Rose's new gear...

Doesn't it match our kitchen nicely? It looks like the promotional photo! It is the Fisher Price Zen highchair. Paige used a high chair that was used by my cousin Jack. While it did the trick, it was always far too big for Paige and we had to shove pillows and blankets in it to support her. Also, the fabric had gotten ripped in a few places so it was really hard to get the food out of the cracks. We had a gift certificate to Toys R Us from Mike's Auntie Judy, Uncle Greg, and cousins Amanda and Angie. We decided it was a good excuse to get a new one. Rose will use it for at least 2 years, so it made sense to get one that would fit.

Rose lately....

If Rose followed in her big sister's shoes, she would roll over in 6 days. I can see it happening. She can roll fully to her side now. I don't see her trying to roll over at all, but then again, I don't remember thinking that Paige would roll over before she actually did either.

She has begun to wake up in the night again. Uusally around 11:30 or 12:00. We did come home from Edmonton last week and then go to the cottage, so I hope that is all it is. I hope for better sleeps to come. Because if you add a 12:00 feeding, a 4:00 bathroom trip with Paige, another 6:30 feeding, and perhaps a random wakeup in the night, it is a bit of a rough night. She sleeps in until about 10:00 in the morning lately. Crazy! She then has a nap at around 12:30, and then again at 5:00ish.

This past week, she has started to make more varied noises. She is usually mad when she makes them, and still quite quiet when she is happy. When she is hungry or tired she often make a long mmmmmm sound with her top lip over her bottom one.

She hates her car seat still, and unless someone is sitting with her in the back, she usually starts crying. It doesn't lull her to sleep like it once did. In fact for the last couple of months, I can't remember going out with her anywhere besides the cottage where she has fallen asleep in the car seat. I discovered today that she likes the baby bjorn now that she can face outwards, so that is an option for park trips. I can push her in the stroller to the park, and once there I can strap her to my front while I walk around and watch Paige.

Paige has one pair of footed pyjamas--"super-cozies". They ended up in Rose's drawer and Mike put them on her by accident.

The things she said today...

As I came into the kitchen for dinner tonight (Mike was finishing it up while I was busy with Rose) Paige says, "When I cry, mommy, I need you". So touching... sniff sniff. She hadn't been crying at the time, or any time in and around when she said it, so she must have been thinking it. So sad and cute.

Also at dinner, she held up a red pepper and said, "Is this a vegetable?". I had told her fruits, vegetables, and meats make her grow taller. She really wants to grow bigger so she can go on rides at West Ed, and go on a Disney Cruise. I told her yes, and she crunched away! No need to tell her that dairy products make her taller because she loves yogurt and milk. She always says, "When I'm tall like Clara...." (Clara is the same age and about a foot taller than her).

While we were playing in the backyard she noticed a bug on her arm and let out a blood curdling scream. I told her bugs are our friends, etc. etc. and not to worry. Well then she saw another one on her foot and lost it again. I told her not to worry about bugs. She said, "When I was 2, at the cottage, I got a bug bite". I love how she tried to explain why she is afraid of bugs, and that she remembers she was 2 when it happened. She is always talking about what things happened when she was 2, what she will do now that she is 3, and how she will be bigger when she is 4.

Home for a few and then off again!

In honour of my dad's birthday on the 20th and Maura's birthday on the 21st, we joined them at the cottage along with Amanda, James and Greg.

Baking the cake for Grandpa and Grandma's birthdays!

Uncle Greg practices some tunes...

Decorating the cake...

Play dough creations...

An eventual rained out boat ride. "I'm soaked" she exclaimed as they came back....and then proceeded to change into her bathing suit for a swim in the rain with daddy.

Half a month in St. Albert...

Can't believe we crashed in on the Pugsleys for half a month. They are well equiped though with having 4 bedrooms upstairs. We shared a room with Rose, and Paige slept in the craft room on an air mattress. Since there were lots of potential for noise in the night from most rooms we slept with a fan and the window open! The first couple of days we slept in our room with the door closed as well, but after 2 nights of Jen having to come in to tell us that Paige was calling us, we had to sleep with it open. And sleeping with the door open came in handy when there were 2 incidences where Lizzy was crying and Jen didn't hear her. I found myself plugging her with a num num and busting in on Jen and James in the night to tell them. So we were even.


We couldn't have asked for better weather. Not too hot during the day, and mainly sunny. The nights were cool and perfect for sleeping. There is no humidity there and the sky is blue and smog free. The water is cold and yummy and doesn't taste like chlorine. And after sitting in a water glass all night long, the water doesn't taste like dirt (trust me--the water is horrible here). The only bad thing about the environment there is that it stays sunny a lot later, and putting Paige to bed was a challenge. She could often see kids playing outside her window. We caught her looking out her window watching kids on a slip and slide one night when we thought she had been sleeping for a half hour. Another night she was calling to the dog, "Abby! Abby!" when she saw her in the backyard. Every night we would have to go in and out of her room a dozen times. "But Mom!" she would say when I would leave for the 11th time after doing odd things like tucking her blankets up over her mouth (?). But she did go to bed quite early there (from the time change) which was nice. Rose defnitely went to bed early--sometimes 7:00. Lizzy was a bit of a difficult sleeper though, so I would often find myself coming out of Paige's room at night saying, "Ok, glass of white wine anyone?....anyone?" and they were off to bed. But what we lacked in the evening in terms of socializing we made up for in the wee hours of the morning comparing sleep stories, or changing diapers together. Or even random passes in the hall in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom, make Lizzy a bottle, or take Paige to the bathroom. I hate to say it, but Rose slept quite well and often slept through the night. She would wake up pretty early, but I liked the time in the quiet house where I could make coffee and just relax for a bit.


It is really funny, looking back, at how crazy it was. Everyone would comment on the noise in the house...Paige running around screaming, Lizzy or Rose crying, Abby barking, random visitors coming and going, and that blasted train ripping through the town. In the 2 weeks that we were there, the babies changed a lot. Rose became a lot more active and sturdy. She enjoys playing with toys a bit now, and can be held outwards just resting on the hip of any female...a little more awkward for a man. She loves being carted around like this. And Lizzy went from having about 8 20 minute naps to having 3 long naps during the day. I think they both learned from each other! It was definitely hard for scheduling anything though, as when 1 woke up another would go down for a nap.


Some fun things we did with Paige were to take her to Galaxyland amusement park in WEM (west edmonton mall for you non-Edmontonians), go to Mike's and my old school playground, enjoy treats at the farmers market, and take her to a pool splash park thing (Mike did this a few times). Grandma Val went on an outing with Paige to another splash park as well. She really enjoyed all of the things St. Albert has to offer. There really are lots of things for kids to do just a short drive away. It's always really strange for me since we have moved away to take Paige to things that I used to do as a kid. I can picture my mom in my shoes watching me do the same things. It makes me feel older than I do here!

Because we couldn't bring many toys, Mike made Paige a house out of 2 Pampers boxes (picture below). I also made a run to the dollar store to grab a ton of crafting stuff, and a trip to chapters for some new "Little Miss" books which were small and easy to pack for the way home. Abby also kept Paige entertained, and we had to constantly remind her that Abby WILL bite her if she is not careful! At home Paige either watches videos or tv shows on demand, but at their house she just watched tv. She was introduced to a few new shows, so she was really happy about that. After watching Kung Fu Panda a few times there she now says "Focus Focus" to me with her hand facing me palm outward if I am talking to much.

Closer to the end of the trip we were at Walmart and Paige was whining. I was telling her that I don't listen to her whiny voice and that she had to talk normally. "I feel a bit roughie!" she says. I felt her head and the poor thing was burning up! She had a fever for the rest of the day and even agreed to have a nap. Not sure what that was all about, but it put a dent in the plans a bit. We were supposed to visit the Barr's and I had to go alone with Rose, Mike staying behind to take care of Paige. Poor Mike missed an excellent meal and great time. Poor Paige was sad to miss the night too and asked to go there the next day.

James' dad was nice enough to lend us his vehicle for us to use. It was great as it had a 3rd row for us to fit 3 car seats in it. That way, when James and Mike worked during the day, Jen and I could go places in 1 car.

For some odd reason I lost a pound while we were there, but I swear I didn't hold back on the brownies, cookies, etc. Jen and I spent a large majority of the time complaining about losing baby weight, and then drinking lattes and eating brownies. Hypocritical, i know, but we both knew that once we were gone we would definitely make the effort 100%. hehe

It's nice being there for so long, but at the same time it makes it a lot harder to leave. We all get used to being around each other a lot, and it's nice to see family and friends who we see so little. For me, who is used to little adult contact during the day most of the time, it was such a nice treat to have people to talk to. And when we left it was hard to think about missing out on seeing Lizzy grow up. I guess that's how they have always felt about Paige. I hope we can have some visitors soon, we just don't have much room right now. We need to renovate our basement to make a more suitable place for visitors to sleep! We may make it out there after Christmas, but will definitely be there in the summer again.

St. Albert Part 3

Tyson and Paige: Tyson, and GF Kayleigh:

Rose and Abby! Wanted to recreate a picture of me sitting on Beagle Farley when I was a baby, but Abby didn't seem as tolerant.

Paige was so limited in the toy department, and we could only bring things that were small. One day mike just made this "castle" out of diaper boxes. It was a huge hit! And jen had a little bit of furniture to put in it from her doll house craft. Actually he made the right side one day, and added the left part a few days later. The little guys travel between the 2 sides via a tunnel.

I got together with friends Lisa and Andrea and their kids for a playdate in Andrea's backyard. The kids were a bit crazy and had a lot of sugar so we took them for a walk around the pond outside of her house. I forgot our stroller at home, so I borrowed Andrea's. I got to experience the absolutely amazing bugaboo stroller. LOOOOOved it. I would recommend it to anyone! A bit pricey, but who cares, it was sweet.

Isaiah, Natalya, Cadence (Lisa's kids), Emerson (Andrea's son...also not pictured is 8 month old Avalynn), and Paige! A super fun playdate, wish we could do it more often than once a year!

St. Albert Part 2.

This first photo looks like Lizzy's scream face. She really uses her voice a lot...happy and mad!

Lizzy with second cousin Angie:

Mike with his second cousin Aveline:

Paige playing with Jen's friend Ashley's son Jacob:

Ashley, Sophie, Rose, and Lizzy:

Uncle James and Lizzy at Auntie Judy and Unlcle Greg's house for a BBQ:

Paige playing with second cousins on the hammock....eventually ended in a wipeout by Paige.

The Mouaits:

Trying out the bumbo seat!:

St. Albert Part 1

After a spastic rush through the airport ("come on Paige! Hurry up!", "Mike, why did you pack fishing reels in your carry-on!??") we actually had a nice and leisurely plane ride to Edmonton. We were in the back row, but rarely needed a diaper change or bathroom visit. We all watched separate shows on our seat back tv's for the most part (minus Rose, of course, who slept most of the time in my arms). We had a few other activities for Paige as well to keep her occupied when wearing headphones became too irritating for her (and for us who kept having to re-insert them every 2 minutes).

When we arrived in Edmonton, Zaida Bruce was there to pick us up minus 1 suitcase (mike's...phew!), and take us over to Jen's house. So nice of him to pick us up considering he had just woken up after working the night shift and was due to start work again after picking us up....and he owns a taxi company, so he was essentially working all day long. When we got to St. Albert, the new cousins were introduced!

Mommy, Rose, Zaida Bruce, Grayson, and Burton. Burton (Mike), was in our wedding party. He works for Bruce's company now, and incidentally, we worked together at the pool. I just thought of that.

As you can see, there are 30th birthday signs in the back. We celebrated Mike's 30th while we were there and I brought the decorations from home.

Uncle Tyson:

Both girls love standing!

Letting Abby run around a leash free park:

Val is laughing here as Paige was really winding Lizzy up, making her laugh more than she ever had before. Rose, on the other hand, is quite used to Paige's typical antics!

The first few days were a bit rough for Paige. Definitely homesick. She had to get used to the time change, fewer toys, and competing for attention. She was happy to be there, but was definitely a bit off, and probably quite tired. Rose was also a bit out of sorts for the first day, but adjusted fairly quickly after that, only waking up very early for a couple of days and then adjusting quite quickly. I think that babies adapt to the different levels of light and sleep accordingly because she got on a good schedule right away.

A visit from California....

My aunt Robin and cousin Evan came for their annual summer visit to the cottage. We were able to visit for a couple of days, but they are there for 3 weeks. Mary Jo was also there. A nice visit, and Robin was nice enough to bunk in with Evan while Paige slept in her bed and we all shuffled around. Paige was confused, but managed ok, and loved her 2 aunts playing with her all weekend.

Wagon ride to the river...

Paige with 2nd cousin Evan...

Chippie cottage...

Rose with Great Aunt Robin...

Couple cute ones!