Remember last Monday?

Remember when I was an actual blogger and posted things in some type of coherent order? And actually within a reasonable amount of time, so as to make my posts kind of timely and in context of actual life?

Yeah. Me neither.

So HALLOWEEN! It was on Monday. Like 5 days ago... So? What are you gonna do about it? That's right, I'm just getting around to posting about it now. AFTER my rant about Blockbuster closing down and the obliteration of an entire era of movie renting for a generation (me) and the subsequent art of living life unplanned + at the last minute (us) and the beauty of purchasing bad-for-you-food in an impulse, yet justifiable setting (REESE BITES).

I had priorities, okay?

So back to the offspring. And their Halloween stuff...

We carved our pumpkins during the chaos of Sunday afternoon football transition (aka just before the 4 o'clock games started). It was all before dinner, but after nap-time convenient like, and featured: 1) a distracted Daddy wielding a sharp knife, 2) a grumpy baby who could have TOTALLY slept for another half hour if it wasn't for her stompy, loud-as-an-elephant-in-high-heels sister, and 3) a 4 year old who was about as INTO pumpkin carving as she has been in the prior 2 years we've been foisting this tradition onto her. Which is to say, NOT AT ALL INTO IT.

Yo - this is gross, y'all.

Monday morning I got Maddie dressed up for school, only to walk back home, guzzle 2 cups of tea, get my darling Kates also dressed up (completely against her will and better judgement) and trek back to the school 15 minutes later for the Kindergarten parade. Which turned out to be possibly my favourite moment thus far in unemployment - and now I know, for the future, take Halloween day off. Because being able to attend shit like that? Is THE Awesome.

Hey Mom! Look! I'm in a parade!

The rest of the afternoon was spent with me trying to convince Maddie that, no, it wasn't time to go trick or treating yet, and no, she didn't need to wear her costume for the ENTIRE day. It wouldn't, like, negate her ability to earn candy later on or anything, if she just took off her princess dress for 5 seconds to eat her pizza. I also tried to get a cute, non-costumed-pic of the girls wearing their Halloween shirts.

It didn't work out so well... 

By the time it was late enough that the girls could actually GO trick or treating, Katie was ready to pass out. She didn't nap so well - still sick from the weekend (teeth + cankers on her tongue (eww) = horrid weekend for her + us) - so she was a bit of a zombie before and during. But zombies are in, right? And yes (because I know you're wondering), Cinderella DID come by our house and THREW UP PRINCESS CRAP ALL OVER our Maddie. If it was plastic and sparkly or light blue, she wore it.

Zombie Butterfly FTW! We are so current.

In the end, we collected enough candy that Maddie actually had to come home and trade in her swanky McDonald's happy meal bucket for another - and since I have her on a strict 2-3 treats per day ration, I expect the candy should last us right until I get the Christmas baking started.

Which means she'll be on a sugar high for approximately 7 weeks.

Saaaa-weeet.

xxoo.S

Content

Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age...or maybe it was the two glasses of wine with dinner - but I had the urge to share: I am content. More than that - right now, in this exact moment in this sliver of time, I'm feel lucky. Fortunate. Just...happy.

Is that really effing annoying to write? Are you reading this rolling your eyes and snorting with disdain? If so, I'm sorry... because there's more...


We spent the weekend building a playset. This big cedar swingset / fort / slide / picnic table. It is, in a word, effing AWESOME. And fits so perfectly in the back corner of our backyard it's almost hard to imagine that it was never there.

Except for the sore arms. And backs. And just pure body exhaustion that comes from two full days of hard graft. But it's a good tired. A "job-well-done" kind of tired.

And I can already foresee hours upon hours of happy playtime for my girls. And that? Is one of the reasons I'm so content.

And thank you to Gramma and Grandpa Vallier for visiting this weekend and helping us get the monstrosity up. We couldn't have done it without your help.

My girls are happy.

And so am I.

Happy Sunday,

xxoo.S

Took the words right out of my mouth

After a rather late evening (entertaining friends over the holidays is always fun, but makes those 4am wake ups especially difficult) we were taking advantage of a bit of sleep in courtesy of the girls. That is, until I woke up to hearing Maddie chit-chatting away through the monitor that is in Katie's room.

When I poked my head into the room, Maddie was standing beside her crib on the bathroom stool, trying to "feed" Katie using a dolly bottle. The mobile over her crib was on, there were several stuffies in Katie's crib and a random doll blanket. Katie was smiling her way through all the attention, loving her sister's attempts at "taking care of her".

I smiled at the scene and asked Maddie what she was up to.

Her response (still makes me chuckle a bit)...

"It was wake up time. I looked in your room, but I didn't see you Mommy. Then I came in Katie's room and I was just buggering around in here..."

Took the words right out of my mouth...

xxoo.S

(And yes, while incredibly adorable, it did make my heart jump a bit that I had slept through clearly about 10 minutes of administered attention, which means Katie's doorhandle has a childlock in it's future.)

Matching

I bought these matching dresses before Katie was even born - daydreaming of my radiant post-pg self with my two gorgeous girls in their matching sundresses enjoying the sunny summertime loveliness - very stress-free, very idyllic.

Um, right.

So a few weeks ago, realizing that summer has left us for well and good this year and they still haven't worn these dresses I bought back in the flush of spring, I thought we'd take advantage of the mid-afternoon sun in my bedroom for a... (say it with me) Photoshoot!

I'm ready for my close-up now Mr. DeMille...

Sharing her *bling*

This is called mauling in our house... as in, "Maddie! Stop mauling your sister!"

My attempt to be an artistic photog -- FAIL

Okay, got one smiling...

And now the other is smiling...

Okay, they're both so OVER this...

My beauties...

xxoo.S

Same-same, but different

A girlfriend of mine traveled through Thailand a few years ago, and in her attempt to be as open-minded as possible, tried many of their culinary delights. In one restaurant she was a little trepidatious about what had been set in front of her (and the language barriers made her a little uncertain as to just what she was ordering most times). She asked the waitress, "Is this chicken?" The waitress responded, "Oh yes, chicken. Same-same,, but different." Apparently it was not so much on the "same-same", and a whole lot on the "different". (Don't ask me what it was, I don't think she ever really found out)

When she told a group of us the story, we all howled with laughter, and now "same-same, but different" is part of our everyday vernacular.

Raising a second daughter just two and a half years after my first, I get a lot of "same-same, but different" moments.

• Walking slowly, quietly up the stairs, with a swaddled bundle in my arms. Her body limp from a voracious feed, eyes fluttering with REM and her little mouth gaping open, breathing her little milk breath onto my arm.
• The little grunts and sighs and whimpers only the smallest ones make while they sleep fitfully in your arms. Knowing she is close to awakening, I don't bother trying to attempt the crib. Instead, enjoy the feeling, the smell, the warmth of her body snuggled against my chest.
• The cries - rising in a crescendo - so quickly they get annoyed, frustrated, angry at being left that one minute too long in the bouncy chair, on the playmat, in their crib. Oh the temper in one so tiny.
• Clenched fists. Enthusiastic little fist pumps. Jerky arm motions that get more and more determined to capture attention.
• The cross-eyed look of intent concentration while fist is brought to mouth and fingers are chewed on, drooled on.
• The look of pure joy. Unadulterated, innocent, pure bliss in a baby smile. They smile with their eyes first, and then slowly it spreads down to their cheeks, into a gummy little grin. Is there anything more innocent and pure than a baby's wide grin?

Isn't it incredible how similar babies are? And at the same time totally different? It's like deja vu, but with something a little changed.

Same-same, but different.

xxoo.S

We survived

It was a single-parenting weekend here and we survived. I was about to type "barely" but actually, we did a bit better than that. It helped that Katie is still napping like a champion (it's hit or miss if she'll actually go down, but when she does, she sleeps for hours on end).

And I find that Maddie acts differently when Daddy's not around - not when he's just at work or something, but when she knows that he's actually away, she's .... I don't know? Easier on me? Is it possible for an almost-3-year-old to summon up that kind of empathy?

She gives less hassles at bedtime (usually). Eats her meals without complaint (mostly). And just generally is a bit more easygoing (sometimes).

Hmm - good thing Hubs doesn't read this, as I don't need him feeling less guilty about all his man-cations. So let's just keep this between us, yes?

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

Adorable cuteness ahead:

On Saturday afternoon (taking advantage of one of Katie's super-long naps) Maddie and I were outside. She: splashing in and out of the pool, playing hard in her playhouse, with her stroller, on her slide. Me: weeding and gardening our poor decrepit backyard that has been ignored all summer long.

At one point, as I was pulling up some of the finished plants in the garden, she came over to "help" (read: dig up shovels of dirt and dump it on the lawn). I came across what I suspect now may have been a tree root from our neighbour's tree. I snipped it and tried pulling up the one end - which must have been longer than I thought because it was really stuck. As I was yanking and pulling and yanking and pulling Maddie started to cheer me on, "Good job Mommy! You're doing it! You're doing it like a big girl!"

It cracked me up listening to her cheer me on with the same phrases, verbatim, that I use when encouraging her to do something on her own (vs. me having to do everything for her).

And yes, damn right I pulled up that root like a Big Girl.

xxoo.S

Weekend wisdom

I think I can honestly say, this is the first weekend of "two" where I didn't feel stressed out the entire time. Clearly the key to toddlers is to get them the 'eff out of the house. So that's what we did - both mornings.

Saturday was a standard random Ikea visit. You see - I'm not sure if you've noticed or not - but I'm a touch crazy. Which sometimes manifests itself in random proclamations of things THAT WE MUST BUY. BECAUSE WE NEED THEM. DESPERATELY!!! OH HOW HAVE WE LIVED LIFE THIS FAR WITHOUT THIS MUCH NEEDED ITEM??!?!?!

Enter: my insistence that we visit Ikea. On a Saturday morning. To buy a step stool. A small, two-tiered step-stool that was ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for Maddie to be able to wash her hands (because she's a shorty and all kids stools are about 1 inch too low for her to really get in there at the sink. You know what I mean?). Clearly this was a necessity.

I'm still not entirely certain how or why the Hubs agreed to this (looking back now) ridonkulous request. Saturday morning? Ikea? Yes, I'm an idiot.

But off we went - battling crowds. Looking through the children's section, then through the kitchen section, then through the dining section (every Ikea personnel we asked about said stool seemed to think it was in a different area of the store). Turns out there were NONE on display, but according to their handy-dandy inventory count - there were 2 in the warehouse. So down to self-serve we went. And looked. And yes - just as you may have suspected, 2 in inventory at Ikea means ZERO on the shelf. So two hours later, stomachs full of nasty Ikea food (seriously - my first time eating there - it's bad. Like, REALLY. BAD.), we left the store empty handed...

Hubs told me he was certain he had earned a lot of "points" that morning...


However - that managed to kill a full weekend morning. And guess who thinks Ikea rocks the large one? Because she can run around like a deranged monkey, play on random couches and underneath random tables and essentially be the bane of every other shoppers existence? Miss Madds of course. Ikea is like a playground to her - and she was d.o.w.n.

Since our Saturday road trip went so swimmingly, I made the suggestion that we try to do something Sunday morning as well. So to the Zoo we went. Getting there just past 9am we beat the crowds, beat the heat and managed to do all the "interesting" animals before lunch time. We hightailed it out of there just as the crowds closed in, threatening to send Hubs into ultra-moody-mode, and even managed to grab lunch at home instead of succumbing to a $12 hotdog.

I'd love to share pictures of our first full-family-attended trip to the zoo, but someone forgot the camera in the car and we didn't realize it until we were about a mile away from the entrance. That someone may have forfeited some of his "points" from Saturday on that move.

So that's that - we kept our sanity this weekend by simply not being at home. Doing stuff entertains your cranky toddler. Imagine that...

xxoo.S

Snippets

• Remember the neighbour girl that I told you about? Maddie's new BFF? She came over for a playdate last weekend. It was adorable to watch Maddie's eager anticipation for it to begin - and even though the little girl didn't want to do much more than craft the whole time (she even brought her own supplies!), and Maddie's interest in crafting went to zero within about 10 minutes in, she still had a fabulous time. Isn't it amazing how the most influential voice to our kids is other kids? I sat and watched as Maddie mimicked and repeated almost everything this other girl said. Possibly the most agreeable I have ever seen her...
• My magical sleeping baby has disappeared and been replaced with the magical gassy baby. I cannot pin down what the hell I am eating that is making her so gassy - but all sorts of memories of Maddie as a baby have come back and slapped me in the face. And how I had limited my diet down to essentially toast, crackers and a little bit of jam - and yeah. I'm not sure I can do that again. I wish there was a diet you could follow that would ensure your baby didn't have gas. But according to Google, that's impossible. Screw you Google...
• I love the shorthand-speak that old, really old, friends have. This past Saturday I hosted some old highschool (and one uni) friends for lunch and I'm not sure any of us ever finished a sentence. We don't get to see each other very often (even less so, now that I moved out of the city), but when we do the lazy, easy, comfortable rhythm just picks up where we left off. I feel blessed to still have such old (and good) friends still in my life.
• I'm finally doing something about trying to line up some longer-term daycare for Madds. We have daycare for August figured out (well, the last 2 weeks, and it`s only part-time - and yes, I could rant on and on about this) - and potentially something with the same provider for the fall. And yet, I still have a bit of a pit in my stomach about it. And so I'm (finally) getting off my ass and trying to actively line something else up for her. And have I mentioned how effing terrified I am to have her home with me and the bebe even just part-time? I love her to bits, but omg to the terrible twos and the toddler energy and the potty training and the demands for More!Dora!Mommy! and I just want to sleep so badly....z.z.z.z..z..zzz.....
• Remember when I told you about planting my berry bushes (it was a berry exciting post, I'm surprised if you don't recall it)... well, we (the Hubs) ate our very first raspberry this weekend. And after having my head buried in life after newborn, I actually pulled it out from underneath the covers enough to check out the rest of the garden, and holy shit there's a zucchini out there the size of my inner thigh (meaty!)... I guess I have to start harvesting and making shit. Zucchini recipes anyone?
• I'm so bored with TV already - I have no idea how I did this before. As much as I relish the freedom of having Maddie in full-time daycare right now, and am enjoying this newborn veg-out stage that I know needs to end very soon - the actual TV-watching-portion is effing boring. I know it's summer and all - but I've actually resorted to watching Jersey Shore on Rogers On Demand. I've sunk to a new low. Must get out and start renting some of those shows that I always wanted to get into but never did... Dexter and I definitely have a date before July is over.

Yeah, that's all I've got right now - taking the rest of my nap-fueled freedom to eat some more toast. And hopefully start painting shelves for Katie's room. (Because dammit, the child is going to have a finished room before she turns one month old). I love neverending projects...

xxoo.S

Happy Canada Day!

Maddie's all, "WTH do I do with this?"

It only took me until Katie was one week + a day old to dress them in coordinating outfits.

I think I showed restraint.

xxoo.S

PS - for those of you all wtf'ing me on the timeliness of these posts? Well, I'm trying to keep it updated, except I'd write half a post and then not finish to publish, so yeah, I'm fudging the "post" dating on here right now. Whatevs... It's called "documenting our lives" people... not "be date-sensitively-accurate on your posts".