Jolly tidings of the season to you, Beloved family & friends!
As you all know, we had such a crazy time of things last year that we didn’t even get a Christmas letter out to everyone, as we have usually done for many years. In fact, we couldn’t even muster the energy to get it done late! And to be perfectly honest, this year would shaping up to pretty much the same if Deb wasn’t off a couple of months early again due to some back pain during the late stages of this pregnancy. Yes, you read that correctly, we made yet another addition to the Dumaresq family tree this November! It’s late September during the early drafts of the ol’ Christmas letter, and it’s a trifle odd listening to a Holiday playlist at this time of year, even for Deb! But with a baby girl arriving so close to the holidays, we really do have to get a leg up on these things while we have the luxury of spare time that isn’t automatically relegated to sleep; something which we know is soon to be a distant memory. In any case, by the time you get this note, our sweet Cygni Miranda will have made her appearance.
Gotta tell ya, Deb’s pregnancy with Jordan was easy, and she never felt better; short of a few moments of heartburn and the aching back, there was really nothing to complain about. However, the second time around has been no picnic! Not only did we get a repeat of the back pain (though Deb did last a few weeks longer at work, thanks to a back support belt,) but she had gestational diabetes and kidney stones to contend with on this go. They say every pregnancy and every child is different, and we are beginning to think we are in for a world of hurt in the years to come with our girl child, particularly as Jordan was a very low maintenance infant!
Our little Cygni has already demonstrated just how much of a diva she can be. She decided that would not comply with our little plan to deliver her via c-section on the 15th of November, but would come early, on the 5th instead. The beginning of labour was almost exactly the same as having Jordan, my water broke at 3:20 in the morning and contractions came on immediately, at just four minutes apart. Of course, the meant that we had no plan in place for this scenario, so we woke up our neighbours Sandy and Orval at 4 am, in order for Sandy could come over to listen to Jordan on the baby monitor until our best friends Mark & Aida could get to our place to spend the next few days with our little boy. We got to the hospital safely and got set up for an early c-section. Our newest bundle of joy arrived at 6:21 AM, weighing in at 7 lbs, 6 oz., and measuring 20 ½ inches long. So far she has been nursing like a champ and is generally healthy and happy. We also got the good news during a newborn hearing screening in the hospital, that her hearing is normal! And now that we have had some time to look back on it, we are glad that she decided to show up early after all; it made our kitchen renovations a bit easier because Chris was home to answer questions for the contractors.
Yes, besides work, an energetic tot, new baby, and all the other things we have had to keep us busy, we are currently in the midst of kitchen renovations! Of course, we have heard from people that we must be out of our minds taking on a reno project right now, but really, when is it a good time for renovations? We’ve been slowly chipping away at our list of home improvement projects for the last year and a half and finally we decided to address the very cramped and inefficient kitchen space this fall. It’s a fairly expensive undertaking but we know that we will get every penny back when we choose to sell the property, perhaps sometime in the next few years. In the meantime it will be nice to have a more workable kitchen to enjoy for ourselves too. We are almost done with the project, we are just waiting for our countertop to arrive and for the backsplash to be installed. We are pretty excited and feel rather grown-up with this undertaking! Keep in touch with us via Facebook or the blog to see the final results later this December!
Though we are excited to have extended our family, Deb was just starting to feel settled in at work again when she found out that she was expecting. It was a little sad to have to say good-bye to her Team at Prairie Mall Starbucks and to not necessarily get to see the payoff on some of the changes made during her time there. Still, though only there for just over a year, it was a year of many big lessons. Not the least of which was learning how to adjust to being back to work with a one-year old to miss, and of course figuring out logistics of getting the boy to and from daycare. One very nice thing to learn upon returning to work after having a child, is that mean, petty things that customers sometimes say bounce off a mom a lot more easily than they did before the kiddo; the fuse gets longer, and perspective is more easily maintained. It is nice to have a new understanding of what is important, and that is a very good learning to have under one’s belt at any time, so I’d call that a good year.
Chris made a significant job change this past year. Since 2008 he was part of a team dedicated to improving the game play and software quality of all EA SPORTS games. In February 2011 that team merged with the global Quality Assurance organization for all of Electronic Arts and Chris joined the Project Management Office. In this role Chris is assists the project managers for all games made in Western North America...which means he is responsible for studios in Vancouver, Redwood City and Los Angeles, California, Salt Lake City and Montreal. Yes, he knows Montreal isn’t in the West but that’s how they split it up. This has meant more travel for Chris as he takes 3-day trips to the corporate headquarters in Redwood City every 3 or 4 months. He is enjoying his new role, though it does keep him very busy all the time as there are always a few games at a critical point somewhere in his region.
Jordan is now a fully operational two and a half year-old! He runs, laughs, and plays hard, and while he is generally a pretty adaptable and easy-going kid, he does have his terrible-two’s-moments as well! His hearing impairment has so far, not appeared to be the type that gradually degenerates. Recent tests have shown us that his hearing is better in his left ear than his right, though his hearing loss is still classified as mild to moderate. He’s gotten much better at wearing his hearing aids all day on a regular basis and his speech is developing. His current favourite thing is labelling all objects by colour. He can sign and say all his colours and his favourite of all is blue. His ASL vocabulary is about 175 to 200 words and his spoken vocabulary is hard to keep track of, as he seems to be expanding it daily, but at last count he was over 50 words, which is fairly normal for his age according to his speech- language pathologist. We are happy that there are no red flags in this area of development.
Last year we had to say good-bye to our furry friend Smokey the Cat. He passed away in the summer, shortly after we found out he had a bit of a heart murmur; we can’t be sure, but suspect that he may have had a heart attack. We do miss him and wonder what kind of friends he and Jordy would have turned out to be, likely very troublesome, indeed!
In other big news, Nanny Mary moved back home to Newfoundland this summer and got re-married. Though we were sad to see her go, and know that Jordan is missing out on a local grandmother, we are happy that she has gotten the opportunity to return to her home on “The Rock” and that she has found a new happy ending with her husband, Charlie. We anticipate a visit from her in the New Year so she can get acquainted with her new grand-daughter.
Though we were unable to make any big vacation plans in 2010, with Deb having returned to work from maternity leave and thus having no vacation hours accrued, we did find a little time to get away in 2011. We met up with Deb’s Uncle Larry, Aunt Virginia, Cousin Stuart and his wife and son, Tina and Evan on picturesque San Juan Island in Washington. We finally did that West Coast “must” and went on a whale watching tour. It’s such a cliché tourist thing to do, but it really was everything we had hoped for, we spotted many orcas, some of them passing really close by, with one even swimming under our boat and re-surfacing just twenty feet away from us! There is also something very soothing in the sounds of sea birds, a pod of whales spouting and the lap of the water against your vessel. We also visited an alpaca farm, several beaches, historic Roche Harbor, ate some yummy food and got in some much needed rest and relaxation with our dear family and friends. It was also great seeing Jordy and Evan interacting; Jordan wanted to try everything that his slightly older cousin, Evan could do!
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the 2010 Winter Olympics. It was like a vacation as the city shut down for 2 weeks. Chris made sure to get tickets to some events (Women’s Hockey Canada vs. Slovenia, Men’s Hockey Canada vs. Switzerland, Men’s Hockey Russia vs. Latvia and Women’s Curling). Deb’s parents, Tom and Nitzie also came up for a weekend and caught the Ice Dance and Women’s Aerials. After a rough start to the event the entire vibe of the city changed. Walking around downtown was like being at an amusement park as hundreds of thousands of people, all dressed in their national colours, were smiling and singing and high-fiving. Deb got so caught-up that when offered a gift certificate she stood on her chair in a crowded food court and sang O Canada! In the end the gold medals piled up for the home team, culminating in the incredible Gold Medal Men’s Hockey game which probably took a few years off our lives but ended up being an unforgettable way to end the magical two weeks.
This last couple of years have been busy, but they have also been full of many reasons for celebration and joy. We hope that you can say the same. Don’t forget to add our blog address to your web favourites, so you can keep abreast of all the latest Dumaresq family adventures, and you can always go back over the blog archives to see more photos and read in better detail about our last two years! Merry Christmas everyone, and we wish you nothing but the best in the year ahead! Now, get your Merry music on!
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