A few steps! And early mornings...

Emily has taken a few steps on her own!! She loves to practice walking holding onto our hands, moved on to taking one step between furniture and now her favourite thing to do is to do 3-4 steps between the couch, and Sean or I. She'll do the first couple of steps no problem, and then sort-of *leaps*, hurling herself in your direction, so you have to be ready to catch her. Such fun!

In other news...
Matthew. *sigh* So he gets up now to pee in the morning, rather than just going in his Pull-up. Well apparently his bladder springs into action at around 5 am. I heard him get up this morning (which involves turning on 14 lights because it's still night-time for heaven's sake), does his business... then comes to our room.  "Mommy? Mommy!" - light blaring into the room from the hallway. I'm whispering "Go back to bed, it's not time to get up, go to bed" and he's like (full volume) "WHAT? HUH? Mommy??" So I grab him and put him in our bed and that's just a whole gong show. Feet in my back, grabbing the covers, coughing, rolling around. Don't know why I bothered, I should have just gotten up.

I have to teach him to go BACK to BED - his OWN bed - when he gets up to pee. Being potty trained is not all it's cracked up to be. At least with diapers I got to sleep in.

Emily's words - 14 months

I started making a list of the words Emily is saying already... crazy. She doesn't pronounce them all perfectly of course, but they're used in context and understandable by people other than just Sean and I, so I'm counting them ;D hehehe.

1. shoes
2. pants
3. socks (soss)
4. shirt
5. hat
6. poop
7. bunbun (baba)
8. mama
9. daddy
10. matty - sometimes 'matt-oo'
11. kitty
12. doggie (dah-dee)
13. baby
14. more
15. all done (ah da)
16. yes
17. this
18. that
19. stairs (stahs)
20. jack
21. mimi
22. nonna
23. bear
24. book (buht)
25. moo (boo)
26. baa
27. la la la (ya ya ya)
28. night night (niy niy)
29. bye bye
30. hi
31. kiss
32. ball (bah)
33. pretty (pittee)
34. dirty (deh-tee)
35. ruff
36. teet-teet (when she sees a bird)
37. tickle-tickle (tibba tibba)
38. ah-ah (while shaking her head 'no', doing something she shouldn't be, haha)
39. cheese (when she sees the camera)
40. bib
41. wheee!
42. uh ohhh
43. bus
44. up (bup)
45. puzzle*
46. light*
47. boots*
48. ta-da*
49. bath*

And she actually said a 'phrase' the other day... "pretty baby". Wow!! She also jibber-jabbers constantly in a language that I can't understand, but she seems fairly confident in what she's saying and will nod her head "yes" as she's telling us these elaborate stories that sound like "Bedda buh meeh maa boo, debba neeh behh" etc. Hilarious.

Oh and the bonus is she's finally started to do some signing too! She has been waving 'bye-bye' for a while, but recently started signing all done, more, and milk. Yay! I can't wait to teach her more. 

* added 11/28

Chatterbox #2

Emily is a chatty kid, just like her big brother. I love to hear her little voice and get an idea of what she's thinking... though it can be hard to get a word in edge-wise around here. Sometimes I have NO idea what she's trying to say, but it's fun trying to figure it out.

Here is a list of all the words she can say!
- Mama, Dada, Daddy
- Batty (her name for Matthew)
- hi, bye-bye
- this, dat, wa dat (what's that)
- cheese! (when she sees the camera)
- pretty -- her current favourite. Everything is "pih-teeeee!" hehehe.
- dirty (sounds like "ditty")
- moo, baa
- ah-ehh (ie, "uh-oh")
- na-na-na (when singing), na-na (when she sees Nonna's picture)
- rum-rum or brrrr (when driving a car)
- tee-tee (birdy sounds)
- tees (trees)
- ah-ah! (mimicking the sound mommy makes when she's doing something she shouldn't!)
- ba-ba (referring to her bunny, BunBun)
- Jack (sounds like "jat") - her little friend at daycare
- Mimi

I think that's it? It's hard to keep up!

She also doing the stairs and climbing things... she's like a little ninja, I can't turn my back for a second or she'll be on top of something. Just trying to keep me on my toes.

Ooh! New plaything!

Really, child?

My dear, sweet girl child. There are 5,000 toys in this house. At least another 5,000 things you could play with that aren't toys. There's your brother, the cat, your Mom and Dad.

But nooooooo. You have to play in the toilet.

The TOILET. Really? Really. Splish splash!

Oh and, you waited til your brother had JUST peed in it to go splashing around. Well done my love. Well done.

She's a handful, this one. A hand full of pee.

Cruisin!

I think we can officially say Emily is CRUISING!

She started pulling up on furniture to stand last week... about a week before that she started pulling up on the stairs and half-standing / half-leaning. But now she can pull up and stand in front of the couch, chairs, footstool, her crib (even in a sleep sack!).

Yesterday though, she was motivated by an iPod Touch, and took a few steps along the couch to get to it. She also loves to 'walk' holding onto our hands... except that it's really running, she goes so fast. I think we are slowing her down! haha.

Happy Birthday Miss Marvelous!

Yes, it's been a whole year since little Emily came into this world. I sang "Happy Birthday" to her this morning when I got her up, and then realized it was exactly the same time of day that she was born.

Wow.

Here are a few pics from roughly a year ago... time just goes too fast. She has somehow - without my consent - gone from this little squidgy newborn to a laughing, crawling, talking little being unto herself.

Happy Birthday to my best girl.

 

Matthew, assembled by John

Yesterday on the way home from school, Matthew was looking at his hand and said, "Oh! Mommy, my other finger is smaller than this finger!" (looking as his index and middle). I absently say "Yes, honey, they are different sizes...". He says "But... WHY Mommy??" like all concerned. I start to explain that that's how they're made, and he says:
"Oh... I know. When the man was putting my parts on my self... this finger was down a little." *pause* "The man, his name is John."
Me: "John?" (chuckling)
Him: "Yes, John. When the man was putting the parts of my body on - together - this finger was down a little... so then he put the next finger on. So it's not the same."

Then he nods, as if to confirm that that is indeed what happened, and starts to babble about something else entirely.

The things three-year-olds come up with!!

Day Two

Today was (is) "day two" for both kids... Since yesterday went fairly well for Matthew at orientation - he didn't want to leave after his hour was up - the teacher suggested he stay for the morning today, rather than just an hour again. So we headed out this morning with both kids and their little backpacks... drop M off first and I expect it to be a little rough. We found his hooks and hung up his stuff... went to his classroom, and a teacher was there to say "Hi Matthew!!" I crouch down to give M the speech about it's just the morning, I'll be back soon etc -- as I get started he's like, "Okay," and runs into the classroom. Seriously didn't even wave goodbye! I was like "Hey, come back here!" lol (the teacher sortof laughing at me at this point), and "Give Mommy a kiss!" so he comes and gives me a kiss on the cheek, says "Bye Mom." and away he goes. I seriously almost burst into tears right there.

Meanwhile Emily and Sean are waiting so I run back to the car and on the way to drop Emily at Mimi's I told Sean the story, and he just chuckled (as I'm totally tearing up, haha). Go to drop Emily off and it's the same thing, I hand her over expecting tears... nope. She waves bye-bye and Mimi puts her on the floor, and she crawls away with a big smile.

Dude. I guess I couldn't have hoped for a better outcome... I'm the only one crying today!

First Day

Today was the first day of school for Matthew, and first day of daycare for Emily. Huge, huge day for all of us.

Matthew's day was really just an hour of orientation, and we stayed with him. I was a bit worried about how he'd do, because he seemed a bit nervous about the whole thing, and last night he woke up with a bad dream and what can only be described as a panic attack at 11 pm. :( Poor little guy. But... he did *great*. It took him a while to warm up, and stuck to Daddy like glue... but when the hour was up, he didn't want to leave. So, the teacher suggested that he stay for the whole morning tomorrow to see how that goes. So far I really love the classroom  (after a minor mix-up about which room he should be in, which we got sorted out), he's in a class with all his little friends from Mimi's, and the teachers seem really great. 


Emily did amazingly well too. I dropped her off for the full day, knowing it would be a weird day with Matthew. Figured we might as well get right into the new routine. When I dropped her off, she seemed a bit confused but not unhappy at all, and when Matthew and I picked her up at the end of the day, she was all smiles. Mimi said she did great, never cried, went right to sleep at nap time with no problems, and ate all her lunch. Wow!!


The one thing I didn't expect from today was how much Matthew would miss his sister. He asked about her a few times: Was she still at Mimi's? Where was Emily again? When would she be coming home? And then around 4:30 he said "Mommy can we go get Emily now?" I asked if he missed his sister and he said he did. (I guess Mommy isn't as entertaining as she thought she was ;) haha)


In any event it seems -- so far -- that both kids like their new digs and will be comfortable there. Now Mommy just has to get used to the idea :)

She crawled!!

Emily crawled today!!

She's been getting up on all fours for a couple of weeks, and this week she started rocking back and forth. Well today she took one "step" while on all fours... so exciting!! She did it the first time while playing with Daddy on the floor, later with Mommy, and then a third time while all of us were upstairs for bedtime. Wow! It won't be long before she's chasing her brother all over the place, I'm sure. Woo hoo!

A few recent pics!

Thought I'd share a couple of pics of both kids together. Cute huh?

Two firsts last night...

For the first time since she was about 4 months old, Emily went to bed without a bottle. :O Granted we had a late dinner and she ate a LOT... still, when it came time for the bottle and she just looked at it like "meh" I thought, hmmm... maybe we can go without it tonight. I'd like to be able to replace the bottle with books before bed, so we read three before she was done with that. She did have a little wake-up at 10:30pm, which is odd for her, but she just needed a cuddle and went back to sleep til 8:00 this morning. Yeah!

And for Matthew: I finally laid down the law and cut him off at two bathroom breaks before sleep. I threatened to take away all his cars (for a day) if he came out of his room one more time... this was at 9:00 pm. He threatened to pee or poo in his Pull-up. Hrmm. I said no, hold it til morning (since the bathroom thing is seriously just a stall tactic), and what do you know, he went to sleep and was still dry in the morning, getting up at 7:15 to pee like he usually does. Yay!

Crawl Watch 2010... and one kid is potty trained

Emily is going to crawl soon... I can feel it.. As you know Matthew never crawled (not until well after he learned to walk) -- he was a bum scooter. He just hated being on his tummy so much that he never did it, and never learned to get up on all fours etc. Whereas Emily *loves* to be on her tummy, she can now turn in a circle while on her tummy and push herself backwards, as well as rolling across the room. In the past two days while sitting a few times she has put one leg out to the side and leaned forward, almost getting on all fours. She can also almost get up on all fours from her tummy (it's a bit of a 'squashed' all fours, but it's close). If I put her on all fours, she will rock back and forth... clearly wanting to get somewhere!

This is very exciting for us, since I've never really seen this up close, haha. Will keep you all posted on the progress! :)

In other news... Matthew has pretty much given up his nap entirely. I would be more upset if he hadn't traded it for something really great - getting himself potty trained! He is dry and clean most mornings, and we will hear him toddle off to the bathroom to pee on his own. Funny to say this but it is such a great sound for a parent to hear! Haha. He's been dry for about a week now... I think we're nearly ready to make the switch to undies full-time! So exciting! Now we just need to curb the night-time potty habits (running to the bathroom 14,000 times after he's supposed to be in bed... ugh) and we're all set.

Bye bye, gummy smile!

Hello, toofy grin!

Emily is finally working on her first tooth (possibly teeth)! They don't even seem to be bothering her much, thankfully.  Here are a couple of pics!

Emily

Emily:
- sleeps 12 hours / night and 2-4 hours / day. Love it.
- claps (sort-of, she just learned), waves "hi", "bye" and "goodnight" (so cute to see her wave goodnight to herself in the mirror), and sometimes puts her hands above her head for "hooray!". She will do a high-five also.
- has been saying "hi!" for about a month, but I've only recently accepted that she's actually saying it. I thought it was just random / baby noises, but it's definitely in context like when someone walks in the room.
- does the sign for "more", though she does it after she's just gotten more of something
- rolls to get around, yesterday I put her down while I put her brother for a nap and 5 mins later found her all the way under her crib :O
- today she 'scooted' forward on her tummy to get to a toy, army-crawl-style. It was only a couple of inches out of grasp but still a huge leap!
- still no teeth, but got a diaper rash out of the blue this morning (Matthew got bad rashes when he had teeth coming... I think her bottom two are about to pop through)
- sits in the bath without a seat / assistance. A whole new bath experience!
- finally sitting well enough not to need pillows behind her. So fun.
- complains when you take something away from her
- loooooooves her brother... lights up when he comes in the room, smiles and coos when she hears him on the monitor, cranes her neck to look at his picture on the fridge
- says "puh", "abbuh", "dadada", "bababa", "muhmuhmuh" etc
- does a fake cough to get your attention
- giggles anytime she sneezes
- loves to be outside, breeze on her face, smiles at the trees and the sound of birds, loves grass under her.
- loves a thrill -- will throw herself backward when sitting on a couch, bed etc, loves to be swung around, dipped upside-down, thrown in the air (not that I would do any of that ;) ) etc. Oh and rolls off change tables.
- has the cutest head-tilt thing that she does
- is so happy, calm, laid-back and cute. I wish I could bottle her up and keep her this way forever!

Happy Birthday big boy!!

Our wee Matthew is three years old. THREE! Wow.

Happy Birthday to my little man. 

She's on the move!

It's official: the girl is on the move. I can no longer put her down and leave the room, and expect to find her in the same spot when I get back. Unless she's strapped into something :) Tonight I sat her down in the hallway upstairs to watch her brother do puzzles (surrounded by pillows of course...), while I ran the bath etc. After a minute I heard her wailing a complaint, and came back to find her on the other side of the hall, stuck in a half-roll against the closet door. Haha. Poor kiddo! Such a significant milestone... rolling across the room. Go Emily go!

I looked at Matthew today and realized...

... I am a mom to a big boy. Like a full-fledged, real-deal, his-own-person, big grown up little boy.

When did this happen? Honestly, I want to know. What has happened to the past three years? Who said he could grow up? Since when does he tell jokes, make up songs, wipe off my kisses, go upstairs to the bathroom by himself, make up stories to tell me, get his sister a toy...? Since when does he come up with a list of people to invite to his birthday party (me, his dad, and Opa topped the list... haha), since when does he decide he wants to be the goalie and 'play in the net', and decide that he has a favourite colour (brown)? Since when does he know how to climb the rock wall at the playground and go down the Big Kids' Slide? Who said he gets to grow up??

I know. He's still little. Just... lately he seems so BIG. As sick as I am of changing his man-size diapers and listening to him whine, I almost want to hang onto those things because his little-boy-ness seems to be slipping away and being replaced with preschooler-big-boy-ness.

Matthew's first date

This evening before supper Matthew was outside playing with the neighbours and we turned around and saw this. So so so cute. This is the little girl Matthew's age who has been saying for months that Matthew is her boyfriend. If you look closely you'll see she brought her baby on the date, haha.

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Barreling towards 7 months...

Emily is just growing like a weed and doing some neat things lately so I thought I'd share! She will be 7 months old at the end of the week... WOW.

She's making all kinds of fun sounds lately, like "Aaaabuhh", "Pthhhh" and "Betthhh" :) She's trying hard to sit up, working out her ab muscles anytime she's lying down. She can roll tummy-to-back of course and also has rolled back-to-tummy (and got stuck in her crib that way once!). She plays Peek-a-boo, covering her own face with a blankie and waiting for us to say "Where's Emily?" before pulling it off, all smiles when we say "Peek-a-boo!", over and over again. She also does this fake cough thing that is too cute... just to make sure we are paying attention to her, of course ;)

She eats three square meals a day of cereal, fruit, and sometimes veggies... and so far enjoys pretty much everything, except avocado! She loves the mesh feeder though and ate an entire banana with it the other day, and has now finished an ntire box of Mum-mums (not all at once!). She's also had a few sips of water from a sippy cup, and took to it like a pro.

She's started to throw toys on the floor on purpose, and can pass things from one hand to another. She's good at 'raking' things towards herself from her highchair tray. Most, if not everything she can get her hands on goes straight into her mouth. She still sucks her thumb all the time (which I think is really cute) and recently has become very attached to a certain little bunny blanket. I had it put away in my diaper bag for a couple of weeks and this morning I got it out again - you should have seen her face! It was like she was reunited with a long lost friend :) So sweet.

She is so full of smiles and happiness, especially for her big brother whom she *adores*. Matthew is so good with her too, and loves to do things to make her smile or laugh when she needs a friend. I can't wait to see how their relationship grows in the coming months / years.

That's about it! Oh and she got weighed at the doctor's not too long ago, when we went for shots: 17.3 lbs at 6.5 months! And I swear 5 lbs is in her cheeks alone ;)

Trying SO hard!

For the past two weeks or so Emily's really been watching our mouths more, and has been trying SO HARD in the past few days to blow raspberries. It is SO funny to watch because she is just so close to being able to do it, but just... can't... get it. She gets as far as "B...uh." but that's it. Which is a vast improvement over a few days ago when it was just pursed lips. Tee hee.

I think she will be thrilled when she finally does get it... and I will be thrilled until she sprays strained peas all over the walls. Haha. I keep taking videos of her getting a little bit closer every time she tries. It's amazing to watch a baby try to do something, and then finally GET it.

She was really happy when she figured out how to roll tummy-to-back (last week), because guess what? No more tummy time! ;)

6 months!

Our little girl is 6 months old today! Half a year!! How did this happen?

In any event.. happy half birthday little one :)

All About Emily

Just a few words about our sweet girl! She just turned five months old a couple of days ago... yeah you read that right. FIVE months. Wow...

Anyway... Emily is a very happy baby. Really not much phases her, though she really does NOT like to be startled... Matthew 'roaring' can set her off, and she will just WAIL. Thankfully a cuddle from mama gets her calmed down very quickly. She's a fairly cuddly baby, will curl right into me and suck her thumb, and loves to give kisses (aka open-mouth face slobbers!). She sucks her thumb a lot. She's a great sleeper and love love loves her big brother. He had her absolutely belly laughing tonight! Her favourite things right now are Daddy (she always has a smile for him!), me (aka 'the lunch lady'), her brother, Sophie the giraffe, and her feet. Her favourite foods (so far) are sweet potato and banana, but she also eats oatmeal, squash, pear, and rice cereal.

I don't know how she got to be so calm and happy... she certainly didn't get it from her often stressed-out, sometimes uptight Mama! She's content to play on her own for a good long while, and can keep herself entertained with just a blankie and her feet... but will cry for attention eventually :) She's always been a calm and quiet baby, though she is a relentless and enthusiastic kicker and has been since the womb!

I'm curious to see how her personality will develop in a few years. I hope she doesn't end up too shy, like I was growing up, but I think with such a boisterous big brother she will be pretty well rounded ;) I count my lucky stars that she is such a good baby and I hope it doesn't come back to bite me when she's a teenager!

Hard to argue with Toddler Reasoning

Today I tried to talk to Matthew about listening to his body. He holds his pee, especially when he's eating, and ends up doing the 'pee pee dance' and squirming all around until it starts to come out and then he'll finally say "I think pee is coming!!". Anyway I was trying to say to him, "You have to listen to your body; when it says 'Matthew, I need to pee.' we say 'okay!' and go to the potty." He seemed to understand and agreed.

About 20 minutes later he was trying to negotiate some dessert before he'd finished his pasta. So he says "Mummy, my tummy is saying, 'Matthew, I need some yogurt.'" and nods his head seriously. Hard to argue with that ;) hahaha.

Superbowl Roll!

Emily rolled yesterday! I don't know if she was trying to cheer on the Saints or what but there we were on the floor, I had her on her tummy and was talking to Margaret (with the Superbowl on in the background), and all of a sudden I hear "thud" and she's on her back looking up at me! LOL! I was like, "That's the first time she rolled... and I missed it!" Thankfully she did it a few more times (before getting a bit pissed off that I kept putting her back on her tummy, hehe).

Yay Emily!!

Matthew's first "crush"

It seems Matthew has had his first-ever girl crush...

We were visiting at Grandma and Uncle Steve's on Saturday. Matthew went down for a nap and when he got up there was a little girl there named Angie there. She's Aunt Margaret's cousin's little girl, so no direct relation to us really :) Anyway she's 5, red-haired, and cute as a button. Well, Matthew was *smitten*. As soon as he saw her he said "Who's THAT!". And he just followed her around like a little puppy dog. It was seriously the cutest thing ever. At one point he was chasing her around and anytime she sat down he'd sit down next to her and give her googly love eyes.

Then yesterday when I asked if he had fun at Grandma's house (keep in mind we were there *all* day, supper, evening, etc), he said "Yeah... and what was that gala's [girl's] name??" I told him it was Angie and he said "Yeah... and Angie came..." like it was the best part of his day. Best part of his week! So cute.

A first around here!

Emily fell asleep today... in the Jumperoo... practically mid-jump! The lights are music were still going, in fact.

 

Matthew never fell asleep randomly like that. I guess Emily just wanted to combine two of her favourite things - sleep and the Jumperoo. Haha. And yes... I did move her to her bed (after snapping a few pictures... and a video ;) )

Incidentally, the other day (after her shots and the 'excitement' of the Dr's office, mind you), she was so late for her nap that she fell asleep on her change table... *while* I was redressing her.  I was doing up her sleeper and I look up and there she is just snoozing away. Too funny.

Thumb and feet!

Emily has found not only her thumb (hoo-raaaaayyyy!) but as of today, her feet! It's the cutest thing to watch - whenever she has bare feet, she immediately grabs hold of one foot and tries to get it in her mouth. Thankfully getting her thumb in is easier... now we just need to work on keeping it there. She gets pretty upset when it suddenly 'disappears', haha.