Mini vacation

     This past Friday, the final school bell rang and screamed out to all of us "Get out of here, it's summer time!".

     It's hard to believe that summer is already here, but our family didn't waste any time getting started on our summer adventures as we left the following day to enjoy a weekend away. Our original plan was to rent a cottage this summer, but since I now have to stay close to home in case this little baby decides to come early, my parents treated us all to an incredible weekend in Toronto. We stayed in a fancy hotel and ate delicious meals at lovely restaurants--all things that we don't usually spend money on...which made it that much more exciting and special for all of us. When life throws you lemons, you better make some lemonade--and that's exactly what we did. Instead of being completely disappointed about our original failed cottage plans, we made the best of our mini vacation and ended up having a fabulous time.

     The car ride there was even more successful than I expected (but anticipating lots of tears, I definitely came prepared). I brought some new toys and puzzles that Mya had never seen before, brought a cookie sheet and some magnets (which was a huge hit by the way for anyone else out there needing a good quick activity to keep a toddler occupied) and lots of snacks kept her happy and content for the entire ride there. Oliver was a champ...he just slept the whole time.

With few words and lots of pictures...here is our weekend away in a nutshell...

An afternoon at the Exhibition Place for a music festival, picnic, and bubble fun with Papa.

     I was videotaping my mom dancing with Mya to the live music on stage and, unknowingly, City TV was watching us as well. They ended up coming over to interview my mom and Mya about the festival and took video of them dancing as well. We didn't even get to see it when it aired...but we got a kick out of it all regardless.

     We broke out our new stroller that we bought for when the new baby comes and used it for the first time this past weekend. Apparently it's comfy cozy and encourages sleep. These two kiddos didn't last 5minutes in this thing before passing out from all of the excitement of the day.
p.s. Best double stroller ever, by the way.

Our beautiful view of the water from our hotel room...

     A family vacay just isn't complete without a few meltdowns along the way. I like to take pictures of the good times, but also the tough times--regardless, it's all memories that we'll one day look back on and re-live and smile and think to ourselves "remember how tough that was?...but we got through it". These mini-meltdowns, which are becoming quite routine, are really just reminders to us that she's almost two years old and screaming for independence and letting her opinion be known...but then there's a balance of "I need you more than ever now mom, hold me every second of the day please".  

Canada Day cousin love.

Date night, baby free. Thanks mom and dad!

We had lots of help carrying Mya around the city--family is not only great, but completely necessary. 

    

     A picnic at a water park turned into nap time for all of us tuckered out parents. This is what it looks like when your daughter wakes up at 4:30am at the hotel and doesn't want to go back to sleep. I was in the hotel lobby with her by 4:45am letting her run around while I trailed, exhausted, behind her trying to keep up. I wish that I had the kind of incredible energy and spunk that she has that early in the morning. She's a morning champ.

With a vacation that was created from a situation that was unfortunately completely out of our hands, (and at first very disappointing)...it turned out to be a weekend that we'll never forget. Sometimes the best of plans are better off being altered.

"Get to"

     




      Sometimes I need a shift in my thinking. I need a little pick-me-up and I need to purposely seek out ways to make different situations feel a little less overwhelming, difficult or tiring. I like to be inspired by others. I like to be inspired by what has worked for others and then actually put them into practise. Something that I read this week really got me thinking and completely inspired me...

       The idea was that you need to turn all of the difficult moments in life from "I have to", to
"I GET to". Sounds pretty simple. Sounds pretty cheesy. But I love it.

      When I read this, it immediately brought me back to our days of endless sleepless nights with Mya. Being woken up (at times), every 45minutes and on a good night every 2hrs for over a year completely killed us. I remember one night at 3am, after not having slept at all that night and endlessly rocking our crying baby in my arms, I literally had to remind myself that I wasn't dying. My entire body felt like it was falling apart, drained, exhausted, sore...possibly the worst feeling I have ever felt. But I got through all of those really rough nights by shifting my thinking and instead of feeling sorry for Terry and I, I felt grateful.

      Through the screaming and crying late at night, I reminded myself that there were people out there who would give anything in the world to take my place, rocking their own baby in their arms...screaming or not. There are people out there who would give anything to be kept up all night long if it meant that they could have a child of their own.  How lucky both Terry and I were to be in the position of a baby wanting us, needing us and crying for us. This thinking is literally what got both Terry and I through those incredibly tough months. (And for the record, we're now blessed with a 20month old who sleeps 10-12hrs a night straight...so for those out there who are feeling like it will never end...I promise you, it gets better).

      So when I read the whole idea of shifting your thinking from "I have to" to "I GET to", it really resonated with me, since I realized that I could use it through all of the other tough moments or times that life throws at us...just as I did when Mya was a wee baby.

For Terry and I...

We get to wake up every day ridiculously early when Mya cries for us in her crib.
We get to change her dirty diapers.
We get to take her to the park at 7am since she just can't ever wait to start her day.

For others, it might be that you get to wake up early, pack a lunch and get ready for work every day--can you imagine the amount of people who would literally do anything to have a job that they have to get up for each day?

This little switch in my thinking has completely made me take the frustrating, hard, tiring moments in my day and instead feel grateful for them.

I just love when I read something that clicks for me...and this one certainly did.

*******

And on a different, but somehow similar note, something else that I'm grateful for?...my dad. He finished painting the ugly little side table that I found the other week at a thrift store (for ONLY $6!!)...and it's ready to go into our new baby's room. He used the same process of sanding and painting as he did with the baby's new dresser. But this time the whole side table cost us about $12. Brilliant.

Here is the before pic...

During...

And the after...

Feeling grateful for everything that I get to do now...I'm sure it'll be another fabulous weekend.

Ode to Terry

   




      It's hard for me to start writing this post, as I don't know where to begin. When I start thinking about Terry and the kind of dad he is, it gets me choked up immediately. Then when I started uploading these photos of him and Mya together I could barely see my computer screen anymore through the blur of tears.

When Terry and I started dating and I began to get to know who he really was, I remember thinking to myself "he'd be a great dad one day". Knowing that I would stop at nothing to have a family and be a mom, it was definitely a priority for me to be with someone who had the qualities that I knew I wanted in the father of my future children. And he had them all--then some.

He amazes me every day with his natural ability to care for Mya, love her endlessly and cradle her for hours, like his arms were made just for her.

     He loves his little family of girls like no other. And with one more on the way, a boy, (which will undoubtedly even out the pink frills and girly dresses that consume his life right now), I have no doubt that he will blow me away again with his ability to love and care for yet another tiny life.

I love listening to him talk to Mya when he thinks that no one else is listening. I love the way that he sings to her even if he doesn't know the words. I love how he tucks her in at night, rubbing her back and giving her extra cuddles and kisses just before she shuts her eyes. I love how he knows how to do all of the little things and remembers all of the details of caring for her without me having to remind him. I love how he just knows what to do. I couldn't ask for a better dad for our kids and I could go on for hours about how loving, caring, gentle, kind and amazing he is towards our little Mya.

So for Father's Day this year, he definitely deserved to be celebrated...and celebrate we did.

And it was extra exciting this time knowing that he was a daddy already..and a daddy-to-be to our new little bundle-to-be.

We had a wonderful Father's Day afternoon of searching for ants on the sidewalk...

going for a family walk...

  
 

and enjoying a little play time with everyone outside...

along with a little impromptu dancing in the kitchen with Nana...

a delicious dinner with the family...

and of course some gifts for all of the wonderful dads in our family. These three dads are the best of the best. Hands down.

Happy Father's Day to my incredible dad, Mya's dad, Oliver's dad...and all of the other great dads out there!