Sore tooth

I have a very sensitive tooth, just started, and it's really bothering me!

Today I went to the mall with Elle to return some shirts and hopefully find something else, but I was disappointed because I didn't find anything. Then Elle had a blowout and I realized I didn't have a change of clothes for her!

I remembered my mom saying sears had good sales on, so I went to see if I could just get a cheap shirt or sleeper for her, and mom was there! She was returning something that she got for Finn which was too small, so instead she picked out some pants and a shirt for Elle, and then took me to Starbucks, so it wasn't so bad after all!

We had a turkey today, but Finn has just NOT been himself since being sick on Christmas Eve. He has been so whiny and his voice a bit croaky. I think/hope it's just a combination of maybe a small cold and just too much stuff going on and not the usual routine.

Conor's family are going on a ski holiday on Monday for 3 nights... hopefully Finn will be feeling better and will kind of snap out of this thing when the house is less busy.

Christmas recaps

*The pictures are a little weird on this because I was trying out the new interface and screwed it up a bit!


Christmas Eve eve:

We went over to my moms house for some hors d'oeuvres. It was meant to be a small engagement party for my brother and his fiance. One of my moms brothers and wife came, also one of my dad's sisters and her husband and two kids, as well as my brother and family who lives upstairs at mom's house. It was a nice evening. I had a good visit with my cousin Amanda who I haven't talked to much lately. We didn't stay very late, wanted to get the kids to bed. But then I kind of wanted to go back and play games, so after the kids went to bed I went back to moms. Turned out there were no more games going on, but I had a really good time talking to my brother and his fiance... he's got a winner :)

Finn and Elle in their Christmas outfits :)

The best family picture we got - this was before the Sweeney Christmas Concert

Christmas Eve:

We went back to Mom's in the morning for brunch. We usually do Christmas Eve dinner and then presents, but since my brother Dan (who is a youth pastor) was doing their Christmas Eve service, we decided to just do it earlier in the day on Christmas Eve. My sister-in-law made cinnamon buns, and we had some "wife-saver" (which Conor kept referring to as wife-swap), fruit salad and other goodies.

Daddy and Finn in their Christmas best

Elle and I

Candied oranges that Conor made

After we ate and had breakfast sort of cleaned up, we went onto the gift opening. Us siblings (and now my 9 year old nephew and 7 year old niece) draw names for main gifts, and then we all fill each others stockings. Amy (my brothers fiance) had my name and planned a little surprise date for Conor and I. There's an envelope of instructions which have to be a surprise, so I'm looking forward to it! After presents we just hung around. We moved the party downstairs because it was getting hot upstairs. Elle went down for a nap and Finn played with his new toys while the boys watched football.

Hehe, tummy time in her Christmas dress

On the way home Finn was starting to get really really grumpy. I figured he was just overtired since he had woken up at 7am and hadn't napped. Conor gave him a bath, because that usually makes him happy. When it was time to eat dinner Finn was on my lap asleep, he hasn't fallen asleep on my lap ever, the last time was probably on the train in Italy or the flight home. I thought I would just let him nap for 30 minutes or something and then get him to bed early. He started stirring in my lap so I thought he was uncomfortable and maybe wanted to lay on the couch, but when I sat down with him he started crying and then threw up EVERYWHERE!! First time he has ever thrown up, and it was all over me and him!! Conor quickly passed Elle onto Grandpa and helped me get Finn to the bathroom. Ugh, grossest thing ever! We got everything cleaned up, and by the time he was done the bath he seemed happier, but was a bit pale. When it was time for bed, I was getting Elle settled and heard Finn throw up again in his bedroom, Conor didn't get the bucket quite in time - so we had to do some more clean up.

Gathering to open gifts at my moms

He finally fell asleep and didn't get sick again - thankfully!!

Christmas Day:

Finn and I eating Christmas Eve brunch

We went to mass in the morning at 10am, and then came back home for a big breakfast with Grannie and Papa, and then the kids and I went down for our naps. We had roast lamb for dinner and then after I put Elle to bed, we opened presents. We got spoiled by Conor's family, who we had told we would not be doing gifts with but they didn't listen! Finn got some great toys. He had brought up some of his ikea tracks to play with, and Conor and I had got him a Gordon train that can hook up to the ikea trains... but then when he got a Percy and Stanley set from his Uncle Nathan and Auntie Celeste he started yelling "yay, better take Gordon off the track, better take Gordon off!" so he ran and took off Gordon so that he could put Percy and Stanley on! haha. He also got some great books - at the time he was more excited about the trains, but he's been getting us to read him the books all day. Oh, and a big Thomas puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa - that's been a big hit too!

I actually got him a car rug (you know, a rug with roads and stuff to drive cars on) but I haven't even given it to him yet, maybe tomorrow.

Playing with a new tractor from Uncle Mike and Auntie Nathalie

Boxing Day:

Finn opening presents at my families place

On Boxing day we mostly just hung around doing nothing in the morning, and then had our usual afternoon naps.  After we woke up we got the kids ready to go to Grannie and Papa's for the big Sweeney family turkey dinner.  But wow was Finn grumpy.  Conor dropped me and the kids off and went to park and Finnian just threw a huge fit and the room was really echoey - luckily we were one of the first ones there, so no one else had to witness it!!  When Conor got back he took Finn outside for a bit until Finn calmed down, and then he did well the rest of the night.  The food was really good, and we had a nice time visiting, but didn't stay very long as we wanted to get the kids back home to bed.

Elle helping Grandpa open presents

Okay this is my Christmas gift to Elle, because she loves sucking on my keychain - but don't worry, she doesn't get this unless we are there, so we won't let it choke her!

And that was Christmas!  Finn is still a little off - I like to say he had too much Christmas, but I think it's a bit of a cold or something.  Here are some more pics from the holidays.

The car rug we gave rug for the 3rd day of Christmas! haha

Gordon!!!

Some thoughts

I really want to get my Christmas recap post up before the New Year - maybe tonight. I'm at moms right now blogging on my iPod, the post is almost all written but I need to add pics.

I'm jealous because my mom got an iPad - although I likely wouldn't use it's lot right now ( much easier to just use my iPod when holding Elle) but its still so pretty!

Merry Christmas!

We had an... interesting... Christmas Eve, which I'll tell you about later.

But for today MERRY CHRISTMAS, or "merry citimas" from Finnian!

Christmas Concert

Last night was the Sweeney Singers Christmas Concert. The concert was starting at 7:30pm and my mom was going to watch the kids for us at the church, but I was worried she was going to end up missing the whole thing due to one or both kids... also, it was her birthday, and so I felt that would make it doubly unfair for her.

Since Elle normally goes to bed at 7:30 we decided to try to get her asleep in the stroller before the concert, and then mom could sit at the back with the stroller and Finn, and go to the nursery with them if either wasn't cooperating. Elle ended up having a short nap yesterday and then having just a quick sleep on the drive to the church at 6 which was when we had to be there, so I figured she would actually fall asleep really well at 7, and she did! I fed her in the nursery and put her in the stroller and she fell asleep pretty quickly after that. But then I really felt that she would wake up if I brought her out into the church, because it was loud and bright... so mom said that she would just stay around the nursery door and listen for Elle, that way she could still hear the music, and Finn could sit with my brother Dan.

Well Finn didn't have a nap yesterday, and was kind of playing shy. I don't think he was very impressed that we just stuck him with Dan and Amy and that not even Grandma was there with him. So Dan brought him into the back before the concert to say hi to Conor and I, but it ended up being a bad idea because then he didn't want to leave us. I finally got him back to his seat and he was crying but I had to run away to join the choir on stage, and Dan took over.

I looked out in the crowd and Finn looked like he was doing well, he was sitting and reading or something. I wasn't actually singing in the first song, so during the second song I got a better look at him, he was sitting on Amy's lap, and then I heard him crying and Dan took him out to my mom.

I guess he saw me on stage and said excitedly "look, mommy singing", and then it hit him, and he started crying! haha, poor guy.

It all ended up working out though, because Elle slept through the whole concert, and between mom and a lady that worked there just walking past the nursery every so often to listen in, mom got to sit in the back foyer the whole time with Finn, so she got to see and hear the whole concert... and Finn just ate raisins and drew and read for the whole time.

I think the concert went really well, and I'm glad it's done! Now we get to dig in for Christmas.

Tonight we are going to my moms for a small gathering with some aunts and uncles from my mom and my dads side. Tomorrow morning we will go to my moms for brunch and presents. We usually do Christmas Eve dinner with my family, but it worked out better this way for everyone this year. Than Christmas Day is mass in the morning and then presents and dinner at some point through the day with Conor's family. Boxing Day we are off to Grannie and Papa's Sweeneys for the extended family dinner.

Looking forward to it all!

Is it bedtime yet??

I'm feeling much better, for the most part. The flu part is gone so now it's just recovery from two days of not eating and being in bed all day... I took the sheets off my bed this morning and it totally tired me out!

Of course for some reason I couldn't fall asleep at nap time so now I'm really tired. Finnian is being pretty horrible today - too much excitement (putting up the tree) and more people around the house than normal... This might be a rough Christmas! Hopefully not.

We leave for dress rehearsal is a half an hour and then I'll come home and put the kids to bed... By myself... Wish me luck. Normally Finnian is so so good at bedtime but he was really needy last night which resulted in a lot of crying.

*So it's after 8 pm now... I wrote that before going to dress rehearsal but got interrupted and couldn't finish.

Dress rehearsal went well, for me, I'm only in 5 songs so we did mine first so I could get the kids back home and to bed. Luckily Finn went down well as soon as we got home and hopefully will not wake up to repeat last nights performance, and Elle is on her way to sleepy-time right now. She likes to just lay in bed talking to herself for a while before she nods off :)

Sigh, can't wait to sleep! haha

Quarantine

Well I've been downstairs in my bed basically all day. Mostly because I didn't feel good but partly because I didn't want to infect everyone else in the house - hopefully I'm the only one to have this bug.

It was nice being able to just sleep and watch a movie on the computer, but it was kind of lonely! I could hear everyone upstairs enjoying Sunday breakfast with Grannie and Papa, I could hear Finn playing with his toys and laughing (and crying sometimes!), everyone having Sunday dinner... I really missed Finn and he was just upstairs! haha

This morning I knew I wasn't going to go to church and I was trying to convince Conor to take both of the kids to church so I could rest, but he wasn't having any of it. Finally we agreed that he would take Elle and Finn would stay with me... Finn is good with just playing with toys, and worse comes to worse I could put on Thomas. Well Conor had Elle in the car seat and was saying goodbye when Finn started crying that he wanted to go to church. So Conor caved, I got Finn dressed really quickly and they were out the door. I had a nice morning nap :)

Apparently they like going to church with just daddy because Elle fell asleep in her carseat just after they got their until communion time, and Finn was a good boy all through mass! When they got home I fed Elle and then Conor took them upstairs. Just after noon Elle was fussing so I fed her again and we both napped until 3ish. Then she stayed upstairs for the rest of the day, except coming down for a feeding, and I watched a movie.

Just before 7 I started really missing Finn and wanting him down here, I was about to call up to Conor to bring him down but next thing I know he walks into my room... every time he came into the room today he said "mommy feel all better now?" I told him that I missed him and he looked at me, with a completely serious look on his face and said "I miss YOU!" and then proceeded to do some hyper dance (he didn't get a nap today, and had just had ice cream!)

Anyways, now the kids are in bed and I'm kind of feeling better - I hope I'm 100% tomorrow, especially for Conor's sake so he can get some work done!

I think I'm sick

Ugh - I haven't been feeling good all day. Kind of fluish/feverish - not cool. We have our Sweeney Singers Christmas Concert on Thursday night. Not to mention Christmas - I don't want to be sick.

We have plans Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, maybe Friday, all day Sat, all day Sun and Monday dinner... I really really don't want to be sick.

Pray that I feel better in the morning!

If you look on the right sidebar at the archives of this blog you will notice that every year I write more than the previous year... after this post I need 3 more this month to even up from last year! Good track record :)

Why?

Why, oh why, is my little girl choosing to do her BM's in her carseat 3 days in a row!! Each time resulted in a complete wardrobe change, and the first one resulted in the carseat cover also needing washing.

I'm not taking her out again! haha

Elle - 5 Months Old

On November 30th she had rolled over twice from her front to her back - since then half the time I can't even get her on her tummy for more than a minute because she rolls right over! She looks like she's starting to want to go back to front as well, especially if she is straining to see what Finn is doing out of her eyesight :)

So smily and giggly! She loves to lay on the floor, tummy or back, watching Finn play around her - or even sit in the bumbo for a bit and watch (able to see a lot more around her this way!)

Nap times are pretty consistent. If I can get Finn out of the play room around 10, Elle will have a 30-60 minute nap. Then she will nap again at 130, sometimes just until 3ish, sometimes all the way to 5 or somewhere in between.

It's difficult to see her actual growth in the other pics, so I'll start also doing a picture with her teddy to give something to compare to :)

She's a bit of a glutten at night, unfortunately. She eats and goes to bed at 730, and then eats again between 1030-11, then again between 1-2, again between 4-6.... it's not so fun for me! Luckily though, she generally falls right back to sleep, and if she doesn't she talks and squeels to herself for awhile and then falls asleep.

Just this week she has been grabbing at toys like a mad woman - it is soo fun to watch. She will see a toy within reach, concentrate on it really hard and bring her hands together very slowly to get the toy... then, of course, once it's in her paws it goes straight to the mouth!!

I can't believe she is 5 months... by her 6 month update I may have started feeding her rice cereal, we'll see, that will make the update a bit more interesting!

Long evening

So my mom wanted to take me shopping tonight, and I also needed to order new contacts, so we were going to make an evening of it. The plan was to go to costco together (with Elle), then for dinner and then to the mall.

On the way to coscto Elle was really really grumpy, and there was a lot of traffic (as well as an accident on the highway). I got to costco late, but I could smell something from Elle as soon as I took the carseat out of the car, but I had the appointment booked for the contacts fitting... so I thought I would change her afterwards.

The fitting took FOREVER! The lady just kept talking and talking, and she knew I had a baby there (mom was out wandering around this whole time with Elle)... finally, an hour later, the fitting was finally over. Mom went to pay for her stuff while I went to change Elle.

It was horrible... she exploded everywhere. For some reason I didn't have my change pad, so I had to put paper towel on the change tray, she was crying and crying... it had leaked through to her carseat so I had to use her blanket to go underneath her so then I didn't have one to cover her with for outside, and i didn't have a spare jacket or anything for her so she was just in her sleeper... oh and I didn't have a plastic bag to put the clothes in. AWFUL! Mom found a plastic bag for me, and she gave me her scarf to put over her to get to the car and she actually just happened to have a blanket in her car from someone for Elle.

Then we were driving to the restaurant but Elle was sooo cranky so we went to a closer restaurant, ate and then it was already after 7. So no shopping tonight.

Blah! Luckily she went to bed pretty well when I got home, and her clothes are all in the wash, including the carseat cover! haha

Well that's a first!

Last night was one of the most annoying that we've had in a while.

Elle went to sleep great as usual and then proceeded to wake up at 11 and 2 to eat (unfortunately, also as usual). She then woke up again at 4 but I got her back to sleep without feeding her.

Then at about 5am something woke me up, and I felt Conor sit up startled. Then I realized that the light in the other room was on (we live in the basement, it was once one big den room but now has a partial wall with a doorway separating it, but no door)... my first thought was that some adult was in our room and I was really confused but when Conor went to look, in trudged Finnian.

I told Conor to get him some milk and get him back to his room (hopefully before Elle woke up)... but he wouldn't go, and very willinging climbed into our bed when it was offered. Shortly after he got into bed Elle woke up to eat - and then it was just GONG show after that.

She went back into her crib but didn't fall asleep for at least 45 minutes, which meant Finn didn't fall asleep. I had to keep getting up to give Elle her soother. Finn started asking if he could play with his toys. Then he started getting tired and whinny because he couldn't fall asleep and after about an hour we all finally slept.

But then Finn woke up at 730 asking to go play, I said yes, but he kept asking a little too loudly and Elle woke up. I started crying (not really, haha, I wanted to, I was so tired) and then Conor told me to go sleep in Finn's bed. So I did. I left the kids with Conor and went and slept in Finn's room until 9!!! haha

This morning when I was telling Conors mom she said "oh, I heard Finn around 4 and wondered what was happening". Ensue mommy guilt! I must not have turned the monitor on loud enough because we didn't hear him, he was in his room crying for almost an hour before he finally came to our room! Poor guy... I felt so bad.

That was our first, and hopefully last, time having Finn come into our room in the night since Elle was born.

Man Night

Tonight Conor's mom and two of his sisters are going into Vancouver to see "White Christmas" - I wasn't invited :( I realize that a crying 4 month old wouldn't be the funnest addition to the group!!

Anyways, the guys decided that they are going to have a "man night" to which they are graciously allowing Elle and I to attend.

I figured it might not be the funnest night for me, so after I put the kids to bed, I have a plan...

1. Bubble Bath

2. Facial (I bought one of those single facial things from walmart)

3. Individual little Bailey's Bottle :)

Finnian is 3 years old!

Today is Finnian's 3rd Birthday.

I still had some money on a Castle Fun Park card that I got off groupon awhile ago, so we all had a family morning. We went mini-golfing... I think Finn had fun, but he really didn't end up golfing much at all! He just wandered around holding his club and ball, every so often putting his ball right beside the hole and hitting it in. Or else going to the ones where you shot it up a ram and it comes out somewhere else... he liked that!

Ignore the bad lighting and red eye!

But this was us preparing for the mini-golf

Afterwards we went to Tim Hortons for lunch. He saw someone eating a muffin and we had our usual discussion of how to say "muffin"... here's a video!

He really is a great little guy. He can be so polite. At the dinner table when he wants something he will say "pass butter please or pass mung (milk) please" without any prompting. If he is trying to get past you or behind you he will say "excuse me". If there are cookies, after lunch he will ask for one and he will bring one for Conor or I before getting his own. He does have his moments though, when he doesn't want to share, or he isn't being very nice to the dog, or he's throwing toys. But all in all he's a good kid!

I think he's been going through some growth spurts because there were a few nights where he was complaining in the night about his legs hurting... plus he's gotten a little clumsy all of the sudden!

It was A LOT more difficult playing mini-golf with Elle in the carrier than I thought it was going to be!

One of the funny things I like to hear him say are "remember when..." and will reminise about something, like Thomas the train getting paint on his nose, or this morning he told me about how his Aunty Megan has to clean up horse poop!

Such a good big brother. Loves to show Elle how to do things. He even will give her the toy he is playing with, and try to get her to play with it - even his favorite train!! Just wait until she comes and takes it from him though!

Oh no!

Starting to get an imagination... but not a really out there one. He was eating cold cereal the other day and said "too hot!" With a funny little grin on his face. I said "no, it's cold!" and he said "no mommy, Finn pretendin' it's too hot"

He is becoming quite the singer too! We've been practicing for the Sweeney Singers Christmas concert, so he likes to walk around humming or singing almost all of the songs we will be doing. There's one in particular that Elle likes, but whenever I start singing it Finnian asks me to sing "look up chilen" (look up children). We are also doing a version of Jingle Bell Rock so he had been asking us to sing that, but one day when he asked me to sing Jingle Bell and I started singing that he got mad and said "no, other jingle bell, one horse open sleigh" (although the last line didn't sound ANYTHING like that, so it took awhile to dicipher what he was saying!)

My favorite though was a couple of days ago I was in the living room while Finn was finishing his breakfast and he sang the ABC's almost in its entirety all by himself... he had never sang it before! I think that Conor sings it to him and will stop at certain letters for Finn to sing the one letter, but this time he was singing the whole thing! I have a poor quality video of it, but I'll wait until I can capture it better and put it up!

Finn's birthday party

Finnian's 3rd birthday is tomorrow, but Conor's dad is going to Montreal for a few days and we have choir in the evening, so we decided to have his birthday last night. Normally Conor's siblings that don't live at home on Sundays come for dinner then anyways, so we invited my mom and another friend of ours.

Thomas the Train cake

We got him another set of Ikea trains to hook up with the set he already had

Thomas Train from Uncle Nathan and Auntie Celeste... and it even goes on the ikea train tracks!

He also got some books, some coloring books and some megablocks.

He was pretty darn crabby when he woke up from his nap... it was pretty frustrating... but he eventually snapped out of it to open his presents and eat cake.

This morning after we were done breakfast (we being Conor and I, since Finn was having too much fun to come upstairs) Conor built the big train track up and I set up his megablocks and he spent a few hours playing with it downstairs! big hit... I brought his breakfast downstairs and he got maybe 10 bites in between playing.

For Finn's actual birthday my mom is going to pick him up after work and take him to her place and she's going to have a little birthday party for him with my nieces and nephew.

On my mind

What's on my mind right now?

• Elle has figured out how to roll from her tummy to her back... today she will hardly stay on her tummy for more than a minute or two before she rolls over


• I went to Langely with the kids and Elle cried LOUDLY the whole way home. She was tired, she should have just fallen asleep but she didn't. Finn was getting so angry about it he kept covering his ears and yelling "STOP BABY ELLE, STOP!!"


• I wanted Elle to nap, so that I could have a break, and Finn to just have quiet time, so that I could put him to bed earlier tonight... but now Elle is awake and Finn is sleeping... ugh! At least Elle is being cute rolling over and talking to a stuffed doggy toy


• Elle hasn't pooped in four days. Yup, that's on my mind!


• I've been trying to get Elle to grab at toys. A few times she hit a hanging Elephant in her carseat, but I think that was just a fluke. This morning her foot had come out of her sleeper, so I was holding up her foot in front of her face and she started kind of swinging at it with her hand and then she finally grabbed her toes! I think it surprised her though because she started giggling two seconds later and lost her grip!


• Conor has just finished up the 5th and final chapter of his thesis. He's starting the intro now, and then has to write the conclusion and do the final editting. Then it has to be submitted in the New Year!


• Along that line I'm starting to think about our move to Australia next year. Who am I kidding... I "started" thinking about it the moment we left Australia and the possibility of returned was put in front of us... but now comes the real planning part I guess. I want to know ahead of time about the best banks, the best internet providers, the best subburbs to live in, etc LONG before we move so that when we GET there we get just go and sign up for these things. This move is going to be so much different than our last move there. Mainly because we have two kids now, and also because 5 years is a lot longer than 2.... and 5 years with Conor having a real job as opposed to 2 years as a student is a big life change as well... lots to think about!


• Finn turns 3 in less than a week!! 3 - and he is TOTALLY not potty trained! My plan for the week went down the toilet so to speak (unlike what was SUPPOSED to be going down the toilet). He had been doing so well at going pee if I would take him to the potty. He would never say he had to go, except once at church, but if I would just take him he would go. But NOW? He will NOT go at all. He just starts yelling "pee pee all gone, PEE PEE ALL GONE" as soon as I start taking off his pants in the bathroom. I had kept my whole week clear because I was going to put him in underwear Monday and just take him to the potty every half hour... but NOT with a screaming child. Darn, I missed my chance... I should have done this two or three weeks ago. I'm such a failure - blah!

Okay, those are my thoughts... now Elle is fussing so hopefully she'll take another nap now.

The Party

So last year my Aunt Esther emailed me and my sis-in-law and mentioned that my mom was turning 60, and that we should do a big surprise party for her! We thought it was a great idea, and we were going to try to do it in Sept (her bday is in December) so that I wouldn't be back in Italy yet and then it really would be a big surprise.

Mom on the right

We started kind of formulating ideas, letting people know, and thinking of who to invite when a couple weeks later my Aunt emailed me again and said that she had woken up in the middle of the night and realized that my mom was only turning 59! haha. So we put the plans on the backburner until this year.

Mom at work at CIBC

There wasn't as big of an early rush since I wasn't leaving the country, but since mom's birthday is just before Christmas we didn't want to do it in December because it would be harder for people to come down and just too busy. We started thinking about doing in on the Thanksgiving weekend but then Aunt Esther got sick and we didn't know how long her recovery would take, it turned out that she wouldn't be travelling at all this year... which was very sad, she would have loved to be here, especially since it was her idea!

Love this dress!

My mom has TWO sisters though, so we thought we would plan the party around when the other one, Aunt Margaret, could come from Vancouver Island. Only two days worked for her, November 21st and November 22nd. When we decided that going to a restaurant would be easiest and the restaurant that we thought of was closed on Mondays - it made November 22nd the easiest choice! It was also good timing because my birthday was the 19th and my brother Mikes the 21st, so we were able to get her out on the ruse that it was our birthdays and not hers!

SURPRISE!!

It all worked out perfectly. We planned for Dan and his fiance to go over to moms to talk about wedding stuff and they would travel together to the party so they could make sure she didn't come early... and she actually had planned to get there early to put up balloons herself!

It was great though - she got there and had actually made her own reservation at the restaurant for the birthdays and asked to have a table in the front... so when she got there the host told her that they had to put us in the back - she looked so surprised!

Some of the crowd

One of the cakes I made (Conor's mom decorated)

There were just over 35 people there. My sister-in-law did an intro and told the story about Aunt Esther trying to plan the party for the previous year. After everyone ordered their food I had a slideshow of pictures of mom. It ended up being a lot more work than I thought, but I really liked going through her photos - she had some really interested clothing and hair styles in her lifetime! After dinner we had cake (I made an orange/poppyseed cake and a mocha cake) and Dan read a couple of notes from a couple of moms siblings who couldn't make it.

I love her hair in these!

Surprise!!

So I lied in my last post saying that we were going out for dinner for my birthday and my brothers birthday... It was actually a surprise 60th for my Mom!

It went AWESOMELY, but I'm tired now... Kids are in bed, hopefully asleep, so I'll tell you all about it later.

We have been busy!

I want to blog but have so many other things going I just haven't had time to properly sit down at the computer.

What would I write about?

- Saturday was my 29th Birthday!! We went to Starbucks in the morning for a "peto dink" (translation: special drink). In the evening we had a little party with Conor's immediate family. Hamburgers for dinner and then Conor made a very yummy ice cream cake with his Auntie Bev's recipe!!

- Yesterday was yoga as usual. I got a yoga mat for my birthday so it was nice to use that! I'm feeling like I'm getting better with some of the moves, not having to take as many breaks from holding certain poses. With this mat at home hopefully it will remind me to do some yoga at home, even if it's just once a week.

- Yesterday was my brother Mikes birthday so we are going out tonight with my family to celebrate mine and Mikes birthday. (did I do that right? "mine and mikes" "mike and my's" "my and mikes"??? I have no idea)

- Tomorrow is playdate time with Conor's cousins wife... She has a little girl a bit younger than Finn and then a baby boy born a week or so after Elle!

- Friday I'm babysitting my niece in the morning, practice for a third child!?!? Haha!

Whew - next week I plan on not going out and HOPEFULLY making some more progress on potty training my almost 3 year old. Can you believe he's 3 in two weeks???

Elle - Four Months Old

Let me just tell you that this little girl is pretty awesome!

She is getting so much more fun everyday. She loves to look at books, she enjoys being in the jolly jumper (which allows me to make breakfast, do the dishes, vacuum, etc.), she loves the bumbo. Finn hated the bumbo, he would arch his back and never properly sit in it, and if he was sitting he was crying. She loves it (not for too long), she sits in there on the floor in the living room while Finn plays around her, and she just watches him.

Right now she is laying on the floor beside me listening to a little musical crib toy whenever I push the buttons.

She is still a champion nurser. Most of the time she just eats to get it done... sometimes she takes her time, and will rarely fall asleep while nursing. She had been doing a few nights of just waking up once to eat... but it's usually 2 or even 3 times now. It's kind of frustrating, but 99% of the time she falls right back asleep, so I can't really complain.

She had been still sleeping in our bed at night, again because I'm lazy! I hate having to get out of bed, especially when it's cold and all she needs is her soother. So much easier to just reach over and give it to her! Of course now just to throw it in my face she poops EVERYNIGHT in the middle of the night. Causing me to have to get up out of my warm bed, turn on the bright light, and change her. Luckily she smiles and laughs while I change her, making me love those moments... and then pretty quickly falls back asleep afterwards.

But the last 6 nights or so I've had her in her crib and only one night did she end up back in our bed. She does really well in the crib. Except last night she kept getting out of the swaddle and then she talks (really loudly) while she sucks on her hand. I would wait until she calmed down and then I'd give her the soother and she would eventually fall asleep so it wasn't so bad I guess... better than crying as my mother-in-law pointed out!

Normally for her morning nap she just sleeps upstairs somewhere and I get some housework done. On Tuesday though she was getting fussy at about 10 (she had been so good all morning too), so I took her downstairs, swaddled her and put her in her crib and I did some things around the room and she fell asleep. For an hour and a half!

So the next day at around 10 she was fussing again, so I did the same thing. I had to rock her for less than a minute so she would calm down, but then I put her in and she fell asleep. Only for 45 minutes that time, but it was still awesome.

Thursday? You guessed it... 10 am I put her in her crib and she fell asleep for nap time... she's been doing that every day now (except the weekend).

That's all I can think of for now... she just is the best :)

Tired

Elle is 4 months old today - but the post about it will come tomorrow.

Sunday's are always a busier day, and Elle and I went out to lunch with the girls (plus Dave, hehe) so therefore no time to work on the blog and get the picture ready.

Tomorrow :)

Dinner by candlelight

Yesterday I woke up from my nap to the power being out. I guess the fuse or breaker by the transformer blew up and we were the only house on our block without power!

Luckily it was early enough that we still had time to get ourselves prepared for an evening/night without power.

Also lucky that my in-laws house drilled for their own well this year and discovered an artesian well, meaning the water just keeps coming and coming so we have to have it running into the field... So Dad filled up a whole bunch of buckets for drinking and so that we could still flush the toilet and wash our hands and such.

We had hotdogs off the BBQ and ate dinner by candlelight and the fire in the fireplace.

It was actually kind of nice and cozy. I thought Finn might get upset with it being dark but he didn't mind.

At bedtime Conor brought a candle down to get Finn to bed. He went into the bathroom first to get Finns toothbrush and Finn ran into his bedroom and tried to turn on the light. Then he got worried saying "oh no, how Finn gonna go in there". Hehe

He actually pronounces "going" as "go-knee" - to which one his teddy bears somehow got named :)

Anyways after the kids were in bed we had a nice time hanging out in the living room without iPods out :)

Eventually someone decided we should buy marshmallows to roast in the fireplace. Shortly after a couple people left the BC Hydro truck showed up and we watched the guy go up in the crane thing and use this big stick to fix the breaker or whatever it's called. It was pretty cool, and then the lights came back on and our cozy night was over.

Actually it was good timing because we couldn't find anymore candles so our night was going to end soon otherwise :)

Strange memories

When we first got back to Canada in June, and Finn started talking more, he learned what a bobcat was called. (The machinery, not the animal) One day we were driving past this empty lot where they are starting to built houses and he kept saying "bobcat? bobcat?"

I'm pretty sure he was remember LAST summer when there was a bobcat parked there just before we went back to Italy. How could he remember that far back??

-----------------------------------------------

Then recently he keeps pointing up at a hook on the ceiling in the living room and asking "where daddy ball go?"

I couldn't figure out what he was talking about until I remember how last year this ornamental twig sphere that Conor had made was hanging there. I asked around and everyone confirmed that it hadn't been there at all since we got back this year, and I asked Conor if he had talked to Finn about it recently and he hadn't.

Which means that Finn is just having another random memory from last year!

A little confused

Finn gets confused sometimes with simple words or gestures.

Sometimes when I ask him to give me a high five he kisses the palm of my hand.

Other times when I ask him to give me a kiss he slaps me across the face.

-------------------------------

Yesterday we went for drive in my father-in-laws 2-door car (which used to be my car). We got Finn and he kept looking to his side confused.

Later he said "who broke this door?". Then he looked towards Elle and said "how mommy gonna get baby Elle out?"

So cute!

Elle's Favorite Book

When Finn was just 1 month old I started reading to him. I didn't plan to, but the lady at the library gave me a good book for him, and it quickly became his favorite.

I wrote a post about the book here.

Well I didn't start that early with Elle. Actually it wasn't until a week or two ago that I started reading to her at all. It was different than with Finn because he was much to young to actually show any interest in what I was reading to him, so it was gradual. With her she was very ready and almost as soon as I picked up the book she was smiling at the pictures!

The first book I ever read to her is definitely her favorite, although she does like almost anything you read to her.

So here is Elle's favorite book.

Duck and Goose: 1,2,3

1 goose - 2 ducks

3 clouds

4 friends

5 flowers

6 feet

7 berries

This is probably Finn's favorite page.

He always says "look what happened!" and points at the berry stains on their bellies :)

8 eyes

9 footprints

10 butterflies (this is Elle's favorite page!)