The Year of 30 List.

James and I are officially thirty years old. While I've been mumbling and grumbling and dreading this birthday James has been embracing it. He is approaching thirty as an opportunity, an opportunity to start fresh and an opportunity to try new things. This attitude is, thankfully, somewhat contagious and I too am trying to embrace this new age group.

Something we have just started is establishing our 'Year of 30 List'. This list, which was James' idea, is like a bucket list but its only for our thirtieth year. The objective is to list thirty things which we want to try together. Some of the things neither of us have done, others one of us has but we still want to do it together (for example, I want to skate the canal end to end - James has already done this but is taking one for the team and doing it again with me).

The list is not yet complete. Its a lot harder to think of things than we ever would have thought. This is likely due to the 'rules' we established for the list. The rules are as follows:

1. Only one 'big' (i.e. expensive) thing.
2. Both of us must want to do it.
3. Cannot cost more than $250 for the both of us (aside from the one big thing).

As you can see, this limits us quite a bit, but they are necessary to ensure we enjoy ourselves and don't go broke in the process. The plan is for us to establish a new list every year with the number of items equalling our age. Yes, we see this may be difficult at age 80, but we figure by then our list will include items such as 'walk a flight of stairs'.

The list, so far, includes:

Cruise (Check! I had never been ... but I have now!)
Sushi (Check! Absolutely disgusting and we will never try it again.)
Shisha Bar (I have never been.)
Go to the top of the CN tower (I have never been - crazy!)
Skate the canal end to end
Start to learn Spanish
Watch the Godfather trilogy (me again, I've never watched any of the movies)
Make and try Hot Wine
Dog sledding
White water rafting (who's in?!)
Ottawa Haunted Walk
Take a flight in a prop plane
Go zip lining
Go to Bluesfest together (please let the 2011 lineup be good)
Start standing water skiing

I am looking forward to experiencing all these new things, especially since James and I will be doing them together. I hope we complete everything on the list and that we keep it going every year - my grandparents are 80 years old and more active than most sixty year olds; I think what keeps them young and full of life is that they are so busy and involved in the community.

As I mentioned though, we are having a tough time completing the list, so any ideas you may have are welcome and appreciated!

If I get more blog savvy I will add a Year of 30 section which will include the entire list, be updated when items are completed, and if there are any I will include pics of the attempts.

Wish us luck!!

So important to talk.

Parenting has proven to be the biggest challenge I have ever faced. Now, at 30 I know there are many more challenges in my path but so far this one takes the cake. The best things in life require work ... such as having kids. If anyone ever says that parenting is easy ... question their logic. But its not supposed to be easy - we're raising human beings, we're responsible for their physical, ethical, and moral development (to name a few) - and by raising I mean starting from scratch! There is no way it is easy.

The number of curve balls thrown my way lately has been insane - Adam is nearing the end of the 'doesn't have the words to communicate' phase and entering the 'defy defy defy' phase. The biggest daily challenge is the preparation to get out of the house. This NEVER EVER goes as planned and often takes twice as long as anticipated. Lately I have been better at keeping my cool but on the days where I didn't get much sleep ... its not good, and when I lose it, he loses it even more so. Vicious cycle. Once we are out of the house, if I lost my cool in the process I feel like a total sh*t. I feel awful. I mean, he's only three years old, but in the heat of the moment I'm also three years old (mentally at least, physically I am at least 30 (more on this in another post)).

I also feel like the worst mom in the world. I feel like I am the only one losing my cool. But then I have a great chat with some amazing mothers and realize I am not alone. Everyone loses their composure at some point, humans in general have their limits to which they can be pushed. It is SO important to talk, no matter what the stage in life. Talking lets us know we're not alone and reminds us that we're all just doing the best we can.

I'm a sinker.

So, a friend convinced me to try an aqua fit class. I didn't want to go, I have mocked aqua fit for as long as I have known it existed, but since she tried Zumba with me I figured I should probably just suck it up. So one Friday morning I joined the old women pretending to work out ... or so I thought.

Oh my ... it is SO hard. And there is no cheating ~ somehow the instructor sees when you're slacking and calls you on it (I know this from first hand experience). You're going left, then right, then trying to touch your toes, then running on the spot, and then, and then, and then, etc.

And on top of this, even though I had a floatation belt on (everyone wears them, I wasn't being lazy) I still sunk. So apart from having no clue what I was doing and being called out for not trying hard enough, I was trying not to drown. I watch the clock for 45 minutes straight (when I'm not submerged that is).

My friend stated matter of factly that I must be a sinker. She says its because muscle weighs more than fat. LOL, I can assure you that is not my problem. I'm also a traveller though and this doesn't make me popular with the die hards ~ old ladies (sorry, seniors) are very serious about their aqua fit.

I should have known going in that this wouldn't be easy ~ she used to teach it and is dropping baby weight like its nothing (she also leaves the pool with dry hair ... me, not so much). Next time, I won't judge a book by its cover!

New and Improved Sens Fan.

I know I haven't blogged much lately ... the life of a thirty year old is busy, lol. But when I have had ideas for blogs I have been joting them down ... and when I get time I write the full post ... and when I get time for one, I'll probably write two or three.

Ok, enough of that, onto the actual post:

I am not a Leafs fan nor will I ever be, but I think there is something alot of Sens fans can learn from Leafs fans. They unconditionally love their team (except Phaneuf, poor guy), in bad times they are still fans, and they are always able to see the good in the bad (a typical comment from a friend who is a Leafs fan: 'They may have lost but Kessel is starting to really pick up his game').

I think its time Ottawa supports its team win or lose, good or bad. I know there are fans out there who are diehards never giving up, but there are ALOT of us (I'm including myself in this) out there who can be very critical and negative. It is during the bad times, the times of rough starts that the team needs to know we believe in them. We've lost some good players who said they couldn't handle the fickle Ottawa hockey market ... lets try not to let that happen again.

So, I'll say it now: I am a Senators fan. I will always be a Senators fan. When times get tough I'm going to dig deep and find comments like 'Man, Fisher played well' or 'Zack Smith is showing alot of promise'. They say it takes a village to raise a child ... maybe it will take this City showing hope and belief to bring the Sens back to the Cup finals?!



P.S. I feel like I should add some inspirational music to this post ... lol. Don't worry, there won't be many posts like this!

Daily Deliveries.

I am constantly amazed at the little man Adam is becoming. While we still have our battles (today, for example, we battled as he took his boots off three times before we actually made it out the door) the majority of the time he is a kind, caring wee guy.

When he wakes up in the morning his first order of business is, of course, waking James and I up. He comes in all bright eyed and bushy tailed as James and I groan and mumble (neither of us is a morning person but somehow we produced two children who LOVE the morning). Lately, each morning, he has been bringing us each a stuffed animal. I usually get 'Teddy'. Teddy runs a close second to his sleep mate Pankcake (think blue and purple elephant who has seen better days). Rather than waking up with a groan and grumble, this makes me smile ~ I smile because 1) my little man is there with a giant smile on his face 2) I have a soft stuffed animal to rest my head on and 3) Adam has become this great sharer (is that a word?!).

A smile is a much better way to start the day.

I have no idea why he started this, but I do know that it comes from the bottom of his giant heart. Everyday I think its not possible to love him more ... but everyday I do!

What's in a name?

James and I did not take the responsibility of naming our children lightly. Neither had names when they were born ... we took our time as we wanted to pick the right name. I should say that James suggested Adam right away ~ I just took my sweet ass time coming around to it. But, in my opinion, he is an 'Adam' through and through. And we've never received anything but compliments on that name selection.

This cannot be said for our daughter's name. We took several hours picking her name. Criteria: a name which could not be shortened (unless we liked all nickname possibilities .. ie. I love the name Elizabeth ... do not however like the name Betsy), a name that was not common but not unusual at the same time, and of course we both had to love it. As James was reading the baby name book he stopped on 'Blair' and right away we both loved it. So Blair it was ... and we were so happy with our name choice. Little did we know that almost anyone and everyone would have an opinion about her name. Most common: 'That's a boy's name' ... in our defence it was in the girl name section of the book and while in no way is she named after this ... Gossip Girl people! We also get: 'That's unusual' ... these people obviously did not watch Facts of Life. There have been many others ... all of which creating more and more doubt about her name. Did we pick the right one? Will she hate us for it? And I will admit that I have tried to think another name for her but everytime I come back to Blair. She is a Blair.

Thankfully lately I have received some positive comments including: 'I love that name!'. Finally.

So I'm getting to my point ... why does everyone and anyone feel they have the right to comment on names of children? Obviously there are people out there who don't like our childrens' names, I get that ~ but I really don't need to hear if you don't like it.

What's in a name is alot of heartfelt thought by parents, parents who are picking a name that their children have to carry with them. What's in a name is time and love and so much more.

I may not like all the names I hear ~ but I will never say anything negative regarding a name to a parent, because they invested love and time and don't deserve that ... like all our mothers said: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.