Griswold Family Vacation

Long time no blog? Sorry about that. We've been a little busy and took some time away for a little family holiday. To be honest on a student budget we couldn't go anywhere fancy or extravagant, but we got away and took some time to just be the four of us, which was the point. I must say the boys could have cared less about where we went they had a blast regardless and thought they were in the lap of luxury in a deluxe suit in the most exotic of locals. But in all reality we were only five hours away from home visiting the heart of the badlands, Drumheller Alberta.

Joseph has always had a love for dinosaurs and has recently learnt more about them during the dinosaur unit at school. Which prodded us to the decision to go to Drumheller and visit the Royal Tyrell Museum. It was nothing short of spectacular with all of the superb artifacts and dinosaur information. Joseph was in heaven and I used more big words in our two hour tour of the museum than I have in my whole life. The kicker was my five year old understood all of them... brachiosauras, tyranosaurs rex, albertasouras, teranadon, allosauras, theropods, mastodon... my head was filled with information of a time that is so hard to actually believe really existed. Joseph was entranced by it all and was thrilled to be there.

After our tour of the museum we spent some time relaxing at the hotel's pool & waterslide. The boys had an absolute blast going down the waterslide... all three of them. We had some good laughs and wonderful time.

In the evenings we spent some time snuggled together on the hotel room beds eating pizza and watching some tv.

We were all sad to leave our little haven in the badlands and head home back to the real world. Life turned back to reality. But our two nights away from home were everything a family vacation should be, time together.

However, for me life back in reality was a sad one since I am in that ever so tired phase of pregnancy. I got home yearning for a warm soak in the tub and in my hormonal state was close to tears when all I wanted was to go back to the hotel because their bathroom had been cleaned sometime in the last month.... ahhh it really was back to the real world. Vim up to elbows and all.

I look forward to our next little get-away.

You know the feeling

You know how when you do something once accidentally and it creates a tremendous amount of pain and suffering,? So, when you just about do the same thing again you get that flutter in your heart and it starts to race, your brain goes numb, your sweat glands go into overdrive and you can't catch your breath? You know the feeling? I get it every time I close the sliding door on the van... ok well it is starting to subside if I try really hard to not think about it or the kids are at least 2 yards away from the door.

But last week I had a huge recurrence of "that feeling". A number of weeks ago Big Daddy and I found out that we are once again expecting. As elated as we were to see the two pink lines come up on the test (ok, five tests) it still took a lot of admittance to accept the fact that we were once again with child. Why is it that fear can so easily over-ride any feelings of enthusiasm. As the news sunk in we began to believe and fall in love with our fetus. It was a bond that we were both fearful to make. Due to the fact at one time in our lives we had made a bond with a fetus and had that bond lost. Loosing a baby is one of the hardest things I have ever had to endure in my life. Finding out from an obscure radiologist wasn't that swell either.

In lieu of our history my Dr recommended we have an early ultrasound for maternal peace of mind. I guess however, that what you don't think about before heading into that ultrasound room is "that feeling". All of these emotions arose and I was fearful that once again the doppler would be applied and my insides would show up on the screen and I would once again have an obscure individual in my life inform me that we would in fact not be having the baby we had already fallen head over heals for.

As I laid down on the paper covered table my heart raced, every pore on my body beaded up with sweat, and my mind was filled with great fear that I would have to endure a great heartache... However, my soul was filled with hope and faith that there would be a beautiful little baby squirming around with a heart in perfect beat.

Having gel squished around and the doppler moved in all directions the ultrasound technician started to orientate me on what she was seeing as far as internal organs. It was all I could do not to scream "get on with it woman" and milliseconds later she zooms in on the pregnancy and says so hear is your baby and hear is it's heartbeat... 160, perfect.

At that specific moment I think I heard angles singing. Within seconds I let myself fall completely in love and grasped on to great faith that yes, , in fact all will be well.

Moments later a radiologist came in and told me what beautiful pictures he saw and that everything looked great.... Perfect. It made my heart race for a whole new reason. Our family is expanding and we once again get to welcome a perfect little baby into our lives.

Maternal peace of mind. I think that ultrasounds can give maternal peace of mind, but only for awhile. Because knowing that the baby inside of me is perfect, some ultrasound won't help maternal peace of mind the first day I leave that baby at Kindergarten or he or she misses curfew for the first time. But for the mean time, I will take all the peace of mind I can get. Even if I am more forgetful than ever.

Welcome to our family baby!!!

Potty Parables

I know, I know I say it all the time. I cannot get over how different these two boys are. From ultra sound, through birth to around age one they looked so similar at particular stages/ages. But looks don't mean a thing. They each surprise me with their wisdom, whit, and smarts in their own ways. Joseph is very book smart, he loves letters, numbers, reading, colours, and matching.

Trent on the other hand is all about singing, dancing and throwing caution to the wind... or throwing whatever is in his hand. Trent could care less if he gets the blue ball in the blue hole of the ball basher, however it drives Joseph nuts to have the wrong coloured ball in a certain slot.

When it came to potty training, Big Daddy and I struggled with it in a big way with Joseph, he wasn't interested and could care less about telling us when he needed to go, wouldn't pull up or take down his own pants. We are forever reminding him to go. So when it came time to even think about training with Trent we both shyed away from the thought of it. But finally we sucked it up and spent some time on the bathroom floor entertaining Trent while he learned to use the potty. Low and behold he caught on to toilet learning like white on rice. In less than a week we are full on undies all day long and diapers are only a thing of the night. Trent is open and honest and tells us more than need be when he needs to do his thing and helps out with removing his clothing.

I am shocked at how smoothly this has gone... but happily surprised. It has been so easy *knock on wood* I am sure we will have accidents and occasions where things aren't so easy. But for the time being I will enjoy his new found freedom.

If there is one thing I have learned throughout child rearing that the best plan of attack is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Murphy's Law seems to be the key to my life, if I expect something to go well, it never does. So, is it pessimistic of me to prepare for the worst and always be pleasantly surprised with the best? Or is that considered reverse psychology since I am doing it on purpose?
Whatever it may be... You learn quickly in the life of motherhood that a good rule of thumb is to take along more diapers that you will ever possibly need because the time you only take along a few it won't be enough.