Calming the beast within

It's been a rough week for both Alexiss and I, she's not wanting to eat or sleep which means, in the end, both of us cranky and moody, don't get me wrong, she is napping, and she is eating but both aren't as enjoyable as they can be. While I was putting her down for her morning nap yesterday, all I could think about was having the time to have a hot breakfast of a fried egg on toast. What I got was an awake Alexiss and PB on bread.

Last night I decided to try tapping into our primal spirits, letting them free as well as soothing them with music. I downloaded some tribal beats and some Chakra meditations, and I'm relieved that she seemed to be reacting to both.

I played the tribal beat this morning, which had us both swaying and dancing.



Then for her nap I played the soothing meditation music and she's soundly, peacefully sleeping.... mmmm, maybe not.... she's stirring... bah, I hope there's some left over dinner in the fridge for me instead of having ANOTHER PB on bread meal. Gah...

The right tools for the job

With a front loading clothes washer, the washer tends to have a "smell" after awhile. I've tried a cleaner called Afresh, and it was.. okay.. but not perfect. I found one by Tide this week and loved it!

I just switched from dishwasher tabs to a Cascade lemon liquid, after seeing what a bang up job it did on my Mom's dishes.

I'm starting to realize that handy dandy one-use pouches aren't all I thought they were.

The big find this week was an eco-friendly infomercial cleaner claiming to clean even nail polish off of a carpet called Winning Colours out of a Barrie, ON. It can be used anywhere where water can be used. I have a sample pack and have yet to try it out, but, by youtube videos, it's the most amazing stuff since Oxy and D 17 (or whatever it was in the tube in the 80s)



It's available at: Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Lowes Home Improvement Warehouse, Zellers, London Drugs and others already supply Canadians coast-to-coast

Go. To. Bed.!

What a night! We had about 10 bed times last night, and some of those were after a finally successful bedtime and at 1:00 last night. Sorry for not updating more this week, but Alexiss is keeping me super busy now that she's mobile and I took some time during nap times for me this week. Yep, I actually got some knitting in! There's a book that's hit the waves called "Go the F**k to Sleep" a friend shared a video of Samuel L Jackson reading it and Mark and I laughed. It's for adults and based on older kids but the premise is close.

Every day is something new. She's matching up like items and turning them over in her hands, she's motoring around on foot holding onto furniture but her mode of transportation to get from point A to B is still crawling. My favorite this week is monster noises, I did manage to get a video but have to figure out how to share video's on the blog. Now when I tell people she's a monster (jokingly) she's actually proving me right. heh. One (point) for the Momma!

Last night's dinner was rewarding, compared to the usual fuss and me having to make two meals when the first goes horribly wrong to her taste buds. We all shared a pasta, meatball and carrot dinner, I knew she liked it cuz it took her almost an hour to be done!


Grocery shopping is a lot more fun now that Alexiss is sitting in the big-girl cart instead of her car seat or me trying to navigate a grocery cart amount of groceries on her stroller. She was so proud of herself the first day we tried it she had a smile the whole time. The next time I even managed to go grocery shopping and walk around in the WalMart too. Life is getting easier in some ways.


It's been relatively cool, but we had a few super hot days that made us all a bit uncomfortable. One night Alexiss couldn't get to sleep. I finally got her to sleep around 12:00 by sitting outside with her. The mosquitoes were happy, I was free game since I had my hands full and couldn't swat them away, their kids ate well that night I'm sure! The next day during a 5 hour power outage (read: no working fans) nap time meant me going down into our unfinished basement (yep, Mark's working on it) to get her to fall asleep and when she did fall asleep she was getting cold.. but not cold enough for the upstairs, sooo The Momma sat half way between the basement and the main floor...on the stairs and verrrry uncomfortably for almost 2 hours! Ah, how we love our kids, eh? We also spent time outside feeling and watching the wind (yes, you can.... ever notice how the leaves russle, the plants swoosh? That's watching the wind), Alexiss is still getting used to the wind and it has a fun effect on her, she stops what she's doing and gets all excited. Mark took some pictures of us on the front porch, in one she looks totally freaked out, but I assure you, she was enjoying it. Mark laughed for a day or two over the photo he got.

A great weekend!

Yesterday I woke up to greet my daughter to a black face and no idea, okay some idea, how she got it there. Yep, she started gnawing on her yummy crib! I couldn't get a picture because sadly, the camera that Oma and Opa gave to us decided to malfunction and won't turn on. Soooo... today we all went to Strathmore and I was determined to get a new digital camera that has video and good quality. It's a FujiFilm FinePix S3400. The woman at The Source was helpful beyond belief, and...shhh... just found out she's expecting.




I gotta tell ya.....Mark saved a dragonfly yesterday from a spider's web! That's all, no story, just remarkably sweet. He also let me crashed out early while he put our darling little daughter to bed. She's starting to sleep through the night again, thank goodness.... all the better to wake up chipper and a'hungry for some more crib railing. heheheh

Home again, Home again..jiggity jig!

What a whirlwind of a vacation! Alexiss traveled so well that I had comments from people on the plane how good she was...and that was just on the plane. Although she was getting tired of the constant visits near the end she held in like a trooper and never took it out on anyone, smiling and being social amid her irregular and jam packed schedule.

She grew so much in the short time we were gone, her hair started growing in, she started really crawling (I do miss the zombie crawl though) and pulling herself up in her crib! The standing in her crib is the biggest shock and bestest greeting! Thank goodness she didn't start that until the last few days at my parents because we had penned her in at the trailer using totes and piles of clothes/blankets on the pull out couch before the playpen/crib arrived and the crib wasn't very deep. I think I have the image ingrained in my mind of the one night at my parents; just as I was settling in for bed and playing on the iTouch, Alexiss started rousing. I figured if I was quiet enough she'd fall back asleep...until I heard the familiar "come-get-me" cry. I turned on the lights to her standing looking at me, patiently waiting for me to get my act together and realize she wanted a midnight shnack.

The visits! Oh, the visits! It was non-stop, sometimes two visits in a day! It was so fun to see everyone again and share Alexiss with them, she was a hit...which was a good thing..since I was often busy and distracted. Mom loved showing everyone what a great reader, or rather page-turner she is. The toys! The clothes! I can't believe I managed to get everything packed and home, Bill helped with the packing-puzzle the morning we left, if it wasn't for him I'm sure I would've had to leave some things behind.

St. Thomas was our first stop. Alexiss really enjoyed her time with Oma and Opa, the walks through the park and the fun and games, the BBQs and meeting family and friends. It was super special to have all of Mark's friends home and gathering and laughing together. Again, I was distracted making sure we were packed for a day/night out, getting her fed, changed and just general baby duty that I didn't always get much of a chance to visit.

In Niagara I reconnected with so many good long time friends, part of me wanted to just stay and tell Mark to pack up and move. Upon returning to Calgary I realized Carseland is still home.... if only here and there were closer.