Here are some family shots :) from back in January 2014.... So long ago!!

Good Morning Life: Potty Training & New Camera

Hello Monday, What kind of week will you be?--good? bad? boring?exciting? mediocre? Well I'll take GOOD--thanks :) So far so good....but it is only 8:44am and my kids are still sleeping.

Last night we had ALL my family together. Meaning laws-and in-laws and my good friend Stacey :) It was the first time I had been with all of them in a VERY long time so it was really nice. We all came together to celebrate my birthday. I felt the love and I even got some great family pictures! Some how we crammed all 12 adults and 6 kids into our little house, to be honest I didn't feel like it was that cramped---good news, we can have 10 grown children living in our house...HAH--'yah right!'--not have 10 kids, nor am I living in this house that long (don't get me wrong I do love our sweet little abode).

What did I do last week, umm....is it bad that I can't remember? don't answer that future adult children! ha!

OHHH YAH! My big moment of the week was getting a Costco membership! HAH! It is true, I now feel like a grown up. So it's official now, I am now an adult! Only took 27 years.

Last night when we had everyone over, Adelade was kind enough to wear clothes the entire time! (it's a big deal!) but it was not even 10 seconds after the last guests left that she had taken her shirt and pants off. She actually did a little dance of JOY! It was pretty hilarious. Oh to be 2.5 and completely in love with your body!

Oh yes, I need to remember how I potty trained Adelade, so when I feel inadequate and like I'm doing everything wrong I can look back and think, okay--at least I did that!....so if you'd rather not read about peeing & pooping on the potty for the next few minutes (yes, I'm sure Adelade in 20 years will "love" reading all about it!) just skip to the pictures *note: pictures have nothing to do with potty training! lol

So a few months back, probably about 6 months ago, we went and bought Adelade a potty. I was toying with the idea that I would potty train her before Bentley was born….yah that did NOT happen. The potty became more of a toy because she would constantly sit on it and wipe. So after a few rolls of wasted paper and me being annoyed that she was just playing on it, I put it away for a bit (a month or so). I then bought her some underwear hoping that would entice her to want to go on the potty in order to wear them. Well that last about 30 minutes and 6 accidents later. I was NOT ready! I had zero patience and was not ready to teach Adelade how to pee and poop on the potty. By this time Bentley was born. I then just left the potty in the bathroom. She wasn’t playing with it as much, so I was okay to just have it out for her to use periodically. She started to poop on it every once in a while (which was pretty AWESOME!) so after a few months of that, it brings us to the end of Decemeber. She was starting to get the hang of pooping on the potty but not really peeing. So one day when I was cleaning out her room I found the underwear I had bought here a while back. I thought “I will just put them in a basket on her shelf where she can see it, if she is interested in it maybe she’ll start wearing them and peeing on the potty”. It was worth the try! I AM SO GLAD I DID THIS! Honestly within 5 minutes she noticed them and had put a pair on. I made sure she was aware that she had to pee and poop on the potty, that these were not diapers. She was pretty excited about the whole thing. I am pretty sure it was the fact that she got to wear fancy underpants with princesses and dinosaurs on them. So we tried them out for the day. She would had tiny accidents but most of the time she made it to the potty. The next day I went and bought jelly beans and lollipops and made a sticker chart. It was a MAJOR hit!  Within a week she was peeing and pooing on the potty consistently. It WAS AMAZING! I feel like the underpants and jellybeans potty trained her for me; she has since filled 2 charts and eaten 2 boxes of ‘mike n ekes’. We are trying to now just praise her without the treats, but she is still asking for them every time she goes. Once and a while I give her a chocolate chip J In the last week she has had a few accidents, but it’s all a part of the process. The hard part now is going out. It is hard going somewhere when I don’t know where the washroom is, or if it even has one, and if I have Bentley with me-- it is such a production. So sometimes I put her in diapers when we have errands to run and such. It is more for my own sanity. Either way I am so proud of Adelade. She sure is growing up every day. She is talking SO much more and doing so many more things on her own. Okay Bentley you are NEXT! Hah! Just kidding, I’ll give it a few years. Let’s start you on solids and sleeping through the night first.

So just after the new year Matthew and I treated ourselves to a NEW fancy-pants camera. I still have very little clue how most of the do-dads work, but I'm getting there. It takes nice pictures, so here are a few...or maybe a lot! lol
Note: if you click on the picture it will show up larger

My Stud!

Oh Adelade :)

Yes it's true I'm picking Bentley's nose!

eating...without clothes

Eating yogurt at its finest

Mr. Hand-chewer

"Oh, good it was just a fart!"

Isn't he a cutee!!!

Smiling at his daddy :)

Adelade literally trying our her new toys

"HUH?"

Pretty lil' lady!

hehe--love  this one :)

A little bit of this and that

Why Hello Monday morning!? Okay so I have to be honest, it is 9:52 AM and guess what....my kids are both s.l.e.e.p.i.n.g!!! I swear. Bentley is having his morning nap, and Adelade is still asleep from last night. I am counting my lucky stars. So I thought with this extra time I had, since I was already up with 'Benty bear' I've showered and had breakfast, going back to bed doesn't seem as appealing (I know I know, I should be sleeping, but I don't wanna! lol!) I could unload the dishwasher, or fold the 5 loads of clean laundry, or clean my bedroom that is still a mess from 4 months ago! Nah, I'll write a blog post "air five!"

I was writing out my goals the other day for 2014, I am not big of new years resolutions but I am ALL ABOUT making goals. I made a goal to write a blog post every week, well I've already failed. HAH---but that is not going to stop me. It is a goal, so I am going to try everyday to reach it, no need to be all perfect at once-lol.

I love to talk about my kids, so why not write about them.

Meet my little Bentley:

Bentley is almost 4 1/2 months old. He is seriously the smiley-est baby EVER! He has started to talk/coo/coo loudly a lot! He is still sleeping in our room and sometimes after feeding him, he will just lay in his bed and "coo--coo--coo". It is pretty much the sweetest sound, that is until he gets increasingly louder and then you can't sleep. Again, he makes up for this with the infamous smiling. Bentley, also known as 'Benty Bear, or Benty boo, or Bear, or Professor Poopy pants" has always been a belly sleeper. It gave me much stress when he was a few weeks old and we discovered he slept WAY better on his belly than on his back. All the 'people' say to have babies sleep on their backs, so I was a bit nervous at first. He could always turn his head from side to side when he was on his belly, so that helped ease my worry. Now about 4 months on sleeping on his belly I'm not worried at all. He started rolling from his belly to back a few weeks ago. He only does it when he is not wanting to go to sleep yet. Then he lays on his back and screams until you come and turn him over. Though there have been a handful of times this past week that he has rolled over to his back and then when I go check on him, he is fast asleep on his back. It's pretty cute!

Bentley has horrendous smelling poos, it's almost offensive. If he does the 'deed' when we are in public I can't wait for more than a few minutes before changing him because it is just so so so smelly. This is probably the lovely perks of having a formula fed baby. I'm sure he will be happy to remember this about himself. lol. (you know you are a parent when you talk about your kids poo on a daily basis...)

Benty Bear, loves his big sister. Adelade can make him laugh just by looking at him. Mind you his laugh sounds more like a dinosaur crying than a laugh, but needless to say it's a laugh and again very cute. Adelade loves to touch his head, you can see that she tries to contain it by just lightly pressing with her fingers. Bentley will smile at her even when she is shaking his play pen or rocking him about 100 miles an hour in his swing. I can't tell you how many times a day I say to Adelade "be gentle with Bentley" or "not so rough" or "don't shake his bed"....I think it all sounds the same to Adelade.. "blah-blah-blah"

Bentley has no sleep schedule what -so- ever. The only thing that is consistent is he will sleep at night, he still wakes up every 3-4-5 hours but he will and has always gone back to sleep right after feeding him, it is wonderful I tell you. I never know if he will nap in the morning, or afternoon or  when he will fall asleep in the evening. It is the opposite of Adelade. When Adelade was just a few weeks old she had a morning nap and afternoon nap and slept from 7-7, sometimes waking during the night. It was AHHHMAZING! She slept worse when she was 1 year, than when she was a newborn. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father knew I'd loose my marbles if Adelade wasn't such a superstar sleeper, so he must have more faith in me now :)

At his 3 month check up he was hitting the charts at average or just below. He is a bit tiny, but I think he will catch up soon. Him and Adelade are very different in this. Adelade was super long and skinny and always has been, so if that keeps up I'm sure when Bentley is older he'll be wishing he could be taller than his sister and Adelade will wish she could find a pair of pants that were long enough! It's kind of nice having an average sized baby because you can buy them clothes for their age and they actually fit them...I know---you thought it wasn't possible but it is :) Adelade can only now fit her size 1 leggings in the waist, though they are now capris on her lol, but all her size 2 shirts are belly shirts on her. 

Bentley smiles at almost everything, the only time he doesn't seem to smile is when I'm trying to take a picture of him. Thanks! Oh yes and he drools about a litre a day. He's clothes are soaking wet by mid day just from his drool. Oh and another nick name for him is Barfy Bentley. He seriously spits up ALL. THE. TIME. The other day at church Bentley just kept spewing, Matthew would wipe it up and then BAM more would start dripping out of his mouth. Matthew leaned over to me and said "it's like his mouth has diarrhea" I tried to not laugh too loud, but it was TRUE! Oh Bentley how we love you!

Now for my sweet and crazy 2.5 year old. I still call her my baby girl, though she is anything BUT a baby :(

Here are some things she has started to do just in the past few weeks:

-Gets dressed on her own, she likes to wear the same skirt, shirt and underpants.

-Pee & poop on the potty. YES YES its true, I don't want to say it just in case I jinx it, but Adelade is potty trained!!

-Get her food out of the fridge, open it and then spill it on the floor...it is usually yogurt. yum!

-TALK all the time, she strings like 5 or 6 words together---it amazes me. The cutest thing she says is "love you too", when ever we say goodnight to her and I love you, she always says "i love you too", she has NEVER just said "I love you". There is not usually a quiet moment in our house when Adelade is awake, she is always yammering about something. She likes to sing as well, she usually just repeats the same words over and over again, but it's so very sweet. Among the sweet things she says, she also likes to say "go away!"& "Stop it!" a lot.

-Whenever Matthew or I leave the house we always sign 'I love you' each other and blow each other a kiss. We started doing this with Adelade and now she has started to do it back. She just waves her fingers at us and kisses her hand, but it is so so cute!!!

-Well speaking of Adelade she is calling my name! So best go and get her. It is 10:35 am--what in the world! Thank you Adelade for letting me catch some sanity :):)

I love my kiddos xo

January 4th 1997

 

17 years ago my whole life changed. My whole life got turned up side down and I can remember it like it was yesterday.

Growing up it was normal for my Mom to be sick. My mother was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes from a very young age and it slowly took her life. We used to say she went to heaven one piece at a time. So I never really dwelt on her being sick, because it was normal. Just like we don't dwell on being healthy, because it is normal. It was normal for her to go the hospital or spend days laying on the couch. It was normal for her to not do all the same things my friends moms did. It was normal for her to not have legs and to be in a wheelchair, it was pretty awesome having a mom the same height as me. It was normal for me to take the handibus, because my mom didn't drive. It was normal to always have a place to sit. It was normal for my mom to lose a few fingers, and eventally go blind in one eye. It was all very very very normal. 

I never ever thought, "wow my mom is really sick". 

I remember this one time, I was about 8 years old playing on a little league team, and one of my teammates couldn't stop starring at my mom. Eventually she asked me "what was wrong with her?" I don't remember what I said but I do remember thinking, 'what do you mean, what is wrong with her?' 

 What I remember is how she would hug me each morning and we would sit together on her chair. I remember how she would play dolly's with me. I remember one time she 'bummed' her way down the stairs to the basement, just so she could watch my brother and I's nativity pageant. I remember how she would sing me lullaby's to bed each night, and I would pretend to be sleeping just so she would keep singing (seems a bit backwards but it worked). I remember her smile and the way her face lit up when she laughed. I remember how soft her voice was even when we were in trouble. I remember how you never really knew she was sick, she never ever complained about it, at least not to us kids. She never sulked or was sorry for herself. She was so grateful for my brother and I. I never doubted her love for a moment.

During the Christmas of 1996 (I was almost 10 years old), my mom had gotten really sick. Looking back at pictures it was very clear how sick she was. I remember that my parents had gotten rid of their bed and moved a hospital bed into their room for my mom (my brother and I would sit in the bed and play with the controls when no one was around--it's true that they literally fold in half----anyway...). On Christmas day I remember sitting with my mom on her wheel chair. She held me tight. She asked me to close my eyes and picture the field of dandelions from the movie Beauty and the Beast. She told me to picture her and I in that field holding hands and running. She talked about how blue the sky was and how the hot sun felt on our faces. She kept telling me to remember that picture. At the time I thought "Okay, sure- I would love to be running in that field--it was my favorite part from that movie". I thought nothing more of it.

A few days after Christmas, I believe it was the day before New Years Eve. I remember my Dad bundling my mom up in a few sleeping bags and carrying her out to the car. She looked like a little baby. I'm sure I told her...ha. My dad was taking her to the hospital. I remember saying goodbye to her as she layed on the back seat in the van.

My brother and I spent New Years with my Nanny (Grandma). I remember having a great time. My dad wasn't their because he was with my mom. My Dad told us we could go visit her on Saturday, which was still a few days away.

On the evening of January 3rd 1997, I remember being in my brother's room in the basement with him and my dad. My dad was telling us that mom had kidney stones or gallbladder stones....some sort of stone is what I remember. He said she was very sick, but it all seemed very routine to me. She would get really sick and go to the hospital, spend some time there and come home. She always came home. Little did I know she wasn't coming home. He told us that first thing in the morning we would go see her. I was so very excited.

I awoke on Saturday morning only to realize it was too early to go see my mom, so I just stayed in bed. 

I remember finding it odd that the hallway light was on and shinning light under my door.
 

Finally it was 8 o'clock and I decided it wasn't too early anymore to get out of bed to go see my mom. I opened my door and walked down the hall into the kitchen.  I remember seeing my Nanny there by the counter. I thought to myself "why in the world is my Nanny here....didn't she know we were going to see my mom today?" I was too confused to say anything so I kept walking. 

I walked into the living room. There my dad was sitting on the couch -sobbing. 

 My heart sank. 

She. was. gone. 

I ran to my dad and he wrapped me in his arms and we cried. He didn't say anything to me, but my heart knew that my mom was gone. It knew because it was broken. 
The rest of the day was a blur, looking back on it I'm sure I had gone into shock, because all I wanted to do was go see my mom and didn't understand why so many people were crying. Couldn't we just go see her one last time. I remember I got together with a friend that day, we went to the mall and swimming at Southland leisure center. Why I went swimming that day, I don't really understand. But it seemed like a better alternative than being around all the sad adults that kept asking me if I was okay. Pretty sure I wasn't okay. 

17 years ago I lost my wonderful mother. Though writing this is really difficult (at times I couldn't see through the tears---kleenex is getting good business today).
I feel like this is a way to heal; to help my heart ache just a little less.
 Though she is gone- her legacy lives on.

This picture would have been great if I wasn't showing my belly button off--oh jee-

I love you Mom-xo