Meighen

Well, the end is near my friends. I go back to work on Wednesday. This past year has been great! When you’re starting out a year seems like an eternity but when you’re staring work in the face it was way too short.

We had a good weekend. Saturday we celebrated Father’s Day with my family. My folks and sister came over, we ordered dinner and had cake. It was nice… except for the car breaking down when Ben was driving Julie home. It’s in the shop now and hopefully we’ll get it back today. Since we were stuck at home we moved the Richard Father’s Day from Oshawa to our place. Ben’s brother and wife brought all the food and his Dad came by too. It was a good afternoon. It also doubled as a bit of a birthday party for Meighen since Pere and Auntie Steph can’t make the party next weekend. They brought a birthday cake and we let Meg dive in. She loves cake.

Not much going on today, just packing bags for babysitters. One for my neighbour and one for the full time babysitter next week. So much stuff!

Tomorrow we should have the car and I want to make one last playgroup, maybe even go swimming. We have an appointment downtown after 4 so it could be a busy day. Wednesday/Thursday I work and Meg’s with our neighbour. Friday I’m off so we’re going to the new sitter for a two hour playdate to familiarize Meg with the environment and other kids. After that is Meg’s one year check up at the doctor. This time there’s needles – I hear one is a doozy. Poor baby but it’s for the greater good. Depending on how she feels we’ll finish up the birthday party shopping. Saturday we’re going for family portraits at the Superstore. They do an amazing job for a fantastic price, I don’t see us ever going back to Sears again. We too were drawn into the Sears Portrait Studio and came out very disappointed with the pics and the price.

Sunday is Meighen’s party! We’re expecting around 17 people and having an italian lunch instead of bbq. Meg’s getting a little cake for herself and cupcakes for everyone else. There won’t be too many kids there but it’ll be nice anyways. Other than family babies don’t really make friends at this age.

Meg’s really off baby food now. She’ll only eat things she can feed herself (except for ice cream. Lately she’s been on a hot dog kick. She looooves them and so do our dogs. She’s still only crusing and walking with our fingers – which is fine. She can climb stairs pretty darn quick. The last few nights she’s been putting herself to bed which has been awesome. I imagine it’ll only get easier when she’s in daycare and getting up early with us.

Sometimes we wonder if Meighen is really ours. Blond hair and striking blue eyes..??

I’ve caught Meighen rocking out to Greenday a couple of times now. Right now she’s bouncing to When September Ends. She also likes The Girl by City in Colour.

She must be ours.

Well Meg is now 50 weeks which means I’m back to work really soon, next Wednesday (24th) to be exact. Meg’s going to have a crazy schedule for a little while. Next Wednesday/Thursday she’s staying with my neighbour while we’re at work. I’m off on Friday so she’ll have me for three days. Monday my Mom will be here to look after her which shouldn’t be too bad – she’s in her own environment with Grammy. Tuesday Ben’s off for Canada Day so Meg will have her first whole day with Daddy!! I’m home Wednesday for the holiday. She’ll finish off the week with her new babysitter and then we’re back into a weekend. It works out perfect that Meighen only has a couple days at a time without me for a little while. We’ve also arranged for two play dates with the babysitter so Meg can get familiar with her and the house.

We had a good week last week. Mere and Pere were here Monday night and had a good visit with Meighen. They haven’t seen her since Christmas so she was completely different. She’s a little person now – the baby days are long gone. We didn’t enroll in any baby groups this month so we stopped by a baby-drop-in on Tuesday. Meg had fun crawling around the playing with the other kids. It’s great seeing her in social settings with other babies. She plays nice – so far.

Yesterday was my uncle’s birthday so we went to a family bbq. Meighen was the hit of the party and got to meet a close family friend for the first time. She’s been watching Meg grow up online so she already feels she knows her. It was great, since we had five of the seven kids there (two live in France) we lined them up for a picture. I found this hilarious for a few reasons. 1. This was the first time I didn’t have to line up with my cousins for a picture. 2. Now I’m one of the ladies lined up with a camera to capture the moment. 3. My cousin’s 17 year old son holding Meighen for the picture – very cute and funny.

Not a lot going on this week. We have the contractors coming by to finish up the repairs. Most of it was done last week so they’re back to do the floors, paint and spackle. Tomorrow we’re going to go to another baby-drop-in and I’d like to take her swimming again. Next weekend is Father’s Day so we’ll spend one day with my family and one day with Ben’s.

Meg’s doing well with cruising. She can cruise along everything and transfer from the couch to the table. Little monkey is everywhere. She outgrew the ducky bath a while back so I got a bathmat so she won’t slip in the tub. She loves the freedom to crawl around, chase her toys and splash freely. Meighen loves the vacuum. The dogs bring in a lot of dirt, grass and stones so I’m vacuuming daily. Meg will follow me around, tugging on the cord, playfully screaming as loud as she can to hear herself over the noise. Lately she’s been totally entranced by books. She loves this Elmo doll with a book as his knapsack and I keep a bunch of hard paged books on her change table to distract her during bum changes (which is a total chore now). I also keep one in her crib and it’s not uncommon to find her sitting there flipping through the book page by page when she wakes up. She’s such a sweet little girl.

Meighen is now 11 months old, well she was last week but I haven’t posted since then. The invites went out for her birthday party on June 28. We have about 30 on the guest list but as expected being summer a few people are out of town. Hopefully we’ll still have a good turn out.

Last week was good. We stopped by my office to visit and make myself known again. I go back in 2.5 weeks – boooo! It’s sorta bitter sweet. I’ll miss my little girl and sleeping in every morning but it will also be nice to hand her over to someone else during the day now that she’s becoming a handful. Meg’s still a delight but she’s into everything and constantly on the go. Who’d think going to work would be a break – ha!

On Wednesday I left for Grammy and Grampy’s one last time. When I’m back to work we’ll still visit but there won’t be anymore extended visits. On Thursday we all went to the donkey sanctuary. I figured it’d go over well since Meg seems to love all animals… and it did. She loved to play with the donkey’s ears and pat their hair. She seemed to get more joy out of the barn cats though. Friday we ran around with Grammy and picked up some bday gifts for Meg. Although I wasn’t looking at strollers, one really jumped out at me. We’ll be returning the Snap-and-Go frame to my friend this summer since Meg will be moving to her big girl carseat in a couple weeks. Anyways, it’s a great compact stoller but not quite an umbrella stroller, maybe a step up. It folds down super small for the car and will be great for jaunts around town. We’ll probably keep the larger stroller we have for day trips.

Meg’s been doing great. She totally gives kisses not only on request but on her own free will. She’s started clapping up a storm too. I’ve been trying for a couple months but she just got it now. She’s crusing along the furniture well and should be walking on her own in no time. Food wise – we’re into all sorts of new things. About a month ago she enjoyed a piece of meatloaf. She’s all over fries, loves pizza (without the pepperoni) and goes nuts for ice cream. She’s still primarily on homemade food but gets the occasional bit of processed stuff. I’m hoping to transition her over to milk soon. She still gets a few bottles of formula a day but it’d be great if it were milk. I’d like to have her off formula during the day when she’s in daycare – one last thing to provide the sitter with. She loves her juice and water so it shouldn’t be an issue. Meg’s still sprouting teeth like mad. The second on the bottom is up and we have three through on the top with one more waiting to poke out.

Looks like a potentially busy week coming up. Ben’s Mom is in town for a couple days and will be coming to visit/stay over on Monday. The contractor and insurance company have finally agreed on repairs and we’ll get the holes in spare room, basement and mail floor closet sealed up this week. I’d also like to take Meg swimming if there’s a chance and also a playgroup. We’re not booked into anything this month since I’m back to work soon but I’d like to do a couple drop-in play sessions before going back.