A Forever Family

A Forever Family

Friday, 28 February 2014

Crawling and Winter Days Inside

On Family Day, B started crawling.  She loves the new found freedom.  She explores the house everyday and everyday it takes her less time to get into something she's shouldn't be.  She has a fascination with cords, with the bathroom and with the pantry.  AND with the gate at the top of the stairs! She's much more able to interact with her sister (and tear down whatever she builds).  Find Videos of her learning to crawl HERE, HERE and HERE.

This last month we've also spent a lot of our days inside.  We've had the flu, pink eye and a huge snow dump all at the same time it seems.  As a result we haven't spent as much time outside as K, in particular, would like.  When it was just snow, I made sure to take her out everyday when B was napping (B isn't so much a fan of sitting in the snow in her snowsuit).  But when pink eye hit, and then this flu hit me and B- our outside days were cut down significantly.  K has been a pretty good trooper and she's been trying to play with B more, so that's been cute to watch.  K has spent some time playing out in the big snow dump on our deck.  I even moved her whole kitchen out there one day at her request.  Video of K being dumped in the snow by dad, HERE.

I spent one weekend this month out at my parents' place.  Managed the ferry by myself with the two kids.  On the way there, they had pink eye so they couldn't go to the play area.  On the way back, I had the flu so I was counting down the minutes till I got home. 

8 months old today- almost ready to crawl

lazy Family Day with Dad building forts

Family Day snuggle time

Last Valentine's cake pop

Getting so big!

Since figuring out to crawl, she has realized she's trapped!

spends a lot of time here

CRAWLING

big girl sitting in the chair

falling out of the chair

giant snow dump

13 inches

Sister reading time

Saturday, 15 February 2014

Valentine's

This year we got two Valentine's celebrations.  We took the girls to Victoria on Wednesday to play with Papa and had the whole day to ourselves as an early Valentine's date.  We had lunch outside in the beautiful sunshine at the delicious Tacofino food truck.  Always delicious! We walked around downtown and I looked around a little Italian market for polenta and a better quality risotto rice than I currently have.  Success on both accounts.  We got our traditional Valentine's chocolates at Roger's.  We also walked the breakwater (first time since the guardrails were installed) before our movie.  We saw Monuments Men- we enjoyed it.  If you are interested in that topic manner and you thought looking at the preview that you would like it- you probably will.  If it's not an area you find interesting, you will probably think it's slow and boring.  For dinner we finally tried Pescatores.  I have mixed reviews.  I will try it again before passing judgement. 


Friday I successfully photographed my sweet girls.  First time K has ever sat so still for me.  Because we had our out of the house date on Wednesday, we planned an in home night together.  We put the girls to bed after their dinner of KD and had our own special dinner.  I whipped up a delicious bistro-inspired meal:
Appetizer: Bruschetta
Entree: Slow Braised Beef Short Ribs with a Red Wine Sauce over a Pea+Parmesan Risotto with Roasted Asparagus on the side
Dessert: Lime Tart
It was absolutely lovely.  So happy risotto is now something I can do.  Also, note to self and anyone else trying risotto in their own kitchen- arborio is fine and is most easily available BUT if you can get your hands on Carnaroli it really does make a difference and it's barely more expensive. (Recipes for this dinner on my Tested and Approved Pinterest board and soon probably my recipe blog).





We ended our night with a retro movie- "Say Anything".  We thought it was appropriate for the night and neither of us had ever managed to see it before.  Also, my Valentine's gift was a new kitchen gadget: a hand held kitchen torch.  Looks like it will be creme brulee for our anniversary....


Monday, 3 February 2014

Girls Update

Time for another update.  B will be 8 months this week and I feel the need to keep recording all the things that will pass quickly so I don't forget them.

B is on the verge of crawling.  She keeps getting one leg caught underneath her.  But she can scooch, reach and roll to get anywhere she wants basically.  She can get across whole rooms and into all kinds of trouble now.

I had to move B into a sleep sack because she was rolling so much around her crib that she couldn't sleep and would wake up in really uncomfortable positions.

She says dada and mama.  She also says gaga when she's happy and nana when she's not (kind of like "no no"). 

She's a non stop eater.  She loves solid food.  She eats almost, if not more, than K some days.  And she'll eat just about anything, even if she's not loving it.

She was sick with the roseola virus recently and discovered she does not like to take medicine.  K would drink it up and still does- will ask for more even.  B hates it.

B loves to sit for story or song time.  She's much more capable of sitting still than her older sister ever was (or is).

B has her two bottom teeth now- although they are taking their own sweet time coming fully in.  They've been there for a long time now but still are just peeking through.

K lied to me deliberately for the first time, recently.  She coloured all over her arms and shirt and when I asked her if she coloured on herself, she looked down at the ground and said "no".  She looked caught but wouldn't fess up right away.  Thankfully it was washable.  I tried not to laugh in front of her.  I didn't get super mad either.  I wish I had thought to take a picture before I washed it off.

K puts everything down for a nap.  All her babies and toys.  She even went into my cupboard, got a bread pan, and put that down for a nap.  Everything has to have a nap these days.

K is talking up a storm now.  Still doesn't sound super clear all the time but she tries multiple syllables and full sentences now.  She also started singing.  She will sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Popcorn Popping and Ring Around the Rosie.  She knows all the actions to those songs and you can hear some of the words when she does it.  Mostly it's gibberish but the tune is usually pretty good.

K is pretty much potty trained.  No more accidents.  It's just night time/nap time now.  That's hit or miss.  But we're not worrying about it.  If she wakes up on her own to go, we take her- otherwise we sleep. 

K has started drawing pictures now (or what she thinks are pictures).  It's all just scribbles but she tells me she's drawing suns and houses and bugs and butterflies and all kinds of things.  She always asks me to draw pictures of our family (including Aunty Tanya.)

She worships my sister Tanya and is constantly (like honestly everyday) asking about her.

If I give K a little bowl of cheerios as a snack I often come back to find  them all soggy.  She pours her water in them thinking it's the same as milk.

She often, out of no where and for not particular reason, fake sneezes.  NO idea what that's about.

She likes to play this game where she asks us who everyone is.  Like at the dinner table she will point to herself and say "mom? Noooo! dad? yes!" and then laughs hysterically because she's called herself dad.  She does this with all of us.  Asking if we're someone we're not and laughing when she or we say yes.

Super cute/sweet moment yesterday: while Cole and I were lazing in bed, K kept coming in and bugging us.  So we asked her to go to the living room and sing B a song.  She said ok.  But then we hear the guitar and Cole rushes into the living room.  He finds K sitting beside B with his guitar (actually it's a guitalele) strumming out a tune.  She calls Cole's guitalele "song" so when Cole asked her to go sing a song to B she went into his office, got his "song" and played for B.  It was pretty cute- even if it's not what we meant.


K putting her baby down for a nap


K always does it too close to B and this is what happens to her doll's nap time...

how she always sits now

I know it's dark- but look at that smile!


pretty blue eyes

B, K and my sister's son, J