Author Archives: Larissa Sevenhuysen

About Larissa Sevenhuysen

Born and raised on the West Coast, I went from a single working girl there to a stay-at-home mom on the Prairies in 2.5 years. Life comes at you fast, and you just gotta go with it!

Thanksgiving Dinner

One year ago, on Thanksgiving weekend, is when we moved to Edmonton. That weekend we were invited to two different dinners! This year, I got to make my own, and I was so excited to do it!

We had Jordan and Amy over, as well as our tenant. A nice, small gathering. The perfect size for our kitchen. 

I had no idea what to expect regarding how much work was going to be needed to make this meal, but I was ready to do it! I was surprised to find it was less work than everybody says it is. Probably because I use stuffing from a box. 

I seasoned the turkey and put it in the oven around 12:30. Jordan and Amy then came over and we had a small lunch, then we peeled potatoes for mashing, yams for a casserole, and apples for dessert. Everything was prepped and ready to be turned on at the correct time an hour or two later, so then we got to sit down and play a game.ImageHaving things prepped is probably my biggest tip for making a big dinner like this. That and cleaning/rinsing dishes as you go and keeping the counters clear in between working times. 

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Here’s my “first time roasting a turkey” story:
This bird barely squeezed into our largest roasting pan, so I knew the lid wouldn’t fit. After letting it brown without the lid, I then poured water over it and covered with tin foil. I guess I didn’t count on the meal losing even more liquid into the pan because at one point it started to over flow and spilled all over the bottom of the oven and the smoke started! There was actually quite a bit of smoke. So we took the turkey out, I grabbed an old towel and mopped up the juice that wasn’t burned on, then put the turkey back in with a pan on the rack underneath. Disaster averted, and we had really delicious, moist meat. Yum!

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(I blame the new iOS7 camera for the uncentered photo.)

Calvin only kind of enjoyed the meal. He has one bite of stuffing, then some cranberry jelly and then more cranberry jelly. Then some more jelly. He didn’t want anything else after having that! He normally doesn’t like meat anyway. But he sure does love his fruit!

I am so glad we got to spend the day with at least a little bit of family. I will take what I can get! Meanwhile, my extended family back in BC was doing this. Missed you all!

Happy Thanksgiving, and enjoy your own birds and family!

 

 

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Pregnancy #2: 37 Weeks

I started this post last week, but never uploaded it because I never took a photo. And I don’t feel like rewriting the whole thing, so I will just post this with a few added edits to make it current.

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I am officially in my 9th month of pregnancy (and now considered full term)! Honestly, I probably feel as good as one can this far in. No aches, pains, or fake cramps. It’s just hard to bend over to pick up Cheerios off the floor. I wake up a couple times each night to use the bathroom, and normally I fall back asleep right away, so I am not even that tired. That, I know, will change once the baby is in my arms instead of my uterus.

Things I have left to do are set up the pack and play and sort the newborn stuff I have. It probably will take approximately one nap time, but I have yet to have the nesting urge hit me hard (clothes sorted but not washed…does that really need to happen?; pack and play is not set up because it is our door stop because our door doesn’t latch and something has to keep Calvin out…gonna have to figure something out). Oh, I should probably also get some food in my freezer. Somehow, last time, I ended up with meals for 6 weeks post delivery between what I made and what my mom made (okay, mostly my mom)! It was amazing. Can I just say I am glad this baby is coming in the season it is? It is way easier to put together wintery foods for the freezer (I have thought about what to make and have come up with meatballs, chili, lasagna and stew…sounds like I need to get a lot of ground beef!).

I have mixed emotions about this delivery. I don’t know whether I should feel nervous, scared, or excited to go into labour! With Calvin I was induced at 10 days over due (read about that here), and I am hoping I don’t have to do that again. But thinking about going into labour, I feel like a first timer! Will my water break? How fast will the contractions come? How strong? Will it be uncomfortable to drive to the hospital (fortunately for us, our move brought us just 5 minutes away from it)? What if my labour goes super fast? How will I know when to go in?
At my 36 week appointment, my doctor informed me they would like to induce me again, just because I was fairly quick last time, they don’t want me to wait to go into labour then not get to the hospital in time (but who doesn’t want an awesome “fireman delivered my baby!” story?). She seemed a little more into letting me go into labour naturally once I told her I am 5 minutes from the hospital. But it is hard to say no to convenience sometimes! If I know in advance, then I can for sure have somebody ready to watch Calvin, and my parents won’t have to know at the last moment when to come. As for who we have to watch Calvin, it would be our downstairs tenant and/or Amy. If it’s during the night, we can let Calvin sleep and just let the tenant know and Amy can come in the morning. If it is during the day, things get a little trickier since the tenant works and Amy doesn’t have a car. The doctor probably wouldn’t look too favourably on me driving to go pick her up while in labour when she barely thinks driving 5 minutes to the hospital is a good idea. And also, what about waiting the half hour for Tim to come from work if it happens during the day? Is that too long to wait? Maybe I should let them induce me!

And then there is the uncertainty of knowing what the hospital is like. In this case, it’s not like being a first timer because you know what options are out there. I know what was available at the hospital in Victoria, and I don’t know exactly how this hospital (which for some reason doesn’t do in person tours, just photos online) will compare. But in the end the baby will be here and it will be wonderful.

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Here are more thoughts I’ve had since last week.

I have been hearing a lot lately (mostly in my birth club on Baby Center) about the “4th trimester” where women basically stay at home in a little bubble because they are afraid to let people hold their baby and be exposed to germs and such. Some moms are even hard pressed to let their half a year old babies be held by other people! Since these women in my “club” are due at Thanksgiving, give or take a couple weeks, there are so many who say they don’t want to go to family gatherings because of the reasons stated above and think people would be rude to want to hold their baby. These same people don’t want to accept visitors at the hospital or even at home for 2-4 weeks after. For me, personally, this is ridiculous. I am not the kind of person who looks for reasons to leave the house, but I like hanging out with people, family especially. I delivered Calvin on a Friday nightand would have gone to church two days later had I been released from the hospital. I enjoy other people holding my babies and exposing them to germs. I don’t want to hole myself up in my home just because it might be acceptable because I have a newborn and need time to heal. If I need healing time, I can still sit on a couch at somebody else’s house. And even if I didn’t want people to hold my baby, I would keep it in the seat or wear it in a sling, but still visit people.

End rant.

Our baby will be here soon!

My first pregnant selfie.

My first pregnant selfie.

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Desk Nook Plans

Our kitchen has a little nook in it that is a perfect desk area. In fact, the previous owner left behind a desk that fits in it. But I don’t like it all that much, so I have come up with big plans for the space!

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It’s become a catch all area for junk to pile up, and it just doesn’t use the space efficiently. Also, the left side of it blocks the electrical outlet so it has to be pulled out a handful of inches to make it usable.

Here are my plans:

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It’s nice and simple with ample storage. I want to stain the desk part then paint the shelves white. There is a half depth shelf above the desk to hold pens and pencils and stuff, with cork board on the wall behind it. I can use the top shelves to store my pretty dishes. The wall colour won’t be what you see. That’s just the best colour I found in my Crayloas.

I have no clue when I will be able to do it, but for now it makes me happy thinking about it. I am very excited!

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Calvin at 17ish Months

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything about Calvin. And I know that’s the main reason you all visit my little blog, right? That and wondering what the O-Word is (man, a lot of you were curious!).

Calvin is up to so much these days. He is picking things up pretty fast and quickly becoming such a little boy. Here are some highlights of what he’s all about latley:

Talking

His word count is still pretty small, but here is what he can say
– “no”
It’s his go to answer to any question (I’m guessing he knows the tone of one), and it’s either said with a little “mmm” in front, like he is thinking about what to say, or pretty decisively. Contrary to popular belief, it could be used as an affirmative answer. Lately though, it’s also become a thing to yell over and over when we tell him not to do something, which is also a time when he uses the next word a lot

– “ow!”
If we tell him not to do something and give his hand a little slap, he sometimes then goes around hitting things and saying this loudly, in conjunction with “no”

– “dada”
This sometimes means daddy, but he also says it when pointing to his nose a lot, and other random things as well

– “tickle tickle tickle”
This is my favourite, and he’s been saying it for a couple months now. It means exactly what it is. He says it when he tickles our feet and belly buttons, and also when we ask him where his belly button is, he lifts up his shirt and says it

– animal sounds
“woowoowoo” was a general sound for anything from rodents to birds to large animals but sounded most like a big dog. This weekend it turned into a growl. Birds growl, guys. It’s pretty neat.
“oo oo oo” of course is a monkey, coupled with putting his hands in his arm pits.
When we ask about a fish, he opens and closes his mouth. That’s my favourite. It’s really cute.

Signing

I wrote about baby sign language before. At that point he was 11 months old and I really wasn’t putting in much effort to get him to do it, so it kind of fell by the way side. But a couple months ago we decided to start again, and he picked it up so fast! He can sign “please”, “thank you”, “more”, “drink/water”, and “help”. I was the most excited about help because it cut down his wining by a lot. I don’t know what other kinds of words to teach him. Oh, we are working on “sleep/bed”. What else would you teach? I don’t feel like doing ones that aren’t useful, like different animals and stuff. Maybe more specific types of foods?

Growing

He of course hasn’t had a doctor’s check up since his 12 month one, and his next one is next month for 18 months. I feel like he hasn’t gained much weight, but he is getting taller. Taller and skinnier I guess. I did pop him on the scale at my last doctor’s appointment, and he was 24.4 lbs. He was around 20 lbs a year ago.

Teeth

He’s got a total of 12 teeth right now. I thought for sure a month ago he was getting more, but so far those eye teeth spots are still empty and we are waiting on more molars.

Nursing

I am still unsure of whether or not I want him completely weaned in the next month before the baby comes, but he is getting there, so we will see. Just until this weekend he was on two a day, morning and night. I realized he wasn’t really interested in the morning one anymore though. He would take it if I offered, but would still rather run around the house. So we are down to just one in the evening before bed time. We will see what pans out in the next few weeks.

Being a goof

You just have to see him in person to appreciate it.

Anything else you might be interested in? How about about a video of him saying my favourite words? It was from about a month ago, one of the times we were on the road.

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The O-Word

Yesterday I read a comment somewhere on the the internet and it left me feeling a little off. It took me a while to figure out what this feeling was, but after a moment, I had it.

I felt offended.

For some this feeling comes easily. But for me, a girl with a small emotional spectrum, offense is one of the extremes I rarely experience.

In the world of parenting especially, you see it all the time. One person does something a certain way, and others chime in with their opinions. I think this is all fine and good because it is good to hear from other experienced people, but when you start having these interactions in text rather than in speech, some of the intention and tone gets lost and feelings get hurt. For those of you who have strangers express their opinions to you in person, I am sorry that I cannot empathize with you on that. I have never had this happen to me. Or maybe I have, but it doesn’t get under my skin, so I forget about it.

I feel blessed to have the natural ability to let things like this roll off my shoulders, and have not once, in my 1.5 years of parenting have I been made to feel like I was an inferior parent for doing things my way. Until yesterday. And it caught me off guard. I didn’t know what to do with this new feeling. I talked things through with Tim and he made me feel better. It made me wish that I could teach others how to not take offense to things because it sucks to feel that way. But how do you teach a natural ability? I find it hard to give advice in any kind of situation for the mere fact that I just do things that make sense. You won’t find any parenting literature on my shelves (except “Bringing Up Boys” because I thought I might need help with that and I have only heard wonderful things about it), and the only reason I read articles online about parenting is to read the comments and see the opinions, because I really enjoy hearing what others have to say and sometimes they make me laugh. I can’t think of a single time where I have implemented a strategy I learned about in literature into my parenting repertoire. You can’t teach common sense, and for that I am sad.

I have discovered a downside to not being easily offended. It’s often hard for me to know what might offend somebody else. Often times I have to reread comments I make in different voices and perspectives to see how others would see it coming off. Many times I rewrite it, and sometimes I just delete it all together. Sometimes I leave it because it is somebody I know and I think they can take it.

Parenting is just one example of where this is applicable in my life.

But anyways. I think I have rambled enough. I don’t know where I wanted this to go, but I just knew that I had these thoughts I wanted to share, even though it is is hard to get my feelings into text.

In other news, Calvin can now say “no”, so depending on the question I ask, his response sometimes offends me.

Just kidding.

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