My girl

Chelsea makes me laugh.

Tonight, we doing our evening potty routine before bed, she asked for her potty seat. Usually she just sits on the toilet without it.

When I asked why she wanted the seat, she responded by saying, "I need to be safe. I don't want you to flush me if I fall in."

Oh girlie. You are too much fun.

Age is a funny thing.

Lately, I've realized that I've suddenly aged. It's not that I mind at all. I just feel like I woke up and looked around and I'm not 20 anymore.

Examples:
- I love tea. I especially love herbal tea. No milk or sugar - just tea.
- My favourite cereal is Fibre One - original. Just little tiny sticks of fibre goodness.
- I have recently discovered that I love dark chocolate. 90% Lindt. So good.
- Red wine is yummy. I really want a glass. Right now.
- I drink my coffee black.
- I have to watch my caffeine intake after say... 2 in the afternoon.
- I have ordered decaf coffee to enjoy after a supper out.
- We budget.
- I worry about RRSPs.
- I use day cream. I use night cream. I am trying to avoid more wrinkles. (note the "more")
- I drive an SUV.
- I've been married to Chris for over 6 years and with him for 8 of my 28 years.
- I don't like leaving my house. I love staying in.

However, in order to try to counter-balance this rapid aging realization, on Tuesday I am getting a procedure done that many 5 year olds also get done. That's right. On Tuesday, I'm getting tubes in my ears. For the 6th time. Sigh.

Hey. It's 10:04. Time for bed!

Headboard.

I don't do change well. I'm not sure I like the new headboard. I'll see how I feel in a few weeks. Our bedroom is a work in progress.

Before...

After...


Before.

After.


We both felt the headboard and the 3 stars were too much. I thought the 3 stars alone were too much. I don't know. I'm not good at this kind of stuff. Slowly I'll figure out what I like.

Dreaming

Thinking. Dreaming. Wanting.


- Mexico. Warm beaches, sand, drinks in hand. Right, Andrea?

- red wine and dark rich chocolate.

- being pampered at a spa.

- running outside next summer. Heat!

- a best friend.

- Melissa's dining room table. I'm trying not to covet, but dang, it's hard!

- a full night's sleep, not interrupted with a feeding.

- a visit from my mom.

- new flooring in my living room and hallway.

- a day that doesn't involve me counting to three while looking into a stubborn pair of eyes.

- a house that is perfectly clean and picked up.

- nice, new, elegant bedding.

- fitting into my skinny jeans again.

- more babies.

- healing for my ears and my daughter's ears.

- my wedding rings back. They are getting repaired this week. I miss them.

Some may happen sooner than later, and some involve a lot more of the "later" than the "sooner" but I dream.



What do you dream?

"But I have too much energy!"

Chelsea will not go to sleep lately. It is horrible. She goes for a nap at 1, and usually is in bed by 9. Lately at night, she hasn't been falling asleep until 9:30 or 10. She's then been sleeping in until 9. I'd like to put her to sleep sooner, but our evenings are just so busy!

I just went to check on her and she had gotten her rubber boots from being packed away in the closet, and had laid her books all over her floor, making a trail or a map. She was wearing her boots, walking through her map.

I burst out laughing. Sigh. Bad parenting, I know. But it was so absurd and just not what I was expecting.

I am wondering if this is one of those times when putting them to bed earlier makes them sleep longer/better, etc. We might have to give it a try. We have a bedtime routine. It involves bathing, jammies, night snack, toothbrushing, tucking in, stories, tucking in, proper arrangements of stuffies, tucking tighter, cuddling, songs, tucking tighter and then reading a colour chart.

It's hard though. She has a whole list of excuses that she tries.
- My tummy hurts.
- I can't sleep.
- I have too much energy.
- I hungry. (Only when she says it, she overemphasizes it so it comes out as "I'm hun-ger-eee")
- I need to pee.
- I want water. (We've solved this one by giving her a sippy cup of water to keep in her bed.)
and then the kicker...
- Mom, I just want to cuddle with you.

That one gets me every single time.

Nice buns!

Generally, I think I'm a pretty good cook. I love cooking. I hate doing dishes. I invent recipes. I add stuff. I don't measure. Asking me for a recipe isn't usually a good idea unless you can interpret recipes that say "add a little," "pour in some," and "cook until done." I think measurements are merely suggestions.

However, I know that when baking, you need to follow measurements. I don't like baking. Problem one is that my husband will eat 1 or 2 of whatever it is that I bake, and then I eat the other 23, or the rest of the pan, or whatever. I do tend to give lots away, but that seems expensive too. Most of the time, because I don't as a rule eat white flour or sugar, I don't bake. But, every once in a while, I feel that I should bake for Chelsea and Chris.

The other day, Melanie posted a recipe for Breadmachine Cinnamon Buns. They sounded easy and gooey and good.

So I tried to make some. The first batch didn't work. I didn't even get to the dough stage. My breadmachine for some reason didn't mix in all the ingredients and I wound up with all the yeast and a lot of flour left on top. So I scrapped that batch and started again this morning. This time, I got my dough, but it seemed way too soft and mushy, and I didn't think I had enough cinnamon/butter/sugar filling, so I doubled it, then it wound up smooshing everywhere. All in all, I figured I'd still try to bake them.

While baking, I was supposed to make this sauce to pour on top. While I was making it, it curdled. Seriously. It was like I was in home ec and had never baked before. How on earth did I curdle a simple sauce? Sigh. Dumped it and tried again. Success! Finally!

So, a little undercooked in the very centre, a second batch of dough and 2 batches of sauce later, it pleases me to present my first ever batch of cinnamon buns.


They were good!

Wiggle, wiggle.

I just had a great night with two great friends. I loved it. It's so nice just to be able to relax and talk and laugh.

I also left Gavin at home. So good! I love that he's going to bed around 8 now. I often go out after he's sleeping, but tonight I left at 6:30. He was a dream for Chris - no fussing or crying at all. Such a good boy.

He's started eating cereal now and you just can't feed it to him fast enough. He loves it. He gets so excited and flaps his arms and leans as far forward as he can. He's just so stinkin' cute. Don't you just love his spikey hair?

We've been really enjoying this wonderful weather. Here's Gavin, helping put up our Christmas lights.

I've really been enjoying my kids lately. Even Chelsea, who normally is a bit of a handful, is so sweet lately. She's always smothering me with hugs and repeatedly saying throughout the day "Mom. I like you. I like you, mom." It does hurt my heart a little that suddenly I'm mom and not mommy, but I guess she's growing up!

I did have a really funny moment with her today. She was in the bathroom when she suddenly started yelling for me. I came around the corner and discovered this!

Apparently she was doing the wiggle, wiggle dance and fell in. Of course, rather than saving her right away, I had to go grab the camera. I need to make sure I have enough pictures for her wedding slideshow someday!

Anyways, that's enough for now. I'm working on a more introspective and thoughful post, but it's not done yet, so I'm leaving you with this one!

Martha ain't got nothin' on me.

Yesterday, Chelsea wanted to start decorating for "kiss'em", so we headed over to "Grandma's Dollar" (or Dollarama, as you may know it) and bought some Christmas decorations.

I always love the cool wreathes I see, but can never bring myself to spend $20 or more on a wreathe. I liked this wreathe, but it was definitely lacking, so I pulled out the old glue gun and went to town. I stacked two wreathes on top of each other and added some silver glittery sticks.
Before and after pictures....

I like it! And it cost me $3!

And I have to mention that we did our outside Christmas decorating while I was wear a sweater and flip flops. I am LOVING this weather!

I'm excited about another PVO find. I bought this desk to put downstairs to use as a sewing desk. I might do some refinishing on it once I'm done the door/headboard.

(That's the PVO ad picture, just in case you were wondering where I have such a lovely shade of shag.)

Oh and I'm dreaming of this table and chairs set. It seemed a lot more do-able before we got an income tax bill in the mail yesterday for $570. Apparently something was claimed twice. I don't know, but it made me kind of sad. Oh well, someday this will be in my kitchen - I hope!

I should go enjoy the sunshine though. Gavin slept in until 9 and Chris and Chelsea are both still sleeping. What a great start to a Saturday! Have a great day!

She's back!

Yesterday was a rough one. The eighth day of fevers. Fevers of 104.6 even with Tylenol and Advil. A trip to the ER just to try one more time. This time, they said although they couldn't find any infections, we should try antibiotics.

Yesterday, all day - in daddy's arms. (Yes, Daddy had a rough night too, spending most of it in her bed so she'd sleep, so pardon him for sleeping in these pictures too!)

Three doses of antibiotics later. Feverless. Fearless.

Love.

In case you can't tell, she's saying "CHEESE" really big and happy. I told her Grandma Pat was worried about her and she had to prove that she was feeling better - so that smile's for you, mom!

On another note... Isn't it beautiful??

$10 on PVO. Can't wait to see it as my headboard.

Peek-a-Boo!

Peek-a-boo has never been so much fun! He loves it and gets so excited each and every time!

LOVE those big smiles!

A conversation I just overheard.

"Daddy, I have a secret for you. It's time for you to go to the bathroom. You are stinky."



HAHAHAHHAHA! Love it.

Comparing the kiddies

Love the matching drool string!

I'd like to do more, but it takes time to find matching pictures. Love these kiddies!

Forgot to make a quick Halloween post.

My princess/fairy. She ditched the crown and wings after the first house.

My little bear.

He looked like this after the first house.


It was so much fun this year. Chelsea really got into the trick or treating part, but walked into everyone's house when they opened the door. She didn't understand that we weren't supposed to walk into strangers' houses! Too funny.

Little Miss Sunshine.

This post is all about my sweet little girl. At least, I'm trying to remind myself that she is sweet. There are moments each day when I remember this, but sometimes I just get caught up in her misbehaviour, whining, and screaming for daddy and wonder what happened to my sweet little girl.

I found her "playing games." Usually, this room is closed so she can't get in the games, but someone Chris left the door open and chaos ensued. She had Scrabble, 2 versions of Settlers, poker chips and Uno cards all over the floor. Good thing Daddy cleaned up that one!

I often think she misbehaves because she's bored, so I've bought a lot of craft stuff, colouring stuff, painting and playdough to occupy her. The problem with this is that I need to sit with her and do it, when the whole time I'm thinking about other stuff I could be doing. I really do need to learn to live in the moment with her, as time is passing quickly!

We play dress up. I am hoping to get a few more costumes now that Halloween is over. She loves dressing up!

We snuggle.
This was a fun day for me. Chelsea was playing with good old fashioned wooden blocks, when I noticed that she was only stacking matching colours! She had separated all the colours and was building matching towers. The teacher in me was very impressed!

She loves putting stickers on herself, rather than paper. She actually wore a sticker on her belly under her shirt for 2 days, before finally soaking it off in the tub. Now, there is a dark patch on her belly from the adhesive, but she won't let me scrub it off.

She loves helping with EVERYTHING. This was helping daddy and mommy with a cake. Yes, some cakes do involve measuring tapes, glue guns, styrofoam and metre sticks.

And if you are one of my FB friends, you'll know I recently posted about my love for Kraft Peanut Butter. Looks like I'm not the only one!!

Now, Chelsea has had super high fevers for the last 5 days or so. It's sad. She's so beat and not her usual upbeat self. She finally had the energy to go to the park this morning, and kept telling me she "had too much icecream" and that she was too tired to run up the hill. Poor girl.

Then this afternoon, she went down at 1:15 for her nap, and we finally woke her at 5:30. This is what we found.
Get well soon, little girl! I miss the happy Chelsea!

A new holiday...

As we were driving to Superstore, Chelsea exclaimed, "Look at all those kiss-em lights, Mommy!"

Yup. Kiss-em lights are being turned on all around town people. :D