Losing Weight

No, not me. Rob again. This time from his head. Rob's been growing his hair for many months. It's beautiful. Thick and curly. But his family gives him such grief about it. And then he was ordered to have a "properly" shorn 'do before his brother's wedding in July. So last night, out came the clippers, and off came the hair. ((sigh)) Although I do like it short too.

Before


Jayden was quite unsure during the procedure


Such lovely locks


The finished product

Trailer Camping, a little bit of Tenting, and Rain.

I meant to do this post days ago but have been distracted by my family.

Friday we headed up to Osooyos. We stopped at Manning to get fed and let Ian run around a bit. Then we ended up taking a wrong turn and so decided to stop and see Karen and Travis in Penticton first. We gave them no warning as we didn't have their number with us. When we knocked on the door and Karen opened it Ian just walked right in and started playing with the toys. I think he must have thought it looked like home and anyone who has toys like that must be ok. It's funny since lately he's been acting really shy with people.
After a short visit we headed down to camp with Rob's parents. That evening it started to rain but Ian and Rob still slept out in the tent. I'm afraid that we brought coastal weather with us to the Okanagan.

Ian was up with first light at around 6am. Rob was nice enough to take themselves off to McDonalds so the rest of us could sleep a little longer. It rained and poured almost all day Saturday. Thankfully Ian slept for 3 hours in the afternoon, Rob's parents had cable TV (yay Treehouse!), and then Rob took Ian swimming with the Bond kids in the indoor swimming pool that the campground has.

Here's Ian with a girl on each arm. Grace and Sarah.

I have to say that those Bonds grow beautiful children.

And here's the three baby boys. Baby Ben knows exactly what to do when there's a camera around. Jayden is very confused by cameras, and Braden is way more interested in toys.

The highlight of our Saturday was when Jayden did a massive poop. Since starting solids the week before he'd gone SIX days without pooping. We took a break from the cereal and then he had a most impressive movement. The next best thing that happened on Saturday was the sun coming out for dinner.

Here's Ian playing golf with the girls. Rob thinks Ian looks a bit welfare with his old hoe that grandma Bond found at a garage sale last May long weekend, while the others have a nice new set of toy golf clubs that she brought this year. (Boy was grandma Bond prepared! She had all kinds of neat things to play with, while we only brought his hoe and a soccer ball. We obviously weren't expecting so much rain.)

Sunday Ian was up even earlier at 530. It was a little easier for Rob to keep him entertained playing outside while we sleepers in the trailer got a bit more shut eye. Rob only got 9 holes of golf in that morning, planning to do the other 9 in the evening, but then the rain came back. We then decided to just pack up and head home that night. Not much point in staying for a rainy night and morning just to fight traffic all the way home. Ian didn't nap as well on Sunday and was beginning to lose it a little. So we left around 9pm and both kids slept most of the way home.

All in all it was a fun weekend. We enjoyed our visits with all the Bonds, and Ian had a blast playing with those pretty pretty Bond girls. So here's a picture of Ian and Sarah with a baby carriage. Visions of the future perhaps? Hmm, before that happens Ian will have to toughen up and not let Sarah push him around so much. ;)

Weekend Images.

Ian has one wicked swing. He'll either make a great batter, or golfer, or have a killer slapshot.

Daddy and Jay-Jay.

Silly boy.

Mommy and Jay-Jay, the only picture where he's smiling.

It's so hard to get him to smile for the camera.

Ian was asked to smile at the camera and did for about 2 seconds, but my camera isn't that fast. He's still pretty cute though.

SO Excited!

I am so so so excited. I feel like a kid. We're taking a little vacation this weekend. In fact we'll be leaving just as soon as we're all ready.
Rob's parents are camping in Osoyoos (spelling?) and we're going out to join them. We'll most likely end up sleeping at Karen and Travis' house for a night or two as well in Penticton. So excited!!

HOT day!

Hmmm. I was re-reading my post from yesterday. (Thanks for the nice comments by the way. I agree my kids are SOOOO cute!) Did I give the impression that I'm a with it, put together, on the ball kind of mom? I hope not, but am afraid I may have a little. That's not how I typically am. I rarely do that much housework that many days in a row. I actually rely quite heavily on Rob to help with all of that. (He doesn't feel that's entirely fair. Perhaps he's right, he is the one with a full-time job outside of the home. But isn't raising his children a full-time job inside the home? Does that HAVE to include all the housework too? We're working it out slowly...) Today was much more of a typical day for me.
Jayden did not let me sleep more than two hours in a row last night, and I think I got about 5 hours total sleep. I was a total crank this morning. Besides changing Jayden's diaper a few times and nursing him about every 3-4 hours, all I did today was half-heartedly put a few more things in the dishwasher and turn it on. Then I laid around a lot and complained about the heat. It's been about 30 degrees here for the past couple days. Hot hot hothothot.
Rob, like the trooper he is, did not reproach me, he fed Ian, took him to the grocery store, let him see the sun today, let me have a nap, BBQ'd hamburgers for dinner, and then went off to work a 12 hour midnight shift. He's the reason I'm as good a mom as I am. So now that it's cooled down and there's a nice breeze blowing through the open windows, I will finish cleaning the kitchen before going to bed.

A Motherly Weekend.

My mother. She is beautiful, so giving, and has a great sense of humour. I love her like crazy! To show her some appreciation, and give a little something back, we had her and my dad, and my sister, over for dinner on Saturday. Rob and I did dinner, and my sister brought dessert.

After dinner and the guests had left, the four of us packed into the car and headed out to the drive-in movie theatre for a double feature. First we saw 'Failure to Launch'. Very funny, much fun. By the end of it both kids were sleeping. Great. Rob and I thought we'd get to enjoy the next movie on our own, 'Mission Impossible III'. Nope. That would have been too easy. About 30 minutes into it Ian wakes with a vengeance. It appeared that he was rather ticked off that he was stuck in his car seat. His crying woke Jayden who proceeded to scream as well. Rob tried to settle Ian while I settled Jayden. It was not meant to be. So off home we went. Got to sleep by 1am.
Baby woke at 7. Ian woke at 730, but was convinced to go back to sleep for another hour. I sort of got to sleep in while Rob took Ian to church. I baked a chocolate cake, Rob made me Eggos with strawberries and whipped cream, then I made a smoked salmon/cream cheese spread for crackers. While the kids napped I got myself ready to go. Then we packed up the food I'd made, and the kids, and headed off to a Mother's Day lunch with Rob's extended Martin family. We had a nice visit with everyone and of course Ian had fun running around with his cousins.
When we got home Rob took the boys downstairs so I could clean up the kitchen from dinner the night before. Then I folded two loads of laundry while we watched the finale of Survivor. We went to sleep around midnight I think.
Now you may be thinking that my Mother's Day didn't sound very restful or relaxing. To be sure I spent a lot of time cooking and cleaning. But I did have a bit of break from being a mommy. Rob did most of the child care. He got both boys dressed and ready, changed almost all the diapers all day, and kept them occupied so I could to housework. You see, Rob is such a fantastic husband and father, that almost everyday feels like Mother's Day to me. Rob cooks, cleans, does laundry, vacuums, and changes Ian's poopy diapers most of the time (they REALLY stink). So because he had a cold this weekend, and is such a swell guy (for the most part), I let him take over "mommying" stuff while I took over the house.

Today Jayden had me up at 4am. Rob left for work before 630am (not to return until 730pm). Ian woke up at 745. I've changed two poopy diapers, dusted, vacuumed, washed floors, entertained Rob's grandma, dealt with a temper tantrum, pulled some weeds, and made dinner, along with all the usual taking care of kids stuff like nursing, playing, reading books and singing songs etc, etc. So I'm right back into being a mom. And I LOVE it. I am so blessed. There is truly no greater job on earth.

So here's a cute picture of the two boys that call me 'mommy'.



And here's the most recent picture of Rob and I. He's my true love, the man who made me a mother. Thank you so much.

Somethings New.

On Friday Ian and I built a fort in the livingroom with some chairs and a sheet. Ian called it his 'house'. His favourite thing to do was pull it down, declare that he 'break the house', and then insist that I fix it so he could break it again. This game, by my choice, did not last long.

Jayden is trying so hard to roll more. He goes from tummy to back fairly easily, but has some difficulty getting to his tummy from his back, but oh does he ever try.

On Saturday Jayden got to experience Rice Cereal for the very first time. He LOVESES it. He got the routine down fast too. Open mouth, suck on spoon, spit some out.

I've forgotten how long it takes to feed a baby.

Our View

I felt a need to show you the view from our front window. I love it! We moved here in September and the view was pretty during the fall with the changing colors. But I was very pregnant and didn't pay much attention. Then Jayden was born and I've been pretty busy over the winter with that. When spring arrived, with blossoms and green leaves and sunshine I was blown away by the gorgeousness out our window.
This first picture was taken on a drizzly wet day, but the spring-y-ness is still very evident.

This next picture is obviously on a sunshiny day. We have a great view of Golden Ears.

Our living room is kind of plain, I'd love to put more color in it sometime soon, but when you see this out the window it's hardly noticeable.

Flowers and Food Ahoy!

The other day Ian was outside with Rob. They had gone for a little bike ride and then stopped at the playground for a bit before coming home. He loves spending time with his daddy, and has always been a real daddy's boy. When they came back inside I was made aware that "Mommy" does occassionally cross his little mind. He presented me with a slightly wilted dandylion. I think I melted a bit. I placed it in a little vase and put it in the center of the kitchen table, and then took a picture of it. How sweet yes? My very first flower gift from my little boy.
This fits right in with his recent learning the phrase "I love you". Quite unintentionally I would always say to Ian "Guess what?" before pronouncing "IIIIIIII....looooooove.....YOU!" So now all I have to do to hear him say "I fwuv you" is ask "guess what?" Although because he is 2, he occassionally answers "NO I fwuv you!"



Last night we introduced Ian to the White Spot Pirate Pak. Oh the excitement of the chocolate coin! We had received some coupons for legendary burgers and pirate paks with some Giants tickets we bought a few weeks ago and decided to use them. Originally we were going to order from the car hop and eat in the parking lot, (because who really wants to take a two year old into a restaurant?) but discovered that the coupons were for dine-in only. So we thought we'd give it a try. There was some screaming, throwing of crayons and fries, spilling of milk, and just one or two odd looks, but since we were ahead of the dinner rush we didn't disturb too many people. Ian's favourite part was the chocolate of course (that's my boy), and he got to bring the "row-row" (you know, from the song) home with him. It is nice when there are still some things around that you enjoyed as kids that you can share with your own children.

Little o' this, bit o' that.

So I was girding up my loins to endure the suffering of a cold and miraculously it never went beyond a scratchy throat and drippy nose. I am astonished. Having witnessed the never-ending tide of snot flowing from Ian's nose and his coughing every night last week, I was quite certain that I was going to be miserable. Hooray for my immune system!

Last night I attended a Chocolate Buffet for women at the church. It was heavenly! I LOVE chocolate, especially all-you-can-eat. It was a lot of fun. The funnest part was leaving both kids at home with Rob for 3 hours. Ian, of course, was an angel and went to bed perfectly, on time, and didn't make a peep. Jayden, on the other hand (tee hee), cried the majority of the time and refused to nap as he was supposed to. I had neglected to take the cell phone along with me so Rob had no way of asking me to come home. I felt so bad for Jayden. I knew he couldn't be hungry, it was most likely just over-tiredness, teething, and plain just wantin' his momma. He's usually a very happy baby. I did feel a little bad for Rob. I think we may start introducing a bottle more frequently so that there is something to offer him if I'm gone. (Although I don't think it would have helped last night.)

Tomorrow we're leaving Ian with my parents overnight and going to see a Giants hockey game with a bunch of people. Looking forward to a fun time.

Oooh. I'm reading the Da Vinci Code. What a fascinating book! I'm only about halfway through it but I think I may have many thoughts to tell about it when I'm done. So I've been wasting a LOT of time reading today. In fact, I stayed in PJ's all day.