Snow Day

I've been extremely neglagent with this blog. I aplologize. Life is busy. Two small children pretty much need constant care, attention, feeding, changing, playing, supervision, etc, etc. You know, so they stay alive.

In brief, Ian started pre-school, which you would think would give me extra free time. Mmmm. Really it's just an extra place to get ready for, and go to and from. Ian loves it and is doing great, as we knew he would because he's sooo smart and very social. If you know him, you agree. Jayden likes it too and can't wait to go himself next year. In the meantime, he enjoys, and I mean really really enjoys one-on-one time with me or Rob, or both if Rob's shifts allow.

We went camping to Winthrop, WA, for the Canadian thanksgiving weekend. Someone always gets sick because it's really cold there at night. I think we all got sick. That triggered and ongoing cycle of colds that lasted until mid-December and included bronchitis and anti-biotics for all of us at the end of November. Thankfully we have all been healthy since then. Of course now that I've put that on the world wide web I'm sure we'll all get sick soon.

Our Christmas and New Years was wonderful, restful, and joy-filled. Both boys were really into the whole Christmas thing this year and it just added to the fun.

In November I picked up another part-time job on the side gig. A nursing student from UBC is doing a research project for her phD on the reserve that I work for. I applied for a position as a research assistant, same hours more money, but didn't exactly get it. She did say she was impressed with my resume and asked to keep it on file for future. Why would I turn that down? A few weeks later she asked if I would be willing to type up transcripts of the recorded interviews that they are conducting. So I do it on my own time, in my own home, keep track of my hours and it brings in a little extra cash. So far I've only done about 10-12 hrs in the last two months so it's extremely part-time, but that's ok, we don't need extra money, but it's always nice and I get to exercise my brain in a new way.

From working at home in this way I soon realized that our computer, a desktop PC is really old, slow, and stupid. I started dreaming of a new, faster computer, a nice desk from which to work in a relatively calm, quiet space. Ha ha. I joke. In this house? With my boys? Practically impossible. Our computer is in the kitchen, on a small old desk (the one from my childhood), and in almost constant demand from all the other members of this family. Yes, Ian and Jayden are becoming quite computer and internet savvy. Ian doesn't even need any help anymore, he can turn it on and find his own website. It blows me away. (He was actually barely 3 when he first began demonstrating this. Rob and I used to just sit and watch him in awe as he navigated his way between Treehouse, kidscbc, and wiggles websites.) Aaaanyways...it's not a super comfy environment in which to work.

So we knew we had to do something. So for Christmas, we bought ourselves a nice new laptop. A router for wireless internet (can we say blogging in bed?), a new printer because our other one died like 3 years ago, and a new monitor/tv for the old pc, so at least it looks better and gives more space on the small desk. And that is the extent of our Christmas presents to each other. Quite enough money spent, I'd say.

We now plan on buying a real desk that we will for the time being, place in the dining room, which is currently empty as we only have one table that we sometimes move from the kitchen to the dining room if we have a lot of people, but isn't entirely necessary. I also dream of new books shelves in there so I can finally unpack the boxes and boxes of books that we have sitting under the stairs. We have three bedrooms upstairs, one for us, one the boys share, and the other one that is FULL of all their toys and books (which still manage to spread their way around the house). Someday, when a toy room is not so necessary we will convert it to an office, and then the dining room back into a dining room. (Maybe.)

I see that I've just spent a lot of time rambling away completely off topic, which it says at the top is "Snow Day". It snowed a lot here last night, this morning and still the odd flurry happening as we speak. I wimped out on the drive to North Van and decided to stay home from work. During Jayden's nap Ian and I went out and shovelled snow, he got bored really fast but was quite patient until I had done at least half the driveway and the sidewalk. And then I made my homemade cocoa when we got inside. It's awesome and I thought I'd share the recipe with you because it's so good I want you all to have some. This recipe came from my Oma, to my Dad, to me. Or from my Dad, to my Oma and me. Not sure.

5 heaping Tbsp cocoa powder
8-10 Tbsp of sugar (depending on your sweet tooth)
1 can of evaporated milk
my kettle holds 1.8L boiling water
extra milk to taste and temp

These measurements are really rough, usually each batch is a little different. Experiment to find what works best for you.
Mix the cocoa and sugar together with a little evap milk to make and nice smooth paste,
keep adding evap milk to make it runnier and runnier while getting out all the lumps (apparently this is very important, depending on my time and patience I skimp on this) while water is boiling
slowly add water and rest of evap milk to the paste in a pot, on low, on the stove, while stirring,
it tastes better if it's allowed to simmer a bit, but not to boiling.
Serve adding milk if desired to adjust taste or temp.

My sister like to put a dash of vanilla in her recipe, I don't, yuck. Or a bit of cinnamon. Feel free to top with marshmallows or whipping cream or whatever else you like with cocoa. I prefer it on its own it's that yummy. Sometimes I mix it with coffee for a great mocha. The leftovers, if there are any, keep really good in the fridge and it even tastes amazing when it's cold.

Hope your winter is going well, I will be back at some point to show you pics from the last few months.

Is it even possible?

Is it possible for a younger child to be toilet trained before the older one? Maybe it will happen in our family. Jayden has started to pull his diaper off when it starts sagging too much due to its saturation level. He doesn't like it, and requests a bum change. On occassion he will ask to sit on the potty, but nothing ever happens. He sees Ian do it and he always wants to do what Ian does.
Well, out of the blue, tonight he pulled his pants down and announced "pee-pee". Afraid he was planning on peeing on the floor I immediately pulled his pants up and asked him if we should change his bum. He nodded and said "mm-hmm" which is his prefered way of saying yes. Once we got to the bathroom though he says "pee-pee, potty!". So I plant him on the toilet and lo and behold he pees! Actually PEES! On the actual TOILET! I'm in awe. Ian has NEVER requested of his own free will to pee on the potty and actually do it. He's asked, when it's time for bed or other un-prefered activity. He's peed, when we've sat him on it and told him to go. But never have those to happy situations occured together. And tonight Jayden totally showed up Ian.
I made a really big deal about it with Jayden and broke open a brand new Hot Wheel for him. Ian immediately got jealous, but he can't have a new one until he starts pooping on the potty. We toyed with the punishment of taking away his old cars when he poos in his diaper but Ian just started handing them over voluntarily. We've read that punishment doesn't work but I guess we needed to find out for ourselves. We still haven't found anything that works to motivate Ian to say good-bye to diapers. Perhaps Jayden will...

Camping!

We've been doing a LOT of camping. Usually about every other week. We've done three trips down to Birch Bay, WA, and our latest outing was to Oliver with the Hansens and the Bonds.

Down in Birch Bay they have a Miniature World, with a train ride and Go-Karts. It takes a lot to impress Jayden, who stayed pretty sober for the whole ride and then refused to pose with Ian with Thomas the Tank Engine who was the train we got to ride. Ian loved it.



Ian's been asking for a bike for a while. He's too little for the littlest two-wheelers, he's got short legs. And he won't use the pedals on tricyles so he just ends up frustrated and upset. So we found him one of these new very small two-wheelers with no pedals. The idea is for kids to end up running and then coasting, thereby hopefully learning the balance part of biking without having to use training wheels. Ian needs to work on the steering though first. He smacked head first into a wall on his first attempt and now refuses to try sitting on the seat and running so now spends all his time pushing it while running beside. It is pretty cute though, and he has a blast.

I finally got a somewhat decent picture of the two boys together. It's not Sears but it works.

Our trailer may look small from the outside, but it has remarkably good use of space inside. It's cozy and warm. Sleeps six. Lots of seating. Large table. Even a good chunk of floor space for the boys to play. Why would they need to play inside the trailer? Because of our four outings we've had rain on three occassions.
I love that picture of Ian. He's such a nut!

Our camping trip with the Bond and Hansen famillies was a lot of fun. All the kids played great together. Ian talks about it all the time. We can't wait to do more! Of course we don't have any pictures from that trip because I'm a lame-o with a camera and kept forgetting it in the trailer or truck and was too lazy to go back and find it.

On another note, Rob and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary this year by camping in a 17' trailer with two toddlers. It was the one camping trip that we didn't have rain and the weather was sunny and gorgeous. It was also the only trip we've had on our own without friends or Rob's parents, so all in all it was pretty nice. We came back on the actual day of our anniversary and had a nice dinner with Rob's family where we also celebrated his sister's birthday and had cake.

Stitches.

I can't believe I forgot to tell this story in my last post.

On Victoria Day we were very busy tidying up the house and getting ready for a bunch of Rob's family to come over for a bbq. Suddenly there was a thud followed by some blood-curdling, ear piercing screams and cries. This actually happens quite often, it's usually Ian, he's, ummm, active. Extremely active. He bounces off the walls, literally. I didn't think too much of this particular thud, he'd been bouncing around the livingroom. Rob was right there and picked him up off the floor. I then hear from Rob, "Oh, no! Heidi, get over here quick." I still wasn't concerned, I figured there was most likely blood, but that happens a lot too. He averages a split lip a month, but not badly enough to need stitches, just bloody. What greeted me was my screaming child with a HOLE IN HIS FOREHEAD! Head met the corner of the brick hearth and it was not a happy meeting. The hole was almost the size of a Loonie and I swear I saw skull bone. Surprisingly it did not bleed much, it just looked like someone had torn a chunk out of his face. We still put pressure on it and decided he should probably see a doctor to get that fixed. It took us about 10-15 minutes to get us and both kids out the door, by then Ian had stopped crying, but I was starting to get a little trembly. It really bothered me that it didn't bleed much. Aren't head wound supposed to bleed a lot? We didn't even need to put anything on it. We first stopped at a local walk-in clinic hoping they could stich him up, that way avoiding a trip across the highway to the ER which we thought might be rather busy on a holiday Monday. Thankfully the clinic said stitches were their specialty and they even put him in front of some people. They said the wait was about 2 hours but we were in and out in 1. Of course Ian renewed the screaming with vigour while the doctor stitched him up. Rob held his head, I tried my best to keep the rest of him still which was pretty hard even though he'd been wrapped up in a sheet, and Jayden wandered all over the clinic, made himself at home and friends with the waiting room. Ian cried and pleaded the whole time, never ceasing "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, MOOOOMMMMMYYYY!" It was pretty rough, and needles make me weak in the knees and want to cry too, so I couldn't even look him in the face. I just tried to be as comforting as possible while mumbling silly things like "Everything's OK sweetie" into his tummy. Obviously things were NOT ok. Five days later he was as good as could be for the removal of the stitches. He laid there quite calmly and let the doctor pull them out, didn't need to be held at all. The scar is still pink and lumpy and hasn't faded much at all. I'm wondering if he's inherited bad scarring from me, I scar terribly. Hopefully if he keeps his bangs a little long his hair will cover most of it.


There wasn't much of a lesson learned unfortunately. He still runs full tilt at the fireplace and we've seen some near misses. When asked if he's afraid of banging the bricks again he says NO. Perhaps there was some permanent damage after all...

It's been a while hasn't it?

First to answer some questions.

A Bowflex is a home exercise equipment that simulates weightlifting, but uses bendy rods with varying degrees of resistance. Strength training basically. It's quieter and safer for the kids than a weight system. I love it. Finding time to actually use it is the hard part.
I'm done with the weight loss thing. I spent two months trying and actually ended up losing almost 10 pounds. I didn't make my goal to get down to the lowest I was after Jayden was born but I look smokin' and better than I did then because I'm more toned. We're eating healthier, I have more energy, and so far I've maintained (and lost a little more) for the past 3 weeks. Yay me!! I'm even eating chocolate again, in extreme moderation of course. :)

Time for pictures. I actually hadn't downloaded any for the past two months, but was forced to when my camera ran out of memory.

Mr Blue Jay who we saw in our yard quite often this spring.

Ian likes to pretend he's taking a picture when we take his.

Jayden looks more and more like Rob everyday. He's also looking more like his brother too.
My kids are so cute! I wonder where they got that from?

Watching Daddy cut down half the cedar hedge. All the heavy snow we got this past winter did some permanent damage.

Long day, dinner was exhausting. Click on the picture...aren't those lashes to die for?

Jay-Jay loves his cousin baby Keira. (Guess how many pictures I had to take to get that shot, and how many times Jayden was asked to kiss-kiss the baby.)

Rob enjoys taking the boys for bike rides in the bike trailer. I enjoy not knowing where he takes them until later. That way I don't have to worry about the fruit of my loins in traffic on the Lions Gate Bridge.
Our new to us trailer. Camping here we come! In fact we're going again tomorrow.

(Jayden really needed a haircut there.)

I can NOT get those boys to pose nicely for a picture together.
Dance party tonight with Moulin Rouge soundtrack and a wooden spoon.

In other news, I was rear ended three weeks ago. If you're on facebook you knew that all ready. See what your missing out on?

I was stopped on an on ramp, one of the really short ones with a yield sign. I was yielding. I was twisted looking over my left shoulder to watch the oncoming traffic when suddenly I was smashed into from behind. ICBC replaced my bumper but will not cover my injuries as it was deemed a Low Velocity Impact. Due to the twistedness of my position when hit I have whiplash. It's getting better slowly. I'm seeing a physiotherapist. We're thinking of seeing a lawyer.

Last Saturday I went to Football 202, at the BC Lions training facility. I did 101 last summer. 202 invloved doing drills with the players. I got a bunch of signatures on the t-shirt they gave me. I met some cool football players. Jen Hansen came with me. We had fun. I'm so lame, I couldn't find my camera so I have no photo proof of the day. I also couldn't catch the ball at Jason Clermont's station. I'm blaming it on my whiplash, I wasn't really trying that hard. I did catch it at Buck Pierce's station when Jen threw to me, but he complained about my throwing. :)

Well, there you go. Long post. Hope you stuck around to the end. Feel free to comment on the gorgeousness of my children.

Facetime and Flexing.

I have a new past time on the internet. It's called Facebook. You may have heard of it. I'm in love. It's so easy, and addictive. I found a bunch of people I went to Kindergarten with. Kindergarten! Have you ever wondered "Hmm, whatever happened to so'n'so"? Well now, if you're on facebook, you can just type in their name in the search box, and if you're like me, about 50% of the time you'll find them, and then you'll know. Wow. Boys you had a crush on in Juniour High? There they are! Girls who made you feel inadequate in high school? Yup, them too! Co-workers? Family? Random goofballs. And it's ALL FREE. ((sigh)) I really don't need another excuse to ignore reality, but it really is so much fun.

Speaking of reality...we bought a Bowflex. So now I flex. Ha ha. The best thing about it is that it's in the privacy of my own home because I look like such a wimp on it it's embarrassing. So the weight loss thing with LA Weight Loss isn't so great. In the last month I've lost 5 pounds. That's it! And I'm barely eating HALF of what I used to enjoy!! No chocolate, no cake, no chocolate cake, etc. They promised that I'd lose 2 pounds a week. They keep telling me it'll happen eventually. Everyone's body is different. Believe me. There has been NO cheating. And I have 3 weeks left to lose 8 pounds to make my goal. HA! I've almost concluded that my body needs to be a little bit rolly, that anything less than 10 pounds more than I like is physically impossible to achieve. There's no other explanation that I can think of.

I'm sorry if this sounded a bit woe is me. It was. But I figure I probably don't have much of a readership so I can say whatever I want to make me feel better.

Anyways, if you want to cheer me up. Go on over to facebook, look me up, and be my friend.

:)

Our life in pictures.

It's so hard to get them both to sit still for the camera. I think this is the best I've got in months. You can see how long Jayden's hair was getting. He got a real boy haircut at Easter and now you can see a much stronger resemblance between the two of them. He still gets called a girl though, he's THAT pretty. :)

Jim with new baby Kiera. Really, she is the most beautiful baby girl ever. I'm so excited about having a niece that I can do girly stuff with. Sometimes the boy stuff in this house of mine gets a little overwhelming.



The new "Boy's Bedroom".



Jayden in the hotel room wearing Ian's Canucks jersey because he peed his pants, and all over my lap at the hockey game and Ian's shirt was longer and covered his legs better. I remembered extra pants for the next game.



We went to the Fort Worth Zoo on the Monday. I won't bore you with pictures of all the animals we saw. They were some cool animals, but zoos are sad too. So here's a picture of Ian's first ride on a carosaul. After about 10 seconds he said "all done", but I convinced him had to stay on for the whole song. He did have fun after a while.



Here's another example of Rob's picture taking skills. You can't even see poor Jayden's face.



At the hockey game. I can't believe I didn't take pictures of any hockey action. Rob's mom has more picture of the arena. It's an impressive building, very pretty with lots of big windows.

It's blurry but I was excited and Jayden is squirmy.



The boys out on our deck on one of the very rare sunny days we've had this spring.



Jayden does this fabulous kissy face when I ask him for a kiss. I love it. He's just too cute!


Well now you're pretty much caught up with us. Oh, one more thing, Jayden and I have ANOTHER STINKING COLD!! Ughh, I'm so sick of sickness. I can't wait for some sun and decent temperatures. How about you?

So you know a little more about me...

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