mother's day with my boys

It was a perfect morning. 

I woke up with the sunshine in my face, beside a husband who smiled at me and said "happy mother's day babe." He asked me what I wanted first: my card, my gift, or my breakfast in bed. I wanted the card so bad! And it didn't disappoint. After opening my gift and eating my chocolate chip pancakes in bed, we heard that familiar little noise from down the hall. Bubs was up!

Ry brought him into our bed and we played for a long time. Coop is the giggliest he's ever been right now. You can make him laugh so easily; just a few rubs of his tummy and he's all giggles. 

I remember feeling like we had this whole day ahead of us, with no real plans until close to 4pm. Ryan kept stressing to me that this was MY day and I could choose how we spent it. All I wanted was to be with my boys and soak up every second of it. I think I'm missing my monthly photoshoots with Coop, and since mother's day popped up on Coop's thirteenth month, I figured I'd get the camera out for a minute or two.

Coop, you're thirteen months old and it just keeps getting better and better. 

It gets better because you're just so fun to be around. It gets harder because you're go-go-go-go-go and sometimes the afternoons are long. But then you'll go down for a three hour nap and I'll realize around hour two and a half that I miss your laugh.

Your list of favourites goes something like this:

• bottles (we simply can't get you to wean off of formula, you're obsessed)
• bags filled with stuff that you can slowly unpack all over the floor
• clapping your hands (that's new!)
• banana eggos (frozen or toasted, you don't discriminate)
• stealing toys from weezydog, then throwing them back
• your grandparents
• dad's water bottle
• these two tiny plastic whiskey bottles that you found in dad's nightstand
• the swing

You do NOT enjoy the following:

• when mom takes something away from you
• when your bottle is empty
• riding in the car without either a bottle, a soother, a snack, or a toy
• wearing a hat
• when mom says you can't unplug the computer

Something happened and suddenly you look like a boy and not a baby. Maybe it's the arrival of shorts and t-shirt weather. These days you wear nothing but cute tees and polo shirts. You're so so so so close to walking, but we know you're just taking your sweet time so that you can skip the walking and go right to running. As for words, you don't say a whole lot other than mama and dada and we're starting to think when you say "ma" you mean "more."

I hope we never ever forget your little trick where if someone says "oh no!" you put your hands on your head and smile. We say "oh no" a whole lot just to see you do it; it's too funny.

We are just smitten with you, mister baby. It's pretty crazy actually, how you have us both just totally in love. It's hard to believe that you're not going to be the littlest person in our lives in a few months -- we hope you're going to be good with your sister! You have to love her as much as you love weezydog, okay? You just have to. Except that you can't pull her hair and fall on top of her for a hug. Thirteen months looks pretty good on you, my sweet boy!

iphone photos from april

April was a month of big, big changes for our little family of four. Starting with...Cooper wearing big boy shoes! For the first two days his favourite activity was trying to pull them off, but he has now given up and wears them well :) They help him with his balance too and he's getting much better at standing on his own.

The POD was delivered for our move :) This actually feels like so long ago now! Pictured here is the friendly POD driver with an amazing Scottish accent.

Cooper and I enjoyed our last few errands in Barrhaven before officially becoming Stittsvillians. 

I was a busy bee packing and planning Coop's birthday party at the same time. We made this little handprint ornaments for the grandparents :)

A first birthday photoshoot was an absolute MUST...and I was determined Coop's first taste of the good stuff (AKA cake) would be from The Cupcake Lounge. We drove all over town to get the perfect cupcake.

On move-out weekend, the boys worked hard to fill every inch of the POD. I think it kinda became a game to them...how much stuff can we really fit in this thing...

Sunday night was our first night sleeping in Carleton Place. The POD was packed and the house was pretty much empty, except for a few things in the fridge and some cleaning supplies. Ry and I went over on Tuesday night to do our final tidy up and say goodbye to Nutgrove. It was so emotional to stand in that room as the sun was setting and remember all of the amazing moments we shared in that house.

2470 Nutgrove was our first home. We watched it get built from the ground up over 14 months. We added Weeze to our family, then Coop, and we found out about baby number two while we were there. We will never forget that place :)

The POD moved to Carleton Place with us, although we didn't even open it. We spent those 10 days hanging out in the hottub, shopping in Carleton Place, watching Season 1 of Modern Family, and thinking about Delamere.

Coop and I drove by the new house almost every single day on our way into town. We stopped at the Crantham park one afternoon for a little swing and he just loved it. I remember thinking that actually living in Delamere seemed so close and yet SO far away.

Out for dinner at a pub in CP for Dad's birthday :)

I took this photo on the morning we were getting the keys. I was so restless and excited and I couldn't wait for the lawyers to call so when Coop woke up from his first nap we just hit the town. We were almost in Kanata by the time Ry called to say that the keys were ready to pick up. He laughed at me when I told him I was around the corner from the lawyer's office. 

The car was packed up with the things we would need for our first night in the new house. It was an exciting day :) 

GOT THE KEY!

So excited to open the front door :)

The house was stunning. It was super clean (love you, previous owner!) and there was a big stack of manuals and warranties and all kinds of stuff for us to look through. Cooper and I walked around, poking our heads in every room just taking it all in. I heard the POD truck beeping outside and I couldn't believe the timing. We had only been in for maybe 10 minutes! 

My friendly POD driver told me he approved of this neighbourhood. "Much bettah than those dahn tight streets in yer ole place!"

The only thing in the fridge: my lonely iced cap. 

Since there was really nothing to do at 2:00pm in the empty house, I went to Farm Boy and picked up a few snacky things for Ryan and I to eat for dinner. Mom came to pick up Coop and take him back to Carleton Place for the night, since it would be too stressful to try and set up a place for him to sleep that night. It was so fun just the two of us :)

Ry got home at about 4:45pm and we walked through the whole house, room by room. We scoped out the stuff the previous owners left for us in the basement, like paint cans and some random huge tools that they probably didn't want to fly across Canada with. 

We picked away at our dinner and then decided to head over to Structube and pick up the new kitchen table we bought. We figured it might be nice to have two chairs to sit in for our moving weekend...

When we came home (weird..."home!") Ryan worked on setting up a fire for us. It was such a great night; I'll never forget it. We just sat around staring at the fire, eating our little picnic on two mattresses we set up on the floor. We had no TV, no internet, no baby...it was lovely.

Breakfast on Friday morning after picking up Coop, and then it was pretty much all about unpacking the kitchen for me, and unloading boxes from the POD for Ry. 

SO excited about my new dishes!!!

I only took one or two photos of moving day on Saturday before my phone died. I was being called from every floor all day, "Laura, where do you want this?" and I just never had a moment to find my charger. 

We were lucky to have Scott and Rebecca and the girls in town for that weekend! It was a smooth move. Things came in, they got set up, the ladies helped unpack, and someone was always babysitting Cooper :) Dinner was BBQ'd hamburgers, caesar salad, and fruit. 

My oversized clock looked GREAT on the wall!

After a busy moving day we were happy to just get out and do something on Sunday with Scott, Rebecca, and the kids. We stopped by Poutinefest on Sparks Street for lunch and people watching. 

Three types of ketchup. My favourite? The "regular" ketchup. Yup...I'm adventurous. 

Trying to get a photo of three cousins on a bench in the middle of the afternoon was virtually impossible but we tried :)

Ivy's ice cream flavour of choice: blue.

April was good to us. Now we live in Stittsville and we are settled and happy and really just trying to soak up all the good weather we can :)