Feliz Navidad...Merry Christmas

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

May you have a joyful time with friends and family.

Feliz Navidad

Bloor West Mama and Family

Let The Fun Begin

I AM ON VACATION!!!!

As you can imagine I am very excited to be on vacation for the next 3 weeks. The last time I had this much time off during Christmas was when I was in grade school ( I don't count my mat leave because I had a new baby to take care off).

So as you can imagine I am very excited and look forward to doing some work for the business (Baby Thoughts) and to get caught up with some house work (the never ending laundry and dishes)

I also have doctor and dentist appointments lined up for both Isa and I and I hope to get together with some friends for lunch.

I also hope to be able to get together with my moms group and the kids over the break, I was really worried that we would loose contact but we have been making a real effort to get together and now we see each other once a month. Being in this group has been my lifeline...I loved getting together with other women and just having a fun chat over decaf coffee (at the beginning and the real stuff later on). I loved that Isa had little friends to learn from and interact with. I just plain loved having the support and adult conversation.

Just this week we received news that the mother of one of the moms in the group passed away really unexpectedly. I really feel for my friend and her family...I really don't know how to best help her because I have never been through such a terrible loss. I am really afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing and hurting her. I know that I am probably being really dramatic but that is how I feel. I don't always know how to act or what to say to someone who is going through a lot of pain. Does this make me seem uncaring? I'm really not...I care a great deal about her and just hope to be able to communicate this.

Sorry for just rambling on and on about this but it has been on my mind.

So have you gone to check out her Bad Mother Auction? If you have not the bidding will close tomorrow so go and check it out and see if you would like to win something.

I am off to tackle the never ending laundry and messy kitchen...wish me luck.

ciao

EXTRA EXTRA

This post is to advertise an auction that will be starting tomorrow Wednesday December 13, 2006. It is for Her Bad Mother's nephew Tanner who suffers from a form of Muscular Dystrophy.

Very good friends of hers have put together an aution with the proceeds being donated to MD Canada in Tanner's name.

So check it out at Her Bad Auction...place a bid and see if you get lucky!!

Cheers everyone.

To Drink or not to drink

I don't know if I should be sharing this little bit about the Husband and I but what the hell...you people don't know us.

The thing is that we enjoy a nice beer or glass of wine almost every night. After Isa is in bed we get a beer/ wine and sit down to dinner or our favaourite tv show. I don't know what that makes us but I do know that it is something that we have grown up with. In our culture it is very common to have wine with dinner.

When I was pregnant I gave up alcohol right from the beginning and let me tell you it was painful. But I got over it, and once Isa was born I would sneek in a sip of wine right after I would feed her.

I have a friend who is about 4 or 5 months pregnant and she has told me that she will in fact have a sip of alcohol once she is 7 months along. I don't know if I could do this, I would be too paranoid that I would hurt the baby. I know that I would start to imagine the worst things and just work myself into an early labour. So no booze for me while pregnant.

For this reason I savour the drinks that I have now because there will come a time when I will not be able to have any for too long of a time.

So on a related topic...it was the Husband's work X-mass party last weekend and I know and are friends with many of his colleges. I was really looking forward to it because I had not seen some of them since the summer and I have a great time with them. We were lucky to get a good friend of mine to take care of Isa (well Isa was in bed by 7pm...so all she had to do was make sure that she stayed in bed).

All I am going to say is OPEN BAR. As you can well imagine I took this a little too far (not that far) but just a smitch too far and wound up with a nice hang over the next morning. Thankfully I did not embarrass the Husband...that would not have been good. And bless her heart Isa understood and was kind enough to wake up at 7 am take her bottle, a change of diapers and go back to sleep 'till 9 am.

It has been such a long time since I have been hung over that I had forgotten how much I hate it and how it is so not worth it... Oh well at least I had a blast.

Let the whining begin

Isa has discoved that if she whines she gets our attention and if she does it long and loud enough she may even get something fun out of it.

So the Husband and I have started to really watch how we react to her because we really don't want to get ropped into this tactic.

What we have started to do is look at her while she is making this annoying sound and see what she wants. Than once we have figured out what it is we say to her " would you like your water?" or " would you like to be picked up?" things like that, though I do try to ask in Spanish as I am trying to only speak to her in Spanish.

Needless to say it is a chanlenge for me because, to me my first language is English...but I must make the effort.

I think that I have shared with people that I would really really love it if my daughter knew Spanish...both my husband and I are Spanish and many of our family members only speak Spanish. So for this reason and others it is very important for Isa to learn the language.

So I am making a very concious effort to provide her with Spanish books, DVD's and friends who also hear Spanish at home so that she will grow up listening to it.

I have no idea how things will turn out but I do know that if I try and work hard at making Spanish an important language in our home she will know a good amount....I hope.

So back to the whining...I have to say that I am not prepared for this next stage in our lives. I am a non-confrontational person. This means that I tend to just give into people's wants and needs. So, this means that my first reaction to when Isa whines is to just give her what she wants...not a good idea. So my life has changed and I am trying to stand firm and teach her the right way to ask for things.

I just hope that I don't slip too much and get in trouble. Wish me luck people 'cause I am gona need it.