Dey and Dee's Updates

I'm ba-ack!!!..................Did you miss me? ;)

Ah yes, thank you faithful blog readers for not giving up on me comletely! It has been one h*ll of a month or 2 trying to get anything done and unfortunately blogging seems to always be at the bottom of my list! By 1am (the time when I am settled enough for some free time) I am way too bushed for the computer! Anyways, I'll try to catch you up on what's been going on around here!

Somewhere towards the end of August my sister Courtney moved in with us! She came just in time to help with the big move. Her plan was to hang out with her niece and nephew, study with me towards doula/midwifery stuff and to hook up with Sanctuary House of Prayer. She had done all of those things well and for the most part really enjoyed them. She's also had a rollercoaster of a time and has made many difficult decisions over the past month or two, but she's a trooper! We've been so blessed to have her around! She will be going back home to SJ sometime around the end of November and returning here in March for a little while. I was hoping to snag her to spend Christmas with us (we won't be going back east this year) but Christmas in the maritimes with our huge family was just too hard for her to give up! :) Really, I can't blame her. For now she is living with friends of ours, Andy and Beckie, who just live up the street! She still spends most of her free time at our house and eats most of her meals with us which is nice.

Deyan and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Sept 1st by going to "Jazz on the Rooftop" at the WAG (Winnipeg Art Gallery for you non-Manitobans). I have to admit that I was a bit nervous as we drove up and got in line to enter the building. I mean, surely after 5 years of marriage Dey would understand that going to an art gallery is NOT my idea of a good time. In fact, I am usually bored to tears. I just don't generally 'get' visual art. (I hope I'm not offending all you amazing artists out there!) Anyways, Deyan's sly smile told me that he did have something else up his sleeve and we really enjoyed dinner on the roof, although the inclement weather had us all inside for the jazz show! It was fun and nice to do something different than "dinner and a movie".

That weekend we headed out to the Lake of the Woods yet again. Our dear friends had graciously invited us to spend another weekend at their cabin and we were very grateful! We had incredible weather and it was again so special to hang out with family and friends!

We came home with keys to our new house! Tyler moved in for the first couple of nights and then he took off to work on a reserve in northern Ontario. (He and Dey have been doing landscaping all summer and Ty had an opportunity to do it out there and make some extra cash.) Once Tyler left, Deyan moved in and slowly over the course of that first week we would pack bins and bring them over and unpack them. It was nice to have the option to stay at our old apartment for a couple of extra weeks, but living between 2 places was really tough! I'd finally had enough by Sunday so Mitch helped us move all the beds and dressers and we all slept here for our first night! It was very exciting. The rest of the month of September was busy getting settled in the midst of normal life (which means neither of our work stopped, the kids still had basic needs to be met, etc.).

Simeon now has his own 'big boy bed' and he really likes it. Of all of us, I think he has struggled most with the transition. He loves his new house and room and everything, but whenever he's feeling upset he asks if he can go home...to the other house. I took him over there to see it empty but he just thought it looked like a fun place to play! His disobedience (including tantrums) has increased and it's been difficult for me to be consistent with discipline in the midst of everything. But I think he has turned a corner and is on the up again. We also decided to work on potty training in the midst of this. (I know, not the best timing, but he was showing so many 'ready' signs!) He does pretty good for the most part, as long as I stay on top of him, and he definitely loves his Bob the Builder underwear!

Esther is a hoot! Her biggest adjustment was learning how to go up and down stairs since we now have 2 levels! Our plan was to get a gate, but by the time we got one, she was a pro! In fact, I have to remind her how to go down backwards because she would much rather hold onto the railings and walk down! Ah yes, walking! Unlike her big brother who walked ~ 14-15 months, Esther began taking the odd step at 9+ months and by 10 months was able to walk across a room. Now at 11 months she runs quite steadily and can almost catch up to her brother! ;) It is pretty cute to see such a little person walking everywhere and a bit sad for me to see how quickly she's growing up! She's also starting to talk and sign more. I think her favorite word is "Hiiiiieee" which she says with much excitement whenever she sees her auntie Courtney or when waking up and seeing her big brother! She's pretty friendly to other kids on the street too! She still LOVES babies/dolls and books and 'talks' to them or about them all the time. Her biggest struggle with transition seems to be a sleep schedule (or lack thereof). It could also be new teeth coming in or the cold she's just getting over. It's so hard to tell with babies. But her newest pattern is to go to bed around midnight and if we don't need to go anywhere in the morning, she would sleep until 11am or so! Anytime I try to get her to bed earlier, she ends up waking up after 1/2 an hour thinking it was a nap and/or wakes up every 2 hours or so through the night! So, for now I'd rather her just stay up late with us and go to bed when we go to bed. At least then she'll usually sleep good 4-6 hour stretches!

Deyan is still working outside (and it's getting really cold!) but he has a job interview today with an architectural firm. Please pray that it goes well! We aren't worried, but a secure job would be helpful now that fall is here and we have house bills and student loans to repay! He has worked hard evenings and weekends on our own yard and it is starting to look decent! We have less trees and a cool fence in the front that he and Tyler and my dad built together!

I continue to be busy with Birth Roots. We've just hired new people and I think that brings us to a team of 15! Several of us have recently had new babies (and there are still more to come) which means a bit more of a workload for me, but I think I will be able to manage. The kids are now going to a friend's home daycare 2 mornings/week which is helping me stay more on top of things. I've also joined a new Midwifery Mentoring Group 1 morning/week. I really didn't want to add more to my plate, but this was not something I was willing to pass up. It is a group started by my midwife/friend Beckie and it is really focused on how we can serve Jesus and the poor through midwifery. I am excited about the possibilities and hope to be able to give more time to this in the future.

Tyler is still living with us. He took 2 trips to northern Ontario and now he's back working with Deyan. The landscaping season is coming to a close and his plan is to stick around with us for a bit and head back east sometime towards the end of November. He's a Christmas fanatic and I'm not sure if he would ever miss one at home! He's not sure what his plans are after that. He may stay there, come back here, or go somewhere further west to work. Either way it's been fun to have him around these past 7 months or so!

Well, October came with the arrival of my dad! I almost didn't recognize him with his long hair! I can't express how awesome it was to have him here for a week. The kids fell in love with him all over again (which of course is now difficult with him gone). He was able to help Dey with some projects around the house too. And we had a huge Thanksgiving dinner together! That is one thing I am loving about this house - we can have company again! For dinner we had: the 4 of us, my dad, Courtney, Tyler, Mitch and the Falk family of...almost...4! I haven't made a full out turkey dinner before and it turned out pretty good in the end...even if there were a few mishaps (like the turkey still being a bit frozen when I was trying to stuff it and the oven mysteriously turning off part way through cooking which I didn't notice until I basted the bird an hour or so later...etc.). In addition to turkey we had Ang's very creamy potato dish, squash, dressing, turnip casserole, a bean medley and gravy. It was delicious! Tyler, the pumpkin king, made us some pumpking smoothies and pumpkin pies. I also made tykvanik (a Bulgarian pumpkin pastry) and we had enjoyed pumpkin cheesecake the night before so I think we'd had our fill of gourd's by day's end! I have more to say about my dad's visit, but I think I'll save it for another post.

Thanks again for your patience! I will try to update more frequently now! :)

posted by Deanna Momtchilov @ 10:58 PM