Anniversary, Snow, Mom, and Wedding

Today is my 3 year anniversary. And 5 months from yesterday I'll be getting married. I think that's crazy. I got an anniversary gift that we couldn't much afford, that I hinted at strongly. I love it because Eric, Chloe and Madi can pick out the charms and they'll always be special. I think it's one of the best things I own. 

We've been hit with a bunch of storms around here. I had a snow day on Tuesday. It started snowing Monday night and lasted halfway into Tuesday. By the time evening hit, it was really nice outside. We went out and shoveled out the car and pulled Chloe around in her sled. Then Chloe wanted to climb the 'mountain'. So we did. And somehow we started sliding down on our butts. It was amazing. Some of the best fun I've had in forever. We slide down in 5 different spots. Each place higher than the next. We barely wanted to go in but it was late and supper needed to be made. 

Mom flew away last March. On January 14th I flew out to meet her and we drove back home in her car the next day. It's about 2000kms. We didn't rush. We spent two nights in different places and got home around supper time on the 17th. We had Mom's dog so we couldn't shop or eat in a restaurant or anything but overall a great time. It's nice to have her living in the city and to have someone to stop in and visit after work when I'm bored. 

In other news, I picked out wedding shoes along the trip with Mom. The bridesmaids dresses arrived. Plans have come together for my bachelorette party (most of which I dont know of). Eric's tux is paid off. I won a weekend away at my staff party (that I couldn't attend because I was travelling with Mom) and I booked that for our honeymoon. The hotel room for our actual wedding weekend is almost completely paid off. I've won a few gift cards through work that's helped with that. Air Miles will be used to pay for some of the food. It's pretty amazing how much you can afford on a limited budget when you look at all the options. 

Can't think of anything else too important to talk about. 

I can't believe it's been a month since I've updated. 

I had a snow day with a couple of toddlers

Yesterday we woke up to a bit of a storm. Still, we got the girls ready and I tried to take them to daycare. We almost immediately went back home as soon as we hit the highway. It wasn't fit to drive. It cleared up around lunch, but by then I'd already let the daycare know the girls wouldn't be in so we just stayed home. 

So it was a snow day, and since I wasn't at work I missed out on doing I'm Wondering Wednesday. But I'm sure no one really cares about that. 

Boyfriend left for work shortly after lunch, and Chloe for a couple of hours, Madi for one hour, so the day wasn't too bad. 

We had some meals, some snacks. I baked some blueberry rice muffins for Madi. We built a fort, read a book and watched some tv. The girls played together really well for the majority of the day. Very few fights and violence. 

I hung out alone with Madi for awhile after her nap, before Chloe woke up from hers. She refused to nap when her father tried to put her to bed, but fell asleep on her couch shortly after he left for work. She barely moved when I carried her upstairs to her bed. 

Overall, I'm sad that I missed out on a day's pay, but it was a pretty decent day. Toddlers can be a lot of fun. 

My child got smarter

There are not enough words to describe how happy I am to have my baby home. After spending a week at her grandmother's, and the week before that in the hospital, she's like a whole new kid. 

Well, maybe not new, but new to me because it's been so long since she's been herself. 

I just couldn't stop kissing her and hugging her all weekend. But she didn't seem to mind too much - she likes kissing now, too, complete with the 'mmm' sound. 

I didn't mean for this post to be a Chloe update, but what better time to document all the new things she's been doing lately? This is Chloe at 16.5 months.

While sick, she was starting to get mean. Really mean. A lot of slapping people in the face, pinching, and scratching. As she got less sick, she got less cranky and violent, but my mom also unintentionally taught her to be nicer. Anytime she would be rough with Mom's cat, mother would tell her to 'Be nice to the kitty' and show her how to pet him. Now? When she hits me and I tell her no, she rubs my face and says 'nice', which sounds more like 'niiii', but it's still adorable. 

She started waving 'bye' a little while ago. Now? She says bye. 

She knows where her nose is every time. She's also learning eyes, ears, hair, mouth, tongue, belly and fingers, and she sometimes gets them all right without help. She also says nose, eyes and mouth.

She understands so much of what I ask her now. If I ask if she's hungry, she goes to her highchair. If I ask her for her baby, she brings me her doll. 

She says 'baba', and is she ever addicted to the thing. She gets it at night, and for her nap then it needs to be immediately hidden, or she'll just carry it around in her mouth sucking on air. Now that she's better, the first step is switching her to milk, and soon after that it's bye bye baba. 

After being sick, her appetite was basically non-existent, and she would barely eat a bite of solid food. Mom had her eating mashed food and baby cereal all over again. This weekend I managed to get her hooked on blueberries again, and eating pasta, cheese, bread, broccoli and cauliflower. Her newest addiction is regular old saltine crackers. As soon as grocery day comes, her diet will be expanded a lot, if I have any say in it. 

Moving on...

This weekend we had a storm, and got a TON of snow. I believe it was about 30-35cm. It snowed and blowed all day Saturday, and most of Sunday. 

Boyfriend tried to get out to pick up his daughter Saturday with no luck. He got stuck and gave up. Sunday, he finally managed to get out and get to work, after an hour of shoveling. 

This morning, we let Chloe sleep in while we dug my car out. That took another hour of shoveling, car pushing, and flying snow. We checked that Chloe was still asleep every now and then, and lucky for us I still had to wake her up when we were done.

Luckily, she's back to being a great sleeper.

But back to Sunday. For the first time ever, I bundled up my little bundle of joy, and we went outside to play and shovel a bit. I knew boyfriend's car wouldn't make it back in the driveway with the mountain of snow that the plows made at the end.

Chloe watched me shovel and laughed every time I threw the snow. She wasn't interested in playing at all though. She just stood an watched, until she finally got sick of it and we went inside.

Our shovel broke Sunday morning

The snowbank next to our driveway was almost up to my shoulders. 

So that was our weekend in a nutshell. 

To recap? I love having Chloe home. We got a lot of snow.