Bad news is actually Good news

So, I did get laid off. But I'm not that upset about it. I got a good package (I had been there 8 years) so I don't need to find anything right away. And well I wasn't really looking forward to going back, I didn't like my job when I left on mat. leave and the commute was going to be horrible - at least 1 hour each way. So now I get to spend more time with the girls and hopefully find something closer.
So since I'm still off, I'm going with the girls to Arizona to visit my parents. I'm a little nervous about a 4 1/2 hour flight with the girls by myself. I'm sure we'll survive - I hope.

So other exciting things - Isla has said her first word. She says, mama and dada but now she said cat or ditty-dat. She loves the cats and calls them whenever she sees them. Thankfully she's a little more gentle than Lilo was with cats at this age.


No - we didn't get another cat, it's Fozzie, Janet's cat.

Huntsville Holiday Weekend

This past weekend we went to Huntsville to visit Janet, Drew and the boys. And a fantastic weekend it was! The weather was perfect, and we did just enough to keep the weekend full of fun activities, without being frantic and still allowing for extended periods of relaxation (and some hot tub time too!).


Lilo had a blast playing with her cousins, and all of their cool toys. Like this Darth Vader mask:

Saturday we drove an hour north to South River to watch Ian play in a hockey tournament. It was WinterFest in South River, so Lilo got to meet a couple of horses up close:

Sunday, with the sun shining and the temperature comfortably in the middle of single digits, we all went for a skate. Huntsville has these awesome little outdoor rinks made on a pond behind their arena, and they're great for a day of skating and a little shiny hockey.

Another Warm Monday at the Zoo

For the second Monday in a row the temperature soared above zero today, so we headed back to the zoo. It was another fun trip. It amazes me that after so many trips to the zoo over the past year and a bit, that it's still not boring. In fact, more trips than not, I find myself saying "that was cool, I've never seen that before!" And of course because we didn't take the camera today, it was a particularly cool zoo visit.

First, one of the gorillas came over for an up close inspection of us. He seemed to have his eye on us from the second we walked in, and as Lilo walked close to the glass viewing area he made his way from the other side of the enclosure to come check her out. The threw his hands up in the air and pressed his face and body right up against the glass - two inches from her face. He only stuck around for a 10 seconds or so, I guess deciding we were boring or no threat or something. But it was pretty cool.

Then the one of the elephants, who were outside for a change in the middle of winter, came over to the viewing area and proceeded to feast on some snow right in front of us. Like 6 feet in front of us. Her long trunk was reaching out for the fresh snow, in between the electric fence and the wall keeping us away from the elephants. Pretty cool to see her trunk working to pick up the snow right there in front of us.

I guess you could end up with too many zoo pictures - "hey look, here's another photo of us at the zoo!" - but I'm never going without the camera ever again.

Gates and Waits

So, we're still waiting to hear what's going to happen with Vone's job and her now-overdue return to work. After being told last week to take this week off with pay, she was also told that they'd be in touch with an update by Wednesday or Thursday. Since today is Friday and she still hadn't heard from them, Vone decided to call them this morning. And the update is... no update at all. Hang out at home with pay until we figure it out. We should be in touch next week. There might be a position there might not be. Yadda yadda yadda. Given the circumstances, we're doing our best to keep out spirits up and to not get to stressed out by not knowing what's going to happen. Like Mr. Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part. But we're still home together on "vacation" and we might as well try to enjoy it.

Yesterday was another day of getting some things taken care of around, but we still managed to have fun. While the car was getting it's brakes replaced at Canadian Tire, we spent 2-hours next door at MegaFun 4 Kids. Vone has been with the girls quite a few times, but this was my first visit - and holy crap this place is awesome. It's nice to have somewhere the girls can run around like maniacs, where they can't get hurt or break things, and where we don't have to clean up at the end of the day. And it's only $5 per kid per day. I would take the kids here every day if I was on extended paternity leave! :-)

I was also productive at home, upgrading the basement to "baby jail." Isla has taken to climbing the stiars lately, and she's actually gotten quite good at it. Often she's 4 or 5 steps up before I even notice. So clearly, it was time to install a gate at the bottom of the basement stairs.

But the challenge was how to make it work, considering that it needed to be something we could conveniently open and close, and there's a shakey banister post on the one side of the stairs. After a quick trip to Home Depot, I whipped up a little modification to a gate that we got from my sister and bro-in-law.

Thanks to some off-set hinges it can open all the way flat against the door to the cold-room...

...and using a couple of slide-bolts it closes firmly against the banister.

Ya, I know I'm way too proud of my gate.

On Leave

So, I'm on paternity leave for the entire month of February. And one of the responsibilities that comes with said leave is keeping the family blog up-to-date, of course. So here I am - guest starring for 1-month on what has become Vone's blog over the past year...

But truth be told, it's been more like a vacation week so far, not really full on paternity leave yet. Vone found out late last Friday that she won't be returning to work for another week ("administrative mess... desicion makers away or sick or busy with something... yadda yadda yadda... take a week off with pay and we'll call you next week...") At this point we're taking them for their word and planning for Vone to go back to work on Monday, and just trying to not get too concerned about anything else...

It's been great having a week together as a family. And while it would be nice to be somewhere sunny and warm, we've been having fun at home, even if we haven't been doing too much. We did go to the zoo early this week, and played outside in the snow. But Vone and I have also been taking advantage of the week to get a bunch of errands done. So I've been working on getting our new computer set-up and running, while she's been wrapping up a few last crafty-type projects. Tomorrow the car goes in for a brake job, and we're both heading to the doctor for check-up's. Wow, what an exciting week!

We also haven't been quite as energetic during the days as might have hoped, after a couple nights of crappy sleep thanks to our little 10-month old insomniac...

Isla has never been a great sleeper, waking up at least once a night and often more. But for the past week she's been even worse than normal. And it's progressed beyond the crying, fussy, middle of the night wake-up's that simply require ignoring, or perhaps a bit of a back-rub to get her to go back to sleep. Now we're into the fully-awake, wants-to-go-downstairs-to-play wake-up's. Monday morning Vone got up with her at 5:00am, because Isla had decided she was ready to begin the day. Last night, Isla and I sat in the basement playing with the Sesame Street peek-a-boo until nearly 2:00am. We've try feeding her before bed, we've tried something Vone calls the "dream feed", and we've even tried feeding her in the middle of the night. We've even tried ignoring her - Sunday night we drifted in and out of sleep as we listened to Isla cry for over 2-hours. We don't think it's teething - she's not upset any other times, and doesn't have any other symptoms - plus she's already got a full mouth of teeth.

We're running out of idea, and hoping this is just a phase that will pass like everything else. And I'm thinking I want to look into that "dream feed" a little more - sounds like something I might be into..