Lunch date

This afternoon, while Sarah dined on ham, cheese, carrots and peas, she was joined by her honoured guest, Elmo, who enjoyed some mixed nuts. Of course, she insisted he wear a bib, because we all know how messy mixed nuts can be.

A few minutes ago, I popped into Sarah's room to get a diaper for Ben, and there she was, sitting in a row with Elmo, Dora and Ducky, having some kind of conversation. I was promptly told, "buh-bye", and giggled my way out of her room.
That girl just kills me.

My 2 kids

Conversations with a 2 year old

"Sarah, would you like some crackers?"
"No"
"ok"
"Crackers!"
"You want some crackers?"
"Yes"

??????

Out of the blue, standing there like she's about to recite poetry:
"mommy. one, two, free, hore, hive, hix, heaven, eight, nine, ten!!!"

This is classic:

"Milk, milk?"
a few minutes go by
"Milk, milk?"
"Do you want some milk? Mommy just has to finish feeding Ben, then I'll put him to bed for his nap, then I'll go upstairs, rinse out your bottle, fill it up, bring it down for you, and you can have some milk."
I do all that stuff and try and pass her the bottle.
"No milk."

sigh

Score, part 2

The score is now 3-4 in favor of diarrhea.

lucky me.

I won't talk about this anymore, it's gross.

That boy has got a power pee

Now I won't be dwelling on the bathroom functions of my kids for much longer, I promise.

Last night Travis and Ben were in the bath together. Ben has been known, on occasion, to pee in the tub. Last night was no exception. I went in with a towel to get Ben out, and the next thing I knew, there was a fountain. All over me, and in fact over my shoulder. Hitting the counter behind me, maybe even out the door. As I was screaming, I was thinking, "How on EARTH can that boy be peeing so far? That is amazing!!"
I look over, as Travis is practically choking on his laughter, and see a squirty bath toy in his hand.

NOT FUNNY.

Well, maybe a little.

:)

Score

Barf:2, Diarrhea:1.

That was my night.

Poor, poor Sarah. I feel so bad for her. At least last night, I actually went into her room when she started crying and calling 'mommy' and 'daddy'. The night before that, I thought that she could sort herself out, but then she got a bit louder and when we went in, lo and behold, she was covered in barf. Poor thing was just sitting there with her hands folded, barf all over them, and calling for mommy. She didn't know what was going on.

Last night wasn't quite so bad. I knew to get in there right away, so she didn't have to have a bath in the middle of the night, and I didn' t have to do a load of laundry (both of which happened the night before).

Today seems to be a bit better so far. I hope we don't all catch whatever she's got.

Alien invasion

This is what happens when summer stuff goes on clearance at Wal Mart.

Mommy's little 'helper'

I realized this morning that the last picture I posted of Sarah was less than flattering. Accurate, maybe, but still not something that she'll probably want to be remembered by. This picture is really more like it. She's like this most of the time, I promise.














Here she is 'helping' me, ie, pushing all the crap that's on our kitchen floor around. I can promise that she did not learn this skill (sweeping) from me, nor did she pick up the outfit from my example, either. Note the pj tops, 'panties' (pull-ups), and slippers. We won't be going anywhere today.















She really is a beautiful girl in my un-biased opinion. She's my Sarahbear, and I'll keep her, the good and the bad.

Introducing....

Braden Kevin Bond.

Welcome to the family, little Braden! We are so happy you're here!

Note the time.

It's 6:19 AM!!!! as I type. I know that with alot of kids, early wake up times are normal. Fortunately, in my house, normal is between 7-7:30, somewhere around 8 if we are really lucky. If I hear someone anytime before 6, it is perfectly understood that this is not wake up time, but time to go back to sleep at least for another hour.
sigh.
Not today. Today, both kids were awake at 5:30. I was able to persuade Sarah with a bit of milk to go back to sleep, but Ben has been as happy as can be since he woke up. Milk did not do it for him. And so, I am interested to see how this day is going to go. Optimistically interested.

I am going to have a nap.

It's a BOY!!!!

5 1/2 pounds, and doing well.
Apparently Shirley is doing well too.
And that's all I know! No name yet, but I'll let you know.

Gummy smiles

Pretty soon, I'm going to have to say good bye to my BenBen's gummy smiles. He's got a little bit of white poking through on the bottom left. I'm sure I'll feel it when it comes all the way through!! :)

The baby's coming!!!

First of all, not ours. Let me just get that out in the open.
My sister-in-law, Shirley, is booked for a c-section for tomorrow morning. Not to get into too many details here, but she has had quite an adventure with this pregnancy, and though she is not quite full term yet, her doctors have decided that tomorrow is the day. It would be really great if you could pray for her and the baby, that everything goes well and smoothly. I will, of course, be posting when I get news of how everything went. Thanks, everybody!

check this out

kinda funny.....
www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html

We won't put any of these on our recipe site. These ones really are disasters all to themselves.

They're all gone

The fish. And not just six of them. My Mom and Dad had bought 6 more that they kept at their house in the event of the other fishes untimely deaths. Those are gone too. Belly up. It's been two weeks, and we've gone through 12 fish.
This would not be a good house for a dog. Or a cat.
Good thing that my kids have the ability to remind me that they are hungry. They should be fine.

What I learned today

I learned first of all, that when you're toilet training a toddler, that you need to stay close to home, because you end up in the bathroom about every 15 minutes.
I learned that once said toddler figures out that she gets a treat every time she pees, the treat should be only 2, not 6 m&m's at a time so she's not flying high on sugar by lunchtime.
I learned that sometimes (somehow) pee comes STRAIGHT OUT, and that the little lip on the training seat just isn't high enough. (don't worry, we have those lysol wipes close by, so it is safe in our bathroom).
I learned that those training seats actually make quite a hat on a two year old. (gross, gross, gross)
I learned that someday soon, I will not have to buy the biggest diapers they sell for babies.

Today was a good day

There's nothing quite like the feel of a good day. They seem to be so rare around here, but today was one of them. One of those days that makes me feel like I can actually handle whatever will come next. I feel like I spend a lot of time on here talking about my difficult children (which they, I mean, she...is), but really, they are so great. There's nothing like an 'oh, mommy' while being hugged and patted on the back. There's nothing like cheering every time she pees on the potty, then being cheered for in return when I'm going #1. Really, today she looked at me with such pride and admiration, "yay!! Mommy!!", like I need to be cheered on the way I cheer her on. It was like she really was proud of me for peeing on the potty (I'm such a big girl now). :) There's nothing quite like getting to nap for an hour when you have two kids. There's nothing quite like being thanked for every little thing I do for her, "dat-too, mommy", even though I know that won't last forever. And there's nothing like looking at those two kids and seeing a part of me and a part of Travis in them.
Now, to keep things real, there's also nothing like fishing an actual log of poo out of the bath. :)

Recipe for Disaster

My friend Angella.

She's the best, she really is. Not a day goes by that we don't talk on the phone, and I truly appreciate her friendship. She is an eternally positive person, and such a good example of what a great wife and mother is.

We met way back in the day at Briercrest, but didn't really become good friends until a few years after when we connected again at 'Yeehaw' '95 or '96 at Kawkawa Lake in Hope (hosted by our dear friends the Mundays). Shortly after that, we found ourselves to be roomates in Vancouver, and I've said this before, it was one of those strange years where even though we were both going on to get married (and get new room mates), I so enjoyed being her roomie that I wished that that time could have gone on. One of those "if I had a parallel life" kind of situations.

Anyways, one of our frequent topics of conversation is food, so to honor that love of ours, we (she did all the work) have started up a 'blog' of our favourite recipes (see link on right). Please feel free to email us (recipefordisaster@hotmail.com) with any of your favourites, and we'll be happy to put them on there. Only if they're good, though. (heehee)

Hopefully, there will be lots of great ideas on there -- perfect for those nights when you need some inspiration.

Let's just call this one the story of my life (or at least the past two years)

How cute is he?!?!

Need I say more?

The big T-W-O

The only safe place for Makenna to hide!






















She loves her Dora backpack! In other words, wears it everywhere!!

















Oooooohhhhhh, Daddy!






















The beat of her own drummer!...... couldn't resist

A future librarian?

A small sampling of Sarah's vocabulary

hork = fork
hive = five
bidge = page
hoar = four
Dada, or Ma-dada = Makenna
hope = soap.

While in the bath, "mummy, hope!"
"yes, Sarah, there is always hope."

:)

I'm not so sure I like Thursdays anymore

Thursday night. It has been a favourite night for so long. Back in the day, there was Friends, Mad about You, Seinfeld, and er. I was single, so sitting in front of the tv for three hours straight with only a bowl of popcorn and a glass of iced tea was entirely possible. Ok, so then I got married. Thursdays were still great. Me and my hubby just hanging out, tv or not, it was good. Ok, ok, then came Sarah. Still, no problem. If we get her to bed before 7:35 when Friends starts, we'll be able to catch the whole thing, and then there is Survivor!! and still er!! yay!! It all changed about a year ago when Travis started doing his masters. He is able to do most of it from home on the internet, but for about 1 Thursday night a month, he goes to Kelowna. For the whole night. Like, till 11pm. Thus my love affair with Thursdays ended. It's not just because I can't watch my beloved shows anymore, because for the most part, I can. But let me tell you, it is a long long day when you are stuck at home with no car, a muddy backyard, and two kids. We're talking, I looked at the clock this morning as the day seemed to be going the way of my visit with Angella yesterday (she witnessed what should be a rare kind of meltdown, but are really all to common in this house), and thought, " hmmm, 9 am. Only 11 more hours to go. sigh" The only consolation is that Travis is half way through the masters, and by this time next year, it will all be a memory, and maybe I'LL be gone all of Thursday night. Even if it is to just sit in the middle of a field by myself, I wouldn't care.
Sorry for the rant. Tomorrow will be better..... it's FRIDAY. :)

My baby girl.

While we're looking at old pictures, here's some of my baby Sarah. Can't say I really miss those days much. Thank God for memories and pictures, naps and sleeping through the night!!

He's a jolly jumper!!

Today was Ben's first time in the jolly jumper! He seemed to really love the freedom of it -- he had that big smile on his face for quite a while. The real test comes, though, when Sarah is around when he's in the thing. She is such a good 'helper' that he'll move like he's never moved before.














Here's an old one of Sarah. You can definitely tell they're related!! It's the big round head, and ears that 'pop' out a bit.

What I like about 'blogging'

Is that I get to see what people are really like. Like how they are when they talk to their family. There's none of that 'just met' kind of awkwardness, that you feel when you first meet a person, and have to come up with things to say. When you read a person's blog, I think, you get to see who they really are (though a little filtered by the ability to think before you write). I love it! So, Angella, Corinne, Christy and Amanda, keep it up! Checking up on what everybody has to say or what new story they have has become the highlight of my day. (Did someone say addiction the other day?)

Ducky does NOT need a diaper

This morning, as I was putting Sarah's diaper on, she said, "Ducky diaper?" Thinking quickly, because the last thing I want to be doing is putting diapers on her dolls as if we don't already spend enough money on those things, I said, "Ducky doesn't need a diaper, he goes pee-pee on the potty." The next thing I knew.......

And then there were three

On Friday, Sarah got her birthday present from Nana and Opi. Our family expanded by 6..... fish, that is. Then, Monday morning, there were 5. I had my first flushing-down-the-toilet-ceremony, attended by only me (I don't want to give Sarah any ideas), and was thoroughly grossed out about it. This morning, we woke up to two more floating belly up in the tank. What am I doing wrong? How can I help them live to see another day? The funny thing is is that they are actually feeder fish (for pirhanas, etc), and they probably thought "phew, we escaped that one", only to find that slowly, one by one, or two by two, they just won't see another day. Poor them, to end up in the Bond house. Fortunately for us, Sarah hasn't noticed yet. :)

Sarah, how old are you today?!?

2!!!!!!!! yay!!


Well, our Sarah is 2. As Cheryl Muir said at Sarah's party yesterday, "She's only 2 years old?" It's been a long two years. And a full two years. And a short 2 years. It really is so fun to think about what the next 5, 10, 15, 20 etc hold for her. Sarah is going to be a busy girl in her life, and will accomplish much, I think, as she is always on the go. She is such a social bird, and LOVES being the centre of attention. When she arrived at her own party yesterday, everyone else was already there, so of course she had to dance. There she was, in the middle of the room, with 15 other people surrounding her clapping and cheering, dancing her heart out. She would dance for a minute, then look up and say, "Nana!!" and dance some more. Then she would say, "Bup-pa (Grandpa) !!!", and dance some more. She was just calling out names as she danced away loving every minute of being the centre of attention.
It was a busy afternoon, but we all had a great time celebrating the Sarah Dalziel in our life.

ps. more pictures to come as they are still currently waiting to be developed! ;)
pps. I CANNOT figure out how to fix that font and make it smaller. sorry.

Meet the Peters

This is my family.
(back row) Dad, Rachel, me, Travis, Ben, Ken
(front row) Mom, Sarah, Donny, Tamara, Makenna, Jenny

And here we are.

And now I'd better go clean up that kitchen before I spend my whole afternoon on here. :)

Adventures in pee-pee land

Don't you just love a bum with no diaper on? These are Sarah's first panties. Again, how embarassing for her, but so cute to me!! I wouldn't say we're quite at the potty-trained point yet, as whenever she has the panties on, I'm never too far behind her, and constantly asking her if she has to pee. But we have had more great success on the potty. Today, I think we were actually having a conversation. "puppy says, ruff-ruff," she said today out of the blue. "ben is crying" is another one. Actual sentences from my little (big) girl. Next thing I know, I'll be sending her off to kindergarden.