Daddy's little farm girl, sporting her John Deere onesie. Oh, I should say her 3-6 month onesie!!! She outgrew her preemie and newborn outfits and is now wearing 3 month outfits! Technically, she is supposed to be almost 3 months old, so I guess she's right on track for a preemie who was born almost three months early! Little One now weighs 8 lbs, 5 oz :)

*Update: I did manage to keep the cattle from going onto the highway! They stayed in the field behind our house (still where they weren't supposed to be!), but kept them out of trouble until Hubby finally came home from a sawmill job.*

This June will mark my fifth year living on the Island. What happens when you pluck a city girl out of the city and drop her in the rural North? All sorts of interesting things can happen!

In my first year on the Island, no one knew me and I didn't know anyone. I remember going to the store and the cashier asked, "Can I have your band number?"
Me: Ummm...Sorry?
Cashier: What band do you belong to?
Me: Band? As in rock band? (puzzled)
Cashier: Do you have a band number?
Me: What's a band number?
Cashier: Oh! You're not Native?
Me: No (didn't go into the whole "My mother's Filipina with Spanish ancestry and my dad's Chinese but was born and raised in the Caribbean" bit).

The cashier apologized for mistaking me for someone "Native", but I had to smile. I don't know why she'd apologize. I have always been interested in the history and storytelling of the First Nations people. I remember taking a course in Creation Myths when I was in college. Anything with the words Ojibwa, Cree, Iroquois and Algonquin in the title was something I was interested in. Plus, there aren't tooooooooooo many Asian people on the Island. I guess the cashier figured that if I wasn't Caucasian, then I was "Native". Certainly an eye opening experience, since I came from a very multicultural and diverse city (Toronto). Now that I think of that exchange, it makes me think of how clueless and naive I was when I first moved here.

Other Island experiences that make me smile:
* Watching the new calves and their moms in the Spring. Calves are so adorable! I love watching them run and play in the fields.
* Watching the deer graze in the same field as the cattle. Amazing how they seem to not be paying attention and not be bothered at all, but you know how aware they really are.


* Having to stop my vehicle to let a family of ducks cross the road.

* Driving down the winding country roads...with no other vehicle in sight! It truly amazes me! I'm used to being in the city where it's bumper to bumper traffic and very rarely was I the only one on the road.

*Driving down the winding country roads and seeing the most beautiful sights. There's a certain spot you reach when driving on Rockville Road, where as soon as you reach the top of the hill, if you look straight ahead you'll see Treasure Island. The view is especially gorgeous on a misty day.

There are lots of experiences I can recant in my nearly five years on the Island. I'll have to think of more when I'm not so tired :) 9 PM and the baby's sleeping! That means I ought to get to bed too!

Remember how I've been saying that for the past two weeks Little One has been super cranky and I've been going bonkers? Well, you wouldn't believe me if you saw this! This is what she was like first thing in the morning (see photo below):Yes, Little One was all smiles. She was very happy and has been like that for the past two days. I guess babies are like all people and have their good days and not so good days. I mean, we all get crabby every once in a while too, right?

Alternate title for this post: "This is What Happens When Moms Don't Get Enough Sleep" or "I Think I've Finally Gone Bonkers!"*sigh* I don't want you to think that life is all rosy and happy here on the farm all the time. No, I'll be honest. As much as I love Little One and as much as she is my entire world right now, she does exhaust me.

Little One was NOT a happy camper today.

1) Her gums are still really bothering her. Teething rings straight out of the freezer seem to work for a bit, and then she gets crabby again. My poor baby! :( I feel so sorry for her...but I feel even sorrier for myself. LOL! I'm exhausted!!!

2) I tried on the amazing cloth diapers our friends from Ottawa made for us. My Dad's best friend is a tailor and he's known me for 30+ years. When he asked what I needed for the baby, I said "cloth diapers"! He made me two dozen diapers. I was so excited!

Unfortunately, Little One is a tiny little thing. Being a preemie, it's hard to find diapers that fit her properly. Though she's almost 8 lbs, she's tiny. She's heavy, but small!

This is what she thought of her new cloth diapers! "Mom, do these diapers make my butt look big?!"
I'm going to have to try them on her when she's a bit bigger.

Louann is one of the sweetest people I've never met (in person...yet!). I don't even remember how we found each other's blogs or how long we've been blog buddies. I'd say it's been a few years already since when we 'met', her second son was still teeny tiny and now she's got a third child! She's 'known' me even before I got pregnant and before I went through my rollercoaster of a pregnancy and through all the craziness of having Little One born 12 weeks early and in the NICU for the first 2 months of her life.

To quote, “Premio Dardos means ‘prize darts’ in Italian. It is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing.”
The rules are to (1) accept the award by posting it on my blog with thanks to the person who gave it to me, and (2) pass it on to 15 other bloggers, along with a comment to let them know.

This award is to be passed on to 15 other bloggers. FIFTEEN!!! Can't I just pass it on to everyone on my blogroll then?? :) Anyway, I don't think I'll be passing it on to 15 bloggers. That's just too involved for me right now. Little One looks like she's going to wake up for a feeding any minute now.

Thank you, J for the award :) Now I am going to pass it on to:

Merinz

KarenMEG

Momisodes

Don Mills Diva

Trish @ My Little Drummer Boys

Veronica @ Someday We Will Sleep

Maria @ Notes from a Brown House

Rick @ Palm Springs Savant

Louann @ Calculated Spontaneity

I'd like to pass this on to so many more wonderful and creative writers out there, but...Little One is now screaming her head off.

Ciao for now! xo

Little One woke up this morning with a huge smile on her face. She was cooing and smiling. She's been pretty cranky because her gums are bothering her. She still hasn't cut a tooth yet, but the nurse said she can see that it's coming. My friend (who is also a nurse) looked at Little One's gums last weekend, and confirmed what the other nurse said. Gah. I don't think I'm ready for a teething baby.

I took my smiling Little One over to our bedroom window, and this is the view we had:

Since it was a gorgeous morning, I bundled Little One up and put her in the sling so we could go for a walk. I also wanted to check on the maple sap. Hubby tapped a few trees this year. This year, we're not making as much as we usually do because we don't really have much time for it. My hands have been pretty full these days.

Since we were already out, Little One and I decided to walk to my MIL's farm. If you're in our neck of the woods, you've probably seen Little One and me walking along the highway on our daily walks. We don't go too far. We usually walk 20 mins one way and then 20 mins back or we just walk to my MIL's, have a quick visit and then return home. 40 mins is enough for me since even though Little One is only almost 8 lbs, 8 lbs gets pretty heavy when you're walking and carrying. It's like a cardio and resistance training exercise all in one!

One the way to Grandma's (above) and on the way home (below).

That was fun!

Hubby said he should have taken a photo of me on Easter. In my efforts to live as "green" (to be grammatically correct, I guess I should say "as greenly") as possible, I don't take my vehicle to my MIL's. I try to walk to her house as much as I can. On Easter though, Hubby saw me walking down the highway with the diaper bag strapped onto my back, the baby in the sling in front of me, a freshly baked pie in my hands AND the dog walking at my side. *sigh* If only my city friends could see me now. What on earth has happened to me? I'm no longer a totally city girl, and I'm not quite country.

Embarrassingly, it has taken us forever to finish Little One's nursery. We found out I was pregnant last Spring and we started planning the baby's room then. The baby's room is now furnished with a beautiful crib I received at the baby shower (Mrs. Hollywood threw for me) that I wasn't able to attend because I was on hospital bed rest for my second trimester of the pregnancy. All of the ladies on my Mom's side of the family (aunts, cousins, cousins' girlfriends, cousins' wives, etc) pitched in and got us a beautiful crib that turns into a toddler bed and then later on, a single bed. I'm a frugal practical gal and like the idea of Little One being able to use the crib as a toddler bed later on.

Anyway, Little One is now five months old and her room has just been completed. In our defense, she was born almost three months early, I was on hospital bed rest for weeeeeeeeks before she was born, our house was undergoing renovations and Little One and I spent two months in Toronto while she was in the NICU at Mount Sinai Hospital.