Another Tough Parenting Situation

A few months back we noticed Forrest's scrotum was looking pretty swollen. We made an appointment with our family doctor and he wasn't 100% sure but thought it was likely fluid. He referred us to a Paediatric Urologist. While we waited patiently I started noticing it looked more swollen at certain parts of the day and at times it looked pretty bad. I called the Paediatric Urologist's office (there are only 2 of these specialists in Saint John) and asked if there was any openings or any way they could put a rush on the appointment as I was a worried mother who may or may not be over-reacting. They understood (as they deal with worried mothers every single day) and booked me for the next available appointment - January 15th. With over a month away we continued to wait patiently. Finally January 15th came and I took Forrest to his appointment. Besides the super annoying part of waiting for almost 2 hours with my 3 year old before even seeing the doctor, it went okay. Forrest was so awesome and so beyond patient I was extremely proud - even the nurse said he was such a gentleman.
When we finally got in to have the doctor examine him they determined that he has 'Communicating Hydrocele' and it will require surgery to correct it. So with knots in my stomach and a strong brave voice for my boy we left after completing the pre-op paperwork. I had promised Forrest he could choose any treat he wanted and for some odd reason he chose a Mint Aero bar (he has never had this before so I don't know what prompted him to choose this but he did and he was nice enough to share with his sister when he got home).
We have his surgery date of February 20th. I'll be 100% honest - I'm nervous as all hell. I mean the actual procedure doesn't bother me too much it's the putting my baby to sleep that really upsets me. The procedure takes about an hour and he'll only be out an hour and a half but it still freaks me out. And we can't be with him so what if he's scared?! I can't be there to hold him or tell him everything is going to be okay. Because if you are a parent you know all too well there is absolutely nothing worse than your baby scared or in pain or both!
So if anyone has been through a similar situation with a 3 year old before where they have to have surgery then please share how you prepared them. I'd love any tips or advice you can offer….

In Your Best Eminem Impression: "Guess Whose Back? Back Again…."

Giving blogging another go. I have no idea how I fell off the blog-wagon for so long but man do I suck. I feel awful that I blogged and documented Forrest's first year so well and sucked major bad with Lilah's. God help me if we have a 3rd child! Well here I go again! Going to do my best to update as often as I can.
Let's see:
Forrest turned 3 years old this past Christmas Day. 3 big ones! He is just so sweet, shy, soft and funny and he lights up our life. His mild mannered personality is so sweet and we are so proud when we hear people say what a little gentleman he is. He LOVES anything construction related and is so beyond obsessed with hockey it's actually a little bit crazy lol. We enrolled him in the Pre-Can Skate Program this past fall and he absolutely loves it. We just started the second winter half of it and every Saturday morning we head to the rink - I'm a rink mom already and I love every single minute of it. The smile on his face and the proud look he gets when his eyes search the sidelines for us is worth its weight in gold. He loves to dance to Psy's Gentleman (even though I can't stand that song) and just before Christmas I took him to his first movie at the Theater - Frozen. He loved it and momma may have loved it even more lol! Best Disney movie ever (and that's coming from a die hard Cinderella fan). Forrest's favourite foods are chicken and fries, broccoli, pasta, and yogurt. He is still a huge fan of Dora and this past fall Dora and Boots and the gang came to Saint John to put on a show so the 4 of us went along with Heather, Jeff, Blake and Hannah (Forrest daycare friends and their parents).
Lilah is now almost 17 months and she is as wild and outgoing as can be. She is probably the furthest thing from shy. She absolutely LOVES to dance and no matter what she is doing, the minute she hears music she stops everything to bust a move. Her very favourite thing in the entire world is her Bun-Bun. And for those of you who may not know what Bun-Bun is it is her jellycat bunny from Indigo. She carries him everywhere and if he is in her crib she will go to the crib, stick her little arms through the rungs and reach with every finer of her being to reach it. If she cannot reach, she stands there and cries until someone comes and gets him for her. I actually think it's the cutest thing ever. For her 1 year birthday we did a Pink Lemonade theme. I will admit that I may have went a bit overboard but it was fun and the theme was sooo much fun! She loves iogo drinkable yogurts and if you even say "yogurt drink" she runs so excitedly to the fridge. As for food though she pretty much loves it all! She is such a great little eater. She was breastfed for the first year of her life and it was a sad day when I began the weaning process.
Forrest and Lilah are just so sweet together. They play well (for the most part although there are definitely plenty of fights too) and love each other so much. The kisses and hugs that go down in our house are more than I could ever count.
In other news - I took a new job. I am now a Financial Services Officer for Bayview Credit Union (loans/mortgages/investments). So far I really like it. I started 2 weeks ago. It is so different from Xerox - I went from a Fortune 500 company in a building with like 300 people to a smaller local bank with 12 staff. I do like it though and I love the work - I've done it before when I lived in Nova Scotia so it's not totally new to me.
We've all been keeping busy and living and loving life! John and I celebrated 5 years of marriage on September 27th and hired our very first babysitter that wasn't family or our actual daycare sitter. We went for a beautiful dinner at Shadow Lawn inn.
Ohhhh I also shot my first wedding which was Ah-Maz-Ing! Like so much fund and went so well. I really enjoyed it and the bride and groom were extremely happy with the work I did so I was pretty dang proud of that. I booked another wedding for this May so stay tuned for that.
Okay well I've rambled enough for now. I still have plenty more to say so keep coming back - I promise I will try my hardest to update on a more regular basis. I'd also like to try something a little different - while I will still update about life in our house, our family, and day to day stuff I'd like to do product reviews (like make up, skin care, hair care, etc) and talk about things like that. It is no secret that I am a Makeup addict so why not incorporate things I love to talk about and buy a lot of!! I may also share a recipe here and there since I love cooking and baking too :)
Thanks for stopping by and don't be a stranger xo

I feel I should Explain...

While I am working on a Boston Family Vacay re-cap with tonnes of pictures, I feel I should explain why it has been over a month since my last post. Hubby got a promotion.

STOP!

Time to cheer and brag and spew my wifely pride all over this post before I continue on with my explanation. My husband is a new Project Manager for Fiber Op. This means he is responsible for the Fiber Op build project with the company he works for (Emera) for Bell Aliant. It's a huge step for him and I couldn't be more proud of him. Another huge perk of this new job is that it is one giant leap closer to us moving home to Halifax. One slight (okay slightly larger than slight ;) downside to this new gig is the travel. He will have to travel to Ontario a lot. Supposedly once things get going it will only be travelling to Ontario once every 3rd week. But this past month he's been travelling 3 out of 4 weeks. mind you he is home on weekends but once those weekends come I'm exhausted and looking to spend quality time as a family so the blog has hit the back burner.  Once I get a handle on this new lifestyle I promise I'll pick it back up but right now it's just not happening. Although I am half way through our Boston re-cap.

I also have a crap load of Lilah weekly/monthly photos to post and an update on her (FYI - she is still a TERRIBLE sleeper lol). 

August is just around the corner and man oh man is it going to be a busy month for us. Back to work in a little over a month too...okay excuse me while I go sob into my pillow. ::why, oh why can't we win the lottery?!::

Long Over Due - AGAIN

June has been a super busy month and as summer always is, we've been non stop with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. 3 weeks ago my Aunt Nancy and Bob came to visit us. They brought a super fun John Deer ride on tractor for Forrest and he is obsessed with it. He likes to put Lilah in the wagon. It rained the entire time they were here so we piled into the van on a Saturday and headed to St Andrew's for the day. We stopped at the Clam Digger for a super delicious (and gigantic) lunch and then went to the Aquarium for the day. Forrest had a blast, actually we all did. They have such a great set up for kids and because it was Ocean's Day there was a lot of activities on that day. Forrest and Lilah had their faces painted, they played in the touch tank and there was a reptile show which Forrest absolutely loved and was very brave to touch some of the reptiles (his favorite was the turtle).
The following weekend was father's day weekend and my Dad drove up on his new Harley Davidson motorcycle to spend the weekend with us. Forrest was so excited to see the motorcycle and we took lots of super cute photos with it. We spent the weekend enjoying the time with my dad and then on Father's day we made Dad and John a delicious breakfast and headed to the fair (although where I come from we call it the circus). We had lots of fun on the rides and we all took turns going on the bumble bees, the slide and John took Forrest through the fun house. Forrest wanted nothing to do with the horses/marry-go-round so we stayed on the other 2 rides that were kid friendly. After the "circus" we came home and I made the 2 dad's supper. Such a great day with 2 of the greatest dads I know!
This past weekend was pretty low key. We went to the market and hung out around the house going for walks and doing some work in our garden. All our veggies are growing and we're so excited. Forrest likes to help water it.
Next weekend my mom comes and then we're headed for Boston. We're so excited for this trip!

Uh Oh

I'm watching "Baby Story" and getting the fever! Shhhhhh don't tell my husband or he'll have a panic attack ;)