Before...

Sometimes conversations come up about what I did before I had my kids. Last night, Ray and I were chatting with a friend who is in her mid-twenties and she asked how old I was when I had my kids.

I was in my 30s when I had both of my boys. Ray and I had been married 6 years. We'd been dating for 5 before we got married.

That's a long time to be together before children. Most people don't do that on purpose, but we did. A good chunk of that time was because we were still going to university. Once we were married, we also had job losses and gains and wanted to buy a house first. So we did.

Still, that leaves a lot of living to do before the kids came along.

I went to South Korea for about a year to teach English. It was a fun time, but also lonely and hard at times. I learned I could entertain myself, be alone, see and do things by myself, and be happy. I also learned it was more fun with someone. Ray and I had been dating for a bit less than 2 years when I left, he visited over Christmas, and then I came back to Canada and we continued our relationship.

We did a little traveling in Canada. It would have been more and further, but we also struggled financially at the time.

We bought our first car, got our first apartment together, had a roommate...and then didn't. We worked, lost jobs, and got jobs. Ray went back to school for a year.

I learned to run long distances and completed my first half marathon before my first child came. I also learned to knit (ironically, not for baby stuff, but to keep myself out of the fridge at night). I read a lot of books.

We ate out. We ate all kinds of different foods, and once even had a round of impulse eating (kind of like impulse shopping) with a friend at a fabulous Thai restaurant in St. Catherine's, Ontario. We experimented with cooking.

We went to GenCon in Milwaukee and then in Indy. We won second prize in the D&D Open Tournament. (I didn't play at all before I came back from Korea.) And we had fun. We met more people.

We made new friends and spent time with old friends.

We laughed. We laughed a lot!

We lived.

Do I regret having my children a bit later? Not a sniff. Do I miss those times? A bit, to be honest. But less every day. Best of all, I know we will have things to do and places to go when our kids are grown and doing their own things.

Is it much different now that we have the boys? This is where the irony lies: not very much. We do all of these things with the kids. We've traveled with them, gone to GenCon, see our friends, read, eat out and experiment with food, bought another house...you get the picture. It's our life together and we've introducing our boys to all of it a step at a time. It was harder when they were smaller, but as they no longer need booster chairs and diapers and playpens, it gets easier and easier. When they get older and have their own lives, I will miss having them with us, but I know that we will adjust again.

Ghostbusters, Curious George, and Toopy and Binou

What do these shows have in common? They all keep Liam vastly amused while I shower, clean, spend time on the internet, or write.

Go figure.

BTW, I had to look up how to spell Toopy, and I have just recently discovered that Toopy and Binou is incredibly funny to a 3 year old.

Xander, on the other hand, is not amused by Curious George anymore. I get rolled eyes and "Can't we watch something else, Mom?"

Good thing Liam is feeling better and the two of them are now playing with the Lego again. I think I need a break from the television sounds too.

Time are a changin'

It seems that times have changed and I rarely come to post on my blog anymore. It's been months and months, actually. Well, things have changed in our family.

We moved back in August. Our new house is only a short distance north of the old house, but it is in a slightly younger neighbourhood (the houses are 30 years old instead of 60-70 years old), the lots are smaller, and the houses are much bigger.

I am sure I will always love that little house that was our first real home. Indeed, sometimes I wonder if it was my first real home ever. Certainly I lived there the longest at almost 8 years. Plus, Xander was literally born in that house. Though the decision to move was a good one, there were many tearful moments for all of us when we left!

The new house is 1800 sq ft, not including the basement (our old one didn't hit 1100 sq ft with the basement, for the record), so we have plenty of room to grow. We also have offices for each of us and bedrooms for each of the boys, when they decide they are ready to live apart. For now, they share, because the mere mention of splitting caused much chaos and drama. I think it is kind of sweet that they want to be together.

A new house also means a new school. And Liam started preschool this year, so it's new schools all around. Both boys are enjoying their schools and Xander is especially tickled. He loves going to French Immersion and he is happier going all day, every day. In fact, the majority of his anxiety issues from last year have disappeared! Liam is pretty easy going, so he loves going to school.

Liam is almost caught up with his speech. We are very excited about this! It's nice to know what is going on in his world and have him interact that much more. In fact, there have been times when we have had to say, "Liam, you need to be quiet now!" Last week we got the gold seal of approval from the speech therapy people, who say he is ready for Junior Kindergarten in the fall. He still has to go to speech therapy to smooth out a few things, but they are pleased with his progress and know he will manage fine.

Which brings me to this week: I get to register Liam for Kindergarten!

Time flies.

I've not been working since the move. Mostly because who has time to unpack, settle in, volunteer at preschool, be a Beaver leader (yes, I volunteered to be part of the team that does our local Beaver group activities...and it's turned out to be a blast), and work too. I am working on settling that up though. I've been looking for work and have a few good leads. Plus, I am excited to get back to work again!

All in all, it has been a busy, but good time in our lives. Hopefully, I will remember to pop in here and post a big more often, now that writing is back on my radar.