tudor_rose

I've migrated my blog to http://tammiesview.wordpress.com/

Thanks

Sam took her first few steps on Sunday, and did it again a few times yesterday.  She can take two or three steps at a time.

She's growing up too fast.

I'd love some suggestions on how to change my dress.  This was my prom dress, and I want to change for my wedding.  Because I have a habit of dropping things (food in particular) on myself, I decided to change following our dessert reception.  Since then, I've also decided that I want to do some Trash the Dress photos too, so hopefully my dress will be too soaked to wear anyway :)

Here she is:

I was thinking about shortening the dress to just below the knee, and turning the neckline into either a sweetheart neckline or a v-neck with some of the lace I'd be cutting off the bottom.  Or should I leave the length, go with a sweetheart neckline, and do a string halter?

I'm not sure.  I'd love any opinions.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Christmas treated my family very well.  Sam seems to love her toys, and everyone was really happy - though tired by the end of it all!

The most wonderful part of it all for me was Christmas day when Randy proposed.  He took me down to the Charlottetown harbour, just in behind the Tourism and Culinary Centre by the Celtic Cross, and reminded me of our first date.  We sat there for a long time and talked that night.  It was beautiful.

I started crying while he was doing it, so I didn't see the ring right away.  It's beautiful.  It's a princess cut set in a thick white-gold band.  The most interesting part is the side view.  The teeth are wide and set just on two sides of the stone.  The bottom of the stone is clearly visible in a triangle shaped setting.  He had it custom made and took into account my own interest in architecture.  It's beautiful, and was such an incredible surprise.

We're going to have a June wedding with an afternoon tea in lieu of a sit-down reception.  I just love the idea of an afternoon tea; having a daughter myself, and with two people in our wedding party who will have very young babies at the time, it just makes sense to do something very child friendly that allows everyone a little more flexibility.  Plus, I just love the idea of an outdoor reception.  And really, who comes for the entrees?  It's the desserts that really make or break a wedding meal :)

Sleep over the past week has been sparing.  She had a positive experience with her first tooth as it didn't interrupt her nighttime sleep.  Since it came in, though, she's been having a lot of trouble sleeping for more than two hours at a time.  We decided to try baby anbisol, and it worked like a charm.  So my baby medicine cabinet now consists of Baby Anbisol, Baby Tylenol/Tempra, and Ovol.  The Ovol we've only used about half a dozen times, but it's really helpful when she gets the kind of gas that lasts for a half hour or more and won't go away  in spite of anything we do (I mean when laying her over my lap or sitting her up and putting pressure on her stomach - both of which usually work - don't work.) she can't get rid of her gas.

I'm rambling.  My point is that she slept through the night again last night after giving her the anbisol!  And I'm so excited to have had a good night's sleep, or at least three hours of sleep in a row!

She's also now sitting up on her own.  And saying dada.  She's been practicing her sounds since month 2, and is now stringing sounds together.  I'm not sure that she can associate the word with the person yet, so I don't know if it counts as her first word.  But it's so gorgeous to wake up in the morning to hear her calling her daddy - and giving me an excuse to rest a little longer :)

Christmas is coming, which is making everyone crazy and busy for the next little while.  Thankfully, most of my obligations are already finished.  Not that there were many.  Cards are sent (with just a few left to go), most of my gifts are bought and wrapped, tree is up, and baking has been done.  I had two work Christmas events to attend, and both are now done.  So now it's time to relax and enjoy the rest of the holidays.

I've been making a lot of gingerbread cookies, and giving most of the them away.  I find that people often turn away from the tried-and-true recipes such as gingerbread and sugar cookies in favor of more elaborate recipes.  But there's something really special about gingerbread; it's simplicity and history and especially its flavor.  The recipe that I've been using is from Mrs. Fields:

3 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves

Sift together

1 c. butter or margarine
3/4 c. packed brown sugar

Mix with an electric mixer, then add:

1 egg
1/2 c. molasses

Slowly mix in the dry mixture.  Separate batter into two balls, flatten, and wrap with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for at least one hour.  Roll to 1/2 inch thickness and cut with cookie cutter.  Bake at 325 F for 9-11 minutes.

It's really basic, but really tasty.

The thing that has surprised me most about motherhood is how much I actually enjoy it.   It's not that I thought I'd hate it, but I didn't realize that I would enjoy it this much.  Even when it's challenging.  Sometimes especially when it's challenging.  When she cries and I can comfort her, or when she reaches out for me.  I love her so much.

She's pretty good about sitting up.  The activity centre that was the first toy she really played with is now her favorite toy to sit up and play with.  I sit behind her with my arms on either side to catch her should she fall (her balance isn't perfect yet).  She then grabs on to the dangling toys and usually tries to put them in her mouth.

Today I've been a bit tired.  And I will be for the next few Tuesdays.  I'm a big fan of "Project Runway Canada".  Actually, I love it.  I'm really impressed with the talent of our Canadian designers.  In particular, I really like Marieve Genvieve and Biddell.  They've both been very strong all the way through, and have an incredible eye for good design and good tailoring.  MG in particular is so creative.  I'd love to get inside her head for one hour and see where she gets it all.

S is growing up so fast, and I wish she would just hold up a bit. She now blows perfect raspberries (she previously made noises with her vocal chords through them), reaches out for the things that she wants, and recently started eating solids. I wish she would slow down and let me catch up.

She started with solids last Saturday.  Over the course of the week, her rice cereal became less and less watery and her appetite for it grew.  Now she sucks it off her fingers, her bib (we have a plastic bib for solids), and helps me to shove her spoon into her mouth.  She ends up covered in cereal, smiling the whole time.  It's a lot of fun to feed her; she always makes me laugh.  Now if we could get more than half of her food in her rather than on her we'd be doing really well.

Today was Christmas Tree Day.  S' cousin came over to help decorate cookies, and we put up the tree this evening.  I'll admit that it doesn't have a lot of color on it.  The decorations are primarily frosted and shiny silver balls.  There are also blue and silver ovals, silver and blue ribbon, and white lights.  Yet all of this helps to highlight the ornaments that are special to me.  I've picked up ornaments in my travels, and we are now starting to collect sparkly baby ornaments for Sam.  So looking at my tree makes me really happy.  Because it reminds me of the places I've been, and inspires me to keep going so that we can fill up the tree with traveling memories as opposed to ornaments that we just happened to pick up down the street.

Recently, I took a trip to Toronto. The trip was amazing; I got to spend some time with my very pregnant best friend, saw Dirty Dancing on stage, and went shopping.

One of my purchases was a book that promised to help me get S on a schedule. That was when I took a very good thing and turned it into a very bad thing.

Previously, S had very little trouble with the whole sleep thing. She slept when she was tired, and it was often around the same time each day. But not every day. Some days there was as much as two hours in the difference. She often fell asleep after feeding, and this book told me that was a bad thing. For some reason, I believed the book.

Now I've got a child who fights sleep at every opportunity, keeps her latch pretty firm even after falling asleep while nursing, and no longer sleeps through the night.

I'm not sure if these problems are arising because of the timing - maybe she's going through a growth spurt or she's being increasingly bothered by her teething - or because of the tactics I've employed by the book.

I love my daughter so much and want so badly to do right by her. It's so tricky because all answers are the right answers, but what feels right to me? Do I follow attachment parenting, which appeals to me in may ways (though not necessarily in its entirety), or do I "toughen her up" so that she's ready to take on the care-taker when I go back to work?

I wish children came with their own individual handbooks.

I'm getting the feeling that this is just an off week all around. It must have something to do with the stars.

Last week I started working on a schedule with S. I picked up a copy of The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems and got started. The first day went really well, so I was lulled into a false sense of security. As time went on, she figured out the loopholes in the tactics I was using. For instance, I used the pick up/put down method to extend her naps (pick up the baby when she is crying, put her back down when she's settled). To get around this, she hummed when she felt settled so that I would not put her down. She would also clutch my shirt so that I could not fully put her down. As time went on, the situation got worse instead of better. In the end, I almost ended up ferberizing her without wanting to. So, we stopped that method.

Now I've got to get S to trust me again, and then we can start over with something else.

Luckily, she's a great night time sleeper. She goes to bed between 7 and 8, determined by when she finishes her evening bottle, and wakes up between 7:30 and 8am. She's even good at putting herself to sleep at night. She didn't require any intervention from me tonight at all. Naps, on the other hand, and tricky. I know recreating the night time scenario would be the best way to deal with it, but so far a dark room has not helped. I take about 20 min to read to her, rock her, and try to get her settled down before putting her in her crib. Before all of this, she slept great in a brightly lit room. The problem was that she slept when she wanted to, which could vary by up to two hours. She also often fell asleep nursing, which isn't a good habit to keep up.

We'll figure it out, but it's going to take a lot of work.

Wish me luck!

1. Go to Career Cruising, www.careercruising.com
2. Put in Username: nycareers and Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the results
5. Put the careers you have seriously considered in italics, and the careers in which you have worked/do work in bold.

1.Management Consultant
Very Good Match

2.Forester
Good Match

3.Marketing Specialist - Marketing Intern, and I'm working on my diploma in marketing
Very Good Match

4.Health Care Administrator
Very Good Match

5.Archaeologist
Good Match

6.Art Director
Good Match

7.Economist
Good Match

8.Desktop Publisher
Good Match

9.Bank Manager
Very Good Match

10.Potter
Fair Match

11.Wedding Planner
Good Match

12.Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator
Fair Match

13.Animator
Fair Match

14.Event Planner
Very Good Match

15.Venture Capitalist
Good Match

16.Arts Administrator
Very Good Match

17.Curator
Good Match

18.Industrial-Organizational Psychologist
Good Match

19.Set Designer
Fair Match

20.Clothing Manufacturer
Fair Match

21.Director of Photography
Fair Match

22.Advertising Copywriter
Very Good Match

23.Costume Designer
Fair Match

24.Recreation Director
Very Good Match

25.Artist
Fair Match

26.Economic Development Officer
Good Match

27.Communications Specialist
Very Good Match

28.Writer
Very Good Match

29.Activist
Good Match

30.Public Policy Analyst
Very Good Match

31.Public Relations Specialist
Very Good Match

32.Political Aide
Very Good Match

33.Critic
Very Good Match

34.Lobbyist
Very Good Match

35.Archivist
Good Match

36.Print Journalist
Very Good Match

37.Logistics Specialist
Very Good Match

38.Market Research Analyst
Good Match

39.Medical Illustrator
Fair Match

40.Industrial Designer
Fair Match

I know it's been a while - though that is not entirely unlike me. Nonetheless, I should really be blogging more.

The little one is now 7 weeks old, and I can fit into some of my pre-pregnancy clothes. While the latter is great news to me, the former saddens me. It seems like yesterday that she was born, while also seeming like she's always been a part of our lives. This week is a milestone in that she is now sleeping through the night. That means that mommy, too, is sleeping through the night. Every milestone is bittersweet. While it's exciting and a fantastic adventure that she is now talking to us and her toys with a variety of sounds, smiling when you talk to her, and sleeping through the night, these are also signs that she is growing up. And that makes the whole thing just a little bit bittersweet.

It's been a long time in the coming, and I'm late with the announcement here, but Samantha arrived into our lives on July 11, 2007. A healthy 9lb 8oz, she's healthy and happy and cries only when she's hungry.

For photos, please see my facebook profile.

Yesterday would have been a better day to greet summer though (on PEI at least). It was beautiful out yesterday, and today is horribly grey and rainy.

I am hoping that the rain is lucky for me, just as it is on a wedding day. Today is my first due date. I say first due date because I have been given two, from two separate ultra sounds, in my pregnancy. The doctor's file reads that June 28th is my due date because that was my the date provided at the first ultra sound. The second said that my baby would be ready for the first day of summer, making this truly a summer child. I've been anxious about having my baby for a long time, and am now feeling like I'll be pregnant forever.

Realisticly, I know that the baby will be here in three weeks or less, which is a little hard to wrap my head around. There will be this new little person in our lives, with its own likes and dislikes, personality, and perspective. Randy's now really excited about it. With the way our year has gone, there's been little time to get excited about the new baby. Between searching for a place to live, and the fiasco that happened with Randy's job (while it did work out really well in the end) there's been a few distractions there.

I'm ready to meet the newest member of our family. Cross your fingers that he/she arrives today!

After several sickly, date-free months, Randy and I are going to attempt going out on a date. I'll try to look nice, we'll go out for dinner, then out to see a movie. The early show because I can't stay awake very late anymore. I'm looking forward to it.

In other news, it was a friend's birthday on Wednesday, and I'm having trouble getting ahold of him. LostMuskrat, where are you?

These adventures in pregnancy are always interesting, if nothing else.

My latest adventure was into the world of maternity clothing. I wore my first pair of maternity pants (designed for first and second trimester). The concept was low rise, to sit right under my belly.

For most of the day they sat right at my knees.

These days I wear pants that are a little too big and all of my belts are too small. So I usually need to tug up my pants a couple of times a day, but it's not to bad. Yesterday, I spent the whole day tugging up my pants.

In any case, if anyone's looking for a pair of super low rise pants....

I'm looking forward to this year -- in the kind of way that you know you're life is going to forever change and can't do much about it so you're accepting it and choosing to look forward to it. This year will see the beginning of my own family, and the purchase of a house. It's all going to be rather overwhelming, but I'm hoping to enjoy the ride.

We had another appointment with the doctor today. I've only gained a pound in the last four weeks, which made me nervous until I heard the heartbeat again. That little beat is the most comforting sound that I think I've ever heard. The only thing that I can think of which is any better is seeing the baby at the ultrasound -- Randy used the word "amazing" to describe it today, then took it back as that word does not really fully capture how we felt seeing it. It's only about 5 weeks until our next u/s, and I can't wait.

I've got a bus to catch -- ttyl.

Tammie

I'm eating all the sweets that I want, and not paying an ounce of attention to my waist-line. I'm going to put on weight anyway, so I might as well enjoy the ride :)

R would kind of like to see me eating a little less, but he's not giving me a very hard time about it all. He's very gracious (particularly in light of my current mood swings).

Yes, our lives will change forever on June 28th (or somewhere thereabouts) when we take home a new little bundle from the hospital.

My biggest complaint: I knew that a baby would command your schedule when it came, but I didn't realize that it's reign would begin six weeks after conception.

I know it's been a while, and there's lots that has changed in the past while...

I finally switched jobs. I loved my old job, but it was time to go. I'm now working at the University in the School of Business Administration as an Admin Assistant to the Dean. My first project here was to work on the new SBA website. There are also a few other marketing-related things that are coming down the tubes. I love this job.

I've moved in with Randy, and have been living with him for just a little over two months. It's nice to have a place that is my own, although there are certain challenges due to the fact that I moved into his apartment. There's still some work to do integrating my stuff into his life.

I've been slack with my diploma over the past few weeks. I love my life as it is, and don't really want to clutter it up anymore -- but I do need to get back onto that stuff.

Mom and I have started a cake decorating class, which has been really interesting. I could really get into that stuff.

My brother is married, and is now renovating a mini-home which they've recently purchased. My contribution to it is some sewing, and some decorating suggestions. I've made a little game-plan for their living room, which I hope will turn out well.

I've also been cooking a lot more. Randy and I went out to one of the local up-scale restaurants for our anniversary. While the meal was quite good, I've never been more disappointed with a meal out in my life. I found that we cook just as well at home -- so eating out is becoming less of a culinary treat and more of a treat-of-convenience. Well, that means fewer $90 meals an more $25 meals when we want to go out. We'll find a new date thing to do.

That's all for now, folks.

Tammie

The Hip concert was okay. Just okay. Which is kind of disappointing because I love concerts.

And I always seem to choose the wrong one to go to over the Canada Day week-end. I see a band I want to see, go to that one, then hear bits of the other concert which sounds amazing and I'm disappointed that I didn't go.

Or maybe it's just my love of concerts generally that makes me want to go to the second one.