Life

Distractions

From the lack of posts this month, it's pretty obvious I haven't been around much in the blogging world, and I've fallen behind with my blog-hopping too :( Sorry! You see, I've been distracted by 2 things the past few weeks.

Ipod Touch...especially all the podcasts. More on that on another post.

And this...

 

Guitar is my favourite, although I haven't played the drums all that much. I'm stuck medium in all songs. Can't get past medium. Grrr. Vince loves to play the drums (on hard!!), so we make a good band...no fighting on who gets to play which instrument. Claire has even started to sing along. She's even memorized the lyrics to the following songs...yes, we played these songs over and over *lol* :

• "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World
• "Don't Speak" by No Doubt
• "That's What You Get" by Paramore
• "Dirty Little Secret" and "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects

Here she is, singing her heart out. hehehehe.

  

On another note, I am slowly getting back into scrapbooking. My scrap area is all organized now. Woohoo! A few weeks ago, we headed to Ikea and purchased a few more desks. My neglected Wishblade (which used to be stored away on a shelf) now sits happily beside my notebook. Then last Sunday, I bought a metal paper rack from my friend Felicia, and it is sweet! Everything is all neat and organized now, just the way I like it! :)

And she said...

Before I forget, I have a funny story to share. This happened the week of Christmas when my SIL Marivic came to visit.

Marivic, Vince, Claire (who was supposed to be asleep) and I were watching Mamma Mia! Somewhere in the movie, Meryl Streep's character laments some of the mistakes she made in the past. In the movie, she called herself "a stupid little slut".

Claire (completely shocked) yells, "Mommy, she said a BAD word!!!"

Vince and I looked at each other a little puzzled. What??? She knew that word!

"Mommy, she said 'stupid'!"

All the grown-ups in the room started laughing. And secretly, I was a little relieved. *lol*

'Tis the season for lessons

Yikes, is it September already?? This morning, we brought Claire back to the pool to start a whole new set of swimming lessons. We took a bit of break from her activities this past summer since we put our home on the market (which sadly still hasn't sold). But now that Fall is upon us, it's time to revisit all those fun activities and lessons.

From September '07 to June '08, we had Claire in ballet. In the Fall last year and Spring this year, she also had swimming lessons. In Winter last year, she had some intro lessons in skating which she loved.

This time around, we're having her in all three activities -- ballet, swimming and skating -- at the same time. Oh and voice/choir starting the last Saturday of September. LOL! Ok before I start to sound like the obnoxious overachieving [insert activity here] mama, I have my reasons why I'm doing this.

First, if you met my child, you'll know that she's quite the jumping jellybean. That kid has soooooo much energy, even if she hasn't had any sugar! She also quite "Type A", competitive, and a bit of a perfectionist. So all these lessons should be good for her. I didn't realize how much of a perfectionist she was until she learned to tie her shoelaces last month. Vince showed her once how to do it, and for days, she was determined to learn and tie her laces all by herself. She's quite proud (and so am I) that she can do this task all by herself, which is a very very big thing in a four year old's life. LOL!

Secondly and more importantly, the past few months with no activities, Claire was driving me nuts on the weekends and after school. All she wanted to do was play the Wii (mostly Raving Rabbids -- which was fun yet ummm..mindless!) or watch tv. She was starting to be bored. She did however, discover her love for musicals by playing our Sound of Music DVD. Let's just say we've played that DVD over 100 times and she's memorized every song in the movie. She's a 4 year old Julie Andrews, I tell ya! Good thing Vince and I love that movie too. hahahahaha.

Anyways, next week we start skating twice a week after preschool which already runs all day. Then ballet every Saturday morning. Sunday mornings are swimming. Just thinking about this crazy schedule is making me dizzy. LOL! Today, we bought her new tights, ballet slippers and her very first pair of ice skates. And while Claire is very excited, I think my credit card just hurt a little bit more. Eek! Seriously though, it is all good :)

Happy Birthday Claire!

Happy 4th Birthday to our sweet girl!

Hello Blog!

Ok, so April just flew by! Last month was just crazy. I don't think I even took a lot of pics last month either. Work was extremely busy for me and Vince. What a blur April was. I remember Claire had her first dentist appointment and she was awesome! But other than that, nothing terribly significant happened. Just a lot of work!

Scrapbooking kept me busy too, although at the end of month, I decided to take a temporary leave of absence from POTP. The reason is that Vince and I have decided to sell our tiny townhouse and buy a bigger home. So I have to put all my scrapbooking stuff away and pack them up.

So far, we have looked at homes but haven't made any offers yet. We still need to get our place on the market, but we'll need to do some aesthetic touch-ups like painting and landscaping. Kerry, our realtor is confident she can sell our place. *crossing fingers* I've been checking all these homes online, crunching numbers, checking out mortgage rates, researching neighbourhoods and checking out various schools, access to transportation, etc. So much stuff to think about.

If we buy a home in the next few months and move by the end of summer, that would be the 3rd time we're moving in just 5 years! Talk about experienced movers. But I'm hoping the house that we find will be the last house we move into (or at least for the next 15-20 years), which is why I'm taking a lot of time and making sure we move into the right neighbourhood. We'll see how it goes.

Anyhow, tomorrow is the start of the long weekend. Woohoo! The weather is gorgeous, and maybe I'll get to take some pics outdoors.

Here are some layouts I created last month..

From the April POTP kit:

Last May 4 was National Scrapbooking Day and at POTP, we celebrated it by hosting an online crop. I posted a couple of challenges. One was to use a long title (meaning having a title of at least 6 words - lol!). My sample layout had 10 words.

My other challenge was to scrap about the "man/men in your lives". Here's a layout to celebrate my DH. I rarely scrap about him, so I thought it would be a fun challenge.

Here's a fun one using my stamps to create my own patterns:

And a layout of one of my favourite pics of Claire.

Since I've packed most of my scrapping stuff away, I probably won't be doing much scrapbooking for the next little while until we move. Oh well, I can always take photos :)

Happy weekend!

Checking In..

Hi! I'm still here :) No, my blog isn't dead. It's just that things have been nuts lately. After our vacation, I've been swamped with work. And as a result, by the time I got home, I'm pooped and the last thing I want to be is near the computer. lol! Also, shortly after vacation, Claire went through this crazy, bratty, "terrible threes" phase. And oh boy, was it stressful! She was bratty, whiney, rebellious. In school, she was acting out, not following her teachers, fighting other kids. It was totally out of character. I'm not sure what triggered her behaviour, but I think it's probably my absence (when I was at CHA) and our trip to Hawaii. Her daily routine was disrupted, after all. Fortunately, her teachers were very understanding and reassured us that it was just a phase. After lots of talking, timeouts and cuddles, things started getting better. She's now be back to her usual sweet self.

The other day, Claire got sick, vomited and had a high fever of almost 41C (105.8F)! So we took her to emergency and turns out she's got the stomach flu. She stopped vomiting now but still has a fever, and I hope it'll go away so we can spend some time outdoors. The weather has been really nice -- Spring is here!

Besides work and family life, there's scrapbooking. The last couple of weeks, I have been working on my scrapping projects for POTP. I finished a number of projects, including the very beautiful March kit featuring papers by My Minds Eye "Out & About 2" collection.

Here's my latest layout. I created this for the Flowering Friday Challenge in the POTP blog. Those tags have been in my stash forever - lol! Can you guess what line of paper that was (the manufacturer is Basic Grey)?

Anyways, I think I am back in the swing of things, and I hope that I'll be back to blogging, as well as checking out all the other blogs, on a more regular basis.

Last but not least, I've been tagged by Lacintha (thanks, girly!). Here's 7 random things about me:

- I'm left-handed - except when I use scissors or the mouse.
- I have been wearing the same shade of lipstick for the past 17 years -- "Twig" by MAC
- I can't stand having long nails. My fingernails have to be short.
- I love bags and purses! The more, the merrier! lol! On the other hand, I'm not so much a shoe addict as I am a bag addict.
- Autumn is my favourite season.
- So far, Kailua Beach in Oahu is my favourite "spot" in the world.
- I would love to take my parents to the Canadian Rockies someday. The drive from Jasper to Banff through the Icefields Parkway was incredible, and the scenery was breathtaking!

Now I tag whoever is reading this! Have a great day!

Claire's First Real Salon Haircut

Last Saturday, we headed down to the Hairloft/Princess Spa at Granville Island Kids Market for Claire's first real haircut. I trimmed her hair back in 2006, but this time around, we decided to go to a salon.

When we got there, the place was little crowded. There were a couple of little boys getting haircuts and they were a bit cranky. There was a TV in a corner and "Shrek 2" was on. That was a brilliant idea, in my opinion, because it was a way for the kids to focus their attention on. Everytime Claire would move her head, her hairdresser would say, "Claire, look at the tv" while cutting her hair. LOL!

Here she is getting prepped.

I think the hairdresser trimmed about 5 inches of hair. 

Tada! All nice and pretty! After blowdrying Claire's hair, the hairdresser sprayed a little bit of sparkly glitter on her hair. You could see a little bit of that on the photo. After her haircut, Claire felt like a big, big girl!

The Sweet and Daily Goodbye

Every morning, from Mondays to Fridays, before heading to work, we drop Claire off at her preschool daycare. This is part of our daily routine.

As soon as we arrive at the preschool, this is what happens, usually in a span of 5 minutes or less:

- we greet the teachers and I sign her in the daily attendance log
- Vince helps her take out her jacket and shoes and helps her put on her slippers
- while that's going on, I take out her food (breakfast, lunch, snacks, milk/juice) from her backpack, sort them out, separate the breakfast food and place the rest in designated containers that the teachers then place in the school fridge.

Then it's time for our sweet goodbye. No matter how late we are for work or how much we're trying to rush things, one thing's for sure. We always make sure we give Claire lots of kisses and hugs before we leave. We made the mistake once by leaving right away without a goodbye kiss, and oh boy! Later that day, we found out from her teachers that she was so sad and was crying because "mommy & daddy did not get a goodbye kiss" LOL!

She's such an affectionate girl! After the hugs and kisses, she'll say, "Have a nice day, parents! See you later!" LOL! It's sooooo sweet!

Ballet Class

Another photo I love...

Little Ballerina Princess @ 39 Months

Last Saturday was Parent Observation Day at Claire's ballet school. Since the parents are not allowed to enter the studio while the classes are in progress, I took advantage of this day to snap a ton of photos of her during class. Here's one of my favourites, Claire trying to do a plié (well, sort of anyway):

And.....It's been a while since I posted some tidbits and milestones about my little boo, so here goes... (warning: long list ahead. Sorry! I suppose this post is more for me to remember stuff when I need to journal on a scrapbook layout. Feel free to ignore!)

- "Mommy, I like butterflies and bumblebees." (ok she doesn't like bees, she just likes saying the word "bumblebees". But she loves butterflies!)
- Loves the colour green. If she had her way, she'd trade her pink leotard for a bright green one, if that exists.
- Affectionate but a bit of a diva
- Loves ballet class, Tim Horton's timbits, Victoria's Secret lip gloss, glitter
- Having the time of her life in preschool. Every morning, she's so enthusiastic about going to school. I'm so fortunate to have this excellent preschool & daycare nearby. They even teach the kids French, Mandarin, Dance, and Music. The teachers are amazing.
- Fave toys: crayons, colouring books, anything crafty, "I Spy" games, her Thomas Lego train set, blocks
- Loves playing hide n seek --- but she's not very good at hiding. *lol*
- Very picky eater, but she'll eat broccoli!
- She doesn't say "please" all the time, but says "thank you" all the time
- She used to ignore her stuffed bears but now she loves them
- Loves playing pretend with her dollies and bears.
- Loves loves loves books!
- Inquisitive. Curious. Always asks questions. "Mommeeeeeee, what's that?"
- Still has an ear fetish. She likes to touch peoples' earlobes to help her sleep. She's been doing this since she was 6 months old! I know she will outgrow this little quirk eventually. And I know I'll be pretty sad when that happens.
- Hmmm.. a slight OCDish tendency? A slight neat freak. If a kitchen cupboard is left open, she'll ask us to close it. If the corner of bathroom rug is slightly overturned, she'll make sure to flip it back in place. When I mentioned these little OCD quirks to my mother, she laughed and said she inherited those from her!
- "Hi Parents!" (that's how she calls us when she sees Vince and me together. It's not "Hi Mommy & Daddy!" It's "Hi Parents!") People get a big kick from that when they hear it. LOL!
- She loves to say "I love you" to us at random moments, mostly when she's happy. And I know she means it.
- Loves singing Christmas carols.
- Loves making up her own songs. Last night, we ordered Little Caesar's pizza and crazy bread for dinner. She loves crazy bread, btw. During dinner, she started to sing in the tune of "Wonderpets", the words "Crazy bread. Crazy bread. Crazeee bread!" Then she also started to sing the same words in the tune of "Jingle Bells". Just like Elmo. Hah!
- People think she's gifted when she says, "A caterpillar becomes a chrysalis and then it becomes a butterfly. And this is called METAMORPHOSIS!" But really, she learned all this by watching her Little Einstein DVD. hehehehehe.
- She can pronounce "metamorphosis" correctly, but still says "twuck" (truck). hehehehehehee.