oh the madness and a half birthday!

how incredibly fast the days seem to pass. 

it feels like just yesterday sweet Finn entered into the world, 

although my tired body says otherwise

and yet in the the blink of eye we've already celebrated his half birthday!

each addition to the family somehow speeds up the clock, 

we reach milestones so much faster. 

gone are the days of waiting around for them to do "something"

the "somethings" are happening fast and furious from all three kiddos. 

and I'm trying to keep up. 

some days it feels impossible to meet all of their demands, their needs and wants 

and other days we manage a perfect rhythm. 

life is very busy with three littles, some sleeping but mostly not

it's like musical beds most every night

but I know it my heart that these are perhaps the simplest of times of head

their needs still mostly primal, a hug and kiss still mend boo boos

they need a snuggle and for you to watch their "cool" trick 

I know in later years we will be longing for them to want us or need us like they do now. 

or at least I will. 

so I'll take the sleep deprivation, not going to the bathroom alone (in four years)

and sleeping wedged between Georgie and Finn every night as some of the best times of our life 

because all those wistful faces of sweet grandmas at the grocery store can't be wrong. 

let love reign

sorry for the silence lately, 

we have been totally consumed with snuggling and loving on our new little bundle. 

Finn Ezra arrived on Dec 27th

born at home in the wee hours of the morning. 

We are beyond blessed to have this healthy, beautiful boy join our family. xoxo

these two

Some days it seems nothing goes right while others seem like nothing could go wrong.
I am blessed beyond measure that I get to be the mama to these two but...
while some days I'm brimming with awe and swooning over them
there's other days I'm close to tears in frustration. And some days have a bit of both.
This parenting gig is a real trip I tell ya.

Tent o'balls // eating lemons? // hunting for treasure //
bath time // happy girl //
solo swim // special special treats from trandad // big yawns (try sleeping!)

a very un-merry and then merry again christmas

Well after a whirlwind couple of days, 

with back to back family Christmas dinners.... it hit. 

The flu took a hold of Guy and left Oliver fevered for 2 days now. 

Thankfully Guy felt much better this morning and Oliver's only symptom has been a slight temperature. But it made him ahem a tad miserable this morning and definitely less enthusiastic about the presents Santa brought than he would have been otherwise. Not to mention the horrible night we had of very little sleep as he and Georgie traded off waking me up every hour. 

Oliver didn't want to ride his new wheely bug, didn't want to look at his stocking and really wanted no part of anything except some cheerios and juice. Once he got a little something in his belly though he started to come around. But I annoyed him with my camera and he promptly told me "no taking pictures". Georgie on the other hand was having the time of her life despite practically being up until 4 am. She was just loving the new shape sorter and sensory balls to no end. 

As the day progressed so did the mood, Oliver livened up 

(of course the day was still sprinkled with 2 year emotions) and we watched Christmas movies and played with our new puzzles and toys. 

My best present was a pack of Norwex travel sized enviro cloths that have provided us with a great way to keep things disinfected around here, I leave a damp one on the coffee table and we periodically wipe our hands and everything else we have touched with it. Hopefully it will help keep these nasty germs from spreading to Georgie and I! Please let it be so,

 a teething baby with the flu while being sick with the flu.... I can't even let my mind go there.

Photo dump from our weekend and from this morning.

And so our Christmas 2012 was filled with merriment and then some not so merry moments. 

Our first Christmas as a family of four and our best present is getting to spend the rest of the week together without any hustle bustle and hopefully without any illness!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. 

daylight savings and other ramblings

whomever invented daylight savings is a complete a-hole.

And most certainly a man, who did not have to get up with his kids in the morning.

Guy left for his annual hunting trip up north yesterday morning, which means we are already two down and three more days to go sans daddy. And trust me Oliver is not too happy about (and neither is mama) But this morning I heard the pitter patter stomping as if a herd of elephants (do they call a group of elephants a herd?) are charging into my bedroom at 5:45 am and I told Oliver that he need to lie down for a few more minutes because it was too early to get up. He thrashed around for about 10 minutes, waking up Georgie and most certainly not allowing me to get any more sleep so I ended the charade and we all got up. 6 am not awesome but not the worst Sunday morning wake up.... until I looked at my phone and realized I forgot to change my clocks back hour.
It was in fact 5 am! And so the conspiracy continues....

In other news, Georgie is officially sitting up un-assisted! She's getting stronger by the minute and able to sit for longer and longer stretches. Of course she needs to be chewing on something or else she's diving for something, anything within reach to shove in her mouth. But NO teeth yet!








ghill life lately

It's Saturday night and Georgie wreaked havoc on my plans

so instead of having a sleepover at our friends house,

the kids and I packed back into the car and came home.

This was a second (failed) attempt at the sleepover.

The idea is that we have dinner, the kids play and then they go to bed so the adults can have a social with some bevies and not have to worry about getting home.

Clearly Georgie hates this plan and has not participated.

So home it is. But we have had some cheerier moments this week.....



1/. little beauty

2/. daddy daycare

3/. shopping cart peek-a-boo

4/. pj warrior

5/. leopard lady

6/. I have consumed more of these this week than I care to admit.

Damn you Costco!

7/. Early Risers Club meeting. Prez and V.P in attendance.

8/. let's go for a ride.

the never-ending saturday

That did in fact end...eventually.

Most people can't wait for the weekend.

 A chance to sleep in, lounge around after a busy week.

Weekends mean neither of those things for me.

I love weekends too but it's certainly not a time to catch up on rest.

Not in this house of not one but two children that enjoy getting up at 4AM!

That's right last Saturday both of my darlings were up at 4am, I mean wide freaking awake.

Not even let's lie in this bed and flail around for a bit "awake".

Full on "Mama I need juice, I need something to eat" awake.

Cue Georgie, smiling, cooing (for once) and toe tapping. Me too!

Are you kidding me?

So by 6:30 am Georgie was ready for a little siesta (yeah you know its bad when your first nap of the day is before you should even be awake on a Saturday!) And by 7 am Oliver had officially played with every toy we own. The weather wasn't great and I was far too exhausted to go for a walk

 so this is what our day entailed

1/. hitting up the jobsite a little early

2/. lounging lizard 1st round

3/. mr. & mrs dressup (hallowe'en spoiler!)

4/. whisk ball- mini sticks improv ghill style

5/. toddler moment- sidebar: oh how I love baby teeth, they are just the cutest even on the toddler monster!

6/. more dress up wrapped in sibling love

7/. truck'n

And yes this was over the course of several hours and yes we wore our jammies all the day long.

Then by some miracle 1pm rolled around and Oliver had a glorious nap and then Georgie went down too and this Mama got to rest her weary bones for a minute or two before everyone got up

and we did it all over again!

mom on a wire

September proved to be a challenging month.

We've (I mean me) hit the 4 month wall.

Both of my kids were great sleepers for the first 3 months!

While others were experiencing grueling newborn schedules my kids easily slept for 4 + hours at a time. Not to mention the happiness high I was on, the sunshine and rainbows of a sweet new baby.

But then it hits. The 4 month wall, where sleep schedules worsen, teething begins and some dark clouds move in threatening to rain on my parade. Sleep deprivation officially settles in.

Guy was away for about 10 days during the course of the month so parenting a busy 2 year old, a 5 month old (and 12 year old dog) on my own, while working and NOT sleeping

made me feel like I was stretched pretty thin, anxious and stressy (it's a word... maybe?) 

We are on the roller coaster of two year old emotions with Oliver. And it is an intense ride some days! Ok, most days. He is sooooo particular about everything and wants to be oh so independent by doing everything on his own "my do it" or "only me" to be exact. Which is fine, great even except when it isn't working out and there's a screaming baby and then a screaming toddler and a mama who is losing her mind. Of course going on broken/non existent sleep means my "patience well"

is running a little dry to begin with.

And then there is Georgie Girl. She is restless. So incredibly restless.

Even when I hold her she throws her body back and forth, thrashing about with force.

She doesn't want to be put down but she doesn't really want to be held either.

She does want attention, my attention and all of it.
This little lady goes from happy to sad to happy in nano seconds.
Sometimes she even laugh-cries! Our breeding schedule of producing not one but TWO taurus children is really going to bite us in the ass keep us on our toes!

But then there are these beyond incredible moments each day when Oliver is big brothering (it's a word... maybe?) Georgie and she is beaming her toothless grin at him and I am a puddle of mushy love on the floor. My heart is fuller than full. Or when we are together as a family of four, playing and enjoying each others company. Oliver is chatting away to Georgie, giving her toys (her own of course!) and we just get to marvel at our beautiful children and it takes all the other icky stuff away.

I know that one day I'll look back at this time and have forgotten about the sleepless nights or the restless child and long for Oliver to tell me "I sit you Mommy"
or have my little Georgie Girl bounce and kick with joy when she spots me from across the room
(instead of the stink eye I'm bound to get during the teenage years).

It's on a good day, when things are running smoothly (ie Georgie is sleeping, Oliver is at daycare and mama gets to write a blog post while sipping on a hot coffee) that it is easy to get perspective but some days are just hard and some days (as my wise sister once said) "there are too many hours today"

ghill life lately

Life has been a whirl wind. the end.

Busy with kids, busy with work.

Definitely not a lot of sleep around these parts ....for anyone.

Oliver's still doing his between 4-5 am wake up call, pretty much everyday.

Georgie's has her good nights and bad ones too

(like a typical 5 month old baby will do).

Guy's gearing up for a trip across the pond this week and will be gone for about 5 days,

which means I'm gearing up for some solo parenting

and no one to pawn the 4 am morning early-not-even-birds-are-awake shift off to!

But even with all the hustle bustle we manage to slide in some fun too.

1/. Uninvited but much appreciated dinner guests in our backyard

2/. hoodie and jammies all day kind of day

3/. Tool Time

4/. fall fair fun with Captain serious on the bumper cars 

5/. knitted sweater and hat for a cool day

6/. 6am traffic jam

7/. Tiny Dancer

8/. precious baby girl

9/. Me next!  poor Chazy, she sure doesn't get as much attention as she did 2 1/2 years ago!



Myth or Magic?

 

This may be a very premature post but I'm doing it anyway.

Yesterday I went out and purchased Georgie her first necklace!

An Amber teething necklace like this one,

after I have heard and read a bunch of hype, I couldn't resist.

I didn't really have any unrealistic expectations going into this

 all I really had to lose was 20 bones. And so much to gain... sleeeeep!

Sweet, sweet slumber and maybe a happier/less fussy baby?

 

 

Yesterday afternoon I put the necklace on her and within an hour she was asleep.

 (she doesn't normally sleep when we are in the office or if she does it's very brief)

She had a solid hour + nap and woke up in great spirits!

She seemed a little calmer and while she still wanted to chew and chop on things like a rapid dog,

she wasn't whiny and fussy as she had been.

 

Even once we got home from the office she napped for another hour (hardly ever does that!)

woke up in a great mood, played and enjoyed her exercauser a little then fed and went to sleep.

She slept for about 5 hours before waking up to feed again and then slept for another four.

The past month she has been so restless at night wanting to nurse all night

(more just use me a soother) that we both haven't been getting much any sleep!

Last night was so different.

 

So my less than 24 hour assessment of the amber is MAGIC!

Here's how it works:

Amber is not a stone or mineral but fossilized tree resin or "tree juice" if you want to get technical!

the thick liquid turns into a transparent solid that contains succinic acid

(sounds bad but is really, really good). Amber is a natural pain reliver and anti-inflammatory , it works by warmimg up against babies skin and releasing its healing medicine. It also helps strength their immune system to fight off other ailments .

 

Taking care of the necklace is simple, keep clean by washing with warm water. The necklace is meant to be worn not to be chewed on and will last for years.

 

 

So like I said this is my less than 24 hour review.

We'll see what happens this week but I am hoping for more sleep!

 

 

 

 



Labour Day

ugggghhhh. Was Labour-ous.

Guy left on Friday morning for the great white north, planning on returning Monday afternoon.

Which meant me and the kiddos on our my own for 4 days.

Let's just say "Long Weekend" took a whole new meaning!
I just couldn't get these kiddos to sleep, let alone coordinate naps.
So we ended up missing out on Camp Out that our neighbours were hosting.

We did manage to get a walk in and some visiting with family so the weekend wasn't a total bust.

 And this little lady is officially on a roll! Thursday night (with a lot of effort), manage to roll over.

Then she did it again with slightly less effort, she kept at it until she could do it ease.

 Now every time I put her down she immediately rolls over! Yikes!

She's still working on rolling back onto her back, but let the games begin.

Mobility is imminent.