Ten Thought Tuesday: March 21st

1. I want to take the time to thank three amazing bloggers for some award nominations.  Valerie, Cheila and Tami nominated me for the Liebster, Cramm and Blogger Recognition Award respectively.  I haven’t had time to post yet, but I’m working on them!
2. I just realized that Elliot hit the 9 month mark yesterday.  How did that happen?
3. Today, we’ve got a packed morning.  We’re in need of changing the windows to our house so my husband and I are going window shopping (quite literally ha!) after driving the kids to daycare.
4. Tomorrow is Elliot’s 9 month well visit.  I really love his doctor (who’s actually not a pediatrician but my GP).  She’s fantastic and has taken Charles and Amélie as well.  I am very happy because I’ve never been satisfied with the previous pediatrician.
5. Last weekend, Charles went to a sugar shack with my sister and her boyfriend.  He slept over at her place on Friday evening, then, the next day, took the subway and a coach bus to get there.  He was ecstatic because he loves the guy so much!

   

   Hard to tell who’s happiest to be there!

6. I just ordered a steam mop to replace the Swiffer and traditional mop we have.  I am ridiculously excited over the purchase and can’t wait to try it out.  I’m certain it’ll make my life a lot easier.
7. On Sunday I ran my first transition run.  Considering I ran twice as long as I should have by accident, it went really well.  I was following the advice to run at 180 strides per minute, but will have to tone it down as it is too quick to be a sustainable pace for me currently.  I have to say though, my calves were on fire yesterday and they’re still sore today.  I’m eager to see how today’s run will go.

   

   Notice the funky shape of the shoes? That’s what makes them so comfortable! No more scrunched up toes.

8. I’m not sure what I want to eat for supper tonight.  What are you guys eating?
9. I had my first taste of matcha tea on Sunday.  It was peach-flavoured, it was iced and it was yummy!  I’m seriously considering buying some to make at home.
10. Over the weekend, we went to the library to get some new books.  I’m so happy because I’m rediscovering my love of reading.  I picked up the second tome of the Deathnote manga.  What are you currently reading?

What’s on your mind this Tuesday?  Feel free to comment of link up to a random thought post of your own!

Ten Thought Tuesday: March 14th

1. Well, it’s close to bedtime, but I’m finally getting around to writing my TTT post!

2. I just got back from a run.  My husband encouraged me to go despite the crappy weather (I’m like 3 minutes driving distance to the gym).  I’m pretty sure that it’s because he doesn’t want me in the kind of mood I get into when I don’t go out for my run.

3. Elliot is now very mobile.  Besides doing a zombie crawl like his big sister did when she started to get mobile, he can now push himself up to a seated position when he ends up on his tummy and is pulling himself up to a kneeling position whenever he can.

4. I want to sincerely apologize to Mother Nature for assuming that Spring was on its way.  This morning, I was greeted with this sh*t.

5. Over Spring Break, we had a blast.  My husband was even able to get a couple of days off and we went to the Ecomuseum with the kids.

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6. Kids can sleep in very weird positions.  Amélie in particular is always funny to look at when she’s sleeping.

7. Talking of naps, Charles needs less and less of them.  Though I know he rarely sleeps during nap time, he always  goes to his room for quiet time.  He always brings some “friends” with him.

A couple of books for nap time!

8. I’m really happy, because I’ve managed to read a couple of books this month.

9. My vacuum cleaner has been having a lot of trouble lately.  I realized that I’d never cleaned the filters since buying it.  Oops!  The vacuum works like a charm again!

10.  Post run selfie with a chocolate cookie, because I totally deserved it!

What’s on your mind this Tuesday?  Feel free to comment of link up to a random thought post of your own!

Ten Thought Tuesday: March 7th

1. This week is Spring Break which for me means “break from the normal routine of having a baby at home and two at daycare”.  I am home with all three kiddos all week.
2. Today I’m going to go see my grandparents with my mom and the kids.  Yay!
3. On Saturday, my husband, the kids and I went to see some friends.  With this unusual break in routine, the littles went to bed a lot later than usual.  Now, I usually insist that the kids go down at their usual time no matter where we are, but I decided to make an exception on Saturday.  Oh boy, we’re still playing catch-up with sleep and are going through ungodly amounts of crying, screaming and hysterics.
4. On Sunday we went to the sugar shack with the kids.  They had a blast!
   

   

   

   
5. I’m finding that though I enjoy the theme and story of the graphic novel I rented at the library last week, I’m having a lot of trouble getting through it.  It’s so unusual for me to read a graphic novel and I find that there is too much visual information for me to handle.  I’m determined to finish it though, so I may find I change my mind by the time I get to the end of it.
6. Elliot’s nights are driving me nuts.  Besides the fact that he’s got a cold and is most likely teething (again) he spins around so much now that he can go from tummy to back and back to tummy that he either ends up with his head stuck in the corner of the crib or bangs his head on the bars whilst attempting to return to lying down on his back.  Urgh!
7. In case you missed it on my Instragram feed (@mtwotm) here’s a picture I snapped of Charles spontaneously giving his little brother a great big hug.  Such a sweet boy!
8. Tonight, we’re eating crockpot chili for supper.  It is deeeeeeeeelicious.  I’m going to have to share the recipe with you guys eventually.
9. I’m going to have to go buy some new running shoes soon.  What a shame.  Hahaha!
10. I’m listening to an excerpt of “How to Lose a Marathon” whilst writing this.  It isn’t easy.  Usually, when I write in English and I want to listen to something, I listen to something in French so that my brain doesn’t get confused.

What’s on your mind this Tuesday?  Feel free to comment of link up to a random thought post of your own!

Ten Thought Tuesday: February 21st 2017

1. Yesterday, Elliot hit the 8 month mark.  What!?!  This is my third child and I still can’t get over how quickly they grow.  I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to it!
2. The little guy is working SO hard on crawling.  He just really wants to be able to explore and follow his big brother and sister.  But because of his determination, he face-plants very often.  His head has quite a few bruises and prunes and over the weekend, he got a bloody nose after a particularly hard face-plant.  Oh well, he keeps at it despite it all.
3. Last weekend’s tame weather has me optimistic that I’ll be able to go run outside soon(ish).  In the meantime, the indoor track has reopened so that’s where I’ll go this evening!
4. My house is a mess.  I really need to get it under control.  I don’t suppose anyone could send me some motivation?
5. Yesterday, I received some cloth panty liners I ordered from a Canadian Etsy shop called Harp Diapers.  They look and feel seriously amazing, I can’t wait to try them.  Be on the lookout for a review post in a couple of weeks.

   

   Zelda, Star Trek and Dr. Who cloth pads.  It doesn’t get any better than this!

6. This coming Saturday will be our monthly movie night.  I saw that Finding Dory was on Netflix so I’ll try to convince the kiddos that we should watch that.
7. It’s so great to see the kids growing up with so much love between one another.  This morning, I walked in on them playing choo-choo.
8. Tonight, we’re eating chicken breasts.  I’m not sure how I’m going to prep them or what I’m going to serve them with yet though.
9. This morning, my daughter decided to wear he favourite purple shirt and her Thomas the Train pyjama pants to go to daycare.  Because, why not… LOL.
10. We’ve started having fun with bath time again.  On Valentine’s day, I decided to put some pink food colouring in the bath water and the kids were totally nuts about it.  Now, I let each of them choose the bath water colour and they love it.

What’s on your mind this Tuesday?

The Existential Questions of Parenthood

So, I’ve been doing this parenting thing for a little over four years now and I’ve got a few unanswered questions.  Perhaps one of you more experienced parents could help me answer them.  Or, do you have your own to add to the list?

1. Why does the baby always wake up as soon as I’m on the verge of falling asleep?
2. Why does the toddler insist on eating everything with her hands except stuff that should actually be eaten with one’s hands?
3. Why does the baby always wait to be put in a fresh diaper before pooping?
4. While I’m at it, why does the baby always have to spit up all over his and my freshly cleaned clothes?
5. Why do the kids always want to listen to the same song/watch the same movie/read the same book over and over and over and over…again?  (For the record, the song of the moment is “Let it go”.
6. Why are the kids always ready to leave in record time when I’ve got time to spare, but take forever to get dressed when I’m in a hurry to leave?
7. Why does the toddler have to put on her underwear, pants and shirt the wrong way around every single day?  (Mind you, I’m not complaining, she gets dressed by herself).
8. Why does a sudden urge to pee always happen when we are at the farthest possible distance to a toilet?
9. Why is it that on the one night the baby decides to sleep well, the toddler or 4 year old have to wake up screaming or crying?
10. Why does the washroom have to become the new communal area (oh, don’t mind me, I’m just sitting here pooping.  Sure, why don’t you come sit on me with your story!)?
    

    

    

    No words can describe how much I love the little buggers.

The “I Love You To Death” Hug

When Big Brother Picks Little Sister’s Clothes…

Daddies Are The Best

When I became a new mother two years ago, I was kind of lost.  I mean, I knew some basic stuff, but there were also a lot of things I didn’t know.  Like many mothers out there, I questioned myself about many things.  I would worry that I didn’t have enough milk, or that I had too much.  I would worry that my son was sleeping too much, or not enough.  I would worry about the color of my son’s poop or the fact that he hadn’t pooped in a few days.

I’m sure you get the picture.

In this age of easily accessible information, I turned early on to the famous and infamous Dr. Google for help in this parenting gig.  One of my first searches, brought me to an online parenting community filled with forums in which parents could share their experiences/worries/solutions…with one another.

At first, it was great.  I mean, with titles such as “Green poop, help!”, “LO always nursing, low milk supply?” and “Normal or not [see pic attached]?” I felt right at home in a sea of other mothers wondering what the heck they were doing.  Even if the other mothers (because most of the members were moms) didn’t always have an answer (or one that I liked) it was nice to know that others were going through the same things as I was.

And then, things started to become less appealing for me.  There were, of course, the bottle -vs- breast battles, then more battles arose with regards to sleep training, but these didn’t bother me much.  I mean, I was content with the methods I was using and I just didn’t read the posts.

What bothered me, is when I started reading things like “SO [significant other] useless!”, “Worthless husband” and “Lazy boyfriend”.  As the months went by, more and more of these posts popped up.  And it saddened me to see that these ladies turned to the online world to fuel anger towards their partners, because I know the value of a great partner in the world of parenting.

I love my partner.  He is by no means perfect, but then again, who is?  I certainly am not.  But despite all the things that he does (or doesn’t do) that make me want to roll my eyes, he shows, day after day, his unconditional love towards our kids.  And, on numerous occasions, he has become the pillar I could lean on in my role as a parent.

This evening was one of those moments.

You see, yesterday was hard.  Neither kiddo napped for more than 45 minutes during the day and though they were in a pretty good mood, things disintegrated rapidly in the evening.  Immediately after supper, Little Dude went into full-blown meltdown mode.  My partner and I figured that it was because he was tired, so we endeavoured to get him down for the night half an hour before his usual bedtime.  After going through the bedtime routine, filled with toddler tears, he was finally down for the night.

Or so we thought…

No sooner had I gotten my daughter down, did my son wake up in tears.  His dad went in to calm him.  Then, 20 minutes later, he woke up again…and again…and again.  At first, we thought nightmares, but the fact that it kept going on stumped us.  My solution, sleep in his bed with him for the night.

Let me tell you that sleeping in a single bed with a squiggly toddler that wakes up crying every hour or so throughout the night while also getting up twice to nurse the 3 month old does not make for a good night sleep.  Needless to say that I was tired today…and less than pleased to see some liquid leaking out of his ear this morning.

Sh*t, looks like we’re dealing yet again with a damned ear infection.

Anyways, fast-forward to tonight.  I was tired AND in need of some non-mommy time.  My partner got the toddler down for bed as I nursed my daughter in hopes that she would fall asleep quickly.  But, it was not to be.  I tried twice to get her down, but to no avail.  Meanwhile, my son was kicking his wall in his room instead of falling asleep and I was out of patience.

I put her down in her bed crying to take a breath.

My breath came in the form of my partner coming up the stairs asking me if everything was ok and then proceeding to little miss I’m-not-sleepy’s room to help her fall asleep.  For 15 minutes he paced around the house with her to help her doze off before putting her in her crib.

Daddies really are the best!

Silent Sunday: November 9th 2014

Silent(ish) Random Sunday: October 26th 2014

1. iPhoto still has trouble distinguishing Amélie’s face from Charles’.  Perhaps it’s because they look alike in many regards.

Amélie 8 weeks

Charles 8 weeks

2.  When you have a toddler, it isn’t nap time and it is silent in the house, there’s a good chance that he’s up to something.

Caught red-handed!

3.  Amélie’s already 8 weeks old (how did that happen?)!  She’s so squishy now!

4.  Charles still loves his sister very much and feels the need to be in close proximity to her very often.

5.  Charles’ first experience with chopsticks…actually went pretty well (considering he could also use his hands and fork to eat).

6.  What happens when the toddler picks out his sister’s clothes and pyjama for the day?

7.  Daddy took the liberty of taking an impromptu photo of me and the littles! ❤