Bye bye bye

Bye Bye Blogger.

I am off to my own domain. I am now going to be free of problems with losing posts, pictures etc. Come and see me at http://leftcoastmama.net

Here's to a new blog beginning.

Love Thursday

This is one of my favourite pictures of Aidan and me. I have a hard time getting him to sit on my lap and cuddle anymore.
I miss that.




Maybe I will get some more cuddle time in when he is a little older and less independent.

Happy Halloween, Happy Monkey Tuesday!

Tonight Aidan and T. were dressed up in their finest Monkey costumes and we went Trick-or-treating. As always with Vancouver we found the celebration a little different than in the east. A few places in the complex had their houses done up but at least two of those weren't home to pass out treats. Kinda disappointing.

Aidan had a great time though because we let him do what he has wanted to on the last few walks. Go up to strange doors and knock or ring the doorbell. The fact that only two people opened the door wasn't a problem. The fact that they gave you candy (well at least something to put in your bag and shake) was amazing.

As always this post wouldn't be the same with out some cute pictures. So here goes:




Aidan and T. walking out from our front Door. The bags were a hit.




I missed my blue hair so much I wanted a blue wig. We couldn't get the boys to sit too well so we joined them.



We did manage to get one picture of the two of them that wasn't of Aidan's back end.



"Hi I'm Scary Tyrone the Jack o'lantern"



"Who"

Catergories: Halloween, Monkey Tuesday, Trick-or-treating

Horror Cookies and prep for Monkey Tuesday

I am a Halloween nut. I love it! I try every year to be creative with my pumpkins and decorate the door and get enough candy for the hoards that come to our door. Well for the one or two that come to the door and all the grown ups that come to the house. Last year we didn't have any children and we were really excited when the Chinese Food Delivery guy came to the door. (Yes he did get a treat.)

This year I have something to compete with. I don't have my Halloween wreath up yet and my pumpkin lights are not in the window because the boy keeps playing with them. I haven't quite figured out how to combat that. Now three houses in the complex have really done a lot of work with their front porches. One is I guess a little generic with some scarecrows and a sign, but the two up front on the street have the webs, bats, spiders, cool lights and their pumpkins already lit. I am jealous. Well I guess that tomorrow I will be able to get the pumpkins carved and they should look good.

With Halloween in mind I tried to bake some stained glass Halloween shaped cookies. I hadn't made them before but I had some at Dei's last Christmas and I thought that some Jack o'Lanterns would be cool. I found some really cute (and a little expensive) Halloween cookie cutters and some life savers (a bag individually wrapped was all I could find) and today I had the time to make the cookies. The first set burnt in our oven. I swear the oven is about 50 degrees hot. Some weren't too bad but others (like the cat) were totally burnt. Even Anthony wouldn't eat them. The next set I turned the oven down to 300 and put a lot more candy in the holes. Tis worked better but I think they are meant to be bigger cookies with bigger hole because instead of a nice stained glass effect I got horror cookie. Some looked like exploding pumpkin guts and others like they were bleeding out the eyes. I have picture proof.







Anyway, we got out today and took some pictures of Aidan in the sunlight in his monkey suit. I will post a couple of pictures now and more on Monkey Tuesday.





Happy Halloween!!!

Tags: Halloween, decorating, Horror Cookies, Monkey Tuesday

Update

I thought that I would be posting much more in the last 2 weeks, but again life happens and when it does blogging seems to go out the window.

When we were coming home from Nova Scotia two weeks ago we had problems with Air Canada, again. We had managed to use our Areoplan miles to get our tickets which put us at the bottom of the totem pole. When we checked the flight earlier and we had our seats and no problems. When we got to the airport Aidan and Anthony were able to get their tickets printed out but not me. So we had to go to the "Self Serve Assistance" which never bodes well. We also noticed that Anthony and Aidan didn't have assigned seats anymore. It turns out that the flight to Ottawa had been canceled and the passengers were put on to our flight, therefore knocking us out of our seats. This meant that we got put in the very last "Torture" seats in the last row. Of course they are very uncomfortable and the seat in front of us was broken and wouldn't stay in the upright position.

It was a very long and uncomfortable flight and Aidan got only about an hour and a half of sleep. (Despite being four hours time difference, which means we got in about 3:30 am his body time.) At least we got all our luggage this time and nothing seemed to be lost or stolen. Anyway, with the problems Anthony has had with his back in the past we should have just left the luggage in the car and got it in the morning but Anthony brought it in and that was the straw that broke the camel's back. The next two days Anthony was in pain but it seemed to be ok on Monday. Tuesday was a different story. Anthony didn't got into work, and for those of you who know Anthony you know that it is very unusual. By the afternoon Anthony was in so much pain that he could stand up with out feeling like he was going to pass out. So, off to the emergency room so he could get some pain meds. Unfortunately we should have just gone to the doctor since they gave him a prescription and sent him home with nothing to help the pain.

I went through another very tough week with both the baby boys (Aidan and T) and it reiterated for me that the two of them together are too stressful for me with out the space for them to run around. I gave G. notice on Monday and in about three weeks I will not be babysitting T. anymore except maybe as an emergency caregiver. It is a relief because I was starting to be very stressed and I need to be able to get out and do things with Aidan. I am happy to do it part time but T. is a very demanding little boy and I wasn't happy. I am still stressed but at least now there is an end date to look forward to. I also wanted to do this before there were any hard feelings. I really like T. and G. and I want to remain friends with them. I would love the boys to be friends and have play dates, but for my sanity and Aidan's naps I needed to do this. A day with no breaks, toy throwing and hitting and temper tantrums because the boy wants all the attention (or just his mother to be there,)makes Gwen a stressed and no fun girl. I didn't make the decision to stay home just to make someone else's child care issues easier. G. seemed to take the news fairly well. I know that it is really difficult to find child care and I was affordable, and I wish her luck.

Anyway, enough with the ranting, the next thing I will post is another love Thursday. I am thinking about it right now. :)

Tags: Travel, Back Pain, Air Canada, Child Care

Home for a rest, not likely.

So if you are among the few people who read my blog you may have wondered if I fell off the face of the earth. Hmm, well I didn't exactly, but I did spend two (mostly) wonderful weeks on the other side of the country. Now you may think that I should have posted as "Right Coast Mama", and you would be right, I should have, but I didn't. So, what to do? Well I guess that a recap will be forthcoming, but not tonight. I still need to decompress and Aidan isn't adapting well to being back home. I think it will take us quite a bit of time to getting him back into his routine.

The main problem is, yes you guessed it, sleep. He seems to be having separation anxiety especially in the middle of the night. He has been waking up at 3 or 4 am and then he just wants to cuddle. He isn't ready to be awake, he doesn't want to play, all he wants is to be as close to me as he can. The odd thing is that when this ever happened before he always wanted to nurse. Now he just wants to be close. It is harder to get him to sleep after this happens when we aren't nursing. I guess it is me that is missing it.

It is really funny to me that I can miss something that I was sure was going to be a bit of a chore that I would do for six months or until he bit me. Eighteen months later and I am mourning that fact that he is weaning. Sigh.

Anyway, as I am falling asleep at the laptop, I should let you dear readers (my that was presumptuous of me,) go, and bid you adieu. Good night.

Tags: Sleep, Vacation, Breastfeeding, Weaning

Pink Socks, They always Look Girly, Unless They Just Look Cute

Ok, I know you now have "Black Socks" going around in your head. So do I, but in my head I am rewriting the lyrics to describe something Aidan did this morning.

Ok, here goes:

Pink Socks,
They always look Girly
The longer you wear they the warmer you get.
Sometimes they look kinda cozy,
but, Aidan keeps saying "I won't steal them yet."

Pink Socks,
They always look girly,
The longer you wear them the warmer you get.
Sometimes they look kinda cozy,
Now, Aidan's decided "I'll take what I can get."


Pink Socks,
They always look girly,
The longer you wear them the warmer you get.
Sometimes they look kinda cozy,
Now Aidan's stole them, I'll be cold in a bit.


Pink Socks,
They used to look girly,
The longer he'll wear them the warmer he'll get.
Sometimes they look kinda cozy,
I know he is practicing, he'll pull them on yet.

Pink Socks,
They used to look girly,
The longer he wears them the warmer he gets.
Sometimes they look kinda cozy,
I know he is thinking, "Yes, I did it."

ALL BY MYSELF!!

Tags: Pink Socks, All by Myself, Cute