Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Officially Homeless

So today Dave and I FINALLY finished moving out and super-cleaning our house. Or should I say "our former house?" Yesterday and today were made a bit more insane by the fact that both Sam and Rachel woke up with colds yesterday. And Dave had an eye appointment, with minor laser surgery, yesterday morning. Yerghks :()

Anyways, Sam started feeling a little better so Auntie Marcia took him to the park with Olivia, Auntie Jenelle and Auntie Sheri. Then Sam napped there. Thank you aunties. Rachel watched Baby Einstein and napped and fussed. Dave and I packed and did some cleaning.

Then we arrived at Uncle Kim, Auntie Jacqui, Alliah and Seth's house. It was lovely to be here. We had an awesome supper of baked potatoes with toppings. Rachel ate eggs, broccoli and tomato. Sam ate bacon. I ate two helpings. Then Sam and Seth played and Dave, Rachel and I went back to our house to get fridge stuff.

The kids were not wanting to go to bed, Sam eventually fell asleep with Dave in our bed and Rachel eventually fell asleep on Uncle Kim's lap while watching election results. Thankfully the Wild Rose party did not do as well as expected. This is the only time (except when I was 18 and wanted Kim Campbell to win so she could be Canada's first female prime minister and she did) that I will be excited about a PC win.

Today Alison graciously took both our kids and Dave I cleaned like mad people. We got it all done in about four hours! Yay!!! So here is a look at our (former) house now.

I obsessively raked our lawn before we left and
Dave picked up the leaves with some gloves he found in the shed.

Here are our tulips. As usual we won't see them bloom this year.
sigh...

Here are Dave and Rachel inviting you into our empty house.
Really, I just wanted a picture of our house number.

Here is our empty living room.

Here is our empty kitchen.
With its super-clean stove and fridge.
Thanks Dave!

Here is the mural in Sam's room.
This wall is being knocked down so
we didn't have to paint over the mural.

Here are Sam, Dave and Rachel in our empty bedroom.
Sam really enjoyed running into the closets
and yelling, "Hello!"

Here is a last (sad?) picture of our empty bathroom

So that's the story of us moving out of our house. Now we are at Uncle Kim and Auntie Jac's and it is like a little slice of heaven in the midst of our moving craziness. And I need to go to bed. Tomorrow we get to resume a little of our normal life in Edmonton without dealing with moving chaos-- Kindermusik, out for lunch with Marcia, Olivia and Gavin, and supper with Twiebe.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Moving Out and Voting Day

Today we are moving out of our home where
we have lived for the past four and a half years.

Today Albertans are voting for a new provincial government.

Today is a day of change for many people.

Today I am not doing a proper blog post so this will have to suffice.

Today Rachel Chodos is NOT hoping to renew her MLA seat.
(ps. Rachel Notley is!)

Saying Good-byes and Dear Friends

Today we said good-bye to some people. Hannah, Jeremy, Stella, Mia, Teresa, Trevor and Deanna -- we will miss you :( Strathcona Library, Save-On at 78th and Calgary Trail, we will miss you :( Of course it's much harder saying good-bye to people than places. But today was our last errand-y walk in Old Strathcona ever. It's hard to imagine what our new errand-y walks in KW will look like.

After we got back from our walk, we were waiting outside for Sheri to bring us supper. Have I mentioned before that my New Mom's friends have been feeding us this entire past week??? Every other night we have gotten a yummy meal of some sort -- polenta lasagne from Jenelle, quiche and pumpkin muffins from Marcia, chana masala with spicy sauces from Alison, fish and rice and dill sauce and salad from Lisa, and tonight meatballs and veggies and rice and garlic bread and chocolate covered strawberries and our favourite drinks (Coke for me and Dave, apple juice for Sam) from Sheri. What amazing friends I have. (And I have been especially grateful for these meals since I ate one of our frozen meals the other day and it was gross. tasteless. cardboard.)

Anyways as we were waiting Dave took these pictures of Rachel and I. I will end this post with them because tomorrow is a busy day of final moving out to Kim and Jacqui and Alliah and Seth's, and cleaning up and taking stuff to various places -- Once Upon A Child, ValueVillage, cloth recycling, etc. So enjoy these pictures.







Sunday, April 22, 2012

Going More Minimalist By The Day

So today our piano and kitchen table and chairs left us. Also some very very very old letters :) We were gone for a bit this morning so I didn't get a picture of the piano movers taking our piano but it's very exciting to see carpet we haven't seen for the past four years! Ha ha ha :)

Then our kitchen table and chairs left us so we ate supper on the floor! Sam is sitting "inside" the "table area" because he was facing his place mat. We turned his place mat around (it was upside down!) and then he sat on the outside like the rest of us. Smart kid! Rachel took everything in stride and just ate about an eighth of a quiche. Sam ate the crusts and some crackers. sigh.

Tonight we went to vote. (Sam decided he was going to vote too. "Who are you voting for?" "Sam!" Good choice.) Then we came home and burned some of the many letters I have received over the past twenty-five years. This is a lot of history people!

Sam was very excited about the fire and Rachel took everything in from her exersaucer. We didn't get them all burned so tomorrow is more fire! Whoo exciting :)

And as of today all our extra food is gone, Dave is disassembling the bassinet, and we also burned our old, falling apart shoe rack. You can see the pieces which Dave literally karate kicked apart (!!!) in the picture of the fire on the left.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another exciting moving out post. I bet you can't wait!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Unexpected

Today we went to the John Janzen Nature Centre with our New Mom's friends. Sam had an excellent time running around the huge play structure and Rachel, Gavin, Megan and Simone all stole each other's toys. Except for one time when Simone was crying and Megan, Rachel and Gavin were all looking at her like, "What's your problem?" It made me laugh.

Then we broke for lunch and it was crazy and fun. And just as I was about to try and take some pictures...

...Sam threw up three times in a row. Blerghks :() And the smell of his puke was making me gag so wonderful Auntie Sheri cleaned him up and I carried him to the washroom to get him a little cleaner and Alison and Marcia lent some spare clothes they had and I dressed Sam. (I finally stopped carrying an extra set of clothes for Sam because I haven't needed them in months and I decided to lighten my diaper bag load. Go figure!).

Anyways, Sam was sad to not be able to play and I was sad to have to leave and Rachel was still in a fine mood. And we got home and Sam was happy as a lark, although I convinced him to have a nap and he slept for two hours. I'm hoping he was just too full and it wasn't actually a flu thing because he seems fine now.

Tonight was a potluck at TBO and last month there were about sixty people there and it was insane. Today they prepared a bit better for it and then there were about twelve people there and we all brought salads or dessert. Ha! So Felix ran out and got pizzas and it ended up being a lovely evening.

Rachel talked and danced through the whole service part of the potluck and Sam went in his pajamas because we couldn't convince him to get dressed. But he ate just fine (which is why I don't think he's sick) and had a blast. And Francie and the rabbi said some very nice things since this is our last TBO weekend.

So today didn't go exactly how we thought it might but it was lovely nonetheless. Except for the part where Sam threw up.

And a huge thank you to all the New Mom's moms for helping us out in the midst of the unexpected. And for taking all of our strawberry freezer jam :)

ps. Because of the puking there are no pictures for this post. sigh.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Sam Delivers School Kits

So today we followed up and delivered three school kits to MCC, which was Sam's choice for donating half of his toonies from his birthday party. I think he enjoyed doing it and the volunteers called the manager of the Edmonton MCC Thrift Store to accept his donation.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Busy Day in Edmonton

Today was just a random, somewhat typical, busy Edmonton day. I decided last night to document today because I knew it would be full of things that weren't normally all that special, but might be the last time we do some of this stuff here.

Sam decided that the couch needed stickers so he kept himself entertained before Kindermusik by decorating it! Ha ha ha!

Then we stopped at Empress Bakery to buy our normal bread, whole wheat toast. We have bought bread there for the past three or so years and I am going to miss it sooooo much :( The woman working there thought I was weird when I asked if I could take a picture but I wanted to remember it!

Then we headed off to Sherwood Park for Kindermusik with Olivia and Gavin.

After Kindermusik we stopped at Wal-Mart to buy a birthday present for one of Sam's friends. We are going to miss her actual birthday but we wanted to leave a present anyways.

Then we came home for a quick lunch and then headed off to Shopper's to get our mail forwarded for the next few months and to get some travel sized baby shampoo and contact lens solution. Then we stopped at Textures so I could get my bangs trimmed. Vivian nicely thinned out the rest of my hair too so now I don't have to get a haircut for awhile. Yay!

Then we stopped at Beaner's so Sam could get a haircut. Sam wanted spikes and colour so he got to have blue.

And we found out they give adult cuts, so since Sam opined this morning that Dave's hair "was looking dive-y" (whatever that means), Dave got a haircut too, although he didn't get a cool chair to sit in like Sam did.

And we bought a flower headband for Miss Rachel, which she tore to pieces fifteen minutes later in the car -- boo :(

Then we all went over to Marcia and Jason's to watch Olivia and Gavin for a little bit. Rachel and Gavin hung out...


...while Sam, Olivia and I looked at the New Mom's book. As a surprise for Sam and I, Marcia made a New Mom's photo book on picaboo. She got pictures from everyone and Marcia, Jenelle and Sheri also have copies. I cried so much when we first opened it and I LOVE IT. It is such a special gift.

Both kids fell asleep on the way home so I need to go wake them up soon. Tonight will be full of dishes and folding laundry and getting ready for another busy day tomorrow.

Random April Videos

Here are some videos I wanted to share from the past few weeks. Enjoy!



ps. Mom, this post was just for you! :)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Ten Months!

Rachel Roo -- ten months old are you!
(A short poem starting with your nickname from Daddy.)
This has been a month of change, Change, CHANGE.
You gained a whole pound this month! Yes, you weigh 15lbs, 9.5ozs and you are 27 1/4" tall. You have finally doubled your birth weight, something the experts like babies to do by about six months :) You are in size 2 diapers, size 6-12 month clothes and we have moved you into 12 month sleepers. They seem to fit you just fine.

You are sleeping okay. You have slept through the night a couple of times this past month but sometimes you still wake up two or three times a night. You are starting to complain a lot again when we put you in your bassinet. I think you just don't like to miss any of the action!

You still nap about two hours after you wake up but it's usually a shorter nap. I think soon you will only have one nap a day. Your daytime sleep has been a little messed up these past few weeks but I think that's because we are moving and everything is all chaotic. We'll see what kind of a schedule you are on when I write your eleven month post.

You now have seven teeth -- four on the top and three on the bottom. A lot of people comment on how many teeth you have and you have the greatest toothy smile :)

For breakfast you eat a banana with plain yogurt. For lunch we are using up the last of the pre-made food cubes I made over the winter, or sometimes avocado and cottage cheese. For supper we just feed you what we're eating. We gave our food grinder away so you just eat smaller pieces of what we eat. This solid food thing goes so quickly! We have introduced you to Cheerios and you like them but not as much as your puffs! You like feeding yourself and it's fun to watch you eat. You get a bottle or two of cow's milk a day and when Mommy isn't around at bedtime Daddy has no problem putting you down with a bottle of milk.

You still nurse quite often but you get very distracted and look around a lot. You also nurse a lot quicker too. Mommy doesn't like nursing you as much anymore because you think it's a big joke to bite me. Not funny Miss Rachel -- even though you always give a little giggle when you do it.
You talk all the time now Rachel! B, D, A, and Y seem to be your favourite sounds. We think we've heard you say "opa", "daddy", and "hi" but we don't know for sure. You don't say anything with much regularity. You wave bye-bye a lot, and shake your head "no no no" and you learned to clap this month too! Today we taught you to put your hands on your head when we say "Oh my goodness!" We taught your older brother Sam the same thing when he was about your age. You are so proud of all your tricks :)

You also started discovering that you can walk holding onto someone's hands and you are getting quite good at it, and you're not crawling yet, but you are oh so close! You move around on the floor and I'm not sure exactly how you do it :) Today you also stood unassisted at Auntie Marcia's for about five whole seconds! Yay you!!!

You've spent lots of time with other people this month while Mommy and Daddy got packing done -- Auntie Tasha and Jenn, Uncle Kim and Auntie Jacqui, Auntie Jenelle and Auntie Sheri. They all said you were very well behaved and Auntie Jenelle said you and Megan liked playing together. I don't worry as much when I leave you with some one. After we picked you up at Uncle Kim and Auntie Jacqui's, you reached for me and then waved 'bye-bye' -- it was so funny!

I can't believe you are ten months old already Miss Rachel. You have changed so much this month and I just want you to slow down a little bit. But we love you Rachel and can't wait to see what you learn in the next month!