August 2016

August was a cozy month, with beautiful sunny days that weren't too hot, and lots of fun activities. Lexi had her first "official" sports encounter as we joined the Brooks Gymnastics club for one week. Although there was a lot of trepidation at first, Lexi ended up loving most of it - especially the foam pit. She wasn't the biggest fan of being thrown into the pit, but she did love stacking the foam blocks one on top of the other. The slide captivated her from day one, but it wasn't until day 3 or 4 that she really began tackling it (as long as she had her Nemo with her.)

Not only did Lexi start gymnastics, she also made a surprisingly quick transition from her crib straight into her big girl bed. Not even the toddler bed we'd purchased for her - after a night of absolutely refusing to sleep in her crib, and a frustrated Mama deciding to just throw her in the guest room, the guest room quickly became Lexi's room. How is it fair that a two year old gets a more comfortable bed than her mom and dad? At least the transition wasn't difficult - Lexi loves her big girl bed and room!

Lexi also loves her "Bible", a CD of Bible songs given to her for her baptism by Auntie Clem and Vicki. Imagine Mama's surprise when Lexi showed her the CD case and exclaimed, "my Bible!" Sometimes, when Lexi wants to read, she'll pull out the CD insert and ask Mama or Daddy to read her her "Bible." Where these things come from, who knows... Mama's guessing some divine intervention on this one!

We got to spend lots of time with Uncle Louis and the Prins family, taking lots of walks and enjoying the less-scorching-than-July weather. One day, after watching Louis light up a cigarette, Toby asked Mama, "have you ever tried smoking?" and Mama truthfully answered, "yes." Shelly revealed a few days later that her son piped up at home, saying, "Mrs. Liboiron sure is lucky!" "Why?" inquired Shelly. "Because," stated Toby, matter-of-factly, "she never got addicted to cigarettes!"  ...from the mouths of babes. Or nine year olds.

The Liboiron family capped off a great August with a trip to the Jenner Rodeo grounds, where we camped for two nights and participated in the "Up in Smoke" barbeque competition. Well, Mama participated - she got to judge some delicious food and will be judging again next year! We camped beside Carl and Aiden Scheibner, and Lexi had a great time following Aiden around and bouncing on the bouncy castle. Shortly after Up in Smoke, it was back to work for Mama, with a bit more of a baby belly to show off.  Halfway through the pregnancy, feeling pretty decent, and excited for a few months of work before a new maternity leave!

July 2016

What. A. Scorcher. As beautiful as July 2015 was, we spent many days indoors, basking in the air conditioning - it's just been too hot and too dry to spend lots of time outside. We did have a few dates at the Duke of Sutherland splash pad, and a few swims at the Prins' new swimming pool, not to mention a couple of dips in our ever-deflating kiddie pool - but mostly, it's been a lazy indoor summer because it's just too darn hot! Not to complain - we'd rather this hot weather than a dry -30 - but sometimes, it's just too hot.

The beginning of July was exciting for all of us because Uncle Louis drove all the way from Ottawa to live with us for a few months. Lexi loved seeing her uncle from the moment he arrived, and clear as day began excitedly asking "where Louis? Where Louis?" If we had ever been concerned about her ability to pronounce names, it was completely squelched with her pronunciation of "Louis" - clear as day. Louis quickly secured work at JBS, and found an apartment with Shelly's brother Stew - all answers to prayers. God is good! Especially good is His timing - we would have never believed it if it didn't happen to us: on Saturday night, at 4:30 in the morning (so I guess Sunday morning), Louis ran upstairs and woke us up, exclaiming that the basement was flooding. Our regional water hose mysteriously (and impossibly) became unattached - and if Louis hadn't have been sleeping in the basement, we wouldn't have known for at least another 3 hours when Lance woke up - by which time our basement would have been under at least 3 feet of water. Thank God Louis was in the basement, helping us to avert a huge crisis! The cleanup wasn't even that bad. It was a pretty comical hour and a half of our lives, waiting for a Regional Water representative to come shut off our access, during which Louis was holding the hose toward the basement window, watching gallons and gallons of water pour out. We did manage to get a few laughs out of the entire situation.

In baby news, our little pickle is now 17 weeks along in Mama's belly and is twisting and turning up a storm, mostly in the evenings when Mama lies down to sleep. July has been an exhausting month pregnancy-wise, and many naps have been had, not to mention a lack of nutritious meals. Even Daddy exclaimed, "I'm getting fat because my wife isn't cooking!" There are too many excuses not to cook - it's too hot out, I'm too pregnant and I'm having too many food aversions. Honestly, this baby has been sucking the life out of Mama - she's feeling pretty down and out. Maybe returning to school in a month and getting back into routine will be helpful - shame on Mama for even thinking about that! Time to capitalize on the rest of vacation time!

Mama finished a two-week run of Tumbleweed Theatres Shakespeare in the Park, a western rendition of Romeo and Juliet. It was so much fun to get involved in community theatre again, although the pulls of an outside commitment were very trying. It will probably be a few years again before Mama gets involved in any more theatre.

Lexi is chattering away, her vocabulary increasing so much that others are pointing it out. One of her favourites new words is "goggles" - pronounced "gumgumgumgumgum." We spent the last weekend of July at Lake McGregor with the Hopfs and both Daniels families - Lexi's entire weekend was spent with a pair of goggles on her forehead. She loved bouncing on the inflated tube, telling Dada "nigh night," encouraging him to close his eyes, and bouncing down to wake him up.

July has been a tough month, but it's been a lot of fun. Praise be for all the blessings we encounter every day!

June 2015

The warm weather is upon us, and the end of first trimester with baby #2 is drawing to a close. Mama's finishing up work and dealing with a sore back (already?), while Daddy mows away on his Club Cadet.

Lexi, you surprise us every day with your intelligence and curiosity. Just tonight (June 23), you were completing a puzzle that consists of various plastic shapes, and you held up the pie-shaped piece and exclaimed, "pie!" Daddy and I looked at each other, like, since when does she know what pie is? I can't recall having fed you pie... is it something that Dora taught you? Thank God for TV some days, especially these last few sicky sicky weeks. Your brother or sister has been causing Mama quite the exhaustion and food aversions. But back to you. You're adorable. In the mornings, Daddy gets you from your crib, and you come snuggle in bed with Mama and Daddy for a few minutes before your peanut butter and banana on toast, the drive to Keeley's house, the inevitable crying when we get there, the big hugs and smiles when Mama picks you up - those are some of the best hugs in the world. Nothing compares to your two-year old daughter running up to you, arms spread wide, squealing, "MY Mama! MY Mama!" Oh yes, everything these days is yours. "My snack." "My baba." "My 'nana." "My Dada." Yours, yours, yours. Thankfully, age two hasn't been so much terrible as it's been trying... but we still have a ways to go...

Baby bean, you've already nestled into Mama's tummy comfortably and are showing yourself at 12 weeks - can you hold up a bit? Mama didn't need to start wearing maternity clothes until 18 or 20 weeks with Lexi; it'd be nice to hold off about that long with you! The pregnancy so far has been pretty similar to #1, so I'm guessing you're a girl - although if you're a boy, I wouldn't be disappointed. I'm excited to meet you and it's still 7 months away. So far, I've been craving peanut butter and banana on toast, lots of yogourt, and rice. Indian food has pretty much been a staple. Mustard is tasting fantastic again, like it did with my first pregnancy, but it's not so much a staple. Your big sister loves you already; when we ask Lexi what's inside Mama's tummy, she says, "baby!" When we ask if it's a boy or a girl, she replies, "girl!" And when we ask her what we should name it... you guessed it: "BABY!"

Month 12: Birthday Girl

My sweet baby girl,

Well, we've made it. An entire year. They said it'd fly by... and it did. So quickly. Never again will I hear your tiny, whimpering infant cries - now you've got a full-bodied bellow, and you aren't afraid to use those lungs to get what you need. Your tiny body has morphed into the squirmy, purposeful limbs of a near-toddler. You move with determination and a hint of grace; when you pause and point a tiny toe into the air all ballerina-esque, my heart flutters a little.

So you're growing. It kind of hit me really hard at the beginning of April when I was subbing. I was in a class of kindergarten students, and I realized that it would be four short years before you'd be in a kindergarten classroom, interacting with a bevy of peers, speaking full sentences, maybe even being told to stop sucking your thumb! by your teacher during naptime (but probably not - you thankfully haven't adopted that habit yet. And do they even have naptime anymore in kindergarten?)

After what seemed like the longest winter of our lives, the snow finally began melting and we were given the opportunity to explore our big, beautiful acreage. I don't know where the energy came from - probably from being cooped up all winter - but your mama decided to finally get some work done on previously much-ignored flowerbeds. You loved being outside as Mama cleaned the beds and pruned the trees. You were so content to just sit on the grass and pat your hands around you, bringing whatever twig or dead leaf you found within reach to your mouth (although you've gotten much, much better at distinguishing between food and non-edible things.) We even picked up a couple of kittens for you to play with, but the owls or hawks have since claimed them as their own. You'd grab those little black kittens by the tail and joyfully whip them around. And the funny thing? They loved it. They'd mew, scramble away, and easily return to you for more playtime. 

You began really turning on the cute this month; I wasn't prepared for that. When my friend Donna came to visit, you'd crawl up to her, scoot your butt up against her, and lie back slowly, eyelashes fluttering, smile spreading slowly across your mouth. Then you'd scamper away, smile, and do it all over again. You love clowning like that. You especially love it after your bath, when Daddy throws you on the bed buck naked. I didn't know babies have crazy time like cats do, you know, that "witching hour" in the evening. But you'll flip and turn and somersault and even smash your head into the wall at the head of our bed. And you squeal and clap and you love it so much (although I have a little inkling that your daddy might enjoy it even more.) What is it about a beautiful naked baby doing crazy flops on a bed that is just so endearing? 

Speaking of turning on the cute, you have this little white Adirondack chair that you can't get enough of. I bought it for you on a whim at Toys R Us, and when I brought it in the house, you immediately began investigating it. You're like that - when something is new to you, you spend some time examining it, checking it out, then slowly but surely you begin engaging with it. After this discovery process with the chair, you were sitting in it and removing yourself from it over and over and over. You could spend an hour sitting in and getting out of that little chair. Sometimes, when you're a little bit exhausted from this venture, you grab your sippy cup, lay back in the chair, take a big sigh and drink away your thirst. How much cuter can you possibly get? 

Sidebar: Things I Never Knew About Babies Until I Had My Own. I never knew it was possible for babies to get bored. You, however, taught your mama and daddy very quickly that toys are boring, and anything not meant to be a toy is awesome. Your chair, for instance. Not a toy. But you love it. A cardboard box? Yup, awesome. Paper towel roll? Check. Dish towels? Get me some of those! A metal strainer? Gimme gimme gimme! 

The last week of your first year on this earth was a special one: Mama went on a trip to Banff, so you got to spend the entire weekend with Dada. And you were amazing. You took your bottles of whole milk without complaint, you were charming and cute, and you even slept through the night (something that's been happening more often than not these days - finally! And thank you!) You broke your mama's heart when she returned from the trip, though: instead of scampering to her like you usually do after a day apart, you looked her up and down, then pointed out the window. Cue: sounds of a mother's heart shattering into a million pieces. I shared my feelings about this with some other moms, and they assured me that it's nothing to worry about; you were just getting back at me for leaving you for (gasp!) two entire days.

Well, birthday girl, here's to an amazing year. We all survived, your mama and dada barely, but we did it. And I wouldn't change a single moment of the past year for anything in the world. My baby blessing, here's to many, many more wonderful years.

I love you!

Love,

Mama

Month 11: My Sweet Toothy Hippo Girl

Lexi,

Let's talk. Let's talk about how you are such a fantastic communicator. Although your only words are still "Mama" and "Da", you are apt at using your hands, face, voice, and entire body to let us know what you need. You put your arms up for "up", you pull at your bib when you're done eating (not to mention throwing little fits at your high chair to let Mommy and Daddy know that YOU ARE DONE WITH ALL THE FOOD!), you pull yourself up in the tub when you're done your bath... and you cry, cry, cry to let us know that you're awake and you need someone to come get you out of your crib RIGHT NOW! Yes, you are the most insistent, stubborn little girl I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, and it's part of your charm. I look so forward to seeing how that plays out as you grow older.

Not only do you love communicating; you love interacting with others. Your face lights up when someone new shows up, especially if it's Daddy coming home from work, or Grandma and Papa coming by for a visit. You spent an afternoon with your cousin Link a few weeks ago, and you played so well together. You know your place in the hierarchy of age; if you're with older kids, you observe them and try to do what they're doing; if you're with kids younger than you, you're a little bit more confident (especially with the soother stealing - yeah, that's still a thing.) You definitely adore being around older kids, and it's amazing to watch how older kids step up to the plate when you're around - offering you toys, playing with you, trying to teach you things. There is, however, one interaction this March that left you quite unhappy: Shooter, the Brooks Bandits' hockey team's mascot. He scared you. He scared you so badly that you kept looking from Daddy to Mama and back, your lower lip trembling, until you burst out in tears. And Daddy and Mama just laughed and laughed and laughed. Is that mean? Who knows... it was hilarious in any case.

This month was an abnormally cold March, so although I was looking forward to spending some time outside with you, we were cooped up the entire month. Not that I mind; I've been able to get lots of Netflix time in, and you're usually pretty content to play with a variety of toys. You're especially fond of balls: you have a big blue one from Karli, a smaller purple one, and a smaller Finding Nemo ball. You also love your Baby Einstein piano, and this one cell phone toy with a barking dog and meowing kitty - and a really annoying song that I definitely can sing by heart. This particular cell phone, however, has dying batteries, so it sounds possessed most of the time. It's actually kind of scary.

Your personality is shining through more and more, and the way I see it, there are two distinct parts of you: the crying, whining, communicative side, and the social, happy, cute, flirty side. You know how to be absolutely adorable. I took you to Calgary at the beginning of the month because I had an appointment with a dermatologist, and you just crawled around that office, getting your hands on everything, looking around at all the other patients in the waiting room with a big, toothy, lopsided grin on your face. Oh, that toothy grin. I can't get enough of your little hippopotamus teeth (and I am thanking God that they are coming in straight so far! But where's that eighth tooth, the little one on the bottom right? We're still waiting for it!) You are adorable and so, so charming.

One of the best parts about this eleventh month has been your sleeping patterns: you've been sleeping through the night! I'm not counting how many times in a row because I don't want to jinx it, but girl, it's pretty amazing to be able to put you down to sleep at 9:00 pm and not worry about you until 6:30 in the morning! I'm feeling so well rested and grateful for those full nights. They make the teething nights (when you wake 3, 4, sometimes 7 times) a little bit more bearable.

But don't tell anyone I said that.

I love you so much, my sweet, toothy, hippo girl.

Love,

Mama

Month 10: The Screaming Soother-Stealer

My Loops,

You have officially lived in the outside world longer than you grew inside of me. All 21 pounds of you is lovable, huggable, kissable and smushable. You are so alert, bright, and communicative. You're so good at telling me what you need - especially if it's extra snuggles when you're not feeling so hot.

You learned how to crawl and pull yourself up in January; you practiced all February. You love joining me in the kitchen while I prepare meals - you especially love sitting in front of the oven and opening the bottom pan drawer. Open, close. Open, close. You don't tire of this task readily. You also love playing with measuring cups and spoons, and whatever morsels of food you can find that have fallen onto the floor. About every 15 minutes, you need a snuggle, and once you've gotten it, you're awesome at entertaining yourself again.

Something you don't love is when I need to take a shower. Usually, I try to shower in the afternoon when you've gone down for a nap (which happens, oh, about 75% of the time now). On those days that you refuse to nap, I simply plop you down on the bathroom floor mat with some toys and hop into the shower. Lately, though, you've taken to SCREAMING as soon as I disappear behind the shower curtain. You pull yourself up against the tub, and you SCREAM until I get out of the shower. It doesn't matter if I pull the shower curtain back and reassure you that I'm right there; you SCREAM nonetheless. Why am I writing in all caps? Because your screams are THAT LOUD! As soon as I'm done my shower and I step out of the tub, the screams stop and you're your happy little self again. I sure haven't figured that one out yet.

You're a social butterfly. You are so happy when surrounded by other kids, no matter what age they are. You're a soother-stealer, too. No matter who it is, if you see another kid with a soother in his mouth, you crawl up to him, grab it, and stick it in your own mouth, totally authoritatively. If the other kid tries to take his soother back, you're very resilient - you're not giving that sucker up without a fight. Why, again, do you refuse to take a soother to actually soothe? Such an anomaly, you are!

This month, I decided to finally start using the cloth diapers you received as a shower gift. I figured since you only poop every four days or so, and since you can go hours without a good diaper wetting, that cloth diapers were the way to go. It figures that the day I began using the cloth diapers, you decided that every single day was the best time to poop. Sometimes twice. I counted four on one day. Cloth diapers are a lot more work than disposables, but I'm emptying the garbage less and your bum just looks so cute in that fluff. If I'm not careful, I could end up dropping a pretty penny on some more cute diapers. I sure hope you have a little sister someday because a little brother would not look so cute wearing zebra print and fuschia diapers.

You're still a food monster, and you eat anything and everything I put in front of you, unless you're not feeling well. When that's the case, all you want is mama's milk. I can't say I totally mind. People are beginning to ask me when I plan on weaning you, and the truth is, I'm not planning it. You'll know when you're ready. You definitely nurse way less than even a couple of months ago, but it does amp up when you're sick, and I'm grateful that I can still nurse you for comfort. It doesn't feel right to me to have a planned weaning date. I even hope that when I go back to work at the end of April that I can still nurse you in the mornings and the evenings. But like I said, I have no plan. It will happen as it happens, and I'm okay with that. Not so sure about everyone else, but it's between you and me, my sweet baby girl. Oh, I can just imagine you reading then as a teenager, rolling your eyes, and screeching, "MOM! I can't believe you wrote that!"

A teenager. It's difficult to fathom that you won't always be my tiny (well, not so tiny anymore) baby. You're almost a year old; we're teetering on toddlerdom. My sweet, sweet, hippo-tooth babe.

Love,

Mama

Month 9: Crawling!

Loops,

 

Your nickname keeps changing. Just like you. As I write this, you're busily working your way around the living room, moving from one toy to the next. That's right, moving. On Friday, January 10, I had some girlfriends over to play cards. Imagine my surprise when Buffy commented, "Hey, Olivia, how long has Lexi been crawling for?" I was floored. You've been working on it for at least two months. Your daddy and I were positive that you'd be crawling by Christmas, but the season came and went and you were still doing your butt-in-the-air wiggle dance, but you just couldn't master the knee-hand reflex. Now that you've started, it's amazing how quickly you've mastered it. I have to keep a constant eye on you, or you'll get into anything you see. I've already caught you putting grout from our crumbling floor tiles in your mouth. I'm sweeping the floors at least once a day. You still manage to find the strangest things to put in your mouth, though. I'm pretty sure you ate a dead maple bug the other day.

 

Not only are you crawling, you've mastered pulling yourself up, too. I think we anticipated the crawling so much that we didn't realize how soon after pulling yourself up would come. It's special: when you need your mommy or daddy, instead of waiting for us to come to you, you come to us, pull yourself up to the chair or couch, and give us those sad eyes and contorted little mouth. How can I not pick you up and snuggle with you? Speaking of which, here you come for some much needed snuggles after a particularly rough night.

 

You've been sick for just under a week now - cough, cold, and lots and lots of snot. The snot bubbles that form at your nose are hilarious. It's exhausting how needy you get when you're sick. You nurse at least three times an hour - even if it's just for 30 seconds - but you need your comfort. I get flak from people for not putting you on rice cereal to fill you up before bed, and I'll admit that I complain that you're still up at least twice a night to nurse, but in my heart of hearts, I know I'm doing the right thing for you. Sometimes, through my exhaustion, I wonder if it really is the best thing, but then you give me a seven-hour stretch of sleep and I know it's all worth it.

 

We finally moved you to your crib at the beginning of the month. I think the transition was harder on me than it was on you - immediately, you began flipping yourself over to your tummy to sleep, something you'd been unable to do in your bassinet. It scared me a bit at first because of the SIDS scares over tummy sleeping, but your sleep has gotten better - for the most part. When you're sick, you barely sleep. It's been really, really rough on me and your daddy. I am so tired right now - just as tired as when you were a newborn and we were adjusting to life with a lack of sleep.

 

We also had another big milestone - I left you overnight for the first time with your daddy. He wouldn't give me any details on the night except it went really, really badly, but the day apparently went well. I can't tell you how much my heart jumped when I came home, you saw my face, and you just SCRAMBLED across the floor to me. I almost cried.

 

This month we also had a family bout of what I think was food poisoning - it started on a Wednesday night when you woke up with throw up all over your crib and in your hair. It was heartbreaking, and I've never wanted to snuggle you more. I sat on my chair with you curled up in my arms, and you just stared up at me with sleepy eyes that eventually closed. I loved holding you in that instance.

 

Apart from these past few days of being sick, you're an eating machine. You love your little chicken strips and broccoli, and you'll try anything new. Giving you quinoa, however, may not have been the best idea. While the look on your face was hilarious, it was a horrible clean up job. Others are always amazed at how you'll eat anything!

 

Applause for you, my crawling, pulling, clapping, and waving baby girl. I'm so sorry for all the times when I'm not the best mom I can be. You are so full of life that sometimes I'm exhausted by it. No matter my mood, I always love you. And I know you love me - the adorable "mamamama"s tell me so.

 

Love,

 

Mama