Monday, we went to Small World (http://smallworld.ca/), an indoor playground here. It's going to be a great place to take the kids, and hold my meetups, in the winter. Gabe loved it. He was climbing all over the play equipment, rode on the carousel about 10 times, and just generally had a really good time. Last time we tried to take him to an indoor play area, he was too shy and just clung to my legs.

This morning, Gabe woke up having a tantrum. And that's all he pretty much did, all morning long. He was not having a good morning. So, I left the boys with George and went to Old Navy in search of a fall sweater. I ended up getting one top, too. The sweater in white, and the top in a teal color. I need to go back and get a few more things. I don't have much in the sense of winter clothes, because I've been heavily pregnant the last two winter seasons. Not anymore! I also need to go down a pant size. I'm in 6's.

The boys went down for a nap right after I got back. Well, Gabe did. Xavier did for a small one - but he's my wonder-child who never sleeps. So he "helped" me stuff a bunch of diapers.

Went to the park this afternoon. It was too nice outside not to. Met two other mothers, both of whom had 3 children under 4 years old. Did not help with my baby fever. But Gabe had a ton of fun running around with 4 other boys his age.

Tomorrow morning, we having "signing story time" at a book store. George has his first consultation for the chiro, and I have an adjustment right after signing story time.

We're not celebrating Halloween. We did carve pumpkins, but we're not dressing up. Maybe next year. I just don't see the point in dressing up two kids who aren't going to a party or trick or treating. -shrugs- But I'd like to hit up the costumes on clearance, to build a dress up stash.

my boys. <3

crappy night.

Tuesday, I took the boys on an errand to the bank to deposit a check. Just as I was pulling into the bank parking lot, Gabe started vomitting.

Now, this isn't all that unusual for him - because he gets car sick all the time. However, it's usually not on such short drives.

So, I cleaned him up and went on about my way.

10 minutes after getting home, he threw up again. I thought maybe he was car sick, again. But then he just kept throwing up, and developed a fever. -sigh-

He was okay and slept well that night.

Fast forward to yesterday evening, and Xavier starts. He started at 7pm, and didn't stop puking every hour until 5 this morning. I started getting worried around 9:30 when he had thrown up 5 times already, so I called George home from work. He works an hour away, and if anything were to happen and I'd need to get Xavier to the hospital, he wouldn't get home in time and I'd end up having to wake Gabe and go. He got home around 11:00pm, and took care of Xavier for a few hours so I could get some sleep.

Poor kid. He kept wanting to nurse, and then no sooner than unlatching it would all come back up. Finally around 5am he nursed and was able to keep it down. And then nursed again around 7am and kept it down. He's still sleeping in bed, and seems to be doing fine.

I feel like crap, am trying to avoid puking, and have the smell of stomach acid permanently burned into my nose.

'Tis the season.

pumpkin patch.

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. It went up to 23 celcius - and it's the end of October!

We pulled out a big Lilac bush from the front of our yard. It was sitting right in front of the entrance to our home, and it was overgrown and just ugly. George cut it down, and then a friend of ours backed up his truck to pull out the stump. When Gabe woke up from his nap that afternoon, and saw that the big bush was gone, he just stood in front of the door saying, "Wow! Oooh, wow!" I can't believe he noticed there was a difference. LOL

Later on we took a trip to Chappell Farms. My AP Mom's group went last Monday, but it was rainy and not a lot of fun. Sunday was a blast, however. We went with two other families who have two children each, very similar in age to ours. One baby was a mere 7 weeks old, and made my ovaries ache! It's crazy how fast you forget how little your babies once were.

Gabe had a blast feeding the animals, going thru a corn maze, playing on a big hill, going on a wagon ride and picking pumpkins. At one point, I was wearing Xavier, carrying my purse & camera, and holding 3 pumpkins while walking thru a field. Yep, I'm superwoman.

Afterwards, we went to dinner with both the families. It's so nice to go out with other people who have children your age - because it's okay if your kid gets gravy all over his face and then randomly decides to throw a napkin at the person sitting across from you. Well, you obviously tell your child not to throw things - but you don't have to apologise profusely because their kid, sitting right next to them, is probably doing something equally as annoying. And it's always nice when you can steal someone else's 7 week old, and use the excuse of, "Oh, I'll take your baby so you can eat" - when secretly you just want to steal the baby because you have crazy baby fever.

(It's pathetic how grainy photobucket makes my pictures.)

Its been crazy busy the last few days.

Yesterday, I forced George to stay home. (Yes, forced. He resisted and I got pissed, and he gave in.) I had a plugged duct for a couple days, and the night before it became very painful, swollen and very read. And the next morning, cue the nausea, fever and all around icky feeling. I asked him to stay home so I could rest and get better before it got worse. After basically pulling teeth to get him to stay home, I had a relaxing afternoon and later George managed to work that clogged duct out and all was well.

This morning I ran around frantic, because my house was in disarray (have you seen the show Jon & Kate plus 8? Shes insane about order and organization and Im similar. ), I had to go grocery shopping, one of the cats took the smelliest shit in the litter box ever, I had to go grocery shopping and I had plans with a friend in the afternoon.

I ended up putting Xavier down for his nap, and then taking Gabe grocery shopping with me while George was left home with orders to clean up a bit.

Which he did a pretty good job of.

After groceries, I headed to the three children`s consignment stores we have here with a friend of mine. We were both babyless and it was wonderful! I was looking for some things for the boys for Christmas - knowing full well that if I got something now, I would not be able to keep it from them until Christmas. LOL I found lots of wonderful things, but only got a few. I, however, plan to go back in the next couple of weeks and actually do some Christmas shopping and I promise I will stash the goodies away in the closet until Christmas time. -nods-

While we were out, we stopped at Wendys for lunch. I stopped drinking soda four days ago, but automatically (without thinking!) ordered a coke with my meal. It wasn`t until my friend mentioned something that reminded me of my soda kick that I realized I ordered one! I hadn`t taken a sip yet.. I did take one, after.. and I swear I got the biggest buzz from the caffiene. Oh my goodness. Four days with no soda, and one sip had me buzzed. I couldnt finish it and tossed it. I most definetly do not want to go back to drinking soda.

Hm. Laptop says I`ve got 13 minutes remaining. So I will post some recent pics - and then move on to folding 5 loads of laundry and stuffing 2 loads of diapers.

Gabe and his friend Liam, having popsicles for dessert.

Helping Daddy fix the Dyson.

First time eating spaghetti!

making a change.

My children have been unusually ornery the past two days. Gabe isn't pleased with anything for very long, but then the world has ended if you put it away. ("Puh! Puh! -points to the mantle above the fire place-" - is Gabes way of letting me know he wants to play with his wooden puzzles. He sits there for 15 minutes, putting pieces together, clapping and woo-hoo'ing with every piece. And then when he walks away from it, I gather it up to put away and he comes running from across the room screaming. ) He's been especially obsessed with finger painting, water colors and markers. I'm definetly going to be investing in a nice easel for his birthday or Christmas. I need to set up a little craft station for him. He'll water color, finger paint or color with markers and crayons multiple times a day.
Xavier is ornery because he just cut his fifth tooth and is working on a sixth.
I think their grumpiness has been heightened by my constant fatigue as of late. Pregnancy is possible, but I highly doubt it. My cycle is textbook, and while we do have unprotected sex, it was several days prior to my ovulation date - so I highly doubt that is it. I'm fairly certain my poor diet is just catching up to me. And it's been even poorer than usual the last 2 weeks.
Which has lead me to promising myself to eat better. Which I do quite often, but it's one of those thoughts that pass thru my mind.. "I should make better choices tomorrow." and then it's forgotten the next morning. This time? Well - I've got a plan.
And this time is different. Prior, I would force myself to eat well with the intention of losing weight. I could stand to lose 20 lbs, don't get me wrong, but I don't have the desire. I'm comfortable with my body at the moment.
I am not comfortable with how dragged down and tired I feel constantly.
So. Here is my plan..
This week: Cut out all soda. None. Kaput. All done! Soda has been my vice for years. Until I got pregnant with Gabe, all I would drink was soda and milk. Sick. Then I started forcing myself to drink water with Gabe. And eventually I limited myself to one soda a day - sometimes slipping and having a 2nd or 3rd. Well, I'm finally ready to be done. So, here's to a week full of caffiene headaches - with a great outcome - no more addiction to soda!
The following two weeks: Make one of my meals a day completely raw. Which will probably be fruits. And my breakfast.
The two weeks after: Makes two of my meals a day competely raw. Which I think will be a combination of lotsa veggies thrown into a juicer for breakfast. And then snack on fruits for the rest of the day. And have whatever I make my family for dinner.
Eventually, my goal is to be 100% raw.
This morning I've had a handfull of grapes, a peach and a banana - along with two bottles of water. Quite a change, considering I grew up in a home where my mother hardly ever bought produce.
I never thought I'd be attempting to eat raw - however, Gabe has been the one who's lead me to this. After constantly worrying about him only eating fruits and veggies - I did some research and found the world of raw. Gabe already refuses meats. At first it was just beef, but now it's everything. And then he started only wanting fruits, veggies, nuts/seeds and sometimes cheese. So - we'll say this is child-lead. I'll let him eat what he wants (with the exception of cow's milk. Which he consumes about 30oz's a day currently. I want to change him to either rice or almond milk.) - but within reason, and we're getting rid of all our processed crap.
It'll take a while to make the entire change. But everything I've done to change myself for the better has taken a while. I always thought to myself, one day I'll find a way to change our diets - but for now I'm not ready.
Well, I'm ready now.

Stephen Lewis is circumcised.

I saw Stephen Lewis, of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, speak about the pandemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa. He was a great speaker, very vibrant and held the audiences attention. He and his foundation has done so many amazing things for the people suffering in Africa.
However, he lost me during part of his speech as a result of something he said.
He said, "Circumcision has reduced the AIDS rate in Africa by 60%."
Now, if that was true - that would be fine. I sat there thinking to myself, "If I hadn't have seen the studies he's talking about, would I be okay with this?" And I would. If that was true and the studies were done correctly - then great. Circumcise the men in Africa. The men who believe women are nothing but property and can be raped and molested as they please. The men who commit such heinous sex crimes on these women that they deserve part of their members being chopped off - without pain medications, to boot.
However, it's not true. I've read the studies and they were done very poorly. There were three studies done - two of which were published in medical journals. One study randomly chose 124 males, who had partners who were uninfected by HIV. (I do not believe they tested them, and then waited 6 months to re-test before starting to trials, however. Which can play a big factor in the outcome of the results, as HIV can take as long as 6 months to show on a blood test.)
Among 70 men who were circumcised, 11 transmitted HIV to their partners. Of the 54 who were not circumcised, four passed on the infection. Almost all new transmissions occurred in the first six months. Because there were so few cases in either group, the findings were not statistically significant and may have occurred only by chance.
An independent panel of scientists overseeing the study recommended that no new volunteers be enrolled because, even though the early findings were not statistically significant, it concluded that the original hypothesis -- that uninfected women would indirectly benefit over the short term from male circumcision -- was unlikely to prove true.
However - it's still all over the media that HIV rates drop by "60% in circumcised men!" Which is grossly exaggerated, at best.
And it doesn't explain why the United States has the highest cicumcision rate and the fastest climbing AIDS rate.
In 1990, the circumcision rate in the U.S. was 85%. And the AIDS rate was 16.9%. The closest following was Spain with a circ. rate of 1% and an AIDS rate of 14.2%. And then Italy with a 1% circ rate and a 8.9% AIDS rate.
Since 1990, the circumcision rate in the States has fallen a bit. But the AIDS rate continues to climb.
One of my biggest pet peeves is misinformation. Especially when such misinformation is being supplied by someone who has the credentials and the brain to read the studies he's quoting, but still spouts off grossly exaggerated numbers.
And then follows it with, "When I visited a tribe in Africa that practiced routine circumcision because its cuts the rate by 60%, they were telling me all about their circumcisions. And then I, of course, told them that I was circumcised. And they cheered and we danced and celebrated."

broke the sink.

I love weekends where we complete much needed tasks around the home, and just spend time together as a family. Friday I broke our sink.The lid of a soup can got stuck in the drain, and it was the perfect size. I didn't have room to pry it out at the sides, at all. So, in my genius, I stabbed it with a knife.
Well, our sink is plastic. (Much to our disliking. We plan on changing it to stainless.)
And I guess I punctured part of the drain, and it was leaking. Heh.So, George and Gabe took a trip to the home hardware store. And then fixed the sink together.Gabe certainly had a blast helping Daddy fix the sink. He's always been so interested in fixing things, figuring out how things work, and doing whatever Daddy is doing.



Xavier sat in the highchair, eating 'nanas and cheerios, observing.

Me: George, you know you're the luckiest man in the world to have two little helpers?
George: Two for now. Soon we'll have 7!
Me: 0.0

After the boys finished fixing my sink, I had a huge mess to clean up. So, I did - with Xavier going for the ride.(These next two photos aren't of yesterday, actually. But they're pictures George took while I was cleaning the kitchen with Xavier on my back on two other days.)

Gotta love the butt sag. I've recently lost another 5 lbs and now none of my jeans fit. Yay for that.

After all that fun, George took a bath with Gabe. Gabe has refused to take baths for the last week. A couple times I've forced him, but then I said screw it. That's obviously not going to make his recent disliking for baths any better. So, I'd wash him down with a wet cloth before bed and that'd be that. However, yesterday it had been 4 days since he had a bath and I wasn't okay with that. So George got into the tub and coaxed Gabe into it - and they stayed in their splashing and giggling for an hour. Hopefully baths from now on will be easier.

This afternoon I'm going to see Stephen Lewis speak about the AIDS crisis in Africa. Sans kids. Yay!

kid rambles.

Gabe discovered his new favorite book this evening. "Little Boy Blue"
We read it about 10x before bed. We did our normal bed time routine, and he was quiet for about 30 minutes so I figured he was out. Hah. No.
He wanted his darn book. So I read it to him once, pointed out all the ducks and chickens and cows and sheep. And when I would point to the chicken he`d do his sign for chicken (arms flapping, Mels mother taught him this one) and when he`d see little boy blue sleeping he`d do his sign for sleep (finger to nose and "shh-ing").
After 15 minutes of this, I finally told him I would let him read his book quietly in his bed for 10 minutes then he was going to sleep. So I kissed him, walked out, and as I was walking out he waves to me and then started snoring. LOL George taught him to fake sleep, and when he does, he snores. Its pretty funny.
I keep peeking in on him every few minutes and he`s happily reading his book. Page by page. Randomly laughing and doing his signs.

Xavier took a 90 minute nap this afternoon. It was wonderful! He`s hit this seperation anxiety phase, and as a result, he has been napping for 40-50 minutes at a time and waking up hysterical when he doesn`t see me laying next to him in bed. I wear him in a wrap to sleep, and then lay him down and we have no problems there. But if it`s nap time and I`m not in bed with him when he wakes up, or if I`m not in bed at night when he wakes up, he freaks out. And its always every 40-50 minutes. However, he doesn`t do it when I`m in bed with him at night.

I took the boys grocery shopping this morning while I let George sleep in a bit. I had Xavier in the wrap on my back and Gabe in the cart. While we were walking thru the aisles, Gabe would lean to the left so Xavier couldn`t see him over my back, and then quickly lean back over to the right and Xavier would let out this shrill of excitement which would in turn make Gabriel shriek with delight. They did this during the whole shopping trip and it was adorable.
They`ve been interacting with eachother a lot lately. Xavier chases after Gabe on his hands and knees, and Gabe will play peek a boo and tickle his brother until he can`t breathe from laughing so hard.
Aaand, 40 minutes.. right on cue. Xavier is stirring.

A Bazillion Photos of the Boys

Life is crazy around here these days. But in a great way. :) Gabe's becoming such a little toddler. And Xavier is growing out of his baby-ness right before my eyes. :(

Gabe's starting to talk more and more everyday. This afternoon after taking a bath, he ran to the sink and said, "Brus teef!" He can say about 15 words and more often than not speaks in a sentence. He rarely says a single word. Weird?

Xavier is cutting his 4th, 5th and 6th tooth. His hair is growing in quite a bit and getting curly. He's on the go, always tagging along behind Gabe. He's such a little cuddle monster. And weighs only 2 lbs less than Gabe! (Gabe is 28, he lost a couple when he was sick last week. And Xavier is 26.)






His favorite thing to do; eat.




Dirty face but still beautiful.








"Does an 'apo' need it's nails clipped?"


"Doesn't everyone eat their 'apo' with a fork?"








"Feed me brother, PLEASE!"


















Curls!