Love Thursday

I came across this photo the other day, it was one that I took years ago with an old film camera. The quality isn't all that great, but honestly I don't really care as it is the expression on Ethan's face that I love as he is getting a thorough cleaning from Max.

Happy Love Thursday!

Love Thursday

Spring has sprung - finally. Here on the wet coast it has been, well.....wet. And cold. And SO NOT May-like-weather.

Last week I took the kids to a local marina, and we came across a group of baby geese. So cute and fuzzy and cute.....yes they are a pain when they get older (and you should have seen all the goose poop we had to negotiate to get this shot!), but when they are babies they are irresistible.

Happy Love Thursday!

I'm off to bed....well, maybe not.

Ever since starting my "side gig" tutoring a couple of classes online for a local college my personal down time has been significantly curtailed. I am home with the kids all day, and then at night once they are in bed I do work. When I am done work, I need to decompress - I can't go straight to bed without just relaxing first, which usually means surfing the net or watching a bit of TV.

Lately I have been surfing the net a bit more, and reading many more blogs. The latest two that I have been sucked into (and I mean that in a good way - the bloggers are so talented) are
sweet|salty and matt, liz and madeline. Almost every time I visit these two particular sites I cry. I cry for the loss they have both experienced. I can't believe how two complete strangers can have such an affect on me, but they do - and every time I think stuff sucks or I am feeling shitty I really need to remember how lucky I am. The internet has a strange way of bringing people together, and sharing people's loss and pain. You want to reach out and give hugs and try to do something, anything to make things better, to make things right. Yet they never will be. So it is now and hour after I told Ken I was heading to bed. And I am sitting in front of my monitor looking at pictures of a beautiful wee baby girl and bawling my eyes out.

His mouth will get him in trouble one day....

The kids grandfather (papa) came by today to help me out a bit so I could run some errands, sans children. Today I re-discovered what it is like to grocery shop ON MY OWN. When I go grocery shopping, I usually take all the kids with me and I have a list, AND I know where everything is. We are in and out pretty quick. Today I discovered the hidden treasures in the isles that I usually avoid at all costs. I even got to stop and sample some free food. Yeah, my life is that exciting.

When I got home, Nicholas and Papa were in deep conversation. I have no idea what they were talking about, but near the end Nicholas called my dad a "hoser". Now if you are Canadian, you know what that means, but if you aren't, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia for your reading pleasure:

Hoser is both a slang term and a stereotype, originating from and used primarily in Canada.[1]
Like the very similar term hosehead, it originally referred to farmers of the Canadian prairies, who would siphon gas from farming vehicles with a hose during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The expression has since been converted to the verb 'to hose' as in to trick, deceive, or steal - for example: "That card-shark sure hosed me." Hosed has an additional meaning of becoming drunk - for example: "Let's go out and get hosed."
The term "hoser" refers to an era in hockey before the ice resurfacing machine came into use. The losing team had to hose off the ice. The term "hoser" can then be construed to mean loser.

I haven't heard that term in years. I have no idea where he came up with it. My dad thought it was hilarious. "My grandson just called me a hoser" like it was almost cool (it isn't).

Later on in the day, the boys were playing outside. We have a great backyard, totally fenced in, so the kids can run themselves silly out there and I don't have to worry about them. I peeked out and busted Nicholas peeing on one of my plants. "Nicholas!" I yelled at him "why are you peeing outside?" And my son, in all seriousness looked at me and said "because I can". Isn't that the truth.

Look at that red hair!

This one is for Kate

This is little miss Renee and her mop of red hair. We were outside on a beautiful sunny day - still cold though - damned weather. The sun hitting her hair was just perfect.

I swear, one day she'll be sitting in the back of the classroom on St. Patty's day and when the teacher asks "Who's Irish" her hand will shoot up into the air and she'll say "me, me, ME!!!". She'll be the only half asian kid who can play the Irish card - all due to the red hair.

Love Thursday

There are a million reasons I love this picture. The hair sticking up (anyone rememeber "our gang" with alfalfa, buckwheat and spanky?). The lone "puff ball" just waiting for Nicholas to blow the little seeds everywhere. The baggy saggy pants. The fact that he was in such a rotten mood when I snapped this, but you'd never know.

Happy Love Thursday! Visit Shutter Sisters for more amazing pictures by many talented photographers.

Mommy's little "helper".

One of the hardest things to do when you have more than one child is trying to find time to spend with each of the kids. Renee sucks up alot of my time and attention because she is the baby - although she is really good at keeping herself occupied, and her brothers (for the most part) are great entertainers. In fact, right now Ethan is explaining the finer points of farting to his little sister. And she is loving it. But I digress....

Nicholas and I usually get to spend a couple of hours together on the days he doesn't have preschool. Renee naps in the morning, and Ethan is in Kindergarten, so Nicholas loves his one on one time with me. And what he likes to do best is bake. I love baking too, but I have to be careful because said baked goods must get eaten at some point, and if they are lying around, I will usually munch away mindlessly.

Yesterday we baked banana bread. This recipie is one that I have modified and tested until it tastes just like the kind Starbucks sells (a side note - banana bread sold in Starbucks in Canada is VASTLY different from it's US counterpart - my kids will not touch the US banana bread - go figure).

Every time I get ready to bake and start getting out bowls and stuff Nicholas comes running, grabs a chair and positions himself right in the middle of all the action. He is quite a good helper - and so because he is so good at helping me, he wants to be rewarded with the fruits of our labour that don't make it into the baking pan. As you can see below, he is not one to waste any batter!

Me too!!!

Poor Renee - relegated to the inside while her brothers and dad play hockey on the deck. If she is anything like her mother she'll be out there with them in no time.

Hey Ma, this one's for you....

I know you were in a bit of shock when I told you yesterday that it was SNOWING here. Well guess what? It snowed again today. It is all melted, but still - it is almost April for goodness sake. Hope you are having fun on the beach in New Zealand. I am not jealous at all (does the sarcasm shine through?).

I am sure that many people think that it snows all the time in Canada - hell, I even met some people in California that I managed to convince we lived in igloos. Really, I am not lying. But snow in late March? In Vancouver? Pure and utter crazy stuff.

Thoughts on dog poop.

The one thing that I really miss about our old house is our neighbours. We had great people living on both sides of us, they were both older, retired couples who called us "the kids" and kept watch over the house when we were away. They adored the boys (they never really got a chance to know Renee) and often bought them small trinkets when they went on vacation. In fact, both Ethan and Nicholas thought that when you went trick or treating at halloween you were supposed to get candy AND presents from everyone because our neighbours would make gift bags for them.

As much as I love our new place, we don't have the same closeness with the neighbours here. I have met a few people, but for the most part everyone keeps to themselves. We have a set of neighbours on one side of us that we were warned about when we moved in, but I took it with a grain of salt - I just thought that I would form my own opinion when we met them.

They are a young family like us, mom, dad and two kids. They were very nice to us when we moved in. We exchanged pleasantries when we saw each other. But they were odd. Couldn't quite put my finger on it, but we were told by more than one neighbour that they have done their fair share of pissing people off. And over the past few weeks, I can honestly say that I haven't been too impressed either.

This family has a large dog. We don't really see it (and I say "it" because I have no idea if it is male or female) that often, and rarely hear it bark. Barking doesn't bother me, and I love dogs. I have never seen them walk the dog, and I know that this neighbour FREAKS OUT if there is any dog doing it's business on his lawn. So here is the kicker - for the past few weeks, their dog has been crapping on our lawn. Often two or three times A DAY. For the longest time we couldn't figure out who was doing it, but we knew the dog was big - and very regular. When I have to change diapers all day the last thing I want to do is clean up crap from a dog that isn't mine.

We finally figured out it was their dog when I caught him crapping at midnight one night. I wasn't in a position to go over to the house at that time, but I thought I would deal with it in the morning. So I picked up the poop, but it in a bag and put it in their garbage can. For days both Ken and I tried to talk to them, but they weren't home or not answering the door. We took to flinging the poop on their lawn, but that didn't work either. Finally we wrote a note - basically saying that their dog was using our lawn as a toilet, and asking them to pick up his poop. There hasn't been any poop again - and there hasn't been any apology either. Weird. If I got a letter like that in my mailbox, I'd go over and talk to the neighbour, and perhaps even bring a peace offering. I have no idea where the dog is pooping now, they still let it out to roam at night and they still don't walk it. Ken did say he saw one of our other dogless neighbours picking up crap off her lawn yesterday though.

Love Thursday

I am not a girly girl. Never have been. And I thought that if I ever had a little girl I would never go crazy with the pink, the dresses and the hair stuff. For the most part I haven't, but I did find these funky hairbands at a local shop and I had to try them out. Too cute for words. I think I may be living a bit of girly girl through Renee. Happy Love Thursday!

Just another day.

I have never been a fan of Valentine's day. When I was young and geeky in high school I certainly never got a rose or chocolates or anything of the like. I didn't have a boyfriend in high school, so I always felt sorry for myself on February 14th and spent the day wondering what the hell was wrong with me. I had lots of boys who were friends, but that was because I was a gym rat and played alot of sports. They never saw me as a "girl" but rather a passable basketball player with a half decent jump shot.

I often thought "well, maybe this is the year that I get something from someone". And each year I was disappointed. When I was in university I dated a bit, but was always single on Valentine's day. It didn't bother me as much then - I had alot of single girlfriends so we all got together and gorged ourselves on chocolate and tried to convince ourselves that someone somewhere was missing out big time by not having us as girlfriends.

My first real valentine was Ken. I told him that I wasn't a big fan of Valentine's day, and that he didn't have to get me anything (ok, I did ask for a card, but that was it). A couple of days before Valentine's day he had a hair appointment (I am laughing as I type this - he now has NO HAIR) and the hairdresser asked him what he was getting me for Valentine's day. He told her that I said to only get a card, and she proceeded to tell him that I didn't mean that and that I would be pissed if he didn't get me anything. So he went out and got me a spa package. An expensive one. And what did I get him? A card. Nothing else. Just like we agreed. And I felt like crap.

Last night Ken told me that he was sorry, but he got me nothing this year. He has been so busy with work that he hasn't had a chance to go out and get a card. I was ok with that - I have been so busy at home that I didn't get him anything either. At least we are on the same page. In all honesty, I'd rather Ken come home on June 22nd or any other regular day with an armload of flowers and tell me he loves me. He doesn't need February 14th to do that.

But this year, I have really enjoyed Valentine's Day - because of the boys. Each of them worked hard on Valentine cards for their classmates, and they both came home with an armload of cards and treats from their friends - and most of them handmade. They spent about an hour on the floor going through all their cards, and talking about their friends. It was nice. It is what Valentines should be about - all the kids made and got cards. They had small parties at school. At five and three it is all so innocent and fun.

My gummy wonder.

Last night I did something I swore I would never do as a parent. I bundled up my screaming baby and put her in the car and went for a drive. At midnight. The intent was to try to get her to calm down, but if that didn't work, I was on my way to the hospital to see if they could figure out what the hell was wrong. I am sure it is her teeth - she has been teething for what seems like months, but nothing is coming through. I swear she will be walking before she even pops one tooth through.

The poor little bugger was screaming for about an hour before I decided to put her in the car. Honestly, I had no idea what to do with her. You'd think that with her being my third that I would have a bit of a clue, but after giving the tylenol with no change and her absolutely beside herself I was at a loss. So I buckled her in, started driving and within five minutes she was asleep. Mission accomplished - that is until I had to get her out of the carseat. That is why I never liked the idea of using the car - none of my kids transfer well from the car to the house, so I figured that I had better drive for awhile before the attempt to get her out of the car, up the stairs and to her room. Sure enough, as soon as I pulled in the driveway and turned off the engine she woke up. Screaming. O...M...G. Got her to bed, and she settled down - for about an hour and a bit. And then she was at it again. I KNOW as a parent this is temporary - but holy crap, I am getting too old for this. On a good day I look like hell. Today I think I scared most of Ethan's kindergarten class. Let's hope tonight is a better night - and if not, it will be a movie day for the kids tomorrow while I crash on the couch - that is if Renee will nap.....which she didn't do today. OY.

Love Thursday

There is many a time I have seen a baby and I think to myself - "You are SO CUTE I could just eat you up". Well, I guess my son thinks pretty highly of himself - he had a good go at his reflection.

Checking him out.

Today Nicholas got his "report card" for his swimming lessons. He failed. Oops, sorry, he didn't fail, he needs to "re-register in the same level". Now I would never tell him that he failed - he had fun, and he learned a few new things that his ex-competitive-swimmer-mom and ex-lifeguard-dad couldn't get through to him. For that I am thankful to the kid who was teaching him.

I call his teacher "the kid" because he is barely into his twenties. To him, I must look like a washed up suburban housewife who barely keeps it together, and on a good day, will manage to slap a coating of lip balm on before leaving the house. So when he handed Nicholas his report card for the class the first thing I did when I got home was to see if this "kid" was on Facebook. Sure enough he was. And even more astounding, his profile was open for all to see. So I had a look. Nothing on there shocked me - photos of drunken university parties (hell we all did that - thankfully digital cameras weren't around in those days for me), his background, what he took in University, yada yada yada. I am sure that he would have been shocked that an old fart like me is on facebook. It reminds me of the conversation that I overheard a few days ago of a few teens discussing facebook and what other options to use because one of the kids discovered that his mom was on facebook. He told his buddies - and there was silence, followed by "Dude - your MOM is on facebook?". Yes, we are slowly taking over the world.

Love Thursday

shutter sisters is a new blog I have found recently - and here is my contribution to "Love Thursday". One of my favourite shots of the boys after an afternoon of playing in the dirt.

Housebound.

I don't do well when I am housebound. As of today, I have not left my house for four days. Yes, four days with three kids (who have also been housebound) you get the idea. One of the main reasons that I haven't gone anywhere is the insane amount of the white crap that decended since late Saturday. By some estimations, we have received 40 centimeters (almost 16 inches) of snow. Makes driving in these parts just stupid, so I don't go anywhere. At our old house we lived on a bus route, so at least we could get out of the driveway. Up here, there are no plows on our street, so it makes for interesting navigation (translation - lots of sliding and praying) to get to the main roads. Every time I get in the car and have to tackle snow I am reminded of the time when I was 16, driving a V8 Chevy in a blizzard and learing in a hurry that "hitting the breaks" does not translate into stopping. Best physics lesson EVER.

The kids have had a blast though. As much as it is a royal pain in the ASS to get them dressed to go outside, I know that they will stay out there for hours, so it is all well worth it.






Being housebound has also forced me to get a bit creative with cooking - creative because my dumb ass didn't do the greatest job of making sure we had enough of the staples in the house. Of course who knew that we would have so much bloody snow - but I digress. When your three year old only eats about five things in the whole world, and you run out of two of them, one resorts to desperate measures. I actually baked bread and managed to convince him that the world would not come to an end if he didn't have a glass of milk - is there such a thing as white food colouring?

What the hell am I going to do when they have TWO MONTHS off?

Well, tomorrow it is back to the grind - school, music classes, soccer, swimming, skating, poking my eyes out with a sharp stick....

I have enjoyed the holidays with the kids, but I am thankful to be getting back into routine. The only one who has had anything resembling a routine in this house over the last two weeks has been Renee - she could get all her naps, eat in her high chair for all her meals and not worry about being carted here and there. Tomorrow that all changes - and I hope I am not in a world of hurt once Renee's routine gets all out of whack.

Ethan loves school and he is so excited to be going back. I am not sure if I have mentioned it before but I just ADORE his teacher. I am lucky that I get to help out in the classroom from time to time and I am just gobsmacked at how much the kids are learning. Such a change from preschool - I didn't care for his teacher at all (although Ethan liked her so that is all that really matters). I am all about fun when kids are learning, and his teacher is just amazing at ensuring the kids are having fun and learning all at the same time.

Nicholas can't wait to get back to preschool either - he just loves his teachers (different than Ethan's) and I think he is a bit sick of looking at me all day.

I have no idea what the hell I am going to do with them over the summer, I just wish they could go to school year-round (like they do in New Zealand). I guess I have a few months to figure it out...

Argh...Facebook.

I have been on facebook for awhile now, and it has been really interesting catching up with old friends that I had lost touch with. I kinda like the virtual mode of keeping in contact as I am a bit of a homebody and not the most social person on the planet.

The other day I experienced one of the downfalls of facebook - someone put a picture online of me when I was in University, and it is NOT the most flattering picture. Even if I wasn't on facebook, there is no way to stop someone from posting pictures if they want, at least this way I know they are out there. I have many friends who have yet to succumb to the facebook craze (minus Miss A - who swore up and down she would NEVER join and lo and behold she is now a facebook member), and I have seen pictures of them posted (none that are really bad, but some that are a bit unflattering). I thank the good man above that I went to University and high school at a time before digital cameras, so any photos of me need to be scanned and uploaded - hopefully a task that is too much of pain in the ass for anyone to bother with. The world would be a much better place if no-one had to look at pics of me when I had the "looks like something crawled up on your head and died" hairstyle (thanks to my husband for that comment).

Jingle balls, jingle balls.....

For the past couple of weeks we have seen this reindeer blow up in the front lawn of a house that we pass on the walk to school. Perhaps it is just my mind that is in the gutter, but every single time I looked at this, my eyes went right to the berries....

Short lived happy dance.

This morning I was doing the "I'm done my shopping" happy dance. No more malls, no more crowds, no more crap. Well, I just got an e-mail from Amazon.ca, telling me that my items that were supposed to arrive within the next day or two won't be shipped until FEBRUARY. Shit. The dance was short lived. Somehow I should have known this would happen.

What do they DO at school????

Renee has been sick. All month. Between teething, croup, a couple of nasty colds and fevers I am surprised we are both able to function. I KNOW she is functioning because my toothless nine month old is pulling herself up on things and figuring out how to climb stairs. My gummy wonder will be walking before she has teeth.

I don't ever remember the boys being this sick for such a long time. I remember the odd cold and teething pains with the occasional bout of croup, but nothing as bad as poor Renee has had to deal with. This lack of sleep is turning me into one bitchy momma. At least when I had one sick baby I could nap in the afternoon. Now if I fall asleep I am likely to wake up from my slumber with my face decorated with non-toxic marker.

So this has made me wonder why Renee? The only thing that I can come up with is that Ethan and Nicholas spend their time at school licking all their friends and happily sharing the nasties they bring home with their baby sister.

I rock...yeah right.

So much for posting every day for the month of November. I suck. However, this couple rocks - this has been making the rounds on YouTube and Facebook - I wish I'd thought of it first. Enjoy!

Just about the smartest 8 month old EVER!

We just got back from a road trip to Portland. Yes, we drove 7 hours each way with a baby in the car so we could SHOP. On the way home I sat in the back of the mini-van to entertain Renee. But as you can see, she did all the entertaining.....


Peek-a-boo! from anna on Vimeo.

Why?

Why does my husband insist on buying Halloween candy at Costco in September?
Why do we go through more than one box of said candy before Oct 31st?
Why did we only get three kids this year?
Someone is testing my will - and I am losing big time. I was actually going to count how many of those tiny bars of chocolaty goodness I eat in one day, but decided not to because really, I don't think I want to know.

I think I'll be hitting the pool tonight.

Random shots from today.

Here are some of the reasons I love this time of year....

Public service announcement

In the past month there has been some traffic to this blog from people googling "haircuts". More specifically, this post has come up when people have googled the following:

MOM HAIR CUTS
plagiocephaly haircut
haircuts for one year old boys
kid haircut vancouver bc
haircuts for young boys
mommy haircuts
children haircuts in vancouver bc
children haircut vancouver
children's haircut west vancouver bc


Of course I am probably just going to increase traffic because of this post, so as a service to you I am going to share with you my secret of a great kids haircut. I have found that the local barber has been the best for my boys. I did take them to my hairdresser once, and I would go back to her with my kids in a heartbeat if she didn't book three months in advance (!!!!) and wasn't a half hour drive away.

I used to take the boys to the fancy kid places that charged an arm and a leg, and yes the cars were cool and the kids were entertained, but more often than not my kids looked like they had a fight with the weed wacker when they got out of there....

As for Renee, I am not sure what I am going to do with her yet - I am not sure if the barber will be the best option, but when she is ready for a haircut, we'll probably try them out first.

My degree is FINALLY good for something.

When I graduated from University in 1994, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. Fresh out of school with a biology degree, I soon learned that in order to get a great paying job, I needed more schooling. All of my close friends that I graduated with went on to further their educations and deplete their bank accounts.

After farting around for awhile and doing a bit of travelling overseas, I finally decided that I should grow up and figure out what I wanted to do in life. So I went to a technical school, got a diploma in safety, and started my crusade to make everyone's world a safe one. That lasted until Ethan was born, and after my year of maternity leave I went back to work. The small wrinkle in the whole plan was that in order to make the world safe, I had to be ready and willing to travel at a moment's notice (which doesn't work well when you have a baby) and I had just got to a point where I was burning out and needed to find another avenue in the job department. Luckily I was able to do a new job that I really enjoyed, and I have yet to be sick of it (maybe that is because in the last 5 years of being in this job, I have been off work for about 2.5 years for maternity leave!).

Up until very recently, my biology degree hasn't been of much use. However, now that I have boys I am finding it is coming in very handy when we talk about trees, bugs and birds.

We have a beautiful backyard, and are fortunate to have a variety of wildlife. The other day I was sitting on the deck with the boys and we were identifying different birds in the yard. When I was an undergrad, one of my electives was a birdwatching course and I actually learned a thing or two. My trusty Peterson Field Guide has come in very handy, so when we see a bird, the boys want to see where it is in the book. Of course to hold their interest, I also use my "What bird did THAT" book which outlines in great detail what the shit of different birds looks like when it hits a windshield. Since my boys are obsessed with all things poop, burps and farts, this is right up their alley.

Christmas cards

I took a card class this morning with a couple of friends - and this is the result. These cards aren't too fancy, the idea is that you could do a whole bunch to send to friends and stuff. My friends won't be getting these for Christmas though - I think I'll stick to the tried and true family photo montage.

The sneaky mommy.

A couple of weeks ago I tuned into Oprah when Jessica Seinfeld was promoting her new book "Deceptively Delicious".



The premise of the book is sneaking in various items to your meals that your kids won't normally eat. Since Nicholas is a very picky eater, I thought it might be worth it to order the book. Nicholas still won't eat meat, eggs, cheese, fish....the list goes on. He does eat alot of healthy stuff though - whole grains, fruits, some veggies, flax, milk, yoghurt and nuts to name a few. I figured any new ideas I could get would be great.

When I was online ordering, I decided that to save on shipping costs, I'd also purchase "The Sneaky Chef"



I thought that I'd get two books with great ideas of how to make better meals for my kids. After having a better look at both books, it was surprising to see that alot of the recipies are quite similar. Since I have bought the books, I have discovered that there has been alot of activity in the blogging world discussing how Jessica ripped of Missy. Interesting stuff. Personally I really like Missy's book and have used it much more than Jessica's. Nicholas is a big fan of the sneaky chef's chocolate chip cookies (made with pureed chickpeas). Jessica's recipe is very similar, but with whole chickpeas (which wouldn't work in this house).

In addition to the cookies, I have also made both author's recipies for brownies (Jessica's has spinach and carrots in it, Missy's has spinach and blueberries). Nicholas took one bite of Jessica's and said they tasted funny, but he did eat Missy's with little complaint (he does love blueberries, so that may have something to do with it). So I guess in this house the jury has concluded that Missy beats Jessica.

NaBloPoMo

Well it is here, National Blog Posting Month. Which pretty much means that if I am up to it, I post something EVERY DAY. Not too sure if I can do it, but it can't be any worse than say eating the 200 or so candies that we have lying around the house because we were TOLD to expect huge numbers for Halloween, but we only got THREE kids. If I do a post for every time I feel the urge to eat chocolate, I'll have multiple posts per day, and I may get skinny.

Wish me luck.

Out of the mouths of kids - part two.

When we bought this house at the beginning of the year, one of the things we knew we would have to do was get the roof replaced. So for the past two weeks, we have had roofers here during the times it hasn't been raining - and since we are in Vancouver, they are here about once day per week. At the rate these guys are going, I think that they will still be putting on the new roof a couple of months from now, and I may just have to invite them for Christmas dinner.

One day last week as I was leaving the house I was trying to be extra careful as there were cedar shingles strewn all over the driveway from the old roof that the guys were removing. I had Renee in her carseat and I was holding Nicholas' hand trying to make sure that he navigated the mess without too much trouble. Unfortunately, I wasn't watching myself too closely and I stepped on a nail that went right through my shoe and into my foot. So off to the doctor I went, with all three kids in tow, and got my tetanus shot and a week's worth of antibiotics.

That night as Nicholas get his pajamas on he got his foot caught. "Jesus C****t", he said. Ken stopped in the doorway, turned around and said "Nicholas, where did you hear that?". "That is what mommy said when the nail went into her foot". So Ken came downstairs and told me what happened. I figured that since I had only said it once, and if we don't over-react when he says it, hopefully he will forget it and keep his mouth shut.

Fast forward a few days. Nicholas is playing with my dad in our rec room. I get home from running some errands and ask how things went. Dad tells me that Nicholas is quite good at balancing on the furniture. He proceeds to describe a game they were playing where Nicholas climbs up one side of the couch, walks across the top and jumps off the end. After about the fifth time of doing this (!!!!) he stubbed his toe. So my dad tells him to put a pillow on the floor and aim for that. So he does. And misses. And says as clear as day "Jesus C****t!!!". Dad says it is one of those times that you want to burst out laughing but you can't. So he tells Nicholas that isn't a nice word. Nicholas goes up on the couch again, jumps, misses and cusses. So my dad tells him to say Geronimo instead. So once again, Nicholas balances on the couch (did I ever mention that safety is my background???) jumps off, and says "geron....geromemee....geronmoo....oh Jesus C*****!!!!".

Out of the mouths of kids...

This year "back to school" was quite a time in our house - Ethan started kindergarten, and Nicholas started preschool.

On Ethan's first day, he was so excited and couldn't wait to meet all his "new friends" and play with all the toys. Since we just moved into the area where we are now, we didn't know anyone at the school, and since Ethan is my oldest, I didn't really know what to expect.

Well, that first day consisted of going to school, staying for about 10 minutes to take attendance, and then leave. Ethan promptly told me after that episode that he would like to go back to preschool and that kindergarten pretty much sucked (well he didn't exactly say that, but it is what he meant).

As the week went on, kindergarten was one hour per day. Just enough time for him to be convinced that school was pretty cool, and as long as he got to play it was all good. One hour wasn't quite long enough for us to go back home though, so when Ethan was at school, Nicholas and I went for long walks to kill time until we had to pick him up. We are lucky that the school is close to a big forest and a good sized lake, so we would walk around those areas and explore.

One morning, we came across a man walking his weiner dog. Nicholas was in love. "Look at that puppy mommy" he yelled at me as he ran towards the poor terrified dog to give him a cuddle (we are working on the whole asking-the-owner-if-we-can-touch-the-dog thing, but Nicholas usually forgets until he is just about on top of the poor terrified animal). Luckily this dog didn't freak out, but she wasn't overly interested in Nicholas and just wanted to get on with her walk. Unfortunately for her, the owner was only too happy to talk to Nicholas.

After a few minutes, Nicholas thanked the man for letting him pet his puppy. The owner then told Nicholas that the dog wasn't a puppy at all, since she was 8 years old she was an "old lady". Nicholas gave the dog a snuggle and we were off.

A few minutes later, a woman was walking towards us with her small dog. Nicholas in his best three-year-old voice (with no volume control) yelled out "hey mom, look at that old lady"! Of course he meant the dog, but she didn't know that. She just gave me a dirty look, muttered something under her breath and stormed past us. Honestly, I was just barely able to keep it all in with out exploding into fits of laughter.

Happy sack and man tubes - part deux

Yesterday was a big day in our house. It was the official event marking the end of ever having another child (well, I guess it is official when Ken is confirmed to be shooting blanks).

I wrote about his consultation for the snip way back in October of 2005. Yes, it was almost TWO years ago that he went in, talked to the doc, and picked up the infamous bag of recovery goodies that would help him through this very trying and traumatic event. Note the sarcasm from a woman who has given birth three times with no drugs, and nothing more than a couple of expired extra strength tylenols to take home after delivery. I am thankful though that Ken got a case of cold feet at that time and didn't book his actual snip, because if he did, Renee wouldn't be here now.

After Renee was born, I was 100% positive that I don't want more kids. So Ken had to go for consultation #2, I told him that if he left the doc's office without an appointment WRITTEN IN PEN in his calender it would be grounds for divorce.

All last week I think he was sweating bullets. He had a countdown every morning that went something like this:

"Anna, in only X more days, I will make the ultimate sacrifice for this family - and I will need at least a week to recover, as I have been told it will feel like I have been kicked HARD in the nuts"

As you probably can imagine, response each morning varied and after I had heard numerous times about how much prep work was required (shaving, washing, etc) I offered to give him a good swift kick myself and we could just get it over with. I think Ken seriously considered it.

Yesterday morning he went into the office, and got to chatting with a gentleman in the waiting room who had just had the procedure. Ken said he didn't look too good, and the only advice he gave Ken was to "take the lollypop when they offer it to you". Huh? You get a lollypop?

He later found out that the lollypop is designed to get your mind off the "business at hand" so to speak. Before the snip itself, Ken found himself sucking away at his lime lollypop while a kind nurse candidly pointed out that his shaving skills left much to be desired so she would need to "clean things up down there". I don't think Ken will ever look at a lime lollypop the same way again.

The procedure itself took seven minutes. We are told recovery time will take about seven days. Ken did well, and he is recovering nicely. Considering it is only the day after I am pretty impressed. The only hiccup so far is that Renee managed to give him a baby kick to his newly neutered parts, just to remind him that us women stick together, and she didn't want him to get off too easy. That's my girl!

I forgot

A few nights ago before I went to bed something happened and I thought to myself "now that is a great thing to blog about", and at the time I thought that I really should write it down because I may forget. But of course I didn't write it down. And now that I have had a couple of completely sleepless nights thanks to my wee teething baby girl, I have no idea what the hell was so damned interesting that I would put it out there in cyberspace. But I am sure it was good and riveting. You'll just have to trust me on that.

Coulda, shoulda, didn't...and now I'm paying for it.

I just finished watching a bootcamp show on tv. I really should sign up for something like that to help me shed some of this baby weight. Of course, the fact that my hubby just walked in the door with an oreo cookies and cream blizzard from Dairy Queen won't help in my quest for sveltness. What's worse is that I wasn't even hungry. My brain told me to put the blizzard in the fridge after a few mouthfuls. My hand kept scooping all that ice creamy goodness into my gullet. My brain said "stop". But I didn't. And now that I have finished the whole damned thing I feel like I want to barf. As my good friend J says, "tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes". Perhaps tomorrow starts my new run at sveltness.

Tis the season....

For weddings! I was recently going through some photos I had taken at weddings, and here are some of my favourites from two that I was at in the past years. I was going through a bit of a "sepia" phase...

Here is my friend D and her new husband (well, not so new anymore, they have been married for three years!)

And here is my brother and his wife (happy 2nd anniversary guys!). She looked stunning....

holiday? Today was a holiday????

A funny thing happens when you find yourself a stay at home mom. Being on maternity leave is wonderful, but there are no holidays.

When I am not on maternity leave I work part-time for the government (ok, insert joke HERE). When I worked, I loved my holidays. I looked forward to them and started counting down about a week beforehand. AND contrary to popular belief, us government workers have the same holidays as everyone else.

Now that I am at home I am kinda floored when a holiday comes. Today was one of those days. It was BC day. I totally forgot. Ken was home from work, so I just assumed it was Sunday - until he didn't go paddling. I tell you, I get all screwed up when a holiday is thrown in the mix. The kids are totally oblivious that a holiday is here. They still get up at six. There is no such thing as sleeping in on a holiday when you have three young ones.

I am also kinda hesitant to go anywhere when there is a holiday. There are lineups at ferries and borders. In hot cars with three kids, two of whom need to pee RIGHT NOW and there is not a toilet or bush in sight. And all the stuff you need to bring - strollers, playpens, toys, blankets, food....the list goes on. What happened to the carefree backpacking and roaming the world days? Oh yeah - we grew up. We got a minivan. We have to fill it full of crap every single time we go out. So it is just that much easier to stay home and enjoy the "holiday".

Little Miss Hair

Quite the lid on my wee girl....

CRAP

Ken just got back from the storage locker with the last load of boxes that we put there before we moved. When we put the house on the market in January, we had to do some serious de-cluttering to make the place look better (HGTV would have come in REALLY handy then). Since we had absolutely no storage at all we had to rent the locker.

Our house was a rancher, about 1700 square feet. Our new house is about 2800 square feet, and guess what? We can fill every space in this new place. People who have visited us in the new house have commented on how we have managed to fill all of the rooms even though this place is so much bigger than the previous house. And this was BEFORE we emptied the storage locker.

I just about fainted when I saw the FIRST vanload of stuff. And by vanload, I mean pull-out-all-the-seats and fill up the van to the top. So much so that the bumper was not too far off the ground (a lowered minivan - we have reached a whole new level of cool).

I must admit it is a bit like Christmas - opening up each box to see what I haven't missed at all in the last 6 months. I have only opened up three boxes today - mostly thanks to my newly teething daughter who won't let me leave her sight for a second. My poor mom is going to faint when she sees the spare room, which up until yesterday had a bed, a nightstand and a light. Now she will have to share the room with a desk, and ab-roller, and about 14 boxes. We won't even go into what is in the closet. My mantra of "if you can't see it - it doesn't exist" still reigns supreme.
I am almost starting to think we should have had a garage sale and just sold all the boxes un-opened. Kinda like a grab-bag of sorts. Twenty bucks a box – you might get a box full of toys, or a box full of CD’s. At any rate, I doubt I would have missed any of it.

Why?

Ever since we moved a couple of months ago I have become and HGTV and TLC addict. Not only because this house needs ALOT of work (and I can't think of any designs to save myself) but because we now have cable. In our old place all we had was bunny ears, but since they didn't work in the new house, we decided to bite the bullet and pay for tv. "Treehouse" is now a part of the boys' vocabulary .

The other day I was watching "A baby story" while feeding Renee. When I used to watch it I would cry happy tears - probably because at that time we were trying for kids, and I had NO IDEA how painful childbirth could be. Now that I know we are done with the babymaking, the show doesn't have same effect on me (I still get a bit emotional when the baby is born, but not like I used to). The other day though I was so pissed that I turned the show off. There was a young girl who was in labour and obviously was given an epidural - she was having contractions while getting her nails done at her bedside, and just after the doctor checked her and told her she was 10cm, she pulled out her phone book and started calling all her friends to come to the hospital because she was just about to push. I kid you not, she must have called at least five people, giggling and laughing telling them that "OMG I am 10 cm, and cool, I'm going to push and have a baby".

I distinctly remember being 10cm with all my kids. And I was in NO position to talk, never mind call my girlfriends. I was in so much pain. And yet watching this show made me ticked that maybe I missed out on something by not having an epidural (first kid was by choice, the other two, not at all). I cannot even begin to put into words the pain. With Renee, I asked for the epidural at about 11 am, they came to test my blood about 40 minutes later, and then NOTHING. Renee was born at 2:15 pm. It was like they totally forgot about me. Sigh. At least I know that I never will have to give birth again!

AHHHH.....

You know the feeling when you have found the PERFECT piece of clothing? I am the first to admit that I don't have the most up-to-date or edgy fashion sense. Most days if I get a clean pair of pants and shirt on that match I am doing well. I recently bought a couple of pairs of light cotton pants with the intention of wearing them around the house - they fit well, were lighter than sweat pants and cheap. Little did I know how comfortable they were, or that I would even wear them out in public - especially when the tag says the pants are from the "sleepwear collection".

The first time I wore the grey pair was to the movies. I was going for comfort, not style, and I knew that no-one would be paying any attention to me, so what the heck. I loved the fact that I was comfy, and it felt almost as though I was at home hanging out on the couch.

Last week it was so gross and rainy here in Vancouver (surprise!!!) that I decided to wear the dark blue pair to the boys soccer class. I have never in my life received so many complements - not on the pants, but on how good I looked for just having had a baby. These pants hid my weight - and hid it well. I love them so much that I feel like I could be Oprah - I want to give a pair to everyone in the audience (and I so totally could afford it as there are only two of you!)

Stuff

Three months is a long time to leave a blog neglected. I get so ticked when I look at blogs I regularly read and they haven't been updated in a few days. And it isn't as if I don't have blogging moments. Many a time during the last few weeks something would happen and I'd think - I really need to blog about THAT.

I have been busy with the kids, Ethan is driving me a bit crazy as he is now done preschool and he has to look at my ugly mug every day - so he has developed a bit of an attitude in part because he isn't seeing his friends as often as he'd like. "Whatever mom" has been uttered on more than one occasion, and the stomping and dirty looks have increased exponentially since the end of June. Maybe this is just a part of being five. I hope not. If that is the case it will be pure hell once Nicholas reaches that point.

Speaking of the second born, I think we can now "officially" say he is potty trained. He regressed when we moved and when Renee was born, but now he is doing very well. Thank goodness. Of course now that I have put that down in black and white I have likely jinxed myself.

Little miss Renee is doing great. I can't believe she is four months already. And the hair on that child - it is what EVERYONE says when they first see her. I have stopped trying to do anything with it and I just leave it in the natural mohawk. What the hell - it looks cute on her.

She has also started to suck her thumb - which is great at night - if she wakes up she just pops her thumb in her mouth and soothes herself back to sleep. We have had a few nights where she has slept through the night and it makes for one less grouchy mommy.

Speaking of eyelashes...

Lazy post - I didn't realize how long my niece's eyelashes were until today...they are amazing. Renee is still working on hers.

Can someone please tell me why beautiful eyelashes are wasted on BOYS?

Case in point. My eyelashes suck. My sons don't get their beautiful lashes from me....

Oops.

I honestly thought that being at home would give me an opportunity to blog more and pull my camera out and actually take some pictures of my new wee girl. Yeah right. People are dumbfounded when I tell them that the pictures I took in the last post are pretty much the only ones that I have of Renee on her own (I have a few of the boys and her, but I really want to get some nice arty farty type ones of her that I can put on the million thank-you cards I have to get done at some point).

I am still working at one of my jobs, which thankfully is over in a couple of weeks. I am teaching a distance education course at one of our local post secondary institutions, and it is all good - except the marking. Final exams and final assignments, and 40 students all wanting their marks RIGHT NOW. It is funny being on the other side of the fence - teaching instead of being a student and stressing about the next paper I have to write. It is a different kind of stress now, I want to be sure that I am fair to all students when I am marking their papers. It is funny how some students just "get it" and others are so far in left field it isn't even funny. By kid #3 I am quite good at the multi-tasking, and have managed to get breastfeeding and marking done all at the same time.

Introducing Renee

Well, she came early - 11 days to be exact - born on Sunday afternoon. She was 8 lbs, 12 oz and I cringe to think how big she would have been had she decided to stay put until her due date. Labour was no picnic, longer than Nicholas, shorter than Ethan. Still hurt like hell - but she was worth every second.

She totally looks like Dad, she certainly didn't get that hair from me!

Out of the mouths of babes....

Ethan is at the age where he is obsessed with all bodily functions and body parts, especially those ones that some people can get mighty squirmy about. For the most part I try to be very forthcoming and answer all his baby related/body related questions honestly (and most of the time I manage to keep a straight face, but not always).


When Ethan was smaller, my brother and sister-in-law bought him a book entitled "All about Scabs". He loved that book. So, since "poop" is the theme of the month, I bought him a book as a "present" from the new baby, do you think I might be encouraging him much?




The other day when Ethan was out with my Mom, those "questions" came up again. Thankfully my mom is around here on a regular basis and has had a front row seat to my explanations about babies, poop, intestines and childbirth to Ethan, so she isn't totally taken aback with some of the things that come out of his mouth. They were at the mall, and mom had to go into a clothing store to look at some tops. On the way out, Ethan asked her why mannequins don't have penises. We have gone over the girl/boy body parts list a number of times, but I guess since he saw breasts on some, he naturally wondered why the boy bits weren't on others. I have no idea what my mom told him, but I am sure the number of shoppers that heard Ethan ask would have loved to know her answer.

A bit of pampering.

Today I spent some time with my SIL and we got our toes done. It was so nice to just relax and chill, because I know that I won't be in for that type of pampering for a long time once the baby is born.

Before Ethan was born, I painted my toes blue. At the time I had hoped to do one foot pink and one foot blue (since we didn't know what we were having), but after struggling to get the polish on, I just did both feet blue. With Nicholas, I was just too darned big to reach my feet, so I didn't do anything at all. So for this wee babe, I decided to go all out and here are the results - I made sure to get both pink and blue...

Wordless Wednesday

So....boy or girl? And the "?" isn't photoshopped in, it is actually on the shirt!

Insomnia

It is 4:30 am. I am wide awake, and I can't even blame the kids. I am up this early BY CHOICE because I just can't sleep. Yesterday I spent most of the day lying on the couch with the worst backache I have had in my life. At one point I thought I may be in labour - and you'd think since I have done this twice already I'd know if I was or not, but honestly, I didn't. It was so different. One huge backache that lasted all day. And from what my friends have told me, that can be what back labour is like. Oh joy.

Right now, no backache - so that is a good sign. Now I just need to figure out what I am going to do for the next couple of hours before the house wakes up. I could mark exams, but ick, I don't feel like it. I am reading a great book with only a couple of chapters left, but I hate finishing great books because then I have to find a new one to read and I don't have any around that I can start. I guess I'll just have to find a movie to watch, and enjoy this "me" time because I know that within the next couple of weeks there will be none of that left!

Could be a week....could be four.

Judging by the two boys, this kiddo could make an appearance next week, or in a month. Ethan was surprisingly early, Nicholas annoyingly late. I was told that genetics played a part in when you deliver and how long delivery should be. When I was born, I was two weeks late, and according to my mom, her labour wasn't too bad and not too long either. I remember when I went on maternity leave with Ethan I was looking forward to getting the house all sorted, and then parking my ass on the couch for lots of TV and rest. I didn't get either - I had pretty much only a weekend to "relax" before he made his very early appearance. As for my labour - it was long, about 20 hours, and quite painful (why is it that no-one tells you about the "ring of fire"????)

So, when I was going on maternity leave with Nicholas I figured that since he would be early like his brother, I would leave work earlier. I was off for almost a month before he was born. And it wasn't a relaxing month - looking after a toddler when you are as big as a house is a bit of a challenge. Thankfully labour was shorter (about 3 hours all up). We were lucky that we got to the hospital when we did - I thought they would just send me home because my contractions weren't regular (my water broke first), but it didn't take long before they got to the point of me just about passing out with each one, so I was going nowhere.

All I ask of this wee bean is that he/she stays put for a week at least. I have got the worst hair going at the moment, and am in BAD need of a dye job. My hairdresser is always booked months in advance, and I have had to wait two months for this appointment. Sounds quite vain, I know...but really, if I can't get my hair done before this baby gets here I have to wait another couple of months at least, and that would just be scary.

The only thing I fear about this birth is the pain - I did both previous with no drugs (the first by choice, the second I was begging for them, but the hospital that we go to is a trauma hospital, and the doctors that have all the happy pain free drugs are usually tied up with serious accident victims or in surgery, so pregnant women don't rate too high on the scale). I totally understand, but ugh...I now know what to expect and I know it won't be fun. I also hope we make it to the hospital on time - Nicholas was pretty quick, and hopefully this one will be too.

At this point it is a waiting game - I am enjoying my maternity leave, the boys are quite good at keeping themselves occupied most of the time, so as long as their fights are kept to a dull roar, the house doesn't collapse and there are minimal amounts of blood shed I am one happy camper.

An update of sorts...

Wow...two months have gone by since I have updated my blog. Funny how I get so ticked when the blogs that I read daily aren't updated, and yet I have gone ages without doing anything with mine. Mind you, those that are "regular" readers are likely the odd family member or co-worker, so they get the scoop (usually).

Alot has happened in the last two months. We bought a bigger house. We sold our house (in 18 days!). We met some really slimy dickhead real estate agents, one of whom accused us of living in a drug house (and the idiot put it in writing, so I will be using that when I write a complaint to the real estate board). It was a stressful time, especially since we bought the bigger house before we even put ours on the market. Thankfully all the hard work of de-cluttering and keeping the place spotless paid off. Now that we don't have to deal with showings or open houses we can go back to living like normal, whatever the hell that is with two young kids who are always into dirt and making the biggest mess possible at every opportunity.

Oh yeah, we also bought a MINIVAN. Anyone who knows me and my dear hubby knows what a big thing that was. We were never going to be minivan drivers. NEVER EVER. And now we are. I can fit three carseats IN ONE ROW. Insane. Ken tells all his buddies that the minivan is mine, but secretly, I know he loves driving it.

Today is my first day of maternity leave from work. I can't believe that I don't have to go back for a year (maybe more). I think after a week my kids will be begging me to return to work. After a week I might just feel like I need to go back for a rest. Thankfully I only worked part-time, so it isn't as much of a shock to the kids as if I had been away all week at work.

Not much in the way of baby news. I am HUGE, but it is mostly all baby, which is much different from the last two pregancies. We had a heart ultrasound done on this wee bean to check to see if all was ok (it seems to be), but they wouldn't tell us if the baby was a boy or girl, so it is still anyone's guess at this point. I suppose this baby could come anytime in the next couple of weeks, so I guess I had better get a belly shot at some point! I am really not looking forward to labour, the last two were painful, and my chances of getting any drugs for this one are slim to none. ACK.

So that is about it. Even the pictures have been terribly lacking - but I am sure that will pick up once this baby gets here.

If you made it through all of this and didn't fall asleep, congrats.

Merry Christmas

It is almost 11pm Christmas Eve. I have just finished wrapping Santa's gifts for the boys, and I can hardly wait for them to wake up tomorrow. Christmas is just so different with little ones, Ethan has been like a kid in a candy store for about a week - we finally have the house decorated and a tree up, and he is just beside himself waiting for Santa to come. I caught him today talking to one of the many Santa's we have up around the house, he was asking Santa if he likes cookies, and can he leave something out for the raindeer to eat too? Ethan also wanted to know if Santa knew the alarm code to the house...

The only thing that really sucks this year is that I have to be very very careful of what I am eating, as I am measuring my blood sugar levels 8 times/day for this supposed gestational diabetes. I had it (borderline) with both boys, but I thought I might be off the hook with this wee bean because I haven't gained much weight. It is a crappy time of year to have to really watch what I am eating, but having said that I am so thankful that all is much better with this pregnancy and our wee bean will be here in a few months.

Merry Christmas to all my loyal readers (yes, all one of you). I hope to post more in the new year, but in the meantime, here are a few pics of the boys and their gingerbread house...