20120916

I am grateful for Jesus and Christianity. That, unto itself, deserves a whole other post, a whole other blog, on a whole other internet, in a whole other world.

WyGuy was baptised today. It was a beautiful ceremony, following Sunday morning mass. The actual baptism itself went well -- WyGuy was asleep until he jerked at the feeling of the water on his head and some of the water went up his nose and he yelped. Oopsies. He was fine though, and just has some pretty holy nasal cavities. 

I am also very very grateful for understanding friends. It's just always nice to have friends who understand. You don't really owe them any explanation, but you give one anyway, and they understand and tell you there was no explanation needed. I love that.

Being grateful - 20120527

I am grateful for birthday celebrations with friends.

I finally celebrated my 30th birthday with friends today. It was nice to have so many there together and celebrate, well, me. Hahahahahaah! No really, it was nice to be able to do that with the people I've been closest to since I was in my teens. Here's what I wrote to them after we got home.


Hi everyone!

Thank you all so much for coming out tonight for dinner. And those who weren’t able to make it, thank you for thinking of me! [Mr.S], thanks for bringing everyone together!!

I know it’s been three weeks since my birthday, during which time many of you celebrated your own birthdays, but thank you all for your wishes over that time and today. Thank you for coming out on a Sunday night when many of you have to get up early tomorrow morning for work. Thank you for coming out to a family restaurant, to celebrate my thirtieth birthday, instead of a hip joint downtown with drinks and gourmet cuisine, and so, showing that you understand and embrace that my lifestyle is quite different from most thirty-year-olds (i.e. you guys)! I’ve been meaning to tell you guys this for a long time, but I’m so grateful that, despite how busy our lives have been and how much they’ve changed over the past few years with becoming parents to one and then two boys, our friendships with you all have never changed, never wavered, and that the only real difference has been that we just haven’t seen each other as often. You’re all such amazing aunts and uncles to our boys, and the love and care you extend to our kids makes us so happy.

That said, thank you most of all for being the most amazing friends anyone could ask for. We turned out alright, didn’t we? I’m so happy I got to celebrate turning thirty with my best friends, people I’ve grown up with, people I’ve grown to love and cherish, people who have been constants in my life for as long as I’ve known them. I am so, so blessed to have you all in my life. I love you all so much! Onward to FORTY! ;)

xo,
Treeh

Here are some pics from the night. We didn't manage to get everyone in, but I think most of us are here!

This is what our family looks like at 30.

Being grateful - 20120523

I am grateful for big brothers.

D is already a really good big brother. Yes, he does have jealous moments and moments when he craves attention, but not nearly as much as we thought he'd have. He loves kissing his little brother and is enjoying watching him grow, right along with us. You can see him starting to itch for a buddy, someone to play with him, but he's being very patient and very gentle. It's so sweet.

Being grateful - 20120518

I am grateful for stay-at-home days.

Let's face it. While it's nice to go out, it's also nice to spend an entire day at home doing nothing. Isn't it? Especially after a busy week. And, instead of going out, a couple of our friends came over to meet W. It was so nice to spend some time with them since we hadn't seen each other in months, since our friend's wedding in October. It was too bad we didn't get to see their misters too.

Being grateful - 20120507

I am grateful for white chocolate brownies and girl talk.

I got together with two of my best(girl)friends tonight as a sort of happy birthday to me/catch up thing. We haven't had girl time in a while, with us getting together bringing our significant others (and in our case, the kids), so this was much overdue. It was so nice to get to talk about our lives, what's going on, and also the realization of how our friendship has matured over the past 15+ years.

Add to that Moxie's White Chocolate Brownie, the reason we end up there when we end up there. It was a wonderful treat from them. I love them so much.

Being grateful - 20120425

I am grateful for little hands learning to do things and random run-ins.

I was watching D-nut's hands today as he fed himself. It's amazing how much he has learned and you only remember how far he's come when you realize how little he used to be able to do. Gotta love the human body and mind. I love watching his little hands do things. And I love watching him think. He's so bright, that one.

Later we went to pick up Mr.S and ran into one of my bffs who was running errands before her vacation. We then ran into our other bff and her love and just like that, like old times, we were hanging out at the mall.

Being grateful - 20120328

I am grateful for burgers and babies and baked goods.

I met up with one of our BFFs today for lunch after my regular doctor appointment. We work in buildings pretty much right beside each other and haven't had lunch together in a while, so it was just time to meet up, and also we needed to have one more lunch before I went on mat leave. We went for burgers at Hero Burger and talked about all sorts of stuff, catching up on what we've been up to. When I went on mat leave last time, we also met up for burgers. It was just really nice to hang out and talk over lunch. And, of course, I didn't leave lunch without a big stain on my belly. Thanks, mustard.

I also baked some cheesecupcakes for my colleagues. With me going away for a year, I figured that it'd be nice to leave them with a treat, and also thank them for the shower they threw me. Also, a bunch of them have been asking me when I'd be making my cupcakes since the last time (they were slightly disappointed when, at our last pot luck, I brought in snowflake decorated sugar cookies -- impressed but disappointed they weren't my cupcakes. Also, I'm missing our next pot luck, which is on Monday). So I left some on our floor and the floor below us (we're spread out over two floors) and ended up being swarmed. I heard that the ones on the floor below were gone in 2 seconds after I sent out an email saying that they were there. I didn't even get to try one -- they were white chocolate brownie crusted cheesecake cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese frosting. Dang, that sounds good. Luckily, the dozen that I set aside for Mr.S to bring to work weren't all needed (he brought in just a few for his team), so we were able to try the rest at home. I mean this in the most modest way -- they were amazing.

Being grateful - 20120326

I am grateful for work friends and baby showers.

I can't remember if I posted about this, but I found out that my work friends were planning a shower for me. As a member of the administrative staff in the organization, I have access to several people's calendars, all of whom were invited to the shower. And so, when they got the invitation, so did I. I pretended that I didn't get those notifications and deleted them when I saw them to minimize the amount of information I had about the "surprise". Later, my colleague who was planning it apologized for the spoiled surprise and we laughed about it, after I told her I was just going to pretend I didn't know. I was certainly not expecting anything, especially with this being my second child, so I told her and my team that I was totally flattered and touched that they were planning something for me and the baby.

And today was that day. We giggled about how I should react since everyone outside my team didn't know I knew about it. It was nice to have so many of the people I work with in one room, all of whom have become my friends, and coming from different levels in the organization. We played a few games and ate some treats, something we always welcome.

And, it was nice to introduce everyone to my mat leave replacement, who, BONUS! also bakes. Everyone was relieved to have someone who could still contribute baked goods to our pot lucks in my absence.

Being grateful - 20120324

I am grateful for authentic restaurants.

Living in Toronto, one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world, we've been spoiled with international cuisine. Unfortunately, much of it has been "North Americanized" and so it's easy to mistake what we're eating for "authentic".

We went to a Korean restaurant tonight for one of our BFF's birthday. It was REALLY good. We all ate so much that we all had to fight not to pass out at the end of the meal...which was also the end of the night. We ate until we closed the restaurant, something that is not new to us.

Try out Song Cooks.

Being grateful - 20120321

I am grateful for fish tacos.

I met up with one of my old friends I used to work with for lunch and we talked and talked and talked (and ended up taking a 2 hour lunch!) We found ourselves at Pickle Barrel, one of my favourite restaurants, and she'd never been. I had fish tacos. So good. I've never had a bad fish taco. Yum yum yum!!

Being grateful - 20120317

I am grateful for birthday celebrations and helping hands.

Today was D-nut's 2nd birthday party. We decided to have the party at one of those indoor playgrounds. This was exciting because we've had one in mind since before we were married. (My cousin's daughter's birthday was at this one years ago and we really liked it compared to other places we had been to for other kids' parties, so I took a business card...)

We made sure not to do too much this year and to focus on enjoying the party with our boy. No all-nighters, nothing complicated, just something simple, but sticking with the theme. I learned that is possible without going overboard. Plus, there was a limited time for set-up and take down and we didn't want to bombard the staff and ourselves with trying to make the place our own for only 2 hours only to have it all taken down again.

The theme? Sesame Street. D-nut just might be of a very small group of people in his generation who knows what Sesame Street is, and loves it. He has such a soft spot for both Elmo (of course) and since he's discovered cookies, Cookie Monster. And what is Sesame Street like? Colourful. Here are some pictures from the day.


We loved the staff there. They really did set up everything, kept everything clean, and were very open to any specific instructions we had and encouraged us to relax and enjoy the party. I wasn't used to this, with this being our first child's birthday party in a party place. When they said they'd take care of set up, I didn't know they'd FULLY take care of it. It was so nice.

And, I  didn't know it, but this is one of the only indoor playgrounds that allows any number of adult guests. Most places allow only a certain ratio, and well, with our family and best friends, there weren't many kids. Other than D-nut's cousins and a friend's nieces, everyone was an adult. And that was fine with them. I'm sure we exposed a lot of our friends to a world they hadn't been to since they were kids themselves.

D-nut had an amazing time and we could tell there were moments where he had no idea what to do with himself -- should he go here? Should he go there? Should he play with this? Should he play with that? It was so nice to see him playing with so many toys, since most of his toys are packed away (and temporarily forgotten). It was so amazing to watch him celebrate his 2nd birthday, enjoying every minute of it (after he blew out his candles, he took a bite of his pizza and ran back to play -- we think he knew that all the other kids would be eating and he wanted the whole place to himself!).

He's such a big boy -- it's so crazy to think that he's already 2 years old. We love you D! :)

Being grateful - 20120223

I am grateful for awesome coworkers.

I have this colleague. She's 63, going on 30. Seriously. The most youthful 63-year-old I've ever met, funny, easy to work with, and very no nonsense. I love her. I forget that she's old enough to be my mother, and is just a few years younger than my parents. She's been through a lot in her life, and is never shy to share with me what she's learned. She's also always open to hearing about things I've learned in my life so far, especially things that she never experienced in her younger years. Always asking how I'm feeling, always inquiring as to how the pregnancy is going after my doctor appointments, always helping me ease any stress when I tell her I'm having an issue at work....we have a very good working relationship. She makes me miss her when she talks about retirement, and even I'm talking about maternity leave. Because when it's time for me to come back, she'll be working on closing up shop on her career.