On the cusp of 2011

I have no plans to ring in the new year wearing anything other than my pyjamas, although I love all the glitz and gold in this photo.



I think this year is the first year I have stayed awake until midnight in many years. Earlier in the evening our family went to the home of another RCMP family where we ate yummy things, visited and set off some fireworks,much the amusement and terror of the toddlers. I took Amelia home around 10pm and put her to bed and I spent the remainder of the evening editing my December daily album. I am quite satisfied with it although it was a bit time consuming. After having used Adobe Photoshop Elements to create this project, I am much more comfortable with the program. Hopefully in the future, similar projects will take a lot less time.

December 7th





December 14th

21 months old and counting.....

Awhile back I started a post about Amelia, but never finished it. She had started using a lot of new words and I thought it would be fun to start of list of them. For about three days I wrote down everything she said, but then realized that I couldn't keep up. Now she is learning a couple new words a day and will "try" and say anything we ask of her. It is wildly entertaining. Once and awhile Amelia will string two words together like "all done", "good girl" or "more milk" and I can't help but beam. Who knew that listening to your child learn how to talk could be so thrilling. She tends to be the most chatty after she wakes up from her nap. She immediately starts pointing to my face and saying "eyes", "nose", "mouth" and so forth. Awhile back we started counting stairs whenever we went into our basement and now she starting to count along with me. For Christmas she received a wooden abacus so we have started counting on that as well. It makes me giggle every time she says "1","2","3"... "9". So funny. The more interactive she becomes the more I love this thing called "motherhood".

A few more things I love about being a mother at this stage of the game....

1) Kisses and bubbles on my belly "for the baby".

2) Watching Amelia mother her animals and baby dolls.

3) The fact that she can ask for a "snack" or "treat" when she is hungry, rather than having a meltdown. She has also learned how to ask for chocolate and cookies in the most adorable way. I can't resist! I will have to video it one of these days.

4)She sleeps until 8am most mornings. Enough said.

5) She can open the clear plastic bins in her room and choose what toys she wants to play with all by herself.

6) She puts things away happily... I know that this will not last forever so I am enjoying it while it does.

7) She will walk up to me and purse her lips for a kiss.

Seriously, I could go and on. As you know I have not always enjoyed mothering or being a mother. It has been, and continues to be, challenging. I may have a bucket load of positive things to say this evening, but only a few short hours ago I cried myself to sleep when I finally got to have a break. (I have been sick for the past week and my hubby has been working around the clock). Even on days when I want to bang my head against the wall in boredom and frustration, I couldn't imagine leaving my daughter to return to work. I couldn't stand to miss out on watching her grow and mature, especially at this stage of development. As much as I may complain inwardly some days, I do consider myself blessed to be able to stay home with my daughter.

A late post from Christmas Eve

Here I sit, on Christmas Eve, pondering the immensity of this day. I am feeling lousy, but trying to remain cheerful. My husband and I had originally planned to have the boss and his wife over for a oil and chocolate fondue to celebrate Christmas Eve when we both became sick. Only 30 minutes ago that same couple kindly dropped off some warm chicken soup, crackers, a plate of Christmas cookies and a gift for Amelia.



I immediately inhaled the soup, reminding myself to save some for my sick hubby. It was incredibly good and I couldn't help but want to cry at their kindness. Now I am waiting for my dear husband to come home so that we can celebrate Christmas Eve together. He had hoped to be home around 4:30, but then received a call about a car accident two hours away. When he called to tell me that he was going to be later than had thought, I was incredibly disappointed. Not only was a I feeling sick, but now it looked as though I would be spending Christmas Eve on my own. I let myself have a big cry on my bed and then I pulled myself together and decided to make the best of it. So I gathered Amelia in my arms and helped her pick a present from under the tree. She tore the wrapping off with such gusto that it made me smile. We took a nice long bubble bath together and then I let her open another Christmas Eve present (new pajamas).



Amelia was sound asleep by 7:15pm, and I spent an hour talking to friends and family on the phone while getting things ready for a fondue (in case there was a remote possibility that Nathaniel came home)

Awhile later........



Fortunately, Nathaniel made it home by 8:30 and we enjoyed a romantic little dinner together. We decided to open our much anticipated envelope, and discovered that we are having a GIRL!!!! We are both thrilled and looking forward to meeting her in a few short months. Hope you all have a delightful Christmas.

Random thoughts on pregnancy at 7 months....

- I don't have to suck my belly in. I can't, it is impossible.

- I'm almost excited about wearing a bikini in Mexico. A nice round, firm belly looks better than a soft, pale, flabby post Christmas tummy.

- If I don't cross my legs when I sneeze and I almost guaranteed to pee my pants. It is a little funny but inconvenient and embarrassing.

- I have a REALLY good excuse when I am moving a lot at night. My constant fidgeting sometimes drives my husband crazy, who is the kind of person that essentially wakes up in the same position he fell asleep in. I think I may have done that once in my life.

- I am much more ambivalent about not eating for two as I have no desire to be the size of two people by the time I reach full term. Oh but speaking of food, don't these doughnuts look delicious? If they were actually in front of my I doubt I would be able to resist them.....




- I am really excited about the doula I interviewed the other day. We instantly clicked and she was able put a lot of my fears to rest about my impending hospital birth. She has even worked with my OB on multiple occasions and said that he is natural birth friendly and even has a few VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) patients. One of the things I was most concerned about was being strapped to a fetal heart monitor throughout my labor. I was relieved to hear that I would only be subjected to constant monitoring if I was induced, which is something I will be avoiding like the plague.
My doctor would have to drive 114km and drag me out of my house before I get induced.

- I am so excited that I get to find out whether I am carrying a boy or a girl. Only three more days!!!!!! The anticipation has me giddy.

- Trying to decide whether or not to bother with the routine gestational diabetes screen. I tried to have one done when I was in town the other day but they wanted me to wait in the lab for an hour afterwards and I didn't have that kind of time to waste. Perhaps I will try again if I can get the screen done at our local red cross clinic, otherwise, I am not going to bother.
- I woke up with a sore throat this morning. *sigh* I really don't want to be sick on Christmas.

-Amelia's fever has passed but she is now congested and coughing throughout the night. This morning I decided to have some caffeinated vanilla earl grey tea instead of my standard decaffeinated peppermint tea to help perk me up.

Happy countdown to Christmas!!!!!!!

My december daily project

I realize it has been a long time since I have blogged. My downtime these days has been consumed with working on my December Daily Project. Basically, it is a way of capturing the fun, excitement and day to day preparations leading up to Christmas. Ali Edwards, an amazing modern day scrapbooker, has created some neat digital templates which I have been using and enjoying. It has taken me a while to understand how photo shop works, which is the program I am using to create my album, but I am slowly getting the hang of it. I like being able to edit my pictures and hopefully in the near future I will learn how to add some neat effects. In any case, I am slowly catching up on my project, it is the 17th today and I have not yet completed pages for the 1st. The pages I have created are far from finished and full of spelling mistakes, but I wanted to share them nevertheless. My plan to have at least four pages for each day December. These are a few from the day I decorated my tree..... which was on the 1st. more to following in the next couple of days...







Now go and make yourself a snow angel.... provided you have snow with which to do so.

Thankful for.....

Little toddler toes tucked into my body at 7:30am this morning.

Egg salad sandwich (I made my first one today and it was delicious).

Paper packages tied up with string.

A warm bowl of borscht with a side of toasted rye bread and cheese. Yummmm!

Pulling Amelia in her sled over the crunchy snow while the stars shone brightly overhead.

The giggling coming from the bathtub right now.........

Remembering our Christmas in Africa

This morning, while Amelia and I were enjoying our breakfast, I pulled out a photo album from our trip to Africa. Amelia has seen these photos many times but as she gets older she is able to recognize more of the animals we saw on the Serengeti. She loves pointing out the elephants, and the giraffes and making snorting sounds when she spots the wart hogs.

When we arrived in Africa, Nathaniel and I had been travelling for nearly three months across central and south America. Before we had left for our trip around the world, we had we had arranged to spend Christmas with our friends who were visiting their missionary parents in Africa. It was such a blessing to experience a Finnish Christmas, surrounded by familiar faces.

Our dear friends Will and Minna.



Our dorm style accommodations. The Bible students were away on their Christmas break so we got to stay in one of the campus rooms.



We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve as is Finnish tradition. My mom had lovingly sent a care package of gifts with our friends and we were thrilled to have some new, fancy clothes to wear.







We attended the local church Christmas morning. There was a great deal of dancing, singing and curious children.

Six months pregnant

Sometimes it is hard to believe that I am already six months pregnant. I am still sleeping on my tummy/side and walking without any difficulty. My bladder only wakes me up once a night, which is normal even when I am not pregnant and I don't really have any cravings. I still need to take a nap once and awhile but for the most part I feel great. When I was pregnant with Amelia Nathaniel and I would often take pictures of my growing tummy but I haven't been as vigilant this time around. I tend to look a bit sloppy these days, as I rarely ever leave the house or see any other adults. However, last night, Nathaniel and I were heading out to his company Christmas party when Nathaniel snapped this photo of me. Let me know is this picture looks TOO BIG. I think it looks a little funny but I am trying to figure out a way to make my pictures larger without loosing the quality.



My regular jackets are starting to get tight and I spilt my favorite pair of jeans when I bent over the other day. Arrggg! I've decided it is time to start wearing some of my maternity pants.

Making Changes

My blog looks a little haphazard at the moment but that is because I am trying to figure out how to make a personalized banner. I can't seem to make it fit and I can't for the life of me get rid of the white outline around it. I am a little bit nervous around html, but I will figure it out. I have been baking so much these days that I haven't spent much time blogging. Hopefully in the next day or so I will have a new post.