other behaviours...

In addition to the tamper tantrums, Rose has started to hit, pull hair and bite! Paige never did the biting thing.  Rose does it when she gets mad.  She has bit Paige really hard, me slightly hard, and I have even witnessed her chasing Paige with an open mouth, trying to bite her.  She has ripped out huge chunks of Paige's hair, and has hit me a few times.  She generally gets along with Paige, but if Paige swipes a toy, or gets on Rose's bad side, she will do one of the 3 things. 

I guess the biting thing feels good for her when she's mad.  One day I wouldn't take her out of her high chair fast enough, but I had taken the tray off and she was strapped in.   She started to do her shouty mad thing and then angrily bit her own arm and then foot. 

So far this behaviour has been limited to home, but I did see her give a kid her frowny evil look this morning at her preschool program Christmas party.  I intervened before she could take it any farther. 

The video below gives a little taste of this behaviour....

Temper Tantrum central...

Rose has entered the temper tantrum phase.  If she is not allowed to do something she generally has a tantrum.  She'll yell "NO! AHHH!! NOOO!!".  Her "AHH" is a loud shout of anger.  Sometimes she'll throw herself on the floor, or depending on the situation, make it impossible to accomplish the task at hand.  ie. flip away from a diaper change, or arch her back with all her might to avoid getting in her car seat. She has gotten it into her head lately that I should be able to sit with her on my lap in the car.  A few times she has demanded to sit in my seat.  She wiggled her way onto the floor and pointed at my seat demanding "mommy chair!".  She also walked around to my door of the car one day trying to persuade me to let her sit with me. 
Paige finds it a bit amusing and shrugs her shoulders and says "she's going to have a tantrum".  It kinda makes the whole thing easier when there is someone else around to laugh about it with.  The only bad time is getting ready to drop Paige off in the morning at school.  She has only had 1 or 2 freak outs at that point, but it is really quite hard to get out the door in that case. 
Rose has started to ask for her num num in these situations to calm herself down.  "Nummy....nummy" she says.  We want to start to limit her having it during the day as she has definitely regressed.
I think Paige started the tantrums at the same age, but luckily got over them shortly after the age of 2 as she could talk so well and communicate what she was thinking.

Disney vacation 2012!

We have completely booked our Disney vacation for February 2012!  We leave on February 4th for 13 nights.  Mike has a conference there again which accounts for the long trip.  We were there for 10 days last time, 3.5 of which Mike had his conference.  We were so at home though in our 2 bedroom unit with kitchen, laundry, etc., that we could have stayed longer. And staying 13 days gives Mike the opportunity to relax a lot longer.  While he's busy we'll hopefully be able to just visit the pool and playground at the hotel. 

Our flight leaves on the 4th at the obscene hour of 7:10 am.  That means we have to leave home no later than 4:30.  Yikes! Paige has requested that orange juice be brought to her bed that morning to help wake her up quicker.  Rose won't be happy, and I think she's beyond the age of being transferred into the car without waking up (especially in the winter cold), but maybe she'll surprise us by falling asleep again.  Paige and I will be too excited to sleep the night before, so I hope it's not a horrendous night.  I don't actually mind an early start as it means we can have everything packed but toiletry items, and then just get out of bed and basically leave right away. 

We plan on getting a 5 or 6 day Disney pass which sounds ridiculous, but a basic 3 day pass is around $650 for all 4 of us, and every additional day is only a minor amount extra. For $100 more total we could get a 6 day pass.  We wouldn't plan on going 6 full days, but we really enjoyed the 1 evening trip to the Magic Kingdom last time to have dinner and watch the fireworks.  Things like that are great.  It gives flexibility if there is a weather issue, a nap issue, etc. 

I have booked 2 character dining experiences again.  One is a breakfast at Animal Kingdom (the one theme park we missed last time), and a dinner at the Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom.  We really enjoyed the characters meals last time, but I worry a bit that Rose will be freaked out by the giant characters.  The breakfast has Mickey, Donald, etc., and the dinner has the characters from Winnie the Pooh.

So we are super super excited.  A nice thing to look forward to after Christmas!

Favourite tunes...

Paige is seriously digging Bob Marley.  We have his "Greatest Hits" CD in the car and it's all Paige wants to listen to.  Her favourite songs (in order) are:

1. Buffalo Soldier
2. Three Little Birds
3. One Love
4. Stir it up

I only want to listen to Christmas music now in the car and Paige only wants to listen to Bob Marley.  We have to flip back and forth to keep everyone happy. 

Paige also likes to sing along to Adele, namely "Someone like you" and "Rumour has it"--although she thought this one said "Moo-mer has it, Mooooo".

A Visit With Santa at the Farm...

Santa was at  Springridge Farm for 1 weekend only.  This was a couple of weeks ago, but I have been lacking blog writing time. I wanted to lock down the Santa visit, and thus present ideas, so we went to see Santa early this year.

Paige was shy with Santa again but managed to get out a quick "real popsicle maker!!" when he asked her what she wanted.  She wanted to specify real incase he thought she wanted a pretend popsicle set.

 Rose was too scared even with Daddy.

 At Springridge Farm they have cookie decorating and ornament making during November and December. We skipped the ornament making as they were dressed up, and the ornament involves lots of paint. Paige ate this cookie for her snack about 5 minutes after it was finished. Rose didn't want to try it for some reason, nor did she want a snack at all as she was teething.

 We didn't think the farmyard would be open, but the day was nice and the yard is free in November and December.

 For some reason this reminds me of one of the photos of Kate Middleton during the Canadian tour. Not the leg position of course, but the coat with the hair blowing in the wind with a head piece. haha

 So hard to get an action shot on the slide.  They then crashed into me.

We didn't anticipate playing at the farm in the Christmas outfits.  One busted out pair of tights was the only casualty.

Scenes from the Royal Winter Fair...

Unbelievable...

For fun Paige tried on her old Halloween costume size 12 months--the one Rose wore this year for Halloween.  IT ACTUALLY FIT.  I thought 3 years of the beaver costume was a lot, but she could have gotten 4 years outta this sucker! Obviously it looks a bit silly and babyish on a 4 year old though.

Rose's day...

The blog is long overdue for an update of what Rose is doing.  I read back on my blog from Paige at the same age and I have all these great notes about what she was doing.  I wish I could make the time for more description and funny anecdotes.  But at any rate, here is an idea of Rose's day and what she's like lately.

• Usually wakes up at 7:30 talking away or yelling "momMY, momMY"
• Eats instant oatmeal or cereal for breakfast.  When she wants a sip of her milk she says "done" and puts her bowl on the table, or passes it to me.  It took a while for me to realize she wasn't neccessarily done for good, just wanted a drink.  At breakfast time, like every other meal time, she often makes a big mess.  Food on the floor, a plate turned over on her head to make a "hat", the spout taken out of a sippy cup, a spoon chucked on the floor, etc.  3 times daily sweepings of the floor are neccessary. 
• Sometimes after breakfast Paige and Rose watch a show.  Rose says "Chair!! and runs to the Dora chair. Rose's favourites are Blue's Clues, Curious George, Backyardigans, and Dora.  But Blues Clues is the absolute favourite.  She does the actions to the song.... "think... think...Thiiiiiink" with her head cupped in her hands...so cute.
• On school days Rose is very cooperative to ride in the stroller to Paige's school and back.  I had great plans of taking Rose to the park after dropping Paige off at school every day, but at 9:00 it is often too cold, or we have plans with friends. 
• On Thursdays Rose has her class.  She loves seeing her friend Marlowe there and playing with the parachute.  She hasn't really grasped the concept of crafts and usually takes off when we've applied the glue and haven't stuck anything on yet. 
• She still naps every day after lunch, usually falling asleep around 1:00.  Every day I walk on eggshells as I worry she will go the route of Paige giving up naps so early.  I can't deal with no naps.  I really could not mentally deal with it.   I need this time in the afternoon where everyone is occupied at school, sleeping, or work in order to get some stuff done around here. 
• She is really into climbing and I have found her tummy scooting across the kitchen table, standing on the toilet, bringing a chair over to the sink to see what is in it, etc.  I hope she doesn't try to climb out of the crib, but usually she falls asleep pretty quickly without too much monkey business!!
• Her talking is really insane.  So many words now. New ones every day, and she'll always repeat a word if you ask her to say it.  Some of my favourite new words are "jammies", "funny", "undies", "Paigey", and "yes" instead of ya.
• Some other frequently used words..."NO!" and lately "MINE!!!!!".  Paige didn't do the mine thing since she didn't have to.  Rose is saying it constantly, but not even to stuff that is close to being hers at all...like grabbing Paige's pyjamas when Paige is trying to put them on and yelling "Mine!!.
• She likes to sit on the potty, especially during bath time at night.  She asks to sit on it, and then usually uses it as an excuse to run around with no clothes on after.  She has never managed to actually go on the potty, but has often gone 2 minutes later in Paige's room.
• Her sleeping is fantastic.  She goes to bed with no problems at 8:00ish and sleeps all the way till the morning (7:00-7:30ish), never waking up.  Actually, correction--I think she will be a sleep talker.  I have heard her say things in the night before but never making a fuss and falling asleep right after. 

I feel like there are so many more things I could write, but that will have to be in a part 2 down the road.  Perhaps a video would work to capture the essence that is Rose. 

Cute comment from Paige...

Paige: Mommy do you want a Halloween candy?

Me: Oh thanks Paige, that's so nice for asking!

Paige: That's what sharing's all about!

Halloween night...

 Again Rose was upset getting in her costume.  Mike gave her a chocolate to tempt her, which worked.

 They went around to 10 or so houses on our street, and had to come home halfway through to unload.

 Mike brought them home when they looked cold and had a lot of candy but Paige wanted me to take her to a few houses too. 

 I tried to leave with just Paige but Rose freaked out so I put her in the stroller as we were going to the other side of the crescent.  I think I should have gone as Rapunzel for Halloween.  I see how long my hair is in this photo. Rose sucked on a lollipop and just came along for the ride.  I didn't take her up to any houses.

 We weren't left with much in the end, and I had raided their round 1 for the "crap candy" that I could redistribute to the older kids.  I had playdough and chocolate for the little ones and chips for the bigger kids.

At the end of the night the girls came in to look at the candy and share some chips.  By this point Rose was right into it and said "More....chips!!" She thought she could have as much as she wanted.  Rose was tired, but Paige was ultra tired as she had been up since the morning of course, with 2 rounds of trick or treating.  We let her watch a Shrek Halloween special before bed instead of reading her books. 

I kept a tally as I usually do, and we had close to 85 kids (a few were babies in costumes who didn't require candy, but they'll be good to go next year).  Last year we had 35 and the weather was the same.  Soooo...good to know.  I'll buy even more next year as the number can only go up!