Bad Mama!

Noah lost another tooth yesterday. His fourth already! It was in the middle of dinner (it was really disgusting how it happened, actually). Noah was eating grapes and plain toast (one of his first 'meals' after recovering from the 'throw-up bug'). All of a sudden he said, "yuck! there is something crunchy in here!" and he spit out his grape.

Guess what it was?

You guessed it...his tooth!

So, I took the tooth and put it on top of my planner on the kitchen counter, all the while thinking to myself....I hope we don't lose it....this isn't a great place to put this thing.

Guess what again?!

Yes, we lost it.

I don't know if it happened when the kids were swinging the blanket around, or when I moved my planner to look something up, or when I wiped the counter with the dish cloth and then shook it in the sink. I had to do some damage control when Noah realized it was missing. The tears started coming.

This was the solution.

Fortunately, the tooth fairy is a very reasonable kinda girl....and Noah still got his five dollars. :)

It's Here!

Well, I can breathe a huge sigh of relief.....Bekah's passport was approved and has made it safely to us!

I was a nervous wreck...we had to send her original passport, and birth certificate, along with the application and photos by mail to our guarantor in Canada. He then had to sign and verify the documents and send them on by mail to the passport office of Canada. They then had to process the application (7 week turn around time at the moment!), hopefully accept the photo, and send all of the original documents and new passport by mail back to us here in the USA. There were so many steps and so many people involved handling these documents that I was paranoid that something would get lost.



Well, it turns out that I needn't have lost any sleep over it....everything made it back to us safely....despite the fact that the DHL delivery person left the "signature required" envelope outside out garage door in the rain without even attempting to ring the doorbell. Grghhhhh

Anywho, here is Bekah proudly holding up her new passport. Now we just have to figure out where we can go to use it...... :)

I'm a Big Girl!!

I recently hit another great sale. This time it was at L.L.Bean. I wasn't very familiar with L.L.Bean...until we moved to New England. I knew it was an American company, but that was the extent of my knowledge. The reason it is soooooo huge around here is because the company originated in Maine....hence its popularity in New England.

When I think of L.L. Bean, I think of well made, 'outdoor-sey' kinda stuff that is pretty pricey. Well, the day I went into the store happened to be the same day that they had reduced all of their winter clearance items by another 50%! So, what that meant to me was, mittens that had a regular price of $19.50 a pair were now $5.00 a pair! I ended up getting Noah's winter coat, hat, mittens and boots, Bekah's mittens and first pair of ice skates, and a pair of winter sports pants for myself for $75. Whoooohoooo!

I had no intention of buying Rebekah ice skates this year, but they were on clearance for $17. Kevin recently booked a three day getaway at a family resort in New Hampshire and we leave this weekend. One of the activities they have there is ice skating. With Noah taking lessons, Bekah has been begging to go ice skating too. Her new favourite saying is, "I'm a big girl! I'll be careful!" When I saw the skates on sale, I caved.

Despite the fact that Bekah is quite coordinated, and has a good sense of balance, I really thought she wouldn't even be able to stand in her new pink skates. She really surprised me!

Not only did she balance in her skates, but she was able to walk in them too....without her ankles buckling at all. Aren't they cute?!

The burden will be on Kevin to teach her to skate though.....since I can't stop. :) I will take Noah, since he can muddle through on his own. Kevin gets the newbie. *wink*

Doesn't she look so cute? I can't wait to get some pics on the ice.

Go, Diego, Go!

For Rebekah's third birthday, we bought tickets for the whole family to go and see Go, Diego, Go Live in Providence, RI. The show took place a couple of weeks after Bekah's actual birthday, but it was worth the wait.

Despite the initial balking, Noah ended up totally engaged by the show. He forgot that, 'Diego is for babies' and participated the whole way through. Bekah stared wide eyed. When I spoke to her, she wouldn't even answer. She was fixated on the stage.

It was a lot of fun to watch them have so much fun.

The kids loved this scene, with dolphins leaping out of the 'water'.

The kids also had their very first cotton candy. See Noah's right hand.....

We took a few pics of the kids, and some of the show too...despite the rule that photography was forbidden! We decided to walk momentarily on the wild side! :) This tree was so cool! It's eyes and mouth moved. It really looked animated.

Overall, it was a really fun day!

More Green Tips

I have been falling behind on my green tips as of late. So now, I am back with a bunch!

Did you know that Consumer Reports has a sister website that provides detailed and impartial reviews on a wide range of products with the main criteria being environmental impact? It is called Greener Choices and it can be found here.

Buy in bulk.....if you buy dry foods in bulk (pasta, rice, sugar) you save on money and packaging. You can store them in tight sealing jars or canisters to keep them fresh.

Bugs no more......instead of using pesticides, common household items can come in handy for warding off the pests. Tape whole, dried bay leaves to the bottom of shelves in your pantry to keep tiny bugs away. Make your own spray by combining rubbing alcohol with an essential oil like clove, citronella, or peppermint in a spray bottle.

Computers and electronics......if you have cell phones, computers, or monitors to dispose of...first try donating them to a charity. If that doesn't work, check out eBay's Rethink Initiative for responsible ways to recycle them.

Fabric softener....liquid softeners often contain derivatives of ammonium chloride, which is harmful to aquatic life and a trigger for allergy and asthma symptoms. Keep it out of the waste water stream by substituting a quarter cup to a cup of white vinegar, which leaves your clothing soft and doesn't leave behind any scent.

Hailing a cab.....in some American cities you can be picked up by a hybrid taxi or limo service. A Ford Escape hybrid will save more than 1 600 gallons of gas and 32 000 pounds of carbon emissions over the course of 100 000 miles of travel.

OZOcar in New York

ECOLIMO in Los Angeles

PlanetTran in Boston


Save on heat....turn down the thermostat to 68 degrees and layer on a sweater.

Good wood.....check with the Forest Stewardship Council to find lumber producers who grow and harvest timber to tough, verifiable standards and are certified. The council checks for sustainability, maintenance of natural forest conditions, minimal chemical use, endangered species protection, and other conservation elements. Learn more here.

Conscious cooking.....when cooking on the stove top, use the smallest pot or pan you can. Also, if the circumference of the flames is greater than that of your pan, you're leaking unused heat into the air. Make sure to use a lid on the pot or pan in order to conserve energy and heat more quickly.

Paper, paper, paper....in order for recycling to truly take hold, demand for recycled products must exist. Boost the effort by purchasing recycled office paper. Look for minimum 30% post-consumer content, meaning that the original paper was actually used for something, not just salvaged from mill scrap. You can also check for paper that's processed without chlorine and manufactured with fiber from sustainably grown wood. New Leaf Paper offers more info here.

Save on suds....experiment with the amount of laundry detergent you use. Sometimes the amount the manufacturers suggest is more than you need. If you use too much, the rinse cycle won't get the residue out, and all you will be doing is adding extra detergent to the water waste stream.

Sneaky leaks.....a leak from the toilet tank into the bowl is a silent problem. Check for a leak by putting three drops of food colouring in the tank and wait a half hour. If the colour appears in the bowl, repair or replace the flapper valve, and easy operation that can save 100 gallons of water or more daily. Be sure to flush the coloured water away; it can stain the bowl if left too long.

Although I have more to share, I think this post is long enough! Check back again soon for more 'earth tips'!

Beware of Plastics - A Solution

As a continuation from yesterday's post, here are some links and solutions to alternative products that are safe and free of BPA.

For Bisphenol-A free bottles and cups check out BornFree here. They are sellers of natural baby products.

In my search for alternative products I found this way cool website. They sell many environmental products including reusable produce bags. I have already made the switch to bringing my own reusable bags to the grocery store, but I still end up with dozens of plastic bags from produce. Now that my kids are no longer in diapers, I don't have a need for these bags. I love the idea of reusable, cotton produce bags.

For a real rude awakening, when you go to the site, look at the counter at the top of the page. It counts the number of plastic bags consumed this year. The numbers are scrolling by so fast you can't even read them.

The same site also sells the Klean Kanteen. It is a stainless steel sippy cup. It gets fantastic reviews and is 100% recyclable as well as toxin free.

Now, if you have made the decision to switch from your plastic sippy cups, and you don't know what to buy as a replacement, this site gives a very comprehensive review of five different types of alternative cups. The reviews are done by a fellow mother, and are very practical. She rates the Klean Kanteen, Sigg, Avent Naturally, BornFree and Thermos Foogo. She rates the Thermos Foogo the highest with the Sigg brand coming in second. Very worthwhile site. Check it out.

As I have been poking around online, I have been sidetracked so many times that a good couple of hours have passed. There is so much valuable info out there once you start looking!

Beware of Plastics?

I am sure some of you have heard the controversy in the news regarding plastics. No, I don't mean the lead content in toys (produced mainly in China)....that is a whole other issue to worry about.

The reports that I am referring to, are about plastics leaching a chemical called bisphenol A, particularily when heated (microwave OR dishwasher). Now, I have been aware for the last several months of some of the potential problems with heating food in plastic dishes in the microwave. As a result of that knowledge, I have stopped putting hot food on or in plastic dishes altogether. BUT, I wasn't aware until recently, that putting plastic dishes in the dishwasher has exactly the same effect as putting them in the microwave.

The scariest thing is, one of the biggest culprits of this chemical are BABY BOTTLES. All of the most popular brands are included: Avent, Disney, Dr. Brown's, Playtex, The First Years, Evenflo and Gerber (with Dr. Brown's leaching the highest amounts of BPA). You can read more here: http://chej.org/bpa-e-s.htm

This is also a very good site for many things environmental and health related: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/

Also, some infant formula brands use BPA as an epoxy liner in their formula cans. For info on which brands this includes go here: www.ewg.org/reports/infantformula

Some studies suggest ceasing to use any plastics that are a #7 (found in the recycling triangle on the bottom of the item). Plastics numbered 1, 2, or 5 are not as threatening, providing you DO NOT heat them in any way. Once they have been heated, you are at risk.

I am taking this very seriously. There are so many hazards in our environment that we cannot control, that when something comes up that I have a choice in, I am going to make those choices carefully.

I got rid of all of my #7 plastics. Many of your children's favourite character dishes have number 7's on the bottom. Please check yours. I am also beginning the slow process of phasing out all of our plastic dishes. The ones that do remain, I wash only by hand and I do not microwave in them. I also serve only cold food on them.

For me, a good alternative for every day dishes has been Corelle dishes. There are reasonably priced and they are break and chip resistent. I just ordered some via Amazon.com. Once they arrive, all of my IKEA plastic dishes will be out the door.

Noah takes his lunch to school every day...so obviously, glass isn't really a viable option. I can tell you that I bought all new Gladware this week, and we are starting fresh. I can't remember which of the old containers have or have not been put in the dishwasher. It just isn't worth the risk for me. There are always Ziplocs, but that doesn't do the environment any justice, does it?

Please do the reading, do the research and make the decisions for your family. I just wanted to share this info, because I know a lot of my readers have young children and are putting their sippy cups and dishes in the dishwasher.

Please check back for more info on this, and some links for alternative products that are available.

Future Paleontologist??

Noah received a really neat Christmas gift this year. It was an 'I Dig Dinosaurs' Kit made by Usborne books. It was a kit that contains a chunk of 'rock' with plastic dinosaur bones embedded in it. There was a chisel, a pick, a small brush, a book about dinosaurs, and a pair of safety goggles. You had to dig out the 'fossils' and then assemble the dinosaur model.

The goggles were too big , and proved difficult to keep on. The dinosaur model was a bit tricky to put together....but overall, this kit was a huge hit with Noah. He sat and worked at getting the 'fossils' out for well over two hours. Noah never does any one thing for two hours....except sleep.

He loved it....and therefore, I loved it.

Better Late Than Never

Yes, I am just getting around to posting some Christmas pics now. Two months late is better than six months late, right?

Below are the kiddos hamming it up on Christmas Eve after church. They are both dead tired, but I needed to snap a few pics before they stripped out of their 'Christmas clothes' and got into their new 'Christmas jammies'. It is a tradition in our house to get new jammies each Christmas Eve. The kids unwrap them after church and wear them on Christmas Eve night.

Here is Noah, spreading the love. :)

Here is Kevin reading 'The Night Before Christmas'. This is another one of our traditions. We always read it before bed on Christmas Eve.

And this, in my opinion, is the punch line.........

All In The Family

As you probably all know, I am a scrapbooker and paper crafter. That is my craft of choice. You can find some of my work posted here.

What you probably don't know...is that craftiness runs in my family. My Mom is a baker and seamstress. She enjoys all things 'homemaker-ish'. My sister Kathy crochets and knits, and she has begun to dabble in paper crafts too. She also cross stitches. I guess you could say she is a needle craftin' kinda girl. She made each of my babies a beautiful blanket when they were born.

My sister, Patti is a cook. She loves to feed her family! She loves people with food. She always takes requests when we come to visit, and makes everyone their favourites. For Noah, it is crepes, for me it is perogies....yum. I get hungry just thinking about it.

So, that leaves just one more sister....Heather. Well, Heather also crochets, and she also made each of my babies a blanket when they were born. But, in my opinion, her specialty is ceramics. One year for Christmas, she painted a beautiful nativity set for my parents. It had a dozen pieces, or more, and each one was about eight inches tall. She painted each piece and then antiqued them to give them an aged look. She then had them all glazed and fired. The set took up the whole mantle. I LOVED it. I hinted at the fact that I might just want one of those nativity sets one day too.

So, a year or two later, when we drew names for Christmas, Heather rigged the draw to get my name. And guess what I got? You guessed it. I got my own hand painted nativity scene.

This Christmas, I took photos of my Mom's set. I have never photographed my own set, but it is very similar. I wanted to share the photos with you here.

So, that about sums it up. Now I just need one of my sisters to learn how to quilt.......

Question For You....

How does one get silly putty out of clothing, once it has gone through the dryer?!

Any help would be appreciated!

Mish Mash

Some of you may have realized that there is some funny business going on with my blog. I happened to have several posts saved in draft format. I now am going back to them and finishing them, and posting them to my page. For this reason, you may see that there are some news posts that are appearing before other posts that you have already seen. I guess the date remains as per the day that the post was originally created. Sorry for the confusion! :)

Also, my spell check doesn't seem to be working....so please ignore the mistakes!

Impossible!!

Friday was Rebekah's birthday, and Saturday she started getting sick. Saturday night she had this horrible coughting attack, and it seemed like she couldn't catch her breath. Once we got her settled and back to sleep, all seemed OK. Sunday morning was fine, but by later in the afternoon the 'seal bark' like cough was back. Sunday night there was more coughing, a fever and then vomiting.....all over me and her room. So, Monday morning we were in the pediatrician's office first thing, and as suspected, she has croup.

Monday was spent at home, resting and she even took a nap. You know something is off when your three year old is asking you to go to bed. She hasn't had a nap in weeks....one of the recent changes that comes with being three, apparently. Most of the changes that come with being three have been of the negative variety in our household....but I digress...

Last evening Rebekah seemed to be perking up a bit....and I had hopes for a decent but quiet day today. Man was I WRONG!

There has been nothing but crying and whining in this house since before the sun rose. Nothing makes her happy...even when I meet her demands (yes, they are more demands than requests today!). I am ready to scratch my eyes out! It would be less painful than this!

Perfect example...Bekah asked for cheerios...so I got the cheerios and put them on her little chair next to where she was sitting on the floor. This led to a fit of tears because she had wanted them put on the sofa. That is only the TIP of the iceburg. Yikes!

I am counting the minutes until bedtime. Naptime was a 'no go' today either. After 45 minutes of screaming in her room, I put her in front of the TV. That is where she is now...and it is also the only reason I am able to type this.

Some words of encouragement are needed! Help!

Oh, oh, I hear the school bus.....round two is about to begin!

Beauty and the Beast

Sunday afternoon we all had a real treat. We went to our local community theatre to see a live production of Beauty and the Beast. I have to admit that I wasn't expecting very much. It is after all, a very small theatre, in a very small town. I was pleasantly surprised!

The show was fabulous! The characters were cast very well.....Gaston was a big, huge fellow, and Belle was very petite....making the contrast between them on stage seem very much like it was in the animated movie by Disney. The young woman who played Belle, sounded just like her. Her voice was amazing. Lumiere was this tall spindly guy and Cogsworth was a rotund fellow whose timing was impeccable.

In our rush out the door, I forgot to bring my camera. Noah brought his, however. He got a kids' camera by vtech for Christmas, and he loves it. So, Kevin took the pics below with Noah's orange camera....that will explain the lack of quality. It is a toy, after all!


Bekah, Noah and Belle.

Bekah, Noah and the prince/beast.

Bekah, Noah and Lumiere the candle stick. I really wish they were all in costume in the pics (before the magic spell was broken and they were changed back into humans) because their costumes were wonderful too. When we met them after the show, they had their 'human costumes' on.

The kiddies and Mrs. Potts the tea pot.

We will definately go to this theatre again. It was a real treat!

We Are Canadian!

It feels so strange to be living in the USA.

When we lived in Switzerland, it felt, different somehow. We were very obviously not Swiss, and we always lived a bit on the fringe of the culture. We knew it was temporary, we didn't have a complete grasp of the language, and we had a lot of expat friends who also spoke english as their first language. It may have been British english, or American english, but it was english just the same. Our Canadian identity felt intact; it didn't feel threatened in any way while we lived overseas.

Now that we are in the USA, it feels different. Others often don't realize that we aren't American...we are expected to be American. I feel more of a need to hang onto all things Canadian. I wan't people to know that we are Canadian. We are proud of it. As patriotic as Americans are, Canadians are proud people too.

Noah has come home singing 'Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue'. He is learning the Pledge of Allegiance at school. We have received return address stickers in the mail from charities that have the American flag emblazoned on them. It all makes me just a little bit sad.

Then, not too long after all of these things occured in close succession, I heard Kevin with Noah in his room getting ready for bed. Kevin was singing 'O Canada' to him. :)

I don't want to nulify the fact that we live in the USA now. I am eager to improve my knowledge of American history and geography (I'll skip on the politics though!) and I want my children to learn these things too. I also want them to learn the history and geography of Canada and the world too. It is shocking to me how little Americans, as a whole, know about their Canadian neighbours. I think if we want our children to know about Canada, it is going to be up to us to teach them.

Here is Bekah, giving a nod to our heritage (although she has only lived in Canada for three weeks of her life!).

For now, we will continue on this path we are on.....learning all things American at school, and singing O Canada while in the bathtub at home. :)

California - Part III

Day three in California was the most exciting for me. We decided to go whale watching! I have wanted to go whale watching for about 10 years now....ever since the first time we lived on the east coast in Halifax. For some reason, we just never did it.

Now, the opportunity presented itself, and we siezed it!

We started out fairly early because on our way to Monteray for whale watching, we wanted to drive Big Sur. It is about 90 miles of scenic, rugged coastline with lots of opportunites for great pics!

Above: Kristal and I, with her husband, Mike, playing photographer.....

It is so strange to see so many pics of myself. I am always the one behind the camera (as is often the case with moms!). My family's life is well documented, but mine isn't. That is something that I want to work on this year. Scrapbooking and documenting my own life. I hope that some day it will interest my kids to know who their mother really was. The parts of me that aren't linked to my roll as mother and wife. I also feel like I need to do it for myself, because some days, I feel like I forget who I am, aside from wife and mother.

In the afternoon we went back to Monteray to catch our whale watching tour. I have to say that whale watching was different than I expected, but I loved it just the same. There was a lot more down time than I expected....lots of waiting. I expected something from a movie, I think. I envisioned schools of whales coming up close to the boat and seeing them jump and frolick in the surf. Not exactly how it happened....

First, we saw some more sea lions. They were basking on the rocks, and hanging out in the sun on the bouys.

There were lots of jelly fish in the area too......

One of our best whale shots. Often we saw the spray of water, or the tail, but not both at the same time. Here, Mike managed to capture both with his super fancy camera. :)

This is a whale's back.....kind of not too exciting in the photo, but it felt exciting when we were there!

A whale booty shot!

A school of dolphins. They were in the area for a long time and we managed to get many photos of them.

Lastly, Kristal and I on the boat. We go way back. I will have to see if I can find some old pics to post. We have known each other since kindergarten. I am sure I have many pics of us looking gangly and awkward. They would be funny to look at now.....

Overall, it was a great, and memorable trip. I hope to have another one like it in the near future.... :)

Happy Birthday!

Here are some pics of the big day. My 'baby' is now three years old. It is so hard to believe. Where does the time go?

I made the effort to take a lot of photos today. Just to document the normal stuff....to help me remember what Rebekah looked like at age three. I think she is pretty darn cute! :)

Lately, Rebekah is on a big animal kick. She loves these little animal figures, and each one has to have a mommy and a baby to match. So, today we when we went out to pick up her ballon bouquet at the party store, we stopped in at Toys 'R Us and picked up mommy and baby giraffes. This renewed her interest in her little animal figures and she insisted on sharing her lunch with them. Right down to wiping their faces with a napkin. Too funny....

And here is the little miss, looking as cute as ever. You would never know how difficult she can be when looking as these photos.....

I can probably quite literally count on one hand the number of lolly pops Rebekah has eaten in her life. She is still talking about the haircut she got months ago, because she got a lolly pop too. On the occassion of her birthday, we decided to allow her to indulge. Here she is 'two fisted' with the lollies. :)

Kevin and I with our 'baby'.

Noah was being a bit unruly (as per ususal!) and Kevin threatened him that if he left his chair one more time, there would be no cake for him. This was Noah's solution. He scooted his chair across the kitchen floor, and then stood in it to get in on the action. He never left his chair though! :) He is a creative thinker.

Here is Bekah with her cake and sparklers (left over from Geneva). Apparently, you can't even buy them in the USA! We had no idea. The family we had over to celebrate Bekah's birthday with us, asked us where we got them. Oops! :)

Blowing out the candles..........

Fish cupcakes for the playdate we had that morning.....(to go with the mermaid theme).

And here is the Little Mermaid cake (minus her lips....I hadn't mixed that colour of icing yet). The cake took me five hours to bake and ice. The real kicker was, due to all of the red food colouring (Wilton gel) changing the taste of the icing, it didn't even taste good! I made the icing to taste, and then added the colour. When I tasted the icing again, it didn't even taste like the same stuff!

Oh well, Bekah was happy with it, and that is what it is all about!