Manic Monday

Goooooood morning! I'm not really sure why I'm so chipper this AM, given the almost 2-hour Party Baby session we experienced overnight, followed by the extremely sad baby this morning. BUT I am. 

Welcome back to Manic Monday!

Let's talk about...stuff. In a bulleted list.

• I completely dropped the ball on Christmas shopping for the relatives "away". It's only half done, and my usual self-imposed deadline for shipping was yesterday. I guess I know what I'm doing tonight. How it got to be December 10th is beyond me.

• My family and my best friend has banded together to buy gifts for needy families this Christmas. Yesterday I went to church and picked up all the gift requests, and I will complete the shopping this week. I feel that we are so fortunate, it's the least we can do to give other families a chance at a merry Christmas without worrying. I encourage everyone who can to do a little something - donate a few items to a food bank, purchase warm winter wear for children in need, donate to the Salvation Army's Christmas campaign.

• I have only one assignment left for this semester of my Career Development Practitioner program. How I survived, I'm unsure. While I wish I had started part-time, I don't regret full-time. I got so much confidence back from baby-wrangling and getting excellent grades in school. Now I'm really excited for some down time.

• Baby Bird has at least two teeth cutting right now. He's honestly taking it really well. He has his moments of upset but overall, he's been happy.

• I ordered a new bag to use as a diaper bag. The one we originally chose pre-birth ended up being a little on the small side, especially considering we use cloth diapers (a little extra bulk), and we are planning to eventually have another child.  It's this one from Lululemon:

• My usual Christmas decorating style is Victorian, with white lights and rich jewel-toned ribbons. I like it classy and twinkly. But now with a baby, I'm leaning toward FUN FUN FUN! This Christmas we've bought a few new fun decorations. After Christmas, when all the decorations go on clearance, we're going to stock up on coloured lights and fun decorations for next year.

What's your Christmas decorating style?

Manic Monday - Labour Day Edition

Welcome to Manic Monday! Can I just say, I cannot believe it's September already? I'm not entirely sorry to see summer passing by. With the breastfeeding hormones and the extra 20lbs I'm carrying, I did not tolerate the heat well. It was the hottest summer I can remember in recent history, and I was not working in an air conditioned office all day.

• I start my college program on Tuesday. Whoa. It's full-time, and I promise you I am crapping my pants thinking about how I am going to juggling caring for baby who is almost mobile and a full-time study program. None the less, I'm confident that I'll be able to handle it. Sure, I'll stress but it will be positive stress (there really is such a thing. Some degree of stress is often necessary for motivation. It's when it paralyses you that it's no longer positive).

• Saturday was a wonderfully family-filled day. K.'s parents were in the city, as well as his Aunt, Uncle and two cousins. We had lunch together because one of the cousins is moving here from Ontario to go to university. Then, another set of K.'s cousins were passing through Halifax for supper, so we saw them and their precious 1.5 year old daughter. I'm so lucky to boast a very positive relationship with my in-laws.

• My cat, Marvin, is being such a jerk-turd lately. The minute the baby falls asleep, Marvin is on the scene, running through the house and howling. A few days ago, Marv started meowing every time the baby fell asleep while I was trying to put him down for a nap. It amounted to three tries, and I ended up having to bail on the nap. Then, a few days before that, I was actually trying to sleep while Baby Bird napped, but the cats wouldn't let me have any peace.

The Jerk-turd in his monster sweater

• I've been having trouble sleeping after Baby Bird's night feeding lately. Two days in a row, I've been awake for the day at, like, 3am. No bueno. 

• We bought one heck of an amazing stroller this week. I was sick of confining my walks to city sidewalks or malls. I went on a fabulous 1.5 hour trail hike to test it out on Wednesday, and I felt like a million bucks afterward. 

I think that's all the news for this week! I have to figure out how to make link-ups happen, and then I plan on turning this Manic Monday thing into one.

Manic Monday - Cloth Diapers, Professional Pics, and Crunchy Mommies, oh MY!

Welcome to Manic Monday! I'm thinking of making this a link-up - would anyone be interested in the future?

• I bought 6 cloth diapers (pocket style) to see if using cloth is a viable option for us. Here's the beginning of our stash, below. They're KaWaii brand, each with two microfibre inserts. I also bought two hemp inserts to try night-time. I just prepped them this afternoon so tomorrow will be our first try. I know, I must be crazy, right? Washing poop in my washing machine? But this particular brand is super cheap so if it doesn't work out, I won't have lost much money. If it does, my stash will cost about $200 to start cloth diapering full-time.
• I'm turning into a far crunchier mama than I ever expected to me. Frankly, I never in a million years thought I would breastfeed, and especially not past 3 months willingly. I also turned my nose up, way up, at cloth diapering. Attachment parenting? I thought it was weak. Turns out I am attachment parenting without even knowing it.
• We got professional Baby Bird photos back! I will post one of the ten, only because some of them will likely become Christmas gifts for family so I don't want to spoil the surprise. Avery was about four months old in this photo.

Photo by Amy's Images (Dartmouth, NS)

• I'm beginning to wonder if I should remove my nose piercing and try again in a few months or years. I absolutely love it, but it's been nothing but trouble for me. I got the dreaded bump beside it (from a fledgeling infection or the piercing moving around too much), which took forever to get rid of. And now Baby Bird is in the face-grabbing stage, so I'm always terrified he's going to end up ripping it out. 
• I'm really addicted to this cajun spice I bought last week. I've been making oven spicy fries like they're going out of style. So tasty!
• I discovered that my new college hoodie has a phone/wallet pocket that velcros INSIDE the typical kangaroo-style pocket. No more phone going sliding out of one end!

What random things are you excited about/up to?

Manic Monday: Small Victories

The Bird's Nest hasn't been very uplifting lately. We've dealt with some heavy subjects, including post-partum depression. I haven't been feeling witty or light-hearted in my writing. You've probably felt the heaviness in my heart over the past few posts.

Post-partum depression can seep into your life in the most insidious of ways. You may not feel like you're any more 'depressed' than any other new mother, until BAM! you can hardly wash your hair that day. You just. can't. do. things.

In the interest of celebrating small victories, I wanted to write about things I managed to do - productive things, or things just for me that I enjoyed.  I'll admit, I'm writing this more for my own good than yours.  But if nothing else, maybe you'll see that sometimes it's okay to be proud of seemingly normal or little everyday items.

• I have been out for short walks a few times over the past week. This is a big improvement over a few weeks ago. The only reason it wasn't longer/more frequent is the darned humidity.
• I have cleaned my house twice in the past week and a half.
• My car got washed today. I'm lazy with washing my car at the best of times, so this was a major victory. And I had fun doing it - it was moderately active alone time.
• I went to bed early when I needed to.
• I'm here, blogging, again! 
• I've been taking my vitamin D. I suspect a large part of my depression was due to not getting enough sunlight and therefore not enough vitamin D.
• I ordered my text books, straightened away some other return-to-school business.
• Perhaps my largest victory this week was learning to stop fighting against the flow. For instance, there would be times that Baby Bird was playing by himself, and I would be posting to my online mommy group when he'd start to fuss. I used to find this incredibly frustrating, but then I realized, why bother getting frustrated? Once I started going with the flow, both Baby Bird and I were a lot happier minute-to-minute.
• I enjoyed 90% of my past week. There was one bad day, but it wasn't entirely bad, even.

Random Other Manic Monday Stuff:

• Part of the reason I haven't been blogging much these last weeks is because I went on vacation with my family, had a great visit from my in-laws last week, and have my grandparents in town this week. Life has been truly busy.
• My college hoodie and textbooks have arrived and I geeked out skimming my texts. Unfortunately, it's roughly a bagillion degrees here so no hoodie wearage yet.  I long for fall.
• I look and feel a lot better since eliminating dairy from my diet. The huge dark circles under my eyes are gone, and I'm certainly no more rested so I attribute it to dairy.
• I have a whole bunch of posts in draft form - promise to get'em up soon.

Have a great Monday, everyone! Thanks for stopping by!

Manic Monday - Piercing bumps and Babies and Puppies

I call Mondays "Manic Mondays" because I plan to be ALL OVER THE MAP and bounce from tidbit to tidbit.

• I got my nose pierced a few months ago, and now I totally have "the bump" beside the piercing. I accidentally yanked it about half out when wiping a runny nose a few weeks ago. After picking up some tea tree oil (which I was secretly just wanting a reason to buy for years), it seems to be improving. There will be no photo of the bump, and for that, you're welcome.

• Baby Bird loves laying on a blanket outdoors and feeling the breeze. He smiles up a storm out there. 

How adorable is this piggy blanket! It was a hand-me-down which I fell in love with. 

• Hubby and I were supposed to see the new Batman movie yesterday, but due to some illness we were out babysitting. So, K went with a friend (which I'm happy about - he totally deserves to go out without me and Bird but never does) while I went shopping with Bird.  I only half wanted to see the movie anyway, since such movies aren't really my thing.

• Baby Bird got some new toys today! He didn't have much that is age-appropriate before 6 months. Does anyone listen to those age thingies on the boxes? I totally do, but I can't always understand the difference between why something is appropriate for 3+ months or 6+ months.

This little guy is Jacques the Peacock.

I have been obsessed with getting Jacques for Baby Bird for about a month now. Don't ask me why I NEEDED to buy him this toy, but I did.

A cute piano-thinger for Baby Bird

I wanted to get Baby Bird something for tummy time, because he is just so bored of everything else.

• Funny story about Jacques the Peacock - I bought him, along with a Pepsi - at a department store yesterday. When the cashier rang it up, I wasn't really paying attention, but it sounded like she said $2.09. Jacques was a solid $22 toy, so I had no idea what happened and I wasn't thinking fast - like I said, wasn't paying attention. So I paid, left (thinking if it really didn't ring up, it would set off the theft sensors at the door, which is didn't), and looked at the receipt only to find that the peacock didn't scan. Why she didn't catch her error, I have no idea. I pondered for a few minutes - I got out free and clear with a free toy, through no fault of my own. Do we keep it and say nothing? So I texted my sister-in-law with a "What would you do?". As soon as I hit send, it struck me that if I even had to ask what I should do, then I should clearly take it back and pay. So I did - otherwise I'd have felt terrible.

• K and I took Baby Bird to church yesterday - an Anglican parish in our neighbourhood. We aren't really church-going folks, but Baby Bird needs to be baptized, and I also believe he should be raised going to church so that he learns about the faith he will be raised in, and later on in life he can decide for himself whether church is for him (or synagogue, or temple, or whatever he chooses). We went to the 8:30am service, and apparently that is the "sedate" service (otherwise known as the senior's service, judging by the other parishioners in attendance). We were welcomed warmly and I plan to return.

• Baby Bird met a puppy on Friday! The puppy is a Golden Retriever - Nova Scotia Duck Toller mix, and he belongs to my friend Erin.

Baby Bird with Brooks