Happy Mother's Day

Today has been a busy day filled with fun activities!  Each of our boys had special Mother's Day functions at preschool and kindergarten.  I was not able to attend our four-year-old's Mommy & Me day this morning, but I hear he had a terrific time with Grammy!  (Thank you for stepping in, Marilou!)  Our six-year-old and I had lots of fun at his kindergarten Mother's Day Tea this afternoon.

What do you think of my stylin' Mother's Day hat?

A Delicate Issue

Our little girl is nearly three years old.  She's been essentially potty trained for a few months but still has occasional accidents.  To be blunt, she has poop issues.  She doesn't like to poop in the potty.  She doesn't like to poop in a diaper.  She won't poop in her panties.  She simply holds it all in, for days and days and days and days and days.

(Each of her older siblings have done exactly the same thing.)

The problem is, a little body is not designed to hold on to poop for weeks on end.  (Here's where things get a wee bit gross.)  Often, she leaks. Her poor body just can't handle it.  We've tried everything but our girl refuses to poop until it's absolutely necessary.  After a lot of disgust and frustration (and a ban on diapers in the daytime) we came up with a workable solution.

For the time being, our daughter wears "poop skid liners" on her underwear.  They are simply pantie liners designed to be worn by women.  I figure the liners are meant for panties, so why can't a toddler wear one?  Those liners have saved many a pair of small panties over the past few weeks.

Our little girl has no problem with wearing the liners, and in fact, now refuses to wear panties without one.  She's completely accepted them. There's just one problem, however.  It's pretty embarrassing to travel down a store's feminine hygiene aisle and hear my daughter loudly exclaim:

"Hey look Mommy!  There's the poop skid liners!"     

Preparing to Party

Well, today is officially my last day as a twenty-something.  Tomorrow I'll hit the big 3-0.  Yikes! I'm not completely sure I'm ready to take the leap into a new decade, but as my big birthday approaches I do feel very loved.

Yesterday Ben baked me a cake.  He baked me a cheesecake.  All by himself.  That would bring the number of things my husband has baked in his life to a grand total of ... one.  It was the first time he had ever baked anything.  I must say, that cheesecake looks mighty fine sitting there in the fridge.  It's taken a great deal of willpower for me to refrain from sneaking a teeny-tiny sample.

Earlier this week I casually mentioned I needed some new oven mitts. My six-year-old asked where someone might buy said oven mitts, and I suggested the loonie store.  Well, yesterday my son told his daddy they had to stop at the store.  With his own allowance (the kids earns only $2 per week) he chose a stylin' pair of oven mitts.  What a sweetheart! He brought his gift home as proud as could be.  You can be sure those mitts will be put to good use!  (In fact, I believe my husband might have used them for the first time last night!)

Lovin' It

Nothing beats those wet, slobbery, open-mouth kisses.

No ... not Ben's.

Nothing beats those wet, slobbery, open-mouth kisses from my baby boy.  He's unashamed to kiss his mommy in public.  (Or in private.  Or anywhere, really.)  

I'll gladly accept those sweet tokens of love for as long as he offers them up.

Mommy's Little Helper

Nearly every day I have a little shadow at my side.  She's small and cute and wears her hair in pig tails.  My only female offspring is most decidedly a mommy's girl.

The thing is, at the tender age of 2 1/2, my girl is genuinely helpful.  (I take no credit for this.)  She seems to have an inborn knack for cleaning and organizing.  (Maybe I can take credit for that.)  She helps me sort laundry, mix pancakes and muffins, shred lettuce, and dust the furniture.  She can even set the table!  In many ways, my little girl is more helpful than her older and more-capable brothers.

I truly enjoy having a tiny helper following me through the house.  She's a cute little pixie and I love her to bits!

Note to Self

It's best not to trip when you're holding a potty full of pee...

Priceless

This song never fails to send my boys into hysterics.  Enjoy!

The Mom Song from Northland Video on Vimeo.

Parent Teacher Interviews

When did we suddenly arrive at this place in life?  Do we truly have school-age children in our house?  Where have the preschool years flown off to?

Our kindergartener brought home his first report card last week, and this afternoon Ben and I attended our first official parent teacher conference.  It was an interesting experience.  The teacher said lots of nice things and offered some constructive criticism.  I thought her comments were bang on.  It's only been three months and already she has our son well pegged.

But I still can't get over the fact we actually have children old enough to attend school.  If I could grab time by the tail and reign it in, truly I would.  Before I know it our sweet baby boy will be trotting off to kindergarten and I'll be alone with myself all day.

What will that be like?

Growing Bigger Every Day

Next week our little guy will be seven months old. Seven months old! He's huge! Before I know it we will be sending him off to kindergarten. Here are a few of things our big boy has been up to:

Timbit's been eating solids for three weeks now. He's tried rice cereal, avocado, pears, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and peas. So far I believe sweet potatoes are his favourite. It took me four children to learn this, but pears are a really effortless first food. If I let the pears get very ripe and mushy they're super-easy to mash up with a fork. (Always learning something new.)

Our big boy is babbling up a storm. He says "ba" and "ga" and a whole lot of "aaaaaa". Every once in a while he'll throw in a "da" just to keep things interesting. He's also learned to blow raspberries (and thinks it's particularly funny to do so when eating the aforementioned sweet potatoes).

Our baby is not sitting up on his own yet. All of our kids have been late-bloomers when it comes to gross motor skills. (Our daughter didn't walk until she was eighteen months.) Timbit's happy to kick and flap and roll from side to side. One of these days I'm going to blink and he'll surprise me by being across the room. I'm enjoying his lack of mobility for the time being!

I am trying to savour every moment with a baby in the house as this will be our last. I can hardly bear the thought of leaving behind the baby years. Cute chubby cheeks to kiss, warm little bodies to snuggle, soft baby skin and rolls and dimples. Our timbit is so sweet and growing up much too quickly.

The Potty Training Diaries: Day 1

A quiet day at home
One eager two-year-old
A drawer full of pretty panties
One cute little potty
Rocket candy bribes
Ten successful attempts!
A sugar-charged toddler
Four small yellow puddles
An empty pantie drawer
A full basket of laundry
One proud mommy
A very good day!

Frustration

Baby's crying
and I'm dying
to soak my tired skin
in a long, hot bath.
How does he know when Mommy's exhausted?

From the Mouths of Babes

Today my three-year-old has been full of interesting statements...

I spent very little time on my personal appearance this morning. (I slapped my hair into a pony tail, threw on some clean clothes, and that's about it.) As I entered the boys' bedroom my three-year-old looked up at me with sleepy eyes and said:

"Oh no, Mommy. You don't look pretty anymore."

A few minutes later, after the kids were up and dressed, my son brought me his new toy. It was a big mess of a tangled spring.

"Mommy?" he asked, "Can you fix my flinky?"

After breakfast my sunny little guy bounced around the living room. He excitedly talked about his upcoming fourth birthday (the day's more than two months away) and about his big party plans. I only half-listened as he jabbered on.

"Hey, you know what?" he said, "I want a rat cake! A rat cake, Mommy!"

"A rat cake???"

"Yeah Mommy! You know, like Remy the rat!"

Ah yes. I think it's shaping up to be an entertaining day...

The New Do

I recently cut and coloured my hair. For the past few years I'd been sporting a pretty boring look --- long, straight and natural --- and thought it was time to update my image. My next birthday involves a daunting zero, but my hairstyle hadn't changed much since high school. Time to step into the twenty-first century!

The stylist kept my hair long but she added lots of layers. She also put in some chunky blond highlights. The results are quite different! I'm still getting used to my new look, that's for sure.

As I prepared to go to my appointment yesterday, our son asked how I planned to change my hair. I told him the stylist would add some new colour. "What colour do you think would look nice?" I asked.

"Oh Mommy," our five-year-old replied, "I think pink hair would look beautiful!"

Sure enough, as soon as I returned home our son was quick to compliment my new look. "Wow Mommy!" he cried, "I love your stripe-y yellow hair!"

He paused for a moment and peered at the side of my head. "Mommy?" he asked, "Can you hear anything through all that hair?"

I guess our kids aren't used to seeing their mommy with such a fancy new do :-).

Mr. Green Eyes

Our littlest Inkling will be four months old tomorrow. The past few months have been incredibly busy for our family and I can hardly believe my babe is no longer a newborn. No longer a newborn! He's not even a small baby anymore. He's huge! Our babies have all grown to be nice and chubby, but Mr. Timbit certainly takes the prize. I am very curious to find out his weight at our doctor's appointment tomorrow morning.

Our first three babies all had bright blue eyes. In particular, our second son's eyes continue to be a rather startling shade of blue. Our newest family member appears to have taken his cue from a different gene pool. His eyes are definitely darker than his siblings'. I feel fairly certain our timbit's eyes will turn out to be hazel, like his mommy's :-). I'm happy that at least one of our kids will share my eyes.

Mr. Green Eyes, can you stay small forever? Please? I think our family's days with a baby in the house are quickly slipping away. Some days I wish I could freeze time...

Favourite Quote of the Day

"No, no, no, no, no. Don't rub. You'll get macaroni in your eye."

Sometimes I can't believe the things that come out of my own mouth...

Favourite Quote of the Day

"You can use your magic wand to pet my lobster, Mommy."

(Said by an imaginative five-year-old.)

Baby Brain

On the day I planned to bake chocolate chip cookies, it might have helped if I'd remembered to buy chocolate chips...

Due Reverence

Our two-year-old daughter is positively fascinated by nail polish. A few days ago I painted her tiny toe nails for the very first time. You'd think she'd died and gone to heaven! For the rest of the week our little girl's been prancing around, showing off her "pwetty" pink toes.

I enjoy sporting my own "pwetty" toes. Several days ago I stole a few moments to paint my toe nails a lovely shade of red. Our sweet girl is now quite enthralled by her Mommy's toes as well.

Our daughter is so enamoured, in fact, she's taken to kissing my feet.

That's right. You have to teach 'em while they're young. ;-)

Another Milestone

Tonight we're trying an experiment. Our baby boy will be two months old this weekend. Up until now, he's been sleeping in a cradle at our bedside. For the first time tonight we laid him to sleep in the crib in his sister's room.

Our (almost) two-year-old was overjoyed to share the room with her baby brother. Her response was totally adorable. Ben and I heard her singing and talking through the baby monitor for more than an hour after bedtime. She sang endless repetitions of "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "ABCDs" to her little brother. He blissfully slept through it all.

I'm not sure how our experiment will turn out in the wee hours of the morning. Babe is often up twice in the night. However, last night was his best sleep yet --- eight and a half straight hours! All of our children have moved into their own rooms at about this stage, so I am praying Baby sleeps well tonight. At the rate he's growing, I don't think our big boy will fit in the cradle much longer anyway...

Birth Pictures

This week my sister blessed me with a CD of our new baby's birth pictures. I can hardly believe our babe is already six weeks old and is officially past the newborn stage. (Where did the time go? Can it be my sweet baby is already growing up?)

Feel free to read Baby's birth story here. He was born at home on the morning of April 15th. We had a wonderful water birth, surrounded by loving family members. It was a beautiful experience.

Baby was born in the "fishy pool" in our kitchen. Our midwives, Kim and Cassie, are in the background of this photo.

Daddy and Mommy admire their new baby.

Daddy holds his new son for the first time. Baby was very cheesy!

The big brothers play on the clean and empty fishy pool.

Baby, Daddy and a big brother.

Uncle Patrick holds his littlest nephew.

Auntie Lori and the new baby.

Our precious little boy.

Grammy Marilou snuggles her new grandson.