Our Worst Parenting Mistake so far..

We are bad bad bad bad parents. I am going to try to not put this one too much on Doug, because we were both BAD.

I was getting ready to leave for my book study that night and I went downstairs with Kiera and put her by her daddy. Then I went back upstairs to get ready to go. Well I was on the computer for a couple of minutes and yelled down to Doug "make sure you are watching your daughter!" Well as soon as I said that I heard "wahhhhh" and ran out of the office and at the TOP of the stairs, holding onto the gate, was Kiera. I was SO MAD I yelled at Doug, who came scrambling and saw me pulling Kiera over the gate to safety. Naturally she was very upset, both by being stuck at the top of this MASSIVE staircase to her mum yelling at her dad.
We finally installed the one at the top of the stairs, and we have another one that is turning out to be pretty useless. its a pressure mounted one, that because of the wierd way our stairs are, doesn't pressure mount to anything. we need to get another gate. so far, its been a pretty good deterrant just using the gate sitting on the stairs, as she has pulled it down on herself and won't touch it anymore. but how safe is that? my kid could hurt herself just by yanking on it.

Love affair with the Stair

I know her various grandmothers are going to choke when they read that. but its true. she LOVES the stairs.
now for all of you who have not been to my house: I have an addition to the back that was built in like 1925 or something. to the addition there are 2 stairs. she conquered how to go UP them a month or so ago. Today she works on going DOWN them. I was doing laundry and watching her. she would go up. she is kinda figuring out how to turn herself around to go down, but she is sideways. so she fell. she was fine, though a bit peeved with me. so I went to help her work on it. THAT was the greatest thing in the whole world. She would hold my hands and take like big people STEPS up the stairs giggling the whole time. then she would do it down. she was wearing pants that were much too big and kept unrolling, so finally I just took them off. we had a GREAT time. she is such a cutie and the littlest things make her happy. now we just need to get our EXTREMELY high deck fenced off so she can wander onto the deck and I can have the door open when its nice outside.
YOU KNOW YOUR HOUSE IS DIRTY WHEN...my friend popped by for a visit today and her 2 year old daughter looked at my table covered with clutter and said YUCKY! leave it to kids to tell the truth. *sigh* its just so MESSY that I almost don't even want to deal with it.

The White House 

The Hope Diamond...WOW! 

Katie & Candice 

Laughs on the Metro

Laughs

Washington D.C. 

Trip to DC

Niether Kiera nor I had been to DC before. Doug of course had, because he's been everywhere, much to my annoyance.
We left on Friday afternoon and arrived at 950EST. The flight was okay, we went through Denver and then to Baltimore. Kiera did all right, though she did start screeching at one point. Doug did help a little, but she wanted me. I felt bad for everyone in the back, there was a 3 month old who cried almost the whole 3 1/2 hour flight. Our friend Katie, whom we had gone to visit, picked us up in her friends car. We almost didn't all fit because of the stroller and Katies work stuff. We squeezed in and settled for another long ride.
The traffic in DC is CRAZY!!! its totally insane. it was like 1130pm when we were driving from Katies friends house to her house and the freeway was like SO BUSY. its really hard to imagine that much clog until you experience it. There are people EVERYWHERE ALL the time, 24/7, and its a really big deal to find short cuts and backroads that ignore the freeway. I guess that is what happens when you live in a huge metro center. Katie is moving away from there, and all I could think was how HAPPY she was going to be to get OUT of that crazy traffic. Her husband, Adam does something called SLUGGING. there is an HOV lane down the center of the freeway that only if you have a minimum of 3 people in your car can you take. so they have these stations, where people that left their cars further south, stand in these lines and random people pick them up and drop them off at the next station down the way. Apparently nobody talks. but if you DONT pick people up, then you are stuck in traffic, where you go 2o mph for like 2 hours. how could you NOT pick people up???
on Saturday, everyone was beat and it seemed Kiera might be getting sick. so we just hung out, went to the salon, got pedicures and then Katie had a party for her new business. we got to eat...hard job! on Sunday after a night from hell, she slept like crap and woke up screeching numerous times, I am sure it was because of sickness, we packed up day stuff and took the metro to washington DC. When we got there, Doug and Katie were talking about "the mall" and I said "I can go to the mall anywhere, I would rather see stuff" at which they started laughing at me. apparently the long strip of stuff, Abe Lincoln, white house, etc, is all in the same area, which has been dubbed "the mall". okay then. I felt a bit stupid. But we went and saw Abe Lincoln statue, the new memorial to the WWII veterans (where Canada was not mentioned a single time, even though CHINA was??!!), and we meanandered our way down to the White House as well. Katie gets to take le grande tour here shortly INSIDE of it. oooooooo. Katie got all inquistive about just WHY the world has a problem with the States, so I explained the way I understood it. Doug of course, argued with me the whole time about everything I said. I admitted, am more leftish than he is. he snorted at that comment. no kidding.
We went to the Smithsonian, where I got to see a bunch of "stuffed" animals from all over the world and got annoyed with a video of a money directed at children saying that "this ape could be your great grandmother" I was like HER GREAT GREAT grandmother is alive you stupid people." whatever.
THEN I got to see the HOPE DIAMOND. SO COOL. I really would like to go back there, its FREE and there is so much cool stuff in the Smithsonian.
We left yesterday afternoon, after driving through crazy DC traffic to get to the airport again. We made a stop off at the HUGEST outlet mall on the eastern seaboard and bought some clothes at Osh Kosh. I got her a bathing suit and some water shoes too. I figure she will be walking soon and I don't want her walking on the floors in the Y.
Her accomplishments this weekend include STANDING ALONE for 30 seconds holding on to NOTHING! she was quite pleased. She also learned to CLAP, and likes doing that a lot. She is also now figured out how to cover her face with her hands and remove them and say "ba", which in her world is BOO! When she does it, I say WHERE IS KIERA? and she laughs hysterically that she hid from mummy.
But the funniest story by far of the weekend is this. When we got home finally, she had slept most of the way on the 2 hour flight (thank God), so she was pretty chipper and it really wasn't that late. I am SO GLAD I made a big stink about getting a seat for her too, because we hit major turbulance. Doug brought her in from the car and she looked around and looked at the house and STARTING WAVING AT THE HOUSE!!! how funny is that? Then later, Doug went to put her to bed, he was rocking her in the chair and she started lunging for her crib and we Doug started to move toward it, she started doing her famous dorothy kick her heels together! she was SO excited to get to bed! She cuddled up and immediately feel asleep. so cute...

Auntie Kimmy's Birthday Today!

She turns 23. She is an old married lady living far away from mum and dad. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMMIE!
Today is a nice day again, as I prepare to go to D.C. to see a friend. I really hope it works out, as we have some appointments in the morning and we need to board a plane that afternoon. I am not sure if we can do everything. we all ready need to get on two planes, and lose 2 hours. I don't know. I guess we will see.

Lollipops are YUMMY!

I gave her her first lollipop yesterday, which as you can tell by the pics, she REALLY liked. it was quite cute how much she got into it.
The pic of Doug and her is also quite cute. I came upstairs from visiting my friend and she was actually asleep on him. The camera of course, was on the other side of him, and there is no room behind him to walk. So I was literally under the chair. and just as I was coming up to take the shot, she woke up. and this is the pic I got. still pretty cute though.
Today I went for a job interview and paid someone 7.50 per hour to watch my kid. maybe that will make Doug appreciate what I do more in terms of economically contributing.

I am just so darn cute! 

Sticky Baby 

Yummy 

Snuggles 

First Lollipop 

The Incline

So about a mile or so from our house, there is something called the incline. it is only about amile long, but you ascent 2000ft. Doug has been telling me I am not a true Manitoud until I have climbed this thing. On Saturday, which was absolutely beautiful, Doug, Dave (our friend) and I all set out to begin our ascent.
Somedays I think I am the biggest idiot as a parent that was ever out there. When we were getting ready to go, we thought about making sure we had enough water. but did I think of what KIERA would need?? noooooooo. Usually when I leave the house for 3 hours, I will pack cheerios, diapers, wipes, water, the usual stuff. Well there we are about 3/4 of the way there when she starts SCREECHING. and is there any pacifier to be found? no!!! and THEN she poops her britches and does her mother have a DIAPER for her?? NO! why? because shes an idiot mother!
She wanted her mummy SO bad, that I had to take her OUT of the backpack (which Doug was carrying) and I had her under one arm and was climbing the "stairs" myself. the incline used to be a railroad track, and in parts it pretty much goes straight up at parts. it was SO BRUTAL and there I am hauling an extra 20 pounds with me with a child strung under one arm. There is a "false top" where you think you are at the top, but in fact you have to go another 500 feet or so to get there. When we got to that point, we stopped, and I took off her diaper. out of desperation, the two wipes I accidently had with me, wiped her bum and put her pants back on with no diaper. she didn't seem to mind, though it was getting colder and colder as we went.
Finally we arrived at the top! And I DID IT! I took forever, which my little 9 year old friend Sawyer thought was REALLY funny, but I was pleased that I had done it at all. But I forgot the camera, and so you can't even appreciate just how hard I worked to do it. though you can type in the incline in google and get some pics.
So next time we go, because apparently there will be a next time, I am going to be PREPARED! with diapers, and wipes and cheerios and a SOOTHER! crazy. and a blankie, so she doesn't get so cold.
I woke up with every muscle in my lower body SCREAMING at me. I could barely walk. in fact, today I am still not completely over it. but this way it will tone it!
Yesterday there was this CRAZY winter storm that hit the city. But the whole time Doug and I are looking at each other going THIS IS IT?! If we shut down in Canada everytime it snowed this much, we'd never get ANYTHING done! We went to go visit our friend Dave, who lives in the plains, and it really was substantially worse. but that was only the last 5 minutes of our drive. We also went to black church for the first time ever. it was a lot of fun, Kiera was clicking her heels together and dancing with the music. but it was also 2 1/2 hours! and no childcare! but at least when she yelled no one flinched because they were all yelling PREACH IT at one point or another. it was pretty cool though. but I don't think I can do that every Sunday entertaining a baby.

First kiss...

Kiera kissed Zephyr today. It was so cute. he was in his walker and she was standing there helping him clean off his tray. First she starting by sticking her finger in his mouth, and then he started to open his mouth and chew on her finger. And then she leaned into him and SMACK on the mouth. Well it was more like a meeting of the lips and maybe she chwed on his lower one. Then she took off, and he went after her. but his walker was no match for her crawling. then he hit some rug and gave up and got distracted pulling something.

Dada, whats that? 

I do not know about this! 

That is mine! 

Day at the Zoo 

Zoo

On Monday we went to the zoo for the very first time... it was lots of fun. I think the best part about it, is that its really exciting seeing your baby see animals for the first time and how cool they are.
We bought a membership because it was only twice the price of two adult entries and I can bring a guest with me whenever I want.
The best exhibit was the giraffes by far. It was pretty darn cool actually. you could buy giraffe crackers and feed them. they have the largest collection of giraffes in the world. I got her to hold one I to hold it up to a giraffe, well they have these really long tongues that search out those crackers. She got totally scared and started crying. But she did stare. I got some pics of her pointing at some monkeys and saying "what's that??" in her own special language sitting on daddy's shoulders.
When she fell asleep it was not quite as exciting, but I did manage to get some good exercise in on those hills. When you come and visit, I will take you.

Cuddles with dada

Whilest I was making dinner the other night, Doug did his dada duty and put her to bed. She was not very happy about the whole thing and screeched in protest. So he picked her up again, holding her nice soft blankie close to her and he brought her to the rocking chair. Then she cuddled up against his chest and fell asleep. awwwww.how cute is that? she has never done that before. but she obviously really likes her dada a lot.

Door opening...

She is quite pleased with herself that she can open and close doors all by herself. She'll do it for about 10 minutes at a time. She laughs every time she opens the door and sees me there. I guess its a laugh and a half shutting the door on your mum's face. I am sure that is just a shadow of things to come.

She is also turning into quite the toddler. Every day she is less like a baby and more like a toddler complete with temper tantrums. She had her first official one the other day. She had a short late afternoon nap bc she was really grouchy. I brought her downstairs and put her in her highchair and she got SO MAD at me, she arched her back and SCREAMED in frustration. I was looking at her wide eyed like OHMYGOSH, this is what I am in for? She is getting REALLY good at back arching when she is not getting her way, whatever that may be. Now I REALLY wish I had taught her baby sign language so she could tell me what the heck was going on. It turned out she had a butt that needed to be changed, but it didnt smell at all, and usually they do wickedly, so I didn't clue in. Her bum was SO SORE, I felt so bad. it seems like it goes from 0-100 in one diaper. Doug was upset with me bc I had forgotten to pick up his tea from the grocery store that morning, so he left just as she started to screech at me. I brought her upstairs, looked at her bum and decided she needed a bath. So there I am holding a baby with a naked, dirty bum in the air, she is screaming and I am trying to get the bath tub water going, so I am bent over and the PHONE RINGS! now I pretty much had to answer this call because it was an important one. So I am trying to be nice to the person on the phone while holding a baby with a dirty bum and no diaper as far away from me as possible. Screaming babies, phone calls, dirty bums and baths just don't mix. I, of course, wanted to kill Doug at this point bc he left me at point of crisis when I knew she was really upset and didn't know what was wrong with her. But she went to sleep beautifully that night and slept all the way until 630. We have a bit of a problem with her waking up like an hour earlier than usual. I am pretty sure its because the sun makes its appearance that much earlier. She has pretty much adjusted herself for daylight savings time, which is good. I am just going to start putting her to bed earlier on Saturday night.
Yesterday my friends came to oust what was left in my house from someone else. Doug thought/thinks I am crazy and imagining things that aren't there. But I told my MIL about this, and she told me when they were staying here, her bedroom door kept opening. She told it so scram. It never bothered her again. So I don't think I am crazy. It wasn't overly dramatic or anything, just telling it to leave us and our family alone. She sure had interesting stories though. My friends have done this ousting quite a bit in thier lives. Very interesting. The place that I live has a lot of witchcraft and the like. interesting town I live in.