Good For a Laugh

Aidan keeps cracking me up today.

This afternoon he's playing with his batman guys and he tells me that one of them is a girl. I was cleaning up the kitchen and not paying too much attention, so I said 'Really? I thought they were all guys.' And he says 'No, this one is a girl because he have big hips' This gets my attention so I turn around and say 'What?' and he repeats: 'This one have big hips like you, Mommy' I didn't think my hips were thaaaaat big...

Then while he's taking a year to eat his dinner he says 'I not a big fan of mushrooms in ghetti, I not' This just about made me laugh out loud but I don't want to seem like I'm making fun of him, so I held it in. He's never used that particular phrase before (I'm not a fan of...) but he's heard me say it.

The things he comes up with...

Keira's New Shirt

I bought this for Keira tonight. I'm not sure why babies have been turned into mini billboards...maybe because they're just so cute! I'm going to keep putting this onesie on her until I get a picture of her sleeping in it :)

Christmas

We had a great Christmas! The night before we had been invited over to Karen and Gregs house for their big dinner and gift exchange. We stayed pretty late and Aidan got to bed around 11pm, which meant he slept in until 9am and didn't drag Michael out of bed super early. Here are some pictures of him opening his presents:

It was so funny to watch him open his gifts. He would be so excited, open the gift up and then sit there looking at it and say 'Awesome!' sort of to himself. At least he didn't ask to set everything up right away! The highlights were a Diego tent he can hide in, a mat to drive his cars on, a Nerf gun, and a box full of his Uncle Corey's Batman guys. And we got him a bike with training wheels. He thought it was very cool :) I should have gotten my act together and had it sitting out by the tree. It kind of spoiled the effect by running out to the shed to bring it in after all the presents were open.

The kids must have talked before hand to co-ordinate their gift opening schedules - Keira napped while Aidan opened his presents and then she woke up and opened hers. She sat on the couch between Michael and I and did a pretty good job pulling on the wrapping paper to open the present and then immediately putting whatever it was in her mouth. She got super cool metallic tights, a little puppy, some peek a blocks and an inflatable tube with jingling balls inside.

We also got her a Fisher Price Hippo that gobbles up Peek a Blocks when you drive over them. The seat also flips up to be a sort of walker. I put her on it and she did such a good job holding herself up and sitting on the seat. Maybe it was just something new but she laughed and grinned the whole time she was being pushed around on her Hippo - she loved it!

We were so fortunate that Michael (who was on call) was able to be home for all of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day as well as Boxing Day. After we opened the presents I made the best Christmas Dinner ever :) Then later on that night - or rather, super early on Boxing Day - Michael went out with some buddies to wait in line at Visions and score some deals. After that he went to Future Shop and bought us a new front load washer and dryer. I'm so excited about them!!! They were $1000 off and kind of hard to resist. I know if we hadn't gotten them now and our washer quit in like 3 months it would have been really annoying! They arrive the day we leave for BC and Michael has been laughing at me because I'm excited to do laundry.

Family Pictures

TEETH

Keira hasn't been in her swing for awhile - maybe she didn't know what to do. She kept sitting up and then her momentum would make the swing move back and forth and she would smile and laugh and then fall backwards. She's really holding her head and upper body upright lately a lot more. Maybe she'll be sitting up on her own soon!
You can see the teeth here, but only if you look reeeeeeeeally closely

Here they are!!!

I think she's teething again - I mean, I sure hope that's what it is! She gets up and then for most of the day she will be up for about an hour, sleep for an hour, up for an hour down for an hour. And when she is up, I have to hold her because when I put her down she flaps her arms around and cries. Fortunately Aidan is behaving better so I don't have to deal with 2 little monsters. I keep rubbing her gums to try and feel if there are any teeth poking out, but so far there's nothing.....

The Great White North

I was just thinking to myself the other day that we were having kind of a wimpy winter. Well! The next day I went out to get our Christmas turkey and all the trimmings and it was nasty! The weather - not the bird! It was cold and the wind was just awful. The cold isn't that bad, but once the wind picks up it's enough to make you not want to leave the house!

Aidan went outside to play today and stayed out for over half an hour. He looked all rosy cheeked when he came in I had to take a picture.
I am so excited that this jersey finally fits Aidan!! (It's a bit of a stretch because you can see the sleeves are rolled up a little and it's a bit long...) I bought this like 2 years ago at Value Village and it was in such great condition I called Michael to see if it was an acceptable team and player for Aidan to wear :D
This picture is how I got the nice picture above. It's all about compromise...
Aidan and Keira watched Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too tonight

Eggnog Latte

It just occurred to me yesterday that Eggnog will only be around for a few more weeks! Then I had to stop and think: With no eggnog, how am I going to make eggnog latte's?? And what could possibly replace the eggnog to make an equally satisfying latte drink?

I guess I'll just have to substitute plain old milk...and maybe break down and go buy the mega bottle of sugar free syrup from Starbucks that I've been eyeing up for the past couple months.

Best Teether Ever!

Is This Mean?

Michael and I have decided to start a tradition of giving the kids new pajamas for Christmas and then that can be the present they open on Christmas Eve. Unless Michael is called out on Christmas Eve in which case we have to open allll the presents on Chrstmas Eve. This year I bought Aidan Spiderman pajamas at Walmart and found a pair of virtually new Spiderman slippers at Value Village. I didn't even notice until we got home, but the slippers light up! I put the pajamas and slippers in this bag and then smacked it so the slippers lit up and said to Aidan 'What's that?! What's in there??' Of course he had to try next...

Gingerbread House

Cool

After asking me to help him set up his train tracks in a figure 8, Aidan lined up every single one of his cars on the track and then designated 3 cars to be the cops.

Aidan: This guy is not cool
Me: No? He's not cool?
Aidan: No, so these cops taking him to jail
Me: He's going to jail because he's not cool?!?
Aidan: These guys $100 cool, but this guy $1 cool
Me: So what are you?
Aidan: I $20 cool
Me: Oh...
Aidan: No, I $81 cool

Magic Snowsuit

It may look like an ordinary snowsuit to you, but I'm convinced this is a Magic snowsuit! It all started when, in anticipation of going out, I put Keira down to sleep in her snowsuit. Of course she woke up before it was time for us to go out, but within minutes of putting her down and zipping her into that snowsuit, she was asleep.

Last night she was having a hard time falling asleep despite exhibiting all the 'tired signs' : excessive grumpiness, rubbing her eyes, yawning, yelling...

I must have wrapped and unwrapped and re-wrapped her up like 10 times and then I remembered her snowsuit...I got it out and zipped her up and popped her soother in. She cried for about 3 minutes and then she was out. This was about 8:30 or 9 and I anticipated her waking up around 11 or so, being up for a bit and then going down for the night. I guess she had other plans because Michael came in about 2am and found me sleeping sitting up on the couch, waiting for Keira to wake up. Keira woke me up at 6:30 to eat and then we slept in until 9. If only she could do that every night - or I'd even settle for every second or third night!

Michael says I can't call it magic on the basis of one night, but you can be sure I'm going to try it again tonight!!

Silly Aidan

I got this cool lap tray for Aidan at Michaels - I'm hoping it will work for him to color in the car on our trip down to Salmon Arm.

Aidan loves to be silly! Check out his silly pictures:

Pictures

I dug out Aidan's Tigger Jolly Jumper for Keira this past week. Aidan didn't mind it, but I don't remember him really loving it.

Maybe if we had had a more central place to use it he might have. We've got the same problem now (the top needs to attach to a door frame with moulding on both sides) and the pantry was the best I could come up with!

The problem with babies is that they grow and develop so fast you're scrambling to make sure they start using toys for their age at the right time or that they don't skip that super cute outfit in the too-big box! Maybe it's just me...

This is a much cooler exersaucer than Aidan had! Aidan could only stand his for about 10 min at a time, 15 was pushing it...Keira seems to like it a lot, but she's so tall that I've already got it on the highest height setting.

Keira after her bath the other day. The reason I'm looking so weird is that her hand is behind my head and is grabbing a chunk of my hair!

It only took like 5 tries to get a picture with all our faces in it, and even then it's not terrific...

Aidan and Keira. She looks so huge on his lap!

Weatherford Kids Party

A couple of weeks ago Michael's work had a party for kids of the employees. It's a really great idea and the kids have a blast. Last year they held it in the lobby of the office and then we all had some pizza, pop and chips in the lunch room. This year they rented a couple lanes at a bowling alley for the kids to bowl and then they also rented a room where everyone had some pizza and juice and pop. And of course there was a Santa who handed out a present for every kid. In early November a list goes up and then the guys get to sign their kids up and put down an idea of a gift they think their kids would like. It was sure a lot more fun than the adults party!!

Here's Aidan receiving his present. He got a Mr. Potato Head - Optimash Prime like the Transformer. He was very excited about it and opened it up to play with as soon as we got home!

Here's Keira sitting on Santa's lap. She's usually pretty good about being held by other people, there's only been a few times that she's gotten really upset and cried, but there must have been something...she took one look up at him and then just started wailing.

This was taken right before the wailing started and you can see she looks a little concerned. The poor guy was just trying to give her a present! She got some Playskool linking activity blocks. A pretty cool toy actually.

The Santa they had booked was a very jolly Santa. Every single thing he said was punctuated with a 'Ho ho ho!' Literally every sentence ended in 'Ho ho ho!' It was kind of funny.

I figured I should do another post so those cookies don't come up at the top anymore. Turns out the main problem (other than an inexperienced baker) was my cookie pans were just too old. Michael's very pleased with himself for suggesting I get new pans and takes full credit for solving the problem. I'm just happy all the baking is done, but a little frustrating because I was just hitting my stride and now it's all done :)

Stupid Cookies!

Stats

When Keira was last weighed, I thought it was pretty crazy how heavy she was - I thought she was almost half Aidan's weight. Yesterday I got Aidan to jump on the scale to see if he really was twice as heavy as Keira. He is:


Height: 3ft 6in
Weight: 38lb


This puts him at the 61st percentile in weight and 75th percentile in height. Quite a change from when he was born when he was above the 95th percentile in each category. He's actually lost weight over the past several months because I remember weighing him back in the summer (he was 41 pounds) and being very excited that he was heavy enough to change from the 5 point harness in his car seat to a seatbelt.

Right now Keira is:

Height: 25in

Weight: 18.5lb

which puts her above the 97th percentile in each category. Also, Aidan is exactly double her weight - I think that's kind of cool.

My grandparents recently sent me a bunch of pictures of me as a baby and toddler. They're getting all their album pictures put on cd and it's been interesting to look through these pictures. I pulled out a couple of me at 4 months:

Here I think I look chubbier than Keira. My mom said I was 20lb at 6 months! And I can see why...in most of the pictures my grandparents sent me, I'm eating!

Teething

I took a look inside Keira's mouth today and she's actually working on 2 teeth instead of 1 like I had previously thought. Her bottom front two teeth. The one on the left has the head start but you can see the one on the right through the gum so I don't imagine it will be much longer before we'll be able to feel it too. I pulled out some teethers for her to gnaw on but she didn't seem too interested. She chewed on the frozen one above for a little while but the other ones I got just seemed to make her mad. I'm sure when she's a bit older and has more coordination and also more teeth to use she'll like them. For now, we both love infant tylenol! She's been napping so nicely and for so long, it's amazing what I was able to get done today. I feel so much better about the house now that it's a little tidier and also motivated to get the rest of my huge pile of stuff to do done. However, like all good things, the infant tylenol induced naps will end....I'm not looking forward to that day

Stuff

Over the past week I kept meaning to sit down and do a post but something always came up. So here are things I've been thinking about lately:

-why does Keira make me get up 6 times a night? Doesn't she understand the concept of sleep?

-I can't keep Keira on a steady routine. She keeps changing when she wants to nap or stays up longer than she did at bedtime the day before - it's so frustrating! In the nursery on Sunday Leslie said to Keira 'You don't like napping for your Mommy?' and she giggled. Which is great, just goes to show where my sanity and sleep fit in on her list of priorities.

-Mondays and Saturdays seem like days meant for getting things done. This past Monday I resolved to get serious about working out and also to put Keira back on a strict napping and bedtime schedule. Since re-starting working out, I have gained 2 pounds and I think this is due to the fact that all I want to do is eat. I'm not really sure why that is. As for Keira's schedule, she refuses to nap for me and yells and yells and then sleeps for just an hour. Plus, I'm homebound except for like 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours between naps. And now that it's winter and I've got 2 little rascals to drag around with me, it's almost impossible to get ready, go out and get something done, get back and get Keira ready in time to go to bed again. So I've decided now she can nap when she wants. Thankfully she's decided to go to bed around the same time every night, so at least that's something I can count on.

-Why does Grande Prairie have so many little suburbs? And they keep making more!! I went to pick Aidan up from a sleepover recently and thought I would cut through Westpointe to get to Pinnacle - and got lost, like the last time I tried that. As I finally got on the right road, I noticed that Westpointe Rd turned into Pinnacle Blvd which then turned into Pinnacle Drive!! How could you not get lost?? I want to know whose bright idea it was to name EVERY SINGLE street in Pinnacle Ridge, Pinnacle something - Pinnacle Drive, Pinnacle Road, Pinnacle Crescent, Pinnacle Boulevard, Pinnacle Street etc.

-Why does a little person, such as a baby, need soooooooooo much stuff? I'm trying to figure out what to pack for our big trip in January and everything Keira uses is big and so not portable! I'm debating the merits of buying a travel swing and so far I'm not convinced - but I also can't find one, so I guess it's kind of a moot point.

-My baking skills really really suck - and now is so not the time for them to die on me. Last year I made a couple things and this year I thought (foolishly) 'I'm home, I've got time, I can go all out with Christmas baking this year!' and then Karen said she was going to buy baking and I said (foolishly, again) 'Oh, I'm doing a bunch of baking, I can do some for you!' So, the Saturday that Aidan was off on his sleepover my plan was to get it all done. Instead, I mixed up some gingersnaps and burned 4 pans of them before I finally figured out what the problem was. What an excellent start! Hopefully I can pull it together and get everything done on time!!

Well, that's what I've been thinking about lately. Here are some pictures to finish the post off:

We finally got the Christmas tree set up last night. I wasn't really into setting it up this year - too many things going on - like burning cookies!

I finally gave up on the cookies for a little while and made a chocolate marshmallow roll. Aidan helped me and also helped me lick the scraper - his favourite part!

Keira really did NOT want to nap and kept yelling and poking her arms out of the blanket, and I was running out of ideas so I tried her little teddy and she clutched it close right away

Of course it didn't last long, but it was sure cute!

She's such a happy baby (when she's not being forced to nap)

Ever since she was born whenever she sits or sleeps she usually has her hand folded or ankles crossed, it's so cute

Me and Keira. She got this outfit from Emily, who was born in August 2006. This outfit is a 12 month size and I thought it was sized a little small because it fits her now. She wore it to church and Theresa saw her in it and said that Emily had worn it this summer!!

Also, she's started teething!! I couldn't believe it because she's only 4 months, but I stuck my finger in her mouth and sure enough, I can just feel a tiny little tooth poking through on her bottom left hand side. She's also sick and has a super stuffy nose and a hacking cough which I'm sure doesn't help. She's been such a good baby so far, let's hope she doesn't turn into a crazy teething monster!