7:15 a.m.

The gray blue light is pierced with,

“I have to go peeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I peeeeeeeed in my bedddddddddddd.”

Then Spencer farted and made our eyes water.

Then Alice threw her stuffies out of her bed with a thump and started whining.

7:16 a.m.

Happy first minute of Family Day. How incredibly fitting.

We decided to make pancakes (recipe below!), and all was better in the world. We documented the occasion with Lucy’s vtech Kidizoom camera.

nom nom nom

Milk, with a side of Alice and gerbera daisies

"Panpakes!"

That's juice from our blueberries, in case you're wondering. As much of a staple as the syrup when we eat pancakes.

Real maple syrup, courtesy of Eric's Mom (she's our dealer)

No blueberries for this purist. Just deliciousness.

We’re snooty and shun boxed pancake mix for this super quick, easy and MUCH cheaper version. Toddlers and kids love to help stir. We always double the recipe and freeze the leftovers — they are perfect during the week out of the toaster for a quick breakfast. Make them tomorrow for Shrove/Pancake Tuesday!

McDougall-Foster Family Pancakes
adapted from Betty Crocker Cookbook, holiday bonus edition

1 large egg
1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. milk
1 tbs. sugar
2 tbs. vegetable oil
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

• Beat egg with fork until fluffy
• Add remaining ingredients and stir just until smooth
• Pour in favourite size (or use cookie cutters to make shapes) with ladle into 375 degree/med heat griddle
• Cook until bubbly on top, puffed and dry around edges
• Turn and cook until golden brown and delicious!
• Best served with real Canadian maple syrup and blueberries (we use frozen all year long)

We are back to proliferating as much as we can from cows.

After Angry Baby dissapeared and the green poops dried up solidified stopped, we introduced Alice to small bits of dairy around 8 months. She’s been perfectly fine on everything, and now eats buckets of yogurt, cheeses, baby cereal and regular formula.

So who knows what this was all about. I can only guess her digestive system needed some extra time to mature.

I’m excited to be buying our favourite baby/toddler yogurt again: Li’l Ones by Dairyland. I did a big review back in March 2007 when Lucy was gobbling them up — check it out here. They’re still delicious, sweetened with fruit juice, made with whole milk, have no artificial flavours, colours or sweeteners and come in great baby-pleasing flavours such as banana, pear, peach and grape.

Obviously the line has grown in the past 2.5 years, because I can now buy them at my local grocery store — not just Lawn Mart. Very exciting.

And wait ’till you hear this deal!

As a disclaimer, I’m a coupon whore. If I’m the store and there are coupons for a product, I take, like, 20 of them. So a few weeks ago, when the baby food aisle at the grocery store was laden with Heinz Nurture $10 off any formula coupons (!!), I pounced. I ripped 10 of them off the stack and stuffed them in my pocket like a thief, eyes darting. The Eyes in the Sky at the store probably thought I was trying to stuff baby food down my pants or something.

We were supplementing Alice with soy formula at the time, but I was working towards switching her to a milk-based one like the Nurture line.

Last week the stuff — regularly $23/can — went on sale for $17.50. Do you know how much formula is when it’s on sale and you have a $10 (!!) coupon?

That’s right. I got it for $7.50.

I bought one can on Monday to make sure Alice could digest it alright. Then I went back on Thursday night and bought six more. Regular price = $138. Coupon stuffing price = $45.

I’m getting tingly just reliving those moments. Two managers had to come process the coupons through the register — reading the fine print, turning them over and over — and a bunch of cashiers came to ohh and ahh and congratulate me on the savings. I felt like I’d won the lottery or something.

The timing of the score sale couldn’t be better. My busy baby seems to be done nursing. She’d given up all but the morning feed when she first wakes up. And now she’s more interested in batting the blind behind our bed and trying to climb out the windown that snuggle in with me and drink.

I think this week will be it. She easily drinks formula from a cup, and does not even care if it’s heated anymore. The transition for all of us could not be easier.

From a physical stand point, anyways. There’s still the emotional side that I have to deal with, Alice being our last baby.

But I’m ready. I want to buy pretty bras again and have my Girls settle into their nursing-battered shape. Which, ironically enough, will probably be much like the cow udders that are replacing me.

Speaking of BPA, Health Canada just did a huge study on Bisphenol A in glass baby food jars. And found lots of the estrogen-mimicking chemical.

From the Globe and Mail this weekend:

“Some scientists have expressed concern over BPA because it is a chemical never found in nature and is able to act like estrogen in living things, leading to worries that its presence in food means people are getting an extra dollop of the female hormone. Experimentals with test animals have linked it to breast cancer and other hormonally induced medical conditions, some at doses to which humans are exposed.

But Health Canada said there are no grounds for concern.”

(full story here)

(I’m glad I make all of Alice’s food. But we do eat canned goods, too.)

And all the yummies so many of us are canning right now? Turns out canning lids — similar in design to baby jar lids — also contain BPA (story @ Tree Hugger).

Apparently we can’t win.

The Toronto Star this weekend had an interesting story on Baby Led Weaning. It basically says that once babies are ready for solid foods, we’re supposed to just hand them full-sized pieces of food and not cut them up small or puree them. Apparently they choke less often doing this, and it allows them to self-feed (eating at their own pace, making them less fussy/picky eaters later on).

My thoughts? Great concept, but what if baby — like both my girls at 6 months — have teeth? I’d never give them a whole piece of food. They’d be choking in seconds.

(Left to their own devices, some babies I know will attempt to eat tampons and paper. Last I checked, THAT’S NOT A GOOD IDEA. What parent allows this? Pssh.)

Thoughts?

I’m so far behind on recording the little happenings in our life lately. Before they are forgotten forever in the vortex of summer and growing kids, a list (with pics, below):

• Three Dora & Diego window stickers & a beach ball now grace the glass and floor in Lucy’s room, because my girl has gone poop on the potty FOUR TIMES in a row! That’s right, no 3+-year-old poopy diapers in a week. We are so thrilled. And so is Lucy. She keeps asking if we’re calling everyone to tell them — and that “I’m so proud of myself!”
• If you’re wondering what worked, it was a combo of give and take: I bought some dollar store toys, and put them in a bucket in the bathroom so she could see them. When she went poop, so got a prize. If she went poop in her diaper, she had TV taken away for the rest of the day. We only had to take TV away three times before she realized we meant business. — and that television AND a toy was awesome.
• Speaking of poop, poor Alice is battling terrible constipation. A result, I think, of adding a second bottle of formula a day, Cheerios and crackers. She just hollers like the devil when she goes. We are taking out stock in prunes
• Speaking of butts, Alice can sit up on her own now. It’s so adorable when they can do that! A whole new world to learn about from that angle
• Also, her top two teeth are coming in. Anyone else hate teething? Yeesh.
• I have piles and piles of reviews to do and write (vitamins, food, play centres, pacifiers). I think the week I’m at the cottage with the girls will be review week.
• Our gardens look gorgeous right now. Must post pics.
• We saw the Sound of Music on Saturday (must see the movie still, as I don’t quite get what all the fuss is about…), and we were away from the girls from 9:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. During the performance, I had this pain in my arm that traveled from my elbow to shoulder, and was all freaked out telling Eric to watch in case I had a stroke. When we got home and Alice drained my milk-swollen right breast? Pain disappeared. WEIRD. Can one get milk backed up in their appendages?
• The other weekend was our local Duck Derby, and guess who was there? Bram from Sharon, Lois and Bram! Remember Skinnamarink-A-Dinky-Dink? ALL the parents in the audience were swaying and singing, blissful in reliving their childhoods, while our kids were looking around suspiciously. T’was hilarious.
• For Father’s Day, Lucy made personalized keepsake jars for Eric, her Papa and Grandpa. They were a hit, and she loved doing them.
• It’s stinkin’ hot out, and I LOVE IT. Been hanging tons of laundry, with Alice babbling away in her booster seat outside on the deck
• I lost three nose pins this weekend — two down the drain, and one in bed. Grr…
• Lucy and I did swimming lessons together for eight weeks. More on this later.
• Stroller Fit class continues to be great fun, and an even awesomer workout now that instructor Kelly has kicked it up: We walk faster, use benches, tip toe up hills. No weight loss, but this weekend I fit into pants I haven’t been able to in years!

And pics:

After much hand wringing, some general freaking out and a few tears, we seem to have a solution to the State of the House (post and comments here). Or, at least we think we do.

Anyone who knows my husband will not be surprised at how he took to this dilema: He created a spreadsheet.

(Apparently this is what he gets paid to do all day. Who knew!)

I’ve had to give up the notion of a clean house all at once (as Ang does), and we’re now focusing on a specific few tasks each night. Aside from laundry, each night should only require each of us to spend around 20 minutes cleaning. Of course, this does not include the monumental task each night of cleaning the kitchen up from dinner, but that’s just part of life.

We’re on day two, and I’m loving it so far. I feel like we’re both in this together more, and like that I have a specific thing to do each day. It appeals to the planner/controller in me. But I also told Eric The Schedule and he need to be flexible to accommodate my work, too.

We’ll see how it goes. Maybe something you can try?

In other news, on Sunday night I ate a piece of cheese on my chicken burger. REAL cheese from a cow. And Alice was completely fine.

Perhaps we’re seeing the end of the daily allergy?

At Durham Mom’s Night Out tonight, we’re trying out Mexican Cuban. And I am SO having some more cheese…maybe even *gasp* sour cream.

Alice has these random dry patches. One on the back of a chubby leg, on her torso, an elbow.

We can’t say for sure they are eczema. It wouldn’t be surprising, given Lucy’s butt battle and Eric’s lifetime fight with the itchy, red, painful spots.

Because of this, and Alice’s milk allergy, our doctor wants her to be dairy-free until she’s a year. Then she’ll send us for a skin prick test (doesn’t that sound like hell for a 1-year-old?) to determine if we’re dealing with an actual allergy, or an intolerance.

Did you know a milk allergy can cause an anaphylactic reaction the same way peanuts can? I was shocked to learn this. And terrified at the thought of my wee girl’s throat closing up.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Nerissa,

We loved the cupcakes.

Wanna see?

Read the rest of this entry »

Lucy, eat your chili, Honey.

It looks like dirt.

Oh, gee, thanks.

*burp* Tee-hee! I burped!

Goose! I’m going to have to sell you, you’re being so rude tonight!

Noooo, Mumma!

Who should I sell you to?

Sell me to…Mumma!

Dude, I should NOT have to pay for you again.

Yay! A new vantage point! Sitting high up in a chair like a big person!

Something towards my mouth? I don’t care what it is! Let’s open wide!

What…the…f*#@…was that?
(Lucy’s first reaction was slightly more…well, a baby’s version of the middle finger, really.)

Something towards my mouth? I don’t care what it is! Let’s open wide!

I seriously have to stop this open mouth reflex.
(Lucy’s disgusted death stare…)

Great. Now the little little big one has it.

Fine. I will seize your implement of torture.
(I love how we as first-time parents were paranoid about Lucy getting the SOFT rubber spoon, but the second time around? With the metal spoon? Go to town, kid!)

Alice has since had apple sauce, plus pear in her mesh teehing thingie, both of which she enjoyed. I’m so excited to start making baby food again! With what time, I’m not sure, but I’ll find it. Moms don’t need to sleep, right?

Here’s an Easter craft tip to file away for next year: If you’re going to dye eggs with a toddler? Use hard boiled ones. And lay down lots of newspaper, because flicking the metal egg dipper in the bowls of food colouring is hilariously entertaining. And messy.

But Lucy and I had a blast on Thursday morning doing this while Alice napped. The results, in my biased view, are egg-ceptional!

(Sorry. I couldn’t resist.)

Hope you’re having a wonderful Easter, and Mr. Bunny is good to you. Eat some chocolate for me, OK?

(Damn milk-allergic baby keeping me from Mini Eggs and peanut butter chocolate cups. Good thing she’s delicious herself.)