Sunday, December 16, 2007

Feliz Navidad!

Hi again all,

Another snow-filled day for us in eastern Ontario, but I understand it has hit southern Ontario pretty hard too. DoT was outside and shovelled our driveway earlier today (there was a lot of snow then), but as it was still snowing, and will continue through the night, it seems we'll be up early shovelling before work again tomorrow. Hopefully (probably), DoT will do it. I've been up with E for about 1.5 hours each night, in the middle of the night, the past two nights. I'm hoping tonight is better, but given that it is now after 10:00 p.m. and she is still up, it's not looking too good. So I'm feeling somewhat sleep deprived these days.

I've finally gotten around to uploading the video I took of A and E singing the ABCs. (Blogger now lets you upload a video directly (goodbye YouTube!). Just click on the video box below, and then click the "play" button.


Tonight after giving the girls a bath, I decided to cut their hair. I'm not sure why I thought that was a good idea. It might have had something to do with the fact that it cost me $10 per kid to have a hairdresser cut their hair the last time we did it, and it took her less than a minute to do it. So, I thought, how hard can it be. Well, it turns out A and E don't care much for sitting still, no matter how much I beg, plead, or threaten. So, I cut their hair in less than a minute too. And I don't think it turned out too badly. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a couple pictures of them and let you be the judge.

Given my posting history of late, it's doubtful I'm going to get another blog update here before Christmas. So, I'll leave you with this picture and wish all of you a Merry Christmas, and a very Happy 2008!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

What are they up to now?

Hi again all you with stamina, able to go long periods between posts and still keep checking this site. :-)

We are digging ourselves out of a snow storm here in eastern Ontario. Over the last couple of days we've gotten a lot of snow... I'm not sure how much, but I've heard other people say something about 40 centimetres. I'm not sure if we got that much, or if that was what was forecast, but looking outside I could believe we got 40 centimetres. I don't really mind since it puts me a bit more into the Christmas spirit, but I think come January I'll be ready for all the snow to disappear.

We have had our Christmas tree up for about a week now. I put it up in November, even though I generally try to avoid it that early. But this year I decided that whenever I felt like putting up the tree, I'd go for it. The girls are quite enjoying it. Or should I say they're enjoying taking ornaments and tinsel off of the tree and spreading them around the house. And they like the lights. Every morning when we come downstairs, they insist that we turn on the Christmas tree lights.

I've realized lately, when I've gone back and re-read some of our posts, that we have been resorting to putting up pictures of the girls, and not really saying too much about what they have mastered, or what they're doing these days. That's fine, since I know that most of you are really only here for the pictures, but I do want to save this blog for the girls when they're older, and I think it might be nice for them to know a bit about what they were doing as two year-olds. (This is my excuse for not having created baby books, or life books, for them.) So I'm going to try to give a bit more information about them in the posts.

So, where to start? Well, they are both turning into chatterboxes. We only understand about half of what they say, but it's getting better. They are now speaking in phrases or short sentences. Most common are:


  • "Doin, daddy?" (i.e., what are you doing, daddy?),

  • "where's grandpa/grandma" (my folks left yesterday after a short visit),

  • "no! me do it!" (i.e. hands off, I want to do it myself), followed shortly thereafter by "I did it!",

  • "where's the baby (or whatever other toy they are hiding behind their backs)?" followed closely by "there she/it is",
  • "I got it" (when they drop something, and want to pick it up themselves, or when they are willing to pick up something for their sister -- note: this does not translate into picking up their toys when it's time to put them away),

  • "I find it" (note: they play pretty loosely with the word "I". It must be like the royal "we", since whenever they can't find a particular toy and DoT or I find it for them, they run around proudly proclaiming "I find it!" (meaning "I found it"),

  • "Have fun", and

  • "Hold tight".
They are also quite physical. They love racing around the house, and scream at full volume if daddy chases them. They are also into climbing these days. A is still a bit taller than E and can just manage to get herself up onto the couch by herself. E needs a bit of help usually, but will occasionally manage it herself. They also both get themselves up into their booster seats at meal time. But unfortunately instead of climbing up into their chairs and sitting down in them, lately they've taken to standing up in them and bouncing up and down.

A has pretty much mastered her colours. E seems to have more trouble with them, but sometimes I think she is just playing with us. Most time's she'll confidently shout out a colour if I ask her what colour her shirt/pants/a picture is, and 99 percent of the time she's wrong. But then occasionally she gets them all right. Maybe it's luck, but when she rhymes off three or four correct answers in a row, it seems like she's getting it. But then the next day we go back to getting them all wrong. I must say though, it's pretty cute when she shouts out "blue" for almost everything. It seems she fully expects that she's right, no matter how many wrong answers she gets. I hope that confidence stays with her.

They are both very much into slides, school buses, garbage trucks, fire trucks (note: anything with a siren is a firetruck to them), snowmen, and (still) the doodlebops. Oh and airplanes - as long as they're not flying over when they are in bed, as this seems to be a problem for them. Go figure. Oh yeah, and helicopters. And they like to sing -- favourite songs are "Twinkle, twinkle little star", the abc's song, and "Oh, Canada". I'll try to get a video of them singing sometime. I took one a few weeks back, but I was singing along with them and all you could hear was me, since I was also holding the camera. And there was no way I was putting that up on this blog.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I often think, when they do or say something funny, that I should put that on the blog. But then I forget what these cute/funny things were. I'll try to post more regularly (I know, you've heard that before), and maybe more of them will make it onto the blog. For today, though, I'll leave you with a few pictures...


We're trying to make the girls into Dr. Seuss fans. Check out these cute shirts which you might think DoT brought back from his recent trip to Universal Studios theme park. Go ahead and ask him about it. :-)


Evidence of A's climbing ability, and poor Abby's loss of a peaceful napping spot. (Don't let looks fool you. It may appear A was being "gentle" with Abby, but it didn't last.)


A, taking after her daddy, at the breakfast table.

And finally, a shot of the snow in our backyard. Makes you just want to come and visit Ottawa, doesn't it. :-)

Happy Christmas shopping, everyone. K.

P.S. For those who note the date and time of this post and may think that I'm slacking off on taxpayers' time -- I'm home sick today. And now I'm going back to bed.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Halloween

Hi everyone and Happy Halloween! We thought we'd put a few pictures of the girls up around this holiday. They didn't actually go door-to-door, as we were weren't sure if they would be upset being outside with all the strangers roaming around. As it turns out they had a good time rushing to the door each time someone came trick or treating. Other than being a little wound up at the end of the night (even without massive sugar intake) they seemed to take it all in stride. They wore the princess outfits on Halloween and the other costumes we got on sale later (we are covered for a few years now).


Two Chinese princesses












A as a penguin and E as a bunny (believe it or not, DoT is not in costume that is how I normally look)
















































I am cute (now give me some more candy)!
















I can't believe I ate them all! Whew!!










Eating goldfish from egg cups...











A mugging for the camera











E mugging for the camera







Sunday, October 21, 2007

Proulx Family Pumpkin Festival

So, once again, far too much time has passed between posts. And, as always, I'm going to appease you with a whole pile of photos. This weekend we went to the Proulx Family Pumpkin Festival. Here are photos of a few of the things we did there...

Playing in the leaves...

















Jumping (and falling) ...

















Riding tractors...














... and climbing hay bales.
















And finally standing still enough to get our pictures taken...
















Happy fall everyone!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Summer is Over!

Sorry about the length of time between posts, but we've had a busy summer and somehow there just never seemed to be time to blog. Here are some of our summer moments....


E and A having a good laugh, while holding hands on the steps.








Up and down the slide at one of our many summer parties (we're such party girls - or social climbers).






Our first camping experience (okay, so it was indoors). I think I saw a bear in the tent!






Dad was right - raspberries must have some purpose











Practicing early for Halloween...











Hands in my pockets, Hands in my pockets, Hands in my pockets.....







These new bunkbeds are great!












And finally, a video of A counting. You'll notice she has a bit of trouble after 14. :-)

Monday, August 13, 2007

The end of summer

Today, DoT and I took the day off and went golfing and to a movie (Harry Potter). We had decided that sometime when the kids were back at the daycare we would take a day just for us. And today was the day. It was really great... we played nine holes of golf and didn't keep score, went out for lunch and then took in a matinee. Of course, I'd been looking forward to the day (and to the holidays that came before it), and now I'm a bit depressed. It feels like summer is over. I know, it's only mid-August, but all our holidays are done and now it's back to the work grind. On the plus side, I'm so busy at work the next few months will probably fly by and it will be Christmas before I know it. (We actually did start our Christmas shopping today!)

The week before last, we drove to New Brunswick for the 40th anniversary celebration of DoT's parents. We spread the trip over two days in each direction (two days to get there, and two days back), and it went surprisingly well. The girls are now totally addicted to the Doodlebops, but it was worth it. Deedee, Rooney and Moe got us through about 6 hours of driving every day.

The 40th anniversary celebration was great. It was very laid back (which is good when you have two-year olds) and was an opportunity to see the whole family, without the typical running around to do it. And it was so nice to catch up with everyone again. Unfortunately, although we took our camera along, we discovered when we arrived at the party that the batteries were dead. So we didn't get any pictures. So, if anyone reading this blog has digital pictures they can email to us, we'd really appreciate it. (And it's not really pictures of the girls we're looking for -- although I know there were plenty taken -- it's pictures of everyone else!)

Last week DoT and I put together a list of all the words the girls can say. Their speech has really started to come around, and I was curious as to how many words they say. Well, the list totals 104. Now, not all of them are perfectly clear, and it may only be DoT and I who know what they're saying some of the time, but they are definitely picking up words quickly. And starting to form simple sentences like "Don't pull rope" (from the Doodlebops), "No, my toy!", and "I don't know." It's pretty cool. I am definitely liking that they are now much more able to tell us what they want.

Well, I don't really have anything else to report. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures though, taken over the last couple of days.

(Picture 1 = A modelling mommy's shoes; Picture 2 = Both girls having fun in their "new" tent (a bargain picked up at a garage sale))

















Enjoy the rest of your summer, everyone!

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Cottage life...

Fun with the pool that grandma brought...



Good times at the beach ...



More birthday presents! ...



And hanging out by the campfire...




What a fantastic week! Thanks mom and dad, J & L, P & R, M & J! We had the best time. And the girls are still looking for all of you (especially J & M) to appear at any moment. The first night we were back, E woke up in the middle of the night and insisted on going "outsie" (i.e., outside) to the campfire. She wouldn't go back to sleep until I took her to the front and back windows and showed her that the party wasn't going on outside without her.

And L -- today A walked up to me and said "ola!" (And they both keep chanting, periodically throughout the day, "don't pull (the) rope!")

Well, gotta run. I've spent way too much time trying to pick out the photos to put up. There are lots and I could probably have put up twice as many. Maybe a few more will make it into the next blog entry.

In a couple of days it's off to New Brunswick!

K...

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Haircuts

Today we went to get haircuts. We had booked appointments at a place that, it turns out (I think), doesn't take appointments. We arrived there at 10:15 a.m. for the 10:30 appointments and there were about 6 or 8 people ahead of us. The stylists at this place cut hair really fast, though and E was in the chair at 11:00 a.m.; at which point the hairdresser asked me to wet and comb her hair. Huh. Then she came, gave E a sucker to distract her (it worked!) and cut her hair in about 40 seconds flat. Then it was A's turn. The sucker worked on her too, and we were out of there in 5 minutes. Didn't cost us any less though. :-) $10 per kid -- but it was totally worth it. They didn't scream, and now their hair isn't hanging in their eyes.

So here are the before and after pictures...

E, before and after:










A, before and after: