2

today, my baby boy is 2 months old...

it already feels like he is growing up way too fast. when i woke him up yesterday morning i would have sworn to you that overnight he outgrew his squishy newborn face, and replaced it with a full blown plump, round baby face.

he is just such a happy, content baby, and we couldn't have been given a more perfect little person to call our own.

i am going to indulge myself and have a bragging mom moment about the fact that he is already sleeping through the night. yup, that's right. awesome right? he always was a good sleeper, and i had hoped that would result in him sleeping well once he got a bit older. i guess some hopes and dreams do come true.

by far my favorite thing that he has been doing lately is copying me, and the noises that i make at him. he especially loves the "oooooooo"'s. it is seriously the cutest thing ever. i could just sit for hours and chat away with him in one syllable sentences, but his attention span doesn't really allow for that.

a few more of my favorite things about him are...

his eyes are lightening up into the prettiest shade of blue. i never thought that a child of mine would have such blue eyes, and i couldn't be happier that i have been proved wrong.

there is no shortage of smiles with this one, and he always has a nice big one waiting for me when i wake him up in the morning.

the kid loves to have his butt changed. it seems like almost anything can be solved with a fresh, crisp diaper, even if the other one was still only a minute used and completely dry.

bath time. loves it. especially getting his head washed under the facet all wrapped up nice and snug in his towel.

***

these past two month have possibly been the hardest, but most rewarding of anything i have ever done in my life, and i look forward to the many, many more ahead of us.

"it's ok"

 let's be honest here. this whole becoming mom stuff is hard. physically, mentally, emotionally (oh hormones) and all different kinds of other words that end in "ally".

i do feel like i am starting to come out of that newness phase, where i had no idea what the heck i was doing, and at times all i really needed was someone to sit beside me while a just cried. and boy, did i ever cry.

it was in the depths of what i refer to as my "episode" that i stumbled upon words that felt like they were written for me at the exact moment. they touched me, and allowed me to take a deep breath and know that it isn't just me. if anything i have entered this whole other realm full of other women just living or at times surviving one day to the next, not knowing exactly what we are doing, but doing it none the less.

her words, thoughts and feelings have encouraged me, and i would like to pass them on with the hope that maybe they will encourage another at a time when they might need it most as well.

"in those moments where you are beat by 3:30 in the day but the day is hours away from over and you aren’t sure you’ll make it to dinner time…. in those moments where you might feel alone or anxious or overwhelmed with this big job of motherhood, where you sometimes don’t have any idea what you are doing yet you are trying your best…in those moments where others, whether some place online behind a screen of anonymity or even straight to your face at a grocery store tell you you aren’t doing it well enough and criticize your parenting choices without thinking twice about what they are typing or saying as they turn every parenting issue into a battle…  just know that you are doing a wonderful job. you are doing your best. and your best is good enough. if your kids go to bed after 9:30 instead of 7, it’s ok. if you let your baby crawl around on his hands and knees of a museum floor, that’s ok too. if your baby is still breastfeeding past two or was formula fed since birth, co-sleeping with you or sleeping in a crib, wearing cloth or disposable diapers….at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks about it.

what matters is that after you researched all your options, you have decided what is best for you and your family, and that you are doing your best. you love your little family (most days!) and they love you back (…. most days!). what matters is that you are making the most out of your life together and enjoying it as best you can.

it’s ok to cry. it’s ok to have bad days, too. and it’s ok if the way you’re choosing to do it isn’t the way another would.  i’d like to think i have pretty thick skin (putting anything out here on this thing called the internet has sure toughened it a bit). but  thick skin or not, we are all human. and there are days where it is difficult to put on a tough face and carry on.  but not all of us are judgy and critical. so don’t let ‘those people’ get you down. no one has this thing figured out perfectly. and we are all in this together."

by the lovely naomi davis at: love taza 

and now for an excessive amount of photos of my child

but when you are this cute, it is kind of necessary

the end, and then the beginning

i almost never thought that it would come. the end of pregnancy. it was starting to seem like being big and heavy was just the way life was going to be from now on 

36 weeks

37 weeks

39 weeks 

but at last the end did come, and with it brought this precious little soul into the world

and now life continues on

but a completely new life it will be

the w in our xyz...

Willem Eoghan Ellison

Born March 4, 2013

4:24 am

6lb 11 oz

20"

we are just so in love with this little guy, he has completely changed our world for the better. 

wish us luck in these early days!

11 things

a few weeks ago when all those chains were going around on blogs, instagram and i  even saw a few on fbook, i was tagged by jessica low (i still refer to her as smith though...) to share a few facts about myself.

honestly, at first i was just going ignore it, but then after reading so many interesting little facts about my friends i decided i would let people into my world and share a few things about myself.

welllllll that was about 3ish weeks ago, and i am only just getting around to finishing the list that i started. mostly because it has been a lot harder then i expected to think of 11 things about myself, actually 11 interesting things about myself. 

and so, here you go...

1. my family moved a lot growing up, like a lot, a lot. if we made it longer then 2 years in one place that was an incredible achievement, and as a result we now refer to our past homes by what colour they were. there are a couple that are the same colour so we then name the neighbourhood they were in.

2. around the age of 8 (i only remember because of what house i lived in) i used to pick up rocks and carry them in my backpack because i was scared on really windy days that i would blow away. oh and incase you were wondering, it was the pink house.

3. my favorite teddy bear was given to me by my aunt,  he came from canadian tire, his name is beary, and i'm not sure why i decided it was a he. when we were living in the pink house my brother broke his nose off, i kept the nose, and it survived through many moves, but never got around to putting it back on. dennis glued it back on for me about a year ago, and he just looks weird now. i have known my beary longer without a nose than with one.

4. i love to eat sauerkraut, with cut up hot dogs and potatoes. dennis thinks it's grose, actually many people do, but i love it.

5. i can not be taught how to knit. i have had so many people try and teach me, i can do it for about a day or so, but i forget immediately. it just doesn't stick with me.

6. i am obsessed with scarves. much to my mothers chagrin i am not big on wearing jewellery, but man i  can rock a scarf. (my birthday is coming you know... )

7. the hair that frames my face naturally grows in blonde highlights, i don't dye it. people ask me if i do, and when i tell them no, and that it just grows that way, i am normally met with a sideways look, because isn't that what everyone wants people to believe? that their hair is naturally the colours that they dye them? but in my case, it is actually true.

8. i am missing a tooth, right in the front of my mouth. i lost my baby tooth in a go-karting mishap, something about confusing the brakes with the gas, i dunno, it all happened very fast. anyway, i lost the baby tooth, but there just wasn't an adult tooth to grow in it's place. so as time passes on, teeth shift, the gap gets filled in, then some years later and a lot of dental work i have a fairly normal looking set of teeth when i smile.

9. right now, we are watching survivor. i love survivor, i feel like i live each year from season to season.

10. i also looooooove donuts. it really is one of my greatest weaknesses, and the frustrating thing is dennis knows just how weak i am. sometimes he gets this little twinkle in his eye, looks at me says "chelly... do you want a donut...?". i buckle right then and there. it's awful, until i get that donut and then everything is hunky dory again.

11. i am trying to become a bit more domestic, trying being the key word here. and to help me start out on this journey is my good friend the crock pot.

so there you have it

and i bet the next time we see each other you are going to be checking out my teeth to see what one is missing. don't worry, everyone does it.