3 days left

of my mat leave. I have been off for almost 13 months and I can honestly say, where the heck did the past 13 months go?!? Rob has the next two weeks off, so my back to work won't be as stressful for me, which is really nice. And nice for Lolo to have some daddy and baby time!

Party Pictures!

We had an awesome time last night celebrating Loic's birthday with friends and family. Here are a few shots from the evening!!

A new toy!

Sitting with Grandpa, waiting for the cake!

Dinosaur cake (amazing tasting and looking)

He liked the first bite, but wasn't into it after that, silly boy :)

My baby is One Year old today

Our little Lolo bean is one year old today!

Hard to imagine that a year ago he looked like this:

Happy 1st Birthday Loic!! We love you so much; you are the nicest, smartest, sweetest, cutest and busiest little boy!!

Oh Tyler

Our new house is two stories, and to get inside you have to walk up a flight of stairs and into the front door, where you walk down a short hallway and turn left into the kitchen. There is nowhere for Tyler to look out of, which is what he has to do to feel safe inside the house while we are gone. So, my clever black lab has taken it upon himself to use the front kitchen counter (where the sink is) to look out of because there is a window right there. How do I know he is doing this? Evidence! And the fact that when I look up as I drive away I can see his little grey muzzle...

Now, Rob and I have done a lot for this dog and have paid so much money to help him that even I don't want to add it up, so we have gone and bought a glass front door so that Tyler can look out while we are gone. We are going to put a dog bed in the hall and that is where he will stay while we are out.

He won't panic if he can see out and while I *hate* glass front doors, we have one so that Tyler is ok with life. The things we do for that dog!! :)

E

Living upstairs!

We have finally moved into our bedrooms upstairs! No more sleeping in the entryway for us!

We also rented out the suite, so the push is on to get it finished by August 1st. Rob and Dave are going to do some work down there a few evenings this week, and then next week we paint and should be good to go.

It will be nice to be finally done working on the house; Rob has been working like a mad man these past few weeks. Next up: Regan is coming back to paint the doors, moulding and base board that Rob has installed upstairs. We will need to paint the guest room and do those doors before October, when our German friends are coming to stay!

And next week is the big bash - Loic's first birthday! I ordered his cake today, dino themed :)

E

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 5 year wedding anniversary! 5 years ago today Rob and I got married on a very sunny beach in Tofino, surrounded by 42 of our closest friends and family. We have accomplished a heck of a lot in the past five years, including:

-Rob building a successful company from having two to 14 full time employees

-My graduation from UBC biology

-Buying our first home in MR

-Having Lolo! (The best thing that we have ever done, by far)

-Selling our first house

-Buying our second house in N.Van

-Adopting Toby and Arthur (adopting Arthur was maybe not the best thing that we ever did but even I can admit that I do love that slightly angry, annoying little dog a lot and he sure loves living with us)

Phew! That is a lot to do in 5 years, isn't it? And all along the way we do a hell of a lot of laughing ad we have obviously passed on our love of laughter to Lolo, the worlds happiest baby.

Now if only I can get Paris' (our new mantid, I changed her name from Kiwi to Paris because, well, she didn't exactly answer to it anyways and I think that all of my mantis are just going to be named Paris) crickets to stop singing!!!! She ate a lot of crickets yesterday so she must be full today...

Reno update: carpets are in! Doors are in! Now Rob needs to do baseboard and casings, and then the upstairs will be done, except for painting the trim. Yipee! Next up, finish the suite.

E

Reno Update

Things are trucking along here.

Our carpet is going to be installed tomorrow and will be done on Friday. In the mean time, Rob is going to be working on the suite installing the new washer and dryer we bought, installing the sink in the bathroom and new counter. I will need to paint the one bedroom and the bathroom down there. Then Rob will do baseboard and install a non see through bathroom door (whoever thought that a glass bathroom door was a good idea...).

Upstairs is ... a bit chaotic. We haven't been able to use any of the bedrooms or office yet, so we are pretty cramped in the living room/dining room. Lolo is sleeping in one of the suite's bedrooms and Rob and I are camped out in the entry way downstairs.

The fence is now done! We can send the dogs out to pee unassisted! Yipee!! It looks just lovely and gives us a sunny and very private patio now at the base of the deck stairs. I have a lovely little kids table and stools that I am going to set up down there tomorrow for Lolo :)

I primed the new wall in our bedroom (twice) and put up one coat of paint but ran out of paint. Tomorrow I will run out to get a can before the carpet guys get here so that I can finish off that wall without worrying about the new carpet. Then, my mom is going to take Lolo for me in the afternoon so that I can prime the entire guest bedroom...which I am NOT looking forward to. Oh well, it needs to be done. I am also going to weed wack at the barn in the am, something that I LOVE doing; especially with my brand spanking new gas weed eater named Wendi (she was named just for you Jody!!)

E

Almost one

Lolo will be one year old in two weeks - where has the past year gone?!

As I get ready to go back to work, I am starting to plan out his days so that he is in a routine for the new nanny (3 days a week at her house) and the one day a week that he will be with grandma. I get a one hour lunch break so will be taking my break with either the nanny and Lolo or my mom and Lolo. Loic is now only taking one nap a day; I had a tough time adjusting to this but he chose to do so and after fighting with him for a week to take two naps, I gave in!

I plan to nurse Lolo until he is two years old and found this great article which sums up why I want to do so:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html

I plan on nursing him before work, at lunch, after work, before bed and once during the night. He goes to bed at 7:30 and nurses at about 5:00 am and gets up for the day at 7:30. Not bad at all I say! He sleeps in his own bed and goes back to sleep in minutes after nursing at 5:00 in the morning.

I love nursing him and he loves to nurse, so why stop now? My mom can attest to the fact that he likes to nurse and that anyone will do in a pinch! When he is tired or hungry he quite comically tries to help himself...off of any woman around! Funny little boy. He is eating well and loves his "people food" but I love the health benefits that he gets from breastfeeding. I am getting ready to have people comment about me feeding him until he is two, but I say bring it on! My friends and family are 100% supportive of me and of Loic.

Party preparation to begin this week - starting with printing off his party invites!!

E

Wagons Ho!

Rob has always wanted to get Loic a Radi0 Flyer wagon and lo and behold, I found one on craigslist today! (Is there anything that you can't find there?! I think not, considering I bought my praying mantis off craigslist last week).

It was only used a few times and came with a brand new sun shade! We decided to take it out for a spin tonight. Oh my god, so friggin' cute.

Just checking under the hood here...

Adorable! Rob thinks his sunhat is ugly but I LOVE it. And Loic is keeping it on his head, progress people, progress!

Loic loved our ride tonight, and so did the dogs. We have a big field across the street from our house and we all had a great time. Baby is off to bed now, full of dinner (noodles, chicken, about a pound of cut up watermelon and yoghurt) and tuckered out from playing with his new toys today.

E

Big Changes! (and photos too!)

Well, we have moved out of 9th street and into Frederick. I have to say that I can really see why generations of a family choose to live together. We had a great time living with my folks for a month! There are so many benefits - we shared chores, Loic-sitting, dog walking and always had someone to talk to. I will miss the dinners, my mom cooked for us every single night (!). I did a lot of weeding and dog walking and it was so nice to be able to run errands while Lolo napped and was watched by grandma. I didn't really understand how large families could live together before now but I really, really get it now. Now, to convince my parents to move into our basement suite...kidding Dad!!

House update - our carpets come next week which will be awesome as we are not able to use any of the bedrooms or office right now (the garage is FULL of stuff). The painting is all done and it looks fantastic. Rob and I broke down and went to Walmart today to buy Loic some big kid toys; he had a lot of baby toys but needed some big kid stuff to play with. We are making him a play area out on the covered deck; that deck is going to get A LOT of use. The fence is going up on Monday and tomorrow the dishwasher will be installed. Things are trucking along up here!

Don't forget, we are having Lolo's first birthday party on July 25th at our new house. I have invites to give out, but save the date please friends and family!!

And now for the fun part - photos!

These guys were roomies for a month!

Aha - proof that Dad likes that darn chihuahua!!

(Arthur put on 2 pounds in the past month, gee, I wonder who did that?)

Future race car driver perhaps? He loved this little car! Photo taken during a play date with the nanny, he sure loved it there.

My little toddler. The next Tiger? Hopefully without the hookers and such things.

E

Paint, paint and more paint!

Our friend is a painter and had an opening in his jam-packed painting schedule. So, we are getting most of the top floor of the house painted this week! It is going to look lovely.

We picked out some grey-ish coloured carpet for the bedrooms and hallway (the living room and dining room are laminate) and some nice paint colours to match the carpet.

Our giant bedroom will be a light grey colour, same with the office and Loic's room will be a soft bluish-grey, a really light colour. Pretty.

Since we are going to renovate the main bathroom next year and the kitchen when we can afford it, we are just painting them in a neutral beige colour for now.

Tomorrow Jody and I are going to unpack the main kitchen! Exciting stuff. And this week Rob and Dave are going to build the one side of the fence that needs building. We met our new neighbours (after Toby barked at them...bad dog) and they seem really nice. Phew!

It is going to look nice!

Photos on the way, I promise!

E

Moving

We got the keys to the new house yesterday!

Rob has already ripped out the carpets, we have had cleaners go through and the painter starts today. Phew!

Loic has a cold, his first one, and has decided that having a cold means not napping. Ever. Which, as you can imagine, is not a lot of fun.

Will post house pics soon. In my infinite wisdom, I left my camera out of storage but packed up the memory card. The POD comes this afternoon though, so I will try to find it. If not, I will post some iphone photos.

The baby is currently chatting away in his crib, not napping, and has been up for about 6 hours now...

E