Nana is brave enough to visit us *again*!!!

My mom came to visit us for a few days. Thankfully the weather really turned around and it was beautiful and sunny every day she was here. Actually, the first day she arrived, we took the kids for a bike ride around the block and she laughed as my neighbour Rick shoveled some snow off his lawn . . . wearing shorts in 23 degrees heat :-)

She and I took the boys and Leah to see Horton Hears a Who one afternoon. It was a cute movie and we all had fun (Leah sadly missed it, she slept through the entire thing!). I was impressed the boys did quite well and sat through almost the entire movie. We even went out for dinner that night, and took the kids to Boston Pizza. This also went well, and gives me courage to try eating out again in the future. Not sure how restaurant dining with a family of five would transpire, but so far so good. We ended up taking our portable DVD player (a tip from Nana!) and that helped keep David occupied while waiting for his chicken!

Nana was thrilled to spend some time with her grandchildren, and to see the new "robust" Leah. She and my cousin Stephanie helped babysit on Saturday while Paul and I went to a wedding. Things went very well, with one teeny weeny exception. Leah refused to take a bottle!! We had tried numerous times before the wedding, with no luck, but I had secret hope that my mom could pull it off. So I hauled my milk tanks home between the wedding and the reception and let the little Buddha have a drink from the tap. Mom finally got her to sleep around 9:00 (no bottle though) and she slept until later when we got home and I woke her and fed her again. You can probably tell from her photos . . . she's not exactly going to waste away to nothing from missing one feeding ;-)

Nana and Princess Leah - As close as we get to a family photo - David not really cooperating at the moment, Leah stuffing her fist in her mouth and Pete, well, being Pete.

David after his first haircut last week (yes, first hair cut at age 2 1/2) - modeling mom's black pumps.
Pete after having his Shawn Cassidy locks trimmed . . .

With his reward sucker in hand . . .

And, last but certainly not least, Leah the ever-expanding baby. Play a game with me - it's called "count the rolls". Bathing her has become quite a chore, one really needs to wedge one's fingers inside the rolls to make sure she is totally clean :-)

Today I once again boxed up some of Leah's clothes that are TOO SMALL for her. A growing number of her little pants and jeans just can't make it past her thighs anymore. I see Sumo wrestling in her future!!!

The duct unplugger!

You're looking at a 14 lb duct-unplugger. That's right. Any of you mommies who breastfed your babies will know what I'm talking about. I had a particularly nasty and painful plugged milk duct this week. It became very swollen, red and sore. The best remedy for clearing it up (i.e. "unplugging" the duct) is to have your baby nurse vigorously to loosen it up. Thankfully, I have a particularly vigorous baby who has quite a lot of suction in her jaws. She unplugged that sucker in less than 24 hours :-) Ah, now mommy feels much better and the earth can go back to spinning on its axis!

Proud of her duct-unplugging capabilities . . .

We are really pushing the baby doll tops over top of long sleeved onesies here until we can truly bust out the summer clothes. We've had a number of beautiful days, but this weekend has been a bit colder. Wearing one of Reese's cute tops and totally mesmorized by her daddy, Leah lounges on our bed . . .

Here's a rare quiet moment between all three siblings. I had to take the photo naked though, b/c I was getting dressed a couple mornings ago and knew shots like this were few and far between :-)
How is potty training David going, you ask? Well, he's a tad more stubborn than Pete was, but we're workin' on it! Resourceful as he is, he continues to find new uses for pull-ups every day.

We feel spring coming!!!

Our little house was hit yet again by the sickies. Once we cleared out the stomach bug, we made way for a nasty cold, with cough. Pete, David and poor Leah all got it, and I had a touch of it too. I think we are doing better now . . . David is hanging onto it sadly, but I think he'll be doing much better in a day or two.

The boys are doing well but are going through a *rough* patch behaviour-wise. I'm chalking it up to a long winter full of snow and not enough time outside. I hope/need/desperately want it to change and I think the blast of spring weather around might do the trick! The past few days have been amazing here - I mean, sunny, warm, no winter coats, hats or mitts needed!!! That is HEAVEN around here these days - we've been out walking and even broke our bikes out yesterday. We still have lots of snow on the lawn, but it is melting quickly and streets and sidewalks are bare. It's amazing how truly wonderful you can feel when the hot sun streams down on your face. We've been walking around our little block 4-5 times a day, Pete riding his bike, David in the wagon, Leah in her sling or babybjorn and Rudy on this leash. People peeking out their windows must think the local circus is going by ;-)

Anyhoo, Leah had her two month check up this week and is a whopping 13 lbs, 13 oz. Even her cold can't stop her from chowing down on mom's milk. Yum Yum! Taking three kids to doctor was challenging, but manageable. For the most part they were pretty good. One of the nurses dealing with us said she thought I was completely organized and totally on top of things. Apparently "many other moms aren't" so she told me ;-) Since I had her fooled AND she made my day with her compliment, I gave her a big hug. I guess somehow the universe channeled through to her that I needed that comment, at that time, on that day. Well, she delivered and I'm sure she had no idea how she made my whole week!

But back to the ever-expanding Leah. She is quickly filling out her 3-6 month clothes and *could* be outgrowing them soon. A quick trip to the mall today allowed me to check the sales for a few spring/summer items for her. Shopping for a girl truly is more fun - wow, the selection compared to the boys stuff is just insane. But fun for me, I can now look at both sides of the stores!

Here is sleeping beauty in one of her cute outfits . . .

Doing her best push up for mom . . .

Waddyalookinat?

Ooooooh, yes, another cute outfit I found at Mexx . . . and the ever-popular Reese Robeez :-)

Uh, remember that sunshine I mentioned???? OOOOOPS - call Children's Aid b/c YES, I gave my two month old a sunburn. Too much walking out in the sunshine today uncovered. It's hard to remember the UV protection when there is still 4 feet of snow in our front yard! Here is her new "pink" face.

Hangin' out in her bumbo (thanks Kelly!!). She loves sitting up in it so she can keep an eye on Thing 1 and Thing 2.

David . . . here seen giving Leah his cold.

. . . and decides to check out what the heck is so cool about this thing.

And last but not least, Pete (sporting his new Shawn Cassidy hair-do) deciding to wake up his sister one morning. Isn't that cute crib bedding???? Big thanks to Karla for lending us that - saved us some big bucks and it's too adorable to boot. She wasn't needing neutral colours anymore b/c she had her baby BOY this afternoon - yay and welcome to little Thomas!!!!

Pete unzipped her sleepsack (no I don't put her to bed like that!!!).

David wants a piece of the action so pulls a chair from the kitchen into the bedroom to get a better look in the crib (that HE was sleeping in only a couple months ago, lol). You can't see from this angle the smiles and looks of adoration little Leah is giving her two big brothers. Makes it all worthwhile, I'd say!!

The Easter that wasn't

Well, we've survived a long Easter weekend inside. That tricky little Easter bunny stopped by our house and dropped off a case of the stomach flu - yeee-uck! So we've been quarantined here on our own for almost four days - Pete and I had it the worst and will hopefully be feeling better in another day or two. Much is not getting done around this house (read: cleaning, general tidying, cooking, etc!!!) while we all rest and hang out in our PJs. Oh well, maybe we all needed a little break???

So I canceled our Easter dinner and we didn't make it to church, but I did manage to stuff Leah into her Easter dress and take one picture before I took it off. Yes, "stuff" her into I did b/c it's a size 0-3 months and completely does not fit her generous little body. You can see her sausage-like arms busting out of the bottom of the blouse . . . but what you cannot see is that the buttons in the back aren't even done up ;-)


Here is Miss Smiley in a more comfortable outfit!!!

I took this at a bad angle so you can't see her laughing hysterically at Thing 1 and Thing 2. Laughing is one of her new favourite pastimes!

Hamming it up for the camera in her bunny shirt!

And just chillin' in the papasan swing of course . . .

Thing 1 and 2 have taken to fighting Darth Vader on a regular basis now, and since Pete received two lightsabers for his birthday, well, each boy has his own. Paul set them up in the bathroom to take pictures with the lights off - so that the sabers were *glowing*. Not as cool a technique with the flash on your camera hubby, darling!!!

p.s. See that look of sheer adoration in David's eyes??? Yup, Thing 1 has really got him hooked!

Pete turns FOUR!!!

Who knew this little 7 lb bundle would become a big, blond four year old with the most vivid imagination we have ever seen????

Yes, little Pete turned four this week and we had a Transformers (his current favourite thing!) birthday party for him. Nice and small and very manageable - just the way I like it! Here are Pete and David on the big birthday party day, sporting their new Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts from Auntie Lauren :-) Ca-ute!


David dipping into the chip bowl - loving his fly-away hair these days!

Here's the whole gang . . .

Dad and his soon-to-be-kindergardner . . .

Opening his gifts . . .

The almighty Optimus Prime birthday cake - you can imagine how much we had leftover considering there were only six kids in total and they barely had any of it!!!

Pete blows out the candle - and tells everyone at the table what his wish is (no, not world peace, just making his desire to receive ALL of the Transformer autobots known to us).


Yummy!!!!
David - not looking happy, but truly enjoying his piece of cake.

New pictures of "da chunk"

Things have been extremely busy this past week, but not *too* busy to add some new pictures of our chubby girl!!!!

Posing for mommy . . .

Giving a little cheer for her hockey team - GO SENS GO!!!!!!!!!! (For those not in the loop, Leah was conceived as the Senators entered the Stanley Cup Finals last spring!! She will be a hockey lover for life!).

Starting her daily cooing . . .


I have officially never had a baby grow quite like Leah. She is HUGE. My breastmilk must be filled with some fattening stuff this time around, seems like all I do is fold up and put away clothes that DON'T fit her anymore!!! Thankfully we received a nice big box of cool clothes from our awesome and trendy cousin Reese. Leah models her new jeans . . . roomy enough for her chunky thighs.

Awwwwwwwwwwww, more cute pink outfits!!! And no, she doesn't sleep all the time but is a better model while sleeping b/c she is quite the squirmy worm when she is awake :-)

Paul bonds and spends some quality time with his new little girl . . .

I have a big baby!!!

Leah had her last check up with our midwife today. From here on she will see our family doctor. It was a bit sad, I have spent a *lot* of time at my midwife's office in the past five years :-) I hope to NOT be back there again . . . ever!!!!

*Little* Leah is 12 lbs on the nose and turns 7 weeks tomorrow!! What a big girl she is becoming! I love the chubby cheeks :-) She's also 56 cms long, so quite tall too. It is lovely to not worry about her weight, since the boys were both quite light weights.

***NOTE*** 56 cms is also how much snow we received this weekend :-)

Don't get lost in the snow!

If you live in Canada, you probably already know that Ottawa got hit with a major winter blizzard this past weekend. We received 56 cms of snow in 48 hours. We have had 144 cms fall so far this season. We are 33 cms away from breaking the all time record for largest snowfall ever in Ottawa. I guess in the spirit of record-breaking I should be hoping for more snow????

To give you a better idea of what 144 cms of snow looks like . . .

I should mention . . . THIS photo was taken BEFORE the snow even started!! Here are the boys playing on the front lawn ;-)


Paul captured a shot of me in my pjs Sunday morning trying to pry out a little circle for Rudy to get out back and go to the bathroom.

Here is the little circle I was able to chisel away for him - the poor dog is learning to live with less and less space each storm!!!

Here is Paul's car - the view as we came out of our garage Sunday morning . . .



Our front walkway . . .

The view out our back door - there's the TOP of the kid's slide!!!


Another view out front . . .


The poor, buried tree in our front yard.

And ironically, they are calling for *more* snow tomorrow :-)