Dinner Etiquette with Miss. Kendall Ann

• As you come into the kitchen you will notice that there is food being prepared for you ... make sure you let mom and dad know you want some NOW!


• First try everything and once you realize there is no fruit, complain until you get the good stuff. Hint: complain VERY loudly and persistently just in case they didn't get the message the first 20 times you did this.


• Look over at your brother's plate to make sure you're not missing out on something good. If you are make sure mom and dad know!


• Why pick up your food one piece at a time when you can shove it in your mouth by the fist full. Sure most of it will end up on your lap and in the crevices of your highchair ... but mom or dad will clean that up later.


• No need to be a lady. Eating is serious stuff and there's no time to focus on manners. Just let go ... burp, fart and slurp your noodles all you want, and if you get cheese up your nose, you'll just give mom an excuse to take pictures.


• Make sure if mom or dad go to the pantry that you let them know that you know that's where the Cheerios are kept and to not forget that you would like some of those too.


• Mom and dad will always make you use sign language before getting what you want ... but there no hurt in trying the old conventional way of grunting and wailing first. Letting them hear your voice at such volumes lets them know who's boss.


• Leave your milk until last ... fill up on the good stuff.

Hello Spring!

Our new house has a clothes line. I hung up my first load of laundry today. Ah ... spring is here!

The former occupant of our place was also an avid gardener. I am not! Thankfully she left a few tags in the soil letting me know what some of the things sprouting up will be. However others are a mystery. I'm hoping for a few spring blooms. Here are a few pics ... we'll have to see what they turn into in the future.

Starting Down the Path

Back in January I posted about little bit about our son Cole having some developmental delays (see post here). We've recently started down several paths here in our new home, so I thought I'd post an update.

In the past couple of months we've begun working with the Infant Development Program. Our worker is awesome. Cole loves when she comes to visit our house because she always brings a bag of things for him to play with. She's also been really good at communicating with other departments and our family doctor to get the referrals that we need.

We've also seen our new family doctor who has referred Cole to a Pediatrician, whom he'll see at the end of this month.

Cole has also been referred to Child Development services. We are currently waiting to here from them after receiving a letter from them about setting up an appointment for Cole to see their preschool Pediatrician. This appointment is to evaluate what help he will need and if Cole will need to see any other professionals.

Recently we have also shared with our Church family about Cole, his delays, special needs and our the struggles we have encountered as we walk through everyday life. The people of our new church home have been super supportive and I really believe that God has not only brought us here for them but for us as well.

So we've started down the path. To exactly where or what I don't know ... but it's a start.

Life with this little guy is a challenge but I sure do love him!

Graduation, a Couple of Birthdays and an 11 Month Old

Hmmmm ... its April and it seems that March has come and gone without mention here on the blog front. So here's a little update.

Dave finished his last week of his Arrow Leadership course in B.C. while the kids and I spent a little time at my Mom's. He has now officially graduated from the program and has a certificate to prove it. Of course we are very proud of him.

While Dave was away, Cole celebrated his 3rd birthday. Some days it seems like he's always been here, other days I look at Kendall and feel like I was just watching him do some of the same milestones. We had a small party for Cole with Grandma and G.G. once Dave got back to Ontario. Cole was in awe of his Toy Story birthday. This year was a lot of fun since he's gotten the whole opening presents thing figured out from Christmas. Cole doesn't like (or rather won't try) cake so I wasn't going to bother making one since Dave doesn't care for it either. I was thinking just a few cupcakes would be easier. However a couple of weeks before his party Cole started pretending that one of the deserts from Kendall's Tea Party set was a birthday cake and he would pretend to blow out the candle (I think he had seen an Elmo's World episode). I knew then that I would have to make a cake. And according to Cole's perception birthday cakes are round - so of course his cake would have to be also. Here are a few pics of his big day.

Oh ... and course Cole got spoiled by all his relatives. He also got his first bike from Mommy, Daddy and Kendall.

2 weeks later we celebrated Dave's birthday. As I mentioned earlier, Dave doesn't like cake. I therefore decided to make my very first baked cheesecake. It wasn't the prettiest thing to look at, but it tasted awesome and I was able to do it while he was at work while keeping both kiddos somewhat under control. Merely that I was able to manage that last part and it still turned out without being a complete disaster was a success.

In just one more short month we'll have one more birthday to celebrate. Kendall just turned 11 months and she's doing new stuff every day. Less than 2 weeks ago her first 2 teeth poked through. The caused her some grief but she bounced back after a couple of days with a slight temperature and a runny nose. Kendall LOVES to eat. Anything she can finger feed herself she gobbles down. Spaghetti, Mac and cheese, shredded cheddar, peas, carrots, soft fruit are all favourites. I'm sure once she gets a few more teeth she'll be totally done with the jarred mush.

Kendall is also sitting like a pro and turns circles on her bum. She still has no patience for crawling. She just can't seem to get those arms and legs co-ordinated. Kendall would rather walk along the furniture and is getting quiet brave.

The girl also has an expanding vocabulary. She now says Da Da, hat, All (ball), nanana (banana), No, mu mu (more). She can make monkey sounds, sheep sounds (her favourite stuffed animal is her Lamby), and moos. She signs please, all done, and waves hello and goodbye.

Kendall figures stuff out quickly. The other day she was playing with a basket in her room with a hinged lid. As I watched her, she would take a cylinder toy - put it on the lid of the basket - lift the lid - watch the toy roll down onto the floor - then shut the lid. She then picked up the toy and did it about 10 more times in a row until she had the method down pat. I'm pretty sure when she's mobile we're in big trouble. Especially since we didn't really have to baby proof with Cole, because he didn't really get into things. Trouble has a name and I'm pretty sure its going to be Kendall!

Fighting The Flab

So for the second time, I'm trying to loose my post baby belly.

Just to remind you of what I'm working with here's a picture of me preggo with Kendall literally the day before she was born.

That's right ... my belly was somehow defying gravity. I carried both kids like this. ALL out front. There wasn't a maternity shirt out there that could cover that thing! From popular opinion 50 percent were convinced that my ultrasounds were wrong, and that I was carrying twins. Of course unless you saw me from the back ... then I didn't look pregnant at all.

You'd think a pregnant lady who was all baby without an inch of extra flab anywhere else would have it easy afterwards right? Not so much. Yes, I was back into normal pants a week or two after delivery, but my stomach ... well let's just say it wasn't defying gravity anymore, and the maternity shirts weren't covering it for another reason.

So here I am almost 10 months later and still wearing my maternity shirts. Until last week my pre-maternity clothes were still packed in the boxes from the move (now they're just in storage bins in my closet). Summer is coming! The time of year where I can no longer hide under a jacket or baggy sweatshirt in public. It's time to get serious!

I pulled out the Abs of Steel DVD again but the pounds just aren't dropping and the bulge is definitely not deflating. So on a family outing to Best Buy the other night I bought a Jillian Michaels DVD. The 6 Week 6 Pack. Now I'm being realistic. I by no means expect a 6 pack in 6 weeks. Nor do I expect that I will be able to find the time to work out the 5 days a week that this DVD expects for the results in this time. I was just looking for something that was going to target my problem area. All this preamble to say, that I've now done 2 days and BOY DO I HURT!

Here I am, in my basement doing burpees. I don't think I can remember doing a burpee since they probably forced me to in grade 9 Phys. Ed. After becoming reacquainted with this exercise move, I am truly convinced that burpees are a cruel form of torture and punishment. Since we don't have a very clear picture of Hell, I'm going to guess that there may be a small portion of it that includes doing burpees for eternity. These things seriously make me wheeze, pant and combined with some of the other moves on the video, make it almost impossible to move from the waist down. Ironically the only part of my body that probably doesn't hurt is my abs. I'm taking a guess that its because I was already working these muscles (even if they weren't abs of steel yet).

This post is about telling you all that I AM going to do this. I'm sticking with it. I'm giving Jillian and her burpee torture a chance. I've got to ... T-shirt weather is coming and I only own winter maternity clothes!