The day after...

a very long night.
I don't know if it was because I had a cup of coffee later in the day or if it was growing pains.
Ethan did not sleep.
Therefore none of us did.
We had a fun day out of the house and both kids where in bed by 8pm. I was thrilled and whirled around the house cleaning for an hour so I could settle into painting for the rest of the night.

I got part of the base coat done. That is it.

By midnight Ethan had woken up a few times and would not go back down without a huge fight and so much noise that he would also wake up Kaitlyn.
We finally figured that it might be hunger and fed him a snack. He ate and drank a lot but he still wouldn't sleep. He thrashed and kicked and cried off and on till 4:30 this morning and then was ready to get up at 8:30.
I really hope tonight is better, we have been making such great progress with Kaitlyn and last night it all got thrown out the window.

Enough whining, I think I will dwell on what we did yesterday for a few minutes.
See the scowl in the second photo. This is something he has been doing a lot. Rather than talk and say what he feels when he doesn't like something he scowls. and he doesn't forget things either, he will hold his anger and continue scowling at you for a day or two if you tick him off enough.


Playing baby. I have no idea about the bowl on the head.


Kaitlyn and I love to dance for the 10 sec timer and then run up and see how silly we look.


Oh, and for those of you wondering I got my boots at Zeller's. Wal-mart had the floral ones but they where a much lower rise.

In the afternoon we headed down to the rink to meet up with my mom sis and bro and a few cousins to go skating. On the way there I went through the intersection where the "baby cops" (according to Em) were taking turns learning how to direct traffic.

They are actually RCMP in training and as a kid we used to call them the "wanna-be's''.

I had to go around the block a second time to see them again and was laughing so hard I was nearly crying and my sides ached. They were pointing different directions and seemed so confused. The ones on the corner watched and pointed at traffic, maybe trying to help.

Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious to watch.

I had no idea that there was actual training for this, never thought about it I guess.

I am in love with my new rubber boots!

My mom is going to kill me for this one I am sure, but I just love her whispies, now I know where I get them from.

Can you tell he's mine?

This afternoon he is going for his 18 month shots. If you are a praying person please send up a little prayer for him. I am always freaked out about shots so I hope it goes well.

Petals, a playdate and dreaming of puddle jumping

They should have been sleeping! Again they pushed till midnight and a painting was not released from the chains in my brain.
It is not like they didn't have a busy day, we jam packed it....here is how it went...well first I will distract you with more pretty flowers.

No it is not my birthday and I am not sick, that I know of.
My sister 'TT' bought flowers and gave me her left overs, cheery!

Now back to how they should have been worn out enough to sleep last night.
We headed out for a lunch play date at BK.


The kids played for nearly two hours while Kami and I babbled away. I sure hope I didn't babble off her ear. I always feel like I talk way too much. It is not that I do not listen, I do, I love to, but I somehow think I do way too much talking, I go on and on and even forget what I was talking about in the middle of it.
That is bad!
However Kami is amazing! She is deep and thoughtful, you cannot help but love her, and she is cute to boot!

And can pull off sweet hats, I wish I could!
I had a great time hanging out and when it was all over we headed back to her place and I got to meet another fellow blogger in the flesh.
She was super sweet too and I look forward to seeing her again. I think that is the cool thing about meeting bloggers, it is like you have a great screening process and you become friends with them and then when you finally meet you already know each other and it is so natural.
This might sound odd like online dating or something, but really it is not.
It is a community and support system thing.
I think.
Anyway, off track again. Since it was now the middle of the afternoon I decided we should keep trecking and skip past the naps all together so we went rubber boot shopping for me.



Decisions!
Once I chose and bought a pair I thought I better go check out one other store and make sure there weren't others I might like more....I always do this. Decision making kills me!
The only issue is that we are on a very tight budget this week so to get them I had to dig into my grocery budget.
If anyone wonders why they didn't get dinner last night....it is my boot's fault.
If there are any questions as to why we are eating ground beef for a week, well, aren't those boots just too cute!
On the way to the next mall naps happened, just for the 15 min car ride so I though that it would be ok, it was only 15 mins!!





I found another pair that I thought were so cute, ack, why!! I just wanted to hate everything else that I saw so my decision would be easier.
Then I actually went into the grocery store...to get a few groceries with what was left of my cash. Of course I found something else,
these cute pots.
I didn't break the budget though, I will go back for them next week.

They will go perfectly with my new spring paint theme.



Since I got new boots and Kaitlyn already has cute bug boots, poor Ethan's looked so plain and lonely so I decided to paint them.
Kaitlyn found her old pair so we could paint together.

By this time it was already late. We struggled to get them down for the night over a few hours. They should have been tired and out by 9 with the day we had but that one little measly nap did us in.
We are on strike against naps today, I am dying to paint. Seems selfish but I need the release and the me time. Otherwise I just might blow a gasket or two.

We are ready to go puddle jumping now though, bring on the melt!

Filtered through

I love flowers and I love sunlight, these are on my window sill and cheer me up like you wouldn't believe.
I took a few other shots, pretty pinks and whites too, click here for them.
We had a break through, a huge one!
Last night Kaitlyn slept right through the night, for the first time, well if you do not count that she woke up once about 30 mins after going to bed. Dave shushed her back to sleep and that was it till I woke her up this morning.
Amazing!
This night weaning thing is going really well. However last night Dave barely got a wink of sleep because he kept waiting for Kaitlyn to wake up and would then lay there wondering if she was ok since she hadn't woken yet.
I actually did go in and check on her once to be sure she was ok.
Maybe she slept so well because she ate over 200 grams of shrimp before bed...enough to make me sick, hmmm, maybe I will feed her shrimp every night.

If she keeps sleeping this well I can just imagine what it will do for our sex life, whaa-hoo!
Now just to get Ethan sleeping like this and it could be like it was before kids, ha, ha!!
No, this does not mean more babies, not thinking about this for a few more years yet, well maybe we'll think about it next year, maybe!

We went for a chilly walk to a nearby school to play yesterday. I am afraid that when it comes time for Kaitlyn to actually go to school she will be greatly disappointed that it is not all about recess.


There are a ton of other pics from the weekend. I even dressed up for Dave just to go to Rona. Funny how you get different treatment from people based on how you look. (and I really wasn't that prettied up)
These two older men offered me their donuts and coffee and chatted up Kaitlyn as I got popcorn.
If I was in my frumpies I am sure I would not have gotten a glance let alone a bantering conversation.
I managed a terribly rough shot of myself in the closet door section....as I dreamt of a completed place to get my clothes off the floor. Click here to check it out. (it is at the bottom of the page on the rt)

Cement eye lids

Once again it is the wee hours of the morning and I am soo beat I can barely keep my eyes open let alone sit up.
I am sorry that I have been the most boringest blogger of the week but we have been so busy.
Fun busy and yuck busy, cleaning, organizing, visiting with family, shopping, swimming......and a pile of other stuff.
Dave has been doing the night wean thing with Kaitlyn for a few nights now and last night she only woke once, yay!!!! This is massive progress on her 6-8 normal wakings.

Ok, so I uploaded around 700 pics, sorted them and got them ready to post, however I am as tired as a marathoner so I will just share a bit of what I have been doing in the evenings and post the biggie tomorrow....sometime when I catch a break.

Kaitlyn loves to help...even if it is just rinsing my brushes.

Three of the completed pieces....a few others still on the go. The two larger ones are for the store and the smallest is a gift....oooo, she might just see this, I am such a spoil sport. I won't name names just yet...let there be a bit of mystery...really i am just too tired to do a link at this moment.

I was also inspired by the same chicko to do a little sewing and since I am madly in love with totes I dug through my massive fabric sample pile and whipped this up. A little rough, but it will serve grocery purpose.

That is it, I am backspacing more than typing, if you where here you would think I am loaded (I am not)
so sorry for the typos, will do a gooder later.
Night!

Brush in hand

This week has been a bit of a blog break for me. Between the working on myself, marriage, house and kid stuff I have hardly even slept.

It has been a needed break and last night I was able to pick up my brush and start a few more projects. I have a few to finnish but the problem is that I have a creative traffic jam in my head and to relieve the pressure I had to get a few more started.

Things are going alright, just been sooo busy! I will fill you in on the happenings, hopefully tonight.

Plunging with my bottle cleaner

Guess I wont be using this scrubbie for bottles any more.

This afternoon we went out to go swimming with mom the kids, Aunt Deb and 2 cousisns. I had somehow screwed up the swim times and when we got there only had 25 mins to swim. They let us in for free but it was barely enough time to get wet.
It was fun anyway and after our little toe wetting we hit up McD's for coffee and a snack.


Cheeky monkey.

Totally rolled out of the wrong side of the bed. (Not really but she had the funniest look and the worst post swim hair ever)

Does this make my head look big?

Did I ever tell you that once upon a time I illustrated a book?
Well I did. Click here to see all the drawings.
Don't look to closely at the drawings....I was only 17 at the time. It is still in circulation too, ack!

Sorry for this lameo short post. Dave came home tonight after a few days out of town......you know what this means;)
Good night!

Cute as a.....

button...or two.

Buttons! Love em!
Mind you they are a pain in my you know what to sweep up and I will most likely be finding them around the house for weeks....they still beats sparkles!

Kaitlyn quickly sorted out her "favite colours."

A little word in with the buttons. Not something big but it jumped out at me and smacked me in the face. I need to make it a priority to be and look for happiness all through the day.

A part of this realization was to really choose my battles and even if I don't feel like putting in the effort and to just enjoy the mess making along with the kids.
I started to freak out a bit and asked Ethan to stop sweeping buttons off the table, then Kaitlyn joined in, I was not happy. Then I saw the delight in thir little faces as the sunlight bounced off the buttons as they flew onto the floor.
I smiled, I lost that battle, and I am glad.


Of course I put them to work sweeping up the mess.

However Kaitlyn doesn't quite get how to make propper piles and swept up little piles all the way over to where I was sitting.
Despite the mess I had a lump in my throat, I just love these little munchkins and feel so blessed to be able to hang out with them day in and day out.
I sure have my moments where I feel like yanking every last strand of hair out of my head but they are fleeting and I just have to think about how awesome these little ones are for the next moment and it brings me to tears of love and gratitude. I love them!
The occasional break is welcome however and this Sunday I had a treat day and made a few cards at a party.

Cute huh?!

Tonight I picked up Emily and we headed to It's a Blast for a few hours. It is such a fun place to go when we are feeling cooped up...we expeled tons of energy (thank you 2 hour naps) and got our seretonin levels on the move.


"Yay, mommy"


Stolen kiss.

Now since I have been absent again a few days, not intended, but I have been working on the messes around here... I will bring you up to date on yesterday.

Since the big talk with Dave about our love life, kids, housework and everything else in between I have been working hard on change.
I made lists, charts and schedules, stayed up at night plotting what I would do to make things right.
The answer to my problem...go shopping!


Why do I always cock my head like that?!

Doesn't shopping always fix everything?
I actually hit up a consignment store a few blocks away and snagged all these outfits...3 tops, a jacket, and 3 skirts for under $100 bucks. I am happy!
Now my pact is to dress up every day....well at least try to be pretty. No more 3 days in the same pair of jeans and same t-shirt and a pony tail. I am going to mix it up, wear a few skirts and even wear socks and shoes!
I hate socks!
This is a big deal for me.
And make-up, I will put on eye brows...didn't you know?
They are transparent, I have to draw them on. Scary!
Moving on...again.

Baking cookies at 11:00 PM. The whole sleep schedule is going ok. The days Kaitlyn does not have a nap she is down by 9. The days the she has a nap there is no way to get her down early.
Seems to be every 3 or four days, kind of a cycle.
Now just to work it into my charts, hmmmm.

Cheese.