Dogs, kids, teeth, garden

Well today was not awesome.  I was supposed to go to the Dentist for a crown but after a traumatic 3.5 hours I ended up with a root canal and a temporary crown....fun times.  I will say that I can very, very happy that we have extended dental.  In 4 weeks I go back for my real crown.

We went for a family hike on the weekend with our dogs and my mom's dogs and of course our kids.  Carol over at SAINTS wrote a good blog post about how new parents can keep their pets.   Rehoming our dogs was never an idea that we had, even though we knew Arthur and Toby were not giant fans of kids.  Arthur just passed away but we did a good job of making sure he never bit the kids.  We will do the same with Toby.  Carol wrote about how spending short bits of time with your pets is all you need to do and I would agree.  I would also say that having dogs gets you and baby out of the house at the beginning to go for a walk.  There were days where that walk did wonders for my mental well being.  Plus - I could get a coffee too through the drive through :)

This is a picture from our hike on Sunday.  Loic and I hunted for bugs, the dogs chased sticks and Maelle watched everything going on around her:

 Such a good black lab!

 Loic watching Toby dig (and dig and dig)

My garden is coming along nicely!  We have eaten a lot of radishes, green onions and lettuce.  We have kale ready to start eating too - this pic is of some washed Pearl lettuce:

Oh Maelle :)  This is her new favorite pose:

 Agile baby!!

I made a delicious salad this week, soon I hope to use everything from the garden (well, not the feta) to make this salad:

-E

2 + 2 + 2

We are a household of 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 dogs.  5 years ago we were a household of 3 dogs and 2 adults; so much can change in 5 years!!

Maelle is *so so* close to walking.  She can walk easily if you hold onto one of her fingers.  As I predicted, I think she will walk around 14 months just like her big brother.

Loic has a cold, again :(  He is at a bigger daycare, which he still really loves, but I think that means he is exposed to more cold bugs.  He had a good day though, we went to a parade, he had a mid-day tub because we got soaked at the parade, he watched a movie then went with Rob to get the truck washed at a fire fighter fundraiser.

Loic is on a bee theme these days; we go outside and he loves to watch the bees gathering pollen on our raspberries and creeping thyme plants.  I am so happy that he continues to love animals and plants (like his mama).

The dogs are doing well.  I can't tell if they miss Arthur or not.  Rob and I feel relieved that we made the right choice when we did and that Arthur didn't suffer.

In garden news, I transplanted some tomatoes into pots and into the garden yesterday and made my own hanging baskets this years with annuals my dad gave me!  They look very pretty.  Next up - put in some pepper plants given to me by a co-worker/garden friend :)

-E

Oh, Arthur. Sep, 1998 - May, 2013

We euthanized Arthur tonight.  His heart had finally given out after 15 years of life, the last 3 on heart medication.  The vet was nice, she said there was nothing more to do and that it was absolutely the right decision to euthanize him.

A toast to Arthur: you were very naughty, but you were our naughty Chihuahua.  We hope you are with Cody somewhere and that the two of you are barking at both everything and nothing together.

In Maple Ridge

In Tofino

-E

Jody's place! And a dirt party

Here are some pictures from our trip to visit Jody.  Maelle and I spent two days there and we had a lovely time :)

Maelle with a Chicken!! :)

Maelle watching the kitchen with interest when we were out for lunch

I tried to get her to cuddle with me in the morning but all she did was frown, roll over, and go back to sleep next to me....adorable

Maelle and Jody at the park, Loic would have loved this park!

Baby and Moose :)

I took Loic to his buddy Ezra's 4th Birthday party on Monday and the kids alternated between jumping on the trampoline and digging in the 'job site' aka pile of dirt in the back yard.  Loic had a blast!  (He is the one in the red shirt on the far right of the 'job site'.)

A parting shot of my front veggie garden.  The peas on the left are super happy, and the blank spot has just been planted with bush bean seeds:

Rob has another cold, I have a raging ear infection but the kids are doing well (hope they stay that way, fingers crossed).

-E

SO Funny

Maelle has a new interesting crawling style, which makes Rob and I fall over laughing.

She is also a bit more strong willed than her brother was.  Rob and I can't figure out if that is just because she has an older sibling around when he was on his own or if she is actually a bit naughtier than he was....
Loic is so sweet with her and if he has something she wants she tends to head but him out of the way.  We are already working on teaching her how to take turns (meaning she sits and yells when it isn't her turn) because we feel it is important for Loic to hear us teach her how to share.

Rob and Loic went on an adventure hike on Sunday!

He is carrying the flashlight that I clip onto Tyler's collar when I walk at night :)

-E

A lovely Day

Today is Mother's Day and while *every* day should be called Mother's Day, it is nice that there is a day set aside for us mom's out there.

We had a lovely weekend.  Rob still can't pick up the baby (come on May 15th!) but he can play with her and feed her etc.  Loic went to his first ever drop-off birthday party yesterday for a kid at his daycare.  He had an awesome time.  We had a play date last weekend with the little boy and his mom - we figured it was the responsible parent thing to do - and I am so pleased that they lived so close to us.  His mom is great and he and his little brother are nice little boys.

The party was a pirate themed one and Loic went in full pirate gear!  He looked AMAZING!  My mom got the costume at a garage sale for $5 - good deal Mom!

Here is Pirate Loic:

I rode Jeff this morning while my mom watched Maelle (Rob is okay with Loic because Loic doesn't have to be picked up).

Nice ears:

Garden update - things are happening.  AND - while Rob put in 96 square feet of raised beds for me, I am out of room....I need more beds, like, a lot more.  I will have to prioritize.  I moved my flowering currant so that I can put more potatoes in the back garden.  Back garden is now:  38 heads of garlic, potatoes, three rhubarb plants, two apples and one lone blueberry that needs a new home.  I have to plant the potatoes one night this week.

We had (another) bowl of radishes with dinner:

Baby is growing up *SO* quickly.  Isn't there a saying "the days are long but the years are short"?  Well, my kids are so easy (so far, I am holding my breath slightly for the teenage years) so the days and years both seem short.  I so enjoy them.

Dad reading Loic a story before bed tonight:

Maelle enjoying an ice cream bar after dinner tonight:

 Not a great picture but look at that skirt!!

All in all we had a nice weekend.  I bought a few plants at the local garden club sale yesterday, that is the gift I get from the kids every year and I did some work in the garden.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

-E

Those eyes

I know she is mine, and all mama's think their kids are adorable, but she is *really* adorable:

Look at those eyes!!!  

Cheeky thing!

I can't post more, will ruin the surprise for Mother's Day.

We have been eating a lot of radishes - that crop has been a huge success!  I am going to pick the rest of them tomorrow and will wash them and stick them in the fridge so that I can plant some beans!  I also need to move a flowering currant from the back to the front yard so that I can plant potatoes.

E

House of Woe

Well then.  It has been quite the week at our house.

Poor Rob.  Rob had his much anticipated (much postponed) hernia surgery on Wednesday afternoon.  He had a bit of a rough go after the surgery but is home safe and sound.  He is very, very sore and cannot lift the kids or anything else for the matter until May 15th.  Needless to say that is a tough thing to do in a house with two little kids!  I certainly have a renewed respect for single parents.

My big plan was to be away this weekend so that Rob could stay home and relax in peace and quiet.  However, Loic had another plan.  Loic has had a terrible cough for over a week now.  He isn't sleeping well and hasn't been at daycare since Wednesday at lunchtime.  Poor kid.  I had to work Thursday so I left the two men on the couch watching cartoons so that I could go to my work meetings.  Between meetings I took Lolo to the Dr. because his cough was so bad we were actually worried about pneumonia but she said it was just a nasty virus.

On Friday we got a phone call early in the morning that Maelle's daycare lady was going to the hospital so we had no childcare for her on Friday.  I ran in and out of work on Friday while my folks watched her but then I had to take the rest of the day off.  Her daycare lady is fine (bad case of food poisoning) and I am thankful that my work is both understanding and flexible.

As of Friday night I was all packed and the kids and I were going to head up to Campbell River, but, Maelle started to cough a lot after she went to bed.  I was up with both kids quite a bit last night :(
I didn't want to be away with both of them coughing and feeling miserable so we stayed home.  We were supposed to be at my brother's birthday tonight - Happy Birthday Uncle Ryan! - and then we were going to head to Jody's house tomorrow.  Such is life - I am just glad that the illness and Rob's recovery are short in the grand scheme of things.

Duncan isn't feeling well so my folks asked me to take him to the vet this morning, we should know more tomorrow.  While I was at the vet a family came in to euthanize their old yellow lab.  The two teenagers were crying, which made me cry, so I stood in the far corner of the waiting room crying for them.  So so sad.  During all of this, only I can carry/hold/care for Maelle - so she was in the Ergo at the vet.  She seemed to like it there - she called all the dogs in the waiting room "Ty-Ty".

After the kids were in bed I mowed the back lawn and actually had to water the garden!  Oh, and the mason bees are using their house on my back shed!  While I have always said they are really high maintenance little insects, it was very exciting to see them flying around my apple trees and then back up to their house.  We shall see what happens and if they lay their eggs.


Side Garden in the back yard tonight:

Side Garden August 2010:

(I dug up the lawn myself and almost killed myself at the same time by falling into that very unforgiving fence.  Jess saw the whole thing) 

Hostas tonight:

Garlic and espalier apple tree tonight:

This is a different angle but shows the back garden in August of 2010; the garlic is currently growing up against the blue shed:

Truck wounded apple tree tonight (this tree makes awesome apples):

One of my three rhubarb plants tonight, I am not sure why the giant flower:

I love, love, love the changes we have made to the back yard.  The veggie garden, fences and compost bins were made by Rob and I put in some pretty nice gardens if I do say so myself :)

Here is hoping next week is better than the last!

-E