When my kiddos ask how I met their Dad, I’m going to say we met at an elegant ball, our eyes locked across the dance floor while we were doing the waltz, we fell in love instantly but sadly I had to leave early and left my glass slipper behind. Mmm something seems off here..oh right in reality we met at a bar, I told him my name was Amanda in case he was crazy, sat underneath a telephone poll together and stayed up all night talking about anything and everything. After seeing him one more time at a bar the following week, we figured it was time to meet each other while not under the influence of Vodka 7s. So for our first date he came to a Sunday family dinner which included my cousins from Italy. That night he went from being my man friend to my boyfriend and the rest is history (I still like to say I met my baby Daddy at a bar).

That’s not to say we haven’t faced any obstacles in our 8 years together. 3 months after we started dating I went to Toronto for school and a month after that he went to Peru for school so basically after only 3 months of dating we did a year of long distance (2012). We also didn’t have any fancy cell phones to stay in touch (he even had a little pay as you go phone) so we would e-mail each other saying when we could see each other and then we would skype each other at that time (facebook hadn’t even invented the video chat yet…so basically this is our equivalent of our grandparents sending each other love letters back in the day). We did have a little break in the middle where I went to Peru for a month and we took a fabulous 2 week tour with Intrepid (highly recommend this tour group) and got to see the beautiful country and spend time together.

In July 2013 my not so romantic husband surprised me in Cape Breton at his family cottage by putting an engagement ring in my lobster (truth be told I thought there was garbage in my lobster at first…not that that would have stopped me from eating delicious lobster) and we set a wedding date for 2014. In between that time we decided to head out on an adventure for 4 months and backpacked through Asia! We had the most wonderful time and will hold on to those treasured memories forever. Also, for those considering marrying someone, my advice is to travel with that person first, and I’m not talking about going to a cushy 5 star resort. Travel with someone to a place that pushes you both out of your comfort zones, where things can go wrong and where you only have each other to talk to. Survive that and you can survive anything. In September 2014 we had a big and beautiful Italian wedding with over 300 people and it was literally a dream come true. To this day I have 0 regrets about the wedding, but the Hubby still says we could have gone without the 4 different types of personalized napkins…what does he know?

December 2014 was one of the best months of our lives. Why, you ask? Because we became fur parents for the 1^st time! We adopted 2 rescue kittens and named them Duke and Duchess. They were so little and adorable and we were basically in heaven. Also in December 2014 we sort of bought a house on a whim which sounds crazy even as I write it. For fun one day we went to see a model home and fell in love with it and put down a deposit to reserve our land. Not thinking the bank would ever approve 2 crazy kids in love I didn’t think it would really happen but low and behold, we were approved and were set to become homeowners in 2015! In between that we lived downtown and both worked 2 jobs in order to pay off my husband’s student debt, finish saving for the house and went to New York and France! It was in France that we were in for a sort of expected surprise-we were pregnant! It was funny because I had had a feeling I was pregnant but all of the tests kept coming back negative, until one morning in Nice a faint 2^nd little line popped up and my suspicions were confirmed. I waited until we were in Cannes on top of a mountain to tell my husband and although it didn’t go quite as planned (he swore at me for not telling him sooner ahah) we both cried such happy tears it was awesome. We announced our pregnancy shortly after moving into our house on Thanksgiving when we got everyone to take a picture—First time I said say Cheeseeee and for the 2^nd picture I said say Tal’s Pregnanttttt. Shouts of pure joy, excitement and shock filled the air but everyone was very excited for us! Sadly, we lost our little Dukey in March 2016 to an unknown heart condition and although it was a heartbreaking experience, I know that cat felt more love than most people will in their entire lives. Not wanting our little Duchess to be lonely we adopted another furry friend named Sky (her full name is Skywalker even though she’s a girl—thanks Husband) and the 2 cats have been besties ever since.

In May 2016, we welcomed our first little Peanut into the world, and although it was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life (another blog post to follow for that story) it was also one of the best experiences of my life as well…even though Peanut was 9 pounds 12 ounces..thank Baby Jesus for epidurals. Life as a Mama was wonderful and even though I’m not the biggest fan of kids (I’m talking random kids not kids I know and love) I was made to be a Mama. Peanut was my pride and joy right from the start and I still can’t believe how lucky I am to be her Mama. Before going back to work we decided to take a 2 week vacation to Croatia which was absolutely stunning. The hubby is from there and really wanted to visit his Motherland so we rented a car and travelled all over. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing where his Grandmother was born up in a remote village in Croatia and actually seeing her house which was set to be demolished the following month so that was incredibly special. Travelling around with a baby is much different than travelling around as 2 solo travellers but it was still an incredible experience, one we can’t wait to repeat. In August 2018, another little member joined our team—Peanut #2. Peanut #2 is probably one of the happiest and sweetest little babies I’ve ever met and as long as she’s fed and in your arms she’ll just smile away. I don’t know what we did to get 2 beautiful daughters, but I thank my lucky stars every day for them. We’re not sure if we’ll have any more babies but for right now, we’re living the best life and can’t wait to see what adventures come our way!

Love,

Talia