someone found his feet

Fynn hit a developmental milestone today when he "found his feet."

It was early morning, so I needed to use the flash on my camera (which I hate using), but here he is in his little red PJs. I'm just happy I was able to capture this little moment of his.

10 for Tuesday

1. Sophie had a playdate with Jacob our neighbour. Cute little guy who is her age.
2. We loaded up on library books today. This one is especially great.
3. This show is my guilty (after the kids are asleep) pleasure.
4. So is this one (like a car wreck, I can't look away).
5. This is back!
6. Sophie seems to have an excess of ear wax. Thanks to a little olive oil in the ear (she handled it very well) and our family doctor removing it with a little scoopy thing, her ear was nicely and safely cleaned out today.
7. Fynn has outgrown his size 2 diapers. He is really growing like crazy.
8. These work quite well and don't have all the plastic that some other brands do.
9. Vic had a very demanding swim tonight at Masters. 3200 metres in total!
10. I got new glasses from the Kliik line (Danish).

4:15pm on Mondays....

we go to sophie's skating lessons.
we have two more weeks to go, and then our second sessions will be over.
i say "we" since it is a group effort (fynn, sophie, vic and I).
i think sophie has been about 20 times in total.
each session, starts with a "i don't like skating!" vic and i say, "we know," and on
we go to the lesson.

each week she gets better. she can sort of glide now.

when she can skate at 14, and isn't falling on her butt in front of her friends, she will thank me -- right?

(love the look on Fynn's face in this photo).

fynn is doing some modelling between naps.

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Foodie Fridays

Today we tried a recipe from Jean Pare's Rookie Cook, cookbook. The recipes are simple and most regular kitchens have the ingredients on hand.

We tried the Baked Vanilla French Toast. Quite yummy and perfect for a winter afternoon lunch. The vanilla was a nice addition.

Sophie enjoys helping, but REALLY needs to listen to mom when I tell her to not put her hands in the beaters (we managed to dodge that one without injury).

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

We then had some play time outside in the snow, followed by this cute film from the National Film Board of Canada. It's very well done, but too bad it is only 10 minutes long. No, we are not getting a dog either.

wednesday afternoon = storytime

On Wednesdays, the public library has storytime with the children's librarian.

Aren't children's librarians the best? What a wonderful profession I think this would be.

Sophie didn't go to daycare today, and since we were all getting a little stir crazy, we needed an outing.

It takes us awhile to get ready.

1: since I only have 2 hands (who knew?) Fynn is placed on the floor while I get coats, books, purse ready to go. The big green bag is our library book bag.
2: Sophie takes that as the time to find herself a book to read (in spite of my "hurry ups")
3: children dressed and in Grandma's knitted sweaters.
4.the big push through the parking lot to the library courtesy of the Zellers shopping cart (yes, our library is in a shopping mall). Frankly, the whole concept of a wonderful library in a mall kills me.
5.Sophie in name tag for storytime with her musical instrument (music is part of storytime)
6. Ellen the librarian reading books.

Anatomy of a Playdate

Number of playdates Sophie has participated in since I've been on mat leave (Oct 07): 3
Number with girls: 2
Number with a boy: 1
Number at our house: 1 (today)
Average length of Sophie's playdates: 1.5 hours
#1 activity (so far) for a playdate: playing dress-up (thank you auntie Joanne, Grandma, Auntie Linda, and anyone else who has contributed to the costume chest)
#1 activity for momma during playdates: drinking water, coffee, and/or tea and chatting with playdate's parent and nursing Fynn at some point during said playdate.

Photos from today's playdate (with her little buddy Abbie)

dishwashers

Vic and I are researching appliance options as we start to prepare for building our new home. We are determined to find the most energy efficient models we can, within our price range.

We are looking into a Bosch dishwasher that has the Energy Star rating. Dishwashers are surprisingly green. Here's a blog I've started to read that talks about it.

winter walk

winter walk
Originally uploaded by Sheriberry

we finally had some sun and warmer weather.

foodie fridays

sophie is home with me on Fridays now, since we are doing daycare 4 days a week.
that means we have to think of something she will like to eat for lunch. most daycare days, she eats a sandwich (she loves how Vic makes them) or mini macaroni and cheeses. daycare also does a hot lunch day once a month (for $1.50). it's great -- this past time, they had heart shaped waffles and sausages. sophie had seconds on the sausages.

anyways, we are having great luck with this recipe, and it was something we made again today for lunch. she likes every ingredient in the muffins and she enjoys helping make them. they make good snacks too.

rating: 4 stars

Grandma, you started something...

My mom gave Sophie leggings and an empire waist top for her birthday. She loves it and I must say, it is a welcome break from princess dresses and/or the brown cord pants she has grown attached to. Leggings/over-tops seem to be popular for kids this spring.

I picked up this little outfit for Valentine's Day and placed it in a gift bag outside her bedroom door (along with some new socks). She ran into our bedroom this morning very excited. "Is this bag for me, mommy?" She then went on about how fun Valentine's Day is. Yes, likely a bit commercialized, but new clothes (which kids always seem to need) and a little chocolate never killed anyone.

I picked Vic up a new book, which I think he almost got a peak at when he was checking out my Goodreads list last night.

Fuzzi Bunz

After trying out a few different kinds of cloth diapers, I'm pretty sure Fuzzi Bunz are the best (for us anyways). My half dozen arrived this week. Fynn now has a small supply that I figure will be enough for me to diaper him in cloth about 25% of the time. The rest of the time he is using 7th Generation. There. Done. No more diaper deliberations.

Speaking of diapers, he has a diaper rash (not caused by cloth or his disposables). I think he got his bottom irritated when he might have had a little bit of a GI bug that I got last week. His poop was a decidedly green colour. After not seeing much relief from his diaper ointment creme, I'm trying to let his bottom be bare for periods of time and using cornstarch.

During his afternoon nap, I watched a Bravo movie. Watching a movie at 1pm is decadent in my books. It was this one. While it held my interest (mainly because I couldn't get over how Michael Moriarty never changes in voice inflection or facial expression), it went staight to DVD, I think.

a new outfit

My mom treated Sophie to a new outfit for her 4th birthday last week.
Leggings and a pretty top = happy girl.

The hair accessory came from our babysitter's mother.

Sophie also wanted to display her latest craft creations from daycare.

On another note, Fynn had his second oral vaccine for rotavirus. The vaccine is administered in 3 doses spread out over 6 months. Thanks goodness my drug plan through work covers a large percentage of the cost. At $75 or so per dose, it isn't cheap.

"Every child is an artist." -- Pablo Picssso

Sophie was captivated by creating a bracelet and necklace from a bead kit she
received for her birthday.

And for a little outdoor architectual play, Vic and Sophie created a mock-loo. Mock because I don't think they claimed it was truly liveable.

And on a completely odd note, Fynn has mysteriously grown incredibly long hair. Must be my super amazing breast milk!? (or is he sitting really close to his big sister...)

Barbie's Boat

Sophie's Barbies needed a sea-worthy vessel.
Dad crafted this one from our composter box, some ribbon, paper towel tube, and some carpenter's glue. Some old scrapbooking sticker letters christened it "the Sophie" on the stern.

Seated: doctor Barbie, mermaid Barbie, long-haired Barbie, Cinderella Barbie, "messy-haired" Barbie and ballerina Barbie. That's Fiona from Shrek laying on the bottom of the boat. Sea-sick? Quite a cast of characters.

the library

one of our favourite places. with the amount of snow we've had lately, it is also a nice refuge that is free, warm, and entertaining.

books for sophie, a board book for fynn and a few magazines for me.

more snow, starbucks, afternoons

I love a Starbucks non-fat vanilla latte as much as the next guy.
However, when I was waiting in line to buy Sophie and I a drink the other day
when we were in Kelowna, I noticed their Ethos brand bottled water.

I knew that when you purchase a bottle of Ethos, a percentage goes to helping children in developing countries access clean water. It just seemed a contradiction that Starbucks was doing this by selling plastic bottles that contribute to landfills.

So, I emailed Starbucks with my concern. Within 12 hours or so, I got a response. A nice customer service agent replied that the number '1' is on the bottom of the Ethos bottles and that is easiest to recycle number of plastic. I don't know if that makes it "alright." Hmmm...

On another note, we got more snow last night. We have a base of about 3 feet now on our yard (we could have a ski hill here), plus about 8 feet of accumulation. Our nice neighbour came over this morning with his snowblower to help Vic clear our driveway.

Sophie generally comes home early from daycare now that I'm on mat leave. I usually pick her up about 2:30pm or so. This is a typical afternoon...that's Joe from Blues Clues peeking out from the TV.

The 4 month portrait

we love this little guy.
here he is at almost 4 months.
and a photo of him and dad at our favourite lunch place (the Blue Canoe).

birthday girl

It was a busy day. Lots of "to do" list things, with some fun thrown in too:

11:30 - dropped Sophie off at daycare for the afternoon

12:00 - 1:00 - lunch with Fynn, picked up two parcels at the post office (Sophie's passport arrived), picked up a few things the drug store (I rememberd my cloth bag) and returned about 15 library books.

1:00 - appointment at the health unit for Fynn. Today he had his 4 month vaccines (3 shots). He was a little trouper and didn't cry. I was quite amazed. He is in 25-50% percentile for weight and 10% percentile for length. The nurse thinks a growth spurt is on its way.

1:30-2:30 - back at home to let Fynn sleep, clean up the house a bit. Laundry.

2:45 - back at Sophie's daycare for her cake. The cake was delicious (thanks for the help mom). The poor ballerina on the top had seen better days (she is likely 30+ years old) but the kids loved her.

Instead of a party (and gifts), I suggested the kids could bring in items for the local food bank. Quite a good sized box was collected and the children will be walking over to the food bank to make the donation.

4:00 - I booked Sophie in for a mini ($10) manicure at one of our local day spas. She loved having her nails painted and she got a little heart on each of her ring fingers.

All in all, a busy but very fun day!

flashback friday

Two years ago our little girl turned two.
Her 4th birthday is coming up on Feb 5.
Here she is at daycare waiting for her birthday cake @ 2.