Nathan's 3 Favorite Tricks

I've been busy today packing, painting toes and prepping stuff for Darryl. So instead of a post here is a video of Nathan's 3 tricks. Mama mama, waging tongue and the "oh" face.



Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Thursday Thirteen

I havenot done Thrusday Thirteen in ages, but I have a list to do today so here it is:

Thirteen Things I am Looking Forward to on the Cruise

1. Sleeping. Sleeping all night with no interruptions. It has been a year since that happened.
2. Seeing my favorite band in a small venue. 800 people in the concert, it should be great.
3. Packing a carry on with stuff I am going to do on the plane. Usually my carryon has nothing in it for me. Read a book while on a plane.. well only if it's Elmo or Little Einsteins. It will be a long flight, but I'm going to enjoy it.
4. Food. Someone makes all my food for me, someone cleans it all up for me.
5. Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan concert. Will they do songs together?
6. New Artists: I love new music, so I'm looking forward to hearing new artists
7. Heat. It will be nice not to wear my coat everywhere
8. Dressing up. We are all decked out for the theme nights. I have my 80s dress, flapper dress, suspenders for geek night and tube socks for camp night.
9. Reading books on vacation. Sitting by the pool, reading books. No kids to watch over
10. I'm looking forward to being me. I love being a mother, it is the best job ever. But I'm also looking forward to doing what I want to do for a week. Workout in the mornings, swim in the afternoons. It will be rejuvenating.
11. The Weakerthans. When the cruise was annouced I listened to most of the artists they had listed. The Weakerthans were my favorite. One Big City, Tournament of Hearts
12. Hanging out with my best friend. I'm going with someone who is as excited about it as I am and who loves the Barenaked Ladies as much as I do.
13. Seeing Miami, never been there before, so it should be an experience.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Idiot!

So Lucas is starting to pick up on most everything we say. If there is a word he doesn't know that we say, then he'll ask. So on the weekend when I "swore" he really picked up on it. We were driving to visit my dad at the hospital and one of the on ramps didn't have any sort of merge lane. As I watched traffic come someone pulled up behind me and blared their horn.

I yelled back at them " There's no merge lane you idiot, you can't go in the middle of traffic".

Lucas: What does idiot mean?
Jenn *oh man, what did I just say* Idiot means....... someone who is not smart
Lucas: What do you mean not smart?
Jenn: Well you know how Daddy knows lots of stuff and teaches you lots, he's smart
Lucas: So he is not an idiot
Jenn: No, he's not an idiot.
Lucas: I'm not an idiot either.
Jenn: No you are not an idiot.

I was hoping that was the end of the word...... but last night I heard this from upstairs.

Torin's chewing on plastic
Lucas: Torin, you're and idiot.

Oh man....

Then today Lucas and I are listening to the song Poker Face by Lady Gaga. Lucas comes up to me and says: Mom, why do they keep saying "booger face"? I laughed and laughed. Like mother like son. I often screw up the words of the songs as well.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Saturday Night

We are catching up on shows from the PVR and I thought I would blog a bit of an update as we have been so busy and there was no Friday post. Dad did have some complications with his surgery that we didn't know about right away. While doing the surgery they punctured the membrane around his brain, so they had to patch that up. To patch it up they took some fat from his belly (which was an incision in his belly) and fill the hole with that. Then they also put a shunt in his back to drain CSF fluid so that there isn't a build up on the puncture site. With having this shunt he is not able to sit up, so he has been laying on his back for 2 days. So hopefully tomorrow, they will be able to clamp in off and he can sit up.

We have headed up to the hospital everyday. It's amazing how bringing children to a hospital makes people so happy. Some people love the banter of Lucas and I in the elevator and other people love Nathan and his smiles. Although it is lots of work to drive down there and load the kids up in the cold, but the happiness it brings my dad and all kinds of other people make it totally worth it.

With all this driving around and handling children in difficult situations Darryl has been great about giving me a break from the kids. Friday night I went to Bunco with a bunch of really fun ladies. I drank, laughed and had so much fun. It was a nice break.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

A Collective sigh of relief

Well as I saw Dad after his brain surgery today, he says. " I'm happy to be back from the dark side".

Nathan says "Bah, bah, bah"

We are waiting for the results.... but he was happy. Happy to be back from the dark side and happy to be a pop. It was a long day so I'm headed to bed.



Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Obama's Inauguration....

This morning we stayed in and watched Obama Inauguration. There is a lot of talk of what a historic moment it is, so I thought we should tune in. Will it be one f those things where we say " I remember where I was when " I even made Lucas watch it. (Although we played a lot of games while watching it.) But when he took the oath I got tears in my eyes. When he talked about how 60 years ago his father couldnt have dinner in certain restaurants. I think a big part of it was all the people there. I'm so moved by how people are so enthusiastic about him and optimistic about things with him as the president. I thought his speech was great and that he is going to be an excellent leader. But I do worry that the expectations are high for him and that in governement things are hard to change.

I wonder how much it will effect us here in Canada. But I also hope that Canadians would have a leader that we could be this excited about. Are we too nice and to even keeled to get this excited about politics? I do hope the feeling of optimisim and being responsible for the change we want to happen radiates through the whole world....

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Monthly Newsletter Month- Forty One

Dear Lucas,

Today you turn forty one months old. Last month was the first time in forty times I did not write you a newsletter. I was surprised that I did that and that no one questioned me about it. I'm sure you'll forgive me, but that means I have lots to write this month.





We have had some adventures with your relationship with Nathan. For a while when he first learned how to crawl you were not very happy with him. If there was anything interesting you were playing with Nathan wanted it. He would crawl over to you and you would grab your toy and hug it. No Nathan, you would yell at him. And push him away. One evening you pushed him hard enough and knocked him on his back. That caused you to have a time out. You were so upset, because Nathan got to play with the toy you had, and you had to sit for the time you. While you were on the time out step you cried and said " Nathan is not my brother". You cried and cried "Nathan is not my brother". So we spent most of the evening explaining to you that Nathan will always be your brother, but he may do things you don't like. Still you don't get to push people even if you don't like them. From that evening on, you'll say. I do love Nathan, or Nathan is my brother, but I don't want him to have ____ toy.



In the last week or so, there seems to be some bonding between the two of you. You can make each other laugh and try to do it on a daily basis. Whether you yell "peek-a-boo" to him and make him laugh or he tries to zerber your belly and makes you laugh. You are starting to find some entertainment in each other. Plus you are learning to trade toys with Nathan or take the toys you really don't want him to play with and put them up in your room. So the phase of "Nathan is not my brother" seems to have been short lived.




You are learning things from lots of other people. The other day while we were "fighting the bad guys". You said you were Anakin Skywalker. I'm figuring you learned that from friends of yours becuase I barely know who Anakin Skywalker is, other then it has something to do with Star Wars. You also enjoy "fighting the bad guys". I signed you up from gymnastics again this winter and you are loving it. It is teaching you moves for fighting the bad guys. Swinging on the bars at gymnastics is similar to swinging on your bed frame at home. Jumping on the trampoline is like jumping on the bed.



Florida was a highlight of the last month and the last year. It was so nice to get away and enjoy some quaility family time. One of my highlights was spending time with you in the pool. There we pretended we were crocodiles and you practices jumping and floating in the pool. Disney was also fun, although by the end you were scared of so much stuff. Here is a picture of you covering your ears at the Beauty and the Beast show and more importantly enjoying Mickey bars with us.





You are very much like your father in that it takes you a while to warm up to a new activity or a new person. But you seem to do best when you learn these new things with you dad. You became a great little swimmer while we were in Florida. You also tried bowling this month. And another favorite activity in Florida was riding in the go carts at the Magic Kingdom. Once we convince you to try something you generally love it. But it takes you some convincing to get there.





One of our favorite things to do is pretend. Some days we are neighbors and have sleepovers at each others "houses". Some days we are penguins and the bed is our boat. Some days we are snakes, or frogs or tigers. But I am always the mother and you are always the big boy and Nathan is always the baby. Today we were playing pretend grocery store. I wanted to buy some ice cream. When I asked you (the cashier) how much it was, you said "18 dollars". Whew that was some expensive ice cream.

Later we were playing Spider man, I was spider mommy and you were spider Lucas. It was night time and we were sleeping. You looked over to me and said I love you spider mommy and I replied, I love you too spider Lucas







love mommy

First Day At Work

Today I went back to my hospital job for an orientation shift. It was great. I am the kind of mother that is a better mother when I go away for a bit and then come back. I think it was good for the boys as well. Nathan was such a happy guy when I got home and Lucas loved being with his grandma.

And although I did miss having the smiles all day, but what I really missed was the mornings. I love getting up when the boys get up, there is no rush. We move at our own pace. We watch some TV, we eat breakfast. Soon it will be rush, rush in the morning. I will cherish the mornings most in the last of the 2 1/2 months of my maternity leave.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Pictures from the Nice Day

It was a nice warm day today. Here are some pictures of us enjoying it.

Lucas and I have a snowball fight.

Nathan basking in the sunshine (in Emma's dog bed)

Emma enjoying her new frisbee. Yeah for old navy frisbee's.

Till TOmorrow

Jenn

Bathing Suit Shopping

So I'm sure the title makes every woman out there cringe. I needed a new bathing suit for the cruise. My bathing suits from the yearish don't fit. I am weaned Nathan so my chest has gone from a D to an A, with lots of work in between. Although the nursing caused the small, sagging chest it also caused weight loss. Anyway... on with the story.... bathing suit shopping...


Swimsuit shopping was quite good. I went to a bunch of places (old navy, gap, zellers, sears) but couldn't really find anything that tickled my fancy. So I decided to bite the bullet and go to swimco. I've been in there once but found the bathing suits so expensive! But it was my last option. So I went in and told the lady what I wanted (bikini) and what I was self conscious about. Small on top, large on bottom. She found a bunch of suits for me (most of which were on sale) and they fit well and did a good job of making me look great. So I got a cute top and a little skirt bottom. It was great.

I remember being so self conscious about my body when we went to Jamaica (and that was before I had even had kids-who knows what I was thinking) and then seeing all kinds of people topless or old wrinkly skinned walking around and it made me feel better about myself. No one really cares what you like in a bathing suit. I think the fact is that the person who thinks you look the worst is usually yourself.

Wear bikini's be proud, take strippercise, love your body.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Simplicity

I know I am too late for Beth's theme of the month, but I thought I'd do it anyway, as tonight I had the inspiration for it.

Nathan fell asleep on my chest. It's been such a long time sine he's done that, since he was a newborn. If I am holding him he wants to nurse, so I usually rub his back in bed. But tonight he fell asleep on my chest and I listened to his breathing and thought about simplicity. The most basic human thing, breathing and it sounds so beautiful and peaceful.

I love being a mother.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

The Post Where I Brag about the AWESOME thing I get to do

So 18 days until I go on a cruise with.......



(wait for it)....



the Barenaked Ladies


oh yeah and don't let me forget Sarah McLachlan

and Great Big Sea

and Sloan and the Weakerthans and Mountain Goats and about 8 other bands.

Isn't that AWE-SOME! It's called Ships and Dip. Sixthman is the company which organizes cruises with artists. There will be concerts every night and there is a headling show which we get to go to one night that is Sarah and the Barenaked Ladies.

Tammy and I booked it last year and we can't wait. As it approaches I am getting more and more excited. There is a 1920's theme night and I got a great flapper dress for it. Kind of like this one but in black. I'll have to check the dollar store for one of those cool feathers.



They are also having a 80's prom night. Tammy and I had so so much fun shopping for the dresses. We started at value village, where we found some of the ugilist dresses ever, then we head off to Winners for some other really crazy stuff. It's kind of similar to this one. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures on the cruise. Oh yeah and Tammy got the matching one in black. Man oh man it was a hilarious shopping trip. Tammy was worried someone was going to call the police becuase they thought we had been drinking....


There is also a geek night.... not sure what I'm going to do for that. Maybe wear my I'm blogging this shirt. Also a camp night. I'll have to find some tube socks and camp shorts for that.

This is going to be the vacation of a lifetime. I am so excited to do it with Tammy, our BNL energy just becomes contagious.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Lovely Lucas

After Lucas drove me crazy last night, he redeemed himself with lots of love and laughs today.

He is loving the movie Mamma Mia. The other night he fell asleep late in the day and then couldn't sleep at night. So I let him come downstairs and watch the end of the movie with me. Ever since then we have been watching the movie daily. He asks for it every day, atleast once a day. I don't mind, I love ABBA music. We've even bought the soundtrack.

Then later this afternoon we have a cup of tea. He picked Orange Pekoe decaffinated. Then we he tasted it he didn't really like it. So he went over to the pantry and picked Earl Grey Vanilla. He said he wanted that. I said sure, but was distracted by my computer and didn't see he opened the lid and put a tea bag into the same mug he had. He tasted it and still didn't like it. So he also added a Green Jasmine one to it. By that time, I saw what he was doing and made it stop. Ahh tea punch...

Then tonight as we were discussing what his favorite part of the day was (Mamma Mia) and he least favorite part of the day and he put his hand on my cheek and says I love you mommy.

i love him too.

Jenn

Guilt is There a Way to Get Rid of It?

For those of you who don't know I am going on a Barenaked Ladies cruise this month. Last night I had a bit of a freak out about leaving the kids for a whole week (especially Nathan). What was I thinking?? I am going to miss him so so much. I was telling this to my best friend in the car today. She was trying to console me.... he'll never remember.... they'll have so much fun with Darryl. And I do know all those things, and the other pointed I added was that I think it's important for kids to know that there mothers are people with interests other then being a mother. Tammy says, "Is it the kids who need to learn that or the mom?"

And it's true, I need to not feel guilty about leaving them. Not feel guilty about Darryl taking vacation to take care of them. But is guilt just par of the course when you are mother?

Don't worry the next post will be bragging about the awesome thing I get to do...

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Grateful for Walking

The other day Nathan was chomping on my toothbrush and we took it from the bathroom to my side table. When I went to brush my teeth that night, I was so grateful that I could walk over to the table and it wasn't a major deal where I had to decide if I was going to hop on one foot over to it or call for Darryl to get it for me. Ahh the little things.

To update, my foot is doing really well. I walked around Disney any of the days we went. I am slowly getting more movement and flexibility in it. Today I also went to the chiropractor and she "cracked" it for me. She also did some deep muscle massage on the front of my foot and it brought tears to my eyes.

I have also been going to physiotherapy which is so fun. Even tonight I went and things are looking really good. I probably don't need to continue, but it's free and so fun. Tonight I stood on a wiggly board and had to balance on my bad foot. Then with my good foot which was raised I had to spell the alphabet. Last week I had to put my foot on a board with a half ball under it and make the edges touch the ground all the way around. See different and fun stuff.

So year all in all things are going well with my foot and I spend lots of time being grateful for walking on two feet.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Nathan's Monthly Newsletter: Month Nine

Dear Nathan,

Today you turned 9 months old. I always think 9 months is an interesting birthday, becuase that's how long I was pregnant for. It seems like you have been alive way longer then what I was pregnant for.



S0 many things have progressed with you this month. You are now a crawling expert. You can crawl under things and over things. Your favorite thing is to crawl up to things and then stand up next to them. You are really an accident waiting to happen. You love to be standing.



With the crawling has also come fighting with Lucas. Anything that he is playing with you would like to play with. Anything that I am playing with you want to play with. Computers, you love, remotes you love, anything with buttons, you crawl towards. You are also able to crawl towards all kind of toys, which is causing fights between you and your brother. Because then he wants anything you play with too. I'm hoping by the next months letter things will be better.




Food is also going well. I am working on weaning you, which honestly I feel bad about. You are not ready but I am. And in less then a month I'll be going on a cruise without you, so I think we should be weaning. But Nathan I'm sorry. I do feel like this is something I'm pushing on you. Luckily you'll eat most any food I give you.

We went to Florida this month. It was interesting to see you around lots of other people. You love me, you are happiest with me, if I am around, you want to be in my arms. But you love to smile and "wave" at other people. We would ride on buses or monorails in Florida and smile at anyone who smiled at you. You are with me and feel safe, so you spread love all around. You put your hand out when you see things that interest you. You did get sick in Florida which put a damper on your visit, but I think you still enjoyed the scenery and the heat.



You are happy, you love to smile. It makes me think I may be doing something right.



love mommy

Another Year Older

Ever since getting the movie Kung Fu Panda, Lucas has been very into the Kung Fu moves. He wants to jump off furniture or kick the air. It's kind of a mix between breakdancing and Kung Fu. With this renewed interest I signed Lucas up for gymnastics. We went today for our first session and he loved it and was so great. You could tell he had done it before and that he was a year older. He wasn't afraid of anything, the big ladder, the trampoline, the double bars. He did such a good job. I was amazed what difference a year makes.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Siblings

Well we have entered a new stage in this household. One where Nathan is on the move. One where whatever toy one child is playing with the other one wants. We are back to Lucas having daily time outs because he doesn't have the skills to work with Nathan.

Today Lucas was playing with a Little People Castle, Nathan came over and Lucas started panicking. I told Lucas to either play with something else or he'll have to deal with Nathan playing with the same toy he did. He kept up with not wanting Nathan to play with it. Nathan of course used it to stand up and eventually Lucas's pushed him. Nathan fell flat on his back and started crying. Lucas went for an immediate time out for pushing. At the end of his 3 minutes, he was still mad at Nathan. He did not want to apologize and give him a hug. He would have rather spent more time on the timeout step then apologize to Nathan. It was such a kid thing. An adult would apologize and not really mean it, but kids can't... Anyway he watched Nathan and I playing, he eventually came around and hugged his brother and and hour later he was loving his brother again.

Another example is Nathan was using the bicycle and turning the pedals. As soon as Lucas saw it he wanted to ride the bike.

So for all of you parenting experts, how do you handle the sibling wars? Whoever is playing with the toy first gets it? Should they have to share? How long does this last for? Will they ever become best buddies?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Nathan Videos

Things to Accomplish in 2009

So here are my resolutions from 2008 and how I did:

My only real resolution for the year to to try to be on time more. Which may be a losing battle, with a baby coming. But my tardiness in this past year has gotten bad, so I'd like to try to plan better so I am not as late. - This I do think I got better at. It was really bad by the end of 2007, but even with more kids I seem to be better at being on time.

There are other things I would like to accomplish as well. In 2008 I would like to make it through the newborn stage again. I don't expect it to be better then the last time or worse, I just hope to make it through.

I hope to put up a fence and sod in the back yard. Possibly even some play equipment for Lucas. Along with that I would like to decorate both the babies room and Lucas's room. Give them some sort of theme Most of this got done. Sod and fence- check. Lucas's room check. Baby's room- not really, don't know what his interests are yet.

I would like to go on a winter vacation. I'm thinking an all inclusive. Baby will be atleast 6 months old. Playing in the sand with Lucas. Swimming in the pool. Something for all of us to look forward too. Again mostly check. We did go on a winter vacation although it wasn't to an all inclusive, but I'm adding that to the next winter.

I'm hoping to be as good of a mom to the new one as I am to Lucas, although I'm worried about it, but that's all for another post. I'd like to think I'm doing as well with Nathan as I did with Lucas. I'm much more relaxed with Nathan then Lucas, but I am not doing as many "classes" as I did with Lucas. I guess that's normal.

I hope to flourish during my year off, somehow figuring out a schedule and fun things for me to do with my little munchkins. Again I kind of feel like I mostly accomplished this. Nathan is good with his schedule and Lucas has a good schedule as well. I do feel like we have some balance with both kids and a mostly tidy house. I get to do things I enjoy in the evenings and it all kind of works out.

I hope to reinstate date night with Darryl, especially after there are two children. I think it will be so easy to get caught up in being a mom, I need to remember that one of the best examples to set for my children is to have a good marriage. Again mostly, although I'll add it to the list for 2009.

Learn 3 new songs on the guitar. Totally not at all. Not even adding it to the list for next year. Maybe I'll add get my guitar restringed and tuned.....

So now onto resolutions or things I would like to accomplish in 2009.

1. Do a sprint marathon. That should be this summer and I'm looking forward to it. I seem to have gotten a team of people together who are also interested in doing it, so I think it will be one of the highlights of the year.

2. With the economy the way it is I have been thinking alot about money. I kind of do things backwards where I buy something large and then pay for it later. It's not a huge deal becuase we both make good money, so it gets paid off quickly. But with all this money talk around I'd like to get better at saving for the things I want before I buy them. Darryl and I would like to get some furinture for the house, and a new TV and maybe even a new washing machine. But I want to save for all of those things before purchasing them.

3. I will be heading back to work in 4 months so I hope to get some rhythm to our lives when that happens.

4. More decorating in this house.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn