Potty party day 2 went really, really well!! Blake is doing an awesome job of going potty (both #1 and #2!). We try to take him quite often and he even told us a few times that he had to go! Just one small (like a drop!) accident today! Good job Blake!! Dad and I are sooooo... proud of you buddy:) Grandma and Grandpa D came over for dinner tonight to celebrate Blake's success. We all gave Blake a few small gifts and I baked a cake for him!
Emerson had a big first this weekend too!! She is now doing what I call the "inchworm!!!" She pulls herself along the floor!! I took the kids to the chiropractor on Friday and the Dr. was telling me that she has read research that kids who do not crawl are often less coordinated later in life. She said it's not a big deal if kids don't crawl, but that there are exercises you can do to at least develop that reflex (doesn't necessarily mean they will crawl, but it will ensure they develop the relax associated with crawling!). So I did the exercises with Em on Friday and on Saturday morning! They're seriously like 30 seconds of stretching basically. Not sure if that's what got her going or not?! I actually think it was more her Dad spending a lot of time with her enticing her with his wedding ring!!! She's so funny, I guess you can say in a lot of ways she's very laid back and waits for things to come to her ;) And today is the second time that Emerson didn't nurse at supper time. She's still nursing really well in the morning, so we'll see what happens now! I'm happy that she can self wean, instead of me forcing her!
So now for a bit of a downer ... our awesome day home is no longer :( Karen called me this evening and she will not be able to take the kids. She had a 13 month old start last week and has decided that she does not want more then 1 child under the age of 2 at one time in her day home. It's really too bad, but I do understand. She called earlier in the evening and didn't leave a message, which I found odd and then called again and left a message for me to call her back. So I did ... she felt very bad, but just wanted to be honest and she said she could take 2 kids under the age of 2, but wouldn't feel she could spend an appropriate amount of time with the little ones, never mind the older ones. I'm glad she was honest and she is right, there are day homes out there who take on the maximum number of children and they probably don't give each of the children an adequate amount of attention ... but still ... it sucks to have to start the day home search again. We are glad she made this decision now and not 1 week before I went back to work! Or even worse ... 1 week into my return to work. So that was a sad way to end this awesome weekend, but I believe things turn out the way they're supposed to, so I guess it wasn't meant to be. I'll keep you posted as the search continues :)
All in all it's been an awesome weekend! We are so proud of our little ones and can't believe how fast they're growing up! Have a fantastic week everyone!
xoxo The Cameron's
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Potty Party: Day 1
Today is the first official day of Blake's potty training!! We are calling it a "Potty Party!" This morning I was met with resistance ... he did not want to put on any big boy underwear! So we let him roam around with just a t-shirt on. Sam has big boy underwear too, so we put Sam's on and Blake showed Sam how to go potty. Sam got 1 Smartie when he went pee and 2 smarties when he went poo, which of course Sam couldn't eat, so Blake took care of them for him ;) After about a half an hour of "training" Sam, Blake picked up on it and Sam was going potty continuously (pee+poo=3 smarties!!), so we decided Sam was trained pretty well and it was time for Blake to try! After an accident on the couch, we decided that was it, he had to wear underwear! So we wrangled them on him and now he loves wearing his big boy undies!!! He's had about 5 pee accidents in his underwear and 1 poo. And has gone to the potty successfully many, many times (even 2 poo's)! He's even told us a few times that he had to go. He gets to put a sticker on him Elmo potty chart when he goes potty and he's had a lot of chocolate milk and apple juice today, which he normally doesn't get! But whatever works!!!! I'd say the 1st day of potty training is a total success :)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
High Chair Gymnastics!
That's our Emerson! She likes to stand up in her high chair now! So the belts are on!! We haven't had to put the tray or her seat belt on, but with these newest antics we are! She also gets on her knees and leans over the side ... not too safe!! We've noticed a huge difference in her movement the past 2 weeks. She loves standing at the front picture window and has started slowly walking from the middle to the side. Funny thing though, I think she can only walk to the left!!? She gets to the far left side and never comes back! lol!! We watch out the front window every day for Cal to come home! Blake usually plays with cars on the front window ledge and Em watches out the window and laughs and does her little walk!! She loves standing there and she gets SO excited when she sees Cal. It is very sweet! She starts yelling, "Da, da!" and, "Hi Da!" I'm sure it makes Cal's day :)
I don't know how Blake can get much funnier, but he seems to come up with something new everyday that cracks us up!! He has an excellent grasp on common slang and phrases, such as, "I think that will do!" or every time someone says, "Hey!" he says, "Hay is for horses!!" lol!! And his memory ... my goodness, I don't know how he memorizes everything in his life, but I swear he has a better memory then me!! No kidding!! Cal also has an amazing memory and memorizes everything, so we think Blake takes after Cal in that regard! He brings things up from long ago that make me think for a minute before I realize, yep that's right!! We don't even question him most of the time, we just take his word to be true! He insisted that we were missing the "Mom" from Emerson's Little People dollhouse. Neither Cal nor I had any idea what she looked like, but we searched the house and still couldn't find her! So the next day when we were at Toys R Us, we checked the doll house there and then came home and searched again! We realized we hadn't looked in the very bottom basement, so Blake went down there and sure enough there she was!! We had no doubt Blake was right and there was a "Mom" missing!!!! A few nights ago he wanted me to lay in bed with him and read a book while he read his own book. I asked him to read his book to me first and then I would read my book to him. He read his book almost word for word. Afterwards I told Cal and we were trying to figure out the last time either of us read that book to him and we think it was at least 7 months ago! Hopefully this memory of his helps him in school!! I know it served Cal well!
We had a lot of fun at Preschool on Monday. Miss Rhonda brought in a bunny rabbit from home and a 7 day old baby!! She fosters animals and children and had promised the week before to bring in a rabbit! The baby was more of a surprise, as they had been waiting quite a while for a baby boy! They hope to adopt Jacob eventually. Apparently the process is a very long one. Blake loved the bunny and spent lots of time petting it and staring at it!! We also stayed a few minutes after class to get some extra pets!!! I know when Blake gets older he's going to want to bring home every animal known to man kind! He loves animals, but I think having a cat is a good deterrent to getting any other animals ... can't get a bird, can't get fish, I don't think Jazz would get a long with a rabbit, etc, etc!! Cat and dog is good for this house! Unless we ever move to an acreage, then that's a different story!!!
Tomorrow we are going to a class called Sing, Sign, Laugh and Learn at the Woodcroft library. It is a registered program at most Edmonton public libraries, but this session is drop-in this time around!
Friday Blake and I have gymnastics and Saturday potty training boot camp begins!!! I honestly don't know if Blake is ready, but we will give it a try and see what happens! If we're not successful this weekend, we'll wait and try again in a few months. We've been talking about it all week and on Tuesday we went and bought Elmo seats for the toilets! We do have two floor potties, but Blake apparently likes these seats better ... We have rewards and cool big boy underwear all ready!!! Fingers crossed it happens the first go around ... I'll let you know Sunday night!
Enjoy the remainder of your week and the upcoming weekend everyone :)
Love The Cameron's
I don't know how Blake can get much funnier, but he seems to come up with something new everyday that cracks us up!! He has an excellent grasp on common slang and phrases, such as, "I think that will do!" or every time someone says, "Hey!" he says, "Hay is for horses!!" lol!! And his memory ... my goodness, I don't know how he memorizes everything in his life, but I swear he has a better memory then me!! No kidding!! Cal also has an amazing memory and memorizes everything, so we think Blake takes after Cal in that regard! He brings things up from long ago that make me think for a minute before I realize, yep that's right!! We don't even question him most of the time, we just take his word to be true! He insisted that we were missing the "Mom" from Emerson's Little People dollhouse. Neither Cal nor I had any idea what she looked like, but we searched the house and still couldn't find her! So the next day when we were at Toys R Us, we checked the doll house there and then came home and searched again! We realized we hadn't looked in the very bottom basement, so Blake went down there and sure enough there she was!! We had no doubt Blake was right and there was a "Mom" missing!!!! A few nights ago he wanted me to lay in bed with him and read a book while he read his own book. I asked him to read his book to me first and then I would read my book to him. He read his book almost word for word. Afterwards I told Cal and we were trying to figure out the last time either of us read that book to him and we think it was at least 7 months ago! Hopefully this memory of his helps him in school!! I know it served Cal well!
We had a lot of fun at Preschool on Monday. Miss Rhonda brought in a bunny rabbit from home and a 7 day old baby!! She fosters animals and children and had promised the week before to bring in a rabbit! The baby was more of a surprise, as they had been waiting quite a while for a baby boy! They hope to adopt Jacob eventually. Apparently the process is a very long one. Blake loved the bunny and spent lots of time petting it and staring at it!! We also stayed a few minutes after class to get some extra pets!!! I know when Blake gets older he's going to want to bring home every animal known to man kind! He loves animals, but I think having a cat is a good deterrent to getting any other animals ... can't get a bird, can't get fish, I don't think Jazz would get a long with a rabbit, etc, etc!! Cat and dog is good for this house! Unless we ever move to an acreage, then that's a different story!!!
Tomorrow we are going to a class called Sing, Sign, Laugh and Learn at the Woodcroft library. It is a registered program at most Edmonton public libraries, but this session is drop-in this time around!
Friday Blake and I have gymnastics and Saturday potty training boot camp begins!!! I honestly don't know if Blake is ready, but we will give it a try and see what happens! If we're not successful this weekend, we'll wait and try again in a few months. We've been talking about it all week and on Tuesday we went and bought Elmo seats for the toilets! We do have two floor potties, but Blake apparently likes these seats better ... We have rewards and cool big boy underwear all ready!!! Fingers crossed it happens the first go around ... I'll let you know Sunday night!
Enjoy the remainder of your week and the upcoming weekend everyone :)
Love The Cameron's
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Starting to Bum Scootch!
Emerson is becoming a bum scootcher ... sort of! Right now she's mostly bum rotating!! lol! She can do a 360 and moves forward a bit. She does move on her stomach, mostly backwards, but a small distance forwards. I'm not sure she'll ever be a crawler though ... time will tell ;) She can also stand on her own for a short period of time! Last week I'd let go of her and she'd stand very well for 30 seconds or so. The look on her face was priceless! She looked shocked and a bit scared!! I'm looking forward to having her weighed and measured at her 1 year pediatrician appointment. She feels like she's getting heavier, but as for length, I don't think she's grown very much in that way!! She's still wearing 6-9 month clothes and the 6-12 month clothes are too big!
We've had a great week and weekend! My parents came to Blake's gymnastics class on Friday and afterwards the four of us went out for dinner. Blake really enjoyed that! He ate lots of Grandpa's pizza, but I'm pretty sure Grandpa didn't mind ;) Saturday evening I hosted a Tupperware party. It was lots of fun and I can't wait to get all my Tupperware!! My pantry is going to be soooo organized!!! It was fun having a few friends over and Blake enjoyed "partying" too! This afternoon the kids and I visited Karen's day home. It was a great visit! I think they will do fine there. Blake had fun playing in the awesome play room, but I was most surprised by Emerson. She sat on the floor and played and even let Karen and her two girls play with her and hold her! I was very happy!! I thought for sure she'd whimper as soon as she left my arms ... she's a bit (okay, maybe a lot) of a Mom suck ;) But she did fantastic and only needed Mom near the end of 1 hour of playing, when she was getting hungry and tired. So our deposit is down on the day home, our spots will be held until March 1st and I'll be taking the kids back for a few more visits before I return to work! After our day home visit, we headed to Stony Plain for supper at my Mom and Dad's house. It was yummy as usual, and the kids had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and bathing together!
Cal is off work tomorrow, but helping a friend drywall, while the kids and I go to preschool. We're painting tomorrow, a craft that I'm sure Blake is going to LOVE!! Hopefully we'll visit the play gym before class.
Have a great week everyone ... stay warm during this, let's hope last, cold snap!
xoxo Tracy
We've had a great week and weekend! My parents came to Blake's gymnastics class on Friday and afterwards the four of us went out for dinner. Blake really enjoyed that! He ate lots of Grandpa's pizza, but I'm pretty sure Grandpa didn't mind ;) Saturday evening I hosted a Tupperware party. It was lots of fun and I can't wait to get all my Tupperware!! My pantry is going to be soooo organized!!! It was fun having a few friends over and Blake enjoyed "partying" too! This afternoon the kids and I visited Karen's day home. It was a great visit! I think they will do fine there. Blake had fun playing in the awesome play room, but I was most surprised by Emerson. She sat on the floor and played and even let Karen and her two girls play with her and hold her! I was very happy!! I thought for sure she'd whimper as soon as she left my arms ... she's a bit (okay, maybe a lot) of a Mom suck ;) But she did fantastic and only needed Mom near the end of 1 hour of playing, when she was getting hungry and tired. So our deposit is down on the day home, our spots will be held until March 1st and I'll be taking the kids back for a few more visits before I return to work! After our day home visit, we headed to Stony Plain for supper at my Mom and Dad's house. It was yummy as usual, and the kids had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and bathing together!
Cal is off work tomorrow, but helping a friend drywall, while the kids and I go to preschool. We're painting tomorrow, a craft that I'm sure Blake is going to LOVE!! Hopefully we'll visit the play gym before class.
Have a great week everyone ... stay warm during this, let's hope last, cold snap!
xoxo Tracy
Monday, January 18, 2010
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
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
Monday, January 11, 2010
Enjoying January ;)
January is often a blah kind of month! But we've had a good January so far!! The weather has warmed up considerably, which has helped!
Blake had his first gymnastics class on Friday. I was so impressed with how it went!! He had so much fun and I think this is the most involved he's been in a class thus far! He was very independent and outgoing! Coach Shannon was fantastic and he really took to her. He's also been to two of Madison's (our friends little girl) birthday parties at this gymnastics club, so he was familiar with it. After the class, when I was getting him in his car seat he asked me where Madison was?! I guess he thought she'd be there :)
Saturday morning we headed to the YMCA for the kids swimming lessons. Emerson went first with Cal, while Blake and I watched! She looked like she had a great time with her big smiles and splashing!! Cal said the only part she wasn't too happy about was being put in a baby boat!! Blake thought it was pretty neat watching Em at swimming lessons! He kept calling her name and waving at her! 3/4 of the way through Emerson's lesson, I took Blake to the family change room and got him ready for his lesson. When Em's lesson was over Cal brought her to the change room and got Blake! It worked out quite well! Blake had fun during his lesson and spent a lot of time on the slide! At one point he was sitting at the top for awhile and Cal asked him what he was doing and he replied, "Watching the teacher!" Saturday evening my parents came over to babysit the kids while Cal and I went out for dinner. We had a great evening out! We spend a lot of time together in the evenings, but it's nice to get out of the house by ourselves once in awhile too!! Both the kids have had a cold since Tuesday, but Saturday night Blake's cold took a turn for the worse. At around 10:30 pm I heard him wheezing over the baby monitor, so I went into his room to listen and sure enough he was. So I called Health Link to see what advice they had and held the phone up to him so the nurse on the other end could hear, just to make sure I wasn't exaggerating!! But she did say it was wheezing and advised that if it wasn't waking him up that we just keep an eye on him and bring him to a Doctor in the a.m. But if it got worse to bring him in immediately. So I turned up the volume on his monitor and went to bed. At 1 am I woke up to an ear piercing scream. I ran into his room, to find him sitting up and struggling to get a good breath. I rushed into our room and told Cal I was taking him to the hospital. I thought it was croup, because he has had croup once before, but it's pretty scary to hear your child having trouble breathing. I put the windows down in the truck (the cold air sometimes helps reduce the swelling in the airways) and seriously sped SO fast to the E.R. Thankfully they got him into a room fairly fast and gave him an oral steroid to open his airways and help him breath easier. They monitored him for a little while and decided he could go home and we're to bring him back if he gets worse again. He's been pretty good, still has that croupy cough off and on and has trouble breathing when he's laying down. I took him outside twice last night, hoping the cold air would help and I think it did a little bit. Thankfully, he doesn't have an extremely bad case of croup.
Cal was off today and we had fun playing outside, shovelling and going for a sleigh ride! Well, actually Emerson is the only one who went for a ride ... the rest of us walked! She has so much fun in the sleigh!! And she loves it when I run and then spin her around really fast!! She giggles and giggles!! It's so cute :) And Blake loves helping us pull the sleigh! Today he stopped and pulled the blanket up over Em's legs and said to her, "Cold Em? There you go!" It was sooooo ... adorable!! Blake also had fun riding his bike up and down the driveway!! He has an old plastic tricycle and Cal had to adjust the seat today because he's grown so much since fall!! He'll definitely need a better bike this summer, because he can pedal like a pro now!! He had fun outside and hopefully the cool air will help him breathe easy tonight and sleep well too.
Blake missed preschool today. Croup is contagious and the last thing we want is for him to pass it on to someone else. Hopefully he'll be doing a lot better by Wednesday, because we're looking forward to meeting some friends at Kidz Quarterz in Sherwood Park that morning. We've never been before, but have heard it's an awesome play place!
Emerson is getting closer and closer to crawling ... She's still very content to sit on her bum and play, but when put on her tummy she's starting to push herself backwards and likes to get her bum way up in the air and bend her right leg up! It looks kinda funny!! She love, love, loves standing and has enjoyed standing at the coffee table, her play table, or whatever we stand her up at for quite some time now. But, recently she's started trying to grab onto things and attempt to pull herself up (she hasn't been successful yet!)! She also is loving pushing her walker around with help from Dad!!! Who knows, maybe she'll take after me and walk and not bother with crawling!? Em is still very chatty and I swear sometimes she is mimicking us. I often think I hear her repeating what I'm saying!? "Hi Dad!" is what she most often repeats! Of course it's not perfectly clear, but definitely sounds close to "Hi Dad!" When we ask her where Blake, Heidi, Jazz, Mom or Dad are she looks right at the appropriate person/animal! And I LOVE reading with her!! She points at things on the pages and sometimes grabs my finger and makes me point to things!! It is soooo... CUTE!! Oh and her clapping ... she loves to clap! As soon as we start singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" she starts clapping!! During Blake's swimming lesson, they started singing that song and Em started clapping!!! I was so surprised! And we love when we sing, "If you're happy and you know say hooray!" And we raise our arms up in the air and she follows!! She's so little and cute, her pudgy arms raised above her head!!! We're hoping she'll be over her cold soon. She had rough nights Tuesday and Wednesday. It was so hard to be up during the night! Emerson has slept 12 hours a night since she was 7 weeks old ... 10 hours at 6 weeks ... so we (well, let's be honest I'VE considering I'm bfing!!!) have been very spoiled with lots of night time sleep. Thank goodness it was only 2 rough nights!!
We hope everyone has a chance to enjoy the wonderful weather this week! We never know when it will take a turn for the worse, so let's enjoy it while we can!! Have a great week everyone :)
Cal, Tracy, Blake and Emerson
Blake had his first gymnastics class on Friday. I was so impressed with how it went!! He had so much fun and I think this is the most involved he's been in a class thus far! He was very independent and outgoing! Coach Shannon was fantastic and he really took to her. He's also been to two of Madison's (our friends little girl) birthday parties at this gymnastics club, so he was familiar with it. After the class, when I was getting him in his car seat he asked me where Madison was?! I guess he thought she'd be there :)
Saturday morning we headed to the YMCA for the kids swimming lessons. Emerson went first with Cal, while Blake and I watched! She looked like she had a great time with her big smiles and splashing!! Cal said the only part she wasn't too happy about was being put in a baby boat!! Blake thought it was pretty neat watching Em at swimming lessons! He kept calling her name and waving at her! 3/4 of the way through Emerson's lesson, I took Blake to the family change room and got him ready for his lesson. When Em's lesson was over Cal brought her to the change room and got Blake! It worked out quite well! Blake had fun during his lesson and spent a lot of time on the slide! At one point he was sitting at the top for awhile and Cal asked him what he was doing and he replied, "Watching the teacher!" Saturday evening my parents came over to babysit the kids while Cal and I went out for dinner. We had a great evening out! We spend a lot of time together in the evenings, but it's nice to get out of the house by ourselves once in awhile too!! Both the kids have had a cold since Tuesday, but Saturday night Blake's cold took a turn for the worse. At around 10:30 pm I heard him wheezing over the baby monitor, so I went into his room to listen and sure enough he was. So I called Health Link to see what advice they had and held the phone up to him so the nurse on the other end could hear, just to make sure I wasn't exaggerating!! But she did say it was wheezing and advised that if it wasn't waking him up that we just keep an eye on him and bring him to a Doctor in the a.m. But if it got worse to bring him in immediately. So I turned up the volume on his monitor and went to bed. At 1 am I woke up to an ear piercing scream. I ran into his room, to find him sitting up and struggling to get a good breath. I rushed into our room and told Cal I was taking him to the hospital. I thought it was croup, because he has had croup once before, but it's pretty scary to hear your child having trouble breathing. I put the windows down in the truck (the cold air sometimes helps reduce the swelling in the airways) and seriously sped SO fast to the E.R. Thankfully they got him into a room fairly fast and gave him an oral steroid to open his airways and help him breath easier. They monitored him for a little while and decided he could go home and we're to bring him back if he gets worse again. He's been pretty good, still has that croupy cough off and on and has trouble breathing when he's laying down. I took him outside twice last night, hoping the cold air would help and I think it did a little bit. Thankfully, he doesn't have an extremely bad case of croup.
Cal was off today and we had fun playing outside, shovelling and going for a sleigh ride! Well, actually Emerson is the only one who went for a ride ... the rest of us walked! She has so much fun in the sleigh!! And she loves it when I run and then spin her around really fast!! She giggles and giggles!! It's so cute :) And Blake loves helping us pull the sleigh! Today he stopped and pulled the blanket up over Em's legs and said to her, "Cold Em? There you go!" It was sooooo ... adorable!! Blake also had fun riding his bike up and down the driveway!! He has an old plastic tricycle and Cal had to adjust the seat today because he's grown so much since fall!! He'll definitely need a better bike this summer, because he can pedal like a pro now!! He had fun outside and hopefully the cool air will help him breathe easy tonight and sleep well too.
Blake missed preschool today. Croup is contagious and the last thing we want is for him to pass it on to someone else. Hopefully he'll be doing a lot better by Wednesday, because we're looking forward to meeting some friends at Kidz Quarterz in Sherwood Park that morning. We've never been before, but have heard it's an awesome play place!
Emerson is getting closer and closer to crawling ... She's still very content to sit on her bum and play, but when put on her tummy she's starting to push herself backwards and likes to get her bum way up in the air and bend her right leg up! It looks kinda funny!! She love, love, loves standing and has enjoyed standing at the coffee table, her play table, or whatever we stand her up at for quite some time now. But, recently she's started trying to grab onto things and attempt to pull herself up (she hasn't been successful yet!)! She also is loving pushing her walker around with help from Dad!!! Who knows, maybe she'll take after me and walk and not bother with crawling!? Em is still very chatty and I swear sometimes she is mimicking us. I often think I hear her repeating what I'm saying!? "Hi Dad!" is what she most often repeats! Of course it's not perfectly clear, but definitely sounds close to "Hi Dad!" When we ask her where Blake, Heidi, Jazz, Mom or Dad are she looks right at the appropriate person/animal! And I LOVE reading with her!! She points at things on the pages and sometimes grabs my finger and makes me point to things!! It is soooo... CUTE!! Oh and her clapping ... she loves to clap! As soon as we start singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" she starts clapping!! During Blake's swimming lesson, they started singing that song and Em started clapping!!! I was so surprised! And we love when we sing, "If you're happy and you know say hooray!" And we raise our arms up in the air and she follows!! She's so little and cute, her pudgy arms raised above her head!!! We're hoping she'll be over her cold soon. She had rough nights Tuesday and Wednesday. It was so hard to be up during the night! Emerson has slept 12 hours a night since she was 7 weeks old ... 10 hours at 6 weeks ... so we (well, let's be honest I'VE considering I'm bfing!!!) have been very spoiled with lots of night time sleep. Thank goodness it was only 2 rough nights!!
We hope everyone has a chance to enjoy the wonderful weather this week! We never know when it will take a turn for the worse, so let's enjoy it while we can!! Have a great week everyone :)
Cal, Tracy, Blake and Emerson
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Hello 2010!!
Thinking back, it feels like we were just celebrating the year 2000! I CAN NOT believe that was 10 years ago!!! 10?! Oh boy ... Amazing how fast time flies!
We rang in the New Year in a quiet fashion at home. It was a nice evening though! We watched the Team Canada hockey game and then the Oiler's game and Cal and I had fun playing on our lap tops and chatting with people on Facebook (and each other!)! It was quite funny at times ;) Much different then the way we used to celebrate New Year's Eve!! I suppose when the kids are older, we'll venture out to those New Year's parties again (maybe!?)!?
New Year's Day we spent at home again, and enjoyed sleeping in a bit and having fun with the kids!! My parents and Lindsay came home from Saskatchewan on New Year's Day and Mom and Lindsay came over for a visit the morning of the 2nd. That evening we headed to the Streadwick's house in Sherwood Park for dinner and a visit. We had a great time and were treated to a very yummy dinner!! And kudos to Cal for picking out a great red wine for dinner!! Blake was shy for the first 5 minutes and then relaxed and had a BLAST playing with the 3 boys! I love watching him play well with other kids and having fun :) Emerson struggled through the hour around her regular bedtime and then was fine! She even let her godparents hold her for some of the evening!! They love kids and having 3 boys, enjoy having a little girl around once and a while and we were very glad she let them hold her!! The adults played a game of poker and much to my (and Cal's I think!) surprise, the women cleaned house!! And I realized I enjoy Poker - suppose it might have been different had I lost!?
On Sunday morning my Mom, Dad, Lindsay and Jeremy came over for a quick visit before we left for our New Mom's Group Christmas Party. We were doing a baking exchange and I had planned to come home from Brad and Julie's and bake 6 dozen raisin cookies, but much to my pleasant surprise I got a message from my Mom as we were leaving Brad and Julie's that she had made 6 dozen ginger snap cookies for me and would be delivering them in the morning!!! I was VERY happy!!! What a great Mom :) Thank you!!! We had fun at the Christmas Party! It's always fun to get together with our New Mom's Group. We have such a great group of people and it's nice that some of the Dad's join us once and awhile too! And it's great that many of us have had second children now and the babies have company too!! It will be so cool to see all the kids in 10 years and to share stories of the "old days!!" We already enjoy talking about the first few times we met at the health unit! They were all so teeny tiny!! Blake was the smallest for a very long time and now he's the biggest!! Kind of funny, because he's the youngest too! Emerson is the oldest in the "2nd generation!"
On Monday we started our last 8 week session of My First Preschool. We could still take Blake to the classes on Monday's, when Cal's off, but I don't think we will. He'll get much of the same things he gets from preschool at the day home. Emerson had a great time at preschool yesterday! She loved the music and was "dancing" like crazy!! It was cute! We will miss seeing our friends every week at Preschool :(
Today we went to what Blake calls "the big play gym" at O'Leary Leisure Centre. We didn't plan to go, but Emerson was up from her morning nap by 10, so I thought we'd go out. I asked Blake if he wanted to go to the play gym or Toys R Us and he chose the big play gym! So we went, and had fun!! It is so cold outside though. I am getting kinda tired of the cold weather. It would be nice to be able to go for more sleigh rides or even just play in the snow for awhile.
Blake starts gymnastics on Friday. I registered him in Tumblebugs at Dynamix Gymnastics Club in St. Albert. We've attended two birthday parties there and have enjoyed them! I'll be taking Blake most of the time. The program runs from 5-6 pm. I'm looking forward to spending some 1 on 1 time with Blake!
We start a new session of swimming lessons at the YMCA on Saturday. Emerson is in Splashers from 11 - 11:30 am (her first lessons!) and Blake is in Bubblers from 11:30 to noon! Cal will be in the water with both the kids most of time! He says he'll be wrinkled by the time he gets out ;) It will be nice to go to the pool all together and have both kids lessons back to back! Should be fun!!
So 2010 brings a whole new set of activities and fun!!! And my return to work ... I have officially mailed my back to work letter to my employer and will be back at work on March 1st. I am fortunate in that I will have been off work for 14 months and won't be returning to work until after Em's 1st birthday! But, I will still return with mixed feelings :S I was hoping to go down to a 0.6 FTE (3 days a week), but for numerous reasons, my manager couldn't do that. I'm also a bit sceptical about my position. There have been many changes within AHS since my leave began and I'm crossing my fingers that my position has not changed much!! I really enjoyed working in the community, but fear I may have to do more acute care work ... which I don't enjoy as much as being out and about!! We'll see in March! I have applied for a 0.7 FTE position at the Glenrose, which is 3 days one week, 4 days the next, with some Saturdays in there. I'm not sure what the days/hours would be, but if I get called for an interview I will sort that out before going!! I was hoping it might be 3 week days every week and 1 Saturday every second week. Then the kids would only be at the day home 2 days a week!! I will continue to keep my eyes open for a 0.6 position, but in the mean time I think we will all be fine with Cal working 4 10's, with every Monday off, me working Monday - Thursday (which is nice when there's a long weekend because I'll then only work Tues, Wed, Thurs and Cal will have the Tuesday off :) and the kids going to a day home Tues, Wed, Thurs (expect for the long weekend weeks!!). I've began looking for a day home and so far haven't came up with anything. But it is A LOT easier and less stressful this time around! I'm more confident in what to look for and I'm not too scared to ask too many questions or seem too picky!!! I'm beginning to think I might call Charlene who Blake stayed with for a few days in December of '08. She is a great lady and offers a daily rate. Although I had heard she may be closing her day home when her youngest starts Grade 1, which is in September. Soooo ... we'll see!!
I'm sure 2010 will pass as quickly, if not faster, then 2009, but we plan to make the best of each second!! Hopefully we'll be able to slow down enough to enjoy each other and spend a lot of quality time together! I find when we're on the go all the time the days pass even faster. We have no definite travel plans this year, but hope to get out camping quite a bit!
Cheers everyone and may 2010 bring you a year full of love, laughter, great health and much happiness!!
xoxo Cal, Tracy, Blake and Emerson
We rang in the New Year in a quiet fashion at home. It was a nice evening though! We watched the Team Canada hockey game and then the Oiler's game and Cal and I had fun playing on our lap tops and chatting with people on Facebook (and each other!)! It was quite funny at times ;) Much different then the way we used to celebrate New Year's Eve!! I suppose when the kids are older, we'll venture out to those New Year's parties again (maybe!?)!?
New Year's Day we spent at home again, and enjoyed sleeping in a bit and having fun with the kids!! My parents and Lindsay came home from Saskatchewan on New Year's Day and Mom and Lindsay came over for a visit the morning of the 2nd. That evening we headed to the Streadwick's house in Sherwood Park for dinner and a visit. We had a great time and were treated to a very yummy dinner!! And kudos to Cal for picking out a great red wine for dinner!! Blake was shy for the first 5 minutes and then relaxed and had a BLAST playing with the 3 boys! I love watching him play well with other kids and having fun :) Emerson struggled through the hour around her regular bedtime and then was fine! She even let her godparents hold her for some of the evening!! They love kids and having 3 boys, enjoy having a little girl around once and a while and we were very glad she let them hold her!! The adults played a game of poker and much to my (and Cal's I think!) surprise, the women cleaned house!! And I realized I enjoy Poker - suppose it might have been different had I lost!?
On Sunday morning my Mom, Dad, Lindsay and Jeremy came over for a quick visit before we left for our New Mom's Group Christmas Party. We were doing a baking exchange and I had planned to come home from Brad and Julie's and bake 6 dozen raisin cookies, but much to my pleasant surprise I got a message from my Mom as we were leaving Brad and Julie's that she had made 6 dozen ginger snap cookies for me and would be delivering them in the morning!!! I was VERY happy!!! What a great Mom :) Thank you!!! We had fun at the Christmas Party! It's always fun to get together with our New Mom's Group. We have such a great group of people and it's nice that some of the Dad's join us once and awhile too! And it's great that many of us have had second children now and the babies have company too!! It will be so cool to see all the kids in 10 years and to share stories of the "old days!!" We already enjoy talking about the first few times we met at the health unit! They were all so teeny tiny!! Blake was the smallest for a very long time and now he's the biggest!! Kind of funny, because he's the youngest too! Emerson is the oldest in the "2nd generation!"
On Monday we started our last 8 week session of My First Preschool. We could still take Blake to the classes on Monday's, when Cal's off, but I don't think we will. He'll get much of the same things he gets from preschool at the day home. Emerson had a great time at preschool yesterday! She loved the music and was "dancing" like crazy!! It was cute! We will miss seeing our friends every week at Preschool :(
Today we went to what Blake calls "the big play gym" at O'Leary Leisure Centre. We didn't plan to go, but Emerson was up from her morning nap by 10, so I thought we'd go out. I asked Blake if he wanted to go to the play gym or Toys R Us and he chose the big play gym! So we went, and had fun!! It is so cold outside though. I am getting kinda tired of the cold weather. It would be nice to be able to go for more sleigh rides or even just play in the snow for awhile.
Blake starts gymnastics on Friday. I registered him in Tumblebugs at Dynamix Gymnastics Club in St. Albert. We've attended two birthday parties there and have enjoyed them! I'll be taking Blake most of the time. The program runs from 5-6 pm. I'm looking forward to spending some 1 on 1 time with Blake!
We start a new session of swimming lessons at the YMCA on Saturday. Emerson is in Splashers from 11 - 11:30 am (her first lessons!) and Blake is in Bubblers from 11:30 to noon! Cal will be in the water with both the kids most of time! He says he'll be wrinkled by the time he gets out ;) It will be nice to go to the pool all together and have both kids lessons back to back! Should be fun!!
So 2010 brings a whole new set of activities and fun!!! And my return to work ... I have officially mailed my back to work letter to my employer and will be back at work on March 1st. I am fortunate in that I will have been off work for 14 months and won't be returning to work until after Em's 1st birthday! But, I will still return with mixed feelings :S I was hoping to go down to a 0.6 FTE (3 days a week), but for numerous reasons, my manager couldn't do that. I'm also a bit sceptical about my position. There have been many changes within AHS since my leave began and I'm crossing my fingers that my position has not changed much!! I really enjoyed working in the community, but fear I may have to do more acute care work ... which I don't enjoy as much as being out and about!! We'll see in March! I have applied for a 0.7 FTE position at the Glenrose, which is 3 days one week, 4 days the next, with some Saturdays in there. I'm not sure what the days/hours would be, but if I get called for an interview I will sort that out before going!! I was hoping it might be 3 week days every week and 1 Saturday every second week. Then the kids would only be at the day home 2 days a week!! I will continue to keep my eyes open for a 0.6 position, but in the mean time I think we will all be fine with Cal working 4 10's, with every Monday off, me working Monday - Thursday (which is nice when there's a long weekend because I'll then only work Tues, Wed, Thurs and Cal will have the Tuesday off :) and the kids going to a day home Tues, Wed, Thurs (expect for the long weekend weeks!!). I've began looking for a day home and so far haven't came up with anything. But it is A LOT easier and less stressful this time around! I'm more confident in what to look for and I'm not too scared to ask too many questions or seem too picky!!! I'm beginning to think I might call Charlene who Blake stayed with for a few days in December of '08. She is a great lady and offers a daily rate. Although I had heard she may be closing her day home when her youngest starts Grade 1, which is in September. Soooo ... we'll see!!
I'm sure 2010 will pass as quickly, if not faster, then 2009, but we plan to make the best of each second!! Hopefully we'll be able to slow down enough to enjoy each other and spend a lot of quality time together! I find when we're on the go all the time the days pass even faster. We have no definite travel plans this year, but hope to get out camping quite a bit!
Cheers everyone and may 2010 bring you a year full of love, laughter, great health and much happiness!!
xoxo Cal, Tracy, Blake and Emerson
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