After a week of no friends coming over, Ryken was excited to play with his cousins yesterday. We were in quarantine because Ryken had pink eye. Not exactly something you want to be sharing! We went to the doctor last week, because his eye was bright red. She immediately told me it was pink eye, and I had to put drops in his eye 3 times a day. That was fun. Thank goodness for fruitios. "A treat if you let me put your drops in! Open your eye, no don't close it...open...open." He would shut them as tight as he possibly could. Oh well, now we're better.
He's doing great with sleeping in his car bed! About 4 nights ago, he told me "nigh, night's car bed." He slept there the whole night through, so the next morning we said bye to the crib, and we haven't looked back.
We're going to Oroville again this weekend, and the weekend after that, we're off to Florida! A family trip with just Rob, Ryken and myself. Nothing but beaches, and outlet shopping! Rob's already located all of the malls, and printed off the store directories for me. What a great hubby, eh?

 
 
CHEESE!!! Ryken easily smiles for pictures, ecspecially when there's Cars involved! Erin and I went to Target a few weeks ago, and we loaded up with the Cars merchandise. Ryken got his shirt, sheet set(saving for his birthday,) and his new Cars backpack. I figured he was old enough to start carrying around his own diapers. I want to carry my own purse again! The trouble is I load it with so much stuff, that I'm the one carrying it around because it's so heavy. Oh well, it works.
We bought this car bed for Ryken, hoping it would be an easy transition to a big boy bed if it was something he loved. We haven't had him sleep in it yet, we just wanted it set up so he could get used to it for awhile. Well, today he had his first nap in it! I layed down with him for 5 min. and he was out. Rob and I worked outside for about 1 1/2 hrs, before he woke up. The only problem is, he knows how to open doors, so he had wandered out into the hall. He can't really get into anything, but I think he was a bit disoriented. Anyone have ideas about moving from crib to bed? He's just about 2, so I think he's probably ready. I don't want him jumping out of his crib and hurting himself. He hasn't attempted it yet, but ya never know.

Hey everyone, hope you had a great Easter weekend! We went to Oroville, and spent the long weekend at my parents cabin on the lake. It's a quiet little town not too far from here. We went to Kelowna first to visit my mom's "adopted Grandma." You know, those family friends who are so close, they practically become your relatives. Anyways, we had been planning to go visit her this weekend because it was her 100th birthday! Crazy, right? Well a couple of weeks before the big day, my mom received a phone call. The party had been cancelled. My mom prepared herself for the worst. But no, Grandma was fine. The reason for the party cancellation? She is only turning 99! Poor Grandma. Nobody to celebrate her 99th birthday with her. Isn't that awful? So we decided we definately needed to be there to sing happy birthday, and share a slice of cake. She loved Ryken, and he even gave her a kiss before we left.
On Sat. morning, we had an Easter egg hunt at the State Park. The kids were hunting for real hard boiled eggs. No chocolate for these kids. Ryken got right into it, and was trying to carry as many as he could. We didn't have a basket, so he happily dropped them into his cars backpack. He picked up 9 eggs, and was quite proud of himself!
Monica and Justin were at the cabin with us and our parents. It was great to spend time with them, just relaxing and getting away from it all. We're going to spending a lot of time there in the summer. Can't wait!

O.K. Christina, thanks for kicking me into gear. I've been a little busy lately, so blogging has taken the back burner. Spring break has been a great break from piano lessons, but what's with all this rain? I can't take it anymore! Please remind me why I live here again! I always knew I was a Hawaiian wahine at heart. Give me the beach and beautiful sun everyday... amen? My little Ryken is getting so big. He copies absolutely everything you say, even little sentences. I told him to do something today and he said no. What a surprise. I repeated my request, he looks at me and says "fine." He then did what he was told. Not bad. I don't even know where he comes up with half this stuff. I'm reading a book called "How to raise your spirited child." It is him to a tee, and has given me lots of helpful pointers. He's listening a lot better, and as long as I give him a warning before ending an activity, he's transitioning from one thing to the next quite well. He's still very spirited, and is so persistent it sometimes drives me crazy. He surprised me today though with his counting. He repeats the alphabet after me, and can count to ten on his own! (still needs help saying seven). Two days ago , I decided to count for him in French. He repeated the numbers and did pretty good. Today I started counting in French and stopped to let him repeat. He continued on his own "quatre, cinq, six." In French! This is someting I've done with him a handful of times! Yes he's one smart cookie, and that's my brag post today. I'm allowed to do that, right?

Pretty good before and after, eh? My freezer had a Tupperware makeover. I loved it so much I decided to start my own Tupperware business! Last week I had 2 parties, and did quite well. It was fun just to get out of the house and show the latest and greatest in Tupperware. They have some amazing sales on right now. If you or anyone you know are interested in getting Tupperware for FREE...ask me how! I also have a great fundraiser program, specifically for schools raising money. 40% of the profit goes straight to the fundraiser! WOW! It's a new and easy way to earn money for your schools. Check it out...Tupperware. You might be surprised at what you find!

Rob's idea of getting Ryken to "help" clean out the diaper genie.

SUNPEAKS PICS!

We went skiing with friends at Sunpeaks, last weekend. Rob's parents own a condo there, so it's a nice inexpensive way for us to get away. My friend Kristy, her husband Jason, and their two kids joined us this year. The first night we were there, Ryken woke up almost every half an hour. Strangely similar to our trip there last year, with Erin and Ryan. With the combination of a cold, possibly a tooth, and being in a different place, Ryken had a hard time getting any sleep. On our second night I loaded him up with gravol, and he slept like... a baby. Ahhh...sleep. The guys went skiing for the first half of the day, then took a turn watching the kids so the girls could go. Kristy and I are about the same level, so it was great skiing together. On one of the runs, we went to the very top of the mountain. We rode that chairlift for probably 40 min, into a cloud of fog. We couldn't see anything around us, and boy was it cold! We finally made it to the top, and skiied as fast as we could just to get back to the condo for a cup of hot chocolate. Rob didn't believe us when we said we went to the very top. Guess we're better than he thought! It was a great trip!

I should've never left the house this morning. I was rushing out of the house with dog and child in tow, to get into the car and go to Abbotsford. I was going to drop Eddie off at my parents, and feed their dog, 'cause they're away for the day. As I was backing out of my garage, I heard a sickening thud. I stopped the car and looked over, to see my passenger mirror hanging lifelessly from the side of my vehicle. I couldn't believe it. Crap!!!!! Our garage has 2 doors going into it, so they're a lot narrower than the norm. There's litterally an inch on either side of my car when I back out. I've always been careful, but I guess I need to be more careful! I drove back into the garage to assess the damage. The whole mirror was torn right off. I managed to pull half of it off, unroll my window and stick the mirror's motor back into the car. I didn't want it hanging out as I drove around town. I continued on to my parents house, figuring there was nothing I could really do about the situation. Once I got there I let Eddie out, and I decided to take Ryken into the house so I could phone a few repair shops. As I'm looking throught the yellow pages, I trip my parents house alarm. Awesome. Thank goodness I know the code, because the alarm company called. Finally make it out of the house and to the body shop, where I learn my new mirror will cost me a pretty $250.00. Get back home after running around town, go upstairs, and see that I have left my back door open. Not just unlocked...Open. Seriously, what is wrong with me??? We're going to a friends house tonight. I think I'll let Rob drive. My mirror will be fixed tomorrow. Hmmm... wonder if Rob will notice.

Yesterday morning, I woke up at 7:45am. To the sound of ...nothing. Absolute peace and quiet. Which in our house is not normal, ecspecially after 7:00am. On an average day, (every day) I usually awaken to the lovely sounds of my son yelling "MOM...MOM...UP MOM!!!!" Today was not one of those days. Maybe it was his Valentines gift to me. I got up, got dressed, put the coffee on, then went in his room around 8:20. He was laying in his crib, eyes wide open, just chillin'. This has never happened to me. I can honestly say that I've never seen Ryken wake up in his crib, and be content to just lay there for awhile. He's usually immediatley up and ready to go. He was happy to see me, he got up, had his milk, and we watched the Berenstein Bears together. It was a great morning.

"Cars! Broom, broom!!!" This is usually the first thing that Ryken says to me in the morning. We bought the Disney Cars DVD a week ago, and he loves it! I have to limit his TV time as it is, and right now this is the only one of his movies that he wants to watch. Do you know how hard it is to find the diecast cars? I've been looking everywhere for them! I've been phoning every store that I think might carry them, but they're all out. "New shipments may be coming...but we' don't know."
I just ordered these super cute wall stickers from Avon. All the Cars characters that can stick right on the wall, peel off, and re-stick. Boys and their cars. Man, it starts young! Disney cars is definately going to be a great theme for Ryken's 2nd birthday. Not that far off...when did he get so big?

So excited! I'm actually on my computer again! This whole time, I've had to wait for Rob to come home, so I could use his laptop. My cousins husband just fixed our computer for us. Sweet! Yesterday was our last day of swimming lessons, and Ryken passed! He is officialy a starfish. I didn't think he would pass, because he has refused to blow bubbles in the pool. Tub? no problem. There's just something about putting his face in that big pool with all those kids watching. Then when the lessons were over we went to play in the shallow end. Just me and him. He leans over, puts his whole face in, and blew the biggest bubbles ever! I got all excited for him and he looked up at me with the biggest grin, and did it again! He probably did it about 10 times and had so much fun doing it. From now on, I'll be doing the teaching. We did have a lot of fun though, and he was really proud to show his dad his swimming ribbon. Definately something to scrapbook.

Here's Ryken hard at work. He's so innocent looking, but I'm running out of ideas on how to manage this child. He is constant 24/7 attention. He always wants me to carry him, screams if I take something away from him, falls to the ground if I want him to walk somewhere, and it's driving me crazy! We've been consistant with the naughty spot, but it doesn't seem to have any long term effects. I've tried hitting his hand if he does something wrong, but he doesn't cry. Instead he looks at me and starts hitting himself. Weird, right? I'm not sure what to do anymore. If I spanked him for every wrong thing he did, he'd be getting 10 spanks a day! Any suggestions from all you moms? He understands so much for his age, and can say a lot of words. But he still can't completely explain himself, which is pobably why he gets frustrated. He is so strong willed and stubborn, but at the same time he can be so fun. I don't want you to think he's some awful child, he can be so gentle and sweet. The way he hugs you makes you melt, and he makes sure to say uv-ouu before going to bed. I absolutely love my child. I need to make sure that I do the best I can in raising him the right way. Any solutions or ideas?

Eddie's been making some new friends! We've been attending free dog lessons at a park nearby... yes free! Trainers charge an arm and a leg to show your dog a few tricks, but not here! Anyone who wants to can bring their dog, and just drop in for the lesson. Eddie has a little trouble meeting other dogs. Don't get me wrong, this dog doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He's just so eager to meet everyone, waning to play, and doesn't know when enough's enough. He's doing really well since we've started the lessons. Ryken's also starting to pay more attention to him. He gets his treats for him, and even helps me practice his commands.."doowwnnn"(complete with arm movement.) Having them play together gives me a break too!

Had a friend over the other day, and we were discussing the $100 Canadian child tax benefit. She receives it, but I never have. I thought there was some form or something that I had to send in, but apparently not. I decided to investigate (which I should have done sooner) and realized I haven't been receiving anything for the past 6 months! Nada! I phoned the 1-800 number and the guy there told me it was because I had moved, and my account had been flagged. Did you know that when you forward your mail to a new address, government mail isn't forwarded? Long story short- I've got a huge back payment coming my way!

Is there anything else I can do for you? This is the comment that the Rogers wireless guy asked me, after I told him I wanted to change my address. He couldn't change my address because Rob's name is the one on the account. It's my cellphone!! I know it's for security purposes and all that, but I'm the one at home with the time to do this kind of stuff, and I can't even get it done! From now on both of our names are going to be on all accounts. I managed to change our address on our Visa account, and found out that we have enough points to fly anywhere in North America. Awesome! We're thinking about taking a vacation with Ryken before he turns two, so we don't have to pay for his flight. We want to go somewhere hot, that's not too far away. California? Florida? not sure...keep ya posted.
I should go to bed. We've got swimming in the morning... the only thing right he did last time was wave goodbye:) Oh well, at least we're trying!

We've started our first set of swim lessons! Ryken & I have been to two lessons, now, and he's really enjoying it. I needed to get him involved in something active. Not being able to go to the park in this weather, is making us squirrely. He absolutely hates being cold, and refuses to even let his boots touch the snow. So today during lessons, I'm trying to get Ryken to blow bubbles, and the instructor leans over and says "you might want to try putting his mouth really close to the water." Harmless comment, right? Well only 2 things that bugged me about it. Ryken decides he's not doing something, and nothing changes his mind. I'd already put his mouth close to the water, and he either sticks his tongue out to lick it, or throws his head back. Second thing: for those of you who don't know, I am a certified lifeguard and instructor. I really had to bite my tongue when she told me how to blow bubbles. I could be her instructor! The reason I wanted him in lessons was to be with other kids, and learn how to swim in a group setting. I could teach him myself, but I thought it'd be more fun this way. We'll see.....

Seriously gross!

I was at my sisters tupperware party tonight, and the consultant had a great story for us. We were talking about organizing our cupboards and the neccesity of having everything sealed. Apparently, we may be bringing home more from the grocery store than just groceries. Many homes have been bug infested from the cardboard packaging on everyday food items. The bugs lay their eggs in the glue on the packaging, then wait till they're nice and cozy in your home to start hatching. Mmm...lovely. Anyway if you store everything in airtight containers, this will never happen to you! Coincidently, all of the Tupperware modular mates are 40% off this month. I've decided to host a party on Jan.26th. If you'd like to come, let me know. Or if you hate the party idea, you can just place an order and take advantage of this great deal. Check it out by clicking here.