Montreal, Morning of Day 2

Montreal, Day 1

On the road! Oliver started out the trip really well, but started saying "done" about an hour and a half into the 5 hour trip! He was a trooper, though.

The chauffeur. He dealt with the stress of a whiney 1 year old very well.

Tear for the Old Man...

Yay! Oliver is an international traveller! We thought we were close once we crossed the border...but we still had about 2 hours to go! The countryside was beautfiul, though, farmland for miles on end. I never got shots, but it was a nice drive.

This is our bed and breakfast, Chez Cynthia
We arrived around 815pm, a little before schedule! We got set up in our room, put Oliver in his jammies, and hit the town! The hoppin' street of St. Catherine's was only 2 blocks from our place, but you would never guess, we were on a nice quiet street.

The bed was as hard as a rock, but other than that it was a great place to stay. Shane and I really like staying in bed and breakfasts, its a more personalized approach to seeing a city. Cynthia whipped out a map the first night and told us all the places we would want to hit. Not to mention the breakfasts! But I will get to that tomorrow!

Date Night

What are some fun date nights that you readers like to do? I feel like we do a lot of dinner, movies, ice cream combos. Anything cheap and fun that you like to do on date night? How about a date night you would never do again?

coolest grandma EVER

This is what my 80+ Grandmother was doing on Memorial Day. (If you can't tell, she is trimming the hedges with a chainsaw) As my Uncle put it, "YOU try telling her she's too weak and frail then be prepared to get your butt kicked!" Age is truly nothing but a number to this woman!

Potty

That is Oliver's newest word. We are trying to emphasize what is done IN the potty. This morning when he was doing his business I said "Are you going poo poo? Where do we go poo poo?" And he said "Potty" and I asked him if he wanted to go sit on it and he said yes. Of course, he'd already done the deed, but we're just working on association right now. I'm deluding myself into thinking that he will at least be doing poo poos on the potty by the time Lily comes. I can handle the pee pees, but once I have to do 2 stinky diapers, my patience will wane quickly!

Mama!

I'm a little behind in posting this, but right around the time we moved, so about 2.5 weeks ago, Oliver FINALLY learned the most important word in the English language...Mama!! It took 18 loooong months, but he now says it...a lot! But I have to say, I still relish every time he says it, I think I appreciate it a little more because I had to wait so much longer than many other moms to hear those magical words! I have a video of him saying it which I will add later.

Some other new words; buh is bus, broom is truck (as in vroom vroom)....hmm, I thought there were more!

We've begun the rough transition into Nursery for Oliver. Right now we are trading off weekly who is with him the second hour and who is with him the third. This is the curse of the SAHM. We can not easily leave our children...even to use the bathroom! I don't know if this is a good or bad thing but there is only one other child in Nursery and two leaders, so there isn't as much distraction for Oliver but he gets more attention from the leaders. I hope that within a month he will be able to make it through. Of course this week is Stake Conference, so the whole groove gets thrown off anyway!

We've really settled in and are so happy to be "home." We both really feel that this is our home and where we are meant to be and love being here!

Happy Mothers Day

Poets and philosophers, scholars and sages, have long believed that motherhood possesses the greatest potential for good or ill in human life. Children unconsciously model their parents’ manner, speech, and conduct. A mother’s habits often become a child’s pattern for living. A mother’s influence can be an incomparably powerful force for good. “Show me a mother who prays, who has passed through the trials of life by prayer, who has trusted in the Lord God in her trials and difficulties and her children will follow in the same path. Most mothers seem to have the God-given ability to nurture their children. They teach their children to work hard, to persevere, and most of all to love. They model kindness and respect. They maintain a positive attitude in the face of trials. Indeed, motherhood is the noblest responsibility in the world.

Thank you to all of the women in my life. You may not be my mother, but you have all taught me so much that I would be a lesser woman and mother without knowing you!

Still Nothing

Still no sign of the stroller. It makes me rather angry, but I guess I have to move on. My mom was generous enough to buy me a really nice umbrella stroller. The reason that the stroller was left in the lobby is that I can't carry it and Oliver up the stairs, but I can easily do that with an umbrella stroller, so that will make life much easier.
I also picked out another couch yesterday. It is being delivered tomorrow. It should definitely fit through the door this time. (side note; I just realized I never blogged about our couch. We ordered a couch and when they came to deliver it, it was too tall to fit through the hallway, much less our front door, so we had to send it back :( :( ) So this couch is a love seat with a chaise lounge as the third cushion. I'm not good at describing it...here's a picture. So the love seat part is not attached to the lounge part, they just push together, so each piece should fit through the door easily. It will be nice to have a couch. Right now all we have is my glider/rocker that we bought for me to nurse Lily in.
Unpacking is coming along. We have 6 boxes of books that are waiting for a bookshelf, 3 boxes for goodwill, and 2 more boxes that need to be unpacked. Its all starting to feel pretty manageable; hooray!
Shane got the sickness early this week and just barely got over it (his was more a general feeling of ickiness as opposed to repeated puking). We got a phonecall from Shane's dad last night telling us that Shane's mom now has the illness. Bad timing as today is her birthday:( :( We wish her a speedy recovery!!!
After such a rough week last week, things seem to be coming together and we're really starting to get settled. I hope that by this time next week everything will be DONE!

Prayers Needed Again

I forgot to put my stroller back in the car last night and left it in the lobby. This morning it was gone. I can only assume it has been stolen. Oliver lives for his walks, and it was a really nice stroller. If you could all pray for the culprit's heart to be softened to this poor mommy, that would be wonderful. I put a note where it was stolen asking for it to be returned. I am checking craigslist and ebay daily to see if it shows up and am filing a police report tomorrow. I'm doing all I can...the rest is up to whatever goodness is left in this person's heart!

Rissy-Poops

Tomorrow my li'l sis, Marisa, is coming back home to NH for the summer. Last summer she spent in Australia, and the summer before she was a counselor at a camp in upstate NY, Lakonda. (I have to say it like Uncle Rico says "LaFawnda"). So this is the longest she will be home since she has been at college! I am so proud of her displays of independence. I only lasted a year in Idaho before I had to come back to my roots. Marisa has been in Utah for 3 years and has really made the most of her experience. She has made a lot of friends and travels very frequently. My only complaint is the lack of boyfriends! Come on, guys, this girl is a CATCH!!
Well I am really excited for her to be up this summer for the WHOLE summer. I'm super excited for the Disney marathons, endless movie quotes, Chili's visits, and of course the occasional fights;) Here is her blog if you want to check it out...she doesn't post nearly enough, but she has some great (and some hilarious) pictures from her many travels.
Hurry home Rissy!

feeling better

Well, thank you all for the prayers and good thoughts. I asked Shane to stay home from school last night so that I could get some rest and I think it made a huge difference. Oliver and I have both been able to eat solid foods today with no problems. Oliver still has some diarrhea, but I think we'll have to endure a few more days of that until he gets regular solid foods in him.
I think Lily is excited that I'm actually eating food again. She has been kicking. hard. non. stop. Well, I'm off to find some more to eat. Can't deprive the girl what she wants!