Doctor, Doctor gimmie the news

I hate that song.

Lucas and I went for his 9 month check up today. No needles this time so no reason to be anxious. Lucas hasn't gained much weight since last time, which I guess is normal for breastfed babies. The good news is we got the go-ahead to feed Lucas all he likes. I brought up the fact that I was worried about him overeating sometimes, because he never really seems to get full and eats a lot of food for a 9-month old. But apparently he can eat and eat and eat and that's A-OK. As long as he's not spitting it all up mind you, but that has never happened. License to get chubby.

Next time someone I know is pregnant/has a baby, I will be purchasing the book "The Yummy Mummy Manifesto" for them. It is written by an older (40-is?) bohemian-hippie-type mom with a lot of good advice. It is very well written with short little chapters and I have almost read it from cover to cover. It talks about everything from not worrying about the state of your house or the mini-tantrum your child is throwing in public, to the isolation that comes with being at home all day and the resentment that is felt between partners over the sharing of housework/parenting. While I think some of her ideas are a little too hippie-ish for me (she doesn't let any toys into her house that light up or sing the alphabet.....both features on Lucas' new favorite toy, his activity table), most chapters were a great read and very informative and enlightening.

Went for our daily trip to the park and swings this afternoon. Lucas still finds the swings just as exciting and fun as the day before and he loves watching the other kids play in the park. The only thing about the park is that it doesn't take long enough so the afternoons lately are beginning to drag. So we extended our trip today with a stop for a slurpee and a stroll through the mall. Turned out to be a 2 hour outing and Lucas lasted the whole time. He was great today. He is great all days, I guess I should say he was very well behaved today.

Lucas and I have been watching Sesame Street in the mornings and I find it very funny. This probably means I am slowly going crazy....

On a completely unrelated note, I want to make my house look much more stylish but I do not have the funds to do so. I would love to be able to collect vintage teapots, pottery and enamelware to sit on my kitchen shelves, or an amazing wood desk for my computer with lots of drawers for electronic junk. Terry and I have taken to creating our own works of art to hang on our walls, which is fine for small bedroom and bathroom prints, but I would love to purchase a few large prints from an actual artist or photographer. I saw some beautiful prints on canvas by this dude at a craft fair at River Landing this summer that I loved:

http://www.extraordinarylight.com/gallerylinks/Scenic.htm

Again, art is expensive and totally not a necessity right now. Also, our bathroom upstairs is an ugly shade of yellowish-cream and in need of a mini-makeover. I want to do a lavender/chocolate brown/cream palette but I am scared to paint the walls light purple. Purple walls? I don't know if that is going to work and I am no interior designer. Might just go for it and see what happens.

Back to work in three short months....eeeep!

Ahhh the 3 hour nap

I was cursing life when I got up this morning....so incredibly tired...and vowed that I was going to have the most fantastic nap this afternoon during Lucas' nap. Well I am too excited/nervous for my soccer game to nap so I got a lot of stuff done instead.

I was outside weeding the garden (don't worry I wore sunscreen and appropriate clothing this time!) and then came inside to get my soccer stuff together and relax. I even had time to give myself a soccer pedicure (nails cut as short as possible, holding on to each callus for dear life to protect my feet, and a coat of polish to cover up my uggggly big toenails that have fallen out too many times from soccer) oh and of course shave my legs....you know...so that I am faster on the field. Riggght....

And now I even have time to blog!! 3 hour naps are the best.

Lucas is an eating machine. We picked up his Grandma this morning and went to Wal Mart and then McDonald's for lunch to try their new salads (very yummy). My mom convinced me to order a hamburger for Lucas. Funniest thing ever. He must have heard me when I said that we won't be coming to McDonalds too often and he probably won't come back for a long time. He gobble-gobbled up almost the whole burger. What a little porker. All the excitement/eating must have tired him out.

I must admit that when Lucas wakes me up at 630 am and has been up 3 times that night, when I go to pick him up I am thinking "Lucas we are totally not buddies right now do not even try to look all cute at me". It takes me until I am eating breakfast and he is looking up at me with his new crinkly-nose smile and then we are buddies again. I'm sure babies have built in cuteness as a survival feature. That and the fact that they need more sleep than their parents.....keeps everyone from going crazy.

I am reading this book that I got from the library (Terry must be rubbing off on me, I haven't borrowed a book from the library since I was in elementary school) called 'The Yummy Mummy Manifesto' that I would highly recommend to anyone who is expecting or recently had a baby. It would make a really nice gift. It's kind of an advice-type book but with a very laid back approach.

Soccer!

Things are starting to get a bit crazy around here. Soccer is really starting to take over my life right now. Provincials are coming up this weekend so our team is gearing up for that. We have to win provincials in order to compete in nationals which Saskatoon is hosting this Thanksgiving. We should win with no problem, but there is always that added stress/pressure just in case we don't.

My body is not what it used to be. I blame Lucas. I hurt in places that I never hurt before. But at the same time it is awesome playing really competitively again. I forgot how much I love it. I am playing an entirely new position so my head has to be on a swivel at every moment or else I will be in big trouble. Soccer soccer soccer. I think about the mistakes I make in our games before I go to bed. Consuming my brain right now.

Lucas just fell asleep for his morning nap on his own, no feeding or crying. Wahoo!!! I used to be really good about putting him down this way, but kind of got into a bad habit of always feeding him before he went to sleep. Which totally worked to put him to bed, but I was starting to worry that he was becoming dependent on it to sleep. Got to get back into good habits or else. Or else what you ask? Or else I might be up 3 times a night for the rest of eternity. Had one night like that this past week and that was enough.

Lucas is totally not interested in learning to crawl. He sees a toy out of his reach and then goes for something closer. Oh well, the less moving the less chance of him hurting himself. Soon enough he'll be motoring all over causing all kinds of trouble. Off to shower while Lucas is napping and hopefully blow dry my hair for the first time in about a week. What a treat to be able to get ready uninterrupted. Picture of Lucas watching Sesame Street.

Summer Holidays

I have heard that in order to write a "successful" blog you should stick to one topic and make frequent, brief and well-written entries. My last entry was probably over two weeks ago, I blog about lots of things and I did not take journalism/web publishing in school. Turns out I am doomed to be a blog failure.

Alas....

I finally feel like I am on holidays. I know, I have been on holidays for about 8 months now, but these past couple of weeks finally feel like mat leave should. Maybe because Terry was on holidays to enjoy some time off together, or maybe because the weather is finally awesome. For the first week of Terry's holidays he was crazy busy painting the interior of our house, something that was long overdue. It looks amazing, what a difference paint makes. So much work for one person though, poor Terry.

Then we headed to Calgary for our "summer vacation" to visit Terry's brother and his wife. Vacations with babies are stressful. Especially teething ones. At least Lucas cut his second tooth, so we have something to show for those couple of days of crankiness. This was around about the time that Lucas also turned into a big suck. He screamed whenever I would try to hand him off to someone else and is starting to turn into quite the mama's-boy. It was cute for probably the first two times, but now I just want a minute to maybe eat some supper or get dressed.

I never know what to do when someone else is holding him and he starts to fuss. Do I offer to take him back because no one probably wants to hold a crying baby? Or does that seem like 'ok give me my baby back now, you clearly have no idea what you're doing'? I was explaining to Terry one day that hearing Lucas cry makes me feel like someone is running their fingernails down a chalkboard inside me and all I want is for him to stop. I am a bundle of nerves inside until he calms down. And he doesn't even cry that much or that loudly, so I'm not sure why I feel that way. Must be an instinct or something.

The highlight of our Calgary trip for me, was pushing Lucas in the baby swing at the park. He loved loved loved it. So funny. I guess that is one of the joys of having kids, seeing how something so simple can make them so happy.

Amy is here visiting for a week, which is super awesome and another reason why I feel like I'm on holidays. Lots of visiting and family. My Grandpa's 90th birthday was this past weekend and my Mom's whole family came home for it. It was so great to see everyone and we had a lot of fun in Harris at the party. Going back to Harris brought back a lot of childhood memories of visiting Grandma and Grandpa Stevens. Grandma would always slip us some money and tell us to go down to the cafe for some fries and a Tahiti Treat. And I remember Grandpa taking us for rides in the truck through the sandhills at dusk to see the whitetail deer. I probably won't be back again for a long time, if ever.