Staying Cool

After many rain filled months, we're finally experiencing summer around here! My first official week at home was a warm one-- so we did what we could to stay cool. It began with the kiddy pool on the deck. Caleb enjoyed the water, while I enjoyed my new lounge chair.

Pretending to be cool while trying to stay cool :)

And we finally set up our fabulous above ground pool in the backyard. We had to wait a bit longer than normal to set it up-- as Doug's back wasn't up for lugging the pool out-- and let's face it, I wouldn't have been much help. Some of our friends took pity on us and came over to get the process started. It takes quite a while to fill up, but it was so hot that we ended up taking a break to have the first official pool party when it was just half full.

And... we had a day at the lake! Last Sunday we decided to head out to the lake to enjoy the warm weather with some friends. Caleb had quite a fabulous time-- he started the afternoon off with some lake swimming. He was quite brave-- I was not so brave (I stayed on the beach).

Warming up after a long swim.

When I told Caleb that we would be going to the lake, his first question was "will there be rocks that I can throw Mommy". Yes. There was. Typical boy behaviour.

Pregnant lady sitting on the beach which is actually a bit of a hill... trying to look and be comfortable.

Classic summer photo... kids enjoying watermelon. One word comes to mind-- sticky.

Caleb had fun hanging out with one of his new buddies. I discovered that trying to get a newborn and toddler to both look in the same direction for a photo is impossible. I shall continue to work on this in the upcoming months.

Who knew towels could have so many uses? Caleb's sporting his brand new hat.

So many different hats... so little time.

Well... there's another update for you all!

My Boys

As some of you may already know, Doug was off from work for a few weeks as he strained his back at work. He's back on the job now as his back is slowly starting to heal. While I was still at work however, Doug and Caleb would spend the days together and I would often come home to discover interesting things. I've come to realize that for some reason boys seem to do things a bit differently than us girls. (Did it really take me that long to figure it out?) Here are a few of my observations:

1. Bacon and breakfast sausage alone are in fact a complete meal. And the grease splattered all over the stove, counters, and floor? Totally not a big deal...

2. Contrary to popular belief, the best way to clean a toaster is not to take it outside and shake out the crumbs... nope, not even close. You take it down to your garage and blow the heck out of it with your air compressor. Any other way is simply inefficient and ineffective.

3. Hotdogs can be fully cooked in the microwave in just a few seconds... and then enjoyed by children young and old. Whenever I question this practice, I am always reminded that the package does say "All beef"... whatever that means.

4. What do you do when you have lots of free time on your hands? You take all the sharp blades and knives in your house out to be sharpened... of course.

5. Who needs a daytimer or calendar when you have the Fifa World Cup Soccer schedule tacked onto the fridge?

6. Swimming in the pool = bath time.

7. Kids clothing can do double duty. At bedtime, just rip off Caleb's shorts leaving just his T shirt.... instant pajamas.

8. And.... sometimes the way Daddy does things is just more fun. Caleb's still upset each morning when he realizes that Daddy has already left for work.

Now you may be thinking... what have I learned through this experience? Just gotta relax... and learn to enjoy processed meat.

Up until this point in my pregnancy, I haven't been too concerned with whether we have a boy or girl... now I'm starting to lean towards a girl... starting to feel a bit outnumbered :)

But WHY!!!

Caleb's been quite obsessed with "matching" (rhyming) words lately. It all started a few weeks ago when I sent Doug and Caleb out to get me a blizzard from Dairy Queen (half price blizzards = pregnant woman heaven). While they were waiting in the drive thru line, Caleb all of a sudden exclaimed: "Hey! Blizzard and Lizard! (which sounds more like wizard coming from him) They MATCH!" Ever since then, he wants to come up with matching words with me. Sometimes he gets a bit cheeky and asks me if two very unalike words match... and when I say the don't match, what does he ask? "But why?" Hundreds of times a day I struggle to answer that question-- if I don't provide an adequate answer I often have a frustrated 2 year old on my hands. So last night as we were driving Caleb asks, "House and dirty... do they match Mommy?" Nope, they don't match. But why? he asks. Struggling to find a decent response that will avoid him getting frustrated with me I finally say, "Caleb, those words don't sound the same and they are two different kinds of words-- one is a noun and the other is an adjective." The car is quiet. After a long moment of silence Caleb says, "That was a really good answer Mommy."

A Week of Lasts... (at least for now!)

Well, well, well... I must say I was quite surprised to discover that there are people out there who still faithfully check this blog for updates! Thanks for the comments everyone-- I shall try my best to not let this blog die!

This past week was a big one for our little family-- Caleb had his last day of daycare, and I had my last day of work and am now a lady of leisure on maternity leave! Let's just say that things are going to be quite a bit different around here now that we actually live at our house... not just keep our stuff here :)

Caleb was quite excited about his last day, because I promised that he could have a party at daycare. We've talked about it for weeks... on Caleb's last day, Mommy would come in the afternoon for a party, she would bring cupcakes (aka "pup"cakes in our house to those who are still learning to talk... Caleb... if you're wondering) for Caleb to enjoy with all of his friends, we would pack up his backpack, say goodbye to his teachers, and then he would stay home with Mommy everyday. Well, that day finally came! Doug was around that afternoon, so we both went to his daycare to surprise him. We snuck into the room while he was playing a game with the other kids-- when Caleb turned around and saw us he was SOOO excited!! He yelled, "Mommy... it's time for my party!!" and ran to give us huge bear hugs. The party went as planned-- although I decided to bring timbits in place of the cupcakes and iced caps for the adults (that's what happens when you're a working mom... baking = finding the nearest drive thru... with coffee). As can be imagined, the timbits were a smashing success-- 2 year old heaven. Caleb said goodbye to all of his friends and gave hugs to all of his teachers. I must say, I felt a little bit sad for him at the end when it was time to leave... he's been there for quite a while now and has had fabulous teachers. I could tell that he felt a bit of hesitation when it was time to say goodbye. But... Caleb is quite excited for this new chapter in his life... he's now a stay at home kid.

Timbit time...

Realization time... you mean I'm not coming back?

The next day was my last day of work. It was a good day-- but it felt so strange to pack up my office, clear out my inbox, quickly try to bring people up to speed on the last minute projects I had been working on... so different from the last time I went on maternity leave! My co-workers threw a great little farewell party for me... and gave me an awesome gift. When people have asked me what I plan to do with my time off before the baby arrives, I tell them that I plan to lie in my backyard on a fabulous chaise lounge chair and relax the day away!! A great plan... although I was still missing the lounge chair. Not for long! At the party, I was presented with a gift card to go out and purchase that all important lounge chair-- something I plan to do quickly in light of the upcoming week's forecast.

The best part of my last day occurred when I arrived home that afternoon. When I walked through the front door Caleb and Doug were waiting with a mini-party for me! As I walked through the door, Caleb yelled... "Mommy! You're all done work!" Then he pointed to the "party" and said "Ta Da!!" Doug felt that Caleb needed to learn about the importance of celebrating the accomplishments of others (not just his own) so they picked up timbits and ice caps for me, flowers, and a balloon-- as Caleb decided that it was something I would REALLY want (funny... I'm not the one playing with it). We had our little party, went out for dinner, and went to bed early :)

And now we relax! And play at the park! And wait for what's next... in just a few weeks things will be changing around here again!!

It's been almost a year...

I pulled up my blog today and realized that I haven't posted in almost a year... A YEAR!!! So to quickly recap... here's what the year has looked like in our household...

went to the island with my family where we decided that scooters are a great mode of transportation, Caleb discovers that Cars is his favorite movie and watches it twice daily, decided to apply for a new job, got a new job but kept the old one and took on another one for about 2 months (in case your not following-- did 3 jobs for 2 months... very fun), come home each night to a fabulous above ground pool in our backyard, Caleb becomes a good little swimmer, friends with a buddy for Caleb move into our house for a few weeks while they are between houses-- good times hanging out eating nachos in the evenings, friends move out, had surgery on my shoulder again, 1 week after surgery-- decided to renovate the main floor of our house, moved all of our belongings into the basement, started ripping apart the main floor during evenings and weekends, poor Caleb has to go to bed each night to the sound of demolition/saws/air compressors, a few weeks later, the main floor is finally bare and destroyed, cramped and tired in the basement, got pregnant :), started putting the main floor of our house back together, dishwasher uninstalled and sitting in the middle of the kitchen for 3 weeks, at work all day everyday then working on the house every evening to make it liveable before Christmas and before morning sickness begins, Christmas arrives, the house is livable, morning sickness arrives, leave for Sask for Christmas, Caleb has fun telling the family that he will be a big brother, back to work in January, morning sickness continues and extreme hunger begins, house may be livable but is still not finished, weekend house projects continue, I become less helpful in completing the projects, finally tell my bosses at work that I'm having a baby (the third associate director in our department to have a baby in a year... I get to be the last to announce... fun times), start getting fat, Olympic fever hits Vancouver, parents come to visit, siblings from Sask come to visit, go to John Mayer concert, go to Atlanta for a wedding, keep getting larger, extreme hunger continues, projects in the house continue, Caleb getting bigger and has the vocabulary of a 4 year old, still at work, moving slower, internal temp is rising while the temp outside decides to drop, still working, starting to waddle, house is looking better, baby room is looking cuter, 1.5 weeks of work left, and the sun is shining today...

Here's what we look like now...

Hopefully more posts will continue... in a more timely manner...

I should have more time to blog in the next year... right?

A night out with Coldplay...

So, my sisters and brother in law leave us a message on our phone a couple of months ago... saying they were coming to visit in June, they had bought us all tickets to Coldplay in Vancouver, and that we owed them some money. Needless to say, it was well worth the $... one of the best nights ever. Here we are, as excited as can be, on the road to Coldplay.

We had great seats. Row 13 on the side...

After opening acts, 2 hours of Coldplay, and 4 hours of awesome music--- I sustained minor hearing loss...it only lasted a few hours :)

Summer Begins...

Well, it's been about three months since my last post-- let's just say it's been a busy 3 months!! We sold our condo, bought a house, moved twice, I had surgery-- finally we've had some time to enjoy the HOT weather we've had here in BC. Last weekend we caught the Saturday early morning ferry to Vancouver Island. We had a great weekend visiting with friends and relaxing! Caleb was particularly excited about the big boat-- Here we are 6:30 in the morning-- Caleb all smiles as we left Horseshoe Bay...

Look at my boys... aren't the cute?

Caleb spent quite a bit of time digging in the sand at the beach... we all joined in on the fun and spent a few hours digging for clams-- fun to dig, not so great to eat :(

We have really enjoyed our backyard over the last few weeks. When it gets too hot be in the house, we head to the backyard and play in the pool and the sprinklers.

I turn my back for one second, and Caleb takes my coke-- just like his dad.

And this is what I'll be doing all summer-- trying to figure out how to keep plants alive! Having a green thumb is not something I'm known for... but I'm trying my best!

Babysitting...

Caleb's cousins came for a visit today... there were kids everywhere!

Sharing toys became a bit of an issue... Caleb's not used to two more kids wanting to "share".

The car racetrack was particularly popular...

Since it was Saturday, Caleb decided to spend the day in pajamas.

Micah's "smile" for the camera!

After chicken fingers & fries, eating nerds for dessert, bathtime, and watching Space Buddies... BEDTIME! Good night everyone...

Christmas Pics

I attempted to put these pictures in chronological order-- but gave up. Here's what we did in Saskatchewan over Christmas (in random order):

Once we got to Saskatoon (our 3 hour flighted ended up being more like 12) we spent a week and a half with my family on the farm.

Caleb had his first ride(s) on the quad. He is a boy through and through. Cars, trucks, tractors... anything that drives is his favorite. Needless to say, he loved the quad.

The view from the house:

Even though it was -40... it was still warm enough to goof off on the quad!

Caleb was very excited to have his first tour of my uncle's dairy farm:

Doug and I celebrated our birthdays over the holidays... even though they were in 2 different years!

Goofing off for the camera...

Caleb spent many fun-filled hours with Papa-- his favorite person in the world. Probably about 10 times a day you could find them in the garage looking at Papa's truck.

Opening gifts. Caleb opened them all himself. He ripped it apart piece by piece, throwing every bit of paper to the floor before starting on the next. Yes, he is definitely a lefty! Taking after mom...

One of the baby calves having his dinner...

Smiling for the camera.

Guitar hero anyone?

Sunset

What would you say if I told you that each of these cows have their own waterbed? It sounds crazy, but it's true. For real.

Checking out the sheep in Papa's barn. Yes, it's as cold as it looks. It was -40 out, but Caleb didn't complain. He was too excited about the animals-- that and he had about zero exposed skin.

And, once again-- another 12 hours in the airport on the way home.

That was our vacation. To sum it up-- cold, furry, airports, family, and definitely worth it!

Bath Time and Other Fun

Teething, maybe?

Gotta love the rubber ducky...

Caleb has an intense love for the bath tub. He bathes very regularly (sometimes more than once in a day) and loves every minute of it. He doesn't mind water in the face, and even fell face first into the water tonight... he didn't mind...

Why ride, when you can stand? I smell trouble :)