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

Our weekend (in pics)

We had a really nice weekend.

Yesterday, Loic had soccer.  It is a new group of kids and he *loved* class yesterday.  He is certainly chatty there and is really getting the hang of it.

We then had a play date at an old co-workers house who has two little boys and a very, very popular indoor swing.  I didn't get a picture because the swing held three little kids and two were mine!

Today we went to Lonsdale Quay to see the Navy ships.  The line up was huge (way longer than any 3 and a half year old could ever wait in) so we just watched them from the dock.  Loic and I went inside the Navy bus where we watched a "you should join the Navy!" video until Loic because so very excited with all the guns and bombs that I had to drag him out of there.....At our house we have a rule: guns are a tool and only Police officers and Army people are allowed to use them.  We also stress how dangerous they are.  Even so, we have a 3.5 year old who seems to really, really like guns?!  There are no toy guns here or at daycare so I am not sure where this has come from?  Oh well, he does say that only Police officers can use them, I guess that is a win.

Eating noodles at the Quay

We then went in and had lunch and Loic watched the lobsters and crab at the fish monger.

I did some gardening this weekend too.  Note: pea fencing is a pain in the ass to install.  I stated out with good intentions then quickly had to call Rob for back up, he then got all pea-fence angry (not really) and we kind of got them installed.  We have been really enjoying the radishes and green onions so far!

A bad job installing pea fencing, however, I think it will work

The dogs are doing well too.  Arthur is, well, still alive.  Tyler got into some trouble this weekend.  We have always put fruit in a pyrex dish on our microwave, like, forever.  We went out yesterday afternoon, and he managed to knock the dish off the microwave where is exploded, broke the tile floor, and sprayed glass all over the kitchen.  Awesome.  He cut his paw a little bit too but it is fine.  Oh Tyler.

A picture of the glass debris left over from a shattered pyrex dish.  Bad Dog.

Loic had a play date with a kid from his daycare today which was really nice.  He is going to a drop off birthday party at this kid's house so we decided it might be a good idea to meet the parents first!

I shall leave with a random baby picture, this is how Rob found her in her room today:

-E

Gardening pics, and a picture with grandma

Here are some pictures of my garden, taken this morning:

Garlic!

Peas, radishes and onions

Baby 'Pearl' lettuce, some more peas

My first attempt at planting sweet peas - I am really looking forward to these flowers

Happy, happy raspberries!!  And dwarf blueberries

Loic has needed a haircut for weeks now so today we all walked down to the barber shop where Loic proceeded to talk the barber's ear off!  It was pretty darn funny.

Maelle and I had a quick visit with my mom this afternoon and I got such a great picture of the two of them!

-E

Gardening! And Cooking! Exciting

As requested (by one person) here is what is going on in the garden:

Peas - are up!  I have half of one front bed planted with snap peas, another half with sweet peas (for the flowers Jody :)) and another quarter of a bed planted by Loic....his are NOT in straight rows.  We shall see what his peas do.  All are looking good!  I am on the hunt for some 6' tall stakes to stake them all up with, my brother said alder stakes work well.

Green onion sets - are up and growing quickly.

Radishes - look awesome!  I need to thin them out and clearly I am a very, very poor seed planter when it comes to spreading seed out....

Kale - 6 plants in and still alive.  A success so far, we have a lot of snails out there eyeing the kale.  I got the plants from my dad, he started them in his greenhouse.

Lettuce - the 'Pearl' lettuce is in and growing.  Again, I am not good at broadcast spreading seeds - they are all in clumps.  I will have to thin it out as it grows.

I put in three rows of carrots but haven't seen any sprout yet.  Maybe this weekend?

The raspberry patch I have planted over the past two years also looks amazing.  I love, love, love raspberries and so do the kids so I hope we get a lot of berries this year.

Blueberry plants - the 4 dwarf plants look great and so do two of the three standard sized ones.  I am a bit worried about one plant, the ends of the branches are showing some die back, but will have to wait and see.

Italian plum has been planted.

My garlic still looks good!  All 38 or 40 plants I planted are up and growing well so far.

Next up: I am going to plant potatoes in the back garden this weekend; some fingerling and another type.  I also need to get another rosemary plant and will put it in a large pot so that I can overwinter it near the house where it will be a bit more protected.

I am also going to plant some more lettuce in the front garden.

Cooking!  I haven't posted many recipes lately but rest assured, I have been cooking nightly.

Last night we had pork chops and I didn't wan to do my usual recipes so I quickly sauteed an onion and an apple in a bit of butter, took the apple and onion out of the pan, cooked the pork chops with salt, pepper, thyme and paprika, then added the apple and onion back to the pan.  This was really, really good!

We have also had some crock pot chicken tacos (yummy) and other tasty things lately.

I am on a lieu day today - yipee - so we are off to join friends at the farm once Maelle wakes up and after we have a quick snack.

-E