I have been very delinquent with this blog. Here's a great video of Amber and I having fun in the Tree house that Grandpa Steve built.
This is an amazing tree house. The stump is about 6 feet high. It was built on the ground and lifted onto the stump with one of Steve's excavators. It was actually quite an operation of precision chain saw work from Uncle Hugh to get it level too.
Amber is the only immediate grand kid of Grandpa Steve (Papa) who's got to play in it but Georgia and Oakley also loved it. Actually Amber always needed help getting into it until Oakley showed her how it was done.
If you notice the air mattress inside I will have to admit I slept in it about 4 glorious summer nights in a row.
It was a lush but cool day in West Sechelt. As per usual the trails were empty with tacky traction galore. Amir took some iphone photos which turned out surprisingly well.
I never know which gps data to believe but it was around 37 kms, with 1300 meters of climbing over about 6 hours with some breaks along the way. Over the 9 years of riding in this area it was my turn to guide a couple of guys and we hit almost every trail in this little area in one day. It's good to go with people more fit than yourself at the risk of making them wait too much, but anyways they pushed me to go way further in a day than I normally do and that made it a ride that stands out.
There was a big old Alberta "yeeeeeeaaaaah!!!!" being screamed during this high-effort 29er uphill wheelie.
It's a classic maneuver for me these days. I'm becoming a pro at doing almost everything with just one hand. Even though Riley has become a great sleeper at night (fingers crossed that he keeps this up), he doesn't really let me put him down very often for daytime naps. His sister might have something to do with that as well - every time I place him in his bassinet for a nap she will inevitably go into the room to say hi. I guess I should just be happy that she loves him so much :)
One of our many park picnics to escape the heat of our house
Since it is taking a painfully long time to compose this blog with one hand, I'll let the photos do most of the talking.
She fell in the lake here, but thought it was hilarious
She adopted Riley's towel. She's saying "Roarrrr!!" here :)
It's quite common to see me lugging both kids around
The boys
Riley enjoying the park picnic
Here's a collection of memorable moments captured by "Papa McCourt"
Amber also got a new race car toy and had to make sure we played it properly......start your engines!
And to end on a musical note....Amber likes to sing a lot lately, here is a two part sequence of her singing a favorite song from Toopy & Binoo (Hiccup Hunters):
As can be expected I've been a little busy since we brought Riley Alexander Nelson home on July 5th.
2 hours old and already out and about
Once again we were lucky to be able to say that we had a "boring" birth experience: ~2hrs of labour and 3hrs in the hospital. No complications and I was even able to tuck Amber into her own bed that night :)
So far Riley has proved to be quite a mellow little guy, but I am waiting for that all to change! Fingers crossed that he stays this way though :)
Amber checking out her little brother
Amber is not quite sure what to think of her brother (known to her as Wow-wee) yet. She goes from wanting to cover him with blankets and telling him "It's ok Wow-wee don't cry" to "No mommy! Put brother on the floor!!" We're working through some tough times at the moment in this transition phase, but I'm confident that it'll be short lived.....or maybe it's hopeful that it'll be short lived!
Classic photo - Amber is looking at the iPad instead of the camera
I had completely forgotten how small Amber once was. Riley just seemed too small to be real when we first met him. He is not wasting any time, however, packing on the pounds. He was back to birth weight 3 days after he arrived and yesterday he was already weighing in at 7lbs 9oz.!
We were also lucky enough to have Grandma Marg stay with us last week. She went above and beyond the call of "grandma duty" and really helped us as we started to get used to our routines with two kids. I am extra thankful as I was feeling a little anxious/sad about not having my mom around this time. I know she would have been on the first boat out of Sechelt to meet little Riley.
Tim has also been a huge help, not only with the kids, but he takes care of me as well. As is expected I'm a little more forgetful these days and one morning I ended up leaving without taking my travel mug of coffee (a much needed item to keep me going). When I drove out of the parkade with the kids Tim was waiting on the sidewalk with my mug in hand :)
This week is my first going solo with the kids.....well, not entirely. Amber is still in daycare until the end of the month. However, trying to get the crew rolling out the door in the morning is proving to be much more difficult than before!
I've been on maternity leave for 2.5 weeks now and I'm already starting to feel anxious about "the big day." I've been trying to relax as much as possible considering the fact that I now have blood pooling in my ankle (good times as always with pregnancy), but I've also been nesting like crazy to try to prepare for our baby boy's arrival. Lucky for me Amber is still in daycare until the end of July so it gives me some quality time to prepare. I feel guilty dropping her off each day, especially when she says "Bye Mommy! Have a good day at work!" She does have a lot of fun there though, so I guess I shouldn't feel too guilty.
This photo was sent to me by Sarah (Amber's daycare provider). Amber loves to try on "cool dudes" and pose for the camera :)
As for me, I definitely feel as big as I look these days and waddling is my main pace it seems.
Although this is a fairly unflattering photo, it truly shows the bump!
Since our last post there have been a few family highlights. A big one was Tim's big surprise party that I had been planning for months. I was amazed that we were all able to keep it a secret right up until the big event. From the video I think he was definitely shocked :)
And what would a party be without the off-tune "happy birthday" song.
It's not a real birthday until Iron Maiden makes an appearance
In addition to a great party, Amber (and the rest of us) had a great time visiting with her cousins and Aunt SJ and Uncle Paul.
Enjoying a little lunch on the front porch
Since our great trip to Fernie, we have also gone to Science World with Papa McCourt for his birthday:
Unfortunately, Papa McCourt is usually the one weilding the camera, so there were no group shots with him in them!
We also made a trip to Sechelt on June 1st to gather together and remember happy times of mom on the one year mark of her passing. Hard to believe that a year has already passed. I know we all still miss her like crazy. Amber definitely helped lighten the mood while we were there as there was a new slide and swing added to Papa's Tree House!
Gotta have bubble time when you're in Sechelt
Driving the big rig once again
Needless to say Amber spent a lot of time playing in the tree house that weekend.
Here are a couple other notable events that we've had.
Feeding the duckies for the first time:
And riding the mini train in Burnaby for Father's Day:
Hopefully our next post will include photos of the newest little McNelson!
Recently Amber and I went out to Ottawa to visit Uncle Rick, Aunt Tracy and cousins Keira and Naomi.
Watching Bubble Guppies together
It was so nice being able to watch all the girls play together. There was lots of running around, laughing, shrieking (mainly by Amber), and my favorite...lots of toddler talk. By that I mean the talk that happened between the girls. There was lots of cute chatter that happened over the short week that we were there. Naomi often would tell Amber that she needed to eat lunch, or dinner....sadly Amber didn't take her advice :( Amber also took a while to sort out who was who between the twins, calling Keira "Naomi" or vice versa. She had no qualms, however, when it came to telling them that they should move away from "her" iPad. Needless to say....we are still working on the whole sharing thing.
Some of the fun places we went to included the Children's Museum:
Riding in a Tuk Tuk
Pausing for a snack in a teeny tiny pyramid
The farm:
"Hi Goat!" - Amber said that a lot that day
Checking out the baby chicks
The nature museum:
Checking out what happens to rock under high pressure and temperature
Going on a bird rescue
Say "Cheese Wizz!"
Amber was so overwhelmed with all the fun toys that Keira and Naomi had as well. Between the trampoline, hockey sticks and net, cars, shopping carts, swings, etc. she often refused to nap or go to bed in the evening because that meant no more play time. I think now that she's home she's slightly bored of her old toys, but she's been extra excited about Loca who she calls "Fuzz", so I think it all evens out.
Amber and Uncle Rick made some creative potato heads
All in all it was a great trip and we can't wait to do it again soon!
What would our trip be without this classic photo!
This Friday is my mom's birthday and I can think of thousands of reasons to be sad, but rather than focusing on the sad I thought I would do what my mom would have wanted and be happy and thankful for the good in my life and remember all the good memories that I will carry forever.
I often take a few moments a couple times a week to "talk to mom", I know this sounds crazy, but after years and years of calling to chat with mom it's hard to stop now. So I take time to think about all the things I would have told her had I been able to pick up the phone and talk.
Recent events I've told her about include:
You're going to have a new grandson! We just found out this week that the newest little McNelson is going to be a bouncing baby boy :) I'm not sure how Amber will take the news (once she starts to understand), but based on how she treats her toy baby I think she'll make a great little helper.
I finally got promoted to Senior Mechanical Engineer at my company. Woohoo! I've worked long and hard to get to this point, and I have to remind myself to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labour sometimes. I'll admit, I've complained more than a few times about how things are going at work, but mom always said the same thing "I'm always here to listen".
I'm "famous"....well, ok...not really, but I am one of the faces of the kickboxing gym I train at (http://fit-factor.ca/). I offered my mug for a few hours to help out my instructor re-brand his school and now I'm on on the internet, in flyers and posted on the side of a building! Given the current shape I'm in now, it's nice to have reminders close at hand to know that at one point I was fit. Plus, it's something to aspire to after the newest McNelson makes his appearance.
The title of the blog was perhaps a little cryptic to some, but those that really knew my mom would remember that she loved tea. She loved tea so much so that during her hay-days in realty when she wasn't in the office people would remark "she's probably out for tea". Mom took the joke one step further by getting a personalized license plate that read "OUT 4T" so it would always be true :) So, in honour of your birthday today mom......I shall go out for tea and raise a cup to you.
