Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! This month has been a little insane, hence my lack of posts. I have so much to write about but I'll try and catch up later and just keep this post mostly Christmas related. December was a doozy of a month. So busy with trying to get ready for the season tied in with exams, and me getting a nasty stomach flu for a week (my first time being sick and being a mommy at the same time, and wow, when I was pretty much the only one to take care of Yoyo it was NOT fun...talk about feeling a lot of guilt, especially when he hauls up a 4 litre jug of chocolate milk and a cup to my room upstairs and asks me if he can "pwease hab a little drink?"). But we both survived.
So, onto Christmas....let me say what a FUN age Yonas was this year. He was so excited about everything, from the lights, to the tree, to the decorations, to Santa. We took him to see Santa, and just like last year, he was excited until we got close to him, so once again it was a family picture with Santa and one unhappy looking child!

Yonas thought decorating the tree was fun for about 2 seconds. After the first couple of ornaments, he just wanted to play with the decorations instead of actually putting them on the tree.

The final result.

The weekend before Christmas we made a quick trip to Toon town to do a little celebrating with my family. 10 hours of driving for about 18 hours of visiting, but it was worth it.

Yonas opening up his first Christmas present of the year!

On the 23rd we went over to some friends for a little festive celebration and all Yonas wanted to do was hold the baby :) He's been asking for a baby sister lately?!?!?!

And on the 24th we went to Mama Leslie's for for celebrating!

And he found a new game he loves...pool.

When we got home that night we put out cookies and milk for Santa, which Yonas helped himself to a few bites... hope Santa didn't mind ;)

And finally Christmas morning arrived! He was super excited to see that Santa had arrived! But after about the 3rd present he wasn't too excited about opening them anymore so we were bribing him with smarties!

His dinosaur piggy bank.

Two of his favourite gifts were his new skates and hockey gloves. Those gloves stayed on for the rest of the morning...which made opening presents a little difficult!

He wouldn't take them off!

The only thing he had asked Santa for was an air hockey table, and lo and behold, Santa did not disappoint!

So now things are finally settling down! We went to an Oil Kings hockey game tonight and Yonas was in heaven! Well, until the mascot Louie the Lion came over to say hi. He was obsessed with the goalies and was talking about how he wants to be a goalie. Ugh, I thought just having him in hockey was going to be expensive, but if he wants to be a goalie, I'm gonna need to win the lottery to be able to pay for it.

There's so much more to write about but I'll have to save it for some future posts. Hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas :)

A Year Later It's Still His Favourite Song!

He's still got the same good ol' moves, just maybe a little more perfected ;) And yeah, probably poor parenting to let him dance on the toilet...possibly a little on the dangerous side.

If my kid was white....

...I suppose this is what he'd look like.

Last week I put him down for a nap as per our usual routine. All was quiet so I foolishly assumed he was lights out. That was until about a half hour later I heard "Mommy, open the door!"...which was a weird request, as usually, if he doesn't want to nap he just bangs and hollers. And then when I did open the door, I just about fell over. It took me awhile to figure out what exactly it was he had slathered over his entire face, and then in the back corner of his closet I found the empty container of bum cream. Yes, he had lathered himself in diaper rash ointment! And as you all probably know, this type of cream is a liquid barrier so the bath that followed was a loooong one. It took forever to get him clean...and around his eyes was no fun for anyone involved!

His reaction when he saw himself in the mirror!

The following two pics are backwards. It started off with him doing his "business" in the bathroom, which he prefers to do in private. When I heard the water running I asked him what he was doing and he replied he was washing his hands. So I opened the door to check things out and there he was sitting amongst bubbles galore. Then he took his shirt off so "have a bath in the sink". Ah well, what's a little soap and water all over the bathroom floor?!?!

Who is this kid?

Yoyo has been at his new dayhome for two weeks now, and wow, what a change! Before, at the old dayhome, when we got home at the end of the day it was a non-stop battle with multiple trips up to timeout (which is even less fun when you have to carry a fighting, kicking 2 year old up to the second level of the house!). His behaviour was not pleasant and it sucked cause it felt like the few hours I had in the day to spend with him was just more misery than happy. It felt like his mission was to push my every button! But now, he is a new kid! He is happy when I pick him up and now we have FUN! He's in a good mood when we get home and we play and he listens (well, most of the time), and he is just all in all an enjoyable kid again.And we are actually enjoying our evenings together with lots of tickles, laughs, and smiles! Now don't get me wrong, the old dayhome wasn't all bad. He loved it there and asks all the time if he can go there. And I know she adored him and treated him like one of her own. But I think it was the whole structure thing...she's not much into a routine with her kids and they kind of have run of the house. She's the parent that lets her kids run around the restaurant and thinks it's cute. To make a long story short, we just have different ideas when it comes to raising kids. I feel sooo much better about things now. I have a happy and enjoyable kid again which makes me a very happy mommy!
And just a couple of snapshots of the little dude cuz what's a post without at least one or two pics of the little ones?!?!

Happy Halloween!!!

We started off our halloween week with a little baking. For the sake of my waist line, most of the mini pumpkin cakes were taken out of the house to Yoyo's dayhome and a couple to our neighbours. I did however sneak one for my self one morning for breakfast (this was before Yoyo was awake so as him not to see!!).
Yoyo was an expert decorator!

The finished product.

Then Friday night we carved our pumpkins. Wow, what a mess it turned out to be with a two year old who insisted on taking out the pumpkin guts all by himself. Which then led to pumpkin goo on the floor, which the dogs ate, which led to some frequent nighttime poops.

The end result. Yoyo wanted a happy pumpkin, I carved Craig a scary pumpkin (he was working), and for myself, a cat.

Then finally the big day arrived. A friend and I took our kids to West Ed Mall for the afternoon. A great idea for kids, especially if the weather is cold (which it wasn't....it was +10). Almost all the stores were handing our candy and Galaxyland was all decorated and they had a place where kids got a halloween bag and got to fill it with coloring books, stickers, and halloween goodies.

Yoyo was a little unsure at first (he's terrified of anything scary and especially masks) but once he got his first couple of candies in his bucket he was a little more excited about the whole idea. That was until life-size Elmo showed up. While all the other kids were absolutely thrilled, Yonas was screaming in terror!

And then of course once he saw people playing hockey, that was it. He could have cared less about getting anymore candy.

Around 3 we left for home and he fell asleep. After a nap and some supper, we went trick or treating to a few friends' places and then back home. We only went to a few houses on our street and then it was home to hand out treats to our own trick or treaters!

The "dinosaur", which is actually a dragon costume, but shhhh don't tell him that.

Just a lipoma

That's what Cassy has. Just a big ol' tumor of fatty tissue that thankfully is non-cancerous. It will most likely need to be surgically removed if it grows much bigger. But the bigger it gets, the more difficult the surgery so I'm thinking maybe after Christmas I'll get it done.

Halloween is just around the corner and although Yoyo is terrified of costumes and the scarier looking halloween decorations, he has been asking me every day to go trick or treating. I'm not looking forward to all the candy...for two reasons, one, I don't need a 2 year old hyped up on sugar for days on end, and two, I don't need my waist to expand anymore!!!
I bit the bullet and bought more halloween decorations for outside today. I wasn't going to but Yoyo was asking about his stolen pumpkin ALL the time so I felt bad. And by golly gee, if someone steals these ones, I am going to snap. So weird that everybody else's halloween decorations on our street have been left untouched.

My Wishes For Today...

I wish I had more patience for a 2 year old that was up until midnight last night and refuses to nap today.

I wish that whoever stole all our outdoor halloween decorations would feel remorse and return them. I have a sad son who misses his big pumpkin that lights up.

I wish that Sundays WERE actually a day of relaxation instead of endless laundry, housecleaning, and prepping for the upcoming week.

I wish my son found joy and contentment in sitting and watching a movie (or just even more than 30 seconds of a cartoon) or colouring at the table for longer than 2 minutes.

I wish it was still summer so my son could happily play outside endlessly while I get some serious studying done.

Most of all, I wish my sweet little Cassy didn't have a baseball size lump in her armpit. And until Tuesday when I find out for sure, I will continue wishing that it is nothing serious.

Today...

...my son told me to shut up. Uh, yeah, not impressed! I know he didn't hear that one from me (not to say that I haven't let slip a few not-so-nice words of my own). So I asked him where he heard that from and he told me "simon" (a boy from his dayhome) told him to shut up. Now that I believe, this is the same boy that pushed him down a whole flight of stairs. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Nov.1 he starts at a new day home and I'm crossing my fingers that it is run a little better than the one he is at now.

Really???

Has it really been over a month since my last post???? Where the heck does the time go? Well, it's time to do a little catching up I guess.

Yonas is still obsessed with all things dinosaurs and it doesn't look like that will be changing anytime soon, so we decided to give the little guy a dinosaur room. There's still a few things to do, like get some pics for the walls and whatnot but for the most part it's all good to go. And yes, Yonas is totally stoked about his new room.

Note: The setting on my camera must have been wonky cuz the pics didn't turn out so well.

I paid a small fortune for these dinosaur knobs (from Etsy) but I really do think they were worth it.

I'm not sure why, but Yonas had become very afraid of the dark. It started before his new room so I know it's not related to that. But he makes me leave his bedroom light on at night. And even if I wait until he is asleep to turn it off, he will wake up and either get up and turn it back on himself or cry for me to come and turn it on for him...and then gives me crap for turning it off in the first place. I've tried nightlights, flashlights, you name it, but nothing is as good as his actual bedroom light. So there is now the lowest wattage bulb possible in there but it still bothers me I have a light on ALL night long.

Last weekend we zipped out to Saskabush for a couple of days. I forgot my camera so no pics but Yonas had a blast with his cousins. And of course we were able to take a little detour to visit with Rhonda and Eden.

Life is good. Really busy with school and the dreaded studying and homework that comes with it which is why I don't post very often anymore. I refuse to go on the computer before Yoyo goes to bed...the small amount of time we have together at the end of the day is far too important for me to be sitting in front of a computer. And then of course after he goes to bed and I do laundry, clean, get ready for the next day, and my schookwork, well the computer is the last thing I want to spsend time doing. So yeah, we're doing awesome, just busy!

It's A Success!

My "baby" is now wearing gitchies! It's been a week and a half since I did the 3-day potty training method and he's been wearing his gitchies every day since with only one accident a couple of days ago when he was playing outside and didn't make it to the potty in time.

Now in this whole process I have learned two big lessons. The first one being that if you put your newly potty trained child in timeout he will immediately tell you he has to go potty. And if you believe him and take him to the potty, he will sit there and smile at you but not produce. However, if you call his bluff and leave him in timeout, he will pee his pants. EVERY time.
The second lesson, if you torture your child with endless tickling you will soon feel a warm liquid seeping onto your lap. But all in all it's been a huge success!


And here's little Yoyo holding my friend's wee baby. Amazingly my rough and tumble boy was nothing but sweet and super gentle with this little one.

Our Long Weekend

It's the last long weekend of the summer and well it's not too summery. Cloudy, rainy, windy. So this morning we started off by making some cinnamon buns. Mmm, we each had one and then when we went upstairs to put away some laundry...we came back down to find the remaining cinnmon buns had walked off.

Neither of the following two culprits are talking....

Later, we went shopping for some new big boy gitchies, and well let's just way there was some shrieks of excitement when we found dinosaur gitchies. He wanted to them right away so he put them on his head. Speaking of gitchie shopping, did you know that boys underwear costs like twice as much as girls underwear??? I was almost tempted to just buy him panties!

And this morning him and Elmo had some snuggle time. It lasted for approx 17 seconds cuz the kid can't stay still longer than that!

This is just a pic from the other night when we were out for supper. He loves sticking things in his hair and was quite proud at all the straws he got in there.

A Few Pics

From our last few weeks of summer.

Yoyo is totally in love with this little girl from his dayhome.

We took a quick day trip out to Calgary to attend Afrikadey

Which meant, of course, that we got to spend some time with this little sweetie too!