snow day

 It was really awesome that I caught both kids reading this morning by themselves. Lucas still loves books with babies on them, and Sadie loves his animal book. She was reading under one of my tablecloths that I had set aside to be put away.

 I noticed that my sewing machine started skipping stitches, and google told me my needle is dull. Crap. There goes any more sewing crafts until I can change the needle. Poop.

 We went out for our first snow day today. I was determined to catch it while it was still snowing and not hailing or raining like yesterday. Right after they scarfed down breakfast, we got dressed. Takes a half an hour to get them ready for 15 minutes outside. Sadie loved it.

 Lucas on the other hand fell down a lot and whined. His coat seemed to make him lose his balance. After a while, he gave up and sat in the snow and touched it. Maybe he'll do better tomorrow if its not all slush.

Snow days would be great if I had finished my christmas shopping, but no, I figured we wouldn't get snow so soon and that we'd have time to take the bus down to the mall. BAHHHHH!! My stroller is now snow proof, and we're going to have to wait until the weekend. Not what I wanted. I hate leaving stuff until the last minute. Tony is rubbing off on me.

Snow days are good for baking muffins, cleaning the house, and catching up on laundry/tv. 

encouraging others

The kids and I have managed to give away 2 batches of cookies, and a free coffee to people we either don't know or have only met once or twice. It was lots of fun to surprise my library friend and new Starbucks acquaintance with cookies. We gave a stranger a free drink card, and off we went. I'm hoping to make a few more Christmas cards that Sadie can hand out to the ladies at the veggie market and shoppers. We see them every couple weeks, and they always smile and talk to the kids.

The kids don't really get it yet, maybe when Sadie gives away some cards. Next year, we'll work on it again. It was good to get out of my comfort zone.

This was today. Lucas was feeding Sadie imaginary oatmeal, and they were both giggling and "eating". My silly children. Goal for next week is to take the kids to see the Christmas lights and get my stroller wheel fixed. Stupid inner tube is warped and needs to be replaced. Such a royal pain in the rear. We made some treats for gifts today, Tony and I. He had lots of fun making them with me. I need to make more now so he can take them to work.

such a sad day

We were sitting at a play date, hanging out with some new mamas and their kids, and my friends husband came in and let us know there was another school shooting, this time it was at an elementary school.

My heart stopped. Who would go out planning to kill little children? That was the intent. These were someones babies they were killing.

I took the kids home shortly after hearing the news, they were tired. I felt sick walking home with the kids. After putting the kids to bed and cuddling them, I turned on the news and bawled. I couldn't even imagine trying to deal with any of it.

My heart aches for all those 20+ parents that were told their babies were killed.

I worry for the people living in the USA. I grieve for those children and their parents. Nobody should have to deal with the horror that this community will be dealing with.

I'll be praying today, for the parents, children and all affected by this tragedy. This world disgusts me, and I'm sad to be a part of it right now.

play dates and meeting new people

We had our first play date. There was grilled cheese sandwiches, toys, and lots of screaming and shrieking. They had a blast. We even gave our new friends a load of Christmas cookies as one of our ways to spread Christmas cheer. I'm starting small here folks. Tomorrow, we are meeting someone for Starbucks at the mall (someone new I met at the Starbucks near our house), and I wanna get there early so that we can buy someone a coffee as our next thing.


This whole meeting new people is so scary for me. Its hard for me to break out of my introverted shell. I can do it though. Little steps. I usually tend to chicken out, or am relieved when the other person has. Its bad though. As an adult, making friends is so much more harder than when you were a kid. I remember going up to girls in my class and just flat out asking "will you be my friend?" It always went well. You really can't go up to someone and do that now. Sucks, cause now I gotta work harder at it, but working harder can pay off. So, hopefully my awkward voicemails or text messages dont scare the ladies off.

I'm coming for you! I'm bring treats and toting the children along with me. 

Making little presents

One game Sadie has been playing lately has been Mailman. She takes an old felt envelope I made for her last valentines, and she stuffs some toys in and then proudly presents it to me. I get presents, and I give them back to he. One of her favorite games to play lately.

I figured since shes old enough to kind of understand, we would make presents that she could give away. We decorated and baked a bunch of ornaments, and later we'll wrap them.

Its not salt dough, but a baking soda cornstarch dough that we used. Recipe is HERE . It worked out well as long as you don't make your ornaments too thick.

getting into the Christmas spirit

I've been thinking a lot about Christmas lately. This year it took me a lot longer to get into the Christmas spirit. I just half heartily decorated the tree, and the other decorations just sat there for over a week on my fireplace. Totally unlike me at all.

To get me out of this funk, I felt that we as a family really needed to look beyond ourselves and get into doing things for others. I was so inspired by http://www.mylittlemustache.com/  Their advent calendar is full of activities that they are doing for others instead of the typical advent calendars with treats inside. While our advent calendar still has treats in it, I've been making a list of things we can do for others that we know, or don't know to help us spread the joy of Christmas. I'm already excited and we have yet to start (although today is going to be baking day).

Our list so far:

-baking cookies for a Sadie's little library friends
-baking muffins for the librarians that we see at a couple times a month
-going out and donating canned goods to the food bank
-giving out homemade cards to the places we frequent the most (little asian grocery market, ect)
-leaving notes of encouragement on the bus
-sending cards and photos to great grandparents

I've yet to think of more, but I'll be brainstorming this week and starting up some of these projects soon. Christmas for me has always been about giving, but our Christmases have always been small at home. I'm hoping by bringing the kids, at least Sadie will pick up on what we're doing and next year will be even better.

If you have any wonderful ideas, let me know!

the HIVES

So, my last post was a while ago, and it was while the kids and I were fighting a horrible head cold. Well, the kids recovered, but my sinus' did not. A week after they were better, I was still feeling like I had been punched in the face. So, I went to the clinic 5 min walk from our house and was diagnosed with a sinus infection. Got my prescription filled for antibiotics and went on my merry way home, excited to be rid of this.

Took my first dose of pills, and 3 hours later, they appeared. The HIVES. They weren't bad, I was speckled all across my torso, and I've had them before, so I wasn't too alarmed. I stopped the pills and the next morning when the hives were still there, I went back and got a new prescription, this time it was more penicillin based. Ok!

So paid more money, for more drugs, and went home. My hives were getting better, but hadn't gone away. I started new antibiotics, and did what the bottle said. I took 2 doses, and around 6 pm, I was a big red welt.

I've never seen hives quite that bad before. Tony and I were due for a date night, and I was determined to go see Skyfall, even though I was covered. At least my face, hands and feet weren't bad. Tony kept asking if I wanted to cancel, nope. Not skipping date night.

I have priorities.

Obviously I didn't realize how bad it actually was, until the end of the movie. Why the end of the movie?!?!?! Arrrg! I started feeling like there were pins and needles in my skin, and I got antsy in my seat. Concentrated enough to catch the end, and then we bee lined it outta there.

Tony suggested I get in the tub, and then I realized how bad it was. From my thighs up, I was just a solid red painful welt. I took allergy meds, and waited, and waited a couple hours. It just wasn't getting better, and in fact, it started getting worse. It wrapped around my calves and then hit my arms.

After waiting and talking to my family and Tony, we called the nurse hotline, who said its best to go to the hospital cause the reaction could get worse and quickly, especially after describing the severity of it all.

So I spent a few hours at the hospital. They sent me away loaded up on a ton of benadryl. I felt stupid. I could have done that at home. The doc was nice enough to give me a bunch of free pills for the next few hours.

The day after it seemed to clear up that morning, and then, boom! Fever hit, and wherever I hadn't have the hives is where they hit. My face, hands, feet, and neck were all covered. Felt like death that day.

I am very grateful that the kids were easily amused with tv, mandarin oranges, and french toast. Another day later after being stoned on benadryl (it really knocks me out), I was good to go.

Strangest reaction I've ever had. I will call it a reaction, though the dr said it was part of my cold virus....pffftt....I actually don't know what to think anymore, cause the fever was the weirdest part.

So, we're kinda back now. I'm feeling better, and hopefully will have more things to write about.

under the weather

The kids brought home some sort of plauge, and we're all terribly sick with it (except Tony). Luckily I stocked up on sickie supplies right before I developed a hacking cough and lack of desire to do anything.

We've been camped out on the couch watching the most mind numbing shows, drinking lemon ginger tea and playing with mega blocks.

Praying that we get over this thing quick, and that Tony avoids it, hes got a huge presentation at work on Monday or Tuesday. The last thing he needs is to be sick.

More stuff to update you on later. First, its time to do a hot steamy shower to knock this phlegm outta me (sorry, tmi).

Holy Fungi!

As I was sitting at my desk, reading and sipping tea, out of the corner of my eye I saw a crow. Now crows are common in my yard, but this fatty was eating something. Curious, I stood up and peered into the yard to see him tearing up a humongous mushroom. But then I saw that there were a ton of fungi growing.  It has been rather moist, raining most of the week, but man alive, I've never seen something quite like this. Won't be taking the kids outside until we mow these suckers down.

They are fascinating though.

Happy Halloween!

We're handing out and eating candy tonight! Have a safe and happy halloween!

*had to reapply her make up after she bawled about not having candy right away, hence the puffy eyed kitty*

My little baker

 I seriously need to sew her an apron. Recently she's been a lot more curious about what I'm making for dinner or lunch, so she shouts PULL PULL and grabs my desk chair and hauls it over to where I'm at. Today she helped me make apple spice cupcakes (very delicious and moist). She poured and scooped dry ingredients, whisked them together, and every once and a while, she blew the dry ingredients to make a flour cloud. Her face had a light dusting of flour and spices on it, and she kept trying to lick the batter when I was ready to be scooped.

She's very good at putting cupcake liners in the tin, and loves it when I turn on the oven light so she can see her creations.

She's my little sous chef, and I hope she continues to love helping me in the kitchen. I have hope that it will help her out of the picky eater phase.

The Jealous Hulkanator!

Today I learned a couple new things about my 1 year old son.

First new thing: My son is the Hulk

The kids and I were out with the stroller. I had a prescription to get filled and so we went for a walk to the local shoppers. Sadie walked along side me, re organizing the shelves how she liked them, oh that girl. Anyways, so afterwards, we headed off to the clinic to see the doctor, and while we were waiting, the kids were playing the play area. Ugh, I hate the play area. Breeding ground of filth and disease, but if its me against 2 children, I wont win that battle. They started fighting over some lonely key chain that was in the play area. To break up the fight, I hid the key chain behind my back and offered snacks. They hadn't eaten in a while, and now that I had offered a snack, Lucas realized he was STARVING! They each got a soft toddler cookie filled with some sort of fruit jam. So I had Lucas on my lap and Sadie sitting beside me with their cookies. Lucas grabbed his cookie with his little shaking hands, like it was long lost treasure, and as it got closer to his mouth, he gripped it harder, and harder, and then he tried to bite the crumbled jammy cookie mess and realized he had nothing to bite into. He shook his mush filled hands and let out the loudest scream EVER! Pure rage! (I swear, if he could, he would turn green and burst out of his clothes) I could feel a dozen eyes all zoom in onto the situation. There was my boy, the Hulk, screaming over mushed cookie, shaking and thrashing in my now cookie covered arms. He was so mad, so angry that he had to scream at me again while I'm quickly trying to clean up cookie jam bits. Then, frantically, I opened another cookie, and after a few short shrieks, he realized it was best for both of us if I just held his cookie while he took huge hungry bites.

So, keep in mind that if you have a hulk like child like mine, just don't buy soft cookies, give them the hard puck like ones that they can't crush in their bare little hands. 


Second new thing: I have a jealous little boy

It never connected with me how jealous Lucas is with his mama until last night. We were in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner. Kids are playing on the floor. I went and gave Tony a hug, and all of a sudden, I hear screaming. Turn and look, and there he his, sitting on the floor with huge angry eyes screaming at me. I asked my husband what happened, and he said nothing, Sadie wasn't near him. Hugged again, and the kid is beside himself with rage (yes he has anger issues at 1 year old). So Tony realizes Lucas is jealous of him.

This makes sense to my mother as well because she had the kids for the weekend, and the entire time, Lucas was as good as gold, but as soon as I came home to pick them up, he plows through any obstacles, be it toys or humans, and climbs on my lap. He then tries to bully Sadie away so he is the closest one beside me.

Yep, my boy is jealous of any other human being that gets near his mama. Although its really sweet to me, its not sweet for anyone else close to me. So we will be working on that. Tony and I have made it a point to hug more in front of him, but also include him in on the hugs. He hated our first couple group hugs, but he's getting better.

It makes me think of how cool it is that they have such unique personalities. They are so funny.

Leaf Collecting

 Its fall! We finally had a nice sunny non rainy day out. We enjoyed all the damp leaves and toys outside.

 Look MAMA!

  Lucas wore some old snow pants of Sadie's so he could crawl on the grass and stay relatively dry. Sadie had a blast taking her puppy into the yard. She *almost* forgot him on the grass, but ran all teary to grab him after I reminded her. No dogs left behind.

Every time we go for a walk in the stroller, Sadie always exclaims LEEEE for leaf. She requires we grab at least 1 before we head inside. She'll show anyone who will give her time of day her leaves.

destruction

 

 This is what happens when you sit down for 5 minutes to catch up on blog reading. I had music going, so I kind of tuned out the ripping noises. Sadie was his accomplice.

7 quick things

1- Sadie plays pretend. I didn't know kids at this age could do that, but she does. She gets down on all fours and says NAM (this is what kitties say, its instead of meow). She smiles and crawls around, waiting to be pet on the head. I think its adorable. She also tried being a bunny, but the bunny kept saying what kitties say. I think my girl will have quite the imagination when she grows up. Once she starts talking more, it will be amazing to hear what she has to say.

2- Speaking of talking, or lack thereof, Sadie has been referred to a speech and language thereapist. I mentioned it to the doctor that she pretty much only has a vocab of 20 or so words and sounds. Even though its normal for kids her age to only have that many words, its just in case she doesn't progress by the time we see the therapist. It will be a long time before that might happen.

3-Tony and I are getting into shape. He's committed, and I'm so happy. I was doing the 30 day shred by myself, but I dropped it after a while. So if you happen to pass by our living room at 8:30 pm, don't be surprised to see two *ahem* large adults wheezing and sweating, jiggling while doing jumping jacks or butt kicks. I'm so proud of Tony though. At the beginning, it was so hard for him, and now we are ready for the level 2.

4- Lucas has been clingy. Very clingy! He cant be more than 6 inches away from me some days. He either climbs on me, sits on me, or has to cling to my legs while I cook dinner. I know it doesnt last forever, but its driving me nuts. If someone else is holding him, its ok as long as I'm not in view, cause why have someone else if mama is just right over there. This heavy boy wants to be held often, and its killing my arms (I guess it helps my workout though).

5- Issues staying tucked in. Lucas in particular has to be checked on once every night to make sure hes under his covers. Lately I find him sleeping in a curled up ball in just jammies, blankets pushed aside or underneath him. Its really hard to try and get him tucked in again, hes a light sleeper. So, my question is, is he too hot in his jammies and kicks off the blankets, and then gets too cold? Or is he probably just a thrasher like me and kicks them off just cause? Whats a good solution to keep him warm? The other day he was up at 5 am cause he was shivering cold and not under the covers. So frustrating.

6- We're finally doing something to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary! We're going up to Whistler for the weekend. I've been wanting to go up there for a long time, and haven't been since before the Olympics. The Peak to Peak lift sounds incredible, and we're going to do it. We were thinking about going to Vancouver Island, but its just too expensive with the car on a ferry ride. Too bad, cause we both love it there.

7- So remember Lucas' blanket I was working on? Well, it didn't work out, AT ALL. Made me sad that as I was doing it, it was getting all warped looking. The chain was way too tight, and all the stitches afterwards got loose and before you know it, I had a weird trapezoid like blanket. So I'm starting over, and doing another for him. Same kind of colours, but different blanket. Maybe another time I'll try another granny stripe blanket.

Thankful

I don't want to forget to be thankful, so I sometimes write in my gratitude app to remind myself to be grateful for what I've got.

This year I'm thankful:

-to have a house big enough to host thanksgiving dinner for my Mother-in-law.
-for the huge back yard that has been so good to my kids
-for God's provision
-that Tony and I are together in getting in shape - its a good thing, and I'll write more about it later
-for being blessed with such a wonderful family

So that's my late thanksgiving post. The day after our big dinner, I caught Sadie with my cranberry sauce, just dipping into the sauce, no berries.