Today was a PJ Day

It was -30 here today so Natalie and I stayed in and hung out in our PJs. She ate Mum Mums and I drank a lot of coffee.

Yes, coffee is still my best friend. It's surprising that even though she's started sleeping through the night I'm still exhausted. I thought a few nights of 7+ hours and I'd be bouncing out of bed in the morning. I guess the fact that Natalie's ready to kick start the day at 5:30 a.m. doesn't help. Neither my brain nor body is anyhere near bounce-ready at that hour. And I guess it doesn't help that I automatically wake up at 4 a.m. out of habit. Hopefully my internal clock will give that silliness up soon.

We spent some of our PJ day playing with the camera. I'm determined to get better at photography - I just have to practice, practice, practice.

Here are some mug shots of missy - she thought mommy was pretty silly with her camera.

And here's a look at how we set her up to play with some of her toys. She loves to pull the rings off this toy. Keeps her busy while I make my morning cup o' joe.

Ciao for now.

PS One month from today Natalie is scheduled to get her cast taken off! Hooray!

Cast Update and Ideas for Keeping Cast Kiddies Entertained

It's been ten days since Natalie's cast change (sorry for the delayed update). But better late than never I suppose so here it is.

I'll start off with the good news (there isn't any bad news - just in case that seemed ominous).

Everything went extremely well - in fact her hip is looking very stable and Dr. J says six more weeks should do the trick (down from seven!). We're scheduled for a cast removal on Thursday March 26th - hooray!

As for the cast change - the procedure took a little longer than planned. A student doctor was supposed to put her cast on (under Dr. J's watchful eye), but in the end she wasn't happy with the result so she redid the work herself.

This time around was much less stressful than the first casting procedure. Dan and I weren't nearly as stressed since we already knew what to expect. And the whole process was much faster than last time. We arrived at 8 a.m. and were headed home with our happy baby by noon.

Immediately after she woke up, Natalie was hungry and not at all impressed with the IV she had in her hand. But after a few minutes of nursing and a quick removal of the IV she was all smiles again.

It's basically been business as usual since we came home. Natalie is in good cheer, as long as she's being entertained :). She tends to get bored easily so I've been keeping her busy with games and outings. In case you're a mom looking for things to do here are some of the things I do to keep us busy and entertained.

Gymboree - I take her to a Gymboree class once a week and then we hit at least one of the Gymboree open playtimes, where she loves playing with the beach balls, bouncing on the inner tubes, rolling on the cylinders and of course gazing at herself in the mirror.

Coffee and play - Our local coffeshop/playhouse is called Playgrounds and since Natalie is under a year old it's free for her to get as long as I buy something to eat or drink. So I get a green tea and we either make a date with my friend Lori and her little guy Ben or we just chat with whoever is around. Natalie can't use most of the toys but she loves visiting the other kids and plays with anything that she can spin with her hands. TIP - Whenever I meet someone new, I bring up the cast early in the conversation. It avoids that awkward white-elephant-in-the-room feeling and it provides lots of conversation material when you're talking with someone you don't really know.

Playdates - I try to schedule at least one playdate every week. Sometimes we're up for going out and other times it's better if visitors come to us. Recently we've visited with some of Natalie's favorite baby friends Olivia, Jaxon and Maisee.

The pet store - When the weather is bad and there's no one around we head to the pet store for a visit with the animals. Natalie is fasinated with everything from the puppies to the goldfish so we can kill a good 45 minutes just walking around while I tell her all about the animals.

And if all else fails... the library is a good distraction along with Tim Hortons or a trip to my favorite coffee shop - Cafe Beano.

Wow that was a much longer post than I'd intended. That's all for now. Enjoy the week. Here are some recent pics of our cutie before her cast change and being silly afterwards at home.

Week five in the spica cast

Natalie woke up today and decided it was story time, she doesn't do this often so I decided to catch it on video. But it turns out she was feeling very chatty because she gabbed like this all day - it was so sweet. I took her out to a coffee shop for a little outing and she babbled the whole time - making lots of friends in the process of course.

No matter where I take her at least one person stops to make a fuss over her, and she adores it. She always has a smile ready and will even stare at people until they start to talk to her. She definitely loves meeting new people.

As far as the cast situation goes, pumpkin is doing fantastic. Believe it or not she's been in her cast for five weeks already. Hopefully there are only seven more to go. We're going in to have her cast changed tomorrow and we'll also get an update on how things are progressing. We're waiting to see if the bone in her hip socket is growing from cartilage into bone. So keep your fingers crossed - grow little bone grow!

We'll post an update this weekend.

Cheers for now.

Wendy, Dan and Natalie