[1] Run for the Cure on Sunday morning. Pete and I are running this 5K together. It's his very first run and he has been training hard so I know he's going to crush it! We've got our playlists ready, we're picking up our t-shirts today, we don't have a full body-and-face leotard like the red thing in the photo below, but I think we'll be OK regardless.

[via] [2] Carb loading on Saturday. Yeah yeah - you don't need to carb load for a 5K. Peter doesn't know any better. Shh, don't tell him. Spaghetti anyone? Not to be confused with Honey Boo Boo's "sketti".  [3] Pumpkin beer. It's baaack! Maybe a little post-run reward?  [4] Getting crafty. October is pretty much here. It's like a hop, skip and a jump away. I think it's finally appropriate to have a fall wreath on the front door. Tomorrow it's supposed to be rainy and it sounds like a perfect crafternoon opportunity.  [5] Revenge is back! So the wonderful people responsible for this show aired a special "Revenge: The First Chapter" episode this week which summed up all of Season 1 in one hour, which was awesome for me, because I'v been frantically trying to cram in the whole first season online and was still about 10 episodes behind. Season 2 starts on Sunday.  Happy Friday, boys and girls!

Our big boy is 10 months old now: double digits, less than two months until his first birthday. Cue tears. Every time someone comments on him getting close to his birthday, my eyes water and I start mumbling about seasonal allergies. This is such a fun age, which I say every month, but he's really getting more and more fun to be around, more of a little boy than a baby.

Eli is a talker! He babbles a lot and says things like dada, mama, nana, baba - I'm not sure how much he says on purpose, but yesterday when my sister's dog came into the room he looked at her and announced "Da!" so we're counting that as "dog". Sometimes he blabs away on his own and it sounds like he's having a full-on conversation in another language. In the car and in the stroller, he sings and chats away.

He cruises around the furniture like nobody's business. He hasn't taken steps without holding on to something yet, but he'll walk around pushing his little wheeled dragon and is getting better and better at it, so I wouldn't be surprised if he took off walking any day. He can climb stairs and furniture.

Eli loves to eat and will devour anything you put in front of him except green beans. This weekend he had waffles, and is a fan, and he had tofu earlier in the week and liked that too. He's such a slow eater though. Mealtime is a marathon event. Wear comfortable pants and bring a book, because you're gonna be here a while.

Eli would be happy to sit on the floor and roll a ball back and forth all day long. He loves bath time, being thrown up in the air, music of all types, a good dance party, and any variation of hiding under a blanket and popping out. He's started waving hello and goodbye and is a huge flirt every time we're out running errands, wooing every female he sees. We have quite the little womanizer on our hands.

The biggest challenge is changing his diaper, because it seems lying on his back for 30 seconds is just too much for our little acrobat and he rolls over, does yoga poses, and basically tries to fling his body over the side of the changing table the whole time.

Sorry to those of you on my Instagram...these photos are going to look familiar :)

A year ago today, I was seven months pregnant. I woke up, had a banana, and went to the gym, like I did most mornings. Ran five miles on the treadmill, slow and steady, feeling great. Came home, hopped in the shower, and that's when I noticed a little bit of blood. Never a good thing. Definitely not when you're seven months pregnant.

I called 811, who told me to go to the walk-in clinic just to get checked out. I skipped that step and headed for the hospital, where they hooked me up and realized I was starting to dilate and having regular contractions. With every contraction my baby's heart rate was dipping. Normally, they'd just administer medications to stop labour but the concern that the baby was in distress threw a wrench into those plans. Very quickly it became apparent that I might be having my baby that day, two months early.

I ended up spending the day in a birthing room, just in case. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything. I had a profile done to make sure the baby was healthy and determine how big it would be so the team would be prepared if this tiny person decided to make an early appearance.

All day I stared at the numbers on the monitor, willing them to stay stable. I cried a little and prayed a lot, as I tend to do whenever things are going wiggity whack, but never when things are going well. At the end of the day, I got some medications that would hopefully stop my contractions, and sometime in the wee hours of the morning they finally settled down. I spent the rest of the week in the hospital and the next four weeks on a modified form of bed rest: no more work, no walking farther than the mailbox, no housecleaning, not driving more than 20 minutes from home.

For a month, I basically shuffled around my house, sitting gingerly on the couch with my legs squeezed together willing this baby to stay put. I read a lot, watched a lot of TV, and even started playing Xbox, if that's any indicator as to how bored I was. I hate sitting still so for me those weeks were horrible, but I tried to take it easy and remember what the doctor said: every day I carried the baby was two fewer days we'd have to spend in the NICU.

At 36 weeks, I did the biggest fist-pump of life. Full term! Every day after that was a bonus. I started taking longer walks, and going back to the gym, and generally not being scared the baby was going to fall out of me onto the floor if I went shopping or out for dinner. And wouldn't you know it, after all that ruckus in September, Eli was born on November 10, his due date.

It has been a crazy year, not without its stresses. The stress of almost having a preemie and then walking on eggshells to make sure I didn't. A difficult delivery and recovery. The usual stuff that comes with a new baby. Figuring it all out without having grandparents five minutes away to help out was tough.

I'm lucky to have a husband who's supportive, and I'm in awe of single parents. I'm lucky to have a rambunctious 10-month-old baby boy who's healthy and happy. A crazy year but a beautiful year, too. I have a lot to be thankful for. Things could have been a whole lot different and our little boy could have had a very difficult start to life.

1. A chambray shirt.

2. A pair of coloured skinny jeans - preferably in this oxblood shade (runner up: cobalt blue)

3. Leopard shoes that look like slippers.


4. A bunch of tunics like this, which I can wear with tights and boots and still have my buns covered.

5. This laptop sleeve for the return to work. Gotta be practical.

When I walk into Sephora, I immediately get uncomfortable. I never feel as unattractive and grody as when I go to a store that's supposed to make you feel prettier. Being surrounded by floor-to-ceiling displays of products I don't know how to use and have never applied, and the sales associates with their poreless skin and fake eyelashes out to there getting all up in my face, makes me hyperventilate just a smidge. So I usually end up looking at the Philosophy bath products, because even I know how to use body wash somewhat successfully, and hightailing it out of there before I have to actually speak to anyone.

Last week we joined a new gym. For years we've been going to an old gym near our house, but when a new mega gym opened a little closer to home and with locations all over the city, we switched. When I go back to work I'm planning to go to the gym at lunch hour and there's a couple locations close to my office, which was the main reason for the switch. Going to this new gym for the first time, with its fancy equipment and shiny locker room, and new people intimidated me. I was used to the old gym with its slight grubbiness, and I was used to the people who go there. The meatheads and Jagerbombers and old people who used the treadmills for standing and talking rather than working out were annoying, yes, but they were familiar. The new gym also has meatheads, Jagerbombers and old people but it's a fresh crop of faces to become accustomed to.

I go to the farmer's market carrying a leather bag, leather wallet, wearing leather boots, and I feel uncomfortable around the hippies.

I go to the jewelry store to get my engagement ring cleaned, wearing an entire outfit that cost probably one-tenth the price of the cheapest thing in the store, and feel completely out of place.

I go to the spa to get my hair cut with my ridiculous shaggy-dog mane and feel like the most unkempt person on the planet surrounded by these girls with cool geometric bobs and Kardashian curls (kurls?)

Where do I feel comfortable? The bookstore, coffee shops, the grocery store, outdoors. Any kind of work event - meeting new clients, networking events, presentations, workshops. Any time I'm with my family or friends.

Pretty much everywhere else I feel too old, too young, too messy, underdressed, overdressed, or just generally out of my element. You'd think this post had been written by an angsty 15-year-old, right? Some things never change.

[via]

There are still 14 days of summer left, and I'm the very last person to wish away summer. It's looking less likely that I'll be getting any more beach days - at least not days where it's hot enough to go swimming - and that breaks my little heart.  My little pumpkin will turn one year old in November, so I'm frantically pumping the brakes on the change in season this year.

BUT. Fall is starting to creep in, slowly but surely. It's getting dark at 8:15. Some of the leaves in our backyard are tinged with red. Pumpkin drinks are back, shorts and sundresses are on clearance racks, apparently football has started, and there's juuuust a little tiny nip in the air in the mornings, just enough to say, oh no, you're not getting in the pool today. Go put on some pants. 

As much as I love my beach days, ice cream and not wearing socks, fall is my favourite season. Many of my best memories are of things that happened in the fall: getting engaged, getting married, getting our dog, and having a baby. I love Thanksgiving and Halloween. I love fall food and drinks, the fairs and exhibitions, scary movies, crafts, you name it.

Things I'm looking forward to:

[+] Crafternoons aplenty. Thanks, Pinterest, for feeding my addiction for homemade wreaths, centrepieces, and mantel arrangements. I hate crafting in the summertime. It's so nice outside and it feels like a waste of a sunny day to sit in the basement wrapping yarn around some inanimate object, but in the fall, when it gets dark early, there's nothing much cosier than a warm mug of something, a glue gun and the soft glow of the laptop screen showing me step-by-step instructions of some "easy" craft that ends up looking like a drunk preschooler put it together by the time I'm done with it.

[+] Baking a pumpkin pie PUMPKIN EVERYTHING. "What's your favourite pie?" Peter asked me the other day and I went into a (not kidding) 10-minute-minimum spiel about how different seasons require different pies and then proceeded to hum and haw over my favourite pie for each time of year. (Summary: Spring is strawberry rhubarb, summer is blueberry, fall is pumpkin, and winter is apple or cherry). ANYWAY. Making a pumpkin pie, pumpkin granola, pumpkin quinoa salad, pumpkin soup, et cetera is all on the agenda.

[+] Apple picking and pumpkin patch visiting. Last year I was busy sitting on the couch with my legs clamped tightly together so my misbehaving fetus wouldn't be born prematurely and I missed our annual apple picking trip. Not this year, kiddos. I am going to pick so many apples and take so many photos of Eli sitting inside, beside and on top of pumpkins it's going to make you SICK.

[+] Thanksgiving dinner. I don't need to explain myself on this one. Thanksgiving is bomb because it's all the food and family brouhaha of Christmas without the expense of all those gifts.

[+] Becoming an aunt for the second time! My sister is due September 30 and I can't wait to meet little Baby P.

[+] Eli's first Halloween. It will probably be pretty uneventful, since he goes to bed at 7:00 and can't eat candy, but putting a little costume on him is going to be probably the highlight of my year.

[+] Eli's birthday. OK, this is a bit of a happysad occasion but I'm still excited to see Eli tear into his first piece of cake like a wild man.

[+] Football games. I only understand about 10% of what happens in any given football game, but I like to pretend I'm following along. In high school I went to every game and it was really just a chance to socialize, walk past the opposing school's bleachers 20,000 times to make fun of them, and go to Wendy's at halftime. So I probably have a subliminal association that football = Wendy's. Mmm, son of a baconator.

Honourable mentions go to: scary movies, fires in the fireplace, the Fall Fair at home, wearing leggings and boots, enough Pumpkin Spice Lattes to fill a bathtub, long walks in crunchy leaves, buying new "school supplies" for the return to work, and putting the duvet back on the bed.

The thought of spending $200 to get my hair done makes me have a bit of a stroke, which is probably why my hair looks like burnt seaweed. On the other hand, I don't bat an eyelash at spending $16 for a pound of coffee when there are perfectly good alternatives for half that price. It's interesting how people will "splurge" on different things based on what's important to them, and how easy it is to scoff at someone else's choices ("She paid $150 for a pair of RUBBER BOOTS!"), but also so easy to justify paying $65 to have somebody paint your toenails, if that's your jam.

I'm borrowing this idea from Holly (and I'm sure I've seen similar posts on other blogs recently too!) So thank you, Holly and others, for the inspiration.

Here are some of the places I cheap out and others where I go crazy:

I splurge on...

[+] Coffee. I brew my own coffee at home 95% of the time, which is a savings in itself, so I pay a little more to make sure it's good. I usually buy either Starbucks or Just Us coffee which runs anywhere from about $13-$16 a pound. It's a nice treat at the start of every day, and it gets my morning off to a good start, so for me it's worth it.

[+] Running shoes. I spend about $300 on running shoes over the course of the year, which sounds like a big number, especially on top of paying for a gym membership, but it's recommended that runners replace their shoes every 300-400 miles and I've run about 600 miles so far this year. I got new shoes in January and the soles are breaking down, so I ordered a new pair last week and they arrived today. I always get Nikes so I can use Nike+ with them, which means I'm usually paying well over $100 for a pair. Running in worn-out shoes can result in injury so it's not a place I like to scrimp.

[+] Moisturizer and sunscreen. Clinique Dramatically Different moisturizer and City Block sunscreen have been favourites for a long time. There are definitely more expensive options out there, but there are cheaper ones, for sure. These are products I use every single day, so I justify that it's worth a few extra dollars, and they last a really long time.

[+] Baby stuff. Things like Eli's car seat, high chair and playpen were not discount items. These are things that have to last for years and get a lot of daily use and they're worth paying more for.

[+] Wine. There are definitely "cheaper" wines I love to bits. Yellow Tail Moscato is a nice alternative to Nova 7 and The Accomplice is my favourite affordable red wine. But given the choice, I'd be buying this, this, this, or this every time, and sometimes, it's worth it to get the nice wine. Like for a special dinner, or a Friday after a stressful work week, or a random Monday evening to sip on while you eat popcorn and watch Top Model. Life is too short to drink bad wine.

I save on...

[+] Haircuts. I go so long in between haircuts it's a sin. You know how you're supposed to have a trim every six weeks? Fuggedaboutit. As of right now, my hair hasn't seen a pair of scissors since January. NINE MONTHS AGO. I also just buy whatever shampoo is on sale.

[+] Manicures and pedicures. I almost always do my own nails at home. Maybe once or twice a year, if I get a gift certificate, I'll get my nails done, but for the most part it happens in front of the TV after Eli's gone to bed. That way I don't feel sick to my stomach when they chip after a day or two.

[+] Clothes. Recently I spent $90 on two pairs of work pants at Banana Republic and it made me feel a bit woozy. They were 50% off, which was the only reason I bought them at all. I never pay full price for any clothing unless it's from Joe Fresh, because even the cheapest of the cheap is OK with paying $20 for a dress. Otherwise, it's sale racks, email alerts, and coupons for this girl.

[+] Entertainment. Lately I've been getting all my books from the library and watching TV and movies online and on Netflix. I mean, how often do you read and re-read and re-re-read the same book? Chances are you buy it, read it and never crack it open again. I'm not going to lie and say the library isn't a huge pain in the ass, because it kind of is. Our local library sucks - there are never any good books checked in so I have to either go to another branch or place ridiculous holds on books I want to read, drama ensues, YOU DON'T NEED TO HEAR ABOUT MY LIBRARY WOES SO LET'S MOVE ON. It's free.

[+] Groceries. Shopping for groceries is a draft post of its own (lucky you!) but I do try to buy produce in-season, dry goods in bulk, and local whenever possible. We almost always eat in and I make most of Eli's baby food, other than things I obviously can't whip up, such as Cheerios. We eat good quality food and we don't coupon or do anything embarrassing, but given the choice between full-price toilet paper and on-sale toilet paper, I will buy the toilet paper that's on sale. Fifty cents here and there in the grocery cart adds up.

Mr. Eli, your mom has dropped the ball like whoa this month. You'll actually be 10 months old one week from today...woops. But right now, you're still nine months old, so this post is technically on time. HOLLA!

We've had a busy summer with trips to the beach and the pool. You love swimming and have no fear of the water. This month, we also went to a fair. We expected you to go crazy over the farm animals, since you love every dog that comes near you as well as pictures of animals in books, but you were pretty unimpressed with them and just looked at them with a little hint of disdain.

Chickens? Meh. Next.

You visited both sets of grandparents this month, most recently your family in New Brunswick, and went for a ride in a little red wagon that used to be mama's. That wagon is 30 years old. I think that qualifies it as an antique vehicle. WOMP.

One gazillion miles later - still loving it.

We took you to your first wedding. Confession: We dressed you in your suit from Mother's Day. The linen pants are more like capri length now and we took you out in public with them anyway. We just pretended it was a summer suit and the pants were supposed to be short. Well, better to get two wears out of a $90 baby outfit than just one. I promise not to do this to you when you're big. You were a total champ at the wedding and so well behaved and we were super proud of you!

Tired, bored, over it

You like to eat everything except watermelon and green beans and your new favourites include Greek yogurt and Cheerios. You freak out when we take the Cheerios box out of the cupboard like one of the Whiskas cats. Just a shake of that big yellow box and you start waving your arms and legs and shrieking.

You're pulling up on everything now and walking around the room like it ain't no thang. I know any day now you'll let go of the couch and take a couple of steps. You're super vocal with the dada's and the baba's, growling, singing, and laughing. Armpit farts, we just discovered, get the biggest belly laughs out of you. You enjoy any and all music, clapping your hands, your Little People Batman set, knocking down towers and crawling around chasing balls. You love being outside, looking at books, and crawling around to explore.

Having a swing, checking out some ladies, as per usual

You have four teeth, two on top and two on the bottom, and you weigh about 19 pounds. You still take two naps a day, thank you Jesus, Mary and Joseph. You mostly wear 12 month clothing and size 3 dipes. You hate any and all hats, socks, and shoes, and I don't know what we're going to do when the weather gets cold and you can't go around with bare feet anymore.

You get compliments on your fluffy, fuzzy hair and your big brown eyes everywhere we go and you are truly the most handsome little boy I have ever seen.