On Sunday we headed up to Northern Ontario (ok, just Aurora) for the baptism of my favourite nephew. It was a gorgeous sunny day. Because the baptism was at 1:30 and the church doesn't really take nap times into consideration, we were really not sure how things were going to go. I could have gone over to the house with the kids, but there was no telling if Felix would have gone down for his nap in another location (it has been hard enough at home lately) and since the house is not quite toddler-proof yet and I would be alone with the 2 we thought the best option would be to take the un-napped toddler to church.
Thankfully, Wilbert was immediately taken off my hands to happily nap in the arms of Grandma. Felix was overtired and somewhat shy initially of all of the relatives coming over to hug and kiss and pinch his cheeks. The service started and I took what I thought would be a strategic location on the edge of the pew for a quick getaway if need be.
The baptism was for about 20 kids, so it was all friends and family in the congregation and no mass. The priest talked about how it was ok for kids to cry in church and to make noise and how families should feel welcome and not intimidated (I was grateful for this speech later).
I kept Felix somewhat occupied for about 3 minutes with the toys I'd brought and the juice and snacks. He then decided he wanted to "balance" on the pews. He was quite interested in what was going on up front "oooooh, look mommy, WATER!" and slowly made his way to the steps where he at first quietly sat...and then gradually realized that he could jump off them and make a satisfying thud sound. Eventually he ended up front with Daddy who was busy with his godfather duties. When everyone clapped for the newly baptised at the end of the service, Felix was front and centre clapping and smiling...yes...we are that family. And by "that family" I'm thinking The Griswald's.
Other than our contribution, it was a beautiful service and my BIL and SIL hosted a lovely family gathering at their house after with vast quanitites of delicious meat, beer, and cookies...it was an awesome afternoon!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Dance Party Wake-up
Felix is an early riser. When he was in a crib this was easier to handle, but now that he has the freedom of the toddler bed he has discovered that he can sneak into our room.
I have woke up to a variety of ridiculous situations such as Felix having crawled in between us without waking us up, Felix at the end of our bed peeping into Wilbert's bassinette, Felix entering our room with all of his supplies (stuffed animal, blankie, 2 soothers, water bottle).
The funniest occured yesterday morning when I woke up to hear my alarm radio going off (and being confused as I haven't had to set it in a long time). I rolled over to look at it and I see Felix with a huge smile on his face dancing harder than I've ever seen him dance and telling me "I WAKE UP!!" Despite our plans to not laugh and take him back to his room when this occurs...I couldn't help myself from laughing so hard I cried.
I have woke up to a variety of ridiculous situations such as Felix having crawled in between us without waking us up, Felix at the end of our bed peeping into Wilbert's bassinette, Felix entering our room with all of his supplies (stuffed animal, blankie, 2 soothers, water bottle).
The funniest occured yesterday morning when I woke up to hear my alarm radio going off (and being confused as I haven't had to set it in a long time). I rolled over to look at it and I see Felix with a huge smile on his face dancing harder than I've ever seen him dance and telling me "I WAKE UP!!" Despite our plans to not laugh and take him back to his room when this occurs...I couldn't help myself from laughing so hard I cried.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Felix @ 2
Dear Felix,
Yesterday you turned 2 years old! We can't believe how much you have learned in the past year. You started out by toddling to walking with confidence, to attempting to jump (but not getting off the ground), to leaping off rocks and tree stumps, to climbing at the playground without fear, to running and yelling "I'M RUNNING!"
Speaking of talking, you went from knowing all your animal noises to saying something that sounded like "backhoe" to delivering full sentences including very interesting ones such as "NO MOMMY, TIME OUT ON THE COUCH!" or "I love you!" or "I like chicken nuggets. Yummy good! No, not yummy...GOOD!"
Your jokes have moved from peek a boo to almost being able to tell a knock knock joke. You can count to ten and sing various songs with actions including "Wheels on the Bus", "Twinkle Twinkle", "ABC", "Rolly Poly", "Happy Birthday" and "No More Monkeys"...but your recent favourite seems to be one with lyrics written by your father to the tune of "Are You Sleeping":
Poopy Diaper Poopy Diaper
Clean My Bum, Clean my bum
Thank you mommy-daddy, thank you mommy-daddy
Let's have fun. Let's have fun!
You've made me chuckle when you tell the lady at the coffee shop "Thank you! Mommy beer" when I was 9 months pregnant. And giggle when we turn down High Park Ave and you see all the trees and shout out "COTTAGE!" (alternatively you yell out "COTTAGE!" when we turn into the LCBO parking lot).
You love your dog Elbow and your little Ele-punt and your penguin named Pingu. You love playing with your tools, helping your Dad build and fix things, "cooking", and looking at my coffee and telling me that it is brown. Yes, you know most of your colours and many shapes. You've been a big brother for 3 weeks and have shown no jealousy, just interest, and you've been very helpful and gentle to little Wilbert.
At your birthday party on the weekend, we brought out your Owl shaped birthday cake and your eyes got very wide. As we sang you happy birthday, you grinned from ear to ear. We all said "Hurray" at the end and clapped and you LOVED IT! I will never forget the look of pure joy on your face.
Happy birthday, dear Felix.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Wilbert's Birth Story
Wilbert's birth was...well, I don't have the words for it...perfect/fast/wonderful/relaxed/easy/difficult/tiring/perfect!
Wednesday was a normal day and I didn't suspect anything was happening. I got up at 6:30 with Felix, took him to daycare, did some housework, started a huge roast beef in the slow cooker, had a nice shower, drove downtown and picked up Stephen from work, went to see the midwives (who told me I was at 3 cms, but it could be another day or two), greeted our new tenants who were moving into the rental house, picked up Felix from daycare, ate big roast beef supper, played with Felix after supper, read him stories, put him to bed.
Stephen was finally feeling as though his rental house duties were almost done and suggested we call a neighbour to come over and watch our tv while we took some time together and go for a nice long walk around the neighbourhood. It was a gorgeous evening and we held hands walking around Parkdale, looking at people's houses, talking about the future, etc. We stopped in at our neighbours for a quick visit and joked about me jumping up and down to start labour. I was already planning the groceries I needed to buy the next day and the pre-baby jobs I wanted to get done. (4 days overdue and I wasn't worried anything was happening).
When we got home around 9pm we put on pj's and settled in front of the tv. As soon as I lay down I started feeling pretty crampy. I went upstairs to have a bath and in the bath I realized pretty quickly that these cramps were contractions and went downstairs in my towel to ask Stephen to start timing them. They felt pretty strong and I realized quickly that I wasn't going to bed (even though I was exhausted) and that I better quickly find some energy reserves because I had a feeling this baby was coming suddenly and quickly!
The contractions were 3 minutes apart as soon as Stephen started timing them and 30-40 seconds long. With Felix, my contractions never got longer than that so we paged the midwife and called Stephen's mom and asked her to get down here ASAP. The midwife arrived at our house and confirmed that we were indeed having a baby that night and that I was now 5 cms. She suggested we move over to the hospital while we still could (if that was still my plan). This was around 10:30pm.
Stephen then packed my hospital bag (did I mention I wasn't quite ready) and installed the infant car seat. I encouraged him to get our neighbour, Ned, to come over and hang out here until Sue arrived because the contractions were getting even stronger. We were going to walk the 3 blocks over to the hospital, but the midwife called and asked us to drive in case my water broke on the Queensway.
So Ned helped us out to the car and we were at the hospital around 11:45pm. We had to walk all around the building and go through emergency because it was so late at night and then walk all the way back through the hospital to get to the main elevators. Along the way we got some stares, one man asking if I was ok as I was leaning against the wall having a contraction and Stephen was at the vending machines getting me a water. Another lady kindly mentioned that there were wheelchairs at the front door...I may or may not have said "wheelchairs are for pussies". I knew that walking was the best thing for me and to keep labour moving along (not that I was really worried about it stopping...it was pretty strong).
We finally got up to Labour & Delivery and found our midwife. Stephen dealt with the paperwork while the midwife checked my vitals (and the baby's). The heartbeat was a bit high which worried her, but she encouraged me to drink some water and juice and that brought it down (I wonder what a Dr would have suggested at that point!) We walked the hallways a bit and then I had a warm shower and sprayed water on my belly through the contractions which helped ease the pain greatly. On the walk back from the showers to my labour room I had 3 or 4 more contractions and realized just how tired I was (it was creeping up on 1am).
Stephen suggested I lie down through a few (I was worried it would hurt more lieing down, but closing my eyes and resting up before pushing seemed like a good idea). The midwife checked me and I was 9 cms! Baby's heartbeat was good again. She called the back-up midwife and her student so they could be there for the birth. I was feeling ready to push and I had to wait for the other midwives to show up (apparently a nurse could come in to assist, but that could lead to more paperwork, etc). So...I did secret little not really pushes imagining the baby getting lower. Stephen leaned over and told me that the other midwife arrived and I was ready to go. It probably took 6-7 contractions to push the head out (at which point I apparently said "I did it!!") and they told me there was a bit more work to do, but I knew the hard part was over and I was just so relieved. Suddenly there was this squirmy slippery baby on my belly and Stephen told me it was another little boy...we were both filled with happy tears immediately. This was 2am, only 5 hours after the cramping started and 4 hours after I realized I was having a baby that night.
All of my exhaustion went away...have to love those hormones! Everyone was very interested in his weight (it hadn't crossed my mind) and I could not believe that he was just under 10 lbs! I am so glad I didn't know that going into the experience! It was a completely drug free (not even a tylenol) natural birth and only three stitches.
I really didn't want to stay in the hospital overnight and one of the wonderful things about the midwives is they can release you 2 hours after the birth. We were home by 4:30am and all snuggled into our own bed with Stephen and baby beside me...I couldn't imagine anything better.
The next morning Felix came into our room to meet his brother. He may have been more interested in the snacks on my nightstand, but he did say "I big brother now!!" which was heart-meltingly cute and gave Wilbert some gentle kisses on his head.
And so began our new life as a family of 4!
Wednesday was a normal day and I didn't suspect anything was happening. I got up at 6:30 with Felix, took him to daycare, did some housework, started a huge roast beef in the slow cooker, had a nice shower, drove downtown and picked up Stephen from work, went to see the midwives (who told me I was at 3 cms, but it could be another day or two), greeted our new tenants who were moving into the rental house, picked up Felix from daycare, ate big roast beef supper, played with Felix after supper, read him stories, put him to bed.
Stephen was finally feeling as though his rental house duties were almost done and suggested we call a neighbour to come over and watch our tv while we took some time together and go for a nice long walk around the neighbourhood. It was a gorgeous evening and we held hands walking around Parkdale, looking at people's houses, talking about the future, etc. We stopped in at our neighbours for a quick visit and joked about me jumping up and down to start labour. I was already planning the groceries I needed to buy the next day and the pre-baby jobs I wanted to get done. (4 days overdue and I wasn't worried anything was happening).
When we got home around 9pm we put on pj's and settled in front of the tv. As soon as I lay down I started feeling pretty crampy. I went upstairs to have a bath and in the bath I realized pretty quickly that these cramps were contractions and went downstairs in my towel to ask Stephen to start timing them. They felt pretty strong and I realized quickly that I wasn't going to bed (even though I was exhausted) and that I better quickly find some energy reserves because I had a feeling this baby was coming suddenly and quickly!
The contractions were 3 minutes apart as soon as Stephen started timing them and 30-40 seconds long. With Felix, my contractions never got longer than that so we paged the midwife and called Stephen's mom and asked her to get down here ASAP. The midwife arrived at our house and confirmed that we were indeed having a baby that night and that I was now 5 cms. She suggested we move over to the hospital while we still could (if that was still my plan). This was around 10:30pm.
Stephen then packed my hospital bag (did I mention I wasn't quite ready) and installed the infant car seat. I encouraged him to get our neighbour, Ned, to come over and hang out here until Sue arrived because the contractions were getting even stronger. We were going to walk the 3 blocks over to the hospital, but the midwife called and asked us to drive in case my water broke on the Queensway.
So Ned helped us out to the car and we were at the hospital around 11:45pm. We had to walk all around the building and go through emergency because it was so late at night and then walk all the way back through the hospital to get to the main elevators. Along the way we got some stares, one man asking if I was ok as I was leaning against the wall having a contraction and Stephen was at the vending machines getting me a water. Another lady kindly mentioned that there were wheelchairs at the front door...I may or may not have said "wheelchairs are for pussies". I knew that walking was the best thing for me and to keep labour moving along (not that I was really worried about it stopping...it was pretty strong).
We finally got up to Labour & Delivery and found our midwife. Stephen dealt with the paperwork while the midwife checked my vitals (and the baby's). The heartbeat was a bit high which worried her, but she encouraged me to drink some water and juice and that brought it down (I wonder what a Dr would have suggested at that point!) We walked the hallways a bit and then I had a warm shower and sprayed water on my belly through the contractions which helped ease the pain greatly. On the walk back from the showers to my labour room I had 3 or 4 more contractions and realized just how tired I was (it was creeping up on 1am).
Stephen suggested I lie down through a few (I was worried it would hurt more lieing down, but closing my eyes and resting up before pushing seemed like a good idea). The midwife checked me and I was 9 cms! Baby's heartbeat was good again. She called the back-up midwife and her student so they could be there for the birth. I was feeling ready to push and I had to wait for the other midwives to show up (apparently a nurse could come in to assist, but that could lead to more paperwork, etc). So...I did secret little not really pushes imagining the baby getting lower. Stephen leaned over and told me that the other midwife arrived and I was ready to go. It probably took 6-7 contractions to push the head out (at which point I apparently said "I did it!!") and they told me there was a bit more work to do, but I knew the hard part was over and I was just so relieved. Suddenly there was this squirmy slippery baby on my belly and Stephen told me it was another little boy...we were both filled with happy tears immediately. This was 2am, only 5 hours after the cramping started and 4 hours after I realized I was having a baby that night.
All of my exhaustion went away...have to love those hormones! Everyone was very interested in his weight (it hadn't crossed my mind) and I could not believe that he was just under 10 lbs! I am so glad I didn't know that going into the experience! It was a completely drug free (not even a tylenol) natural birth and only three stitches.
I really didn't want to stay in the hospital overnight and one of the wonderful things about the midwives is they can release you 2 hours after the birth. We were home by 4:30am and all snuggled into our own bed with Stephen and baby beside me...I couldn't imagine anything better.
The next morning Felix came into our room to meet his brother. He may have been more interested in the snacks on my nightstand, but he did say "I big brother now!!" which was heart-meltingly cute and gave Wilbert some gentle kisses on his head.
And so began our new life as a family of 4!
Welcome Baby Wilbert
Wilbert Francesco CarliniNovember 3, 2011 at 2:06am
9 lbs, 14 oz, 23 inches long
Named for his Great Grandfather and his Nonno...a little bit of Saskatchewan, a little bit of Italy.
He has been a wonderfully easy-going newborn for us so far. He eats a lot, but not surprising when he is just under 10 lbs at birth (too much Menchies for mom during pregnancy!!)
Big brother Felix seems to have doubled his energy level (who knew that was possible) due to all of the excitement, but he is gentle and loving towards "Bilbert". When they met, he first said "Baby Gabriel!!" thinking it was his cousin and then said "I big brother now!!!" So sweet. So precious. We are overjoyed!
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