Closing the Blog

I can no longer handle running two blogs... with two kids, and being the person responsible for cleaning and cooking (since I am not working:) ) I have zero time to keep up both blogs.

But, instead of getting out of "mommy blogging" completely I am joining my two loves together - marketing and my kids. No I am not going to try and market my kids...But I will blog about both on my other blog MEGO Again. Coming soon, you will get the same great content (Owen says funny things, weird ways my husband babysits!) but at another URL! And, as an added bonus I will throw in some incredible thoughts on Marketing, Social Media and the Internet! In fact, I may look writing some blogs that straddle mommy blogging and marketing blogging....

It will all be very exciting. So join me at MEGO Again! Remember to subscribe, for easy subscription use the "Subscribe" button in left column, or type in your e-mail address underneath that!

And if you want to know why it is called MEGO Again, and here my new tagline - click here!

Multi-Tasking Dad

This is how my husband deals when I go to the grocery store. One child has bottle stuffed in mouth, the other sits on dad's lap. And, in my husbands right hand...well that is a Wii Remote.

Kids say the funniest things...

 

Kids say and do the cutest things. I try and make a point of writing the really "good" ones down.  I know I have forgotten quite a few, but here are some that did make it to paper (or rather to Google Docs!)

No Storks, Just go to Florida

In April we went to Florida to visit with Owen's grandparents. At the time I was five month pregnant. Two months later Owen was still talking about the trip and of course was anxious to go back to "visit Bobbe and Papa Gordon". I use quotations because I suspect in his head, going back to Florida meant going to Disney World to see Mickey Mouse.  This particular discussion was quite lengthy as Owen was trying to get me to agree to go to Florida ("on Saturday" - the only day of the week he knew at the time) and he was giving me the reasons we should go. One, he wanted to go on an airplane. A big airplane. To Florida to see Bobbe and Papa Gordon. And, we could see Mickey Mouse (he says all of this with great big head nods, and yups and hmm-hmms), and we could also pick up the baby from Florida. Yes, apparently our baby was coming to us - direct from Florida.

Where is God?

Every night Owen gets to pick three books. One night he picked Bible Stories off of the shelf and my husband began to read him the story of Noah.  In the story it says " And God said to Noah...", but on the picture there is just a image of Noah, his ark and a bunch of animals. Owen looks at his dad, points to the picture and says, "Daddy, where is God?"

Where is my mind?

Owen loves music. I listen to Z103.5 which plays Hip-Hop, Dance and Pop music and when Owen began to sing to Acon and Kardinal Offishall's Dangerous song it crossed my mind that perhaps I should be listening to Raffi in the car. But, it was terribly funny one day when he was with my husband in the car listening to the Edge (Rock/Alternative station) listening to a Pixies song. Well, he picked that song up quite quickly - singing "where is my mind, where is my mind" frequently and on cue.

 

Look mom, Look at my Poop!

A few weeks ago I was called urgently to the bathroom. I imagined a mess like the last time I was called to attend him immediately in the washroom. This time however, I was greeted with " Look mom!" (pointing in toilet) "My poop made an "O"!"

 

My husband has a new name...

My son thinks he is a comedian.  When he calls his dad up from the basement, or bellows for him to bring him something he will yell, " Hon!..."

One day, just to see what he would say, I asked him what his dad's name was. He got it right, didn't actually say "hon", but I also asked him where daddy lived and he said " at work".

 

Hair Expert

My mom has very curly hair. To my dismay, and my father's she spends hours straightening and flattening it. I have often suggested that I like it curly so I suspect when this incident happened she thought I put Owen up to it. But it was all pure Owen. We were talking on Skype one day, obviously before my mother got around to the flat-iron routine. Owen says "I like your hair, Bobbe!"

 

Magic Marker Feet

I went out to a nail salon with a few girlfriends the other night for a friends "goodbye to singledom".  I had a mani-pedi. When Owen saw my red toes, he said "You coloured your feet red mommy! It looks pretty"

 

There are of course things I would rather not here from my three year old:

Why?
No thank you! (emphasis on NO- said in a particular tone!)
Don't talk to me like that
I don't like that
Phew (tongue out)
Jesus! (only once and then he seemed to have forgotten this one)

Baby! Baby!

Originally posted on MEGOagain

I am embarrassed to see that it has been one month since my last post. I could once again list my excuses:

• Still haven't found an option to Live Writer (ahem...haven't attempted again to set up the two solutions suggested to me after my last post!)
• Up until August 11, I was tired due to pregnancy
• After August 11, I was tired due to new baby

Or I could admit defeat for August, and hope for a better fall of blogging. If it makes my faithful readers feel any better I have been neglectful of Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook as well. I have no idea what my real friends are up to on Facebook, or my social media friends are doing and writing about on Twitter and FriendFeed.  So, I will aim to do better this fall. I normally attempt to write to Blogs -  this one MEGOAgain dedicated to work, marketing, social media and general business; and Okbabybear a blog about my family. I am not sure I will have time to keep up both, so you may see a few joint posts (like this one!) - I hope that they won't bore anyone.

So baby is here.  And below is the story of his arrival, and of course some pictures!

My first son was determined to beat his due date, and arrived three days early, in what I thought was a quick labour. My second son, apparently was willing to wait until his due date but wanted to one-up his older brother by coming into the world at a super-fast speed.

The week prior to Zachary's birth I went for walks, ate spicy foods, did some gardening (this worked with Owen!) - anything to move things along. Two days before my due date the doc said I was 2-3 cm dilated, and I could go into labour the next day or stay that way for a week! Great.

So his due date- August 10 passed with no arrival. At around 12:45 I had my first contraction. The first three were 9 minutes apart, and lasted only 30 seconds.  No need to rush to the hospital. Generally they don't want to see you until they are five minutes apart and last a minute. So we called my in-laws so that they could start heading over to watch Owen (they had a bit of a drive in the middle of the night!). Within an hour my contractions had gone from 9 minutes apart, to 8 minutes apart, to 7 minutes apart, to five minutes apart. We called a friend to come over since my husbands parents would still be a couple hours. At 2:17 (according to my Tweet I logged in on the drive to the hospital) we were on our way to the hospital. During the short drive I had three contractions, including one at the door to Emergency.

Signed in to stay at hospital. Oddly at this point the contractions all but stop.  That is until the Doctor visits, at which point I have a contraction that is literally off the chart.  8 cm dilated.

Can someone get me an Epidural? Morphine? Something?

The nurse tells me it is likely too late. I will need to start pushing soon, and they won't have time to do some blood work and get the doctor in the room to administer. Anyone, who knows me - knows I had very serious plans to have the Epidural. I dislike pain, and my first birth was a breeze due to the wonderful Epidural.

4 am. Time to push. At this point I won't continue any details. Needless to say I never want to go through that again. Unbelievable pain. Felt like it went on forever! However, if you look at the below picture at the time on the wall - you will see that it couldn't have lasted long. (yes, that is right the clock should read 4:17, Zachary was born at 4:16)

 

These wonderful birth photos were taken by my friend, who also happens to be a fantastic photographer - www.digitalheirlooms.ca. Yes, I had a someone taking pictures at the birth other than my husband. I had never thought of having a photographer at an event like this, but when Karina showed some beautiful examples - I thought it would be a wonderful keepsake.  Having gone through one birth, I knew how easy it was to forget what had gone on, the memory of your first look at your baby disappears (just as you easily forget the pain...). It turned out that having another mom at the birth was a bonus in itself! Husbands are wonderful - mine makes a terrific coach, "breathe, remember you need to breathe" "ok hold your breath and push!" - but another mom shares your experience.

So here is Zachary.

And this, was my first son at the same age:

Family Photos

 

We bought a new camera a few weeks ago...finally. Our old one was three years old (we got it just before Owen was born). It had been through Marine Land (splashed by Whales), beach trips (sand in the lens and grooves) and more. It still works, but it was starting the literally fall apart.

As usual we decided on a Canon. We researched others, but we came back to the PowerShot. It is our third Canon Powershot, our first was years ago when 2.2 megapixels was the hot technology and cost over $500. This lovely camera cost $200 and has 8 Megapixels with a 6x Optical Zoom.  It also has Image Stabilization and Facial Recognition. The only feature we will miss from its predecessor is the flip screen which Canon has removed in its lower-priced Powershot cameras.  We will need to keep the camera in a case to avoid scratching the display screen from now on. 

I hope this Canon will do as well as the others did for us. The only downside is that the camera battery light goes on long before the battery is actually low. But, it certainly takes good pictures of our family.

Birthday Fun

 

Two weekends ago Bear turned 3!   I have been a bit slow getting around to posting some pics to the great event.

We decided to do a "Construction" themed party for him since he loves trucks, and helping his dad with "work" around the house.

We got hard hats from a party store, tool belts from the dollar store, and donated some money to Rona's social committee in order to get some L'il Hammer aprons.

Here are some of the workers on site:

The kids built things (and then knocked them down) with "giant"  blocks and helped with the lawn care at the site:

We had some games, this one is place the pylon in the right spot (blindfolded):

 

And, the workers drew up some site plans and construction drawings:

What construction party would be complete without cake with dump trucks and diggers on top?

Birthday Wishes

 

Bear's b-day is on Thursday. The big numero "3".  And, what does he want for his birthday? Asked numerous times...this is the answer we get:

" A Lion, a Zebra and a Hippopotamus"