Rose-ism's

• If she doesn't want something, as in an item of clothing, a type of food, etc., she will whine, "Nooooo that's too good" in her whiniest voice.  

• When counting, as in hide and seek particularly, she will say, "1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10...11..8...9...10...Ready or not here I come!"

mommy update...

My most recent self photo.  Maybe a week and a half ago. 

I'm still feeling pretty great! I'm at week 25 of this pregnancy, and haven't slowed down too much.  Of course it's harder to do things, but all things considered, things are going better than they were at this point in the previous 2 pregnancies.  I have realized this week that if I walk too fast I get cramps like you would if you run as a non runner. It's hard to slow down as it's so cold outside, and my body says walk as fast as possible.  I think I've gained 15 pounds or so, most in the torso, as far as I can tell, and from what others tell me. My lululemon pants are still good that I wore in the summer.

Of course, as I said, Disney will be a challenge.  I'm hoping the swimming days and general laziness around the hotel will make up for the excessive walking at Disney.  I didn't want to rent a stroller for Paige at Disney, but it will make more sense for me not to carry a purse, and have 2 strollers to store all of our stuff! Paige is small too, so won't cause too many people to look at a 5.5 year old being strolled around.

So anyway, I'm trying to eat as healthy as possible, and exercise too.  I'm definitely craving sweets though.  I bought some chocolate buttons so I could nibble on those from time to time without going crazy and getting anything huge.  I still crave a subway veggie sub constantly--I've only had 2 in the pregnancy.  I'm thinking Disney will be a great place to fulfill all of my cravings, and hopefully burn off the calories from these cravings.  I brought the exercise ball up from the basement and have been sitting on it to do weights.  Even just moving around a bit on the ball stretches out my hips.

I find that sleeping is getting rough, only because by the wee hours of the morning I am so stiff and uncomfortable that I find it hard to get comfortable enough to get back to sleep.  Oddly enough I am not tired during the day though, so my wake ups must not be as long as they feel.  Yep, still going to bed at normal time and everything.

Perhaps all of this positivity and generally feeling good is because it's a boy this time? I kind of thought that was an old wive's tale, but now experiencing it first hand...

Hoping to get a better "pregnancy photo" in Florida in a nicer outfit out in the sun. All of mine are the selfies in the bathroom with my phone. 

Rose's songs..

Rose has a couple new favourite songs:

"Girl on Fire"
"Call me Maybe"

Over the Christmas break the car seats were in Mike's new SUV, which has an iPod hookup.  We were able to fulfill song requests for 2 weeks.  Now that we're back in the Touareg, I don't have the same ability to play these songs.  Rose requests them every time and has little meltdowns about not being able to listen to them.  One day she was even full on crying and yelling "I want Daddy!!!!" because I couldn't play "Girl on Fire".

When she hears them though she sings along with her version of the words, and sometimes even makes things up like "this woofies on fire", and "Call me woofie".

Both girls love the part in Call me Maybe that says "all the other boys, try to chase me, so here's my number, call me maybe".

In general, Rose loves singing now.  She makes up little songs in tune to children's songs, as well as singing to the popular songs she knows.  She loves going up high on snowbanks and yelling "I'm the king of the castle, you're the dirty castle!" haha.

Paige's neck!

On Monday morning Paige woke up with a super stiff neck at 6:00am.  "I can't move my neck!" she was yelling.  I managed to get her back to sleep for an extra hour, but when she woke up it was the same.  She was in agony in the morning, crying and unable to move her head very much.  It was basically stuck tilted slightly to the left.  She could lie on her left side only.  We tried heat, massaging it and medicine.  I took her to the doctor as well, just in case.  Doctor had no new suggestions at all.  She got through the day just taking it easy, having a quick nap (think the heat pack and medicine put her to sleep!), watching a movie over dinner with random food that was easy to eat, and then she went to bed with a heat pack.

 She slept fine that night and woke up in a good mood, but still unable to move very much.  I sent her to school as the doctor said it could take a few days to get better anyway.  I warned the teacher about the issue and told her to let me know if it was a problem.  At 11:30 I got a message that Paige had been crying a bit, so I picked her up.  I think she was just frustrated at school not feeling herself, because when she got home she was acting happy and normal. I called a physiotherapist and booked an appointment for the afternoon.  The lady massaged/stretched out her neck and I could see her slowly moving it back into place.  By the end of the appointment her head was at least straight! Huge improvement.

That was on Tuesday. Now on Thursday she still doesn't have full movement, but is mainly keeping her head straight.  Yesterday I was having to remind her not to hold it tilted to the left, as she had become accustomed to doing that. We had booked a follow up with the physio tentatively, and I think we'll keep it.  She can probably work on it to improve the motion even further.  Poor Paige.  So young to have such a problem.  She was upset that she had to miss gymnastics yesterday as well.  

Dancing

Rose has been seriously feeling the music lately.  I hope that translates into some serious skills in dance class next year when she is old enough to join, but for now she's into the dancing at home.  Mainly to dance music--"Party Rockers", "Firework", and any other current hits.  Paige loves it too, but Rose is hilarious for the young age of 2.

Here's a quick video of Rose dancing to "Santa Baby" before Christmas.  She's in her gymnastics outfit:

Rose went to a splatter paint party...

 Her first birthday party for a friend.  Her friend Marlowe turned 3.

Grandma Val says she looks like an orphan! so true! Standing in front of her canvas waiting to paint. 

Was hard for her to get the splatter motion down properly!

Mommy taking photo behind protective glass! It washes off but maternity wardrobe limited and wasn't taking any chances!!

After the kids did the wall canvases, they painted a huge one on the floor for the birthday girl.  

Besides the black hands and smock, Rose went home with the dirty face to show Grandma and Grandpa who were at our house for dinner. 

Disssnnneeeeeyyyyy

Eighteen days till Disney and the girls can hardly wait! Oh ya, and me--I can barely sleep.  We have everything set.  Hotel booked, car reserved, and Disney theme park tickets on hand.  It's really easy this year with the girls being older.  Not much to stress about, so the excitement factor is extremely high! Also can't wait for Grandma Val to come with us and see everything for the first time! The only concerning thing, of course, is that I'll be 6 months pregnant.  A lot of walking at Disney so we'll have to take it a bit easier.  I don't find my walking has slowed down very much at home, so that is a positive sign.  The heat could be a bit crazy, but there is always the pool!  Wish I could just pack up all of our stuff now.  Our flight leaves at 4:40 pm this time which is way later than our usual early flight time and 4:30am wake up.  Grandma Val needed to get out of Edmonton and get to Toronto of course, which is why we are going later. We have our nexxus passes too so things will be quick and easy at the airport. I told Paige I will be too excited to function that day waiting around for our flight.  I've asked her to think of ideas of what to do to pass the time.  Scout will get picked up for boarding in the morning though and I guess we will leave for the airport just before 2:00ish.  Luckily (only very slightly!) Rose hasn't been napping very much, so hopefully won't be a disaster skipping a nap.

Can't wait can't wait!!

Sledding, trampolining, and dancing! Exercise!

It snowed a ton on the 27th.  The girls were excited to try out their new snow gear.  The snow was a bit too powdery to make snowballs and footprints with their monster snow shoes, but good for snow angels and helping to shovel. 

Snow angels on the driveway

We tried out the large hill by our house at Bronte Creek.  It was a bit of a far walk for the girls to trudge through in their snowpants, so Mike invested in a large sled to pull them on for the next trip.  On the back of the sled we stacked up their zipfy sleds.  Sledding was super fun for both girls.  Rose didn't even mind going down big hills.  It is a ton of exercise for Mike though, helping the girls along the way.

Pulling Rose up the hill. 

In my "condition" I didn't sled, but came to watch every time, except for one.  I keep saying "in my condition" as a character on Mad Men kept saying that when she was pregnant and I thought it was funny.  Anyway, we also discovered a super close hill for a quick sled right at Paige's school.  It's not huge, but the girls can walk up and down the hill with no help.  Alas, the snow has melted, but that also means that it got really warm for a few days which was fantastic.  Opened the windows, got the whole family out to the very muddy and poo strewn dog park (girls LOVED it), and took down the outdoor decorations. Also, I was able to resume my walks outside with Scout as it wasn't slippery and dangerous out there any more. 

Some indoor fun to get exercise when it is cold out, or to burn off hyperactivity comes in the form of the new trampoline from Grandma and Grandpa.  I love it as I can say "go jump on the trampoline for 100 jumps" if someone is getting crazy.  The trampoline counts the jumps out loud. 

crazy jumps!

The splits

The other indoor exercise is the new game for the Wii from Auntie Amanda called "Just Dance" Disney edition.  They have to hold the remote and follow the moves on the screen to get a score at the end.  Fun for the whole family actually. It's hard for Rose to mimic the moves sometimes, but she has done really well on "It's a Small World", and Paige's best song is the Muppet theme song. 

We've also started up the next session of gymnastics.  Rose is in the same class with me, and Paige is now in the advanced class with 2 other students, one being her friend from school Rebekah.  I think she'll enjoy the class and I heard her and Rebekah laughing hysterically on the trampoline.  Her new class is 1.5 hours, so Rose and I wait at the end for a half hour till she finishes.  Rose is fine to eat a snack at that time and watch, so that is good. 

Feels good to get these few forms of exercise in this cold dreary month.  Eighteen days till Disney though where we will get tons of fresh air and definitely exercise!

Painting!

Painting her first masterpiece

The hanging area for finished paintings is getting filled with masterpieces!

We're going through a lot of paint and paper over here! Mainly Rose, but Paige will do a painting if she thinks of an idea of what to paint, such as the ladybug in the picture above.  Scout has had pink splotches on her fur for the past 3 days.

Boxing day!

There is never enough time on Christmas to do all the gifts, and Amanda and James were with James' family this year, so we gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's again to exchange gifts and have a crepe brunch, coffee of course, and mimosa's for some.  And later, turkey leftovers for lunch. 

Mike/Scout's deadfowl goose trainer

snowball maker 

Opening new Coach diaper bag.  For her third, mom gets a new one as the old one is toast.