in the air there's a feeling of Christmas...

I love trying to instill manners in this boy. He's quick with his please, thank you and I'm sorry but "excuse me" seems too much for him. 

Every fart or burp (burps are farts to him too lol) ends with this:

"Hahaha ! I farted! Haha, George farted. Loud fart! Stinky fart!!"  (pause)  "Oh, 'scooze me!"


If anyone around him burps or farts same thing... "You FARTED!!!!! Hahahahaha! You stinky!!!!" It's all the better because it;s usually a burp he's broadcasting for all to hear as a fart lol.

George has offiicially begun the 'process'... and by this I mean he's showing some interest.  I have zero hopes of him being trained any time soon though.

He really likes underwear. Almost every day at some point he asks to wear his underwear. So he strips naked and we put it on. Remind him that if he is in underwear he needs to use the potty.  At some point he asks to potty and we bring him and he just stands there for a few minutes says he is all done and then he asks for his diaper again.

We did try the bribery thing... stickers, candy and even tv. he didn't care lol. 


Nothing scares me more than potty training.  Once he is trained that's it... but then bus rides and trips out will be that much more nerve wracking for me. What if he has to go and we are on the bus? What if he can't hold it? What if there's no bathroom nearby? Ugh. 

I was napping with George (clothed of course) and I woke up to him quite painfully latched on and 'nursing' haha. He popped off with a proud smile and proclaimed "Boobies are deshish (delicious)!!"


Kid hasn't nursed in 6 months. There's nothing in there. haha  He asks for boobies a couple times a week. He then just kisses them. This was the first time he even latched.  Such a goof.

Finally finished the Pretties series this morning.  I think I will fondly remember it as a trilogy and pretend the 4th book never happened.  It was originally a trilogy.  

I don't know why he bothered with a 4th book. It was just beyond awful, different characters with a minor appearance by the original characters... lame storyline that went no where and just overall had no point. The main Character was the most annoying person ever. About on par with Bella from Twilight but in a different way.   It took me over a week to slog through that book because it was just so bad I would avoid reading it. When I did read it I'd skip over some pages just to end if faster.


But I did finish bringing me to 7 books read in January.  Pretty good for me I think.  If I can keep that up I will be well above my goal of 50 books this year.   Once I hit the 50 new books I think I'll re-read a couple of old favourites.  I haven't re-read any books since 2011. I love to re-read too much, for a long time that's all I did. I never read anything new.




I've been making my own bread for the past week and it's been addictive.  I forgot how amazing fresh home made bread is.  It's so easy to make too.  I've been doing a  'no knead' recipe and I love how easy it is.  Just toss everything in a bowl and let it sit covered for 8+ hours then bake it.  The less effort something requires the better for me. lol

• 3 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1-1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups water

Mix it all together, I usually have to add a little more water, it should be very wet/shaggy/sticky.  Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and let it sit.

I prefer it loaf style so I  knead it a tiny bit.  When I am ready to bake it I add a bit more flour and knead it  a bit so I can fold it in to shape so it's not as sticky and then plop it in to the loaf pan (some don't even do that. They just plop it in as is).  If I have time I let it rise again 2 more hours in the loaf pan. Sometimes I bake it right away. Comes out good either way, just fluffier if I have time to let it rise again.

Bake in a 450F preheated oven for 30 min.  (or 15 min then turn it around and 15 more I'm too lazy for that.)

It's so so so good right out of the oven. I cut off both end pieces and hubby and I eat them slathered in butter.  The crust is just SO good when it's piping hot and crispy and soft.   It loses the crispy crust once it cools down, makes a really good sandwich bread the next day.




Took Nyx to the vet last week and vet said it looks like she is just suffering from seasonal allergies.  She's always been very twitchy skinned which is a sign of allergies but this is our first Winter living in a house with forced air heat.  We never even turned on our baseboard heat in the old apartment because being on the 6th floor was roasting. We often opened the balcony because we were too hot.

We got some steroids for her to take to help relieve the itchiness and let her scabs heal.  I picked up some wild salmon oil for her too since it can help relieve allergies and helps her skin and coat.  She's been much better since we started the steroids.


Rowland's birthday was yesterday. I fell bad because it was just another day. He had to work and I was up all day since George had a doc appointment so when he came home I just made dinner and went to bed because I had to work last night.  He had a 4 day weekend to celebrate though. He took Saturday and Wednesday off work. His sister Lottie and her girlfriend Samantha came over Saturday night for pizza, cake and video games.

Wednesday was just us, George went to daycare and we went out, got lunch and did some errands came home and indulged in some leisurely baby free adult fun lol.  We had Subway for dinner too, it was a nice day. So it's not so bad. It's not like we didn't do anything for his bday, we just didn't do it ON his bday.




George finally had his 2 year checkup almost 6 months late lol.  He was weighed and measured standing up like a big kid. No more laying down to get his length. Now we get his height.   He is 27 lbs and 2' 10" tall.    Doc was a somewhat concerned because he fell off his growth curve a bit.  More I think of it I think it might be because he isn't nursing anymore. He weaned on his 2nd birthday. Maybe he's working out a new growth curve without the boob juice? 

He eats non stop and poops around the clock though and just never stops moving. Typical 2 year old really so the lack of weight gain is likely just because of that.   We went across to the clinic to get his blood drawn anyway. We were already there, there wasn't a line and we were in and out so no biggie, If it's nothing he got 3 lollypops out of it. If there is an issue then we can fix it since we know.

He's been very whiny and tempermental today.  I think his 2 year molars are coming in, (he finally has ALL his teeth minus those last molars)  hoping he will be in better spirits tomorrow.

My uncle Jack called yesterday to tell me that the rest of my money was available from my Nana's estate.  Last year I got $9000 and he told us once the taxes were done there would likely be a bit more. We thought maybe a couple hundredish... More like $2700!!!

I am totally in shock.   Total reboot for us that we needed.  I put $500 into a high interest savings account right away so I can't touch that.  I'm taking $1000 and paying off my Mastercard completely and then closing the account.  I had paid that one off last time ($5000!!)  and reduced the limit to $1000. Well a few small emergencies last year ended up racking it up again.  Then we ended up moving to a house totally out of the blue (We were not actively looking to move or saving/preparing to move. This just fell in our laps) so that ate up even more of our money.    Then I also seem to have this really awful habit where the worse our finances are the more I 'need' to spend?  What's up with that?

We've been doing a fine line of living in overdraft and slowly chipping off other debts. If just one thing went wrong we would have been beyond screwed... Then of course Christmas came and we did pretty good and stayed within the budget so at least we didn't make things worse.


I set up a budget that we can live with and we have been slowly working our way back to ground zero.... but this gave us a jumpstart we really needed.  A start to our savings, wiping out some credit.  Finally paying my mom back for all the moving expenses she helped us with when we were tapped out. and of course a tiny bit of extras. ;)

I spent a little bit today to get a coffee maker, a new blender and a kettle. Just a couple housewares I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.  I will be getting some clothes too. I need some new pants. I only have one pair. lol.  George is set for clothes until he outgrows 2t, which won't be for another year.  He might need 3T pants in the fall but that's it.  Rowland got a bunch of new things last year so he is set too.


Aside from that I will also be taking Nyx to the vet. Last week she got a scab on her back near the base of her tail... well this week now she has a couple scabs all over her back.  Not sure wtf that is about but I am SO SO SO grateful for this money coming in now because I was thinking the day before I didn't know how we could afford a vet visit right now.  I hated that so much. I hated being a pet owner who couldn't take care of my pet. That's not how I do things. 

I don't know how I let things get so out of hand for so long.  That's just so not like me at all.

Never again!

The plumber guy was here today to rip up the basement.  He had an accent and not very good English and made it sound like he was ripping up most of the basement. It ended up just being a small little corner. I worked last night so I was not looking forward to jack hammers all day... Turns out it was only 10 minutes of jackhammers and they were done by 11am.  George's jumping and cheering all day interrupted my sleep way more. :P

Our kitty, Nyx walked over the fresh cement and left tiny kitty pawprints. SO cute. I love it.  I love prints embedded in cement. :)




When I came home from work Saturday morning I found Christmas was gone. Rowland took down everything and put it away.  I miss it. They were so pretty and now the living room feels empty and the one corner seems so dark. Less than 11 months and it goes back up! :D


I set up a budget for the next few months. Hoping we can stick to it. My biggest goal is to put at least 10% of our paychecks in to savings.   My goals are to not be paycheck to paycheck within a year. Pay off the rest of our credit cards and student loans in the next 5 years and save up 10-20% downpayment for a house within the next 10 years.  

( rambling about potential future house buying )

George has become such an interesting little boy. He is entering the stage where he doesn't stop talking. His vocabulary is exploding every week though he still speaks a lot of gibberish. 

He has friends at daycare and talks about them all the time and asks to go to 'school' (as we call it) all the time so he can see his friends.  He even has a little girlfriend named Charlotte who it just as crazy about him. It's adorable.

He is starting to get really in to imaginary play. He has me tie his blankie around his shoulders so he can be Batman and he throws his arms up to make his blankie cape flow out behind him.  Kills me everytime. He even does the deep Batman voice and runs around saying "I'm Batman!!"

He hasn't made much headway with potty training but he does try at daycare. He really likes their little toilets. Here he has to use the big toilet or a potty chair and he doesn't like either. Not as awesome as a little toilet just his size.  He tells me when he poops and when he needs a diaper change but has zero interest in doing anything on the potty. 


He's telling me he needs a change now so I guess I have to end this here. :P 


If anyone else is joining dreamwidth my username there is still jaleco.  I am posting all entries now from Dreamwidth and just cross posting them to LJ with their handy cross post option. :)

One of our pipes collapsed and now we have water in the basement.  The basement floor has to be ripped up so it can be fixed. 

 The plumber who came out today managed to get some water to flow through so we have some time to get it fixed. He doesn't know how long it will last though. A few days or a few weeks.  We have to go easy on the water until it's fixed.  The guy who would handle the outside stuff is out hunting until the 10th, my landlord leaves for a 10 day cruise on Saturday.... who knows when this will finally get started and how long it will take to finish.

He said if it gets worse we will have raw sewage coming up and if that happens we will have to stay someplace else. REALLY hope that doesn't happen.  Thinking of being extremist and doing dishes camping style in a rubbermaid bin and dumping the water outside. Only letting toilet and shower water go down the drains.... do laundry in small loads on delicate so the water spins out slowly.... or maybe just going to a laundromat.... we'll see.


So I'm going to wash the diapers we've used this week and keep George in disposables until it's fixed.


edit:  Woot, she managed to find someone. They are coming by now to check it out to give a quote to my landlord. Said he will begin work Monday morning.  My landlord said he mentioned we couldn't live in the house while this was going on but she wasn't sure. I will ask him myself. We have no where to go so ya... we will be here. :P

So after she went to bed last night, and I cleaned up all; the stuff she threw around and lined her stuff up so she could find it in the morning, I chatted with Manda online... She happened to make a comment, that I had JUST noticed myself... "Katie was on your phone all day calling people" and right before she said that, I looked down at my cell phone and saw it was plugged in charging... well in an attempt to charge... The battery was at nilch, and I had JUST charged it the day before. I adjusted the plug so that it was charging properly, and checked the called numbers list... She called at least 10 people (my list only goes up to ten). Talking for a good 30 min at a time. Manda told me that she talked to Brian for forever (45 min) and when he realized she was on my phone he let her go (thanks brian!) If she went over my minutes she's definately paying for them.

I left my phone here so she could call someone in case of emergency... what if she hurt herself or there was a fire, or something happened and she had to call me or 911... I couldn't leave her in a death trap with no access.... and since I was at my moms doing laundry I had a phone there... so I figured why not. She was supposed to nap till 4:15 anyways. She called Brian 5 min after I left my home... I wasn't even on the bus yet!

I called her at 4:15 and found it odd that A) She was with Brian... and B) She had to let me go coz my battery was dying... yet she called someone 10 min later and talked for 15 min...

This girl has definately worn her welcome with me, and it started last year... So much for best friends. She only wants me when she needs me... and then she takes advantage.