The first year

I can't believe that my baby turned one a couple weeks ago ! I feel like she was just born ...sometimes feel a slight sadness when I look at her newborn pictures , yet at the same time I love watching her grow and learn ! I love that she has a little personality now and is so much fun ! I used to dream of being a mom ... I wanted a little person who would love me and call
Me 'mama.' I wanted a girl that I could dress up and hang out with ... A mama's girl ... And that's exactly what I got . One thing I was not prepared for in motherhood was the intensity of love that I would have for my baby . Nothing can really prepare you for that love ... An unimaginable love . It's a love that makes you no longer be able to listen to stories of children starving , abused , dying , etc ... Without shedding a few tears of your own because you can't imagine that happening to your own child . It's a love that causes your heart to break when your child is hurting ... A love that causes you to worry about if you are making the right decisions for your child . A love that grows more each day and makes you feel like your heart may just burst ! Sometimes I look into her little face and feel like the luckiest girl in the world ! My maternity leave ended about a month ago and my heart breaks to think about if I had to go back to work. I tell my husband often but I don't think he will ever understand just how thankful I truly am that he's allowed me to be a stay at home mom . He works SO hard so that I can stay home and do my dream job. Sure some days are tiring , and some days I watch the clock counting the minutes until 'daddy' gets home , some days I think of all the free time that I used to have , and some days I wish I could just sit down and read a book ALL day. But every day I get to wake up to a smiling little face , I get to hear the sweetest giggle in the world , I get to take her to the park and on walks , I get to show her off and feel SO proud ! I get to chase her around , I get to teach her new things and watch her grow ... I get to be her mama and it's better than anything I could have ever imagined . I am so thankful to God for blessing me with my wonderful husband and beautiful daughter ! It's been one of the best years of my life !

What no one ever told me about being a mom

Madisyn Elise Rajaratnam was born on August 14, 2014 at 7:45 P.M weighing 7lbs 11 oz.

I used to always dream about having my own little baby! I am absolutely LOVING being a stay at home mom. You think that you are prepared to take on the world, you read all the parenting books, have accumulated HOURS of practice from babysitting, and have listened to all the advice that others feel the need to give. But I learned that after ALL that, there are so many things that no one ever told me about being a mom...

1. No one ever told me that I would go through a RIDICULOUS amount of diapers! Yes, I was told that I would go through a lot of diapers. I was not told that my child will now never be able to go to college because her college fund has been spent on diapers ;). I was not told that you can change a diaper and in a matter of SECONDS, she already needs to be changed AGAIN before you have even taken her off the change table! 

2. No one ever told me that long showers during the day would be a thing of the past...Sometimes even SHORT showers don't happen....some days I'm still in my pyjamas in the afternoon. 

3. No one ever told me that every evening before bed would be a battle. Baby is so tired yet does NOT want to sleep. She is changed, she is fed, but she will cry and fight sleep...every night. 

4. No one ever told me that such a little baby could grunt SO LOUD at night to the point of me sleeping with a pillow over my head and complaining to hubby "HOW can you sleep through her grunting and WHY does she have to grunt and make all these noises?" 

5. No one ever told me that a baby can be fast asleep and then the second I'm about to start eating dinner she suddenly wakes up and decided that she is hungry....and she is hungry NOW!!

6. No one ever told me exactly HOW MUCH laundry I would be doing. 

                                                                   BUT...

1. No one ever told me the insurmountable love that I could have for this tiny person. That I would do ANYTHING in the world for her and try protect her from anything that will ever hurt her.

2. No one ever told me that I would check on her numerous times during the night to make sure she is still breathing because I already worry about her. 

3. No one ever told me that her cry would absolutely BREAK my heart. 

4. No one ever told me that some days I would spend hours cuddling her because I just can't bring myself to put her down. 

5. No one ever told me that I could just stare into her little eyes all day. 

6. No one ever told me that I would be one of "those" moms- where every little thing that my baby does is absolutely adorable and MUST be documented by a picture or video. 

7. No one ever told me that I would get so teary-eyed every time I think of my baby getting bigger.

8. No one ever told me just how serious they were when they said "Enjoy your time with them, they grow up too fast!" My baby is only a month old and I can already say...she really is growing up too fast! 

9. No one ever told me that I could fall even MORE in love with my husband after seeing how sweet he is with our daughter 

10. No one ever told me just how much I would love being a mom.

Summer 2014

I can't believe it is already halfway through August! This summer has gone by WAY too fast! (and been way too rainy if you ask me ha ha) My pregnancy app says I have 3 days left until my due date! Say WHAT? 3 days! I have been impatiently waiting for baby to come for the last 3 weeks. It's a cruel cruel thing to tell a big pregnant woman suffering in the heat of summer that her baby is full term at 37 weeks and can come any day now...Baby's nursery is finished, prenatal classes are complete, diapers are bought! I think we are ready ;). I look forward to the day I no longer have to visit every public bathroom (or make special trips to Target when I'm out JUST so I can use their nice clean bathroom! ). I also look forward to the day I can get out of bed easily again without thinking of how useful it would have been to hire a crane to help me up through these last few months ha ha. And I'm sure Jonny looks forward to the day when I stop dropping things on the floor, deciding whether or not it's important enough to bend down and pick up, and more often than not end up leaving it on the floor for him to pick up when he gets home from work! ;) But most importantly, I look forward to the day I get to meet our baby!!!! I have spent months dreaming of what she will be like and look like and I get to find out so soon! I can't wait!!

Well there was no Caribbean vacation for us this year ;) but we did take a mini trip to Muskoka for 2 nights :)! We had big plans to go canoeing, spend some time on the beach, and enjoy the outdoor pool and hot tub. But our one full day there was FREEZING and rainy. It didn't just drizzle, it poured! I didn't even take a sweater with me since I THOUGHT it was supposed to be summer ;) so poor Jonny gave me his sweater like the awesome hubby he is! We decided to be brave and go canoeing anyways...because of the rain there were lots of waves and the canoe was extremely tippy. We were pretty sure we were going to end up in the cold lake...so after 5 mins of canoeing we gave up. We then decided to swim in the pool, surely it would feel warm to us if it was so cold out....nope, pool was not heated and it was freezing! So we spent the whole day cuddled up in bed watching movies together which wasn't quite what we had planned but it was still nice to have a couple of quiet days together. We sat on the dock and watched the sunset and laughed hysterically about the silliest things.

A couple of weeks ago we decided to go to a baseball game and make use of the little bit of freedom we have left before baby comes ;). I asked Jonny if he could book us end seat tickets (due to frequent bathroom breaks ha ha) so he booked us tickets in the top section in row 31.  We did NOT realize just how high up row 31 was! We started walking up to our row...and it kept getting higher and higher and higher! I was GRIPPING that hand rail like my life depended on it...yup 36 weeks pregnant and I was getting out of breath FAST! I got to row 28 and thought "I can't make it up another step!", but we finally made it up to our seats where I quickly sat down, gripped the sides of my seat and said "ummmmm, we are WAY too high up." Poor Jonny apologized profusely about making me walk so far, even though it was my fault we were so high up because I was the one who wanted end seats ...though I had already decided I was NOT taking any bathroom breaks because that would involve walking down...and then back up again! We did find amusement in watching other people walk up to their seats...people were huffing and puffing and sitting down halfway taking breaks. I can't say I enjoyed the first bit of the game but rather gripped my seat and pictured myself walking back down those steps and tripping and falling over the edge of the bleachers to my death. (I'm not even kidding....it looked SO steep from where I was sitting). About halfway through the game we decided to go get some snacks (& take that bathroom break that I couldn't hold off on anymore). While Jonny was waiting for me he went and found one of the employees and said "my wife is 36 weeks pregnant and we are in row 31, I really don't want to make her walk up all those steps again." (my prince :D) so she  moved us down to row 12...where I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the game! It was definitely an experience and we have now learned to never book tickets so high up ever again! ha ha

Well that has basically been the extent of my summer fun :). I have been on maternity leave for a while now and am getting very restless and bored at home, so I'm hoping that changes soon ;). At least I have had time to get lots of reading done, which if you ask me, is the best way to spend a summer! :)

The Countdown is On....

Well the countdown is on! 11 weeks 1 day until my due date! Every time I see the count down on my pregnancy app I have a mini heart attack! We are not ready for baby yet! The nursery is not finished, we have no diapers for baby yet, and no car seat to even take her home in! Yup I'm gonna have a diaper-less baby that they won't even let me bring home from the hospital if I don't start baby shopping soon!

Well, at least she will have shoes! ha ha. We are supposed to start prenatal classes at the end of this month so we are looking forward to that and hoping we feel a little more prepared after some classes. ( I am VERY thankful that I will have my mom close by to help me out in those first few days though!)


We have been keeping busy....as usual....oh the joys of home ownership. We never imagined that our house would be such a fixer-upper and although stressful at times, I love being able to help Jonny out with the house and he loves to be able to learn new things! But sometimes, I feel like we just have bad luck with house things....Our last project was planting grass seed...We planned to put sod in our backyard last weekend and then found out how much it would cost to sod our entire backyard (OUCH)... so we decided grass seed was a better way to go! We went into Canadian Tire only to find a million different types of grass seed and absolutely no idea which one to buy. So I convinced Jonny to ask the employee for help.

Jonny: What's the difference between these 2 types of seed?
Employee: Ummmmm, they are the same.
(yet such a big price difference??)
Jonny: Is there a certain seed that will grow better on soil that is somewhat clay-like?
Employee: Ummmmm, all the seeds will grow grass.

Ha ha Canadian Tire Employee for the win! :S Then a very nice customer overheard our conversation and helped us pick our grass seed. I think Mr. Random Customer needs to put in an application to Canadian Tire;). Here is our before picture (even before we took a week to level and cultivate the soil).

My maternity leave starts July 1st so I really hope by then I am able to post a picture of a grassy backyard... because I really would like to be able to lay in my backyard....every day...all day ;). So here's to keeping our fingers crossed that we have good luck with grass growing, considering I am treating those grass seeds like they are my baby and keeping them watered 3 times a day without fail! ;) 

I absolutely love this beautiful weather we have been having lately! Last week Jonny and I decided to visit some garage sales in search of some treasure. (I LOVE garage sales)! We must have been to at least 15 garage sales...all within 5 minutes of our house! I love garage sale season! I have been spending lots of time in my garden this summer and am being rewarded with lots of flowers blooming! This makes me very happy considering last summer we had only ONE flower bloom....(and I pulled enough weeds to feed a whole third world nation-if they were edible that is)!

The Countdown is also on for my last month of work! (Only 8 shifts to go...woohoo!!) Bending over is getting just THAT much harder and I spent an 8 hour shift with a patient who repeatedly took her shoes off .....and then wanted them back on only minutes later. As I bent over for the gazillionth time to put her shoes on AGAIN my patience began to wear very thin ;)! I didn't even want to put my own shoes on for days after that because it felt like such a chore after all my shoe tying that shift. ha ha!

Jonny & I are planning a 3 day getaway for sometime this summer before baby comes. A babymoon! Still deciding where to go but I'm looking forward to it all the same!! :) No Cuba trip for me this yr though            :(....maybe next yr? :)

Hello World!

Wow! I have a lot of catching up to do. I will try my best to remember the highlights of the last 6 months! :)

Well first of all, we got a new addition added to the family a few months ago! 

Her name is Izzy and she is my baby. She is 3 years old. (Jonny's relatives were looking for a new home for her and I'm so happy they picked us to keep her!) Her first 2 weeks with us were....interesting....very interesting. We felt like we had a newborn baby! She didn't sleep but always would meow and jump on us and wake us up when we were trying to sleep! Thankfully she has settled down and now lets us sleep through the night ha ha! She is a very hyper cat and has this thing where she always runs right in front of you so you almost trip over her. She cries in the mornings until I pick her up. But she also is officially my guard cat, the other day Jonny was bothering me and I was faking that I was hurt saying "ow, ow, ow!!!" and she came running to me faster than I have ever seen her run to see if I was ok! She does this every time I stub my toe on the bed (which really happens way more times than it should) and any other time I call out "ow!" 

She and I are the best of friends! 

Well, we also get ANOTHER addition added to the family in August! We are expecting our first baby on August 16 and we are ABSOLUTELY thrilled!! 

I am just over 16 weeks pregnant and I THINK (fingers crossed) that I may finally be past the morning sickness! I was lucky in the sense that I didn't get my morning sickness(more like ALL day sickness)  until 8 weeks, but seriously the last 2 months felt like the longest months of my ENTIRE life. I may or may not have googled "pregnancy sucks" numerous times just to read about other people who were also miserably sick....somehow it made me feel better ;) (Don't get me wrong...I know some people can't have kids and I don't take the blessing of pregnancy lightly, I am SO thankful, but when your head and the toilet become the best of friends it's sometimes hard to be positive lol)! I craved fruit all the time but baby clearly did not....I craved vegetables but once again, baby clearly did not....so I spent the last 2 months living on mac & cheese, pop tarts, and basically any type of cake, cookies, or muffins that were loaded with sugar! :S Needless to say, as of 3 days ago, I was brave enough to try a kiwi...and IT STAYED DOWN! Then I tried a plum.... AND IT STAYED DOWN!!!!! yup happiest girl in the world! I can finally eat my fruit again! yummmm!!! So now that I am feeling better I'm really looking forward to these next months of pregnancy!!! Now if only my baby belly would grow a little so I could look pregnant rather than like I ate far too many donuts lately! ;) And in 2 weeks today we get to find out if we will be buying pink or blue! 

Well work is going well for  Jonny  Today Jonny starts his job as team manager! (yes, he got another promotion). I am SOOOOO proud of him and I know he will make a fabulous manager. 

I know I have had more highlights in these last 6 months than I can remember but can we blame it on pregnancy brain? I'm totally drawing a blank here so that's all for now :) 

Summer 2013

I have not blogged for 5 and a half months...yes FIVE and a half months!!! I am terrible with keeping up with my blog! Well this has been ONE of the best summers of my life. I got to go on 2 vacations AND bought a house! But let's rewind to vacation number one :) Jonny took me to Cuba for our 1st anniversary. I seriously CANNOT believe that we have been married for a year. We decided last year on our honeymoon that we would go on a SECOND honeymoon for our first anniversary...so we did! :) 

Cuba was ABSOLUTE bliss. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to be born in the Caribbean somewhere and there was a slight mix up and I ended up in cold snowy Canada . ;) We had a week of laying in the sun and swimming. Cuba officially has the most beautiful beaches that I have EVER seen! I think I must have said "pictures just don't do it justice" about 20 times a day that eventually Jonny started reciting it with me every time I started to say it! ha ha ha ... 

It was nice to get away for a bit and enjoy some time alone together without Jonny's phone ringing every couple minutes (he gets more phone calls than anyone I have ever known lol) :) Ahhh...I think I'm ready for another vacation to Cuba :). We got home from Cuba and got the keys to our house 5 days later! I had been packing up the apartment since January because I was HOPING we would get a house soon :). So I did have a head start on my packing at least :) We were so happy to get the keys to our VERY own house :) 

even though they gave us our keys at 2...and we excitedly drove over to OUR house only to find that the previous owners were still there...and their moving truck was 4 hours late :S. So we came back at six, when they HAD to be out....and they STILL were not out...so Jonny and I sat in the car...and looked at OUR house and had some funny conversations of us going into the house and locking the owners out and claiming everything that was still inside as our own...ha ha cuz TECHINCALLY it was our house at that point...but we waited patiently :) Our house has kept us busy. The first week consisted of sanding and staining floors and painting. For 2 people who have never stained floors before, Jonny & I had an interesting time at first. After many youtube videos and visits to home depot , we were ready to begin...our first room took SIX hours...and it was a small room. We were under a time deadline since the floors had to have time to dry before we moved our things in. We had to be out of our apartment in 3 days and we were starting to feel the pressure. I may or may not have shed a few tears over my freshly painted walls that got stain splashed on them :( It had been a LOOOOONG night lol. After another trip to home depot and a very helpful employee, our second attempt at staining went SO much better :) We were excited to have a finished basement...only to find a slight problem that caused us to have to rip half our basement walls out :S ...ahhh so is life :S ;) So our basement is currently under construction and we have a junk pile that is taller than me in our backyard....whaaaat? you mean I actually have a backyard under that huge junk pile?? Yes, I see a couple trips to the dump in our near future ;) . Our house is keeping us busy but we love having our own place. 

At the beginning of August we got to go on Vacation #2 with Jonny's family to Ohio. We got to go to the Creation Museum, got to see Wicked, and went to a wedding. I also have a new "first" to share. My "first" time wearing a saree!!! 

I was so thankful that I had my mother in law to dress me that morning.... How people dress themselves in sarees I will never know! Well for a girl who hated curry only a few years ago, I now find myself CRAVING curry...and wearing a saree! When I'm out shopping by myself sometimes and I see random Sri Lankin people I usually look over and smile at them thinking "we have a connection"....and then I realize they are probably wondering why this random white girl is smiling at them :S ha ha . Amazing what marriage can do to you! I love it.  

Jonny & I went to the CNE last Saturday as our last "summer trip." We look forward to the CNE every year! Jonny wanted to buy a broom or mop this year (they always have such cool things there) so we went to EVERY SINGLE broom and mop demonstration...everyone claimed that THEIR broom/mop was the BEST....but we did end up leaving the CNE with a broom much to Jonny's excitement. (ha! now maybe he will help me SWEEP more....I am SOOOOO kidding, Jonny is SUCH a help with housework...love him) .We bought some pizza and orange pop for lunch. We had about a third of our pop left and Jonny put it in his pocket and we continued shopping. As we were at the counter buying our fudge then Jonny looked down at the orange pop sitting on the counter and said "how did that get here, oh nevermind I guess I just put it up there ha ha" So we bought our fudge and walked away. Jonny offered me a drink of pop so I had a bit and then he finished off the bottle. I threw the bottle in the garbage...we stepped outside...and Jonny pulled OUR orange pop out of his pocket....WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT???? WHAAAAAAAAAAAT? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT????? 

we...just....drank....somebody....else's...pop....

WE JUST DRANK SOMEBODY ELSE'S POP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am an OFFICIAL germaphobe after working at the hospital and we JUST DRANK SOME RANDOM PERSON'S POP!

I mayyyyyyy have slugged Jonny in the arm at that point and said "HOW COULD YOU NOT FEEL A BIG BOTTLE OF POP IN YOUR POCKET????"

Jonny says "uhhhhh....I thought it was our water bottle?"

Grrrrrrrrrrr.....so the REST of the day may have been spent pointing out the particularly slobbery children who you would NOT want to drink after or other such people ...ha ha ha ....uggggh I'm still waiting to see symptoms of the contagious disease that I must have contracted....

Well, that about sums up my summer......with a few lessons learned

1. Vaca to the Caribbean is a MUST

2. Never wear a saree unless you have your M-I-L to dress you ;)

and MOST importantly

3. ALWAYS check to see if there is a pop bottle in your pocket BEFORE you pick up some random SLOBBERLY child's pop bottle and continue to DRINK from it and allow their GERMS to manifest inside of you and grow a nasty GERM tree

Sisters by birth-- Friends by choice!

Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of.  You know whatever you do, they'll still be there.  ~Amy Li

Our roots say we're sisters, our hearts say we're friends.  ~Author Unknown

 I had an awesome time hanging out with my sisters the last few weeks!!!....but now they have both gone back home, so the nostalgia kicks in. We played games for hours, laughed, reminisced.... 

I remember one afternoon my sisters and I going out to the shed in the back of our big backyard to play "house". One of us (yaaa I think it was me :S) slammed the shed door shut only to find that when we tried to open it, the door had latched shut from the outside and we were locked in. After what felt like HOURS of yelling we eventually got rescued by a neighbour.... my sisters never let me forget that I was the one who locked us in....that's PROBABLY why they used to tie me up to the big pole in our basement every time my parents went out. Ha ha.  I had lots of practice getting out of the ropes,  just to have them tie me up again!! It was one of the many joys of being the youngest....kind of like when we played house and I ALWAYS had to be the "baby".....or the pet. ;) 

I remember one time when we went to a big craft store and Sister #1 (I will leave you guessing as to WHO sister #1 is) ;) was leaning right over a huge barrel of pom-poms, when Sister #2 (who would not want her name revealed ha ha) saw an opportunity that couldn't be passed up. She pushed Sister #1 and she fell head first into the barrel of pom-poms! We had come right from school so we were all wearing our uniforms....a pleated, wrap around kilt....not your ideal thing to wear if you are planning on taking a nose dive into a barrel of pom poms! I looked up to see a huge barrel with two kicking legs sticking out of the top of it. Sister #2 could not pull her out...she was STUCK, so I had to run to get my mom to help pull her out. Ya there were pom-poms EVERYWHERE by the time we rescued her. This story still strikes me as just as funny as the day it happened...it usually comes to my mind when I'm in a serious setting...when it is inappropriate to laugh...not sure why that always happens!

We had fun playing dolls and barbies together. I had fun pulling the head of my Jenn's doll. It was fixable, don't worry...I THINK it was an accident ;). Alyssa had fun sitting on my FAVOURITE doll's head. Thank goodness that was fixable too. Jenn & I had fun helping Alyssa's barbie "jump" out of the tree fort. Unfortunately THAT was not fixable. So we took the path of brilliance and temporarily fixed the barbie's head so the next time Alyssa played with it, she thought that she broke it....Sorry Alyssa :(. 

These are only a few of my many memories with my sisters. Things weren't always perfect between us... but we became the BEST of friends...!! I miss the days when there was only a wall in between as instead of many, many miles. When I need to talk to someone or have big news to tell, my sisters are the first ones who I call!  I am so thankful for my awesome sisters! Although we don't get to see each other nearly as often as we used to because of distance and the business of life, I feel we appreciate our visits together even more because of it. I am so blessed to have two sisters who are my very best friends!