Today George was making (jokingly) snarky comments to Hayley about my habit of leaving cups of water in the bedroom. I’ve documented it on this site before, and I absolutely admit that I do indeed leave several cups of water in the bedroom all the time. I don’t even know why I bother to take any with me since I so rarely actually drink any, but of course the one night I don’t bother will be the one where I have to crawl down the hall to the kitchen, dying of thirst and in search of my water pitcher. Sometimes it does get bad, such as Saturday when I sheepishly brought out – I kid you not – seven plastic cups with varying amounts of water.

However, this morning I had actually brought two of them out so there was only one left in there when they went to check while I was washing the dishes. They teasingly called me Slobella as they brought out the stray cup and handed it to me, but really my habit was not so noticeable today.

I did take a picture last night during supper though, when Hayley decided she needed a bit more juice to go with her pasta. I think I may have actually hurdled the couch to make sure I got my camera in time just so I could have hard, photographic evidence that not every bad habit my kids will ever pick up came from me. Some, in fact, will come from George.

She is so very much her father’s daughter.

My sister went to a really nice Remembrance Day ceremony in Halifax and posted a bunch of great pictures, including one of her and her man in uniform.

The blogosphere recently went crazy over PayPerPost, a word of mouth marketing site where bloggers can make money for advertising products and services. A lot of people have been negative about it but I think it’s great, honestly. I only choose to review things that I genuinely agree with or appreciate. I suppose that some people could go ahead and write about things they don’t believe in but I don’t do it that way. As a result, I think it’s possible to write for PayPerPost while still maintaining your integrity as a blogger. Word of mouth marketing is a major marketing strategy nowadays and I think they’re going about it in a great way by offering incentives. I love it because it gives me an opportunity to make a bit of pocket money. How can I complain about that? (ETA: If you sign up, you can say you were referred by me, sherina at andromeda dot qc dot ca and I’ll get a whole five buckeroos.)

I was taking some chocolate cupcakes out of the oven (the occasion? I had gotten some of those silicone muffin pans from the dollar store and really wanted to try them out.) when George called me from down the hall. “Come here,” he was saying.

I quickly threw the cupcakes back in for another couple of minutes and hoped it wasn’t something that would take long enough for them to burn since they were looking mighty tasty. And then I walked down the hall and saw the three of them listening to music, a dad and his two little girls.

“I want you to take a picture of this,” he said. I rushed to grab my camera off my desk and came back and took two pictures. This one was my favorite because in the second one Hayley sat up and looked at me. I like this one because they both look so relaxed and cozy, curled up on his shoulders.

Both of them always slept better on him too. Breanna often falls asleep on him if he picks her up while she’s tired. It’s much more frequent than it is with me. I like to joke that she won’t sleep so easily on me because I’m so much fun. He says she falls asleep on him because he’s so soothing; I counter that it’s just because he’s so boring that she passes out from a lack of interest.

I think the truth, though, is he just has much better and more comfortable shoulders than I do. That, and maybe because Hayley is and Breanna probably will be total Daddy’s girls.

Minature Earth. I’ve always loved this but the flash version makes it especially compelling. (Via Amy)

It’s almost Christmas and so of course everyone in my family wants to know some gift ideas so I’ve been looking around. I’m a big fan of coffee but I generally just have plain old every day coffee in the mornings and I can’t really justify spending five bucks on fancy coffee drinks at a cafe.

I think it would be awesome to get one of these Tassimo Hot Beverage Machine setups. It’s like having your own personal barista without even having to leave home. Continue reading →

It amazes me the way I have two girls – both of whom came from the same two people – and their hair is so different. Hayley with her long curly hair is often on the receiving end of compliments from just about everyone who sees her. It’s blond like mine was as a child but while mine wouldn’t hold a curl if you held a gun to it, hers can barely be straightened; a couple of weeks ago her aunt tried a straightening iron on her for fun and it was still wavy.

Wavy seems to be where Breanna’s headed. When she was born her hair was so dark and so straight that we referred to her as our Inuit baby. Over the past almost-year it has lightened a bit so that it’s a very similar brown to my own hair, and her straight hair has picked up a few stray curls randomly scattered around the ends. I miss the dark brown but this suits her too.

They both feel differently about having their hair handled too. Hayley’s, while gorgeous, is usually left loose because she absolutely hates to have it brushed and she’s not all that fond of pigtails or ponytails anymore. I pull it back if she’s eating something messy or if she’s getting in the bath and I usually braid it at night to help cut down on tangles. Otherwise, she’d just prefer that we leave it alone. On the other hand, god forbid we mention cutting it to minimize the need to fuss with it. I don’t want to cut it short but I’d love to cut a few inches so that it’s just below her shoulders. We’re going to have to bribe her or something before next fall because I really don’t want to be doing battle with her hair every morning before school.

Breanna, on the other hand, loves having her hair handled. Granted, she’s still a baby and may change her mind, and she also has less hair than Hayley did at this age. Also, with her hair being less tangle-prone, it’s certainly easier. Still, at this point Breanna is very much like me. I can wash my hair in the morning, and go get my hair cut six hours later and I’ll still ask for a shampoo just because I want someone to wash it for me. If someone wanted to brush my hair for an hour I would sit in front of them and not say a word. This is Breanna. If I brush or comb her hair, her face goes completely blank, she stares off into the distance, and she quiets right down. I’ve managed to calm her down from crying fits just by pulling the brush out and stroking her hair with it.

In fact, last night she very nearly fell asleep while I combed her damp post-bath hair.

And that was while she was standing up. Let me tell you, she was pissed when I stopped and she snapped awake.

When I first found out I was having a daughter, I pictured myself styling her hair into one cute little ‘do or another. Sadly, Hayley would rather eat broken glass than let that happen. I do hold out hope that when she gets a little older that she’ll enjoy it more and let me play. And if not, I can just hope that Breanna keeps liking it.

Today was yet another crappy and rainy day. We weren’t very hopeful about our plans for the day since everyone was busy with something and it certainly wasn’t looking like going for a walk to the park was going to be an option.

George went to Loblaws to get some groceries for supper and other necessities. While there, he noticed they were selling Ernie dolls and Elmo dolls for only five bucks each. He picked up one of each and brought them home as surprises for the girls. Breanna loved her new, bigger Elmo and walked around chewing on his eyeball for awhile, occasionally shaking him wildly for good measure.

Ernie proved to be quite the hit with Hayley though, and I never would have guessed since she never expressed any particularly huge affection towards him when we watch Sesame Street. We ended up passing a lot of time playing “Journey to Ernie” from the show. One of us would hide the Ernie doll somewhere in the apartment and then we’d give Hayley clues until she found him. It was amazing how many times we were able to keep doing it and she never got tired of it. He only got set aside for two board games (a Hide and Seek Farm game that is pretty cute), and otherwise, everywhere she went, Ernie went too.

He was also useful at bedtime. For all the compliments people dish out about Hayley’s hair, they’d take them back if they ever had to try to brush it. I’m amazed none of our neighbors have ever called CPS, considering how loudly she screams when I do it, with the occasional, “please STOP, Mommy stop!” thrown in for good measure. I’m sure the people downstairs think I’m killing her. However, tonight every time I hit a knot, she just squeezed Ernie as tight as she could and she barely whimpered. I had her hair brushed and braided in record time.

When she went to bed, I heard her talking and I peeked around the corner to find her reading a Caillou book to Ernie. Just now it was all quiet down the hall so I checked and she’s sound asleep, snuggled up to her new Ernie doll.

I’ve always been a big fan of Sesame Street anyway, ever since I was a little girl but if one of the characters can entertain and soothe her this much, I think Ernie can stay.

One of the best videos on YouTube. It made me tear up a bit.

That sweet story from yesterday about Breanna being awake most of the night and how nice it ended up being? Well although my patience remained intact, it was not so cute the second night in a row. Just like Wednesday night, last night she woke up a little before midnight and couldn’t settle back down to sleep. She didn’t stay awake quite as long but it was still an eternity for a tired mother.

This morning she smiled at me and I noticed her gums looked swollen. I pressed gently on the gums on either side of the two bottom teeth, and they were definitely bulging. All of an hour later, I looked again and although they weren’t through, I could see the white line of teeth pushing just below the surface. Aha. Teething. Therein lies the answer to the late night wake-ups and the cranky behavior of the past few days.

So what do you do when you have a baby who is teething and making you an exhausted wreck, a four-year-old who is testing every limit in the book and then some, and two cats who are making you think plants are better than pets?

You quote The Tragically Hip and start singing, “happy hour, happy hour, happy hour is here” as you pour your Labatt Blue (or Bleue if you live here in Quebec), and you toast the end of a long week.

Cheers.