coffee fast

so i've had lots of random things to blog about in the last 3 months but i felt like they all led to "are you pregnant?" questions. but here's one of them.

i was pretty surprised to discover i was pregnant (i know, i know - why would i be surprised? i know how this happens, right?) and spent the first week in disbelief. i felt terrible that i'd drank so much coffee in the last month and wondered how i was going to go off it. two days later, i woke up and had a major aversion to tim's cup of coffee. i had no desire for my own cup. just like that. the thought of coffee made me feel a little queasy for about a month. after that, i would have a cup here or there in the afternoon. by month 3, i was on regular decaf coffees from tim hortons whenever we went there but still nothing in the morning. isn't it amazing how the body works? i was happy i didn't have to control the coffee intake myself - my body took care of it for me.

two marches ago...

in march '09, we painted the future timbit's bedroom.

i always had the best intentions of decorating it with cute baby things but 2 years later the walls are still bare. unbelievable. but i guess that just makes it easier to decorate when ben moves out of this room this summer. yep, he's making room for the baby. we're pregnant - due late september!

i'm slightly horrified at how much i'm showing already at just a little over 3 months. i guess that's what happens when you have absolutely no muscles to hold anything back! while i'm still apprehensive to be adding to our family so quickly (yes, i know - it's not THAT quickly...but it feels like ben is a handful - how could i be lugging an infant around as well?!), our excitement for a second is growing everyday. tim's first reaction to finding out that we were pregnant was, "ben could really use a playmate." :)

at the moment, ben loves babies. he shouts out, "baby!" and "hi!" when he sees a stroller with a baby in it. he loves our friends' baby, kylie - mostly pointing at her hair, eyes, nose, and bellybutton. and he carries his own baby around sometimes (accurately named, "baby"), talking to him, attempting to feed him blueberries, and trying to fit both of them in his chair without squishing him. i know this could change when it's our own baby and it takes all the attention away from him BUT it's still nice to see him enjoying babies now.

napping window

there's always so many things that i could be doing while ben naps. i definitely should take a shower and then there's always cleaning up around the house (today, there's a LOT of cleaning to be done). there's online stuff like tupperware stuff and banking and ben is usually cranky when i'm on the computer so it has to be done during naps. i could blog, check email, and update my status. but some days, taking a nap myself sounds like my favourite idea.

today is one of those days. last night, when we got home from white rock at about 10pm, we carried ben inside and put him in his crib like we always do. he always wakes up for this transfer but falls asleep again quietly and for the most part, quickly. not last night. we could hear him thrashing around in there, knocking his soothers against the bars, and giving little shouts here and there. when we went to bed at 10:45pm, i tiptoed in to adjust his blanket and he sat up. he jumped up and wanted to get out of bed. i got him up, gave him a drink of water, and let him sit in our bed for a few minutes. then we put him back to bed. he moaned, shouted, and cried for a half hour. i went in a couple times and that just upset him more. we left him awhile longer - no sleeping happened. finally, at 12:15am, i sent tim in to help settle him. this just got ben more worked up and tim left the room of a wailing baby. we sat for about 2 minutes listening to the crying and then went and got him again. i brought him into our room and told him he'd have to lay still and go to sleep. he did his very best to be very still. every so often, he'd wiggle but stayed in his spot in the middle. finally, at 12:45am, i sat up to see if he was sleeping - his eyes were open. this is SO my kid. (it takes me forever to fall asleep too) so i picked him up, took him back to his bed, and tucked him in. i went back to bed with my fingers crossed. he eventually fell asleep there - quietly this time. there's really no way we could ever have him in our bed as we're both such light sleepers.

okay - too many details there, i'm sure but all this to say, when ben woke up at 7:30am this morning, i was bagged. 6.5 hours is not enough in the least for me! i figured his 3 hours awake stint in the middle of the night would lead to at LEAST an 8:30am sleep-in! no such luck.

so the napping window that i speak of in my title - it's the first 20 minutes of ben's nap. during this window, if i want a nap, i have to take it asap. that gives me at LEAST an hour of sleep and hopefully i will wake up before ben. if i don't lay down practically right when he does, i am woken up by him a short time later and am in a terrible sleepy mode. i feel much worse than if i hadn't napped at all. these people who take 10 or 20 minute naps and feel good when they wake up? i'm SO jealous of them! i haven't taken a cat nap in my life!

today i missed the napping window. i got going on online banking and boom - an hour later, i haven't gone down for my nap! good thing i didn't because as i write this last couple sentences, i can hear ben moaning as he wakes up. i may be a bit tired but at least it's nothing that a cup of coffee can't cure!

coolest idea ever...

this is SUCH a cute idea to take with you when you go grocery shopping with your little kid! AND what a great idea to use words on the cards instead of just pictures! wow. LOVE it. go check out the tutorial at She Wears Flowers.

the latest food phase

i've blogged about being a phase person before. i like something and that's all i eat or listen to, or watch, etc. for an extended period of time. most often phases are about food or music...though i guess tv could be included. i watched a LOT of Dog the Bounty Hunter before i got sick of it. the current phase i am in is the quesadilla phase. one of the few things that sounds like a good lunch to me is a quesadilla. it could be just cheese and black beans or often there's tomatoes in it. if i'm lucky, i have leftover chicken to throw in. it's not really what's on the inside - it's about dipping it in salsa, it going well with diet coke, and it being filling that makes me love them lately.

sometimes being a stay at home mom, i just want to get out of the house. there's no better place to go hang out for awhile than at a fast food place for lunch. this sounds horrible, doesn't it? but i've always loved fast food and ben really loves timbits. so lunch at the wendy's/tim hortons combo restaurant seems like such a great idea! i feed ben his lunch at home and then we go and get mommy a combo and ben, a timbit. i'm making it sound like i do this all the time - i really don't. but if i'm out and about in the morning and thinking of what to make for lunch, something that makes me come home instead of going to wendys is a quesadilla. it's very good for me to have SOMETHING to keep me eating at home!

quesadillas sound somewhat unhealthy but i use whole grain tortillas and low fat cheddar. black beans are a good source of protien that i often add to my quesadilla as well. salsa is 0 points by the way to all you WW fans. so while it's still not the healthiest of lunches, it's better than the current desired alternative.

and all this writing is making me hungry. unfortunately, i am out of tortillas...looks like i'll have to make a quick trip to the store before lunch!

sunshine

this morning, we went for a family walk in the sunshine. ben happily jumped in puddles and pet every dog that walked by. in the afternoon, tim and ben played in the backyard with no jackets on - the sun was so warm! could this be spring? love it!

this past week's vocabulary development was changing the words "mama" and "dada" to momm-ee and dad-ee - extra emphasis on the ees. also, ben has figured out what it means to have 2 of something and when he does have two of something, he hold them up and says, "do!"

"head down - power through" - michael bluth

every fall, i get a cold and at some point lose my voice from teaching. not this fall though! way to go, me! umm...but i'm pretty sure it is going to happen tomorrow. my first lost voice of spring. last week i called in sick to TOC (illegal - i know) and this week, i just can't do it again! i had these three thursdays booked in a row in the gym for PE and i've been loving PE so to cancel last week was lame. let's cross our fingers for a good sleep tonight and tomorrow, i'll bring lots of tea and cough drops with me. note to self: blow the whistle more often than yelling.

just my job...

a week or two ago, i was TOCing as a PE teacher but i didn't have the gym to use because there was a basketball tournament going on. it sounded sketch at first but i really had the easiest day ever. my morning consisted of a prep, then went the Vice Principal to the middle school with all 3 classes of grade 1s and all 3 classes of 2s to watch a game, then another "prep" (in which i do nothing), and then recess in the staff room. after recess, i taught three classes of PE in the students' classrooms with exercise stations which was great. lunch. after lunch i had an hour of "prep" so i asked the VP if i should offer my extra two hands to any other teachers for that time. he responded with, "if you want to or you can just prepare for the kindergarten PE at the end of the day." he and i were going to be teaching 2 kindergarten classes together in the music room and we were just going to be doing the stations that i'd done between recess and lunch. i've taught PE classes with him before and sometimes i feel like a student teacher but hey! i'm getting paid to be there and it's nice to have someone else lead. :) anyways, i go and help in a grade 1 class cutting and gluing until 2pm when it's time for K PE. i get to the music room and the VP isn't there yet so i set up the stations. the two classes arrive and he's still not there. i have them sit quietly and watch me demo each station then i put them in groups, start the music (to which they "exercise" to). they go around and get through all the stations once. we stretch and their teachers come back to pick them up. the class is finished and the VP never came. i figured he got caught in a meeting or something but really, it would have been silly to have two of us there anyways. i went to the office to touch base before leaving and he had his door closed and was meeting so i left a note in his box saying everything went well. great and low key day.

at 4pm, i'm at home and i get a phone call. it's the VP. he cannot believe that he forgot to come to the K class. i'm laughing, saying it was no trouble while he apologizes up and down for not being there. i told him i figured he was in meeting. he was like, "i wasn't in a meeting - i just forgot! so, next time you're here at school, come by my office because i have a starbucks card with your name on it for looking after that class on your own," he says. "whaat? you know they pay me to be the TOC, right? i don't need a starbucks card!" i reply. "nope! come and get this card when you're in and thanks for doing that today." well, who's to argue, right? next time i was in, i came and got the $10 starbucks card for my (non) troubles.

today, i splurged on a grande macchiato AND a scone at starbucks for a nice tuesday morning treat with my son. ben was happy to be drinking "awa" (water) out of a starbucks cup with a straw and was pleased with the stale cookie i'd brought him from home. and what i remembered as i relished my lemon cranberry scone was that the best kind of starbucks is free starbucks.

excuses, excuses.

well, this sickness has taken me down for the count. i know i wasn't doing so great on the blogging front this past month but having this sinus infection(?)/cough/eye infection hasn't helped. so i have spent the last week in sweatpants and hoodies, napping when ben naps, and drinking juice. i'm starting to think that i should try the daily blogging project that sharelle and andie have been doing since i've been enjoying their daily entries and could use a little inspiration. hmm...check back soon...i promise i'll have something going here!

just a little snow

on sunday, we woke up to snow which was exciting. ben shouted lots of "no! no!" while pointing out the window. at 8am, tim and ben headed out to shovel the driveway before church.

when we got on the roads an hour later, there was no snow on them and by the end of the day, all our snow was practically gone. that's lower mainland, BC for you.

TOC life

the nice thing about being a Teacher On Call (TOC) is that i WANT to work. don't get me wrong - i love teaching but when i worked full time, i woke up many mornings wishing that i didn't have to go to work. i've worked 2 - 3 days every week this past month and even though i hate shipping my baby off to different houses everyday, i've been so happy to be getting some work in! it's a nice feeling to want to work.

this morning, however, i would have called in sick if i'd had a full time job. i woke up every hour in the night with a dry mouth, a sore neck, and a headache, dreading my alarm going off. but i'm the TOC - how can i call in sick? in fact, i didn't even know the number of the principal to call if i wanted to call in sick. so of course, i got up, popped some extra strength tylenol, went to work, and taught grade 4. those poor kids were most likely not my biggest fans by the end of the day though i did play quite a few games of math bingo with them.

so this week, i'm glad i'm not working tomorrow.

see the mose

listening to ben learning new words is pretty amazing. i'm sure all parents feel the same way. it's amazing to me how much ben can communicate to us already at 20 months though i'm pretty sure i'm the only person who speaks his language. lots of words double and triple in meaning so it's all about context. ben will repeat his word over and over until you guess the correct one and then he says, "yeah!" so this is helpful in deciphering new words. yesterday we drove past the Bakerview EcoDairy which we used to go to practically everyday in the summer and fall to see the animals and he was pointing and pointing saying, "mose, mose". i guessed a lot of words before i figured out that he meant, "animals" (animose). then today, when we drove by and he was saying, "mose" again, I knew right away and he was happy to be understood. this week, ben has started adding some consonants to the ends of his words. Instead of saying"ba" for bath, he says, "bass" and "ma" for mouth, he says, "mouse" which is fun. some other favourite words that ben uses often are "mama" for hammer, "doodoe" for noodle (aka. mr. noodle on elmo's world), and "ditdit" for timbit which he shouts happily every single time we pass a tim hortons. unfortunately, elmo is still "dada" and phone is "baba" but hey, at least we know his language.

top 100 toys over the last decade

how much did you love your cabbage patch doll, care bear, or skip-it? i did. turns out they're in Time Magazine's Top 100 list! click on toys in the list and read a write up about that toy. pretty interesting! check and see if your favs are there too!

valentines

last year, i cut out some pink and red hearts, sat down with my 8 month old, dipped his chubby little hands in white paint and put a hand print on each heart. then i gave these valentines to a handful of people. it was very cute and deserved a mom award. this year was a more rebecca-like valentines day where we didn't think ahead to make anything. but we went out for a family valentines day breakfast with all you can eat pancakes, i ate some cinnamon hearts and i took my baby to his favourite coffee shop (tim hortons) and bought him a "ditdit" (timbit). next year, ben will be over two and half and i'm sure, totally into crafting - then we will make valentines. but this year a family valentines day with my two favourite boys was a fun option.

nice mitts...

the other day, i asked ben if he wanted to help me make pancakes. he gave me an enthusiastic "yeah!" and ran to his little kitchen and got his oven mitt on. he then proceeded to dump all the ingredients into the bowl for me while wearing one oven mitt. too cute. my mom made these little oven mitts for him for christmas after seeing how much he liked the ones at indigo kids but these ones are a manly forest green.

chocolate covered pretzels

you already know how much i love chocolate covered pretzels - they've been included on gratitude sundays more than once. but this past weekend, i MADE some and they were spectacular! and you know what? it was just pretzels dipped in melted chocolate chips then put into the fridge for a few minutes. oh dear. that is much, much too easy. so now i have eaten a handful of chocolate covered pretzels everyday this week. mmm....

fruit stickers

how's this for a cute valentine? (it says "orange you glad you're my valentine") all sorts of fruit inspired stickers to download and print for free here.

a couple times this week, ben has asked to get into his crib. i put him in and tell him to call for me when he wants to get out. after anywhere from 2 - 10 minutes, ben calls mama and i get him out. he seems to just want to be in there to hang out with his soothers. it's a nice little break for both of us.

work work work

this past week, i got to work 3 days as a TOC. one of the days was spent at the ice rink as the PE teacher. each grade group would spend an hour on the ice and i walked around putting out fires. (yes, walked. i didn't wear skates.) i can't remember the last time i was that cold - brrr...thankfully i was able to thaw with a half hour lunch break. but after not working, it's a whole different pace to be back with students. so this week was a good start to my february that my bank account will appreciate - now if we can keep this up.