Smartie Pants

This morning while having our daily morning snuggle in mom and dad's bed, I told Violet that Santa was coming tonight and that he's bringing lots of presents for her.  She looked at me and said, "But Mommy bought me presents at the store already!"  lol
I said, yes, but Santa's bringing MORE presents!  Then she said, "When I open them, I go like this" and showed me her surprised face. I said, your surprised face?  She said, "Ya, like this..." and showed her surprised face again.
Too freaking cute!!

oops

The other night we were at a friends house to do an "annual" Christmas exchange/get-together with Violet and Desmond.  We put Violet down in their bed and as I was doing it, I pointed to their window (2nd story) and said, you better stay in bed and go to sleep because Santa's watching!  Something to that affect....  She said, OK, and fell asleep pretty easily, or so we thought.  About 10 minutes later we hear some crying, so after figuring out that it was "ours", I go up and see Violet and ask what's wrong.  She says to me while still sort of crying, I don't want Santa looking at me in the window!  Ugh!  Nice job!  lol
So I close the curtains and tell her that he's gone back home and won't be looking in any more.... she fell asleep fine after that, but thought it was funny.  Poor kid was scared that some dude (that she doesn't like!) is peeping in on her!
Sometimes the best intentioned plans just backfire on you!

Desmond is smiling and Violet is too cute!

Violet has given us a lot of great reminders lately to watch our language because little children are always listening.   We went to a surprise party a few weeks ago and on the way home in the car it was very late and Vi was still awake, we hear from the back seat, 'my milk is coming in'.  We were honestly not sure if we heard Violet correctly so asked her to repeat it.  She said it again and told us we needed to get home because she needed to feed her baby.  Andrew and I shook the car with our laughter...seriously?  MY MILK IS COMING IN?  Didn't even realize she was listening to me when I said that.  Little people have very big ears.  A few days ago we went to Swiss Chalet for dinner (still can't believe the story Adrienne told us about West coasters not appreciating the Chalet) and during dinner Violet was acting out a little bit.  Then out of the blue, she says 'a new car' with the Price is Right intonation and action (think Barker's beauties waving the hand overhead to direct your attention to the new car).  Hilarious.  Andrew asked Vi if she had been watching the Price is Right.  My parents come over during the day often with Sadie and my Dad is in love with the Price is Right, so the girls are often playing around the living room while it is on in the background, I don't recall ever seeing either of them watch the show (not really that fun as it is not a cartoon), obviously I am wrong.  They are watching and hearing it!  So funny.
Violet has been a little bit 'out of sorts' lately.  We are not sure if it is because she is teething, jealous or a little sick, but it is actually quite cute (don't tell her I said it!).  She wants to be rocked in the big chair and she has started to ask to get milk from my breasts.  Sort of a funny story there.  I have started to feed her from her sippy cup. She sits with me, like a baby and I feed her and then burp her.  It is a source of a lot of laughter as the burps come very easily and very loud (just her saying burp).  Then one night I had just finished feeding Desmond and she said Mommy, I want to you to feed me.  So I picked up her sippy cup and said, come on over.  When she was on my lap she said, 'no, I want you to feed me from there (pointing at my breast)', she then followed that up with 'I want you to feed me from your breasts (sounds like breathsts).  So cute.  I had read about this happening and told Violet she could drink from my breast if she wanted, but she had to wait until Desmond was all done because the milk is food for Desmond but just a drink for her.  So she said ok. Then I brought her up to drink, she has totally lost the ability to drink from my breast, it was hilarious.  She was trying to suck, but more like a straw and she was looking up at me with big eyes.  She said she was getting something but then came off and told Andrew she didn't get anything, but she tried to get some.  So I pinched some milk out and she tried to latch again and suck, but nothing!  So funny.  Since then she has asked a couple of times but only wanted to try again once. 

Desmond has been smiling for a while now, probably almost a month but this morning was the first time he looked up at me while on the breast and smiled while sucking.  I remember this was my FAVOURITE thing that Violet did when she was feeding.  Fills me with so much joy that I am able to give my kiddies the best start for health in this world with breast milk! 

Violet reading to Des this morning:

 Violet, Des and I making a snowman yesterday:

 Forgot to mention, my mom's old work Christmas party was this weekend.  Andrew had to work so I took the kids.  Violet would not go anywhere near Santa, but Des was ok.  She did however go up to him to get a candy cane...

Also, best wake up ever this morning.  Violet was in our bed last night and after Andrew left for work I got back in bed because Vi and Des were still asleep.  A little while later I feel a kiss on the cheek and a little voice saying 'I love you mommy'.  It was Vi, she gave me another kiss.  What a great way to wake up! 

Meyer's Christmas

We had the Meyer Christmas party on Sunday, and then right after, the annual Grey Cup party at Nancy and Drew's house.  It was a busy weekend as Saturday was spent shopping for Christmas and then home to get ready for an adult birthday party (with the kids).  We pushed the kids a little hard that day as we didn't get home until after 3pm, straight to nap time for Violet, and then had to wake her up to go to the party at 6:30 pm... yikes.  Good thing they were serving dinner right away... She did great and was generally a real joy at the party as she always seems to be.  We always seem to get comments about how cute she is (and she really is!).  Desmond did well too and wasn't too fussy as he's been lately.  Not sure why, or if his stomach has been upset, but he's been more fussy and wants to be held all the time.

At the Meyer Christmas, we had the annual Christmas caroling by some of the Aunts.  Surprisingly Violet thought it was music to her ears (LOL) and started dancing by herself and then decided that she wanted in on the action and climbed up on stage with them and started dancing in front of everyone -- you know the rules; everyone quite, sit there and watch the Aunts sing out of tune.  You get dirty looks if you happen to want to TALK to your cousins that you see once per year!?  Her dancing is more like bouncing with arms swinging or hands held together swaying, but she was up there in front of everyone doing it.  It was TOO CUTE!!  None of the other kids did this, by the way (I mean dancing to the 'music')...  haha   I think Grandma was proud.  Maybe we'll have a little performer on our hands?  At the end of it, with some prompting from Grandma, I'm sure, she decided that she wanted to sing as well!  So she tried to sing the Raffi song, Baby Beluga that Madison taught her when they were down visiting in the summer.  Now, she doesn't really know all the words, but she likes to sing it occasionally. You couldn't really hear her over Grandma helping her with the words, except for some parts, but it was sweet anyway.  Really shocked Marn and I that she went up there in front of everyone.

Here she is - really bad photo, but it gives you an idea.  I couldn't get video of her singing as she was just too quiet.  If I had gone up to tape her, she surely would have stopped as well.

Anyway, 'tis the season for crazy weekends, and I hope we don't have too many like that again (at least until actual Christmas)....

Edit:  The turnout was a little smaller this year than in past years, but here's a pic of all, or most of, the grandkids that were there.  If you're wondering where Kaiya and Mackenzie were, they didn't come as they were at a baby shower with Lisa.  Just Tony and Kaiden, who had quite a lot of exercise running around with the boys as you can tell from the bright red cheeks!  Darcy and Sue's kids loved Violet as they played all afternoon long, carrying her around like a doll.  It was pretty funny watching as Violet just let them "manhandle" her the whole time, but she had tons of fun. (the girl hugging Violet here, and they other girl above her - sorry, I've forgotten their names, even with the name tags this year -- yes, name tags. lol)

kijiji again!

So, I've been looking for snow tires for the BMW this year on kijiji and other places, including new.  Quotes for new tires and steel rims came in at $1200-1300, installed and balanced total including tax.  Kind of pricey.  You can find some for less, but you usually get crappy Chinese tires.
I've probably emailed at least 12 people selling tires on kijiji up until yesterday when I found some for $325 taken from a 3 series BMW (maybe only 2 people emailed back, and most times, the price was 600+). I inquired and asked how many seasons they've been driven on, and he didn't know, but said the tread measured about 8-9/32".  These tires new come with 12/32" tread.  It's probably safe to say two seasons of use, and have at least 2 more in them.
Needless to say I swung by the guys house after work last night, checked them out and bought them.  For about 1/4 of the price of new, I'll take it!  I was quoted $1255 for these exact tires on winter steel rims (not even nice aluminium rims) from a local tire place.
Hopefully they work out ok!  I'm hoping to get them on the car this week.

Re: Big Girl!!

Spoke too soon and jinxed it!
Yesterday evening Violet was playing in her room and I was in the bathroom, so yelled out and asked if she needed to go potty.  She yelled back and said, yeah.  I said, do you want to come here and sit on the potty then?  She yelled back, no, I went already!  uugh!  Puddle of pee on her room floor, and a not so nice surprise in her underwear!

Then this morning Marn asked her to go to the potty and she did and had a big pee.  Yay!  ...only to poop her pants 5 minutes later. I guess she must have been having fun playing or watching tv and rushed to get back out there before she was done.

 :(

Big Girl!!

Violet has been doing REALLY well the past two weeks with going to the potty.  In the last few days she's telling us when she has to go, and most often doesn't 'refuse' to go sit on it when asked, like she had been doing the past couple of weeks.  If she doesn't want to go, if you remind about the reward, she often then jumps up and goes, or tries.
She's been waking up from naps with a dry diaper, and coming back home from long outings with a dry diaper.... and sometimes even waking up from overnight dry.  Her motivation is "treats".  M&M's lately.  She's getting "TWOOOO" treats for a peep, and "FIIIVE!!!" treats for a poop, and then comes out and proclaims to us (and everyone who might be here at the time, or on the phone) what she did and how many treats she gets, often times with her pants around her ankles still. She does the "pee-pee on the potty" dance and gives high-fives to our cheers. It's too stinking cute, and we're really, really shocked (and happy!) at how well she's been doing the last few days.

Could we be a 1-diaper kid household by Christmas time?!  If things keep going the way they're going, I'd guess yes!  Or very close.  Very exciting!

selling streak continues!

We sold the old bath tub today!! Got a little less than what we were hoping, but met our "minimum", I guess.  We had it up for $1500, lowered it to $1200, sold it for $800.  Awesome!  Yes it's worth a few thousand new, but I think that's still pretty good; a nice little bonus for us anyway.  They offered $500 which we refused and asked to meet us half way at $800 which they agreed (not quite half-way, but I didn't want to scare them off and go back at $900 or more given they offered only $500).
Anyway, we're super happy that it's gone and that we won't have to store it all winter!

Desmond is a growing chub... he's up to over 12 lbs now, eating and sleeping well.  So far so good!  I guess I should upload some pics since I haven't in a while and he's looking very different already.

We went to the K-W Santa Clause Parade this morning.  It was kind of a bust.  There were maybe half the people there than the Thanksgiving parade, which just seems wrong to me, but I think part of the problem is, this one is sponsored by the Lions Club, and the Thanksgiving parade is sponsored by the city.  This morning, it was kind of boring, sadly.  We had a lot of fun at the other one.  Anyway, Violet was happy to see Santa and we had fun as a family regardless.  We didn't bring Echo this time.

Kijiji - forgot

Forgot to add one more item that we sold in the last 2 weeks -- the old clothes dryer that was here when we moved in!

So last night the guy and his wife came to look at the car, and were very interested in it, but couldn't get past the rattling noise that it makes.  If you've ever been near it, you know the noise....  I told him it's been doing that for the last year or more and has never been a problem and that our mechanic has tried to find what was making it, and couldn't.  They drove down from Meaford, which is over 2 hours away to look at it!  (Near Collingwood)  I thought that was very strange because these Caravans are EVERY WHERE.  They couldn't find one closer to them??  Anyway, they wanted it, but they really wanted their mechanic to look at it first to tell them that that noise wasn't going to be a problem like the transmission about to fail.  So they asked if they could take it back to Meaford for their mechanic to look.... I was about to let them as I didn't really know how far Meaford was, but when google maps told me it's about 2.5 hours away, I said I didn't feel comfortable with it.  Marn didn't either.  So I told him I'll have our mechanic have a look to try and determine what the noise is, and while they're at it get an estimate on what it would cost for a safety.  He said that was fine, and told me a few times that they ARE buying a van, because they need one, but it's just a matter of who's, but they wanted one soon.

Well, I feel like we maybe missed an opportunity to get rid of the van, but on the other hand, if we lend them it, what happens if they got in an accident?  Our insurance would pay, and our rates would go up.  Then if they get it up there and don't want it?  They've then put on 400+ km's more. Who's to say that their mechanic knows more than ours?  What if he's a buddy of theirs and he just says that the transmission is going to go soon to get us to lower the price.  The best we can do is either safety it, or get a list of items needed for safety and then go from there.  It's kind of silly for the guy to think that his mechanic could tell him that "something" was going to go soon. "soon" could be 1,000 kms, or it could be 10,000 km.  No one can tell you that.  It's mechanical!  You know it's worn out because of the mileage, but no one can predict when something mechanical is going to fail....

Kijiji!

We have a small fascination and addiction to the site www.kijiji.ca.  Marn is on it every day, and I often browse it for any deals that we might be looking for.  We recently started listing a bunch of stuff that we've had around the house for too long so it's been especially useful to us!
In the last 2 weeks we sold my car, some old floor tiles from the previous house, the old teal silk curtains that were in the house when we moved in, and tonight we're hoping to sell the old mini van, as well as hear back about the walk-in tub!  Someone came by on the weekend to take more pictures of the tub as he wanted to buy it for him Mom as a Christmas present, but as his whole family was going in on it, wanted to wait and hear back from them first.  We're SOOOO hoping that this sells!!  Yesterday someone called about the mini van (not sure the lead came from kijiji) then called back half an hour later and wants to come to see and test drive it tonight.

We recently bought a double Chariot stroller from someone in Hamilton (in pristine, like new condition) and now are trying to sell our Single Chariot to recoup more than half of that money.  Marn got a sit and stand stroller for when she's out with the kids, she can strap in the car seat for Desmond, and Violet can either walk, or sit or stand on the back. She's purchased baby wraps, toys, clothes, etc... all for fractions of the price, and often the items are like new.  Over the past few years, the best purchases by far have been the double Chariot stroller recently and the Bugaboo Bee stroller that were both Very New, and barely used, for $100's less than new.  Last week we also got a solid unfinished pine wardrobe for Desmonds room for $300 since it doesn't currently have a closet.  We thought it was ok deal considering we'd have to pay more than that for some cheap ikea thing made from particle board!  Staining or painting it is just one more "project" to add to the list though....

Ebay has nothing on this site.  It's a lot like craig's list, but for whatever reason, Kijiji seems to be way more popular around here than that.  Craig's List seems to be more popular in the larger markets like Toronto and Vancouver - Our office in Vancouver lists job openings on Craig's List all the time and gets 100's of replies and leads.
It's completely free if you want it to be, and there's no commission to pay the website if you sell it.
For the Van, I listed it on Craig's List as well as AutoTrader to try and get rid of it.... hopefully it goes tonight!

Smart Cutie

Violet is so darn cute these days... it's just too much sometimes.  Almost everything out of her mouth is too adorable that we wish we could just bottle up her personality right now.
Last night at dinner, she and I were sitting at the dinner table eating dinner while Marn was in the kitchen just finishing up getting her plate ready.  Violet and I had a "quiet moment" just sitting there waiting for Marn when all the sudden Violet says to me, "So, how was your day?"  I just melted and laughed.  It's funny because it's what Marn asks me almost every night at the table, but since she wasn't there, Violet thought to ask...  and even more funny because she started it with, "So"...  Not just "how was your day?", "So, how was your day?" as if to break the ice or something.

At night when putting her to bed, we have a bit of a routine; washroom, brushing teeth, washing hands, hug and kiss mom (and now Desmond), to bed with some books, then I lay down with her (snuggles) and talk about her day and how to relax with deep breathing and thoughts of her day, sometimes with some back or tummy tickies, or as Marn would say, tick ticks.  So last night (and the last few nights), she was having a hard time going down and when I told her I was leaving, she yells out, "No, I want to talk about your day with me!".  So I gave in and went back again, laid with her and she asks me again how my day was and I ask her about her day with mom for a bit.  She then says, "in your nose" - takes a deep breath - "and out your mouth" - big exhale...  too funny.  I try to get her to close her eyes thinking about the day quietly while doing that, and a lot of times it works really well.... her breathing in a matter of minutes (seconds?) gets really deep and rhythmic.  When that happens, I can whisper to her good night and she leans over for a kiss and says good night, then rolls over for the night.  Sometimes.  Sometimes it's a lot in and out getting her to sleep, but it's not usually too bad - or I'm just used to it!

Just before bed last night she was playing in her toy room (sun room). I came in to get her and saw that she had teary eyes and was rubbing them, so I asked what was wrong.  She said, "I'm crying".  I said that I saw that, but why are you crying?  She pronounced to me, "I'm pooing!".

She's also taken to getting out of bed now and coming out to the living room where we are.  She sort of sneaks out and then stands there waiting for us to notice.  This started about a week or so ago.  Before that she would NEVER get out of bed, so I don't know why she's started doing that, but she knows it's wrong, and when I say to her in a stern voice, back to bed! and walk with her, she busts out huge cries and tears...  I hate that she's started doing that, but when she comes out, she's so fricken cute just standing there with her shoulders shrugged, head down, and eyes up with a look on her face like "I'm up and I'm innocent!"

Some pics are up!

The pictures from the photo session are up, and they look so cute!
I'm sure we'll be provided another link at some point to look at the rest, but these are great.

www.edisonphotography.com

Hello, BMW!

Yeah, we did it.  Dad gifted his old car to us since he's now enjoying his new 2011 323i.
So, we're the proud new owners of a 2003 BMW 325i.  Comments from others on why we did this have been mixed, some said cool, others said why?  The nice thing is, it's not their decision!
Hopefully we'll get more than a few years out of it...  Dad kept it in pretty good condition, and it has low km's on it (118000).  Lower than any of our cars now, if you can believe that!
So, we'll be selling off the older Caravan, hopefully soon.  The only thing we'll miss with that van is the captains chairs in the middle row - the other one has 2 benches, which kind of sucks with 2 car seats beside each other.

Good bye, Honda!

Forgot to mention that I sold my car the other day.  A guy emailed me on Sunday and said that he "could come tonight with cash, but I had to be flexible on price", so I said I am, and to come and see it.  He didn't come on Sunday, so I thought it was another cold lead - the 3rd one so far.  Anyway, at Volleyball on Monday night he called the house when I was at volleyball and said he was coming to look at the car.  She gave him my number, but I didn't hear it at the gym.  I checked my phone half way through volleyball and I saw that I had 14 missed calls mostly from Home.... so I panicked a little thinking something was wrong with Des or Vi and called back.  Anyway, I get the story that this guy is coming with cash and wants to possibly take the car tonight, so I cut volleyball short to get home to meet him -- He didn't show up until 11 pm!  I didn't need to rush home....
Anyway, he brought a friend and his brother.  The friend was a mechanic, so picked the car apart.  I told them flat out that it needs a lot of work, but I didn't know what because I didn't have it checked out for safety.  All I knew was it needed brakes and front bearings for sure, the rest I didn't know.  Well he haggled me down for a while and we finally settled on a price.  The mechanic thought it needed $2500 to safety - I didn't disagree as the mechanic at work told me probably at least $1500-2000.  Anyway, he said that he'd agree on $1500 on condition that I take it to his shop and get it on the hoist for them look it over.  If they didn't like what they saw, then they might back out.  Or, they take it home now, no questions for $1000.  I thought $1000 was a little low, so I said, how about $1200 and you take it now.  They agreed.  So then they started looking it over some more and found another "problem" with it that would be another $200 to fix (the rear tail lights seal was broken and water was getting in the lights), and haggled again.... I said, take home now for $1100 (and thinking to myself, and get out of here - it's midnight!!)  He agreed again, this time a done deal.

Anyway, I knew the car was needing a lot of attention, and it's a far cry from the $3500 I was asking (which was high) -- but I was hoping to get about $2000 for it.  Oh well, not our problem any more!

Photo Shoot

We had another photo shoot done on Monday with the same photographer that did our pregnancy shots, and then again when Violet was born.  She's the sister of Marn's friend and co-worker, Marcie.
So far, the two she's posted on Facebook are pretty cute.  I hope the others turn out as well!
You will be able to see the "public" ones on her blog soon at http://edisonphotography.com/blog/  We're told some will be on there today or tomorrow.

Desmond

Well I've had my week and a half at home, and it's back to work for me.... it went way too quickly, as it always does.  So far, he's been really great.  His latch is way better than Violet's was, so the breast feeding with Marn went as good as can be expected.  The first 2-3 days waiting for Marn's milk to come in weren't very fun as he was up every hour or so looking for food, but after he got some food into him and he settled into a more normal routine fairly easily.  I wouldn't say he's on a schedule yet, but he is sleeping well, getting regular feedings in and having longer awake times.  He hasn't regained his birth weight yet, but he's slowly getting there and probably gaining a little every day.  He's 9 lbs 10 oz now, so only 3 ounces short.

Violet is doing well with him as well.  She hasn't gotten too "out of joint" about him yet, but we suspect that's because she is way down on the grandchild list, and is used to having other kids around.  She's had lots of time with both Grandmas each with other young kids, so I don't think it was too big of a shock for her.  The biggest thing right now is she loves him a little too much!  She wants to kiss and hug and hold and poke and prod him all the time, sometimes, doing it a little too hard for our tastes, constantly being told to do it softer, gentler.... or ok, that's ENOUGH, stop already!  Both Marn and I have caught ourselves getting too angry at her for "loving on him" a little too much or a little too hard which upsets her.  It's a tough balance!  We try and involve her a lot by asking her to get diapers, blankets, bum bum balm, or whatever, and she loves to do it. She's a great little helper.  Her reply most of the time is, "OK Mommy/Daddy.  I will get it for you", then off she runs to look for it.  It's too stinking cute!  Yesterday after she retrieved the bum bum balm for me, I used it and looked away for a second only to look back with her finger full of it trying to put it on Desmond's bum as well.  She also says that he's her best friend and that she likes him. lol

Anyway, things are going well.  Hopefully the little guy will gain back that weight so that Mom can sleep a little longer than the 3 hour stretches she's getting now.  She's waiting until that 9 lb 13 oz mark before letting him sleep as long as he wants.

Welcome Home Desmond Kyle Rolt!

A bit late for an announcement, but here it is...
Desmond finally made an appearance into the world on Friday, October 15, 2010 at 6:32 AM!  Apparently he was in a rush to meet everyone; Marn started labour at about 1:30 AM Friday morning.  At 5 AM things were getting heavy so we called her Mom to come over. "No Rush, but come when you can" I told her, or something to that affect.  Her and Drew came at about 50 minutes later.  During that time, Marn's labour intensified a lot.  We headed to the hospital at about 6:10 AM.
When we got to the hospital, I got out with Marn and put her in a wheelchair.  I was going to wheel her up and then go park the car, but she told me to go park it and meet her up there.  I heard this after, but she had contractions before the elevator, in the elevator, and then again before getting into the child birth area.  A nurse came by to let her in to admit her.  I showed up shortly after and just in time to hear, "she's 8 cm and her membrane is bulging!".  I'm thinking to myself, wow 8 cm!?  Marn's telling the nurses now that she has to push, so they wheel her into a birthing room and get her on a bed.  No time to even change into a robe. Now Marnie is asking for water and the nurses tell her that they can't leave her, so I offer to get it.  The nurse turns to me and says, "you might miss it".  I'm like, what?  Seriously?  We just got here!  I decide to get it anyway, and by the time I get back - maybe 2 minutes? (the kitchen was just down the hall, not far) I see that the doctor is there and Marn's water broke.  Two nurses have her legs up and she's pushing...
I find out later that one of the nurses was "down there" checking her when Marn started pushing and her water broke all over the nurse.  Apparently it was like a water balloon and soaked her!  LOL  I'm SO MAD that I missed that!
Anyway, around this time, after another contraction, Marn yells out that she wanted an epidural... I think everyone in the room laughed and the doctor tells her that it's much too later for that.  The baby was starting to crown, but Marn didn't know this.
5 minutes later, Desmond was born!  The doc says to Marn, reach down and feel your baby, and she was like, what??  I was first to yell out that it's a boy so I may have been a little bit excited about that.   :)

So to give you an idea of the time line here, we arrived at the hospital at about 6:20 AM and he was born at 6:32 AM!  LOL  Yeah, 12 minutes!  All in all, the whole thing took 5 hours.  Quick?  Heck, yes!
Marn's Mom wasn't too happy about that because she wanted to be there for it... no time!

Well, it's official, we're a family of four!  Wow, that sounds weird!  We were out today and Marn said to me, "can you watch 'the kids' for a sec?"  That sounded very strange....

Enough blabber, on with some pics!

Sleeping Beauty

For Violet's first Christmas (2 years ago!), I bought her the Sleeping Beauty Blu-Ray/DVD.  It seemed appropriate.  I've since started a little Disney collection in Blu-Ray. So far only Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and hopefully today Beauty and the Beast.  I missed out on the good price of Pinocchio when it was released, but maybe some day still.  Anyway, I think it's a nice little "tradition" and I think she'll love them growing up.

We hadn't watched any until the other day because she just wasn't old enough (she may not even be yet), but Marn was out at the movies with her friend, and I wanted to do something fun with Violet.  So I opened it up and we watched some of it together.  She LOVED IT!  Maybe she was in a good mood that night, or something, but she was interacting with the characters and telling me about what was happening.  We didn't watch a lot because it was getting late.  The first time the grown up (16 year old) Princes Aurora was shown, there is a scene where she's walking through the forest and starts signing (humming? yodeling?) with all the animals coming out.

Here's a refresher - Fast forward to 2:50 minutes in.
Sorry about the size - it's too big to fit in this template.



Ok, so we're sitting on the couch watching this, and all of the sudden after a few "verses" of the humming, Vi starts singing and Yodeling away mimicking the TV.  It was SO FUNNY, and SO CUTE that I was laying on the couch trying to cover my face and stifle my laughter. When the scene was over, I HAD to get it on camera, so I rewound to the start of the scene, grabbed the new camcorder, set it up and played it again.... no joy.  I ruined the moment, I guess. I'm going to have to do this again and prepare for it another day.  I SO Badly want to get this on camera...

Birthday Party!

We had Violet's 2nd birthday party last Sunday, and it was a really fun time.  She was living it up and seemed like she had a blast with some of her friends and family.  We really lucked out in that Marn's grandma called a few weeks ago and said she wanted to come down for a visit because her condo was undergoing renovations.  It just happened to coincide with Violet's party so she was able to come and celebrate with us, which was great.

The bathroom hasn't seen much action since I painted the first coat, or since the party.  It's basically done now.  We hung a new mirror, and I touched up some of the mudding on the walls, so it still needs a finish coat and floor/door/window trim, as well as ceiling paint.  It looks good and we got a lot of compliments on it at the party.  :)

 Tickle trunk full of dress up clothes from Mom and Dad

 Great Ganny checking out the 3D book from a grab bag  :)

 Checking out the Bathtub Toy Scoop with her helpers

 Blowing Candles

 cake smile!

The kitchen saw some updates recently too -- we bought Marn's parent's appliances from them when they bought new ones.  They look great and really update the kitchen, but the fridge was a little too big for the space. I had to cut out about 8 inches of the cabinet above it, and then when we slid it into place, it didn't quite fit width-wise either!  We knew it would be tight as the dimensions were almost exactly the same, but we were hopeful.  It's about 8 inches from going back all the way to the wall, so either the floor is not level, or the cabinets aren't.  So, the plan is I'm going to sand the side of the cabinet down a bit to make it fit.  lol  I'm hoping to do that today.

The car situation has changed recently for us as well, and we've decided to sell my 2-door Accord instead of the older van (did I mention that we bought Marn's parents old van?)  :-(  It just makes sense.  It needs a lot of work - as it always seem to need these days - and it wouldn't work for us if the van had to go into the shop for repairs.  A rear-facing car seat will not work, and even it if it did, it definitely wouldn't fit two car seats.  So, for a short while, we're a two van family.  I say short while, because we're actually considering buying Dads BMW from him as he is trading up to a new one.  Depending on the price (I haven't looked up prices on used ones yet), and the condition, I think it's a good move.  It can still fit car seats in a pinch, will probably be better on gas than a van, and lets face it; it's not another van!  He said it has less than 120,000 kms on it which I think is great.  If we do that, we should be set for cars for a few more years.  We aren't having much faith in the older van these days either, so it might make good sense to dump that now.  We'll see.

New Video Camera

We decided recently to go ahead and get a new video camera and since we've been piling on the Air Miles recently, decided that it would be a great thing to get with those instead of cash.  It's probably a much higher end model than we "need" and if we were buying it with money, we likely would not be getting this one... it retails for +$700!  But "free" with Air Miles (no tax, no shipping)?  Yes please!  It's an older model (last year?) and when it came out, it was over $1000.

We decided to get a flash memory model instead of the hard drive or tape based ones.  It's super light and small as a result, but of course limited in memory (recording time) compared to a hard drive one which is common to see 120 gb or more.  Ours has dual SD memory slots, and we bought two 16gb cards which gives us 5 minutes shy of 3 hours at the maximum HD resolution.  At medium resolution it's 5 hours 45 minutes which should be lots.  SD cards can be had at 32gb, and more recently higher, but they get quite costly above that.  Two 16 gb cards were a good compromise for cost and recording time.  And it's easy to expand later when prices for those cards get cheaper.  So all in out of pocket was $90 for the two memory cards.

Looking forward to using it and seeing the picture quality!

We had another tape camcorder that Den gave us to use that he found around the office and was being unused.  It came in very handy as we didn't have one before and we put it to good use.  We have about 10 cassette tapes laying around now about 1 hour of video each.  I'll need to get them on the computer and at the very least archive them onto DVD.  When we sell it, we'll send over the profits.  ;)

It's getting there!

Today was bathroom day - again! Paint, toilet, faucets, lights... We have a fully functioning bathroom again!!

complete-ish

It's really just the small stuff now.  Things like trim, cabinet handles, possibly another coat of pain, floor grate (might re-paint the one we have white), some more caulking and cleaning, and she's DONE! I'm not sure what I'll do with the window because the frame of it sticks out too far from the wall. They were built for the thickness of the plaster, and now that there's drywall, there's about a half inch gap between the sill and the wall.  You can kind of make it out in that picture above.

Violet likes... her new hat.

Edit:

Oh, we're also missing the mirror (obviously) -- Marn doesn't want the old one back again.  Or least if she can find another one for not too much money.  That would have been nice to know before painting so that I could have filled in the holes in the wall that held the mirror!

Also, you can't see it, but there's a hole in the wall above the light switch (you may have seen it before).  It's still there because we're not sure (yet) if we want to put in a light above the shower.  We're leaning toward yes.  The hole was put in when we ran new wire to install the fan, so I left it open in case we need it again.  Need to decide on that soon.

Bathroom floor

I grouted tonight.... waiting for it to dry before one last wipe before bed.  As I was prepping the floor I noticed something with the mortar in between the tiles that I didn't like.  I hope it's nothing, but I can't help but think that it could be a big problem down the road.  I ended up using two different bags of mortar because I had a bunch left over from previous "jobs".  2 half bags, one was white, and the other grey.  They were both the same "type" (Polymer Modified Mortar), but different brands, which wouldn't matter.  The grey bag was much older than the white mortar.  I think about 2 years, actually, when I did the kitchen floor in the old house, or possibly when I did the back splash.  I didn't think it would be a big deal.  It was never wet, or anything, and it mixed up ok. It trowelled on fine...  but tonight when I was cleaning up the grout lines, the grey mortar was very soft compared to the white.  In some cases it seemed to just fall apart and turn to dust when I scraped it, or if I smashed a little ball of it on the floor.  This should NOT be happening, and it's making me very nervous that all of the grey tiles are going to pop off some months or weeks down the road.  The mortar should be very hard, like cement.
I suppose I should Google mortar and shelf life, but I don't want to see the answer I don't want to hear right now.  Maybe tomorrow, or next week.

This is what it looks like after two wipes.... a few more to go!  But not tonight.

Hopefully everything will be fine, and I won't have to go back and redo it. THAT would SUCK!!  Time will tell....

Long Awaited Bathroom Pics

Well, this bathroom reno turned into a much larger project than I thought it would.  Anyway, it's not 100% done, but done enough that I can show some pics now.  :)  It will be another few days of doing little things to fully complete it.

Originally I was hoping to just "pop" the tiles off and tile over them for the new shower, but that clearly wasn't going to happen once I took one or two off for "inspection"...

Yah, that's about over an inch of plaster under the tiles.  Ugh!  Not going to be a fun process taking all of that down!  You saw the 2 car loads in a previous post.  About 650 KG of garbage.  After 4 days of demolition, this is what we had to work with;

The remaining plaster was taken down, plumbing moved to the left side wall, the new tub put in place, and cement boards fastened and dry wall up on the other walls!

Next was to start tiling the shower.  Here's the progress and finished product:

The colour isn't right in this picture because I couldn't get the flash working on the camera - I tried to edit the pic, but it didn't come out so great.

Once that was done and grouted, we could start using our shower again -- About 2.5 weeks without it was a bit of a challenge!
After a lot of dry wall patching, mudding, taping, sanding, etc.  I primed the walls, painted the cabinets (because we're reusing them) and the granite counter was installed.  Looks sweet!  We also have new knobs for the vanity, but I don't have them installed yet.  I also want to fill in the "decorative lines" in the middle panel below the sink, but didn't have the time, or stuff to do that.

So, we're feeling pretty good about the state that the bathroom is in at this point. Install some faucets, paint, mirror, toilet and it's ready to go! Except the floors, of course! That was next.
First the substrate layer, 1/2 inch plywood, screwed down a ton. Yes, it does need that many screws!

Next the floor tiles! Done just this afternoon, so not cleaned, or grouted just yet. Tomorrow, hopefully that will get done, and won't take very long.  They look like they have a blue hue to them... they're supposed to be black.  We think they still look good, but wished they were a little darker.  It's really more noticeable next to the black granite counter top.

So, after MANY days, 6 weeks, to be exact (!) we're very close to finishing this "small" project... Yeah, it turned out a lot bigger than we expected, but isn't that always the way? The only thing that's hanging over my head at this point is the toilet's "closet flange" (the part that attaches the toilet to the floor and drain. I'm not sure how that's going to go because the drain pipe is not in the best shape, so we may need to call in a plumber to replace some old pipe.

Here are some before shots:

Quite a change, eh?
I'll get some more pics when it's all done and cleaned up.

Bathroom counter

The new granite counter should be getting installed as I type (Actually, just got a phone call, he's not there yet... should have been there at 12 noon)
I primed the walls on Tuesday night but didn't get to painting them because the prime really lets you see spots that need more attention - there are a few.  So I painted the cabinets white last night as I figured it'd probably be easier to do when the counter wasn't there.  They look new again, with really old crappy handles, which we'll be replacing at some point.

We don't really know which black they ended up getting - we picked a nearly pure black counter, and then as a backup, a black with a little more white flecks in case they couldn't get the other in time.  He called last night and said that it's ready to go, but didn't say which one he got in?  I didn't think to ask.

So after today, I just need to touch up and then paint the walls, and install the floors and toilet, and we're done!
Well, hopefully it'll get installed today...

Big Girl Bed!

We moved Violet to her big girl bed this past week, expecting some protests, but NOTHING at all.  Not even a glimpse of wanted to go into her crib instead of the bed.  She loves it and she's SO CUTE in it!  She takes up about 1/3 of the bed, about 1/4 of it when she curls up so she looks like a little baby again.

Late last night she rolled out with a thump and wailed.  I went in to check her and snuggled her in bed and asked what happened.  She said "fell out of bed!".  I then asked where she hurt.  She said "my head hurts" while holding it, so I rubbed and kissed it and snuggled her in tight again and she was dead asleep in about 2 minutes.

This morning she slept in (late night, again) and I peaked in on her before leaving for work and saw that she was kind of awake, so I went in to say good morning.  I laid beside her and asked if she wanted to go in mommy's bed and snuggle her, and she turned to me and said, "No Daddy! Back to sleep!" then proceeded to pull up her covers.  This is really funny to us because she NEVER wants her covers on, and always wants to go into bed with us for a morning snuggle.  I said, "you want to roll over and go back to sleep"?  She said yes, rolled over and closed her eyes again.  I put a warmer blanket on her and left... too stinking cute!!

She's also turned into a little girl in what seems to be overnight.  She's talking in full sentences now, stringing multiple sentences together, and talking a lot.  It's such a FUN age!  You can actually have a little conversation with her now.  She still does play a little shy with others and doesn't talk half as much as when it's just us, but believe me, she's turned into a little motor-mouth.

Mom and Adrienne came over on Wednesday to paint Violet's room which went really well.  They were able to touch up the walls and clean them from the left over wall paper that was removed the day before, did a coat of primer and a first coat of pink paint, and also painted the trim white.  What a HUGE difference!  It looks great and we're so thankful that they were able to do this for us.  Her room is really looking like a little girls room.  I was initially thinking that we shouldn't be doing her room right now with everything else going on, but with the help of them and Marn's Mom and Dad on the wall paper the day before, it came together quite nicely in just a few days.

The bathroom shower is all done now - I actually showered in it this morning (without a curtain - the water pressure still sucks for some reason?)!  I would like to try and finish the mudding this weekend, and then take off the counter, and maybe paint the cabinets.   Doubtful that I'll get all of that done, but it's a goal.  The mudding is number one as the new cabinets are being measured up and possibly installed next week.  The counter is already detached - It wasn't screwed down at all.  Only the sink and caulking were holding it in place!  In order to remove that I'm going to have to turn off the water to house again as there are no shut-off valves underneath.  So I'll have to look for some kind of valves for that while the new stuff goes in.
Full complement of pics to come later, when I have a final before and after to show off. :)

Marn's Mom and Sister came over last night to do a big clean for her (I had baseball) as she's hosting a get together for her university friends as one of them is in town from Australia (the person we stayed with when we were there).  Crazy in the state that our house is in?  Yes, but, if you keep the bathroom door closed, it really does look good!  Her Mom hung some pictures (she's been bugging me about that for months, and asked me if she could do some), we put a lot of the "junk" away either in the spare room, downstairs or in the garage.  On Monday Marn turned the sunroom into a play room and moved the computer into the living room, and Madison on Wednesday organized the toys in that room.  It looks awesome.  So with a lot of help from a LOT of people, our house looks pretty good right now (sans bathroom and 3rd bedroom)!

Too Busy!

With this bathroom reno throwing our house into a complete mess and half-living there, with all the other things going on, it's completely crazy right now.  I wish I could take a week off and just do it all non-stop.
The bathroom tiling, drywall, flooring, toilet...
The 3rd bedroom, wall patching, painting...
The basement in complete disarray since moving in.
The garage in complete disarray since moving in.
The gardens all around the house and backyard completely overgrown with weeds
Having a new baby in 8 weeks!

We're both very overwhelmed right now.  We probably shouldn't have started the bathroom when we did as the timing with a lot of other things just didn't work out very well.  It might have been better to finish the 3rd bedroom first, and then do the bathroom, but we really needed it done before the new baby.... ah well, just keep hammering away at it.
I'm hoping to have the bathroom shower tiled, grouted and sealed by the end of the weekend, with new faucets installed so that we can actually shower at our own house again. That will be 3 weeks exactly.  2 weeks too long.

The reason we're so far behind?  The past 2 weekends were a bit of a write-off because we had other plans already and couldn't/didn't want to break them off.  One was a BBQ when Adrienne and the kids came from BC (ok, that was only 1 day, but I needed a break one day too) and last weekend was a Cottage weekend with the whole family.  That's 4 precious days of not doing much, or nothing at all.  I did take the Thursday off before the cottage, but didn't get as much done as I wanted to because I had other issues to take care of first -- the rag stuffed into the drain was sucked down and required me to go to Home Depot to rent a drain snake and fish that out.  What a S#!&*y job.  That ate up pretty much the whole morning that day.  This week I have 2 baseball playoff games, and Braeden's birthday dinner, so there's another 3 nights gone/partly gone.

Anyway, despite all of the set-backs, the bathroom is coming along.  I'm about 3/4 the way done the tiling.  I'll do a bit more tonight after baseball, and then some tomorrow again.  Hopefully it'll be all done by Friday so that I can grout, seal and install faucets this weekend.

Violet

Our little Violet is growing so fast these days.  It's like she's become a little girl in the span of a few weeks.  She's really putting a lot of words together for 4, 5 and 6 word sentences, and saying just about everything, or tries to.  It's such a fun age to see what she'll come up with next.  Marn and I almost everyday notice something new with her personality, new word, action, or emotion.  It's amazing and so fun to watch!  I's especially fun to see her really taking notice in how we act, or what we say, and then tries to copy it.  The mimicking started a while ago in a picture we posted - but it's really taken off to a whole new level now.  If Marn's talking to me, she'll repeat the last few words, or summarize the sentence.  So fun, yet we need to be fairly careful. (ie: we can no longer say, "what up bitch" in a ghetto kind of voice, because you just know that she'll be repeating that to the wrong person!  lol  Don't ask why we say that?  It just started a while ago and we think it's funny...)
The other day in the car she said "Daddy, I hear a plane!  I hear a plane, Daddy!".  She was right, a prop plane was going by.
I need to start writing these things down because I forget, and they happen so often.  It's just so fun to hear her come up with new things and longer sentences, especially when she gets the context right.

With the new baby just around the corner, maybe we're just subconsciously taking notice of her a little closer because deep down inside, we know her days of being the baby of our family are numbered. It's a funny mix of emotions when I think about her and the new baby.  How can you be really excited and a little sad at the same time? You start wondering what kind of parent you'll become when the new one comes around and how it'll change our dynamics.  What kind of challenges the new one's going to bring us, especially with regard to Violet and our interaction with her.  Let's face it; we've been pretty lucky with Violet.  Her (mostly) excellent sleeping, great eating, her laid back personality, and awesome hugs and generally happy mood have been amazing things.  How's she going to do with this change?  How are WE going to do with the change?  How is the baby going to be different than Violet with eating, sleeping and the ease at which she seems to pick new tasks up?

We have about 2 more months before we'll find out.  Until then, we're just really, really enjoying watching Violet grow, interact, and become a little girl.

Bathroom Reno

No pics, just yet...
but we decided to take out the bulk head in the bathroom.  The little bathroom feels so much bigger now because of that.  They also had two live wires feeding down through that bulk head to one light (one wire was capped off), so I removed those and replaced with one new wire.  The old stuff was looking rather worn and gummy.  Looked unsafe to me, so it's gone.
Marn and Candace cleaned and mopped the floors last Monday, which ended up being for nothing (other than piece of mind at the time).  The place is a big dust bin, pig sty again....

The tub tiling is coming along slowly.  On Sunday a friend came over to remove the bulk head, redo the wiring and start the tiles.  We only got about 3 rows up as the other stuff took most of the day.  I then did some more on Monday and got another 4 rows up.  That brings me almost half way done.  If I can spend an entire day on it, I think I'll get it done before Thursday night.

I may take Thursday off to try and finish it before the weekend where nothing will get done again because we're going to a cottage all weekend with the rest of the Family and leaving on Thursday night.  There's still a lot of drywall and mudding to do.... and then the floors and toilet issue (flange needs replacing).

The goal is to get the shower in working order before the other stuff so that we can start using it again.  The drywall, etc. is trivial at this point.  We need a functioning shower again.  We've been half staying at Marn's parents and showering there, and I've been showering at Mom's place when I drop Violet off when we stay overnight at our house.  Mix in not having our 2nd car (we lent it to Adrienne for 3 days), and it's been a tough week/couple of days!
If we had a 2nd shower, this wouldn't be a big deal.

Anyway, here's hoping things work out tomorrow, if I take the day off!

loooong weekend

I forgot my camera memory card today, so you get a brief update with crappy cell phone pictures.
I took Friday off to start on the Bathroom demo.  At the end of the day, this is what I had to show for it.

Yes, that's pretty much one full day's work.  This was taken at the dump at 5:00 on Friday before unloading it - all 400+ KG of it.

And that was only the tile and plaster around the shower and part of the walls around the toilet.  There was still more to go, which was finished with Dad's help on Saturday.  This load is the rest of the walls that came down, which I took to the dump on Monday.  I reused the new tub box to haul it, so think of a standard size tub, 30" x 60" x 20" high, all filled with more debris, with larger stuff beside it.  Another 255+ KG!

The rest of Saturday and Sunday Dad and I spent on removing and cleaning up the remaining walls, plumbing and fitting the new tub, and putting in new insulation and vapour barrier.  I don't have progress pics of that with me right now, but will update with better pics later on.

Monday we tested the water pressure on the new plumbing, corrected leaks on the new plumbing (!), put up the walls for the shower and tub area, ripped out most of the floor, and cut the drywall for the rest of the bathroom walls.
So, I am a little behind my original schedule, but the plumbing took a little longer than expected, as did the old 2" cement wall removal!  I couldn't have tiled the walls because I wasn't quite ready and we didn't have enough of that tile anyway.  I also want to wait a few days with the water pressure just to make sure we don't have anymore leaks in it (I only put a few screws in the boards to hold it up, just in case).

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how much was done, even though Monday wasn't the most productive.  It was a killer previous 3 days, so I was allowed to relax a bit on Monday.

This is at Granny's after dinner and a bath....

Bathroom Reno

Last night I decided to take a few tiles off the wall to get a taste of what's to come this weekend.  What I thought was behind the tiles, is not at all. I'm thinking now that the tile work in there is original to the house because it's plaster about an inch thick, then metal mesh, then sheet rock and studs, which are also tied into the existing non-tiled walls (so, the finish coat of plaster stops at the top of the tiles and then about an inch more of cement without a finish coat was added making the walls thicker where the tiles are).  There will not be a usable wall after removing the tiles at all.  Not even close.  I have a picture of it which will make more sense when I post it.
So my goal of having the new tub in place for Sunday and ready to re-tile will probably not be happening.  I'll have to gut the walls to the studs on Friday.  I would love it if I can get so far as to remove the tub by the end of the day as well, but that might be a lofty goal.
Saturday and Sunday will most likely be re-drywalling, waterproofing the tub area and prepping for new tub placement. If I get to Monday and I'm able to start tiling the walls again, I'll be thrilled, but I think this is probably a very tight schedule.
The floor tile I'm not even thinking about right now as the walls have thrown a big wrench into the plans.  What was going to be a "minor" bathroom reno is looking more like a pain in the butt large job....

Moths... leaky house... renos

So, we're still cleaning out the cupboards, bleaching and steam cleaning, and still finding the little bastards.  Last night, they were under the cupboard "protection wrap" in the corners.  It's like a plastic film that sticks on the bottom of the cupboards to protect the glasses or the finish of the wood, or whatever.  So all of that came off, and still a bit more to go tonight.
Moth sightings have definitely decreased since the weekend, but we did see one in the kitchen while cleaning last night.  It won't be flying again any time soon....

To add to the stress and annoyance of the moth problem, we had torrential rain on Friday night/Saturday morning and I noticed a significant amount of water in the "finished" side of the basement. I can't say how much because we were literally on our way out the door to head to a wedding in Bayfield, so I didn't really look through it all, but there was enough that it pooled in a few spots and ruined many boxes of "stuff".  What's in those boxes?  I don't know.  Probably toys, books, or picture frames.  I cleaned up some with some towels, turned up the dehumidifier and we left it.

Reno for this weekend is still on. My "helpers" are all "busy". My one friend who's been bugging me for months to let him know when I'm doing it so that he can demo with me is conveniently camping all weekend, so he's out, and Dave is in a wedding and will be gone on Saturday and Sunday.  The old tub is really the only thing that I'll need help on as it'll be big and awkward.  And seeing as I've never really done any real plumbing, but watched many times, I may need some help with that too. My goal is to have the new tub in place, with plumbing done on Sunday.  The other minor stuff like flooring, tiling and new toilet are pretty minor and can be done later and throughout the week.  We'll be staying at Marnie's parents place while this is going on.  Joys of having one shower in the house.
As for building permit, I called the city and talked to the person who "makes the decisions" on needing a permit and she basically said as long as we're not moving plumbing, doing a minor bathroom reno should be fine without one.  They only want it if we're moving walls, plumbing, etc.  I guess technically, we're moving plumbing, but it's so minor that I'm not going to worry about it. (We'll be moving it from the long-side of the tub to the proper short-side -- totalling about 2 feet).  Why the person installing that tub did that, I'll never know - it's retarded and makes the already small space in it even smaller and tighter).

Bathroom Reno

Well, we are almost set on starting the bathroom reno this long weekend, but just realized one little niggle in the plans. We didn't think of the permit that we most likely need. I guess because it involves plumbing, you need one. Otherwise, it's probably fine.
Now, most people will say, screw the permit, don't tell them, or I wouldn't bother, it's a minor reno. But, I don't know... I don't want to get fined. There are a LOT of homes around our neighbourhood undergoing major renovations, so I'm sure the city inspectors are out our way often. Would they even know that we're doing the bathroom? Probably not if we don't put the tub and toilet out on the roadside!
So, I don't know if we're going to go ahead with things just yet or not. I've heard it can take weeks for Waterloo to approve your permit, and that's just not cool....
I might give them a call this afternoon to check, or I might not.
Does anyone know what happens if they "catch you' without one?  Just pay the permit fee and wait for approval, or is there a fine?

tooth pics

closer to my teeth than you've ever wanted to be...

The new tooth looks a little wonky in this pic, but it looks good.