MOMMY WEANING

This weekend, my husband and I went to our cabin on Pasley to celebrate our 9th Wedding Anniversary.  We went by ourselves, without any children, for 17 hours!  We ate, drank, read, made out, napped, lounged...It was dreamy and perfect and oddly quiet.  

It was also the first time I left Will longer than 8 hours, never mind left him overnight with someone (my parents).  This is always difficult for the mommy...leaving my babies for the very first time for an extended period of time.  

Jake calls it "mommy weaning."  

It is the act of separating myself from one which I am strongly attached and devoted to.  It is also the realization that my baby is OK, and even happy, without me.

Sure enough, by all accounts and by the photos my mom emailed me, Will had the time of his life.  He played in a pool on the deck, sprayed water at their dog, snacked on sugar crisp, and get this...woke up once for a diaper change and then slept until 9:20am!  What a bugger.  This is so typical.  He does not sleep this well normally.

So all in all, I think the mommy weaning went well.  

Thank you Mom for taking care of my baby boy and loving him, and to Mom C. too, for taking our other two treasures on an amazing adventure with their beloved Grandma.

Jake and I had the best time (pictures tomorrow?).  

Last year, we brought Will with us on our 8th Anniversary weekend.  It didn't go so well.  He really did cry the whole time.  Jake was certain he swallowed a toy.  He also said Will got to have more booby than he did. 

Will & Daddy last year at Pasley

May, 2008

SUMMER PLANS

For the past 5 summers, our family has packed up and moved to our cabin on Pasley Island. We disappear as soon as school is done (June 12th) and basically re-enter civilization in September when school starts up again.  Our summers are so meaningful and magical, and memories are shared with friends and family who come and go.  We feel very blessed to have such a place.

The kids and I have already started writing our wish list of things we want to do this summer. I'm starting them early with the lists.  I love lists!  So far Clara wants to:

1. Go look for crabs
2. Go swimming to Daddy's boat
3. Visit Keats
4. Go for a walk to the park
5. Go have an adventure on the Point
6. Hike to the highest point on Pasley

And here are just a few crafty and cabin appropriate ideas I have stumbled across and would like to do this summer with my kids:

1. Build a Fairy House

The kids and I have already found the perfect spot to build a place for the Pasley Fairies to visit.  It is at the base of a large fir tree up the from the cabin.  There is already a mossy floor, gnarled roots and a view of the ocean.  

If you want more information on building your own Fairy House, go here or here at Playful Learning (which has also become one of my favourite blogs to visit). 

• Make things with our vast Beach Glass collection

I like this beach glass and driftwood mobile from the Martha Stewart website.  She has some other gooders as well.

Looking for beach glass and other treasures is easily one of our favourite summer activities, particularly looking for the more rare, green, blue and purple pieces.  Our little beach has become notorious for it's abundant glass, and with the help of friends, we have easily filled more than 6 jars worth.  Clara has taken to gluing the glass onto planters and driftwood.  I also like the idea of making some "Pasley's own" sea glass jewelry.

• Make a Shell Memory Game

We have beach glass and we have a lot of shells too. This idea came from Jennifer at the Write Start.  She also has a tutorial if you want to make your own.  I'm sure Sam will beat me at this memory game too.

I have some other ideas as well, like plant a veggie and herb garden, leave a couple of easels on our deck and paint with the kids, get Clara to take photos and put together an alphabet photo book, invite some friends over for an outdoor tea party, get the kids a summer journal where they can include stories, photos, drawings and observations...

What are some of your favourite summer activities?

4 WEEKS TO BIKINI BODY

4 weeks to a bikini body.  This has become my mantra this week, and usually happens in May.  Kind of like in September when I say I'm going to be more organized and clean up our basement.  

This is the hope:

• to sit on the deck chair in my bathers this summer without draping my shirt aross my sagging midsection (wearing sunscreen, of course)
  
• to possibly even walk around in the bathers, without putting on clothes first
• to either have a bikini body or accept my body in a bikini

This is the eating plan:

• drink more water and less Coke Zero
• portion my snacks instead of eating the entire (large) bag of peanut M&M's in one sitting
• avoid buying snickerdoodle cookies from Wholefoods 

And since I will not deprive myself of french fries and the occasional pint of Ben & Jerry's half baked ice cream, I need to ramp up the exercise. Walking fast on my treadmill while watching "So You Think You Can Dance" may not be enough.  

• follow the workout in the June issue of Shape Magazine, 3 times a week
• one high intensity cardio work out a week
• two 60 minute moderate-intensity cardio work outs

So there you go.  I now have some accountability.  Anyone care to join me?  My husband is. (He also, by the way, already thinks I'm hot and tells me this at least once a day.  Boy, am I thankful).

On another note, my hard drive, scratch disks, whatever they are called...are still FULL. Hopefully I can post some photos soon.

RESORTING TO DECEPTION

Lately, I have been feeling more anxious than ever about Clara's picky palate.  She tells me that these are her 5 favourite foods:

1. waffles
2. puff pancake
3. cereal
4. butter noodles
5. the inside of a chicken finger (?)

These are not only her 5 favourite foods, but the only 5 foods she would like to eat.  And as you can see, my girl loves her carbs. Funnily enough, french fries used to be in the top 5 but now she says that they are too unhealthy?  She will consider other foods, but they must be served straight up with no seasoning or sauce of any kind.  

Over the course of a day, she eventually does consume (with much encouragement and sometimes bribery) a little bit of all the food groups, but I'm mostly anxious about life outside the house, like when she is a guest at someone's house or at a restaurant. There are not too many places that serve pizza with no sauce, steak with no grill marks on it, or serve hamburgers with no patty, just ketchup (otherwise known as a ketchup bun).

In the hopes of encouraging Clara to at least try some new foods, I have been doing some experimenting.  First, the kids now get to choose one dinner a week.  It could be (and has been) waffles, but the meal has to include a grain, protein, veggie and fruit.  They have to figure out what ingredients we need, and then they have to help me prepare it.  I thought maybe if Clara was more involved in the process of getting dinner to the table, she might grow to love some new foods?

I have also resorted to deception.  I finally bought Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook and have been successfully sneaking in fruit and veggie purees in my family's meals and snacks for a few weeks now. Even my husband didn't notice the cauliflower in his macaroni.

Clara has happily eaten applesauce muffins with butternut squash and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with chick peas (see our cookies below).  So satisfying.

Sam wanted to participate in his top 5 favourite foods too.  Unlike his sister, he will eat ANYTHING, except pickled ginger.

1. pizza
2. sushi
3. pickles
4. sausages
5. puff pancake

MAY LONG WEEKEND

Here we have the Pasley work party:

Annie (and Bridget and Will) made all my planters look pretty.

Among other things, the boys fixed our rotting deck.

Will cleaned out the toy box.

The kids washed down the Adirondack chairs

and painted rocks and shells and stuff.  

Sam even painted my crocs a lovely green.

Adelaide and Will had a hard time staying out of Annie's planters, quite literally.

Clara is reunited with her beloved and naked doll, Moses.

Annie made some yummy muddled drinks that involved brown sugar and lime.

Will enjoyed his own concoction that involved Goldfish and orange juice.

Followed by some dog torture.

This is kind of gross...

Kirby discovers the last piece of bacon on the table.

This is kind of gross too...

Will bathing among the dirty dinner dishes.

Apres dinner table dancing to Lady GaGa.

This is Clara's signature move.

Before 8:00pm and all the kids are in bed!

The adults have some poop deck, story telling and champagne drinking time.

We are looking a little overly happy here...

Day 2 brings wood chopping and stacking, deck blowing, lawn mowing and seeding, tree trimming, outhouse cleaning, under the bed sweeping, some swimming in the ocean, lots of warm sunshine, and lemonade making...

Going home...

Thank you so much everyone!  

I LIKEY: MADSEN CARGO BIKE

Madsen is giving away 2 bikes in July.  Apparently, you have to live in the United States to be eligible to win, but no matter, I still would like one of these and am still posting a link.  

I think this suits me better than my road bike that I sold (and used the money to buy new bedding with).  Wearing a skirt and some flats and cycling to the nearby market with my kids loaded up in the back...

Too bad we live on the side of a mountain with nary a market in sight.

SCRATCH DISK IS FULL

Apparently, I have no room left on my hard drive to upload even a single photo.  It is at this point that my mom or husband will have to "take things off" and "make more room" on my computer so I can upload my daily photo sessions.  I'm not so good at these things (if you recall, my husband calls me a luddite).  

Maybe tomorrow I can post pictures from our May long weekend at Pasley with our friends.  It was a work weekend, but I thought it was rather fun as well.

Thanks so much guys!

SUPER STORE AND MORE

Tonight, I left for the grocery store at 9:30pm!  Jake phoned me at 11:05pm to make sure I was OK.  I was. (I was just finishing bagging my own groceries).  

I was trying to be efficient by shopping sans children and trying to be frugal by shopping at Superstore and not Wholefoods (my favourite).  

It's past midnight, but I was having blogging guilt, so thought I would post a few pictures I took yesterday.  My friend has this great pedal plane in her son's room and I thought it would be cool to take some pictures of the kids in it.  The bigger kids were more interested in the trampoline in the backyard, but the two wee ones love it. 

Sam said I could take only take 1 picture.  He has been quite bossy lately.