Happy Halloween!

I Missed This

Today Isaac got his first ride in the amauti.

A sucker to advertising

As we get closer to the holiday season I've started to see more and more commercials on TV advertising what are obviously gift ideas for your kids. I especially notice the ones pushing baby toys by Fisher Price and Play School for obvious reasons. I have one thing to say.... I'm not going to get sucked in this time!!

Last year around this time, with Oliver turning one I saw this great toy that I thought he would love. The kids on the commercial where laughing and playing with all the bells and whistles that the toy offered and I could just picture my little guy playing with it for hours and hours. I ordered it just couldn't wait for Christmas morning for him to open it. Then came the disappointment. He has barely looked at that toy in the last year. For that matter, he's barely looked at most of the toys he has preferring to play with Tupperware, phones, keys and a number of other household items.

I wonder where they find these babies who are laughing and can't seem to get enough of these toys. Are they robot babies that they use for the commercials? When I asked around, my kid's not alone in his disdain for most toys. Those commercials are just there to make you spend money on things you don't need. Duh... I know. That's the point. I guess I should add that to the list of things I'll do differently this time around. Not spend money on flashy toys and just invest in a few extra rubber spatulas so I don't have to go on a treasure hunt every time I want to start supper.

I am happy to report that one of the few toys O does love is the big yellow Tonka dump truck that I insisted on getting him for his first birthday. I'm glad that something I paid too much for and even more to have shipped up here was worth it.

Today's lesson: Don't believe the laughing TV babies.

Ikey

Isaac is one month old today.

To my surprise, Oliver is still loving his little brother and is, or at least he tries to be a big help in taking care of him. From the time we brought him home O called him Ikey which is ironic since Ike is a short form of Isaac. I don't want him called by a nick name but it is pretty cute coming out of O's mouth. As long as nobody else picks it up, I'm ok with it.  Happy one month my little man!

PS: I have never acknowledged the 'winner' of the informal baby pool. If you remember I asked for guesses on how big he'd be after I found out Isaac was already over seven pounds with 4 weeks to go. The winner was Jody who guessed 9 lbs 6 oz. Good guess! Only off by half a pound.

Knee :(

You might remember some months ago I did a post about Oliver's first scraped knees. While they where healing he would point to them and say 'knee' with a sad look on his face like they hurt. I of course confirmed that yes he was pointing at his knees. Well, ever since whenever he or anyone else has a cut or scrape he points to it and says 'knee' with that same look on his face.

So as you can see, O has a new knee from this past weekend. It happened out of my sight but I think he had a run in with his dump truck. If you look really closely he even has a bit of a shiner from the blow. As usual he got over it really quickly and other than the mark, he's doing fine. We're now working on calling them 'boo boo's' and are teaching him where he's knees actually are.

The T.P. Truck

Nick took advantage of some child labour yesterday by having O replenish the toilet paper in the bathroom.

First Snow

Winter came to Pang yesterday so we decided to head out and enjoy the sun and snow. The snow will be short lived this time around since they are calling for 8 and 9 degrees and rain over the next few days.

The sound of silence

Do you hear that?? Since you're on the other end of a computer I'm sure what you hear is silence on my end... and guess what? So do I!!! Blissful silence. Both boys are down for a nap, at the same time and I have a little bit of time for myself. Me time! I forgot how lovely it was.


Since being back up north Oliver, my wonderful sleeper, has decided that he will still sleep but only after he fights us every step of the way to get there. He also figured out he could get out of his crib by basically throwing himself over the rail. In worry for his neck and not wanting him to break it, we took the mattress out of it and put it on the floor till his big boy bed arrived on sealift. He loves the new bed but we have to sit with him untill he falls asleep which is difficult when I'm home alone and Isaac is fussing. I'm sure much of this is in reaction to Isaac joining the family. I'm hoping it will pass soon and he'll go back to his blissfully cooperative self.


Isaac has settled into being home and is doing well. My only complaint is that he eats, for a long time. O was never a big eater and along with sleeping many hours at a time since day one, when he did get up to eat I was usually back in bed in less than 30 minutes. With Isaac feeding takes about an hour or so each time and he likes to eat every 3 hours so my sleep time is greatly diminished. I know this is what a normal baby does so I can't really complain. O just spoiled me so I didn't really have a concept of what a normal baby was like.


So over all, I'm tired but am getting into a routine. I do have to give some major props to my husband who has been wonderful through this whole process. Nick is a great dad but has always left the dirty parenting to me. Since Isaac arrived he's really stepped up and has made my load so much lighter. I know I couldn't do it without him.

So untill I get another few minutes to myself, I leave you with some cute pictures.

My Boys

My nephew Erik would be green with envy.

The 'Big Puppy'. Nick insisted on buying it while we were down south.



Just like mom

If Oliver is all Nick, it seems Isaac is very much me. See for yourself....

Isaac

Me



PS:

We just got home yesterday and are trying to get settled back into our lives. After 2 months of Nick being on his own without me to keep house and a relief member living in our place while he was gone, the house needs alot of work. Not to mention finding room for all the stuff we brought back and making room for our sealift that's arriving this weekend. And oh yeah, getting used to taking care of 2 kids.... What I'm trying to say is that I'll be back soon. I'm hoping you'll put up with a little more of my absence while I get my life together. And I hope you'll forgive me for being behind on reading your blogs too. There just isn't enough hours in the day at the moment. Thank you for your understanding.