Motor Boatin'

Seriously how funny is my kid?

Making a Difference with Ovarian Cancer Canada

As the Co-Chair for the Walk of Hope in London Ontario, I am incredibly passionate about raising funds and awareness for Ovarian Cancer Canada.

Make a difference! Support the Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope!

This year in London, we hope to raise over $15, 000 for Ovarian Cancer Canada. Every donation, no matter how small, helps save the life of a woman...sister...mother...daughter...wife...mother.

Donate today!

We are also looking for donations from artisans, crafters, businesses and corporations for our Silent Auction table, corporate sponsorship and product sponsorship for our participants. If you can help, let us know! Email our team at ldnwalkofhope@gmail.com

Owen in the Cupboard

Because, who doesn't like to sit in cupboards?

And Sometimes...

We run around Nana's in just a diaper...



look at that muscle definition! haha

This happens when he gets a hold of his sippy cup, and thinks it's funny to take a mouthful of water and let it spill out of his mouth...all over himself

repeatedly!

Free Willy

After going to Sea World over the holidays, I thought it might be time to introduce Owen to a family favourite...

Free Willy

He wasn't scared at all by some of the scary parts but unless Willy was on the screen...he was running around like a crazy person.

When he saw Willy, or the full pods of whales, he would stop dead in his tracks and point at the screen, saying "wow..." with a gasp and pause







Notice how he hasn't moved but the image on the screen has clearly changed?

That's Mama's boy!!



(and a wee bit sick the day that we watched it...but notice how he's not looking at the camera...at all...he's watching Willy!)

Name My Dragon

On Valentines Day, Owen and I snuck out to get everything for a red feast for dinner!

He laid eyes on this pink dragon (yes...pink) and just had THE biggest smile on his face. So being the sucker that I am for my kiddo, I just had to get it for him.



He just loves her! But...she needs a name. I tabled the name Sally (just totally random) and C said no...and asked if I was going to buy him a Barbie the next time we were out.

This coming from the guy who wore a pink shirt to the bar for his bff's birthday...



Name my dragon!

Kisses from Owen!!

The Cookie Mamas

So one of the things that I've been up to is setting up a new business with my pal Paige.

She's the mama to Owen's little friend, Eliot, and since the boys were maybe 6 weeks old we'd been talking about opening a bakery together.

We both love to bake, and admittedly it's something that we're both really good at. We went so far as to look into equipment costs, monthly operating costs, overhead, space rental, target locations...

Yeah...WAY too expensive, and way too much time away from our boys.

So, we took some time to soul search, and right about Paige's birthday we came up with a brilliant concept...which has materialized into The Cookie Mamas!

We are absolutely in love with our shop, and have received such a positive response from friends, family and even people that we don't even know on Etsy!

So this is how we spend alot of our days...baking, tasting, tweaking recipes



king of patiently waiting...



Hi, Mama!



For Valentine's Day, I created a vanilla butter cookiewich, which I dyed pink, and filled with super yummy vanilla butter cream

I think he liked them!

At The Little Gym

One of the things that we've been doing with Owen to have him gain confidence around children and interact with them a wee bit better (as in not be shocked when someone wants to play with him!) is going to a weekly class at the Little Gym

We absolutely LOVE it and he's really been enjoying it as well. We'll be taking more pictures, and maybe some video as he works through his class, the Little Beasts...but so far...



They get to play with the balls at the end of each class, and this is by far his favourite part! sometimes they get to dunk in the big donut, other times it's actual basketball nets (they did that for the first time a week ago, and Daddy had to lift him up to reach the net...they had so much fun!!)



He doesn't always pay attention...



He was a little hesitant on the beam at first, but now...oh wow! Watch out! He'll climb the foam stairs and do the big beam (you can see it in the back left)



Dunkin' balls in the donut!



And sometimes...we get to have special visitors in class!! During exploration time, family and friends (1 extra person per kiddo) are allowed to come in and the kids just go nuts. Owen runs alllll over the place, climbing on things, walking on the beams, rolling down the cheese wedges...and trying to chatter to the other little kids

We're really excited to see him growing, developing and interacting with the other little kids. He's had his first kiss with a little girl named Rachel, bowled over a little boy named Brady, and tumbled after a little boy named Charlie. He gets SO excited when we get there and just goes goes goes!

What we do at Nana's

Since we still have a few weeks before our new house is ours, i thought that we'd recap some of the fun things that Owen does around Nana and Papi's!



We bake cookies...lots and lots of cookies



We try on funny hats...



We push all of our toys out of the cabinet, climb inside and shut the door!



We climb on the ottoman...so much for that obstacle (damn you, Little Gym!)



We stand on the ottoman...and jump off! (yay, Little Gym!!!)

We do alot more things, like read books, watch movies, make art, and snuggle on the couch...but these pictures were pretty funny

Two a Week

Okay...

so I'm going to try really really hard about blogging twice a week. The grandparents are missing the kiddo I'm sure, and we've been REALLY busy...so...

Tuesdays and Thursdays, expect a photo or video dump, and I'll blog real-time ramblings or things that are fun whenever they happen.

It's the best that I can do!

I'm getting into the busy season with Sweet Stella's, have started a new business with my pal Paige, and we get possession of the new house March 9th!!

That's only 3 weeks away, so I'm going to be scheduling posts so that things will pop up in your Readers and you can check back more regularly...and I have some funny posts scheduled already so stay tuned!

Anger at the Addict

Again blogging from the playbook, so Iwill apologize if spacing and capitalization (and spelling) are off.

Today, i received a cal, from my mom that my brothers addiction has taken another bad turn. As with mlst addicts when they get desperate, hes been stealing fromher and thouh he promised that he had stopped....well....it just got worse.

My poor mom. What crap she has to deal with. I know its not myjob to fix this, but i sort of feel like it is now that myDad isnt here.

Right now, it is taking every ounce of strength to not go down to her home, beat the door down and give him a piece lf my mind. I could never...EVER imagine doing what he has done(cheque forgery) and k could never ever imagine feeling that desperate. Sure, he has alot of demonsand the manic depression doesnthelp....but neiher does the oxycodone and pot (and who knows what else...).

Right now,i feel angry.i am so angry that hehas chosen this for himself. I am so angry for the hurt that he has knowungly inflicted on my family.

Ive touched base with the Celebrate Recovery program at the church ive been going to and beard whag the leadefa have to say. Imnot sure its the right place for me....idont reallyhave anything to celebrate...just anger, pain and frustration.

how could he do this to us...

Special Delivery for Owen!

Owen got such a sweet treat in the mail yesterday!!



Oooh...what's that?



Whatcha got, Bear?



A Valentine?! You lucky boy!



A very lucky and loved little boy!



He sat there reading his Valentine from Nana and Papi for a good...oh...5 minutes or so....and was covered in red glitter when we put the card up on a shelf for safe keeping lol

Thanks, Nana and Papi!!

Day at the Beach

Another Florida photo dump!



We met up with Grammy and Rob at Clearwater Beach for some lunch...it was going to be Owen's second beach experience, but the first ocean experience



First steps into the wet sand!! This was a really proud moment and it brought back alot of memories for me with my Dad



Who needs a bathing suit! Pft!



A very wet and happy Owen :)




I can't wait for next year when he'll want to spend a full day at the Beach...building sand castles, playing catch with Daddy...the whole bit!

Addiction

First and foremost, please bear with me. Im blogging from C's new Playbook and trying to use a touch screen....so...bear with me!

I ave something that I need to start talking about, but Im not really sure how to begin...so...here goes.

My older brother is a drug addict.

I dont want to get into the nitty gritty (and trust me, it's gritty!) details of his addiction and what it's done to my family, but I do want to talk pretty openly about what it's like to have an addict around you.

His addiction is just that; his. It's been going on for quite a long time and Ive had to make some really difficult decisions.

Recently, its gotten really bad and recent choices and events have led me to reevaluate the impact that having an addict in your immediate family can have on you personally.

Maybe some of you out here can relate, maybe these posts are going to act like therapy. With the permission of my Mom, Im going to blog about it fairly regularly and talk about it from my side of things in the hopes that my insight might help someone else going through the same ordeal.

The first step in all of this is to find a support group, preferably at church, with people who can relate. The church that Ive been going to has a program called Celebrate Recovery. Its geared toward the actual addicts themselves, not necessarily the families.

When I was talking to the pastor, I asked if they had any support programs specifically for the families. I was shocked to learn that they currently do not. I found it shocking since they have a clear program for the addicts...but nothing for the family members.

So, Ive volunteered to start one.

Yup...use my pain to help others. Kinda my thing.

Ive written to the woman in charge if the Celebrate Recovery program to see if it would be possible to start this group...so...we'll see.

Like I said, these posts might be ramblings, but I think its something worth talking about

Hoo Hoo!

Seriously one of the funniest things that he's started doing, thanks to the library program we've been going to.

The one week, Ms. Jamie was talking about trains, reading stories and doing crafts with the kiddos. By the end of all of the stories, Owen was saying HOO! HOO!!! In the car...all the way home!

Daddy-berries

Since both set of Grandparents are in sunny Florida, we've been trying to take more pictures and videos of the funny things that Owen does! Expect LOTS of photo and video dumps coming a The Family Szem near you!!

Sea World!

Another Florida photo dump!

Last year, we took Owen to the Tampa Aquarium and he just loved watching all of the fish swim by. So...we thought, why not bigger fish??

Well...we were right. He has SO much fun watching the dolphins, whales and sea lions! Oh and the Happy Feet! The Happy Feet!! just LOVED it!



Watching the dolphins underwater...he totally didn't want to look at the camera...just wanted to watch the dolphins



And the Happy Feet! He frigging was in a trance!



The sealions were most definitely his favourite. He would bark at them...so cute!



Waiting for Shamu!



Time to head home! Bye bye, Shamu!



Even though he was a sleepy Bear, he really really did not want to go home...he kept waving to the sealion statues and saying Bye-Bye



We had a great time, and I definitely think that we'll go again. Highly recommend for a toddler!

{okay...I'll admit, we totally went for me...for old times' sake...we used to go alot with my Dad when we would go to Florida for march break and it definitely inspired my dream to be a biological oceanographer. My Dad and I used to talk about having a big research boat, he'd do the underwater camera stuff and swim with the orcas, while I would study the dolphins}

Give it to God

Remember those New Years Resolutions? The ones about finding a church, gaining a better understanding of my mortality issues and getting comfortable in my relationship with God?

Well, today I took a step in that direction.

A few weeks ago, I started looking within the city to see what churches are out there. Community. Presbyterian. Catholic. Baptist. Lutheran. The options go on and on (and on). I asked people on Twitter for recommendations, posted on facebook and just went to town arming myself with information to the point of being overwhelmed.

I thought it best to email Rev. Lonnie at my home church {Presbyterian} to get his opinion and guidance since I am very comfortable with his ministry and how our church is run. He suggested a couple community churches, and one traditional church.

I decided I wanted to check one out and set out my outfit last night. Cream shirt with black polka dots, skinny jeans, cream coat with ruffle down the breast, navy shabby rosette headband, brown moccasin flats (man I need new shoes!) Would they like me? Would I be okay in jeans? Would they have a traditional choir? Would they like me? Did it matter?

Well...I went to the traditional one today, Oakridge Presbyterian. I was met at the door by a very nice woman, and checked myself in at the Welcome desk. I met the sweetest older man, named Hank, and was so eager to engage right away. I really did want the people at Oakridge to like me...it did matter to me.

The choir was huge...like 50 people easily. At St. P's, we have a praise team (including my Momma) of maybe 7 people. They even had a kids choir, which was awesome and I could totally see my baby Bear up there in a few years, waving proudly to his mama (as so many kids did!)

The sermon...gosh it was perfect. The message was about giving it up to God, not taking his name in vain, and what that truly means (not just swearing GD!). I felt...relieved, something that I haven't felt in a very long time. It was perfect timing for some other personal things that I'm going through right now.

After the service was over, I went to grab some more information about support programs, adult activities, Alpha programs and Hank came over to ask how I liked the service and make sure I met Rev. Ed! Seriously, the nicest people ever!

I spoke with the pastor for a few minutes, and he actually knows Rev. Lonnie, which made me feel alot more comfortable. I explained what I'm looking for and why and he asked if I had filled out a contact card, which I had. I'm hoping to hear from them soon, and I'm really looking forward to next Sunday (but maybe for the 11 o'clock service...;)!

To The Zoo!

Another florida post with pictures!

We wanted to try and pack in as many family activities on this trip a possible...and one of them was a trip planned to the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa.

We set off just after Owen's breakfast and the drive was easy peasy.

We arrived, and I opened Owen's door to find him throwing up all over himself...holy motion sickness! It was horrible and I froze, not knowing what to do. C swooped in, we grabbed the towel from under Owen's carseat and cleaned him up.

He seemed to be totally fine, so we found a pair of shorts that happened to be in the bottom of his stroller, and got him a shirt at the gift shop. What a way to start a day!



The baby Rhino was as crazy as Owen! He just kept running in circles around his mama



My men *sigh*



He was VERY excited to see some real life Happy Feet!



A one humped Alice the Camel


His favourite of the day was watching the giraffes have a snack, and see the elephants come lumbering toward them

Have I mentioned how much I love him? Cause I do...alot

19month stats

Well...here's a doozie of an update!

Since we were in Florida when Owen turned 18months, we had to wait a few extra weeks for his (now) 19month appointment.

He did so well and I'm really proud of him! Passed all of the milestones and questions, and even did really well with the shot!

Height - 32"...inaccurate (explanation below)
Weight - 27.4lbs - 83%
Head - 19.2" - 63%

Now...his height is inaccurate because they had him stand sorta closeish to the wall...not right up against the chart, just sort of near it. The doctor said "about 80cm..." then we looked at Owen's September chart from his last appointment...79cm.

You mean to tell me that my child has grown 1cm in four months? Ya...ok.

I measured him the old fashioned way, lying down...head to heel...when we got home and he's 34". Much more accurate!

Now for the milestone stuffs..

Words: hi, bye, bye-bye, good-bye, mama, nana, w-come, bath, bum, k-ty, mag-be (Maggie...the cat..new word this morning!), vroom, yum, book, done, all done, i'm done, go, good, ba-fa (breakfast), cheese, yes, yay, uh oh, dad, hi dad, m-oe (me-ow), roar

Take directions like "can you bring mama your book?", "what does the bear say?" {answer is always a throaty ROOOOAARR!!}, "can you get the yellow/blue/red ball?"

Frigging love him!

Oh! and he started saying "hooo hooo!!" after going to the library this week and learning about trains! So cute!