Sommer at the Spa

Sommer at 19 months!

Even though spring/summer weather should be here it's clearly not. I have been so frustrated with having to keep Sommer inside the past couple of days that yesterday we decided to go to the Temple Gardens Moose Jaw Spa. Papa Garnet & Nanna Sharon came with us! Sommer enjoyed the warm water so much! She swam around with her water wings on and didnt need me at all. I was so proud of my little fish! She sure has come a long way since last summer!

We have officially (and I say "officially" loosely because it's only been a week...) got rid of Su-Su & teddy during the day. She knows that she can have them for naps & bedtime and when she asks for either of them during the day I have become very creative at distracting her. Mainly she asks for them when she is upset or hurt but things are going well. She is in love with "babies" right now so she takes her baby everywhere with her.

I just love watching her grow-up into such a little girl. She talks all the time and every day says something that makes us laugh. She is a little rough and needs to learn to be "gentle" but it's coming. Hard to believe that I have a 19 month toddler all ready! Where has the time gone??

Twitter, Potty, and unfortunately poop!

Sommer has been obsessed, and I mean OBSESSED with poop for the past 10 days. She no longer wants to poop in her diaper, which is fine by me, but we are having the hardest time to get her to go on the potty. She will come up to us and say "Poop!! POOP!" and we will run her to the potty. She will last on the potty for 10 seconds, yes 10 seconds. So we put her diaper back on and she will go play. 2 mins later it will all happen again. This will probably happen 10 times in a row. She does know when she has to actually go because finally I will get upset and refuse to put her on the potty and she will go in the diaper within a couple of minutes and come crying to me very upset. UGH!!!
We did have two steps in the right direction this past weekend. One time I was so frustrated with taking the diaper off and putting it back on that I decided to put her on the potty with the diaper still on - and she pooped on the potty! The second time she was yelling poop and I finally put her on the potty and she pooped a little. And man was she soooo excited to see her poop in the potty! She kept peaking, pointing at the poop, and saying "Mommy!! Poop!" Yes Sommer, that's poop, haha.

In other news I am now on twitter. Mostly to creep on celebrities - most people know I am a celebrity junky. I just find twitter a nice outlet to write a quick thought on - like a blog that can only be 140 characters. Perfect! Short sweet and to the point. You can follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mel_mccullough. Join so I can follow your thoughts too!

I am alive. Don't you worry. This past month has been absolutely crazy it seems. We went to Cuba and had a wonderful time. Warm weather, time with James' sister and her family, the beautiful ocean... oh man. Cuba itself was interesting - not sure if I would return again. BUT if you have never been then I say go for it! I am glad that we went. We learned a lot about the country, saw how the people live and work, hated the boring food, and loved the ocean. Check out my pictures on facebook!

On Friday we are heading to San Diego for a week with my family! I am soo excited to see them again!! We arrive on Friday night, as does my sister Kristi, and my parents and Kevin arrive on Sunday. So Kristi and us will enjoy a weekend in downtown San Diego before my parents join us. We are staying right on the bay so there will be plenty to see and do! Once my parents arrive we will go to Romona (a town just outside the big city) for a week of timesharing! A pool, tennis courts, basketball courts, walking paths... heaven.

We are trying to break Sommer of her Su-Su (soother). It was going really well last week. She only had it for naps and bedtime. She finally gave up asking for it by Wednesday but this weekend we took 2 steps back. We had James' family here this weekend (10 of them) and she is getting two molars. So unfortunately I was tired of all the whining and she was a little overwhelmed by the people so I gave her back the soother. Now, we are going to have to try to break this habit once again. Already today everytime I have snuck it away she realizes it and says "Su su???" Oh that one word is soo annoying! Haha.

Sommer loves Grandpa Garnet (my grandpa who lives right next door to us). Sommer loves all her Grandpa's but she does see Garnet the most. Today I had to wake up Sommer because we were having a playdate at our house and she still wasn't up at 10:30 am (HEAVEN!). I walked into her room to wake her up and she stood right up and said "Papa??" I am not sure why she was expecting Papa to wake her up - he never has before - but it was still super cute! She LOVES her Papa Garnet!

I am currently typing on my new MINI Laptop! My other old one (2 years old) was crapping out and being soo annoying that James bought me a new one. Well, I bought it too but he likes to think that he got it for me for some odd reason. It's sooo small - only a 8.9" screen, it weighs like nothing and I love it!! I am sitting her on the couch while Sommer naps just typing away. It was super cheap too, $299, and it does everything I could ever need a computer to do - blog, facebook, and look at pictures.

My very sick baby!

What a horrible weekend this has been!!! On Friday afternoon Sommer was really wheezy and had developed a wheezy cough. To be honest I didn't really think anything of it. But later I was talking to my mom and she said that she didn't like the sound of the cough. So I phoned my friend and got her opinion and then I phoned the health line... by the end of all this phoning we were packing up Sommer and heading to emergency at 10 pm at night! UGH! She was really wheezy by the time we got there and often couldn't catch her breath after her coughing spells. They took one look at her and put us right in a room, no waiting in the waiting room! Of course Sommer didn't like the nurses touching her and trying to get her tempature or blood pressure. She hated them listening to her chest but luckily after 3 hours we got to go home with a puffer & puffer chamber and antibiotics. Ends up Sommer has RSV chest infection and also an ear infection (which I had no clue about!).

Yesterday she had a pretty high fever and was super out of it! She spent most of the day sleeping and cuddling with whoever would sit with her. It broke my heart! She was sooo sick! She just walked around crying and hot and all around pretty grumpy! She doesn't like taking her puffer so it's a real fight to get it in her, but usually we can atleast get her to breathe a couple puffs. We are very glad that she got sick this week and not next as we leave for Cuba on Sunday, March 1st! By then her ear infection and RSV should be under control and hopefully gone! Please continue to pray a speedy recovery for her so she can enjoy the vacation! Today she is a little better than yesterday. She actually ate some lunch and is napping nicely upstairs right now. Her fever is pretty much gone and now she just needs to get rid of the RSV.

My interview from a blog friend!

One of my blog friends, A Little Bit of Us , did an interview and I thought it sounded like fun. She asked if anyone wanted to be interviewed by her and I said yes! Here is what she asked me :)

1) Sommer seems like a sweet little girl. Any more babies in the plans?
Yes! I can't wait to have more babies! We wanted to have our kids 2 years apart but then James got on this kick about babies being born in the beginning of the year. Something about most of the great athletes are born Jan-March and babies born in November & December are disadvantaged in sports. So now our plans have changed to try for a baby that will be born at the beginning of next year... so stayed tuned :)

2) I worked in a real estate office for a few years and loved it. I always contemplated getting my realtor license. What made you decide to go that career path?
My grandparents use to own one of Regina's biggest home building companies so I have always been around the realestate market. I loved the lifestyle that they lived and how flexible it was, so when I wasn't enjoying University I decided to give it a try! I loved being a Realtor but I decided to let my license go since I was focusing on being a Mom and having more kids and the fees you have to pay as a Realtor are very expensive. Now I work for our own new home building company - Trademark Homes - so I am still in the market in a way. New homes has always been where my heart is at so I totally LOVE my job now. Not to mention I only work 3 days a week now :) It's wonderful!

3) How long have you been with James? How did you meet?
James and I have been together since May 2003. We got engaged after 6 months of dating (December 2003) and got married August 2004! We met at Canadian Bible College where we both did our first year out of highschool. We didn't really hang out while at College but at the end of school we started talking and the rest is history!

4) When you get a little bit of kid free time, what's your favorite thing to do?
Hmmm.... kid free time?? Wow... has it really been that long since I had a moment to myself??? I honestly don't know how to answer this question as Sommer is usually always with me :) But I like to go shopping and go to Chapters. I LOVE to read books so that is usually what I do with my "free time". HomeSense is a great place to go for an hour and find some good deals.

5) There are so many new restaurants popping up in the city. What's your favorite place to go and eat out?
I wouldn't say that I have a FAVORITE place to go. But we do like to go to a few over & over again. We like Brewsters for wing night/40% off appetizer night, we like Houston Pizza for their lasagna special, we like Joey's Only Seafood anytime, we LOVE Red Lobsters for special occasions, and if it's REALLY special then we love Golf's Steakhouse!

***********************************************************************************
If you would like to join in on the interview, follow these directions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me”.
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions

Hoping Winter is Almost OVER!

Happy Valentines Day! Hard to believe it was exactly a year ago when Sommer started babbling and I was able to catch it on video in a Valentines Special :) Now her vocabulary has come a long way and currently she can say: Mommy, Daddy, Puppy, Baby, Yes, No, Please, Thank You, Uh-Oh, Juice, Socks, Shoes, and probably many more than I can not think of off the top of my head! She does her "s's" backwards by instead of blowing out her "s" she sucks it in. Very cute little twist to words that end in "s". We have had a very low key Valentines day in Outlook visiting James' parents. Sommer was extremely tired this evening and everything was causing a meltdown. Funny how they get so clumsy when they are tired and anything can set them off into a crying meltdown. Its almost 9 and I think she is tucked away in the playpen in our room - hopefully sleeping!

This morning Sommer woke up at 8 am - which is early for us! She was ready for a nap around 11:00 am but I knew if she napped at that time our afternoon nap would be nonexistant. So I decided to take Sommer downstairs and snuggle with her on the bed for a quiet time. I wasn't sure she would stay but we snuggled for 1 hour together under the warm covered. She LOVES "criss/cross apple sauce" on her back and "round and round the garden" on her tummy. She was so snuggly and cute... there aren't too many days like that anymore. She is not a baby anymore and has turned into quite the independant little lady.

We are gearing up for a BUSY March! From March 1-9th we are off to Cuba with James's sister Jenn, her husband Dan and their 6 month old baby named Mara. We have got our twinrix and twinrix Jr. needles to protect again the carribbean diseases. I always watch those commercials about Hep A & Hep B and get nervous so I thought instead of stress about everything we would all get our shots. We are with Jenn & Dan for 4 days as they get there 3 days before us and we stay 3 days after them. It will be so nice to escape this cold weather! We are home for 2 weeks after March 9th and then we leave for SanDiego on March 28th for a week with my family! We are staying in a Condo there and hopefully will take in the Wild Animal Park, SanDiego Zoo, Tijuana Mexico, and hopefully some hot days by the pool.

HOPEFULLY we only have one real week of winter left as March will mainly be full of warm days spent elsewhere!

Baby Bobsledding & Swimming!

Training for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics - Baby Bobsled

Swimming with her good buddy Dylan!
Yes, Sommer LOVES swimming now!!

Striking a pose at Swimming :)

Cardboard Testimonies

We went to a Saturday night service last night at a church. Friends of ours are on staff there, well, the husband is. It was a refreshing service and we really enjoyed it. At the end of the service they did Cardboard Testimonies. It was so amazing to see how God has changed people's lives... I know He has changed mine.

Check out the Cardboard Testimonies clip from Youtube: