What I learned about myself this year...

We have one day left in good ole 2010, and as i was in the bath just now i was thinking of the things i figuered out this year. I am not altogether eleoquent (totally am not gonna spell check that one) as i had all of 35 minutes of sleep last night. Yes my darling offspring are still infected with dreaded cold. so here goes:
I have a wee obsession with hand soap - i did a quick count and i have three different dispensers filled in my kitchen. Mrs meyers lavender, Method peppermint vanilla, bath and body works twisted peppermint. I have in my main bath three more dispensers - Bath and body works apple wreath, and pumkin something or other, as well as Methods sweet water. In my ensuite bath I have softsoap and a bar or lavender. but on top of all these, I have a large glass jar filled with about 7 bars mostly my all time favorite brand Damn good soap made here in steveston. I have a bag of method sweet water, another box of about 8 soaps all mixed varieties and a sampler my mom picked up of yet another 8 round bars of handmade soaps. I also have the gigantic bottle of softsoap refill from costco as well as three boxes of Pears soap.I flipping love hand soap. And with all this hand soap in my house you'd think I'd lay off buying more...oh no, if i'm at london drugs and i see something i like i cannot resist it...jer says i have a serious problem. I made up an excuse last week that i wanted to get my sisters hand soap to go with their handmade christmas gifts JUST so i could get the five for 20 deal and bath and body...so discovery #1, Hello my name is amy and i am obsessed with hand soap.

hey guess what.....we're sick AGAIN!
and this really sucks, i can't sing our concert tonight. You know the one with the big black gospel solo that i've been working on oh since about october....ya. Shitty. Hoping to be better for sunday's big concert. Am sure I will be. But dang this sucks!
Anyways, havn't done much. But we did decorate the tree and oh how i love love love christmas! Love it, heart it, mmmmmmm i am drinking it all in this year. Christmas is soooooooooooooooooooooooo unbelievably wonderful with kids. It's special with my sweet baby, but it is darn right exciting with an almost 4 year old! I am sooooo excited for him to open all his sweet gifts and see his joy on christmas morning! Anyways my sweet snot nosed babe is stirring so will have to fill in more as i can....
xoxoxo
koop

another project crossed off list...

I havn't posted ANY projects, for quite some time. So I thought I would fill ya'll in on what I do in my very SMALL window of time for craftiness.

So a while back we ordered some beautiful amy butler laminated cotton off fabric.com (which I am spending WAAAAY too much time on) and made ourselves a little highchair pad. We had a feeding chair with Cole, but we were offered the use of a beautiful wood antique highchair, and i could NOT pass that up. So to make it a bit more comfylicious for my wee girl, I made a chair pad. This is what it looks like:


I know i couldn't resist showing you my beautiful girl...here's a better one


So one project down.... a zillion to go...
Up next buggy covers...I've got my material thanks to a quick trip to bellingham (i heart Jo-annes) and am all set, i just need some coffee, an hour, and no kids around...will see when that happens...has to be soon, because it's snowing here!

november

it's been a month of sickies for us. I am still hacking away...(i really don't know how moms EVER get rid of their colds) I mean really i don't get sleep at nights, and I don't get naps in the day with two kids, and my gosh i can barley feed the chitlets let alone make myself something decent when i feel like curling up into a ball, so i'm thinking i've got one more week to go with this nastiness and then I'm just going to give up...ha
okay on to other things....we have SNOW! it's lovley. Snowed on moms birthday. Took a day trip cross the border for some groceries, few clothing pieces for the kids, and fabric, yes i love fabric.com, but i also love jo-annes. Got some fabric to sew up the kids stockings (lord only knows when we'll get around to that) got some fabric to also sew up K her own buggy/babybjorn/ergo blanket...it's on the list. It was nice to get out. Then brought chinese food over to moms for dins before they left for mexico. Did laundry, and made about 5 different casseroles to store into the deep freeze because this month is chaos, chaos, chaos, and i will rarley have time to reheat leftovers let alone cook up a from scratch meal. So we are stocked! Still waiting for my pears to ripen, just about and then i am going to attempt my first canning extravaganza, mmmmmm pears. What else, lot's of choir practices, the concert season is upon us, missed bootcamp this last week and today, feel like a sloth, I've been carbing it out BIG time...must stop. Had a lovely strawberry beer at peter and vickis on sunday must get the name of it. Decided i am going to go back to making espresso with my bialetti for a while and start having my cappucino in the morning it's just sooooooooooooo much more delicous. Ripped a bunch of new folk indie kids tunes for Cole and he's in woody guthrie and elizabeth mitchell heaven (as am i) Christmas tunes are on the radio, not on our walls...yet. Jer's bday first then on with christmas. Excited for Disney on Ice with the kids next weekend. Took some lovley pics for christmas with the kids, out of the 60583839 i took there is not one, ONE where both of them are smiling like the angels they pretend to be. But we got the christmas cards printed today and i'm pleased with how they turned out nonetheless, it's truly a snapshot of where we are in life right this second!
Have some lovley crochet flowers on the way for K for her christmas stocking, also picked up some cutie pie hair clips for the few wisps of hair she does have! Cole's prezzies are all set, i just have to wrap them up. It's cars, cars, cars this year, and i am sooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited for him on christmas morning! Cole's Bunk bed will be ready before christmas, he's going to have a hernia i tell you...I think I'm just as excited too! bought the new mariah carey christmas, not sure how i feel, but am diggin the annie lennox christmas let me tell you. Well that's about as much catch up as i can muster tonight. I need to tend to my nasty cold sore, take some cough syrup, pop a tylenol and hit the hay with my sweet baby girl. How funny things turn out. I used to dread going to be when Cole was a babe, because i knew i would have my sleep interupted and feel tired and cranky and miserable. But I look so forward to my special time with my Kýrie, must be that I know this is my last babe and time is fleeting...they grow too fast. Extra snuggles tonight with it possibly dipping to minus 10! AGH !!!!
goodnight

A family day Remembrance day

Wonderful Remembrance Day it was. Today we watched the ceremonies on the telly (Jer has been home sick all week with a lung infection and we didn't want to go to an actual ceremony with him hacking all over people) we had lot's of play time and learing time with Cole. We watched the planes fly over our roof, we ate yummy leftovers, and then I got to head to Michaels to lay down the last track for his song "high Flight" that I have been recording for him. It was actually pretty neat to be singing those lyrics that were written by a pilot in world war one on today of all days. I finished up the alto 2 line and got to hear all four parts (s1, s2, a1 and a2) all together played back. It sounded way better than i expected ( for me learing the song the same day I recorded the first three parts!) It was a choir of Amy's! Can't wait to hear the finished product!

Moments

This week has been easy and hard at the same time. The stresslessness of staying home all week (yes we stayed home all week! well except to go to choir and bootcamp) was lovley. Hot dinners had time to be made, laundry found it's way back to the drawers and closets from which it came, and the kitchen stayed clean for at least 5hours this entire week! On the other hand, because my sweet boy has not been outside for 4 days he of course is going stir crazy. And he is tantruming and whiney and miserable (pretty much a male who is sick) And it is TIRING. Let me tell you, taking care of a baby who doesn't so much love solids, and would much rather have her mammas milk thank you very much, and keeping up with the dailies all whilst enduring tantrum, after melt down, after crying fit, is exhausting. So yesterday when I went to put Kýrie down for her afternoon nap (which I do by laying down with her in my big ole comfy bed and nurse her off to dreamland) my sweet boy came in to snuggle. Now it has become kind of a wee thing of ours, me going in to put Kýrie down and Cole coming along and snuggling up to me on the other side. But he wriggles and turns and then starts to talk, eventually gets bored and goes back into the living room to wait for me. But yesterday after the wriggling ceased, and the 30+ minutes of coughing died down, I noticed he had fallen asleep. Now this is rare. This is cherishable. This boy who since the day we set up his big boy bed (20 months of age) never wants to sleep anywhere but HIS bed. So I lay there, piggy in the middle, with my sweet girl in my arms, and my sweet boy nestled into the small of my back, with his little hand draped over my waist, and I thought, savour this, breathe it in, take a photo in the camera of your mind and in the midst of a full blown meltdown, remember this moment. Because this stage is fleeting and as the country song goes."Your going to miss this....."

sick week

love me a sick week!
we are relaxing, and sorting, and purging and drinking copious amounts of tea while listening to cbc....now if only we could find a cure for the tantrums I could stay home sick for weeks...

what a week!
I know it's monday, and the week is only just begining. But it's been a great one so far. Cole is sick and miserable, but that's okay because this generation has been blessed with this box like thing that has sound and colours and moving people, yes my friends it's t.v all day everyday while he is sick! and it is saving me from throwing him out the window! We do not watch any t.v here, so this is a real treat for him. We've got a stack of videos out of the library for him, but all he wanted to watch today was the classic three little pigs (disney) over and over and over, so i can't get the darn tune out of my nogin "whose afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, whose afraid of the big bad wolf, tralalalallaallala!"
Well the good news is i just got back from "Richmond Sings" a wonderful night where various richmond choirs sing about two songs each, our choir hosts it and it is a huge fundraiser for children living in poverty in richmond. Would never have guessed that 30% of richmond children live in poverty, but it's all hidden. So sad, so it felt so wonderful to be a part of something so important.
Got to hear the song I recorded on thursday sung by London School choir. Which was lovley. My friend Michael who writes music and teaches choirs and music and band at his school asked me over on thursday. Thursday was a very big accomplishment for me, I learned in 30 minutes a new song, and then recorded sop 1 and alto 1 in the same night! Not my best work but it feels so wonderful to be doing what I love. I love my kidlets, but singing is my outlet, it's my time and it is soooo refreshing to be able to have snippets of it in my life! Can't wait to hear the finished product, he's going to layer the three parts of me singing, and the two parts he recorded and make a choir of it! Pretty neat. Then he'll load it onto his website and in return he'll record a few more songs for me for my website, which hasn't been updated in eons...gotta love the bartering system hey!
Anyways this week is now in full swing, but thankfully because of Cole being sick we are taking a week off! A week off of playdates, and visit's and mom's groups, and everything that doesn't involve home! I LOVE IT! I feel such relief in it already.
Will report back how it went once we get through it!
Cheerio and here's to a week of breathing! A rumba rumba shaaan!

oops it's october!

Been slightly out of my blogosphere for the past while. I've been too busy reading all my fave blogs! The list of those is growing and growing, and so has my usage of computer time...
so what's been going on here....
Cole is in preschool one day a week and LOVING it. I am so glad I waited until I knew he was ready and didn't just put him in at 2 years of age like everyone else I know. He just wasn't there yet you know? It's been wonderful really. He is so happy to go and I get in a two hour coffee and walk with our friend Ria and her baby girl M while we wait to go pick up the boys.
Kýrie is growing like a weed. We are into the 6-12 month clothes! She's fully into cloth diapers and has the cutest baby butt with them on!
She's started solids, and doesn't love them, mamma's milk must be darn good!
Jer's been busy at work - finally getting some time with the guys ( i finally let him)
And as for me, I think I may have bitten of a bit much this season but oh well.
I am bootcamping Monday and Wednesday Evenings (have lost 15lbs since July) I am back at Choir on Tuesday nights, getting ready for our first concert, and have a big solo for the Christmas one I've been working on. I am doing some recordings for a friend who writes music and publishes it for his students (teacher) Have been busy enjoying my MOST favorite time of the year, decorations are up, the door is dressed. I've done a FEW of the crafty things on my list... Made an adorable High Chair pad for the beautiful antique high chair we were lended, out of laminate cotton I ordered online. Fabric.com I LOVE YOU! I painted our computer desk in a beautiful graceful gray. Also painted some thrifted frames and FINALLY framed our three photo's of unique folliage that we purchase while in Maui almost a year ago! Have yet to hang them....sigh. Am ALMOST done that scarf that I have been working on forever! I better have it done soon I want to wear it this year! wow i really like exclamation points eh? Other than that, it's been very humbling becoming a mother of two. I never thought I would be one to get the "mommy guilt" I always am happy with the way we parent, and live and teach and nurture our children. But with having two to care for and amongst all the other things that come with staying home (cooking dinner, making lunch for said offspring and self, trying to contain the chaos that has become my home, keeping up with all the stuff our life throws at us,) it has been very difficult to get out there you know? I mean we are always on the go, and there seems to be no time to just get outside and be. I miss the stillness, the breathing room. Right now it's just go go go go go and don't stop or you'll fall off the treadmill. I know things will slow down, as we are starting to get into a good routine but I must remind myself to take a day or two a week to NOT plan anything. To not have a friend over, or to not go to someone's home for a visit, to just sit amongst the falling leaves and acorns and pinecones and watch my children breathe.

Kýrie's Birth

So It's obviously been a while, and I was thinking last night as I nursed my sweet girl that I need to start documneting. With Cole I documented (as much as I could) here and kept a wee note pad in my bedside table but for my sweet Kýrie, I havn't posted or written anything down. So I shall start with the Birth so that I can always remember the adventure that it was....
So it was a tuesday the 6th of April to be exact. And i headed out to my prenatal appt exhausted, sleep deprived and feeling extremley emotional. I was done, i mean you saw my belly on facebook right? My sweet sweet doc says to me "don't take this the wrong way but you look like poo" I said I havn't slept in 5 days i am soooo uncomfortable and I just need to sleep. So she says you should have told me earlier I am giving you a prescription sleeping pill (that will not hurt the babe) so that you get some sleep, because you need sleep to birth this baby out, can you imagine going into labour tonight you would have no energy....
So I drop Cole off with my mom, and I head out to teach my 3 hour theatre class to grade 4 students ALL ALONE because my partner was in tech week. If i was tired before i was beyond exhaustion now.
I drove to my moms to have some dinner, pick up cole and jer and head home. While at my moms I started feeling wierd pangs. I turned to Jer and said "ha, wouldn't that be just so wonderful me going into labour at the most tired i have ever been in my entire life!) So we drove home - meanwhile i was having contractions super lightly every 3o mins or so. This was around 6"45 ish
So we put Cole to sleep, and I attempted to walk around and sit on the ball and had a bath. I had wanted to stay home for as long as possible with this one...
I knew, I knew that I had to keep walking around and sitting on the ball to keep the labour progressing, but i was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired. SO i decided to try to go to bed and get some rest to gear up for what was to come.
Of course I couldn't sleep, I was waaaaaay to excited so Jer and I laid in bed talking about what was to come and how our lives where changing and wow how excited we were to meet our baby girl at last. Of course because i was lying down the labour I knew would slow but i didn't yet.
Around 1am we started talking of how we would have to wake cole and drive him to his friend jakobs house for the night and how we were so nervous that he would scream and not want to be woken up. But he was a superstar. We made it sound so fun and he was such a sport. Gave him so fruit gummies for the short drive to their house and he said to us" mommy and daddy i am soooo excited to meet my baby sister tommorow!" then he said it must be waaaaaay past my bedtime because it is very dark out here! What a cutie. So we dropped him off at Stacey's all the while me having contractions, and he went straight upstairs where Stacey had a mini dinosaur hunt for him to keep him happy and then he went straight to sleep in his own room and didn't wake until morning when Jakob came in to see hime!
Anyways we headed to the hospital, must have been aroud 2:30 -3ish when we got in and admitted. Got brought to a beautiful room. I told the nurses that it was lovlier than most hotels i'd been in! Then i did some ball work and we called my mom because she sooooo wanted to be there. Then we called my friend Helen who was my doula too.
My mom came shortly and then the nurse asked if i wanted an epidural. I had said i wanted to try again without, because for Cole's beautiful birth I had gone the entire birth until the last 17 minutes (pushing ) without it. So I only got 17 minutes of relief! But then they told me the anesthesiolist was here and lived in white rock and was going to go home so I probably wouldn't have a chance at one if i didn't get it now. I panicked and said i want one. I knew i shouldn;t have because i knew it would slow my labour down.
Anyways they brought the AWFULL doctor in and he took 1hour and a half to put it in! He poked me in numerous places and was digging the needle in and turning it this way and that, he was sooo rude had no bedside manner and kept telling me not to move because a lady moved the week before and was now paralyzed! So i went through an hour and a half of contractions bent over in complete stillness ( it was HELL) if i had just laboured that hour and a half i bet you she would have been born in that time!) anyways when he finally got it in - he hadn't even done it right and i still felt everything on my left side! The nurses were worried but i said just leave it i don't want him back in here - especially since he kicked my mom out and i didn't mind feeling the labour progress. This was around 4 i guess. Then my labour slowed right down like i knew it would and They had to put me on pitocin, to restart. I was peeing like every 15 minutes into my bedpan! So thankful for helen who emptied it for me all those times! Labour is sure glamourus!The nurse tried to break my water but it wouldn't budge! at 6 jer was eating my breakfast i was trying to sleep but couldn't, he had just put down his coffee cup when i screamed because my water had broke with such amazing force and power it scared the crap outta me! Then the labour really began. My mom and Helen came back from their breakfast and my amazing nursed kicked into high gear. Dorothy helped me not push when i sooooo wanted to (b ut couldn;t because the baby was tooo high up and might get a prolapsed cord)and then she gave me all these different positions to push in when i finally could - I can still hear her yelling "poo that baby out! Poo that baby out!" loved her. Then The doc showed up, i was love love loving the bedsheet tied to the labour bar and pulling on it, it felt sooo good!But the doctor said she had to take it down, i very not nicley said why are you taking my bar away, she said she would bump her head on it every time she went in, I then said (in my labour induced rage) "why do we need doctors anyway? the nurses do all the work, the doctors just show up for the last 10 minutes...aggggh looking back on myself i laugh out loud, i just hope the doc's do too! I am sure they have seen it all! Well then I pushed, I pushed and pushed and pushed and unlike Cole's beautiful birth the pushing was longer and of course because of the faulty epidural i felt it all - I grabbed anywhere i could and remember being in a lot of pain, grabbed my moms boob and twisted the life out of it - she told me later she didn't want to say anything because she felt so bad for me in all the pain i was in! Then my sweet baby girl came out and they put her on my belly, she had a short cord so she couldn't come up but my mom and jer got to cut it. They kept her cord attached for about half an hour and watching the colour of life pump through her was amazing! Then they stiched me up and that was almost as painful as the labour! She weighed 6lbs 14 or 15 oz still am not sure. But was a whole pound and 3or 4oz more than her brother!
So now we are catched up....
until the next time....
Amy

still here,
wow two kids takes it outta ya!
But we are so lucky with our sweet Kýrie. She is such a great baby. Smiling up a storm and happy as can be. It makes it that much easier you know? And the clothes my gawd the clothes, it's like having my own little barbie, i love walking into the closet and picking out a delicous little ditty and getting her all dolled up and taking pictures it's too much fun!
Summer is in full swing here, we got back from our two week summer holiday! We hoofed it all the way out to Saskachewan for my dear bethy's wedding. Stopped of course many times and in many towns along the way. Got to spend some really nice time with my sister in Calgary, and Jer met up with an old high school friend in Salmon Arm by fluke. It was a trek and a half, but we did have fun and now summer has officially begun!
There are soooo many more exciting day's to look forward too! Not next weekend but the one after we are off to Galiano to stay at my aunts cabin and do some exploring! Summer bring it on!

So we had a baby....

and now there are two of them! Wow it's been a while, it is a whole new ball game with two i tell ya. We are finally getting into some sort of swing of things, had our first playdate today and actually made it out the door with both of them by 10 on my own! Things are definatley busy. Had no idea how busy they would be.
But they are good. It feels so great to have my sweet baby girl here and well. Kýrie Grace was born april 7th at 9:06am. I will have to write my ridiculous labour story out and post it, for my own memory but that will have to wait for another day when i don't have two kids napping, because that is where i am headed. Taking advantage of the sleep while i can!
Happy sunny wednesday to all!

35 weeks

well we are still pregnant over here. It's funny because technically I should still be pregnant, I am only 35 and a half weeks, but I just can't see myself going past Easter. Of course that means i will, go long past Easter, which is a good and uncomfortable thing i guess. I feel like I just want to have this baby, but at the same time I am truly starting to get a bit weepy. Knowing this will probably be our last child, it feels so sad, that I will never get to do this again. I can't believe I won't ever get to feel those sweet kicks, or hiccups, or summersaults or watch my belly just roll with baby. I know, I'm totally harmonal. But I feel like i need to savour savour savour, i feel like i didn't savour as much of this pregnancy as I could have. Being so sick for the first few months, I truly didn't savour anything. And now i feel like I have to catch up. I could have this baby next week for all I know, and I wonder will I have really enjoyed as much of this beautiful experience as I could have? I'm not sure I have.
In the meantime I am going nuts with nesting, still (my gosh does this end when the baby comes???) My home is spotless, smells beautiful and fresh. I have easter decor up on the door which Cole and sewed together. I sewed just one more diaper this morning and stitched up another sling, I think I will make one more sling just for the heck of it, mabye something Jer can wear you know? I sewed some clippies for the buggy, and vaccummed twice all today! This is truly nuts. I hope it ends when baby comes because it would be just too much!
keeping you posted....

Nesting

Photo blog of things i've made or painted or done something too, in prep for bambino!
Can you guess what we are having based on the closet organization????

40 weeks????

Well it looks like I may be even earlier than april 4th (which is my doctors guesstimate, which is even earlier than my first due date of april 24th!)
I am now measuring 40 weeks and frankly she has know idea what to tell me. All she's said is go home pack your bags and be prepared, because truly we have no idea when this wee one is coming!
So keep your fingers crossed, i am soooooooooooooooooo ready to not be pregnant anymore (except for the kicks, how i will miss those sweet kicks)

March

Oh how I wished to be able to post more but alack life has it's on plans. Things are good. I have a terrible head cold and allergies which are turning those last few weeks of pregnancy (which I am trying my best to savour) a little sour. I miss my advil cold and sinus more than you can ever know.
Cole is better, still a wee bit of a cough, but much better. I think the poor kid is going a little stir crazy with having to be cooped up last week because of his cold and then starting off this week (and what i think will be the whole this week) being cooped up as well due to mamma's cold. Oh well it's good preparation for when the baby comes.
Speaking of the baby, I again with this pregnancy am measuring farther along than thought. I am 33 weeks (34 on friday) and am measuring 38 weeks. This happened with Cole too, and he was born at 37 weeks so here's hoping it happens again with this one. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have this baby early, even if it happens on easter weekend, I am so ready to meet the wee one! We have the kids closet all set up and it feels good to have everything all ready to go. Our friends have been so unbelievably generous with hand me downs and lending us baby stuff I feel like we are so unbelievably prepared, I just need the babe so we can start using it all!
Tommorow we go for another ultrasound (since i am measuring farther along) so it will be fun to see the baby and get some last in utero pictures.
I feel a little sad that I didn't end up getting maternity pictures taken. That was the one thing I really really wanted to do. I didn't do it with Cole, I did do a belly cast with him, but I always swore I would do maternity pics with this one and my friend who is studying photography (is also an actress) has head down to L.A for casting season. I am hoping if I feel better in the next week or so I will get myself all dolled up and try snapping a few myself with the tri-pod.
Other than that life is just ticking away. I have been indulging in pregnancy massage at turning point with J and it has been amazing. I think I will cry when I reach my yearly limit which i am assuming will be within the next two or so visits! I have been going a lot!
Our home is ready, our hearts are ready, we have finally settled on a name.....we just need the baby!

Feeling okay

Feeling better, after a saturday filled with food poisoning and cramping and mild contractions, everything seems to have settled down. Am exhausted and am trying to slow down a little, but man is that ever hard with a three year old! Hoping to post pics soon.

Enjoyed our first playdate in months at our place today. Since feeling like poo, we have been going over to everyone else's homes, but never felt up to having guests at ours! Today changed that. We had a great morning with Andrea and Felix and Jasper. I love the fact that I have been able to meet mom's likeminded that live in our neighborhood all thanks to the Verge! It's been wonderful. And Cole was so excited to show his friends his toys and trucks and bed and room. A wonderful morning for all. The Boys played so well with each other we were actually able to sit and have our coffee and chat. I never thought these days would come! I tried for a nap today and should have tried a bit harder as I have a big rehearsal tonight and a funeral to sing at tommorow followed by work an another big rehearsal tommorow night! Oh well coffee will be my friend today and tommorow, can't wait to get tuesday outta the way! And to finish up working on Cole's birthday present. I am so excited for Jer and I to give his present to him this year, as we are making it together! I have long wanted to get Cole a train table for him to play with all his thomas tracks and cars on, but we just don't have the space in our wee flat to fit one. So I devised a custom train table! I found folding leg brackets at lee valley, got a table top desk top from a friend who was reno'ing there office, and popped in to rod's in steveston for siding and the legs. We painted and made all our cuts this weekend, so now comes the fun part....assembling! I can't wait. I really hope it turns out. I think I will also modge podge some trains along the sides just to fancy it up a bit! Will keep you posted and pic'd!

Thursdays

Thursday is here and gone, and that almost to me means my weekend is here! I love Thursdays, I wish they could be at the start of my week! Every Thursday I meet with a fantasmical group of moms who have the same goals, and parenting ideals and life paths, and morals and ethics as Jer and I do. It is wonderful. We get together and have coffee and breakfast/lunch while our kiddies play in the daycare/preschool next door. It really is the soul of my week. We share a lot. Deep stuff, fluff stuff a bit of everything. So today over Mirelle's pancakes we of course shared about our children and what our deepest wish for them is, but also we came together for our ringleader so to speak, as she battles through all that comes through having a misscarriage. She is doing uneblievably well. I know this is due to her strong faith and her understanding that this was part of her story. She really was such an example to me today and it felt good to just be with her. Whether our words or tears or hugs are of any consolation, the healing of it all makes me so thankful for such a beautiful group of women.

New Year, New URL

I'm seriously considering changing my URL - as soontobethree just doesn't fit our description anymore. Any fun suggestions would be mucho appreciated....I will post the new addy before I change it.

My sweet Cole,

You are nearly three. Just a few weeks away from it actually. And I can't believe how fast three years have flown by. You are so far away from the little babe I remember. You've been in your big boy bed for well over a year and half now, and are really coming into your own. You like corn puffs, and spagetti and cutting up apples with our nifty apple peeler slicer thingy. You will pretty much do anything for a lollipop, or an orange. You sleep beautifully at night, and It seems like so long ago I was begging for you to sleep, I am now counting down the days or months I should say. You love U2, your favorite songs are Elevation and Vertigo which you now put together and sing at the top of your lungs while grocery shopping with me, or really any time of the day you feel like singing. It has been somewhat of a welcome relief from Jingle bells, which we have heard non-stop (and which still makes an appearance every so often) since December. You love playing star wars with daddy, and are getting a huge kick out of playing with all his old toys. You also are very creative and imaganitive. Almost every often we have a game of "Bunny Cave" which you invented in Maui. Where we go deep under the covers and hang out in the bunny cave while you bring me blue carrots and tea and coffee with Sugar. It's very sweet and gives me about an extra half hour in bed in the morning, which is wonderful. Your other favorite past time is looking through old baby pictures or any pictures or videos of yourself at any age really, you love it, and you especially love seeing your friends in your pictures with you! You have been talking more and more about your birthday and how everybody will finally sing Happy Birthday to you! You have asked for an electric Diego toothbrush and bunk beds for your birthday and You want a cake and for Thomas to be in the Cabana when you open the door to come in to your party, and then for him to give everyone rides like when we went to Day out with Thomas in Squamish!I had to explain to you that unfortunatley we can't get Thomas to come and even if we could he wouldn't fit in the Cabana. To which you responded, yes mommy it's because his back end is much to fat right?! Which is straight out a book we have been reading regularly called "Why I built the boogle house" Your favorite books right now are The kings wish, More spagetti I say, The animal books that are made by the guy who made the little miss sunshine books, The Bike lesson, the Bernstein Bear books, Because a little bug said achoo, Colours are nice, The Click beetle, the Angry Ladybug, and many others I just can't think of right now, probably because we read them so darn often I have tried to put it from my memory! You are constantly stopped on walks or at the grocery store or werever to be asked how old you are, and then when I tell them, everyone always comments on how well and how much you speak. Your vocabulary is huge. The things you come up with are amazing. A funny little story that has happened somewhat recently was when we were driving to Burnaby to visit baby Lennox, we passed by a fortune teller house, with a big psychic hand in the window. You asked what it was and I told you it was a hand that reads the future, and tells you which path to take in life, or where to go. A few minutes later, and a wrong turn, we were lost and called Daddy on the cell phone to help us figure out where to go. While the phone was ringing, you hollered from the back that we should just ask the hand, that mabye he'll be able to tell us which way to go! I really do need to write down everything more often, as I have never kept a baby book for you, and am forgetting when you first spoke or what your first words were! I do remember you took your first steps on May 1st at 14 and a half months. but other than that my documenting skills have definatley been lacking. So I hope to be able to write things here at least as some sort of memory book for you! You have caught your best buddy Dawson's cold to which you then promptly passed onto your mother (who cannot take cold medicine!!!AGGGGH and is going crazy beacause of it) so we are all a wee bit miserable, but we are finding joy in the simple life this weekend, lounging at home in pj's playing playing and playing and eating whenever we feel like it. Your mommy has finally figuered out why she's been so exhausted and lazy latley. Her iron levels went from148 down to 108 so she's now on a supplement and starting to wake up a bit! Cole this age is full of delights, and I love being your mum. You are starting to cuddle a lot more, but at the same time are becoming very independent. You want to be left alone in the washroom with the fan on while pooping, you want to put your underwear and slippers and shoes on all by yourself. And you love to pick out your clothes for the day from your closet. You clean up your toys well, and are needing less and less prompting to put things back where they belong which has made my life easier, and you love to help out. IN the kitchen baking or cooking or even while I am sewing up a craft project. You love to dance, in my arms or by yourself freestyle while watching a bono concert. You wake up at a decent hour and we hear "is it morning time yet" before we hear the pitter patter of your feet come into our room to tell us we must go to the living room to play! You love to eat breakfast especially french toast, (especially especially the little white sugars as you call them, they are delicous and you love them you tell me) You are a wild boy and a sweet boy at the same time. You have started thanking us for things whithout us even prompting you. Out of the blue we'll hear a thank you for cooking me breakfast mommy, or thank you for letting me play with your toys daddy. It melts our hearts. You also however have a very hard time with patience and waiting for what you are asking for. You also do not like the word no, and tend to start crying to which you have little to no control of stopping or calming down. We are working on ways to help you calm down but right now we got nothing. You remember everything we say and hold us to our words which is keeping us very accountable. You love playing with your Opa right now, and have developed a stong love for Neil (lennox's dad) who plays with you and gives you attention and has created your oh so loved game of Toilet. Where you sit on his lap in a chair he holds out his finger you push it down to flush and then he drops you through his legs. You think this is hysterical and havn't wanted to stop playing it for a week! There are many other things but I'm sick and still have to hang more curtains so I will leave it at this. I'm sure I will have many more stories to share after we have your party in a couple weeks! I love you my sweet boy. And I feel so proud to be your mommma.
xoxoxooxoxoxoxo

and the sun came out....

we've had a pretty rockin weekend. These January days are such a welcome relief to the business that december brings. Weekends are spent the way they should be, just enough planned events, just enough spontaneity with good friends, and mostly lots of hanging around our very own beautiful neighborhood, with coffee in hand for the parents and a good shovel for the boy. Enjoying a mellow Chicane morning and looking forward to seeing many good friends today at baby Lennox's Baptism this afternoon, oh and loads of good food too!

It's 2010!

Wow, time seems to be flying by for us right now. I have to admit I am quite excited for January and February with the stillness they bring. Hopefully we'll have a few Saturdays or Sundays free to start fixing up Cole's room in preparation for the baby. I have two pieces of furniture that I would like to paint and they are semi large....
speaking of baby, as most of you know, we weren't able to find out what we are having. The two times we've been it just didn't work out, so I take it as a sign that we are just not meant to know! I secretly was happy, (i wanted the surprise all along) but I know Jer was a wee bit sad.
Christmas was ugh. It was not the best one we've had. There was a bunch of family issues on Jer's side that really put a damper on the holidays, but the lead up to it was as wonderful as ever. I was never more ready to de-christmasafy as i was this year!
Cole is doing well. He is really a sweet boy, when he isn't having his terrible two moments. And even those are getting less and less. Unbelievably we have been able to get through every single day for the last three months without the tv on at all! It's amazing how your pregnancy can change so fast. Those first three months I was a horrible mother (being so ridiculously sick) the tv was my babysitter and it is the only thing that got us through. But even though I have been tired these next three months have been really great. Being so nervous of how Cole will be a wee bit shafted when the baby comes, I have really been taking this oppurtunity to spend as much time with his as possible. So we do a lot of playing, we go on a lot of nature walks, park dates, play dates, and one thing I have discoverd he loves to do with me is bake! So we have been baking up a storm since long before Christmas. I treasure these times and hope we will be able to still have them occasionally when baby comes.
Trying to figure out how it will all work out seems a bit pointless as I just don't know what kinda baby I'll be hit with!
Right now I am amazed at the amount of reading Cole wants. He is long done with the board books and wants mostly 5-7year old books read to him. I am shocked at his attention span. I love it but man does it take forever to do storytime before nap and bedtime. I often leave his room, take a glance at the clock and realize we've been reading for 45 minutes! But it's all good for him right!
I've been feeling better. Tired, and have had some very odd pains, but good. I have another pre-natal appointment tommorow, and look forward to that. I also have a good friend from Choir, who I actually babysat her girls, who is training to be a doula and has asked if she could be there with me. So I am interstingly enough am really starting to look forward to the birth. I loved Cole's birth, it was such a beautiful day. And I felt so empowered, and it's nice to finally look forward to it with this one!
I see signs of spring everywhere, and I don't know if that's just me or my clock ticking away towards what's to come. Today I noticed my first Daf peeking through in my window box garden! It's so amazing to me, the seasons. After this summer and feeling so darn sick, and with all that heat, I was begging for fall, then after fall I soooo looked forward to the hibernation that winter brings, now I have my sights set on spring and the next season for our family. I truly don't know what I would do if i lived in a place without all four of our beautiful seasons. We are so blest to be living in such a gorgeous city!
Well Cole's down for a nap, and I must too, Tuesdays are crazy around here, prenatal appt, work, then choir in the evening, I need all the rest I can get to get through it! Hope to be updating a bit more frequently!
Happy New Year