the many faces of Leah

I love these pictures I took of Leah.  I had asked her to smile and she proceeded to show me all her cute and funny faces. 

I also love this sweater she is wearing and it is almost too small.  I do love pulling out my favourites from Jillian and seeing them on Leah, but it is a little sad to say goodbye for good once they are outgrown by Leah.  I'm looking forward to meeting a niece or nephew in the next few weeks (my sister is hoping for sooner rather than later!).  I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will be a little girl so I can hand over all these favourites and see them worn again.

Disney store deals

I'm a bit of a Disney fan.  Okay, some might say huge fanatic.  I love Disney World, I love the characters, I love the movies (Tangled is by far my favourite).  Jeff and I have been to Disney together 3 times...once before kids to visit my sister who was working at Epcot.  The first time with the kids was when Kyle was 6, Jillian was almost 3 and Leah was -5 months (I was 4 months pregnant).  By scouring the net and getting a great deal I managed to talk Jeff into another trip with the kids less than 2 years later.  I'm already thinking about our next trip although it likely won't be for another year or two, when Leah is 4 or 5. 

Disney World, September 2009

Today we were at the mall and the kids of course wanted to go into the Disney Store.  They have all been threatened trained nicely, not one of them asked me to buy a single thing.  But that didn't stop me from shopping!  I found the following great deals...

Princess Tiana dress + matching shoes - regular price $72.00, I paid $19.00
Tinkerbell and Minnie Mouse mugs - regular price $10.50 each, I paid $1.99 each
Adorable purple Tink t-shirt for Leah (birthday gift) - regular price $10.50, I paid $7.00

I've put the dress and shoes away for Leah, most likely they'll be a gift for Christmas.  Yes, I put things away for Christmas in February...I'm just that crazy.  She's starting to get into the dressup phase just like her big sister.  And while we do have a nice selection of dresses and shoes, they are all originally Jillian's, I do like to get Leah some things of her own.

The reason for our trip to the mall was to visit Bass Pro and look at tents.  Now that we are finally out of the crawling baby phase we are planning to get back into camping.  It's something we've enjoyed in the past and know the kids will enjoy as well.  But we do need a much bigger tent.  The last time we tried camping was when Jillian was 1.5 years old, and we were already squished into our little tent.  Now that we are a family of 5 and the kids are only getting bigger, a much larger tent is required.  We saw some nice ones to keep in mind, and measured to make sure we could fit 2 good sized air mattresses (I may like to camp, but sleeping on the hard ground is not part of the deal!).

The good, the bad and the ugly

The Good

* today I picked up my first tea at Tim's with the new roll-up-the-rim contest and won a free coffee/tea!

* I ran into the mall for a quick return and ended up finding a few great deals

The Bad

* today I had to throw out the beautiful white roses Jeff bought me for V-day

* I didn't feel like cooking for dinner so we had frozen pizza tonight


The Ugly
* our basement playroom is a disaster...the kids will be working on it this weekend
* the very large mountain of laundry at our house, also to be tackled this weekend...here's a sample of life at my house (I love this comic strip, it's almost scary sometimes how much it mirrors my life)

(click on picture to see it larger)

Family Day

Our Family Day weekend started out as a kid-free weekend.  For the first time ever, Jeff and I spent an entire night away from all 3 kids.  On Saturday we dropped 3 happy kids off at my parents house, along with so many bags my parents feared the children were staying for a week.  Jeff and I proceeded to enjoy 24 hours of peace and quiet.  It.was.so.nice.  We actually had conversations without being interrupted 100 times.  We drove without hearing bickering, singing and shouting.  Ate dinner at a restaurant without uttering the phrase "please get out from under the table".  Kyle, Jillian and Leah all very much enjoyed their time with Nana and Granda, this was definately a win-win situation.  Now that we've tasted our first bit of freedom in almost a decade I hope my parents are prepared, because we liked it!

We started out Family Day by going to the Ontario Science Centre.  Along with a few hundred other families in the GTA area (seriously, the lineup to get into the parking lot was insane).  We even ran into a couple of families we know which was nice.  The kids had a lot of fun as usual.  Our membership is ending soon so this is one of our last trips for a little while as we won't be renewing right away.

the science of paper airplanes

 

 The girls making stained glass window crafts

Dinner and ice cream followed at McDs.

And then to the theatre to catch a little Shakespeare...Kyle liked that he was in red and Jillian was in blue so they posed as rivals just like in the movie.

One thing I'm working on with my kids these days, especially Kyle and Jillian, is the need to be grateful and appreciative for what we do have.  Rather than the current method they employ of whining about things they don't have (it is driving me crazy).  Leaving the movie theatre prompted yet another lecture/rant.  As we were walking out what did I hear from Kyle and Jillian?  Was it "thanks for the fantasic day Mom and Dad!"?  Nope...it was "So, what are we doing next?", followed by an ever so slight groan at the answer of "nothing".  Still a work in progress.  Apparently my children enjoy my lectures because they seem to keep doing things to bring them on.

Later in the evening at bedtime there were lots of sweet and genuine hugs and thanks, so it does sink in eventually!

stomach flu sucks

How sad does Leah look?



Leah woke up yesterday at 6am throwing up.  And continued to do so every 15 mins for the next 12 hours.  After many attempts at getting her to keep fluids down, I was worried my very lethargic girl was dehydrated so we took a trip to the dr, who proceeded to send us to the ER.  Thankfully we were able to avoid IV fluids when the anti-nausea medicine they gaver her worked.  We spent a few hours there giving her tiny bits of pedialyte at a time until the doctor was satisfied she had kept enough down.  I could tell she was rehydrated and feeling more like herself once she started whining non-stop about everything!  This is how Leah looks this morning so she's still fighting this off, but at least she is able to drink and eat small amounts. 

Now I just hope the other 2 don't come down with the same thing!