"camping" with intentional quotation marks

some scenery on our drive up

last year, we attempted camping with our 13 month old. this year, being pregnant, we decided to rent a cabin instead for our summer camping experience. as i figured it would be, camping in a cabin is much nicer. here's the place we stayed if you ever find yourself wanting to rent an affordable but great cabin on a lake.

we made the trip with our friends, alyssa and james. they stayed in a suite in the main house so that they were close, could have all their meals over in our kitchen, but didn't have to be woken up at 6am by our kiddo. it was a great set up.

we knew that going north to 100 Mile in the last week of june would probably not provide the best, beachy weather but for scheduling purposes, this was the week that worked for us 4. we brought our hoodies and fleece pants in preparation. i can't speak for a&j but i was pleasantly surprised at the weather. i guess that's what happens when you expect the worst. we had mostly cloudy days, a little sun here and there with only one full day of rain. the problem with the cooler, wet weather, however, was the mosquitoes and flies that it attracted. i asked tim if the bugs would have been better if it was later in the summer and sunny and he wasn't sure it would have been much better (though i bet in august there's no way it wouldn't be better). so i'm glad it was cooler and we could wear our long sleeves and pants (doused in bug repellent) to help ward off those little menaces. if you've ever been outdoors with me, you know that i'm a crazy anti-bug person. sure, no one is a pro-bug person but they probably don't complain as much as me. but with many afternoons of breeze and some sunny mornings, they really weren't that bad or else i wouldn't have been outside at all. and the last few days were the best.

our beach - with ben at the water's edge

at the beach, we spent a lot of time reading and ben spent quite a bit of time digging. he was deterred from constant beach-dwelling because the owners of the cabin had a dog that barked. it was a lovely dog and very obedient but the loud and sometimes unwarranted barking seemed to get ben pretty scared. some days he'd just be playing happily and the dog would be 20 feet away doing her own thing and ben would just decide he wanted to go back to the "bagin" aka. cabin. that was unfortunate. though, we were glad that ben liked the cabin, the handful of toys we brought, and of course, the curious george dvds that we could watch on tim's computer.

the craziest withdrawl that i had was from internet! i thought i'd at least be able to touch base with the world via tim's iphone but no such luck! there was no cell service this far away from 100 Mile. it was quite the detoxing experience for me. by the end of the week, we had made a couple trips into town for something to do and i logged in then but it seemed less important than at the beginning of the week. it was a good practice for me.

the greatest thing about doing this trip with friends was that after dinner, when we had put ben to bed, instead of feeling stuck in the cabin, we got to hang out, play games, eat snacks, and chat with a&j. it was lovely. i ate waaay too many Munchies. we finally mastered a difficult game that we could never get the hang of when we only played it once in a while which was fun. we had the option of satellite tv (a nice perk to cabinning instead of camping) but we never turned on the tv once.

tim and alyssa with our BBQ-ed salmon & grilled veggies

i'm sure tim's highlight was all the fishing he did with james. they went out for about 8 hours total - an hour or two at a time. they rented the canoe for $5/hr and caught fish everytime they were out. tim was excited to get ben in the boat for his first canoeing experience but after getting in the boat (while on land) and finding it to be tippy - ben was not going to set in foot in that canoe again. we got one token photo and about two minutes of our money's worth out of the that lifejacket that we purchased for the trip. haha. maybe when he's three...

it was great to have a couple fires on the beach as well. one evening that the weather couldn't decide what it was doing, we made pizza in the cabin and the boys made a fire under the protection of some trees on the beach. we ate our pizza by the lake and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery. then we made s'mores, of course. another afternoon, we had a fire for some hotdog roasting and smores again.

overall, it was a good trip - lots of great memories and the potential to be an annual event. a fantastic kick-off to the summer!

really?

i subscribe to Today's Parent and quite love the magazine. i'm also a fan of TP (unfortunate initials...) on facebook and saw this article yesterday: 21 apps for parents. on the verge of a 6-7 hour roadtrip tomorrow, i clicked over to see what these apps are and whether they would be something for ben to play with.

this app made me shake my head because in the article, they think it's great but in reality, i can't imagine it's that clever. it's called "sit or squat" and it helps you find the nearest bathroom when your toddler has to go. all you do is TYPE IN YOUR POSTAL CODE and the closest bathrooms show up. "what's that, billy? you have to pee really badly? hang on, let me open up this app...okaay...now, how do i find a postal code for this intersection that we're at..." doesn't this sound difficult to anyone else? from what i know about kids having to pee, you have about one minute to find a spot.

at least the app is free...

ben at 2 years: some motherly gushing

a week before ben's birthday party, i started asking him, "how old are you?" and trying to teach him to say "two!" when he heard that question. he mastered it in time for it to be a party trick at his birthday party. he tries to hold up two fingers but his little hand doesn't always co-operate.

it's hard not to be amazed at how quickly two years have gone by. all of a sudden, we're carrying this sleeping boy up the stairs from the car and his head rests on my shoulder and his feet are hanging below my waist. all of a sudden, he takes up most of his crib. all of a sudden, he's climbing up the climbing wall at the park so that he can go down the biggest slide. two years have gone by? unbelieveable.

ben understands so many more things each day and he doesn't seem to forget. once, when we were walking from the car into the mall, i got gum or something sticky on my shoe so i stopped at a bike rack and tried to wipe it off by rubbing my shoe on the metal rails. now, everytime we go to the mall, ben has to stop at the bike rack to scrape his foot along the bars. yesterday, i bought ben a Thomas the Tank Engine book that included 12 little trains and a mat to play with - it was supposed to be a new toy to bring out on a rainy day while we're at the cabin we've rented for next week. even though he was with me while we bought it, i thought i could sneak it away into hiding during his nap. the moment he woke up from his nap, he asked for his "choo choos" and went running into the living room where he'd last been playing with them. today, he pointed at his book when he woke up and said, "mall." yep, that's where we got it.

even though ben hasn't been a big cuddler since he was able to move, lately he's happiest watching curious george or elmo's world if tim or i are sitting with him. he has started climbing up on our laps with books and sitting quietly while listening intently to more complicated storylines than he can possibly understand. sometimes when i take him out of his crib after nap time, he just rests his head on my shoulder for a minute. these are my favourite moments of the day.

ben's talking is increasing every day. he can definitely make his wants and needs known with the words that he has but mostly just to mommy, as i'm the best interpreter of some of the more difficult words. he has started to string a few words together to tell a little story and i fill in the words he's missing. after spending an afternoon in the schoolyard behind our house and learning that kids come out of the school when the bell rings, it has become a favourite story to talk about. at least once a day, we have this conversation:

ben - "cooh"

me - "school?"

ben - "yeah. ring ring"

me - "the bell rings at the school?"

ben - "yeah. kids."

me - " the kids come out of the school when the bell rings!"

ben - "yeah!"

he points out every school that he sees when we're driving, as well as all train tracks that we go over ("choo choo!"), and all diggers that we pass ("ger!"). he's always listening and repeating which makes me realize how often i use the phrases, "oh my goodness!" and "oh man!".

there are many early mornings and lots of times that ben wants to grab my hand and drag me somewhere so that he can sit or play with me. when i feel frustrated at these moments in the day (and some days there are so many!), i try to remember that this time is so short. soon, ben will get up, go watch tv on his own in the morning and i will be left to sleep in without the hugs and smiles that i get every morning when i go and get him out of his crib. soon, he won't want to drag me over to show me what he's working on. and when he's holding my hand as we walk to the park, i try to relish this time that he still wants to hold my hand. like my song says, "their cribs will fill our mornings, but by noon they'll be in school." i'm working on enjoying the little moments everyday and learning to appreciate even the moments that can sometimes be frustrating.

i guess i could go on forever because my days (and nights) are filled with this kid but i digress. my dad has always said that during my first 3 years, "we had so much fun with you," and i was never sure what that could mean. what could be that fun about a kid under 3? i figured he was just being nice. now that we have our own toddler, i totally understand what he meant. we're having so much fun with this kid and enjoying each moment for what it's worth.

baby's room?

speaking of never having decorated ben's baby room - what about decorating for THIS baby? we're keeping the room yellow but i've been on the hunt for pink and yellow bedding that doesn't cost a zillion dollars. what i learned from the last baby is that we never used the blanket that came with our set so when looking at separates, i don't need to buy one.

last night, i found a set on pottery barn kids! super on sale because they only had the bumper and the bedskirt left. i just added a light pink sheet to my order which will look great with it i think. i can't wait to get it!

here's one way of getting something on the wall: a wall decal. i think we're going to try this one off of etsy.

we're slowly but surely getting things going in these two kids' rooms!

to move or not to move

ben's new room is cleaned out (mostly) and fairly ready to be moved into. we're not going to paint as i'd previously thought we would as the new bedding goes fine with the walls. i'd like to add some stripes to the top part of the walls in a couple colours from the bedding in order to tie it together but haven't gotten on that yet. a major regret that we have is that we never really decorated ben's current room - it still has the empty walls that it had from before he was even born. lame. so this time, we want to get some fun things on the walls in the blue room AND in the yellow room for new baby.

now the question is - when to move ben over? the more i read about moving your toddler to a big bed, the more i think we should just wait until he's older. one line from the latest article i read said, "Many parents find out too late that it would have been easier to borrow or buy another crib rather than move their older child to a bed before he was ready." ben doesn't try to get out of his crib AND it could still go another rung lower as well. it makes me think that maybe we'll have baby sleep in her playpen for a few months while ben keeps the crib for awhile. well...maybe we'll try it out the bed and see what happens. we can always go back to the crib if it doesn't work out.

ben's 2nd birthday (party)

ben's been beginning to understand the concept of "birthdays" after watching daddy, uncle matt, and his friend, kainoa, blow out candles and open presents in the past 3 weeks. he has a little phrase what would be unrecognizable to the untrained ear but that i know means "happy birthday" and he sings a little tune with it usually too. when i told him on saturday morning that today was his birthday, he was pretty excited. he watched me ice his birthday cake in the morning but was pretty disappointed that he couldn't eat it right away. i told him we were having a party after he woke up from his nap and that his friends, elias and braedan, would be here. i reiterated that they'd be here "after his nap." when i heard him crying out from his bedroom post-nap around 1pm, the first thing he said to me was, "elias! happy birthday!". oops - sorry...a couple hours AFTER your nap, ben. poor guy - it was a lot of waiting on saturday. but when the party got going, he had a great time with his two friends, their parents, grandparents, and uncle matt and auntie katie.

i organized one wee game of find the eggs which needed parent participation but the kids found the eggs and ate the treats inside them (fruit snacks and m&ms) or stuck the stickers on their arms.


we had traditional bbq fare for dinner - the boys had sliders (aka kid sized burgers) for their dinner which was eaten at ben's new table.
present opening this year was a lot more fun as he knew that the paper should be ripped off and that the things inside were for him.
he read a few pages of each book that he got...
and note to self for next present opening - have scissors ready to free the gifts from their packaging!
ben also got a balance bike and helmet which ended in a few tears but he's ridden it through the house numerous times since saturday and i think he's going to really like it once he understands how to do it on his own.

cake!

no 2 year old party is complete without bubbles!

what a fun day!

take it back!

the other day i was in winners and i was at the customer service desk. the woman ahead of me had a t-shirt that she was returning. she gives it to the winners girl and says, "when i washed this, it shrunk about 3 inches so i'd like to return it." i chuckled to myself thinking, "that's your problem - shouldn't have dried it!" the winners girl says, "oh dear, that's not good," and promptly begins refunding her her money. WHAT? WE CAN RETURN THINGS THAT WE SHRINK? this realization may have completely changed my life...

101 Things to Do with Your Toddler

seeing that ben and i spend a lot of time at the park (non-rainy days) and going to the mall (rainy days), i saw this link and thought i'd pass it on to any of you moms who also have toddlers and find that days can get a little mundane. :)

today's highlight: sitting in the warm shade in my adirondack chair with ben resting on my lap while we ate popsicles. what a lovely, sunny day.

unused space

while our house has been feeling FULL of stuff lately, i'm discovering lots of poor use of the space that we have. we are two adults and a toddler living in a 4 bedroom house - we should have tons of room. however, every room seemed full to the max. the idea of emptying out the "guest room" (aka. mess room) to turn it into ben's big boy room seemed daunting. the closet was full to the gills of boxes of ben's baby clothes AND bins of my own clothes that did not currently fit. there was a big bookshelf in that room that had the maximum amount of books that it could hold. where was all this stuff going to go?

re-organizing has been weighing heavy on my mind. i started unpacking all the boxes of ben's clothing and reorganizing it into different categories: save for alyssa's boy (if she has one), give away, sell, and "a girl could wear this". after going through all these boxes, i was feeling like i'd only made more of a mess. now, the boxes were all over the guest room instead of being contained in a couple closets. augh. i closed the door to the guest room and tried not to go in there. "we'll have ben's room ready in time for his birthday", i'd say to give myself an end date that was far in the future.

then may ended. it is june. ben's birthday is a couple weeks away and the guest room was still a mess. where was all this stuff going to go?

so as i looked around my house, i started to find poorly used space. there's a wall-length shelf in our bedroom that was here when we moved in. we hated it because it was way too high. instead of taking it down, we left it to gather dust...for 6 years. yesterday morning, i dusted it off and moved all our books (minus business/teaching/photo albums) out of the guest room and into our bedroom. they fit just perfectly.

then, i clearly labeled all the boxes of ben's clothes and put them all on the shelf in his closet (in his current room). then i had to figure out what to do with these bins of my own clothes. the problem with having been sizes 4 - 12 in the last 3 years is that i have a lot of clothes that don't fit me but are too nice to toss because (fingers crossed) i will be these smaller sizes again one day. but where to keep bins of clothes? why not the closet? because it's full of junk.

i had a shoe shelf under the hanging clothes that had about 6 - 7 shoeboxes on it collecting dust. i had a couple bags beside it where i couldn't even see them and a number of purses that i hadn't used in awhile. i started pulling the boxes off the shelf and realized all but one was EMPTY! all this time, i'd figured there were shoes in there! i guess all my shoes migrated to the front hall closet and left their boxes behind. it occurred to me that i probably don't need this shelf taking up space. i cleaned it all out and now have room for 3 large bins in my closet.

i also have two shelves above where my clothes hang that had some random articles of clothing thrown up there and forgotten about. i pulled those down, emptied out the current bins of clothes and started separate into sizes. now each size has it's own bin so as i lose weight (oh, i can't wait to not be so huge anymore!), it will be easy to figure out where the clothes are. i bought a couple smaller bins to go on the two high shelves as well so that i've maximized the space in my closet. an amazing feat that took hours upon hours.

phew. so we moved the last of the boxes for goodwill out of the guest room this morning and got the single bed upstairs and in the room! we are on our way.

swapping

one of my favourite things about facebook right now is the Abby Kids Swap Site. I spend lots of time there looking at all the clothes posted. the great part is that they're all in abbotsford so even if it's just a $2 onesie that looks cute, it's not a big deal to swing by and get it. lately, i've bought a number of things (mostly pink...) and everyone seems to do the same thing. you tell them the day you'll be coming by and they leave it outside on their front step in a bag for you. then when you show up, you put the money in mailbox or under the mat. it's quite the easy process and not having to deal with people face to face is something i love! haha.

now that we found out we're having a girl, i have started going through boxes of ben's clothes. i have two years worth of clothing to organize. what i'm finding is that i pull things out of these boxes and think, "i don't want to get rid of THIS!" even though there's no real reason to keep them. so far, i've been organizing the clothes into 4 piles: stuff that a girl could wear (keep), stuff that's in good enough shape to sell, stuff that's decent to give to goodwill, and stuff to toss (stained usually). of course there are the handful of items that are going in a tiny box to save indefinitely - ben's toque that he wore home from the hospital, his first little pair of shoes, etc. i'm trying not to let that box get very full. :)

happy

my happy birthday frap

(my cake pics are on my mom's computer)

happy birthday tim - ben was a big help on the candles. :)

big boy bed

in anticipation for the baby's arrival, we're planning on revamping our spare room into ben's new "big boy" room. currently it's a turquoisey blue which i thought would be okay but turns out, i want it to be a little more matchy with ben's bedding. but one cannot match paint colour to bedding if there is no bedding so i started the search online last week. here's what i chose - it's on it's way to sumas, washington right now! can't wait to pick it up, pick a paint colour and get decorating.

may's been lacking

for some reason, it's been a tough blogging month. i went back to last may and read some much better posts and thought, "man, i'm really slacking here!" i thought i would just let you know that i know. i'll get working on it. ;)

cinnamon loaf recipe

it seems that perhaps having a toddler may improve my baking. with the rainy weather lately and a couple days that tim took the truck to work, i had to come up with something to do to keep ben occupied in the house. last week, i baked banana bread and today (yep, tim's working on a saturday!), we tried out a cinnamon loaf.

in an attempt to not eat all the banana bread on my own, i cut it up into slices and wrapped each slice individually and put them in the freezer. then tim could grab a frozen slice for his lunch and it would be thawed by lunch. i was also hoping that the frozen state of the bread would deter me from eating it. but what are microwaves for? though, i did pretty well and only pulled out a piece to nuke it once.

as for the cinnamon loaf this morning, i'm pretty sure that will be fully eaten in the next few days - it's so good. i'd been feeling like coffee cake so i called my mom for a recipe but her coffee cake recipes called for ingredients that i didn't have on hand. then she suggested this one and after it's been made, it was exactly the flavour that i'd been craving in the first place! i've eaten two warm slices already...this is why i shouldn't be baking... but here's the recipe if you're looking for something:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening (i used butter)

2 eggs

1 cup sour milk or buttermilk - my mom suggested i use almost a cup of milk and mix a couple tablespoons of vinegar in and let it sit a bit before using it - it did the trick.

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

save for the end: 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon

Cream the sugar, butter, and then add eggs. Add half the flour, the other dry ingred. and half the milk and stir. Then add the remainders of the flour and milk and stir. (apparently this makes it fluffier) Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and pour the sugar/cinnamon mixture on top. "swirl" with a knife (i didn't quite do this right as there are huge patches of no cinnamon in my loaf but it still tastes good). Bake at 350 for about an hour.

There wasn't enough ingredients for Ben's liking and he continued to pretend pour things into the batter after everything was in. But it was just right for me. Enjoy!

i posted yesterday and that post seems to have disappeared! so if you're just tuning in now...

boy or girl?

at my last doctor's appointment, we'd figured out that i'd be having my ultrasound in week 20 and the results would come to my doctor's office at 21 weeks - right in time for my regular monthly appointment. perfect, i'd get to show up and find out from my doctor in person whether we are having a boy or girl. tim and i planned to have him come along to the appointment so we could find out at the same time.

today, the phone rang and call display showed my doctor was calling. hmm... i answer and it's him. "hi, rebecca. i have some results for you here." whaaaat? oh no, oh no, we had a plan! i replied, "already? but i'm coming in tomorrow." "do you want to wait? i haven't looked at it yet - i can stick it back in your file and we'll open it tomorrow if you want." ummmm.....

i WAITED! i could have found out today and i WAITED! crazy.

we find out tomorrow....

happy mother's day!

when i get grown

When I first heard this song by Treelines, I was driving by myself in the car. I liked the sound so I turned it up a little to hear the words. aaand I started to cry. Sure, you can blame the pregnancy hormones but when I hear it (like I'm playing it on repeat right now as I write), I can't think too hard about the words or I tear up again. If you haven't already pressed play on the youtube video, go back and listen and then continue here.

The main lines that get me everytime are:

Their cribs will fill our morning but by noon they'll be in school,
Their teenage years will come and go and by the rising of the moon they'll settle down,
With someone else who shares their name now.

It's the way they compare their children's growing up as a day - cribs fill our morning, noon, they're in school, by the rising of the moon, they'll settle down. What's scary is that as soon as you have a child, you realize how so very fast they grow. It was like, "Oh my goodness - I'm not ready for my baby to grow up so fast." *cry*. ;)

But as I've over analysed this song, it occurred to me that there may be another reason that this song can tug at the heartstrings (well, MY heartstrings). it's about finding ONE person and creating a life with that person and growing old with them. There aren't too many songs, shows, people etc. out there endorsing this ideal - in fact, it sometimes feels the opposite. So another feeling while I listen is that reminder that I'm so glad that I've found my person that I want to live out this life with.

Download the song for free here.

When I get all grown I want to find a little space,
Somewhere that I can be myself somewhere I feel safe and settle down
With a girl who shares my name.

We'll store up in the autumn months and party in the spring,
We'll lay away those summer days on white sand by the sea,
We'll fall asleep when the snow begins to come down.

Then the day will come when her stomach starts to grow,
We'll freak about the million things we don't already know,
We'll give them names after my favourite hockey players if it's ok.

Their cribs will fill our morning but by noon they'll be in school,
Their teenage years will come and go and by the rising of the moon they'll settle down,
With someone else who shares their name now.

And when our shoulders like old wooden fences lean towards the ground,
The grandkids grow like rocket ships shooting to the clouds,
Her hair is grey but her blue eyes never shone so proud.

When the Lord comes calling and we have to say goodbye,
I'll rest her in the ground if I'm the one whose left behind,
Whisper goodnight and wait patiently for my white light to come.

"whaaat?" - ben

after we had our ultrasound, we sat ben down at the computer (the pics were on a cd) and showed him the pictures of the baby. we attempted to explain that "mommy's tummy is getting bigger because she's growing a baby inside" which really is the freakiest sounding thing to say to a toddler. he seemed to like the pictures but when we kept trying to explain anything else, he just stared at us blankly. (i can just see my dad shaking his head in disbelief - haha). we figured he didn't have a clue what we were talking about.

then on tuesday, we were hanging out with ang and her son, kainoa, and i was telling ang this story. then i said to ben, "hey ben, where's mommy's baby?" and he pointed at my stomach! so who knows what's going in and what he's thinking? hopefully by september, we'll have him all prepped and ready for a sibling!