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 :)

what's cooking: No bake energy bites

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and it looked so easy and simple and delicious. I also choose to make it because I had most of the ingredients on hand and didn't feel like turning on the oven.

Adapted from Gimme some Oven

1 Cup toasted Coconut
1 Cup oats - Used Quaker breakfast oats with flax seed and wheat germ in it
3/4 Cup Peanut Butter
1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Honey
1/4 Graham cracker crumbs (instead of ground flax seed - which I was missing)
1 Tsp Vanilla

Mix it all together, then put it all in the fridge for about 20 minutes or so. Then you roll it into balls and keep them in the fridge for up to a week.

*I should have put a bit more honey in it as they were a little on the dry side when it came to forming balls out of the mix*

I'm going to make one with some crasins and seseme seeds next, something more like a trail mix energy bite. The recipe is very easy to change to suite your needs.

So I walked into the kitchen and found this...

 I had to stop her before she sampled them all. Girl munched on apples all afternoon.

a couple stories

I've got a couple stories that happened lately. Yesterday I was changing Lucas's diaper, and Sadie was playing near by. She happened to notice the bandaids on his leg from his shots. She quickly started to whine, then cry, and then really cry as she backed away from him. Yep, my girl is terrified of the little bandaids. I tried to show her it was ok, but she wouldn't come near him, even after his pants were back on, it took a bit.

She's just like me. I didn't want her to be like me in this aspect. I was terrifed of my own cuts, bandaids, and shots. I tried to play it cool with her, but she's a sensitive little being. Just like her momma.

Lucas is almost ready to crawl. He's been getting up on all fours for a few brief seconds and then he scoots backwards. I'm not ready for a mobile baby yet, so I'm frantically cleaning things up on the floors in case this progresses quickly.

It was sunny out today, so we went out for a walk. Goodness its so frustrating trying to get both kids ready and out the door. I swear, it takes half an hour to chase Sadie down and force her to put on clothes or shoes or just get down the stairs. I've been praying for more patience, and lately it seems like I'm being put in more impatient situations. Practice makes perfect I guess.

Cloth Diapering -- what I've learned

Its been 3.5 months now with cloth diapering my little guys. I've learned quite a lot. I've learned that poop is not as scary as some people think -- and I've gotta say, the only blow out I've ever dealt with was a disposable diaper, and it was a nasty experience. Poor Lucas.

Some people think its a lot of work to do this, a lot of extra hassle. My sister in law saw me sorting and stuffing diapers and she commented that it couldnt be worth it, but really, its just an extra load of laundry every couple days, and sorting and stuffing diapers doesnt take long, unless you have little helpers un sorting all your work (I like to stuff diapers during naptime while watching Frasier :) )

I've also learned that buying them second hand is awesome. They're half price or better usually, and aside from some light staining, they are as good as the new ones. I wash them really well, and then we're good to go. Its not something I get grossed out about, I mean, we're talking about diapers--all they do is catch the poop.

*Another bonus is that Sadie's pants fit her when she wears cloth diapers. They add a little extra fluff to her petite frame so that her pants stay up. Otherwise, she looks like one of those horrible rapper guys with pants down past their butts.

Ohh and check this out: http://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/Calculator.asp
This handy link compares the prices of disposables vs cloth diapers. Roughly the cost for cloth diapers is about 200-300 bucks (can be cheaper if you buy used). This calculator showed me that I'd break even after 4 months. Yay! After using them for a year, I'll be saving $657.00. I've got at least 1.5-2 years to go. This was the selling point for Tony.

Sadie Loves...

 Playing with my iPhone. She's texted and called Aria once, and posted "A" on facebook for me.

She thinks splashing in the tub is hilarious. Its also hysterical when we stomp stomp stomp your feet and then fall on your bum in the tub.

She loves to wash Lucas' tummy with soap, or your arms, or hands, or whatever is in reach for her.

She loves it when Lucas sucks on her fingers, shes constantly offering her hands to him.

She loves her stuffed animals and babies. She feeds them, brushes their teeth, and puts them to bed. It makes my heart melt when I see her being such a good little mama.

She loves music, and dancing is the best.

She really loves sweet pickles. Every time the fridge is open, shes there pointing at the pickle jar.

She's just a sweet sensitive little girl.

I love her.

My sewing machine is all dressed up

 I think it was right before we moved that I noticed that my machine had died. I let her sit for a while on my desk, and a few weeks ago I took her out and tried to get her going after hearing about a friends machine that magically came to life. Well, she also magically started working again! This called for a celebration, so I went through my Home Ec e-course to find something to sew. It was fitting that there was a tutorial on how to make a sewing machine cover, especially since mine gets dusty and doesnt have a cover.

So there she is, pretty in red. I totally recommend that Home Ec course for basic sewing tutorials. Its got easy tutorials for beginners, the pictures and steps are great. It gives me courage to try more complicated (to me) things. I believe that curtains are going to be next on my list of things to create. :)

sitting!

Just in the last couple days, all this boy wants to do is sit up. Well, with help of course. He usually sits propped up with the boppy pillow, and he loves it.He throws a fit now if I put him on his tummy. Learning to sit also has its down sides, although hes resilliant enough to not cry every time he does a face plant.

thrifted treasures

Look what came home with me today! Pretty vintage pyrex mixing bowls! Today we kinda decided to go thrifting spur of the moment. We also went to a new thrift store, which turns out to be my new favorite! Sadie did amazingly well, she ran off some energy, and played with the clothes, and toys, babbling through the isles. Lucas hung out in the moby wrap, content at looking at whatever I was checking out. The kids did so well.

Found some pretty vintage sheets for making things out of. Not sure what I will do, but I think I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled for a few more for a big project.  Used some tips from frecklewonder's thrifting guide and brought snacks and distraction for Sadie. A snack baggie of dry cereal, gold fish crackers, and a few books to look at helped keep her happy. The books and running around also were very useful in allowing me to hunt for treasure.

 Sadie kinda fell apart at the end, but we were headed out anyways. I asked her if she was done, and she gave me a big head nod. Yes, we're done sweetie.

Lucas Loves...

 This boy is 5 months old now. What a charmer he is too!

This month, Lucas loves to slither backwards on the floor. Usually ends up getting stuck under a couch.

He is starting to love warm rice cereal and avacado.

He loves it when Sadie laughs. He laughs at her with his husky little laugh.

He loves peek a boo, and the baby in the mirror.

He also loves being in the moby wrap still while shopping.

He loves to grab at the toys in his bouncy seat and eat them ferociously.

He loves naked time before and after bathtime.

What a cute little boy you are turning out to be.

The results are in...

So, remember how I told you all that I had a mysterious bump on the back of my head? Well, the Ultrasound results came in this morning, and I've seen the doctor annnnd....

Its not a scary bump!

Praise the Lord!

I am so relieved.

So what do I have? Well, its a superficial cyst. I've had a cyst on the other side of my head before, but they've never hurt or been this big before, and they always disappeared. This guy, this big, painful evil thing has been such an annoyance.

So apparently these things can disappear on their own, they can grow, or they can rupture (EXPLODE). Gross, cyst juice in my head! (Probably shouldn't have said given you the visual on that, sorry) So I'm gonna talk to a doctor about maybe getting it removed by doing day surgery. Thankfully its stopped throbbing, and only hurts when I touch it, but its on my head, and I kind of just want it gone.

If I get it removed, it will probably mean a short hair cut or something for me. We'll have to see. 

Happy Valentines Day

I love valentines day. Growing up we always did stuff at home as well as at school for valentines. Usually some treats were near our breakfast, or we got a card and chocolates after school. I want my kids to love valentines day, so I started them early on it.

This year I made them their own valentines envelopes that velcro shut. They hold chocolates and fun things. This year Sadie got a couple chocolates and fancy heart crayons that I made yesterday (Lucas gets to use his next year). I collected all the busted up bits of crayons and put them in my heart baking tray at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Once they cooled for another 20 minutes, they were ready to go. She has a blue one, pink one and orange one. We coloured today while eating chocolates. It was good.

Tonight I'm going to try and make enchaladas, rice and black beans for dinner (not really romantic, I know), but I have a chocolate cake -- made from scratch! I've never actually made cake from scratch. It wasnt bad, and it was fun. No more box mixes for this girl.

kind of playing catch up...

This was our snow day in January - I've already forgotten when it was. We had one big dump of snow, and then after a couple days it melted away, and we haven't had snow since. It was so much fun to see Sadie enjoy snow. Lucas enjoyed chillin in the bouncy seat watching his sister. After throughly getting cold, the kidlets had a warm bath and Sadie and I shared a hot chocolate.

Brushing our teeths

And now for something cute and a little more upbeat!

discouraged

Its so frustrating waiting to find out what this bump is. I was really worried the first 2 days, and then after praying a ton, the worrying went away. Its not as bad as it was at least. I worry mostly at night when I go to bed. Watching sitcom shows right before bed seems to help calm my nerves. I've been watching How I Met Your Mother and Parks and Rec. Good funny stuff for me to fall asleep to.

The ultrasound went as expected, painful, but it was quick, so that was nice. Walked out with semi dried goo in my hair, and a bump-ache. I made my frozen peas and carrots turban, and it was better.

I better find out what this stupid thing is soon. Its putting a damper on everything.

{crafted} taggy blanket

(crappy photo quality, I know -- charging up the big camera battery as we speak)

Just something small I made my boy. Its a little tiny blanket that has ribbon tags on it. Apparently babies like tags on things, and so I made him a taggy blanket. So far he only kind of likes it. Its ok though, it was only a half hour project at most.

a bump

2 days ago, I was doing my hair and I felt it. The lower right of my scalp had a bump. Didn't think much of it, Ive had a cyst on the other side of my head before and it went away. The day after, it hurt. Hurt a lot, and felt bigger.

So yesterday I went to the doctor.

He wasn't sure what it was.

So I'm on antibiotics in case its an infection. I'm also due to get my scalp ultrasounded this afternoon. Which doesn't seem pleasant when pressing or touching the bump hurts my head.

So I'm worried. I know I cant do anything, but the worst scenarios appear in my head, and I think I'm gonna lose it soon if I don't know what it is.

I'm wearing an ice turban to make my head feel better. It helps.

dancing according to Sadie