Three

So all of a sudden this boy is three. Although, I have to be honest it's felt like he's been three for quite some time. But there it is. A whole three years have gone by since that very long day (and night!) I spent in the hospital.

Friday we spent the morning downtown at the new aquarium. It was pretty nice and Leo loved seeing everything. There's a play area in the centre and I think he was most interested in making his way there the whole time. He said his favourite were the jellyfish which I have to agree with (although the shark tank was a very close second). Super cool.

On Saturday we had a small family birthday party. Leo was very specific that he wanted a John Deere party so I got to work. All week he would talk about the tractors he was going to get and he was not disappointed. Now he has two really cool big tractors to call his own, plus two I added to the cake. Oh and his grandmother got him a zamboni which he is equally excited about. 

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen a few of the party themed pics, but here's a photo little recap:

We spent Sunday doing nothing (I think I was in my PJs until 3) which was the perfect ending to the weekend in my books.

Well that's it! I hope you had a great weekend too wherever you are! xo

miss mila - eight months

Miss Mila turned eight months old yesterday. I'm sad that I'm on the other side of my maternity leave. I've been so flip floppy about going back to work but I'm pretty sure I'm going back now. I have a pretty good situation going in that I work from home most days which gives me a lot of flexibility for doing pick ups and drop offs. Also I found a daycare a couple blocks away that I really like. The only kicker is that they won't take Mila until she's 15 months old, so I'll have to figure out what to do. I'm considering keeping her home for those three months and then getting part-time care for the days I do have to travel to my office. Likely crazy but it'll only be for three months. We'll see...

Mila has turned into a champion eater - yay! Maybe I shouldn't jinx myself? She's still on purees mostly, but I did give her some chunks of sweet potato today and she seemed to really like it. She has already eaten more than Leo did at that age!

Her sleeping is pretty regular. She goes to sleep at 6:30 or so most nights and she'll get up a couple times but I just give her a soother and she'll fall back asleep until between 4-6:30 when I'll feed her. So far she's a super happy girl. Giving us lots of smiles and she's got her daddy wrapped around her finger already that's for sure!

Happy Eight Months little chickpea! Love Mama.

easter and birthday wishes

Well it seems I took a bit of a break and it felt pretty nice! Leo was sick for a lot of the time which was no fun as you can imagine.

Anyway I'm back for now and thought I'd share some Easter pics.

We had a great weekend. My mom and grandmother came up for a nice dinner on Friday at our house along with my sisters and my sister-in-law and her family. We put together a little egg hunt in the back yard which was a lot of fun. I love seeing Leo and his cousins playing and hanging out together.

I also made my first upside down pineapple cake. When I bake, I typically swap out ingredients for healthier ones, but I decided that since it was a special occasion I would make it as is. I couldn't believe the amount of butter and sugar that went into this thing! But let me tell you.... it was worth it!

This weekend also marked Mark's 37 birthday so my mom and grandmother stayed an extra day so we could go out for dinner. We went to Origin downtown Toronto and it was a lot of fun (and tasty!). It was nice to get out just the two of us. Sunday was Mark's actual birthday and although I didn't have a cake for him, I did put a candle in a bun that we ate with our pasta!

I hope you had a great weekend (and week thereafter!)

the party

Our party for Leo kind of turned into an adult party... I didn't really do much for the kids: I put out some Annie's Bunny crackers and printed some colouring pages that I forgot to put out. But the kids always seem to have fun anyway. 

We went for a cars & trucks kind of theme. I ordered a banner and cupcake toppers from Little Birdie Prints from Etsy. I was going to make my own but it was taking too long and I'm impatient...

I made these cupcakes (so good!!) that I found on Pinterest. I've never made icing before and I cannot believe that's basically tons of butter and sugar. Yikes! Oh well, good thing I don't make these very often!

Doesn't our cat look enthused?

It was a fun day to share with everyone!

and the boy is two!

 Wow... I'm tired. This weekend was Leo's birthday weekend and we had friends and family over since Thursday. It was a busy few days but fun as well.

Thursday was Leo's actual birthday so Mark took the day off and we headed to the zoo. I highly recommend going on a week day - no one is there!

I didn't think any of the animals would be out because the weather is getting cooler but we were in luck! Leo got to see all of the animals he's seen for the past two years in his room in real life. He was pretty excited.

Later that day I was able to snap a few pics of the little man as a two-year-old.

I can't believe he's two already! A little then and now...

I'll share a few pics later this week from his party. Happy Monday! I'm off to get some more coffee...

one point five

Mr. Leo turned 18 months yesterday...really??? Yikes that means I only have just over two months left with one kid!

Every parent says this, but he has changed so much since his first birthday. He still isn't a great eater, but I'm working on it!

Loves: 

• Trucks! Apparently everything sounds like "Daddy's truck" to him: Garbage truck (Daddy's TRAU!), Fire truck (Daddy's TRAU!) Daddy's truck (Daddy's TRAU"), diggers ("diggeuurrr"), cars ("CRAR!"). These are capitalized because he yells them.
• Walking down the sidewalk towards the busy end of the street. He's trying to give me a heart attack already!
• The park: slides and swings are his faves
• Art: Leo seems to like drawing and painting at daycare and the drop in. I have the quite the little collection already.
• Books: He takes after mommy on this one - he loves to read!
• Toast ("Toooeee"), blueberries, smoothies, crackers ("cwracrewww")
• Shoes - he has more shoes than I do already thanks to some great handmedowns from his cousins! He's not wearing shoes in this pic, but this is quite rare - the first word out of his mouth after "Gualk!" (milk), in the morning is "CHEEWWW" (shoe).
• Hats

Dislikes:

• Eating anything I really want him to eat at the time we're eating it. Please tell me what kid doesn't like pasta, cheese, or pizza? Now that I write this down he does seem to like healthier things more - maybe I shouldn't complain!
• Getting his diaper changed. I'm trying to get him to tell me when he poos and pees, but he doesn't get it yet. He's still a bit young, but I thought I'd start ;).

I can't really think of many more dislikes to be honest - he's a pretty content kid all around!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Big Guy! Here's to another six months and hope that you don't go crazy terrible twos on me as soon as your sister gets here!

weekend: part 1

We had a busy, but fun weekend! Part 1 was Saturday when some family and friends popped over for some birthday fun. Here are some photos snapped by my Mom.

Delish homemade ice cream cake complete with lady fingers from my sister-in-law...

Poor Leo started crying after the singing of Happy Birthday. I think he had bad memories from his big day!

The kids love blowing out candles!

It was a fun day! The kids were crazier than usual, but they're all adorable so we don't mind ;). We blame the 'super' moon that day!

Part 2 tomorrow!

27 weeks/7 months (or... someone help me, my hair dryer broke)

Here's the little gina at 27 weeks. Apparently I'm 7 months today - caraazee.

And yes my hair dryer broke and this is the result. I loathe, loathe! having wet hair... so I was really grumpy a few mornings this past week. Oh well. I'm super cheap when it comes to buying stuff like this. I need to get a good quality hair dryer so it doesn't break on me.

My family is coming over today to celebrate my big 3-5 (my bday was on Tuesday...). It's so nice to have a full house every now and again especially on such a nice spring day.

Hope you're having a great weekend!
Steph

one

One year ago today, at 4:07 am, the coolest little guy on the planet was born (ok I'm a tad biased). It has been an interesting year learning the ins and outs of what it takes to raise a little being.

This past weekend, we had Leo's big birthday bash. The theme: safari. I ordered a little lion shirt from etsy, but it didn't come in time, so I improvised and dressed him up as safarish as possible. Here are some shots of the day...

We gave Leo a gluten free and vegan cupcake which may or may not be why he freaked out when we gave it to him ;). He didn't touch it and was quite happy with his blueberries and pancakes I made him earlier that day.

We saved the gift opening until after most of the guests left since the cake presentation was so dramatic and I couldn't believe how attentive Leo was while we opened up each gift.

Thanks to everyone for making this day such a great one for us. Happy Birthday Leo!

the bug

Ya I know I'm supposed to be sewing pillows (not to mention stuff from that summer sewing series I had blogged about awhile back) but I've got a weird bug right now - an organizing bug. I have this need to get house stuff done. So far this week I've organized my front closet and tidied my back mud room. Next up is my sewing room (finally!) and I have a little labels project I want to get started on pronto.

I'm even doing stuff for Leo's birthday which is still a month and a half away. Here's a little hint:

Ok better get back at it before the little one wakes up!

Happy Thursday y'all (and if you live in Ontario, I hope you all are getting out to vote!!)

-Steph