No more mullet

So, the Missus has been sporting a mullet-type hairstyle for quite some time. It didn't really bug me because I think it is just the way the hair naturally come in. It drove my husband crazy. He was always asking me to cut it. Because she is my baby girl I wanted her to have hair that I could put into pigtails. What can I say? The Love Bug has been getting hair cuts since he was 6 months old because he was born with a full head of hair. I just couldn't bring myself to cut my daughter's hair.















Well, it was starting to look a little like a rat-tail at the back so I finally broke down. My mom cut her hair for me when we were at the cottage a couple of weeks ago. I am glad we did. It looks way better and is still long enough to put pigtails in!

My baby girl @ 19 months

Poor Missus...we have been so busy and preoccupied lately that I have been doing a bad job capturing her milestones and funny little stories. I guess it is more important to be spending time with her and being part of the moments though.

Let's see if I can capture the character that she is!

-one of her favourite pass times is colouring. I am sad to say that I actually didn't start this, she just decided one day to tell me that she wanted to do it. She will come up and say "cower". We now have lots of markers and crayons to help her express herself artistically.

-she is already showing sign of toilet-training readiness (I think from watching her big brother). She will say "pee pee" and go running to the bathroom. We will put her on the potty, she will sit there for a minute, get up and then clap for herself. I started buying pull-ups for her to make it easier. I don't think she is truly ready to be trained yet, but she is definitely getting there and has actually gone on the potty a couple of times.

-she know all of her body parts

-she enjoys helping around the house. She will often say "mess!" then run and get a tea towel and start to clean it up.

-she is still a dare-devil and loves to climb. She can now walk up and down the stairs holding onto the railing.

-she loves playing in the toy kitchen especially when I am preparing a meal. All of a sudden I will hear a lot of noise coming from the family room, she will run and take some of my utelnsits and then there will be play bowls and plates on the kitchen table. It is so cute!

-she actually likes to help me bake now too. I will often pull up a chair for her to help mix and add ingredients.

-she refers to herself in two or three word sentences like "I hungry".

-she LOVES shoes and purses. The other day we took her to Winners and she went straight to the shoe section. She picked out shoes she liked, handed them to me and said "shoes on".

The Missus is such a sweet little girl. She has her "moments" like all kids do, but she is very affectionate and full of energy! I love watching her grow and change every day.

Menu Plan - week of August 4th

Today the Missus is 19 months old. I am going to write a milestone post tomorrow. I feel like I need to do a good one since I missed her 18 month post due to the Love Bug being sick.

Here is my menu plan for this week. A couple of new recipes, but I am trying to keep it easy.

Monday - Beef stroganoff (Emeril cookbook)

Tuesday - pecan chicken, sweet potato fries, corn - one of the Love Bug's favourites

Wednesday - Homemade perogies and salad

Thursday - Chicken cordon blue (Emeril cookbook), rice pilaf and green beans - I have never made this chicken from scratch before...hopefully it is worth the effort!

Friday - leftovers - the kids and I are going to my mom's cottage for the weekend.

17 months old

I feel like the Missus is doing so many new things every day right now that it is hard to keep track of everything. And, because she is sooooo busy, I find it hard to find the time to blog about it. I'll do my best to capture my active 17th month old.

-she is now putting two or three words together in mini-sentences

-she will say "bwess you" if she hears someone sneeze

-she is a complete parrot and copies everything she hears

-she is a daredevil and will climb anything she can find...for example, I constantly find her sitting in the middle of the kitchen table! She will put out a chair, climb onto it and then climb onto the table. She LOVES to do this if anyone has left food on the table in particular.

-that brings me to another point...she eats constantly! She is definitely more picky than she used to be, but she prefers smaller meals with LOTS of snacks in between. Which is really a healthier way to eat anyway...smart girl ;)

-she loves music and you will often hear her trying to sing along to the radio in the car. Her favourite kids songs are "ring around the rosie" and "wheels on the bus". She will sing a few of the words and do the actions.

-she is still a dancing machine - I can't wait to put her in a tu tu for dance classes! I'm not sure how old she needs to be to start though...

-the Missus fits right in at the Love Bug's nursery school. The other kids are used to her now. She will walk in with the Love Bug and I in the morning like she belongs there...pull up a chair and start colouring.

-she loves bouncing balls. She will pick it up and say "ball..bouncy bouncy" and kill herself laughing.

-she loves her "babies" such as dolls and stuffed animals. If we ask her to find her baby she will go get it and give it big hugs. She also like to feed the doll a bottle and give it medicine.

-the Missus likes to pretend making things in the play kitchen and will bring me cups of tea. I'm looking forward to when my kids can do this for real!

-right now she is getting 4 teeth, including two molars. So, she has been a bit cranky at times and it is more difficult to brush her teeth. She will grab the toothbrush away from me and say "mine" "bwuss" and brush her own teeth.

-last, but not least, she knows most of her major body parts...and her favourite is her belly button.

The best gift of all

My husband didn't work last week and picked up the Love Bug from nursery school on Wednesday. When they got home, the Love Bug had made a couple of things for Mother's Day. The first one was a card/sign saying "I love my mommy because..." Can you guess why the Love Bug loves me? Some kids said because their mom vacuums or make dinner, etc. My son said "Because mommy takes me to Starbucks." True, true.

He also had a little bag that he decorated saying "to mommy love Love Bug". I put it on the desk in the kitchen figuring that I would open in on Mother's Day. Well, after lunch, my Love Bug said that he wanted Mommy to "open it now!" He went and got it, climbed up on my lap with the biggest smile on his face. He just sat there staring at me and smiling. When I opened the bag, my heart melted. He had made me a necklace. There were beads on it that he had painted. He was so happy and excited to give it to me. I started to cry (thinking my heart might actually burst). He said "Put it on Mommy." So, I did (and wore it the rest of the day and on Mother's Day). He looked at me and said "Mommy, you look beautiful!" I think I will treasure that necklace forever.

Moments like that are what makes being a mom the most important thing in the world to me. It truly makes it all worth while!

By the way, I did get some other nice things from the Love Bug and Missus (that the hubby helped pick out) on Mother's Day too. I am a very lucky Mommy, that is for sure.

16 months old

My little girl turned 16 months old last Sunday. It is so weird to think of her as that old...when the Love Bug was that old I was halfway through my pregnancy with the Missus!

The Missus is a very active toddler now- always running and into everything. She still loves to be held though, which I think is just part of her personality. She is in her glory when we have family get-togethers. She just goes to her grandparents and aunts/uncles asking everyone to pick her up.

She has been moving from two naps a day to just one...and I don't think she is always happy about it! She often goes to the stairs and begs to go "night nights" waaaaaay before it is nap time. I have given in to her the odd day and let her sleep for an hour in the morning (so that she will still have an afternoon nap).

I have decided that I love to make her look pretty. I feel very lucky to have both a boy and a girl because there are great things about each. I do love buying clothes and accessories for my baby girl, for sure. And, she loves it too. She is a shoe gal already! Anytime we go into a store, she goes right for the shoes.

Currently, the Missus and I are enrolled in Toddlergym one of the mornings when the Love Bug is in nursery school. She loves it! Her brother liked it when he was her age too. She enjoys both the singing and active play. After the very first class she already knew the actions for the "Sleeping bunny" or "Sleeping monkey" song. It is too cute! Sometimes she will lie down on the floor and look at me with a big smile, waiting for me to sing it to her.

Some other amazing Missus points:
-she already has mini temper tantrums when she gets frustrated..something I think she may have picked up from her brother (when he was going through that phase). Should be interesting when she turns two.
-she can turn the pages of a book and is getting better at sitting still when being read to.
-she is completely attached to her "Bwankie"! She picks it up and rubs one of the corners against her nose as soon as she sees it.
-she is still a climbing machine and you have to watch her at all times (she has fallen down stairs a few times, much to my horror)
-she can take off pieces of clothes by herself and sometimes I find her walking around the house topless.....and always shoeless in the car.
-she surprises me every day with the amount of words she is using and the things she can do!

Food for thought

I was just thinking the other day about how interesting it is to watch your child's food preferences develop. Both my kids have gone through similar stages. When first introduced to solid foods, they started liking cereal right away. They were also pretty good with fruits and veggies. Meat was another story all together. I had a hard time with jarred meat.
Then they went through a stage where they would try and eat almost anything you put on their tray. And, they couldn't seem to get enough food!

Now the Love Bug is very picky and the Missus is starting to become more so, although she is way more open to trying things than her brother.

Here is a list of the Love Bug's top 10 favourite things to eat (in no particular order):
1.Chocolate (a boy after my own heart)
2.Cheese
3. Ginger Molasses cookies from Starbucks (when asked the other day which Starbucks he wanted to go to he replied "the one with the Ginger Lasses cookies mommy!"
4. Strawberries
5. Pancakes - we have them at least once a week, usually weekend breakfast.
6. "baby oranges" (mandarin)
7. Lunch (which consists of bread or crackers, cheese and turkey - sometimes I ask him what he wants for breakfast and he will say "Lunch!"
8. Kraft dinner with Daddy (because I don't eat it)
9. Chicken fingers and fries (I try to make them healthier and make them myself)
10. mustard - I know it isn't a food, but the guy loves it!

My 3 year old guy

I started writing this on his birthday, but just finished today.

The day started off well with the Love Bug having a good sleep...yeh! So, he got a sticker on his "Stayed in bed all night chart". He was a little bit grumpy when I dropped him off at nursery school and kept saying "please hold me mommy." When it was time for me to leave he went immediately to his teacher (who he loves) and snuggled her. We had made some chocolate cupcakes with blue icing (as per Love Bug's request) to bring for snack time at nursery school. So, he got to share them with all of his school friends and they sang happy birthday to him.











When the Missus and I picked him up from school at lunch time he was in a really good mood. We came home and had lunch and he opened his presents from us. I decided to have a nap with him so he would rest because I though he has had a lot of excitement lately. It worked and he had a decent nap.




















When we got up we went to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. We haven't been there in a while but the kids LOVED it!!! They had a great time playing with all of the games and rides. And, we had pizza for dinner...what more could any 3 year old ask for.



















Afterwards we went to Starbucks (Chapters is right bedside Chuck E Cheese conveniently :) and had some drinks. The kids shared a kids hot chocolate and a cookie. What a great way to end the day!











I will post some more about my 3 year old preschooler (yikes - no longer a toddler!) in the next couple of days. I need a little time to reflect and adjust to my baby boy turning 3.

Sick of being sick

It seems like the last month has been just one illness after the next in our house. It started off with the Missus being sick with a bad cold for a week before Easter. Then, Easter Monday she came down with stomach flu. The rest of the family caught it one by one and the week was a write-off. We had a week off to recover and then Love Bug got a really high fever for a couple of days early last week.

Once the fever broke I thought he was ok. But, he was miserable! He was throwing temper tantrums left, right and centre. It was crazy! Then a couple of days later I started feeling really achy. It hurt to shower. My whole body felt bruised. It turns out that the Love Bug had the flu and was probably feeling horrible (if he felt anything like I did!). He seems to be over it but I am still fighting it off right now and it has been almost a week. Now the Missus has a fever and a runny nose. It just never seems to end!

I have so much I would like to post about but just haven't had the time or energy. Hopefully I will catch up soon.

Mommy of the year

This is an award that I will NOT be winning right now. Lately, it has been a bit of a struggle. It feels like we have been constantly battling illnesses the last month which have pretty much zapped me of my energy. Due to these illnesses, the kids have been more to handle too. Particularly the Love Bug who is really a handful these days. It turns out he has been suffering from night terrors. We have developed a system to deal with that which seems to be helping. Last weekend his tantrums actually got better and he was my nice normal guys again - which was wonderful. This week he got sick again and since then has been a holy terror. I haven't had a break in forever and think I need one. I just am running low on patience. I am usually pretty calm but I don't think I having been dealing with the constant screaming and demanding as well as I could be (I have been raising my voice more than usual and am being inconsistent with discipline).

My FIL and step-MIL have offered to take the kids overnight this weekend and I have agreed to it. I am a little worried about it because they have never slept over there without us. And, the Missus has NEVER slept apart from me in 15 months! I know I need the break, but it is stressing me out a bit at the same time.

Walkin' and talkin'

My little princess was 15 months old on Friday. She has been doing so much lately that it is really hard to keep up with it. On Thursday morning, my husband left for a hockey tournament and didn't get back until last night. When he got back I kept saying "oh ya, she does this now". In just 4 days she started so many new things!

-says Mommy instead of mama - one of my favourite "new" things
-talks and talks! She repeats almost everything she hears. Some of her favourite words are eat, grapes and cheese.
-she follows simple instructions like bringing her shoes to me if I ask her to or will wipe her face
-she knows some of her body parts; belly button, nose and bum-bum
-she will tell me if she has gone to the bathroom in her diaper (I fear she will be potty trained before her brother!)
-she walks/almost runs everywhere now
-she eats NON_STOP and has developed (unfortunately) a real sweet tooth. If she sees anyone with chocolate she goes nuts.
-will help put clothes on and can take off her own top
-in the last week has started switching from two naps to one
-is starting to like books more now. She previously didn't have much on an attention span for books (unlike her brother who loved books at a very early age). She will also help turn the pages. -she is still a big smoocher and now blows kisses too
-she eats well with her spoon and we give her whatever we are eating for dinner
-she loves to climb and we often find her on top of things - like the ottoman, boxes, or chairs
-pretend to "talk" on the telephone. She will pick it up and say "hi" then jabber away.

I know there are more things that I am forgetting since her development seems to have exploded. Oh well, when I remember it will give me more to post about ;)

The House of Puke

That is what our house has been this week! It all started with the Missus waking up at 4am on Monday morning crying. I went in to her room, thought I smelled something, sniffed her bum, all seemed ok so I just rocked her until she calmed down. About 45 minutes later she was crying again. This time I turned on the light and noticed large wet puddles in her crib. It didn't look like barf, but it sure smelled like it!

The rest of Monday consisted of me holding the Missus while she dry-heaved or puked everywhere, then changing both her and I into new fresh outfits. She ended up having a nap over 3 hours long in the afternoon. My hubby cam home and I went to get her to find her fast asleep in a puddle of vomit in her crib. It broke my heart and disgusted me at the same time. I called my hubby to change her while I cleaned out the crib.

On Tuesday night around 9pm we heard a weird sound coming from the Love Bug's room. I went in to find him half asleep puking. I picked him up so he wasn't lying down in his own vomit. He looked at me and said "mommy, I'm sicky. I barfed all over." Yes, he did. I changed his bed and threw everything in the laundry while my husband cleaned him up. About an hour later I was running to the bathroom myself. The rest of the night was a blur. I think I spent half of it on the floor of our bathroom. I think I may have actually passed out a couple of times. When I came downstairs my husband looked at me and said "you look ghastly!"

I found out that while I was in the bathroom that night, the hubby had been making numerous trip to the Love Bug's room cleaning up barf. Good times all round! Wednesday was a complete write-off.

Then at 2;45am on Thursday morning, my husband came down with it and spent all of yesterday lying on the couch with a fever and shaking.

I think we are all on the mend now, thank goodness. Now I need to put away all of the laundry that needed to be done as a result of the illness and finish disinfecting the entire house with our industrial sized container of Lysol wipes!

Here, there and everywhere

That is how our weekend went. It was a BUSY Easter weekend! On Friday we travelled to Oakville to have dinner with my FIL and step-mother-in-law. My hubby's grandparents were there too, so that was nice. MY FIL and step-MIL were suppose to come to our house today on there way home from the cottage, however, plans changed (unfortunately) and we ended up going there on Friday.


On Saturday we had some running around to do in the morning and then we went to Burlington to my BIL and SIL's house for dinner. When we made these plans about 6 weeks ago we hadn't realized that it was Easter weekend. It is nice for the kids to get together with their cousins though and we really didn't want to change plans. We had a nice time and the kids really enjoyed themselves!

Yesterday we went to my brother and sister-in-law's house in Oshawa. The Love Bug had a great time with his cousin (who is 5 months younger than him). The Missus, on the other hand, not so much. She was pretty tired and cranky and I ended up carrying her around almost the whole time.

We had a nice weekend and it was nice seeing everyone, but 3 days in a row of travelling with the kids, bringing all of their PJs etc, the Missus missing her afternoon nap ('cause she refused to sleep in the car) and the kids staying up past their bedtime...is way too much!

The Missus has had a cold for about a week now and is also teething. Today she woke up barfing. I have had to change her outfits 3 times today (and myself once). I think she needs to just take it easy, so we are stying in today for sure!

Please hold me?

My kids are pretty affectionate generally, I think. We get lots of cuddles and kisses from both of them. It has been interesting lately though. The Love Bug is in this phase where he will come up to us and say "Mommy/Daddy, please hold me!" It sounds kind of funny hearing this come from an (almost) 3 year old. But, I will take hugs however they come!

The Missus has been a HUGE smoocher lately. She must kiss me about 200 times a day. I will be making dinner and she will walk up and kiss my leg. If I am holding her she will reach over and kiss my lips, face, hair...whatever she can get her lips on. I have been calling her the Kissing Bandit or Smoocherella.

I don't want either of them to stop! This is a good phase!

14 Month old Missus

I am a little bit tired today since I was up a lot with the Love Bug last night. We are trying to get rid of his pacifier...something that is LONG overdue but we just didn't have the energy to tackle (with the Missus being such a horrible sleeper as an infant).

Anyways, I am going to muster up some energy here to talk about how my baby girl is progressing at life as a toddler.

What comes to mind first is that she seems to be suffering from some separation anxiety when we are not together. I know this is something that most kids go through, and although somewhat flattering, it really isn't a phase I enjoy. For instance, I joined a new gym - one that has babysitting. I went to Curves for a while but the no babysitting thing didn't allow me to go very often. Anyway...I was in my orientation session and the kids were down the hall in the playroom. The babysitters had to come get me because the Missus was having the meltdown of the century. Not cool.












She is walking more and more now. In the last couple of weeks she has really started taking the initiative to walk on her own. Prior to that it was all about us encouraging her to walk. I'm still not sure if you would call her walking (she doesn't walk far distances or anything) but she is definitely getting there.







She loves, loves, loves her big brother. She wants to do anything he is doing and follows him around like crazy. If the hubby and I make a face or noise, she finds it mildly amusing. If the Love Bug does it she finds it rolling-on-the-floor hilarious.

I have taken her off all baby food (since she has been weaned from the breastfeeding for a month now). I am trying to make more child-friendly meals and she is doing fairly well. For a while she was eating anything and everything, but is now getting a bit more fussy. She is doing amazingly well eating with a spoon already though.

I think she may be teething right now because she has been fussing a bit in the night and has been a bit cranky. It is about time for some more teeth though 'cause she got 6 all at once about 5 months ago and we haven't seen any since.

I must admit that it is fun having a little girl to shop for! She is at an age now where I can by her little clips for her hair and cute little shoes. I LOVE it!

In to EVERYTHING

Lately, my kids have been little pains in the butt. I think partly because they are tired of being couped up in doors (we NEED Spring). Every time I turn around , they are in to something. The Love Bug was one of those kids who was constantly opening every drawer or cupboard anywhere we went. We thought he had outgrown this curiosity to get in to trouble. Um...not so much. On Friday my husband spent the morning "child proofing" our kitchen aka installing safety latches on all of our cupboard doors. We had everything safety proofed in our old house, but we really didn't want to have to do this in our new house.

Over the last month or so, my Love Bug will be in to everything he can get his hands on. I'll be making dinner or something and next thing I know, he is walking around with a box of cereal or sometimes a coffee grinder (which made a HUGE mess of coffee grounds everywhere - I was NOT impressed). And, to make matters worse, he now has a partner in crime. Everywhere the Love Bug is, Missus is not far behind (seeing what she can drag out of the cupboards)!

He has already told me "I don't like these new locks Mommy!". I just said "Oh well. Maybe you will stay out of trouble now". Ya right!

p.s. We still need to do child proof our master bathroom so that toothpaste and shaving cream don't get all of the floor...like last week...

Toddler Time

Today the Missus and I went to a class at a local parenting centre. The program is called Toddler Time and is a music program for kids 1-3 years old. I took the Love Bug there for a few programs when he was little, including Toddler Time when he has just turned one.

I thought Missus would LOVE the program because she will stop and dance to any music she hears - including elevator music. But, I think she was wondering where the heck we were. Poor thing. The only program I have taken her to (except a couple where she tagged along to Love Bug's class) was swimming. I think she was just trying to figure out what was happening today. Don't get me wrong, she definitely enjoyed it. She just wasn't her usual loud, enthusiastic self. I'm sure she will be in to it more next week.

As a side note...I can't believe I am already taking her to programs with "toddler" on the name. It is official now...no longer an infant...so sad...

Dinner and a hockey game

I keep trying to write this post but my children won't leave me alone for 2 minutes!!!!!!!!

My FIL phoned us a few weeks ago asking us if we wanted to go to a Leafs game. It has been a while since we have gone to a hockey game, so we said yes, of course. We decided to meet for dinner before the game at a place close by to the ACC.

We had our babysitters come over again. This time only the older sister was available but she brought a friend to help her out. We were going to be gone for quite a while, so I was a bit nervous about it.

The hubby went and picked them up around 4pm and we left to go downtown around 4:30pm. We ordered pizza for the girls and the Love Bug to make it easier on them. And, I already had dinner for the Missus ready to go - they just needed to feed her.

I don't know about anyone else, but I find I have a lot of prep work to do before we have anyone babysit the kids. I have an "instruction sheet" I have saved on the computer that I always update. I get all of the Missus' food out, cut and ready. Things for the Love Bug out. Their pjs out with diapers. Diapers are labeled because they take different sizes, etc...etc...

Anyways, the kids ate no problem. The Missus went to bed fine. Love Bug got out of bed once apparently. We got home around 10:30pm. Just after we got in the Missus started stirring in her crib. The hubby went to take the sitters home and I went to calm the Missus down. Then I checked on the Love Bug. He was asleep on the floor of his room. He only had one set of pajamas on and still had his pull up on. He was a bit wet. So, I put a diaper on him, changed his pj bottoms and put a blanket sleeper on him. We always put 2 pairs of pajamas on him in the winter because he tends to kick off his blankets when he sleeps.

Overall, it was a good night. We got to go out, the Leafs won the game and the kids were pretty well behaved. I only wish I could have spent a little more time with my hubby. At the game the seats were across the aisle from each other, so I sat with my step MIL and the hubby sat with his dad. It was nice for them to spend time with each other too though.

Weaned

Well, the Missus is officially weaned. She was actually weaned cold-turkey last week a little unexpectedly. I was going to take her to 2 breast-feeding a day anyway but the process was sped up when I needed to take some medication that prevented me from breastfeeding (more on that another day). I am doing fine and so is the Missus. The first day she kept coming up to me and whined for me to breastfeed her. But the next couple of days went smoother and now she is drinking her homo milk from a sippie cup. We are still warming it up (just slightly) for her prior to giving it to her. She seems to drink more if it is at room temperature. I am proud of her so doing so well!

Now, if only I could get the Love Bug to drink milk again. I had a conversation with MTM about her daughter not drinking milk anymore. I said at the time that the Love Bug is a milk-a-holic and drinks tons. Well, wouldn't you know that a week later he stopped. Apparently he "doesn't like milk" anymore. He will drink chocolate milk and regular milk if I put a tiny bit of my chai latte in it, but that is not something I prefer to do. Hopefully he will grow out of this phase quickly.

13 months old today!

It was a month ago today that the Missus turned a year old. I really don't know where the time goes!

Well, the Missus is a very busy little girl. She loves to play with her big brother and we love watching them interact with each other. Sometimes they are just too cute. They roll around with each other on the floor, play with toys and love to play with a big box in our family room (that had some chairs in it). The Love Bug has also taken to help the Missus learn to walk. He will hold her hands and actually try to walk her around the room - it looks like they are dancing and she LOVES it. While they are quite cute - most of the time - they do have their moments where I have to play referee. Who knew it started so young?!?

The Missus is mostly weaned now and drinks milk from a sippie cup. And, we are also starting to give her less and less baby food. She wants everything we are eating and is a bit of a beggar!

She still is not walking on her own, although she does take a few steps if you encourage her. She is getting there, slowly but surely.

She is a very loud and vocal little girl who loves to hear her own voice. We are surprised at how much noise she can make. It is a good thing because she already has quite a few words and can even put 2 words together like "hi daddy".

A few other tidbits:
-she loves to imitate others, both actions and words.
-she likes to "help" around the house and will wipe off her booster seat tray if you give her a cloth
-she can follow some instuctions, particularly will give kisses if asked.
-she is still a HUGE flirt and smiles and coes at men wherever we go!
-she likes to take off her own shirt when we are getting her undressed - and I appreciate the help!

She is growing up so fast...now if only her hair would grow so fast! I can't wait to put it in pony tails and barrettes, but we are still in the baby mullet phase...