Saturday, September 30, 2006

good good good

Since my camera is working today....i'll share some photos.

But first I have to comment on the GREAT lunch with Mary and Heather.
Such great ladies. I love making new friends.
And these two are quality. Real and genuine. And fun.
Just lovely. Lots of more time together I hope.
Not a single photo...... next lunch!

So cool to see some of their pages in real life too.
So many little things you miss online.
Embossing, subtle stamping. Little touches that make the page even better.

(This was yesterday's photos....... grrrr)














And for the photos as of late...
Thursday we went to the park with some wonderful new friends that live like 3 doors down from us.
The Chutes
Kenzie is 3 just like Alden.
And Teran is 18 months.
And Sarah the mom is just hilarious. Seriously one of the funniest girls I know.
Cracks me up constantly. And she isn't trying to be funny, she just is funny.
and the Rassmussens.
Carter is 1 just like Lucy.
Leah the mommy - so cute and outgoing.

































































This morning we took Alden on his CTrain ride. He was so excited. We made it a family affair. And I actually have only been on city transit once before - in Nova Scotia. So it was an experience for me too.
Some of my favorite photos from today.



















































































Aren't I just the luckiest girl around!

Thursday, September 28, 2006

5 Weird things and....

My Friend Mona tagged me last week....
so here is my list.

5 Weird things about me (in particular order or weird-i-ness)

1. I HATE it when people click their pens. For some reason it drives me batty.

2. When I go grocery shopping, I have to line the food up. All boxes have to go together in a row. All the fruit and veggies. All the bread products together. And it drives me CRAZY when the till lady messes up my order. She needs to ring it thru as I placed them on the converyor belt thingie.

3. I HAVE to stack the dishes after we eat at a restuarant for the servers. After I have scraped all the leftovers onto one plate. You can't have food on plates unscraped. Ew. It used to drive Reg crazy when we were first married. But being the good guy that he is... he has come to accept this habit of mine. (Some times I even catch him helping me. hahahaaha)

4. Socks are not allowed in bed. EVER. Even if I am freezing.

5. I have size 12 women's feet. That is weird. (And annoying when I shop for shoes... If I have size 12 obviosuly I am tall enough to not want heels.) Yes me and my husband have the same size feet. It's really sad actually.



And yesterday Alden went ot his first Music class. And he loved it!!!
Wendy, his teacher, is fabulous! It is in the basement at a United Church and she teaches them all the basics of music and Each year the learn more. And evetually they learn to play recorders. Alden's age gets to place xylaphones.
After that me and the kiddies drove out to Cross field to visit my Grandma Stasiuk (my mom's mom) and my Aunt Ann. This was the first time for both Aunty Ann and Grandma saw Lucy. It was a good visit.
Lucy wasn't so hot on the idea of someone else holding her... so a little peek-a-boo was in order to make pictures possible.















Thanks for all the encouragement about the arguing..... it's just a stage. it's just a stage.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Me (to Lucy): here have your final bite Lucy
Alden: She doesn't want a bite

Alden: what day is it?
Me: it's Tuesday
Alden: it's not Tuesday, it's Friday (erupting into tears)

Me: Alden the TV goes off in 2 minutes.
Alden: ummmm
Me: Did you hear my words? Two minutes.
Alden: Yep
Me: Okay it's been two minutes. The TV goes off.
Alden: It hasn't two minutes, it's been three (erupting into tears)

Alden: what time is it?
Me: Quarter to 12
Alden: what does that mean?
Me: 11:45
Alden: it's not 11:45. (erupting into tears)

Seriously people....
Tell me it's a stage.
Every thing has to be argued.
I mean everything.
Even if I am not talking to him AT ALL.
Plllllllleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaasssssssseeeeeee tell me it's a stage.
Even if it's not.... lie to me.
Tell me it's a stage.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

10 super super good things

1. This cutest shirt from Old Navy that Lucy is wearing today. I'd take a picture but my camera isn't working. (grrrr.)

2. First Meals. I love recipe books. I like to read them like novels. And I think this is the essential book to have when you have babies. They have a new Canadian edition out and it is even better. (kinda wanna keep the new one I got for a SIL and giver her my old one.... but I won't.)

3. Fresh peaches and strawberries. Both my kids (and me) love fresh fruit. We eat a lot of it. I mean a lot. I have been getting a 2 lb thing of strawberries and about half a dozen peaches and we eat them all up each week. mmmmmmmm. Too bad the season is ending soon.

4. My Regan. He sends me emails from school. Now that he is gone so much more than I am used to I really appreciate that he takes the time to send me little notes. Electronic love notes. How sweet is that!

5. I reorganized and cleaned-up and straightened our entire basement yesterday. I like to walk down their just to see how clean it looks. That feels good.

6. Rebecca Sower's blog here . Love her work. Love her journaling. Love her blog.

7. My bed. For our wedding my inlaws gave us a new bed. And for 4 years while we were in Nova Scotia sleeping on another (seriously horrible) bed I thought about it every night - on many occasions. And in the morning too. I LOVE my bed. A lot.

8. Alden uses the toilet. That rocks.

9. I got my hair cut. (With bangs Lindsay!) and I'd show you.... but my camera isn't working....grrr

10. This lady. MaryAnn Kohl. I am always always always on the lookout for fun things to do during the day to enrich my kids life. And as a kid my mom always did art. Art was/is a part of life. And I want to give that to my kids. I have looked at tonnes of books from various libraries about kids and art. Read lots about it. And I just found this little gem of a book this past week. This is not a borrowing book. This is a buying book. Just a little insight from her introdcution (which I think applies generally to everyone, not just two year olds and toddlers.)

"Toddlers and two explore art as a learning experience or an experiment, discovering what is stimulating and interesting....During the process, toddlers and twos discover their own independance, as well as the mystery of combinations, the joy of exploration, the delight of creating, and the frustration of challenges - all important pieces in the puzzle of learning. Whatever the resulting artwork... it is the only the result of "doing at" not the reason for doing art.... The art process allows... exploring, disovering and manipulating their worlds. The adult's job is simply to allow this process to happen." Good eh!

I challenge you to take time and think of some good things in your life.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

potty training stories

While potty training Alden we have been talking a lot about pee and poo.
His first time going poo on the toilet, he was going in his diaper and I stopped him and put him on the toliet and he finished. But hated it.
The next time he went,
he told me his tummy was sick. I told him that meant he needed to go poo.
He disagreed with me, but I led him to the toliet anyways and he sat on it.
After 3 stories and lots of waiting, he went.
He kept checking the toliet to see what was in there.
After some came out, he looked down and said "mom they look like sticks."
I told him people call them logs.
(I thought he would think that was funny, hence more encouragement to keep doing it.)
So he looked again and said "Look 4 logs mom."
Then when Regan came home from school he told dad he did 4 logs.
He likes to mention the word logs every time he goes now.

Fast forward to Monday.
We were having the Missionaries over for dinner.
(They are 19-21 year old young men who travel all over the world to preach and teach about Jesus Christ for 2 years.) Typically them are in pairs, but we had three.
So we are sitting at the table eating our dinner (which I will have to share a recipe tomorrow from cause it was so stinking good!!!) and talking about what we did that day, how Grandma Steed came and took us to the zoo.
Grandma asked Alden what his favorite animal was and he said "Elephants. There were 4 elephants and one of them made a big poo."
He brought it up about 3 times.
Wonderful dinner conversation eh!

He also showed our last visitor his cool underwear.
At least he is excited.
And at least he is doing it.
We'll work on manners later.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Friday, September 08, 2006

Happy Friday Morning

Last night Lucy slept thru the night. She used to be amazing at sleeping. 12 hours a night. But teething has changed that. The last week I feel like I have barely gotten any sleep.
You know when you wake up and it feels like you just went to sleep.
Yep. Every day. Except this morning. It was great!!!
So after she woke up at 6:00 am and went back to sleep I decided that I had two options.
More sleep - possibly another hour.
Or get up and go swimming.

I got up.
Did 20 laps.
I am always worried that the lifeguard is watching me thinking... I am going to have to jump in and save that lady....
Hopefully the more I swim the more comfortable I feel.
But it was good.
Clear, bright morning.

And I got out of the house without the kiddies.
Even for just 45 minutes.
Time all by myself... (with other strangers...But they were adults.)

I also wanted to tell you about my lab coat buying experience.
Sometimes Regan gives me things to do.
We call them outings.
As a stay at home mom with two little ones, sometimes .... Well often I don't have any adult contact. Other than when Reg comes home at night.
So when he has an errand to do, I do it for him.
It works for us.
And I like to help him.
And he likes that I help him.

So after finding a place on the internet, who I called and gave me the address of another place, I loaded the kiddies up and we went for a little drive.
Uniforms by Karen.
Sounds great.
We go in and there were tons of those cartoon nurses uniforms.
um... not really what I am looking for.
But I ask the lady.
She looks at me and asks if it is for me.
I say no I need a men's white lab coat for my husband.
And she says "Well where is he?"
"At school."
"Why isn't he here?"
"Do you have any men's lab coats?"
"Yes, but what size is he?"
"Same as me."
"But men are built differently."
"I know, but we are the same... I can wear his coats."
She looks completely and utterly annoyed with me. "Yeah but men's arm lengths...and they have different....Well I don't see why he can't get it. All the other med students were here last week. Why wasn't he? What size is he? 34? 36? 38?"
"Can I see a 36?"
"How long"
"Right past my bum - however long that is?"
"Can't he come in tomorrow?"
"He needs it for tomorrow."
Looks at me with complete disgust. But gets the lab coats for me.
"You are going back to med school with two kids?"
"Yes."
"hmmmmmm. We don't have any 36.... But here is a 34 and 38."
"Great." I try on the 38 and it fits me. "I'll take the 38."
"Man he owes you. Bringing in two kids."
She rings me up.
"He really owes you."
"I'll be sure to tell him you said so."

Really it wasn't THAT big of a deal.
I left chuckling to myself.
Why does she care? Just let me buy the stinking coat.
It was definitely an outing.

We'll see what our outing to the library brings today.
Happy weekend!!!!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

visiting home

For the long weekend we went down south to Raymond and hung out with Regan's family. It was great. It was the first time all three Steed grandkids were together. It was wonderful! Of course we have some cute cute photos taken by my Father-in-law.
Alden hamming it up in his new church clothes.






































And Lucy and Ali - cousins only 6 days apart.
Seriously cute!

We also made a quick trip out to Hill Spring so my dad could take Alden fishing. I have some photos of that - but I was using my brother Sean's film camera (gasp!) so I actually can't see how they are til I get them developed.

Today we have to find a new lab coat for Regan for Medical School. It's our outting for the day. We'll see what I can do with no Calgary phone book. :) It could be a small challenge!

Cheerio.