Missed 2016... oops

I guess I just slept through 2016

Wow. So much happened last year.

I was made a manager at work and I have two wonderful women that report to me.

Ryan went on his first trip without Neil and I. Gabi and Sandor (my in-laws) took him to Dominican Republic to a beautiful resort (Samana, DR). Longest time apart from him for me, 6 ½ days and I was okay. I didn’t cry which I was surprised about, they were good about calling and sending photos.

I was very anxious until they called after they got to the resort. Just my 5-year-old going to another country without me and the worry something would happen. However, once I heard they were at the resort I could relax and just enjoy a quiet house. Indy got a lot of walks that day because I was so high strung. Haha

Then RIGHT after that, and I mean the next morning after Ryan got home, we went to Florida to a cruise.

Poor kid was so cooked that Sunday, soon as our room was open on the boat we had a pretty sweet family nap time.

We went on Norwegian for the first time because they had an amazing deal. Ended up costing about the same as Royal would have cost. It was a blast but I still like Royal more.

Now this year we are planning our BIG DISNEY TRIP!

We are going with Chris, Tara and Sloane and the Parks. We have our trip paid for, fast passes booked, Ryan is getting a pirate makeover and Jedi training, dinner at the Castle… it is very exciting. Also, to make it even more insane we are driving because flying is insane expensive.

I have been working on getting our signature book together, getting fancy markers from the dollar store, have stocked up on glow sticks and necklaces for the kids for the evening parade.

I have even started pulling Ryan’s summer stuff and making sure it still fits because this kid is insane tall now.

Speaking of, Ryan is reading. I think he plays lazy with me because he rather I read to him still but today… WE GOT OUR FIRST HOMEWORK!!! A reading assignment!

I am so excited to do this with him. Also, he is accelerating at math. He is in Senior Kindergarten and doing multiplication and percentages and rocking at it. I think the Montessori way of teaching helps. It’s taking objects and using them that way so a child can shape the brain into visualizing it, it memorizing it.

We have signed him up for French Immersion for first grade and will hear back in march if we got in. Because it is not his primary school we enter a lottery. His current French teacher said he thought Ryan would do well in FI.

Fingers crossed because the French school is MUCH better rated then the school we are zoned for.

L

Ryan has changed a lot. He is still very close to us (more to me) and loved getting books at night. But now he showers on his own, we will help him out of the tub and then he dries on his own and puts on his clothing on his own. We are trying to push for more independence.

Long Easter weekend

Our long weekend was epic.

Friday morning I got up with Ryan. Figure Neil should sleep in, he has been working so much. We had a nice breakfast and then got in contact with Tara and The Parks (mike & janet). I meet up with Tara and Sloane (her daughter who is 8 months older then Ry). Mike, Janet and the girls, Alexandra and Chloe joined up a few min later at the park.

This is a very awesome park. Its near Taras place in Port Credit. It was such a pretty day, sunny and still cool but not WINTER in Canada cool. Toward the end Ryan had his coat off.
He ate a bagel, banana and box of rasins. To be fair we were there for almost 3 hours and we ran around a lot, I was starving by the time we left too. It was so cute cause at one point I had Sloane and Ry and we were running around these three weird small statues of random stuff. A turtle shell, a fish, a fox head and a boat... stuff like that. I was counting them as I ran hitting each one. At one point Sloane asked me to play chase with her. So damn cute. It was super cute to see Ryan and her high-five after going down the slide. hehe

WEEEEEEEE!

Mike having fun on the TeeterTotter

Ryan getting in on the fun!

After nap we went to see Joe and Ang and went to another park.
Almost got in a fight with a 5 year old asshole. There was a 'big kid' slide and Ryan had gone on it a few times. The last time I was going to let him on it this kid was standing there not letting him up. I say to him, "Will you move please, he wants to go down the slide, thanks." He looks at me and says "only big kids can go on here, you have to be 5 years old."
I look at him and say,"he is big enough please move."
He says, "you have to be a big kid, you have to be five he is not allowed."
I look at him and very serious I say to him. "Move now kid." like no humor no cute tone of voice. I put on my "I will fuck you up" face to a five year old because he told my kid he couldn't. No I am not above getting in a "who is scarier and bigger" match with a 5 year old.

He moved out of Ryans way. >:)

Saturday we both got up early like it was a work day. We had a fast breakfast and we were off to St Catharine's for an easter egg hunt with some buddies, The Parks! (again). What can I say, we like them.
I was a little shocked how great Ryan was on an hour long car ride. He was perfect! We stopped at Tim Hortons since we were early and got some coffees, bagel and apple juice and we were off again.

Got to the park very early so we were able to walk around before the crowd. Easter bunny was super scary to Ryan. Then we saw it.

RUNNNNNNN!!!!!!

Princess Leia and Chewbacca with bunny ears. Hmmmm okay. Not really an easter thing but I am game.

The Meaning of Easter?

We meet up with Mike, Janet and the girls. Mat, his wife Chrissy and their boys (X and Caiden).
I have never been to an easter egg hunt before this, especially one with little kids. There was a field roped off with caution tape. We all gather around it and holy wow it got crowded. A group of people went onto the small field and started throwing out chocolate eggs out of these huge boxes. Hundreds of them. We got the go ahead. Ryan was in the 1-3 year age group so we are allowed to go. It was so fun. Ryan was so good at it! He didn't understand what it is cause we dont give him candy but he loved the colours! After we went for a small walk to the trash can, just him and me. I tossed my tissue in and he tossed a candy egg in. hahaha

Go buddy go!

OMG YELLOW EGG MOM!!! Look yellow!!!

While Mat, Chrissy and the boys went home to prepp for brunch we went down to the festival part. WOW it was super packed but all the kids got balloons (Ryans was yellow!) so it was worth it.
Went to the brunch, spent a few hours playing with the kids and had a very good talk with Janet about kids, having more then one, loss of children and so on. It was a good talk and it just made me miss her and spending time with her.
After brunch it was pretty late like 1:30 late. Hmmmm 2 hours past Ryans nap time and he was still being good, a little drunk but good. Started the ride home and after a few min he was OUT (while hugging Neils coat and holding his balloon)

Mmmmm sleep.

We keep it casual at the Bank house.

Sunday was family day. It was a very nice dinner. Robin, Christina and Ellie were missed very much (Ellie was sick). What was very fun though was watching Ryan hunt for easter eggs. He was SO good at it. But again he would break open the egg to get the chocolate out and then leave it. Had no idea he could eat it.

Easter Dinner

OH I forgot in the morning he found his basket I made for him. He was sitting there eating all the goldfish crackers while Neil was making him pancakes (from scratch). hehehe
I got in a little trouble over that when I woke up. Then I did it, I gave him his first Kinder Egg. I was so excited cause I found Hot Wheels Kinder. After he ate it, which he did really fast, I pop open the kinder to find A PUZZLE. WTF! I think I even said "WHAT THE FUCK!" while Ryan was in my lap. Opps. But I was super disappointed. I wanted a car for Ryan, that would have rocked his world, he did like his new books though.

My new favorite picture of Ryan and I that Neil got.

Such a happy family, yay spring!

Mean Parents?

Are we mean parents? Today was an Easter egg hunt (well chocolate eggs were thrown on a field and the kids got to grab them all). Ryan had the most chocolate out of all the kids. He didn't know it was candy. Hell at one point he saw me throw a tissue in the garbage and he threw an egg in. He gave most of them away to the other kids and he was just excited about the colours. "Look yellow mommy, BLUE!"

However when I told him I had a Banana he went craycray. "NANA! BANANA MOMMY YES PLEASE PLEASE!" and ate it all down while I was carrying him, just so super happy. He was also very worried about getting a balloon (which we did, a yellow one).

He has had sugar before, we have cake sometimes at family events and he has had chocolate before (halloween & Christmas). I don't want him to know what it is, I don't want him to WANT it. I really dont want him to demand it or expect it.
That being said are we mean? He will be 2 in 18 days. I have always been a little... careful about what he eats. I did get lazy for a bit and let him eat a lot of empty carbs (goldfish/graham crackers.)

He was 34 pounds at 18 months old. That's really big. Yes he was tall but the doctor told us he might be an obese child if we are not careful. Well I am happy to say he is going to be 2 very soon and he is still 34 pounds. I stopped giving him crackers and gave him cucumber to hold him over till dinner was made. The past month Rasins has been his big thing. Which is fine with me, helps him poop. Oh and berries. Holy wow this kid can eat a pint of blackberries in 3 minutes and with a purple stained mouth and fingers ask "please mommy more tank you."

So are we mean parents? Are we setting him up to only want to eat sugar sweetness when he is older? Who knows. All I know is I breastfeed him for 14 months, made all his baby food (other then carrots cause I always burned them and prunes) and tried to make sure he eats a good amount of healthy foods.  I really dont want to mess it all up now!!!
I also get super pissed at daycare when they give him those damn cheese doodles things or juice and have told them DO NOT give them to him. Made me happy when I caught the teachers giving him orange slices.

Wow really hard Easter egg hunt. :P

YELLOW MOMMY!

Star Wars Easter? Sure WHY NOT!

After brunch he was very fast to pass out, like 3 min later fast. Helped it was 90 min past nap time.

Oh on that note time to make his basket (a new book, colouring book, Kinder Surprise eggs with Hot Wheels car in them and plastic eggs with Goldfish crackers). Then time for this mom to take some cold medication and pass out. Two nights up coughing. Antibiotics are working just taking some time and I really could use a good night 'sleep'.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Bye dad!!!

Neil is traveling for a few days for work. We carpool and when I went to get Ryan from school we go out to the car and soon as I open it "HI DADDY!" and then Ry starts looking around. I tell him its just the two of us for a few days and we will see daddy on the phone tonight.

We get home Ryan goes running inside after I take off his boots "Daddy!!! NNNEEEEIIIILLLLLL!!!!" (Ryan has started to call Neil by his name which he is not pleased with). I had to explain again, daddy is not home but he will be back soon.

Neil facetimes with us a little, its pretty spotty but Ryan was so happy. After his bath he was calling again for Neil. Our routine is I give Ry a bath, Neil preps the milk for bed. I told him again it's just the two of us and to keep being nice to mom. He nods and asks for his milk.

Ryan slept all night till 5:50am which I count myself lucky for since he was up the night before at 3am, 4am, 530am and out of bed at 6am. Not to mention he went to bed at 7pm last night which is pretty early.

I gave him a bottle of  milk and took a shower. I get out of the shower to him crying. I go in and his diaper leaked pee so he is cold. I get him on the change table and I ask him if he would like a new night shirt. "yes mama" we do that... 

"ryan would you like some pants for your cold legs?" 

"yes mama"

"Okay buddy we can do that. After we get dressed we can say hi to cars."1

I open the blinds in his room and we look out the window and Ryan right away "Mama a bus".

I go over there and say "Lets wave at the people on the bus Ry."

Ryan comes back with "hi people, lots of people on the bus mama, lots."

We do into the livingroom he begs for a box of raisins. As I sit down with my computer to check email he is eating raisins at his table looking out the window.

 I say, "Hey Ryan, that is the only box you get today, THATS IT for raisins, yes?"

He looks right at me nodding "thats it mama, thats it."

WOW he has grown.

Election Eve, Halloween and changes

I am hopeful. I am hopeful my country men will make the right choice. However I am also worried.
I think this sums it up very well.
http://robdelaney.tumblr.com/post/34643328161/after-sandy


Last Wednesday we took Ryan trick or treating for the first time. We went over to Mike and Janets to meet up with the girls.

 Alexandra and Chloe 

Sloane

Oh no, we dropped the bucket. Oh it was empty? Thats okay then.

After having a snack we were off. Ryan was a little worried at the first door but by the second he wants to hold the bucket, knock on doors and grab his own candy. He didn't even really know what candy was he just knew if he knocked on a door a grown up told him he was super cute and put stuff in his bucket or let him grab stuff.

 Ryan in the dragon outfit getting the hang of it.

 CANDY! (love Ryans face here)

 The group.

Ryan got really good at saying "trick or treat" and "thank you". Sounds more like "tickteet" and "tankyou" but it was still super cute.

I went up with Ryan to one house and helped him knock on the door, the guy saw my outline and thought it was older kids. He puts on a scary mask and throws open the door and sees four small kids 3 years of age and under and pulls of the mask goes "oh my, I am so sorry!" and puts the bowl out of good chocolate for the kids to get one. Ry looks at me, I say"its okay buddy go ahead." he takes one. He looks at me again... and reaches in to grab with a little toddler hand and get three bars! He puts it in his bucket, he goes to do it again. I try to stop him and tell him that is a little greedy, the guy holding the candy is laughing and telling me to let him! I smile and tell Ryan to say thank you and very embarrassedly scoot Ryan on to the next house.

This is the bucket of candy Ryan kept grabbing from, I am to the left with him trying to push/pull his hand away from the bucket gently.

It was a VERY fun night! After about 10 houses and some very full buckets we went back to Mike and Janet. Here is Mike. hehe

Or Doctor Park to some of you. (with his youngest daughter, the cupcake) yes he is dressed as an egg.

Janet had to stay home to hand out the candy to visiting kids.

Here are some cute shots of the kids enjoying the spoils of trick or treating.

 Mmmmmm chips.

Sloane is not big on eating candy but she LOVES the smell.

 SNNNNNNIIIIIFFFFFFFF

Alexandra likes the candy though. YUM!!! Good choice!

Janet enjoying the treats too. heh

Ryan just wants to ride the BMW. Another good choice!

It was so much fun. The next night Ryan was being so good he got Smarties for the first time, big shocker is that he liked them.

______________________________________________________________________

On to his 18 month check up and new awesome things he is doing.

Doc said he is big. He is about 3lbs over where he should be. So we cut his whole milk to 2% and cut it back big time. Or at least are trying to. I am also trying to cut back on carbs for him, he LOVES carbs so we are trying new stuff like red pepper or cucumber when we get home. He will be so hungry he will be shaking and crying so he gets a snack. Doc told me to stop letting him snack. I explained he gets two a day. One at school and one when he gets home and stuff like Banana, yogurt or apple. He was like "oh then thats okay." Bloody hell, its not like I am giving him ice cream and a bowl of crack. It's a friggn apple.

However just switching the milk will help a lot. (water no juice, not a fan of juice). If Ryan hasn't pooped I give him 1/3 pear juice and 2/3 water. Always does the trick.
Other then the 'weight issue' he is healthy.

On to changes.

He is growing up, what feels like, to fast. Eats with a fork or spoon or at least trying to. Gets mad when I try to feed him (I CAN do it mom!). Understands when he hurts me or does something he shouldn't (more later on this). Liked to give a treat to Roag (our kitty boy). Is starting to comunicate with me so much better. (more on this too). Loves to drink out of moms glass.

Sorry mom...
Yesterday Christina and Robin were over for dinner. (sister/brother in law). After dinner Christina, Ry and I were in the living room/sunroom. Ryan grabs my glasses and starts to twist them. I say something like "RYAN NO, those are moms glasses, DO NOT TOUCH, you know better." He gives them to me. I go on my knees and say to him " buddy those are moms only glasses, you know better then to touch, they are not a toy for you, okay hon." Ryan looks at me and says softly "sorry". I say to him. "buddy I am not mad at you, thank you for giving them back to mom, can I get a hug?" he hugs me and then we tickle fight.
It was epic. Other parents will get how HUGE this is. Hell I think even non-parents will get how huge this is.

I WANT IT...

This morning I take Ryan out of the crib, change his diaper (all the while he is chatting and laughing as I ask him about his night). I pick him up and as we leave the room he starts to cry. I go into the living room and set him down. I say "bud, you have to use your words or show mom what is upsetting you, do you want to show me?" and I hold my hand out. He grabs my hand and leads me back into his bedroom. He points at the computer mouse on the floor Neil gave him to play with and goes "da?" I tell him its okay to grab it. He smiles, laughs, picks it up, grabs my hand and we go back into the living room to play. I sit down with him and tell him thank you for showing mommy what upset him and he can always show mommy or tell mommy what he is upset about. Then he follows me in to the kitchen  points at where we keep Roags (cat) treat and says cat in Hungarian and apple (apple is his word for food). We take the treats out and Ryan gives a few to Roag. Ryan laughs, asks for some Cheerios and drink. Takes them to his table in the sunroom, sits down and eats them while I am making breakfast.

It's insane.

It's so cool.

I love it.

Mothers Day

I have been so bad about writing on here since being back to work. Bad Mary.

Mothers day weekend was awesome. I got to sleep in BOTH days which was super of Neil to do. I know how much sleep means to us both. (we had a few rough nights with Ryan). Its funny, when you have a kid that doesn't sleep for a year you get sort of used to it. Then when the kid starts to sleep its really hard when he regresses and has a few rough nights.
Sunday I woke up a little early though. I come out in to the main part of the house and Neil sees me. I get "What are you doing up! Go back to bed you are going to ruin your surprise." (this coming from the kitchen) I see Ryan walking toward me with a charger cable in the living room. I start laughing and tell Neil its all good I will hang out with Ryan in the living room while he works on my breakfast surprise.

Neil brings me a cup of coffee while I play with Ry. We all sit at the table as Neil brings out maple syrup and his pancakes he made from scratch. YUM.
Plain ones, blueberry and chocolate chip!
Some of them are a little crispy around the ends but they are so so yummy. Ryan ate about 4 of them. (small ones) I think we both liked the blueberry ones the most which shocked Neil and me. I am not a fan of stuff in my pancakes but the blueberry ones were so yummy. Got an awesome picture of Ryan with blueberry all over his face which was funny. He shoved a blueberry up his nose and was laughing but by the time I got the picture he had pulled it out and set it to the side.
I got a super sweet card that Neil signed and helped Ryan to sign. Put a crayon in Ryans hand and helped him write it. I also got a $25 gift card to Tim Hortons which is pretty cool. The night before Neil got me Batman Arkham City. SCORE!

We ended the day at Rita & Tim's place for a really nice family cook out. Mothers day and Sandor's Birthday (grandpa). Lucy was even there (doggy).

All and all it was a pretty sweet mothers day. I think my favorite part was either the card or having pancakes with my two favorite men in the whole wide world.

 Saturday before mothers day we had a BBQ at Rita's house, just the three of us.

 Mmmmmm blueberry pancakes (nose blueberry in the lower right corner)

My super awesome fantastic kick-ass card. :D

________________________________________________________

Update on the stuff Ryan is doing now that he hit 13 months this week.
He sleeps all night about 90% of the time and wakes up between 530-7am.
He walks with no issues, though he had a rough time yesterday in Milk & Janets yard with his new sandals on.
I am pretty sure he can say 'thanks' and Gabi will back me up on this. He LOVES milk, finally he is drinking cows milk and when he sees an empty bottle he will go crazy till you give him milk. We are trying to wean him off breast feeding at bedtime. Trying to get it down to only morning boob and then hopefully in a few weeks none.I think around 18 months we will wean from the bottles of milk.
He loves bath time still. We found he also loves sandboxes. I saw a little of it last week when we were at the park playing but yesterday and Mike & Janets he really got into it. They have an awesome sandbox with a lid on it in the shape of a crab. Its on sale right now at TRU.
Neil and I are going to get him one for the grandfolk's place.
He still doesn't talk much. He says daddy and mom no problem but I have not noticed any other words just yet (other then thanks). We were looking up developmental milestones and on talking he is a little behind. Other things he is super ahead. Like turning the pages in his book, running after a ball, bending over to pick up stuff, sharing with you... using everything as a phone but knowing the phone really is a phone.
He is such an active kid. I am so happy he is back to being my happy guy again. For a little bit he was super whiney and just in a bad mood. Maybe he had tummy pain like I did this past friday (felt sick all day and then come home and barfed everything up). If he has the sick feeling like me no wonder he was grumpy and not wanting to eat. Poor guy.
Hopefully we will be tummy bug free for a bit. I can handle the boogers thanks to day care but the tummy pain SUCKS and Ryan having a tummy bug super sucks.

So many things in my brain.

So many things to write about so little time.
The wedding last weekend went off without any issues. It was beautiful, amazing and filled with love and fun. I might write more detail later. (with pictures!)

Today was spent cleaning the old place. I think we made a great dent. Could not have done it without Gabi's help. She took care of Ryan from 1:30-6pm. I really dont know what we would do without Neils parents.


Makes me a little sad I got so little time with Ry this weekend. Saturday was The Avengers which was AWESOME and today was cleaning. Trust me when I say I much rather have spent the day outside with Ryan and Neil playing in the park or going for a walk them cleaning our old apartment.
I digress, we got a lot done which feels great.


So stuff with Ryan. He has had some hard days. Just when we think the runny nose is better it gets worse. Thats the crappy thing about day care. Bonus is the sleeping. He sleeps much easier. I do wish the day care would give him more naps. I hate when he only has one nap and goes super crazy pants when we get home because he is so tired. He is a 1 year old. HE NEEDS TO SLEEP.
However, for now, he is still sleeping through the night, mostly. Sometimes he will wake, we think he has teeth coming in soon. God help us.

Today he grabbed his dirty shirt off the floor and tried to put it on himself, it was pretty cute. He does this open and close hand thing when he wants something really bad, normally its when he wants me. He acts up a lot more around me then anyone else. Day care says he is perfect. I was also warned this might happen. Its all normal. We spent all day and all night together. Now we have a two bedroom so he has his own room and he is in day care from 815-515. Neil and I try to spend as much time as we can with him. Ryan helps with this by waking up at 530 in the morning. :/
He is walking on his own all the time now, he even does this sort of running jog thing when he is excited or wants to get somewhere. I think he likes the condo. So much more room for him to run around in and explore and man, does he ever. He holds his own cup (this is a brand new things!) and knows what to do to drink from it. Somehow he learned about straws and can drink from that as well. He started Whole milk but he is not a fan of it. When he eats food he doesnt want he will ether pull it from his mouth and let it fall on the tray or floor or he will just open up his mouth and push the food out. Both are very funny and its super hard to refrain from laughing when he does it.

I found out my mothers day gift today from Neil. He is taking all my blog posts from the first one till Ryan hit one year, that is about 100 posts, and putting them in a book. He is having it done through apple which we are fond of using. (Rita and Tim wedding, Ryans albums, Sloanes first year album) they are a little pricy but so nice. This is a book I will always have. I can let Ryan read it when he is old enough to understand, I can re-read it and hold it in my hands. The pictures from me pregnant, ryan just born, apple picking, zoo, his shower, swimming for the first time, bath time, eating, sleeping, breast feeding, smiles, crying... so many memories in this past year to enjoy. It's awesome. Even more so since Ry is growing so much every week he is changing and becoming a little kid not a baby.


Now I need to come up with something for fathers day other then what I had planned. though to be fair he did get an iPad. :D


Work is hard. Neil thinks I lost my thick skin. I think I agree with him. I am offended and hurt much easier then I used to be. Some women have even commented about how happy I am now and smily. Most of the time this is true, why wouldn't I be. I have an amazing family and life, we are extremely lucky. Some women are mean, for the sake of being mean and I have no idea WHY they are. I do not understand or know what I did to upset them so since I have been away for a year, I dont think I did much to them. I often wonder if sometimes I did something and am just unaware. Maybe me coming back upsets the power or something? I mean come on, I am a graphic artist. Yeah I used to have a little more pull there before leaving so long but that will come back with time. Dont get me wrong, I enjoy my job, a lot, (when bitches are not being catty bitches) but I don't make it my main focus when I go home. I go home. I enjoy being home. I dont think about work at home anymore.
I hope things go back to normal. Though Neil has been telling me these mean women were mean before, I just didn't care as much before I left. I used to say "fuck those bitches" Now I say "I wonder why they dont like me." So lame I have become.
Thicken up skin, I am tired of being sad at work.

I miss my son. I will watch him on my break sometimes online and sometimes it makes me smile or laugh. And sometimes it makes my day even harder to get through. Helps we are super busy but watching him cuddling the ladies at his day care hurts and gives me a little relief. Unless you are a mom you will never understand this battle of feelings.
I have changed so much. I used to hate women that said that to me. "you are not a mom, you dont get it" but sorry ladies, its true.
Something changes in you, or at least it should. 


Okay enough, go to bed Mary. I keep staying up way to late and getting 5-6 hours sleep and then working all day and then running around like a crazy lady at night trying to prepare and clean.


I have yet to find my working mom groove. Hopefully that will come with time as well.
Any hits or tips for me?