Exciting new stage

Juliet is starting to talk. This is one of my favourite stages of development as you never know what word is going to come out of their mouth next. Juliet has been saying ma ma for awhile (especially when upset) but we have really had no other new words for awhile.

Then yesterday, Juliet learned how to say Quack whever we showed her pictures of a duck. So cute!! Today, her new word is a very clear, very loud "No"! While not my favourite word as I find toddlers use this word all too much, this signals the start of the period in which almost every day we will start hearing new words from Juliet.

I am really looking forward to hearing what she has to say and getting to know who she is as a person.

The light at the end of the tunnel?

I am finally seeing the light at the end of a very long tunnel. The past 7 weeks (starting with my tonsillectomy) have been very tough on our poor family. Just when I was starting to feel better after my surgery, we all came down with a nasty stomach bug. Just when we were all feeling better from that, we all got a cold. The number of days that Ainsley was able to go to nursery school was cut in half which was very tough. Talk about cabin fever.

Then when we were getting better from the cold, I was advised by my doctor to keep Ainsley and Juliet away from other children for the week before Juliet had eye surgery to repair her strabismus. We needed to make sure that she didn't get sick so we could have the surgery done. We have waited for almost a year for this date so I wasn't taking any chances.

Ironically, the day before the surgery, I got the stomach flu again!! This was the second time in 3 weeks. Luckily it was quick and I was able to be with Juliet before and after her surgery. I would have felt so guilty if I wasn't able to be there for her.

So now, Juliet has recovered from surgery, no one has stomach bugs or colds (knock on wood) so I am hoping that we might have a few weeks of health. I was so glad that I could take Ainsley to play with her friends at school today and we could get back to our regular routine. Which means I can once again focus on the business.

Here I am, back in action. For how long? Who knows.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful day with your loved ones.

I am excited to spend the day with my girls and husband and once they are in bed, we will have a nice sushi dinner. Yum!!

Glow Baby Survey

Hello everyone,

I am getting ready to launch our next product "Baby's First Foods" which means I am starting to think already about what products to focus on next. I have put together a survey as I want to get other moms opinions on what they need to help them organize their busy family lives.

I am inviting all the moms I know to participate in our survey. Each participant will be entered to win a $25 gift certificate for www.glowbaby.ca.

Please click on the link to let me know your thoughts http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GY57YTC.

Thank you in advance for your opinions!

Lindsay

Fourth Trimester Program

I stumbled across an article today about a hospital in Norwalk, CT who runs what they call a "Fourth Trimester Program". This program is for moms for the first three months of their child's life. By joining this program you get the support of the hospital while building a moms network that can continue after the program.

I thought this was a fantastic idea! I myself had to search around Toronto and found only two programs and it was not local. I had to drive myself 30 minutes across the city to get to it. In the end I was lucky enough to have been contacted by one of my fellow prenatal class members for a playdate.

It would have been great to have been offered a program like this by the hospital. The Norwalk program is facilitated by a nurse and it is great that these new moms not only get to talk about their days to other moms and commiserate but if they have actual medical or developmental questions there is a professional there to answer.

Here is the link to the actual article if interested http://www.norwalkplus.com/nwk/information/nwsnwk/publish/health/New-moms-meet-in-group-and-continue-to-be-there-for-each-other_np_7262.shtml.

What is your toughest time as a parent?

Today is day four of a stomach bug that has gone through our household. I was sick a week ago and it took me 6 days to start feeling normal again. Juliet came down with the illness on Friday night and the poor thing was sick all night. She is slowly getting better and is starting to eat food. Ainsley was sick twice Sunday night but seems to have recovered quickly.

I find it very tough as a parent when my kids are sick. I feel so badly for them when they are sick and the only thing you can do is comfort them. Last night for the first time since Juliet was just born she slept with us in our bed. We as a rule don't sleep with our children because I find that I don't sleep well and they don't sleep well. However, last night Juliet could not be consoled and for the sake of my sleep and her sleep I caved and we slept. I just hope she doesn't expect this to become a routine.

I am starting to see the end of this illness which has put a strain on our washing machine and my husband is thankful that we had a ton of sleepers for Juliet as we definitely needed them!!! I hope that we now will have a period of health for awhile.

Each time they get sick I find that I am able to deal with it a bit better but it's tough. It's emotionally draining and it's tough not being able to leave the house for days. At least Brett and I are a pretty good team and work well together to get our kids back into fighting form.

Tea Party for Two

As Juliet gets older (she's almost 13 months) the interactions between her and Ainsley are getting more involved and it is so cute!! Yesterday they had their first tea party. I was doing some work on the computer and they were playing in Ainsley's room and were being very quiet so I popped my head into the room to make sure all was well.

They were sitting on the floor together and Ainsley was pouring the "tea" into the cup Juliet was holding and Juliet actually then pretended to drink it. So adorable!! Ainsley then poured herself some tea, drank and repeated. This tea party lasted for about 5 minutes which is impressive. It was great to see them playing together.

I can't wait to see what else they start doing together. I know they will also get into trouble together but hopefully they will continue to enjoy each other as they are doing now.