Charlotte at 6 months

What?!?!? Yes, she is 6 months already. It's crazy. It's gone so fast. Here are some photos I took on Dec 10th, to capture the day.

Elijah's final birthday post

Really, this will be the last one. This is all about the birthday celebration we held as a family when Gary got back from Mexico. Uncle John supplies the wonderfully awesome cake. No, he didn't make it - he got it from the same person that did Yumi's Pengu cake for her birthday. The object on Elijah's cake - monkey of course! We used the least crusty monkey for the model and it even had a belly button! Elijah got to eat the cake belly button, which he still remembers. Too funny. Then of course, he got to open presents and was super excited about the new hockey sticks from Mama and Papa until he saw the garbage truck from Goo Ma!! Now it's a permanent fixture in the living room, as is the crane he got from Uncle Ed, Aunty Janet and Yumi.

Ok, and here are a couple pictures just sent to me from his birthday party with friends.

After all this, I can truly say that next year there will only be 1 birthday celebration, not a month of them!!

Josh's birthday

Ok, did I mention that November and December are crazy for birthday parties. Well, after Elijah's party, there was Josh's party! Obviously, it's been a while, but I'm trying to catch up now! So, Yvette asked me to make Josh's cake - in a car theme! It was pretty fun and the result is not too bad. The kids seemed to like it, as you'll be able to see in the video. I took quite a few pictures but not a lot of them turned out very well. Guess that's what happens when you're trying to watch 2 kids and capture the moment. I took pictures of the cake as I was getting ready to cover it up and stick it in the fridge. (That's why all the toothpicks are in it - NOT part of the decor.)

The party was at a studio Josh goes to for an all boys "Stomp" class. Sounds like he has a lot of fun with it. Took Elijah quite a while to warm up to everything, so a lot of the pictures show him just standing around while the other kids do things. He finally started participating when they brought out the bubbles. In the end he had a lot of fun. Thanks for inviting us Joshie!

Motoring Munchkins AGAIN

Yes, we still go to Motoring Munchkins when I plan it out right. Elijah always wants to go for the floor hockey, but this last time he DIDN'T EVEN PLAY!!! That's right - he found another toy. A car. I think it's because there was one at his last daycare. He must've played with it there and gotten used to it. So, he zeroed right in on it and wouldn't come off of it at all. After all, you take your butt of the seat and another kid will steal it from under you. Did I mention that Josh and Avery were there too? Well, they were and so Elijah and Josh zoomed around the gym most of the time. I rememeber when Yvette and I first brought the boys to Motoring Munchkins and we were horrified by the older kids going so fast on all the cars. "Where are these kids parents?!?! Why aren't they controlling their kids?!" Well, now we know.... "They can't do it at home so they're doin' it here", as Yvette so succinctly put it. Yup. This is where we let them burn off their energy. And they have so much fun doing it!



At the end of the session we were trying to get all the kids to pose for a picture together. It almost worked. Charlotte was not in the mood however, and it's pretty clear from her picture. :) Too funny!

Erin vs the new camera

I think I mentioned some time back (or maybe I didn't) that we got a new digital SLR. Now, I really enjoy taking pictures and I know once I figure it out a little I'll be totally hooked, but right now it's just a little intimidating. However, I've tried it out a few times. The first was when I was in the basement with the kids and Elijah was inspired by his latest Bob the Builder DVD to be a construction worker. He's got the whole thing down. The paper he's holding - those are his project plans. :) Then he makes me strap on his tool belt so he can carry every single tool he owns. Charlotte just sat in her Bumbo watching.

Lost time and Charlotte vs Rice Cereal

Somewhere in the twilight zone my last few weeks are located. Feels like it's been busy but looking back I wonder what I've been doing. Oh yeah.... I've been looking after my kids! So, the next few posts are going to be out of order, but that's ok, right?

Charlotte has started solids. So far just rice cereal, once a day or every couple days. I'm definitely going to up that amount soon, since she's nursing like a fiend lately. Not sure if it's a growth spurt or she just needs more now. She hasn't really taken to the solid food yet, but she eats it ok once we get it in her mouth. We managed to snap a couple photos of her expressions the first time we tried the rice cereal. You'll see that once she decides she's had enough, she sticks her fingers in her mouth and sucks on them. It's her comfort position. She does that when she's falling asleep as well.

Busy busy?

Well, despite the fact that Gary is away on business, or perhaps because of it, time has passed very quickly this week. There has been so much going on. Elijah's birthday has been a big part of it - I've been baking continuously. Then there was Josh's birthday too, which we celebrated yesterday, and I baked for as well. There has also been a very sick cat (Samantha), visits from Gary's family, launching the Etsy site, and trying to keep 2 kids happy! We've mostly been doing quiet activities inside. Elijah has been doing lots of playdough and crafts and playing with his new birthday toys. I caught him on camera doing some "scissoring" a few days ago. Charlotte has been busy too - vocalizing non stop and learning to use the jolly jumper for jumping. So, I haven't taken many pictures, but I have a video of each of the kids to share.

Self Promotion

Well, I'm going to post on here to promote my new etsy store. Has nothing to do with the kids, other than they were my models. A friend and I started up our store this weekend and would like you to check us out. We're called Little Eva Charlotte, after our daughters. (Coincidentally, her daughter's name is actually Eva Charlotte.) We sell knit hats and stroller seat liners right now, but will likely expand our product line at some point as well.

Here's the website: www.LittleEvaCharlotte.etsy.com

Thanks for your support!

From Elijah's Perspective

One of the gifts Elijah got for his birthday was a camera. It's one of those kid ones - drop proof. But, quite impressive in capability. He used up all 64MB already, with his continual picture snapping. Some 400 photos so far! I had to clear them today so he could take more, so I went through them, kept some of them and edited them further to make a little slide show of some good ones. It's kind of neat for us parents to see things from our children's perspective. Reminds me that he's still pretty small, even if he talks big. :) Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Birthday party!

Well, Elijah is fast approaching his 3rd (!!!) birthday and we had his party this weekend. Last year we just did a family thing. This year we invited lots of his friends. We went to the Fun4Kidz play place in Aberdeen mall. It was pretty fun, not only for the kids but for some of the parents as well. They especially liked the nerf ball canons. :)

I decided to make the cake myself, with a construction theme. No surprise there. :) Here's a picture of the cake, after I finished decorating it.

So, after the kids played for about an hour and a half we went to the party room and had lunch. Then cake. We managed to get some shots of the kids eating and of Elijah blowing out his candles. Josh and Adam were eager to help!

When it was all over, we handed out "goody bags". I had Elijah decorate the name tags for each of the bags earlier in the week. It was a good project for him at home and that way I was able to use up a whole assortment of small bags I had collected around the house.

As a side note, of comical interest - when I was waiting with the kids by the party room and Gary and family were loading up the car, I asked for some plastic wrap to cover the rest of the cake. The guy I asked was busy and said I could ask for it at the front counter. Of course I couldn't just then as I had both kids and some bags with me. So, while I was waiting for Gary to come back from the car, I looked back at the cake and there was some random kid from another party playing with one of the trucks from the cake. I asked him not to and he stepped back from the cake. However, a few seconds later I looked back and he was playing with it again. As I went over to talk to him again he SNEEZED all over the cake!! Subsequently, there was no left over cake to bring home. :D

Anyway, we put the kids down for a nap when we got home and when Elijah got up he was allowed to open all his presents. He was pretty excited about it and got some excellent gifts! Lots of stuff to keep him busy for the next couple weeks, thank goodness!

So, thanks to everyone who was able to come and join us in celebrating his birthday!!

Elijah runs

Today I took the kids to the library. Elijah needed to exchange some books. I felt a little guilty as it's such a nice day. But, I figured we'd be able to walk around a little at the library, since they have some nice park area there as well. So, when we arrived, we stayed outside for a few minutes, having a snack and watching some chinese ladies do some dancing. Then we walked around the park area and checked out all the water fountains, since Elijah is fascinated by them.

When we came out of the library, Elijah wanted to look at the water fountains again, so we started down the sidewalk. At the end, we encountered the grassy area again, this time occupied by a large group of kids (probably a preschool group) romping in the leaves. Elijah took one look and decided it was time to run. So, he joined them. It was one of those really nice moments. The look on his face was pure joy and it was great to see. He had a lot of fun. Just running. A little bit of interaction with the kids happened too, but basically it was all about the running. I took some pictures and a little bit of video just because. Here it is.

Happy 5 Months Charlotte

Yes, today is Charlotte's 5 month "birthday". Can you believe it? I can't. And the funny thing is, I'm almost a fully functioning person again already. It took me way longer with Elijah. Guess that's what having 2 kids will do to you!

This video was taken yesterday. Show's Charlotte doing all of her favorite things - vocalizing, blowing bubbles or raspberries and hanging out in the jolly jumper. Go baby go!

Daycare dilemmas

Well, we're switching daycare for Elijah again. It's always a hard choice but I think this one has been harder than usual for me. He's been with this daycare since May of last year. He's just starting to settle in and form bonds with the other kids. There is a lot of good stuff that goes on here - lots of preschool type activities that he really enjoys. It's a very cool setup - stations for painting, sand or water play, exploration of the current topic and other stuff. But there are a few reasons we're not happy with it. One of the biggest reasons for us is the tv watching. The kids watch until ~9am, which means an hour for Elijah. Then again for a few minutes as lunch is prepared. And if the day is a "low energy" day for the caretaker or it's really miserable outside, they watch a movie or half movie again in the afternoon. It seems like a lot to us, and we don't like it. Especially since Elijah seems grumpier when he's been watching tv in the afternoon. I think he really needs to be playing at that time. And now it's coming into the rainy, miserable weather season. Does that mean the tv time will increase? It's just not good. The other reason is that when we signed Elijah up, the caregiver expressed to us that she was not interested in taking the younger kids any more. Now, she has taken in a 1 year old since then, but do we really want to leave Charlotte with someone who doesn't really want her there? Anyway, that's the dilemma. So, we chose to search out another place. On a tip from a friend we found a new place for them. On the upside she's super keen, has no tv, gets the kids outside as much as possible, is closer to home, provides the food, is excited about taking in a girl (she has all boys right now), and speaks spanish to them. I wonder about the down sides - does fewer kids mean less stimulation for Elijah? Will it slow his development to have only younger kids around him? Will she provide enough variety of activity and the type of activity that he will enjoy? Ak!

Being a mother is not easy. It's amazing what you worry about. Anyway, we've done a few trial days at the new place and he seems to be enjoying it. He comes away happy and tired, which is what I like to see. So, hopefully he'll enjoy the new place and not be affected too much by another major change.

Here are the recent photos from his current daycare.

More from Yehyeh's birthday

We had a visit from Neil and Lorna a few days ago. Not only did they bring over a really yummy blueberry-lemon bread but they also brought us pictures that they took at Yehyeh's banquet last Friday night. So, now I've got some more images to post. And they're good ones! In fact, there are so many that I think I will only post one or two and put the rest in a slide show! For sure I'll put our family shot on here since we rarely ever get one. See the slideshow here!

A crazy busy weekend

Well, here we are on the other side of a very busy weekend. It started Friday night with a birthday banquet for Yehyeh. The kids were generally well behaved, but tired, so we were glad to get home and get them to bed.

Saturday was Hallowe'en. In the morning the kids and I went out and bought a pumpkin to carve. Elijah was enthusiastic until I gave him the spoon and asked him to scoop out pumpkin goop. This child does not like getting his hands dirty. :D However, he did help plan out the face and contributed to the drawing on the pumpkin. I also took some pictures of the kids posing with the pumpkin afterwards.

During the day, we did some other activities as well. Elijah worked on his Hallowe'en decorations that Grandma sent him. He sure enjoyed that glitter glue! Charlotte got to experience the jolly jumper for the first time, and seemed to like it. Woohoo!

We were not planning on going out trick or treating but when a call came in for him to join his friend Adam at his town house complex, we thought it would be fun for all. Sure was! Not only was he excited to see his friend but they had a great time. Their line, after knocking on a door, was "Trick or treat! RRROAR!". It fit since Elijah was a dinosaur and Adam was a Tigger. (aka Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

Charlotte got into the game as well, with a cat costume lent from her cousin Yumi. Not only did it fit pretty well, but it kept her warm while we were walking around.

After the trick or treating we went home for dinner and to hand out some candy. Elijah was excited about this until he encountered a rather scary costume. After that he wouldn't come to the door with me anymore. Of course, between that and the fireworks going all night, he didn't have a very good night. During the night he also started exhibiting cold symptoms, as did I. We were all very tired Sunday morning as we up most of the night with him. So, Sunday was a slow day for us. Sunday night we had our family dinner to celebrate Yehyeh's birthday though. Korean ribs! Yehyeh's favorite.

So, here we are on Monday morning. Elijah is home from daycare today as his cold is quite bad. Hopefully tomorrow he'll be feeling better!