Earth Hour

Today we celebrated Earth Hour (http://www.earthhour.org/home/). The boys and I sang songs and did nursery rhymes in the dark. Mattie tries to count to 10 and coming up with train names starting with A to Z. We only got to F and he got bored. Mikey usually doesn't join in on our nightly ritual, but since he wasn't asleep by 8:30 he listened to us sing and goof around.

I think it was great to have an Earth hour to remind everyone to conserve. We got a free Brita today because they are trying to reduce use of plastic bottles. So here are some things we will try to do to help Planet Earth ---

1. reduce disposable diaper use
2. reduce battery-powered toys
3. reduce plastic bag use (Ontario is starting to ban use of plastic at the superarkets or at least you will have to pay for bags starting June)
4. turn off lights -- or go outside more until bedtime
5. recycle things -- finish food rather than thrwoing anything away. either to good will or people we know

Notice I say "reduce" since I don't know if I can eliminate. We tried cloth diapers for a while, but it was hard to keep up with the diapers between cleaning and constant changing. We will try with Mikey when he is fully trained for number 2.

Funny Moments

Our family has been hit with some strong, malcious virus this week. Pretty much everyone is sick including the baby, so we have been home to recover. Mattie has been "blowing" his nose all day so finally he decided he will just put a cloth on his nose to avoid keep coming to me to blow his nose.



I have been so busy with calming the kids down. I didn't even realize why he is falling over all the time. Do you see what is wrong with this picture?



I guess it's not very obvious on the picture...... his two legs are in one leg pants. It took me a while to understand why he couldn't climb up to the couch to read a book with me.

Uncle Sam Strikes Again

We have the worst luck when it comes to taxes. Prior to having a home and children, my accountant always said I had no deductions because I didn't have them. Then when I bought a home, the interest was low so it made little difference, but I was ok with that since I wasn't paying a lot on interest to begin with. Two years later when I delivered my first born, I was told I made to much to really have the benefit of having a child (I should have done it when I was in school).

So for 2008 taxes, I was excited thinking I will get a lot back because I was paying regular taxes in my regular tax bracket, but my income was slashed in half since I only worked half a year. Well, come to find out, Uncle Sam treats Peter as an American even if the rest of the governmental division doesn't. So instead of getting thousands back as I expected, we have to pay on Peter's income in Canada. In additon, Peter's income is a stipend so it's in a complete different tax bracket (higher than normal).

I almost died when the accountant told me Peter is considered an "alien resident" since we have been filing married jointly since we got married. So apparently, I have accepted him as an "American." Too bad they can't just grant him citizenship since I accepted him as an "American." I guess this is just another twist in my crazy life.

New Milestone

Mikey went number 2 on his potty for the first time today! He is definitely growing up. He was definitely a pro -- wasted no time.

We went to Black Creek Pioneer Village today and the boys got to ride on a horse drawn wagon. Mattie thought it was really cool. He also fell on the sidewalk there so he has a big cut on his lip :( But otherwise the tirp was a success.

Rewards

We decided Mattie really need to be potty trained for several reasons, but the top two reasons are:

1. He knows how, but just too busy to go
2. Diapers are too expensive now that we have two babies in diapers

So I started by giving him cookies every time he went. That worked really well until he got tired of the cookies.

Then I told him I will take him to see Disney on Ice to see the Cars if he goes to potty for 3 days. Well that worked for the first few times, but the show is a week away so he didn't understand that.

Then we told him we will get him Henry from Thomas the Tank Engine after 3 days of dry diapers. Well, he thought we get it for him after he goes and he whines and cries after --- then for a week he was so fixated on Henry that he wakes up crying for Henry in the middle of the night.

So I got him a Thomas DVD he wanted and put it in the bathroom. Well, that didn't work either...

So today we went to buy Henry since we feel so bad that he is waking up at nights crying for Henry and throwing tantrums during the day for Henry. But funny thing is, he went to the bathroom today after I ask him if he needed to go. Maybe all thee rewards are causing too many problems.

Micah is official

Micah's passport came today and he turned two months today. It's amazing how fast they can pump out a passport when you are not in the country! It took less than 2 weeks! I think it took like months for ours.

What I find interesting about this passport process was that it required the American parent to prove he/she was in US for the 5 years prior to the birth of the child. I don't understand why since the parent is American even if they are not in US 5 years prior to the birth. The other thing is the documentation --- they ask for tax information or transcripts. What if you are a stay at home Mom? Thank goodness I went to school forever so I showed my diplomas since I don't have 5 years worth of W2 to show. Another thing is, I can just make a transcript myself since it's really just a computer print out. It's interesting how many paper pusher there are in bureaucracy.

Mattie and Mikey also had their first play date in this country. Mattie really likes Anderson because he is 3 and has lots of new toys. Chloe is really cute with Mikey too.

Sleeping

Our family has not been sleeping well for the past few weeks --- or shall we say not since Mattie was born but it has gotten worse the past few weeks. Mattie insists on being hugged to sleep, meaning he wants to lie on me the entire night. He wakes up and cries for hugs in the middle of night and demands to be hugged and cradled. Sometimes he cries for hugs even when he is on me. So we tried to explain to him that it hurts Mommy to hold him all night and tried to let him cry it out. Well, he cried 4 hours one night (no it's really 4, not a typo). We had to resort to bring the baby into the bedroom and have Mattie cry outside the room one night because we just couldn't take it anymore. Essentially, we end up being all grumpy the next morning.

Since Peter has been studying the last few weeks, we started bundling Micah in his coccon and put him in the stroller. Then we cover the stroller with a blanket to hide the light. Micah pretty much sleeps in the foyer so it's relatively darker and has a dark blanket over the stroller.

I realized most of you probably have no idea what our stroller looks like so I decided to download some pics of it so you get some idea of how Micah sleeps at night.

Strollers

I always enjoyed shopping, but more with a purpose. I am very specific in what I look for and I hunt down the deals. I don't really "browse" for the purpose of shopping. It has to be perfect and fits my budgeting goal. So after the babies were born, I have focused pretty much all my shopping on them. The two boys pretty much get whatever that I feel are the best out there. Now I have two, it seems like strollers to Moms are like "purses" to girls.

So after much research, I decided a Phil and Ted is what I wanted. But it's not just the stroller, when you talk to the other Moms, you have to have the accessories. It's like you can't buy a purse without shoes that go with it. And that's how companies get you.. they charge extra for a wind cover, a sun cover, cocoon, bag, cup holder, etc etc. It's amazing how one stroller can rack up the cost. It's true I spent like $500 on the stroller --- pretty much like a new Prada purse.

Granted, I really wanted a Bugaboo but it wouldn't be practical since Mattie would have to walk all the time then. I also like the Peg Perego duette, but it doesn't manuever well in the snow. I enjoy it when people comment how light the stroller is and how cool it is to have two boys in it. I especially like to show off my boys in something stylish and have other Mommies envy me on how cute they are. (I know, they are still cute without the stroller but it's a bonus to say they are cute and has style :P )

New pic for the day. Mikey's first experience sitting upright by himself, of course big brother wants to show him the way tho.

To Wire or Not

Sorry about being MIA for a week or so. Our internet started having problems one day, but we kept thinking it was us because it would affect one of the two laptops at home. Peter called Rogers and they claimed it was our router that's the problem. Finally, I decided to call Rogers and wanted to know how to fix the problem. As it turns out, there is a problem on their end. Surprisingly I was the first to call ---since I live in a 19 story condo building with at least 50 units per floor. We had to call several times to get the computer working again after they claimed to have fixed it on their end. A day or so later, my computer is still not working so I decided to just go buy a new router after consulting with some people about my computer not recognizing the signal. At Staples, the salesperson tells me it's not my router if one computer is working... so I ended up calling the router company. Finally, it was because some wiring problem. But now I am back online again.

What I learned from this experience is that, don't get wireless equipment for everything! During this time, we couldn't use the printer because it's wireless --- apparently I can't just get a printer cable and print that way. In addition, lots of problems with the laptops. Now I have new appreciation for the wireless technology.