Boy or Girl???

Sooooooooo I might be a little bit excited to find out just what the heck I'm baking.

Waiting another 2 weeks until the next ultrasound is just too long for this mama bear.

So naturally I turned to google for early gender prediction methods.

Here's one method that seemed kinda legit.

The Nub Theory
 

Apparently all babies by 12 weeks will have this little nub at the base of their spines. Depending on the angle of said nub, you can determine the sex of your little nugget.

For comparison sake, here's Quinn's mug shot:

And here's little Baby Jumping:

Based on what I see above, my prediction is girl, although I've felt very differently this pregnancy than I did with Quinn. Nausea, vomiting, headaches, crazy mood swings, etc. so perhaps this nibblet is a little gent?

It will be interesting to see if this 'nub theory' is right or not...

Our plan is to have a little gender reveal party with our families once we have our anomaly scan in a few weeks. We plan on having the sonographer write down the bump's sex and we'll drop that off at a local bakery.

We'll all bite into a cupcake and see either blue or pink icing.

 

OMGOMGOMGOMG.

SO.EXCITED.

What do you think the bump is???

xo, Vicky

Say What Now? - Edition Four

#1

Quinn to Daddy who was tickling her non-stop:
"Careful Simon!!!"

 

#2

While buckling Quinn into her carseat Simon said, "Toats M-Goats."
Quinn's response: "No Daddy! Not toatin' goats!!!"

 

#3

Quinn's response to many questions these days:
"Sure, absolutely!!"

Eg.
Mommy: "Quinn, can you feed the puppies please?"
Quinn: "Sure, absolutely!!"

Mommy: "Quinn, would  you like some berries?"
Quinn: "Sure, absolutely!!"

Hahaha

xo, Vicky

Hi!

A little someone wants to say hi.
FINALLY.
 

Meet, as Quinn has so elegantly named,

“Baby Jumping”!

Due to arrive smack dab in the middle of summer.

We absolutely cannot wait.

 

Quinn as you can see above, is absolutely smitten.

“Baby Jumping” is the center of many of our conversations with Quinn lately. He/she gets daily belly rubs from Big Sister as well as kisses and ‘raspberries’. We recently had another ultrasound and got a second picture of ‘Jumping’. Needless to say, Big Sister claimed it as her own and has it in her favorite frame in her room.

 

Annnddd that my friends is the sound of my heart blowing up.
 How I will handle the cuteness overload that will inevitably occur when “Baby Jumping” is born and united with Big Sister is beyond me…

 

After a year and half of trying-for-number-two-misery, we have finally been blessed with a healthy, strong and seemingly happy little fetus.

 

 

Now officially in the second trimester at 14 weeks, I'm starting to feel like a normal human being again.

Still exhausted, but no longer running to the toilet...

 

Yeah, it's been real this time.

Around 8 weeks the nausea.

And not just I feel nauseous, but legit running to the throne nauseous.

 

Meat = barf

Simon's daily nosebleeds from the extreme cold/dryness = barf

Bathroom smells = barf

Clementine oranges ?! = barf

 

Fun times...

But totally worth it.

 

 So keep up the good work Baby Jumping!

You have an super-awesome Big Sis who already adores you, an amazingly fun Daddy and a Mommy who would happily endure another six months of crazy morning/all day sickness just for you. Oh, and how could I forget your two fur-siblings, who look forward to having another sticky, food covered child to kiss and love on.

 

We are completely over the moon.

xo, Vicky

New Years Eve 2013

 

I've never really been a fan of NYE, but its kind of awesome when you have a kid. You finally have a decent excuse for not having to dress up, trek downtown to an overpriced bar, get way too drunk, have no means of getting home and regret everything the next day. With a kid you get to stay home in your jammies, eat junk food, watch movies, watch said kid(s) run around doing funny things and pretend its midnight at 8pm. 

 

This year we got to spend NYE with some very special ladies - Quinn's cousin Sadie and her mamas. 

Its been amazing to see the bond between these little girls. When they see eachother its like no time has passed. Knowing they are family just makes it that much more special. I remember living for sleepovers with my cousins, so to know that Quinn has that same connection to her cousin is more than I could ask for. 

What a great way to ring in the New Year.  

xo, 

Vicky

Say What Now? - Edition 3

 

#1

Quinn while trying to peel stickers out of her new sticker book:
"Mawmy, dat's pretty hard!"

#2

Quinn while pointing to the Christmas tree after it had been decorated:
"Whhaaaattt? No way man!"

#3

Mommy: So what did Santa say on the phone last night? (It's our new Christmas Eve tradition)
Quinn: "Ho Ho Ho, go to bed."

#4

Quinn to Nana after having sucessfully convinced her that she was allowed to have Nesquik chocolate syrup in her milk:
"Haha, Quinn tricked Nana"

xo, Vicky

Christmas 2013

Its official.

Christmas with a two year old is absolutely amazing.

 

Quinn adored Christmas.

She is still singing "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town."

We haven't had the heart to tell her that Christmas is over.

 

So here's how our Christmas break played out:

 

Christmas eve was spent at Nana’s house for a night of tree decorating, feasting and relaxing.

 

Christmas Day started off around 7:30 when we woke Quinn up. We brought her into our bed and opened our stockings together before all our family members arrived.  

 

 

People started trickling in around 9:00 and we were in full blown present mania by 9:30.

 

 

Quinn was completely spoiled this year and got so many wonderful presents.

 

 

Some of her favorites include: a ride-on electric Thomas train, a rocking horse, a moose seat, a Hug-Me-Elmo, a stuffed Snuffleupagus doll, a talking Dora doll, her first Barbie complete with her a VW Beetle, about 1000+ stickers and a new bed.  

 

 

Boxing Day was spent at my parent’s house for their annual Boxing Day party. We played Cards Against Humanity which is a hilarious/completely inappropriate game (especially when played with your mother-in-law).

On the 27^th my mother-in-law treated us to a visit to Upper Canada Village for Alight at Night Festival. It was gorgeous. We took a horse-drawn wagon ride through the grounds and Quinn was happy to point out all the houses and tell us who lived there. “Look, Santa’s house!”, “That’s Mrs Clause’s house”, “Oh, Bob (her elf) lives there!"

It was pretty entertaining.

 

Today I’m back at work and completely depressed about it.

I hate when the holidays end…

 

Luckily New Years is almost here and we have some pretty special visitors coming to share it with us!

Hope everyone had a safe, fun and relaxing holiday!

Xo,

Vicky

Parenting Visions vs. Parenting Realities

In the picture perfect online world we live in its hard not to get sucked into the notion that everyone else’s lives are running along smoothly while your own is in a state of complete disarray. Photos on blogs, Instagram, Facebook etc. often sugar coat reality and I am completely guilty of this. While on one hand you have a nice picture to add to your family album, on the other hand it makes other parents feel like crap. It’s a vicious cycle of pretending all is well when all you managed was to get a photo before shit hit the fan.

 

So, in the spirit of being completely honest I would like to present to you the ‘behind the scenes’ of a few recent photos I shared on Instagram. My hope is that the following confessions will help me in my quest to realize that life isn’t perfect, kids have their own agendas and its ok when you try and fail miserably.

Example #1 – Christmas cookie decorating

 

 

Vision

We’d make adorable cookies that not only tasted great, but looked good too.

 

Reality

Messy ass cookies with so many toppings they are borderline inedible.

 

Sprinkles got fucking everywhere. Literally I will be finding sprinkles in my kitchen 20 years from now. I guess my brain forgot that toddler fingers are not the same as adult fingers. Toddler fingers are in a constant state of stickiness regardless of if they have just been washed. The result is half the bowl of sprinkles being on their fingers followed by them trying to vigorously remove sprinkles because they don’t like shit on their hands followed by them wiping their fingers on their clothes (staining them, obviously) and finally getting sprinkles in every possible crevasse in your kitchen.

 

Example #2 – Making Christmas ornaments

 

 

Vision

We’d make these adorable snowmen ornaments using Quinn’s handprints. She would be an awesome little helper and bust out 20+ ornaments.

 

Reality

We got through maybe the first 6 ornaments before her attention started waning and rebellious behavior began. Let’s just say we had to get creative with our snowmen and ended up with a few questionable scenes. I again forgot that toddlers don’t have a very long attention span especially when it comes to repetitive tasks.

 

 *******************************************

 

I should clarify that I’m not blaming Quinn for these failures. I’m totally blaming myself. I should know better than set super high expectations for a two year old. The mind of toddler is geared around one thing and one thing only – having fun. When she stops having fun, she’ll stop the activity. End of story. Lesson learned little person, lesson learned…

I would also like to say that amid the craziness of day-to-day parenting, there are moments of perfection. While rare, I can attest that they do exist.  Those perfect moments tend only to happen when you aren’t planning them, there is no pressure and you just go with it.

This moment was 100% perfect.

 

We were watching Rudolph and she climbed up on me, laid her head down and snuggled for a solid 10 minutes. It’s those moments that make you remember that you aren’t a shitty parent because you lost your cool when sprinkles coated your kitchen. The bottom line is your kid still loves you even though you failed in those other moments.


This cuddle sesh said to me, “keep it up Mom, you’re doing alright.”
Thanks Quinny.

xo, Vicky