David reaches new heights

Well, I'm just about at my wit's end with David. I had finally reached that point where he was walking (and running) steadily and not falling anymore. Rarely bumped into edges or got hurt. Played nicely for a few minutes. I could seriously go to another room or go pee without fearing something bad would happen to him.

Let me tell you.

Those days are long gone.

This is what happens in about 2 seconds flat lately.

On our desk.
Pushed the kitchen chair over to the edge of the sink.

Notice he is now on a higher rung??????

"I'm sure I can reach that kettle".

"Screw that, I'm jumping right in the sink. I wanna know where that water goes . . . ".

"What???????"
Feel my pain yet?

I *never* thought I'd say this after dealing with Peter as a young toddler, but . . .

I think David is worse with climbing than Peter was.

Our weekend in Oakville

I'm afraid I didn't get many pictures this weekend while we were visiting Paul's cousins in Oakville. Just too busy having fun I guess! But here are a few.

Paul's cousin Cathy enjoying some one on one time with David :-).

Anne and Dave's son Aiden trying to figure out what to do with all the maple syrup left after his pancake. He actually ate it all . . . with a FORK!!! Yes, and he never even licked the plate once. Pete probably wouldn't have been quite so civilized, if he had eaten any pancakes, that is!!!!

The boys had movie night on Friday. They watched Monsters, Inc. Notice David's ENTIRE face in the popcorn bowl.

Aiden was well set up for the movie. Movie night seems to work like a well-oiled machine.

The boys checking things out in their house . . . and Granny keeping an eye on them.

Anne's beautiful dining room, with the table set for a big family dinner on Saturday night. Lasagna - delicious!!!! We had a great time and it was nice to get away. The boys were great on the drive there and the drive home.

New cards!

As promised, here are a few of my latest stamping creations. I also finished another project (knitting) recently, but I can't post it here b/c it is a gift for someone in the near future :-) Someone who reads this blog. I'll post pictures of it later, I promise!



This was for my new neighbours but they are a bit Soprano-like so I never took the card over!!

I got this new stamp set before Christmas, it's one of my new favourites. I think this girl is so CUTE!!!!!!

Boys go wild

Here's a taste of my afternoon :-)

Boys, boys, boys

Because of last week's coup with Peter playing at his friend Liam's house on his own, I offered to take the two boys he played with last week, for this Tuesday. Four boys in my house for one afternoon . . . hmmmmmm, what was I thinking?????

Here, David - the ultimate climber - decides to mount his brother's bed.

He is extremely proud of himself lately. He's climbed up on Pete's bed a number of times (it's extremely high, even Pete needs a step stool to climb up on it).

Liam, Pete and Ryan decide to ambush the poor animals living on Pete's bed. Poor cookie monster truly never stood a chance.

Hey Liam!!! I'm really starting to have fun now :-)

I can see you two better with these goggles on, I'm sure of it!
Pandemonium.

In all seriousness, the boys did great and had a really fun time. We did a big art session and they painted pictures for their moms. And Ryan did one for me :-).

The four of us

Here is our little family. After many attempts we could not really get the boys to smile so this was the best we could come up with. We had previously spend about an hour at Walmart getting passport photos done for both boys . . . hmmmm, fun and interesting to say the least. Getting a one and two year old to sit facing straight ahead with lips closed and *not* smiling. Quite the feat!
Here is a recent of David in a pair of his warm snuggly overalls!

Peter is hard to photograph lately, he runs and acts silly every time I have the camera out. So here he is brushing his teeth. It's all I have to offer at this point!

I have some new craft project to post as soon as I get a chance, hopefully in the next couple days.

The potty ain't pretty

I know I'm very lucky to have had Peter potty trained before he was 2 1/2. It was relatively easy and a couple months ago he told me he didn't want to wear a pull up at night anymore. Although I was resistant b/c I didn't want to clean up wet sheets in the middle of the night, we ditched the pull ups and off he went to bed each night with his little bum bare. He occasionally wakes me up to take him to go pee, but most nights he just sleeps through (12 hours or so usually!) with no accidents. Actually, he's had not one pee accident in bed yet (touch wood, of course). He hasn't had a poop accident since the summer and it's been months since a pee accident happened during the daytime.

So, yes, I'm very lucky. BUT . . .

We all know Pete is small and has a wee little bum. He still prefers to pee and poop on his little Fisher Price potty (with a little bucket to catch the "stuff"). Well this kid poops like a 15 year old. I mean, for a small boy who doesn't eat a heck of a lot, these poops are MASSIVE. So I have to scoop it into the toilet, clean his bum, then clean the bucket. Yuck. It's almost as bad as changing diapers.

O.K., not that bad, but I hope one day soon he plans on using that cute little seat I bought him for the top of the toilet :-)

Some BIG news . . .

Ok, this may not be the hugest thing to some of you, but for me it is colossal.

At a regular playgroup I attended with the boys yesterday morning, my friend Karla was talking about how Ryan (another friend's son) was going over to spend the afternoon at her house to play with her son Liam (Pete's good friend). Liam is 4 and is in Jr. Kindergarten in the mornings, so he wasn't at playgroup. Pete piped up and said, "I'd like to go play at Liam's house too mommy".

I almost "pooped" my pants and fell over. I explained, "well, Mommy wouldn't be there sweetie". And he said he knew that and was okay with it.

WOW.

So we kept talking about it, drove home, picked up some bagels and cookies and went and ate our lunch. After lunch, I called Karla and said Pete still wanted to come over (they live very close). I talked to Pete and he said yes, indeed, he wanted to go, yes, he would be a good boy, and yes, he would listen to Karla.

This child has been nowhere without me EVER except to his grandmother's house. Remember Duffer Doo? YOWZA! We got kicked out of preschool!!!!!

So I re-bundled David and Peter up for the sub zero temps that recently hit Ottawa and packed them in the van, drove over, and dropped Pete off. He took in the cookies we bought for a treat for the boys and looked like felt really special giving them to them. I said "if you have to pee who do you tell?". He said "Karla, mommy!" (like I was an idiot or something). I got a lump in my throat at my big boy being all grown up (FINALLY!). He ran downstairs to play with the boys in the basement and I left.

I went home and put David down for his nap. I called Karla after about 90 minutes. She said he'd done fine, only cried at one point for about 5 minutes. He went and laid down on Liam's bed for a bit and then pulled himself together again. I had butterflies in my stomach *all* afternoon. An online friend of mine suggested I go pick up Peter BEFORE he got upset and needed Karla to call me. That way he would have a positive feeling about the afternoon and not remember it as him being upset and crying at the end of it. So by the time I headed over it was almost 2 hours that he'd been there. When I arrived the three boys were all going out in the backyard to play in the snow. Pete begged for me to let him stay and play, so I did. Then they came in for hot chocolate and we went home around 4:00.

I asked if he would like to do that again and he said absolutely mommy. Words can't even do justice to describing the happiness I am feeling over this. I was elated. I thought this day might come, but at the same time, I didn't! I'm thrilled that he did this on his own terms, and hope he will be ready for more outings like this without his mommy.

Poor daddy is away in Texas this week for business so missed the big event. But I know he'll be giving out some pretty big congratulatory hugs upon his return.

Signed,

One proud and happy mommy

p.s. can I also throw in that Pete told Karla when he had to pee and went to the potty there and everything????? :-)

Finally some 2007 pics!

Last weekend we had our good friends Doug and Karla over for dinner. I made the chicken artichoke recipe that my mom gave me - it was a big hit *again* and everyone loved it. After some nice wine and a fabulous dinner, we noticed little Taylor no longer had her signature pigtails in anymore. Where HAD they disappeared to??????

Silly, silly Daddy. Don't you know Shannon posts pictures on her blog?

I recently met a couple new friends - people I met online on a message board. Here is Jamey and her daughter Grace, David and I, and Jenny and her daughter Mea. Mea was also born on October 28th, the same day as David. She is actually 20 minutes older than David, if you can believe that! In the same city! Jamey and Jenny came over for bagels and a visit while the kids played.

Here are David, Grace and Mea - looking adorable on the couch!

Mea and David both very interested in some glue Santa brought for Peter . . .

Paul is getting a lot of mileage out of the plasma car - here he and David take a quick spin.

Last week I met another new friend I met online. Mandy has a daughter Alyssa, born in March 2004, same as Peter. We met at an indoor play area for kids at a local mall. Alyssa and Peter were really cute together and had a lot of fun!

She's asking him all the animals in this little toy, he keeps saying "that's an alligator, that's a fish, that's a frog". It was *too* funny!

Here is Mandy with Cassie, who is a few months younger than David.

David thinks Cassie is lucky to be able to sit in the stroller!

David looking cute in a new outfit.

He carried this ball in this plastic container for a couple days . . .

Mommy, I just love spaghetti!

Hi Mom!

Peter and Matthew in the toy box at Dave & Christine's house on New Year's Eve.

And lounging on the couch with some snacks on New Year's Eve!