2011 has come and gone (and so have months of not posting on my blog)! It was a pretty big year in the York Household, so let’s see if I can sum it up end to beginning…

Ben’s Starts to Understand Christmas

On Christmas Eve, our Little Munchkin set out some cookies and milk for Santa for the first time. He carefully chose the best place between the fireplace and Christmas tree that he felt Santa would notice the treats. Thereafter, we tried to get him to actually go to sleep, but he was so excited about everything (including Nana’s arrival), it was finally closer to midnight before Nana could actually wrap ‘Santa’s presents’ and Mommy could eat a cookie and drink the milk (not the best thing for a sensitive pregnant tummy!).

It took about 4 hours just to open Ben’s presents on Christmas Morning. He was so excited with everything, he had to play with each toy for about 30 minutes, and by the end of Gift Extravaganza, Ben had a fully-fledged little boy’s room thanks to Nana, Unkie Brett, Aunty Margo, Nana Karen and Aunty Sharon.

Ben’s Days as an Only Child Become Numbered!

Due Date: June 3, 2012

Mommy Status: Pretty good overall, Decreased nausea, Increased heart burn, Itchy skin, Regular clothes no longer fit.

Family Status: Daddy = Excited; Ben = Must give Baby hugs and kisses every morning; Sparky = Haven’t had the heart to break the news to him yet that there will be another little kid running around the house…

Early Mortgage Renewal

Chad and I have been diligently putting extra money on the mortgage over the last few years while we could (anticipating daycare costs x 2 in a couple of years). We still had 4 years left on our agreement (10 year contract), but decided, just for sh*ts and giggles, to call and see what the penalty would be to do an early payout and go with another bank.

The company actually then offered us a reduced penalty AND reduced rate for another 5 year term which would ultimately save us $9000 in interest! The end is in sight, people!!! Problem now is, Cindy has itchy fingers to start renovating the basement, the kitchen, the…

Mommy Gets A Promotion

It’s been 5 months since I have been in the role of Clinical Supervisor. There have been a lot of changes that much of the old guard has not been crazy about, but it’s definitely been an asset to have Chad’s logical unbiased sounding board at home every night. Things have finally started to settle down, and I’ve learned patience and calm, but most of all, I’ve learned that ’supervising’ is really about understanding personalities. Still much to learn, I’m sure, but definitely liking the experience thus far.

A Year For Good-Byes

It felt like a big year for losing big people this year - Jack Layton, Steve Jobs…Most of all, Good-Bye to Dad. Every Sunday just feels little more lonely without our usual phone call…especially this Christmas Morning. Missing you very much, Dad…

The videoSong is a new medium with 2 rules: 1. What you see is what you hear (no post-sync voice or instrument). 2. If you hear it, you’ll see it in the video…

“I suppose that we all look up to our dads when we’re growing up.  Dads are like Super Beings that seem to be able to do anything and know everything.  But it wasn’t until I got older that I realized that my dad really was different than most other dads.  He really was a Super Being.  He didn’t just buy a house like other dads; he would design one.  Then he’d survey the land, operate the heavy equipment, pour the concrete, frame the structure, wire the electrical, put the plumbing in place, drywall, lay the hardwood floors, built the cabinets, fireplace masonry, on and on…  Any ONE of these skills of course could be a full time trade.

Of course this wasn’t his “full-time” job.  This was simply his hobby.  Something that he did start to finish several times in the course of his life filling his weekends and evenings after working all day in computers systems for IBM and Sierra.

I have often told stories of dad’s pursuits only to have people ask:  “Replacing the transaxle on his Kenworth truck? I thought you said your dad was a computer analyst?”. If he didn’t have a tool he’d invent one.  So as you can imagine his favourite occupation was toiling away in his shop engineering some solution to a problem he wanted to solve.

But it didn’t stop with building things with his hands.  Dad had an insatiable thirst for knowledge.  One of the things I will miss the most is our “Sunday morning phone call ritual.”  He’d always have some new book or documentary that he had ingested and wanted to tell me about…or stories from his latest travels.  As many of you will know dad could keep the most amazing amount of detail locked away in his memory about every road he’s ever driven down and of course the people he met along the way.  Countless pages and chapters he added to “his book”.

But more than all of his accomplishments, Dad was a kind and gentle man that was easy to talk to.  He was always keenly interested in everyone’s stories and could always find a way to make us laugh or smile.  Even through the worst days of this last year he always remained composed, optimistic and wise.

Which brings me to the most important part of dad’s time here, his memories.  It’s why we’re all here thinking of him today, so I’ll close with his wisdom.  “Life is like a big book” he would say, “You really just want to add as many chapters as you can.  And you’ll find the most important ones are the pages you add by creating memories with the people you care about.”

Dad, I hope that you’re enjoying a new adventure and starting a brand new book. In my book, I’ll cherish the pages, chapters and memories I created with you.”

—Chad York

1 cup Corn meal (yellow or white)

1tsp. Baking powder

1/2 tsp. Baking soda

1/2 tsp. Salt

2 Eggs

1 1/2 cups corn

1/4 cup Olive oil

1 1/4 cup Plain yoghurt

Stir together meal, baking power, baking soda and salt

Add eggs and mix together. tir in corn, oil and yoghurt. Pour into greased muffin tin. Bake at 400F for 25 minutes or unti browned.

Great for sending to daycare with the little ones, but best served warm with butter and honey!

With each passing moment, our little munchkin becomes more and more a little boy sharing something new with us every day. Here are some examples this week alone:

• Work has been crazy busy for me lately, so Ben has been spending 2 days (overnight) at my folks. And everytime he comes home, Chad and I always find ourselves saying, “Is he taller today?” [confirmed with measuring tape]
• This morning, he woke up before us (we’re staying at my Dad-in-law), and before even trying to wake us up, he kept saying ‘dohs’. When I finally managed to open my eyes, I saw him pointing to his toes
• Been trying to catch this on video, but Ben thinks he is reciting the alphabet when the song starts to play on the iPad [comes out more like ‘A’, ‘E’, ‘D’, ‘D’, ‘I’]. He also understands the concept of ‘two’…not one, or three…just two.
• Today, in the middle of playing in Grandpa’s yard, he ran up to me and said ‘ab-ble’. I asked him to show me what he wanted, so he led me to the fridge, and after I opened the door, he pointed to a draw with apples [turns out, it was actually snack time]
• Ben’s favourite shows are ‘Toy Story 3′, ‘Despicable Me’ and The Clone Wars’ (one specific episode called ‘Arc Troopers’), and he is able to re-enact scenes ‘verbatim’ (in toddler talk) as they happen

Ninety hand-made cookies were used as well as eggs, milk, candy and other food items.

Jesse & Joy- “Chocolate” from Carlos Lopez Estrada on Vimeo.

At 21 months, Ben is definitely trying to use more words. He’ll repeatidly ask what something is, watch our lips as we say the word and try to imitate the shape of our mouths. He’s literally running around (with occassional falls) and trying his darndest to jump and lift his feet off the ground.

The iPad (thank you, Steve Jobs) is a godsend. Between his milk and his ‘bup’ (Ben’s word for the iPad), it will calm him down and give us time to actually make dinner. The teaching apps will give us time to make dinner, and he’ll watch 2 of his favourite movies in its entirety (’Despicable Me’, ‘Toy Story 3′) or ‘The Clone Wars’ (making constant ‘pew pah pew’ sounds) on road trips. I’m amazed at how he has taught himself to work his way around it and start up whatever program/music he wants. I guess the scary part now is he has figured out how to work YouTube - better look for those parental controls!

Of course with the proper arrival of the warm weather this week, it’s been a fight to get Ben to come in the house at all. I love being able to do my thing in the kitchen (including finally being able to bake bread again!) and watch him play in the yard. He’s just such a boy always having a stick or stone in either hand with sand/mud stains on his knees and hands.

I guess the only thing we’re trying to figure out is Ben waking up once a night. He’s occassionally thirsty, but mostly he just wants us to be with him. We’ve moved him into a big bed now, which he loves (he definitely likes to flop around in his sleep), but any ideas on how to get him to sleep through the night would be much appreciated!

Life has definitely been hectic for The Yorks this year. Apart from Daddy working overtime randomly over the last few months and Mommy working super hard due to a staff shortage, we’ve spent almost every weekend out of town - Uncle Brett got married in Kelowna, Grand Uncle Dick passed away in Edmonton, and Grandpa has been very sick in Sorrento. We’ve been trying to spend as much time with Grandpa as we can. Ben LOVES playing on his acreage (so many sticks, stones, mud and fresh air!!) and the iPad has been so helpful on the 5 hour car trips. but it’s been really heavy emotionally. It’s even harder to say goodbye everytime we leave, wondering if will be the last time…

While things were falling into routine, I confess I had been in a little bit of a ‘bad place’ since going back to work in August. As any parent, having any Me-Time was at a premium, and when I did have that time, I was either doing  my part-time transcription work or…well, that was just it…I had no hobby! I was feeling lost. One day at lunch, while crying once again to Chad about this ‘lost/frustrated’ feeling, he asked, ‘Why don’t you give up your transcription?’ To cut a long story short, since giving it up, I’ve found all this free time to actually explore what it is I’d like to do, and found out that I love sewing! I had asked Chad for a sewing machine for my birthday last year, originally thinking I would use it mostly to shorten pants, sew up pockets etc., but I love heading down to my ’studio’ putting things together now. I’ve also been furiously surfing the web through Stumble Upon and finding all these really neat sites which I could surf for hours adding projects to my To-Do list. The only problem now, as usual in Parent World, is finding enough time to do it all (and blog about it)

Ben, of course, is growing in leaps and bounds. I’m so amazed at how much he understands when I talk to him or ask him questions. I love that he is able to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ now. Not only is he just a sponge at picking up and imitating our little idiosyncrasies, he is starting to put little ’sentences’ together - it’s no longer just using nouns in words and sign language  like nai nai and airplane, it’s become more + nai-nai or where + airplane or doggy + stepped on my toe.

Daycare - He is still loving the daycare routine. When Chad drops him off, he has to take his lunch bag over to the kitchen and get his indoor shoes while Chad signs in. When I pick him up, he runs to his lunch from Olivia in the kitchen and finds his shoes amongst all the others to bring to me. He loves his buddies at school, spending much of his time with his new girlfriend, Violet (poor Alyssa is still wondering what happened).

Potty training - What parenting blog post would be complete without a comment on her child’s bowel movements. This, I definitely started too early for him. While I was able to catch his business as a non-mobile infant in the potty, once crawling started, he avoided the potty like the plague. Once he understood more and he was to tell me when he has made a poop, I started to sit him down on the big toilet, but it somehow freaked him out to the point where he started to lie about making a poop (the smell suggested otherwise). So I gave it a couple months, and started to let him run around naked about an hour before the bath and bed routine. I’d casually let him stand up next to the toilet and encourage him to pee. Great success!! He can pee standing up voluntarily! I can see he is still working on the voluntary control of his bladder and he hasn’t quite figured out how to tell me he needs to pee, but it’s all so exciting

Awesome craft ideas and with included tutorials - http://craftgawker.com/

Craft blogger based in Vancouver - http://www.thefreshloaf.com/

Breadmaking links - http://www.thefreshloaf.com/

Found a really neat, organic, kid-friendly place to have breakfast and lunch just off The Drive called ‘Little Nest‘. Good food, a play area for the kids, chalk and chalk boards at the tables, and no dirty looks from staff when your toddler walks in their way Just be warned though, it does get very busy on weekends between 10.30am and 1pm.

Also, if you’re looking for something to do in the Burnaby area, Eileen Daily Pool has a free family swim the first Sunday of each month.