Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Down and Out and Back Again.

Hello!

Apologies for the big radio silence...we were hit with a stomach flu last week (All 4 of us...one after the other, over the long weekend, darn it!) and it completely threw off my blogging momentum.

I'm gearing back and have video and stories to share. Hoping this picture-less post re-motivates me.

Sam's 13 months old today! Yay! It really feels like we have two toddlers in the house now. Sam's walking comfortably, though if she has a couple of tumbles (usually when tired and almost always face first...ouch!) she takes a break from walking for half a day or so. She's getting faster too! She can turn around mid room, walk with toys in both hands, and smile while doing it.

We've got her recent bout with diaper rash nearly under control (phew!)(recipe = medicine AND diaper cream). A molar arrived recently too! This was painful for just about all of us. =)

Sam's also really getting into reading and wanting to be read too. You'll often see her walking towards you with a book that gets quickly shoved into your face if you're not fast enough to grab it.

That's all for now, be in touch soon!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Moo, Baa, La La La

Moo, Baa, La La La ( by Sandra Boynton) was one of Katie's first favorite books. Now that Sam has started sharing an interest in books, we made an effort to start reading it again. I'm amazed at how quickly it has become Sam's favorite too!

She says a gentle Moo...smiles at the "La La La" and shakes her head when we read "No No you say...!". And this afternoon she also said "Neigh". It's such a short lovely book. Sam holds up up and asks for it to be read again and again. So sweet. I love that they have both loved this book.

Books are definitely a little bit magical (in my book anyway!).

Have a great weekend and Happy Olympics!

PS...Katie's napping strategy did NOT work today. Darn!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Good News, Bad News and A Beard.

The good news is...Katie is NAPPING. (!!!) For the second day in a row. On "mom and dad's" bed. The bad news is...I think it's partly because she's been feeling under the weather...it's been a rough week. BUT maybe she's also realizing how nice a good proper nap is...in a big fancy grown up bed. I hope...?

My secret? Both today and yesterday I left her reading in the big bed and said I was going away to do something and come right back...but I didn't come right back. Yesterday was legit...I was trying unsuccessfully to download kids audiobooks from our library for her. (my sore throat was tired of reading aloud). Took forever to figure out that I wasn't going to make it work and by the time I went back to her, she was sleeping! Today, I was crafty, and when we were reading and she looked snuggly and cuddly, I said I had to go do something in the kitchen and come right back. And here I am...I think she fell asleep in 5 minutes this time. We'll see if I can continue my success or not.

Real pictures from when we made cookies this week...Katie says "Would you like a taste?".

"...but not you Sam!" (I can only tell this by the look on her face, she didn't actually say it).Sam says "Who needs cookies when you're sitting on the table?"
Ben's beard:And back to normal, after a quick shower and shave. A fun experiment but he couldn't wait to shave it off!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Sam Walking

You really ought to have seen a video of Sam walking by now...here you go!

Untitled from BabyLuch on Vimeo.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Sick Day

What we did on our sick day:...Baked and decorated heart cookies for upcoming Valentine's Day. Cute, Fun and Tasty!

Friday, February 5, 2010

The Piano

The girls discovered the piano at Gram and Papa's house the other day. Perhaps we will have musicians on our hands?

Today we are feeling under the weather. I felt it a bit yesterday too but still managed to run 9km with Ben. (and actually felt better afterward!) My sore throat's worse this morning. Katie threw up...I should have known when she wasn't inhaling her breakfast. I even said "Why aren't you eating...?". (Queue scary music...duh duh DUH)

Sam so far seems fine. As does Ben (Have fun at work Beard Man!).

We'll skip strollercize and have moved a playdate to tomorrow. I have cookie dough ready to be made up into Valentines day cookies and Katie may get to watch a show while Sam naps this morning.

Untitled from BabyLuch on Vimeo.

We Have a Winner!

This outfit is a winner today! And our first try too. Thank goodness we caught up on laundry a bit and had some of her favorites ready. (I still can't find where Katie hid the shirt she didn't like wearing yesterday)Sam has cute outfits too, but at this point today, she's still in jammies. She's on the move, and therefore blurry. Holding onto Katie's toque. I'll get a cute outfit picture of Sam later. She's got plenty of them!
We had a good day yesterday. Visited GG Mary, who fed us lunch. Both girls fell asleep in the car on the way home and I managed to get both girls in the house and sleeping for a long nap...over an hour. EVEN Katie...in mom and dad's bed. Still in her winter coat. Haven't managed to get a home nap from her in ages. I didn't quite know what to do with myself.

Also, I don't want to jinx it, but the girls are getting easier in some ways. Katie is trying more to play with Sam and Sam's taking the bait. It's delightful! (and perhaps you'll get more blogging out of this, you lucky readers you!)

Thursday, February 4, 2010

An excerpt...

And excerpt from an email I sent to Auntie Alli this morning:

Katie's been really awful about getting dressed lately. She never likes what we pick out and if I let her pick completely, she either picks things that are too small or out of season. (even if I take them out of the clothes drawer and put them up high on the shelf. And then we end up wearing the same 2 outfits all the time (or so it seems...must be more than 2 since I can't think of specifically what outfits these are at the moment). So she either whines and cries about it before and as we get dressed or magically takes her clothes off while I'm out of sight (down doing laundry for example, as I was this morning). I'm not really worried about her being naked or not getting dressed before we go out, it's just SO exhausting having to battle this every single day. And there's a whole WACKLOAD of CUTE clothes that she absolutely refuses to wear. (this might be what bugs me most of all) I even went through a spell of trying to buy her more clothes here and there so she'd have some options, but she just doesn't like any of them.
Goodness. What a pain in the butt. =)


I'm not really furious, just humourously exasperated.

Any thoughts/tips on how to deal? Anyone? In the comments or email me directly.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Face Forward!

This weekend we finally got around to switching Sam's car seat forward. This is an exciting move because it makes Sam seem older...she gets to face the same way as her sister, sit more upright and see the world go by as we do. She was kicking her feat and grinning with excitement.

Ben and I like it more too because it's easier to see her...we don't have to use a mirror on the headrest (which did work well, but sometimes got tilted askew making it hard to see her properly).She looks so BIG in her big girl car seat. Katie seems to like it too...or at least, not mind too much.
I found some dominos in the basement the other day, to occupy Katie downstairs while I did some laundry. Despite my best intentions to have them be a" downstairs laundry toy", they have made their way up. There are no rules, it's just place them and stack them as you wish. Notice Ben's start of a beard? Just for fun. We'll see how much fun it is. =)

We had a great weekend. Sam's walking and standing seems to get better every hour and it's amazing to watch her improve. Katie's been excellent this weekend and I've had some of the quickest out of the house times in recent memory.

Sam's language is growing...and to clarify, it's not that she's saying words, but really just beginnings of sounds that could be the start of words. Starting to assign meaning to sounds. "Ahh" with her hands up is the beginning ot "All Gone" when we're done eating. "Baa" is almost Ball...or Bunny or Bear...or all of the above. The cutest new thing is that she actually will try and tickle Katie's toes while saying "Tiko tiko tiko" (or something similar...it's the high pitched intonation rather than the word sound) meaning "Tickle tickle tickle". She's said "N..." for Norge...a special word in our family...the brand name of Gram and Papa's refrigerator. It's eye level when you hold her on the way out of the house, so it's a word both girls recognized pretty early. And also she almost said "Red Man" ("Re..Ma...") and "Green Man" ("Ghee...") referring to the little magnets that she plays with on their fridge. Growing by leaps and bounds now.

Yesterday the girls spent a lovely morning playing at Grandpa and Gram's house while Ben and I went for a run. Katie and Grandpa built a log cabin with Lincoln Logs and Sam did lots of walking. All four of us earned our pancakes. What did you do to earn yours?

Have a happy Monday!