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Sunday, February 28, 2010

Second Birthday

Christophe's second birthday party went off smoothly yesterday. Although Pierrette had my iPhone pictures to post the other day, I've only just finished processing the SLR photos this afternoon.

He had a good time playing with all his friends, including Ella:




And he had a good time, as always, with the music time provided by Eva:



There are more, available on Flickr (the photoset and as a slideshow).

"Genius", Winners Find and Art (let's not forget Hockey)

"Genius"

This morning I had a long awaited appointment booked with the Apple Genius Bar. Ever since I have had my iPhone it's been glitchy - gets stuck in searching mode or just totally crashes on me. It took me forever - well actually 3 months to find a weekend that I could get away for the morning with C Monster and get my phone checked out. All I have to say is they are amazing. I waited a total of 5 minutes before the saw me and in about 10 minutes I left with a new iPhone. This is just another reason why "I am a MAC".

After my Genius appointment I took advantage of my me time to get some Starbucks and sit down and read. Right now I am reading Mothering Your Nursing Toddler - yup C Monster is still nursing and I am proud of it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is planning on nursing past 12 months; or who found themselves breastfeeding a toddler even-though they had not planned it. This book has helped me feel secure in my choices; gave me the courage to continue on those days that felt like C Monster only wanted to nurse and made me smile and laugh at great stories from other mothers just like me.

Winners

I used to be a huge fan of Winners for toys however that was before I decided that Melissa & Doug toys were being banished from my household. - Melissa & Doug have just had way too many recalls for me to bother with them. That being said if I find myself at Winners I always take a quick look at the toys just in case. Well this time it was well worth it as I found a great big pile of Discover Rigs by Sprig for 29.98 each. (these usually sell for around $65CND) We had money from my mother and father for a birthday gift for C Monster - so voila:













Thank you mom and Dad C Monster loooooves it.

Art

As always as soon as 6pm hits C Monster is climbing the walls. To diffuse this little beast we did art tonight. One of my favorite ways to let him glue stuff is make a mixture 50% white glue and 50% paint; that way if he ends up not wanting to stick anything to the page their is still a painting. One of the drop in teachers gave me this idea and we have used it over and over again. Tonight we used lots of little bits of various fun things that last week we cut up together when Christophe was practicing his cutting skills.
















LAST BUT NOT LEAST - GO CANADA GO WE ROCKED THE GOLD BLING THIS WEEK AT THE OLYMPICS.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Pancakes / Snowman and PARTY

This morning as almost every Saturday morning we made pancakes; except for I tried a new recipe (our typical recipe calls for yogurt and we were all out - kids gobbled it up in a smoothie on Tuesday). I found a great recipe on All Recipes that I think is now my new typical recipe. These were awsome. I changed a few things in the the original recipe:

Fluffy Pancakes with Wheat Germ and Applesauce

Ingredients

  • 1 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 cup wheat germ
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 4egg whites
  • 1/2 cup rice milk, or as needed (I probably added an extra 1/4 cup)
  • 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and baking powder. Make a well in the center, and stir in the egg yolks, oil and rice milk until fairly smooth. If the batter seems too thick, stir in more milk. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites with an electric mixer to soft peaks. Fold egg whites into the batter, just until blended.
  2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Scoop large spoonfuls of batter onto the hot pan, and fry until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip and cook until browned on the other side. Continue with remaining batter.



PARTY TIME

Today was C Monster's 2nd Birthday Party (He will be 2 on Monday) - Minus me dropping the cupcakes (they were all fine) and Geoff backing up into our fence (I am not sure if it will be fine - need to wait till the snow is melted to assess the damage) the day was fantastic.

The Party was at SH Armstrong a local Community Center. The kids had time to play in the gym; then after we had a music class led by our favorite teacher Eva from Music for Life. All the fun was followed by pizza and cupcakes - oh so yummy.

For your viewing pleasure some pictures from the C Monster's big event:










Thank you everyone for coming and check in during the next few days for some pictures taken by Geoff.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Cupcakes and Snow

Cupcakes are iced decorated and ready for C Monster's birthday tomorrow...















See I told you - you wanted to check in to see them. If you want to make your own here is how:

CAT:
eyes - mini m&m
nose - cinnamon heart
whiskers - liquorish
ears - sour grapefruits

PIG:
eyes: mini m&m
nose: pink chocolate with white frosting
ears: wafer cookies cut in triangles

CHICKEN:
head piece: swedish berry cut in 4
eyes: m&m
nose: sour grapefruit with small slice cut out

BUNNY:
eyes: mini m&m
nose: mini m&m
whiskers: chocolate sprinkles
ears: marshmallow cut in half diagonally then dipped in pink sugar crystals


Snow Snow Snow and More Snow

It's been snowing on and off now all week I love it. We barely had any snow this year and as C monster puts it "more sno". We made it out to play in the snow this afternoon; I really want to make an effort to get out with him everyday while the snow is still here and not too slushy because as fast as it came it will go even faster.

There are so many way C Monster can learn while playing in the snow:
  • we count snow balls
  • make snowmen
  • draw in the snow with sticks
  • experience the sensation of cold
  • talk about how snow sticks to some things and not to others
  • experience how ice is slippery
  • look at foot and had prints (or animal prints when we are really lucky)
The exercise you get is also insane, C Monster helps perfect is walking and running skills as everything is harder to do in a snowsuit.

I want to try an art activity with him this weekend - you take a spray bottle and fill it with food coloring and water (or paint and water); then you spray the snow outside with the colours. It's best if you can have a few bottles with a few different colours. It will make a great little piece of art and at the same time you can talk about colours with your toddler.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

tiger, cupcakes, tea and bye bye race track

TIGER
Every Thursday we go to Sports Ball, today was no different. I have to say the C Monster impresses me every time with his athletic skills. At the end of each class the coach gives each kid a sticker - C Monster got a sticker of Tiger. He can now say "Tiger" thanks to this and frequently made sure Tiger was still on his hand all day long. See this is were coach had put the sticker on his little hand. Around supper time Tiger fell off and we could not find him C Monster had a fit. Suprisingly to me all I had to do to calm him down is tell him "Tiger missed his family and had to return to the jungle" to witch he replied "Tiger bye bye Ricky" Ricky is his coach.

CUPCAKES
They are completed 30 vanilla cupcakes all cooling waiting to be iced tomorrow. I make this great recipe that does not call for eggs that way if C Monster wants to help I don't need to worry about him eating the batter - because well he always does. The recipe is an adaptation of the "Golden Vanilla Cupcakes" found in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.

1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

bake at 350 for 22 minutes

Make sure to tune in tomorrow I will try to post a picture of them all iced up and decorated - you don't want to miss it.

TEA
Tea is because well as I am typing this I am enjoying a fantastic tea from The Tea Emporium called Sencha Kiwi Garden.

BYE BYE RACE TRACK
About a week ago I made this super cool race track for C Monster on the living room floor using green painters tape and markers. I wanted to see if he would enjoy following roads with his little cars before investing in a play mat. Also well I just needed something to distract him one day. the reason why this is called BYE BYE RACE TRACK is that we pealed it off the floor today, I was scared if we left it there too long the tape would not come off properly.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Science Center

Earlier this month I purchased a membership to the Science Center; that being said we went today. As you can see from this visual journal Christophe had a great time.

Crazy sensor thing that made a picture of you - this is C Monster's face since he decided to stick his face to the camera.



Last time we were at the Science Center C Monster wanted to spend all his time with the hot air balloon - I am glad his obsession only lasted a few minutes today.


Thanks to one of my friends I have a new appreciation for this building.



Lunch and conversation - C monster says " oh oh spaghetti-o, juice and raisin "


Driving - well not really just turning a wheel. When C Monster first turned this wheel the freight elevator right next to us opened. It took me 20 minutes to convince him the wheel had nothing to do with it.


Found a quite spot to cuddle and relax.


My little scientist at work. The Science Center had a workshop for toddlers here C Monster is discovering what happens to corn starch when you add water.

- Now the day would be perfect if the giggling in his room would stop and the C Monster would so to sleep so his papa can watch the hockey game Canada vs Russia that currently sits at 7-3 Canada leads. -

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Trying to get food into C Monster

Time 5:20pm - I am officially the most creative chef on the planet. No, not really, I just have an extra picky toddler. All toddlers are fussy in their own way but C Monster is in a class of his own. I like to think his palate is so refined that the my common grub is just not good enough for him; who am I kidding?

Tonight we are having mac and cheese with secret healthy treasures. It's your basic run-of-the-mill homemade mac-and-cheese but I have added about 2 tablespoons of puréed swiss chard and hemp seeds along with one tablespoon of flax oil. Here's praying it goes off well with the C monster.

Time 6:01pm - Christophe actually ate more then one bite of food; I call it success.

return from ?

I am not sure how long it's been since my last post; life got the better of me. I guess that is not a bad thing. I've decided to take this blog in a new direction and try to write a tidbit every day or so. I want to keep the post relevant to want is going on in our lives more of a little day to day diary.

The thing that stands out the most about yesterday is poo and snow; however not combined.

Yesterday it snowed for what felt like the first time all winter - C monster immediately asked to go play in the snow. I think he had been waiting for snow since Christmas - in his words each time we saw the tiny amounts of snow Toronto had "more sno; more sno" all while signing we word more and with his bottom lip turn over like he was about to cry. We spent I think a good 2 to 3 hours out in the snow as it was coming down; C monster did some shoveling; some snow throwing and was even though the art of mini snowmen building by our neighbor.

Now the reason why I say poo is that well we actually convinced C monster to use the potty instead of having a poo in his bath last night. - This is huge in our house.