Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Pictures as promised and More!

Here are pictures from our weekend.
Katie wearing Sam's (Katie's old) sunglasses, channeling her best Elton John.
Sam doing her tummy time. Dad and the girls...the only picture I got of the three of them on Father's Day.
Katie in her new sandals and Sam playing.
Everybody over for dinner, Ben opening birthday presents.
Even Auntie Alli made an appearance...with the help of Skype and our laptop!Pictures from yesterday...Sam in her exersaucer...we've taken the swing downstairs in storage since she spends more time in the exersaucer and Jolly Jumper and we don't really swing much anymore. Katie eating blueberries and raspberries for her snack...I showed her how to play with food (oops) and stick a blueberry INSIDE a raspberry for a fun treat. I'm goofy. =)Sam, practicing sitting up in the big chair...she's not ready to sit by herself but wen on our laps she does try to lean forward and works her core quite a bit. Time to practice I think!Yesterday we met a couple of playgroup friends at a playground in Laurier Heights...what a lovely park! They have a spray park too, which could come in handy on warm days. Some bigger kids were there and one girl offered to push Katie on the swings. Sam slept for the first hour.And then sat in the shade while we had snacks. This morning, while dad made Katie's toast, Katie grabbed her pillow and blanket and had a lie down on the cool tile floor. Also yesterday was Ben's and my last fitness boot camp...and the most fun one of all! We had a scavenger hunt we had to do...running, in pairs, to 5 out of 8 checkpoints and doing an activity there. One of these was at a salon where we had to paint each others nails (fluorescent pink!)...while blindfolded. I obviously need another round of nail polish remover because Ben didn't do a great job.
It was a race, and while we didn't win our fitness division, we did manage to come in second overall...and we worked hard so we were very pleased!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Let it be noted...

Cheese sauce does NOT make Katie eat broccoli.


(Remember the days when Katie would eat any and all veggies? Gone...she still eats some things that I think she wouldn't, definitely doesn't love all her veggies. I DO find that what helps, is if I almost ignore her while she's eating, instead of coaxing her along. I have to accept the fact that she will eat in her food in this order: Sweets, carbs, cheese, meat/veg. And if she's still hungry when she gets to veg, she'll eat it. )

(Sam is, so far, a great eater. Cereal, cereal and more cereal. (and my milk of course too!))

Monday, June 22, 2009

Happy Father's Day/Birthday!

Yesterday was both Ben's birthday and Father's Day! Proving that he really deserves the Father of the Year Award (which he was going to win anyway...) he found the camera battery charger! Yay! So, we took lots of pictures yesterday and I have lots to share with you. (Though, truthfully, I don't feel like downloading the pics off the camera, so you get the ones I downloaded on Friday but didn't post.)(Weekend pics coming soon.)

A couple of weeks ago, Gram Cheryl stopped by with a friend's puppy. Katie loved the puppy. LOVED the puppy. (I'll start practicing now..."no Katie/Sam, we're not getting one.")
The puppy (Indy...spelling?) liked Katie too but was too excited to sit for long!
Sam, finding her feet.
Katie's Animal Train (which I think I mentioned last post). The man who delivers our community newspaper (The Examiner) smiled at me in the window as he walked up with the paper. As I said "Thank you." (for the paper) through the door he mentioned that the display of toys reminded him of when his kids were young. Must be a thing kids do.
They also like to try and play with their siblings...which at this age is mostly Katie talking to Sam and trying to make her smile. "That's a nice smile!" she yells/shrieks/says shrilly. It actually is nice because if I'm busy I can sometimes get Katie to hang out with Sam and Sam sometimes stops crying.

Speaking of happy...
And here's the "roll over" that I thought Sam had done...upon looking closer at the picture, I think it was less of a rollover than I first thought. She did have her hips front down on the floor, but that arm is still underneath and judging by how easily and quickly she "rolled" back...Verdict = Not A Rollover. Soon though!
And more happy...
Sam in a skirt that I had thought was took big...but fits just right with a wee bit of room to grow...Yikes! Better start taking a closer look at our 6 month stuff.Sam had some time to air out on our bed the other day. She can push-up so well now!
It's nice to see her naked a bit...we put clothes on so quick and often, that I sometimes feel like I'm not seeing all of her. In my mind I say "who is this nice pudgy soft perfect little baby girl?"...wasn't it just yesterday that we had ourselves a skinny newborn?Katie wowed a fellow strollercizer today. We were playing at the indoor playground beforehand and the mom, who has a daughter a few weeks younger than Katie, was impressed with her talking full sentences. Katie constructs wonderful sentences..."Yesterday we had a party for Dad" and "Sam is sleepng and Katie is awake" (she still often refers to herself in the third person). Ever conversation with her wows me too these days.

Hope you're having a good day!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Bits and Bobs

Another episode of "Things I've been Meaning To Tell You"....
(A little knitting project has kept me busy in the evenings with no energy left to blog afterward, but it's now finished so here we are!)

Sam...
- For a week or two, Sam's been practicing with her tongue and blowing "raspberries" and making a sort of "pplft" sound.

- Sam's had a few great sleep nights again. (thank goodness!)

- Sam's discovered her toes and feet...she grabs them and hangs on and looks at them.

- She's also getting much stronger while lying on her tummy...pushing up with fully extended arms so that she can look around and doing this longer and more frequently than before. AND with some gentle, early leg pushing movements. She may crawl sooner than someone else we know.

- Cereal is going well mostly and she's definitely learning to keep the food in her mouth better. Seems like her face/chin gets really red after eating the Barley cereal but I'm not sure if it's the "May Contain Milk" on the label (so hard to find Barley ceral, let alone some that doesn't contain milk), or the fact that it seems a bit rougher in texture than the other, creamier cereals and maybe it rubs against her skin when we wipe her face after eating. She does seem to have more sensitive skin than Katie.

- Sam is being SUCH a happy baby now...practices turning over (may have had a first rollover yesterday...not sure if it counts or was all the way so I'll post a picture to get your opinion) and grabbing toys and gurgling.

- Aside from gurgling/babbling, she's started screaming...not upset like, but just testing her voice like...how loud can she get and what range of notes. Kind of exciting but also kind of hurts my ears because it's so loud and high pitched.

Katie...
- Has been amazing us with her sentences...crazy things like "Papa, May I please go to playgroup?" (completely unprompted). And she describes/narrates everything it seems. She also compares things "Katie's shirt is pink just like her pants".

- She lined up all her animals on the front window ledge...Her "Animal Train".

- Calls her new swingset/slide (a second hand gift from a family friend) the "Little Park" (as in "I want to go play in the Little Park". (simlar to this one, bit with a little roof over the slide platform)

- Definitely notice an increase in pretend play these days. (can't think of a specific example)

- And thankfully, a big decrease in whining.

- We had our last day of playgroup yesterday. There was a pot luck (snacks etc) and a bouncy castle type was rented. Katie went in (with my help) but started crying right away so I took her out. I think she was happy to play with the other toys that were more available since many kids were on the bouncy thing. (tried to find a picture on line but couldn't...will post our pictures soon)

- Yesterday as we were staring supper, Katie threw up...perhaps something she ate at the party? Didn't seem out of sorts in any other way so I suspect it's something she ate.

- Katie likes getting dizzy and walking in circles.


I do have pictures and a video or two on the camera so will post those shortly, but just wanted to get some things here to share right away. See you soon!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Feels like summer...!

We're having a great week the rest of this week...(Monday wasn't great if I remember correctly). I broke down and used the camera a bit this week. Still haven't found the charger (and ok, haven't looked terribly hard, it's been busy!).

Last weekend we made waffles and put blueberries in the dips (whatever you call them). Yum.
We also went to the farmers market downtown and they had balloon ladies!
Katie got a lovely kitty...on a leash! (see the toque...it was SO CHILLY!)
Sam was there too and we kept her toasty warm. Here's the dress I knit Katie that she wore to Auntie Andrea's shower.

This week we had a park date with Joanne and her girls...it's been a while since we've seen them and they were all excited!
It was nice and warm and felt like summer. The girls are all three so nice and independent we just watch them go everywhere and help out when needed. Sam is super dependent, and without sunscreen because she's too young, so she's in the stroller almost the whole time.

The girls climbed the pretend hoodoo almost all by themselves. And there were neat bouncy toys.
With the warm weather I was wondering if I could braid Katie's hair...and it worked! I used a wee bit of hairspray but it still fell out. But it was cute while it lasted!
And since this post is a little Katie heavy with the pictures, I throw in another one of Sam...I took this using the laptop camera the week before last. She's in the exersaucer which she quite enjoys. Have a great weekend!

Monday, June 8, 2009

An update

Well. Um...where do I begin today? We are good.

Can I tell you about the camera? It's fine, not broken or anything, but I've misplaced the battery charger and one battery is dead and the other is close...I think.

So, I've been avoiding taking pictures too much this last week.

It's too bad because we had a busy weekend and could have had many more photos than I took...BBQ at Auntie Andrea's Saturday night with some friends and people that are involved in the upcoming wedding. It was a nice evening. Sam was good, ate her cereal well and though she was tired, ended up cuddling lots and wasn't too screamy. Katie had a great time with the two puppies that were there (Nova and her friend Emma...same type of cute wiener dog). The two were chasing each other and playing and it looked like Katie wanted to jump right in.

Interestingly, some of Uncle Sheldon's army friends were there and Katie wasn't scared at all. (you know, the man thing.) She even hung outside with them and Sheldon while Ben and I were in the house.

Sunday was a busy day. I was prepping for Andrea's wedding shower in the morning and attending the shower (and family dinner following the shower). I'm always amazed at how many lovely ladies we have in our family when we have these get togethers...we are so lucky! The weather could have been a bit warmer, but the food was great and fun was had. The girls were dressed up...Sam in a little sundress...with onesie and matching pants (not really meant to be worn all together but it was chilly) and Katie wore a cute little dress that I knit her. Auntie Andrea was definitely well showered.

As for Sam's sleeping...we had a wonderful stretch, almost a week of 10+ hours straight sleep, but the past two nights there's been at least one wake up and this morning an early (pre-6am) rise for both girls. I'll be very honest and say I'm exhausted today. Super exhausted. I think we're all also just getting over a cold (or maybe it's the beginning of seasonal allergies?) and add that to the busy weekend and a strollercize today and I'm very close to heading to bed right now.

Sam's had some red cheeks lately too and there were many comments at the shower that perhaps she is teething. Maybe this is the case...first teeth often come in around 6 months, but apparently teething pain can start as early as 4 months. Who knew? Sam has had a few tiny screamy moments in the past couple of days as well and I vaguely remember Katie having moments like this but not sure if it was teething (you never ever ever REALLY know what's going on do you?).

I'm convinced the sleeping will fix itself and that the weather will warm up and that Ben will be finished school in a few weeks and summer will be awesome. =) (had to dig a little harder for all the silver linings today but there they are!)

Bonus good news...My cousin Mark announced his engagement to the lovely Christine! Yay!

And...I have a video! Sam on her first day in the JJ (as we call the Jolly Jumper...even Katie calls it the JJ). You can see she got the hang of it really quickly. I'm sure you'll be seeing more videos of the JJ soon. (if I can find the battery charger).

Untitled from BabyLuch on Vimeo.


Hugs to everyone!

Monday, June 1, 2009

The pictures that I promised.

Here are the pictures I promised. With short-ish comments.

Here's Steph and Russ's Baby W. So cute!
Sam in her Bumbo at Gram and Papa's last week.
Sam eating her first solid food (doesn't she look small next to Ben?).
Rice cereal Yum! (except the part where I bought cereal made with skim milk powder which gave Sam a reaction...I've mentioned I'm off Dairy because Sam seems a bit sensitive to dairy? We've since bought the cereal without milk in it, but it was harder to find.)
Katie in her new shorts and top from Gram Cheryl.
And then she spied her "Princess Dress" (as she called it, not me) and wore that over the shorts for most of the rest of the day.Girls in dresses.Out for coffee at Tim's with Papa,And Mrs. Ferguson.Mrs. F's son Henri popped by and Katie had her usual reaction to a man: (I get hugs for the rest of the visit)
Dad and Sam. We were playing in Katie's room and Dad had to come see what was going on because Katie and I were laughing up a storm. She'd been reading to me from a book and actually pointing to the correct words...which I realize isn't reading but probably mimicking but it still freaked me out a bit and caused giggles.Sam's a natural in the Jolly Jumper...picked it up quicker than Katie I think. (though both girls love the JJ). Katie's expressing interest in all Sam's new toys. Sam and Baby W...we went for a quick visit last Tuesday and had to get a comparison shot. Sam in the exersaucer, Katie watching.The other picture I took...funny faces. Ben and I got dressed up on Friday for Gram Mary's retirement party and Katie fell in love with my shoes. And snuck into the Bumbo when I wasn't looking. Can't believe she managed to get in there!We did Cry It Out and put the girls in the same room Sat night. It went better than expected. Sam did wake up a lot but Katie wasn't bothered at all and slept through almost all of it. Sam did wake up at 6 on Sunday morning and though I could ahve used a sleep in, she and I walked over to Tim's and brought back some celebratory muffins. Katie has been moved to the booster seat because she's a big girl and we'll need the high chair for Sam at some point. Last night was night 2 of cry it out and went better...I think Sam only woke up once in 11 hours. We're enjoying having the bedroom to ourselves...nice not to have t creep into bed and pray we don't wake the sleeping vaby. Weeven managed to do some laundry...after the kids were in bed...what a treat! (that's half sarcasm there).

So things are great. Hope you are too.