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.