treats

You have to try these!  I simplified a recipe I found online for strawberry creamsicles and they are a big hit around here.  Just mash some ripe strawberries with a fork, add yogourt and put into your popsicle molds and freeze.  I used french vanilla 2% yogourt, but I imagine a honey greek yogourt would be even richer and creamier. 

In the photos you can see E. offering me some of his popsicle.  He is such a generous little guy and always shares his treats with me and whoever else is here.  He gets his big heart from his Daddy.  When I was growing up I would always try to mooch my little sisters treats from her because I ate mine faster than her.

Me and my boys have been down with a flu.  M. was sick since Friday, and E. and I were hit suddenly Sunday night with a fever and chills and runny noses.  We spent yesterday, one of the hottest days of the year so far, under a blanket on the sofa watching Cars and Monsters Inc. over and over.  Last night E. woke me up at 4 a.m. with calls of  "Mommy!  Booger!"  He needed me to wipe his nose.  I feel much better today, and we were able to hang out in the backyard and play this morning so hopefully we'll be back to having fun soon.

coach e.

These photos are from one morning last week.  Instead of our usual a.m. at the playground, we made the short drive down to the lake for a little taste of summer in the city.  Unfortunately, and not terribly surprisingly, my E. ignored my instructions to just get his feet wet.  Five minutes into our outing he was soaked and we had our first outfit change of the day.  I guess you can't blame him since it was a hot day...but Lake Ontario looks a little grubby for swimming to me.

In mommy news, I've joined a women's soccer league this year and I'm playing a team sport for the first time in almost three decades.  I figured I'd be winded by all the running, but I could push through.  But I didn't realize that my body is totally unprepared for this kind of sprinting and kicking.  I slept with an ice pack after my first practice and had a moment where I thought I was going to have to give up before I started.  But two games in, and I'm hooked.  There's a real disconnect between how fast I want to run and how hard I want to kick and what I can actually do.  It's shocking really to find out you're not young anymore.  But I'm having a great time.

My little guys and T. game by my game this weekend and when I was warming up E. had to put his two cents in.  After I ran two laps, he yelled at me to "run, mommy run!"  Which was cute.  But then when I sat down to stretch, he shrieked at me to "play SOCCER mommy! play soccer!"  Which was a little bossy!  He kicked the ball around with his Daddy before we started and he is already better than me at two.  He can run and kick and I know I'm his mother but the kid is seriously coordinated and is going to be a threat on the field one day.  

I caught M. playing with a ball in the house the other day and he told me that he was "playing soccer with the ladies."  Like me I guess.  But there's something about the way he says "ladies" that cracks me up.

nobody take it

I cannot even count the number of times a day M. tells me;

"Nobody take it!"

By "nobody", he means his twin brother E.  And by "it", he means whatever toy is the current favourite usually a puzzle or a car.  At nap time I have to store multiple toys and puzzles under his bed and promise him seriously that "nobody will take your toys while you're sleeping."

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I had a brief conversation with a stranger this morning that annoyed me to no end.  I was up at 5 a.m. with a sick M. and was in even less of a mood to make small talk than usual.  As I'm about to cross the street to check out a yard sale with my two boys in a stroller, this person I have never seen before steps in front of us so I cannot pass easily and asks me;

"Twins?"

I confirmed this.  And she just stared at them in their stroller, but was still in our way.  So I attempted to be friendly and said,

"How are you?"

To which she says;

"Do you know them?"

OK, so now I'm confused...."What do you mean?"

"Well, you can't tell them apart can you?  You don't know who is who." she states as a fact.

This was too much for me and I put this stupid conversation to an end.

"Of course I know who they are.  They look different.  And they're my children."

What the heck lady! 

Anyway, I picked up two gorgeous vintage brass lantern light fixtures for our house for five dollars so our weird interactions with neighbours was all worth it.  And M. got a new Thomas the Train puzzle. 

crewel cowboy

Last weekend we headed to the Wychwood Barns community centre for my favourite Saturday morning activity:  Garage Sales!  But not just any old yard sale.  This was Style North's annual decorators sale packed with discounted tchotchkes and pretty things.  

I picked up these brand new gorgeous embroidered cushions which are just the thing our living room needs.  T. recommended I just put them into storage to keep them looking nice until our cavemen are a little older and can be trusted not to destroy them.

But I want to enjoy our home now and I figure I can wash the cushion covers when it comes to it.  In the first 1/2 an hour of being home with my new cushions, E. moved them from the sofa to the back door.  On top of the shoe tray.  Where our muddy gardening boots are kept.

Shortly afterward, another family member lay claim to my new feather filled cushions.  Apparently they are a great place for a comfy nap.  Our doggy refuses to move.

But what's a home without a dog?  We gotta keep our first baby happy.

no hands

I was jokingly griping to my little boys as I did the dishes about how I always do the washing up and that they never help.  And that Cowboy never takes a turn doing dishes either, the little mooch.

M. seriously answered me;

"Mommy, Cowboy no hands.  No hands Mommy."

Now, I understand why my dog doesn't help out around here.

 Now that the weather is finally heating up in T.0., we've started wearing our shorts and I've put away the boys long pants.  My little joker E. keeps asking me;

"Mommy, where's my pants?  I have no pants!"  And laughing.

i love you long weekend

We had a fantastic day at Harbourfront with our favourite kids.  We slathered on the sunscreen and headed downtown via subway first thing this morning.  M. and E. were so excited to ride the train...and it is so fun to see the route I use to commute to work through their eyes. Suddenly everything is fun and new.

Harbourfront had a ton of activities for kids going and we couldn't turn around with stumbling into something awesome.  We started with getting some cool balloons for the boys.  When the "balloon genius" asked E. which creation he wanted such as a monkey or a sword or a hat all E. would emphatically declare was;

""Pink. Pink. Pink"  So a cute pink monkey it was and he wore it on his wrist all day.  M. was too shy to declare his preference but told me "red", so another monkey it was.

The boys then spotted this man dressed up as a giant monkey in a costume made of balloons.  I wasn't sure how this would go because in the past they have been terrified of any giant mascot type things.  But they were in LOVE with this monkey guy and chased him through the crowd.  The crowd was full of people on stilts, people doing tricks and clowns.  E.  told one; "bye clown" and thankfully he was talking to a person with a red nose and not a random stranger.

We sat down to catch a bit of an acrobatic circus show by the water.  I thought we'd be there for 5-10 minutes but the boys sat for a whole 45 minutes.  They weren't that into the actual acrobatic stunts, but they loved the host...a Johnny Depp/Mad Hatter kind of dude.  Whenever he left the stage they would ask me;

"Where's guy?"  And I would assure them that he would be back soon.

Then E. started answering his own question;

"Bathroom Mommy.  Guy in bathroom".  A logical conclusion my boy.

We did some arts and crafts...and even M. sat down and did some pasting and colouring with some help from his Daddy. 

Then we did a little toddler obstacle course of tunnels and slides etc.  And then a "Family Dance Party".  A d.j. spun some '80's tunes and we all boogied with lots of balloon kicking and throwing.

And all of this went along with lots of free samples of pepperoni sticks which the boys also love, donuts and an ice cream cone on the way home for M.  E. passed out the second we put him back in the stroller and I swore M. to secrecy so E. won't feel like he missed out.

On the subway trip home while E. slept in the stroller, M. ate his soft serve ice cream cone and stood on the seat at the very front of the train with his daddy watching the train travel through the tunnels.  He kept saying;

  "Fun!  Fun!"

It was a gorgeous sunny summer day and we all had a fantastic time hanging out together.  I am very lucky.

fun with sticks

This is what help in the garden looks like.  Rainboots full to the brim of water.  Two happy, muddy, wet and dirty toddlers.

I was using popsicle sticks and a sharpie to label my herbs and veggies and I gave the boys some of their own sticks to dig in the dirt with.  They have trouble saying the word "stick" clearly.  Resulting in some laughs for me and T.

Soon there was the inevitable bickering over sticks and who's stick was who's.  And yelling of;

"Leave my *ick alone!"

Who knows what the neighbours thought was going on.

The other day at costco the boys found some twigs in the parking lot they carried into the store.  They were both side by side in the big grocery cart when E. noticed M. no longer had his twig.  He shrieked  over and over;

"M. has no *ick!  M. has no *ick!"

T. and I just giggled being the mature parents we are.  I love hearing the boys learning to talk.