Happy Birthday Josh!

Yes, that is a tea light candle. I couldn't find a real birthday candle!

What an awesome weekend to celebrate Josh's birthday. We started with dim sum with my parents and then figured we'd head home for Ethan's nap. The only problem was that BOTH kids fell asleep in the car on the way home so we had to drive around. It's always nice to have that quiet time for Josh and I to catch up and talk when both kids are asleep. When the kids woke up we went to the mall to get Josh's license renewed and they we so excited to try their first Yogen Fruz. Ethan was soooo happy.

The most exciting part came when Gong Gong and Po Po offered to come over and babysit the kids while Josh and I went out for dinner. We first had supper for my parents and the kids and then followed by cake which Maddy helped me to make the night before. Dinner out was great and it was amazing how fast we ate with out having to look after the kids!

Happy birthday Babe, we love you so much!!

Gotta love the new kids area in Chapters.

Ethan and Papa playing a 'bumping' game while a Deer Lake Park. It was all fun and games until Papa bumped Ethan right over!

Ethan 1.5 and Maddy (almost) 3.5

I wanted to do a separate snow day post, but that's not going to happen. So here they are.

I know I missed the ball on the 17 month update, but I'm really proud to say that I didn't procrastinate when it came time to writing report cards. Usually, that is when I get some posts up because I'm supposed to be working on report cards. Not this time. :)

Ethan

Ethan has changed a lot since the last post. I think near the end of 16 months, Ethan figured out how to nod his head to say yes. It has been a great help in his communication. Ethan is also just beginning to try and copy some words that we say. He has his own way of saying the following words: Dog, Bird, Bear, Cheers, Bye, Duck Ball. He is beginning to try and mimic what we say so I'm wondering if a word explosion is on the horizon.

I was reading his 16 month post and back then he was fighting the high chair. Well he is officially out now! It's so great to see the 4 of us sitting at the same table for meal times. Another change is that he's become much better at feeding himself with a utensil. He even eats cold cereal with milk in the mornings now. We LOVE that!! I almost forgot that he is even using a regular cup at meal times. It's still touch and go and he needs to be reminded to "maan, maan lay" (slowly in Chinese) but he loves this new push toward big-boyhood.

Ethan's 'second childness' definitely shows with how much faster he's moved towards doing things on his own. I think because he sees Maddy doing all these things and so he wants to do it too. I love the proud look he has on his face when he knows that he can do something. Right now he loves to finish eating and bring his plates and utensils in put it in the dishwasher for me. He'll even put the fork into the proper utensil basket for me.

Lastly, I've noticed a real change in Ethan when it comes to books. As a baby we started with reading books during his sleep routine. The problem was that he was never very interested in the books. That has been the trend for the most part until now. Lately, Ethan has really become interested in books and he'll often grab a book and ask us to read to him. Right now he really loves 1,2,3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle and Woolly Stops the Train by Usbourne Books. I love when he comes to me with a book and then settles down in my lap to read with me. One of my favourite times.

Maddy

Maddy is quickly approaching 3 and a half years old. She is definitely showing us her desire to be herself. It took a while for us to clue in that she was wanting more independence, but now that we finally get it, Maddy has really grown. She loves to pick out her own clothes right now and as long as it's appropriate for the weather, we're good to go. She is really big on 'matching' and that is usually the basis for her clothing choice.

Maddy continues to love crafts and drawing. She can spend almost an hour with her watercolor paint set and pages torn from a colouring book. I plan to do a separate blog to show some of her art, so stay tuned! For Christmas Santa gave her some books with pages that help to practice scissor skills and she can pretty much cut a straight line on her own. I know that one day soon Maddy and I will be heading off to the scrapbooking store and having a great time!

Another new step for Maddy is that she goes to swimming lessons on her own. She had a couple weeks of crying at the beginning of the lesson, but now she loves it. It is so cool to see her on her own and to watch what she is like as a student. The class sizes are 1:4 so they do get a lot of attention, and Maddy loves that.


Life these days is really great. I'm really enjoying this stage with the kids. We can generally get out and to do something in the morning and come home for Ethan's nap. Maddy is pretty flexible and will nap some days and others not. I feel like such a lucky Mama to have my two kids. Each day, even on the hard 'stuck at home' days, one of them will do something funny and have us all laughing.

Sick of being Sick

The title says it all. We have been on the merry-go-round of sickness and we can't seem to get off. It started in the new year with Josh, then shortly after both kids had the same cold. Then they recovered only to have a relapse of the same cold. Being on 'snot patrol' of both of them at the same time was just about a full time job and I'm sure that the stock for Kleenex has gone up just because of the Blommesteins. Somewhere in there I was sick as well, though I can hardly remember when it was now.

More recently Maddy came down with a stomach flu. The poor girl went to lay down on the couch because she wasn't feeling well when all of a sudden she puked. It went up and then straight back down on her face. Needless to say she was freaking out with tons of tears. While we were trying to get her clothes off, Ethan came into the bathroom with her binkie and was trying to console her with it. It was so cute to see. That lasted about a week for all the symptoms to clear. Just as it did, I came down with a stomach flu but luckily I had it for only 2 days.

One week later, just as I thought we were getting better, Ethan came down with the flu. He had a pretty high fever and aches for a couple of days and now he is a coughing, sneezing, snot machine. It's gotten so bad that I even broke down and bought this. I'm pretty happy with how the nose sucker works! Probably a little 'over the top' but seeing as he can't blow his nose and the constant wiping irritates his nose, it's worth it. The funniest is how I have to hold him down because obviously he doesn't like me using it. There is a lot of struggling so by the end he's a mess with snot all over his face and sometimes a few angry tears. One time, just after I'd used it I said, "Do you want to see your bai see?". He got up all angry and covered in snot /tears and looked at the container. The he said with a big grin and a look of amazement "Whoah!" and walked away to play. Too funny. Maddy also has the same coughing and congestion but she was spared the high fevers and aches.

I'm hoping that since I wrote this, the spell will be broken and this will be the last of it. Can't wait for Spring and the better weather to come.

Sorry, no pictures. You don't want to see the mess that we're in over here. It's not a pretty sight.