First trip to the Mountains

Last Saturday the kids & I took a trip out to Banff overnight. We had a nice (quick) drive out in the morning - the weather was perfect. Skye kept saying "wow" as we got closer and closer and the mountains got bigger and bigger.  At one point she said "I might be scared of the mountain…Mama - you scared of the mountain??".

We met some of my extended family at Nakiska ski hill. A few of them skied and the rest of us just hung out in the chalet. Skye went "skiing" for the first time! She was SO excited.
So, even though Rhys woke up with a cold on Friday, I didn't want to cancel Skye's ski trip! She was even excited about her "space helmet" that I bought the day before :-)

We had a quick bite to eat and then got Skye all sized up for boots and skis and off she went to the bunny hill with "Niki Mama" (our cousin) for her ski lesson ;-)
I used to ski (about 18 years ago!) and although I would like to try it again someday and go with the kids, I decided I couldn't chance a broken body part at this stage of the game! Call me chicken…


We each took an arm and pulled Skye over to the bunny hill and she giggled the whole way. And the "magic carpet" ride was too fun. Thank goodness she didn't have to tackle the gawd awful t-bars that we used to have too…although they did make for some good mishap memories! Not everyone can say they have been dragged up a mountain by one foot - or maybe they can if they skied in the '80s/90s ;-)

Magic carpet ride

what cute ski bunnies!

the sunglasses didn't last long - they didn't fit properly under the helmet and kept falling down

 apparently teaching is hard work and you get a little warm! ;-)

Niki used a few different ways to try and teach Skye - by skiing backwards facing Skye or using her scarf to reign her in. Of course, Skye being Skye, she just wanted to go faster and straight down the hill. They even got into a bit of an argument that "I can do it myself! Don't help me!" haha. She did not want to snowplow…

They did about an hour and then someone was getting a wee bit tired and needed a break before meltdown. So they came in for a rest and a hot chocolate. And then they did another few runs just before the hill closed. So all in all, it was a fun and successful first ski experience! We even had our own group of cheerleaders and paparazzi!


We all went for very yummy pasta at The Old Spaghetti Factory and then Niki and Skye went to Auntie Mar-ga-ret's condo for a party, while I put Rhys to bed. Niki bunked in with us that night and we were up early the next morning and left for home by 9:30am - nap time for Rhys!

Skye would like to go again sometime and is so proud of the ski ticket on her coat :-)

rhys - 11 months

I can reach my own books now

Valentine's Day

It's more of a Valentine's weekend really...

Pink velvet cake with real strawberry cream cheese icing

The kids and I had a busy day on Friday - we did Valentine's crafts and Skye and I baked a yummy cake and then mommy slaved over the stove and made a nice gourmet (?) dinner.

Creamy spinach and mushroom smothered chicken with Valentine rice

Saturday was an entire day of hearts and pink and red and kisses with the munchkins!

Skye got a little surprise treat when she came out for breakfast.
She LOVES her balloons.

Mommy made pancakes for breakfast - which were supposed to have hearts drawn on them, but they didn't show up too well. They tasted good none-the-less. Different game plan next year…

Rhysee got to eat his first pancake with fresh strawberry drizzle. I think there was more on the floor and his face (and in his ear!!) than in his mouth, but I think he liked them.

Lunch continued on with the heart theme. Skye was quite impressed :-) it's the little things - haha.

Then we had a mini photo shoot/workout for mommy. Rhys was a tough subject and not very smiley (unlike him, probably getting tired). Plus he wouldn't sit in one spot for more than a few seconds, so it was like constantly picking up a wind-up toy and putting it back in place. And Skye was her usual energetic self and wouldn't sit still either. I had to keep bribing her with quarters (at least they were daddy's).
Result - 99% of photos taken were blurry. But here's some that turned out mostly.

yes please!

kisses 25 cents. Any takers?

his sister would like to buy some kisses!
she smothered him with kisses all day long, even after she ran out of money

tickle kisses!

trying to get away!

dancing

and singing to her musical card

Rhys is singing too

even hearts in Skye's hair :-)

little sweetheart

Dinner wasn't heart themed either, but it had lots of hugs and kisses and love anyway. We picked up pizza and went to take Nonna her Valentine card. Rhys was extra chatty and goofy, which had us all laughing. It was a great Valentine's!

Tomorrow…probably more Valentine's crafts and kisses!

Rhys - 10 months

So for the last 5 days Rhys is pretty much on his knees full time while crawling. And it's so cute to hear him come down the hallway with his hands smacking the floor.

He likes to explore the whole house, so we have resorted to closing the laundry room and bathroom doors - as his favorite spot seems to be standing up at the bathtub so he can try and reach the soap bottles and chew on the caps - yuck! He also loves to crawl up to me and pull on my pant leg in hopes of being picked up. This is usually when I am rushing to get supper made and can't pick him up poor thing. As soon as he hears daddy come into the house he speeds down the hall to the back door to pull on his pant leg and daddy will pick the poor child up and then he hangs on for dear life if you try and set him back down ;-)

He is still putting everything and anything in his mouth. Which is proving to be a challenge with keeping the floor clean of all bits. The odd time he will find a big crumb or a small piece of toast from breakfast (or paper laying around) ;-) He is eating more finger foods and likes to feed himself. He has also discovered that his little front chomps are good for chewing, like they are supposed to be, and he will hold puffs and cereal just in between them and crunch them. His favorite foods right now are cheese, toast with butter, puffs, cheerios, sweet potatoes and steak!

He still has the 6 teeth, but is showing signs of teething again this past week - excessive drooling, red cheeks, diaper rash, fingers in his mouth and a runny nose…but I haven't felt any new little fangs.

Still haven't sleep trained him…we are procrastinators. I'm blaming it on daddy since he hasn't lowered the crib (Rhys is still in the playpen in our room), and it will be up to daddy to do the sleep training and he can't commit because he has evening appointments!

So for now I continue to enjoy the Rhys snuggles. I have even managed to fit in a nap or two this week just to get in extra cuddles! :-)

He is still getting fed a couple times during the night and waking about 3 or 4 times…

Bedtime is 7pm and the kids are usually up around 6:30/7 (too early for mama with all the night wakings still).

I weighed Rhys this morning and he is about 23.7 lbs! yeesh…no wonder the car seat is almost impossible to carry anymore! I didn't try and measure him…too squirmy. Maybe in a few days.

Rhys is into "playing" more now and will rummage thru the toy box (that he almost falls right into) and dig toys out and play with them. He especially likes the monster trucks that you "wind up" by pushing forward and then let them go.  He pushes them down the hallway as he is crawling.

Yesterday he pushed the heavy wooden play cube halfway across the tile floor. And he likes to prop up against the ride on zebra and dump truck and push them.

He really likes standing now and is brave enough to let go with one hand to grab something else and hold it. He LOVES to stand at Skye's piano with the microphone and gob it all up - because he realizes that if you make noise into it, it comes out louder! He also really likes the drumsticks and a little toy hammer we have - he bangs away on everything.

Skye is starting to get a little more annoyed with him, as he will crawl over to her and try to play too. She sometimes shares really good and other times not. She loves her brother though and usually smoothers him with hugs and kisses. She likes to throw all the bed pillows into the playpen with him (when he is awake) and jump in there to play with him. She also thinks it's fun to have a bath with her brother - which has only happened twice now. 

And he is much more vocal these days. Screeching just to hear the sound of his voice, grunting and growling at meals when I don't feed him fast enough and just general jibber jabber. And he says "MUM- MUM" :-) love it! We are working on "Da-da" now. 

He is a happy little guy and really only gets upset when you have to wrestle him to change him (he is SO hard to change), wash his face, get him dressed and don't feed him fast enough. 

Happy 5th Anniversary to us!

As cliche as it sounds - it seems like only yesterday…

Months after our wedding, when people would still say they had such a great time at our wedding

(and we did too),

we joked that maybe we could have another fabulous celebration at our 5 year anniversary

(which we thought would be held at our acreage...that we do not own at the moment...hahaha)

;-) 

Sadly there is no duplicate celebration planned…this year anyway.

Hopefully some year in the future!

I had actually forgotten about those discussions till now. 

Our very fun & hot looking wedding party! ;-)
Corey Smith, Janessa Ferry (my youngest sister), Peter Zolotas, Dino & I, Dina Marleau, Lawrence Barnett, Cora Matsikas (my middle sister)

our SURPRISE custom PEZ wedding cake - it was SO cool!
 (care of our very good friend Lory Volpi).
Good thing I got to see a photo of it, because the vultures flocked in minutes and it was gone! haha

Cheers to my husband and many many more

happy, fun and healthy years together!

my life is ruined

Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but ONLY a wee bit!

Seriously though - I am SO heartbroken and sad over the news...I might actually shed some tears.

Target is closing in Canada

:-(

This SUCKS! My favorite store is closing. Now what am I going to do? Nothing else really compares. 

Sure there is Superstore with great prices for diapers and all that, and Walmart for cheaper stuff, and Ikea for the really cheap stuff that will likely fall apart in a couple years,

but when you need to one-stop shop for little knick knacks for kids or birthday party accessories or different clothing for a reasonable price or home furnishings (thank gawd Homesense is still around - but it is hit or miss) or B brand kids toys…

Target is the place to go.

And it's the perfect place for Rhys and I to go shopping, cause the carts are good and we can shop for a bit and then stop into Starbucks and both have our snacks (and we have tested this routine out many times - it works well!).

And yes - I know - there was life before Target in Canada. I'm sure there will be life after. But I can't deal with that yet...

BOO-HOO!

K I'm done for now. Need to go drown my sorrows with chocolate or whatever I can find in the junk food cupboard.

Might be upgraded to wine later...

9 months old

Rhys is still doing a very fast army crawl mostly, but he has gotten up to his knees when he is on a floor where he can get grip (our tile floor is a tad slippery).  He makes his way all over the house and over any obstacle in his way (including the very bulky central vac hose). His favourite is when Skye is at the end of the hall in the bathroom sitting on the little potty - he will make a bee-line from the living room and race down the hall to see her.  She in turn screeches "AH - BABY RHYSEE IS COMING!" and slams the door in his face, for her privacy of course. Poor Rhys…

He is also standing up and holding onto everything.  In his crib (even during the night), holding on to the chairs, the couch, the toys, the MOVING toys - which is proving to be the start of some minor bumps and bruises.  He loves his little Fisher Price piano and Skye's bigger standing keyboard - which almost always topples on top of him. But he still goes to it all the time. And he likes to play the bass pedal on Skye's drum set - scares the hell out of me every time. Out of the blue "BOOM BOOM BOOM". 

A challenge to photograph him on the chair now!

Two more top teeth came thru on either side of the fronts, not long after my last post, as suspected. They sure bothered him this time. I think the pain was magnified by a joint cold, as he ran a high fever for about 4 days, along with sniffles, and was just not himself. 

The eating and sleeping (not great) are still about the same…we really need to sleep train soon…

Rhys is weighing in at 22.6 lbs and is 30.25" long. In comparison to Skye at this age, who was 18 lbs 12 oz and 29.5" long. And it's so funny to look back at photos of Skye and see HOW chunky she was all over, and yet she weighed less than Rhys!!? He is moving into the 18-24 month clothing here soon for most and about a 4 in shoe size, but not for long I think. 

He is such a sweet and happy boy, and a great snuggler - loves to be held (and rocked to sleep). As much as I want/need to sleep train him, I sure am going to miss the baby snuggles (big sob). He is growing way too fast!