Snuggles & Cuddles

When Lynden was younger my friend Ellen kept telling me how lucky I was that we had a cuddly baby.  Her daughter, who is a month younger than Lynden, was not a cuddler.  Lynden, on the other hand, was Super cuddly.  He loved hugs, kisses, and snuggles; he still does.  It's not uncommon for him to suddenly stop playing because he wants to "cuwwle".  It's one of my favourite things - snuggling with my son.

Alyssa does not cuddle.  She's too busy trying to go, see, grab, flip, and/or eat to cuddle.  Danny and I were talking about it last night, how she's never really snuggled.  One of Danny's favourite things is napping with Lynden (I don't get it).  He's never napped with Alyssa and he doesn't think he ever will, not because he doesn't want to but because he thinks she won't - she's too busy.

I'm Back

I've been MIA most of this month.  I tried to stay on top of the 30 Day Challenge but half way through the month it stopped being fun and started being a chore, and I have enough of those.  I'm disappointed I wasn't motivated enough to finish it but we've had a BUSY month. 

This month we've had story time in the park, a puppet show, various farmer's markets, Sesame Street, various playdates, a birthday party, carnival, a car show and my cousin's daughter for 2 weeks.  Add in a whack of car problems (again... still... I'm not sure which), unpacking, organizing and cleaning the house from the move, and Danny has been working non-stop, which has been hard on Lynden and has burnt me out.  It has taken a lot of energy to stay on top of the household stuff that needs to be done so this took a back seat. 

What's Cooking: Fruit Salsa

I have made this fruit salsa for a few different events this summer and it's always a hit (it took me a while to find it as yummy as everyone else did).  Yes, it's another allrecipe recipe.

Fruit Salsa:

2 kiwis, peeled and diced

2 Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and diced

8 ounces raspberries

1 pound strawberries

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

3 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor

you can add any other fruit you like (I usually add blueberries)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, chill (at least 15 min) and serve.  Easy!

If you feel like being fancy you can make your own cinnamon chips to go with it.

10 flour tortillas

melted butter
 cinnamon sugar

Coat one side of each flour tortilla with melted  butter. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar.
1. Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes (until crispy). Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes before serving.

If you don't want to put in that much time, I recommend Toppables - they're wonderful!

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 16-18

Day 16 - What I Ate:

I love summer berries and my eyes are always bigger than my stomach when I buy them.  So, as the berries start to turn I have to decide what I'm going to do with them instead of throwing them out.  After the blueberry cobbler, which was too much cobbler and not enough blueberries, I made Strawberry muffins. 

Most mornings when my grandma comes over she brings a muffin and Lynden's on her right away to share with him.  After these came out of the oven he asked about grandma, so Lynden called her (with my help) and invited her over for a muffin.  

Day 17 - On The Shelf:

This is one of my favourite "knick knack".  It was given to us for Lynden's 1st Christmas and I adore it.  It now sits on our mantle. 

Out And About: Sesame Street

A few months back I was sent an email from one of my cousins asking if we wanted to take Lynden to see Sesame Street; we instantly said yes!  After months of waiting yesterday was the big day. 

I was a little nervous about how Lynden would take the whole experience, the noise and the larger than life characters.  We psyched his up most of this week, watched Sesame Street on TV... well, PVR, and went over all the characters we have in our books.  Of course, like all kids, Lynden was looking forward to seeing Elmo.  So, after nap yesterday, daddy, mommy, Lynden and little Elmo met up with our cousins and headed off to Sesame Street.  (Alyssa spent the afternoon with my grandparents, don't be thinking we forgot all about her)

It was great!!!   Lynden loved every moment of it.  He was thrilled to see the characters, mommy sang along to as many songs as possible, daddy and Lynden bounced, clapped, stomped and danced.  During the intermission (and after the show) he kept asking for more. 

The highlight, for me anyways, was when Elmo came down the stairs onto the floor (we were in the 3rd row) and I ushered Danny and Lynden off towards him and Lynden got a big hug from Elmo!!  (Sadly, I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch it). 

It was a wonderful experience, for us and him, and want to take him to more live shows now.  We've been talking about taking him to Yo Gabba Gabba in November and after last night we Really want to take him. 

the set

Lynden and his Elmo wand

Bert

Ernie

Abby

Big Bird doing the opening number

Elmo & Zoe

Cookie Monster doing an Irish Jig

Super Grover

Elmo in Oscar's World

Honk

after the show

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 15

Day 15 - My Shoes:

For those of you who know me it kills me to put a picture of my feet on here; for those of you who don't know me: I don't like feet.  There's something about them that I just don't like.... unless they belong to my kids (whose feet I love, which says a lot since I don't like my own feet). 

Anyways, these are the 2nd pair of flip flops I've ever bought - I'd happily live in socks all year round but after living in the Okanagan it's something you cannot do during the summer.  I love these flip flops... and they were $5 at Walmart!

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 14

Day 14 - Flowers:
This is the very first flower Lynden picked for me - I love it!

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 13

Day 13 - From a Distance:
This was taken yesterday during our Potato and Blueberry hunting.  Great Grandpa and Alyssa playing together. 

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 11 & 12

Day 11 - Something Fun:
My grnadparents decided to try to grow potatoes this summer.  Shortly after they started they realized they were using soil that had too much Nitrogen in it and decided to ignore them and give it another shot next summer.  They were shocked when they checked this week and realized they had over 50 potatoes.  So they decided Lynden needed to come over and help them dig them out.

Missing

I don't know if the planets are aligned, something in the water, or just that time of the year but it feels like as summer gets closer to ending (not that we've had much of a "summer") parents are finding themselves at their wits end.  A few blogs I follow have been talking about how they've been struggling with mommyhood lately.  Even a Facebook group I'm apart of had a post about things other mom's miss from their pre-kid days. 

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my kidlets to the ends of the Earth and beyond and there is nothing I wouldn't do for them, but every now and again I wonder "what did I get myself into?".  As parents we reminisce about things from our childless days, so here's some of what I miss from my pre-children days.

• Sleep - the BIG thing I miss.  Getting to sleep in until I was ready to get up.  Being able to wake up slowly without having to get out of bed the moment my eyes are open. 
• My pre-babies body - this is a funny one for me.  I was never happy with my pre-pregnancy weight and when I gained 45lbs with Lynden I was thrilled, hoping I'd be able to keep some of the weight on afterwards.  I succeed for almost a year and then I caught a bad cold and lost all the weight I had hoped to keep on. 
  Now, after gaining another 45lbs with Alyssa I've been able to keep the weight I wanted (we'll see what happens when I stop nursing) but this time I've keep a lot of the baby flub, which I'm not happy about.  I try to do ab workouts when I have a spare moment and the energy to do it in the hopes to tone down the flub.
• My cute bikinis - when I went to the Dominican in 2007 I bought 2 Adorable bikinis and have not worn them since.  I was "blessed" with stretch marks that got worse with the second pregnancy (I doubled the stretch marks the second time around). 
• Concerts - I miss just being able to go to a concert on a whim.  Now it's saving money, planning sitters and hoping Danny doesn't have to work. 
• Reading - I remember being able to sit and read a book without constant interruptions.  Now, I'd settle for 20 minutes.
• Using the bathroom in quiet - I use the shower as an escape when I've had a bad day, and I make a point to lock the door so I can spend 10-15 minutes in peace and quiet (and slightly hot water).  More often than not I'm accompanied to the bathroom by a toddler who wants clarification on what exactly I'm doing.  Even if I lock the door he yells through the bathroom and once I answer him he tells the nearest 20 people. 

• Leaving on time - I try to be early when we're going somewhere.  It's hard to be early, or even on time, with kids.  It's a whole big planning process to get out the door.  Need to make sure the diaper bag has everything; diapers, wipes, pull-up, change of clothes per kid, snacks, drink, hats, sunglasses, toys, camera, sweaters, wallet (including the bank card), cell phone, and anything else we may need.  Has everyone used the potty and does Alyssa need a bum change?  Make sure both car seats are in, find the right shoes, if going grocery shopping do I have my list? bags? coupons?  I inevitably forget something, every time. 
  Even with Lynden, before Alyssa was born, I could leave the house at a drop of a hat.  I had diapers and a small thing of wipes in my purse, so I had to get his shoes and jacket on, grab a snack and drink and be out the door in 5 minutes.  I can't wait to get back to that. 
• No back pain - I miss being able to sit for an hour and not have a hard time standing.  Amazing what carrying around pregnancy weight while holding a toddler followed by a toddler and baby will do to your back - it never had a chance. 
• Regular bras - while I was pregnant I found this ADORABLE bra that I just couldn't pass up.  It's sitting in my drawer just waiting for the day I stop nursing. 
• Spending time with my husband - it's hard to find quality one-on-one time with Danny, it doesn't help that he's working 2 jobs.  Even when we try to spend alone time in the evening when the kidlets are down it's still hard; its in the back of our mind that Alyssa could wake up at any moment for a feed or Lynden could need to pee or want to come sleep in our room. 

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 10

Day 10: Something I Made

It's been an Ikea week for us - just kind of happened.  My dad and stepmom kindly offered to buy Lynden's new big boy bed, so Tuesday we headed down to Ikea and picked it up - that's a very dangerous store; those Swede's are too darned innovative.  I, then, spent 4 hours that evening assembling it.  I'm pretty darn tootin' proud of myself for making my son's bed (and he knows mommy made it too).  Here it is - just like on the box :-)

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 8 & 9

Day 8: TechnologyHow can you think technology and think of a cell phone. My wonderful not-an-iphone-Blackberry

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 7

Day 7: New
Alyssa has reached a New milestone; she's learning to sit up on her own.  She's still a little wobbly and easily distracted but she's getting the hang of it.  She's also learned (today) how to say "babababa", we had a great conversation in Ikea today. 

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 6

Day 6: Childhood Memory:
Every summer there was a girls' week.  My grandma, sister and I would meet up with 2 aunts and 2 sets of cousins (we were all in the same age group) and go to either Birch Bay or Weir's Beach (I'm not sure that's how it's spelt) or the occasional week at one of my aunt's house (I miss that house, it was so cool!).  It was one of the highlights of our summers; to swim, run around, swim, play, swim some more, find ways to scare the younger sisters, and get in some more swimming. 

We Moved!!

It took a lot more trips and time and effort than we planned for but we've completely moved.  It was a logistical nightmare and I'm so glad the bulk of it is over. 

We were able to start moving things in on Sunday at noon, which was great but the house was in terrible shape.  The old tenants decided to walk away from their deposit, meaning they cleaned Nothing (and stole the landlord's weed eater).  As we did the walk through with the landlord his wife spent 2 hours scrubbing the kitchen counters, cupboards and fridge.  We then spent the next 8 hours shuttling stuff from the old place to the new place.  Thankfully my mom took Alyssa for the day (and Lynden for the morning) and my grandparents had him overnight so we were able to power through quite a bit without them.  By 10pm on Sunday we were done cleaning and our final runs and were off to return the truck and head home.  By midnight we were in bed in our new place.

Sadly Danny had to work Monday (and the rest of the week doing both jobs) so the bulk of things fell onto my plate.  I've spent the week cleaning, unpacking and re cleaning (getting rid of unpacking stuff) which was very difficult since Fortis didn't mention there was a lock on the gas line outside so we didn't have hot water until mid-afternoon Tuesday (making it impossible to shower, clean dishes, wash the tub, clean the oven, cupboards and walls). 

I've been able to power through quite a bit this week (still working on the kitchen, kids' bedroom and entry) and I'm super proud of the kidlets, especially Lynden.  It's yet another change for him in the last 6 months.  When he came home on Monday he was excited to see the "new house" and once I showed him where all the rooms were he wanted to go play and do his thing.  He loves the patio outside, he can ride his new tractor on it. 

Alyssa has also been moved out of our room and into her crib.  She's taken to it fairly well, she likes being able to move around her crib to find the right spot to sleep.  She's also taken to sleeping on her tummy, which I find adorable!  They are also sharing a room; I wasn't sure how well Lynden would take to it but he's done well.  He doesn't cry if she's already in bed, which we were worried about, and he sleeps through her crying, which we were also worried about.  It will be nice once we get the second dresser and bed for Lynden - then I can set it up properly. 

There's still cleaning and unpacking and organizing to do, but it's starting to feel like home. 

30 Day Photo Challenge: Week 1

As mentioned in my August Preview post I am participating in the 30 Day Photo Challenge.  We moved last weekend and I have spent the week unpacking and cleaning and now our Internet is hooked up I can officially start.  I'm going to try to do a daily post, but we'll see how that goes with the rest of getting settled in. 

Day 1: Self Portrait

There are not many self portraits of me since I'm busy taking everyone else's picture and 99% of the self portraits I take have my head cut off - I cannot comprehend where the lens is on cameras.  I would have taken a self portrait this week but we're still in the process of unpacking and cleaning and haven't had the time. 

This is me (and my sister) on our way to the Dominican in 2007)