And the babyproofing continues.

This is the sight I walked into when grabbing Nicky out of his crib after his morning nap. And yes, my child was still in his pajama's at 11. For that matter, so am I :) He was a heartbeat away from pulling himself into a standing position and he had the hugest grin on his face when I walked in. Proof that he does indeed smile occasionally for the camera:



You better believe that the crib is being dropped before he gets put in there again. Most likely once I hit publish, actually. On the one hand, it's bittersweet that he's getting so big, but then I realise how nice it is that he's not waking up crying all the time now. He actually plays in his crib now (did you see how he was hugging his aquarium? That thing goes on and off all the time). I'm just waiting for him to figure out how to pull himself up on the coffee table...once that happens, I'll have to find another 'safe zone' for all the random stuff that's sitting on it.

Tagged!!

One of the blogs I keep up with, Steece's Pieces, had a post that tagged everyone. Yay!! By the way, if you get a chance you should really go and check her out, what an amazing person! She's got 4 little one's, quads, who are a year and a half old. She's chronicled her journey from shortly before she found out she was expecting, all the way through and has such a positive spirit. Now, I'm a huge fan of those TLC shows, you know the ones, Jon and Kate plus 8, 18 + Counting (or are they up to 19 now?) but the difference between those shows and Suzanne's story is that 4 seems just slightly more realistic than 8, or pumping out child after child after child after child. You get the feeling that, oh crap, that could really happen. From what I understand, fertility drugs were a contributing factor, but still 2 of her quads are identical twins so she still woulda had multiples!

Anyway, to move on from the praise, here are the rules:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer
2) Select the 4th picture in the folder
3) Explain the picture
4) Tag 4 people to do the same

So here's mine.




Okay, I had to cheat a little since I only have 3 folders on my laptop right now. If I had been looking on our actual computer then MAN would I have had options! But that computer is now Jeff's and I have no claim to it. Seriously I even felt guilty going on it to play solitaire the other day.

And before I get sidetracked again, the story behind the picture. This picture was taken a week and a half ago. My mom came up with a really cool idea to make us all feel closer during the holidays since us and my mom are here in Edmonton, and my sister and her husband and son are up in Peace River. We all do the same craft on the same night at the same time and take pictures to share with each other. On this particular night, my mom was over and we were baking cookies, and Kat and her fam were doing the same up north.

And now to the tagging part. Hmmm since I've never really participated in this before I don't know how to 'tag'. Who and how do I choose? So I'll take the easy way out and tag all of you that have your own blogs. What I want you to do is leave me the link to your blog post in my comments so that I can take a look too!

If I had a million dollars.

There are truly only two places in the world where I feel like I need to have a never ending credit card that I never have to pay off. One of those places is (said to the tune of a choir of angels singing) IKEA. I feel about IKEA the way my sister feels about WalMart. It is heaven, and I could stay in the store for hours and hours, winding my way through their little mouse maze and looking at all the little things that I want to buy but have to restrain myself from. My home is an ode to IKEA. All of my bedroom furniture is the stylish and contemporary Malm line. I have the amazing Expedit bookshelf in my living room complete with coordinating boxes that hold all my junk. I did have the Ektorp sofa upstairs but it has been relegated to the basement to make room for my sectional (which unfortunately I didn't buy at IKEA but at the Brick). Liam's room used to have a loft bed from there, one that had a slide, and he has an Aneboda dresser, and all of his toy chests are from there. I've got art, rugs, curtains, kitchen stuff, organizers, you name it. When Jeff and I went there last weekend, we looked at tables for the kitchen, since I LOVE my current table but it is bar height and was meant for when we had a dining room. It just isn't realistic as a kitchen table that is used daily. Plus, the chairs are all f*cked up from everyone in my family being so hard on them. (yes I'm looking at you Jeff, mom, Kathleen, dad, Liam).

I heart IKEA.

The other place is Stampin Up! I recently got into this and oh my god I'm hooked. And you know, it's not even that I need to do the crafting, it's just that I NEED to have all the stuff. I need the paper, the inks, the crayons, the felts, the stamps, oh the list is endless. Rationally I know that I can get a lot of this stuff much cheaper at other places, but I have a catalogue that I can browse and it gets downright depressing when I have to keep in mind that I'm a SAHM and I don't have much disposable income. Just this morning, I emailed my consultant to let her know that I am coming to pick up my order, and I tacked on 2 more things that I really must have if she has them in stock at her house. That is my compromise with myself; I can buy it if and only if she has it in stock. If she doesn't have it readily available to me then I won't order it, keeping in mind that this rule only applies on *add-on* purchases, not the ones that I am required to make as part of the club I participate in. BUT this woman is a professional who makes quite a good living doing this, and so far she has had pretty much everything that I have tacked on to an order. She's counting on people like me.

That's me, easy money.

Ya, I ate them all.

I am happy to report that I officially have my baking cabinet! So, I decided to make banana bread and I went to pull out all the ingredients (which I'm happy to say that I have). I then go into the fridge to grab a couple of eggs. Except they're all gone. People, I bought a carton of 18 eggs a week and a half ago, and they are ALL GONE. And since I don't drive I can't just run to the store and grab some. Sometimes I frustrate myself, I'm almost 30 and I don't have a license!

And now I have no banana bread either.

He can't deny his heritage.

Jeff is the most typical Ukranian man alive. He's a total packrat, and our home is full of stuff that he 'might use, you never know when you might need it'. He has a fishing tacklebox full of little plugs and cords and junk. He has, ummmm, like 3 tool boxes. He even had a box full of every business card he's received over the last 20 years (he's that old). Everything he's ever owned has some special signifigance that only he can appreciate.



When we reno'd the basement, we ended up with a deep freezer and a fridge that needed to be gotten rid of. But nooooooo, it's not that easy to get rid of appliances and since he prides himself on being a 'cheap' Ukranian, here was his solution: he took the doors off of the freezer and fridge, turned them on their sides, spray painted them black, and put them in the garage. They are now our bomb proof cabinets. What happened to the doors, you might ask? Well he lag-bolted them to the walls and now they are shelves.



He briefly played with the idea of turning our old hot water tank into a firepit...not sure what's going on with that one. He hasn't said much about it lately, and he did mention that when our washing machine goes he wants to turn it into a firepit. So I don't know, we'll see.



But I may have won one round. He was so overcome with gratitude for the baking I did a couple nights ago that I could just see the longing in his face. After some lightning speed thinking on my part, I came up with a deal for him. In our cabinets, we have not one, or two, but three shelves full of coffee mugs. In another cabinet, we have two shelves full of glasses. Not even glasses you can really use, but those ones you got from McDonalds in the eighties that celebrated the Olympics. And other useless glasses that we have not used in the whole 1 1/2 years we've owned this house. So, I said that if he got rid of all the mugs and glasses that we don't ever use then I would have space to have all my ingredients for baking, and I would bake for him. And by getting rid of them, I didn't mean putting them in a box and putting them in the basement (his face fell because this was exactly what he was planning on doing), but actually donating them to Goodwill and getting them the hell out of my house. People, I have been trying to do this for years. He just boxes things up and puts them in the basement. It's very irritating.



But he agreed, and said he would do it this weekend. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm holding out hope. This will be a major win for me!

Holding my breath.

Day number 2, and we have our 3rd successful nap! Little Nicky has been sleeping for 40 minutes now and I'm in heaven. Have I gotten anything done? Nope, I've been taking advantage by watching some Holmes on Homes (love that show) and surfing the net. God, what is it going to be like when he's actually sleeping through the night and I have a full 8 hours? I can't even imagine...I have the feeling that it won't even feel like work, taking care of the kids. And keeping the house clean? Well, we all know about the 30 minute mad dash *wink wink*.

Just kidding my love, I spend all day on my knees cleaning baseboards and such. Of course.

I'm not sure what happened in that little boys head that made him decide that he wanted to sleep again. Maybe he just realised that he may as well give in. But then again, maybe it was the fact that I gave in and went and dug out Liam's old bumper pads from when he was a baby and washed them up and put them in his crib. Now it feels less like a jail and more like a cloud? I know, I know, 'they' say that bumpers aren't a good idea because they restrict air flow yada yada yada. But here's is something that always bugged me about that theory: what happens to 'air flow' when baby is in a bassinette? That's an even smaller space than a crib, yet that is completely acceptable. I get it that they should be taken off when young man is pulling himself up and climbing on stuff, that makes sense. (But one good fall out of the crib would cure him of that particular adventure if you know what I'm sayin). I just wish that I had put the pads up 2 months ago, because I have the feeling that this is our turning point.

In our house...

It's a battle of wills. And I must say that this little baby is putting up quite the fight! I've written about how I'm trying to get a schedule going on and the 'schedule' is working out just fine. It's the baby that is the problem now. About 3 weeks ago he decided that, nope, nah, sleep just wasn't a priority anymore and he wasn't going to participate in that particular activity during the day. So naps have been a fond memory around here. I've been fighting with him to sleep and I can get him to take maybe 10-15 minutes if I've just fed him and he's either sleeping in my arms or on the bed. The moment I try to move him he's awake. So one day I decided to just let him do his own thing and see what happened. He didn't take a nap ALL DAY. That's with waking up at 7 a.m. and going to bed at 8 p.m. He was tired but it's like he was testing me and he just wouldn't let his eyes close.

Gahhhhhh. Over the past few weeks I really feel like I've tried everything that I can think of. This kid has me over a barrel. I know it has something to do with his development, but I also know that this is the best time to teach him healthy sleep habits and that includes being able to put himself to sleep. I know I could just give in and let him sleep on our bed which is what he really wants, but then I'll be facing this all over again when we can finally move him into his crib during the night. So I figure I may as well force this kid to get used to it now so it won't be such a shock when he figures out that he has to be in there at night too.

We're letting him cry it out. It kills me. I had no problem doing it with Liam but that was probably because he was much more passive when it came to sleeping. The only thing I had to worry about with him was getting out of the room fast enough before his bottle came hurtling at my head. But with Nicky it's taking so much more effort to be strong about it. So as much as I dislike the idea of it, I think it's my best option. Unfortunately.

We're wireless.

So this is how our Sunday night went: Jeff was sitting at the computer putting all the programs back on it after wiping out the system when it crashed, Liam was sitting next to me on the couch figuring out how to email his Nana, and I was FINALLY catching up on iVillage after 3 excruciating days without internet. But, you may wonder, how were all 3 of you on the computer at the same time. Well that's because we all have our very own computers now! Liam somehow managed to con his dad into giving him one of his old laptops, and when our computer crashed Jeff didnt think he'd be able to fix it so we went out and bought me my very own brand new beautiful laptop. Thank god for financing is all I can say.

Ya, we were all geeking out last night. And this is how I envision future Saturday nights: Jeff and I both sitting in the basement, him at the computer and me on the couch, playing online poker against each other.

**I would just like to add that I am ethically opposed to a 9 year old owning his own laptop (and before I got one of my own at that!). However, I didn't pay for it, and unfortunately my mind control contract got cancelled when his dad and I split up. Not that he didn't find the loopholes in said contract anyway.

And I am STAUNCHLY opposing the idea of a cell phone before the age of 15 AND a t.v. in his bedroom for at least a year or 2 more. Although Jeff has informed me that I can't always bend everyone (him) to my will all the time. I *think* that means that he plans on letting these things happen in the near future. We'll see.