Little Steps in Motherhood

old beds, new beds, sunk beds, bunk beds

2011-06-15T00:02:00.000-06:00

Brad and I were just discussing last night how when we moved into the house in the fall of '05 we thought the 2nd bedroom upstairs was so big. In fact it was as big as our master bedroom in the trailer we had just moved out of. I don't think we imagined that almost 6 years later and we want that same bedroom to function as a sleeping and play space for 3 boys under the age of 6.

When we first moved in, we put a double bed in the room. Later that spring we added a crib for Ryan (that he slept in only a handful of times) to the room and kept the double bed in there as well. As Ryan got older and began to move around and accumulated more toys, we swaped out the double bed for a single bed. Then along came Adam. But that was ok because we had a crib and a single bed in the room.
Like his older brother, Adam slept in the crib only a handful of times. Before too long we decided to get rid of the crib and get a toddler bed for Adam to sleep in. There is not much difference in size between a toddler bed and a crib (they use the same mattress) so they still fit the the room well. Then surprise! Tony blessed us with his arrival.

We began to think about how we would possibly fit three boys in that one room. Thankfully my husband works in a furniture store and my boys found a bed they absolutely adored. A plus in our eyes was the built in storage in the bed and the fact that it also comes in a "trundle bed" version, so we could sleep all three boys eventually in the one "bed" space. But for right now we are using a trundle storage not a trundle bed and Anthony (when ready) will sleep in the toddler bed. We also are toying with the idea of moving Tony's current bed (a pack n' play) into the room with the older boys soon. And it is even smaller than the toddler bed, so it will fit.

Ryan and Adam love the new bunk bed. It helps that gran gran bought them new "Cars" sheets and blankets for the bed. In fact, Ryan and Adam are even sleeping without their favorite blankets from when they were babies which has not often happened before. Surprisingly, Ryan was at first afraid to sleep up top (perhaps from a trip to the city where the hotel had bunkbeds which were VERY high and had a traditional ladder that had steep steps) and so Adam took the top bunk. But Ryan has already laid his fear to rest and we have decided that we will swap who sleeps where, once a week.

It's been a while

2011-04-05T12:13:00.000-06:00

gratuitous shot of one kid at least

Littlest man age 1 with Morris the Moose

It's been a long while since I've blogged here. Having three young children in the house does not allow a lot of free time but I'm starting to develop some sort of a pattern again. I've started a blog dedicated to the things I am doing with the kids that are educational/fun/learning related. But in some of my time to websurf and read blogs, I've been following the journey of a young mother in a similar (not identical) situation as me and she is very inspiring to me how she goes about her day and her admitted struggles with things. I thought I'd like to join her and hopefully encourage each other especially when we need it the most. You can find her at Chasing Babies...Growing in Grace. While I enjoy most everything she blogs about- I am currently very inspired and feel a calling towards her Suzy Homemaker series.

Hopefully, through out the spring and into the summer I will also share some of our adventures in CSA gardening for a 2nd summer. And hopefully some success as I try to shed the baby weight that never really went away/ snuck back on after littlest man was born.

Adam at 2 years old

2010-07-07T20:46:00.013-06:00

Here are a few pictures of Adam from the last year. The 2nd year of a child's life sees so many changes; developmentally, emotionally and socially. Adam has grown so much this year.

Adam playing peek-a-boo in a tunnel at an indoor play park during our Melanchuk family vacation in June 2009.

Adam feels the Canadian love on Canada Day 2009.

Adam moved from a rear facing car seat to a forward facing car seat in the fall.

Adam as Tigger for Halloween 2009.

Adam playing in the Christmas tree lights, November 2009.

Adam sporting a Christmas gift from Gran-Gran; Labrador flag hat and sweater

Adam eating a cupcake at Uriah's arena birthday - January 2010

Adam enjoys some trains at the Family Day festivities -February 2010

Adam takes Ryan for a spin on the merry-go-round at Wysuk Park- April 2010

Adam becomes a big brother- March 2010

At 2, Adam can now run, jump, and talk almost as well as his older brother. He is now an older brother himself, and it is very easy to forget that he is only 2 and a toddler, not 4 and a pre-schooler like Ryan. Adam is almost as tall as Ryan and weighs almost the same also. Adam had his first haircut in the fall, but we didn't cut his hair very much, just trimmed a couple of stray hairsat the back and around his face and ears.

In addition to moving to a forward facing car seat, Adam now sleeps in a big boy bed in the room he shares with Ryan. He is begining to show signs of possibly wanting to potty train and I am hoping to tackle that this summer. Adam has most of his teeth now and brushes them everynight with a Thomas the train toothbrush just like Ryan.

Here are some pictures from Adam's 2nd birthday festivities. My mom was able to be here with us- which was very nice.

One of our guests- Alexis

Another guest- Janie

And another guest- this time Maddison

A whole brood of guests- (clockwise from top)- Ethan, Xander, Ryan, Ann, Janie in her mom's arms, David and Abi.

Adam opening his present from the Hayter kids.

Adam enjoys his birthday cupcake at his party

Adam's family party cake.

Adam and Ryan play with some of the toys Adam recieved for his birthday

Ryan and Daddy pose with the birthday boy

Ryan and Gran-Gran pose with the birthday boy at Clarks for a birthday dinner

Adam and Ryan enjoy the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe we bought (2nd hand) for Adam for his birthday while we wait for his bike to arrive.

It was a great celebration for a wonderful little boy full of energy and love.

Happy Canada Day

2010-07-02T12:11:00.008-06:00

Happy Canada Day!!

How did you celebrate?Our day started out a little later than planned so we missed the parade. So we headed down to the beach to take in some festivities. It was quite a work out parking a couple of blocks away and then pulling Adam and Ryan in the wagon with the rest of our stuff and carrying Anthony in the Ergo. We spent most of out time playing at the park on the beach. These boys love play structures. They love to climb and slide and of course, run. They had some inflatable, bouncy toys set up on the beach for kids to line up at and take a turn.A couple of times I thought I had lost Adam, but he was just over at the inflatables, butting in line and taking turn after turn. Adam also found someone with a ferret on a leash and came over to tell me he had found a mouse! <- having never heard the word ferret before, Adam did not believe me that it wasn't a mouse.After having asnack on the beach, we packed up to come home for a nap. Before leaving the beach vendors though, we bought a big bag of kettle corn to take to the lake later that night.While the boys napped, I was busy making a dessert and loading the van up to go visit grandpa out at the lake where he was camping. The boys love playing in the dark sand out there (although it makes quite the mess!!) and this time they had a picnic blanket supper instead of eating at their little table and chairs we usually bring out for them but didn't bring this time.Thanks to Sandi's CSA garden, I made a strawberryand honeyberry crisp for dessert. For supper we had smokies, potatoe salad (again with some fresh ingredients from the CSAgarden) and chips with dip. After supper Brad helped his Dad launch his canoe out into the lake and grandpa took a little spin around and tested everything out.We had quite a nice campfire going but we were pretty full from dinner and barely touched the marshmellows or the popcorn. The campfire was not only how we cooked dinner, as it got later and later, it was a source of heat, light and entertainment.Brad used a plastic serving tray to fan the flames and make the fire "explode".Brad also used his dad's "fire poking stick" to stir up the embersand give us our own little fireworks show. Some of grandpa's camp neighbors had brought along their own fireworks and were just waiting for it to get dark before they set them off. Here Adam and Ryan sit on grandpa's knees waiting for the fireworks to start. We had great seats pretty close to the launch site.One of the last fireworks! I wanted to try to get pictures or even video but Adam was a little afraid of the fireworks once they started going off. They were his first fireworks show though. Ryan has seen fireworks though and so he enjoyed them again, but he did find them "very loud".

You may have noticed Ryan's new hair style. On Tuesday, Brad went to get his hair cut and he took Ryan along for some one on one time. We decided it was time to cut his hair a little shorter and lighter for summer. After their hair cuts the boys went to the marina and looked at the boats (and saw a fox hanging out on the rocks) and then shared an ice cream at Clarks.

Welcome Anthony

2010-06-27T15:07:00.025-06:00

Since our previous 2 boys were born via c-sections after unsuccessful labours, we went the planned c-section route with Anthony. So early (5am) on the 18th of March, Brad and I woke up and headed to the hospital. I was officially 38wks and 6 days. It had snowed/sleeted the day before and through the night so the roads were wet and a little slick. They had told us to be at the hospital, registered and upstairs on the 3rd floor for 6 am so we could be in the operating room first thing- but it didn't quite go that way.

Even with a planned c-section, apparently they need to hook you up to the monitors and check on mommy and baby before surgery. They needed to take blood again (two days before hand they took 3 or 4 viles of it), and start an iv. I've always been afraid of needles. I remember when they put in my iv with Ryan I thought to myself "Yay! My last needle for a long time." Little did I know they would draw blood again a couple of days later- or that I would get a spinal a couple of hours later when we went into the operating room for c-section #1. I don't think anyone tells you about all the needles during pregnancy and birth. There are a lot...at least I've always had a lot. But that is besides the point. My point is starting an iv. I've gotten used to needles. I even had myself more or less pumped for the spinal again (more about that in a bit!). What I was not prepared for, was the botched attempts at starting an iv at 6 in the morning. This was not the first time I have been on the unsuccessful side of starting an iv. Long story short...freshman year of University, week one, parents in Florida, middle of the night trip to the ER at the U of A hospital and three attempts at starting an iv...my hands and arms were black and blue for weeks. This time, two third floor nurses, two attempts each and still no iv. They brought up a nurse from the ER and she finally was able to get my iv in...weird spot too I thought, in my hand, by my thumb. It was frustrating and alarming for me that the iv was not going well because I was afraid that meant the spinal wouldn't go well either. Maybe my own nerves were playing a part in it, but I was trying to be as calm, cool and collected about it. But after failed attempt #2, I started to loose it. And if you've never had a failed iv attempt or a blown vein, let me just say, I don't recommend it. My dr. came in then, and asked why we weren't already in the OR. We just left it at, "we're having a couple of issues this morning". They tell me I was even having contractions; I don't know if that was to make me feel better, or if it was true but I do know I wasn't feeling them. Although that wouldn't be a first for me either! Once we were in the OR, it was time for the spinal. I had a different anaesthesiologist this time and after our pre- op meeting I was a little worried. It's not that I doubted her abilities, it was just she was someone new doing this to me, and since this was a scheduled c-section for the first time, we had the pre-op meeting and she went over all the "what if's" and worst case scenario- these were things I never had been told previously. For instance, I was informed that she would only try twice to get the spinal in, and if she wasn't able they would put me under general and because of the small size of my mouth, that might mean the loss of a tooth or two as they tried to put in the breathing tube. For me this was a scarier than heck thought! I couldn't stop thinking about it for the days between our pre-op meeting and my c-section. When the nurses started having difficulties putting in my iv, I grew less and less confident that things would go well in the OR. I am extremely happy to report however, that things went amazingly in the OR and the anaesthesiologist was an excellent member of my surgical team. I had a brief wave of nausea before they began but she was able to give me something for it. I felt a little more this time than the other times but it wasn't painful. With Ryan I couldn't remember feeling anything; with Adam I felt the cutting open but it didn't hurt (it felt more like someone drawing on me); this time I could feel the cutting again (again not painful) and I also felt the pulling and tugging as they took the baby out. Just after 8 in the morning, baby Anthony Murphy was pulled out. (You may notice that some of the pictures are time stamped for 7:41am but that is because I had the settings on my camera wrong.) Like always Brad went with the baby while I was stitched up, cleaned up and moved to recovery. I was very tired in recovery and tired to rest a bit but I watched the clock very carefully and hoped that the nurses would allow Brad to bring Anthony in to see me (with Ryan, Brad was able to bring him into recovery with me but not with Adam). I was moved from recovery to my room and thankfully one of the daytime nurses remembered me and got an electronic bed for me (much easier for me to get in and out of) but it wasn't quite as nice as the electronic bed I had with Adam (but much nicer than the crank style bed I had with Ryan). Brad was still in the nursery with Anthony and so I sent one of the nurses to go find them for me. I began to get very nauseous back in my room and in fact did get sick a couple of times. Brad stayed for a little bit but then he went home to let everyone know Anthony was here and to let us get some rest. He also needed some rest since it had been a very early morning. Later that day, Brad came back and brought the boys and my mom to come visit us. They were officially our first visitors. Adam was very happy to see me. Ryan and Adam were very happy to meet Anthony and fell in love with him instantly. We had a nice visit but I was very tired and I was ok with them leaving once the nurses brought me my supper. I was surprised that they brought me a sandwich for supper since I didn't think I was allowed "real" food yet and was still feeling a little nauseous. I did eat the rest of my supper though as it was liquidy (soup, jello and milk). The nurses agrred to take my sandwich and put it in the fridge in case I wanted it later. Anthony and I had a more or less quiet night alone getting to know each other. There were a couple of "code reds" that I remembered hearing later in the evening and that put me a little on edge. I did ask for my sandwich a little later that evening. The next day, the nurses came and removed my catheter and they put a lock on my iv and unhooked me allowing me to get up and move about a bit. I put on my own pyjamas (so nice, thanks mom for the cozy pants), and watched a movie. After lunch, I read a little of one of my books (more Christmas gifts) and had a nap. Then Brad's mom arrived to visit her newest grandson. We had a nice visit with her alone at first before Brad, my mom and the boys arrived again. Brad was surprised to see me up and moving around and that I had even gotten dressed. Again, everyone left as the nurses brought me supper but thankfully my mom bought me a couple of snacks from the snack vendor lady before they left. Brad came back later that evening and we watched a movie before they made him leave. I was so hungry later that night, I was glad for the snacks mom had bought for me. I watched another movie or two that night and read a little in my book.I don't know if it was all the movement that day, but I just couldn't get comfortable in bed that night. I hated bothing the nurses to help me all the time and sometimes I would push the call button and it would take a long time for someone to either come help me or bring what I asked for- if they came at all. I was very greatful that at one point after I had nursed Anthony, they took him for a bath and his stats and kept him with them for a bit at the nurses station allowing me a little sleep. I was a little apprehensive about having him away from me, but the sleep was welcomed.The rest of the night did not go as well. I still had difficulty getting into a nice sleeping position while Anthony was with me, I couldn't put him in the bassinet on my own and the nurses wouldn't come and help me with it because they didn't realize that I couldn't reach it properly on my own. Before breakfast came the next morning, I had already called Brad and begged him to come and help me sooner rather than later. I also warned him that if Dr H came by I was going to ask to be released. As nice as the quietness of the hospital was, I felt very alone at the hospital and was anxious to get home where I could get help when I needed it. And there is something to be said about sleeping in your own bed, even if it isn't an electric bed. When my doctor came by to check on Anthony and I that morning, he was ok with releasing me since I had help at home. He gave me a prescription for some pain relievers and my discharge papers, including when to come and get my staples removed. Brad and I still had some paperwork to fill out, including officially naming Anthony, and I still needed to shower before we went home. A shower is not an easy thing to do after surgery like this. Especially when you are trying to remove all the sticky tape residue. We dressed Anthony in his coming home outfit and then we left. As an aside note- while dressing Anthony, his little ankle bracelet slipped off his foot. The same ankle bracelet they are supposed to compare to my bracelet before allowing us to leave. Thankfully I was able to slip it back on him. We stopped to fill my prescription on the way home and grabbed lunch from the Tim Hortons drive thru. The boys stayed up (it was nap time) until we came home (and I had brought them home a treat from Tim Hortons) to welcome Anthony and I home. After a light lunch, everyone had a little nap. Home sweet home- to begin our journey as a party of five!

Catch up post

2010-06-19T22:02:00.010-06:00

Ok, it's been a while, a long while actually. Here is what we've been up to (in no particular order).

Ryan is potty trained. And it happened before the baby came. Actually it happened pretty easy once Ryan got into it. I would say Ryan was trained by mid -February. I had been putting him in diapers at night and for naps. Most nap times he was waking up dry so I stopped using diapers at nap time. Then we told him were were going to try to go without diapers at night and he was very excited to keep his underwear on. And he didn't have a single night time accident. Still hasn't. He will even get up in the middle of the night to go potty if he has to. Amazing.

Adam is out of our bed and in the room with Ryan. The key was switching beds. We moved Ryan over to the toddler bed which he was happy about since it is Winnie the Pooh and put Adam in the big boy bed. Some nights we'll find Adam snuggled up to Ryan in the toddler bed. He was still waking up during the night but now he is getting closer to sleeping through...except for his bed wetting...which I'll get to.

In February during the Family Day Activities at the JJ Parr, I took Ryan and Adam to a wooden Thomas the Train exhibit. The boys were given a train set for Christmas (I think it was Ryan's but Adam loves trains as much and plays with it now as much as Ryan) and so I thought this would be a good thing to do. The exhibit is amazing and maybe next spring/summer we can take a trip to Big Sky with either my parents or maybe the Seattle Melanchuks. There is also a small air museum that I know the"older" boys would enjoy.

The final trimester of my pregnancy went quickly and without any problems. And before I knew it we were hitting spring like weather and my mom was set to arrive any day. As a typical spring here, the temps were like a yo-yo as it snowed and melted, snowed and melted; Mother Nature couldn't seem to make up her mind. Then we were off to the city to pick up my mom. The boys were very happy and excited to see her again. We moved Ryan to the back of the van and he really seems to like being there.

Then of course there was the birth of our final little man, Anthony. I'll dedicate a separate entry to the birth and recovery from c-section number three. My mom was here for the full 6 weeks of my recovery and that was awesome. We are so glad that she and Jim are posted back to Cold Lake this summer. So while she was here we started looking at possible houses for them. We are expecting them back the first week of July for a proper house hunting trip and then hopefully they will be moved back by early August.
One of the last things my mom was here for was Adam's 2nd birthday. We invited some of our friends and had a great little party. I had wanted to have it outside in the back yard but the two days before it rained pretty steady, cooled down and made everything wet. So we moved everything inside and it went pretty well. It is easy to forget that Adam is only 2. He is very independent, he speaks very well, he is very strong physically and able to do things physically and is almost as tall and weighs almost as much as Ryan. I'll share more about the party and 2 year old Adam in a later post. Adam's newest issue is bedwetting. We haven't been potty training (although he did go a couple of times while I was in the hospital having Anthony) he is just obsessed with playing with his diaper. He often manages to get it pulled off at least partially and then wets the bed. It is very frustrating. We've tried many different things and just when we think we've found a solution, he figures a way out and wets the bed again.

Since my mom has left, we've all been adjusting into our new life as a "party of five" (a shout out to a favorite show from days at the UofA). There have been renovations at two parks near our house which have been big hits the boys. There will be lots of new park pictures over the summer I am sure. We've also been spending some time at our friends CSA garden. While my mom was here for the first 6 weeks of Anthony's life, it is hard to believe he is already 3 months old!! Again, these are topics that I anticipate blogging about in the near future with more details.

Stay tuned folks!

New Look

2010-06-15T17:42:00.002-06:00

I've updated the look of my blog today with a renewed sense of blogging more frequently again. Watch for a couple of "update" blogs in the next few days about all the exciting things that have happened in the last 6 months and then hopefully some regular blogging after that.

What do you think of my blogs' new look? I think that it is still a work in progress like me.

January Fun

2010-01-18T22:30:00.009-07:00

The weather has finally warmed up after the deep freeze from most of December and into this new year. We've been taking advantage of it by sledding, walking, attending an outdoor birthday party and even washing my van.

The birthday party was so much fun. A friend of ours lives on a farm just outside of town and their property backs onto one of the bays of the lake. They have cleared off part of the bay as an ice rink which they have named "The Coors Lite Arena". There was skating for those with skates, hockey for all, a campfire for roasting hotdogs and staying toasty, hot chocolate and juice plus birthday cupcakes. A good time was had by all. I pulled the boys down to the rink in our wagon and they loved being pulled around the ice in it. They also took turns pulling each other around, and it was a good place to sit and eat. There was a muskrat that decided to crash the party and we even spotted a GIANT moose across the bay.

We've been experimenting with a new bedtime routine, including quiet time before bed and an earlier bed time. Quiet time before bed involves putting on jammies and then spending a couple of minutes doing something fun with the boys that isn't too loud. Puzzles, books and playdoh are all big hits. This is working well for us.

Another thing the boys are really enjoying lately, is forts! They love to tip over furniture, use pillows and blankets to make little caves and tunnels. Sometimes Brad and I will help them out and build them a space they can both sit in at the same time without crying. This fort is in their room, using the rocking chair tipped on it's side, it's cushions and one of Ryan's bedtime blankets. They even ate a snack in there and I read them a book about camping out. We're also working on potty training Ryan before this new baby comes. He is definately making progress. We've had about 12 days of the last 15 dry. He enjoys wearing his underwear. We've even had two (well technically three) poops on the potty too. (Although the first one, I think I managed only to scare him and just the little bit that he had been able to get out broke free on the potty and not in his underwear.) But we have managed to catch him twice as he has begun his "hiding" and convinced him to go hide on the potty instead. It might seem like we're not making progress on this front but since he only goes once every couple of days unless he is sick, we're actually at about a 1/3rd success rate since we've started. Both boys are enjoying the treats. Here they are enjoying a big lollypop after a successful day. (Ryan decided he didn't want to share so in picture 3 Adam has his own lollypop). We've been using little rewards with Ryan in his potty training- treats, new little toys, new books (both picked up at after Christmas prices), stickers and doing a favorite activity with him one on one while Adam is napping (like watching a video, playing playdoh and coloring).

Potty training update

2010-01-04T22:40:00.002-07:00

A quick update on Ryan's potty training progress. Amanda sent me an e-book on potty training which I read last night. I put some new things into action today (like using underwear not pull ups) and Ryan spent most of the day dry. He did have two accidents, the first just after dinner and the second just before getting ready for bed. But then, once in his pyjamas (and a diaper) we caught him hiding to go poop. I managed to convince him to try pooping on the potty this one time (ok- I bribed him with the promise of a new toy when we go shopping tomorrow if he did actually poop in the potty). In the past he has kicked and screamed and cried every time we try to take him to poop on the potty when we catch him about to go hide to poop and he just holds it in until we give up and then he runs and hides and poops in his diaper or pull up or whatever he is wearing. Tonight however, he finally did it in the potty! Yay! I'll gladly buy him a little toy to celebrate this success. To me it was a big step forward on our journey. I'll spare you the pictures!

New Years Resolutions

2010-01-01T23:08:00.002-07:00

I've broken my New Years Resolutions into a couple of different categories based on who in my family they affect.

For Ryan for instance, I want to get him potty trained and hopefully at least out of day time diapers before the new baby comes.

For Adam, I want to get him sleeping in his toddler bed in his room (that he shares with Ryan) and again hopefully before the new baby comes.

For both boys, I want to work on activities that will build their skills and abilities a little each day. Kind of like home preschool. Ryan needs to work on holding pencils and crayons properly. Both boys now have safety scissors so we can start doing crafts and cutting. Playing with playdoh. Learning letters and numbers for Adam, learning to print them for Ryan.

For myself, I want to get my house in order and keep it that way by following a schedule of household chores. I feel better when my house is in order. I am not as stressed because I can easily find things and I find my day runs smoother when my house is in order. When it is a mess, I feel chaos, stress, and I feel like I am more easily angered by the boys and their normal behaviour. And when it gets to a certain point of chaos, I just rather ignore it than deal with it. I think following the chore schedule will help me keep things in order and will allow me to work on my other resolutions.

For the family as a whole, I am going to continue with my meal planning, trying to do it once a month and shop once a month for main groceries picking up other items just as needed. I want to continue to watch fliers and coupons and use them to our advantage.

For Brad and I, I read a short story/poem recently that stuck a chord with me and I want to work on what it suggests as well. The Wedding Ring- by Marybeth Whalen

It may seem like I have taken on a lot, but I think they can help lead one to another to the next. And now that I am officially in my 3rd trimester I am hoping that my nesting instinct will kick in soon and that should help with keeping the house in order and meal planning and such.

Remembering 2009

2009-12-30T13:56:00.008-07:00

This year has been a different year. I went back to work part time in the spring during the day and then in the fall at night. Brad moved to a new, larger store where he now has his own space. We had many visitors. We said goodbye to some things and hello to some new things. We got a big surprise and we improved our yard. We are looking forward to 2010 with much anticipation. Here are some of our favorite moments from 2009- in no particular order.

Visitors, visitors and more visitors-we had many visitors this year, both family and friends. Some stayed for a while, some just for a couple of hours. Any visit is a great visit though! Here is a picture from just before the Seattle Melanchuk's left to go back to Seattle. It was great to see them again!

Summer vacation- Part of Brad's vacation this year was taken while his brother was here. We met them just outside of Edmonton and took the kids to Millenium Place in Sherwood Park. Here, our boys play with their girls at the Lions Park in Cold Lake while Darryl and Amanda played tennis one morning.

The new store- Brad's work changed locations this year. Here is a picture from Grand Opening weekend. If you saw the store just two weeks before, you would never have believed the transformation. Having seen the hours that Brad put in, and knowing he was not the only one putting in those hours, makes it a little more believable but still pretty remarkable. Brad especially loves his own office at the new store. Ryan especially loves that it is next to McDonalds.

A BIG surpise- In early November, we discovered I was half way through our third and final pregnancy. Baby boy #3 will be arriving mid to end March of 2010.

Christmas 2009- Christmas is always a favorite time of year. It's busy, but it's enjoyable. Especially when we take the time to enjoy the childlike things and re-experience them through the eyes of our boys.

Summer projects-Here you can see two projects Brad spent the rest of his summer vacation working on; a fence and a sandbox. I think Brad likes the sandbox as much as the boys do.

Goodbye Bug- Hello Saw Stop- We finally sold the bug in the fall. Part of the money went towards the purchase of a table saw for Brad. Google SawStop and watch the video. It is an amazing piece of machinery.

New car seat-Adam graduated to a forward facing car seat this fall. He loves it!

Pre-Christmas visit-Here is Adam on the way to Edmonton to pick up my mom who came to visit us at the end of November for two weeks. Ryan was especially excited to visit with Gran-Gran, but for Adam this was probably his first real memory of my mom since he was just a newborn when she was last here.

A new camera-A birthday gift for me from Brad, I am enjoying getting to know the ins and outs of my new camera. I'm especially excited to use it more and share more pictures this year. Especially chronicalling the end of this pregnancy and the birth of our last baby.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-30T13:55:00.014-07:00

Christmas is always a little subdued yet hectic at the same time around here. It's subdued because Brad has so little time off (he works Christmas eve and then is back to work VERY early on Boxing Day) so it's tiring. It's hectic because now we have two excitable little boys, always a very full tree, family to talk to and I have TWO meals to prepare.
Christmas Eve I make a ham with mashed potatoes, vegetables and stove top. There are usually fresh rolls as well. In addition to the meal, I am usually cleaning my house in preparation for family coming to join us for the Christmas Eve meal and before the "big" mess of Christmas morning. Sometimes I have desert ready too and this year I had part of one made, but we didn't get around to it. We talked to Brad's brother over the computer for a while, talked to my parents as well. Then before it got too late, we went out and took a drive to look at the lights. The combination of the lateness (it was already after 8) and the slick roads, we didn't stay out too late.
Once the boys were in bed, I cleaned up from dinner, helped Brad with some last minute wrapping and by midnight we were done, thinking the boys would be up early in the morning. To our surprise, they both slept in and it was almost 9 before we got up and began to unwrap gifts. Every year I encourage Brad to buy something on his own for the boys. It's not that I mind doing the shopping but since he isn't usually around when I do it, I am never sure if this is really something boys will like or if it is something Daddy will want to play with them. I know Brad has enough stess during the holiday season at work and has precious little time to shop but he always comes through. This year he bought Ryan a little off road race track with two battery operated trucks. Instead of wrapping it, we just set it up by the table and wondered how long it would take them to notice it.
We opened stockings and then had some breakfast of cinnamon buns. While we were eating, the boys finally noticed the track and took a couple of minutes to play with it. Adam was so excited, he even left his soother on the floor as he went to play. Ryan loves to sit inside the track so he can easily reach his truck no matter where it is on the track. While Ryan was excited to open gifts and play with the toys, this year he was really interested in the opening part. It was easy to get him back to opening gifts by saying we could play later. Adam however is at the point that Ryan was last year and he wanted to play with gifts once they were opened, so we all took turns opening some of Adam's for him (especially the clothes).

After the gifts were opened, we put the boys down for naps and began to clean up a little bit before getting dinner started. I forgot to brine the chicken but it still tasted ok, just not as tender and juicy as when I do. I also forgot to put out the Christmas crackers I bought for the boys. And to put the ham back out. And I think there was something else I forgot too. One year I want to get a picture of the table with all the food on it, set with the china, candles lit, BEFORE anyone decides to help themselves. And one year, I'd like to actually be able to feel a little a head of the game on Christmas day and be able to have a shower and get dressed for dinner and not be in my pyjamas all day. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to stay in your pyjama's all day sometimes, but as a SAHM I don't get much opportunity to dress up. Even this year, being pregnant, I had friends who lent me some nice dress clothes and I had a couple of different "Christmas-y" outfits I could have choosen from.
At the end of the day, it' such a long day and we have such an early morning the next day because of Brad's job, that cleaning up from dinner seems such a chore, and this year with my hormones running crazy anyway, all I wanted to do was cry. I didn't feel like I got to enjoy the day much. It was probably more my hormones than anything, although having not quite finished my own dinner before people begin asking for dessert, was a little much. Especially since it was the same dessert from the night before and I still hadn't made the second part. So I finished my dinner while making the 2nd part of dessert and served it up. To top it off, it's not even something I like but I make it because it is expected- because one year I didn't make it and it was a big deal. Now if someone wanted to make it and bring it along, that would be wonderful. But more often than not when this is suggested, I end up with multiple people trying to cook too many things in my tiny kitchen because ingredients are brought but they are cooked and assembled at my house. That's more stressful to me than just doing it on my own.

It's a...

2009-12-27T11:22:00.006-07:00

After the shock of this third pregnancy wore off, it was time to take a road trip to Edmonton for an ultrasound- mainly to determine how far along I am for sure but also in hopes to catch a glimpse of the baby and find out if it's a boy or a girl. Given the genes in this family, a baby girl would be even a bigger surprise than this pregnancy was. The baby was very co-operative and took almost every opportunity to show us...

it's a(nother) boy!

My due date is March 25th-26th so I am guessing I will be scheduled for a C-Section sometime in mid March.

We are still working on a name for this boy; we used our two favorite names on Ryan, then Ryan helped name Adam, and well now, we're kind of stuck. If Ryan had his way, we'd name this one "Toodles"...I just don't think so. I'd like to stick to a short first name, preferably 4 letters and not something begining with a "M'. Any suggestions?

Angel Pictures part 2

2009-12-27T11:18:00.002-07:00

When we picked up our Angel Pictures this year, one of them wasn't ready for pick up. We have it now, and here is possibly the best shot of the two of them together.

Glorious sleep

2009-12-13T15:32:00.002-07:00

It's been a long time since I can remember a full night of sleep. Ironically we were just discussing this last night. Adam snuggled in between us and fell asleep while we watched some tv. We discussed how to best move him and maybe keep him asleep for some length of time. It seems to me, if we put him down to sleep alone and at the same time as Ryan, he wakes up within an hour of us going to bed and can not be soothed unless he is brought back to our bed and this will continue all night.
Brad said to me last night "here is a crazy idea, what if we swaddle him again? We'd have to keep his arms out but swaddle the rest of him up tight. Do we have a blanket big enough?"
It sounded crazy enough to work and was definately worth a try. I found a blanket, swaddled him arms out, and layed him down and then covered him with his usual blankie and gave him his baby.
We did hear a cry at some point as he tried to get himself unswaddled but it didn't last long. I was shocked when I woke up at 7:15am with no Adam in my bed.
I guess even a 19 mo old likes to be swaddled!

New tradition-a gingerbread house

2009-12-11T22:02:00.004-07:00

With the exception of the year I taught kindergarten, I've never made a gingerbread house before. I decided this year, I wanted to start a new tradition with my boys and make one with them. It was frustrating to make it with them, and I did more yelling than I would have liked, but I like our house. And really, what was I expecting from a 1 yr old and a 3 year old...all they wanted to do was eat the candy and lick the icing. I have some ideas on how to improve the situation next year, and maybe I'll make one with Brad but make the kindergarten kind with the boys.

(The kindergarten ones involve an empty child sized milk container, lots of icing, a plastic knife, lots of candy and no actual gingerbread!)

Our Angels

2009-12-07T23:38:00.006-07:00

Photography by Images Studios of Cold Lake

This is the third year we've done Angel portraits with Images. They take their session fee (which they made per child this year-not that I mind...)and donate to Santa's Anonymous which is a good cause and I like knowing I am contributing to making Christmas a little nicer for some other children. Purchasing the pictures themselves is not economically friendly but I can appreciate the true talent it takes to get such wonderful photos and they do not make it easy to whittle down your choices. I am sure they took over 100 photos of the boys. I think I was given 75 or so to begin with and after much deliberation, I whittled the choices down to 13- 5of each boy and 3 of the two of them together. We are still waiting for one of the pictures of the two boys together to arrive, but here are the rest.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T09:59:00.006-07:00

The weather wasn't the worst I've ever seen, and after trick or treating for about an hour, I was surprised with how warm I still was. But it was slippery and very slushy outside thanks to the snow, rain, freezing rain we had all day. The idea was for Ryan, Adam and I to go as the super sleuths from My Friends Tigger and Pooh. But the wetness put a stop to that because I had used washable marker to make the embelums for the costumes. So they just went as Tigger and Pooh. Adam didn't care and Ryan was pretty understanding once I showed him what a mess the green marker was making. When I saw the weather earlier in the day, I thought about only doing the mall halloween even here in town. In the newspaper they were advertising there would be events from noon-3pm. In the past they have had pumpkins on display for prizes, a costume parade and prizes, and of course trick or treating at the various stores. There was no mention in the paper (or even on the fliers advertising the event at the mall) as to when each thing was happening. We went for around noon and hung out for over an hour. There was a long line for a haunted house that Ryan had ZERO interest in. There were some coloring and craft tables set up through out the mall but nothing really geared towards toodlers-preschoolers (the coloring pages were quite complex). Some of the pumpkins started arriving so we looked at those. And there was a bake sale of some yummy halloween themed treats. We tried a couple since the boys were hungry. I knew I wouldn't be able to stay for the whole three hours with both boys since they would need a nap before the trick or treaters started arriving at our door/we went out trick or treating. Some of the stores started handing out candy to the few kids that like mine, were walking around store to store waiting for things to "happen" but then someone from the radio station (sponsoring the events) went around and told the stores to STOP and that it would begin at 2pm. I thought that was REALLY crappy. The boys were hungry and starting to get antsy so we headed to the food court, as I hoped some food and sitting would help pass the almost hour before the events would begin- so much for the nap! But almost everyone else had the same idea and suddenly our two food place food court was overwhelmed. We tried waiting in line but it wasn't working so we went home. I took the boys out of their costumes, gave them a quick lunch and then sent them off to nap. Ryan was so excited about the idea of trick or treating that I had no choice but to take him out later in the evening. I woke them up just before the treaters started arriving at our door and got them dressed. They helped me hand out treats and we ran to a couple of the nearby houses between treaters at our door. We waited until Brad came home and could take over the candy handing out duties to head out to the rest of the neighborhood. Ryan was so cute, he would run up to the door and knock and if they didn't answer right away he would say "it's me Ryan!". When they opened the door instead of saying "trick or treat" he would say "happy halloween". Most times he remembered to say "thank you" as well although sometimes he said a combination of "happy halloween" and "thank you" at the end. Adam tried to say "trick or treat" a bit and almost aways said "thank you" when prompted. Ryan was also not shy about entering peoples homes...it's a little scary! Adam though needed to be holding on to Momma. They came home with a recyclable grocery bag about 3/4's full of treats. They had a couple of treats last night and then I sorted through it and now over the next couple of days will make up little treat bags to give them from time to time for good behaviour, long car trips, ect. And of course, we have a ton of left overs of our own! (The smarties, m and m's, rockets and skittles are being kept for potty training!)

Adam's First Birthday

2009-05-07T13:43:00.010-06:00

We celebrated Adam's first birthday in a couple of different ways. I posted this blog of course with some of my favorite pictures of Adam from this year set to music. As it was Friday, we had playgroup as usual and I made ice cream cone cupcakes for the kids at playgroup.

I also had a birthday sign, balloons, and noise makers.

After playgroup, the boys had their naps and then we played before dinner. At home, we had a quiet bbq dinner and opened some presents and yet more cake- this time a cake in the shape of a number one.

^I was hoping to get video of Adam actually eating the cake, but he took so long exploring it, I ran out of room on my memory stick and he had started eating by the time I switched sticks.

I had a special birthday crown (that I made for Ryan's first birthday- which I kept and pulled out for Adam to use as well as the "I'm 1 today" button) but Adam barely let me get a picture of him in it.

Before we opened presents, we did something Amanda mentioned in her blog on Amelia's first birthday.

^We did it twice because I was afraid he picked only what was closest the first time.
I guess it is a tradition that when the baby celebrates his/her first birthday, you place some objects out in front of them and whatever object the child grabs first is an indication to their future. I guess Adam will take after his father and be into electronics.
Opening presents- of course Ryan had to help!

All in all, I think it was a very successful and fun day!

Happy Birthday Adam

2009-04-30T22:23:00.006-06:00

*warning this video is almost 20 mins, long

Wordless Wednesday- The Toothless Grin is Gone

2009-04-29T18:45:00.002-06:00

Talk About Four Seasons in a Day

2009-04-28T18:04:00.006-06:00

Yesterday was a wicked weather day here. When I first woke up it was sunny but chilly. I had high hopes the sun would warm things up and perhaps I would take the boys out to play at some point in the day. By lunch time it had clouded over, becoming very gloomy and somewhat blustery. I watched the wind whip the flag around on our neighbors house across the street. Then it started to rain. At first it was just kind of misty and spitting but then the rian drops got a little bigger. The rain changed to hail, first pin head sized but ending up about marble sized. Then finally that changed to snow. Big, white flakes that at first melted into the ground, but soon they stopped melting and everything was covered with a thin, wet, white veil. By dinner time, it had stopped snowing and the sun was back out. Before the sun had set for the day, all the snow was gone and if you hadn't looked outside all day, you never would have known.

Some pictures of the snow falling:

To see what other people are talking about on this fine Tuesday... head over to The Lazy Organizer and join in on the fun!

Ball Popper

2009-04-27T09:45:00.004-06:00

Brad bought Adam a playschool ball popper for Christmas, but Ryan loves it so much that Adam hardly gets a chance to play with it alone at all. A couple of weeks ago, while Ryan was napping, I got out the ball popper and let Adam enjoy some fun with it all on his own.

Splish, Splash, Spring!

2009-04-24T14:22:00.003-06:00

Here are some photos of a recent spring evening walk. Ryan started out pulling Adam in the wagon, but then he became much more interested in the puddles and jumping in them. It tuckered him out and he even crawled into the wagon with Adam for the ride home.

Driveway fun and a haircut

2009-04-23T17:43:00.005-06:00

*seriously click this picture to get the full effect. Ryan is coloring in his shoes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the begining of the month, I took Ryan for a much needed haircut.
Here are the before and afters...

Easter 2009 Memories

2009-04-22T15:49:00.005-06:00

We had a blessed and wonderful Easter. It was quiet but nice. My husband was able to be off Easter Sunday then Monday and Tuesday which our boys loved. He worked early on Friday (a rare event for us!) and so the boys were tickled to have Daddy home for dinner and before bedtime. My husbands mom and dad both joined us for Easter Sunday dinner.

Daddy helps Ryan eat some Easter chocolate.

Ryan was VERY happy with the helmet from grandpa Jim and gran-gran.

Ryan shows Daddy and Adam how to play with the "fridge garage" Adam got from grandpa Jim and gran-gran.

Opening little people sets from mommy and daddy.

Opening little people sets from mommy and daddy.

Adam likes pulling out the paper. It makes a fun noise.

Our own little easter bunny!

Ryan enjoying his new helmet while Adam enjoys the wagon.

Great deals

2009-04-05T21:49:00.006-06:00

Last Saturday I scored a couple of great deals on Fisher-Price Little People Sets at Zellers and I was so excited, that I just had to share. It's taken me this long to get around to taking/finding all the photos I wanted to use in this post.
First off, I don't normally get the "great" or "one day only" sales because it always seems by the time I see the flyer, the sale is over or they are all sold out. But something in the stars must have alligned.

I get many of my flyers electronically. I have visited the stores websites and signed up for this and they come straight to my email box. I've done this for two reasons; 1) we only seem to get our local newspaper once every 6 weeks and I keep forgetting to stop by the newspaper office and pick up a copy since mine obviously isn't being delivered,and 2) my father in law takes all the flyers that come in our mail box on Friday and I never get to see them (with the rare exception of when I beat him to the mailbox -which almost never happens!). Anyhow, e-flyers, sounds great right?! Except they come at midnight on the day they are to begin, not really giving much advanced notice.

In this case, the flyer fron Zellers arrived in my inbox just before I shut down my computer for the night. It's not often that I am awake and still on the computer at midnight but I was on this particular night. So when I saw that they were offering two of the different 50th birthday Little People Play sets at 50% off each (farm and school), I knew I wanted to get them for my boys to add to their collection. A quick look at the rest of the flyer and I saw they also had the Noah's Ark Playset on for 50% off as well.

The original farm looked like this:

The 50th birthday farm set looks like this:

I think the boys will enjoy playing with it with the touch and feel farm they already have:

The original school set looked like this:

The 50th birthday school set looks like this:

The Learn About Town that Ryan got for Christmas also has a school. But what I really likes about the Town is that it reminds me of the Sesame Street Playset my cousin Suzanne had when we were little. I LOVED going to her house and playing with since I didn't have it myself. The Learn about Town set:

The Sesame Street Playset from the 70's/80's:

I also really like that the two 50th birthday sets come in a container with a handle similar to an old fashioned lunch box and all the pieces fit inside. I think it would make these sets excellent travel toys. Something to take on long car trips (with an old cookie sheet to lay across your lap and play on), or to take while running errands that involve waits and waiting rooms (the dentist, the doctor, ect).

As for the Noah's Ark Playset, I first saw this at Darryl and Amanada's on our trip to Seattle just before Ryan's first birthday. Kathryn had the ark and many pairs of animals. I fell in love with it. I've been looking for one for Ryan ever since but I've found it to be too pricey and it never seems to come with many animals. I am very pleased with this purchase though. While my ark does not have as many actual animals as Kathryn's had (although I suspect she had extra animal sets purchased to go with), there are quite a few animal sets, some extra animals painted on our animals and our animals are the touchy feely kind. Our ark does not open up the same way as I remember Kathryns did, and it isn't on wheels either. But I am still pleased with the playset and think the boys will have much fun with it.
Our Noah's Ark Play Set:

I plan on giving each boy one of the 50th birthday sets for Easter next week and saving the ark as a birthday gift for Adam next month. ( spent $40 plus tax and saved $40. The time that I think the boys will spend playing with these sets make them a very worthwhile purchase in my mind.

************************
Boo hoo. No one seems to have commented on my Pay it Forward blog. I guess no one wants a handmade/homemade gift/treat from me. I'm still looking for comments on that blog. HINT HINT! LOL!

Pay It forward- bloggy style.

2009-03-28T17:02:00.005-06:00

I stole this from my fabulous sister-in-law at Melanblog, because any excuse to get all domestic-like and make something and be creative and crafty is GREAT with me. And yeah, hopefully actually seeing some comments on my blog is a bonus :) The "Melanchuks Chuck Melons" are currently living a grand adventure in a foreign country with their two little girls and newborn baby boy.

The Rules:

1. Be one of the first THREE to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.

2. Winners must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift - anything! - for the first three bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send your THREE friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And remember, it’s the spirit and the thought that counts!

4. When you receive your gift, feel free to blog about it!

I was going to post about something else today, but since I spent the boys' nap time finding my entry from under the piles of boots, shoes, coats, sweaters, hats, mits, scarves, slippers, baby slings, bags, toys, cat food and various other assorted items and not taking pictures of what I wanted to post about, I'll save that post for another day. Maybe tomorrow!

Into EVERYTHING

2009-03-24T22:22:00.003-06:00

Adam is in the really curious phase of development. Plus since he is now more or less mobile, he is into absolutely everything.

While it took Ryan lessons from cousin Kathryn -in Seattle, just before his first birthday- in order to master the fine art of crawling up and down stairs, Adam has somehow picked up this skill somewhat on his own. He always looks so proud when he is caught on the stairs. He has the CUTEST mischievious grin. It's kind of hard to stay mad at.

The story of a boy and his soother...

2009-03-22T13:51:00.008-06:00

^Ryan- 3 wks

Ryan has always loved his soother.

^Ryan- 6 mos

We gave it to him very early in life (much earlier than recommended when breastfeeding) and it has been his constant compagnion.

^Ryan 10mos

It's name has changed as he has grown and his vocabulary has expanded.

^Ryan 12 mos

The first word for it was "blether" which was the adult word for the sound he made when he wanted it.

^Ryan 18mos

This came from the other little boy I babysat.

^Ryan 22 mos

The sound he made was very similar to the sound Adam is making in this video.

Last Spring before Adam was born, Ryan's soother habit was very minimal. The other little boy I was babysitting only used his for naps and so Ryan was pretty much doing the same thing- to sleep and in the car. But when Adam came along, Ryan became very dependent upon his soother agaian- even though we didn't give Adam a soother until he was about 6 wks old. Ryan could often be seen going around with multiple soothers. He would steal his brothers' soother whenever he could (although at first the "baby" sized soothers he didn't like and would always give them back to Adam- but once Adam graduated to the same size as Ryan, Ryan often liked to take Adam's). He currently calls his soother a "lo" or "lo-lo". Adam has not developed such a dependancy on his soother (at least not yet) so I am think I should try to curb this with both at the same time.

^Ryan 28 mos

Since Wednesday, Ryan has had his soother only for sleep (nap and at night) and at daycare. Same with Adam. I don't think Adam cares so much and I was getting tired of always having to clean his soother because it was always getting full of stuff from off the floor (cat hair, crumbs, my hair) as he dragged it on the floor as he crawls around. I don't remember this happening with Ryan but it was probably because he always had it in his mouth. He sometimes cried and asks "Where Ryan's lo-lo is?" but I either tell him "it's got to be somewhere" and off he goes to look for it and gets distracted by something else, or I tell him "it's at (a place where we are not- like Daddy's store, gran-gran's house, playgroup, daycare, ect) and then distract him with something else. In the morning and after his nap, I distract him with something and unclip the soother. Then I hide it somewhere. I do still take it with me in my purse or diaper bag when we go out anywhere, just in case he has a major meltdown. But so far I am cautiously optimistic that we just might have success. I will continue like this for a while, and then I will try to get Ryan to give it up for naps and then nighttime. Or maybe I'll try nighttime first and then naps- I would hate for Ryan to give up his naps just because I took away his soother like what happened to Darryl and Amanda with Kathryn.

^Ryan 31 mos

Happy Spring

2009-03-20T13:51:00.003-06:00

The weather has warmed a little with the arrival of Spring. Yesterday, the boys and I took advantage of a little warm weather and sunshine and went for a walk after their afternoon naps. Then I scraped the drive way while Adam watched in the shade and Ryan played with his sidewalk chalk. He kept asking "Color with me momma?".

I don't know if it is another cold I seem to have or if it is the arrival of spring allergies with all the melting of the snow, but my head feels like it is going to explode today and my nose just won't stop leaking.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention just how much this mommy loves having a grandma who knows and likes to knit for my boys. I remember my own granny knitted sweaters, hats and mittens for my cousins and I all the time. So I am glad my boys will have a similar experience. Knitting is definately one of those things I want to learn to do.

Little Steps

2009-03-17T22:30:00.005-06:00

I named my blog "Little Steps in Motherhood" for a number of reasons. First off, I am a small person and for that reason, I take small steps even when I am trying not to. Secondly, I think motherhood is an adventure and being somewhat cautious, my adeventures in motherhood are sprinkled with caution as I take things one little thing at a time, or one step at a time if you will. And then of course, there are all those milestones you reach with your little ones, or the steps they take in their personal development and then later in life as they take steps towards independance.

Ryan- April 2007
Ryan was about 9 months old when he took his first steps. Later in that month, I began babysitting a little boy a couple of months older than Ryan. This older little boy was already walking and it made Ryan seem to want to walk more. Within the first week of babysitting, Ryan was barely crawling anymore, choosing to walk whenever he could. By 10 months Ryan was mostly walking. By 11 months, he was no longer crawling.

Adam turned 9 months in February. No steps. I know, you shouldn't compare your children. I'm not. Here we are about 10 1/2 months and I am very proud to announce that Adam took his first steps last night. I'm in no hurry for Adam to rush to full time walking. I am not terribly surprised that he didn't take his first steps as early as Ryan. First off, I think Ryan was VERY young when he took his first steps. Secondly, Adam is for one thing, much more mellow than Ryan. He also seems more cautious than Ryan. Ryan has always had this "no fear" sort of attitude. Adam is adventureous in his own right, but he seems a little more careful and deliberate. Since he is only just walking, he is only taking a maxium of three steps at a time on his own. (He's been cruising around furniture for a couple of weeks now.)

I am so happy for my littlest man that he has reached this milestone in his little life. I am sad as I realize he is quickly moving from the baby/infant stage and into toddler mode. He's almost a year old already. Even with the sleepless nights, and interrupted sleep nights, it seems like the time with my baby is flying by far too quickly. Soon he will be a rough and tumble bundle of energy like his older brother, constantly keeping me on my toes and on the go. I think I'll go now and cuddle with my littlest man, while I still can.

A trip to WEM

2009-03-06T14:11:00.004-07:00

Late last month we took a weekend trip to Edmonton and took Ryan and Adam to West Edmonton Mall. Our original plan was to visit the Waterpark but since we were all just getting over colds, we opted to just shop and visit the amusement park instead.

When we first arrived at the Condo, we had the unfortunate occurance of breaking the key off in the door. That had us changing our Saturday plans as we fixed the situation. Ryan enjoyed doing a couple of new puzzles on the floor of the condo that night.

The next day, we headed to West Ed. The MFRC here in Cold Lake offers passes to WEM at quite a discount. An adult pass to the amusement park for example is $31.95 at the mall. The MFRC offers them for $18. And since Ryan and Adam are 2 and under, they were FREE!

We rode the train through the park first.

Then we tried to take Ryan on a bunch of the rides (Motojump, 35th Areo Squadron, ect) but he was just a fraction too short to ride them. So we had to settle for rides that he was too short for but that allow a short rider to ride with an adult. So we rode the kiddie convoy a couple of times (with Adam as well), the carousel (Ryan only since Adam was napping) and the balloon race.

Brad also took the oportunity to ride the mindbender (Ryan, Adam and I stood in the middle of one of the loops and watched Brad whiz by!) and the cosmic spinner. We enjoyed some ice cream in the food court later in the day where Ryan ate almost a whole chocolate dipped ice cream cone that I had wanted us to share.

Ryan also enjoyed a couple of the ride on cars through out the mall (and in Southgate the day before) and once we were finished our rides and Ryan was beyond tired, instead of making him walk the mall again, we rented a car for him to ride/drive in.

Earlier in the day we posed for some pictures at the bridge that goes over the mini put course. Ryan also took a short ride on Daddy's shoulders to catch a glimpse at the seals.

Sharin' a lil' love... on Valentines Day

2009-03-03T14:20:00.004-07:00

Despite all of us feeling a little under the weather on Valentines Day, we enjoyed some "heart" fun all day.
First we had heart shaped pancakes for breakfast.

For lunch we had heart shaped grilled cheese and some heart shaped cookies for dessert.

At dinner time, I made an old recipe Brad and enjoyed a lot before we had kids. The vegetables unfortunately didn't turn out so well and I never got around to making any of the valentines day desserts I had hoped to make, but there were leftover cookies from lunch and jello with cool whip left over from our Fun with Friends gathering the day before.

There were also presents. I gave the boys a new toy car each and some playdoh for Ryan. There were also some Mickey Mouse and My Friends Tigger and Pooh removable wall stickers for their bedrooms.

We gave Brad a new woodworking magazine and the new Nickelback cd.

Brad gave me a gift certificate to have a facial, manicure and pedicure. I can't wait for the chance to use it!

Leggo my Fun!

2009-03-02T13:42:00.003-07:00

I know it's been a while since I blogged. We've been up to all sorts of fun things. First off, we had some lego fun!
I made a castle and put Ryan's favorite Winnie the Pooh characters in the windows of the castle.

And what castle would be complete without a couple of princesses, a dragon, and of course a ghost.

The next day I made a play area with the lego, that the boys could sit in and play in.

Unfortunately, it wasn't very stable and boys play rough so it never even lasted long enough for a playing in it photo :(

Ryan at 30 months

2009-01-04T01:10:00.012-07:00

Ryan a couple of days old

Ryan is 30 months old now. He seems so old. He can do so much and it seems like he learns something new everyday.

Ryan Christmas 06, about 6 months old

Ryan now speaks in small sentences; sometimes complete sentences, sometimes not.

Ryan, 1 year old

Ryan can do up and undo zippers except for the very bottom part. He loves to dress and unress himself to go out. He can almost get his coat on by himself, can put on his own hat (although often askew) and mittens. He can take off his boots.

Ryan, Christmas 07, about 1 1/2 years old

Ryan likes to sit in a big boy chair whenever possible.

Ryan, 2 years old

Ryan loves brushing his teeth everynight before bed.

Ryan, Christmas 08, almost 30 months old

Ryan loves to take pictures and likes to take my camera and try to take his own pictures.

Ryan "reading" parts 1&2

He needs his fresh cold water cup, soother (lo-lo), puppy dog and "mine" (blanket) to sleep.

Ryan "reading" parts 3&4

His favorite cartoon at the moment is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, although he still enjoys the Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show and My friends Tigger and Pooh as well.

Ryan "reading" parts 5&6

Cute expressions from recently:

You can tell that Ryan wants something when you ask him if he wants it and he says "really?" in high pitched almost squeal.

"Ryan is busy"

"Gran gran is coming in couple days"

"Ryan is waking up"

"It's got to be somewhere" (refering to any object but usually his water cup or soother)

Over the holidays he quickly picked up many new words; Santa, angel, snowman, snow, snowflake, reindeer, presents, tree, "purple" lights, and candy cane.

Ryan likes to give kisses and hugs and has recently started "slurp"ing as well.

Ryan blowing a kiss to the camera

Ryan is not as jealous of Adam as he used to be and is very excited to have someone to play with. But sometimes he gets a little too exctied and too rough with his little brother. I think overall, Ryan will be a fabulous older brother.

Christmas Memories 08

2009-01-02T17:58:00.018-07:00

Just a couple of thoughts about Christmas this year... (warning...this will be a long blog with pictures and video!)

I had thought about asking someone to take pictures (especially of Ryan and Adam) while we were opening presents but since I knew we were going to be recording it I didn't. In the past, I've been able to import movie clips into windows movie maker and take still shots from there and so that was my plan for this year's Christmas morning video. Unfortunately, our camcorder records mpeg2 videos and those do not work with windows movie maker. I've researched converting the videos to make them work but it's just not going to happen this year.

In my hopes for the season, I wanted to be able to take my time, and enjoy it all with the boys while still holding on to traditions and making some new ones. I started early but things always took longer than I imagined and in the end not everything I had hoped was done but it was still a festive year and I have ideas on how to improve things for next year. I am in the process of making myself a holiday planner like the one I made Amanda (and Darryl) for Christmas. I hope it will help me feel more organized and ready for Christmas and able to do and enjoy more.

I took Ryan and Adam to the Fun With Friends Christmas party. It was bitterly cold that day and there were not many people but they had booked the assembly hall at the MFRC (where we have our baby sale) and so there was lots of room for the kids to run around in...which was GREAT! I helped Ryan make a couple of Christmas crafts and I made a couple for Adam as well. Then we had some yummy holiday treats. In fact, I still have to go and pick up my muffin tins that I left there that day.

Brad and I went to his staff Christmas party. Gran-Gran Anita came to babysit Ryan and spend the night, and we took Adam (dressed as Santa) with us. Again, it was bitterly cold. But a fun night. We had dinner at Clarks (yummy!) where Adam managed to spill a whole picture of water into Brad's lap. Then we all went over to the Harbour House for desserts, drinks and a gift exchange. Brad and I took Adam for a quick car ride first so he would fall asleep- which he did! Paul had a new camera and took photos of everyone at the party. He printed them off on canvas and very large for everyone for Christmas. We left with 3 new pieces of tupperware from the gift exchange.

Of course I took Ryan and Adam to see Santa at the mall, have Angel portraits done, and had holiday pictures taken at Walmart. I also took them to the Santa Claus parade. Ryan let me put Adam in the wagon with him to pull them down there. Adam stayed in the wagon the whole time and Ryan got out to watch the parade with me. Ryan walked a good portion of the way home that night. We missed the Rona float catching fire and burning to the ground. Since that held up the parade from getting to the Exihibition Park, I am glad I decided to not go to that and have Hot Chocolate with Santa that night.

Christmas Eve I made a crock pot ham like I do every year. It is one of our favorite meals and I make it a couple of times during the year. Brad's parents came over for dinner and after dinner we all went for a drive to look at the "purple lights" (as Ryan says). There were some nice houses, but far less than I expected and many more had no lights at all. There was one house in Cold Lake North though that was worth the whole trip. WOW! Now that is some spirit! Ryan LOVED it!

Ryan and Adam opened a couple of gifts early. First they opened new Christmas pjs that I knew my mother had gotten for them. The next night they opened clothing that I wanted them to wear to have their pictures taken with Santa- a tee shirt with a santa hat on it that says I believe for Ryan and a red fleece one peice with feet that say "ho ho" for Adam. I did have a gift for them to open on Chrismtas Eve as well but by the time all was said and done on Christmas Eve, it was so late and I didn't think Ryan would react well to opening just one gift. (It was a touchy feely nativity book)

After our meal Christmas eve and our drive to look at lights, we stayed up to web cam visit with Darryl, Amanda and the girls for about an hour.

Then Brad and I finished with the last of our gifts, brought them upstairs and laid out the stockings before heading to bed. It was great to have his mom stay over and help with that.

The next morning Ryan got up around his usual time and we did stockings before having a breakfast of cinnamon buns, turkey bacon and fresh fruit with dip. After breakfast we started to open gifts. We had to take a break to lay out some snacks and for me to nurse Adam and get him down for a nap. Ryan stayed awake for all the gift opening this year and only fought us a little when we told him he had to go have a nap when it was all over. (videos- the best of christmas stockings o8 part 1 and 2)

Brad's Dad had a chicken for us to cook and even made the stuffing. It was great to not have to do that myself...although I do wish he had cleaned and stuffed it before bringing it over and not leaving it to Anita and I to do. Anita made pyrogies and cabbage rolls earlier in the month and froze them to bring to dinner. They were yummy! I had cut up my vegtables and put them in a large tupperware bowl of water earlier on Christmas Eve so all I needed to do was put them on to boil. I had put the bowl out in the garage as I didn't have room in my fridge for it and they froze! Not solid but still frozen none the less.

I encouraged Brad to buy something for each boy from just him this year. His gifts were a big hit! He bought Ryan his first remote control car (which is VERY cool) and a pump action drag racer set which matches the racetrack gran gran and grandpa Jim bought him in the spring. For Adam, Brad bought a ball popper. Adam likes it but Ryan especially loves it and I think Adam just loves watching Ryan's excitement as he plays with the popper.

We also visited with friends. Phillip was home for Christmas and dropped by to visit the boys and I. I hosted playgroup the day after that and then that night we went to Sara and Nathan's for dinner.

We stayed in for a quiet NYE and NYD where we continued our House marathon and ate more of our favorite snacks. Ryan couldn't quite stay awake on NYE even watching his usual Bugs Bunny cartoons before bed in our room, he fell asleep.

Melanchuk Top 10 of 08

2009-01-01T10:23:00.017-07:00

Here is our top 10 events of the year 2008! It was a memorable year.
*pictures that are centered are big, pictures that are on the left can be clicked anc made bigger

10. Brad's new video card. A Christmas gift to himself, he scored a "tested" version of it on ebay for what he calls a steal of a deal. (no picture available at posting time!)

9. The Dr. Jack Newman conference. For about 6 months, it was about all I could think about. It was great to be part of something so great in this area.

8. Christmas 08- some very nice gifts under the tree, some great company and food. More family and more time off for Brad would make it even more amazing.

7. The yard! Very exciting to have grass and places to play. The true test will be in the spring when the snow is gone and to see how it held up over it's first winter.

6. The instant tankless hot water system. One perk is the ability to have the dishwasher or washer running while 2 people shower and not run out of hot water or pressure but the true best part of this is the heat on the mainfloor and being able to use all parts of the house all year round.

5. The van- never thought I would like much less be able to drive a van. But with power seats it makes it possible. So glad we were able to find the van. It has made life a little easier. Now if we could just sell the bug...

4. A vist from Aunt Pat and Uncle Walt. A short but sweet visit while they were out west for a wedding.

3. The Melanchuk/Yaremko reunion of 08...Getting pictures of 4 generations of one family all together is just amazing if you ask me. We are so happy Darryl, Amanada and the girls came home for a quick visit and to celebrate Ryan's birthday again. We were very fortunate that Vance and Sara and the boys were able to drive over and visit us for the weekend as well.

2. Mom and Jim's visit/ the engine rebuild and the rocking horse. It's always nice to have my parents visit. Brad learned some new car skills and Ryan was given a beautiful rocking horse that we will cherish for a long time.

1. The birth of Adam...we went from a family of 3 to 4 and while a girl would have been nice too, I just love my littlest boy.

Do you see what I see?

2008-12-31T22:27:00.009-07:00

Earlier this holiday season, I took the boys to the mall to see Santa Claus and have some pictures taken. Ryan was great and Adam was curious. Photos taken by Anne Daine Photogrpahy/Prints Charming.

I also took the boys to Walmart because they have new kid Christmas theme backgrounds that are cute and would make great photos. Ryan was very excited to see Santa in the background when we had the picture taken.

On a side note, we've been to the mall now since Christmas is over and when we walked past the tree, chair and fireplace where he had his picture taken with Santa Ryan asked "Where Santa at Momma?" I explained that Santa and the reindeer had gone back to the North Pole (far away) to start making the toys for next year. That seemed to satisfy him.

Welcoming 2009!

2008-12-31T19:14:00.007-07:00

The last year I lived in Newfoundland, I remember my cousin Jim(my) babysitting his sister and I on New Years Eve. He invited some of his frends over and they brought and/or made all sorts of junk food. What a great spread! His sister and I got to stay up until midnight, join in on eating all the junk. Fast foreward almost 20 years and I am spending a similar NYE.

Brad and I are not big partiers, nor are we big drinkers (plus I am still nursing so no big plans to go on a bender to welcome in 2009). Our big plans for welcoming in the new year look like this:

Dinner: fun snack foods (wings, nachos, raw veggies with dip and the oreintal party pack from M and M Meats) with our favorite pop

Entertainment: a House marathon (borrowed DVDs from a co-worker) and two active little boys and maybe some dominoes or Bang! (although we may need to call on our favorite imaginary friends for that)

Dessert: assorted holiday baking and munchies (chips, bits and bites, chocolates) and more of our favorite pop

Besides, it beats facing the weather outside. It is snowy, cold and windy.

Welcome 2009! I hope it brings happiness and joy to all near and dear to us!

Little Angels

2008-12-28T00:08:00.004-07:00

Images Studios (a local photo studio) does a special every year at Christmas that they call "Angels". The studio reduces their sitting fee and donates it to Santa's Anonymous. Ryan's first Christmas, I took him to have these pictures done and I surprised Brad with the photos for his office. Last year I didn't do them but I decided to do them again this year with both Ryan and Adam. Unfortunately Ryan was not cooperative and would not take a picture alone. The photographer did manage to snap a couple of great shots of my two boys together. As for Adam, he was his usual smiley, happy self and there were many photos to choose from.

Here are the photos I choose of Ryan two years ago:

And here are the photos of Adam and Ryan from this year:

I would just like to thank Images Studios for doing this and always capturing such amazing photos.

Cold noses, warm hearts and rosy red cheeks

2008-12-07T14:35:00.004-07:00

We are finlly begining to get some snow accumulation in our neck of the woods. Last night after dinner, we bundled everybody up and went out to shovel the driveway. Brad did buy a snowblower last winter but there wasn't quit enough to get it out. Ryan had fun with his little red shovel too and I wore Adam in the peapod wrap over my snowclothes, with him in his knit suit from Grandma.

While Brad shoveled, Ryan, Adam and I went for a walk down our road looking at Christmas decorations. Down towards the end of our street there is a house that has two light up reindeer and a sleigh. Ryan knows the word reindeer now and for the rest of the night and so far today, Ryan has been telling everybody that "reindeer live far away". Not because he knows they live at the North Pole with Santa and that is far away, but because the reindeer at the end of our street.

Belated Birthday gift

2008-12-07T14:20:00.005-07:00

For my birthday, Brad gave me a homemade gift certificate for some salon treatments. It took me until the 1st of December to find a day that would work with our schedules and that of my hair stylist. When I went to see her, she said that according to her notes, it was 1 year minus 1 week since I had last been in. I knew it had been a while but I didn't think it was that long! So she started by cutting off 3 inches or so and then we started the coloring. We used a mocca brown close to my original hair color with some brownish red and gold highlights. Then she waxed my eyebrows and finished trimming the rest of my hair. Sometimes she styles my hair curly and sometimes she styles it straight. I've never really been a fan of my hair straight mostly because it never seems to last. But this time she did a GREAT job and I am loving it straight so much that I have asked for a flat iron for Christmas.

It was such a great treat for me! Brad drove me to my appointment and then he took the boys shopping at the mall. Just before he and Ryan went for lunch, he dropped a hungry Adam back with me. Adam nursed like a pro under the cape and fell asleep in my arms. He woke up just before we were finished and entertained the other people in the salon before Grandma came to the rescue so my stylist could flat iron my hair and not worry about little fingers grabbing hair, hot flat irons or cords.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

2008-11-27T22:10:00.005-07:00

It is about to be Amanda's birthday. Technically it is already her birthday where she lives now. Amanda is my husband's brother's wife. She is the sister I never had but always wanted. She is a great mom, wife, daughter, sister and friend. She inspires me to be a better me in all my various roles. I am grateful that she and Darryl found each other and now have such a beautiful family to share with us.My favorite memory of Amanda is of a thoughtful care package she sent before Ryan was born. And of a family photo album she made for us the Chrismtas before Ryan was born, when they came home to Canada for Christmas with Kathryn.

These are two photos of Amanda, from this summer. What I really like about these photos is how you can see Amanda as a mom interacting with her daughters (actually I think both pictures are mainly of Amanda and Amelia, but the point is still the same-great mom!)

Darryl's mom shared with me a neat trick that she uses to remember her sons' birthdays which ironically also apply to the son's wives. The day of the month of birth of her sons (and her daughter's in law) are only one day apart with the oldest being born on the first calendar day (12, 13, and 28, 29- BTW this is also how we fall according to age as well, with both men being older than not only their wife but their sister-in-law as well). Then all she has to do is remember the month. We are all born in different months, but Darryl, Amanda and I are born in subsequent months, leaving Brad born close to our months but not in a subsequent month. But Brad has a distinctive birthdate, so that might help her remember as well. Then again, what mom doesn't remember the birth of her children? I just think the math is cute, and that it is weird that Amanda and I also fall into the pattern.

Anyhow, Happy Birthday Amanda! I hope you have a wonderful birthday. Maybe someday we will be able to celebrate it and thanksgiving together with our families.

From the mouth of our toddler...

2008-11-24T16:13:00.002-07:00

Here are just a couple of things (cute ones I think) that Ryan has said in the last little while.
~Mommy, look snowman on the car. (It was snowing, and somehow Ryan thinks all snow is snowman/men)
~(while riding in the car from Daddy's work to the mall) Coming up next, shopping!
~ Go in car, go shopping, buy more pretty lights. (just this morning)
~Ryan upset! (This comes out just before he stomps his feet and has one of his meltdowns)
~Ryan is awake! (our greeting almost every morning now)
~(when you ask Ryan what his brothers' name is he replies) Adam bra* (*brother)
~(when you ask him what his name is he replies) Ryan there
~ two candy please (when he gets in his car seat and waits to be buckled in he gets a treat)

Wordless Wednesday- Welcome Winter

2008-11-12T14:35:00.003-07:00

Talk About Tuesday- Home Tour Edition

2008-11-11T23:18:00.010-07:00

It's been a while since I've TATed. I thought for this month's home edition I would share the "boys" room. It is official. It is no longer just Ryan's room. We are transitioning Adam into that room and the crib as well. Some storage and space issues had to be cleared up before that could happen. I wish I had some before pics...well maybe not because it was not a pretty sight.

First of all, Ryan had to be transitioned back to his "big boy" bed. Since shortly after Adam was born, Ryan has taken to sleeping on the floor. At first he would just refuse to sleep in his bed, would cry and kick and scream. He would always end up falling asleep with his favorite blanket and teddy bear by the door to his room. So we decided why fight it, got a bunch of old blankets and comforters and made a blanket mattress on the floor near his door. That's where he has sleot all summer and into the fall. We carried the same idea over into our room and placed a similar blanket mattress on the floor at the foot of our bed, and on the occiasions when he wakes mid-night and comes into our room, that is where he sleeps.

His bed was becoming a dumping ground for me. It had toys on it, clothes, blankets. I figured if he wasn't going to use it, I would. The same held true for the crib in the room. It was housing clean laundry that got folded but never made it into the closet. Or sizes that were too big/small for either boy. Last weekend I spent a lot of time working on the room, got the clothes sorted and put away, got toys sorted, organized and stored. I turned the room back into a functional space again. Ryan's blankets that make up his mattress on the floor needed to be laundered and I didn't have them ready before bedtime, so I thought, well why not try to have him sleep in his bed again. That first night, he walked into his room a little confused as to where his "bed" was but then I told him to climb up onto the "big boy bed" and he did. As abruptly as the floor sleeping started, it has now ended.

Since Adam is 6 months old now, I thought it would be a good time to try to make the crib transition. It is not going as smoothly but we are working on it. Ryan seems to like having his brother in his room.

Anyhow, here is what the room looks like now. The view from the door: Ryan's bed is to the left and Adam's crib is on the opposite wall.

We use a body pillow on Ryan's big boy bed to help keep him from rolling off the bed. I think he also likes it since it is like having someone sleeping in the bed with him and he spent quite a bit of time sharing our bed.

The veiw from the corner of the room opposite the door. This view shows the over the door organizers I have. One holds cars although it is currently empty since we have another car holder that is on wheels that Ryan rolls out from his room to living room to play. (And it slides nicely under his bed when not in use). The other door organizer holds face cloths and bibs.

This veiw is of the closet. One side is for Ryan, one is for Adam. I use the top shelf in the closet to store toys on. My guys have so many toys, that I use a rotation schedule on them. Every 10 days to 2 weeks I switch out what toys I have in a bin in the living room, and in the basket in their room. Toys not in that week's rotation get stored under the bed, crib or on the shelf in the closet. I also have another one of those over the door organizers that I hang off the back of Adam's crib. It holds socks and robeez/slippers.

Under the bed and crib I also have a storage bag that is holding clothes that are currently too big/too small. I used to use those rubbermaid storage bins for these but there were 4 or 5 medium sized ones plus 2-4 small ones (with socks, shoes and other assorted accessories) cluttering my spare bedroom closet. There is still work to be done here. I have some pictures to hang, shelves to go up to hold picture frames and other assorted knick-knacks and the letters for the boys names to go up. Actually I still have to paint Adam's name. OOOPS!

For more information about Talk About Tuesday, or to see what others are Talking About this week, visit Lara at The Lazy Organizer.

Birthdays, hallowe'en haul and our pumpkin patch.

2008-11-03T17:41:00.007-07:00

My birthday was on a Wednesday this year. Not really a fun day in our family. It is Brad's first day back to work after being off for 2 days. It is a long day for Brad since he has a staff meeting that night. So I knew I would have to take charge in some of my own birthday celebrations. I made my favorite salmon for dinner and earlier in the afternoon I made a chocolate birthday cake with fluffy white icing. Ryan was so excited about the cake. He wanted to have some the moment he saw it but I told him we had to wait for Daddy to get home from work. The minute Brad got in the door. Ryan ran down the stairs yelling "cake cake cake", then he came up the stairs and told me it was "time to eat cake".

My mom sent me some great Christmasy stuff. It is fun to get Christmas stuff for my birthday since the holiday season is just right around the corner.

She also sent me a wonderful generations figurine from WillowTree.

Brad and the boys gave me a gift certificate to get my hair done. YAY! It's been a while. I don't even remember when really. Before Adam though. My mom also offered to buy me some hair care products when I go to the salon. That is great because I've been sparingly using the products I have and am almost all out.

Darryl, Amanda and the girls sent me flowers. It is a beautiful arrangement and was very festive for Halloween right away.

It was a great birthday all in all.

Then Friday was Hallowe'en. It is our usual play group day, so I made little treat bags for the kids at playgroup. It was one of the little boy's birthday and so his mom made chocolate cupcakes. Ryan grabbed four right away, took a bite out of each one and then ran off to play. He later came back to sample the fluffy white icing, handfuls at a time, right out of the can. I had a cute little pumpkin costume from Ryan's first hallowe'en that Adam wore.

^Ryan in 2006
At the baby sale last spring, I found a pumpkin costume for Ryan, and then I went out and bought one for myself as well.

^We were a cute pumpkin patch if I do say so myself.

I also had a cute Tigger sleeper for Adam as well.

The boys also had hallowe'een shirts they wore.

I took both boys out trick or treating on Friday. Adam just went along in the stroller looking cute and eventually fell asleep in the fresh air. Ryan did all the houses on our street and about half of the next street. He was cute. Sometimes he would try to say "trick or treat" but mostly he just said "please" or "candy please" or "candy in pumpin(pumpkin) please". Whenever someone said "Happy Hallowe'en" to him, he would respond "Happy Day". He had a little pumpkin basket he carried around, and I would frequently empty it into a canvas bag I had with me on the stroller. By the end of our night the canvas bag was almost full as was his pumpkin. Ryan enjoyed a bag of cheesies at the end of the night while watching cartoons with gran-gran and even shared his cheesies with Adam and Mommy.

The next day we went to a birthday party. It was a firehall themed party to match the birthday boys hallowe'en costume. The guests were invited to dress up in their hallowe'en gear as well. Here are some photos from that day. The birthday boy wouldn't keep his costume on though. He also had some help from his friends opening his presents. And Adam pumpkin taught Pilot-in-training Aiden how to push up off the floor during tummy time.

Busy October

2008-11-02T14:02:00.009-07:00

WOW! I never would have thought that October would be as busy as it was. It seems like just days ago it was the first of the month and we were enjoying summer like temps and gearing up for the baby sale. Now, October is over; the weather is wet and cold and the holiday season will soon be upon us. I have many things to blog about and just as many pictures to share.

First of all, Thanksgiving.

It's celebrated in October (the 2nd weekend) in Canada. That doesn't stop me from "celebrating" it in November as well. With as many friends and family as we have south of the border, I think it just makes good sense to observe both. But for Canadian Thanksgiving this year, I did three nights of cooking where we invited Brad's parents over. The first night was Saturday (the 11th) and it wasn't really Thanksgivingy, just a BBQ using up some of those steaks we were gifted with earlier this summer. Brad's dad came over but his mom didn't feel quite up to it. Sunday, I did our favorite crock pot ham and mashed potatoes. Again, Brad's dad came over but I can't remember if mom joined us, although I think she did. I made rhubarb crisp and apple crisp for dessert that night and unfortunately there was not enough left to save for dessert the next night. Monday night we dinned on two rotisserie chickens, potatoes, carrots, gravy, stove top and a nice light angel food cake with fluffy dream whip frosting and a cute little plastic turkey decoration.

There were enough leftovers that I attempted for the first time to make Chicken Pot Pie. I even made my own crust. The crust will take some work but I think the pot pie was pretty pleasing. I'll definately make it again!

Earlier in the week, the weather had been a little blustery and the boys and I shared a day of stay in our jammies and we made cookies.

Ryan is a great helper!

We took a wirlwind trip to the city so Brad could attend an electronics fair. We took the HHR and not the van. It was loaded to the gills, but much of that was the bedding we needed to stay at the condo downtown and not a hotel. Next time, I have a solution for that...space bags! The boys travelled very well. And we were so excited when we arrived in Smokey Lake to find gas under $1.00. Brad loved his fair and while he was doing that, I took the boys on the bus downtown to Kingsway Garden Mall where we met up with friends from Babies First who were also in the city. We had a nice visit with Brad's grandma and then a lovely meal at Red Robin. BTW, they serve a "tartar" sauce with their fish and chips that Brad LOVES. It was much fun. I did take not only the camera but the video camera with me, but never took any pictures. Sorry!

On our trip to the city we invested in a 2G memory card for the camera we got at Christmas time last year. Up to now, we had just been working with the little memory it has on it's own harddrive and taking 10 pictures at a time. Now with the new card we can take lots of photos and even video. I experimented with picture settings one afternoon while Ryan was sleeping. Look who is more than mobile...

So glad we bought that fence to go around the Christmas tree last year (ang bought more at the baby sale this year). I have a feeling one little monkey will be pulling up on the gate around the tree.

Ryan has been enjoying going "shopping" with mommy. He especially likes to wear his monkey and help mommy push Adam in the stroller. He is also eager to help put items from our basket up on the counter to pay (unless it is something he REALLY wants). He wants to have his own "card" too. But what I think he likes the best is getting a cookie in the bakery and sometimes riding the vehicles in the mall. It is very rare that I will give him money to make them work but that doesn't stop him from climbing onto/into them and playing anyway.

I'll blog more about the end of the month, my birthday and Hallowe'en, soon.

Sharing Discovery...

2008-10-11T09:11:00.002-06:00

I know I've mentioned a couple of times before that I am an Independent Educational Consultant with Discovery Toys. With Christmas being less than 80 days away, I wanted to blog today and offer all of you out there, who live anywhere in Canada, my expertise. My expertise that I am offering you is the opportunity to get some Christmas shopping done, particularily if you have children on your list. Leave me a comment on this blog with your email to book your personal Christmas shopping appointment (via catalogue) with me now or get a couple of friends together and earn free toys off your Christmas Wish List with a catalogue party. With 64% of our new fall line products $20 or less and our unconditional satisfaction guarantee*, you just can't afford to shop anywhere else for toys this holiday season!

*30 day guarantee on Books, CDs and DVDs

If you live in the US, you can leave me a comment as well and I can help you find a consultant in your area.

I also want to offer to any of you Canadians out there as well, if you are the age of majority and want to earn a little extra spending cash this holiday season, I am looking to expand my team and until October 17th, Discovery Toys is offering a recruiting bonus! Here is the usual rocket start kit for Discovery Toys in Canada:

Until October 17th, if you join Discovery Toys, they will add Jungle Tower (a new fall toy) FREE of CHARGE to your kit:

Baby Sale Scores

2008-10-06T16:54:00.006-06:00

I remember back in the day, before I had children of my own, when I had never even heard of the babysale. Then a friend of mine had a baby. The following year, on her daughter's first birthday and right around the time they moved out of their PMQ and into a house, I remembered she had mentioned she was so busy with the baby sale. She told me about this great event where she could get second hand clothes, toys and such for her daughter at very reasonable prices. And because she volunteered her time on the Friday night and part of Saturday, she was able to get "first dibs" on items as they were unpacking them and putting them out on the tables Friday night while setting up for the sale Saturday. When she moved away, I forgot all about this sale until I was pregnant with Ryan. My pre-natal instructor mentioned it in one of our classes and although we didn't know the sex of our then unborn baby, I went. By the next sale, I was a member of the breastfeeding support group that puts on the sale, and I've never looked back. I'v blogged about the sale before. Two times a year, the sale is part of my life. Last spring's sale was the day after what my doctor wanted to be my elective repeat c-section (and as it turns out, I worked the sale all day and still didn't go into labour until late the next week!)

It is true that the best way to score the good "big" items is to watch diligently as they come in. But I often find I don't have the time for that and am usually off doing other things. My best deals on clothes are found while unpacking and even the next day, late in the sale, as I am tryig to get a jump start on reorganzing. This sale I scored some great deals and as I want to be a more fugal mom, I thought, hey some of these will make great Christmas gifts for my boys! (After all it is new to them!)

First of all, there are the two tubs of large duplo lego that I got. A volunteer had put it aside Friday night and didn't claim it before the end of the sale. We really don't like it when that happens because our consignors deserve the chance to have as much of their items as possible sell. Anyhow, I thought, wow! Ryan would love this and so I added it to my stuff which was being added up at a nearby table. I didn't even take off the tape and lift the lid to make sure it was infact lego. It could have been just about anything. Fortunately when I got home I was pleasantly surprised that it was in fact lego, lots of it, with more character pieces than I was expecting. It is currently hiding in a spare room closet, waiting for Christmas.

Brad also found two Disney DVDs (one of Mickey Mouse cartoons and one of Donald Duck cartoons) that I have yet to check out on our DVD player but the one doesn't looked scratched at all, but one does show a little wear. If they work well, they will also go aside for Christmas. As will the Winnie the Pooh and Tigger rainboots for Ryan.

Both boys need new snowsuits. I consigned the yellow fleece one with the car seat bunting bag that I had with Ryan and the navy and blue down filled one is only the perfect length for Adam now. If he grows at all this winter, it will be too short. So I bought this Winnie the Pooh fleece one. It has attachable booties, a hood but it is missing it's attachable mittens. But mittens I can get. And for $5 I couldn't let it sit there. For Ryan I go a blue one piece that has attachable mittens and booties plus a hood. It also has a fleece scarf and hat, plus the scarf has a pocket for a little teddy bear. This suit still had the tags on it and the person consigning it was asking half of the original price. So I got it.

Adam needs jeans. Before the sale he only had one pair of baby gap and one pair of demin overalls that fit him. Other demin I have are in the 6m+ sizes and too big for him yet. But I was able to find him some jeans and a couple of cute outfits.
These outfits are for now...

These outfits are going away as Christmas gifts for Adam...

Ryan grew so tall this summer that he needs new pants as well. But his waist is still so tiny that I was looking mostly for those adjustable waist pants for him. I also found him a couple of new sweaters that are long enough in the arms, 2 pairs of used robeez for wearing in the house and at playgroup as slippers plus an awesome wetsuit with built in floaties for the pool! I also found some hiking boots that I will use as Winter boots and two new books, one that will be great for taking along to restaurants.

I also found some bigger adjustable waist pants and some other assorted clothes that I am going to put away for Ryan for Christmas as well.

With the deals I was able to score at the baby sale, some items I've already gotten (like from the Anniversary Sale at Walmart and the Olympic Sale with Discovery Toys) I am almost finished my Christmas shopping for the boys! It feels great!

October already?!

2008-10-06T16:54:00.005-06:00

The time is just flying. My littlest man is already 5 months old, a tooth is desparate to make it's escape from his gums, he babbles almost non-stop, rolls front to back and back to front plus he is now trying to push up onto his hands and feet (not knees for the crawling position). Only a handful of days into this month and they sure have been busy.

On the first, the local breastfeeding support group I belong to, Babies First, went to the "Let's Talk Baby" session at the local health unit. Let's talk baby is a session for moms (and babies) who have a baby under one years old. They cover a new topic each week and Babies First went because it was World Breastfeeding week here in Canada. I wanted to blog about World Breastfeeding Week as well since the theme this year is "mother to mother support" and that is exactly what the Babies First group I belong to is all about. Also, I know from first hand experience that mother to mother support can help you have a more successful breastfeeding experience.

The 2nd of the month was a Thursday and so it was our monthly Babies First meeting. Since we had some new moms come out (we had a couple of under 6 wk old babies join us...how exciting!) Tina asked me to speak about World Breastfeeding week again. We also talked briefly about our playgroup, the upcoming consignment sale and Dr. Jack Newman's visit in November. The 3rd was Friday and that means playgroup morning, but this was also the Friday night set up for the Baby Sale on Saturday. Ryan and I were very lucky that "gran-gran" Melanchuk was able to take a couple of days and come babysit him since babysale days are very long and busy.

I'll blog more about the baby sale in a later post, but over all I think it was pretty successful again. I was worried because there is so much construction going on around the venue, but it didn't seem to deter too many people away. Also while making our phonecalls and emails to consignors, it seemed like perhaps we had lost quite a few to postings and moves this summer but we picked up some new ones and there was still much to be had.

A couple of days to sit back and relax and tackle some household chores that fell to the wayside while we were busy gearing up for the sale. Which brings us to today. It is one of those wet, damp and dreary fall days. It is a perfect day to catch up on some blogging, change over the clothes in the closet from spring/summer to fall/winter (oh I forgot to mention that last week Mother Nature had a memory lapse and sent us some delightful Indian Summer weather with temps around 20 C all week!). I'm also going to make some chocolate chip cookies with Ryan later this afternoon and then we can curl up on the couch with some warm blankets and eat fresh warm cookies and watch some cartoons or build with some blocks.

Meal Plan Monday

2008-09-29T13:26:00.006-06:00

To see what other people have on their menus this week, get tasty recipes or share your weekly menu and recipes, visit Lara at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Last week it was great having family favorites. As an aside, while I loved making homemade pizza with the kit, it doesn't work to use my pizza oven. But I do have a pizza stone and a regular oven that worked just as well.

This week we are crazy busy. Our menu probably reflects that. Oh, and I saw a wonderful recipe on Rachael Ray involving spaghetti squash which happens to be on sale this week. I just don't think I have the time to make this recipe. So if anyone has any ideas on how to store squash so I can take advantage of the sale this week and make the recipe next week.

Monday- Just Ryan and I as Brad is out on a huge install in Saskatchewan- pasta with tomato sauce, salad and garlic toast

Tuesday- Brad has another install after work so he wants to eat and go- omlettes (we have some ham to use up and I might put some salsa in mine)

Wednesday- Brad's staff meeting night so late dinner- oven roasted chicken breasts with rice and veggies

Thursday- Babies First meeting after dinner so eat and run night- waffles with bacon

Friday- Consignment Sale set up- Submarine Sandwhiches (I am not sure if we will eat out or make our own at home but we do have coupons for one of the local sub shops)

Saturday- Consignment Sale- left over Lasagna from last week that I froze

Sunday-Lazy day after this busy, busy week- Pizza

Wal-Mart savings

2008-09-28T10:50:00.004-06:00

Normally, I am not a huge fan of Wal-Mart. Before the days of the self- check outs, I found that there was almost always a line at Wal-Mart that could not be conquered in under a 20 minute wait. If I went to Wal-Mart looking for something specific I could never find it. But if I went in with nothing in mind to find, I almost always left with something (not exactly the kind of shopping you need to be doing on a fixed budget). However, in recent months, I have been comparison shopping between my two local grocery stores, Zellers and Wal-Mart. I pay close attention to each stores fliers and I have a growing list of prices from each store of things I normally buy with some regularity. With Sobeys and Zellers being in the same "mall" and Extra Food on the way, as long as I have my list I can do the shopping in one trip. Wal-Mart is actually the closest to me and until it snows, as long as I don't need a lot of things from there, I can walk with the boys and the double stroller.

On Tuesday when our paper came, there was a Wal-Mart flier advertising an anniversary sale. As I looked at the flier I noticed quite a few things that were great deals and I would like to get. I even pointed them out to Brad that night. Unfortunately on Wednesday, Ryan and Adam both had congestion (a combination of teething and possible colds) and it was a cool day so I didn't want to take them out. Thursday was much of the same but once we finished supper I convinced Brad we should all go out to Wal-Mart and see what (if anything) was still available on these deals.

Imagine my surprise to be able to find just about everything. The only thing was that none of it was marked on sale. Oh well, I said to Brad, if the sale prices don't come up I will just show them the flier (because I was so well prepared that I had it folded in my purse with the items I wanted starred with black sharpie). Brad asked to see the flier and that is when I realised why I was able to find so much of what I wanted on what I thought was the last day of the sale... turns out the sale didn't start until the next morning. So we put the things back and Brad encouraged me to come back first thing in the morning.

But Friday is playgroup morning so I took the boys to playgroup first, where I shared my embarassment from the night before. When we left playgroup, I overheard a bunch of othermoms from the pre-school talking about the sale as well. A few had already gone that morning, some were headed there right away. I knew then that I had NO CHOICE, but I would have to go right away in order to try to get all the things on my list.

I came out with everything I wanted (plus a couple of other things as well...it was lunch time after all and the snacks onsale were SCREAMING at me). I got:

3-pack handi-snacks (crackers and cheese) 5@ 97 cents
**plus two 50 cent off vendor coupons
Delisso frozen Pizza's 3 @ 4.97
Q-tips (500 count) 2 @ 2.45
4 pack Dove Soap 3.50
Dove Body Wash 3.50
Shampoo and Conditioner 5@ 4.87
**One for Brad that is a combo shampoo and conditioner and two each of shampoo and conditioner for me
Box Diapers for Ryan 26.97
Box Diapers for Adam 19.97
Box Wipes (7 pack refills) 2@ 7.97
**Wal-Mart and Pampers have a promotion on right now where if you buy a box of diapers and a box of wipes and submit your receipt you get a $15 dollar gift card to Wal-Mart. So once I submit my recipt I will get 2 $15 gift cards.
Household cleaning wipes 2@ 2.97
*70 count containers
Large bottle of Cheese Whiz 5.97
Hot Wheels cars (for the boys for Christmas) 6@ 68 cents
*we started collecting cars for Ryan when he was just a baby and are doing the same for Adam plus at this price they make great stocking stuffers (reg 1.22 each)
Little People Garage (for Ryan for Christmas) 19.93
*regular price is 39.97
Uncle Bens Chinese Fried Rice 6@ 88 cents
*we only just discovered that Wal-Mart sells this for less normally than where we usually buy it, but this price is a steal!
Tostidos Tortilla chips 2@ 2.97
*we bought two huge jars of salsa last week when they were 2 for $7
crunch n munch 1.00
Pringles twin pack 2.00
twix 4 pk 2.00
3 muskateers 4 pk 2.00
*the crunch and much is usually close to $2 regular price and a single pringles is again close to $2. Regular sized choc. bars are $1 or more in some places now. Only the little thin 100 calorie choc bars are under a dollar anymore. So those were good deals to have some munchies in the house

The total was quite high $172.03 but I will get two $15 gift cards for buying the diapers and wipes, I now have some Christmas gifts for the boys, we have stocked some personal care items and bought some food that we will not need to buy more of for a while (although I am tempted to go back and buy some more rice...and cars...) and maybe have a deeper look to see if there are more instore specials that are not advertised.

And just because:

Learning for Little Ones- Learning about Fall

2008-09-25T17:14:00.009-06:00

It's Fall! It is one of my favorite times of the year.

Most of last week was one of those glorious weeks where it wasn't too windy, cool or rainy in fall. The leaves were turning but hadn't all fallen yet (when they've fallen and the trees are all bear, I get a little depressed until they are draped in snow). I tok advantage of the weather and the great area we live in and took the boys on a trail walk.

We live close to a corner, in an area that is not finished being developed (or so we think). The house on the right is 5 houses from on on the left and is across the street from the house on the corner across the street from us. This is a zoomed in picture from the top of the hill. The first day we walked this trail I was crazy and pushed the double stroller up. When we went back the next day with my camera in hand, I wore Adam in the pea pod cuddly wrap and Ryan wore his Monkey harness and walked with me.

This is a zoomed out picture from the top of the hill. What a little trooper Ryan was making this hike with me. It was a little steep in places. Along the way we talked about fall. I pointed out the trees and the changing colour leaves. We listened to different nature sounds.

Ryan picked up some rocks at the top of the hill and threw them around. Here he is with one in each hand and I asked him which one was bigger.

I took a picture of Adam and I all snuggled up in the pea pod.

Ryan wanted to "go way Mommy".

When we went that way we found a bird to follow. Poor Ryan, every time he thought he was going to catch the bird, it flew a little further away.

We also found some unpleasantness (well in my mind at least).

It looks like some people (possibly local teens) are using this area as a party area. You can see their makeshift fire pit and there were many broken beer bottles and empty beer cans around and in the tall grass and bush in this area. At least we didn't find any drug paraphenalia out there as well.

It was a fun afternoon, it didn't cost anything, and the fresh air plum tuckered Ryan out. We even had to stop twice on the way back for a little rest.

I think Ryan was watching some ants go marching up the hill.

Learning, and teaching, sometimes it doesn't need any fancy tools or toys and is free as long as you are willing to take the opportunity.

Click here for more Learning for Little Ones. And while you are there, leave her a comment wishing her a Happy Birthday! It's on Saturday and it's a big one)!

Meal Plan Monday- Family Faves Edition

2008-09-22T13:28:00.012-06:00

To see what other people have on their menus this week, get tasty recipes or share your weekly menu and recipes, visit Lara at I'm an Organizing Junkie. This week there is a theme of Family Favorite Meals/Recipes.

Last week our menu got derailed a little when Brad came home from work sick Saturday and we opted for soup and sandwiches for supper instead of breakfast. And we had just an easy night last night with nachos instead of BBQ chicken so it is moving to early this week as one of our family favorite meals.

This week we are having a lot of our family fave meals but I am sorry to report there are not many recipes. I will try to come and post pictures of the meals at the end of the week in case anyone wants to try these recipes later.

Monday- BBQ Steak* with BBQed veggies

Tuesday- BBQ chicken (we buy frozen chicken breasts from M&M Meats and we find them so tasty, juicy and flavorful) with steamed rice and veggies and garlic toast

Wednesday- Lasagna with Caesar salad and garlic toast

Thursday- Homemade Pizza with Caesar salad

Friday- Leftover love

Saturday- BBQ Ribs (from M&M Meats) with baked potatoes and strawberry spinach salad

Sunday- Honey Garlic wings (again from M&M Meats) with rice and raw veggies

Grilled Potatoes and Vegetables
Potatoes
Carrots
Broccoli
Bell Peppers
Mushrooms

1. Wash potatoes and slice them into 3/4 cm thick rounds (I use a fruit and vegetable slicer to make them even).
2. Peel and rinse carrots and slice them into 3/4 cm rounds.
3. Rinse broccoli and cut off florets. Slice the stalks into 3/4 cm thick rounds.
4. Rinse mushrooms and bell peppers. Cut peppers into 1-1.5 cm wide slivers. Cut the mushrooms into quarters.
5. Spread out a large sheet of tinfoil.
6. Arrange the cut vegetables all together in a line down the centre of the long sheet of tin foil.
7. Cut up 1-2 1/4lb blocks of butter/margarine and add to the vegetables in the tinfoil.
8. Add any seasonings you would like. We add seasoning salt and a garlic seasoning.
9. Wrap the vegetables in tinfoil. Bring the two long sides up to meet each other with the vegetables in the centre. Fold the long sides together and keep rolling down until you have folded the tin foil down to the height of the vegetables. Fold/roll up the short ends in the same manner.
10. Wrap the vegetables once more in tin foil using the same method but putting your rolled edges on the bottom of the second sheet of tin foil.
11. Cook on the top rack of a bbq over medium heat for 45-60 minutes.

Lasagna
1 lb ground beef, browned and drained of fat
12-16 lasagna noodles (depending on size of pan), cooked, drained and cooled
4-6 cups of shredded mozza and cheddar cheese
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese (fresh or in the can)
1 Jar of favorite tomato sauce
1 can of Campbell's tomato soup
1 can of Hunts tomato paste
*spices ( I use Club House Garlic Plus and Club House Italiano)

Cook 12 lasagna noodles. Drain and set aside to cool. Brown ground beef and drain. Set aside. Add the tomato sauce, tomato soup, and tomato paste together. Add your favorite spices to taste. Add ground beef and warm lightly.

I start with a very light layer of just tomato sauce on the bottom of my pan. Then I add 3-4 lasagna noodles (depending on size of pan) going across long ways and either touching or overlapping if possible. Then spoon in a generous helping of the tomato beef sauce. Add a generous amount of the shredded mozza and cheddar cheese. Then more noodles, more tomato beef sauce, more cheese, more noodles, more tomato beef sauce, more cheese and then finally a layer of noodles and cheese (you may or may not have enough tomato beef sauce for this layer so you may just add cheese to the top of the noodles making like a crust on top. On the top layer of cheese I sprinkle more spices and the parm which I think helps to make it more crusty.

Bake at 350 for 40-60 minutes until cheese bubbles and browns.

Makes a large pan. But it freezes nicely as well. I have been known to make two big pans at a time, eat half at one serving and then freeze the other three servings for other meals or for a larger dinner party.

I would love to add more fresh vegetables to my sauce (tomatoes, onions, green peppers, red peppers, zucchini) but my husband seems to think veggies have no place in tomato sauce.

Caesar Salad
6 tbsps of olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp each pepper, dry mustard/ tarragon
1 tsp each chopped parsley/ garlic
squirt each Worcester/Tabasco
raw egg
Add all ingredients together into an easy pour container and mix well (this makes quite a bit so use a big head of romaine lettuce).

Tear up a big head of romaine lettuce into bite sliced pieces. Add 3/4 cup of fresh Parmesan. Pour on the dressing. Add croutons and bacon bits if desired. Toss.

Homemade Pizza
I am not the best bread or dough maker so I cheat a little here. I pick up the Kraft pizza in a box (I get the double one or pick up two since the kit makes a very thin crust otherwise). It comes with tomato sauce, herbs and spices and some Parmesan cheese. All you have to do is follow the directions. It is pretty simple. I remember being a young tween and making this on a Friday or Saturday night with a friend and watching TV/movies. Sometimes I still leave it just like this. Sometimes we add our own toppings. (Like crumbled ground beef, crumbed cooked bacon, cheddar and mozza cheese for a Bacon Double Cheese Pizza- pieces of shaved deli ham, pineapple chunks and mozza cheese for a Hawaiian Pizza- Sliced Pepperoni, sliced mushrooms, diced green peppers and mozza for a Deluxe Pizza) Make your own combinations. And if we really want special we top it with either fresh Parmesan or if we made it from the box, we add more of the kraft in a can parm.

Strawberry Spinach Salad
1 bag of baby spinach
1 pint of strawberries

Wash spinach. Wash and thinly slice strawberries. Put in a bowl. Make Dressing.

1/2 vegetable oil (I use canola)
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup of white sugar (I use splenda and sometimes use as much as 1/4 cup less)
1/4 tsp paprika
2 tsp of sesame seeds
1 tbsp poppy seeds
Add ingredients in order listed (stir in sugar) and then stir/shake again at the end. Dress Salad and then toss. The longest part of the process is cutting the strawberries.

Bon Apetit!

*If it seems like we have steak a lot it is because we were gifted with quite a generous amount of them this summer. So since they are sitting in our freezer and we like to BBQ steak, we have been trying to use them.

Just Because

2008-09-17T15:04:00.003-06:00

I'll deliver

2008-09-17T14:47:00.004-06:00

FOR SALE: One Little Brother

Too cute for his own good

PRICE- FREE!!!

I'll even deliver at no charge

***Disclaimer: The little brother is NOT for sale. Ryan loves his little brother. I just thought it looked like Ryan was trying to give him away yesterday as he thoughtfully pulled him in the wagon around the neighborhood.

Talk about Toys

2008-09-16T12:44:00.012-06:00

Today is the first day of the 2008-2009 DISCOVERY TOYS fall season. Last Thursday while Ryan was napping, my new fall product kit arrived. It was so much fun to open it up with him when he woke up. Sure some of the toys are much more advanced than he is, but the toys that are age appropriate (or close to it) were very well recieved.

Jungle Tower, Twisty Bug, Choo Choo Chase, Hello! Hola! Learning Phone

Inside Out Puzzle- at home, Bright Builders, Progressive Puzzles, English/Spanish Bilingual songs cd, I'm Going Green cd, The Potty Train book, Flip Flop Faces

Puzzle Island book, Gearopolis, Sticker Art Delux, Jawbones Starter set (has three other add on sets available), Mosaic Mysteries, Stormy Seas

Ryan's favorites:
Gearopolis- even though it is for ages 5 and up, Daddy just had to play with it and now Ryan asks for it all the time (he calls it "keys").
Progressive Puzzles- Ryan can do the 4 piece puzzles all by himself, he can do the 6 piece puzzles alone half the time, and likes to do the 9 piece puzzles with our help.
Hello! Hola! Learning Phone- he loves the phones.
Busy Builders- although he can't alwasy get them to stick together, he knows they are blocks and he wants to build with them. He likes to dump them out and sort them and when putting them back he will count. He can count to 5 unassisted (maybe just by memories) and repeats up to 24.

When I joined DISCOVERY TOYS I was not looking for a home based business (not that I really do much about it in that regard, although maybe I should), but I was just looking for quality toys for Ryan. I knew of Discovery Toys from one of my times teaching Kindergarten so I looked them up on the web to see if they made baby toys as well. Some people find the toys pricey but I don't mind paying the price for toys that have a quality guarantee and that are not only fun but educational and help me by providing me ways and ideas on how to play, learn and teach my sons.

If you would like more information about DISCOVERY TOYS or their products and you live in the US, please use the consultant locator to find an Independent Educational Consultant near you. If you live in Canada and do not already have an Independant Educational Consultant, feel free to contact me.

For more information on Talk About Tuesday or to see what others are talking about, visit Lara at The Lazy Organizer.

Menu Plan Monday

2008-09-16T12:22:00.006-06:00

Monday Menu Plan

For more information about Meal Plan Mondays or to see what others are eating this week, head over to I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Busy day yesterday so I didn't get this posted on time.

Monday- BBQ Steaks, baked potatoes with strawberry spinach salad*.

Tuesday- House Premiere- BBQ Hot Dogs with chips and salads.

Wednesday- Staff meeting night- Kraft Dinner (Mac and Cheese) with hotdogs

Thursday- Bistro chicken breasts (M and M Meats) with steamed rice and vegetables.

Friday- leftover love

Saturday-Breakfast for Supper (eggs, bacon, waffles, hashbrowns, toast, juice and fruit)

Sunday-Chicken Breasts with BBQed vegetables

Strawberry Spinach Salad
1 bag of baby spinach
1 pint of strawberries

Wash spinach. Wash and thinly slice strawberries. Put in a bowl. Make Dressing.

1/2 vegtable oil (I use canola)
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup of white sugar (I use splenda and sometimes use as much as 1/4 cup less)
1/4 tsp paprika
2 tsp of seasame seeds
1 tbsp poppy seeds
Add ingredients in order listed (stir in sugar) and then stir/shake again at the end. Dress Salad and then toss. The longest part of the process is cutting the strawberries.

Learning for Little Ones- Daily Routines

2008-09-11T16:41:00.005-06:00

One of the blogs I regularily check has this wonderful Thursday installment called "Learning for Little Ones". Being both a teacher and now a mother, this just speaks to me on so many levels. This is my first time joining her "Learning for Little Ones", so please be gentle.

Children love routines. It helps children who have developmental difficulties, it helps children adjust to changes in their lives. When I taught kindergarten, routines were established early in the year and within a couple of weeks, the children knew them by heart and would call you on any changes that were made.

Ryan loves routine as well. When my parents came for Adam's birth, my mom brought a Leap Frog Toy with her that we gave to Ryan in August. It is called "My Day with Tad" and it is a little like a clock with removeable pieces that allow you to sort of plan your day and stick to a routine. At first we just allowed Ryan to play with it as a puzzle but now I am using it as a clock like device to show him what is next in our daily routine. In the morning I take all the pieces out and he put's Tad in the centre first. Then once we have breakfast, get ready for the day and play, he puts those peices in the morning slots. Then just before lunch I let him put lunchtime Tad in place. Then it is quiet time, play time and clean up in our afternoon routine. Then he puts in Dinner time Tad and after dinner we have ready for bed, story time and sleep time to add to our daily routine. He is starting to realize when it is time to do certain things and I find it helps keep him controlled because sometimes he knows/remembers what is coming next.

For more Learning for Little Ones or to join us, please visit BabyChaser @ Stay at Home Mommy.

Talk about Fun with Friends and Static Electricity

2008-09-09T13:27:00.007-06:00

Fun with Friends is a playgroup I joined when Ryan was just a couple of months old. I heard about it from the Breastfeeding Support Group I belong to called Babies First. The Babies First memebers who are available on Friday mornings and who have younger than school aged children, joined Fun with Friends. Fun with Friends provided us with a space to gather from September to May. From May to September we gather (weather permitting of course) at the Lions Park.

Last Friday we went to the park. Ryan loves it. He loves the things to climb on, the slides and thw swings. He always brings a small sandbox worth of sand home in his shoes. I don't know if it was the drier air, his velour track suit, the plastic slide or some combination of all three but Ryan had a wild case of static electriity.

For more information on Talk About Tuesday or to see what others are talking about, visit Lara at The Lazy Organizer.

Monday Menu Plan

2008-09-08T20:07:00.006-06:00

For more information about Meal Plan Mondays or to see what others are eating this week, head over to I'm an Organizing Junkie.

After a little break from posting my menu plan (although I have been thinking about meal planning, just not as detailed) I am back.

Monday- BBQ Ribs (from M & M Meats), baked potatoes and corn on the cob.

Tuesday- BBQ steaks with bbqed vegetables.

Wednesday- stuffed pasta shells (I have some in the freezer because I make a whole box at a time and that is about 3 meals for us) with Caesar salad and garlic toast.

Thursday- BBQ chicken breasts with rice, corn on the cob and strawberry spinach salad.

Friday- leftover love

Saturday- appetizer night: honey garlic wings, crudites and dip, nachos

Sunday- crock pot honey, brown sugar and pineapple ham* with mashed potatoes, and vegetables.

**Crock pot honey, brown sugar and pineapple ham
1 picnic ham
1 can of pineapple ring slices
brown sugar
honey

Drain the pineapple juice from the can of pineapple rings into the crock pot. Keep the rings refrigerated for later use. Add brown sugar and stir (sorry I never measure but I would guess it is a cup or two) until the brown sugar all dissolves. Then add 1/2 to 1 cup of honey (again I never measure I just pour it in and stir until it gets thick). Add the ham. Cook on low heat for 3 hours or high for 1.5. If desired, each half hour, flip the ham and then spoon the brown sugar, honey, pineapple juice mixture over top the ham. (I actually use my turkey baster for this!)
After 3 hours cooking on low or 1.5 on high, take the ham out and use toothpicks to secure the pineapple rings to the ham. (Some people also use toothpicks to secure maraschino cherries to the centre of each pineapple ring). Put the ham and pineapple back into the crock pot for another hour, basting it now and then again flipping and basting at the half hour mark and again just before serving.

Picnic hams are already cured and cooked but I like to slow cook mine and for this length of time to let the meat absorb the flavour. I always serve this with mashed potatoes and often baby carrots. This is part of my Christmas Eve menu and I often make a bigger one, usually in my oven instead of my smallish crock pot, which allows me to have lots of ham to snack on. (with crackers and cheese Christmas day, with turkey leftovers on cold plates on boxing day, mixed in scrambled eggs or omelets on the 27th)

Bon Appetit! and have a tasty week!

Happy Birthday Kathryn

2008-09-03T17:01:00.008-06:00

Today is Kathryn's 3rd birthday. Celebrate with her by sharing some of Auntie's favorite 3's about Kathryn.

3 Favorite things about Kathryn:
~she is a good big sister and a GREAT cousin.
~she is super smart and sweet.
~she is such a girlie girl.

3 Favorite memories of Kathryn:
~Wearing her on my back in the Ergo carrier while I pushed an asleep Ryan to the grocery store down the hill from the house in Seattle. We sang songs and she played with my hair.
~Watching the video of her reading "The Monster at the end of this Book".
~Reading princess stories to her before she fell asleep while they were here this summer.

3 favorite photos of Kathryn:

Hope you have a wonderful day Miss Kathryn! Big Kisses and Hugs from Auntie Bobbi, Uncle Brad, cousins Ryan and Adam.

100th post- 100 Things about me

2008-08-30T14:05:00.012-06:00

In honour of my 100th post I am going to share a couple of my favorite things; a hundred of them.

10 Favortie Places I've been:
West Edmonton Mall, Disneyland, Sandbanks Provinicial Park, Cold Lake Provincial Park, Salt Lake City, Montreal, Quebec City, St Louis, Kelowna and Seattle.

10 Favorite Places to Eat:
Mary Browns, Clarks, Boston Pizza, Arbys, The Olive Garden, Red Robin, The Burger Baron, Booster Juice (ok so there is nothing to eat here but I love their smoothies), Cold Stone Creamery, Pacini

10 Favorite Books I've Read:
Little Women, Jewels, No Greater Love, Couplehood, Babyhood, My Sergi, Learning to Sing, Socks for Supper, I love you through and through and Ryan's word book.

10 Favorite Movies:
Little Women, The American President, The Cutting Edge, Casablanca, Fantasia, When Harry Met Sally, Sabrina, Holiday Inn, White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life.

10 Favorite TV Shows:
Friends, NCIS, CSI, The Young and the Restless, Mythbusters, Jon and Kate plus 8, Numbers, How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory and The Weekenders.

10 Favorite Days of my life:
The day I married Brad, the Christmas with the yellow bug, Ryan's birth, Adam's birth, the day I graduated highschool, the day I graduated university, the first concert I attended 2-fer, the Interlochen concert and after party, Clay Aiken meet and greet, meeting Kurt Browning.

10 favorite songs:
Tainted Love- Soft Cell
Brian Wilson- Barenaked Ladies
Yeah- Usher
Photograph- Nickleback
I'll Remember- Madonna
Water Runs Dry- Boys II Men
Take a Chance on Me- ABBA
This is the Night- Clay Aiken
A Thousand Days- Clay Aiken
Weight of the World- Clay Aiken

10 favorite meals/desserts: lasagna, spinach strawberry salad, bbq chicken, bbq ribs, turtle cheesecake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake, hot dogs, nachos with salsa, salmon

10 favorite things to do: shopping (except for groceries), Christmas decorating and baking, road trips/go on vacation, scrapbooking, taking photos, blogging, napping, playing with my boys, listening to music with Brad and playing games.

10 favorite photos:

Hallaulia! Or poor little boys.

2008-08-20T09:26:00.008-06:00

One night does not a pattern make. And even if it is the start of something, maybe it is way too soon to talk about it and jinx it but I'm too sleep deprived to not share.

Ryan slept through the night!! In his own room!! Of course it was not in his bed but I'm not fighting that battle now. This is the first time I think since Adam was born or shortly after Adam was born anyway. It started last night at about 10:30. It was a little later than we like to put him to bed (usually about 9) but it was really warm and we had just finished putting the crib back in his room (it was downstairs in the spare room from when Darryl, Amanda and the girls were here). Ryan was completely enthralled with the crib and couldn't wait to get in it. So we put his pjs on him, put his favortie blanket and stuffed animals in with him. It lasted about 15 minutes before the water works began. I tried the big boy bed but he kept crying and saying "bedroom". So I put a blanket on the floor and his pillow and his stuffies. I put it near his new fish night light. Instead of closing his door like I usually do, I left it open and put a fan in front of his door to direct some cooler air into his room. And now it is 9:38 am and he is still there!

BUT it may also have to do with the fact that he is under the weather. It has been super warm here and my boys are sick. Yes both of them. Anyhow back to Ryan for a moment. I can tell he is under the weather because you can hear the stuffiness in his voice when he speaks and in his breathing as he sleeps. He is sleeping a little longer and is a little feverish. The last has been hard to tell since it is so warm you just wonder if his dampness is because of the weather but he seems to get more wet just resting or sleeping and we've been trying to keep our playing a little low key in this heat.

And Adam...poor little not quite 4 month old Adam. The past few days he hasn't been sleeping well at all. He has been nursing lots (ok so it's been hot, and that would help keep him cool and dehydrated) but he has also been spitting up lots which is very unusual for him. He has been generally pretty unhappy and chewing on his hands. I was thinking maybe it was the first signs of teething. Or an upset tummy since he seems a little gasier and unsettled than normal. But with this heat he has been running both hot and cold. So perhaps a little bit of a fever there. Despite the warm weather, Adam only sleeps well when bundled and warm. But that makes him damp and he will get cool and clamy from the fans/air conditioner upstairs.

Yesterday evening I was able to get him to take a nice long nap in the swing. I took him out of the swing at bed time and nursed him and got him ready for bed. He didn't immeiately go back to sleep and Brad and I layed in bed playing with him. He seemed a little stuffed up in his nose and when he was flat on his back for any amount of time he would start to cough like he couldn't breathe. At about 1am I was able to get him back to sleep but only by swaddling and rocking him and keeping him upright. When he woke up at 6 again to nurse he seemed worse. We aspirated his nose and lots of mucus came out. Poor little man! Then I changed his diaper and peed all over me and the bed. Which made us get out of bed at 6 this morning so we could wash the sheets. And is why I am feeling so sleep deprived (as I am sure Brad is as well at work).

I was able to get Adam back to sleep in the swing this morning but it is a fitful sleep as he wakes up coughing every once in a while and you can hear the congestion in his breathing. The weather has turned cooler today, so I think I will be dressing both in some warmer clothes. Ryan will get lots of fluids and hopefully a nice long nap. And if he wants to sleep on the floor, that is just fine with me.

Menu Plan Monday

2008-08-04T15:17:00.007-06:00

For more information about Meal Plan Mondays or to see what others are eating this week, head over to I'm an Orgainzing Junkie.

So what's the plan for this week? Last week we were in the middle of the lazy days of summer...ha ha ha! Actually it was a pretty busy week with a little bit of chaos thrown in for good measure. We didn't do too bad for sticking to eating what we had at hand at home when we were home. Tomorrow is 10% Tuesday and my fridge and pantry show it. So I might end up changing my menu based on what I find at the grocery store.

Monday- grilled steak with mashed potatos and raw veggies and dip

Tuesday- taco salad

Wednesday-chicken wings with rice and green beans

Thurday- bbq chicken breast with garden salad

Friday- leftover love

Saturday- BBQing steak/chicken and don't know what to go with it yet

Sunday-bbq burgers with chips and raw veggies

You know you're a mom when...

2008-08-02T16:14:00.006-06:00

...you go from driving this

to this

It's not that I haven't felt like a mother before. I mean I do have a a 2 year old and now a 3 month old but I finally gave up my young fun car for something much better suited to the rest of my family.

My little yellow bug was a a wonderful Christmas gift back in 02. It was 2 years old then and in the last 5+ years I have loved my bug. Being short as I am, it wasn't a problem getting my first infant and then growing into toddler son in and out of his car seat even though it was only a 2 door car. I was even able to make the stroller that fit with his car seat fit in the back seat of the car as well until I added a 2nd car seat back there so I could also take the little boy I began babysitting 4 days a week last summer. But by then Ryan could easily use an umbrella stoller which fit in the trunk and was already walking.

With two car seats being able to fit side by side in the back of the bug, I didn't really see the need to give up the bug when Adam came along. Except that my double stroller had no hope of fitting. After my second c-section, we decided that it would be easier for me at first to travel with the boys using Brad's car since it has 4 doors and fits the double stroller. I always figured before too long, he would beg for his car back and I would take the bug back.

Then we started kind of used car shopping. Mostly we were looking for a 4 door vehicle that would fit the double stroller and that I would be able to drive. For vertically challenged me, that means being able to move the driver seat close enough that I can reach the pedels but not so close that I am right on top of the wheel. It also means being able to adjust the seat so I can see over the dash and see the front end of the car. It's not always been so easy an task. We also decided that if the right car came along and I was not able to drive it but Brad was and he liked it, then he would take the used car and I would continue to drive his HHR.

Long story short....
we found this used, fully loaded 2003 kia sedona van. Being fully loaded, it has 8 way power front seats (in addition to lots of other features) and it fits the double stroller without having to take the rear seats out. So I am able to adjust the driver seat just the right way to be able to drive it. Now I just have to learn how to drive something so big and adjust to driving an automatic after 10 years of driving a stick shift. But I have to say... I LOVE MY VAN!!!

Picking it up yesterday was almost as much fun as when I got my bug. Almost. Not quite so exciting or surprising. But as enjoyable. So instead of driving a fun little car, I am now proud to be cruising in practicallity.

Works for Me Wednesday- Babywearing

2008-07-23T13:06:00.005-06:00

This is my first Works for Me Wednesday. I often read my friend Aimee's Work for Me Wednesday and then head over to rocks in my dryer to see what others find works for them. Anyhow, what works for me is babywearing.

I am the proud momma to two cute and cuddly boys. My oldest is 2 and while we came to baby wearing a little later with him (3 months old) we did a lot of babywearing. I haven't done much wearin with now as an independent toddler but all of my carriers would allow me to if I wanted. My youngest is just 2 months old and has been in one of my carriers or another pretty much every day since we were released from the hospital.

Why does baby wearing work for me? It frees my hands so I can do other things. It allows me to have my baby close which often helps put him to sleep. I have been found, sitting in front of my laptop or on the couch watching TV in the evening with the baby in either one of my pouch slings or my cuddly wrap. Although, once a baby is asleep, it isn't terribly difficult to take them out of these and put them down in their crib/bassinet/bed. Baby wearing often helps soothe my baby when he is fussy. Have you read The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D.? He says that in many cultures around the world, babies do not suffer from persistant crying. Dr, Karp goes on to explain that in these cultures, the babies are held almost 24 hours a day, fed on demand (I would assume via breastfeeding), and are rocked and jiggled quite a bit. This is similar to life in the womb, Dr Karp explains, and is why these cultures seem colic- free. While many moms have been able to figure out how to babywear and breastfeed with the carriers I have, I haven't. But that hasn't stopped me from trying, or from keeping on nursing my littlest man on demand.

Some examples of times I babywear- at the grocery store (I put my toddler in the up front seat of the cart and wear my infant, leaving the beasket of my cart free for groceries instead of being taken up by an infant car seat), at the health centre/lirbary/ bank/ any errand/store (I either let my toddler walk holding my hand or put him in the easy to transport and set up collapsable umbrella stroller and wear my infant), at the park (this allows me to push my toddler on the swings, follow him up the slide, help him on the climbing structures, play ball with him, blow bubbles with him, fly a kite with him all the while wearing my infant).

But you don't have to wear just the infant. You can wear a toddler as well. Last summer while I was visting my brother in law and his family in Seattle, I took my then 1 year old son out for a walk in his stroller hoping it would help put him to sleep. My then almost 2 year old neice wanted to come along but no other adult was available to come with us (my husband and his brother were out and my sister in law needed to nurse her then newborn). So I took out one of my handy dandy ERGO carrier, strapped her in on my back and away we went. My neice had so much fun up there, singing with me, playing with my hair and pointing out all the things she knew in her neighborhood.

I have 3 different baby wearing carriers. I use each one for different reasons but I usually use at least one of them each day. I have the Ergo baby carrier and the infant insert. This was my first baby carrier, a gift from a good friend when I had my first son. (thanks Lana!)My hasband says this is the least "girly/mothery" off all the carriers I have and since it is adjustable, he can use it as well. I have the pea pod cuddly wrap. I have heard many people say that this looks so complicated but nothing could be further than the truth. Yes, it is one big, HUGE piece of fabric and yes, I could see how just pulling it out and trying to wrap it aound yourself in the parking lot in the rain, mud, snow, slush could get very dirty and annoying, I have a solution for that! If I know I am going to want/need to use my pea pod wrap that day, I just put it on once I am dressed and before I leave the house. I can wear it without the baby in it, under a zip up sweater or jacket when it is cooler, or over top my tee's and tanks in warmer weather. Then I just plop baby in and go as I need. And if you need to readjust, you don't have to take the whole thing off. It does take a little practice, as does anything, but it is so worth it in my opinion. I also have 2 pouch slings. Similar to but not "official" hotslings. I have two because I have one that I wear with thin clothes in the spring/summer and then one a little bigger to wear over heavier clothing in the fall/winter.

Ryan in one of my pouch slings:

Adam in the Ergo on a hayride:

These aren't the best but here is a photo of me holding Adam when I had just taken him out of the cuddly wrap to nurse him at the park and then agian with him back in it (and I have a brown sweater on as well) going to do bubbles with Ryan at a party we went to at the park. The pea pod cuddly wrap is new to me. While I had seen them before, I didn't get one with my first so I have few pictures of my cuddly wrap in use yet!

Babywearing...works for me today and everyday!

Talk About Tuesday- Snacking

2008-07-22T14:57:00.005-06:00

Want to know what others are talking about this week? Head over to The Lazy Organizer.

This week I am going to talk about snacking. My newest snack food addiction. Nachos! I am seriously in love with the new (ok newish)Tostito brand Multi Grain Tortilla Chips. I've seen the commercial with the three moms, their newborns in car seats, while they munch away on the multigrain chips and commenting how great playdates are and that they should have them more often. I've always liked tortilla chips and salsa but I just love these new multigrain ones. I place some on a plate, put some chopped up green onions, sweet peppers and tomatoes on top, cover with shreaded cheese and put in the microwave for half a minute or so. Then dip with mild salsa. Or if I am in a hurry/have no veggies in the crisper, just the chips, cheese and salsa or even just chips and salsa in containers to take to the park/beach/wherever. Brad and I have even been known to add cooked cubed chicken breast to the chips, veggies and cheese, call it supper and eat in front of the TV. Especially if there is a special episode of a show we have been looking forward to (like a season premiere or finale), a movie or hockey playoffs!

Ryan has even started to like nachos! He loves things to dip and as long as he gets a chip with no veggies, he will dip and eat happily. We used to just buy the big box of no name/generic brand chips and it's matching mild salsa on 10% Tuesday. But the generic brand does not have multigrain chips and really the salsa is not as tasty. But I am getting fed up with the price! $3.00 or more for the salsa and $2.50 or more for the chips (and a smaller bag than the other "flavours"). So I wonder, does anyone have a recipe on how to make these? Could you just take some multigrain tortilla's or pitas, cut into wedges, spray with veg oil, season and bake 'till crispy? What about salsa? We like mild, so nothing with too much hot stuff. But a recipe would be good. Please leave me a comment and recipes f you have any to try. Because seriously, I have gone through 4 bag of chips and 2 jars of salsa already this month.

Update to last week's TAT: Still waiting to see a doctor on the hip clicking. Sleeping is hit and miss. We are trying to re-establish a bed time routine but are not being super strict about the time. We start the process at the same time everynight but if he is not ready to sleep by a certain time, we continue with quiet play and books until he is. Two nights in a row now, Ryan has stayed up playing quietly with books and a teddy bear in my bed while I watch some TV quietly and nurse Adam. Between 10:30-11 both nights he has fallen asleep beside me on my bed while I was nursing. Then once he is fast asleep, we've been able to move him to his bed and he has slept until almost 9 in the morning. So YAY! And since he is still napping 1-3 hours a day he is still getting 12 or more hours of sleep a day at 2 years old.

Menu Plan Monday

2008-07-22T14:42:00.003-06:00

For more information about Meal Plan Mondays or to see what others are eating this week, head over to I'm an Orgainzing Junkie.

Ok, so it's Tuesday again! Better late than never eh?! Especially when I have missed the last couple. The weather is so warm here that all I want to do is bbq. But since I don't do the bbqing that is not such a great plan (especially for those nights that Brad works late). Here is what I have planned for the week.

Monday- take out
Tuesday- BBQ night Hot Dogs, potato chips and fruit
Wednesday- chicken wings, rice and green beans
Thursday- Stuffed Pasta shells
Friday- Leftover love
Saturday- BBQ steaks with baked potatoes and steamed brocolli
Sunday- BBQ chicken with salad

BTW, I hae just stumbled upon the GREATEST blog! A Year of Crockpotting is devoted to a new crockpot recipe for every day of the year. I don't tend to use my crockpot so much in the summer but I've been there and I have a couple of recipes already bookmarked to save for some cooler summer weather or for the fall/winter.

Talk About Tuesday- Toddler Night Terrors and Infant Hip Clicking

2008-07-15T18:45:00.005-06:00

For more information about Talk about Tuesday, or to see what others are talking about this week, visit Laura at The Lazy Organizer.

This week both my boys are presenting me with challenges. My toddler is no stranger to sleep issues (and I am sure that the same is true of most toddlers). I think he has developed some night terrors. I am lead to believe this after having clicked on a link to Paige's Talk about Tuesday from last week. I had heard of night terrors before and wondered if that was Ryan's problems or if he was just starting to have bad dreams. Either way, talk about something that makes you feel like just the most wonderful parent! <--- snark in case you missed it As for my infant son, at his two month needles the nurse remarked that his left hip is clicking and that we should have our family doctor look into it. Combine that comment with the fact that Adam ssems much more stiff than Ryan was and the fact that Brad is convinced that Adam's legs are bowed and twisted and I'm on the verge of freaking out!

So here is how it has been playing out at the Melanchuk residence of late. Ryan fights going to bed at night. He kicks and screams and throws quite a tantrum. He will go to bed easily but as soon as we have finished reading him a story (or 3) it begins. If we don't shut the door to his room he just keeps crying and comeing out to us. So some nights we shut his door and let him cry because he is obviously tired and we have tried all we know. Some nights we talk to him through his door, reading more stories. That means that some nights he falls asleep on the floor next to his door, some nights he crawls back up on his bed once he gets tired. Then usually around 1 or 2 am he wakes up screaming. It is that blood curdling scream that makes me jump out of bed and go running into his room. If he has fallen asleep on the floor next to his door, he will be banging on the door, if he crawled back up on his bed to go to sleep, I will walk in and find him sitting up on the bed. He is usally very warm, his face is wet with tears and his eyes are open. But he is unconsolable. Every offer (water, something to eat, a hug, ect) is met with a "noooooo" and he pushes us away. He usually willgrab his favorite blanket and puppy dog and let one of us guide him to our room or out to the couch. Within 5 minutes of doing that he will be sound asleep again and within 15 minutes he can be moved back to his own room. The waking up in the middle of the night is not every single night but it does happen in blocs. Usually 3 or 4 nights of waking up followed by 2 or 3 of sleeping through and then lather, rinse, repeat.

I am comforted to know that we are not the only family where this is happening, although it is frightening that it is happening at all. One of the triggers and solutions to night terrors are that since they are often triggered in children who are overtired, sticking to a good bedtime routine and making sure your child is getting enough rest can help to prevent them. I must admit that since our newest baby has been born, I worry that Ryan is not getting enough sleep as our daily and night time routines are all out of whack. He was staying up late while my parents were here helping out (often because we ate dinner very late and because the days are longer and lighter) and while we tried to get him back into his routine once they left, it has proven difficult. Then we had more family arrive and while they have small children as well, we all found it difficult to get most of the children to sleep with any sense of regularity or normalcy. So hopefully now that things have calmed down, maybe we can get back into our normal routines and the sleep issue will resolve itself.

Now, for Adam. Since day 1 Brad has been convinced that Adam's legs look weird. Our doctor has mostly brushed aside Brad's worries and has suggested we look at his legs a little further down the road. Which kind of makes sense to me, after being cooped up for 9 months, wouldn't you expect a baby to be a little curled and twisted. Especially a 22 inch baby inside a 4'9" lady?! I have to admit that sometimes Adam's legs seem a little strange to me as well, but mostly because of how stiff they are but it's not something I've been stressing over. However, when the nurse suggested at Adam's 2 month needles that I take him to see our family doctor to have a clicking in his hip looked at, I paniced a little. I've phoned a made an appointment but the soonest we can get in is into August and with each day I go back and forth with how I feel about this.

Sometimes I worry and panic that something is wrong with him and that waiting so long will make things worse. But then I remember that the nurses at Ryan's 2 month needles were concerned with his lack of growth and labeled him as "failing to thrive" (again- what a wonderful thing to say to a post-partum mother eh?!). We spent 4 months back and forth to the health centre seeing nurses weekly, weighing him weekly, doing everything and anything to make him gain weight before I was refered to a specialist 3 hours away. The specialist was a little concerned and was able to help us a little but then when we went back to see our family doctor he was not so concerned with Ryan's slow weight gain since he figures Ryan will be little like his mother. I was determined this time that if the nurses gave me greif about Adam's weight, I was not going to let it bother me. But Adam is a good gainer so it's not a problem this time around.

So I wonder, am I a terrible mother? Am I worrying needlessly? Or is this really a cause for concern? And if that is the case, should I wait until August to have Adam's hip looked at or should I try to find another doctor to see us? Do I dare take him into emergency? Or am I freaking myself out needlessly by spending too much time online googling what ifs and possibilities?

Thanks for letting me make my Talk about Tuesday a venting blog. Now, for some random cuteness and visuals since I didn't really have anything to "show" in my Talk about Tuesday topics. We spent Saturday outside enjoying the sun and the local beach. Especially the playground at the beach.

click and video will begin in a new window