... This is after having her needle?!?

... 10:30 pm, she was watching overtime hockey, grabbed Matthew's hockey stick and started yelling up the stairs for Daddy to come play hockey with her.  I have a funny feeling that she might be the hockey player of the family :)

....11 pm last night after multiple attempts to try get her to go to sleep.  She was literally like this from the minute we left the health centre after getting her 18 month booster.  !?! 

Victoria Day Long Weekend ~ Exploring the Science Centre

M has been asking us since January to go back to the Science Centre!   We decided to make a trek down to it on Sunday morning.    As it is right by the zoo, my first thought was to do both, but upon leaving the science centre around noon, the line up to get in the zoo PARKING LOT, was about 5 km down the freeway!!! I've NEVER seen it like that before.  Think we made the better choice :)

Both kids enjoy the science centre so it's a good place for us to go!  K's favourite part is of course anything to do with water... M ~ anything that he can cut, glue or take apart :)

Happy Day!

K recently picked up the phrase "Happy Day" and since we laughed at it an thought it was cute, now skips around the house saying it repeatedly, or announces it whenever she wants a laugh and a tickle from Mommy :)

M's 5th Birthday Party

Matthew's 5th Birthday Party was a LEGO building bash!    Everything was in LEGO colors and there was a cake made out of LEGO!

 

When the guests arrived they had fun decorating their own LEGO man/girl that we used as decorations.

Little Miss K wanted to be a part of the action as well!  She decided to eat the crayons instead of color with them though :(



Here the kids are showing off their lego cars.  Everyone was given a bag with wheels and a base to design a creative car that they would later race down a ramp.  The kids had a blast with this!

Here is the proud birthday boy and his cake.  Can't believe he's 5 years old!  So grown up!

All the little friends together...

Opening presents...

Overall a thumbs up from the guests and the birthday boy!





Little Miss Katie-Pie

Dear Katelyn,

Well, this is your first official blog post! (we won't dwell on the fact that you're 3 1/2 months old already...)
My oh my, where has the time gone?
It was only a millisecond ago that this was you...





...and then I blinked and you were already wearing little dresses....



And now look, you've already become an Oilers fan! Boy oh boy...




Well, sweetie pie, Mommy is gonna try really hard to keep up the blog again because
before I know it, your two little feet will be running around the house and I'll want to be sure I've saved as many memories as I can!

So here we go ......

And this is why I don't have hardwood floors

Update: Not sure why video isn't working.... working on it!


... And this is also why my walls have paint chips missing all over the place! All M wants to do lately is play "Hockey Night in Canada!!!"

Two Little Feet is taking a break for a while....

Hey there...

Guess you've wondered why I haven't posted for a while...

Not sure why, but I just can't.   Think it's maybe the whole baby thing.  I'm still keeping this blog alive, but I'm going to put it away for a while with hopes that some day another little set of two little feet will grace its pages....

for now, please visit us at http://www.whenigetasec.blogspot.com/

Thanks for understanding,
Erin

Home Sweet Home

We attempted to go to Banff this past weekend... but it wasn't meant to be!

We packed up after I got home from work on Friday and drove to meet Daddy who was golfing with Uncle Clint in Kananaskis. We got as far as the exit of Auburn Bay when Matthew proclaimed "I have to poop!".. "Really?" I said, I mean, he didn't have to go 5 minutes ago when we left. So, we turned around and headed back home.

45 minutes later.. we were ready to go again! Just then the phone rang and it was my neighbour. "are you busy?", she asked. "uh.. no..." I said, not quite sure how to answer... "ok, I'm bringing supper over!". She has a habit of doing this and she spoils us! Ok, I thought, guess this means we don't have to stop at McDonalds! It couldn't have been more perfect timing. So, we sat down and had a quick supper.

Try #2 to leave at about 5:30. We got as far as the second exit from our house on the freeway and Matthew said "Mommy, Pee is coming!"... ok, quick detour! I exited and went to the gas station parking lot only to find that he'd already peed his pants. And don't ask why I thought he could stay in his big boy undies before we left.... Pull up it was!

We got 5 more minutes down the road and hit a wall of traffic. I might have known this had I not had to already put Max and Ruby on the dvd player. The rule in our house is the DVD player is only used for long trips. Banff was classified as a long enough trip, so Matthew insisted the DVD be started the minute our wheels got rolling.

Apparently, someone spilled a bunch of diesel on the road, so we had to take a huge detour. We finally made it out of town and picked up Daddy and headed to Banff.

We had rented in what was supposed to be a very nice resort... but it wasn't. Well, at least the room they put us in wasn't. We were half in the basement, half not with only 1 little window in the bedroom (like a basement one) and one under the carport. The bathroom was so small you couldn't fit 2 people in it at once and the bath tub looked yucky. There was NO airconditioning and there were two queen beds that had mattress covers on them that didn't stay still... i.e. it seemed like a lump of blankets under the sheets.

Poor Matthew... cried and said he wanted to go home and didn't want to stay in the "crappy" hotel. We had a fan running full blast on us all night, but no one really slept at all.

We got up the next morning, tried to have a better outlook on things and went into town. We did have a very nice lunch together and Matthew was well behaved for us!

(a few pictures from the blackberry...)

Enjoying his milk....



Goofing off with Daddy....




Future Bono....





So after lunch, we went back to the hotel and tried to put Matthew down for a nap, and again he cried to go home. By now, we were all feeling like we were forcing ourselves to stay somewhere that wasn't feeling much like a vacation at all. So, we renegotiated the rate from the night before and checked out.

We got home about 4 and enjoyed the rest of our weekend in our home, sweet home...

p.s. we will try the weekend away again, but not unless I know someone who has stayed at a place before! You can't trust what those websites say!

Say it LOUDER Mommy!

Every night at bedtime.. Matthew and I have a little chat about his day. Every day brings a new topic and new funny things out of his little mind!

Today's theme was "Say it LOUDER Mommy!" It went like this....

m: Mommy is going to go buy some baby clothes and a crib and some pjamas and a top for the baby!

(now, don't read anything into that....)

M: Who's baby are we buying this for?

m: (thinks...) Kate's sister... Kate's sister is a baby! Yeah... that would be fun... say it louder Mommy! That would be fun!

M: That would be fun Matthew!

m: Yeah!

... talks to himself for a while, Mommy tells him it's time to sleep...

m: Mommy's going to go buy some fruit tomorrow.. yeah.. some plums and avocadoes! Yeah... that would be fun Mommy! Say it Louder Mommy! That would be fun!

M: (starting to giggle to myself).. Yes, Matthew, that would be fun!

... more time passes...

m: Matthew's going to give some toys to Grandma and Grandpa!

M: What kind of toys are you giving them?

m: A **** (Mommy had no idea what he said, even though I asked 3 times)... Say it Louder Mommy! That would be fun!

M: Laughing outloud now... Yes, Matthew, that would be FUN!!

And on and on it went.... and we had FUN!

Too Hot!

30 is just too hot for me. I'm good enough with mid twenties!
Yesterday morning we went over to our friends Ale, Juan & Eva to take a few pictures for them. Ale gave birth to their 2nd daughter, Ada, by c-section today. We had planned to do pictures later, but Ada decided to come sooner!



Matthew and Ava had a blast playing outside in the pool!

Matthew's 2 Year Pictures

Slowly but surely, I get a few of Matthew's 2 year pictures edited every day.... here's a few of the finished shots:

This and That

..... Matthew absolutely loves our strawberry patch. He checks it every day, telling me "this one's red Mommy!" to which I have to reply, "No, that one's not quite red enough yet... sorry buddy!" ... and then he usually goes and picks it when I'm not looking anyway!



We have a pesky Robin who also thinks that he is as much entitled to the strawberry patch as Matthew is. I feel so bad when we go out and find one that is ripe, only to pick it and find out it has little beak marks in it! I think I'll have to make a trip to the garden centre for some netting soon... I'm betting my lettuce crop is next on his list. Sheesh! It was the bunny last year, and now the robin!




Tia gave him a run for his money on Saturday. He didn't see her laying right beside the strawberry patch. I heard a big kerfuffle and some squawking and turned around and there must have been 30 feathers in the air!







And just for fun, here's a cat with an attitude, who was ticked that he just got caught escaping from the backyard, yet again.....




-------------------

In other news, Matthew has been asking the famous "What's that Mommy?" for a few months now. I swear he must ask 300 times some days! My neighbour warned me a while back that it gets better...

Today, while settling down for his nap, Matthew asked me what the noise was that he heard. "That's Daddy mowing the lawn outside", I replied. He contemplated for a moment, and then I heard....

WHY?????

And from then on, it has been...

"Matthew it's time for supper." WHY?????

"Matthew it's hair wash night." WHY???? "Because your hair is dirty!" WHY??

And you can imagine the fun we're going to have from here!! I thought making up "what's" were hard enough, but "why" is going to be a whole lot more fun!


------------

While reading a story tonight, Matthew saw a picture of a kangaroo riding on a bike! I was prepared for him to ask me what that was or why the kanagroo was on a bike, but instead he said "Kangaroo's not wearing a helmet!!"

Yes, naughty kangaroo!! He was quite concerned. Maybe I should colour one in the book! Wow, nothing gets past Mr. M.

When You're Two...

I guess when you turn two, you turn into a big boy. Big boys like to play cars. Matthew has taken a particular liking to Car washes. We can drive by a gas station and he can always point out when and where there are car washes! So, of course, we had to make him his own car wash. We have also made lego carwashes with masking tape "hoses"... all Matthew's own idea!

Matthew's "Happy Birthday"!

Last week, we celebrated Matthew's "Happy Birthday" with a big party full of lots of kids, laughter and fun! As Matthew's "friends" are only 2 years old... we thought it appropriate that they come with parents (don't you?) so we had a houseful!

The theme was Sesame Street, and particularly Matthew's favourite... Elmo!

We had hoped to play outside with the kids. I rented some fun backyard equipment including a jumping house, slide and tunnel system. I had watched the weather all week with crossed fingers, hoping that the 40% chance of rain wouldn't materialize, but it wasn't meant to be.

Around noon, it hailed ferouciously, and was very cold outside, which didn't make for a lot of fun. So what were we to do?

Bring the fun INSIDE of course!








I sent Daddy to Superstore to buy a new tarp... we emptied our living room of almost all furniture.. and voila! An instant playgound.

For added fun, I had been walking through the dollar store and found some really cute fishing sets with little magnetic fish and fishing poles! For the price that they were, I couldn't resist picking them up to make a little fishing game for the kids.




The cake was, of course, Elmo! (with a little help from my friend Bridget)



with some little cupcake friends to go along, made by myself.



We all had a little lunch,



and birthday cake of course!



We said good-bye to all of our friends and enjoyed the evening, playing with new presents, which Matthew got right into!



What a fun day for all.. but thank goodness it's only once a year!

Dear Matthew...

May 12, 2009

My dear baby... wow, you turn two years old today. Two years old! Who could have imagined how much you changed my life in these two little years. You were a little blue bundle when I brought you home and now you wouldn't even fit in your car seat if I tried!

I went from changing itty bitty diapers to bigger diapers and now I hardly change diapers at all, I help you put on your big boy pull ups instead..... your big boy pullups.... your big boy everything.... you sure aren't a baby any more, but you'll always be my baby.

Boy, do you ever want to be a big boy right now though! You want to do everything that Mommy does and you love to help me make pancakes in the kitchen, and you always want to "flip" them in the pan. You like to sneak veggies from me when I'm making supper and you're favourite spot is smack dab in the middle of our island where you have access to all of Mommy's kitchen toys. You will be an expert baker soon... you can even measure the baking soda all by yourself already!

I can't find the middle piece of our vacuum because I've removed it so many times to make a mini floor vacuum for you, that it got lost! You have your own toy vacuum, but it's nothing like the real thing and you sure know the difference. Although, Uncle Mark bought you a toy lawn mower for your birthday and you sure think that is fun to run up and down the hallways with.. but that is because you don't remember what the real lawn mower sounds like, you just wait Daddy!

I love that you still love to be my baby. I love that you learned the word "nuggle" and although sometimes after I've had my arm stretched around you until it's falling asleep and I try to sneak away and even though I think you're asleep, and you snap it right back into place, I have a brief moment of wanting to pull it away, but I know that the "nuggle" stage isn't going to last forever and I try to savour every moment I can.

You started swimming lessons a little while ago.. you are hit and miss with the water, but you sure love to go to "Donalds" afterwards. You will sit yourself at a booth and polish off an entire hamburger (no cheese, ketchup only thank-you very much) and a milkshake... or chocolate milk... or both....

I am thrilled at how much you love to read. Sometimes I'm so tired at the end of the day that I just want to go to bed myself, but I will read as many books as you want because I never want you to lose the love of reading... (it just means we have to start the bedtime routine at 6:00 some nights!

You already knew how to walk when you turned one, but now you know how to run. I love when I open the door upon coming home from work and you bolt around the corner and straight towards daddy and I with a big hug! It makes my day! You tell us all about your day and the fun you had and it makes my heart feel less guilty about going to work each day and not being with you.

I started your second year being "Mama" but just recently became "Mommy". I wasn't thrilled about the change at the start because it's just another thing that isn't a baby and is a little boy, but you melt my heart every time I come into the room and you smile big and say "Hi Mommy!"

Your transition from a crib to a bed was an easy one. We went to California in February and you didn't want to have any part of sleeping in a play pen, so the only other choice was to give you your own bed...with all the dining room chairs firmly around it! From that point on, there was no more crib.. you wanted a big boy bed, so a big boy bed we bought you and you have loved to show it off to everyone who visits, ever since.

You love hockey and golf and I'm sure it's because your Daddy always has them on tv! But you love "Don" even more and let us know every time he comes on TV during the hockey game. You recently discovered that a "man sings O Canada" and once and a while give me a one verse rendition of the song yourself.

It wasn't long ago that I was posting about how you learned this word or that word, but before long, I couldn't keep up! You say everything and anything now and you're even talking in full sentences once and a while! I couldn't believe my ears when I asked you to tell me a story the other day and you started to say "One Day, Allison and Emily (your park friends) went to the park...." Wow! You know your numbers, although it took until this week to convince you that you were only turning 2 and not 3, and you're starting to learn your ABC's too. You can name almost everything in the Richard Scary word book and you routinely point out "Big Truck", "motorcycle" or "tractor" when you see them as we're driving!

Some more things about you....

~ Blankie is still your favourite comfort item... Boo Bear is a distant second
~ You are just over 32 lb and almost 36" tall
~ the cutest things you say are "pocables" and "hicksups"
~ Your favourite tv shows are Sesame Street, Night Garden and Franklin
~ Your favourite books are Mouse Cookie and Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb
~ Your favourite food is anything in a bun, which you call a hamburger
~ You still want warm milk at bedtime in a "baby cup"
~ You are 1/2 potty trained, all on your own doing
~ You play pretend on the phone and say "hello, how are you?.... good!" over and
over
~ You are still so darn cute!

By the time I write this post again, you aren't even going to be a toddler any more. You will be playing sports and riding your bike and an even bigger, little boy than you are today. Thank-you for being the light of my life and I look forward to all of the stories, games and fun that we will have in the years to come.

All my love,
Mommy

Direct from the (almost) 2 year old ~ April 30 edition

from April 29

m: mama wear bandaid on finger.... dada wear bandaid on nose! Yeah.

I believe referring to the breath-right strips Daddy wears at night, but how he equated that to a bandaid, I'm not sure!

m: Hi MOMMY, Hi DADDY!

what? no more mama and dada??? I'm really sad! Well, I still get mama once and a while, but all of a sudden it's now maaaaaa-meeeeee!!!


April 30 at approx. 5:02 a.m.

m: Mama make fench toast for Maffew, now!!!

I think that is the current record for most words put together in a sentence!!

Straight from the (almost) 2 Year Old

April 28, 2009
Matthew does NOT want his diaper on after his bath.... he does NOT want his pjamas on after his bath... Mommy tries everything she can think of and finally says

M: Matthew if you don't put your jammies on, Mommy will be sad.

Matthew looks at Mommy and thinks for a minute....


m: Uncle Bian Sad.......

M: Pardon Matthew? Why is Uncle Brian sad?

m: Mama happy......

m: Gama happy...... yeah...

m: Uncle Bian Sad..... fames lost....


He's probably right. Uncle Brian probably is sad that his flames lost.

April 29: Update:

m: Uncle Bian happy! Not Sad....

guess he got over the Flames quickly...

We have some catching up to do.....

It's been a while, I know. So, we have some catching up to do! (and I must apologize for the quality of the pictures I've put up here lately. My good camera's battery died and we have to get it replaced... soon hopefully..)

It will hopefully be spring for good.... soon. We are supposed to get snow again this week, but the nice thing is snow at this time of year doesn't usually stay too long! Here is Matthew a while back, enjoying one of the first nice days of spring (when it wasn't quite warm enough for a hat yet, so we mofified his toque!



just doing a little sightseeing around the neighbourhood!




*******************************************************************************

Matthew has been going to "school" (as he calls it), or a toddler group, (as we call it), every Saturday morning since February. He has loved it! It has been a good mix of singing and dancing and playing with other kids and his favourite part... painting!

Each Saturday there was a different theme. On one of the Saturdays, the theme was fairytales and so all the kids got to dress-up as we sang their songs. First they dressed as knights, and then as kings, and then as.....

Fairies!! Yep, thank goodness I had my camera that day because I am betting that I may never see Matthew in a fairy costume again! Considering the class was about 75% boys, we all had quite a chuckle at the little "fairies" dancing around with their magic wands and wings!





As much as he looked forward to the "painting" portion of the class each week, he wasn't too impressed with the fairy wand that was the craft for the day. It didn't see any magical action once we got home.



But who can resist shaking sprinkles on anything!



*******************************************************************************

We enjoyed a short trip to Edmonton over Easter weekend. Edmonton has always been one of our favourite places to go and Matthew just loves staying in a hotel and playing in new playgrounds!

When we returned, we tried our hands at dying Easter Eggs for the first time! You should have seen Matthew's face when the first egg came out of the dye. He thought eggs should be colored all of the time!







There's nothing better than a bowl full of chocolate!