Chuddy!

We all piled in the car and met Aunt Wally and Chuddy for Chud's first time at the off leash dog park.  He is SUCH a big goof!! I love him!  He was such a good boy while we were there, and it's so fun to see how much he loves Logan.  I'm sure once Avery is on the floor (and not in the wrap), he'll be all over her, too.  He's not aware of how big he is though.  When he stands on his hind legs, he easily puts his front paws on Logan's shoulders.  He's gonna be a big boy...but he's a gentle giant.  Sweet as can be.  The poor fella had a rough ending to the afternoon though when for who knows what reason, another dog tackled him and started a scrap.  It did not sound pretty!!  Poor Chuds.  He survived though, and I'm sure it won't sour him on making friends.

Pretty in Pink

Mmmkay.  See how bald she is?  I bought hair clips for her hair! HAHA!  They were specially designed for babies with very little and very fine hair.  Yeah.  She doesn't have enough to keep them in...they last around 5 minutes before they slip out.  It wasn't a waste of money though, because some day...you know, some day when she's about 30, she'll have enough hair, and she can use them then!  My next goal is to get a picture of her wearing them.

Nature

Silly Face Self Portraits

Avery, Avery, Avery

When I was pregnant with Avery, TJ and I used to joke - you know, half scared that it would happen and half willing it not to - that since Logan was such a great sleeper (he slept 18 hours a day for his first year of life, I swear!), that we'd end up with a baby this time who never slept.  It didn't seem like that was actually a possibility.  I mean, all babies sleep, right?  Right??  WRONG!  Not this one!  Just for the record...just because we joked about it, didn't mean we wanted it to be that way! 

Avery looooves her Mama.  That is flattering in the best way, but at the same time, she needs to learn to detatch just a wee bit.  Many days, I can't even put her down to get her a bottle without her screaming herself silly (although she can still see and hear me) to the point of getting herself sick.  She wants me to hold her all the time, she only sleeps for 5-10 minutes at a time during the day, she is horrible with "strangers" (even the strangers that she sees on an almost daily basis - those are the worst kind!), and she has been up an average of 5x per night for the past month, too.  Something had to give.  So I bought The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer to help us figure out something to get her sleeping better.  I'm convinced that if she slept more she'd be far less cranky.  Wish us luck!! 

He's growing up so fast

I can't believe this is my baby, but this picture is so him. 

Spring is here...

Sure sign that spring is here - there are plenty of geese around for feeding.

The World Premiere

Drumroll please.....Logan's interpretation of Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall

I believe that the only pieces that were pre-cut were the large red square that makes the background of the wall.  He did the rest on his own.  Not too shabby.

The Reptile Zoo

We went to the Reptile Zoo today and met TJ there after work.  Last year when we went, Logan was terrified the whole time. He really didn't "get" the idea that the animals were enclosed and he thought everything was going to eat him.  He got it this year but still wasn't entirely laid back about the whole thing.  I'll take it as a good thing that he's afraid of reptiles that could potentially gobble him up!

Meet Lady.  Note, she only has 3 legs.  Note also, she is NOT in an enclosure of any kind in these pictures...and YES, we were *that* close.  We were even closer - almost touching her at one point, but then Logan backed out at the last second.

Avery checking out the Horned Owl.

Logan feeding the tortoise (Mommy got to feed him, too!)

A little wary of the two giant pythons behind him in this enclosure.

The cutest best friends ever...

At the beginning of September, these two didn't even know each other.  They had met a few times when we first moved to this street, but those were brief encounters while we were out on walks.  They never actually played together.  But Logan started JK this year, and Nicky is in SK - they are in the same class and ride the same bus.  Nicky's mom is also on mat leave so the stars were aligned for these two to spend lots of time together.  Now it's March and they are joined at the hip!  We took advantage of an absolutely gorgeous March Break day to go to the park and I got this very adorable shot of them together. 

Pure Cuteness

End of the Season

Today marked the last regular skating session.  Kind of sad because Logan is really loving it this year and having so much fun ruling the ice!  We have a few weeks of practice sessions for the year end carnival.  Before you know it, it'll be time for soccer to start up.  Very hard to believe the year could've gone by so fast. 

Waving at Avery

Touching his "toes".  He did actually figure out how to bend his knees and really did touch his toes by the end of the session.

7 Months - where did the time go?

Avery is 7 months old today.  How did that happen?   In some ways, it's going faster than it did with Logan and in others the days can be very long.  Avery is a little peanut compared to what Logan was - Logan had been in a big car seat for months by now, and Avery is still in her infant carrier.  It's OK with me!  (although my arms are getting quite the workout).  She's started waving hello/bye-bye - it's very cute :)  She's enjoying her meals - well, the veggies, anyway.  She hates the texture of the cereals so we're giving those a break for now.  And she still has NO teeth...but her great big gummy grin is to die for!

First gallery showing

We got an invitation in Logan's mail folder today

A-ti-TUDE!

Note, that is with a capital A and a capital TUDE.  Oh my!!!  Logan spent a good part of the day in his room today because he has been so sassy.  He actually uttered the words "Talk is cheap, Mama" to me.  I didn't know whether to scream or fall over laughing (since he got the intonation and context down perfectly). 

Nummy nummy nummy

So far, food has been a shocker to Avery.  She has not been fond of the grains she's tried so far (rice and barley), but loves the veggies (sweet potatoes and butternut squash).  She is quite eager to try whatever it is the rest of us are eating though!

Besties

The superheroes were back at it again. You can see they were quite hard at work....watching Dawn of the Dinosaurs.   We usually spend one day a week as a playday for the boys.  They love each other to death and play together extremely well.  It actually makes for an easier day for both of the mommies involved.  We've got this rhythm going where we just sort of have communal kids.  There are 4 boys and a girl between the two of us (yes, Avery will be the best-protected little girl in the neighbourhood!!).  They are 5yrs, 4yrs, 3yrs, 6 months and 5 months.  Yikes! It's not so bad though (most days!).    It's been nice having another mom on the block with kids the same age as both of ours...and we're both on mat leave and have become fast friends.  .   That's a good thing because we end up spending 10 hour days together on our long playdays!! (and Kelly very kindly steps in when Avery is crying and crying and making me pull my hair out!!)

The babes were having a bad day, but managed to play and look cute while we started some veggies to make some big batches of baby food.  (The middle child was neglected today).

Line ups

Logan has been a line-maker since he was about 18 months old.  He likes order, and he LOVES to line like objects up together.  His collection of matchbox planes were the victims today.  His favourite one at the front, and the "coolestest one of all" at the back.

Loganisms

Logan is such a character!  He makes us (and anyone within earshot) laugh, quite hard, on a daily basis.  The things he comes up with are priceless.  For example, we had gone to Grandma's house for supper.  The topic came up of letting Avery have a lick of an ice cream cone (she looked very eager to try some!).  Whoaaaa....bad idea!  So we (the grown ups) were discussing why that was (her cow's milk protein intolerance) and the fact that Avery can't have milk. Logan had not even been participating in the conversation, but he piped up with "Yeah, not even the milk from your breast".  Well, we all burst out laughing that he made that connection...so he continued on.  "Did you know that Mama used to have a machine...you know, when she had milk in her tummy...she had a machine that she used to put on her breasts and it would get the milk out from there.  And Avery knew how to get the milk out from there too. "  I asked him if he ever tried that machine out and he said "NOOOO!  I am a BOY.  If I put it on my breast, it would suck my brains out!"

He's also been soaking things up like a sponge.  I cannot get over his affinity for learning - I swear he learns things in his sleep!  For what seemed like ages, he could only count to 20.  (Not that that isn't great).  He'd say he could count to a million, get to twenty and then do 100, 101, thirty-ten, a MILLION!  One morning I could hear him in his room counting and he made it all the way to 100!  When I went in, he said "Good morning, Mama - did you know that 8+4=12?"  So now math is his thing.  He puts various numbers together to figure out what they add up to.  He uses this as "filler".  Like when he's waiting to go on the ice at skating, he stands there going "1+3 is 4; 5+4 is 9!" etc, etc, etc. 

Reading and spelling are also on the agenda.  He's got some sight words memorized - he recognizes them and can spell them.  I think there are about 10 now, and he's constantly trying to spell random words.   His class has a reading program they're doing, and I am beginning to think that he has a photographic memory.  I read the book to him once and he's got it memorized.

I'm not saying all this to brag about him, but to remind myself, when I look back on this in 10 years, that I knew very early on that he was going to be trouble, simply because he'd outsmart both of his parents before he hit age 10!! Haha!

Sunny Day

The weather was gorgeous today.  I spent the morning holed up in bed - I managed to pull a muscle in my  neck yesterday and was in agony by 8pm last night.  But once I got up and moving, I realized how gorgeous it was out there!  Nice enough to BBQ - so we ended up at Granny's house for dinner with some of our favourite summertime food on the menu.  Ribs, BBQ potatoes, and salad.  YUMMY!   So fun to BBQ while there's still snow on the ground!

Family

This weekend has been all about family.  We had a surprise family gathering for Great Grandma Joan, so Logan and I made a lovely heart-shaped cake for her.  Logan had so much fun decorating it!!  I poured some of the sprinkles out into the lids of the containers so that he could pick them up with his fingers and sprinkle them.  He was too fast for me, and before I could explain that to him, he had picked up the lid and dumped it right on the cake.  Oopsie!!  Oh well...there were so many other sprinkles that it wasn't all that noticeable.

(The Masterpiece!)

(note the chocolate on his face.  There is a chocolate filling between the cake layers.)

(no, that's not a knife!)

(Logan's shot of the cake after the candles were taken care of!)

Baby Kisses

Avery has started giving kisses.  This is not a great shot where you can see her cute little face as she tries to devour...oh, I mean kiss, someone, but I love this little dress, and it's a sweet picture!  Showing Daddy some love.  Awwww.

Fashionista

We were out for some retail therapy today and Avery was a riot!  I put these sunglasses on her and she started making all kinds of funny faces.  I think this wins some kind of award for goofiest baby picture ever.  Is there an "awkward baby photos" website yet?  And yes, the glasses did find a way to come with us!

Beautiful day in the Neighbourhood

We needed a change of scenery today so the kids and I spent the day out.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, so once TJ got home from work we went for a walk and then it was girls' night tonight.  A lovely day of getting away ... even if it was just for a bit.  It looked gorgeous and warm outside, but we were surprised to find that it was actually very windy and cold in our neck of the woods. 

 

Obsessed

Logan is obsessed with dinosaurs right now.  This is a pen that came with one of the dino books he got for Christmas.   Such a simple thing, but it makes his day everytime he gets to use it!

Skillz

Logan is still loving his skating lessons.  Right now they are doing a larger "course" on the ice so he's very happy about that!  He's just starting to stand on one foot on the ice but the movement is too fast to capture on film ;)