Baby sister in the house

Baby girl Morgan (2 days old)

Um, yah so having a baby the second time is as mind blowing as the first time. That said, it was definitely easier this time. For all my worrying and anxiety most things went better than they did three years ago when Maya was born. Morgan is amazing, healthy and thriving. We love her to bits!

Today I came home from the hospital (Morgan was born on Friday). Coming home on Halloween is definitely not ideal. Maya had a party at her preschool, Morgan had some blood work and an ultrasound (more about that later…), then when we picked Maya up after school she had to eat dinner, get in her costume, go trick-or-treating as well as adjust to the fact that there’s a new baby sister in the house absorbing everyone’s (especially mom’s) attention. She was pretty good about everything, but it was still nuts! I was exhausted, Chad’s still fighting a sinus cold and my mom is here helping us through this whole transition.

My hubby and I feel like we’ve turned Maya’s whole world up side down–oh the guilt! But, the reality is that she doesn’t understand how much her life has really changed. We adults, on the other hand, are feeling totally overwhelmed as we consider how to deal with Maya, her behaviour towards her sister and where to place limits for her. Don’t get me wrong, she’s totally being sweet, there’s just so much that she doesn’t understand about how to treat a newborn as well as how to react to the inevitable shift in attention.

I was so worried about how I’d manage taking care of a newborn and a toddler, that I forgot to ask: how do you help an older sibling adjust to the change from being an only child to being a sibling? Suggestions are welcome!

how not to get eaten

Rottie: Looks friendly doesn't it?

We have new neighbours. They just finished building the last house in our cul-de-sac. The people who moved into this gargantuan house are actually part of the development company; they were partners in the purchasing and building of my entire neighbourhood. They’re “well-off” and they have lots of friends here–they convinced loads of people they know from the construction industry to buy and build houses here. They moved into this big new house with their three adult children whose ages range from 19 to 30. The 19-year-old has an 8-month-old rottweiler puppy. We’re busy these days trying not to get eaten by the rottweiler.

I have nothing against dogs, I actually really love dogs, especially large dogs; I grew up with big dogs. This puppy, however, is aggressive and untrained and since the new house does not yet have a completely fenced yard, and the owners don’t watch it, the dog has been roaming the neighbourhood for the past month, doing its business on our lawn and on the lawns of all the houses around us. That’s not such a big deal, although it’s a nuisance. The bigger issue is that this also means the dog has “marked its territory” EVERYWHERE and so seems to think that our entire cul-de-sac is it’s domain. Fact: rottweilers are territorial. So, when I’m outside on my own property the dog approaches me, barks and growls at me, and acts in ways that make me wonder if it’s going to charge at me and eventually bite. Often the dog behaves this way as it roams the neighbourhood unsupervised (almost every day) and I’m holding my 22-month-old daughter in my arms. This is alarming. The dog wants to bite us, I’m quite certain.

We spoke to the dog owners twice about our concerns and they assured us that their fence is almost finished being built and that as soon as they get their gates up (whenever that will be??), there will be no more problems. Meanwhile, the dog has continued its aggressive behaviours and continues to roam the neighbourhood and I’ve actually started to become afraid of a dog for the first time in my life.

Since they’ve pretty much ignored our requests to stop their dog from trying to eat us, my husband decided to call animal control to issue a warning that they’re going to be fined if this continues. This was done on Friday. Then, all weekend I saw and overheard their friends on our street, talking in their driveways about the fact that we’d called by-law enforcement over this issue. So many people are friends of the developer and so I could hear them defending this dog and bad-mouthing us for our actions.

Today is Sunday (less than 48 hours after the warning was issued) and the dog was out yet again barking and growling at my husband while he was unloading his car today. My husband spoke to the 19-year-old owner of the dog who simply said “maybe the dog doesn’t like you” and marched off. My angry husband was going to call animal control again, but I convinced him to wait and let me talk to them one more time, because I don’t want them to get a big fine… although I’m beginning to wonder why I even care what they think.

In an effort to reason with unreasonable people, I tried one last time to talk to them. I knocked on the door and the mother of the 19-year-old boy spoke to me and was angry that we had called animal control. I explained to her what was going on from our perspective and that we’d tried to talk to them but felt that they weren’t responding. She insisted that they just needed a few days until their gate arrived so the dog could be kept in their newly fenced yard. I asked that the dog be kept on a leash and she said that dog cannot be controlled on a leash… to which I can only respond: WTF!?

In the end, I cried a bit (because that usually works, and because she was kind of yelling at me) and I asked that the dog not be left out unsupervised until they have a closed yard. She “agreed” and her son was nearby to hear this. Hopefully, they will listen, hopefully someone isn’t going to get hurt. And I thought my last neighbours were bad…

finding a moment

Today I rushed home from work, got Maya from daycare, picked up groceries, started dinner, and ran off to yoga class right after my husband walked in the door. When I got home Maya was in bed, the food was put away (leftovers for lunch) and it was time to eat my late dinner and go to bed. In a way, going off to yoga makes my life crazier. It means I hardly see the rest of my family all day and I don’t get home until late and without two of us to hold down the fort, things are inevitably a little behind in the house (i.e. dishes and laundry). But I’ve learned that if I don’t go and take the time to give myself what I need (which is usually physical exercise in some form), I’ll go a little nuts and eventually totally freak out at the fact that I’ve not had a moment to myself for a long long time. So, attention working moms: get your “ME time”, no matter what it takes. If it helps you survive the crazy rat race of life as a working mom, it’s worth it.

backsplash

When we bought this house, it was a spec. home, which means it was nice and new but they had cut corners in lots of places and didn’t do all the upgrades that we would have chosen if we’d had the chance to give some input before the house was complete. So, we’ve been slowly adding some features like a central vacuum system, ceiling fans, and some paint. We’re lucky because both my father and my father-in-law are mechanically inclined so they can do the labour for most jobs.

With my dad in town, we decided to ask him to help us add a tile backsplash and new faucet to our kitchen. Here’s the before pics of the kitchen:

Please ignore the mess of dishes on the counter!

Here’s a preview of the tile we chose:We wanted to do Italian glass, but we found most of the colour choices that matched our decor to be too dark, so we chose a combo of travertine tile and glass with both matte and glossy finishes.

The guys got to work early Saturday morning. Here are some in progress pics:

We were kind of nervous that it was too busy and too dramatic a change. Here it is in the middle (pre-grout):

Then they started adding the grout… which kind of calmed it down a bit.

And an extra little strip along our counter by the phone and breakfast bar:

And finally, the finished result:

It’s a huge change from what we had before, but we’re really happy with it. Thanks Dad, you did an amazing job!

Oh yes, and the new faucet is finally installed (it was a house warming gift when we moved in many months ago):

We spend a LOT of time in the kitchen these days. We sit at the breakfast bar when we’re eating most of the time and our computer is usually there too. Needless to say we’re really enjoying the new decor.

the return

Lately, every time I leave the house to run an errand I seem to forget something I really need. This is especially bad when I have other people with me to distract me from my purpose (and I am very easily distracted!). The result is that I drive down my driveway, around the corner and onto the main road when I realize that I have forgotten something and I have to go back home. Sometimes there are two or three things that I have left behind which results in my return to the house two or three times. I feel like senility is setting in. My neighbors, if they’re watching, must think I am totally nuts!

Add to this problem the fact that my totally manic mother, along with my much more mellow father, are in town visiting. My dad and my husband were working on a kitchen reno, which I’m going to post about soon! My mom and I were running out to get some important stuff for the guys to help them complete their project and by the time we got down the driveway, around the corner and onto the main road, I realized that I’d forgotten one of the things we needed. The conversation that ensued was as follows:

Me: Oh shit, I forgot the lightbulb. I always do this, we have to go back. (turning the car around)

Mom: (laughter)

Me: I feel like Blair

Mom: Who?

Me: You know that principal at your old school who used to always come back to work 50 times after he’d left because he always forgot something. We used to laugh at him from the staff room windows.

Mom: (serious laughter)

Me: What? What’s so funny?

Mom: His name is Blaine.

Me: Oh great, now I’m really losing it, I can’t even remember the name of the forgetful guy who I’m like.

Running and running

Now that Maya is practically walking, I feel like I am constantly on the go. I rush around trying to keep up with her, I play with her, and I stop her from killing herself about 500 times per day. When she naps (twice a day for at least an hour at a time-thank god!) I do some combination of the following: take a shower, do the dishes, do the laundry, wash the table, clean up toys, pay bills, make food (either baby food or adult food), eat, unpack moving boxes, or nap too because I’m so darn tired from running around like a maniac all day. This leads me to worry, especially because in about 3 weeks I’m going back to work full-time. Someone please tell me how I’m going to continue to keep up the house and have time for Maya AND work full-time?? Right now I honestly can’t fathom how I’m going to manage it all… what have I gotten myself into?!

Deficiencies

The house we bought is brand new; we are the first home owners. Except for one thing: our house was used as a show home for several months before we bought it. This means that there was a little wear and tear. So, we did a deficiencies walk-through prior to the close of sale and we made a list of things for the builders to remedy. They did most of it, but the annoying thing is that I keep finding new things. They’re little things, but annoying… like the missing screen in our kitchen window, the sticky door handle in the laundry room, the snag in the carpet on the stairs, the nicks in the walls, the paint splotches on the tile… the list goes on. The developer is happy to help solve these problems but it makes me feel like one of those annoying nit-picky terrible people who has to have everything perfect. Wait, maybe I AM one of those people?! I feel like it anyway! But, after all, this is a new house. Is it so outrageous to want it to feel new?

Moved!

There has been a serious gap in my posting due to the fact that I’ve had to pack up the contents of my house into tiny boxes and move. We did it. We survived. It feels good to be in the new place. But I must say that I don’t know how we would ever have done it without help! So many people helped us. My husband’s best friend works at an electronics manufacturing plant and he collected empty boxes for us to use–did you know how expensive moving boxes are? He saved us hundreds of dollars. Then there were the friends and family members who watched Maya while we packed and especially my mother-in-law and her husband who came here on moving day to look after Maya and help with the unpacking. Life would have been impossible without their help. So, thank you to everyone!

Our new house is about 500 square feet bigger than our old house. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? Well, for us, the difference seems immense right now and we are really enjoying our new space. We have a great new neighbourhood. It’s still a construction zone around here because we’re living in a suburban development that isn’t quite finished. But, all the neighbours are friendly, and despite the construction, it’s much quieter than the busy road in front of our old house. Well… except for the lot they’ve been clearing today–there have been tree fallers with chainsaws outside for hours. That said, it’s only temporary. Once the construction is complete we will have a beautiful quiet place to live. I hope not to move again for a VERY long time!

sold!

After much stress and anticipation we sold our house for a price that we’re actually quite happy with (although the sale won’t be official until next week when all the conditions come off). The only problem is that we don’t have a new house yet, and we only have 2 months to find one… well really less than 2 months because we need time for the deal to close on the new house. So, my hubby and I are house hunting like crazy but we’re just not finding the right place for us. It’s soooo frustrating! The market is winding down now that summer is coming to an end, and there just isn’t as much out there as there was before. Add to that the fact that I’m leaving town for the next 2 weeks or so… I’m starting to think we’re going to have to rent and wait until the spring when there’s more to choose from. I refuse to buy a house out of desperation! That said, I’m feeling rather desperate. Moving twice in the span of a few months with a baby wouldn’t be fun, and one of those moves might be while I’m working full-time too (since I go back to work in a few months). Ahhhhhh!

Road Trip Gone Bad, Turns Good

My husband, 7 month old baby girl Maya, and I decided to take a road trip from our home in beautiful Vancouver Island, BC to a vacation resort near Columbia Falls, Montana. We had plans to stop and visit various friends & relatives along the way in Penticton and Kimberley, BC. The drive to Montana started out okay and turned into a disaster and I’m still working on finishing the post that I’m writing about it. Because the drive with the baby was so rough, we decided to take a different route home and stop at my parents’ place just outside of Calgary (Okotoks, AB), then drive home on the trans-canada, stopping at a hotel in Revelstoke, BC to break the drive up into shorter stints. Well, when I got to my parents’ house I’d had more than enough of trying to keep my poor daughter happy in her car seat for long stretches of time, and both my husband and I were dreading two more days in the car with the baby who was getting fussier and fussier–and she’s almost never fussy on a day-to-day basis. I also wanted a longer visit with my friends and family back home, so I decided to stay at my parents’ house for a week and then fly back, while my sweet husband offered to drive back solo (he had to get back to work and couldn’t stay longer with us). Well, it turned out to be one of the best visits I’ve had here in a long time. I actually hadn’t brought the baby to my parents’ house before. It was great. My mom made the house super baby friendly. Then, loads of friends loaned us various baby gadgets like an exersaucer, jolly jumper and bumbo seat. My mom shopped at a local food market and bought all kinds of organic fruits and vegetables which allowed me to make the most wonderful fresh baby food for my little girl, and I got to visit everyone who hadn’t had the chance to meet little Maya thus far. I am going home tomorrow. While I miss my husband and am looking forward to being in my own house again (even though it’s still up for sale–ugh),  I am sad to leave my hometown and close friends and family. Everyone has been so great this past week and I’ve enjoyed every minute of my stay here! Thanks everyone, we’ll see you in September!