1.8.11

This morning started off with a cheese omelet (the first one I've ever made myself & I did a pretty darn good job if I do say so myself - even Jamie was impressed!) with eggs from my sister-in-law's chickens. (She has a couple of chickens and a rooster at her house in the country). It was delicious.

Quentin's been spending his day today in the swing I picked up for parts but ended up not needing them. We are making use of this swing in the kitchen, which he'll use while we're eating meals, etc. (Or if I need somewhere to put him down while I am making his bottle, or cooking/baking, etc). This swing is not as fancy as our original swing (that I picked up when Sean was born) but it does the trick.

This afternoon I got a call from the Electrolux repair technician from the place I brought my vacuum cleaner to. Not only is my nozzle attachment brush finished (which is why it wasn't picking up stuff), the motor needed replacing and it needed a good cleaning/maintenance as well as a new filter. The cost? 140$? At first I was like "What?! I could buy a brand new machine for that price!?" - thinking that in my head. But then I realized... Electrolux's sell brand new for between 2000-3000$. The shop I brought mine to, sells them 2nd hand for 400-800$ depending on the model/year/condition, etc. The new machines that are out there, do NOT compared to my machine. Electrolux's rock. So I told the guy to go ahead. He assured me it would be working like brand new, and it would serve me for many many many more years. That sounds very good to me.

Jamie went to go take out Sean's new helmet (that I exchanged yesterday) out of the box, and guess what? It was defective, in the same manner the original one we exchanged it for yesterday. Someone had returned it and they must have put it back on the shelf. One of the snaps came off, just like ours had. We were livid. Then we went to go take Mack's new helmet out of the box, which we bought a few weeks ago, and at first glance it seems fine. Jamie snaps the grill onto the helmet, and takes it off, and what do you know? The snap comes loose. 3 defective helmets!? From Bauer nonetheless? What a piss off! Anyhow, I have no idea if other companies sell Jr. size helmets, but I will be returning the Bauer ones, and hoping to find something before the boys start their skating lesson (which is coming up).

As of late afternoon I was solo parenting. Jamie had tickets to the Habs game tonight and went with one of his best friends. It's been a challenging evening, but alas, all 3 kids are currently sleeping. I've been taking care of stuff on my to do list, like wrapping gifts for upcoming birthday parties, laundry (cuz it's never ending), organizing in the kitchen (well, started to anyhow, will hopefully finish the rest tomorrow). I've also even gotten to add to my de-clutter list, but will post about that tomorrow, I'm too tired now.

So... what do you do when you're alone with 3 kids? Well... I tried to keep busy. (Keeping busy is KEY! or they go bananas... well my kids anyhow...)

We made words with the Scrabble letter Cheeze-it's that Bea sent over.

Sean found crackers to spell his name (and then later Mack's too)
He's so proud he can spell both their names.

Then we worked on some puzzles, until the pieces ended up all over the kitchen floor....

And then the boys decided that it would be fun to clean the floor. Uhm, okay? Do I fire my cleaning lady? Just kidding. No, but seriously, they thought it was a fun game. Who was I to complain?

In between all these games, and scrabble word finding, and floor cleaning there was a ton of "he's touching my puzzle pieces", "he's touching my chair", "he's hurting me"... fun. The joy of boys. The joy of being push over mommy (when daddy is bad cop daddy). It's been a challenging night. But I managed to feed them dinner (ordered the kids a pizza, to discover I ordered from a 2 for 1 place, and only Sean ate a slice and a half. Not sure what I'm going to do with almost 2 small pizzas, as Jamie & I are on a diet and Mack is not a fan of pizza. Sean's going to be eating pizza for the entire week? Oy.

I'm trying to figure out, how to manage all 3 kids at the same time. At one point I had Sean asking for something, Mack whining about something else, and Quentin screaming his lungs out in his swing because he just woke up and wanted to eat. I really wish sometimes that I had 8 arms/hands. Wouldn't that be sweet. Then I could get everyone what they needed and everyone would be happy. At.the.same.time.

ps - I updated my sidebar on my blog. Check it out --> (I updated the book I'm currently reading (when I have the time to read), the audio book I'm about to start and added a button for you to access my project 365 if you'd like to see what's going on over there).
pps- I told someone today I was going to knit an entire cowl tonight (pattern :: my own design). Yeah, that didn't happen. I didn't get a second to knit a stitch today. Maybe tomorrow.
ppss - I also told someone else I was going to take a relaxing bubble bath and enjoy a glass of red wine while doing so tonight once all 3 kids were in bed. You guessed it... that didn't happen either. Maybe tomorrow night.

july twenty-seven

This morning one of the ladies from the Montreal Knitting Guild came and picked up the rest of the Traveling Stash bag yarn. I had put some aside from the stash bag for Charity Knitting. I had emailed the guild to ask who does charity knitting and someone answered me almost immediately. I'm glad that there will be some charity knitting out of the stash bag. I wish I had time to do more charity knitting. Maybe when my knitting time is not so precious. Some days I don't even get to knit a stitch. Hopefully when the boys are older I'll have time to do more charity knitting. It's on my list of things I want to do.

After the yarn was picked up, I dropped off Sean at daycare. Then I went by to see Eugenie, as she lives really close by. She is making the Featherweight Cardigan and needed another skein of Malabrigo Lace. It's so delicious, that I want to make a Featherweight Cardigan myself. (Adding it to the other 600+ projects I want to knit!)

After visiting Eugenie, I picked up my mother and she came with me to run a bunch of errands. First stop, we went by Veronik Avery's house. She just got in the Premier issue of St-Denis Yarn Magazine, and I had a couple of special orders for it, and I wanted a copy for myself.

If you're interested in a copy of this magazine, please message me or leave a comment.
The 16 patterns in it are just simply divine.

I even got my copy autographed by Veronik herself.
I had her sign my fave pattern in the issue, which is by her!

Next stop was to my uncle's glasses shop, where I got my 2 current pairs of glasses that I wear adjusted/tightened and tried on the new "Ugly Betty" glasses that he got in stock.

Had lunch with my mom, ran some more errands, and then picked up Sean early from daycare.

I couldn't find Sean a blue watch (could have sworn I'd seen Diego blue ones at Dollarama, but now that I need one, can't find one anywhere...) but I did find this red Iron Man one from Dollarama today. I figured, for his first watch, since he destroys everything, a simple toy watch (it actually works though) from Dollarama would do the trick. I still wish I could find him a blue one... I'll have to keep hunting. I guess if I pass by a Dollarama in this city, that I haven't been in yet, I'll pop in to look to see if they have one. Dang it! But he loves his red watch. He's so proud to have one, it's adorable.

Jamie had inventory at work and then a ball game. I was on my own tonight with both kids. Mack was a pleasure to put to bed tonight, as always, but Sean threw his fit again today. He was screaming on the top of his lungs, kicking the wall between his room and Mack's room with his feet. Sometimes, he's just so stubborn and difficult. Sometimes I wonder if it's terrible two's or his father's temper...

I got nothing done tonight... and had a list of things I wanted to do. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to do those things I wanted to get done.