Short Sleeves!!!!

It is so warm today (10C/50F) that Gracie and I are in short sleeves. I walked to get the mail (the box is down the street) without a jacket and was just fine. I'm so excited the worst of the cold is over. This is the snowy time of year though, so we're getting more snow than we had been, but luckily it melts away quickly b/c of the warm temps. And it wasn't all that bad really. We've heard that it was a 'mild' winter, so we're hoping next winter won't be too much worse. :)

We spend so much more time outside now, it is great. I'm really looking forward to the summer here, since it will be nice weather instead of grossly hot like at 'home' in Texas.

Hide & Seek

We love hide and seek at our house and play it daily. It is quite hilarious when you are playing with a two year old. When it is his turn to count, which he likes to do often, Bradley counts like this: "8, 9, 8, 9, here come!". You never know how long he will say '8' and '9' either so we are all frantically running to find a place. When he finds us, he just points and says "I found you!". It is too cute.

Last week, we were playing hide and seek and Bradley and I were both looking for Gracie. She had hidden under the bed in his room and wanted us to help her get out from under the bed. Bradley had been playing while carrying a plastic baseball bat around, so he said "grab the bat, Gracie!". Then he "pulled" her out while she was holding on to the bat. After, he kept telling her "I saved you, Gracie" and telling me "I saved Gracie, Mommy!". It was so hilarious.

Oh, and he counts really well with someone. I think he forgets to start at 1 when he is alone b/c if someone is counting with him, he does really well starting with #2. I don't know why he does 8 & 9 over and over again like that. When he counts with me, he does pretty well all the way to 20.

Homework

Gracie gets packets of "homework" periodically.

Gracie working on her homework today.


Bradley, of course, needed some "homework" of his own so I gave him some colors and paper.


Gracie reads her home reader...


while Bradley sorts the letters by color.

I need help

Many of you who know me, know that I am far from "normal". Here is a current example of why I need professional help:

I can't go to sleep when Doug isn't here. Once I get to sleep, I sleep fine, but I can't get to sleep to save my life. The past two nights I was up past 12:30. That makes for one tired mom. Luckily my kids play together really well and they let me get a little snooze on the couch this afternoon. It's a good thing too, since Doug won't be home until after 12:30 tonight, so it will be another late night.

I wish I had my camera today when we were walking home from school. The weather here is gorgeous again, so we stayed to play for almost a half hour after school was out before coming home. In that time, all three of us shed our jackets, so since I was carrying all of the jackets, Gracie held Bradley's hand for the walk home. It was the cutest thing and I'm so bummed I didn't get pics of it. Moments like that make me so happy that we gave Gracie a sibling. They are so lucky to have each other and I am so lucky to be their mama.

P.S. Both my kids are running around in their undies right now. Yeah, my kids are weird too. :)

Computer games

My mom got both kids a computer game for Christmas. It took us a while to get them loaded and I'm embarassed to admit that today was the first day we played one. Bradley is no longer napping, so when he was trying to fall asleep at 4:30 today, I knew I needed something fun and different to keep him going until dinner. His new Sesame Street game did the trick. He loved it. Gracie loved it too and was quite "helpful" when it came to using the mouse.

I'm amazed at how many letters he has learned just in the past month or so. He used to know 'O', 'T'. & 'K' and that was about it. Now he knows almost the whole alphabet. It was so fun to play the alphabet game on the computer game and see how much he knows. Oh, and it did a great job waking him up and he made it to his bedtime!

Doug called tonight to let us know he made it safely to IN after traveling for 16 hours! I'm glad he will be able to get a good night sleep tomorrow night before turning around and coming home.

Daddy's home...

On Friday, the kids and I were making cookies, but I made them sit down on their chairs and wait while I got everything ready. They decided to play pat-a-cake while they were waiting on me and it was too cute not to grab the camera.



Doug got home Sat afternoon. The kids were so happy he was home, they kept crawling on him and grabbing him to play with them. He was tired from being up late Friday night, but they wouldn't give him any room to snooze.

Doug unpacked his suitcase in the living room and Bradley got a hold of his shoes.

Today, Gracie was out of school and Doug was off work b/c in Canada today is a holiday: 'Family Day'. We went to run some errands and grabbed lunch while we were out and when we got back, we decided to go to the park. Doug ended up falling asleep on the couch, so I took the kids myself while he had a nap. As you can tell from the pictures, our temps have been warmer lately and the snow is mostly melted. Today got up to 11C (52F), so we didn't even need big jackets to play. It was great fun. Hopefully, this nice weather will hold up and we can walk to school all week.

Doug's grandfather died early Sun morning, so he is leaving the house tomorrow morning at about 4:30 to catch a 6:30 flight to Vegas and from there he takes a flight to Chicago. He'll be renting a car and driving to IN from there, so it will be a long day of traveling for him. We would have liked for the whole family to go, but it is just too expensive. He will be with his whole family at the funeral on Wed and return home late Thurs night.

Shocking News

While some of you who read this blog might expect this, many will be shocked. Bradley just weaned this week at almost 27 months old. Yeah, I'm one of those moms.

I started weaning him last summer, but then we learned we were moving and we were working like crazy to get the house ready to sell and it was the last thing on my mind. The move was already stressful enough without adding any more stress to it. So, I waited until things settled down and became more "normal" before making it a priority. He last nursed on Wed early in the morning.

I have had wonderful breastfeeding relationships with both my kids and this is bittersweet for me since Doug and I are unsure if we will have more children and I may never breastfeed another child. If it was up to Bradley, he would still be nursing, but I was at the point where I was done.

24 Things you may not know about me

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now? the kids' car seats and a sun shield
2. What's your favorite curse word? I don't have a favorite, I use them all equally
3. Have you ever been to a strip club? Yes
4. What is the last thing you said aloud? Put the table back together!
5. What is the best ice cream flavor? Peanut butter from Marble Slab
6. What are you wearing right now? sweat pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt
7.What was the last thing you ate? a bite of cookie dough ( I had to try it)
8. What's the last sporting event you watched? The Superbowl
9. Who is the last person you emailed? Mom
10. What are you doing tomorrow? Picking up Doug from the airport!!
11. Look to your left, what do you see? My little man.
12. Would you consider plastic surgery? I doubt it, but ask me in 10 years
13. Last person you talked to on the phone? Doug
14. Have you met anyone famous? Bradley Whitford and his wife, Jane Kaczmarek
15. Any plans today? We're waiting for the cookie dough to get cold and then we'll make cookies
16. How many states have you lived in? Two U.S. States + one Canadian province
17. Ever go to college? Yup. Had too much fun and couldn't figure out what I wanted to be when I grow up, so I never graduated.
18. Are you allergic to anything? Benadryl
19. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? I prefer no shoes
20. What do you usually do during the day? play with the kids; fix breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks; laundry; read books; break up fights between the kids
21. How old will you be turning on your next birthday? 31
22. Have you ever been to Six Flags? Yes, Astroworld (used to have a season pass), Fiesta Texas and Six Flags in Arlington
23. How did you get one of your scars? I stuck my arm inside my car engine and burned it
24. What was the last book you read? State of Fear by Michael Crichton

American Idol fans!

The final 24 are chosen. I'm excited because there are so many that I like. I'm going to predict that the final two are Carly and Michael. Anyone else want to take a guess??

So much for no snow today. This is what I woke up to this morning.



Bradley has trouble walking in the snow, so when we pick up Gracie from school, I pull the kids in the sled. They love it and it is a great workout for me.


Gracie has her arms up like she's on a roller coaster. :)


Tonight after dinner, Bradley had his first lollipop.

He seemed to like it, but only licked it a dozen times or so before saying he was "all done".

A Great Day

This was a great day for many reasons.

Most importantly today was great because Gracie was well enough to go to school. She is still not 100% yet, but her tummy is fine, so she went to school today. After lunch she did a lot of lying around and ended up taking a nap for an hour and a half, so she is still not back to being herself yet. She had the energy to make her valentines though, so we got those finished before dinner.

Here she is working on them while Bradley "helps".




The finished product. Don't they look great!


Other things that made today great:

• I talked to my hubby for a long time tonight
• The writer's strike is over
• American Idol was on tonight
• Barack Obama swept the Democratic primaries today

Now if I could just figure out how to go to sleep at a decent hour when Doug is out of town...

Gracie update

I could take a picture today that would look exactly like the one from yesterday. Since she woke up this morning, she hasn't moved from the couch except to go to the bathroom. Luckily, she hasn't had any more vomiting and only has had a bit of diarrhea, so she is on the mend. She has no appetite though and has barely eaten the last two days. She is drinking lots of water though, so I'm not too worried. I'm hoping that after sleeping for most of today, she'll have energy back to go to school tomorrow. We'll see. I can't imagine her going anywhere right now since she won't move from the couch.

Doug's cab came this morning at 4:45. I got up to see him off and it took me over an hour to get back to sleep after he left. He got to Houston ok and when I talked to him, he was enjoying Mexican food at one of our favorite restaurants, Mamacita's. Man do I miss Mexican food.

I'm happy to report that the forecast doesn't show snow in it until Friday now, not every day like it did the last time I checked it several days ago. So hopefully, I won't have to do any shoveling while Doug's away. Saturday can't get here soon enough!

A Rough Night

Last night, both kids were asleep by 8:30. That in itself is a miracle. Usually Bradley is asleep by then, but Gracie likes to stall and is usually asleep closer to 9. I should have known that something was wrong since she went to sleep so quickly. She woke up crying a little before 10 and when I went up to check on her, she started puking. Then, when the puking was over, she became hysterical b/c she doesn't like to throw up and I just knew that she was going to wake up Bradley. Luckily, she didn't. She threw up more than a half dozen more times between 10 and 4 am. We put her on the floor in our room so I would hear her each time she got up. She started having diarrhea sometime around 4 and was up several times with that too. Luckily, she slept in until 9:30. She spent the day lying down on the couch and finally took a nap at about 3:30. She seems to be feeling better today and she has been drinking water without anymore puking, but so far has eaten very little today. We'll see how the rest of the night goes before deciding if she should go to school tomorrow.

Here she is hanging out on the couch.

Doug was a big help last night and I was so grateful that it happened before he left for Houston. Now I just have to pray that Bradley and I don't get sick while Doug is gone.

Playing catch-up

I've been a slackin' blogger lately. Sorry.

Here's a picture of Gracie reading to Bradley. This was actually during the Superbowl. It's good that the kids get along so well so that Doug and I could ignore them to watch the big game. he he he


The kids and I occupied a good bit of time on Monday playing with a bouncy ball. The kids took turns being upstairs and dropping the ball down to each other. Then, since neither of them could throw it back up, I had the assigned job of throwing the ball back to whoever was upstairs. It was actually pretty entertaining for all of us.

When we were in Texas for Christmas, all of Doug's family on his mother's side was there, so we got a family picture taken. I finally got around to scanning them, but for some reason, they look terribly dark. You get the idea though. If you come visit Calgary, you can see the real picture in person and see how much better it looks. ;)

While we were there, we got a picture taken of our family. It also is really dark, but it is a terrific picture and we are very happy with it (and happy that we have an updated one where Bradley is no longer a chubby 5 month old). :)

It is cold this weekend, so we are staying in. It snowed yesterday and there is a chance for more every day for a while. It's nice to have a relaxing weekend inside since we have been running around a lot lately. Doug leaves for Houston early Monday morning, so tomorrow will be a day of laundry, packing, etc. I'm already dreading his departure. He doesn't come back until Sat afternoon. Luckily, Monday the 18th is a holiday ("Family Day") so he will still have a weekend at home with us. Gracie will be off school this Thurs and Fri as well as next Mon, so her Valentine's Day party is this Wed. She wants to make her cards this year instead of buy them, so we'll be working on that some this weekend too.

Superbowl!!!!!!

WOOHOO!!!!!!

Go Giants!!!!!!

What a great game! That was the best game I can remember. I'm so happy for Eli and the Giants and so glad to see the Pats lose.

A Sad Day

Today we got our cars registered in Alberta, so we no longer have Texas plates on the cars. :(

Now we're trying to figure out the best place to display the Texas plates in the house. :)

To my loyal blog readers...

Ticia and Bobby are the only people I know who read every post. So, this post is for you two. Why can't you guys just get married? :) he he he

So, you guys will never guess who we got a card from this week... Ben! We were so excited to hear from him after not having heard anything in years. I guess the news that we had moved to Canada meant he felt compelled to write. He's doing well. He is now in Korea and will be there for two years. He's so crazy, he was looking forward it. Doug says we should put him in touch with Robert so he'll know what Korea is really like. He's been dating a Japanese girl for over a year and a half, so things look bleak for you, Ticia. (But Bobby's single and you know how awesome it would be to make him officially part of the family! Think how excited Doug, Dad and Robert would be knowing that they would always have him on their Cranium team!)

Anyway, I just wanted to take the time to say thanks to you two and tell you how much we love you. I know that others check in from time to time, but I always know that you two read and it helps a little but to know that.