Make these!

We celebrated Reese's birthday yesterday with a party here at our place. Of course, I made funfetti cupcakes for Reese and the kids to dig into but these really stole the show. Be warned, they are beyond delicious and definitely addictive! Recipe found here.

Another year makes 2.

I don't know if I'll ever stop saying it but time really does fly, and it seems like every time I turn around, Reese is changing. I can't believe our baby girl is 2 years old now. She amazes us every day with all of her new discoveries and watching her really come into her own little personality.

We celebrated on her actual birthday with bowling and dinner out and are planning a small birthday party for her this weekend.

Reese is saying so many new words and putting those words together to form sentences. She loves her baby dolls and always requests to sleep with 'two babies' along with a handful of other buddies. She's also recently started daycare two days a week and is loving it. I was a little nervous about the transition since she's never really been away from us for too long. She did great though, only crying a little the first couple days when she would realize we weren't there. I was a little sad the first day but know she needs the social interaction and it is a nice break for us too. The one thing I don't love is all the extra germs that come along with it! Oh well, guess it's either now or later.

We are officially crib-free now! At least for a few months anyway. Reese loves her 'new bed' and handled the transition much better than I anticipated. Although, we're holding our breath a little as we've heard the tough times come a little later once they really realize they can escape. For now, she's doing great in her new bed and fingers crossed it stays that way.

We've also started a naughty step for disciplining. We use it with a warning first when she acts out too aggressively (hitting, kicking, etc) or blatantly disobeys. She goes on the step a little too willingly though and we're not exactly sure why. There is nothing on the step for her to 'play' with but she will sometimes run there and stays the entire 2 minutes without a sound. Then we come get her and explain why she was there and she will say 'hit mama' as if she knows exactly what she did wrong. I'm just not sure it's effective in the way we had hoped, as in discouraging the bad behavior. Um, Super Nanny, what do we do with that?!

Hard to believe how much she has grown and changed over the last two years and we're trying to cherish every precious moment!

I'm back, finally.

Well, it has been quite a hiatus for me. At first, I decided to step away just for the summer since I was feeling a little too all over the place. Clearly, that has turned into months. In any case, I'm back and happy to be blogging again.

We are back in Cardiff now and just to recap, here is how all that went down. Most of you know the story by now but last time I was writing, we were packing up for France so obviously things changed. With my pregnancy out in the open, the team was having a hard time agreeing to issuing full health insurance for the entire time we would be in France. Obviously, this was a big problem since I would have been around 20 weeks when we arrived. It was an extremely frustrating process since we had agreed and signed a contract with the team stating full insurance would be issued for player and family. They basically tried getting around this by claiming pregnancy was not part of healthcare. Really?! I mean because that would make absolutely zero sense. Insert sarcasm. So with that big wrench thrown into our plans, we quickly worked toward a settlement and began our search for a new team. Since July is late in the game (for European hockey) and with the pregnancy well under way, we weren't in a position to sit around and wait. Unfortunately a common practice in this lifestyle. Luckily, Cardiff reached out to Scott expressing interest in having him back. A deal was struck, contract signed, and here we are, back in Cardiff. Happy to be back on familiar ground most definitely.

Adding to the mix

Reese not looking too thrilled about becoming a big sister

It's official, we are adding to our family! That's right, Reese is going to be a big sister come January 2012. We're thrilled to be expecting again and almost equally thrilled I'm now in my 2nd trimester. I know it could have been worse, but it's a different ball game altogether when you have a toddler to chase around all day while dealing with nausea and fatigue. In any case, that phase is hopefully behind me and I'm starting to feel like myself again.

We saw baby bean #2 a couple weeks ago and that's always such an amazing sight. It makes it feel more real, especially when I'm not feeling too different at this early stage.

We hope to find out the end of July whether it's a girl bean or boy bean, but that could be wishful thinking. We may need to wait until we get to France to have our 2nd ultrasound.

It's hard to imagine life with two little ones but a prospect we couldn't be more excited about!

Happy Father's Day!

"Any man can be a father but it takes someone special to be a Dad. " -Anne Geddes

Reese Lately

Looking like such a big girl

Having fun with her ear protectors for the hockey games

Reese is growing up so quickly we can hardly keep up. She’s really showing her independence in everything she does these days. However, there are definitely some times when she still wants Mommy or Daddy. She is so friendly and outgoing with just about anyone but if she spots a fly near her, watch out. She is running straight into our arms. A car horn? I don’t know if she could move any faster. A loud truck driving by on the road? ‘Up, up, up, up!’ It’s so funny to see the things that startle her, especially for such a feisty little thing.

She went to the daycare at the gym for an hour the other day, while I snuck in a quick workout. I was a little nervous because we haven’t left her in such a long time. It couldn’t have gone any smoother. I don’t think she could get out of my arms fast enough when we walked into the room. She ran right over to the toys and babies and immediately started playing. It was such a relief for me to see but also a little sad to see my baby growing up so fast. It has reaffirmed our thoughts of finding a daycare next year in France. We need to make it a priority, even if it’s just a couple days a week. I know she will love it, and she needs the interaction with other kids.

One new development is she’s terrified of Scott on the ice and skating in general. Terrified. After the daycare and gym workout, we walked over to the rink where Scott was skating. He was going to take her around a couple times on the ice but she had other plans. She wanted nothing to do with Scott while he was in his gear. She didn’t even want to ‘walk’ on the ice with me. Scott ended up taking her from my arms for a couple minutes to see if she would loosen up once they were skating around. No such luck, instead she was screaming, ‘mama, mama, mama’ and reaching for me the entire time. Such a change from when we first arrived. The ironic part about it is she absolutely LOVES her hockey book. In fact, she always requests it before naps and bedtime referring to it as the ‘dada’ book. She points to a player on each page and says ‘dada’ quite matter-of-factly. Hopefully she changes her tune about skating soon. If not, we always have skiing. After all, Scott was on skies before he was on skates. And we’ll be in the perfect spot for skiing next year.

The cost of the job is big but so are its rewards.

Hockey is a different game altogether when you think of it in terms of work. Of course there is so much it has allowed us to do that no typical job ever could. There are also some things we've given up in order to live this life. But all in all, the good outweighs the bad in my book.

There are many things hockey has provided for our family that I’m truly grateful for. We’ve traveled the world and have seen places I never would have imagined I’d see. We’re able to enjoy our summers off at home relaxing with our friends and family and not worrying about earning in the off the season. Most importantly though, I’ve been able to be home with Reese and essentially Scott has too. If we were at home, I’d most likely be back to work after 8-12 weeks, just like every other working mom. No other job could ever allow that kind of flexibility for both of us. So we’re willing to make a few sacrifices.

There are, however, a few things I’ve never really given much thought to that are unique to this job. Of course I knew the players wear equipment to protect themselves, I’m not that clueless. I just never thought of where all that comes from and how much it costs. When you think of a typical job, employers aren’t exactly providing thousands of dollars worth of necessary gear to each worker. In hockey though, that’s a must. A few weeks ago, Scott was busy making lists for all different types of equipment for next season. Next year, he’s been given a budget but has to supply all his equipment himself. We’re talking thousands of dollars worth of stuff. I had no clue a stick retails for $200. When you think of how many sticks one player may go through in a season, multiply that number by 24 or so. And that’s just one player on a team of up to 20! Skates, well that figure is even more outrageous. Top-quality professional custom skates retail from $700-$900 a pop. Players usually go through about 2 per season. That’s not even mentioning all the other equipment like elbow pads, shoulder pads, shin pads, gloves, socks, under gear, etc.

The cost of the job is a big one but so are its rewards.