Picky Eaters Part II

I had to post about this since I complained about Zoe in my last post. I was mentioning her to Sarah when she came to pick up her 3 kids and she said to me that Paige will only eat peanut butter and pineapples at Alanna's house and refuses to eat it at home. Just that day we had had ham and pineapple pizza and a few times I've copped out of a real dinner with peanut butter and jam sandwiches and carrots and apples. So that made me feel good!

And Zoe did much better with her eating the next 2 days she was here, and also listened a little better, so maybe we were just adjusting to each other.

So Here's a Dumb Idea...

It was late and I was looking through the local classifieds online and saw a couple of 'wanted: childcare' ads. For some reason I replied to about 3 of them. Maybe I had forgotten how stressful my regular 3 extras are or it was too close to my bedtime and I wasn't thinking clearly, I don't know. Yesterday I got a call back from one of them, she needed 3 days this week for her 3 1/2 year old daughter Zoe. We agreed on a price, her husband and daughter swung by for a quick visit that night and Aidan was waiting by the window this morning at 9:35 when she arrived.

The first problem was that I had in my head that the day would end at 4, but the mom was actually working til 6. Then it turned out that Zoe was a picky eater. This is seriously one of my biggest pet peeves. How rude is it to send your kid to someone's house and have them turn up their nose at perfectly good food!! I called the kids for dinner and Zoe walks in the kitchen and asked what was for dinner and I said 'ham and potatoes' (Easter leftovers) and she says 'Ewww!!' I said 'Excuse me?!?' Nice. Really nice.

Tomorrow I've got the three regulars from 10-2 and then the oh-so-charming Zoe from 4 til whenever. Hopefully no later than 6. By the time she went home today I was ready to scream! She's apparently deaf - it takes 3 times for her to actually notice I'm saying something, another 3 times before she stops what she's doing, or starts doing what I'm asking and then about 30 more times before it actually sinks in and she listens to me. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Happy Easter!

After St. Patrick's Day we were in the dollar store looking for something and Aidan was very excited to find this hat. He looked so funny I had to take a picture. Since we had his 'Green Party' this year he's taken a big interest in St. Patrick's Day, or Green Patrick's Day as he calls it. For the next few days afterwards he would say to me 'Is it Green Patrick's Day today?' and was sad to learn he had to wait a whole year for it to come again. He's decided he wants his next party to be a Blue Party so I guess from here on out all parties will now have a color scheme

We went to the Easter Eggstravaganza at Muskoseepi Park and it was a mad house! There were so many people and lots of strollers and just impossible to get around. You walk in the door and you're hit with a wave of heat from all the people crammed inside. Stupidly I decided to stay and do all the activities, but Aidan said he had a good time so I guess it was worth it. Here he is hugging the Easter Bunny

When it came time to get his face painted, there was no way he was getting a sissy Easter bunny painted on his face! He decided he wanted to be a scary black lion. Because everyone knows that the Easter bunny's sidekick is a super scary black lion....right??

Another one of the activities was cookie decorating. Each of the kids was given a frosted cookie and then there were a number of Wilton Food Writer markers that the kids could draw on the icing with. I thought it was such a cool idea - and Aidan took this opportunity to continue his black theme

Yay! Found an egg!

It wasn't so much of an egg hunt as an egg pick. Someone had just gone behind a bush and dropped like 30 eggs out in the open. Good thing he still thought it was fun...

Keira did not enjoy herself at all. The only thing I didn't get a picture of was the balloons. There were clowns that were shaping balloons into bunnies (??) and with all the kids holding their balloons and so many people there were constantly balloons popping which scared her. She really doesn't react well to high energy stuff. At Aidan's party there were maybe 5 other kids running around and having fun and she was really upset and yelling, but once everyone sat down to have a snack she was fine.

Spiderman

Aidan picked Spiderman to watch tonight. He alternated between being really excited about it, anxious during the scary bits and bored during the rest. Near the end when it's building up towards the big showdown between the Green Goblin and Spiderman, the Goblin sings 'The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout, down came the goblin and washed the spider out' or something like that. Aidan stood up and said indignantly 'That's not how it goes!!' and then proceeded to sing the right version :)

I SEE YOU!

Photo Shoot

I love this little outfit Rachel got for Keira. She looks 'very beautiful' to quote Aidan, and like a little ballerina!
AH-CHOO!

I think it's so funny that I took the picture at the exact moment she sneezed

Yesterday I put up a blanket and tried to take some nice pictures of Keira. I think this is probably the best picture of the bunch.

I forgot to put another little blanket over the stool, but most of these pictures didn't turn out anyways because she refused to look up long enough for me to get a picture...

...and when she did look at me all she gave me was a tight closed lip smile - grr!

I love the expression on her face here. I think she's starting to act shy and this is exactly what she does. Tilts her head to the side and makes this face and then turns and burrows her face in my shoulder.

Bubbles

Aidan constantly bugs me to let him blow bubbles - it's too long to wait until summer! He was so excited the other day to be able to blow bubbles in the tub.

Aidan

Here's Aidan and his best friend Shaun. Keira has no hope of getting any sleep when the two of them are playing :)

He couldn't find the little teddy blanket for his bear, so he brought out a pillowcase so his teddy wouldn't be cold

Making green playdough popsicles and other yummy stuff!

"Stop taking my picture Mom!"

Piano

I bought Keira a little piano a couple weeks ago. She doesn't play with it, just whips out the plastic things with the tabs on top and chews on them. Hopefully as she gets a little older she'll realize what the real attraction is supposed to be :)

Sledding

I feel like such a bad parent for waiting until the middle of March to FINALLY get the kids to the hill that is within walking distance of our house... But I met some friends there and they said it was just their second time, so then I didn't feel so bad.
I wasn't sure how Aidan would take it, so the first time he and I went down together and then he went down on his back, his tummy, backwards...I don't know why I ever bother worrying about him - he's never shy and totally up for anything!

Here he is on his way down the hill

Walking back up chatting with his friend Nathan who is getting a ride on his mom's back

He never actually crashed into anyone, though he had a couple close calls as you can see here

Making friends with another kid on the long walk back

Keira sat at the top of the hill on a bench and got bored quickly. I took her down once and it was quite a quick ride because the snow was getting icy but it totally didn't faze her. Not that I wanted her to start yelling, but she wasn't even the least bit excited either!

Friday Mini Party

Every Friday Aidan gets to have a mini-party. He hauls his couch out to the living room and snuggles in with his blanket and teddy to watch a movie. Sometimes Keira even joins him on his couch - until she starts trying to steal the cheesies!

Roly Poly Keira

I was going to just do a quick post and then I started surfing the internet and now it's about time for me to get to bed, so no pictures tonight.

I've really been trying to get Keira to start crawling lately. She's going to be 8 months on the 25th and (this is bad, I know) Aidan started crawling at 8 1/2 months and....not to compare or anything :) The first time I put her down on her hands and knees she was soooo not impressed and just started wailing in the way babies have when they are really put out. Today though, I put her down on her hands and knees and gently rocked her back and forth and she totally got the hang of it. We tried it 2 times. The first time she rolled back into a sitting position and the second time she really got into the rocking and was grinning away. I really want her to do SOMETHING! I mean, it's not like she doesn't do anything, but she doesn't roll over (she's only done it like 3 times) and won't lie on her back unless she's sleeping...she does sit, thankfully. Even when I come in after her nap she lifts her head off her pillow to see what's going on - so cute - but it's like she just can't be flat on her back.

I think her arms have grown like 2 feet each lately! Now I really have to make sure wherever I put her down there's nothing within a 3 ft radius of her. Aidan says 'Keira has long arms!' She's still teething and her nights are just horrible. I've started putting her to bed a little earlier which helps a bit...last night she slept from 10pm-4am and then woke me up at 4, 5, 6 and 7. By 7 she really wouldn't go to sleep so I had to bring her back to my bed and although I tried my best and we didn't get up until 8 I only got about 15 minutes after that. Sometimes it's a little better but I really wish she would sleep more!! Hopefully that darn tooth hurries up so I don't go insane!

Oh, and here's something exciting: I've been working out every single day since Feb 10th!! Well, I did skip one day, but still, pretty good!! I feel better and I'm sure it's giving me more energy, but so far I don't think I've lost any weight :( Maybe some inches (or inch). By now it's kind of a habit, which is great. Yesterday I was thinking about not working out (Aidan had a party and after mopping the floor and cleaning up I was kind of tired) and then before I knew it, I was on the treadmill half way through :) Today I bought myself some new work out capris for summer - maybe I'll move my treadmill outside :)

ROE Family Visit

Mrs. Brewster, the teacher of the Grade 1 class Keira and I are assigned to through the ROE program, emailed me these pictures from Keira's last family visit.

Keira's always a pretty happy baby, but with all the kids so excited to see her, she's got a mile wide smile the entire time!

So many people to look at! The kids wave at her or call to her trying to get her attention. Sometimes she pays more attention to certain groups of kids than others and then we have to direct her attention to the rest of the kids because they feel left out.

That's Dawn in the blue shirt, she's the ROE Instructor that comes with us on the visits and then she also does a pre and post family visit on her own with the kids. These toys Keira is playing with are just for her on her visits - pretty cool! The kids like seeing how she's developed and that now she can actually play with them. Everyone has such a good time and the visit just seems to fly by.

Haircut

So yesterday I went and got a long overdue haircut. I dragged both the kids along since Michael was out in the field. It was the first and last (hopefully!!) time that's going to happen! I was just going to get a trim...and then I was agreeing to an inverted bob thing. I don't think it really works properly with my thin hair, but it looks okay :) It's certainly harder for Keira to grab a handful of my hair to pull out - and for that I'm thankful!