Little Georgia On My Mind

I lost you!

littlegeorgiaonmymind — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:22:20 +0000

Last night I got home from a 6 day trip in Toronto. For those of you in Toronto that didn’t know I was there…rest assured, you were all in the same boat! We worked 14 hours a day for the entire trip so I could have easily been in Timbuktu. I have travelled a fair bit over the past year and am still not used to my uterus aching every time I say goodbye to Georgia. (Sorry for the mental picture but I don’t know what else would have depicted such a strong instinctual reaction.) It’s even harder now that she can communicate that she doesn’t want me to go.

This trip was a long one but because it was so incredibly productive, my uterus and I made out ok. We called home every couple of days and answered the “Are you here yet?” question each time. And I now get unprompted “I love you’s”! Oh joy…what a long wait it’s been. Anyways, what I really wanted to share with you was what I returned home to last night. Georgia and Fred were upstairs getting ready for bed but the moment she heard me come in, she started squealing. We made eye contact at the top of the stairs where she started to cry (I don’t think she knew exactly what she was feeling). Two or three sobs and she leapt into my arms for a big hug. Then she pulled back, took my face in her hands and said “I thought I lost you, Mommy! I am so excited you came back!”. Precious. Needless to say I slept in her ‘too short, too firm, too squeaky’ bed most of the night.

Fred left for Toronto last night. No doubt he’ll return to the same squeals I did!

Georgia’s Tired but happy Mom

Merry, merry Christmas!

littlegeorgiaonmymind — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 02:42:53 +0000

It is 10pm the day after Boxing Day and we couldn’t be happier. What a lovely Christmas! One of only 3 Christmas’ in the last 10 years that we’ve not travelled over the holidays so it was a remarkably relaxing weekend. Well, minus the 18 daily functions with more than 24 people at each. It was also our first Christmas in our new home. It was an adventure figuring out where all of our Christmas decorations would go. (And a shift from my usual red and gold Christmas tree to green and gold.) Here is a pic of our tree this year:

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...

It was also our first Christmas hosting the Christmas Eve dinner. (Does it still count even if mom still made the main dish? Seafood Casserole!) AND, our first Christmas Eve welcoming Grammy and Mel for dinner. It was a great crowd: Great Nan, Aunt Judy, Grammy, Mel, Nana, Poppy, Jeff, Joey, Jamie (our token Australian – everyone has a token Australian for Christmas, right?), Georgia, Fred and I. Our usual night of board game debauchery was side tracked with a bath time, sick Poppy, and tired …everybody.

Christmas day brought lots of excitement for all of us – most notably Georgia. Well, after I woke her up at 8:30am! Her big score was a new play kitchen:

New play kitchen!

But I would say her favourite gift was the cash register from Jeff and Sarah. If anyone needs any groceries, PLEASE visit us. I’m not sure how many more times I can buy a wooden clove of garlic. I’m going broke! Here she is in action:

Will you be paying with credit?

She was a gem throughout Christmas. No tears and not one time-out. I know! Shocking! She was very appreciative of everything she got and thanked most people with a hug and a kiss. She also loved helping to hand out presents to everyone else instructing them with every turn “You can open it and see what it is if you want”. Just in case we weren’t sure what to do..very cute. She made it to about noon before she looked like this:

We She enjoyed a long nap in the afternoon only to prepare for a wonderful turkey dinner at Nana and Poppy’s. Boxing Day festivities continued with the Melanson crew, a pretty dress, and a phenomenal jam session. Here are a few pics.

Rare family pic!

Party dress!

Boxing Day Morning

All in all, a great success. Lots of food, lots of family, and lots of laughs. How about you? Did you have a lovely Christmas? Are you ready for the new year?

Fred is off this week enjoying a well deserved vacation. I, however, am back at the office tomorrow. I’ll likely take Friday off to enjoy another four day weekend. Plans? Well, finally, decorating the basement playroom for Georgia! I’ll post pics once it’s done. And we’re also going to tackle the front entry closet. Hat, mitts, and scarves are going to send me over the edge. I need a little more organization so I’m not pulling out a pink zebra hat, ducky mittens, and a blue scarf. Not quite the office attire I need.

Merry, merry Christmas to our friends and family near and far. We send big hugs out into the universe in hopes that they reach all of you!

Georgia’s Mom

PS. Happy Birthday Ellen!! Sorry we’re not in Ottawa to celebrate with you!

Prayers Needed.

littlegeorgiaonmymind — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:56:47 +0000

I was sitting at the computer the other night reading through the blogs I follow…some design blogs, some mom blogs, and a few blogs written by people I love. One of the blogs that I have followed since the day I started mine is Alina’s CDH Story. It was the first website I landed on after hearing news of Georgia’s diagnosis, at 30 weeks of pregnancy. Ingrid and Alex, parents of Alina, were a couple months ahead of us in their CDH journey, having given birth to a beautiful daughter suffering from the same birth defect. She was born on December 20th, 2008, just four short months before Georgia (and she’ll be 3 in a few weeks!). When all Fred and I could do was ‘wait’ to see how our story would go, I lived for updates from Ingrid and Alex. I laughed, I cried, I worried. All for a little girl I had never met, from parents I had never met. But we would forever be bonded by our experience of supporting our child through a life threatening defect.

Alina had a more serious struggle with this defect than Georgia having needed a ventilator, a CPAP, two hernia surgeries and a bowel surgery…not to mention a long struggle with eating. But, after months of fighting, she came through and has been thriving and growing ever since! She’s a beautiful ‘almost’ 3 year old who is happy, healthy, and in great shape! As a result, the posts on their blog are few and far between…every couple of months (much like my posts have become fewer over time!). Well, this particular night, when I was surfing the blogs, I got notification that they had a new blog post. And it went like this:

Pregnant with CDH baby no.2

We just had our 20 week scan and got the devastating news that we were having a baby boy with CDH. We were always told that CDH was just a fluke but now we are convinced that it’s genetic. How could it be otherwise!
We’re going to find out more on Tuesday but it’s so much harder this time around. We know what to expect- or not to expect, we know there are no certainties until the baby is born and we also have Alina to think about. Heartbroken!

You can also read it here. It hit me like a tonne of bricks. As you can imagine, Fred and I have been a little gun-shy on baby no. 2 for a whole host of reasons, most importantly this one. The likelihood of this happening is incredibly low, but when it happens to someone you know and have followed for over two years, it’s shocking. The diagnosis was made at 20 weeks and it’s a fairly serious hernia. In fact, they are going ahead with a tracheal balloon which can only be used on the most severe cases. It’s explained here:

While in the uterus, the fetal lung constantly makes fluid that escapes through its mouth and into the amniotic fluid. When the trachea is blocked, this fluid stays in the lungs. As it builds up, the lung fluid expands the lungs, stimulates their growth, and pushes the abdominal contents (liver, intestine) out of the chest and into the abdomen. The goal of this treatment is to have a baby born with lungs that are big enough that the child can breathe and provide itself enough oxygen to breath on its own.

The balloon will be put in on December 15th and we’re all hoping it goes well, as it did for Aline. This family has been chosen to handle two fragile lives for a reason…but they can certainly use all of the strength and energy we can spare. So, I’m asking all of you to please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers over the next few months as they fight to keep their second baby (a BOY!!) alive and well. I’ll keep you posted as we get more info on their case.

Georgia’s Mom

Why do you love me?

littlegeorgiaonmymind — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:17:53 +0000

It’s been exactly one month since I last wrote. I was sick then and I’m sick now. Ah, fall. Ah, daycare. Actually, it’s not so bad. I feel worse for Georgia who is hacking up a lung every hour, on the hour. I think we’ve turned the corner though and I’m hoping that we’ll all get a full night’s sleep tonight. She remains in great spirits…why is it that adults are so cranky when they’re sick, yet children drive on as if nothing’s wrong? Hmm. Perhaps we should learn to swig back a little tylenol and carry on with building a toy train. Seems to work for little people.

Last week, Georgia and I were laying in bed at bedtime and I said “I love you”. To which she responded, “Why do you love me?”. I hadn’t really prepared for this question thinking it may come sometime later, like in another decade or so. So I gave her this response:

“Because you’re funny….and nice…and you share with other people. I love you because you’re fun to be around and you always teach me new things. You make me laugh. You are nice to your friends when they are sad. And you like to do thing by yourself until you get them right. I love you for all of those reasons.”

In truth, it was a pretty easy question to answer. I just had no idea if she would get it or not. Well, I think she did because she looked up at me with a big smile and said “Say it again.” So I did.

Georgia’s lucky Mom

PS. Sorry we didn’t post any Halloween pictures. Mommy is learning to prioritize. Halloween didn’t make the list. Luckily Christmas did so if I can get a few stamps in the next two weeks, most of you should have a shiny new pic of the little one to post on your fridge!

Fall fun

littlegeorgiaonmymind — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:24:50 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve posted photos of our little beauty so I thought, while I’m flat out sick with the flu, I’d take the chance to update you on how sweet Georgia is. Not that I’m biased. We went to Halifax this past weekend to visit with Mount A roomies Aly and Jodi. Aly has become quite a photographer and took some pics of the three beans playing outside. Here are a few:

How sweet she is...

Peekaboo!

Heading for the baseball tee. In patent leather shoes and a pea coat. What?

Cutey-petutie Luke!

Baby Natawee (Natalie)

Thumb? Check. Ear? Check.

Mommy LOVES me!

Oh, how I do! Motherhood just gets better and better! I’m heading to North Carolina this Friday and I’m already missing Georgia.

Lots to come in the next few weeks: Halloween (stay tuned for pics!), a visit from Jordan and Jaylen in Toronto, a Backyardigans show at the Capitol Theatre, and another visit from Grandma Peggy! November should be good. And then it’s December!? How did that happen? We’re thinking of a play kitchen for Georgia to foster her wonderful imagination (see previous post) as her Christmas present. Any other ideas for a 2.5 year old who loves dancing, the colour pink, and pretending?

We hope all of you are staying healthy this flu season!

Georgia’s Mom

e-tend

littlegeorgiaonmymind — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:29:23 +0000

I think we’ve encountered my next ‘favourite’ part of Georgia’s journey; it’s called e-tend. Well, in our terms, it’s ‘pretend’, but for some reason Georgia doesn’t include the pr part. Regardless, what an amazing phase of this two year old’s life! From being chased by giraffes to having different names to eating the stars…we’re e-tending all over the place these days! The most recent game of pretend we played was this past Thanksgiving weekend where Georgia decided she would be my chauffeur and drive me around. Here’s how it went:

G: Mom, I drive. You sit in back.

Me: Ok, let’s get our seat belts on. “Chook” (that’s the sound we make when we put our seat belts on)

G: Ok, where you want to go?

Me: Um, the moon. I’d like to go to the moon.

G: Ok, let me get my purse.

Clearly, there is some shopping to do on the moon. Who knew!?

Now, not only has Georgia developed a wonderful imagination, she has figured out the ticket. By ticket, I mean, the trick, the lever, the achilles, the key…etc. We were at the park and I had suggested to Georgia that she run up the ramp of the playground and come down the slide. She stood about a meter away from me, held out her arms and said “you carry me up the ramp”. To which I responded “Georgia, you can walk up the ramp all by yourself!”. She responded with “No, mommy, you carry me” so I went back to her with “Georgia, you can walk up the ramp…why do you want Mommy to carry you?”. Here it is. She said “Because I love you.” And off we went, Georgia in my arms, up the ramp and down the slide. She has subsequently used this at least daily to manipulate someone in her life. Smart…oh so smart.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We certainly did with multiple family get togethers, 25+ degree weather, and 3 days off! This weekend, Fred is heading to Ottawa to spend time with uncle John as he has knee surgery and Georgia and I are heading to Beaverbank to spend time with little Luke and baby Natalie. Road trips all around.

Georgia’s Mom

September Love

littlegeorgiaonmymind — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 01:23:50 +0000

I know most of you are probably concerned with the title of this post. Love? September? Same sentence? And I know we’ve not had the best summer this year (fact: Moncton had 328mm of rain this year in July & August, up from 150mm during the same time in 2010), but I still LOVE September. September is always a fresh start – new pencil case, new scribblers, new sneakers…what’s not to like? Plus, some of my favourite people have their birthdays in September! Hubby Fred, Uncle Joey, Aunt Marjorie, Cousin Leigh (today! Happy Birthday!), Cousin-in-law Jeff, and likely many other lovely Virgos.

September also allows you to sit on the sofa reading blogs and online shopping without feeling guilty that you’re missing beautiful sunshine! (ok, who am I kidding, I now feel guilty ANY time I’m online shopping because it’s become more of a sport than a leisurely activity. I’ve now started shipping packages to my parents’ place and my office. Hopefully Fred won’t read this post.) I have found lovely little things for Georgia’s room, her closet and even craft ideas for us to do together. So, I thought I would share some of my favourite mom-related blogs/shopping sites with all of you to get you on your September way of coziness. I’ll start with two and give you a few more later this month!

1) Design Mom: I love and envy this blog at the same time. Design Mom is a full-time blogger, designer, and MOTHER OF SIX. And if you take a moment to look at some of the fun things she does with her children, you might immediately quit your job and run to the dollar store. For example:

Design Mom Fun!

She outlines instructions for making what she claims is an obsession with pencil crayon jewelry making! Just click on the picture to check it out. She does some lovely things on her site and also points me to really cute kids clothing sites. A must read!

2) Oh Dee Doh: WARNING, they post several posts every day so if you are like me and obsessively like to read each one, you will be staring at the screen for quite some time! There are a number of people who post on this site with different ideas for birthday parties, fun kid food, nursery decorating, and general kid play. They have great gift ideas and links to educational sites. Click on the picture below to get to the site.

Knit your own air balloon - oh dee doh!

Happy reading everyone!

Georgia’s Mom

PS. Happy Birthday to Fred, Marjorie and Joey this week! (Note – you will have to share all birthday celebrations with Georgia. i.e. pretend it’s her birthday too. She feels that April 2012 is just too far away and I don’t disagree.

Why watch?

littlegeorgiaonmymind — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:08:30 +0000

Ok. I really anticipated that the word “mom” would be the one that I would get most annoyed with at a certain point in this parenting journey. Although I know my mom treasures the word more than any other, I do remember the following exclamation of frustration on at least two occasions: “I’m changing my name! It’s no longer Mom!”. Funny though, ‘mom’ isn’t bothering me as much as two others: Why and Watch.

We have moved into the ‘why’ phase. It goes something like this:

- G: Mom, why are we going in the car?

- J: Because we have to go to daycare.

- G: Oh. Why?

- J: Because Mommy and Daddy have to go to work.

- G: Why?

- J: Because we need to make sure we can buy food and clean jammies, and books to read.

- G: Why?

- J: Because…um, just because.

- G: Why?

- J: Because I said so.

- G: Oh.

Seriously. It was like a switch – overnight she became interested in every possible explanation to every possible question. I seriously don’t know how to respond to a “why” after I’ve said “I wipe your bum after you poop to make sure it’s clean”. Because I love you? Maybe that will be my new response. To everything. “Why does this shoe fit on my left foot but not my right foot?” “Because I love you.”. I like it.

Just to keep things interesting, we’ve also moved into the “Watch” portion of toddlerhood. “Watch this mom”, “Watch what I can do”, “Watch, Mommy!”. Is this a fundamental development stage in…what?…confidence? pride? jealousy? validation? insecurity? I don’t know, but whatever it is, please do not ask it of every random stranger we pass on the street. It’s gone so far that she’ll say “Watch what I can do” before she’s even figured out what is is she’ll show the person!!! Yes, really. If you’re so kind or polite to actually say “Ok, show me”, you may be severely disappointed with a simple yelp, jump, head turn, or fist pump because once you’ve committed to watching, she has to think of something to do in front of you. How can I possibly teach her that it’s ok to ask mommy and daddy but not the kid-less 18 year old next door?

Georgia’s Mom

PS. Grandma Peggy – Georgia is saving a cup of tea for you for your visit in September. I can’t promise it won’t be mouldy but I can promise it will have been saved out of love!

PPS. Yes, Fred taught her the fist pump. We don’t even have teenagers in our neighborhood, let alone teenagers hanging out on our front lawn. I guess he’s practicing for a future date.

Big Girl Bed.

littlegeorgiaonmymind — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 23:55:12 +0000

It’s been a big week in our household. Georgia has transitioned to a big girl bed! Most of her friends have already transitioned to a big girl/boy bed but without another sibling on the way and her disinterest in climbing out of her crib, it’s not been remotely urgent so we took our time. But the time has come and Georgia has transitioned very easily. She likes to climb in and climb out all by herself (big surprise) and she stays in bed until we come get her in the morning. I would suggest that this would change once she realizes she would have the run of the house if she just walked out her door but she is a Malpass. This means that she LOVES sleep. Not only does she love sleep, the waking up process is a luxurious, peaceful and slow entry into the day. (Unlike the quick adrenaline fuelled wake-up of the Sadler clan focused on efficiency and productivity…well, except maybe Uncle Jeffrey). Don’t get me wrong, I CHERISH the fact that Georgia approaches sleep as the Malpie do and hope that I will learn this treasured skill over time.

So, where does this beauty sleep occur? Here are a few pics of her re-arranged big girl room:

Hoo, hoo! Cute little doorstop I picked up at Pier 1. Adorable! (Adorable is meant to be read with a french accent)

Big girl bed! NAC peeps - recognize the quilt made by crafty Robyn?

Wall decals. Outdated? Maybe. Cute? Definitely!

Elephant bookends for Georgia's renovated change table

Sleep...oh yeah.

The best part about Georgia sleeping in a big girl bed? Getting to climb into her bed with her at 10pm when she’s sound asleep and stealing a snuggle! (Particularly if you’ve watched a sentimental movie about parents and their children…ok, ok, last night may have less of a snuggle and more for a sob fest as I thought about the little girl who lost her parents in “Life As We Know It”. Good movie btw.) Crying or laughing, lying next to her at night is my favourite part of the day!

Now, if only we could eliminate the diaper genie. Not a transition Georgia is interested in. We’re not terribly concerned about it and have been fairly delinquent in our attempts to integrate the potty into our daily routine. Perhaps we’ll go cold turkey for three days and see how it goes? I’m open to suggestions out there from you mom’s who’ve already conquered diaper-palooza.

Georgia’s Mom

The Rocks.

littlegeorgiaonmymind — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 01:34:05 +0000

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to The Rocks. If you’re from NB, you know that The Rocks are the Hopewell Rocks…amazingly tall flower pot like rocks sculpted by the highest tides of the Bay of Fundy.

We decided to take Georgia there to celebrate New Brunswick Day. What a fantastic outing for a family! Not terribly expensive (especially if you bring your own food) and wildly entertaining even if the tide is up. We did manage to get there in time to walk along the floor of the ocean…and we still found time to be terrified by the Moose mascot, to take a ride in the shuttle to the ocean, and play in the park before leaving for nap time. Here are a few pics from our excursion:

Look Mama - seaweed!

On the Rocks!

Dipping our toes...

So big!

Still time for the park...

I highly recommend this as a day trip or heck, even a half-day trip from Moncton! Fun for everyone and on a beautiful day…it’s quite a sight.

Georgia’s Mom