big changes!

gabe has been growing in leaps and bounds lately! preschool has definitely had a positive impact on him. he comes home and tells us about his day (with a lot of questions from us of course) - who he plays with (remo and sofia - he can't remember anyone else), what activities he did (water table, sand table), sings songs he learns (including the "clean-up" song!), and talks about his teacher (marina and 'tina - he can't say christina).

more impressive is his imagination! recently he's been"pretend" playing at home, making phone calls on his "phone" (it's actually a flip alarm clock); pointing out the "spiders" in his bed, and just being creative in general...i love it! now that it's dark, cold, and wet outside we spend a lot of time playing indoors and gabe is really enjoying his boardgames.

we've made a successful transition to the big boy bed. and quite literally it's big...a double! but that's how our crib converted, and it actually gives gabe the freedom to roll around and sleep however he likes, which is often diagnal (like his mom)! since we're not using a boxspring, we skipped the bedrails altogether and after 5 nights, we haven't had a single problem. the only irritant is that he refused his thomas comforter (could've saved myself some $!). i think the trains all over it scare the bejeezus out of him, so he sleeps with a sheet and fleece blanket.

to coincide with the big boy bed transition, i've decided to let gabe skip his afternoon naps...unless we're in the car and he happens to fall asleep. it's definitely helped at night because now he falls alseep within 20 minutes of going to bed versus the 1+ hour he'd be yelling and screaming from his crib.

helping disassemble his crib

the bedframe is in place!

the final product!

the trade-off of no-nap is more tantrums during the day - between 12 and 2 p.m. are his witching hours and anything can set him off :P it'll last about 60-90 minutes and then he'll come to his senses, apologize, and tell me that he wants to be a good boy. taking away privileges hasn't worked for us - gabe will just watch us take things away and sometimes suggest toys to take away, so it's not exactly punishment. i haven't quite figured out the time-out situation - i don't have the patience for it, so i have to figure out something that works for our household. i think one of the biggest challenges i have is keeping gabe busy and occupied...when there's a lull, he starts acting out. we might try some baking activities this week, and we have the added intrigue of packing our suitcases for hawaii!

3 years old!

ok, so i've been drafting this for 3 weeks, and i'm finally posting gabe's 3 year update. it's been a work in progress - it seems i'm never in the right frame of mind to write on my blog...whether it's a headache, a busy day and i need "me" time, or if gabe's driven me up the wall and i don't have a positive thought in my head...just gotta suck it up and get it written, otherwise he'll be 7 when i get to it :P

where do i begin? like i said, it's the terrible 3's...and even my parents have had their own tantrum incidents with gabe. for me though, it's a daily ritual - something sets gabe off, and it's off to battle. whether he didn't get enough warning about something, or i made him get off the toilet too soon after doing his business, or i pushed the elevator button instead of him, or if i told him we were going to eat cheeseburgers at the mall but he wanted to eat rice, or if i just looked at him wrong...it's never-ending. i'm really trying to be more patient with gabe, but it's definitely an uphill battle.

preschool has been going well. whether it's me or chris doing drop-off, gabe likes us to stay for circle time on the mat until he feels comfortable (we're the only parents there :P) . but once we're gone, at least there aren't any tears...phew! i had my first duty day so we could celebrate gabe's birthday with a special snack! i tried to observe from afar and interact with the other kids and not hover around gabe, and i was a little sad to see that he preferred to play solo...he doesn't like it when other kids crowd him, so he just leaves and will go to the messaging centre or just wander aimlessly until something catches his attention. for awhile he just stood on the ladder until the teacher talked him down. funny guy.

gabe continues to chat up a storm...it's hard to believe only 6 months ago we were struggling to understand him and encourage him to speak clearly. now he doesn't stop...whether he's yelling at us from his crib, or whining that we drove the wrong way home from grandma/grandpa's house, or asking for mcdonald's for dinner, or demanding to watch kai-lan...we definitely have a louder household :P we're still working on enunciation...he has a hard time with some of the consonants like f and k. i still get a kick out of the abc's - you never know when gabe'll just burst into song and dance. he did it today at the bank. good times.

thanks to living social, i bought a 1-month pass for gymboree, and gabe's really enjoyed it. circle time isn't his best time (either at gymboree or preschool), but once the activities start and he can run around, he's in his element! this is gabe's only activity outside of preschool - i know how he hates new things, and he's really turned into a homebody lately, so i'm careful about picking my battles. i'll have to decide whether to continue gymboree or return to music together next year.

we celebrated gabe's 3rd birthday at confed park train - it made the most sense - easy and somewhat low-effort on my part, gabe still loves trains, and it was a compromise between no party (my choice) or party (chris' choice). we could make this an annual event, especially since everything in our house is train/thomas-related :P hopefully gabe loves trains for a REALLY long time! i took him to toys r us on the weekend and they had a hot wheels demo which gabe was intrigued by. looks like i know what santa's buying gabe for xmas :)

whistler getaway

we had a great weekend at whistler! gabe was a superstar - no meltdowns, no tantrums, it was a breeze! we drove up on sunday after a birthday party, and gabe napped in the car - so peaceful :-) whistler was buzzing - with the long weekend in full swing, it was packed!

the living social deal that i bought included a 3 night stay at cascade lodge in a 1-bedroom suite (complete with kitchen), free parking, free daily dvd rental, and a welcome gift basket. all for a what i think is a steal at $208! i got the coupon awhile ago, and is valid until mid-december, so it could`ve been used for the ski season, too! so we booked our weekend getaway to coincide (sort of) with our 6 year anniversary! and even better...i had a gift certificate for white spot (whistler location only), and a gift certificate for the fairmont - so we had 2 of our dinners for FREE!

gabe skipped dinner but really enjoyed the chocolate fondue at the fairmont

when we planned our trip, i thought maybe gabe would sleep on the aerobed in the room, but as we packed, it just got too cumbersome to bring it along with us. so then we thought he would sleep in the bedroom bed at his usual time, and then i could sneak in later on. but no such luck...gabe wanted company, so we had to modify his bedtime - so he and i hit the pillows at 10 p.m., and lucky chris got the sofa bed! i have to say, sleeping with gabe is not fun. he likes to snuggle in close, and then he moves around a lot. so at one point when i woke up, he was lying across the top of the bed by my head - we looked like a letter T. and just like chris, he talks in his sleep - "no, me watch kai-lan!", and he would randomly cry/whimper in his sleep. it was definitely a restless sleep weekend for me :P

it's been so long since chris and i were at whistler, and we never go in the summer season, so walking around was a treat! it was also great to imagine what the village looked like during the olympics. we spent a day around the village doing some shopping - great end of summer sales to enjoy! there's a fun playground for kids, so gabe was in heaven...morning, noon and night! and lucky for us, gabe played hard, and then took his afternoon naps at the hotel with chris :-)

the inukshuk @ the top of the whistler gondola

and a "high"light of the trip was taking the peak 2 peak gondola. i thought it would be a quick trip up the mountain and we'd be back by lunch! boy, was i wrong! it was a 3 hour adventure, and that's WITHOUT walking any trails, but we stayed for lunch with a view! gabe and chris were the fearless ones on the gondola and enjoyed the spectacular views from the gondola...i remained frozen in the rear seat praying that we didn't die :P after all...it's amazing that the entire system is supported with only 4 towers!

i have to say, going over labour day weekend was perfect...we got to experience the buzz of the busy village on sunday, and then by monday night it got more peaceful, and i didn't have to stand in line for 10 minutes just to get my a.m. coffee :-) oh yah...i broke my coffee habit and splurged on the weekend. hell, i broke all the rules that weekend...we ate lots :-) i did take my running gear to get a practice run in, but when chris literally ran into a bear on monday at lunch, i dismissed any notion of running solo!

our 3rd bear sighting - this was a full grown adult bear in the day parking lot

all in all, a great mini-trip...and now we have hawaii to look forward to! (by then, gabe will be sleeping in his own bed!)

a new start

i can't believe i did it...after 9.5 years, i resigned from aon hewitt. i don't start my new job at morneau shepell until september 19, so i have a couple weeks off. it felt like an out-of-body experience when i told my manager(s) that i was leaving, and then it just felt surreal when i had to pack up my desk. mind you, i'd already started clearing stuff last week in anticipation of a job offer, so it was just the surface items that i had to pack away.

this new opportunity was one that i couldn't pass on many levels - the convenience of being close to home, the part-time hours, the pay increase!, the new responsibilities and the potential of future growth within the organization, and not to mention the chance to work with sr. consultants who i've known (and worked for at AH) for years.

i am going to miss the friends i've made at AH, and am sad i won't see them every day for our chit-chats and lunches. i will miss the energy of working downtown and the convenience of it all. i'll be working in east van, with no access to shopping or food courts. guess this is a great opportunity to save money - not tempted by fast food, benkei ramen, and the dozens of restaurants within a block radius! i haven't worked out the full details yet, but i imagine my commute to/from work can be a combination of bus, skytrain, or WALKING (depending on the weather)!

so i got home today at 2:30 p.m. and i wallowed for a little while...unsure of what to do with myself. it felt strange to not be at work (even though i work part-time), and stranger still to be emailing my friend AT work about my departure and what the buzz was.

so as many people get ready for a return to school and/or work, the lok's are packing for a living social getaway to whistler, and then gabe and i will be enjoying an unexpected 2 week "vacation".

crash and burn

so after my weekend post, i've hit a brick wall. i feel exhausted. maybe it's the "heat wave" we're getting in vancouver, but i just lost all momentum. i did run on sunday morning, and hit the gym in the afternoon. i even went to the gym at 5 a.m. on monday morning, followed by my PT session on tuesday night, and then my morning run today. in spite of all this exercise, somehow i still feel uninspired. i couldn't be bothered to do the cardio core class this morning (instead i opted to shop for workout clothes at the running room), and i missed out on zumba this evening.

perhaps i need to consider working out only 5 days a week. but my running sessions don't always feel like a solid workout since it's only 20 minutes, so i feel like i need to do more on those days. while i am happy with the 6 lb weightloss, i also noticed that i haven`t lost anything in over a week. so i had a setback today, and had leftover steak for a mid-afternoon snack, washed down with a can of pop. i only felt a little bit of guilt.

hopefully my new purchases today will invigorate me on my run tomorrow night.

1 month

it's been a month since i joined snfw, and i'm loving it. not the words i thought i'd use in a sentence with a gym membership :P i'm working out 6 days a week, and i have enough variety to keep engaged in what i'm doing. here's the breakdown:


monday - gym: cardio workout or training run
tuesday - personal trainer
wednesday - a.m.: cardio core (only for 3 weeks while g's at preschool); p.m.: zumba
thursday - running clinic
friday - personal trainer
saturday -DAY OF REST!
sunday - training run



i've had a change in personal trainers...katty left snfw to work at a newly opened yoga studio downtown, so she left me with jonathan. he's been really great, and we've increased our workouts to twice a week - i found that i just wasn't hitting the strength training in between sessions with katty. i don't have up-to-date measurements yet...that'll be in a couple weeks, but the scale is much happier...6 pounds!


the "diet" situation is progressing well. one month of no coffee, i had my first iced tea today in a month, and for the most part we are eating more healthy, and for me...smaller portions. and even more importantly...cutting out all the unnecessary snacks! i still have my moments of weakness, like cookies by george on tuesday, then a slice of dq ice cream cake on friday.


i'm probably a bit nuts for going from 0 to 100 in a month, but i'm really motivated right now, and feeling good. earlier this week my body was screaming in pain, but i pushed through it, and i actually find that on saturdays i just get bored and feel like i should be doing something active (asides from spending the day with gabe).

kick in the ass

so my personal trainer is a bitch. but a nice bitch. i thought ryoko was tough earlier this year, but katty means business. we go from one drill to the next...no breaks. it's 60 minutes of nonstop moving. i'm dripping with sweat and looking like crap by the end of it. seriously, i've never sweated so hard before! the zumba class is going well, too. it's even more intense than the class i took at bonsor. good thing i bought a bunch of $0.49 towels at ikea awhile back...they're sure coming in handy at the gym :)

snfw is the first co-ed gym i've belonged to. i'm definitely too intimidated to hit the weights section during the busy hours...so i'll stick to the ladies only section. but seriously...there are people of all shapes and sizes at the gym...i don't feel like i need to impress anyone or look good when i go there. and it's such a large gym that there's always a cardio machine available to use.

i recently bought 2 new cookbooks to liven up our meals...the complete canadian living cookbook, and the biggest loser family bookbook. the latter was an impulse buy...i was with gabe, he was having a tantrum, and i just wanted a new cookbook...i meant to return it, but the 2 week return policy came and went, so i'm stuck with it now. oh well, i'm sure there's a few recipes that'll come in handy.

i've been doing some reading online about vices, and how cutting just one vice is a step in the right direction towards weight loss. so my plan was to cut out coffee and sugary drinks starting today. so to kick it off, i had a tall latte with breakfast and then an oreo ice cream sandwich for snack. GREAT START! tomorrow's a brand new day, right?

how do u spell sucker? T-R-E-S!

yup, that's right...i have sucker written all over my face. my friends were surprised that i'm so easily swayed by a sales pitch, since i can be pretty stubborn in other aspects of life. all i wanted to do was check out steve nash fitness world - we keep getting promos in the mail for the brentwood location across the street. so after my walk and workout at fitcity, i walked to snfw. an hour later, i had signed a 1 year contract.


yes, i'm an idiot. i still have 11 months on my fitcity membership. however, in my defence, that was paid in full so i got a bonus "free" year (i'm in my free year now). i just really like sparkly shiny new things, and snfw is just that. it's really nice and clean, and it's just monstrous compared to fitcity. they also offer more child-minding days/hours, which i might use once we get gabe transitioned into preschool (i'm just not comfortable leaving him with strangers yet).


even though snfw is significantly more expensive than fitcity, the class variety and times work better for my schedule. it also opens up more doors - i found zumba classes at kingsway that i could hit (in lieu of the bonsor drop-ins). and i plan on spinning with a co-worker once a week, alternating between coquitlam and brentwood. also, the club opens at 5 a.m. - for awhile last year, i hit our condo gym at 5 a.m. 3x a week for a month. i'm pondering returning to that idea.


if anyone who reads my blog wants to join a gym, let me know. if i sign up 3 friends, i get a bonus year! also, i was aghast at the "regular" monthly rate, so my guy hooked me up on a corporate plan for $16 less per month (which will be honored for anyone i recommend at brentwood).


so tonight i went for my new member orientation with a personal trainer. everything was great...i worked hard, i sweated...then came the sales pitch. and that big flashy SUCKER sign lit up, and i signed up for 12 PT sessions (to be used within a year). i have to admit that my 8 weeks with ryoko from january-march was really good. i got the results i wanted. then once we stopped our sessions, i stopped seeing results. and here i am today...almost back at square one.


this is just embarrassing now. before i joined snfw, i signed up for a learn to run clinic at the running room in august. it was definitely an impulse decision. but i figured why not, i've got nothing to lose...except weight! working out alone isn't getting me anywhere. so now i have a PT kicking my ass, a nagging coworker to spin with, plus a running group that i have to keep pace with. and somewhere along the way, i still need to be a mom :P


anyways, if i don't see results by november i'm gonna be pissed at myself. i am so motivitated this year...i have hawaii to look forward, and i'm a bridesmaid for my sis-in-law in june 2012. here goes nothing!


(btw...like everything else i don't commit to, i'm now quitting my 2nd blog. ironic.)

losing focus

i have a problem. there are so many ideas and thoughts in my head, and for some reason i have a need to act on everything AT ONCE! so then i start acting on them and i get nowhere because i don't have an action plan. i just want everything done and over with, so i can get them off my mind. here's my laundry list:

pottytrain gabe - i've been saying it since xmas (i really am a procrastinator!), but again, i just haven't dedicated the time and effort to doing it in a weekend. so for now he's pretty consistent with my parents - dry diapers every day, even after nap. with us, it's mostly when we go out he'll pee in his pull-ups. he just doesn't like going into public bathrooms.

the good news is that gabe's verbal skills have gone from 0 to 100 in a matter of months. everything he does comes with commentary, including his "business".

big boy bed - i started telling gabe that he's going to get a big boy bed, and that it'll have thomas on it. then we went furniture shopping and he climbed on some beds and tested them out. success! gabe's on board with the plan. then chris and i discussed it and hashed out the details...bottom line...no action yet. we're going straight to a double bed for gabe, but no timeframe for now. in the meantime, his thomas comforter is en route.

hand-in-hand with the big boy bed is the aerobed. gabe's still sleeping in a pack & play at my parents. he never tries to get out and he curls up nicely in it to sleep, so we haven't worried about it. but now that he's almost 3, he really needs to sleep elsewhere. the aerobed will also come in handy when we travel with gabe. like the comforter, the aerobed is en route.

preschool prep - gabe's signed up for free at 3 at poirier community centre. it's a 4 week program, helping kids get ready for preschool. i'm very excited for gabe...he'll be attending with sofia and nathan! even though he doesn't see them often, it gives me piece of mind that hopefully attending with sofia will ease into a smooth transition at brentwood since they'll be attending together.

gabe's attachment to me is quite strong...if i'm around he won't do anything with anyone else...i must prep his food, i must take him to wash hands, i must put him in his highchair. it's nice to be wanted, but getting out of the house for the NKOTBSB concert...gabe was NOT impressed. it didn't matter that dad, yeh-yeh, and mama were at home with him...it was only when he noticed a new train (mighty mac), that he released his grip and i could get out the door.

exercise - oh my gawd. i'm seriously not doing well on this front. there's always "something" more interesting to do than go to the gym. it also doesn't help that we've pushed gabe's bedtime to 9 p.m. and the gym closes at 10 p.m. anyways...i've been trying to go for long walks around the 'hood, or walk to the gym, or even pop in my zumba dvd and dance for 40 minutes. i'm averaging once a week. not great. so in all my wisdom, i looked on the running room's website, and i have signed up for a learn to run clinic. i hate running. i might have officially lost my marbles on this one.

work - i applied for a manager position at the company, and after having an interview last week for the first time in 9 years (ha!), i'm not sure how i did. i'm also not convinced i'm "manager" material - the personality test we had to take exposed some of my flaws...i don't have the results from the actual test, but as i was taking it, i felt like all my responses leaned towards "follower" rather than "leader". which is a little weird, because i coordinate so many events at work. we'll see what happens there.

it's also been really busy at work...i used to feel on top of my game every day, but little-by-little i feel my control slipping away. with our merger, there's new processes and systems being implemented right now. i'm still meeting important deadlines but there's small things that i'm letting slide...and i just need to catch up. it probably doesn't help that i work 4 days a week...definitely if i had the 5th day, i'd be on my A-game. c'est la vie. and now that i've looked at the date...i have a deadline on friday for some sort of training i'm supposed to do.

i would just like to fast forward to october 24. the first day of my almost-4 week vacation :-) but before that can happen, we have a whistler getaway, preschool parent meetings, 1st day of preschool, gabe's 3rd birthday, and a client function i'm coordinating. the list seems endless.

in the meantime, i'm looking forward to the vancouver canadians game with colleagues this week, plus back-to-back girls nights this weekend. despite the chaos in my mind, life really isn't too shabby :-)

day out with thomas

last sunday, we headed out to squamish for "day out with thomas" with the bfoote's and brown's. about 10 days prior, i had told gabe that we would be going on a train ride with thomas and that aly would be there too. so for 9 days following that, all he could say was "me ride toot-toot with aly?! mm-hmmm, yup!" (accompanied by emphatic head-nodding). i explained that tyler would be there, but he's only capable of one name...aly :-) well, that's not true...he also calls chris "hon", my dad "don", and my bro "nonny" (johnny).

forget thomas, gabe got excited in the parking lot when he saw some parked freight trains :P then we started to see signage for thomas, and the jumping began. then the grand moment...thomas! that made it worth the $75 we spent on the tickets. in addition to the 20 minute train ride (back-forth-back-forth - none too exciting), there was face-painting, colouring, tattoos, videos, storytime, and several train tables. (gabe only liked the train tables - i can save a trip next year and just go to indigo kids :P) i'm glad we took gabe, but definitely not something we need to do annually.

of course we ended up buying souvenirs from his day out with thomas - tshirt, conductor hat, books, and a james train. unfortunately when we got home and tested james, it turned out he was broken. my appreciation goes out to the westcoast railway - they responded to my email and were going to send me a replacement for our broken train, but then we tested it again and it magically worked :) phew!

all-in-all, a great day spent with our (and gabe's) friends.