Monday, September 28, 2009

Small update...

Just a small update about the potty training...Things are going MUCH better than they did on Friday. We're only had a small handful of accidents since then...maybe 3? And many successful pees/poops. We are reminding Katie quite a bit to go but she is also showing big girl initiative and going by herself or telling us she needs to go.

I'm sure it's not over yet, but I'm beyond pleased at our progress and thought you should know! =)

Friday, September 25, 2009

No-Diaper-Landia

As I mentioned yesterday, we are trying a visit (perhaps a permanent stay?) in the Land of No-Diapers. (For Katie of course, Sam has a while yet).

This was NOT my idea...brought on by Katie's repeated removal of diaper and pj's at night and peeing on the floor. And her frequent desire to be naked and use the potty in the day time. Of course, the plan is to keep diapers on during nap and sleep time (though that seems counter to Katie's plan, doesn't it?).

For a while now, we've casually gone on the potty and peed or not and it's been fine and fun and exciting. It has also sometimes become a stalling activity...before nap "Katie, time for nap" "Mom, I'm pooping" (when she clearly isn't but is just reading and hanging out on the potty). I'm not sure where this becomes more learning what we do vs. power struggle.

Anyway...long story short...I washed Katie's floor 5 times yesterday and we went through I don't know how many changes of clothes this morning(at least 3 times in an hour). The washing machine is asking for a time-out. I love her but I am pulling my hair out and getting frustrated. Consulting with friends, books and the internet. Thank goodness we don't have carpet anywhere.

I think we are going to keep trying this weekend, to stay in No-Diaper-Landia, with the thinking being that we've come so far and endured so much...if we can just hold out a bit longer...but we'll see.

As with all things parenting, I'm not above changing plans and going with the flow...per se. We'll keep you posted.

PS...Sam is fine today, her skin looks perfectly back to normal and she's happy as a clam. Except when she was crying while I held her and tried to wipe someone's pee off the floor at the same time. Not Sam's idea of a good time...but neither was not being held. Tough times for Samarama.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Eventful Eight!

Sam is eight months old today! And we had a very eventful day.

The day began as normal with a playground playdate with JoAnne and the girls after which we went home and had lunch. Katie and I ate scrambled egg and cheese sandwiches and Sam had day number 2 of bananas. Both girls went down for naps...Sam slept very well, Katie...not so much, perhaps we'll tell that story tomorrow.

After a 2 hour nap, Sam woke up happy, but after a bit of playtime when I went to change her diaper, I noticed a bumpy rash, around the edge of where her diaper is (her upper thigh area). Thought maybe her onesie was chaffing her, so I took it off. Went to play more and I noticed she was starting to scratch it. Called Capital Health Link (love love love them!) and the nurse suggested I keep an eye on the rash and if anything changed to take her to see someone.

Now, it was around 3pm and I'm looking at Sam, thinking about what to do and should I see someone and do I have time to get in to see anyone. Then I notice she's rubbing/scratching her ears and they appear red and swollen (have you seen Hitch?)...so I jump and make a decision. Call peadiatrition, they're closed, call our family Dr and she's not in but there are others who could possibly see us. I grab the girls as fast as I can (including a change of clothes and potty stuff for Katie because it's TODAY that we've,of course, decided to move into No-Diaper-Landia, except for when sleeping) (see tomorrow's story) and we head into the van.

We get seen by a Dr very quickly (so grateful!) and he says everything's fine, it's *just* hives...some kind of allergic reaction, that by this time has her whole torso and most of her body, covered in red swollen bumps. It's not anaphalactic (sp?) and in no way a threat to her life. Phew. Just uncomfortable and itchy. He gave us a prescription for a baby antihistamine (liquid) for her to take. In the car ride home and to pick up dad (and fill the Rx) Sam fell asleep and already her skin looked better. The only new thing I can think of is the bananas...we'll stay away from them for a bit.

So, we are fine and Sam was in a great mood the rest of the day.

(Here's Sam happily eating squash for dinner...2 hours later and you can see her ear's still a bit swollen)
(but she's still in a happy mood!)Sam...Eight months already! You're growing fast. The most exciting step you've taken recently is that I saw you pull up onto your knee while holding onto the railing on Katie's bed. I won't let you sit there alone anymore...I can see that you're getting thouhts of mobility in that beautiful blondish head of yours.

I brought up the old leapfrog music table today...if we stand you up you can hold yourself unsupported and I think if I let you keep trying you'll pull yourself up soon...we'll see. You're very vocal and sometimes it's hard to have a conversation around you...we'll just have to include you more won't we! You've got a great 2 toothed smile...everyone loves your smile. I've given you some Cheerios recently, as I think you're ready for more texture...I really just have to get over my fear of you choking. You seem to like them but not too much. The trick is going to be keeping Katie from getting them while you slowing examine them and struggle to put them in your mouth...right now they mostly sit in your hand while you lick them. You'll learn to eat faster soon I'm sure. =)

I'm glad you're feeling better and look forward to the coming months...we had record heat again yesterday (34.5C) but there's a frost warning in a few days. How quickly things can change! =)

Monday, September 21, 2009

Feeling Fall-ish

Hello! This morning was SO CHILLY it really felt like fall. On TV it said it was 4C this morning, calling for a high of about 20. I don't mind though...the chill feels nice and refreshing. (please don't remind me I said this come January, ok?!) The high for tomorrow though, is a whopping 29C! Very warm for fall.

Things around here are lovely these days. We had a super busy week last week, but managed! The girls are good...we're all better from our cold. They are definitely getting along lately, the girls.
Katie can get a laugh out of Sam any time and it's so neat to start to see them feed off each other and have fun together (as much as one can expect at this point).

Other great news is that Katie had been expressing MUCH less "terrible two-ness" lately. I know things are "phasic" (is that a word?) and up and down all the time, but it feels good to be spending more time in a fun place with her behaviour as opposed to the discipline place. A lot less whining too which is awesome.
And in potty news, things are moving along. We're still in a "don't pressure her" place, simply providing opportunities when we can, but she's peed in the potty several times this week, mostly before naps or bedtime. She has also been showing a lot of interest in not wearing a diaper (or clothes much either!) and this has led to her going to the bathroom herself and peeing by herself showing she knows when to go. (yay!) On the downside, as this is a fun learning experience for her, we're had to deal with quite a few messes, usually from not sitting all the way on the potty. There have been a couple of bedroom incidents too though, coming from the joy she gets from taking off her clothes and diapers by herself. Yikes. The funniest involved me carrying Sam to bed after nursing her one night (Katie had just gone to bed a bit before) and quietly yelling (yes you can do this) to Ben "Poop on the floor, there's poop on the floor!!". Ben was superdad and took care of things pronto and soon both girls were sleeping perfectly. Ah, the joys of parenting!

Last week we had a couple of lovely playdates with JoAnne and the girls. Getting the park time in before it gets too cold! (the current spell of warm weather is particularly inspiring!)
Sam likes books! (for chewing, not reading)
I finished (mostly) knitting a sweater for Sam. Still have to fix the loose ends, but the knitting's done! I think it'll fit nicely this winter.
Here's the photo of us at the Terry Fox run last week. The girls being goofy...Katie has this thing where we wrap her up in a blanket, especially covering up her head, and she calls herself a queen. I helped Sam join in this time and they both thought it was pretty funny.We had our last vegetable box for the year last week, and in it, this neat Cauliflower. I believe it's called Romanescu. The fractal pattern is so cool! I went to a wedding shower for a family friend on the weekend and Ben was flying solo...he did well with the girls though and even managed to get Katie to fall asleep on the couch while he was reading to her. (She didn't nap for me in the morning).This picture is from this morning...we had a pretty good morning, just playing around the house. Sam's wearing one of my old favorite brown sweaters of Katie's...I just can't believe that she's wearing these clothes already! She's getting so big so fast. I feel like we just boxed them up! Last week she also wore my favorite pair of old Katie pants, the brown ones with the pink/orange/etc flowers all over them. So very hippy and very cute. Today Katie wanted to "Stay in PJ's all day"...which I thought about, but then vetoed and managed to get her into some clothes without much fuss. There will be PJ days, but not today. We went to strollercize after and had a great run! I managed to run all the way up the hill atop Hawerlack Park without stopping to walk once! It's the first time since Sam that I've managed that...I haven't been this happy and proud of myself about running in a long time!

Katie is in SUCH a "pretend" place that's amazing to experience. Yesterday evening, she spent a big chunk of time bringing Ben and I food. Including "Dad, would you like regular or decaf pizza?". She's such a sponge and it's amazing to hear these beautiful and complex phrases come out of her mouth.

Sam's eating well...enjoying black beans. We start fruit later this week and I'm excited about it. Fruit is so yum. =) She sits up well (I know I mention this all the time, don't I?) but it's funny, she sometimes falls forward on her face, trying to reach something...I don't remember Katie doing this ever, only falling sideways or back. Maybe Sam will be a reacher = crawler sooner than we expect.

Sleeping has been well if you don't count the fact that somehow their inner alarm clock is set to 5:30 AM. (It IS annoying! Katie says "It's dark!")

Things are good and now we're all caught up with photos. And (sigh) just in time, I think I hear Sam. =)

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Legislature Grounds

Hmm, somehow, I'm still about a week behind blogging these days. Here are pictures from our "two days of fun in a row" at the Legislature Grounds. Hopefully you'll be able to see why we had to go twice!
The girls eating lunch...Took Sam's clothes off so she wouldn't get carrot stains on her outfit. The umbrella in the background was for shade. It was so nice and warm!
Stephanie and Baby W joined us...such fun to hang out together! Just the past week we went for a wonderful walk in the river valley all together...must get out and enjoy these nice days while they're still here! The weather's been great lately but the way it cools off overnight and the short days tell us that fall is on the way!
I held Sam and dipped her feet...the water is perfect for kids to walk around in.
Sam in her big hat.
Baby W with a smile!
At home that night, Katie was playing with her doll, the one I knit her for her first birthday. She carries her with arms wrapped around her neck, hanging upside down. Funny to see.Sam playing with the big fun cube.With Sam sitting up so well, both girls can sit in the cart at Costco...how I've longed for this day! It's so much easier than having Sam in the Baby Bjorn and trying to pick up something big (uh, anything at Costco!) ...although we do sometimes wait and go to Costco with Ben, so there's two of us anyway. I think the girls like being in the cart together...though there's are noticeable issues with sharing whatever it is they're playing with. (coupons or a toy etc) Sam's sunglasses were Katie's...too cute! We got so many "aw, cute" looks on our way into the store.Day 2 at the Leg. Grounds. Took a picture by the big fountain. Katie's wearing the cute dress I knit her in the spring...she's refused to wear it so many times I'd almost given up trying...but she was willing this time...and it looked great!Sam on the blanket. (a better picnic blanket, since I knew the shady ground would be damp...the advantages of day 2!)Katie walking in the water with her bucket (again, a day 2 advantage...I hadn't thought to bring it the first day but the next day I knew Katie'd like having it).This time JoAnne and her adorable girls joined us...it's funny, Katie has the exact same swimsuit as the girls, though we wore a different one that day. Great minds think alike! The girls had fun playing with Baby Sam and running round everywhere. Katie was having some fun with the umbrella and as soon as she picked it up JoAnne's girls wanted to be in on the fun too...instant buddies!Katie and I had some fun with the laptop camera the other day, Since then she keeps asking to do "colours", like this:She laughed hysterically when we did this...I had a tough time keeping her quiet while Sam was napping.

And we can swim with the fishes too!Otherwise...things are pretty good. Enjoying strollercize and the weather. Had a good Terry Fox Run this morning...if you're looking for a good cause to donate too, this is a good one! On the down side, Katie has the sniffles that came up overnight and Ben and I are starting to feel it too...I'm hoping we can fight it off quickly. Cancelled a dinner with friends who were coming over tonight because we didn't want to spread the germs (I love kids, but they are to germy and drippy when they're sick!). Dissapointing, but I think it was the right thing to do.

More catching up and pictures coming soon...hopefully I can muster up the energy to blog midweek! See you soon!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

More of the Cute

We just got back from a fabulous turkey dinner at GG Mary's. Had such a great time...the food and conversation were excellent and the girls were so well behaved! Katie ate well and was appropriately cute and Sam was in a super good mood...sitting in her high chair, talking and bouncing away. What a fun evening!

Here are some pictures from about a week ago:
Sam, sitting up and chewing...two of our favorite things to do these days!

I bought some popsicle molds...just in time for the record heat last week! Yogurt and peaches blended together..yum! Why didn't I think of this earlier in the summer?
Katie having tons of fun running around inside before srollercize. She runs away, then runs back again and says "Again!" (all while laughing hysterically!)
Sam has fun too!

Sam in the stroller,
While I push Katie on the blue tire swing,
the yellow one, and then the red one. It's son funny how as a kid it's seems so important to ride or look at all the colours. For me, I don't see the difference at all. But she loved it!
And, in other colour news, in our vegetable box last week, we got these:Purple and Green cauliflower. How cool is that? Unfortunately, it was a little too hot to do our usual roasted cauliflower, so we tried it on the BBQ...and things got a little burny...ick. Lesson learned. =)

Thursday, September 3, 2009

September...still blogging August!

I'm still getting caught up on blogging...this post has a ton of pictures in an attempt to clear the backlog. All the way up to August 29th. Phew...teh rest will have to wait.
We have been busy lately...Ben's back to work this week and the girls and I are readjusting to going about our days without him. So far we've had the usual strollercize and a couple of playdates. That plus getting meals and naps and regular day stuff and time flies by.

BUT...back in mid August, we kep tbusy by going to the Telus World of Science (I think of it more as the Space and Science Centre).
Overall it was a little disappointing...perhaps because there's not a lot that is really geared towards 2 year olds btu also the exhibits seem to be showing their age a bit. We did have fun with the weather "put yourself on TV" section.

And trying to figure out the mind puzzles.
Katie would NOT stick her face the astronaut photo-op but Sam did!

Trying to keep Katie occupied one day after dinner, I discovered she could help me put away the food...it took a long time but she moved ALL the pasta into container all by herself.
Sam jumping...we're not jumping so much these days anymore...She's gotten so much better at sitting up and playing with toys...pulling them towards her and grabbing at things...leaning forward for things...that we just don't "need" to kill time in the jumper like we used too. Happy baby these days! We were all playing in the girls room one day and Katie insisted they lie under the alligator. The girls hanging out on Papa's bed. (possibly watching TV?)Sam up in Gram's office on campus (sorry, the focus is backwards...on the background instead of Sam).Sam in a cute outfit. Katie picked out her outfit...pants and shirt both have purple but the patterns are a bit crazy together!Papa and Sam in his backyard.
Katie and Gram picking the few apples that grew on teh neighbours tree. Gram and Papa's apple trees had maybe half a dozen apples all together...not a good growing year at all. We may not even have any to make apple pies this year. Sam's first time eating in the high chair (did I show you this one already?)Papa and Gram took us out for lunch one day to Sorrentino's cafe.The lunch was delish, but Katie was super tired for some reason, barely had a bite of her PASTA (unheard of behaviour!) and really seemed ready to fall asleep in her chair! Not sure what was up with that. She didn't get sick or anything...thought maybe it was a cold/flu coming on. Auntie Alli came for a visit and we ll had a great time seeing her. The 5 of us went to Boston Pizza. Sam sat in the high chair and had fun. And Katie enjoyed her straw. Both girls were very well behaved. Sam and Alli had some lovely bonding moments. I made pie later that same afternoon...This One...with rasppberries and blueberries...it was AMAZING. (it helped that Gram made the crust for me...she had extra and sent it home with me).Katie wearing a toweldress.The next day we went to one of our favorite playgrounds!Sam wasn't bouncing, but she was enjoying the shade.And the Saturday we went with Gram and Grandpa to the farmers market downtown...had a wonderful time strolling about and chaecking out the wonderful veg and crafts. And at the end, we all had a bite to eat. (sorry that the photo is not flattering...but at least it's universally unflattering...!)The Sunday we went to Uncle Ray and Auntie Jen's to celebrate cousin Melanie's birthday. Nice party and great to see everyone! GG Mary was there too. A lunchtime photo of the girls. Lately, the mood in our house has been much much more HAPPY than the cranky we had previously told you about. Aside from general "I'm hungry/tired/want that" crying/whining, things are easily managable and dare I say buckets of fun. We had our friends Russ and Steph over for dinner and their adorable baby W. (3 months now) We're starting to let the babies hang out...they don't really know what to make of each other, but give it time. Cute!We had such a lovely dinner with our friends!The next day we must have had some crazy energy going on because Ben and I tried to make homemade pasta while the girls were napping. Used a Jamie Oliver recipe which has just 6 eggs and 5 cups of flour. It worked and made beautiful noodles like this:Sam was impressed when she woke up. When Katie woke up we were just finishing up getting ready for dinner and so we let her watch a bit of TV. YES...we have actually ventured into TV territory. For fear of rasing complete pop culture nerds and/or creating rebel tv addicts, we've let KAtie watch a few small bits of TV. Stuff we tape on the PVR...Berenstein Bears and Thomas the Train engine so far. Katie likes it, but keeps turning around in her chair and says "Mom, I'm still watching!". I suppose a little bit won't kill her. What MIGHT kill her is the bump on her head...she fell off her bed in the middle of napping and fell smack on her forehead...Can you see the BIG bump?She was in good spirits though, and doesn't appear to have any long term damage. Horsey rides help. In other quick news (really this is long enough, I'll write new stuff next time as we get more caught up), Sam's "talking" more lately...Ga ga ga and Ya ya ya...super cute. And Katie said something funny but I don't remember what. Today was HOT...record breaking for this time of year, 32 C. We went to the Legeslature grounds, where they have lovely wading pools and grassy shadey spots. Picnic lunch. Second day in a row...we went with Steph and baby W yesterday and said "why haven't we been doing this all summer". So when I called Joanne this morning, to see what they were doing today and she said "Leg Grounds"...I only thought for a few seconds before I said we would go.

Phew. If this many pictures in one post causes any seriously problems for anyone (too slow etc) pleas let me know...I'm hoping I don't have to do it again but let me know in case! And now...I'm not even going to read it over and check for typos. Maybe tomorrow. =)