Excuses, excuses

My intention is to shift this blog from an angsty mummy blog to more of a crafty blog. Or perhaps a happy blend of the two. I'm constantly being inspired by the amazing work I see around me, and I think, hey gal, what's stopping you? In part it is the teeny tiny house - no room to leave the sewing machine set up, plus marauding toddlers who would love nothing more than to scatter buttons & needles to the four winds. Choking? Punctured internal organs? Oy. Perhaps I should stick to knitting (they only occasionally poke each other in the eye & let's face it, knitting needles are relatively blunt), embroidery & handsewing.

Other obstacles to my desire to craft/craft-blog? Caring for two babies/toddlers all day, followed by Olive deciding that bedtime only happens around 9pm these days. Oh yeah, & they're only napping when I push them around the neighbourhood, often for hours. Do you know how much it rains here in the winter? A husband I'd actually like to spend alone time with before we're in our eighties. Picket duty. Maybe one day my real job again (I miss you real job! I can't wait to see you again!). A rusty ol' computer (you've been so good to us, but the time is fast approaching for a new, zippier friend) that takes FOREVER to upload photos. A need to upgrade my flickr account.

I think that is the extent of my current excuses. Feels good to get it off my chest.

And so I bring you an image of Olive & her daddy at the lake on her birthday. No crafting, just a beautiful stormy sky.

Class war, grrrr!

Equal pay, yo.

Hi, my name is Kristy & I'm crazy. Why? I'm up before Olive is awake. Huh? Ya, I got up earlier than I had to - it's official, I'm crazy. (One good thing about this particular choice is I got to hear Olive giggling madly in her sleep and watch her sleep with her bum in the air. Normally the morning begins with Olive prying my eyelids apart with her tiny razor sharp finger nails).

Also, this morning marks the beginning of Olive's indoctrination into trade unionism - little baby is going to be walking the picket line with mama. She'll be wearing her "Equal Pay for Equal Work" plaquard and charming my fellow library workers with her sparkle. I'm pretty sure there will be a great deal of singing, finger plays & rhyming, as well as a little accordion & guitar for spice. Oh, & dogs & knitting. Yee haw. Pictures to follow!

My sweet sisters Liza, Dana & Sharkey (& ?) rallying in front of city hall.

Back to life

Ahh, the return. We spent a glorious month away from home - just long enough to really, really unwind & when the end came, to feel very happy to be back in our own beds.

We ate delicious local food (Olive gorged on raspberries, cherries & trout), drank delicious beverages, played games, ate sand, swam, cooked (40 degrees celsius, oh my!), watched loons, robins, otters, ducks, pelicans, sparrows, snakes & hundreds of butterflies, hung out naked (Olive actually, not the grown-ups - too many neighbours). We made jam. We made friends. We celebrated the big birthday with salmon, cake, funny hats & a campfire. We spent lots of time with family. We rested. We contemplated the future (move? stay? babies? jobs? homesteading?).

We returned to a mama on strike. And a baby who still doesn't sleep.

And I'm wondering, should I continue the blog? I'm not so sure. I guess we'll see how it feels as things get cookin' busy around here (picket duty, taking care of 2 one year olds, daddy returning to work)... Life.

Somebody sticking sticky fingers into her first taste of chocolate. It was a hit.

On retreat

We're off to the cabin, to peace, to quiet, to reconnection and to celebrate Olive's first birthday. We don't know how long we'll be gone, we don't where all we'll be going. We're keeping it loose.

Last year at this time we found out that Olive was breach and we went into a frenzy of trying to turn her (lying upside down on an ironing board for hours, acupuncture, moxibustion, chiropractics, singing, begging, ECV...) and she refused. Our little monkey was born at 8:32 am on July 19th, 2006 by C-section in a glaring operating room (oh, I still mourn the loss of our peaceful homebirth). At 8:32 am this year I'll cuddle my sweet baby on the beach and remember what has been the craziest, best year of our lives. Yay baby Olive, mummy and daddy love you soooooooo much.

Sleep redux, version 5.0

So we started a new sleep trial as of about 16 days ago. We decided (modified from Dr. Jay Gordon by our instincts) that the way to try to get Olive to sleep better at night was to completely stop all nursing between midnight and 5 am. We moved her little bed into our room to create a giant bed - separate but together. We felt like a 5 hour stretch wasn't too much to ask, and I really felt like if I could get 5 hours in a row (eventually, I knew it wouldn't happen magically overnight) that I could survive the rest of the night nursing until she was ready to wean or sleep on her own.

The first couple of nights she FREAKED out, but could be soothed into sleeping on mama or papa as we walked around the dark house with her tucked into a sling. Then we'd lie her down on her bed and she'd wake back up again. This would happen over and over for about an hour and a half, until she'd finally pass out from exhaustion. She was averaging about 2 wake-ups between midnight and 5, and the second wake-up was generally easier to get her back to sleep from (say, half an hour). Then it started to get better. I could just lie down beside her and sing to her while cuddling and she'd pass out in 5 or 10 minutes. Then Doug could do it too. Sometimes we'd just sleep with her in her bed, sometimes we'd get back into our bed. And one night she even slept from 11:15 pm to 3:15 pm and SO DID I. I felt like a brand new woman. Doug could spell me off. Things were improving. When she woke up anytime after 5 am she would just come into bed with mama and nurse as much as she wanted until she got up for the day, and daddy just rolled onto Olive's futon.

Then something happened. She started getting 3 new teeth all at once. There were some adult tensions around the house. And suddenly, suddenly, she's back to freaking out, taking an hour and a half to get back to sleep, screaming and screaming. And I think, sweet baby Jesus, will this child ever sleep? Doug thinks that she figured out that we were serious about this change, that it's not just some temporary fad, and she is ready to fight to the death.

We are completely unwilling to leave her alone to cry in her room in a crib (which she refuses to sleep in). I don't want to wean her. She's still getting the vast majority of her calories from me - this babe loves her milk (she even asks for it now, crying "Mama, mama" and making the 'milk' sign). And I love feeding her. And I can't even imagine how traumatic it would be to try and get her off the boob with the way she nurses right now. I will nurse her until she decides to wean herself, as long as she gives me 5 hours at night. I have to go back to work part-time in August, as well as caring for Etta 3 days a week. I have to get healthy again. I need to spend some quality time with my husband. I cannot do these things when I am getting no sleep.

So, I'm at a loss. Thank the gods Doug is done work in 3 days. It's going to be the summer of daddy teaching Olive how to sleep. And there is no going back. Sleep is now an imperative, meaning that our sweet monkey is going to have to adjust. I feel like I/we have done all of the adjusting this year, and now it's time for Olive to step up. We've done our best to give her an incredibly solid sense of love, attachment and security, and now there's going to be a little tough love chez nous.

Wish us luck.

Butt firmly stuck in neutral

I've been stuck in neutral these days, whiling away hours on the internet (blogs, facebook, you're eating my brain!). I feel really disconnected from people and things that I should be connected to.

So, we're going away. In a week we'll be leaving the land of electronic and telecommunications for three weeks in the land of sun, fresh air, canoeing (yes, Olive, in the canoe! woohoo!) no plumbing, blowing off the stink in the lake, a 25 year old outdoor toilet (appealing perhaps only to me - there are paintings of sea creatures that my sister and I painted as kids - what is better than to pee with the door open, surrounded by spiders and childhood art?), crosswords, board games, cards, a beer fridge, a porch with a view, a 50 year old record player and a supply of music ranging from the Mary Poppins soundtrack to Wham! to Roger Whittaker. Yes, Roger Whittaker. Mammy Blue is one of my all time favourite songs, so kiss it. We're going to have some alone time, then we're going to hang out with Great Grampa, Auntie Chris, Nanny, Kaitlyn and 3 precocious dogs. Full house. I cannot wait to introduce Olive to my favourite place on earth.

We'll be heading out to some amazing theatre and hopefully making jam with my grama. Then we'll be heading to the island to visit Doug's family and maybe do some camping on the beach (oh, how I'd love to visit Quadra Island again!).

Then, in August, mama has to go back to work (half-time). So, time to soak up the sun, the babe, the husband, the love.

And now it's time for me to wash the floors, do the laundry, bake, dust.....