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My car is a wimp

This is what almost "spring" looks like this year. This morning it was -30 degrees (-42 with wind chill) and now with the warmth of the afternoon sun it has warmed up to a balmy -22.

I was all set to head out the door this morning. I had plopped Laney in her crib so I could go outside and start the car. The car had other plans and decided it was a good day for the battery to die. Probably because Mike isn't here. In a way, I thought to myself that this was a great opportunity to use my skills. I know how to boost a car. My dad made sure of that when I got my driver's license.

I had the same feelings the time I got a flat tire on the side of the road before I was married. I had this "I can do it" attitude. I was a woman who certainly could figure out how to change a tire. I had everything laid out and ran into a slight problem. I wasn't strong enough to get the lug nuts off the tire. Cue fire truck driving by. I had about 5 fireman hop out and take over. I will never forget that. Sitting there watching them change my tire in a few minutes. My friends were jealous.

Anyways, slightly off topic. But in a way, it was nice to know that I can figure out how to do something like that without Mike. He takes care of all that stuff. I had a friend come by and I decided to give the car a little boost. It didn't work.

The block heater cord was missing somewhere inside the engine. So, when Laney went down for a nap I bundled myself up and headed outdoors. Laying on the snow-covered ground with about an inch of clearance I stuck my head under the car and looked in vain for the cord. Thankfully I found it. Around the same time one of my neighbours must have seen me laying on the ground and probably thought I'd been run over by the car. It must have looked funny seeing me laying on the side of the road with my head underneath the front bumper. He came over and thankfully had a battery charger. He saved the day. My car is running, recharging the battery as we speak. Lesson learned. I will plug my car in when the weather is cold.

Don't you just love neighbourly neighbours? It was a good reminder that I need to be a better neighbour. I hated living in city neighbourhoods where no one ever spoke or knew each others names. Mike and I have gone around to meet our neighbours and we chat sometimes. We have people shovel our walks often enough and we made treats for them at Christmas.  However, I haven't really made the effort I should have to get to know them.

Do you know your neighbours? What is the atmosphere in your neighbourhood?

Keeping it real

OK. Let's be real here. I haven't made the physical changes to myself I wanted to make when I started this blog. There have been improvements in some areas, but not in others. I need to be accountable to someone other than myself. Because for some reason I've gotten into the habit of letting myself down. There, I said it. I'm used to disappointing myself.

I don't want to let you down though. My plan is to dedicate every Thursday to "Keeping it Real" where I will post photos of my progress (good or bad) along with a rating on a scale of 1 to 10.

Here we go.

Put-togetherness:

Score- 3. No makeup. Sloppy hairstyle. Comfy clothes that don't look particularly matched.

Nails:

Score- 4. Stop chewing them already.

Head to toe:

Score- 1. Because I'm not a healthy weight and I am determined that I have nowhere to go but up (well, technically down on the scale)

Inches from start:

Today is the start date so nothing to report.

Bust: 0
Hips: 0
Waist: 0

What have I just done?

Well, I decided to join a weight loss program. I didn't really do much research on it before joining and paid the money. Of course, I then come home and read all these terrible reviews of it. I've decided that I am going to give it an honest effort however. I can do enough research on my own to make sure that I do it safely and if something they tell me doesn't jive, then I am going to speak up.

I will update soon.

Here's hoping I didn't just throw my money down the gutter.

Today is where I am

I never really considered myself to be a girly-girl, but Laney is turning me into one! I've been getting in touch with the outfit-loving girl inside. I bought this outfit when I was pregnant with her and remember thinking that she would never be big enough to wear it. And that seems like only yesterday.

She likes having things just so and mostly refuses to eat unless she can feed herself. So I just sit back and let the peanut butter and yogurt fly. I try not to think about the fact that maybe only half ends up in her mouth and the cheap part of me inwardly cringes at the wasted food. I'm looking forward to her being more proficient at feeding herself. It will come, I know.

And while I'm watching I thank God for little feet crossed on the highchair.  They make me smile.

I always look forward to Mike getting home from work. On this particular day, when Mike got home and saw her in this outfit he couldn't believe how big she looked. This is the first time (I think) that I have ever put her in jeans and wow, she looks big.

That's right Laney. Crawl. Mummy doesn't want you growing up too fast.

We have too much to do while you're little. We have the Five Little Monkeys to read over and over. And I don't think Daddy is ready to give up on you sitting on the couch waiting for him.

I'm caught between not being able to wait for the next one and wanting to drag my childbearing years out so that it doesn't end so soon. Often it is hard to live in the moment, not yearning for yesterday nor impatiently waiting for tomorrow. Today is where we are. And it is exactly where I want to be.

Infant potty training take two

Disclaimer: this is a post in which I discuss poop.

I wrote here about my experience  and reasons for trying the so-called "elimination communication." After this post I had a lot of success getting Laney to go on the potty. I would ask her if she needed to poop and if she did she would sign and say it. There was a week straight in which she did not poop in her diaper once. After that she came down with some kind of illness. It included a lot of diarrhea. So obviously, I did not try and get her to use the potty while she was sick. After she got better, I was unable to get her to use the potty again. This has gone on for the past month. I was getting rather frustrated and ready to just give up...

...until yesterday. I had a not so great day and realized I was getting rather annoyed at Laney for not using the potty. She would come to me and tell me she needed to poop just so that I would take her diaper off and then refuse to sit on the potty only to poop a few minutes later in her diaper. I figured out that my frustration was obvious to Laney. Yesterday during her nap I did some reading up on the subject and everyone is pretty unanimous that you have to keep it relaxed, treat the accidents very casually, etc.

I completely changed my attitude. When Laney woke up from her nap I had the potty out in the living room. I let her examine it and I didn't push it. I had her diaperless for the entire evening so that she'd be aware if she peed right away. I just used a diaper cover with a absorbent cloth inside it to protect the rug and furniture. All of a sudden she was wanting to use her potty and she ran and brought it to me. Told me she had to poop. I sat her on the potty and she went within a minute. We took it to the toilet and she happily flushed it down and was obviously proud of herself. We had quite a bit more success with peeing too yesterday.

This morning I just put the potty out in the living room. I went into the office and Laney went and grabbed the potty, brought it to me and started sitting on it. I asked her if she needed to use it and she obviously wanted to so I took off her diaper and she sat down, peed, then started clapping. This happened twice. We also had one accident, but I simply pointed the accident out to her and told her that it goes in the potty and let her watch me clean it up.

Anyways, sorry for all the poop information, but I'm always curious if other people are trying this method and how it goes for them. I am also totally amazed at how much these little ones pick up on subtle things like our attitude. My frustration is what I think has hampered progress in the last month. I changed my tone and didn't push it and Laney picked up on it right away and did a complete one-eighty.

A good old Laney update

15 months old! Wow! It's been awhile since I've given an update on Laney. I feel like she has learned so many new things that it would be impossible to list them all.

Our favourite new things:

Laney's hair is now in her eyes. I have resorted to the "palm tree" hairstyle as I don't want to cut it yet. Her hair always comes forward and I'm hoping that putting it back as it grows will help me be able to brush it back.

And, check out her lashes. I love them. I kiss her eyes all the time.

Doesn't it make her look so much older with her hair up?

 I've been trying to not care about the mess she makes and let her learn to use a spoon. I will do better with the next one, I promise. This is quite late to be learning how to use a spoon isn't it?

Another thing I'm trying to do better with is taking her outside more often. It wasn't really a problem in the warmer months, but I find I like to hibernate when the temperature drops and the ground is snow covered. This has been a very cold winter here. But, Laney still loves going outside.

She is really starting to talk. She understands so much now as well.

Words: Thank you (tank yooo), please (peas), yes, no, mummy (mama), daddy (dada), grandpa (grappa), grandma (mamma), nana, grandad (gradad), Isla (Eya) (her cousin), Laney (naney), ball (bah), book (buh), down (daoon), up, help (hep), baby, poop, bath (bat), this (dis), that (dat) and that's all I can think of.

She now weighs 22 lbs. She is also starting to run more than walk. She has been sleeping really well lately too!

Also, I want to let you know how work is going for me. My sister is watching Laney and she has adjusted with no problems. I love how excited she is when I get home though! I only work about two or three days a week and some shifts are evening shifts so it doesn't really seem like I'm away from her that much. It takes me five minutes to get to my work so it is awesome to literally have no commute.

Ideally, I would like to be a stay at home mum and I think it will happen when I have a second child. I do love my work and if I could clone myself I would. Work will always be there once my children are in school so it's not like it has to be all or nothing. Another wonderful thing about my career is that I can always work as part-time as I want (or even casual).

Thanks for all your support. It is conflicting going back to work. But, I got to spend Laney's first 14 months with her fully as a SAHM and now I'm just going to work part time for awhile. A lot of mothers have it much tougher than that so I can't (and shouldn't) complain about it.

And, to abruptly change the subject, I have to leave you with this. Normally Laney sleeps in her crib or carseat. This is what happened when we got home from church last week. I laid her on the couch to take off her tights and jacket and she fell asleep. She stayed like this for about a half hour. So cute!