39 weeks

This week Sammy is obsessed with standing in the tub. She will hardly sit for a minute while you wash her before she starts standing and holding onto the side. And then she just stands there. Ummmm...not sure what that's all about?!

This week she has also decided she is not a fan of mealtimes. I guess more specifically it seems as though she doesn't like being spoonfed. She'll feed herself cheerios, drink water from her sippy cup and be handfed cheese and bananas by me...not with a spoon, but with my hand. Otherwise she'll whine through the entire meal and eventually refuse to open her mouth and start full on crying...even for old favorites like applesauce and yams. There's never a dull moment around here!

NOT sold.

I just heard from our realtor and the "buyer" was not able to remove the conditions on his offer. So tomorrow morning our house will be on the market again. This is so disappointing. Now we've lost a week of potential buyers coming through. In my opinion, it looks bad to have conditionally sold your house and then for it to go back on the market. I know it can be for a variety of reasons but I always think it looks like the seller failed the home inspection. I hope that's just me and not everyone will think that and not even bother coming to look. This just really sucks. More open houses, more living but not really living in our house (no messes!), more short notice showings...I guess it's really out of our hands so I should just stop stressing about it but it's hard.

And let me just put it out there that the "buyer" is a #$*%&*&% pr!ck idiotface jack@ss. Who looks at houses and makes offers before getting pre-approved by a financial institution? Who leaves the conditions of an offer to the very last day? Who has such disregard for other people that they leave them hanging until 9pm on the night the offer expires, most likely knowing it will never happen in the first place?

Enough complaining now. Tomorrow is a new day.

Walking...kind of!

Friday Night Leftovers

This blog that I follow has a great idea about jotting down random thoughts that might not be a separate blog entry...hence the name leftovers!

* This week I finally caved on getting Samara's bangs to grow out and took her for a haircut. She looks so so so sweet with her new haircut. Still can't believe she has so much hair at not quite 9 months!

* I lost my wallet after taking Sam for her haircut. Much panic, sweating and swearing resulted. I managed to track it down at the hairdresser just as I was losing hope and ready to cancel everything.

* I also finally caved this week and cut my own hair. First haircut since November of 2008. That's not a typo...2008!! The hairdresser was surprised that my hair was in such good condition. BUT...sadly I still need 2.5 inches off to get it healthy again.

* Yesterday I was driving to a playdate and the brakes on the van failed. EEEEKK!!! I was pressing the brake pedal to slow down (not stop suddenly, thank goodness!) when I felt zero resistance and the ABS warning light and the brake warning light came on. I think my heart must've stopped and I got an instant cold sweat. Then right at the very end, I felt a bit of resistance and I was able to slow down. I was on a busy road with nowhere to go so I was stuck driving. The next time I tried to stop, the brake worked fine and the warning lights went off. Everything was normal for our drive home. Still scary though so Shawn took the van in first thing this morning and we're hoping for a NOT EXPENSIVE AT ALL PLEASE repair.

* Shawn looked in Lethbridge this week for our new home. While going to a cheaper market is good, we will be going from 2 incomes to 1 so we're going to have to sacrifice quite a few things to be able to have me stay at home full time. Don't get me wrong, still very much worth it but there goes my vision of a huge ensuite, walk in closets, etc, etc, etc! We think we found something we would be happy in so we're going to think about it this weekend and perhaps place an offer next week.

* The conditional sale on our house has hit a bump. The deadline to remove the conditions is today and they have yet to remove the financing condition OR the inspection condition. Apparently the buyer has been approved for financing but is wanting to put 35% down and the bank is currently holding those funds...I assume to see if they are legit? Not sure. Anyways, they are waiting for financing to go through before having the inspection. So fingers crossed that it all goes well today or we will be back to square 1 with our house on the market...with 1 week lost doing nothing.

Sammy, THE DESTROYER!

#6

When I got Samara up this morning, she kept chewing her own arm. Hmmm...odd...until I checked and sure enough, tooth #6 has made its appearance.

Good Deals!!

Yesterday I went to Children's Place to buy Samara a new outfit. She has got so many hand me downs from various sources that I haven't had to buy her anything. So every once in awhile I feel the urge to buy her something and I usually end up at Children's Place as they always have fairly good deals. Well, when I walked in the door there were lineups of people and I was thinking...uggghhhh...no thanks, not for 1 outfit. And then I saw why there were lineups. All their fall and winter clothing was marked down to $3.99 and $4.99!! WOW! So yesterday instead of 1 new outfit, I got Sam:
-1 pair of jeans
-1 denim skirt
-1 dressy winter coat
-2 dresses
-1 pair of pjs
-2 sweaters
And I only spent $37!!! All the clothes are 6-9 months which some stuff will fit her now and some she'll grow into in the next couple of months. It was nearing naptime so Sam was getting a bit restless so I couldn't think of what size she'd be next winter to stock up.

Sooooo...

I went back today! There was hardly any selection at all this time, clearly moms have been going crazy for the sale! This time I bought larger sizes for next year. I got:
-1 hat
-2 pairs of jeans
-1 pair of cords
-1 dress
-3 sweaters
-5 long sleeved shirts
And I only spent $74!! Now if only I could find someplace with those kinds of deals for myself!!

Toys that go bump in the night...

Does anyone else have toys that randomly go off in the night scaring the crap out of you? The battery operated toys we have (like the learning table last night) like to randomly play music. It chose to do this at 3am this morning. After I got up to turn it off, I laid in bed wondering why it started playing. Was it a ghost?! Faulty wiring?! Then the cats ran around for an hour like their tails were on fire. I knew I jinxed myself by bragging about my 9 hours a night!

Sleep!

Quick update on sleep around here. It's glorious, glorious, glorious!! Samshine goes down around 730pm and sleeps until 730am. I get up ZERO times. I hear her ZERO times. Guess how happy this makes me?! Guess what posting this will mean? There goes the streak!

I'm still in a habit of going to bed early...between 9-10pm. The norm would've been that I get up 1-2 times a night to feed Sam and I'd be awake and trying to get back to sleep for an hour or more. So going to bed early was crucial so that I could get enough sleep to function the next day. Now though, I can't seem to stay up any later, yet I'm still sleeping until 7am or later. There's no way I need 9 hours every night...or do I? I suppose if I calculated just how much sleep I lost during the pregnancy and the first 8 months of Sam's life...well, I probably still have a few months of 9 hour nights to go!

If you're reading this and you're still getting up a trillion times a night...I FEEL FOR YOU! I FEEL YOUR PAIN! I remember all too well what it's like. And I hope you get sleep soon. If I could trade you some nights, I would do that because it's amazing what a full night's rest can do for your body and mind.

#5!

Tooth #5 poked through today. This has been the best of all the teeth so far. No fussing...just extra pooping. 4 poops I changed today. BOO!

Renos complete!

We finished up the basement today. I'm posting the before and after pictures but they really don't do it justice. The before doesn't look as bad as it really was...but take my word for it, it was bad. All of you that have seen it in person can attest to that! The wainscotting was unfinished so just touching it would give you splinters. And the boards that finished the top were nailed on and also had silicone finishing it. Yes, that's right. Silicone. There were several holes in the walls and some of the ceiling tiles were missing. There was a doorway that had been drywalled off but not finished. We were planning on adding cupboard doors to the kitchen area but the house sold and well, to put it bluntly, we're pooped! We can honestly say we will be leaving the house in better condition than when we got it. Please excuse our junk in the pictures!

BEFORE:





AFTER:

38 weeks

This week Samara has been perfecting her crawling. She is interested only in things that she is NOT allowed to play with. The laptop cord, guitar stand, etc. I'm not too sure why I was in a rush for her to crawl?! She is much harder to watch now! This week she also started mimicking our actions and noises.

SOLD!!

Well, conditionally. We went back and forth with the same person from earlier in the week. We couldn't reach a price we both agreed on so the realtors ended up cutting their commissions to make it happen. The buyer now has until next Friday to remove the conditions...financing and home inspection. So fingers crossed, our house is sold and we will be looking in Lethbridge ASAP. We have to be out by March 26 so our days in Calgary are numbered...

We are pretty happy with the final price. While it is perhaps not quite as high as we originally had wanted, having showings on a moment's notice and open houses every weekend has proven to be quite difficult with a little one making a mess, needing to eat and sleep on a schedule. There was also a house just down the road from us that went for a ridiculously low price and they unfortunately set a precedent for the rest of us in the neighborhood. Anyways, it's done (hopefully!) and we are looking forward to the next step in our journey!

Eating

I decided that I would make Samara's food myself. While it's not as easy as opening up a jar, it's cheaper and I like doing it. And what do I eat while she's feasting on my homemade creations? Nothing usually. I end up snacking on junk food, mostly chocolate and not sitting down and having any real meals except dinner. The chocolate gets my energy up but then I crash...then I eat more sugar to re-energize, I crash and the cycle repeats. On days where Shawn works late, I end up missing the good dinners that usually beef up my food intake for the day and almost always wind up with a headache. I have zero energy these days...I stopped working out because I'm too tired...but I know if I started again I would feel better. But I'm not eating enough substantial food to be able to work out. It's a vicious cycle! Tomorrow I'm going to start making the time to eat properly...I'm thinking I'll probably try to eat when Samara naps so I might be having my meals at weird times but it's better than what I'm currently doing.

Moms out there, how do you find time to prepare your own meals and sit down and eat them?

Buy Me!! Part 3

After much negotiating, we were not able to reach an agreement with the potential buyers. They were not willing to go higher and we were as low as we were willing to go. We're not in a rush to sell since we still don't know when we'll need to be in Lethbridge, so we're not desperate...yet! Hopefully there will be more offers and we won't regret our decision.

This morning I'm feeling quite sad about everything. While I'm excited that we got an offer and that there is interest in the house...it's MY house and not anyone else's! I suppose it's making things more real. It's really difficult to leave our first home...it holds so many good memories for us. I know logically that the next home will hold many good memories for us too but it's still hard!

BUY ME!! Part 2

Tomorrow the house will have been on the market for 2 weeks. And at 7pm tonight we got our first offer! Very exciting! We had a showing last night and it's been the first time the house wasn't spotless. Shawn had started ripping off the wainscotting and filling holes downstairs, there was drywall dust everywhere and tarps covering the furniture. I tidied up the upstairs as best as I could and we took off to the library to kill some time. Now we're wondering if we should've bothered doing more work on the basement? Or maybe that helped? Who knows...

Right now we're still negotiating. We countered on their offer, they countered back, we countered back, they countered back and then we stayed put. Now we're just waiting to hear back. The good news is that even if this deal doesn't go through, we got an offer...after just 2 weeks. So our house is not totally undesirable and with us finishing up the basement, we should be in good shape!

We'd be rich!

I'm reading The Stay-At-Home Survival Guide right now and it had an interesting tidbit I thought I'd share. In 2007, Salary.com reported that if you added up the average stay-at-home mom's domestic labour (approximately 90 hour work weeks), the annual income would be valued at around $140,000. Ahhhh...if only!

If we were able to add that much to our family income, I would do the following 3 things:
1. Family vacations each and every year to someplace either relaxing (think tropical) or stimulating (think Africa or Europe)
2. Spa days for Mommy every month
3. A vehicle with Command Start for the winter and air conditioning in the summer. Not that I don't love Wanda the Wagon...she's been really great to me but there are advantages to driving a new vehicle!
This is in addition to paying off the mortgage and having a big, fat 6 month emergency fund in place.
What would be your 3 things?

Renos Part 2

After another open house this weekend, we've had probably close to 40 different groups of people through...combining open houses and private showings. The consensus seems to be that while the upstairs is perfect and people love it, they think the basement needs too much work. I'm not sure why they expect perfection from top to bottom at the selling price...but they do.

So, we've decided to do another set of renos...this time in the main rec area of the basement. We're painting the ceiling, ripping off the cheap wainscotting a previous owner had done (and finished with silicone...um, what?! Trust me when I say this is only the tip of the iceberg for this guy's stupidity when it comes to crappy renovations). Where was I...ripping that off, fixing drywall and then painting the walls, fixing up the sink area, putting cupboard doors on and painting the counter. Hopefully this will help someone see this house as their future home. It's only been about a week and a half since the house went up for sale but we're trying to be proactive in hopes of it selling sooner. So if you need us? We'll be stuck in the basement for the next week or so!

Cruising

She's a quick one! Sam's been standing and playing for quite awhile now but her latest thing is cruising as far as she can on one piece of furniture. She likes to go between a big basket we keep some of her toys in, to the coffee table, around that to the couch and across the length of that.

She's only been crawling for not even 2 full days and she's already trying to stand on her own. She can't of course but she gets her legs in almost a split position, pushes up with her hands so her butt is high in the air...and then is stuck.

We are having some issues with her standing in her crib. It hasn't happened at night yet (please, oh please don't prove me wrong...I said yet therefore not taking anything for granted, please oh please please please!!!). It happens during her naps though...not all of them but this morning it took an hour to get her to sleep. I went in there at least a dozen times to lay her back down. As I'm writing this we are 30 minutes into a thus far unsuccessful nap where it's happening too. Anyone have any suggestions???

37 weeks

This past week Sam has still been sleeping through the night (thank you, thank you, thank you!!). She started crawling and really cruising around the furniture. She's babbling more...mamamama, dadadadada, babababa. She is pulling herself up in her crib and chomping on the wood. I think you can buy plastic protective covers for the top of the rail...must get on that before she gnaws it down to nothing!

She crawls!

I live to regret my words...

I am an idiot. I think it was the 8 month summary post I said that I shouldn't say it but said it anyway...Sam was not standing in her crib and there were no issues with that. HA! My words have come back to haunt me, bite me in the butt, spit in my face, etc. This afternoon's nap was a mess. I anticipated her standing because when I went to get her from her morning nap she was sitting in her crib, watching the door for me to come in. So instead of shutting the door firmly for the 2nd nap, I left it a bit ajar so I could easily spy on her. We don't have one of those video monitors but I want one SO SO SO bad. Anyways, in the span of 15 minutes, I must've gone in there about a dozen times to lay her back down. I would poke my head in there and she's shrieking (quite happily and excitedly!) holding onto the rails and sucking the wood. Look Mom, look at me! I'm standing! Aren't you excited?! Yes! Now go to sleep!! When I would lay her back down, she would be FURIOUS with me! Eventually she went to sleep but I am now very worried about tonight and what this means for our glorious nights we've been having.

Please Help

I'm sure you've all heard of the massive earthquake that hit Haiti. Many of us can't even imagine such destruction and will be lucky enough to never have to experience such a disaster. I urge you to help in any way you can. We have decided to donate to the Canadian Red Cross to help their relief efforts. We had a number in mind that we were comfortable with. And then we doubled it. I challenge you to do the same.

To donate, visit here.

Or, if you would prefer a different organization, please visit here to find responsible charitable organizations approved by the Canadian Government.

Q&A

Q. Did you make de-lurking up so people would comment?

A. Yes.
Just kidding. No, I saw it on another blog I follow and stole it.

Q. If you could afford to not go back to work but still stay in Calgary would you?

A. Yes and no. Yes because of so many reasons...Calgary is where Shawn and I became a family...where we got engaged, married, bought a house and had Samara. Calgary holds so many good memories for us. We have quite a bit of family here and many friends, old from Blind Assassins days and new from prenatal class. And it has a good airport that makes it more convenient to reach family that is further away. No because now that this opportunity has come up, it's exciting to start all over and to start a new journey and have new experiences. Terrifying sure...but exciting nonetheless!!

Q. When I eat grapes, why isn't my pee purple?

A. There is no natural dye in grapes. Beets, however, may give you the desired result...although it will probably be more of a pinkish, reddish hue. Good luck achieving that! Please report back with your results.

Q. Are you making up words, Dr Seuss style?

A. No. I wonder how hard that is...new word chocoma. Definition: a coma like state induced by chocolate.

Q. What is your favorite naughty thing to do?

A. My parents read this blog! Um...when I don't feel like saying hi to the neighbors, I pretend not to see them. Um...I eat all the chocolate in the house and then buy more so that Shawn doesn't know. I guess those are more like confessions but they're kind of naughty things to begin with!

Delurk Yourselves!

Sooo....it is National Delurking Week. Do you know what that means? COMMENT! Even if you don't have a blogger account, you can comment as anonymous and just leave your name, or initials, or make one up!

Tell me a little something about yourself, and then - ask me a question. If I actually get any questions (which I have my doubts since my request for more followers resulted in only ONE person answering my request despite the fact I'm getting a couple hundred views a week!!)...where was I? Oh right, if I get any questions then I will post the questions and answers by the end of the week. Ask away!

BUY ME!

Our house has been on the market for 1 week (as of tomorrow morning). We've had 6 private showings, 2 open houses (with about 10 groups each day) and a realtor open house. No offers though. I'm trying really hard not to get stressed and think negative thoughts...ie., it won't sell at all, it will but will take 6 months, we will have to lower the cost significantly, my EI will run out and we will be stuck with too big of a mortgage for a 1 income family, Shawn's transfer will come through and we will have to move and be stuck with 2 mortages...anyways, needless to say there are lots of things to worry about. I did say I was trying really hard not to stress right?!

Dancing Queen

I specialize in complaining

I listen to XL 103 in Calgary. It's an old person station (middle aged) but it's good...plays some oldies and their djs are not totally irritating. Sadly, this is not one of the 4 stations Shawn works at. So supportive hey?! Anyways, they say the temperature pretty often which is helpful...EXCEPT...they put an x in front of it to be cute I guess. It's completely silly and nauseating. So I sent them an email. Here it is:
(this one I HIGHLY doubt I'll get a response to!)

I think you have a great station...good playlist, good djs. The thing that is making me want to switch stations? The fact that you get your djs to say the temperature as "4 x-celsius". It's ridiculous and drives me insane. I can't imagine I'm the only one either. PLEASE STOP.

Little Rabbit

Sam's 4th tooth is breaking through today and let me tell you, it's been nothing but FUN around here this morning!

FUN in this case meaning anything but.

36 weeks

This marks the week where Sam sleeps through the entire night with no feeds. My brain is too excited about that to think of anything else she mastered this week!

I can't believe it!!! Part 2

WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!! I put Samshine to bed around 730pm last night. It's now 730am and I haven't heard a peep from her. SHE DID IT! No crying, no fussing...she just slept. I, of course, still slept like crap but once I get used to her sleeping through the night, I'm sure I'll catch up. This is absolutely absurd but...I wish I would've enjoyed the last nighttime feed just a tad bit more...not knowing it would be my last! Although...I'm sure with teething, sicknesses, etc., I've still got the odd night where I'll need to be up. But maybe, just maybe those won't seem so bad when I don't have to get up multiple times every night.

I'm seriously in shock. This was a baby that was only sleeping a total of 8-10 hours in a 24 hour period for the first few months. And screaming because she was so tired for the rest of the time. Go Sam go!!

Sam's Chair

Sam vs. The Apple

I can believe it!!

No repeat performance last night. Sam woke up around 330 and I thought I would let her figure things out on her own again. Well. That proved to be a huge undertaking. There was some fussing, some quiet, some crying, some sleeping, repeat, repeat, repeat until 530 or so. The last couple of weeks I have doubted whether or not she was truly hungry when I was feeding her at night...it would take several minutes of sucking to get a letdown so I was thinking it was more a comfort thing. The other night when she went basically 13 hours without a feed confirmed that. So...last night I knew she was just waking and yelling for me out of habit. That helped a bit to stop me from going in. And once she had fussed for awhile, I didn't want to create a habit where she knew if she fussed for x amount of time then I would cave and go in. So I laid in bed, wide awake and kept wishing and hoping for her to go back to sleep. And eventually she did. And it's now 730 and she's still sleeping so turns out I was right...she wasn't hungry after all. I still feel like a big jerk though!

I can't believe it!!!

Samara slept through the entire night. And not this 6 hours business that people classify as sleeping through the night. Nope. She was in bed at 745pm and it is now 745am and she is still sleeping. I am in shock! Complete disbelief! She woke up at 5am when Shawn got up for work but she wasn't really crying, just doing a tired fuss. So I left her...and within 5 minutes she was sleeping again. Then of course my Momsomnia kicked in and I thought there was NO way she would stay asleep so I might as well just lay in bed and wait for her to need me. Still though...UNBELIEVABLE!!!! It took 8 months and 5 days. But it happened.

Now, the trick will be not to get my hopes up in case it doesn't happen again. HA! Too late!!

Basement Renos

We're done!! We did an insane amount of work in a super short amount of time. But we're done...and that's all that matters! And I never want to do it again! The house goes up for sale tomorrow and we've already got somebody coming by at noon...and they wanted to see it today but we still had to clean. So hopefully that's a good sign and the house sells quickly.

The basement BEFORE:








The basement AFTER:

SLEEP, or lack of it...

I want it. I need it. I'm not even exaggerating when I say the last time I had a really GOOD sleep where I slept undisturbed through the entire night was sometime before August 2008. When I got pregnant, sleep was one of the first things to go. And then of course when Samara came along and was so NOT a sleeper, well, there went my nighty night dreams. Don't get me wrong, she's getting better and will have nights where she only wakes once. But those nights tend not to be average and are spaced out by having nights like last night where she is up too many times to count. I definitely thought by 8 months that I wouldn't need to get up anymore during the night and my baby would be sleeping peacefully until sunrise. I know, poor, poor me. Suck it up, right?!

I find what's making my sleep worse is I have developed Momsomnia. What is that, you ask? Well, months and months of disturbed sleep ruin your sleeping patterns so that even when there is no baby crying to be fed, changed, held, bounced, cuddled, etc., your body just naturally wakes up wondering what is up. Then you have to debate whether you go in and check on your little monkey and take the chance of waking her up or try to convince yourself that yes, in fact, she IS just sleeping well and hasn't stopped breathing. Then, when you've come to the realization that everything is peachy keen, you can't fall back asleep. You're certain, completely positive that you will be needed any minute so why bother going to sleep? If you go to sleep, you'll be woken minutes later and then you will feel a million times worse and more tired than if you had stayed awake. Possible side effects of Momsomnia? Supersonic hearing...the ability to wake up at the slightest sound...sniffle, gasp, cough, sneeze, slightly loud exhale, slightly loud inhale, you name it!

I guess those annoying people who gave advice while I was pregnant of stocking up on sleep were right. Kind of. If only sleep worked that way!

Canadian Tire Saga, Part 2

Guess who I got an email from today...Canadian Tire! I was pleasantly surprised. I stand corrected, Canadian Tire perhaps is about customer service after all, just not the location and time I was there! Here it is:

Dear Mrs. Tompkins,

Thank you for contacting our office regarding your
shopping experience at our Calgary North
Canadian Tire store.

We are sorry to learn about your dissatisfaction
with Canadian Tire. We value you as a customer
and appreciate the time you have taken to
bring this matter to our attention.

Providing your concerns about your personal
experience directly to the store will help
them understand where they can make improvements.
Your feedback has been logged and will be forwarded
to the store for review.

We would like to send you a $25.00 Canadian Tire
Gift Card for the frustration experienced. 
Kindly respond with your full mailing address
to accept our offer.

We regret any inconvenience you experienced. 
We thank you for providing
us with the opportunity to respond.

C. Napper
Corporate Customer Relations
Canadian Tire Corporation Limited 

NOT COOL

Sam started grinding her teeth. Probably pretty hard to do when she only has 3. Worst. Sound. EVER.

The best things in life are free!

Just found this from a couple of friend's blogs...here and here. Apparently every once in a while Crown Publishing does a little thing called "Read It Forward". You can go to their site and request 3 FREE books. The 3 books up for grabs are not yet released and if you're into Chick Lit, they look pretty good...especially considering they're FREE FREE FREE! You just give them your address and they will be delivered to you. LOVE IT!

I've already been there and requested mine. So hurry, there are limited quantities!!!

What the world needs now...is more pics of Sam!

Chels and Richard came for a visit this week. It was really great having them. They DROVE from Yellowknife!! Sam recognized Chels right away and gave her a big smile. It was her first time meeting Richard and she really liked him too. We really wish we lived closer to them...it's hard only seeing them every few months.

Richard got a new camera for Christmas and I had lots of fun with it...so much that I'm totally saving up for one of my own. Here are some shots from it: