The quest to rid myself of this 'Mommy Tummy'

I hate it. Picture flesh coloured Jell-O that has been attacked by a tiger. Not pretty... and I apologize if I made anyone sick or discouraged anyone from getting pregnant. It doesn't happen to everyone, so take the chance! Actually, it didn't happen to me with Rylan.
I'm going to blame it on getting pregnant with Tatum less than a year after giving birth to Rylan. I don't know if it's true, but that's what I tell myself!
I definitely had a jelly belly after Rylan, but it seemed to de-jellofy (no, that's not actually a word) a lot sooner, plus I didn't get a single stretch mark when I was pregnant with Rylan. I thought I was home free for subsequent pregnancies but I guess not.
You may wonder why I am posting about this on my blog. The truth... I need motivation. We just put in a pool last summer and I do not plan on hiding under a sweatshirt in July like I'm doing now.I've got a lot of work to do. I wasn't in tip top shape when I got pregnant in the first place, so I not only want to get back to my pre-pregnancy state, but to my pre-marriage state.
So I figure I have 20lbs to lose and I'm giving myself until next Christmas. Seems fair. It's only 1/2 a pound a week! Sounds easy enough...
I am still breastfeeding exclusively, so I can't really cut my diet too much. My focus until I'm finished breastfeeding (probably June/July) is to develop a good workout regiment and make healthy food choices. So eating 1/2 a carrot cake with cream cheese icing for lunch will have to stop. Too bad because it was the best tasting lunch I've had in a long time!
I will be updating my stats weekly and I hope like hell there will be changes or I'm going to look like a fool! A fool who looks 4 months pregnant when I'm not even pregnant at all!
So here they are, I'm nervous typing this!
Weight: 146lbs (ok, now pretend you didn't read that)
Bust: 41" (hopefully once the milk is gone this stat will decrease, and lift!)
Waist: 39" (measured from my widest point... I think I can see the carrot cake poking out)
Hips: 37" (I'm an upside down triangle!)
Thighs: 20"
Bulging Biceps: 11"
Well, I've done it. Let the games begin!

Did you eat paint chips as a child?

Name the movie!

I have decided that after 3.7 years of living in this house and after obsessing over Young House Love.com, I'm finally going to decorate it to my taste! We haven't done much since we moved in. In fact, I just hung pictures up on nails that existed from the previous owners! We did upgrade our counter tops about a year and a half ago and put in a pool last summer... so we are doing something, just not decorating. Our counters were a huge improvement, so now I'm ready for paint!

Yesterday Rylan, Tatum and I made a trip to Home Depot (which Rylan can say clear as a bell now) to pick out a few paint samples. Behr has a new paint that is a paint and primer in one. Totally worth the extra money! Unfortunately, all the colours I chose for our house, aren't the 2-in-1 paint colours. Oh well! While perusing umpteen colour choices with my young decorating team, I came up with a brilliant idea. The paint and primer combo paint had really nice samples. They are big, and just one colour per sheet. They have little holes punched out in the corners and supply rings so that you can clip a few of them together and make one of those little books that designers always have. Anyway, onto my brilliant idea. I picked up a few vibrant and obvious samples, like blue, red, yellow, orange, green and black. When we got home, I clipped them all together and wrote what each colour was on each one. Rylan has already been doing really well with her colours but I thought this was a good way for her to associate the colour with the word. It may be a little early to start this kind of learning... but the kid's a genius! Just like all kids are to their parents! She knows the alphabet, even out of order. I can write a random letter or number on our chalkboard and she can tell me what it is. She struggles with G and Q, but c'mon, she just turned 2! I'm so proud!

Olympic Mania!

Ok, I can admit it. The girls and I have been spending an awful lot of time in front of the TV lately. I am wrapped right up in these Olympics! A few weeks ago I was at The Bay and they had just received a new shipment of Canadian Olympic gear. I picked up a red zip-up sweatshirt in a size 2 for Rylan and one in 6-12 months for Tatum. I also grabbed a pair of mittens for myself.
As I walked around looking for a wedding gift for my friend Jill (the reason I was even at The Bay) I started to feel guilty. My girls have SO many clothes, do they really need these sweatshirts? Would they even wear them enough to justify the $50? Probably not, so I put them back but did sneak my mitts in with my wedding gift purchase!
Then the Olympics begin, as does my obsession. Now my girls definitely NEED those sweatshirts! On Tuesday I couldn't wait to get the girls packed up and out to the mall. We get to The Bay and well... everything was gone!!! In kid sizes anyway. I was so disappointed and annoyed with myself. I managed to get a blue zip-up for Tatum in 0-6 month (they run big, so it's working out well), a boys large for myself in black and all I could find in a size 2 was a lousy T-shirt for Rylan!
We got home and back down into our own Olympic village, which is our TV room in the basement, and started watching more events... and that's when I saw it... a commercial for Olympic gear from Zellers! How could I forget that Zellers is a part of HBC!? As soon as Tony got home from work I rushed out feeling optimistic that I would be able to snag a size 2 hoodie for Ry. Once again I was disappointed after digging through multiple disorganized heaps of clothing in boxes. I did find an 18-24 month red zip-up that I bought anyway to try. Now to get Rylan to try it on. She has a thing for not wanting to do anything I want her to... I call it the terrible 2's. I'm hoping that term catches on ;) I finally convinced her to try it on after calling it her Scott & Tessa sweater. It is now a favourite!
Rylan & I (and Tatum too if she was old enough to understand) can't wait to watch Scott & Tessa skate this weekend! "I believe" Rylan says it best...

I've been sew busy!

Once again, it's been way too long since I last posted. I won't make any more promises about posting more regularly since, let's face it, it will just be broken. I have been occupying my precious 2 hours a day without kids (between their bedtime and mine) with a few sewing projects!
I love sewing! Even though the only formal training I received was in my grade 8 Design & Tech class. We made a pencil case...
When I was pregnant with Tatum I decided to make myself a nursing cover. A friend of mine had one and paid almost $50 for one from a specialty baby shop. I decided that I wanted one so I could feed Tatum anywhere and not have to worry about exposing myself. That's when I began my search for the perfect fabric. I decided on this nice Amy Butler pink and white floral cotton.

I added a lining to keep the baby nice and cool and I also added a piece of boning between the two straps so that the cover bows out and baby is visible while I nurse. I was and still am quite proud of it and use it more than any other baby thing I have, excluding my boobs of course! After so much use, I realized that a couple of added features would make this cover even better. I have been making a few of these for friends and friends of friends lately and have since added 2 terry cloth pockets to each bottom corner. They're great for keeping breast pads/soothers in while feeding and the terry cloth works wonders for wiping away milk mustaches!

Here are some pictures of ones I have made recently... (all out of high end designer fabrics I might add!)

Terry cloth pockets

Rectangle rings - adjustable strap

Some finished projects! Nicely bundled with washing instructions.
(Nothing crazy, wash in cold water, low heat dry or air dry and iron if necessary.)
Please excuse the disgusting water stains on my ironing board!

Anyway, I'm out of projects for now, but I did buy the CUTEST fabric to make some throw cushions for the girls' playroom when it's finished! I think it will be a while... we're stuck at the drywall stage! Here is the fabric I just bought from www.etsy.com (I love this site!!)

I'll be sure to post the finished projects! I was thinking about using red for the backs, maybe with white polka dots!

Can a 2 year old understand death?

Just a little background...

On November 24th my grandpa passed away. He was a great man and we were all very close to him. It broke my heart to see him go, but I know it was for the best.

They day he died we went to my Grandma's house to offer her support, followed by a day of visitation and a day of funeral. We brought Rylan and Tatum along with us, and my cousins also brought their children who are all around the same age as mine. I really didn't think anything of it.

At the funeral, Tony, Rylan, Tatum and I were there about 20 minutes before anyone else (that's a first!). We stayed in the entrance way as I wanted my Grandma to see Grandpa first. Rylan was running around as any 23 month old would be and went into the room with the casket. She came back out with her finger up to her lips and said, "shhhh, Big Papa sleeping". Of course I broke down. It was so sweet, I was super emotional and I couldn't be strong any longer.

Throughout the day she would say it again and again and we would just agree with her.

Now on to this weekend and again today. Tony and Rylan were flipping through a book and there was a picture of a baby sleeping in a bassinet. Rylan looks at Tony and says, "shhhhh baby sleeping" and had the saddest look on her face. Then she started crying, just quietly. Little tears were streaming down her cheeks and she just kept repeating it again and again. We tried explaining to her that the baby would wake up eventually. We finally just distracted her with some crayons and a colouring book to cheer her up. It was so sad.

Today I put her in a pair of pants that were too big so that she could take them off easily by herself if she had to go pee. They were quite big, so I put a little clip on them like the ones they use on Say Yes to the Dress to hold them up. She got annoyed with "clippy" and I took it off and was using it as a puppet with an insanely annoying voice. I got tired of playing with Clippy so I set it down on the couch and told her that Clippy was sleeping. BIG MISTAKE! She started with the sad little face again and then the tears started again. I picked Clippy up as fast as I could and kept saying, "I'm awake, I'm awake, I'm awake!!!!!".

I don't know what to do. I tried to explain to her today that Big Papa died and that he's not sleeping. Have I ruined my toddler? I didn't know a 2 year old could be sad over something real and not just over dropping a jelly bean! I didn't think she would be able to understand death or that taking her to the visitation and funeral would affect her like this.

I hope I can get her to like the word sleeping again.

All potty, all the time... ok most of the time!

So Rylan has taken well to the potty. We tried the 1/2 naked method where she just runs around bottomless for a few days. It really worked well. By day 5 she wasn't even telling us she had to go, she would just sit on the potty, pee/poo and then tell us about it after! It was great!

(I'm going to pay for posting this one!)

Yesterday we tried incorporating underwear into the equation. It wasn't accepted as well as we had hoped. I think Rylan thought they acted like a diaper and just kept peeing in them! Today she peed a little then would tell us, so we'd help her get her get to the potty in time to finish. I guess it's progress? I'm really starting to wonder how to get my kid back into pants without a diaper! Any suggestions?!

I feel like I never chat about Tatum! She is such a wonderful baby... so calm, quiet, eats, sleeps, she is a dream! Rylan was also a dream at this age (still is)... I guess I'm just lucky or I will really pay for it when they're teenagers!

Tatum smiles so often and could cheer up the gloomiest of people. It melts my heart!
We tried her out in the Jolly Jumper this weekend for the first time. She really seems to like it. She taps her feet but hasn't mastered jumping yet. Rylan tries to help her jump... it's cute! They seem to really love each other. And I can't begin to tell you how much I love them! <3

It's my potty and I'll cry if I want to!

It has begun. The dreaded chore of potty training. I have been talking about starting potty training Rylan for a few months now and finally decided to bite the bullet and start.
We start our day off by watching "The Potty Movie for Girls". Today is day 2. So far we have had 11 pees and 2 poops in the potty and 6 pee accidents total.
Pretty good for our first 2 days I think. I decided to try something I read a long time ago. I have been letting Rylan run around like a crazy woman with no pants on. No diaper, no underwear, no pants. Just the cutest little bare bum running around. I have also been bringing the potty into whatever room we're in and giving out Smarties as a reward. To get her on the potty every hour or after a drink I ask her what colour of Smarties she would like. To which she replies, "purple, black". So I put a purple one in one hand and a black (brown) one in the other hand. She sits calmly on the potty and finishes her Smarties. When she does her business on the potty, I let her grab a handful of Smarties out of the box to celebrate along with numerous hugs, kisses and high fives. Rylan is still sporting a diaper for naps and night time. I am hoping to get her out of a diaper for naps in the next 2 weeks and then we will work on the over night thing.
Anyway, I'm tired and off to bed. We have Christmas photos in Stratford tomorrow... hopefully they turn out fantastic!