Revival of the blog

Holy shit it's been a long time since I've posted here. But life gets in the way of blogging. Actually, I'm doing this more for myself than anyone else since I've just spent a very enjoyable hour during naptime reading my old blog entries. I used to write in journals, but when we moved this last time I tossed them all. While having a written account of the last twenty years of my life seems romantic, the thought of my children reading about my years of debauchery when I'm dead and gone is not.

So what's new? I am now the proud mom to the world's two most gorgeous children, we moved to Walnut Creek CA and bought a townhouse, I'm still a SAHM and loving it, and I have found my calling: baking (but that's another blog).

And the little one is up so the rest of this is going to have to wait. Hopefully not another year.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccckkkkkk

Ok, that felt good. No, nothing to get upset about, but Mike and I are trying not to swear in front of Liam anymore. He understands more and more each day, and the last thing I need is to try and get him to stop saying "fuck those assholes upstairs are loud today" or "what is this shit we're eating?". Mike and I swear like sailors, and it needs to stop NOW. So expect the rare occasion a blog post shows up here to be liberally peppered with curse words.

I don't even know what to blog about today since I haven't written in so long. Obviously little man is changing every day, but he has his own blog (which I also suck at updating).

I had a long post written about our hellish travels back to Canada, but ended up accidentally deleting it and I can't be bothered. Basically it will be a few years before we fly back to the Okanagan for Christmas.

Had a lovely weekend, friends with kids (not to be confused with people I hang out with only because they have kids) came over for appies/wine/beer. Weather was nice, took Liam to the park.

Oooh, the three of us are going to NYC in May, which I am beyond thrilled about. Like seriously, I am so frigging excited to go there, I have wanted to for years.

Um, cripes, I guess nothing is really new with me. Still battling the last 15 pounds from the 75 (not a typo) I gained during my pregnancy. I am damn determined to be rid of it before his 1st birthday.

Uh oh, little man is stirring, must be off to bed, he cannot sleep without a breast nearby (Liam, not Mike, ha ha)

Bloody craigslist

So we moved. Into a dreamy apartment that we LOOOOVE. And as with any move, we found many things we no longer need, some of which are big ticket items (well, in this economy anyways), and so we decided to sell some of it on craigslist. Now I have a love/hate thing with craigslist. You can find great deals, but cripes, are people cheap. I always post things about $10 more than I actually want since it's likely that people are going to barter, and sorry if you do, but it's lame and cheap. Just pay the listed price and if you don't like it feck off!!

Anyways. So our microwave was the last item left. After several flakers, one guy called. He asked Mike is there was room for negotiating. We had it listed at $45. Dude offered $30, Mike countered with $40. Dude agreed.

So. He, his wife, and baby, showed up to check out the microwave. They like what they saw, and he handed Mike a pile of bills. Mike took a quick look, and lo and behold, Dude gave him $35.

Ugh.

How awkward.

So Mike says, um, yeah, there's only $35 here and we agreed on $40. Dude starts going on how oh no, this is a good deal for him, and a good deal for us. I said, yeah, great for you not so much for us. I mean, okay, it's $5 difference, but WTF? Who does this? So he was hoping that Mike wouldn't count it. How utterly pathetic is this?? I don't know, I wouldn't want to teach my kid that trying to cheat people out of money is okay.

Eventually he coughed up the extra $5, but cripes. It's one thing to barter, it's another to try and scam someone.

Anyways, all our crapola is gone. Whoo!

Welcome back crazy

Oy. So as anyone who knows me can attest, I am by nature a worrier and have a tendency to obsess. The early part of my pregnancy with Liam was not easy on me, I was very stressed out and worried, and in all honesty until I held the little man in my arms I was always just slightly holding my breath.

So these past almost five months have been easy on my mind. Liam is doing fantastic, we found a new place, my family and friends are all doing great. Not a care in the wold right?

Well of course that all had to change, thank you infant-milestones!

What are these milestones you ask? Basically a baby should reach certain milestones as the grow. For example, a baby should have a social smile by about 3-4 months of age (of course this all changes depending on which milestone chart you look at, hence increasing the craziness). Liam, little darling that he is, has been smiling since 4 weeks. And he has hit all milestones early. So me being the proud parent loved looking at these charts and gleefully going through each point since Liam seemed to be meeting them all early.

Until the babbling. Liam does not babble. And according to the numerous charts I have looked up he should be by now. As Mike has reminded me Liam is not a robot and just because a website says he should be babbling at 4 months does not necessarily mean he will. Well darling husband, be as rational as you please, the crazy has creeped back into my brain and takes every opportunity to remind me that something could be wrong. And the crazy's voice is a lot louder than yours.

So now I am constantly observing my lovely son, waiting for signs that something is wrong or something is right. Ugh. I should have never looked up these bloody milestone charts in the first place, don't I know myself well enough by now to know what I'm setting myself up for??

Anyways, in my heart I'm sure everything is fine with Liam. He "talks" with us, he smiles, he laughs, he loves other babies, he's just a doll. But my mind is always working in overdrive, thinking up ways to make me nuts.

Le sigh. Maybe I should go back to therapy.

Happy birthday to me!

So today I'm 31 years old. Yipes! Good thing I like my life or I might be a little horrified.

Anyways. I had a wonderful day today. Despite several people forgetting (um, hello dear brother!) I really don't care and don't begrudge anyone. My darling husband treated me to breakfast in bed of sticky buns and roses, as well as a week of lovely gifts arriving in the mail from Etsy.com. My son was all smiles and laughs today, and let me sleep in until 7:30am.

We went to Burlingame for a tasty breakfast at the Copenhagen, then onto some shopping for the babe (yes, he gets presents on my birthday). Later we headed out for a nice picnic, then pastry delights for dinner/dessert. Now I'm enjoying a rare glass of red wine (Bogle, thanks for leaving it here sisto!).

And that's that. My 31st birthday. Definitely the most mellow I've ever had, and thanks to my two favorite guys, the best.

I have a problem

A baby-wearing problem. To be more specific I have a problem with buying carriers, in that I want them ALL. I seriously think this just stems from a horrible shopping addiction I have which has translated into buying things for Liam since I don't fit into any nice clothes yet and have no time for makeup.

Anyways, I had heard of baby-wearing addicts who bought carrier after carrier, and I always thought, why in the hell would you buy more than one?? And here I am. The carrier pictured at left is carrier number four (it's a Baby K'Tan if you're wondering). I also have a sling, Moby wrap, and Ergo. My reasoning? They are all good for different situations. Mike thinks I'm frigging nuts. I want more: ring slings, becos, and mai teis, oh my! Gah, somebody stop me!!

Madly in love

How is possible to love another human being so much? Liam is hands down the best thing that has ever happened to me. I never thought of myself as much of a baby person, but I am madly in love with this little guy. Every time he smiles at me I literally want to burst with happiness. It's crazy, I honestly had no idea that motherhood would affect me this way!

Yes, I get annoyed with him when he won't stop screaming for no apparent reason, but the good times erase the bad and then some. Look at that face, God he's cute!!!

Liam Albert Wilson

I'm sure anyone reading this already knows, but our darling little babe is here! Here's his birth story:

Liam Albert Wilson arrived on April 16 at 7:28 pm weighing in at 8 pounds 11 oz and perfect as can be. We're madly in love, and I'm still in awe that this little man is mine.

I woke up on Tues morning at 5am with mild contractions, but they were all in my back so I wasn't really sure what was going on. Over the day they started to get more intense, so I used a lot of my hypnobirthing techniques and hung out on my birth ball and in the shower. By 7pm they were 4 minutes apart and well over a minute in length so we headed to the hospital. When we got there they checked me and I was almost 6cm which I was thrilled about, and we stayed. Over the next several hours I hung out in the shower and worked though contractions.

She checked me at midnight and I was 7cm, we all thought the babe would be born by the time my mid-wife was off, at 9am. Four hours later I was still 7cm. She suggested breaking my water, which I really didn't want to do so we decided to wait a while longer. By 6am I was still 7cm and exhausted after 25 hours of labour so I agreed to the breakage of water. After she did the contractions sped up and became incredibly intense, he was at a bit of an angle so it was all back labour and pretty much sucked. I was too tired to deal with it anymore so I got an IV of some drug, I don't even remember what it was, but it made me feel loopy and a bit dizzy and didn't do a lot for the back pain.

She checked me again just before 9am and I was still 7cm (I thought I was going to lose my mind by this point) so I decided to get an epidural. Afterwards I was able to rest a bit before noon, which is when I was finally 10cm and able to start pushing. 4.5 hours later of intense pushing I was told that the baby had barely moved down and his head was far too big to fit though my narrow pelvis. I had a good cry and agreed to the c-section.

The c-section itself was pretty bad, I had a spotty epidural and I could feel part of the surgery (mostly after Liam was born). The moment they took him out and I heard him cry was the most incredible thing I have ever experienced, even though I had yet to see him I knew that he was here and okay and I really got my baby this time.

I can't believe how smitten we are, and how amazing he is. I could stare into his eyes forever.