First Photo Shoot!

Since we couldn't afford to have Addie's newborn photo's professionally taken, I decided to brush up on my photography skills and take some pictures of Addie myself at the cottage last weekend. As soon as I get a copy of photo shop, I'll be able to perfect them, but I think they are pretty great straight out of camera and wanted to share my little baby model. Addie was very patient as soon as her Aunt Nikki started to help me. Can you guess which picture was taken before Aunt Nikki stepped in? These are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

It's time to get back into shape

Tomorrow marks my first day back at the gym in almost a year. Before I got pregnant I was fairly good about working out and staying fit. I've never really watched what I ate, but I also don't like a lot of foods that are bad for me so I had that in my favor.

While I was pregnant, I did very well with my weight until the last trimester when all hell broke loose and I couldn't stop gaining too much weight at each weekly doctor's visit (which of course I blame mostly on the early summer heat and water weight). I was okay with this for awhile because I had the excuse that I just had a baby.

But it's been 4 months now, and it's time to get back into shape. So here are the stats:

Pre-pregnancy weight: 125lbs
Pre-pregnancy dress size: 0-2
Weight gained during pregnancy: 47lbs
Total weight by delivery day: 172lbs

Total weight lost post pregnancy: 36lbs
Total weight to date: 136lbs
Current dress size: 6

And the goals:

Total weight to lose: 11lbs
I also want to tone up, especially in my upper arms and thighs
And Addie is getting bigger every day. I want to be able to carry her around without my back and shoulders hurting all the time.
Weight goal: ideally 125lbs but since I want to gain some muscle, I don't really care what the scale says as long as I am healthy and fit into my pre-pregnancy pants again.
Date to achieve this by: December 25th, 2010 (Because I want to look good in all the pictures I want to be able to take with Addie for her first Christmas {also maybe because there's a chance we're going to Florida right after Christmas and I am NOT taking a full piece swim suit}).

I'll do a weekly check in every monday to update my progress, and hopefully having something good to update with will be a good motivator.

Y3W: Blocked Tear Duct

Since Addie was born, she's had a blocked tear duct in her right eye. At first we didn't think too much of it, the doctor said to massage it as much as possible and it would clear up on its own in a little bit. Well, it's been almost 4 months now, and it's still blocked. Probably for a couple of reasons.

1. I really don't think Addie was ready to be born when she was. I think if she'd had another week or two to finish growing that maybe the duct would have been cleared by the time she was born.

2. Why don't you try sticking either a finger or wet facecloth anywhere near Addie's eye to massage it and tell me how well it goes. Let me save you the trouble and tell you it won't be happening.

So I asked the nurse at my mommy and me class about it and she told me it can go for a year without breaking open on its own and there's not much we can do. Great.

Addie doesn't seem to mind it too much, except for in the morning when it's sealed shut and she can't get her eye open. It's really more of a pain for Ryan and me since we are constantly wiping her eye to get all the goo out of it. Not a big deal right now, but cold weather is coming and I don't want to be wiping her eye all winter, or have her getting chapped skin around her eye because it's always tearing up and dripping.

Fall Shopping

Brrrr. It is already getting cold outside. Below 20C and rainy reminds me of spring, not the kind of falls we've been used to for the past couple years. But... I love fall. I love the colours of the leaves changing, I love the crisp air when we go for family walks, I love the new smells of fall, and making plans for Thanksgiving, and Christmas, but what I love the most about fall is the clothing. I love wearing jeans and comfy sweaters, it's the only time of the year I can wear my leather jackets (that I will hopefully fit back into by next fall) and I love the stylish boots and heels (because I don't need a pedicure to look good in them).

I'm sure I will pass on my love of fall clothing to my little girl, I mean she is MY little girl after all. And this weekend will be her first shopping spree. We were so blessed to get so many beautiful clothes at my baby shower, and after Addie was born. People we barely even knew even gave us cute little outfits in all kinds of sizes. So far I think we've bought Addie two outfits and a handful of sleepers, and besides having a closet and dresser packed with clothes, there is also an enormous suitcase overflowing with more clothes that she probably won't fit into until next summer. So why then are we going on a shopping spree? Every single item of clothing the child has is for summer. EVERYTHING! I didn't realize this until this past week when the weather started to get cold. I went to dress Addie and realized she has no warm clothes. She doesn't even own a long sleeved onesie. The only sweater that fits is a very lightweight cardigan and she owns three beautiful coats, but they are all too big. She only has one pair of overalls and a couple pairs of tights for pants.

So off we go to get a whole new fall/winter wardrobe for Addison. I am in heaven. Money has been so tight lately, and not that we aren't still on a budget, but we have had some great breaks this week that left us with a little money to spend on our little girl. I am so excited to go shopping for Addie that I don't even care that the only pants I own that fit me right now are maternity jeans, (yep almost 4 months later) and I also only have 3 shirts that fit, and Ryan is rotating between two pairs of dress pants for work every day. One pair is stained, the other pair has a hem blown on one leg, and both pairs are a tad too small. But it's not about us anymore, I am excited because Addie will look adorable (and most importantly she'll be cozy), I love shopping (it's been killing me not being able to shop for so long) and even Ryan admits the kid needs warm clothes and it's our job to buy them.

My favorite place to buy baby clothes is Bonnie Togs. I came accross this store just before Addie was born and was blown away by what they have in there. Osh Kosh overalls for $5.00, Carter's sleepers for $8.00 and then they have all kinds of deals and sales on all the time. If I spent $50.00 Addie would be set all winter. And lets admit that Osh Kosh and Carter's makes the cutest baby clothes that are also soft and comfortable.

This is going to be fun!

Y3W: Money is Tight

Money is Tight!

I will never understand why people don't talk about money, and if they do, they always feel the need to make it sound like they have more money than they really do. I might not even be talking about it either, except that I'm mostly writing this blog for Addie so she'll know what life was like for us when she was little and the truth is that money is tight right now.

When I first went on maternity leave, money was just fine. We had quite a bit in our savings account, we didn't really need much more for Addie and I ended up getting a lot more for maternity benefits than I expected. However, we suddenly became popular after we had Addison and all of a sudden our doing alright got stretched. Between showers, weddings, birthdays, stag and doe's and some other unexpected expenses, we quickly realized that we weren't keeping up with our original budget like we usually do (well we're usually pretty good at sticking to the budget anyway).

Then I took on my new job and for some reason that has ended up costing us more than I'm making (for now). I had to start my own business as an independent contractor, so there are start up costs there, and I thought that was it, however our lovely Canadian government has decided that working at all while on mat leave should be a huge pain in the ass. They stopped my mat benefits and although I went into the service canada office, then called twice and then made a report online to make sure they knew I was doing things legit, I still had to mail in a form outlining my business and stating that I do need to remain on mat leave. All this so I can continue to work 8 hours a week. They will decide by the end of September if I'm allowed to continue with benefits or not. Oh gee thanks... in the meantime we'll live off Ryan's salary and my new income.

VENT: Mat leave pays 55% of what you earned in the past year before you go on mat leave. I was told I was high risk while I was pregnant (thank God they were wrong about that) and needed to quit one of my jobs. Fine, anything for my baby. But... that means I am getting 55% of what I earned working mostly part-time for the past year. Why am I not allowed to supplement my family without consequences, and what does the government care when it's my money they're paying me? Totally perplexed as to why we can't all just have mat leave like England.

Anyway, we're okay. All our bills are paid, we have a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, we still have money in savings and we even have enough left over to still do some fun things. But money is tighter than it has been in a very long time, and we're both looking forward to when we're okay with me taking on more clients (which would mean being away from Addie more days and neither of us want that yet) and Ryan's Christmas bonus.

Maybe we'll win the lottery this week. That would be nice.

The Western's!

Ahh the first fun family weekend all summer. I told you I would post about it and here it is. A description by pictures! What a wonderful weekend it was. We spent Saturday golfing, shopping and relaxing around the cottage eating good food and getting lots of rest (for some odd reason Addie decided to sleep through the night on Friday yay!!) and Sunday we went boating! We took the whole family and went on Addie's first big boating adventure out to the Western Islands, which if you haven't heard of them before are somewhere in the middle of Georgian Bay, a collection of islands you can swim between with gorgeous aqua blue water. The water was 72F which was perfect swimming temperature when it was almost 40C outside.


The view from the lighthouse on the main island

Little toes peeking out from the car seat on the way home Just one of the islands

Our beautiful happy girl on Saturday

The Lighthouse on the main island

My new brother in law and the crawfish he dove for (still undecided if it was dead or alive but totally agreed that it STUNK either way)

The in-law's enjoying getting washed off the rocks

A butterfly that let me get this close with my camera... they were everywhere on the islands

Addie's swim suit drying off the side of the boat

Addie and Daddy hanging out inside the boat

A cute picture of Addie on Saturday that I cannot get to flip the right way

Addie in her car seat on the way to the islands. It was really rough water and she was happy and safe in her car seat as the waves rocked her to sleep amongst all our gear.

Last day of swimming lessons

Today was Addie's last day of her first set of swimming lessons. It's incredible how much she's learned so far; I didn't realize she would learn so much at three months old, but my little water baby has learned a lot.

Addie even earned her own report card. The instructor's comments were "Excellent movement in the water Addison! Good job on kicking while doing your front and back tow and dunking under water".

Addie accomplished most of the goals for the class, but there were some things that she was just too young to learn, so we're going to sign up for the same class again in September. In the meantime, the YMCA has open swim sessions in the evenings until the next swim lessons start, so we're going to keep taking Addie to those so she gets to keep practicing what she's learned.

Here are a few more pictures of swimming: