The bike reveal

A pink bike!!

We bought the bike off of a friend who’s daughter had grown out of it – good for the Earth and the wallet.  It’s perfect.

Trying it out for the first time.

The first time she tried it, she was super cautious, slow, basically just crawling along, we had to stand and wait for her to get a move on.  The second and third day, we have to run to keep up – she’s already getting the hang of balancing and loves going down hills – eek!!

On Sunday May 15th, we had her party – a few friends over for pizza and cupcakes.

Balloons!!!

Hitting each other with balloons is apparently hilarious.

How many boys does it take to help open presents?

Dora!!

What can it be?

Tools! She is very helpful and likes to fix things, so this is perfect!

She had a lot of helpers!

Eating lunch at the big table...

... and the little table.

The cake - yummmmmm

We get to eat cake!!!!

She finished her cupcake, but Dada's still eating, so she may as well eat some of his cake as well!

After the guests had left, the place had been tidied, the toys had been played with, we decided to eat another cupcake, because come on, you only turn 3 once!

Hmmm, decisions....

Trying to touch the cupcake as little as possible... Such a dainty girl we have.

Just as good the second time around.

After the second cupcake was done, we went out for a bike ride, because the bike is the BEST THING EVER.  The we returned home and I had to really concentrate on putting together the coolest marble run.  Let me tell you, this is an awesome toy, but, you basically need a degree in physics, or structural engineering to figure out how to put it together properly.  Forget about having Sophie help, I needed to concentrate to get this sucker put together right.

Whoa, that is a complicated marble run.

She loves it.

She really loves it…

And, we are the parents of a 3 year old.  Very hard to believe, but amazing, she’s the craziest, funniest, smartest, most amazing person ever, and we love her so much.  Happy Birthday baby girl, we love you!

Our crazy little family.

Simple yet effective encouragement

Supporting a candidate

Supporting a specific party

Supporting a hunky Jack Layton

And last but not least – and my personal favourite….

Sharing who you will definitely not be supporting!

So get out there and vote – make your voice heard!

Edited to add another one…

Trust the 'stache

and Pinocchio wins.....

There is a feature on Etsy called “Quit your day job” where they highlight Etsy sellers who have been so successful on Etsy, they have made the move, and their full time job is now their Etsy shop.  I’m always so inspired by those stories and the artwork and amazing craftsmanship I see on Etsy, I only wish more people knew about it, or were willing to buy from people who work really hard for their craft, and put their heart and soul into their work.

You can buy business cards, source out graphic design work, buy stuffed dolls, jewelry, clothing, knit items, vintage supplies, papercrafts, artwork, wooden docking stations for you ipod, the list is really endless, and it can be overwhelming if you don’t narrow down your search, but it is incredible at what you can find on Etsy.  Here are some of my past and present favourites:

Handmade woodland bookends - how cute?

Link here.

Beautiful watercolour map

Etsy link here.

Beautiful pottery

Etsy shop link here.

Unique and personalized jewelry

Etsy link here.

Since my love for Etsy began, I have bought pottery (have you ever seen an “Eran” mug?  Neither have I, but Etsy can make it happen – here), jewelry, supplies for my own Etsy shop (fabric, zippers, ribbon, trim, business cards, logo design, labels), little fabric pouches, knitting patterns, digital art prints, photography prints, wine bottle etched drinking glasses (link here), natural deodorant (yes, you can buy deodorant on Etsy!), alphabet stencils, a steel dry erase memo board (link here) and so many other things.

If you take away anything from this post, I really encourage you to check out Etsy.  You can buy almost anything there, and most things are amazing quality, made by good people who stand behind the product they make.  Before you buy, just make sure you check the seller’s feedback, where buyers can comments on the quality of the goods, and the service they received. If you haven’t already, check out my shop, and some of my friends, here and here.

Why buy from giant big box retailers, where everyone has the same thing, when you can buy from independent people who really care about what they are making and have a passion for it.  Support the individuals who work really hard.  Of course, I am one of those people, so I’m obviously biased, but I’ve just been amazed by the quality of the products I’ve received, as well as the kindness of the buyers I have bought from.  When you’re in it for yourself, you really want your product to be the best – to stand out, and you work really hard.  No where is this more evident than on Etsy, so go there, look for something, and support a person, rather than a corporation.

I’m really curious to see what you’ve bought from Etsy, so let me know, and if you haven’t bought something from there before, get your Etsy account, get a PayPal account, and start shopping.

Take 2.  So, Sophie has been potty trained since about January.  We started to notice, just before her 2nd birthday, that a few of her little girlfriends had been working on this potty training thing for a while, and thought, hmmmm, we should probably get on that.  Yes, a little bit of pressure, but not too much.  Just enough to buy a potty seat and take out some library books (hit save draft).

Wishful thinking on our part.

Sophie is only about 22 months old in the above picture, and at that point, we would plop her on the potty or little seat insert, but not really expect much.  To be honest, we weren’t trying that hard.  I figured that if she wasn’t really ready, it would end up taking a while.  Once she was ready, it should be quick, right?  So every so often, we would put her on the potty, read her books, and just sit there, waiting.

Good reading material

So, she would sit there, reading for like 20 minutes, and nothing would happen.  At this point, she’s about 2.5, and from what I’ve read, about the time most kids start to get it.  Yea, they’re all different, and some pick it up earlier than others.  We still weren’t too bothered by it, but we started to get more creative.

Put the potty in front of a toy, that's bound to be awesome, right?

Then, sometime in January, I thought, well, she isn’t really showing any interest, she doesn’t care if she sits in her own pee, but I’m starting to get a bit antsy, so rather than just wait for Sophie, let’s see what happens when we just put her in underwear.  So, one Tuesday evening, around 5 o’clock, the underwear went on.  From then until bedtime, she had about 6-7 little dribbles, where she would notice that she was peeing, and I plopped her on the potty as quickly as I could, and she actually had some success in the potty.  I cheered like she had just won a gold medal, and something must have clicked, because from that point on, she was pee potty trained.   I never went back to diapers during the day, and only had one full-on accident in her underwear, as I watched the dark stain wet her gray pants.  That happened a full week after we started.  Mind you, we plopped her on the toilet/potty very frequently, before we went anywhere and once we got there.  Our first car ride was a 15 minute drive to Oliver’s and I was a little worried, but I just put a facecloth under her butt and hoped for the best.   She made it and it just became easier.

Starting to get the hang of this

Potty training for poop took another month or so, and there were a few bumps in the road (poo on the floor anyone?), but she eventually mastered that too.  Even today, sometimes she is just too busy, and will have a little trickle in her underwear before she notices that she has to go, but for the most part, she is doing really well.

Underwear and babylegs - why not?

Which leads us to todays topic.  Night wakings. We have enjoyed sleeping through the night basically since Sophie was just over 1 year old.  Recently, she’s become so aware of her bladder, that it’s woken her up at night.  I’ll hear “I’m going pee pee!!!” in the middle of the night, so I rush over to her bed, take off her dry diaper, and pj bottoms, and plop her on the toilet.  She pee’s, goes back to bed, but I’m often now awake, and laying there, with thoughts of strata nightmares or whatever running through my head.  Not last night but the night before, she woke up to pee at 4, and I couldn’t get back to sleep until around 5:30, which sucks.  I know I can’t really complain, she’s doing so well, but I just don’t like it.  I’ve heard of mom’s who pull their sleeping children out of bed before they go to bed, sit them in the potty, and put them back to bed without them even waking, but I’m not prepared to do that yet.  Last night she didn’t wake up to pee, but had a slightly wet diaper in the morning, which honestly I was happy about because I got to sleep through the night.  So, if you have any suggestions, I’d like to hear them.  Otherwise, I’ll just hope I can get back to sleep after she’s peed.

Underwear butt

French braids!

I did her hair like this for a get together with the Baby Mama’s a few months ago, and they couldn’t believe how different she looked – with her hair like that, she just looks so much older or something.  Anyways, it’s such a cute picture, and her hair never stays this neat for long, her curls cannot be tamed!

Another hilarious picture is of her wearing her buddy Grace’s snowsuit.

Oi - look at that face!

We had like one day of heavy snow here this winter – okay, maybe two, not enough for lots of use for a snowsuit, but I’m glad we were able to use it a few times at least so Sophie could roll around in the snow.

Sophie has also become more independent in terms of what she’s wearing.  She likes to pick her own clothes, thank you very much, and is very insistant that things match.  In her world, that means head to toe pink, or head to toe purple.  I’m still trying to get her to understand that all of your clothes do not have to be the exact same shade.  Yes, a pink shirt ‘matches’ with pink pants, but that doesn’t mean that you have to wear all pink.  Geez.  One particular outfit that she chose was just too awesome not to take a photo of… underwear and baby legs!

No, she did not leave the house looking like this.

She’s quite the little personality, funny, silly, crazy, and so cute.

I tried to capture her tiny little golden freckles.

Oooey gooey goodness

Oh my, I’m excited and horrified at the same time.  I loooooove cadbury creme eggs, I know they’re disgusting and full of sugar, and nothing good will come from eating them, but I do love them so.  I remember my friend Christy use to get so many of these for Easter, and I was always so jealous.  I don’t know if I will ever dare to make these (Eran will kill me!) but I just thought I’d share the recipe in case someone else wants to try.  Let me know if you do!

Helping

She's so handy!

So proud of her big girl bed!

Eran and I were a bit worried – you just hear about kids who have quite the transition to the big kid bed – climbing out, over and over again, getting out in the middle of the night, all that horrible stuff.  So, we were worried that she would just climb out, because she can.  She was going in and out the first day it was a toddler bed, so she knew that she could.  Bedtime came, we did the usual routine, told her how proud we were of her big girl bed, and put her to bed.  Same as usual, she cried out for about a minute – we waited outside her door, looking at each other waiting for the door to open.  But it didn’t!  She went to sleep!  Okay, awesome!  But, we were still expecting her to wake up in the middle of the night and see her at our bedside.  Nope!  Next morning, same time as usual, we hear “MAMA!!!”.  I rush to her room, immediately start talking about her big girl bed, and how proud I was of her for being such a big girl.  We did it!   It’s been a week already, and she’s totally stayed in the bed.  She doesn’t even get out until we go into her room.  It’s kind of weird, but I’m not complaining.

First proud wake-up in her big girl bed.

Taken from the website – From the 1920′s – 1950′s, the farm was a thriving dairy farm.  By 1970, agriculture had all but disappeared from North Vancouver but the farm land came under the protection of the District Parks Department, being preserved for future generations to enjoy a truly rural experience in our ever expanding urban area.

Opened to the public in 1975, and now home to over 200 domestic animals and birds, Maplewood Farm incorporates enjoyment, education and a recollection of the rural heritage of this pastoral 5 acre setting.

It was great.  Once you’re inside the gates, there are essentially different areas housing animals throughout the farm, but you can get in there with most of the animals, and feed them, pet them, and just chill with them.  There were chickens chasing each other, little pigmy goats eating grass from our hands, and bunnies that we could feed carrots and broccoli to.  There was a cow milking demonstration, and little tractors you could rent (kid size) to scoot around in.

Moooooooo!

The first big animals we saw were cows, and we soon saw a very special cow:

Sofie/Sophie

Next up were ducks and chickens, chilling in a little pond.

Ducks and chickens

Within that same enclosure was one very grumpy chicken, that kept pecking at peoples feet!  Next up were horses.

These horses were massive, and beautiful.

Within the same barn were little chicks that were only a few days old.

They are so new, the broken shells they hatched out of are strewn about within their little area.

The sign that is repeated throughout the farm and around all enclosed areas, and just there to put the responsibility on the parents. Love Sophie's face in this picture!

Sophie's favourite part of the day by far.

Up until we started feeding the sheep leaves, Sophie was very quiet, just quietly observing all that she saw. Once she was able to interact and feed the sheep, she started having much more fun!  We think she was just overwhelmed by all the awesomeness she was seeing, and just taking it all in.

Goat and sheep eyes are crazy - the rectangular iris is freaky!

A rare family shot

Snicklefritz the Shetland Pony

Remember this shot?

A very clear warning...

A second after the Snicklefritz photo was taken, Sophie started crying.  You can see that her expression is a bit off…  It turns out Snicklefritz had nipped the palm of her hand, gently, but enough to scare her and leave a bit of a mark.  Lesson learned.  But bunnies are far gentler…

Sophie 'gently' feeding the bunnies - I had to keep reminding her to gently feed them, she was a bit forceful and the bunny had to back up to get the broccoli stalk in it's mouth.

Getting the hang of it.

Tiny little pigmy goats!

We had a great day – the weather was perfect, and Sophie is at the perfect age to really get excited about all these animals, and to be able to touch them and feed them was very exciting for her.  She obviously didn’t want to leave, and one of the first things she said this morning was “I want to go to the farm again”.  We’ll definitely be back, it’s a beautiful spot, and perfect on a warm sunny day to bring a picnic lunch.

I thought I’d start keeping track of them, rather than just sharing them on facebook, or bookmarking them for a later date.

Here’s what I’ve found lately:

Easter Egg Hunt Bags over at the Purl Bee

DIY Baby Socks by Made by Joel

I haven’t made either yet, but I will eventually.

Anyways, one day we set out for a walk, and gathered a massive bag of suitable twigs, no shortage in our neighbourhood.  They were all muddy and gross, so first I had to wash them to get all the dirt and moss off.  Then I needed to dry them, and I thought that I should bend them into pots, so they would dry somewhat bent, so it would be easier to mold into a nest shape later.

Clean twigs, drying in shape.

Throwing twigs in the air = fun!

Crazy toddler...

I had to wrestle twigs out of Sophies hands, to make this nest. Good times!

The finished nest

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.  I ask myself, why do I do this?  Seriously, who collects twigs, washes them, dries them in shape, and glues them together to make nests?   Eran is a good sport, he puts up with all my crafty ideas and indulges me whenever I have an ‘awesome’ idea.  Anyways I like it, I think it looks awesome, and is a nice springtime decoration for our house.