typealice

People have begun to arrive and my stress level is through the roof. Not because of their arrival per se, but just because it’s all starting and our wedding day is SO CLOSE and all of the small details are running through my head, and my head alone, and I’ve got grocery lists and guests’ plane itineraries and small task lists and big task lists and yesterday FOUR people changed their RSVPs to “no.” Five days before the wedding. Sigh.

But it’s all coming together. Turns out I didn’t make enough crepe paper flowers and my sister and I have been in production mode for the past couple of days for the centrepieces.

Clive and I have not written our vows yet. I’m not sure when we’ll have enough time to sit down together and write them. That’s a pretty important thing. Still haven’t decided on my walking down the aisle music yet either. I think it’s between two songs, unless we happen to find something else, and I’m not sure if either of the two songs are quite perfect, but those who know me well know that I don’t really give that much of a shit about music as it is, so it’s not like it’s going to ruin the day or something. I just want to invoke the right emotions with the music, I don’t want to have it as a keepsake or anything.

I have a hard time getting my head to stop when I lay down to go to sleep at night. Last night it took me nearly two hours to fall asleep.

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Tomorrow Clive’s sister arrives and I’m SO excited to see her. Then, a few hours later, my oldest girlfriend, Lisa arrives and also- SO excited to see her. I haven’t seen her in over a year, and it’ll be great to catch up. I’ve been so into being a mom I honestly can’t remember where she’s been living for the past couple of months (year?). It’s bad. Then on Friday our dear friend from the Caribbean, Yuri, arrives and it’s been a couple of years since we’ve seen him and it’ll be SO great to see him too. The best part of getting married is the excuse to see all of these old friends. WONDERFUL.

And then Marc and Nicole on Saturday and lots of other people I don’t get to see nearly enough. I’m excited!

I’m having a hard time deciding what song to walk down the aisle to… well, not even so much “deciding” as “finding.” Here’s where you come in, friends. You were very helpful with choosing the wedding favors, and behold!

So now, my musically inclined readers, do you have any suggestions?

I don’t want anything traditional, I don’t want anything extremely recognizable. I like folk music. We’re doing the “people being seated” music as just piano, my sister and Ash are walking down to Hans Zimmer’s True Romance theme and after we’re wed we’re walking away to something fun from yet another movie, something to the tune of this (hello, wedding guests! I suppose I’ve ruined this part of the ceremony surpise).

Why must popular movies have the most perfect songs?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Ten days until I’m a married woman. Wow.

Last night I panicked after realizing that I gave Clive the task of figuring out wedding music, but didn’t specify that he needed to work on actual ceremony music, so he was just slowly gathering songs together for our reception but didn’t really think about the precession, bridal and recession music. Those are pretty important pieces of music and we hadn’t discussed or thought about it at all. I cannot stand thinking about or talking about music, and rarely even listen to it, so this was definitely something that I needed Clive to work on.

Clive loves leaving things until the last moment. I do not.

So, I got a bit testy last night and started YouTubing a bunch of songs on a forum about wedding music from indiebride.com. We’ve figured out the recession song so far. Better than nothing.

I’m spending my days doing errands, a little bit here, a little bit there. Today I walked 35 minutes to the local organic store and bought mango jam for the curry pasta salad. Tomorrow I go to party supply store and get gray and blue balloons to mark the way to the cottage. I also need new jeans (though not for the wedding), and I hope to buy those tomorrow too.

Clive’s birthday is Saturday and we really hope to be able to relax and maybe go to the beach or a lake or something because after that, all hell breaks loose and we’ll have a wonderful, but extremely busy couple of weeks. Monday I’m going to my mom’s house to work on the centrepeices and get sand from the beach to fill the vases. Tuesday is my last “free” day, Wednesday Clive’s mom arrives and will likely kidnap Ash from me (I think she’s more excited about seeing him again than Clive and I getting married) and she’ll take us out for lunch. Thursday is when Clive starts his vacation and his sister arrives, my best friend from University arrives and likely a few other people and then the biggest grocery shopping trip of my entire lifetime (catering for 40+ people) at Costco and other stores. Then cleaning and packing because on Friday we head to my mom’s for lots and lots of cooking and baking. Saturday we’re allowed to check in at the cottage and set up! Then Sunday! Three hours in the hairdresser’s hair for god knows what, makeup application by my sister, dress on, and then scoot to the location and get married.

Did you just read through that paragraph? If you did, I’m sorry because I know it was boring.

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I’m not freaking out. Other than the little moments I have of “OH MY GOD, WE HAVEN’T THOUGHT ABOUT THE MARINADE FOR THE PORTOBELLO BURGERS!” (speaking of which, do you have a good recipe?) I’m feeling pretty calm. I’ve been slowly working away at this wedding stuff for so long that I don’t really feel like I’ve left a lot until the last moment. I’m making lists and it’s helping. I’m still quite far under budget and happy with the amount I’ve spent so far.

Words cannot describe how excited I am to see my friends.

I just updated with Ash’s month nine newsletter- scroll down to see it. I edited the timestamp in order to pretend that I’m an organized mother who writes her son’s newsletters on his birthdays.

Does anyone have any suggestions for vintage/retro bridal hair styles? I got my hair did yesterday, and it looked like this. It’s similar to how I want it, but not perfect:

I left that particular site and haven’t been back and she is not referencing me when she talks about people who’ve set up spy accounts.

(For Lisa)

1 qt rhubarb, diced
1 qt onions
1 pint vinegar
1 lb brown sugar
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt

Cook rhubarb and onoins in vinegar for about 20 min. Add sugar, spices and then boil for approx 1/2 hour.

(For Caitlin)

1/2c margarine
1 1/2c sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2c milk
1 tsp vanilla
2c rhubarb, floured (frozen or fresh)

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs. Add flour, salt and baking powder alernatively with milk. Add vanilla and rhubarb.

Topping:

1/4c white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix and sprinkle on top.

Bake 350 degrees for one hour (or until knife comes out clean). Any fruit can be substituted.

Dear Ash,

This month the name of the game was TEETH. A couple of teeth started coming in at the end of your eighth month, but I can comfortably say that you got SIX TEETH when you were nine months old, the last coming in a couple of days before turning ten months old. Outside of a bit more moaning and a couple of bad nights of restless sleep, you were wonderful. We used baby Tylenol when we absolutely had to, but most of the time you were okay just with Hyland’s Teething Tablets and another brand of homeopathic teething water.

Saying that, you went from this:

to this: To be honest, I don’t feel that much happened this month. You’re just getting better and better at previous skills. You pull yourself up on everything (often pulling my elastic-waisted pants down), you’re walking with the help of our fingers or the chairs your push across the room, or your little Plan Toys wagon.You love to eat, and we’re now letting you take bites of chunks of food, rather than cutting them up. Broccoli is a favorite, you love brown rice noodles and this month you tried organic apricots (perfect hand-sized food) and loved them. You’re a sticky mess when you’re done them, and you cry when I have to take it away to get the pit out so that you don’t choke. When you eat, you often curl your toes together like in the picture below. There’s a particular pair of khakis overalls that you wear that, I guess, makes you look like a girl. People always comment on our “beautiful daughter,” even if I pair the overalls with a blue shirt. One morning when we were hanging out together and you were dressed in the overalls, I decided to embellish you with a new girly hairstyle. And the strangers were right! You turned into our beautiful daughter! Look how pretty you were! We took a couple of trips to the market this month to try to sell my slings. It was really hard on you, my little demo baby. You’re used to four hours of sleep between 5am-12pm, and going to the market means that you’re lucky if you can catch an hour of sleep while laying in my lap. Even though you take the full weekend to recover from it, you’re always well behaved. You love the attention you get from strangers, and if someone passes by without smiling at you, you’ll try to get their attention by doing an adorable baby squeal as if you say, “Um! Hello! Did you not notice how cute I am? What if I make this noise? Will you love me if I do this?”I must admit that I loved having you pass out, boob in mouth, on my lap while we were at the market. You felt so small, which doesn’t happen very often anymore.

You tried your first juice this month, and I won’t spend a lot of time talking about it because it’s not that exciting. You really loved it (plain carrot juice), which isn’t a surprise because you have a never-ending love affair with drinking water. You drank out of my cup and got your first juice mustache. It was amazing how quickly the juice stained your skin, heh. Your father took you fishing for the first time this month, too. I was lucky and got to sleep in. He stuck you in a sling and tells me you really enjoyed yourself. He said you even cried when he had to throw the fish back in the water! Would you just love to explore the fish (probably by sticking it in your mouth, yuck)! Everything in your mouth. A piece of thread, some of yesterday’s dinner that I missed when sweeping, a toy, your shirt, whatever. Everything. in. your. mouth. I introduced you to bubbles this month. First, a handful of dish soap bubbles which entertained you (and again, ended up in your mouth, whoopsie), and then I took you to our neighbour’s back yard and blew real bubbles with a wand and everything. It was windy so they blew away pretty quickly, but it did keep you entertained for about 20 minutes. Your aunt and I took you out a couple of evenings later and we spent about an hour on our front lawn blowing bubbles, but to be honest, it was mostly for our own entertainment than yours. Bubbles are wicked!
Canada Day was this month. It was uneventful. We took you to the Halifax Commons and sat in the shade near a lot of other familys, but that’s about it. Your dad and I couldn’t care much less about Canada Day, though it was nice to get out and do something as a family (it doesn’t happen very often because of your sleep and his work schedule).

You and I? We make a good pair.

Runner up: You and your papa.

You constantly amaze us, and you’re starting to amaze other people too. People have started commenting on your demeanor- how well behaved and easily amused you are. One of the best compliments was made by a stranger at the Halifax Farmer’s Market when your father and I went together to sell slings; she said that your easy personality was indicative of our great parenting skills. I think we’re great parents, to be honest, we protect you from the things we deem important, yet we give you a lot of freedom to explore and learn about life as much as we can while still keeping you safe. We follow your lead and you follow ours. We’ve got a great thing going on.

I love you.

Love,
Mama

A mere three weeks until our big day!

I mentioned a few entries ago that people had RSVP’d on very late notice, and now people are informing us that they can’t come. Four people, actually, in the span of about 24 hours have taken back their Yes RSVP and changed it to a No. Both for very valid reasons, but it still throws a wrench into things. I hope that if other people can’t come they let me know like, yesterday. I’m going to stop calling the cake place and the rental place until a couple of days before the wedding because they must be seriously sick and tired of me calling and making changes.

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Clive went with me to the Halifax Farmer’s Market this weekend to sell slings. We got stuck with yet another shitty location (but it was better than a couple of weeks ago). We were beside a florist with great flowers, but it meant that most of the traffic was older people (think grey hair), and any moms that passed by our table were just there by coincidence. I really want to keep selling slings there, but not if I keep getting stuck with really shitty spots. It’s a waste of $52. Clive had to keep reminding me that it’s advertising, if anything. Clive was AMAZING. So helpful and never a complaint about the early rising time or the uncomfortable chairs or how long we had to be there. I felt like part of a team and it was wonderful (we don’t get to spend a lot of time together because of his work schedule, so it’s often hard to even get in a good conversation).

Anyway, I made enough to cover the cost of renting a table (and the table two weeks ago), and we nearly ran out of business cards, so that was great. I couldn’t stop dreaming about it all night, and I think Ash may have picked up on that energy because we had the worst night in months. Every 1.5-2 hours he’d wake up to nurse, and between nursing sessions he’d just roll all over the bed. He has to come with me to sell slings because he’s my demo baby, but it’s really, really hard on him. He only sleeps a fraction of what he’s used to (we wake up at 5 and he usually sleeps for four hours between 5am-12pm, and when we’re at the market he only sleeps for two short naps- equaling about an hour), and then he’s so tired he can’t seem to sleep at all for his afternoon nap. He went all day yesterday with only two short naps on my lap and we even went out to support some friends of ours and listen to their amazing music. Ash was totally motionless for about 15 minutes while listening to the sweet voice of Penelope- seriously, that child was smitten. And she even gave him a shout-out over the mic when he did start to move and talk again.

Then he ate a quarter of a cantaloupe (the most of anything he’s ever eaten ever) and he passed out in the car within seconds of being strapped in his seat.