March in a Nutshell

I know you all think I should just give up the dream of recording EVERYTHING in this blog, and just skip ahead to present day. But I just can't do it. So here we are in July and I am going to tell you what happened in March. I would say that one of these days I will start posting regularly...but what's the point:) 

We had some really nice days in March, so we headed to North Vancouver to a beautiful look out with a lighthouse and a great view of Vancouver.

As you can probably guess, we also had MANY days of not-so-nice weather. Finally one day I just gave in and let Liam run wild in the rain. We actually had a great time! He had a blast sprinting up and down our alley splashing in every puddle. It felt good to enjoy the rain for once rather than curse it like I usually do.

Liam is getting really good on his little bike. He finally figured out how to balance, so he can lift his feet and cruise!

Wallowing in a blanket on the floor...unfortunately he gets that from me:)

One Saturday in March Dan took Liam out for an adventure and I stayed home to rest and get some painting done. At one point they ended up going 'fishing'. Liam loved it. 

This was a joint effort, but mostly a creation by Liam. It's a family portrait! (all his own idea). The far left is daddy, next is mommy, then Liam, and of course he had to include baby Grey who was still in my belly at this point. You can tell he didn't have much to go off of, because the likeness isn't quite as good as the others:)

Potty Training: The NEVER ENDING Story

What I keep wondering is...why did nobody tell me that potty training would be the WORST THING I WOULD EVER DO!!!!???? I feel like people mention it in passing, 'oh yeah, so and so is potty training' or 'be prepared to clean up some accidents', but nobody prepared me for the mental, emotional, and physical battle of potty training that goes on and on and ON! I tried the 3 day method, which basically tells you to throw out all of their diapers, put them in undies and pump them full of juice for three days straight and hope for the best:) It was a little mored detailed than that, but you get the gist. Day one was SO traumatizing I don't even think I can write about it. Just picture me, full blown pregnant, picking Liam up and running a dead sprint for the toilet while he drains his pee all over my leg (that is if it wasn't already emptied onto the floor), scrambling to get his underwear down and throw him on the toilet in time to hopefully get even a few drops into the bowl, (which is nigh unto impossible). He went through 22 pairs of underwear that first day. Yes, that means 22 sprints to the bathroom. The saddest part was to see Liam's disappointment. Look how excited he was to put on that very first pair of underwear! I LOVE this photo...ready to take on the world.

After peeing on the floor a couple of times he was becoming so sad and disappointed, saying things like, 'I'm so sorry I peed on the floor mom.' He wasn't really playing, or acting himself. I felt SOOO bad. He just wanted to do well and earn his prizes, but you aren't supposed to reward them unless they are able to 'finish on the potty' which means getting at least a few drops in. Finally it was so sad I couldn't bear it so I lied to him and told him that he got one little drop in the toilet, and we got really excited and I gave him his precious gummy bear. He perked up a lot after that and was able to get legitimate pee in the potty a few more times throughout the day...and even a number two...which is pretty major, so he got a Kinder Egg.  Here he is relishing in his success.

He definitely loved the juice part. I had a few different kinds and we mixed drinks in every combination, and I just had to laugh/cry as I watched him guzzle that juice down...just knowing what it meant for me a short time later. It was the longest day of my life. Part of the deal is that you cannot leave their side or really even look away from them all day long. The program says that even talking on the phone, checking email etc. is too much distraction. They need your UNDIVIDED attention every single minute. This is especially difficult because I was trying to find things we could play with in or near the bathroom so that we had a fighting chance of making it to the toilet.

 It was SO exhausting. All day I just kept thinking, 'if I can just make it to bath time, everything will be okay'. I figured I could just put him in the bath for an hour and let him pee and play to his heart's content while I flopped on the floor and rested my weary soul. Bath time finally came and just as he was getting settled in, I saw what looked like tiny flecks of poop in the water...but they were so tiny I wasn't sure. To be safe I pulled him out and set him on the toilet while I drained the tub, sanitized it and the toys etc. He didn't do anything on the toilet so I figured I had been wrong. I refilled the tub, put him back in, then got a pillow and crashed in the hallway. My pregnant body was NOT okay with any of this. Just as I started to get comfortable I hear Liam say, 'Mommy, I pooped.' Are you kidding me!!?? In his entire life, he has only pooped in the tub one other time. How is it possible that this day of all days he does it again. This is when I decided to give up on being a mom for good. By the time Dan got home I was literally the shell of a human being. 

Day two was much better, only 11 pairs of underwear. He was figuring out his signals and how to hold it. Now the problem was getting him not to hold it too long. Day 3 he only went through a few pairs of underwear. He was finally getting it. 

Here he is on the third day...looking confident yet again. And this photo is proof of our confidence in him because he was actually allowed on the couch for a few minutes:) So in a sense, the 3 day potty training sort of worked, but we are still far from finished. He started exactly 2 months ago and still has accidents. At this point, he TOTALLY gets it, and can even go on his own. Now it is more of a psychological battle. I think it's a combination of not wanting to be bothered with the toilet so he holds it for way too long and being bored with the current stock of prizes. Yes, we still have to give prizes. They seem to be his only form of motivation. Last week he was awful, peeing all over the place and hardly caring. Then, after buying a bag of starbursts for prizes he suddenly became a potty professional. Then after several days, just when you think he has finally decided to stop the mind games, he randomly starts peeing his pants. I think he's getting there, though. I have been making him clean up his own messes, and that seems to help. I just had no idea it would be this challenging. So to all reading this post, you have officially been warned...potty training is pretty much the hardest thing you will encounter in this life:)

Valentine's Day and a Spot of February Sun

 As far as I'm concerned, holidays are a chance for me to torture Liam (and sometimes myself) with holiday traditions from my childhood:) I LOVE tradition. And for Valentines Day, the tradition is Valentine sugar cookies and making Valentines.  Even before Liam was born I would make cookies every year and force Dan to pretend to have fun while helping me decorate them. He's actually always been a really good sport. But I think he was totally okay with Liam taking over the reigns this time. In fact, I decided to really torture myself this year and have a Valentine party with Liam's friends.

So, naturally Liam was dying to make a homemade Valentine for every single one of his friends that we invited. Is that what happened....or was it my idea? Hmmmmm. Yes, my idea. He was over it pretty quickly, and I was practically bribing him to color and glue something on each one. The main problem was that he was being artistically difficult. I had cut out dozens of tiny hearts and I had several stickers to choose from. But he was not satisfied. "Kate doesn't like any of these colors, she only likes black." So I searched to the bottom of my paper pile and found a patterned paper with a little black on it. "Kate doesn't like hearts, she only wants a star." This went on for a LONG time. The results, however, were beautiful. And all of the two year olds fully appreciated the hours of labor and love that went into making them. In fact, one of his friends tore his up before even seeing the front of it! Totally worth the effort:)

The cookies were a BIG hit though. I stayed up the night before and made something like 8 or 9 dozen heart shaped cookies. Liam was more than happy to slip under my radar and watch TV. He did come help occasionally.

The party was actually really fun. The mom's frosted all of the cookies...I at least knew better than to give 8 plus two year olds access to frosting. Then the kids had fun stuffing as much candy as they could fit onto each cookie. They decorated, ran circles, played with toys, ran in circles, watched TV, ran in circles, hugged and kissed, and ran in more circles. It was pretty wild, but lots of fun.

Here we have Liam with a few of his guests.

Here we have Liam trying to kiss a few of his guests.

Here we have the aftermath. Let me assure you it was much worse than it looks. The camera didn't capture the pink frosting crusted to every surface in the kitchen, or the sprinkles and candy littered ALL over the floor, on chairs, under the table, the crumbs, the half eaten cookies left as surprises around every corner. It was a SIGHT! But surprisingly pretty quick to clean up. And Liam had an absolute blast. All in all, mostly worth it!

On a side note, after weeks of rain and gray, we got a few chance days of beautiful sun!!! When the sun comes out in Vancouver during the winter, you drop everything and run for the door, even if you know it's about to go behind a cloud three minutes later. We went for lots of walks. Dan was even home one of the days so we went out for a walk in the forest by our house.

There is nothing more beautiful than a sunny Vancouver. Here's to hoping for Summer to come soon!

The Legacy of the Tree Queen

About two months ago my parents came for a visit. It took a bit of arm twisting to get them out here during the dreaded rainy months of Vancouver, but ultimately we prevailed and they both decided to make the trip (usually Dad has to stay home and work to pay for all of Mom's traveling, but I think the Michigan winters were getting to him). Somehow my parents timed it just right and they got to be out here for the 4 days this year where we saw.....

THE SKY!!!!!

In all honesty, the winter hasn't been all that bad....but it is quite gray most days. The above is a shot of English Bay as seen from Stanley Park. As soon as we realized the weather was going to be 'good' Denise stuffed my parents into the car and they went straight to the park. The views of the city from the eastern edge of the park are quite good, but on clear days the views out to the ocean are even better. I know we've mentioned it before, but the best part of the bay is the cargo ships...and they were out in full force that day.

Later in the week, on one of the cruddier days, Denise took the group to Science World (notice how I was never a part of any of the fun...I had to 'work'). I believe we've posted about Science World before so I'll spare you the description. The best part of this specific trip to the museum though was how it instantly turned my parents into children again. Here they are pushing Liam aside so they can play with the propeller machine-thingy...

And again, trying to figure out a child's stacking toy...

Then at the pivoting mirrors....once again notice how Dad pushed Liam away.

Another good one of Dad...I'm pretty sure every 8 year old kid I've ever seen play with the pixel board writes their name on it.

And the best, Mom and Dad sitting cross-legged on the turntable passing a ball back and forth (typical median age for this exhibit....4).

Perhaps I was too harsh. In all honesty its pretty great to watch my parents flirt and do things together. Growing up they always had 5 crazy kids keeping them apart, and now that we are all out of the house you can tell they are much happier. They also never really pushed Liam out of the way, he enjoyed his time there just as much as they did. His favorite thing at Science World currently is the pivoting mirror...

He just loves playing with 7 copies of himself. He'll sit in that corner and make faces, put his hands up and laugh forever. However, he tends to also try to lick 'himself' while there....we've been working on nipping that one in the bud.

Saturday and Sunday were the only days that I could spend the entire time with my parents, so I convinced them that it would be worth it to drive up the coast to the Britannia Mining Museum.  Really it didn't take much convincing at all though, because as soon as I mentioned the words 'rock' and 'museum' in the same sentence; my Mom had her shoes and coat on waiting by the door.  We were a little worried though because there was a heavy fog that had settled over the entirety of Vancouver. We thought it might burn away so we set out anyway...but it looked like it was going to be a typical winter day in Vancouver.  Luckily, as soon as we got out past West Vancouver, the wall of fog stopped and we were greeted with bright blue sunny skies...it wasn't even that cold!

We had sort of a late start, so we had to stop and eat our lunch before making it to the mining museum. We ended up stopping at Porteau Cove, perfect place for a picnic. The've sunken a few ships in the cove so it is a hot spot for divers, but beyond the diving the scenery is perfectly idyllic. The BC coast is heavily broken up by a series of inlets with the mountains working right in between them. So although we are on the water...it still isn't really the ocean, you have to go either pretty far north or make the trek out onto Vancouver Island in order to actually see the ocean. We've been here almost a full year already and it was our first time heading up the coast...apparently we've been wasting our time exploring the city....

A couple of you have heard me talk about how great Canadian potato chips are....and now I have proof. Here is a photo of my Mom downing the crushed pieces at the bottom of the bag of our 'All-Dressed' chips. All-Dressed chips essentially have every flavoring on them you would find in a chip factory; sour cream & chives, BBQ, salt-n-vinegar, ketchup, dill, cheddar....it's all there. I always scoffed at the idea of dill pickle chips and ketchup chips growing up; but now that I've tasted of their glory, I think I owe every Canadian I've ever slighted an apology. (Just about the chip thing though, the rest still stands)

....Shannon falls....

Beyond the scenery, the Mining Museum was fantastic. It's basically an old mining facility that was converted into a museum when the mining operation was no longer profitable. You have free reign of the area at the base of the mountain, wandering in and out of different buildings and getting a chance to see all the old mining equipment. Liam was smitten with the dump truck they had parked out back....

And I was smitten with the gravity mill building that was built into the mountainside....

I probably took 20 photos of just the buildings exterior, but the interior was equally impressive. The interiors were the last part of the guided tour we took that takes you inside the mine! Everyone put on hard hats and then boarded a little electric train that takes you into one of the mines. You don't go deep, but you do go in far enough that when the guide turns off all the lights to demonstrate the old lanterns...it gets pitch black. They also demonstrated the old pneumatic drills, and they were incredibly loud. Apparently none of the early miners used ear plugs either, so everyone lost their hearing before to long. The last thing our tour guide mentioned was that the interior of the mill has had lots of scenes from movies and tv shows filmed in it: MacGyver, Highlander, X-Files, Stargate, the Crow, Friday the 13th, Air Bud, Scooby Doo 2, the Fantastic Four and the Watchmen just to name a few.  

And finally, we'll end this post with a few glamor shots of my mother. The first is her posing with one of the tree people in the forest behind our house (the eye holes and mouth hole are from loggers chopping wedges into the tree to climb up high enough to be able to cut it down).

And the last picture is one of my mother at the nude beach.

Sorry to disappoint those who were hoping for something a little more risque, but Denise said we had to put this picture on the blog because she loves the way how the tree, my moms jacket, her coloring...everything all works together to make it look like she is some sort of fantasy queen who wears driftwood as a shawl. Denise actually just finished a painting based on this fallen tree, and every time she looks at it she imagines my mom poking her head through the center. In fact, she has tied my moms face to this tree so strongly in her mind that she decided to name that painting Lennea. Congrats Mom! You've got a legacy!

Miscellaneous January

Well it's time to catch up, yet again! I was on a roll there for a while. Compared to the frenzied rush of the holidays, January was relatively uneventful. Mostly we just tried to remember what normal life was like. Liam got back to his own room...and back to sneaking out of bed to play until falling asleep on the floor. Every once in a while he ends up in the chair in his room. It's the highlight of our night to sneak into his room and see where he is. This night was too cute! He found a towel and curled up on the chair...even managing to actually cover himself with it. A feat he rarely masters alone:)

More fun creations with daddy

For about five minutes I was waking up early and going out for morning walks before Dan left for work. It was SO nice! I guess not more nice than sleep though...because I think it's been about a month since my last morning walk! The morning fog was really beautiful though.

Liam has been SUCH a big boy lately (more on that in following posts...ie: potty training). It was really nice to come back to some of our old routines. Liam LOVES the library and especially story time. Usually only the big kids sit in the front without their moms, and the rest of the kids stay farther back on their mom's (or nanny's) laps. Out of nowhere Liam stood up off of my lap and marched straight to the front, plopped himself down, and stayed there for the rest of story time. I was so proud...what a big moment in his life:) He is the one in the green jacket and red hat.

This might have been the greatest day of Liam's young life so far...a trip to open hour gymnastics! It was a toddler's dream come true. Twice a week, the gymnastics gym on UBC campus is open for young kids to come and wreak havoc for one full hour! It was AMAZING! And so relieving for me to just let him run, jump off of things, climb, and throw himself to the ground without having to worry about him cracking his face open or breaking something. He just ran free for 55 minutes straight. The last five minutes he was so exhausted, he made his way to the waiting room and basically just sat there trying to recover!

One of the instructors walked by while he was running across a balance beam. She said he was a natural gymnast and told me to put him in lessons! I'm sure she never says that to anyone else, and I am planning his olympic career already.

The last big news for January, which I'm pretty sure you have ALL heard about one too many times...but I'll blog it just in case...is my art show! I had entered a painting into a juried group exhibition and I got in! I was so excited because I haven't had my work show anywhere since 2009. The opening reception for the show was in January. It turns out they give three awards, and I took first place with my painting, Eugene, and I won $300! I was SO shocked! It was such a great feeling to be validated for my hard work.  It's been really hard to keep the motivation to continue painting over the years. But I have stuck with it...barely at times. I'm feeling really good about my art right now, and working frantically to get a lot of painting done before the baby comes in May. I have another show in October of this year, where I will get a 30 foot wall to display my work. I have a LOT of painting to do before then!