MERRY CHRISTMAS!

About time!

So we've been a bit lax on the whole blogging thing, and I'm not about to pretend that I think that it's going to change. But, my brother keeps telling me to update the blog with pictures of his favorite 2-yr-old, so I said I'd do it as his Christmas present.

MERRY CHRISTMAS UNCLE NATHAN!

(And thanks for the Christmas shirt, Aunt Tina!)

Discovering the world of pockets. He loves 'em.

RAT MAN on Halloween

Beach time (in September)! Back massage for Daddy.

Gotta love that Superman ice cream...

KISSES!

Merry Christmas Uncle Nathan--I wish I could get sent to you in this box!

Friendly Visitor

Our landlord just had some stairs built up to our deck so we'd have a second exit from our apartment. A few days later I was on the phone and looked out the window to see this little critter. I screamed. Ryan screamed too when he found out we really weren't going to let him go play with it...

Happenings

One minute Ryan was on the deck eating a marshmallow (I know... I was working on a project and trying desperately to keep him out of my way) and the next thing I know I hear a slobbery noise nearby me. I turn around to see Ryan sucking his marshmallow off the mirror. Why did he feel the need to squish it there in the first place? Sick.

Ry loves looking at himself in the mirror doing one of two things--
1) sporting his stylin' shades (though he clearly can't put them on himself yet), and
2)tensing his whole body until it shakes then screaming at the top of his lungs with his mouth open wide... Then he gives a huge grin and laughs at himself. This ticks me off.


I bought Ryan a ball a few weeks ago at the dollar store and he walked around holding tight to it all afternoon and evening repeating, "Ball. Ball. Ball." I've been making some miserable attempts at Yoga lately (miserable because Ryan just climbs on me) and have tried to get Ryan to use his ball as a Yoga ball. Sometimes he takes it to heart.

Don't Try This At Home

See how cute these boys are? Note the long hair on the younger Thompson.

I don't know why it hit me, but I suddenly decided to cut Ryan's hair-- On My Own... If I'd waited and called in reliable help (i.e. the lovely Jessica) my son wouldn't have ended up with sections of his head looking like a pineapple.

At least he doesn't mind.

Anniversary

This month was our 5th Anniversary (how time flies!) and we had a fun night out. Adam surprised me with dinner at a Greek restaurant called Opa!. I'd wanted to go there ever since we first drove by it the month we moved to Halifax. Why? Not because I love Greek food (I'm not familiar with it at all), but because the word Opa! brings me back to my belly dancing days. It's what you shout out to encourage a few extra shimmies...


Back to the restaurant... Can I say fantastic? Holy smokes it was divine. Adam had a halibut stuffed with spinach, tomatoes, and some creamy sauce. I had a good sampling of a few different Greek dishes and loved them all. The evening could have been nicer with some fine dancing entertainment, but we can't complain. :)


After dinner we went to the mall to go ring shopping. I lost my wedding ring a year after we got married and we thought Year 5 might be a good time to finally get another one. We only had 10 minutes before the mall closed, but I actually saw one I liked and we might get it. Last we got a Blizzard at DQ to prolong our time out together while our good friends watched Ryan (Thanks!).

Help! Vote now!

One of my good friends, Julia Shumway, is competing to get a weekly blog column about dating in the Mormon Times. She'd do an awesome job and she's made it through several rounds already. Since I'm not into the whole social networking / facebook stuff this is my only small way to help her get votes. Voting for this round ends tonight at midnight MST, so please go vote now!!

http://www.mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/blogbrawl/?id=14730

The link connects you to the faceoff between her and one other competitor. Find the Vote Here button in the middle of the page, then choose Julia. Vote once on every browser on your computer--Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, whatever! She's got to win!!

Utah Trip

Since I've been home for almost a month, it's about time I wrote about my trip to Utah with Ryan. :)

Sadly, "Spring Break" in Utah looked like this... Even though it was April it snowed about 1/2 the days we were there! It would warm up and melt quickly every time, but it wasn't warm enough to want to be outside. (It WAS beautiful, though.) Ryan was miserably sick for a week so we wouldn't have done much anyway. I think we took the snow there with us, because when we talked to Adam on Skype he told us it was like summer at home and that he'd gone golfing. In April in NS? Hello?

First we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Thompson. We had lots of fun with them, and, as always, felt very loved. Grandma had any kind of toy imaginable for Ryan to play with and he liked getting her attention. He'd run to the stairs to greet Grandpa when he came home so they could play. It was just like how he greets Adam when he comes home from school. So sweet.

On Easter we got together with my extended family for a dinner. Grandpa (my dad) got to show Ryan my uncle's horses. He LOVED them (though he called them dogs the whole time).

Ryan liked getting lots of attention on the trip. He wanted to help Grandma exercise in the morning, play with his cousins, and get lots of tickles and kisses from Aunt Becky.

I cut all three of my nephews' hair. Here is Chris mid-cut. :)

My parents recently completed a 5-week colon cleansing process. I gave it a go while I was there. I had 3 cleansing appointments with the hydrotherapist. In the mean time, I had to stick to a strict diet of juice and spring water only. This facilitates flushing everything out. I did it for 4 1/2 days and I don't know HOW my parents did it for 5 weeks. The following shows my mound of veggies required for my juice. It is for 2 servings since I drank a lot more than my parents did. (Though I drank less and less each day...) For anyone interested, here is the list of ingredients (all organic) for the drink:

3 carrots

1 stalk celery

1 broccoli spear

1/2 leaf chard

1/2 leaf kale

2 dandelion leaves

1/4 cucumber

1/4 beet

1/2 lemon

1 inch ginger

1 slice black raddish

handful cilantro

1/2 apple

Actually, I didn't use any dandelion leaves because the store that carries all these organic ingredients didn't have it at the time. The shipment they'd received was bad. Also, my parents didn't get to have the apple in theirs, but I was allowed the change because of my speedy, mini-cleanse. My mom swears the apple made my drink completely different than theirs.

The truth is, the drink isn't that bad. It's just when you have to drink ONLY it all day for days on end. After one day I'd definitely had enough, and this is my triumphant face for my final drink at the end of my 4 1/2 days!!!

As a side note, though I wasn't doing the detox as an attempt at weight loss, I did lose a few pounds and reached my pre-pregnancy weight. That was pretty exciting. :) I'm sure returning to a normal diet now might have changed that, but I wouldn't know since I don't have a working scale.

While I did my ceansing appointments my mom played with Ryan. He loved this park she took him to and couldn't get enough of the sand.

Projects

Lately I've been on quite a sewing kick. I never thought I'd feel this urge, but I'm actually quite liking it.

First I made a set of curtains for Ryan's room.


Then it was time for some curtains in our room. Adam's wanted some ever since we moved in, and finally for Valentine's Day I made them.

Thanks to the lovely Tanya I started making sock monkeys. I made an orange one for Ryan and the blue and brown ones for my nephews. Now, truth be told, they were a total pain in the butt to make and I told Adam I wouldn't make any more ever again. Unfortunately, when I was at the dollar store this week I found more of the perfect socks stocked, so what did I do? I guess I'll be making more monkeys...

Canadian Olympics

So I loved some of the commercials that have been on this Olympics, but this one takes the cake. I especially love the maple leaf faced dude w/curly hair cheering just as the music surges. Be sure you watch the 2nd commercial to see what played AFTER Sunday's hockey game. I love that they had it ready and waiting.

February Fun

Here's an update of the Thompson happenings of the last month:

Grandma and Grandpa Thompson came from Utah to spend a day with us. We always love having them come and feel loved that they make such a long trip to see us!



Since they were here on Valentine's Day they got a special Valentine--Ryan! He loved having them here and got pretty good at saying "Grandpa!"





We made my family's traditional Valentine's Day cookies. We made them every year when I was little, but it's been AGES since I've had them. They're very labor intensive, so I never have the energy... They're super soft sugar cookies with a marachino cherry filling, lemon butter frosting, and coconut on top. Yummy!

A few days later more than a foot of snow dumped on us overnight. School was closed for the first time this year. We tried to take Ryan out to play, but since the snow was up to the top of his legs he didn't have too great of a time. We lasted about 5 minutes. (*Note new car--hooray! Any suggestions for a name?)

Three days after the snow storm Adam had Spring Break. After that picture tell me what's so "Springy" about Spring Break? Oh well. We still loved having a week to veg. It was a break for both of us, as we got to spend time together and took turns taking naps. :) Ryan loved all the extra time with Daddy. We went swimming twice, went on a few walks, watched lots of Olympics, made big yummy late breakfasts, ran lots of errands, and spent two late nights working on a puzzle of Florence (Dollarama special!).

At Christmas G & G Thompson gave us money for Ryan and told us to choose something for him. We decided we'd use it for a trip to the Discovery Centre during Spring Break. Our much-awaited break finally came and the Discovery Centre was our favorite Spring Break activity. Ryan was all sorts of excited by the Lego exhibit because it was full of cars (his new favorite word). He was totally in love with this race car and we could hardly get him out of it! The second he got in he grabbed right onto the steering wheel and started driving. Smarty Pants.

Sauce it Up

A few nights ago we successfully got Ryan to eat vegetables. Adam covered them in butter and garlic salt. He ate more peas in one bite than he's eaten in the last 7 months. (I tried one of the carrots and can say I don't blame him. They were DANG good!) I don't understand how a kid can be SO disinterested in eating, but we have to do all sorts of tricks and distractions to tease something into his mouth. He even suddenly stopped eating scrambled eggs--his standby for the last month. Today I put ketchup on them to tempt him. He ate 3 bites. Adam let him have Honeycomb cereal a few days ago and now no matter where I hide it he seems to be able to find it and wine for it all day. I care about giving him healthy foods, but this week gave in to giving him extra crap. Any advice from some parents of picky toddlers?

Who's the Ry Guy?

I've been going through some old video clips and this one from November made me smile, so I thought I'd share it. Enjoy.

First Patient

Two weeks ago Adam got to see his first patient--ME! I had a little cavity for him to fill. It was fun to see Adam in his element and I decided he'll make a great dentist. :) This next shot shows a rubber dam (avoid the crazy light). I HATED getting this thing on. Since I was at the school for 4 hours, I had to take 2 bathroom breaks during my appointment. Yes, I truly walked out into the hallway with this sexy green rubber covering my face. All you see of the mouth is a section of my upper teeth sticking out. FREAKY.

When Adam was almost done with everything he asked someone what time it was. They told him the time and he said, "Wow, that went by fast!" Here I am, my mouth/jaw hurting, my back aching from the chair, and my neck in a huge kink thinking, "FAST?? Are you kidding me?" Give him a few more years and he'll be able to do the filling in 10 minutes...

The next week Adam got to see me again to do a cleaning. This was only a 3 hour appt. :) I haven't had that done in almost 5 years, and it felt great to have that fresh clean feeling. Adam must be a persuasive dentist because I've actually flossed twice since then--including under my retainer. I've had this retainer for 10 years now and only flossed under it twice before this cleaning, so I've met my 10-year timeline in 1 week! A little too much info about my oral hygiene, I know...

Growing Up Too Fast

The Deed is Done

After months of wishy washy debate over the hair issue, I finally caved in. During the Christmas break I found Adam online looking for hair cutting places 3 times. :) He even got a bit mad about the messy hair and said Ryan runs into things because he can't see. I disagree and think he only runs into things because he's too tired to walk straight (something that happens often to this kid because he refuses to take naps). However, it's so seldom that Adam gets so passionately opinionated about something that I felt I had to give in. This is my feeling on the event:


Before:

After:

The new stylin' Dude:

Ryan's new do is definitely handsome and Jessica did a great job (thanks again!). Adam is stoked to have the hair gone, and Ryan? He loves it. As soon as he saw himself in the mirror he was all smiles. He gave the same reaction each time he saw a mirror in the next 2 days. (I'm sure he'll miss shaking his head back and forth, though, and letting his hair whip around. He used to love that.)

Okay, so I admit it. I cried the next day over the fact that my little boy can genuinely NOT be called a baby anymore. :(

Would You Want to Cut This?

I thought not.

The Battle of Nova Scotia

This week we went to our first Canadian hockey game! The Halifax Mooseheads played against the Screaming Eagles of Cape Breton--Hence, the Battle of Nova Scotia. The Screaming Eagles pretty much walloped the Mooseheads. We had a great time. I remember when we first moved here and saw a skate sharpening shop just down the street from our house. I wondered how such a place would stay in business, particularly in our part of town. Duh, people play hockey here! We took some Canadian friends to the game with us and talked some hockey/skating/curling talk, eh? We're seriously outnumbered here in that we don't even own our own skates!

Christmas Fun

We had another great Christmas this year in Nova Scotia. Here are some Christmas highlights. Santa Claus! Ryan got to see 4 different Santas this year at various Christmas parties, and he was somewhat curious about all of them. At least he didn't scream or get scared of them. He knows the word Santa because we have a Santa pillow that he likes to play with.

We continued on with a tradition we started last year of making a gingerbread house. Adam and I got into a bit of a frosting fight at the end because we had so much left over! Now that Christmas is over we've started eating the house and it's pretty darn good for a decoration!

This is Ryan's Christmas stash. He got some cars, a recorder, and a French dictionary from us, a xylophone, bath toys, and goldfish from Santa, a train and a mug from friends, a stuffed nativity set from my aunt, and a pull frog and puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa Hatch. Ryan loved his new stuff. Favorite--GOLDFISH. He was beyond excited about those things and stuffed his face so full that he was drueling goldfish. Next favorite--train. We were a little bummed that he liked a present from a friend better than the rockin' cool cars we'd picked out! He does love the cars too, though. :) He likes to drag his pull frog around the house. Usually it's upside down and sliding on its eyeballs. Oh yes, and I can't forget the leg warmers that I made them. Let's just say he wasn't overly excited about opening them.

We made a nice Christmas dinner. We made a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, peas and candied yams, and I finally bucked up and made my first rolls. They were perfect. We'd invited a few different families over, but we were too late in asking and in the end had Christmas dinner by ourselves. This actually ended up being a very good thing, because we had to have our turkey dinner sans turkey... It wasn't ready until an hour after we'd eaten everything else. That would have been pretty embarrassing.

We loved getting to have lots of family time together while Adam was off school. We went bowling twice, tried out a new swimming pool, cut out snowflakes, went to a museum, went to a hockey game, had some friends over, visited other friends, played in the snow, went to several Christmas parties, tried out some new recipes, drove around looking at Christmas lights, watched a few movies, Skyped a lot with our families, and played, played, played at home. It's been nice to have another quiet, non-stressful Christmas.