Birthday Party

We had a small birthday party for Chance on Sunday afternoon. We only had 3 guests, Chance's Auntie Jen and Auntie Lynne and Uncle Drover. It was a pretty simple party...once the helium balloons arrived, we opened gifts. We should have opened the gifts before the balloons, as Chance was in love with the balloons and the gift opening got lost somewhere in his attention span. So we ended up "helping" with the gift bags. After the gifts were opened, we sat down together and sang Happy Birthday to Chance and ate cake. Well, some of us ate cake. Others, who shall remain nameless, because they are only one year old, shamelessly wolfed their cake. He wanted more cake too...but we offered him yogurt, which was not the same as cake. After cake, it was time for a bath, which served two purposes...one: Chance was sticky, two: it helped him calm right down for a nap afterwards.

We kind of had a funny day too because we thought it was Daylight Savings Time, so we spent the day turning the clocks back an hour and trying to acclimatize Chance...stretching out his nap time, giving him lunch a bit later, etc. No wonder he wolfed that cake down, he was just starving!

Birthday Preparations

1. Make carrot cake and chocolate cup cakes on Friday afternoon.
2. Keep Daddy out of cup cakes all night long.
3. Go toy shopping Saturday morning.
4. Wrap presents while Chance sleeps (take toys out of boxes, put them in easy to open bags).
5. Make orange icing for cup cakes while Daddy snoozes.
6. Send Chance and Daddy to grocery store for more icing sugar.
7. Make cream cheese icing while Chance eats his afternoon snack.
8. Dress Chance up in orange clothes to go to pumpkin party after he wakes up.
9. Take cup cakes to party. Allow Daddy to sneak one. Send Daddy to airport to pick up Auntie Jen and Uncle Paul.
9. Return home from pumpkin party and have supper with Auntie Jen and Uncle Paul

Laundry

Snow Day

It snowed overnight and the snow ended up sticking around more or less all day. Our neighbour's kid scraped up every bit of snow from their half of the front lawn to make a snow man.

When we picked up Chance from the day home we noticed chalk drawings all over the sidewalk. Mrs. G took the kids outside for a bit today but not to run around in the park like usual as some kids didn't have appropriate clothes. As in, they didn't have shoes.

So instead of the park the kids drew on her sidewalk and she loaded Chance up in the stroller and they all went for a walk.

She lamented that some parents often forget to dress their kids for the weather and as a result everyone stays indoors for days until the entire group gets winter clothes, boots, hats and toques. She said that if we wanted we could leave his snow suit with her during the week days. We actually have two snow suits (one hand-me-down and one brand new from my sister, she brought it when Chance was a week old). So we will have a day home snow suit (probably the one-piecer, it fits Chance better right now), and the two-piecer we'll keep at the house. Instead of walks to the park in the evenings we'll be taking Chance for toboggan rides soon!

Dinner Date with Ayla

We had a fun weekend after a week of taking Chance to the day home. Saturday was spent wrestling around in the living room and playing "trucks". A breakfast of French toast started the day off right and Chance was an angel and went to sleep without a fuss for his cousin Kristi, who babysitted for us while we went to our monthly potluck dinner with friends. It was an Italian theme and we made a caprese salad with fresh bufala mozzerella and basil from the Farmer's Market (Cam went while Chance and I puttered about the house).
















On Sunday Chance and I got up and had a breakfast of warm porridge and yogurt and fruit. The porridge was a hit. Huge. We also found that it was a great way to practice using a spoon, as it was sticky and stuck to the spoon as Chance swirled the spoon around in his bowl. We will probably only have porridge on weekends though, as it is quite a messy breakfast! Good thing it was laundry day!














In the afternoon Ayla and Greg and Courtney came over for supper. We had apple-stuffed chicken breasts (I did this a few months ago with pork chops, we just adjusted the recipe a bit). They turned out really well, and we ate them with wild rice casserole and green peas. Chance and Ayla ate toast instead of the wild rice. Dessert was hazelnut esspresso and chocolates and chocolate-mint Girl Guide cookies.

The kids got along so well all afternoon and they both ate like champions. The photos are harder to snap now because they are moving around so much. It was really fun to see how much they had changed since the end of August!

The house is quiet...

We laid Chance down for a nap at 2:30...he played in his crib instead. Cam and I laid down too, Cam was snoring instantaneously, I read. Chance settled down at 3:05. I went to sleep then, and woke up at 4. Cam is still sleeping.

First Few Days at Work

Well I am now 2 full days into being a working Mom. I am sharing an office with a geophysicist, but it is only temporary as the office circuitry doesn't allow for adequate power to run a PC and a UNIX machine, so I will be moved in a few weeks to another office. The new office doesn't have a window, and comes along with two room mates. Colour me unimpressed.

The work, however, seems exciting and there is a lot to learn. There will be lots of opportunities for on the job training and perhaps even the possibility of a field trip or two. We will be sure to get established with Chance's morning routine before tackling any challenges though.

So far our mornings are like this: At 6:10 we wake up as a family. Cam showers and I change Chance's diaper and get him dressed, and start breakfast preparations (toaster set up, bananas chopped and cups of milk poured). By this time Cam is done dressing and we switch off, I go take my shower and Cam eats breakfast with Chance. While they are eating and cleaning up, I get myself ready and then wolf down a slice of toast and drink my milk just before heading out the door. We pack Chance's lunch and snacks and formula the night before, so it is as simple as pulling the lunch sack from the fridge. We leave the house at 7:00 and within 3 minutes we are at the day home door, a quick drop off and then we are parked and walking to the C-train platform within an additional 5 minutes. We arrive downtown around 7:35-7:45, depending on speed of train, and Cam has about a 5 minute walk to work and then Dani has another 5 minutes before she arrives at work. We both leave at 4:30 PM and head directly for our respective nearest C-train platforms and take the first train available. This means that sometimes we are on separate trains, but it is a much more efficient way of getting home because we don't have to worry about cramming 2 people onto the same train, it is easier to slip onto the packed trains if you are alone. Also this way if the train breaks down, hopefully at least one person will make it to the parking lot to pick up Chance from the day home. So far it has worked well and we both enjoy being there together to drop off and pick up Chance.

Well it is bed time again, already. The evenings really slip by quickly, with only 2 hours between Chance's bedtime and ours. Tonight he went to sleep a little later than usual, he seemed upset. I think the fact that he is at the day home and not together with me is sinking in, as he seemed quite clingy tonight, and wanted lots of holding and back rubbing before going to bed. We did not over indulge him, though, as we don't want him to get hooked on these methods for going to sleep. He cried for about 10 minutes, the whole time I felt a lot of guilt guilt guilt guilt. I am trying not to dwell on it too much. When Chance was born I felt guilty and over time I came to understand that guilt is not a productive emotion, it is destructive and sucks up energy faster than anything. Right now I need all the energy I've got, so guilt is not an option.