Teething puts a damper on things...

I take it she's teething. If she's not randomly crying, throwing her arms up in the air to be picked up, or screaming as she's being put in her highchair, then she's chomping down on my knees and calves. Her sleeping is also suffering and she's waking up every night. Last night she wouldn't stop squirming and eventually started screaming. I had to give her Tylenol and finally feed her to calm her down. Again, I take it she's teething?

Can't see which teeth are descending/ascending but the usual ones to come down now would be the middle top, or I1 as we would call them in Osteology. The only thing that looks different in her mouth is that the bottom of her mouth looks a bit lumpy. I wonder if top and bottom teeth will just start popping out all over the place.

Girls Cottage Weekend

This past weekend, Katharine, Christy, and I left the girls behind with their daddies and went on a "Mom's retreat" up to the cottage. After a weekend of sitting on the porch, tanning on the dock, reading celebrity mags, and watching movies, we all left feeling quite relaxed. I wouldn't say we were well-rested, since we went to bed late and there was a huge thunderstorm one night, but it was nice to just chill out and only have yourself to worry about. It was also a good test for all of us to see what it felt like to be without the babies for a day. We thought we'd miss them, which we did, but we also felt like they were probably having fun with their dads, and that it was nice for them to spend quality time together. By the time we left the cottage it was sad to leave, but also nice to have something nice to look forward to for when we got home. I wish I could say Paige squealed with delight and ran up to me when she saw me, but she didn't. She really didn't acknowledge me whatsoever. I scooped her up, but she was more interested in our flowers outside. It was like I never went anywhere. It actually makes me feel good for our upcoming trip, knowing that we can leave and she won't forget us or be mad at us.

While we were on the screened in porch, a deer actually came up to the cottage. I have never seen a deer get this close (they're usually on the road), but we seemed to be the only cottagers around this weekend which made it very quiet and peaceful for a deer, I guess. We actually saw him/her on 2 separate occasions.

This is "Chippie", our tame cottage chipmunk for the past 2 years (at least). You can hand feed him peanuts and he will jump in your lap.

Boating pics as promised...

Paige's walking update

Paige's summer wardrobe on the line...

In case you're wondering about what Paige is doing for the environment after all this travel back and forth....well, we have bought a clothesline that we are using to dry her clothes outside. Until recently in Ontario, outdoor clotheslines were illegal (for aesthetic reasons). As far as the eye can see (and we can see a ton of houses from our backyard), we are the only house with one, but I was inspired by the David Suzuki commercials that we have here in Ontario. I have dried other clothes out there, but our yard isn't really big enough to have anything industrial in order to dry a ton of stuff at once. We sort of have to rotate, but I am amazed at how quickly things dry, making it easy to just get things in and out. I can't do everything out there...ie underwear (embarrassing) and towels (they get really stiff), but I only need to put in one dryer load. Every bit helps.
This picture is just random but I thought it was hilarious. Paige continues to walk all over the place, never crawling. Later today I will try to post a video.

Cottage Season

Life is good. We have just started our non-stop cottage/outing extravaganza. We'll/I'll be going up North every weekend now until July 5. On the weekend of the 5th ,we have Andrea's wedding followed by Paige's birthday party on the 6th. Then, the following weekend is our cruise, and then we resume cottaging again till who knows when.




This weekend was great but there was a scary storm on Friday night. The weather was better the rest of the time, but the bugs were out of control causing us to stay inside most of the time. Apparently it wasn't as bad on the dock, but I didn't want to take the chance that Paige could get eaten alive. She managed to have one chunk taken out of her ear by a black fly, but that was it. Luckily we have a screened in porch so you can still get the warm breeze and feel like you're outside, but not have to worry about the bugs. The ones that did make it inside when the door was opened met their fate with "the executioner"

Here you can see them on the screen trying to get in.

We left around 1:00 on sunday, but it still made for a nice father's day as the 2 dads got to do a bit of fishing.

We took Paige for a spin in the boat with her little life jacket on. She was NOT happy! I don't have the picture of that yet, I'll post it later. I love this picture of her in the old fashioned bathtub.

walking continued...

On Friday we went to "Amy's" house for a dip in the inflatable pool. After peeing on Amy's carpet while in her bathing suit, I think Paige sat in the pool for about an hour. The weather was so, so, so hot that I don't blame her. I wanted to get right in there too. It was one of those, "ahh, this is the life" moments as we chilled out in the backyard.

Paige is basically walking most of the time now. She has figured out how to stand up in the middle of the room. So, if she falls while walking, she just stands up and keeps walking. A few days ago, she would have crawled if she had fallen.

She is making faster progress than I thought she would considering she only started walking 2 weeks ago. I thought it would have taken longer to get to this stage. I have even seen her walking in her crib. I would say she would be running soon, but she is probably too short.

pushing along..

I had to take this picture.. You know how Paige likes to pick stuff up and push it along in her walker? Well yesterday I caught her pushing around "Night at the Roxbury" which for some reason struck me as hilarious! It might have been because I had a fit of the giggles at Gymboree. It all had to do with the parachute at the end of the class. It usually starts with the babies sitting in the middle of the parachute as the adults walk in a circle so the babies get a little ride. Then, we take them off, pick the parachute up, sit underneath it and put the edge under our bums so that we are all under a dome. Then, we leave the babies on the mat while we raise the parachute up and down over them. Finally, we let go of the parachute as the instructor whips it off in one motion. So... I'm not sure if there were new people there or what, but everything went wrong. First, as we were taking the babies off the chute to go underneath it, everyone was off except katharine as the parachute was being lifted. We had visions of her being trapped on top of the dome. Then, there was a lot of comotion trying to get the parachute under our bums, as some people were over eager and had already sat down before other people were close to being ready. But the worst part was when she whipped the chute off at the end, i think a few people let go a bit late and it sort of enveloped me and there was parachute everywhere and my hair ended up sticking up all over the place. Could not stop laughing.
I have noticed that Paige likes to copy other babies. Clara was putting this antannae in her mouth so Paige had to come over and do the same thing even though she has never done this before.

DiaperFit photos as promised!

Finally we brought cameras to diaperfit....it is ending for the summer at the end of June, so we felt we had to bring the cameras before it was too late! Who knows if the girls will be up for the class when it resumes in September since they will be quite a bit more active and mobile. I once witnessed a boy who spent the entire class trying to escape from the fish since he was old enough to be running on the deck. This is what the little "contraption" looks like that the babies sit in.

A trip to the farm...

On Saturday we went to Springridge Farm. Paige got to see chickens, goats, bunnies, a turkey, and a peacock. We also paid $3 for her to go on a pony ride. There were 2 loops in the ride and she started getting a bit fidgety on the final lap. I think in the second pony ride picture Mike is taking her off.

Yesterday was Clara's birthday party and we forgot the camera at home! Too bad because Clara looked way too cute in her party dress.