Broccoli for the win!

I was making some not so healthy hot dogs for lunch today, and decided to throw some broccoli, and cauliflower on the plate, along with some ranch dressing to make it a bit healthier. The Princess comes in, see's me making lunch, and the dialogue went a bit like this:


Princess: "Is that broccoli Momma?"

Me: "Yep."

Princess: "Oooooh, I love broccoli, and I just miss broccoli, and it's my best friend."

Me: "You miss broccoli?"

Princess: "Naahhhh, I'm just kidding. But it's just my treat Momma!"

Me: "Yea, it's pretty good, eh?"

Wow, I can't even believe that conversation. Considering this is a child that looooooves junk food, I'm impressed. Sure enough, she's finished her lunch, and the broccoli and cauliflower are gone, and the hot dogs remain hardly touched on her plate.



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I guess I am a huge geek

So The Princess, The booger Head, my Mom, and I were waiting in the doctor's office the other day. My Mom was reading a book to Nyla, when I heard her talking about Jedi's. She turned to me, pointing to a picture of Yoda, and the dialogue went like this:

Mom:  While pointing to Yoda, "Is this a Jedi?"

Me: "Uhh, yea, that's Yoda, like the master of all Jedi's(kind of)."

Mom: "Oh, well I don't know, I don't follow Star Trek."

Me: laughing, "Uhh, this is star wars."

I love you Mom

but this pretty much sums up how I feel sometimes when watching you use the computer(don't hate me).

Watching Other People Use a Computer

four month shots, and my spirited child

Booger Head had his four month check up today. Weight check was good, 18Ibs 6oz. Carlos is such an awesome doctor. Two needles, at the same time, in the thigh, less than 3 seconds. Hardly even a cry this time. He got his first shots with Dr Parkinson(Carlos was on vacation), and it was horrible! One shot, 5-10 seconds of agony as she pushed the syringe in, then only to be repeated in the other thigh, with the next shot. He screamed like I've never heard him before!

So I kept hearing about this book, Raising your spirited child, on an online parenting forum I frequent, and it kept calling out to me. So I spotted it at the library the other day, and decided to check it out. Wow, it almost describes The Princess perfectly. The basic definition of a spirited child is they are just like regular children, but more. For example, a regular child when being surprised with a trip to the park would probably have a big smile, and be like, "Yay!! We're going to the park! Yippee". When we tell The Princess we are going to the park as a surprise she's like, "HOLY SHIT, REALLY??? OH MY GOD I LOVE GOING TO THE PARK, ARE WE GOING RIGHT NOW, AND CAN I BRING ALL MY TOYS, AND CAN WE GET SOME ICE CREAM, AND PLAY WITH ALL THE KIDS, AND GO DOWN THE SLIDE A MILLION TIMES, AND NEVER NEVER NEVER COME HOME, CAN WE CAN WE CAN WE!!!!!?". Of course, not in those exact words, but that's essentially what she wants to say I'm sure. Unfortunately it works the other way around too. Most kids(2 almost 3 year olds), when asked to do something they don't want to do, like say getting dressed for the day(one of our recent constant struggles), might say no, and walk away, maybe have a small tantrum or something like that. The Princess is like, "NOOOO, I CAN'T TAKE MY TINKERBELL JAMMIES OFF OR I MIGHT DIE! I HATE YOU FOR TRYING TO MAKE ME, AND WILL NEVER GET DRESSED EVERRRRR MUAHAHAHA, YOU CAN'T MAKE ME, AND I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU SUFFER BY DRAGGING THIS OUT TO TAKE A MINIMUM OF A HALF HOUR, AND DON'T EVEN THINK OF FORCING ME, OR I'LL SCRATCH MY OWN FACE SO IT LOOKS LIKE I'M ABUSED, MUAHAHAH!". Again, not in those exact words, but I think you can get the gist of her tone.

I'm looking forward to reading some of the suggestions this book has for me.

The Booger Head Rolls

Today is two days after he turned four months old, and he rolled over from belly to back today! Four month shots later today, booo :(

Bottle vs. Breast

Wow, I didn't realize just how important it is to breastfeed until after I read this article. I mean, I always knew it was better, but I never realized that formula feeding is considered 4th best, and possibly even dangerous.

http://www.breastfeeding.com/reading_room/what_should_know_formula.html

And please, all my friends who formula feed, please don't take offense to my posting this, that is not the intent. I was formula fed. I just want to share knowledge.

I also wish there was a way I could control what ads showed on my site, so as not to promote formula.

Sleep

Another night last night of hardly any sleep. Poor booger head is teething I think. It felt like he woke up every 1/2hr. I'm sooo tired today. He even woke the princess up. Maybe I'll be able to trick her into a nap today. I probably should have given him some Tylenol, but I could hardly open my eyes, let alone think about how much Tylenol I needed to give, and to actually get it into him.

What did/do you do when your kids wake at night? I'm really not interested in just letting him cry. If I did, no one would get any sleep, as our house is so small you can hear everything. Besides It's just not something I believe in for babies. I know if I were tiny and helpless, I wouldn't want to be left to cry by myself. If your interested in why I believe this, here and here are just a couple of really good articles about the topic.

Right now, I try a pacifier, if that doesn't work, then I nurse him, still not, change the diaper, and then bounce on a yoga ball until he falls back asleep. This is what's working right now. I know this stage won't last forever, but while your in the middle of it, it sure feels like a long time.

Do you know what the number one cause of death for Canadian children is?

Mason jars as blender carafe's!!

Did you know that standard size mason jars will fit onto the blade section of a blender?? I just learned this today, and am soooo excited about the possibilities! Quick smoothies, all ready to go, just pop a lid on, and take to work. Soups for freezing already in the jar, no extra cleaning of the blender jar. Possibilities are endless! Ok, so it's not as exciting now that I've typed this out, but I think it is pretty clever, and can't wait to try it out.

Dearest Children

Dear Children of Mine,

Please sleep tonight. That is all.

Love Mom.

Friday's, and Kombucha.

Woohoo it's Friday again! That means, lots of yummy fruit and veggies from the farmers market at the Oshawa Center, and Darryl is off work early!! Even while being on maternity leave, there's still just something special about Friday's. I know there's not a whole lot going on this weekend, even being labour day weekend, but I'm still excited that it's Friday night. Friday, the word has almost lost all meaning now...

Anyway, I've been wanting to try kombucha since forever. It's supposed to be this awesome super healthy tea. It's a fermented drink, which is naturally carbonated, and full of good bacteria. I finally found some at my local health food store. It's from kombucha wonder drink. It's pretty good. I tried the traditional flavour. I'm going to ask them if they can order the cherry flavour, which sounds awesome.

F U garbage truck driver!!

I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the park yesterday, even though it was a zillion degrees outside. So I loaded Booger head into the stroller, and the Princess and I walked over to the park at the end of our street. We were playing on the playground while Booger head watched on from his stroller. All of a sudden a garbage truck starts driving across the field, heading directly toward the stroller!

In all fairness, there was a garbage can beside the park, but the driver didn't need to head directly towards my stroller, he was just being a jerk. He obviously doesn't have kids. He probably thought he was pretty funny scaring the crap out of me like that. Well, eff you garbage truck guy!

And while I'm on the topic of parks, why is it that almost all parks offer no shade. I've only been to one park in Toronto where the whole park was shaded by trees. It's always so hot in the middle of summer. Splash pads are great, but only select parks have them, and really that's only for the kids. What about the adults, and babies who are forced to stand around in the hot sun and scorch to death. Not to mention the kids whose faces are beat red from running around in the heat. Someone needs to do a redesign, for all parks to have shade.

Ok, so maybe I have some form of ADD?

I always do this. I get soo excited about something, my mind goes a mile a minute planning all the awesome things I want to do/say. For instance right now, I'm excited about blogging again. So naturally I WANT TO BLOG ABOUT EVERY LITTLE THING THAT I THINK IS MILDLY ENTERTAINING. This is where it goes wrong. I have sooo many ideas, I have a hard time choosing what to actually focus on, and then usually nothing gets done. Hopefully this time its not like that.

I hope to be able to make money from my blog, and never work again! How awesome would that be??? It would be an awesome career for me. I have sooo many interests, but nothing that interests me enough to want to do it for years on end. I have considered so many careers, but I ultimately find something irritating enough about it that makes me not want to do it. Blogging is perfect for that. Now all I have to do is figure out how to become popular, funny and or interesting, and then how to actually make money from this!

I think my main focus will be on my kids still. Kids are pretty entertaining!

So we have some blue now in the house

I now have another child. It's a boy. His name is Ian, and he's 3 months old. I doubt I'll be able to change the name of my blog, but it's not all gonna be princesses and pink shoes anymore, no matter how much princess Nyla objects.

Inspired

I've been totally inspired lately to be a blogger. I've been reading through this awesome blog http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/. The writer is hilarious, and so creative! Lets hope I can follow through with my inspiration.

Tantrums and how to respond

An amazing article I just read: http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/lauren_lindsey_porter2.html
If you have kids, please take the time to read it through.

I have been having a bit of a rough time with Nyla lately. She has starting throwing what seems like hourly tantrums. I mean every little thing that doesn't go her way, she needs to throw herself on the ground, turn red, and scream at the top of her lungs.

I used to be pretty good at remaining calm throughout them, but lately have found myself loosing it more and more easily. I mean, I'm not being abusive by any means, I just havn't been handling stuff the way I would like to. I end up either walking away and leaving her to finish it out on her own(while sometimes having my own mini tantrum in another room, lol), or yelling her name out in frustration. In the end, what I'm doing is making things worse, and I always feel really bad, and end up apologizing to her afterwards. This isn't good enough for me. She deserves more respect than that. I don't want to be on that constant loop, of oh well, if I screw up, I'll just apologize later.

That article really resonated with me, and I'm going to try to be more like the Mom I want to be.

The neighbour

I am working night shift this weekend, so Darryl took Nyla over to the park to give me some peace and quiet in the house. While he was over there one of our neighbours' little girls was there, and she just loves Nyla, so the two of them had a blast and played for about 2-3 hrs. The girl is probably about 8yrs old, if I had to guess.

So later on we just about finished dinner when I heard a knock at the door. I went to go get it, and it was the girl. She wanted to know if Nyla could come out to play, lol. I told her we were in the middle of dinner, and it wasn't a good time right now, not to mention she's too little to come outside by herself. She didn't really take the hint, and continued on making conversation. A little bit later, Darryl and Nyla came over to talk to her too, at the door, with the door open, and air conditioner running.

Somehow she managed to invite herself in, and was playing with Nyla. I was in a bit of a rush, getting ready for work, and didnt really have any patience at the moment. I really wasn't thrilled that she didn't listen the first time I said not a good time right now. I was desparatly trying to think of a way to get her to leave, without being rude. Finally I asked her if her Mom knew she was here. No, of course not, "yes a way out", I thought! So I told her I don't think her Mom would like it if she was in our house(basically strangers, we don't know them well beyond saying hi when crossing paths), and that she should go. Well, she comes back with, "Ok, I'll be right back, I'll go ask her if I can". Ugh, I think to myself, "Ok, I'm an adult, I can tell her to get out of my house, in a polite way". So I tell her, "No, its really not a good time right now, I think you should go home, or to the park, or wherever it is you're supposed to be". She turned around, and stormed out. I hope she wasn't crying.

Oh well. I'm sure this will be the first of many kids I will have to stand my ground with. Ugh, sometimes being an adult is hard.

Aurora Borealis

I am a member of an online community called thebabywearer.com. It's an awesome forum of Moms coming together to help with parenting advice, sharing of arts and crafts, venting about problems, sharing in the joys of life, and basically any sort of support you might need. It's great for getting an outside perspective on life. Nothing is quite the same as feeling like you're completely alone on an issue, only to find out many many people across the world share your opinion.

Most important of all we are coming together to share our love for keeping our babies close, ie babywearing. I've always found the term babywearing kind of weird to use, but eh oh well. There is a sub-forum there to buy/sell/trade babycarriers, and other used baby items. It can get kinda crazy. I love it though, and have gotten a couple of pretty good deals there myself.

Because this is such an awesome community of Moms, there is ocassionally Moms out there who send their baby carriers out on tour across the world. This gives people the chance to try things out that they may never be able to otherwise. I am so lucky to be able to participate in one of these instances. I have a baby carrier right now, that is a Didymos Chiara, which has been dyed a one of kind dye job using non-toxic dyes. It is so pretty. I wish I could keep it, but atleast I get to try it out for week. The Mom who is sending across Canada, and the US also included a little journal for us to write in, or have our kids draw in, or whatever we feel like. She will be saving this journal, along with the wrap to pass onto her daughter when she has kids. We are also supposed to upload pictures to the site to share what we did with the wrap while it is visiting. Its pretty cool to see it go from one Mom to the next, and get to see some scenery from across north america.

I've only had it 2 days, but here's some pics so far:

This is the morning we got it, I unraveled it, and Nyla instantly wanted to give it some hugs(ignore the laundry in the background, lol).

We had to try it out of course.

And then she had to wrap her baby up

Playing with her BCK's(which is what she call's her ABC's), handsfree, but still holding her baby, lol.

I'm planning on going for a hike in the Rouge Valley later this week, to show off some of the gorgeous scenery Canada has to offer. Not too sure where else to go. I don't think the crack heads of Oshawa have much to offer, lol.

Camping at Emily park

A few weekends ago we went camping at Emily park. I have to say, I don't think I'll be going camping again this year. It was so frustrating. Nyla didn't want to stay at the campsite. It was a constant battle to keep her from running across the street. Many temper tantrums were thrown.

It wasn't all bad though.

Getting ready to go to the beach:

Walking with grandma:

Stomping the sand castles:

Building with Daddy:

The "Adults" playing with Nyla's toys:

Grandma's Hammerhead shark:

Stopped for some ice cream on the way back:

About an hour later, lol:

Grandma playing with her new puppy:

This is what we reluctantly resorted to in order to cook dinner, and sit for a few minutes. Thank-you Grandma for bringing that!!

Reading with Amanda(thanks Amanda!):

Beating the heat

Darryl, Sean, Josh and Cliff redid the garage roof a few weeks ago. It was rediculously hot out, and we couldn't play in the yard, so this is was Nyla did for the day, lol. So simple, and yet she played for hours.