Happy 3rd Birthday Princess Diedre!

opening a gift from us after derek got home early from work...its mostly clothes so she was just pulling them out and not even looking at them, ha ha!

she got a movie, Aladin. i was trying to find a "princess" movie that wasnt scary (like Cinderella) but this one was very scary...probably 1/3 of the movie was Jafar and evil stuff...Disney! why do they market princess to little girls, but their princess movies are scary??

ezekiel loves tissue


opening her card online with Grammy & Grandpa Salmon over skype

a doll house! so cool, i'll get a better picture with her playing with it in the next couple days

we ran out of time to do anything "fun" since derek came home two hours later than planned, so we drove to Tim Horton's for a timbit and she fell asleep in the van then we went straight to swim lessons. she is soooo shy at swim lessons. the pic quality was terrible if i cropped it, but you can see how she has her head down while the teacher talks to her.

ezekiel loves the water too

i had to get in the water with her but she is finally starting to have fun here

wandering away from the group again...

having fun now

my handsome/cute/beautiful family walking together to watch some ice skating.

back at home, i decided to have diedre help me decorate the princess cake since i had no parents to impress (ha ha)

ezekiel was not loving the waiting for cake time...

the candle is lit

i missed her blowing it out :(

i asked her to pretend she was blowing it out--cute!

opening a present from mom & dad

a bus from ezekiel

the cake (see all the sprinkles on the tray, diedre did that...ha ha)

opening her card and gifts (all princess :) from auntie M online

diedre had a good birthday but alas, she has another eye infection, argh, so i gave her some eye drops i had from last time...will it ever end???

birthday party attempt

diedre's birthday party was today at McDonald's but every invited kid got sick and cancelled. it was going to be a fairly small party, only three or four families (6 or so kids plus our two) so i was so disappointed when one by one i got the cancelation calls because i wanted it to be a special party for diedre.

we still went for dinner at McD's with my parents and then two little girls that diedre loves from our care group/church arrived so they had fun just the same.

she had a gift from my parents (and she was very excited to see them). she got a really pretty top and yoga outfit, a Dora book and a pretty pink poodle. and then my good friend joanna decided to stop by and deliver a gift because she felt bad that the party numbers had dwindled. so it went fine. we had a good time. i didnt prepare her cake because i thought we'd have another party or we'd just have it together as a family on her actual birthday (tuesday).

i couldnt believe derek could squeeze into this tiny slide! papere started by bringing ezekiel up high in the climbing structure, then derek did and went down the kids tube slide! i'm glad he didnt pop any bolts way up there. scary :S

cute things the kids have been doing

Grammy and Grandpa Salmon sent some Valentines Day gifts for the kids including lots of stickers. diedre made such a beautiful creation and i was trying to take a picture but she was a little shy for the camera.

here is the finished product.

here are a few cute things that have happened lately that i wanted to make sure to write down:

1. diedre is in swimming lessons. she is the shortest/youngest in her class and kept wandering over to the "deep" end of the shallow learning pool. the teacher had to keep "saving" her. she was talking to derek after class and said "dave saved me. and a little girl saved me. and God was in the water, and He saved me too!"

2. we have been hyping up diedre's birthday party and talking about her cake. she came up to me with a big smile and said "will there be a number on it?!" and i said yes, and she said "oh good."

3. this morning diedre said to derek "mommy's belly is getting big. to make room for the baby." derek said, "yes the baby is growing." and then diedre said, "and when the baby comes out, i will hold it in my sweet, sweet arms."

4. last week diedre made up a song/rhyme kind of thing that i think could be adapted to a "five little duckies" kind of counting song. it goes: "two little ballerinas, turning around. one little ballerina, sitting on the ground."

5. diedre and ezekiel love "playing" the recorder. diedre calls it a "hoot" probably because that is the sound it makes. funny.

as for ezekiel, he's just plain cute!!

1. he has been saying "thank you" when we give him things now.

2. he also is very interested in trying to put his own shoes on. he is able to go get matching shoes from his room when i ask him! i'm totally impressed :)

3. at the park, he is a crazy man on a mission to explore every inch of the park. unlike diedre at this age, who would swing for 40 minutes before cautiously using the slide a few times, he attacks the park with vigor. he discovered the slide and did not want to stop. he kept climbing on from the bottom, going up about six inches and then turning around and "sliding," totally impressed with himself. he also took time to pick up wood chips and throw them back onto the ground. he really as all over, and not interested in swinging at all. what a little boy!

4. on the down side, he does not respond to "no" at all!!! i know that diedre was pretty sensitive to it quite early, so its very strange to get no response to it.

5. but he does respond to "out" when i ask him to go out of the bathroom (unless i'm using the facilities, then he wont leave...)

thanks for the pregnancy well wishes. i guess my readership is significantly down from my earlier pregnancies (and being private probably doesnt help...and being a blog-slacker probably hasnt helped--although i'm doing pretty good now, considering first trimester and two kids!).

and, sparky is still gone :(
i've called all the local vets to give them a heads up. its been over a week now. the poop has been all cleaned up from the backyard and i've washed his bed and cleaned up all the dog hair. his dish still has food in it, but i emptied the water bowl. so, we'll just have to wait and see.

oh i just cant wait anymore...

and neither should you...

we are happily expecting a new baby at the salmon household.

due date is september 20 2008 but i'm aiming for october 1st. ezekiel was 10 days late (diedre was only 2 days late) so i dont want to rush this next little one...although i really wish i was further along than 9 and a half weeks so that the morning/all day sickness was passed.

yes, we planned it. our first two are 21 months apart and this one should come around 22 months after ezekiel. its great spacing for us. i'm already started to show and i have been having fairly consistent all day sickness, so i might as well tell now!

so far, i think its a girl because the nausea is very similar to what i had with diedre (i was very sick with ezekiel).

i am really turned off by chicken right now and hoping that ends soon as i had stocked up some "great" chicken meals in the freezer, which i could not eat b/c of the nausea.

for a few weeks it seemed as though i could eat one thing (ie. Tim Horton's new deli trio) and it was perfect but the very next day it totally turned my stomach, ugh. this happened with many many foods making my eating options from weeks 6 to 9 very limited...i think i'm coming out of that a little, although writing all this about food is not helping...

its been pretty challenging trying to eat (or feed kids and husband) when i feel so crummy all the time. especially dinner time. sometimes when i step out of the kitchen into the dining area, i feel so much better, less nausea and everything.

ezekiel has blessed me with two nights of sleeping all the way through the night (not in a row, but two out of three). last night was not one of them...it was TERRIBLE...ugh. hope the family starts sleeping better soon...of course poor derek was having some tummy troubles last night too so i had to handle both night hawks myself.

we are all quite excited (except ezekiel, he doesnt know whats going on yet). the day we found out was a sunday morning and we told diedre and she said "i have to tell all my friends that mommy has a baby in the belly." it was very cute.

she is starting to pray for the "little tiny baby" and to say she loves him/her already. i'm hoping she will be a good helper when the time comes.

diedre turns three next week. and ezekiel will be 15 months old next week too. time sure flies when you're having kids.

just wanted to share our blessing with you all :)

on another family note, our dog Sparky ran away on saturday. we looked around for him by van for 20 minutes and couldnt find him. he has gone missing at least 5 times before and either we get a call the next day from the animal control or our neighbour has found him, but not this time. he's been gone four days and i'm thinking he got stolen. he is a very handsome and friendly dog. not cool, not cool.

also, when some people find him they dont want to give him back. they ask "are you sure you can handle him? we are willing to walk him for you or play with him. please call if you change your mind." or this older couple kept saying "okay sparky, go back upstairs." when i came to get him. they wanted him too. so if one of those two families have him, at least they will be very happy. practically speaking, i dont mind not having dog hair everywhere or poop all over the yard...call me crazy, but every little inconvenience really adds up when you're busy with kids.

Valentine's Day

we started our Valentine's Day celebration at our local rec center where there was a kid's event going on.

diedre loves the parachute

some bigger kids were being really nice and sharing balls with ezekiel. that kept him happy for most of the time we were there.

more parachute fun

diedre works hard on a Valentine's Day card

Derek came home a little early and surprised diedre with a rose and puppy and chocolate heart (derek also got me three roses but diedre was looking out the window and said "Daddy got you flowers Mommy! they're so so so beautiful." so i wasnt surprised ;P).

our little princess

i gave ezekiel a lion

the kids try to show off their new toys

after dinner, we all exchanged gifts. derek & i and we had one more each for the kids. a tradition that derek brought into our marriage is to buy a nice card for one another on special occasions. it can get pretty costly at times (ie. Christmas) but its a nice tradition and i keep all the cards for the kids in a box for them to look at when they're older.
diedre opens her special Valentine card from Daddy and a ballerina barbie.

ezekiel opens his next gift

i found such a sweet book about a mother and son and how she loves him no matter what.

forever sick

many things have been going on around here and through it all, the kids and i and derek have all been sick, on and off, but much more on than off! you can see the sick in the kids eyes :(

ezekiel is at a very clingy stage right now. he has days where he wants to be glued to me and then he'll have some days that i prefer where he comes over for a cuddle or hug, but spends a decent amount of time playing alone or chasing diedre around. she of course, can only handle so much little brother time, and will go into her room or his and close the door for some independent play time.

diedre was doing nearly perfect in potty training in the second half of 2007. after ezekiel's first birthday she took a significant hiatus from such grown-up events. now, just this week, she is finally returning to using the potty, toilet or public washrooms!!! wahoo! and even telling us when she has to go. we are so happy she has decided to return after a full 2 months off of it.


here she is using her squeezy paints she got from the Mellengers for Christmas.

ezekiel really loves to do what diedre does but he cant be trusted with paints (trust me), or crayons (for very long), or playdough (i let him play with all the shapes but he knows the good stuff is inside the containers and he bugs and bugs me to let him play with that).

he still loves anything round (balls) to play with and anything musical like his guitar or shakers or drum. he had a bun at the church luncheon and he kept calling out "ball" and throwing it around between bites. he has such a bubbly, friendly personality. he will give this super extreme smile every once in awhile when he's meeting new people.

both kids are still totally smitten with their daddy (which is great, because i can go out with much less tears or fuss these days). they love tickle time on diedre's bed and for a few months now, derek can just mention the word, and ezekiel will excitedly start walking (or crawling before he could walk) to diedre's room to meet him there.

here diedre is helping daddy run a "dead" wire (its not connected to anything live, dont worry) through the top of our new closet. derek is doing renovations on our closet to be able to fit the stacking washer/dryer and hopefully organize all our clothes.