Oh, fall...

It's always you who inspires me to get back into gear. With painting. With organizing. With renewing. I'm feeling pretty strongly about "out with the old, in with the new." And in a lot of areas, really.

I have a brand new beautiful painting hanging in my dining room. One that I did not paint myself, and let me tell you, it feels incredibly refreshing to have a piece from another artist adorning my walls for a change! Isn't it great?.....even though I believe it is still hanging slightly crooked in the photo.

Wee Man has begun preschool and adores it. He's making new friends, I'm making new friends and everyone is smiling. New. Ahhh.

We've already hit up the local pumpkin patch once and it makes my heart sing. I hope to visit it again soon...we still need to pick out pumpkins :D

And, man, do I love Today's Parent magazine. It's Canadian, so very informative and relevant to our family, and the stories and features are wonderful! AND - every year they offer subscribers the opportunity to have their December cover come customized with a picture you upload and color scheme you choose! For FREE! Isn't that the coolest!? Here's mine for this year...

OK, now where are the Honey Crisp apples and the mini pumpkins!?!? I've been looking...

Wondering....

It's no wonder people can live in a city filled with people and yet feel so very alone. I don't know my immediate neighbors, other than to say "hi" every now and then in passing - and we have lived here for a year and a half. I do know people on the street however, some that I spend a good amount of time with that have kiddos around Wee Man's age, but not any of our next-door neighbors.

I have mentioned to the hubby before about how it's nice to not have to talk to a neighbor every time you pop outside for a moment...I do like how everyone keeps to themselves in this neighborhood.

But, sadly, our neighbor (a Mom of 2) passed away a couple months back. I heard from friends that live on our street. I am saddened to see the family coming and going, silently, and constantly wondering how they are doing, but not knowing them even well enough to take over a casserole or say the typical, "if you need anything..." I'm unsure of how I would even be able to acknowledge what happened in a conversation with them. I've seen the Dad tending to the perennials that the Mom, no doubt, planted the year prior. This stuff tears at me.

I had talked to their son a couple of times and thought he was just the sweetest kid. I believe he is around 14 and his sister is about 17. I truly hope they are doing ok...such tender ages to go through something so difficult. I lost my Dad when I was 25 and it killed me...I find it astonishing how much is still hurts 8 years later. I still yearn to talk to him, to see how he would be with my children (that's a big one).

They have had their house up for sale for awhile now and they are filling the moving truck today. Their Dad is in the military and that may be why they are moving, but I can't help but think that living in that house without Mom is more sadness than they can endure. I hope their Dad is able to find the tenderness to help these young kids through this terrible time. I glanced out my window and see the boy power-washing the driveway off, headphones in. I feel a great sadness I cannot express. I'm sorry I can't help. I'm sorry I'm not brave enough to say anything. I'm sorry I don't know you well enough to know if you would even want me to say anything. I'm sorry for your loss.

New Etsy Listing

Heya. I've had a couple requests for a full name version of my "Custom Monogram Painting" for some kiddos, and so, I thought I'd pop a listing up on Etsy.

Here are some pics of completed paintings.

It's here...

...a day late, but here nonetheless.

I love how it turned out...I'm a big fan of Blurb.

Fathers Day 2011

Ok, ok. I am SO friggin' excited about the Fathers Day idea/gift I came up with for this year, I can barely contain myself. Really. Sadly, though, it is not going to make it here in time for Sunday. Boo. But, it will be here Monday.

I wrote and designed a book for Dad to read to his little men. A very special story with pictures and elements that are 100% unique to our family. I LOVE IT!! I cannot wait for it to arrive. I printed it with Blurb, who I love! I designed all the pages with GIMP and then uploaded them into the program called "BookSmart", which is FREE to download from Blurb. I know, they're great! If I'm happy with the look of the printed book, I hope to design and print more kiddies books for the boys. The cost is extremely reasonable and you can make the story custom to your family.

I used FREE digital scrapbooking kits to create a lot of the pages and then after the story I made collages of Tyler's family, my family, and OUR family. I want the kiddos to be able to look at these collages and pick out new pictures each time and talk about our family members.

I don't think Tyler even knows I blog, and if he does, he has never seen it, I'm sure. So, it's safe to show you a few pages.

This one took me FOREVER getting the angel wings on each of the boys!!

Wee Man skid steering with Dad!

Dad's truck has his business logo on it (Sunrise Framing).

Every night Wee Man gets to pick 3 stories to read, and I included some of his favorites!

I CANNOT WAIT!!!! It is 30 pages long and I am super excited to see how it looks in print. I have also done up a fun scavenger hunt for Nowell to lead to the Fathers Day gift that will be in his reading chair in his room for them to sit and read together!! Guess Fathers Day will be happening on Monday for us this year :D

Lovin' Peep

I love, love, love this show!

That is all.

Adventures in Potty Training!

Potty training is well under way 'round these parts. Of all the stages we have been through, this was, by far, the one I absolutely dreaded, and even feared. I would have been perfectly happy to change Wee Man's diapers for years to come, but he wouldn't have it! We started Saturday and we were down to only 1-2 accidents by day 2...amazing since day 1 was filled with accidents and only 1 success right before tubby. We didn't think it was going to happen, but here we are. So far, not too bad!

We made it to our weekly "Kids Open Gym" at the Y on Tuesday, but I put him in a Pull-up for that instead of the padded undies we've been using for training. I guess they felt too much like a diaper because even with the 2 trips to the washroom we made within the hour we were there (fruitlessly), we arrived home with a wet Pull-up. I still have him in diapers for bedtime + naptime since he is always wet after both. We'll work on daytime perfection first and definitely play it by ear. That should be the motto for parenting...."play it by ear!"

Today we even went for a stroll down our favorite "trail" and made it home without an accident. On our way home in the car Wee Man says, "potty train?!", meaning: I gotta go! I asked him to hold it, knowing that I would most likely be dealing with Mr. Wet Pants when we got home. But no, he held it!! We went straight to the potty and it came with a big bursting spray, so i know he was holding it - I know, probably TMI, but I'm excited! Oh, and I designed this incentive sheet for him and we put the last sticker on before nap! So, we're off to buy a dinky car after supper....one of many, I hope.

Do you want to know the most feared part of potty training for me? PUBLIC WASHROOMS! Do you know they don't really make anything to protect those precious little bummies from the nasty-ass toilets of the world?! Well, they make a few things, but nothing that I was happy with, so I made something. I'll post pictures and a DIY when I get them off my camera later, but it works pretty good for making me feel WAY freakin' better about putting my Wee Man's sweet cheeks on a random toilet! It also protects his hands from grabbing the toilet seat and his pants/undies from resting up against the front of the toilet. Blech! Gross!

All About my Wee Man

With all the focus on our newest Little Mister around here these days, I thought it would be nice for Wee Man to take center stage for a bit. Here are some latest pictures of Wee Man doing his thing.

He loves these puzzles I printed and laminated for him, which were FREE and found at 1+1+1=1. I found tons of printables on this site, so check it out. Oh, and I love, love, love Eric Carle!!

He is going to be a painter, like his Momma.....I hope anyhow. I bought that plastic drop cloth (which is super-cute with wee cars all over it) so that he wouldn't make a huge mess while painting. However, it's funny because he hates getting messy and in all the painting sessions we've had, he doesn't even get a drop of paint on his fingers, let alone anywhere else. I use it anyhow. I have a feeling his little brother will need it more than him!

Best. Idea. Ever. Came across this idea at Sew Liberated, but basically, fill a bin with beans of some sort and let them scoop, dig and pour away. This was a life-saver this past winter when my sandbox-loving toddler was forced to remain indoors for months of -30 degree celsius Manitoba weather. I worried, at first, that it would be a disaster and envisioned beans scattered all throughout my house, but as soon as a bean hits the floor he knows that if he doesn't pick it up, the bin goes in the closet. Works great! I also colored some wagon wheel pastas all colors of the rainbow and hide them in the beans for him to find. Find out how to color pasta of your own by visiting Skip To My Lou...she has tons of wonderful projects to try!

He loves his puzzles and he catches on super fast. We have dozens of them and he remembers where all the pieces go and so slaps them together in no time!

Oh, and of course, Wee Man always, always has his "ducks in a row"!!

Welcome Little Mister

Jeez, Louise....so that's what happens when you have a newborn baby with colic and a 2 1/2 year old to run after....you don't blog for MONTHS!! Wow. Yeah. I admit that it had gotten to the point where I thought it was too late to post....ever again. But, here goes.

We had our beautiful baby boy on December 31st, 2010 at 9:40 a.m. He aspirated during the C-Section and had to be in NICU for 3 days. I blame this for a lot of the stress and problems that ensued. He was colicky and screamed A LOT and I believe that I had a bit of PPD and nursing was a true battle in every sense of the word. I nursed Wee Man until he was 14 months, so I did not anticipate any problems with nursing, but we made it through finally. After many visits to the chiropractor, cutting lactose AND gluten from my diet, a few trips to the Dr. and one to the pediatrician, we are finally not screaming as much. We still have a few issues, but at least now we can determine what the problem is from the sound/intensity, when before everything was a horrible scream cry so you never really knew. We can finally bath without screaming and be put down for awhile without screaming and ride in a car without screaming (except through the Tim Hortons drive-thru...he still won't tolerate that without a wail!) I will tell you, though, now that I have been through it....I would never, never wish colic on even my worst enemy. Horrible times. There were many, many days where I felt we weren't going to make it through, it seemed like it would never end. But, it did.

And now, I am loving getting to know my newest Little Mister, Eli. We decided on his name only a week or so before his arrival. But I love it! I am amazed at how his entire face lights up when he smiles...you see it in his eyes before the smile even crosses his wee lippies. It is so nice to finally see his personality because until the last few weeks, we didn't see anything but an unhappy or sleeping baby. His big brother absolutely adores him. More than I ever thought he would and right out of the gate, which makes me so very proud of my Wee Man. Whew. Let's forge ahead my wee fellows.