Love Month & Other Things

Valentine's Day came and went. 

And there was a lot of sugar consumed...

BC had it's very first Family Day this year (a week earlier than the rest of the country's Family Day - go figure).  Unfortunately Erik could not participate so it just felt like a long day at home with the kids...

I decided to try to make it fun by baking Valentine's sugar cookies with the kids. But I think the first 1/2 hour of the process was spent fighting over which stool each kid got to stand on, who got to pour the sugar in and who's turn it was to use the mixer...

  

And then there's me watching flour go everywhere and silently reminding myself that it's just flour - we can clean it up later...

After the mixing, it was time for the rolling and cutting.  More mess for sure.  And more drama as the kids fought over the only 2 heart cookie cutters I had.  Silas must've lost interest in the process by the time I took this picture.  Likely sneaking in some screen time in another room...

While Silas napped (I'm so thankful he still does most days) the older kids and I got a head start on the decorating.  Eliminating one child from the equation made this part so much less chaotic...  Other than me reminding the kids every couple of minutes not to lick the knives they were using for spreading (sorry to anyone who shared these cookies with us...)

We used this sugar cookie recipe, which calls for sour cream and makes super soft cookies.

Valentine's came a few days later and we celebrated Love Day as a family...

Pizza was on the menu and I cut them out using my big heart-shaped cookie cutter.  A bit labour-intensive compared to regular pizza...

But worth it.
I think.

Other exciting happenings of this last month included welcoming our newest cousin/nephew to the world.  A few days before Valentine's, Sawyer James was born - the kids were already in their PJs when we got the news but we quickly packed them all up and headed to the hospital to meet him for the first time.

It was fun to explain to the kids that this is how they would meet their new sibling for the first time.  I think they were pretty excited about the idea.

I'm now 17 weeks pregnant and feeling great.  Just... growing.  Up until yesterday I was making do with stretchy leggings and my regular jeans with an elastic band stretching from button to button hole - but the old elastic band trick just wasn't really cutting it anymore.  And when I recently went through my bag of maternity clothes from my previous pregnancies I felt like throwing up a little bit.  Some of those clothes I bought nine years ago.  Needless to say they are just not working for me in 2013.  Erik's mantra this pregnancy has been "We are not buying ANYTHING new for this baby."  But sorry honey, Mama just has to feel somewhat pretty for the next 5 or 6 months - something to counteract the visual of those numbers creeping up on the scale every morning...

Happy Love Month to me!

Screen-Time Detox

Over the last few months I've become painfully aware that Silas is a full-on screen-time addict.  If it's not a TV show or a movie, he's asking to play on the computer or the Wii.  And when we're out shopping or waiting during ballet practice, all he wants is to play on my iphone...  

I think the problem really escalated in the last months of me feeling exhausted and nauseated 90% of the time.  Silas wakes up at 6 am like clockwork, so I of course turn on the TV, give him his milk and then head back to bed.  And then while the older kids are at school and I'm muddling through my day, I don't have the willpower to turn off the laptop or the TV after he's obviously had enough. 

Now, as soon as the screens are turned off, Silas proclaims that he is B.O.R.E.D!  The kid has forgotten how to play.  So now that I am feeling much improved and more energetic I've decided it's time for some screen-time detox.  

It's not easy, let me tell you.  The boy has a short attention span for anything that does not involve staring at a screen (that he could do for hours, let me tell you!)  This morning we played with play-dough for all of 5 minutes before going on to the next thing - painting.  I really resist taking out the painting stuff since it seems overwhelming for such a short amount of play, but he stuck with it for about 20 minutes and actually enjoyed rinsing out his paint container at the end so it wasn't really that painful.  Then we read our new library books, but that didn't take much time at all.

At that point I really had some stuff I wanted to get done and that's where the true test comes because when he is asking for screen-time and I'm really busy, it is just far too tempting to give in.  But today I had resolved to be strong, so I pulled out an idea from my Pinterest board.  All it takes is baking soda, vinegar and food colouring.  It also helps to have a medicine dropper (took me awhile to track one of these down since we haven't administered infant tylenol or vitamin D drops in a couple years!)

Mix the vinegar with different colours...

And give your kid a plate full of baking soda.  After that, they can drop away and create colourful little volcanic eruptions.

Silas loved the sound of the "fizz".

This activity didn't last 2 hours (like it apparently did for the pinner's kid).  Not even 1 hour.  We're talking 20-30 minutes tops.  But hey.  It gave me a chance to make the mango salsa for tonight's delicious dinner recipe so I call that a success.

And to keep things real, I did let Silas watch TV after managing to hold him off for a couple of hours.  But that too, I consider a success.

Baby steps people.  Baby steps.