THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - February Edition
Updated: Jun 18, 2021
I hope that everyone’s years have been off to a good start! Vancouver has been rainy, as Vancouver does, but the grass is green and I love it. The temperatures are never in the negatives and I don’t wear a winter coat. Ever. As far as my first no-snow winter has gone, I have LOVED it!!!
At the beginning of January we were still in London. Then we returned home and I was looking forward to getting back into our normal swing after two weeks of craziness. I always get super stir-crazy at home and need to GO and then being away makes me appreciate being at home and being in a routine (especially with a baby). Coming and going both have their benefits.
I celebrated my 36th birthday! It was such a great birthday. I didn’t throw a “party” or anything but Tim had some pretty perfect plans for me. He had the babysitter come and we went out for a super amazing dinner at Hawksworth, currently the #6 restaurant in Canada (the highest ranking restaurant in Vancouver). We had the tasting menu and I basically just had a huge smile plastered across my face the entire time. I’m pretty sure that I said “I AM SO HAPPY” like 20 times.
After dinner Tim brought me to a really cool boutique hotel called OPUS and checked me in for the night! I can’t think of anything that I would want more! A night away to myself!! Tim stayed long enough for us to have some (slightly boozy) hotel room romance and then he went home. I relaxed and pampered myself! And slept in! And had breakfast in bed and drank a mimosa! It was perfect.
I highly recommend asking for this for your birthdays, moms!!!
The next day we did a neat hike up a mountain (Mt Seymour), which was only about a 45 minute drive from our house. This is the kind of stuff that we moved to Vancouver for. We were excited to try the hiking baby carrier that we had gotten for Christmas. It was awesome!
Then the following week it was Archie’s 1st birthday! We threw a little birthday party for him at our house and he seemed to enjoy it. Tim made the same nachos for the party that he made for dinner the night that I went into labour. We also ordered a cute smash cake and cupcakes to match. Archie loved his cake!
Amy was also in town from Edmonton, so of course I was super excited to see her!
I drove out to Chilliwack (an hour and a half away) early one Saturday morning to join Krystie at her yoga studio for a really amazing day of yoga activities. First we did a yoga class and then we attended a workshop together. The workshop was all about making our own mala necklaces, which was really special.
And that was my month in a nutshell! My typical weekdays are usually not too eventful, mostly just Archie and I running the daily routine of meals and naps. So it’s really nice (and crucial!) that I’ve kept up with doing other non-baby things. My yoga practice has also gotten back on track this year and I’m attending class four times a week, typically. I’m feeling good about things!!
Life with Archie:
Archie turned ONE YEAR old!
His interests include: Giving things to people, crawling as fast as he can, and climbing onto things.
It’s pretty unbelievable that I suddenly have a one year old. It flew by and was also the most insane year of my life.
In his first year, Archie flew on a plane seven times! He was so great on every single flight and mostly just slept. We would love to travel more with him (internationally!) but we’re really trying to get our finances in order at the moment (we want to buy a house again someday). Which is a bit of a bummer because once he’s two, he’ll cost money to fly, so I somewhat feel as if we’re wasting a good opportunity to go places right now. But such is life. We plan to travel with him as much as possible once we’re able to.
Once we returned home from the holidays, we got serious about “sleep training” Archie. We had gotten into some pretty bad habits of letting Archie sleep in our bed and I was basically breastfeeding him all night, which had to stop. I mean, of course he was waking up all night long and crying - he knew that we would bring him into our bed! So we stopped the madness and after three nights of “training” him, he was happily sleeping in his own crib all night. It has been so wonderful! He goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps until 6am, and doesn’t wake up in the night at all anymore. He has learned to put himself to sleep and we have free adult evenings again! His daytime naps are also under control, with him napping twice a day at roughly 9am and 2pm. He usually naps for about an hour and a half, on average. (I am currently writing this entire blog while he enjoys his afternoon nap! He’s an hour and 22 minutes in!)
His favourite weekly activity by far is going to TumbleTown, the kid’s gymnastics place. He learns so much there and it’s a great place for him to expel his energy and explore however he wants to. He isn’t walking yet, but seems very close.
Archie had his one year doctor check-up and got all of his vaccinations (five!!). He was a champ about it. As a one year old, he’s definitely on the smaller side, although tall and healthy. We don’t know what’s up with his trim baby figure, ha ha.
And we completed this montage!! I absolutely love how you can see the way that my postpartum body changes. And of course how Archie changes!! My plan is to keep doing these annually on Archie’s birthday... Forever. I’d love for it to get to the point where we’re both doing headstands together! Even when I’m 56 and he’s 21!
Here’s some real talk now that we have a one year old. The “plan” was always that we’d have two children. But lately we’re starting to wonder if we even want a second one at all. We see the way that having a baby has altered our life and we don’t want to make things even worse. Or even more complicated. Tim arrived at this conclusion before I did. (And he has always been the more pro-family one between the two of us.) I always tend to have a more difficult time with re-evaluating “our plan” because I get so set on our ideas. But now that I’ve thought about it, I really don’t think that I want a second one either. Not because any of it has been a bad experience for me; I was indifferent about pregnancy, giving birth wasn’t traumatizing (it couldn’t have gone better), and as a baby Archie has been pretty easy and chill. In fact, I’m certain that we’ve gotten off easy. It’s more about wanting to have the ability to get the most out of life (according to our hopes and desires) and knowing that that will become increasingly difficult with the more kids that we choose to have. Being pregnant and breastfeeding a baby is practically a two year commitment. If not more. Maybe it’s selfish, but if I’m honest with myself, I don’t really want to give all of that time away for a second time. Truth be told, while I LOVE Archie (of course!!), I don’t really like having a baby. I often feel guilty that I’m not more enamoured with the whole experience. I would be sad to give up the opportunity to ever have a daughter, but it’s not like I would be guaranteed one anyway.
All of this being said, we reserve the right to completely change our minds about this! We’re planning to give it a year and then see how we feel when Archie turns two. If we still feel the same at that point, Tim will go ahead and get a vasectomy done. I certainly have NO intention of having babies into my 40s. So it’s either then or never.
The bottom line is that everyone should be able to build the life and family that they want for themselves. Whether that be zero kids or five. I’m curious to see where we’ll land on this one.
February has fun things happening!
A Hedley tour is beginning next week. You are probably aware of what this means by now. I am going to the first stop of the tour, which is in Abbotsford. This is also Jacob Hoggard’s hometown. So I’m excited to kick off the tour there!
Then we’re going to Edmonton!! Archie’s first time! I haven’t been to Edmo in waaaaay too long. In my current state, I still feel homesick for Montreal, so Edmonton feels like another lifetime ago at this point. I can’t wait to see everyone and to be back in my old city!! While there, I am popping down to both Red Deer and Calgary to see the Hedley concerts there.
Our date night this month is going to be on the 19th - the TEN YEAR anniversary of our first date. TEN YEARS! Part of me can’t believe that I have been with the same person for this long, ha ha! It lands on a Monday, so we’re just going to have the babysitter come and are going to go out somewhere nice for dinner.
THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:
February 9th is Laura Young’s 32nd birthday!
I miss that brief moment in time when we lived super close to each other! I hope that the whole family spoils you a bunch and that you have a fabulous day. You do so much and are such an amazing mother. Love you and miss you!
February 18th is Candice Weingartner’s 6th wedding anniversary!
I’m not sure how six years have already gone by because this feels like yesterday. Wishing you and Ryan a special day!
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