Thursday, November 25, 2010

Cooper and brushing teeth

November 22, 2010
I just wanted to share something Cooper does that I think is adorable and makes me laugh.
Cooper has a love hate relationship with his toothbrush.  In order to actually get his teeth cleaned I lay him down on the floor straddle him, pin his arms between my legs and his torso and proceed to brush his teeth. This way he can’t get away or push me away. I know it is cruel but a Mom’s gotta do cruel things for the greater good sometimes.
Despite him not liking the whole process he still finds his toothbrush and toothpaste and brings it to me everyday wanting his teeth brushed.  In fact it’s not just him giving it to me and letting me know he wants to brush his teeth but he practically begs and pleads for me to do it. Once he sees me putting the toothpaste on his brush he goes and finds a place to lay down already knowing what is coming.  It is the funniest thing to me.  I sing this song to try and make it fun for him and part of the song is making a brushing sound.  When he wants his teeth brushed he will also make the brushing sound as part of the begging/pleading process for me to brush his teeth. The song goes like this: When you wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to 5 and you just want to feel alive, you brush your teeth, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh. You brush your teeth, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh, chsh.  Then repeat with the next hour (so quarter to six) and make up a verse that rhymes and so on.
I sure love my little man. He makes me smile. Oh, and since my last post about him getting big so fast I just want to say that he has sprouted and is so much taller than he was a month and a half ago. It blows me away how much he has grown.   
 Cooper laying down on the floor waiting for me to come brush his teeth. Notice how he went to the softest area to lay down on.

Playing with his toothbrush after having his teeth brushed. We got him a spin brush so he would stop pulling Kent's and mine out. However, I think his favorite is Daddy's.


Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Nov 23, 2010 9th Anniversary

It was our 9th year anniversary yesterday and it was a super great day. My first surprise was a dump of snow and I loved it. The second was:

Flowers from Kent. It's funny because they told him the roses were a yellowy gold. Well I don't know about you but they look peach colored to me! Either way they are beautiful. I love, love, love getting flowers. Then the 3rd surprise was a package from my sister I have been waiting forever for. In the package was lots of surprises. One of them was for me and she had made me some pillow shams to cover pillows on my couch.

Kent had made plans for the night and it was a surprise. I had found a babysitter. Just to preface, this is a big deal. Kent and I haven't been out on a real date with out Cooper since I think last Christmas. I think because we are too uptight about him and I am not really sure why else. We were a little nervous but Cooper loved having new faces to play with. He was really good, or at least that is what Juliet said.  


 Here is a picture of Cooper with Juliet and Victoria. They are sisters and both are rock solid, good, amazing people. We are super impressed with these two. They are in our branch and our institute class we teach.
So the 4th surprise was where we went for dinner. It wasn't in St. John's but in Portugal Cove. I had no idea where we were going but I love surprises so I just enjoyed the ride and wondered. The restaurant was at this up scale bed and breakfast called The Beach House Room and Suites. Inside they have one of THE best restaurants on the island and I was about to find out why. It was really nice inside and a lady took our jackets and showed us the our table. There were about 10-15 tables total. It was nicely decorated in my favorite style. . . Christmas!  

I don't know if you can really see much but the restaurant looks out on to Portugal Bay and if it isn't pitch black out, I am sure has a wonderful view. All we could really see was the Bell Island Ferry and the other side of the Bay that was lit up by street lights. But still very nice and it set a cool mood.
So we chose to do this thing on their menu where you have a 6 coarse taste meal. It can be different from the day before but the chief cooks up 6 different dishes that he feels good about that night and does them in smaller portions so you can eat them to have a taste of more than one thing. I was really excited about the experience. Might I also add that the menu had about 4 words on the entire thing that I knew what it was. It was really exotic and way over my head. I felt a little out of place but our server was great and for the first part of dinner we were the only ones there until a second couple came in.
So this was not part of the 6 course meal but all I am going to say is Holy Good! My mouth is watering just looking at it. It was some kind of thin sliced meat with all sorts of things on it, including goat cheese (my fav). He called it a "tongue pleaser", and he was right. It had about 5 different flavours all at once and each one complimented the other perfectly. It made me wonder how it is that people can come up with such amazing things.



The next was a beat salad. Can I just say I had no idea there was more than one kind of beat but apparently there is. This was also very exquisite.
 As you can see the next plate has nothing on it. That is because I forgot to take a picture before I ate it up. Tasty is not even a good word to describe it. It was a high end meat that I had never heard of before cut so thin it tore like wet paper. It had some nuts, cheese and greens with it but my favorite part was a drizzle of balsamic vinegar with a 7 spice and herb Japanese blend that was a little hot. It was divine. Once again an explosion of flavours all working together lovingly in my mouth.


I wish he would have written down what all of these were called for us. It would take him about a minute or 3 to tell us what the dish was, what was in it and then answer our questions about it after. This was called something like water and land meet. To the bottom right of the plate is duck liver ( I loved the taste but I couldn't handle the texture). To the top left was cod cheeks over pork belly and onions. The red stuff was a cranberry apple chutney. My favorite was the cod cheeks. Delicious. It was all really good.
 This dish was not so exotic and more close to flavours I am use to. It was stuffed pasta with mushrooms in a very light but extremely yummy sauce. As you can tell we kept forgetting to take pictures before we had eaten almost the entire dish.
 Next was duck over green beans and lentils with 2 different sauces. Once again I don't know how chiefs can come up with combinations that work so well. I have had lentils before and I swore I would never eat them again. This dish forced me to see the light that lentils are not the devil!
 Along with the 6 tasting dishes we ordered a tasting cheese platter. It wasn't only cheese but also candied roasted pecans, figs, honey and bread to got with the cheese. I liked all of the cheese except for the blue cheese in the top left corner. I am just not a blue cheese kind of gal.
 And the last coarse was dessert and it was wonderful. Nice and light, not overpowering. It reminded me of the Sydney Australia Opera house because of the shape of the cookie on top.

 Here we are. It is hard to believe it has been 9 years. A wonderful 9 years I must add. Life just keeps getting better.
 By the end of dinner we were both stuffed. I was surprised by this as I thought the portions were going to be so small we were going to leave hungry. We joked about hitting A&W on the way home during the first half of the meal. It took us about 2.5 hours for our meal and we had wonderful conversation in between the different dishes coming out. Kent said that this was a lot like how the French eat. It is much more slower paced and long stretches between each coarse. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a memorable surprise.

The last surprise of the day was when we got home and I went to pay my babysitter, she refused payment and would not take money despite my protesting. We had every intention of paying her but she babysat not for the money but as a gift instead. I was touched as it was such a difficult thing for us to leave Cooper. 
Sorry for the snooze fest. This entry is more of a journal entry for me so I don't forget the little details. 
Luvs,
Domestic C.O.O. 

Nov 24, 2010

Tonight we have a Relief Society function and I was going to bring something really special that I knew the ladies would love being as I haven't seen anything remotely even similar in style to it. They are very pie and cookie orriented here. I was going to make my buddy Amy's recipe of S'mores. The main ingredient other than chocolate and marshmallows of course is Golden Grahams. Well, I have been to pretty much all the big chain grocery stores and I have come to the conclusion that NL does not have Golden Grahams. How can this be?
So, my big plans have been spoiled and now all I can think of is how am I going to get me some Golden Grahams so I can have S'mores in a pan? I will allow anyone to send me some if they want!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

My little man has rhythm!

Cooper is constantly changing and everyday seems to bring new things. However, one thing that has been constant is that he has some wicked dance moves. He just gets better and better. He LOVES to dance. He has a special spot that he likes to dance on and that is the middle of the kitchen floor. So I will turn some music on (right now my favorite is Christmas anything) and immediately Cooper will be at his spot dancing away. It is too cute. I keep trying to catch him on video. I haven't been super successful but I want to share with you what I caught today.

Like I said it is not the greatest video but it is better than nothing.

Friday Nov 19, 2010

On the way out to the car to take Kent to work, with Cooper in my arms I slipped and fell. There was a thin sheet of ice on our walkway that I didn't know about until too late and my feet went out from right underneath me. My Motherly instincts held true and I was able to keep Cooper safe. I am so glad he was ok. I had the diaper bag / backpack on which helped cushion the fall and therefore didn't hit my head. However, I did hurt my foot.
After walking on it for a few hours it was really starting to throb. I iced it and then decided that I needed to get it checked out for fear I had broken it. To save you all from a long boring storey I had x-ray's and it is ok. Just a sprain. Ladybug was also fine. I was lucky and had my OBGYN appointment later that morning.  It is the most comforting sound to hear the fetal heart beat. I think I love it so much for 2 reasons. 1. I know that she is ok and alive. 2. I have a thing for hearts. I am fascinated by how the heart works and one day I would love to be a cardiac cath lab nurse.
Today I am really grateful for these things: My husband's boss who is very understanding and allowed my husband to be with me and help with Cooper. The safety of my family and that none of us were badly hurt. For a husband who is supportive and extremely helpful despite my clumsiness.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Kitchen

My kitchen cabinets are complete as of today!! I am super happy. I still have to clean off all the dust and sweep the sawdust but I will post pics soon. Yipeee!!!!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Halloween 2010

For Halloween we didn't really do all the usual things as we didn't have our kitchen in yet. So we missed out on pumpkin carving and really I guess that is the one I was disappointed about but life goes on.  We went to Kent's work to show his co-workers Cooper in his costume. One of his co-workers was bringing in her son so we thought we would do the same.  They loved him. Really, what is not too love!
Then on Friday night our church had a trunk or treat along with food and games. Cooper had a blast. He won a medal for cutest costume at the party.  Kent really wanted us to go as a soccer family so we all dressed up in our soccer garb and went as soccer players. So Cooper ended up being 2 things for Halloween, a cowboy and a soccer player.  We bought him his soccer kit when we were in England.  He has some room to grow in it but why wait?



A good old fashion, Alberta, Howdy!

You can see our empty kitchen in the background with unfinished walls!

Daddy showing Coop how to be fast with his guns.


The lesson on how to pull the trigger.


Kent's co-workers and one of his co-workers son's, and of course Coop.


At the trunk or treat. Cooper loves suckers/lollipops, even through the wrapper!

Trick or treating from car to car at the Trunk or Treat.


He loved the little medal he won. Not that he really knew the meaning of it but he loves things that go around your neck and things with string or ribbon.


Cooper was the smallest so he got the first whack at the pinata.


Our growing family.


Major Disappointment

Today is November 7th and I still don't have my kitchen. I feel frazzled, disappointed, frustrated, angry, mad, upset, depressed, very large, awkward and super uncomfortable. Most of those are due to the kitchen not being in and the others are because I am super pregnant. I feel like I think I should feel with 2-3 weeks to go but I have 7.5 weeks left.
We have unpacked everything we can and yet still have lots of boxes that we have to live around until the kitchen is complete. To add to those boxes we have a kitchen sink, faucets, a dishwasher and microwave hood fan we also are living around.  They are patiently waiting in their boxes waiting to be installed. I wish I could be as patient as they are!
So the big day is suppose to be tomorrow. I will believe that when the installers show up. Other wise I don't really have any recourse I can take with the cabinet guys. To go with someone else will be another 6 weeks and I am certainly not waiting that long again. The install was suppose to be 5 days ago.  I would post a picture of the kitchen in it's state right now but it will ruin the reveal. Sorry.

On a happier note Cooper is doing great. He said "all gone" today. He can't wait to be able to play in the kitchen again. It seems that is all he wants to do is go in there but we don't let him as there are uncovered electrical boxes and the stove plug in, which is perfect size for little fingers.  He is growing so fast and I will admit his hair cut has grown on me. I look back at pictures before and think what a shaggy, unloved looking kid!!! He had great curls but I think we let his hair grow too long. Funny thing is that we cut it just before we left Sarnia. So he has really fast growing hair. He already is starting to get some of his curls back. Yes!
Luvs,
Myril