Almost 2 and 1/2

Spiderman and Lamb listen to a very

Important story 

And we're all ready for "dance cwass". 

Thank you Monika for the 

Beautiful dress 

Livi is doing amazing. Loving her daycare and everyone there. They all get an honourable mention at the supper table. We get enlightened in full sentences, the latest being, as she sat down for her bed time potty, "I want to talk". And so we did. We even got the gestures of  a seasoned chatter box, including the long blink and haas turn while lazily pulling on her necklace.

She can't wait for dance class in two weeks, loves gymnastics and hasn't stopped talking about being in the daycare fashion show. (Which I am in charge of, of course)

We went camping three times this summer.... Once in a motor home, once at hotel but camped during the day with family and once in a cottage. We all loved it!! And I took Livi home for my dads retirement. A bit of a family reunion. It was lots of fun.

I am loving my new job and started a new dance class with a friend. Burlesque! Mamma gotta stay hot somehow!

Found my dream job....sleep. No pun inteneded

I have had trouble blogging since becoming a full time working mom. But I have to post today because it marks a very special day. July 1st, Canada Day is the first day Livi came up to me in the kitchen, hugged my leg and said " I yuve yoo". I just melted and it was the most wonderful thing. So far she has never said it out loud and only signed it when I asked if she loves me. All her signs have turned into words except "I love you" and "Thank you". Until today.

Here is a picture from Canada Day celebrations at the park

We later went to Nona's house for fire works. This is s a dress that her cousin had on 20 years ago...along with a very disheveled Barbie who HAD to get dressed up for the photo-op. Livi is very particular and very much into having her picture taken. I have NO idea where she gets that :)..he he...

 Below is a very "CHEESE!" moment just heading out the door.

I can write a book on how much I love her and all that she does that sends me over the moon. The top of the list are how she goes from one word to a whole sentence the next day. The expressions she comes up with and what she repeats to make her self understood is priceless. I kicked something while carrying her the other day and she asked me " Toes? hurt?" ....very considerate. At the park today the cannons where going off and she covered my ear for me. wow. She also loves to cuddle at night when she has a night mare and knows and uses the word. So it's just too much when she calls puddles "cuddles". Or more correctly "cuddowls". Her favorite thing ever is putting her sippy-sippy boots (rubber boots for when it's 'slippery') on and splashing in the cuddowls. She loves her daycare, as do I, and have become one of the Board of Directors and am working on some special projects there...like a fashion show for the kids at the winter gala. She is fully toilet trained if at home and not wearing anything on her bum. Right down to making a dash down the hallway, closing the door and chatting to herself on her potty. This little ritual is always followed by the appropriate celebration of the potty's contents and a little dance from my princess. Speaking of which....she is not shy about dancing...as a matter of fact, we were at an outdoor small little concert at the farmers market downtown and they were playing Irish music. I could tell she wanted to dance. So we both went up and did a little reel and jig together. She loved it and so did the audience. My little star....don't know where she gets that EITHER!! ha ha

And yes... I finally landed a permanent position. A sleep clinic...a new one to Regina. I can't even begin to tell you how incredibly happy I am in my new career and how lucky I feel. This company approached me as one of my previous managers works there. My new manager loves me and I adore her, the company is amazing and the opportunity is brilliant with a promising future. I still get to see my docs but am out of the pharmaceutical industry. I am the liaison between the clinic and the medical community, education them on sleep apnea and promoting the clinic. I count my blessings having my dream girl, and my dream job. Every day, every moment with her, is truly a gift. And every day that I grow in my new position is a joy. I remember a blog I wrote about being stuck not knowing about ever having a child and being in a rut in my career. It took a long time, but it feels wonderful to look back and whisper in my ear "it's all going to be OK....actually....it's going to be amazing"

Oh all those TWOs

I have been waiting for this. This week marked a few milestones. Me going back to work, Livi at daycare full time, me going away for work for 5 nights, and Livi finally putting two words together. "Babba come!" With her arms stretched out to her grandparents on Skype marked the first step towards a sentence. Next was "Dadda cup" pointing to Stef's coffee cup. So amazing to watch and listen to this process.

She 22 months, will be two in two months, says two words in a row, and now I know why they call it the terrible two's. Is is always such  A GOOD KID that when she exhibits defiance I am shocked and admittedly, have zero patience for it. So we breath. I have read something very important lately "Children behave as well as they are treated" so it's super important to acquire the patience I currently lack when she refuses to get dressed, get her diaper changed, put on her shoes or her winter coat. As every toddler, she is looking to exercise control, so as much as possible, I give her a choice. What shoes she wants to wear vs stuffing a screaming kid into the pair I picked. What books she wants to read, what snack she wants, what outfit she wants, etc. she is very quick to point at her selection and is very proud of her new found authority. I have found she is much more reasonable in situations when there is no room for negotiation.

A little concerned about daycare at the moment. But as a control freak, it's only natural. She was sleeping there like an angel, until one day she woke up early. One of the teachers held and rocked her back to sleep. The next day her usual teacher that puts her to sleep on her mat was not there, and the other teacher held her for two hours. Now it's a mess. Livi refuses to go on her mat and only sleeps when someone holds her, and wakes up and cries when they transfer her onto her mat. So the director put a stop to it by having Livi in her office when she doesn't go on her mat. But when the director is not there, the teachers feel sorry for her and hold her. It's a hard situation because I need her to sleep there or she will get sick AND her routine is all messed up.....coming home and sleeping then is not good for her routine or her health. I drove her teacher home last week and talked about it. We went through some strategies to try. Reading her a book like Dadda does is the first plan. With me gone and the weekends in between, she will be out of daycare for 11 days, so I am hoping her derailed sleeping habits there will reset. Dadda and Nanna are taking care of her while I am gone. She is not settled into daycare enough for her to be there all day at the moment. As usual, I am freaked out about a sleeping thing. It has been the only thing of worry for me since she was a baby.....and it has always worked out. She is old enough to know what is expected of her and is perfectly capable of falling asleep on her own. I have to trust that she will figure it out, and so will they.

Work has been great and really looking forward to being at a meeting. This part of my job I missed the most these past two years and it's almost surreal that I am about to board a plane to Toronto. The only baby thing I am traveling with is a breast pump and it's actually weird not to be packing a stroller, toys, book, etc onto the plane. We've taken Livi on 6 trips where we flew so going by myself feels oddly light and relaxed.

Our trip to Mexico was awesome. She still talks about it. We were showing pics of it to family last night, and her response to seeing pictures of it again was ' GO! ' ......I couldn't have said it better myself.

Present

I updated my resume this morning....from Senior Pharmaceutical Representative, 1998 - 2012,
 to 1998 - Present.

I looked at the word "Present" for a while. I feel so proud, happy, relieved and ready, to be announcing to the world that I am a working person again. I write with post with Livi at her daycare and my desk and office full of pieces of my summer wardrobe to be stuffed in my luggage just before we take off to the Mayan Riviera for a family holiday to celebrate.

It has been a gradual journey to today, starting at the end of November. I got a call from her daycare, the ONLY daycare I had hoped would call once there was an opening. I felt like I had won the lottery - with one exception....I still had no job. I asked her to wait for a month, and then start part time to keep my cost down, but it was a foot in the door should something come up. Livi and I spent all of December going to the day care together, for a couple hours a couple times a week, to really get to know all the teachers, kids and the routines. By the end of December, she was sitting in her teacher's lap right in front of me, and playing so that I could step away without her noticing. So I knew she was ready. The first time I left her there she watched me leave and never cried. When I come to pick her up, she just keeps playing until I pry her away and put her coat on. Last week I asked for a full time spot in February, having a hunch that one opportunity was going to come through. Two hours after telling the daycare director that we will go full time in February, I got the call. I got the job....and just like that....no interviews....nothing. It was a previous manager from my previous company that knew me and my work well and didn't waste any time. I loved feeling valued like that....especially after a few jobs that I wanted had slipped though my fingers.

And the moment of truth came yesterday. Livi was to sleep at daycare for the first time....and after being nursed to sleep for over a year. Thanks to Auntie Serena who sent a sweet little nap mat from the States, Livi loves her mat, loves her day care, loves her teacher, and fell asleep like a trooper. I was soooo proud of her, happy and relieved.

I run off to pack, pick her up and hit the hot tub with Livi before a friend comes over tonight for dinner and advises me on what to bring to Mexico (aka....stopping my neurotic packing frenzy)

Will update and send pictures soon. Here is an upside down (sorry) video of Livi....only a fraction of how well she is speaking. It's beyond amazing to watch/hear that journey beginning.