They Got Me!

Nick and I didn't have cable for a long time. Living in Windsor we got lots of free channels from Detroit so we just went with that. Last year when he was away training for his new job our reception really started to deteriorate so I decided to finally take the plunge and get cable. I looked at the options and figured basic cable would be enough to keep me entertained.

When the guy came to hook up the cable he told me he didn't have the right connector so even though I had only ordered basic cable, I would be given the full package for the price of basic. He didn't know how long it would be before they came back to change the connector.

I was pretty sure they were just trying to sucker me. Get me used to watching all the channels and then eventually get me to cave in and say I wanted to start paying for them. I always said I'd cancel the full package when the time came.

The time came this past Monday. Someone knocked on our door and told me they were going to cancel the extra channels unless I wanted to start paying $15 a month for them. I immediately told him to cancel. Then I went downstairs and had non-buyers remorse. I suddenly didn't want to be without TLC, Food Network, HGTV and all those other channels. So I ran back outside and told the guy I wanted to keep them.

At least I got them free for more than a year!

Consumer Warning

If you come to my house this Christmas season, you may not want to eat the peanut butter cookies.

Darcy and I started our Christmas baking the other night. She loves to help with baking so I figured peanut butter cookies would be a good place for us to start. Her main job is stirring. I give her a wooden spoon and get her to "help" when I add a new ingredient. My big problem is keeping her from eating all the batter. She's constantly putting her spoon in her mouth and then wanting to put it back in the bowl. I managed to keep her from doing that but I had to wash her spoon a few times. Once when I was washing her spoon she picked up a measuring spoon and filled it with batter. The kid is quick but we got through it without contaminating the cookies.

Once the batter was done we moved on to shaping the cookies. To keep things clean I figured I would roll them into balls and have Darcy shape them with the fork. She loved that job and things went pretty smoothly. I was starting to get confident that we'd get through the night with a usable batch of cookies when I looked over at Darcy. Ah-ah-ah-chooooo! All over the trays of cookies waiting to go in oven! Twice. I managed to catch the second sneeze with my arm but the damage was done. We're still eating the cookies, but I'm not serving them to anyone.

Great Time

We're back from a really great time at the Great Wolf Lodge. If you're looking for a fun family get-away I highly recommend it. We'd go back in a heartbeat. It's a bit pricier than your average hotel but there's a lot that makes it worthwhile. Pack your own food though! The food there is ridiculously expensive.

I'm glad Darcy had been in swimming lessons before we went. Her previous nervousness around water seems to be completely gone. It only took her a few minutes to get comfortable and she had a blast! She did the kiddie slides the first night, but by the next morning was wanting to go down the big slides (she wasn't allowed). She also loved the wave pool. We did find one family slide we could take her down with us and after we discovered that she didn't want to do much else.

She loved having her own little cabin in the hotel room. Of course, this is how we found her in the middle of the night one night!

Nick and I had a great time there too. We each took turns taking care of the kids while the other one got to do some of the big slides. I also got to do something I've always wanted to try, which is sitting in an outdoor hot tub when there's snow on the ground. The good way about how they do it is that you get in the hot water inside and then head outside when you're already warm. Now that's thinking! I loved it. It was also pretty cool to be in the waterpark which is always kept at 84 F while watching the snow come down outside.

Darcy also loved that they had a story time before bedtime each night and both nights we were there they read Robert Munsch books. All the kids sit on the floor during story time and at the end they wind up with the big "Great Wolf Howl" and everyone stands for that. The kids in front of Darcy were pretty tall and she couldn't see during the howl part so she just walked up and stood at the front beside the storyteller guy. Nick and I were laughing to kill ourselves at the back with the other parents, but we couldn't get close enough to her to get her to get back with the other kids. No one said anything, so she stayed up there until the end. What a nut.

We spent some time in Niagara Falls on Friday before heading to my parents' house to celebrate my birthday with my family. All in all a great family vacation!

Anybody Want a Peanut?

Darcy is struggling with the concept of rhyming. The other week at the Ontario Early Years Centre we read a rhyming book and the teacher was trying to get the kids to figure out rhyming words. Darcy didn't quite get it.

The other week when we were driving to her gymnastics class she said, "Lips and books. See how that sounds the same?" I told her I didn't. We finally agreed on lips and chips. We've kept trying off and on for the last couple of weeks, but no big deal. She'll get it at some point.

Tonight after supper we were reading books on the couch. Last summer my Mom and Dad gave her a boxed set of 18 Dora the Explorer Board books. We read all of them tonight. One of them is called "Dora's Friends" and on each page it shows a picture of one of Dora's friends. As we got to the page with her monkey friend, Boots, Darcy did an enormous fart. After she said, "Excuse me" she said, "Boots and toots. See how that sounds the same?"

She can rhyme!

Mr. Inconsistency

Wesley's sleep schedule has been all over the map lately. We haven't been able to get him to go to sleep before 11:30 for over a month now. He was waking up twice in the night (@2:00 & 5:00) for a while, then it was down to once a night (just 5:00). That was pretty sweet.

This week has been all over the place though. One night he wouldn't go to sleep until 1:30 and he still got up at 6:00. Then another night he went to bed at 11:30 and slept until 8:30. After frantically running to see if he was still breathing, we had a pretty relaxing morning. The other night we had to struggle to get him to sleep before midnight and he was up twice in the night again. Last night was another 11:30 - 8:30 night. We just have no idea what to expect when we go to bed at night.

We're attempting a little family vacation this week. We're spending two nights at Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls. We've got a "suite" which involves having a kids' cabin inside our room, but it doesn't have a closing door. It will be interesting to see how much sleep we get when all four of us are sleeping in such close quarters. I imagine Darcy will be so wiped out from spending all day in the water park that she'll sleep well. I don't know about the rest of us.

So, here's hoping that tonight is another good night! We may need to rest up before our vacation.

Like An Orange on a Toothpick

We've accepted the fact that our kids are small. They're likely to always be small. That's OK.

That's why I was so surprised by what we discovered last night. Over the past few weeks I've noticed that Darcy's winter hats don't fit her anymore. We couldn't get them to stay on her head. I've been looking for a new hat for her, but I haven't been able to get one to fit her. You see, I've been looking at hats that are sized 2-3, the same as her clothes size.

Nick took her to the park yesterday afternoon and gave her one of my old hats to wear. It fit!!! We were out shopping again last night and again we tried on hats. None of the 2-3 hats fit her. We went to the "big girls" section and tried on a hat there. It was size 7-14 (a pretty big span) and it fit her like a charm. Apparently our daughter has an enormous head!

She doesn't look disproportionate, but she can wear size 2-3 clothes, but a size 7-14 hat. That hat should fit a 10 year old!

Of course this realization brought me back to the funniest scene in "So I Married an Axe Murderer". I can't stop laughing.

World Vision

It's time for my annual plug for the World Vision Gift Catalogue. If you've got someone to buy for who is truly that person who has everything, then why not consider something like this? You can buy a fish farm for a family in a developing country. You can buy school supplies or vaccinations for children living in other parts of the world. You can educate a girl in rural China for $60! There are many different options.

If you're planning on buying me a gift you can do this instead, if you like.

New Pictures

We got our family Christmas portrait taken yesterday, along with some additional pictures of the kids. I'll post some as soon as we get them back. I think they turned out pretty well.

Also, check out our Flickr page for some new shots I took while trying to get a picture of Wesley smiling.

When Darcy was little she used to fall asleep as soon as we put her mobile on. It was very soothing for her. It seems to have the opposite effect on Wesley. He gets really excited and tries to grab the toys. He squeals and kicks the whole time it's on. Needless to say, we don't use it at bedtime for him! I'm going to attempt to upload a video of him loving his mobile. I hope it works! It's not great quality, but hopefully you'll get the picture.

She's getting too big!

Darcy is really excited about starting "big girl school" next fall. She talks about it quite often. When she got up from her nap this afternoon she brought it up again.

Through the course of the conversation ("I'm going to ride a bus to school") she mentioned that I would be at school with her. I told her that's not how school works, that she'll have to go without me.

She looked me straight in the eye and said, "I hope you won't be too sad."

I hope so too!

Halloween Wrap Up

If you've read Nick's blog then you will have already read some of our Halloween adventures from last night. We had such a fun night!

We had heard that a local mall was offering trick or treating. We thought it would be worth a shot, seeing as how it started at 4:00, was completely indoors and safe for children. It was so much fun! We met up with our friends there, and the two girls had a blast. Darcy was a chicken and Alisa was a princess. The boys were both too young for trick or treating, but they sure looked cute as Superman and Tigger. We'll definitely go back next year.

After supper at the mall we headed home (it was still just shortly after 5:00 by this time!) and got Darcy ready to go in the neighbourhood. She went for well over an hour and was quite a hit wherever she went.

We had such a beautiful night for trick or treating that Wesley and I sat on the front steps to hand out candy. He was also quite a hit in his Tigger costume. We closed up shop around 8:00 when all of the kids started being bigger than me. One teenager, however, had a sticker on her costume (Pippi Longstocking - it had been a lot time since I've seen that one) that said, "I am a student at Walkerville High School. All the candy I collect tonight will be going to Sick Kids' Hospital." I asked her if it was true, she said yes. Her friend said she went to a different school that wasn't participating in the program but that she was collecting to help the kids too. I gave them extra candy, so I hope it is true! If it is, what a great idea.

All in all a very happy Halloween was had here. Now it's time to start Christmas shopping.