You know how they say bad things come in threes?

First I got laid off last week. Then our car started to sound funny when accelerating and we may have coolant leak into the engine.

And tonight I think the 3rd thing happened...our kitchen freezer seemed to stop working. I hope that there was just something blocking the vents, but if not, then we need to get that fixed as well.

Sigh...

Update: fridge fixed in the morning...only $123. Next up, the car.

Update 2:Car needs a new engine...thankfully it will last a while longer

...one really long run one sentence that is sometimes spoken over and over and other times just has several different thoughts in it with no particular order or relevance but certainly seems very important at the time though I am not sure why as the topics are quite mundane and uninteresting however Elise thinks they are crucial to the moment and gets quite animated and can hardly get all the words out in time.

So you remember this post where I talked about how I loved my job and how I loved the company? Well it turns out that love like that goes from the honeymoon phase right to the divorce phase! That's right...I just got laid of from The Level!

As one might expect, I was a tad shocked at the sudden change...one day we are talking about my accounts and how we can move them forward, and the next I am given my walking papers! WTF?!?!?

I am quite disappointed on how this played out; I had great hopes for me at The Level. I have a million questions on how they let this happen, but none of that will help me now of course and it is time to move on.

Thankfully my social network came through, at least in the short term, so I have something that will keep me occupied for the next few weeks.

It's been a tremendous year that has flown by and I can't believe we are already celebrating Daniella's first birthday--happy birthday, my precious baby girl! On the weekend we had a birthday extravaganza to celebrate my 35th and D's first. Thanks to everyone who came to share the day with us. Daniella had a blast and I think everyone left here with their cuteness quotas maxed out between her muppet-like smiles and the other adorable children who were here as well.

Daniella has achieved all the milestones expected in the first year and is growing bigger and more beautiful each day. She is not walking yet but I expect that is due to the speed and efficiency of her crawling. Like her papa always says "that seems like a lot of work." I don't expect her upright anytime soon but I know when she does it, she will likely skip walking and move directly to running.

She is still waking once or twice a night which is frustrating but she just downs an 8 ounce bottle of formula whenever she wakes up so I know it's not just company she wants. Plus, she goes right back to sleep after a feed so as much as I'd love her to sleep through the night, at least she's not up for hours.

She has 12 teeth so only 8 more to go. She likes to use her teeth to eat anything that's going. She particularly likes avocado, yogurt, fruit and cheese but the latter causes her to become constipated so we have to refrain from giving it to her. She enjoys eating fruit in her safe feeder too.

To my delight, most people say she looks just like me and I have felt from the start that she and I are kindred spirits. In fact the other day I was at the drop-in gym and someone came up to me and said: "so I see you've succeeded in cloning yourself." Interestingly, we have a photo of my cousin Kimberley that bears a striking resemblance to Daniella as well. The Dencer is strong in her. Then again, people used to say Elise looked like me too and now she's looking more like Erin. They change so much.

She doesn't have any words yet but she has about 12 signs: food, milk, more, help, book, bath, diaper, bunny, dog, mouse, bird, and bug. When I'm reading to her she watches me to see what sign I'm going to do and she's at the stage where she can learn new signs really quickly.

What does she love?

1. Bathtime. She'd be in the bath all day if we let her but she hates water on her head so washing her hair is a bit traumatic for her.
2. Being outside. If she can't be in the bath, she would be outside. She loves the park and I can't wait til she's walking so I can put her down a bit more freely. Right now she is still inclined to taste-test rocks and grass and stuff. She loves to sit in the swing and go down the slide.
3. Reading books. She seeks them out when she's crawling around the house and she loves to sit and be read to. I love this too, it's one of my favourite times of the day. It's sort of the calm before the storm at bedtime--she sits and giggles as I read to her then she throws a good old fashioned hissy fit when I put her down to sleep in her crib.
4. "playing" with Elise. Too bad Elise hates it.

What does she hate?

1. Going to bed.
2. Getting put down when she feels like being carried around.
3. Having things taken away from her.

Anyway, this post is already getting way to long but ultimately it's for Daniella to read when she's older. I rewrote a song that I love from Rent in honour of her birthday. It's called Seasons of love and if you click on this link you can hear the tune on You Tube while you read what I wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj7LRuusFqo

525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?

In teeth cut, in haircuts, in feedings and poopy diapers
In inches, in pounds, in laughter, and smiles
In 525600 minutes-how do you measure a first year of life?
How about love? How about love? How about love?
Measure in love
 Seasons of love.

525,600 minutes! 525,000 people to meet. 
525,600 minutes - how can you measure the life of a baby girl so sweet?

In things that she learned, or in times that she cried. From rolling to crawling and the way that she tried.
It's time now to sing out,
tho the story’s just begun
let's celebrate Daniella who today has turned one.
Remember the love! Remember the love! Remember the love!
Measure in love
 Seasons of love! Seasons of love.

...a big pile of steaming poo.

...in a hospitality suite at GM Place watching Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Oh yeah! The Boss! What a great birthday. A bunch of old guys ROCKIN' and I mean rockin' for 2 and a half hours without stopping. Did I mention my ticket was free? Thanks Sherry! I had a great time. sigh...well, I guess I've rubbed it in enough.

It's my 35th birthday today. I've always liked my birthday. As a child it was my one day to feel extra special in a family with 4 children all vying for the attention of our parents and as an adult it has been the time that I re-evaluate myself and figure out what changes I will make to grow as a person. It is my day. National Christine Day.

A few friends I know have dreaded their 35th birthday. I'm feeling pretty good about it. I have everything I expected to have by this age: a happy marriage, a home that I own with my wonderful husband (well, I guess we share ownership with First National Bank), two beautiful children. I have a close relationship with my sisters, parents and in-laws and I have many good friends. How could I feel anything but great about this place in my life? I swear it just doesn't get any better than this (although I say that every year and every year just keeps getting better).

So what changes will I make this year? Well, it's actually an on-going project to be more present in the moment and be happy with what I have. I have always strived for more (more money, more responsibility at work, etc.) but it gets so tiring. We are down to one income and there will be many sacrifices over the next couple of years but I am glad to do it because I am the lucky one who gets to spend every day with my girls. Besides, for a while now I have wanted a new career and I am working towards that goal while I am staying home. I just completed my fitness instructor's course and next week I will be taking the written exam and getting evaluated as a group instructor so in about two weeks I'll be certified. I am already teaching a bootcamp and starting a mama's with toddlers bootcamp for some friends.

I also want to extend a happy birthday to three fellow March 31sters: Greg Fox, Jen Carley, and Silas Leske

Take a walk with my toddler and you'll see things you've never noticed before: A river, suitable for walking in, runs down the side of the road when it's raining; a few trees are a magic forest; landscaping rocks are a mountain to climb. Don't even think about stepping around that puddle. A five minute walk to our friend's house becomes a 20 minute adventure...at least! "Hurry up!" I say. But she doesn't cave. She keeps her pace looking all around her. My mantra on these adventures as my mind is racing ahead to my destination and a hot cup of tea and I'm cold and Daniella is whining and I just want to get there should be "what's the rush? what's the rush?" But "hurry up! I say. And she doesn't pick up the pace. Sigh.

And so...we dawdle. I look again at Elise's big brown eyes and innocent little face that says "mama...what's the rush?" and thank my lucky stars she's with me and I'm with her.

I just took a look back and discovered that my last real post was the beginning of February? What the heck?

It turns out that at a "real" job, one must actually work all day! No longer can I work on my website or play Facebook Scrabble all day. Now I have to call people and research customers and write proposals and update my pipeline! Sheesh.

The good news is that I love, love LOVE my new job. I haven't enjoyed work this much since my days as a BA at Epic (early 2005). Jeff (the CEO) and the rest of the partners seem to make all the right decisions when it comes to running a company. Every time I ask a question about policy or the way things should be, I get an answer that I completely agree with. What a refreshing change. I am certain that something will come up that I disagree with, but for now I am still deep into the honeymoon phase.

Not only do I love the company, but I am truly enjoying my role. Sales at the The Level are at a very interesting stage right now. The sales group has gone from none (well the CEO) to two, we released a new website with some good messaging, and have some exciting stuff coming out soon. I am excited about the opportunities here; I really feel like I will succeed here!

All this work at work means that I have no time during the day to do errands and normal stuff and when I get home it is family time. Once the girls go to sleep (by 8:30) it is time to hang with the wife and attempt to do some household things. By 9 or 10 I am tired so I don't have time for anything that requires thinking. So I either just veg out or go to sleep.

So that's why I haven't been posting.

Today I was at the end of my rope. I am sleep deprived as we have not had a good night's sleep since the time change and my patience is short. Elise is 2 and a half and she was every bit two and a half today. Bored, tired, and two. After many offers of going out and asking her what she wanted to do, she eventually agreed to an outing to a new park that we've discovered that we call the Charlie park. It was just the place I needed to go to be reminded of how short this trying time will be and how lucky we are to have our health and our girls. You see, the Charlie Park was built by a family who endured the unthinkable. A tragic accident that happened two years ago whereby Charlie's father backed over him in the driveway, of course not realizing he had gotten out of the house and was behind the car as he was leaving for work one morning. Like I said, the unthinkable.

So today I gratefully took my beautiful daughters to Charlie's park and wanted to take a moment to share this story with you as we should all be reminded once in a while to treasure even the trying times with our toddlers. They will outgrow this behaviour soon and we'll remember with longing the times that we watched our little ones playing at the park and simply wanting to be with us and to have our attention.

Our neighbourhood has has a few break-ins lately and this has made a little nervous about our important stuff. And by important I mean our photos and our video and our music; i.e. our laptop.

I have been doing semi-regular backups, but the external drives was just sitting in our office. So, we have decided to change our process a little. Once a month I will do a full backup and store the hard drive in our safe deposit box. Then I am going to do daily backups either manually (which I will forget to do) or automatically via Time Capsule. I haven't yet convinced myself that the TC premium is worth it, but I am leaning that way.

What is your backup strategy?

Elise has been sleeping for 16 hours. I keep going in to check on her to make sure she's breathing. I don't know if I should wake her up or just let her catch up on all the sleep she apparently needs today. Maybe it's the toilet training? I know I'm tired from it and she's the one doing the work. Maybe she's going through a growth spurt--she's been eating up a storm lately. In any case, this morning I got a little reminder about what it was like to have just one little one to look after and now she's napping too.

The quiet is lovely.

Day three of the Return to the Potty. Now that Daniella is feeling better, I encouraged Elise to put on her panties again on Monday and, apart from a huge poopy accident yesterday while she was trying to nap, she did extremely well. Yesterday we were at her preschool class and I pointed out the big kid toilet (miniature sized porcelain toilet--very cool idea) and she dropped her diaper and panties (she wanted to wear both) and hopped on. I think she did a little something but I was just pleased that she agreed to go on. After that, she didn't want her diaper back on and she hasn't wanted one on since. I got her some pull ups for nights and naps but today while she was trying to nap I went in there because she was crying and she was sitting on the potty with wet pull ups around her ankles.

She also went on our toilet which now has a flip up toddler seat on it so she can sit there without the threat of falling in.

Bene+dic, Domine, creaturam istam cerevisae, quam ex adipe frumenti producere dignatus es: ut sit remedium salutare humano generi: et praesta per invocationem nominis tui sancti, ut, quicumque ex ea biberint, sanitatem corporis, et animae tutelam percipiant. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Not much for the potty report today. Daniella is not well and Elise woke up early so due to a lack of sleep and extremely poor moods, the potty has been voted off the island. We'll see how it is after nap.

Day two of potty training was amazing. It was one of those "my child rocks" days. I knew it was going to be a great day when Elise walked into the living room, saw her little box o' panties and said "op! Panty day! Better put on my panties!"

She earned five stickers on her potty poster by making it to the potty five times. She still didn't manage to get her panties off on time but she got there by herself and I haven't had to clean any messes off the carpet. Hooray!

The big "aha" moment came late in the afternoon when she hopped of the couch and sat down and lots of pee went in the potty (previously we had a lot of trickles) then when she was in the kitchen choosing her sticker, she suddenly bolted to the potty in the living room and landed a bunch more in her target. Way to go Elise!

But the best part of the day (besides all the hugs and smiles of pride on her face) was when she actually got a little poo in there too. She couldn't believe it and I've had a difficult time getting her to sit on the potty to do that (she makes a face so I can tell when she's going and offer her a seat each time which she has adamantly refused). Naturally this was cause for another great celebration.

It's been an eventful month for Daniella with lots of firsts to share with you.

A trip to the pediatrician led to us having to supplement her diet with 800 ml a day of formula. I had a hard time emotionally with this. I felt like a bit of a failure that my breast feeding efforts were not helping her grow fast enough. I guess "breast is best"...except when it's not. Anyway I am getting over that and I am just happy that I can easily see that she is getting enough to eat. I'm looking forward to our follow up visit to find out that she is gaining enough weight.

The lack of weight gain hasn't caused any developmental delays. In fact, the pediatrician said she is quite advanced socially, very happy, bright and aware. She is crawling all over the place and learned to pull herself up to standing this month. Uh-oh! Time to lower the crib mattress! She also just started pointing. I have this little wave I do when I see my kids-I point my finger at them and bend it up and down like I'm waving with it. Now when Dee sees me, she points to me with this huge grin on her face. Besides pulling up to standing, her biggest milestone was learning her first sign: more.

Her favourite pastimes include: floor humping, playing with cables, putting things in (balls into the Fisher Price gum ball machine) taking things out, bugging Elise, getting "Smunched" (half smooch, half munch) under her chin, grabbing faces (ouch!), biting shoulders (ouch!), exploring the Tupperware cupboard, getting thrown on the bed by Papa, getting flipped by Papa.

The things I'll miss when she grows out of them: the way she scrunches her little nose and breathes in and out quickly-almost like snorting, the way she starts dancing (shaking her head from side to side) whenever she hears music especially the wiggle wiggle song, the way she lies on her stomach with her arms out to the sides like she's flying and kicks her feet together.

Daniella also had another first: her first plane ride when we went to California to visit the Daley's and Maclachlan's. She was a rock star. Didn't cry at all throughout the whole flight.

It's day one and a half of toilet training Elise. We started informally yesterday--she wanted to wear big girl panties so off we went. I happened to be sitting beside her when she started peeing so I plopped her on the toilet, panties and all, to let her finish. Then I did the best victory dance I could muster and gave her a reward that I'd been saving for just this occasion. Then we called Erin at work to tell him the great news (a lot of fanfare for a little pee!)

So today I am trying in earnest to get her toilet trained using the method from Easypottytraining.com which requires that the you give them lots and lots to drink and wait for the action so you can catch them in the act and put them on the potty. Supposed to get the job done in 3 days but I expect that by having to deal with Daniella during all this it may take longer. My friend Charlotte wants to train her daughter too so we thought we'd gang up on them and trooped over here with her potty in tow so there'd be one each. Well, Bella had three accidents in the space of two hours and Elise didn't even pee once in that time. I didn't want to leave her side thinking the moment I leave the room is when she's going to pee then the learning moment is past. Anyway, eventually she did it but, to my surprise, caught herself in the act and came and sat on the potty herself (panties and all--oh well!) She had about three trickles in this manner over the next half hour or so so I think she was stopping herself from going completely but each time she started peeing she ran to sit on the potty. I consider this a huge success. Way to go Elise!!

That being said, while I was typing this, Elise got came out from her nap with her diaper on and pooped. sigh.

Silly Erin...he goes away on a grand vacation with his whole family and neglects to blog about it.

Long time readers of this blog will remember that Christine and I have gone to see our good friends Nigel and Melody wherever they have lived. First we went to Boston in 2002, then France in 2005. Recently they moved to San Jose, CA, so to continue our tradition, we packed up the family and headed down to The Valley. As a bonus, our friends Dave & Jen live down there too, and we hadn't seen them in a while, so we hooked up with them as well.

It seems that every time we go see the Daleys our travel logistics get more complicated. The first time it was just Christine and I and we took the train from NY to Boston. The second time, we had a 7 month old and needed two flights to get there. This time, we had two kids (sheesh), but only needed one flight. Strangely, this last trip was the most complicated, mostly due to Elise. You see, when flying, a toddler must be in a car seat. Which means you have to bring one with you. In addition to the stroller. And the snacks. And books. And DVDs. And the diaper bag. Oh ya, and Daniella! It would have been easier to check the children and carry on the luggage!!!

Friday was a quiet day as Nige had to work and Claire went to her morning school. So we hung around at home until Mel had to go pick Claire up and then we went to the park beside the school and played on the playground and had a picnic.

Saturday we all (DLs, Daleys, MacLachlans) went to Happy Hollow for the day. Much fun was had by all.

We spent Sunday with the MacLachlans and Jen showed us her horse, Justice, and the ranch it lives on. Elise enjoyed the horses and the cow, Norman.

Monday was split into two, with the morning being a girls day out (they went shopping) and the evening being a boys night out (we went to dinner and played some pool). Not terribly exciting but it was fabulous just to catch up with everyone sans fiends.

Tuesday was the end of our grand adventure and we headed home with both children being rockstars again! Especially Molly, who endured many hours in the car taking Claire to school then coming back to get us, then driving us to the airport then going back to get Claire. Thanks Molly and chauffeur Mel!

And thanks to the Daleys for the their amazing hospitality and the MacLachlans for showing us a great time!

Where to next????

Hi, Agent Daniella here. I've hijacked the glowy box the big people always tap their fingers on to bring you a little message.

I am nine months old now. I can't believe how fast the time is going. It seems like just yesterday that I was suddenly blinded by a bright light and pushed out of my warm little house into this big loud place. I've been spending these last few months of reconnaissance work exploring from the arms of the big people who inhabit this strange land. Now I have left the safety of my perch and am working my way around the joint on my belly arm over arm. It doesn't make me as dizzy as rolling although I still find rolling a lot faster to go greater distances. It's terrific because I can now go to see the nice pretty lady with the milk when she hides in the kitchen and I can get to the other little person to steal her sucky and anything else she has left lying about whenever I want. This amuses me.

Even though the local food is delicious, it's not terribly fattening. I got weighed today and discovered that I have now dropped to 5th percentile (still only 15 lbs 12 ounces) so I have to go and visit with a pediatrician in a couple of weeks. This has all the big people confused because I have chubby cheeks and rolls on my thighs so I LOOK normal. I come from a long line of small big people so I assume this is just genetics (including the rolls on my thighs--too bad about that.)

The entertainment around here is great. I enjoy music and can't help but bop to the beat whenever there is a catchy tune playing. My favourite is the Hokey Pokey but I like all sorts well enough. Not a big fan of rap though. I also enjoy being thrown on the bed by the hairy big person. He plays on the bed with me and the other little person every evening when he comes home. This pleases the nice pretty lady and the play time usually ends with everyone sitting down eating. I don't like riding around in the big silver box on wheels, especially after 4:00 p.m.

Speaking of eating, I do like the local cuisine as I mentioned before. My favourite dishes are chicken soup (made from scratch by the nice pretty lady), peaches, and cereal with prunes but I'll eat just about anything.

That's all for now. I'll keep you posted but for now it's Agent Daniella signing off.