picture update

 Anomantia's excited face on Christmas morning.  We all had bad colds and were feeling pretty crappy that morning too.

 Chocolate Faced!  Enjoying her birthday cupcake on December 16th.  Happy First Birthday Anomantia!

 Playing Wii with her dad in the living room.  She now has her own remote, it is hot pink and sometimes she talks to it like it is a telephone.  Kids have the best imaginations... I wonder what happened to mine?

 Being cute as a button at the beginning of February. 

 Making a funny face on Christmas morning.

 more being cute...

 pensive...

 kissy faced...

 happy girl...

 more pensive, or worried, I don't know...

 Hanging out in her truck ready for a call (note the open phone in her right hand).

 watching cartoons in her truck...

 playing with the wii remote while I try to get us ready to go out for lunch on Friday afternoon (Feb 11th).

 Brownie faced at the restaurant (Feb 11th)

Flirting with anyone who will spare her a glance at the Wellness Centre this morning.  (Feb 12th)

I am still trying to get all the pictures in order of the few hundred that I have taken over the last few months, these are my favourites of the ones we have.  Anomantia is always on the go climbing up and down stairs now and starting to run, she is fearless and very independent.  She has been keeping us on our toes and ever learning new things.  She sits there and studies your every move then will repeat it.  This weekend, we have made Valentine's day cupcakes with Pink (I wanted a pastel pink but had a mishap with the food colouring, and ended up with a there is no other way to put it other than Barbie Pink colour instead) icing.  I have been feeling crafty again lately and after discussing with Laurence, we have decided to challenge ourselves to create gifts for our friends and loved ones this entire year.  I have most of my Christmas gifts already mapped out and some are already done, but this way come the holiday season, we won't be stressed out about finding that perfect gift for each and everyone on our lists.  Everything will be that much more personal.  All in all we are content with our life in Gurneyland and will try to keep pace with the world around us, sometimes you just have to slow it down and stop to smell the flowers and enjoy the little things in life.  Today was one of those days for me.  We got our errands out of the way for the week in the morning and it left the afternoon for baking and hanging out in the kitchen with my little cinnamon heart thief.  Tomorrow is another day of fun filled activities and hopefully a trip to the swimming pool, we will see where the day takes us.  I am just looking forward to our Sunday morning ritual: Wake up, make waffles and bacon in our pyjamas, eat as a family (one of the few meals we all eat together), clean up, wash up, get dressed and then the day begins.  I look forward to that time where we are all together in the same room, for a brief moment, I feel complete.  Life as a working mum is no easy task, every moment when I am not at work or en route to work, I want to spend with my husband and daughter.  I feel guilty for being away for so long every week, but I have my three day weekends to keep me going through the push for more production, better quality, and faster turn over rates, there are days where my family is the only thing that keeps me going.  Knowing that they will always be there when I get home.  I love seeing them all cuddled up and asleep when I get in the door from work.  I do miss taking part in bedtime, and not being home for dinner, but I know I always have my weekends.  And every week presents a new challenge and new changes, but if it were always the same thing would it be worth doing?  Right now, I am ready for an early bedtime for me tonight and enjoying the little things that make my world spin.

Good Night

Chaos

So this week has been crazy busy for all of us here in Gurneyland.  Anomantia has discovered how to fill her bowl when it is empty.  Sunday afternoon, we were eating dill pickle chips (the new baked ones...so good!) in the living room.  I gave Anomantia a few in one of her bowls, she ate them all, then walked over and was eating them out of the bag on the coffee table.  I went into the kitchen to get us some water, returned to find her dumping the bag of chips into her bowl, most of which ended up on the floor.  She is a very observant girl and studies things lots before doing it.  She also has learned to pick her nose.  I got a text from Laurence the other night saying that she had a bloody nose and he had no idea how she got blood all over her face.  The next morning, I caught her red fingered.  She shoves her little index finger up her nostril, actually it is pretty gross.  She has learned the use of uh-uh (while shaking her head no) and uses it in appropriate context now.  It is quite cute but can be irritating at times now that she resists things.  I guess seeing as it is so early in the morning and I have to get up with Anomantia when she wakes, I should end it here.

Relief

Today we were given the wonderful news that Anomantia's acetabular portion of her hip has in fact formed properly (yay!).  It was such a relief to hear this news and actually see the x-rays as proof that she will be able to run and play with her friends as she gets older, however it does still put her in a higher risk bracket for needed a hip replacement at an earlier age.  Still something we have to keep an eye on but at least there will be no surgery for now.  I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and that I can finally take a breath, I have been waiting for months to hear those words from the doctor.  She hated getting x-rayed and had to be strapped down on a spine board so she wouldn't move but was rewarded afterwards with her beloved Smarties.  She will do anything for a Smarties treat, including climbing up and down the stairs several times trying to get just one.  Today I am just grateful that she decided that her car seat was a great place to sleep, she napped the whole drive to the Children's Hospital and back home again (almost 2 hours each way).  So by the time we got back home, she was wired and ready to tear the place apart even more.... I think my living room should declare a state of emergency, Hurricane Anomantia has struck for the last 4 days in a row!  I have some major clean up to do in there, so I am hoping for a 3 hour long morning nap tomorrow (technically today but I still haven't slept, so it is still yesterday to me, if that makes any sense?!?).  On that note, I am off to bed and just thought that I would share my happy news of not having to get my toddler operated on, mechanically she works-Yahoo!

Happy New Year...very late! and a new Update.

Well it has been a busy New Year, off to a sickly start for the whole lot of us.  We had a bunch of colds and a flu that went through all three of us.  Finally we pulled through and are enjoying the strange weather we have had.  It was beautiful and warm, followed by a big snowstorm and freezing weather (-30ºC to-50ºC) for a week and a bit and then warm again followed by freezing again and now we are finally back to unseasonably warm weather again.  This year, Laurence and I have decided to bust out the bucket lists and conquer a few items each.  A few weeks back his guy friends invited him out for a guys day on the lake, ice fishing, drinking and sledding.  I was so envious because ice fishing is on my bucket list.  It has always interested me and seeing as I have gone almost every other type of fishing I figured I might as well cross that one off my list too.  So the following weekend, we went out as a family to the lake to go ice fishing.  We didn't catch anything that day but at least we are equipped now with an auger and ice fishing poles we can do it again sometime and hopefully catch something.  Anomantia spent most of her time terrorizing the front seat of the Jeep.  She was too cold, and seeing as we don't have an ice fishing tent yet, she was in the wind outside. 
The transition of being on maternity leave to being a working mum has been a hard one for me and I am finally getting the help I need in order to survive.  Unfortunately it comes at a cost, I have to stop breastfeeding as the medication will leach through breast milk.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about it and crying by myself because I feel like I have in someway failed my daughter, but in order to help her better, I have to help myself.  This past month I have contemplated changing jobs, changing companies, going back to school and lots of other things but I think more than anything, I have decided it is best to stay put even if it means being away from home for 13 hours a day, 4 days per week.  I have also decided to take a few courses online to upgrade my certification.  Anomantia is in good capable hands with her dad.  And has also displayed to him that she can talk when she wants to and what she wants to.  Her vocabulary now includes:  wake up, debout, oh-no, uh-uh (shaking her head no), what (with lots of attitude), maman, dad, bye, night night, Oh Shit, and Sonofabitch. As well as the standard: ya, yeah, up, milk, jus, juice, lait, and dog (which is a cat to her).  She tries to boc like a chicken but it comes out toc-a toc-a and she makes wookie noises if you show her a picture of anything Star Wars related (including cartoon Ewoks).  She hates hats and anything on her head and doesn't like cow's milk, so we are trying to come up with some creative ways of getting enough calcium and vitamin A in her diet.  She now walks independently and loves it, she is starting to run and is always on the go.  This morning, I came home from work to find her asleep on my pyjamas with her dad's keys in one hand and one boot on, the living room is a disaster zone due to hurricane Anomantia, I can tell they had a lot of fun.  I am so envious that they get to play and hang out in the afternoons and evenings, I see Anomantia and Laurence only for a few hours on the days that I work as they are both usually asleep when I get home from work. 
All in all things in Gurneyland are busy as always and with Anomantia walking now, we are constantly on the go.  February brings great adventures for us including Family Day long weekend, the last trip to the paediatric orthopaedic specialist (knock on wood that everything is still ok with Anomantia's hips), more ice fishing, skating and anything else we can cram into an already packed month.  It is hard to believe that January has passed us by already, at least I have a start on my Christmas presents for next year!  We are doing a homemade year this coming year, hence the early start.  And yet again the question looms as to when we will be heading West again... This year the answer is sorry but we are going to stay put, we have no plans of travel at the moment, I don't have any holiday time from work because of being sick over the yule season and from only being back to work almost 4 months, I am back at the bottom of the line when it comes to holidays. And with all that I should head off to bed, another long day tomorrow.  Picture update soon, I promise!

Merry Christmas... Happy Holidays or whatever!

 This year we found out that Anomantia does NOT like Santa Claus.  She was so mad at me for not rescuing her right away.

She would far rather hang out with her dad.

So here is hoping that everyone has a happy holiday season.  And a healthier than us Christmas too. 

Remembrance Day 2010

This morning, I woke up after only 3 hours of sleep to go to the local Remembrance Day ceremony at the arena. Anomantia and I watched from the stands while Laurence participated in the ceremony.  We were seated next to some very nice people.  Anomantia was all over the place and was squealing with joy throughout the ceremony.  She however did stay quiet for the moment of silence.  After the ceremony was over, I had a few veterans approach me and tell me that Anomantia was very well behaved throughout and that it was nice to see the younger generation starting to take an interest in the events.  Just before the ceremony started, in the stands next to where I was sitting, an elderly woman went into cardiac arrest.  Paramedics and the ambulance were called and it looked like she was going to be alright.  The highlight of the whole morning for me was after the ceremony had concluded, the veterans take a lap of the arena while the pipe band plays.  One veteran, threw his cane off to the side and was waving and saluting with an ear to ear grin.  This totally made my day.  So far it has been a really nice day aside from it being freezing cold out, but at least the sun is shining. 

Busy Life

 My little girl is getting so big.  This photo was taken this morning before nap and after she decided that she needed to be holding my cell phone.  She has started trying to walk but is more or less just wandering between pieces of furniture.  She is also the master of funny faces and big smiles, the second a camera is out, out come the devil horns.

 If Anomantia had her way, every meal would consist of crackers.  She has 4 teeth that are in and 2 more on the way.  She bites everything including the glass top on the coffee tables and scrapes the varnish off her crib railing.  It has gotten to the point where we have a surveillance camera in her bedroom that way we can get to her before she starts to chew on the top railing again. 

 October- was a month of adjustment.  Anomantia got a SAHD and a working mum.  I went from day shift to a permanent afternoon shift which allows me to be at home with her during the mornings and working until middle of the night.  I think the hardest part of working an afternoon shift is that I am not getting enough sleep which in the long run is going to affect my performance at work.  We had an awesome Halloween again this year.  We had our neighbours over for a Halloween party on the Saturday and then Sunday evening, I took her out Trick-or-Treating with some of the neighbours' kids.  She was dressed as a frog and was really cute.  When we got to peoples' houses, she would start to babble.  She ate a box of smarties (box and all) before we even got to the fourth house.  She lasted about an hour and a half outside before it was time to return home to see her dad.  We really lucked out this year with the weather, it was really mild in comparison to last years sleet. 

Bouncy, Bouncy Baby!  Anomantia has finally figured out how to jump.  She loves her jolly jumper and music combined.

All in all life has become more and more busy with being back at work and juggling being a wife and mother.   I am hoping that I will eventually find the balance of energies and it will all work out in the end.  I am still hoping that in the new year, I will be able to return to the college for a few courses to expand my knowledge and to see where that will take me.  A Blue Seal perhaps and maybe even to more education in the long run.  I know that welding isn't my end all be all career, just a mere stepping stone towards my future.  It allows me to provide a comfortable life for my daughter and husband, but I still dream of something more.  Who knows what that might be but for now, I must be content with what I am.  And with that I am hoping the balance as to who I am might return.   Being a working mum changes everything for me.  Everyone asked me IF I was going to return to work, but for me the question has never been IF but WHEN.  I dreaded going back to work after Anomantia was born, and even when I did return, I found the adjustment mentally, physically and emotionally challenging.  Over the past month, I have found myself sinking again.  There is no other way to put it.  I feel like the worst person in the world having to go back to work and leaving my daughter for 12 hours at a time.  My only peace of mind comes with my loving husband and that I know he is a capable father to our little monster.  With the breastfeeding, I try to express as much as I can, but my milk supply has dwindled down to next to nothing.  Anomantia will be soon out of the frozen stocks as I can't keep up with the rate she is consuming.  She is starting to drop her morning naps and is much fussier in the afternoons, I know this makes life for Laurence a little harder.  I feel like a funk has fallen over Gurneyland and that it will take all I've got to chase it away.  I guess that only time will tell... and for now I have laundry to wash, dry and put away, a kitchen full of dirty dishes to be cleaned and some endless renovations that require my attention, hence the lack of posts over the last little while.  On a brighter note, I have decided that it is time to get a new tattoo.  I have yet to find the right artist but I know what I want, I just need to find the right person to draw it up for me.  Winter is approaching fast and in ten days time my little adventurist will be 11 months old... Crap, a year has almost passed me by!  She is climbing everything in sight including the stairs.  I was worried that she would fall down the stairs to the basement but instead, she ignores them.  She loves the stairs up to her room.  She will be in the kitchen one minute and the next at the top of the stairs playing with the air intake to the furnace.  Or screaming for someone to come and get her down.  She will only go up the stairs and not down.  So I guess that we will have to baby gate the bottom of the stairs instead of the the top.  I gotta run the chores are a callin', but for now life in Gurneyland will still remain in a constant state of adventure to keep us all busy and on the go. 
Take Care,
C.