Have baby, will travel?

We have all been there before...on the plane in our seat and getting ourself situated with all our plane survival gear ready for our viewing and listening pleasure and in the back of our minds we are hoping and praying for three things. 1-that the flight will take off on time, 2-that we will have an empty seat next to us and 3-we will not have some sreaming baby/kid sitting next to us. Having a little one of my own now my biggest fear is that my usually sweet daughter will have some crazy freak out and I will not be able to control her.

This summer we have had a lot of trips planned but mostly car trips. The month of August is the month we take our traveling to the next level, by air. Now this is not Everly's first plane ride but her first trip on the plane was when she was 4 months and still a little snuggler, now she is a wild 1 year old who is always on the go.

Last weekend we went up to Pittsburg to visit some family. I called this our "dress rehearsal" for our long trip to Canada in a few weeks. It started off great, she was a little angel through security and while we waited for the plane she was making all kinds of friends. We also lucked out because there were 15 kids under the age of 4 on this flight. Now normally if I was traveling without my daughter I would have not been so thrilled with the number of small children but in this case I was ecstatic, power in numbers. Everthing was going smoothly, we boarded and even got an extra seat between us, Everly met a little girl that lived in our neighborhood and they played the whole trip up. She got a little upset when we took off, squirmed around a bit but all in all I say it was a super successful flight up.

So when it was time to do it all again and fly back home I knew she would be fine, we managed the first flight like rockstars. Hah, I was wrong! For those who know Everly she definitely has a mind of her own and I wouldn't have it any other way, however it would be nice to actually be able to reason with a 1 year old in this situation. As we started to board the sold out flight my worst fear came true, my sweet little girl had a crazy freak out. And she continued to freak out as we took our seats and as all the onlookers took theirs. I tried everything puffs, soothie, tatas nothing worked. As I felt all the eyes on me and my crazy child I began to feel the tears well up in my eyes, I knew I had to pull myself together or I would never get control of the situation. Thankfully my dad was with me and was able to buffer us from the judgmental looks and help me gather up and clean off everything Everly flung on the ground. The poor little finely cried herself to sleep and slept for almost the entire flight, for that I was ever so grateful.

My big concern now is our Canada trip in a week and the 2 long flights we have to get to the great northwest. Do we suck it up and pay for Everly to have her own seat? After this past flight I never want to travel again, until she is old enough to understand what is going on. Just one of the many joys of parenthood and traveling!

Everly and her new friend Sammy

Slumberland

I can't resist taking sleeping pictures of Everly, she looks so peaceful and adorable. She still does not sleeping through the night but I never did and I still don't. However she loves nap time and I am very thankful for that!

Happy Birthday

July 26, 2010 at 11: 43pm Everly Jon Hancock was born, 7.11lbs and 20.5 inches long. The day however started at 5:30am, I had another restless night since I was officially going on my 4th over due day. My mom just left to go home and I was about to watch my DVR of Mad Men from the night before and as I got up a gush of water came with me...and away we went. I actually felt great, ate some breakfast, took a shower, did my hair and applied some waterproof mascara and still was able to watch Mad Men before I left for the hospital.

We checked in watched the hangover and elf because nothing was happening and I wanted to laugh. I did several laps around the hospital talking with my Aunt Chris and friend Lisa.  I think around 1pm or so I started labor but again I wasn't really sure since I had no clue what I was doing. We started our baby mix playlist and I attempted to do this naturally with my Mom and Justin by my side as well as family and friends in the waiting room cheering me on. However after several hours later and no relief insight, I decided it was time for an epidural. So around 8pm this lovely Canadian anesthesiologist came in and as I was experiencing some major discomfort the fellow Canadians just chatted it up about hockey and being from Canada. I had to end that conversation real quick...come on boys focus, large ass needle going into my spine, can we skip the hockey talk till later?! Thanks!

After all that happened I finally got some much needed rest before the party started up again around 11:15pm, 34 minutes later out comes this little baby. We still didn't know what we had until my mom asked about 5 minutes later, "it's a girl" one of the nurses said. We wanted Justin to tell me but with all the excitement he forgot. Justin went out to announce the wonderful news to our cheering committee in the waiting room, which was made up of my Dad, Aunt Chris, Cousin Aaron, and great friends soon to be Aunties, Lisa and Pam. They all came in to meet the new little addition, we popped some bubbles and made a toast to this amazing miracle.

Everly Jon danced her way into this world on her own terms and I hope she continues life drumming to her own beat, full of confidence and an open, loving heart. Happy birthday sweet girl, we are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Love and hugs always!

Embrace the bump

Tomorrow will be my little bundle of crazy joy's 1st birthday, it is really hard for me to believe it has already been a year. This time last year I was rock'n one of the hottest accessories of the summer, my beautiful baby bump (and I do mean hot, it was the middle of summer in Florida), I was anticipating whether we would be bringing home a son or a daughter and I was thinking...our life is about to change FOREVER.

In honor of Everly's first birthday week, because I believe in celebrating birthdays for at least a week, I wanted to honor my awesome baby bump she gave me. I adored my baby bump and embraced it. My dear friend Jessi from AVA Photography did my belly pictures and I love all the photos she took.

Yes I was that girl who rocked the bikini when I was pregnant.
It was great, the only time
you don't have to worry about sucking in.

 Thank you again Jessi, you are so talented and I will always cherish these photos.

My gazpacho experience

Me: Honey, I made something new today and I am not sure if it turned out ok.
Justin: Well did you follow a recipe?
Me: Kind of...

Yesterday I decided I really wanted to try and make gazpacho, it has been so hot outside and it sounded refreshing and delicious. So I started my search for a recipe and I found a few I really liked. I loaded Everly up in the jogger and we walked on over to the market. Since I found a few recipes I liked I thought it would be a great idea to just combine them and create my own version.

Well, like I said above, I was not sure if it turned out the way it was suppose to. But it was loads of fun trying. This was the final result of my melon cucumber tomato gazpacho creation.

Justin: So its like a smoothie?
Me: No, its like cold soup.
Justin: Is this dinner?
Me: Yep!


We each ate our cup like adults, and I also had some grilled chicken on the side for us.

4 mile firework run

Last Saturday on July 2nd I decided I would commit to running a race with my friend Dawn and her Son Andrew. I am teetering on the idea of running my first 1/2 marathon in January and thought this would be good practice. But then as I went to bed the night before I was thinking, I am crazy for voluntarily waking up at the crazy hour of 5:30am to run in the damp humid air of summer in Florida...really?! What was a thinking!So when 5:30am rolled around oh so quickly the next day I strangely had this jolt of giddy excitement and was ready to get my run on!

This is my second race and I just love the energy and excitement in the air. The ran took place on the beach as the sun was coming up, it was a fantastic way to start the day. Running with my friends Dawn, Andrew and Jim (Dawn's hubby met up with us after his run) was a blast. 4 miles went by so fast as we talked, sang, laughed and cheered on the other runners. Thanks guys for being my running buddies!

And two of my favorite reasons I like to run, it makes the food and drinks I consume that much more enjoyable.

Me, Andrew and Dawn after our race

Cheers to running!

Happy days of independence

One of the best parts of being married to a Canadian is celebrating all the additional holidays. We get two thanksgivings, a boxing day (which is like black Friday) and two independence days.

Happy Canada Day