Rose talking

Rose is on a roll with her talking.  She's slowly dropping her random "filler words", and speaking in huge long sentences. As she started talking in sentences, she would string the words together that she knew and then fill in the rest with random sounds.  Sort of like "Go, blah blah blah blah, store, blah blah blah, food".  Now she's really coherent, and able to use lots of words.  The other day I said to her that Scout would be so excited to go to puppy school that night.  Rose then says "Scoutie says Woof, I want to go to puppy school".  I thought it was so cute, as she put on a pretend high pitched voice as she imitated Scout.

She has been saying a few things quite often:

"Yes it is!"
"I want that right now"
"Good job!" (she is so positive..."good job mommy get the cereal!"
"Not nice!!!"


I feel like her talking improved once she resumed napping.

Hallelujah!

There were a couple of months where Rose didn't nap.  She'd have the odd one every few days or so, but nothing consistent.  Every day I'd put her in her bed and cross my fingers.  Most days she'd be talking away and eventually yelling to get out of her room.  I figured she was going the way of Paige.  But if my memory served me correctly, when Paige started to drop naps she was quite pleasant the rest of the day.  When Rose was dropping naps she was tired, tantrumy and disastrous.  When we went to St. Albert, Rose had 3 naps out of 10 days. With the time change, long flight, busy days, it definitely wasn't enough.  As a result she was cranky and not very sociable.  A couple of weeks after our Edmonton return we went to the cottage.  It was the first time at the cottage that Rose moved from the small playpen to the other twin bed in the girls' room.  For the 3 days we were there she had a nap everyday! You might think it was from the fresh air and activity, but the previous trip there she didn't nap at all.  I wondered if it was the combo of bed PLUS dark black curtains.  At home Rose's room was pretty light at bedtime.  After returning from the cottage we put a dark blue sheet on her window at nap time and she slept.  She never looked back.   Naps every day ever since labour day weekend!!

Paige ingenuity...

I just thought I'd post this in case Paige ends up in a career where we could look back and say "we always knew she would be a ____"--engineer, mathematician, architect, etc--ever since the time she got that car out from behind the TV cabinet.

There was a toy van which had fallen behind the TV cabinet.  In my mind, we needed a long stick, or had to move the heavy unit forward to get it out.  Paige was upstairs playing one day and then came and told me she got the van out from behind the cabinet using merely a piece of ribbon.  Apparently she threw the ribbon out behind the cabinet, and anchored one side by wrapping it around a wire.  Somehow she got the ribbon under the car, and then when she pulled up the other side of the ribbon, the car rolled  out onto the floor.  Smart I tell you!

Other activities...

Other activities for the fall--On Wednesday mornings both girls are starting gymnastics again and Rose will be starting a class with me next Tuesday.  It's "Our Special Time" which I have been to tons with both girls, but now it has been renamed "mix and mingle".  Now that Paige is older and used to the school thing, we really needed to have other things planned.  Last year felt like we had a lot of free time and we had other friends to see.  Now all of her other friends are in school full time. The last thing we wanted to do was be bored.

On Thursday nights we are starting obedience level 2 with Scout.  She's doing great at home, but good to go to the next level.  Speaking of Scout, today she went to daycare...the people who do the training and the boarding also do daycare.  Mike is away all week, so I signed her up to go today to get some exercise and a change of scenery--and to give me a bit of a break.  Without Mike home she can't go for her usual early morning and evening walks. She came home at 4:30 looking tired and a bit dirty--great because i'm sure she rolled around in dirt, played with other dogs, and maybe even went swimming.  Great fun for her.

SK

Today was the first drop-off day of school.  It wasn't a full day, only a morning.  She'll also go on Thursday for a half day, and then Friday is a full day, which begins her regular school schedule which is the same as last year--Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Friday. 

Leaving the house.  Notice the mismatched socks under her sandals. Cute. 

First one in the kindie pen.  At least she was an SK.  She was ok to go in on her own and just wait.  Rose and I waited until she went into the school 15 minutes later.  There were only 6 or so kids in her class for this initial visit.  Two of the girls were her friends from last year.  Out of the 3 kindergarten classes lined up, there were a few criers and 1 runner.  Glad we never had to deal with that.

Funny how different it felt dropping her off at school this year compared to last year.  I felt like a pro!

Dance shoes...

I sewed my first pair of dance shoes.  Not sure if this is one of many, or first and only.  On Saturday Paige starts jazz and ballet.  The classes are back to back and she has 2 sets of shoes, which she will come out to swap in the middle.  This means 2 dances at the year end recital, which hopefully end up on the same night.  I'm looking forward to dance this year, although I'm not sure if she'll be in a room where I can watch.  If not, the plan is to have an hour of reading time.

More things Paige says....

Scene: Looking at photo album...

Paige: Mom, how'd you get these pictures out of the camera like this?

But the fact that as soon as we load the photos onto the computer we can also view them on our ipads, iphone, ipod, and TV instantly is perfectly normal to her...

Things Rose says...

Scene: Getting organized to go out to dinner.

Mommy: We're going to go to a restaurant....Kelsey's.

Rose: I don't wanna go Kelsey's!!! I wanna go McDonalds!!!

(Rose has never eaten at McDonalds...only a happy meal at home, or on the road via cottage).

Things Paige says....

Scene: Paige trying to braid my hair.

Paige: It's easier to braid when you have 3 different colours.

Me: Ya, i guess it's easier to see each piece.

Paige: Ya, because it is tricky because your hair's all grey.

St. Albert Part 4

Here's a couple more pictures from our trip to St. Albert.

The more time that goes by, the harder it is to remember all the activities we did.  Other fun things were a trip to Galaxyland, visiting with Turcsanyi's, a dinner out with Janice and Andrew, a dinner with Cam and Lana Barr, visiting friends, a board game night,  trips to the park, a few comedy specials on TV, a girls dinner at Earls, a couple trips to the Servus place pool, and lots more.  The girls were at a great age this year.  They got along well, and Paige was a great older cousin.  Lizzy loved having her cousins there and apparently misses them a lot.  Paige and Rose mention Lizzy quite a bit and Paige wants to get Lizzy a "really great present" for Christmas.

The unfortunate part about St. Albert was that Rose only napped 3 times in the 10 days we were there.  Some days she didn't need a nap, but other days she was clearly suffering because of it.  Also Rose was pretty shy around new people.  Paige said a lot that she missed Scout.  I would have loved to stay longer, as it is never long enough, but realistically, we did need to get home to Scout.

Our return flight home was early morning so we woke up at 4:45am and headed off to the airport.  We had to say goodbye to everyone the night before,  so it lessened the blow a bit.  Always sad to say goodbye.