THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - June Edition

I have been feeling a lot more like myself lately and a lot more in love with my life. Thank goodness! Surprisingly, after finding out that I would not be going back to work, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for what I would have lost by doing so. I feel like I’m back into a groove that works well for me and I’m seeing more of the magic that spending all of my time with Archie brings into my everyday existence. It has helped a lot that I now have a permanent yoga home that I love and have been able to attend classes four times a week, on average. And the weather finally seems to be improving and we’ve been spending lots of time outside. (I must say, Vancouver is the one with the “rainy” reputation and it rains way more in Toronto than it ever did in Van.) All of these things combined have been giving me LIFE!!

Rachelle visited Toronto from Red Deer! We had the best time together, with tons of laughs, chats and ice cream. I love her and it was the best. ♥

Then my brother visited Toronto from Regina! We also had a great time going to the zoo and eating all of the things.

We went to Alo for my third time and it was just as incredible as the first! Now I’m cut off from Alo. They’ve taken enough of our money, ha ha!! But seriously, Toronto has way too many incredible restaurants and we need to branch out!! (First world problems!)

This is me in my element! This is when I'm the happiest!

We took advantage of sakura season and bathed ourselves in the glorious cherry blossoms. ♥

And it was Mother’s Day! It was such a perfect day and everything that I had hoped that it would be. I got to sleep in, Tim made me delicious eggs benedict with smoked salmon for breakfast, Tim and Archie gave me a sweet card, I got to go pick up special Mother’s Day flowers and donuts, I took a special Mother’s Day yoga class with champagne, and then we went out for our favourite ramen for dinner. If that isn’t an ideal day for me, I don’t know what is!

And yes, I’m officially a member at Chandra Yoga Shala!! I am so relieved to have found a yoga home! I love the studio and the teachers and the classes a lot. It’s the right vibe for me, which is so important in a yoga experience. So yes, this is where I’ll be dragging you for a class when you visit. (I took Rachelle and she loved it!)

I had a good month of doing things for myself like going to see movies and going to concerts and hanging out with friends. I’m certain that this has all helped immensely in getting me out of my funk and making me feel like myself again!

Double hangs with Sarah!

We planted a vegetable garden in our backyard which I’m pretty excited about! We’ve never had our own YARD before so this sort of thing is so new and wonderful to us! I go into the yard every day and just explore all of the nature that is going on back there. Or just lay straight on the grass! For the garden, we planted; San Marzano tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, Tiny Tim tomatoes (because of the name), Short ‘n Sweet carrots, Giant Caesar lettuce, Green zucchini, Chia, Basil, Thyme, Mojito Mint, Sunflowers (those free seed that Cheerios mails to you), and Dianthus flowers (the wedding favour from Enobong’s wedding!). It’s a total experiment and I’m curious to see what grows!

We went to the CBC Music Festival and had a blast! This was Archie’s first music festival and they had an entire CBC Kids Zone which was perfect.

Not a fan of meeting True, even though he watches her show all the time.

Dancing and hoopin' in front of the band! Two members from Stars (and their kids!) performed a kids set and it was adorable!

It was a good month. I’m feeling good. I’m also pretty shocked that it’s JUNE already and I feel like the summer is going to fly by before I even realize that it’s actually summertime.

I’ve decided that I definitely want to have my summer “free” because there are so many things that I’m looking forward to seeing and doing, but that in the fall I will revisit the idea of getting a job and will try to find something at that time. My main motivation for this is because I really want Archie to get to go to the amazing preschool that we found for him. I don’t want to deprive him of that experience.

Life with Archie:

There’s been lots of news and development with the tiny boy human this month!!

First of all, he’s so freakin’ CUTE. I don’t even understand. I don’t think that I’m just saying this because I’m his Mom.

Archie’s speech has exploded. He now uses well over 150 words to the point that I have completely lost count. He says new words every single day. He has also started using sentences with two, three, and sometimes even four words. He’s also in a phase where he says “no” or “nope” to basically everything. His favourite colour is brown and he likes to tell us this. His favourite food is still a tuna sandwich and he loses his mind when I make them, running around yelling “tuna!” This is the least concerned about his development that I have ever been. This has surely also added to my improved well-being. He still needs to go in for a speech reassessment and I’m pretty sure that when he does, they’re just going to say that he’s on track and no longer requires therapy. Just like his walking, he really is just on his own schedule and is doing his own thing.

After a big long tooth break, Archie’s second molars are now starting to come in. These are the last of his baby teeth! He’s up to 17 out of 20 teeth and these new ones don’t really seem to be bothering him at all.

We were still giving Archie a bottle of milk first thing in the morning and last thing before bed. This is now OVER. We still offer him a cup of warm milk before bed, but otherwise bottles and milk are now a thing of the past! Our next thing to “deal with” is that Archie still uses a pacifier while sleeping. We also need to buy a potty to start planting the seed about that.

Archie loves nature a lot. He absolutely loves looking at insects and holding them. He knows what they’re all called “ant, bee, worm, beetle” and seems so interested in learning about them. He loves watering our plants and looking at animals. Our own backyard is amazing but we also have some great areas within a few blocks of our house where we can explore.

But don’t get me wrong. While things are pretty pleasant and harmonious right now, there are still these moments:

He's crying because he wants some of my frappuccino. So I put some into a cup for him. Which he then threw all over the floor of the car.

June means that IT’S SUMMER!!! (I mean, pretty much.) I’m looking forward to tons of summertime fun! Here’s what I’ve got coming up:

I’m going to see San Cisco play, they’re a band from Australia that I enjoy.

The Toronto Pride Parade is later this month and I’m always all about a Pride parade! I feel like I’ve seen the parade in all of Canada’s major cities now, ha ha. I really like that Toronto’s parade is actually during LGBT Pride Month. This just makes sense! (Montreal’s and Vancouver’s are both in August.)

The end of the month is our anniversary weekend along with Canada Day long weekend, so Tim is taking an extra day off of work so that we can have an extra long weekend together. We’ll be taking Archie on the CBC Kids Studio Tour (hopefully he’s less scared of the puppets)... And to celebrate our anniversary Tim and I are finally getting a matching tattoo done together!!! I am so excited about this!!! We have been planning it for years and it is really happening! I think I’ll wait until I can just show you what we got, instead of trying to describe it. But let me assure you that it’s nothing insane like getting each other’s names, ha ha! They’re tattoos that can stand alone but are even better together - just like us. :) We also have dinner reservations at Giulietta, a restaurant that I’m very excited to try. It’s Chef Rob Rossi’s place and we loved him on the first season of Top Chef Canada (he came in second place). Obviously Archie will be at home with a babysitter.

I’m excited for a fairly lazy month with little pops of things that I love!

THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:

June 14th is Amy Bull’s 11th wedding anniversary!

Wishing you and Ray a day of romance and celebration! (Just go to O’Byrne’s and get boozy... I know that you want to.)

June 20th is Laura Mitschke’s 4th wedding anniversary!

I hope that you and Matt get to enjoy something lovely and kid-free to celebrate!

June 24th is Sarah Turnbull’s 37th birthday!

This past year has been A TIME. I am so excited for you to move into a fresh new year because this current one has certainly tested you with many ups and downs. I am so honoured to have been able to hold space for you this past year and to give you as much support as I could. You would do the same for me, this I know. Just like I said in my speech at your wedding, “I was always so grateful that we had each other through the tears and faced our challenges side by side. We were stronger that way.” This has never been more true. ♥ June 30th is my 6th wedding anniversary!

Hooray! We made it to six whole years! I am so grateful for everything that Tim is in my life and I appreciate him so much. He does everything for us and more. Times can get challenging and I always know that he’ll be there to lift me up. ♥