Commercials and my boy

We've been watching Treehouse almost exclusively since Kiernan was born. We have been spoiled by the lack of commercials.

Suddenly, he wants more. He wants to watch shows he hasn't seen before and we've been letting him watch a lot of the Retro stuff - Inspector Gadget, Smurfs, Loony Toons. He likes it and we're happier with these options than a lot of the other stuff on (ie Sponge Bob).

But now we have commercials. And I am amazed at a couple of things

1) How quickly he went from "I don't like commercials!" to "I want one of those!" "Can I have that thing?"
and
2) How very gender specific his choices are. He ONLY asks for the "boy" toys. I don't think we have a lot of gender specific toys at our house, most of the stuff is pretty neutral, blocks, musical instruments, shape sorters, etc We do have quite a bit of kitchen stuff, and also workshop stuff. I hadn't really noticed until lately how much Kiernan mostly prefers the workshop stuff (but I HAVE noticed how much Juliette ALREADY enjoys the kitchen stuff) but every ad on tv that's about cars and superheroes and I don't even know what else, but obviously for boys gets a "Can I have one of those?" and all of the swimming puppies and barbies get a blank look.

I don't really care either way. He can like what he likes and he can ask for all he wants but he'll get a few choice things for Christmas and his birthday, but it's all struck me as really interesting.

The end ;)

Climbing

As a rock climber reaches the peak after a particularly well executed climb, or as he feels the wind whipping by as he repels back down the rock face feeling the thrill of speed, he probably doesn't remember his first foray into the world of thrill seeking...

But I bet his mother does. She probably watched his little face full of joy and excitement, triumph and thrill as he went up and down his first real climb.

And she was probably glad, that for now, watching him climb up and slide quickly down the stairs 50 times a day was as risky as it was going to get. At least as long as she kept her eyes on him as HE eyed the far riskier climbs all around him with great anticipation.

Ow!

Juliette has several favourite words. They include hi, maaeee (it was mommy at one point - she's gotten lazy), no and OW!

Most of the time, she uses OW incorrectly, or at least, very liberally.

We'll be driving along and we hit a pothole and I hear "OW!! OWW!"" from the backseat.

The stroller goes over a curb "OW!!"

Not really OW Juliette....

That being said she does use it correctly and very cutely a lot of the time. She bumps herself on something (no matter how lightly) and she clutches her injury and proclaims "ow! ow! ow!" the whole way over to me before leaning in for a kiss in the afflicted spot.

Or on her big head, or on her toe or on her hand....


"ow! ow! ow!"

The things that distract me from blogging here...

Kids in the Capital - not only is it going very well, we've got a new look and we moved to our own domain!

Kids in the Capital spun off this month too - Kids in Cowtown is the equivalent but in Calgary. If you know any parents in Calgary who could benefit - please pass along the link!

Losing it in Ottawa - the first eight week session is done and I kicked ass ;)

My Uppercase Living business has launched and is going well. If you want to sign up for my newsletter, I'm going to be sending out updates for promotions, sales and special events. I'm going to be doing a draw for everyone who signs up for the newsletter by Nov 30 for a this Fa la la la la Christmas vintage embossed metal board kit.

I'm also going to do a draw for this build a snowman activity set from everyone who holds a party between now and November 30. Plus you'll get a Christmas decal sampler. Let me know if you're interested!

I'm also getting ready to go to She's Connected and Blissdom this month.

Oh, and these guys too I guess ;)

Maybe I found a solution to keep them all safe!

My babies couldn't be more different. Passive, cuddly, sweet vs boisterous, independent and assertive.

She is significantly smaller than her brothers, but she never lets that stop her from believing she is the boss. And she is willing to do what it takes to ensure herself as alpha dog of the pack. She bites, she pinches, she pushes, she hits, she shoves.... and her two much larger brothers? They fall to the ground in tears, the picture of pitiful.

She will be my biggest challenge, this girl. She is also my comeuppance.

Thankfully she doles out the hugs and the kisses in good measure too - her brothers love and adore her.


But sometimes I think we might just want to keep seats like this inside for all the time. Much safer.

I think I'm failing Kindergarden

I didn't know there was so much work involved in this Kindergarden/school thing - for the parents!

Every day Kiernan's bag comes home - with work for me. And... I wasn't really doing it all.

And then the teacher called me out with a note! Ok, it was a note to everyone reminding them what they need to do - I must not be the only one who was emptying all that those papers out of his folder every night? I wasn't the only one who didn't remember to label EVERY. SINGLE. clothing item before he went to school?

Sigh - totally dropped the ball on Terry Fox run (really? he's 4. It's the first month - I have to fundraise for him? :P) and we lost (and found) one coat so far. I need to remember to return library books, and to pack a healthy lunch every day (unless I bought him a hot lunch, then I need to remember NOT to pack him a lunch that day). They have pizza mondays - I got them for him sometimes, but not all of the time. Then the guilt sets in when he tells me everyone but him had pizza because they ran out. sigh. Really? EVERYONE in the class is having pizza EVERY week?!

There's the added stress that my written French isn't great and I ought to write the notes in French. I think I'm saying less than I would have to avoid figuring out how to say it. That's a FAIL for effort Lara!

It'll get easier right? By the time I have 3 in school, this will be old hat?? Ugh! Was starting school hard for you? Thank goodness Kiernan is transitioning well! :)

The things you can say without words

Juliette won't trust you when she first meets you - and you'll be able to tell.


Maybe she'll scowl at you or maybe she'll just look really skeptical.

When she's not being wildly surprised or shocked...

But she'll realize again, she's not so sure about you.

Good thing she warms up with some beautiful smiles eventually :)

Uppercase Living - my newest project

I've been up to something new! Something else to add to my boring and dull existence ;)

I've joined Uppercase Living as a demonstrator!!

When I first saw their product a little over a month ago at a small entrepreneur show I got really excited - I LOVE wall decals!! And these ones are totally customizable - colour, size, and if they don't have the words I want, I can simply create them!

Anyways, I fell instantly in love with the idea and joined pretty much right away. I've officially launched so feel free to check it out. You can shop online (Canada or the US) from my web site, or I can come to you and do a bit of a presentation and you get all kinds of host benefits.

Check it out! :)

Kiernan gets a haircut

This morning Brie wrote a post for Kids in the Capital about cutting her kids' hair and I was inspired. I've been wanting to try it for awhile and I Kiernan was BADLY in need of a cut. Very badly!

Then we wet it and made funny faces.

I started with scissors. This did not work well. He wiggled, he thought everything tickled, he would get up and leave, he just about made me insane.

With half his hair cut I got really ticked and threatened to take him to a barber. Instead I brought him upstairs, stripped him down and stuck him in the tub and used Eric's clippers.

In the end that worked really well - although I wouldn't do it naked again. Made him very itchy and I felt bad about that. Maybe outside would work better.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and am sure I'll do this again - cheaper than going to a barber! And I think he looks pretty darned handsome!

Atelier Restaurant

It's not often Eric comes home talking excitedly about a restaurant he's heard about, but what he heard about Atelier Restaurant immediately intrigued him. He started watching the youtube videos and reading the blog and would tell me all about the interesting things they were doing.

The restaurant is pricey so we couldn't justify it for just any occasion, but our fifth wedding anniversary seemed worthy. And for this night, Losing it in Ottawa did not enter into my head :)




I wasn't going to bring my camera in... I get shy taking photos in public. But once I saw someone with their point and shoot taking flash photos of every course I figured I could take some subtle photos without the flash. :)



The food at Atelier is a work of art. Each piece of each meal is carefully thought out in terms of look and taste and how it all works together. Each course as in all 12 of them! Atelier has what they call a blind menu - essentially you eat what they're making that night. They do ask if you have any allergies, dislikes, etc before you start. We decided to just go with whatever came at us.

We started with Down by the Bay - it not only had "sea foam", an oyster and was served on a river rock.... there was grilled watermelon (which was a HEAVENLY mouthful). Genius start to the meal.

The presentation was divine and there were so many flavours that I am usually not the biggest fan of that just WORKED when put into these combinations.

This course was called cocktail party and you ate them in a specific order. Each piece was on a piece of cheddar and ranged from "french onion soup" to a jalapeno popper with dehydrated bacon, and apple pie.

What's a tomato salad with a dehydrated tomato chip on top?

I don't really like goat's cheese. Eric doesn't like sweet potato. I've never had duck before. All three things together was one of the most pleasant taste experiences of my life. Drool.... drool!

This was squab. I'd never heard of squab. It was cooked using this method of cooking called sous-vide that Eric has been telling me about for a long time. Again, I'm obviously no food writer because all I want to say is OMG DROOL DROOL SO YUMMY!

Three dessert courses my friends! This one was called high five.

This one came out smoking :)


I didn't take a photo of every course, but every course was divine. The wine pairings were a highlight for Eric - I chose to just have a couple of glasses of white because red gives me headaches.

The meal isn't cheap, but it was worth every penny - and we intend to go back for Eric's birthday! :)

Mark's made me feel like a million bucks

I was lucky enough to be one of the people who knew that Mark's Work Wearhouse is more than just boots and uniforms and clothing for working outside. I've shopped there for myself a little (one of my FAVOURITE pairs of PJs is from there) and Eric has quite a bit of his clothing from there.

I like them enough that a month or two ago when I drove by two stores and their signs were coming down I was in a bit of a panic and ran to twitter to find out what was going on!! Fiouf - just a rebrand... their signs quickly went back up as Mark's.

Because really, Mark's Work Wearhouse really isn't the right name any more. Their store is full of fabulous and fashionable clothing for women and men, on top of their workhorse clothing.

And Mark's is all about innovations that are handy for everyone! Hello? Ironfree clothing - count us in! Salt resistant boots for Ottawa is pretty much genius, and so is their tmax insulation, because sadly we live in a city that often goes to very depressingly low temperatures. Also, shape retention and 100 wash clothing - fabulous! A few other cool things I didn't know they did - you can get an appointment with a personal shopper to come and help you pick out clothing FOR FREE! And you can have at home shopping parties where they bring the clothing to you, and like all at home parties, the hostess gets some extra goodies for themselves towards their own purchases.

They also have fun stations around the store to test out their clothing and... entertain the customers :)

Test out that footwear!

How well is that winter gear you're about to buy going to hold up to our winters?
Test it out (tip - do NOT got in in a tshirt. brr)

They invited a bunch of bloggers marksovers in one of the newly branded Ottawa stores and I was super excited to get to attend! What I didn't expect was that so much would fit me. As thrilled as I was to head to this makeover there was this part of me that was nervous - they didn't ask me what size I wear, can they accommodate someone in a size bigger than a 14 or 16? I knew I had PJs that fit, but stretchy pjs and pants are two completely different things. And I admit I haven't tried to find anything for myself since pre-pregnancy days at Mark's. They go up to 18-20 in the pants and XXL in many things (although I was pleased to find myself in XL and not XXL).

The experience itself was stellar. We got pampered - makeup, hair, personal stylist. And then a photoshoot - all making us feel like a million bucks. That was something this mama really needed! And I requested an outfit that was easy to care for, comfortable, but also something I could go out with (not just the yoga pant/tshirt combo). I love love my outfit down to the little heels that go with it.

Thank you so much Mark's for a great day and for making me realize you're a store I need to be shopping at more often!

Four

I can't believe he's four. He goes to school - every day, all day. He has long (ohhh how they are long) and complicated conversations. He remembers SO much! He loves his brother and sister. He still loves to give hugs and kisses. He still likes to sit on my knee, although it's too annoying to stand because he never stops moving.


He went from this


to this:


in a heartbeat.

Sometimes I wish it would slow down. But mostly, I am honoured to get to witness him live and grow.

Happy birthday to the most amazing four year old I know :) (no offense to all the other fabulous four year olds ;)

Meal Plan - week 1

Over at Losing it in Ottawa I promised I would put together a full meal plan for this week and post it on my blog. So here it is! A bunch are new recipes, I'll let you know how they turn out.

Dirty rice is an easy throw it all together meal I've made many times over the years and I made Tinbuktuna for the first time last week and it was the only week all meal the entire family ate. If for that alone, I will make it weekly from now on if I need to ;)

Also, I'm having a giveaway over on my Losing it Post - so go check it out!

I have no idea why the table is way the heck down the post so... scroll down wouldya? :)

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Waffles	flavoured tuna & cucumber on pita	The thigh who loved me Crazy Plates, pg 97
Tuesday	Crumpet and peanut butter	tv dinner (weight watchers or lean cuisine)	Timbuktuna
Wednesday	Waffles	Ham and cheese eggs	Out for dinner
Thursday	Cereal	ham sandwich	Sizzling Sesame Shrimp
Friday	Crumpet and peanut butter	tuna sandwich	Dirty Rice
Saturday	waffles	Nephew's birthday *fingers crossed*	Loafstyles of the Rich and Famous Turkey meatloaf - Looney Spoons pg 92
Sunday	cereal	pancakes and eggs	Beef stew

365 update - the one where I almost quit

I almost quit 365 this week. In fact, I almost quit 365 on day 100.

Why? Because I found myself struggling to take a photo every day. Some days I had many great ones, but all too often I was taking a photo of a wall in my house at 11 at night just to say I took something. For some reason I am stuck on the fact that the photo NEEDS to be from the day it's supposed to be from - no fudging. And if I can't do that, I may as well quit.

Day 100 was the worst. I pathetically took a photo at 11ish with my iphone - too lazy to go out to the van to get my real camera.




In case you missed it, the muffins say 100 - but I can't take credit for that, Angela helped me figure out SOMETHING. You know, at 11 at night.

The next morning I had pretty much decided to quit. But, I am a tweeter. I tweeted my intent. And I was talked out of it :)

Apparently some of you like looking at my photos? (oh look, she's blatantly asking for praise ;) I'm told the lame photos are more than made up for by the good ones. And I admit that being forced to pick up my camera (almost) daily has made for some photos I probably never would have gotten otherwise.

I think it's been too long for me to go through ALL the photos I took since my last update post, so instead here are some of my favourites:

Juliette - the personality pours out of every pore


Quinn - could he look any more pleased with himself?


Kiernan - sitting in the tall grass at Eric's family's farm


We drive to get the babies to sleep a lot. Now I stop and take photos


Kiernan at the MacKenzie King Estate


First day of school. First day on the bus. Big big day


Happy boys in a cow train


I am very proud of this one. There are others from the set here if you're interested.


The day I didn't quit (day 101)


I guess I'm glad I didn't quit :)