2008 Tittle Tattle!

It's hard to believe almost 2/3rds of 2008 have gone by, and only now am I finally getting to updating this blog! Please forgive me! It always seemed to be one thing or another getting in the way, and as I got more & more behind, the task of catching up here grew bigger & bigger, and thus never happened. I have, however, been posting lots of photo albums on Facebook. It is so much quicker and easier to put up a whole album there than a few pics here. So if you don't have a Facebook account, you should get one, even if it's just to see all the photos! I think I will continue mainly posting photos over there, but use this blog more for videos & updates. If you are really adverse to Facebook, but want to see lots of pictures, let me know and I can send the albums along to you so that you can view them even without signing up to Facebook.

Ok, now that business is out of the way... time for a Tittle 2008 update! January/early Feb saw Katy and I switching off colds etc. That was the first thing, not feeling great, that pulled me away from here. Then to top it off, on the last day of January, Katy had her first and still only major accident. She managed to tip over in the bath and hit her mouth, not even all that hard, but just in such a perfect way as to push all 4 of her top teeth back up into her gums. Ouch!! Poor thing. Let's just say that her first introduction to going to the dentist wasn't the greatest... I was sure she'd hate dentists for the rest of her life! After taking Xrays and confirming that all the teeth were not knocked out, but just back up in her gums, it became a wait-and-see thing. One of the 4 was visible through the gums, but the other 3 were not. Best case scenario was that the teeth would just gradually come back down on their own, without any nerve damage to the roots, as if nothing had ever happened. Worst case was nerve damage and having to just extract all 3 teeth, leaving Katy with a bunch of missing teeth until her adult ones came in! The whole accident messed up her sleep for several weeks, so in February that left me exhausted. We are very thankful to report, however, that the dentist has been pleasantly surprised at how well she has done... all the teeth have dropped back down, and so far there has been no reason for any interventions. We saw him last in July, and he won't need to recheck her again for 6 months. Plus, other than being a little nervous when he was actually checking her teeth on this last visit, Katy loved the dentist's office, inspite of the initial traumatic experience!! :)

Just as life began to settle down from winter colds and Katy's accident, another surprise was in store for us. My parents and nephew, Jackson, came to visit us at the end of February, allowing Benji and I a 3-day getaway for our 6th anniversary. While enjoying a beautiful B&B and being on our own, what I had been suspecting was confirmed... I was pregnant!! Hopefully by now this is not new news to most of you, as we have tried to get the word out. If it is surprise to you, I'm sorry! Let me catch you up... I'm now 7 mnths pregnant, with an estimated due date of Nov. 1st. And this time around we are having a boy! We have not figured out a name yet, but I will do my best to get this blog updated when Katy's little brother makes his arrival.

With early March came the oh-so-fun all day, never-ending "morning" sickness and intense heartburn that just seem to be a given for my pregnancies. As well as complete, utter exhaustion. I could only do the bare minimal, basically taking care of Katy, while sleeping whenever she napped, and being in bed early every night. I knew that, with Katy, the intense nausea etc had lasted until about 15 weeks into the pregnancy, so this time around that would put me right around Mother's Day when I hoped to finally be feeling somewhat better. But when it's only just March, Mother's Day seems like a lifetime away! At that point, blogging became merely a wishful thought here and there, with my focus basically being on survival.

Katy seems to already be in love with the "baby boy." Frequently she suddenly says, "Want to see baby!", which means pulling up my shirt to view my ever-growing tummy, and giving it kisses and zerberts. She has come along with me to all my doctor appointments. While at first she did not like anything being done to me, getting slightly upset and protective and vehemently saying "no, no, no!", she is now totally into it all. She runs infront of me to each step of the appointment, and wants to help with things like taking Mommy's blood pressure and most importantly, "listening baby's heart." One of her good friend's just got her a doctor's kit for her birthday, so she now puts on the stethescope and listens to baby's heart all the time! Katy is absolutely in love with babies, and turns into a little mother around them. She likes to both take care of them, as well as tell them what to do, so she is going to be a devoted, bossy big sister!

I have definitely been feeling better since mid-May, but have had to continue to take anti-nausea medication. When I try to stop it all together, the intense nausea returns, but if I just take one each morning, I'm good now. Katy and I have taken two trips to Canada, one in April and one in June, to visit all our family in Moose Jaw. She loves planes, so she is still a pretty good little traveller, except that she rarely sleeps for her mommy while enroute anymore! Too busy watching and chatting with all the other passengers. Katy absolutely loves visiting her Nanna & Papa, her cousin Jackson (who she adores even more than any other little friend), and her aunties Lauren & Samantha... and especially her beloved Uncle Brad, whom she continues to have quite the little obsession with. I'll try to post at least a few pics of Katy and Jackson together here!

And just because life wasn't busy enough, we decided to take on a complete renovation of our ancient kitchen, with the goal of having it complete before the newest little Tittle makes his arrival! So while Katy and I were visiting Moose Jaw in June, Benji finished the planning stage and began to demolish everything. First to go, the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Since then, he has torn out all the old plaster walls and flooring, leaving nothing but the studs. The plumbing, electrical, and gas have been done, new plywood laid done for underneath the tile, and new drywall has gone up on the walls. Benji is doing most all the work himself, other than a little help here and there. He has come a LONG way from the guy that knew nothing about home improvement less than 5 years ago. We've discovered he is really quite handy, and he is teaching himself as he goes. This week he'll be installing the recessed lighting in the ceiling, and this weekend we'll go buy all our cabinets from Ikea so that he can begin assembling and installing them. Then it'll be tile and granite countertops... so we are gradually getting there. We've been living with our fridge in the dining room, along with the microwave, doing dishes in the bathtub! But once it is all complete, for the first time in our married life we will have a dishwasher!! Yay! The old kitchen was just dirty and small and had next to no storage space and no counter space, so I'm very much looking forward to a much more functional one.

My parents and Jackson came for another week visit at the end of July. My mom and I kept the kids busy with lots of outings, to keep them out of the house while major kitchen work was being done. My dad helped out with the kitchen, and made the yard immaculate - thank-you!! But my mom can't stand leaving an unfinished project, so she is coming again, for the 1st week of September, to continue to help us. As well as the kitchen, we need to replace the carpet in our bedroom with new flooring, so my mom is going to make sure we get that done.

Amidst all the chaos and stress, Katy is definitely our little sunshine. She is thriving, and hasn't seem bothered by all the change around her. She frequently talks about "Daddy working in kitchen... Daddy dirty" etc. Last night she was pleased to help Daddy with painting the walls- I have a little video I will soon post.

I cannot wait to be done being pregnant (forever!!) and to meet this little boy... but at the same time he needs to wait and not make an unexpected early arrival, as there is so much yet to be done! I have to head to our church office (where I work Thursday afternoons), so I'll conclude here for now. But I will try to get some more videos, along with a few photos here and there, posted for you soon of Katy! The tiny little baby we brought home 2 years ago has tranformed into a beautiful, funny, outgoing little girl!!