Happy Hallowe'en!

Emma had a fun evening and curiously watched the strange creatures arriving at our door.

But mom, I want to be the princess!

Attempting to photograph both girls proved, as usual, difficult at best :)

When Mommy is away.....

.... the girls will play!




While I was having a fantabulous time with some of my favourite Mommy Friends (Nancy, Twin Mom, Northern Mom, and Silver Creek Mom among others) on our annual Moms Only Weekend, Emma and Big Sister were having an equally fun time with Opa and Grandma.

Eric and the girls dropped me off in downtown Toronto on Friday afternoon then headed off to visit with family.

They spent time exploring:



eating:



(or not):



and modelling their new hats (Thank You Grandma!):






Everyone had a great time and the weekend was over waaaayyyy too quickly.

Mommy is recovering from all of the shopping, walking, laughing, chocolate, junk food, wine, hot-tubbing, and too-little sleep (we don't call it the Moms Gone Wild Weekend for nothin'), so we'll get back to more regular posting soon :)

Hello kitty!

Done

After more than 14 months of pumping for Emma, I pumped for the last time this morning.

I'm done.

It's the right time to stop.

Still, I'm a bit sad.

At first, when Emma was so sick and small and fragile and we couldn't even hold her, supplying the breastmilk that she was given a cc at a time seemed the least, the only thing, I could do for her. So I pumped.

Eventually, as Emma slowly got bigger, she was able to breastfeed a bit, but it was hard work for her and she tired quickly and, as typical for micropreemies, she needed to be bottlefed, at least part of the time. So I pumped more.

Later, we discovered that Emma was aspirating, so we had to start thickening her milk which made breastfeeding impossible. So I pumped even more.

Pumping became part of our family routine. Big Sister still asks if I have to pump before we go anywhere :) I pumped while camping. I pumped on vacation. I pumped while we were driving down the Transcanada Highway [sorry, fellow travellers, you might have got more than an eyeful on your summer holiday on the east coast :)] Thank goodness for the Medela Pump In Style electric pump. For a long time, I was attached to that thing 6 to 8 times a day. And the freezer was full of bottles and bags of expressed milk.

Once we got the O.K. from her pediatrician, we started Emma on cow's milk (she's currently drinking 1/2 cow's milk mixed with 1/2 breast milk) and I cut back on my pumping schedule. Since then my supply has been steadily decreasing. Emma is also eating more and more solid food and she's just not as interested in bottlefeeding anymore. And, I'm meeting up with some of my favourite Mommy Friends in a few days for a Mom's Only Weekend in Toronto and I'd really like to go without my pump.

So tomorrow, for the first time in 430-some days, I won't be pumping.

Pumping is hard work.

But look at this face:




It was so worth it.

Emma's Banned Video

Here's the video that YouTube didn't want you to see...

[click to play video]
Thank you to the fine folks at Adobe for the 30 day trial download of Flash Professional 8.

Emma video banned on YouTube

[click for larger image]Apparently Emma's first video has already been banned on YouTube. Why anyone would have a problem with a video of a happy baby splashing in the bath is beyond me...I'll try to get the video up somewhere else.

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Everyone is healthy and Emma is doing so well...

The two reasons we are most thankful were having their nightly bath this evening and we thought you might enjoy the fun,too:




Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :)