Here is our environmental greeting to give you the scoop on what we’ve been up to over the past year….
As most of you know we are celebrating our first Christmas this year with our new little girl, Ellie Lynn Hill! Ellie was born on November 5th at St. Paul’s hospital in Vancouver. Ellie weighed over 9 pounds when she was born (yikes) and she has been growing steadily since. As some of you already know, Ellie was born with developmental hip dysplasia, which is more common than we realized at the time and basically meant that her hip sockets were a little underdeveloped. She's been wearing a “Pavlik Harness” since she was two weeks old, and it has been working well: Ellie had an ultrasound at six weeks and it indicated that her development was completely normal. As a precaution she will continue to wear the harness until New Year's, and then we will wean her off it over two weeks. The pediatrician tells us that there is no reason not to expect her hips to continue to develop completely normally from here on in: in fact, he told Mom & Dad, to their great relief, that “she could still become the fastest runner in Canada!”
As I write this, Ellie now six weeks old, is sitting in the baby carrier wiggling about (she does not lie still all that often) and giving me the odd smile. Thank goodness for these little smiles – small motivation to keep me going in my new job as milk producer and diaper changer. Parenthood is definitely exhausting and I wonder if I will ever get a full night sleep in my remaining life time! The morning quickly turns into night and we wonder where the time went! What used to seem important seems trivial as we become completely engrossed in the experience of witnessing our little girl grow as an individual and change our lives as a family. Thankfully Tim is home until mid-January before he leaves for Manitoba to complete his final fight training course. Ellie, Otis and I will be on our own for 5-6 months so we are loving having Daddy around until then.
This past July, Tim completed his longest flight course in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, which was really challenging. He was away from home for most of the year and unfortunately, also lost his Nan (grandmother on his mother's side) this past spring. All this made for some sad, lonely moments in Saskatchewan. At the end of his stint in Moose Jaw, Tim was assigned to train for helicopters: he will be off in January for about 5 months to start on the Jet Ranger in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. Once Tim completes this course, we will be permanently posted to another military base as a family. Imagine that – we’ll have to learn to live together for more than 2 months at a time! We have our fingers crossed for Vancouver Island so we don’t mind if you cross your fingers for us too!
As for me, the past year was filled with work, school, taking care of Otis and the Ellie that was inside my belly. The year ahead is already planned out for me as a mom and all the mommy things required of me! I have taken a year leave from work and school so it will be weird to have only one focus, albeit all consuming! My masters program in Health Promotion Studies is turning out to be a life long project but as far as I am concerned what difference does it make if I am 39 or 41 by the time I complete it?! I just hope my brain doesn’t turn to mush from all this baby talk before I go back!
Lastly, we wanted to express our gratitude to all of our friends and family that sent well wishes and provided support when Ellie was born. I was so amazed at the number of people that helped to welcome her into this world with wishes of health, little gifts, and with food to sustain Mom and Dad! The delivery guy was stopping at our house so often that he and Otis got to know each other on a first name basis!
Wishing you all the best of health, happiness and love through the holiday season and the New Year.
Merry Christmas!
Corrina, Tim, Ellie and Otis
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