The hair cut

Thom got a hair cut on Thursday, it shouldnt be a big deal, he gets his hair cut about every 3 months now. At dinner while we were talking about how he needed a hair cut, he said he wanted cut like Dada's. Yikes!

Jeff has always wanted to cut Thom's hair but I insist he goes to my hair dresser at Urban Star. She alway does a super job my Dad takes him and everyone fawns over Thom - it is a good ego boost. I know I love it when I get my hair done. So since Thom's first hair cut everytime Jeff talks about cutting his hair I say, lets go see Nicole and Thom always tells Jeff no I dont want a hair cut from you.

Anyways, Thursday it changed, and I cried.

I told Jeff it had to be the longest setting, which he did and it actually was looking pretty cute much to my suprise. Then Jeff did around Thom's ears, it kept looking better and he had these cute little sideburns. Then Jeff got out his little razor to do the side burn, a little zip up the side and OH NO the guard wasnt on it!!! Jeff tryed to even it out on both side and it just looked worse. All the hair came off. No cute little curls, you can't even tell his hair colour! I teared up, but kept complementing Thom, I dont want him to dislike his cut. (he has told us he misses his hair but we just have to wait for it to grow back).

He is proud of his hair cut like Dada, I think it will just take some time to get use to it, especially for me.

Pics

two twelve pound babies

Christy and Thom The boys swinging
Cayman walking around the park
Jeff and Thom playing in bed
Beth in her bucket before a drive

How do you become more Green...

So I thought I would try to be kinder to my environment on Tuesday when I went shopping.
I was only running into the store to pick up a couple items, namely cheese and fruit for Thom and me (Jeff doesnt eat fruit unless it is in a pie lol).

Well, I looked all through the fruit dept at the Family Foods in Selkirk - nothing was grown anywhere close to us. Which makes sense it is only spring. How many km should an item be driven before I veoto the item at home. banana - Ecudor (Thom's favourite fruit this month). Apples - well the bag said BC, oranges - USA, strawberries - USA.

How am I suppose to give Thom a varied diet of fruits and veggies following the Canada Food Guide? I did by potoatoes, carrots and onions which were all from Peak of the Market. But the lettuce we had for dinner in a salad was not grown anywhere close nor the peppers....

I then went to pick up some cheese, well New Bothwell is made in MB but wow what a difference in cost. I went to the No name brand which is packaged in SK. Then I have to ask myself where did originate from. Did the cheese get made in MB driven to SK to be packaged then driven back to MB to sell? or could this cheese be from BC or NS .

We had cod for dinner too, I know that was not from Winnipeg....

Apparently, if I want to do my part I will have to make some changes. I will start with baby steps I think I will start a compose this year and purchase all my veggies from Smitty's a road side stand they who grow organically and their feilds are very close by.

Tonight ham, with a potato carrot onion casserol made with eggs everything made in MB except that darn salad....

our week

The three of us have had a great week.
Sunday, morning Thom and I made breakfast and cream brulee for dinner. Then Thom and I put together his new playstructure (that took all afternoon with his help and stopping to feed Beth). Beth went in the outside swing for the very first time and loved it. It really helped out outside time because Thom could push the swing and I could put the stuff together. All of a sudden it was 4:15 and we all had to rush to get ready and go to my parents for a delish meal. We then spent the night with Thoms favourite Ava and her parents, my brother, parents and grandparents.
Monday, although it was terribly windy, Thom and I cleaned his room and did laundry. We also drove into town.
Tuesday still pretty windy so Thom and I made two different types of cookies.
Wednesday, Beth had her 8 week shots, that was unfortunate. Every time Beth took tylenel she would spit everything up from her tummy. I did find her size entertaining, she now weighs 12lb 1 oz with her diaper on and in the 95% for weight, her height however is the 50%. She truly is our little porker =) We then went to check on my brothers house to see the changes. From there we went to Goni and Daves and spent the afternoon enjoying their company and the kids getting some good bonding time with their grandparents after not seeing them for 3 weeks!
Thursday, Thom, Beth and I went with Jeff to work for the day. That was fun all four of us together, but I will say it was alot of driving. We went to Ericsdale, Dauphin, Ste Rose du Lac, and one other place.
Friday, we tidied up at home in the morning and Beth had a nice long nap. The 3 of us then went for a walk with Christy, Cayman, Erin, Dominic and Miguel. We went to the park and Thom and Cayman raced around on the play structure, swings and sandbox. When we were done at the park Phill joined us and we went for icecream yum! It is funny how Thom didnt like icecream before Belize and now he can eat all of the icecream in a cone (he doesnt eat the cone though!)
Now today, Thom and I had some alone time. Beth and Jeff stayed at home and we went to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for breakfast. It was very nice. and now I am spending some alone time with Beth and Thom and Jeff went for a drive to his parents. Sweet!

A bathtime breakthrough

I am thinking Beth may not hate water!

This is very exciting to me as bathing her has been a headache since she was born. With the revalation that she has sensitive skin, I have only washed and bathed her with hypoallergenic soap.

However, today for the first time I bathed her only in clean water with no soaps. She was smiling and splashing in the water for the first time ever!

I have also stopped putting lotion (which also was hypoallergenic) on her as she gets very upset, I think that must be irratating aswell.

I don't know how much milk and spitup is removed with only a rinse but the washcloth must remove some stuff.

Dreams

I have been having the same basic principle of a dream lately, I keep being kidnapped with different member of my family.
Before we left on vaction I dreamt, Beth's passport was at the airport office and I went to get them. After chatting with the very nice fellow I went back to our gate where Jeff was waiting for me. When I got there, I looked at the 2 passports in my had and they were for a older couple. I had to rush back to get the right paperwork and Thom refused to be left behind so I took him and ran. Once we got back to the office the fellow apoligised and gave me the correct passports. Our plane was going to leave very shortly and we had to change terminals. The fellow felt so bad he offered us a ride from the terminal we were in to the correct terminal. The fellow had a friend in his car and drove away from the airport to a cleared patch in a forest. There Thomas and I were told what horible things they would do to us. I told Thom (he was older then 2 in my dream) to run and they could have me. The abductors also threatened Beth (who was not with us) if we would not comply with their demands. They said they would take one of my children and if I would not choose they would harm them both. So I could call Thom back or wait for them to get him and Beth.
I woke up terrified!

Now twice since I have been back;

Thom, myself and both my parents were taken and locked in a room in the middle of small town with nothing around. After many hours my Dad was able to remove a small window very high up and jump out. I tossed Thom out the window to him (the drop was 3 meters), and jumped out after him. My Mom couldn't reach the window as she is shorter and was going to try to rush the guard at the door and would meet us in the forest. We had not met/seen our abductors so we did not know if this was going to be a hard task.
Thom then woke up and I dont know if we would have been able to make our escape.

Then last night, Jeff, Thom, Beth and myself were abducted and put on a houseboat at someones cabin (out the window at night we could see no other lights so we beleived there was no other cabins around). We still had our cell phones but Jeff's had no service where we were and mine was broken when we were kidnapped. Jeff's scuba gear was there and my diaperbag. After the second night we were joined by 2 children who were also kidnapped. Jeff decided to try to go out a open window with his scuba gear and see if he could find a cottage with inhabitants. He came back with the sad news that there were other cottages however, very far away and every one he came to was empty. Beth was beinging to smell because I was rationing diapers not knowing how long we would be there since we still had not met the abductors. The 2 other children would not interact with us and just cryed in the corner (they were clean and nicely dressed). I was trying to put my phone back together to see if I had a signal and maybe with GPS tracking someone could find us from the signal.
And Thom woke up again so I dont know what was going to happen to us.


I don't know why I keep dreaming dreams about kidnappings and abduction. I am eating the same food before bed - no, have I watched a scary movie or tv show like CSI - no or read a scary book - no. I tried to look it up on the internet this morning and the meaning I got are ones from below. Since I alway am taken with a family member I looked up family, kidnapped and abduction.

Family To see your own family in your dream, represents security, warmth and love. Consider also the significance of a particular family member or the relationship you have with them
Kidnap To dream that you are being kidnapped, denotes feelings of being trapped and restricted. Someone or some situation may be diverting your� concentration and your attention away from your goals.
To dream that someone has been kidnapped, indicates that you are not letting aspects and characteristics of that person be expressed within you. You are trying to contain and/or suppress those qualities of the kidnapped person.
Abduction To dream of being abducted, indicates that you are being controlled by your circumstances or by someone.

Okay, I know I am very attached to Beth and have only left her once (with Jeff) to run to the corner store for milk while she slept and I am on mat leave because I had her (she is only 7weeks old). Maybe it is because I feed Beth on demand and we have no schedual. But how does security with love relate to being trapped or restricted?

Regardless, I am glad there has been no threatened violence again as that made me very fearful. I had to go check that the alarm was on and I felt like someone was watching me. I was even afraid to check on Thom but felt I had to. Luckly Beth was in our bed so I knew she was safe with Jeff and slept in the chair beside Thoms bed for a couple hours.

Oh well, I will see what happens in the next couple nights. Maybe I should just be thankful that Beth sleeps in long enough stretchs that I can dream.

Trip part 2

I am done writing about the trip I decided, as there is only one thing I really wanted to still post.
As the trip progressed it was amazing to see the progression in Thom's swimming skilled and confidence in the water. At the Captin Morgan's resort Thom could swim a couple feet from on person to another with no help. On the last day Thom ran and jumped into the pool from the side and he also swam from one end of the pool to the other with only the assistance of a 2 pool noodles. (we need to work on the floating part).
Beth however still hates the water, pools, baths anything that makes her wet and or cold.

milestones

Thom is doing somethin else new this week.
On Tuesday when we went for our walk with the jogging stroller my sister gave me the night before-very nice for our gravel and mud roads. Thom was spashing in a puddle, and slipped in the mud and fell on his bottom. His pants were soaked. Now a couple weeks ago he would have put his hands down on the ground and use them to help him get up. But on Tuesday, he rocked his body back and forth and propelled himself out without getting his hands wet and dirty.
Now just to show it wasn't a fluke, yesterday while we were out side cleaning upfor spring, he asked to play in the ditch. Of course I said yes and we discussed how he could only do that with an adult watching as the water could be deeper then expected. Low and behold what happened after a couple minutes, he fell in. Again he rocked his body ans propelled himself out of the water without getting his hands dirty or wet!

Another milestone was as I was reading him his book for bed last night, he noticed I skipped a page. Before he could flip to any page in a book - the back front then middle and be happy.

How come the parenting books dont mention these milestones?

Trip part 1

Well we got back from our trip very early on Monday morning after being caught in a snow storm on the way home. It worked out okay for us as we stopped in Albertville for some shopping and left later then planned (4:10pm) my parents however left in the morning and they were in gridlock travelingback to Winnipeg - they didnt get in to town till 10:30pm, thank goodness for the outlet malls :)

We, had left last Friday at 12:30 and made the drive to MN, the kids were fantastic which relieved me! Thommy talked to us, slept and watched 'Toopy and Bino' and we stopped 4 times so I could feed Beth. The next day we left the hotel for the airport at 7am and unfortunatley Thommy was coming down with a cold. He was very subduedand although he was great on the planes his cold continued to get worse. By the time we got into the condo at 6pm Thom's breathing had become laboured.

The owner of the condo had waited for us (we missed our connecting flight in Belize City and had to take a later one) and after showing us around the condo she took us for a mini tour of Ambergreis Caye in her golf cart (the main transportation on the island is a golf cart-we rented a 6 person while we were there). While we were getting our tour my Dad and Tim took off in our golf cart and went to get groceries for dinner. By the time we were all back at the condo Thom's breathing was worse and his chest was rattaling - I was thinking he had pnemonia again, and I had left his puffers at home (although he doesnt have asthma the instent steriod when he has laboured breathing in the past has helped open up his airways. The doc says it is because he was sick so much this winter, his lungs need extra help.)

Thankfully on Sunday Thom woke up and his chest wasnt as rattaley, and we decided to see how he was later that afternoon before bringing him to the island doctor. After a day in the heat and the humitity Thom was doing better!

The week passed quite quickly, while I didnt do any snorkeling, diving, or day trips I dont feel like I missed out on anything. (my parents went diving, Mom, Dad and Tim went snorkeling Jeff went diving and snorkeling and Mom Dad and Tim went on a cave tubing zip line adventure on the main land). I spent quite a bit of time down town exploring their 2 main roads, talking to people, playing with and watching Thom play on the beach and in the water, playing in the pool at the condo with the whole family (except Beth who HATES the water) and of course feeding Beth.

The only thing I am sad about was on Friday when I was planning to sit on the beach all day with the kids and Jeff, there was a large wind during the night which pushed thousands of jellyfish to the shoreline. As we walked to a beach side restraunt as far as I could see there were jellyfish! This hotel/restraunt which has a man made reef where eels and all sorts of marine life live which children can play and swim in - unfortunatley it was all murky from the churning waters and we could not see anything much less swim in due to the jelly fish. Oh well, next time.

We did have a scare with Beth aswell on the trip. The doctor said due to being in the tropics, if she is okay with it put sunscreen on her to ensure she doesnt burn. So the first morning there, I sat her up and put on her sunscreen which she made no fuss about. Then I put on mine. While I was doing that, Beth started shreking- and she is a very calm baby who doesnt doesnt cry very much. I was terrified. I rushed her to the bathroom where my mom was giving Thom a bath, put Beth in the sink and started washing her. It turns out she is very sensitive to sents, creams and wipes. I use wash clothes at home instead of baby wipes. For the trip I bought wipes for sensitive bottoms for both kids (I dont have enough wash clothes for 2 kids over 10days) which on Beths bottom turned it all red and sensitive. We all had to be careful the rest of the trip not to put any creams on ourselves and then pick her up.

Well, I have more to write but Thom is ready to play with me and Beth is waking up.