The Joys Of 2 Kids

One area of concerns, well not concern but one of my thoughts, when deciding to have kids is that I don't have a strong stomach.  Vomit, poop, blood are not something I can handle, and well kids poop, vomit, and occasionally have blood come out of them at one point or another. 

There's something that new parents don't really know; babies (or mother nature) ease you into poop.  It starts off black and tarry but it doesn't smell so you don't think anything of it.  It slowly changed colour and has a bit of a smell.  By the time you're totally over poop babies switch to solid foods and HELLO!  What once didn't bother you starts to bother you.  What comes out of them at times is astounding. 


Lynden was a pooper in his littler days.  Most of his diaper shirts for the first six months of his life had yellow stains across the mid-back.  I remember, clearly, him sitting in the exersaucer and making his pooping noise and Danny and I both running to him, yanking him out, and stripping him as fast as we could to avoid having poopy clothes.  This wasn't a one time thing, this was a daily thing. 

Thankfully Lynden has never really vomited before, some watery stuff but not chunks of anything.  He's only bled once and it was traumatic for me, however, he's rocking a pretty cool scar now.

Lynden 2 days after banging his head on
the edge of a glass table. 
He looks pretty cool rockin' the butterfly bandaid

We've also been really lucky with Alyssa; no vomit, no blood (although a few Very close calls), and as good as her plumbing is we haven't had many explosive diapers.

We were pretty lucky... until the last week.

A Promise From A 3 Year Old

Last week I was sweeping and Lynden asked me why I was doing it, like every question he asks me.  I told him because the floor was dirty.  He then announced (and these are the actual words that came out of his mouth) "When I get bigger I should do that".  I told him I think so too. 

Lynden at 13m sweeping

Hopefully he'll feel the same way when we make him do it every night.

Following In Her Brother's Footsteps

It's no secret I am Alyssa's person, her rock.  That's what happens when you breastfeed for a year and spend as much time at home with her (and Lynden) as I have/do.  It's also no secret that Lynden is her second favourite person. 

From the moment she was able to start moving around on her own she would try to follow Lynden where he went, go for the toys he was playing, smile when he walked near her, and constantly be looking for him.  Now that she's walking she is constantly trying to be near Lynden as much as she can. 

When he goes into another room she is quick to get up and tottle after him.  She has spent so much time observing him it's not surprising to see her mimic a lot of what he does. 

She walks around holding the play phone to her ear the way her brother does.

She finds his hat and/or sunglasses and/or backpack and brings it to me to put it on her.

She will reach into his bucket of cars to put them on the various ramps, or try to drive them across the floor. 

She sits beside him when he's reading with her own book, or lean over to "read" his book. 

She runs back to the bath after she's been dried off to watch Lynden play in the tub.

It's so nice to see how much she adores her big brother, and for the most part he adores her right back.


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To all my followers please remember that Google Friend Connect is going to be no longer soon.  I have set up Bloglovin for you to follow me at, or you can follow by email.  I am working on getting the Linky Followers code in the right spot so those of you using it can follow me too. 

Trip Down Memory Lane: Dominican

Back in 2007 my mom treated my sister and I with a trip to the Dominican.  It was flippin' awesome!  And we went in November so while it was trying to snow in the Okanagan I was lounging on the beach in 40 degree weather, every day. 

As I look out the window and watch the rain fall, threatening to turn to snow, I can't help but think about those sunny days, warm water, feeling the sand beneath my toes, rocking my cute bikinis, and good tropical drinks. 

Join me on my trip down memory lane won't you?

flamingos at the hotel

my sis rockin' the flower look

my sis lounging with her coconut

ocean view while on a day trip

one of Many beautiful sunsets

palm trees and crystal clear waters

not a great photo but I was enjoying the catamaran

me on my 23rd birthday

holding a starfish

butterfly that was almost the size of your hand

gecko

under water shot

for anyone one who knows my sis
this is her pose

Oh to be lying on a beach....

Wordless Wednesday: Bathtime Cutie

Bonus pictures:

Both kids in the tub (Lynden's 18m, Alyssa's 13m)

Wow, they look alike 

Isn't That Pinteresting

It's been awhile since I've shared what I've been pinning.  I know you are all very sad, but if you followed me on Pinterest you'd be more up to date on all the important things I want/need to do.

Entertainment unit redo
My cousin posted this on facebook
I love everything about it

This site will make your child's drawing

Lemon Chicken
I may have pinned this before but I made it
I like it.  Needed to marinate longer and more lemon

English Muffin Bread

Egg chicks
These are cute!

Cinnamon Roll Cookies
I have posted this before
made them this week
Pretty good

Spice guide

What's caught your Pinterest eye lately?

A League Of His Own

Alyssa's having a hard time cutting 2 teeth.  I've been able to see them for almost 3 weeks now but they are refusing to come up.  This has caused her sleeping habits to be off, which is causing her to be crabbier and needier, which causes me to be crabbier.  It is also causing her to  drool a bit, which she hasn't really done with her other 6 teeth.  She's not drooling much but it's noticeable since she's not a drooler. 

Seeing the wet spot on the neck of her shirt has brought back memories of Lynden drooling; in fact many people lately have remarked about Lynden's drooling.  The word drooling doesn't even begin to cover it. 

Lynden was in a category of his own. 

At 10 weeks old the tap was turned on and it stayed on for 10 months, constantly. 

I've had parents tell me there's son or daughter drools, and I say "oh yea?".  They then tell me they go through 3 or 4 bibs a day and I would laugh.  3 or 4 bibs a day is Nothing!

Mommy-Son Date

Back at Christmas Lynden was given 2 tickets to see a one man circus and Saturday we went.  Danny had to work so I happily agreed to take him.  I decided to make it a little more than just a show.  We've been having some behavioural issues with Lynden (not listening and a bit of aggression), which we think might be his way of letting us know he needs more one-on-one time with him, so I planned for lunch and a show. 

My grandparents picked Alyssa up around lunch time so Lynden and I went for lunch first.  We walked down to A&W (or "the W" as Lynden calls it) and enjoyed a nice lunch together.  We sat in a corner so we had lots of windows to look out of and car watch.  What can I say, my son's a car fanatic. 

After lunch we walked over to the mall, which is next to the theatre we were going to, and picked out a birthday card and gift (a hotwheel) for grandpa's birthday, which is where we were heading after the show. 

Valentine Photos

In case you missed my post about my cute kids here are some of the Valentines photos taken by Amber Lee Photography. 

The Cookbook Of All Cookbooks

I might have mentioned before that I'm totally kind of addicted to Pinterest.  Usually I find things I like and would like to do but every now and again I find something that Speaks to me.  This last week I found 2 pins that called out to me. 

One was a room design:


source

I love this room so much that I've informed Danny this is what we're doing for Alyssa's bedroom.  Sadly the cubes were on sale at Zellers last week and we didn't have the extra money for 2 sets of them.  When they go on sale again we'll be buying them and rearranging Alyssa's room.  I even love the paint colours. 

The other pin that called to me was one about making your own cookbook.

Meet Amber At Sneakers Over Stilettos

Hello Life, Experience Needed readers! I'm Amber, blogger behind Sneakers Over Stilettos. I am fashion obbessed, a self proclaimed shoe addict, and take an unhealthy amount of photos on a daily basis! After reading my guest post I hope you will come over and say hi! Love meeting you bloggy pals!

Now on to the guest post! If you have been following Amanda's blog for a while you know that she has posted some pretty yummy recipes in the past. So I figured her readers must love cooking as well! I am actually not a very big cooker in our house. I am really spoiled and my husband does the majority of the cooking.

When I do cook, I prefer to make more interesting things. Today I am going to tell you about one of my favorite things to make Coq Au Vin ( Chicken in red wine )

A Week Of New Recipes

Every so often when planning weekly meals, which I've been a little slack on but I need to get back into it while trying to waste less food, I end up with a week of new recipes.  Last week was one of those weeks. 

It started when I went to a local bookstore that was having a moving sale and they had all their books buy 2 get 1 free.  Who can pass that up?  Especially when they have a lot of cookbooks.  It just so happened I was needing a little more inspiration than I was getting from my current cookbooks. 

For the most part the new recipes have been a success.  We tried a new sweet and sour chicken* recipe (which needed more "sour"), a ham and cheese omelet bake (we substituted bacon for ham and it was Delicious), pork chops with potato and mushrooms (it was basically pork chops baked on top of scalloped potatoes), alfredo chicken pasta* (the variation was adding veggies to the noodles, including shredded carrots.  Good as left overs), a lasagna skillet dish* (which was too watery due to using less meat but was very good and has been deemed a "regular recipe"), and a sundried tomato-chicken-rice dish.  The last was the least favourite of the week, which was too bad because the recipe made a lot.  Thankfully I was able to come up with a back up plan for it.  I froze it in smaller containers to be used as a side dish in later meals.  I am really enjoying using my freezer more.  Typically it would have sat in the fridge until I needed the dish again, which means a week later I would have been angry and tossed it. 

Instead, by freezing it in small portions has saved us easily $8, which is almost as much as we wasted in January alone!

A Very Late Birthday Post

So... bad mommy over here totally forgot to tell you about Alyssa's 1st birthday, not like it was an important day or anything  *I hang my head in shame*

We decided to have an open house instead of an actual party for Alyssa.  Figured it would be easier than having 25-30 people in our house at once.  Yes, you read that correctly, 25-30 people (we only had 18 show up).  We have A LOT of cousins and we can't invite some and not the others. 

At 11 my friend Ellen, her husband, and their daughter (who is a month younger than Lynden) arrived and hung out for an hour before jetting off to another birthday party.  Lynden had a blast playing with the pretty pink purse and accessories they got Alyssa. 

After they left we managed to have lunch and get Alyssa down for a nap before the bulk of people arrived.  

We had already decided cupcakes would be after nap time, so a lot of people planned on coming then to watch Alyssa have her first taste of sugar (I'll get to that in a moment).

About an hour after the birthday girl's nap was over we had 11 squish into our living room getting ready to watch Alyssa "open" gifts (this involved a lot of help from Lynden). 

reading her card

I love this dress, even though it's pink

Birthday Girl!