Honey, I'm home!

The old me would laugh, instead I try not to cry

Whoever said staying home was easy - they told a big lie.

Note to self: he’ll be home soon – try hard to be nice

He’s the best husband ever, the love of my life!

He’s helpful, he’s handy, and a great daddy too,

I’ll greet him with a kiss and say ‘it’s so great to see you!’

Uh-oh, I hear the babies – that nap didn’t last

I could have squeezed in a shower, I should have moved fast.

Thank God, there’s the door, daddy’s finally here!

I sigh with relief and the babies start to cheer.

‘Honey, I’m home…that dinner smells great!’

“What’s that supposed to mean?  And why are you late?!?”

Oh crap – hold it together, that’s not what I meant.

But it’s so hard to be friendly when I’m utterly spent.

Let’s try this again – I should ask him about his day:

“Can you hold the baby, and put the laundry away?”

‘I will in a sec, let me take off my shoes…

Did the girls give you trouble? Are you feeling the baby blues?’

“No! I’m just fine!” I defensively say.

In my head, the greeting didn’t quite go this way.

Despite all of that, I get a hug and a kiss,

Now I finally remember the hubby I missed.

I’ll try again tomorrow to be a good mom and wife,

Right after I clean the kitchen and chase after my life!

Baby Brain

Baby Brain

Throw the dish in the oven, note to self: ‘do not burn’

How I wish daddy were home so he could take a turn.

Teach the big one her colours, teach the little one to roll

Just found my first grey – mommyhood sure takes its toll.

‘Come on, eat your snack’, we’ve got no time to spare

Oh dear, how did my gum wind up in your hair?

And oatmeal on your shirt, after I just got you dressed!

If only I could trade in some chores for a rest.

The laundry pile keeps growing, the kitchen won’t stay clean,

I would love to be nice, but my bark is getting mean.

Change a bum, pay some bills, don’t forget to clean the tub,

The little one just spat-up, I guess she needs a scrub.

Note to self: ‘they’ll grow up fast, just enjoy them while you can’

Easy to say, hard to do…maybe it was written by a man

Phew – they’re both napping, should I take a wee break?

Hmmm, skipping naps is usually my biggest mistake.

Okay, maybe just for a minute…but why do I hear a bell?

Not the phone, not the alarm - oh S#*&, what’s that smell?

Gassy Kassy and Rya the Ball of Fya'

Incase any of you have been wondering whether I’ll be changing the blog name (since I’m sure it keeps you up at night ; ) I’ve decided to keep it.  Since Rya is turning into a nurturing little assistant mother herself, I now interpret it as mommyhood with Mariah!  So here’s the latest scoop on my girls:

Gassy Kassy

As the name implies, Kassiah has a bit of an embarrassing problem.  Despite her sweet little appearance, she manages to make the stinkiest farts that even sound like they should come from an adult.  I make sure to quickly tease out loud her when they happen in public so no-one suspects that I did it.  Just like Rya, we barely remember Kassiah’s real name since we prefer to call her by nicknames.  Her main one at the moment is ‘Tu-Tu’ (don’t ask…Ivan usually picks the names and there’s no method to his madness).  Tu-tu has really awoken to the world around her in the last couple of weeks.  She’s started giving huge smiles when you talk to her, that light up her face and make her many chins squish together.  And she’s starting to try and ‘talk’ back with coos and gurgles.  My mom is in town to help for a couple more weeks and she has become Tu-tu’s bff.  She loves snuggling up on her Nana’s shoulder or just lying in bed next to her for some pillow talk. 

Rya the Ball of Fya’

Rya’s vocabulary is really exploding these days since she picks things up without us even realizing (which probably means I should stop swearing around her soon).  My favourite words of hers are: ‘barsh’ (barf - which she says while trying to help me wipe baby’s spit-up), ‘yush’ (yes – which she uses to answer all questions even if they’re not yes/no ones), ‘bass’ (bath – her favourite time of the day), ‘are yee?’ (where are you – she exclaims whenever she’s looking for someone/something), ‘ha-woah’ (hello – as she greets the operator on the phone when she pulls it off the hook), ‘aww-ee’ (sorry – which she enjoys saying so much that she sometimes purposely smacks the baby just so she can say it), and my all-time favourite: ‘co-co-kadoo’ (cockadoodledoo!). 

I’ve started taking her to a playgroup where she not only continues to bully her bud, Cam, but also the kids around her – even when they’re bigger than her.  “No-no!” she shouts as she takes toys away from them, pushes them out of her way, or just gives them her infamous dirty scowl for no reason.  I do my best to chase after her when it gets out of hand, but I’m really lucky that most moms are understanding and sometimes even find it funny.  When other moms see Rya pulling Cam by the hand or hugging him against his wishes, they usually laugh and say something like ‘I guess we know who wears the pants in that relationship!’.  And like most good wives, Liza and I just smile because we know who wear the pants in our own marriages ; )  I’m definitely a bit concerned about how Rya’s little attitude might evolve over time.  But from a teacher’s perspective, Ivan tries to remind me that it’s sometimes easier to teach a bully to play nice than it is to teach a passive child to stand up for themselves.  So when she’s not being too wild, I try to bite my tongue and be glad that she’s going to be a confident girl who is very comfortable in her own skin. 

And to leave you with a funny story to laugh at: Ivan recently taught her to pretend it’s a magic trick when puts a blanky over Tu-tu and then pulls it off screaming Tada!  So now when I try and feed baby discretely under a nursing cover, Rya runs over and exposes her poor mama, shouting Tada!

'This One and That One'

Life with two baby girls is busy, but full of excitement.  People ask if we’ve started to mix their names up as yet, but so far we usually refer to Mariah & Kassiah by nicknames or as ‘this one and that one’ (where Kassiah is the default ‘this one’ and Mariah is ‘that one’…unless one of us is holding Mariah in which case she becomes ‘this one’ and Ivan and I both end up confused!).  I suppose it’s a bit early to tell, but at this point we’re predicting that they’ll have opposite personalities, kind of like Ivan and I:

This One (a.k.a. Kassiah)…

How can I say this politely?  Well I can’t – Kassiah is a bit of a crybaby.  She seems to be a stressball like her mama; usually looking nervous and tense.  Her favorite hobbies include whining and complaining, but she has such a cute squeaky little voice that it’s hard not to give in to her constant requests for cuddles or snacks.  In fact, she’s snacked so much that she’s grown from a tiny 6 pound 7 ounce newborn into a chubby little 10 pound ball, who carries most of her weight in her cheeks.  As evidenced by the bags under my eyes, Kassiah prefers to nurse for a few minutes every couple of hours rather than doing good efficient feeds that would help her sleep for longer stretches.  Whereas Mariah was a calm baby who occasionally screamed her head off, Kassiah prefers to spread her emotions more evenly by spending much of her time releasing a mild ‘whaah’.  She’s definitely not colicky, but she’s a fussy little diva who loves lots of attention and affection. 

Of course we love this little girl to pieces, but to be honest, it’s been a slower forming bond than it was with our ‘first born’.  With Mariah, we had endless hours to gaze into her eyes, reflect on how our lives changed, and just enjoy each new sign of her development.  We still have moments like those with Kassiah, but since we’re trying hard to continue giving Mariah lots of attention, it’s hard to always stay present with the little one.  In a way though, it helps us appreciate our time with her even more, since we try to squeeze in as many hugs and kisses as we can when we’re with her.

‘That One’ (a.k.a. Mariah)

Where do I begin?  Mariah continues to grow into an active, clever, and naughty little monkey!  Now, since us parents love to find excuses for our children’s behavior, I will give you the objective and subjective versions:

1)   Mariah is the latest type of vegetarian – the type who just so happens to not eat vegetables.  Translation: Mariah has once again become a picky eater who would much rather pull out any shreds of protein or nutrition I sneak into her lunch, and just eat a bowl of plain rice or pasta.  Luckily for us though, she has become addicted to popsicles so Ivan tricks her with healthy ones filled with beets, carrots, yogurt and whatever other vitamins he can stuff them with. 

2)    Mariah is a leader, not a follower.  Translation: She’s somewhere between a bossy-boots and a bully.  Whenever she visits with her friend, Cam, who’s just 3 months younger, she steals his toys and aggressively herds him around as if she were twice his age.  And if you think she’d be any better with adults – guess again.  Mariah has taken to back-talking her father and I in angry baby jabber.  At first was cute and hilarious, but since we don’t want her to become a brat…we have to try hard to hide our smiles and remind her that we’re the parents.

3)    Mariah responds really well to positive reinforcement.  Translation: She’s a bit of an attention seeker.  Whenever she says a new word or does something impressive – she insists on repeating it in front of each adult in the room until everyone has acknowledged her.
4)  Mariah is a free spirit who dances to the beat of her own drum.  Translation: She's wild.  

In all honesty though, Mariah is truly blossoming into a gorgeous, charismatic little girl who always manages to bring smiles to everyone around her.  Her vocabulary expands each day and is probably somewhere around 50 words right now.  She calls herself ‘Rya’ and the nickname suits her just fine since it’s a bit less dainty and a bit more tomboy-ish.  Rya has fallen even more in love with the outdoors this summer since we’ve had great weather.  We go out in the backyard several times a day for Mariah to release some energy running around barefoot, playing with bugs, or picking peas from the garden.  In fact, we had our first cold rainy day in a while yesterday and she started going a bit nutty and stir crazy until luckily the sun came out.  When she is inside, Rya still likes to keep herself busy with tasks like pouring dry pasta in and out of cups, or hiding in closets to play with hairclips.  We’ve actually decided to start making her some Montessori types of activities since Rya really seems to enjoy hands-on learning and play.  When she tires herself out and needs some downtime, Rya’s new favorite pass-time is watching ‘The Lorax’ over and over.  It’s the first movie we’ve had to deal with in this way, and lucky for Ivan and I, The Lorax is full of catchy songs that are permanently etched in our minds day and night! 

Since each of my babies grows so much everyday, I’m sure I’ll be back here complaining and bragging again soon : )

The Staycation comes to an end...

Since we somehow managed to coordinate Kassiah’s arrival with Ivan’s summer holidays (like we coordinated Mariah’s with his winter holidays – what can I say, I’m a good planner)…we’ve been able to indulge in lots of family time.  I had predicted we might be confined to the house with a newborn and my post-partum hormones.  But since I’ve been feeling so well, we enjoyed a ‘staycation’ filled with a good balance of relaxation and fun. 

Mariah is a night owl so we’ve let her stay up past her usual 8:30 bedtime during the summer, which means we had the luxury of sleeping in since she hasn’t been waking up until after 9am!  Even then, she’s become so comfortable in her crib that she usually spends a while lying down and talking to herself before she calls out for one of us to pick her up.  This later wake-up also helped her combine her previous two short naps into a long afternoon nap from about 1-3 every afternoon.  Ivan and I learned from our mistake of trying to be ‘productive’ during naptime the first time around and have taken full advantage of the opportunity to squeeze in some extra sleep almost everyday since we’ve been taking turns settling Kassiah at night.  We’ve spent many days at home, enjoying the sun in our backyard and then watching movies inside to cool off.

Ivan, Mariah, and I all love the water, so we bought Kassiah her first tiny little bathing suit at just 2 weeks, and have been to the pool a few times since then.  We continued to do the outings we’ve always enjoyed – like going to the zoo, driving to Cochrane for fresh ice cream, going to the park, and visiting the Rocky Mountains in Kananaskis.  And we made a point to discover some adventures that were new to us – like insisting Mariah was tall enough to go on some of the rides at ‘Heritage Park’, going Saskatoon Berry picking at a nearby farm, visiting the Leighton Art Centre, and walking through nature trails at a bird sanctuary.  I still have a few more plans on my list, like going to a Corn Maze and another farm called Butterfield Acres.  As you can tell from the list, Ivan and I are outdoors people, and Mariah is more than happy to follow this lead.  She loves being adventurous, and that’s really validated our choice to move from Toronto to Calgary since one of our reasons was to be closer to nature. 

Ivan teaches at an early start school, so he is already back to work tomorrow.  We’re both a bit sad to see our family summer vacation come to an end, but we’re also both feeling ready to get back into more of a routine.  My mom is in town for several weeks to help me with the babies, so I’m really lucky to have extra hands around as I ease back into maternity leave life.  I’m a bit nervous that Ivan and I will slip back into the arguments of how hard it is to be home with the kids all day instead of working outside the home and vice versa.  But hopefully since we’ve both taken turns doing each with Mariah, we’ll be a bit more empathetic with each other.  Fingers crossed that our transition back into ‘real life’ goes smoothly!

first swim at 2 weeks old...NBD!

Saskatoon Berry Picking

@ the Zoo with her BFF

Skipping stones in Kananaskis with daddy

Calgary Corn Maze