Phew! I've got a lot of catching up to do. So much has happened in the last two months, I'm not even sure of where to begin. Looking through pictures, we'll just go in order...
- December 1st was our first annual Gingras family Christmas pyjama (spell check says this how to spell it, but it looks wrong to me) dance party. With our fall family ball being such a hit (I just realized that I forgot to blog about that, I posted it on facebook) we decided to combine our pj tradition with a dance party. Everyone rocked out new pjs and we bought a fun light ball and a bunch of glow sticks and danced the evening away. Unfortunately, I was unable to actually dance as I suffered an awful case of pelvic mis-alignment for the bulk of December and wasn't even mobile enough to lift Micah. David stayed home from work the entire month to help me at home and chauffeur me to the many appointments I had trying to resolve the issue. I am happy to say that aside from minor nursing/posture pain, I am recovered.
- December 20th was our 9th yellow day. It's a funny little tradition that we continue to carry out.
- December 20th we went in for fetal assessment (baby was breach and we wanted to be sure she turned) and found out who our Gingras baby was. We shared the news with our littles and had a little celebration.
- December 25th, of course we celebrated Christmas. We had our handmade gifts that we were excited to give our littles. Dance ribbons, jewelry box, bean bag toss with 6 bean bags, plus all the gifts that friends and family sent. It was chaotic and memorable. David spent the afternoon cooking a wonderful ham dinner which I could barely eat as I was I labour.
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| I didn't wrap any gifts this year, we just used these Santa sacks I found at the dollar store. |
- December 25th, 11:21 PM Hannah Noëlle was born at St. Boniface hospital. My midwife went on leave at the beginning of December and I was "assigned" a new midwife. Julia Allen, if you ever read this, YOU ARE AWESOME! I am so grateful for Julia and I hope she has just as great help when she delivers her new baby this spring.
- We spent New Year's eve at home and it all seemed so quiet.
- David began potty training Malachi. He must have been ready because he has had very few accidents in comparison with our Abby when we first tried to train her. The difference in potty training a boy vs. a girl? You have to do laundry not because you've run out of clean underwear, but because you've run out of clean super hero capes.
- January 11th we received a call that sent us reeling. I don't want to share much about it here, as it feels really personal, but David's dad, Richard passed away. This sent us into a whirlwind of planning for the unexpected trip to Alberta.
- January 15th we attempt to leave for Alberta only to have to turn around due to terrible weather/road conditions. The rest of the day and well into that evening were spent tending to a sick family. Flu hit in full force - yuck! Thankfully it was a short lived sickness and we found we were ready when the roads opened up to leave the next day. FYI, our van is a dream to travel in!!!
- We stayed at the Days Inn in Regina... they have a great family suite that our littles especially loved. Side note, it's really difficult to book a single room for a family our size. If we couldn't get this family suite, we'd be forced to pay for two rooms due to capacity issues.
- We had to postpone Abby's birthday party, we did get to celebrate her with family, which was a special treat. Grandma June and Abby baked cakes, we took her to West Edmonton Mall Waterpark, on a visit to the Santa Maria replica and she got one ride at Galaxyland plus a special dinner with Mama, Papa and Hannah. It was a full day. Just wait until you see what she got for her birthday. (That will follow in another post.)
- Hannah is already a month old! Wow! It's been a crazy roller-coaster of a ride, but we are now settling in to find our new "normal" (whatever that looks like).
Yup, a lot has happened. I have at least a dozen projects in my head I want to get to, a family retreat to help plan and life to live. We'll see how we adjust to our new "normal", but I'm sure it's all going to be quite adventurous. Until next time,
