I've been stuck inside this box shaped box for a week

It's been a busy couple of weeks as we gear up for the move. In all honesty I am exhausted and I've been a mega grouch lately. It seems like we just moved in here and everything is so nice and done and organized. I am having some real problems dealing with the chaos of regular life these days. I can't help it, I love organization. It makes me so happy. I am one of those people that think organizing your sock drawer is a good time and it is way not organized around here, big time! I am going to try VERY hard to go with the flow and try to not let moving into a new space with all sorts of things to get done bug me. I used to love a project and an adventure...maybe that was before I spent a whole year without one good nights sleep.

The one good thing about this is it gives me a chance to get rid of stuff we don't need. Purging junk is the highest form of organization. "Have nothing in your home you know not to be useful or feel is not beautiful" Words to live by....

I dream of Gene-ie

My number one favorite thing about meeting new babies is finding out their names. I consider myself a freelance name-ologist and I find the study of naming trends to be really interesting. Next best is looking at babies and kids and figuring out what parts of their parents they look like. Genetics is fascinating! I love when a kid looks so much like one parent and not at all like the other.
Check out these two;

talk about Mega genes Sandler!
Strangers always tell me that Maude is a mini me, but I really think she is starting to look a lot like Ivan, I have some photo records that really don't support my claims at all.

Here is  a photo of me when I am two with Grandma Lydia (Maude's middlename sake).

And here is Ivan when he was probably around the same age. I realize the sunglasses aren't that helpful, but this is the only photo we have of him!

I realize we kind of have the same hair and eyes, but look at those chubby arms, also I think she has Ivan's nose and mouth and eyebrows (thank the gods!).  Oh genetics magic 8 ball, what does the future hold? Only time will tell my friends, only time will tell.

Love Angel Music Baby

Maude now has an entourage. They seem to care about her as a person, but where were Naima and Barbara when Maude was rolling around on the floor with a screw in her mouth? Sometimes I get the feeling they are just in it for the fame and fancy cars.

The After Party

The dust is finally settling after the holiday/birthday rush. The party was great, but of course I spent too much time hosting and not enough time photo taking. We played some games and learned that Leah and kathryn can pin a mean tail on a Donkey, Branko is a shape sorting wizard, Erin knows her celeb babies and Annie knows every fact about babies in general. What a world wind (as Ivan always says). Good food, vegan cake, and amazing amazing presents by all our thoughtful and talented friends. A big mega thanks goes to Babi for hosting and helping us until midnight on Saturday and all day Sunday. You are an amazing Mom and Grandma! My Mom said to me before she left "you have really nice friends" and she's right. Thanks dudes for being a part of our life, I know little M will learn something great from each of you in her lifetime, I know I have!

Official 12 month photo

I will do a birthday weekend re-cap soon. right now I am too exhausted for words. Here is her official 1 year old picture. (well two)

Then there was you...

We have reached the official birth time of 9:43 pm...12 minutes until the placenta's birthday. It is still in my freezer, I joked about dethawing it and having a birthday for it too.

Feeling much better after my rant yesterday. I realized two things, I get cranky when I haven't exercised in awhile and the one year thing is pretty monumental for me too. It is kind of my birth day anniversary, a year ago today I gave birth after all.

I tried to think of fun things to do today for M that wasn't all about errands for the birthday party, so we went swimming with Jack and G and then out for a hamburger with Kristen and Kyle. It's funny because I was supposed to go to the movies with them on the day I gave birth, so we made up for our date today. Then we went home and I made dinner and pumpkin bread and we re-inacted birth. Ha, ok we didn't do that last part, but we did read through the minutes of our labour, a 4 hour and 22 minutes journey into the outside world.

I could really go on and on about how amazing it is to have a baby and how my life has changed and she has fulfilled me, blah-di-blah and it's all true of course, but I find words can't describe the feeling I get when I hear her giggle or squeeze her chubby legs. It was just us and then one cold day, one year ago, just as it began to snow, there was you. You perfect little being. Thanks for joining us on this adventure. I am so excited to see you grow and learn.

The night before birthday....

M turns the big one tomorrow and I have been thinking a lot about how my life has changed in the last year. I have to admit there have been many moments when I feel like this;

and not really because of the baby, but of all the things that go with it...the slogging, the shlepping. Before baby I was the type of person who was organized. My place was always clean, I had groceries in the fridge, I did yoga every week. I woke up early to go to the gym. I never really combed my hair so i can't blame that on the baby, but I used to accessorize at some point. With winter things have gotten complicated, it's all jackets in car seats and changing diapers in the back seat of said car and spilling poo on the seat and picking it up with your bare hands and unfolding strollers and banging your head on the car doorway, then closing the doors so you can scream outside in frustration and not scare the baby with said screaming.

I know there are way worse things going on in the world and in perspective I have little to complain about, but sometimes you just gotta vent your frustrations or you turn into a crazy anger ball.  Ok, now I can move forward with thinking about all the amazing things that have happened in the last year...To Be Continued....

Good Arts

I have spent the last hour and a half obsessively staring at the Coral and Tusk artwork trying to decide which one is my favorite. I kind of want to get one for M for her birthday. Ok it is also kind of for me since I LOVE them and will enjoy seeing it every day, but come on these things are so reminiscent of snow days and hot chocolate and jumping down the stairs to land in a pile of pillows. Fun kid memories!

I've narrowed it down to these two.....will keep you updated on the final decision....I really have to stop going to Kolkid, it is too dangerous!

Country time and a Happy New Year

We were so lucky to have been invited up to a friend's (thanks Mara!) parents house in the country for a couple days over the break. We always talk about doing a winter break when Mike is home for the holidays, and this year it finally happened! The funny thing about having a baby is that you really have to divide and conquer so it is rare that we have a family photo. Colin agreed to sit in for us in these;

Ivan said he will just photoshop us all together sometime. Highlights of the country include duel fireplaces, duel dogs, amazing food, and sub zero temperatures.

We went on a winter walk, Pepper made it about 15 feet before deciding her place was at home by the fire....

Everyone got so addicted to Instagram that we didn't even need to talk, we just waited to see what everyone was doing by reading the feed. The future is now people.

Communicating with humans is so a thing of the past. Many thanks Ambrose's for inviting us up to your place! The only downside is that I am still sick with the 1000 day virus and it took us 6 hours to get home in 401 traffic.

So here we are on the last day of 2011, a year that was dedicated almost in full to this new little being in our lives, we did it, we survived so far. I love new years, it is a fresh start, a way to say goodbye to the old un-needed habits and hello to all new things. Time to ruminate on what I can do better for myself, my little family, maybe the world if I get really ambitious, but for now I wish the best for the rest of 2011 has to offer for you and yours.

Whoa...Merry Christmas

Now I understand why all the bloggers take a long winters break from blogging over the holidays. It is HECTIC with a capital heck. We did the classic 3 families in 3 cities in 3 days Christmas, but this year we added an entire sick family into the mix. We barely even managed to take our camera out of the bag, hardly capturing baby's first Christmas at all. For shame! M started walking 3 days before the 25th and also is cutting both incisors. She hasn't any other teeth up there so we had this snot nosed zombie vampire walking around...I'll try to get a vid of her walking, it is really hilarious. She kind of looks like a little ape with her chubby belly.

These are mostly instagram pictures since that is all we had time for;

 Here is M at Ivan's mom's in front of the tree....

and passed out with her favorite toy....a cold can of beer.

Apparently we only had time to take pictures of me and Kathryn in wacky glasses at my Mom's.

And just one of M with her uncle Sasha at Ivan's dad's.

Highlights of the holiday include epic amounts of glorious food, a Tripp Trap (thanks Mom!) and Pepper not being eaten by the local coyote that has been attacking dogs in the area. We arrived home safe and sound, but thoroughly exhausted on the 26th evening.  One day to rest up and then off to the country!