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April 1, 2004
7.5 Months
I don’t know how I could have forgotten to write about this last entry, but somehow it just happened, so I will put it into this one instead. I have had the opportunity to meet another iParenting writer, Jen. She is exactly what she comes across in her entries, full of energy and just a really bubbly personality in general. Her son, Sam, is just a doll, so articulate for a toddler who isn’t even two years old yet! We had a great visit, talking about all sorts of stuff about babies and moving and selling houses and moving houses… it was a great chat. Sam played pretty well with Iain, mostly allowing Iain to play with some of his toys :-) I am sure that we will have regular chats in the future, once we both move into our new houses and get settled down!
The first thing that I want to talk about in this entry is my friend and fellow iParenting writer on Pregnancy Today, Amy F. I have just recently found out what her birth was like and how her son (wow, another boy!) has been fairing since he was born. He hasn’t been doing so well, there were problems and you can go to her diary to find them all out. I just wanted Amy to know that I have really been thinking of her and Peter a lot lately, and just sending out tons of positive vibes to her new family. I have faith that everything will work out fine, and that things will settle down, it is just nerve wracking right now, and all of us here are just waiting for the positive news to start. So, welcome Peter into this wonderful world, you will soon know how amazing it really is.
On another note, I have found out that another friend of mine on iParenting PG Today, Jen H, had her baby too, and another boy it was as well! Welcome Andrew into this world, I hope your journey is exciting and long. Her birth seemed to go really well, although the birth story isn’t up yet. The whole new family appears to be doing well, and I guess the most surprising thing is that Jen had her baby before Amy, and WELL before Amy. I had completely thought that Amy would go first! :-) Congratulations Jen, on a job well done!
So, I had hoped that this past two weeks would be slightly less intense and chaotic, and yes, while it was less intense in some ways, in others it increased to an almost unmanageable level. And the chaos remained.
I have possibly made all the decisions that I need to make regarding the house, and things moved along at a brisk pace for the last two weeks of the month. Baseboards went in, granite countertops were mounted, appliances were slid in and hooked up, final coats of paint were applied, the hardwood floor was finished, and all the tile was laid and grouted. The house is looking fantastic, even our front porch is in, so no more walking up a board to get into the front door! We’ve been by a couple of times after work with Simon so he could look in the windows and see all the changes, but up until just a couple of days ago it really didn’t look too different.
A potential problem that has arisen is that the electrician didn’t get in to run our speaker-wire down to where the stereo is going in the cabinets in the living room. Despite me doing up meticulous drawings when we were purchasing the house that showed him exactly where the speaker wire was to be located, he has managed to mess it up. :-( Currently, the wires are sitting in a box at the back of the TV cabinet. Now, you tell me, but shouldn’t an electrician worth any salt know that a 27” TV and a receiver, CD player and DVD player are not ALL going to fit into a 31” square box? He was supposed to install a conduit for all the wires that these electronics require to run through from the TV cabinet, which is above the fireplace, to the bookcase cabinet, down beside the fireplace. Well, he didn’t get that done in time, and the cabinet maker installed the cabinets and the whole thing was painted. So now, we are sitting with no way to get the wires to where they need to go, and speaker-wire located no where near the place where it gets plugged in. In addition, as if that wasn’t enough, he also didn’t get the chance to run an electrical plug to the side of the cabinets where the stereo equipment is located. So, I don’t know what is going to happen with that. Hopefully, we will be able to retro-fit some sort of conduit for the wires, we are waiting to do that until the equipment is unpacked and we know what wires and such we are dealing with.
I have been able to go into the house almost every other day, just to check things out and make sure that things aren’t being forgotten in the rush to get everything completed. For example, in the drawings of the house, it shows that there is a door to the master closet, which is off of the ensuite bath. Meaning, you have to walk into the bathroom to get to the closet. However, there was no door framed in, but I was able to tell the builder that one needed to be put in, first of all because it was in the drawings in the contract, but secondly, because if there is no door there, all the steam and humidity from the shower, which is directly adjacent to the closet, will just go right into our clothes. And yeah, it might be nice to never have to iron anything, I don’t particularly relish having our clothes rot because there is too much humidity in them either. Another thing that I caught was that the tile guys were laying down the wrong tile in the master bath. I had picked a nice chocolate brown tile for the floor there, and a soft green for the laundry room. However, the fellow had gotten the two mixed up! Fortunately, he was still in the process of laying it, and so was able to pry it up and reuse much of the tile. After that, he made me promise to come by the next day to make sure he was laying the right tile in the right places :-) Despite that little hiccup, the tiles look great. He is laying the 13” square floor tile in an offset pattern, so that the grout line of the adjacent tile is in the middle of its neighbour. It looks great! So great in fact that I am going to have this done on all floor tile for any future houses. I mean, you go to the trouble of choosing a nice tile for your floors, but when it is laid down you start to not notice it because it is just in a grid pattern. I find that my eye picks up this pattern more and I SEE the tile now :-)
Something else about the house… I am loving the paint colours that I chose :-) This has definitely got to be one of the hardest things to do when you are buying a new home and have the option to make this decision. Colours SO influence me, and I choose with that knowledge in mind. Our last house had fabulous colours. We decided to go really bold with them, and almost everyone who walked into the space exclaimed ‘wow, I/we LOVE your colours!’ We had a deep rich red as the main floor and upper hallway colour, including the kitchen as it was an open concept layout. For the entry level and the office on that same level, we chose a lovely mellow yellow, so that you weren’t walking into this powerful red, but instead into a really sunny space. The bedrooms I choose a dusky blue, mostly because blues are a relaxing colour, and bedrooms should be a relaxing place. However, with this house we wanted to do something completely different :-) So, I went and chose a warm medium brown for the main living areas, again including the kitchen as an open concept layout, a brown based mossy green for the master suite and guest room and then another sunny yellow for all the bathrooms, the nursery and the back entry on the main floor. So, while it is still hard to truly gauge the colours because there are no window coverings up and none of our furniture is here, I am getting really excited because I think I made the right decisions!
Lastly, we are having a ton of troubles with our bank :-( We had gone into the bank handling our lines of credit in February to set everything up so that we didn’t have to do anything when we got here. Well, our banker back in Halifax is a freaking idiot. That has now been proven time and time again. She has caused me so many headaches that it is just not funny anymore. I obviously don’t want to go into details about our financial stuff here, but just wanted to write that this has made the past two weeks really difficult for both Simon and myself. She was sending off emails to Simon at the end of her day, saying that she needed something, THE NEXT MORNING! And with the time difference, Simon was getting the email after lunch, and phoning me in a panic, telling me the email and then leaving me to deal with the problem. And because of Iain’s and my schedule in the afternoon, it left me with only about an hour and a half of useable time to get it done, sometimes even less. And everyone with a baby understands actually how LITTLE that amount of time is. Argh! It is pretty much all over now, but she has essentially cost us over $500 in extra lawyer’s fees and other real estate fees. I am going to make darn sure that I get all that money back from the bank, you can be sure of that!
Simon and I have been talking about what direction we want him to take in his new job here. We have finally decided that he is going to work hard to become management there, to be able to take the company in a direction it is not pursuing right now. However, to do that, you have to look the part. Currently, the majority of the office wears fairly casual pants and casual dress shirts, many are plaid. It is an engineering firm, so it’s not like all the guys are aware of the cutting edge of fashion, but plaid? Plaid should not make its face known around an office, unless you are in Scotland and wearing your family plaid. Maybe, not even then! :-) Anyway, we have gone out a couple times now to the couple of men’s stores here to look at getting some suits and dress shirts. Simon, however, is a big man. He’s got huge shoulders and huge tree trunks of legs. Fitting him in a suit is a fairly difficult endeavour. Unfortunately, the stores here do not go above a 48” jacket, and Simon needs a 52” or so, and the Tall stores are just tents on him, they fit so poorly. So, we ventured out to Harry Rosen, THE men’s store in Canada, to have a look at suits there. We wanted to see if they had our size, what cuts fit him etc. We were planning on buying one GOOD suit, and then having other medium quality suits. The salesman who greeted us was very nice. He asked us what we were looking for, and guided us to a company that would fit Simon better. Upon measuring him, he suggested going with a made to measure suit, essentially, a suit tailored to Simon. This was all REALLY fast for us, we were making decisions on the fly almost, as I had realized that I had forgotten Iain’s mid-afternoon bottle and it was approaching the time when he started to get hungry now. I had said that at the worst, I could nurse him, but the fellow got his in-house tailor upstairs right away and they started taking measurements. Iain was doing great crawling around and doing a great job finding pins on the floor, which I promptly picked up :-)
As a side note, the day before we had gone to Toys’R’Us to check it out, we hadn’t been for a few months and wanted to look at toys for Iain to play with now that he is so much more aware of his surroundings etc. While we were there, they had a sale on some umbrella strollers, and we bought one. Iain, so far, has been strolling about in the big stroller that comes with the whole travel system. The buckles are a little too big for him, he really is SO skinny, but otherwise he took to it like a pro! :-)
So, we were getting all fitted out, and things were happening really fast. I drank my mochacino and Simon was being put into suit jacket after suit jacket, to make sure that they had the right basis for the measurements they were taking. We left to go home and feed Iain, feeling somewhat stunned. We talked all night about it, and the next day, decided to put a hold on the order and go in and talk to our salesman (although it doesn’t do him justice to call him that, you are a personal client of his now, he comes in whenever you need him to, regardless of whether he is working that day or not. The whole thing was that we felt that we walked in to a Mercedes Benz showroom and walked out owning a BMW, and didn’t have the foggiest notion how we got there. :-) We are looking to build Simon’s wardrobe from scratch, so everything from belts, shoes, pocket squares, shirts and suits, and we are the type of people (I think you all know this by now) that want to understand WHY we made that decision of this item over that item. It wasn’t the cost of the suit, we understand that we wanted a good suit and that it was going to be expensive (on the order of $2000). So, we went in the next weekend to talk some more. We also wanted to choose another fabric, we were initially going with a very subtle grey stripe, but Simon did some research on men’s wardrobes that week and found that the navy suit is really the foundation of the man’s wardrobe, so we looked at some navy fabrics.
It’s not to say that we didn’t learn a TON of stuff when we were initially in, from both the tailor and our salesman, it’s just that our learning curve is so steep right now, we needed MORE information before we were comfortable making that type of decision. We made sure that we had bottle and more toys for Iain this time, but as it turned out, we didn’t even need it as he fell asleep on the way there, and I was able to transfer him directly to his old stroller without him waking. He slept the entire time we were there, us checking in on him every so often, as he was in a room at the back clearly dedicated to kids, with toys, a TV and various Disney DVD’s kids could choose from to watch while their Dad’s were busy in the store :-) So, we were able to have a lengthy chat about all sorts of different things, and the end decision was that we went with the suit, but we chose the navy fabric. It will be ready in about 4 weeks, just in time for us to hang it in our new closets, in our new house!
I have met a couple of mums here, the first through Simon’s work, she is the wife of his boss and gave birth on February 22nd, I believe. So, a newborn, and she is SO small compared to Iain. Was Iain EVER that small? Actually, he wasn’t because even at 6 weeks old, she isn’t 8lbs yet, and Iain was 8lb 10oz. She told me about a Mum’s group that meets at a church close to where we live, and also told me about another Mum that she knew via her workplace, who has a son very close to Iain’s age. She also goes to the get-togethers. So, I have been to two meetings, and have enjoyed it quite a bit. There are a large number of babies born in August or September, probably around 7 or so in total, for a group of 10-14 mums that have been showing up. What happens is I drop off Iain in the nursery upstairs, check him in and tell the ladies anything that has been happening that week and if he will need a bottle or a diaper change, then I go downstairs to meet up with all the other mums who have come that day. There is a lecture session on a theme, this session is on reading to your baby, and then because it is a Christian church, there is a little bible session, followed by a snack. After the snack we break up into two groups, one who do crafts, and the other who do Pilates. I have chosen the Pilates, and the teacher who generally leads us is on training, so we have been doing a video in her absence. Wow, the video is brutal! I am really glad that I have started this, I definitely think that I will incorporate Pilates into my fitness routine. I don’t mind the bible session, if I practise any religion, it is Buddhism, so I obviously don’t share the beliefs that they talk about, but I can see other things in the sessions that pertain to my life and the way that I choose to live it, so it’s fine to sit and hear the church member talk about the topic they have chosen for that day.
The two mums are really nice, I look forward to getting to know them more, and the other mums at the group are also really nice. The only problem is that many of them are talking about their daycare situation and what waiting lists they are on for when they go back to work. This is hard for me, because obviously, I am not going back to work. I would really like to start some relationships with mums who are not going to have to go back to work, so that in the summer I will have friends to get together with and stuff. I know in my heart of hearts that it will take time, but at the same time, it was hard listening to them talk about their troubles, because I simply don’t share them. Apart from that, I am really starting to look forward to Wednesday mornings, because it adds just a little bit of routine into my life, and after hanging out with all the other kiddos, Iain is just absolutely exhausted and falls asleep almost as soon as I close the van door. It’s quite cute actually! Then I am able to transfer him to our bed in the apartment while he still sleeps and I can do some things and pump, he wakes up, eats and we go out again. Wednesday’s are turning out to be a nice day. I can’t wait for next week, when I get to drive to the church, from our HOUSE!! :-)
They invited me to join them at this Mum’s and Tots fair that they were going to that weekend, it started on Friday and we were to meet early in the afternoon. I arrive at the grounds and am waiting outside for a few minutes when I think to myself that perhaps they are inside. I go inside and thankfully, they were there after all. I had begun to think that I had missed them! The fair was incredible :-) Apparently it was the 14th consecutive year that it had been run, and it was FILLED with all sorts of kids or mums related companies. Everything from Huggies and Heinz booths to second hand clothing store booths, Usbourne Books, Discovery Toys, Tupperware, child safety displays… I was simply boggled at all the information. I had initially thought when I arrived that I would just put Iain into the new umbrella stroller, but then I looked around in the parking lot to see a ton of mums with the big huge strollers and so decided to take that one instead, and boy, was I glad I did so. I had to use the undercarriage compartment to carry all the leaflets and samples and things that would have never fit in the small bag the umbrella stroller has. I bought Iain’s first pair of Robeez shoes, they had a great deal on them, $24 at the fair, usual was $29 plus tax! The pair I got had these little turtles on the toes. I wanted the pair with the dumptrucks, but alas, they were sold out in his size. I also bought a subscription to the city newspaper, because with it came a cookbook and a $25 gift certificate to a home store here, like I can’t use THAT, now that we have a new house to furnish! :-)
All in all, all of us had a wonderful day out together, I had to cut it a bit short so that I could go home and pump, I was already an hour and a half late by that point and my breasts were telling me rather pointedly that they needed to be emptied! It was really nice cruising around and talking to other mums and just being in a general atmosphere of baby-friendlyness! I could barely wait to get home and go through all the stuff that I had collected to see what I wanted to do, such as activities and classes and things of that nature. I am going to start back up with my thesis in May, so I can’t be doing too much, but even getting to know what classes and activities are available here will be great. This summer I am definitely going to do a couple of activities. By then the thesis should be just awaiting my defence, so I will have a lot more time to just go and have fun with Iain!
This takes me back to the house for the last bit of what has happened in the past few days. We closed on the house on Wednesday, but went into the lawyer’s office on Tuesday to get all the paperwork done. That way, we didn’t have any hold-ups on the closing day. We did the inspection and while there is a decent sized laundry list of things that are still incomplete, we decided to still take possession because we have the utmost faith in our builder that he will complete all the items on the list. On Thursday morning, the movers arrived with all of our stuff, and they were just the nicest two men! There were instructions to unpack the items that were in Iain’s room when everything was packed up in Halifax, so these were the first things off the truck. We had moved our closet wardrobe boxes and our bathroom boxes into his room the night before everything was picked up and so these boxes were also the first to come off, thankfully! I had been getting just a little tired of wearing the same skirts and tops for the past month or so. Also, the weather here has been fantastic, so warm it’s almost been like summer, and all I have is my winter wardrobe… I have been boiling! Simon had taken Thursday morning off, and Wednesday afternoon, and was planning on taking Friday afternoon off as well, just to help with the unpacking stuff, even though we had paid for an unpacking service with the move.
Last night, we were waiting at the house for Sears to show up and deliver our furniture. Simon had gone out to a nearby Greek restaurant to pick up some dinner, while I still waited at the house. Well, at 8:30, I finally phone Sears to find out what the heck was going on, only to be told that the sofa and ottoman were not in stock yet and that there was no phone number to reach us at, and that was all. Well, pardon me, but how about you look up my file in the computer and see that there is indeed a phone number to reach us at, I had made sure of that on our appliance delivery file, and they are all linked up, because they all have my name and my old Halifax address. So, we trudge on home to the apartment to sleep. We don’t know when we’ll be getting our new furniture.
Iain news… let’s see. He is so proficient about crawling that it is not even an issue anymore. He roams about at will, and plays very contentedly with Brook. He LOVES Brook’s Kongs and bones, unfortunately, and I have caught him too many times already putting those things into his mouth, but what can you do? Dog and baby, baby and dog… He gets the HUGEST grin and makes the most lovely sound when he spots Scarlett, he is so excited by her! It really is quite cute and funny. I mean, there is no way that he is ever going to be fast enough to catch her, but try he does! When I hold her so that he can pet her, he reaches out his hand very tentatively and then GRABS her fur. The great thing is that she is so nonplussed by him. She doesn’t utter a sound or hiss, or try to scratch, she only tries mightily to get away is all. Quite funny! :-)
One thing that we have noticed is the lack of sound coming from Iain’s general direction of late. We have only now figured out that he stopped almost the same exact day that he figured out crawling. He literally just went silent. He was SO intent on getting this new development down, that he just couldn’t expend any energy on anything else, not even sound. I mean, he went almost completely silent. And has remained so for weeks now. Just this past week, I was picking Simon up from work when what comes out from the back seat? Babbling! Wonderful, articulate, nonsensical, beautiful babbling. It was funny though, it was very similar to the first noises that Iain was making, almost as if he was re-learning how to make noises and play with his mouth and tongue to make different sounds. He has become increasingly articulate for the remainder of the week, and I am quite glad to have my babbling little boy back. I missed him! :-)
He is completely fascinated by crinkling items right now. So, plastic bags and paper are really quite intriguing to him. Of course, both of these are dangerous and I try mightily to keep them away from him, but it doesn’t always work. I have a couple of very hilarious pictures of him attacking a package of toilet paper, him crawling bodily over on top of it, the noises that it made as he did so completely fascinated him. And now of course, that he is such an excellent crawling machine, I am going to have to be even more on guard about what he gets into. I guess this is called parenthood, huh? :-)
That is about all, I think, for this entry. Or at least, I hope so! The house and moving saga will continue in the next entry…
Once again, congratulations to Amy F and Jen H!
**Talk to Me**
Does colour affect you too? And what shades do you find you enjoy most? What colours are YOUR living spaces?
Do you belong to a Mum’s group that you don’t share all their beliefs with, and how do you deal with that?
What household items did your baby become fascinated with, despite you trying to get them away from such items?
Namaste, Laura and Iain
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