Christmas Town

I don't know if I mentioned in the blog about how I spent an entire day back in October trying to get tickets to Christmas town at Mountsberg Conservation area? Well, I did. I didn't get tickets, but was called from the waiting list at the beginning of December! Woohoo! We went on the 23rd for the 1:00 horse-drawn wagon ride into Christmas Town. Christmas town contains Santa's cabin that he stays in for a month before Christmas, as well as elf academy, flight school, parcel pickup, and Mrs. Claus' kitchen. We listened to Christmas music in our wagon as it carried us and a few other families across the snow for a 10 minute or so journey into Christmas town.

Before the wagon ride we wrote a letter to Santa which we got to hand-deliver to him at his cabin.


The letter. I think someone she knows has a pretend toothbrush and toothpaste for a doll...I wasn't sure what else that could mean. And she saw the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer stuffy guy on every page of the toys r us catalogue earlier, and added that at the last second:

As we were approching Christmas Town, the temporary North Pole informed us that we had arrived at our destination:

Parcel pickup where presents were being wrapped:

Time Zones, and Reindeer tracker:

In Mrs. Claus' kitchen:

Candies decorating the ceiling:

The kids were called individually to meet with Santa one-on-one. While waiting we got to decorate and eat cookies, and make a Christmas ornament.

Rose was very well-behaved and seemed to enjoy the sights:

The biggest horses I have ever seen in my life. Percheron horses.

The cabin:

Paige didn't say a single word, only nodded. Good thing we brought the list! Luckily, Santa chose to talk about the hobby horse, since some of the other things she asked for on the list were not in her stocking and were last minute add-ons.

The cabin was warm and cozy with a blazing fire. Paige was in shock when we walked in and it was just her and no other kids. A bit intimidating, but she was definitely in awe.

Even though Rose didn't have a ticket, in the true Christmas spirit, Santa asked if she would like to sit on his knee. Didn't go over so well again.

Santa asked Paige if she could do something for him on Christmas Eve. She nodded. "Can you please leave out some carrots for the Reindeer?", he asked. "They get very hungry flying all over the world". More nodding.

After the visit was over, back at the elf academy:

The fresh air did us all good. Paige fell asleep in the car and continued to sleep at home until I decided to wake her up after a good long nap.

Party with friends...

Paige wanted to have a Christmas party with her friends, so Amy and Clara came over a few days before Christmas to decorate sugar cookies and play. I anticipated needing lots of cookies, so I made the full recipe of about 24 cookies....Clara decorated the most, and that was only 4. They were more into eating the candies on their plates as a snack.

Extreme cute alert...

I had to scan this photo and upload it. Possibly one of the cutest things I've ever seen....


My niece Lizzy and niece-dog Abby.

Crawling improvement...

Crawling....

The above photo brought to you courtesy of "pink eye germ camera"! As I was taking the photo yesterday and brought my eye up to the lens I brought my face back in a shudder of disgust! We never ever sanitized the camera. Mike and I have been taking pictures left right and center this week. No wonder he came down with it 2 days ago. And this isn't the usual digital hold-at-arms-length to see the viewfinder....this is the big mother 8 lb SLR camera that you actually have to put your pinkeye on. At any rate, there is one place that the germs are no doubt.

To get back to the point, Rose is crawling. Not crawl all over the house crawling, but she can move around all over the place. Two little scoots forward, onto the tummy, reach reach, back onto all fours, downward dog, into a siting position, then onto all fours in the other direction. She can get all over the family room easily. She may not be able to get from A to B, but she can certainly move around. And I am surprised that she can go from crawling to sitting with the greatest of ease, because that took Paige forever to master...and she could crawl all over the house well before she could do that. Because of Rose's locomotion she accidentally stumbles across new things...remotes, the tv cabinet, the couch, and Paige's toys (I have to be careful to put the small ones out of reach!). She can't move so fast that I can't scoot off to the bathroom before securing the area and removing the hazards, so that is nice. The above picture shows that she is beginning to pull herself up. She put her one hand on that bottom shelf and was playing with the buttons on the PVR...I probably missed that photo as I was carefully sanitizing the camera. And this morning she was in Paige's room when she happened across Paige's armchair. I saw her with both hands on the seat in the downward dog position. Her greater ease of motion definitely makes her naps shorter and her willingness to explore longer.

Seeing Santa...

Matching dresses courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa.
Paige told Santa she wanted a hobby horse, but told us after that she forgot to mention glitter glue. She has a bunch of other things she wants too, but froze up.

Starting to lose it when she saw that she was sitting with Santa and not mommy...

Food issues....

Things are progressing very very slowly in terms of introducing solids to Rose. At this age Paige had tried and liked most baby foods...cereals, vegetables, and fruits. Rose has tried quite a few things, and likes very few. She has only recently started to accept cereal once or twice a day...Oat, wheat, or rice cereals, and has had carrots a couple of times. Any other fruits or vegetables haven't been received very well. There are no problems with accepting the spoon, swallowing the food, or with the textures, she just seems really slow to adapt to the new tastes. I have read quite a bit on this issue--baby food books, LaLeche league website, etc. and they all say the same thing....that food isn't necessary until 12 months. Although some babies seem to be eager to eat solids, some just aren't, and that 's ok. The purpose of food at this point is to get the baby used to tastes and textures, and how to eat solids...but the food is not for nutrition. Breast milk provides 100% of nutrition until the age of 1. I'm not worried about her health at all, just eager to get to the "food as a distraction" stage. It would be nice for her to be able to pick away at foods to keep her occupied at mealtimes! Today she ate a lot of cereal, so if she keeps up with this for a few days, we'll try a vegetable. The new order of food introduction according to the doctors (new since Paige was a baby) is cereal, followed by meat, then vegetables, then fruits. Meat wasn't the second food up until recently. Since Rose has been so reticent to try food, I refuse to offer her the nasty meat until she likes some vegetables that I can hide the meat in! At any rate, she is a nice chubby baby, and she is clearly getting enough milk to keep her happy!

Ready for Canada Post!

Putting up the tree...

So behind...

Wow, I am really behind on the blog posting. We just cannot shake the illnesses around here. As Paige's ear infection started to clear up, Rose took a turn for the worst and wound up with croup. Her breathing was really bad one night and I drove her to the ER at 11:00pm on the advice of the nurse on Telehealth. As we were driving there, her breathing improved, and after sitting in the waiting room with all of the other sickies for 20 minutes, it became clear that a)we would not be seen for a long time b)she was totally fine, and c)if we stayed there for much longer I would be a tired wreck on the road. So we just went home and got through the night. After a few days, her croupy cough broke and a regular cough set in that she is still getting over.

Around the same time I had a super sore throat that was all white. I assumed it was strep, but was apparently Tonsillitis!! That was pretty darn sore for about 5 days. Then...

On Saturday I woke up at 3:00am as Rose was coughing and I blinked once...blurry, blinked twice....blurry....checked it out in the bathroom....PINKEYE! RAGING out of control pinkeye!! AGAIN!!!! I think it was lingering in my makeup, that's all I can think of. The makeup is gone now just to be sure. Everyone else is pinkeye free.

We're feeling pretty run down though from this constant illness. Blog posting is one thing that has suffered as there have been a lot of early nights, or late nights sitting with a coughing Rose.