Happy birthday beautiful Rosemary!

Sorry again neglected blog. I hope you have gotten comfortable on that seat on the back burner. Our Spring and Summer have been full of swimming, running, biking, splashing, climbing, boating, and playing outdoors. There has been no room for idle up and down loads or composing pithy paragraphs. That can wait for when we are stuck indoors this winter. 

This brief check in is simply to wish our darling girl a Happy 1st birthday.

Rosie, Romy, Zee-Zee, La-lee, Mi-mi. You are added sunshine to our life. This first year has been so great getting to cuddle you and watch you grow. You make us all laugh and we fight for your smiles and attention. 

Here is a little bit about you on your first birthday... You are 21.6 lbs and have blonde hair and blue-green eyes. You are a busy girl who likes to explore your space. You are determined and very vocal about your desires and mood. You make sure not to be overshadowed by your loud older brother, and when the two of your start competing all we can do is sit back, laugh and plug our ears. You try to talk a lot. Most of it babble, but you do your best to copy the words we teach you. Some of the words you can say are: Wheeler (Wee-wer) Mama, Dada, Murphy (Mur-ee), birdee, up, no, yes, where is she?, is it?(what is it) this (pointing at an object you want) Sara, please, pretty. bottle (baba). 

You are not walking yet, but can stand alone, and walk very well with a stroller, pushing a ride on car, or holding a hand. 

You climb on everything, and just this week figured out how to go down the stairs on your own. We now have a hard time keeping you out of the basement... which is your favorite place to play. You like to sit up on the big kid bikes and be pushed around, or scoot backwards on the little cars for you. You love to swing and go down slides at the park. Wheeler holds you and takes you down the big slides and you always squeal. You like to dig in the sand box, and play in the rocks at the park.

You love the water at the splash parks and aren't afraid to explore with the big kids away from mom. You are definitely a mommies girl, but love to play games with dad. Wheeler continues you be your best buddy and you take your cue from him when it comes to toys that interest you. You love cars and push them around and say "beep beep". But you also really love babies. Your favorite birthday presents this week are your new baby and stroller. You hug and kiss the baby and pat her on the back. 

You are a big eater these days, and love almost every kind of food. You yell and get quite insistent when you want something and we can almost be certain that when you are grouchy you are just hungry. Your favorite foods are avocado, blueberries, smoothies, and cheerios... but you want whatever mom and dad are eating, and are hilarious at restaurants. You have been known to polish off entire egg rolls, hamburgers, tacos, and even salads. 

You are a very light sleeper, and not an overly consistent napper. Wheeler is the first person you look for when you wake up in the morning and from naps. You always as "where is he" and squeal and try to lunge for him when we find him. Sometimes he will sneak into your crib if he hears you awake and you will stay and play there for quite some time. You are best buddies and have so much fun together.

We had a birthday party bbq yesterday to celebrate your first year. You burned your hand on the candle while we sang you happy birthday so we let you eat 2 cupcakes. You had lots of help opening and playing with your presents and you tired our early and went right to bed. Big happy birthday wishes to you little sis. We love you so much! 

 

woo hoo 32

And so I am another year older...
I don't have any lists or self discoveries to share from the past year. It has been a wild one, with all good outcomes and many blessings counted.  I can say without hesitation that I am happy. And what more could a woman want at thirty two.
Here is my yearly self picture. And one with each of my favorite people in the world!

Hiatus

I gave myself a break from blogging this winter. For those who do, updating a blog can get time consuming and feel like another chore to feel guilty about not getting done sooner. So there were no updates or pictures for the 6 remarkably quick months since we left Texas... (I have been wasting my time on Facebook instead.)

And now it is Spring. Beautiful sunny blessed longer daylight spring! We are still wearing boots and toques 50% of the time. But yesterday there was a house fly in the kitchen, so I am declaring it spring!  And our little family of four is alive and well. We made it through the storm. We are all moved and settled in to our new life back home in Alberta. We joked back in September that we were going to wake up one morning in April and not recognize our life. And in truth sometimes it feels that way, but not really in a disorienting way. To help explain and catch you up to speed with the Swans I will try to Q&A some of the usual questions people ask about our move.

Question: Where are you?
Answer: fair enough... we are in NW Calgary. (Rockyridge) We bought a house up here and love the area so far. pretty hills. close to the mountains. edge of the city.
*follow up Q: Why did you pick WAY up there? (Matt grew up in south Calgary, and I in Lethbridge, and we still have family/friends in the south)
A: After 8 years of anonymity in Texas, we liked the idea of moving somewhere new within the city. Starting fresh away from preconceived notions of who we are/where. Matt's brother and family live up here and sold us on the area. It has a quick commute to downtown on the train. Good community amenities. And seems like a nice place to raise our family.

Q: how are you dealing with the cold?
A: it is a surprising non-issue. (says the girl who doesn't shovel the walk or wait in the cold for the train).  We claimed for years that Texas was better because of the weather. Not true. Weather is just weather. Good and bad wherever you live. We weren't bothered by the snow and the cold this winter. Ask us again in a year or two.

Q: so you are here for good?
A: yes.

Q: did Matt find a new job, or transfer within the company.
A: same company, but he had to apply as an outsider. He is working as a Canadian not an American. But lucky for us, we got all the benefits of an in-company transfer when he got the job. (they moved us, bought our house, travel allowance, temporary housing, etc.)

Q: what has been the biggest adjustment
A: Here is the short list.... Canada's crappy banks. what do you mean we have to PAY for checks, and sub-accounts!? (but then again, the crappy Canadian banks didn't fail.) Also, the short days and low sun up north in the winter. Especially when we first moved. It was always twilight. Drove us crazy. We aren't fans of Canadian cable t.v. Where are all the sports?!?! And lastly... everything costs more. Groceries, clothes, restaurants, entertainment. But we were prepared for those adjustments.

Q: what is the best thing about being home
A: Tim Hortons. kidding. Family hands down. We just got back from a quick pop down to Lethbridge for a baby blessing. We used to miss all those kinds of events. So nice to be part of it again. And we even left early with sick kids... something we couldn't do when we would visit a week or two at a time.

Q: How are the kids doing with the move?
A: Rosemary is awesome. She has been dragged around since birth so it hasn't seemed to bother her a bit. (classic 2nd child) Wheeler had a bit of an unsettled time when we moved out of our temporary apartment (we were there 6 weeks). He would often ask where we lived and wanted a long version account of how "daddy got a new job and so we sold our house, the movers packed up all our things, got on an airplane... etc. " He still occasionally asks about going to Cindy lane and swimming at Grandmas. But he has settled in well enough now. He loves his cousins and has made some good little friends in Canada. We also taught him how to skate this winter. He really loves it and we are looking forward to teaching him how to snow ski next winter!

Q: What do you miss about Texas?
A: The food is the automatic answer. Tex-Mex, BBQ, cajun food, southern food, tea served at every restaurant. The cheap groceries/food/retail is another easy one. We also traded in lots of Papa and Grandma time in Texas for being close to the rest of our family. Wheeler has to learn how to share his grandparents now when they visit... something hard for him. We miss our Texas friends of course. But catching up with old friends who still live in Canada, or have moved away and now also moved home has been so great and kept us so busy. We have been feeling a little bit guilty that we forgot how many really cool friends we know up here and we were so bad at keeping in touch with while we lived in Texas.  And now we feel even guiltier that we have been poor at keeping in touch with our really cool buddies back down in the south. ( sorry y'all. mental note to do better!)  All in all, yes of course we miss it. But we haven't felt homesick for it and the transition has been remarkably easy. Which leads into the BIG question...

Q: So are you happy that you moved back to Canada?  (and this one is always said tentatively with one eyebrow raised... )
A: YES YES YES! We really are happy here. We are probably more surprised than anyone how easy and painless the move and transition has been. For those who know how long we hoed and hummed and weighed all the pros and cons about coming back... please believe us when we say whole heartily that we are glad that we did. The majority of our hesitations have turned out to be moot points. We concede that it was the right decision for our little family. And we don't have regrets EVEN when it is snowing in April.

So a happy Spring from the now/again Canadian Swans. Let us know if you would like our new contact information!