Ella's First Ski!

Winter has not exactly cooperated with us on our plans to teach Ella to ski this year at our local bump with a rope tow. You see, they don't have any snow making equipment. Imagine that!

We finally decided to head over to Gunstock which is an hour and change, but has a fabulous little conveyor belt the kids can ride up the bunny slope. Under 5 is free, adults are $10. Check out the world's cutest skier here! (And Ella's pretty adorable too, hehe ;) Ella has been stoked to ski ever since Grandma, Auntie Jen&Uncle Greg and Mommy&Daddy combined provided her with a whole used ski outfit for Christmas (We're talking skis, bindings, boots, helmet and goggles.) Every time it snowed she would ask, "Is this enough snow to ski on mom!?" But don't let that picture up there fool you. If only we had video you would hear the crying and screaming all the way UP & DOWN the hill. Did she dislike this fabulous little conveyor belt they call the "Wonder Carpet"? No. Did she dislike skiing? No. What was her problem then? "I'M AFRAID I'M GOING TO WIND AWAY!!!" "MOMMY, ARE WE GOING TO WIND AWAY!?" "MOMMY ARE MY SUNGLASSES GOING TO WIND AWAY!?" "I'M ALL DONE!!! I WANT TO GO BACK TO THE CAR. I'M AFRAID I'M GOING TO WIND AWAY!!!" The wind. That was her problem.Ever since opening day of ice fishing, when she saw the wind blow a folding camp chair across a very slick surfaced lake, she has been afraid of the wind. It doesn't matter if we are traveling 10 feet from the house to the car. If it's a slight breeze or a 25mph gust, the child starts asking if she's going to "wind away"...if mommy, daddy, bear, shovel, Hunter...whatever...is going to "wind away". It does not matter how many times we explain to her that she's to heavy to blow away. And it didn't matter how many other pint sized skiiers I pointed out that were NOT blowing away...it still terrifies her. It's just something she'll have to work through and outgrow, like her original distain for swimming.
Please notice she never takes her hands off her hat (which is velcroed beneath her chin) or her sunglasses. Why? You guessed it. Because she's afraid they're going to "wind away". I took those bad boys right off of her after a bit. T'was not the fairytale first mother daughter ski session I had in mind, but so goes life. We made the best of it and though it was hard at times, I kept my cool and kept a very upbeat, positive attitude the whole time. Whilst others on the mountain may have thought we were torturing the young lass, we know our daughter and had a good laugh. With heavy comforting, loads of positive words and high fives, and large doses of promising hot chocolate with marshmallows we got her to go down the bunny slope three times. Two were working on learning skiing and the last was a "fun run". And above, you'll see a clearly exhaustest Ella being skated into the lodge by mom. Wowzers! I forgot how tiring teaching toddlers to ski is. I remember being wiped out after a day of it when I taught skiing as a teenager. But three runs (with a screaming bundle of joy) for this 30 year old, preggo mama sick with a headcold was quite enough thankyouverymuch!

From the short experience I had with her, she's actually a good little skier for just turning 3 years old. We learned how to put our skis on and take them off. How to walk around in them a bit. We started learning our "duck walk" for getting up slopes. And we practiced making our piece of pizza.

We were headed home around 12:30pm and not two minutes after the van took off, the little one was OUT COLD. She done wore herself out!

Bathroom Redo

So we're finally redoing the upstairs bath. It is much needed, but pretty far down on our immense "to-do" list for this home.

There's still a lot to do. Like...
~Install the tile (that we got from a friend for FREE!)
~Patch the drywall where Jason took out the recessed lighting (a.k.a. holes of icy coldness)
~Trim (details like that have not proven to be our strong point.)
~And maybe build in a linnen closet. (Ya know, nothing major.)

But paint is on the trim, door and walls, new harware is up and the shower curtain that inspired it all is hanging proudly! BEHOLD!

Belly

Let the gaining begin! I feel wonderful these days (except for a massive headcold) and have even started drinking coffee again. I'm loving hazelnut coconut. Not sure if that's a weird preggo thing but man it tastes delish right now!

You can be expecting one of these each month. I love baby bellies and I love documenting mine! It will be neat to see how it compares to last time around. Already, I think I'm a little ahead of where I was with Ella at 4 months...but I think I had a head start too :)

16 Weeks! The first go 'round I started belly pics at 12 weeks. Because I was so thing to start with that you could actually see a little bump. I could have posted a 12 week pic this go 'round and it would have looked much the same as the first one...but that's not because of baby...that's because I started out that way. So it would have been deceptive to say it was baby bump ;)

Got to hear that fabulous heartbeat again yesterday and it's just perfect. I continue to LOVE the new practice I switched to and you better believe I'm excited that my next appointment includes the 20 week ultrasound!!! I'm dying having not seen this babe yet! I'm not a good waiter. So YES, you better believe we're finding out what gender this little love is!

When The Snow Came...

wanting, wishing, waiting

now softly falling flakes

green needles capped with white

watching in wonder

warm in our nest

"Mamma can we play?"

Yes.

trapsing, tromping, twirling

sledding, sliding, swirling

angles flapping flying

face turned toward the heavens

eyes clamped against the chill

catch some on your tongue

howling wind, rosie cheeks

"Just one more minute,

mama please!"

frozen fingers,coaxed inside

sweet promises

of tasty treats

drying clothes, thawing skin

cocoa warming

from within

sitting, snuggling, cozied up

resting nesting

tasting heaven When the snow came.

Photography

I'm going to take a photography class!

I'm so excited to cultivate something that is just my own!

I've not taken a class since highschool and college, and that was with my 35mm SLR, which I totally knew how to use.

This will be with my DSLR, which I've not a clue about, even though I've had it for a few years and have watched/read every online tutorial there is. And yes, I read the manual...it doesn't help.

No the class is nothing fancy. We can't afford fancy. We can't afford college courses, even at the local community college. It's our local Adult Ed. I have no idea if the teacher's any good. It's only three weeks and it's only $15! But I'm over the moon about it.

It's three hours a night for three weeks that I am out of the house, by myself (ya know except for the others in the class) trying to cultivate something I am (er...used to be and would like to be again) passionate about. I won't have on the mom hat, or the wife hat, or the volunteer hat....just the me hat, doing something for me. Yay!

If the teacher can help me figure out how to set my shutter speed and aperture so I can do cool things again and take pictures without flashes... and perhaps me how to get rid of the weird green and blue tones that my pictures keep exhibiting... it'll totally be worth my 15 bucks. And if it serves to inspire some new creativity...FABulous! Anything else is just icing on the cake!

PS: Have I mentioned lately that I love my woodstove again. I do.

Human Again

~I'm 14 weeks and some jeans are starting to get hard to button.
~I feel like that's happening sooner this time.
~It's still nothing anyone would notice, I just look thicker in the middle. joy. Double joy when I don a bathing suit for Ella's swim class. It's that super fun, don't look pregnant, just look chunky stage ;) I'll take it.
~I really like when I start showing. Can't wait!
~Ella and I are back on the "preschool" train and our letter banners are once again growing (it's amazing what a month or so has done to her handwriting abilities! She's rocking it!)

~I'm cooking dinners, and actually eating them now too!
~I'm cleaning (like deep stove scrubbing, dusting, counter cleaning, can't believe how bad things get when they're not done for a few months, cleaning).
~I'm organizing. (Like whole storage room, and utility room, game drawers, craft drawers, junk drawers, closets, purging mania, got the nesting bug early organizing!)
~I can now go to the gorcery store! (I still have to take a few cleansing breaths now and then, but I'm not fighting the urge to hurl the whole time so that's a bonus)
~I've worked out 4 times in the last week and plan another tonight!
~I had coffee yesterday! WHOAH! I don't think it'll be a regular thing yet and I still don't like the smell permiating my vacinity, but that was huge!
I still feel lightyears behind and like I'll be playing catch up for a while. I'll still take it easy when my body tells me to, but as long as it's giving me the green light, I'll be full steam ahead!

The Crunchier, The Better!

I've had it. As previously mentioned...I don't like the OB/GYN practice I'm attending. So I decided to do something about it. And now I'm SUPER....like SUPER DUPER excited to give birth!

(Don't get me wrong, giving birth the last time was a great experience, but the hospital EMMC, sucked. There's just no other words. It's birthing unit sucks. Like old, dull, institutional, small, no full baths in the labor rooms so one could stand in the shower...of course no birthing tubs, no birthing stools, nothin'. And semi private recovery rooms where you get AWEFUL roommates. I mean seriously? Sucks!)

I'm lucky I have options this time. My choices are Dover and York. I picked Dover because it's closer and a great doctor recommended them. The hospital really does seem great, but I'm not pleased with the huge practice.

So when a friend told me the midwives at York were "just a bit too crunchy" for her, I knew it sounded like my kind of place! When it comes to childbirth my motto is, the crunchier the better! Just to cover all my bases I toured the birth center and did a meet and greet with the midwives. SIGN ME UP! I left with a skip in my step and promptly called Garrison Women's Health and told their answering machine (because I never get a human!) that I was cancelling my next appointment and would no longer be attending the practice. I've not been so happy in a LONG time!

Here are some differences I'd like to Highlight:
Garrison Women's Health: Super huge, deliver 60 babies a month, wait a long time, see the providor, a different one every time, for 10 minutes who will ask you the same questions the previous one did, ask you to fill out forms you already filled out, and go over the same information the last one went over with you. And NEVER get a human on the phone and rarely get your message returned.
York midwives: Small, deliver 12-17 babies a month, always get a human on the phone, short waits, LONG and personal visit with midwife.
Garrison Women's Health: Sure you can see only midwives, we'll put it on your paper. Except out of four appointments you'll only see a midwive once and you'll have to cause a slight scene the last time just be scheduled with a midwife.
York midwives: Yup, you can see only midwives. You never ahve to see a doctor at all if you don't want to.
Garrison Women's Health: sure you can be guaranteed a midwife at your deliver... unless they're in another birth and then you'll get the on call doctor. Or if the doctor is primary call, you'll get him/her for a while, then the midwife later. Will the providor be there for most of your labor? Long story short, probably not.
York midwives: Yes you can be guaranteed a midwife. Yes you'll get her for the majority of the labor. The only exceptions would be if she had two people in labor which rarely happens, then her time with you would be divided (understandable).
Wentworth Douglass Hospital: If you're in labor, come up to this window, we'll beep you in. If its after 9pm or before 5am, go to this phone downstairs and call and someone will let you in.
York Hospital: Sweet little nurse says, "When you're in labor, just come on through that door and straight to our office and say, "I'm having a baby".
WDH: Sure you'll be in one (nice but rather small) birthing room (which likely will not have windows, and if it does, they'll overlook the parking lot) the whole time. Unless of course we deem you're not far enough along, then we'll put you in a holding room, eventually we'll move you to a birthing room and then if we're busy we'll move you to another recovery room.
York Hospital: We'll walk you down our mural painted hallways and put you in one of our (GINORMOUS) birthing rooms, (which all have huge windows and great natural light, overlooking treetops and maybe even a glimpse of the ocean) and there you'll stay.

So my choice is clear. And I'm all switched over and super psyched.