Yo

1. I wrote `yo' because that is my subject line to my sisters every day. I think I group email them once a day.

2. I feel like I am a good mom. I'm not bragging, I'm going to compare it to another area of my life in a second. I've only doubted my `great mothering' once. It was when Kai fell out of the stroller and landed on his face at 6 months of age. In comparison, I feel like I'm just an average wife these days. I know how to be a great wife but I choose not to because of exhaustion and irritation. I'm working on this. I think we went through this when Kai was little too. I'm just so tired of Kai getting up at 5:30am and then Koen being up until 10pm. WHERE IS THE DOWN TIME?? Today when all 3 (yes, Gary too) were napping I ran out and did errands. I guess that is considered down time?

3. I may have sang `I need a vacation from my kids!' today.

4. Kai and I went raspberry and blueberry picking today. Could've been the best `date' that we have been on. I didn't need to help him at all, he knew exactly what to do and only ate a few after I told him he could. I just made some fantastic blueberry muffins for our road trip tomorrow. Berries are way too yummy.

(Kai helping Gary crank out some lasagna noodles...Kai is gonna be quite the chef someday. Seriously, this kid knows way too much about food and the kitchen. He will try anything and what other 3 year old kid asks to go to the garden to get some thyme or basil to add to a dish?)

5. I think Gary may have purposely put all the laundry away in the wrong spots so that I never ask him to do it again.

6. I think Koen tripled his cuteness overnight. Conversely, he has been really irritable these past few days and I'm assuming its from his shots on Wednesday. He even threw up on me while I was feeding him this morning and he has never done that. He has also been eating anything we give him. Today he had fish and bread for the first time. But ya, too cute. Again today, I was just so thankful that we were able to have him.

(This picture was taken 3 days ago, before he tripled in cuteness:))

7. I went to a show home today. Several days ago, Gary and I walked by a house we really liked and can't stop thinking about it. I thought we would be in this house until we retired because I don't like moving and I really like our house. Not sure if we want to take on a larger mortgage but the lure of a bigger kitchen, ensuite, and yard is soooooo enticing! This raises so many questions about how we want to live our lives and whether we want another kid etc. Oh life. Love it.

8. We had this Saturday off as a shoot was cancelled so I went to a few garage sales. Wow, I have never seen Kai so happy. I bought him a lawnmower for $1 and he has probably played with it for 3 hours already. I also got him the coolest mini motorcyle for 25 cents that drives all around our house and turns on its own when it hits something. Toys these days, I tell ya. I do have pictures of him playing with the lawnmower but the thought of uploading and posting is too much right now so I'll put them on later.

9. Gary and I are comfortably running 5 km together and run about 3-4 times a week. Gary did a 7km on his own yesterday and I'm sure I'm ready I just don't want to use up too much of my day's energy allotment yet.

10. Talking about energy, I went back on my prenatal vitamins (thanks for the reminder Melissa...I knew I should but to hear it from someone else was the little push I needed). I def. feel a lot better.

11. My friend Ali is due this week with her first child and I'm so excited about it. Something so special about that transition to motherhood!!!

12. Gary and I (and the munchkins) are heading up to Green Lake to meet up with my dad tomorrow. All Kai wants to do is ride the green lawnmower with Opi. We're going to try to get Kai to swim in the lake if its warm enough.

Have a great week all!

Family Pictures!

Today was so awesome. You may have heard me complaining in the past that we can never get a good family photo for a variety of reasons, one of which we need someone to take it! Koen and Kai are not at the best age for it either but...our friends Andrew and Dana are up from Mexico and we did a photo swap. Andrew is very talented, check out the link! We took some photos of their family and they took some of ours! So perfect. Their family photos aren't on here because we used their compact flash card for theirs so we'll have to see if they turned out okay later on:)

So...here are some pictures. Photos with all 4 of us were taken by Andrew and if its just Gary or I in the picture, we took it. Thank you Willms'!

The kids just ran, and ran, and ran.

The lovely Willms family..

I am not touching a single photo tomorrow. I need a mental break from the computer and cameras!

Applesauce

Yesterday Koen got to eat some canned applesauce that my mom had made. I felt so emotional in the sense that he was eating something that my mom had made. A connection between my mom and my son who she never met. Something that she made for him, unknowingly. Sisters, keep some for your babies to be!

Thanks oma!

I saw my sister Jantina's record of immunizations the other day and in it, my mom had written when she started solids, how long she was breastfed for, when she stood etc. I wish I had some of that information. I would encourage moms to document it because one day your kid may want to know. Either you might not remember or maybe you won't even be around. That's life.

Koen had his 6 month shot yesterday, yup, just one shot as they combine them now. The nurse took one look at his thigh and was like, `I'll be back, I need a bigger gauged needle.'! He is a lot shorter (2 inches!) and smaller than Kai was but still in the 75-90th percentile. He has actually lost some weight and is just 19lbs 2oz. I remember Kai losing weight around this time, they are just so active!

The doctor asked if he was always that happy and I said yes. He is one very content and happy boy even when he misses a nap. He doesn't sleep very much. Two hours in the day, 8.5 at night. Less than 12 hours for a 6 month old? So ridiculous. I can't wait until he falls alseep before 10pm. I shouldn't complain as he is happy and giggling from 8-10pm but Gary and I need some time without kids around!

He is a HUGE mover. If you have him on the couch with you, he just crawls all over you and dives here and there with no fear.

Kai has changed over this past week. He has thrown out some new phrases or ideas like `You just have to give it a little try daddy', `we should get a fax machine', `we should have a mini golf course!'. He runs around our house wildly with a stroller playing shopping or delivery truck. I think he goes grocery shopping with a stroller because that's what we do. He's a good little/big boy and is really looking forward to having cake for his birthday in a month.

Yesterday Kai ran the two blocks back from the mail box saying `Mommy, I'm exercising!'. I asked him why he was running and he said, `So I can be fast at football, soccer and hockey!'. Okay, sounds good to me.

Love my two little monkeys. I have to say they are pretty good kids and life is quite easy with the two of them. I really look forward to the day that Kai sees Koen as a playmate option or someone that he truly loves. Any tips for getting the older sibling to show a little love to his younger brother? Or does it just come with time? He is protective of Koen if someone wants to take him but has probably only hugged Koen 3 times in his life. It's so strange because we show so love in our family with words and hugs all the time. Kai does it to us but not to Koen.

Too cute

He's just growing up too fast. Today he ate half a banana in about 3 minutes....not mashed up.

Trying Stuff Out....

Trying to figure out picture package stuff in photoshop...the GC Blog will be updated later today.

Muscle Shirt

I found Kai in the bathroom, standing on the stool, checking out his `muscles' in the mirror.

Kai has started jogging with us. He gets to push the stroller and jog a couple of blocks with us and then he jumps in the stroller for the rest of the way. Although his jog is obviously slower than ours, we have to jog along with him or we may get yelled at:) I wonder when my little boy will be able to run faster or further than I can? I think I will feel very old on that day.

Beautiful Bride

On Saturday we did the wedding photography for a colleague of ours...doesn't she look amazing? Jen was actually a student of mine way back in the day:)

Nothing else really new....I'm staying home from church with a napping baby. My toe has the hugest open blister on it so I won't be able to run for probably 4 days. That's what happens when you wear flip flops every day and then have to wear `nice' shoes:) In case you were wondering about my `fitness journey', I've managed to maintain my weight which is great. Also, I've been doing some 4.5km runs with Gary. We'll have to step up the distance but the weather has been sooooo hot. Okay, back to editing:)

6 Months Old

My little baby is now not so much a baby as he's now starting solids and moving around. We love him so much and his smile literally lights up my life.

Sleep: Has maybe 3 naps that are 45 minutes each. He sleeps from 10pm-6:30am. Woohoo! At this age, Kai was sleeping at least two 2 hour naps and slept from 8pm-7am so I guess this guy isn't as much into the whole sleeping thing.

Eating: I still breastfeed him every 3.5 hours and he has a `meal' in between of either rice cereal, pears, apple, banana or sweet potato.

Reflux: I've been told that solids help to keep it down, and he doesn't vomit anymore, but I just think it makes his spit up so much more disgusting. Now I get covered in coloured spit up. Yuck!

Diaper stuff: He's down to pooping maybe 6 times a day, this is a great improvement.

Weight: 19 lbs 9 ounces

I wanted to document parts of Koen because they grow up so fast and I forget what they look like as a baby so here are some close ups of Koen.

His precious little feet that like to jump, jump, jump.

He tries to grab his feet but is a very unflexible baby. I think its because his thighs are so big:) It's probably a good thing because he's not good with pressure on his tummy.

Talking about thighs, check out these big ones! We can't figure out if his knees have rug burn or a sun burn. Oops.

His hands that love grabbing everything. Your hair, ears, necklace, food, toys...anything!

He does suck his fingers but not really to soothe himself but to indicate he's getting tired.

This guy is one second away from crawling. He moves maybe a foot in 10 minutes:) He has some fancy leg extensions and other moves that he's working on. He'll get it soon. Check out the dimples! We are SO thankful that we were able to have a second child and that it's him.

His back fat...

And crazy belly button. It looks like the opening of the balloon when its all tied up in a knot. Do you know what I mean?

He now sits on his own and plays with his toys which is such a fun stage. He can move from sitting to on all fours quite easily.

Koen LOVES his big brother. Kai is taking baby steps in regards to interacting with his brother but we'll get there. Here he's trying to blow on his tummy because I was doing it.

Koen, you have been here 6 months and you have brought so much happiness to our lives. You make me and daddy smile with your giggles and dopey grin. We love how you are so easy going and flexible. We look forward to getting to know you over all the years to come. We're praying that God gives you a wonderfully long life full of amazing family, friendships, experiences and a relationship with Him. Love you Kokoes!!!

Canada Day 2009

Yesterday we went to the Langley Airport to celebrate Canada Day with our family and friends. Kai had an amazing time. He LOVED the swings because they were the fastest ride. It was $10 for a pass to go on all rides so we did that and he loved it. Growing up we NEVER got to have ride passes etc because there were 5 of us which is totally understandable. We did go to Disneyland once though so I shouldn't complain:)



I've done a lot of our editing in Lightroom but just knowa little more than the basics in Photoshop so I am working on some different photoshop techniques over the summer. The collage was something I tried out this morning. Has potential:)



Kai and Gary spent some time looking at the old cars (check out Kai's ear). Kai LOVES cars. They also had a Monster Truck to ride on and if there wasn't a long line up, we for sure would've taken him on it. He would've been ecstatic.



Afterwards we had everyone back at our house (7 adults and 9 kids) and the kids ran wild while we ate some good food including fabulous strawberry pie made by Melissa. I must admit I looked on MLS this morning for a house with a yard. I would love our current house on an acreage. Oh well, we are very blessed to have what we do have. I think we'll stay where we are:)

Koen's 6 month post is coming...

Hair

Today while looking in our hat storage box, I found a toque (you know, a knitted hat for all you non-Canadians..happy bday Canada). My mom asked me to do several things in the last few months before she died. One thing she asked was that I find her a toque for when she lost her hair again. Although, she never really lost it the last time around so she never wore the hat more than once.

Here's the toque. Nothing exciting, right?

But look a little closer.

My mom's short, gray hair. Something. Do I put this toque in my `mom box' so I have that hair for as long as possible? You betcha. It's crazy how that little hair likely evokes nothing in you, but to me, it makes me have a lump in my throat.

And, in other news..Happy Canada Day and happy 4th birthday to my dad. In 2005, he had a heart attack and his heart stopped. They had to bring him back with the paddles. He now considers today his new birthday.