February 2015 + our favorite play dough recipe

Pardon me while I play catchup here.  I know it's already mid March, but I wanted to share our February in review.

Basically, snow, snow and snow!  Also, our first visitors and a few fun crafts to celebrate Valentine's day.  We tried to get out and play, but many cold days had us seeking news ways to stay busy indoors.  We discovered a great play dough recipe that kept us occupied for hours.  Not to mention, it doubles as a treatment for parched winter hands and eczema.

Play dough Recipe:
Stir together 2/3 cups of quick oats, 3 Tablespoons of coconut oil, 1 Tablespoon of honey and 3/4 cups of hot water.  Once that's well stirred, add in 2 cups of cornstarch.  You can add more hot water as needed.  We also added a few drops of our favorite essential oil.

This makes your hands super soft.  Also, you can use this recipe (minus the cornstarch) for a pre-bath treatment.  James Robert is prone to eczema; it was a fun messy activity for him to rub the oat mixture on his legs and arms before bath time!  

Letter to JR: Happy 2nd Birthday!

Dear James Robert,

We love you more than words.  Two years ago, I could hardly wait to meet you.  Now, my everyday’s are filled with your sweet face.  Frequently, you ask me to read you a story at bedtime in which a mother tells her child how much he is loved.  “I can’t imagine life before you came along, you are the music to my dance and my song” are the words you know and love best.  They are also some of the truest.

You light up our world with your infectious energy and charisma.  In the last year you’ve grown in so many ways.  You’ve increased your vocabulary by leaps and bounds.  We have endless conversations these days.  Planes, puppies and bees are things we discuss often.

 

You still adore anything musical.  You’re the first to dance at story time.  You find delight in routine and can easily tell us what comes next.  Playing is your favorite thing to do, especially with your train tracks or with your stuffed animals. 

You love to swim, play with Major, build forts with your Dad and dance.  You smile a wild and unabashedly joyous smile when we come get you in the morning and it melts my heart daily.

While you love to rough house and get dirty, you’re also affectionate and tender.  You give hugs and kisses genuinely.  You make friends wherever you go.  And if I could bottle your belly laugh, I would.  

It is so sweet to see your personality develop.  You have have plentiful opinions and specific tastes these days.  You keep me on my toes and teach me lessons constantly.  

Happy Birthday, my sweet boy.  Here's to the terrific twos and a year full of incredible memories ahead. 

Love,

Your Mama

Granparent's Visit!

We welcomed both sets of James Robert's Grandparents to Canada last weekend.   Despite the frigid temps, they all came up to help celebrate the big t-w-o!

It was a wonderful weekend.  We were reunited with Major (he had been on "vacation" at Nanna and Baca's for over a month). And we did lots of celebrating.

More pictures to come.  I took some with my real camera and can't find the cord to upload them...

We had a little early Birthday party and James Robert couldn't have been more tickled to have gifts to open.  And the cake was something the we'd been talking about for months.  James Robert specifically wanted a vanilla cake with cherry frosting... so that's what he got!

Moving Day

We moved into our little house on Reynolds Street in the midst of a snow storm.  And while it certainly made it messy and challenging, we got everything in!

Family Room Before:

After:

 
Kitchen Before:

 
Kitchen After:

 

Mountsberg Conservation Area

We enjoyed a nice long weekend and celebrated Valentines Day by visiting the Mountsberg Conservation area.  The snowy day was a perfect backdrop for a sleigh ride (complete with jingle bells), roasting marshmallows by a fire and hot chocolate.


Olly and Ruby were the sweetest horses.

We're moving to our new house in Oakville this weekend and can't wait! xx 

First visitor!

Our dear friend Allison came to visit us last weekend.  She was our first Canadian visitor (and coincidentally our first visitor when we moved to Charlotte too).  We so loved catching up and goofing around with her.

That time I {almost} went on strike.

Let me add some context to what I’m about to share with you.  Let’s go back a few years to what M and I now affectionately call the strike of ’07.  We were fresh off the plane as expats in New Zealand and Mat was whisked off to the Philippines on business for a week leaving me alone in Auckland. 

I’m not proud of the fact that I almost never left our hotel room.  It was then that I learned why they call it homesick.  Fear, uncertainty and loneliness closed me off to a new culture. 

We laugh at the story now as legend.  I went on to assimilate quite nicely to life in New Zealand.  But there was an adjustment phase.  In fact, there are a few phases to expiating.   

Keeping this lesson in mind, my recent reflections on our second expat home may not be so surprising. I’ll be honest; this time around I skipped the honeymoon phase all together.

Today, Feb 8^th, I sit looking out my window in Toronto and I’m done with winter {and I may have uttered that I am also done with Toronto a few times}.  Today was the worst.  Another day of gray, dreary snow and slush and a forecast stacked with another 5 days of the same.  

Here’s where I admit that I grossly underestimated the whole moving-to-Canada-in-the-middle-of-winter thing.  Lesson learned.  And a hard lesson indeed.

However, unlike the first time around, I haven’t gone on strike!  In fact, we’ve been doing our best to get out in the snow and explore our new city.  Evidenced by James Robert’s first attempt at a snow angel, he’s not too sure about this snow stuff either. 

This is the phase of expiating where I tend to keep score.  I’m currently mourning a variety of American paraphernalia that may sound trivial, but in actuality makes day-to-day much different. 

For example:

Toronto:

+people are nice

+the English spoken is understandable

+museums

+easy public transportation

+plethora of ethnic cuisine to try

Charlotte:

+friends

+family

+a home, with our belongings (we’re still living our of suitcases)

+weather that doesn’t require a snow suit

+a church

+Doctors we trust

+knowing my way around and where to do (key when with a toddler)

+Target (they are all closing here)

+Amazon prime

+American TV

+kids museums

+easy parking

+Chic-fil-A

If history is our guide, a year from now, we’ll hopefully laugh at this time.  Consider this our it-can-only-go-up-from here post. Finger's crossed!