Friday, May 30, 2014

Birthdays, headbands and photoshoot! General Post

This week has flown on by, I cannot believe its already the weekend!! My 25th birthday was on Tuesday and I loved spending it with my sweet little girl. She honestly just melts my heart over and over. She was so cuddly and happy all day long. It was awesome. Birthdays for me seem to feel less and less special as each year goes on - and I'm still only in my twenties. Ugh. Regardless, having Harper to spend it with made it special. My mom and dad had planned to take me out for lunch with the babe however my dad got a really yucky stomach bug and had to cancel. We got to go out for lunch today though and boy is it nice to get out of the house! I also can't remember a time I had a meal with just my parents, no Fraser and no brothers. I honestly think it was a first. Little miss Harper Lynn was such a good girl the entire time - she even fell asleep on my mom while we were eating!

She was a little small for the restaurants highchair but she was so well behaved sitting on my lap, the entire time I ate. Honestly, she rocks!

I've been so excited ALL week for Harper's 6 month photo shoot which is tomorrow. We loved our newborn photos we had taken of her and it was a no brainer of which photographer we were going with for her 6 month pictures. All week I've been making little headbands to go with all of her outfit changes and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!

I have a bunch of different elastics but I have to say, my favourite is probably the glittery ones. They just make the headbands look that much better!

On top of making headbands I also got a chance to do some paper crafting. I made a few cards and some cute tags as well. I love paper crafting - I find it so peaceful and relaxing. I had a bunch of new stuff I hadn't had a chance to play with yet, so I thought I would do a little craft "haul":

I got some versa mark ink to do some heat embossing with, an ATG adhesive gun which I have wanted for a long long time, a wink of stella glitter pen, some new Lawn Fawn stamp sets (my favourite), some adhesive squares - and a few other misc. items.

I cannot wait for us to get our Ikea furniture next weekend so I can finally organize all of my craft stuff - I have piles of craft supplies in our dinner room and it is not cute! Not to mention its a total pain the ass to do a craft when you have all of your supplies all over the place - its a nightmare for me. But soon I will have a nice crafting space in our office with a big bookcase to organize everything (currently in Harpers room) and a nice little desk to craft on! SO exciting.


Monday, May 26, 2014

Crafting, Decorating and teething! General Post

This past weekend was a bunch of fun and very very busy. We did our running around Friday night - grocery shopping, the usual boring stuff! Saturday, we had some friends over for a BBQ which was lots of fun. The weather was sooo beautiful the whole weekend which got Fraser and I in the mood to decorate and organize! We even hung our first picture up in our dining room/sitting room - we still need to paint in this room, but we have to remove a 60's air conditioner that sticks out of the wall first (hopefully this summer).

We may or may not try to find a larger painting for above these two chairs, but for now it looks good!

Sunday, Fraser and I had both our parents over at different times for visits with Harper. My dad helped Fraser tackle our crazy lawn that seriously needed some TLC and it looks so much better!

I have so many fun ideas for our house, but I need to have patience and know we can't do everything all at once! And I am not a patient person! ha.

Harper's 6 month photo shoot is coming up this Saturday and I am making some cute headbands for her different outfits. I love making cute accessories for Harper and the great thing about making them myself is I can make one to match everyone of her outfits! Haha. I make her headbands out of glittery elastic, regular elastic and 100% wool felt (not the cheap crap from the dollarstore). The 100% wool felt holds up a lot nicer and doesn't ball up like cheap synthetic felt.

 
The outfits I have picked out for Harper's photo shoot are probably not the typical outfits most would pick out for their little girls. Most people would have loads of pink clothing and accessories or tutus, but I like a more natural pallet. I love yellows, navy blues and definitely rompers/onsies instead of dresses. So excited!

Harper finally has a tooth poking through her gums!! After about 3 months of teething!! I noticed it today when I had her laughing her little booty off. I just caught a quick glimpse of white poking through! I was so excited and slightly terrified because shes breastfed - HA. I would take a picture but I can barely get her tongue out of the way to see the darn thing! haha. She's officially a big girl! :(

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Busy, Busy, Busy! General Post

Well these past few weeks have just been zipping by and I think it's because we've super busy around here. Lots of family visits, friend visits and tons of house work. Holy crap. When we lived in our apartment it would taken long to tidy the whole place up and it always felt like we had lots of extra time to do whatever we wanted. Now that we have a house AND a 6 month old baby, it's crazy busy. There's always something that needs to be cleaned or fixed - then I have Harper's food to make every couple of days, laundry to do, vacuuming, moping, etc.,. BUT as much as I feel like I never have time to just sit and relax, I love having a home to tend to. Our apartment was awesome, but it definitely wasn't "home". Now that we have a house and aren't going anywhere - anytime soon - I love cleaning and making it feel cozy.

I'm super excited because we ordered more furniture and area rugs from Ikea, which is supposed to be delivered on June 6th (no one's counting down ;) ) and I cannot wait! There was some things we definitely needed and somethings we just got to spruce up the place! We love love love Ikea, super affordable, great quality and super cute. Here's a break down of what we got:

Living Room Furniture:
- New side tables
- New television stand
- Sofa table
- Big area rug
- Skinnier rug for the door to the closet area

Kitchen:
- Island
- Cabinet
- Rug for along the cupboards

Dining Room/Sitting Room:
- Area Rug

Harper's Room:
- Area rug
- Dresser
- Book shelves (3)
- Wall shelves (2)
- Toy Organizer

Our Bedroom:
- Area rug
- New duvet set
- New sheet set

Office:
- Small desk (for my crafting)

Basement:
- Small desk (for Fraser's figures that he paints)


AHHHHH I can't wait, I will finally be able to organize our house which is super exciting for me! I love to organize and have been going slightly crazy the past few weeks with our current unorganized situation! I will post some pics as we build everything (by we I mean Fraser).

Now an update on Harper. She freaking hates solid food. I mean, really really hates solid food. Fruits..veggies..organic baby cereal..hates it all. Every time I try giving her any - she gags the whole time. Like full on, super over the top, gagging. As if I just put dirt in her mouth - but yet it was some delicious sweet banana or apples. Ugh. Visualizations of a three old..breastfeeding goes through my mind. Her having the capability to pull my boob out herself and nurse. HA. No way. She's now going on week # 3 of eating solids and she's supposed to have some three times a day along with a sippy cup with water. We've been doing the sippy cup for a week now and she flipping loves it. She gets sooooo excited when we give her a sippy cup. She hasn't figured out how to tip it up so the water comes down into the spout but regardless she loves it. It just means Fraser and I have to sit there and hold it properly so she can drink it. The menu book I'm going off of with her solid foods says you can introduce watered down juice, but truthfully if she enjoys water on its own, that's what I'm sticking with for now.

Harper's sleeping situation has now gone from sleeping in her bassinet for 30 minute intervals to now sleeping in bed with Fraser and I. Yup, it happened and to be frank, we don't care. Everyone we tell is like "Oh no, that's not good, you're never going to get her out of your bed" OR the best yet was "Oh a buddy of mines kid slept with him and his girlfriend and now they're not together anymore"..Really?! Common now. There had to be some serious deep seeded issues in that relationship. Fraser's exact words to be were "I don't care if she sleeps with us, as long as my girls are happy". Ugh I could just gobble him up he's so darn cute. The reality of the situation is..it's very hard to get your little one to sleep on their own when neither parents agree with the crying out solution. Seriously, if someone out there has some magic solution, send it our way, otherwise my peanut can snuggle with me all night every night. I am doing some of the strategies from the 'No Cry Sleeping Solution' by Elizabeth Pantley but it can take several weeks to see a difference/change and momma needs to sleep!

So we'll see where we're at when she gets mobile - who knows, maybe she will want space to herself at night and will welcome her crib with open arms. Pff.



Tuesday, May 20, 2014

My Big Girl - 6 Month Update: Mommy Post

As of May 18th at exactly 8:05pm my not so little peanut turned 6 months. We are officially at the half way point! WTH?! Where has the time seriously gone? It feels like a month or two ago, I was still pregnant! Everyday she's bigger and has accomplished something new and exciting. Recently it has been her sitting up on her own and attempting to drink out of a sippy cup. She LOVES drinking water out of a sippy cup - she gets sooo excited when she gets some in her mouth, it's so stinking adorable.

This morning, Harper had her 6 month doctors appointment - which meant she had to get a needle. I get so nervous for her and wish I could take the needle for her. My feelings aside, she did fantastic. I think she pouted/cried for all of 5 seconds and then smiled at her daddy who was trying to distract her. GAWD she is so cute.

My Sweet babe is a very impressive 18 lbs 13 oz and 27" long. She's over the percentile range for her age in both height and weight. Meaning she's freaking awesome :).

Something very exciting happening in two short weeks is her 6 month photo session. We're going with the same photographer that did her 8 day old/newborn pictures, which turned out amazingly. So I'm pretty freaking stoked for some super adorable pictures again. I plan on plastering the walls with pictures of our sweet girl - as soon as I'm able to start decorating (need to paint still..ugh).

Oh and a little update on Harper's sleeping situation - she's officially sleeping in our bed. Yup. It happened. We caved. I blame it on sleep exhaustion - 100%. Funny thing is, she loves it and sleeps so much better. Last night she almost slept for a 5 hour stretch. And I love snuggling with her, I'm not going to lie. She just freaking hates her crib! I'm still working on getting her used to it, regardless if she's sleeping in our bed. I AM concerned how I am ever going to get her in her crib when she's co-sleeping with us. BUT I am hopeful that one day she will be ready to be a big girl..that or we're eventually going to have a toddler sleeping in bed with us..ahem.

Regardless, she's happy, healthy and safe. And that's really all that matters to Fraser and I.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Demolition of Cat Poop Mountain: House Post

The time has come...for the demolition process of cat poop mountain that resides under our addition. Yuck. Again, how can people allow their animals use a portion of their home (even hidden parts of their home) as a freaking cat litter box?! Disgusting and talk about a potential health risk. Nothing is worse then the smell of cat urine. So my hubby got all geared up - he looked as if he works for a hazardous material removal company.

Luckily we have awesome friends like Kyle who was more then willing to give Fraser a hand - as I am useless in this department (being that I have a 6 month old attached to me at all times) and lets be serious, I have NO desire what so ever to climb under our addition and shovel cat shit. So off the boys went, doing what few would do, get knee deep (literally) in cat shit and cat urine. They had a great system, Fraser was under the addition shoveling the cat crap and passing it to Kyle to bag outside.Once all the cat crap was bagged, Fraser noticed the vapor barrier was shredded from the cats and soaked in cat urine.

Off to Home Depot the boys went, to purchase a roll of vapor barrier. We also purchased odor deodorizer which Fraser sprinkled over the dirt before laying out the new vapor barrier - hoping this will eat up any remanding cat urine (fingers crossed).

Here's the bags filled with cat crap - the large black garbage bag had the shredded vapor barrier in it:

Hopefully this will eliminate any cat pee smell we had in our furnace room but only time will tell!

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Up All Night: Mommy Post

What happened to my super awesome sleeper? When Harper was 2 and a half months old, she started sleeping 5-7 hours at a time in her bassinet. It was ah-mazing. I thought, holy crap - I am so lucky to have such an awesome sleeper. And what a treat it was, especially being that the first two months of her life, she never slept at night. It was horrible, but Fraser and I pushed through and we were definitely rewarded for all of those sleepless nights. This was when we lived in our apartment, then we bought a house and moved right when Harper turned 5 months old. Then it all changed.
Harper started only sleeping for 3 hour stretches, maybe a 4 hour stretch here and there. It continued to go down hill until now, where I'm lucky if I get a two hour stretch of sleep at a time. Ugh. When Harper was smaller, she would wake up in the middle of the night (not fully) and would nurse and go right back to sleep for 3-4 hours (or more). Now that she's older, she wakes fully in the middle of the night, looking to nurse as this is what she thinks she needs to fall back asleep. So in conclusion - I need to break this association. I started my research and came across these books:

The No-Cry Nap Solution and The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. These books give you suggestions for trying to get your little one to sleep in their crib and to sleep through the night. I'm very against leaving my child to cry, alone, in her crib until she reaches the point of exhaustion and gives up all hope that I'm going to come and give her comfort. Doesn't that sound horrible? Well it does to me. So I was super excited to find these books with the possibility that there might be a way to teach Harper how to sleep in her crib using a more loving and calm approach than the crying out method.

Here's the strategies I thought would be helpful to try with my situation:

- Create a cycle-blender nap: Help your baby sleep from one sleep cycle to the next, you can do this by using for example, a rocking bassinet (which Harper has and sleeps in) to lull them back to sleep if they start to fidget; hopefully getting them to stay asleep rather then waking up after only an hour.

This strategy makes sense but also requires you to be close by, shortly before your baby normally wakes up from their nap, to help them stay asleep so they transition into the next sleep cycle. For Harper, she will usually nap for an hour to an hour and a half. So I would need to be close to her 45 minutes into her nap (to be safe), to help her stay asleep if she starts to wake up.The book suggests picking your baby up the second they make a noise, and helping them whichever way necessary, to go back into a deeper sleep. This may consist of breastfeeding, rocking or offering a soother/pacifier.

- Do a comfort check: Make sure their crib is cozy (warm sheets), the room they are sleeping in isn't too hot or cold. Is the room too light, too dark, too quiet or too loud? Making sure to change their diaper right before nap time and that their clothes are nice and comfy. 

- Create a bedtime/nap time routine and stick to it. Your baby will then have sometime to relax and prepare for bedtime. 

Here's my nap time routine for Harper:

* Fan turned on
* Noise machine turned on (usually heartbeat or the rain setting)
* Cuddles
* Light turned off (have a nightlight always plugged in)
* Breastfeeding (until really sleepy)
* Rock to sleep (this is something I'm trying to get out of the routine)
* Put into bassinet (again, trying to get her in her crib instead)

* For her bedtime routine, she gets a bath first and then we read 1-2 books before lights out and breastfeeding *

- Put your baby in their crib a few times throughout the day, to play with some toys or read some books, to create a positive environment.

My goal is to put Harper in her crib, three times a day, to play. She has a musical fish tank on the side of her crib that she likes along with a light up monkey that also plays music. I would maybe give her a few small toys to also play with, while listening to her musical monkey and fish tank. She used to fall asleep while doing this when she was really small.

- Break the breastfeeding/sleep association. 

This is my biggest challenge as this is what Harper looks for every time she wakes from another sleep cycle at night. I've started to try and rock her back to sleep instead and then once this becomes effective, I will then try rocking her less, etc.,.

It's not going to be easy and certainly not quick. It will most likely take a few weeks. But if I stick to it, I will hopefully see some improvements.
Ugh. All of this cuteness certainly does help with getting up several times in the night!

I love her sooooo much and I think there will come a point where she will be ready to go into her crib, just hope its soon rather than later :).

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Lazy Couple of Days: General Post

 
It's been very quiet around here the past two days. Harper and I had a jammie day today - I love love her two pieced heart jammies I got her from Old Navy. Two pieced jammies make her look like such a big girl! 
She's so hard to take a clear picture of now because she has an obsession with my phone - always reaching out to grab it!
Since my last baby food post, she has tried sweet potato, pear and apple. She hasn't cared for anything - gagging all of the time (little turkey). I think it's all a texture thing for her still. She seems to not mind the taste, just not a fan of the consistency. I make her food pretty thin for right now, so she can get use to the tastes. I quite enjoy making her food. It's easy and actually fun. I also like knowing there's not a bunch of crap in her food - just fresh veggies and fruits!
She has been such a little ham lately. Growing everyday - too fast if you ask me! She will start whining and when I get close, she grabs my face and kisses me or will just hold my face with her little hands - it melts my heart! She hasn't been sleeping the greatest for the past month - getting up every hour and a half (maybe two hours). She doesn't know how to fall asleep on her own, so she wakes up wanting to nurse to go back to sleep. I'm doing a mommy post probably tomorrow, with more details and what techniques I'm going to try - so stay tuned.
I've had some time this week to craft, which has been SO awesome. I made some new gift tags for my Etsy shop, that I am totally in love with. As you can see, I have an obsession with inks - I can never have too many colours!
Our office is still a mess, so all of my craft stuff is in our dining room which is really annoying, but we'll get there! I'm excited to decorate a little craft space in our office and will make a whole post on that process.

A little update on our bug situation: appears to be under control at the moment. We still have all of our ant traps up and Fraser had sprayed our foundation again - so fingers crossed they stay away. You see the random ant here and there which is a huge improvement from the 20 we were seeing in our kitchen at a time.

Fraser and a friend are going to be removing all of the cat crap out of the area under the addition to our house. Holy freaking crap are people gross. Who would let their cats do that?! Oh well, we have to deal with it now and soon it will be done and over with!!

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Mountain of Cat Poop: House Post

Be warned. My language in this post is anything BUT lady like. 

Ugh. Where do I begin? We just recently moved into our house the end of March. We love it. We really really do. It's in a quiet, well kept neighborhood. It's close to both our parents..which will come in handy when I go back to work and both my mom and mother in law will be watching Harper. And its a nice big house for the price. It also was completely gutted (flipped) and updated. Which is freaking awesome. However, not everybody who flips houses, always does a fantastic job. In our case, cosmetically the house looks great, but there are some dark secrets the previous owners/flippers did a good job of hiding..initially. For instance, the first three days we were in the house we could not figure out why our hot water tank was turning off and on. So here we were, already stressed out because we thought something was wrong with our water tank and we hadn't even lived here a week. Awesome.

Then we had our internet hooked up. Fraser asked the technician to hook it up from outside, into our furnace room so he could eventually wire the house up starting from there. Well then we noticed our internet kept disconnecting, randomly throughout the day.

Now I want to mention, that upon moving into the house it was brought to our attention, some funny wiring that was done in the basement. Our light switch at the top of the stairs, that controls the hall light in the basement, also randomly (and incorrectly) controls the basement bathroom and laundry room light..grr. We thought, no biggy, we will correct it down the road.

Well then my genius hubby out of the blue, turns the light off at the top of the stairs and runs down to the furnace room.Whatta freaking know..the light switch also controls the sockets in the furnace room that our water tank AND internet was plugged into..#$%&*!! So now our little wiring problem, has turned into a pretty annoying wiring problem. Fraser had to put a hole into the wall, through our rec-room, so he could plug our water tank and internet into the socket in there (temporarily).

And what really grinds my gears is that when we came to look at the house, because it was a flip it was obviously vacant. So when our home inspector guy went through the house, we noticed the water tank was turned off. We thought, oh no big deal, they probably don't want it clicking on and off and using hydro up when no one lives here. WRONG. They were being sneaky, just like how they purposely left bulbs out of the basement bathroom and laundry room, so you wouldn't notice they turned on when you turned the switch on at the top of the stairs. Assholes.

The electrical problems are being taken care of, Fraser has a cousin who does electrical work and he's going to help us re-wire everything for pretty cheap. Thank goodness.

Now lets take the focus to today. We noticed a pretty strong cat urine smell in the furnace room (damn this furnace room and all of its secrets). We thought, oh the old lady who owned the house a few years back obviously kept her kitty litter boxes in here. WRONG. What we thought was a matter of just mopping the cement really good and maybe re-painting the cement, turned into something a lot more challenging.

Since the weather has been nice, we noticed ants in the house, particularly the kitchen (let me just note, I fucking despise insects of all kinds..especially insects in my damn kitchen where I prepare our meals). Initially, we didn't think it was a big deal. Old house..nice weather..bound to have little critters in the house here and there..that's totally normal. NOPE. We came home from a walk the other afternoon, to find 30+ BIG, FAT, JUICY ants crawly ALL over our counter, ALL over our stove and ALL over our sink. Oh...my...goodness. I had a meltdown. A sweaty palms, heart pounding out of my chest, feeling dizzy..meltdown. I don't do bugs, and I definitely don't do bugs in my damn kitchen.

After doing some research and googling pictures of big ants, we noticed that we did not just have your typical black ants..we have carpenter ants. Yup..freaking awesome.  Apparently they like to build their nests in wood..like maybe our freaking cabinets? Total panic started flowing over me..holy hell we have an infestation. This is where my mind goes IMMEDIATELY. I made Fraser go to Home Depot, get ant traps and anything else that could potentially kill the little bastards. So we set up about 6 ant traps in the kitchen..a few in the dining room, thinking this would do the trick. Now let me say, there definitely was a pretty immediate decrease in the number of the little suckers running around. But I was still not happy. I don't want ANY running around my house. So the next day, Fraser went out AGAIN to Home Depot and got a huge container of pesticide that you spray on your foundation outside and even inside to kill the ants and keep from more coming in. Awesome. Fraser spent 30 minutes outside, spraying the foundation and even checking for cracks and filling in any with caulking. Phew.

What was I doing? I was inside cleaning the crap out of our kitchen. Screw the natural cleaner I usually opt for (especially in the kitchen), I pulled the Lysol out and was disinfecting the ENTIRE kitchen. I instantly felt better. And for a few days, we hardly noticed any ants. Hallelujah. Now just in case, Fraser also tore down the old deck in our backyard (which needed to be done anyways) and went under the addition of our house to inspect. What he found, was truly disgusting and horrifying (don't worry, it wasn't a rotting corpse or anything..I would be SO out of here)...a mountain of cat shit and what smelt like 10 years worth of cat piss covering every inch beneath our addition. Looks like the old lady didn't even need cat litter boxes..the cats were climbing through the window into the addition and pissing and shitting for god knows how many years.

Fraser came upstairs and holy mother did he smell. I could not even describe fully in words, the stench. OH and did I mention he was covered in what looked like beige chalk dust that was probably 10 year old cat shit. He then proceeds to explain to me the amount of cat shit built up in the corner of the addition and the horror on his face told me he wasn't exaggerating. Oh but there wasn't any ants..that was a plus in this shit storm of a situation.

Looks like this long weekend coming up is going to make for some fun times. Nothing better then taking buckets of cat crap out of your house. Oh and did I mention Fraser's allergic to cats? Happy Tuesday!


Monday, May 12, 2014

First Day of Solids: Mommy Post

Harper started off today full of smiles and in a great mood. Perfect for her first day of solids! I've been super excited for this day for weeks now! But again also a little sad - her having solids finally, means she's getting big. Ugh. A tough reality for me! I'm trying to cherish everyday she is a baby because I know one day when she is 14 and has a serous attitude - I will miss the days of cute chubby cheeks and the inability to talk ;).
So off I went, chopping carrots and sweet potatoes. Steaming away till they were nice and mushy. I'm not a huge vegetable fan but oddly enough, I like the smell of cooked vegetables. Yeah, I don't get it either.
So while researching information on babies first foods, I stumbled across this book several times, 'The Healthy Baby Meal Planner' by Annabel Karmel.
This book is awesome at going through the weaning process and what foods are best for baby's first "tastes". It also has fantastic and seriously tasty looking recipes for toddlers - so I'm super happy I decided to buy this book over others.
And now for the awesome and totally fun part of making baby food - getting to use the Baby Bullet. It's an amazing little thin. Once you get the right amount of liquid - in this case breastmilk or some of the boiled water from steaming the veggies - it works amazingly! The veggies go all creamy and look exactly like jarred baby food, just fresher and and none of the crap! I cut up five medium sized carrots and one medium sized sweet potato and I was able to fill up the entire silicone mold that comes with the baby bullet - to put into the freezer. I was also able to fill one jar each for in the fridge. The fresh food can stay in the fridge for up to 3 days. There's a neat date dial on each of the jars, so you can keep track of exactly when you made the food. Harper got carrots mixed with breastmilk I had in the freezer. Since we hadn't got a highchair yet (getting one today!), I fed her in the vibrating chair. I put a bib on her that you can easily wash/wipe and she was all ready for her first food. I don't have any pictures as Fraser was recording me feed her - but I'm sure I can cut out a picture from the video and share that.
She did pretty well considering it was her first time having anything other than breastmilk. She gagged a few times, but I think that was just because of the different texture. Overall, I think she liked the carrots. She's going to get some more right after I am done with this post, so we'll see if she still gags.
The first picture above is right after I cleaned her up, she seemed pretty happy. Then the second picture was 15 seconds later of her trying to bust out of her chair. HAHA. I couldn't stop laughing, looks like she's trying to have a big poop. She's so damn cute! Tomorrow, sweet potato!!

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Happy Mothers Day: Mommy Post

 
Happy Mothers Day to all of the moms out there! Today was my first ever Mothers Day, which also marked exactly a year from when we announced we were expecting. This time last year we surprised our moms with a frame that had an ultrasound picture in it. We video taped both our families reactions and it was truly an amazing memory. I can't begin to explain how happy I am to be this sweet babies momma. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have such a sweet and loving baby. I'm so greatful for my little family. Hope all the moms out there have a wonderful day! 

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Deck Demolition: Home Post

Well, due to a recent ant infestation in our house (shiver) my hubby decided he wanted to competely tear down the old deck that is attached to our house. Carpenter ants, hence their clever name, like to build their nests in moist wood - like possibly an old beat up deck. So off he went, swinging a hammer around and what seemed like only 10 minutes - our old yucky deck is no more! 
We sprayed pesticide along the foundation of the house, patched up some obvious cracks in the foundation and have traps everywhere inside the house - already we have noticed hardly any ants (thank goodness). 
I just want to emphasize how much I fecking hate bugs..so they better be gone completely in the next few days!
Now we need to build a fancy new deck, which is exciting but can also be costly! Hopefully we can start building a new one soon! 

Friday, May 9, 2014

Homemade Baby Food: Mommy Post

 
Ahh I can't believe that the time has come. Where the hell has the last 6 months gone?! I still feel like it was just last month I was pregnant. Now I'm making the first batch of homemade baby food tomorrow! It makes me a bit emotional. My baby is growing up so fast! She's totally ready for baby food too - every time Fraser and I eat something, there she is, stairing wide eyed at us with her mouth open. Haha, cutest thing ever.  I'm sure she will hate actual food the first time she has it (which is why I'm recording it..ha). 

So Harper has been exclusively breastfed since she was born and usually you start off with baby cereal - not me. There's so much carp in baby cereal, that I didn't bother. I figured I would just hold out with food until she could have veggies and fruit and here we are! So it's happening..update tomorrow! First on the menu, carrots. Yum. 

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Not Enough Time In the Day: Crafty Post

So much crafty goodies, not enough time in the day to actually use them! I literally have drawers full of fun colourful papers, stamps, inks, markers, glitter, embellishments.. I could go on. However, having a six month old baby whom is almost always attached to the hip, makes it very difficult for me to actually make anything! This is frustrating for me, because I've always been a crafty person and have always loved spending time creating something fun. But now I am a mom and that always comes first above anything else! That being said, I am a firm believer in everyone having some time to themselves - which I haven't been doing. So I'm thinking the weekends coming up, I'm going to spend at least an hour creating something, while Harper hangs out with her daddy. 
The one thing I have been doing while Harper is content, is practice my Copic colouring. For anyone who doesn't know what Copics are - they're markers that you can actually blend together. So I stamp a number of images, and then while Harper is playing, I colour. 
These are images I would use on a card or gift tag or even a scrapbook page for Harper. Once I'm actually able to start creating anything, I will snap some pictures and share :)

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

What a night! Mommy Post

Last night was a bit crazy! Harper was up from midnight until 3 am with bright rosie cheeks and WIDE awake. I cuddled her, nursed her..and bubkiss. Then I realized she had a bit of a fever, so Advil it was. 
And through all of this, she was so freaking happy - so it wasn't half as bad being up until 3am! She layed on a pillow, with her feet on my lap - attacking her Sophie teething toy.. It was hilarious. She looked so comfy and content hanging out with her momma. Finally, once the Advil kicked in, she nursed and finally dozed off. Phew. I was tuckered out and so relieved when she slept in until 10:30! What a little peanut! 
Thankfully, she isn't completely miserable even though it is very apparent she is teething. It could be a lot worse. So a few late night hangouts I can deal with! 
But seriously, she loves this thing! Only toy she will attack for half an hour at a time! Where are those little teeth?!