I had a post-xmas visit with my Grandma (my mom's mom) and my mom's cousin (Kathy) & her daughter(Karen, whom I've never met before) So we were all sitting around chatting, watching the babies play and we were asking ourselves...hmm...if Cathy is my mom's cousin, then what does that make her to me? and her daughter? and my kids? to her and her kids?  It's probably something like a 4th cousin or some such number, we couldn't figure it out. We had a good laugh trying to.  Grandma brought special gifts for Eryn & Aiden, some knit hats, scarves & slippers  (what would a Grandma be if she didn't knit??)  Aiden looked soo cute in his hat. Eryn loved her little toys and enjoyed the visit. It's nice getting together with family, even if they are a bit far removed. And especially as it seems my immediate family is rapidly shrinking, I'll hang on to whatever family I have.  I wish I could have seen more of my Grandma's nieces & nephews  (my second cousins then I guess, and their kids would be my 3rd cousins and those kids would be 4th cousins to my kids and so on...I think.... lets call in an expert here.

 

My friend Stephanie is running the tupperware booth in a mall. I thought I'd go suprise her with a visit. HA

I drove to the mall, kidlets in tow, naturally, saw ALL the people waiting in line to park, and I turned around and went somewhere else, didn't even try to park. YIKES. I guess I really do have to wait until the new year for some sanity to return to public places. And it's still the same, the grumpy, pushy, unhappy people everywhere. The only happy folk I saw were kids & teens and a few 'ol farts' .

 

We have a few parties coming up this weekend, we haven't decided which ones to attend or not to, as we have to bring the babies with us, we have NO 'sitter'. I can't call in just anyone, I got a 7 month old baby to think about.  There are only a few people I would trust to look after both of them, and those people will either be at the parties we want to got to, or they are home with their own kids, or they are baby-sitting other kids.

sigh

Maybe next year we'll get a turn.

 

I am looking forward to this year ending, almost more than I look forward to another year beginning. This was probably the toughest year of my life. I suprised myself with the amount of strength I found from somewhere. I still shudder when I think back to February of this year. I still wonder that I didn't loose my marbles with the stress I was under... being 6 months pregnant with Aiden, raising Eryn who was a VERY rambuncious 11month old, I had no working vehicle and I had to go out to White Rock, nearly everyday, with Eryn in tow. The hardest part, was going thru all the personal things of my mom's. Her friend, who was the will's executor, offered to do it, but I just couldn't imagine letting anyone else go thru all her things, and distribute them at will. So I did it all, with the help of a couple of my mom's closest friends (thanks Peg, Helen & Fran). Eryn was so difficult because she was into EVERYTHING in this turned-upside-down apartment. So I had to keep her in the playpen, where she sat most of the time crying, It was aweful, plus the time pressure because I only had a month. I don't know how I got up everymorning and did that....but I did. 

If this all sounds like complaining to you...then UP yours! I'm just stating the facts of my life at the time, and it was the worst time of my life.

 

But the year also had fantastic highs, I had another perfect, natural, delivery of a perfectly healthy baby boy, what more could I want?

well...for starters... 

my Mom back!

I also want this depression to go away and BEGONE!

That's what more I could want.

 

It's been a very bitter & sweet year, but I'm mostly glad it's over and proud that I survived it.

I learned alot this year, very valuable life lessons.

I learned:

Ultimately, I can never truely count on anyone, except myself.

People often act crazy when someone dies, and there might be money involved, people can be so greedy.

When you loose someone close to you, it hurts EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Just because I have a 'depression' doesn't mean I'm mentally weaker than anyone else.

I try not to expect anything (aside from common courtesies and basic respect) from anyone, that way people will seldom dissappoint me.

 

I think that about covers it

This year we learned a ton about parenting; what it means to be a parent.We have an inkling, now, of the scope & depth of parenting, going into our SECOND year of parenting! whew!  it is a life long 'job' or 'investment', whatever you want to call it.

 

enough of my retrospective...

now for my prospective....

I am very happy this year is over, and proud that I kept myself together, so to speak.

I look forward to 2006. Life goes on. My lil' girl will  SOON be turning 2 and my baby boy will be 1. This summer should be a blast, as all our friends' kid's will be old enough to rip and tear around with us. I look forward to beach trips, pool trips,anything outdoors, even a little camping adventure, a road trip to kamloops, watching my kids grow, listening to Eryn talk, watching Gary chase & wrestle with both kids. My first full year (in 3 years)with my body being my own again!!! I'm looking forward to gaining my strength & shape back, AND, maybe even getting a bike again.

Lots to look forward to.

 

I wish all my friends and familly, and all  'my readers',  all around the world, all  the best for 2006!!

 

Here's a few photo's of Grandma's visit with cousin Kathy & cousin Karen, my Grandma's brother's kid's etc..

Not sure if I'll have anything to blog about until the new year.... we've no plans, a tight budget, oooooo

I just remembered, we're going to an 'open house' party at our mountain biking friends' house Jenn & Brian (their daughter is 1 month younger than Eryn) THAT will be fun tomarrow, it's close to home AND Gary only works 1/2 day tomarrow.

HA
He was tellin' me today that they've done JACK-ALL at work this week. They start drinking in the morning (you know, yummy stuff in the coffee) then switched to rye&coke at lunch. So I wonder what the point is in even going a 1/2 day tomarrow, except to get a jump start on 'merry making'.

 

I'll be sure to take some photo's of our holiday party tomarrow.

cheerios!

 

 

I am happy to say that Christmas Day was a much more joyous day than I had expected it to be, Thank goodness for children!

We even got a tree, it is only 1' tall and synthetic, but a symbol of the 'tree' none-the-less. We had a nice cozy fire going (also artificial, but a symbol of coziness after-all). It took us nearly 3 hours to get thru the kids gifts, and not because we had very many, eryn just enjoyed taking her time with each one, besides taking forever just to get one gift open, but she did it! Last year all she could do was crawl over all the presents, so this is a major improvement. The pace was great though, it allowed Gary to make his famous french-toast, and we had his folks over, so they got to see her open the gifts they brought. Gary's Dad, Bill, took lots of video clips and photo's so I'm sure I'll have more to share once he passes those along. Eryn loved the train, which was intended for Aiden, hehehe. She also got her first baby-doll, with a backpack carrier. We have some drop dead hilarious video of her with that! She had the baby in the pack, on her back, I told her to give her baby-doll kisses, and she started to spin around, like a dog chasing it's tail, lips puckered up, to reach her baby-doll's face. We were crying we were laughing so had. Kids are great entertainment!  Needlesstosay, we had a very good morning. Both kids were exhausted and asleep again by 10am. Eryn HAD to nap with her new baby-doll (got a photo of that too).

 

Gary THOROUGHLY enjoyed his Japanese ear cleaning kit (photo's of that too, too funny)

Aiden had to be in the middle of it all, sometimes making it hard for Eryn to open her gifts, and sometimes he would help her ;)

 

Christmas Eve was fun too. We were ALL together at Nana & Papa's house, all the cousins , had a blast playing together ('cept Aiden cause he's still a wee one). Nana & Papa got all the kids new 'jammies for xmas, they were pretty excited, got a snap shot of Gary with his siblings too.

LOTS of photo's to check out, enjoy!

Tonight we return to Nana & Papa's house for a big fancy dinner...I better get started baking my pumpkin bread...yikes, gotta run!

 

It was great this week to finally get together with Katherine & her little ones, in Pt. Moody. It was great for Eryn to be playing with kidlets slightly older than her, she LOVED it. Eric, now 5, was sooo good with Eryn, sitting & playing with her, & helping her down the stairs. What a sweetie!  Eva is a force to be wreckoned with, just like Eryn. Eryn took a few knocks, bumps & pushes, Katherine warned me she's not the gentlest soul, but I reminded her that Eryn is Gary's daughter, no more need be said. Aiden had a great time just watching the 3 kids play. They played upstairs, downstairs, they played in the basement , they even played on the stairs. I got a couple photo's of our visit, below. Eva totally looks like  Cindy-Loo Who, with those little pig-tails in. Can't wait to get together again with the Lupia's.

 

I also got a couple photo's of Aiden shadowing Eryn as she plays. In one photo she's sitting in the laundry basket, watching her favourite show (CBC's  "Poko"). Aiden couldn't sit in the basket with her, yet, but he was happy so long as he was sitting beside her. Or, as in the other photo, sprawled on the ground next to her.

 

 

I love having a girlfriend who knows where the best places to shop are! Edie told me I just HAD to go with her to the Diaso. She said I'd love it. So this week I arranged  babysitting  (Thanks Mae, again, for freeing me up to get xmas shopping done!) And Thursday afternoon, Edie drove us to the Diaso. Just the fact that it was 2 floors of wonderous, interesting, silly, outrageous & practical gadets, trinkets, storageware & everything under the sun, ALL of it for $2 each, made my eyes water (or was it my mouth..can't recall). The whole place was really a cultural experience, in a very Japanese way. Everything from the employee chanting, to the strange ideas Japanese have for organizing their space, to the delightful shopping carts and efficient service. I only wish I had an extra hour and a bit, so I didn't have to race through the enormous place. I got some great little gifts for Eryn, for $2 each, how can you go wrong? If you read this, and you LOVE shopping, this is a place you GOT TO GO TO! You'd go just as nuts as I did. I'm not sure how many N. American outlets they have, but here's a link to their english website:

 

It's not a very kid friendly place though...only in that;  

all the kidlets would want to do is grab all the stuff off the shelves and the aisles are so narrow, they could grab everything. Not to mention the whining because ;

"mommy is going too slow and taking tooo long, and there is all this bright colourful stuff I want and can't touch!"    So I'm glad I spared Eryn the agony, hehehe.

 

After that, Edie took me to another place, upstairs, that served this outrageous icecream. I think you could call it icecream. As an Ice cream-o-holic, I can say that it was extremely tastey and sweet and so light YET so filling I couldn't even finish the bowl they served, that's a first for me.  YUM YUM, Gotta take Gary there too, he can eat the icecream while I shop :)

 

What a fun afternoon. It was the first place I'd been, this holiday season, that wasn't packed and full of line ups.

I tried to do a mini 'photo-essay' of our adventure, but we were NOT allowed to take pictures in the store :P

But we took some outside the store....see below:

 

 

 

Wow

What maddness the holiday season creates!

I put on my best rain-coat and bravest face, packed the kids in the van & ventured to the mall to see 'Santa'

& have the kids 'pics'  taken of the 'momentous occasion'. I couldn't believe the line-ups everywhere, and this was bloody 2 in the afternoon. My kids must have more patience than me because by the end of our little 'adventure' I was going nuts from the crowds, the rudeness and the line-ups everywhere...yeah and merry HoHo to you too.

I was in one line-up, at the photo booth, waiting for quite a while already, with the bloody Mary-Poppins stroller. The kids were fine, this was our very first stop. But the audacity of this lady there, to try and blatently cut infront of me, as if I was too distracted by my kids to notice her? HA

Mothers notice EVERYTHING. So I called her on it, infront of the rest of the line, now a good 8 people deep. HA!
I can't stand folk like that, were's the civility? Especially as it's the 'holiday season' just goes to show you it aint all it's hyped up to be, least not for us 'grown-ups'. It's ok though. I called that lady out in a very polite but assertive manner (& no she wasn't elderly or needing assistance, she was just a pushy Biatch), afterall, I KNOW Eryn's watching....always....watching......always....That wasn't our only 'line-up encounter' either.

 

Finally, on our last stop, we waited over half an hour for Eryn to meet 'Santa'. I wasn't at all sure how she'd react. Most kids her age shy away from freaky looking guys with the white & red. Can't blame them. But on one side of Santa was an enormous Teddy Bear. Eryn did not hesitate to head straight for the bear, right past Santa. Everyone had a good laugh at that. On the other side of Santa was a huge barrel FULL of candy canes. I drew her attention to that, and when Santa gave her a candy cane, she didn't care whose lap she sat on. Aiden was his usual self. He was pretty tired by this time of the day, so no dimpled smile from him. I have a photo of it on disc, just no 3.5" floppy drive to copy it from..pretty funny. I got a dvd burner, but no floppy drive . I'll have Husband take it to work and email me it. ;) (kisses to husband who forgot to take the disc with him to work today...nagging to ensue later  ;P)

THAT was a long afternoon. I had my holiday-shopping-adventure. I won't be surfacing in a mall until well into the New Year, Thanks  very much.

 

Can't believe xmas is so close, we're even behind on the kids advent calendars.

Time to sleeeeeepp

night night

 

What a busy, busy weekend, they go by so quickly...

 

We had our first family dental appt (it's sooo nice having extended benefits again)

I brought my camera because I wanted to take pictures, but it was such pandamonium,  that I never got a chance to. Eryn was soooo excited and running everywhere. The staff there just adored her. Some of the technicians took turns playing with her when both Gary & I were 'in the chair'. We were at the dentist office from 3:15 until 5:30, in order for the dentist & hygenists to see all 4 of us. They said Aiden was their youngest patient ever, at 7 months. But he has 6 teeth, & I was noticing the same discoloration on Aiden's  front 2 teeth, that Eryn had. I thought it was decay, and she recieved floride treatment for it. BUT, the dentist took a close look and said it WAS NOT decay, in either baby, just a discoloration & slight malformation of the enamel on those 2 teeth. He said it's probably genetic as Aiden had it too. I do know my brother has some discoloration of his teeth, but his teeth are made of iron , I swear. So we'll see what happens when the 'big teeth' grow in. Eryn handled her first dentist trip very well.  After that we drove straight to the 'chiro'. Gotta take advantage of the benefits before the calendar year runs out. That was all on Thursday.

 

Friday Gary had to take my van into work because the Bronco losts it's rear tire AGAIN, the full-sized spare this time.( So on Sunday, Gary got together with his Dad, and low&behold, it only took a couple hours to replace the rim etc..)   So, being 'stuck' in the neighborhood on Friday, with such gerogeous weather, I took the kids & mutt out for a good walk. They were sooo cute all bundled up. Aiden loves sitting up in the back of the stroller and watching the world go by.  After stopping for a few groceries too, I swear that mary-Poppins-Stroller musta weighed close to 75lbs, that gets heavy to push over fresh gravel paths, so I had my work cut out for me. Got some photo's of that below.

 

 

Saturday was the Cloverdale swapmeet  again. My girlfriend Edie, went out to 'shop' but said it was dead, so she came to our place early and joined me as  I returned to the chiro again(I've got several ribs out, and after having 2 babies back-to-back & carriying them around so, I reaaally need so attention to my back). Demetri (our chiro) taught me some good torso/core strengthening excercises to help me be rid of the 'mommy slouch'. Edie uses the same chiro, so she got an adjustment too :)  hehehe

After that appt. we headed cross town to buy 2 new car-seats for the kidlets.

 Because..

On Wednesday of this past week, I went to an appt. with the BCAA for car-seat inspection. Both car-seats failed. Aiden had outgrown his, and the belt was frayed, Eryn had outgrown hers, as well, and the seat was near expiration. This all   =  2 new  car seats. These should be the last 2 we need to buy (fingers crossed). Good thing Gary got a Christmas bonus....it's gone now...2 new car seats  (and a trip to the vets for the dog, to get his 'booster shots' )

sigh..easy come, easy go..we never seem to be able to hang on to money, it slips right thru our fingers because as soon as we ever have any, there is always some BIG thing to buy or replace or creditors to pay off...etc...   :P  yuk

 

After purchasing the carseats, we returned home and prepared to head out again to our 'Spa Party' in New Westminster.  There were about 10 of us that got pampered with in-house spa treatment. I got a 'spa-pedicure' It was awesome. Again I took my camera intent on taking photo's, but I was having such a good time gabbing it up and getting my feet pampered, I couldn't get up to get my camera, so no photo's of that either.  :(  We were all mommies there, 'cept Lisa, and we had a ball, laughing about our kids & our 'lil stories and such, and snacking on holidays goodies while getting pedicured & manicured.  great fun!

 

Good thing Jenn was there too (she got the full treatment) She drove me home after, because the 'party' ran later than expected and we ALL had various xmas parties to go to that night. By the time I got home, we had less than an hour 'til we had to leave again, and neither of these brand new carseats were installed (and I'd already pitched the old ones). HAHA!! That was fun to do in the dim light of the van's interior. After many bruises, grunts, swearing & sore hands, we got them in & adjusted. Then we raced off to Granville Island, with kidlets, to Gary's office Xmas Party.There was an enormous fish aquarium at the entrance of the restaurant, which enthralled Eryn for a couple hours. She frightened the prep cooks though, because she was screaming and squealing at the fish (I think she thought she could talk to them) and because she's so little they couldn't see her, so they were like; "What the Hell was that?"  I reply, 'my daughter, she's talking to the fish'

Got a few photo's of that as well, toooooo cute.  Aiden was a real little celebrity too. He got passed to sooo many laps, I couldn't keep count. I took a couple photo's of him on a couple different laps, but I should have taken one of him on every different lap, so I could show you what I mean. Thought of that one too late. The food was fantabulous, and 'open bar'  is always lots of fun. I love ending the night on a kaluha & hot chocolate.       slurrrrrpppp   :P

 

When we realized that it was already 9:30, we figured we'd better get packing pretty quick. The kidlets were soo well behaved. Eryn had a great time playing with Chloe, the prettiest little 10yr old Christmas girl you ever did see. She was Eryn's shadow and helped us keep track of her. The entire restaurant was closed, luckily,  with 3 different parties there that night. So her 'antics' (ripping & tearing around, squealing loudly with delight) weren't at all disruptive in the loud festive mood.  In the photo's Eryn is wearing a beautiful blue hand-smocked dress, that I wore as a toddler. I beleive my mom made it.

 

Sunday crept by pretty slow, Gary was off working on the Bronco, with his dad. I was with kids, whose nap cycles were not 'in sync' today, so I was stuck inside nearly the whole day, because when 1 babe was napping the other was up & visa versa. I did get plenty of cleaning done, and 4 more boxes sorted thru into various dontate, discard  & sell piles. I can't believe Christmas is next weekend. I can't help thinking of my Mom. I wish I had spent more time with her. Things were pretty tough then though;  we were getting ready to move, I was like 6 months pregnant and Eryn was walking by then,  so ours hands were pretty full. I miss her soo much!  The festive nature of the holiday reminds me, painfully,  of this time last year when she died, so it fills me with sadness if I sit still too long. I look forward to Easter, cause that's near Eryn's Birthday.

 

Heeeere's the photos:

 

 

We did it, we did it, we did it, HOORAY!!!

Or in this case I did it!!

I'd been struggling to get the HTML coding right to play more than one video in the windows media player.

But, tonight, after playing around and trying a few different things out, I DID IT!

I asked Gary for his input, what he half-heartedly suggested to do, (while playing that bloody WoW game) I told him I'd already tried. Then he says  "Huh"  and plays his game and says he'll look at it later, which probably means not 'til tomarrow, and I wanted to do it now, (typical Gemini  ;P) 

 So I put my mind to it. Most of what I learned about computers I musta picked up from Gary via 'proximity-osmosis'  (heeheehee). I impressed myself, that's what pleased me, I love that feeling of satisfaction when you complete something you weren't sure you were capable of.

 

SO

 

Check out my video clips. It may take a while to load on your machine, depending on your connection, but they are  two 1.5min clips of the kids playing together, and the second one of Eryn playing in the dryer.

I'm so happy I'm finally able to share them  :)

 

Time for bed now. Every night I say to myself, I gotta start getting ready for bed EARLIER, because by the time I decide to GO to bed and the time I actually GET to bed  (pre-make any 'stand-by bottles I might need for the night, make sure disherwasher gets started, dog has water, door locked, phone located, kids tucked in, teeth brushed, thermostat down a notch, lights off blah blah blah, before I know it, it's nearly 40 minutes later  :P

 

But NOT tonight, I'm starting NOW

What a busy weekend, and not because we went anywhere. I had three sick babies on my hands, as you recall. Luckily one of them has recovered and returned to work ;)  (luv ya hon )

Aiden is cold free again, and Eryn has a lingering cough again, and a still often runny nose. Glad that's all behind us now. It seems now when one of us gets a cold, it takes a month until we're all 'cold-free' again, it pass from one to the next, week to week. Maybe the rest of December we'll be cold free .

 

We had a real treat this weekend though. Gary talked his Mom into coming to our place one night, as kids were in bed, and keep an eye on them while we went to a movie. It was a spontaneous sorta happening, as spontaneous as you can get having 2 babies to raise. Harry Potter was AWESOME. I love how 'dark' the films are getting, especially with the new director.  It's neat seeing the kids grow up too, and their acting improve. I was a bit sad when the movie ended, I wanted more, always a good sign. Though we were VERY tempted to go see either "King Kong' or 'Chronicles of Narnia' too, but Harry Potter theatre was quieter, less crowded, and that's what we're all about.

 

I took Eryn over to Jenn & Brian's place to play with Julianna and to pass on some baby clothes (her second baby is due in April, another girl, her 2 kids will be 2 yrs apart). Eryn had a GREAT time playing with Julianna and all the 'new' toys. There's lots of room for toddlers to run around in their place. Eryn spent lots of time going up & down their staircase as well, about 20 times. It's amazing to watch her intellectual development. She was quite impressed with Brian, for example (she likes men) and was dumbstruck when I explained to her that Brian was Julianna's daddy. You could see the lights come on in her eyes, that another kid has a daddy too. Also when singing the' hello song' in music class, when they sing hello to Eryn, she points to herself because she knows it's her everyone is singing about. She watched Julianna try the potty when visiting, that evening, Eryn went to our bathroom and did exactly what she saw Julianna doing on the potty.

Awww, the power of the peer.  Hopefully it will make it effortless to potty train Aiden, because Eryn can train him for me. He already wnts to do everything she does, have everything she has, eat everything she's eating, etc.

 

I had a couple great ideas, got to share them.

Idea #1: 

I'm always trying to think of ways to make a quick buck or two  (who isn't?)  That's the reason I have a 'talent agent' for the babies, because baby commercials usually pay big bucks. Another idea I had, after viewing some of my camera work, and the fact that I'm always using my camera....is this:  I'll  keep my camera handy at all times to gather a few clips together to send to 'funniest home movies' , besides Eryn is always doing outrageous things.  

 I looked up the website, and they take Canadian entries, and give prize money and they love blooper reels with babies  (who doesn't?)

I have a few together already, it's just a matter of burning them on dvd, and sending them in. I wanted to post them in my media player, see if others find my clips as funny as I do...but was having trouble with the HTML text 'hack' for the space to be able to play videos in the media player.  Anyways...  Ya never know, it could mean paying off our debts...  sigh....how nice.....

 

Idea #2

I SO want to make a special memory album for each of my babies. I wasn't sure how or what I wanted to do. I didn't want to just burn all the photo's onto cd, memories are made up of more than just photo's. Then I thought about all the time I spend (over the weeks) writing up blogs & adding photo's. I thought, it's too bad I can't just save my blog as a memory book for them. It's like a daily journal of everything going on in their lives and our, plus photo's and video clips....but how to do it.....  My msn space , eventually, will only hold so much data, and it sure won't be 'preserved' there 'forever'....so what to do...

I began creating a file system using 'word' and any photo editor  (gotta make sure the photo's look good & no 'red-eye')  I create a file for every month. Then within each month I create a file for each day there is a blog entry. I copy blog text to 'word', name the file according to date, then save it in the corresponding months' file. The photos that go with each blog entry are saved in seperate file, under same date file, so that all .jpg files can be together.  Once it's all done and burned to disc (dvd probably) then I can pass it to the kids, later, and they can open the disc, pick a month of a year, or even a particular date file,  open it and see what happend that day in their lives, that I blogged about. That way, my blogging serves a longer-term purpose, it's creating the written memories that will go into their 'memory album' ...pretty cool eh?  Too bad I can't market that idea, and make money off it.....maybe I should talk to Microsoft...see if they want to buy my idea.....maybe a few extra bucks??//     It's gotta be the Scottish in me that is always looking to try and make extra money.  I thought it a brilliant idea though ;)

I have nearly one disc done, or everything so far in they're wee little lives. I'll let you know how well it works when I've got it burned and finished.

 

 

OK, all out of Ideas now.

 I have to pack the diaper bag up, busy day today.

I drop kids off at Nana's house, where Eryn will get to play and eat with her Nana & other cousins, while I go to another counseling appt at Royal Columbian...though it does feel wierd walking into a "Psychiatric Building" to get counseling. I just tell myself,  'you're not crazy'  'this is normal'  (ok, maybe not 'normal' but at least pretty 'common' 'it's just depressio, nothing is wrong with me, that can't be fixed')

I've also got to drive downtown to Gary's work to sign some papers so we can make the deadline and get signed up for an Education Savings PLan for Aiden  (It's only fair since we got one for Eryn too)

goota goo   cheerios...

 

here's a couple photo's that I mentioned earlier:

 

Today Aiden is exactly 7 months old, ... 7 months old on the 7th of December 2005.

He reached another mile stone today, he's taken his first 2 crawling steps. He's been up on all 4's the past couple weeks. This week he's been doing  'the frog' where he'll kinda 'hop' forward, toward what he wants. But today he actually managed a couple crawl steps before planting his face into the carpet.

He's been lovin' the jolly jumper too. Except probably when Eryn comes up to him and gives him a vigorous 'shake'.

 

 

Eryn has reached a major milestone this week as well. We are now able to negociate with her. We've been trying for months, you know :  'first you do this<something not so nice>  , then you get that <something very nice>'

But this week, we were finally able to put it to work. Eryn is taking a new medication for her cough. It's a small dose, but she's been getting SO resistant to taking meds, were before it was effortless. Now, we can negociate. First you take this nasty medicine, then you get the chocolate from the advent calendar.  It worked. She actually looked at both, reached out for the meds, sucked it back, then reached for her calendar. It was amazing. It's actually been a bit unsettling, the depth of her comprehension & understanding. I feel like I'm "on" all the time, because she's always watching, so I'm constantly aware of what I'm doing & how I'm reacting to things. Whereas, with just Aiden around, I can stilll swear out load at idiot drivers, in the car, pick my nose,  whatever, you know..

 

It's similar to teaching in a way, because as a teacher in a classroom, you are always 'on', knowing the kids are watching and listening to everything you say. But teachers do get breaks, twice a day. Mommies don't, except maybe at nap time.   That isn't a complaint, just an observation, something you don't really realize the scope of until you've been a parent for 'bout a year. That's our most important job, setting a good example, and actions always speak louder than words (cept 'bad' words always seem to speak pretty loud too)

 

Here's a few pic's

A couple of Eryn showing astonishing ability to stack & build, very impressive actually! The developmental milestone for a toddler 20 months old, is the ability to build a tower of 6 cubes. I think she's shown she's capable of far more than that !  Perhaps she'll be an architect.

 

One photo of Aiden up on all 4's. My battery died before I could take video of him crawling.

A couple of photo's of Aiden at the baby keyboard, he loves banging on the thing, and sucking on the tie strings.  Perhaps he'll be a composer, or musician?   Gary wants him to be a harsh mtn. biker.

 

No call-backs yet for the commercial. I'm assuming it's a 'No' because they were supposed to film this week. Aw well, we'll try again next time.  Gary's sick with 'the cold' now. He came home from work at lunch, and finished his workday at home. Now I have 3 sick, snotty babies....sigh... 

 

Snow is all gone now, rain has washed it away. A few dry days ahead. Hoping to take the dog out more, and a few loads of junk to the dump. I'm doing a huge sort thru the whole house, getting rid of all the stuff we don't need anymore. So far, 3 boxes of books, 4 boxes of clothes. 2 garbage bags of...just, stuff lying around. It's quite liberating, and uplifting. I thank my friend Nichole, on "The Island' for inspiring me to follow her lead.  Thanks Nicholey!!  Love you!

 

Enjoy the pics, my 1 hour of mindless TV is on now,  time to veg & put my feet up, before bed.

 

 

 

 

 

I decided instead of being so bloody 'black & white' as I have a tendancy to be, I would do one big 'thing' for Christmas. Last year, at Christmas time, my mom & I began creating a miniature Christmas village, as was her tradition that I can remember back from when I was very, very small. (She also used to paint the house windows with big wintery scenes, but one thing at a time here) I wanted to build one with her, so as I'd be sure to know how, when I would build one for my kids. We began our work. We got one house complete, then she went in hospital, and got sicker, and, well...then she died in January.

 

SO, in tribute to that, and to her, I've built an outrageous miniature sugarcube christmas village, just like my mom used to make, only better and with safer LED lights that won't melt the styrofoam.

 

I used mostly sugar and sweets to build it. It took me over a week. Gary helped, he built one house. Eryn just goes crazy everytime she sees it & says 'eat, eat, eat'. It turned out awesome, my mom would be very impressed.  Now I feel like I've done enough of the christmas stuff & 'expression' of the spirit of things & the holidays , blah, blah, blah....

 

 

Here's a few photo's of my Christmas village, complete with toy shop, toy warehouse, toy factory, elves' houses, Santa's Palace & more..

Never in my life have I gone thru so many boxes of tissue, so quickly. Eryn's nose is a non-stop snot-faucet, and Aiden's isn't far behind. I need to bring in a large garbage can to the living room, to keep all the tissue in one place.

As a matter of fact, I need to go buy more today, because the box in the bedroom is empty. It's mainly Eryn's nose consuming all the tissue, followed by Aiden, myself and finally Gary. Poor kids.

Needlesstosay, we'll be seeing the 'Doc' again, today.

 

My night on 'Baby-Watch' wasn't as quiet as Gary's nights. Eryn was up only once (yay!) and seemed to sleep soundly inspite of Aiden's shaninigans and her own coughing fits. Aiden was up at some un-godly hour crying & screaming with rage because he wanted someone to play with him. I was so pooped, and concerned that he'll wake up Eryn (who will then be crying as well) so I let him win last night. I brought him out to the air-matress with me and ignored him there (hard to ignore an adorable, happy, squealing with delight, baby blowing 'razzberries' right in your face)

So, I'm afraid tonight we'll have to bite the bullet and let him figure out that we sleep at night-time.

...sigh...

 

Doctor's visit confirmed a revenge of the croup, so with new prescription in hand I return to the pharmacy and rent another nebulizer. The nebulizer has returned, much to Eryn's intense displeasure. I had to fight her the first 2 minutes. I kept reminding her she's done this before & it helps. Finally she relaxed and cooperated. She did great. We can only hope this means a 'sounder' sleep for her tonight. We keep using the nebulizer 2x per day until the cough is GONE. She also got a flu shot (babies have to return in 1 month to get the other 'half' of the shot). My Doc does it so quick that the injection is done before she even realizes what's going on.

 

 When we were returning home, I dropped my keys in a puddle of slush, outside our yard, while trying to carry Aiden & his car-seat  inside, plus groceries, a diaper bag and 'herd' Eryn inside the yard & then into the house. When I dropped my keys, I exclaimed CRAP!  Then I heard my daughter's sweet little voice say  'aaapp'  as in...CRAP

crap, that means she's going to start mimicing everything I say. 

Then while sort of following me thru the yard with my arms full, I hear her say..  'uh ho''   and turn to see that she's lost her shoe and has been taking steps in the slush with her sock feet. So I put everything down...onto the slush... retrieve her shoe, pick her up, then groceries, then Aiden plus the bag. I felt like frickin'-She-RA. I had to step ever so carefully as I couldn't see where my feet were.  I don't want to be doing that too many times. yikes!  Always an adventure with a toddler around.  Eryn loves saying  'hi' and  'bye-bye' to people she sees. People she sees in the Doc's office, in the Malls, in the grocery store, on the tv, in the car... it's soooo cute. People love it too, then if she has an audience (and a handful of older folk seem most suseptable) she reaally turns on the cute-factor and works the crowd, like she's her own little 'celebrity' its so cute.

I think with Aiden I can skip all the usual 'baby-toys' for his 'stage' because all he wants to do is play with Eryn's toys. Looks like I'll have plenty to sell at a 'swap-meet' for kids, beginning next year!  It'll be nice to be rid of so much little baby stuff, takes up sooo much room, takes over everything.  Just you wait Carla ;)  and Lisa....  before you know it your living room will be transformed into a daycare too....  ;P

 

Tonight is night number 4 of our new sleeping arrangements. So far it's starting off rocky. Every time Eryn coughs lots, he begins to cry. But we have to leave him be. We'll see what the night brings....

 

 

 

 

Here's a few cute photo's of Eryn wearing the last touque my mom ever knit for me.

Also a picture of how Aiden always has to play & roll around right beside his sister.

 

NOTE: the photo of Aiden w/ the firetruck shows his 2 top teeth that came in. Now he has 2 top & 2 bottom, and more on the way. So far so good. He hasn't bitten me yet (while nursing) but I'm ready for him if he trys it!!

 

Another picture of Aiden showing off his talents, he can drink a bottle with 'one hand behind his back', or in this case, one hand behind his ear.

 

 

 

 

What a crazzzzzy day. The kids 'Agent' phoned us and said that both babies were called back in for 2nd auditions for the toy commercial we auditioned for last week. I was shocked that both  babies got 'call-backs', but I guess they know good genes when they see them !!!  hehe 

 (Come on, all mom's love to brag about their kids )

 

The second audition was completely different than the first. This time ALL the other babies that got 'call backs' arrived for the same casting time, So there were three 'holding areas' for us all. Luckily there was plenty of seating. They began with the younger babies, so Aiden's audition time was 10a.m. Then in the afternoon, they began shooting the toddler auditions, so Eryn's second auditon time was 1:45. Luckily, I was able to get Nana's help. So Eryn spent the morning with her Nana & cousin's playing & napping & eating, while I was waiting, waiting , waiting with Aiden dowtown town, near Main street Skytrain Station. To top it all off, the parking is atrocious in that area of town, and the parking police prowl the streets like sharks. Lucky for me, Gary works about 3 blocks from the studio, so I just parked there, he drove us up & dropped us off, then  I walked back to his office. 

 

Gary loves getting visits from the kids at work, and struts around the office like a proud papa! It's so cute. The office staff all adore the kids there, especially Eryn as she loves to run thru the office and say hello to everybody. She even gave Charles a big hug (He's Gary's Uber-Boss).

 

When Aiden's audition was finally done, we headed home. The 'baby wrangler' said Aiden did a great job and they are interested in bald babies (cause they look younger apparently...haha, probably the only time in his life that being bald is desirable heeheehee). The 'film industry' has their own complete language. I spent some time working as an 'extra' when I first moved to Vancouver, so I was exposed to this environment before, it's pretty crazy, high energy & it's fueled on adrenaline and coffee (& muffins & cola).  We'll see if Aiden gets called back for the shoot, it takes place next week.

 

When I got to Burnaby, had to stop home first and gather food together for Aiden, who was now changing places with his sister at Nana's house. Eryn was just finishing up her nap & Nana even managed to get her to finish lunch by the time I picked her up. Any readers who are mothers will appreciate, how much I appreciate that !!  <sigh>   <Thanks Mae!!!> 

 

We headed to Gary's work again, and he dropped us off at the door. Now there were 3 holding rooms full of toddlers 18+months. It wasn't so bad really, because I got to chit-chat with lots of mom's and Eryn got to socialize with other toddlers, while we waited. I was impressed that she remembered being there before, from our last audition, because she knew there were toys in the studio. She kept trying to run in when the 'wranglers' and 'casting assistants' were coming & going. FINALLY, it was her turn and she excitedly skipped into the room. They said she did well ,too, so now we just wait & see. We've been to quite a few auditions now, and really, it all boils down to whatever little 'trick' or 'expression' it is that the directors are looking for. And sometimes the audition time conflicts with nap-time, and then we may as well pack-it-in & go home because the audition would suck anyways.

Some of the mom's there were saying that they were hoping that the commercials would lead to bigger more famous things. I had to chuckle. I'm just there for the $$. I can't go to work & bring my babies with me, but they can work & I have to be with them then. Besides it's a great way to add to the scholarship-fund, if they get the part.

 

Gary still hasn't had a chance to rebuild my comp. BUT I am missing lots of programs, so I can't reach my email, or work in Photoshop, or with my digital camera software. All I can do is blog, surf the net & play that stupid computer game Gary wants me to play with him.  I haven't played it in about a week (W.o.W.) I guess I play it maybe once or twice a week. He plays it everynight. I can't justify a subscription to this on-line thing if I don't play, so I'm going to cancel my subscription, much to Gary's disappointment. but HOPEFULLY, he will rebuild my computer this weekend. I'll put the 'wife pressure' on him...which to him just means I'll nag him til he does it...while in my eyes, I'm just reminding him to complete a job he's already started.

 

Here's some photo's:

A couple of Eryn & Lauren when we (Gary & I) stopped by to visit with Julien & let the girls play together & one of Gary loading up Eryn in the van, in the snow  (yeah, that's SNOW to us here in B.C., we're spoiled here)

A photo of Aiden & I visiting Gary at work after our 2nd audition

A photo of Eryn in the snow  (she can say 'snow' now...though she first says  'ssss'  then 'no'  very cute

Finally, a photo of Aiden in his 'saucer' craming a cookie into his mouth.