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.