Birthday Party

Saturday was Aidan's birthday party and it went very well. He had lots of his little friends show up - Shaun, Nathan, Luke and Miriam (and her little brother Nathan) from church, Brooklynn from his old daycare, Paige who comes every Monday and Wednesday, Quinlan (and his little sister Emberlyn) whose mom Christy worked with me at ATI, Pat and Tara came along with Tara's niece Emaly and then Karen whose husband Greg works with Michael came for a bit. It was quite a packed house! I had set up the rec room downstairs with lots of fun stuff - Aidan's ball pit, his punching guy, his big bucket of blocks and then I covered the coffee table with a plastic table cloth and made 3 colors of playdough. The kids mostly played but they also watched 2 backyardigan shows, had some pizza and pop and cupcakes. Everyone seemed pretty happy and Aidan had a great time so I think it was a success :)

I should have taken a before picture - I expected the kids to make a mess but my goodness, I don't think I expected it to be this bad! Although, had I thought about how many kids were coming...

The only thing this picture doesn't show is the playdough crusted into the carpet. It's not that big a deal because the carpet is crap but it's kind of yucky and will probably be hard to clean up.
Here's Aidan opening his presents:

A Hot Wheels motorcross bikes with launching thing
Now he's looking at the camera. That's Shaun peeking out from behind him
I think that's the back of a Veggie Tales coloring book. Brooklynn is sitting in front of him here
Very excited about a Veggie Tales movie - Gideon and something about a Tuba
A play camping set which will go well with his play picnic set. Paige is crawling on the ball pit behind him.

He got so many cool things, he was very blessed by all his little buddies - or rather, their moms and dads :) I kind of felt bad for some of the moms who gave Keira a present on Thursday and then Aidan a present on Saturday! My parents and Michael and I got Aidan a toy organizer which he very badly needs. His room is in a constant state of messiness and these new toys need a place to go as well! It's sort of like a wood frame with 3 rows of open bins and I'm sure it will make it a lot easier for Aidan to keep his room clean all by himself. Unfortunately it's backordered until Oct 24th so for now all his toys go under his new bed.

This is my attempt at Backyardigan character cupcakes. They turned out okay, not as cool as the pictures. I had (mistakenly) thought there were going to be pretty easy to make. Aidan and the kids thought they were cool so that's good.

Aidan blowing out his candles

The kids eating the cupcakes - Nathan, Aidan, Brooklynn, Paige, Luke and Shaun

Today Aidan says to me 'I don't know when I will have another birthday party' Thank goodness this only happens once a year!!!

Baby Shower

This past Thursday there was another baby shower for Keira that was put on by Angela Barreth from the church. It was really nice to have someone from the church do a shower for Keira and also nice to connect a little with some of the other moms. Most of the moms I know enough to say hi and maybe talk a little but I'm hoping that now that I'm off work that I can get to know some of them a little better and make some friends. There's a thing Wednesday mornings for women called Coffee Break and I've been meaning to go, but it starts at 9 and so far I haven't been able to get everyone fed and clothed and organized that early.

There were 8 ladies that came and 2 more sent presents because they weren't able to be there. Keira was very blessed with quite a few very cute outfits along with these adorable Robeez shoes.

She also got this little lamb named Pascale. Lambs must be in this year because Aidan got one at last year's Sunday School kickoff and Keira got another little one at her first baby shower.

Keira was very good the whole time - except when I forgot about her diaper and she had to remind me by yelling - and enjoyed cuddles from a few different people. That day I was getting ready for Aidan's party so besides eating, Keira spent literally the whole day in her swing. I felt bad for 'ignoring' her but I had to get stuff done and I told her she would get lots of cuddles that night!

Lounging Around

2 Months!!

Keira loves to stand and look around

She looks like a little bobblehead doll with her jerky movements

I tried to take a picture but it didn't work out too well. You can see her belly button poking out

I got Michael to take a picture while I held her hands - she looks kind of freaked out

She always looks so peaceful and content when she's sleeping

This morning Aidan slept in until 8:30 and Keira slept in until 9:30 - it was so great! I took the opportunity to have a shower all by myself without having to pop out and stick Keira's soother in every 5 minutes. It was really great.

Aidan's party is this Saturday and I'm beginning to wonder if I've taken on a bit much. There are about 8 kids coming and I still have to clean up the house, clean downstairs, decorate, get out the ball pit and blow up punching guy, make playdough and make the cupcakes. I'm attempting to make cupcakes with the faces of each Backyardigan, following instructions from the Nick Jr website and it doesn't look too difficult but might be a bit challenging.

This past week has been pretty hectic. Things are always busier when Michael is home and off work and this week was no exception. My old bed and desk arrived on Monday and sat in the living room until we rearranged furniture and took apart Aidan's bed and bookshelf to make room for the bed. We had just barely gotten the living room organized when our tv decided to die. It didn't really die, but it's a projection tv and the red wasn't being projected properly. We've had it for almost 4 years and the repair would have been about $400 so today Michael went out and bought a new tv. I was seriously considering taking Aidan, Paige, Lukas and Keira out to McDonalds because the living room was so cluttered it was almost impossible to even walk through. Then I realized I would be stranded there with 4 kids and decided to stay home. This has been a pretty expensive year for us! Buying a house, having Keira, new cars, new tv - hopefully it ends here and nothing else decides to die!

I had thought Aidan was a very slow eater - and then Paige started eating supper here. On Monday they had pancakes for dinner and I made Lukas an L pancake, Aidan an A pancake and Paige a P pancake. The pancakes weren't too big but it took Paige an hour and a half to finish it!! I couldn't believe it - but I didn't want her to get home and complain she was hungry so I made her finish it.

Keira has also started giggling or laughing. Yesterday I got her to laugh a couple times but I sure had to work at it! Today I tried the same things but it didn't work. It's so cute! She smiles all the time now and I'm excited to hear her giggle and laugh now too.

Pictures

Aidan loves sitting beside Keira and playing with her or making her smile - and she likes the attention! She smiles just as easily at Aidan as she does for me or Michael

Lately this is how she likes to sleep. When she was first born she liked her arms out so she could wave them around

Sometimes she'll be sitting in her little lounger and get fussy, but wrap her up like this and she's just fine!

Sleeping babies are the cutest!

She's starting to like her baths more again.

I even got a few smiles out of her during her last bath

Still happy...

Now she's not so sure anymore

Here she is hanging out with me on the couch

I've been watching season 1 and 2 of House and she keeps me company

Me and the kids - Aidan was grumpy and refused to smile

So Michael said 'SMILE!' and he did

Me and Keira

I thought my big surprise yesterday was that Michael had booked me an appointment to get my hair cut and highlighted and I was partly right. First I got to go and get a facial that included a massage and a manicure and then I got to go get my hair streaked and cut. Plus he was making dinner! It was a very relaxing afternoon and I really like my new cut and color. It's a little short, but she left it long enough that I can still get it into a ponytail and my hair's too thin for it to look really good long.

8 weeks (plus a few days)

On Wednesday Keira had her 8 week checkup at the doctor and everything looked good. She now weighs 14 pounds, her head measures 38cm and she is 61cm tall. That last one seemed kind of big and Dr. Kali says 'That can't be right, lets do that again' but sure enough, I guess she's a really tall baby. She's grown 3cm alone since her last checkup at 2wks, maybe she's going to take after Michael and be really tall. Dr. Kali is also referring us to see a surgeon about her herniated belly button which I am happy about. I don't want Keira to get surgery if she doesn't need it, but the thing is huge and it will be good to talk to someone a little more knowledgeable about it. It's so weird, you can mash it down so that her tummy is flat but it doesn't just sit there, it slowly 'inflates' again. Hopefully we don't have to wait months and months to see the surgeon - the allergy specialist here has a 6 month wait (3 down, 3 to go).

Right now Michael is on his week off and it's very very nice to have him around. For the past 8 weeks he worked 3 weeks on, 1 week off and that was difficult on all of us. He went back to work early instead of taking his last week of holidays and then switched shifts (there are 3 shifts - red, green and blue and he switched from red shift to blue shift) so those two things accounted for the extra weeks. Now we can go back to 2 weeks on 1 week off.

While Michael was working Aidan and I took a trip out to Woking for a birthday party. I've kept in touch with a girl I used to work with and she was having a party for her son who was turning 3 and her daughter who was turning 1. I've only driven as far as Sexsmith which is about 20 min and Woking is about 40 min but I figured since I'm on maternity leave and Keira is still young enough to not get mad if she misses a nap or something it would be fun for Aidan, so we went. Aidan had a great time and now I know what we're getting him for Christmas. Quinlan got a bike and as Christy wheeled it in, both Quinlan and Aidan got the same look on their face :) It was kind of scary driving home in the dark because the highway is kind of windy and single lane and the lane lines were impossible to see, but I was glad we went.

Yesterday was Michael's birthday and was a really great day. In the morning Aidan and Keira and I went in to jump on him and give hm his presents. We had gone to Ernie's Sports Experts and bought all the BC Lions stuff we could find and Aidan managed to not spill the beans despite Michael bugging him every chance he got. Then we dropped the kids off to play with Shaun and Ashley while we went out for dinner and a movie. It was really nice to just be together as a couple and do something other than sit on the couch!

Today Michael has a surprise planned for me and I'm pretty sure I know what it is but I told him to keep it a surprise until it's time. Keira actually slept in today until 9:30! We all (except Michael) caught a little cold and I've been enjoying the longer sleeps at night courtesy of infant Tylenol. Right now she's fussing and I need to go get ready. I'll try to post more pictures soon.

Piglet

We just got Keira's Piglet costume inthe mail today and she looks so cute:

My Little Monkey

Isn't this sleeper the cutest? It has little monkeys dancing around on it and little bunches of bananas. I also caught a smile - by accident, but there it is!

It's amazing how busy I feel, but when I look around it doesn't really look like I've accomplished anything but a semi-clean house! I am feeling less stressed which I guess is an improvement. Paige and Lukas were over again today. It looks like they'll only be here about 6 hours a week split between Monday and Wednesday so now I'm not really sure what to do. Michael says to forget about them and get some afterschool kids, but I'm not sure about that either. The problem with that is then I'd have to have the kids for the whole day on professional days and I'm really not crazy about that. The first day Paige and Lukas were here was really awful and after they left I really wondered what I had gotten myself into, but the second day went much smoother and they've been really great since. Aidan and Paige are really good buddies now too, very excited to see each other and both sad when it's time to go which I think is so important for him and another reason I would want to continue with them. Other than childcare though I really don't have any ideas for extra income! You see these 'work from home and earn up to $5000 per month' things and sometimes I wonder if I could make even 10% of that but they always seem to want money upfront which isn't encouraging. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around - they pay me?? The other reason I'm kind of stressing about this is that I'm hoping to set up something this year that I can hopefully continue next year while Aidan's in Kindergarten and delay going back to work outside the home until Keira is 2. I'm not sure if that will work but it's worth a try. If anyone has any ideas for earning money from home please let me know!

Here are some more pictures I've taken over the past couple days. Aidan and Keira are so funny, they make me laugh (most of the time).

I was running the water for Aidan's bath and holding Keira so I dipped my hand in and made her a little mohawk. Then I was having trouble taking a picture of it because I had to hold her up and even then you can't see it very well.

She just looks so funny here - I was going to say 'like she's got no teeth' but she doesn't!

Here you can see the mohawk a little better

This is her snowsuit that I bought her. It's super fuzzy and also way too big as you can see by the way she's peeking out

There's her face! This is a 6-12 month size - I figured she's growing so fast and winter lasts so freaking long here I'd better get the bigger size

Here's the full picture (along with my feet - so cool to be able to see them when I look down now!)

It's the Amazing Spiderman! My mom made Aidan this very cool outfit along with some other shirts and shorts and pants. Everything is too big for him but I had to let him wear something and this outfit was a bit smaller than the other stuff.

This is him holding forth about something or another. Usually he says the same thing about 5 different ways. I am really hoping this chatty phase passes soon because I am really tired of him talking non stop! I'm glad he can talk and I'm glad he can tell me things and verbalize feelings etc. but my goodness! I've always liked peace and quiet and I don't get any when he's around!

There, now he stopped talking long enough to pose. This is his 'fetter'. He has major issues with saying the word sweater. For awhile there it was 'how' and I refused to let him call it that because how do you get 'how' from 'sweater'? Maybe he can start pronouncing the 's' sound soon...

My New Baby

I totally lucked out and found this treadmill on a local classifieds website for a super duper price I had been bugging Michael about not getting me a birthday present and I've wanted a nice treadmill for a very long time so this is my very late birthday present. I am so pumped about it! It's definitely going to be a big motivation for losing that last baby weight!!!

Recent Pictures

Aidan likes to stand outside on the picnic table waving various sticks around.

Sometimes he fights with them and other times he uses them to fish.

Today was our church's Fall Fair and Aidan was very excited about the 'Pony' rides

Theresa very kindly took some pictures for me because I had forgotten to bring the camera. Aidan told me that he was bringing his necklace along in case the ponies wanted to see it. I asked him if ponies talked and he said no so I asked how he would know if the ponies wanted to see it and then he either launched into one of his very long explanations or changed the subject.

She may look cute, but she packs a mean punch!

I got Michael to take some pictures of me and Keira today


I wish she would smile more easily because it's so adorable when she does, her whole face just lights up

I love it when she yawns because that means me time! :)

I got this and another sleeper in a pack at Superstore, just some cheap sleepers because she had outgrown all her newborn ones, but they are quickly becoming my favourites. I've always loved stripes though. She always looks so cute and cuddly in this one.

Hanging on the couch. And sporting a new soother and clip. Aidan loved these soothers when he was a baby, they were his favourites, so we're using them for Keira as well. Michael even overlooks the fact that they have Winnie the Pooh characters on them :)

I was going to write more but it's getting late - more to the point, Keira's gone to sleep for the night and I don't want to cut too far into my precious maybe 4 1/2 hours of sleep so I'll try to make it on here to post tomorrow. Pictures are usually most important so I thought I would at least get them up tonight.