So True...

Doodle by Lee. The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

(And sadly, we didn't get Sam's 4-month photo today due to scheduling problems - but will be sure to take it tomorrow!)

Saturday Acquisitions

Newly acquired by Jen & Jeff: almost $300 worth of paint and paint accessories. Now we will really need to get moving on painting our kitchen and upstairs! Ack! (I should note that we will get 30% of the paint cost back, since Home Depot had a mail-in rebate...but we probably won't get it for 6 - 8 weeks). I hate buying paint - how does anyone ever know that what they're buying will work?? It gives me serious stress.

Newly acquired by Amanda: a serious case of whininess (is that a word?). She's been really great lately, but I guess we all have our bad days and today was not stellar. However, by evening she was in a great mood and chatting up a storm in the car on our way home from Home Depot.

Newly acquired by Sam: the ability to blow bubbles! Thanks Jeff for teaching him that one. Now his normal drooliness has been amplified by about 10X.

Newly acquired by Jeff: a MacBook, for school (yeah right, just for school). Jeff and Amanda have been having much fun playing with its cool features:



Newly acquired by Jen: sadly, not a new computer. However, I have inherited Jeff's old laptop and will finally have an upstairs computer of my own! Not that I couldn't use the laptops before, but they were never set up for me. Now I can sync my iPod and have all my programs installed upstairs! Whoo hoo! Yes, it's sad what makes me happy...

Crack Me Up

Today when we were leaving Amanda's preschool, she said something funny while we were walking to the car and I told her that she cracks me up.

"Hey," she said, "I have a shirt that says that!". (She had a shirt from Old Navy two Easters ago that was really cute, and that she wore for quite awhile.)



She suggested that maybe Sam would be able to wear it when he got bigger. I tried to explain that it's kind of a girly shirt and that he probably wouldn't want to wear it. But she was really upset that it was such a cute shirt, and she really wanted him to be able to wear it.

Finally I told her that it was kind of like the song from one of her favourite albums these days, Snacktime by the Barenaked Ladies. (Aside: if you don't have this album, you must buy it! It's great music for kids and highly listenable by adults too. Definitely a must-have.) The song is called My Big Sister:

I like my big sister.
But I don't want to wear her coat.
It may be black
It may fit perfect
But you and I both know it's a girl's coat

Now I can handle some hand me downs
But shirts and sandals are out of bounds
Balls and games and such I don't mind
But a coat is over the line.

This song is HILARIOUS. So we sang it together, substituting "shirt" for "coat", and by the end we were laughing hysterically together.

I think she got it - she hasn't mentioned it again!

Sam Update

I am happy to say that we seem to have turned a corner with Sam! For the past three days he has been much more pleasant and I'm wondering if his grouchiness over the past couple of weeks has been due to the cold he's had. It didn't seem like too bad of a cold until the last bit, when the cough got really bad, but I know I had the same thing and my throat was quite sore. So maybe he just couldn't figure out why he felt so lousy? Regardless, I'm really hoping (knocking on wood here) that we've seem the last of super-grouchy Sam for awhile.

He has even been taking some naps, although they're not as frequent or as long as I think he needs them to be, and nighttime sleep has improved (although we're still not getting the same 8-10 hour stretches...more like 6-7 hours usually). I'll take it! The most important thing is that he's much more happy, smiley, and talkative during the day and there's a lot less screaming!

And in other Sam news...drum roll please...he rolled over today! Twice! I admit he doesn't get nearly the amount of tummy time he's supposed to, partly because I'm just rarely organized enough to fit it in, and partly because he hates it and screams bloody murder after about 5 seconds. But today he did roll over tummy to back twice - both times right after I put him on his tummy. Both times I also put him back on his tummy right away, at which point he got really irate ("really, woman, if I WANTED to be on my tummy I would have stayed there!").

And a dose of Sam cuteness for today...(actually this photo is about 10 days old, but we have been woefully negligent in our picture-taking lately!):

A Walk In The Park

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of what was predicted to be the last reasonably sunny day, at least for the rest of the week, and we headed over to Rocky Point for a walk. Rocky Point is on the Burrard Inlet in Port Moody, which means there is ocean right next to the forest. There is a great splash park and playground there, and a section of the Trans Canada Trail which is great for walking.

We were on a bit of a mission, because we had a few books that needed to be returned to the library. I wasn't sure whether we would be up to walking all the way to the library and back (I think about 6 km total), but somewhat to my surprise, we made it! Amanda was dragging a bit at the end but she was a trooper. Needless to say we all had a good sleep last night!

Here are a few photos from our adventure (or see the entire Flickr set).

Amanda found a clam in the forest - a bit weird, but that's what happens when you have ocean and forest close together!


Amanda imitating the pedestrian sign:


One sole holdout leaf amidst all the fallen:


A peaceful view of the Inlet:


Rabid Sam! For some reason he starts to froth at the mouth sometimes...combined with the googly eyes in this shot, he looks like he had an encounter with a bat!


My beautiful girl, looking so grown up!