For all my freezing friends and family in Alberta.....(cept Kendra who is on her way to Mexico... booo!  jealous!!!)

This was Kamloops on Thursday afternoon.....

I've wanted to do something like this for a long time.  I finally ran across a local WAHM (work at home mom) who lives in Kamloops and makes blankets.  I asked her to make a blanket out of some of Dylan's baby clothes.  She combined receiving blankets and his clothes that we think are special into a wonderful keepsake blanket.  I absolutely love it.  She did an amazing job.  I can't wait to show it off.

We will have it forever !

So as I said the other day, Dylan has been crazy for swimming... most weeks we are going two times a week- Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We joined swim lessons, but long story short, we withdrew because we were the only ones in the class.  So anyway, we just go and swim and practice on our own.  BUT, the last day of our swim lessons, we were in a hurry to get there, Dylan was dragging his feet and not cooperating.  I tried reasoning.  If you don't come and get dressed, we can't go swimming.  You want to go swimming right?? 

"No Mah-ee"

Pardon???  So I asked again... Would you like to go swimming Dylan??

"No Mah-ee"

Hmmmm..... outsmarted by a two year old.  Let's try again.

Well Mommy is going, so if you'd like to go with Mommy let's get dressed or you have to stay home alone.....  (I head for the stairs for added impact)

"Bye Mah-ee" 

Grrrr

Ok, Dylan, that's it... we are going....

So I wrestle him into clothes and off we go all frazzled and worse for wear.  I swear he was laughing when I put him in the backseat.

So we get to the pool- I battle the senior citizens who think that they have priority in the family change room even though it says RESERVED FOR PARENTS WITH CHILDREN.  Old blue haired ladies step in front of me for change rooms while Dyl and I strip down in the small hall visible to the general public entering the men's and women's change room.... (ok well not really)  but you see why I'm mad.

So anyway, we get a room, I get myself ready, and discover I forgot swim diapers... and have just the diaper on Dylan.... so the dilemma... Do I put him in his swim trunks with the regular diaper... or with nothing but swim trunks and risk a brown floaty popping out.....

What would you do????

Here's the WRONG choice... the wrong choice is to wear a regular diaper, because those babies swell up to 10 times their normal size and retain water making your child difficult to lift.  I swear, Dylan weighted a good 60 lbs !  Not only that, I keep tucking the diaper under his shorts and it keeps popping up.  So part way through the lesson, the wear and tear of me lifting him up and down with the 40lb diaper finally .... and embarrassingly shows me that I made THE WRONG DECISION !! 

The top of the diaper splits open.... tons of little tiny blue beads that are in the diaper to absorb water burst out and the instructor is horrified.  I'm horrified.  What do I say?  I tell her that DYLAN FORGOT HIS SWIM DIAPER.  Yup- blame the two year old.  haha... It just flew out of my mouth... then I tried to cover and said... well, actually it was me who forgot it.... (duh) and I didn't know this would happen. 

Embarrassing !!!

But what's more embarrassing is -- we got K I C K E D    O U T of the pool.  Yup.  We had to shamefully leave because his diaper could clog up the filters....

So we did the walk of shame....

Lesson to all.  Risk poop rather than the blue crystal diaper things.  OR better yet.  Spend the .50 cents to buy a swim diaper from the pool staff.

Fun times

Ya.... so for sure no photos of that... so here is another one to enjoy.

ps- Dylan had to go home with no Diaper... how do you think that turned out?  :)

As if the day before we left for Calgary wasn't busy enough, Dylan asked if we could go to music in the park. Every night down at riverside park a band plays- it's really very good.  He plays at the park a bit, sometimes goes to the water park, and then we finish over on the grass to watch the band for a bit before we head home for bed.  We've done it a few times this summer, and it's a really nice evening.

So tonight on the park... our little man was having so much fun.

 The music started, 80s rock.

Think KISS "I wanna rock and roll all night"

and Bon Jovi...

Well, the little man started to rock out !

Drumming like crazy !  

How adorable is that ???

Crazy fast drumming hands !!!!

I LOVE it !!!!

We are so blessed with our little boy.

recent obsessions of a 2 yr old

~Swimming- wants to go every day (no pics)

~Crying and pounding on his bedroom door when it's time to go to bed (no pics)

~Waking up in the middle of the night- ie sunday night,up from 11-2 am bouncing on my bed (for sure no pics)

~Painting.... lots of pics....

It's shameless self promotion--but check out the fully edited pics of my last newborn session.  This little sweetie was only 4 days old !  He was a dream to work with !  I'd like to keep him, he's just the sweetest, but I don't think they'd let me....

I spent about 2 hours photographing them- and about 6 hours editing 39 photos.  On my fb page I've shown a few.


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33378&id=161279600575414&saved#!/album.php?aid=33378&id=161279600575414

More about Dylan tomorrow !

If you read a lot of blogs like I do, you notice that some mommy bloggers are really guilty of always showing only the best side of their child.  I could rant about people I know that do that but I won't...

So anyway...the reason for this post, and this blog in general- Dylan.  I could be like one of those bloggers and list his good points.  There really are lots.  And we love our baby boo like crazy.  BUT....yes, there is a but.  Let me preface it by saying that I've done lots of research on this... and everything says it's normal, developmentally appropriate, and expected, but none the less frustrating. 

Dylan is a happy, friendly boy but he has a serious issues with pulling other's hair, hitting others with toys and being too rough.   Most of the time the hair pulling or hitting comes out of no where... nothing provokes it, it's not that someone took a toy or something, he just does it.  For no real reason (cept to get attention I guess)

It's very frustrating for me as his mother because he is getting a reputation that is somewhat undeserved.  He deserves the reputation because of his behaviour, but I'm afraid people don't see his good points,and that it is developmentally driven, and that it's going to be a reputation that follows him, and sticks.  Friends know that I take it seriously, and am trying to get him to stop.  BUT, he's the only one of his "friends" who is really doing it. 

He's really close to in danger of being shunned because of it.  We are being left out of things because of it.  People don't want to put up with their child being hurt- I get that- I understand it.  I'd feel the same way.  But he's just 2, and there is no reasoning with him.  He's not being invited to things... eventually if it keeps going this way, it'll happen with more regularity, I won't be invited to hang out with the moms I like, and he won't have playmates.  He's a very active boy, he goes at 90 miles an hour... and some people look at him and make comments that are thinly vieled, like... ADHD boy. 

I can re frame it all I want and call him, independent, and strong willed and active with a zest for life all I want, but if people keep looking at him and thinking, aggressive, mean, willful, unruly, etc --only the negative spin on it... he will get this reputation, and we will have consequences to him and Iwe ARE moving in that direction- quickly.... so ?  Dunno.  We. are. stuck.

a boy and his beloved cat

Dylan's "sister" is staying with us- just for fun and spending the night, and her PD day with us on Friday.  Dylan is beyond thrilled.  He just loves her to death.  He'd been waiting all day Thursday for her to come... saying her name over and over, asking me about her, and finally, she came.  He just adores her.  I enjoy having her over too.... it's fun to do girl things, and do things with an older child.  Like I said when she stayed with us when her family was away, we just might not give her back...  :)  Here's what they were up to Thursday...


make your own pizza night... Rowan starts... and Dylan brings glue sticks to the table....



painting....and Rowan working on a card for her brother's 2nd birthday (such  a sweet girl)

check us out !!

I asked her to make a funny face for her grandma in hopes that she'll see this and laugh...

reading before bed....

Tomorrow- headbands and baking.

Cherry Bliss Photography update

I had a wonderful 4 day old little guy in studio today with his family.  I've been on the computer all night Monday editing and playing with their photos. 

Thought I'd share one of the images that I love !

Heritage Classic - forever Flames !

Taken from Getty Images

Add one Canadian, a soon to be Canadian, and the child of these two together and what do you get?  A hockey loving family !!  We watched the Flames play the Montreal Canadians today in the Heritage Classic game played outdoors at McMahon Stadium (normally used for football). If you know anything about Calgary, you know it gets freaking cold- and you also know that doesn't stop more than 40,000 fans from braving the -20 cold (not including wind chill) 

taken from the Winnipeg Free Press

 If we were in Calgary- we would have been there ! 

stolen from... I can't remember where... somewhere online

There was a chance the game wasn't going to be a go, but millions of prayers to the hockey gods paid off.  So screw off winter- we are playing hockey outside no matter what !  We Canadians are a hearty bunch !

So instead we stayed inside where it was warm and watched with our favorite Calgary Flames Fan.

and yes... the Flames BEAT the Montreal Canadians by a score of  4-0 !!!!!

sleep is for the week?

I've had such trouble sleeping lately.  The other night I moved the living room around from 1 am-2:30 am.  It's Friday night-- well Saturday morning and i'm still up.  Thinking thinking thinking.  How do I get back to a normal sleep pattern?

Cheeky !

I had an idea earlier today about what I was going to post about... but after talking to my mom tonight, I've changed my mind.  I was telling her several stories about Dylan... and every story ended with me saying "he's so cheeky !"  as in he's pushing all of my buttons lately. Then I remembered the photos from earlier today....

TRUE STORY-- That's what he did when I told him it was time to come out of the shower !  Seriously cheeky child right?

I had my first photo shoot with a newborn for my photography business (http://www.cherryblissphotography.ca/ or on fb) this past weekend.  The parents were great, the baby was so sweet, BUT due to complictions this little man didn't get to me until he was 15 days old, which made it impossible to get those beautiful sleepy artistic pics.  The rule is the first ten days of birth.  But I did get a couple of good ones.  If I had to give this first one a title, i'd call it "safe in daddy's arms"

Ohhh snap- we are about to start potty training ! 

On Sunday Dylan was pulling at his diaper... so I took it off and asked if he wanted to wear his newly purchased "big boy" underwear- he said YES!

So I put them on and gave him the pep talk about telling mommy if he has to pee or poop... and emphasized that he should tell me b.e.f.o.r.e. he needs to go.  He nodded....and off he went to show Daddy.  Well... Daddy was horrified, and in fact didn't believe me when I told him there wasn't a diaper under the undies...haha.  I kept telling him... he kept saying noooo.  But hey, it's my method of potty training- no pull up diapers, just the underwear. 

Dyl had the underwear on for about 3 minutes and complained they were not comfortable.  I asked if he wanted to put his diaper back on- YES he shouted....

Soooo....I guess in my excitement to put on the under-roos, I forgot they should be washed to soften them up first.  Oops... hope I didn't scar him for life with itchy cardboardy underwear.

I should also say, that he picked out the undies himself, but was very sad he couldn't have Dora ones- they only make them for girls.... sad.  We've had this issue a few times with him wanting Dora clothes... from the girl's section.  Poor boo.  I do agree with him- Dora is much better than Diego.

crafting

I often steal   use other blogs as inspiration for projects.  I've been doing lots to the house lately.... and thought about doing a no- sew curtain, cuz let's face it- I'm a no sew kinda girl.  I should have taken pics of the steps... but here is the end project.  Cost me $9.00 for the whole project, and probably took me 30ish minutes.  I'm loving it.  And wondering if I should do my other windows.....

(pls excuse the mess on the counters... a girl can't worry about things like that when she's crafting )

Little muffin ALWAYS wants to go out... every day he says to me "bye, bye, bye" which means let's go somewhere- I'm bored in the house.  Sometimes we go out shopping just to get out.  The other day we got a huge dump of snow, and then the weather turned beautiful- +7 I think, so we went outside.

Hurry Mom... enough pictures...let's goooo !!!

Since these pics,most of the snow has melted... and our weather has been pretty good.  Ranging from 0 to +8, which from the perspective of a Calgarian is awesome "winter" weather !!

yumm

I've been on a cleanse lately, and part of it includes shakes. Little Mr. Dylan has come to LOVE shakes.  Not just enjoy them, but obsessively want them.  Every time I make mine, I have to make him a special one too... and he won't waste a drop !

{Ava Marie Creates}

Hello hello.....

Today's blog is about my other babies.... not Dylan, not the kitties, but my new businesses.

So first, photography.  Kinda at a stalemate, it's not photography weather outside, but that's ok.  It's giving me time to work on my other venture....

{Ava Marie Creates} my head bands, or as I like to refer to them, hair jewelry business.  It's taking off !  I'm selling some, and creating new styles all the time.  It's so much fun.  The other day I had Dylan's "sister" over to model some stuff.  She's so cute, so photogenic, and I'm so thankful to her and her mom for their support.  We are lucky to have great neighbours.    So here are a few of my photos...



I LOVE this expression !



And of course Dylan, who can't leave his "sister" alone for a moment..... how dare she come and not devote 100% attention to him !!!  haha



Weekend Breakfast with daddy.  Cereal and a trucking magazine...

Monday- new post- wooo hooo

Despite the fact that we had a bad sleep weekend, I'm starting off the week sending good sleep vibes with this post.  Dylan has a few obsessions lately.... fire trucks and books.  He asks to read book after book after book.... all day long !  It's awesome !  But combine books and firetrucks, and quite a few nights last week he went to bed, with books and trucks in his bed......but hey, he's happy.  Doesn't just looking at this little face make you happy !?!