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??

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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.

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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!)

Daylight savings

It has ended... And like most mothers of infants and toddlers I was NOT looking forward to it.

Where Finn has usually been waking up around 630-7, he would now be waking up at 530-6!!!!

On Saturday we put both kids to bed later to hopefully encourage them to sleep in. I think Finn was up at about 630 new time, not bad. Elle woke up at 6 to eat and didn't really completely fall back asleep again.

I was worried this would go on for a few days, but this morning both kids slept in until 8, Elle even fell back asleep for another 20 minutes!

Let's hope tomorrow morning is the same, especially since Conor leaves at 7:30 for his Spanish class.

Naptime Bliss

Today I laid Elle beside me in bed for naptime. A delivery guy was going to be bringing a new fridge, so I put in my ear plugs so that I wouldn't hear the dog barking and all of that craziness.

I was just nodding off when I heard something. I opened my eyes to see Elle staring up and me and talking away!

I thought if I ignored her she would stop, so I closed my eyes, but I kept hearing it.

So then I took out my ear plugs and just started talking back to her. Then she went on for TWO FULL MINUTES... just cooing and cooing. And she was so happy. Her eye brows would go up, and she would shurg her shoulders and smile.

It was the cutest thing ever ever ever.

Then she stopped and just looked at me for a bit.

I put her soother back in her mouth and she promptly fell right asleep.

Seriously the best thing ever.