Dear Lucas

Goodness you change so much!

Lately you've been woofing down almost everything I feed you. You are the most ferocious eater ever. You'll down right throw a fit if I don't get that bottle or spoon in your mouth as soon as you see it.

It amazes me how different you are than your sister. Unlike her, you will get right in on playing with anything and everything. You are very hands on, and instead of being observant with toys, you are crashing around in everything. It annoys her I'm sure. You don't have the best fine motor skills yet, but that will come with time.

No teeth yet, but I can't wait for when they start to sprout as you are so uncomfortable. Drooling and gnawing on everything. That crayon almost bit the dust when you grabbed it, but I was able to wrestle it away without too much protest. Sadie took away my phone from you the other day and it was the first time you actually got upset about it. She can take away all your toys, but not my phone. You wailed. Poor buddy.

You are less shy and more independent from me which is very nice. You are loving your Grandpa Siemens with the awesome prickly face and hat. You have the best time over there.

Love you little guy!

thrifting adventures

Tee hee hee! I'm pretty excited to have found this gal. I was out thrifting with the kids and my sisters in law yesterday and found her. I was kind of shocked cause I found her so quickly. We had headed out to a bigger thrift store about 40 minutes away, and there she was in one of the display cases when I walked in. You'd better believe that I snatched her up asap!

 We had lots of fun there. It was a lot nicer of a store than the value villages located near by. The little old ladies that volunteer there loved the kids. Sadie went running up and down the clothing isles touching all the clothes gently and saying "OOOOOOOH!" She loved smelling all the fake flowers and was very talkative. She was babbling non stop for the last part of the trip.

Both kids missed their naps and as a result, Lucas slept on and off in the car on the way home, and Sadie whined constantly in the car until she fell asleep 5 minutes away from the house. Early bed time made up for that, and I've vowed to not take her that far away unless its after nap time shopping.

mmm the taste of blue

This is what happens when you leave a toddler alone to go do laundry. Hope it tasted good Sadie.

bangs!

I cut my hair. I have bangs! I haven't had bangs since I was 6. I needed a change desperately.

So there we go!

 Its still catching me off guard when I see myself in a reflection though.

random stuff

Its an extra messy day today. Sadie decided to be extra fancy and wear her beads and tutu skirt. She's turning into such a girly girl. Foods that get her hands slightly messy or crumbly make her whine at you until you wipe them clean.

In other news, I made killer black bean soup today. What surprised me most was that Sadie ate an entire bowl of it.

I'm being crafty and making stuff for her room, and working on a movie project for the blog. Its taking a lot longer than I thought, but I'll get it done soon.

apple cinnamon oatmeal

Remember eating instant oatmeal? The stuff from the little packets with the dried bits of fruit in them? Yep, I loved the stuff. Over time though, I realized that its probably better to cook the real stuff. The stuff that takes 8-10 minutes.

I've always been an oatmeal lover. My momma told me that as a baby I'd eat huge bowls of it. Well, I just made my oatmeal a little better than the boring brown sugar stuff.

I found a bag of apples that were almost dead and decided to make my own apple cinnamon oatmeal.

You'll need:

oatmeal cooked and ready to go- I love rogers porridge oats

1 apple peeled and sliced
1-2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Saute the apples in butter, then add the sugar, cinnamon and salt. I put my ooey gooey topping on my oatmeal and it made my day.

murmur

Yesterday was quite the day, wind storm, rain, all kinds of stuff. I got to brave it all with the kids as we made the trek to Vancouver for Lucas's 6 month checkup.

The kids were so good. Normally car trips = whining and crying from Sadie. I figured out the key is many many snacks and music. Whining happens less when shes got her mouth full of animal crackers or peanut butter sandwiches. I was surprised at how good they both were. No crying, hardly any whining, and this makes for a happy Miranda. So about the appointment. He's in the 90th percentile for height, and 50th for weight. Hes currently 16lb 8oz and 71 cm long. Hes my long boy. He even charmed the doctor with his cutesy smile.

So after she listened to his heart and lungs, she measured his head, and then went back to listen to his heart. I kinda knew at this point that something wasn't quite right. Turns out he may have a heart murmur, a flow murmur she thinks. He's been referred to a pediatrician at surrey memorial hospital to have it checked out. I found out after the appointment (hooray for doctor rating sites) that the doctor there has a reputation for being arrogant and kind of rude....oh joy. Please pray that we don't have issues with this doctor, and that we find out what's going on with my little guys heart. I know that heart murmurs can be no big deal, so thats what I'm hoping for.

The dreaded SPOON!

When I started feeding Lucas solid food, I figured he'd love it. He loves eating and is a big hungry boy. I started him with rice cereal. He gave me the weirdest look and clenched his mouth shut. Not thinking much of it, I tried to get him to take another bite. He looked at me with disgust and pushed himself back into his seat, not wanting anything to do with this. Ok, maybe he doesnt like this stuff. So a few days later we moved on to banana, avacado, then sweet potato, and back to rice cereal. Nope, he was just not going for it. He despised lunch time. Anytime that spoon came near him, he'd have his lips sealed. I tried a softer spoon, nope. Then one desperate day, I put pears on my finger and stuffed it in his tightly clenched mouth and, whaaa??? Success!

He ate a few bites off my finger, but as soon as I picked up his plastic spoon, he threw himself backwards and it was over.

You'd think that with a toddler who loves to chew on anything, be ok with a pliable spoon filled with delicious things. Nope. On and off for weeks now we've been fighting this battle. The spoon was losing, until today. Today I forced that spoon of prunes into his mouth, and you know what? He ate it, no spewing of food, no thrashing. It was strange. He'd need me to force it in his mouth, but he'd eat it, and I think kinda liked it.

Maybe I wore him down all week with trying. I'm just happy hes eating solids. Tomorrow I go to buy a big girl a booster seat for the big table so Lucas can take over her chair.

Tagged! Random things and questions

Check the bottom to see if you were tagged by me!

There are five rules:
1. Post these rules.
2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.
3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.
4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.
5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you've tagged them.

11 Random Things:

1. Rather than eat breakfast foods like cereal, I usually eat leftovers for breakfast.

2. As a kid, I used to take coloured paperclips, unbend them, and form them into a "U" type shape and put them in my mouth to pretend I had braces. FYI: Poking yourself in the gums with a paperclip hurts.

3. When I was 6 I told my mom that I saw things blurry so she'd take me to the eye doctor. I secretly wanted glasses like her.

4. My "friend" in grade 7 made me ride her horse backwards, and never having ridden a horse before, it scared me so bad I've never ridden one since.

5. Just watched "When Harry Met Sally" for the first time. It was cute.

6. I've never seen "The Notebook". Yes I'll watch it, when I'm in the right mood. 

7. My home ec teacher scared me into thinking that I'd sew right through my fingers if I wasn't careful. Lets just say that all my sewing projects were utterly terrible because of that. 

8. I talk in my sleep a lot. 

9. I have a big birth mark on my left hip. Its dark brown and I was always super self conscious about it when I went swimming.

10. I have a love hate thing with my hair.

11. I hate it when people say eXpecially instead of especially. There's no X!

 Questions for me:

1. What is your favorite food? Cheese. I love all kinds of cheese

2. If you could own an exotic animal, what would it be? hmm probably a penguin

3. What is your number one, all-time, favorite blog? I read a lot of them. Usually the ones that are witty and make me laugh.
4. If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Not sure if I'd like it, but I'd love to live in Oregon, or back in Vancouver (BC).

5. What is your all-time favorite book? That's not fair, I read too many. My current favorite is "The Hunger Games". Such a good book.
6. What would your "last meal" be? a complete turkey dinner.
7. Do you believe in love at first site? Nope. I'm not romantic like that.
8. What would your ideal Sunday morning consist of? Getting to church on time, and with happy children, then lunch at home from the crock pot, and then watching some tv.
9. Why do you blog? I do it to stay connected to my family and friends that live far away, and also to meet new people with similar interests
10. If you had to choose one color to wear forever, what would you pick? Blue. I love pretty shades of blue. 

Questions for you! 

1.  What's your favorite TV show?

2.  What's your favorite fast food? 

3.  Star Trek or Star Wars?

4. Whats your worst injury?

5. If you had to wear one colour forever, what would it be?
6. Favorite book?
7. If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
8.  What do you love to do after work or a hard day to unwind?
9.  Tea or coffee?
10. What are you listening to for music these days?


I tag Heidi, Aria, Mikaela, Cindy, Laura

She'll share...

 But usually on her own terms, and its usually food Lucas can't have yet.

He likes to touch it all the same.


I love finding them doing things like this. Yesterday I found Sadie trying to drag Lucas around by his hands. She wanted to dance with him I think. I had the music blaring that afternoon, and we had already been dancing.

I like having my computer in the kitchen. Good for music and editing photos when the kids are sleeping. I have a hard time being in our "office" during the day. It feels so closed off. I was used to having a computer in the living room.

There may be a computer in the living room again though. Lucas is driving us both crazy sleep wise. He's a light sleeper, and I think if he were on his own, he might be better off. Oh to have my own room again...

We'll see, there might be a move this weekend to get him out of our room.

beautiful day out

He did 2 face plants right before I got this one. Hes pretty tough.

Tried to take advantage of the beautiful weather by doing a photo shoot. Lucas wasn't very cooperative, and we cut our losses and headed inside to get warm. I got a couple good ones, but I'm going to try again later to see if we can get some more out of him before he gets upset.

I'll make it a goal to get both kids in a beautiful photo. I need a good picture for my giant frame on my mantle. Tony isn't too keen on the flowers that are currently in there.

DIY: Homemade Laundry Soap

A few weekends ago, I ran out of my traditional laundry soap. I used to use the liquid sunlight soap. I've been waiting for this last jug to run out for a long time now as I've been dying to try and make my own laundry soap.

Money is and has been tight, so I've been trying to save some wherever I can. I saw that if you make your own laundry soap, the cost per load is $0.05 vs Tide, which is $0.21. Sunlight is cheaper than Tide, but what beats $0.05 a load???

I used the recipe from this site and got all my ingredients and tools together (yes, tools :))

You'll need:

1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda (Not baking soda - they are different)
1 Bar Soap (I found sunlight soap in the laundry isle)

Box Grater
Mixing bowl



I used my "tool" - a box grater and grated my bar of soap. It smelled so nice and lemony.

PS: I love lemon!

Put my soap in a mixing bowl with the borax and washing soda, sealed the lid on and shook it like mad, making sure its all mixed together.

Each load of laundry uses a tbsp of Laundry soap, maybe 2 if its extra dirty.

I'm very happy with the results, everything gets clean, and smells great. So far my little ones with their sensitive skin have not had any bad reaction to anything. I think I'm going with this stuff for a while.

Have you tried making your own laundry soap? What's your recipe? Let me know how it works for you :)