Fun Facts About Coral

Thought I would share some fun little facts about our munchkin. 

• Her favorite food is avocado and eggs.
• She has an obsession with stuffed animals. Give her a animal to snuggle and she's a happy girl.
• Every night and nap she sleeps with with her Cordy (a pink cat) and her monkey, but lately those two have been replaced with a black puppy my parents got her and a monkey Andrew got her on one of his trips.
• She loves bubbles. Bubbles bubbles bubbles...I hear that word so many times during the day.
• She is in love. His name is Kiptyn. I approve. 
• She has a very large vocabulary for her age and most recently she has been putting words together.
• She is not very good at sharing. Its something we are working on :)
• She calls her blankets her beat. Coincidently thats the exact same word her uncle Nathan used to call his special blanket. We don't know how this happened, since I only have ever referred to her "beat" as her blanket.
• She loves her cousin Emma. Emma can do anything, or say a simple word like "boo" and Coral gets the giggles. 
• She loves to clean. Give her a rag and she will scrub down any surface she can find. Give her a wipe and she will try to wipe her own bum. If she sees a pile of toys on the ground, she is quick to put them away.
• She has snuck out of her big girl bed twice so far. The first time she literally snuck, making sure not to make a peep, and quietly played with her toys upstairs. When she got caught, she started crying without me saying a word. The second time I found her hiding in her closet, both doors closed.
• She hates getting her nails cut, and teeth brushed.
• Since I'm her momma, Im going to claim best friend status...however....our puppy Kaya is right up there in her books. 
• She collects things. Like the fake money at nana and papas, or my credit cards from my wallet. Try to take them away from her while she is organizing them...I dare you.
• She always takes time to smell the flowers. Sometimes I need a reminder to slow down and smell the flowers too.
• She knows the actions to "This little light of mine" (saying NO and blowing in all the right spots), "my God is so BIG", "The wheels on the bus" and "If your happy and you know it" singing happy happy happy over and over again.
• She has recently started labeling things such as "mommas", "daddas", "mine", "kayas", and "doh dohs" (which means Coral).
• She is a VERY loud girl at home, and a very quiet girl around new people.  Yes she is a wee bit like her momma, a tad bit shy. However, she does make sure to say "HI" to everyone in the supermarket, and gives hugs to whoever will accept them at the park.
• While everyone makes comments about how much she looks like Andrew (and Im not denying that..she is his little mini-me), when comparing her baby pictures with my niece Chloe, even Andrew couldn't tell which one was Coral and which one was Chloe. And more recently, when looking at my brothers toddler pictures, you can see a lot of him in Coral. Hmm she must have a little Heinrichs in her somewhere. 
• She is going to be tall like her grandma Hodgson, and petite like her momma. 
• She is one of the happiest babies I know. She is cherished and is loved and has brought so much joy to everyone who meets her.

Changes in Corals Room

Corals room now has:

A freshly painted chandelier (another one from the Hodgson farm)

Stripes on the bottom half of her room. This was quite the task to do since the only time to do it was when she was awake. She helped me put up the tape (saying "paint" the whole time) and once it was painted she would say "no no no no" and point to the wall. 

And a BIG GIRL BED!

Last night Coral made the transition from crib to toddler bed. This is one of those milestones that is harder on the parents then it is the child. Well, thats our experience anyway. Of course we did all those sappy things like remembering when we first set up the crib, not knowing if we were having a baby boy or baby girl. And remembering her first sleep in her crib, and how tiny she looked in it. Coral however, was having a blast with the transition.

She had fun helping daddy put her big girl railing on. Well...that is until daddy needed to use a couple of the screws she was holding....

Putting her in a big girl bed was a bigger decision then I thought it would be. Is she ready? Is she to little? "She will escape" said Andrew. 

I knew that she was ready. Shes a very smart girl, and often that makes her seem older then what she is. But I knew she could handle it. My only fear was, that she would no longer be the excellent napper that she is. When I put her down for a nap, she usually talks to her animals for a long time. When I peek in, I see her rearranging them in her crib, or she is doing laps back and forth, grabbing the railing and jumping as high as she can. It takes her a while to settle down for her nap. So I thought, if she is that wild in her crib before she falls asleep, imagine what she will do when she can actually get out of her bed. She will never nap!

But like I said, Coral is a very smart girl. She is also a very good listener. It doesn't take much discipline for her to catch on to what she is allowed to do, and what she isn't. So I knew if we were firm with her, she would listen. 

So how did she do? She did AMAZING! Normally she sleeps right through the night, the odd time waking up. But since she is sick, she got up like 8 different times during the night. Not once did she get out of her bed. I went in her room in the middle of the night to give her more advil and some water, and she was just sitting on the very edge of the opening of her bed. And as I type this, she is having a nap, again, she fell asleep without getting out of her bed once. 

Ah, we did it. Good girl Coral, we are so proud of you!

Corals Zoo

Welcome to Corals Zoo.

Admission: A hug or high five.

Making fun memories together: Priceless. 

Coral and I are sick. Its that nasty cold that has been going around. Everybody stay clear from us, unless you like high fevers with an achy body and sore throat. No takers? Didn't think so. 

So, with no play dates planned, no car to take us anywhere, and light drizzling rain outside, we decided to go to the zoo. Corals Zoo. Ever heard of it? Allow me to introduce you.

Corals Zoo is the best zoo in the GTA. We have lots of animals:

We keep them all in this one cage together, so you don't have to walk long distances to see them all.

Coral the zoo keeper is very quick at catching all the animals that escape on her when she is not looking. You should see her in action. She has not let an animal go missing yet.

We have rides at Corals Zoo

See an animal that you would like to buy and take home with you? No problem, call up the manager and work out a deal.

Or send her a text, she is always quick to respond.

Come visit us at our zoo (when were not contagious of course)!

Down in The Port

I did it.

It wasn't easy.

There were times when I thought I wasn't going to make it.

But I did it.

Yes folks, thats right, I left the coolness and comfort of my air conditioned house, and headed to the blazin port this weekend with Coral. Wow, it was HOT there. There were times when I actually thought I was going to suffocate. For three nights I literally got no sleep because my paranoid momma self got up every 10 minutes to check my baby to see if she was still breathing. Yes, it was definitely hot in Port Rowan this weekend, and yes, it was definitely worth the visit.

Andrew had a boys weekend, or rather, a family weekend up at his Uncle Tim and Aunt Nadines chalet. No girls allowed. Well...thats not entirely true. Uncle Tim did say that I could come with Coral, but who wants to be stuck in a chalet all weekend with a bunch of men. Plus they had golfing plans...not my cup of tea. So I took the opportunity to head down to the port and visit my family. We had a blast. Coral was a little Nana and Papas girl this weekend, following them around everywhere. If one would leave the room, she would say "where papa?" Her lovely attachment to them gave me a wonderful break. She wanted to be with them, playing with them, being held by them, and all I had to do was sit back and watch. Ahh, wonderful.

Since it was so hot there (well mostly just hot in my parents house....old house with no air conditioning..it was like a sauna in there), we decided to keep ourselves cool by going to the beach, Saturday and Sunday. Coral loved it. She didn't like the sand this time which is weird because last time we went to the beach (with all five of the nieces and nephews), Coral was the runner. Last time I couldn't get her to sit still on the blanket, this time I couldn't get her off of the blanket. She hated the sand, but loved the water. I wish I had taken a video of her face every time a wave would come and splash her. It was priceless. We went with my Uncle Norm and Aunt Colleen, both of them plus my parents all took turns taking her in the water. It turned out to be two very relaxing days at the beach.

Coral always wanted to drink from Papas cup. So Papa would pour water in the lid for her to drink.

And of course we went to a few garage sales Saturday morning. Coral did so well getting in and our of the car so many times. I managed to find a couple of good deals too.

Two little chairs for Corals big girl room. Maybe paint them yellow? Or purple? Or blue?

Sandals for .50 cents! Just my size and they are my favorite brand of shoe. Always so comfortable.

A little ottoman/table. The legs will be painted white, and the top will be covered with fabric.

This is the fabric that will cover the ottoman. Its a HUGE table cloth that I found at the thrift store. I will have enough material for the ottoman, and some throw pillows.

Also found this material at the thrift store. Its a queen size throw sheet, so again lots of material. Im not sure what Im going to do with it yet, but I love the pattern.

An adorable bumper pad. Ok so I know Im buying this REALLY premature, but it was just to cute to pass up, and the colors are the same as our nursery. 

You didn't think I would make Coral get in and out of the car without letting her get anything did you? Nana and Papa couldn't resist getting her the black pooch on the left (that pooch now goes everywhere with her). She also got a talking baby that tells you when she is hungry, and then if you give her fluids, she pees. I also found a Lamb Chop puppet. Do ya'll remember Lamb Chop??

Ah, what a great weekend. I am so thankful for such a wonderful family. And just to add a little icing to the cake, I got home and Andrew got me a huge bouquet of flowers, some wine, and cheesecake. I missed you too hubby :)

What did everyone else do this weekend?

Hey Ya'll!

Gasp, is everybody keeping cool in this crazy heat? Yah us too. Unfortunately with this heat we are not able to do many "summer" things and are forced to stay inside (either in our own air conditioned house, or trips to the store like Walmart where we can run around and play with all the toys without having to purchase them).  Im not going to complain though. I complain all winter about the cold, so I will not complain about the heat. Even though we have been "forced" to stay inside (technically we still could go outside, but Coral gets over heated and sweats very quickly...even the splash pad isn't an option these days), we have still found little ways to entertain ourselves.

Andrew and I haven't bought Coral a new toy in a loooong time. I think the last thing we bought her was some wooden puzzles at a garage sale a while ago. Anyway, the other day I was feeling the itch to get her some new stuff to play with (ok i'll be honest, the new toys are more for me then they are for her...I get bored playing with the same few toys all day everyday...how many different ways can I shake a rattle?) I just didn't know what I wanted to get her. I don't like buying random toys, just because they look pretty. I like buying her things that will help stimulate her mind such as stacking blocks, puzzles, shape sorters, train tracks that she has to put together, etc. I know some bigger purchases that I want to get her, such as a play kitchen, and a wooden doll house, but we will get those for her on a special occasion like Christmas and her birthday. So, on a quest to find something new for her, we went to Value Village. Most of the toys Coral has are from Value Village or some other thrift store. We looked and looked but couldn't seem to find anything that caught our eye. After not finding anything, we hit up the dollar store. I ended up getting her three very simple things. A balloon, sidewalk chalk, and a coloring book (can you believe that Coral has all those art supplies but I hadn't bought her a coloring book yet?) Three things that are so simple, but they have kept her entertained all week. She thinks its pretty amazing that she can draw on our steps outside. My niece Emma has a chalkboard easel that has just been sitting in our basement...yup you guessed it, Corals been drawing up a storm on it.


Other things that have entertained us this week:

Its getting more girlie in Corals "big girl" room.  This project was a lot more time consuming then I thought it would be. I got the chandelier from the Hodgson farm. When I found it it was dirty, gold, and in bad shape.

I spray painted the chandelier yellow, and made white flowers out of tissue paper. When I pictured this in my mind, I thought about doing it with more bright vibrant colors. But once I started, I decided to use just white and yellow. Im very happy with the results. 

I used some of the fake diamonds from the chandelier to hang from lantern to lantern. It looks perfect for a little princesses room. Just to be clear, Corals "big girl" room is currently the guest room, but I am slowly re-doing it for when Coral will move in there one day. She wont move in there until we have another baby and she gets the boot from her nursery. And nope, just because Im working on her "big girl" room, doesn't mean were pregnant, or planning on becoming pregnant any time soon. 

Making pretend soup in the kitchen. Coral is loving playing make believe. She helps me make some soup, and then we taste it. She knows how to make the fake slurping sound when I put the spoon to her mouth, and she finishes with a "ahhh, yum."

Ok, everybody said "GIRL TIME". Coral now has a fresh coat of hot pink nail polish on her little toes (don't worry ya'll, she hasn't sucked her toes in months and months). She LOVED getting her nails painted. She was so good about not touching them, and even helped me blow on them for them to dry. Guess what color I did my toe nails? Yup, SAMERS!

Remember that fish scale wall thats in our bedroom? It needed a little pop of color. So, I added some tissue flowers, and fabric flowers to it. What do you think? Much better eh.

Ok, and finally, my own little guilty pleasure, I have been READING again. Yes I haven't picked up a novel to read since before Coral was born (ok so I have read books...but Im talking about me reading a book that does not involve a description on how to wipe a babies bum). I love reading. Its been far to long since I have picked up a book. So, if you need me, you know where to find me....my novel is calling my name. See ya'll later! Don't forget to keep those little ones inside today and give them plenty of water to drink (sorry, Im a momma, I had to say it).

Happy Friday Andrew!

It has been a busy summer. It seems like Andrew and I have been constantly moving with no time to sit down and breathe since the snow first started melting. Every weekend we have had somewhere to be, or something to do. Don't get me wrong, Im not complaining, its not like I would rather be sitting in my house doing nothing; but Andrew and I are just exhausted.

This weekend we have no plans. Andrew doesn't have anywhere to be, and neither do I. We can chose to relax all weekend if we want, or we can chose to continue with the summer trend and keep ourselves busy (holla at Jac Stevensons pool!)

Last weekend Andrew had to work the whole weekend. He spent long hours at a trade show, and then long hours in a car driving home. He got home around midnight Sunday night, then was up for work at 8 am the next day. Last weekend he had no days off, no free time to hang out with Coral and I, no time for skateboarding, no time for photos. So, i'd just like to say HAPPY FINALLY FRIDAY ANDREW!!!!

We are so excited to spend the weekend with you, whatever we decide to do :)

Summer Days

Hot summer days require:

Lots of water

Playing in the pool

Frozen treats (Wash strawberries, blend, pour and freeze)

Visits with NANA!

So excited for your short visit Mom! We cant wait to see you :)

Today

A couple things about today. First of all, little miss Coral, 5:15 am is to early to be getting up. It makes mommys eyes burn and head ache, so sleeping in is probably a better option. Oh speaking of mommy, you are WAY to little to be calling me that. I would prefer it if you called me momma, not mommy and certainly not mom.

Secondly, I really dislike getting groceries during the summer. Coral and I have it made in the winter. The grocery stores are practically empty, and if there are other shoppers, they are usually old people who coo and awe over Coral, or other mommas with young babies. Summer time is totally different. Today the grocery store was total chaos. Children were running everywhere. Although I do enjoy watching Coral watch the other older kids, calling each one of them "EMMA" and doing her biggest giggle for them. I am thankful for a daughter who is so social and gives everyone in the store a big smile and says "HI" or "see ya" in her little lisp.

Thirdy, why doesn't house work ever end? Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that I spent hours on my hands and knees scrubbing our front deck, and now its full of cob webs again! Spiders, you are not welcome in my house, make your silly little webs somewhere else. It seems like I can clean my kitchen four times in a day, and at the end of the day it still looks messy. Well today my dishes are going to pile up on the counter, and Im choosing to not care about it. I do however LIKE certain messes. Hurricane Coral knows how to make a pretty good mess of her toys in our house. Those kind of messes make me happy. Its proof of all the playing that she has done during the day. Proof that she has used her imagination with her babies, learnt new words with her books, or finally figured out that shape sorter she has been working so hard on.

Ok, this fourth one is a gross one. Yup Im going to talk about poop. Corals poop. My baby poops WAY to many times a day. All you momma friends of mine, how many times a day does your baby poop? Coral is still pooping five or six, sometimes more, a day. Ugh. I really wouldn't mind, except her bum doesn't really get a break. These past two weeks she has had a horrible rash on her bum. Im talking open sores rash, which makes it difficult to change her because it hurts her when I wipe, so she always tries to wiggle away (and that girl has got some strong legs). So lately we have been letting her run around the back yard naked (I don't even want to know what my neighbors think when they see my beautiful daughter pop a squat right on the lawn). The last couple of nights I have been going and checking on in the middle of the night to see if she is poopy. Sure enough she is. Is that the trick though? Do I have to wake her up every night to change her diaper?

Lastly, Im feeling really blessed today to be able to be a stay at home mom with Coral. I love everything about it from our morning snuggles, to reading on the guest room bed (her favorite bed), making forts in our walk in closet, seeing her excited face when I start filling up her blow up pool, watching her tease her pooch all day, watching her do a little boogie every time she hears some music, and so much more. Coral brings Andrew and I so much joy everyday, and Im so thankful that I am able to be at home with her, and not have to miss a single moment of it.

Now, time to put Corals new bathing suit on and splash around in her pool with her. Yard and house work, will you please just stop until shes older? She is only little once and I want to enjoy her without any distractions.

Living Room Makeover!

A more appropriate title would be living/dining room/ kitchen makeover. Yup, while Andrew was away, I attacked the biggest room in our house. Remember that dark grey color I mentioned that was in our master bedroom before I painted it? Well our living room was painted that same grey. It didn't look as dark in this room because of all the natural light, but still, it was to dark for my taste. I like my wall colors to be light and fresh feeling. I also found that the shade of grey was hard to work with regarding accents in the room. No matter what color I tried (purple throw pillows, green, yellow, beige) nothing quite looked right. The color always seemed to be a little off. So, once Andrew was out the door for his trip, I started prepping for a living room makeover.

The color choice was easy. I had left over paint from our master bedroom, and not wanting to waste it (or have to pay for new paint), I decided to use it.

Here is a picture of our living room before I started painting

Edging in this room was really hard. The previous owners did an awful job painting. They got paint all over the ceiling, baseboards and trim.

It took three coats, and lots of extra attention to get that trim looking good. I must admit that the light walls gave me kind of a shock. I gave it a night, then decided to re-arrange some things in the morning once the shock had kind of worn off. All it took was switching one picture and I was instantly inspired.

I put some funky fabric on our white end table

The kitchen got some new pictures leaning against the dark back splash. Remember that frame I looted from my Parents last weekend? It looks perfect in the kitchen.

My favorite part of my new living room is this wall of bright pictures. Theses were free printables off the internet from here

I put some brighter books on the top shelf and new fabric

My yellow end table got some new things added to it, and a picture hung behind it

I added some new things to my wooden tray

And there you have it. Our new living room completed. I was so excited when I started putting things with color in the room (especially the free printables). With the old grey I dreaded trying out a new accent color because I knew that it would probably look funny and I would want to change it again right away. The new color is so light and neutral that pretty much any color that I chose to accent with will work! And the cost of re-doing this large room was totally in our budget with the grand total being $13.00. Not bad eh. So what are your thoughts? Is my new room cozy and inviting?

Inspired to Paint Again

Yes I got inspired to paint again....paint on canvas that is (although just wait until tomorrows post for some pictures of a newly painted room in our house....what, you guys didn't think that I would just sit around my house while Andrews away did you?) But back to my new painting. It had been a while since I picked up a paint brush. There was no real reason for it, sometimes I just have no inspiration to paint. So my canvas waits patiently for me in my closet until I have that artistic feeling again.

I stared at this canvas for a long time before I put any paint on it. Usually when I paint I have a picture in my head of the end result. I have colors in mind, and usually a spot in my house to put it. This time I had nothing. No thought in mind, no place in my house to put it, only the inspiration to pick up a brush and paint.

Every year my parents have a garage sale labor day weekend. My dad and brother-in-law Joel build furniture to sell (remember the large cupboard my dad built in my curb appeal post?  Furniture like that). Its a huge garage sale, and we always have a blast doing it. Last year there were random people that asked to use the washroom. While in the house, they noticed the paintings on the wall (some done by myself, the rest done by my very talented momma). They asked if they could buy them, but my dad (proud of our paintings) said no. So this year my mother and I (and hopefully my sister...yup we all know how to work a paint brush) have decided to do some paintings specifically for the garage sale.

So not knowing what people would like, or whos house it would eventually be going in, I finally started to put paint on the canvas. I took a few different colors (black, purple, yellow, blue, green) and just poured the paint on. At this point I realized that I actually only have a couple tiny paint brushes left (Im horrible with washing out my brushes when Im done using them) so I used a rag to smear the paint around for the background. By the time the background was done, I still didn't know what I was going to paint over top of it. So I did what I used to do in high school, and "doodled" around. There was a flower that I used to draw ALL over my books while I was listening to the teacher and taking notes. I still have my notes from college and this flower can be seen on all over them.

                                       The end result?

Im very happy with how it turned out, and it was neat to see the end result knowing that I had no vision for it in the beginning. Hopefully someone likes it as much as I do and buys it for there home, but if not, I have the perfect spot for it in Corals big girl room :)