Princess Lea

Here she is! So proud that she can stand up. Stable? Not a bit! But she loves it. She pulls herself up wherever possible (here she had a little help). She even pulls herself in to and out of things like her basinette and laundry baskets. She sure is a curious one!


Today she was sporting her pretties winter dress (thanks Aunt Kathrin!). She must really like it, because at the end of the day it was still clean :-)

We are Eskimos!

Lucas is feeling MUCH better. Thank goodness. We had a slow start to the day, he was afraid to sit up but once he got a dose of painkiller and rested a little bit longer he was good to know.

After breakfast he agreed to go for a walk to get donuts (today is the last day where they are available, lent starts tomorrow). Lucas and Lea piled up on the sled we headed off. Luckily there is still quite a bit of snow and Lucas only has to get off to cross the street. On the way home he even got off, walked a bit and played in the snow banks. We also had a very valuable lesson in yellow snow today. Lucas threw snow in the air and a bit landed on Lea's face. She stuck out her tongue and sucked it up. Lucas looked at me funny and I said it was okay, it would turn to water in her mouth. So, Lucas turned around, grabbed some snow and put it in his mouth. It wasn't until it was in his mouth that I realized he had just grabbed it from the yellow mound behind him! I made him spit it out and since he's still well I assume it's not going to kill him. We did take the opportunity to discuss which colour snow can be eaten in the future.

Lucky Luke

Lucky Luke jumped on the couch
Lucky Luke flew off and said ouch
Mama and Papa and all the Doc's men
Couldn't glue Lucas together again 




Just when we thought the week couldn't get any more painful - it happened.
It was Saturday afternoon and Lucas and his Dad were watching Football. As Ralph was watching the TV and I was feeding Lea, Lucas decided that the best way to watch the game would be from a trampoline (i.e. the couch). Usually this isn't a problem; Lucas is a great and careful couch jumper. But he forgot the rule - only in the middle and without the cushions. Sure enough, before we could tell him to knock it off, right before my very eyes he jumped up, landed on a pillow and was projected backwards from the couch and landed head first on the floor. There is nothing more painful than watching your child hurt itself and not be able to do anything to stop it from happening. 


At first we thought he just had a bump on his head. So once he was calmed down I went and did the grocery shopping. But when I got back Ralph mentioned that he was not able to turn his head left of right and he complained when he was touched. Not good. So after a Smartie Joghurt the boys headed off to the emergency room. Many hours, one 120 page book and an x-ray later they returned. Lucas is now wearing a cool "back pack" which holds his colar bone stable and in approx. 3 weeks he will supposedly be back to normal.


Until then, any suggestions of how to keep him amused? Today he's vegging on the couch and we have resorted to a little TV but that's not a long term solution. I'm hoping that by mid-week he can move around a little without flintching with every movement. Here's hoping that the next 3 weeks aren't painful for all of us!

Mandy and the Cookie Monster

What a great day! I have finally made it back into Lucas' good books (Lucas is a big Daddy fan). The more his sister can do and the more attention she needs (i.e. feeding) the more he seems to demand my attention too. The added benefit is he isn't holing up in his bedroom playing with cars; he wants to be with me and do whatever I am doing. So I took advantage of it today. 

Since my foot is still bumbed up (thankfully not broken), we hung out in the house today. Lea had 2 long naps; 2 hours and 3 hours (!) so Lucas and I had some quality time. What did we do? What all good Canadian Mom's with a sweet tooth do - we baked cookies! Now up until now Lucas has not lasted longer than 5 minutes with me in the kitchen. 

But today he helped from the word go and stuck right through until he was allowed to like the bowl! He measured, stirred and taste tested like a master baker. I was so proud of him and me too. Do you know how much patience it takes to bake with a 3 year old? Imagine filling the measuring cup up with the tablespoon. Slowly. I think it took like 10 minutes just to measure the first cup of sugar! Turns out there are a lot of ingredients in cookies. But he did it and the kitchen didn't get too messy. Lea was busy crawling around for the first two ingredients, so she cleaned up some of that :-)   


No need to worry about the quality of our cookies. Lucas quickly discovered that the best part about baking cookies is the taste testing. Especially once the chocolate chips go in! I'm surprised any made it into the cookies - "just one more" he kept saying.


By the way, thanks again Jeff for the recipe. Our final product for some reason doesn't look as good as your cookies did (must be because we don't have Crisco) but they were definately yummy. After Lucas' second cookie I had to put them out of reach for fear the silly monkey would gobble them all down when I left the room to change Lea's diaper. Turns out that boy sure can eat a lot when it is part of the "sweets" food group. Like Mother like Son :-)

Something I must confess...

I have an addiction to sweets. When Lucas was a baby I had a NEED for Nutella - hold the bread please. I would eat spoonfulls of it every day; justify my dulgence by saying a nursing mother needs the extra calories. When we would take the glass to the recycling Ralph would awe at the number of jars we went through in such a short period of time.

Since Lea I've managed to lay off the Nutella (except the occasional slice of bread at breakfast). No, I've found something better to "keep up my energy" - cake. German cake. In Obermenzing, where we live, there is a great bakery with lots of homemade cake. This bakery also happens to conveniently be located around the corner from where Lea and I go swimming every Wednesday. Now what nursing mother could resist the temptation of picking up a  piece of cake on the way home after 3/4 hour of swimming in a very warm pool? Not this one. For months now I have been doing this, savoring each bite and slowy working my way through their assortment.

Today however, when I went to get my weekly fix (plus a yummy seasonal donut - another weakness I have developed in the last three years. But that is another story) I had to pay a higher than expected price. Today it was snowing and wet and slippery. Lea was in her car seat and awake so I didn't want to leave her in front of the store as I usually do. This bakery however has 5 steps leading up to it. Usually this is not a problem, but as I said it was slippery today. So I bumped the stroller up the first three steps. I guess I really need to have the eyes in the back of my head checked, because I missed number four, slipped, smashed in to the corner of the step and jammed my foot on / between (I'm not sure which) the stroller and the stair. Now my pride and my arse and foot were hurting deeply. I sucked it up though - the child comes first. Lea was fine, I managed to compose myself, got my fix and hobbled home. Driving was a bit tough; luckily I didn't have to clutch too often. Now here I sit, having just inhaled my weekly fix and debating what to do with my aching and throbbing foot. I hope it's only bruised and not broken. Only the doctor can tell.

I knew addictions could be dangerous, I just didn't realize how so. I was willing to deal with the few extra inches on my waist, but this, this I did not expect. I think until the ground thaws, this habit has got to be put on ice!

Fate

Do you ever look back on a day and wonder if there is such a thing as fate? I often look back and think wow, if this or that hadn't of happened then I wouldn't be here today. Take Ralph for example; had I not changed my major I would never would have met him.


Anyway, Monday was one of those funny days where at the end of the day you realize that things had to work out the way they did. In the morning at breakfast I tried to convince Lucas that we were going to the gym. He was determined we were going to IKEA (he wanted to go to Smaland and not to the gym's kid's club). So we stayed at home. After a heated discussion regarding brushing teeth and a very lenghty time out we finally left the house for a walk (Lucas) and nap (Lea). We were only a few streets away when my phone rang and who should be on the other end but Jeff! He missed his connecting flight in Munich and wouldn't be heading out until 3pm - would we like to come out for lunch? I told Lucas that Jeff was stuck at the airport and he was all excited about going to the airport to help him (it wasn't until half-way to the airport that I finally figured out that Lucas thought he was genuinely stuck and that is why we needed to rush). So we got to visit with Jeff before he headed off to see Steve, which was really nice. It's always great to see familiar faces and catch up. We're really looking forward to Jeff coming back again around Easter time. 


Funny, had I won and gotten Lucas to go to the gym we never would have seen Jeff...

Lazy Sundays...

Oh how we love our lazy Sundays! Nowhere to be, nothing to do. We just enjoyed the whole day. Making breakfast turned out to be a learning experience for Lucas who discovered that no, just like Mom and Dad said, you cannot bang two eggs against each other. So, for breakfast Mom and Dad each got two eggs over easy.


Lea is proving to not be much of a better eater than her brother. I think that she too forgot to read the baby manual. She turned her nose up at her joghurt this morning. At lunch she once again refused the mashed veggies I tried to feed her put was happy to take a few forkfulls of my spinach and feta quiche. She did suck on a few bits of potato but I would not really say that much went into her. In the afternoon we did get a small bit of mashed banana into her but not until after she had tried to eat it herself. After a little research last night I figure that we are being forced into "Baby led weaning" (i.e. the baby decides what and when it eats in that it is given a variety of "finger foods" to try). She will not open her mouth for strained anything. She will eat soup - if everyone else at the table it eating it too. I have tried putting her mashed veggies onto my plate but she seems to be able to figure out that I am the only one and she refused to eat them. I'm not quite sure how we are ever going to get her off milk at this rate. I am trying to stay positive though. The good news is that she is willing to try things before she turns her nose up at them. Lucas did eventually eat and I've never heard of a child starving itself so I guess we'll just have to keep trying and waiting. Watching Lea eat does make for a lot of memorable moments. Not too mention messy ones! Here's hoping that Lucas doesn't feel that he needs to regress to this stage too.


 Well off to bed we go. Lea is bound to be hungry soon and tomorrow is Monday, so we all need our rest...