Homeward Bound

In less then 12 hours we will be on my island. Shortly thereafter we will be home. I have not finished packing yet. Got to hurry.

Terri

Flying

Lizzy might just be the best excerise program I've ever signed up for. She likes it so much when I use her as my excercise weight that for once in my life I actually enjoy working out. Her giggles are contageuos when I am lying on my back and lifting her up with my legs. She is also all smiles when I cradel her in my arms and fly her back and forth in big swooping motions. Even just packing her around the house is getting to be a workout. We are going to weigh her tonight, but I think she is already around 18 pounds! I need to take more pictures so you can see what I am talking about. I'll get right on that.

Terri

Creativity

I am trying to re-discouver my creative side. I made a sketch of Lizzy about a week ago to this purpose. I have already shown it here, but here it is again. I have also started writing another story. I am well known for starting stories but never finishing them. One day I will actually work the whole way through one of them. I find that I now type faster then I write, so perhaps I will tell my story over the computer. The blog format does not work very well for continued story telling since you always see the most recent entry first. I am sure that anyone who is computer savy could set it up the other way around, but that is not a suitable description of me. I do feel the creative juices flowing right now. No, wait, that is just saliva. I think I will go get a piece of sour berry bubble gum.

Terri

Vacationing

Patrick finished his last day of work before his parental leave today. He is taking eight weeks off. He deserves the break and he only gets to be Lizzy's daddy once. Still it is hard for me to encourage him to take the time off since it cuts directly into my work leave. In the three plus years we have lived in Edmonton his longest vacation has been two weeks. If work was a joy for him it wouldn't be so significant, but his job is a constant trial. This is going to be a good time for us.

I was thinking about vacations last night. I have concluded that the vacations we get while in school and collage actually work against us. When we finish our educations we emerge with the expectation that we are entitled to a solid eight weeks off a year plus the occasional one or two week breaks. It we could expect that in the real world it wouldn't be so bad, but we can't. The first time I was stuck working through the holidays I was shocked to put it mildly. In my job the days of the week have much less meaning. Weekends are not times to sit back and chill out. They are actually the times when we have to pick up the pace. Summer vacation now means that I will be hot and sweaty while I work. Not, as I often wish, that I can just hang out.

To have endured three straight years with just short little vacations at his first career job is very grown up of Patrick. I guess that with being a daddy now it is a good thing that he is grown up and responsible. I guess I am just trying to say that I am proud of Patrick.

Terri

Working Again

I don't know what was going on with my last post from this computer, but the little button tat lets me add pictures is back up again. That said, here are some pictures.

Terri

Ok, I am frustrated. I am on patrick's computer and all of the usual post features are showing up. I think I need to get him to update internet explorer on my computer so that I can post properly from there again. I could just use this computer, but Patrick won't install the camera's software on it so there would be no pictures anyway. By the way, HP cameras come with about 8 different programs that automaticly start up every time you turn the computer on. On the 7 year old computer that I use that means slow going. I have to shut them all down before I do anything complicated or Mr. Hourglass and me get to be buddies.
I did a major grocery shop today and even though I spent $300, I didn't get everything off my list! That $300 was after the 15% discount too. I had thought that I would buy less since we are leaving in a week, but feeding the house sitters and diapering Lizzy brought it right back to where it usually is. At least I only buy this much once a month. I should have got about 200 pictures printed up as well but it sliped my mind. I know it is a lot of pictures. Lizzy is just so cute that the 50 people on my Christmas Card list are each getting 3 pictures. Well, there are actually 5 pictures. I shrunk 4 of them down to 2"x3" so I can print 2 of them per photo. I really could not narrow it down any more then that. I hope they end up on the fridge or something, not just in the garbage.
Lizzy has been catching up on her sleep all day today. She also slept well last night. It has just occured to me that she may have finished a growth spurt. Hopefully she will sleep well for a while. I too much stuff to do before we leave for Christmas.
I am more excited about this Christmas then I have been in a long time. The last time I spent Christmas Day with my family was before we were married and before my Dad died. Since then My mom has sold the family home so things are being held at my sister Ali's house. My mom won't be there this year since she is in Thailand. It should still be a boisterous housefull though. Christmas just doesn't feel right if there are less then ten people around the tree. I think there should be at least 17 of us there this year. This is Lizzy and her cousin Cameron's first Christmas. I wonder what they will think of it?

Terri

Fun and Games

What a shock I got when I opened the page to make this post. Everything looks totally different. I don't think I like the changes. The screen is now glaring white so I am going back to watching my figers rather then the screen to see what I am typing. I don't think the trivial details about screen colour are what everyone wants to hear about though so I will commence with the Lizzy info.
Yesterday I weighed Lizzy on our scale once I subtracted my weight I figured out that she is now 17 1/2 pounds! That is almost double her birth weight and she is only just over 4 months old. I guess I am feeding her right. I think that it is the breast feeding that has allowed me to get within a few pounds of the weight I was at before I got prgnant with her. I am pleased with my weight loss and Lizzy's weight gain so far. I hope that I keep shedding the pounds and she keeps putting them on at a healthy rate.
She is getting to be a pro at bouncing in her Jolly Jumper now. The only problem is that she drools like you woulden't believe when she is in there. I keep meaning to put a bib on her before I put her in it. Next time maybe. I wonder what Airport security would think if I packed her jumper in my luggage for our trip? It just occured to me to bring it along and aside from the akwardness I think it would be great to have it with us.
She also loves to spend time in her swing. For a while I thought she was too heave for it when even after getting new batteries it wouldn't keep moving on its own. I am glad to say htat it does still work, the problem was all me. I had started pulling a blanket over her legs to keep her warm while she was swinging and I guess it was slowing her down too much. We have only just started sitting the seat up to its full upright positionand now she can reach the built in spinning toys. She was havig a good go at them while I cut Patrick's hair this afternoon. Unfortunatly the toys didn't kee her occupied for the duration of the haircut and Patrick was almost left totally lopsided. She settled down once I put her on the floor with some of her toys and I was able to finish cutting Patrick's hair.
I didn't get any pictures of te new hair cut, but Patrick took one of Lizzy in her swing the other day. I think Patrick is going to have to go to a real hairdresser until Lizzy is old enough to just chill out until the cut is done. If I were mean I would have made Patrick go to work with half a hair cut. Lucky for him, I am not mean. Well at least not very. He doesn't know what I did to the back of his head. Hee hee hee.

Terri

PS I can't figure out how to post pictures with this new set-up so it might take a bit for you to see that picture I was talking about.

Photoria

I am not feeling very chatty tonight so I think I will just post a few pictures for everyone. Then I will try to get a few minutes of sleep before my nocternal baby decides it is time to wake up.

Terri