Congrats boys!

A few of my fans just won a Juno Award...




...for Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year for their album, Wide-Eyed and Mystified. They were up against Carolyn Arends, Hawk Nelson, Manafest, and Starfield.

Spring!

Spring's arrival is so glorious. It's comparable only to the arrival of autumn and the arrival of winter. [Let's face it, the arrival of summer pretty much goes unnoticed.] Why does seasonal change FEEL SO GOOD? We had one really warm day earlier this week and I just felt so energized and happy about it! Of course, it cooled down again and we're back to winter coats at least in the morning... but just that glimpse of what is to come... Yummy!

I'm SO looking forward to saying good-bye to winter coats, boots, mittens, hats, etc. Good bye to colds too. And cleaning snow off the car. Slippery roads. And salt-stained everything.

But all seasons have their advantages and disadvantages. Just as we're saying good-bye to all those winter things, we're saying hello to mud, children covered head-to-toe in sand (dumping sand out of rainboots onto the floor!), sunscreen, and worst of all, BUG spray... Oh, the lovely diseases mosquitoes carry... I guess I better start worrying about that!

He did it!

Jonah DID it! No accidents at all today at daycare! And had morning and evening poops at home! Woo hoo! Oh, but I neglected to mention the part where he peed his pants once we got home from daycare... But it pretty much went unnoticed considering the rest of the day!

potty training laughs

We've been potty training Jonah over the last week and he's actually doing a lot better than we anticipated. He has been pooping on the potty every day, and doing quite well with his pees too - letting us know that he needs to go, and then doing it. Only a few minor accidents. The prize for a pee and clean underwear is one piece of fruit loop cereal (AKA candy loop). The prize for a poop and clean underwear is TEN fruit loops!

Yesterday he stood up to reveal a rather lovely turd, dare I admit it. It reminded me of a chocolate soft serve ice-cream (in appearance only), although a little shorter and wider... and it had none of those fancy ripples like in the picture I've posted. When he saw it, he exclaimed (in a high squeaky voice due to his cold), "I MADE A CAKE POOP!"

Then he went upstairs to announce it to everyone and to have them come down for a look! BOYS!! Today he called his poop "a cocktail poop!"... I'm guessing because he had eaten fruit cocktail in the previous hour.

If Jonah is well enough to go to daycare tomorrow, he wants to go in underwear. I took him there in diapers on Friday and his teachers said they have never seen him pee on the toilet ever! Odd! Although sounds strangely familiar, doesn't it Sue? We'll see what happens and I'll keep you posted.

Other cute/funny things Jonah has said recently...

Said to Aunt Tracy the day after she mentioned misplacing her memory stick...

Did you find your imagination stick?

Said a couple of hours after Daddy left town for California this morning...

We need a LONG rope, to catch Daddy's plane!

OK, yeah, that one's kinda sad too. We miss you babe!

The early days

I signed up in facebook and a lot of my old camp friends have started camp groups. There are two for my former camp, Camp Selkirk, and a friend posted this picture. Here we are in the kitchen. Any guesses on how old Glenn and I are in these pictures?

Final Caribbean Cruise Pictures

On deck before leaving Ft. Lauderdale

Bahamas

Mexico

Photo credits to Jess Lewis

Formal Night

Those of you who follow my blog know that I was whining a little bit about formal night on the cruise. I decided to wear a dress I already had, and managed to find shoes for around $20 and a little sweater for around $10 to go with it. Oh, and a stylish necklace for $5. We posed for quite a few pictures together that night. Marc kidnapped Jess' camera and took way too many pictures of us ladies, probably because we all looked SO HOT! Anyway, I was getting sick of posing at this point... Not sure exactly what I was doing besides exiting the photo, however, I just love this picture because I look like the star!

...sweet lovebirds...

Star struck on the cruise?

downhere on stage on the Carnival Liberty

The band wanted to have their picture taken with me...

A chandelier and staircase on the boat

Photo credits to Jess Lewis

Costa Maya, Mexico - Last Port of Call

Our last stop was Costa Maya, Mexico. It was definitely our favorite stop. The entire spot is pretty much built for tourists who arrive via cruise ships. We (Glenn, Jeremy, Erin & I) took a bus to a nearby beach and took a taxi home. I had a half-hour massage on the beach! Sweeeeet! Glenn and I also went swimming and snorkeling - it was tricky getting past the coral, but once we got out there we saw a lot of really neat sea life! We also did some shopping during this stop. We found ourselves a hand-painted plate and bought a summer outfit for Jonah.

The view from the dock

Us posing for a picture before getting back on the ship

Jonah modeling the outfit we bought him in Mexico

Second Port of Call - Grand Cayman

Our second stop was in the largest of the three Cayman Islands. It was a HOT day. I (and many others) ended up sunburned at the end of this day, despite multiple applications of sunscreen. Most of us attempted snorkeling here, however, we didn't buy a snorkeling excursion package and were only able to try it on the beach. The water was quite rough and, not being a strong swimmer, or an experienced snorkeler, I didn't accomplish too much out in the water. Eventually, once again, the ladies were on the beach, the men were in the water.

Other points of interest...

We bought chimes for Jonah in Grand Cayman... You know the kind... says Grand Cayman on them somewhere... although I think they were actually made in India or Indonesia or something. So, not so authentic.

There are more than 600 banks on the Cayman Islands and there are plenty of shops to buy jewelry. Didn't buy any.

Grand Cayman was SUPER busy that day, with a total of 8 cruise ships in port. The shore is too shallow around the island, so the cruise ships can't dock. Instead, we were introduced to the process of "tendering". Smaller boats came out picking up passengers, 100-200 people at a time. Those who had bought excursion packages were given priority.

The view from the water of shops on the shore

Glenn in front of a water fountain. We specifically took this picture
because Jonah really loves water fountains.

The beach where we hung out

A view of our boat from shore

Freeport, Bahamas - Port Lucaya

Our first Port of Call was Freeport, Bahamas. It's not far of the coast of Florida, so the weather wasn't exactly tropical in February. It was a warm day. We hit the beach first, but the water was too cold for the ladies! The men braved the cold waters to do a first snorkeling attempt while the ladies walked off to check out the shopping.

The Food

If you have ever heard people talk about a cruise, then you have most certainly heard them talk about the food! We were not let down! Food was pretty much always available, and most of it was quite good! The evening dining room experience was always so nice! We loved our two servers. Iciva (pronouced "Eeee-VEET-sa") was our main server, from Croatia, but his mannerisms were undeniably cousin Tim. It was crazy. If you're a member of the Robbins clan, be sure to check out his "twin" in downhere's video podcast entitled, Cruisin' the Caribbean.

This is the dessert I had every night but two in the dining room. It was called Warm Chocolate Melting Cake, and although the presentation was somewhat weak, this dessert was truly and utterly amazing!!!!!!!!!



One night I strayed from my warm chocolate melting cake to have pumpkin pie -- it seemed to be the perfect ending to my turkey dinner; however, it was a low-fat pumpkin pie and it truly sucked and I couldn't eat all of it. It just wasn't worth the calories (or lack of calories). I should have learned my lesson that night, but another night I again strayed from my favorite to try the apple pastry thingy pictured below. I can't remember what it was called, but the presentation was absolutely beautiful. Didn't enjoy it much at all though, and left most of it on my plate. Again, not worth the calories! I would eat Grandpa French's apple pie rather than this beauty any day!

Cruise, finally!

Well, Glenn is home and that means I have access to some of our cruise pics! So, I'll do a few posts about that, as some of you have requested...

Serenity

Valentine's Swan Towels!

[There were different animal-shaped towels every night!]

daylight savings, plus

As I've mentioned, Jonah always seems to anticipate the time change, getting ahead of them by at least a few days. For the last few days he had been getting up at 6am, so I was quite relieved that today, when he got up that early again, the clock would at least say 7am.

But I don't get it! He didn't actually wake up today until 8:15am. I realize that it really only felt like 7:15am, but still, that's an hour and a quarter later than he has been sleeping the last few mornings. I just don't get it! So anyway, I skipped his nap today in order to ensure he would be tired and able to fall asleep by 7:30pm. And he was. So I was glad. Although, he was rather testy this afternoon. And has been hitting and pushing Miles for seemingly no reason the last few days. I guess he's just stressed and trying to work through a few things! He has also been giving me "attitude" lately. Dirty looks, even, and defiant, rude "No"s. Oh, the joys!

Daddy gets home tomorrow! Woo hoo! I'm interested to see how that will change things!

Oh, and for those of you following the introduction to daycare saga and its results... Bedtime separation is pretty much better, however, today at church he cried about going into his class - he NEVER does that! And he already told me he doesn't want to go to daycare tomorrow! Friday drop-off was terrible, but they said he had a much better day and did NOT need to care his beloved dog, Ivy, around all day.

That reminds me, Jonah has been very interested in names lately. More specifically, FULL names. Whenever he talks to Glenn on the phone, he first says, "Daddy, what's your name?" Anyway, tonight he gave Ivy a new name. Ivy's full name is now "Ivy Liglig Tigochi".

conversations

I've been having all sorts of interesting conversations with children this past month, and thought I would highlight a couple here.

Ouch!

Thursday, was a rough day. I made a nice comment to one girl about the picture she was drawing of a horse. The girl next to her looked up at me and said, "You are so interrupting!"

Later on, the girl I complimented was talking to me and then noticed, "You have yellow teeth."

Thank you very much, ladies!

Silly/Funny

Children LOVE to mispronounce my name and call me Cherry. They find it quite funny.

Tonight I visited youtube.com to show Jonah some videos of people playing drum kits. We started with a drummer - a man in his 30s perhaps, thin, with LONG hair. He did a stick twirling trick...
Jonah: She's not spinning her stick anymore.
Me: She? Is that a man or a lady?
Jonah: A lady!
Me: How can you tell?
Jonah: She has a uterus.
Me: You can see that?
Jonah: Yeah.

Thank you!

It's so nice when children actually remember who I am and give me a big smile and hug when they see me. Some even remember me by name! (I work quite randomly at a LOT of different daycares.)

Any time I wear a necklace that Krista and Bob gave me for Christmas, I get ALL sorts of compliments. Children and adults of all ages, male AND female, just love this thing. They stare at it and tell me they like it. I can always expect a few glances at my chest over this one. Sorry the picture is so weak - it's the best my camera can do. Great choice, K-Bob!


I feel like I'm forgetting some good conversations, so I'll add them if I recall them anytime soon.

Oh, and I have to add the weirdest thing I've WITNESSED in the last month at work. A teacher left the premises to smoke. Then came back and used her asthma inhaler.

daycare

After weeks of debating what our "next move" was going to be, we finally did it... We enrolled Jonah at a daycare centre for two full days each week. I was feeling somewhat frustrated with the fact that when Glenn is away for WEEKS at a time, I really don't have good opportunity to work. That was the main contributing factor. Plus the fact that Jonah was always begging to go to daycare to play with Miles.

So Jonah had a couple of good visits and then started! Day one was super smooth. Drop off, around 10am, was dreamily easy. I worked only a couple of hours that day, ran some errands, and then picked him up early, around 4pm, because the weather was dreadful and I didn't feel like going home, only to go back out in it again. He teachers said he had a GREAT first day (although of course he didn't nap there). He was happy to see me and off we went.

However, after dropping him off that day, I struck up a conversation with the owner. I had brought my resume in a month earlier. They really needed somebody... for the NEXT day. So I agreed to work the TWO following days. Jonah would be there all day, in a different room from me.

So, days two and three did NOT go so well. The problem appeared to be the fact that I was IN the building somewhere. He cried a lot, wanting to go and find me and be with me. On the bright side, he DID nap!

Jonah did NOT want to say good-bye to me at bedtime tonight either. Oh dear!

So, his next day is Friday. I'll be working ELSEWHERE that day. It will be interesting to see how that goes. In the meantime, tomorrow, I plan on dropping him off at a friend's house while
I work for 3 hours or so. I'm a little afraid that he will have difficulty without me. Normally, dropping him off with friends or family isn't a problem at all. He's usually fine... but I'm guessing the 3 days of daycare trauma may have a negative influence on tomorrow. I'll let you know!

Only FIVE full days left of Glenn being away. Man, this trip has been a long one and it's getting OLD! At least I have been busy and distracted. That helps. Although, at the end of a tiring day like today, a hug from my hubby would SURE be nice! Miss u babe!

Update: Jonah was fine at my friend's house today, so that was a relief. On the way home from there though, we got talking about tomorrow being a daycare day. He basically told me he was going to be sad and cry all day and look for me. I repeatedly tried to explain that I would be at a different work, and that I would pick him up to take him home for supper. Before bed he started talking about it again, and even got a bit of a pout on his face like he was going to cry at the anticipation of daycare. I assured him I loved him, would miss him, would ALWAYS come back to get him and have big hugs, etc. He said he wanted a BIG hug before I left and I told him if he needed big hugs there, the teachers could give him some. I reminded him of all the fun things there, and so on. But man, I really could have cried just from the look on his face and the worry in his heart. But, I know this is ALL normal as children transition, and he WILL be fine eventually!

quick pics

Jonah jammin' with Daddy

A VERY RARE moment
Potato chips AND pop (behind him)
at a local hockey game

Serious with Seuss (The Grinch)

The newest cardboard creation - an acoustic guitar

Jonah's new favorite thing to do with paint

My snow day creation