Happy 5th Anniversary to us!

Dh and I had been talking about getting getting a slapchop... so I went ahead and order him one for our anniversary and made him this little card for fun!

37 week belly

36 week check up

OB appointment today. 36 weeks measuring 39. Still down a lb ... as a result of being sick!

36 week belly

One happy mama!!

My Mother's Day / Birthday gift for this year was a brand new greenhouse. We started assembling this last weekend... but then all the illness hit. So construction only just got finished today! I think the picture of me in the greenhouse says it all lol

Shopping

We spent most of the morning shopping! Which might sound fun, but at this point definitely feels like more of a chore.

After reading a ton of reviews I finally decided on a monitor. The Safety First Digital Audio Monitor.




We tested it out... it is crystal clear and came with rechargeable batteries and adapters! I haven't tried it outside yet but I don't imagine there will be a problem.

Dylan got to pick out his gift for his little brother... to bring to the hospital when Niko is born. He picked out "Trotter the Pony" a cute toy by Lamaze.

Hell week

Well more than a week really... first Dylan, then me and then Doug... we all took a turn with the dreaded stomach flu. Poor dylan didn't know what hit him... it was the first time he has ever been sick like that and the first time he ever threw up. Needless to say it was a quiet Mother's Day around here! Dh was last to get it and he is just now feeling better today!

It hit me last Monday. I was getting ready for my 35 week obgyn appointment and felt nauseated. I got to Dr. K's office and never even had time to sit... had to run straight for the bathroom. I guess if you are going to get sick a doctors office is a good place for it! Dr. K prescribed me Dilectin; which is commonly prescribed for morning sickness. Not sure how well it worked on the stomach flu but it made me sleep. So I basically slept the stomach flu away. The dehydration was another story. It took me the full week to finally catch up on fluids. Stomach flu gone... bring on the chest cold. Not sure if it's a chest cold or the last symptom of that stomach flu thing. But I have a nasty cough that I can't shake. Will it ever end!

Disney Earth Rated G???

I had really been looking forward to Disney Earth, but we weren't sure if ds would be into a documentary type movie. So dh downloaded it. We had the UK version with Patrick Stewart as the narrator instead of James Earl Jones lol I'm glad I didn't pay money to see it... cause I think I seriously would have left before it ended and asked for a refund.

We three started watching it... but I ended up deciding to turn it off. It's beautifully shot, but I didn't really feel it was appropriate for little kids. It's rated G. But there seemed to be quiet A LOT of prey vs. predator type stuff, and to make it worst much of it was in slow motion. No blood or guts is seen, and in as much as I watched you don't see the predator dinning on his catch. They basically cut to something else after one animal catches the other. My kid knew what was on the go, and as soon as I heard him say "oh no" in a sad tone a couple times that was it for me!

There's also some starvation related scenes and a baby elephant gets lost from its mother.

I'm a documentary lover and have no problem with the reality of the prey vs. predator relationship and the harshness of nature. But I don't think that because it really happens means that it should get a G rating.

I definitely wouldn't recommend it for the animal lovers or the soft of heart. Nor for kids who get scared or startled easily. I haven't seen it all yet... but i was seriously choking up in parts. I really think the G rating should be rethought. Certainly wasn't a G movie in my mind.

kids in mind has a break down of the violent scenes:
http://www.kids-in-mind.com/e/earth.htm

Detergent and Diaper Reviews

I've been using an all natural laundry detergent called ECOS for about a year now. It's available locally at costco and I've heard Canadian Tire has it to (I've never actually looked to see if they have it but it's on their website). I was looking to see if there were any reviews for using ECOS detergent with cloth diapers and I found this link:

http://www.diaperjungle.com/he-detergent-chart.html

I linked to the HE machines but they have reviews for regular machines as well.

ECOS got 4 stars :D So that's great news! I won't need to buy any special detergent for diapering.

This site (diaperjungle) also has tips on washing and links to diaper reviews too!


More cloth diaper related reviews as well as review for tons of other stuff @
Nature Tree I can't wait to start using all my new supplies and write some reviews of my own :)

Spring is in the air

Nature Tots at the Botanical Gardens started up again today! Was a great first day back after a long winter. D and I both enjoyed ourselves and it was so nice today that we got to have story time and snack outside :) The topic today was "Composting", with the new addition of our worms it was right up d's ally! We are planning to head to the gardens tomorrow to help our fellow FOG (friends of the garden) members with the annual spring clean up!

After Nature Tots we dropped into Toysrus. They had My Brest Friend pillows on sale. So we picked up one of those. Also got a cute pair of baby legs for Nik. I didn't even know TRU sold them. I'm sure dh won't be impressed, he calls them leg warmers lol I got rockin' ones with skulls on them so they definitely don't look girly. I think they will be great for summer when the lil man will be wearing mostly onesies.

Playground Tour Begins

Today we had our first meet up for the 2009 "NLMOMS PLAYGROUND TOUR". We went to Victoria Park. The wind was a little cold, but all in all it was great to get out in the fresh air! All the kids had a blast and it was so difficult getting d to leave the park lol

Progress is sweet!

Last night we moved some of the bigger "toy" items into the nearly completed playroom. D was so excited this morning when he saw his train table in there. He was a great helper too! We transferred what I call "the collections" into the playroom today. So right now all trains, cars, dinosaurs and potato head items are in their new home. I made stickers to label the storage containers for the above items. D help decide what went into which container and then helped put the stickers in place. He proudly displayed them to dh when he got home. I'm hoping the stickers... and the "everything has a place/ home" motto will help to keep the playroom in some kind of livable form lol

Mom was asking if I had purged some of his toys. I haven't gotten to that yet, but hope to purge a little when I get into his toybox and the miscellaneous items tomorrow. The thing with d is he has been into the same few items for a long while now. When he goes to a store containing toys he wants to see the Thomas section and the Cars section lol So besides the occasional McDonald's toy and some other odds and ends from the dinosaur store (dollar store) there likely won't be much purging to do.

33 week check up

Had our 33 week check up today. DH got in a little hot water for forgetting about the appointment and not carrying his cellphone on him. Needless to say he has been reminded not to be leaving the cellphone in the jeep from here on in.

I was relieved to find out I only gained 3lbs. I seriously have been feeling huge and thought the gain would be more. Belly is measuring @ 36 weeks. So still looks to be another big boy! We have an ultrasound schedule for next week so will be interesting to see how big little Niko is measuring.

Vermicomposters

Well we are officially Vermicomposters! We went for a drive out to Bay Bulls today and picked up a lb of red worms from "Trouters Special Worm Farm". D is all excited about our "worker worms" as we have called them. He tried to name a few... but gave up when he realized just how many worms we have lol

Some greater starter information on this website:
http://www.wormcomposting.ca/getting-started/

Also the MUN Botanical Gardens is celebrating "International Compost Awareness Week" May 4th -10th with activities, lectures and programs all related to composting. They have a schedule of events posted here.

Let the Sunshine in...

It's a beautiful spring day here and it just got even better! Dh just ordered my Mother's Day / Birthday gift... a brand new 6x8 greenhouse. The very one pictured above. I can't wait to get it all set up! Hopefully it will get here by Mother's Day weekend. I am a little nervous about whether or not I will be able to use it to it's full potential this year... being due mid June and all. But I guess where there is a will there is a way! I love that dh is so supportive and has become such a fan of gardening. He really seems to have gotten into it too! :D Gonna take d out to enjoy the day for a bit and then do up my seed order :D

Happy Earth Day!

We did out annual clean up a day early (yesterday). D and I managed to pick up 4 bags of garbage. He was very proud and eager to show off our accomplishment (bags of trash) to his dad when he got home yesterday! I love how easily motivated he is!

This morning we are heading to the Geocenter they are having some Earth Day activities and best of all admission is free today!

Earth Day websites and resources fore kids

A few Earth Day websites for the kids to check out:

Canadian website has tons of resources and some contests
http://www.ecokids.ca

Lots and lots of stuff here...
http://holidays.kaboose.com/earth-day/

Lots of stuff here including print-ables:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/earth.html

Handy Mandy has a special episode has well as print-ables and activities.
http://tv.disney.go.com/playhouse/earthday/index.html

Sesame Street has lots of activities as well... they are calling it "Go Green Day"
http://www.sesamestreet.org/home


Share the Earth... (just talks about their Earth Day programing)
http://pbskids.org/video/

Another busy weekend

We had yet another busy weekend. All the furniture for the babies room is now put together and in place. I also picked up new blinds for both boys rooms but haven't had a chance to hung them yet. We are having a bit of trouble with the lady we ordered the wallpaper thingys from. But they are apparently on the way now... Needless to say her ebay rating from us will not be good.

We also have all the supplies we need to complete the playroom now. Dh is planning to try and put the laminate flooring down himself! I think he has developed the "do it myself" itch lol

On a small excursion on Saturday I took a little spill. We were at Signal Hill (D wanted to see the "castle" as he calls it) and I didn't see where the pavement ended and the gravel began. I fell on my knees and caught myself with my right arm. Damage done... I skinned my knees and it feels like I pulled a muscle in my upper right arm. I'm pretty stiff ... but I guess it could of been a whole lot worst!

Elmo Goes Green

Elmo Goes Green... figuratively and literally in the new Sesame Street DVD "Being Green: Elmo Goes "Green" to Help the Earth!". The dvd came out on April 7th just in time for Earth Day. I love how Sesame Street are pushing "Green Themes".




Watch as Elmo and Abby pitch in to help Mr. Earth (actor Paul Rudd in a hilariously large costume) host Sesame Street's first Earth-a-Thon. Mr. Earth teaches Elmo and Abby how "it can be easy being green" by recycling, re-using, and conserving water and energy. Abby, in her desire to help Elmo be more "green", accidentally turns him the color green and can't remember how to change him back! Lots of fun ensues as Abby is eventually able to poof Elmo red again. Elmo, Cookie Monster, Rosita and Telly join Mr. Earth in pledging to continue to do "green" things to help our planet because Earth Rocks!

Sesame Street also has a "Green Day" section with activities for the tots on their webpage here.

31 Week Check up

I love these "in and out" appointments. Baby Nik is still measuring a few weeks ahead and all is going splendidly!

Happy Easter!

Busy day here! Dylan woke totally excited... proclaiming it was Easter bucket in hand ready for the hunt! His new bike was a huge hit!

DH and I finished up the painting. 3rd coat of red, 2nd for yellow and 2nd for green. Hopefully only a few minor touch ups remain!

It was rainy here but we got to take d out on his new ride for a short while. He really did awesome! Took a while to get him using the foot break... nothing a bit of red light / green light couldn't fix!!!

Overall it was long but enjoyable day! Dh and I were talking and arrived at the conclusion that we deserve some sort of medal for the weekend we have had. 2 rooms painted, eggs painted, jello eggs made, cookies and cake baked, Easter bunny duties performed, and a trip to the movies too!

Monsters Vs Aliens

We took a well deserved break from painting and headed to the theater to check out "Monster vs Aliens" in 3D. Was a fun movie! This was Dylan's second movie (since the baby reel days) and he loved all the monsters! BOB being his favorite! He had to be reminded a few times to whisper and wasn't keen on wearing the 3d glasses the entire time... otherwise he did pretty good! For the adults ... a lot of our favorite acters did the voices and lots of stuff that goes well over the heads of kiddos!

http://www.kidsinmind.com has a great movie reviews for parents... including one for Monsters vs. Aliens. It is rated pg... but this is because of the sci fi factor. It really is a good family movie.

Painting Update

Second coat is on the nursery... woot! Feels good to have paint on the walls!

Had to get more paint for the playroom. It now has a first coat of yellow, and a second coat of blue and red. The blue and yellow were easy to paint... but the red and green are a bitch!

Painting Day 1

Well we've been at it all day! First coat is on the nursery and all the trim and doors are painted! The playroom has a first coat of the (as Dylan calls it) "Elmo Red", "Cookie Monster Blue" and the "Oscar Green". Doug had to patch part of the wall which is be painted "Big Bird Yellow". We are definitely gonna need some more paint for the playroom tomorrow! The new drywall is eating up the paint for these bright colors!

Paint and Paper Dragons

Well we finally picked out some paint for the nursery. Neither dh nor I are sold on the color. But it's mainly because it is a nutral color and we are accustom to painting very bright kids rooms. I think it would have been a lot easier if the animals for the wall had arrived :(

We also picked up our Quinny Buzz today :D Then went for a little drive to peek at the few small icebergs around. Dylan wanted to eat at a "chinese paper dragon restaurant" for supper so we went to the "Birds Nest" dh's first trip... the 2nd for d and I. Again it was a hit all the way around! Definitely my new favorite Chinese buffet in St. John's!

Move over octomom!!!

Saturday I came home to find the baby Kribs (Kribensis Cichlids) had finally arrived!!! It's amazing to watch how protective the parents are and how the babies follow them around. We have no idea how many there are.... but there are a lot! We've been trying to get their picture since Saturday but it's a near impossible feat! So I took a couple short video's. They don't start free swimming until 5-10 days of age. So I figure they are about 1.5 - 2 weeks old now.

29 Week Check Up

Pretty quick in and out today! BP is awesome 90/60, I gained only 2lbs and my belly is measuring 32weeks. So looking like it's gonna be another big boy! Next appointment is in 2 weeks and our ob also scheduled us for a size/ fluid ultrasound first week of May!

29 week belly

29 Week belly shot! I always feel belly shots are soooo cheesy. But I know I will regret it if I don't take them lol

School House Rock - Earth

Taking care of the environment rocks! The original creators of the classic ABC TV series SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK have put heart and musical soul into 13 songs that educate and celebrate what makes our planet so great! SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK! EARTH features all-new songs and animation plus appearances by iconic characters Interplanet Janet and Mr. Morton. These fun and high-energy songs will teach a new generation of fans all about recycling, biodiversity, solar energy and more. The beloved voices that sang timeless classics such as "I'm Just a Bill" and "Conjunction Junction" are back to sing again in these all-new tunes! Think green and do your part to rock the Earth! It's the only Earth we've got!

School House Rock - Earth is being released March 31st! You can check out some clips here on the disney website:




I love love love School House Rock videos and I often use the old school grammar ones in my ESL classes. I'm so happy to see this little revival about to take place. I think the Easter Bunny may have to add this one to d's basket :D

Robot Card

Well I managed to scrap up a card for a birthday party we went to yesterday. First time I scrapped in months.

Suppplies Used:
Cosmo Cricket Cogsmog Paper and diecuts
mm brads
ac foam thicker (5)
Marvey pens
versa magic inks
misc. stamp

Come on down....

One more persons clothes means more laundry! So we have been looking to get a new washer and dryer since before Christmas. We finally ordered a duo yesterday! WOOHOO! The washer /dryer we have now is the stackable sort. So it doesn't hold a whole lot. We will be looking to sell this soon if anyone is looking lol

When MIL saw me yesterday she proudly exclaimed I had a beautiful glow about me (referring to me being pregnant), I immediately corrected her and told her I was glowing because I am the proud new owner of a front loading washer and dryer hehehe We had to pay for the set of course, but I still imagine this is how the winners on the Price is Right feel lol I will certainly be doing some escatic jumping up and down once the new appliances are set up in our house lol

We went with a front loading energy star / HE set by Kenmore from Sears. Not sure if this link will work but it's on the front of this flyer. I can't wait to see how much of a reduction we have in the number of loads I do and our energy bill! Having an HE washer / dryer also makes using cloth diaper more environmentally friendly too!!! The new duo should be here around the middle of April. So we are arranging to have it delivered with the nursery furniture.

Buyers beware... do your research most all new style washers / dryers are actually HE (high effiency) even though only a select few use HE in the branding / product name. The energy usage among them all is very similar. It's amazing how they take these terms like "he" and are able to stick them in peoples brains to get them to spend more money. Energy star seems to be the more well rounded label. If you pull out the tray where the soap goes on most of these washer you will see the little HE logo there.

Saturday is "Earth Hour"

Don't forget Saturday March 28th 830pm- 930pm is EARTH HOUR!!!





Not only is this a great way to support a great cause... but it can be a lot of fun! Kids love hanging out in the dark with their flashlights etc. I have a few ideas planned for our 2nd Earth Hour. We will make some snacks in advance and D got this cute Thomas book from santa that has a projector to go along with the stories. So it will be a great opportunity to read some of those. I've also been looking up some links and idea's for shadow puppets.

Here are some links I found so far:

Martha has some printable templates:
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/shadow-puppets



A guide for making shadow puppets with your hands:
http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2008-01/shadow-puppet-guide.gif

http://www.shadow-puppets.com/

Also youtube has tons of how to videos!!!

Printable Reward Charts

Found this site yesterday with free themed printable reward charts. They have everything from My Little pony to Hannah Montana lots to choose from. They also have them without the popular characters too!

http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/behaviorcharts3-10.htm

Mural's for Niko's Nursery

Finally ordered some stuff for Niko's nursery walls. These are murals handpainted on vinyl wallpaper. I've never heard of anyone doing this before. But they are really cute and the lady had awesome reviews.

Giraffe:


Baby Elephant:


Baby Tiger:



Monkey's on a vine:

That's a Safety Violation!

In an effort to curb the messes my 3.5 year old continues to make. I decided to make some cautionary stickers to place on items like shampoo, flour, sugar and so on that he can't see to keep his little hands off. Thanks to Lou and Lou and the Safety Patrol on Playhouse Disney he recognizes orange pylons as a safety symbol. So I made this little picture and I'm going to print off a sheet of them on sticker paper and put sticker on all the items Dylan's is suppose to avoid. Hope it works!!!

Coming home outfit!!!

We got Niko's coming home outfit on the weekend. For dylan we had a GNR' onesie with the Guns N Roses logo that read "Sweet Child of Mine". So we were looking for something equally as cool for Nik! Found it on Saturday and just stumbled onto a picture of one like it:

Third Trimester

It's slightly debatable when the third trimester officially starts. But I've always gone by the mayo clinic guideline which is "28 weeks". So that's today! Wild!

Shop til you drop

Sears was a bit cracked! Can't imagine how busy it would have been if the weather had been fine. We got everything on the list. Got a great deal on a health assure mattress. The mattress and the change pad and cover we got today. Everything else is paid for and had to be ordered in. Should all be here around the 2nd week of April. Which works out well, as we are aiming to do Nik's nursery during the long Easter weekend. I still haven't decided on colors or what exactly we will do design wise. Going to try and get that decided upon this weekend!

Baby days is on for 2 weeks, and different stuff is suppose to be on sale next weekend. I'm hoping monitors. That's the only other big ticket item we need... I think lol Want to try and get over to coochicoo and get another diaper too! One a pay day is what I was aiming for, not working out so well. Mom and mil both mentioned buying a few each. Think I might have to encourage that :D

Niko: Live from the Womb!

The St.John's UCBABY was awesome! A half hour of viewing time, over 40 pictures (2 of our choosing printed) and I paid extra to get the dvd. Niko was moving and grooving the whole time. It was incredible! It may have helped that I had a full strength coffee, grape pop and a greasy tims breakfast sandwich before hand lol I had heard about people going and their babies sleeping through the whole thing. Not baby Nik! He was constantly blinking. We saw a a few yawns, and swallows and he was kicking and punching the entire time. Coolest part for me was seeing the movements on the screen coordinated to the movements I was feeling. He showed his face plenty, mostly profile but he certainly wasn't shy. The tech called him photogenic. He got lots of shots of his privates... he is definitely 100% boy!

They are suppose to have free online web hosting for the pictures, but were having problems with their system over the weekend. So I uploaded a few to our web page here. I'm also going to try and make a post-able video out of some of the highlights. The video is definitely the coolest part.

D was really into it for the first while and was easily able to pick out Niko's features when prompted "Where's Nik's nose?". It was over 30 minutes so he did lose interest after a while. But did great! The live streaming worked as well so the parents, in-laws and my brother all got to be womb voyeurs as well. Everyone was pleased and amazed at the awesomeness of modern day technology. All in all I consider it a great experience and money well spent!

UCBABY tomorrow

We also have our 3d/4d ultrasound booked with UCBABY for tomorrow morning! SO EXCITED!!! Hope the snow doesn't get in the way. Can't wait to see Niko on the big screen, and hope to get to see him moving and grooving and doing his thing! They have livebroadcasting so I'm hoping our parents and my brother will get to watch live too! I know they will all get a big charge out of that!

Baby Days

Saturday is going to be a busy morning... baby day's starts at sears and all the big ticket items on my list are going to be on sale. I went in and scouted it out ahead of time today. We are due for a snowstorm tomorrow, but as long as there open I plan to get there lol

On the list;

Quinny Buzz Stroller (black)
Crib Matteress (undecided as to which)
Storkcraft Change Table and 4 Drawer Dresser in oak (to match crib we have already)
Contour Change Pad
Change Pad Cover (undecided)

We debated on the Quinny Dreami. But after taking a 2nd and 3rd look I realised it only goes to 15lbs. D was over 15lbs at like 3 months. So assuming baby Nik will be of comparable size... it didn't seem like we would get the value out of it!

Ghost Train dilemma

We have had a huge problem d lately. He has taken to making huge messes with flour like substances. So far 2 bags of flour, 1 bag of sugar, and some rock salt have been involved in his escapades. This morning I caught him with unopened bag of oatmeal going for attempt #5. As you can imagine these are no small messes... we are seriously ready to haul our hair out. After the second time we realised what he was trying to do, he is trying to recreate a scene from one of his favorite Thomas episodes 'Ghost Train" .... start watching at about 2:20 to see the event he is trying to recreate.



Obviously he is fixated on this. So we searched web there is no "ghost train" to purchase, far as we can tell no such product exist. So now I'm thinking of ways to create one lol

Slumber Sac

Picked up a Slumber Sac @ Winners today for Niko that will match the nursery bedding/ theme perfectly.

Back when ds was an infant I used similar products but they didn't have any quality ones here in the stores back then. The ones I had were just fleece. It's nice to see a lot of the products that we had trouble buying or had to buy online when d was a baby are now much more accessible locally.

These type of sleep bags have been proven to reduce sids. Here's there "why" section:

Why Sleeping Bags?

Your baby will wake up warm and therefore be more likely to go back to sleep.
Your baby cannot slip down inside the sleeping bag; sheets, blankets and duvet's can go over baby's head.
Your baby can kick and wriggle contentedly and does not feel constricted.
Babies cannot get between the cot bars.
Sleeping bags can prevent baby from scratching.
When travelling or in strange surroundings, your baby will always feel always feel comfortable in it's own sleeping bag.
The move from crib to cot and eventually to bed is much easier.


It even comes with a little thermometer for the nursery and suggestions on how to dress baby in the bag for varying temperatures. I bought size 2 which is suppose to be for 6 - 18 months. I am expecting another big boy, plus it will be summer so we won't likely need it until September.

NL needs more maternity stores

Took d to get his hair trimmed today at the Avalon Mall. While there I popped into Motherhood and spent the last of my Christmas gift certificates on a few shirts. I had to tell the staff to "back off". Within 3 minutes of being in the store I had been bombarded by 2 staff members one to my left and one on my right. They both kept bouncing the same questions and info at me and making comments as though I had never before been in the store. This might not have been so annoying if I had not been standing there fully decked out in the stores clothing... some of which was still on racks in the store. Unfortunately, Motherhood is the only maternity store in St.John's at present. I swear if someone wants a good business idea for St.John's open up a mixed brand maternity store.

Lazy Daze

Pretty lazy weekend here compared to the craziness of last weekend.

Dh has the plastering done and started sand the playroom. I've been trying to brainstorm with d and dh over what theme to go with. If it was up to d we would just do another Thomas room, but I think one Thomas room is enough lol

Been trying to get back into the habbit of doing some writing grading for work. I figure even when I'm not actively teaching, a little grading would be a great way to keep receiving a small pay cheque.

Sid the Science Kid

Sid The Science kid started airing on PBS week days in 2008. How much do I love this show!!! It's just awesome! First of all it's a digital puppetry production from the Jim Henson company. You can totally tell too! Even though the characters are digitally animated they still have that distinguishable Muppet look to them.

The main character in the show is Sid, an "inquisitive youngster" who uses comedy to tackle questions kids have about basic scientific principals and why things work the way they do. He tries to answer questions and solve problems with the help of his classmates and family.

Like the Muppet Show it is a real variety of a show. You really do get a bit of everything mixed together with Sid the Science Kid. There is animation mixed with real video, music and comedy and so much more.

A recurring feature is the joke wall. The kids go to a section on the playground where they open shape panels and tell jokes in the style of a "laugh - in" but of course targeted at preschoolers. They did this on the Muppet show too, particularly in "the dance" section. I also remember this type of thing on "You can't do that on television" with the locker jokes. Other recurring segments include The Sid Survey, Rug Time, The Super Fab Lab, Susie sings, and Sid's "super-duper-schmoper" big idea.

D is always going around saying he has a "super-duper-schmoper idea" hehe I got him a large magnifying glass like Sid's at the dollarama and he was going around yesterday with it saying "Let's get to the bottom of this!" Way too cute!

Dylan's New Room

Well Dylan's second Thomas room is nearly complete. He had the option of any kind of room he wanted, but was adamant about having another Thomas room. Not bad for a weekends work! It's nearly done... needs new blinds and I have a secret project I would like to complete, but that will have to wait until after the playroom and Baby Niko's nursery are completed. Dylan is over the moon happy with it and that's the main thing :D

A trip to "The Rooms"

We visited "The Rooms" today and I was pleasantly surprised to see on display the Dory from the Creoula that was donated to the Newfoundland Museum upon our arrival in St.John's back in 98'. The Creoula is a schooner; part of the Portuguese White Fleet. I spent a summer sailing from Portugal to Newfoundland on her back in 1998. The dory is part of an exhibit titled "Slicing the Waves: Canoes, Kayaks and Small Wooden Boats" . The exhibit is located on the 2nd level of The Rooms and is ongoing until Sunday, September 13, 2009 . http://www.therooms.ca/

D loves visiting the museum. Cute moment of note: Right now the archives has an exhibit regarding Canada's role in Afghanistan. When d saw the model of the soldiers uniform he said "Look a Knight!". What a smartie pants to make that correlation! I am somewhat doubtful that the modern day solider will go down in fairy tale history the way the iconic knights of ole have though.

The Run Around

I had to run to the paintshop and get my paint colors altered a bit.. the blue was too girly (I should have known better with a name like "fairy tale blue" lol)and the green wasn't dark enough. All straightened out now I hope!

Next, I ran over to coochicoo. They have the bumgenius 3.0 cloth diapers there. That's the line that had been at the top of my list... So I got one! I love to be able to buy stuff I want locally. Gonna try to buy one every pay day. That way won't seem like such a huge expenditure. They have sooo much stuff in that little store... I could have stayed forever looking around!

I also went into that new/used kids clothing store on topsail rd. Pretty similar to once upon a child... but much smaller space. The name is eluding me at the moment... but its right across from the turn onto blackmarsh in the building with Reid's music. They have sizes newborn up. Also a small amount of maternity clothing. I think it works similar to once upon a child... i think they buy some used stuff there and also have some suppliers. There was a lot of stuff with tags... mostly from children's place. Probably from outlets lol I got d two pairs of old navy jeans with tags on and a mix of old and new stuff for the baby. Only spent like $35 Definitely gonna have to make dropping in there a regular thing.

Then I ran to walmart and got the new light fixture for d's room. Hoping to start the painting tomorrow... can't wait!

25 week check up

What a morning! D got into a bag of sugar as I was getting ready for my 9:45am appointment. As if that wasn't enough big D forgot about the appointment so was late coming home. Didn't really matter that I was a few minutes late anyways, as I waited over an hour to be seen. Baby N is doing good! I'm measuring 27 weeks... so might be another big boy! When I was leaving she gave me my chart to keep on me. I couldn't believe it! I nearly hit the floor. I can't believe we are that close to baby N's arrival. Crazy!

I also went and got the glucose tolerance test for gestational diabetes done today too! Man oh man that orange drink is awful!

Busy busy

Busy weekend here! More plastering and gutting and some shopping in between. Picked up some Avent bottles, pacifiers, a couple sleepers and a few other odds and ends. No real major purchases. Got d the cutest Thomas rain boots. Going to give them to him with his Easter loot. I'm sure he will freak out when he sees them!

Picked up some Kribs (Kribensis Cichlids) which d named Toopy and Binoo. I hate that show so I have to wonder if d did it to spite me lol They are a breeding pair and very nice looking fish.

Sunday night I met the girls for coffee downtown. No matter where we go it is always a riot and I'm sure quite the disturbance to the neighboring tables.

Winter Nature Tots

I honestly didn't realise how much we had (both) missed our weekly outdoor adventures with nature tots until today. The MUN Botanical Gardens has set up shop in Bowring park for the winter with 3 parent and tot sessions every Friday. Today we hit the 9am session. At first we were the only ones there, but we were later joined by another little girl. D had a blast! He is such the creature of habit and totally remembered step step the flow of nature tots. We fed the ducks and walked around and saw some bunny footprints. The highlight though was seeing a bald eagle. I have never seen an eagle right in the city before, it was wild! I managed to snap a couple quick pics.

24 weeks Belly pics

I haven't been very keen on taking belly pics. So I got dh to snap these last night!

A Joke from D

D just came out to tell me a joke :D

D: Knock Knock
Mom: Whose there?
D: Canoe
Mom: Canoe who?
D: Canoe fly

Pretty good for a 3 year old! I think he got it from one of his Leap Frog Tag books. Love that thing! One of the best toys/ preschool educational activities around. I'll have to try and do a full review later.

The great stroller debate

I think we have decided on getting the "quinny buzz".




I learned my lesson the first time round. Where strollers are concerned you really do get what you pay for. We've had the quinny zapp for a few years and it has been used and abused without any problems at all. So after seeing a video on youtube showing how the buzz works it was an easy sell. The debate factor had been whether or not to get a stroller that we could put both D and the baby in. We looked at the Phil and Ted and the Joovy caboose. But because d is now 45lbs none of the options would last him long. Also he is pretty good about not running off now and stuff and I figure if there were a need for both kiddos to be in a stroller dh could take one and I the other.

Mr. Snowman

Dylan and I went out and made a snowman ... some wet! But not at all cold. Midway through dh came home and started snowblowing. We finished the snowman and were able to make lunch before dh was finished... so he had lunch with us which was nice! Pics on our photo site http://www.dougstuff.net/photos

Kicked

DH finally felt baby Niko kick last night He has been kicking tons for a while... but dh kept missing it lol

Britax Frontier Recall Fix

Finally got the addition to the Britax Frontier; as per the recent recall. Not much to it at all, just little caps to go on the end of the buckle thingy. Seemed like it took forever to come. We hadn't been experiencing the problem... but I had read about others complaining of the recalled issue on http://www.car-seat.org/


Remember peoples if you ever notice anything with your seat(s) that just does not seem right you should report it to Transport Canada, don't wait until something happens to you or someone else. This is how recalls works... people have to complain. Their # 1-800-333-0371.

You can check their website for the most recent notices;

http://www.tc.gc.ca/RoadSafety/SafeDrivers/childsafety/index.htm

Happy 35th Birthday to my hubby

Happy Birthday Baby!!!

My husband turned the big 3-5 today!!! I made him a cake.. 35 made out of cupcakes :D He posted a picture on his new photo blog

Happy Valentines Day!

Online Social

Exciting times! We are hosting our second online social on the board tonight http://www.nlmoms.com Hoping to break our most users online record. It's a good bit of work, but everyone seems excited about it!

Labor Orgasms Called 'Best-Kept Secret; In the news

Seen this in the news a few times now and heard them talking about it on that show the doctors!

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=6120045&page=1

So fess up... who is having all this ecstasy during labor ??? Certainly wasn't me lol

Productivity!

Well i had an awesome day! Started gutting out d's room to be... the wall stickers from the UK arrived this week and i really wanna get his room done asap. i would like to have him in the new room for about a month before we change his old room into the baby's nursery. During the process we got into a stalemate about the whole desk situation. Our current desk is way too big for our shared space... so we went on the hunt for a new one! Actually we were thinking we would have to get a desk and a table.. but I found the most perfect desk for the space and on sale for $50 lol Still going to have to use our current printer cart / microwave stand.. but it's all good.

i also got the paint for D's room, and wanted to order a border for baby's nursery but can't do that until Monday. We got Niko a bassinet at walmart too.. it wasn't the animal one but a new one they got in with turtles and frogs on it. Really cute and the style i wanted. Woot woot!

CARSEATS EXPIRE PEOPLE

With my shopping for baby started (okay in full bloom) I've been surfing around the various classified sites and places listing used goods and I've seen an abundance of older carseats and carriers for sale. I know these sites are buyer beware type thing, so providing all the info on the product is not the onus of the site/ group. So I wanted to put a reminder out there. Please remember that carseats and carriers EXPIRE. The average lifespan is about 5 years. Some people are listing height / weight restrictions but no one is listing the expiry dates. Many people don't realise seats expire... for obvious reasons they don't look at a piece of equipment like they do a carton of milk.

I think what scared me most was that people were eating up the older seats that were selling for next to nothing, but ignoring the gently used much young snugride (or other known brand) that was selling for like $40 (still a good price).

I realised our own home on the web http://www.nlmoms.com had no stance on this either... so I fixed that by adding an advisory to our marketplace rules too!


If you are buying a carseat or carrier used here are some tips:

1. You want to know the history of the seat (has it been in any accidents)

2. You will want to know the height and weight restrictions; to make sure it suitable for your child.

3. You need to ask the EXPIRY DATE (which should be on a sticker on most carseat/ carriers). Otherwise ask for the manufactured date. Most seats (with the exception of some new ones) have a lifespan of 5 years.

4. Ask for the brand, make and model # so you can look up further information about the seat for yourself. Most manufacturers have the product specifics and mannuals on line.

Summer baby

I went to walmart and they had some summer stuff on discount. Got baby Niko 4 pairs of shorts all size 3 months ranging in cost from $1 - $3. Can't go wrong with that lol I'm a little weary over the whole summer baby thing.. hopefully it won't be a real hot one!

Niko's Bedding

We won the auction for this adorable bedding on ebay today... I'm in love with it and it was such a great deal! Here are a couple pics:





The bedskirt cause it's really cute and you can't really see it in the other picture lol





13 pieces for about $120cdn It includes everything in the picture; minus the lamp and mobile (had the option to buy those but didn't want them). I hope it is as nice in person as it appears in the pictures!

Let the shopping begin...

I kept a lot of stuff from ds#1 so I won't need to buy too much! After the ultrasound we went to a playdate and then because we were in the east stopped into old navy and winners. I got a pair of shorts, a hat and mitt set, 2 Xmas and one Halloween shirt with legs (no idea what these are really called) for the baby and a toy owl d picked out. All for like $10. Then we went to winners and they made an announcement that customers currently shopping in the store would get 15% off. I got some socks and onesies and a train for dylan... we didnt see much there. But it was fun to do the first bit of shopping :)

It's a boy!!!

Well we had our ultrasound and ....




Say hello to Niko Sebastian We will call him Nick for short. He was only measuring 4 days ahead... so hopefully that means we won't have any of the troubles we had with ds1 due to dating.



D was really attentive for the first 5 minutes and really interested in what the tech was doing and the screen. But those 19 week ultrasounds go on forever so his interest was totally gone by the end when she looked for the parts lol I wasn't sure if d got it or not...but when we got to our playdate he wasn't long telling the name of his brother to everyone lol

Getting ready...

We're getting ready to go to the "big" ultrasound here now. It's an early morning appointment, but hopefully that will mean little wait time. I bought one of those monster energy drinks, something to jolt the baby into being active for the ultrasound. How do people drink these? Talk about gross!!! I bought the orange flavored one... and it friggin tastes like that crap they make you drink to check for diabetes lol

Check up

Only a 45 minute wait at Dr. K's office today. Not to bad all things considered! Another great check up, everything looks good!

BOLT

We took d to the theater to see BOLT today! Really great kids movie! Dh and I enjoyed it and loved the guinni pig character hehe D loved it but lost interest during some of the non action parts. So be expected from a 3 year old.

NL science center closed down :(

This weekend we were looking for some stuff to do and thought of the NL science center. Turns out it's closed down. The website says under construction and hasn't been updated since November. The phone number is disconnected. I tried to call 411 to see if there was alternate number... but they couldn't even find it in the listings. DH posted on the general boards and it is indeed closed. I wish they had of made some noise. I for one certainly would have rallied to help them get a little extra funding or what not. So sad :(

Immersion or not?

This is a huge topic of debate for a lot of people these days. I think we have pretty much decided on st Theresa's french immersion for d. Love the idea of walking / driving him to school and also they have the only string program in the city... so if he keeps the violin thing up that will be nice too!

From a parent perspective I look at it like this. If they go into early french immersion and they struggle or hate it or whatever... then they can always switch to mainstream English. But it doesn't swing the other way. From an ESL teacher perspective I simply feel the sooner the better!

There is of course late immersion and late french immersion has the advantage of the child being able to make the choice for themselves.. taking the decision making pressure off the parents lol

Oh and it doesn't hurt that statistically french immersion students on the average have demonstrated to perform better. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-004-x/200406/6923-eng.htm

We will have to sign d up this spring. Hopefully it's not a big issue to get him into the immersion program. I have heard some schools parents go to line up like 5am.

Sir cuts alot (scal) review

http://www.craftedge.com/

Figured I would review the sir cuts alot software for the cricut users on here. Not a lot of people know about the software or know of it but not alot about it. I was dead against buying anything that required cartridges... so be honest this was the selling point for me.

Cricut is a provo craft product and is in no way affiliated with sir cuts alot. The cartridges for cricut can be used with the scal program... in other words you can not add any cartridge images into the scal program.

The cost is $75us to download it right to your computer. For a little bit more you can have it shipped out on a cd to you. (I downloaded)

First off ... it works great and is worth every cent! I won't be buying any font cartridges EVER! And eventually I hope to not feel a desire for shape ones either. You do need one cartridge... as the cricut machine will not work without a cartridge with or without scal.

The cord required to hook your cricut up to your computer does not come with the cricut and it is not the regular usb cord that comes with your camera etc. Its called an a/b type and is the kind with one square end... if you have a printer... it likely uses the same cord. I picked up an extra cause unconnecting the printer just was not convenient for me. They aren't expensive.

There is a little computer know how required to getting the program working initially. You DO NOT need the cricut program "design studio" to run scal. However, most cricut machines will require the firmware to be updated and to do this you need to download the free trial of design studio (if you don't have it). There are great instructions for all of this right on the SCAL website.

You will also want to be familiar with the process of downloading fonts and dingbats and installing them on your computer. There are 1000's of free online resources out there. Most scrappers already do this for printing purposes anyways. The ttf fonts installed on your computer will automatically show in scal.

I had a slight problem at first... DH and i between us had an excessive amount of fonts ( like 4000 or something). So I had an initial problem with not being able to see certain fonts /ding bats i wanted to us. I just deleted a bunch of them... problem solved.

The scal program is really user friendly. There are pop up windows for selecting your font and you just type or select your item right on the screen. The screen is like a cutting mat... a big grid. So it is very easy to size your item (s). There are some screen shots here http://www.craftedge.com/products/screenshots.html

For the more involved... with scal you are not limited to the fonts and dingbats you find online, you can also make your own files using programs like abode illustrator or a free program called inkscape. I've played with this but haven't really had the time to get knee deep yet... it's on my to do list for this year. The products from these programs are call svg files.. and can be imported in scal. This getting to be very popular around the web it seems...people share svg files they have created and some people are even selling them now. I mainly want to learn how so i can divide up the layers of images (this is done for you on cartridges)... for example so a snowman's nose, hat etc are separate from the main image.

Making your own images is not something you need to have to know how to do... nor is it what makes the program worth the money. The limitless amount of fonts at your finger tips really is the seller!

I don't know if I've helped or made it sound extremely complicated. Once installed it is really used friendly. If anyone has any other question I can try and answer best i can... but I'm still learning lol

Cool Maternity Shirt

If they had this in black i might have to consider it lol