Recently....

(Our first work gift of the year. Loves it:) 

 (Our Christmas tree this year. We like it)

(Cohen and Jon at a Santa breakfast) 

(watching Santa from a distance) 

(hiking in mild weather)

- We have been going for a neighborhood walk every night to see the Christmas lights. Cohen is thrilled every time someone else puts up a Minion decoration on their lawn. We have 4 just on our little street. The holidays with a toddler is the best. 

- We went to the Santa Claus breakfast with friends. The idea is you have breakfast, then you get your picture with Santa. Santa took a quick walk around the restaurant when he first arrived, and as he walked by our table, Cohen yelled "slippers and sunglasses!!" He knew he was supposed to tell Santa what he wants, so I guess he figured he would tell him right away. So cute. Sitting on Santa's lap was so not going to happen. But Cohen admired him from afar. 

- Friends tell us this is the last year we will be able to get away with no actual Christmas tree in our house. We will see. As a family who probably won't spend Christmas day in our own house for many many years to come, I am pretty into Christmas tree alternatives. Maybe next year we will do a big tree painting on kraft paper. 

Our wedding weekend in Halifax

(ice cream time on the boardwalk) 

(in the back of the bride's ride on the wedding day) 

(shellac nails. lasted about 3 hours on me.) 

(we had fancy snacks at the salon/spa on the wedding day) 

(maid of honor hair) 

(this was the bride's trunk on the wedding day. the flowers were insane) 

(feet. four of us have semi-matching heart tattoos) 

(at the wedding venue) 

(on the bus to the airport)

We arrived in Halifax on Thursday night, and Jon and I went right to our favorite sushi place after making sure the little guy was happy with the Grandparents. Friday was the wedding shower and the rehearsal dinner. Saturday was salon and spa time, then pics, then wedding. Sunday was hangover time. And we left early Monday morning. The whole weekend was awesome. Cohen spent tons of time with his grandparents, and I got to spent lots of time with my best friends. We love Halifax. And weddings. 

The weekend, and a trip to the ER

What a weekend. On Friday afternoon, we had some brand new friends with a little girl Cohen's age over for coffee. In a super small town like ours, it is such a treat for a new couple to move into town. They actually recognized Cohen at the grocery store from looking at my blog before they moved here. So weird, and so cool. 

We had a nice visit, though Cohen started to rub his eyes a lot as soon as he started eating a bit of the treat that our new friends had brought. It had peanut butter in it, which we have been giving Cohen in small amounts for the past few months. His eyes started to get puffy and red, so we gave him some benadryl. But, half an hour later when our friends were gone, he was covered head to toe in hives.

We rushed him to the ER, and they took us in immediately, just like last time. Cohen's hives were completely covering his body, and he was coughing and wheezing. Even his ears were bright red and swollen. This time was way worst than last time, and the nurses told us he wouldn't be leaving without an epipen. We actually had the same nurse as the first time we visited the ER for Cohen's sesame allergy. The doctor gave him some steroids like last time, and told us we needed to stay for 6-8 hours for observation. Jon ran home to get Ted, the iPad, some books, toys. Within a few hours, Cohen's hives were looking way less angry, and Cohen was hyper. He kept sliding down off the bed, waving goodbye to us, and racing out of the room to look around. Jon spent a lot of time chasing him around the hospital, visiting the elderly lady in the room beside us, pushing Cohen around in a wheelchair.

By the fourth hour at the ER, it was after 8 pm, and we were ready to leave. Cohen was so tired, but the ER is bright and noisy. There was no way he was going to sleep. We asked the doctor if we could leave. He told us to give him Zantac and benadryl, and keep a close eye on him. We got home around 10 pm, and Cohen fell asleep really fast. We snuck in to check on him every half hour all night, and gave him his medications in the night. He's feeling way better now, and he now has an epipen. He was such a little trooper.

On Saturday we drove ten minutes to this new cafe in a church basement, called the Curtain Call Cafe. It was really cute.

They had books and games, so Cohen was loving it. And they had good strong coffee, so Jon and I were loving it. We had the eggs benedict on waffles, and it was awesome. 

Later we ordered chinese food and had friends over for supper. I kind of love having people over when no cooking is involved. Other things: Jon and I are addicted to Serial, like the rest of the world. I am totally team Adnan-is-innocent at this point. We did some Christmas shopping because if there is an old lady selling stuff she knitted, I am buying it. We face timed with family a lot, and played one of Cohen's fav new games: throw everything you can find into the garbage or laundry hamper.

After the whole ER trip/allergic reaction, Jon and talked a lot about how good we are together in tough situations. I think stressful times really remind me how lucky I am to have such a great life partner. And Jon and I feel so grateful that Cohen is generally a really healthy little guy. A nut allergy is nothing compared to what a lot of families we know have to deal with. Feeling pretty thankful these days.

Old friends, new babies

(unhappy babe)

(not happy) 

(old friend, new(ish) babe)

I just got off the phone with my elementary/high school best friend who just had a baby (15 days ago). It brought back so many memories of what it was like to have a 2-week old (I was a little more honest later). At the time I was pretty desperate to hear other moms say that it was hard. It seemed to me that other moms were all making it seem easy. But it's hard. At the time I remember thinking that I was never going to feel normal again, or get enough sleep again. But now, of course, just like they all said, I look back on that time so fondly. At the time, I was keeping track of Cohen's sleeping and eating at night. For some reason recording it made me feel better. I liked adding up how much sleep I got at night. If it was more than 5 hours a night, I was happy. This was my entry on August 4th, 2013, when Cohen was around 16 days old:

9:30 pm: asleep after eating R and L
10:10 pm: awake. L again. no P or P.
10:10 pm: 11:30 pm walked around by J. very irritable.
11:30 pm: asleep
1:00 am: P + P. feed on L
1:30 am: asleep with swaddle and womb noise machine
3:00 am: no P or P. feed on R.
3:30 am: asleep with swaddle and W
5:30 am: P + P. feed on L.
6:00 am: asleep
7:30 am: awake. feed on R a bit
9:30 am: P+P. feed on R.

Yep. And that is around the time that you go to a mommy group, and a few other moms are talking about how their baby slept through the night from day one. My friend is actually doing so amazing. She has read the books, and she is super organized.

Another friend of mine who was visiting the other week said that I seem more sure of myself now then before I was a mom. I love that, and I think maybe it's true for all parents.

Christmas vacation

(Cohen's cousin reading to him)

(baby's first pair of Nikes. from Nanny DD)

(in his Christmas best)

(baby's first flight)

(crazy snow and ice in Toronto. and a purple unicorn)

(almost home)

Some notes on our Christmas vacation:

- Cohen met his cousins for the first time. Our niece, Olivia, was all about helping me with Cohen. She helped my bathe him, dress him, read to him, play with him, put him to sleep. It was the coolest thing to see. 

- We spent Christmas Eve with my sister-in-law's in-laws. And it was awesome. Our Christmas Eve meal was pasta with scallops followed by the best salmon I have ever had. I so love Christmas eating.

- Christmas day was spent eating and drinking and rainbow looming. Seriously, this toy (the rainbow loom) has a bit of a learning curve. Olivia and I spend hours figuring out how to make these little bracelets. I would have loved this as a preteen. Actually, I secretly loved it as an almost 30-year-old. 

- Our little man did excellent on his first flight (and his second, third, and fourth flight too). Changing a diaper in the tiny restroom of the plane was challenging though. But that's a whole other blog post.

- This time last year, I was incredibly sick (morning/all day sickness), and could only eat honey nut cheerios. This year, I totally made up for it. I ate tons of my mother's Kahlua gingerbread men, butter tarts, spiked eggnog, and rice pudding. All so good. 

- We spent NYE in a hotel room in St. John's. I think we were asleep by midnight. We ordered food and watched bad TV. And I loved it.

A new friend

It's tough making friends as an adult. I'm not the only one, right? I remember this post, which is so good. And it's probably even harder when you move every few years like we do. And being home with a newborn every day? So tough to meet people!!

(Cohen and his new little friend)

Jon and I resolved to each attempt to find a friend in the next month or two. Someone to hang out with maybe once a week. It took me a few months of attending the local breastfeeding club and stopping to chat with every grocery store employee I came across, but eventually I found a friend, a fellow new first-time mom. It's funny how it feels a little like dating. I didn't care about playing hard to get. I asked her to hang out the day after we met. Jon was impressed. Haha. Now we have a standing weekly afternoon coffee date. Also her little baby is adorable. I think in a few months our babies will be bff too.

a day trip to puffin island

we had jon's best friend visiting our nearly empty new house on the weekend. he was super gracious about sleeping on the only piece of furniture (our new couch), and cool with drinking his water out of ramekins, since ramekins are somehow the only glassware that has arrived thus far. he even made us supper one night, which i was very impressed with since we have next to no utensils, pots, etc in the kitchen.

we had such a good time, as you do with people who have known you for many, many years. tim and jon have been close since their early years in university. tim and i worked together in a lab before jon and i became "jessnjon." tim has been the third wheel on many of our dates over the years. not to get too sentimental (pregnancy hormones), but we are so lucky to have friends like tim. as a bonus, tim has delivered many babies during his medical training, so he was able to answer all my questions about labour and delivery. i feel so much more mentally prepared now.

we took a little road trip out to elliston island, aka puffin island. i would highly recommend a visit if you are doing a newfoundland road trip. the viewing site to see the 200 puffin pairs costs only what you want to pay, and you can have a look at the many, many root cellars in the area while you drive around. we were treated to a major whale sighting. they were smacking their tails against the water in such a way that i really felt like they were putting on a show. it was incredible. also, there is a nice sandy beach to hang out at, and an ice cream truck. you can't go wrong.

more pics after the jump...

(puffin viewing)

on the weekend: halifax and ecmas

 (caesars saturday morning while watching the meds and jenn grant)

(a little birthday gift for j awaited us at the hotel) 

(seahorse saturday night) 

 (my girls with the lead singer from soho ghetto, our new fav)

(enjoying some tim chaisson at the songwriters circle on sunday) 

(elevator shot + my new rachel zoe blanket sweater)

oh my gosh. such a good weekend. we got to take in so much music with our ecma wristbands. when kim stockwood sang this song, jon was like, jess, are you crying? um, yes, it's a good song. and we were all completely in love with soho ghetto, who put on such a great show, then came over and hung out with us since it was jenny's birthday. j and i ended up spending a while just hanging out at the delta hotel lobby. seriously, there were musicians everywhere. i was a little star struck. 

j and i tried to decide what our favourite meal of the weekend was, but we couldn't. we went for a birthday supper for jenny to the wooden monkey, which was so good. they even had non-alcoholic beer. and we tried brunch at tiempo. perfect. but for me, it really was all about the hot stone bowl bibimbap at minato. 

even though j and i live far away from all our friends and family, i still feel really close to them. i think it's a combination of having known my friends for such a long time, and using facetime to keep in touch. i think both jon and jenny enjoyed their birthday weekend. and i haven't had that good of a time in a while. so lucky. 

also, i did some much-needed shopping. as if shopping is ever necessary, but really, my jeans were getting too tight. 

on the weekend + thoughts on easy friendships

there's nothing like friends who have known you for a long time. in the case of jess and i, 13 years. 

(no icebergs, but at least they tried the beer) 

(local real estate) 

(on the way to twillingate) 

(self timer) 

(checking out the minky whales at crow head) 

(a little hike around crow head) 

(lighthouse love)

when i was growing up, moving every two years, i was always so jealous of friends who had known each other since kindergarten. there's something really comforting about friends who know all your stories, who were part of them. ever since jess and i met, she has been a constant in my life. she is tight with my whole family. she knows all my stories. ours is a really easy friendship that doesn't require much maintenance. i am lucky.