Happy Birthday

One year ago, on August 20, Owen was born. A year later, we are living in a crappy apartment, counting down the days until we move into our new (to us) home. Even still, we had a little party to celebrate Owen's first birthday. There is a party planned, but with all the craziness we have planned it next weekend.

Kris went all out, buying a banner, candles and a party hat for the birthday boy. Of course there was cake. Owen loved it. See for yourself

44 sleeps

My feet are killing me! I haven't worn heels (other than the occasional dinner date or Symphony event) for more than a couple of hours since about 12 weeks pregnant. I'm still not sure if my feet have changed size... they say that can happen when you get pregnant. What I do know is that they are swollen now. And, I have blisters too. I have only brought 3 pairs of dress shoes to the apartment, all of them heels of some sort. I may have to go on a shopping expedition.

My birthday is tomorrow. What a crazy year! Last year on my birthday, my water broke in the front of an Indian Take-out resturaunt. Now, a year later, we have become renters... I have never rented before in my life. Well, except for the summer I spent in Medicine Hat studying rattlesnakes. But that doesn't really count because everything was arranged by my job. I pseudo-lived on my own. It is wierd.

Kris printed out a bunch of pages with numbers from 46 to 1. We are crossing off the days. Still not sure what we're gonna do about the soft matress. I looked again on kijiji. No deals better than buying new from Ikea.

Owen has started really 4-point crawling. Kavin, one of the dayhome kids noticed it today. According to him, Owen made about 2 or 3 left-right's. Tonight, he went maybe 6 or 7. Look out tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the first real day of classes. 5 full classes with 30-ish kids a piece. I hope I'm ready.

45 sleeps

I always thought that the function of a box-spring was to make the bed "normal height". I now know that to be incorrect. We have moved our mattress to the apartment and put it on the floor and it is now way softer than it used to be. So much so that Kris went to the chiropractor today and I have woken up the last two mornings with my left arm so numb that it actually doesn't move properly for a few minutes. I haven't slept well for this reason, among others. I woke up this morning exhausted.

Going back to work hasn't been a piece of cake either. A lot is the same; except that I now have to remember how things went 2 years ago, rather than one. It's starting to come back to me but slowly.

In all of it I'm just so glad I don't have to worry about Owen. Today when I picked him up she gave me a loaf of grain bread that she whipped up today. It was delicious.

46 days and counting...

We spent the better part of this weekend moving the bare essentials of our daily existence into the crappiest apartment in Bridgeland. It is awful. It wasn't very clean, although they said it would be, and it isn't furnished, although the original ad said it could be. But its cheap. Before moving I thought it would be like college living meets being stranded in Europe, but its kinda worse. Poor Owen doesn't know what to do. He is having a really hard time adjusting to sleeping in his playpen. Both last night and tonight he's taken about a half an hour to decide to lay down. Last night Kris just laid down beside him and waited for him to fall asleep. Tonight, I laid there and watched him stand at the edge of the playpen, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion. He fell down and picked himself up about 10 times before he was too tired and uncoordinated to get up again. At that point I left and he fell asleep.

We are here for 46 more sleeps. I can't wait. This place blows.


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Packing, Packing, Packing

I have had Owen in care every day since we got back from Saskatoon last weekend. I've been so busy with packing that I haven't even had a chance to be sad that we're not together. Today though, it hit me. Tomorrow is officially our last day together. We have Salsa Babies at 11 am so I decided to keep him for the day. We are going to have lots of fun. No packing, just enjoying each other's company.

Yesterday at dinner, Owen stood up in the playpen all by himself. He's going to do a lot of firsts in this next year and I'm sad I might not be the first one to see them. I think I can appreciate more how Kris felt when he went back to work.

Thanks to Jean Chretien for giving us a year to look after our babies.

Step two, buy a house

Well, we've finally done it. In true meticulous shopper fashion, as Kris and I both are, we found a house almost identical to the first house we viewed when this all began. We both love the split level bungalows. They tend to be bigger and the stairs break up the spaces, making them
more interesting than the classic post-war bungalow. The first property we viewed was a split with extensive renovations. It was beautiful, but didn't have any room to grow, no storage, only 3 levels (bedrooms, living-dining-kitchen, and half-basement family room/man cave, and a very small yard. Eventually, we found the same house, without the renos, but with a 4th level, unfinished, where we can put a guest bedroom and a play area for kids. Not to mention storage and a space to make a wine cellar. Bigger lot, 2 car garage, and a back yard that is essentially a blank slate. There was some negotiating on the price and we ended up with a pretty good deal. Though the sale is pending home inspection, I feel confident in saying that our new address will be 9 Haverhill Drive SW. Is it silly that I'm very excited to live on a name street (for the first time in my life)? I'm also, even though its gonna be a lot of BS, really excited to decide on tiles and backslashes and paint colors and such.

Bad news is that we don't move in until Oct 1. So we are renting a crap apartment in Bridgeland for 45 days. I am trying to think about it like it's a Europe/vacation from reality kind of thing. The difference being that I have to go to work every day. Oh well, it's a means to an end. And there is an end in sight.

Europe really changed my outlook on life. There was a lot of "suck it up, buttercup" during our extended stay across the pond. Now that we're back home I feel like I can handle way more adversity than before. I keep thinking, "it's not like we're sleeping in a train station in Venice. And with a baby no less."

We are moving into the home where we will raise our children. How awesome is that?