Toothy

After a few horribly painful days (for both of us), Henry popped his first tooth! 4 months and 4 days old!

Hard to get a picture of course but you can see it in there!

Poor little guy was so miserable.  He had a fever for a couple of days, and tylenol didn't seem to take away the pain.  Baby anbesol seemed to help a lot though, but then the tooth came out.  After that the symptoms seemed to subside.  Wonder how long we have until the next teething episode?

Rolling over

A few days before he turned 4 months, he rolled over! Back to front! So odd as so early, and usually they roll over front to back first! As it was so early his rolling is sporadic and Mike hasn't even witnessed it yet.  I've seen it happen a dozen times or so.  And last night when he woke up at 4:30 he was on his stomach when I went into his room.  So he's doing it, just not the rolling you get when they're older, like during diaper changes.  I need to get a picture or video of it....

Rearranging

Brought up the high chair! No eating for a while of course but thought maybe he'd like to sit at the table.  Didn't like the swing anyway, and pretty much doesn't like the bouncy chair either.  Actually prefers to just be held all the time.  My arms are getting muscular to say the least.  I think when he starts to really like toys he'll be happier to just chill out on his own.  Actually he loves the gigantic rainforest jumper we have in the basement, and starting to like this new one we got for upstairs (we're talking like 10 mins tops though):

um, yes he does have a stethoscope on...

Hello 4 month old!

School updates!

Paige has now had 5 full days of school--way more than she would have had in kindergarten on the equivalent date with all of the gradual entry business and part time school.  I think the sheer insane amount of school is a lot for her, but she's coping well.  No meltdowns, being upset, or saying she doesn't want to go, but she definitely thinks it's a lot.  So far she claims she liked Kindergarten better as there was more free time and less learning.  For some reason she also claims she needs "more exercise and less time sitting on the carpet"--I think she is really really enjoying reccess as she is out of the kindie pen and with the whole school.  Also there is a small playground that she gets to go on some days.  I think she feels grown up. So far they have been focused on the basic routines, but she has come home with a few french expressions, and they are starting to work on neat printing of numbers...something she definitely needs help with.  I think once she gets into the routine she'll really like grade 1. She seems to be playing only with Amy, her existing friend in the school.  Hopefully she'll learn to make more friends too.

Rose has only had 1 day of preschool and is currently at her second day.  She loved her first day and was very excited to go back again.  She came home with lots of artwork and stories about how she washed out her own cup, and all the activities they did.  It will be really good for her to learn routines and have other 3 year olds to socialize with.

Other activities starting this week:

Gymnastics: Well it was yesterday morning, and it went phenomenally well! We switched clubs to follow a favourite teacher of Rose and 3 of her friends Chloe, Addison, and Scarlett.  They had a class with just the 4 of them, all blonde, and they were very good listeners and followed the instructor.  No mommies in the class now that the girls are 3.  Good thing because 3 of us have new babies. Rose is a great gymnast and all the other moms comment on it.  Brag brag brag.

Tuesday night: Acro (dance) for Paige.  This is a new class for Paige but at her same dance school.  Not sure how going to a lesson in the evening will work long term but she's excited to go to it today.  Mike's plan is to work from home on Tuesdays so we can eat dinner early and Rose and Henry can stay home with him while I take Paige to the class.  This is the first one and he has to come home late, but it is because someone is in town from work.  So for the first one, the rest of us are all going!

Saturday: Both girls in dance. Paige at 9:45-10:15, and Rose 10:30-11:00.  The plan will be to leave Henry at home for his nap.  Too bad the classes weren't at the same time but Paige is excited to play on the iPad while she waits for her sister--as this is what all the other kids do..huddled over iPads....except the one mom whose kids run around like insane people and then she yells at them.

I'm happy to be busy.  Of course the summer was awesome splashing in the pool and frolicking around haphazardly (sort of...as much as you can do with an infant), but as the fall and winter are approaching we need things to do...

First day of preschool!

First day of school...Grade 1!

New school year, new school, new language!

Paige is now officially in Grade 1 French Immersion!

Paige and Amy in the same class.  Friends since birth!

Paige's English teacher, Ms. Carne

Grabbing feet

Something else he started to do at 3 months.

Now at 4 months he is constantly grabbing his feet when he's on his back.  I feel bad when I have to change his diaper and rip his foot out of his hand, or sometimes mouth.

Getting ready for grade 1...and preschool!

Today is the last day of the summer break.  Labour day Monday.  Tomorrow Paige heads off to grade 1 at a new school...Pineland Public School.  I decided to forgo the bus as I just couldn't do it.  I was having major anxiety about bus bullies and bus craziness, and since, like Mike said, we do have the option to drive Paige (it's not walkable), we might as well just drive her.  Mike can often drop her off on his way to work, or if he's home, I can take her and leave the other 2 here.  So really it's not that much of an issue.  Environmentally speaking I wish we weren't driving every day but the bus can wait till we are all ready.  When I told her she wouldn't be taking the bus after all she wasn't at all upset.  I think she thought it would be all grade 1 students originally and wasn't too happy that it was grades k-8.   She didn't want to be with the bigger kids anyway apparently.

So we've purchased the required school supplies, indoor shoes, and back to school clothes.  She's all set. Her teacher is Mrs. Carne for English, and Mme. Reimer for French. (She's in French immersion).  Her friend Amy is also in her class.  Amy's mom and I are nervous that they'll get crazy, but I'm trying to hope for the best.  Paige did so well in kindergarten so I shouldn't start expecting the worst now.

I'm really excited for her as I remember loving grade 1.  I'm a little nervous of the French aspect, as she'll have to fully switch schools if she needs to switch back to English, so again we'll just hope for the best.

Also tomorrow is the first day of preschool for Rose! It's actually just an open house, so it'll be nice for Mike to see the school.  Rose goes alone on Thursday for the first time.  She's just doing 2 mornings a week to start.  We can change them to full days at some point if we'd like. Paige did preschool programs through the city of burlington, but this is a real preschool.  They seem to have a curriculum, and they get a little report card, so I think this will be nice for Rose. I probably would have sent Rose to the same thing as Paige, but now that is too far from this house, and this one seems really great.  A 3 minute drive from our house.  Hopefully Henry will stay awake for the drop off and sleep at home? Wishful thinking.  But if he does it'll be nice to get time to get some things done around here.  Rose is really excited about the things she has seen at the preschool, so I hope she loves it.  It'll be so nice for her to play with other 3 year olds.

I'll post first day photos....

Art Camp

After Paige was halfway into her horseback riding camp and I realized how much fun she was having, I decided to sign up both her and Rose into art camp.  I hadn't planned much for summer as I didn't know how many things we'd want to do outside of the house and playdates with friends.  The girls were definitely ready to do something.  There happened to be 1 camp all summer that was for ages 3-6. Great for Rose to go to her first camp with her sister.  It was pirate camp, so they did pirate paintings, clay pirates, and paper mache parrots.  It ran for 4 afternoons.  They came home with paint in their hair and Rose ruined a pair of pants.  The both still have paint in their hair 2 weeks later. 

Took this from the 4 cats facebook page, so I don't know who the other girls are. 

I'm quite impressed with their art.  Majorly impressed.  They take all 4 days to complete each piece so nothing is rushed.  I was so excited all week to see what they'd done.  Paige was trying to keep it a secret. I sent the paintings back to the studio after the showed them to Mike so they can be stretched onto a frame.  We're going to put them up on the wall at home.  Some kids take numerous classes so they don't automatically put them on frames otherwise some people would have too many.  The studio offers classes all year long so I'm sure we'll do another one at some point.