New Found independence!

And here's the best attempt at photographing the 2 teeth! Blurry, but you can see the 2 white parts on her bottom gum! You can see them best when she's crying. Mean mommy taking a photo of a crying baby.

Sitting!

Rose figured how to sit up today. Her longest stretch was over a minute! I captured the whole thing on video, but had to clip the video in order to send it to email to post on the blog.

I'm very surprised that she is sitting already, but she is such a sturdy, solid baby! Such chubby legs!!

Chudleigh's Apple Orchard...

Another fun-filled family outing. We've been doing a lot of activities on the weekends, that's for sure. We're basically taking advantage of the non-stinkin' hot fall days to actually get outside without burning or exposing Rose to way too much heat. Although this time, it turned out to be a little more rainy than we anticipated. It was our first trip to the Apple Orchard. We'd tried Chudleigh's products in the grocery store, but wanted to grab some fresh apples and a pie. We made sure to get in the pony ride and trip down the slide at the beginning in case we got rained out. We weren't able to actually pick in the orchard. There is a wagon ride that takes you out to the orchard and drops you off for at least 15 minutes, which wouldn't have worked with both the weather, and with Rose and the stroller. We settled, instead, for a pre-made 5lb bag of honeycrisp apples. Paige really wanted to pick the apples off the trees, but was ok with getting them in the store since it was a bit rainy outside.

Love this picture of Paige...

Put this one in to show her hair. Look how ringletty it gets when it's damp from the rain...

Pony ride right through the rows of apple trees...

This sign said you can rent these ponies out for parties...hmmm...maybe grandma and grandpa's back yard??.....

Rose didn't have the best time...she was tired and getting misted by the occasional rain falls. Her tray had a pool of water in it...

Pumpkins are out but we'll save that for the annual family pumpkin purchase at Springridge...

Slide with insanely steep ladder to get to the top...

Face painting...the apple seemed to be the most appropriate and best drawn option... The girls...too bad Rose isn't looking, but you can see her cute hat from the St. Albert farmer's market! And, cute sheep slippers from Marilyn!

The end of the rainbow...

It all started yesterday in the grocery store. We were perusing the fish counter when Paige pointed out a large rainbow trout fillet and said, "this is good...I like this". "Ok great, let's get that", I said. It didn't really matter that we probably had a whole bunch of rainbow trout in the freezer from various fishing excursions....she actually wanted healthy food and I was going to get it. I baked it tonight, gave Paige her usual amount, along with some beans and potatoes and set it down in front of her. She took her fork and literally started shovelling bits of fish into her mouth. When the fish pieces became too small she started using her fingers. Finished it all and then ate all of her beans. Didn't touch the potatoes. Asked for more fish and beans, and even swiped a bean off my plate. Told me she still didn't like potatoes. Got down from her chair and sweetly asked to sit with me. I lifted her up and she started scavenging the skin of my fish for any last little scraps. This was like nothing I have ever seen. Ever. We will have to make this meal more often. I'm sure she likes the sweetness of the Taku Sugar Maple rub from Alaska on the fish.

The sounds of silence....

As I type I am sipping a herbal tea to quench my thirst from the long walk Rose and I just went on. Rose is in her crib and I am catching up on last nights episode of Dancing with the Stars. Where is Paige you may ask? She is at a new class--Jack and Jill. I will have 4 hours a week (Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30-11:30) to do whatever I want. With only a baby in tow compared to having the 2 kids, it really does feel like I can do whatever I want. What will I do...the options are endless...shopping, exercise, vegging, laundry. Anything that can be done in 2 hours. And today is super easy as Rose went to sleep after our walk and Mike is home. I can just leave her here while I go to pick up Paige.

When I dropped Paige off she was a bit wary. A random instructor came out and asked the parents for their contact info sheets and told the kids to come in and drop off their backpacks in the bin. I think she was a bit confused by the unfamiliar face, but the teacher told her to give me a kiss goodbye, which she did, and then go in the classroom. She immediately spotted another teacher who she knows and loves-- "Miss Amy", and ran in with a big smile on her face and sat next to her at the playdough table.

Time to pick her up and hear all about it!

Update: Paige seemed to have enjoyed her time in the class. She played with 2 girls, jumped on a trampoline, sang "the more we get together" and "twinkle twinkle". I think that's about all I got out of her. When I asked if she ate her banana she told me she had one bite of it and then threw it in the garbage. She ate 4 arrowroot cookies, probably opened her banana and then snack time ended.

A trip to the photobooth...or did we?

Another fun app!

Paige circa 1960...

"digital photography never looked so analog"....

I was eager to post these pics that I took on my iPhone with the "hipstamatic" app. No super great photos, but I have been having fun making my photos look old school. You get to "swap out" different lenses, film, and flashes to create these fun looks. I'll post more if I get any great ones. You actually take the photo with the settings, rather than doctor them up afterward which is fun.

Dress Up...

Paige never really liked dress up...until now. We went to her friend Ellery's house for the first time yesterday. She had lots of really fun toys including lots of dress up stuff. Her mom, Shannon, said that she got the wings and wands at the dollar store the other day, so as I was close to the dollar store last night (by myself!) I ran in and grabbed a couple.

A Hidden Gem...

Isn't it weird when you discover some random cool place in your city or surrounding area? I was reminded of this farm by another mommy blogger in her blog. When I read about her trip there I remembered that I had heard of this place a couple of years ago but had completely forgotten about it. It is the Brantford Twin Valley Zoo. A much smaller zoo than the Toronto zoo, but an easier place to walk around with a 3 year old who won't ride in a stroller, and much less busy, and much much cheaper. It was $35 ish dollars for all 3 of us paying guests, and that included a free pony ride for Paige. There was barely anyone there and it was a nice warm sunny day that wasn't disgustingly hot. We even watched the animal show in the company of only about 15 other families. Every single kid got to touch the animals they brought out because it was such a small crowd (except Paige didn't seem to want to touch them and I didn't push her). The fact that there weren't any food stands, which forced us into bringing a cheap and healthy packed lunch from home was a nice treat. Like I said last weekend, Paige won't eat fast food. The zoo is about 45 minutes west of our house down the 403.

Right as you walk in you can purchase peanuts to feed the bears and monkeys, and grain to feed the goats and deers. This goat area was as soon as you walk in. The goats were a bit aggresive and would jump on anyone with a bag. Paige was treating them like Abby and saying "Down!"

Here she is telling Daddy that she wanted to get out. It was a bit intense. After the 1 gate they are going out, there was another gate, and 2 goats had gotten in the enclosure. It was bit better for Paige to feed the 2 goats in there than the huge group of swarming ones.

Tiny baby baboon....

Paige's favourite part...riding the pony (horse I would think, it was huge). She kept slipping and I would have to straighten her out.

Big smiles-- she's definitely into pony rides now.

Rose had a little nap after lunch (ours and hers--the "nursing area" was sitting on a closed toilet seat in the family washroom). She does much much better in the stroller by itself rather than in the car seat strapped in the stroller.

Bears make me a bit scared, but their fence seemed high enough. There were a bunch of trees on the one side of their enclosure though, and I dunno, I thought they could climb trees...

We got to chuck peanuts in there which seemed kind of mean, but they ate them. And I guess the zoo isn't crowded enough for them to eat too many.

Apparently the zoo is 25 acres, including a 1km nature trail (clearly we didn't attempt that). It was a really fun day. If anyone is interested in going, remember to bring food, water (although they sell drinks at the front), and leave time to see the creatures showcase, and go for an over-sized pony ride. The rides are only at certain times.

LOST!

On a non kid related note, Mike and I started season 1 of Lost!!!!! We are loving it and every night Mike says, "Do you want to grab the cookies and tea or do you want me to?", and the other person pops in the DVD. We are hooked! It's nice to have something of quality to watch besides ahem..."Bachelor Pad" which is the only other show we watch. We'll probably whip through season 1 really fast and need to rush out for season 2. To the people we exchange Christmas gifts with--take note...we may be in need of a season by then, unless we have already finished it!!

2 Teeth!

Rose has been drooling a ton, and I checked in her mouth the other day for teeth but there was nothing. I looked yesterday and one has just popped through (I can feel the tooth with my nail) and the other one is just under the surface! She has been a bit fussier in the evenings, but I assumed she was just more hungry, and would be ready for cereal sooner rather than later. Now I wonder whether she was just looking for comfort to deal with the pain of the teething. It hasn't effected her much otherwise, and she has been sleeping a bit better at night actually, only waking up to eat sometime around 5:00 in the morning and then going back to sleep again.

I wonder how long they will take to fully come up. She seems too small to have teeth yet!

Sick...

Paige has a cold and icky cough. Really sucky when it is the first colder week and we could have gone to the park without sunscreen, gone to indoor playgrounds with other mom friends (had to cancel a playdate), gone to the library, gone to the indoor craft center, etc. So many plans I had come up with for the week went out the window.

Paige has some new fall clothes she has wanted to wear despite being sick. She didn't want to smile for the picture. This is her mad pouty face. And her hair was so tangly that I could barely brush it and had to put it in a ponytail with hopes of the knots coming out in the bath later (mike forgot to take out her hair elastic at bed last night). She was into the dresses with leggings this season. And of course sweatpants. I made sure to take her with me to a couple of stores to see what she wanted and would promise to wear.

Ontario Science Center....

For labour day we decided to go somewhere we'd never been before...the Ontario Science Center. They have a massive kid area for children under 8. There were water play stations, a pretend grocery store, build your own roller coaster, musical instruments, etc. We don't have many pictures as we had to carry Rose around quite a bit, and hold Paige's hand at all times since it was super busy. Paige actually had quite a scare when a large group of people came inbetween her and us and she couldn't see us. She started yelling Daddy!! and crying.


I had to post this next picture as when we went into the kid area, they asked us to leave the stroller at the front...it was soooo busy and they couldn't have had 60 strollers in there. I had Rose in the Bjorn anyway, but as we were leaving the stroller behind we needed to carry around my purse as well...and guess who was carrying my super heavy gold Coach bag...obviously me. So I had my arms full, needless to say.

After the kid area, we had some lunch at the cafe, and looked at a small fraction of the rest of the place. It was huge and too much for us to see in one visit. And not all would be very exciting for Paige. She really liked jumping on some motion sensored fish holograms on the ground. And there was some sort of cave thing that she went through with Mike. She said that was one of her favourite things. Also, as I was off in the parents room with Rose, Mike and Paige watched a presentation with a live bald eagle. Apparently she got to see it close up.

I really have to be more diligent and bring her a lunch to these things. She doesn't like burgers, fries, chicken fingers, or any sandwiches besides peanut butter....so that basically cuts out all cafeteria food. She had a couple of bites each of a banana and an apple, and maybe 2 bites of a chicken finger. I should have brought our own fruit, and some yougurt at least.

The funniest part of the day was when we were looking at a skeleton puzzle. It was laid out on a table and you were supposed to put the bones in the right spot. As soon as we walked up to it Paige chuckled, grabbed the Tibia bone and smashed the skull with it! REALLY don't know where that came from, or what she thought it was. I think she thought the bone was a bat and the skull was a funny shaped ball!? Odd, and very amusing.

Tsukihoshi Fall Shoes!

I wanted to get Paige's fall shoes a little bit earlier this year. I always find that when the new season hits there is so little selection in the kids shoe stores. Parents seem to snap them up so early and then we are left with like 1 pair that actually fits. I like to buy good quality shoes for her main pair. Her feet are still developing and all that. At least that's what they tell you at the store to guilt trip you into buying good quality shoes. It has started to turn slightly cold and rainy lately and there were a few days where sandals didn't seem appropriate, and rain boots were a bit overkill. So off we went to Olly Shoes (www.ollyshoes.com .....little plug for Mike's client) and found these awesome shoes. They are a company from Japan...Tsukihoshi. They are super super light, flexible, and washable in the washing machine. They don't have suede or any of those materials that seem to attract and absorb dirt. These are my favourite shoes she's had so far. And i just love the bright pink.

We've been so lucky with Paige growing so slowly that shoes last forever...even though a pair might cost $60, they last for twice as long as most other kids' shoes!! Usually for an entire season. Paige is lucky this year though as she actually gets a new snowsuit! She's had the same one every year since she could walk.

Rose's 4 month stats...

Good thing I was excited to have Rose weighed and measured at her 4 month doctor visit, because she wasn't able to get her shots again and we will have to go back! You may remember that at her 2 month visit the air conditioning was broken at the doctor's office and the fridge wasn't working and she wasn't able to get the shots. We had to return 2 weeks later to get them. This time, we couldn't get them again as it was too close to her last shots. So we have to go back in another 2 weeks. Between that and the pinkeye we constantly had, we have been there more than I would have liked!!

At any rate, here are the stats:

Height: 61cm (24 inches) ---Grown almost an inch in the last 2 months.
Weight: 15.8 lbs ---Grown about 3 lbs.

This puts her in the 50th percentile for height and 90th for weight! She definitely looks healthy!

Homemade Fun....

I promised Paige we'd make our own playdough again when she decided to pull out the last batch that I had made over a year ago, and it was dark bluey green (not too far from the original colour actually) but covered in mould. Sick! We happened to have guests over at the time (Matt and Christine from Edmonton), and they were quite disturbed. At the time when I made the playdough Paige was too young to participate in the process, but she quite enjoyed it this time. Especially the prospect of dying it with the food colouring. I wouldn't let her do much since it involved stirring it in a pot over the stove, and then of course there's the highly dangerous dye (you should have seen my hands after). But she liked to dump the ingredients in as she does for baking. She has come to realize that baking pretty much involves the same old standard ingredients for everything. She assumed there would be sugar in the recipe. No sugar, but a ton of salt. Enough to make your hands sting a bit when playing with it. Here's the recipe if anyone is interested....

2 cups flour

2 cups water

1 cup salt

4 tbsp cream of tartar

2 tbsp oil

food colouring

Mix ingredients in a pot over medium heat stirring constantly. You will know when it's done...it will just look and feel like playdough and will be in a big ball in the middle of the pot. then take it off the heat and wait 5 minutes to mix in the food colouring. I take it out and put it on wax paper to kneed the colour into the dough.

I witnessed another roll over!

You may remember this back when Paige was 4 months and 6 days old. Now at almost exactly the same time (4 months and 3 days old--August 27), I saw Rose roll over the first time while I was on the phone with Jen! I just knew that she was gearing up to roll over, as she wasn't sleeping well, was waking up a lot in the night, and seemed to be going through a growth spurt. There was no physical indication that she would roll over as she hadn't been trying to do it. She just did it. Same thing with Paige, it just happened. I learned with Paige that when she was learning a new skill she would practice her moves in the night and wake up a lot. I haven't put it on the blog yet as I have been meaning to capture a video, or a photo at the least, but I haven't been succesful. There are witnesses though, so it is true! She has rolled a whole bunch of times. If I manage to capture a picture today i'll post it and delete this part of the post!

Ok! I got a video...

Sisters...

Gymnastics...

Paige took the summer session of gymnastics on Tuesday nights from 6-7. It was always a bit tricky to get her and Rose ready to go to the late class. Rose always needed to nap halfway through the class, and sometimes Paige was really tired and cranky after the class. Actually, the crankiness stopped after a few lessons in when she got used to the routine, and she started eating dinner before the class, and having a snack after, rather than the other way around. Clara was in the class too, so the girls had lots of fun running around together. Last night was the last class and all of the kids got to stand on a podium to receive their report card. I wasn't sure that Paige had been a good listener in class, but apparently she was, or so it says on her report card.