a 14 month breastfeeding journey

Blaise has been such a ham these days. It's such a fun {but ridiculously busy} age. He's dropped his morning nap and has started to self-wean from the breast. I'm sad, but also happy about how it seems to be going. I've just sorta let it be whatever it is and the other night he rejected his bedtime nursing so I just cuddled him for a minute and then put him in his crib and left.

Even though he's still not sleeping through the night {so far that's only ever happened once} at least he goes to sleep super easy and will go down for others too.

Last week Jamie and I went out with a bunch of friends to a concert in Hamilton. It was the longest I've left Blaise during the evening. If I'm gone in the day, I'm usually back to put him down for the night. But we left at 4pm and my Mom single handedly fed the boys and put them all down for the night. Even Blaise!

So...weaning. We'll see how it all goes. I'm happy it's lasted this long as he's likely my last biological child and so there's that sentimental part of me that is soaking up every last minute nurturing him from my body {I'm still amazed by this} and wondering when it will be my last time to breastfeed him.

It does make sense that he is self-weaning though, because in the last month and a bit his appetite has increased dramatically. It's like he realized how awesome solid food is and he just can't get enough of it. He still is picky {I would say}, and he definitely has his Mama's sweet tooth, but he eats a lot now. I believe this is the part where we enter the whole "three boys are going to eat us out of house and home" part of life.

So that's my journey so far. It's been incredibly liberating and empowering to be able to breastfeed all three of my boys and to get to the point where I don't feel the need to "cover myself" in public while breastfeeding. I'm so thankful for all the bloggers and friends and online resources I had access to that encouraged me. Oh and living in Uganda. Cuz that was awesome.

Happy 14 months to my baby!

food...and Chicago

So I promised I'd blog about my adventure in Chicagoland and so here I am - feeling slightly tired, but Jamie is still watching the hockey game with Rod (we're in Saskatoon right now - not quite finished our road trip) and I know I'll be awakened if I try to go to sleep before then.
ANYHOO
So first stop on the el-grande road trip was Chicago, IL. That's Illinois to those who aren't familiar with American geography or short forms. I'm learning quite a bit about American geography (of the Northern flavour) and finding it quite fascinating. Well, perhaps not fascinating, but it's always fun to learn new things. Even if it's about the US of A.
So we get to Chicago after a drive of about 8ish hours on the road. We find our Inn - The Inn at Lincoln Park and check-in. Now the Inn at Lincoln Park is an old Inn. From the 1920's I believe. And I'm delighted to find that we are located across the street from my most favourite place in the whole wide world; Panera Bread. My friends, if you have not been introduced to Panera Bread you are missing out indeed. The next time you are in the States please look it up to see if there is one in your area. The most delicious bagels (my recommendations would be Asiago Cheese with Sundried Tomato cream cheese for the savoury lovers and Cinnamon Crunch with Hazelnut Cream Cheese for those who have a sweet tooth) they also have free wireless internet, wonderfully comfortable booths and usually classical or jazz playing softly in the background.
Actually, the Inn at Lincoln Park was in a great location. Beside Panera was Chipotle (a great fast food Mexican place where you make your own burrito or taco and you get HUGE servings) and on the same side of the street as us was Cold Stone Creamery - an incredible ice cream store.
I love food.
Our room was small but totally fine for what we wanted and within walking distance of Wrigley Field where we went to see a Cubs game!
So after a quick bite at Panera for some dinner we made the 15 minute walk to the old and infamous home of the "Cubbies".
The walk itself was great and we passed many great stores with music, vintage clothing and specialty dog treats and outfits. I thoroughly enjoyed the walk.
Wrigley Field was also a lot more exciting than I anticipated. The atmosphere around it was very "fair" like - as in a country fair where they sell peanuts and cotton candy and people have set up street stands selling many a Cub paraphernalia to passersby.
We found out "seats" in the bleachers with - as I was about to discover - the rowdies, or as a random peanut seller called them, the bleacher bums.
Everyone had a beer in his hand (I say "his" because I would guess about 85% of the people in the bleachers were guys with their buddies) and was yelling things to each other, to the players and then yelling more things to each other. I saw 2 "almost" fights break out, 1 guy pass out from being so drunk, 2 guys get escorted out and pretty much everyone shivering from being so cold. Oh I longed for the warmth of the Sky Dome and it's closed roof.
This was very different than any Jays game I had ever been to.
The Cubs players in the outfield often threw the practice balls into the crowd and interacted quite regularily with the fans in the bleachers. Even players on the opposing team (this time it was the Brewers) would give dirty looks or bend over and give us a fake moon. It was hilarious. We left after the 8th inning when the Cubs were down 3-0 and the rain was no longer a light drizzle, but steadily coming down.
The adventure didn't end there, though.
That night in our tiny Inn room something happened to the boiler and our heater (one of those old-school radiators covered in a metal frame box painted white) would NOT turn off or down. It was pumping out heat like we were living in Alaska. I was so hot but we were on the first floor and our window had no screen and needed to be propped open to stay open or else it would slam shut.
I did not sleep well that night.
But it was all part of the adventure and for the most part I don't think my mood was soured. I think it was probably because I knew that in the morning I would get to go to Panera and enjoy a delicious Cinnamon Crunch bagel.
We did go to Panera the next morning, surfed the 'net and savoured every last bite of our bagels.
So that's my long winded Chicago tale.
Currently we are enjoying beautiful Saskatoon with the Alm's and I, for one, am glad we didn't go through and stay in Moose Jaw.
More on our road trip when I am less tired.
And pictures to come too.

a moment

That's all it takes for your life to be changed.
There are many moments that can completely alter the course of your life.
Last night I had a potential moment. And it shook me.
Jamie and I were driving home from Toronto and we were in Guelph but on a side road coming up to Victoria.
It was snowy and slippery. One of our wheels caught either the outside of the road with snow on it, or the inside "track" of snow. We swerved and were heading straight for an SUV that was barrelling down on the other side of the road. My heart literally caught in my throat. I didn't have time to really think a coherent thought, but I felt like this was one of those moments where everything would change.
But thankfully...it didn't. Jamie swerved to the right and our car spun out on the side of the road. I thought we were headed for a ditch.
But we weren't.
We landed in a driveway facing out to the road.
The DVD player stopped playing John Mayer.
Jamie and I looked straight ahead and then at each other.
I asked if he was ok.
Then I said we should check if the car was ok.
It's more or less ok.
Some part that doesn't look like it does anything fell off (sorta, it was half off so Jamie pulled it completely off) so we picked it up and put it in the trunk.
And then John Mayer found his place and picked up again.
And so did we.
On our way home, Jamie prayed and thanked God for rescuing us from a potentially fatal accident. As he was praying this I noticed he was driving 20 km over the speed limit.
So after he said amen I told him to drive the speed limit.

fire!

A story for your reading pleasure:

I was just about to down the rest of my 1% milk after finishing an oh-so-healthy dinner of mac n' cheese (extra cheesy) when the blaring sound of the fire alarm interupted me. I looked up at my husband and he looked at me and we both shrugged it off as a false alarm (after telling this to Kirsten she smiled and said "And that's why people die in fires." True enough). Then we heard the sound of footsteps and yelling so we peeked outside and saw people running out the back door. Jamie asked if there really was a fire and a man said "Yes, it's in my apartment!"
The moment of truth came upon us.
What would we take with us?
We both put on our jackets and shoes and Jamie mentionned that he wanted to take our tv with him. I said no dice.
So we walked out the back door and looked up to the third floor (our apartment is on the first/bottom floor). We could see a glow of amber from the blazes coming through the kitchen window. Black smoke was seeping out of the first window and one of our neighbours was standing in her pajamas holding a baby talking to a 911 operator.
And now I must say that I have the utmost respect and admiration for (as Jamie says) our city's finest (aka our firefighters). Within 5 minutes of that phone call there were 3 fire trucks, 2 ambulances, 1 pick up truck with flashing lights (I'm not entirely sure what it was) and a cop car! Mercy!
Those brave dudes tromped upstairs and put out that fire. By this time, all 4 windows of that apartment were black and even more smoke was seeping out. The firefighters opened the balconey door and windows of the bedrooms and black smoke just billowed out. It was quite amazing. For a moment...I felt a wave of fear and sorrow. I'm not sure why...I think it was because I felt compassion for the man and all his belongings
One little girl was scared - or so I thought. Turns out she was crying because she thought all her books would get burned up. Hoorah for education.
All in all, our apartment was fine (and so was our cat - we actually didn't go back in to get him...is that bad?) but I have no idea about the apartment with the fire. I assume it was pretty bad.
So that was my little bit of entertainment for the evening/week.
Some thoughts:
- I should definitely consider getting renters insurance
- I liked that I got to meet some of my neighbours. What a way to bring the community together.
- I think being a firefighter would be scary. Full of risks, the unknown and dangerous situations.
- Despit not taking any material possessions with me, I would have been really sad if my things had been damaged/destroyed.
- I like having a "story" to tell.

I tried to post pictures but blogger isn't co-operating, so I will try and update this post again maybe tomorrow with pictures.