I have a book review up in my review blog that you should check out if, like me, you’re someone who likes using Google to figure out what’s wrong with you or how to treat something, because this book is like having Google in your hands!

On Friday George and I took the kids and joined our friends Dean and Joanne for some camping up north, like last summer. A friend of theirs had hired George’s band to come play at his party and we made a weekend out of it.

Camping wasn’t so much camping this year as it was just getting away from the city, but that’s good enough for me! We didn’t get up north until after 10 pm (and amazingly, the girls both stayed awake the whole drive and entertained themselves). Since it was pitch black – not much in the way of lights up there – the guy who was having the party the next day told us not to even try pitching the tent, and to just sleep in the house. Dean and Joanne took one room and we took the other, and that was awesome because I have pitched tents in the dark before and it is possible but it’s not fun.

I put Breanna to bed in the room and then joined the others out in the back yard where George had been asked to play some guitar. We sat around singing songs and enjoying the fresh air. Hayley claimed to not be tired but fell asleep before the second song; we let her sleep under a blanket in front of the fire for three hours and carried her in later. After midnight, everyone sang happy birthday to me and set off some popping streamer things over my head. I think it was after 3 when I got to bed.

And then Breanna and I woke up at 8:30 and ten minutes later I was drinking coffee down here while she threw rocks in the water.

That was AWESOME. I think I should be able to have coffee on a river bank every damn morning.

Hayley woke up about half an hour later and joined us, and we let George sleep in – until noon! Meanwhile we passed the time by going for a walk, skipping and throwing eight billion rocks, and relaxing.

In the afternoon we got the tent up and Breanna and I both tried to have a nap but we lasted all of 40 minutes before it was just too unbearably hot in there. I also spent some time visiting the neighbors who have the best set up for kids ever in their yard – enclosed trampoline, play set with swings, mini climbing wall, ride-on toys, pool, everything. The kids had a blast playing with their two kids who were the perfect age matches at 4 and 20 months.

We also spent more time by the water. Again. A lot. I loved it. Hayley constantly asked if we could go “skip” rocks and Breanna would ask “Wawa?”

By late afternoon, the band set up and was ready to get started. They played one set while some food was grilled up and then we ate before having the band play some more. Breanna wasn’t able to hang in there as long as she had the night before because of her short nap so I put her in the Baby Bjorn where she fell asleep for awhile. Unfortunately she got woken up twice and she was very unhappy about it; George spoke to the guy who owns the house and he said it was perfectly fine to put Breanna down in the bedroom again so I took her in there, and she settled immediately into a great sleep. Meanwhile, Hayley fell asleep in front of the fire again for another two or three hours – I’ve been wondering if I can build a fire on our balcony here at home and just let her sleep outside for the rest of the summer since she slept so well outside!

The band had been good all evening but by the middle of the third set, George passed that point of being “warmed up” and moved into “on fire” and it was awesome. By the fourth set, the lead singer had had enough because he had been out all night Friday, so he sat down with a beer and George sang the entire last set; he also made excellent use of his wireless set up and walked all around the yard playing his guitar. It was amazing.

Possibly one of the funniest parts of the night was when the cops showed up next door because they had built a bonfire and it was a little bit large. They gave the guy a warning to get it under control and then they came over to our side, listened to the band, which was quite loud, and mentioned how great they sounded. Then they left without giving any noise warnings. I had a good laugh about that.

When it was time for bed, I asked the guy if anyone was supposed to use the spare room and he said no, so instead of waking Breanna up to move her to the tent, I just slept in the room again while George and Hayley slept in the tent. I love tents and sleep quite well in them but the thought of maybe creating a situation where Breanna might stay awake screaming for three hours straight was not very appealing. It rained overnight and George said part of his sleeping bag got wet but overall it was okay.

In the morning, we took it easy and didn’t worry about rushing straight off to come home. After a light lunch, I took Hayley out in an inflatable kayak and we went down the river with a few other people. It was absolutely beautiful; it took us less than five minutes to drive back to the house once we got out at a bridge, but it took half an hour to get there by boat because of the way the river turns. I was wishing I had a waterproof camera because I would have loved to take eight thousand pictures along the way.

When we got back, we packed up and drove back home. It’s always a bit deflating to come home after a nice time away, but especially on Monday morning when I woke up and had to have my coffee at my desk instead of down by the river.

I have a ton of photos (50) over here if you’re interested. We had such a great time and I am so glad we went because we all needed it. The nicest surprise of all was the weather – the forecast all weekend was supposed to be non-stop rain and lots of thunderstorms. In the end, it rained a bit overnight both nights and we had a few sprinkles on Saturday, but it ended up being beautiful and on Sunday it was hot and sunny enough that I got a sunburn because I was very careful to put lots of sunblock on the kids but completely forgot myself. Oops!

Now I’m already looking forward to next time!

Today is my birthday and I am now 33 years old. I figure it has to be some kind of good omen because I turn an age with lucky number 3 in it twice, and also it is 7/7/07, with 7 also being a lucky number. Er, or something like that. I’m not about to go spend every penny I have on lottery tickets or go gamble the big blackjack tables at the casino or anything, but hopefully it will just be a good year all-around.

Anyway, I am not really here right now, this post is coming to you with the magic of WordPress’ future posting capabilities. I am having some family fun for my birthday. At least I hope I’m having some fun by the time this post materializes across the internet.

If you’d like to do something nice for my birthday, I’m participating in this year’s Blogathon where basically, crazy people like me stay up for 24 hours and post every half hour for charity. I’ll be posting from 9 am Eastern on Saturday the 28th of July until 9 am Sunday. I’m raising money for The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

If you’d like to consider sponsoring me, you can go here (you need to make an account). You can sponsor me for as little or as much as you want, and all your money gets sent directly to the UNHCR, not a penny comes through me. I am very fond of this organization and it would mean a lot to me, especially since I’ll be posting every half hour to 24 hours straight (I apologize in advance for how much my posts will deteriorate after 4 am – I’ve done this before). Next week I’ll tell you more about it and why it’s important to me, but you can start sponsoring now. I’ve already gotten $20 in pledges and I’m hoping for at least $150. The first year I made over $300 for them, so if I can break that it would be even better!

Have a wonderful weekend, I’ll be back post-birthday with lots of pictures!

That was the question I hated more than anything with both my kids. “Is she a good baby?” Well, I don’t know, define “good”. Was Hayley a good sleeper? No, absolutely not. But she was a GOOD baby. Because she was, you know, a BABY. How bad can they be? Even when she had colic and spit up like whatsherface in The Exorcist, she was still a good baby, because she didn’t have the mental ability to be bad.

Breanna was a great sleeper. I still remember the time our friend came to see her for the first time and his two daughters and Hayley ran around and around, screaming like crazy people, and Breanna slept for an hour in the bassinet right there in the middle of it all. She was a great sleeper, and she didn’t have colic. Did that make her a good baby, a better baby than Hayley? No, she was just a good baby by default because again, hello, BABY.

So yeah. I have issues with that question and I’ve always hated it tremendously. When people would ask if either one was a good baby, I would always seethe on the inside, fantasize about setting something on fire with my anger alone, and then I’d flash a tired, sleep-deprived new mom smile and say, “Oh yes! Yes, she is!”

Of course, that was a bit of a mistake because then people would inevitably end up saying, “Oh so she’s sleeping through the night for you?” And I’d be all, “Uh no, she’s three weeks old and wakes up with a wet diaper and a need for breastmilk, but uh, anyway… Hey, look a blimp up in the sky!”

I probably should have answered the way I really wanted to, especially when it was a total stranger that I’d never have to see again so I wouldn’t have to be ashamed of being rude later. Just once, I wish I had glanced over my shoulder to make sure we were alone and then I should have confessed:

“Sigh. No. She’s a terrible baby. She’s a BAD baby. I think she’s on drugs. She said she was just tired from staying up late and studying for midterms, but her pupils were so dilated. I can’t tell if it’s weed or meth though. And the other day I saw her rooting through my purse; she said she was looking for gum but I KNOW there was a twenty dollar bill missing. It’s that damn 3-year-old down the street. That damn Jimmy with his badass tricycle, I know he’s a bad influence on her and I told her that he’s way too old for her, but what can I do? She just sneaks out to see him if I don’t let her hang out with him, so it’s a losing battle. Frankly, I’m ready to ship her off to a boarding school.

“Got any advice for me on how to deal with it?

“What? You meant sleeping? Oh, yeah, she sleeps about three to four hours at a time, she’s a great baby.”

I would pay good money for a time machine that could take me back to just one opportunity to do that.

Have you been asked that before? Because I complained about it a few times and it seems pretty common. Don’t you wish you could have just handed them this?

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This post was part of another great Parent Bloggers Network blog blast asking for what we wish we had said when asked stupid or annoying questions while pregnant or as a new mom.

And it was hard, by the way. I had to choose between this question and the eight billion times I as asked if I was SURE I wasn’t having twins with my pregnancy with Breanna. Augh.

I don’t know what’s going on with my weird kids and their sleeping habits lately. Once again, Breanna passed out asleep in her little plush Caillou chair. She was sitting there, listening to music and eating a snack. She finished up, and conked right out. She was using the chair as a mini recliner, leaning back all comfortable.

In the close-up, you can see that she still had crumbs all over her face from her snack.

And then the hilarity continued because she kept leaning further and further back in her sleep until she was essentially sleeping inverted.

She slept like that for another five minutes before she finally flipped over sideways and woke herself up. I was ready for her though and before she could really cry, I swooped her up and took her down the hall. She had already fallen asleep again and she continued her nap in the crib for another half hour.

Then, that same day we went to a soccer game, which was short-lived because the sky looked like this:

Once it started to thunder and lightning, we were out of there quickly. Despite the fact that Hayley only ran around for about ten minutes, she was obviously tired; when I came out from putting Breanna to bed, I was surprised to find Hayley’s bed was empty. Thinking she was in the bathroom, I came out to the living room to turn on the baby monitor, and found this:

Crazy, funny sleepers.

I can not express strongly enough how much I would love to do this on my living room wall behind the couch. Seriously.

I love long weekends. Speaking of which, I hope all my fellow Canadians enjoyed a lovely Canada Day. We didn’t do anything in particular for the holiday itself but George did play at a Canada Day celebration in Ottawa on Saturday, and then yesterday our friends Dean and Joanne came over to visit and for supper.

Today George is sleeping in a bit and then when he gets up we have to head to the store for a few things. I’ve lived in this apartment for a damn long time now (we moved in seven years ago yesterday!) and I have always said that I wanted to do something with our balcony and every year has come and gone with pretty much nothing happening out there. I think the most exciting decor out there was last year when Hayley’s bird feeder broke so I quickly dumped the falling birdseed into a dirt-filled pot and it sprouted really tall green grass. I don’t think accidental planting counts, though.

I always said that I would never want to live in an apartment that didn’t have a balcony but I’m not sure why since we don’t spend much time out there right now anyway. Part of the reason for that is that it’s just unappealing. We’re on the top floor so we have no shade, we’re on a busy street so we get all the street dust and everyone can see us, and it’s just not nice. To fix that I have plans to acquire the following:

• A privacy screen to weave in and out of the balcony rungs. This will accomplish three things. It will cut down on the dust that gets kicked up here. Also, it will make it so that no one can see us as they go by which is really nice. And finally, it will make it so that if I sit down I won’t be able to see the street at all, I’ll only be able to see tree tops and the sky, so it will make it more peaceful for me.
• A big bag of potting soil.
• Hooks for flower boxes. I have two long flower boxes that I bought years ago and never used because I had no way to hang them.
• Some sturdy flowers. They have to be able to handle a lot of direct sun since we have the sun on our balcony from about noon until sunset. They also have to be able to stand up to strong winds. I have no idea what I’m getting. I’ll ask when I get there. I don’t have much of a green thumb so I’m clueless but I’m determined to try.
• A basil plant for one of my terra cotta plant pots because oh my lord, fresh basil is the bomb.
• A tomato plant. I can not tell you how long I have wanted to grow fresh tomatoes. Our friend always gives us a bunch from his garden but it would be so much fun to grow my own too. If one plant goes well, next year I’ll get a few. I’m going to stick it in the planter that Joanne gave me.
• Possibly a cheap square plastic table just to have a place to put the phone and a cup or two.

We already have an umbrella, although it doesn’t actually provide full shade – it just diffuses the sun, but it’s better than nothing. I just have to get George to hook up the base to the balcony railing again since we had to take it off last year when the building people repainted everyone’s railings.

I’m just really excited about it. Someone else in our building has a ton of plants on their balcony, some flowering and some just big green plants, there’s a little table, and a couple of chairs, and that balcony is so inviting that I’d love to sit out there. I don’t think I’ll have as much greenery going as that one does, but it will be a start and it will certainly be an improvement. I don’t expect that we’ll spend a ton of our time out there during the day because the kids just don’t get the appeal of sitting and relaxing on a balcony (phooey, darn kids who always want to go to the park!), but I look forward to sitting out there in the evenings, and maybe even having a morning coffee out there some day. WITHOUT all of the passersby looking up at me while I do!

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Also, speaking of fixing things up and making them look nice, today in my review blog I reviewed a couple of Kaboom cleaning products which made my bathroom nice too. Go check it out!

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Happy long weekend to the Canadians, happy Monday to the rest of you!

I love this site, it’s full of fun projects for gardening, decorating, crafting, and cooking/baking.

I should probably do this. It’s either that or just start pitching stuff off the balcony.

I’ve come to a conclusion. Doing all my work would be infinitely easier if I could actually afford a laptop. It would be so nice to be able to work from anywhere in the apartment so that I wouldn’t be chained to this desk when I need to get some work done. Alas. Got a spare laptop lying around? Didn’t think so!