Wordless Wednesday - A Berry Happy Canada Day!

See Ya!

Dear First Trimester,

Don't let the door hit you in the arse on the way out!

So long, suckah!

xoxox
Mama and the Cheeseball

Pants are for skinny people

Sometimes I think they should stop calling it "pregnancy" and instead they should call it "nine months of your pants not staying up."

Seriously, if there's a pair of pants out there that stays up on a pregnant belly, I haven't found them.

(Yes, I'm only 3 months pregnant and yes I'm already wearing maternity pants....wanna make something of it??)

The other day I went into the preggers store on the hunt for pants, and found their "New, Revolutionary, Patent Pending, Secret Fit Belly (tm) Pants!!!"

And I fell for it, hook, line and sinker.

Turns out, there's nothing revolutionary about these pants...unless falling down pants are revolutionary (which I happen to know from experience, they're not.)

Anyway, enough about me and my belly. How about some weekend pics?

My water baby spends most of the weekend in the pool...clothes and all!
Gretel and Phelan get some chillaxin' time in on the porch:
The boys take a break for some Toy Story:

When Griffin wasn't in the pool, he was at the new ($10 garage sale score!) water table - this was last night, with the thunder rumbling in the background:

Biker Baby:
Yay for weekends! (And for not having to wear pants!):

Under Construction

Dudes, is it just me? Is it just here?

Or is it happening in your part of the world too?

Does it not seem like there are construction crews re-paving the ENTIRE PLANET right now? Everywhere I drive, every time I turn a corner, there's another bored dude (or dudette) holding one of those slow/stop signs, looking thrilled to death that they're getting paid $34.50 an hour to get skin cancer spend all day in the sun, and making me late for work.

It mostly seems to be on my route to work. Like on my regular route, and my alternate route, and my alternate to the alternate route, and my....well, you get the picture.

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT wishing the coming of the snow, but if it means I can stop smelling that smell that smells like someone put a whole army of cigarette butts in the oven and turned it on broil, THREE WEEKS AGO, then I say bring on the snow.

Seriously, is it just here? Because if this is NOT happening where you live, then clear out the spare bedroom, I'm coming to hang out for a while!

Wordy Thursday, or "Wheee! I finally can talk about the baby!"

So, it's really really true.

We're having a baby!

At first I wasn't so sure. I mean, you pee on a 5$ stick and you have to trust that little stick for a whole 12 weeks that you're actually knocked up. That's one of the reasons we opted for the first ultrasound....I wanted PROOF that what was making my pants not fit was indeed a tiny human, and not just a big ball of crunchy cheezits, those little things that I CANT. STOP. EATING since I became pregnant.

We have christened the baby Cheeseball. I thought about making it fancy, and calling it "Petite Fromage" instead, but Cheeseball just rolls off the tongue so nicely. We shall call her cheeseball until she gets a real name. (And yes, we have a few name ideas. And no, I'm not going to tell you what they are!)

You may have also noted that I'm calling the baby a she. I'm saying it out loud, I think it's a girl. And until I'm proven wrong by an ultrasound or a baby boy bursting out of me on delivery, baby will remain a she. I feel different, my shape is different, and I REALLY want a little girl!

We're hoping little Cheeseball is punctual, and comes on her actually due date of January 1st. First, because it was my dad's birthday and it would be a great way to honour him, and second, because I could really use a new toaster! Do they still do that? Give toasters to the first baby of the year? I'd settle for a microwave too. Or a blender. What makes them (whoever "they" are) think that small appliances are the appropriate way to honour the first baby of the year? The only thing I remember wanting as a new mother was a pair of pants that fricking fit, and a bra big enough to hold my massive hooters!

So there you have it - our big excitement! I'll try not to bore you with talk of stretch marks and pants that don't fit, but when your pants are digging into your expanding waist in the most painful way, it's hard to think about much else!

Wordless Wednesday - How we'll be ringing in the New Year

Holidays, the recap

Looking at the shots on my camera of our holiday, you'd be surprised that there's hardly any. You'd never know that we visited THREE very cute babies while we were there...heck, it looks like I hardly moved from my spot in the cabin, aside to move to the chair on the porch, or the chair on the beach. Um, OK, that's MOSTLY true, but we did get out at least a little bit! We had a few great visits with baby Diego and Julia, and a wonderful time with Kater and family in Ottawa...you'll just have to trust me, OK??

Griffin watches closely as his friend the caterpillar traverses our porch:

Ah the beach. With water and sticks and stones, you have HOURS worth of entertainment. Griffin dove straight into the water, despite it's chilly temperature:

Snuggles with Dudley on the couch. ("Dudley is my friend....he's my favourite doggy ever!"):

Roughing it - the "mini bath."

Oh look, we did leave the cabin! And for a ride on the BIG BOAT, which Griffin thought was great for about the first 20 minutes, and then got bored with the view. So we started exploring. First level, second level, third level, back to second level, back to first level, oh look - hotdogs, and repeat.

More rocks, more water, hours of entertainment!

Ah holidays, we miss you already!
Stay tuned for some big fun and excitement here tomorrow!

Home Sweet Home

We're back - back to a thriving veggie garden (phewf...I was so nervous!) and a more than thriving lawn that I could loose my 2 year old in. Back to piles of laundry, and back to our very own comfy beds. We had a lovely week, filled with sunshine, visits with friends, late nights and sleeping in. And bugs. Lots of bugs. BIG bugs. Ah well, that's life in the woods!

So if you can just give me a few days to catch up on the laundry, and the lawn, and we'll be back in full force!

It's nice to be home!

MIA

Excuse our absence for a wee bit, we are in a cabin in the woods, internet free and lovin' it! (I've come out of the woods for a moment to visit a friend, and hijack her computer!) We'll be back soon, with a camera full of pictures to share!

A witty title is escaping me

As is a witty post.

All I wanted to say is we're still here. We're into full on summer theatre season, which means that Steve's presence around here is sporadic at best. Which leaves little old me to be ye olde singular primary caregiver, not to mention laundress, cook, lawn boy and chauffeur.

Peeps, I'm tired!

Just now this second I came inside from FINALLY getting all the plants in the garden.

Well, the second before the second that I stripped off my filthy clothes and poured myself a bowl of crunchy cheezits - that's when I came in from the garden. Mmmmm....crunchy cheezits! They're near the top of the list for desert island food.

Thinking I may shower now, and wishing I could take crunchy cheezits in the shower with me, but I don't think that would end well.

Howzat for random?

You can come too, too, too.

We took a break from all the stuff that we "should" be doing today, like laundry and grocery shopping and cleaning the kitchen and all those other mundane household tasks, and did something instead that we really WANTED to do. The kid has been asking us for weeks, and today we finally took him to the zoo!

We decided to trade the stroller in for some cooler wheels, and took along this sweet sweet ride. Our kid was the envy of every other kid in the park - who wants to ride in a boring old stroller!
We had a fantastic day, complete with a mustardy picnic lunch in the shade. Griffin was in awe of the animals, and just couldn't get enough, racing from one animal enclosure to the next. The favourite was by far the elephants, although the giraffe came in a close second. The hippopotamus, who Griffin talked about all the way there, was a huge disappointment, as he was sound asleep, belly up, in the furthest most reaches of his enclosure. Boring.

We hit the road just as child was turning feral, and were rewarded with a superconk on the way home.
So if you see us walking around this week sporting dirty clothes, or hanging out in our dirty house, just remember how much fun we had at the zoo!

He's full of it! (Warning - TMI Ahead)

Poop.


It's a hot topic around here these days.


(This is one of those posts that my son will cringe at in 10 years, and BEG me to erase, but know now my son - I am only trying to help you and your poor bum!)


So there's been some trouble in the poop department as of late - just can't manage to get it out. And oh, does he try!


Trying to poop involves sitting on the ground, putting his feet together and pulling them close to his bum, and then grunting, and groaning, and grunting, and groaning. On a "good" day, this happens ALL. DAY. LONG.


And to what end? Nothing, until maybe right at bedtime, when after a day of pushing and grunting he finally manages a poop to write home about. Or a day full of the itty bittyest poops you've ever seen.


Problem with the itty bitty poops is you still need to change a diaper. And changing involves wiping. And along with all the pushing and groaning, wiping 10-15 times a day only causes to incense the nasty redness that is kid butt. We've affectionately taken to calling it the "ring of fire." It's about as nasty as it sounds.


We've tried the naturopathic route. Natural laxatives work to treat the symptoms, but don't do diddly for the cause. We've cut out wheat (at home anyway), added fish oils to his diet, tried probiotics, cut out bananas and all things "binding." The kid drinks gallons of liquid in a day. We've tried belly rubs and bicycling. We've stopped using commercial wipes (even the natural ones) and have gone back to good old washcloths and warm water. We've tried sitting on the potty to make it easier. Nothing seems to work.


There is a doctors visit planned for the near future, but the last time we mentioned it, it was dismissed as a common toddler issue by our dumb assed nurse practitioner who doesn't know a shoe from a slipper (I tried to find that old post to link back to but couldn't....just trust me when I say this woman is hardly the sharpest knife in the drawer.) I'm sorry, but pushing and pushing all day, and not getting anything out is NOT normal. Neveryoumind that we've been dealing with this for weeks and weeks on end. And what does come out is hardly rock solid...it shouldn't take THAT MUCH work!

So...HELP!! Anyone else dealt with anything like this before??

(PS - Hey Blogger, get with the times - "Naturopathic" and "Probiotics" are real words...and no I'm quite sure I haven't tried feeding my son "robotics" or "aerobatics!")

Drive now, talk later

Dear Sir in the Blue Toyota Civic Hybrid,

While I appreciate the fact that you want to be safe and not talk on your cell phone while driving, I hardly think that SLAMMING on the brakes and swerving over to the shoulder to answer your phone is any safer than talking and driving.  In fact, I'd have to say that it highly INCREASES your chances of me ramming my battle-tank station wagon up your pansy hybrid butt!  Dude, get a Blue Tooth, or consider administering the brakes slowly, and then, ohmygawdwhataconcept, SIGNALING, while you calmly pull over to the shoulder.  

Idiot.

xoxox

Me

P.S.  No offence to your car.  It's actually the reason I didn't lay on the horn and give you the finger - I figure driving a hybrid at least gets you SOME credit.  But STILL....weaksauce.

Monday Random

-I am highly suspicious of people who have dandelion-free lawns.

- Griffin used to have this cute little saying - when something was amiss, you'd hear a "what da...?" from him - totally adorable. Tonight, however, his "what da...?" has become "what da heck?" Totally NOT adorable. Then again, at least it's not "what the f*ck....?"

- Back to work today after a week off. As I drove into the smelly city this morning, I could feel my formerly relaxed shoulder muscles migrating straight north towards my ears. I was 40 minutes late for a damn meeting downtown, thanks to ridiculous Monday morning traffic - a less than auspicious start to the week.

-My week off? Highly productive. Things checked off the list include:

- planting cedar trees

-stealing taking with permission some spruce trees from a friends property, and relocating them to our sweet abode.

-take back the greenhouse! Whoot whoot! Piles of junk relocated to county dump

-copious amounts of laundry, thanks in part (OK, thanks in ALL) to the Laundry Fairy, aka my Mom.

-relocation of sewing room to upstairs bedroom, with....wait for it....NATURAL LIGHT! (Not totally done, there is still a tremendous amount of crap in the basement, waiting to be sorted. Ummm.....Sorting Fairy??)

-cut grass, multiple times

-garden prepped for planting

-sit in hammock for extended periods of time

-eat chips

-drink icy cold beverages on porch

-BONFIRE!

-SUPER-PARK!

That's all. Kid wants to go to bed, and I think I'll follow! Happy Monday!

(Eight Hundred and Nintey) Second Wind

My child was practically comatose at 6pm, crying inconsolably at every little thing that went wrong (ie: not his way), wouldn't eat his dinner, wanted outside, no inside, no outside, yelling at me, the works.

Now?

Now he is jumping on the couch, bouncing off the walls, and until a few minutes ago, bouncing off me too.

What is it with toddlers and the infamous second wind? And why does it always hit RIGHT before bedtime? And why oh why can't I get one, RIGHT after his bounciness has fallen asleep for the night, instead of sinking into the couch that mere hours before I was beaten up on?

Toddler energy - if we could bottle it and sell it, we'd all be very, very rich people!