Cheerful Abundance

Cheerful Abundance

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Ten Months: The recap

Posted in home by KT
Apr 30 2009

I can sum this entire month up in 5 words: Holy Crap are we tired.

But blah blah blah I guess ‘people’ want real ‘news’, and ‘photos’, etc. So here is the month in pictures.

G. discovered that when you can sit up and crawl, you can get to any spot you want to be, and see inside things. So she now crawls over to the toy bins to choose what she wants to play with. What she almost always chooses? Books. She will crawl past toys to get to a book. And eat it.

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M. discovered Barney, and K and B discovered a need to start drinking before noon. So, its a win-win situation.

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M. is very mobile now – backwards. She doesn’t crawl forward, but she can creep backwards like a champ, and like her sister before her, is a big fan of getting herself wedged under furniture.

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Like all families, we struggle to reconcile our parenting strategies. Here is K., demonstrating how she likes to nibble on babies until they giggle like fools….

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… while Brian prefers the “Make that Baby Cry” method, which he employs to great success, following the excellent example of his mother in law :) He won’t play accordion for these kids, either!

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In the morning, everyone lines up, Mafia-Don style, and asks for favours. Obviously, we fulfill requests from ‘winkers’ first, judging by Jack’s face. She knows where the cookies come from!

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The good news: two babies who can sit up means two babies who can play together. The bad news? They like to play “World Wrestling Federation”. Look at the expression on G’s face – its classic, “What? I did not do THAT! I DO NOT KNOW WHY THAT BABY IS CRYING!”

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It isn’t all drama and crying around here. Sometimes, it smiling and giggling and dancing. But mostly, its drama.

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Now you can play along at home – see if you can guess which child is dramatic? Did you guess? Was it ‘Stonyface McNoExpression’, or the one who flung herself backwards, arms outstretched, without even looking behind her to see what she was going to slam into? if you guessed ‘both’, you would be correct!

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I guess there should be actual ‘update’ in this update. You know … content. So, April was very, very busy – G. learned how to crawl forward, M learned how to sit up all on her own, and how to crawl backward, and our Condo Board forgot how to write a cheque to the gas company, prompting us, yet again, to decamp to a hotel in the suburbs, because our own home was without heat and hot water, and the weather was not conducive to camping out in our house.  The less said the better, but if you know someone who would like to buy a classic 3 flat in on the north side, please let me know.

The best part about the hotel was that our suite was advertised as having a jacuzzi, which sounds like a heavenly way to relax after your heat is turned off because your condo board forgot to pay the bill. But in fact, when you realize that the jacuzzi tub is in a foyer of your room, and not an actual ‘bathroom’, it gets less appealing. I wonder if I should install one of these in my own foyer, and get rid of that console table that holds the mail and our keys? It’s a bold design choice.

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Check out that great sitting – no props! M also sits up in her crib now in the morning, just like her sister. Its adorable. As always, the kids were troopers about hotel life. Here, M. is getting a shave from the hotel barber.

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…. and then she slept in one of two pack and plays the hotel provided. It is hard work, being a trooper.

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Soon enough, we were home again, happily eating books, drooling a quart of liquid an hour onto our PJs, and generally getting into trouble. M. has 3 teeth coming in, and she is very drooly.

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G. was pretty excited when M started sitting up more confidently- its much easier to take M’s toys from her when she is sitting so close!

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We only had one doctor’s appointment this month for the sparrows, and one set of labs, but as always, there was drama. G had to do her labs at the hospital, and she wasn’t so thrilled. But we apparently LOVE to take pictures of our babies coming home from hospitals, so here is G, deeply unimpressed with phlebotomy.

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As always, food is a challenge, but by the end of the month, we branched out a bit. They both love to feed themselves, and here, M demonstrates the fine art of cut up macaroni with a sharp Wisconsin cheddar.

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We take at least a hundred photos a week. 99 of Gs will look like this – she is so fast, and just as you lift the camera up to catch an unbearably cute moment, off she goes.

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Grandparents came for to visit this month, and were very nice, even though we made fun of them on our blog. Hey, if they don’t like it, they can get their own damned blog. Jack was exhausted, but she was a trooper, spending much of each day on the couch, overseeing the shenanigans and clutching her present from Grandma.

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I could write something snarky here, but I don’t want to blow my status as the child my parents love best.

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Grandma got to witness a big, big milestone, one that is now being repeated every day – G. can pull herself up to her feet now, and does so often. And each time, she is a little surprised at what just happened.

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All this new physical activity has EVERYONE pretty exhausted. Its been a long and busy month!

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Sparrows vs Grandparents

Posted in home by KT
Apr 28 2009

Obviously, it went well. Here, Grandma explains that frankly, she just doesn’t love her grandchildren enough to play a little accordion for them, even though she knows that accordion music is their favourite kind.

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“I don’t love you enough to play accordion for YOU, either, toots”

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M. has a few complaints about Gramma, for Gramma.

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But everyone settled down once we realized that Gramma can read! M is THRILLED by this development. Also, this book, from Chrissy, is HILARIOUS, and we owe her a thank you note. Its coming!

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“Talk all you want, old man, I will NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT!” I think C-SPAN was on.

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Oh thank God – supplies from the homeland!

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Its Official: She is a Sitter

Posted in home by KT
Apr 23 2009

Its hard work, being a baby. You have to figure out everything by YOURSELF and NOBODY HELPS YOU or even hands you that toy they make you go get it yourself and you are LITTLE and it is HARD. Or so two ladies in this household would have us believe. But when you are mean to babies, it propels them to figure stuff out by themselves. Like… how to sit up! G. got it last month and M. is debuting this new skill this week.

Step 1: Back up into a crouch, and then… big hands go up, one at a time, to get momentum.

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Oof! Sometimes that momentum is a little too much and down you go!

2But you do not give up, and keep backing up and crouching, and you know its going somewhere when you do this, but you are not sure where, exactly….

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Ah…. so THAT’S where this was going? Check out her ‘oh hai chill’ face. Like its no big deal. Also, Daddy, discreetly adding pillow padding behind her, just in case.

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And then you are exhausted. Its hard work. Hard, hard work, being so awesome all the time. 6

Milestone Alert!

Posted in home by KT
Apr 17 2009

M. started scooting this week, in earnest, going only backwards, naturally, but getting her tummy up off the floor entirely, and today – big celebration! She went from the scooting position to sitting upright, all on her own. Her sister has been doing it for more than a month, and is very mobile, and we have been working hard with M to get her strong enough to pull of these kinds of feats of daring.

And then she got so excited she fell backward and clunked her big hard head against the floor. But…. we are pretty excited. Its a big step for her, and great news for us.

How to fake Easter

Posted in holiday by KT
Apr 13 2009

We probably should have realized that going to the pediatrician on Good Friday was a bad idea, because the only other patients there were carrying the plague. So, Easter turned out a whole lot more low key than expected this year, but we spent a quiet weekend, all four of us, and I think we are on the mend.

But we did do a little easter – ‘fake easter’, if you will.

We dyed eggs, using silk ties to transfer patterns:

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Now that we have done it once, we know what to do, and even our first attempts are really pretty. If I could actually function without Dayquil, I would have put these in a glass vase.

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Then, we dressed the kids up – just to take pictures, mind you – and then put them back in their jammies, because they are sick and need their rest. If everyone wore underpants this cute, there would be no wars. You know its true.

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“I fart in your general direction, bunny”

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Whee!

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They call me adorable, and they ain’t lyin’, sister.

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Thank GOD! After a million failed attempts, one decent picture of both kids, and we can call it a day and go back to bed!

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Happy Easter, everyone!

Tagged as: bunnies, easter, holiday, photos

What we did today

Posted in home by KT
Apr 08 2009

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3rDKfvmoE]

Tagged as: crawling, raspberries, video

Milestones

Posted in home by KT
Apr 02 2009

Yesterday, the sparrows kissed each other for the first time, spontaneously, and we melted at how adorable it was. A nice break from the other 12 hours of the day, which were spent wrestling and smacking each other.
G is officially in the Big Girls Club, and in the mornings and after naps, we find her sitting up in her crib, having a grand old time. Thank God for Aunt Dianne (Dianne the Great), who sent us bigger sleepers, because all of a sudden, the sparrows are busting out of everything footed.  Also, you cannot be mad at a little girl dressed like this. And she knows it, and is powerful.  She is holding the ‘waiting bear’, a little trick Brian figured out. When you can only deal with one child at a time, ie, diaper changing when they first wake up, change one, but give the other a ‘waiting bear’, so she knows that bedtime is over. Since they don’t have toys in their cribs at night, it signals the transition and they stay fairly cool.
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Still the Princess of Elegance at the dinner table – now, with 2 feet up! I cannot wait to see how her manners translate to the real dinner table.

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Why so many pictures of them in high chairs? Because we feed them constantly. Its all we do, really – shovel in the food and step in between the worst of the slappy-fights. This the ‘Where are the Cheerios?” face. Hop to it, Mummy!

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That is a 5 point restraint harness in that high chair. Its safer than their stroller restraints or even their carseats. Its safer than the seatbelt in the Space Shuttle. Overkill, or is there something we don’t know yet?

April 2009
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