THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - February Edition
Things are still a bit crazy but somehow under control. I’ve been away from home for a few weeks (still am) which hasn’t exactly helped the “settling in” situation but I feel like things are generally in a good place. Before leaving Toronto I was finally getting the chance to start visiting different yoga studios and I wrote my first Toronto food blog entry. It feels really good to be getting back into my groove. Slowly but surely! I’m looking forward to going home and being a lot more normal and boring for a while.
JANUARY! It was a big month full of events!
The new year arrived and I feel so ready to leave 2018 behind!! Check out my annual 2018 Thoughts, Resolutions, Re-caps, Bests blog if you haven’t already seen it.
I’m excited to embark on a new year, new life, new city with my little fam.
Laura came to town from Ottawa and we had a fun night out having dinner and going to see a comedy show!
Then Enobong came to town from Ottawa and we threw Sarah a mini surprise Baby Shower brunch with her Toronto ladies. Sarah was genuinely surprised!
Then my Toronto ladies and I celebrated a late Christmas and exchanged gifts! The husbands and the kids had fun too!
Sarah also gave me a Christmas gift as well! She was full of gift-giving before heading back to Regina, ha ha.
We’ve been spending all of our free time working on our house. I wanted to get as much done as possible before leaving town. We’re pretty much unpacked and finished with decorating now!! The basement is still a dumping-ground tornado disaster but at least the main living areas of our house are under control. It feels so much more comfortable and like our home again. We’ll have to throw a house warming party at some point in the near future!
(I never want to move again. I just want to buy this place off of the landlord.)
Then it was my birthday!! Tim stayed home from work on my birthday so that I could have an extra nice day to myself. I went downtown to a yoga class at a studio that I really wanted to try, met Sarah for lunch (she went back home to Regina later this same day), and then went out on the town at night for dinner with my Toronto girlfriends. It was a wonderfully perfect day and I didn’t mind turning 37 at all! (I do, however, feel dangerously close to 40!! Where did the time go?!)
Thank you all for all of the sweet birthday messages! ♥
Then we threw Archie’s birthday party at Spartan Gymnastics and it turned out super great. So many people attended (I didn’t realize that we knew so many kids!) and everyone seemed to have a really fun time! First we all got to play in their insanely large gym and then we had pizza and cake and cupcakes in the party room and opened presents. I’m so grateful that we were all able to celebrate my little boy’s day. He loved it! ♥
Then Tim took me out for my birthday dinner, which happened a few days late because it’s really difficult to get a reservation at Alo. We also tried out our new Toronto babysitter for the first time! She’s a neighbourhood teen that comes highly recommended by one of Tim’s co-workers. She did a great job! I’m so relieved that we have a decent babysitter again!! Freedom!!
Our dinner at Alo was AMAZING of course!!! I loved every minute of it!
Then it was Archie’s actual birthday! HE’S TWO!!! I really do love that he’s getting older. I don’t want it to slow down. He’s more of a little person now and I find him so much more interesting and enjoyable compared to when he was a baby. We had a small celebration for him at home with just the three of us and it was perfect. We bought him a kitchen for his birthday and he loves it!
Then we flew to Vancouver!!! It was SO amazing to be back and it made me sad. It’s my favourite city. I’m so glad that we stuck to this Christmas plan with my family, even though we ended up moving away. We had a really fun dinner with a bunch of our Vancouver friends too! It was so wonderful to see everyone for likely the last time (for a while).
Then my family drove up to Whistler and we spent our Christmas together there! It worked out so well. We rented a cute little condo, we had an entire day just for Christmas, we got to go snowboarding (which felt amazing! It had been far too long!), and we even got Archie to try snowboarding and he loved it! I can’t wait for when all three of us can shred up some mountains together! And Carrie came up to Whistler for a couple of days as well, which was so much fun! There was TONS of snow and it was such a winter wonderland!
Then after that I flew with Archie and my family to Regina and Tim flew home to Toronto. I’ve been in Regina ever since! It’s extremely cold here. I’m in Regina until the 7th and hope to see everyone who’s around! (I think that I’ve been doing a good job already!)
Like I said, it’ll be nice to get back home and to just live a boring, uneventful life for a while!
Life with Archie:
He’s amazing and we love him so much. He’s using even more words now which is such a relief. It’s probably still not “enough” but he’s picking up more and more all of the time. Just within the last week in Regina he has started using the word “go,” makes squeaky kitten sounds when you ask him what sound a cat makes, and asks for his water by saying “wa-wa.” I’m so glad to see him progressing! He loves helping out with small tasks, like putting something in the garbage for me or helping to unload the dishwasher.
He has now been on 18 flights and he snowboards... So he’s basically the coolest two year old.
Before leaving Toronto I’d started taking him to all sorts of new programs and started checking out different things that are available in our neighbourhood. We’ve been enjoying a Learn and Play Drop In that gets put on by the EarlyON program and we checked out Toddler Time at our local library. I’m going to get him registered for toddler gymnastics when we get back home.
The Preschool Speech and Language Service has been in touch with me and it sounds like Archie is going to begin their six-week program in March. He’ll go to this once a week. We also finally have our Ontario health cards so I’m looking forward to getting him all set up with a doctor and/or pediatrician once again.
Here’s what my life is looking like for February!
I’ll be in Regina until the 7th and the main purpose for my being here is to throw Sarah a Baby Shower which is happening this weekend!! I’m looking forward to seeing all of you who are able to make it and I can’t wait to shower Sarah with so much love and celebration! ♥
We’re going to Montreal later in February! This will be our first time back since moving away, which is going to be super weird and probably emotional. We’re going because we have reservations at Cabane à sucre Au Pied de cochon, the giant sugar shack feast that we adore! Cannot wait to go there again!
We also have a family Muskoka cottage weekend near the end of the month, so I’m assuming that we likely go up there for a few nights (how the tables have turned! We always used to be the furthest away from Muskoka in the family - now we’re the closest!). Maybe I can convince Tim that we should visit Blue Mountain on our way there or back (it’s sort of on the way). I believe that it’s Ontario’s biggest ski hill. (It has a 720 foot elevation with 42 runs... Compared to Whistler’s 7,160 foot elevation with 240 runs... But beggars can’t be choosers!!)
THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:
February 9th is Laura Mitschke’s 33rd birthday!
I’m so excited that I’m back in your province and I hope that I’ll get to see you more often! I love our friendship and definitely want to get Archie and Max playing together sometime soon. I hope that Matt makes your day extra special and that the kids do their best not to drive you crazy! Love you!! ♥
February 18th is Candice Weingartner’s 7th wedding anniversary!
Wishing you and Ryan a wonderful day of romance! I hope that you get to do something special to celebrate!