Some Things I Didn't Know Before Becoming a Mama

I would be a big fat liar if I didn't say that life with a new baby is a huge adjustment. We are the last of our friends to have babies so we heard a lot of stories and were given lots of information... BUT, there's nothing like a baby of your own for reality to set in of life with baby. Here are some of the things that I have realized since our Logan has arrived:

1) That I would be so obsessed with my baby farting and pooping. Seriously. There is so much discomfort caused by gas pain that seems to be all day long. Every fart and poop is a success.
2) How many things I can accomplish one-handedly: laundry, emptying the dishwasher, household tidying and so many other things!
3) How friggin nice everyone would be when we're out in public... at the mall, in the grocery store, on hikes... so many people stop to admire little Logan!
4) That doing things around the house would become impossible. I thought being home all day would allow me to keep the house in tip top shape, bake treats everyday, and prepare supper... fancy supper. But... I can't even shower during the day and my baby requires to be held for about 8 of the 10 hours that Aleksy's at work, which seriously limits productivity. Its a good day when I can get my make up done before noon!
5) That third person conversations would occur more often than regular conversations somedays. Aleksy and I talk to each other through Logan. Like, "Mommy has to go to the washroom and Daddy's gonna hold you now".
6) That I would be part of a Moms group... and like it! I have been getting together with a few ladies weekly who I went to prenatal yoga with. It's really nice to share stories, information and relate to one another!
7) That following Logan's birth all our family and friends would be way too nice with making time to visit, bringing food/coffee, and gifts for Logan! Our friends Al and Steph even made us 3 pre-prepared crock pots meals.
8) That I would have read all the books we own for Logan so many times within the first 3 weeks that I can recite parts of the books... especially my prsonal favourites: the little engine that could and I love you forever. I am already pretty bored of the 25 or so books we have!
9) That life would fully revolve around the bottle. Logan must eat every 3 hours so every shopping trip and outing includes timing out what works best for his bottle and planning if we need to bring a bottle with us then pepping how to warm it...
10) That I would be one of "those Moms"... the ones that are hypersensitive to every squawk baby makes, be obsessed with my babies comfort... even the little things, and have a hard time leaving my baby's side. But... we have had our first evening away from Logan when he went to Nana's one evening after Aleksy's work and we went out for sushi and beer (the things I missed while pregnant!).

Well those are 10 things anyways... there are lots more but those are the first 10 that come to mind!

And this little guy turned 1 month on the 16th!

Our Thanksgiving

We had some pretty nice thanksgiving day weather! This Thanksgiving weekend we had thanksgiving suppers on Saturday and Monday. Saturday was my Mom's supper and Monday was Aleksy's parents. Saturday morning I spent making chocolate chip cookies and apple cake then we headed to Masonville for a quick shopping trip before heading to my Mom's. Logan's first thanksgiving supper! We had turkey supper both at my Mom's and Aleksy's parents. After dinner on Monday we went for a family walk around Lambeth! Digesting all that food... even though there were 5 of us eating, there was enough food for 15 people!

In other exciting events this weekenday,  we picked up Aleksy's brand new car on Friday! We are loving the luxury feel of the new murano! And it's so nice to have 2 cars now we can take since Logan did not fit in the jeep with his car seat and stroller. So long, farewell jeep,

And Sunday was our own little family thanksgiving day!

On Sunday afternoon, we stopped by the pumpkin stand by Sarnia and Hyde park. We got this family picture and a pumpkin to be carved later for Halloween!

 After we picked out our pumpkin, we went to sifton bog for a little hike. It was such a nice day and the hike was nice but super short!

Most of the hike was along this boardwalk. It was a bit narrow for a stroller but we were in no hurry so we just let everyone pass.

It was a nice hike but we probably won't go back because it's so short! Maybe 10 min to the bog and 10 min back...

After our pumpkin picking and hike, we headed home for our Thanksgiving tacos. Maybe not so tradition... but delicious.

On the First Weekend of October...

We had a really great family weekend the first weekend of October! We went full swing into fall mode and (by tradition) went to the Ilderton Fair and went apple picking with my sister, brother in law and niece.

We have gone to the Ilderton fair a couple times now and really wanted to go again this year. We had our first fair family outing on Staurday the 3rd. It was freezing! Well not actually.. it was about 10 degrees but it felt so cold with the wind and rain. I felt bad for Logan who had a winter sack, warm blanket and was covered by the stroller cover for wind... my crazy Mom side needed to get him home to the warm ASAP. So it was a shorter trip to the fair!

Here's Aleksy and Logan in front of the tent that shows off the best vegetable displays! We love looking at all the competition entries! It's always such a shame to look at the delicious baking entries that have a tiny sliver taken from it and the rest gone to waste...









We've gone to the Ilderton fair a couple times before and the first time we got some awesome smoked turkey legs, and the second time they were all sold out. So luckily this year, since there were not as many people at the fair because of the rain and wind we got a couple of our delicious, meaty turkey legs! Contrary to the turkey legs we got at Disney for over $20, these were $6. We took our traditional turkey leg picture (its the third of its kind):

We had to make lots of indoor stops when we were at the fair so we could warm up! They had lots of animals to check out, and also a bunch of kiosks selling things... one of which was selling homemade butter tarts so we got a couple for dessert (for after the turkey legs... our wholesome lunch). Because we left after a short while, we ended up bringing them home with us, and when we got home we paired them with the amazing apple cider that we also got from the fair! It just tastes like fall...

And Saturday evening was a pretty special evening... I had my first drink since January 6th!!! Why yes, I do know the date exactly... I even know that it was a Tuesday and I had a glass of white wine while watching the bachelor.

On Saturday, Aleksy and I popped the bottle of champagne that Nikki and Jon Jon got us to celebrate our new baby! I had to take it easy since it went to my head quickly... I could only do a couple glasses!
I also had a beer the next day... it was just delicious. Like a delicacy.

And on Sunday, we went apple picking with my adorable niece. She was a pretty popular girl on the weekend and squeezed in the apple picking to her busy weekend schedule of 2 birthday parties. Logan thought apple picking was pretty boring and slept the whole time. I guess Logan thinks a lot of the activities we do are boring... he hits the car seat and zonks out!

Here's Logan with cousin Rachel who picked out a Logan sized pumpkin for him from the patch.

Last year, we went to Appleland for apple picking (we actually went twice last year... once with my sister and brother in law and once with our friends Al and Steph!). We learned our lesson last year that Appleland is ridiculously expensive so we found another orchard to pick our own in London! Appleland charges $6 per person admission plus apples. We went to Dwarf tree orchard in Byron and picked our own apples and pumpkins and didn't have to pay admission! We just paid $16 for a massive bag of apples! We win!

Our apple picking family pic :) (we are very excited to have our own little family)

And with all the apples, there will be lots of apple baking in the next couple weeks! I made this delicious apple bread with the apples and it was amazing! I was looking to try baking something new with the apples (Pinterest is very helpful for that!). But I will def be making apple crisp too!

Diaper Party

The weekend just before Logan was born, Aleksy hosted a diaper party at our place. It was on Saturday September 12th. You know... just in the nick of time for Logan's arrival. It was a man only party, so I went over to my sisters and hung out for the afternoon/evening with my Mom and sister. Aleksy and I prepared for the day with preparing pork skewers, chicken burgers, and I made a massive potato salad. Aleksy's Mom helped with a caesar salad. Aleksy also got about 4 cases of beer for the occasion. We had about 12-14 guys come over: family and friends, so I was a little anxious about the cost vs. profit since it costs a lot to provide beer and food! But our family and friends were so generous that we definitely benefited from the party... everyone bought the large boxes of diapers, some brought more than one, we got wipes plus my brother got us a $100 gift card! So much preparedness for Logan.

This was the massive mountain of diapers that I arrived to when I got home Saturday night around 10:30pm. Since the party had started at 3pm, I figured maybe about half the men would have left by the time that I got home. Nope... everyone was still over and everyone was feeling pretty good. All the beer had depleted and Aleksy's Dad also brought over a Texas mickey of vodka which had a few inches off it. I broke up the party and over the next hour and a half everyone went home (so my pregnant self could get some sleep!)


The great part about the diapers was that we got a variety of sizes from 1-6! Everyone seemed to be on the pampers bandwagon, and Al & Steph were the Huggies box (just the one!). We are super prepared for many diaper changes!

Our Little Guy Has Arrived!

We are now parents!! To this adorable boy:

Our Logan was born on September 16, 2015 at exactly 37 weeks! He was born at 11:24pm at 7 lbs. He must have known that we were ready because I had just gone in to work on Monday the 14th and packed up my desk to be finished and my water broke the very next day; Tuesday the 15th! Good thing I am uber prepared and everything for him was ready! I had planned on having a few weeks off work to nest... 

 This is me the evening before my water broke (Monday the 14th). I was feeling pretty good after doing a 45 minute body sculpt class plus 15 minutes on the elliptical. I suppose I didn't exactly "take it easy", which I wonder may have contributed to my water breaking?

But this is the last picture I took while pregnant! I didn't get maternity pictures taken in time since I still had 3 weeks to my due date and I thought I would have my friend chelsea take some pictures when I was off work... but then Logan had his own plan! But I did take biweekly bump pictures throughout the pregnancy and some good shower pictures so those will be my moments of my Logan pregnancy.

And we finished his room completely about a week before Logan was born! The last couple pieces that needed to come together were the curtains (that came in the mail just in time), and the shelves that Aleksy made that are under the window!

We left the hospital on Friday the 18th and Logan had some visitors both at the hospital and at home. Logan has already met his Nana and Dziadek, Grandpa, Lisa, Grandma, Uncle Al, Aunt Steph, Aunt Sam, Uncle Travis, Aunt Steph, Uncle Kenny, cousin Rachel and cousin Brandon, Uncle Andrew, Aunt Andzelika, Uncle Paul, friends Serena and Natalia, Uncle Warren and Aunt Chelsea and friend Cadence! Yup... he's only 6 days old but has a lot of people who love him and needed to met him immediately!

We've had a lot of home time since Logan has arrived! Hes already had a couple baths, gone out for a couple walks and the rest of the time we're chilling inside cuddling, eating, peeing and pooping (and visiting with visitors). Tomorrow will be his first outing to see the Doctor for his 1 week check up! 

Happy Anniversary: 10 year & 1 year

The weekend of August 29/30, we celebrated our anniversary: August 28th was 10 years together and August 30th was our 1 year wedding anniversary. Aleksy planned the weekend as a surprise weekend away: I knew nothing. Didn't know where we were going or what we were doing. I wasn't sure exactly when the moment was when we were driving that he should tell me, but it ended up when we got to Toronto, he told me we were staying downtown and that weekend was buskerfest and we also had tickets to a comedy show on the Saturday. Everything was planed and paid for by Aleksy... and I got him some nice bourbon as a gift... even trade off right?

We left on Saturday morning around 10am and for to the hotel around 12:30pm. It was packed in the lobby when we got there... the Chelsea Hotel. There were people all dressed up for weddings that were at the hotel and then lots of people that just seemed like tourists... like us.

This picture is from our hotel balcony... I think the only hotel we've stayed at with a balcony!

On Saturday, one we checked into our hotel, we headed out to the buskerfest which was on Young St. right behind our hotel. There were a bunch of guys like this guy performing for everyone. And also other buskers that were doing things like sidewalk art. It was hard to see a lot of the buskering because there were sooooo many people that would gather around, but when we got a good spot, it was pretty sweet. Our first stop when we got to buskerfest: lunch! Surprise! The pregnant lady really needed some lunch. But it seemed like when you are looking for awesome lunch food, its hard to find but when you're not looking, it's EVERYWHERE. We ended up settling for a gyro and Aleksy has Montreal smoked sandwich (we saw all the awesome fish taco and other kiosks later).

This was on Young at the buskerfest. As you can see in the picture, there were approximately a million people on the streets. And lots of booths along the sides selling things (food, clothes, and other random things) and the occasional buskerer...

And the Toronto sign from the Pan Am games! As well as walking down Young St. to the busketfest, we went by the Eaton Centre and to Queen St. for a little shopping... It all made good sense because we were heading closer to our final destination of the day: Second City where the comedy show was... but... I was dying of walking. Aleksy's phone said we walked 16km that day and carrying around a baby (I was 34 and a half weeks!) all day forced me to need sitting breaks! When we were on Queen St. and realizing it was only 5pm, we called to switch our 10pm time to a 7pm show, which worked better because we were still full from lunch but had a lot of time to kill. Lucky us they still had space for the 7pm!

To get good seats, we checked in early at Second City. The show was actually at 7:30 but we got there for 6:45pm and good thing we did because we got a nice private table for 2 that was not right beside the stage.

One of the best parts of the Second City was that they had pregnant friendly drinks... I even had options: a whole list of them! This one was a "smartini" with pineapple, cranberry and lime juice... made me feel like it was an adult drink unlike pop. We also had some sweet potato fries to tie us over until after the show.

And the show was hilarious. It was improv so a lot of it was made up right on the spot, and the scenes were pre-established. There were about 4 comedians that did the whole show and it was definitely a show worth seeing... different from the stand up comedy that we've gone to at Yuk Yuks.
After the show was over, we decided to grab some late night (yes... late night is 9:30pm for us now) pizza... and churros... and head in to the hotel for the night. We cabbed it back to the hotel because walking for the day was over.

Us at out hotel the next morning :)

The night that we stayed there, the fire alarm went off at 1:30am. It was sooo loud and disruptive. The PA announced that everyone on the first 2 levels was evacuating and everyone else was to stay in their rooms... a little anxiety provoking. It sucked... but I was thinking how much ore it would have sucked with a baby or children with us (there were lots of families at the hotel!).

Although we saw some buskering on the Saturday, we returned Sunday because we thought we could get more out of buskerfest! After grabbing a bagel ad eta at the Panera bread, we saw a few more performances (like a man who was a pro yo-yo er). We also saw these amazing dinosaurs just walkig down the street. We saw them preparing to go out earlier int he day and got this picture from inside the urban outfitters when we stopped for a little AC break.

We also took a little tour of Kensington market on Sunday. I wish we could eat more because the food looked so good at Kensington market. Lots of street vendors with tons of different ethnic foods. We were holding out because the next stop was chinatown and we really wanted dim sum.

Oh and a band playing on top of the store...
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We drove and parked in chinatown to avoid more walking than necessary. Plus, parking in chinatown is the cheapest. We tried to explore the stores to get some good knock off stuff for baby Darnell, but really couldn't find anything.

But we did find a pastry shop... my favourite! We left Toronto with about 4 buns of goodness.... Conveniently, the pastry shop was right beside the dim sum restaurant we went to.

People love their dim sum on weekends in Toronto. There was actually a line to get in. But we decided that we didn't want to wait in the line, and agreed to eat at a "shared table". So, you can see here that there were another 8 or so seats that other people could have been seated next to us, but we had it to ourselves most of the time. You know... keeping it romantic on our anniversary.


We headed back to London just shortly after dim sum and buying our pastries. Wanted to make it back to get some groceries for the work week. It was a pretty sweet anniversary weekend!

Baby C's Shower #2!

On August 23rd, baby C was showered again with gifts from family! This time around, Aleksys Mom and Aunt threw the shower for baby at the Lambeth lawn bowling centre with Aleksy's side of the family (along with my sister and Mom!). It was the same spot as my bridal shower and is really a great shower spot with lots of space, a kitchen with fridge and oven for food prep and the big windows show the bowling green! After this shower, we are so set for baby. We just spent our babies r us gift cards on the last few items and we now have everything we need for baby! Except diapers... but the (man) diaper party is coming up Sept 12!

I got a couple uses out of this dress during my pregnancy! It's not a maternity dress but still fits me appropriately in the front with the big ol' belly! I wore it to Aleksy's aunts wedding in Rhode Island back in June and it was still good for my August 23rd shower... I'm not gonna lie, I'm really looking forward to fitting into normal clothes again.

This was taken in the backyard just before leaving for the 1pm shower!

My Mom and Aleksy's Gran at the shower. You can see in this picture the rubber ducky centre pieces and truffles which were on all the tables. You can also see my special rubber ducky necklace that Aleksy's Mom and Aunt brought for me to wear! This way, when I gave hugs, we squeaked.

Baby bingo! In this little bag was a lot of Hersheys kisses, which were used as bingo markers and also for everyone to take home! And the little rubber ducky pictures were on each bag and they were all different pictures a draw was done later at the shower for a prize for the person who had the rubber ducky drawn.


















And the food!!! The food was delish with sandwiches and roll ups, quinoa salad, BLT potato salad, mini quiche, veggies, fruit, mousse (chocolate banana which was amazing!), my most favourite peanut butter brownie squares, and cheesecake! We took home some cheesecake, PB squares and they are long gone now. Although I haven't had any cravings this pregnancy, I have been treating myself and baby to extra treats!

Me and my sister! My sister and Mom came to both showers. Steph ran the Bingo game and helped me to write what gifts were given to me on the cards... such a huge help!

After both showers, we have all the things we need for baby: car seat, stroller, playpen, clothes, blankets, our baby bjorn, playmat & exersaucer, baby bath tub, the vibrating chair, and so much more. Feeling so good about baby coming!

We are so lucky to have had so much help from our family and friends!