Happy Birthday To Me!!

A few days ago the girls at work asked me what I was doing for my birthday . . . I grumbled about how I was too tired and busy, I was just getting a few more gray hairs, maybe even some wrinkles and now fighting an even slower metabolism and anyway I was really just hitting the boring mid-30’s so I didn’t really feel like celebrating anyway. To which one of my oh-so-wise co-workers responded that many people in much tougher circumstances would have done anything to reach 34. The more I thought about her comment, the more I realized she was right. And the longer I contemplate this reality the more I realize I have a lot more to celebrate about than to grumble about!!

So today I spent the day celebrating 34 very blessed years! It’s been an incredible journey filled with amazing people and all roads have lead me to today where I am so fortunate to be turning 34 at a point in my life where I am happier and so much more blessed than I ever could have imagined.

I celebrated my family . . . some of whom have been with me the whole way and some of whom have more recently come into my life but in some ways feel like they too have been there the whole time. I have incredible parents who I know always ‘have my back’. The real cool thing about my parents is that I actually have to count them all up and I get to about 7! These are the people who have given me the confidence to be the best person I can be just because I know they are always cheering me on. I couldn’t talk about celebrating my family without mentioning my extended family full of very special aunts, uncles, cousins and two extraordinary Grama’s. You always hear the saying you don’t get to choose your family, but with all the good and bad I wouldn’t choose it to be any other way:)

I celebrated my sisters . . . . all 4 plus 1 incredible sister-in-law – and all the great men that these incredible women have married! I’ve spent 32+ years of my life with my sisters and through the thick and thin they have become some of my very best friends who I look forward to seeing whenever we’re apart. These sisters have also blessed our family with some incredible nieces and nephews!

I celebrated my friends . . . . 34 years and too many wonderful people to count. From my Ace-Girl who stepped onto this island for the first time the very same day we did and all the other wonderful ‘island-people’ we’ve met here, my Calgary girls and of course my oldest friends some who are still lucky enough to be in central AB and others who have spread out over the globe (who’s stories I love keeping up with on FB)! More fond memories have been made with these friends than any one person should be lucky enough to have . . . and that’s just in 34 years!!!

I celebrated my husband . . . . for over a quarter of my 34 years I have been lucky enough to know, love and be loved by Joel. I have an incredible husband who has an abundance of patience and demonstrates his love and support for me and our family on a daily basis. He is not perfect, but he is perfect for me! I pray that I can learn to be the kind of wife he truly deserves:)

I celebrated my kids. . . . my sweet girl Kailie who effortlessly makes makes my world a better place to be in, she makes me laugh every day and from the day she was born instilled in me a depth of love that I didn’t think was possible; and my incredible baby boy Kolton who despite causing me many night-time waking moments makes me completely melt with his smile that instantly reaches and emanates from his big brown eyes. I used to say that if I ever had a boy I would never spoil him the way my dear Mother-in-law spoiled her ‘little boy’, however I fully expect to spend the rest of my life eating those words as there is just nothing I wouldn’t do for my sweet boy!!

Today was the first birthday I celebrated with two babies who I am so honored to be a Mummy to and that, along with all the warm wishes and thoughts from my hubby and all the other amazing people in my life, is really what makes this the BEST birthday (so far!) and gives me endless reasons to celebrate!!

My wish for all these amazing people in my life is that on your next birthday you’ll find a few minutes to reflect on all the reasons you have to sing “Happy Birthday To Me”!!

Half Year Mark!

Zero to 6 months in a blink! Our little newborn has turned into a sweet (not-so-little!) boy who we fall more in love with every day:)

The 6 month mark is where things really seem to pick up, we're having so much fun watching Kolton discover more and more every day. Here are just a few highlights:

Kolton is a mega-roller but for the most part he just rolls one-way. If you put him down at one end of the room it only takes a few moments for him to roll all the way to the other side. He likes to roll onto his tummy when he is in his crib but not happy to sleep that way yet, after only a few minutes he gets pretty upset and lets us know in no uncertain terms! Sitting is next and we're getting pretty close but we still have a lot of cushions around anytime he's sitting on his own.

His eating is coming along ok - he will actually eat a fair amount of food if you're willing to battle. He just is desperate to be playing with anything he can get his hands on and when we're eating that means the spoon and all the food. It's quite difficult to get the food into his mouth before he can get it off the spoon! Our latest trick is to give him a toy to play with so that his hands are occupied . . . seems to kind of work for now.

Sleeping . . . . this has been a roller coaster with Kolton. He started off showing great promise as he slept through the night when he was so young, however he's making up for it now! Since being home from Christmas (blog still to come!) a full nights sleep has been a totally luxury for Mummy & Daddy. He goes to bed pretty good but quite often we are dealing with 1 or 2 wake ups. As I write this though I've just woken up from a long nights sleep with ZERO wake ups so there is hope!!!

Right at the 6-month mark we unfortunately had to say good-bye to Grace:( And not the way we would have liked to say good-bye . . . . when we got back from Christmas holidays I was all ready to go back to work and feeling ok because I knew Kolton would be with Grace however it was not to be, just when we were expecting her to be at the house we got an email saying she was pregnant and would not be able to return from the Philippines. While we are so happy for her to be starting a family we were pretty devastated to lose someone we had come to love and trust so much with our kids. That and it was a total panic and scramble trying to find someone on such short notice! I think we've come through the worst now and have (hopefully) found another lovely Filipino lady who will be staying with Kolton, we still have some immigration hoops to get through so our fingers are crossed that it will all go smoothly. It will be another adjustment for all of us but hopefully with Kolton being so young it will be an easy one for him.

Speaking of adjustments I have also had to adjust to going back to work and leaving me little babe behind which I think most Mum's will agree is one of the hardest things to do. I've decided there is just no total 'winning' solution as I love being at home with Kolton and I also love my job and all the 'adult' aspects that come with working. I am SO fortunate to have such an accommodating job that allows me a lot of flexibility and the luxury of working a shorter week so that I have some kind of balance between working and staying at home - but when I'm at work I sure wish I was at home and there are moments at home that I really look forward to having some peace and quite at work!!! ;)

One of my favorite things to do as Kolton is growing up so quickly is to look back and see how/what Kailie was doing around the same age. It's amazing to me to see how different they are in some ways and how similar they are in others . . . starting with their weight and height! At Koltons 6-month dr. appt he was 20 lbs and 27.5" tall . . . Kailie was 20 lbs and 27.25" tall!! I have two very "healthy" kids - that's the doctors code word for huge!! I'm really quite thrilled that they are both so 'healthy' makes for one less thing to worry about:)

It's been an amazing 6 months with Kolton, I could never really put into words what having a second miracle in our life has done for all of us. He has brought another amazing dynamic into our already very blessed family:) I will continue to do my best to freeze every moment and as I fail at doing that I look forward to the next lifetime of moments that our wonderful sweet boy will bring us:)

Here are just a few pic's of our sweet boy - I soon hope to get our Christmas and November Cruise posts done where there are a lot more pics of both of our little angels!

Kailie getting in on the 6 month photo-shoot - Kolton's updated picture is in the sidebar of the blog. Check out how much hair he has grown in the last 2 months!!!

I love this picture as it really captures how Kolton is with Kailie - he absolutely ADORES her and watches her all the time. No one can get a smile out of Kolton as fast as she can!

Kolton is such an easy-going kid. I never worry about bringing him anywhere as he just doesn't fuss. He is so intrigued with the world around him he doesn't have any interest in fussing!

This was just after a broccoli-battle - this expression sums it all up. Kolton is not a fan!! He fortunately is a much bigger fan of squash, prunes, carrots, rice cereal. Fruits are up next so fingers crossed we'll have some happier faces to show after some fruit.

Kolton's Christmas Pressie - he just loves it!

Working on sitting all on his own:)

Our smiley sweetheart!