Goodbye tooth!!

Paige finally lost her first tooth! It was quite the dramatic ordeal as Mike was quite anxious to get it out.  Her adult tooth had fully grown in behind and the baby one was very wiggly.  She was too scared to pull it out, and there was a lot of coaxing, some floss, some tears, but when it came out she was quite excited.  She actually managed to pull it out on her own by accident.  After the tooth came out though, the adult one moved into place within days.  It was really quite remarkable.  We thought her teeth would be all crooked. She made a note for the tooth fairy and taped it to the bed.  She was given $2 and the note was taken.

Art workshop...

I got these from the 4 Cats Facebook page.  They went to an art workshop after school one day.  They had a great time and I shopped at target.  Fun had by all.

Climbing

Wearing shoes in the dishwasher

Safety seat...

Takes him 10 second to get out of the seat and stand up.  Another few seconds to exit the bath. 

Rose gymnastics

Here's Rose at the end of the Winter Gymnastics session

Ever since Rose was 2 years old in gymnastics the coaches have mentioned that she is super strong.  I asked her coach if there was a level that would be a bit harder for next year.  Right away she said she was ready for a challenge and mentioned I could bring her to tryouts for a pre-competitive level.  So I figured why not, and I took her to the tryouts.  Now they have placed her in the highest level for her age.  Even then she would be the youngest in the class.  They want her to train for 4 hours a week.  It starts in July and goes all the way until next june...49 weeks straight.   We aren't sure what to do about it, as she will also have school next year...plus she's 4.  At the same sense, it's exercise, and if she is talented, then maybe we should encourage it.  What to do, what to do.  The funny thing is that we always talked about Rose's dancing and forgot about gymnastics.  Meanwhile, she's a born gymnast. Also will probably have more of a gymnasts stature. The funny thing is that at her age she fully doesn't comprehend being skilled at something. I have some more questions to ask the club, but we also have the option to send her for 2 hours a week.  With the 4 hour thing comes a lot of parent volunteer work as it is part of the competitive track and the rates for the classes are lower than the recreational. Not sure what to do. I would have thought it was ridiculous, but faced with someone telling you your kid is talented, it's hard to know what to do.  Plus I am around to get her there and back, not an option everyone has.

Henry 11 months

First time in the swing!

Henry at 11 months...what can I say.

He is fully capable of walking but hasn't taken off yet.  Last week he took 5 steps a while bunch of times, and the other day he took 13 steps in one shot.  Soooo he can do it, just chooses not to.  Not sure I'd write it in the baby book yet, but I assume it won't be long before he really takes off.

He now has 10 teeth.  He's been a bit whiny the past week or so, and we realized he had 2 random molars on top?? Didn't notice them coming in at all.

He continues to say his few random words...."this", "that", and possibly "Scout".  He likes to mimic people.  Right now I just heard him say "ah-dah!" and Mike copied him and then they went back and forth saying "ah-dah" a whole bunch of times since Henry thought it was funny. He's also beginning to think that things are funny, such as dropping things off the highchair repeatedly.

As I said he has been a bit whiny the past couple of weeks, but is typically very easygoing.  He's not fussy dropping the girls off at school and can go with the flow.  I do, however, make sure he is home for his nap as he has converted to 1 large nap smack in the middle of the day.  If we were out and he fell asleep I think he would just ruin his day.  Along with his large nap comes an early morning wake up.  I don't have much time to read in the morning really as he's usually up between 6 and 6:30.  He continues to sleep through the night every night.  Phew.

Winter....wouldn't....end.

Ah, the year of the polar vortex.  What a disaster.  So much snow, SOooooo much cold.  It was really impossible to do anything out there.  Thank goodness that spring is (mostly) here. The girls have now begun to actually play outside again.  Of course there were days that they played in the snow but Henry really didn't have proper clothes to be outside for long periods.  School pick up was often an utter joke with Rose crying, and me practically freezing my hands off strapping everyone in the car and loading the metal framed stroller back into the car. There was actually a day that was so disaster snowy that we were only able to park the car about a kilometre from the school and trudge in while Rose was crying and I was carrying Henry in a baby sling.  Then we drove home while I feared for our lives.  I made a resolution not to send them to school in a snowstorm ever again, and if it starts while they're there, then I will just go to the office well before the end of the day to get them.  Not going to deal with that again.  But now the spring is beginning and there is light at the end of the tunnel.  I even contacted our pool man and sprinkler people to get all of that opened up in a few weeks.  I can't wait to see a glistening pool out there again, even if we can't swim in it.  It'll just add a little something to our view and remind us that summer vacation is near.

Easter madness!

Taking a tally

Girls were majorly excited this year. They sprang right out of bed.

Here are the eggs we made on Good Friday:

Harry potter ban

Paige and I are reading Harry Potter together.  I started reading it to her, but as her reading level is so high she is able to read it by herself for the most part.  I'm sure some words she doesn't understand, but then again I don't either with some of the british expressions.  At night Paige reads for a while in her bed with a flashlight and then goes to sleep.  Usually she reads her library books but one day she wanted to keep reading Harry Potter so I sent her into bed with it to continue a bit on her own.  Since I've obviously read the book it didn't really matter if I missed any of it.  Eventually Paige comes out of her room (close to 10:00) saying that she couldn't stop reading because the chapter was long and there was never a sentence that ended at the end of a page. AND she was scared of the 3 headed dog. So now Harry Potter has been banned for alone reading. We are reaching the end and I've told her we can re-read the first book for a couple of years but that Harry Potter is for older kids...especially all of the other books in the series.

Henry 10 months