Time is Flying By!

I've really been slacking on updating this blog since our return from Florida last month.  Between taking care of a busy toddler, being 7 months pregnant, and my husband working out of town I've found it hard to find the energy to put together real sentences and to communicate like an adult.  Aaralee's bed time used to be the time in which I'd accomplish things, but these days I find myself watching the clock in anticipation for an hour that is acceptably late enough to go to sleep myself.

It's been a busy month around here! A couple of weekends ago, Ryan and I planned a trip to the mountains for the weekend.  I was so excited… until he informed me that he'd likely be working through the weekend.  Not wanting to sacrifice my weekend away, I invited my friend Carley to take Ryan's place.  We booked a hotel and planned for a girl's weekend away!  As luck would have it, Ryan ended up being free for the weekend after all, so we dropped off Aaralee at Grandma and Grandma's house and the 3 of us headed out for a grown up weekend away! Carley rarely visits the mountains, so we took her out and about to some of our favourite spots, stopping for frequent meal breaks. The weather was perfect, and so was the fact that we didn't have to stick to a toddler's schedule!  We still ended up in bed early each night, because let's face it… we aren't 18 anymore!  It was a quick but much appreciated little getaway.

On March 10, our little bitty baby turned one and a half, forcing me to accept the fact that she is most definitely a toddler.  I say this about every stage… but this age is so, so much fun!  She has become such a little person with a real personality.  She prefers to get everywhere by running as fast as she possibly can, and she is finally starting to chatter using real words. My personal favourite is "da-dew", meaning "thank you".  She is so polite (and confused) that she'll even thank you when she's the one giving YOU something. She is a whopping 21 pounds and not surprisingly, she still ranks somewhere around 10th percentile for height. Sorry about your genes, Shorty. Lately her favourite toy is her baby doll. She hauls her around the house and gives her kisses, leading me to delusional thoughts of how great of a big sister she will soon be.  I'm certain that's just my wishful thinking, but it's adorable nonetheless.

As far as Aaralee's baby sibling, he or she is brewing along nicely.  I'm 29 weeks pregnant and sporting a nice big beach ball!  Where is the time going?!  I'm excited and terrified as June draws near. I've been fortunate in that I haven't had to slow down too much yet, because I think that I'd go stir crazy just sitting around the house. I'm holding out for flip flop season to make my life much easier, as bending down to put my boots on isn't my favourite task these days.

Another big event happened this week… Ryan's birthday! Not just any birthday, but his 30th! I'm married to an old man.  In celebration of the big milestone, we got Grandma to babysit as we headed out for dinner and drinks with some of his friends and coworkers.  On his actual birthday, we indulged in KFC and cake with his family. He's been trying to convince me to order KFC for the entire course of our relationship, and it took me 6 years to finally agree.

In honour of such an important birthday, I took it upon myself to bake Ryan an amazing birthday cake. I failed to first take note of two things:  The first being that I am a terrible baker, and the second being my history of epic plans gone wrong.  I was confident that I could pull it off. Confident, and oh so wrong.  I attempted to make Ryan a cake that resembled his beloved green junker of a car.  My version of his Subaru looked as though our 18 month old daughter had hand crafted it, and I was embarrassed to share it with his family that evening.  Fortunately, my husband came home and told me that it was "just fine"… the proportions were just a bit off and it was a bit too wide.  "Easy fix", he promised me, taking a knife to the cake.  What resulted was an even more disastrous cake, complete with a slice removed from the middle and the passenger side crumbling.  In my pregnant, hormonal and completely irrational state, I did what seemed most logical… I burst into tears as I devoured the destroyed cake and ordered Ryan to go to Dairy Queen to buy a replacement.  With a delicious ice cream cake in the freezer, the birthday was saved and I vowed to never make a cake for my husband again.

With all of the happenings over the last few weeks life has been cruising by… yet going so slowly at the same time as I eagerly await the end of Lent. Like I've done in previous years, I've given up chocolate this Lent.  I know that I'm pregnant and typically a chocoholic and this all seems insane, but a  sacrifice is a sacrifice. I've watched my husband devour chocolate bars and I've been the only one turning down birthday cake at parties, but the end is near!  Aaralee is getting a fully stocked Easter basket that Mommy will conveniently help her consume.

That's about all that's new around these parts! As the days get longer and warmer I'm hopeful that we can enjoy the outdoor world with Aaralee a bit more before her little sibling arrives.  Bring on Spring!

Fun in Florida!

We are fresh back from vacation and I know what you are thinking... "ANOTHER trip?!" Well, yes. In case you don't remember, I once travelled the world for a living. Unlike sleep and sanity, longing for a nomadic lifestyle isn't something that just disappears when you become a mother.  In this family, we sacrifice fancy cars or nice clothing for the ability to explore this world. Besides, my doctor prescribed a vacation. Maybe not in those words exactly, but he did say without me making any mention of travel that "It's not too late to go somewhere!" Those words, combined with a stash of airline reward miles and a husband with downtime at work prompted us to book a last minute departure to Orlando.

Our goal was to fly to a warmer climate as far as our reward miles would take us. After much contemplation, Florida was the winning destination. It just so happened that Ryan's parents would also be there for those dates!

We left Saturday morning bright and early... Too early. These days it's hard to imagine that I used to wake up at such hours of day to go to work. At the airport, we tried to get as much energy out of our crazy toddler before our 4 hour flight to Houston. It worked, and she fell asleep from take off until about an hour and a half into the flight. The remainder of the flight went much as you'd expect things to go when traveling with a bored baby who wants to run but is confined to your lap. Needless to say, we were more than ready to land and let her run wild through the airport for a couple of hours. 

The flight to Orlando was better. Aaralee cuddled her daddy until she was fast asleep and stayed that way until it was time to get off of the plane. We'd finally arrived in Florida! It was off to our hotel where our baby was promptly scooped up by Grandma as we settled in.

Our first two days in Florida were spent where any sunny day should be spent... At the beach.

Ryan's parents had tickets to the Daytona 500 on Monday so while they headed to the race we followed suit and drove to Daytona Beach. We drove around the stadium as the race started, just in time to watch the fly over and for my husband to be able to say that he'd heard the cars. After that, it was onwards to the beach! The great thing about Daytona Beach is that you can drive your car right on the sand. We parked the car to dip our toes in the water, not expecting that our daughter would want much to do with it given our previous experiences. We were wrong. Despite the cold water and being fully dressed, she absolutely loved the water, the waves and the sand. She ran along the beach and splashed in all of her glory.

That was the deciding factor for the next day's itinerary.

We loaded up the car early in the day and drove to beautiful Cocoa Beach. We found a nice beach park where we played until Aaralee was good and tired, at which time Ryan and I put her into her stroller for a nap as we enjoyed some oceanfront dining in peace. After a bit more beach time and a stop at the famous "Ron Jon" surf shop we headed back to Orlando and straight to bed.

The first two days had been a whirlwind, so we opted to relax by the hotel pool the next day.  We got in a bit of swimming before getting rained out, at which point we headed for some outlet mall shopping. We left with bags full of children's clothing, both thankful and upset that we don't yet know the sex of our second child.  We finished the day off with Krispy Kreme donuts, a treat that I've longed for since I last had them in Maui 2 years ago. 

Wednesday was the greatest day of our trip. We went to Disneyworld! I won't say much else as I feel like it deserves a blog post of its very own... so stay tuned.

Thursday was our last full day in Florida. I put on a summer dress with the knowledge that it will be quite some time before I can do the same back home. Ryan's parents had just returned from a quick trip to Key West, so we dropped off Aaralee for some swimming pool time with them while we went out to enjoy a few baby-free hours to ourselves. We ventured to the Pinterest addict's paradise of Hobby Lobby, where I strolled down every aisle and left with a few fun purchases. Taking advantage of our lack of screaming child, we went for lunch at a nice sit down restaurant and slowly savoured every bite of food.  After a quick stop at Costco, we returned to the hotel to reunite with our baby and prepare for our last evening out.  I convinced Ryan that we should have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, so we headed off to Downtown Disney Marketplace where we placed our name on the ridiculously long wait list.  Fortunately there was plenty to do while we waited, so we visited the shops and let Aaralee run and dance before it was finally time to eat.  We got back to the hotel late, packed our bags, and prepared for the long journey home the next day. 

Home day arrived and we made our way to the airport. Our original itinerary routed us through Cleveland and Chicago before our final flight home to Edmonton. It was not ideal, but such is life when traveling on reward miles.  After a discussion with the lady at the check in counters we managed to get on a direct flight to Chicago!  Aaralee slept most of the way there, and all in life was wonderful. We had 5 hours to kill before our flight home, but if you are going to be stuck in an airport all day, Chicago O'Hare is the place to be stuck. We had plenty of dining options, Chicago mix popcorn,  and an enclosed play area for Aaralee to run off some energy.

 We kept her up until it was time to board our flight, and things were looking promising. It was bed time and we were hopeful that she'd sleep the entire flight.  Everything went as planned, and she fell asleep during take off. Ryan held her across his lap and we felt like the luckiest parents in the world... and then,  an hour into the flight (thanks to her daddy's lingering cough) she woke up.  She wasn't screaming, but she wasn't happy unless I stood in the aisle holding her, so that's what I did. For 3 hours, I rocked her back and forth and walked up and down the aisle of the small aircraft.  I was exhausted, she was exhausted, and it was the longest 4 hour flight I've ever experienced.  I'd never been so relieved to land in cold, snowy, Edmonton.   Our days of flying with her on our laps were glorious and free, but I think that I'm ready to have her seated in her very own spot.  

Overall, it was a great trip and I'm thankful that we had the opportunity to go on one last getaway before we become a family of 4!

February Updates

Dear Winter:  Please go away, we've spent enough time together. Bring back the sunshine and warmth.  Since our return from San Francisco, the cold weather has kept us pretty cooped up. It's hard to find the motivation to leave the house when doing so involves wrestling a toddler into her winter attire and trying to zip a jacket over your growing pregnant belly. All of this on top of the usual exhaustion of loading and unloading the stroller and buckling up the carseat and by the time that we get into the car I'm typically too tired to do much else.  

We do still leave the house for the sake of our sanity, but our excursions aren't too thrilling.  We go to the gym, to doctors appointments, and on Mondays we venture out to our mom and tot class, which is always an adventure. As the youngest in the class, Aaralee's attention span could use some improvement and listening is a skill we've yet to master.  Last week's class took us to an art studio where my little Picasso painted a canvas, as well as the floors, herself, and Mommy.  While the rest of the children calmly painted their canvases, mine ate the paint and had a meltdown when it was time to give back the paintbrush. 

This week we tried out taekwondo, and although she had no interest in doing the moves that the instructor showed the class, she was the happiest kid in the room. She ran around as fast as possible, span in circles, squealed with excitement, and frequently stopped to check herself out in the mirrors lining the walls.  If nothing else, these classes get rid of some of her energy and typically results in long, much appreciated afternoon naps.  

Despite her endless energy and frequent tantrums, I love this age.  It's amazing how much she learns each and every day. She imitates everything that she sees us do (encouraging Ryan to tone down the road rage) and although not much of it makes sense, she's a little chatterbox.  She'd be content eating 24 hours a day, not unlike myself or her daddy.  

With such a busy little girl on my hands it's often hard to imagine that every day brings us one day closer to bringing home a newborn. I'll be 24 weeks pregnant as of Friday, and I don't understand how time is going by so fast. Slow down, I'm not ready!  Those lazy, sleepy days that we enjoyed with newborn Aaralee just won't be a reality with a nearly 2 year old to care for at the same time.  Most days I'm excited, some days I'm terrified. I remind myself that playgrounds, baby carriers, and coffee exist for a reason.  I'm so thankful that this baby will be born just in time for warm weather, giving us the ability to spend our days outside.  

This past weekend I took newborn photos of my friend Cassie's beautiful baby daughter. After cuddling with a tiny 6 pound human I'm even more excited to meet my own.  I also took some family photos of my aunt and cousins, despite the cold weather and numb fingers and toes. I like to occasionally feel as though I'm a hard working wife that is contributing to the household income, so photo shoots are always fun... even if I barely make enough money to cover my addiction to buying photo props. 

Other that that, life has been pretty uneventful, which is okay in my books! I know that life is only going to get more chaotic in the near future, so I'm enjoying our current version of "calm" while it lasts.   

A Grown Up Vacation.

This post has been slightly delayed due to the fact that I've spent the last couple of days battling the plague, or something like it.  Being sick is never fun, but being confined to the couch at 5 months pregnant with a highly energetic toddler to care for? That's a whole new ballgame that I don't care to participate in ever again.  Fortunately, I'm on the mend and slowly but surely returning to my normal "eat everything in sight" ways.  Sadly, what could have been a record setting week in terms of FitBit steps has been ruined by my bedridden ways.  

Anyways... onto the real point of this blog post. 

Last weekend I did something crazy.  Something completely out of my comfort zone.

I got on a plane with my husband. We flew thousands of kilometres away.  We even crossed the border and left the country.  I realize that none of this sounds out of the ordinary, so I should mention that we did all of this without our daughter.  

That's right... I, Clingy Mama, left my baby girl at home in the care of her grandparents while I took off for a long weekend getaway with my husband. And guess what? It was awesome.

Ryan and I had long discussed the day that we'd go on an adults only trip, but to be honest I didn't think I'd ever work up the courage. I love that little girl with everything in me, and the thought of being so far away from her made me anxious and a little bit sad.  However, I knew that a bit of time apart would be beneficial to all of us... for Ryan, myself, Aaralee, and for her two extremely excited Grandmas who would spoil her for the duration of our trip.  

So we jetted off to California, where we spent the weekend with Ryan's cousin Kor and his wonderful new wife Heather. They were the best hosts, touring us around and taking us to their favourite restaurants.  

We drove down the gorgeous coast and made many photo stops along the way.  I made numerous attempts to convince Ryan that we should move to a warmer climate, or at least somewhere a little bit closer to the ocean.

 We wandered San Francisco and stocked up on my beloved Ghiradelli chocolate, making sure to eat our fill of seafood. We shopped until we were ready to drop, picking up tons of cute outfits for Aaralee and a few larger shirts for my growing belly.  

I missed my daughter, but I must admit that it was wonderful being able to go for nice meals without worrying about temper tantrums and flying food, or to drive for hours without needing to stop to let her run off some of her endless toddler energy.  It was nice going for morning walks and breakfast dates with my husband, even if I checked out every double stroller that passed us by. 

The weekend flew by and before we knew it, it was time to go home.  Normally I dread returning home, but knowing that Aaralee was there waiting for us made it far more appealing than it ever had been.  We were greeted by the most excited, adorable little girl in the whole wide world and that reunion was by far my favourite part of the entire trip! Our little getaway had been great, but at the end of the day nothing beats spending my time with my sweet, tiny person. 

2015!

Happy New Year!!  

Whoa... It's 2015.  2014 is over and done with. People born in the year 1997 can legally drink (in Alberta) this year.  My husband turns 30 this year.  I'm having my second baby this year.  

I feel as though I blinked and 2014 was gone.  Not much can surpass the fun that I had last year.  Sure, previous years have taken me around the world and back, or have involved big exciting events. 2014 didn't have any of that, but with every month that passed by I was able to watch my tiny baby  turn into a tiny little girl. I watched her learn and grow and develop her own little personality.  She's a real little person and I can't wait to see how much she changes in the coming year. 

2015 is pretty decent, so far! After the chaos of the holidays (4 consecutive Christmas meals!) our entire household was feeling under the weather. We spent some time relaxing at home and enjoying a bit of calmness.  We rang in the new year surrounded by friends. It was a fun evening filled with far too much food. I woke up Aaralee for the countdown and witnessed Carley stabbing her boyfriend with a toothpick in a balloon popping spree gone wrong.  

The next day we cleaned up the mess and proceeded to dispose of all the junk food that remained. As per usual, we vowed to eat better this year.  Now that the first trimester is long gone, perhaps I can actually stick to it.  Ryan is doing well, and I just keep on piling on the weight... I don't anticipate a change in that trend any time soon! Thanks to our new FitBits, we have been very dedicated to getting at least 10,000 steps per day. Nothing like a bit of friendly competition! Not that it matters.... but... I'm currently winning.

Aaralee and I started a mom and tot program this week with the intent of getting out of the house for fun activities more frequently.  She's one of the younger kids in the class and thus a bit less of an active participant, but she seems to enjoy herself regardless. The outings are worth it just for the naps that follow!  

Baby #2 is also doing well! Today we got to see him or her, and in our typical stubborn family's nature, we were unable to find out whether Aaralee will have a brother or a sister.  No amount of jiggling my belly or flipping from side to side was going to make this kid spill the beans.  I think he or she will fit in perfectly... already so much like the rest of us.  

The year ahead looks exciting... a few mini-trips and a brand new baby! Happy New Year, everyone! May 2015 be (almost) as exciting for you as it will be for us!

Merry Christmas, from the Shippelts. :)

It's Christmas Eve... my most favourite day of the year! We are heading to Red Deer this afternoon to celebrate with our families, so Santa came to our house a day early! It was so much fun watching Aaralee open all of her gifts... such a change from the tiny baby who sat completely unaware as I opened them for her last year.  Forget toys... her personal favourites were the boxes. She was even spoiled enough to try her very first Kinder Surprise! I've always loved Christmas, but as a mother it is so much more fun than ever before! 

Merry Christmas, from my family to yours! Here are some of our favourite moments from this season:

Mommy's First Baby-Free Weekend

The final weekend before Christmas was approaching, and with it came Ryan's company Christmas party.  It is always a highly anticipated event... a weekend away in Jasper and a delicious formal dinner.   Although I was excited to bring Aaralee along for the first time, the thought of trying to get her to sit quietly at a fancy restaurant for the span of a few hours had me rather stressed out.  It didn't help that in the days leading up to the weekend, she'd decided to suddenly increase her daily temper tantrum quota. 

On Thursday evening I sent my mom a message asking her to take her granddaughter for the weekend. I was joking... mostly.  When she offered to drive to Edmonton to pick her up the next day, I reluctantly mentioned the idea to my husband.  The instant smile that appeared on his face confirmed what I already knew... he would be more than happy to have a baby-free, stress-free weekend.  Deep down, I knew that it would probably be good for me to have a weekend of adult time for the first time since her birth, but the clingy, hormonal mom in me wasn't so sure.  I eventually gave in and packed Aaralee her very first overnight bag.  When Grandma showed up to pick her up, I smothered her with approximately 5,000 kisses and tried my best not to cry as I buckled her into her carseat. And then, she was gone.  The house was quiet. I packed my bags without little hands unpacking them.  Ryan finished work, we packed the car, and we were off! Just the two of us... and Niko, our dog.  

We had a wonderful weekend. The weather was beautiful, the air was fresh, the evenings were late, and the food was delicious.  We enjoyed not one, but two massages, and dined on steak and lobster among other indulgences.  

To get our baby fix, we talked to Aaralee on FaceTime, and on Sunday we took care of our friend's 2 month old daughter while they enjoyed a couple massage. She was adorable and fell asleep in my arms... something that Aaralee hasn't done in many, many months!  

Niko wasn't too sure about his first stay in a hotel, but he certainly enjoyed the abundance of treats and daily walks!  Nobody complained about him barking while we were out for dinner, so we are hoping that he was quiet and well behaved... although we will never truly know. 

As silly at it sounds, the best part of the weekend was picking up my baby on Sunday evening.  I'd missed her so very much, tantrums and all! I was so proud of myself for making it through our first weekend apart. Meanwhile, she probably never even noticed that we were gone. 

We are all home and now it is time to get ready for the madness that will be Christmas week!