Saturday, June 29, 2013

Five Years Ago Today...

...I said "I do."




And I'm so glad I did :)

To read about our wedding day (and week!), and how we've celebrated past anniversaries, start here.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd;
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don't care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one,
 
two,
three, and you're safe,*
 
at the old ball game.
original words by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer
*revised by me.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

The One With All The Poop

These two pictures have nothing to do with this post. However they provide me the space to give you a warning: Graphic picture below these two. Do not read this post if you are eating. Or feeling sick. Yes, this is the post with all the poop. After this I will post about fluffy puppies for the next four days. Well, okay, maybe not, but it will be 100% less gross. (Also I put these two pictures in so that those of you with blog rolls which show a picture from the post wouldn't have a gross picture beside my post. You're welcome!)
So as you may remember we are in the midst of toilet training Sam. The pee side of things is going super-well. He is going on the potty a lot and on non-poop days he is wearing one pair of underwear all day. Sadly, there is a whole other side to the toilet training issue. Which is not going so well. On the plus side we only have to deal with it every other day. Yesterday was one of those days though. Normally he just has one big poo every other day. One big mess to clean up. I can deal. Yesterday he had THREE. As in, one, two and then, for an added bonus, three. And the third time Sam just said, "I have to pee" and ran for the potty so I helped him pull down his shorts and underwear and ended up with poo all over my hand. I washed my hand seven times with anti-bacterial soap and wished for industrial disinfectant because I still felt dirty. After that, I called Dave and asked him to come home early because I didn't feel clean enough to cook supper. And then thankfully, Wednesday was over.

But then this morning... Oh, this morning. We woke up to Rachel crying in her crib, which is somewhat unusual, and Dave went to go get her. Then he yelled for me. This is what we saw:
Yeah, we love those mornings when Rachel decides to remove her diaper on her own. And there's poop. Sadly, those aren't just funky stuffed animals I made on a whim one day.

So Dave dealt with cleaning up, and comforting, Rachel and changing the sheets and I took a picture. Now I need to go do a load of laundry (or seven). I am really hoping there is 300% less poop in my life tomorrow. I can always hope...

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

Okay, maybe it's just one of the most wonderful times of the year. Our CSA started yesterday and we got to pick up our first share. As you may (or may not) remember from last year, we had to drive out to the farm to pick up our food because there wasn't room at the in-city pickup. This year we get to pick up our share about a five minute walk from our house! Yay! Yay! Yay! No more driving. And our pickup day changed from Fridays (which was a stressful time for us) to Tuesday afternoons which is just heavenly. Today after Rachel's nap, the kids grabbed their backpacks and sunglasses and we were off.
I just love seeing all the fresh produce and dreaming of the meals we will be having this week.
The garlic scapes were running low so Sam restocked the basket. I just love how involved he feels when we do this CSA. He was a little sad there was no sorrel but Angie promised to bring him some soon :)

The walk home was supplemented with a cheese snail (a cheese braid in the shape of a snail) which Karen let us "buy" on credit because I didn't bring my wallet. Oh, did I mention that the in-city pickup has fresh baking offered as well?!!? An added bonus, if you ask me! I was looking forward to not having to drive half an hour to get home. Both Sam and Rachel walked the whole way home (and Sam carried a head of lettuce and the garlic scapes in his backpack) so it ended up taking half an hour to get home anyways. But did I mention that SAM AND RACHEL WALKED?!?!?! I am just so loving the fact that we can get fresh, local vegetables by WALKING! Whooo hooo!!!
I had a leisurely walk pushing the veggies home. I think they enjoyed their ride :)
I've already enjoyed a fresh spring mix salad (with local peppers and tomatoes I bought at a farm on Monday) last night after working out and I can't wait until we can throw some burgers on the grill, along with the scapes, and steam some greens. Yay for summer, fresh vegetables and our awesome CSA!

Trips to the gym this week: 1
Hours of sleep on Monday night: 4.5 Boooooo :( But I did have a two hour nap yesterday afternoon to make up for it.
Nights without snacking: Too many to count. I am kicking this goal's butt which is awesome because I've already ordered my "book." Ha ha ha :) (And last night's date night nachos didn't count. Besides even my date night nachos have been happening on a smaller plate so I'm cutting down on those too.)

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Just One Of The Things I Love...

...about where I live is that you can be driving down the road and see a stand like this, with freshly cut flowers for sale.
And then you can bring them home and practice your amateur photography skills, trying to find the best angle and lighting.
And then you will sigh because, alas, you are an amateur photographer and you have failed in your task. And your camera battery is dead so you give up in defeat and stare at your flowers. All in all, it's not the worst way to spend an evening.

Nights without snacking: A lot. (Except for Friday and Saturday nights when Sam was running the show. I didn't even snack on all the delicious food at book club last night. Go me!)
Trips to the gym this week: None yet. (But it's Sh'Bam tonight so I will be there.) Trips to the gym last week: 3!!!
Hours of sleep: Mostly I get around 7ish. I think the challenge would be to try to get 8 hours of sleep a night. Or maybe even 8.5, which is probably more around what I need. But I've only had one or two nights of less than seven hours of sleep since I started this challenge, and that (sadly) is DEFINITELY an improvement.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Sam The Incredible!

Meet Sam. He's our newest super-hero. He wears fleece winter gear when it 30C (88F) outside. He resists bedtime like nobody's business and... he kept his underwear dry for ELEVEN HOURS yesterday!!!!! But he can't stay to chat because he's gotta go...
...go pee, that is :) Ladies and gentlemen, the amazing toilet-trained* Sam!!!

*Day only, just pee, not necessarily true when we leave our house. (We'll take what we can get.)

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Double The Fun. Maybe.

So the Underwear Weekend Party continued yesterday. Dave started the morning off with underwear shaped pancakes. You know, abstract shapes which he called underwear. Ha! I thought they were a little creepy but Sam LOVED them and that was the main thing.
Then I headed off to the gym with Rachel in tow so I could go to a Zumba class. Rachel stayed in the child minding area as she is too young to participate in Zumba. Although if it would make her as tired as it made me, I would totally start a petition allowing her to be in the class too. I was exhausted for the rest of the day.

This afternoon I was checking out a couple of websites my blog friend Bekah linked to. If you're bored sometime you should check out the sandcastle pictures on this site. Some of them are amazing. Tonight for dinner we ordered pizza. The place we order it from has a "create your own pizza" site and Sam loves making "silly pizzas" as he calls them and it entertains him for hours. Or you know, twenty minutes :)
Then Sam and I had some more to drink (the theme of the weekend) and some chips and dip. And I read two or three of the classic Thomas stories to him. (Sidenote: these stories make no sense sometimes.) I am looking so serious because I am always serious about chips and dip Thomas stories.
An interesting, and slightly annoying, side effect of this big weekend focus on Sam wearing underwear and sitting on the potty a lot is that Rachel wants to sit too. So Dave went out and bought her some pullups. (He also bought a super-annoying, LOUD, cheering, Cars potty for Sam. I made him take out the battery after about half an hour because it was driving me crazy. Who ever thought to invent these things??? Yerghks.) So after her nap Rachel tried sitting on her potty while I was reading a story. (I spent A LOT of time reading the kids stories today.)
Then we had to get some cute pictures of both of our kids toilet training. Yes, we are insane. (By the way, Rachel hasn't yet figured out how to go on the potty so we haven't had our first success with her yet.)
After the potty photo session, Sam got to play on the iPad. It was a family affair. Thankfully he was okay with Rachel randomly swiping the screen and ruining his game. He thought it was funny.
I love these pictures of Sam gleefully playing on the iPad. He's having so much fun.
Today's tally is four accidents (one when Dave took him to Wal-Mart and he was wearing a pull-up over his underwear and one that necessitated some scrubbing -- bleah) and many successes. Yay! I feel like we just might be getting somewhere with this intense weekend. I really hope so.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

You Gotta Fight For Your Right...

...to potty! But first you gotta graduate from preschool and celebrate.

So today was Sam's last day of preschool. We had to go to the Spring AGM so I could be elected treasurer of the preschool board for next year. Dave was unimpressed with my political campaign since basically they asked if I was interested and I said, "Yes!" He wanted me to have a great story about how I crushed the opposition after lots of fierce campaigning. There was no opposition.

Anyways, to celebrate Sam's last day, and to save me hauling the kids in and out of the car a few more times, we just stayed parked at the preschool and walked a few blocks to Tim Horton's. We had grilled cheese, smoothies and Timbits for lunch. ps. Rachel isn't really sneering at her grilled cheese; I think she was actually starting to say "cheese!"
On the way back to the preschool Sam was intrigued by this rosebush. The owner came out and told us he thought it was about 60 years old. Either way it was amazing.
Then I dropped Sam off at preschool and Rachel and I ran a few errands and picked up Dave to go to Sam's end of preschool party. (Notice I didn't mention that Rachel had a nap in there. Because she didn't. Yeah, it was an awesome evening.)
Sam in the parade which welcomed the parents into the classroom for the celebration. The first name Pat called was "S-A-M" and Sam just sat there smiling, then jumped up and took his spot. I love how proud and happy he looks. He said his favourite part of preschool was the sandbox.
After preschool I tried to get a good picture of Sam outside the preschool. I don't think I succeeded.
Then we came home and put Sam into underwear. We are having a Underwear Weekend Party over here. Sam will be in underwear for three days. We have to get this kid toilet trained. Dave even took Monday off of work to help. Sam gets to decide what we're eating and what we're doing all weekend, as long as it's at home so we can have a potty nearby. First on the agenda, eating lots of treats from his preschool party. And some chips and dip. Then we headed outside. Rachel got to try out her new lawnmower which Oma and Opa gave her for her birthday.
She got annoyed with it and decided to help Dave instead!
Then we had tuna noodle casserole for supper and Miss No-Nap Rachel went to bed. Then we had more chips and dip, popcorn and smoothies and watched a couple of videos. (By the way, my "no snacking" goal has been pre-empted by the "Sam gets to decide what we do this weekend and if he decides I have to have a snack too, well... he's in charge!") The first was a Mighty Machines about the farm and it was actually kind of interesting.
The second video was a toilet training video from the library and we've come to the conclusion that there are no good videos on this subject out there. Well, at least, not according to anyone over the age of ten :) Sam was highly entertained and insisted we watch it TWICE.
Dave's "Really, this is a great video" expression.
So after all this pottying partying, how did Sam do??? Well, the first few hours were rough (and created much laundry) but towards the end of the evening things improved. Yay! Unfortunately (or fortunately???) Rachel was also extremely interested so today we're buying her some pull-ups because she kept ripping her diaper off and wanting to sit on the potty too. It's going to be an interesting weekend...