Category: life

Yesterday morning was ROUGH you guys. Gwen was tired and cranky, I was tired and cranky, and it was the morning with the whole day to get through yet. GROSS. In a weird miracle though, everything that happened later in the day was a total delight:

1. GWEN NAPPED. Yes, finally, blessedly, she napped for AT LEAST an hour and a half. I set up a little naptime cot for her in the living room with STRICT INSTRUCTIONS that she had to stay on it. Of course she didn’t, and ended up moving up onto the couch, which she promptly fell off of. Hopefully she learned a valuable lesson about staying on her cot and today will go even better, with a yes to napping and a no to falling off the couch. Because she napped she was in a much better mood in the evening, went to bed at the normal time and stayed in bed until 6am. Just an all-round win in the toddler sleeping department.

2. A shirt? dress? tunic? I ordered a billion years ago came in the mail and is totally perfect.

3. I had at least half a dozen people contact me about childcare! Maybe more! And I have three meetings set up! Hopefully a couple will work out! Fingers crossed!

4. Sara sent me some more elements for my redesign and I’m IN LUV, it’s so cute! The last time I redid my layout/branding I was MEGA depressed so it is all very bleak and it is definitely time for a change. I posted a lil sneak peak on my insta here.

5. My “I am a Wolf” print got a buncha reblogs on tumblr, I’m POSITIVE that eventually this will translate into money somehow.

6. I had wine and cake for dinner because I am an adult and I can do what I want.

This picture was 100% not staged, I actually asked her to smile at the camera and she did this instead.

I’ve been having a difficult time with Gwen & her naps recently. I thought I had found a groove where I’d take her for a walk in her stroller and she’d fall asleep, but she’s stopped falling asleep in her stroller unless we’ve been out for like… an hour, which just isn’t feasible. Also, when you are out walking around the city there are just so many things with the potential to be loud and wake her up. The other day there was a very loud cashier in a store, a barking dog tied up outside the store, a woman on a mobility scooter driving erratically all over the sidewalk and screaming into her cellphone, a person on a moped inexplicably blaring their horn, another dog barking in the park, and not one but TWO extremely noisy & smelly garbage trucks, all in the space of about 20 minutes while I was trying to get Gwen to sleep.

As a result she hasn’t had a proper afternoon nap in probably a week, and it is showing in her behaviour. She is cranky all the time, and in the late afternoons/early evening she descends into madness. She is so tired and grumpy by the time dinner rolls around, it’s almost impossible to get her to eat, and then make it through her bath without tears? SCOFF. Thankfully she’s been going to bed at night without any trouble, but the days are NOT EASY.

Yesterday she skipped her nap again, and since Taylor was at work so late I decided to let him sleep through the evening and give Gwen her dinner, bath and bedtime earlier than normal. I fed her as soon as I finished work and got her in bed and asleep by six, about an hour and a half earlier than normal. Everything seemed to be going well, until around 10pm, when she woke up. She’s recently learned how to work doorknobs, and won’t stay in her room. We let her get up, have some milk on the couch, then we brushed her teeth and put her back to bed.

Unfortunately she was way too awake to stay in bed and got up a couple more times, so I let her sleep in the bed with me, which was a literal nightmare and neither of us are rested today. I’m feeling very short-tempered and she has had half a dozen screaming meltdowns in as many hours. I’m really really hoping tonight is better, I’m going to go back to our regular schedule and just hope she doesn’t go too bananas this afternoon. We’ve ordered some doorknob covers that will hopefully thwart her from coming out of her room after bedtime, but they won’t get here until tomorrow and I don’t think either of us want another night like the last.

A rained a bit over the weekend and Gwen took full advantage of it in her Newt Suit.

On Saturday I took Sym to her first real concert, 5 Seconds of Summer. She’d actually be quick to point out that her ACTUAL first concert was the White Stripes in Deer Lake Park, but she was like… five for that show. This was the first time seeing a band she loves, her favourite band, a band she really wanted to see live. It was also my first time seeing a concert where basically every person there was a screaming teenage girl and it was kind of amazing? Just WAY more screaming than any other concert I’ve ever been to. Teenage girls are amazing. Anyway I don’t have any pictures because Sym hates pics but after the show she said she could “die happy” so I think she had a good time.

Recently I’ve been writing myself to do lists each day. It helps me keep on top of all the crap I need to do each day, it’s really satisfying crossing things off AND it allows me to break everything down into tiny manageable pieces so I don’t get overwhelmed. Like previously with banner orders I’d be like “I have to make these banners this week so I’ll print out all the orders” and then I’d have this big stack of paper and I’d panic about how it was TOO MUCH and feel paralyzed and do nothing. Now I just put the one or two banners I need to make each day on my list, and if I do MORE than that I feel extra accomplished but if I don’t get it done it’s just like… one or two banners, not a whole stack. This system was a little derailed last week when I was sick and didn’t wanna do anything but this week I’m back to do listing.

Gwen fricking loves planes. I mean, I think EVERY toddler loves anything that flies in the sky: planes, helicopters, birds. Gwen is even a fan of flying bugs, ESPECIALLY bees. She points out every flying thing she sees or hears.

Last week I took her and her lil friend down to Jack Poole Plaza at the bottom of Thurlow Street (by the Olympic Cauldron) to watch the seaplanes take off from the Harbour Air terminal. It was pretty cloudy and threatening to rain but we lucked out and got to see a few planes taking off, and Gwen was thrilled. She kept pointing and shrieking “Plane! More plane!!!!” Taylor came and met us after he finished work and she was happy to tell him all about “more plane” as well.

Plane!

More plane!

what am I doing here? I thought at first I was brushing my hair back but it looks more like I’m about to punch myself in the neck? WHO CAN SAY.

Funny story: when Taylor got to the plaza I said to Gwen “look, it’s your dadda!” and her lil friend turned to me very seriously and was like “No. It’s like a dadda, but it’s Gwennie’s Taylor.” Poor Taylor, destined to never be called dadda again.