Welcome To My Life

I may appear to go into hibernation for a short time.  To add to all the other ocmputer problems I have now lost all my data for the month of July, PLUS I have to run a recovery on my NEW computer because of all this.  So..... back up data on the old computer of what is on the new computer.  Restore new computer.  On the old computer do a clean up of what is needed and what is junk from several recovery efforts.  Then transfer all files back to the new computer and restore old computer.  MAJOR work here!  All this with a teething little girl who is hardly napping and very cranky.  I think that tooth is very very close now!  So, this should be interesting, but I'll be back as soon as I can.  In the meantime, if you have emailed me, I may have lost it.  Please comment here and I'll be sure to get it.

Lisa :)

OK, let me start with WHY OH WHY did I call in a computer tech to do some work for me?  Because I was busy.  Because they are great at backing up data and transfering it to a new computer.  Why oh why did he wipe out all of my documents?  WHY????  9GB of stored stuff and my hard drive is now at the data recovery specialist.  Did I mention that this is my NEW computer?  To be fair, it's not entirely the guys fault.  His company (who shall remain nameless) has a program that backs up outlook express folders and my documents and such.  Since I had already cleaned out My Documents on the old computer it was empty.  It was backed up empty, and when the back up was restored on the new computer, it restored My Documents to being empty instead of just adding whatever files were kicking around on the old computer.  AHHHHHHHH!  So, no pictures today.

Now, on to the goods.

WHY #1 - Why do children have this built in instinct to pick their nose and eat it?  Marcus has never seen anybody do this that I am aware of.  He certainly has had hi sfinger in hos nose for quite some time, but I have recently been catchign him trying to eat his "find".

A funny on this on today though - Marcus stick his finger up his nose, I gave him "the look" and he says to me "Uh Oh!  There's a hole in my nose!"

WHY #2 - Why do babies always fall asleep hanging on to you?  Every single time I put Emmy down for a sleep she's hanging on so tight!

OK, enough for today.  I have to start searching the old hard drive for files that can be recovered just in case.

I'm sure it doesn't surprise you that we own a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD. Today Marcus asked very politely if he could watch it, so I put it on.  He actually didn't watch it all that long before he went outside to play.  I flipped the TV off, but didn't get the DVD player.  The next thing I knew I heard the door open.  When I went to investigate, Marcus had come inside, turned the TV back on, went back outside with his train, but was watching Thomas through the open window!  What a stinker!

I don't have it on video yet, but Emmy can crawl!  The stinker!  I keep telling her that she's too young to crawl, but I guess she already thinks she knows better than mommy.  She has only done about 3 "steps" at a time, but it was hands and knees coordinated.  Look out, here she comes!

On Sunday the kids had a bit of fun.  Emmy started out by having a little fun with Claire.  Pictures of their little gathering can be seen in the featured gallery for today.  Then we took the kids to see Grandma and Grandpa.

Marcus's excitement started out with the frog.  We found a small frog hopping around by Marcus's little pool and he thought it was the neatest thing.  He kept trying to dump water from his pool onto it, and was delighted to hold it briefly. 

We then turned our attention to the peas.  It was pea shelling day and Marcus was a very big helper!  He's so good at shelling peas, and each time he opens one up and finds peas he goes "Yeeessss!" 

This morning Marcus was stroking Emmy's hair nicely.

Marcus: Soft....just like Whiskers fur. (he's our cat)

HAD to laugh at this!

My entire universe seems to revolve around Thomas the Train and all his friends these days.  If anybody wishes to make Marcus's day, just give him anything to do with trains.  Anything at all.  Underwear with trains on them would likely make his day.  Socks, clothes, colouring books, you name it.

Now, trains aren't such a bad thing for him to be interested in, it could be worse. He could be interested in Barbies.  That being said though, I kid you not, EVERYTHING is about trains.  He is hungry and asks for a snack.  What would you like Marcus?  Train food.  What makes mommy happy is that I can still tell him ANYTHING is train food.  Why is he now eating Oatmeal for breakfast instead of the usual plain toast he has been eating for a year!  HAHA!  Score one for mommy!  Since I started typing this out Marcus has come to me because his colouring book wasn't good enough, Train book? Train book?  Then he found his missing train shorts somewhere and brought them to me while stripping off his others.  Train shorts? Train shorts?  He has train movies, he goes to the Thomas website and plays trains, he has regular and Thomas trains, he got to go to the train store for earning potty stickers, he has Thomas books, and he has even named his regular trains names from the Thomas movie.  All except one which is named Torque.  (???)

The problem with all this?  I don't wanna hear another word about Thomas!  I also don't want to deal with a fit everytime I say no to something to do with trains.  No Marcus, you cannot take all your trains to bed (that's asking for trouble!) and he throws a fit.  No Marcus, you cannot watch a train movie....fit.  No, Marcus your train colouring book is so used it is now in about 5 different pieces we cannot use it anymore....fit.  The worst are watching his special train shows shows upstairs in our room while playing with all his trains of course. Say no to that, you have a good 15 minute problem on your hand.  Same thing with no to trains on the computer.

So, all that being said, I'd like to shout out to the creators of Thomas the FREAKING Tank Engine...THANKS A LOT! Oh, and thank you for making your trains so ridiculously expensive, we enjoy paying as much for a train or two as we should be on the entire track set!  And, when we leave the store with only one in hand because of that, we thank you with such words that can only be said in our heads as we attempt to lure our children away without causing the biggest freak show ever recorded.

All this is over freaking trains with faces.  Hmph, and they got rich off that.  Why not make and plaster faces on other objects.....because they will know...they will know they are not trains!

Wow, has it been a week since I sat down and did an entry?  Oops.  I guess the excitement of getting and setting up the new computer really slowed me down a bit.  That and having two little monkeys to take care of, that might also have something to do with it.

So, here are LOTS of photos from our photo shoot.  I uploaded lots more to add to the previous folder which only contained three, so check my photo shoot folder out again! We have some lovely shots.  A decent family picture, as decent as it will get anyway, and lots of pictures of Emmaline and Marcus, though we found it impossible to get a shot of the two together that looked good.  I will keep trying for that perfect picture so I can have it framed.

Now, onto the kids.  Marcus has made even more advancements with his toilet training!  We can now go out without a pull up on accident free....as long as he isn't wearing underwear that is.  He has done really well.  He has hurtled his way into the terrible two's this past week too testing boundaries every chance he gets and the tantrums have reached a new intensity level.  When he's good he's oh so good.  When he's bad - look out!

Emmy had her 4 months shots today.  Poor little girl!!!  I think the part I hate the most about having a baby is those darn shots!  That and the late night parties in her bed, last night from 2:15am until 4am.  Lovin that one.  Her official stats as of today are : 13 Lbs 7oz (with clothes and a diaper) 23 1/2 inches long.  She is my petite little girl!

Enough for now...now that my computer is set up I will be blogging more, I LOVE this new computer!  It's sooo much faster than the old one, which we have considered keeping for mr. keyboard fingers-marcus.  Hmmm, a thought. 

Enjoy the pictures!

My my, Little Miss Emmaline is certainly progresing!  She just turned 4 months old and she is up on all fours trying to get around!  Perhaps this is because she is trying to keep up with her older brother, who she totally adores.  The two of them will take turns giggling at each other every night, it's a special moment between them when you can see the love between them already.  A far cry from Marcus's attitude when she first arrived and he wouldn't even touch her.  He'd do a circle around her to avoid contact.

Marcus is hitting a new stage of play.  He is really starting to enjoy the sandbox on his own, and can enjoy his trucks/cars/trains with a purpose.  He hauls things here there and everywhere.  His few favorite game is "Where's Marcus hiding?"  On laundry day he enjoys hiding in the laundry pile.  Yes, it is that big, he can completely cover himself.

We ended up buying a new family computer yesterday, so while the transfer of files is happening, there likely won't be many pictures to share, but I'll flood you all with them once we are set up, which with 2 small children could be a while.  I am loving my new 19 inch LCD monitor!!  Now I just have to get the old computer set up for sale and we are set.  I need the extra speed on this new computer to do  my little projects in Photoshop, whose files sizes were causing my last computer great stress.  Now I'll be able to enjoy the freedom of saving my work in less than 5 minutes and without that endless hourglass ticking away the minutes it takes to complete my operations.

Not much else is happening here, but here's a picture from our little photo shoot that I'll share for now.

I ended up having to go to the library, which is odd consdiering what you can find on the net these days, but I found the poem that I want to make up for Miss Emmaline's wall.

It is called Before Tea and the name is spelled Emmeline, but I will use Emmaline :)

Emmaline

Has not been seen

For more than a week.  She slipped between

The two tall trees at the end of the green....

We all went after her. "Emmaline!"

"Emmaline,

I didn't mean-

I only said that your hands weren't clean."

We went to the trees at the end of the green....

But Emmaline

Was not to be seen.

Emmaline

Came slipping between

The two tall trees at the end of the green.

We all ran up to her. :Emmaline!

Where have you been?

Where have you been?

Why, it's more than a week!"  And Emmaline

Said, "Sillies, I went and saw the Queen.

She says my hands are purfickly clean!"

A.A. Milne

I am going to put that up on Emmaline's wall, I found it to be very cute.

That is exactly the attitiude I think I am meant to have tonight.  It's been a day and a half, and even though I have a TON of things I should be doing right now, I'm sitting here preparing for the next challenge this evening is going to bring me.

Starts off with Emmy.  She had tummy trouble, and what I believe is a pretty harsh teething day for her.  Marcus wasn't here all day so I was going to get a lot of things finished, but NO!  I spent most of the day hanging with her, or rather, her hanging on me in the bjorn. 

Fast Forward a wee bit.  Marcus is home.  The toilet that Byron broke is being replaced.  This is a good thing right?  Well.....

#1 - I stepped on a broken piece that ended up on the ground outside and my foot is STILL hurting and bleeding off and on.  Not fun.

#2 - I was just about to get up and start all the things that need my attention when I thought I'd check out the new toilet.  In all the blood I had forgotten to do that.  First off it doesn't fit over the lino properly because it's a different shape (but that's OK - not too worried, the floor is scheduled for replacement) but the toilet itself is nice.  Ohhhh, little floaties inside from installation.  I flush.....what's that sound?  Water is GUSHING out the back!  Hey!  That's the second time in 3 days!!!  What are the chances?  Pretty good when your feet fill my shoes.

So, frustrated, I sit back down.  then I got a giggle.  Well, it didn't start as a giggle.  I noticed that the yearly ants are back.  I'm watching one walk across the top of my computer monitor, and it falls right off.  Right in front of my eyes, for no apparent reason.  This year, we have stupid ants!  I mean seriously, I have named them the dumbass ants of 2006.  We don't drink, so they didn't get a taste of alcohol from us or anything, they must just be that stupid.  I've never seen an ant fall before.  Not like that anyway.  Hmph, that was the most amusing thing all day!

It was one year ago, about this time that Byron was laying on the sidewalk lifeless.  Nice memory to think of every Canada Day huh?

BUT - this year he only managed to break the toilet instead of his head!  Don't ask! LOL

It's been a long rough year, but things seem to be turning around for us.  First off, this year Byron has a beating heart and is breathing.  We have a wonderful baby girl, instead of just a little seed of a baby to dream about.

So, enough on that, now we look forward to the next year and wonder what it will bring.

I can tell you what I wanted today to bring!  I wanted today to bring a bit of peace and quiet, particularly through dinner.  Byron was going to BBQ so I was going to take it easy.  I guess the evening started with me out in the garage looking for another fan for the oven which we call upstairs in this house.  For some reason today it felt like it was set to broil.  Byron comes to the door....the toilet is broken.  Water had gushed everywhere!  The toilet tank had cracked right down the side and spewed water.....go get the mop.  Great way to start.  Oh but wait!  I had been outside with Marcus, and to get him inside the house I had to bribe him with a phone call to Grandma.  It's really stupid what I will do to get this kid in the hosue in a hurry, but I had no choice, Emmy was strapped to my front in the bjorn so carrying him kicking and screaming into the house wasn't a pleasant option.

So, toilet broken, big mess, water cleaned up, Emmy down for a nap.  Right, now  Mr. Repetative is going "Amma! Amma! Amma!"  Well, Grandma isn't home.  Great.  OK, I'll appease him with - tomorrow morning we are going to go see "Amma and Ampa" and you can stay overnight!  Oh no, that wasn't good enough!  Major fit, screaming, he sends himself to his room.  (What is up with that?  He doesn't get his way so he sends himself to his room, screams, then yells, "good boy? good boy?" - right, he's 2.)  I hear him head over to the stairs, then I run over to grab him - Emmy is sleeping upstairs! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Sure enough, she's up.  The BBQ is already going, and of course dinner is done when I have a very upset 2 year old and a tired cranky baby.  Right.  Let's just eat.

Baby in swing.  Marcus in his highchair.  I'm going to eat right? HA! 

"milk? milk? milk mommy?"  Ok I fetch him milk.  "trains? watch trains mommy?"  No Marcus, eat your supper!  OK, going for a bite.  Emmy is done with the swing.  Here we go.  Wind it up.... Both kids quiet?  Yes....go for that bite... COLD HAMBUGERS!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Here's a link to celebrate with food that I love:

www.sweetnicks.com I just found this site and YUM YUM!

and of course here's a pic, Marcus waters the plants!