Piper’s Run ~ Weekend at the Ranch

March 10, 2013 / Anna @ Piper's Run / Leave a comment

Well, maybe not at the Ranch but our weekend went a little something like this:

Friday – crap, I don’t remember what we did. Oh yeah, Hilary and I went to a Baby Cafe and hung out with some mom’s and babies and enjoyed International Women’s Day. Friday night, my husband worked until 10:30 PM, so I just managed the night bouncing back and forth between feedings, bath, bed time, more feedings, bed time and I may have checked my email and Pinterest.

I managed to start cloth diapering Hilary today – very proud of myself as I’ve been struggle to put those darn cute things on her. Sad to say that by Saturday night she had THE worst rash ever. #frustratedmama urgh

Saturday – after a lazy morning we went to our local farmer’s market. Lilly and I shared a pakora and played in a yurt. Once we got home we then shared a lamb samosa – oh my – one of my favourite things to eat. I’m so glad she likes pakora’s and samosa’s – fingers crossed Hilary does too!

I managed to get in a workout at 9:15 PM again! The girls were asleep and I rocked out Level 1 of the 30 Day Shred again. Surprisingly, I am feeling great today – no sore muscles.

Spring forward 1 hour!!!!

Sunday – we slept in until 9am (really, the old 8am with the time change) but it was good. Sai walked our dog, Lilly and I cuddled with Hilary and then started breakfast while Hilary got a few more zzzzz’s. We packed up the car and went to our friends house for an outdoor brunch n’ campfire. It was great. A little cool, snow to play in, campfire, great people (kids and adults) to hang out with and food to fill our bellies. It was a great morning to be outside and we all enjoyed the day; a new year’s resolution completed for this weekend.

We struggled with nap time and bed time because of the time change but really, being an hour behind is okay….we’ll catch up at some point.

And thanks to a Mamaof4, I now know where the Quinoa Bites recipes come from: So Very Blessed. I mentioned in the “Cheesy Quinoa Bites” that my friend had shared the recipe with me but I didn’t know where she got it from. I like to give credit to other blogs because I sure did not come up with either recipe, I just shared them. So Very Blessed is a great blog that I just checked out and now follow – she has WAY more quinoa recipes too…check it out.

Another great weekend in the books!

What did you do this weekend?

Did you get outside?

Have you survived the time change?

Our Monkey Update: 1 & 2 Months Old

February 25, 2013February 24, 2013 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 9 Comments

It’s hard to believe that our little one is 12 weeks old today. It’s been a busy few months and I’m just getting around to finishing this post that has been drafted for a while now!

Hilary @ Day 1

7 lbs 14 oz and 19 1/4 inch long

Hilary Elise

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Hilary @ 1 month Weight: 9 lbs 11 oz Weight – unknown

Hilary 1 month old

Feeding: Nursing every 2-3 hours during the day. We’ve had a hard time nursing but nothing compared to our challenges with Lilly who was born 4 weeks early. We’ve been seeing the lactation consultant at the hospital who’s been nothing but amazing along with seeing an Osteopath. It took a while but we figured out I have Reynaud Syndrome (I’ll let you read more about that) but basically nursing has been extremely painful. I’ve tried all the ~~tricks~~ treatments and am slowly getting better. Let’s just say I can’t wait until warmer weather.

Sleeping really well; seems to be awake more in the afternoon.

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Hilary @ 2 months Weight: 11 lbs 7.5 0z Height: 22 inches long

Hilary 2 months old

Sleeping: Really well at night (I can’t even bring myself to tell you how long but we are VERY lucky). She is napping throughout the day: 2-3 times.

Feeding: Nursing every 2-4 hours during the day and has taken 4/5 bottles from Daddy 🙂 She seems to be getting into a good routine with her feedings and I have managed to figure out her “signs”.

Diapers: Mainly disposables but using newborn Bum Genius cloth diapers when we can.

Developments:

We’ve introduced a dummy (soother) at 5 weeks. She doesn’t love it like her sister but will take it here and there.
Started smiling around 5-6 weeks and now smiles all the time.
Started saying “ah-goo” and what sounds like “hi” around 6-7 weeks.
Looking around at different objects in the room and turning towards people (Mommy, Daddy, Lilly and even Grammy).
She’s working on lifting her head when on her tummy.
Trying to hit objects that are in her way (toys or my face!).
Moves her eyebrows if she finds something interesting (I think).

Clothing: She is starting to not fit into 0-3 month clothing. I’ve had to take out 3-6 month pj’s and onesie’s!!!!

Hates:

Getting in her car seat.
Burping when extremely hungry (Mom, how rude of you to stop me to burp).
Too much tummy time.

Loves:

Colours and Contrasts.
Smiling.
To sleep on her back when wanting to sleep.
Bath time with Mommy, cries when Daddy baths her.

Laying on Daddy’s chest.
Looking at her sister.

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That’s my girl(s)

Lilly and Hilary February 2013 – so much love, xo.

The poor Monkey still doesn’t have a name and that’s okay. I think we’ll wait and let her name it when she’s old enough to do so. We’ll see.

See you at 3 months (next week)!

Three Things Thursday

January 24, 2013 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 3 Comments

Three Things Thursday.

1. I love winter but not this winter. I’m a winter person. I truly love winter: the snow, the cold, x-county skiing, snowshoeing, downhill skiing, sledding, even winter camping! I even worked outside for 5 winters in Ontario teaching skiing and snowshoeing, campfires at night etc.

But not this winter. This winter I am struggling to find the joys in winter, maybe it’s because I have a newborn and don’t want to take her out in the friggin’ cold weather (-14c, feels like -23c today). Or maybe it’s because I am suffering from Raynaud’s Syndrome but not in my hands and feet like normal. This may be too much information but I have it while nursing my baby, yes in my nipples. And, it’s friggin painful and for that I don’t like this winter.

2. Disposable diapers are more appealing than my newborn cloth diapers. We cloth diapered our oldest starting at 2 months and at first I wasn’t sure I really wanted to but went ahead anyway. I LOVED IT! It was actually really easy. So, I thought I would invest in “newborn” diapers for Hilary and bought 12 really cute cloth diapers. They are great diapers don’t get me wrong but I am just finding that disposable diapers (right now) are easier. The downside to using disposables is the garbage pile going off to the landfill – hate that.

I find that these newborn diapers (for sizes 8-12 lbs) would be better for the smaller babies. As Hilary approaches 11 pounds they are getting a little snug and our “one sizes” diapers are still a little big for those tiny legs.

With that said we’ll use these newborn diapers as long as we can, when we can.

Cute little newborn diapers on Hilary

3. I will do my best to put “technology” second to my children. This morning I had the opportunity to spend some time with 4-5 young girls with babies aged 4-6 months old. The one thing I noticed is that they all had cell phones – no surprise there, right?!

Well, I was a little sad or maybe more disappointed that they would take out their phones and respond to a text and then continue to play on their phone while their baby sat and watched the screen. One even seemed frustrated that their baby was in the way of her phone. I understand if you have to answer a call or return a text but to ignore your child but your spending time playing on your phone isn’t cool (to me).

It was then that I agreed to do my best to put my girls first before using technology. Now, I don’t have a cell phone at the moment (had one for work) but I do have a lap top in my kitchen that I quickly check emails, Facebook and yes, WordPress but I do also use it for finding and then making recipes too.

My oldest know’s how to use an iPod because her Grandfather takes pictures and video’s of her and they look at them together. Which is fine by me. She even has a few “play” cell phones and two real phones that family members are no longer using. She carries one around with her, calling her friends and their parents – talks to them and even tries to take pictures. Monkey see, monkey do!

I guess I want my daughters to know that no email,text or message on my phone is more important than them and shouldn’t take my attention away from them; when really, that’s all they want.

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Those are my random thoughts for today.

And……I may or may not be going for a run this weekend! OMG!

🙂

Anyone hating / loving winter this year?

Do you cloth diaper or use disposables? Or both?

What’s your take on using technology in front of your children?

Pregnancy: 37 Weeks!

November 20, 2012 / Anna @ Piper's Run / Leave a comment

Weeks: 37

Age of First Born: Lilly: 29 months (almost 2.5 years)

Baby’s movements: Still extremely active especially in the evenings.

Baby items we bought: Nothing!

Challenges: I could list so many things here but I’ll keep it simple. Picture having a “beach ball” under your belly button. This past weekend, someone at the Farmer’s Market told me I had a perfect beach ball belly – I felt flattered – seriously.

Okay so you have a beach ball attached under your belly button that will not move without you. It kicks and punches you when it wants to, hardens periodically, stops you from bending over in any direction, put’s pressure on every bone and joint in your body like someone is trying to hurt you on purpose. gives you heartburn and indigestion, jumps on your bladder and other organs in your body, cramps up, demands food and water like you’ve never eaten before, takes all your energy until you pass out asleep, keeps you up all night until you check 1-3 items of your to-do-list, invades your rib cage like it’s playing on monkey bars and makes you want to throw up if you don’t take medication to combat the daily nausea.

But, it’s all good. I get a beautiful little baby out of this 9 month commitment – not a beach ball 🙂

Exercise: What’s that? Sad to say it’s minimal walking outside and have been told I need to rest more throughout the day with my feet up.

Food: Still loving red grapes. I’ve been baking and making extra foods to freeze so I can have meals ready to go once the baby does arrive – heck even before the baby arrives.

Foods I’ve made/making:

Banana Maple Oatmeal Cookies (whoops – we already ate these – so much for freezing a few)
Butternut Squash Soup (original and thai style)
Mini Pizza’s (on thin burger buns)
Chili (in the freezer)
(A version) of Olive Garden Pasta E Fagioli Soup (Made two batches – one normal and adapted one to be vegan – let’s just say we have LOTS of this right now.
Banana Bread (we already ate this)
Healthy Granola Bars (making tomorrow)
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. I learned about these from the Hungry Runner Girl, you can find the recipe here – these are amazing!
Vegan pumpkin Banana Muffins

Gender: Unknown – lots of guesses from family members. You can guess here.

Mood: Rather thrilled that we’ve made it to 37 weeks and that our baby will be considered “term” if born anytime now. I’m not bored but am starting to get a little anxious to meet this little one.

Preparation for baby #2: Daily conversations with our daughter, Lilly about the baby. It’s like the baby is already here and Lilly tries to include it in everything: car rides, bath time, cleaning up her toys, folding clothing.

Sleep: I nap every day. It’s the only way I can catch up on sleep from the night before. On weekends, I nap when Lilly naps for 2 hours and week days, I nap when ever I feel like it or happen to fall asleep randomly in the rocking chair.

Still to do: The baby’s room is a disaster. I decided to take a stab at our ~~pile~~ mountain of papers to be shredded yesterday. We’ve (I got my husband involved) managed to overheat the paper shredder three times, fill one blue recycling bag full of shredded paper and make a mess of the baby’s room. Dang! It needs to be cleaned again.

I still need to get my newborn cloth diapers – they are on order and being shipped as we speak. Can’t wait to get my hands on them, wash them a few times (prep) and have them ready to go for baby’s cute little bum. There is nothing cutie then cloth diapers on a tiny bum.

What I am looking forward to: Meeting baby and not being pregnant anymore.

What I miss doing:

Running
Being more active with Lilly
Sleeping all night (I know, I know, I won’t see sleep for a long long time but it WILL happen again)

What I am worried about: I totally forgot how small a newborn is and how to do anything newborn related. When you have a toddler running around, you (I) forget what it’s like to have this small, little baby who’s needs are so different then a 2 year old’s. I think I’m in for a little awakening 🙂

And…..I’m a little freaked out about given birth again! Why, I don’t know. I just am. Lilly’s birth was really fast (less than 4 hours) and it was all natural – no meds. Can I do that again? Guess we’ll have to wait and see. I seriously need to write my birth plan ASAP or I’m not going to be focused when the big moment comes.

Photo

37 weeks with baby #2