~One Month Flew By!!!~

WOW!  One month ago little Carter Michael entered our lives…where did the time go?  We have been blessed with the easiest baby!  He pretty much eats and sleeps on a 2-3 hour cycle.  He’s had a few gassy episodes but a little bit of Ovol hasn’t quickly helped.  He has an amazingly strong neck and has been able to lift his head up since he was born, now he can lift his head up and turn it while holding it.  He loves tummy time with Mom and Dad, hates his car seat unless the car is moving and enjoys time in his bouncy seat.  He is mostly in love with Mommy but will sometimes settle for Dad.  He sleeps on his side, just like Mom and rolls from side to side on his own.  He has such a serious little man look to him, and is going to be a much bigger boy than his brother!  He had his check up appt with our family Doctor on Friday and has already gained 2 lbs and grown 2 inches!  He is already into some 3 month clothes too! 

He HATES cold wipes on his bum and will forever love Daddy’s boss Gary and his girlfriend Kelly for getting us a wipes warmer.  Mom is far to cheap for that!  He snorts like a little pig when he’s hungry and lets you know…when Carter is hungry, he is HUNGRY NOW!  He is being exclusively breastfed right now and has no problems with it and is not hard on Mom…unless he wants to nurse non-stop.  Then Mom gets a bit frustrated and needs to have some space!  He has a bit of reflux that I’m still trying to sort out…he can’t be sat up right away after eating, he’ll throw everything up.  The nurse at the hospital said that his stomach flap was probably just a bit immature and closes too fast.  It isn’t affecting him that I can tell but I suspect it may contribute to the gas since he doesn’t always burp after every feed. 

We had an ultrasound on his hip on Monday, he may have hip dysplasia and need to wear a brace.  I googled it and let me tell you, it doesn’t look like fun!  6 weeks of keeping his knee parallel to his hip in a brace that wraps over his shoulders.  It isn’t life threatening however so I’m just rolling with it! 

Big brother Ethan is treating him well, so far he pretty much ignores him.  He is acting out a bit however and I don’t think I’m dealing with it the best.  I have been very exasperated by some of the things he does to act out and haven’t responded well…I recognize it though and am trying to deal with it. We’ve been making sure to spend time separate with him doing fun things so he doesn’t feel abandoned.  Plus adding fun things to his day that we can do since Mom is not working. 

So one month of me being a Mom to two little boys and so far, so good.  I’m just starting to get some routine to my day so that I’m not wearing sweat pants, dirty shirts and have unwashed hair and unbrushed teeth in the car pool lane at school.  Plus I need to have a feeling of getting things done so I have a wonderful new app on my Ipad called Wunderlist and I have all kinds of to do lists in it so I can check things off my list!  I’m feeling a bit bottled up at home but as Carter starts to get a bit of a schedule I have lots of fun things planned for us!  Big brother Ethan has Piano class on Saturdays until May, Pre-school M-Thurs, swimming for March/April on Sundays, Soccer starting April-July on Sat, and a reading program at the library from April-end of June on Friday mornings.  Carter and I are going to go walking at the Multiplex M-Thurs after we drop Ethan off a school, a Mommy and baby Yoga class on Tuesdays and lunch with a friend on Thursdays.  On Fridays’ we’ll head to the library with Ethan for fresh books and Sat/Sun we hang out with Dad and probably go swimming.  I want to keep busy but also keep a slow enough pace that I can enjoy all my time with my guys before the craziness of working full time with them comes back.  For now we’re playing it by ear and having fun…I still can’t believe that I have two little boys…this life is going to be adventure!!! 

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Click on the albums to see the full pictures!

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~Ethan’s First Piano Recital~

Wow, prouder parents couldn’t have been found yesterday…it was Ethan’s first piano recital and he did it perfectly!  We were admittedly a bit worried about the whole thing because he woke up with a nasty cough and a bit of mischief in everything he did.  He didn’t have a great time at Music Class in the morning…wasn’t listening, and was acting silly while they did a dress rehearsal.  He ended up losing the Ipad for the remainder of the day as a result.  Randy came home from class very frustrated with him. 

So we had a good couple of ‘talks’ and made him practice his piece a few more times and set some rewards for good behavior up. We got dressed up and off we went.  I won’t lie and say that he was the best behaved kid there but he wasn’t the worst.  He was a bit quiet and almost sulking for most of it.  I was disappointed…it wasn’t how I pictured it to go.  Once it got started though and he saw other kids he knew go up and perform he knew what he was doing.  When it was his turn to go up he went straight up to the microphone, said “My name is Ethan Grounds and I’m going to play Little Helper for you today”  just like we had practiced.  He went to the piano and carefully placed his hands, played his piece, got down off the chair bowed his head and came off the stage perfectly.  He wasn’t smiling or bubbly, more quiet and focused.  But he did it and we were so proud!  I won’t lie, I cried! (We’ll blame the pregnancy hormones).

So here are the pictures of his day…we got all dressed up in a new outfit complete with little dress shoes for the event!

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At the church where it was held they had a ‘real’ piano…I was a bit worried that it would throw him off since he plays on a small keyboard style piano at Music Class and a keyboard at home but he had no problems at all with it!  They did their group song first where all the kids in his class from the whole week got together and played a little song using instruments.

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Then when it was his turn he did his solo piece!  You can click on the pictures to open and see the complete album!

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Is that not the most freaking adorable thing ever?!?! 

They finished off the recital with the entire Music Class keyboarding students singing their good-bye song..he really likes this song!

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He got his reward…a trip to play at the Multiplex Jungle Gym area and Bugs & Cheese for supper from Boston Pizza.  It was a great day and we all had lots of fun!  His next one is in May sometime…I can’t wait!

~Headed to the Lake!~

We’re so excited to finally realize a family dream…spending some serious time at a gorgeous lake in the summer!  As you can see there are a great deal of lakes in this area.  We are staying right in the middle of this map at Moberly Lake.  It’s the only lake I found that had camping with services and that was something I definitely wanted.  Since we don’t have our own truck to enable us to pull our RV off for water and sewer I wanted a place where it would be there for us.  We found only the one campground that was right on a lake…Moberly Marina and Lake resort.  We booked a stall for the whole month of July.  Ethan and I are spending the first two weeks of July there with Randy coming up on the weekends.  My friend Melissa and her son Caleb are joining us for the first week and there’s a couple of others who plan on dropping in for a weekend or day visit.  Then for the rest of July Randy and I are taking Ethan up every weekend.  We had planned on leaving it there for August as well but in the end we have so many things taking up that month that we decided to just do the one month this year.

The lake is beautiful, large a clean, right in the foothills with beautiful vistas! 

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There is swimming, fishing, canoeing, and two kids Christian camps at this lake.  The large provincial park that is adjacent to the campground we are staying at has a great playground for kids as well.  We can walk right from our stall to the park in no time.  In Hudson’s Hope there is the WAC Bennett dam where you can take a interpretive tour underground to see how the dam works and how it was built.  We did it last year but I will likely see if our guests want to check it out while they are visiting.  In Chetwynd there is a huge leisure centre with a pool and waterslides…I’m keeping it in mind in case we experience lots of rain. 

This is the view from the campground that we will be staying at for the month of July!  As is the picture below.  There are only around 12 stalls in the campground so it won’t be a loud, busy place.  The owner tells me that there are about 3-4 families that come for the season, we’re anxious to get to know them because we hope to join them year over year if it all goes good.

I’ve got lots to do to get the RV ready to go for the trip.  We just got it back from the dealership where it had a massive maintenance overhaul.  So it is ready to go mechanically but apparently the winter storage was not kind to it and it’s filthy dirty.  So this week before we head off will be full of deep cleaning and prepping.  It’s been a long time since I’ve used the RV, the last time was when we were living in it and that ended in 2006.  So 6 years…WOW.  So for obvious reasons I’m very excited about using it…but nervous about forgetting something, LOL!  Good thing there are towns close by.

Ethan is getting excited and keeps asking me what we are going to do there.  I keep telling him we are going to play…I can’t wait for him to experience it!  I can’t wait to relax and unplug.  No laptops coming on this trip.  The Ipad is coming but only because I have all the books I want to read on my Kobo.  Otherwise we are bringing Ethans’ train table and some trains and cars, books, card games, board games, playdough, our inflatable boat, swim stuff and good shoes to go walking in!  That will cover off sunny days, rainy days, and lazy days!

So keep posted, there will be some epic posts about this summer vacation coming up in the next month!  If you want to come visit, it’s stall number 8 at the Marina!  Happy summer everyone, hope you enjoy it as much as we plan to!

~ I am a Handy Woman!~

I did a California patch all by myself on Friday!  We had a hole from the back doorknob and I was mudding and taping and wanted it fixed at the same time.  So I took what I learned on a Nate Berkus show and fixed it up myself!  I did a ‘California Patch’  I had never heard of it before his show and it is super easy to do!
I forgot to take a picture of the hole before but it was round…you cut it into a square and measure it.

Then you measure it out on a piece of drywall slightly bigger than you need.  I left 2 inches all around mine…

Then you cut around the square, break off the excess but peel it off leaving the paper all around your square.  Then you dry fit your square to make sure it fits in the hole.

Once you have a snug fit you add mud around the outside of the hole…

Then put your patch in, pressing it in firmly to make sure it’s even with the wall.  Press your paper all around to ensure it sticks well to hold the patch.

Apparently at this point you are supposed to let it dry…I did not.  I covered the entire patch with a layer of mud and smoothed out all the bumps and ripples.

And VOILA!  A easy and secure patch without any tape or fussing around!
So proud of myself for doing it all myself!  I got all the mudding done at the same time and now I need to start sanding and re-mudding again so I can paint hopefully next weekend.  It’s coming together though!  So excited for it to be done!

~The Grounds' 1st Annual Christmas Party~

This free invitation made with Smilebox

~HaLlOwEeN 2011~

We had a spooky good time on Halloween again this year.  We didn’t follow through with our promise of a new family costume for this year though…we went as Pirates again.  No pics of us as a family though…it was a busy night at our house!  Ethan got to dress up for school this day as well and brought home some treats from there as well.  Daddy took him out for his first ever trick or treating jaunt that night as well.  He really liked that!  I stayed home and played Pirates with all the kids that came to the door…I think I might have had 6 groups! 

As usual I had fun decorating…I did my shelf and Randy decorated outside! Also Randy and Ethan had fun making their pumpkin!  Pics of course coming up!

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As always, click on the pictures to see the whole thing…this album maker cuts off parts of the pictures.  We had a blast, looking forward to next year!!!

~Baking Cookies~

The other day Ethan and I were hanging out at home and I said to him “Do you want a cookie?”  It was no shock that he said “Yes, cookie please”  So then I told him he would have to help Mommy make them, he was all for it!  YAY!  Our first cookie baking adventure together!  We headed to the kitchen and while I gathered up the stuff to make yummy chocolate chip cookies he got his stool. 

It was our first time making cookies together so I thought I would get some pictures!  He was so cute and knew what to do, amazing how much they soak up from watching! 

He was good at adding all the ingredients and then making sure that all the dry ingredients were mixed well…

Then he helped make sure that they were on the pan….just so!

We put them in the HOT oven and waited so patiently for them…

They took so long!!!!  When they finally came out, they were ‘HOT’, “Blow Mommy” is what he told me! I told him to blow, here he is trying to cool them off!

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Then we finally got to eat them!  MMMmmmm!  So soft and chewy on the inside with warm melted chocolate!!!  We each had 3 with some milk!  Cookie eating is serious business as you can see…no smiles here!

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We used the recipe from the cookbook ‘Sugar’ by Anna Olson that I got for Randy for our anniversary.  They are a perfect chocolate chip cookie that stays soft and chewy for days!  If I had more time I would type it out but if you want the recipe just drop me an email and I’ll send it off to you!  I’m looking forward to more fun days like this one with Ethan over the years making yummy treats together and teaching him great life skills!  He’ll be able to impress the good girls if he can bake!!!

~Trying to Fill Mommy’s Shoes…a story about an escape artist!~

So we managed to get all the drywall for our basement for $200 on Friday…woo-hoo, saved ourselves around $400!!!  Anyhow, Randy spent Saturday drywalling the basement (pictures coming soon).  He was in and out hauling sheets from the garage and Ethan wanted to help…

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so he threw on my STEEL TOED work shoes and trudged out the door.  SO hilarious because they are heavy and he got so frustrated because he couldn’t lift his feet into the garage to clear the doorframe.  The worst thing is, that neither of us even knew he was gone until we heard him squealing in frustration because he couldn’t lift his foot!  Not that he could have gotten anywhere, the whole yard is completely fenced in but still we missed the whole getting outside and how that transpired…

Too cute, I love all these funny little things he does!

~Our garden…and Pathetic flowers…~

Well it wasn’t quite the bounty that I was hoping for this year but you have to start somewhere.  My flowers did not grow…at all…I was not happy about the amount of money that I spent on them and how quickly they died…I think I got bum plants because they died right away, despite me taking care of them.  We did have snow a few days before I went and bought them and I can guarantee that they got a touch of cold.

So anyhow, here are the pictures of my flowerbeds and my pot…(Yup, that’s dirt there and dead flowers…)  But the pot is nice eh?  I got two big ones and two smaller ones, ceramic, for under $20!  Best deal of the summer since they were originally $30 for the big ones each and $20 for the small ones…

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Anyhow, moving on.  I also planted my raspberry canes this spring.  Well due to neglect I lost most of them…no beating around the bush, I simply left them and didn’t give them any love…I think I have 4 of the original 13…

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Next is my tomato plants…they grew like crazy at one end of the flowerbed…not so much at the other end…but they didn’t produce much.  I was hoping for a bumper crop of tomatoes to make salsa for our pantry…nope, didn’t happen!  But they looked good at least!

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Next post…a look at our veggie Garden…again, nothing too spectacular but it was yummy!!!

~Hospital Scary Time~

So we got hospitalized for the first time a couple of weeks ago…I knew that it would happen sooner rather then later but it didn’t make it any less scary for Ethan, Randy or I…

He choked on a piece of a Nutragrain Bar and it got stuck in his esophagus…I’m sure you can piece together the rest of how that went.  So he couldn’t eat anything and everything came up that we tried to give him.  So after 6 hours of nothing being able to go down I took him to the emergency room to get checked out.  They consulted with our specialists at the Stollery Childrens’ Hospital and decided to hospitalize us for observation.  If it worsened then we would be transported to Edmonton…

So we checked into room 329, right outside the nurses station, and settled in for the weekend.  We found the play room and the movies and the little kitchenette and got comfortable with our little environment.  They put Ethan on an IV and took blood to check him for infections and did Xrays to see if they could see anything stuck.  None of which were easy or fun for Ethan or I.  He was traumatized by the whole experience and it broke my heart to watch him have to go through it…

I stayed at the hospital with Ethan;  Randy came back and forth with the coffee and food for me…

It took until Saturday night until Ethan was able to eat anything and that was a Danino yogurt.  We were so happy!  From there we switched his hospital diet to a puree diet which he ate for two meals, then we switched him to a minced diet which he ate without problem the rest of the time we were there. 

We met with the Paediatrician on Saturday followed by the surgeons from Grande Prairie.  They all thought that he had suffered something being stuck and that it was likely now swollen or bruised and thereby difficult to eat.  The surgeons told me that they could do a scope to see what is going on but I told them that I would rather be sent to Edmonton where they deal with paediatrics if that was the course of action…

Long story short, he made a good recovery and we got discharged on Monday morning after meeting with our family doctor.  They made us an appt at the Stollery for Thursday for a check up and meeting with the specialist.

I had to fly to Saskatoon on Tuesday for work and Randy and Ethan headed to his Moms’ house in Vegreville until the appointment.  My boss (in my DREAM JOB) let me change my flight to stop in Edmonton so that I could be with Ethan during his tests.  Unfortunately my flight didn’t get in until 10:20am and his test was at 8:45am and I missed it…but I did get to go to the appt with the specialist in the afternoon.  

I have to say that it was the best meeting we have had so far with a specialist in regards to Ethan's’ care.    He gave us concrete “what to do in this scenario” actions and how to deal with different situations.  I’m very happy with the information that he gave us and feel better about what we can do when he chokes…that being said, we are going to get in touch with someone in GP who can teach us children's’ first aid.  It is time to educate ourselves…

We are all home now and Ethan is doing okay…we are cautious and keeping his diet pretty simple…I’m hoping that we gradually aren’t scared and feel okay with feeding him normal again…but I’m not rushing it!

So that was our excitement/scary time with Ethan…poor little guy!  Thank goodness the hospital had 1 Max & Ruby VHS tape, it kept us sane when Ethan was tied to an IV and couldn’t run around the playroom! 

~First Day at the Park Summer 2010!~

We finally had a nice day, not full of things to do that we spent at our favourite local park.  We are lucky to have several choices here in GP but we have one that is our favourite in the summer time.  O’Brein Park is next to the Wapiti River in a valley and outside the city.  It is fairly quiet with other families picnicking and having campfires. 

We never have had a fire, someday we will!  For now we take down a couple of blankets, some toys, books and the camera and lounge around.  Well I should say, we USED to lounge around and read books.  Now we have an adventuresome two year old who will not sit still!  So we took turns walking around with Ethan discovering the sites and sounds.  We picked some pinecones (tried to eat them too, oops!), we poked at bark on trees, talked about the flowers and leaves and blew some bubbles to chase around.  Next time we won’t bother taking the books, LOL!

We took some fried chicken, potato salad and fruit with us to have a little picnic lunch.  Ethan had his own lunch.  He just wasn’t into eating chicken and potato salad.  After we ate and spent two hours chasing Ethan we packed everything in the truck and went for a walk.  We walked along the riverbank until we could walk down to an inlet in the river where the water goes around a little island and is a little calmer and cleaner.  Randy took Ethan in the water and at first he protested but then when he learnt that he could throw rocks and make splashes we were set!  He stood on the side of the water and threw rocks for at least an hour straight!  Squat, pick up rock, stand, throw rock, squat pick up rock, stand, throw rock…If I did that many squats I would have one tight butt!  Randy and I were both jealous of his ability to continually squat and get up!  He threw so many rocks that he diverted the water to go over his feet!

Much fun was had by all…here are the pictures!

Ethan off discovering on his own:

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Ethan & Mommy picking pinecones in the little bucket:

 

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Playing in the river with Daddy:

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Baby Bum Crack (I couldn’t resist, LOL!):

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Favourite Pictures from the Day:

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So fun was had by all!  It was 27 above and gorgeous all day.  Best part of it?  It was all free! 

We might go again next weekend on Father’s Day because it is the River Rat Race and Ethan would love it!  It is a boat race of course, not rats, and Ethan had a hoot pointing at the boats as they went by yesterday.  We’ll see how the weather is and what our friends are up to, maybe we’ll go with them if they are going.

I know we’ll have many more lazy days like this over the summer, and I can’t wait!

~One Year Ago~

What a whirlwind introduction to being parents. Baby, Surgery, first meal, home...whirlwind. We've had an amazing year of getting to know what an amazing son we have and how we are going to be as parents.

We've postponed the birthday party because our little man is not feeling too hot. We spent Friday night at the emergency room. He had been puking for a couple of days and wasn't eating and was crying non-stop. They didn't determine what was wrong, just sent us home with antibiotics. So we've got a sick baby on our hands. We'll have the party on my next weekend off in two weeks.

So keep posted for party pics and send up some good thoughts for little man to be feeling better soon!

~E Climbing Stairs~

I haven't quite licked using my phone video camera yet. So here is yet another sideways video of E...If anyone knows how to flip it, please let me know, so annoying!!!

Anyhow, I grabbed my phone and snapped this today. I'm impressed with how persistent he was with trying...

~E's First Haircut!!!~

So the small child was starting to look like a bush monkey...well not really just a little long in the front. So I decided to take him for a haircut to my hairdresser. He was really good and was only moderatly interested in what she was doing. Mostly when she was trying to cut around his ears. Everyone was very impressed with how good he was so I was very proud of him!

So here he is in the little cape they had for him! He sat on my lap of course while he got it cut so I had my hairdresser shoot a couple of pics of us when she was all done.




We were both covered with fine little pieces of hair when she was done though...ewwwww. I took Ethan to daycare and snuck back for a facial though...ssshhhh don't tell!