http://www.theyearsareshort.com/

Great little video (not too long so take a minute to watch).

Yesterday we took Austin to see A T. Rex named Sue. He was absolutely fascinated. I can't wait to take him back. Those are the moments that need to be remembered and cherished. His exclaims of "OH MY GOD!!!! WOOK MOMMY WOOK!" His eyes were as wide as saucers and I swear his little head was spinning. I'll post pictures tomorrow. But what a great adventure to share with our little boy.

Dalhousie

I picked Austin up a few things to get him ready for University....what do you think?

"Cheese and Candy!"

Future Validictorian!

humm...he's a little too good at the drinking thing!

Yoga

I really enjoy yoga. I always feel so much better after a session. I feel taller, my head isn't swimming with a million thoughts and ideas or lists of things that need to get done. I love that for 1 hour I just get to be, to breath and think about very little other than calming myself and bringing myself back to center. I love it! I practice 3-4 times per week and I go to a prenatal class.

A certain monkey wanted in on the action and the results were so funny that I had to share!

Voila! Austin the Yoga Master!

Downward Dog Austin style!

Cat/ Cow

Mountain Pose

I can't wait to take him to the Parent and Tot class at Breathing Space. It's going to be a riot!

The Belly

Today I had my 21 week appointment. Everything went great and baby is doing really well. I can not believe that I am already half way to getting to hold this little munchkin in my arms! I do feel a bit badly that I haven't been documenting this pregnancy in pictures nearly as much as I did with Austin. There's an old wives tale that says that when you are pregnant with a boy your outer beauty is enhanced and when you are pregnant with a girl your outer beauty suffers....well if that is truly the case I must be having a girl! Maybe it's a combination of the winter blues but I do not feel pretty! But pretty or not here are the much requested belly shots!

17 weeks

20.5 weeks

Tonight I had to go shopping for a dress to wear to a dinner on Monday night. Selection is not what it should be for a city the size of Halifax. 5 stores to shop at, with mostly casual and business casual style clothes. Ladies with the bump need to dress up every now and again too! I wish I had had more time to find something because I would of had a chance to shop online. I did find a dress (two actually) and now all I need are shoes. Any ideas on where to find some funky wedges?

Adventures in the snow

Last weekend we got a lot of sticky white snow, so of course we took Oz out to enjoy it!

Daddy was clearing the driveway, so of course Austin had to get his own shovel and help.

After the driveway was all cleared we tried to build a snowman but we just couldn't get the snow to come together for us, so we moved to the backyard. Austin was up to his mid thigh in snow and kept getting stuck. He'd fall over on his side and yell "OH NO!!! HELP!'. (My child is a little over dramatic at times). We finally got to the patio and I had the great idea for G to make roads for Austin's dump trucks. He loved it!

 Pretty soon, his cheeks were rosy red and he had worked up quite the appetite. So inside we went for the perfect snowy day lunch....organic soba noodles with chicken and vegetables.

Ahh! nothing quite like adventures in the snow!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I hope that you enjoy the flowers from Austin and Chubby Snowman (details next post). You are an inspiration and a wonderful woman. Take some time to relax and enjoy!

All our love,
The Boutmans

UNCLE!

I admit defeat.

I'm done and would really like whatever bacteria has invaded my house to move on. G caught the stomach flu on Thursday and we're just getting ready to take Austin to the walk in clinic because I'm pretty sure he needs antibiotics. Our sitter and her family all caught the bug and were sick on Friday (Kelly I am so sorry!). Seriously it's been a week of feeling like crap and I am done. The only upside to all of this is that my mother in law came over to watch Austin yesterday and while she was here she tidied our house up and did laundry. Thank god because this place was a disaster! I still need to scrub down the bathrooms and wash the floors but at least the clutter has been cleared away. I've got my fingers crossed for the 649 tonight. I need a housekeeper and a cook....that reminds me I need to go to the grocery store today...

Please bacteria, go away!

It's okay people

So if you read my previous post I had originally shared a picture of Ozzy that G and I thought was hilarious. I would never, ever put my child in harms way and I didn't think that it was over exposing anything. I do understand why some people might think so but I'm going to agree to disagree. I did take the picture down and replaced it with a couple of other adorable pictures because I do understand where you are coming from and I know that you only want the best for my family.

This blog is a place where I can keep in touch with my family and friends and I want to keep it that way so thank you for your feedback!

Good Lord?! Could the past four days have been ANY crazier?!



Arr!



The Pirate Potty was a big hit on Saturday. Mind you, we still went through 5 pairs of undies but Oz was getting the hang of it by the end of the day. He wore a pull up to bed, woke up dry as a bone and then he only went through 2 pairs of undies on Sunday!! He's very excited about peeing in the Pirate Potty..now we just need to work on the "other" end of the business.



I'm glad that Oz was doing so well on Sunday because I, on the other hand, was not. I just didn't feel right all day, I couldn't nap, I had no energy and wasn't hungry. I laid down with our little Monkey at 8:30 to put him to sleep for the night and was out like a light. I woke up at 10:30 and that is when it started....twice an hour until 7:15am. At 5:30am I called 811 (not to be confused with 911) because I couldn't even keep water down and I was crazy dizzy. The nurse told me to go to the ER right away.

G dropped me off and I started getting sick again. When they called my name I was so weak, I couldn't even walk and they had to wheel me in. I was quite the sight let me tell you! Hair all disheveled, yogurt and boogers on my yoga pants (I just threw on whatever clothes I could find) with my head down in a plastic lined paper bag. Oh yeah baby! That's why G thinks I'm hot enough to have his babies! (oh and just so you know he did come back after dropping Oz off at the sitter's only to have to leave to go pick him up again at 9am because he was throwing up too.)

Anywho! I was hooked up to an IV and 5 hours, 3 litres of fluid and one prescription later I was discharged and allowed to go home. I had G drop off the drug request and I went home and slept all afternoon.

Now here's a point that I think is pretty critical to the next part of the story. I'm pregnant. And it isn't like you can't tell. Sure, I had that whole "Wow, lay off the cheeseburgers lady" look happening for awhile, but I've definitely popped. And I told the doc and nurse that I was 19 weeks pregnant, if they couldn't figure that out on their own. They did an ultrasound to check the baby out (I didn't get to see anything though) and had to use a doppler to find a heartbeat because they couldn't get a good one on the u/s. So after all of that, the doc- who seemed like a very nice young man- prescribed a drug to treat a bacterial infection that I have that causes birth defects! Seriously!!!

My doc family doc was able to squeeze me in yesterday for a follow up and prescribed something else. She was going to follow up with the ER to let that crazy doc know he could have been sued! (or in her terms- advise the doc of his very serious error)

So it's Wednesday now. I'm still drinking G2 and eating crackers and noodles. Nothing else stays down or tastes good. Not that noodles taste great... Please let me be able to eat good food by this weekend! (on the plus side at my next appt I probably won't have gained too much weight!)

Pirate Potty Weekend

I want my monkey out of diapers. Don't get me wrong, I love his little Fuzzy Bunz booty that he gets in his overnight diaper but there comes a time when people just don't want to wash diapers anymore. We're there. I really want to give the diapers one last Rocking Green soak, air them out on the line and pack them up until I have to get diapers ready for the next little Monkey in June.

This weekend we are going to be pirates...because even pirates use the potty. I found this great book at Walmart:

Austin is loving it! He has asked to read it every night this week before bed time. It comes with a pirate hat and some reward stickers that he has been trying to get me to give him all week. I have been telling him that the stickers are for when he goes potty.  I'm going to make a couple of Jolly Roger flags and attach them to his potty to make it more like a pirate potty (the potty in the book is black with flags, cannons and, I love this element, an "X" marks the spot!). 

Keep your fingers crossed that our little pirate jumps on the wagon this weekend and that our efforts don't go down the drain (pardon the pun!)

A new blog header and a gold medal game

I was lucky enough to get Photoshop for Christmas (thanks Mark!) and tonight I made my first blog header. What do you think? I know the picture is from September but I was so excited that I was finally able to remove the booger from his nose from the picture (I finally figured out that cloning tool!), that I decided to use it as my trial header. I was going to change the background theme but couldn't really find one that suited my mood right now. I did manage to find a very cute Valentine's Day background that I will no doubt be apply in the coming weeks.

Tonight is a very exciting night in our house. Austin is sitting next to me on the sofa cheering on team Canada in the gold medal game. It's incredibly comical. The players are just skating around and he is throwing his hands up in the air and yelling "Oh COME ON!" and "Serious!" and my favorite "HE SHOOTS!...mommy he missed the net." and we're only 10 minutes in. I know it's past his bedtime and we'll regret this in the morning but come on...how can you miss out on this?!:

Although he has his Playstation remote in his hands and I think he thinks he is making the players move...

I burnt the soup

That pretty much sums up my day. We slept in until 8:30am, got up, had breakfast and started the de-Christmas-fication process. While I was waiting for G to dig out the Christmas boxes, I got started in the kitchen. I put the ham bone on to boil, added the split peas. I did the prep for my favorite chicken stir fry with green onions,  oranges and walnuts. I got that vacuum sealed and in the fridge all ready for dinner Thursday night. I made the chicken and broccoli pie, and checked the soup. All was good. I lowered the heat and went into the living room to start taking down Christmas.

I admit that I am not feeling great today. I don't know if it's pregnancy sick, a cold or what but I started to get a little dizzy after I finished packing away the ornaments. I laid down on the sofa and just closed my eyes for a minute. The next I know I hear "What's that smell?" G ran into the kitchen and turned off the soup pot. The pea soup had burnt to the bottom of the pot. Now pea soup is not something that you want to burn...it stinks to the high heavens! The soup had splattered all over the cook top. Poor G ended up cleaning the mess up because the smell was making me so nauseous. I went back to sleep, woke up at 2, took Ozzy upstairs to get him to have a nap and ended up sleeping the rest of the afternoon away.

Some times I just want to freeze time. Oz has been a handful today- in a good way. He has been so much fun and he wanted me to cuddle with him (hence the second nap). There is just something so sweet about those little hands reaching out to touch my face and the butterfly kisses that my baby gives before sleepy time. I just love it when he looks at me and says "You cuddle me mama? I wove you" Melt my heart!

Thanks for the great sweater Nanny

Finally a nice picture of me and my boy 

Tomorrow life returns to the work day routine. I have enjoyed every moment of spending my days with my family and our evenings with good friends. I can not wait to able able to do this full time. But for now, it's back to the daily grind, and I can't wait for Saturday!

New kitchen gadgets

I am in kitchen heaven today. I finally got a rice cooker ($10 at Superstore) and it is currently cooking me 6 perfect cups of organic long grain brown rice. For Christmas I got a Seal a Meal (vacuum food sealer) and I will be putting to use again tomorrow. My plan is to cook for the week tomorrow and then seal the meals and put them in the fridge or freezer depending on when I plan to serve them. My whole goal is to cook on Sundays and just heat and serve during the week. I need to find more time in my evening so that I can spend more quality time with Austin and G and getting my workouts in. I have 5 months until this baby comes and I want to make sure that I am fit enough to keep up with two kids!

Tonight we're having friends over for homemade Chinese food and tomorrow I'm serving up Pea Soup. The menu for the rest of the week includes ham and scalloped potatoes (using both white a sweet potatoes), chicken and broccoli pie and chicken stir fry with clementines and walnuts.

When I was pregnant with Austin, I met a lady named Jen. She was my labour buddy and her little girl was born just a few days after my little guy. Jen lives in the states and is a pretty remarkable lady. First, she's a military wife (I would never be able to do that), she's raising three kids AND she home school's the with. She is always sharing great sites with me and I wanted to pass along two of her recent shares with you:

http://www.superhealthykids.com/

http://www.anotherlunch.com/

These sites have been great at inspiring me to mix up Austin's weekend lunch and snack routine and giving me some new supper ideas. I hope you like them too!

Happy New Year!

We will open the book. It's pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and it's first chapter is New Years Day. ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

2010 was a pretty great year. Mind you it started out being stuck in Montreal and arriving home without luggage BUT things looked up from there. We had many adventures with our boy and watched our baby grow into a very energetic toddler. I turned 30 and was greeted with a surprise party that G managed to pull off without me knowing a single thing (thanks Gillian and Em!). I made a decision to change jobs and I left the IWK Foundation family with much hesitation and joined the Dalhousie Ancillary Services team. Thanksgiving was spent in Newfoundland and celebrated Austin's 2nd birthday while we were there and then had another party here for our NS family and friends. Christmas was great with family visiting from Nashville and New Brunswick. And we spent last night ringing in the New Year with great friends.

Resting up before the big night!

Lilah joins the fun!

Rudolph was a huge hit!

Handy Kelly! (She wanted Black and Decker tools for Christmas too!)

The boys setting off fireworks.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I am so very much looking forward to 2011. We have a new baby on the way and I can't wait to see what we make of the time we've been given.

Resolutions- everyone makes them, most people break them. I'm not resolving anything for 2011 but I am setting a few goals for myself:

Make more organic and green choices for me and my family.
Take better pictures and learn to use Photoshop
Blog 300 entries
Teach Austin to read ( yes I know he is only 2 but he's a pretty smart 2yr old!)
Spend more one on one time with G
Spend more time with my friends
Wear my rose coloured glasses as often as humanly possible!

Happy New Year Everyone!