Wait! It's New Year's Eve?!?

Wow, glad I read Pamela's blog today or we would have been wondering what all the fuss was about at midnight. Yup. We totally forgot.

I feel like I'm lacking in the wrap-up-the-year in memorable words and with great wisdom postings... There's always next year I guess.

Tom could tell I was sad that I missed making fun food and planning something neat for us to do at home to amuse ourselves until midnight... So he offered to have our own New Year's Eve tomorrow instead.

He's so cute.

And mistaken.

To Dos

The past few months have been so much fun, so out of the ordinary, and so not routine. Come January (next week!) Tom heads back to wok (sniff!) and it will be time to buckle down, settle in, and routine it up. Problem is.. I bore easily and can't help but think that I'll get a little stir crazy staying home by myself with baby trying to respect a sleep schedule. Staying put... routines...? Not exactly my strong suits. (Oh, I should probably mention here that we've decided I'll be staying home with Jay and not working from home anymore. There. Now you know.)

So I have an idea. It's not like I plan on having a whole lot of free time or anything, but I want to make the most of the time I will have. I have this nasty tendency to waddle away free time wading through threads on Baby Center, surfing through friends' blogs (repeatedly), and trolling Kijiji. Not exactly productive behaviours nor something you can put your finger on at the end of the day and say that's what else I've done today.

So I have this idea. I've started making a to do list of things that interest me and I've always wanted to do, but haven't prioritized doing. I don't need to complete something everyday, but at least work on a project everyday. Feel free to hold me accountable.

• Sew something. Anything. Read about it, try it, complete something, then decide if sewing is for me.
• Finish fixing up the white photo frames for Jay's room, print pictures for frames, hang frames. You know, like before his first birthday.
  
• Hang polka-dot mirrors in Jay's room
  
• Photograph Jay's room once everything is done. Post on blog for world to see.
• Bake homemade bread. Often. I received the mother-of-all bread machines for Christmas and if I use it half as much as my blender it will wish someone else received it for Christmas.
  
• Make and bake a loaf of artisan bread. My MIL gave me a book on it a while back and I'm been meaning to do it for a while. This may be tricky considering the mother-of-all-bread machines is heading my way from amazon.ca
  
• Try another smoke photography project. This should probably happen when someone else is watching Jay.
  
• Complete first year of Jonathan's baby book
• Continue to do monthly photoshoots of Jay

In addition to home grown projects, I'd love to set some goals for getting out of the house.

• The awesome, awesome mom's meetup place I used to hang out at and get my mama (and cappuccino) fix has closed :( So I need to find something similar. Diaper Gym in Portage is just too far to go...
  
• The local library (about 2 blocks from our place) has mom/baby hours and activities on Wednesday mornings. I need to get over my fear of being the only anglophone in the room and just attend already. I wonder if they have any sewing books in English...
  
• La Leche League meets in our neighborhood the first Wednesday morning of the month. It's free, close, topical, and a great way to meet like-minded mamas. I've met lovely ladies there before, I should really go catch up with them again.
• Take a photography course. It's time.

How about you? How do you keep things fresh while leading a life of leisure staying at home playing and and napping all day??

Baby's first Christmas

Precious moments earrrrrrly Christmas morning.

Love this kid.

Merry Christmas eve

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

unpack, pack

On Thursday in the wee hours of the morning, we made it home. Yay!

The laundry machine has been getting a workout as we wash up from our CR trip and start preparing for Manitoba. Nope, don't bother putting away those suitcases just yet...

Other happenings:

• Christmas gift. A rather large package was waiting for me when we got home... Studio lights!!! GAH! So exciting! Poor Jay, he'll be taking some serious damage on the retinas I'm sure.

• Christmas decorating. Tom said he felt scrooge-y because we didn't have a tree or anything this year, so I headed over to our town's thrift store and got some fantastic deals. For $9 I now have garland and white lights wrapped around the staircase banister to upstairs as well as garland and exterior white lights hanging on the front porch. Not bad for $9, eh? Tom said, "Wow, you decked the halls!" Very funny.

• I am officially a cloth diaper expert(ish). A while ago I was approached by a Canadian cloth diapering blog to be a reviewer for different types of cloth diapers. In exchange, I get to keep the diapers they send to me to review. Not a bad deal AT ALL! I received my first one (from a Canadian company!) and am hard at work. I'm so indescribably pumped!

• Jay thinks pushing one tooth at a time is for wussies. He's up to 8 teeth that are through and I can see 2 more nearly here. Yikes! He's also working on mastering pulling up and standing. Standing is his favorite pastime these days. Well that and unloading stuff: all books out of the bookshelf, all clothes out of a drawer, all mega lego out of the box, etc. If he can stand while unloading something? He's over the moon.
  

Jaco beach

Although highly distracted

by the waves

by the seagulls

by the sand

and by daddy's hat

JayJay thought the beach and beach town were pretty cool.

CR: Day 5,6,7&8

I should probably quit naming these posts by days, it's not like I'm posting every day or anything :)
But here's a bit of a recap, in photos. Enjoy!
















Tonight is our last night with our Costa Rican family :(
Tomorrow morning we are heading out early to hit the coast by the afternoon :) Here we come pacific ocean!!!!

Then Wednesday is the trek home. Oiy, it's been a wonderful time here, but it will be great to be home again.




Oh, and mom, I finally caught a pic of a banana truck!

CR: day 2,3,4...

YES, we made it!

YES, we are having a great time!! It's so great to be back... Just don't have a lot of time for internet stuff.

The weather is absolutely beautiful, it's wonderful being reunited with our Costa Rican family (and friends), and it's been indescribably fabulous to have our own car.

Jonathan has been a trooper and is really enjoying himself, not to mention how much everyone is enjoying him :)

Oh CR, how I've missed you!!!

CR: day 1

Yes mom, we stayed at La Sabana hotel last night.
Yes dad, of course we ordered in from Rosti Pollos for dinner.

And yes, the continental breakfast was just as fabulous this time :)


Miss you guys!

1st leg complete!

Today we successfully got up at an awful early hour, flew to Toronto, had a delay for a few hours, flew to San Jose, found (ALL!) our luggage and car rental dude, got our car and headed to our hotel for the night. And now we're here.

Lag 1 complete!

Phew... Am I tired!

Jay was INCREDIBLE for the journey. That kid rocks at traveling! Sleeping during the night while traveling? Often not so much. But hey, I'd rather a kid that traveled well and needed more help at night than a nightmare traveler that slept well.

Tomorrow's journey includes a bit of shopping then heading out to Tuis de Turrialba. Yes, we will be reunited with our Costa Rican family tomorrow! For me it's been just over a year since I've seen them. My friend and I came for a visit last October. For Tom, however, it's been nearly 20 months. It is going to be so great to see them and so many others we share fond memories with!

Hasta luego!

9 months

On December 1st, our little man turned 9 months old.

This week has been a big one for him.

First, he has now officially been 'out' longer than he was 'in'.

Second, he waves bye-bye.

Third, he says mama...

sometimes even in reference to me :)

flyboy

Today was try number two for Tom to take his birthday flight...
And he did!

He did so well on the flight training/simulator that the pilot let him take off, fly, AND land the plane!!!

HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!

I'm so glad he really enjoyed himself, he deserves it, especially after having to wait over 4 months to cash in on his birthday gift!

I was very happy with my experience purchasing and booking through TryThat. Between their great customer service and the awesome experience Tom had today I would definitely recommend them!