How old are you, Mumma?

I’m 30, Honey.

How old are you going to be on your next birthday?

I’ll be 31.

In just a few days, right?

Yep. On March 22.

*pause*

How old is Nana?

She’s turning 59 this year, Lucy.

Oh, dear. That’s OLD.

Last Monday I told Eric I was feeling intermittent dizziness.

Tuesday I told my business partner, Kirsty, my vision was blurring, and dizziness increasing.

Wednesday afternoon I was flat out on the couch, unable to sit, stand or walk without feeling like I was on the Tilt a Whirl at the fair. Or suffering from a wicked ass hangover without a drink passing my lips. The world spun. I was nauseous when my eyes were open, and crashed into walls when walking. I could not even think about picking up Lucy or Alice, or driving the car. Eric had to come home early.

A visit to a walk-in clinic revealed a viral inner ear infection. “Wait it out,” Dr. S said after tapping my joints and listening to my organs to make sure I wasn’t dying from some rare neurological disease (or a stroke, as I was honestly worried about, what with three of the five early warning signs).

On the couch or in bed I remained for the next two days, while Eric, and then my parents, looked after the girls. It took until Saturday afternoon to feel any semblance of normal.

Do you ever feel guilty when you’re sick? Even though I was completely justified in being prostrate for three days, popping Gravol and Advil like candy, I felt…bad watching Eric do everything. Helpless. Lucy was very frustrated that I wasn’t involved in bedtime or couldn’t even sit to watch a movie with her. Alice didn’t care as much, or couldn’t articulate it in the same way, although she did keep toddling over to me and laying her head down on my pillow for smooches.

Both Eric and I have single parents in our families, and I think last week gave us a whole new respect for them. Sure, we’ve had days before when one of us has been away or working late, but having one of us completely unable to function was a new and harsh experience. I can’t even imagine having to do baths or cook feeling the way I felt.

To all the single parents out there: You rock.

(And special extra thanks to my hubby and parents for helping when our family needed it most.)

The past week is the longest break from this site I’ve ever taken. We all really needed it! Hope you had a wonderful holiday with your families. I’ve never been so glad to kiss Christmas goodbye (while shoveling at 8:30 last night I even took down our outdoor wreaths and turned the Christmas lights off) and just get on with a brand new year. There are lots of new things brewing here and there the next little while, so stay tuned!

Santa left a lotta Barbies. And a Barbie SUV Santa thought was a mini van. Whoops. Santa also apparently watched a bit of TV while he arranged presents and stockings...

Lucy's second favourite present, which i got on sale after Halloween for $1.50. She wore the wings & crown all Christmas Day.

Only the second turkey I've ever made, and it was delicious. I credit mounds of butter and the Better Homes and Gardens Thanksgiving issue. Thanks to help from everyone -- but especially my mother-in-law and Eric -- every speck of food was on the table at the same time, and HOT!

L-R: Lucy, my parents (Dianne & Bruce) and sister (Michele), Eric's Mom (Lynne) and moi. Eric is on a chair snapping pics. Alice is in her booster seat literally screeching for food and smacking her lips.

Just before guests arrived, Alice slipped on a stair and gave her self a nice bloody lip. The puffiness that remained gave her the moniker 'Bruiser Baby' the rest of the day. Did I mention at dinner she smacked a (cherished) wine glass out of my hand, which sent merlot all up my cardigan and white tank top, and that Eric sliced his hand open while cleaning it up? T'was a rather bloody day!

Lucy and I had a lot of tea parties...

...and Alice climbed in and out of this basket (and her old infant car seat) 572930189 times.

We also visited friends (the O'Donnell and McDougall-Foster post-Christmas-party estrogen photo)...

...and shoveled a whole lotta snow.

Today I happily shipped both girls off to daycare, Eric went to work, I’m on my third cup of tea after a morning of meetings, and we’re all relishing routine once again. Ahhhhhh.

We spent the weekend at my lovely mother-in-law’s house. We were way overdue for a visit, as we had not been home in eight months!

It was nice to escape the demands of house and work for a few days. We ate a lot, relaxed, went for some walks, visited with family, and did some apple picking. The girls were well behaved, giggly and fun.

Alice traveled a little bit better, and when she or Lucy fussed we just turned the music up a wee louder. Works like a charm when you can’t hear them anymore…

I had to laugh last night after getting an email from a new business. I’d asked the woman how her Thanksgiving was, and she replied, “We had a very good dinner. And now have turkey farts.”

Oh, how true. Eric will deny it and wrestle me into submission this evening, but let me tell you: My husband almost suffocated Alice and I while we slept Sunday night. He tried to blame the dog (who was with my parents 2.5 hours away), Lucy (sleeping upstairs), the baby (who poops too often to retain any methane gas inside her chubby tushie), and me (pfft) but we all know who created the eye-watering smell each time one of us rolled over and the covers fluffed.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving with your family!

Yesterday Eric and I celebrated six years of marriage in a $42,000 vehicle that isn’t ours, listening to classical-jazz-instrumental-anything in a desperate attempt to get the angry demon in the backseat to stop screeching, while telling Lucy every two minutes to stop smushing the butter tarts already and praying that was dirt Spencer was rubbing over the upholstry.

Oh, the stories to share.

We are finally at the cottage for our long-awaited family vacation. The sun is shining, the waves are calm, and the beach is calling our names. 

I’m in an Internet cafe right now, but heading back to my family and a week of computer-free relaxation.

Care to share your summer adventures so far? What’s been your favourite day?

I’m so far behind on recording the little happenings in our life lately. Before they are forgotten forever in the vortex of summer and growing kids, a list (with pics, below):

• Three Dora & Diego window stickers & a beach ball now grace the glass and floor in Lucy’s room, because my girl has gone poop on the potty FOUR TIMES in a row! That’s right, no 3+-year-old poopy diapers in a week. We are so thrilled. And so is Lucy. She keeps asking if we’re calling everyone to tell them — and that “I’m so proud of myself!”
• If you’re wondering what worked, it was a combo of give and take: I bought some dollar store toys, and put them in a bucket in the bathroom so she could see them. When she went poop, so got a prize. If she went poop in her diaper, she had TV taken away for the rest of the day. We only had to take TV away three times before she realized we meant business. — and that television AND a toy was awesome.
• Speaking of poop, poor Alice is battling terrible constipation. A result, I think, of adding a second bottle of formula a day, Cheerios and crackers. She just hollers like the devil when she goes. We are taking out stock in prunes
• Speaking of butts, Alice can sit up on her own now. It’s so adorable when they can do that! A whole new world to learn about from that angle
• Also, her top two teeth are coming in. Anyone else hate teething? Yeesh.
• I have piles and piles of reviews to do and write (vitamins, food, play centres, pacifiers). I think the week I’m at the cottage with the girls will be review week.
• Our gardens look gorgeous right now. Must post pics.
• We saw the Sound of Music on Saturday (must see the movie still, as I don’t quite get what all the fuss is about…), and we were away from the girls from 9:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. During the performance, I had this pain in my arm that traveled from my elbow to shoulder, and was all freaked out telling Eric to watch in case I had a stroke. When we got home and Alice drained my milk-swollen right breast? Pain disappeared. WEIRD. Can one get milk backed up in their appendages?
• The other weekend was our local Duck Derby, and guess who was there? Bram from Sharon, Lois and Bram! Remember Skinnamarink-A-Dinky-Dink? ALL the parents in the audience were swaying and singing, blissful in reliving their childhoods, while our kids were looking around suspiciously. T’was hilarious.
• For Father’s Day, Lucy made personalized keepsake jars for Eric, her Papa and Grandpa. They were a hit, and she loved doing them.
• It’s stinkin’ hot out, and I LOVE IT. Been hanging tons of laundry, with Alice babbling away in her booster seat outside on the deck
• I lost three nose pins this weekend — two down the drain, and one in bed. Grr…
• Lucy and I did swimming lessons together for eight weeks. More on this later.
• Stroller Fit class continues to be great fun, and an even awesomer workout now that instructor Kelly has kicked it up: We walk faster, use benches, tip toe up hills. No weight loss, but this weekend I fit into pants I haven’t been able to in years!

And pics:

This is just the second photo in existence of my little family, taken this weekend at the Durham Mom’s Night Out playdate at the park to meet each other’s partners and kids (we had lots of fun, and look forward to planning another this summer. Perhaps with name tags. And food.).

This photo is so fitting of what life if like right now: Me with Alice permanently attached, Eric and Lucy always smiling and playing together. I’m so glad to have a record of it.
It’s so hard to get all four of us together, happy, clothed half decently, and have someone else around to snap a photo! Thanks, Jen O.

Speaking of elusive, have you ever tried to get six people — including two babies and two toddlers — to look up, smile, not fiddle or dance or twist or kick the ground or each other, with open eyes?

My eyes are closed. Jen is being wooed by Alice, while Avery contemplates hitting someone with that bottle. And who knows what planet Lucy and Eirinn are on.

Now the babies are going at it, and the rest of us are looking at different…what? Specks in the sky?

Eirinn and Lucy: “Tra-la!” Avery: “Grass!” Jen: “Did you get one yet?” Carly: “Wha?” Alice: “Ba-ba-ba-ba.” Also: strange dude in the background.

Success! Or as good as it’s going to get.

I hope the girls don’t grow up resenting me for putting them in matching outfits, because it’s a little sad how excited I get doing so. I didn’t think I’d be like “that,” except here are four examples since Alice was born seven months ago. And it doesn’t include this weekend when they wore matching blue gingham dresses, white shirts and shoes and pink hair clips to a birthday party and wedding, and I said to Eric, “This, right here, is worth the combined 20 hours I spent pushing these two into the world.”

(In my defence, Lucy LOVES dressing the same as Alice.
So I do it for her, really. Really.)

Christmas, 2008: Purchased these because I was determined to get a matchy-matchy Christmas tree shot, in what I hope is a yearly tradition until Lucy and Alice’s joint eye rolling leaves their pupils lodged in their heads, and their groans take the fun out of it. Maybe when they’re 20-ish?

Easter, 2009: Pajamas a gift from the lovely Colleen (Alice clearly enjoying being strangled by her sister)

Mother’s Day 2009: Presents from my sister

Dinner, two weeks ago: My boss from my last job brought the girls back these dresses from Maui. Note the two doing identical leg lifts and hand expressions

So far, I have not dressed myself to match them. If it gets to that, someone please slap me.

UPDATE:
(Oh, no, Laura, you’re right. Help! Help!)

My Alice,

This month marks the one where everything seems settled. I can’t say predictable, because life with a baby (& toddler) surely is not, but there is finally a general ebb and flow to our days that comforts everyone.

(This is a polite way of saying you cry less, sleep more, smile with abandon and interact with glee. Goodbye newborn days!)

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