Birthday Time

Watch out White Rock.

 Sam helping Daddy

 Zach and Daddy excited for Cake cake.

 digging into dessert...

 Anika and Sam climbing

 Grandma and the kids

This weekend my in-laws had a family birthday party for my husband, nephew and my husbands uncle. It was so warm so we spent some time outside, my husband had a beer in his hand and here's what our nephew Zach, 3 years old, said.
-Uncle Colin, is that your beer?
Colin answered, -Yes, it is.
Zach said,  - oh, I need a beer.
The way he said it was priceless, these kids are truly amazing!
//Nina

Reuse and recycle

Sam has so many toys, almost too many for my liking. I thought about taking some away but it's hard to know what to take as he does play with all of them. I can count on one hand the toys that we have actually purchased for him, and even when we have it's been off craigslist. Sam has 2 older cousins who's parents on a regular basis load off their "old" toys, clothing, shoes, baby bottles etc on us. We are so incredibly lucky and thankful for that. I have only had to, had to is pushing it, buy a few shirts and such for Sam. All his furniture, crib, change table, dresser was bought on craigslist. I think it's crazy to buy everything new when you can buy used and it's in great condition especially when you look at the price of new baby stuff...it's robbery what they try to charge for some of that stuff! I did however buy his mattress and blankets new. It was like christmas when we unpacked all the new toys from his cousins this past week, Sam loves his new toys and he'll get to keep them all even though I think it's perhaps a bit much.  As this new load of toys came in I had to make room for it so Sam's "old" toys and clothes are now boxed up and ready to go to friends who will use it for their little one. It's pretty neat to think that one piece of clothing can keep many little babies warm and that a toy can make so many kids happy. //Nina

 Phones are popular right now, anything that remotely resembles a phone Sam turns into a phone.

An old school record played that Sam's dad played with as a little kid

Itching for green

 2010 garden pic's

 Early 2010, where we used to live. The out door space was about the only great thing about that place.

 Spring ranunculus from the garden 2010

 My X-mas moss/bulb creations

We have had more then a few beautiful spring days here in Vancouver over the past couple of weeks which has not only been wonderfully amazing but it has gotten my gardening itch back in full force. It's an itch I can't really scratch right now as we live in an apartment with a balcony that has limited space. I get so inspired when I go to all the nurseries around town, Vancouver is a great place to live for someone who is into gardening. There are so much to choose from, such varieties of flowers, vegetables, trees, bushes and vines. Obviously I love gardening, I can spend hours gardening and feel like only minutes went by.  My annual battle with tomatoes continues this year, I have 3 plants. I know, nothing, right!? It's all I have space for and it will be the only vegetable (technically a  fruit) I will grow this year.. Last year I grew heirloom tomatoes- had about 15 plants and got maybe 10 tomatoes all season.  We did not get enough sun where we lived before. I am conviced I will master tomatoes this year as my south/west exposure turns my balcony into a perfect green house, well, it should anyways. I am not growing Heirloom's this year though but roma and what they call patio tomatoes (I read this as tomatoes for dummies). My dream would be to have a back yard where I could dedicate a good amount of space to a garden. I would have a small greenhouse filled with vegetables, a plot for root vegetables, lettuce, etc. I would have a couple of berry bushes, black currant maybe. Flowering bushes and climbing vines of clematis. In the spring time my little magnolia tree in the front garden would bloom and the daffodills would stand proud to mark the turn towards warmer days. I the winter my winter roses would brighten up the cold rainy days and decorative cabbage and moss potted on the front steps of the house would be an inviting way to welcome guests for the holidays. Oh, I can go on and on. Until the day when my dream comes true I will continue to dream. //Nina

Bringing it back

Sunday night and I am enjoying a nice cup of tea while the game is on in the background. It's the end of a busy week. At work we had the final week of the semester with finals and graduation. That means that our  class of pastry graduates are venturing out in the work force while we receive a new group of knowledge hungry students soon, but first we take a week off. Graduation is a day of double emotions, I will miss the students that graduated but am at the same time excited for a new term with new faces.

Friday afternoon, after work, I went and got a perm, yes, you heard me right. I have always wanted to get one but never dared to as they say it wrecks your hair. But hair grows and I figured it could not be worse then when I decided to cut my hair super short and regretted it everyday for 6 months until it grew out enough for me to look like a girl again. Well, it's a perm alright, I am bringing the 80's back and loving it. To go with it I bought a short jean jacket and pair of high waisted pink pants, I figure I can pull it off now with this hairdo. The other day I told Colin that jean jackets are so back in style as we were crossing the street. He looked around and said, yes, you are right! And discretely pointed to a middle aged, overweight, drunk, Eastern European guy and a homeless man who were both "rocking" a jean jacket. haha.

Yesterday Sam got to hang out with one of my dear girl friends but only after I took off to have some lunch with her alone first. It's nice to get some alone time with friends without kids- you can actually really talk, highly recommended!  

This morning we ran into Sam's daycare teacher who he LOVES, he wanted to give her hugs and once she picked him up and hugged him back he turned to us and waived good bye. hahaha He was pretty surprised when we would not leave without him. Funny little guy. //Nina

 Some before bed reading...

Spring is in the air

Finally spring has come to Vancouver. We have had the most amazing Easter weather over the weekend and we have been taking advantage of it. If we have not been biking, playing outside at the park, hanging out in family's back yard or bbqing at our friends house we have been out gardening on the balcony. I say we because Sam has very much been "helping". He has a pot with soil and a little shovel he digs in the dirt with and he is also a master of sweeping the balcony floor, well, kinda. This warm spring weather is making me feel all warm and fussy inside, it brings hope of a brighter day-literally-no more gloomy winter! Sam loves to open and close the window in his room, look at these pictures of my cheeky monkey from today.  //Nina

A mind of his own..

Sam playing with his cousins!

Sam has in my opinion left the baby stage and entered the toddler stage.  He is old enough to understand what no means and is very much aware of what he is not allowed to do. For example, he is not allowed to grab behind the tv and reach dangerous things so now he goes over there, gives you a very defiant look, then slowly and I mean slow motion slow reaches behind the tv as he intensely stares you down. As soon as we move to come get him he hurries up and grabs as much as he can in that last second before he gets removed. This continues over and over. It's exactly the same with opening a cupboard and emptying it of  things. I would like to add that we have child proofed but Sam has managed to break some of the not so baby proof baby proofing products. We don't know what else to do but discipline him (even though it's not really working yet) by saying No and removing him. The newest thing he started doing is to through things as he looks at us with the same defiant look, waiting for a reaction. What do you do when your kid thinks it's funny when you say No? But there are some lovely traits that has come with this new stage, he is now aware that we think he is funny when he does certain things. This has resulted in him putting on a show, he makes faces, tenses up every muscle to show the hulk in him etc etc. It is very cute especially when he laughs at himself knowing that he is being funny. //Nina

Baby Makeover

 After

 After

 Before

Well, no baby needs one but every now and then they do need a haircut. Sam just had one the other day. My haircutting skills are a little rusty since cutting my husbands oasis style hair many moons ago, add in that my client would not sit still the result was less than perfect but very cute non the less. Here are some before and after pictures.

Parenting

Before becoming a parent I had all kinds of ideas on parenting but becoming a parent is the most humbling experience I have ever had. It does not take long before you realise that parenting decisions are pretty much always on a grey scale rather then black and white as non-parents often think.  My friend said it well, becoming a parents is like starting a new job that you really have no experience or qualifications for but you are expected to ace it anyways. After having Sam, hearing non-parents speak about parenting often make me smile because by what they are saying it's so obvious they have NO idea of what it is like. And, it's not their fault, it's natural, they cannot know.
I am a part of a book club (wine/food club, we don't really read the books), when it started some years ago non of us had kids, we used to talk about how we would parent when it was time for us and how we could not believe some parents- our kids will not have tantrums in the store- why bring them in the first place- I'm not going to be one of those grumpy mom's who ignore their kid while shopping or whatever and so on. Now, almost all of us have kids and our conversations sound VERY different.  There's a reason she ignore her kid screaming in the store- it gets you out of there faster- you know what your kid wants and you cannot give it to them until you get back to your car anyways- your kid is a screamer and it does not matter if you pick her up at this point. Whatever the reason- trust me- there is one and it is valid 99% of the time. Plus, she's grumpy because she has not slept for months, so don't mess with her. Here's a picture of my kid screaming his lungs out because he did not want to wear his winter jacket...

Non- parents will discover this themselves if they one day become parents, there's no need for me to point it out to them. I simply smile and say -not everything is black and white or you don't always know the situation etc, but that's as far as I have gone. Now I am saying my 2 cents and I hope that non-parents with ideas on how others parent their children might think twice and realise that one day it may be them at the cafe with a crying kid. Please people- don't give moms evil eyes if their baby cries too loud at a coffee shop because you cannot get your work done as you sit their with your laptop and latte in hand. Trust me, she cannot help it and being at a coffee shop with a friend or even just alone helps that new mom more than you could ever understand so you pack up your laptop and go somewhere else if it bothers you. I guess what I am trying to say in this rant of a post; be more humble towards parents especially if you don't have kids because as so many parents have said before me, you really don't have a clue what you are talking about.  // Nina