Birthday Bear

Today our little Silas Paul turns 2!

You can read about his actual birth-day HERE. What a snuggly little newborn he was :)

Silas and I spent this morning decorating his birthday cake (made even more special by the home inspector that spent all morning in our house!). Silas enjoyed a little cream cheese icing as part of the deal.

After he made a thorough mess of himself, we cleaned up and headed outside for a birthday walk.

Are ya comin' Mom?

Here are a few random facts about the not-so-little baby of the family:

- He weaned himself from his soother a few months ago. It was already a cut-off version of the original, and I was noticing that he was just holding it in his hand instead of putting it into his mouth. So, one day I just didn't give it to him. And he was fine! If he has to go to sleep without his "dee dee" (blankie) though - not such good results.

- Until recently, this boy HATED bath time with a passion. I learned to bathe him in less than 1 minute because he would scream the entire time. But then he discovered how much fun playing in the sink is. And eventually he realized that being in the tub was like climbing right in the sink and being surrounded by that amazing fluid that is so much fun to pour and splash. The funny thing is that he will NOT sit his bum down in the tub. He will only squat. And stay in one position. And if we try to move him at anytime, he starts to freak out. Oh well. Baby steps, right?

- From birth, Silas has hated crowds and loud, noisy places. If he's a little sick or cranky and we're in a public place or even just at someone's house, he let's us know of his unhappiness. Quite loudly. So, in planning his birthday party I figured I'd keep it low key and just have Erik's family over for some birthday cake tonight.

(Typical boy - finding the one tiny little puddle)

- Silas' one remaning vice (other than his blanket, but that's still a non-issue for me) is his bottle. I've been trying to wean him from it. But the bottle is winning. The other night Silas cried for AN HOUR AND A HALF in his crib because I hadn't given him a bottle. It wasn't that he didn't drink any milk before bed, it's just that it didn't come in the form that he was truly desiring.

At about 9:30 I gave up and let him have it.

I'm weak. I know.

Silas' favourite past-times are:

- playing in the sink until there is a puddle on the floor and his clothes are drenched

- doing anything outside

- watching Baby Einstein, Praise Baby, Barney or High-5

- looking at books with me

- running after his big brother and sister

- practicing his words and sentences -- there are a lot of them!

Happy Birthday Siley-Bear!

Off The Market

We signed the contract yesterday. And barring subject removal, this baby is SOLD!

We have a great buyer who is so easy to work with. And despite us accepting a lower offer than we had hoped for (and sold for less than we bought!), we're still coming out with about $10 000 more than we would've had we listed with a realtor. So, that feels really good. Here's hoping that the whole deal goes through. I'm not quite sure at what point I can finally relax and know that it's a done deal! We'll be moving out by the middle of April so that Erik can do a few renovations (that were included in the contract). Then the plan is to move in with Erik's parents for a month or so and then head to Manitoba again for the summer.

So, is it too soon to start packing???

Spring

It's coming.

There are sure signs of it - like these brave little blooms.

(at Mom & Dad Toews')

And black cats.

OK, black cats aren't a sign of spring.

That I know of.

But wearing spring jackets and playing outside on green grass with them seems spring-like. We found this very friendly kitty the other afternoon and Keziah could not keep her hands off of him.

Happy second day of spring!

The Not-So-Relaxing Vacation

Last weekend we decided to take the kids and get away for a few days to Whistler. I'm always amazed at how much stuff we need to bring for just a couple of nights...

Seriously?

We booked a hotel in Squamish at the recommendation of Doug & Elissa. Much cheaper than staying in Whistler and it was a really nice place. Our room had a full kitchen and separate bedroom. Even a washer and dryer (which came in really handy later... keep reading to find out why).

It was nice to be able to cook and eat in our room, plus have a separate bedroom to put kids to sleep at night. We even had two TVs so the kids could get their Treehouse fix while we enjoyed a little HGTV (we've been living on basic cable, so both of these channels were a treat!)

Erik was playing a bit of catch with the kids here. We've had some bad luck with hotel rooms and the splitting open of heads so I tried to keep the horseplay to a minimum this time. But really, boys will be boys. Even the grown-up ones.

This was our view from our deck (a golf course). So pretty. It was raining in Squamish the entire weekend and the snow was pretty much gone there.

Micah was very curious as to how Whistler got its name. I was stumped so I turned to Google for some insight. I found out that it is named for an animal called a marmot that makes a whistling sound. We even found a great video of it here. When we prayed for our time in Whistler, Micah thanked God that he would get to see a whistling marmot. He was convinced that this was going to be the highlight of his trip. Of course, we never did see one but I think there were enough other highlights to trump the missing marmot.

Side note: we had a little (big?) mishap with our macbook last weekend. It was on our table during our weekly Saturday morning pancake breakfast when an ENTIRE pitcher of orange juice was spilled. We thought the computer was totally fried. The guy at the Apple store even thought it was done. But then he decided to try fiddling with one more thing and it totally worked! Our computer is fully functioning and we are SOOO thankful.

Now onto the drama of the weekend. Our first night Silas came down with the flu (this is his THIRD flu this winter. Not that I'm counting.) The first throw-up was all over in his playpen and we were immediately thankful for our convenient laundry facilities. The 2nd throw-up happened in the middle of the night on the bed that Erik and I were sleeping in and we had to request new bedding at about 2 am. I felt bad for the ladies who had to clean those sheets :( Silas was feverish and clingy and down-right miserable for the rest of our time away. And Erik wasn't feeling so hot himself. But at least Micah and Keziah had a great time!

I had to try out this rolling slide in Whistler village too :)

Silas was a bit of a bear. He was fairly content in his stroller, but we didn't spend too much time in Whistler Village. It was late in the day, cold and we didn't want to risk going to a sit-down restaurant with him feeling so lousy. We saw the sights, walked around a bit, and then headed back to the comforts of our hotel.

But we couldn't leave without getting a picture with the Olympic rings...

Our favourite part of the weekend was heading up to the Whistler Olympic Park where they held the cross-country skiing and ski-jumping.

The amount of snow up there was unbelievable. I was so thankful we brought all our winter stuff because the kids loved it. Well, 2 outta 3 of them anyway.

We decided to rent some sleds for their little tobogganing hill. The hill is right at the base of the big ski jumps.

For some reason, eating snow is a novelty for these kids.

I managed to get Silas to go down a couple of times but he was SO miserable. So, him and I went back to the day lodge to hang out while Erik played awhile longer with the big kids.

Pausing for some refreshment in the lodge.

And some ipod time.

My poor sick boy. He is addicted to his Mama. My arms were so sore the last night we were there and I couldn't figure out why, but then Erik reminded me that I had held Silas for about 80% of my day. And even though he's feeling better, he still believes that I am an extension of his body and that he cannot function unless we are physically touching in some way. He's constantly coming up to me and whining "Smee, smee!" It didn't take long for me to figure out that he was saying "sit with me".

Here's hoping our next family get-away is a lot lighter on the sickness side and a little heavier on the "vacationing".

Take a picture. It lasts longer.

We had another house showing the other night and I couldn't pass up the chance to take a picture of how incredibly clean my kitchen looked. It's a rare sight, so I needed to soak it in...

Seriously, who wouldn't want to buy such a nice looking place, right ?? :)

Then, taking pictures of my kitchen turned into taking pictures of the kids.

If you thought Silas' blankie was bad before, you should see it now...

Every time I wash it, it comes out looking more and more like a giant knot of strings. But, obviously I have to keep washing the thing. It's the first item to get thrown up on and slobbered over. It's the most convenient facial tissue for the ever-running nose and it probably picks up more dirt off my floor than my mop... I have to tie it up in a pillow case when I put it in the dryer now, to avoid it getting tangled up in my dryer balls. Good thing for Silas, this blankie's texture has made for a super-duper fast drying time!

Not sure what to say about this picture. I'll let it speak for itself.

Erik bought me a new jacket on the weekend.

I've been eyeing this one for awhile (at Sport Chek) but really didn't expect to buy it. After going back a few times, trying it on, and still liking it, Erik told me I could get it :)

Now that I've worn it a few days, I've decided that I love it.

I love that it's long (and covers my longer shirts so they don't stick out all awkward at the bottom), that it has a hood (think rainy, windy BC winters), and that it's warm (warm enough for BC anyway!).

I'm really hoping we'll have some good news to share in the next week or so about selling our house. We have FOUR different couples/families coming this week to see it and possibly another repeat visitor. We're praying that an offer will come soon!