Monthly Archive for January, 2005

One Year Old

Published
by
hmboisvert
on January 12, 2005
in Lindsay
. 4 Comments

As I sit here typing this, I struggle for the right words.  How
can one express the appropriate amount of gratitude to someone who has
changed their life so completely, yet has no way of knowing it?

Lindsay, you fully came into my life at 4:12pm on January 9th,
2004.  I carried you with me for 9 months before that, worrying,
wishing, wondering what this new life would hold for us both.  I
remember sitting in tears while pregnant with you, already so in love
with someone I’d never met, scared to death at the thought of you being
outside of me and me not being able to protect you as my own
body.  How would I cope the first time someone hurts your
feelings, the first time you break a limb, your first heartbreak? 
I have to admit I still wonder these things, but I’m realizing every
day that you’re an amazing child.  Strong willed and intelligent,
I no longer fear so much for how you’ll fare in this world we live
in.  No, I think perhaps you’re stronger than I ever will be, and
that you’ll certainly teach me a thing or two about life I haven’t
figured out on my own in these almost 25 years.

In the span of a short year, you’ve gone from a helpless, tiny (well
ok, maybe not so tiny) infant, to a full blown toddler, exploring the
world around you with reckless abandon.  The connections you make
every day amaze me to no end, and I share your joy in rediscovering the
simple but wonderous things of life.  I recall your daddy and I
sitting in the dining room with you, about a month old, in your bouncy
seat, talking about how cool it will be when you smile, how great when
you recognise us and wave, how amazing when you roll over and then
crawl.  It seemed like forever away back then, but my how quickly
it has all passed.  I blink, and when I open my eyes, you’re
already doing something new, already a bit taller, already figuring out
your next step in development.

I feel so fortunate that I have had the opportunity to stay home with
you your entire life so far.  For that, we should be eternally
gratefull to your amazing daddy.  He misses a lot so that I don’t
have to, and so that you can grow up knowing how much your parents love
you and value time with you.  We made a decision before we decided
to have you that one of us would always be home with you, that you
would be the priority in our lives.  We think it’s important for
you to have parents who teach and guide you every step of the way, who
share in every accomplishment and discovery, every hurt and
dissapointment, not just people you see for a few hours a night after
dinner.  I haven’t missed a thing Lindsay, and I hope you share
the same adventure with your own children.  It has been the
richest, most fulfilling experience of my life.  I don’t know what
the future holds for us, but I know that you, your daddy, and I will go
through it together, laughing, crying, learning, and sharing.

Lindsay, you are our every day miracle and we love you more than you’ll ever comprehend.  Happy birthday sweet girl.

Monsters In The Attic

Published
by
hmboisvert
on January 11, 2005
in Heather
. 3 Comments

I was leaning against the oven, talking to my sister on the phone
today, when a loud noise startled me.  It was coming from the hood
over the stove, that vents steam to the outside.  I quickly
decided it sounded like an animal of some sorts was caught and trying
to scratch it’s way back up to the roof.  My mind raced….a
clumsy chipmunk, some poor bird trying to find a warm refuge from the
snow, or, yikes, a bat.   Lindsay looked back and forth from
the noise, to me, with a furrowed brow and a look like, "don’t you hear
that mommy?"  She then starting pointing and telling me about the noise, over
and over, in case I wasn’t yet aware of it.  "Dat, Dat, Dat,
DAT!"  I told my sister I was going to wait for Barney to come
home and take care of it,  but she insited I free the animal
immediately because if it died, I’d never be able to live with the
guilt.  ;)

I agreed and sucked it up.  I got out a
trash bag, put on my leather gloves (in case the bat had rabies)  ;) , taped a side of the bag to the wall and held the other side up
while I slid the grating out of the way.  Nothing.  More
scratching.  Stuff falling into my bag, but not an animal.  I
don’t even want to know what that stuff was…

There was a
large fan in the way of my sight into the piping, and I feared I’d have
to dismantle the entire casing that runs up into the cupboard, when
suddenly, a tiny head popped down and looked around.  I yanked the
bag back into place, unable to determine the type of animal in the
shadows, when a tiny, and I mean tiny little bird hopped into the
bag.  He was still holding a stick in his beak, refusing to
release his hard earned nesting material.  I closed the bag around
him and rushed him outside where he gratefully flew to the roof, right
next to the vent opening!  I warned him if he went right back to
the vent I’d either leave him there and he’d have to figure his own way
out, or worse yet, put him in a little cage to be poked and yelled at
by Lindsay for the next year.  ;) 

He decided it best to find another vent and flew to the neighbors roof.

First Birthday!

Published
by
hmboisvert
on January 11, 2005
in Lindsay
. 6 Comments

Lindsay had her first birthday party last weekend, and left even more spoiled than before if that’s possible!  ;)

The day went off without a hitch, and I think everyone had a good time,
especially Lindsay.  First she and Deontay played with the balloons we had tied up everywhere, then we ate some pizza.  Next came the gift opening. 
I didn’t know how well Lindsay would do with this part, but she
surprised me.  She helped me open all of the gifts, and did a
great job inspecting and acknowledging each one in turn. 

As we opened each gift, all of the gals in the room would appropriately
"ooooooo" over how cute each present was.  Partway through the
unwrapping, we realized Lindsay had joined in on the "ooooing and awwwwwing" each time I’d lift something out of it’s bag.  She’s such a ham.

After presents came the sin that was Baskin Robbin’s Ice Cream Cake Logs.  Lindsay got her own little "clown cone" that she wasn’t too sure of at first, but once I showed her what to do with it, she loved it.  She ate ’til she couldn’t see straight, then of course, being my daughter, demanded some of mine as well. 

I’d like to thank everyone who attended this special day, especially my sister Chloe (www.thewhislerlife.com) , who pretty much organized the party and saw that it went off without a hitch.  She’s the best.  She also took some pics of the event which you won’t want to miss.  Also a special thank you to Carrie (www.simzgirl.com) ,
who took some of the awesome pictures in the birthday gallery and
allowed me to mix them in with my own.  You should go check her others
out as well.  She also stayed behind when most of the other guests
had left, and put up with me singing along to Lindsay’s new kids CDs
(thanks a lot Auntie Chloe!), and reading "Horton Hears A Who"
aloud.  A true best friend.  ;)

I’ll be sending out
thank you notes, but I wanted to thank everyone on here as well for
their adorable gifts.  Thank you for not getting her toys, which
she got PLENTY of at Christmas, and instead sticking to books and
clothes.  It’ll be so nice to not have to go clothes shopping til
the summer!  ;)

To those who were not able to attend, we’re sorry we missed you, but hopefully you enjoy the pictures we took of the day’s events.

Yes, Even More Pics!

Published
by
hmboisvert
on January 6, 2005
in Photos
. 2 Comments

I know, I know, I’m falling behind on my blogging, and I’ll try to
catch up sometime next week.  For now, you’ll have to settle for
some more pictures from the holidays at Memere and Pepere’s.  Dodo
was kind enough to get her photos developed onto a cd so she could
share them with us.  There are a few more in the Christmas 2004 gallery, as well as one more I put in a new Random Shots gallery.

Some Holiday Pics

Published
by
hmboisvert
on January 4, 2005
in Photos
. 3 Comments

I’ve added a couple new galleries for your enjoyment.  It seems I
was too busy enjoying the festivities these past couple weeks to take
nearly as many pictures as I should have!  I’m hoping that maybe I
can steal some from the relatives when they get them developed, and
somehow scan them on here.

Anyway, there’s a December 2004 II gallery with some additional randon shots from last month, and then another new one called Christmas 2004 with some pics from the holidays.  Enjoy.

Photos!!

Published
by
barneyb
on January 4, 2005
in Meta
. 0 Comments

Heather’s madly working on a bunch of photos from the past couple weeks.  Currently there’s just the December 2004 II
gallery with 10 photos, but it’ll have some more added, and there
should be a Christmas gallery coming along at some point as well. 
She’ll post when it’s all ready to go, but I thought I’d make a mention
about the obvious changes to the way the galleries are listed.

Up until now, Heather and I built all the galleries using a couple
pieces of software on my PowerBook.  But now that I’m finished
with the all-online setup for Chloe and Peggy to use, Heather can do
the whole thing herself, without need for any technical help from me
(the old process worked well, but was far from simple). 
Unfortunately, the two ways are quite incompatible, so all the "old"
galleries had to be removed from the sidebar before the new galleries
could be displayed.  The old galleries are still available, you
just have to go to the full gallery list to get to them.

The Holidays

Published
by
hmboisvert
on January 3, 2005
in Heather
. 1 Comment

I swear I will post about our holiday adventures at some point in the next couple of days.  Just bear with me.  :)

Mother or Goldfish Pusher?

Published
by
hmboisvert
on January 3, 2005
in Heather
. 4 Comments

I’m so ashamed.  I always thought I’d be one of those moms who
only fed her child healthy, organic, tree-hugger-appropriate
foods.  We’d get up in the morning and eat a blanced breakfast of
fresh fruit, whole grain toast with a light spreading of natural peanut
butter on it, a light serving of yogurt, and some water. 

What did Lindsay actually have this morning as I checked my
email?  She crawled around on the floor hunting for goldfish, and
when she’d run out, even though there were also cheerios down there,
she’d come crawling up my leg, signing for "more" fishies, which I
would promptly scatter accross the room to buy me a few more minutes.

Yes world, I got my daughter addicted to goldfish.

My only consolation is that she had a tiny bit of nutrition for
breakfast this morning in the form of breastmilk, and that we will now
go have something "real" before we head out on our errands.