Sunday, January 31, 2010

Olympics

I'm very excited. My friend Trina was trying to raise money for `Take A Hike Foundation' and was giving away her Olympic Opening Ceremony Dress Rehearsal tickets as an incentive. I won 3 tickets to the dress rehearsal on Monday, Feb.8th and I'm very excited about it!


Can't believe that the Olympics start in just 2 weeks. Thank you, Trina, for an opportunity to participate!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Kai Bear

Kai had his party day at school today. It's where they show the parents what they have learned throughout the month. This month's theme was `bears' so they had their bear hats on and sang songs about bears. I always call him Kai Bear so it was fitting:)
Kai loves the singing and the actions and usually does everything very exaggerated. He is also a bit silly. One of the songs talks about saying nice words to lift people's spirits up, up, up and Kai kept singing `...down, down, down' with actions and a HUGE smile. The teacher had to stand next to him after that:) Yes, the teacher needs to stand next to MY kid. I think having kids, especially boys, will make me a better teacher. A little more understanding.
(His bear ears area bit turned around)
Kai put up his hand to answer every question. He loves preschool. Have I said that before?:)
(The bears are hibernating)
The weather has been pretty nice the past few days so the kids have actually played in the backyard. Koen was pretty pumped to discover the sand and water table. It was full of Kai's `soup'. Gross. Found a rotten squash in there.
I wonder what Kai will be into once he is done with the construction/cars/trucks phase. What's next?
Gary had his winter camp out this week and it went well. He teaches an outdoor leadership class...very cool. Something I would've loved to have taken. Something I would love to take now. He was home for one hour and then left again. Busy, busy time.
Football starts up in a few more months. I'm really hoping to see an improvement in my health by then. So far, I'm staying at about 85% normal...my eyes seem to be getting worse again and the only other thing I deal with daily is some anxiety. If you don't know, I do have a thyroid blog too. Yes, I actually have 4 blogs:)
I think I felt this way about Kai at this age too, but man, I think Koen is the most adorable thing in the world. Today while Kai and his class were singing, Koen was dancing to the music. So cute!! When he does something naughty, he looks at me and giggles like he is the funniest person in the world. I really, really, really love this stage. You know, before they say `no!' or lay on the ground crying because you didn't give them a cookie.

Talking about cookies, we watched `Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' last night. I asked Kai what food he would like to fall from the sky and his answer was....apples and carrots. Who is this kid? What about timbits? Pizza? Seriously, this guy loves his fruits and veggies. The movie was cute and I'd give it an 8/10. The headless chickens were a bit scary to the kiddos, especially when it ate one of the characters. I love that we can have family movie nights now, it makes me feel so `family-ish' if that makes sense. We def. do not have family game nights because if Kai doesn't win the game, it's not pleasant. We don't play Candyland anymore because of that.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. Also, I sent away a very exciting letter today...I will post on it later. It deserves a separate post.

Bon nuit!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Safety

I love my kids. A lot. I sometimes wonder about their safety by having a blog. There are a lot of things I could do to make is safer; just use nicknames, make the blog private, disable right clicking on pictures etc. There was an incident I just heard of where a woman is taking pictures off of blogs and posting them on her own blog, as if they were her own kids. Something I need to think about.
In the meantime, isn't he so adorable? He loves Blue more and more each day.
Blue #2 (back up blue) does not do the trick so I hope we never lose this guy! When Koen doesn't want to be in bed, he throws Blue out and cries and cries. We just go into his room, throw Blue back into his crib, and then he goes to sleep:)
Gary and I just watch him in amazement. He is so good on his feet and his smile melts our hearts. Those dimples sure help. Sure, he has his grumpy moments, but overall, he is such a happy, goofy little guy.
Kai is such a boy. Wow. Never thought I would be excited for my kid to watch `Mighty Machines'. He loves playing garbage man. He drives around the house, on Koen's little firetruck, and collects `garbage' and delivers it to the `dump' (office). He also decided that he was in charge of recycling and took the real recycling out to the garage without being asked.
We had our first wedding of the year last weekend...the weather behaved so that was awesome.
All right...is there anything you do to ensure your family's safety when blogging? Can you think of anything I can do differently? Maybe it's time to have a new blog address that doesn't have our last name in it? Thoughts?

Monday, January 25, 2010

Sugar


These are my favourite chocolate chip cookies. The star ingredient is the corn starch...makes them nice and chewy.

Kai (wanting a cookie): Mommy, did you know that sugar makes boys nice to brothers?
***
Kai: Mommy, can I go skiing?
Me: Well, I'm not sure if you're old enough.
Kai: Mommy, I'm very brave. I can do anything in the whole wide world.
***
I wanted Kai to wear his boots yesterday because I knew he would want to puddle jump. Kai said, `I don't jump in puddles on Sunday, only on Thursday and Friday.'

Okay, I shouldn't have said I would post a picture of my new black jeans...but, here they are. I went out for my littlest sister's stagette. Wow, I am old. How have things changed in a bar since I was last there? Everyone has cell phones and digital cameras (and are using them a lot). Back when I was in university, no one had either of those which is probably a good thing...thank goodness there was no facebook either. There were also a lot of short shorts. Yes, in January. I ran into an old student of mine there and it was nice to catch up (although that made me feel VERY old to be there).
(Maria, don't look!)
Ani's 4th birthday is this week. I made a children's story for her. We had a dress up tea party at our house, I took a bunch of pictures, and then I made a book through London Drugs. Only problem is that I made two spelling mistakes:(

We visited with friends last night and they have 2 dogs and a cat. I am now tempted to get a cat. We had both growing up and I know that cats are a lot less maintenance and they are very independent. We will see. Do they scratch leather couches? I'm not in the mood for that. And where do you put the litter box when your main floor is just one giant room? Will a cat go to the basement to use the litter box? I guess so. We will see!

Gary is going overnight camping in the snow this week. Should be fun for them...hopefully the boys behave for me!

Time to think about dinner. I like making it, I just don't like deciding what to make. Gary and I used to menu plan a week at a time and we should really get back to it. Such a time and money saver.

Oh yes, one more thing...have you watched `Modern Family' on Wednesday nights? A new top 5 show for me. Makes me laugh. Gary's not sold on it, but I am.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Bike Ridin'

(Kai's perspective)

This morning, I fixed my bike tire with daddy. We got my bike for free so it's a little interesting, but it works! I was excited to try it out...
Woohooo! I'm doing it!! Hmmm....
I don't know about all this pedaling business,
It's kind of hard work.
I've got my tongue out and I'm concentrating really hard. I can do this! And, I'm OFF!

...of my bike.
Not as fun as I thought. Maybe I'll try again some other day.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Birth

I was able to make it to the birth a beautiful baby boy this morning. The whole labour, from the very starting contractions to the end, was just 3 hours (her first baby too)! A new baby entering the world is truly the most amazing and beautiful experience. I will have pictures on my photo blog once I actually edit them...there are a lot! I LOVED IT!!!

**I worked on them all day and some pictures are now posted!**

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Chocolate Waffles

I love waffles. I love them more with real whipped cream and homemade blueberry sauce. That's what we had for lunch today folks. So good. I'm a little addicted to that foodgawker site:) Although the chocolate waffles were good, I think I'd rather have a healthier waffle and let all the fat come from the whipping cream. Oh man, whipping cream with vanilla bean sugar....
I take a lot of head shots of my kids. I realize this. It's just that I rarely take my camera out when we leave the house because it's a bit hard watching the kids (let's be honest, it's my crazy Koen that must be watched closely) and taking pictures. So, there are a lot of pictures from inside the house. If Gary is along for an outing, it's not a problem having the camera too.
(Koen jumping on our bed with Gary's alarm clock...his favourite thing to do upstairs)
Here are some more pictures of my absolutely adorable kids, who are both sick with colds. Apparently when Koen has a cold, he has to stay up all night and when we take him into our bed, he spends half an hour jumping on me and Gary and then gets sent back to his room after his runny nose has been wiped all over our duvet cover. He would seriously stand on the bed, lift his arms into the air, and then body slam onto one of us and giggle away. Then, he'd get up, walk to the other person and do the same. I don't mind losing one nights sleep to a cute little boy, but let's hope tonight is better!
(How did I get him to smile? I said, `Thomas the train farted'. That's boy humour for you, folks! I'm learning.)
Is it just me, or is Kai growing up?
Today Koen walked about 8 blocks without me having to carry him. He refuses to hold my hand so there was a lot of redirecting him. Thankfully Kai was patient with us.

Kai looking out the front window, watching the excavator working across the street. When we walked by them later in the day, Kai asked them what they were doing and they chatted with him. Kai then told me, `They really like me mommy, I should invite them to my birthday party!'. What is up with wanting to invite strangers to your birthday party? Last night when we went for a walk, he asked a random lady with a beautiful dog if she wanted to come. She declined. He told me later he actually only wanted the dog to come, not the lady.

Well, still awaiting `the call' for the birth photo shoot I'm going to do. She is now 8 days overdue so I'm assuming it will be in the next two days:)
Have a great evening everyone!
Bon nuit.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Ornamental Cherry Tree

Today, they tore out the trees at my dad's old house. A part of me was happy to see that big tree go, because it always gives me such terrible spring allergies. A larger part of me was sad. My mom loved looking at that tree. The last time my mom went outside for a picture was in April 2006, to get a picture by the tree.
(Taken April 4th 2006, she passed away on May 7th 2006).
(This is what was left of the tree this morning)
One nice thing is that we have a beautiful view of the mountains right now...until they put the 6 new houses on that lot.
Miss you mom. Always. Every day.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Fresh Air

Today was beautiful! It was warm (tied the record at 12C in Vancouver) and sunny. We walked to the park and Koen walked the whole three blocks there and back, plus running around wildly while there. It just feels so good to get out in the fresh air. When we were kids, we grew up on an acreage with a forest so we were outside all the time. I wish our kids had a yard like that but going to the parks will just have to do (we have a lot of parks in our neighbourhood)!
Kai met a friend named Koen (same spelling!) and they just ran around and wrestled each other. Kai is so outgoing. He invited the boy to his birthday party and then invited our neighbour as well. His birthday party isn't until August:)
(Kai loves shooting off the end of the slide on his stomach)
I realized that I really can't take a camera to the park while watching the two kids amongst the chaos of a million kids on a sunny day. That is the downfall of the big DSLR, you can't just stick it in your pocket. Maybe if Koen wasn't so mobile, it would be easier to actually try to get some shots of the kids. Right now, he just really needs to be watched because he is fearless.
Thanks to the Willms' for Koen's new amber necklace. They are supposed to be good for reflux and teething so I'm excited to try it out. Koen has been super grumpy due to the teething so we will see what happens! The clasp is magnetic so it is safe for them to wear.
I am more and more in love with our kids every day. Kai makes me laugh from what he says and Koen makes me smile from his adorableness. Koen is really listening well which really surprises me. I didn't even know that he understood that much. Boy, kids are smart! The only time he does not listen is if we are out walking somewhere and I ask him to come. He just runs away (Kai did the same thing). At home though, he will come if I call him.
Koen is now on a big boy schedule. He eats 3 big meals per day and 3 big bottles per day. One nap, usually from 11am-1pm (so NOT perfect with preschool). I usually still hold him when he drinks his bottle so that we have our bonding time, and besides, he really loves it. So do I. Otherwise, he is just go, go, go all day long.
Kai and Koen are now playing nicely together and I love it. Seriously, this is what I dreamed of. True, Kai still takes stuff out of Koen's hands but I love hearing them wrestle, chase each other, and giggle away.
Just showing Koen's new Canada shirt. It was in the girl section but I think it works just fine:) Talking about clothes, I have bought a whole bunch of new clothes over the past 2 months. I think I just didn't buy much over the last 4 years because I was in maternity clothes, and then just in some old clothes, then back in maternity clothes. I never spend this much on clothes but I just felt like everything I had was very old and outdated. One purchase that I made, that was a bit `interesting' was a pair of black skinny jeans (regularly $100!). I don't know if they were really made for my body type but they come in my size so someone must have to wear them! I'm going to my sister's stagette on Saturday so I'm going to wear them with my black boots and I think it might look okay....we'll see. I'll show you a picture:)

Kai loves this Bolt book (thanks Ali!) with all the buttons to push and especially since we just saw the movie. The boys do enjoy reading, although, they would probably rather wrestle.
All right, time to spend some time with my husband:)
Bon nuit.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Five Carrots

(Oh Koen, you make me smile)
Today I went for a walk with a friend. It was super nice to get out in the sunshine and I'm not going to complain about how utterly exhausted I was from a walk.
We wrote letters to ourselves when we were in grade 11 and we just got them last year (from our teacher). Mine was actually pretty boring but it was interesting to see my predicted timeline...`Finish highchool, go to university, get married while there, work 3 years, have a couple of kids, when they go to school, work part time'. Man, good thing I didn't get married during university!! The reason I say that is because I wasn't dating anyone I should have married at that time. I worked for about 5 years before having kids. A funny comment I made was: `When you read this you will probably have no more skin problems!'. Apparently I had skin problems?! I don't even remember having more than one zit at at time but maybe that one zit was very traumatic for me?:)
Kai always likes to have 5 carrots for a snack. Yes, 5. The other day he asked if I could get him 5 carrots and then said `but I didn't hear you count!'. How do you explain counting in your head? He loves holding up the appropriate number of fingers for everything now. I think they do that a lot in preschool. We got to sit in on an hour of preschool and it was amazing to see all that they do in their circle time. Kai even raised his hand when he had a question, it was very cute. He is not afraid to ask any question or do anything.
(Holding hands with my littlest bubba)
Tonight we watched `Bolt' as a family. Kai said it was the best night ever. I don't know if he understood even half of the movie but he sure loved it! Koen just wandered around the whole time doing things that made me laugh. He gets into everything and it's really interesting how much he actually understands now.
Koen is able to eat a lot of different things. I think it's more than me just being relaxed about it, he just has really good manipulation of objects and had a great pincer grasp very early on. Don't ever try to take an apple away from him, something I found out the other day.
I know this was sooooooo boring but it's a Saturday post. Oh well, better than nothing?!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Cupcakes

Okay, I just need to share something. I love cupcakes. Love them. They are so beautiful and soooo tasty. I just got Martha Stewart's `Cupcakes' book for Christmas so obviously I have to try them out. I have to say that so far, I have tried two of the cupcakes; `One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes' and `Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes' and they weren't my favourite cupcakes. I mean, they were still terrific, but not my favourite. The chocolate ones were a bit dry and the ice cream cone ones were a bit dense.
(This is the `One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake with Dark Chocolate Frosting')
My favourite cake and cupcake recipe comes from Hershey's Cookbook, or you can find it online. It is Hershey's `Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake'. But, do not make the frosting that this recipe recommends, because Martha Stewart's are a billion times better.
So, which frostings have I tried?
1. Dark Chocolate Frosting; easy, sooooooo creamy, pipes well, soooo yummy!!
2. Swiss Meringue Buttercream; a little bit more work but so good! Apparently you can freeze it, defrost, remix and use it but mine did not work when I defrosted it. So, use it fresh. SO GOOD.

Do not look at the amounts of sugar and butter. So, so, soooooo bad. However, I don't really have a hard time taking in calories that are super yummy and homemade. I don't eat store bought baked goods (well, except for bread) because nothing beats homemade! Also, most of the cupcakes I make are mini cupcakes so it's really just 1/4 the calories of a regular size cupcake:)

Can't wait for dessert tonight!


Compassion

First off, I do feel a little silly posting my day to day normal stuff when so many people are suffering right now in Haiti. It's a bit like after my mom died. My dad and I went for a walk a couple of hours afterwards and the whole world just went on normally. What can we do besides pray and give money? I gave some money through Compassion. We sponsor a child through Compassion and one through World Vision and I have to say that I am very impressed with Compassion. If you are looking to sponsor a child, they do a wonderful job at keeping you connected with your child (at least 3 letters back and forth each year, you can give some extra money for birthday and Christmas presents, you can send your letters via email). Unlike World Vision where the translator just checks off some boxes and draws a picture themselves and makes it look like the child did it. Oh well, at least the child is sponsored.

On to the Chapman household. We had a lovely addition to our family this week...a new vacuum! I do love vacuuming and I've had the same vacuum for 10 years so it was time (the front wheels had fallen off).
The kids were more excited than I was! It's not super fancy but I love the clear canister that shows how much junk gets vacuumed up. Also, it's all we could get with our mastercard points. We had a good time vacuuming as a family once it was assembled. Koen does not like the vacuum. He just stands there and says `mama mama mama' over and over.
Yesterday I made pancakes for lunch and this is a conversation that ensued:
Kai: Mommy, you didn't make me any baby pancakes! (I usually make some little mini ones)
Me: Sorry Kai, I totally forgot.
Kai: It's okay mommy. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. I forgive you.
Koen's front tooth finally came through, for a total of 6, but he is still so grumpy. He had his vaccinations 2 days ago so that probably did not help.
I am eagerly awaiting `the phone call' for a couple that was due on Tuesday. I'm doing their birth photos and I can't wait. I think the only problem with wanting to get into this is that I am tied to my cell phone and you can't have any other booked photo shoot 2 weeks around the due date. I'm trying to figure out the logistics of it all but still, very excited!
Gary has been gone a lot due to basketball. He had a tournament all weekend and now has a tournament this week. Unfortunately they are not playing that well which makes it a lot less fun for him to coach. Somehow, when he is not home, we end up having dinner at 4:30pm, baths at 5pm and the kids are ready for bed by 5:30pm. This means I have 2 hours before bed time where I am ready for them to go to bed. I would go for a walk with them but it is dark and wet out. Oh well, less than 2 more months until I have Gary back!
This is Koen's face after 5:30pm each night. Unless I have him. I think he's just not used to Gary these days and he is just in some pain (tummy and tooth). Might not help that Gary is just watching basketball while `trying' to entertain him:)
So I put him in the bjorn last night and went for a walk. Haven't done that in months but Koen was loving it.
After his bottle, he was so tired that he fell asleep in my arms (woohoo! I love it!). He did not transfer and stayed up for another 2 hours.....

Oh well, they are only young once and I don't mind. Nothing else to do and a few extra hours of cuddles each night is fine to me right now.
Oh yes, so I don't forget: Words Koen says; Mama, Dada, Boo (blue), Ha Da (hi there), Ba (bye)