I Need Some Clarification

Last night I was overjoyed to be able to watch "The Office" & "CSI." Two of my favourite shows. However, since I missed a few episodes, I am a little bit lost as to a few things that have happened & I'm hoping someone can explain things a bit.

On "The Office" why is Ryan back? What did he do that got him demoted back to the Scranton branch?

On "CSI,"well I am TOTALLY stunned that Warrick is dead. WHAT HAPPENED? I understand that Sarah is back probably just for the funeral, but I suppose this could be an entrance for her to come back, but what's the deal w/ Warrick?

Also, I caught a bit of "Bones" the other night & I missed the whole thing about Gormagon & Zack. What happened there? I totally didn't understand that he was in on the Gormagon thing.

So, hopefully there's someone who also watches who can explain things a bit to me!

Broken Legs

The other morning PC put a new pair of jeans on Asher & then came down for breakfast. Asher was lagging behind a bit, but then I heard him slowly coming down the stairs saying, "it doesn't work very well."

I asked him what didn't work, his reply was a desperate, "My legs aren't working very well right now!" I asked if his legs were tingly b/c he's just discovered the "fall asleep" sensation, but he said, "No! My LEGS don't work very well!" He slowly came into the kitchen & proceeded to point out that his legs weren't working b/c the bottom of his jeans kept getting under his feet. Every time he took a step he had to get the jeans out from under his feet. We pointed out to him that that's how Mummy & Daddy's jeans are too, but he insited that something be done, so PC sadly rolled up the cuffs. He might look funny, but at least his legs work better now!

She May Be A Plug Baby!

When Asher was a baby he would never take a bottle or a plug. Not for lack of trying. I think we may have purchased every type of bottle nipple & plug on the market at the time, but to no avail. So when Chancery was born I had little hope of her taking a bottle or plug. We tried when she was a little younger than Asher had been & we actually did manage to get her to take a Soothie!


However, we had to hold it in the whole time b/c she couldn't keep it in. The only advantage there was to her taking it, was that PC had something to offer her to hold her off eating for awhile.


The last few weeks though she wouldn't even take the Soothie anymore, so I went through the box of plugs & tried them all again. This time she has chosen the Mam plug. She actually can keep this one in on her own, but she tends to only keep it in for about 5 minutes. I can understand now why some people think it's better to let babies suck their fingers. They tend to be able to find them back again on their own.

I'm curious though, what about babies that need to be swaddled (like mine)? I suppose they are destined to be plug babies. I'm just getting tired of running up the stairs every 5 minutes to stick it back in, but I suppose it's better than having to pick her up & nurse her every time.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

The other day PC, Asher & I were sitting together on the couch. Asher turned to PC & said, "Hear that? Do you hear that sound, Daddy?" PC said, "What sound, Buddy?" To which Asher replied, "Mummy's scratching my back & it's making that sound." Such an observant little boy, you can't get anything past him.

We were in the truck listening to the news a few days later & one of the stories was about a girl who had gone up on the stage at a bar & stripped naked, but they couldn't prosecute her b/c the bar used to be a strip club & the land still had the license for that kind of establishment. From the back seat we hear, "The girl got up on the bar &....." Apparently he missed the end of that news clip. Good thing, or we'd be explaining what stripping means, & I'm not sure he's mature enough for "the talk" yet.

At the bank yesterday we were trying to get Asher to say hi to the lady who was helping us, but he wouldn't talk to her. She was trying everything to draw him out to no avail. Finally she asked him what his name was..... still no answer. She said, "Are you Jack?" His forceful reply was, "I'm NOT Jack, I'm ASHER!" Then he kept repeating this phrase just in case she forgot or was confused. She then said we didn't need to open the RESP for him b/c he was going to get a full ride scholarship b/c he was a genius. What can I say? The kid has good genes!

Baby, I Can't Wait!

Chancery, I really really can't wait until you are four months old. Interacting more, Doing more, hopefully sleeping more, & if not? Well, that's the age when I can let you cry yourself to sleep & rather than being in & out of your room every 3-5 minutes for the next 4 hours, I can put you down, say goodnight & have some sanity left over.....

Only 2 months & 1 week to go!


Edited to add: Change that from 4 hours to 6.5 hours..... I eagerly await the day!

Magical Medicine

Last night Asher had no desire to eat dinner. He kept closing his eyes & saying, "I'm sleeping right now." Finally we'd had enough & PC decided to call his bluff. He said, "Ok, do you want to go to bed?" Asher's answer was "yes," so off they went. PC never thought Asher would stay in bed very long, so there was no changing of the pants, no jammies, just plunk in bed. It was 6pm.

At 9 o'clock Asher finally woke up coughing. PC changed his pants, put jammies on & offered a drink of water b/c Asher was complaining of a sore throat. I also suggested some medicine of some sort b/c I just had the same cold/illness & it's a pretty miserable thing. Asher was yunking & complaining until PC gave him the children's Tylenol. Then he declaired, "NOW I feel better!" If only it worked that fast for us all.

(He promptly went back to sleep & slept until 6:30 this morning)

Lessons Learned

This isn't the first house that we have bought, but apparently the home inspector we hired for our first house was a little bit better than this one, & perhaps we paid a little bit better attention to things ourselves as well. Of course the first time around we were living in the same town so we could take our time to look around the house & check things out for ourselves. This time we were in a bit of a time crunch & we weren't around for the inspection.

The first things we noticed a day or two into it, was that while in the contract we had said we wanted the window treatments, the ones we received were not the same ones that had been on the windows when we viewed the house. Not too big a deal, except that in one of the washrooms, she simply draped some fabric around the window & there is nothing to cover the window.

Next we noticed that under the kitchen sink things were getting a bit wet. The hot tap had a continuous slow leak that apparently had been like that for quite awhile b/c the shelf is cracked & there is an abundance of mould in the corners. I suppose that might not have been to easy to spot b/c you had to run the water for quite awhile to find where the leak was coming from.

A few days later I noticed that the kleenex under the washroom sink were all damp. Basically every time the water goes down the drain, instead of it all going down the drain, it goes under the sink. This would have been obvious had he run the tap AT ALL, but of course, since we weren't here, we have no idea what he actually charged us for in his inspection.....

Do you think we can get a refund?

Remember to Speak Clearly

The other day Asher said to me, "Jesus is ONLY for the cross." I was trying to figure out where he came up w/ that piece of knowledge, when I remebered the song we often sing to him when we want him to stand up so we can pull his jeans/PJ bottoms up. "Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross."

Apparently we don't enunciate well enough, b/c he seems to think it's "Stand up, stand up for Jesus, he's only for the cross!"

4 Minutes

Chancery has been a little difficult of late in the evenings. We had attributed it to gas, caffiene consumption on my part, typical baby behavior, etc. A few nights ago I thought I'd just try to put her to bed a little earlier b/c I didn't really know what else to do (she was soooo cranky). It worked great! I nursed her for a little bit, then put her to bed & she slept 'til morning w/ only one wake-up in the night.

Last night I went to put her to bed at the regular time & she started to fuss as soon as I put her down. Normally I would run back in, see if she wanted to nurse, & basically start the whole process over. But I decided last night to let her cry a bit first to see if she was just tired..... Four minutes later she was out!

Now I just need to figure out a way to get her to go to sleep for naptime in her bed instead of the swing. I suppose it works for now, but I don't want to get too dependant on it like we did for Asher. I just wnat to get the kids on the same napping schedule so I can get things done around here. We just moved in, but the floors need cleaning, the food needs cooking......

Fun w/ Appliances!

Last night I cooked pizza for dinner & was seeing what different button on the stove are for. I find it's always interesting figuring out the "quirks" of new appliances whenever we move. For instance, the last place we were at had 2 burners that never got past warm, & the oven was always cooler than the temperature indicated. The freezer in one apartment we were in would freeze things in the back much more than things in the front for some unexplained reason, & I learned the hard way, that the oven timer didn't work at our house in Grand Rapids.....

So, I pushed the "lock" button on the stove, but it had no effect. I decided to try to figure out where the lock was, so I looked around, found it, & slid it over manually. Then I closed the door. Only to discover that I had locked the door, & couldn't open it. I thought if I ran the cleaning cycle it might unlock on it's own after it finished, so I turned it on. 2 hours later the house was cooking, the cupboards on either side of the oven were hot to the touch, & the door was still stuck shut. After about 20 minutes of Pastor Chad & his dad fiddling with it, we finally got the door open this morning, along w/ a "don't try that again" lecture!

Cars

The other day, Pastor Chad was playing w/ cars in Asher's room. One of the cars went spinning out of control & asher piped up, "Hey, HEY!...... I LIVE in that car!" Not too sure where he got that idea from, but he can be quite imaginitive. It's been really fun to watch him develop this summer. He's talking alot more & has a really good memory. Sometimes he'll come up w/ a story about something we did 3 weeks ago out of the blue. Sometimes some of the most insignificant things leave the biggest impression.

Nope, Not Dead Yet

After a loooong hiatus, I'm back! I have a new house all the way across the country from where we were last, a new baby & a son who wants extra attention. All this leads to nit having much time to get on the computer. Today I logged on to discover I had 89 new emails & 443 blogs in my reader. Needless to say I feel very behind, but I can't foresee it getting much better for the time being. I hope to be a little more consistant than I have been lately! Don't give up on me yet!

Our Trip So Far

I haven't been able to keep up w/ this very well, but we've been having an interesting trip. The first night we stopped in a small town in Saskatchewan & all the good hotels were full & the nearest town was 50 miles away & it was 8pm already. We checked into the only hotle w/ rooms left & lets just say that calling it "rustic" would be very generous. It was a dive. I was worried I was going to get bedbugs, & I figured that I'd stay cleaner by not having a shower than by having one!

Our second night on the road was better. WE stayed in a bigger town (there was a Caribou Coffee, so I got my morning Latte). There was a pool, plus jacuzzis in our rooms. Day 3 we stayedin a nice hotel too & had a lovely dinner at Red Lobster! We have seen so many commercials for the "Endless Shrimp" this summer, that we all were craving some seafood, so when we saw it, it was a forgone conclusion that we'd have dinner there.

Day 4 has been the best so far. WE stayed in Frankenmuth, MI, which is known for 2 things, the HUGE Christmas Store, & the hotel w/ the Water Park. WE didn't make it to the Christmas store, even though it was right across the parking lot from the hotel. WE were enjoying the waterpark too much! They have 2 waterslides for intertubes, but you are in the dark the whole time, so you don't know what's coming. It was really fun, but Pastor Chad said that when he went down by himself it wasn't nearly as fun as w/ Asher b/c it's more fun to see how he reacts. They also had a breakfast buffet in the hotel w/ Starbucks! (so I got my mornign Latte again!).

Last night we stopped in Strathroy, but the hotle was full b/c of a wedding, so we went on to London & stayed at the Motel 6. They warned us when we checked in that the jets in the hot tub weren't working, but it was still hot. At night, Pastor Chad's parents went to take Asher too the pool only to discover that the pool was freezing, & the hot tub was tepid. Come to find out that an alarm for the hot tub had gotten stuck on, so they turned off the breaker, not considering that that might shut off more than the alarm! We had planned to stay all 3 nights, but since we have to find ways of keeping Asher busy, we have moved to the Ramada. Hopefully we have a better stay here.

Tomorrow is basically a relaxing day. The guys are going to get all our stuff moved over from the storage to the U-Haul, & PC's Mum will watch Asher so I can go get Chancery signed up for Health Insurance before we leave. Hopefully that won't take too long. Maybe Chancery will cry & people will have pity on me & let me got first!

Bye-Bye Brownies

Since having Chancery, I've had a HUGE craving for brownies & ice cream. This has lead to Chad & I going out late at night for dessert at local restaurants a few times. I realize that it's not the most economical way to have brownies & ice cream, so I have also purchased a few boxes of brownies & a few pints of vanilla ice cream. Let's just say I have had brownies & ice cream for dessert every night for the last 2 weeks.... until last night.

Chancery has been having a bit of difficulty getting to sleep & since I'm nursing, there have been accusations that it's b/c of something I'm eating. Somehow it was decided (not by myself) that the brownies are to blame b/c of the chocolate content & resultant caffeine content. So, last night I was told that I'm not to have anymore chocolate. Then my loving family proceeded to eat MY brownies & MY ice cream right in front of me whilst telling me how delicious they were! And the hard part is that I'm STILL craving brownies & ice cream..... Isn't there some validity to the argument that you crave things that your body needs?

Pronunciation Guide

There has been some confusion over the last few weeks on how to pronounce our little girl's name, so I thought I'd give a short explanation. When we lived in London I worked downtown & took the Tube into the city. The stop I got off at everyday was Chancery Lane. We thought about names afterwards that would remind us of our time in London, & that stood out as a good one.

One thing we learned during our time there is that words are pronounced quite differently than how an American/Canadian might pronounce it. Chancery Lane was a prime example of that. Chancery was not pronouncedˈchan(t)-sə-rē, with a long "a" sound & 3 syllables, but ˈchon(t)s-rē, with a short "o" sound & only 2 syllables. We thought that might sound a bit too pretentious, so we chose a happy medium b/w the two. We pronouce it ˈchan(t)s-rē. I know there's always the risk that some may try to shorten her name to "Chance", but we're hoping that she likes her name enough to maintain it...... isn't that every parent's hope?