Amberism

The bad energy

I woke up this morning in a bad mood. I was up late fixing my group's website so I could cross that off my to-do list, and then Sir Callum was up twice and then decided that he'd like to wake up BEFORE Steve got out of bed in the morning. To me, that's damn early.

I'm tired. And when I'm this tired I seem to throw bad energy out into the world and today that bad energy keeps seeming to just boomerang back to me. Damn energy.

First I realize that I only have one can of formula to get me through the weekend and that isn't going to cut it. Thing is, we use a very specific formula and on this island I've only found one place that sells it - my naturopath. I had made a date with another Mom so I had to call her and move up the time so I could haul my ass to Qualicum Beach (25 minutes from my house) and get some more. I get all the way out there and the place is CLOSED. Someone was sitting at the desk, but completely ignored me. There is a sign on the door that says they are closed until April 3rd. I imagine they are doing their year-end books and that's fine and dandy but the sign also said to please consider the closure when picking up supplements etc. Well I would of if the sign was up LAST WEEK when I was there, but it wasn't.

Switching up formula is hard for a babe, and I can't seem to find any where else to buy the damn stuff. A while ago I was going to order a couple of cases online since it would be considerably cheaper to have it shipped to me via the US but I wasn't sure of the custom charges so I never did. Kicking myself in the ass now.

My friend and her adorably babe did come over, but the babe was just off her game so they couldn't stay long which is completely understandable but sad for me, I enjoy my playdates. I must say, even off her game, she was still pretty sweet.

Plus Sir Callum just wasn't going down for his early nap. He fought it every step of the way with full on crying fits. I think his tummy must hurt, or maybe its the teeth thing, but its not something I regularly deal with so it always throws me off. If he's not doing his "Give me the damn bottle, woman" tantrum I never really have a good idea what to do for him. He's not a big complainer, more of a whiner than a crier, so I've never had to develop any real soothing methods. Mostly I can get him calmed down with either a soother or to visit the baby in the mirror but today it just wasn't going to cut it. He did finally settle down and woke up in a completely different mood!

At any rate, I've decided I have to start putting out some positive energy if I'm going to get through my weekend which is crazy busy. Just thought I'd vent here a little first.

Leaving a Trace...

My god-daughter's sixth birthday is around the corner. Can you believe it? SIX.

Every year for her birthday (usually late, because I'm nothing if not consistently late) I create a scrapbook page for her from my collection of pictures and write a letter. The yearly letter is incredibly difficult, mostly because I'm not really a writer by nature and trying to find the right things to say that she'd someday might want to know is terrifying. I can't remember anything I've ever written and I imagine that re-reading the past 5 letters would be absolute agony for me now. I imagine they're cheesy and shallow.

Thinking about this year's letter got me thinking about how I'm going to preserve Callum's life from my own perspective. I do have a journal that I occassionally update, but not with any frequency. And to be honest, the baby books are fantastic and all, but I'm not one to keep it up and on those rare occassions when I do sit down to fill in the blanks I can't remember the exact date he started to say "da da da". I may remember the moment precisely - it was a Saturday or Sunday morning and I had got him from his crib and brought him back to bed with Steve and I in an effort to get just a bit more sleep. He was giddy to be in the presence of both his parents and was happily chriping away to us - but I'll be damned if I can remember the day. Or even a ball park estimate.

The first time I actually opened the baby book to even attempt to fill it in Callum was already 4 months old. There were spaces to fill in pregnancy memories, the price of gas, top news headlines, and doctor signatures. There is going to be a lot of empty spaces in the kid's baby book.

Plus, Callum's a boy. Do boys even WANT to read their mother's ramblings? Would they even care?

I'm curious, for the mother's out there, what are you doing to remember your babes, and do you think you'll keep it up for the long haul? And what did your Mom's do for you?

Jumping through hoops

I'm attempting to change our host company for the group I volunteer for. What a fiasco. First, you're dealing with volunteers, who are nice, but because they are volunteers you can't expect anything to happen with any sort of speed so tasks stay in your inbox for a really, really long time.

Second, its a .ca domain. What a fucking pain. I understand that they need to verify that the group/organization running the .ca domain is Canadian and I respect that, but this is more tedious than getting a damn passport. I mean, seriously, its a website.

I'm also making book bracelets to sell for breast cancer research for Michelle's team in the Run for the Cure. That, at least, is fun! Although my kitchen looks like a craft store exploded.

Going organic

Now that Callum is going to be starting solid foods (apparently I was the only one listening to the nurses and waiting til 6 months with the solids!) I re-priced organic produce at my local supermarket.

You know, the price wasn't that bad. Wasn't that bad at all. In some cases (like brocolli) it was the SAME price as the non-organic brocolli. So I switched up some of the veggies in the cart for the organic produce.

First up for Sir Callum - carrots! He was all excited to have the carrot come to his mouth, and then, not so much pleased.

Hawaii 5-0

Or rather, Hawaii with a 5 month old!

The trip was one of the oddest vacations I have ever been on. There were some high highs, and some low lows.

The High Highs

• the wedding (the purpose of our trip) was beautiful. Everything about that day was beautiful from our morning swim where Callum started to splash and blow bubbles for the first time to the Ceremony, to the pod of whales just off shore during the wine and cheese, to the stunning dinner.
  
• the lua
  
• Callum. This kid can travel man.
  
• meeting some very cool people
  
• the Banyan Tree in Lahaina
  
• I enjoyed the The Maui Ocean Center, although I'm not entirely sure Steve did, I could have spent all day there but he's not really one to linger like I am.
  
• The Garden of Eden on the Road to Hana
  
• Spending $150 at the ABC on crap (the ABC is like a 7/11 - hey, it was fun!)
  
• watching the surfers in Paia

The Low Lows

• passport fiasco
  
• we missed our flight out of Vancouver due to plane issues on the island and were forced to leave the next day missing an entire day in Maui
  
• our rental car was hit, in the parking lot, the first night
  
• time spent dealing with said rental car
  
• it seemed every decision we made, we should have taken the other option. For example, I suggest we stop and enjoy a beach on the side of the road and it starts to suddenly downpour. We decide to take a beach day and its stupid windy. We decide to take a road trip and its a perfect beach day.

Aloha

Going to Hawaii in 13 hours.

Na na nana na.

(hmmmm...is that bad karma?)