Looking Ahead to 2030...

Did the title catch your attention? I first saw the date 2030 on the brand new bibs the girls received at Baby Day with my school board, Niagara Catholic! Part of a welcome package, the bibs had the caption "Graduating Class of 2030" on the front with Niagara Catholic's logo! We laughed at how far away 2030 seemed, the year the girls would graduate from high school! The caption will appear again when my daughters begin Junior Kindergarten in 2016 (which will definitely be ELKP by this time) the girls will receive a little t-shirt stating they are in the Graduating Class of 2030! 

My teaching partner Kristin and I were talking about how cute these shirts were as her son just began school this past September. She suggested the shirts should be adult size and the kids could "grow into them" over the years. I thought her idea was brilliant and decided to make my own version of the t-shirt for the girls (sized women's medium) and plan on taking their picture every September with their shirts on until the year 2030! I think it will be a great "back to school" tradition each year and will really show how my daughters have grown (literally) into the young women they will be when they graduate from high school. 

So, here is our first picture, September 2013:

What We've Been Up To...

The past two weeks have been full of activity. Break out the baby gate! Now that the girls are on the move, there is a lot less time for blogging! What started off as a small taste of crawling has turned into full combat crawls provided the right motivator is in place. Objects of desire this week include cell phones, charging cables for my lap top or phone and hockey pucks. Could Daddy be any prouder? The girls had a great time banging and passing the pucks!

 The crawling has been most entertaining to experience. The girls are constantly experimenting with how to move and we've even set them up at one end of the living room with a toy at the other end. The combat crawling race that follows is the funniest and cutest thing! The girls are in full exploring mode which has made me sharply aware of how much clutter you can accumulate and how quickly your floors get dirty. Each day bring a new awareness of what needs to be baby proofed!

After successfully obtaining library cards for the girls, we started a new weekly routine on Tuesdays. Swimming lessons and a trip to the library! Swimming lessons have been hit or miss for the girls and some days the 30 minutes in the water fly by, while the 60 minutes it takes to get there, change two squirmy babies into swim diapers and bathing suits then repeating the whole process when they are wet, cold and over stimulated drags on. While the girls enjoy most of their time in the water, laying on their backs and the full dunk under water continue to be low on the fun list!

This past weekend was full of great first time activities: 

Friday the girls and I went to watch Daddy's hockey game!

Saturday the girls dressed in purple and watched the Grape and Wine parade!

Sunday the girls went grocery shopping and sat in a grocery cart together!

I think the unobstructed view of the grocery store had something to do with their sheer joy of riding around in the grocery cart! Lots to look at and lots of attention from smiling customers! The girls are definitely becoming more interested in food as we have added yogurt to the menu!!

A Week of Firsts!

This past week has been an exciting one for the girls, filled with many first time experiences. On Tuesday, the girls had their first ever swimming lesson at the St. Catharines Kiwanis Aquatic Centre! During class we realized we had a few friends in our class, Beth and Owen from our Baby and Mommy Yoga Class plus Edge and Darla with their twin boys! It's great to run into so many of our friends at different events for the girls.

The girls also returned their library books, got their own library card and signed out new books this week! Here is Abigail happily signing out new books for her and Molly!

Other new adventures this week include going to church and staying awake the entire time, trying yogurt and sitting independently for more than a few seconds. While there is still the unexpected tumble over while sitting, the girls are becoming much better at playing and sitting! Here are a few of our attempts this week!

 Abigail practices her sitting while looking at a book

Molly sitting and playing with a new toy

The new toy pictured with Molly was a great find at the Annual Mom to Mom sale by POMBA. This $5 race car has already proven to be a welcome addition to our toy supplies as the sound effects are highly entertaining. No one ever told me how sick I would get of hearing the same tunes over and over again. Now the girls can drive a race car, fill up for gas, get pulled over by the police and honk their horn....I give myself about a week before I regret this purchase. LOL

Our new car turned out to be the perfect motivation for Abigail to make some serious crawling attempts. Not to be outdone by Molly, Abigail is also pushing up on her knees with a bit of rocking. They both seem to be stuck in the wounded soldier drag at the moment. Abigail also cut her two bottom teeth this weekend (the same two Molly has), the first one came as a total surprise and was found when she decided to chop down on my finger yesterday! This morning we saw the second one coming through. Poor girl is in a bit of teething pain, but she's taking it like a champ!

Great week of firsts with the Turkettes, can't wait to see what next week brings!

1st Attempts at Crawling (and life before it!)

Life with the girls has hit a smooth patch. We know when they're hungry, we know when their tired! Sleeping through the night (with the odd teething difficulties) has become the norm, along with cereal and bananas as their breakfast. Our current daily discoveries include the odd new food, we just had a broccoli, pea, apple, brown rice combo that went over very well and we introduce a few new toys now and then. When I'm home alone with the girls as they play in the living room I've had the luxury of running downstairs to throw in a load of laundry, heading upstairs to the bathroom or making food in the kitchen. In July and August, Shawn and I could put the girls outside on their play mats with some toys and swim in the pool playing peek-a-boo with the girls. Oh the joys when they can't MOVE!

Then it happened....the rolling. Suddenly, hanging out on our bed or lounging by the pool became a distant reality. I would go into the kitchen and return to find one of the girls had rolled a few feet! We were warned "Wait until they start crawling!" You know what that means, baby gates, baby proofing, lots of baby chasing. So we spent a lot of time acknowledging our short-lived freedom! Our next noticeable progress was the girls using furniture and the carpet to either pull themselves or objects toward them. Our crafty little girls made us even more aware that our relaxing days were numbered. 

I've had fleeting thoughts of writing this post and baby proofing the house but yesterday I realized those thoughts need to be put into action. As we hung out with our friend Stefania, Molly, likely motivated by my cell phone, lap top mouse and chai tea latte, made a break for it. She made her first attempts at crawling towards the desired objects! A little pushing up with her knee, she was able to shove herself forward. After much excitement from Mommy and Daddy, the video camera was out and Molly was enticed with my cell phone. She managed to push herself up on all fours, do a little bit of rocking and move forward a couple of feet. It was totally awesome!!! What an amazing thing to see them trying something new and struggling with figuring it out.

Here are some pictures of Molly's crawling attempts in action!

 The "up on all fours, wow, check me out"

The "lunge forward" (female pushup position)

 The "face plant" need to try again phase

Time for me to start crawling around my living room so I know what needs to be baby proofed! Life as we know it is about to change again!

Oh the guilty pleasures of not working!

For the past thirty one years, the first week of September has always been full of anticipation and excitement. The start of a new school year, whether as a student or a teacher, is a new beginning, a fresh start and a time I've always looked forward to. This year however, the Tuesday after Labour Day was nothing more than another fun day spent with the girls! As Daddy headed off to work early to be a part of "All Hands on Deck", the girls and I went on a long walk around the neighbourhood, cognizant that by now I normally would be anxiously pacing around my classroom attempting to finish last minute details before the first bell! Oh the bliss of not working the first week of September! 

In order to capitalize on this "once in a lifetime" event (at least until I retire), the first week of school I made every effort to do things that normally would be off limits!! Tuesday included a long morning walk, lunch with the hockey girls and errand running. Wednesday found us visiting Daddy at work and going to the St. Catharines Public Library for the first time. Thursday included another long walk, a pedicure for Mommy and a visit to see Nana. We ended the week by visiting our friend Tracy and then traveling to Chippawa to watch Mommy's baseball team, Fury, play in Provincials! It's been a productive week and the girls have enjoyed all of our adventures!

I recently heard Christmas was only 16 weeks away! That means only 14 weeks for Mommy and Turkette time! With swimming lessons starting next week, we have lots of great adventures to look forward to before I return to work!!

My Little Bookworms

In an effort to bask in the joy of not working in September, the girls and I made a trip downtown to visit Daddy and then The St. Catharines Public Library for the first time. 

Did you know that at 9 months old, the girls qualify to get a library card? 

Hahahahaha, next visit I'm totally signing them up. Whether the girls like it or not they will be readers!! Currently our favourite reads include "Grumpy Bird" and "Boo Hoo Bird" by JeremyTankard and "Why I Love Canada" illustrated by Daniel Hawarth.

Here is evidence of my bookworms in action at the library today:

The girls have the entire Board Book section to themselves!

Pouring over the selection of books, decisions, decisions.

We ended up leaving the library with 5 new books added to our reading list! While the girls are a bit young to participate in any Library programming for kids, they do offer a ton of great programs that I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa won't mind taking them too when Mommy goes back to work!

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things

Recently I had the pleasure of baby shopping in anticipation of the arrival of my cousin's baby boy! While I was hoping they would have a girl (I could clothe their child forever!!!) we are thrilled to have another cousin close in age, many play dates in our future. The first thing I realized about my shopping experience was that I viewed shopping for baby showers very differently than before I was a mother. Instead of buying something off her registry, I decided to buy her a gift basket filled with a few of my favourite things. Here is the letter I included with her gift to explain my gift choices:

Dear Brittney and Darrin,

Hold onto your hats, shit’s about to get real!! (LOVE THAT BOOK!) *see an earlier blog post! In an effort to help you prepare for when it “gets real”, here are some things the girls received that quickly became our favourite things! (in no particular order)

1. The Diaper Genie: awesome, because when the sh!t happens, this thing makes sure you don’t have to keep smelling it! We love ours, in fact we got two at our shower and just kept them both!

Note: It’s a bit of a pain to first figure out how to get the rings in the first time and the cheapest place to buy the replacement rings is a 3-pack at Costco. We also got you the 1 year warranty for the diaper genie, just in case yours gets a lot of use! LOL

2. The Hooded Towel: super easy to wrap the baby up and cute as heck! The hood rocks because you can towel dry their hair and behind their ears. Never forget behind the ears. We did in the beginning and both girls basically got a yeast infection behind their ears from water staying trapped there.  **Don’t forget I’ll give you my “Whale of Tub” if you need one because we’ll be done with it by the time “he” arrives.

3. The Bath Pitcher: Wasn’t really sure what to call it, but we love this thing for bath time when you need to do the rinse cycle! The flexible part allows you to touch your babies forehead and ensure no water goes in his face.

4.  Zippered PJs: Darrin this one is basically for you. (Shawn hates the button up PJs) I’ve changed enough PJs that I could do it blindfolded, but let’s face it, zippers are way easier than buttons! My Mom was smart and got you some different sizes!

5. Onesies that DON’T go over your head: Darrin this one is also for you. Babies basically live in onesies and sleepers, it’s pretty sweet, except when you have to change them out of one of these outfits. This is one outfit when you LOVE the buttons!

6. Face clothes: to say the girls have over 50 of these would  be no exaggeration! We use them all the time, especially when feeding. Having lots is great because let’s face it, sleeping, eating and showering are all way more important than doing laundry.

7. The Sleep Sheep: A really cute sheep that plays waves, rain, a heartbeat (that sounds totally creepy) and a really weird whale mating sound. However, he comes with a timer that lets him play this white noise for 25 or 45 minutes before turning off. We use the Sleep Sheep as a sleep cue for the girls so they know it’s bedtime. It’s also really good at blocking out noises around the house when they are trying to fall asleep (including one another! Haha)

8. Sophie the Giraffe: This ridiculous toy is THE BEST teething toy around. Not kidding. My girls don’t care for the refrigerator gel ones that get cold, I think they are too big or too hard to hold. The way they chew Sophie, basically everywhere, is really cute. Plus she’s very easy to hold so the girls like to play with her as well use her as a teething ring.

9. Oball Rattle: the first toy the girls were actually able to pick up on their own and play with. Easy for them to play with, it’s soft, makes noise…what’s not to love! This toy is still a favourite for the girls.

10. The Lamaze Giraffe: We have the bird and horse and keep this toy strapped to our stroller for some walking entertainment but the girls love Lamaze toys. They make great sounds and are easy to grab, this toy is also still a favourite of the girls.

11. The Teething Picture Book: hahaha you read Dawn Dais’ book, enough said. I just had to make sure you had one of your own! LOL All joking aside, the girls like to play with because it makes noise and is easy to grab onto!

12. The Bug Teething Ring: You’ll notice a trend with my kids by now, if it’s easy to hold, brightly coloured and they can chew it, we like it!

13. Health Care Stuff: Here are some supplies that friends bought for the girls which turned out to be life savers. The Gripe Water was huge when the girls were under 4 months. Sometimes they would have gas or an upset stomach and nothing we did seemed to cure it. A little gripe water and the girls felt better right away. The Hyland’s teething tablets have been clutch for us. Basically we just put one or two under their tongue and they dissolve right away. Even though it’s just herbal it seems to make a big impact. The Saline Spray was another important item for us as the girls got very stuff up in the winter. This made eating and sleeping very hard for the girls. Although it totally sucks injecting something up their nose (I’ll volunteer to help the first time with this) it is totally worth it and makes them feel so much better! The Johnson wipes are really good for cleaning their hands and face, especially once they start eating solids. The travel pack of bathing supplies is the kind we use with the girls. No cry shampoo is the best!

So sorry that I couldn’t be there. I was really looking forward to it. I know my parents are excited to bring the girls to the shower to see everyone! Hope you enjoy the girls favourite things!!!

Love,

Melissa

My daughters the "socialites"!

This past Saturday marked the 11th Annual Labour Day Weekend Party.While I anticipated my daughters being the main attraction, it was evident they enjoyed the company as much as we did. Passed from friend to friend, the girls made the rounds with many waiting in anticipation for some cuddle time! The girls even stayed up for two hours past their bedtime to exchange a few more smiles and hugs. I remember feeling as though I hadn't spent much time with them the entire party, LOL. Our friends fed the girls and Auntie Moe and Grandma put the girls to bed! After over five hours of partying, the girls had a rock solid sleep! Naturally they didn't feel the need to sleep in the next morning....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz