The New Normalcy @ Casa Yost OR: Why the Old Normal Sucks!

Well, I will likely be going dark in the near future as I will be in class Monday - Thursday evenings for 3 hours at a shot.  Boo!  Cara & I are bemoaning the fact but it will give us a monetary boost in September as I will be done, so I suppose that is a yay!

I figured I should post some random stuff we have seen around the house lately.  Our normal is nowhere near actual normal.

I guess this i the new normal in Manitoba...  Easter Sunday we go to visit Jeff in St. Adolphe, and he suggests that HWY 210 (in from the East & HWY 59) will be no problem.  We come to a section that has already flooded over.  The river crested 6 days later.  When we visited Jeff, we went on his dike to see the lake that his property oversaw.

My poor, poor dog.  Teresa gives him bows and clips and dresses, and has tried to pick his nose with a pencil (have I ever posted that video?).  The other day I went downstairs, I knew Teresa was putting a dress on him (actually a blanket) and when I came up 10 minutes later he was still sitting there with his dress on.  The poor, poor crushed soul!  This is our normal.

Frances sleeping in her swing.  If Frances is not seated or cuddling into Cara she will not sleep...  One night in the first month Cara gave her to me as she needed to sleep, and unable to calm her for half an hour I put her in the swing and promptly fell asleep myself.  I awoke an hour later to her concerned calls as she had almost fallen out!  Yup, this is out normal.

Teresa is riding her bulldozer while being a fireman.  This is one of the fusions of professions we see daily that almost makes sense.  She has lately taken to riding her Harley on the handle bars, and also jumping from chairs onto the couch.  I see a future in the circus...  Normal?

Teresa loves Frances, and will eventually kill her because of it.  Normally she will shower her with billions of kisses, and all sorts of other affection reagrdless of if she is asleep or not.  Here Teresa covered her with her blankie and gave her Teddy & her new rabbit to make her feel better...  I am glad she loves her so much, I just wish she would let sleeping babies lie.

Teresa loves having her picture & video taken.  She's just normally unwilling to pose nicely for it.  Here, do you see the tiny green speck on the floor by her left hand (remember her left is your right people!)?  That's her toy gorilla that she wanted a picture taken of with her.  No picture with Teresa can any longer be 'normal'

Here we go again, getting Frances to sleep.  Right now I see the two of them doubled over in sleepy goodness.  Have I mentioned the new normal is good?

Two months....and feeling Frantastic!

My little Frances is now 2 months old. It seems so strange because two months, when you look at it, is such a short period of time, yet it feels as if Frances has been a part of this family forever. Teresa will often cuddle with me while I am nursing and say "here we are mommy, a flamily." And we truly are no longer complete without our little Francie-pants. And Frances seems to be falling in love with her big sister. She tracks Teresa's movements, smiles when Teresa talks to her and grins when she gets hundreds of kisses a day. It has been beautiful to watch these two truly become sisters. They already have a connection and I hope it stands the test of time (and adolescence). Watching the two of them interact is a thing of beauty, and I am blessed to be a witness to it.

With the help of plenty of milk, cuddles, hugs and kisses Frances is thriving. At her last medical appointment she was a whopping 11 pounds and no longer fits her newborn sleepers. She now tracks movement and sound, coos, smiles back when you smile and has great neck control. She loves belly time and spends most of it trying to role or crawl, depending on her mood at the moment. Frances has also become a much better sleeper, with a distinct afternoon nap. She has been sleeping for 6-7 hours at night for a few weeks now, much to Ken and I's relief. Although the first month was tough, things have settled into a more even keel and I look forward to warmer spring weather, morning walks and fun in the park.

To Brighten Your Day

A two month post is coming soon, we will give you this to tide you over.

This just melts my heart everyday. 

New Kids Bay-be

I should start this entry by saying I am not embarrassed by any of the information I am about to say in this post.

 When I was a youngster, I LOVED the New Kids, especially Joey. I had all the cassettes and my Mom even got me one of their t-shirts. I knew all the dance moves that went along with "Right Stuff," "Hangin' Tough," and my personal favourite...."Step by Step." When they came to Winnipeg the last time, I could not go. This time however, I had my own money, Ken to parent and my own car to get there. There was no stopping me, and I had a great time. I went with my cousin Jackie, and her New Kids collection includes dolls, hats and t-shirts...oh my. We sang, we danced and for one evening enjoyed our memories of high school. It was fab. I took some pictures of course. The next time they tour Jordan's pecks won't be nearly as perky:)

Me and Jackie, my partner in crime.

The grand entrance, I must admit I squealed a little.

Joey!

This picture made me laugh my ass off.

This is Jonathan, Jackie's favourite.

Oh come on! You knew one of them had to take their shirt off at some point.

Bye guys! Thanks for the great time:) 

Easter Mayhem....Photo journalist style!

Frances' first easter has come and gone, and while Frances only noticed a slight change to her routine, Teresa had a fab time. So after three gatherings, two skipped naps and the consumption of approximately ten pounds of chocolate (this is a guess....it could be more) we are back to boring old routine. It was nice to see my aunts and uncles, most of whom had yet to meet Frances. Now on to the visual part of our presentation.

Not that Teresa likes candy....

Found it!!

T loves playing with Laura, one of my younger cousins.

Frances, giving Oma some face time.

Easter morning.

See, they do love each other.

The dress. It is the same one as last year, it was just a bit shorter.

The girls, after church.

Ken's girls!

My Frances.

Great Grandma getting some cuddle time.

And Uncle Jeffie too.

Teresa with the egg she painted. She is also very proud of her nostrils.

How to Build a Snowman

After the success of the YouTube smash "How to Build a Sandcastle" we have decided to add more movies to the Teresa "How to" series.  Today we show you how to build a snowman in under 2 minutes.  I might point out for those that have never lived in Winnipeg that this may seem late to you, yet this is the best time of the year for snowmen as we still have snow (BOO!) and for the vast majority of the winter the snow is not workable for snowmen as it is too freakin' cold out...

I also have a bunch of my favorite pictures from Ottawa.  I know that Frances is scarce in these but I think it is because I always see her and she is cute, but not doing interesting things on camera (have we mentioned she coos at me and smiles all the time? :)  Also the people shown in the pictured are only chosen due to their interactions with the ultra cuteness of Teresa, not because I am playing favorites.  Also today, I fed Frances her first bottle in anticipation of the NKOTB concert Thursday where Cara is leaving me as sole parent.

The picture at the end of the video

The Bottle 

Naked baby!  It's bath time.

I wish my core was this darn strong!

Teresa enjoys eclectic mixtures of patterns.

While it appears Teresa is crushing Frances she is really just kissing her

I love Frances' facial expression here...

Apparently she was coaxed into this pose.

Responsible parenting 101: Do not feed your child to the cute T-Rex

She was just so happy in this picture I couldn't not post it.  She loved the museum of nature (the dinosaurs were her favorite!)

Teresa & I are being seals and risking death by peering at the polar bears.

Teresa's Moose is Loose!

Going for a slide at Mooney's Bay

Teresa feeding Louie a treat.  The dog is huge and Teresa perfected saying "No Lou-Lou! No!"

Laying down with my fave gals.

I cannot explain the face, but she is making waffles with grandma.