DPoD May 31st - Mommy, daddy, look what I can do with the Train Table

The title says it all.

(God bless our little climber)

DPoD May 30th - the return of the bunny

The bunny came back this morning.

It was not a popular sight for mommy, however the boys were quite enthusiastic about making a new friend.

We did learn however that the rabbit likes the small, leafy plant that mommy is growing in the corner of her garden. He also likes to hang out beneath the cedars in the neighbours yard, however he can no longer slide himself under the fence. I wish I had a picture of the little bunny sitting at the edge of the cage defiantly scatching its ear and then deciding, no, I'm not going to go in there. I think I'll go here and eat something from the garden.

Please watch for an upcoming past labeled 'caught- the end of the bunny saga' (coming soon - I hope)

DPoD May 29th - POPSICLES!!

The boys had a very busy day today. We went to the museum of science and technology. They played on the snowmobile, in the crazy kitchen, around the trains, watched the big clock strike 10 and had a wonderful snack to boot. When we got home they went to the park and then afterwards had some yummy popsicles on the back deck. We then went right inside and jumped in the bath. I also must add that Monkey slept very, very well.

DPoD May28th - Thank you Jason and Kendra

Thank you so much for the pull cars and the animals. We had a great time opening them (mostly Big C did with all of the pretty paper) and seeing what was inside. We love them and they've been in constant use since we opened them!!!!!

Monkey and Big C

DPoD May 27th - One last fair picture

I just had to put in one last picture from the Fair. Big C had a great time cheking out the animals in the big tent. One in particular drew his attention, though I can't really explain why. He made sure to point it out to daddy - and then I saw what it was - a DONKEY! We love you mommy!

(for those of you who don't know we always make animal sounds in the car for any animal that we see. On one trip to Westport mommy suddenly made a donkey noise. We went back to find this donkey since no one in the car saw it. While we couldn't actually find a donkey we're pretty sure that the farmer hid it on us).

Thanks for the hair goop Grandma

We are quite enjoying it!

May 26, quote of the day

To take after our good friends at http://www.thebusseyfamily.ca/ we will start posting some fun quotes of the day.

BigE is a very differently wired child than Monkey, we have known that for a while. At the fair Monkey was loving rides that even Mommy was a little unsure of. Big E and Monkey went on a roller coaster togeter and Monkey loved it while BigE hated it. I mean, he really really hated it. From that we got this little gem.

"I liked the ride that made BigE cry."

Nursing Bras

Okay gentlemen (esp my dad) this post is for the moms and mom's to be out there!

Where there are new moms there are babies needing to be fed, and where there are babies needing food, there are nursing bras. All nursing bras are not created equal. This post is an excerpt from a conversation a bunch of us who are part of the City of Ottawa Breastfeeding Buddies Program had a short while ago. If you have comments to add, please do so in the comments section. I'll incorporate some into the post as appropriate.

We have women in our group that are all shapes and sizes. For the sake of this post we’ll talk about small medium and large. There is no scale to this. Just put yourself in the section that seems to fit.

In Ottawa many women spoke of the selection at the major department stores such as Sears and the Bay “The best ones that I found for my size and price 42D/DD was actually a boxed platex nursing bra from Sears....go figure!”. The Bay does do custom fitting and there are a range of brands that have very good nursing bras (albeit only a limited number from each brand) including Warners, Playtex and so on. “I'd suggest that a new mom try a couple of different ones because the opening and closing one-handed may be important, especially if she doesn't want to be flashing anyone at the mall. (Oh yeah, and not all of them look like they belong on somebody's granny!)”.

There were many mentions of Marianne's in the Westgate shopping centre. They are very helpful, have a reasonable selection, and they do customized fitting. They have a wide variety of sizes from bras for women with small breasts to women with large breasts. Some of the women did feel that they are on the expensive side though.

Then there was the discussion of the different Bravado bras. While some women swore by them “I'd definitely echo the Bravado recommendation - I've worn nothing but Bravado for almost 5 years now and can't praise them highly enough.” Some others did not “will throw my opinion in there too coming from a larger chested mom and someone who was a size 14. I loved the Bravado bras and Milk Face! Although I only wore the Bravado at night. I found that even their models for fuller breasts weren't supportive enough for me during the day. “


Here is a “maybe” for Bravado: “My "girls" were never overly large and I still found that the bravado plus style bra (this one here http://www.bravadodesigns.com/product.asp?ID=21) was not very supportive. It was comfortable and cotton and stretchy if I was engorged, so great in those ways. In terms of support, not so much. I did like that when I popped down the clip to expose my breast he was not aiming at a small space. My entire breast was available. Others might not like that so much.

The same comments apply to the lifestyle bra http://www.bravadodesigns.com/product.asp?ID=32. It is pretty (so nice to have a pink nursing bra, made me feel pretty) but still not especially supportive.


The supreme nursing bra is a thing of science. This thing kept my girls (a size 36E) looking nice and perky http://www.bravadodesigns.com/product.asp?ID=23. The down side is that it is not made of cotton and it has a seam across the nipple. Who does that? For $65 though, it is a truly marvellous bra.”

The Bravado bras are sold in a number of places in Ottawa including www.Milkface.com, Boomerang Kids, online at: http://www.bravadodesigns.com They ship quickly, and there's lots of info on how to choose the right size, etc. And they're Canadian.

For the small and medium sized ladies out there, there is another option that is a tank top and built in bra. “I loved my Glamourmom tank tops http://glamourmom.com/ (btw, if you are tall, get the ones with the lace at the bottom, they are longer). They offer great coverage and medium support. I have about 6. I bought my Glamourmom bras on Ebay brand new for about $34 US. They were for sale at milkface.com for $55 CDN the last time I looked.

From another mom “I'm fascinated. I got one of the Glamourmom corsettieres in medium (which I am) and my darling husband commented that my breasts were somewhat lower than usual. Thanks honey, just what I needed to hear. But he is right. Nowhere near enough support (I'm a "D" though, is that large?) for me. So anyway, it's not you, it's the top. Blame the top. ;)”

Also, A few lactation consultants in private practice sell nursing bras. Give them a call to find out.

A link to the Bussey's

Please check out http://www.thebusseyfamily.ca/2007/05/trip-to-fair.html if you're looking for more stuff from the fair. Mr E's daddy has this blog set up and there are some great pics of the boys together at the fair!

DPoD May 26th Part I Godfather Jeff's Visit

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day for a number of reasons. First, the boys Godfather was in town for a 10k run that he was doing, so he woke up with Monkey - who I must say was absolutely overjoyed. Mommy went with Big E's mommy to go to the Great Glebe Garage sale and made some fabulous purchases which I'm sure will be featured in future DPoD's.



So 'the boys' (all 6 of us) headed to Broadway for breakfast where everyone ate remarkably well. Our meal was followed by soccer after a brief stop at home for some time in the swings.

Monkey had a great time at soccer and did LOTS of running around while Big C played with Godfather Jeff on the playstructure. At the end of soccer Godfather Jeff joined in the play while we got caught up with mommy. It was then that Big E's parents suggested that we go to the Fair.

The backyard-May 26

So we moved to this house last year so this is only our second summer. I am a little sad about how small the plants still are since the plants at the old house are now on thier 6th summer and doing wonderfully. Sigh.

So here is a picture of what it looks like now. I am hoping to keep track (mostly for myself) of how it looks as the summer progresses to make sure that I have a good blend of flowers at all times and other such things.

As an aside, since today was the GGG-I am trying to figure out just how much multicoloured plastic kids stuff I can fit in my yard!

DPoD May 26th Part II - The FAIR!!!

What a fabulous idea! After a quick lunch Jeff, mommy and Monkey headed out to the Fair. Monkey enjoyed the animals, the ice cream cone that he enjoyed for nearly an hour, the clown show, the Monster Trucks, the rides -especially the Magic Bus, the spinning dinosaurs and the trucks on train tracks - and all of the glorious sunshine.

After Big C's nap daddy and Big C joined in on the fun too! It was the best day of the spring so far and all of us are looking forward to spending a wonderful summer together!

Great Glebe Garage Sale AKA GGG

If you are from Ottawa chances are good that you know exactly what the GGG is. If you are not from Ottawa here is a quick explanation. Picture the nicest area of your city to live in. Picture all of the nice houses, nice cars the whole nine yards. Now imagine if all of the people in that neighbourhood decided to have a garage sale on the same day-if you are a garage sale-ing kind of a person, chances are good that you would show up, even just to see. The prevailing theory seems to be that if rich people are selling their stuff, it must be worth buying.

So we went. Rebecca and I suited up (after having to reschedule a car seat clinic some weeks ago so that it didn't fall today). Prior to going we mapped out what we needed. The bottom line was that neither one of us needed much of anything, but we still wanted to be there at 7:30 so that we could get the first crack at all of the rich people's crap that we don't even need anyways.

What did we buy? I bought a drum set to go along with the kids daily love for making music. We now have a drum, a moroca (<-sp??), and a tambourine that fits really nicely in your hand. How much does all of that cost? They were asking a dollar, I offered 50 cents. Sold.

Next we saw a pretty faded but structurally sound basketball net. Asking price $3, I counter with $2. Put it in the truck.

Moving right along to some brand spanking new Tupperware (it still had the plastic on it). I am thinking of Monkey's transition to junior kindergarten in the fall and I spend 7 of the $8 she was asking and put that in the wagon.

We got stopped along the way and interviewed for a local community paper. Let me know if you see Beck and I hauling a wagon full of crap published somewhere-I can't remember who they said they were from.

I grabbed an ab roller for $4 and then I am rifling through a bin of goodies and I spy a harmonica. Now the boys love the harmonica that Aunt Heather got for them so when I see a plastic version with handles I am intrigued. I ask how much. Much to my surprise she says "3 items for $0.25". Yeah, this woman knows how to garage sale. I pick up two Little Tikes tools that we also in the bin, hand over my quarter and we are good to go.

Now the finale. I was looking to get a grocery cart for Monkey. Earlier negotiations had not proven fruitful and I was still light one grocery cart. Rebecca and I spot one just getting put out on display and we inquire. The reply is a mind boggling "$5". Barely unable to contain my excitement and still needing to see what I can do here I counter with $3, she

counters with $4 and a grocery cart that is in brand new condition and costs $35 new at Toys R Us gets loaded into the truck. I skipped the whole way back!!!

That was our morning, then we met up with the boys and went to soccer, then the Gloucester Fair. What an incredible day!!

DPoD May 25th - The Toastman!

This morning Monkey had breakfast with mommy, then he requested more eggs and to have his toast. Not exactly following the lead of 'never play with your food' he decided to turn an ordinary, every day piece of toast in to the world's newwest superhero - The Toastman. Watch out Spidey - he can melt butter in a single leap, fill a stomach with the slightest of ease and

make bread look cool and lifeless. (I'm sure that there's a major motion picture to follow and we've got the copyrights)

DPoD May 24th - The Hose Incident

Tonight was an absolutely gorgeous warm summer-like evening. Thus the hose came out. Monkey was busy helping mommy water some of the garden and the tree, when along came Big C. He just had to be a part of the fun. A full and thorough bath followed this:

Just because he can

He doesn't seem to actually want to get out of the bag...just to continue to prove that he could if he wanted to.

DPoD May 23rd - One of mommy's favourites

Big C found mommy's lilacs which have come out in a beautiful bloom that smells fantastic. Big C wandered over and showed me how mommy taught him to 'stop and smell the flowers'. He is very gentle and sniffs slowly, then goes' mmmmmmmmmmmm'. It's about the cutest thing in the entire universe.

DPoD May 22nd - the little explorer

Big C located a set of Monkey's binoculars this evening. Since Monkey was gone on an adventure with Mommy, Big C and I decided to investigate the backyard. Big C took the binoculars (minoclears as Monkey calls them) and looked all over. We checked out the bunny trap (still no bunny) and the swing set as well as the chairs and the edge of the garden. No insects were found yet, though something tells me that we have the kind of boys that are going to bring mommy lots of frogs and toads in their future.

To find out what Big C did find, please tune in tomorrow!

DPoD May21st - Holiday Monday means sleeping in

Monkey - 'Mommy, I don't want you to go to work today'

Mommy - 'I go to work on Mondays, but today is a holiday!'

Monkey - ' Do you go to work on holidays?'

Mommy - 'No, I do not'

Monkey - 'then can we stay in bed and snuggle?'

Mommy - ' yes, yes we can'

DPoD May 20th - Saturday morning breakfast routine

Ok, I realize that this should be from yesterday, however the one from then was just too cute. Here's a few photos of us, the boys & Mr E from their usual Saturday morning breakfast at Broadway. This is a tradition that started when E's daddy and I went to Denny's so that our special ladies could have some extra sleep. We've kept it up, moved to the local Broadway's and the women are always welcome. Here's a few photos from the recent escapades: