Potty Party

I've been off for a week and I love it. It's been great. Spending extra time with Chelsea has been fun, but I can't believe how tired I am! I'm waiting for Chelsea's naptime every day just so I can sleep!

As for potty training, I have taken a very laid back approach. I realize that Chelsea's world is going to change dramatically when the baby comes, so I don't want pressure her too much. She's been known to say things like "I like diapers" and "I don't like the potty" so I'm not going to force her too much.

The other day, she went pee once on the potty and was rewarded with a gummy worm. But after that, insisted she wanted a diaper, so she wore a diaper.

Today, every time she wet her diaper, she'd take it off, so I started asking her if she wanted to go on the potty. She'd try and nothing - fine, no biggie. Then at lunch she asked if she could go on the big potty and she DID - let's just say #1 and #2! We were VERY excited! After this, she kept asking a bunch of questions about people we know, asking if they wore underwear or diapers. I think she's cluing in that diapers are not the way to go. She went pee again on the potty later and this time, shared some of her gummy worms with the girls next door. She was very happy.

I know this may all be too much information, but it's been my life for the past few days! So hey, I hope you are enjoying some of the sunshine and getting excited about something of your own - whether it's a potty party or something a tad more interesting.

Fun in the Sun, finally!

So I've been off work for a few days now, but I honestly think I rest more when I'm at work. I've been so busy at home - it's been crazy. Although, I must say that I love the warm weather! We are outside a lot!

I have lots to still do today, but I figured I'd post a few pictures.

I found a walker at a garage sale. Chelsea thought she's crawl in to show me how it worked.

We've also played at a lot of parks and played a lot at the parks over the past few days.

Saying "Cheese" for the camera.

A natural monkey...
Rock climbing already!

And I hear C in the monitor now, so I guess relaxing time is over.

35 weeks and counting...

Well, tomorrow is my last day at work. I'm excited, but at the same time, in disbelief that this means another baby soon! Although this pregnancy has seemed really long, looking back it suddenly feels very short!

My belly feels very low and funny shaped. Here's what I mean... The first picture is me being "normal"; the second is me "sucking in".

It makes quite the handy shelf!

Anyways, I just wanted to post some pictures for myself. Here's to a great last day tomorrow!

Randoms.

I want to blog, but I don't have much to blog about. So, this will be a random post of sorts.

- due to massive amounts of weight gain, I was told by my midwife to return to the South Beach Diet, Phase 2. I've been on it for almost 3 weeks. I can't believe how much better I feel physically and about myself. I told Chris I never want to go back to eating crappy. I love how this makes me feel.

- I know I'm a geek, but I'm excited about garage sale season. One of my friends is this garage sale queen, who knows all the sales and is just as enthusiastic as I am. I love it. Now that I have kids, I love garage sales. Deals are to be found!

- I have 5 days left of work. five. f-i-v-e. so excited. I am so happy to have the month of May off. I can't believe how fast the past few months at work have gone. They have flown by. Now I hope to have a few weeks to relax, organize, spend some time with Chelsea, and take care of me before Walter arrives.

- I've been pulling out some of the baby stuff and Chelsea has been re-embracing it, shall we say. She keeps insisting that everything is hers. It will definitely be interesting to see how she reacts to the baby. I came into the baby's room and found a funny site. C had climbed into the bassinet!

From this little baby...

to this...

- running out of things to say. I hope you are all doing great. I'm off to mark some tests!

love

Every night, I sneak into your room. I tell myself I'm there to readjust you back onto your pillow and to re-tuck your blankets around you, but really, I love watching you sleep. I take time to kiss your forehead and get in one last cuddle before I head to bed.

I may not be a perfect mom, but always know I love you.

Party! Balloons! Cake!

The cake...

When she saw her cake for the first time...

So excited to be the birthday girl...

Blowing out her candle...

And, of course, giving the puppy a kiss!

And what was left over when the party was over...

Happy birthday princess. Love you!

Two! TWO!

My daughter turns two tomorrow. I find this so hard to believe. From this little peanut...
to this little peanut...

The latest two photos are from our photoshoot session on Saturday taken by Kristel Bueckert Photography. I'm excited to see the rest.

Chelsea, I love you so much. Thank you for all you've taught me over the past two years. You are such an amazing little girl. Every day I'm overwhelmed with love for you and I constantly want to kiss and hug you, even though you get annoyed. I love listening to you talk and talk and talk. You have such a large vocabulary and are able to tell us what how you are feeling and what you want. You always want to be outside and will bring me your boots, splash pants, jacket, mitts and hat. You love jumping in puddles and you love being in charge of Maggie.

Every night, your bedtime routine consists of reading the same 4 books, "The Pop Book", "The Foot Book", "Little Quack" and "Baby Sleeps." It's always these same 4 books and you know exactly which order you want them read in. You love sleeping in your big girl bed, cuddled with your 2 quilts and many stuffed animals, as long as you have a soother and one to spare. You sleep well; most nights you don't wake up at all. When you do wake up in the morning, you request daddy and the two of you come downstairs and cuddle on the couch in your jammies.

You love colouring and know most of your colours, but you often get green and yellow, purple and blue confused. You can count to 13 all by yourself. You know all sorts of shapes including odd ones like semi-circle, diamond, and oval. You are such a little smartie pants.

With all of this sweetness comes a stubborn side as well. You are quick to anger and when you don't get your way, a tantrum is likely to happen. You have been know to say words like "Go away, Mommy!" and "Leave me alone" in addition to "Don't!" "No!" and "Stop!" We're working on this side of your personality as we try to teach patience. You often respond by saying, "I like patience!" If only that were true, Little One.

I could keep going and going, but I'll stop for now. I love you baby girl. I pray for the best year for you. Love you pumpkin! Happy birthday!

Baby shower

Tonight I hosted a baby shower. It was a lot of fun. I love having people over and I love that my husband was so willing to help out. We had a massive amount of food and thus, I have a massive amount of leftovers. A few of my favourite things about the shower were the cute sign I made that said "Welcome Baby Logan"....
and of course, the cake!

I had a fantastic time, but man, oh man, I'm tired. I have one more week of crazy. Next week I have another big birthday cake, Chelsea's birthday cake and party (which I haven't planned or invited people to), and a wedding cake. Why on earth do I do this to myself??

2 years ago today...

2 years ago was my due date with Chelsea. She wouldn't show up for another 9 days, but I was so ecstatic to have made it to the full 40 weeks! I like seeing the picture of me at 40 weeks with Chelsea because although I am feeling really fat and huge right now, I realize I still weighed much much more when I had Chelsea.

Just for reference, here's me at 40weeks with C, and a few days ago with Walter.

(Oh and the baby's name isn't Walter, but that's his nickname. One night I asked Chris for some boy name suggestions and that was his first one. After hearing that, I told Chris his opinion no longer mattered... and yet the name Walter has stuck!)

Silly goose

"Chelsea, I don't know why you are so silly."

Her response, "I don't know either, mommy."

I love how much she talks. My baby turns 2 in 2 weeks!

P.S. I really don't know why you can't click on my pictures to make them bigger. Can anyone help me?

Spring Break

is going by way too quickly.

I'm finding it hard to get much accomplished because this little girl
demands all of my attention, or wants to help all the time. That makes it hard, so I've tried to only do major work while she is napping or in bed. This limits me to 2 hours in the afternoon, and some time at night after 8:30 or so. The problem is that I want to nap in the afternoon or just relax in the evenings, so not much is getting done!

That being said, I am making some progress on the "to-do list." So far, I finished my photowall. I think I like it. I love the quote, but I think I may have been a tad mathematical/OCD about the photo arrangements.

I started organizing Chris's office. I wish I had taken a "before" pictures. So far, I've taken 4 big green garbage bags of garbage out of his room. This does not include the 2 boxes of stuff that is going to MCC. I have bought over $100 of shelves/storage units to help him stay organized... I hope.

We also made a trip into the city yesterday so that I could have a fetal assessment done on "Walter". I'm seriously not exaggerating when I say that I'm a tank. I'm measuring 9 weeks ahead of my due date, so my midwife just wanted to make sure that everything is going okay. And it is. Everything is within normal range and he is doing great! He's in the 80 percentile for his age, so he's not even a huge baby. The best part about the ultrasound was that we could already see his hair! It was awesome. Another hairy baby. Woo hoo!

Other than that, I've just been hanging out with my Chels. She is so much fun, in between her tantrums of course. She's such a drama queen and right now she loves loving. She likes saying "I love you" "I miss you" and kisses on both cheeks and then the lips. Fun. She is overly dramatic in her play and in her temper.

Here's an example. Lately, she's facinated with bubbles and her imagination. She uses anything and everything to "blow bubbles" as long as I will clap my hands and pretend to pop them. Here, she is using a dog toy/bone and a toothpick to blow her bubbles. This is the deep breathe she takes...

before she "blows"...

Awesome little girl.

Far too long...

I know, I know. It's been a while. No worries - spring break is mere hours away and I will blog again.

For now, check out what daddy let Chelsea do the other day. This was pretty much the day that I decided that supper time with Chelsea was out of control. Chris thought it was more important that she eats her food than how she eats her food. She was being a puppy. Cute, but not appropriate for supper time!!

Anyways, it's time for bed! Until next time...

Mud puddles...

Today was a FABULOUS day. I love warm weather. It makes such a difference in how I feel. This morning, Chris and I cleaned the house and then one of my students came and played with Chelsea for 2 hours because she needed to pass the babysitters course. This worked out well for me! Chelsea was awesome and they played downstairs for the whole two hours!

Then I went shopping and when Chelsea woke up we all headed out for a walk. I kept laughing that she looked like a mismatched hobo with her pink hat, mittens, and scarf, purple jacket, green splash pants and her new rainboots, but whatever, she was warm and happy.

After the walk, Chelsea discovered the true joy of mud puddles...

We came inside, played some more, ate supper, and made some cookies.

Then, bath time and good night. What a great day. I can't wait to stay home all the time.

Then and now...

Another week without blogging - bad, I know. It's been crazy - marking, writing reports, surviving... I always question my decision to be a teacher during report card/parent-teacher week, especially parent-teacher. Last time was the best set of conferences I've had, so please pray that these ones will go well too. It's my last set for at least another year and a half, so that makes me happy! :D

Chelsea is amazing. Man, oh man, how I love that little girl. Today she decided she wanted to not wear her diaper and wear undies. Good times. She wore a diaper for nap, and went swimming with daddy, but other than that, just peed once on the floor. Not too shabby. She didn't really pee on the potty though, so not sure if I'd say it was successful or not. lol. Either way, it was a fun day.

The other day, she was doing her favourite activity - crawling into the dog kennel. She still fits!

I can't believe last year at this time, we were so excited to see her standing and attempting those first steps. Man, time flies!

Alright, that's enough for now. Hopefully life will resume to normal soon!

great weekend

Good, busy weekend after a yucky, sick week. I stayed home from work on Monday with Chelsea because she still was not well. Tuesday and Wednesday I went to work and then Thursday, I wound up staying home with the same gross bug that Chelsea had.

Friday was a professional development day. Instead of going to the general motivational speaker, I chose to take in the technology sessions. They were great and I really enjoyed my day, when usually I find the PD sessions kind of... well boring. I had a great day and then we dropped Chelsea off grandma's for a night, and we went into the city. We had fun shopping and then going to Mongo's Grill for a late supper. We bought another 100lb bag of icing sugar, a ton of supplies at Michael's, a few outfits for baby boy, and a CUTE dress for Chelsea. I found some pants and answered many questions about how large I am, how I'm sure it's not twins, and yes, my due date is correct. Fun times.

Saturday, we took advantage of Chelsea being at Grandma's and we went out for breakfast just the two of us, then we picked up our girl, put her down for a nap and I headed off to school. I did all the marking that I had, but still didn't start report cards. Sigh. I hate report cards, but no where near as much as I hate parent-teacher interviews, and those are looming just around the corner. Yuck. Anyways, then we went out for a hectic, crazy supper with friends - BP is not a good choice when you have young kids. It just takes far too long.

Today, we headed to church, then I went to a Norwex party with my favourite Norwex consultant, and then out for another yummy supper with friends. This time, we went with the DiFrans for some yummy Chinese and then we all came back here to hang out, and be rockstars. It was good times. Now that I've wasted some time blogging, my goal is to crank out some report cards and then have an early bedtime.