Iron On Patches

What crap! They rip right off after 1 wear. And I was feeling so smug.

Learning already...

Chance is learning already, when you worry your mother sick, it is best to buy flowers and say sorry. There was an incident at the daycare last week where Chance was running with his eyes closed and mouth open and then he ran into something hard and knocked his tooth loose (not out, but LOOSE for crying out loud!!). Chance decided it was best to buy flowers and apologize for making me fret. Nice, but I wish he would just stop running around like a maniac at daycare!! His clothes are taking a toll too, he goes through a pair of pants every other day it seems - blown knees. I'm thinking shorts are a definite fashion must as soon as possible this summer. A few skinned knees will slow him down, I hope!

Counting down the days...

Chance is getting very excited for Halloween. He decided to wear his Halloween shirt because Karin was wearing hers (which used to belong to him when he was a baby).

Easter dress on its' way out...

I'm so sad to see this little jumper dress go. We bought the dress for Easter for her with some money given to us by my grandmother in Indian Head. It fits Karin almost like a vest now...definitely a "baby doll" style, requiring the little bloomers that came with it to be decent. First picture taken 4 months ago, and now she's almost 7 months old. Time flies!

Cuties

Who wore it better, Chance or Karin?

Awwww...my babies are sooooo cute. Especially the big one, when he's all tuckered out from trying to keep up with Mommy.

Easter Dress

Here is Karin very happy to be decked out in her Easter duds. Karin is my little dollie, I love playing dress-up with her. I loved playing dress-up with Chance too...but now he insists on wearing 1 of 3 t-shirts: Spiderman, Transformers or Lightning McQueen.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

No caption necessary, I think.

Just look at that hair!!

Karin's hair has really grown and now we can do all kinds of fun hairstyles on her. I discovered a great website called Sarah's Bowtique, it is a little business out in BC and I just received my first order from them - one yellow and one lavender bow, similar to the pink one that I bought for Karin at the Calgary Farmer's Market when Karin was only 4 days old. I think I could get addicted...

Looking So Pretty

Karin got all dressed up on Friday and went downtown to meet her Mommy's and Daddy's coworkers. She was charming and only got fussy once, when she was hungry. It was a big day, we left the house at 9 AM and did not get home until 3 PM, then chatted with Grandma Jo on the phone (speakerphone is a great invention). She fed in two separate office buildings, had a bottle at a food court and nursed in the car, which was very sunny and warm. Busy day!

6 weeks old and second cold!

Poor Karin has another cold. We've all got it. She's holding up well, despite a pluggy nose. She's tired, and keeps falling asleep while nursing. So I'm up more frequently, as she has not really filled up and / or she is thirstier than usual. It'll be better soon!

In other news, Karin broke out the pink sunglasses that Chance started out with many years ago. She manages to pull off the look.

Fun Weekend

Karin received a trio of cute pink shirts on the weekend & we are loving dressing her up! She doesn't really seem to care what she wears though...she's just as happy in her brother's hand me downs! This weekend she put on the blue Cammo Dogs sleeper that was so notorious for blow outs with Chance (every time he wore this outfit his diaper would blow out, and curiously enough, lots and lots of blow outs later, this sleeper is not even stained!!). Well, the Cammo Dogs didn't let us down -- while she didn't manage to have a blow out while wearing them, she did poop all over her crib blanket while getting changed. Poor Bunnykins may never be the same again! We'll have to see if it comes out in the wash or not...


Speaking of poo...there's a new video on our Youtube channel - Chance's reaction to Karin doing a Number Two while he's holding her.

We had a great weekend. On Saturday we had visitors over for tea. Chance was an absolute angel - sat down to have tea with us, then disappeared and played all by himself happily when he got bored. While Karin napped, Chance and I made a quiche, while Cam did the dishes. So I guess that makes me the chef, Chance the sous-chef, and Cam the plongeur (garbage boy). In the afternoon we went out for a walk as a family and discovered a perfectly fine black cast iron portable fire pit that was sitting next to a dumpster (we have one but we knew someone who would want it!) Cam and Chance went back with the truck to pick it up. I know what you're thinking, when will the craziness ever end??

On Sunday we went out for groceries and did something I think we'll be doing for a long time. In the past we have usually gone out for groceries as a family on the weekend, usually around 10 AM (ie. when EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE CITY goes for groceries). It usually takes about an hour and a half, but sometimes up to 2 hours, depending on how big the list is, parking, lineups, whether I can find what I want, temper tantrums, etc.) This time, though, I had an epiphany while watching a movie called The Hurt Locker. I had to stop the DVD I was so excited to tell Cam about this idea. At the end (I don't think this is a spoiler) - a guy is shopping and then bumps into a lady and says "I'm about done, what about you" and she says "just get some cereal and we'll meet you at the till". They're shopping TOGETHER, but with SEPARATE CARTS. Wow. Wow wow wow. So we tried it: one list for me and one list for Cam and guess what? We had left the house, gassed up the car, parked, shopped, packed everything back in the car, gotten everything into the house, with two kids in tow, in UNDER 1 HOUR. Now - we did get to the grocery store sooner than usual (9ish). But. I'm never going back to the dark ages. Ever.

More words!

turtle
juice (water)
yeah. yeahyeahyeah!
clock
mow (meow)
kiki (kitty)
gock (sock)
eyes
nose
mouth
foot

When I picked Chance up from day care today he was smeared head to toe in chocolate cake. The kids ate cake together to celebrate Mother's Day. "Where's my cake??" was what I was thinking when I picked Chance up. Chance also had apple juice and (evidently) rice krispie cake, as I found it glued to his shirt. After all that sugar Chance was running around like he was on jet fuel. We took him to the park (there is a big soccer field) and just let him GO. He ran about 100 or 150 m, then I went to him, turned him around, and told him to run to Daddy. He covered that field in about 45 seconds! When we put him in his crib after his bath, his little chest was heaving because he was breathing so hard - exhausted little boy!


Here we are modeling the matching toques Gramma Jo knitted for us. Funny how I am always the last person to get dressed in the morning!























Chance took quite a liking to Ocky Duck, a wooden toy made by my Great Uncle Oscar (Ocky) who gave it to my sister and I 22 years ago. My dad had to make another stick to go into Ocky's back, because the original was lost years ago. The truth is, the stick is burried out by the caragana bushes in my old backyard in Broadview -- I hid it there to keep my sister from playing with Ocky!






We had quite a good visit with my Granny!











Here is Chance enjoying his new toy box at Gramma Jo's house.

Halloween and Chance's Birthday!

Well, it's official, our little boy is one year old!


Cam and I sang Happy Birthday to Chance in the morning, I think he was wondering if he would get cake after we were done singing. At the day home, Mrs. G and the kids sang to him again, and they did a Halloween project making spider cookies, which I'm sure Chance enjoyed tasting. After supper we let him have another spider cookie, which Mrs. G sent home with Chance, along with a Caillou book and stuffed doll for him as a birthday present, how nice!


After supper, Chance and I went trick-or-treating. We stopped by only at our neighbour's house and at our friends' house in the next square. We saw tons of kids and 2 scared deer running around in the park. They must have been confused!


Chance's costume was a hockey player. He was wearing so many sweaters under his jersey he looked like he had proper equipment on. On our walk around the neighbourhood we saw a kid dressed up as the Stanley Cup, that would have been a funny photo! Too bad, I left my camera at home.
























Also here is a picture of Chance's pumpkin from Meadow Lake, all carved up.

Snow Day

It snowed overnight and the snow ended up sticking around more or less all day. Our neighbour's kid scraped up every bit of snow from their half of the front lawn to make a snow man.

When we picked up Chance from the day home we noticed chalk drawings all over the sidewalk. Mrs. G took the kids outside for a bit today but not to run around in the park like usual as some kids didn't have appropriate clothes. As in, they didn't have shoes.

So instead of the park the kids drew on her sidewalk and she loaded Chance up in the stroller and they all went for a walk.

She lamented that some parents often forget to dress their kids for the weather and as a result everyone stays indoors for days until the entire group gets winter clothes, boots, hats and toques. She said that if we wanted we could leave his snow suit with her during the week days. We actually have two snow suits (one hand-me-down and one brand new from my sister, she brought it when Chance was a week old). So we will have a day home snow suit (probably the one-piecer, it fits Chance better right now), and the two-piecer we'll keep at the house. Instead of walks to the park in the evenings we'll be taking Chance for toboggan rides soon!

Home Sweet Home 3

I forgot my right arm in Moosomin, Saskatchewan. At least that's how I feel, because I left my camera at my sister's house! She will bring it to us on Friday, she is sleeping overnight before her honeymoon in Mexico.

We arrived home from our Saskatchewan trip yesterday at 12:30. We had a family lunch of vegetable soup and toast, then Chance played while we unpacked. By the time 2 PM had rolled around both Chance and I needed a nap. We slept until 4 PM, then I went to get some groceries and Cam and Chance stayed home.

Even though there is no time difference between Alberta and Saskatchewan right now, I felt jet lagged after our trip. Maybe it was just a busy 2 weeks, who knows. I didn't feel "normal" until supper time. We pulled one of our freezer meals out for dinner, easy-peasy.

Chance's diarrhea is better, it lasted about a week. Not sure if it was Regina tap water in his formula that did it, or maybe just a bug, or teething (not really sure of this one, as there are no new teeth). Anyways, we tried switching him to bottled water and gave him the BRATY diet: lots of bananas, rice, applesauce, toast, and probiotics (yogurt with acidophilus bacteria). I read on-line that temporarily switching to soy based formula can reduce the number of days when babies get the runs, so we did that too. It didn't make the diarrhea worse....

Cameron had a run-in with an edge on the dryer door somehow and ripped about 50% of his pinky fingernail off. He says it doesn't hurt but it sure looks painful! We steri-stripped the nail in place (it is still hanging on by a thread), and then covered it with a band aid. We'll be putting on lots of polysporin to help with infection. :( I bought him 100 latex gloves today for showering. Hopefully his nail grows back quickly, we'll have to up his calcium and feed him lots of jello.

Chance and I went to the passport office twice today, trying to get our passports reissued (they expire at the end of October). Chance wore his brand new green Roughriders sweatshirt over his T-shirt. The first time we went to the passport office was at 9 AM, and there was a line wrapped around the building. So we just continued on to the grocery store, I thought maybe there was a back log of people lined up early in the morning. We went again at 12:30. The line was shorter, but still there. I asked the people at the front of the line how long they had been waiting. They said an hour and a half. Jeepers! Maybe we will try going at 8 AM tomorrow...I'll bring Chance's breakfast in a brown bag and feed him while we're in line!

Chance has been sleeping for a while now, supper is on the go (stuffed peppers bubbling away on the stove). Cam's coming home at 5 and I'm going to the YMCA for a spin class, it will be the last one I go to at this location as I will be going to the downtown Y during my lunch breaks while I am working.

Big Boy Jam Jams

Chance got his first pair of big boy (2-piece) jammies last week. We had to wait until we had a cool enough night to wear them. I think they are so cute. I bought them at a kids' consignment store for $3.50. They are a little long but have snug elastic cuffs, so when he walks around in them, they look a bit like Aladdin pants. The fabric reminds me of a cartoon I used to watch as a kid called Astro Boy.
























The next morning during breakfast I took a picture of Chance's little feet sticking out of his high chair.


















Today he ate scrambled eggs for the first time. And he is starting to like peaches more now....that figures, as peach season is nearly finished. He is getting so big so quickly. Cliché!

Sweet Home Saskatchewan!

Chance has been enjoying some things from good old Saskatchewan this week. Among his goodies are:

Elk thin fry with beans and biscuits. Daddy cooked this for supper on Monday night!




















Saskatoon pancakes, using the wild frozen saskatoons that were in the freezer. They were tiny little berries, but tasty!

























Chance now has another sweater that was made for him by one of Cam's friends in Regina. This was actually the best picture I got of him in the sweater, he was upset when I stood him up for a better view so the rest of the photos aren't so good!

Parade of Pyjamas

Chance has been sporting jammies to bed again with the cooler fall weather settling in. Here is a peek at his wardrobe. I put this together at first because Cameron has been going to work before Chance wakes up lately (the little guy has been sleeping in longer in the mornings, FINALLY!).








The jail bird jammies are actually very dark green and white striped, and they have a dinosaur on the front, but we always refer to them as his prison jammies. Too bad he wasn't wearing them when I got this shot of Chance petting Scarlet through the baby gate bars!

Bathing Suit Blahs Begone!

I love Sears.ca. They have a virtual model tool there where you can enter your height, weight, skin colour, hair colour, hairstyle and even customize your facial features (thin mouth, wide nose, etc.) to come up with a virtual "you". You can then choose from any of the swimsuits that Sears sells, so you'll have an idea whether they'll look good on you or not. I was surprised at how accurate the model was, she even has the same stocky thighs as me!

Auntie Jim is a Photoshop Queen