Tag Archives: life

Be Saying Adiós to Diapers

Have you ever made a commitment to do something every day, many times per day for SEVEN years?

I didn’t, but it happened. How, I don’t really know.

I have changed diapers for exactly 7 years, 2 months, and 3 days starting on Friday, April 6th, 2007 and finishing up my diaper changing career yesterday, on Monday, June 9th, 2014.

I have had my fair share of help, Sexy Neck, my mom, random visitors and even my dad have lent a hand.

I think I need a certificate on my wall to mark this day, that’s a lot of bum and crevice wiping as well as money. We probably spent around sixty bucks per month on diapers. Math is not my strong suit, but we spent over NINE THOUSAND dollars on diapers. Woah! (Side note: Sexy Neck, the Math teacher, has informed me that it is more like $5,200, but still a lot of money. Thanks for reading the blog honey and for correcting my Math. We can thank Mr. Crampton for my confused Math skills.)

We are very excited to be starting our diaper-free life.

OC has been ready for many months but after our trip up north and seeing baby G in diapers, the deal was sealed. The diapers disappeared all together. Bye bye diapers. Now the trip training, high fives, floor cleaning, extra laundry and loud cheers ensues for the next few weeks while OC masters the skill of going in the toilet or on the pee tree.

* Just a note about what is ‘trip training’ for all my new mommy friends. The best thing is that you don’t have lengthy discussions or ask multiple times per day, “Do you have to go potty?”. I take OC to the potty at regular times, when I go or the brothers go or before we leave the house. We take a trip to the potty, no questions asked. No screaming or crying for anyone and no special rewards. Just us and our books relaxing on the toilet.

Here are our favourite potty books and OC in ‘action’! We laugh and laugh and laugh about Liam’s poo in the toilet. We relax and read and take deep breathes et viola. Poop in the potty.

20140610-160446.jpg
What a cute little tush!

Independence.

Positive potty excitement.

Wiping bums.

Washing hands.

Cheering brothers.

One very happy mama.

Freedom.

For all.

Be Heading North

Heading back to my roots.

Creating memories for my boys.

Mourning my mama.

Meeting with ‘old’ friends.

Driving.

Driving.

Driving.

444.2 miles.

714.9 kilometres.

20140606-092157.jpg

20140606-092213.jpg

20140606-092222.jpg

20140606-092229.jpg

20140606-092236.jpg

20140606-092244.jpg

20140606-224158.jpg

20140606-224214.jpg

20140606-224224.jpg

20140606-224237.jpg

20140606-224252.jpgMr and Mrs. W, our old neighbours who taught me about Skipbo, table manners, diabetes and how to cut THE lawn.

20140606-224301.jpgNew baby Grace born on my mom’s birthday.

20140606-224319.jpg

20140606-224332.jpg

20140606-224343.jpg

20140606-224349.jpg
We even saw a MOOSE!

20140606-224428.jpg

20140606-224436.jpg

Be Living with Memories

Memories have been sliding down my cheeks more often these days. In the quiet moments, when the boys talk of their beloved Nana and when I witness my dad’s own tears. I still cannot make ‘sense’ of this new existence without mom. It is completely unbelievably real. The living with ONLY memories is bringing me to my knees. This is neither good nor bad, it just is.

20140604-114905.jpg

I have the privilege of being on the front line of receiving mom’s things as dad is ready to let them go. First it was food in the cupboard then mom’s cosmetics, then shoes, jackets and now her clothes. I readily take these beautiful things with tears in my eyes. The memories of mom wearing the clothes and seeing things she had purchased to wear this spring that I am living RIGHT NOW is very difficult to comprehend. (Two biking shirts in particular brought tears to my eyes.).

Here is batman (aka CC) pointing to the two boxes of spring clothes I have of mom’s:

20140604-115626.jpg
Unfolding.

Folding.

Memories.

Laying down.

Sitting in it.

Sitting with.

Memories.

As mom’s clothes sit at one end of our unfinished basement, I have been sorting through our boxes of memories at the other end on my newly painted white shelf. What does one do with old yearbooks, jerseys, trophies… Are my children going to want these things? Do I want my children to be going through them. Perhaps my work now is to make space for them to create their own memories.

20140604-120426.jpg
Unpacking.

Packing.

Memories.

Letting go.

Giving freedom to it.

Providing space for.

New memories.

Be Golfing with Papa

My dad loves golf. Two eighteen holes of golf LOVES golfing.

Since his hockey playing days, golf has been a part of his “off-season” life.

In all of our grief, we are trying to meet our dear Papa right where he is at without nana at his side.

This afternoon we met him at the driving range.

Papa loves to teach!

20140526-220416.jpgCC (age 4) has been asking every day when he can go golfing with papa.

20140526-220459.jpg

20140526-220506.jpgJC (age 7) loves to swing away.

20140526-220601.jpg

20140526-220608.jpg

20140526-220614.jpg OC (age 2) tried golf for the very first time. We think he might be a lefty like CC.

20140526-220750.jpg

20140526-220756.jpg
Ahhh, that feels better….

20140526-220827.jpg
Golf.

Time.

Being where you are.

Quiet.

Focus.

One ball at a time.

Be Walking With 200 Friends

Footprint Days 2014.

Imagine around 200 people walking throughout your neighbourhood on a five kilometre route. Add in bright orange shirts and you have a mental image of what my son’s school organized. They walked four different routes on four nights in a row. There were apples and water afterwards plus each child was entered into draws for different prizes.

We chose to go on Thursday night. The night they decided to go up towards Knox Mountain. Ha!ha! The route ended up being 5.6 kilometres and I laughed as I pushed our stroller with sweat running down my back. I made some mighty footprints. My boys had a great time walking and running with their friends. OC enjoyed watching all the people as he rode in the stroller. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know a new friend, M!

We are ready to walk:

20140526-134131.jpgLooking in front of us:

20140526-134149.jpgLooking behind us:

20140526-134158.jpgJC with his classmates and CC with his friend J (This photo was taken when we had walked for over an hour.):

20140526-134211.jpg

Walking together.

Friendship.

Nature.

Community.

School.

Well done everyone!

Be Asking What You ‘Did’ on the Weekend

As a stay-at-home mom, my Monday to Fridays are weekends and my weekends are a holidays because I have all my boys at home.   My favourite quote as I raise up young men, “The days are long, but the years are short?”

My usual weekends involve cooking, cleaning, laundry, driving, encouraging, creating and loving up my boys to get ready to launch them ‘back into the world’ for another week. I feel profoundly grateful that I can be my three boys first teacher and that Sexy Neck supports me emotionally as well as financially. I feel completely content with my ‘job’ but sometimes I cringe at the Monday morning school drop-off where people ask about your weekend.

Tomorrow, I am going to be laughing my head off as I answer the question, “What did you do on the weekend?”.

I did surgery on a bear!

20140524-141530.jpg
Thanks JC for taking the photo of me sewing on daddy bear’s head. Nana would be proud. We had daddy bear sitting by Nana’s sewing machine since the fall, but we brought him home.   I sewed on my first teddy bear head. I can do anything.

New.

Risk taking.

Needle.

Thread.

One head at a time.

Grace.

Peace.

Joy.

Huge smile from JC.

Proud Mama.

Another great day.

Week.

Weekend.

Doing.

Being.

Be Writing Thank You Notes to New Neighbours

As, Jimmy Fallon from The Tonight Show, sits down to write his own thank you notes, I decided to write thank you notes to our new neighbourhood.

Thank you to Jimmy for the inspiration. Here are this evening’s thank you notes by Jimmy. This is my personal twist of sarcasm at its best! Some points are exaggerated for comedic effect, unfortunately most points are not.

🌀Thank you neighbour for leaving your garbage can, recycling can and compost bin at the curb ALL WEEK LONG. We love watching you put your garbage out in your housecoat as well as watch your kids friend’s play bumper cars with the bins as they try to park their cars beside them.

🌀Thank you neighbour for parking your semi-truck on our street every Thursday to Saturday and driving away without any lights on like we don’t see you.

🌀Thank you neighbour for bringing your son over to play then leaving him at our house for two hours fifteen minutes after we met you. We can see why you needed the break.

🌀Thank you neighbour for calling me by the wrong name every morning at exactly 8:15 when you come out to walk your dog. My name is hard to remember, as it is the same as yours.

🌀Thank you neighbour for not smoking inside your house. We appreciate the stench in our yard and throughout our house, especially when you decide to pull out the ‘pot’.

🌀Thank you neighbour for asking my son if he’s “skipping school” when you saw him at home on a school day. Uhhhh, he was sick and he’s six. He had no idea what you were talking about.

🌀Thank you neighbour for standing on your porch in your white undershirt just staring into our yard.

🌀Thank you other neighbour for walking very slowly down our back fence, like you are doing the wedding march with the groom standing in the middle of our backyard. Next time just pop over for a look so that you don’t hurt your neck.

🌀Thank you neighbour for taking off your dog’s leash as you approach our houses so that it can urinate on our lawn then bark at our dog at our gate. Thank you for finally not allowing your dog to come into our house anymore.

🌀Thank you neighbour for telling me that my mom just gave up and wanted to die. I guess the millions of cancer cells multiplying had nothing to do with it.

🌀Thank you neighbour for using pesticides to kill the weeds on the edge of our lawn bordering your property. My boys sperm count thank you.

🌀Speaking of boys, thank you neighbour for exclaiming in front of my family of four boys the very first time we met you, “Oh, I was hoping you were going to have little girls!” Welcome to my family of big boys. (Now perhaps stunted due to your pesticide use).