Thursday, December 3, 2009

The Spirit of the Holidays...

"I hear those sleigh bells ringing...."

Happy Holidays everyone! I know it has been a while since my last post, but I will use my typical excuse....we have been BUSY!!

It's so hard to believe it is Christmas time already! The year has absolutely flown by....they say time flies when you're having fun....they weren't kidding!

And, what a year it has been! It is amazing that this:


Has become this:


In just a few short months....WILD!

With the holiday season upon us, I have been taking some time to reflect on the past year and all of the good things that have come our way. 

Amongst the many good things that have occurred, one definitely shines brighter than all of the rest...#1 - Hands down, Miss Madelyn takes the cake on this one! 

It has been a whirlwind trying to catch on to the whole parenting thing, but lucky for us, Maddie has made it a lot of fun thus far. I have also been fortunate to have a number of good friends and relatives to offer helpful advice and knowledge along the way.

There is one friend in particular that most people close to me don't know about and she has been a godsend from the time I found out I was pregnant with Miss Maddie...in fact, she was the first one to know about Maddie other than Carman and myself and Maddie still plays with the super cute set of farm animal rattles we received from her long before Miss Maddie made her debut!

I am not one for online communities and forums normally, but when I was planning our wedding I joined theknot.com to take advantage of all the great wedding planning tools, tips and ideas. Little did I know, as soon as our wedding date past, I would automatically be rolled over to the thenest.com...a great site for newlyweds and navigating your first few years as a married couple. 

In June of 2008, (when I began to suspect I was pregnant) I stumbled across a new section of thenest.com...thebump.com. The information and planning tools on the bump are awesome and the discussion forums of other new and expecting moms are sometimes helpful, but more often quite entertaining...you think a room full of hormonal girls has drama....try an online community of THOUSANDS of them! Haha.

Anyways, it was on one of these discussion forums that I met "M". We come from different backgrounds...Sunny warm Florida vs. chilly rural Ontario...city girl vs. farm girl..., but somehow we found several things in common (other than babies) and became fast email friends. We have been cheerleaders for each other and sounding boards. We've bounced ideas and questions off each other and shared the "crazy" advice we have been given by various friends and relatives. We even had each other on our text message list for when our little ones arrived. We have been able to share the ups and downs of pregnancy and mommyhood more candidly with each other sometimes than with our closest family and friends, because the beauty of our friendship is that we only know each other. I don't know her family and friends and she doesn't know mine....our secrets are safe!! Muahahahaha 

Ironically though, we have sent enough emails and kept up-to-date on each others Facebook pictures and such that I feel like I know her family and friends....Funny how that works.

Anyways, since 'tis the season of giving, I thought I would share this story in hopes to encourage all the mommies-to-be and/or new mommies or even experienced mommies to check out thebump.com. Like I said, sometimes the entertainment value far outweighs the actual useful information, but sometimes a new friend, a good laugh or an encouraging word is all you need during the long, long, LONG days waiting for baby to arrive, or in the wee hours of the morning when baby is up for the 18th time that night. Besides, you never know who you might meet...I never thought I would find a photography loving, city-dwelling, Floridian version of myself...but I did!

In other Christmas news, it is Madelyn's FIRST Christmas this year and we are VERY excited. The shopping is almost done...I have a few more things to get, but I am in good shape and have even got a lot of it wrapped already! Carm got out our Christmas tree today and Maddie and I spent the afternoon decorating the tree and putting out the other Christmas decorations. The house is now looking quite festive! We even found some Christmas carols to listen to while we worked....Maddie's fav was "All I Want For Christmas is Four New Teeth"...

Yep, she is still teething full-force! She already has two on the bottom and one on the top, but she also has 4 more on the verge of popping through....POOR thing!! She has not been a happy little camper this week, so hopefully they come through in the next couple days so she can be a happy girl for Santa's first visit!

Anyways, I feel like I have provided you all with enough of a novel to read, so it's time to call it a day! Enjoy my pretties!