Of Doctors and Shopping.

I've been busy. Do you care?

Armondo is home. So, I'm using him to watch the kids and we're getting stuff done that would be harder if there was just me.

~Went to the doc to discuss birth control and my neck pain. I will be starting the pill soon, and may go to see a massage therapist.

~Waited for a VERY long time at the Service Canada offices in order to get Peach's SIN and to get mine switched over to my married name (three years after the fact.)

~Shopped for new pants for me, as I don't fit any of my old pants yet. And I feel like jumping off of a bridge due to the nastiness I had to look at in the mirror several dozen times today. I found one pair of pants. Out of probably 30 pairs I tried.

~Did our taxes yesterday. Expecting that I made a mistake or two. Taxes are darn confusing sometimes. Used tax software. Will use it again. (UFile is cheap.)

~Taking Peach to get her first round of shots tomorrow. Armondo is being a sweety and is going to do the actual holding of the baby. It's my "turn" since I made him take Cherry last time, but he volunteered, and I'm not going to argue!

~I'm also going to the pool for the first time post partum. I will be wearing shorts and a tank top over my bathing suit as per usual.

That is all.

Thank you!

Thanks to all the comments and emails you all left me when I asked for help in figuring out a budget!

I think one thing I've learned, is that food is way cheaper in the states! It has to be! 'Cause there's no way I could get by on less than $100 a week (including personal care items, diapers and pet food). Also, I really don't think coupons are as good here as they are in the states.

So, for now, we're trying to spend $100 a week on food, and we've made a generous budget of $80 a week for clothes, gifts, entertainment, etc. Transportation is separate, and I've made a monthly budget instead of a weekly one, 'cause our tank is huge and expensive, and I'd rather fill it once than four times! Bills are completely separate too.

I'm sure you all really care about this. HA! I will keep you updated anyway to tell you how it goes. Even if you don't care.

So! Freaking! Cute!

I'd like some input!

I'm trying to create a family budget, and I'd like some help.

Armondo doesn't have a real "steady" income. We never really know how much he's going to make, and at what point I'm going to have the money in my hands, therefore, I can't really say: "This is how much we make, and this is how much goes to bills, and this is how much we have left over for our variable costs." BUT..

I'd still like to create a budget for us, so we don't overspend, 'cause we have a habit of doing that.

But I have no idea what a reasonable budget is.

So, I'm wondering... How much does your family spend on food and personal items (diapers, pads, shampoo, etc) in a week or month? And, how many people are in your family? Also, tell me if you think the amount you spend is too much or just right. (As if anyone will think they don't spend ENOUGH!) If this is too personal to post in the comments, then please email me! celenaszoo at hotmail dot com

So far, I'm thinking around $170/week for two adults, one eating child, one nursing baby, with both kids in diapers. Does that sound reasonable?

Torturing my children.

Today Peach rolled over from her back to her front. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures until she sort of rolled back onto her side, but dang it, I tried...

You can sort of see in this picture that her hips are both on the bed, front down!
And I didn't help her roll back onto her back until she started crying. That was child torture event number one today.


***

I've been having a lot of trouble getting Cherry to let me brush her teeth lately. Most times I'm met with screams and kicking when the toothbrush is placed anywhere in the vicinity of my first born. So I thought I'd try a battery powered toothbrush.

"Hey! This looks pretty cool!"

"Hmmm... Maybe I'll give it a try!"

"Yep, yep, I could live with this! Hey mom, I bet you're wondering why you didn't think of this earlier, eh?"

"Ahhhh, pure teeth brushing pleasure!"

After five minutes, I tried to take the brush away from her. I tried again after ten. At fifteen, I figured it would be a darn good idea for this kid to stop brushing before she took the enamel right off her teeth.

Cherry, however, thought that taking the brush away was the worst idea EVER!

Thus ends child torture event number two. Good thing there's still a few hours left before the end of the night. I might be able to torture them some more.

A Phone Conversation.

The back story: Armondo was scheduled to get "snipped" (vasectomy, not circumcision) shortly after Peach was born, and in time to recover before going back out on the ocean. Well, the doc rescheduled once, and cancelled due to being sick the second time. And Armonodo HAD to go back to work. So, we decided that when we knew for SURE that Armondo was going to be home, *I* would try to schedule another appointment for him for when he came home.

Me: So, should I be setting up an appointment for you?

Armonodo: No, I won't be home long enough. (To recover)

Me: Yeah, I guess you'll have to do it next time.

Armondo: Yeah, that doctor really screwed me!

Me: Yeah, and now you're not getting screwed! HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Armondo: *silence*

Me: Oh? Not funny?

Armondo: No.

PS. I still haven't done the dishes or finished the laundry.

We're Sorry, the number you're trying to reach is unavailable....

Hello, you have reached CeCe at www.cyclonecece.blogspot.com.

I am currently unavailable to take your call because I am busy doing the FIVE HUNDRED LOADS OF LAUNDRY and COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF DISHES that were created by having so many house guests over.

Feel free to leave a message, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Have a great day!

Wanna see how cute my weekend was?

I'd love to add captions, but it's getting late... so, the basic idea: Peach and "Banana" her cousin, are only 3 days apart, so we took a bunch of photos of them together, including ones in matching outfits, and ones where we made them practice their "tummy time". Those girls are probably blind from all the photo flashes all weekend!

Cherry is 20ish months here, and "Kiwi" the male cousin, is three in May. Cherry and Kiwi got along great and rough-housed and giggled the whole time. Cherry is so rough and tumble, and everyone was surprised how she stood up to her crazy, rowdy, older male cousin! (photos are in chronological order-basically)

The Calm Before the Storm

All the in-laws will be here in less than an hour. I just thought I'd share some photos before everything becomes a complete madhouse around here. These were taken today. You supply the captions!

Wowsa!

My SIL and two of her kids, plus at least one, but possibly two of Armondo's cousins are all showing up here tomorrow to stay the weekend.

That means, there will be FOUR kids under 3 here, plus 3 or 4 adults. In a three bedroom, one bathroom, 1100 sqft house.

And I still have to clean it. And I have no groceries. YIKES!

It's going to be a blast. I'm so looking forward to seeing my neice and nephew. My neice is only 3 days older than Peach. But wow, I'm a bit panicked about getting the place all ready. SO, BYE!

AAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!

*runs around screaming and pulling hair*

*bangs head on wall over and over*

*mutters* "Two kids under two, what was I thinking?"


UPDATE: Whew, it's over. They're in bed now. Both of them. How amazing is that?!?! And unheard of!

Short and Sweet.

When I was sick with food poisoning last week, I really hurt my neck. The night I got sick, I spent hours shivering and shaking in bed, and during the vilent spasms, I somehow wrecked my neck. And the pain won't go away. Usually when I'm sore from something, sleeping or resting makes the pain subside for a bit, but in this case, it just seems to get worse and worse. Today has been the worst day so far, and with the pain in the neck, also comes a bit of a headache, and with that, comes complete brain farts, and for that reason, I don't have anything to write about. So, I'll give you a photo blog. These photos were taken a few days ago, and I included one already in an old post...

Cherry walked,

As peach slept comfortably.

Cherry had fun picking flowers and rocks.

But was a little put out by the rocks that were "Stuck" in the road.

But she cheered up a little bit when we walked onto a random farm, where she met a friendly cat named "Snow Feet",

Fed "Speckles" the chicken and her friends,

Said "Hello" to Chester the cow (and a horsey as well)

And ran generally had a great time running around the farm.

Then, on the way back, she found some puddles and threw rocks into them.

Until she got too tired to walk. Then she begged me to pick her up and carry her. Which, of course meant I was carrying two kids, one on each side, which might be part of the reason why my neck won't get better. Then she had a four hour nap!

A Day Late!

I'm a day late, but I'd like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mr. Fab.

You're totally Fabulous, hope you had a great day!

What Cherry's been up to!

Cherry, my darlin' girl, you're such a joy to hang out with these days! Every day you come up with new phrases or activities that just make me smile with joy. You're becoming such a cool little person and at just over 20 months old, it's been awhile since I've documented your phrases and favourites, so here, is a sampling.

We'll start with some of your favourites.

Movies:
~"Non-Hee" (Monkey movie, aka Curious George.)
~"Fiss-hee" (Fishy movie, aka Finding Nemo)

TV shows:
~"Non-Hee" (Monkey show, aka Curious George.)
~"Ollie, Ollie, Ollie" (Rollie Pollie Ollie)
~You also like anything "ELMO!"

Foods:
~"Ssssssnick" (snakes aka, curly fries.)
~"Teeessse!" (cheese)
~"Seer ee oh" (Cereal)
~"Snack" (any kind of food that comes in a package that we feed you between meals, but usually refers to granola bars.)

Beverages:
~"Na!" (Milk),
~"Dooce" or "jus" (said the french way for juice.)
~"Wow-ow" (water).

Hard to choose between some of your favourite things! What do you go for? The snakes? The soother? or the juice?

Things:
~"Soo Zdurr" (soother)
~"Non-Hee" (You have three stuffed Monkeys, including a Curious George one, and you also like your "Barrel of Monkeys")
~You also love your Dollies, which, when you talk about them, sounds like you're calling them "daddy", which is pretty funny to me sometimes.
~You have taken over some of Daddy's Star Wars figurines, and you love Chewy the best. When he's in the house, you'll take him to bed with you, and when he's in the car, you'll hold on to him the whole car ride, and I'll hear "MmmWA!" over and over as you give your furry friend kiss after kiss. The rest of the Star Wars figures are cool too, but not as good as him.
~"Fwower! Woks!" (Flowers and Rocks-which you collect on our walks.)

Flower in one hand, rocks in the other-PERFECT!

~Your pink flower blanket, which you have yet to name, which surprises me, 'cause you really, truly love it. In fact, one day, when you saw that I had put Peach on it, I saw the quiver in your lip and the rage in your eyes, so I quickly scooped up your sister and avoided near disaster!

Activities:
~"Walk!" (said faster than normal though, making sound more like "Wok")
~"Snow!" (play in snow)
~"Pway!" (go to play group)
~"Pooo!" (go to the pool)
~You also like to step on your sister which makes "De de sad!" (baby sad) But to make up for it, you say "Sew wee" (sorry) and you give her a kiss.
~Another thing you like to do is "Seeee!" (Which means colour with crayons, but sounds nothing like it!)

~You also like to talk on the phone, real or play, or anything that sort of looks like a phone. (Like remotes, etc) One day, when your sister was crying, you said into a fake phone "De De Sad!" When talking to your daddy, you said "See soon" (see you soon) and a few days later (Feb 25th), you told my grandmother "Dunno say!" as you shrugged your shoulders (I don't know what to say). These were some of your first real sentences.

~You also like to sing, and you usually make up your own songs. You often sing about "NAnnie", "Osssie", "Jee Cee", and "Fwowers". (Annie, Ozzy, Jacy and flowers) Sometimes you'll also sing about Momma, DeDe and Daddy. You will also sing songs from TV shows and movies, with "Ollie, Ollie, hoo aay, Yay!" (He's Rollie, Pollie, Hurray, Hurray) and "Fwip Fwap Fwy!" (Flip Flap and Fly) being among your favourites. You also attempt to sing the "Wonder Pets" song, which is a song we sing together with you filling in the blanks.

Me: "Linny, Tuck.."
You: "Ning ning oooh!" (Ming Ming too)
Me: "We're wonder pets, and we'll help you. What's gonna to work?"
You: "Eee Ook!" (Team work)
Me: "What's gonna work?"
You: "Eee ook!"

~You like to play with all of your toys, and part of the joy of playing with them is removing them ALL from their proper places. You're always quick to help clean up though. You just get distracted easily. And you now know the proper answer to "Heeeeyyy, WHO MADE THIS BIG MESS!" which I ask you every evening, and to which you always reply with a huge grin: "NeeeEEE?" (Me?)

Part of your mess making includes taking all of your clothes out of your drawers and, now, your new thing is to throw the clothes in your dirty laundry basket, which is a habit I SO DON'T APPROVE OF, but I'm able to laugh about it, 'cause every time I open your drawers to put your clothes back, there's always some sort of little prize to be found from sippy cups to teddy bears to neatly lined up Little People.

Other things you say and do:

~"Momma, Daddy, I Tuck!" (Momma, Daddy, I'm stuck!) When ever you're stuck or hurt, or whining, you always yell "Momma, Daddy" instead of just picking one of us. It's pretty cute.

~"A HOW! A HOW!" (Help! Help!) you've learned to yell this when you REALLY need us, and are not just whining. When you use this term, it's usually combined with "I tuck!" as you seem to get yourself into the strangest spots sometimes. (Legs caught in your headboard, climbing half way up shelves and can't get down, twisted through the bottom rungs of your rocking chair, flopped over your toy horse-head down, etc.)

~"EEEWWWW!" Said while changing your diaper.

~"Pleah" Said while sticking out your tongue, and is a companion term to the above.

~"A Hans!" Commanding me to let you wash your hands.

~"A teess!" (Brush teeth.)

~"Neeeerrrooom!" Said when listening to airplanes fly over our house, which is in a landing path for a small airport. You also make the sign language sign for it, but you wrap your ring finger awkwardly around your pinky, which makes no sense at all, as it's not the easiest thing to do!

~"Yee Haw!" Said when riding your toy horse, seeing a horse, talking about horses, etc.

~"Ollie Ollie ollie Yee Haw!" Your yodel, which started a couple of months ago, which is a combination of "Rollie Pollie Ollie" and Yee Haw.

~"Seeee!" (Oopies!) Said when you drop something. (slightly different than the "seee" used to describe crayons, or when you say you want to see something)

~"Duh Dye" (Buh bye.)

~You also say "Peeeesss" and "Tan you". And you're always good to say "sssuuse me!" when you fart or burp.

~You also say "Huuuh?" in a long, drawn out, inquisitive voice, which always cracks me up, and which made me think for a minute "now where could she have got THAT from!?!" (answer=me)

~Any time you hear your sister talk or cry, you yell "De De!" and run to her. You're also quick to give her kisses and cuddles and you're always sharing with her. Even when it's something she totally could not find any use for!

Cherry sharing her crayons with Peach.

~Bed time is also a fun ritual with you. You love "stow-ees" and one of your favourites these days is Robert Munsch's "I'll Love You Forever" which you so fondly refer to as the "Momma!" story. It's a great (but sad) book, and I love to rock you back and forth as I sing the lyrics to the song in the book. When Daddy is out at sea working, we'll also pray for his safety every night, and every time I mention him, you yell "Daddy!" in a very enthusiastic voice that makes me giggle. One night recently I said "Yes, we're praying for Daddy! Do you love your Daddy?" To which you answered with an enthusiastic nod. Then I asked you "Do you love ME??" to which you answered by rolling over and closing your eyes. (You brat!)

There are many more things you say and do that amuse me everyday, but the list is so long there would be no way for me to record it all. But I will try, and I will be adding stuff to the end of this list as it comes up.

Dear Anonymous.

Hello there. I just thought I'd write you this letter to let you know that I understand you.

I have this feeling that you're a lot like me. You probably grew up in a household a lot like mine. I imagine you were a kid starving for attention, and that the only way you could get it was by being a brat and receiving negative attention.

That's the way I was, and it carried on into my adulthood. I always felt pretty cool and witty when I could say something to cut someone down and get a laugh out of my fellow sarcastic buddies. But you know, there's something really wrong with being that way. It's not actually fun to be a jerk all the time, so I've been trying to be a nicer person, and you know? I like myself better now.

It's a constant struggle though, trying to be nice. Mean things come to me much quicker than nice things. I have to force myself to come up with positive things to say to people when really, I just want to tell them that they're idiots, but hey, I'm still trying, and that's part of growing older and wiser.

The point of this letter is to tell you that I'm done giving you the negative attention that you DESERVE (for acting like a little brat) and I'm ready to give you the positive attention that you really, deep down, must WANT.

So, I'm offering you a virtual hug ((hug)) and a truce, and I'm asking you to come back to play here at my place, but to please, just be nice, and we'll be nice to you! And if you do decide to come back, and you DON'T play nice, then I'm going to have to delete every comment you make regardless of your accusations of censorship.

Oh, and try to come up with some clever name for yourself, 'cause it's really hard to remember how to spell "anonymous" all the time!

Sincerely,
CeCe

Happy Birthday to Me?

Two of my good friends treated me to meals this weekend. One took me to her aunt's house and we had yummy lunch and ice cream cake on Saturday.

The other friend treated me to a yummy dinner last night with some awesome chocolaty cake.

Last night, I started feeling the effects of Food poisoning. And it lasted pretty much all day today. Turns out that friend number one from lunch on Saturday, experienced all the same symptoms, as well as her little cousin. Luckily, Cherry didn't eat the "pre washed" veggies that seem to have been the culprit.

So, yeah, I've been doing nasty business out both ends for hours and hours and I was completely wiped today. My MIL was nice enough to come down to watch Cherry while I slept and cuddled with Peach all day, who also was up all night, due to me waking her up every time I got up.

One good thing: Armondo surprised me by coming home early!

Yeah, right.. only in my dreams!

My birthday is in a couple of days and I really, really, want two things:

One solid night of at least 8 hours sleep with no waking up. No needing to breast feed, pee, or re-tuck in a kid.

One poop with no animals in the bathroom or begging at the door, no screaming kids, and no pain.

Just do it outside, ok?

Funny how when a year and a half old comands a dog to "sit", it can sound a lot like a command to do something completely different.

Grrrr (TMI Alert)

Peach is barely a month and a half, and I'm breastfeeding exclusively, yet, I just got my period. I am extremely upset! I only finished my post-pardum bleeding two weeks ago!