The Dunns [dot] C.A.

I will just update quickly to say that I have added a few more pics and vids to the Dec 2009 album.
I promise to update soon with all kinds of details

I have to say that this year was likely the best Christmas we’ve had yet. Marshall is at the perfect age. Gram and Uncle Jamie stayed overnight again this year and Grampy came over before we started opening gifts Xmas morning. We finished before noon, and had a chance to play and relax before heading to Mary’s for yummy turkey. We’ll be doing our turkey tomorrow.

We have lots of pics and videos here for your viewing pleasure. I also updated my belly pics.

Top toys were the Little People Airport and the Buzz Lightyear, but he surprisingly gave equal opportunity to all toys over the last couple of days. And of course we appreciated everyone’s gifts, and hope that you enjoyed yours as well.

Just posted the ultrasound pics from yesterday’s visit to UCBaby (and the 19week one we had done at the hospital). It was really cool! Marshall enjoyed the viewing for about the first 20 minutes or so but then he was anxious to get on the road with Gram to Fredericton. They also confirmed they are sure it’s a LADY. So Baby Ella she is! <3

I also updated the belly shots if you’re interested to see how round I’m getting

We had our first snowfall accumulation overnight last night, so it was lucky that Rick accepted delivery of his new snowblower on Thursday!

Rick and I enjoyed a busy day of shopping and cleaning and organizing the house and had a planning session on where to house all of our children hehehe I think we made good progress!

And now, while he’s out to pick up our little boy, I must try to get the remaining jobs done!

Well, on this eve of December, as I wait for Marshall to fall asleep, I thought I’d update his xmas list and post a quick update.

This week was quite busy!
My birthday was Wednesday the 25th, and Marshall came in and wished me a happy birthday and snuggled into my armpit to watch some cartoons. GREAT start to the day When I came downstairs he was pretty excited for me to arrive so he could sing happy birthday and help me blow out the candle in my egg bagel sandwich (thanks Rick!) and there was a lovely homemade card from… RICK! hee! I dropped the boys off at school and work and stopped to pick up tickets to the Barra MacNeils xmas show (Dec 19th) for the 3 of us and some friends, on my way to a job interview in Shediac – a federal government internal posting. That went fairly well, and on my way back into town I treated myself to a mint chocolate latte and a cakebox cupcake. We had pizza delight take out for supper and dad came over to “play toys” with M while we went out to see 2012 at the theatre – our bi-annual movie out – haha. All in all, a fabulous day

Thursday, I took Marshall to the wart doctor, and unfortunately, there’s still a root so they froze it. He didn’t like that too much. The chocolate Santa made it feel better though. And Rick took Marshall to a hockey game! He didn’t last too long, but mentioned that his favourite part was the candy. *L* Rick has some vids we’ll upload later.

Saturday morning, me and M started making some gingerbread cookies together, but he lost interest fairly quickly when he wasn’t able to eat them right away … we had 2 of his friends over for a playdate in the afternoon and they got to decorate some of the cookies and eat them. They enjoyed that

Then we walked to a pre-parade party at a friend’s house, and then to the xmas parade. It was wet and cold. We lasted about an hour, but couldn’t wait for Santa – Marshall was pretty antsy to get moving on his tricycle. We arrived home and turned on the fireplace and M had some hot chocolate with his “vitamin juice” to warm up before bed. It was a big day.

Sunday we lazed about for the morning and watched some cartoons and played toys. In the afternoon Max, Val and Mary came over for some more toy-playing and cookie-decorating and -eating. Then we were off to Crystal Palace and then a little side-adventure to pick up a kijiji find… and then East-side Mario’s for supper with Grampy, and capped off the night with cashing in our Shopper’s Drug Mart points for $170 of goodies (including newborn-sized diapers for that first week )

Obviously, today we’re all exhausted. Marshall woke up with a runny nose and achy legs. He was fine at school all day but became more stuffy, but his legs were better (think it was all that exercise Saturday). We took him to Grampy’s for some hanging out time while we went to a xmas dinner for Rick’s work.

… and that’s about all I’ve got for energy. Time for sleeping!
I haven’t even had a chance to call to thank everyone for the birthday cards and gifts! Thanks everyone! I will try to email/call this week. I haven’t checked my lotto tickets yet!!!

zzz

I just uploaded a bunch of photos and vids to Current photos so check it out! The camera cable has been missing for a few weeks, but we finally found it.
Marshall had a lot of fun in October:

-visits with Auntie Stacey, cousins Sam and Diego from Calgary
-Thanksgiving turkeys at Gram’s and Mary’s place
-a visit with mommy’s friends Michelle (New Maryland) and Melanie (visiting from Ottawa) and their many children (3 of Michelle’s 4 girls were present and both Mel’s boys)
-apple-picking at Belliveau Orchard with mommy and Gram
walks in Mapleton Park with Grampy
-making Hallowe’en gingerbreads with mommy
-making bread with daddy
-making “zebra” cake with mommy – ie. he used the “apple machine” to peel/slice/core apples and determined that the cake we made was using apples that looked like the zebra rug we have on the wall and therefore the apple caramel coffee cake shall forevermore be known as Zebra Cake
-tons of fun at school – including a visit from Louise’s pretend friend Pedro from Mexico – they made a whole slew of Mexico-themed crafts and presented them to the parents on the day Pedro (the puppet) came to visit them in class to talk about his country (where Louise is from)
-dance party with mommy
-h1n1 shots – luckily we went the first day they were offering them … Marshall was super tough and brave and didn’t even cry! (as long as everyone knew he didn’t want any bandaids)
-Marshall’s stubborn wart is almost gone! – after a couple of attempts to treat with ASA per the first clinic visit, bought the nasty freeze-away stuff and did it while he was sleeping. It took most fo the nasty callousy party away and we may have to treat it one more time to get the little black dot that’s left.
-raking leaves with daddy
-Hallowe’en party at Jack’s place
-Trick or treating which yielded tons of loot

Other random cuteness:
- Marshall will order for himself in a restaurant and frequently requests that we go to the restaurant at the escalator store (aka The Bay). He already knows what he wants when we get there. One time dad took him and he sat down and order pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Another time Rick took him and he ordered himself hotdogs on a stick (mini pogos)
- he is known to say “aw come ON!” when we say no to something. or “check it out!” when he wants to show us something or “see I told you mommy … ” any old time when he actually didn’t tell me anything previously.
- he has randomly started throwing french words out also, and will often sing french songs out of the blue.

Other:
- baby is kicking lots
- 19w u/s was October 14th and I can pick up the pic anytime, I just haven’t gotten around to it
- Marshall had a petit mal on Thanksgiving Monday and another (grand mal) seizure a couple of weeks later, so the doctor increased his medicine again. He takes 2 half-pills at night and 1 half in the morning and he does it so far every day without a problem – they’re not chewable but he crunches them right up and drinks the water and shows us that the pill is gone. He is a trooper
- Enjoying my new job! Wish I didn’t have to leave it in a few short months…
- Rated a C on the oral french test (yahoooo!) for the feds .. so I’m a E/C/C I think? (reading/writing/oral on a scale of A-C, C being the best, and E meaning you are exempt forevah! … not sure how I managed that one) The C rating is good for 5 years.

Ok, I think I’ve used up that extra hour we gained on the weekend – goodnight!

We got our disc tonight!
All of the pics on our web photos are in a size that are print-friendly if you download them, fyi Or you can wait for your xmas gifts!

Pics here

Things are happening all the time and I forget that I want to remember how adorable this kid is.

- we were reading pajama time last night and “some are red and some are…” and I pointed at the blue jammies. Marshall said “BL” or so I thought … then I clued in. He was saying BLEU! OUI! Marshall c’est bleu en francais and that’s BLUE in English! Good job!

- the other day dad asked him if he wanted something… a bite of something to eat at breakfast… and Marshall said “NO!” So I gently corrected him: “No what Marshall?” And he goes “NO MERCI!” heee!

- sometimes when brushing his teeth his sings the song they do at school “Brosse brosse…” something something … I shall have to google the lyrics to this one.

He is learning french fairly quickly I think
His English speaking is incredible for his age. We went to a session given by a speech language therapist and she gave us some info on what sounds and how many words kids at each age should be doing, and Marshall seems to be well into the 4 and 5 year old stuff!

Today he wanted to vaccuum, so I let him. And we took breaks for dancing. It was awesome. He would vaccuum for a while and then he goes “mommy! The music’s on! Time to dance!” and we’d hop around shaking our booties all over the kitchen.
Finally, before lunch he announced that he was tired from all the vaccuuming and dancing and needed to have a rest and went up to his room. I let him have his dvd player in bed with the backyardigans.

When we asked him if he wanted a baby sister or a baby brother he very clearly announced that he wants a baby sister. I think he might be right on that! (the Dumont says it’s a girl but they are never 100% when it’s a girl, so save your receipts for the pink stuff people!) Sometime around Xmas we’ll be heading to Baby Images to get a 2nd opinion on that (around 28weeks or so)

Baby Dunn numero deux is due March 12th, and I feel pretty great right now! Much better than the first 3 months or so!

We’ve been so busy we haven’t had time to tell you all what we’ve been up to!

Check out the latest pics for a short and cute version

PICS

For those who may not have heard, there is a new Baby Dunn on the way – expected in March 2010!