Oh innocence....

Just as we were about to leave the Second Cup today one of the employees walked out the door with a cigarette in his mouth.

Paige says "Look he have straw! he he he"

Then she is smiling and chuckling to herself as she sees him outside smoking, thinking he is playing with a straw.

Then she says "He blow something!"

So cute.

ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!!!!!

There it is!

Hi ice cream truck!


Bye ice cream truck!

Woops--little trip on the curb!

And I quote....

Paige sang this at breakfast in one long song....

"The itsy bitsy spider went up the clock, merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream!"

Post-sprinkler warming up....

In case you're confused, Amy is wearing the "Paige" hat.

Funny...

This morning when I went into Paige's room she said, "I go see Booze (Jen), James, and Abby at Booze's house!" I said, yes, we're going in a few weeks. She says, "James, Booze, Abby, all the kids!" I said, "Are james and booze kids?", and she says, " not kids anymore!"

Such a funny thing to say!

Last night Paige wanted to pee in the potty at 5:00am. I brought her in the bathroom and by the light of the very dim nightlight she sat on the potty with her soother in her mouth and her hands on her knees and yawned and yawned and finally went. Then she went back to sleep. She still wears a diaper at night, but I guess she was awake enough to know that she was about to go and didn't want to go in the diaper. I bet this happens all the time now.

A trip to the zoo

We had told Paige the day before that we were going to the zoo and she would see giraffes, snakes, gorillas, etc. So she was very excited to see the animals which we had mentioned. "Go see giraffe" she would keep saying as we headed in that direction. She had never seen a giraffe before, and this was the first time that she had seen any of these animals outside (we have always been to the zoo in the winter). Her favourite exhibit was the baboons and she wanted to stay there for a long time. Not sure if it was because she liked them the most, neccessarily, or whether it was because she could see them through the glass on her own without having to be held. The day was a perfect temperature and we spent about 4 hours there before she was getting a little crazy, meaning time to get into the car and sleep on the way home.

Daddy's Birthday weekend at the cottage

We had a great time at the cottage over the long weekend with Mary Jo, Robin, and Evan.

The weather even cooperated and it was somewhat sunny for the 2 days we were there.

Recently....

For the most part, people who don't know Paige think she is much younger when they see her. She is still quite small, and has such a baby face. I get a kick out of people's shocked expressions when she talks to them in full sentences. Today Paige said to a mom: "Hey-he has Thomas on his shoes!". The mom looked amazed. She thought Paige was no more than 18 months. Someone once asked if she was "around 12 months". Ah well...the story of my life growing up as a young looking kid....but nice when the big 3-0 is next year.

-------------------------

As Paige continues to play for hours on end with her dollhouse and various toys she feels that it's neccessary to empty out every single one of her toys in order to have the full experience. If I try to put anything away, forget it. She yells and takes them all back out. I haven't vacuumed in ages as there is never a time that she isn't sleeping where the floor is free to vacuum. Today I can hear her chatting away as she is supposed to be napping, so I'll have to jump on the chance.

-------------------------

Soccer class is a bit of a bust since the activities we do are more suited to older kids. The class only goes up to 2.5 year olds, but the lesson plan seems to be severly skewed. Sure Paige can count, jump, and tap her feet on a ball.....but can she "jump THREE TIMES, tap with the INSIDE OF HER FOOT TWO TIMES and then run in a circle" all in a sequence? Nooooo. My teacher friends tell me this isway advanced. I have to help her with every step along the way, as do all the other parents. For this age group where it's all about doing things by themselves, you can see all of the kids getting irritated that their parents are forcing them to stand up, physically moving their feet around, etc. Paige just wants to run around, and likes physical challenges that she can accomplish by herself. She asks to go home every class, and I have heard at least 2-3 more kids say they wanted to go home as well. Gymnastics, on the other hand, gives her enough of a challenge, and lets her accomplish things by herself, while learning to stay with a class and wait her turn. She loves that class.

--------------------------------

Potty training is going really really well. I stopped with the potty chart stickers since we would have filled up 4 charts or so by now. She never wets a diaper unless it is bed time (and also because she has had a few accidents in underwear--she is still not good at telling me when she needs to go unexpectedly). But if I put her on the potty before bed, after bed, before going out, etc. she will usually always go. We even risked 1 walk in the underwear, and tried to use a public washroom...didn't have to go in the public washroom, but also said it was "too big" so I might have to get a portable potty seat.

And the potty training begins...

You have to understand that I wasn't ready for this. I knew that we would have to potty train Paige at some point, and I had a feeling it would be sooner than later. But as everyone knows, I can't stand staying in the house all day. This is why staying home for days on end so as to be close to the potty didn't seem appealing. I already had a million excuses in my head as to why we shouldn't start now because we will be going to the cottage, we have classes going on, etc.

Then, the other night Paige asked to go on the potty while she was in the bathtub. I put her on the potty and she peed instantly. I said to Mike, "if she does this again we better continue on with the training". Then last night she had a bath. I said, "let's try to pee on the potty before putting on our diaper and going to bed". Put her on the potty....instant pee. Well, this was it, better keep going. This morning before soccer...."let's try to go on the potty before soccer". Sits on potty....poo. After soccer..."let's sit on the potty before lunch". Sits on potty for quite a while.....more poo. So not stressful so far, but we have success. After every success is a sticker on the potty chart and high fives from mommy, and then high fives when we tell daddy. I think when she reaches the end of this chart she might get a bigger prize! I think it might be time to start the underwear in the next couple of days as well. I think this will excite her to no end.

Update 5:15pm: After her nap she peed on the potty right away. I then put her in some underwear under her clothes and we went outside to play in the sandbox and with some water. She ended up peeing in her clothes. Oh well. We're definitely ahead though! And now she only wants underwear.

Update July 30th: Has continually peed and pooed on potty every time. The only wet diapers we have had are while out at gymnastics and the toy store, and the night time diaper.

Beginnings of an imagination....

I haven't written much as my spare computer time is being devoted to my blog book (volume 2!). However I have had a bit more time than usual since Paige has taken to playing with her dollhouse and all of her "guys" for hours upon end. Seriously. She will play with her toys for over an hour easily. She makes them walk all over the house, go in a car, drive around, puts them to sleep under little blankets, etc. And she talks constantly the entire time about what she is doing. She doesn't even need me to play with her at all. She will play with me if I get down on the floor and engage in whatever she is doing, although she is perfectly happy to play by herself.

Funny because this kind of play came on so fast. I was just saying to someone 2 weeks ago how she isn't into her toys for more than a few minutes at a time, and now we have taken the leap to hour long play sessions. If she is downstairs she mentions about how she wants to go upstairs to play with her dollhouse. She didn't nap today, and then went straight to the house.

The next big toy we are thinking of investing in (Christmastime) is a Thomas train set. She has one Thomas, but there are tons and tons of things you can get. She has always loved train sets at our classes, and at toy stores, and now that I see how well she can play I am beginning to feel way way better about snowy winter days!

Here is a blurry picture of something I caught her doing the other day with her dollhouse. She told me the baby was in the bath and the mommy and daddy were watching. I thought this was quite smart for her age.