Week 31

I'm totally exhausted (hence the late blogging) - this teething thing sucks. Liam is now working on tooth number two and is not happy about it. I feel like a limp noodle - all the energy is sucked out of me trying to keep keep up with the constant fussing and by the time Ian comes home at the end of the day I'm like a lifeless barbie doll. My whine meter is constantly on high - I'm amazed the poor guy hasn't run for the hills. The only saving grace is that since last Thurs Liam is sleeping through the night - he now goes to sleep at around 9pm and usually sleeps till about 6:30am. I would have gone off the deep end for sure if I wasn't sleeping in addition to the day-to-day challenges. Like I said before - you only get to sleep longer at night so you have more energy to deal with the day and trust me - you need it!

Coincidentally the sleeping through the night thing started when we switched to Johnson & Johnson Bedtime Bath with lavender - the bottle advertises "proven to help baby sleep better". Damn straight - knocks him right out - thanks Johnson & Johnson! In typical Lucy fashion I failed to read the instructions and did not realise that it was bubble bath and not baby wash. Couldn't understand why the stuff smelled so strong and made my skin all tingly. I had practically overdosed Liam in lavender - he looked like a minature bubble Santa. No wonder he slept so well! I need to start marketing my own brand of lavender product called "conk your baby out" so I can make my millions and realize my dream of becoming a country club elite.

Friday we had our Christmas portraits taken - went really well and we got some lovely shots. The place was a zoo with all the kids in the fancy outfits and stressed out moms chasing them around and trying to keep them clean - makes me grateful that my little man, although fussy at times, cannot move (yet). The photographers are obviously very used to doing these kinds of portraits and only took about 20 mins. She probably would have been done a lot quicker but I kept jumping in front of the camera making absurd gestures mid-air with fuzzy toys in an attempt to make Liam laugh. At least I wasn't walking around with a duck on my head like some of the other people I saw. After spending an absurd amount of money (what? all the pics were sooooo cute!) we met up with Grandma Marg and headed to the Empress to look at the Festival Of The Trees. There was a craft fair on at the same time so we browsed the various booths and picked up some goodies. Was sorely tempted to get the "Bitchy Babe" aromatherapy wand (for moody women - apparently Ian thought I really needed it) and fell in love with the wine jelly stand. Picked up a jar of cabernet sauvignon (toast for breakfast anyone?) and sampled the chardonnay. Just divine. We ended up scarfing half the jar with crackers and pear blue cheese the next night. Yummy!

Since the next few weeks are going to be pretty busy we decided to get into the Christmas spirit early and put up our tree and decorations. Liam just loves lights so we got multi-coloured twinkle lights (bye-bye Martha Stewart tree) which he spends a fair amount of time staring at. Also picked up a stocking for him with a penguin head which he spotted in a store and fell absolutely in love with. I tried to take the penguin stocking away from him and he screamed blue bloody murder. So I bought it (I'm weak I know). So our living room looks warm and festive now and I've pretty much finished wrapping all the gifts as well. Look at me - Ms. Organized! I mostly did it all earlier to avoid the stress later on. Time is precious when you're a parent so you shop when you have the chance and get it over with. Of course I'll take the title of super mom any day just as long as I can keep fooling everyone into thinking I've got it together!

Week 30

It has arrived ladies & gentleman - the first tooth. After a rough few days off sweating, screaming & drooling, the tooth finally made its grand appearance and is now clearly visible. Unfortunately Mr. Bitey has emerged and breastfeeding has become a painful undertaking as Liam now takes a good chomp towards the end of his meal. It hurts just as much as everyone tells you it's going to and there is nothing you can do about it - not like you can take a swipe at your kid for sending a stabbing pain through your boob. So as I've learned with so many other things in mommy world - you simply just grin and bear it. Or you scream out loud which is much more effective at relieving your frustration.

Liam is currently bouncing in his oh-so-favourite jolly jumper and screaming at his hand. From time to time he catches a glimpse of his digits and freaks out. This equates to blood curdling screaming. We have also discovered that if you try and take something away from him that he doesn't want to let go of he screams too. I think we are going to have an issue with sharing when we are older.

Thurs we headed over to Vancouver for another daddy related business trip - we tag along since the hotel rooms are free and it gives us a change of scenery for a few days. This time round was a bit of whirlwind but still fun. Friday night Ian and his work colleagues were hosting some students from UBC and taking them to a Canucks game so I volunteered to take care of his bosses two kids aged 4 and 6 years old for a few hours. Apparently I think I'm super mom all of a sudden and could handle two kids and a baby for 6 hours. The first thing his boss said to the kids when she left was not to jump on the bed, so the first thing I did was start jumping competitions to wear the crap out of both of them and make them mellow - WRONG! The jumping only got them more hyperactive which led to getting thirsty and dumping their water bottles over their heads to keep cool. In her enthusiasm the 4 year old accidentally dumped a bunch of water all over the night stand and onto the floor. Apparently she must spill a lot since she promptly started cleaning up the mess with Liam's wet wipes. After about 30 wipes the night stand was back to its original state but the wipe attack did not stop there. In about five minutes the bag of wipes had depleted to almost nothing, everything in the hotel room had been cleaned off and she had used the squares to cover herself head to toe like a mummy. I was poweless to stop the madness so I just watched everything go to heck. By dinner time and 2 hours into baby sitting I was already exhausted and I still had 4 hours to go. Luckily the 6 year old was also going to the hockey game so surely it would be easier with just the 4 year old and Liam? Not a chance. I ordered dinner and a big glass of wine and after allowing her to feed Liam and flicking bits of carrot all over the carpet & myself (Liam was oozing large globules of carrot down his face at this point) decided to chuck both of them in the bath. Once the PJ's were on Liam had some milk and went to sleep and we settled down in bed to watch some TV. 10 minutes later Liam woke up and just as I picked him up he projectile vomited all over my face and down my body. The 4 year old took one look at me and said "holy smokes" while I desperately tried not to squish vomit into the carpet en route to the bathroom. Just as I stepped into the bathroom he decided to projectile vomit a second time (I should learn to carry my kid outwards instead of facing me all the time). That was it - there was so much barf the entire floorwas covered and I looked like I had been painted yellow. There was nothing I could do but strip butt naked and get into the shower. The 4 year old didn't think much of my streaking by her in my naked glory with my naked baby and continued to watch TV. So now Liam is wide awake and the 4 year old decides to catch a second wind and starts jumping up and down on the bed again. She did this for almost 2 hours with me desperately trying to rock Liam to sleep - unfortunately he was so entertained by the small pink streak pinging off the walls there was no way he was missing out on the fun. By 10pm I was ready to curl up fetal and start sucking my thumb. Fortunately the 4 year old decided she was tired and promptly started giving me instructions on which lamps to switch off, where to stand and how much noise to make before she fell asleep. 15 minutes later eveyone arrived back and by 11pm Liam finally went down as well. It took me all of 3.2 seconds to pass out once my head hit the pillow. Multiple kids? FORGET IT!!!!!!

Week 29

It's 9pm and we are in our usual night time routine - jolly jumping the crap out of our child so he'll conk out and go to sleep. Lately we cannot get him to bed until at least this time, although he is sleeping longer (thank God). At the current moment he has decided to exercise his lungs and is screaming so loud and at such a high pitch he sounds like he's going to go up in a puff of smoke. Not to mention our eardrums are splitting - we're talking nails down the chalkboard kind of stuff here. At the same time he's screaming he's literally pinging around in a blur of orange & white pj's. Welcome to the new night time routine - it's rather hellish. Not to mention I've changed my own pj's twice already after Liam blew chunks of peas & brown rice mixed with breast milk all over me. Yummy.

This weekend was another long one due to rememberance day so we had 4 days off together which was great. As we do each year we went to the memorial ceremony and while Ian & Liam wore their matching English hats, I wore my poppy in my hair (Liam developed a thing for poppies and kept trying to yank them off our clothes so I had to get creative). After paying our respects to the war veterans we went to blow up 18 helium balloons for Aunty Caylin's 10th "Diva" birthday party. Trying to stuff 18 balloons in our small Mazda was no easy task. Unfortunately there was no space in the front seat so I squeezed myself in the back seat with Liam while Ian stuffed the balloons around us. While trying to yell directions with my head wedged sideways and my arms madly grabbing strings and balloons from Liam's chubby little hands & face (he kept trying to yank the strings towards him & lick the balloons) Ian navigated to the party through mounds of latex. We made it in one piece and spent two hours with 10 highly energetic girls who were pampered with glitter, tattoos and nailpolish. Needless to say we were pooped afterwards and rather glad we have a boy.

Liam is cutting a tooth for real this time - started a few days ago with excessive drool production coupled with extreme fussiness and a lack of interest in his solid foods. I can see the white nodules and split in the gums. Welcome to hell. I've been sticking everything in the freezer (including his soothers) and stocked up on baby Orajel. Ian decided to give the Orajel a try and got rather drooly himself, although not as drooly as earlier on in the week when he had to get 4 fillings done and told me his mouth was "fwozen" and asked me to put on a "fire wog". Friday night Liam was rather hungry so I stuffed him full of peas & barley. Big mistake. Just as we were about to finish the bowl he started gagging and spat up green barf. I got up and as I walked to the sink to get a cloth he projectile vomited all over himself, the high chair and the floor. It was like watching a horror movie - the stuff shot out in a stream so big I had no idea that much barf could come out of something that small. There was so much pea puke I had to shove the high chair in the shower and then scrub the floor multiple times while trying not to hurl. Ian took the easier route and cleaned up Mr. Pukey. I'm never eating peas again.