tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79404799489324884102014-10-03T04:01:55.753-04:00Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.comBlogger238125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-41804050042156623112013-03-22T12:19:00.000-04:002013-03-22T12:19:31.808-04:00

"Look Mom. Look at my pancake, I made the moon..." We were having celebratory pancakes (because the 3 year old is all better) and R.E.M.'s Man on the Moon was playing in the background ;)

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-42096096709452418972013-03-21T00:32:00.003-04:002013-03-21T00:35:35.407-04:00

Yes, they fight. Often enough to make me wonder what the hell I am doing wrong... but then, there are also magical times that confirm that I don't completely suck as a mom. Today was one of those magical days. The 3 year old woke up with a fever (no, that wasn't the magical part) and from the start, the 5 year old, while still being his usual rambunctious self, assumed a natural caregiver role.

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-27454423428667738192013-03-11T13:45:00.000-04:002013-03-11T13:45:25.751-04:00

We I am so anxious for spring that we took a walk to the park yesterday (not really expecting the kids to play - Ha!). It's a good thing we had our rain boots on (except for the hubby who got his feet soaked) because there were gigantic puddles everywhere, which only added to the boys' excitement... it felt good to be out ;)

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-51267080155081896992013-02-09T14:58:00.000-05:002013-03-13T23:08:10.954-04:00

One of the last remaining items on my wish list to learn to make was bread. I've really wanted to try making bread from scratch for a long time now and I just didn't have the courage. It all sounds so complicated. All the kneading and rolling and figuring out the yeast and the kneading and the whatever else... Now, let's be honest, it's not like I spent much time researching any recipes. I

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-24317881892317744952013-01-24T00:05:00.003-05:002013-01-24T00:05:56.134-05:00

I've been waiting for what seems like a really long time to post this picture: At 14 weeks, I've finally reached the 2nd trimester. Yay! Ok, energy you can come back now... The 3 year old is happy but I don't think he fully understands what it all means yet, though he's adamant he wants a sister. The 5 year old is so excited that he's actively announcing the news to everyone, even random

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-1192221858661549732013-01-07T10:46:00.002-05:002013-01-07T10:46:37.878-05:00

A big thank you goes to our friends D & R for giving us this toy.  The 5 year old insisted on building the fort himself, with some minor assistance from the 3 year old. And it's much bigger than it looks like in the picture. The final touch was adding 2 sunroofs for them to open up and peek out from.  They crawl in, bring a ton of toys and stay inside for a while. Then peek

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-88467450543765503602013-01-04T00:12:00.001-05:002013-01-04T00:12:53.484-05:00

------------------------------------------ - Mamma, when I grow up can I marry you, is it allowed, is it done? -No honey. It isn't. [smile] But, when you grow up, you'll find someone special and fall in love and buy a house of your own... -NO! I won't. I will never. I don't ever want to leave. I want to stay here with you. I am not leaving [wipes a tear away] -You know that you are always

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-40681946014204489462013-01-03T00:35:00.003-05:002013-01-03T00:35:45.622-05:00

The city was blasted with 45 cm of snow [close to 18 inches]. The kids were bored, one recently recovered from being ill and now the other with a fever. Over the past 2 weeks we'd spent far too many days lounging on the couch watching TV because of sick kids. We were starting to get cabin fever. And oddly enough, with so many available rooms in the house, we'd been spending the past few days all

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-70271100987802086682012-12-11T19:35:00.000-05:002012-12-11T19:35:15.526-05:00

I personally don't really believe in religion, any religion (I have nothing against anyone who does, it just isn't my belief). But I do love the holidays. It's all about getting together with family and friends, eating really great food and staying up way too late... and decorations and lights. I love the lights.  Then there are some lights that are really a mistake... Ok, not a mistake.

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-30940346061294928752012-11-21T22:47:00.000-05:002012-11-21T22:50:20.212-05:00

We picked up this little gem at the library recently and it IS just totally completely absolutely without a doubt AWESOME! Image credit: BerkeleyBreathed.com Okay, full confession, I am biased. Not just about the theme of the book but about the author/illustrator, Berkeley Breathed. Hands down, Berkeley Breathed is one of the best cartoonist there is. I relished reading every new Bloom

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-9808013234307993722012-11-20T17:46:00.002-05:002012-11-20T17:52:56.539-05:00

Last week the 5 year old and I met up with the Homelearners for a group visit of the Cosmodome. This great facility includes an astronautics and space exploration museum as well as space camp programs. J has always been fascinated by space (and really what kids isn't?) and he really enjoyed our visits to the Planetarium before the downtown location closed down (and we can't wait for the new

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-53971280266620717402012-11-16T17:54:00.001-05:002012-11-16T17:54:10.882-05:00

Here's the thing when family comes to visit... we miss them so much when they leave. All week, the boys haven't stopped talking about wanting to take a plane to go visit their cousin in Halifax. It's sweet!

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-67824692725556254012012-11-08T01:12:00.000-05:002012-11-08T01:12:57.377-05:00

A year and a half ago we received a letter in the mail from the city (it may even have been nearly 2 years ago). Seems they had removed an old sick tree from our front yard and they were asking if we wanted a new tree planted in its place. Now, I don't even remember having a tree there... in fact, when we received the notice that there was a tree removed on our property (and that the stump would

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-41410224996430744852012-10-31T00:03:00.002-04:002012-10-31T14:53:57.731-04:00

I know it's Halloween today and and that this picture has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween. Also, I am aware that the picture is from the summer and that it's now fall... but I just couldn't resist sharing it. You can just feel the joy  ;) *** Updated for today's Halloween picture***

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-47664283548160276592012-10-29T00:40:00.000-04:002012-10-29T00:40:22.664-04:00

I don't remember Halloween being such a long event when I was a kid. But then, I do have short term memory issues... Well, we've been full on in Halloween mode here for the last week. We started by doing some decorating outside the house and then in keeping with our "let's make it" tradition, we created this year's costume. Luckily, the 5 year old was nice to me and chose a very simple idea

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-31607877019866898112012-10-25T02:00:00.004-04:002012-10-25T02:00:57.535-04:00

When I read "What it's like being a teen girl" by emma .m. Woolley I got goose bumps... and a sick feeling in my stomach. What it's like being a teen girl "... I have never stopped being reminded of my there-for-men status. I am reminded when I am violated in my sleep, or groped in a bar, or held down by a longtime friend. I am reminded when I refuse conversation with a strange man and he spits

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-43472016550350622122012-09-27T02:31:00.000-04:002012-09-27T02:34:56.631-04:00

For the last 2 years, J, the 5 year old, has been going to the Early Childhood Education program's observation nursery at our local University. It's a great play based program where the kids get a lot of personal attention and you'd be hard pressed to find a child that doesn't thrive there (it helps that the educators ROCK!)... All this to say that J really likes the program. And when we

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-49632120544161828872012-09-15T01:12:00.001-04:002012-09-15T01:20:33.385-04:00

I am behind in posting about our activities as we've been keeping extra busy these past few weeks. There's just been soooo much going on... Like going to the "Not back to school picnic" (2 weeks ago). This annual event is organized by the Montreal Homelearners and is a fun way to celebrate the start of the "school" year. This is the 5th year of the event and it's the 2nd time we've been to it.

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-25016963749601978562012-09-04T00:59:00.003-04:002012-09-04T01:05:37.739-04:00

If you want a family vacation where you can eat great food while getting into kick-ass shape and not even pull a sweat while doing it, then I have two words for you: San Francisco. Our favourite retro style tram San Francisco is a walking friendly city but it is well known for its hills, hills and more hills (they say there are 48 named hills). And many of them are crazy steep. We decided

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-73301594699603591272012-08-31T02:53:00.000-04:002012-09-15T12:15:07.811-04:00

Yesterday, the 5 year old went to participate in a research study on language development. I've always been very willing to have the kids take part in these types of studies... as long as they're not too invasive. He spent nearly 2 hours there, mainly playing games, all in the name of research. And he really enjoyed himself. It helped that the person conducting the testing was very child

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-82379822905575203422012-08-30T01:58:00.003-04:002012-08-30T01:58:46.637-04:00

We took the boys to the Mini Maker Faire this past weekend. This event was created by the Make magazine and is described as:  "the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth – a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning."  We didn't have any

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-23005509928569057882012-08-13T01:42:00.000-04:002012-08-13T01:42:32.534-04:00

The other day, as I was walking with the 2 year old, I saw that the neighbours had tossed out an old alarm clock radio. It looked pretty clean and in rather good shape and was just sitting at the end of their driveway. So, I immediately thought of the 5 year old and how he would love to open it up and have a look inside. So, I took it and brought it home. However, before we could get to it, the

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-66782070537175994962012-08-02T02:35:00.000-04:002012-08-02T02:35:09.999-04:00

I take no credit for coming up with this activity. I recently came across this post at Play at Home Mom and another similar post at Play Create Explore about baked cotton balls and I knew it would be perfect for us. It was Perfect for three reasons: 1) Easy/quick to setup  2) I had all the required materials and 3) I needed a good distraction while I made supper.  The instructions suggest

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-69966191886395355672012-07-24T02:22:00.003-04:002012-07-24T02:22:33.704-04:00

It's been a crazy busy summer for us and we've been up to a lot. In the past, when I spent days with the kids, I always aimed to have one activity per day so I didn't go stir crazy. But summer is different, and especially this 1st summer after leaving my job. I just feel like I have to do every single thing I can because soon enough the warmth and sun will be gone. I think my body (and mind)

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7940479948932488410.post-70346989990056970422012-07-05T02:22:00.000-04:002012-07-05T02:22:28.370-04:00

Today we spent the morning at my parent's farm. The kids had a blast, as usual. They feel right at home there. I am so grateful that they get to live this through their grandparents... because, let's face it, they're not going to get it from me. As much as I like to dream of living a self sustaining lifestyle, I'm not the type of person that could pull it off for an extended period of time. The

Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146716497605729745noreply@blogger.com1