Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Big Girl Bed Success Continues

We seem to be swimming along with Darcy's transition to the big girl bed. It seems too good to last and we're waiting for her to realize she can get out of bed on her own, but she's still lying there every morning waiting for us to get her. It's amazing.

She's been in the big bed for about a month now. She's gotten out twice at nap times and once at bedtime. That's a pretty good record.

One thing that I thought was helping us was the fact that we had kept her crib up in her room in case the transition didn't go smoothly and she needed to go back in the crib. We quickly saw that wasn't going to be the case, but we just didn't have time to get the crib taken down. Her room is very small and having the crib and the bed in there has made it pretty tight in there.

Nick is on midnights this week, so he's been sleeping all day while I've been at work. When he got up yesterday afternoon he took the crib down. So I wondered if the extra space would give her a sense of freedom. I guess not. When I went in to get her this morning she said, "Mommy, you came! I've been waiting and waiting for you." Then she crawled down to the foot of her bed and hopped out.

I love this kid!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Delicious!

We're kind of venturing away from traditional birthday cakes at our house in recent years. Nick doesn't want cake at all for his birthday. He wants apple pie. It's hard to put candles in, but he likes it so that's what we've been doing for him for the past few years.

He went out and bought my birthday cake this year and came home with this. It was amazing! I'm a pretty big fan of the PC desserts on the whole but this took the cake (pun intended).

If you have PC foods available where you are, I highly recommend picking one up. If you find it too much to eat on your own, give me a call.

Friday, November 24, 2006

I'm A Genius

Every year I get a free day of cell phone calling on my birthday. All the calls you want to make all day long with free air time. Cool.

I'm not a big cell phone user. I often have to turn on my cell phone to check what the number is. When I do carry it, it's never turned on. If it is turned on, I don't hear it. Nick called me on Monday afternoon and was shocked when I actually picked up.

So yesterday I pulled out my cell phone and thought I'd make a few free calls.

The battery was dead.

Thanks for the offer. Maybe next time you'll offer it to someone who knows how to use her phone!

Thursday, November 23, 2006

A Little Thursday Morning Birthday Fun

So, it's a fact. I'm now 34. There's nothing to be done about it except enjoy it. Last night I was at work for a while and Nick and Darcy stayed home together. When I got home, we both got Darcy ready for bed. As she was getting into her pyjamas, Darcy picked up a crayon (she gets distracted easily), held it up to me and said, "I coloured in your birthday card." Thanks. I hope that wasn't meant to be a surprise.

Sure enough, I got a beautifully coloured birthday card this morning.

As I've been thinking about my age, I've been getting a little reflective. I thought I'd post some old pictures of birthdays gone by, just to help add to my enjoyment and yours. Here is my originial birthday. Well, it's not actually my birthday, but a day or two later when my parents brought me home. My dad's cousin was trying out a new polaroid camera and thought I would make a great subject. Looking at my misshapen head, I'm not sure that I agree...


I also found some pictures of some other birthday celebrations of years gone by. Here is my 10th birthday. We had some friends from school and some cousins over. My favourite gift that year was an "Annie" sweatshirt. It's a good thing our tastes change as we get older.

You can see part of my brother's head, my cousin Shelley, me, my friends Tricia and Kim.

Here's my 17th birthday. Look at all that hair! I loved this sweater that my friend's mom had knitted for me...



I tried posting one last photo of me 20 years ago. It's probably better for everyone that it didn't work!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Christmas Pictures

We picked up our new Christmas pictures last night and we were very pleased with how they turned out. Our original plan was just to go in and get our family photo done, but then we ended up doing a few individuals of Darcy as well. I'm glad we did and I'm sure you'll agree...



I noticed that they used the same Christmas balls that she played with last year, so I thought I'd look up last year's Christmas picture as well for a comparison. It's amazing what a difference a year can make!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Holiday Cheer

Are you ready for some Christmas music? This Detroit radio station starts playing Christmas music 24-7 at the beginning of November. I can't get into it that early, but now that the end of November is upon us, I'm starting to feel in the mood. You can listen live online, so I've got it streaming over the old PC this morning.

If you want an easy dose of Christmas music, this is the place for you.

Now, for those of you who are also Amazing Race fans, I had previously mentioned that I was cheering for the Cho's. However, as the race went on, they really started to get on my nerves. I'm all for playing honourably and being true to your friends, but don't stand around and wait for them to finish a task before you move on! It is a race. Help each other, but don't hand the race over to them, which is essentially what they did. By waiting for Lyn and Karlyn they gave the women a chance to get ahead of them, which caused them to be eliminated.

I think I'm on the Dustin and Kandice team now. I think they've got what it takes to be the first all-female team to win. Only a few weeks left!

Monday, November 20, 2006

And We're Back!

So we're back in Windsor after a great time in Montreal. Nick arrived home on Friday and Darcy and I followed on Saturday. She did pretty well flying again on Saturday. There were a few rough spots revolving around the fact that our flights (and 3-hour layover in Toronto) were right at her normal naptime. The flight attendants all loved her. She also liked the fact that the plane from Montreal to Toronto had a little TV screen just for her so she could watch cartoons. She wouldn't keep the headphones on, which is probably good anyway. I don't know if headphones are the best idea for such young ears. Anyway, she liked watching Miss Spider even if she couldn't hear what was going on.

We had a couple of problems when we arrived in Windsor. Oddly enough, our flight was early, so Nick wasn't even at the airport when we got there. The luggage started coming on carousel and I could see our car seat coming, perched precariously on top of our suitcase. They usually make me put the car seat in a big plastic bag, but this time they didn't. I asked about a bag and was told I didn't need one. Well, the car seat fell off the carousel and on the way down one of the straps got caught in the carousel. It took (and this is no exaggeration) 5 men to get the strap out of where it was stuck. I was over on the other side of the carousel with Darcy in her stroller and my luggage cart, so I couldn't get over to the car seat. There was a little bit of damage to the strap, but nothing that will affect the safety of the seat. We had also checked the table and chairs we had purchased for Darcy at Ikea and that didn't arrive. It arrived without any problems on Sunday morning, so we're all set now.

My suitcase is unpacked and my vacation is officially over. We dropped Nick off (looking smashing in his new uniform) for his new job this morning.

One funny Darcy story to close for today...

Last night we had told her we would have chicken nuggets and french fries for supper. As I was getting them ready I asked her if she would rather have carrots or broccoli with her supper. She got a really serious, contemplative look on her face and responded, "I fink I'll have chicken nuggets and fries." I told her she would have those things but that she needed to have a vegetable too. She started thinking again and then said, "No, just chicken and fries." So I said, "All right then, carrots it is!" She ended up eating more carrots than chicken anyway. Then after supper I asked her if she wanted anything else to eat. She again took on her very serious, "I'm really giving this a lot of thought" face and came out with "Ummm, ummm, ummm, I fink a lollipop?" Sorry sweetie, no lollipops!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Good Times

The last few days have been pretty stressful for us. If you read Nick's blog you'll know that his exams last week were really hard, so we were anxiously awaiting yesterday's results to ensure that he will graduate today. Of course he did pass so we're gearing up for tonight's graduation ceremony.

Darcy, her Papa and I took the Metro yesterday to the Biodome. It was a lot of fun and we saw all kinds of amazing animals. Darcy also gave one little girl such a big hug that she knocked her over. Then she played "chase" with the penguins. The would swim along the wall of their display and she kept running back and forth after them. She had a blast!

Then we had lunch at the Biodome before getting back on the Metro to go home. The ride was very long and Darcy was pretty ornery through most of it. She was not enjoying it at all. She came home and had a long nap, but still wasn't herself all night last night. She threw her supper plate on the floor (we were having rice, of course) and was generally miserable. Until the Jell-o came out. Then she ate a bowl and a half of that.

We decided that we'd stay pretty close to home today, to give her a day to rest and hopefully get back to herself. We may go for a walk this afternoon if the rain lets up. If not, we'll just stay in.

Then it's off to Nick's graduation. Darcy will stay at home with Auntie Stef because it doesn't start until her bedtime.

So, congratulations Nick! We knew you could do it. I'm just SO glad it's over.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Vacation

I love being on vacation!

Yesterday was a great day. Nick had the day off from school so we had planned to spend the day together as a family. Our first plan was to go to the Biodome but we didn't realize it was closed on Mondays. We had come up with a plan B, which ended up being a trip to IKEA! Hooray!

We bought Darcy's Christmas present there, a small table and chairs for her to use for doing colouring and crafts. She's going to love it.

After lunch and a lengthy nap it was time to get ready to take Nick back to school. On the way we stopped to visit Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Titcombe in the nursing home. They were thrilled to see Darcy who had big hugs for each of them. Darcy is always a big hit with all the residents and staff when we visit there.

Then it was off to Daddy's school. Nick has been bragging about Darcy for 12 solid weeks, so he was glad to finally get to show her off in person. We met a lot of his friends there and got the full tour of the facility. Now that he's almost done, we finally know where he's been all this time.

Today we're meeting Auntie Stef at her office so Darcy can make the rounds there too. We're looking forward to it. Then Grandmaman is taking some time off this afternoon to spend with Darcy.

Should be a great day!

Monday, November 13, 2006

Saturday Night's All Right


We're in Montreal! Flying with Darcy couldn't have been any easier. She was as good as gold all day long and was charming all the flight attendants. She was the princess on the flight between Windsor and Toronto, and even got taken into the cockpit before I even managed to get on the plane. She was so good the whole time and everything went completely smoothly.

The only slight problem was that she didn't have a chance to nap on the planes, and then when we landed she was so excited about seeing Daddy, Grandmaman, Papa and Auntie Stef that she didn't have a nap when we got home either. Oh well, it made for a really early night for Grandmaman and Papa when they were babysitting while we went to the Elton John concert.

Ahh, the concert... It was amazing! We had such a great time. The music was incredible, he's obviously mastered stage performance or else he wouldn't be who he is, it was just a great night all around. You've got to be pretty amazing if you can wear a sequined picture of yourself on the back of your jacket and make it look cool, not pompous.

As always though, it's some of the people around you who make a night like that more enjoyable. First of all we were seated about 10 minutes before the show started and discovered we had great seats with an amazing view of the piano. Fantastic. Then a gentleman (from here on he will be known as fat head came and sat directly in front of me and leaned forward in his seat. It was clear that was how he was planning on sitting for most of the evening and his fat head entirely blocked my view of the piano. So, my husband graciously switched seats with me to give me a better view. Perfect. Then I had smelly man sitting in front of me. He just smelled like his clothes hadn't been washed in weeks. Pleasant. Shortly after the show started, fat head started smoking (Quebec is a smoke-free province). At least it blocked out the smell of smelly man.

But by far our favourite concert going was a man we have dubbed rock-it man. This guy is clearly Elton John's biggest fan and he managed to score seats right in front. He kept wandering up to the stage and letting his unadulterated joy get the best of him. Rock-it man didn't limit himself to the air guitar (although he was quite skilled at it), he was a one man air band. He played air drums and air piano as well. Brilliant. There were many times throughout the night that we were howling over his front-row antics but the highlight was when he raised his hand, in this position and pumped his arm all through Candle in the Wind. Hilarious. Also funny was when people held up their cell phones during Candle in place of lighters.

I loved the whole concert. He didn't do my all-time favourite song of his, Tonight, but I guess the highlight for me would have been Tiny Dancer. His voice isn't what it used to be, and his high range is gone, so a lot of the songs sounded different from what you normally expect but it all sounded great and it was an amazing night all the way around.

Thanks, Nick for such a wonderful birthday present!

Friday, November 10, 2006

Funny Updates

I'm busily getting ready for our flights tomorrow, but I wanted to post a couple of quick Darcy updates that I thought you'd enjoy...

First of all, her thieving ways seem to be continuing. Last night we picked up some hamburgers for supper and were sitting in the mall enjoying them together. Darcy had her hamburger in her hands and I had mine in mine. You know, the way it's supposed to be. All of a sudden, faster than lightning, Darcy reaches over, rips a big chunk off of my hamburger and shoves it in her mouth! I don't know how she managed to chew it, because she was laughing so hard. What a little monkey.

Secondly, all good things must come to an end. After nearly two weeks of big girl bed perfection, we had our first problem last night. Nick and I were on the phone, I was in our bedroom, which is right next to Darcy's room. I heard footsteps. So, I hung up the phone and walked out into the hallway. When I put my hand on Darcy's door, I heard footsteps running away from me. I opened the door and she had run over and buried her face on the bed. Did I mention it was 10:30? I went in and picked her up. She had her pyjama pants on, but she had taken her diaper off. It was just kind of floating around inside her pants. She got a small case of the giggles when I walked in the room, but I managed to get her settled down pretty quickly and I think she went back to sleep right away. So, we'll see how it carries on from here.

We should be in the air tomorrow by 10:30 and in Montreal shortly after 2:00. I don't care about the rest of my luggage, I just want the car seat to get there! Then it's off to see Elton John tomorrow night. I'm so excited. Philadelphia Freedom came on the radio last night when I was driving home. It's not one of my favourites by him, but just hearing it got me so excited. It's going to be a great show.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Getting Better All The Time

Darcy's mood has definitely improved as the week wore on and she got caught up on her sleep. We haven't had any more meltdowns and she's been a lot of fun to be around.

I've also been challenged this week as she's reminded me over and over again that she sees everything I do and will often repeat it. She's in a nurturing stage right now and is always cuddling her toys. Yesterday I watched as she was caring for some of her toys and I heard her saying "Is that OK, honeybunny?" or "Do you like that, honeybunny?" Nick had started calling her "honeybunny" before he left and I kind of picked it up when he left to see if it helped her with his absence at all. Now it's kind of stuck and I call her that all the time.

Also yeterday when I was sitting on the floor, she walked over to me, put one hand on each of my cheeks and planted a big kiss right on my lips. After she kissed me she said "Mommy, you're precious to me." Gee, I wonder where she's heard that before?

Note to self: Always say positive things around the child...

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Rough Night

This has been an amazingly busy week for me. Last week was incredibly hectic followed by a non-stop weekend. The non-stop weekend involved a lot of meetings for me at the church where childcare was provided for Darcy. She had a great time, but it meant for a late night on Friday and a really short nap on Saturday.

As a result, she was really out of sorts by the end of the weekend. She went to bed at a decent time on Sunday night, but I had to get her up early yesterday because I needed to be in London for a meeting at 10:30, so we needed to get an early start. She had a crummy nap (45 minutes) at the babysitter's house yesterday, so by the time I got her home for supper last night she had had it!

Fortunately, I had the foresight to have supper cooking in the crock pot yesterday during the day. So by the time I got back from London and picked Darcy up we could just go home and supper was ready. It was roast beef, with potatoes and carrots. Yummy, you'd think.

Well, the very idea was somehow insulting to Darcy. She refused to eat a bite and just had a complete and total meltdown. She had been promised a lollipop if she ate her supper. That went out the window fairly early. She even had to be removed from her chair for a time out. Nothing made any sort of difference. I just kept hearing "I no want to eat!" or "I not hungwy!" or other pleasant phrases like that. She sucked back her juice, but when she was almost done she managed to pour the remainder of it all over her vegetables. But when I took the juice away, she got angry all over again. My personal favourite of the two-year old vocabulary then made it's appearance "Gimme gimme!"

I tried to get her to at least eat her yogurt, but she wasn't having it. When I saw yogurt in her hair instead of her mouth I figured it was time to call an end to the festivities. As I was washing her face and cleaning her up she looked at me and with the sweetest little voice said "Mommy, I hungry. I have something to eat, please?" I wasn't falling for that, and we both needed a break. So she got out of the high chair and we went downstairs to call Daddy. He was able to talk to her for a few minutes and get her to agree to listen to Mommy. I let her play and relax for a little while, then I tried again to give her something to eat (bread, right out of the freezer, she loves it) and she scarfed down two pieces.

I think we were both completely exhausted. She went to bed without any trouble and when she finished her breakfast this morning (two bowls of Cheerios) she looked at me and said "Now I have my lollipop?"

I don't think so.

I think we're both pretty exhausted and completely worn out with the whole Nick being in Quebec thing. Fortunately we only have a few days left. We fly to Montreal on Saturday and we'll be with Nick for most of his last week.

It can't come soon enough!

So after all that, does anyone have any tips on getting food into a tantruming two year old?

Friday, November 03, 2006

I've Been Working on the Railroad


I made the mistake a couple of months ago of borrowing a Sesame Street CD from the library. Now that's all Darcy wants to listen to in the car. At one point I think I had 8 different CD's borrowed. We've found the ones that are the best and she's got some real favourites.

The best thing is that she's started singing along with the songs. At first she would just bark out commands from the backseat, "Sing Mommy!", but now she wants to sing too. It's amazing to me how many words she knows to all the songs. Sometimes she can't quite keep up with the tempos, but she sure has fun trying.

My favourite is when she sings "I've Been Working on the Railroad". I'm not sure, why. Maybe it's the way she says "wailwoad" or the fact that she can use the word "live-long". But the absolute best is when we get to the last verse, "Singing fee-fi-fiddly-eye-oh, fee-fi-fiddly-eye, oh oh oh oh, fee-fi-fiddly-eye-oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh". She loves to belt out that last one and hold on forever. It's the cutest thing.

Man, this kid cracks me up!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Stop Thief!

I work from home on Wednesdays. Most of my time is spent in preparation for the Kids' Club that I lead on Wednesday nights. During the day yesterday I realized that I needed some supplies for last night's craft, so I packed Darcy up and we headed off to Dollarama.

Right near where we were shopping they had these cute little purses which drew Darcy's attention right away. I figured that it was only a dollar, so I told her we'd get one for her. She was pretty excited. Plus, I had dropped her candy on the floor as we were walking into the store, so I felt kind of bad about that, so I thought this would be a good gesture of apology.

So we got up to the front of the store and I was paying for the craft supplies I needed. I have to submit a receipt for that purchase, so Darcy's purse had to be paid for separately. It got a little confusing at the cash register and Darcy didn't want to give up her purse so I could pay for it, so the cashier just let her hold it while I paid for it.

We left Dollarama (Dollarsama as Darcy calls it) and went home. When we got home, I was putting her sunglasses inside her new purse when I noticed there was already something inside it. I opened up the purse and found a cigarette lighter! I just about died.

"Darcy, where did this come from?"
"Dollarsama"

OK, as long as we're both on the same page.

Before my siblings post this in their comments, I did a similar thing when we were children. When we were on vacation in Washington DC we stopped at a street vendor to buy souvenirs. I picked out a novelty coin I wanted to buy for my "baby brother" and Dad was paying for it. I picked up the coin I wanted and put it in Dad's pocket. What I didn't know was that Dad had already picked out a coin that he had paid for. When we got back to the car, Dad sat down and found the coin in his pocket. He wasn't happy.

So, like Mother, like Daughter, I guess.

As a bed update, Darcy got out of her bed yesterday afternoon during her nap. This morning, however, she stayed in bed and waited for me to get her out again. I guess she has different rules for nighttime and naptime.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

That Was Fun!

We had a blast night! I had forgotten how much I love Halloween and the whole trick or treating business.

Darcy was really excited about getting into her chicken costume last night, but not as pleased about standing still for a picture to document the event.





We went out on our street at around 6:00. We went to our neighbour's house first. As we were waiting for them to come to the door, a boy around 10 came up the stairs too. Darcy took one look at him and started to scream. She was terrified. I think he had some kind of alien mask on or something. He took it off right away and kept apologizing. I wondered if it was going to be a long night.

She did better as the night wore on. She got a little scared by some other costumes and also by some dogs and cats that came to the door with their owners.

One guy down the street saw her coming with her chicken costume and brought out a can of chicken soup to give her. It was a little over Darcy's head, but I thought it was funny. Just like the fact that I had given her chicken for supper before putting her in her chicken costume!

After doing some of the houses on our street (where she was a huge hit), we put her in the stroller to walk to some friends's houses who live pretty close to us. They were really pleased to see Darcy and she got a lot of candy from them.

After that, we went to a neighbourhood party that was being held a church. It was OK, but Darcy was getting pretty tired by that time. She had a cupcake and made a craft and was then ready to go home.

Aside from the whole Halloween thing, Darcy is still doing great in her big girl bed. She hasn't figured out yet that she can get out. I love it. She's really excited about going to bed each night and she's still lying there in the morning when I get out of the shower.