Month 43

 Month 43, or 3 years and 7 months, wow. Where has the time gone? It only took me that long to finally cut your hair. You didn't have much hair for the first year of your life, so I guess we were holding onto it when it finally grew. You were very excited for the cut. It's so nice and healthy now.

 Lots of fun to be had this summer. Fun with friends, and with me and your sister. Trying to pack it all in. Give you a great summer with lots to do.

 Daily we do some worksheets, or practice printing, or even just colour. Getting you used to some routine and school type things. Now before I get accused of being a crazy parent, you love it. You want to do these things. You love the new workbooks I have gotten you and most days want to do more then the one or two I pull out. You aren't a big drawer, but love lines, tracing, mazes, and I think one of these days, we'll get a picture out of you.

 We are still using your little chore chart. You love getting your checkmarks. The other day I came upstairs and you had "made" the bed by yourself. lol. It was a disaster, but I praised you and was so proud. Hey, I will take it. You also set the table for us, and my favourite is when you "mix" up the forks and Dad or I end up with your little fork. You think it's hilarious.

Reading to your sister. You want desperately to play with her and she's getting there. Eleanor loves watching you and can't get enough of you. She sees what you are doing and shuffles herself over and usually steals whatever toy you are playing with. You are good though, and even though you snatch it out of her hand, you replace it with one of her toys usually. She will be big enough and I can't wait until you two can play together. 

Lately our mornings if we don't have plans, kind follow the breakfast, put Eleanor down for a morning nap, and we go downstairs and play routine. You are so funny. You have such an imagination when playing. I love just sitting and listening sometimes. The stories and scenarios, awesome. You are very demanding sometimes, and we have to play your way. And sometimes you just want to play by yourself. Which is fine with mom.

 We went to the Brantford Twin Valley Zoo, and you had a great time. It is just small enough to make it a great day without you getting too tired, but there were more then enough animals to keep you entertained.

 I think you had the most fun of anyone at Uncle Matt and Aunt Charlotte's wedding. We were barely in the door and all you wanted to do was dance and run around the dance floor. I don't think you stopped for hours. Even at 11pm, we had to drag you from the dance floor. And funny enough, we thought you would crash before we even left the parking lot, nope, you chatted the whole way home. Didn't fall asleep til we were almost in the driveway. You looked so cute. Aunt Charlotte picked the best dress. Matched everyone's colours. And the little shoes I found, sheer fluke that they matched perfectly. Yay!

My big girl. It's hard to believe that you will be starting school in a matter of weeks. August will fly and September will be here before we know it. You are so excited to start school and I think it will be great for you. The challenge will be great and being the little sponge you are, I can't wait to see what school will do for you.
As always, I would love to slow down time, but that won't happen. So we just keep enjoying the days, trying not to let the "trying threes" get us down when you act up, and take each day as it comes.
My smart little creative book worm, you amaze us daily, keep us on our toes, and challenge us constantly. But I don't think I would want it any other way.

xo

Life lately...

 There was Matt and Charlotte's wedding that kicked off July. The weather held up, and after a morning and afternoon of rain, they were able to get married outside! The whole fam was in the wedding, and I will post more wedding pictures in another post.

 We clean up pretty good don't we?

 The happy couple.

 One of Eleanor's favourite toys is the carseat and the buckles in it.

 Every night there is a mini dance party in our living room as Jamie stokes up youtube and everyone dances around til bathtime. I think it's one of Audra's favourite times of the day. Eleanor loves it also.

 Lots of visits to the park and splash pads. Thanks to Kristin for taking them all at daycare one hot afternoon. Audra loves the water. (except when she's in the tub and gets water in her eyes, oh the drama queen!)

Our backyard wild raspberries finally bloomed and were ripe for the picking, so more jam was made. This time it was homemade wild raspberry and rhubarb, both from the garden.  The only downfall of our wild raspberries is that they are very seedy, so a bit of work is always involved in straining some of the seeds out. Still makes for some yummy jam though and worth the work. Might look into entering a jar into the Rockton World's Fair this year.

Summer is a fun and busy time. We try to get outside and play when the weather isn't too hot and sweltering. Short car trips as the lack of AC makes things a little hot for everyone driving.Both girls love going for wagon rides, so we try and do early morning or late afternoon trips around. But trying to make the most of our summer time, as it may be the last one I have off, and get to enjoy fully with the girls.

Month Nine

Nine months already? Man time just keeps flying by. My little honey bee, who isn't so little any more. You just keep growing and getting bigger every day. Your personality just keeps getting bigger every day as well.

 You want nothing more then to scoot around and chase after your sister or Gwen. You have no desire to be on your tummy, or crawl. You manage to get everywhere you need to go, all on your little bum. Or if you fall over, you will continue to roll to get to where you need to be. Which is usually by the DVD player and the tv. Doesn't matter what I put in front of it, you get there and weasel your way through. Guess it's time to do some baby proofing.

 Eating is by far your favourite activity. It still amazes us what you will eat. I have never seen a small person eat so much. Nothing stands in your way. You only have two bottom teeth (although the top two are right there some days) but that doesn't stop you. You grunt and grumble when your table is empty during meal times. Half the time you want what is on our plates. You are a cheese monster, and can even manage a whole cheese string by yourself. How?

 Haha, a new halloween costume. You look so cute. Not sure if this will make the cut for October, but a girl has to have options right? lol. Of course your sister put the flower hat on too. Wish we had two of them and you could be matching flowers.

Oreos. At nine months, does this make me a cool mom or a bad mom? You loved it, so I am going with cool mom. We thankfully don't keep oreos in the house all that often so this might be the only one for awhile. You definitely have your dad's sweet tooth.

Life is interesting, and never dull around here. You love to screech and scream lately. I think you are finding your voice and trying to compete with your sister. You both are so loud some days. You continue to sleep in your swing every night. By 7 you are completely miserable and ready for bed. You see your blanket and you calm down completely and know that food is near and our quiet time is happening. I won't lie, it's one of my favourite times of that day. You are quiet and calm and nurse yourself to sleep. It's the only time we have together where it's quiet and relaxing and as much as I want to ween you, part of me relishes in this time we have. I have been slowly weening you off, so it's really just a morning and night feed with formula/breast milk in bottles now throughout the day. I figure we need to start transitioning. We see the doctor next week, so we'll chat about milk and going from there.
Hard to believe we are already at this point. It feels like it took so long to get to a good point with you, and now our time is almost done. Well done in the sense that I will be going back to work and you will be going to daycare. You are a funny little creature most days. You are so different from your sister and if anything we've learned in these nine months, is that nothing remains the same, no two children are the same, and time rushes by.

My wild child, you constantly surprise us. You are definitely not a snuggle bunny, but your smiles light up the room. Love those happy squeals.

Vegas, part 2

 Our hotel has the best donut shop. We may have had donuts for breakfast once or twice. They were so good.

 Our lobby and casino floor. The inside is suppose to represent the New York streets.

 A little art deco in the elevator.

 

 The Statue of Liberty in jelly beans, representing her home turf. 

 Walking the strip and taking in the sights. The nights were really windy so we unfortunately didn't get to see the Mirage volcano or the Treasure Island Pirate show. Boo.

 After the Pawn Stars tour we walked back down to Freemont Street and had fun shopping and having dinner, and checking out "old vegas".

Cheesy old school buffet dinner, in the Freemont Casino. Padded booths and lights and glam everywhere. 

 Louis Vuitton all lit up at night.

 The crazy huge fish tank made especially for the front desk area in the Mirage Casino. (it was made by the guys who we visited on the tour)

 Crazy little show in Caesars Forum Shops.

 We went and saw Cirque du Soliel's KA. It was absolutely amazing. These were the only pictures I could sneak in, they didn't want any pictures during the show obviously. The theatre was made specially for the show. It had a stage that moved up and down and side to side. The performers were absolutely astonishing. The things they could do on that wall? WOW!

 (unfortunately very recently a young girl died during a performance of this show. It is apparently the first time any one performer has actually died during a show in the Cirque's history. Apparently all accidents and the few deaths have occurred in their training center in Montreal. Tragic and horrible and my heart goes out to her family. But after seeing the show and the wall, it's not hard to see how when something goes wrong, it would go terribly wrong)

 The Wynn, and the beautiful flowers. They have some gorgeous displays.

 The Belaggio and their amazing glass ceiling.

Grown up version of sorry or whatever game used to have the dice popper in the middle. It's actually Craps and Jamie played a few rounds. It was kinda neat to see it in action.

Vegas was a great trip. We had a blast and would go back again in a heartbeat!

Wedding Family Pictures

 Our wedding party. We went small and just had a maid of honor and best man.

 The Miller Family.

All the siblings and siblings in law.

 Silly sibling picture. It's become a tradition now.

 Sisters!

 3 generations, parents, children and grandchildren.

 The Firmans.

 Mom and her beautiful girls.

Dad and his daughters.