Month: May 2024

Posted in Daily Life as a Parent

Driving Test…..EEK!

Posted on by Mama

Well, my day started out okay until we had to get ready to go and Valeria started to have a meltdown. I’ll explain in a moment. She fell asleep in my husband’s arms after freaking out, she was exhausted and we weren’t sure what to do. The town where I was going to take my test was an hour away, that meant we had to leave early, I had to check in and than do my driving test. Valeria doesn’t understand mommy was stressed about her test, all she knew was she was cranky and tired.

We got her into the car seat, bottle at the ready only for her to pop her little eyes open and not want to fall asleep again. Instead the whole ride was me trying to soothe and play with her as a distraction. She had a meltdown at the drive centre when we arrived, and we later found out that her top left incisor had popped through the gums last night and was still bothering her today (rightfully so might I add, this one even came with a bit of blood….sigh). Thankfully there was a horse track across the street from the drive centre and there were people out on the track practicing, so my husband took her there as a distraction.

I went to check in, took my stupid little ticket and went back to my car to wait for an examiner. I was nervous and I had Valeria on my mind, it was not a good head space to be in at that very moment. Not to mention, I don’t even think this is all that necessary, but unfortunately I can’t renew my current license grade and I had to do this stupid test to get my full license. Our licensing process is ridiculous here, so let me break it down for all those who aren’t Canadian.

To be licensed in Canada you must do the following:

  • You have to do a written test to get your Level One (Class G1)
  • Once you have passed the written, you are given your G1; you must drive with a licensed driver in the car, never drive alone, have zero alcohol in your system (I would hope no one is drinking and driving…just saying), you can not drive highway, each person in the vehicle must have a working seat belt and you are not allowed to drive between midnight and 5 AM.
  • To obtain your G2, you must pass a driving skill road test and if you pass you go on to get a Level Two (Class G2)
  • With your G2 license; you must drive with zero alcohol in your system, each person in the vehicle must have a working seat belt. If you are 19 years or under (our age requirement to be able to obtain a license is 16….too young in my opinion) then the following rules apply between midnight and 5 AM: the first six months after receiving your G2 you are allowed to carry only one passenger aged 19 or under.
  • After 12 months at Level Two, you may take your road test to obtain your full license privileges. You ultimately have five years to get it, most people do it after a year though.
  • Your full license is Class G, which you can than drive any car, truck van, tow a trailer, drive the highway, have all the necessary skills to drive (three point turns, parking, road-side stops), driving with some alcohol, I believe it’s 0.05% (I advocate no alcohol if you drive), etc.

It’s a long drawn out process and that’s just for people born in Canada, immigrants have a whole other situation which I will not get into. However, now you know our process.

Back to my story, sorry, I was waiting in the car with my window down and my car off. Why idle and waste gas….it’s expensive. And I see someone pull in from their test with an examiner and I thought oh he looks nice, but than he went to another car waiting; young girl who was going for her G1 road test. I sighed, and than saw another car pull back in from their driving test and the examiner got out of that car. Unfortunately, he did not look nice and guess who my examiner was? Him.

He walked up to my window, stated he would be my examiner and asked for my license. I handed it over and he asked for my full name and date of birth and than proceeded with the car inspection; honk the horn, left signal, right signal, pump the breaks. I’m shocked he didn’t ask me to turn my windshield wipers on, I had that at my first test. He got in the car and went over some some generic information and than we started.

We went through the little down, I followed his instructions and at one point this old woman just decided to turn in front of the car, she should not have and I stopped a bit too sudden but it had to happen, thank you defensive driving! We proceeded out of town and onto the “highway”, it was country road highway of 80 km, which is… 50 m/hr, I think. He instructed me to turn down a side road off the highway and proceed with a three-point turn. Well, I was clear when I started, than a car turned down the road and well he proceed to rudely say “You better hurry up, there is a car.” I calmly finished my maneuver and continued driving. We ended back at the test centre and I passed. He was not friendly at all and basically just got out of the car after he informed me I passed.

I got my little paper stating I passed and now have to go get a new photo and “renew” my license at a service centre.

YAY I got my Full License!

I’m going to end it here, since this is fairly long as it is. But thank you for all the well wishes and good vibes sent my way.

Ciao!!

Posted in Daily Life as a Parent

Long Weekend Completed with a Thunderstorm

Posted on by Mama

It was the long weekend here in Canada and I have to say the weather has been extremely hot and a little bit humid. Hasn’t stopped us from enjoying the beautiful weather though.

We have gone for plenty of walks, grandma bought Valeria a little blow up pool (which of course my husband inflated and filled), an iced coffee or two from McDonald’s was enjoyed, BBQ’ing and even a little bit of a thunderstorm today.

Valeria has experienced all sorts this past weekend; she touched grass with her feet for the first time (completely unfazed by the sensation by the way), she got to splash around in her little pool and also got scared when her face fell in a bit, she tried organ meat for the first time (yes, we are feeding our child organs, it is full of iron and nutrients and we want her to have a good palate for different foods), she tried watermelon (yes, I tried it too….again) and she got to witness a big rain storm this afternoon. So a very big weekend for her!

She was mesmerized by the rain storm, it was funny to watch her little eyes go super wide watching the down pour from the porch. She didn’t hear the thunder until we were in the house and she never saw the lightning. But it was her first time seeing it, and I have a feeling she is very much like me and loves thunderstorms. They are just so soothing. I was able to snap a few photos, but not sure it really does it justice. I was really hoping to capture a lightning shot, but no dice. One day!

We went on three walks today, and the third was just to get some much needed energy out before she went down for the night. It was nice because it was after the rain fall, the sun had come back out and everything smelled refreshing. She cuddled up with daddy for a bit as he held her walking, than she was getting a bit fussy so daddy played the over the shoulder and run away from mommy game. Mommy….does not run! I would pretend and wave to her and she would laugh and daddy would run back and I’d kiss her. It was only around the block, so it was a very short game, but by the time we got back to the house she was sleepy and wanted to go down for the night.

Bottles at the ready, my husband put her to sleep, her little eyes shut almost immediately. Hopefully the day tired her out enough that she sleeps most the night.

I have my highway driving test tomorrow and I have to admit I’m a bit nervous. I’m a good driver and I’m doing it on country roads, so it should be perfectly fine. But please wish me luck, send me good vibes and keep me in your prayers. I really want to pass this and not have to worry any more. I’ll explain our licensing process in tomorrows post, along with either good news or bad in regards to my test.

I’m going to end it here, I’m pretty exhausted from the day and needs some rest. Hope you had a beautiful Monday wherever you are in the world!

Ciao!!

Posted in Daily Life as a Parent

Valeria’s Seven Month Photos

Posted on by Mama

Now, we were away when she turned seven months, but it was such a beautiful day that we opted to take advantage. There is that beautiful white floral bush in front of our home, I posted a photo of it the other day, but I will share it again down below.

We laid down a blanket and her seven month sign and did a little photo shoot today. Didn’t capture too many pictures as she became very curious of all the plants and flowers surrounding her. She is just motoring around already, so her curiosity gets the better of her.

After the photos we decided for a nice walk, I mean why not enjoy the the heat and sunshine. Maybe my pale skin will get a tan! Sigh, being a pale Italian….it’s rough!

I took my camera with me and snapped some beautiful shots, and maybe need to learn boundaries….I really shouldn’t just roll up on people’s lawns taking photos are their flowers. But they were so beautiful….sorry neighbours! I generally ask if they are outside though.

Valeria is down early tonight, she had a very long day. But enjoy the photos and I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are in the world!

Ciao!!

Posted in Religion

Baptism Update

Posted on by Mama

Yesterday I finally received an email back in regards to the baptism and…

We have a green light!

The Sacramental Preparation Coordinator was very direct in her response and informed me that if my husband and I ever want to discuss marriage that the priests would be happy to do so.

I’m just happy that we can baptize Valeria in June. I’ve already got the ball rolling and invites sent out. Getting responses back already and slowly getting a number count so I can order the food and cake for the small party we will have afterwards. It will be simple, but beautiful.

She will be surrounded by a lot of support and love on her very special day. I can’t wait for her to be declared a follower of Jesus Christ and to become closer to God.

I’m very excited to be planning her big day. I’ll take lots of pictures and share when the day comes.

Hope you had some great news or just something good happened to you recently.

Ciao!

Posted in Travel/Vacations

Mini Vacation – Cousins Trip!

Posted on by Mama

We took a little mini vacation to visit my cousins a bit north of Toronto and we left on Monday afternoon. The drive was suppose to be about two and a half hours, which was the longest Valeria has ever been in the car.

We figured leaving mid afternoon we would miss all the traffic, for a Monday we weren’t expecting much to begin with. Well….we were so wrong! We hit major traffic twice on the way, first was due to some construction on the highway – seems they are fixing or possibly widening the highway and the other was because people are too nosey for their own good and wanted to slow down to watch a cop deal with a multiple car collision. Thankfully that one didn’t seem bad, but still unnecessary to slow down to spectate. In the end it took about three and a half hours to get there. Thankfully Valeria was a little angel and didn’t really fuss at all on the drive, we were so fortunate.

We got there and my cousin Antoinette (who is a trained chef) made about six pizzas, all kinds of varieties and oh man were they absolutely delicious! My favourite was the arugula prosciutto pizza with a balsamic reduction drizzle….MUAH chef’s kiss! We also celebrated my zia’s birthday with her favourite ice cream cake. We sat around talking and just catching up. It was such a nice evening. Sadly my zia and zio had to work the next day so it was an early night for them, Valeria was exhausted so Anthony went to be with her and my other cousin Gaetano was pretty tired and went up to be not long after every one else. Antoinette and I stayed up talking on the couch about everything and anything until nearly five in the morning. We couldn’t help it, we needed to catch up in person….though we do talk every day through texts, that’s not the point!

Once we got some rest, though Valeria had other plans extremely early that morning, we all got ready for the day and headed to the mall. Just something to do on a very gloomy day and just to get Valeria out of the house. The parking lot looked packed, but the mall was pretty quiet with customers. We bought a few things; I got a brown cowboy hat, a summer hat, sunglasses and some crystals. My cousin Antoinette pretty much got the same, and we also had to grab coffee, a necessity with how little we really slept.

It was funny at one point my husband turned to us and laughed “You two are so scary similar it’s hilarious, you are holding your coffee and shopping bags literally the same way. You are two peas in a pod!” We looked at each other and he was right, we laughed and she said “Well, we are family.” Valeria was smiling and laughing as we walked around, people watching as Anthony carried her in the chest carrier. She was loving life and man she kept having people smile and wave to her, it was so cute. She is very much like me, she loves to people watch.

After a few hours, we headed home and had some Japanese food for dinner at home. Valeria tried rice for the first time, along with some cheese and potato with butter. We didn’t have any meat for her to have really but she wasn’t overly interested in food. She was pretty exhausted. We all played with her after dinner and then McFussem came out (her I’m exhausted alter ego) and we knew to put her down for the night. Anthony put her to bed and stayed with her and again everyone went to bed fairly early. Ant and I stayed up chatting and when her mom got home from work, well let’s just say we didn’t get to bed until four in the morning. We were just having a blast sitting around the table chatting, telling stories and snackin.

Once again, we all got a bit of sleep and than up for the day. Thankfully my zia didn’t have to work, but unfortunately Antoinette had to go in for Noon. We spent some time with my cousin and my zia, everyone else had to work early, but we made sure to say our goodbyes the night before. Eventually we had to say our goodbyes that morning and headed out. We dropped my cousin off at work, stopping in quickly to grab some pastries from her.

The drive was pretty good, we had to make a pit-stop for Valeria’s diaper change and we made it home in two and a half hours exactly. When we got home, we unloaded the car and Valeria and I took a very much needed nap. We both slept for hours, it was glorious.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and unwinding, but I missed them as soon as we left. But we will make the trip a few times I think this summer. I love them so much and so glad we reconnected.

I’m going to end it here and I apologize for the lengthy post, but this was only a small portion of the last two days. Hope you enjoyed and I will have more adventures to come!

Ciao!!

Posted in Extra Tidbits

No Actual Post

Posted on by Mama
Mother’s Day Flowers from my husband and daughter

We are out for the evening, so no actual post! But enjoy the photo and will be back tomorrow.

Have a wonderful evening wherever you are in the world!

Ciao!!

Posted in Holiday and Traditions

Happy Mother’s Day

Posted on by Mama

I want to wish all the beautiful, patient, tough, loving and caring moms out there a wonderful day! You are truly loved and appreciated for everything you do and go through, even if it’s not shown right away. I hope you enjoyed the day with your family/friends and got to relax, even if it was just a little.

Sending you all positive energy and love!

Ciao!!