Go Canada!

Are you watching this?!? The Olympics! Mens curling!! I've never been so excited about curling. In fact I never ever watch curling except for the Olympics every four years. Canada is doing AMAZING. I've done almost nothing this morning but watch this. We're leading 10-3 against Finland for the gold medal!! Ha ha, "we're leading"..."we", like I'm somehow personally involved with our team over there. "Our team", I think that makes more sense.
Anyways, just two more ends to go. I'm actually clapping and cheering! Ian's getting into it too. "Go go kick a ball!"
I really felt a need to share some of my excitement. Almost everyone I know is at work so I can't call anyone, so I thought I'd post it on my blog.

Go CANADA!!

Happy Birthday Ian!!

Ian is officially TWO years old today, although he's been acting like one for quite some time already, with many screaming fits, demands, contrariness, and lots of "No's" and plenty of "MINE's".

Here is a little photo tribute to my first baby boy. A few glimpses of Ian moments. A brief look at the boy who made me a mother.
My water broke 2 weeks early and exactly 8 hrs later he was born. Since then he has always been on the move and in a hurry.

This is the second day of his life, while we were still in the hospital, getting to know each other.
.

( I tried putting a few more pics in here but it wouldn't let me...)

Ian has always been sooo happy, his smile as just lights up his whole face.

Can we say future piano virtuoso?


And the birthday party we had on Sunday. He actually blew his candles out!

((sigh))

There are many many more pictures I would have loved to share, but I know you'd probably get bored and stop looking. Perhaps I'll share more happy Ian moments some other time.

Happy birthday Bug-a-boo! I love you!

Hey Ian! Where's Daddy?

Drum roll please.....

"Biiiiig TD!"

Yes, if Daddy isn't upstairs playing with us, he must be downstairs watching the biiiig TV. The answer to this question used to be "car-car", but now it's more likely that he's just mesmerised by the humongeous screen, on which we have been watching the Olympics in high-definition.
In fact, we have all been spending a little more time than usual downstairs. Ian now asks to watch treehouse TV especially on the big screen. And I? Well I spent a good portion of my day yesterday watching the Cinderella DVD that I got for Christmas. (Hey, it's classic Disney, don't judge!) It's almost like seeing it in the theatre.
So while I did not see why getting all this excessive TV viewing equipment was necessary, I have to admit, it is pretty cool.

Been looking for an excuse to show this.

I couldn't resist posting this picture. Rob brought out his gameboy that has a football game on it. Ian just loved it. "Go kick a ball! Yay hupball!" And in this picture he's showing it to Jayden. "See baby? See?"
As you can see, we had recently finished a nap, all up in Mommy's bed again. :)

I know this is cliche, but.....

...my babies grow soooo fast!

Jayden especially. Last week he completely skipped over the 3-6mos size onesies and moved right into the 6-9mos shirts and sleepers. As for cute little outfits, 3-6mos size seems to be still fitting...for now. Even though he's not quite 12 pounds yet, he's really really loooong, and we need to put size 2 diapers on him or he goes around with plumber bum, and that is disasterous when he poops.
Ian did not grow this fast. I know this because I had him weighed and measured every two weeks for at least 6 months, and I kept meticulous records. But you know how, when you have your second child, and your first is still a toddler, your baby, they seem to get monstrously huge compared to your new one? That's how it is with Ian. And everytime I lift Ian after carrying around Jayden, it strikes me all over again how my baby is no longer a baby. In fact he's becoming more and more a 2 year old every day...

Mommy's tummy what?!??

Mommy's tummy jiggles. It's true. And it's oh so funny. This evening Ian had a great giggle lifting up my shirt, giving me a smack, and watching it jiggle. Ha, ha. Does Daddy's tummy jiggle? We tried, but nope. Daddy's spent the last six weeks on a low (mostly no) carb diet and lost 25 pounds. It's not nearly as much fun as Mommy's tummy. Daddy looks so fine now, but will this motivate me to start sit-ups perhaps tomorrow? I don't know, we'll have to see. And if not, at least I can be counted on to provide entertainment for the 2 year old.

"YAY JABADA!"

Yay Pajama Time! It's soooo exciting!

Yet the very next instant..."NO JABADA!"

A big Mommy mistake.

Last night I made a pretty bad Mommy mistake. I decided to try changing Ian's bedtime routine. What a bad idea. Before bed Ian usually drinks a 9 oz bottle of milk while cuddling with us and watching Treehouse TV. Do you have any idea how much pee that can produce through the night? Much more than a size 4 diaper can hold. It was becoming a routine in the morning to have to change him out of his wet pj's and occassionally change his sheets as well. We now have him in size 5 diapers for the night, but we also thought it might be good to phase out the bottle as well. So last night, after a day that was so far from Ian's normal routine (different bed, different church, nap in the car etc, can you see where this is going?), I decide to try a new bedtime routine. Really, what was I thinking? I thought substituting a bottle with a sippy cup with less milk and earlier, and a story in his own bed would be pretty simple. When it came time to say night-night he lost it. Total and complete toddler melt-down. Screaming, tears, heartbreak. It was so tragic. And I immediately saw my folly and repented. He got more milk, he got a cuddle in Mommy's bed, with Treehouse TV. He also went to bed an hour later than usual. It did not end there. Oh no, for such a big Mommy boo-boo, the punishment is much more severe. An hour after going down he came right back up again, in pain, screaming. We knew that his teething was bothering him (oh it just gets worse doesn't it), and had given him Tylenol before bed the first time. But now he had gas cramps (I think it was the pepperoni pizza he had for dinner), and there was writhing, and moaning, and soooo much farting. But after all the farting was done he finally collapsed back into sleep. Amazingly he stayed asleep all night but woke up early again at 7. Thankfully, after a mellow day here at home, and a 3+ hour nap he seems to be back on track. Bedtime was as smooth as usual, but with only half a bottle of milk now.
I have learned that I must take Ian's routine a little more seriously, no matter how flexible he can be. All day Sunday he was so good, I forgot that the entire day was so different from his normal schedule. I didn't even stop to think that changing up bedtime just might put him over the edge. Everyone has their breaking points. I am so sad, and ashamed to discover that I found Ian's. Live and learn. I hope this just makes me a little bit better at Mommying, and perhaps Jayden will benefit by having a much wiser Mommy when he gets to that age.

Things that make Rob happy.

Ever since I've known my husband, I've known how much he likes TV, especially BIG TV's. And videos games. He actually spread it around that for a wedding present he wanted Play Station 2. He didn't get it. Up until now he's made do with a fairly average 27" TV, the computer sports games, and then a DVD player...but he's never stopped talking about the someday when all his TV viewing dreams would come true. Friday was that day. Downstairs in our TV room we now have an HDPVR, yes that's a high-definition personal video recorder from Shaw digital cable, with a surround sound system, soon an X-Box 360 will join the family, and it is put through a projector that makes the viewing screen 7 feet wide upon our wall! I mean really, the word that comes to my mind is "obscene". Rob's words: "freakin' AMAZING!!!" Do you know how many books I could have bought instead? Rob soooo owes me.

Back to our stomping grounds...

We spent this past weekend in North Vancouver where we lived for almost two years before moving here to Walnut Grove. My parents went away for the weekend and we stayed at their house to take care of their dog Penny. Ian loves Penny. When we talk about Pappa and Grammi's house he brings up the "puppy". So on Friday we packed up a lot of stuff for the kids and set off for the North Shore. First we went shopping and Rob bought a bunch of stuff that makes him happy, but I'll talk about that later because it really deserves it's own post. Due to our unfortunate timing Ian didn't really nap, just a snooze in the car and not nearly as long as he usually gets. So the first night was a little rough for Ian, different room and bed and Rob ended up sleeping a good portion of the night with him, but that wasn't so bad since they had a queen size bed, which left me on my own in the other queen size bed (which I had to share with Rob the next night while Ian got a big bed to himself, ha ha). And Jayden slept fabulously in the bassinet that they have, which was the bassinet that I slept in as a baby, and was silent and still from 11pm to 5:30am, and then right back to sleep again until 9. Ian on the other hand awoke at 7am. Needless to say I was really looking forward to nap time.
It's really funny how a young child can have a bad nights sleep, be up early, and yet have seemingly boundless energy throughout the day. How does that happen? So on Saturday Penny Puppy was a little mopey, stopped eating, and spent the majority of her time in another room from us or laying in front of the front door. It's difficult to say whether she was really missing my parents or if Ian was just a little too much for her. Because to be honest, Ian was a little too much for all of us...well, too much for me, since Jayden was super good and slept a lot (I believe he sympathised and was trying to be easy on me), and Rob was gone almost the entire day doing a variety of errands. Ian wasn't being bad, just...hmmmm, well just being a toddler I guess. He spent a fairly good portion of the day, in fact almost the whole day, running through the main floor of the house and screaming. Running on hardwood floors (thump thump thump), and screaming (screeching, high pitched squeeling). But he was obviously doing it in an exhuberant happily joyful way. But a person can only take so much joy, especially if it's really really loud joy. Ian did nap, despite losing his soother (which trying frantically to find before nap time only added to my frustration), but for less than two hours which translated into about an hour nap for me. Normally that would have been great, but I had so been hoping for more. In the afternoon we even went outside, I was hoping Ian could burn some energy running and screaming in the backyard. Ian has endless energy, he just keeps going, and I swear I did not feed him any sugar at all. Rob got back around six, in time for baths and bedtime, and my sanity had time to recover. Ian went down great and had a really good night sleep. Jayden was done nursing and asleep by 11 and so was I. Rob went out to Langley to play hockey and I woke breifly when he got back around 1:30. Jayden woke to feed at 5am, and then Ian woke us up at 8. Soooo much better.
We went to Cove Community Church on Sunday and it was really nice to see the folks there again. I do have to say that I miss it. I was really beginning to put down some soul roots in that church, but driving all that way from Langley really is very impractical.
All in all it was a nice weekend. My parents have a beautiful, large, comfortable house. Ian had a blast playing with the dog. And visiting the Cove again was nice. Even though I really miss living in North Van I would not trade it for my house. And coming home is always so nice.

Naps...and other good stuff.

So this is a fairly unflattering picture of me, but a pretty cute one of Jayden. Rob snapped this yesterday during our nap. Before you judge me too harshly regarding co-sleeping, pillow, blankets et al with SIDS, let me explain a bit. We don't usually sleep like this. If Jayden is in our bed he's more removed from pillows and such, and certainly not that close to me. In fact at the moment of this picture he had already slept for an hour and a half in his crib, but since I was not yet ready to get up, and he didn't need to eat right then, the simple (also known as the lazy) solution was to let him cuddle up with me and then we got another hour of snoozing in. We have a bassinet next to our bed where Jayden slept really well for the first six weeks of his life. Then a week after New Years we got this really terrible puking/diarrhea sickness, which of course hit me the worst (because if there is any puking to be done I'm really good at it). After that we went through about three weeks of bronchitis, with everyone (including baby) on antibiotics at some point. During all this sickness, I was spending a fair amount of time in bed...with Jayden. It was just soooo easy to keep him right next to me so I wouldn't have to go far or expend much energy when it came to nursing him. Well of course since then he has become so used to sleeping with us that when we tried putting him back in the bassinet his sleep got much worse, and shorter. We've worked on it and he is now back in the bassinet and sometimes even the crib across the hall at night, but for naps during the day...if I want a nice long snooze it's happens way easier with him in bed with me.
I think I've talked enough about napping. (Though expect to hear more about it because it is one of my most favourite things.) The title of this post included other good stuff, like banana bread. I made some yesterday. I have an amazing recipe for "Fluffy Banana Cake". I think it is even better than my moms, which I've alway thought was super yummy. I don't often bake, or cook, or do much food preparation at all, but when I do, it really is too bad that it usually is something that Rob doesn't or won't eat. So the house smelled really good last night and it made me happy.
Another good thing is baths. Long, hot baths with pretty smelling stuff in the water accompanied by a book. I got one of those last night. Rob went off to work a midnight shift, Ian went to bed, and Jayden kept me company in this little swing next to the tub where he cooed and gurgled at me and eventually fell asleep, and let me lounge for a good hour. So my day yesterday was pretty good, but I paid for it during the night. I did get three straight hours of sleep then was up hourly with one or the other of the boys and then the night ended for good at 6:45am (which is very early for us, and even earlier when the night began at 12:30am).
But then today is Wednesday, and Wednesdays have become my new favourite day.
I go to something called Breakaway for women, at the church we are attending now, from 9-11am every Wednesday, and they provide child care for Ian. The first hour we sit around eating, drinking coffee, chatting, singing a bit, listening to a bit of a talk, then the next hour they offer a whole list of electives from piano, to crafts, to cooking, running, and book studies. The one I chose is a class called "Mommy and Baby". It's facilitated by an RN, and it's an hour I get to spend with Jayden, talking to other Mom's about babies. I love it!! Ian loves it too. He's so social he has a great time playing with other kids, and the ladies that look after them all say they love having Ian because he is so happy and good, even though he is very active and runs so fast that he wears them out. But that's good because after Breakaway we go home, eat lunch and then take a nap. (See? I told you.)
Now just for fun here's a picture of my first baby boy. He brought me the camera and asked for "cheese". So I obliged.

Comparing...

This is Ian at 3.5 months old. He's in our friends Jen and Dwayne's exersaucer, and he barely fit into it. Last night Rob put Jayden into ours and he's only 2.5 months old but he's half an inch longer than Ian was at that age. His feet reach the bottom of it! He didn't seem too impressed but was content for about a half an hour.

(Ha ha...look what I did!! I figured out how to move the pictures around to where I want them. It's funny how happy that makes me.)

More comparisons...

Ian was nursing 8-10 times a day, Jayden nurses 6-7 times. Ian slept thru the night (8hrs ish) starting around 3 mos (it only lasted a month though and then it was back to 4-5hrs), Jayden started sleeping 6-8hr stretches almost 2 weeks ago, and yet Jayden is half a pound heavier than Ian was. They're both extremely happy contented babies, we totally lucked out (or I should say have been completely blessed by God). I've heard so many stories about people who had one easy child and then one difficult one. Maybe I'm jinxing us here and one day Jayden will transform into a cranky monster, but so far, if it's possible, he is even more laid back and relaxed than Ian was. On the other hand he also knows how to cry way better than Ian did. When Jayden is hungry he needs to be fed immediately or there is much weeping and wailing with real tears. We didn't see tears from Ian until he was almost 4 months old.

It really is amazing how different children are, how much of their personality is present, at such a young age. I'm really looking forward to see more of Jayden's uniqueness as he grows older.

Superbowl Sunday!

So, how dissappointing was that?
We had a bunch of people over and everyone except for Jim, Rob's brother, was cheering for Seattle. There was a lot of frustration about the reffing. At one point Rob got so upset that he commanded that the children leave the room so they wouldn't hear the bad words he so desperately wanted to yell. Even though the outcome of the game was a downer we did have fun. We have a Shaw digital box so we could watch the American feed and see all the new "cool" superbowl commercials that they wouldn't show on the Canadian channels. Like it's so hard to find them on the internet right Rob? ;)
And Ian had so much fun cheering "yeah hupball!" and eating chips that according to him it was a very successful party. At the end when people were saying goodbye Ian was heard saying "no bye-bye, no bye-bye".
Now both kids are sleeping, and since we brought the TV upstairs for the game, Rob and I can cozy up together on the big couch and spend some quality time watching TV...

Aaahaa...I think I've figured this out...

So here I am, while one child naps and the other one is laying on the bed just looking at me, trying to figure out how this whole posting thing works. I've been reading a few blogs and it looked like so much fun I've finally decided to try it out myself. The previous post with the pic of Ian and Jayden appeared there while I was lost and confused trying to post a picture onto our profile. ((sigh)) Please forgive any appearance of ineptitude on my part, I am new to this.

Actually I should confess my real reason for doing this. Rob and I made a deal that I would take a break from reading novels (he thinks I spend too much time doing that), and he would take a break from watching sports until the Superbowl. Well today Rob is at work all day so I don't have a car, it's stormy and miserable outside, so the kids and I are stuck inside. We've been watching a lot of TV and to prevent myself from looking for a book to read I've been spending time online today. So here I've found another way to waste time, another method of procrastinating from doing useful things like emptying the dishwasher or cleaning the bathrooms.

Anyways, I'll try adding another picture here...
Ha, it showed up at the beginning...now how do I get it to move? Oh well, I'm impressed I've done this much.
About that picture, we have what we call a "baby cage". It allows Jayden to play on the floor unmolested by his monster big brother, who still seems to think that being "nice" to the baby involves poking him in the eyes. Ian is very intrigued by this and sometimes insists on being let into it. I admit a guilty pleasure in putting him in there and leaving him there while I empty the dishwasher or fold laundry so I can get it done without his "help".
Now I'm off to explore this blog a bit more and see what I can learn...

My two boys