Austin's message from Santa

Austin is really getting into the whole Santa thing -- so much so that even when we're at the mall across the street picking up a few groceries, he wants to go see Santa. Needless to say we've visited him a few times.

A friend tuned me on to this website where kids can receive a personal message from Santa, thanks to Sympatico/MSN. I thought it was cute so I'm sharing it with you. (I wanted to do one for Alex too, but it wouldn't let me input information for kids younger than one.) Austin was just mesmorized while watching it -- so much so that he responded to Santa when he was talking.

Enjoy. And Merry Christmas!

Message from Santa

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Alexandra on the move

As promised, here's a video of Alex in action. In the last day or so, she's actually gotten quite good at this crawling thing. After watching Austin do the army crawl (on his toes and elbows), followed by the monkey crawl (pulling himself around on his butt), it's weird to see a baby crawling 'normally'.



As you can see in this video, she's also learned how to get herself back into a sitting postion from her tummy. This is great when she's playing on the floor, but the novelty of this new skill means when she's lying in her bed, she's rolling over and sitting up rather than sleeping.

So, last night, she called out at 1 a.m. and when I went in, she was just sitting there. I laid her back down and she went right back to sleep. It's almost as if she gets up and then forgets how to get back down (probably because she's not very awake) so she calls out for help. It's a faze that'll pass, I'm sure. We went through the same thing when she first learned how to roll onto her tummy. If she did so in her sleep and woke up on her tummy, she'd forget how to roll back over and call us to come help her.

Stay tuned for more videos in the coming weeks and months -- now that I have a camera with video again.

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's hard to believe that Christmas is only a week away! I'm almost done my shopping and then there's just a mountain of wrapping to do. Every night I say I'm going to do some, but then I never seem to get the motivation to start. Why do I have a feeling that it's going to be a Christmas-eve wrapping marathon?


With Christmas almost here, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at home. Last Friday morning, while Alexandra took her morning nap, Austin and I decorated a Gingerbread house. We had a lot of fun, and surprisingly more candy ended up on the house than in his mouth. Now, he's constantly asking to eat the cookie house (as he calls it) which is fine by me if he likes it, because I think it tastes like cardboard.

On Saturday morning, we put up our Christmas tree. Again, Austin had a blast and was so excited to have his very own Christmas tree. He'd only be asking me for one for about three weeks! So much so, that some days I would take the kids across the street to the mall so that he could look at the mall tree.

Both kids got involved in decorating, although Alex spent more time trying to eat the ornaments than put them on the tree. Austin, on the other hand, decorated a small patch on the front of the tree really well.The lights are on almost full time because every morning, when Austin wakes up, the first thing he asks for is the lights. It's a good thing we bought LEDs this year (after starting to put the old lights on the tree only to discover that many strings no longer worked and there wasn't enough to cover the tree).

On Sunday, we went to the PCL Family Christmas Party where the kids got to do crafts, go on a sleigh ride (well wagon ride due to the lack of snow), and of course, meet Santa.

When we met Santa at the mall last month, both looked a little like deers caught in headlights. But this time, both were more relaxed and willing to smile. Although when Austin got off Santa's knee and we tried to get a picture of just Alexandra, she just screamed.

That's all the news for now. We have a busy for weeks ahead of us with Christmas in London, then a trip for Ryan and me to North Carolina for my cousin's wedding (without the kids!) and then a Christmas in Brampton on Jan. 2 with my family.

So there'll be plenty more pictures soon. And we finally bought a new camera to replace our broken point-and-shoot, which means I can once again take videos. So stay tuned for videos of Alex crawling -- or trying to anyway.

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Let me rephrase that

Less than two hours after I wrote the last post, I figured out why Alex has been so cranky today. There, on her lower gumline is her first tooth poking out.

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All about the kids again

Once again, I've been mainly writing about what we've been doing lately and not about the kids -- so here's a quick update on what they're up to.

The two kids get along really well right now. Austin loves his little sister and likes to sit and play with her -- although he doesn't always know to be gentle. And Alex thinks that her big brother is the funniest person in the world. She's always giggling at him as he runs circles around her. It's pretty funny to watch.

Alexandra

Alex has mastered the art of crawling...backwards. And it's quite frustrating for her. She'll start off by sitting and playing, and then, in an effort to grab something out of her reach, she'll fall over onto her tummy. Then, as she continues to try to reach that something, she'll end up pushing herself backwards -- further and further away from whatever it is she wants. On occasion, I've even looked over and found her stuck halfway under the couch!

She may not be crawling, but what she really wants to do is stand. At every opportunity, she's grabbing on to something and trying to pull herself up. She can easily do so by grabbing my hands, but has not yet figured out how to use things like the couch or a chair to get herself standing.

She still has no teeth. A couple of weeks ago, she was definitely going through teething pain and you can still see the two little bumps on her lower gumline, but as of yet, she still hasn't popped a tooth. So, for now, her meals consist of completely pureed food and mum mum crackers (which disolve in her mouth). Although, to be a little selfish, I have to admit, I don't mind the no teeth, because I'm still breastfeeding her.

And lastly, she has finally started sleeping well at night. After about two months of waking up several times at night -- and not necessarily because she was hungry, but just because she'd wake up (and sometimes even to play in her bed for an hour or two) -- she finally started sleeping through the night. Before I left for Ottawa, I decided I'd had enough of these poor sleeping habits and, as soon as we got home, she was going to be sleep-trained (in other words, we were going to let her cry it out). In Ottawa, she started sleeping through the night (from 8ish to between 5 and 6). She now does so pretty consistently -- although the last few nights she's been up a couple of times and I wonder if it's because these teeth are trying to pop through.

Austin

In the last couple of months, Austin's language abilities have greatly improved and he's now speaking in full sentences and in such a way that almost anyone can understand him (instead of just mom and dad). Almost every day, he's trying out new words, or surprising me by knowing something he didn't know yesterday. We definitely have to spell around him now when we don't want him to know what we're talking about.


His swimming lessons have finished for the fall and he greatly improved over the course of the session and really enjoyed them. So much so that I'm going to be signing him up again in the winter.

We're also working on potty training and after about two and a half months of sitting on the potty every day for anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes with no success he finally started going in it about two weeks ago. He gets so excited now when he sees how happy we get -- which I think is motivating him to go. He only manages to go in the potty once or twice a day, so we still have a long way to go, but it's a start and we're very happy.

The big news is, is that as of Christmas, Austin will no longer be going to the sitter's part-time. I decided that I wanted to keep him at home with me for the rest of my maternity leave. And although they both may drive me crazy some days, I'm really looking forward to it. I talked to the agency, and they've assured me that they will give him his full-time place back, and have one for Alex, when I go back to work at the end of April.

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Ouch!

So, Austin has now made his first trip to emergency.

Yesterday morning, I took the kids over to McDonald's playplace so that Austin could burn off a little energy. He had a great time running around on the climbing structure and playing with the other kids.

Then, about 10 minutes before we were to leave, he took a tumble (that I couldn't really see) and started screaming. I ran up the stairs to find him bleeding (a lot) from the mouth. Once I got him cleaned up and calmed down, I was able to get a good look in his mouth -- and discovered that he had tried to put his tooth through his tongue and now a pretty deep hole in it.

We headed home and Ryan and I quickly decided that it needed to be looked at by a doctor. So, Austin and I went off to the hospital (because I called the Children's after-hours clinic first, but the receptionist said that if he needed stitches, that their doctors don't do that).

After almost three hours of waiting quite patiently (for a two-year-old) we were seen by a doctor and given the all clear to go home. I've now learned that unless the tongue is actually hanging off, they don't stitch it. But, I was warned that it'll likely still be painful for a few days as it heals.

So, to help take the pain away, his diet and largely consisted of ice cream, freezies and popsicles. Although I have managed to get a peanut butter and jam sandwich and a slice of pizza in him as well -- although he complained that it hurt with almost every bite.

Poor kid.

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Trip to Ottawa

This past weekend, I took the kids, by car, to Ottawa to visit my sister, Alison and brother-in-law, Billy. It was just me and the kids.

We left Toronto Thursday afternoon (at nap time) and arrived there five hours later without suffering any two-year-old temper tantrums, baby bawling-athons or mommy meltdowns. In fact, the drive down went surprisingly well with both kids being very well-behaved. I had the passenger seat laid out with toys and snacks and from time to time I had to pass something back to one of them, but other than that we did ok. Nothing a few sing-a-longs, a soother for Alex, toys and treats couldn't solve. Oh yeah, and an TV show for Austin on the ipod when he declared that he wanted to walk the rest of the way there (we still had 60 km to go).

On Friday, Ali and Billy had to work, so me and the kids did what we normally do on a weekday -- found something to do. In this case, I found an indoor playground nearby and we hung out there for a few hours; then headed back for naps and a little playtime outside before it got dark.

That night, my cousin Mindy and her partner Kevin came over for dinner. We had a nice visit and it was nice for her to get a chance to meet the kids. I was pregnant with Austin the last time I saw them.

On Saturday morning, Ali, Billy and I took the kids to the Children's museum where Austin had a blast. It was a great, hands-on place and definitely the kind of thing I would get a membership for if we lived there.

Although there wasn't much for Alex to do, she seemed to love watching the action from her perch in the snugli. That is, when she wasn't sleeping in the stroller.
I had planned to leave Saturday night at bedtime and drive straight through to home while the kids slept in the backseat, but the weather forecast for Toronto wasn't looking good so I opted to stay one more night. We left first thing Sunday morning, and again the kids were both really good in the car and we made it home in five hours.

Thanks Auntie Ali and Uncle Billy for letting us crash with you guys for a few days!

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"Austin, go get daddy a beer"

These days, Austin is our little helper. He LOVES to help with everything. And I mean everything.

When I'm cooking dinner, he has to be up on a stool by the counter with a plastic spoon mimicing every move I make. When I'm giving Alex a bath, he has to be up on a stool helping to wash her (or play with her toys for her). When I'm trying to give Alex her dinner, he jumps in and proceeds to feed her. If I'm sorting, putting on or folding laundry -- you guessed it, he has to help too. Some days I can't walk into a room without him yelling that he has to help by turning on the light for me.

So, the other day, Ryan decided to test this new 'helper' phase. Austin was helping me make dinner and Ryan said to him "Austin, can you go downstairs and get daddy a beer". Austin proceeded to get down from his stool, walk downstairs, turn on the light, open the bar fridge, take out a beer and come running back upstairs with a beer in hand.

Needless to say, he was very proud of himself. And I think he's earned his keep for life!

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Happy Halloween

Love Mickey and Minnie Mouse

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A fun week

We had a busy week last week as Ryan was on vacation so that he could spend some time with the kids and so that we could take a mini vacation ourselves.

So rather than just carting the kids around and 'getting things done' we did fun things almost every day.

On Monday, we went to a nearby farm for their pumpkinfest. And although it was a little cold, Austin had a great time running through the pumpkin patch, getting lost in the corn maze, riding the wagon, climbing on the hay stacks and playing in the treehouse. And Alex, well, she just enjoyed be outside and watching her brother.

Then, on Tuesday, we took the kids to Fantasy Fair at Woodbine Mall. Fantasy Fair claims to be the largest indoor amusement park in Ontario and it didn't disappoint. Austin loved all the rides and playing in the play structure. And even Alex was able to go on the train and carousel (with one of us of course). The nice thing about going on a Tuesday afternoon, is that it wasn't crowded and we never had to wait to go on any of the rides.

More photos from both days, as well as other October photos, can be found in the new slideshow posted on the right.

On Wednesday, we took the kids to my parents house where they spent two days with grandma and granddad. From what I've been told, they had a great time playing outside, walking through the nearby forest and going to another nearby pumpkinfest. My parents must have done a really good job at tiring them out, because I was told they both slept like logs that night -- even Alex, who won't sleep more than three to four hours at a stretch for us right now, slept for NINE hours for my parents. I'm convinced her bottle must have been spiked! (Just kidding!)

While the kids were at my parents house, Ryan and I went to Niagara Falls. First, we headed over the border for a few hours to do some shopping -- where even though the dollar is pretty poor right now, the deals we found made the shopping worth while. Then we headed back to the Canadian side where we checked into a hotel, had a nice, long, uninterupted dinner at the Keg, did some gambling at the casino and slept in late the next morning. Before heading back to Toronto, we stopped at a winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake for a tour. In all, a very nice and very relaxing time.

Finally, on Friday, we took a short trip to the zoo after Austin's swimming lesson.

In all, a relaxing and fun week.

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Alexandra's 6-month checkup

Last week, I took Alexandra for her six-month checkup and she weighed in at 15 lbs, 15 oz and is 26 inches long. This only partially confirmed my thoughts that she's smaller than Austin was at the same age.

At Austin's six-month appointment, he weighed in at a hefty 18 lbs 6 oz, but was just 26.5 inches long. So, Alex is pretty much just as long as he was, but two and a half pounds lighter! I forgot to ask the doctor what percentile she's in, but the doctor did say she's growing well.

Unlike the way Austin grew however, she still fits into many of her 3 to 6 months clothes today (whereas Austin had upgraded to the 6 to 12 month size by the time he was 5 months old). Thank goodness a friend has been loaning me the clothes her daughter has already outgrown; because all of my 3 to 6 months clothes for Alex were summer clothes. And it just doesn't feel right to buy that size in fall/winter clothes when she's bound to outgrow them very soon.

Other than that, Alex has moved on from eating just cereal to also eating sweet potato and carrots. So far she loves them both, and can't get enough of them. She opens her mouth wide when anyone brings the spoon towards her -- even Austin, who loves feeding her! Right now, she's only eating two meals a day (lunch and dinner) but after a few more vegetables, we'll probably get her started on breakfast as well.

One thing's for sure, she sure is growing up fast.

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Austin's taking swimming lessons

I signed Austin up for swimming lessons this fall and so far they're going really well. It's a city-run program designed for toddlers. They're private lessons and each lesson is only 15-minutes long -- which is great, because that's about his attention span some days!

At the first class, I walked him out onto the pool deck and the instructor asked me if he'd ever been swimming before. I said yes, but only with mom or dad. She said, ok, and asked Austin if he wanted to jump in. He immediately said 'yes' and jumped in to her waiting arms without ever looking back at me. He then spent the lesson learning to float and to kick his feet while holding on to a flutter board.

The second lesson was much of the same, except this time, he was really excited to be going and talked about swimming in the pool non-stop during the car ride over.

If the classes continue to go well, I think I'll sign him up for a double-lesson class (30 minutes long) in the winter.

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More milestones...sitting up and eating cereal

These pictures say it all:
In the last three weeks, Alex has mastered the art of sitting up to play. It started with her proping herself up on her arms and looking around. And within days she was sitting on her own and grabbing at toys. She does still fall over from time to time -- usually when she's trying to grab something out of her reach -- so I still tend to sit behind her or pack pillows around her.

She loves playing in this new position -- especially since she hates lying on her back or stomach to play. Because of this, she's been spending a lot of time in her excersaucer and jolly jumper -- anything that allows her to be in an upright position to play. But now that she can sit, it's a whole new world for her.

The other milestone Alex reached last week was she started eating cereal. So far, it's just been a small amount at lunch time, but she loves it. She took just one bite and she immediately opened her mouth wide like a baby bird asking for more. She was definitely ready for it too, because in the last few weeks she had been grabbing at any food I may have near me while I was holding her.

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Take me out to the ballgame

On Sunday, September 21, we took the kids to the Rogers Centre to see the Blue Jays vs the Red Sox.

The adventure started with a trip downtown by subway -- which for Austin was very exciting because it was his first subway trip (at least since he was a baby and too young to remember). Throughout the 30 minute train ride he repeatedly told us it was dark in the tunnel and that the train was in the tunnel. (Or, that the train was now outside -- depending on the station.)

The game was a lot of fun, and believe it or not, we lasted almost the entire game. Austin stood and watched, danced when music played, sat and ate the hot dog and licorice daddy bought him and cheered at most of the appropriate times. Unfortunately, it wasn't a stellar game for the Jays so there wasn't much to cheer about.
And Alex slept in my arms through pretty much the entire game -- so I guess you could say she enjoyed the fresh air and background crowd noise.

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All about the kids

Alexandra
I forgot to write a post after Alex's four month check up last month, but at the time she weighed in at 13 lbs, 14 oz and she was 25 1/4 inches long. That's a full two pounds lighter than Austin was at that age, but only half an inch shorter.

She's a very happy baby these days and is always laughing and smiling. She's discovered she has toes and is almost always grabbing at them and trying to pull them towards her mouth. She's going to get a rude awakening in a few weeks when I have to start dressing her with socks and shoes every day.

She's become a pretty good sleeper -- both during the day and at night. During the day, she's guaranteed to take at least one 2 to 3 hour nap and several other shorter naps throughout the day. And at night she'll usually sleep anywhere from 5 to 7 hours without needing a feeding. (Although many a nights she's cries out because she's lost her soother or come out from her blankets. All she wants is for me to her help her out and then she'll go right back to sleep.) And, she may be almost five months old, but she still likes to be tightly swaddled to sleep. This means she barely moves around in the crib when she's sleeping (because she can't in the swaddle) and I only have two blankets remaining that are big enough to swaddle her. I'm trying to get her out of the habit, but it's hard when I know that's the easiest and fastest way to get her to fall asleep and stay asleep. Although at least because she doesn't move around, I don't have to worry about her getting her arms or legs stuck between the bars of the crib.

And finally, she is growing some hair! It's light brown, maybe even blonde at the moment, and sticks straight up.

Austin
For Austin right now, life is a running commentary. He can't do anything or go anywhere without giving a long-winded play-by-play of what's going on. And he has a memory like his father -- he remembers everything, even the smallest detail such as the colour of the cup someone drank from three days ago. So one thing's for sure, you can't pull a fast one on him.

He also goes through phases where he repeats everything you say; which makes us watch our language all the time. I know; he copied me one day in the car when I swore under my breath for making a wrong turn!

Some things he says, or does, are very cute so I'll share a few that I can think of right now:

• Instead of saying running or run, Austin says ready set go. Everytime. So if I tell him I'm going out for a run, he'll say "mommy go out eady set go." (And yes, he says eady, not ready)
• We've taught him to say excuse me if he burps. But, what he ends up saying is "scuse me burp". (The same goes for scuse me fart)
• He used to say 'da' when he meant please, so one day we ennuciated the word for him to teach him how to say it. So now, everytime you remind him to say please, he says "pul-lease".
• Ryan will give him piggy backs around the house sometimes and he'll always say to Austin "hold on tight". So now, Austin walks around the house carrying something (a truck, a stuffed animal) and tells it to "hold on tigh".
• Yeehaw means horse. He knows how to say horse, but he still calls horses a yeehaw. And by extension, he thinks his summer hat looks like a cowboy hat, so he calls it his yeehaw hat. Alex has one too, according to Austin, although hers is pink.

If I think of any other cute tidbits I"ll add to this post in the future.

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A week at a cottage

Our week's vacation this year was spent from Aug. 16-23 at a quiet little cottage on Lake Bernard in the town of Sundridge -- the same lake and town we were at last year, but a different cottage. Last year's cottage was really nice, but the lake access was by dock only and this year we wanted a beach so that Austin could play in the sand and wade into the water.

The place we found had a large beach area and the water was shallow enough for Austin to walk out about 100 ft. But the cottage itself, although very cute, was a little more rustic and much smaller than we had anticipated.

It was a two-bedroom with a screened in porch and our plan had been to set up the playpen for Alex in our room. But when we got there, we discovered that both bedrooms were so tiny that they barely fit the double bed and dressers. So Alex, spent her nights sleeping in the kitchen and every morning we'd put the playpen away and she'd take her naps on the double bed in our room. Once we got used to the sleeping arrangements, the cottage didn't seem so small -- especially when we could send Austin out to play on the porch.

Considering the weather this summer, we were really lucky. We had just one rainy afternoon, which we spent playing with playdoh and other new crafts that I had brought along in case of rain. The rest of the days were sunny and beautiful -- although one day was a little too cold for swimming in the morning (it was only about 8C that morning). So, we packed the kids up and drove to North Bay (45 minutes north) for a few hours to ride the carousels and mini train, have some lunch and play in a park.

Alex and mom on the miniature train

On another day, we packed up both kids and went to nearby Mikisew Provincial Park for a hike. I wore Alex in the front pack and Ryan wore Austin in the backpack for a 2.3 km 'moderate' hike. About partway through, it didn't seem to be too challenging so Austin hiked by himself for awhile, before tiring and getting back in the backpack. The hike was a perfect distance with the two kids -- and was really nice except for the fact that some parts were a little flooded from all the rain over the last few weeks.
The four of us on our hike (Alex is all wrapped up in a bug net).

The rest of our days were spent playing in the sand, swimming in the lake -- of which Austin did every day and Alex went two or three times. She was a little unsure about swimming, but she seemed to like it -- she didn't scream anyway. And Austin loved going out in the paddle boat and canoe with Ryan.

Daddy burying Austin in the sand.

This property also housed a family of the world's friendliest ducks. Every day, the eight ducks would waddle right up to the door, asking for food. Austin loved feeding them bread -- as well as chasing them around the beach.

One morning, we also went to the nearby petting farm and fed the goats.

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Summer fun photos and update

The summer is just flying by and I haven't had a chance to share any photos in awhile. So, here's some random shots of the kids:

Austin is now home with me three days a week and we've been spending our days at the park, at the wading pool and in the sandbox out back. Anything to keep busy and enjoy the nice weather. Once fall and winter hits we'll have to find indoor activities so I figure we might as well be outside and be active while we can.

His language and understanding skills are also improving very quickly and I'm amazed at how well he can speak. He is often telling me stories in five or six word sentences now and will recall events or activities from days ago. And although all of his words aren't always clear, even non-family members are able to understand most of what he says now. Although sometimes, I'll admit, even I have days where understanding him is like playing charades but where one person doesn't know we're playing!

Alex is really interactive now -- smiling at us all the time. As you can see from the pictures, she's enjoying playing in the jolly jumper now, as well as other standing up toys. She's not a fan of lying down to play and will rarely lie on her playmat or in her crib watching her mobile. (Although I did manage to get a picture of her (above) watching the mobile -- but I think that lasted all of two minutes. She's very unlike Austin in that respect, who loved watching it and, in fact, is still fascinated by it when I turn it on.)

A day at the zoo

Because it was a beautiful sunny day on the August holiday Monday, we packed the kids up and took them to the zoo. I bought a membership last month, but chances are, I'll mostly use it alone with the kids so this was a good opportunity for Ryan to go too. It was packed, but we had a lot of fun. And Austin once again loved seeing the elephants, monkeys, tigers and giraffes. I think next time we go, I'm going to have to tell him that those animals are sleeping just so we can see another part of the zoo!

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Nana's wedding

This past weekend was Ryan's mom's wedding (actually Handfasting, which is the term used for Pagan weddings). It was really beautiful and a really good time, although a little stressful being there with two kids. Thankfully, we had a lot of helpers in the form of family members and both kids almost managed to out-party us.

Austin danced the night away -- apparently learning the moves to YMCA, the chicken dance and Time Warp -- until he finally crashed at about 11:30 p.m. Alex, was passed around from family member to family member and was in and out of sleep all evening until about midnight when she finally crashed in someone's arms.

Austin, Ryan and I were all part of the wedding party. So, Austin, like all of the men, wore a kilt. It was adorable -- who knew you could rent kilts for two year olds! Here are some pictures from the wedding:

Austin in his kilt (before the wedding when everything was still tucked in and pulled up)

Austin posing with the statue after the ceremony

Daddy dancing with Alex

Mommy dancing with Alex

Tearing up the dance floor way past bedtime

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