Yes, Emerson is 10 months old today!! Wow!! 2 more months until her big 1 year birthday!! How crazy is that?! She really doesn't seem like she's 10 months old (to me anyways!). I'll get her weighed when I take the kids in for their 2nd H1N1 and seasonal flu shots. But I think she's around 17 lbs. She just looks little to me! Some 10 months old are walking or near walking, but she's no where near, which I think also makes her seem younger! Which is fine with me - keep her little longer!!! It's been a great 10 months though and she's an amazing little girl! We all love her to death :) I think she'll be a bit more outgoing then Blake. She loves going to Blake's My 1st Preschool class and Time for Two's at the library! She sings (okay ... yells!) almost the entire time! It's very cute, but I hope not too disruptive at Preschool! Speaking of Preschool, Blake had his last class of this semester today. And his last class with Ms. Rosealee (I think I'm spelling her name wrong ...). She has taught him since April and we will miss her! She is a great Preschool teacher and although she may not know it, Blake really loved her! Of course in class, he's shy and quiet, but at home he talks about her a lot! She'll still be around the Y so we'll hopefully see her from time to time! Our next Preschool class begins in January. On Friday the YMCA is hosting a Preschool Christmas Party, which we're looking forward to attending. It is one big party for all the preschool classes - so Monday to Friday's My 1st Preschool and Fun Factory classes. Should be fun! Tomorrow we have our last Time for Two's class at Woodcroft library. And Friday Blake has his last swimming lesson until the New Year! Friday will be busy, because we have the Preschool Christmas party from 11 am - 1 pm, then our friends and Blake's godparents are coming over for a couple of hours in the later afternoon and then Cal and Blake have swimming! Saturday we are heading to Stony Plain for a Christmas Open House at my parent's house. Phew! Christmas season is a busy one!
We are so, so, SO happy that it is warming up outside! Hopefully we'll be able to sneak a couple of sleigh rides in before Christmas! Blake loves playing outside - rain, sun, snow, doesn't matter what the weather is! Thankfully, this year he is keeping his mittens and toque on. Last year he'd take them off and freeze and get upset! Blake had fun last weekend at my Mom's work Christmas Party. Apparently he was quite taken with Santa (again!) and had fun playing with some of the other kids at the party. Of course, he also enjoyed his sleepover! In fact, he didn't want to come home when my Mom told him it was time to go home! Cal, Emerson and I enjoyed some quiet time while Blake was visiting Grandma and Grandpa! The house sure is quiet without Blake home!! Which is nice for a short time, but we definitely would start missing him and his business ;) It will be crazy when Blake and Em go for a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's!! Not sure when that will be, will have to be after I'm done nursing Emerson (obviously!). Cal and I will hopefully go on a short get away together before I return to work in March. We'll see!
Cal and I have both noticed that Blake has changed a lot in the last few weeks. He has had that independent streak for quite awhile now, but lately he's taking it to a whole new level!! He wants to do EVERYTHING by himself! Everything ... seriously!!!!! Which is cool sometimes, but it can be dangerous/frustrating/time consuming at other times! We're hoping that this, "I do it myself" business will come in handy when we start potty training in the new year. Still not looking forward to potty training, but we're thinking we should at least try while I'm still at home and have "time" to do it!! We enjoy hearing Blake use new words and phrases and can't believe what he knows and understands! He is a bit difficult to understand sometimes. We of course, are used to listening to him, so we usually don't have trouble understanding him, but others sometimes do. He continues to make us laugh with what he comes up with some days! A few days ago he told Emerson it was time to go home to Las Vegas!? We told him we are home and we won't be going back to Las Vegas for a very long time!! (well, hopefully Cal and I will be going back sooner!!) I guess he had a good time and wants to go back?! Blake knows all his colors, and has for some time, as well as shapes, and he has counted to 10, but it's hard to get him to count!! I knew he knew the basic shapes, but was surprised last week when he told me what an oval, rectangle, diamond and star were! With counting, it seems that the more we want him to count, the less likely he is to do it ... Stubborn streak!!! The time leading up to Christmas has been a blast with Blake this year! He loves Santa and some of the highlights of the Christmas season thus far include, decorating the house, visiting Santa at the mall, going to my Mom's work Christmas party and seeing Santa again, receiving a letter from Santa at the North Pole, Alaska (my Mom arranged for the kids to receive these letters when she visited the North Pole this summer!!), and receiving a personalized email from Santa!! He enjoys watching the email over and over and over again (thanks Tina!!!)!! We also talked to him a little bit about it being Jesus' birthday on Christmas Day. Which he was quite interested in ... he asked if we'd have birthday cake! lol!! So I told him no, but we do have a big celebration with lots of yummy food! I'm not quite sure how to explain the whole "reason for the season" to him, but hopefully as he gets older he will learn more at Sunday school!! The whole discussion began when we were putting our Nativity scene on our fireplace mantel. He wanted to know what it was and to play with baby Jesus, so I told him about Jesus' birthday and gave him another small nativity scene to play with :) We bought a gingerbread train at Sobey's last week, but haven't made it yet. But I'm guessing he will enjoy that project!! So December has been a fun month and we can't wait for Christmas Day!! It is so wonderful enjoying this time of year through a child's eyes!
Take care everyone! Good luck with those last minute Christmas preparations!!
Love Tracy
