Day 18: Of Snow & Grey Cup

Happy 16 months, Jamayia! Wow, she’s just growing up so fast! She’s enjoying her new high chair and we’re installing her new car seat tomorrow. With winter approaching, she’s getting a bit too bulky for the infant carrier/seat when she’s decked out in all her gear.

We got a wee bit of snow this afternoon. There was a sickening wind gusting around too. It almost blew me away. I’m sure if I were thinner, I would’ve have a Mary Poppins experience, minus the umbrella. The wind did make a few of the roads and intersections quite slippery too. Hopefully that won’t last for too long. I’ve gotta go out in the morning.

And the next best news of the day: the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are off to the Grey Cup game. They won their eastern conference final today, vs. Toronto in Toronto! Unfortunately, the QB broke his arm during the game, so they’re gonna have to rely on the backup dude. But he’s alright too. Go, Bombers, go! Should be good. What makes it even more interesting is their opponent–the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The two Prairie teams have such a rivalry going on. So, this match up pretty much means war. I hope the Blue hold out.

On that note, time for sleep. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have something quite exciting to share?

Day 17: You Are Already Sleeeepy

**Yawn**

Birthday shout-outs to start. Happy Birthday to the sisters-in-love, Carolyn & Dacia. (Yes, they’re twins!) And go figure, they got no snow for their birthday this year. Apparently, they usually do. In fact, it was a gorgeous, bright & sunny day today.

Baby awoke at 1:15 am to eat…and proceeded to stay awake until 4 am. Thankfully, she rarely pulls this stunt. But that meant that I didn’t get to sleep until 4 am myself, and had to be up by 8:30 am. I think that today was the first time I’ve ever kinda wanted the jolt from coffee…LOL. Only kinda though, because the thought of coffee is still yucky and those jolts are only temporary. I needed a full fix to get me through the entire day. I made the choice to stick with baby all nite, alone, because Hubby needed his sleep. He had to preach this morning, and was planning to wake up early to finish up his sermon prep. Being the loving & supportive wife that I am, of course I allowed him to sleep. Plus, he’s not feeling well. There was no way that I, in good conscience, could allow Jamayia to disturb him to play at that unearthly hour of the morning. I didn’t even bother making him sign an IOU. He steps up to the plate all the time, no need to keep track.

Baby started taking her iron drops tonite. Hopefully she’ll steer clear of all possible gastro side effects. I really don’t want that for her….

Day 15: Pardon The Fumes!

I wish I could tell you that the fumes are from car exhaust or burnt food or even bodily gasses at this point. But they’re from the steam that was coming out of my ears after Jamayia’s Dr’s appt today. You see, the appt was for 1:15 pm. I arrived there on time, early even, if you will (like 1:10 pm). And then I sat in the waiting room, and sat and sat and sat and…well, you get the picture. At one point, another waiting mommy asked me how long I’ve been there–and that was at 2:30 pm. I finally got into the exam room at 2:54 pm….then proceeded to wait some more and more and more….. The Dr finally arrived at 3:45 pm. Yes, I’m not lying. She apologized for running behind and was even moreso apologetic because she noticed that I’d been bumped.

Me. They bumped me. Do those reception ladies know who they’re messing with? Which, incidentally, they don’t seem too friendly. I rarely get a good vibe from them. You’d think that ladies who happen to see children in their line of work would at least put up a friendly front. But back to the bumping. I was not impressed. So, it really wasn’t my imagination to see that people who’d arrived after me were going in to see the Dr before I did. And I was fully on time! I’d be slightly more lenient had I been extrememly tardy. My Dr is part of a group, and each Dr has a different coloured folder system for their patients. So, whenever I saw a green folder, I knew for sure that my Dr was about to see that patient. Thankfully, my Feb appt is for 10 am–the first one of the day. And you can be sure that I’ll be requesting early appts from now on!

The appt itself–not too good. Jamayia only gained like 4 ozs since Oct. She now weighs 17 lbs, 8 ozs. Her weight-gain curve has slowed to a crawl. Slow gainth (like my word?) can happen at times, but in Jamayia’s case, her gaining is practically tapering off. Plus, she’s got the food allergy, to milk, which is everywhere. So, we’re being referred to a pediatric dietician too. Right now, the aim of the game is to load this kid up with calories. She needs to eat. I’ll be buttering everything, in order to hide the fat in her food. At least at her age, she doesn’t have to worry about fat content.

Does anyone know where to find dairy-free bread and/or bread recipe that’s kid appropriate? I’ve found some dairy-free bread that’s just too adultly healthy for a toddler. The 12 & 18 grain options are just too much for her to chew, literally. Why don’t they make a white bread that is dairy-free or something? Because of the high sensitivity of her milk allergy, I have to refrain from products that “may have come in contact with milk”.

Day 14: Ideal Finger Size?

Just squeezing in this post prior to midnite. Hubby was busy working, so the PC was tied up.

In other news, we get our phone hooked up tomorrow. Not thrilled about the 8 am-12 noon window that the cable company gave us. But Baby sees her Dr tomorrow afternoon, so we had to take that one. Hopefully they’ll come around 10ish or later. It’ll be nice to have a land line again. Although using the celly wasn’t all that bad. It’s not like I get a lot of phone calls.

Oh, I forgot one great daydream for my perfect world post yesterday. In a perfect world, I’d have the body that would look fabulous in nearly any style of clothing. The clothes would just fit every curve correctly and hang beautifully on my frame. I’d be such a hit, that retailers would be begging for me to be a live model in their store fronts. I must say that I had an experience similar to this when we were engagement ring hunting. My finger was the perfect size for all the trial rings. LOL. And many of them looked absolutely hot! on my hand. I had a few jewellers actually tell me that I had a great ring tryout finger. And yes, we often went in the evening, after work, so my hands would’ve been their full size by then…LOL.

Tomorrow is also W-day (weigh day). I’ll be keeping you posted for sure. The trick is to gain weight at a rate that is within the charts, according to the Dr. Personally, I say she’s doing alright. She’s not any less playful or developmentally slower because her weight is lower than suggested. She was also just slightly under the curves on the chart, so nothing drastic. Her interest in food is slowly picking up and we’re trying hard core to encourage her to eat. Just as long as she doesn’t need anymore bloodwork tomorrow, I’ll be good.
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Day 13: In A Perfect World, I’d…

I’d be some secretly sensational diva-voiced singer. I’d get discovered singing at church and all the gospel greats would be after me. People like Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Richard Smallwood, Darwin Hobbs, Yolanda Adams, Donnie McClurkin, etc, etc would all be longing to sing with me. And Oprah would be calling me up left, right and center. It totally would have nothing to do with getting monetarily rich. Just the chance to sing all the time.

I’d have such culinary talents that I could whip up anything from whatever’s in the fridge or cupboard, sans recipe book. The gourmet geniusness would just be oozing out of my pores. People would be practically begging for my suggestions and ideas. Again, nothing to do with fame or fortune. Just a chance to make healthy meals for all kinds of people.

I’d have the option of buying whatever I wanted. Notice that I didn’t say that I’d actually buy whatever. Even in my daydreams, I don’t want to get carried away. Rather, I’d just like to have enough cash at my disposal to not have to always hem and haw and bargain hunt for many things. I’d love to be able to call up an architect and say “build me a house”, then call up a popular & creative designer and say “go ahead, it’s your carte blanche”. I’d love to be able to walk into any auto dealership and say “I’ll take that one, please”. I’d love to be able to take a honeymoon with my Honey annually. I’d love to be able to go clothes shopping at my leisure. Most of all, I’d love to be able to help out some young folks who are trying to get a leg up in the world. Sometimes you just need a meal, a room, some books, a hand of some kind. I could do that without condition of repayment. Sounds better than a student loan.

I’d be a freelance writer with all kinds of people clamouring for my words. It’s not even about popularity or winning a Pulitzer Prize. But people would find my words inspiring or amusing (or both!) and just want to read what I have to say. Websites would be coming after to me to blog on their sites. Publications would want me to write articles for them. I wouldn’t have to advertise “blogger for hire”. Words would just flow as soon as I put pen to paper or keys to keybaord.

I’d be a fantastic preacher. I don’t mean pastor or clergy member. I’d just want to literally preach–give a sermon. I’m not too interested in the rest of the job. I’d be so connected with God that He’d give me the ability to write the perfect sermon for the crowd before me. I would speak with a holy boldness, not pussyfooting around today’s issues. Rather, I’d be unashamed to speak out against what’s right and what’s wrong.

Those were just a few of the things that popped into my head as I was putting Jamayia down tonite. Can ya tell that it took a hot minute for her to actually stay down in her crib? She fell asleep on my shoulder without problems. But for me to transfer her from shoulder to bed was a whole other story. Hmm…in a perfect world, I’d have a crib with automatically adjustable legs so that it’d be easy to transfer a sleeping baby from shoulder to bed.

Ahhhh, sometimes daydreaming can be quite fun.

Day 12: Your Vote Will Count Here

Where to begin?? Happy Birthday Max!

Hubby was home today. It was nice to just have an extra day to chillax with him & bébé. I got to sleep in for a few extra minutes this morning while he spent time with his daughter. Then we opted to do part 1 of our errands before naptime. We ran out to Tiber River for some hair products for Jamayia. Then we zipped over to Baby Bin to see about some soap, again for bébé. They were out of soap, but I did pick up a cool “colouring” book for her instead. You can colour in the pages with crayon, then wipe off with a kleenex and redo again and again and again. Then we went to a Hull’s Family Bookstore to pick up something. And since we were in the area and had a few moments, we stopped in to see Auntie Carolyn at work. She has pics of baby on her desktop, and so she’s already popular at the office. I’m sure she’ll be signing autographs next time we pop in to say hello.

While baby napped, I made so awesome wraps. We got some chicken (breast, Amanda, okay??) strips and some flavoured wraps. We used either guacamole or hummus as a base, then added onions, cukes & tomatoes. Tops with a bit of honey mustard sauce (it came with the strips) and either some Asian Sesame or Ranch dressing. Yummmm-Oooo!! Doesn’t that just make you want one right now?!

Post-nap, it was back out again for a couple more errands, on this side of town. Stopped off at Safeway to make a return. Then off to Toys R Us to investigate a few necessities. Now being in a house, and living in the basement, we need a couple baby gates. She also needs a new high chair. Due to space limitations and aesthetics, we’ve narrowed down the choice to two: the Fisher Price Space Saver vs. this Safety 1st competitor. The first one looks nicer, I think. Next up–new car seat. With her winter jacket on, Jamayia’s getting a little too bulky for her infant car seat. Yet, she’s still under 20 lbs, so she needs to be rear-facing. So, we’ve gotta find one of those convertible options, that’ll hopefully last us until she can sit like a big person in the car. Again, the two options are This one vs That one. This week, “that” one is on sale.

Well, this post isn’t a running advertising spot on purpose. I just started by adding a few links, and decided to see how many links I can actually post here. Made for an interesting challenge because I wanted to find the right sites to show my loyal reader-fans pics of whatever I’m talking about. Please let me know.

And why do I still not have any suggestions for the new name for this blog?

Day 11: Remembering God’s Presence

It’s been quite the long day here. We had a women’s fall fellowship brunch at our church this morning. I woke up at 8 am (I forgot that Sunday had such an early hour) to get ready for this event, and to be there for 9 ish, to help prior to the 10 am start. There were some funny points from the day:

  • One planning team member was responsible for the bulk of the shopping this week. Her hubby helped her out with that. They were to get buns. She came with 1 dozen, but we needed 4 dozen. Thankfully, there was extra bread kicking around the church kitchen.
  • Another planning team member was responsible for arranging some group singing. Because it was Remembrance Day, she chose many battle-themed hymns. (For the record–nothing wrong with hymns. However, at these events, we usually sing praise & worship songs/hymns, as it sets the tone nicely for the morning). So, I kindly hinted that maybe we should add in a praise hymn. Turns out that during the singing, the first 3 battle-theme hymns were quite weakly done and unknown by the majority. The best song they sang & enjoyed & actually knew was the praise hymn.
  • We’d asked the women to RSVP so we’d have a good idea at numbers. We knew for sure that approx 15 were coming (lower than hoped), so we aimed for about 30. 32 showed up!
  • A team member told a story of a man who one day drove to work in the morning, worked a hectic day and proceeded to walk home from work. The next day, he was searching high & low for his vehicle, then remembered: it was at work! Turns out that the same thing actually happened to a lady in the room–she gave us a good gut-busting laugh.
  • I learned that scrapbooking can be just as beautiful whether done with simply (photo & caption) or complexly (photo, caption & page décor).

I’m just thankful that it was a positive day. Our guest speaker told us some her life story. Her main point being that God’s always with you. Nowhere are you promised that life will be a bed of roses as a Christian. However, God does promise that He will walk with you. He also has the power to turn your negatives into positives. With Him, anything is possible. Now, onto planning for our future events.

My bro also came by this evening, toting along Superman Returns. Thankfully, I got to escape a big chunk of the movie. I was busy baking chocolate chip cookies & then playing with Jamayia downstairs. TV so isn’t a major interest of hers right now. Hopefully it won’t ever be either! Everyone else was too wrapped up in the movie to pay her much mind. So we had some fun Mommy & Baby time together. I love her to bits!!! She’s so sweet. Gotta spend lots of time with her while she’s at this critical spongy stage in her growth. She loves to read and loves to be read to.

I know I had something else, but I forget what at this point. Yay–hubby’s home tomorrow! Gotta love stat holidays for that reason. His staff Christmas party is also coming up. Which gives me approx 3 wks to “tone” up a bit so that I look ravishing on his arm that evening. Wish me luck. I’ll have to see if Dacia wants to attempt the 4 mile walk with me. Odd, it’s like I can just hear her saying no already…LOL.

Day 10: I Would’ve Fired All Of Them

Okay, cool things first.

My brother & I were asked to lead out in some praise & worship songs at church today. The worship leader had asked us a few weeks back. Well, probably the week after she’d asked, the lightbulb went on our church projector. Since then, we’ve been without some of our regular media technology (ie: hymns on big screen). The music at church has been for the most part, kinda dry lately too. There have been a few highlights this year (and it’s definitely a vast improvement over the musical atrocities of last year), but the praise & worship part was practically nonexistant. So, I was happy when I was finally asked to participate, and eagerly agreed. My one motto for this week was “NO HYMNS!”. Don’t get me wrong–I love hymns, but it was time for a change.

The church responded so well today! The singing was just beautiful. Oh, and I’d spoken to my youth pastor, and he found a cord to run from the audio/visual booth computer to the front, where they could connect it to another projector. Praise the Lord! These people sang so well that it almost seemed as though they’ve been storing it up for a rainy day or something. Music is something that touches everyone on one level or another. You just can’t take the risk of screwing it up.

The ugly for today: an interview gone awry. I was shown this link this evening. A tv host decided to get stupid during a satellite interview with Tyler Perry & Janet Jackson as they were promoting the new film “Why Did I Get Married?”. You’ve got to see the link. One thing that annoyed me was that out of 3 anchors sitting in on the satellite interview, not one of them tried to stop the one guy from running his mouth. In fact, the female anchor was urging him on in his nonsense. Had I been the station manager, I so would’ve fired them on the spot. In fact, probably on air for their callousness. Then, in the apology spot, again, the guy was pathetic. And the same female anchor had nothing constructive to contribute. I’m still shaking my head. This entire incident could’ve been much uglier than it was.

Anyhoo, that’s it for the moment. Still enjoying the praise & worship singing experience from today. When you have great music, it helps to set such a beautiful tone on the entire service. Singing is only one aspect of praise and worship. And the rest of the service afterwards totally reflected that. Hopefully this positive trend will continue!

Day 9: Peppermint Tea

Did I mention that chocolate chip cookies go very nicely with peppermint tea? Yes, we’re still very much into our cookies here. Gotta love that Pillsbury cookie dough.

Late post tonite, but one nonetheless. I was just upstairs with the sistahs & hubby, chatting away. We started off catching a poor excuse for a joke from an email that a sista received today. It was a (clean) proposition, which she had to turn down. And well, convos evolve and we had a great discussion. Prayer really does make such a positive difference in one’s life. We made a pact; to pray together on a regular basis. While we’re all living together, we should be constructive with our time. It’s no accident that we’re here at this time. I can’t see the future, but I can make the most of the present.

Had a busy one today. Baby slept in nicely–yay! I was able to get up before she did, but not too early. Got a head start on my dish for potluck tomorrow. When she awoke, I got her dressed and we went to run a few errands. Got back, and organized a few things for church tomorrow. I’m so glad to have those Veggie Tale Silly Songs DVDs. It provides me with a nice diversion for Jamayia on the occasion when I have pressing matters to tend to. Since she refused to sleep, we ventured into the kitchen and made supper for the family.

I did manage to catch some of the Osmonds on Oprah. It was quite interesting. I didn’t grow up in the Osmond era, so I missed all the hype. But, watching the clips and hearing the music, they were almost similar to the Jacksons, minus the drama. It was encouraging to see that a large family can live through the entertainment industry and still stick together. It was also very nice to see that they weren’t pathetically sad over the death of their father. There were moments of sadness on the show, but in a touching way. That’s probaby because they seemed to have no outlying regrets of their lives growing up. Not to say that none of them had any mistakes or shadows in their pasts. I know that there’s no way the Jackson family would’ve been able to make it through the Oprah show in a comfortable manner.

I’d love to see moments like that in my family. Looks like I’ve got some loving to do.