Firsts!!!

Some exciting news on the homefront! D-Man can crawl! He started yesterday, and is getting better each time he tries it. Mister M never crawled so it's a new experience for me for sure. D-Man can also pull himself up to a stand, and has been doing it for a couple of weeks now. It's crazy how fast they grow!
Mister M is getting better and better with his reading, we really struggled for a while because he would get mad and not want to do it. But now he's really enjoying it, and working hard to master it. It makes me happy to know he's going to love reading as much as I do.
We've had some pretty crappy weather lately, our photo shoot was once again cancelled due to rain and fog. We're going to try again Friday. I really hope we can get it done. I want the pictures so bad lol.
I've been going through all my baby stuff, and Mister M's old clothes for a Mom to Mom sale I'm participating in on the weekend.

I'm trying to get rid of stuff I don't need anymore and make some money. But I'm such a packrat I don't want to give any of it away.
I kept everything of Mister M's and it made such a huge difference when I had D-Man to have everything already. Although I know that after D-Man's done with the crib and stuff it won't be safe to keep, so it makes it easier to get rid of some things. I don't know if I'll ever have more kids, so I don't want to keep too much in case I don't. Lol it's so hard to decide.!

No sunshine and no internet makes mama...something...something...

Argh!!!! We've had no Internet here for over a week now. I have my phone, but that doesn't work well for blogging (as I'm just figuring out). I'm currently waiting for the Cogeco guy to appear sometime between 8am and 5pm. They called at 10am and said that the guy was in the area and should be here soon... Its now 1pm and it's just been fixed, the guy was here for over an hour.
I missed my Internet :( I couldn't chat on kidcrawl.com, I couldn't upload pictures to my August 2010 Birth Group on Facebook. It took forever to replay to posts on babysteals, babyheist and The Leaky B@@b. It was like living in the stone ages of the early to mid 90's lol.

Well, on to updates! Mister M is so sick right now, he's partially lost his voice so he sounds so funny. He feels like crap though and his attitude is rotten. Poor D-Man is sick again too, he's on antibiotics yet again, but this time I don't think they're working. They've made him super pukey and miserable. So I've got two little men who are sick, cranky, needy and fussy at the moment. Its not much fun for anyone.

We went to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this past Saturday. It was D-Mans first time there, and Mister M's 4th. They loved it! D-Man was in the ERGO carrier all day with hardly any fussing, he could look around at all the exhibits, and people with no problem. And its a million times easier than carting a stroller around on the G0 bus, GO train, subway ect. Mister M had a blast! We went through the entire museum, spent about an hour going through the bat cave over and over. Played in the kid section, dug for dinosaur bones, looked at dinosaur fossils, dressed up like knights and bugs. We had lunch in the Food Studio (2 pizzas, 2 rocky road brownies, 2 vanilla yogurts, a cookie, milk and diet Pepsi for 28 freaking dollars). Mister M had his own money so he was able to get a few toys in the gift shops for himself. Also it was pouring rain, so we bought a $10 umbrella lol. We had street meat (hot dogs) for dinner sitting outside the museum (in a covered spot out of the rain), and witnessed a car accident, it was pretty crazy. Everyone was okay though. It was a good day.




A side note. On our way there and back on the GO bus there was an older man with a guitar. The way there he sat near us with some trepidation (a child and a baby?!?! Might be an awful trip), but on the way back he sat near us on purpose. The bus left for home around 8pm so D-Man was getting fussy. I nursed him a few times to keep him happy and the man noticed. He didn't talk to us at all, just dozed in his seat. But when we got back to town, and got off the bus he came over to me and said that I was a great mom, and my boys were very well behaved. It made my day :)

Life and Hair

D-Man got his first haircut today!!! Great Grandpa C is back from Florida (snowbird) and we went over there today for a visit and haircuts for Mister M, D-Man, Papa and Uncle J. Mister M loves it there, and he's awesome when he gets his hair cut.

D-Man really impressed me too. He was nursing, and almost asleep when it was his turn. I took him off the breast and he started to scream. He wasn't even really awake. Great Grandpa C started cutting his hair and I held him as still as I could. Finally I got him snuggled up against me and he completely relaxed and zoned right out as his hair was being cut. It was pretty neat!

The Canadian Election is tomorrow, and I don't care... isn't that awful. I know who I'm voting for, but I would be voting for this person regardless of Political Party because I appreciate what this person has done for my town. I hate politics, I don't want to talk about them, I don't want to hear about them lol. I wish everyone would just get their acts together and make this Country the best in the world, instead of petty arguments over how much of the budget is spent on Bic Pens or whatever they fight about :)

Onto life news! I think I've finally figured out what I want to do with my life. For real this time lol. I'm going to go through the steps to become a lactation consultant Midwife. I figured it will take me until I'm 30 or so, but really 7 years isn't that long in the grand scheme of things, and I'll be able to work after the first two and made decent money!
It's a little complicated, mainly because I don't have the high school credits to just get into University right away. I'm going to Fleming for Practical Nursing for two years, getting a university transfer to either Trent (still in my town) or Ryerson University in Toronto for another two years to get my Bachelors of Nursing. Once I've achieved that it's another two years at Ryerson to complete the Midwifery Education Program, and then I have to pass the exam to become a lactation consultant on top of that.
It's something I've had in the back of my mind since I had Mister-M and had such a negative experience with the lactation consultant on call, and the OB on call. I want to be able to help women who might not have the support, be able to successfully have babies and breastfeed if that's what they choose to to.
Hopefully it works out! Wish me luck!

Easter and Spring

We had an awesome Easter this year! Mister M loved it, and even D-Man got in on the action lol.
We did the egg hunt, and Mister-M had a treasure hunt for his gifts. Got to get outside and take some pictures too which was nice! Then for dinner we celebrated my baby sisters 18th birthday with some Shabu-Shabu and icecream cake!

(Shabu-Shabu is an asian dish which involves a simmering pot of seasoned broth in the middle of the table, and then bowls of ingredients like meat, vegetables, seafood raw on the side. You take the toppings, put them in a spider cooker (a little baskety thing) and cook it in the broth and then put it on top of some rice it's delicious).













Our spring photo shoot didn't happen, the weather was rainy and D-Man had been throwing up the day before so we're going to reschedule for a later date.
I've been getting more and more involved with different groups on the internet. My latest one is The Leaky B@@b on Facebook. It's a breastfeeding support/information group and it's just so amazing to know that there are people out there who nurse for as long as I do or longer, and love it as much. It's also nice to be able to give support and advice to those who need it too. I'm still really involved with the deal of the day sites, and have started to be involved with kidcrawl.com a site where mom's/dad's can rate and review different products and research things they might want to buy. It's been pretty helpful at times for sure.
We don't really have much planned for this week, Mister M's class is having a bake sale in support of Pedal for Hope (cancer research) on Wednesday so I've got to figure what we're going to make for it thats nut and egg free.


D-Man has pulled himself up to a full stand this week too! He's growing up so fast it's crazy. He still isn't crawling, but is starting to get on his knees a bit more, and is scootching along the floor on his bum to get to different toys and things, so we'll see if he walks or crawls first!

Milestones

I'm thinking about trying to post once a week. I had all good intentions of posting more often but I've evidently failed lol. My life is just too boring at the moment I suppose. So starting now I'm going to try to post something new every Monday and see how well I do with that.
Onto todays post!!!
So we've reached some milestones around here, Mister M is reading all the time now, and is learning to tie his shoes (he's only had velcro until now due to the styles being cooler lol). He's also started to pick up after himself without being asked!!! D-Man can clap his hands, sit on his own, pull up to sitting, go from sitting to laying on his tummy without bonking his head and can say a few words "hi, papa, baaa (which means ball) and broovverrr (which means brother)". Brother was his first word actually, he still hasn't said Mama yet though :(

So it's easter weekend this weekend, we don't do much normally but this year it's going to be busy. We're heading down to Toronto on Saturday for a photoshoot (weather permitting)so I'm trying to figure out outfits for us all to wear. Something that looks good together, doesn't make me look pregnant still and is durable enough to survive the train trip down and the subway there. I'll head out to H&M and Old Navy tomorrow and see what I can find I suppose.
We're also doing my sisters 18th birthday dinner on the Sunday, and then maybe Easter dinner on the Friday or Monday (lasagna again this year I think). For the egg hunt I've got some pretty awesome ideas. I'm going to take those plastic eggs and fill them up with different things for the boys, candy, small toys, washcloths, loonies stuff like that. Mister M doesn't eat very much candy (just threw out his halloween stuff yesterday actually) so it's a waste to hide only chocolate. It should be fun!

Pictures!

We've had our professional pictures taken yet again!
We went in for some spring time photo's, and because D-Man is 6 months (well he's 7 months now but was 6 at the time the pictures were taken). They look pretty good! I am not photogenic in the least so it's nice to see that my boys are. Here are the shots!


We're also going to Toronto at the end of the month for a photo shoot with D.P Photography. A friend of mine discovered her when we were all pregnant, and since then a few of us have used her services. I'm excited to see how they all turn out. I've never done anything other than a studio shoot, and we're doing an outdoor, spring shoot at the UofT campus, so it should be alot of fun!


So I'm thinking of starting up my own business, I've got an idea, and possibly the means to make it possible. I've just got a few more things to figure out, and some experiments to do and then I'll be ready to launch. I don't want to say too much about it, but after looking around I don't see anything like what I want to do out there, which might be good or bad lol. Is it just not available because no one has thought of it, or is it not available because no one wants it? We'll see I suppose. And since my original investment will be more time than money I don't think it will be a huge loss to have it fail. Hopefully it won't though and I'll get some extra money to do some fun things with my boys! We'll see.

I've actually won a free logo design through babyheist.com. If you're a Canadian parent, or even just like deals on cool baby items you should check it out, they're based in Burlington Ontario and provide a deal a day on some super awesome items. Anyways they had an 8000 fan contest on Facebook and I entered a bunch of draws and the prize I won was a free logo design by Digital Designs by Renée, so I'm waiting to hear back from them about that, and then I think I'll be able to get a design for my new business! Pretty awesome eh?

Meh...

So as anyone who reads my blog knows I'm pretty boring. I stay at home with my boys, I'm poor, I'm not yet finished school, I love math, I don't drink, smoke or party, I'm dull.
But it has its benefits. As of today, I have 0 credit card debt (I do have a credit card, it's just all paid off), all my bills are paid on time, in full, and I have less than $7000 in student debt (which since I'm going back to school in Sept, I'm not too worried about yet). I've also got $3106.06 saved up for a car (I'll have $4000 saved up by May 20th, so I'll be purchasing it some time soon after!!!!). I've also got my budget completely figured out for the next year or so. Which will allow me to 1)Purchase the car, 2)Take my boys to Niagara Falls on vacation again this summer and 3)Pay for our trip to Jamaica next February!!!!
It's pretty exciting actually, I've never been on a plane and I'm 23, the boys haven't either, and I think we might be bringing my mom with us, which will be nice, because she hasn't done much traveling, and was a stay at home mom with us for years and years, so didn't get the chance to do much of anything lol.

My Boys and their Nana (my mom)

I've also gone through my mom's finances and put together a three year budget plan. Using an average amount she gets per pay cheque, how much she owes for bills/debts/loans ect I've been able to get her debt (other than mortgage) free in two years, get her enough savings for a new (to her at least) car, and get her enough money saved up so her and my dad can go to Europe in a couple years for their 50th birthdays/30th wedding anniversary (which will both take place in 2013). Now all I've got to do is listen to her whine and complain that I'm mean because I won't let her spend money on useless stuff anymore and it's all good lol.
So I suppose being boring, and homey is a good thing sometimes, less money spent at the bar/going out with friends means more money to spend on my boys, a vacation, and a nicer car for me!