who will catch us as we fall

i was at the library last week, and only had a few minutes to select a new book. it's been a while since i've had to choose a new book, since the last 5ish i've read were either given, lent or recommended to me. i'm not great at picking a book cold, so i stuck to the featured book section, and picked one of the librarian recommended ones. when i first started it, i wasn't sure if i was going to get into it, but i have and am really enjoying it. 

goggles

on the weekend, i bought each of our parents (my mom, dad and mother-in-law) a book called "all about me – a DIY memoir" to record stuff about their lives. it asks a variety of questions, and i want to have all this info (random, and nonsensical) to have as a keepsake. my dad turns 72 today, so i wanted to give it to him so he has lots of time to work on it. i told him, that it's a project we can do together. i'm going to give my mom and nancy's theirs later this week. i'm excited to have these mementos. they're kind of like the opposite of baby books :p 

i bought eamon a backpack from MEC last week, and it arrived today. it was 30% off, and a nice/quality little bag. it arrived today, and it made me really excited. i think i'm in-love with the thought of this being the first of many MEC backpacks. hopefully when he's an adult, he'll get a big travel pack and have many adventures of his own. maybe he and otis will travel together! i'm do damn proud of them :) they're starting to become such neat little buddies for each other. 

we've leased our main street house! hooray!

imma getting ready!

i've prematurely flipped our calendar to april, because then i can properly countdown to our trip to mexico in 3.5 weeks. i'm excited and am starting to think about what to bring, and what we (if anything) we need to buy. 

i was on the mec website the other day (looking for something else), when i found a great kids backpack on sale. so i got that for eamon for when he starts school in 6 months, but thought it would be a great carry-on bag for him too. 

i want to keep things simple. bring only toys a few toys that i know they'll play with, instead of bringing a bunch of stuff they might play with. 

AND i think i need to buy a new swimsuit. i was gonna just use my maternity swimsuit – i decided it was fine after trying to swimsuit shop in february, and came out of the store depressed and quiet, and got into the car without discussing it with brendan. he asked me "did something bad happen in that store?", nope, it was just bathing suit shopping, post baby, while still breast-feeding. basically, nothing fits. BUT i'm gonna try again since i've discovered that both old navy and loblaws (joe fresh) sell swimsuits. i like their clothes and find them well priced. i couldn't justify forking out 80+ bux for something i didn't really like at the bathing suit store. wish me luck!

journey

yesterday, while walking to the bus to catch a lift to KGH for an appointment, the bus arrived slightly before i arrived at the stop. even though i was wearing my baby, i started to run. for a split second i thought "i can still make it!" i ran and waved my arms around, i yelled "wait!" "tell the bus to wait!" i ran, straining under my extra human's weight. roughly 3 seconds before i would've made it, the doors closed and the bus started to take off. i was really upset. 1) because that is the one major downside to public transit in a middle-sized city (the wait between buses is longer) and, 2) how is it possible that NO ONE saw me and called out to the bus driver "oh wait! there's a woman with a baby coming. stop!" hmph.

thankfully, our closest main bus line has several routes, and after a 10 minute wait another (less direct) bus arrived and i was able to make it to KGH (on time) with only one bus transfer.

motivated

ok, let's just to this. i want to let more people into my world and vice versa? well, let's start here.

1) for two days, i had a massive, painful zit on my lip. i was happy this morning, when it was clearly ready to be popped. and now that part of my face is on the mend.

2) i've been feeling concerned about my job situation come august 11 (when my EI ends). financially, we will be covered for our daily expenses, but extras such as outings, birthday gifts, daycare for otis (1 to 3 days a week), and stuff like oil changes or contact lenses, will need to be addressed. i'm currently working at next once a week, but i'd like another job so that i can work approximately 24 hours per week (including next). so i'm gonna start slowly working on my resume, and then once we return from cancun at the end of april, i'll ramp that up, and perhaps start sending out unsolicited resumes to the places i'm interested in working. i'm hopeful that 4 months will give me enough time to find something suitable come september (when the tiny man is old enough to start at daycare). as an aside, i really love that all the staff at eamon's daycare adore otis, and that boosts my confidence with enrolling him in the fall. i know he will be well loved, and it will be really good for him.

anyway, that's what's going on with me today.

got to get

i've found that my life at this current time is not lending itself to expanding my world beyond my own home. it's not that i haven't tried. the fellas and i get out on mondays and fridays. i work at next on wednesdays. and other semi-regular social engagements. but my daily interactions are with brendan and two small boys. it makes me feel as though brendan is carrying too much weight as my social engagement, my sound wall, my co-worker. that probably won't benefit either of us in the long-term.

it's not an uncommon concern of mine, to worry that my world is too small. but this is probably the smallest its ever been. i'm hopeful though that it can only get bigger from here. i do think though, that my introverted nature makes me often choose solitary tasks or outings. and i should probably start to make different choices.

brightspots

it's been three-quarters of a year since eamon dropped his nap, but both yesterday and today he's asked for one. part of me is excited to think he's recognizing the benefits of taking a mid-day nap, but the other part of me thinks this is more a side effect of being sick over the weekend. but who knows.

despite the fact that my days are full and therefore tiring, i'm feeling encouraged at my two-kid parenting. i'm getting the hang of certain aspects, and they're both developing in ways that are very helpful. i know i felt that the first 6 months with eamon was very different to my second 6 months with eamon, so i'm looking forward to these next 6 months with otis. perhaps life is about to shift gears.

vacancy

as landlords, this is our fourth time looking for tenants, and our first time when it's taken longer than one showing to lease it. it's got me feeling stressed. i know it's the time of year, and i think that's partly why i'm anxious. we're in the low rental season at the moment. there's a lot of vacancy, so listings need to be competitive. we've had about 10 responses, and done 4.5 viewings (the half being a phone call with an out of town prospective tenant), plus one open house where no one showed up (there were 4 potential tenants interested, but none showed up). because of this being the low season, we've lowered the rent. i'm pretty discouraged. i think people are turned off by it being exclusive. one girl actually asked us to cover the utilities (AND lower the rent to fit her budget) on the bright side, there are rumblings of a 25% cut in hydro costs, but i can't tell people what their utilities MIGHT cost with those changes, since there is no guarantees. 

it seems that regardless of any nice features (wood floors, basement for storage, in-home laundry facilities, etc), size matters most :S yes, the rooms are small, but we lived there as a family of three, and really, the main issues was there was no backyard/play space. 

anyway, it's really hard for me being in this position of waiting. i like to be proactive. and this is just a waiting game. i might make an add and take it to the seniors' centre. maybe instead of a young professional, we should be going after the single, senior and downsizing market. 

i'm not very thick-skinned. this is making me doubt the merits of rental properties.