Friday, June 26, 2009

What $25 will get you

We totally scored a deal on Craigslist today. Bill got it in his head that he wanted a train table for Duncan, and I didn't disagree. So every day we've been watching Craigslist to a. find the table we want and b. one at a good price. Well one came up today for $25 - which is a total steal compared to many of the ones for sale on there. I emailed the fellow, and someone else had already asked for it, but I was 2nd in line if she didn't show. Later in the day he emailed - we could have it if we could get there today. So we said sure! And off we went (to Coquitlam). Not the best during rush hour, against counter flow, but we did it. And this table is awesome! It's beyond awesome! It's Beyawesome! (We've been watching a lot of Bolt lately). Anyhow, what's even better is most of it was paid with money we made selling on Craigslist. Duncan is going to be quite surprised tomorrow morning.

Bill may have broken his finger. I forget if I wrote about this yesterday, but anyhow, he was playing football at the work BBQ and it hit his index finger on his right hand (yes, he's right handed) wrong and it was kind of at a weird angle. He went to the clinic today and was sent for x-rays. Maybe a ripped tendon or a fracture. So we'll see. It doesn't hurt him, but he has to wear a finger splint and so I'm making fun of Iron Finger.

I think the new Delissio Garlic Crust pizza commercial is hilarious. It makes me laugh each time. This is the one where the Dad tells the girl her date is a vampire, and she says no he's just goth. She offers him a piece of the garlic pizza and he tells "WHAT YOU SAY!?" and turns into a bat. I think the what you say is hilarious and I'm teaching Duncan to say it. LOL.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

An Unexpected day at home

I was supposed to go to Vancouver today to visit Bill's office, and then mine, and show Cordie off. But little missy was up from 2-5 AM pretty much. I did get about 1/2 an hour of sleep in there simply b/c I was falling asleep, so I put her in her basinette, and as far as I know, she never fell asleep during that time. I'm not too surprised b/c she slept a lot in the evening, which is usually hwe awake time. Oddly this is really the 1st time that she has been up so much during the night. Anyhow, I didn't go to Vancouver today b/c I was a little sleep deprived, and I can go almost any time.

She's such a cutie though. You can already see her little personality shining through. She's smiling more. I think it's still more reflexive, but I don't believe that while "until they are 3 months old, it's only gas".

Duncan is as daycare today. No arguement there from him! In fact he tried to close the door on me when we got there "bye Mom!". Love you too darling :) We've been getting together with our friends once a week for playdates, which is great. A (I'll just use initials b/c I don't know if they want us using their names or not) is awesome for not hesitating to tell Duncan no, or running after him in the park, or helping out, so its easier to get out. And Duncan is really enjoying seeing M again on a regular basis. We got together all the time when the kids were born (friends from prenatal class, the kids are one day apart in age), and it's nice to go back to that again. Yesterday we were going to have a tea party when visiting, but Duncan turned it into a coffee party. You know you're drinking a lot of coffee when your toddler has coffee parties, not tea parties. LOL.

So I went back to bed after dropping Duncan off this morning, and frankly, I'm ready for another nap as Cordie is napping (I think.... her eyes are open... will they close again... yes they will!) and I'm still running a deficit. It's a true lazy day. But that's okay. Each day Duncan is gone doesn't have to be go go go... Bill has his work BBQ tonight, so I'm on my own for supper. I'm thinking home made pizza. Ham and pineapple.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

"I'm sad"

No, it's not what you think :)

Tonight for supper we were having something of a pork stir fry with green pepper, onions, rice, and on top, pineapple rings. Duncan was quite keen on the pineapple aspect of it. "Mmmmmore pineapple?" Well he got 2 rings, but wasn't eating anything else, so we said no more pineapple until he ate some rice and pork (which he called chicken, but we weren't going to correct him). At which point he hung his head and said "I'm sad" Why are you sad? "Want more pineapple". LOL. It was so funny. He just said it in this quiet little voice... darn if he doesn't know how cute he is. Bill and I were just cracking up. And yeah, he did get some more after he had some rice.

And for breakfast, I asked what he wanted. We have a big box of KD in the cupboard. Yes, our child eats Kraft Dinner (Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for my American friends, up here it is actually named Kraft Dinner. I believe Canada eats more KD than any other country in the world. A cute video about it can be found here http://archives.cbc.ca/lifestyle/food/topics/1371-8427/ This video refers to a survey that was done asking why Canadians eat more KD, and it said it is b/c we find it "deeply situating" (ie - it's comfort food). But, I, for the life of me, can not find the results of the actual survey which found this. Not to say it isn't true, but I like to find the source. So if someone finds it, let me know?). Actually, we do too, but less often. Duncan gets it once... every other week? Reheats great with some Cheese Whiz mixed in, or this week, Cheese-tastic product from Superstore. Anyhow, our favourite way to eat KD ourselves is a recipe called Kraft Dinner Italiano Style, or what we call KD Italiano. We don't eat it often b/c frankly, it's bad for you, but darn if it isn't yummy.

Anyhow, appreantly Duncan also like "'caroni" as he calls it. As we were getting breakfast together this morning, I asked him what he wanted (the norm usually being toast, fruit - such as grapes or something, and milk. He doesn't care for cereal too much, esp. with milk on it, and he doesn't seem to be too keen on peanut butter). He pulled out the box of KD boxes we had sitting in the pantry (you know the 12 boxes version) and told me he wanted 'caroni for breakfast. LOL! Not so much dear. We settled on a banana, toast and craisins.

Otherwise, not much to report from this end! Cordie is good - growing like a little girl should. Duncan is also good. He's a good kid despite his ocassional two-ness. Oh, we actually attended church on Sunday, and made it through an entire service! First time in a long, long, long time. Usually Duncan has a melt down in the nursery (which in our church goes until they turn 3), and we have to leave early. For this reason, and other reasons, we had not been attending at all recently. But we did, and it went well.

Oh, Cordie's baptism is July 19th. BBQ at my parent's place after. Please let me know if you want to a. come to the baptism so we can give you directions and/or b. want to come to the BBQ so we can plan for food.

Okay, I should go to bed. 10 PM and I was bagged today, as usual. Cordie is reaching 4 hour stretches with her sleeping, which means my body is realizing what it has been missing :)

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Now I have time to post

Alright, both kids are asleep - well we think Duncan is, no peeps from up there, and Cordie certainly is. Supper is in the oven, and so I'll take a minute to write up a few things.

Totally random thoughts:
Cordie and I went across the new bridge today. Okay, it was quite funny. I've noted many times about our office moving over there, so I wanted to check out my future commute. Once I figured it out, it is so incredibly simple and close. It will make returning to work next May bearable. It's a long way off, but it's a reality. Unless we win the lotto. And it turns out you need to buy tickets to win it. Huh. Who knew? :) Anyhow, it was a bit of a comedy of errors getting to the new office as I didn't know exactly where it was. So I made a few wrong turns. No big deal, helps me learn the area, but then I made a big wrong turn... he he he... and I ended up on the freeway heading east. I was laughing so hard "I'm on the freeway! What am I doing on the freeway?!" So I had to go all the way up to 232, turn around, come back to 200... but then I figured it out. The new office is in an excellent location. Starbucks in the parking lot, Timmies across the street. And on the otherside of the freeway are a bunch of shops and restaurants. We then headed on up to WalMart. I'm happy to have one only 15 minutes away. Not that I'll go there a lot, but it is nice to have the option.

Over all I'm doing well, although I admit I have my moments of tearyness, breaking down, etc... I'm not doing too bad on the sleep front most nights. Cordie is now in a every 3 hour or so routine. I'll feel great when she moves to 4 hours. But we keep going to bed too late, and then I'm usually up around 5:30... so I'm having to nap in the afternoon, when it works both kids are down. But I do admit I've had moments of "how am I going to do this?" and feeling not so great about myself. That is usually when I'm super tired, and Duncan is being very two. Mind you he tends to be very two when he is also tired, and he picks up on my mood of being less than patient. But you can't always stop yourself. So we need to work on that. And I need to work on a better daytime routine with him. I enjoy the time in the morning with him when Cordie is sleeping - as she tends to sleep most of the morning away, but you can only spend so many days watching Nemo, Bolt, Cars... and building train tracks etc... I keep thinking I should do crafts with him but I just have not got my act together enough to organize anything. Yes we go outside - but I prefer the back yard where he is contained. We do go out - almost every day, but I tried going to story time at the library with him and that was a mess. We've been to the park a few times with our friends, but even then he wants to go to the water park, so I'm fighting with him.

Don't get me wrong - he is a good kid. He is a phenomenal kid. But he is two. And his world is a little shaken up with Cordie's arrival, even if he is as good as gold with her. So he has good reasons, but it doesn't mean he can get away with it. :) But he does still nap, so that's good for all of us. And he loves going to Nikki's.

Pre-school
Originally we signed Duncan up for one that Nikki was going to send her son to. Since it would be a lot easier for Duncan to go to the same one - b/c he would know someone, and when I'm back at work for drop off and pick up - we went with the same one. But life throws things at you. They talked about closing down the elementary school nearest to us, which Nikki's other son was going to be starting K in the fall at. So she moved him to the next nearest school, which also has preschool, so she moved the other kid there too, and so we decided to move Duncan there too. The thing is we've likely lost about a $200 deposit from the 1st school. Ouch. But what are you going to do? Anyhow, the good thing about this new one is if Duncan goes to public school in a few years (we'll see - may send him to the Christian school) then this is the school he would go to.

Otherwise... I haven't read a book in ages. I haven't even done my sudoku puzzle book. No time.

We're catching up on tv from the past year. We watched the Mentalist - which we really enjoyed! Now we're watching Fringe. I'm enjoying it, but it's not totally up my alley, but we'll keep going with it.

Alright, this book is long enough. I hope you're all well. Dinner is ready.

Checking in

Hey everyone,
I'm still here! Just don't usually have too much time to blog. And when I do have time, I'm taking time for something else.
Cordie is doing great. Over a month old already! How quick has that gone?!
Duncan is also doing well. He has this two-moments but that's usually when he's tired. So we try to avoid that.
Oh, and there he is, finally awake. So I'll keep this short. We're here!

Like learning to ride a bike

5minutesforMom is giving away a balance bike. I thought this would be really cool for Duncan.
Check out the 5MFM contest at http://www.5minutesformom.com/6461/balance-bike-giveaway/ and info on the balance bike at http://www.pedalcarsandretro.com/Balance_Bikes-p-1-c-269.html

I remember the 1st time I tried to learn how to ride a bike. I think Mom will correct me if I am wrong on the details here. Up until then I had this plum purple coloured tricycle, which I loved. I must have been at least 5 or 6 because that is when we moved to the new house. They bought me a bike, I think it was red. We lived at the end of a dead end street - perfect for learning how to ride a bike. So they got me going with a push and away I went down the street...and I kept going, and kept going... and I could not stop! I did not know how to work the brakes. So I am screaming as I head for the busier road "I can't stop!" I think it was Jeff who came running after me and helped me stop. I also think after that the bike was returned to the store and we put off my learning how to ride a bike for a while longer.

I did eventually learn how to ride though, just for the record :)

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Behind the times!

Man I've fallen behind on blog reading.

Nancy, I didn't know you had a new offer on the house - that's awesome! I love that everything is coming together for you guys like it is. I hope you had a good birthday.

Tanya - we look forward to you guys meeting Cordie! No problem on not swinging by. As it is, I have 8 boxes of clothes in my living room I'll be going through today or tomorrow and figure out what fits Warren now, later, or it's too late and is going to someone else. We'll hang on to the 24 month sized stuff for you until after you move and he's closer to fitting it.

I admit, I'm going to have a hard time letting go of all of Duncan's clothes. I need to go through it all and find out what is reasonable to freecycle, hang on to (Cordie can use some of the stuff), or in some cases toss. But aside from all these boxes, we have another 5 or 6 upstairs to go through. What's the most awesome is that over 90% of this stuff has been hand me downs... so I'm glad to pass it on. I will hang on to a few things for sentimental reasons though.

Cordie is 3 weeks old already! Our 1st week with Bill back at work went well over all. Friday I was just stupid in the head tired and found myself getting pretty short with Duncan. He was just being 2 and I was being grumpy, so I apologized to him. Normally I can go with the flow of his two-ness better. But of course he feeds off of my mood too, and if I'm grumpy, he'll pick up on that.

Cordie is growing like a week, looking less like a newborn, and just fits in with us so well. We love her. I'm still pretty tired. I'm up with her about 2x/ night - not including early morning. Anything after 5 I don't count b/c that's when I used to get up for work, so that's morning. Sometimes I'll go back to sleep, or if she's up for a bit, I'll go shower and have some coffee before both kids wake up closer to 7.

I admit I've been pretty frustrated with myself. I feel like I should be doing more now - getting house work done etc... and while it is reasonable she is only 3 weeks old, pretty much when the kids nap, so do I, but that means I don't get other stuff done. Then I get mad at myself b/c other stuff isn't getting done. Today I finally got the downstairs vacuumed - ah, that feels better. And we got some stuff organized. So we're getting there. The thing after Bill gets home from work it's about playing with Duncan, and just spending time together, not focusing on cleaning the house, and by the time Duncan is in bed - 8-8:30, we don't feel like starting anything new, which is why it doesn't get done.

I guess I'll get there. I'm having fun with the kids though. We went to the water park on Tuesday. Oh boy did Duncan love that!! He was totally drenched, and shivering b/c he was so wet, and he did not want to go home. So I'm glad we did that. I think I need to find some other day time activities for the days I have him home b/c just staying home doesn't help me or him.

Well, I'm going to go nap myself. Duncan is down (although not asleep...but he'll get there) and Cordie is asleep, and Bill can get either one of them if needed, so I'll take advantage of that. Later we're going to my parent's place to let Duncan run around in the back yard and have a visit.

Oh, and we celebrated Bill's birthday yesterday. We had Chris and Ronnie over and just had an awesome visit.

Baby shower July 12. Contact Ronnie for info.

Monday, June 1, 2009

My day with Cordie, contests, and in the news

Today was Bill's 1st day back at work. Duncan was at daycare, so I had many lofty ideas as to what I would get done today. Yeah. Not so much. Don't get me wrong, I had a great day with my little girl, I just didn't plan my time too well. I wanted to clean the bathrooms and the kitchen today. I also wanted to take a nap at some point (she's a baby, she sleeps a lot, so it shouldn't have been too hard to coordinate). But it didn't quite go that way.

I got a free baby swing off of freecycle. Gotta love freecyle! I forget if I mentioned that we pulled out our baby swing the other day and it turns out it no longer works. Well we'd bought it second hand, so it sucks, but it's been a few kids already. Anyhow, I put a wanted ad on freecycle, and someone had for me, but it was a bit of a drive away. So after dropping Duncan off we headed off to pick that up, and then on the way home stopped to see my Mom and visit at her work. Well then it was 11 AM already. There goes the morning! Anyhow, I finally kind of get done the cleaning, but napping didn't happen as C wasn't into it when I was :P

Tomorrow it's me and both kids so I think we'll go to story time at the library to get out in the morning.

Otherwise...

Contests. I've been entering just a bunch of giveaways online. I think Nancy does this too. So I look for ones open to Canadians and just kind of spend time entering them as I can/want. Well so far I've won a free pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream - which is a total treat b/c I don't think I've ever bought B&Js before, and today I found I also won another giveaway with a shirt for Cordie. So that's cool. I have some links on the right side of of my blog if you're interested in checking some out. I might blog occasionally about giveaways b/c it gives extra entries. Just so you wonder why I'm suddenly pushing these things. I like free stuff. I'm Dutch! :)

In the news:
Susan Boyle - I feel so bad for this woman. You know, going for total obscurity to the entire world knowing who you are and watching you and building you up 'oh you're a shoe in to win' and then not winning. No wonder she had a bit of a breakdown. I hope she has some good support in place.

Plane crash - okay, thinking of the family and friends of the people lost on the flight from Brazil to France today. It's really creepy though. I was watching Discovery Channel and they have shows about plane crashes and I think "hmm... it's been a while since there's been a plane crash" and then this happens. I know it had nothing to do with me thinking it, but it's still creepy. And sad.

Duncan is all done supper, so I need to go.