So…

This is what’s up.

My kid is still obsessed with The Lorax.  She’s got Lorax-dar and can tell if she sees the Lorax as a tiny little one inch symbol on a big TV.

We watch it about once a week.

On the flip side, I’m obsessed with Tastefully Simple.  This stuff has changed my cooking life.

And now my pantry is full of awesome.

Ariadne got her very first hair cut.  She’s such a big deal that her personal stylist, Lisa, made a house call.

And I learned how to curl my hair (and make it stay!) Now I wear it curly more often than not.

Ariadne also transitioned to a Big Girl Bed!  It’s still a work in progress, but she is doing well.

We paid off the Jetta!  It’s not really a huge deal since we had planned for it, but it’s nice to be back to having two fully paid off cars in the garage.  Even if it’s only for a short time.

I finally convinced The Hubs to let me paint the kitchen cabinets white.  Which has led us on the search for some fun and bold curtains to brighten up all the crisp white that will be downstairs.  I’m hoping to have a big reveal within a month or so!

I fell in love with Caramel Macchiatos.  They are so flipping heavenly.

And most importantly – my kid continues to be the most spectacular thing ever.  The last few months have been interesting to say the least, and this little munchkin just keeps becoming more and more of a person!

The law states that children must be kept rear-facing in the car until they are at least 20lbs AND 1 year of age.  The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends rear-facing until at minimum 2 years of age OR until the child hits the maximum rear-facing height/weight requirements of their convertible car seat.

When we bought our convertibles, we had planned to rear-face to age 2.  In the last few months we’ve been doing more research on car seat safety, and came to the conclusion that we were not comfortable forward facing at age 2.  This was a very personal decision for The Hubs and I, as it is for any family.

The only problem with our desire to keep Ariadne rear-facing?  She’s above the 98% for height and 90% for weight.   The Hubs and I are both tall, but neither of us expected her to be SO tall.

The Peg car seat we purchased because of it having the highest rear-facing weight limit on the market at the time, as well as one of the tallest harness heights (without going to the Diono Radian which I am not a huge fan of due to the low profile sides) and the most legroom, is unfortunately just not going to cut it any more.  Ariadne reached the highest setting for the harness height in rear-facing mode about a month ago.  This is such a disappointment  as I am in love with this seat and the wonderful leg space it provides.  It is truly a stunning seat, easy to use, has tons of leg room and appears to be very comfortable.  Did I mention, it’s gorgeous?

Our other seat is a Britax Boulevard 70CS.  A wonderful seat, but I’ll be honest, when we bought it, I didn’t do nearly enough research.  Even after researching for months, I still didn’t do enough.  This seat is again, wonderfully constructed, easy to use, and great for rear-facing.  But it is NOT for very very tall kiddos, if you want to keep them rear-facing for as long as possible.  We are also on the last leg for this seat and although the headrest has plenty of room to move up, the Britax is not cleared for rear-facing use when the child’s head is less than 1 inch from top of the shell.  Due to the construction of the shell, Ariadne has ended up having a little bit more room in this one than in the Peg, but she will outgrow it soon.

So knowing we were running out of space and time, I started frantically researching the options.  There are few car seats out there for extended rear-facing for big kids.  After researching the Diono RadianRXT, Graco Size4Me70, Chicco Nextfit, and The Clek Foonf, we ended up purchasing the Foonf.

This seat has been long awaited by a many car seat gurus.  It has the highest rear-facing weight limit on the market (50lbs) and the highest rear-facing height limit (1 inch from the top of the head rest, in its most extended position.)  It has a steel frame, utilizes REACT technology, as well as forward-facing rigid LATCH installation, a rebound bar for rear-facing and much much more.  This seat is a car seat guru’s wet dream.  Sorry, I had to go there.  I’ve been eyeing it for a few months now, but wasn’t really into it, until I started this 3-4 rear-facing thought process.  Right now, my biggest concern is keeping Ariadne safely rear-facing for as long as possible.  The Foonf, right now, is at the top of it’s game, and provides us the extensions we need to make that happen.  Unfortunately the Foonf has two major setbacks.  It’s price, 500 big ones – and I thought I was pushing those limits when we spent >$350 on the Peg (we got ours 20% off with a sale).  And it’s also a pretty giant seat.  Oh did I mention?  It’s CANADIAN.  Obviously I’m in love.

I was a little worried about it not fitting in our cars, since we both drive sedans.  Surprisingly though, it fits just fine!  In the Camry we can even fit it in the center seat!  It is one amazing seat.  Insanely solid (and heavy!) which makes me feel really comfortable about it for safety.  It was also super easy to install.

Ariadne LOVES her new seat.  She has so much more legroom now, and barely makes a peep since she sits up so high and can see out the windows.  We’ve had it for about a month now, and couldn’t be more in love with it.

So if you’re looking for a great seat forward facing or rear facing alike, I highly highly highly recommend The Foonf!

Wow.

Long time no see.

In many friendships there comes a day when you start questioning your commitment to that friendship.  You know what I’m talking about.  That friend that you let slip away little by little.   Maybe you don’t talk so often, maybe you’re drifting, maybe they just aren’t that into you… Sometimes it’s as simple as, that friendship is gone.  Sometimes  though, sometimes it’s all just a misunderstanding.

My friendship with this blog has been difficult in the last year.  I’ve struggled to figure out how much I should write.  What I should write about.  If I should bother writing.

And I never quite figured it out.

So many days.  weeks.

Okay…

Months.

Slipped by between posts.

But the fact remains.

I miss my friend.  I miss this blog and writing about crap that no one but me cares about.  I miss having a reason to take pictures and post about how a.dore.able my kid is.

There.  I said it.

So now, maybe since it’s out there, I’ll actually do something about it.

Maybe?

This situation with this blog here, it’s just a misunderstanding.  We haven’t quite figured out all the kinks yet.  But we’re going to.  We’re recommitting.

Even if it’s just so I can post pictures of my kid all day.

I look at this little person today, and she’s a real person.  She has likes and dislikes (namely, The Lorax and leaving the park) She has little quirks, like her messy hair that is just always all over the place, and her need to express hugs to everything she sees.  Bus?  Hug (and when I say Hug, I mean she opens her arms and says Hug) Kitty?  Hug.  Car?  Hug.  Park?  Hug.  But when I ask for a hug I need to pout to get one.

She laughs at things now.  Like for real laughing.  She thinks things are funny, and it tears me up inside that she’s old enough to actually understand what makes something funny.  My heart practically jumped out of my body when I heard that for the first time.

I want to pinch her cheeks and smother her in kisses.all.the.time.  Her smile, her pronunciation of “mElmo”, her bright eyes and the bounce in her step – all make me want to freeze time, relive it, replay it, over and over and over and over again.

My girl, she’s such a girl and loves picking out her clothes, painting her nails, have her hair blow dried, wearing pretty dresses and twirling.

Watching her become her own person makes me think that loving this child is not nearly enough.

If you know me, you know how passionately I feel about things – Game of Thrones, coffee, books, the rain.  I love those things.

Well I more than love this little child…

Part of me wishes that I would have had some level of understanding of what this all would be like.  But then I realize that this whole thing, this whole watching life grow thing, being a parent thing, loving someone more than life itself thing, is life’s biggest surprise.  And it’s a wonderful surprise.

This is something that I’ve been asked many times over my 26 years, and every single time I’ve been stumped.  Every possible answer seems so trivial.  Walk through walls – so I can rob a bank.  X-ray vision – BOOBS (said a man.)  Flying – I could get somewhere faster!

They’re all so trivial, and OBVIOUS.  And I’m anything but trivial and obvious.  I’ve never come up with an answer good enough.

Until now.

It came to me all of a sudden the other day when I had a truly profound moment.  I know, I sound so…profound by saying that.  But I did.  I had one of those moments in life where you want to shout from the rooftops and jump for joy, your heart free.

I had one of those moments you wish you could relive over and over, just to experience that euphoria, and not simply the memory, over and over.

And that’s when I realized it.  If I could have any superpower, I would want the ability to relive moments.  Moments of my choice (since I’m the superhero and all, I do get to decide that, you know) and enjoy them at my beck and call.

They would call me Profound Moment Girl.

Naturally, I began to think of all of the moments I would relive.  These are a just a few of the ones I came up with.

- Seeing the total solar eclipse with my family in Germany circa 1999.  Night in the middle of the day.  My skin crawls with the creepy-ness of how awesome it was.

- The moment I turned the corner to my senior year government class at 5am on the day we were starting our lesson on dictatorships.  I may not have been the only one who had plans to take over our class that morning to solidify their Dictatorship.  But I was the first one there.  (I will however, refrain from reliving the moment two days later when I had to step down from my mock dictatorship because I was apparently too good at it)  In case you were wondering, I also orchestrated the elaborate assassination of our monarchy during a different lesson.  I was really into government.

- The moment I saw my first (and so far only) positive pregnancy test and the moment 9 months later, when I met that little person.

- The first time I laid real-life eyes on The Hubs the first time he came to visit me.  I still get butterflies just thinking about it.

- The first time I heard Ariadne laugh because she thought something was funny, not just because she was reacting to us.

- Having my friend Brittany say that my new hair cut made me look like a superhero version of myself.  Umm awesome much?!

So what was that profound moment that made me realize my superhero power of choice?

- The moment that I realized that I could just be myself.  That I didn’t have to worry about if someone liked me, or if they didn’t.  The moment I realized that I actually really liked myself and that that was so much better than trying to make people like me.  Realizing that I spent the majority of my life trying to fit myself into other people’s lives was like a light bulb going off in my head.  How did it take me this long to figure this crap out?!

So in true get to know you fashion.  What moments would YOU relive?  I know you can’t beat my Dictatorship Takeover, but I encourage you to try.

They’re like crackers and cheese, hugs and kisses.

Or not.

More like salted caramel on eggs (oh yea, that was for you Big Brother)

Let me tell you.  The last thing you want to deal with around the holiday season is any sort of gallbladder issue.

And boy oh boy do I know from experience.

It all started on Thanksgiving.

We had an amazing Thanksgiving this year.  It was so nice to have Ariadne at an age where she really is engaging in the holidays.  We played, we cooked, we ate.  It was fabulous.  Especially the food.  The food was fabulous.

And so after dinner, while the boys were clearing the kitchen (one of the major pluses of being one of the cooks, the men clean up!) I posted this picture to my Instagram feed with the caption – “Post thanksgiving dinner relaxing at its best”

And that right there sealed my fate.  But fate gave me a few more hours of bliss.

I’ve never been one for Black Friday shopping.

Maybe it was the wine.  Maybe the free spirit of a great day.  Maybe my minds way of knowing that something bad was about to happen.

Regardless, my Mum and I had the same thought at the same moment – “Let’s go Black Friday shopping!  You know, just to see what it’s all about”

So in the middle of the night we took off.   We shopped, nothing crazy, but this mama brought home a bomb.com JCrew dress for uber cheap.

At about 1:30am, at Target, I started feeling off.

My chest started feeling tight.

It was a feeling I’d had about 7 times since birthing Ariadne.

Immediately I told my Mum we had to get home, because I knew exactly what was going to happen.

She asked me what all this was about, since I had not mentioned it over the last 18 months.  I just explained it was a weird pain, one I could only associate with my rib cage expanding during pregnancy.  That’s what I thought it was.  For the last 18 months I had drawn the conclusion that these episodes were just body pains, normal body pains.  They would come on every other month or so, always in the middle of the night while I was sleeping (or nursing, like the first time I felt it), would last about half an hour (time duration increasing with the frequency of the pain episodes) and nothing would make it better.  Nothing.

I got home, laid in bed and immediately started realizing it was worse than it had ever been.  I started to panic.  At this point I was in the most intense pain of my life and couldn’t get any relief.

I woke The Hubs and told him that it was happening, again.  We talked over my symptoms while I was trying to think through the pain, and came to the conclusion that it must be indigestion.  I begged him to run out to get me something for it, tums, antacid, something.

He woke up my Mum, who was thankgoodness spending the night that night.  She came in as I was now sobbing through it and immediately knew this was something more serious.

For the first time I heard the words gallbladder attack.

I had no idea what that was, or why I would be having it.  No, this was most definitely indigestion.

So The Hubs left to pick me up some relief.  But it didn’t do anything.

And then I started begging for an epidural.

It.was.that.bad.

Worse than childbirth people.

My smart Mum started googling “Gallbladder Attack”

And when she read the symptoms; chest pain, increasing intensity, happens at night, radiating around the back, pain.worse.than.childbirth – I went “That’s IT!”

The problem was, there were no recommendations for things to relieve the pain.  Just wait it out and then see a specialist to discuss having the organ removed.

Everything we read said that attacks shouldn’t last longer than three hours.  At this point I was hovering around the 3.5 hour mark.

I didn’t want to do it, but I made the call to go to the ER.  I just couldn’t do it anymore and started to worry that maybe I was having complications from the attack.

Off we went.

And wouldn’t you know, within five minutes of checking in, the pain disappeared.

But still, I found myself posting this picture

Immediately upon seeing the doctor and describing my symptoms, he nodded and replied “gallbladder.”  Multiple tests later, and we had a confirmed diagnosis.

I had pesky gallstones, which were causing my gallbladder to constrict painfully causing the attacks.  There was no known reason for the stones, although it is more common for pregnant women to develop stones, which makes sense to me since this all started right after I gave birth.

The only known treatment was surgery.   Otherwise, you just deal with the attacks.  I was given some muscle relaxants to take if I had another attack before having surgery.

Over the next few weeks I met with a surgeon, and heavily considered my options.  I didn’t want surgery.

But I was absolutely terrified of the next attack.   Would the next one last 6 hours?  I knew I couldn’t handle another attack if they kept getting worse.

I still couldn’t pull the trigger though.   So I scheduled surgery for late January, giving me time to process and cancel if I changed my mind.

Ten days later I had another attack.  And promptly decided that I couldn’t wait until January.

So I re-booked surgery, this time, for one week before Christmas.  Worst timing possible, but I just needed it out, as soon as they could.

I was truly lucky that I did that, because in the week before my surgery, I had two more attacks.  On surgery day, I practically ran into the O.R – begging “Just take it ouuuuut!”

It was sucky to have to get surgery right before Christmas, but honestly, it was the best decision I ever made.  Gallbladder attacks are scary, and ridiculously painful.  It’s really quite unfortunate that there is not much else to do, other than remove it. But luckily, with advanced surgical technology, and a very good surgeon, the aftermath of the surgery is not that bad.

Some patients have very bad episodes after having their gallbladder out – but I was lucky – after about a week, I was symptom free, and seriously feeling better than I had in years.

It’s funny how you can go so long without realizing that something was wrong, but as soon as the problem is eradicated  you realize how much of a problem it must have been.

Let this post serve as a warning – don’t ignore chest pains.

It’s not always indigestion.

Oh and if you need a really cute surgeon – errrr – I mean – a really talented surgeon… Shoot me a call…

There is too much adorableness in this picture than I can handle.

So, Future Teenage Ariadne, please forgive Mama.  I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t have to.

Would it be wrong to print this on a huge canvas and hang it over the couch?

Probably.

But it’s just SO CUTE.

Why is a toddler on a potty so uterus squeezingly adorable?

It’s my duty as a parent to embarrass my child.

At least once.

Right?

I look back on going to the park as a child with fond memories of swinging as high as I could.  I loved the swings.

So, when Ariadne was old enough to start testing out the baby swings, I thought she would love it.

Like many things in her babyhood, she decided she just was not impressed.

But the thing about Ariadne is, she gives everything many chances to woo her.

It’s a good thing too.

If she hadn’t given swings another shot, she would have most certainly missed out on this

Yup, she’s a fan

I really had to fight the urge to sit down in the big kid swings and fly next to my girl.

Maybe next time.

Side note:  While searching for that first picture in my photo archives, I came across this gem

Where did my baby go?!

Until today.

And guess what?

I didn’t do half bad!

Get Health(ier)  2012 was definitely my year for this one – but it took some time.  I spent about half of the year gaining back the 13lbs I lost while being pregnant (yup, if you didn’t read that post, I was down 13lbs within 72hours of giving birth) without even realizing it!  In August I decided to get on a scale – we didn’t keep one in the house because I’ve struggled with an eating disorder since I was 15…and couldn’t handle it.  Well, sure enough, I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  It was depressing to say the least.  BUT, I reminded myself that I had just finished breastfeeding for a whole year, and when you breastfeed you have to EAT.  So it was okay.  I started back on my gestational diabetes diet (with some modifications) and by November I was pretty much back to post pregnancy weight.  I was running often and loving it.  And then I started getting sick.  Two months of being sick at the end of the year, including multiple gallstone attacks and a surgery.  I ended up losing 6 more lbs in the last few weeks with some additional diet changes.   So although I haven’t been able to run for a month, and I’m still working on weaning back into normal foods – I feel that I did really good on this one.

Work on myself This one is hard because I never really tried to accomplish it.  Yet, today, I definitely feel I did.  Throughout 2012 I thought long and hard about myself, focusing a lot of strength on my career.  What resulted was an application to grad school.  Something I thought I would NEVER do.  The realization that I wanted to go back to school was huge, and made me feel like I had a purpose again.  I also spent a lot of time reflecting on being a mother, and today I feel more fulfilled, more happy, more lively than I ever did before.  So, I didn’t necessarily work on myself, but I learned a lot about making myself happy this year.  It’s been a good year.

Get things on the wall Well…Flop.  In fact, we have less on the wall today than we did in January.  With a good excuse!  In November we had our entire house repainted, and well, with being sick for two months, I haven’t put anything back up!  But we did fill frames with family pictures and Ariadne pictures.  Plus I made that cool print for over Ariadne’s crib.  There was more on the walls!

Double our savings FLOOOOOP!  For a good reason though!  We started throwing our extra money at debt instead, and that’s never a bad thing.  In addition, we made a lot of BIG expenditures this year.  Lots of trips and painting the house etc.  I feel pretty good about this.

To not spend the year panicking about 2012 Hmm…well…I DID spend a lot of time dealing with my anxiety issues.  The good news is, I got some great advice on a coping mechanism and after working on it for awhile, it started working.  So my “end of the world” anxiety was definitely much more controlled than I expected.  Then I made it through the 21st without a panic attack.  Success!

All in all, 2012 was an amazing year.  I totally feel like we accomplished a lot in 12 months.   My life is more fulfilling than ever, and I truly look forward to everything that is in store for me/us!

So there you have it.  A year of successful resolutions!  I haven’t decided if I’ll be making a new list for 2013.  I may, but I’ll decide tomorrow

Truly, I have a bag full of valid excuses for my lateness as well as my absence – some of which include, being perpetually sick with everything from the worlds worst cold EVER, pink eye, the flu (WHY?) for the better part of two months now, having surgery to remove my annoying gallbladder, preparing to start grad school next month…and whole bunch of “I just don’t feel like blogging” excuses.  I can’t promise this will start a trend, because it probably won’t.  I’m about 90% sure I’m done with regular blogging, unless my life gets back under some realm of normalcy soon.

Anyways, on to the awesome little girl we have on her way to TWO!

Toddler Ariadne is the best.

The majority of the time she is so awesome that it leaves me wondering how we got so fortunate.

Our little girl has always been a little bit more reserved than the other kids she’s around.  Not to say she doesn’t love socializing, because she lights up when other kids come around, and will charm the socks off any adult.  But, she’s still quiet…reserved….you know.  I love this about her.  It always makes me wonder what she’s thinking, because she always looks so thoughtful.

She loves to draw or “craw craw craw” as we hear eleventy billion times a day.  For Christmas, Santa brought her a little table and chair set that she’s been thoroughly enjoying climbing on so that she can draw with all of the new drawing items Nana purchased.  Our fridge is already full of artwork.

The little goofball is starting to come out in her.  For no reason other than to strike a smile, she’ll start twirling in the middle of the bathroom, dancing to a song, pretend jumping, or doing the chicken dance.

She’s very much so into telling all of her dolls and stuffed animals to “Night Night” (said in a really creepy voice BTW) after covering them with a blanket (completely you see, she hasn’t quite grasped the concept of keeping the head uncovered yet.)

A daredevil is also coming out in her lately too.  The climbing has begun – although thankgoodness not out of her crib.yet. – as well as throwing herself back on things without thinking that maybe there isn’t anything to catch her.

As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve been…potty introducing?  I’m not sure I should be saying the actual term, because it’s still very laid back and slow…but I think we’re starting to get close to testing out trainers.  The last four months have been full of potty introduction, and now we’re at the point where she uses the potty on average about 3-4 times a day, both number one and number two.  Sometimes she prompts a potty trip by saying “Poop”, other times she asks for the potty after waking up, and most of the time we just try because she woke up dry, or has been dry for a long period of time.  We have zero expectations of when she will actually be potty trained.  I’m fully aware that she could regress, or just not be entirely ready for months, or over a year from now.  For the moment, we’re taking it day by day, and it appears to be working, very well indeed.

She’s learning colours and starting to mimic counting and the alphabet.  We’ve been amazed more than once when she’s come home from school pointing out a specific colour, or showing us an animal we didn’t know she knew.

She LOVES Thomas the Train.  Oh, but she’s scared of real trains.  Even though we tell her they are all Thomas, Gordon, Percy and Emily.  No matter, she both loves and fears “Momas.”  Oh, did I mention that we live near railroad tracks, and the night trains go through about four times a night?  Makes for good nights.

She LOVES Elmo.  Or, “Melmo”

As you can tell, her vocabulary is exploding beyond recognition.  At her 18 month well check appointment, the doc asked how many words she had now, and The Hubs couldn’t even articulate it.  50ish?  Who knows, it could be 100 at this point.  To think, four months ago, I was worried about her not talking much.

We’re starting to get words put together, but not often.  So far we’ve gotten a lot of “My Daddy, My Mommy, My milk” type of strings.

What else?  Oh, growth!  At her 18 month appointment, Ariadne was 25.4lbs (around 50% I believe) and 34.5inches (>98% – AKA off the charts)  I can’t believe how tall she is.

Which has led to her starting to wear size 2T.  She’s in a few pairs of 2T pants now, and the rest 18-24 (that are getting too short) and some 2T shirts, but mostly 18-24 month.  Size 5 and 6 shoes depending on the style.

There’s more.  There’s always so much more.  I just don’t know how to compress every inch of awesomness into ONE post.

But I can tell you this.  My kid is amazing.  She’s awesome.  The greatest person I know.  This month, with all of it’s not so awesome sick moments, has made me realize just how much I love my life.  Because of this little girl.

And…we’re officially starting to plan a birthday party.  Her SECOND Birthday Party.  What?!