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Someone who makes me happy

family, flora, life, motherhood, parenthood No Responses »

Apr 042012

Via Flickr:
I took these pictures of Flora for the #aprilphotoaday challenge taking place right now on Instagram. The theme was “someone who makes you happy”. When I told Flora that I needed her help and explained the photo challenge, she shouted “Me! I make you happy!”

And she does.

For the pictures she decided she wanted to twirl like a ballerina. The actual twirling pics are a bit blurry so I’m glad I caught her up close.

I’m also very grateful to know that she is very, very loved.

(The one on the left made the challenge. You can follow my Instagram feed here, even if you don’t use the app.)

Moving forward, looking back

adventures, family, life 3 Responses »

Mar 012012

February, being the shortest month, always moves quickly. It’s usually a relief when it’s over because then we’re that much closer to spring and nicer weather.

It’s still a relief for those reasons this year, but it’s also felt even shorter due to our upcoming move.

The move we’re making tomorrow.

We spent the last half of January and all of February preparing for moving into our new home. We’ve had lots of help, but we’re still sitting here the night before with lots to do. Of course a lot of those things simply cannot be done until the movers come and take our (piles and piles of) boxes and empty our home.

Our first house. The house Sean and I became a married couple in. Where we raised our child from pregnancy to almost-ready-for-JK. (When did *that* happen?)

I’m excited to go to our new home, but I’m feeling a bit wistful and weepy about leaving this one. We’ve had a good run during the nine years we lived here: nice neighbours, a wonderful daycare provider who we’re heartbroken to leave, a nice sunny deck where we spent a lot of weekend afternoons hanging out.

I’m sure we’ll find those things in our new home, but the unknown is always scary.

There is still so much to do so I feel like I should be doing stuff besides writing and ruminating. If Sean and I get through tomorrow without wanting to kill each other, it will be a miracle. Moving really is one of the most stressful things you can do to yourself. I don’t know how all those HGTV-junkie types do it.

At times like this, I’m glad I’m a girl

family, flora, funny, sean 3 Responses »

Feb 252012

My house, about 5pm this afternoon.

Sean, yelling from downstairs: “Ouch!”

Melissa: “What happened?”

Sean: “I sat on something.”

Flora: “What did you sit on?”

Sean (still in pain): “Something important.”

Flora, without missing a beat: “The remote?”

After Sean and I laughed for a solid five minutes, Sean managed to say, “no, not the remote”.

Not sure if he’s walking quite right yet. Fortunately, we can still change the channel.

Shutterbug

family, flora 2 Responses »

Jan 302012

At nearly three and a half years old, Flora has figured out the basics of my smartphone and it’s kind of spooky to watch her interact with it. She can now unlock it, find the kids game folder and load up her favourite drawing app by herself (DoodleBuddy if you’re interested). She doesn’t always remember the swipe-to-scroll part, but she can sometimes switch apps without help.

She got pretty good at the easy levels of Cut the Rope so that was fun for us to play together. (We both think Om Nom is cute.)

She has also taken to taking pictures with my phone. I have to be careful or five minutes of picture-taking leaves me with far too many out-of-focus pictures of the floor and the random things on it, herself, and really awkward pics of Sean and/or I.

I’ve saved a few of those for posterity but I tend to prune them pretty quickly. I do come across the occasional hidden gem.

(Click picture for larger image)

This is Bunny, Flora’s number one lovey. She also goes by the names Princess Bunny and Bunbun. She’s been a part of the family since Flora was about eight months old. I bought her to give Flora something to snuggle at night. She is now a part of the family and very loved.

Flora snapped this picture of Bunny earlier tonight when she had commandeered my phone for games and picture-taking. She carefully propped Bunny up on the chair and took about ten different pictures that were all nearly identical. I picked the best one and fed it through the Pixlr-o-matic app to give it some depth. The composition is all Flora – no cropping.

Something tells me I need to get her a camera of her own pretty soon.

Timeout

family, flora, life, motherhood, parenthood 2 Responses »

Dec 272011

I’ve been off work since the Tuesday before Christmas. I’ve been grateful for the time off, but at times the change in our routines has made me less than pleasant to the family. At one point, my frustrations boiled over and I put myself in timeout. I had been yelling a little too much about stuff that wasn’t a big deal. I told Sean and Flora I needed to be by myself for a bit and I went up to my room to calm down so I could interact with the family like a normal person.

The following set of tweets explain what happened after that.

I am so lucky to have such a caring little girl. She was so gentle and really emphasized her need to check on me. My timeout, while needed, was shorter than I expected it to be, thanks to her. I told Flora how thankful I was that she checked on me to see that I was okay. Lots of hugs were exchanged and we enjoyed the rest of our evening together as a family.

Like all parents, I’m struggling to do the best I can to raise Flora right. I could tell you about a million mistakes I’ve made already. Watching her care about others at such a young age makes me think Sean and I are doing something right.

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