Party Time!

On Saturday we celebrated Maddy's 2nd birthday with a small party for family. Oma, Opa and Auntie Lyn came down from Revelstoke and then Gong Gong, Po Po, Auntie Jo, Uncle Philip, Frances and Pippa joined us for tea and cake. Thank goodness for the bigger house this year. It certainly makes a difference with Maddy running around this year. It was a lot of fun to see her running and playing with her cousins.

Maddy asked for a doggie cake this year and boy did she like it! She ate all the icing off the cupcake and didn't really care that she was the only one sitting by herself in the kitchen.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Happy Birthday Maddy!

Our first baby is 2 already! Where did the time go? Having a newborn and a 2 year old in the same house really lets you appreciate how much growth humans do in the first couple of years of life. It’s hard to believe that just 2 years ago Maddy didn’t have control of even her arms or neck and now she runs about, and absorbs new things every day. Here are some things she’s been up to:

Crafts: In an attempt to find activities for her to do while I nurse Ethan, I went to Michael’s and bought some foam stickers and regular stickers. I made little baggies of these stickers and thought that if I could hand her the stickers while nursing Ethan, she could stick them on the paper. Turns out she can take the backing off and stick them on the paper all by herself. Woo hoo!! Keeps her busy for quite a while.

Food: We’ve always cut her grapes in half or quarters to prevent choking and in the beginning we even peeled them. We still quarter them for her but for a while she ate the skin of the grapes with no problem. Recently she decided that she didn’t like the skin of the grapes so she’ll take each piece and scrape at it with her teeth, leaving just the skin. It takes her a LONG time to finish a plate of grapes this way. Another woo hoo!!

Helping: Maddy loves to help us. She understands quite a bit and can follow through with multi-step tasks. We started calling her our assistant during diaper changes with Ethan and it’s a job she loves. She’ll say, “Maddy’s a good assimstm” over and over. During a diaper change, she’ll get the bum balm ready, open it and leave it on the table, get a fresh diaper and put the old one in the garbage.

Speech: We’ve definitely noticed a difference in the way Maddy speaks. Before she’d say things like “Maddy have _______.” If we didn’t answer her or give it to her, she’d just repeat herself. Now, instead of repeating herself, she’ll continue to say “I NEED it mama! I need ______.” It’s really cute to hear, but at the same time she’s definitely more demanding in her requests. Another thing we’ve noticed is that we can no longer just brush off something that she says. She’ll call you on it when she knows that you're not really listening. Once Josh was talking to her and he didn’t quite understand her so he simply replied “Uh hmmm”. She got quite upset and said, “No 'uh hmmm' papa (and then repeated her question again).”

This morning we went into her room with a candle in a piece of banana bread and sang to her. She was so excited and knew that it was her birthday. She definitely isn’t a baby anymore. It’s so sad to think that the ‘baby’ years are so short and that she is growing up so quickly. Happy 2nd birthday Maddy, we are so proud of you and love you so much!!! xoxo Mama, Papa and “Essan”

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we went with the Brown Johns and the Browns to the pumpkin patch at Richmond Country Farms. We were there super early so we had time to shop for produce at the store first. They had an amazing variety of fruits and vegetables and everything was super fresh and not to mention inexpensive.


Unfortunately by the time we got out to actual pumpkin field, Ethan was hungry so I had to head to this covered area to nurse him. I sat by myself in the 'shack' feeding and changing Ethan, all sad that I was missing out on the 'fun'. That's until Josh came in a while later. He was carrying two pumpkins AND a snotty, tear stained Maddy. Poor guy, looks like he had it way worse than me. I don't think it was as fun as I was picturing out there! :) Turns out Maddy was hungry and after a little snack in the shack she was in better spirits.


When we got back to the entrance the line up for the hayride was really long. Thank goodness we were there early. It was a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

My First Bento

Now that Josh is back at work, I needed some lunch ideas for Maddy that she can eat all on her own and with little mess. Enter the bento box. I got the boxes and accessories from Daiso in Richmond and now I'm hooked. There are so many blogs completely dedicated to bento boxes (Lunch In a Box and Just Bento are two I like) and there are TONS of ideas. The best part is that Maddy really likes it. She can pick at the food with her hands and it takes her a long time to eat (read: I can feed Ethan while she's busy eating by herself). She kept saying "I love bento box" the whole time she was eating. Here is my first try.

Corn, Peas, Chick Peas, 1/2 a Bolied Egg, Onigiri (Rice ball), Star Shaped Turkey, Kiwi and Grapes

4 Weeks Old

Today Ethan is 4 weeks old. In some ways it feels like the 4 weeks went by in a snap. Josh's month at home was WAY too short. On the other hand it also feels like Ethan has always been a part of our family. We've adjusted well but it's definitely harder caring for a newborn with a toddler at the same time. Maddy loves her little brother and it's so fun to see the huge smile on her face when she first sees him in the morning.

Ethan is doing really well. He's put on so much weight and those skinny chicken legs don't look so much like chickens anymore! He's been struggling with gas and so we have to be careful to burp him often during feeds. For now, I live for the sweet sound of a huge belch from him! Nothing feels better than having him over my shoulder, patting him and hearing him burp. Sometimes I don't know who is more relieved, Ethan or me.

He's a really noisy baby. We are lucky that he cries only when he is uncomfortable (gas mostly), but even when he is comfortable, or even sleeping, he grunts. I'm beginning to think that it's just the noise he makes when he's trying to fart. :) He's beginning spend more time awake and thankfully it's during the day. I'll have to be sure to start more activity time with him, but for now he likes looking at the Zebra puppet Maddy gave him and enjoys taking a bath.

Happy 4 weeks Ethan, we love you so much! XOXO

I'll have to post a picture later on. We're a bit behind on uploading and organizing pictures.

Game Results

Ok, so I guess it's easier to tell them apart than I thought! When Ethan was first born I couldn't really tell difference between them. Now that he's getting bigger, he's definitely more 'boy'. Anyway, Ethan is the 'A' baby and Maddy is the 'B'. I'll have to think of a harder game next time around!

Ethan's Photo Shoot

We've been trying really hard to make sure that we take plenty of pictures of Ethan as we did for Maddy. It was really important to me to get some newborn photos of Ethan before he out grew that 'newborn look' but we kept putting it off because there wasn't time. Finally on Friday, while Maddy was napping, we just went for it. Really I just wanted one good shot that I could frame because we have one framed of Maddy. So while I fed him, Josh quickly put up a black sheet. In between burping sessions we quickly ripped off his clothes and snapped a few before finishing the feed. What a difference from Maddy's photo shoot! Sorry Ethan, at least your picture looks more professional because we have a better camera.