My birthday is this week, so I thought I’d do a fun family update article! So much has happened in the last year. In February we will mark a year since launching TheByzantineLife! And what an incredible year indeed!
Little Fox Highlights
Of course, my darling firstborn has been a major highlight of this past year. She’s 17 months now, and is big into baby sign language. Her first (sign) word, puppy, is still her favourite. The other day we were at a book sale fundraising for a dog rescue, and they had some of the rescue dogs there. Little Fox hardly stopped patting her leg the whole time we were there. When the volunteers found out that she was doing the sign for dog they thought she was so adorable!
I am also grateful that Little Fox is sleeping well. She usually stays down for 9-11 hours at night, and naps an average of 2 hours during the day. Sometimes she only naps 1/2 an hour though. When this happens, we are working to have a quiet time for the rest of the would-be nap. This will be a good habit to have once the newest member of our family is born.
Our favourite thing to do together is read books. We sit on our couch together, lounge and read for most of the morning. Sometimes she leaves me to read aloud while she plays with her toys. Right now, her plush animals are definitely her favourite. She brushes them with her hair brush, and pretends to feed them her snacks and water.
And Our Little Badger…
My husband has chosen the nickname for our second child: Little Badger! Badger cub was also on the table, but I vetoed it since it sounded masculine to me, and… it’s a girl! So we will be having two little princesses in the house!
We are really happy to be having two girls close together. It is so nice to know that Little Fox and Little Badger will be so close as siblings. 21 months apart, both girls, and Little Fox is young enough that she will grow up only ever remembering being a big sister!
Little Fox was our wedding night baby, so it was a change to actually be trying for a child. It took us three months, and finding out I was pregnant again was such a great joy and blessing. I know some people try for years to have a child, and I really feel like it’s a miracle every time I find out there really is a little one growing inside me.
Tato Highlights
My husband has also been an amazing support this last year. I could watch him and Little Fox playing together all day. It’s just so sweet! Perhaps I’m also just grateful that Little Fox wants to spend time with her Tato even more than being with me, which gives me more space to relax.
He got a new job in the last year, with good hours and benefits. It is just a term position, but he has another year of it. He’s also still working away at his undergrad. It is such an inspiration to see how hard he works to take care of our family.
Another thing he has been doing is building a collection of Byzantine products on Zazzle. When he gets home from work, he’s always telling me some new idea he has for a mug or t-shirt.
As for Me…
So aside from my family, one of my greatest joys this past year has been organizing! Becoming certified as an Organizational Expert and transforming our home into a beautiful and functional space has been glorious!
With my toy rotation system and simple storage, it usually takes me just 5 minutes to tidy the living room before Tato gets home, and before going to bed. If Little Fox gets into spaces and demolishes the living room to her full capacity, it still only takes me 15 minutes to clean up. Sometimes seeing her messes overwhelms me. I am, after all, very pregnant and often tired. So I just take a couple minutes to tidy up and the living room looks great and I feel so refreshed!
Something else I’ve started doing is reading a grade 5-8 instructor grammar text. I’m one of the lucky ones, grammar generally comes natural to me while writing. (My spelling, on the other hand, is atrocious). However, I still managed to get an honours English degree with great distinction… without ever learning grammar. I don’t want to wait till Little Fox is old enough to learn grammar… so I’m working on this flaw in my education now. It can’t hurt for Little Fox to listen to me talking about the parts of speech now anyway!
TheByzantineLife
As I said above, my husband and I have been working on this blog for a year now! I love working on articles every week, and keeping up on my writing. It’s kind of funny to me that I’d been working on fiction writing all through upper elementary and high school, only to switch to mainly non-fiction writing by the end of university. I suspect once I’m used to blogging and babies at the same time, I’ll start to get back to my other writing as well.
Some of my favourite articles to write were:
- Our Lady of Perpetual Help Icon Explained
- Become Organized by Knowing Yourself Better
- A Mom’s Starter Booklist: 3 Reads that Will Change the Way You Parent
Be sure to check them out if you haven’t already!
So thank you for following us at TheByzantineLife.com! Make sure you also follow us on Pinterest and Facebook!
