon out of a carpet?

3. How do you get the mysterious spot that just showed up one day out of your carpet?

Pictures

I finally got around to uploading all of my pictures to Walmart, so if you didn't already get an invite to view them, let me know and I will email you one.

Not much is happening in our world, Sara-Lyn is still growing, and Hannah is still opionated. We're off to Edson for Thanksgiving, which I am sure will be a perfectly enjoyable weekend, with lots of good food, and good company, and maybe just a few hours away from the kids. Well it is late and I am tired so I will keep this post short and end it with a picture of my two favorite people.

Bad hair day

She's lucky she's so cute!

Update

I guess it is time I give an update as to what has been happening in our lives. Starting with Sara-Lyn, we moved her to the crib two weeks ago, she seems to be sleeping better, which isn't surprising seeing how the bassinet is not really the most comfortable thing. She loves to talk if you sit down with her and have a conversation she will chat up a storm. She is funny though, she tries so hard to make each sound, that sometimes she forgets to breath and then has to gasp for air which means she makes this adorable little squeak. We have started the process of potty training Hannah, I was starting to become discouraged but it seems that something clicked for her during yesterday afternoon. Yesterday evening she went to the potty 4 out of 5 times and today she is 2 for 2. Unfortunately we still aren't getting the poops, but with the recent successes I have faith that she will start going to the potty for those ones too. Hannah broke her first tooth on Sunday, well she chipped it anyways. She fell off of the teeter totter and hit the center bar. She went to the dentist this morning with Dad, and he confirmed that it was just a surface chip, but he wants to see her again in two weeks to make sure there was no root damage. Apparently both me and Dan have to go to this appointment as he wants to show us the proper way of brushing her teeth. I am a little worried about this as he mentioned that it involves two people, one to hold her and the other to brush. I have to wonder if it is really worth traumatizing our child on a nightly basis just to possibly prevent a few cavities in her baby teeth. Currently Hannah brushes her own teeth, and I think she does a pretty good as she does her best to imitate us. hmmm I think that is all the current news, Me and Dan live a pretty boring life so there is nothing about us to mention, We had company this weekend, it was fun to visit with old friends, and play a game of settlers.

I spy

a tire, Ernie, a bag of peas, a green ear, a bag of diapers, 5 shoes, a bowl of salsa, a red "Donald Duck" and a baby ....   What can you find?

Cooking

I decided to try using a set of recipes where you do all the prep work for 22 meals all at once and then you only have to actually cook them when the time comes. The instructions say it will take 4 hours, but it took me more like 8, so I am a little tired and I find it hard to believe that it will actually be time saving in the end. But I guess I will have to see how easy it is to make the actual dishes. I think it would be much better if a few people got together and made 2 or 3 sets all at once. So if anybody wants to assemble meals with me in about a month let me know and we can set up a date.

Since we got back

It has been an interesting week since we got back, the first thing that happened was on Sunday at midnight after a very long drive, I fell down the stairs, because I was holding Sara at the time I made no effort to protect myself and ended fall straight onto my tailbone, and it still hurts and it has been over a week. It was kind of frustrating last week when all I wanted to do was go to bed, but laying down hurt. Then on Monday night our hot water tank began to leak. Thankfully our landlady acted quickly and we had hot water again by Tuesday evening. Then over the weekend we attended Dan's cousin's wedding in Camrose. It was a nice ceremony and reception with good food and good company.

Saskatchewan

We had a great time in Saskatchewan last week, the weather was perfect giving us a few opportunities to hang out at the beach. Hannah had a great time, she spent most of the time inventing ways to get dirty. Her favorite was to sit in a pile of sand and dump handfuls down her clothes and into her hair. Sara enjoyed the fresh air and started to sleep on a more regular schedule. Dan had fun demolishing the roof on my Dad's cabin, he came a away with a few bruises, and a few stories. The most exciting being that of falling through the ceiling. It was great seeing everybody again and we're already looking forward to the next trip.

Off to Saskatchewan

Well we are off to Saskatchewan for a week, but before we go I though I better do an update on the Doctors appointment we went to on Monday. The appointment was for Sara-Lyn, and she is perfectly healthy, as expected. She seems to be suffering from reflux, which I kind of suspected, so from now on she sleeps with her head elevated and hopefully that will help her relax at night. I think I need to bottle my breastmilk and sell it on eBay as a growth serum. My guess of 9 lbs, for Sara was way off. The person to guess the closest was Dan's Mom at 10 lbs, but even she guessed low. Sara weighed in at a whopping 11 lbs and 15 ounces. She has gained 4 1/2 lbs in 5 weeks. She also grew 2 1/4 inches to make her 23 inches long. So no wonder I'm not getting any sleep at night, she is to busy eating to support her massive growth to sleep.

Monster Poop!

I just have to tell everybody about the horrendous poop My youngest daughter had. Yes it was that large that it deserves a post. It leaked out both legs and the back of her diaper. (Try cleaning that one up without making a mess) I take back my estimate that she is 9 lbs now, after that poop I have to say she is down to somewhere around 8 lbs and 10 ounces.

Time Flies

Wow, I can't believe it has been almost six weeks already. It seems like just last week we brought Sara-Lyn home. I have a hard time when I look at Sara coming to terms with how quickly she's growing. When Hannah was a baby I didn't realize how quick babies grow, so I looked forward to each new development, but with Sara I know how quickly things change so I want to slow things down so I can appreciate each moment more. But of course that is impossible and she has continued to grow despite my objections, and boy is she growing fast. We have a Doctor's appointment next week so we will have some real stats, but I am sure she is close to 9 lbs. Hannah is also growing, lately I have noticed that she can reach things previously out of reach, and can climb onto furniture with a little more ease. Of course with her ability to climb, comes falls, and she defiantly knows how to fall. I am almost afraid to go out in public with her, for fear someone will call child services on us. Currently I can count 3 bruises on her face, and six on her legs. Ironically the biggest one on her face she got while we were at the Doctor's office on Monday. Hannah has decided that Sara is her own personal toy, which makes it difficult for Sara to get any tummy time, or just time by herself, every time I try to put Sara on the floor, Hannah is there within moments to hug, poke, and take whatever toy I have given to Sara. But I hear Sara crying and I am assuming she is probably hungry, so I must go feed her.

3 weeks

Well it has been three weeks since Sara-Lyn was born, so I guess it is about time that we posted and let everybody know how things are going. It has been a very busy three weeks for Sara. The first few days of Sara being home went smoother then I could have hoped. Hannah was more fascinated with Sara than any thing and was a great little helper bringing diapers and giving Sara hugs. Sara however seemed to be having problems settling the first few days and was continually waking up in what seemed like pain. So we took her to the chiropractor when she was only three days old, we saw a pediatric chiropractor and she made a minor adjustment (Sara didn't even wake up) and ever since Sara has been sleeping soundly.

When Sara was only 8 days old we drove to Edmonton in order to see the pediatrician. It was an exciting trip, we went to the zoo with Nana and Papa; Katy, Steve and Jayda; and Kerri and Jay. We stopped in for supper at our friends, who still live back in Edmonton, house. Hannah had a great time playing with their son, in their wading pool, and well Sara slept.

A few days after returning to Calgary we had more visitors and we made another trip to the zoo, Hannah slept and well so did Sara.

And lastly this last weekend we decided to take Hannah and Sara to the Calgary stampede. We watched the supper dogs and Hannah danced and sang along with Strawberry Shortcake, It was a fun but tiring day.

That catches us up to now, I think. For being only three weeks old Sara has had a pretty exciting time. Hannah is still being a helpful big sister, she takes the diapers to the garbage whenever she spots them, and pushes Sara in her swing when Sara cries. We have had a few misunderstandings where Hannah has gotten mad, but mostly things have been going pretty smoothly. I wish I had a picture of Hannah giving Sara one of her hugs, but I'm always afraid to grab the camera incase, Hannah gets a little over zealous with her hugs.

The only thing I would like to grumble about at this point is the lack of sleep. Now that Sara's jaundice has cleared up, I have discovered that she is an around the clock eater, she eats every two hours day and night. This means that I never get any more then one hour of sleep at a time. It is getting to be a little tiring. So you will have to forgive my bad grammar and disjointed thoughts, but my brain is only functioning at half capacity. Sara does have one three hour block, but it coincides with Hannah's wake up time, so it does me little good. But I'm done complaining now, after all getting no sleep is what being a parent is all about, right?

Sara-Lyn has arrived!

Sara-Lyn Marie Legge came into this world with flair at 11:18 am on June 17th. She weighed in an astonishing 7lbs 7.7oz four weeks ahead of schedule measuring 20 3/4" in length. Mom and baby are home and resting comfortably after a hospital stay that was anything but ordinary. Here is the play-by play of how this little miracle came into the world:

June 16th
6:00 am	Carmen's Water begins leaking (slowly)
8:00 am	Call health link and confirm that we should go the hospital
11:00 am	Arrive at foothills general hospital and check-in at labour and delivery
11:20 am	Get a bed
12:00 pm	Nurses hook Carmen up to a fetal monitor
12:20 pm	Daniel asks a nurse why the monitor is printing blank paper instead of pulse and contraction lines - Nurses fix the monitor
1:00 pm	Nurses turn8 the monitor off
1:30 pm	Doctor comes to examine Carmen - "No labour yet, try walking around for a while to try and get things moving"
7:00 pm	Give up on walking around and retire back to the triage area of the labour and delivery ward Nurses say that Carmen should be induced in a couple of hours Carmen gets some rest, Daniel goes home to help Nana put Hannah to bed and to get some rest himself.
9:00 pm	Daniel returns to the hospital expecting Carmen to be resting or in the early stages of labour - She's playing solitaire, nurses say that Carmen may be induced sometimg tomorrow morning - Daniel asks if we can both go home to get some rest and come back in the morning - Nurse goes to ask doc if this is acceptable
9:30 pm	Nurse returns with a tentative time of 12:00 am for inducing Carmen - We can't go home
June 17th
12:30 am	We get moved to a delivery room and they begin administering synthetic Oxytocin to start labour
7:00 am	Doctor checks the cervix and discovers that labour has stalled at 4cm (no clue how long she'd been stuck there for) because there is a large volume of fluid trapped below the baby - Membranes are re-reruptured and labour resumes without the aid of the Oxytocin
11:00 am	Nurse says that it's time for Carmen to start pushing
11:17 am	Baby's head comes out and doctor discovers that the baby has a shoulder dystocia (Shoulder is stuck) and all hell breaks loose. Doctor instructs Carmen to start making short gentle pushes as he grabs the baby by the head and shoulders (yes, the shoulders are still inside - use your imagination a little here) and begins pulling and twisting on the baby trying to get it out Daniel and Carmen start to panic as we realize that something isn't right
11:18 am	Sara-Lyn Marie makes her entrance into the world!

Oh yeah, and here are the pictures for those of you who are only interested in seeing the pics:

(Remember to click on the pictures to see more)

Dan is still alive, honest!

Wow, talk about taking a break from posting, two months and change since my last post!

The new job has certainly been interesting. I had worked with the government before when I was at 5D, but I have now experienced the full effect of the speed of government while working at SAIT, if you want more details, you'll have to catch me on MSN or over email... On the bright side, while waiting to actually receive the servers that I was supposed to configure, I have been having a lot of fun tuning their code. One of the best results took a job that ran in two and half hours down to 4 minutes. Yes, you heard me right, from hours to minutes!

If there's anybody out there that knows anything about gravel and tar roofing, please make yourself known as our new place seems to have a bit of a leaking problem (unless of course you think that a kiddie pool in the basement is a good thing...)

Rain, Rain,

The sudden rain after weeks of hot weather is truly the most exciting thing I have to post about. It has been an exceptionally uneventful week, at least in our world. Hannah is teething again, I don't believe I mentioned it but two weeks ago one of the molars on the top of her mouth came in. And now the teeth that are supposed to be coming in, the next set on the bottom, are poking through. I am a little worried though, usually teeth come in pairs and so far I have only seen the molar on the right side with no sign of it's mate on the left. Well that is the most exciting news I could come up with, I am going to go and have lunch, feel free to COMMENT about your exciting news.

Toddler Bed

I am starting to feel a little optimistic that we may have actually got this toddler bed thing figured out. We put Hannah into a toddler bed last Monday night. The first two nights went off without a hitch, but then she figured out that she could get out of the bed and drive us insane, and things went downhill from there. It was taking anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes to get her to fall asleep and everyone was exhausted by the end. Last night however was only 30 minutes, and today during her nap she only got up twice, and finally tonight she went to sleep without getting up once. I wont be naive enough to believe that she will go to bed like this every night but it is somewhat comforting to believe that the worst is over.

Antz

I finally found what could be considered a toddler park in our neighborhood yesterday. It is still a little old for Hannah as it just has a slide (which is too big), a teeter tooter, one of those horses on a spring, and of course baby swings. Despite finally locating a park within walkable distance I don't think me and Hannah will be going back though, this particular park seems to be infested with red ants. Calgary seems to have decided that sand isn't good for parks so all of the parks I have come across anyways have had the sand removed and filled in with gravel. This apparently seems to be prime living conditions for ants. The wood surrounding the park and the rocks themselves were infested. I of course didn't realize this until Hannah decided to sit on the wood, and instantly became covered in little red ants. I think this was actually more traumatizing for me then her, as she hadn't even noticed yet. Thankfully I was able to get them off of her pretty quickly and she only got bit twice. But I made the mistake of running her to the middle of the park which I thought would be ant free. It wasn't and they continued to crawl up her legs as I was scooping them off of her upper body and face. Needless to say we didn't stay there very long, and probably wont go back, at least until Hannah is past the age where she finds it fun to sit in the rocks and just push them around.

Happy Mother's day, and a trip to the Zoo

Happy Mother's day to all us mothers, hopefully everybody had the opportunity to relax and do something special for themselves today. We decided to take a trip to the Zoo today, and it was a very enjoyable time. The aftermath of course is complete exhaustion, but it was worth it. In the four hours we were there we only saw maybe a quarter of what was available so more trips in the future are defiantly in order. Hannah seemed to enjoy herself although she didn't seem to know what to make of the bigger animals, like the elephants.

Ultrasound

We had what should be our last ultrasound on Wednesday, and I am glad to say everything is looking perfectly normal. Although my Doctor's suspicion that this baby is measuring large was confirmed. According to the ultrasound this baby is measuring 4 lbs and 2 ounces. Of course those ultrasounds are only so accurate. But assuming it's correct then this baby is measuring two weeks early. I have said since the start of this pregnancy that it would be born in the 35th week, which puts it between June 4 and 10. And I'm guessing another girl 7lbs 2ounces. I'm going to ignore Lynne's comment about a 9lb baby as that is just not going to happen.

Babies, Babies everywhere

It has certainly been an exciting week. Me and Dan became aunt and uncle twice over and Hannah has two new cousins to play with. (Or as her nana likes to say, boss around.)

Congratulations to Angela and Marc on the birth of their son Hayden Scott Hoffort, born 12:01 AM, May 1st 2006. He was 2lbs 8oz. As he was born 10 weeks early he will have to spend some extra time at the hospital doing some more growing. However he is doing great and taking small steps towards going home everyday.

Congratulations to Katy and Steve on the birth of their daughter Jayda Rain Winjet, born 1:38 PM, May 6th 2006. She was 7lbs 7oz and 20 inches. She has her mother's chin and somebody's very cute but big feet. Keep checking back and when I track down my camera I might even post a picture.

And last but definatly not least us, Our baby is still kicking my ribs and jumping on my bladder. However I am quite content to be able to still complain about being pregnant. Our household is starting to become a little stressed as the time when Hannah was born approaches. I think that Dan is convinced this baby is just going to fall out, every time I sneeze his blood pressure raises a little. So far we have no reason to worry though, the last ultrasound was good, and my only complaints are all a part of normal pregnancy. (although I think somebody played a cruel joke on me when they made all the signs of preterm labor symptoms of normal pregnancy). At my last appointment the Doctor nicely informed us that this baby is starting to measure on the very large side of average, and we have another ultrasound sometime this week to make sure everything is still going great.

And of course I have to say something about Hannah, She is learning the art of maximizing mess. I find her toys absolutely everywhere, and of course she doesn't like to play with big toys anymore only little ones that come in sets, like fridge magnets or puzzle pieces. She carries them around in containers and then dumps them out whenever the whim hits her. Her favorite spot of course is on the stairs. She has also discovered that she has both teeth and nails. At this point I like to think that she is just experimenting and will soon learn what is apropiate. Until then be a little wary. We went to a toddler park the other day and she had great fun discovering the slide. She isn't quite brave enough to go down on her bum yet, she insists on turning around and going down on her stomach. But I must end this post she has decided that she has had enough of me being on the computer.

Pictures of our babies

Hannah at 16 months Our newest bundle of joy at -12 weeks (Remember to click on the pictures to see more - If the ultrasound pictures don't flip, try pressing the Refresh button to download the newest javascript)

We made it!

I figured I should let everybody know that we did successfully move to Calgary. The place we found is in a great neighborhood close to pretty much everything. Dan has been enjoying his walk to work this last week, and me and Hannah are enjoying all the many birds and squirrels.

The move here was pulled off with relatively little mishap, I think the biggest oops may have been that our electronic cooler full of food from our fridge accidently got set to heat instead of cool. Hannah was pretty sick with the flu the week before we moved and of course she was teething so she was pretty miserable, and then of course this last week she has had some kind of chest cold. But it seems to have pretty much cleared up and she is in a much better mood now.

Our new place has quite a few more stairs then our last so Hannah has had to learn how to navigate stairs. She fell a few times in the first couple of days so was a little wary of them last week but over the weekend she decided to give them another chance and now she is going up and down them so quick it scares me just watching her. She has also decided that walking isn't so bad after all and it wont be long before she is walking all time.

We had to buy a new washer and dryer for this place and I am defiantly liking this new set, you can barely hear it running and it is absolutely huge so I can do all of our laundry in two loads instead of 4. And of course it has a million settings that I am sure I will never use, and because their front load the energy savings our supposed to pay for the set in 5 years. I don't know if I believe that but, it helps to justify the cost so I wont argue too much.

We also bought a new bedroom set, but it hasn't arrived yet so I don't have much to say about it. I am however looking forward to finally having some drawers to put my clothes in. Dan is kind of a drawer hog, so I have been forced to fold my clothes on shelves for the last 2 years, and before that I had a hideous blue and yellow dresser, which I painted myself when I was 15.

Well I guess that is all there is say, so feel free to comment lots.

We're Moving!

Yup, you guessed it! We're moving to Calgary. Starting April 3rd, I am an employee of CGI

As I'm sure most of you can imagine, we're crazy busy trying to get everything organized for our big move. Our biggest stress point at the moment is what in the world to do with our house here in the city. Should we sell it or rent it out? We're looking for all the pros and cons of both options, so please share your thoughts...

In case anybody is wondering about why the sudden move, the company that I am currently working for is suffering some financial difficulties and it doesn't look like I'm going to have a job much longer. When this particular opportunity popped up, it was simply too hard to pass up.

We spent yesterday looking for (And thankfully found) a nice place to live. It's within walking distance of my first consulting position at SAIT, so I won't have many opportunities to ride their super-cool version of the LRT, the C-Train (At least I think that's what they call it...).

The people there all seem really friendly, and it sounds like I may have a lot of opportunities to improve my existing skills as well as developing a lot of new ones...

Pictures!

Yes, we know these are old. Perhaps in a few weeks we'll post some newer ones, but for now, these are professional photos taken when Hannah was 11 months old:

And here is our first picture of Hannah's new little brother or sister:

Ultrasound and then some

Well I guess seeing how my ultrasound was a week and a half ago, it is about time I posted some details. It was exciting to actually get to see this baby, while I have been feeling it kick for quite a while now, this was Dan's first opportunity to come to grips that yes there is a baby growing in my stomach. The baby seemed quite content to stay curled in a ball on one side of my stomach so we didn't get too many action shots, but it did suck on it's hand at one point. Exactly like it's sister, Hannah has never been a thumb sucker, she has always preferred all of her fingers if she was going to suck on anything. We do have a picture which has been scanned into our computer so if anybody wants to see it just email me, and I will send you a copy.

In other news, Hannah has decided she isn't interested in walking. I think she may have figured out that walking means she will lose her free ride everywhere. We're hoping seeing some other kids her age will prompt her to give it another shot. Her current new word is "baby". She calls all of her stuffed animals and several other things baby all the time now. She may have also started saying "Give me" or "Gimmmee", but I don't think this is actually a new word for her just a better pronouncement that is actually understandable as anything more then "Geh".

I learned the other day that letting a toddler feed themselves red jello is not necessarily a good idea. Apparently red jello stains skin, who knew? So that is my relevation for the week, be prepared to have a red baby if you wish give them red jello. Hannah has also developed rather picky eating habits, the other day I gave her a stir fry of broccoli and chicken over spaghetti, and she actually picked out every piece of spaghetti and left the chicken and broccoli. If any broccoli did end up in her mouth it promptly came back out. Oh well I guess every kid goes through a picky stage, at least she will still eat cucumber.

Well I guess it is about time I post. I am sure after six weeks I can come up with a few interesting things to write about. Well I guess I will start with the news about Hannah, seeing how that is all anybody really wants to hear anyways.

In January we went back to her allergist and he decided to challenge her milk allergy. That was a disaster and a waste of time, if you phone me and ask I will have a nice long rant about this particular allergist, but for now we will stick with the facts. She is still allergic to milk and eggs and must avoid all consumption, or physical contact with either, until she is at least two, at which point we will probly challenge them again.

Hannah has begun the process of learning how to walk, she pulls herself up to standing using the furniture and then makes her way around the room. Recently she has gotten braver and has starting letting go of the furniture and standing stationary until she inevitably falls over. Her periods of standing are getting longer though and it wont be long before she takes her first steps. She moved into the imitation phase and enjoys doing the things that me and Daddy do. She talks on the phone, brushes her hair, hugs her teddy bears, and my personal favorite she will sit in her chair and read her books. It is cute though because she keeps a constant monologue going while pointing at the pictures in the book. One day I plan on recording this, and showing it off to anybody who will watch my home videos. Her talking is also getting better, I have heard and am pretty sure she understands the words Mommy, Daddy, Thankyou, gently, go, see, yeah, wow and perhaps okay. She may not understand the exact meaning of these words but she seems to sort of understand them, I suspect that she may think "go" has anything to do with outside as she will often point out the window and say "go". And she has a word that seems to mean "get me that" because she will point at things and say "geeeay" and then "thankyou" if you oblige her. hmmmm other things Hannah has started doing, Some not so nice things are her recent decision to not eat green vegetables, standing up in her crib instead of napping, and the realization that she can throw things like new toilet paper rolls into the toilet.

Okay but moving on, I had an appointment with my OB early this weeks and of course I got to hear the heartbeat again. It was quit fun this time, because the Dr. would just locate the heartbeat and start counting and there would be a bunch of static, and no more heartbeat. So she would find it again and then the same thing would happen. The doctor was getting rather frustrated as it took her 4 or 5 times before she was able to determine the rate of the babies heartbeat. I however was quit amused by these antics. Our ultrasound is Tuesday, so I imagine we will have more fun stories to tell after that.

It seems like nothing exciting ever happens to me or Dan. We are the same as before. This weekend we are planning a trip to Jasper. We will be leaving Hannah in Edson for one night. We needed to start slow with leaving her behind, I couldn't imagine doing more then one night at this point. And the only other exciting thing that has happened to me and Dan is that we bought a new set of phones. So no more phones dyeing every time we're talking to people. They were quit expensive so hopefully they last a looooong time.

Okay well I think that sums up all the news for the last six weeks, feel free to leave lots of comments or suggestions on things I may have missed mentioning.

What a month!

First of all, to our faithful readers (if there's any of you left), our apologies for our month long absence... As with most people during this season, our lives have been hectic.

So anyways, here's what's been happening:

Survived first round of lay-offs at work - Phew!
The 16th was Carmen's Birthday - Happy Birthday Carmen
The following week we were both knocked out by the flu.
Hannah started crawling (Thankfully we were recovered by the time this started)
Picked up additional responsibilities after substantial lay-offs
traveled to Edson to visit my family for Christmas Did our standard marathon through Choiceland, Snowden (Too small for a website of their own), and Prince Albert to visit Carmen's family

Now for some of the details...

The flu was actually pretty scary. For those that don't already know (we tried to tell as much family as possible in person before posting here), Carmen is pregnant. Pregnancy and the flu are not very compatible and we wound up spending the better part of the night in the Royal Alexandra Hospital's emergency room. They pumped Carmen full of anti-nauseants and fluids and sent us back on our way.

Hannah's crawling was pretty exciting, she seems to be getting pretty good at following people around the house. The crawling, however was almost immediately followed by climbing. Not too high (yet), but she can get onto her knees and reach stuff that was previously out reach. She quickly learned that climbing wasn't restricted to the living room floor and started climbing everywhere - Out of Mom and Dad's bed (no more leaving her alone after she falls asleep for her naps), up against the rails of her crib (Amazing how cute she looked sobbing with her chin on the top rail / Time to drop the mattress down to the lowest setting...)

Christmas vacation was pretty fun, Hannah got to spend a lot of time with her Grandparents and Great-Grandparents, Mom and Dad got a little bit of R&R time, and got to catch up with family that we don't talk too nearly enough...

I'm sure I've missed lots, so there will probably be more updates to come...

Happy Birthday Hannah

Well I know it is a little late but I guess late is better then never. Hannah's birthday was on December 10th, and we hosted a small party for her. Everybody had a great time, and Hannah enjoyed opening her presents and eating chocolate cake.

This last month has been an exciting one for Hannah, she has learned how to crawl, clap her hands, wave hello and goodbye, and my favorite. She can stack her blocks four high. She is sleeping her own bed without a peep until 6:00am most nights. She would sleep straight until 8:00 if Dan getting up for work didn't wake her up. She is weaned off of the bottle other then at bedtime. I think that pretty much sums up everything she has started doing in the last month. We're still arguing over whether she actually knows the words momma and Dadda or if she just likes the sound of those words.

In other news, not a whole lot has been happening in my and Dan's world. I feel like we've been supper busy lately, mostly because we've been helping Dan's sister get settled into her new home. And of course in between everything else there is Christmas shopping. I was so proud of my myself last month I was so organized and I wasn't going to leave anything to the last minute. Well that was a joke I still haven't bought for half of the people on my list, and stocking stuffers could really use a boost. But there is still one weekend before Christmas, and I know what I will be doing.

Well to get back to my original post, Happy birthday Hannah, I can hardly believe it has been a year.

Dan's Christmas Carol: All I want for Christmas

You Are "All I Want for Christmas Is You"

I just want you for my own More than you could ever know Make my wish come true... All I want for Christmas is You You only want one thing for Christmas Love from one special person - and you've got it!

What Christmas Carol Are You?

Well I guess it is about time I post. I can't even use the excuse that nothing exciting has happened. My sister Angela came and visited me last week. We had a productive week of shopping and getting the transmission flushed on the van. (which is a story in itself) Over the weekend we went to Saskatchewan, to celebrate my Dad's birthday. (Happy Birthday Dad), And now we're back home, and it has been a pretty boring week. But perhaps I will pad this post with two amusing stories from last week.

1. After meeting Dan for lunch downtown one day last week, Angela and I decided to wonder through the mall in hopes of finding Christmas gifts. We discovered a brand new dollarama and walked excitedly through, finding great stocking stuffer ideas. Well I was parked in spot that turns into a tow away at 3:30pm. I checked my watch at 3:20 and realized we had just enough time to pay for our stuff and get back to the van. We head to the check out and discover to our amazement, this wonderful place that was the answer to all our stocking stuffer woes, only takes cash. As I am not to keen on having my car towed we had to abandon our finds, and rescue my van. A whole afternoon of shopping completely wasted.

2. Back to the transmission flush story. My husband phones me early Friday morning and says go take the van to a Mr. Lube it needs a transmission flush before we go to Saskatchewan. So that afternoon we head to Mr. Lube, and begin what should only be a one hour service. Well an hour goes by, and the mechanic explains to me some problems he is having and how he is going to fix it, (free of charge) and then he can start part two of the transmission flush. Half an hour later another guy approaches us and asks us our opinion on the engagement ring he is going to present to his girlfriend. Yes at this point we have all become the best of buds seeing how we have held captive by them for what seems like forever. Finally 2 and half hours into this adventure we are instructed to pull outside and they will begin the last stage. We pull outside wait patiently for 15 min. Only to discover that some hose has broken and all of our transmission fluid has burst all over their parking lot. Well now they need to push the van back into the garage, fix the hose and refill the transmission. As you can imagine Hannah who has been in the van for just about 3 hours is getting a little impatient. So we abandon our post and head over to another dollar store. (Which was a waste of our time, nothing can compare to a dollarama). Finally after 3 and half hours we get back into the van and drive away, only to make it home just in time to cook supper and head out to look at houses with our real estate agent. Perhaps this story only seems funny to me, as you had to be there. I did however forget to mention the fun of discovering that our cell phone was broken. At some point in the middle of this, I phoned Dan only to discover the speaker on our phone was dead, after several rounds of "hello" "HELLO" I gave up calling him and settled back into my long wait. But of course Dan was curios now and begins phoning me, but needless to say the speaker still doesn't work. He continued to phone us periodically right up until we drove into the driveway at 5:15pm.

well I think of have padded this post enough with my long winded stories.

Happy Halloween

Yeah, it's been a long time since we posted any pictures of Hannah, so here are some of the better ones of her in her Halloween costume:

Remember to click on the image to see more pictures

How very interesting...

You fit in with: Humanism Your ideals mostly resemble that of a Humanist. Although you do not have a lot of faith, you are devoted to making this world better, in the short time that you have to live. Humanists do not generally believe in an afterlife, and therefore, are committed to making the world a better place for themselves and future generations. 20% scientific. 80% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

She's teasing me

When I went to pick Hannah up this morning, she reached out her arms and proudly proclaimed "Momma". My heart skipped a beat and I couldn't help but want to jump for joy, but then she dashed my hopes when she continued with a whole stream of "Momma"s. All morning every time I looked at her she was saying "Momma", to her toys, her food, her soother. I think perhaps she knows that I am Mom, but hasn't decided to grace me with that title yet. Oh well I guess it will happen soon enough.

Quack!

You Are A: Duck!
	Found in many lakes and ponds, ducks are a common site the world over. Known for their famous quack, ducks tend to congregate in flocks or go off on their own in pairs. As a duck, you may seem friendly at times but will not hesitate to bite if someone is bothering you. Your love for travel and your ability to swim are some reasons why you are a duck.
You were almost a: Monkey or a Bear Cub You are least like a: Bunny or a Chipmunk Cute Animals Quiz

Thanksgiving stories

Well it appears on our trip to Saskatchewan for thanksgiving we traded up on Hannah's cold. We went there with Hannah recovering from a pretty minor cold, and came home with the beginning of a horrific cold. She has been pretty miserable since Tuesday evening. She is in a little bit better mood right now, but I know it can't last. We had a great time over thanksgiving, the food was terrific, and it was great to see everyone again. The first year me and Dan buy a bigger house we will host thanksgiving and hopefully it will be as big a success. I played my very first game of poker over the weekend, and of course I used my beginners luck to my advantage and walked away with lots of money. Unfortunately I can never play again, as my beginners luck will have abandoned me. Oh well I may have to rely on my intellect next time.

Trivia Tournament

I just had to creat my own trivia tournament. The rules are pretty simple, play once a day and after 20 days the person with the highest score wins. Carmen's Quiz! Make sure you play daily! Good luck!

Time to Retire

I think it is time for me to retire from the midnight diaper changes. When I went to change Hannah this morning, I discovered that she was wearing not one but two diapers. Apparently in the middle of the night I forgot to pull the old diaper out from inside her sleeper. But it gets better on the one side I used the tab from the new diaper and did it up correctly, but on the other I grabbed the tab from the outside (the dirty diaper) and attached it to the new diaper. And just incase anybody is worried neither diaper contained any poop. Hannah didn't seem to care she slept through the night wearing two diapers, and neither one on correctly. Of course she may have just been happy because she was sleeping in our bed, and thought she shouldn't push her luck.

tagged?

Thanks Angela, and I noticed you took all the easy people. Here is the deal: 1. Go into your archive. 2. Find your 23rd post. 3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to). 4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. 5. Tag five other people to do the same. Okay, from November 22 2004 "When the previous owners laid tile in the kitchen, the thickness of the new sub-floor plus the thickness of the tile and grout reduced the height of the door from the bottom." We finally put in the door at the end of August that we discussing almost a year ago. Talk about procrastionating. and I guess we will tag .... Kelly and Kara, Mike, and Tim and Holly,

Blogging Hiatus

As many of you have probably noticed, I have been somewhat absent from the blogosphere for the last few weeks... Rest assured I am still alive. I have undertaken some web-design work one of my mother-in-law's businesses which has snowballed to the point where I am in the process of building/configuring an OpenBSD web-server. This has been largely successful which means that I should be back to web-design soon, and after that hopefully I'll be back to blogging on a regular basis, although perhaps I'll have to move to my own domain... I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Crossword mania

Well, I certainly can't complain about not being busy enough. Last weekend was a quick trip down to Edson, to go to a bowling reunion, and then this weekend a wedding. (Congratulations to Kerri and Jay). And the fun doesn't end, next weekend is Thanksgiving so we're off to Saskatoon. I have had a cold for about a week now, and now it seems that Hannah may have finally caught it. So I am hoping everybody is healthy by Friday.

It is funny how things can seem to change so quickly, when I was pregnant with Hannah, it seems I knew very few people who were, either pregnant, trying, or had recently had a baby. Now everybody I talk to is in one of those stages. It is like the world has gone baby crazy. Even our neighbor is pregnant.

I wish I had more exciting things to write about, but I don't. I have become a crossword fanatic lately, so that is all I do all day. I do about half a puzzle get mad look at the answers, and then start the next one. I am finding that having a vocabulary that has lots of big words in it, doesn't help when all of the answers are three or four letters. Except of course for a few, in which I think they make up most of the words.

Hmm well that is all I can think of for now, I am off to have a bath in hopes of encouraging my cold to go away.

Please take a moment...

From the Share A Little Magic site (With thanks from EZ Rock 104.9):

To celebrate Big Brother Big Sister month, MasterCard has put forth a challenge to get 25,000 hits to this site on September 23rd. If successful, MasterCard will donate $75,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada. On Sept 23rd, tell your friends that Magic is just a click away...at http://www.ShareaLittleMagic.ca!

yeaaaah!

Hannah has started experimenting with different constanent sounds. It is quite fun listening to her experiment with y, w and g sounds. She has become quite the chatterbox often laughing at herself after a particularity intriguing combination. Her second tooth has come in, and she is a much happier girl now. She was having a particularity rough time with the second tooth. For the last few days anyways she has been back to her usual happy self, and has discovered a new way to move around. She rocks forward putting her weight on her legs and then scooches her bum forward. I find it rather difficult to watch as I keep on expecting her to fall flat on her face.

Our renovations are finally done, and it was defiantly a learning experience. I am just glad we got everything done on time, and our tenant was able to move in without any problems. It is different sharing our house with a complete stranger, but the money is nice, and I am sure I will adjust.

Dan and I just got home from Peace River a few hours ago, and once again it is nice to be home. We met our friends Colleen, and Kara and Kelly there. It was nice to visit with them, as with everybody being so busy, we haven't seen them for anything longer then a meal in at least a year. It was a great weekend, we stayed in a hotel called the Third Mission, which was a renovated mission. Our suite had two bedrooms, a kitchen sitting area, and of course a full bath. And all that for only 125$/night.

We got home just in time to have a quick visit with Dan's parents before they headed off on their trip to Vegas. Lynne and Cliff - We hope you have a great time, and congratulations on renewing your vows. The next 25 years will surely be even more exciting then the last. I think that is everything, I will bug Dan to post some pictures of Hannah and our renovations.

We Passed!

Whew! What a relief. The city inspector came by today to check on our all-new plumbing and gave us a little green sticker indicating that the upgraded plumbing was inspected and meets city plumbing codes. We have been taking some pictures as work on the house has progressed, so hopefully we'll have some time to put them up closer to the end of the week.

For those who weren't aware, we made a snap decision to replace all of the plumbing in our house. For those of you who have had the misfortune of staying at our place, you understand why, for the rest of our readers, a brief explanation:

Prior to the 1960s, most homes were build with galvanized steel pipes - Our house was built in 1953). Over time, these pipes began to corrode, restricting the flow of water. On top of that, there were generally only a few lines that ran throughout the house and any fixtures simply tapped into this central line. As a result, the further down the line a fixture was located, the worse the pressure. As a final problem, most of the cold water fixtures were tied in BEFORE the hot-water heater, meaning the cold water fixtures had significantly more pressure than the hot (No so hot).

Okay, maybe that wasn't so brief...

In order to replace most of this old plumbing, we had to tear off the drywall from the basement bathroom and punch several holes in the upstairs bathroom - Photos of the chaos will be forthcoming.

As with any project I take on, here's where things start going haywire...

We knew that the main-line shut-off was a little finicky (i.e. leaked in some positions), but was still workable (Keyword being was). After one of our pressure tests, the shut-off insisted on dripping continually. So now I have the (mis)fortune of manufacturing a long weekend so that I can phone the city and have my water shut off from the street so I can replace the tap. With the water off, I remove the old cartridge and go to Rona (Home Depot is the Devil) to see about getting a replacement:

Rona plumbing guy: WOW! That's really old! I haven't even seen one of these in YEARS!.

Me: So you don't carry replacements?

Plumbing guy: (laughs)

Okay, so I cant replace the cartridge for the valve, so we decide to finish the job right and replace the whole works - If only I could have actually REMOVED the old valve. Darned steel pipes, who told you that you were allowed to rust up? - Guess we patch the old cartridge up and hope for the best...

When we removed the toilet from the basement, we discovered that it had been leaking into the sub-floor for quite some time. As a result, the sub-floor in the basement bathroom now needs to be replaced. (That's our current project - Also to be completed by Thursday evening)

First Tooth!

You guessed it! At a little over 8 months old, Hannah's first tooth has erupted. Despite the nearly 6 months of her chewing on absolutely everything, there is only a single tooth that has erupted, the bottom right side (so no, she's not even cross-cutting...). Perhaps this explains some of the rough nights that we've been having lately...

Hellooooo???? We're down here!

Wow, 3 weeks since our last post. Guess this little rut is more like a canyon, or perhaps even a crater... The good news is that there's nothing exciting happening in our lives right now. The bad news, there's nothing exciting happening in our lives right now. Perhaps it's the refusal to acknowledge that another (miserable) summer has come and gone, and we only finished a small fraction of the goals that we had set out to achieve. Perhaps it's just that we've grown too content in our cozy little existence. Either way, we have quite a bit coming up in the next little while, so hopefully that will help get us out of this rut...

Guilt post

I am feeling guilty for not posting in two weeks. So here I am with very little to say. Hannah had an allergist appointment last week. We found out she is allergic to eggs and milk. She however does have extremely sensitive skin, and might be getting rashes from eating things like soy, but she isn't actually allergic to it. The Dr. Is pretty confident that she will outgrow both allergies, and we will be doing a challenge in December. But for now I still can't eat milk and now eggs, and we will be weaning her onto a soy formula. She also had an appointment with an optometrist, and it turns out she does have problems with her eyes, but it isn't bad enough to warrant wearing glasses. We have an appointment to go back when she is 18 months. Hopefully her eyes have gotten better, or he may suggest glasses then. Well that is most of the news with Hannah, she has started rolling over every once and a while. She is having great fun experimenting with new sounds, her latest one kind of reminded me of a lizard, so we've been calling her lizard girl this last week. hmm I think that is it, and I don't have anything exciting that has happened to me.

It's to hot!

Edmonton is in the midst of its first heat wave this week, and I'm dreaming of air conditioners and ice baths. Since getting back from our imprompto trip to Saskatchewan on the long weekend it has been unbearably hot, and Hannah has been unbearable grumpy. I don't know what to think of her new found sleeping habits. When in her own bed she wakes up continually and wont fall back asleep without alot of work on my part. But the moment I move her to my bed she lets out a nice contented sigh and promptly falls into a deep undisturbed sleep until morning. I would like to blame this behavior on the heat, but seeing how my room is actually hotter then hers this theory doesn't really hold water. I am lost for ideas on how to get her back to sleeping in her bed, so if anybody has any suggestions please feel free to comment. I had a very enjoyable weekend visiting my family, it felt great to just get away from Edmonton and do nothing but lay around on the beach. We took Hannah swimming in the lake and while I can't say she had a great time, she didn't seem to mind the experience, despite the coldness of the water. But it's back to everyday life, cleaning, shopping (I like to shop) and taking naps with Hannah.

New Toy!

I feel sorry for the poor toy that had to take this picture, as I'm sure it will very quickly be phased out in favor of our new one...

And NO, it did not come from the evil, nasty, vile Future Shop (although the extra tapes did...

This is one of those weeks when I really should have posted daily, now I have so many things to say I don't even really know where to start. My mother and grandmother were in Edmonton this weekend, it was nice to be able to visit family without always having to travel 8 hours. Our good friends Kelly and Kara were also in Edmonton this weekend so we all went out to supper at Eastbound. I particularity enjoy Eastbound as they serve a variety of sushi at exceptional prices. I have to poke fun at Kelly though who I'm sure greatly enjoyed his Tim hortons on the way back to Edson. To add to an already busy weekend it was Father's day on Sunday. To accommodate all of the people visiting on Sunday I took Dan out for supper on Friday night and we enjoyed a nice breakfast on Saturday morning. Hannah (with a little help from me) made Dan a poster featuring foot prints and some very original finger painting.

There is of course always more to say about Hannah, She had a particularity bad cold last week so she was pretty grumpy, but it was mostly gone by the weekend. Of course she gave me her cold so I was sick all weekend. We tried her on the hypo allergenic formula that the Doctor recommended. Of course we discovered that she is also allergic to the hypoallergenic formula. I talked to her Doctor this morning, and he said that at this point he suggests we wait to see the allergist to find out what exactly it is she is allergic to. There is one more type of formula we can try but it is 50$ for a can that only makes 10 to 15 bottles. A little pricey when you consider she would need 6 bottles a day. Unfortunately it is going to take two months to get in to see the allergist so for now it is back to breastfeeding. Except now every time she has any kind of reaction I have to write down what I ate.

On a more positive note, Hannah rolled over this weekend. I think she was showing off to her great grandmother. She was lying on her stomach and she got about half way rolled over stopped to make sure everybody was looking, then fell onto her back. I think she surprised even herself, as she almost immediately started crying.

Well I think that sort of sums everything up, I know there has been more happening but I can't seem to think of anything right now.

Here are the high(er)-quality videos

DISCLAIMER These will take a LONG time to load on dial-up

I have also provided links so that people can download the videos to their machines for viewing later (and so that people with browsers that still don't work can see the videos if the really want to.

Video 0	Link
Video 1	Link
Video 2	Link
Video 3	Link

Do I sense a dancer?

Here's a little sample of just how much Hannah enjoys her newest toy - No, the video is not playing at double-speed, that is how fast her feed are actually moving.

To accomodate our many family and friends that are on dial-up, the video will not download automatically. To start downloading the video, click on the text below the video player.

Click here to start video (Sorry, no audio)

P.S. If there is enough interest in these videos, I can put up more (better quality) videos for those of you with High Speed (or lots of patience)

EDIT: I have removed any references to Windows Media Player, so the video should work in any browser now...

Six Months, Already!

It is hard to believe that Hannah is already six months old. I have to say that she may have become just the littliest bit spoiled. For her six month birthday she got a jolly jumper, and a couple of teething toys. It took me six months to learn this lesson but yesterday I came to the conclusion that as far as babies are concerned everything is a teething toy. I put Hannah in her jolly jumper yesterday for the first time, and of course for the first 10 minutes all she did was chew on the strap. It is a rather expensive teether. She did eventually get bored of chewing on the strap and had great fun discovering how to bounce. Just a side note to those who are interested, but Hannah weighed in at 16lbs and 3 ounces at her six month shots on June the 3rd.

Hannah - 4 - 6 Months

Remember to click on the image to see more pictures

Swimming

Me and Hannah went swimming this morning. I decided to take her to a pool after she soaked me during her last bath. As I expected she very much enjoyed herself. She enthusiastically splashed water everywhere using all four limbs. We also tried dunking her head completely under water, and although she didn't seem to particularly enjoy this she didn't complain either. When she became tired and resorted to chewing on her hand, I took her to the change room where she proceeded to enchant a whole change room full of aquasizers with her smiles and gurgles. This was Hannah's second time swimming, but the first was a few months ago and while she enjoyed her herself, she played herself out very quickly and it was a fairly short visit.

I need some sympathy!

I don't usually engage in self pity, but I think both me and Hannah deserve a little sympathy right now. This is mostly Hannah's problem, but at this point in her life anything that affects her, in some way or other affects me. Everything started last Friday when Hannah broke out in hives after drinking a bottle of formula. This was quit a scary experience as her bottom lip became very large, and I suspected her tongue was becoming swollen also. I saw the Doctor today, and well as you've probly guessed Hannah is allergic to cow's milk. Before today I didn't realize exactly what an allergy to cow's milk means (It is not the same as being lactose intolerant). It means she is allergic to practically everything. Milk, or some milk derivative is used in virtually everything we eat. Of course this doesn't really concern Hannah at this point as she is only eating breast milk and rice cereal. But I also learned today that Hannah is developing a sensitivity to the cow's milk proteins in my milk. Which means I have to stop eating milk products too, or Hannah will start having allergic reactions to my breast milk (I know this to be true as just the other day I noticed a few hives on her face after I fed her).

Okay, so you might be thinking to yourself that the obvious solution to all this is to put her on soy formula. I get to eat what I want and she remains allergy free, well at least until she starts eating a more varied diet. The Doctor also suggested this possibility to me, although he did warn me that 15% of babies with cow's milk allergies are also allergic to soy milk, so introduce it very slowly.

I took his advice, this evening we tried one teaspoon of a formula made from soy. And yes Hannah is also allergic to soy proteins. So I guess I am back on the no milk diet. The one ray of hope in this story is that 80% of babies outgrow cow's milk allergies by the time they are 2, and 95% by the time they are 3. Until then though she has to avoid all milk products. Unfortunately with the type of allergy she has, it isn't even that she can't eat anything with milk, she can't touch it either. And one of the things about allergies is that with each exposure the reaction gets worse. The Doctor mentioned the possibility that after 7 or 8 exposures she may start having breathing difficulties associated with a reaction.

I guess on the bright side, we probly discovered the source of her eczema. By eliminating dairy from my diet, her eczema should theoretically clear up. (Let's hope anyways). Her six month check up is in early June, and I believe I will ask for a referral to a nutrionalist to figure out what kinds of things she can eat.

In with the new!

Well it took the entire weekend, but it's finally finished (well, at least sort of...) Our new fence is up, and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! We actually have a private yard. While construction went relatively well, we did experience our fair share of problems...

1. Drilling post holes is a LOT harder than it sounds (even with a gas powered 2-man auger
2. Our lift of cedar was soaked
   Since wet wood takes no stain, the cedar went up without it. Guess we'll be having a painting bee in a few weeks...
3. And of course, since everything comes in threes:
   
   In an attempt to save ourselves the headache of transporting extra 12' lengths of Sonotube in our minivan, we chose to test our luck with the Sonotube and stain at Home Depot - BIG MISTAKE
   Not only did they not want to help cut the Sonotube, but some rookie staff member took our paint requirements, and completely fudged them. If anybody knows what an oil-latex paint is and how well it stands up to Canadian weather, please fell free to drop a comment

Out with the old:

Wow...

Who would have imagined that a busted down old fence could detract from the appearance of the yard more than having no fence at all...

Yep, that's right. I finally got around to ripping down the nasty old fence that the previous owner so carelessly erected 15 years ago.

Now I don't know a whole lot about fencing or how long treated fence posts are supposed to last, but seems to me that they should last more than 15 years... About 1/3 of the posts were already broken off within 2" of the ground, another 1/3 snapped off at about the same spot when I tried to pull them out, and the remaining 1/3 were so rotten that it's a wonder that they didn't snap off. My guess is that the previous owner didn't bother to spend the extra cash to get treated fence posts...

In all, it took me about 2 1/2 hours to rip the entire fence down, about another hour to clean up the mess, and a mind-blowing 1 1/2 hours at the Totem lumber desk. Not that I'm going to complain, I did change my order on the poor guy twice and insist on two separate invoices so I could charge 50% of half the fence to my neighbor...

Somebody get me some ear plugs

Hannah has officially discovered how to squeal, and I am going crazy. She squeals to express happiness, discomfort, anger and of course to tell me that she doesn't want to have a nap. I can't wait until she discovers some new amusing sound so we can leave this one far behind. On another note, tonight is the season finale of Enterprise. The end of a craze that has lasted over 40 years. Or do you think they will come out with another Star trek? Although I would love to see another series, I think they may have worn out their welcome. I would recommend watching this episode though, they've even brought in some of the crew from "The Next Generation".

Happy Mother's Day

Happy belated Mother's day.

I hope everybody enjoyed their mother's day. I know I certainly did. I had a wonderfully relaxing weekend. I started my weekend with a massage on Saturday and then ended it with a wonderful supper at Spagos on Sunday. It was a truly enjoyable weekend. I felt a little weird though, to be on the receiving end on mother's day. It made me feel old.

Hannah is doing wonderful with solid foods. She was an expert right from the first spoonfuls. Although I don't think you can really consider rice cereal to be a solid food. More like a rather bland paste. I did notice a small patch of eczema forming on her chest today, but it is hard to tell whether that is an allergic reaction to the food, or her skin just doing what it does. Seeing how today was the 5th day she has had rice cereal I am going to go with it being just a coincidence for now.

I feel the need to comment on Canadian politics. I usually keep my thoughts to myself, but lately I have been particularity disappointed by our government. I refuse to support Steven Harper, as he has become obsessed with over-turning the government despite the majority of people wanting to wait until the conclusion of the inquiry. But even more I am disappointed by Paul Martins "dithering", He has acted patheticaly this past week, desperately trying to hold onto his career. Perhaps if he had admitted defeat and gone out gracefully he could have kept his dignity, but I am afraid he doesn't even have that left. So I guess that leaves Jack Layton, the only one who has actually tried to make the minority government work.

At the last election the Canadian people chose a minority government. I am ashamed that instead of trying to make it work, Paul Martin and Steven Harper have just made a mockery of our parliamentary system.

Another busy couple of weeks

Well once again we let a couple of weeks go by before we posted, so I have an overwhelming amount of things that have happened.

Hannah got a play center and although she didn't like it to much at first, she now gets great pleasure out of sitting in it and drooling all over her hands and whichever toys you move into range.

Since her 4 months shots all of the concerns the health nurse had have been pretty much resolved, she is holding her head up, has become more interactive, and her head shape has rounded out. I saw her Doctor on Tuesday, and he had absolutely no concerns. She is now 14lbs, and 13 oz. Up from 13 lbs 5 oz at her 4 months shot. Yes, she is a very large baby. When corrected for her prematurely, her weight is off the charts.

She hasn't been sleeping very well lately, which is my excuse for not posting. So we are going to start her on solid food. Tonight we will make the plunge into rice cereal. Hopefully this will help her to sleep better and I can get more then 45 minutes of sleep at one time.

With the arrival of summer we have turned out attention to the sorry excuse of a fence in our backyard. In a few weeks we will start building a new fence, so I will be sure to post on the comical experience that us building a fence is sure to be. We have already picked out the type of fence and will be ordering it from totem in the next few day. I personally prefer totem to home depot or Rona, because they have free popcorn. and it's good popcorn too. Always fresh and taste just like theatre popcorn. Yummy.

Dan will be getting his appliance to stop his grinding today. We can all laugh at him now, because he needs to wear a piece of plastic over his bottom teeth all the time. Okay perhaps that isn't that funny, especially as that piece of plastic is costing us a fortune. Stupid TMJ disorder.

hmm well I think that is everything, I am sure I will think of something else in five minutes, but for now that is it.

Hannah - Compliments of mommy shutterbug

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Tears, laughter and yard work

Tears - Hannah got her second set of shots on the 8th. I think I am more upset about the experience then she is. While she has probably long since forgotten about the whole thing, I am terrified of the next set. I feel like an absolute monster holding her leg still so they can cruelly jab her muscle with this horrendous looking needle. and not just once but three times. The health nurse also raised some concerns about the shape of Hannah's head. She may have to see a specialist, but I was supposed to get a phone call early this week, and so far the phone has been silent.

Laughter - Hannah laughed for the first time on the Monday (11th). Definitely a moment I will treasure for a long time to come. Once she figured it out she just kept on laughing over and over again for about five minutes. Each time she laughed she would just have this huge smile on her face. I think she shocked herself at the sounds she was making. She hasn't laughed again, but now that she has it figured out I am sure she will use it again when she wants to charm us into playing with her.

yard work - This one is pretty self explanatory, With spring comes yard work. We spent last weekend getting our yard ready for the summer. I raked while Dan pruned our apple tree and attempted to level the ground in the back of our yard where I am hoping to have a garden this summer. I was hoping to have one last summer too, so ask me again in August about my garden.

My wife: The ultimate hostess

Well somebody sure had been busy in the last few weeks...

Carmen planned a pleasant little surprise dinner party for my 25th birthday!

And what a dinner it was:

1. White Bean dip
2. Stuffed Mushrooms
3. Mushroom and Leek soup
4. Lasagna with Ceasar Salad
5. Gourmet French Vanilla ice cream strawbery and balsamic vinegar topping
6. Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake

If you think that this sounds like an elaborate meal, it certainly was! Even more incredible is that Carmen made EVERY dish from scratch. For those of you that missed out on the Mocha Cheescake: Boy did you ever miss out! Oh well, more for me I guess :)

Birthday Blues

There once was a time when I used to laugh at all of those silly people that made such a big deal about getting another year older. I could never really understand what exactly their problem was with having been on this earth for yet another year.

Over the past few days, that shoe has managed to find itself snugly in place on the other foot. Today marks my 25th birthday and I am finding myself surprisingly unhappy about this unavoidable incident.

Traditionally, birthdays are supposed to be a day to look back on the previous year and reflect on everything that has happened. When I look back on the past year, I can't help but realize how truly blessed I have been. Carmen and I were blessed with a beautiful, happy and healthy baby girl. I accepted a new job that has given me more time and energy to spend on my new family. And most importantly, I remain in good health.

So why am I so glum? I really have no idea. Perhaps it's the knowledge that I am now a quarter of a century old. Maybe it's the thought that at 25, there is no longer any mistaking that I am, in fact, an adult (Never mind me being proud about owning a house and a minivan). Or maybe it's just my head playing some kind of a nasty little trick on me. Well, whatever the case, I'm sure that this feeling will pass in a few more days and stay gone until that dreaded 40th birthday (or perhaps the somewhat less stressful 30)...

Home sweet, home

As much as I enjoyed visiting with my family I'm not going to complain about being home again. I hope everybody had a good weekend, I now we sure did. Hannah did surprisingly well with the travelling. She slept the whole way going there, although she was some what fussy on the way home, who wouldn't be after such an exciting weekend. Well I guess now that Easter is over it is time to plan for Dan's birthdat, anybody got any ideas on how we should celebrate him being around a quarter of a century.

Snow snow, go away

I just have to make a complaint about the never ending snow. Just last week I was telling my Mother what wonderful weather we were having here in Alberta. I think I jinxed it because the next day it started snowing and forgot to stop. I had hopes that yesterday was the end of it, but I woke up this morning to a blizzard that is stronger then ever. The worst part of all this snow is it has caused the air in our house to reach a new level of dryness. Hannah suffers from ecyzema, a trait passed down from her father, the dry air in the house has caused her to break out into one big giant rash. Well perhaps a slight exaggeration but not to far off. While her legs and back are still clear, her chest, face, and arms are looking quite sore.

Three months already?

I read somewhere that babies sleep better when they can hear their mothers breathing, because it more closely resembles being in the womb. I think that person got it wrong, and it's the mother's who sleep better. Since moving her to her own room, I have caught myself waking up in the middle of the night trying to hear the sound of her breathing. When my memory returns and I realize that she is all the way across the hall, I can't help but feel lonely. She is growing up to fast. It has only been three short months, and she has doubled in size, begun sleeping through the night, and has adjusted to sleeping in her own room. I can't even begin to imagine how much change another three months will bring. While I am looking forward to each new milestone Hannah reaches, I also can't help but want to go back to those first few weeks and just take things a little slower.

Hannah - Circa 3 Months

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Sorry

I must apologize for my horrible neglect of this site. It is amazing how quickly time can fly by. I find it hard to believe it has been three weeks since we last updated. So I guess I will give a quick update as to what has happened since Feb. 19;

Hannah came off her Caffeine on the 23rd, and then had a sleep test on the 28th. In order to pass the sleep test she could only be 15% periodic. (Periodic meaning she has periods where she holds her breath temporarily causing her oxygen levels to decline) Hannah actually failed the test as she was 19% periodic, however the Dr. decided against putting her back on the caffeine as she has grown so much and appears to be thriving despite being periodic.

We went to Edson this last weekend, it was an enjoyable weekend, and I think Hannah got to meet the whole town of Edson. We got some great pictures which hopefully Dan will post tonight, I've been bugging him since we got back.

Since coming back from Edson we have been putting Hannah in her own crib instead of the bassinet. The transition was actually a lot easier then I thought it would be. She almost seems more relaxed in the crib, and has actually started sleeping right through the night. I still have to get up and give her her soother occasionally but she has been going 10-11 hrs without eating these last few nights. Hopefully as she adjusts to not getting fed in the middle of the night, I wont have to get up so often to plunk her soother back into her mouth.

And that brings us to today. Hannah had her three month appointment today, and I am glad to say she is doing great. She is 12lbs 2ounces, and 56cm. Developmentally the Doctor placed her closer to one month old instead of three, but he said he would expect that seeing how she was two months early. Size wise it is hard to tell she was early, but when considering her behavior there are still signs of prematurity.

Hannah - Circa 2 months

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blaaahh

That is what i have to say about the flu. I have been suffering from the never ending flu since Tuesday. I was debated as to whether it was the flu or food poisenning, i have now settled on the flu, as i have apperently passed it onto Hannah, judging from her extremely grumpy behavior. This a scenario I never thought about pre-parenthood. Here i am trying to nurse myself back to health, but instead of relaxing I am doing twice as much trying to comfort Hannah. While I am complaining, I don't really mind as Dan was great and took over the night time feedings when i was at my worst. So if anybody has information as to how long this flu lasts, let me know so I can have somthing to set my sights on.

Baby Shower

I would like to thank Maureen and Michelle Yaehne for hosting a baby shower for Hannah this last weekend. We had a great time, and we appreciate all of the hard work that went into making it such an enjoyable evening. I would also like to thank everybody for all of their great gifts, We our now completely outfitted for caring for an infant. I would also like to extend a thankyou to Lynne, Katy, and Colleen for their parts in arranging the shower.

immunizations :(

Well, Hannah got her two months immunizations today, and I have to say it wasn't as bad as I had imagined it would be. She was greatly upset by the first two shots, and exercised her very well developed lungs. But thankfully shortly after the third shot she calmed right down and went to sleep. So now I can expect a slightly crankier then usual daughter for the next few days. A fair trade off for the knowledge that she is safe from certain life threatening diseases. On a much more positive note, Hannah slept for a full seven hours last night. I view this as a pivotal moment in my attempts to get some real sleep, as just last week she was waking up every 2 to 3 hrs. Of course now the challenge is to convince her that night time is 8 to 8, and not 12 to 12. And for those people who like to keep up to date with Hannah's stats, she is now 10 lbs 2 oz, and 22 inches. I can't believe she has pretty much doubled her weight already.

Babies: The Forgotten Weed

It's funny how perspectives change once you have a child of your own. It's always amazed me how quickly people younger than myself have always seemed to grow up so fast. For instance, it's hard to believe that children that I remember from when they were in diapers are now in Junior high. Despite my amazement, I could always reason through it by thinking about how many years it has been since I had really SEEN them.

Now HANNAH on the other hand, is a completely different story. I do her morning change, and maybe her morning feeding, go to work and come home 8 1/2 hours later only to find that Hannah has gotten noticeable longer. (Kinda like all those weeds in my backyard in the summer...). Hardly any of the clothes that swam on her when she first came home from the hospital even FIT her anymore, and her awake times are becoming more and more entertaining as she starts to discover that her voice can be used for something other than crying.