Squishy Squirrel

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

Summer's End

Fall is here and I have once again fallen so behind on my updates. It seems like summer just whizzed by. It wasn't a particularly nice summer---either cool and rainy or brutally hot and muggy. Hopefully this means we'll have a warm Fall and an easy Winter. At any rate, there is a lot to report, so I won't waste any more time.

Our summer ended on a beautiful note with a little holiday to Victoria where we got to be a part of Auntie Melissa and Uncle Stafford's wedding celebrations. The wedding was beautiful--perfect weather, lots of good laughs and happy conversation. Squish got to be a flower girl for the second time and her sweet little cousin, Cole was the ring bearer. We also got to meet Auntie Rebecca and Uncle Brian's new little girl, Madeline. She is gorgeous and smiley and super bald just like Autumn was. So adorable. It is always bitter-sweet to have everyone together, particularly now that everyone has babies. So nice to be together and so sad to all leave to our own corners of the continent. Living away from family is a huge bummer.

We spent the majority of September house-hunting and had zero success. The rental market in Toronto is pretty pitiful these days and we did not anticipate such a challenging search. We extended our current rental an extra month and we are hoping to have more luck finding a place for November occupancy. We need a little more space because Autumn is going to be a big sister in the spring. Yep, another sweet, bald baby to bring even more love to our family! We are due on March 30th and keeping fingers crossed that this one will be on time.

I have so far found this pregnancy to be significantly more challenging than my first. I have felt more ill, and been more exhausted and have had a busy two-year old to chase around. No rest for the wicked, I guess. It's been pretty hard so far though. I am regularly a patient person and have found myself with way less patience and as a result a super ton of mom guilt for not having the energy to play and chase my girl around the way that I want to be able to. I am nearly 15 weeks now and hoping that these next few weeks will find me feeling more like myself. Fingers crossed.

Anyhoo, I gave myself the length of an episode of Dora to write this so I will post a few pictures and sign off. I promise, I won't let it go for two months without another update. Love you all.

Happy little Cole.

Daddy/Uncle Teddy & the munchkins.

Beautiful little flower girls, Autumn and Emerson.

Great-Nana Stella and Maddy June.

Tony & the squish shucking some corn for a BBQ.

Testing out Auntie Kristi's pumps.

Beautiful bride, Auntie Mel & her handsome little boy.

Autumn, Cole & Emerson: wedding party kiddos.

Here we go...

Uncle & little sweetheart, Cole.

The Kellogg ladies

Auntie Dar and baby Madeline.

Looking ready.

Cutest little ring bearer ever.

Flower girls

Relaxing after the wedding, waiting for some dinner.

Monday, 15 July 2013

summer

Little Soccer Star

This summer has been pretty low-key so far for the most part as a result of terrible weather and minimal days off together as a family. Teddy and I have both been working as much as possible to catch up from our time off during the Spring when mama and the squish had our little car accident. Though we have stayed mostly local, we have been busy as bees playing soccer on Sundays with the Little Kicker's League and hitting up the wading pool at every opportunity. We also had a few days in BC to celebrate Tampa Kellogg's life at Teddy's uncle and aunt's beautiful home and farm in Kamloops. It was a beautiful celebration and was lovely to meet some of Tampa and Grandma's friends and hear some old stories and also to connect with family that we rarely see--particularly Grandma.

Toronto flooded last week and unfortunately, our basement took on some of the city's overflow. Thankfully, things are not too messy around these parts and a few towels took care of most of our little house's damp spots. Others were not so lucky, including Teddy's employer who was forced to close up shop for a few days following the massive storm that dumped all that water on our city. Finding a silver lining, we headed North to the cottage to enjoy a bit of RnR. We were only able to get away for two quick nights and one and a half lovely days, but oh man, was it worth it. That fresh air and sunshine was exactly what this mama needed to recharge the batteries and it was so nice to spend some time away, just the three of us and Elliott. Here are some photos:

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

A very BIG update...It's been awhile!

It's been nearly three months since I have posted anything. I am such a slacker! No, really though...It's been a difficult few months for me so everything in my life is taking a bit of a toll. On May 2nd, Squish, myself and two of our buddies were on our way to Centre Island for a picnic and we were rear-ended on Queens Quay by a dump truck. Without going into details, it's been such an enormous inconvenience and has affected me physically as well as being a gigantic time consumer, which is sooooo frustrating! The physical stuff has been challenging with Autumn. It's been tough to lift her and do what we normally do together and the other stuff has been hugely irritating and a major stressor for Teddy and myself as well. That's all I will say about it, but please forgive me for not posting anything in ages.

Life has continued to be busy with work and a busy bee toddler kicking around. Sunshine and heat have been less than plentiful here in Tdot this spring but we have still managed to spend some lovely days outside. Autumn is talking so much now and even in full sentences. I always think she's a bit ahead of the game in this department for her age and it's nice when other people confirm her genius. We have been hearing lots of "WOW"s with respect to her vocabulary these days. My girl is so smart!

We are on a wait-list for toddler soccer and looking forward to starting swimming lessons back up this summer as well. I'm eager to get her into some physical activities to burn off some of her beans. She's full of 'em! Haha! Yesterday, I picked up a second hand climber and tiny slide and she went up and down and around that thing for three hours after her nap yesterday. It's a hit and I'm so glad that we don't have to go further than the back yard in a pinch to get a few beans out. Autumn also has her little tent outside on sunny days and has been blowing bubbles, drawing with sidewalk chalk and even kite-flying. Revisiting these activities has been nostalgic and super fun! We invited Minnie and Lara over for a visit yesterday and caught some great shots of the girls partying together in the tent. I love seeing them together. I know they will grow up and have a very special friendship.

I don't even think I have mentioned yet that Teddy's sister had a baby in April! It's been THAT long!! Baby Madeline June was born a few weeks early but is doing so well and her mama is nestling right into her new job quite naturally. Maddy is super cute and we are dying to meet her. With typical preemie challenges and a few other unique little Maddy issues, our family really felt the distance with her birth. It sure would have been nice to be closer during the tough times to offer our support--particularly since we dealt with a few similar preemie problems. Sigh. Thank goodness for the ease of text photos and email or we would all be so out of touch with each other. Autumn's cousin Cole also turned 1 in May. He's such a big boy now! It's crazy how time flies...Yikes! Really looking forward to being together in August when Cole's mama and daddy tie the knot! YAY!

These days, Squish is super into penguins. She loves them. Yesterday, she told me she wanted one to live in her crib. "Autumn yike a pengo in a tib." Not going to happen, obviously, so I let her watch Pingu on tv instead. She has also said recently that pigs and cats make her happy. She's such a funny little human. She makes us laugh every day. She has been doing a lot of pretend cooking lately too. Making soup, stew, tea, eggs, etc. Yesterday, she even scrambled a snake, a la Gruffalo. Of course, someone has to eat the pretend food/drink the pretend tea, which is entertaining and hilarious. We had some pals over a few weeks ago for a BBQ and Autumn had Lauren and Paul drinking radish tea with milk and honey for an hour straight...Constantly refilling their cups and offering them more. Thank goodness for patient friends.

Teddy and I took a four day Squishless holiday at the end of April. It was particularly hard because we chose Cuba and opted to stay in Havana in a Casa so we had very limited access to contact with her while we were away. We still managed to have a blast and it helped to know how comfortable our girl is at my mom and dad's house so we didn't lose our minds too badly at not being able to call her every day to check in. With the crappy air quality and instense UV index, I actually think it would have been way more stressful for me to have had her with us. Those old cars sure spit out some rank exhaust and Teddy and I were both looking pretty lobster-esque despite sunscreen and what not.

I will leave you all with some recent photographs. It's 6:30am and I'm dying to work on a little crocheted cardi that I'm making for Autumn. Will post photos as soon as it's done! (Yes, I get up before the roosters for alone time. Who doesn't?)

Love and Peace. m.