PNP letters from Santa

I love these letters from Santa! You can customize them with pictures and details, to the point where Alan, at least, is talking back to the computer and actually believes that Santa is talking directly to him. LOVE IT. You can see Alan's video here, if you want to :)

Christmas Concert

Alan's school Christmas Concert! pics to follow!

Wow I'm horrible at updating this thing.....

Didn't realize til I logged on just now how long it had been since I updated this :) It's kind of silly, especially since I'm normally home with the two children, going half out of mind trying to find new ways to avoid doing the same old housework. The kids are entertaining, though, I must say. They baby is just shy of four months old (hard to believe!) and Alan is registered for PRESCHOOL in the fall. Yikes. He really needs it though, this kid is a smart freakin' cookie. He scares me sometimes with the stuff he comes out with. I'm also spending a bit of time readying my head for going back to work in September...my colleagues are all focused on leaving school, and I'm starting to panic about going back already! And not panic in the Oh-My-God-How-Will-I-Ever-Leave-My-Kids kinda way (it's not so hard when you have such a FABULOUS babysitter like I do), more in a Holy-Crap-I-Forget-How-To-Do-This kinda way. Throw in the fact that somebody had a great, but poorly executed, idea of screwing a giant SmartBoard over my only Whiteboard (love the smartboard, but I"m going to miss the option of a whiteboard) and there's a whole new learning curve. Oh yeah - and I can't reach the top of it. Which wouldn't be a problem, but if you look at the top of your screen, you'll notice that all the tools you need to edit, open, close, and so on are located where? At the top. Looks like BJ will be building me a platform to stand on....

On another note, Miss Jess has been in and out of the hospital waiting to have her little guy (Carson Edward Carew). She's jjust over 37 weeks, so it's a little early, but she'll likely go anytime now. Don't envy her, don't miss those last few weeks of pregnancy at all.

Anyway, I"m going to post some pics and a video, then go find a new and inventive way of avoiding cleaning the house around me. :)

How to Confuse a Kid in Two Sentences....

I just had to blog a conversation I had with Alan today. To give a bit of background, my sweet little boy has recently found a whole boatload of saucy. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the new baby and the adjustments we are all making, but it can be a real touchy balance between giving him some leeway and not letting him get away with murder. Currently, my biggest beefs are the attitude and not listening to what he's told to do. He tends to look at me and say "No" in the snottiest voice he can find when asked to do something he doesn't want to, and as you can imagine, I can NOT stand it. Bad enough I have to put up with it from other people's kids when I work, I refuse to put up with it from my own. So the conversation we had today went like this:

Me: "Alan, please (go do something I can't remember right now)"
Alan: "NO"
Me: "Alan, if you say "no" to me again, you are getting a Time Out"
Alan: *shakes head*
Me: "Did you just say "no"?"
Alan: "N...I mean Ye....N.....ummmmmmmm?"

At this point I almost cracked up, as I realized that he knew there was no way to answer the question I had asked him, but was trying to find a way. Eventually he just said " Uh Uh", but the moment was over for me. Leave it to me to ask him a question with no way for him to answer it and not get in trouble :)

More Pics

Alan and his new Mickey Mouse...Gotta love it!!
Alan's "big brother" present. Where were these when I was a kid?

Almost three weeks old here, having some tummy time

Smiling...sorry for the fuzziness, trying to take a pic with one hand of a baby on my lap is harder than I thought it would be!

My Beautiful Boy

Scott is three weeks old today, hard as it is to believe. We're settling in, although there are definitely adjustments being made on all sides. Alan is dealing fairly well, but the adjustment for him also includes re-learning the rules of our house after being at Grandma's for five weeks, as well as not having his Momma at his beckon call. Go figure - he always needs me at the EXACT same time Scott does (usually while nursing, of course). But we're all learning. Scott is a pretty relaxed baby, and a generally good sleeper, although at times I definitely feel rather Zombie-like, but what new mother doesn't? For now, we are looking forward to the long Easter weekend, and hoping for nice weather so we can go outside (while a good chunk of my family spends a week on the beach in Cuba....grumble).

Just in case anyone hasn't heard.....

He's here! Finally! After waiting, and waiting, and waiting, 9 days past my due date, Scott Alexander Power has arrived. As of this writing he is just over an hour shy of being exactly nine days old....hard to believe that it's been that long already! I stayed at mom's from the 5th of February until today (the 14th of March), so that I could have him at the IWK. Nobody thought I would end up being induced, especially me! As it was, Pregnancy Induced Hypertension can be thanked for getting me induced at all- the doctors were going to let me wait a little while longer, regardless the effect on my mental health! At any rate, he weighted 8 pounds, 10 ounces at birth, and was 21 inches long; a perfectly healthy little boy. When we left the hospital he had dropped down to 8lbs 4 ozs, but was 8lbs 11 ozs at his 6-day-old appt on Thursday, so he is obviously thriving. He's a great eater and a great sleeper - we've already had a few nights where he slept for four hours or so. At any rate, we're home now (Alan is happy to be here, but I bet it won't be long before he misses Nathan!) and looking forward to getting settled in, but I just need to say a public thank you to the family for all their help and support (and fetching, and carrying, and chauffering, etc etc etc) - it definitely made the process a million times easier!

Maternity Leave!

you can't see my head, but the belly says it all!
Goofball

loves sledding!!

so does daddy!

eek!

Cutie Pie in his official Vancouver Olympics 2010 outfit he got from Aunt Cindy for Christmas :)

Sooooooo....I'm on maternity leave. I feel like I should be more excited than I am, though. I am glad to not be working, as I was always exhausted, cranky, and stressed out (mostly due to a combination of the job, the mix of kids this year, and the pregnancy, I think). However, I mostly just feel REALLY impatient to get this show on the road. I am 37 weeks pregnant today (I've only gained 23 pounds this time, too. YAY!) and I would gladly take this baby at any time. Alan and I will be home together this week, though he's going to the sitter's probably Wednesday and Friday to get me a chance to rest up and get some "stuff" done around here. On Friday, we'll be heading to Momma's. Lindsay is hosting a baby shower for me on Saturday, so I'm psyched to see everyone. After that, Alan and I will hang out at Mom's until the baby is born. BJ will have to go back home (to his relatively new job at Honda :) ) until the baby is on his way. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Alan reacts to the little guy. He is over the whole "My baby brother is a robot" idea, but he does think that the baby is about an inch long..... Until then, I should probably tidy up the house and whatnot. Maybe we'll have a nap first.......

Sleeping in the Fort....

Well, Christmas has come and gone, as has New Year's. We had a lot of fun, and there are a lot of pics on Facebook that I will link at a later time. I had to blog about this funny little event, though. Alan got a cool toy for Christmas from our friend Shawn who has been staying with us since August. It's called Crazy Forts, and consists of a bunch of balls and sticks that go together to make a fort in a variety of different shapes that you then throw a sheet over to complete it. We've had it set up in the spare room in the shape of an igloo for a couple of days. Anyway, he decided tonight that he just HAD to sleep in it (and watch his DVD player, of course). After a bit of persuasion/discussion, BJ and I set up a mattress out of pillows, heaped on the blankets, and brought over the night light and monitor. So far he's really enjoying the novelty, and is happily lying down watching his DVD player. Here's hoping he stays all night!

PS - it's 10:30 and he's sound asleep! Who knew?