Successful Santa visit!

This year went infinitely better than last year. Even though we stood in line for a good hour (Mike took her around a bit to a store, and then to watch Santa and the kids while I held he spot), she was very well behaved and excited to see Santa. When it was our turn he said hello and asked if she would like to sit on his lap. She nodded and smiled. When she got up there she kept looking at him shyly with big smiles. He asked if she had been a good girl and she nodded. Besides a lot of nodding and smiling she wouldn't speak, but that's ok. They offer the Santa visit for free now, so you are allowed to take your own pictures. Our only regret was not bringing our own camera, since this photo is a bit low quality (they send it over email from a web cam), and we weren't able to capture any of her smiling moments. I may bring her back one afternoon before Christmas if we are looking for something to do.

We had a nice morning overall as we went to Cora's for breakfast first, and then took Paige on a few of the mall rides after the Santa visit.

A bad mood cure!

Paige was in a baaaaad mood this morning when I tried to get her to go to gymnastics. I ended up forcing her to go since we missed last week (due to the same Thursday night random sleep issue). I was determined to get there at all costs...I mean, hey, this thing cost $200 and it will be over soon and we will have nothing to do!

So anyway, she was fine-ish at the class, just acting a bit odd, but freaked out as we left. I started in with the bribes of chocolate milk and the purchase of a "treat" at the grocery store if she was a good girl...I had to as we had no food at home. Anyway, she was fine when we got to the store, but what reinforced the good behaviour, I believe ,was a sudden blackout in the store. What fun! We had to shop for things in the dark. She thought this was great! Some of the lights were on when we were leaving, but it snapped her out of the bad mood and she has been great ever since! Well...I haven't tried to have lunch with her yet, as she is quite wrapped up in another independent game of "train tracks" with her books and trains.

Baby girl...

3 girls and a boy!

It's a girl on the way, so Mike is going to be overrun by girls! Well, we think it's a girl. The ultrasound lady said she was "pretty sure" when I asked her to tell me how sure she was. I guess they know what they are doing, but there is still a chance that she may be wrong I suppose. The news doesn't surprise me as I could always see Mike as a father to only girls. I can picture him at a dance recital more easily than a hockey game. I can definitely picture the same for me.

Even though the suspense is gone a bit, I am really interested to see how similar this one will look to when Paige was a newborn. And it will be fun to see how different they are growing up.

So we are excited, and assuming the lady was correct, I am happy that Paige will have a sister as an adult. And I think Paige will make a great big sister. Paige had predicted it was a girl on the way, so when the lady told us just that I said to Paige, "you were right, she said it was a girl!" and she said, "it's not a girl, it's a boy". Just part of her recent argumentative nature. She got really into talking about the new baby last night though. We were telling her all about the things she could help with when the baby arrived, and she is very set on helping the baby to have a bath. She is apparently going to wash her hair and brush it and help her stand up to get scrubbed down. Oh, and she is going to buy the baby milk from the grocery store. ?? We talked about how she could feed the baby in the high chair, and she wanted to clarify that it was "paige's highchair, right?"

I am really excited to get to go through Paige's old clothes and pick out the 0-3 month stuff and see what is good. I'm afraid a lot of it will be poo-stained, but I'm sure there is some stuff to reuse. And some of those little summer dresses and tiny tank tops that Paige barely wore will be perfect for when the summer comes.

So, in a couple of years when we get the dog we will have to make sure to get a boy. I was looking at our fish last night, and of the 6 ones that we can see (3 of them hide in the rocks) 5 are dull coloured and 1 is bright and bigger...I think we have 5 girls and 1 boy. Ha!

Train tracks...

Paige made some train tracks....

Big Girl room update.

I would say that overall the big girl room is a big success. She seems to love the cozy blankets. Although it is a bit harder to contain her in the middle of the night when she insists she's "not tired" or "wants to play with toys for a bit", she likes the fact that we can lie on her bed to help her calm down and fall back to sleep. The lack of the num num still means that she can't fall asleep on her own when she wakes up. She was never good at this anyway, but with the soother we could often go into her room for 30 seconds and give it back to her which would make her fall back to sleep quickly. The initial getting to sleep routine now includes her falling asleep holding a book and us sneaking in later on to take it away from her. In the middle of the night it generally involves a combonation of the lying down with her plus a book. I'm trying to shorten the amount of time I lay with her in the night and try to leave while she's still awake.

It seems the main reason of waking up is to go to the bathroom. Good thing since she refuses to wear a pull up to bed since shortly after she started sleeping in the new bed. I guess she has taken "big girl bed" to heart.

She still isn't napping well, but at least she stays in her bed and looks at books for an hour. The lack of naps and a couple of bad nights has caught up with her. We had a really tantrumy and argumentative week last week. It involved a lot of "No's", "I don't want to's", and generally trying to be difficult on purpose.

I could get into specific details about some really bad nights and days, but I don't have the energy to replay these events in my mind! We'll just hope that she is happier this week!

Oh--the bed rail came and we were able to take away the trampoline (crib mattress) beside her bed. Everyone feels a lot safer now.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Paige was definitely VERY excited to put up the tree this year and loved putting up and commenting on all of the ornaments. Glad we did it so early in order to get the most enjoyment out of it.

Almost mortified...

Today at our class Paige told me she had to pee so off we went to the bathroom. We went in the wheelchair bathroom since it was bigger. She went on the toilet (which was exciting since she hadn't done this in a long time). I told her I was going to go too, but when I sat down she opened the door lock and the door swung open (the wheelchair one swings outward!). Luckily there was only 1 other person in the bathroom who was in a stall. I had to stand up and shut the door while she ran around in the washroom. If there had been anyone in there they would have seen me having to stand up to shut the door! I am kind of glad this happened now so I know to be more careful next time when there are people around!

Bookshelves complete!

It blends in so well I am almost used to it already. The cupboards below fit almost all of Paige's toys and books. It'll be nice to really tidy up at the end of the day rather than just shove everything off to the side and look at it all night long.

A weekend out....

Going back to the weekend, on Saturday morning we drove to Pottery Barn kids to get an idea of what they had at the store that we could buy for Paige's room. We didn't actually get anything, but we know what we want to get/could only dream of getting. haha. That store is really really nice.

Anyway, after that we dropped Paige off for a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's. We went home where I played video games and had a nap and Mike used the gym. Then we went to see a matinee of "Couples Retreat" and had dinner at Milestone's. The next day I got up earlyish and watched an uninterupted hour of Project Runway. Then I taped off the baseboards in Paige's new room while Mike finished the painting. I went out for a girls lunch. At night we went to pick up Paige and stayed for Amanda's 25th birthday dinner. Paige is really good, so I am never dying to get away from her for the weekend, but it WAS nice to just be leisurely for the weekend, especially since the night before we dropped her off was the worst sleep ever. While she was gone we caught up on our sleep too (and of course she slept fine for Grandma and Grandpa).

Now we're paranoid!

In the night I woke up and heard a huge thump again! Went running to her room and flew open the door to find her....sleeping. As an aside note, she was completely out of the covers and sleeping parallel to her pillow. The big thump, I assume, was just our newspaper delivery. The Toronto Star is delievered around 3am and they just chuck it out there car onto our door step. It sometimes smashes into our door which is quite startling!

Another funny story.....I put her to bed last night with a book. She fell asleep right away and Mike went in to take away the book. When he went in there all he could see was arms sticking out of the bed and a book for a head! She had fallen asleep with her large-ish book completely over her head. After this she continued to sleep all night long!

I'll be happy when the bed rail arrives. I think it may come today. It can be folded down when not in use which means that a) it won't interfere with the look of the nice bedding, and b) we can still sit with her on the bed to read books without having to climb over it.

Also arriving and being installed today is the bookshelves! The guy should be here any minute! I'll post a picture when it is all in!

Things that go THUMP in the night....

Paige fell out of her bed last night. She wanted to sleep in the big girl bed and apparently went to sleep no problem (I was out babysitting Amy). Around 2:00 we heard a large thump and we went running. I opened the door and Paige was walking across the room crying. It's no surprise, as she moves around a ton in her crib and her preferred spot was always the top left hand corner with her head pushed up against the bars. I think she was searching for this corner in her sleep. Mike had put the crib mattress on the floor so she wasn't hurt, just startled, and went back to sleep right away.


She woke up around 5:30 this morning and I lay down on her bed for 1 minute then left and she fell asleep without screaming or winding herself up. Probably the novelty factor helped her to clam down, but we're hoping for better sleeps now. And is it too much to ask for naps?

Waking up from this beautiful sleep.....

Little did we know...

Little did we know that showing her the big girl bed and the room almost finished would cause her to want to actually SLEEP in the bed. She is napping right now. As I type this she is physically in the big girl bed with her eyes closed and sleeping. After a late night last night and an early wake up this morning we went to our Monday morning class. All was well there until I had to go to the bathroom after the class and Paige went ballistic (I'm pregnant--these things can't wait). I had to carry her out screaming in front of the seniors swim class and force her into the car where she screamed the entire way home. When we got home she was screaming in argument at anything I suggested. She finally asked to go upstairs and pointed to her new room. She lay down in her bed after I changed her into her "super cozie's" and calmed down for a bit. I asked her if she would like some lunch before a nap and she did.

After the lunch we got ready and went to read some books in her new bed (she told me she wanted to nap in the big girl bed). After reading the books she wanted to read some books in bed on her own. I hesitated since they have been causing problems at night, but it was nap time and I was desperate for her to remain calm. After she was done with these she tried to get out of the bed to "play with toys", and i said no she would have to go in her crib then if she was going to be getting out of bed. After a brief 30 seconds in the crib she asked to go to the big girl bed with her book "one grey mouse". 10 minutes later I checked on her to find her passed out with the book propped up in her hands. I carefully took the book away and she's been snoring in there for the past 45 minutes or so.

It's a miracle! First nap in 2 weeks. She was really really tired, and maybe the new bed had something to do with it. I wasn't planning on busting out the big girl yet especially since there is no bottom sheet (she is sleeping on a blanket), the sheets and blankets haven't actually been washed, and there is no bed rail (I put some safety pillows on the ground for now--I'll get mike to put the crib mattress down there later...and I ordered a bed rail online, and am hoping for a speedy delivery).

We'll see what happens at bed time and how the night goes. I'm not adverse to putting her in her crib for a bit if she isn't fully comfortable with the bed. We have some time.

Progress update!

I love the way it all turned out! Mike did such a good job. The bed isn't fully ready with sheets, but I put the quilt, pillow and blanket on to get an idea of what it looks like. Now we are ready to match some drapes and a little rug to the colour scheme! Paige saw it for the first time last night and loved snuggling up in the new bed.

BTW, don't you love Paige's "view". These are the things that make us want to move one day in the future....bigger yard, maybe looking out the windows at trees or nature, and not brick walls...

So funny...

Tonight I warmed up some Dora pasta for Paige while she was waiting at the table in her booster seat. I told her, "it's too hot, so I'll just leave it on the counter until it cools off a bit". Paige replies, "I can't blow on it from back here!"

Something about that reminds me of those "kids say the silliest things" stories I have read in Readers Digest while at the doctor.

Num num update!

Night 2: Fell asleep right away. Woke up at 1:00 for 2 minutes and mike put a book in her bed. Fell asleep.

Night 3: Fell asleep right away. Slept all night long.

We're through the transition! She has yet to nap without the num num, but like I say, not napping is a normal thing.

Update!: The following nights up until last night have been relatively brutal! Without the num num she needs us to comfort her, and needs books in her bed. It has been a bit of a trial and error process, but we're hoping that we have figured out a solution!

I can't believe we did it....

Yesterday we decided to go ahead and get rid of the night time num nums. I was "conveniently" out for bedtime and told Mike that if he wanted to assess the situation and see if he thought he could do it then he could go ahead. I was very surprised to return home and have him tell me she had fallen asleep without it. He said she put up a bit of a fuss for about 10 minutes but fell asleep. He had promised her a trip not only to the toy store, but also to the train store in the morning. I couldn't believe she fell asleep...this was too good to be true. It was about 11:30 when I got home and we decided to go to sleep. As we were getting up from the couch to go to bed, the screaming started. We had a really really rough night, but got through it, and we didn't cave in. First thing in the morning she mentioned the toy and train stores. We took her there and got 1 toy at each store. She was very excited. She didn't mention the num num for her nap, but then again didn't sleep either. We'll see how much fuss she puts up tonight!

five naps. FIVE!

I may not have posted about sleep in a while, but Paige had almost completely stopped napping. She would have 1 nap a week on average, and the day that she napped she would go to bed for the evening at 10:00.

She must be growing though because last week she had 5 naps, and she has slept for 2 out of 3 days this week so far. Her night time sleeps have been pretty good as well.

I decided to start to phase out the "num num". I have heard cold turkey is best, but Paige relied on not only one in the mouth, but also 1 in the hand for comfort. I figured getting rid of the one in the hand was the first step. We were at Bath and Body Works yesterday and she liked the looks of a very fluffy sheep stuffed animal. I asked her if she would like it to be her friend in her crib. She said yes. So I told her she would have it instead of the second num num and she could hug it. Yesterday's nap came around and she asked for "secondary num num", and I reminded her to hug the sheep. She was fine and fell asleep. Last night, same thing and she was again, fine. She used to hug her stuffed Abby, but after seeing the real Abby again recently, she hasn't relied on her so much. It was probably good to introduce something new in this case. Maybe we'll stop the num nums on the weekend, I don't know. So stressful.

That night Paige wore her beaver suit and made mischief of one kind...

For the past 2 days Paige has asked to wear her beaver costume after her nap up until dinner time. I can imagine that she is sweating in that thing.

We got the shot...!!

Yesterday Mike and Paige braved the cold and 4 hour line up and got the H1N1 flu shot. Paige was very well behaved apparently, and Mike held her for a large part of the time as they were right beside a road. Now his arm is very sore from the shot and the holding of Paige.

Today I had my first appointment with my OBGYN and she told me to go ahead and get it, so Maura and I went together after she was done work. When it was all said and done it took us about 3 hours, but at least we had each other to talk to in line.

So, I can't believe all 3 of us have had it! Now we won't worry so much if we go to the Royal winter Fair, or Craft show, or any of these big events we normally do.

While Mike was with Paige getting the shot, I went to a baby shower where the mom-to-be was sick and not there, and the dad-to-be (my 3rd cousin Matt) had to fill in. He wore a sash and opened gifts and had cake. What a good sport. It was quite amusing.

Halloween fun!

We carved the pumpkin first thing in the morning. Too bad it was too windy at night for the poor guy to hold a flame.

Paige's costume this year was a beaver. She was really excited to go out, and was also looking forward to trick-or-treaters coming to the door. In fact, when we had a mattress delivery at about 12:30 she yelled, "they're here! Happy Halloween!!" We had no problems convincing her to put on her costume (unlike at gymnastics the day before where she refused to wear it).

Mike and Paige took to the streets at about 6:30 when it got dark and the streets has started to become busy. They went to our immediate few neighbours, but then went across the street and did the inner circle of our crescent. They even went to "big green spider's" house, but Paige wimped out and apparently wouldn't go to the door, since it would involve passing the spider at close distance. The night was quite windy so once the inner circle of the street was done they were ready to come home to warm up. Mike said she was very polite and said "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" at all of the houses.
After returning home she had fun emptying and refilling her lot bag, as well as eating a few treats. She helped me hand out candy to the rest of the kids, and then had a really hard time going upstairs..."no, I stay here!! Leave the costume on!"

My favourite moment happened when Paige was helping with the candy. She wanted to see more kids so when I opened the door for her to look outside she grabbed a big handful of candy and yelled into the street, "Trick-or-Treat!!!! I GOT CANDY!!!!" to entice the kids over.

My other favourite moment had to be when she wouldn't take off her beaver costume but snuggled up with me and watched Mike playing a video game. She was so cuddly and warm.

New room progress and helping Daddy...

Building the new media cabinet. Paige likes passing Daddy the screws. She also liked shining the flashlight when he asked her to.

Mike has now installed all the chair-rail and painted it white. He put in all the squares underneath too, but they will be painted green like the rest of the lower half of the room.