Sunday, July 25, 2010

Summer and 18 months

Hello! Summer has been too much fun (seriously) and there's been some kind of summer time warp where weeks are flying by and I haven't noticed or blogged it.

Anyway...here's a quick one...(whoops...now that I'm done writing, it wasn't so quick!)

We love driving by giant blow up animals/characters...we saw this one in the west end and Katie said "That bear's sitting on a potty!". It does look like that doesn't it?
Once in a while we tape paper on the floor and do some serious colouring. Sam gets involved too, though I find I get pretty impatient with her scrunching up the paper as she scoots over the floor. Gram and Grandpa got a new hammock...my goodness it's comfortable!
We did go camping...(though that's not why I haven't been blogging...we were only gone for one night!)...a test drive really for camping later in the summer. We went to Pembina River with Gram and Papa. Only an hour or so away from the city, in case it really wasn't working and we had to go home. Needn't have worried...aside from a tiny wake-up, things were great!
There was a playground within view of our site:
And we brought riding toys...the bobby car, the stroller (Sam must have walked 5km with that thing...we've gone and bought another one, so they stop fighting over it) and Katie's trike.
Gram and Papa.Katie had her first toasted marshmallow (I think it was her first...did I allow her last year?). She likes it!Sam and Ben at the playground.
Thank goodness for coffee and pancakes...thanks Gram and Papa!
I have 300 photos on the camera but that's all you're getting for now. =) I'll have to play catch up later. We've been busy...
- ripping out our front lawn (left the trees) as we are planning on redoing the grass and grading and sidewalk.
- lots of sewing for me...a dress! ...and a skirt! and a tiny dress that's a wee bit too small for Sam that I will make again but bigger.
- Lots of chalk...thank you Steph and Russ for 3-D chalk...it's awesome!
- Lots of playgrounds and strollercize, trips to the library and so much rain!

The girls are fun...things have been so great. That 123 thing works really well for Katie. We're still improving but it's made such a difference in my parenting. I caught Katie drawing the alphabet today. Yes, I'm absolutely not lying. And I didn't even coach her, she just did it. It wasn't perfect, naturally, but definitely recognizable...up to about m...and then I saw some s and t and maybe a q. She's loving her dot to dot workbook and that uses abc's and numbers, so she's really getting great at that...and enjoys it!

Sam...Wow...you turned 18 months old yesterday!! I cannot believe what a big girl you're getting to be. You've definitely getting it when it comes to language...feels like in the last couple of weeks you've started finding new words all over the place! And even starting to put endings on your words...like "Mil...K!", as you emphasize the K sound like we encourage you to do. And with this, I think things are getting easier just because you're understanding more of what we tell you...you're maybe not so in the dark anymore...it's like we've let you in on our big secret, and you're very happy about it.
You may also be happy because I think we're through most of your teething. You have all of your teeth broken through that you should (no 2 yr molars yet). We've had a nice period of sleep with some solid nights and some sleep ins...!! Until about 7am even. Though really, anything later than 6am gets me pretty excited.
You're climbing very well...managed to get up on the red couch just yesterday actually...it seemed pretty high but you've just figured out how to shift your body weight. You're very proud of yourself. And, not that I'm not careful anymore, but you're SO GOOD at getting down (you say "turn around") that I'm not as worried about you falling.
You're really enjoying cheese lately...another of your good words. Your hair is getting longer and it blows in the wind and is JUST starting to maybe get in your eyes a bit...time to find the tiny barrettes for fine hair...if you would just leave them in. =) Maybe we have to try pigtails?
At your 18 month checkup we found that you're 25 pounds and Hmm...forget the height but it's 90th percentile (weight is 75th...both up from last time) and the doctor prescribed that we use your excema cream on your "diaper rash"...it's been SO helpful...I wish we'd found out about that earlier...we've been struggling for a couple of months with this (again!). Otherwise, your skin's been looking really great...a bit of cream here and there and excema's seems under control.

Life is great. YOU are great...thank you for being you and keep it up!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Sleeping...

Hello!

SHOUTING from the rooftops...!

Both girls are napping!

Sam's having a nice long nap. I think we're on the verge of giving up the morning nap, and I'm looking forward to longer afternoon naps. Remember when Katie regularly slept 3 hours? Ahh. Miss those days. =)

Katie is lying on the floor in the basement. The lights are on and she's got on a light blanket. We were hanging out and I just started singing to her. (Do You Realize)(well, really, only the first line and anything else I could think of that rhymes with it). She smiled, looked peaceful as I touched her face and sang over and over and just...fell asleep. I'm in love! =)

Also good news on the sleep front, they've been sleeping in until almost 6:30. Or at least not making loud enough noise to wake us up until then. And bonus...waking up happy instead of crying. Always a nice way to start your day.

Let's hope I haven't jinxed it. =)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Warm Weather Fun

We've had some amazing weather lately! Nice hot days with stunning thunder showers in the evening to cool us off. Perfect!

Was is Sunday we went to Gram and Grandpa's? Must have been...Lots of running around the backyard.
Look at these cute girls! Posing on Grandpa's new rocks. Sam's wearing one of my favorite Katie skirts. Sam'll get much more wear out of it seasonally...I'm so thrilled! (Thanks Auntie Patty!)
We also walked down to the "lake" nearby. So nice to cool off and splash in the water.
Tuesday night we went for our traditional End of the School Year ice cream. (a day early due to scheduling conflicts). I have more pictures from my mom, but I'll post those tomorrow. Katie was pretty excited!
Sam couldn't eat the ice cream fast enough...we all ate faster too! Papa shared some of his chocolate with her...well, actually I think she got some of everybody's.Wednesday we had an excellent play date and out first time ever at the zoo! Kids love trains! D and Katie in the front.Sam and M in the back.We also the merry-go-round. Katie screamed to get off before we started and Sam only screamed a little bit. Truthfully, it she might have been screaming because she was slipping a bit while I took pictures. Once I was done she settled in nicely. D was a pro. (didn't get a good shot of M)There were lots of neat animals...the lemurs were so much fun, and there was a petting zoo and ducks and a huge elephant and wolves...But I only really got some good pictures of the tigers. Katie was tired and taking a turn in the stroller. (Maybe stop waking up at 5:30 AM and you won't be so tired? Just a suggestion.)D and Sam watching closely.We made sure to bring a picnic lunch too. We love picnics!
It was Ben's last day of school for the year and I baked cookies to celebrate. A mountain of them. The recipe says it makes 2.5 dozen, but I'm sure I got at least 3.5. Yummy!Yesterday was Canada Day. We celebrated mostly by taking it easy. Sam didn't nap super well in the morning. I opened the door to find her like this:What a goofy giggling girl!While dad went for a bike ride the girls and I played with play dough. Sam's first time! I'd been avoiding it until now because I thought she might still be in a "eat it" phase, but she didn't eat a bit (that I noticed). I think she enjoyed squishing the different colours. And she's wearing a nice red/white Canada Day dress? Cute. Katie wouldn't wear her red dress. We also tried setting up our tent in the backyard. Just for practice. Good thing too since the instructions are terrible and we ended up ripping a hole (2!) in one of the sleeves that holds the poles to the tent. Luckily we called the store and they had no problem exchanging it. So really, that's how we spent our Canada Day. We ended the day with a super meal at Gram and Papa's. My Uncle Joe and Auntie Joan were over and the girls had a great time running around the backyard after dinner playing with gigantic bubble wands. I know Gram has pictures so I'll try and post those tomorrow too.

Also...Sleeping has NOT been great lately. I'm feeling very cranky about it. Maybe it's teething (we blame everything on teething...everyone dose, it what parents DO!) or Katie rolling over and kicking Sam in the night or Katie wanting to potty in the middle of the night instead of in her diaper. Either way, Ben and I decided last night to go back to "sleep training" mode and try and wean them off the wake ups. Don't know what do do about the early wake up though. The alarm clock we got Katie works, but Sam's a bit young to follow it. Oh well, thank goodness for coffee.

Today Ben's planning on joining me at Strollercize. Wish him luck! =)