My baby is growing up

3 years ago today, I gave birth to our second little girl, Lucy,  and our lives changed in an incredible way.

Lucy is so kind-hearted, so easygoing, strong-willed but not as much as her sister,  smart, curious, and she brings such joy to our lives. She has always been an excellent eater, a (mostly) great sleeper, and her love for others and for books is immeasurable. She is very affectionate and compassionate. She adores her big sister, and I think the feeling is pretty mutual. She has the most beautiful smile and a wonderful laugh. She likes to take care of her stuffed animals and I swaddle her stuffed hedgehog for her almost every day. When Lucy was born, Molly told us that Lucy's favourite colour was orange but now Lucy is old enough to have her own opinion, and her favourite colour is red ("the same as Daddy's!") She loves to sing, and some of her favourite songs are Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Row, Row, Row your Boat. Lucy's  favourite books these days are Love You Forever, Slinky Malinky, the cat books, Step Outside, and many, many more. Her favourite show is Paw Patrol, by a long shot (unfortunately Molly is outgrowing it!) She is fearless and determined.

Here's a cute recent video of her.

We are blessed to be her parents and to have her complete our family.

We are celebrating with an afternoon off today at the indoor playground, a small party with family tomorrow, and lots of balloons. I'm going to ask her some questions on video today to commemorate this day & I will try to share that next week!! :)

Now I'm off to make a paw patrol cake...wish me luck! I am feeling a bit bittersweet about my baby becoming a preschooler but overall I am just so enjoying this phase of life with my two girls. Happy 3rd birthday Lucy!

Have a great weekend, everyone :)

Hello November!!

We had a great weekend, and Halloween was a blast with the kids. Lucy didn't wear any of her 3 costumes, so I improvised and made an orange sweater into a pumpkin to wear with her pumpkin hat. Molly had a blast trick-or-treating and I was shocked at how bold she was acting at some houses (marching right up to the doorbell and yelling "trick or treat!" and then grabbing candy despite my urging to "just take one!"). The kids also loved greeting visitors to our house and giving out candy. It was a fun night. We started the next morning far too early for my liking, but I think we are back on track a bit today and feeling decently rested.






As I mentioned last week, I'm looking to November with hope and getting back on track with healthier eating (minus yesterday with the leftover candy) and strength training. I also want to devote a bit more time to blogging, and more time to things that will improve my general happiness. I'm going back to the basics with our meal prep and I'm going to hold off on trying too many new recipes this month. The internet is an amazing wealth of knowledge, but sometimes I find myself saving recipe after recipe and workout after workout to the point where I am overwhelmed with information. I'm taking a bit of a step back from browsing Pinterest and random blogs and hoping to connect with the things that really make me happy.

That being said, I love writing prompts. I've found some of the best on Kenzie's blog Hello Neverland and I use these in my personal journal. Although I don't find a lot of extra time to write these days (at the end of the day, reading seems to come more naturally to me than writing), I try to write a bit every week. I want to remember these days of our lives. I want to remember the kids chasing each other around the living room and Lucy tossing a book onto my lap before clambering up herself. I want to remember Molly's incessant questions about everything in her world and her matter-of-fact way of talking.

I'm going to follow along with some of NaBloPoMo this month, but I know that I can't commit to all of it. However, if a particular prompt really resonates with me, I'd like to write about my thoughts on it.

The prompt for today is: What was the one toy that a friend had that you wished you had when you were younger?

I know for awhile when we were younger, all 3 of us wished that we had a Nintendo. Our best friends had a Super Nintendo and our cousins had the original Nintendo. We played Duck Hunt and Super Mario with them sometimes. I can completely understand why we didn't have one, and it's the same reason why Molly and Lucy have limited screen time now. However, we missed out on a relatively significant part of 90's culture and I am now TERRIBLE at video games if we ever play them socially. My hand-eye coordination is absolutely awful and I can't drive in a straight course at all if we play Mario Kart with friends (so I usually just don't play, haha). There was also a time when we wanted some Power Wheels. Instead, we learned how to ride our bikes and biked all over the neighbourhood. I don't look back on my childhood with very much longing at all. We had everything we needed, and we had a lot of fun family memories and happy times. I do sometimes I could drive a Mario Kart now at the age of 30 though ;)

How was your Halloween? Are you looking forward to November??

I'm also over halfway through The Husband's Secret and dying to finish it because I'm sure the ending will be intense!! Then I can get right into my Reading Challenge!!!

Friday Favourites - what I'm loving this week

It's been a short week here (thank you, Thanksgiving!) but it still seems like it has been a long one! Haha. I am trying to keep a lot of balls up in the air right now, but this weekend will be a nice chance to catch up a bit. We're spending the night (with the kids) at a friend's house on Saturday which means wine and board games - can't complain about that!! Sunday will probably mostly be a cleaning day!!

I mentioned yesterday on Instagram that I currently seem to have 4 books on the go...I have one that I am losing interest in and another couple that will take me longer to read, but I am very much enjoying The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (longest title ever though, haha!). Megan at Semi-Charmed Kind of Life put up the topics for the Winter 2015 Reading Challenge and I think I'll participate for the first time! I am doing some major brainstorming for some of the categories...i.e. a fiction & non-fiction book about the same topic...hmmm....

Linking up with Amanda to share some of my favourite things this week:

Jamberry Nails

My friend Laura became a Jamberry consultant this year and I had originally only tried some nails for Canada Day. I hosted a party a few weeks ago and ordered some new nail wraps and I am LOVING these fall ones (as in, I might cry when they come off) ;) A few of my friends have asked if I am selling them now, which I'm not nor do I think I would ever be able to - it's just not really my thing - but I still love to wear them!! So easy to put on and last for 10-14 days!! 

The Toronto Blue Jays
This team is really bringing Canada together! Being not even that close to Toronto, it is still crazy to see how their playoffs are sweeping the nation. Brian is a huge fan and he is so excited to be watching his team advance in the playoffs.

Kale Caesar Salad
I've been making a variation of this recipe for a couple of months now. Kale is delicious, but it can be a bit bitter and tough unless you "marinate" it a bit in olive oil and lemon juice. I basically shred/cut the kale into bite sized pieces, add the olive oil and lemon juice, let it sit for 5-10 mins after "massaging the kale", add parmesan and garlic powder and croutons if we have any, and BAM, delicious and healthy salad. We grew a ton of kale in the garden this year and this recipe really helped me to eat it all ;)

The Show Us Your Books Link up
So many great recommendations and a giveaway this month!

A Haircut
All through university, I had pretty short hair, but I've always had it shoulder length or longer since I met Brian. I finally went back to short this week after wearing ponytails daily for weeks and I'm loving it!!

Running & Yoga
I have a whole post on my thoughts about these two activities but I am really loving running and I am living for yoga these days. I'm taking a once/week class with Yogaheart and it is beginner level, but so informative and SO relaxing. I also discovered Erin Motz via Instagram this week and I am loving her philosophy towards yoga as well. I find even a few minutes a day really makes a difference to me.

This Tea
Gives you a chocolate fix without the sugar. Really yummy in the afternoon for a little pick me up :)

This Kid

We've had a few ups and downs behaviour wise this week, but she is such a sweet child and brings so much joy to our family. She loved the pie too ;)

And this one too :)

Poor quality photo but she loves to bring us our shoes so we can all go outside :)

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Fabulous Friday Favourites

Today is a good day. The sun in shining, it's warm but not too hot, and it feels like fall. I finished the Sea of Tranquility this morning on my way to work, and I loved it. It reminded me of how I finished when I finished reading Eleanor & Park. It was a good read. I am actually loving how many great books I have read this year thanks to being more interactive on Goodreads and listening to others' recommendations. I'll be posting my thoughts on the Literary Ladies Summer Reading Challenge on Monday :)

Here are some of my Friday Favourites for the week!!

FAVOURITE MUSIC:

I love this one for running...great beat!!!

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FAVOURITE YOUTUBE VIDEO:



I can't wait to watch it this weekend, since I missed it the first time around on TV in June.

FAVOURITE LINKS AROUND THE WEB:
11 ways to love Goodreads even More
Listen to Your Kids <--- this has really stayed with me since I read it
This post from today on Gilbert Blythe vs. Mr. Darcy

FAVOURITE PHOTO OF THE GIRLS:

My tiny walking toddler machine

Because every 4 year old needs a huge pink unicorn to call their own

FAVOURITE RECIPE:

I made some cold brew coffee this week after spending $5 for a cup of it last week (just black - ridiculous!) Here's the recipe:

Cold Brew Coffee via Sage the Blog

FAVOURITE LOLs:

FAVOURITE INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE:

FAVOURITE QUOTE FROM A BOOK I READ RECENTLY:

From The Sea of Tranquility

Happy weekend, everyone!! xo

6 months in

This week, my little munchkin celebrated her half-birthday!!!

Here are some of the things that Lucy loves these days:

*Her exersaucer
*Her jolly jumper
*Eating real food (We are doing Baby-led weaning, more on that in a minute)
*Not sleeping through the night (ha ha)
*Her big sister
*Her baby swing outside
*Reading stories
*Bath time
*Tickles and "flying"
*Music

She is 20 lbs, 74 cm and growing like a weed. She is wearing mostly 12 month clothes, or 6-12 month shirts. She is sitting up on her own, but falls over occasionally. I think she'll be crawling in the next month or two for sure. She has her two front teeth and I think she's working on some more of them :)

We started baby led weaning last Wednesday, and so far, Lucy has tried green beans, sweet potato fries, steamed carrots, cucumber, steamed broccoli, squash, potatoes, chicken, turkey burgers, roast beef, zucchini, oatmeal, banana and avocado. She loved the sweet potato and carrots and broccoli and loves most of the meat too. It is really entertaining to watch her feed herself, and I am loving this journey so far. Here she is eating a few of her first meals:

This whole gig as a mom of 2 is very tiring some days, especially because Brian has been working a lot and is often tired when we see him (understandably, but I am too). Molly is getting a lot better at playing independently, and her current favourite activity is drawing on a whiteboard. I'd say she easily does this for at least an hour or two every day. She also still loves to read, and she loves this board game which she got as a birthday present from Brian's aunt. (She even plays it with her puppy sometimes which leaves me free to do something else too!)

Molly's family :)

I am still working on my physical health, although I feel OK energy wise considering my sleep schedule. I am eating a "meal" about every 2-3 hours and Molly eats that way too (Lucy is just eating meals 2x/day and breastfeeding about 5 times a day and at night). I try to get exercise in 4 times per week, usually with Molly or going for a run when Brian gets home. I know it is going to take a serious commitment to lose the rest of the pregnancy weight, but I am hoping to feel less snug in my clothes come Christmas time. This week, we are having salads in a jar for lunch:

I also need to work a bit on my mental health in the sense that I need some time to relax each day. I find if I take 10 minutes to read before bed or do something for myself after the girls are in bed, I really feel a bit better about everything. Self-care is so important and it's something that us mommies tend to forget about sometimes!!! Brian got me a 10-class pass at our local gym to go to some classes too but I haven't had the opportunity yet. I need to get better about pumping for Lucy!

It goes without saying that I am desperately excited for a double date night with my sister and her husband this weekend and a girl's night supper next week. In need of some adult conversation ;)