12.12.12

Pin It Now! Today is a special day as it marks little Liam's 8 month anniversary.  And reaffirms that I only blog about my children.  There is lots going on around here - I wish I could capture it on a more daily basis like this blog or this one - but whatev's at least I blog once a month right?

This month Liam is all of the sudden a chunk.  He just seems so substantial, can pretty much sit on his own now (with the occasional sad topple over and cry).  He's finally starting to eat some foods other than formula but this has been a veeeeeery slow process.  I joke that its because the poor thing is always just on the go as part of this family of four that he doesn't really get the time devoted to eating but then the reality of it is that that's probably really not a joke at all but the truth - he seems pretty happy though so that's great.  His latest trick is blowing noises to people and waiting for a response.  So cute.  He's a champion sleeper at night, normally the second one up (after Kirk, before Jonah and I) and I can't imagine a cuter start to my day.  He loves fluffy blankets and brushing his teeth.

This one:

just melts my heart every day.  Two years and one month old this week - he is a going concern.  I realized when I went to choose our pictures for this years Christmas cards and literally had one or two to choose from from the entire year of him smiling.  Because he just doesn't sit down long enough to catch a picture.  Loves Santa, snowmen and hockey.  All of the sudden really into playing with other people "Mommy play?" and totally onto me if I try to sit down and play "MOMMY - PLAY!!!" - so down on the ground with mini sticks I go.

I have loved seeing the way these two boys are growing together - Liam is under the weather this week and yesterday Jonah went up to him as he was crying and gave him a big hug.  Melted my heart.

I have had a bunch of great Stella & Dot trunk shows and have met some fabulous women through the process.  Becoming a stylist was just what I was looking for and actually has ended up exceeding my expectations - I'm really loving it.  I just finished a marathon session of watching the entire season one of the show Girls.  It was seriously so fabulous and well done.  But reaffirmed my feelings that I'm getting old.  That was a bit of a random ramble but have to go now Liam is up!

xoxo

Two

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Last week we celebrated two.  Two years old - from baby to boy in the blink of an eye.  I thought the first year flew by - but this year?  Literally flew.  I cannot believe my baby is two!

We had a fun day on Jonah's actual bday together.  It was a weekday so he played hooky from daycare and spent the whole day at home - with a special visit from Grandparents and some Facetime to Nana and Nono in Florida.

Trying to take his picture is seriously difficult. He is always on the go and a blur of energy.

I had ordered a hockey cake earlier in the week so the two of us went to pick it up in the morning and I got him two star balloons.  He loved them - carried them all the way to dinner and home again.  We hadn't planned on a big party for this year but luck would have it that our neighbours stopped in right at cake time so that made it more fun!

He LOVED his big gift - ministicks and two nets.  Ben ate the ball within the first hour or so so we replaced it with a few from the dollar store.

This one continues to amaze me with just how easygoing he is.  He is seriously a sweetheart.  At 7 months is not so into eating any type of food except for bottles and Baby MumMum crackers.  Will tolerate the odd apple through his mesh popsicle but that's about it.  Is a great sleeper and just loves life.  

Have a great day! xoxo

Ok so not to brag or anything

Pin It Now! ....but I'm pretty sure these are the best pumpkins ever!

I'm so happy with the way they turned out.  I can't really take any credit...this wasn't my idea at all... I found the initial inspiration from Interest with a Cookie Monster pumpkin:

Source
but it looked like the mouth part had been carved out and that seemed like a lot of work so I just used black paper instead! I LOVED how easy these were to make, and Jonah loved helping make them and now loves saying hi to Elmo and Cookie every day.

If you want to make these yourself all you will need is:
Red paint
Blue paint
A pack of styrofoam balls
A pack of styrofoam eggs
Orange paint
A paintbrush
Black Cardstock
Glue
(I had a few of these things in my art supply already but got the rest at The Dollar store)...then you just paint the pumpkins, wait for them to dry and then glue the eyes, nose and mouth on! The mouth was the hardest part, I tried a few different ones on each pumpkin but found these ones with the little dots at the side of each mouth worked best.

Also - I have some big news....

 I have been busy over here with a new project - I signed up as a Stella & Dot stylist and I am having so much fun!  I have 6 shows coming up and looking forward to each of them - I just LOVE everything about the company and am finding it a nice break from the kids that I can for the most part just slot in when I have some downtime.  It's perfect for me for now - if you are interested in learning more about becoming a stylist or hosting your own event let me know - I love to talk about it!

 These are a few of the new social media buttons that they made available to us - aren't they cute?

And just because I love to share - here are a few of the pieces I'm ogling today:

Serenity Stone Drops

I normally wear studs but thinking these will be a good transition piece for me to try out a longer style

Petra Bracelet

This is SOOOO gorgeous in person, looks like a diamond encrusted sleeve!  Will be perfect for the holidays.

Mercer Wallet

I LOVE this wallet.  I just got a new wallet for my birthday so a new wallet is the last thing I need but I can't stop thinking about this baby.  The fringe zipper?  The pink interior?  Sigh.  

Have a great day! 

xoxo

You guys...

Pin It Now! I can't even believe how my life is just a jumble lately - a good jumble but a jumble.  I realized I TOTALLY forgot that Liam turned 6 months old this past week.  Oops.  So official pics to come but also tomorrow marks Jonah's 23 month marker....he is almost TWO.  Bah.  I can't even handle it.

Jonah is just such a big old joy of a boy...
He knows how to play with things.
Zooms cars and trains.

Is super good at puzzles and sticker books

Loves to climb and play

In fact - if you follow me on FB you know this already but today was his first class at gymnastics.  He ended the class looking similar to the above photo.  Covered in sweat with his hair matted to his head.  The kid just LOVES to GO.  

Liam @ 6 months

Is super cute.  

He is getting so much more animated and "talking" - I swear he said "Hi!" to Kirk this morning when he was having his bottle

Has all of the sudden praise the Lord above started sleeping for longer stretches at night.  Till 6:30 or so - it is so great. 

Isn't so into cereal but we're trying

Has his 6 month appointment tomorrow so we'll get the stats but I'm guessing he's gained a lot - seems much chubbier then the last appointment

For me things are good - there have been a lot of changes around here as of late but none of them bad, just new routines and things to get used to - and also some exciting things that I'm working on that I'll share on here soon.  Scrapping has taken a back seat to business but I have an entire scrapbooking weekend coming up soon so am excited for that!

Have a great day!
xoxo

Little moments

Pin It Now! There are so many little moments in every day that I'm sure I'll forget.  One of the reasons I started this blog was to help to remember....it doesn't help that I'm bad at remembering to actually blog but whenever I look back on time it's the little things that I love to remember.

This is one of those little moments:

Mr. Blankethead.  Liam is SUCH a tactile little guy - always grabbing at things.  He finds it comforting to put his blanket right up to his face and smoosh it in.  I always peek in once he's down to make sure it's safely out of his way.  He used to only turn to the right but now he always turns to face his musical seahorse and settles right in on his side.

Every month

Pin It Now! Every month I have big plans for my blog.  To write more - to document more on here - and then by the time I get around to it it's time for the kids monthly updates...ha!  So for now that's fine - that's what this blog will be.  I would like to write more, to put more on here to share some recipes, some design projects, scrapbooking stuff etc but for now this blog is serving it's purpose for me which is an easy space to just ramble and collect thoughts.  I do miss writing more regularly and find that being home not working makes my brain feel a bit rusty so that's one of the main reasons I want to write more on here.  I also just love blogs.  I love to read others blogs.  It's one of those weird things though where if you try to describe in real life why you like blogging or blogs in general if people aren't into blogs themselves it's hard to explain.  But I don't have to on here because chances are if you are reading this you already kind of get it right?  I don't blog only so other people read it, but at the same time I enjoy sharing with others - know what I mean?

Liam:
So anyway - this month was a pretty big one for us.  Liam turns 5 months in a few days and he's such a bigger boy now than last month!  I was looking through my earlier entries (doing some scrapbooking journalling....see?  My blogging does come in handy ;)) - anyway I was marvelling at how restful he was back when he was a wee guy...it's not that he's a bad sleeper by any means now just that he's less restful than before.  It makes me laugh actually to look at the updates month/month with him because I feel like I'm way more "cut to the chase" with Liam than I was with Jonah's updates....with babies it's all about the sleep huh?  So I think it's funny how my updates now inevitably focus on that...but hey if baby is sleeping and happy then everyone is sleeping and happy right?  We had to do a bit of sleep training this past month (he was up almost hourly for about a week or so...ugh!) but now he's back on track with just waking once or so to feed and in the last week or so his wake-ups have been at very convenient times for me (around 11 or so and then up again at 5-6ish) - I'm good with that b/c then I get to sleep a normal "night" stretch which I find to be the biggest thing in feeling good the next day.  He is still our little peanut boy - weighs 16 lbs now, our dr was happy with the weight he gained since last month so that is good!  There is still no sign of pudge in his future, he is such a different build than Jonah but sooo cute, a little string bean.  He's super interactive now, loves to bouncy around in his jumparoo, sit in the bumbo and look all around and play with toys.  He also LOVES TV!  Ha - that makes me laugh but he does!  He'll max out in his swing for a while every day which is handy and all in all he's a very agreeable happy go lucky kid.  I noticed this morning his first tooth has cut through along the bottom - I haven't really gotten in to see it yet but I bet it's really cute ;).  I am thinking of starting him on some cereal soon because he has such good neck control and can sit up really well and has started to grab at food when we are eating so I think he's ready.  I can't remember when I started Jonah on solids...I think it was closer to 6 months.

Jonah:
My big baby is 22 months!  Now when people ask me how old he's turning I say "He'll be two this November" - I feel like that really is the mark that he is no longer a baby...no more telling people how many "months" he is.  He is doing so great, lots of new words and starting to string words together to tell us what he wants.  He loves to call out "MAMI!" and "DADDIEEE!" - literally a hundred times a day (or more!) It never gets old but sometimes I do have to remind myself to respond patiently and kindly when I'm responding to the same request in a 2 minute span ;)

These two together are SO sweet and cute.  They really do love each other - it is so evident and sweet.  We have been doing lots of fun summer things together like the splash pad, park, walks etc - I do NOT know what on earth we will do when we can't play outside every day....I guess we'll just end up spending a lot of time in the basement but I think we'll have to look into some classes for Jonah for once the weather is bad outside.  

  Have a great day!

Busy summer bees

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I realize I'm the worlds most sporadic blogger but we are busy bees over here!  

I am amazed at how quickly this mat leave is flying by...life with two babies sure is busy.  

This past month was filled with lots of fun. 

Meeting new friends: 

Liam and Grace

We met my friend Lauren's baby Grace a few weeks ago.  It was so fun to get the babies together to play.  I've known Lauren for forever so it's so fun to see her as a mom.  She's a natural.  We got the kids together again today for a morning at the art gallery.  It was great, the kids all loved it.  We got home from the city at around 1:30 and it was just beyond time for Jonah's nap so he didn't have one today...he did great considering, even made it through Sushi dinner tonight out.    

We spent a week up north at the cottage a week ago.  It was great having company all week long and extra hands to help with the boys.  Jonah had the time of his life with such a big audience and I loved the week up there with lots of people to visit with.  I really love being surrounded by our extended family.  As much as I'd be so happy with the two boys it's weeks like that that make me want an even bigger family.  I will remember it as the week that Adam serenaded us with background guitar music, we drank lots of David's Iced Tea and Jonah learned to say "Mami".  

Kissing the duck

Dressed up for his lady friends

Add caption

Who are you looking at? 

Banana Boat. 

We came home and had my nephew's Christening on Sunday.  It was a great day - my brother and sister in law have an amazing big backyard full of fun toys and Jonah loved running around with all the other kids. 

Backyard paradise!

And now since I only seem to get around to blogging once a month here are the kids monthly updates: 

Liam @ 4 months
Is sweet as can be.
Still likes to be swaddled when he sleeps - and still sleeps quite well.  
Just started to like going into the excersaucer and bumbo chair - loves to stand/sit up
Into reading books and really likes photoshoots
Is so vocal.  "talks" a lot more then I can remember Jonah ever doing so at his age.  It's cute.
Still shrimpy compared to Jonah, 14lbs10oz, and 43 inches long.  We had his 4 month apt yesterday and he's a bit light so I started a prescription to increase my milk supply...I'm also going to supplement a bit in the meantime...ideally I would like to nurse for 6 months like I did with Jonah but I'm open to whatever is going to be best/easiest for us both.

Jonah @ 21 months
Is a ball of energy.  The kid is go go go all the time and loves every minute of it.
The park in our neighbourhood just got totally redone with a foamy floor and two new play sets so he is loving that.  There's also a lot of construction in our neighbourhood which is great because every morning he gets up and says "Cwanes?" and I just open his curtains and voila there they are!  We also go on daily walks to find "Diggas".
Fave YouTube videos are Diggers and Sesame Street Feist.
Learned to blow his nose
So good at playing on his own, getting so creative with how he plays with toys, likes to stack, make piles etc.
Has lots of new words and starting to use them in the right context and combine some words to let us know what he wants: Up, Down, Weee, Crane, Digger, Truck, Helicopter (Hopter), Water, Boat, Doggie, Giraffe, Owl, Want (this is a big one "want up" "want water" (waaataaa).
Is quite clever I think.  When we drive by my mom's exit on the highway he knows and lets me know by shouting loudly "NANA!?!" "NONO?!?!"

I have been trying to get back into my scrappy groove - I find I get little bursts of time here and there so I need to be super organized.  After a hiatus I re-subscribed to Studio Calico and am loving getting a kit each month.

Here are a few of my latest pages:

A two pager!  I never do two pagers but had a lot of pictures that all sort of went together

Have a great day!

On being the mom of boys

Pin It Now! I need to preface the below by saying that I am first and foremost so thankful for two beautiful healthy babies.  I know that having a baby is something that so many long for and struggle with and I do appreciate how blessed we are.  

I never would have dreamed in my wildest dreams I would be the mom of boys.  It's not that I didn't want a boy - it's more that I just always expected to have a girl.  When we found out Jonah was a boy my feeling was "Great - a big brother" - and I always just assumed our second would be a girl.  I am a girl - friends with only girls, not a total girly girl but pretty close to it.  I think because of that I just never really considered having boys of my own.

When I found out that Liam was a boy I had a few days of feeling sort of funny about it.  Guilty for feeling like it was not what I had expected.  So quickly realizing that what would be was meant to be for our family.

Now that Liam is here I feel so foolish for ever questioning what was meant to be all along.  Of course Liam was meant to be here.  So we could be his parents.  So he could be our boy.  They are both such special gifts, such special souls that have been entrusted to us as parents.  Of course it was meant to be - I just didn't know it.

Jonah

• Taught me what it means to be a mom.   That sleeping on the floor of the living room beside him as an infant because he had a huge fever and it was too hot in his room was just totally the norm.  That putting myself first just wasn't an option or what I would choose even if I was made to -  that a "full nights" sleep just no longer exists the way it used to but somehow didn't matter anyway.  
• Is talking a lot - but getting so frustrated because what he says is still hard to understand and more times then not we have no clue what he means. 
• Lives totally in the moment.
• Likes to pretend talk on the phone to Nana and Nono "Haaay NahhNahh!" "Haaay NoohhNooh!"  
• Loves his dad. 

• Cries when he has to leave daycare.  I am glad he loves it so much but did have sort of hurt feelings - until one day last week when he woke up from his nap.  I picked him up and said "I love you" and he nuzzled in and gave me a big huge kiss smack on the lips without being asked.  
• Loves Ben - will give him kisses and hugs when they are in a room together and he doesn't know I'm watching.  
• Chased a flashlight around the house last night for a good while.  Was hysterical.  
• Loves twirling around and getting dizzy and falling down.  Will get up totally unfazed and move on.  Our baby linebacker - he must get knocked over a dozen times in a day and just gets up and keeps going.  Total boy.  Perfect for a big brother.  
• Will play his Handy Manny toolbox song and bop up and down and (I think) pretend to know the words but since he doesn't just say "OOOO" and close his eyes and smile.   I need to make a YouTube video of it.  I swear we'd make it onto the Ellen show it's so funny.  

Liam

• Is our Benjamin Buttons.  Such an old man soul.  
• So serene and sweet - such a calm placid demeanour 
• Has helped me realize that I need to take care of myself too.  His easy nature has afforded me the time to start to think about myself again.  To go to the gym.  To be rested.  To think about what I need to do for me plus 3.  
• Has strawberry birthmarks scattered around his body.  They'll go away by the time he's 5 or 6 and I'll miss them when they're gone.  
• Uses his hands a lot.  Loves to hold hands.    
• Is getting bigger but still so tiny baby compared to his brother at this age.  
• Loves to snuggle like a baby koala.  
• Is nothing that I was expecting but everything I ever wanted.   

Vacation recap

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We are back from a super fun week away in Florida.  We always have fun every time we go down but this was the first time I think that Jonah really enjoyed that we were there - he had a blast splashing around in the pools, swimming at the beach and going to the zoo.  Kirk and I had such a fun time too - riding bikes in the evening, going for walks and swimming - along with eating at some of our favourite places...and discovering new treats that we don't have in Canada like Chicago Popcorn (a mix of cheddar corn and carmel corn in one bag - yum!) and Cupcake Flavour goldfish graham crackers.  We went with my in laws which was a treat b/c it was there first time so we got to show them our favourite places.  I missed my parents because we normally go down with them but it made me excited to go back down with them in the fall.  It was the perfect amount of time away because by yesterday I think Jonah was started to get overtired and I was feeling ready to get back home into the swing of normal eating and living again but I sure enjoyed our week of indulgence.  

I took tons of pics and hope to print them and scrap them soon - here are a few of my faves: 

J's crocs - whenever I look back on my pics the everyday pics are the ones I tend to like most - I need to get better at taking more of these types of pictures: 

 Jonah enjoying the view at the zoo:

 Happy bathing babe:

 Sleepy beach Liam:

 Signs in Naples:

 The brothers celebrating Canada day south of the border:

In other news Liam is now 3 months old!  He just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter, full of coo's and likes to "talk".  He's still a great sleeper although this past week put him off a bit - we were just on the go all day so looking forward to a week at home to get back into our regular routine.  He really likes to be in his carseat and look around, he likes his swing but we didn't really miss it too much when we were away.  He's just such an easygoing sweet soul - he's like that informercial "set it and forget it" - I can put him down on a couch and walk away and I'll go back to check on him five minutes later and he'll be dozing away.  He goes to the dr. this week so we'll get his latest weight and height but I think he's feeling heavier these days.  He was a great little flyer - I feel like his monthly updates don't change much - but we really are blessed that he is such an easy little babe because Jonah is a going concern (in a good way)- so full of "piss and vinegar" (Ha that expression kills me).