Kites - May 12

Today was J’s first time flying a kite! 

He was a natural!!  I couldn’t believe it. 

He had been to fly kites with his cousin W when my sister was watching J (when I first went back to work). W would have been about 2.5 years old, right about J’s age now. 

He would have been only 12 months at the time, not big enough to actually fly them, just watch. 

This spring he’s been talking about kites, kites, kites! 

He has seen my kite hanging in the garage and has been asking to fly it for months now but until today it was either still snowing, too cold, not enough wind or too much wind. 

Today was gusty but almost perfect. 

He loved it!!

He did so well. Great for me taking pictures. 

 I didn't have to help him, just throw it in the air when it crashed. 

Word of the day: Crayons

Bubbles - May 10

I wish this was the only post I could have written Tuesday. 

J loves bubbles!

It started last year at Easter. It was an obsession immediately. 

Since then, we have spent many many days and evening blowing bubbles in our backyard. 

Then I found a bubble machine at Toys R Us. It was the best $12 I ever spent. We could spend hours outside playing in the bubbles and no one would hyperventilate. 

By the end of last summer, our poor bubble machine had bit the dust. I 

I found a new bubble machine at Costco towards the end of the winter and I picked it up right away. 

It’s made by a company that makes really really intense bubbles. Gazillion Bubbles.

It is working great. 

I’m hoping it lasts this whole summer! 

Kim

Helper - May 10

J continues to help me when he can. I’m trying to teach him to do small tasks but occasionally his “helping” ends badly. 

Unfortunately I have to leave him alone temporarily a few times a day to feed E. 

Usually, he sits and watches Curious George, colors, reads a book ... nothing too destructive. 

Tuesday was a little different. 

J is allowed to feed the one fish at my mom’s house. Supervised of course. 

At our house, I keep the fish food up high, away from the tank. 

One time I had to fish out a bunch of sinking pellets from the bottom of our fish tank. I learnt my lesson. 

Unfortunately C didn’t get that lesson. 

He left the fish food on top of our fish tank. 

Oops. 

Big oops. 

J decided to help me and feed the fish while I was upstairs feeding E. 

The entire large sized bottle of flake food, at once. 

He put the lid back on and placed the food back where it was. 

When I got downstairs, this is what I found. 

The white in the right half of the tank is food. Lots and lots of food. 

C did a water change as soon as he got home from work, about an hour later. 

I thought it’d be a mess but fixable. 

Unfortunately, Wednesday I found all our lovely Rainbow fish dead. The entire tank. They died of gluttony! 

What a shame. We had just gotten it the way we’d like about 2 weeks earlier. 

Poor J. He loved those fish. I’m not sure when he’ll notice but I’m sure not going to bring it up. 

Darn. Poor fish. RIP. 

First park trip - May 9

I'm running a little bit behind. 

Monday was this years first day above 20 degrees celsius and E's first trip to the park. 

We're very lucky. We live within walking distance of one very close park and one "far park." Not that far, just the name we gave it last year. 

Anyway, so Monday was her first trip to the park. Ever. 

It was nice and warm so unfortunately the park was very busy. 

She seemed to really enjoy it anyway.

My mom and I went with cousins W and I while my sister took Milo for a long run. 

The girls enjoyed the swings and the boys enjoyed getting dirty and squishing bugs. 

Loving the swing.

I enjoying the swings also.

Teething on her zipper.

J took off his shoes and jumped in someone's sand castle hole. So dirty!

Mini picnic.

I hope you have been able to get out an enjoy this nice weather. 

Kim

Mother's Day weekend - May 7&8

I hope that if you are a mom, you had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. I hope if you aren't a mom, that you showered your own Mom with love and appreciation! 
Being a Mom is the hardest but most wonderful job ever! 


My Mother's Day started Saturday. My cousin in law A and I had planned a spa day, a much much needed afternoon of rest and relaxation. She drove in from Wainwright and we had a nice visit then headed to Earls for lunch. 
Lunch out without kids is such a treat! There's no sharing involved, no entertaining, no scarfing down your food because the kids are restless. I could bring my purse and not a diaper bag, I carried only the things I needed for me, no heavy wipes, no diapers, no wide variety of toys and teething rings. 
It's the little things that you really notice!
We spent the afternoon at the Spa Zonar here in Sherwood Park. 
I had a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure, A had a pedicure and reflexology. 
It was so nice and relaxing! And now we both have beautiful toes to attend the upcoming weddings we both have coming up.
Sunday, I decided I'd make Sunday night dinner for my mom and family to give her a break.
I made a crock pot Epicure pulled pork (so yummy!) and the Epicure pumpkin cheese cake (also so yummy!). I made the food, my sister brought salad, my mom made homemade buns for the pork sandwiches. Then we brought the food to my mom's which was nice because I didn't have to spend my whole Mother's Day cleaning. 
All in all it was a great weekend. Lovely weather and great company. 

I hope you all had a nice weekend too. 
Kim

Baby hair - May 6

I must admit, I've been having some concerns about a few things related to having a girl. 
First (of many) hurdle(s) to get through is the baby hair. 
Boys are easy, you just cut their hair in a "little boy cut" or leave it a bit shaggy and it looks great. It's pretty hard -but not impossible- to screw up boy hair. 
Girls hair seems so much more intimidating. 
I'm afraid of screwing it up! 
I once knew a girl with really bad hair. Let's leave it at that.
I had been trimming her "bangs" when they started getting in her eyes, but unfortunately I was combing her hair forward, like a boy! 
Darn it! 
I didn't even realize it. 


My sister gave me a heads up this past week on how to help train it and I'm so thankful. 
Now I can grow out her hair the way it is meant to be. 
It's scarier to start totally from scratch than I would have thought, but it's looking cute as I work on growing it out. 
Ah, the stresses of a mom. I'm laughing at myself it sounds so ridiculous. I'm sure you must be too.

It's growing fast, now I've got the hang of helping it grow out, I'm excited to see the results!
Happy weekend everyone. 
Kim

New computer - May 4

I LOVE my new computer. 
If I've spoken to you since Valentines Day, you've heard me say it once or twice or a million times, but it's true. 
I had been thinking about moving to Mac for a few years but the price was always a deterrent. Sure, they're great, but can they really be that great?! They can!


My old computers had always been "put together" pieces from other older computers. 
My last computer was a HP. I wasn't using a digital camera when I first got it, I used my computer for school reports and email. That was it. 
Then I got a digital SLR when my nephews were born. I took a lot of pictures. 
Then I had J. And I took a LOT more pictures. 
I got a video camera for my first Mothers Day. We researched the camera to death. But we didn't research our computer ... my lovely new camera took too fancy of movies to play on my old computer. I couldn't edit, I couldn't even view my movies. I just took the movies and then stored them, hoping one day I'd get a computer fast enough to process HD movies. 
My old HP's internal fan died about 6 weeks before E was born. I had it repaired and it was working fine, slow but fine for a few more months. 
Then one day in January I was uploading baby photos and my computer told me I had only 6 MB (one memory card worth) of space left on my entire computer. 
Great! Mat leave, a new baby and now I needed a new computer?! 
Lucky for me- Valentine's Day, my 30th birthday (and all other holidays in 2011) were just around the corner and I was able to get my NEW computer. 
I'm in love. Did I mention that? 
I opted for a MacBook, that way I can sit an watch tv or visit C, while still working on editing photos. I'm no longer tied to my computer room (which since having two babies was moved to the corner of my bedroom). It is so great. 
I took some free "get to know your new Mac" workshops when I first got it but until I had a few free minutes tonight, I hadn't had the chance to put them to use. 
I was able to make some quick little movies, and put them in a format so they are watchable on the internet. And so easily. 
I hope you enjoy them. I'm going to try to add them when I can. 


Kim