Serves me right

Today was a busy day.  It started out early this morning at Drew's school.  I took him to school and then stayed and volunteered in his class for an hour and a half.  I did some photocopying and sorting for his teacher and then helped out with their literacy centres.  It was great, because I was able to see Drew in his school environment and meet some of his friends.  I'm also a strong believer in the benefit of parental involvement in schools, so this is the first step along that path.

From Pineview I drove home to pick Hunter up (who was home with James).  We headed straight to Milton to join our friends at preschooler playgroup.  It's a bit weird attending this group now, without Drew.  I started attending the group before Hunter was born.  The ladies are wonderful though, and Hunter is loving the fact that he gets to go and play with other kids. 

After playgroup we met James at Subway for lunch, and then parted ways with him as he left for work.  We headed home and Hunter had a quick nap.  This is where the "serves me right" plays in my story.

I posted on facebook how great my day was going, how wonderful my life was, and blah, blah, blah, roses and butterflies, blah, blah, blah.

Hunter wakes up, and we head upstairs for a quick bath.  He's playing away in the tub and then all of a sudden I notice what I think is corn floating in the tub......followed by other indescribable items in the water.  Hunter had pooped in the bathtub!

It was so gross, but so hilarious at the same time.  I pull him out of the tub, dry him off, and slap a diaper on him.  Then I start fishing the poop out of the water, while Hunter starts dumping the bathroom garbage out, and grabbing everything in sight.  Not the easiest clean up in the world, but I got the job done nonetheless.

So, lesson was learned.  When you post things on facebook, it will come back to bite you in the ass later.  Got it.

Happy Halloween

A few weeks with no posts.  This is starting to become a habit. 

I've been working quite a bit.  I walked into a grade 3 classroom last week to a greeting of, "are you an alien?"  "Guys, I think she's an alien".....I almost burst into tears and walked right out.  Later on, I read to them from the chapter book that their teacher has been reading.  It was entitled, "our teacher is an alien".  Aha.  It all made sense. 

It's been a struggle to figure out where to take the kids while I'm working.  The nature of my work (supply teaching) is such that it is not predictable.  It's possible to work every day in a week some weeks and then no days other weeks.  This is really the first year, since I've had kids, that I'm searching out work and trying to get as many days as possible.  We're not really sure what to expect in terms of number of days.  Because of this, we can't pay for daycare, as I'm not willing to put the kids in care and be at home, not working.  I'm lucky in that, James has a schedule where he works 5 days on and 4 days off.  I try to work on the days that he is off, and then if there are days where he is working, James drops the boys off with my mom at 12 on his way to work.  She then takes them on the bus with her.  It's hard to figure it all out, but it seems to be working so far.

This past weekend was Halloween weekend.  Saturday we took the kids swimming and then were going to head to the Milton "tots on parade" event, but decided to go to the Georgetown one, as we didn't think that Hunter would stay awake for the drive to Milton.  Tots on Parade happens on main street and is where businesses give out candy.  It happens during the day and is designed to be a less "scary" trick or treating experience for the younger children.  The kids had a lot of fun, I was a bit taken a back by the number of people there.  I was not expecting it to be that busy.  Milton was probably a gong show!

Once we got our loot from the Tots on parade we headed to nana and papa's to show them our goodies.  We didn't have much time there though, had to get back home as James' parents were coming over.  Once they arrived, James and I headed out to spend the afternoon just the two of us.  We really need to do more of that.  We went for walk in Milton, had some beers, ice cream and cupcakes.  We went to chapters and then went out to dinner.  We were home in time to feed the boys their dinner....and were completely refreshed.  Sometimes you just need some time away.

Sunday was halloween.  We headed to James' parents for lunch and to show them the kids in their costumes.

From James' parent's place we headed to the Glen.  We ordered pizza, and then James, Jamie and I took the boys out trick or treating.  It was ADORABLE.  We walked down into the village, and went door to door.  It was dark out, and Drew was thrilled that we were out walking "in the night".  He kept saying, "mommy, this is SO FUN!"  Of course, this statement was always followed by, "but mommy, uncle Jamie and I are making the rules, you follow us".  Hunter had a great time too.  He followed Drew around and would not let go of the bucket that he was carrying around getting candy.  It was so cute, and so impressive that he could carry it.  It got pretty heavy!

Drew sees the cake and says, "mommy, I'm not eating that, it has spiders in it...that's disgusting".

Our camera is broken.  I'm so annoyed.  All I have left is the camera on my phone, and while it's not the worst, as you can see by the photos on this blog, it's not the best either.  Maybe Santa will bring me a new camera! 

Our week in photos

When trying to think of what we did this past week and a half, I went blank.  Thank goodness I took some photos......so, here is our week in pictures.

I love this view.  The clouds look pretty neat too.  On a good day, you can see Boston church, and hear the bells on sunday.

Look what we found at the side of the road!  I was driving to nana and papa's and came across this.  Knocked on the door to make sure it wasn't wanted anymore and was told to take it away!  Yay, Hunter is obsessed with this car!!!

Uncle Jamie helped Drew make this awesome helicopter.

Dinner at East Side Mario's.  Drew sharing his ice cream with Hunter.

These are the super cute 16$ jackets I got at Old Navy.  So fun!

We spent a long time raking the leaves and then jumping in them.  Hunter didn't want anything to do with them.

We had cake, just because.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our thanksgiving weekend could be summed up with one word, perfection.

Despite the foul start to the weekend (see previous post regarding the old navy sale), the weekend got progressively better.

After the sale, we had swimming lessons, which both boys enjoyed immensely.  Plans were made with Nana and papa to head back to their place once James left for work.  The fall colours were out in full force at their place, so a hike was planned.

Drew calls these hikes, "adventures" and really enjoys following the cow paths through the property.  Usually, these adventures are just a Nana-Drew thing.  He rarely allows Hunter and I along.  This time we were invited and I was thrilled.  It was so fun to see him with his little walking stick, stopping to pick apples and acorns and whatever else the boys found interesting.  Near the end of the hike Drew kept saying, "this is really hard work, isn't it??"  It really was hard work! 

Sunday morning we got up and headed back to Nana and Papa's to pick everybody up.  We were heading the Erin fair with my aunt Fran, as we do every thanksgiving weekend.  It was a beautiful day, and we had such a great time.  We rode on rides (the giant slide was the favorite and Drew (and Hunter) must have gone on it a million times), ate junk food and ran into some of our neighbours.  Drew had a pony ride, we watched a cattle show (a huge hit with my boys!) and played with some toy farm vehicles. 

After the fair, we headed back to Nana and Papa's for the afternoon/evening.  James and my dad headed back to our Milton farm to feed cows, pack up for the cottage and for my dad to bring back some hay.  Our family thanksgiving dinner was this night and we were so happy to be all gathered together for the night.  The jumpy castle was brought out and a family photo was taken.

After dinner, our family of 4 hit the rode for the cottage.  It was a quick 2 hour drive (quick for me and the boys, we slept!).  We stayed at the cottage until Tuesday, cleaning and playing.  The cottage will be closed in the next couple of weeks, so it was likely the last time until next spring.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year.  It's a time to spend with family and to remember what you have in your life to be thankful for.  We have so much to be thankful for and are very lucky people!

The things we do to save a buck!

Old navy advertised an Early opening this morning for their 16th birthday celebration (7am) so mom, hunter and I hit the road at 6:45 to try and get some deals. Showed up at Erin mills only to find out they were not opening until 9:30. I thought my mother was going to punch me in the face. The nice couple in the car next to us suggested that maybe square one would be open (the man in the car did not look impressed). Off to the 403 we went.

A crowd of people was gathered outside of the store (we found out when we arrived it wasn't opening until 8 -crap). We power walked around the empty mall and found a Timmy's that was open so mom wasn't so grouchy.

Thank god!

Once the store opened people literally ran into the store.  Ridiculous.  I didn't understand why they were in such a rush.  There weren't hundreds of people or anything, surely there would be enough coats for everyone (16$ coats!).  I quickly understood why.  People were grabbing 5 and 6 coats each...and pushing and shoving each other to get to the coats. 

Crazy!

Mom and I headed straight to the kids area to avoid the possibility of us getting into some sort of coat-induced brawl.  We were already cranky enough.  The kids section did not have a huge selection of coats that were 16$, but I was able to find 2 matching lumberjack coats for the boys and mom found a cute coat she just had to buy for Drew that was 30% off.

After the hysteria died down, we wandered over to the women's section to see what all the fuss was over these 16$ coats.  I'll tell you this much, I wouldn't have paid 8$ for these coats.  I tried one on, and the sleeves were too short. 

Glad I didn't throw a punch to get one!

A couple that works together....

James and I have always been a pretty good team.  Before we started dating, we were friends and we played co-ed volleyball together.  We had fun, and worked pretty well together.  Once we started dating, our favorite thing to do was to go paddling together and later, got into white-water paddling.  We communicated well and therefore things went pretty smoothly.

Once we got engaged, and I pictured our future together, I imagined that the fact that we worked well together would spill over into all facets of our life, including raising our children.

Fast forward to last night. 

Actually, before I tell you about last night, I should give you a bit of an update on Hunter's sleeping.  I've been putting him down awake for the past couple of weeks and he's been sleeping through the night.  He's getting up early, but sleeping through the night for the most part.  Before he sleeps through the night though, he cries for anywhere between 5-15 minutes.  This crying has been accompanied by (occasionally) barfing.  My sleep "book" has instructed us to clean him up afterwards, but to not make a big deal about it, or allow him to get out of bed after he's cleaned up, causing him to associate barfing with being able to get out of bed.

Last night, he cried for 10 minutes (I did my 5 minute check-ins) and when I checked on him the 2nd time, he was asleep.  Great, I thought.  I slapped myself on the back, took Drew up to bed and then poured myself a glass of wine and settled in to Thursday night tv.

Around 11, I decided I couldn't wait up for James anymore and went to check in on Drew and Hunter before I retired for the night.  Drew was fine.  When I went into H's room, the strong aroma of barf hit my nose.  Upon closer inspection I discovered a pile of puke in the corner of his bed, and Hunter soundly asleep at the other end of the bed.

Crap.  I am the worst mother in the world.  What the hell do I do now?  The sleep book has no instructions for what to do if the baby is sleeping and there is barf!!!

I quickly grabbed some wipes and cleaned up most of the chunks and then found a blanket to cover the wet/smelly spot so that if he rolled over there, he wouldn't land in it.

I then messaged James with a desperate call for help/advice. 

My vote was to just leave him, let him sleep.  I was certain that if we were to lift him out of bed it would cause all hell to break loose and we wouldn't get him back to sleep without another screaming/barfing episode.

James walked through the door a few minutes later and decided it was time for him to take a closer look. 

He put on his headlamp (yes, we have headlamps.....they are extremely handy!) and went in.  We (OK, He) decided on a plan of action.  I pulled the sheets off half of the crib, then put on the clean one.  James lifted Hunter, without changing his sleeping position and I took the other half of sheet off, then slid the clean sheet underneath him.

We successfully changed the sheets without waking him, and luckily enough for us, he didn't get any barf on him!

High fives for us. 

I'm not sure I could have ever imagined us working together in such "stressful" circumstances.  I don't think I could have ever imagined that this situation is what I would perceive as stressful.  You would have thought we were preforming major surgery the way we were acting. 

Hunter's first trip on the bus!

I went to another parent council meeting this afternoon so James dropped the boys off at Nana and Papa's on his way to work.  Nana took both boys on her bus run with her (she is a brave soul).  We had installed a carseat for Hunter last night so everything was all set.  I was a bit nervous, as he'd never been on the bus before.  As is usually the case, I worried for nothing.  He loved the ride.  I think it's because he's up so high, he can see so much.  Both boys had a great time, Drew was thrilled to share his bus expertise with Hunter in true big brother style.  I love it when he goes into proud big-brother mode.  It's so cute.

I was not there to take a photo, I'm really hoping that James took one. 

After my mom was done work and I was finished with my meeting, we headed to Erin Mills to do some shopping.  James and I are going to a wedding recpetion at the end of the month and I need a dress.  I tried on a ton of dresses, and did not find one.  Grrrrr