My Little Boy is One!!

It's Reid's first birthday today!! I was so excited to hug and kiss him this morning. The little butt slept in till after 7, so I almost missed out on the opportunity. I was putting my make up on and I could quietly hear him saying "go" in his room. I was very happy to be able to kiss those sweet cheeks before I had to leave for work.

We've got a fun weekend planned full of lots of cake and friends! I still can't believe that I am the mother of a one year old. And such a special little guy too. He's getting much more chatty. Among his favorite sayings are "go away"(mostly to Franklin), "good boy", "good bye", and "hi". He's been really working on the G sounds lately. He's still walking like a champ and growing like a weed. His new measurements are 22.6 lbs and 30.25 inches!! Time to turn the car seat around and ride in the car like a big boy!

I'm very grateful this little guy came into our lives. He has definitely changed us completely! Watching him grow and learn is astonishing and I'd never trade it for the world. He amazes me everyday and I am so excited for all the years to come.

BitterSweet

Ahhh, February 14th. It's a very bittersweet day for me today. It's Valentine's day, which I'm not usually a "fan" of, but Christien's coming home today too, so it kind of makes it special. And it's Reid's first Valentine's day too. It's all about the love now! Christien being home tonite is another great thing. Not only is he going to be home for his two weeks, but he's going to be home till the end of April. He'll get to be here for mine and Reid's birthdays! Exciting. It's a beautiful day out. However, it's also my last day of maternity leave. How quickly a year goes... I'm exceptionally happy that Christien will be here to be with Reid for the next two weeks. Makes going back to work a bit easier, knowing that not only am I heading back into the workforce, but I don't have to deal with dropping Reid off at daycare too. Christien and Reid will have their two weeks together. Then I get a vacation day at the end of the month (ha ha) so that Christien can start school on the 28th, and I can watch Reid and get him ready for his first day of daycare on the 1st. So many transitions. On one hand, I'm very happy to be getting back to a normal routine. Waking up at the same time everyday, going to work, picking up the baby, having dinner and getting a work out in... It's great. But then I look at his sweet face and think how much I'll miss him.

I think that if I had a legitimate job to go back to things would be different. As it stands, I'm just heading back to another "no job, job" for the next few months. So basically I'm every one's gopher. Whoever gets to me first gets my time. I didn't like it before I went on mat leave, and I'm not going to like it now. At least before I went on leave I had something to look forward to. I'm not being a cynic, but it just really stinks when you are just left in the lurch by your company. A company I've worked for for the last 6 years. You'd think that they would have something better to offer me. I should not be surprised as I've seen them do this to countless other employees. Either way, that's my fate. For the next few weeks at least.

That's enough optimism for one day. Ha ha ha. I'm just counting down the hours till I get to see my husband now. And Reid's birthday party is this weekend, which is going to be so supremely exciting!! I cannot wait.

February Mergers...

There is all so much that's been happening in the last few weeks. We're planning Reid's birthday. We have company coming to stay with us. I'm starting the Happiness Project (more on this to come). Reid's turning 1 (did I mention that...)?

Christien will be back on Monday and I start back to work on Tuesday. It's nice that he's going to be here for the last little bit of February so that Reid doesn't have to be in daycare. I'm not worried about him being there all day, right now it's just about saving the money. Ha!! Reid's going to be a champ. He loves people, he's so social, I'm not concerned a bit. We can take him into his daycare for an hour or so before he starts and I'm just waiting till all the paperwork is complete before we bring him in there. So Christien is the one who will be hanging with him. He's going to be fine, and he's going to love it. So many new friends!!

For Reid's birthday we're going to have a little family get together on Friday night (his actual birthday). Saturday we're having our close friends and family over. I'm making a marvelous pulled pork for lunch. And making a fabulous monkey birthday cake. I also ordered some personalized M&M's for the party and they came back and are the best thing that I've ever seen. On Christien's "to do list" is to pick up balloons when he's off. Reid loves balloons. I can't wait for this birthday party. He's one. That's so special. I feel beyond blessed to have him in my life. He'll never remember this party, but that's ok. I'm going to remember it forever cause it's a milestone for me. Hopefully Amber and I can pick out a cute outfit for him tomorrow too.

I'm starting to feel very pressured all of a sudden. It's just cause so much is coming to and end and so much is starting up. When I go back to work our lives will have done more then a 360. It's still whirlwind. I'm very happy to have Christien back home with us for two months. At the same time we had to postpone a few things we were planning, and Christien has been doing this job for over a year. It's going to be strange to just have him here on a daily basis. It's all going to work out for the best and I can't wait. I love my little family.

Mexico 2011

Well, it's been awhile. We we have been back from Mexicoi for about a week now. Christien is back at work and I'm getting ready to head back to work byself. Mexico was great. We had a fabulous resort. Great food, great people. Great beach. So much to do. So much fun. Glad we decided to do one more big trip before I went back to work. Christien got accepted at SAIT for a February 28th start. We always knew that he'd be going to school to further himself in his trade but this seem to have come up rather quickly. We're both very excited for him to be in school and for him to be at home for two whole months.

Reid turns 1 on the 18th. We're going to have a little party for him and all our siblings will be here to help us celebrate!

Here's a few Mexico pictutes for y'all

One More (Last) Adventure

We're officially going to Mexico. We've been talking about it for so long, but I hadn't really looked at any deals or booked anything, so it didn't really seem real. Till now. I booked it on Tuesday night and we leave on Wednesday. Yikes. So much to do in such a short amount of time. Christien will be home for one whole day before we ship out again. We were planning on going to Puerto Vallarta. Thought something new might be fun. I just couldn't find a really good deal, nor a good hotel with good reviews to go with any of the packages I was coming up with. So the Mayan Riviera started to pop up again on my searches. We had such a good time the last time that we were there, and that was only a few years ago, so we thought we might as well go back. We've got a cute little eco hotel about 45 minutes from the airport. Cute and little don't really describe it as I feel that it's going to be quite a large hotel. Comparable to our hotel in Cuba. There is a whole kids area that just opened up with... 17 water slides I think it said. Hopefully there will be some wee ones that we can take Reid down. I think he'll like that. And he loves the ocean. I think that we might even hop the ferry to Cozumel this time. Not sure how long the trip is, but you can see Cozumel from Playa del Carmen, so it might be a fun day trip.

I wish it would just warm up in Calgary for a few minutes for me so that I can get some errands done. I don't like bundling Reid up and getting him in and out of the car in this weather. He hates hats and he hates his mitts even more. So getting him to keep those on when it's -21 is proving to be a bit of a challenge. And I'd rather he not get frost bitten. With that being said, Mexico is coming at the best time. Get us out of this cold and snow.

The New Year

Well, it has indeed been a busy month. The time seemed to fly by once we got back from Cuba. Bernie, I promise I'll get some Cuba pictures up here for you soon. We had loads to do the week before Christien went back to work to get ready for Christmas. Got the tree, did some shopping, started making some "to do" lists. Then he was off again. I managed to stay really busy while he was gone, trying to get a few things ticked off my list everyday. You have to be much more planned out when you are doing errands with a baby, I find. There's no way I can do 5 or 6 stops with the little guy. He's done after two stops. We did our best, and got a lot of things done.

Christien was back only a few days before the grandparents showed up. Cleo's flight arrived early Christmas Eve morning. I have a feeling she was pretty excited to see Reid. The last time she had been here to see him, he was only four weeks old. He's sure changed a lot since then, and turned into his own little man for sure. He definitely kept her laughing while she was here. My parents arrived just before lunch. Although they get to see Reid quite often, they are still always very excited to see him again, and again, and again. It was great having all those grandparents under one roof. Lots of people willing and wanting to hold, rock, feed and clean the baby.

Christmas morning was one for the record books. Reid was hilarious. He had no clue what was going on but he was sure excited by all the commotion. We got everyone up so that they could be there to see his little face when he came down to see what Santa had left. He was kind of weirded out when he first came down with Christien cause everyone was just standing there looking at him. Christien put him down, and he looked at the tree and the presents and went crazy. He jumped at Gerome, his giraffe. And hugged him, and jumped up and down, and squealed. He loves that crazy giraffe. It took us ALL morning to open presents. Reid had no real interest in actually opening anything, and he had the lion's share of what was under the tree. His interest was all over the place. He'd take a shining to a few presents and ignore the rest, then he'd turn his attention to a few other new things once he figured it out. He does love his Mega Blocks and his tunnel. He also loves all the stacking blocks. He just loves to knock them over. And he loves all his bouncy balls. We've sorted the toys upstairs, main floor and down stairs, and put away a lot of his "old" toys so that we aren't overwhelmed. And the house is still over flowing. But they keep him entertained. He also loves all his new books. Sometimes I'll be in the kitchen and it'll get really quiet and I'll go into the living room to look for him, and he'll just be sitting there, by the tree flipping his book open and closed. Looking at the pictures and feeling the pages. Not only is he handsome and cute, but he's also going to be super smart :)

We had our regular "open house" for Boxing day. Didn't have a big turnout this year. A lot of people were out of town, and those that were going to be coming had the flu. Still the friends and family who were here made it totally worthwhile. It's too bad that Davis wanted to go home so early :)

The flu ended up hitting the Short household just before New Year's Eve. I came down with an intense bout on the Wednesday night. And I was 100% out of commission the next day. I'm so lucky that I have such an amazing husband who was able to keep Reid away for the day. Unfortunately Reid and Christien both caught it too. I think that I might have had the worst of it, which was good, cause if Christien were any sicker, I would have thought he was for real dying. So dramatic. Reid is still feeling a bit gross. Today is the first day he's worn real clothes. He's been in his jammies for a week now.

The New Year always seems to bring with it a punch of reality. Not only are all the festivities of Christmas and New Year's over, but you're looking at a long stretch before there is a holiday at all. And a long, cold stretch, filled with snow. It's doubly worse for me this year, cause I've got to start back at work in a month and a half. Some days I'm OK with it, and others it just makes me want to puke. We've got Reid registered in a day care. It's not our #1 choice, but he's close and it's much cheaper then bringing him downtown. He's still on the wait list at our first choice, and nothing seems to be changing his status on that list, so we needed a back up plan. That's a relief. And I'm sure once I get back to work, and into the swing of things it'll be just great. It's going to be interesting how the two weeks that Christien is away goes. With me working, dropping Reid off at day care and picking him up... I was saying to Christien that I'm going to leave him there till 5:30 or 6:00 every day. Even though I'm off work at 4. It will just give me a few hours to get some errands done. Even get dinner started. Or to go for drinks after work. Kidding!!

In order to alleviate some of this depressing reality, we've decided to head to Mexico for a week. Might as well get some sun and sand before I'm back from my year long "vacation". Reid was great in Cuba so I'm sure he'll be just as good in Mexico. Shorter flight too, which is a total bonus. Not that he was bad during the flight, but holding him for the two 4 hour flights was hard on the old back. So that pretty much reminds me that I should get back to looking for deals to Mexico. We knew we were just going to last minute this trip. We know when Christien is off, so here's to hoping that some hotel, somewhere in Mexico will have the availability for us to stay for a week.

Much love to you all in the New Year!

Cuba Beach Baby

We had an amazing time in Cuba. It was so much fun, and so very relaxing. Usually when you go on vacation you feel like you need another vacation when you get home, to recoup from it. Not this time. This time I felt relaxed when I got home. Mind you, Christien and I both found ourselves suffering through vacation depression. It's hard to come back to reality, when your reality for a week was getting up, eating breakfast in an open air restaurant, heading to the beach by 10 and filling up your mug with rum before you've even hit the beach. Ahhh... if only life were all inclusive.

It was great to have mum, dad, Ty and Stacey there with us. Lots of hands to help with little Reid. Even if that meant rocking him to sleep on the beach, like grandma did for the first few days, or taking him for a walk down the beach, or burying him in the sand (thanks uncle Ty). Reid loved all of it. He loved the sand. And loved the sea. The first few days he seemed to be a bit scared of the ocean and the waves. Even though he would go crazy with excitement when he would see it. He would hold on pretty tight when you were actually in the water with him. By the weekend he was a pro. He liked getting hit by the waves and being in the water. He liked to play in the surf on the beach too.

We basically just relaxed the whole time that we were there. Christien is starting to get weirded out by all the guys at work commenting on his tan. He did come back pretty tanned though. That's what you get for laying out on the beach or body surfing for 7 days. We did go into Havana with Ty and Stacey one day. Mum and dad watched Reid for us. I think that he managed to tire them out pretty well. Havana is a beautiful city full of history. It's too bad that our tour guide didn't know any of the history to share with us. We were a bit disappointed by the tour itself. They didn't give us nearly enough time at the stops. For example, we spent 45 minutes in the cigar store, but only 10 minutes in downtown Havana. That didn't make any sense. The four of us wish that we would have hitched a ride into Havana and then ditched on the tour and done it ourselves. Oh well. Live and learn. We did have fun at the market though. Bought some cool new instruments for the instrument trunk that we are going to have to make. Reid thought that they were pretty cool when we played them for him the next morning.

I have loads of pictures. I'll go through them and upload more soon!! Stay tuned. All in all it was a great time, and Reid proved to be a pretty good traveller. He powered through the long and late night flights like a champ. Poor guy is so messed up with his sleep now. However, this has solidified our desire to head to Mexico in January. One last trip before I head back to work in February.