Just Jordan

My mom always used to say her dryer would eat socks. Turns out ours does too. There were 22 solo socks in this pile. Hugh and I left them out for a week and when their mates didn't turn up, I threw them out. Turns out I should have waited one more week before chucking. There were a couple more solos in a final load of laundry and we had mismatched a pair of Calder's socks. This means that technically we only had 18 solo socks! Hahahahaha! I cannot for the life of me figure out where all these mates would have went. Our dryer must have been seriously hungry.

I read 2 great posts over at Momastery.com this week that really have me thinking. The first was about mom-petition, titled Quit Pointing Your Avocado At Me . The author, Glennon, defines mom-petition as the feeling of judgement you perceive from other mothers surrounding your parenting skills and practices.   For me mom-petition also can involve kids, because sometimes as moms we see the product of all parenting skills and practices and define ourselves by it. This part of mom-petition can sound like, "my kids is smarter, more athletic, taller, etc." but  sometimes the comments are of the more subtle variety. I am competitive by nature and I sometimes find myself in situations where mom-petition is lurking and I frequently get sucked in. There are even times that I can foresee myself in a mom-petition and amp myself up before hand to keep out of it. Do I succeed? Very rarely - I always seem to find myself getting sucked in. I hate it. And I completely dislike the person ...

Angie at Still Life With Circles  is once again putting together her Right Where I Am project .  You can see the collection of posts from 2011 chronological order HERE . If you just want to read mine you can go HERE .  Last year when I wrote my Right Where I Am post I wasn't pregnant and as I sit down to write this year, my 3 month old son is relaxing in his swing beside me. What a different place I am in - and yet, so many parts of this space are exactly the same. It has been 2 years, 3 months, and 29 days. I still think about Tripp the moment I get up in the morning and continue to think of him dozens of times a day. Everyone says how much our 3 month old, Boone, looks like our  4 year-old, Calder. I sometimes find myself staring at the best picture we have of Tripp and wondering where he would fit in. Every part of me misses him and the family we were supposed to have. Boone was the first baby I held since Tripp. I would still say I don't hold babies, b...

Milk (3.25%, please!) Beer (I will take a side of orange juice with that and if there is none I will settle for clamato!) Ginger Ale (I just started liking pop at Christmas. We put ginger ale into my Grandma's slush recipe!) Coffee (There is this new International Delight Creamer that is divine - Mocha Almond Fudge. I could drink a whole pot if we have that creamer. Yummy! I also love Southern Butter Pecan.) Water (Yes, this is a bit boring, but when a girl is thirsty there is nothing better!) What are your favs?

I am very lucky to have grown up with an involved dad. He played an important role in raising me. It wasn't luck that got me an incredible father for my children. I had my hand in picking him out. Well, in the very least it wasn't ALL luck ;-) Father's Day, as with Mother's Day, is a very emotionally charged day for me. I had my moments. Happy and sad. I feel extremely fortunate to have my father in my life. I feel a powerful love when I see Hugh with Calder and Boone. And I feel a deep sadness when I think of what Tripp and Hugh are both missing out on. The Bloggess wrote a post I really connected to on Mother's Day. It is one of her more serious variety and if you feel like I do on these days, you may enjoy it. It's titled "Happy Whatever". We went to Tripp's tree. Hugh and I sat on the bench while Calder played with his best girl, Emery, from next door. Hugh snapped a couple shots of Boone and I as we waited for Calder ...

I am still at it! I spent a 4 runs on week 5 day 2 (run 8, walk 5 twice). I did a couple of these runs outside at the lake and it was marvellous. Well, the outside part anyway. I took Calder for the first run, which was a huge mistake. He rode his run bike while I ran. I had to stop approximately 20 times to wait for him to catch up, or help him get his Crocs on. And I spent the rest of the time egging him on! Lesson learned! When I got home I psyched myself up for week 5 day 3 (run 20) on Wednesday. I hopped on the treadmill and was exhausted at 1.5 minutes. It was brutal. I was running the same speed I had been before (5 mph), but I couldn't even get to 8 minutes. I completely crapped out. Today, I decided that although I want to be fast, I need to get running first. I slowed down to 4.5 mph and was able to do the 20 minutes. I was pumped all morning! Yeah me! I flipped to the next workout to see what was in store for Monday and it is run 5, walk 3, jog 8, walk 3, jog 5. ...

Calder was born at 36 weeks. He didn't latch properly. He would suck a couple times and "fall off".  We began finger feeding him at the hospital and continued this at home for a couple of weeks before switching him over to the bottle. All this time I pumped and we tried to breast feed. I went to the Breast Feeding Center  more times than I can count and were eventually referred to a speech pathologist to help us with Calder's suck. Around the 3 month mark at our follow-up appointment with the speech path, Calder and I attempted to breast feed to show her how we were doing. I put Calder on my right side. He took a couple of big swigs before choking and pulling off. Milk was spraying from my breast - and this was only an hour after I had pumped 5 ounces from that side. The speech pathologist looked at us sympathetically. I am sure they are trained never to say, "It's time to quit," but when she didn't have any new suggestions to try, I took her silence...

I have 2 entirely different babies. Hugh and I often find ourselves comparing Calder and Boone. I wasn't blogging when Calder was a baby and since I don't want to forget the intricacies of his first 3 months, I decided it was time to face the two babies off in writing! Sleep Calder was a TERRIBLE sleeper. He would struggle to nap for the required 1.5 - 2 hours between feeds. I remember Hugh coming home multiple times and finding me leaned over the crib crying, trying to soothe Calder because he had spent most of the day awake and crying. I was physically and emotionally exhausted. Calder did not have colic. He just fought sleep and was a crank. Hugh affectionately called him "Frank the Crank".   The name stuck, but now Hugh just calls Calder, "Frank." Calder got up AT LEAST every 3 hours at night to eat (and frequently it was only every 2 hours). He did this until he was 4 months and I had had enough. At this point Hugh and I sleep trained him! More on t...

We spent the day at home on Sunday, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to wash the car seat cover.  Monday morning I was deeply regretting doing it, as Boone had a humungous explosive poop while we were driving to Hugh's school. I had to clean up "poop boy" in the van and Hugh creatively placed a blanket over the wet poop spot on the car seat so I could get Boone home. The seat was clean for less than 24 hours. Why do I even bother? Needless to say, when we got home on Monday, I took the cover off and threw it in the wash again. Anyone who has EVER washed a car seat cover knows that taking it off and putting it together can be a bit of a puzzle, not to mention a tad bit on the frustrating side! As I put the freshly was cover on Monday afternoon, I noticed the expiry date of our car seat. IT IS THE END OF 2014. WHAT???? That leaves us with only next year to use it. I felt completely angry and scammed. I checked the manufacturing date to see if Sears had sold us ...

We spent a fun filled Saturday in Martensville at Buster Days . We took in a pancake breakfast, the parade, and had lunch at the ball diamonds. We then spent over 2 hours with Calder and his buddy Dylan at the bouncy houses! The most memorable moment of the day for me happened in a port-a-potty. Calder had to go while in the midst of bouncy castle heaven.  Calder asks A LOT of questions these days, so I gladly described the inner workings of a port-a-potty to him while he did his business. When he was done, I decided to use the facilities as well. My hands have been getting so dry from the excessive washing these days that I have become an expert at limiting the number of times it has to be done! If I use the washroom at the same time as Calder or immediately after I change Boone's diaper, I save myself a wash (sounds a bit on the crazy side as I write it!). In public, while I do my business, I always leave Calder to pull up his pants on his own. This is a survival tec...