The Cannon Family

The Cannon Family

Sunday, November 25, 2012

I love Thursdays!!

 
 
Julie and I have a fantastic arrangement.  Jack and Chase go to the same preschool so I pick them up on Tuesdays and Julie picks them up on Thursdays.  Both days are fun because these two little knuckle heads get to play but Thursdays are almost sacred to me.  I look forward to them like I would a day at the spa (as if that will ever happen).  It's the one day I can rest at ease knowing that because I don't have to race back at noon to pick them up I can get so much more done.  What usually happens however is more of this and the dishes stay put in the sink.  Don't mess with my Thursdays!!

Crocheting and NPR.  Heaven!! 

Saturday, November 24, 2012

REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE!!


Take a look at this dishwasher.  This is usually how I load it at my house.  This one in particular I am very proud of.  I had never loaded so much before.  I remember when the Cannon's came out for Thanksgiving last year I had to keep turning off the dishwasher because I would find that there was only a few plates, half the basket filled with utensils and hardly any cups on top.  I told Connie and Jim that I could easily fit a TON more into the dishwasher before turning it on.  I showed her something similar to above and she responded "don't you think it's a bit cluttered?"  She was absolutely right.  Totally cluttered!! But think of how much water I am saving by not having to run the washer twice.
I have totally turned into my Dad.  He says that conservatives drive him crazy because technically (and environmentally) they don't "conserve a damn thing" (in his own words).  This comes from the man who uses a push lawn mower.  The dad who would make us use the toilet paper from the trees after being tee-peed.  Our home was never above 69 degrees in the winter and never below 80 in the summer.  He doesn't call himself a democrat but he's committed pretty much to the left side of things.  I just like to save money on my water bill:-)
 
 

Friday, November 23, 2012

Story Time!!

 
Something I've always wanted to do is start a story hour.  I think it's in my blood because of my mom.  I still remember the plays she would put on at the Children's Hour.  I remember people excitedly coming up to my mom on the street and recognizing her from her weekly book recommendations on channel 5.  I thought I was pretty cool to have a mom on television every week and obviously I still do because I'm still bragging about it:-)  My mom surrounded our worlds with books and book signings.  I remember meeting Tomie Depaola, Rosemary Wells, Lemony Snicket and Sarah Stewart.  I even remember getting in trouble when I misbehaved at lunch with Robert Munsch.  So many fun memories that I wish I could reincarnate for my kids. 
I've done my best by attending various story times where I've lived.  I've seen some good ones and some bad ones.  The good ones in San Diego and Virginia inspired me, and the bad ones here finally persuaded me to do one myself. 
I've had a lot of "mom guilt" lately concerning Jack's lack of the fun activities I always did with Sadie.  Because she was my only child for a while I took her all over the place.  Zoo, Sea World, dance, gymnastics, farms, you name it!  I had her enrolled in everything and we visited anything that looked like fun.  Add two kids to the picture and it's a little harder to get out.  Jack has preschool twice a week but that's about all I have arranged for him throughout the week.  We usually set up a play date on Wednesdays so Friday seemed the best day to launch a very fun and interactive story time. 
One of the main reasons I am finally able to get this going is because I have Julie.  She is just as excited about starting one as me because she remembers how fun the story time was at the San Diego library when we moved there.  We combined our music and books and voila!  We have story time!! I love reading to the kids.  I absolutely LOVE it!!  I love looking at their adorable expressions and wide eyes when I tell them about the Big Hungry Bear, or how Papa climbed a ladder to get to the moon.  I guess I just love how much they love it.  Jack gets to sit with all his buddies and hear awesome stories and then dance around like a monkey when we turn the music on.  The "mom guilt" is slowly diminishing and I feel a little of my Mom resurfacing too:-)

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Thanksgiving


We decided to host Thanksgiving this year.  We made a "thankful" tree the night before and found we have A LOT to be grateful for. 

We had the Darger and Bjarnason families over and it was a blast. Julie and I cooked all day while Chase and Ford took the kiddos to the park.  Both parties had a fantastic time.  It's always fun cooking with someone else.  Those sister wives might have had something going for them:-) 

The kids all had their own table which made for a very peaceful adult table in the other room. 

Both Miles and George slept so we could thoroughly enjoy the deliciousness placed before us!

Yummers!!

I was kind of laughing over the centerpieces.  I ended up taking a scooter ride all over our neighborhood looking for berries and the prettiest leaves I could find.  A couple of mason jars later and we had some fall happiness in the room.  Not bad for being free:-)

Dessert was ridiculous.  I couldn't decide which one, so I had them all!

George finally woke up and loved eating some mashed potatoes. 

The dads and the babies.
 
The only downside to hosting is cleaning the entire house before your guests arrive and spending a few hours cleaning up after they leave.  Totally worth it!

Saturday, November 17, 2012

10 Months


Well George is BY FAR our most independent child.  I mentioned it before and I'll say it again.  This kid has an agenda of his own.  We decided that with his new found independence we would finally remove him from our closet and have him sleep in his own room for a change.  This room situation had been somewhat of a dilemma for me because I didn't want to kick Jack out of his room but I also didn't want them sharing because I knew Jack would wake up G with his wild sleeping habits (such as sleep walking into Sadie's room every night and crashing on her floor:-). 

After tiptoeing around my bathroom one night while I brushed my teeth I finally caved and decided it was time NO MATTER WHAT. The other hard part about having him in our closet was that all of our clothes ended up all over our room instead. So George was moved into the crib in Jack's room and Jack moved into the guest room. We put a J on his door and turned the white comforter red (his favorite color) and Jack and George have both been sleeping swimmingly in their new rooms. It was a very simple and stress-free transition. Hooray for that!

I always thought it was sad that G woke up from his naps in a dark closet with out being able to see anything. Now when he wakes up I can hear him chatting away to himself or to the little puppies in the mobile above his crib. I also love coming in and seeing his little hands clasped around the rails as he practices his mad standing up skills. 

He seems to love having his own space. I moved all of his clothes in the dresser and hung up his dress shirts. He's officially a room owner!

He weighed in at 17.10 pounds.  Still a little guy but gaining weight so that's good.  I have completely stopped pumping.  I just decided one day that it wasn't worth the hassle.  I would pump and only produce about a 1/2 an ounce so it ended up taking me two full days of pumping to fill up a 4 ounce bottle.  Even my hard head couldn't persuade me to keep going.  It was getting ridiculous to hold on to virtually nothing.  I tried nursing him just for kicks and he immediately pushed me away.  Little weasel!  The good news is I have enough milk stored that he should technically be "breast fed" until he's a year old.  If I can make it to a year and what the doctors advise then I'm a happy camper.  He also loves the bottles and guzzles them down like nobody's business.  Still kind of sad to end that chapter in his life.  No more nurse snuggles with little George. 

Despite loving his bottles, he doesn't like pureed food anymore.  Giving him a jar of baby food takes some serious skills and strange tactics.  We use puzzles, books, anything to distract him so he'll open his mouth.  We're three for three as far as picky eaters go.  George has joined the ranks of Sadie and Jack at a very young age.  He loves cheese bits, Kix, Cheerios, edamame, and will still eat his yogurt oatmeal in the morning..thank goodness.  Wish we could plump him up some more but he's just not that interested in eating.  His appetite is hearty in the morning and that's about it. 

He's still busier than ever.  We love the breathing sounds he makes when he's exploring.  Lots of cute little exhales.  He loves taking things out of drawers and putting them back in and would much rather be on the outside of the exersaucer than trapped inside.  He's into EVERYTHING these days so we've had to attach elastics to all the cupboard doors and the bathroom doors are always shut so we can avoid dipping hands in the toilet again. 

I love how mesmerized he is by the same bah blanket Sadie sleeps with.  She has several extras so we gave all the blue ones to him.  He can be as cranky as can be, but when you lie him down to swaddle his legs and put the bah over his face, he immediately calms down as if in a trance, pops his two fingers in his mouth and snuggles the little lamb while you wrap him up.  I then just lay him in his crib on his side so he can continue to snuggle his bah blanket and that's it!  SO easy to put down for a nap or bed.  I have noticed that he only sucks his fingers now when he's sleepy.  It used to be ALL the time but now it's only when he's napping or down for the night.  

George love dogs.  Whenever he sees one when we're out walking or even the stuffed animals in the house he'll kick his little legs and get a HUGE grin on his face.  He can giggle pretty hard when they come up to his toes and lick them.  He is very much aware of the world around him and is constantly moving his head around to check out the latest noise or see the birds, cats, or dogs scurry away.  We love our little George more and more everyday.