Spring in Alberta

A few days ago we were outside, enjoying the sunshine and gazing at the tulips and crocuses that were beginning to bloom.

This morning we were treated to another blast of winter.

Afterall, we do live in Alberta where snow is a possibility no matter what month it is!

Another milestone

Today my baby boy turned 2. He's not really my baby anymore, but more of a little boy. He walks and talks and runs and jumps. He's a ball of energy!

We had a great party today with great friends and family. Here are a few pics from the party:

The birthday boy!

Presents!


The cake made by his talented Auntie Sarah!
Delicious!

And the customary birthday photo:

Happy Birthday, big boy!

On a side note, I had Levi on a Friday evening and this past Friday, I was in that exact same room, helping to welcome another little boy to the world! I love, love, love my new job!!!!

This and That

I realize that I am really slacking when it comes to posting. I apologize. Everytime I plan to sit down and blog, something comes up. More often than not, I seem to be posting novel-sized posts and today is no exception. So, hang in there. Here goes:

• I'm pretty confident in saying that Luca is potty trained. He is not night trained yet, but that was the least of my concerns when I was cleaning poopy underwear on a daily baisis. He still has the occasional "oops" in his pull-up at bedtime, but nothing like it used to be.

• Last night I registered Luca for playschool. What a gong show that turned out to be! We were told by pretty much everyone that you needed to be there early as spaces were limited. Registration started at 7pm. Dee and I took lawn chairs and camped out there at 5. We were the first ones there, but apparently, that didn't matter because at 7 they opened the doors and it was a bloody stampede to get in, grab a form and race through filling it out to be up at the registration table as fast as you can. I was so irritated! The organizers didn't say a word about what the process was, what would happen after you paid your registration fee and handed over all of your child's information. To say that it was chaos is an understatement. I was really upset. It wasn't until afterwards that we were told that each registration form was assigned a number and that Dee and I did, in fact, get the first numbers and our info was inputted according to these numbers. Had we known this before, I would have taken more time to be a bit more careful and thorough in filling out the information. So frustrating!!! I was lucky enough to talk to one of the board members and found out that Luca and Adelynn did, in fact, get spots but typically you don't find this out until the end of May when a letter comes in the mail stating whether your child got in or not. And then there isn't any more information given until orientation in September. I feel a bit flustered and disorganized. I'm not really sure what to expect. I am trying to go into this with an open mind, but there are other factors that are causing my view on this playschool to be a bit colored. Crossfield could definitely use a second playschool to provide parents with some choice. But, that's an opinion piece for another time...

• Since taking my doula course, I have attended one birth, I have another any day now and one booked for each of June, July, August and possibly December! I will be charging a discounted fee beginning September 1.

• The birth that I attended recently was for a good friend of mine. I was delighted and so honoured to be there for her and her husband. It was amazing and just reiterrated to me that this was something that I wanted to pursue. Being present for such a beautiful and life changing moment for someone is an incredible privelege. I am anxiously awaiting my next birth, with my phone nearby, hoping for that call!

• Levi turns 2 on Sunday! Seriously, how the heck did that happen??? My baby is 2!? Wow! He is such a funny little guy. He has new words daily and his pronunciations make us laugh, but he sure does try! He makes the funniest faces and is his big brother's shadow. He is constantly trying to do whatever Luca is doing. It is adorable to watch. He's also a pretty experienced fighter; it seems to be his and Luca's favorite pasttime as of late.

• This year of MOPS is wrapping up next week and I'm definitley going to miss it over the summer. I have loved being a part of the steering team and am looking forward to possibly taking on a new role with MOPS in the fall. I am also so excited to be going to the international MOPS convention in Nashville, TN in August! My flight and convention fee are paid by MOPS, I am responsible for hotel and food. I am going with our MOPS coordinator, who I really enjoy spending time with. I am looking forward to getting to know her better and getting some ideas and inspiration on ways to run our MOPS group as well as some ideas on how to be the best mom I can be. As excited as I am, I am also a bit nervous. You see, I am quite afraid of flying and get motion sick. This is usually enough to give me some sleepless nights before a trip, but I usually have Chris there to squeeze my hand and tell me to breathe. This time, Chris won't be there. It is my first time travelling without Chris. I've already warned Jen that she might have to hold my hand during takeoff and landing! Haha

• I'm only subbing a few days a month at this point. Partly because there seems to be less work available and also because I am trying to direct more of my energy into my doula business. When I am on call for a birth, its hard to accept some work in a school at the same time in case I'm needed at a delivery.

• Last summer, Chris got a rollback to his salary due to the economy. Then in late fall, he found out that his company was taken over by another company. There was some uncertaintly as to whether he would still keep his company truck and whether there would be a change to his salary and benefits and job description. It seems like his job will be mostly the same as it was, he gets to keep his truck (although it is now covered in decals advertising for his company), and was given a generous increase in pay for his oncall time. the rollback in salary last year was the cause of a fair bit of stress and it is so nice to have that burden lifted from our shoulders.

• Even after doing bootcamp twice a week for a year, I was very dismayed at the end of March to discover that not only was I gaining weight (somewhat expected when you build muscle) but that by body fat percentage had actually INCREASED! Quite a blow to my ego. After some sulking and then some serious thought, I decided that I needed to do more to change my eating habits. Needing a bit of motivation, I decided to challenge a few of my friends to a 6 week weight loss challenge. The key words being "a few friends". When I put the suggestion on facebook, I was anticipating 3 or 4 people that might be interested. When it quickly grew to 30 people, I was shocked! The deal was that it was a $20 buy in and the winner took the pot based on % lost. As soon as it was apparent that the pot was going to be quite substantial, I revised the rules to be a 70/30 split for the winner and second place. The challenge started on Monday and runs for 6 weeks and there are 34 people in the challenge! Pretty much makes my chances of winning pretty slim, but who ever does win is going to get a nice stack of money! I'm on day 3 and am doing quite well (except for that little slip-up at McDonald's but I blame that on the kids!). Wish me luck!

• I am so, so, so excited that Spring is here! My tulips are poking their little green leaves out of the defrosted ground, my crocouses are blooming and the trees are budding! Grass is getting greener and all the boys want to do is play outside. We have had adventures up the hill behind the house, in the "forest" and the boys have found numerous 'treasures' in teh form of sticks and rocks. Hours have been logged in the sandbox, drawing with sidewalk chalk and riding bikes. The boys love their helmets and insist on wearing them whenever they play in the backyard!

• Luca is registered for Learn to Play baseball which will begin in May. Instead of T-ball where one child plays and the other stand around with their fingers up their noses, the kids are split into groups and they do little games to learn skills for baseball such as catching, throwing, hitting, etc. They get a t-shirt and a trophy as well as a team photo, and all for just $40! He's excited about playing. I'm excited to watch him learn something new. Should be lots of fun!

• At the end of March, Chris and I went to Canmore for 2 nights. Friends of ours have a timeshare and they got us a fantastic deal on a hotel so we went for some R&R just the 2 of us. We had such a fantastic time walking, talking, eating leisurely dinners, watching movies and all the other stuff you can do without kids around! ;) We came home refreshed and reminded of why we fell in love with eachother. I wish we could have little mini vacations every month!

• I'm realizing that this is really quite long, so I'm going to just stop there even though I'm sure I have much more that I could mention. I know I say this all the time, but I really am going to try to post more often!