Toddlerhood

Recently I've learned something that can occasionally make or break my day.
Ellie is now 18 months, and every day she is closer to age 2 than she is to age 1. This fact is very evident as Ellie learns new motor skills at an alarming rate and mimics nearly everything she hears. This is also evident as her attitude becomes one that demands more and more independence. I have to remind myself often that this is a good and normal stage of her development. For instance, when it's raining outside and you don't want to wreck your hair before work and your little angel just wants to pick up one more leaf...and try with great determination to stick in the lock to the trunk, well, those are the sorts of times where that good and normal stage of development can remind a person that patience is a difficult virtue to learn. Anyhow, there are days that fly by without a hitch and I sigh and think to myself, "Isn't it just glorious to be a mom? I could do this forever." And then there are other days, underslept, teething, runny nose, diarrhea days, where the only thought that runs through my mind is, "Only four hours till Rob gets home. Only 3 hours and 53 minutes till Rob gets home..." . Well, okay, not really that bad, but days where it seems as though it'll never end. Especially when I haven't slept well or feel sick Ellie shows her independant side a little more than usual.
On one of those particular days I prayed and asked the Lord, "Can you help me out here? I need some wisdom. It feels like all I'm doing is saying 'no'". And the immediate thought that came to my mind was, "Count how many times she obeys." Hmmmm...I had never thought of that. So I tried it. And I was astonished! Elianna is a really really obedient kid! Sure she opened 5 different forbidden cupboards, stood on 4 different dangerous surfaces and ate 3 foreign objects all in 2 minutes flat but she listened EVERY time when I said 'close that', 'please sit down' and 'oh yuck, spit that out!'. All the reminders had caused me to overlook the postive results. And then I realized that this applies to all areas of my life...how often do I count the negative before the positive? How many times do I look at the clutter my hubby leaves behind instead of noticing all the ways he tidied up? Or how often do I count my aches and belly pains before counting how good the rest of me feels? How often do I count how much I lack before realize how much abundance I have!?!? Okay, rant is over. For any tired-out moms of toddlers out there I'd like to encourage you to take the test: count obedience before disobedience. You might be surprised!

Bubble baths

Bath time has gotten real easy around our place these days. Start singing "This is the way you wash your _____ (fill in the blanks) " and Ellie does all the work for you.From her cheeks,

to her belly,

and even her nose!
(Now if only I could teach her to do her hair. She hates that part.)

Rob Goes Under the Knife

DISCLAIMER: if blood makes you queasy, maybe skip this one. :)

Yesterday Rob got his wisdom teeth pulled. I, being the faith-filled wife that I am, geared myself up for the worst possible results (a coma, spontaneous projectile blood fountains spurting from his mouth, etc.) because well, things usually get somewhat adventurous when Rob meets illness....and in this case, minor surgery. Fortunately things turned out almost A-okay. The surgery went peachy and Rob came home swollen and bloody and tired, but pretty much normal-seeming. I had to go to work in the evening so I dropped off Ellie(who, at the same time as this just happened to come down with a cold. That's generally how these things work) at a friend's house and went on my way. Later on Rob called me at Hallmark and in that half-frozen sounding, non-consonant-pronouncing way asked if I could bring some gauze home from work, and sorry about the rug. :) hehe. Apparently (like other members of his family) Tylenol 3 and Rob are NOT friends...and Rob ended up having a big throw-up shortly after taking one. This opened up everything that was trying to clot in his mouth, producing mass quantities of blood. This is a bit of a problem in itself (blood isn't fun). Another problem was that Rob puked into a bag provided by the doctors which he assumed was water proof. And it wasn't. Poor guy, dizzy and faint, did his best to clean up our cream-colored carpet before collapsing in a heap on the part that wasn't stained. I left work early and got my dear shnot-nosed girl, put her to bed, and then got to work on the blood trail left across the living room floor. :) My results were so-so (anyone got any ideas? I tried table salt...apparently that was supposed to do the job. There are still faint stains.) Anyhow, the good news is that even without the Tylenol Rob is actually doing just fine. The bleeding has finally stopped and he doesn't seem to be minding a day spent reading his books and eating Jello. And Ellie's in pretty good spirits despite the fact that she's so congested that she calls me "Bummy" instead of "Mommy" and her eyes are constantly tearing. And I'm just really thankful. Thankful that I don't have say, 6 kids with the flu barfing all over the place, thankful that I can't get my wisdom teeth removed until after this baby comes, and thankful that God's grace is always sufficient. Cleaning up bloody puke really isn't all that bad when you were preparing for a coma.

Here's some photos of Rob and Ellie playing in their first fort together (just for the sake of throwing in some photos):

What's a campout without a little KFC?

Birds Hill Park

On Labour Day weekend Karla and Nathan invited us to join them at Birds Hill Park, a great campground/man made lake/picnic area about an hour away from us. We picnicked and playgrounded (yeah, not a word) in the most beautiful end-of-summer weather you could ask for.

My mom says they walk the same. I think it might be true.

This was the view we had of Regan most of the time...a distant, rear view of her disappearing into the horizon. That girl can run!
I don't have a photo of it, but Regan got into her first ever playground fight a bit later...and I think her first playground kiss, too. (The fight and the kiss were from the same boy. The kiss came first. Love is tough.)

Ellie found the chips. And helped herself.

And shared a couple with Auntie Karla. Mostly she helped herself.

Feeling quite independent on the picnic table.
Ellie rode in the trunk on the way home.
Just kidding, Grandma. :)
It's a great place to change a poopy diaper.
We couldn't resist stopping for ice cream on the way home. Mama couldn't resist, anyways.
CHEESE!

Interesting News

Most of you have already heard, but for those who haven't, MY DUE DATE HAS BEEN MOVED, again. *sigh*. It's a little bit depressing, really. We are now expecting a New Year's baby again, like I had originally thought. The ultrasound report came back last week and my doctor was wrong. He had thought (according to my measurements) that I was due Nov. 23. The ultrasound says January 12! Yeah! That's quite a difference! Suddenly I feel massive. Oh well. We're aiming for January 1 so we can get lots of free stuff. :) So off I go to change our pregnancy ticker again...

A few pics of Dana's wedding

Dana, the gorgeous (and very relaxed) bride.

Me and the kids.

Dana and mom looking awesome.

My family,which is getting very large! Ellie, Rob, me, Leila, Dad, Mom, Dana, Jon (my new brother) Karla, Regan and Nathan.

Ellie having a blast with Nana.

Ellie happy in the arms of her handsome Bapa.

Regan looking beautiful. It was quite the task trying to keep these flower girls clean for the ceremony!

Dana and her step mom Liz admiring the wedding wheels.

My sister Leila, a bridesmaid.

The girls drawing attention to themselves as always!

(I didn't have time to take photos during the ceremony or reception, but it was beautiful. Dana and Jon's vows had most people in tears; Regan and Ellie actually both came down the aisle looking like little angels (and then Regan ran back UP the aisle:) and Rob did a stellar job of MCing the reception. It was an incredible day that I'll never forget!)

Priceless moment

Ellie and Regan (flower girls) at Dana's wedding on Saturday.
Does it get more precious than that?

Trip to Vernon Part 2 - the Beach

One of my top priorities during our trip to BC was to get Ellie to a beach. Here in Manitoba the beaches aren't close and many aren't lovely, so sadly we haven't been to one with her yet. I was curious how she'd respond to the giant sandbox and swimming pool.

The day we ended up going was kinda chilly, so we didn't even have our swim gear on. Like that makes a difference to a toddler!

Ellie's first reaction: whiny observance. She wasn't crazy about the feel of sand on her feet (she's kinda girly that way) but she was too busy watching other kids to break out in a serious declaration of beach-hatred.

Then when Dada began to swing Ellie's legs through the water, she was sold.

If it hadn't been so chilly she could have done this all day.

Yup, beaches are great.

But how do I get all this sand off my hands?

Trip to Vernon Part 1 - Our 5th Anniversary!

One of the best moments of our trip to Vernon last week (at least for Rob and I) was the opportunity to really get out and celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. Grandma and Grandpa Balfour jumped at the chance to have Elianna to themselves for a night, and Rob and I jumped at the chance to get each other to ourselves...a rare occurrence!! As with nearly every important occasion, I tried to documentate the whole thing with photos:First we drove into Kelowna, about 25ish minutes from Vernon. Rob is actually a very uh, tame, driver. He likes to overcompensate for his inability to drive over the speed limit with mean facial expressions. :)

Then we spent like, over an HOUR at Chapters, just BECAUSE! Just because we're both book maniacs (especially Rob) and just because there was no one stopping us. It was awesome. I sat down on a bench with a stack of baby name, parenting, and nursery decorating books (yeah, still had baby brain even on a date) and Rob perused his favorite section: history and war and guns and stuff. Not everyone's idea of a great time, but certainly ours.

Then we checked into our hotel, one that we chose because of its location in downtown Kelowna, 2 blocks from the lake and right smack in the middle of the cultural district. The name was a bit deceiving, however...there weren't very many 'royal' characteristics we could find, except for maybe the fact that there was red carpet. The red carpet in our room had a big iron mark burned into it. Huh. A very average hotel, but we're kinda average folks ourselves. Great location. We walked to the rest of our destinations that night.So after check-in we hung out with Ogopogo for a while.

We have similar pictures from when Rob and I started dating, only that time some car full of punks drove by yelling curses at Ogopogo. Ogopogo is a very misunderstood sea monster.

And we took lots of self portraits and even kissed a little bit, too. Hey, it was our anniversary!

We smiled a bunch...
...and enjoyed the great scenery. And THEN...
THE KEG.
We love the Keg. Rob's 'baseball' steak was like, a foot thick and man, oh man, that meal was just a pregnant girl's dream come true!
Then it was off to see "The Bourne Ultimatum". If you liked the first 2 you'll love the third. We did. I almost fell asleep as the beginning (not because of the movie but because of previous nights' sleep deprivation) so I got some Glosette raisins to keep me awake. They worked. Good movie!
Oh. This is Rob waiting for the theatre to open. He was excited. While we waited we tried to guess the names and occupations of the pedestrians walking by, but I don't think we were very skilled at it. One couple that we guessed were 'Andrew and Maryanne' came and sat right beside us so I asked them their names and we were way off...Daniel and something very un-Marianne like. Oh well. The time passed quickly and we made some new friends. :)

After a relatively good night's sleep (I still woke up at 5:30am, stuck on Manitoba time) we went and had an unexceptional but satisfying breakfast at Denny's (at least the company was good.:) Good ol' Denny's. All in all, we had a blast. Time together alone is that much more precious now that it's so rare. I was really struck anew by what an incredible husband God has given me, and what a precious best-friendship we share. I am truly grateful.

Home, happy, and bushed.

Hey Everyone...Just a quick post to let y'all (as my dear friends in Texas would say. Cheryl...er, I mean 'my friend' also says 'peenk' instead of pink. But I divert.) know that we're still alive. Barely. :) We got back from a week long trip in Vernon on Friday night. I worked all day Saturday, Sunday was spent catching up with family, and because of some co-workers being out of town I'm working every day but Thursday this week and Rob's working every evening, SOOO....the word 'blog' only hazily drifts across some obscure part of my brain as I'm dozing off to sleep at night. Except for tonight. Because I'm procrastinating baking brownies for my dear hubby who does an incredible job of fathering Ellie all day long. Now that I admitted that I had better go do something about it. Anyone wanna come over for brownies?