Backyard fun!

Yesterday was the first day we got out in the backyard for a while.  Paige often doesn't want to if I ask, and if Rose is awake we need there to be some shade which doesn't happen until about 3:00.  Rose's bikini was a gift (I wouldn't have gotten her one myself, but is cute anyway!) as were the other outfits seen above! I had to do an outfit change as she was a bit hot in the terry cloth dress, but it wasn't warm enough for just the bikini. So cute.  Paige figured out how to spray the hose, and was blasting it all over the backyard.  I had to guard Rose for dear life. 

Carol Ann lately...

1.  Unreasonably upset about impending birthday.

2. 15 pounds left to lose, but with breastfeeding weight retention, only need to lose about 7. 

3.  Ridiculously pleased with Molly Maid coming over last week.  And even more excited that Mike suggested they come back regularly until Rose is a bit bigger.  This either says that a)my cleaning is crap, b)I have a wonderfully understanding husband.  I like to think the latter. 

I find that since Paige needs attention when I am not with Rose, it is hard to clean the house very well, and many things were getting overlooked.  We think it would be a good idea to have Molly come over every 2 weeks for the next little while so I can focus on the girls.

4.  I have been sick for about 6 weeks! Cannot shake this sore throat, cough, and on and off pink eye. What is up with that? Am I not drinking enough water? Getting enough sleep? Getting enough exercise? No, no and no.  Not sure if that causes me to stay sickly and immune compromised. 

Paige lately...

1. Loves her little sister. She kisses and touches her non-stop.  "Little baby Rosie!" is what she says all day long. In the morning she asks where she is and wants to come see her when she wakes up.  When she needs her soother Paige yells, "I'll do it!" and gives it back to her.  Today she said, "I don't want her to sleep!".  I don't see any issues of jealousy.  If I have to spend time with Rose, Paige never questions it or asks me not to.  Since I do have to spend a lot of time with Rose, I find that Paige demands more of my attention when I am not busy.  She just wants time where she has all of the attention I guess. 

2.  Since Rose was born, Paige's listening has either gotten worse or I have less patience.  I think it might be a combination of the two.  When I was pregnant and slow, it wouldn't matter if we were wandering slowly through the mall, or taking forever to get up the stairs.  Now that there are things to do, and if we are out we have a limited window before Rose needs to eat.  Often I have to ask Paige to hurry up, come upstairs, time to get dressed, etc.  She will start playing with toys, get distracted, and just pretend not to hear me.  I ask her if she is listening and she says "I am listening!".  Other times she will deliberately do something after I have asked her not to...this being the most frustrating example.  For these I have been giving her time outs until she is "ready to listen".  She will sit down against the wall for a minute or so and I ask her if she is ready to listen, and she will usually say yes (sometimes she will say no!).  I made her a listening chart, so if she listens really well (comes to get dressed when I tell her it's time, tidies up her toys when asked, etc) she will get a sticker.  She has always responded well to sticker charts, so we'll see how this goes. 

3.  Is unbelievable on the computer.  She plays games on the NickJr. website (Dora, Wonder Pets, etc.).  She knows how to play most of them and can even select a new game.  She uses the finger mouse thing (whatever it is called) on the laptop, so it is easier for her.  There is one game that asks you to type in your name and I saw her type "PAI" and then needed help for the rest.  She can also use my iPhone completely, and can switch between games, flip through photos, and load up videos and watch them.  The problem is that she will take it and start using it, after first closing any text messages I have so I never see them.  The computer is great, but can be a bit of a nightmare as she gets so addicted to it and becomes moody when I turn it off. 

4.  Her favourite toys are a few small plastic dinosaurs she calls dragons, and her My Little Ponies.  Although these are her favourite real toys, she will make almost anything into a character and make it talk to other things.  She likes to play with her glitter glues...they jump, climb up their box, talk to each other etc.  They have names which are the names of their colour.  I hear her say, "Um blue, climb up here", "Ok red".  She also played in a similar way with my jewellery, and my Birks heart necklace was called "Hearty-Heart".  Her favourite thing to pretend to do at the moment is make cookies.  Paige and I like to build a "pony store" out of blocks.  One of her ponies came with a shopping cart, so the ponies can shop in the store, or just all pile in.  She told both of her instructors at her class today about the pony store as we were leaving. 

5.  She has a very small appetite.  I don't feed her huge snacks or anything, and she usually doesn't eat a whole lot.  She likes the same things over and over again.  I taught her how to ask for "the usual" at lunch, which is a peanut butter sandwich.  She also likes mini yogourts, apple slices and bananas.  These are the healthy things...I wouldn't bother to list all the snacks that she likes. 

6.  She is doing great with a regular cup.  I forgot Paige's sippy cup for 2 cottage trips in a row, so she had to learn fast.  We don't fill her cup up all the way yet just in case, but she has had very few spills.  I'm hoping it will get her to drink more fluids, as she often doesn't drink any water at all unless I force her.  She would drink only milk if she could, and she doesn't like juice. 

7.  I read that by 30 months she should be able to dress herself.  Then I saw Amy putting on shirts.  I had never pushed Paige to dress herself or thought that she should be able to.  I guess I was wrong! I don't feel I need to push her, and she has started to take her pants off by herself, but can't put them back on, or doesn't want to try.  I also learned that she should be able to do the whole bathroom routine by herself, which is something I didn't know either.  Oddly enough, she started climbing up on the toilet and pulling her pants down all by herself without me ever mentioning it once.  At any rate, however far this progresses, I don't see a need to push her.  She'll be ok if I need to help her with these things for a bit.  By September she will have to be more independent in the bathroom for her classes at the community center since they won't help her very much in the bathroom.

So much more to write about I am sure....

Rose lately...

1. Rose is a great sleeper.  Has had 3 nights now where she has made it to 4:30 without waking up at all.  No num num plugging, no random unexplained wakeups.  And she doesn't cry in the night.  I hear her breathing heaviner and moving around, and when I go in she is often even smiling. What? She can even sleep in her crib for naps.  I put her in the crib and sometimes have to go in a few times to give her the soother, but she will sleep in her crib quite happily for short or long naps. 

2.  Rose just had a huge growth spurt.  I noticed that her feet are totally squished in her sleepers, and the other day she got upset and quickly stretched out her legs which resulted in the buttons popping around the bum.  I'll hang on to these newborn sleepers for dear life though until they are completely too small.  I don't want to pack them away.  At the cottage we measured her on the 11th.  She is now around 3/4 of an inch taller. I have taken out most of her 3 month clothes, as a lot of the onesies she had from Paige are super short and wide (were like this on Paige too). 

3. Tons of smiles all around.  In addition to the night time smiles, she is quite smiley during the day.  She gives lots of open mouthed smiles and little coos.  Can't wait till we get some laughs. 

4.  She loves her bouncy chair.  LOVES.  Sometimes she will get irritated when someone is holding her, and only wants the bouncy chair.  A perfect contraption to put her in while I am showering, etc. During dinner time, it's the swing. Loves the swing too, and it puts her right to sleep for a small nap. 

5.  She is a delightful baby in general.  She is so easy to read, and as a result is generally happy.  So glad to have the easier baby second since I am so greatful and definitely don't take it for granted!  I love spending time with her especially when I get little smiles in return!  :)

Weekend photos randomized.

Good news!

 1. Paige didn't mention bugs once when going to sleep.

2. Chippie is officially trained for the season.

3. No one fell through the dock or hurt themselves!

4. We remembered to bring the cottage key!

Another dinner picnic

We watched Toy Story last night as a family, and Paige ate almost all of her food. It was quite amazing.

A few wet days at the cottage....

A few days at the cottage in the rain isn't very conducive to taking photos, so I have very few.  On Tuesday Paige, Rose, and I jumped in the car and drove to pick up Maura. The 4 of us drove up together so I would have some help if anyone got squirelly in the car.  Mike was away for 5 days at a conference in Chicago.  We stopped at Weber's for some dinner, and again the girls slept until we got there.  My dad had gone up to the cottage earlier, so we met him up there when we arrived around 8:00 or so. 

Here's a picture of Paige being "in her face" and intense around Rose. She does this all day long. 

Here's a picture of Paige about to attempt a little fishing off the dock with Grandpa as the rain subsided for a few minutes. 

But a few minutes after this picture was taken was when things really got wet.  Now that the G8 summit is coming to Huntsville, the cell reception has been ramped up, and you can even get a signal on the dock or the porch sometimes (with Rogers at least...not sure about my Telus).  Maura went out in the rain and sat on the edge of the last step down to the dock.  The rest of us were in the warm cottage with the heat on.  All of a sudden we heard what sounded like a scream.  We looked at each other like "what was that?".  I looked outside and all I could see was Maura in the water halfway down the dock with all of the boards missing.  In the picture above, the part right beside the boat is where about 10 boards were missing, and Maura was in between the dock frame.  It took me a second to realize what I saw and said, "Maura's in the water!" and my dad raced down to the dock and I followed.  Apparently she had walked down the dock a little farther to check the signal and the next thing she knew, she was in the water! A few things happened when she fell. 1)She hurt her bad shoulder, 2)Scraped up her back which eventually bruised black all the way up, and 3) dropped her laptop in the lake.  She had been calling us for a couple of minutes and we didn't hear her, so she was freezing, and hurt, and couldn't find the laptop.  My dad got a stool and she got out of the water and the laptop was also retrieved.  So scary and so strange that the dock just fell apart.  My dad examined it and there was a missing bolt which caused the frame to become a bit wider and the boards to literally just fall through. It was just a matter of the next person out on the dock falling through.  Horrible for Maura, but also good that it wasn't Paige or Rose in the water.  I would take the falling through myself to avoid them falling in.  Maura had a warm bath and then called a computer store in town.  They were actually able to retrieve her hard drive and boot up the computer.  Of course she will be needing a new laptop since one that has been submerged for 5 minutes shouldn't be trusted!

The next day was also wet so Grandma and Grandpa took Paige into town so she could get out of the cottage for a bit.  While they were gone I tidied up a bit, but then sat and watched a movie with Rose.  Haven't watched a movie during the day in ages.  It was quite nice. 

Paige had problems falling asleep all of the nights.  Talked about bugs again, and added snakes to the list of fears.  She also mentioned not liking the black sheets on her bed.  Oh well, she will no doubt get used to it the more we go up there. 

Anyway, it was a nice few days, and I was glad not to be home alone for the entire time.  The ride home went fine, and even after I had to drop Maura off partway home on her way to the Trout Club with my dad, I managed to stop at a rest stop, take Paige to the washroom while lugging the car seat, and feed Rose and change her in the car all by myself.  The we had to continue on for about an hour by ourselves.  Eventually Rose screamed inconsolably since she was awake for the hour, but I pulled over and retrieved the soother and all was well for the final 15 minutes. 

Cute time after bath!

"Hoarders", or "When Paige and Amy play"