Weekend in review

I posted on Thursday how happy I was.  By yesterday afternoon, I was feel restless, like CRAZY restless.

I REALLY thought we were getting an offer on Friday.  It still might come, but I thought it would be here already.

We went and visited some friends in the Valley yesterday, close to the new house, and talked some more about us moving up there, and what we were going to do with the house, and so on and so forth.  And by the time we got home, I was feeling antsy...

Talking about all the wonderful things we're going to do is starting to wear on me...I want to actually DO all the wonderful things!  I am so ready to move on, so open to doing it, that I'm getting restless to get it all started.

But then this afternoon I went for a hike in the woods.  Found a crazy little piece of geography, just minutes from our house, that I've never found before.  Relaxed a bit.  And then I felt better about the world.

Oh, and this weekend there was also this:  (note the gaping hole on the lower level.)
 

However, as I posted on Facebook, the next time the note from the tooth fairy should read:  "Please don't wake your parents up at 5am to show them what I left you."  Yeah.

Some of the beauty I found in the woods:

 Somebody needs a haircut...

A Year of Corben

January 2010

 February 2010

March 2010

 April 2010

 May 2010

 June 2010

 July 2010

August 2010

 September 2010

 October 2010

 November 2010

 December 2010

My monkey turns TWO!

Today we celebrated Corben's 2nd birthday (even though his big day isn't until tomorrow.) A light affair, with a few special people (and only a few gifts) made for exactly the day I was hoping for.

I asked Griffin the other day, what sort of cake we should make for Corben.  "Chocolate chip banana" he replied, "with a monkey on top."  And there you have it.  We skipped the chips, and went straight for chocolate banana, and I took my first foray into the world of fondant.  OMGolly, I had so much fun!  I followed an excellent tutorial, and this little guy was born. Having spent all my hours last night on the monkey, I ended up going a little light on the letters. Plus there really isn't a whole lot of room to get poetic atop a 6" cake!

Corben loved him!

We had a lovely crowd, including Daddy, who Skyped in from Ottawa (you can see him there at the head of the table!)  Technology is a wonderful thing some times!

Corben spent much of dessert "feeding Daddy" cake.  Daddy gobbled it up.  Everyone laughed.  Repeat!

A lengthy nap ensued, as did an early bed time!

And tomorrow?  I have the day off of work, and I'm going to spend the whole day with this little dude, soaking up every second of him, and likely writing my annual sappy blog post about how much I love this little devil.

And I totally do!

Dear Griffin: Five

Dear Griffin,

Five. You are five.

So far, five is awesome. You, at five, are awesome.

It's like you've found a new sense of responsibility. You're a "big guy" now, and you will fully rise to the challenge I think. (Except, no, you are not "almost ready to drink boozy juice" now that you're five.)

I think this shift is coming from a little bit of well deserved confidence...but 50% of it comes from confidence in yourself, and the rest of it comes from US having confidence in you.

It's time for us to let you fly a little bit, my young Jedi. I think you're rock the Senior Kindergarten house this year, you've changed so much from the dude we put on the school bus for JK last year. You're so ready to soak it all in, and my wish for you is to find the joys in friends, and learning, and the responsibility of being a "big guy." You've got the big brother gig down pat (provided no one is touching your stuff) so this should be a piece of cake.

Five, and Senior Kindergarten.

May the force be with you, little man.

xoxox
Mama
(P.S. Lightsabre birthday cupcakes? That's right, you can send in that Mother of the Year Nomination now.)

May Long Weekend: Check.

It's the end of a busy (long) weekend here, and the weekend turned out to be nothing like I expected.

Our Saturday plans got switched to Friday and then got canceled all together, which left Steve and I with six racks of ribs, and only us to eat them.

Oh, the hardships I endure.

Saturday came with an unexpected burst of energy to do a few much needed things, and the rest was spent relaxing. Like hardcore, naps on the porch in the hammock relaxing. We spent Saturday evening with the parents of one of Griffin's friends - the kids have spent a ton of time together, but we've never hung out and it was just delightful.

Sunday we toddled into the big city for a wedding (OK, there was no toddling, there was running around all hairy scary for three hours, trying to pack the seemingly ENDLESS amount of things that one needs to stay overnight in someone else's house with a 4 year old and a 16 month old in tow, plus spend the following day at an amusement park while Daddy works, PLUS fancy shoes and dresses and too many choices of undergarments...it really sucks that by the time kids are big enough to carry their own darn stuff that they hardly need anything anymore. Dang.)

But the wedding: the wedding was about 18 times more fun than I thought it would be. My family is ALWAYS in the mood for a good party, but this time everyone was particularly jovial, aided perhaps by the fact that no one had to drive anywhere at the end of the night, and both Steve and I and my brother and his wife were out! At night! Without the children! It turned into a pretty rocking party, there even might have been some shots at the end of the night...it's been a long time since I've ponied up to a bar with a row of shot glassed lined up in front of me...and it's probably best if there is equally as long until it happens again.

Today we headed to Ontario Place (where we've often been before) to hang out while Daddy worked. We parked ourselves inside a big tent to watch Daddy's big show, and while we enjoyed the show inside, our stroller "enjoyed" one of the heaviest downpours I've seen all season. Awesome. Despite a wet stroller and a rather traumatic rollercoaster experience, we had a lovely day.

When we arrived home, I decided to seize the proverbial bull by the horns, and did something I'd been mulling over for a bit. You see, last night while Steve and I were out witnessing a sacred union drinking, Corben was put to bed all by his lonesome in his playpen. He squawked once, and then fell asleep, not to be heard from again, until SEVEN FREAKING THIRTY this morning, more than half an hour after I had been up. So - bull, horns, push crib away from our bed, bye bye co-sleeper, hello Corbie's own bed.

He's asleep in there now, after a bit of a fit. There was screaming and head banging, and general baby obscenities, where he's just crying and babbling, but you know if you could understand what he was saying, it would have been enough to made a sailor blush.

If I thought for a moment that Corbie would never sleep in the bed with us again, I might take a minute and get a bit verklempt about saying goodbye to the co-sleeper, but I know there will be MANY more opportunities for little feet in my kidneys and little knees in my back. I mean really, do kid EVER really stop crawling into bed with their parents? I do love snuggling up with that little monkey at night, but I have no illusions that it's really over, so I'll save the verklempt for another day...I'm also certain that there will be lots of other opportunities for that. (Steve said last night "can you imagine us being at Griffin or Corben's wedding?" and I practically burst into tears in the middle of my sirloin.)

So now it's 10pm, on the last day of the first long weekend of the summer, and I would like to officially declare this weekend to be a resounding success. The boys were great, the weather was awesome, the drinks were plentiful, and the general company was delightful. I'm hopeful that this bodes well for an excellent summer to come. (Hopefully next long weekend I remember the camera...lame.)

Oh so worthy of note

It should be noted, in some place official. And this? Is the only some place that I have, so here goes.

Corben. Is asleep. In a bed that is not mine. And I had nothing to do with getting him that way.

This, my friends? Is momentous.

And maybe even cause for celebration!

(Crossing fingers...)

Hair today...

Corben, it seems, has always had crazy hair.

(And by crazy, I mean crazy AWESOME!)

I had to go back to November of last year to find pictures of "normal hair." See?Even then, there is a little prequel of crazy if you look closely. But no need. Because just a month later?And then another month after that?It was around this time that I started getting compliments on my "beautiful little girl." It was also around this time that people (*cough* Steve *cough*) started saying "you should really cut his hair."

However, I am the hairdresser in this house for everyone (the dog being the only exception.) No one gets a haircut without asking nicely, plying me with coffee, and praying for a free 10 minutes where I can bust out my scissors and get it done.

And thus, as the hairdresser, it is also my right to refuse a haircut.

I refused to cut Corbie's hair.

I KNOW what a haircut can do to a little baby. It takes him from "baby" to "boy" in one fell snip, and I wasn't ready to let go of that tiny shred of babyhood just yet. So I let it grow. And grow. And grow. And then last week, when Corben fell down the stairs and I snapped this picture:I knew it was time. I couldn't deny it anymore, I couldn't hold out anymore, they didn't make pony tail holders for boys, and it was really really time to give this poor kid a haircut.

So I did. (I love the look on his face in that shot - like "what the hell do you think you're doing to my mullet, you crazy lady?")
(And then I let him run around in his diaper for an hour, so I could take a bunch of pictures and pretend that he was still a baby.) Alas, my baby is not such a baby any more, but he'll always be MY baby. My adorable, smart, funny, mullet-free baby.

Dear Corben: One

Dear Corben,

It's been too long, and it's almost to late, but here I am in the nick of time to say Happy Birthday.

*Cough* 2 weeks ago *cough* you turned one.

One. Dude, that's huge!

I don't even know what to say about it...you've developed into such a little PERSON over the past few months and it has been so much fun getting to know you.

You are happy. Everyone remarks on it. "Wow, that is one happy baby!" I hear it all the time. (Actually, what they often say, is "that is one happy little girl," which may be an indicator that it's time for me to cut your hair, but I flat out refuse, it's not even open for discussion, so lets not even talk about it.) In the weeks since your birthday you've gone from crawling mostly everywhere to being a full out walker. Last Sunday I was in the laundry room and turned around to see you walk in the door...that's going to take a little bit of getting used to! Your steps are still hesitant, and there's a little bit of the cutest little side shuffle going on, but I'm guessing it won't be long until you're giving Griffin a run for his money around this place!You are so easy to understand...you communicate SO well for a kid your age. Not only with the little bit of sign language that you know, but your facial expressions are well developed and terribly varied (and often hilarious) and your wants and needs are usually pretty simple. You're hungry, you're tired, or you're bored...those are about the only few things that piss you off. Oh, or your brother stole your (fill in the blank.) Don't worry, soon your aim will improve, as will your motoring skills, and you can chase that turkey down and smack him yourself. (Not that I'm condoning violence between siblings...unless it's truly called for.)
Speaking of communicating, you're picking up the sign language and an awesome speed, and it's so encouraging to see. Two days ago I showed you the sign for book. Today you saw a book sitting on the stairs, pointed to it, and made the sign! Wicked! I was so chuffed that I looked around the living room for something else to sign. Seeing some dirty clothes that never made it to the bedroom, I immediately looked up the signs for "pick up" and "laundry." Hell, if you're going to be so clever, we might as well put it to good use! (You didn't quite get it...don't worry, we'll keep working!)

Your birthday was lovely by the way. We had a very relaxing day. Some friends, a few presents, some obligatory cake smashing. Griffin enjoyed playing with your birthday present all day long, which you ever so graciously shared.
Oooooh, pressies! There was even a PRE party nap, which may have been partially responsible for the delightfulness that was the party! Dude, being one is hard, I know!Little man, you complete this family in a way that I never knew was possible. I love you so much. Happy birthday, little one, we look forward to watching you grow!

Love Mama

Cake Smash 2011

(Ah, those eyes...they slay me! SOOC this is...they really are that colour!)





Now that? Was some GOOD cake!

Happy Birthday Corbie!