Christmas and other

I have a couple of blog entries to do about Christmas and other things but will not have time to do them until this weekend.  At that point, I'll be doing them on the new blog which will be private.  If you are reading this blog and would like to be invited to the new one, please let me know - either comment here or send me an email.  As long as you are not some crazy stalker person, you can have an invite :-)

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!!

Here we go!

Killian was slow, for this family, to get moving but hasn't stopped since he started getting things figured out. I've recently started organizing the playroom so we will actually play in there more and not just make messes and then walk past and ignore it.  Much to my surprise (and excitement) this has actually worked!  It is great because the room is pretty safe for Killian and the girls keep their things more confined to one area.  Because we are in there a lot, Killian has grown tired of some of his toys in there.  Here he is attacking the rainboot box while the girls tried their boots on.

Later today we were in there again working on an art project in our little art corner.  Killian was so interested in what his sisters were doing.

Pulling up on Kayden's chair while she worked.

So proud of himself!

Once he figured out how to pull up on the chair, Kayden got a little annoyed.  No problem for him.  He just crawled over to the window to peek outside.

Very focused on the tree out the window.  I love that our playroom has so much natural light.

So crazy that he is already pulling up like this since he just, this week, learned to crawl effectively!  There's no slowing him down now!!

Growing Boy

This past week Killian has learned to crawl, started trying to pull up on my pant legs when he gets over to me, started working on opening the cabinets, and started babbling repeated consonants (mostly "dada").  All that growing makes for one tired baby!  Sweet boy last night.

Sick

A few weeks ago I commented to Kelly that we had been having a fairly healthy fall.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  I asked why he was looking at me like that and he reminded me that Kayden has gotten stitches twice, Keeley broke her leg and had a stomach bug for several days, Killian went to the ER for intestinal intussusception and has had an ear infection and two different bouts of stomach bugs - one needing IV fluids for re-hydration. All of that since labor day.  I conceded that perhaps that we haven't had the healthiest fall but what I was really thinking about was that we hadn't had all the sinus infections we normally get. 

I think we are headed there now.  Kayden woke up on Monday night in a complete panic because she could not breathe.  She had croup really bad and is now on three days of steriods.  I'm just hoping the stuff clears out of her nose before it turns into a sinus infection. I'd like to continue our "healthy" fall!  And, we have apparently learned that Kayden naps when she is sick.  She fell asleep in the car Monday afternoon....apparently sleep=sick for that sweet girl.

Tooth Fairy

A little over one month ago Keeley told me her bottom tooth was loose. I panicked, certain it was too early.  When I spoke with the dentist he assured me that this was right on schedule and that it should fall out in a week or so.  Well it just now fell out.  Moments before Kelly and I left to attend a party last night Keeley was wiggling her tooth and it came out.  She looked completely shocked, smiled, and then ran to her room.  When I went in her room she covered her mouth and pointed to the door telling me that Keeley and Dad could come in but not me.  After they looked, she decided to let me in to look.

We left for the party and left Oma in charge of reading the Tooth Fairy book again and making sure the tooth was set to go.  When I got home from the party Oma told me that both girls were totally freaked out about the tooth fairy bothering them.  She also told me that Keeley had written two notes.  I got the picture above of the note on her door but didn't flash the camera inside so I missed the inside note (it was a note telling the tooth fairy where to look).

The Tooth Fairy did visit Keeley last night, took the notes and her tooth and left her some money and a sprinkling of glitter.  Both girls were so excited to see the money and all the glitter.  The Tooth Fairy entered through Keeley's door from the looks of the glitter trail which pleased the girls because they were concerned about having her peek through the window.  When I asked Keeley about what she should do with her money she told me that, "Maybe I'll save it for the house I'm going to get when I'm bigger."  NO idea where that came from!

 Here she is this morning...

No longer afraid of the Tooth Fairy or the tooth falling out process, she set to wiggling that second tooth that has been loose a while.  During a trip to the park today with Kelly she told him it was time to come home and get her other tooth out - and she did!!  Look how much older she looks now!!!!

Fortunately for me, she wanted to write the notes again for the Tooth Fairy so I got a picture of the one inside her room before the Tooth Fairy took it for her files!

Hopefully we won't lose anymore for a while. I can already see the teeth coming in where the holes are.  I'm totally not ready for her to grow up!

"Washability you can trust"

The girls love to paint.  Keeley prefers to paint with actual paints.  She gets frustrated with watercolors because the yellow always gets dirty :-)  When Keeley first moved up in her school from the toddler to the primary they allowed her a little more freedom in her work selection as she was getting used to the new environment.  She brought home so many paintings we didn't know what to do with all of them!  Kayden, if given the choice, chooses watercolors most of the time when she paints but she also loves to use finger paint and tempera paint.  It is funny to watch them because you can see so much of their personality in the way that they design their paintings. 

Today the weather was beautiful so I thought we would head outside and play.  They, however, spent 2 hours painting in our playroom.  Yes, two hours.  We started painting some salt dough that we made yesterday and then moved to the finger paints on big paper in the hallway.  Kayden requested sponges and the roller so they added that to the mix.  At least our playroom is really a formal dining with big windows so we were able to enjoy the natural light!

These are the first two paintings they created....

Kayden started with the lines in the middle and then did the color on the top and bottom.  It was interesting to watch her stamp because she did it left to right, just like you read.  That is how they teach everything in her school and I guess it is rubbing off!

This is Keeley's first work.  She did top to bottom and alternated stamps with the roller.  That is the other way they teach in their school - left to right and top to bottom with everything you do to encourage reading.  So interesting.

Perhaps we won't paint in school clothes again.  Or at least maybe not chapel clothes....I hope their products are as washable as they claim to be!

And here comes trouble exercising his new skill!

Almost....

That stage of not too much trouble is passing quickly....

Pulling up on fireplace to pull all the stockings off...

 

 

Each year for Christmas I've tried to do what will stress me out the least with our Christmas tree and limit the amount of "no's" and re-direction.  For Keeley's first Christmas, we had the tree in our study so we could close the doors.  For her second Christmas and Kayden's first, we had Keeley decorate with a few ornaments at her level and then put our Christmas cards on it so there would be very little breakage should it get pulled down.  The next year when we had a 1.5 and 2.5 year old, ornaments were at the top half only and photo-Christmas cards at the bottom.  Last year the girls did fine with the entire tree decorated so I wanted to try it again this year.  We almost made it to Christmas without it being a problem with Killian...

We almost made it to Christmas with him not interested in the tree...

Still just interested...

Trouble!

How to be frustrated with that little face...

Rainy day

Walking to car after school.  Notice Kayden put her headband over her rain jacket.  She instantly got in the car with a silly smile and said, "My headband is all wet!"

Obviously this is what you do when Mom tells you that you are not allowed to crawl from roof to roof.  That is the rule under normal circumstances but especially if it is raining!

Keeley needed to show us she could do it too!

Working it out

Killian is trying hard to learn to crawl but he can't quite get his legs to work the way he wants them to.  He cracks me up though because he greatly prefers to practice when I'm not watching.  I had put him down and stepped away to check on sisters to find him like this.

Distracted by big sister being inside his drum.  Love the diaper muffin top.

"They are so crazy."

"Here I come!  Wait, my feet are not cooperating!"

I think think this is one of my favorite ages for kids.  He is just mobile enough to explore his world and make big discoveries (he learned to turn on his crib toy by himself the other day), but not quite mobile enough to get into big messes yet!  It is a very brief period but I really love it. The next phase of getting into things but not really understanding "no" or danger is not one of my favorites so I will enjoy this as long as it lasts!

Scarf Play

Seriously.  He is the cutest baby ever.

While the girls played in the playroom with their nativity scene and rice, Killian played with scarves.  I have to work really hard to find activities that are distracting enough for him to keep him away from sisters' work now.  I think all bets will be off when he really starts crawling though.

Peek a boo!

Teeth! Can you see them!

"I think that is enough with the camera, Mom."

And, just to show that he is not always smiling, here he is after he backed himself into the wall.

"I'm so frustrated!"

"Stop laughing and taking my picture. Can't you see I'm not happy about this and want some help!!"

He cannot crawl yet so his movements aren't terribly controlled.  He can often get where he wants by rolling and scooting around but sometimes he gets trapped and then gets frustrated.  I let him work it out for the most part though.  Sometimes he'll figure it out on his own, sometimes he gets distracted by something that is close to him, and sometimes big sisters come to the rescue to distract.

Nativity Scene Play

The girls have really been enjoying the Little People Nativity scene we got this year.  I thought that perhaps I could expand their play a little bit by adding a touch of sensory to it.  We haven't done any of the sensory tubs yet but they really enjoyed a craft they did with rice the other day and I thought they might enjoy this.  We colored some rice green and yellow and then I threw in some brown rice I had.  They played together for about 30 minutes, we took a break to play outside, and then they played for another 30 minutes.  Today they woke up and started playing with it again and came straight back after school to play with it.  I think this is a hit!

Organizing rice and looking at the pieces to decide where to put everything.

Filling it with "straw"

Putting the animals in

Setting the rest of the scene

They got their scarves out to cover part of it after a while.

Notice how the brown and green are separated by the shepherds and sheep.

Trying to cover it for later play.

After a while they took out the nativity scene and got some of their bath toys. Then we cleaned up.  I thought we could vacuum those tiny pieces but Keeley wanted to make sure that we filled that pitcher all the way up so we picked up every single grain of rice!!

Making a rice sandwich with their washcloths.

We had such a good time!  I thought they would be frustrated that today the colors were all mixed up but it has not seemed to bother them at all!  I'll have to investigate this sensory tub thing a bit more.