Expensive Happy Meal Toy

- Happy Meal with Toy: 3.99$+tx
- Plumber to get flushed toy out of toilet: 100$
- Plumber puts back toilet (after having to remove toilet) and now it’s leaking, so he send us to Costco for a new toilet: 94.99$+tx
- Plumber comes back to install toilet: 50$
- Hoping my almost 4 year old learned his lesson and won’t ever do that again… PRICELESS.

Mr. Quentin

 

Ah… Mr. Quentin. My baby. Our source of entertainment. He’s quite the comedian. At almost 3.5 years old, he truly keeps life interesting, eating dinner with his backpack on (as he cannot take it off), or watching Caillou on the computer, through binoculars.

 

He plays very nicely by himself (on the benches at Sean’s baseball practice, while Mack runs around with a classmate of his, whose brother is on Sean’s ball team, while Mommy knits). He comes up with stories beyond my imagination, for the toys he brings with him to the ball park. (In his backpack of course). Quentin recently had a vernissage at daycare, and I got the most beautiful piece of artwork from him. I need to find a place on the wall to hang his art.

 

About a month ago, I traveled to Toronto with Quentin, a good friend & her daughter who is in Quentin’s class at daycare. While visiting a friend in Toronto, Quentin fell in love with the superhero cape that belong to my friend’s son. He was so cute in it, that my friend made some capes for each of my boys. (Thanks again Jen!)

 

Quentin is just a cutie. Always making us laugh.

 

I just want to eat him up! He’s talking up a storm now, far from from his speech delay, which is now the past. Some words we are still working on, but he’s slowly but surely getting them. He uses full sentences (though not always in the right tense, but that’s ok!) and when I used to say “I wish he would talk already”, now I say “does he ever stop talking?” LOL!

I cannot believe my baby will be 4 this year. FOUR! Where on earth does time go?

The Faces of Quentin

 

Just a little Monday Morning smile for you. Quentin’s been obsessed with wearing these silly glasses and walks around the house making faces. Here’s a few that I just love. HAPPY MONDAY!

 

Mack’s First ER visit

Mack's first ever visit to the Montreal children's hospital was yesterday afternoon. He had a little hockey stick to the mouth action (a friend whacked him just as they were starting to play street hockey) and cut his lip badly. His teeth and jaw are ok and the lips are one of the fastest healing parts of the body so they don't stitch it up. Mack’s a tough guy! He’s feeling better and was okay to eat dinner a little bit later. This was probably one of the quickest ER visits ever. We were in & out in about an hour.

Here’s his lip after it was all cleaned up. A nice deep cut & it’s swollen. Of course this had to happen just a few days before his daycare graduation. We’ll keep icing it and hope that it heals enough before graduation!

Ahhh… the life of a mom of 3 boys. Just your typical Sunday afternoon ER visit.

Climbing Adventures

Only my son would climb into the toilet, and have a smile on his face. I can’t stop laughing.

Creativity

So I have a funny story to tell you. After we boarded the plane to leave to Florida last Wednesday, just after we took off in the air, once the seat belt sign was taken off, both boys had to go to the bathroom. So I took them to the front of the plane as there was only one gentleman waiting for the bathroom as opposed to the 3 people waiting for a turn to use the washroom at the back of the plane. Sean kept saying while we were waiting that he "couldn't hold it in any longer" numerous times. The gentleman in front of us didn't care and didn't let us use the washroom ahead of him. So Sean peed a bit in his underwear. Anyhow finally it was our turn. Sean finished his business in the toilet and a nice flight attendant got me Sean's backpack with his change of underwear. Luckily his pants were dry. Sean changed his underwear, got back dressed and I sent him back to our seats, in the middle of the plane. My mom was at the seats with Quentin. Then it was Mack's turn to pee. However we discovered that he could not reach the toilet seat, he is a too short. If I lift him, he becomes stiff and can't pee (we tried. He is also too heavy for me to lift anyhow & obviously there is no stool on the plane, so I asked the flight attendant if she had any ideas (while telling Mackenzie to hold it in). She said "hang on" and left to go get something. She then came back with a "barf bag" (you know, the white ones that are in the seat pocket in front of you on airplanes) as they are leak proof. So I convinced Mackenzie to pee in the bag and then I dumped the pee in the toilet. Creative & got the job done. Later on during the flight he went to the bathroom again the same way. He thought it was funny. Then, while we were descending to Fort Lauderdale airport he said he had to pee very badly "now". He said he couldn't hold it. So I pulled out the barf bag from the pocket of the seat in front of us, got him to stand up and pee in the bag quickly to be able to get him back into his seat for landing. As he was peeing though, he had to announce it several times quite loudly for everyone to hear (as the plane was quite silent besides the normal humming of the plane), "I'm peeing in a bag! I'm peeing in a bag!" He had everyone in the rows in front and in back of us laughing hysterically. I almost died!

(If you were in my situation - what would you have done? Let your child pee in the leak proof bag or let your child pee on himself, all over the airplane seat too? Going to the bathroom at the front or back of the airplane, was NOT an option).

And during the rest of the trip, Mack has had to go to the bathroom at the oddest times. So he has now been marking his territory on trees and poles outside too. I love how easy it is to take a boy to the bathroom while out! For this, I am glad I don't have any girls. Girls can't just whip it out and pee on a tree/grass. I fear that when we get home and his teacher asks him what he did in Florida, I fear he will tell them he "peed in bags and peed on trees & poles".

He was very excited to pee in the bag again today on our flight home. I don't know why this was exciting, but I guess to a 3 and a half year old... it must be quite funny.

More tales of my adventures with all 3 boys (with my mother! we both left our hubbies at home) coming right up! I've got lots to talk about/tell you about!

Household Entertainment

Fisher Price Little Superstar Sing-Along Stage - 45$.
Baby Einstein - Little Lights & Music - 30$.
Sophie the Giraffe - 26$.
Sean & Mack entertaining Quentin with the door stop spring and watching him giggle hysterically - PRICELESS!

1.25.11 :: 212 weeks & 8 weeks

Quentin is 8 weeks old today.

Sean is 212 weeks old today.

I finally got the Tag Reader software downloaded onto my laptop, and we got the audio for Sean's 2 Tag Books he got for his birthday. What a neat toy. They never had such neat learning tools when I was a kid. It's amazing what technology has brought us.

Mack is my silly monkey.
He likes being silly and he likes having his picture taken.
He also likes "reviewing" the photos of himself on my camera.

Quentin has been more alert lately and I've been trying to stimulate him more with toys, and shapes and colors. Tonight, we played in front of a mirror for a bit. He was too funny "cooing" at himself.

I turn 30 this year (yikes!) and hubby and I started talking about my party. He won't do it as a surprise because he wants to make sure that everyone I would want there is indeed invited, so he will host something for me, but I have to help him out. I love planning/organizing... it's going to be fun. I just need to find somewhere to have it, etc. Oh, all the details are going to be so much fun (and that's why he married me, as I'm the planner/organizer). Glad he put me in charge. I still have time, my 30th is not until June. I actually am not really ready yet to think about my 30th. I even have my mother already in discussion with me about Quentin's 1st birthday. Are you kidding? He's only 8 weeks old! He was just born... but I guess there is a point, as my grandmother wants to be there, so if I make it a tad earlier than he actual birthday, then my grandmother is willing to go to Florida a week later than usual, (she goes for the winter) so she can be at Quentin's 1st birthday. I think I can handle that... but discussing it now? In January? For November? I'm not ready yet. It's a little too early.

Tonight for dinner I made a pot roast. I kind of winged it today, making it my own recipe. It actually came out quite good. I was impressed. I simply used ingredients we had in the house. I've made many pot roasts in my life, and now I know what works and what doesn't as far as ingredients. I had picked up 2 pot roast meat the other day from the grocery store. It was on sale for a ridiculously cheap price. Thinking about it now, I should have picked up more (to freeze). I have one more frozen in the freezer for next week or the week after - depending on how soon we feel we want to eat it again. I love my slow cooker. Toss in your ingredients, and 6-8 hours later (depending on your recipe) dinner is ready. Some days, it is just perfect. Whomever invented the slow cooker, rocks, in my opinion.

06.15.10

Mack conducting business from Jamie's cell phone.
We caught him having a very long conversation.
What he was saying? I have no idea.

So I went to put on my summer tires (finally) on my car yesterday. Turns out, one of the tires as a nail through it and another was ripped. So after going back and forth between talking to the guy at the shop and my husband and my father too (because I know nothing about tires and cars) we decided to just leave my winter tires on for the summer, as I am getting rid of my car sometime this fall (probably trading it in rather than selling it). After killing an hour with Sean while waiting for my car to be ready, the guy waits until the hour was up to let me know that he can’t even change 2 of my tires because of the nail/rip. It was a tad frustrating.

Today I had a doctor’s appointment first thing in the morning, but I’ll talk about that tomorrow. Then I ran home where my mom was watching both boys, so that she could run home and let her dog out to then come back to come with me and both boys to Mackenzie’s 2 year old check-up with the doctor that is following our family doctor’s baby patients (our family doctor is still on maternity leave until the fall). I am so happy that Mackie finally gained some weight! 25th percentile for weight (26 lbs) (up from 10th percentile at 18 months) and 50th percentile for height (2 ft 10 inches!) (Down from 75th percentile for height). He used to be tall and skinny and now he’s slowly averaging out. Good news. I am very happy about this. Everything else is great and he’s doing good. No complaint from the doctor, so no complaints from me.

After the doctor’s appointment, which was started late (both appointments today were really late after the actual appointment time – very not happy with either doctor), we met up with my grandmother for lunch. Lunch was nice, besides the fact that my boys don’t do to well when they haven’t napped, so lunch was a little fun, to say it nicely. I wonder if there is a certain period in every child’s life where maybe they just shouldn’t be brought into restaurants? How are your children in restaurants? Do you have any tricks you’d like to share on how you get them to stay quiet in their seat? And I’m not talking about babies. I’m talking ages 2 – 4 (and probably older). Tips please! Crayons and coloring doesn’t always hold their attention for very long. Especially not when one of your children decide to dunk the crayons in his glass of water. (Please know that only one of my children drink out of a cup the other is still using a sippy cup, which crayons cannot get dipped into). He didn’t care that he had spilled water all over his placement or himself by dunking his slice of bread into the water either and completely soaking it. Fun stuff.

Oh! So you want winners! I have some winners for you for this week’s give-away!

The winners are:

Kamouraska: Barb!!
Rill: Rosebelleknits!!
Lili Kimono: kate-the-enabler!!
Gilet de Tricot: Girl Knits!!
Toddler Tee: kristo!!

If I don’t have your email address please sent it to me here and I will get it to the designer (Mona) to issue you your prize. Thanks!

ps- Just a reminder that I'm throwing a contest for this entire month! Details are here. Next week I’ll be giving away one copy of the following patterns by Tottopper, Betsey's Braids and Roar, a Dinosaur Hat (which is one of my fave kids hat patterns, I’ve made one for each of my boys), thanks Kate for donating the patterns! I’ll also be giving away 2 more copies of my entire sock collection in PDF.

06.11.10 :: Yarn P0rn Friday

For today’s edition of Yarn P0rn Friday I want to show you this lovely Spud & Chloe Fine yarn I got in Cricket. I’ve always wanted to try Spud & Chloe and I finally was able to get some with my birthday money.

Mack wasn’t feeling too hot today, so I brought him with me to work.

I stayed until he really got restless and then headed out the door.

Of course, a nap was needed on the way home.

On the way to work today, I ran a few errands. In one store Mack decided that he wanted to ride up and down the escalator. He just loved it. He actually tried to throw a fit when I told him it was time to leave. Silly boy. Apparently escalators are fun. And empty boxes. Too bad I can’t get him an escalator for his birthday.

The print that I got printed through Kodak came out really nice. I picked it up this morning at one of their drop offs near my house. I had never printed via Kodak Gallery before, and I am quite impressed. Though, the cashier was telling me that it depends on the file size that the person who uploaded the photos used, so if they had uploaded resized for web images, my print would not have come out nicely. Luckily, my print was very nice. I can’t wait to frame it. I really like it.

Today’s link love:
- Love this link for DIY Circular Needles. Interesting.
- I love sprinkles on my ice cream, so when I saw this - I just loved it.
- I love that you can mix-n-match these earrings.
- Love these hair clips.
- And these earrings.
- And this sheep ring.
- Oh, and this sheep necklace.
- Ooh! LOVE this ring. LOVE IT.
- Love these camera earrings.

ps- Just a reminder that I'm throwing a contest for this entire month! Details are here.

05.25.10

The kids love playing outside in the backyard.

I picked up this soccer net very inexpensively and we blow it up & Sean just loves it.
Sean starts “organized” soccer in June. He’s very excited.


I’m glad the evenings have been cooling down a little.
If it remained as hot during the evening as the daytime;
there is no way I’d go out in the backyard.  
The weather has been around 31°C.
According to The Weather Network, it feels like 38°C.
Can you say sweaty?

This little cutie bit me this morning on the thigh.
Through my pj pants he actually broke the skin on my leg.
Has your kids bitten? What do you do for biting?
I’m curious how other mothers handle biting?

  Tonight I’m drowning in laundry. I suppose I shouldn’t have let the laundry go on too long, I haven’t really been doing much laundry lately, except the kids’ school sheets/blankets/nunu & bunny on the weekends so they’re clean for school the following week. But now I regret waiting that long and it’s really piled up. I think I’ll be doing laundry for the next couple of days.

I haven’t read my book in a few days, been dying to find some time to read. I will try to get that finished soon, as I have a bunch of books that are now calling my name. It’s just been too hot to do anything, it seems. The hit is deadly.

Speaking of this heat, I am crossing my fingers it does NOT kill any of the plants that I’ve planted in the backyard in my vegetable garden. Some of them look like the extreme heat is killing them. We’ve been watering them at night (as you don’t water vegetable gardens in direct sun light). I just hope the extreme heat doesn’t kill them… after all the hard work I’ve put into my garden.

september twenty-one

Getting Sean to daycare today was a challenge. It's almost the end of the month of September and Sean decided that he wanted to wear his sandals without socks to school today. Honestly, some battles are not worth fighting, and I let him win this one. I did however pack his sneakers & socks and put them in his cubby when we got to school. This way, if his teachers needed him to have them, they were there for him.

After dropping the kids off at daycare I went to go meet Kadi for lunch and some knitting at one of the Java U's in the city. I had a fabulous salad for lunch. I worked more on Sean's daycare blanket as we chatted & caught up.

On my way home I ran some errands, picking up groceries for dinner. I enjoy fresh fish over frozen, so I made sure to pick up some fresh fish for dinner tonight. It's so much better fresh. Some usually ends up in our freezer anyhow, as sometimes there's more in a package than we end up baking for supper. Usually it sits in the freezer until it gets freezer burn, and then unfortunately it goes into the garbage. I hate wasting food. I am going to try to be better and not do this anymore.

Jamie had hockey tonight, so I chilled on the couch, worked more on Sean's daycare blanket and watched the 2 hour season premiere of House. Oh was it good! I won't spoil it in case you haven't watched it yet - but I do have to say that it was a fabulous episode. I can't wait for next week. I also watched tonight's A&E episode of Hoarders (which made me want to throw out more things) and I watched some Law & Order Criminal Intent as well. Catch up tv night on the couch with my crochet project. I like!