So we thought we would stay in Niagara since we had to be in Buffalo for the weekend, and as usual I thought we would get a good deal through one of the discount sites, Hotwire.com or Priceline.com. Now, we have had great success with them in the past but I came across a post that jogged my memory of something I heard. The poster claimed to have paid $220 for a room that they could have got through the Casino Niagara site for $139. Wouldn’t you know it, I checked the site and managed to BOOK a King Fallsview room in the Crowne Plaza for $139 plus tax ($165ish total) when the Hotwire and Priceline rates both had an INFERIOR room listed at $272 per night!!!!

Yes, I was blown away but in the deep recess of my brain I recalled someone in a hotel mentioning that exact issue at the fron desk. Anyway, from now on of we are going to Niagara, we will check the Casino Niagara Site along with the discount sites.

The actual site is http://www.niagarafallshotels.com and it is embedded with a code saying that you came from the casino site however when I went back into the site to check without going via the Casino site it was $389!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So stick with the promo code, we are saving $240 a night which makes me physically sick to think of people getting screwed by these hotels.

Moral of the story, go to the Casino Niagara Site and to the gaming section. Click on the Book Your Hotel Here icon and off you go.

Wow, time is really flying now, I can’t believe she is already 13 weeks!

She has started to fuss a little bit in the late afternoon but we think that she may be suffering a little from Nicole’s cold. She does sound a bit phlegmy (sp?) and it sounds like she is having a hard time breathing at times. She is really aware of stuff now, although so far the only sounds we are getting are kind of giggles, no real laughing yet. She laughs (silently) a lot which is great and responds really well to both of us even from a distance. Her reflexes are getting better but she still isn’t grabbing things yet. I think her arms and hands are still a bit of a mystery, and a bit of a snack some of the time.

She is eating around 4-6 oz at each feeding, occasionally more but not often. The diapers are escalating however she seems to be a small frequent pooper not a single major pooper if that makes sense. We have, just this past week, started putting her in her crib in her room at night and so far she has been sleeping through the night which I find amazing. Not only because I can get some sleep but also because she seems to respond to the schedule. She still loves her bath time and now doesn’t seem to cry so much after she gets out. At Hastings this weekend everyone was very happy to see her and she got a chance to hang out with cousins Evie and Lily and also Jack, Emma and Sam, the other kids in the group. I can’t believe how big the twins Sam and Emma are now, it seems like just yesterday that they were in their car seats.

Elyse’s eyes are still cool blue, hair is still almost none existent but blonde. I wonder if her eyes will ever change at this point? I hope not because they are so cool looking.

I will try to get some better macro pictures of her eyes, they are a really cool translucent blue.

Monthly updates seem to be easier to do, however my typing skills need some serious work.

So Elyse is 2 months old, almost 10lbs and I am not sure how tall even though we did measure her on Saturday. She is giggling and smiling a little more now, she seems to be able to control her face somewhat even though her arms and legs are still way beyond her ability to keep under wraps. She isn’t quite moving towards sounds or stimulus yet but you can tell she is more aware that things come from different directions now. The last few days she has been getting so upset she can’t eat, by which I mean she cries because she is hungry but then gets too upset to be able to eat from her bottle. I think we are pretty good at settling her down, but it often takes both of us doing something to get the job done. I am realizing I have limits on my patience… I am sure it is a mixture of fatigue, being physically tired from working out after work and hunger from trying to keep my weight down but whatever the reason, there are times when I realize I am at my limit of patience which is completely unreasonable with a baby but that doesn’t stop it from happening. A few deep breaths and I am fine but it has been a long long time since I was close to my limits. That sounds serious and negative but really it is neither, I am happy that I am getting back in touch with the boundaries of my psyche and also glad that I am able to control and even improve my response to stress. Since I have never really been much of a stress monkey I have never really had to deal with stress like this before. It is an eye opener and I finally realize that when I tell people that exercise is great for reducing stress I am actually doing them a huge favour. Nothing like an insanity workout to settle me down and boost my coping capabilities.

Elyse is as cute as ever. We are not taking hundreds of pictures of her but certainly a few a day. We should actually use the video camera more, since that is the reason we got it and video of me as a child would be worth it’s weight in gold I am sure… hahaha. I think watching yourself grow up live would be an amazing thing to see.

We took her out to the Jazz festival the other day which she, of course, slept through. We took her to the mall, to the store, to the relatives, all of which she managed to sleep through. Try to get her to sleep through Big Brother though… no way.

As new parents Nicole and I have our hands full. I have days full of work Nicole has days full of baby and when I get home we both have to exercise and try to find time to relax. It’s a difficult job, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Things that I now know to be true. Some I did know, some I didn’t, some I was under a false impression.

1. Baby poo isn’t that bad.
2. Changing a diaper is nowhere near as traumatic as I thought it would be. In fact, it’s pretty easy.
3. You don’t have to run to the baby if she cries. She won’t explode if she cries for a few seconds while you finish what you are doing.
4. Breast feeding is almost as traumatic for me as it is for both the baby and the mom.
5. Babies come in all sizes and all temperaments. What someone else’s baby did or does probably won’t apply to you.
6. Bath time can be fun for the whole family. As long as you don’t take crying or what appears to be nuclear level trauma personally.
7. Let sleeping babies lie.
8. Babies don’t breathe or do anything else like a normal person. They aren’t really people yet, stop freaking out.
9. It’s true that milk protein causes phlegm. Breast milk doesn’t but when protein formula will make your baby sound like an asthmatic hamster.
10. You don’t need to be afraid of holding the baby, act like you have a tray of draft beer or a football and you will be fine.
11. Watch the giant head, you need to be careful of the neck at all times, as funny as it may be when she headbutts you in the chest.
12. The cone head, as alien as it may be, will pass. Even if it is like a bullet in the beginning, don’t panic.
13. Don’t peek over the curtain during the c-section. There is nothing you need to see down there.
14. The baby rolls will come. Even if your baby is small to start, there is nothing you can do to stop them growing.
15. Fresh air = pee. Watch for this and don’t be so quick to pull that old diaper away.
16. Love your wife and child. Even if you can’t do anything else from fear, overwhelm or bad organization, the least you can do and the best you can do is love your new family.

This past weekend saw us invited to 2 baby showers, one at Gym on Saturday which I attended and one on Sunday at Alleta’s house which was a girls only affair (until it came time to unload the car that is).

Saturday was both surprising and enjoyable. I did not expect to see any of my girls there but 3 of them came by. Not only that, but one of my kids mothers actually baked a bunch of cupcakes for the occasion which were amazing. In fact, now I recall, one of my girls made some herself which were also fantastic! The party was nice, lots of people there, some of which we rarely see any more and there was plenty of food to go around. The kids weren’t too crazy which was odd since they must have all been on sugar overload after the cupcakes and the slab cake! Nicole and I opened the gifts which were very generous and a really touching gesture from people who we really don’t spend a lot of time with but with whom we have a very special relationship. I didn’t go to the Sunday bash, instead I finished one side of the HITW (hole in the wall or passthrough) pictures of which will follow. It is a drastic change once you get the trim attached and it really does look pretty good, although I say so myself. However, the wall will need to be replastered and smoothed out since you can see the mud lines and imperfections that should have been smoothed out by the sanding. I think I need to use a smoother compound than regular mud to get the fill and the finish I need. I am assuming polyfilla or standard skim plaster would do the trick. That being said, the thing looks amazing, just in time too!

So the list of what remains is still pretty extensive…

Buy food to freeze for after the delivery
Finish clearing out the basement and the downstairs bedroom
Drywall the basement laundry room, however they have attached the plumbing to the wall which will make this a challenge.
Build shelving for the basement storage room
Finish the trim around the main floor.
Clean and dust the whole room since it is full of drywall dust now.
Clean up the garage, repurpose the storage, maybe get another disposal bin to help with all the crap we have

and the list goes on…

At least we have enough diapers and wipes to start with… No diaper genie yet but there is another (!!) baby shower this weekend at the reunion.

As far as Nicole goes, she makes very loud and uncomfortable noises all the time now. She is getting exponentially bigger and has gone from a cute swish to a full blown waddle. You can tell that it is very uncomfortable for her, and I can certainly sympathise with her when she says she can’t get comfortable even when she lays down. That in itself is a major blow to the psyche… the one position you could always count on for comfort now gives you no respite. It really really sucks!! However, the good thing is that we only have a few more weeks and then it will be over for her and she can try to return to her old fitness habits and walking like a human not an egg with legs.

To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
Who has given birth to
A premature baby.

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one-second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one.

Treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when
You can share it with someone special.

We left the restaurant and decided to fond out which one of the GPS entries we had put into the unit was which so we headed to Kohls and Walgreens. It wasn’t the one we were thinking of so after some unsuccessful shorts shopping and a little grocery pick up we continued on with our road trip. The next place we cam upon wasn’t even on our list but had a BabiesRUs, Carters, Chipotle and Target. I had more unsuccessful shorts shopping and Nicole didn’t have much luck either. We ended up at Burlington Coat Factory where I finally found a pair of shorts however not camouflage so I can’t throw my old ones out quite yet. Finishing our shopping we’d had enough and headed back across the border for nap time. After nap time we went down to the gym to work out. The gym is small as I already said, and not that well equipped so I was unable to do pull ups. Luckily tomorrow is a cardio day which should be easy. After the gym it was dinner time and we ended up at Romano Macaroni’s Bar and Grill. The food there was quite good, and I will do the full review HERE (eventually, obviously).

We spent some time (and money) in the casino and then decided it was time to get back to the hotel. The walk back home was interrupted by an impromptu sand storm down the main street which sent everyone scurrying for store entryways and any other sheltered area. After a short stay in the room we headed down to the Un-Starbucks downstairs and had tea and did some crosswords watching the people in the lobby.

Anyone staying here and expecting a Starbucks in the lobby should be warned, they may serve Starbucks coffee but apart from that it’s about as far from an actual Starbucks as you can get. They are painfully slow doing anything, even making tea.

That brought our day to an end so it was time for a soak in the wonderful tub and to bed.

However, I should note that I wore my iPod in the gym and forced something into my ear meaning I now can’t hear out of that ear. May have to sort that out tomorrow since poking around there with a Q-Tip hasn’t worked.