Happy Birthday to Jeff 🎈

Today Jeff is celebrating a milestone birthday – happy 40th to my sweet husband, daddy to our two girls, and all around monsterific man 🧟‍♂️

There are many updates to report. Every week I mean to say more than I do, but I run out of time. So I will try to include something in each of the next few posts until I am sort of caught up.

We have renovated the area in our bedroom where the Jacuzzi tub used to be. It is currently serving as Linden‘s “bedroom,“ and we have her sleeping in her own crib in that space. We are doing some gentle “sleep training“ to help her sleep better. It seems to be working, despite her having had a cold and then learning how to sit up in bed but how to not lay back down. Things aren’t perfect, but after we go to bed for the night she is mostly waking up to feed only once before waking up for the day.

Eventually we plan to move Linden into her own bedroom, which is the room that used to be our guest room. We have purchased a pull out couch which is in our “TV“ room, a back room with a door that will serve well as a guest room once we don’t have an extra bedroom anymore.

Here are some favourite recent photos:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Up here in Canada it’s Thanksgiving, so Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians 🍁  We had a potluck with friends yesterday, and our own family celebration today. I am over full, but looking forward to more pumpkin pie.

It feels like past week has been excruciatingly long. Poor Linden has been teething and I don’t remember teething being nearly this bad with Maren. Her second top tooth popped through overnight last night, and today has been a much better day than the past few. I hope we get a little bit of a break, but I can see the next teeth starting to appear.

Despite all this, I have a whole bunch of great photos from the past week. Here are a few of my favorites:

New appliances

Last week we got all new kitchen appliances. New dishwasher, microwave, range, and refrigerator.  The ones that came with the house were probably about 25ish  years old. I didn’t realize how bad they were until we got new ones. We thought that getting new appliances was kind of silly because the ones we had worked, but it is amazing to be able to have the dishwasher running and still have a conversation. Or have the microwave running and still have a conversation.  And to have an oven light that works. And a freezer that doesn’t accidentally get stuck open. I feel like we are living in luxury.

 Linden has been having a bit of a tough time lately, and today we could see that her two top middle teeth are about to come through. It seems like teething is pretty rough for her.  With only two down and two more coming, I think we are going to be dealing with teething for quite some time. Poor kiddo.

Cold after cold

Our kids keep getting sick. First Maren had a cold, then I got it, then Linden got it, then Linden got an ear infection, then she had some vomiting episodes, then as soon as everyone was healthy Linden got a new cold  then Maren got it then Jeff got it. Miraculously, I have stayed healthy this round.  This new cold is really awful, and Linden has slept pretty terribly for the past number of nights, which means I have too.  But I think we are all headed toward healthy so hopefully sleep will improve soon too!

 I know it has been a few weeks since I posted, and plenty has happened in that time, but it’s hard to think back and remember what.  But  I can think back to the past couple of days,  and on Thursday Maren turned four years old!  She has turned into such a big girl. She is reading more and more, is a pro on her balance bike, and for her birthday we got her a real bicycle with training wheels.  She is just barely big enough for it and I think it will last her a while. Unfortunately I missed her first time out riding it, but Jeff says that she did really well and just has a little to learn about peddling.  At four years old Maren is independent, as stubborn/spirited  as ever,  getting better and better at figuring things out and solving problems, and is super into rainbows and rainbow colors.

 I have been terrible about taking photos on my phone the last few weeks, but here are a few recent ones:

Eating weeds

This was Linden this afternoon:

She is a good eater so far - she will try anything, even dandelion leaves. 

Last week was eventful. My mom visited, and we did lots of fun things. Here are a few photos from the past two weeks: