Making a point

This morning our daycare provider called me a "nervous mommy" and Peter a "calm daddy". And then she went on to explain that the transition time is more often about the parents than it is for the kids.

Point made Margaret.  

She also offered to connect me with another mom who has a son that is 15 months (2 months older than Rory) so I could talk to her about their transition time and any concerns I have.  Again, the power of the mommy network is so awesome... even as daycare starts.

Margaret also told me I could call as often as I want.

Which I did. At 10:30. And Rory was sleeping like a good baby.

So, as the week has rolled on, things actually have been really great. Without a doubt my child loves his daycare and his mommy is beginning to relax. So I can stop blogging about it now.

One thing is for certain, I may need to step up my cooking and baking skills to compete with daycare. This kid isn't getting home-made banana loaf at home.

Why am I having such a tough time with this?

Because my kid is not.having.trouble.with.this.   The black eye and head dive from yesterday apparently has long been forgotten and Day 2 of daycare transition was a huge success. My child jumped out of his dad's arms, and according to Peter "didn't even look back".  He was fine. So fine in fact, the care giver in Rory's room told Peter he could leave for a couple of hours.  This typically doesn't happen on day 2.

So Rory is having a great day playing, exploring, "letting anyone pick him up with no issue", and even "ate his curried chickpea and pasta lunch with great gusto"... and I have to take a walk at lunch because I am again fighting back tears.

What.is.my.problem? 

Is it that I don't feel he's ready for this?

Or maybe it is more... that he is SO ready for this.

Is it not crazy that in one year they can just get up and walk away from you and not look back?  Have I just been replaced by a sandbox, water table, and several lightly used riding toys?

Day One Daycare Transition– A Rough Start

Today was day one of my child's day care transition. For real this time. We all slept poorly. I am just so sad and nervous about sending Rory to daycare. Regardless of how awesome a daycare is/can be, in my heart of hearts I really just wish that one of us could be at home with him. In many ways I just don’t feel it’s right that kids, babies really,  have to go spend the day with strangers when they are so young.  What are we to do though?  Move to the country?

I wish. Don’t get me started.

Anyway, we all know that these transitions are way harder on parents then they are on kids. And I am like a text book mommy-wuss when it comes to stuff like this. Thank God for the most part, my husband Peter will be responsible for drop offs and that we have a kid who loves new people and new places. In fact, he got so excited to see so many toys and other kids to play with, that he tripped and fell and went head first into a toy chest after being in the daycare for less than 30 seconds. 

Amazing. Like I wasn’t emotional enough already.  He was fine/is fine, aside from his first real shiner. Mommy on the other hand almost called in sick to work. Head dives into furniture so early on a Monday very easily reduced me to tears.  Honestly, when does this overly emotional stuff end?  When I left he was pretty happy. Or, maybe he thought this car would get him outta there?

On a related but less dramatic note, my Mable's Labels order finally arrived. Thank you Canada Post.  You have to label like everything for daycare... At first I was slightly underwhelmed by the size of the package I got, but realized this weekend when I was labeling pretty much everything Rory owns... We got what we need.  And how cute are these things anyway? I almost want to order some for myself. 

Let's hope day 2 goes better.

A blog-awesome first book

It has arrived!

I always said when I started this blog that my intention was to write about my journey through my first pregnancy and my first born child for me and my family... and for Rory to read one day.  It has been fun, and an awesome outlet for stress, emotion, celebration of milestones, connecting with other moms, and yes, sometimes total boredom.  

I also promised that around my son's first birthday I was going to bind my whole blog up into a book, and who knows what would happen from there. If you know me, you know I'm not a scrapbooker.  I just have never gotten into it, NOT because I don't enjoy the creativity in it, but because I try to be too fancy and one page ends up taking me 2 hours. One time my sister and I scrapbooked the first 9 months of her daughter's life. It took us a WEEK of our vacation in Mnt Tremblant.   So forget that! I am way more of an instant gratification type girl.

So THAT is where the idea to print my blog came from. And voila! It's done!  I used a great online service called blog2print, and my hard cover book arrived today!  It's super high quality and exactly what I pictured.

Check it out!  8.5" x 11" laminated hardcover book, with 213 full colour interior pages.  Well worth the investment for a keepsake that hopefully one day will be appreciated by my children, when they have children.  If you're interested, it cost me $80.00

Baby it’s hot outside

It’s like an oven in Toronto. Wednesday it’s supposed to be 34°C, and the humidex is reading like a bazillion degrees.  I am not one to complain about the heat. We get like four months (maybe) of decent weather a year and I am a summer baby after all, I love it when it's hot.  But I reserve the right to complain about the humidity.  And this humidity sucks. 

And oh boy does this weather bring me back. It was EXACTLY this hot and humid (read unbearable) in the first several weeks of my son’s life.  I remember walking with Peter and Rory in late August and Peter remarked that it was probably the first time Rory had felt a cool breeze. He was two months old by then.

The heat is tough on babies and kids. Really tough. Humans control their internal temperature in the heat by sweating. Under extreme heat and humidity conditions kid’s bodies cannot keep up, and will suffer from heat stress.  That was scary when we owned a 5 pounder. Our 22 pounder is much easier to make happy in this weather.

So this post is basically an ode to the inventor of the backyard baby pool. Pure genius. Why we didn't get one before this weekend was silly.  Did you know baby pools at Toysrus are pretty much sold out all over Ontario?  Obviously they are sold out. I really need to get more on top of seasonal purchases. It's like looking for Christmas lights the last week of December. Ugh

So here's Rory playing with his girlfriend on the weekend in her pool. Amelia's pool has a sunshade and everything. Pretty pimp.

This is the sandbox- baby pool conversion we got for Rory. Except his is blue. Still pretty awesome. If you're having a tough time with your kids and the heat... These things provide hours of cool entertainment.  And they are pretty cheap. If you can find one.

 

Wanna come for a swim?

Well this is new

Last night I left my husband and baby at my parents home, got on a train, and traveled 4 hours back to our home in Toronto.  Peter and Rory are hanging out at my parents house in Almonte for a few extra days to maximize their time in the country air, and also their time with the cousins. Including sweet sweet Noa.  Isn’t she the cutest thing ever?

We had a great weekend in Almonte. The 1st birthday party (round 2) was great. Lots of family and friends stopped by, and my sister made the most incredible Elmo cake. This girl was determined not be out done by the cupcakes I commissioned for Rory’s Toronto party.  And she succeeded. Get a load of this...

So..... the real BIG news is that I am ALL BY MYSELF until Wednesday. I am calling it a working mamma’s staycation.   What on earth will I do with myself with all this time alone?  Do I even remember what it was like to live alone? To be alone?  To sleep alone? To drink alone. Kidding.   Who knows... But I will give it a good go to find out.

I started texting my girlfriends at 730am today to start making plans. So I am just a TINY bit eager.
I will miss my boys like crazy, but this time for me will be great.

Here's a few things I have realized already though...

1. A house is not a home (not that I didn’t know that). But it’s SO SO SO quiet.  

2. Peter does a lot at our house during the week that is very time consuming that I most likely don’t give him enough credit for. (I.E  - laying sod back down in the morning that the f*5king racoons continually dig up every night. Oh,  and turn sprinkler on to water daily.  And at some point this week I even have to take the garbage and recylcing out. Peter thinks I don’t know how. Which I don’t. Well, I have never done it. Yet. (keep in mind I was within days of having a baby when we moved in and the first year here has been spent with a growing baby). So there. Anyway, how hard can it be to drag a few containers to the curb? I will let you know Wednesday. Or Tuesday?  Better double check that.)

3. Peter has our lights on a timer for when we're away.  Who knew. And when our bedside lamp came on all by itself at 6am this morning it freaked the hell out of me.  For a good ten minutes I was convinced our house was haunted. Then I vaguely remembered the timers. Thank God. Or I would have been looking for a place to stay tonight.

Have a great week!

FYI - A teething baby loves a cob of corn.

One-derful

How AMAZING is this photographer?  Heather Lynch is not only able to make my family look happy and rested after a busy weekend hosting Rory's first birthday party at our house... but makes it so easy and is SO awesome to work with her at the same time.

 You can see more of her photography here...

The official extension of the daddy days

My husband Peter was due back to work yesterday!   The 5 weeks he was scheduled to have off with Rory to round out our paternity leave flew by for all of us.

I don’t remember when it happened, but a couple of weeks ago I came home from work and the two of them were playing around in the yard together enjoying what was left of the sun for the day.  It broke my heart a bit to think of Rory in daycare, and Peter back at work just when the weather was becoming so unbelievably beautiful.  So I mentioned to Peter that I was wondering if somehow we could swing him taking another month off?  His eyes lit up at the suggestion.  So over the next week we tried our hardest to make it happen.

So a couple of things we learned... There are actually two different portions to leave in Canada. Parental and pregnancy leave (that is time off from work), and parental and maternity benefits (which is receiving payments from Employment Insurance).

So for benefits (receiving payments), 35 weeks of paid coverage is offered by the government of Canada, and those 35 weeks can be split between the parents.

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/ei/types/special.shtml#Parental3

For leave (time off and benefits) in Ontario:  The mother is entitled to 17 weeks of pregnancy leave (with 2 week waiting period), and subsequent both parents are entitled to an additional 35 weeks of parental leave (leave only).

http://www.worksmartontario.gov.on.ca/scripts/default.asp?contentID=1-5-3

It’s the BOTH parents being entitled to 35 weeks of parental leave we were confused about?!  Dad can take 35 weeks off after mom has been off, as long as it begins BEFORE your child's first birthday.

So once we realized this, everything else just sort of fell into place.  Peter's work was wonderful about the change and even our daycare was fantastic about delaying Rory’s start date. 

So these two get to continue the great time they have been having, and I can’t tell you how awesome that is for the whole family.  This daddy time has been incredibly important and awesome.

It's worth looking into... If you can afford the time and the lack of pay cheque for a few extra weeks.

 

Happy Canada Day!

What a gorgeous weekend!! Even though I suffered with a brutal summer cold for part of it, we did manage to get out and enjoy a lot of the sun and some great time with Peter's family at the cottage.

Isn't sun always the best medicine?

Happy Canada Day and 4th of July to my American friends!

Oh!! And Rory has a brand new gorgeous little cousin! What could make a weekend more special than a beautiful baby girl being born?! We can all hardly wait to meet her!

Welcome to the world little Noa Grace & Congratulations Sarah and Chad.
XO