Christmas of another kind...

Our 2nd Christmas with Maya wasn't really what we were hoping it would be...

My parents arrived Dec 14 and within 2 days, my dad was quite ill with a cold, sore thoat, fever, etc. Within a few more days, the rest of us were sick with the same cold and, in my case, a sinus infection as well. The 5 of us spent the majority of our 12 days together holed up inside the house.

We managed a brief outing to Van Dusen gardens to see the beautiful light displays and another one to the Granville Island kids market but Maya didn't get to see Santa. The only photos I have of her in her Christmas dress were taken one morning after her fever briefly broke. The rest of the pics are from Christmas morning where most of us took turns 'resting' to recover from fatigue and looking after Maya.

Oh well...

Memories...

I've been looking back at the blog entries that I made just one short year ago. I've also been looking at all of the YouTube videos we had posted up to this time last year. Maya has changed SOOOO much! It's wonderful to see how much she's grown, changed & developed. Maya loves watching these videos too and squeals excitedly 'That's baby Maya!!! Play it again!' So cute...

Maya's memories are really developing too. At breakfast this moring she said that Lyn (caregiver) wasn't going to be at daycare today. Sure enough, when we arrived, Lyn wasn't in. They must have mentioned it on Friday and Maya remembered! At least once a week, Maya holds up her toothbrush and says 'Doctor Charmaine gave me this!'. Maya had her dentist appointment 5 weeks ago! On the weekend, Maya held up a red t-shirt and said 'Emma gave me this!' Emma is my friend Leanne's daughter and they came to BC to visit us in September. September!! On occasion, she'll hold up her teddy bear and say 'Joshua gave me this!'. She got the bear from Joshua for her 2nd birthday - in May! How is it that a 30-month-old can have a memory like this?!

I'm REALLY going to have to watch what I say in the years to come because she's going to remember it (and likely use it against me)...

Yesterday...

I could start singing the Beatles song but I can't sing so I'll spare you. Maybe I'll hum. 'Yesterday, dum, dum, all my troubles hum hum hum hum-hummmm...."

It's been 4 months since my last posting. 4 months! Can you believe it? I can't... So much has changed since then so instead of giving you a long monologue about our occurances, I'll summarize them:
-Yesterday, our girl turned 2 1/2 (going on 12)!
-M has grown 1" since September but has only gained 2 lbs since Feb. Tall & skinny!
-M started a new Daycare September 1 and loves it
-M speaks in complete sentences now and understands abstract ideas. Wow! She is so far advanced over her daycare playmates that we wonder if she's challenged enough. Time will tell...
-We finally got M's Nexus card which was the last bit of documentation we needed to get for her. Yeah!
-We go swimming with M every Monday and she's become a complete water-baby jumping off the pool edge without assistance & swimming under water
-We took M skating 2 weeks ago and within 45min went from not standing up to standing and shuffling. Such fun!
-We took M tobogganing today and she is a speed junkie too. Was going down on her tummy, alone, head-first. Skeleton athelete in the making for Olympics 2026.
-John has 2 businesses now and is considering starting a 3rd.
-John was sent by PMI to Washington, DC to speak at a national PMI conference in October. Whoot, Whoot!
-I trained for and completed a sprint distance triathlon in September. Yeah me.
-I've signed up and have begun training for an Olympic distance triathlon in April (which will be held in Kona, Hawaii - Holla!)
-I'm in phase 2 of my Project Management course and will be done Dec 8
-I haven't started studying for my PMP course yet. Big surprise!
-We've spent lots & lots of time with friends and are planning on spending lots more with them over the holidays. (Come January though we'll be sick of y'all!)

That's all I could come up with in my short 5 minute writing sprint.
More later...
Christine

(BTW, please post a comment or send me an email as I'm interested to know how many of you have dropped off and don't check this blog any more. After 4 months of neglect, it can only be expected)

Passport

Maya's Canadian Passport arrived this week! We're now free to flee the country with her. Not that we will... but we could!

Re-infection

Well, the course of anti-biotics that I took last week to 'cure' my infected throat, sinus and ears didn't work. 4 days after the meds finished, I started feeling symptoms again so it was back to the doctor. Sure enough, he confirmed that the infections are back so I have to take another, and longer, course of anti-biotics this time. The good news is that I don't have to completely stop my training this time. Swims will be limited but my running & cycling can continue as I see fit. Yeah!

Triathlon Training

My Triathlon training was going well... right up to last week. I wasn't feeling well for several days and so, finally, went to see the doctor. It turns out that my 'summer cold' was a throat, sinus & ear infection! I'm on antibiotics and training has been put on hold but only for this week. I'll be back at it next week...

Check out my training progress, or if you want to sponsor me and help fight blood cancers, please go to my website:
http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2611998

Canada Day

Maya's first Canada Day as a citizen was mellow. Due to multiple reasons, our plans for the day fell-through so we just took things easy. With the weather being as drizzly and cool as it was, it didn't really motivate us to do much anyway. Erinn & Ryan has slept over the night before. When they awoke, they were craving Dim Sum which suited us just fine so we packed up the whole family and headed out. After Dim Sum and Maya's nap, we walked over to the Clark Park kids party to see what was going on over there. The games and bouncy things were packed with older kids so we didn't bother to put Maya inside - she'd be crushed. She did want a pony ride but, once on it, wasn't thrilled and promptly wanted back off. She was content with swinging on the swing she always swings on. Home for a BBQ, bath and bed then mom & dad sat outside with some wine. Mellow, but nice...