The Growth Factor

Wee man is growing.

Like a little weed!

He has grown more in the last 4 or 5 months than the entire year he has been home with us.

It's as if his little, wee body has said "Right! We are finally healthy, all parasites/buggies are gone, all food incoming is now going to go to excellent use, and we can commence growing at an alarming rate!" And so he eats....like a 13 year old teen...he eats!

Some days he wakes up and we both look at him and say "Wow dude! You grew overnight."

Literally!

This morning I looked at him and thought he must have grown last night because he is taller. Seriously! He is taller! He looks leaner and has lost the baby fat/parasite/malnutrion bulge he had when we first met him. The parasite battle has been over for a long time but his teeny belly seemed stuck in the distended position as if those first 2 year's of his life taught it that it should just stick out.

He has outgrown 4 shoes sizes in a year!

4 SHOES SIZES!

He was a size 5 last January and we recently purchased his spring shoes in a size 9! 

Not to mention the pants. He was wearing size 12-18 months when we got him and still had to roll them up. At 24 months he was fitting size 12 months....he weighed 21 pounds and now weighs about 33 pounds.  Now he is in size 3 and even those are fast becoming too small.

So we have been going through many pairs of pants.  Everytime we turn around it looks like his ankles are ready for a flood of gargantous proportions to roll through his immediate area.  I would say it is Urkel-like but only in the "dude you wear your pants waaaaaay to short" sense. He is far to cute to truly be Urkel.

I vaguely remember growing pains as a kid and how my legs ached so bad I wished I could take them off.  I can't imagine how it feels to grow so much so fast.  Wee man's little body is now in a position to be able to "catch up" to where he should be but wasn't given a chance to when he was a wee babe. Some days he is so crabby and we have to remember how painful all this catch up must be.

Not only is his body growing but so is his emotional/intelluctual self.  His speech is rapidly becoming age-appropriate. We can now have full on conversations with him and it makes life so much easier.  He can tell us what he needs, wants and is feeling better than ever. It certainly makes for a happier household.  And Dude! He is SMART!!! Smarter than the two of us combined and that is dangerous.

However, with the speech development comes the confidence to tell us like it is.  Case in point, the other night wee dude said to me "Mama, GET ME MY SUPPER!"  Excuse me!?  We are now working on "Please" so at least now he says "Mama, PLEASE get me my supper!" Ha! 

Emotions at 3 are something else.  Many, many people said to us "3 is worse than 2" and I DID NOT believe them.  2 is random and out of control because they are learning so much and can't get across what they want or need. They can go in one direction and something catches their attention and they are off in a new direction before you can turn your head.

3 is full of the DRAMAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!  Seriously, Academy Awards could be won in our house for the way little man can turn on the tears when he doesn't get his way and then shut them off just as quickly as they started.  The "I'm-going-to-stick-my-lip-out-a-la-Guiness-Book-of-World-Records-style" pouts to see if that works on ya is something to behold my friends.

3 is also chock full of fun!  We can laugh together over silly jokes, actions, or crazy living- room-dance parties.  His smile lights up an entire block and his giggle is infectious! Really, when he starts giggling you need a HazMat suit to keep from becoming infected too and never being able to stop laughing along with him.

Watching the growth and development of the wee one is awe inspiring.  There is nothing else like it in the world. We see things anew through his eyes...he sees things in the world around us we haven't seen in long, long time and it is so good to be enlightened with the help of such an amazing little dude.

Now, if only we can get him to stay in bed until 8 in the A.M. and life will be perfect!

Bah! Computers!

Computers drive me insane!!!

Today I am having nothing but computer issues!

I want to listen to Itunes while I work...nope! Not happening!

Tried to log in to my RDP so I can work (RDP is how I work linking from home to our office's network) - every time I try to open an email I get kicked out! EMAIL IS HOW I GET MY WORK DONE DAMN YOU!

Read a blog post and wanted to comment. No way! Username and Password not valid!

THEY ARE VALID! THEY ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are not valid computer!

YOU. ARE. NOT. VALID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Big Move

We're moving.

I'm packing.

Very slowly, I am packing up the last 7 years of our life in this house.

We aren't moving because we have run out of space with Wee Man now home. We aren't moving because our house is old beyond repair. Our lovely little 2 story home was built, by us, just over 7 years ago. We love our home. It is the perfect family home.

Why are we moving? I ask that question every day.

For years, almost 10 to be exact, Yvan and I have walked through the neighbourhood we live in. At first it was just the 2 of us when we first started dating. Yvan would come over to my little apartment (which is about 6 blocks from where we live currently) and we would take walks at night and talk about owing a home in this lively, lovely, family-friendly neighbourhood. We talked about the family we would have here. Then we added a cute, little Chihuahua to our walk, and then another one and last year Wee Man became part of our walk abouts. We dreamed of living in a core neighbourhood with trees so well established they could tell you stories of a 100 years ago.

There was one street in particular we always dreamed of living on, but thought it would be years, and years, and years in our future, if ever.

6 months after we first started taking our walks together, we bought a wee, yellow house on a corner lot. I LOVED this house. It was cute with 2 bedrooms, one teeny bathroom and a basement that was crumbling with a slight moldy smell but I loved it!



2 years later we decided to build a new house in the place of the old house.

We built that house over a 6 month period from start to finish. We moved in to it in the dead of Winter which in Canada means end of January! Lucky for us the day wasn't too cold.

The house took some time becoming ours. At first it seemed so big and empty in comparison to our little yellow house. As we added touches of art and photos to the walls it slowly became home. Every family gathering we had or party with friends we loved, our house grew to be a cozy, warm home full of memories. We endured our struggles to become parents here....we agonized over whether or not our dreams of having a wee one join us to make our home complete would ever happen.

We celebrated birthdays and holidays here. We hosted dance parties in our living room, we sat outside in our little yard enjoying Saturday morning over the paper with 2 eggs served any style. We grieved the loss of loved ones in our home. We celebrated running our first 10k here, my sis-in-laws staggette was held here. Yvan's brother lived in our basement for 2 years.

So many memories here in our home.



We cried here a lot, we laughed here a lot, and dreamed of our future here....a lot!

Then one day! Our biggest dream of all came home. Wee Man! We celebrated his arrival with close family. We struggled through our first year here as a family of 3. We had good times and some bad times but we got through it all - the 3 of us!

One day, we took Wee Man and the 2 dogs for a walk. We ventured down our favourite street and said "What if one day we were able to build our dream house on this street?" The actual statement that was made went something like this:

Me: "You know, I think I might be ready to build another house again."
Him: "REALLY!!!!!!" Insert here - wheels turning in his head and boy could you hear those wheels!

Now, you have to know I was thinking it would take at least 2 years to find the right spot...the right house to tear down.

Someone, somewhere had other ideas.

2 weeks after I made the above statement we were signing the dotted line on our new home. Or I should say our new home soon to be torn down replaced by our dream home. (Be careful what you wish for...it might just come true!)

You might say we were crazy to think we could attempt to build a new house in the first year of being parents (to a 2 year old I might add) and those naysayers - well they would be right! It was crazy of us...let's just add some more stress to the pile why don't we?

There have been some very trying times over the last 6 months (yes, I know really the last year) but adding in the build put us on the precipice of losing our sanity. BUT, we can see light at the end of the tunnel. We are making it through the craziness together. Our new home, on the street we have always dreamed of living on, is soon to be complete. 2 months from now we should be unpacking boxes and settling in.

Then the adding of art and photos, having family gatherings, and parties with friends we love to make our house a home will begin again.

Wordless Wednesday

And the Worst Blogger of the Year Award Goes to.....

Me!

I have been awful at blogging.

(Horrible!)

Every time I open up my computer and open the Internet my page pops up automatically.

(Despicable!)

The first thing I see is my lack of posts.

The taunting of not being a good blogger is constantly on my mind.

(Slacker!)

I want to write stuff.

I have things to write about.

(Lame-O!)

Finding the time is the difficulty.

(Excuses, excuses!)

That and I think "Oh, does anyone really want to hear about THAT?"

(Just stop already!)

I read some really good blogs.

Amazing blogs written by people who have important, funny, thoughtful, satirical, challenging things to say.

I feel like I don't measure up!

Maybe I need to quit being a sis pants and just write about things I want to write about.

Really write about things.

(Challenge Accepted!)