Christmas morning...we wake up bright and early....

Paige attempted to get up at 5:58 in the morning with a very rough sounding "Merry Christmas, or Good Morning!" or something...I wasn't quite sure.  I went in her room and implied that it was the middle of the night after she said "presents....".  After that she fell asleep until 7:00. Phew.  I didn't sleep after that, but she definitely needed the energy to make it through the day, so I was glad she slept.  Rose was up around 6:45 so we occupied her in our room while we waited for Paige to get up. 

Santa got Paige a Zoku popsicle maker which makes popsicles in 7 minutes.  It also came with a recipe book with some really crazy popsicles.  Rose got a wooden xylophone. 

 After stockings we carried out our tradition of having french toast on "Challa" bread for breakfast.  The girls wanted pancakes but we have those every Sunday, so we needed to mix it up a bit.  Paige could barely wait for us to finish.

 Paige's main gift...a wooden dollhouse. 

I bought Mike a Canada Goose coat for Christmas. I knew he was interested in them last year so I decided to surprise him with one and got it from Hiker's Haven.  I picked the one I thought was best and oddly enough it was the one he had circled in the catalogue last year.  Same colour, size and everything. I had no clue! I am so excited it fits because they are very limited and we wouldn't have been able to exchange it or return. That was one of my favourite moments of the morning...relief in knowing that it was ok!

The girls were a bit overwhelmed with all the new toys and didn't even know where to begin.  I have to say though, the TV has been on a lot less lately.  So much to do around here. 

I am eager to try out the new Kobo book reader Mike bought me for Christmas, but I have to finish up another novel first.  I have downloaded a book onto the reader, but I guess I'll have to see what it's really like when I get into the book.  I just need to get a case so I can travel with it and not break it!

Mike also got me a really really really nice ring that I had casually mentioned a few months back.  I was pretty surprised. 

Aunt Leslie came over for a quick visit before Rose had her nap.  Luckily Rose really did nap and then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house at 3:15.

Annual Christmas Eve Family Fun...

This year we decided to go to the Science Center for our Christmas Eve excursion.  This year it was the whole gang...Grandma, Grandpa, Amanda, James, Greg, and us.  We first looked at the special Leonardo DaVinci exhibit before heading over to the kids  for a bit.

Here we are checking out the holograph fish that move when you walk.

 In the kids section...

 The soon to be newlyweds and Greg...

 Quick snack break...we all ate chips...

We also looked at the human body exhibit and the space exhibit.  We barely scratched the surface of the place.  In the human body exhibit there was a test you could do to see how far you stretched and how your flexibility should determine your age.  I think I was the most flexible, but got an age in my 60's...something was clearly wrong.  I think James basically didn't even get an age.  Anyway, Paige really really wanted to do it, so she tried too even though it wasn't possible for someone her size (you had to sit down and put your legs straight out and feet flat on a board in front of you and reach forward on a board where it measured the distance you could reach electronically.  As Paige was doing it we didn't realize Rose took off her shoes too because she wanted to try! Awww we had to let her try too.  Another funny thing was the age machine that was supposed to age you 50 years.  We tried it with Paige and the picture looked HORRIBLE!! Apparently Maura looked younger when she did it.  It says it works best with 8-12 year olds. 

After the Center, we all drove to Shoeless Joes for our usual Christmas Eve lunch of burgers, fries, sandwiches, and other pub-ish foods. 

I love this tradition.  Christmas Eve is always exciting, and this gives us something fun to do to occupy the day.  By the time we get home it's time to prep some dessert to bring to the Christmas dinner, eat some dinner, watch a little christmas eve show, prepare the cookies and milk, and then off to bed!

Paige was really hyperactive at bed this year.  "i'm so excited! I'm so excited!" she was saying.  Luckily she went to bed easily, but I read her an extra book and lied down with her and rubbed her back just to be sure!  She had decorated her own cookie for santa, and a boy from her class had handed out little bag of Reindeer food, so she dumped that on the driveway.  We waited till Rose was asleep to do the cookie...Kinda mean for Rose to see a yummy cookie and milk just sitting there without being able to eat it.



Advent Calendars...

The girls were both given an advent calendar this year by Grandma.  We had the same routine for the whole month where they were allowed to open one window a day after breakfast.  Fun to have chocolate after breakfast I think.  Rose quickly learned what it was all about and asked for "Ca-ender" after breakfast every day, and numerous other times throughout the day.

Here are the girls on the 24th opening the last window on the kinder surprise calendar...the big egg.

On the 25th after breakfast Rose said "Ca-ender" and pointed where it used to be and then said "Ca-ender...go?? And has asked a couple of other times since. 

Christmas Party





As Rose is the one enrolled in a preschool program with the City of Burlington this time around, Paige and I got to tag along to the Holiday party.  The staff weren't allowed to do anything openly Christmas-y this year, so there weren't as many crafts or activities as years past.  Rose was scared of the large Burlington bear mascot, and Paige was shy of her old preschool teachers, so we were a bit slow to warm up to the party. 

Take your kid to work day!

The real "Take your kid to work day" was early November and Mike planned on taking Paige, except he ended up having a meeting.  Last week she had a doctor's appointment in Mississauga in the morning, which is halfway to his work, so they decided to make up for the missed day.  She apparently had tons and tons of fun.  They went out for a pancake lunch, and had candy at Daddy's office.  A few people played with her at the office, and she had her toys and iPad.  The next day she said to Mike, "Hi work buddy!".  She talks about it all the time still. 

Getting ready for Christmas...

We have put up the tree, decorated a gingerbread house, wrapped most of the presents, and have daily advent calendars.  Well, the girls have advent calendars.  Rose doesn't get it though.  She wants it more than once a day and gets upset when she can't have it after every meal.  Also, she gets upset about the gingerbread house and wants to eat it.  She climbs up onto the table and picks pieces off.  Paige is a great help and stops Rose from opening up presents (she opened up 2 already). 

other behaviours...

In addition to the tamper tantrums, Rose has started to hit, pull hair and bite! Paige never did the biting thing.  Rose does it when she gets mad.  She has bit Paige really hard, me slightly hard, and I have even witnessed her chasing Paige with an open mouth, trying to bite her.  She has ripped out huge chunks of Paige's hair, and has hit me a few times.  She generally gets along with Paige, but if Paige swipes a toy, or gets on Rose's bad side, she will do one of the 3 things. 

I guess the biting thing feels good for her when she's mad.  One day I wouldn't take her out of her high chair fast enough, but I had taken the tray off and she was strapped in.   She started to do her shouty mad thing and then angrily bit her own arm and then foot. 

So far this behaviour has been limited to home, but I did see her give a kid her frowny evil look this morning at her preschool program Christmas party.  I intervened before she could take it any farther. 

The video below gives a little taste of this behaviour....

Temper Tantrum central...

Rose has entered the temper tantrum phase.  If she is not allowed to do something she generally has a tantrum.  She'll yell "NO! AHHH!! NOOO!!".  Her "AHH" is a loud shout of anger.  Sometimes she'll throw herself on the floor, or depending on the situation, make it impossible to accomplish the task at hand.  ie. flip away from a diaper change, or arch her back with all her might to avoid getting in her car seat. She has gotten it into her head lately that I should be able to sit with her on my lap in the car.  A few times she has demanded to sit in my seat.  She wiggled her way onto the floor and pointed at my seat demanding "mommy chair!".  She also walked around to my door of the car one day trying to persuade me to let her sit with me. 
Paige finds it a bit amusing and shrugs her shoulders and says "she's going to have a tantrum".  It kinda makes the whole thing easier when there is someone else around to laugh about it with.  The only bad time is getting ready to drop Paige off in the morning at school.  She has only had 1 or 2 freak outs at that point, but it is really quite hard to get out the door in that case. 
Rose has started to ask for her num num in these situations to calm herself down.  "Nummy....nummy" she says.  We want to start to limit her having it during the day as she has definitely regressed.
I think Paige started the tantrums at the same age, but luckily got over them shortly after the age of 2 as she could talk so well and communicate what she was thinking.

Disney vacation 2012!

We have completely booked our Disney vacation for February 2012!  We leave on February 4th for 13 nights.  Mike has a conference there again which accounts for the long trip.  We were there for 10 days last time, 3.5 of which Mike had his conference.  We were so at home though in our 2 bedroom unit with kitchen, laundry, etc., that we could have stayed longer. And staying 13 days gives Mike the opportunity to relax a lot longer.  While he's busy we'll hopefully be able to just visit the pool and playground at the hotel. 

Our flight leaves on the 4th at the obscene hour of 7:10 am.  That means we have to leave home no later than 4:30.  Yikes! Paige has requested that orange juice be brought to her bed that morning to help wake her up quicker.  Rose won't be happy, and I think she's beyond the age of being transferred into the car without waking up (especially in the winter cold), but maybe she'll surprise us by falling asleep again.  Paige and I will be too excited to sleep the night before, so I hope it's not a horrendous night.  I don't actually mind an early start as it means we can have everything packed but toiletry items, and then just get out of bed and basically leave right away. 

We plan on getting a 5 or 6 day Disney pass which sounds ridiculous, but a basic 3 day pass is around $650 for all 4 of us, and every additional day is only a minor amount extra. For $100 more total we could get a 6 day pass.  We wouldn't plan on going 6 full days, but we really enjoyed the 1 evening trip to the Magic Kingdom last time to have dinner and watch the fireworks.  Things like that are great.  It gives flexibility if there is a weather issue, a nap issue, etc. 

I have booked 2 character dining experiences again.  One is a breakfast at Animal Kingdom (the one theme park we missed last time), and a dinner at the Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom.  We really enjoyed the characters meals last time, but I worry a bit that Rose will be freaked out by the giant characters.  The breakfast has Mickey, Donald, etc., and the dinner has the characters from Winnie the Pooh.

So we are super super excited.  A nice thing to look forward to after Christmas!

Favourite tunes...

Paige is seriously digging Bob Marley.  We have his "Greatest Hits" CD in the car and it's all Paige wants to listen to.  Her favourite songs (in order) are:

1. Buffalo Soldier
2. Three Little Birds
3. One Love
4. Stir it up

I only want to listen to Christmas music now in the car and Paige only wants to listen to Bob Marley.  We have to flip back and forth to keep everyone happy. 

Paige also likes to sing along to Adele, namely "Someone like you" and "Rumour has it"--although she thought this one said "Moo-mer has it, Mooooo".

A Visit With Santa at the Farm...

Santa was at  Springridge Farm for 1 weekend only.  This was a couple of weeks ago, but I have been lacking blog writing time. I wanted to lock down the Santa visit, and thus present ideas, so we went to see Santa early this year.

Paige was shy with Santa again but managed to get out a quick "real popsicle maker!!" when he asked her what she wanted.  She wanted to specify real incase he thought she wanted a pretend popsicle set.

 Rose was too scared even with Daddy.

 At Springridge Farm they have cookie decorating and ornament making during November and December. We skipped the ornament making as they were dressed up, and the ornament involves lots of paint. Paige ate this cookie for her snack about 5 minutes after it was finished. Rose didn't want to try it for some reason, nor did she want a snack at all as she was teething.

 We didn't think the farmyard would be open, but the day was nice and the yard is free in November and December.

 For some reason this reminds me of one of the photos of Kate Middleton during the Canadian tour. Not the leg position of course, but the coat with the hair blowing in the wind with a head piece. haha

 So hard to get an action shot on the slide.  They then crashed into me.

We didn't anticipate playing at the farm in the Christmas outfits.  One busted out pair of tights was the only casualty.

Scenes from the Royal Winter Fair...