Happy New Year 2014!

Happy New Year, everyone!

As I have done the past 2 years (here and here), I am going to write my top 10 highlights of 2013! It is always fun to reflect on the past year and think about all of the exciting things that have happened. To be honest, every highlight this year could have been about Henry. He sure has changed everything! And most of this things we have done this year have been Henry-centred. However, I am sure I can think up some more varied highlights. Here goes!

10. Having an amazing class: Last January I packed up my things and left teaching for my maternity leave. I had very mixed emotions leaving halfway through the year since I had such a great connection with my students. Before I left, my amazing class threw me a surprise going away party (yes, completely planned and implemented by 19 grade 2's). It was one of the most special things anyone has ever done for me.

9. Going Car-Free: This was definitely a highlight. We feel good about saving money, lessening our environmental impact, and being more active since we need to walk everywhere!

8. Enjoying downtown: Now that we live downtown, we have really been enjoying downtown. We are close to the library, the museum, the market, many of our favourite restaurants, parks, etc. It has been great taking advantage of what we have right here.

7. An entire year vegan: We have been vegan for all of 2013. Pretty nifty! And I still feel great about it.

6. Enjoying our pool: We moved away from our house with a pool this summer. That doesn't mean we didn't take full advantage before we left! It was a lot of fun spending hot summer days in our backyard by the pool.

5. Family hikes: Hiking will probably always be a highlight since I love it so much. This year, we got to hike as a family of 3!

4. Cottage visits: I was lucky enough to make it up to my Mum and her husband's cottage 3 times this year! Our whole family even made it up for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun.

3. Family time: If I have learned one thing this year, it is that babies bring families together! Joe and I have spent a lot of time with our families this year, which has been great. My brother, Mike, even came home this past summer after living away for a few years. It has been awesome having him home!

2. Moving downtown! This was a huge one for us. It was a big decision to move again, but we are so glad we did. We are so happy here!

1. Meeting Henry. Our lives have changed forever and we love him!

2013 was such a special year for me becoming a Mum. I'm looking forward to 2014 and all that it will bring!

Holiday Fun!

I don't know about you, but for us this has been quite the busy Christmas season! We just finished a 5-day stretch of family gatherings. It has been busy but a lot of fun! Henry sure was spoiled by his aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends this year. We truly are lucky to have so many great people in our lives.

Our Christmas Cards

Since it is Henry's first Christmas, I couldn't resist sending out some Christmas cards this year. I decided to try taking some photos myself for the card, and I'm really happy with how they turned out!

After taking the photos, I played around on PicMonkey and made the cards. I made 5 different versions in total. Since I couldn't decide on my favourite, I printed some of each. It was a simple, fun project and will be a great memory! Here are a few examples of the cards. Enjoy!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This past weekend, Joe and I got our Christmas tree!

I don't know if it was the Christmas crafting weekend, the Christmas tunes I keep hearing or the snow on the ground, but it seemed like the right time!

Now that we are car-free, I thought that getting the tree home might be a little trickier. However, Joe convinced me that he and his family often carried their tree home from the store a few blocks away. I figured it could be extra tricky with Henry in tow, but as you can see, Joe found a solution.

 

Henry was pretty excited by the whole thing. He really wanted to help decorate! (And by help, I mean hinder!). Regardless, he was pretty intrigued by the tree, especially once we got the lights on. Oh... and check out Joe's sweet Movember 'stache. How many days left until December??! (aka Decem-beard, followed by Janu-hairy? I guess we'll see.) I guess I can't complain since I've been partaking as a Mo-sistah! Haha...

It is definitely feeling Christmas-y around here! As for our ornaments: We bought most of the glass ball ornaments last year at a local thrift shop. Some of them look really antique. The rest have been collected over the years (my Mum tends to give me ornaments most years!) or homemade. And there are also quite a few special ornaments from Joe's and my students. We chose to hang the baby-friendly ornaments on the bottom. I love our eclectic, mismatched tree! Less than a month until Christmas!

2nd Annual Christmas Crafting Weekend

You might remember that last year, my Mum had my two sisters and I over for a Christmas Crafting weekend. Well, this year, she invited along her sister, Corinne, my two cousins, Kristen and Lisa, and my brother's girlfriend, Micaela. We had SUCH a blast! We each brought a craft to share with the group, and worked on them all weekend. It was a huge success, and I love all of the crafts that I got to bring home! 

Of course, we found most of our inspiration from Pinterest. For example, this was the craft I brought:

link

I love the yellow so much that it "inspired" me to do yellow as well.
Here are some of the other beautiful crafts I made! It was so much fun, and definitely got me in the Christmas spirit!

Cottagy Porch Décor

We spent our last week of summer here:

This is the lake at my mum and her partner, Rick's, cottage.
I love being at the cottage. It is so relaxing, and it is amazing living by the lake. Since summer holidays are over, I knew we'd be missing the cottage so I thought I might try to recreate the cottage feeling in the outdoor space at our house: The porch. While we were at the cottage, Joe and I kayaked to the island (on the right side of the photo) to go driftwood hunting. We came back with 3 great pieces. When we got home, one was a clear winner as it perfectly fit the space we had wanted to fill. It didn't even need anything to help it hang on the nail... it just worked! Best of all, we had been wanting something to hang there since we moved in, and this was free!

One problem with our porch, however, is our old wicker chairs. This might be the last season for these babies. To be fair, I have used them for 4 summers (mostly outdoors, uncovered) after scoring them for free off of Kijiji. And the chair pads were a thrifting purchase for a few bucks a piece. Needless to say, they are starting to look pretty sad, and aren't really too comfortable anymore.

So, back to my cottage inspiration. My mum bought these amazing faux-wicker chairs a few years ago at Winners for the covered porch at the cottage. Joe and I would LOVE a comfy style chair like that for our porch, especially considering we have spent most of our down time out there since we moved in. We love it! I think it might need to wait until next summer, though. That is, unless we find something great on clearance! 

Summer in Ontario

Since Joe and I are both teachers, we have the luxury of having a long, scheduled time off together each summer. As many of you know, we  have taken full advantage of this the past 2 summers by going on amazing trips. Right now, the count-down is definitely on with only 2 more weeks of school before summer holidays.

Our first big trip together was two summers ago to South America. We travelled through Peru, Bolivia and Argentina over 6 weeks. It was amazing, and intense, and took up most of our summer. We saw Machu Picchu, the Bolivian Salt Flats, did a bunch of hiking and much more. It was incredible.

Last summer we headed to Europe (Joe had never been!). We spent some time in France, Belgium and Germany. We even stayed a few days with my host family from my year in France. It was the best! I was also in my first trimester of pregnancy at the time, so an easier trip was perfect... although it was hard to pass up the beer and wine!

This summer, we are not going on a big trip. A few factors made this decision. First, obviously, is that we have a baby. Don't get me wrong, we had dreams of one last trip while Henry is easily portable, but it just didn't make sense in the end. Secondly, with selling our home, it just didn't make financial sense this year. 

All of that being said, I am SO EXCITED to spend the summer in Ontario! Traveling is great, but there is almost nothing better than a summer spent here. I love the long days, patios, cottages, camping, barbeques, hiking, campfires, warm days and cool nights. We are going to attempt camping with Henry. I think we'll start with a 1-night trip and go from there, depending on how it goes. And it'll be nice to enjoy our pool for one last summer :)

What are you looking forward to this summer?

Henry at 2 months

It's hard to believe that 2 months have already gone by with our little guy. I'm beginning to understand how fast life begins to go once you have kids. He is turning into one sweet little guy with a lot of personality!

Easter weekend reminded me of how lucky Henry is. He is a part of a great, big, loving family and is so loved by so many. Here are a few photos from our weekend. Enjoy!

With the Barlen aunt and uncles

With Grandma

The ladies of my family

Cousins

Auntie Erin and her cute nephews

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Happy St. Paddy's Day everyone!

Henry is enjoying his Irish heritage today and even dressed for the occasion!

Our little guy is 6 weeks old! It is hard to believe. Although it feels like he has always been a part of our family!

On an unrelated note... This article came up today on my Facebook page from the David Suzuki Foundation, about Green parenting. It mentioned the idea of diaper-free toileting, also know as "Elimination Communication". I had heard about it before but brushed it off as cray-cray! 

However, today I thought I would read a little further and was linked to this article, written by a mom following this practice. The idea sounded rather simple in some way... and I realized I already knew many of Henry's "gotta-go!" cues and timings. Of course, if you know me, you'd know that I am willing to try almost anything that helps me to reduce my environmental footprint. So... 

*Did I just publish a picture of my newborn babies' poop? Yep, I did!

Wouldn't you know it... it WORKS! Let me tell you... I was SO excited when he not only peed, but pooped too! My excitement was almost embarrassing... and the cutest part was, he was looking up at me smiling and cooeing while this all happened, as if it was the greatest thing he'd ever done. Oh the bonding.

I was so gung-ho that I kept it going... and so far today he has gone in the toilet 5 times (He is still wearing his cloth diapers, but I am just taking them off when I think he has to go. And I have changed 3 wet diapers, so it hasn't been perfect.) I calculated that if I saved 5 diapers a day, I would save about 75 loads of laundry a year. Isn't that amazing? 

The downfall so far? We don't have a main floor bathroom, so I have been sprinting up the stairs every time I think he has to go. Very tiring, especially when you also have to hold a semi-squat positions while making a "pssss" noise until he pees, which can take some time. After the fifth time, I had physically reached my max! But I can also see this as an upside... bring on the baby weight loss!

I never imagined this would be the highlight of my day...ever. 

The verdict: I love the idea of this, but we will have to see how it goes. I can see it becoming more of a hassle than it's worth. But, I'd ideally like to use it as much as possible. It doesn't hurt!