The other day Sally was telling me about a conversation she had with Trent during our visit to Ladner. She was asking if he liked riding bikes, and if he'd like to borrow one when he comes to visit us in Oregon. In case he did want to, Sally also gave Trent a heads up that we don't have any pavement to ride on, only dirt and gravel. She told me that he gave her a kind of look, like he was politely taking part in the conversation but didn't have a clue what she meant by "no pavement."
So it has occurred to me that those of you that have plans to visit here for the first time this summer don't really know what you're coming to. I thought I'd share some pictures of our home and property so you have a better idea.
Here is the house - it's a little cramped for space with 5 of us living here, but it has gotten much better since Loren moved out.
And here is the guest room - where you guys will be staying, unless you'd prefer to camp out under the stars.
This is the wood shed - have to have lots of room for all that wood since fire is the only way we can heat the house.
Here is our clothes dryer, where we hang everything up after we've handwashed it all.
Oh and of course here is our pet turkey, who happened to walk by while I was taking all of these pictures. We call him Tom.
Well everybody should know what this is! It was an adjustment getting used to going outside to "do my business" after enjoying indoor plumbing all those years in Canada.
This is the garage, but as you can see we can't store much in it like you guys do, since the rain and wild animals can get right in there.
There's the gravel driveway, just like Sally said.
Howard keeps a pretty big vegetable garden, which is great since the nearest grocery store takes a few hours to get to.
Well I hope you enjoyed the grand tour! We can't wait for your visits, everyone is so excited!
Ray, Lillian, and I have taken up Geocaching, and we are LOVING it! Never heard of it? Check out www.geocaching.com for more info, but basically you use a GPS gadget to find locations where people have hidden "caches" - sometimes just a baggie with a piece of paper to sign your name on, sometimes a larger container with doodads you can trade. It's pretty popular, with hundreds of thousands of caches hidden all over the world, and plenty in our area here. We've been out 4 or 5 times now, most recently with Sally and Howard on Mother's Day so we could show them what we were up to. Sally got pretty into it, and actually found the first one of the day. Thanks to her, we now have a celebratory Geocache Dance that I'm pretty sure we have to do for every future find :)
I'm excited for my upcoming visit to Ladner for many reasons of course, but I gotta say, one of them is so that I can do a little geocaching there. It sounds pretty cheesey I know, but it's really good clean family fun, so I'm excited to show Trent and Brianne how fun it can be. It's not a very expensive hobby either - the GPS units can be a pricey start up cost, but after that it's just a little gas money. I'm also anxious to drop off a couple of trackable items in BC - another aspect of geocaching I'm brand new to. You can pick up trackable items from one geocache and drop them off in another, then watch and see how far they travel as various people move them from place to place. I picked up two on Mother's Day, so they are all set for a trip out of the country and on to who knows where! Kinda cool I think.
I'd post pictures of some of this, but they're all on my laptop which is in the shop. Maybe next time - didn't want to use that as an excuse for not blogging!!!
On Lillian's first birthday, she gave a pretty great gift to us... she walked! Solo! For the first time! AND we got it on camera!!!
We are SO proud it's ridiculous! It was exciting to have this milestone on her birthday, and with Mama, Dada, Grampa, and Gramma all there to encourage and watch in amazement! Since then she's done it a few more times, but she's pretty slow and shaky so if she really wants to get somewhere she sticks to the trusty hands and knees.
Now about the birthday itself... we took just a few videos and photos. Ok, I'm being fecicious.
Here are her birthday cupcakes before anyone got their hands on them...
Cover your ears, the family "sings" to the birthday girl in this one - she's pretty dumbfounded!
Here is the little birthday girl enjoying the wonderfulness that is chocolate...
Lillian got the jumbo sized cupcake, and I figured there was no way she'd finish it all. But curiously, there weren't really all that many crumbs on her tray when she was done. Where could they have gone?
And oh, the presents! We try to limit the toys so they don't take over the house, but she managed to clean up pretty nicely just the same! Lillian and I were both pretty darned impressed with the beautiful handmade cards from the Landy cousins - thanks, guys!
Auntie Kelly mailed a gift and had already sent one home with us at Christmas - spoiler!
Lots more birthday videos here and lots more birthday photos here. We might have gone a little camera happy. :)
Well, so far so good on keeping up with the blog. Too soon to be patting myself on the back, you think? Ah well.
Not quite. But I do have a one year old baby now! I wish I made more of an effort to blog along the way. Let's see if I can recall some highlights...
Of course I can! Tons of them! If you only have a few minutes, I recommend scrolling down to the bottom of this post and taking a look at the last video montage. If you've got time on your hands, or if you are at work and should be doing something else like playing Lexulous, then sit back, relax, and enjoy the whole thing :)
Saturday April 26, 2008 *Gross Birth Details Alert* Induction 8am. Some backaches and a little cramping throughout the day. 8:15pm water broke in bed at home. Towel I was laying on saved the bed, thank goodness. Much more water came out at the hospital, seemed impossible that all of it was inside of me all that time. Meconium in the water so baby's heart rate was closely monitored through labour. Labour wasn't pretty, involved vomit and tears as well as much more pain than I'd hoped, ended up with the epidural. Only worked on one side, strange to feel the sensations of labour on only one side of my body. Would still totally get an epidural again.
Sunday April 27, 2008 *More Birth Details Alert* After midnight baby's heart rate dropped. Doctor decided on c-section. Everyone jumped into action very quickly. Spinal anaesthetic worked great, didn't feel a thing. Worked too great, lasted much longer than normal, my legs were dead weight for hours. Took three doctors and a lot of pulling and pushing for Lillian Dawn to arrive at 1am. Ray and I were dumbfounded and have the photos to prove it.
Lillian took to nursing easily, glad one of us knew what to do. Grandparents Howard and Sally and Uncle Loren got to meet her on day one.
Since I was recovering from the surgery, Lillian stayed in the nursery this first night so I could sleep, though they did bring her to me to nurse a time or two.
April 28-29, 2008 During the rest of our hospital stay, Lillian got to meet Uncle Ian, Auntie Lori, cousins Allie, Eric, and Emily, and good friend Robyn. The cousins brought gifts for Lillian that they had picked out themselves, and Lori said they looked pretty cute marching through the hospital, each carrying identical pink gift bags for the brand new baby girl. We took photos of everyone visiting with Lillian in the hospital... well, ok, almost everyone - sorry Uncle Ian!
Wednesday April 30, 2008 *Use of the word "nipples" Alert* After what felt like a long stay, we were able to head home from the hospital. My milk hadn't come in yet, so Lillian was trying to feed constantly since she wasn't getting a full tummy. That made for a bit of a cranky baby and some pretty sore nipples! But I knew those things could happen so I was hanging in there so far. Finally on Wednesday evening my milk arrived and boy did Lillian glug it down. What a relief for both of us!
Friday May 2, 2008 Sally, Howard, and Loren headed home to Oregon, so it was just the three of us on our own. Yikes! Much as we loved having our family visiting, it was nice to have our little one to ourselves for a while. We found our groove pretty quickly and just tried to enjoy every minute of it, even those minutes in the wee hours of the night! We were so smitten with our girl.
Sunday May 11, 2008 First Mother's Day! What a special day. I was really upset with myself though, because I hadn't managed to send cards off to our Moms. I had had high hopes of finding time to make cards while Lillian slept, but the days just seemed to fly by with me barely finding time to shower and cook a meal or two let alone haul out the crafting supplies! Of course our Moms were very understanding :) Ray cooked one of my favourites for dinner - caesar salad with teryaki prawns and chicken. Mmmmmmmm.
Auntie Kelly arrived for a visit. She was so excited to see Lillian, and reminded us that we needed to start giving Lillian some "tummy time" playing on the floor so she could strengthen her muscles. Again, terrible with photos - can't find one of Lillian and Kelly during this visit!
Monday May 12, 2008 My first venture out of the house without Lillian! Kelly and I went shopping for some much-needed nursing bras (for me, not Kelly), and it wasn't long before Ray called to report that Lillian spat up her last meal all over him. Perfect! We sped up a bit to get home and feed the hungry girl again. Should have known that first time away from Lillian wouldn't go smoothly!
Saturday May 17, 2008 Auntie Karen, cousins Trent and Brianne, and Oma came to visit. Uncle Ian, Auntie Lori, and cousins Allie, Eric, and Emily met up with us too, and we brought a picnic dinner to Gyro Beach. Everyone clamoured for their turn holding Lillian while the other kids played the evening away in the park. It was a great night - our out-of-towners got to see some of the best and not quite so great of Kelowna: We saw a young girl voluntarily collecting garbage and moving it to the trash bins, and we saw one man let his way too old daughter pee in the sandy play area! Ew! Oma headed to Vernon with the Landy's for a couple of days while Auntie Karen, Trent, and Brianne stayed with us, continuing the clamouring for turns holding Lillian. We had a great visit with everyone.
(Tip: When you hide from the camera, any single shot will be kept and posted for all to see, like it or not!)
Saturday May 24, 2008 Oma arrived back from Vernon a few nights ago to stay with us, and Karen, Trent, and Brianne headed back home. Grandpa John joined up with us too - the last piece of the puzzle for my side of the immediate family to meet Lillian. A very busy few weeks with so many visitors, but we were on top of the world getting to show off our baby girl. Yet again it seems I was bad with photos - I snapped one with Grandpa John, and I know I got video with Oma, but I can't find a photo with Oma anywhere! Terrible!
*Flash Forward to April 2009*
Along the way there was so much more I could have blogged about. Let's see, what else to share...
We had a dilemma about the whole "Back to Sleep" thing. Lillian was not a good sleeper to start, but we soon found out she slept great if she was on her tummy - which is not the current recommendation by the experts. Eventually the need for sleep won out, and I compromised for a short time by letting Lillian sleep on her tummy next to me in our bed. Never thought I'd be a co-sleeper, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to survive! I did not want to get hooked on that either, so after a while we decided to let her sleep on her own, on her tummy. Thankfully the experts aren't always right - of course Lillian never had any problems and ended up being a pretty decent sleeper despite us bucking the experts' advice.
Lillian's first tooth came in at around 4 months. She was fussy and fevery and generally just not herself one day - and voila! The next day, tooth number 1 had sprouted! Since then I have geeked out and recorded every date a new tooth has come in: August 29 at 4 months, September 12 at 4.5 months, November 13 and 15 at 6.5 months, February 16 at 9.5 months, March 1 at 10 months, on March 22 two teeth came in at just about 11 months, and the first molar snuck in around April 25 - just shy of Lillian's first birthday. That's nine teeth to date for those of you keeping track :)
It seems like our little girl went from baby to toddler in no time flat. Her mobility has been progressing right along, and I know she's going to take off walking on her own any time now. Lillian started off trying to crawl and rocked in the crawling position early in November at about 6 months. Shortly after that she started to pull herself up to stand against furniture and her exersaucer, then in her crib after naptime - which scared me into thinking she was going to skip crawling and go straight to walking! Yikes! Fortunately that didn't happen: she had success crawling on December 7 at 7 months.
In the New Year at 8 months Lillian took off walking holding two adult hands. Today she's still motoring along that way, and hits the brakes if we try to get her going with just one hand. No tricking that girl into anything she isn't ready for! On March 24 I finally found a great secondhand push toy (a Hungry Hungry Hippo no less) and it didn't take Lillian long to figure out how to walk with it - she caught on so fast I wonder how much earlier she would have hit that milestone had she had that toy sooner. In any case she loves that toy - if only she was strong enough to steer it! One of us has to trail around behind her to redirect her when she bumps into things. She's so tickled doing it, it's hard not to love it too!
Some of Lillian's other neat tricks are holding her arms up for touchdowns, showing off her hair and ears, and matching Gramma scream for scream in a very loud version of the shadow game.
She figured out how to climb into a regular rocking chair (not her baby one - an adult size one) on her own just a few weeks ago. She associates her receiving blankets with nursing so now has a habit of bringing one to me, wildly nodding her head, and pulling at my shirt. I found that trick pretty adorable at first - until she started doing it constantly, regardless of whether she had a full tummy right after a meal. She brought it back to being cute when she started trying the trick on other people. Sorry hun, everyone else in this household is dry :)
Well, that about catches us up! Ok, not really. It only scratches the surface. I left out the whole bit about moving to Oregon... but I guess that was more about us and less about Lillian. And then of course there was her first Christmas, which she didn't really understand, and the big visit to Ladner, which was awesome, and Easter, and, and, and!!!
Anyhoo... hopefully I will keep up this blog better now - if not, see you in a year! Until whenever next time is, enjoy one last video :) (Tip: It's better with speakers on!)
Had another non-stress test and exam with my doctor yesterday. Baby still seems to want to stay put for a while longer, and there are no signs of any problems with either of us, so that's what we're going to let it do - for now. We also put together a plan to induce that we will follow through on if nothing happens soon. First another non-stress test on Friday, then another on Saturday followed by the first of the actual induction steps. We'll be back and forth to the hospital to be checked and for more help moving things along on Saturday and Sunday, with a goal of delivering on Sunday. (It occurred to me that Sunday is the 27th, which would be exactly five months to the day from my birthday. Perhaps Ray could remember our dates that way. It also occurred to me that the 27th is really not too far off from May 1, so if we changed our plans to induce a bit we could possibly please Karen by having a May baby. Finally two last things occurred to me: I am way too obsessed with dates (for example, license plate insurance dates - if you don't know, don't ask), and there is no way in hell I'm holding this baby in longer to please Karen. Sorry sis.)
I like having a plan. Much as I am aware that the plans could crumble if the baby so chooses, I like that we have a plan to look forward to if nothing happens in the next couple of days. And when the doctor and Ray and I were putting this plan together, I must say I very much liked that we might be able to plan it so that all of the hospital stuff happens over Ray's weekend (if all goes well I'd deliver on Sunday and we'd go home on Monday). Of course if things happened mid-week and Robyn was around, I know we'd get it sorted out and everything would be fine. But being able to have a hand in deciding the dates to avoid the need to sort that out is a nice perk.
I slept miraculously well last night. Maybe it's because we have a plan, so I was more relaxed. Or maybe it's because I'm about to go into labour any minute now and my body knew I would need full strength today. Honestly I don't care why, I'm just very pleased that it happened. I even remembered snippets of dreams, which I haven't done in a long while, so I must have been sleeping quite deeply. Only got up once to pee, too! I told you, it was miraculous.
Ray has noted that "His" ticker on this blog isn't quite right. If we're overdue, the ball should definitely be in the end zone, right? And really, since he started this whole thing off by "scoring," the ball should have started off in the opposite end zone as well. Hardy har har.
What a strange day! We had a power outage at about 5:30am for around an hour and a half and I didn't hear anything by way of an explanation. When Ray got up he opened the windows to show me what had happened over night - snow! Not just a little snow, but a fair bit that actually stuck. Crazy! Last Saturday Ray spent most of the day outside and came back sunburned, this Saturday we have snow??? What is Mother Nature up to exactly? The snow didn't let up for hours. I took a few pictures around 11:30 this morning to prove it to you. Then a little less than three hours later I couldn't believe how much it had changed outside, so I took more pictures for you. Suddenly we had partly blue skies and most of the snow had melted away. Here are a couple of the pics, if you want you can see the rest here.
While the camera was out, Ray took a couple of photos of my pregnant belly. Yep, still pregnant. I can't believe how much bigger I look with the bare belly compared to the clothed belly! (Well, ok, they are zoomed differently but you get the picture. Ha! The picture!) Hopefully the next photos you see here will be of the baby instead of the belly.
I went to the hospital for a non-stress test today. Everything still checks out fine, just looks like things are moving slowly. Nothing much more to report. Unless anything changes, next up will be another non-stress test and appointment with the doc on Tuesday morning. Our friends who were due just three days before us delivered a healthy baby girl yesterday. Our turn next!
P.S. Yes, I did go back to that store today. Stocked up on cheap chocolate for under three dollars. Oh yeah.
So. Today is April 18 - what I've been referring to as D-Day, as in Due Day. But baby's still enjoying it's time on the inside so looks like we'll have another D-Day - Delivery Day - some time soon. Never buy a pool noodle for your kids. My two kids have gone nuts for one, and it's been driving me nuts! Allow me to start from the beginning. Our prenatal class instructor showed us how a cut-off section of a pool noodle can be a great back massager during labour because it feels great for Mom but doesn't take a lot of effort for Dad. So we bought one and cut off a section to pack with the hospital bag. The rest of it has been hanging around the house for a few days now. My eldest child, Ray, has decided it's a great toy and just loves to twist and bend it, talk into one end of it, make dirty jokes with it, use it like a telescope, etc. He's also figured out that you can hit someone pretty hard with it without it really hurting. So he's taken to hitting my other kid, Robyn, with it. Robyn has decided this is a really great game as well. The two of them have put a fair amount of time into the activity of slapping each other silly with a pool noodle, and I'm the Mom telling them to make sure they don't break anything, asking them to cool it when the noise gets to me, and of course being the first one to actually get hurt with the darn thing when Ray managed to hit me square in the glasses, pushing them into my face. Is this supposed to be parental training? If so, I'd like to opt out of the course. I've been getting ready for one infant, not two rough and tumble school aged boys in adult men's bodies. Yesterday I found some Easter chocolate on sale for 75% off. Oh my goodness. Decent stuff too, even some Lindt brand. And some Russell Stover cream eggs (same idea and size as the common Cadbury ones, but with different fillings) for only 17 cents each! Holy smokes. Just what I needed! I spent a fair amount of time in the store aisle looking at all of the options, wanting to scoop them all into my basket but trying to give careful, logical consideration to my choices so I didn't load up too much. I think I'll go back to that store tomorrow.
