The zits don't lie.

It wasn't until recently that I finally clued in to a fundamental truth. It's nothing profound; it's simply that my skin is like a window into any sort of life event tied to a hormone change. Like pregnancy. Or if I am about to deliver. The cascade of fresh hormones makes my oily, Mediterranean skin go into overdrive.

Days before I could officially stick pee when pregnant with Veronica (and when I figured that I might be pregnant), my skin started going haywire. And yep - positive test.

I should have known that labour was imminent with Veronica because in the days before August 24th, my skin looked greasy and AWFUL. And full of blemishes.

And now...the breakouts have begun again. On Tuesday, I will be 12 weeks postpartum. And that means -- the dreaded postpartum hair loss. GAH!

Happy Birthday, Roro!!

It's the 1st birthday of our friend Rory, and we'll be celebrating on Sunday. But when we told Teddy that it was Rory's birthday, he clapped and said "HAPPY!!" We credit Daphne for teaching him the famous tune.

We practiced for 15 minutes - Teddy would demand "HAPPY!" And we'd start singing. At the end of each line, he'd tack on "Roro!", his nickname for Rory. It was super cute.

Then, we called to sing to the birthday boy himself and Teddy, as usual, refused to do anything on the phone. We're all set for Sunday, though.

Happy 1st Birthday, buddy! We can't wait to celebrate with your whole family on Sunday.

Lest We Forget

It's Remembrance Day here in Canada and elsewhere in the Commonwealth (and Veterans' Day in the US). We're wearing our poppies, and we paused for a moment of silence at 11 am. Sadly, with a toddler and a newborn, a visit to the Canadian War Memorial for the service was not feasible so we watched on TV. We're close enough, though, that the fighter planes which scramble for the fly-over could be heard from our house.

Teddy was not at all interested in the ceremony -- even the marching soldiers -- until the very end of the procession when he spotted the military vehicles. 'A TRUCK!" he exclaimed. "A truck, a car, a bup (bus)!!"

There is not one single Canadian WWI veteran still alive, and the youngest possible WWII veteran (18 in 1945) would now be 83. But the sacrifices that they made when they were little more than children will never be forgotten.

I look forward to taking the kids to battlefields one day (visiting Ypres was a harrowing and valuable moment for me) and to attending the 2018 ceremony in person to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the armistice.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

"Ode of Remembrance", taken from "For the Fallen" by Lawrence Binyon.

A great big "Tank yoo"

I should preface this post by saying that I will focus on more substantial posts later - maybe this weekend.

But today, I want to say a huge "thanks" to my parents. They came to visit today, bringing all sorts of goodies from their travels - foodstuffs, Bookers Bourbon for Dave, clothes for the kids...awesome! In addition, my Mom is coming back tomorrow to watch Teddy b/c I have a medical appointment to which I cannot bring both kids. Bampa and Nonna, you ROCK!

As an aside: we're catching up on Glee, and I am very happy to see that there are new music numbers which Teddy will like. Yeah!

The day got away from me...

...so I am writing this post one-handed as I feed the baby. I had a meeting at the church tonight, so Veronica got to go to her first evening meeting. Lucky kid - at only 11 weeks old!

My MIL headed back to Georgetown on the train this afternoon after her firstsolo visit to Ottawa. We will miss her. I'm very lucky -- I have a wonderful MIL about who loves us and about whom I cannot complain. Thanks so much for the help Nanny!

And my parents are back from their trip -- I can't wait to hear all about it when they come by tomorrow.

I'm writing this as the baby chills in the swing...

Dave has taken his Mom out to the casino, so I am chilling with Miss Veronica. I think she is getting ready for a developmental leap (there is one at 12 weeks and she'll be 11 weeks tomorrow) because she's acting 'stormy' as predicted in "The Wonder Weeks". A bit clingy, taking longer with feedings, the usual stuff. It makes finding time to blog tough!

I am catching up on the Amazing Race, and the past two episodes have been spent in one of my favourite cities - St. Petersburg, Russia. The most recent episode had them following more cryptic clues than usual as they raced around the city. I was so excited as they started to read the clues -- I knew the answers! Church on the Spilled Blood (the most GORGEOUS Russian Orthodox catherdal), Peter and Paul Fortress (where the Romanovs are buried) -- all sorts of amazing sites. I would LOVE to go back, though it's not in the cards for a while. Of all the places I have visited, the two I would most like to get back to are Russia and Australia. There are lots of other places I'd love to go, of course, but those are the two places I am desperate to explore in much more depth. [In terms of new places, I want to see all 7 continents (3 to go), all the countries in Europe (about 15 to go), all our provinces and territories (1 and 3 to go), all 50 US states (16 to go), and countries like Israel, China, India, Egypt and South Africa.]

What about you? To where are you desperate to go back? And where would you love to go?

We've created a Glee monster.

I have posted in the past about Teddy's love for Glee. I should qualify - not ALL of Glee, just selected musical numbers. The awesome ones. Like the Journey medley in the season 1 finale, or "Empire State of Mind", or any of the big duet numbers ("Don't Go Breaking My Heart", "River Deep, Mountain High" or "Lucky" from 'Duets', my fave S2 episode to date). He has watched each more times than I can count, and loves to listen to the tracks, too.

Great, right? Except for the fact that he now thinks that any music is called "Glee". We've been trying to reinforce the word 'music', but it has not yet taken. It's also difficult to ascertain which song from Glee he'd like to hear, as he wants to hear "GYEE!", but if the wrong song is chosen, it's accompanied by a chorus of "Nononononono!"

The worst (though possibly the funniest) occurs during mass. When we arrive in church, he announces "GYEE", so excited is he for music. Any piece of music during the mass - even quick parts of the Doxology - are huge hits. And as soon as they end, he announces "AGAIN!!". I've never been so happy that music is interspersed throughout mass! Hey - anything for a toddler to look forward to during that time is a bonus.