Gorgeous weather!!

I think we are being spoiled with this spring-like weather!! But we certainly won't complain, it has been so nice to be able to get outside for walks and play time.

We've had a great week! Here's some of the highlights:

Last Wednesday was a very fun-filled day!! Wednesday morning we met some friends at Kidz Quarterz in Sherwood Park. It was a blast!! We will definitely visit Kidz Quarterz again! Blake had tons of fun running around, playing and observing!! He's a bit of people watcher, kind of like Mom ;) We enjoyed lunch there and then headed off to do some errands and see the Olympic Torch! I knew the kids would fall asleep in the car, so I drove as slow as I legally/safely could and took my time making my way to St. Albert. I am so happy we saw the torch relay - it really could be a once in a lifetime opportunity! Blake got quite excited about it and was very happy with the little flag he got! Afterwards I realized I had locked my keys in the car :( So I called AMA (thank goodness for AMA!) and we walked through a pet store, while waiting for the tow truck to arrive. As it turns out, this caused quite the excitement in Blake!! He had fun seeing the birds, fish and puppies in the pet store AND he got to see a real tow truck and a real tow truck driver up close!! lol!! Lots of excitement in one day!!

Friday evening Blake had his 2nd gymnastics class. And he loved it just as much as the 1st class!! He had fun running around and burning energy!! I enjoy spending this 1 on 1 time with Blake :)

Saturday we had fun at swimming lessons and decided to venture out for dinner Saturday evening. We used to go out for dinner quite often, but since Emerson's arrival that has slowed down quite a bit!! Of course, it's some work to pack up baby food, etc to go out for dinner with 2 kids! But we had fun and were glad we went! Emerson ate 1/4 of Blake's grilled cheese sandwich along with the food I brought from home for her!!

Sunday morning Candace, Tina, Nicholas and Presley came over for a visit. It was great to see them and see Blake and Nicholas playing together so well! They get a long so good!! Sunday afternoon I had a wonderful massage. It was so nice ... Afterwards I visited a dayhome near our house. I was very impressed and would love the kids to go there when I go back to work in March. Her name is Karen and she opened her dayhome in April 2009. She was a financial planner, but decided not to go back to work when her youngest daughter turned 1. It looks like she runs a very organized, clean, healthy and fun dayhome! She follows a preschool program with the preschool aged children and has many other age appropriate activities for all the children. All of her kids are part time, so she never has a full dayhome at any one time. She was quite nervous when I first arrived, but so was I!! She only has 1 spot available right now, but is expecting another spot to become available in February. I am crossing my fingers and toes and saying a little prayer that 2 spots will be available soon!! It would be such a relief to be done that search! If 2 spots are available, I will take the kids there to meet her and her girls once and leave them there a few times before going back to work.

My sister and Mom stopped by for a quick visit this morning and then we were off to preschool. We had fun at the playgym before class and at preschool! Emerson sure loves the songs!! She's a bit of an attention seeker, clapping her hands and "singing"!!!

At lunch today I gave Emerson a straw cup full of warm milk. I was very pleased with her reaction to it - she took numerous sips and didn't scrunch up her face and throw her head back like she sometimes does when she doesn't like something!! So I'm really hoping she will like milk and we won't have to stress too much about weaning her. So far, I am continuing to nurse Emerson before her breakfast and supper. She's not interested in giving it up yet, so I will continue to nurse her until ... I'm not sure when?! It wasn't very hard to wean Blake, I think he was actually ready. Although he didn't take a bottle the first day, he took it easily enough after a few attempts. But then he was 1 and according to "the books" you're supposed to take the bottle away around 1. So it was a short time that Blake had the bottle, which is why we're trying to avoid that step with Em! Hopefully it works!! Now since I'm not weaning Em completely, it looks like Cal and I won't be getting away alone before I return to work. Which is okay, I'm not feeling the urge to get away quite yet anyways. I think maybe because we were just in Vegas! Another exciting happening in Em's life right now is that we finally don't need to give her lactulose!!! Phew! I thought this day would never come! And I'm knocking on wood that she doesn't get "backed up" again ... it's been approximately 1 week now without lactulose and all is good!

Blake's new word these days is "okay!" It's quite a welcome change from "no!!" Although, we do often hear, "No I don't want to!" When we ask him to do something that is usually his initial response, followed by "okay" in a sweet, agreeable voice :) He's definitely growing and maturing into more of a little boy each day. Since he's been feeling better after having croup, we've noticed he seems to have a lot more energy! He's spent a few more minutes in time out then the previous months ... but at least it seems to work. We have to "hold" him there at times, but for the most part he stays put! His imagination continues to grow! Tonight he claimed there were dinosaurs in Mom and Dad's bedroom. Thankfully they were friendly dinosaurs, but this led him to want to play in our room on our bed! So after supper I went up to our room with him where we preceded to lay on our bed and cover ourselves up with a blanket, which created a fort, and then Blake brought out a set of his play keys and my reading light! Not sure why he had the keys?! Anyways, we spend close to an hour there listening for dinosaurs and talking. We talked about Cal's upcoming birthday, Em's upcoming birthday, his upcoming birthday, him and Em going to a day home and Mom going back to work, camping this summer, preschool, swimming lessons, gymnastics, Heidi and Jazz ... I LOVED it!!! It was so sweet to have such "mature" conversations with him!! He watched me and listened to me so intently!! And he had a lot to say about all of the above topics too!! I occasionally asked him what he wanted to do now - if he wanted to go downstairs and play or go see what Dad was doing and he would reply, "I want to talk with Mom!" :) Then Cal came to see us and had to crawl into our fort and talk!!

We're planning a quiet day around home tomorrow, but will hopefully make it outside for a sleigh ride/walk around the neighbourhood! With Blake walking it takes us almost 1 hour to go a short distance ... which is perfectly fine! He enjoys stomping around in the snow and investigating!!

Have a great week everyone!

Tracy