"When you're bigger"

This post is mostly because it's a story that I want to remember and tell Maddy about when she's older. Here's a little history: When I was pregnant, Maddy and I would look at a catalogue for teaching supplies. She'd see the googly-eyes, pom poms, scissors and stickers and say "Mama can you buy for Maddy?" To which I'd always reply, "When you're bigger, mama will buy." So it became a thing we'd say whenever she wanted something. It even came to the point where Maddy would remind us, "Mama, when I'm bigger you buy Maddy scissors."

The other day Maddy and I were reading a book about sharing. It talks about how sharing makes others feel happy and then you feel happy too. At snack time she was having a lot of fun sharing her pretzels and raisins with me. On this particular day, I also gave her 5 M&Ms as a special treat. I thought I'd test it out, just to see what she'd do, so I ask if she could share one of her chocolates with me. I'll never forget the look on her face as she stared at her beloved candies. You could really tell that she was torn between sharing and parting with her special treat. After a little while she looked at me, gave me a little smile and said, "No mama, when you're bigger."

I'm a big girl now

Over the holidays we started actual potty training with Maddy. She's used the potty/toilet for pees and poops since she was six months old, so our hurdle wasn't to get her to go there, but too have her gain more control. Before we left for Revelstoke we started talking more about how mom and dad use the toilet. We would make a big deal when we had the urge to go and say that we had that "special feeling" and needed to go to the toilet.

In Revelstoke we put on her underwear and told her to tell us when she had the special feeling and we'd take her to the potty. The first day, there was peeing all over the place but she soon learned and so did we (to take her there more often). In the beginning she would do this whole routine and if we did anything to ruin the routine she wouldn't want to use the potty. The routine went something like this:

1. Mama goes in the bathroom. Maddy stays in the hall, closes the door and says "Knock, knock, who's there? Mama's there!" before she came in the bathroom.
2. Once inside, she painstakingly pulled down her underwear, insisting they come all the way off. (A few times she crashed her head on the floor because she lost her balance while trying to get the undies off!)
3. Next she'd go and step on the scale and exclaim, "I'm healthy!"
4. Finally, she'd go and sit on the potty, where she'd sit and sit and sit.

She's come a long way since. Now that we are back at home, the routine is getting better. She can pull her underwear down quickly (leaves them by her ankles), shimmies over to the potty, sits down and does her business. She can also move the bench over to the sink, climb on, wash and dry her hands and move the bench back all by herself. We've had to reward her with one raisin if she puts pee or poop in the potty now. It helps with motivation to leave whatever she's doing to go try and it also makes her come off the potty faster.

So far, so good. All I can say is that I'm SOOOOO glad we don't have carpet and those prefold cloth diapers are super handy for cleaning up accidents!!

Ethan is 4 months old

He's just beginning to spend some time in the Bumbo

It truly feels like Ethan has always been a part of our family and it's hard to believe that he is only 4 months old. Some of that probably has to do with his sheer size, he's definitely big for his age and is wearing 6-12 month clothing. We noticed a lot of change in him over the holidays. Even during the short time of a week spent in Revelstoke, Josh and I could see differences in him. I still remember the days of trying to get the gas out of him. All the time we spent burping and farting him!! I'm happy to report that those days are behind us now. I've just noticed that I don't use as many receiving blankets/burp cloths now, though I think I'll soon be replacing them with bibs as he seems to be drooling more now.

Some tummy time at Oma and Opa's

The biggest development is in his sleep. For the last 4 months, he's basically slept in a bouncy chair. We found that he had difficulty breathing while laying on his back because his nose would get stuffed up. Since he slept all the time, he's always needed the bouncy chair. We also found that he slept better with the vibrating function on and we've used many batteries in the 'ol chair to keep the vibration going. It's funny because in order to sleep he needed to be swaddled, in a darker, quiet room, in the bouncy chair with the vibration on. With Maddy at that age, she just fell asleep whenever she was sleepy! Anyway, while in Revelstoke we found out, by accident, that he no longer needed the vibration (actually the battery ran out and didn't get a chance to replace it). Then after we got home, I tried to just have him sleep on his back for naps and found that he stays asleep for longer on his back now! Yippeee! Our last hurdle is the swaddle, but I'm happy enough with things now and the swaddle can wait until he has more control of his arms.

Other developments are his beautiful smiles. He's also beginning to give a little giggle here and there. He loves to coo and talk to you in order to see what you'll do. He often does this while nursing so I sometimes have the sit there and ignore the cooing. He can also stand with support and seems to prefer standing up to sitting. If you hold his arms, he can push his legs up to a standing position, it looks like he's doing baby squats. He doesn't yet have full control of his hands but he does like to sit and play with a toy now. We've found that with Ethan, everything is in the timing. We can put him down awake and he'll go to sleep on his own as long as we put him down as soon as he shows some tired signs. The same is with eating. He doesn't go on to nurse if you have him wait too long after he shows he's hungry.

He looks even bigger when he's in his carseat. He won't be there for much longer!

Ethan, you're doing a great job and we're so proud of you. We love you so much, happy 4 months birthday! xoxo

Our Own Christmas

I love celebrating Christmas with the Lee-Youngs and the Blommesteins in Revelstoke, but it's also really nice to celebrate as a family too. This year was especially fun because Maddy 'understood' it more. We were able to do a countdown to Christmas with an advent calendar, put cookies out for Santa and open presents together. Such fun! Maddy had a great time opening her presents and then the ones for Ethan. After a while she was so into it that she started to help (more like 'take over') with opening our gifts too. It was hilarious to see her oooh and aahhh over things she had no idea of, like car parts for Josh.

You can tell she's just dying to eat one of the cookies herself, but she showed great restraint.

"Look Essan, it's for you!!"

Reading one of the books she's been wanting for a long time. It was fun to see her so excited.

"Ooohh, wow Papa!!... what is it?!"

Pippa's Birthday

The birthday girl enjoying the head of the snake cake

The day after we had everyone over the the Lee-Young Christmas, we went to Joanne and Philip's place to celebrate Pippa's 4th birthday. I still remember when we found out that Pippa was born. Josh and I were traveling down the Baja coast and we checked our email at a mall in Cabos San Lucas. My how four years have flown by. It's crazy to think that in that short amount of time, how much our lives have changed.

This year, Pippa wanted a snake cake and Joanne did not disappoint yet again. I think she was just happy to not have to make a dragon again! Maddy had a great time playing with her cousins and especially with Pippa's new cupcake toy. Thank you Pippa, for sharing so nicely. We hope you had an awesome birthday. You're such a big girl now and we love you very much!

I just love the expression on her face in this picture. Pure joy!