General updates

Christmas was great at our house; we hosted a big dinner on the 24th and went to our good friends house on the 25th. Loic loved opening gifts and really got the hang of it this year! He got some lovely things, his favorites being a drill (which came in a beautiful tool set for kids) from Dave and Linda, his giant yellow digger from my folks and all of the lovely books he received.

We put Loic down for a nap yesterday and he was mad that his Dad wouldn't read him a third book, so, he decided not to nap and to instead take off all of his clothes, including his sleep sac and diaper! We heard him chatting so went in to check on him and found this:

So so funny! I asked him where his pj's were and he said: "Over there!" then giggled. He naps so well that we couldn't be mad - we got him back in his pj's, had a quick cuddle and off he went for his nap, a little late but it was all good :)

Baby is doing well, I am now almost 27 weeks along now and I can feel her moving all of the time which is really nice. We are going for a growth ultrasound in about two weeks for my peace of mind, I have put on less than 10 pounds at this point but my uterus is measuring on track so the Doctor isn't worried. I had put on a lot more at this point with Loic but I am trying to not worry.

The dogs are all doing well, even though a certain black lab is a bit fat - I think it is a combo of him getting a lot of Loic's left overs and the fact that he got into his bag of kibble the other day...

E

Cough - Ideas? And some news

I haven't posted anything about it yet but I am 20 weeks pregnant with a baby girl. We are really excited and I am understandably a bit nervous. We had out big ultrasound on Thursday and have had a few in the past few weeks, the last two have said girl :)

My question to my four readers is this: I have a cough, a bad one. It started with a cold and has ended with a non stop cough. I mean I cough for two hours straight when I try to fall asleep and once I am asleep, I wake up coughing for another hour or two after three hours. I have tried the following:

-humidifier cranked up near my bed

-sleeping basically upright

-the one cough syrup pregnant people can use (as recommended by my doctor) which does nothing at all

-enough water to fill a small bath tub daily

-hot water with lemon and honey

-these lame "cough drops" aka sugar pills (can't eat any of the real ones, they have bad stuff for pregnant women in them)

Tonight I am going to take a benadryl to see if that can at least help with the sleep part. I am not keen on taking anything while pregnant but that one is ok and I have to think that this not sleeping for two weeks can't be good for baby either.

So, I am pregnant and totally exhausted because of the coughing. It apparently a post viral cough and I am not willing or wanting to take antibiotics because my lungs sound good, it is just a dry hacking totally annoying cough.

Thoughts? I have wasted the last two weekends and the past week feeling like crap and need to get better soon or at least get some sleep. I have never had a cough like this - Rob has taken to sleeping downstairs because I am up all night long. I have watched some interesting TV at 4:00 am...interesting indeed.

(And no Erin, we aren't telling anyone the baby's name :) but you can keep trying to get it out me sneakily)

E

"Grrrrrrr...I'm a dragon!"

Loic is currently out Trick or Treating with his aunties Jess and Jody and I am at home with my three dogs, who are in full on panic mode because of the f***ing fireworks. Rob is in Toronto with his mom for a few days. I took some pics of our little dragon before he went out. We taught him how to say "Trick or Treat!" and he looks *adorable* in his much-loved dragon costume.

I was looking forward to a dinner party with Loic at DaveandLinda's! (that is how Loic says Dave and Linda's) last night, but, I accidentally locked Toby in Loic's room for nap time because Toby is on red alert due to the firecrackers and he followed me in there. Needless to say, as soon as I figured out that he was locked in there he had a fit and woke Loic up. So, Loic didn't nap at all and by 7:00 pm last night he asked if he could go home to bed! So so cute. I took him home to bed and we missed out on what I can only assume was an awesome dinner. Next time!

E

Loic and a Stegosaurus

One last pumpkin patch photo:

I wanted to add this photo, Loic was happy to be petting a stegosaurus and while we were at the Pumpkin patch, he was naming all of the dinosaurs (correctly). A man walking by did a double take when he heard: "Look Mama! A Velociraptor!" :)

Pumpkin Patch '11

We took our annual trip to the Maple Ridge pumpkin patch yesterday and met our friends Tracy, John and Ben out there. Ben and Loic are the same age and had a blast running around, picking up pumpkins, and petting the animals.

Loic with his Mama and a Stegosaurus

Loic in the pumpkins

Watching a digger with Dada

The fire truck from Aunt Tiny (a favorite although might need to have the batteries removed sooner rather than later)

Meal Planning - for you Erin!

We are back in the swing of things with respect to meal planning.

Erin, this is for you - what to do when you make a whole roast chicken!

On Sunday night, I made a simple roast chicken stuffed with lemon and rosemary (from the garden). We had Jess over for dinner and we ate chicken with pesto pasta and a salad from the garden.

Monday night, I used leftover chicken and made chicken quesadillas. I quickly sauteed red pepper, onion and chicken and put that onto flour tortillas along with cheddar cheese and baked them in the over (I don't fry them). I topped them with homemade salsa. We have *a lot* of tomatoes right now so dinners use a lot of them.

That night I made homemade chicken stock using the chicken carcass, an onion, some carrots, fresh herbs from the garden, tomatoes (why not?) and some pepper and bay leaves. I had no celery but would have added it if I did.

Tomorrow I will make homemade chicken soup with the stock using kale from the garden, beans from the garden and a whole lot of other veggies.

So, that is three dinners using one chicken. Erin, no need for a freezer either which is a bonus for you!

E

Future Super Model perhaps?

I am at home with a cold. Loic started a new daycare last week and promptly got a cold, which he lovingly shared with Rob, my mom and me. Today was the first day he didn't cry when being dropped off at "The Baby House" (his words, not ours). Last week was trying, Wednesday started with both him and me sobbing in the front hallway - not a pretty scene - but he actually really likes it there and we really, really like the staff. He does neat things all day long and plays with other kids. He is there three days a week, which we like, because 5 days might be a bit much for him.

Future Ralph Lauren model perhaps?

Big Ham!

Pictures (finally!)

I finally got around to putting up a few Tofino pictures on the blog. Still waiting for some Quadra pictues - hint hint Uncle Ryan! Whenever you mention my brother around Loic he says "Snake! Snake!" because we saw garter snakes at Ryan's farm :)

Cute, cute little boy!

Stompin' on Grandpa Mike's sand castles

Rain forest walk with Grandpa Mike. We all went and had a good walk.

Loic looking at his friend Dana with total adoration. He followed her around like a puppy all week and spent a lot of time hugging her and asking her how she was doing. So very cute.

"Cheese!!!"

So many things

I owe the blog a few pictures, August has been very busy!

We spent one week in Tofino with my folks and two other families. Loic had a blast and is quite taken by a 4 year old named Dana.

The next week, Loic my mom and I went to Campbell River to visit my aunt and to see my brother and Jess on Quadra! We also spent one day in Powell River with my grandparents. Those four days entailed a lot of ferry travel and after our THREE SAILING WAIT to get home, I am in no hurry to get on another BC Ferry.

So, I will update with some pictures from our adventures soon.

We have been eating stuff from the garden and while it is not nearly as impressive as my brothers, we have had a regular supply of herbs, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers. With a few berries thrown in it has been quite a good garden for the poor soil.

Pic soon!

E

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Our little lolo-bean turned two years old today! Hard to believe he has changed so much in the past two years.

Baby Loic

Loic on his second birthday with a much-anticipated cupcake :)

Family photo - I love the sticky hugs SO MUCH!!

His cupcake eating style, unique!

Cupcake complete with candle

Loic has been saying "Happy Birthday to you!" to everyone he sees for the past few weeks now. He can say a lot of the alphabet and is speaking in sentences. He is so, so funny and makes us laugh every single day.

E

Safety first!

I got a phone call from the nursery owner (see rant from last post) apologizing for the way we were treated on the weekend. She seemed very sincere and after our discussion, she offered to send me a gift card, which I accepted. I am glad she called and was not looking for a gift card but will go back and see how we are treated.

Now, a photo of Loic wearing my work safety vest - adorable. He wore it while he helped me unload the dishwasher, a three minute task that takes about 15 when he helps :)

E

Short Hijack

We went to Amsterdam Nurseries yesterday which is a garden centre located in Pitt Meadows. We had the worst customer service there and I due to the rudeness of the woman at the till, we left our purchases there and did not spend our hard earned money at this establishment. When we went to speak with the manager, he said that he would speak with her and did nothing else to make us feel like coming back. If I were him, I would have apologized profusely and would have asked if there was anything I could do to help us finish our shopping or maybe could he help us at the till? Nothing. The woman there was just awful and should not be working anywhere near people.

End rant and back to regular lolo pictures soon :) He is speaking in sentences now and nothing gets by him! He now sits forward facing in his carseat (sniff, sniff where is my baby?!) and we are working on sitting on the potty...he is still so, so funny and says something new and entertaining every single day. I tried to post a photo of him feeding the dogs goldfish crackers but blogger wouldn't let me. The dogs are all well, we have gone a few weeks without a seizure from the chihuahuas which is nice, and Tyler is still the best family pet ever.

E

Life updates

Hi all

Well, a lot has gone on in the past month. Last weekend, I was a bridesmaid for my friend Erin! She had a lovely wedding weekend in Parksville and I had a great time. No photos yet because my other half spent the whole weekend in the hotel room with food poisoning/stomach flu...poor Rob. I had bridesmaid duties to attend to and didn't bring a camera. Her photographers were awesome and I can't wait to see the pictures! We didn't bring Loic with us and he spent the weekend with his two favorite Aunties. I didn't worry about him at all knowing he was having a great time with Jody and Jess!

The weekend before, Loic was sick with a stomach bug :( I felt so terrible for him, he was really ill. But - aside from being vomited on - he was so cuddly; he doesn't usually sit still for cuddles for long so I must say that was nice. Not that I want him to be sick, he is much funnier when feeling good!

Toby and Arthur have oddly been having seizures this spring. Toby has had two, Artie about 5. They are random and unrelated. We did some abdominal tests on Toby because he had an odd liver value show up on a test, but everything was good. We are in a "watch and wait" pattern.

Big boy in the tub!

Sick in bed with Daddy. So. Cute.

Asleep on Daddy when sick. Again, So. Cute.

No title

I can't think of a title for this post.

I know some people whom I know online know that I was expecting a baby and that we were excited to hear what we were having at our 20 week ultrasound appointment last Thursday. I deleted my last post about that topic.

Instead of finding out the sex of the baby, we found out the baby had died. We had a perfectly normal ultrasound at 14 weeks which showed an active, normal baby with a normal heartbeat and now we have nothing.

I had a D&E on Friday because baby had been dead inside of me for about 5 weeks, spend Friday night at the hospital, and am now home, not knowing what to do with myself or what to really even think.

Erika

Arthur's Revenge (and Hockey) and "Pie"

Tonight, thanks to a friend of ours, Rob and I went to the Canucks game! Now, the ending wasn't great, but we saw some friends there and had a really nice time.

Jess and Susan fed Loic dinner and put him to bed, then my Dad came over to take over the Loic-sitting duties! Thanks to all three of you :)

We took Arthur with us in the car (which he is very used to and likes) and left in the secure underground in his crate so that no one could see him or try to steal him. Although, good luck to you if you want to try to steal that dog!! We took him with us because he won't stop barking at my dad. Ever. Dad called me once while Arthur sitting to say that it had been 1.5 hours and he couldn't get Arthur to stop barking...but I digress.

While we were at the game, Arthur decided to have a random poop-fest in his crate. The car smelled so badly when we got in, and Arthur got hosed off and bathed when we finally got home. On the plus side, no poop managed to find its way out of the crate and onto my car, which was nice. We will deal with the crate tomorrow, which should be just awesome.

I will leave you with a picture of what happens when you give a 21 month old a chocolate ice cream bar that he ate with gusto. Grandpa gave it to him, isn't that what grandpa's are for?! We all think so. So cute!! Thanks for the photo Dad :)

Yummmmm- pie. Loic calls most sweet things "Pie"

E

Arthur fell into a hole, back yard, dinner

We had a nice long weekend. Rob worked on our new fence (lovely like the last one) so that we can sit in the yard and Loic can't fall onto the patio or crawl under the deck. This is an important addition to the yard and means that on sunny days, we can sit on our awesome hammocks while Loic plays with his toys on the lawn :) All we need to do now is teach Jody not to fall out of her hammock while yelling at my mother on the deck. Best. Moment. Ever. My only wish is that we had it on video.

Our back deck is also awesome and has a gate at the top of the stairs so if we want shade, we can sit on the deck and Loic can play. Equally perfect, we really like our back yard.

Garden update: this weekend I planted peas, some more lettuce and transplanted some perennials into my front garden. Next weekend - more potatoes in my front garden and Ryan's peas and more radishes in the back garden. Ryan, I planted some of your millet, chickpeas and lentils in large pots that will sit on my deck, looking forward to seeing these plants, thanks for the interesting seeds!

Loic loving my mom's berry sauce :)

Now onto the fun part - here are some photos of Arthur, who fell into a fence post hole while Rob and I were eating lunch in the house. Arthur was fine, so I took the time to call Rob outside to look while I took photos of Artie in his hole :)

Here you go!

Poor Arthur! It must have been some kind of payback for his evil ways... :)

On a side note, I made an incredibly healthy and incredibly tasty dinner tonight - ground turkey lettuce wraps. I have made them before but this batch was the best: spicy, tasty and full of veggies. Yum.

Garden notes

I am going to try to write down what I plant and when so that I can remember what works and what doesn't in this new garden.

Last weekend, Rob finished my garden fence (which is lovely and nicer than the chicken wire fence I asked for, you were right Rob) and I finished sifting and spreading the excess soil. Then, I moved a few strawberry plants around and planted some kale and parsley.

Today, I did some work on my front perennial garden, mowed the back lawn for the first time this year and planted some radish seeds, lettuce seeds and some red onion sets. I also moved my raspberries (sorry plants) and moved some more strawberry plants around. I hope they aren't too upset about the moving, this is it plants! Oh, and I put in two rhubarb plants by my compost bin, they have room to spread out and it is a good spot for them.

Loic came outside and "helped" by carrying around various garden tools, his truck and by splashing in any water he could find. He is so funny, every time he sees something new or interesting he says "Oooohhhhh!!" so cute.

Next time I get out to the garden I am going to put in some peas, my brother sent me some neat seeds and his peas plus some I got at the garden store are going in, and I will plant some flower seeds he gave me.

E

Diaper Rash drama

So, it happened. After about 20 months, Loic has a nasty case of diaper rash. After trying in vain to treat it ourselves, we went to the Dr. a week and a half ago for help. It was diagnosed as a yeast infection, so we got a prescription and away we went. We stopped using wipes and switched to water and clothes and it got better. We also used some yeast infection cream but now, now it is back. I have no idea what happened! It was looking so nice and then yesterday, back to square one.

So, faithful readers, anyone have any tips?! Nothing has changed, he hasn't been on any antibiotics, hasn't been sick, I think he is getting some molars.

Thoughts?! He is sore and it is upsetting us. I will head back to Dr. this week if it doesn't improve.

Oh, we tried no diaper this evening to air out his bum and that did not go well. At all. He peed and then sobbed because it stung and after fixing that, had a number two which went worse...

Arghhh! I want him to feel better. Poor bug.

Erika

No no!

A bit of back story, the day before Rob took this video, Loic and Tyler were playing with some sticks at the park and Tyler took a stick from Loic that he did not want taken. It caused a bit of drama, no idea why that particular stick was so important, but it certainly was! The next day, Loic was at the park with Rob while I made dinner (without Tyler) and Rob asked him if Ty-ty could have his stick, here is what he said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL0rclzEQuU

Ha ha! He is starting to have a mind of his own that boy!! He is still very good natured and funny, funny funny. And Tyler, Tyler is so soft and nice and kind with him, makes me so happy to watch the two of them. Loic understand absolutely everything you ask/tell him.

Loic rode Jeffree today and had a blast! He sat up there on his own, grinning from ear to ear and when we took him off, he kept saying "Up! Up! Up!" and pointing at Jeffree. That is a nice horse!

I am feeling much better this week, no more awful nausea, but am still tired. Rob built me a fence around my veggie garden and I did a lot of prep work today to start planting veggies! I still need to move some raspberry canes and figure out where to put some rhubarb, then it is pea, lettuce, kale and onion time!

E

20 months (Lolo) and 12 weeks...

Hi all, long time no post! Erin, as promised here are some lolo photos!!

Riding the train at the mall, oh my gosh he loves trains!!

We learned he likes chocolate and bananas together. A lot.

Shockingly cute!

Cheeky little monkey :)

So, big news at our house. On January 23rd, I peed on a stick and saw this:

Yup, pregnant! And 12 weeks about today, with a due date of October 3rd-ish. Other than being extremely ill this pregnancy, things appear to be going well. For not having been sick a day with Loic, this baby is making up for lost time. I have been sick sick sick since week #4, here is hoping that this is the turning point. As long as baby is healthy, we will be happy and Rob has been a rock star these past 8 weeks. I often have to lie down after work and he and Lolo play trains and eat dinner without me these nights. So nice.

Speaking of Loic, he is almost 20 months old now!! And is a funny, chatting machine. I was planning on nursing him until 2 years old, but have been so ill that something had to give and last week was the last time he nursed. I have had to go home a lot at lunch to lie down and once I cut out his lunchtime nursing (I went to the nanny's house every lunch to nurse him on work days) my milk supply just gave out. I am sad, but he seems A-Ok so that is something at least. And I feel prepared for nursing baby #2 now, I learned a lot at the beginning with Loic and learned that nursing past one is just wonderful.

Work is going well, the dogs are well (will post a video of a smart smart black lab soon!) and the house is great too. Artie has had a few seizures in the past few weeks and we are keeping an eye on them but he is his same old self for now.

Will post ultrasound pics in two weeks!

E

Dinners this week

Erin has been here for the past few weeks so I have slacked off a bit in the dinner menus. That being said, here is this week's dinner menus:

Sunday - Loic and I had dinner with Jody, and we had pasta, salmon in dill sauce and steamed broccoli

Monday - homemade veggie soup (I used some frozen chicken stock that I made a while back so I guess it is veggie chicken soup) served with small noodles or rice, haven't decided yet

Tuesday - Beef stroganoff and steamed veggies

Wednesday - wraps with turkey, cheese and a lot of veggies, served with fries (homemade if time permits)

Thursday - at agility, so quick dinner of frozen chicken, rice and a veggie of some sort (usually peas because lolo likes them a lot)

Friday - end of the week, frozen pizza!

E

This week's dinners

I will be honest, Friday nights we usually have something ready to go from the freezer (like pot pies, M&M meat stuff etc.). I am done by Friday nights and if I don't plan for at least that, we will order in - which is not good for our waist lines or wallets!!

Here is this weeks menu:

Sunday - homemade beef and tomato pasta sauce with noodles

Monday - thai chicken salad with lots of veggies, chicken breast and vermicelli

Tuesday - layered casserole, my mom's recipe (very tasty, will use left over homemade pasta sauce)

Wednesday - baked pork chops with apple (found a nice recipe for this, haven't cooked pork in ages but looks good) with brown rice and steamed broccoli

Thursday - frittata with eggs, potatoes, veggies and a salad

Friday - frozen meat pies!

If you want recipes, let me know, I make a lot of it up as I go.

E

Long time no post

I have had a request to put more photos and recipes on the blog. Here is a thought for all 3 of my readers, if I post my weekly dinner menu (yes, I make a list of meals we will have for a week and grocery shop accordingly) maybe you could pick out meals you might like and I will then post the recipes? Just a thought.

We are all doing well, Loic is 18 months old now and is a riot. The dogs are all doing well too, Jess and Jody have taken Tyler snowshoeing, which loves. Toby and Arthur would decidedly not like snowshoeing and are happy to stay home.

Now for the good stuff - Loic videos!!

Yes, I taught my baby how to do a tunnel. And penguins say "Mimi!" and are also called "Mimis!" That boy loves his penguins. And he does really know a lot of animal sounds (I left out Goat and another one but can't remember when I am listing them off for him!) Smart smart baby.

E

Odds and Ends

Hi all, this is going to be a general updating post.

Loic is doing very well, he is going to be 18 months old at the end of this month - where oh where does the time go?! He can say a lot of words now and knows many different animal sounds. We have gone to the farm and the aquarium in the past two weeks and he loves both places. He especially loves the chickens at the farm.

Tonight we had an epic poo incidence at our house. Epic. Picture poo running down the inside of Lolo's pants, into his shoe, out his shoe and then all over the floor. Needless to say, a few baths were had, the floor is now very clean and the baby is feeling much better!

Tomorrow night we are having an impromptu Monday night dinner party for my parents, Dave (Linda can't make it), Jody, Rob, Lolo and I. Rob went crabbing with Dave and Stu and ended up bringing home about 4 crab and a lot of prawns!! We will start out dinner with steamed crab and prawns cooked in butter, garlic and lemon followed by the Pioneer woman's beef drip with spicy peppers on buns and a jalapeno cole slaw. (The beef is in my slow cooker, ready to go in the am). Should be fantastic!

The dogs are doing well, Jody and I took them to the woods today and they had a blast. The naughty terriers (Toby and Abby) were in prime terrier mode and the good boys (Tyler and Ryan) were there usual goofy well behaved selves. We tend to go to Bridgeman a lot and this was a nice change for all of us.

Now onto some pictures:

Lolo in his big boy pj's! So cute. Will have to post a picture of his new tool themed pj's

Another shot of four dogs in the back of my Fit :)

Toby is NOT impressed.

Watching TV with Grandpa

Thomas!

Rob and I did something today that we rarely do - we bought Lolo a big present! We got him a giant wooden train table and all of the track, trains and buildings to go with it. Lolo is a big Thomas fan and has now played with the same track at Go Bananas (indoor play area for kids) so we decided to splurge on the whole set. Lolo had a gift card from East Coast Grandma (thank you again!) and we got the table for 12% off because the box was damaged so we went for it.

Rob just set up the actual table and one set of tracks and a few trains; we decided to put the really cool stuff away for now - it comes with a helicopter, train station, house, signs, trees, tunnels, a crane, cargo, bridges and all sorts of other cool stuff. Not sure if Rob will be able to wait until Lolo is ready... :)

Lolo has a toy Thomas train that he loves that fits on the track - we will see what he thinks tomorrow morning when he gets up and sees it! We put it at the bottom of the stairs in an open area that we don't use much because it takes up a lot of room.

E

Happy New Year

After a bad day yesterday (trip to clinic turning into trip to the hospital turned into CT scan of my head) today is a much better day. Things looked A-Ok on the CT scan, which was a relief. Not sure what is going on with my eyes, headache and dizziness yet, but a clean CT scan is great.

Now onto Loic! He is such a funny little man. I have loved having the last week off with him. We have gone to the farm twice - he tried to kiss all of the chickens today while saying "buc buc buc" (his sound for chickens) which is adorable.

Here is a video that Rob took of Loic, we are teaching him how to say "Please" and it comes out as "Peas" which is adorable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOXf8vI70So

Ack - can't handle the cuteness!!!!!

E