Bathing Suit and Underwear

What better way to spend a warm summer day than in your bathing suit?  I rounded up the two rascals and encouraged them to put on their bathing suits so that we could play with some water outside.  While I was getting Emmersyn into her swimmer diaper and bathing suit, I had Cameron try putting on his bathing suit all by himself.  I have really babied my first born and at the age of nearly 5 he still wants assistance to get dressed.  After some encouragement, he begrudgingly started to put on his swimsuit by himself in his bedroom.  Once Emmersyn was all suited up, I went to get Cameron so that we could all go out together.  Well, Cameron was still attempting to get his swim suit on when I entered his room and noticed that he had forgotten to take off his underwear.  I gently reminded him, "Cameron, you have to take off your underwear when you put your swimsuit on."  I had no idea that this comment would turn into such a heated debate.  He started crying insisting that he must keep his underwear on.  When I inquired why, he said (hyperventilating) "What if I have to poop or pee?  Then I'll have to poop or pee on the grass."  I just started to laugh out loud.  Why wouldn't you just come inside, I thought to myself.  But then again, I'm not 4.  So, I decided to take the rational approach and explained to him that the lining in the bathing suit was the "underwear" so he didn't have to worry about peeing on the grass!

Here are a few pictures from our day outside.  I forgot how many hours the kids can play at this water table.

They decided enough with the toys and wanted to hop on the table.

On a side note, I have to say that I have been very proud of myself and have been doing things for "me" over the past few weeks.  I'm always working with patients about balancing their different identities and have realized that I have not been balancing the "Maureen as an individual" identity very well.  It's easy to lose our individual identity in the identities of a wife and a mother.  So, I have been making sure to set time aside for the "Maureen" identity and have been scheduling coffee dates, lunch dates, and even went to see a play, The Drowsy Chaperone.  I am looking forward to continuing to work on this balancing act!  I have become friends with some really fascinating and brilliant people.  You can really learn a lot about the world over a cup of coffee. 

Victoria Day

It was an overall beautiful day once again to spend outside on Victoria Day.  We took a quick run to the outlet to look for more bathing suits and then headed to downtown Windsor to try out a new Sushi place for lunch.  At both destinations we ran into problems.  Cameron was not in the mood for looking for bathing suits, and when we got to the Sushi place downtown, it was closed.  We didn't want to wait 1 1/2 hours (with 2 hungry kids) until it opened, so we decided to try a Lebanese place across the street and it turned out fabulous.

Anyway, when we got home we played outside a bit with bubbles and balls when Mohamed cut the grass.  Then we came inside, watched a bit of t.v., and Mohamed was off to work.  It was a nice and relaxing day.

Emmersyn needed a rest after blowing all those bubbles.  And, I love this little sun dress that mom got her for Easter.  It is so practical.  I've been looking for more and can not find any.  It's going to be so easy to pack for our trip...a few bathing suits, cover ups, and sundresses.  We will only need one small carry on!

This is Emmersyn's new rocking chair.  She had a small Tinkerbell chair that she absolutely loves.  When she saw this rocking chair, she just had to have it!  I'm not crazy about the fabric, but thought I could find cute material to recover it.

I'm  off to do a bit of reading.  I probably won't be back until the weekend.  Work seems to get into the way on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday!

It's finally here!

We are so excited that the nice weather has finally arrived!  Cameron has been waiting so patiently to play with Silly Bug.  Today was the day they finally were able to play together after a looonnnnggg winter!

Emmersyn loved playing with Silly Bug, too!

Nothing is better than playing outside in the beautiful weather...except eating ice cream once you are all washed up!

I love how Cameron is sharing his ice cream!  If this was an apple, it would be another story!

Yesterday we had a great time celebrating Tyler's 1st Birthday!  I think Emmersyn is trying to find the birthday boy!

Here Nicholas and Cameron were having a blast playing with all the baby toys!

Tyler was all excited during the singing of the birthday song, however it was a different story when it came time to eat the cake!

He detested the frosting and opted to give it to his dad!  He is obviously not one of my children!

The other day I put Cameron in time-out for some reason, which I can't remember now, but after he was in for a few minutes he came out dressed like this.....

I just had to laugh because I remember doing the exact same thing when a babysitter once told me to go to my room.  I remember getting all dressed up and coming out!  Cameron, also started dancing which I took a video of.  I'll try posting the dance at a later time.

Emmersyn is such an independent little girl.  She obviously didn't want to wait for me to pull the blinds, so she took it upon herself to do the job.  A little climbing, a little pulling...that's all it takes!

Just a random picture that I found cute.

Emmersyn showing off one of her new bathing suits.  She is getting ready for her trip to the Bahamas in the fall!

Just a few random pictures of Emmersyn reading something interesting on the Internet after taking a bath.

Hopefully this nice weather sticks around and hopefully I'll continue to blog more frequently.  Been preoccupied lately with a good book:  The Law, Standards, and Ethics of Practicing Psychologists in Ontario!

Makeup Day 2011

I had such a fun day today hanging out with the girls (Nicole, Crystal, Laura, and mom) at Laura's house playing makeup.  Laura is absolutely AMAZING when it comes to doing makeup! I unfortunately did not bring my camera because of the rush out the door this morning.  I was trying to get Cameron to school on-time, had to cross the border at be at the Honda dealership by 9:00 for a car appointment, needed to deposit some checks at the bank, and needed to return some items to Macy's as our 120 day deadline to return the items was approaching at the end of the week.  So, I forgot the camera.  Anyway, the camera does not do justice for the artwork Laura can create on your face.  And she is absolutely fabulous with knowing what colors will work on every one's skin tones.  She did Crystal, Nicole, mom, and myself all so pretty!   Crystal had texted me on my way home that she was afraid to eat, drink, or do anything because she didn't want to ruin her perfect face.  She even sent Justin to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients that they needed to prepare for the Mother's Day BBQ they are hosting tomorrow.  We were all joking how we didn't want to sleep tonight because we didn't want to mess up our makeup!  Crystal took notes for me while Laura was doing my makeup.  I started studying my cheat sheet once I got home.  This is what it looks like....

We had so many laughs and I am looking forward to our practice party where we practice doing our makeup with Laura being our "makeup guide" as Crystal calls her.  Anyway, just wanted to document for my blog book what a fabulous time I had today on Makeup Day 2011.

On another side note, we were so excited yesterday that mom and dad took a visit across the border to see us.  Mohamed BBQed and we had a great dinner!  Unfortunately yesterday was another crazy day and when I returned home from work mom and dad were already at the house and dinner was ready.  I didn't take any pictures yesterday either, but we really enjoyed having company over!

Looking forward to our Mother's Day get-together tomorrow!  I will definitely bring the camera!

Spaghetti and Ice

So the other day when I was at work, Mohamed decided to make spaghetti to go along with his chicken, mushroom, pepper, onion, etc. concoction.  Anyway, Cameron was so excited when he saw the spaghetti and told Mohamed he had never had spaghetti before...Needless to say, both Cameron and Emmersyn had fun trying to eat these long noodles.

Here Cameron is trying to come up with a plan of attack.  How is he going to eat these crazy noodles.

He did a little googling on the Internet, and found out that there was a "twirling" technique.  However, he was wasn't supplied with a spoon and I think that is why he had so much difficulty. 

If the twirling worked, this would not have been the end result!

Cameron didn't care.  He was having fun and it tasted good!

Emmersyn started out with the one noodle technique.  She opted for her fingers rather than the fork and twirl technique.

Back to Cameron, loving this whole game of spaghetti!

The one noodle technique was taking a bit long for Emmersyn.  She next came up with the full handful technique.  Grab as much spaghetti as will fit in your hand.

These next pictures are from the other day when Cameron was working on some math on the computer and then began complaining that he was too hot.  I recommended that he take off his shirt.  He requested ice.  So, I gave him a bag of ice.  He started to cool down by placing the ice bag on his stomach.

Then he told me he was cooling down his hand.

Then the mouth....

And of course, anything that her big brother has, Emmersyn must have as well.  So she insisted on a bag of ice, too.  Her technique once again is quite different from her brother's technique. She was taking the ice out of the bag and sucking on the ice.

Cameron must have thought that was a great idea, because next thing I know, this is how I find Cameron with his ice.

I wish I knew what she was thinking here.  Probably something to the effect of, "Boy this is cold!"