Fiona is Six Months Old

The evidence is in the pictures.  I don't remember it being so difficult to get a smiling baby picture on the month day photos.  Fiona is such a smiley baby but put a camera in front of her and she just mostly looks stunned!  Ah well.  Let's see.  I don't know how much has changed in the last month.  She's definitely getting stronger.  She can move backwards really well, but it makes her upset.  She can also turn in circles.  She is feisty like her sisters and we just love her to pieces!

Sorting Teddy Bears

During Kate's first few weeks of school she learned to sort things in math.  They sorted teddy bears, several times and several different ways.  Lately Alice wants to play school.  The puts on her back-pack and together we sort teddy bears.

Santa

It is sad sometimes how quickly I can lose perspective.  Today was Santa Day!  This is an important Christmas tradition for me.  I buy the girls cute matching shirts the year before, when they go on sale after Christmas at Gymboree, and then I wait with anticipation until the big Santa Day for them to wear their cute new matching shirts.  Last year I bought one for Kate, one for Alice and two for the baby we knew we were having but who's gender remained as yet unknown. 

This morning when Ken asked about dressing the baby I told him I was waiting.  I was afraid that Fiona would wreck her shirt, as she is an EPIC pooper.  (That's right, this post is about Santa and poop.)  I waited, but not long enough, as this morning she was EPIC again.  For a few minutes after the blow out I didn't know what to do.  Do I cancel?  I wanted to cancel, but we were meeting up with friends and I had pulled Kate out of school for the big day.  I was crushed for about 5, maybe 10 minutes.  But then I caught myself.

I dug out Kate's first Christmas outfit (which is too big, but I rolled up the sleeves) and redressed my sweet Fiona.  Before we left for the mall we had a quick prayer in the van to remember that Christmas is really about Jesus, and to be calm and happy and thankful for being a family.  And everything was great.  Santa was really sweet too.  We had fun with our friends.  No one had a melt down, and look how cute the picture is!  I'm glad I didn't let a little poop ruin my day!  (Or I suppose in this case, A LOT of poop!)

The OEYC Christmas Party

We've been to the Alliston branch of the Ontario Early Years Centre once - Alice loved it.  She didn't want to leave.  She mostly enjoys the outreach program - when one of the early years people runs a smaller program at the library or community centre.  Michelle and I decided to meet up at the legion in Alliston and go to the OEYC Christmas party.  It was fun.  There were lots of crafts, circle time, snack time and Santa came.  He gave out books to everyone, even big sisters that hid behind car seats and didn't want to say hello in person.  Alice said that she would go see Santa at the mall... we'll see I guess!

November Review

My oh MY!!  Where did November go?  I wanted to go back and do individual posts but I think I'm going to do a catch all overview of the month.  Here goes...

Friday, November 8
This was the day that we met Maddy.  Edae and I worked together at Blue Willow.  I've never taught one of her classes, and although we were acquainted, we became more of friends this year.  Our due dates were about a week apart, so it was fun to share the ups and downs of pregnancy together.  Alice had lots of fun playing with all the baby toys and Edae was such an awesome hostess!  She ordered pizza and we just hung out and swapped baby stories!

Sunday, November 10 - Tuesday, November 12
Nana and Papa came down for medical appointments and we get a visit!  The girls had fun drawing pictures, reading stories, playing with toys and just generally enjoying the company of their Nana and Papa.

Saturday, November 23
The original idea was to go to the zoo, but it was cold, really, really windy and cold.  And it was teacher appreciation day at the ROM.  I got in for free, Ken got in for free, so therefore we only had to pay for Kate, and I sure as heck appreciated that! We met up with our friends Emily and John Inca and their cute kids Holden and Lauren.  We had a fun time.  The kids were often going in opposite directions, but Emily and I still had some fun chatting and so did the hubbies.

 I think this was the only photo/time when all four kids were ever this close to each other.

Alice and the bat cave... there's a story.  When we went in September for our annual trip, Alice was scared in the bat cave.  After the ROM trip (but not because of the ROM trip) we were talking about saying prayers when we got scared.  This turned into Heavenly Father saving Alice by pulling her out of the bat cave, something she spoke about on more than one occasion - too cute!

Sunday, November 24
The grey dress.  Suzanne bought this dress for Anna to wear to her friend Neesa's wedding.  I just love this little dress.  Kate wore it as well, but Alice never got to wear it because it just didn't work out with the seasons. I just had to take a picture.  I am ridiculously sentimental about all of the outfits!

Tuesday, November 26
We had our very own private birthday party for Marisol today!  Michelle and I took all our girls and we went to the McDonald's Play Place in Bolton.  The girls played and ate and played some more.  We had such a lovely time and because it was during the week, we almost had the entire place to ourselves.  It was great!  Michelle and I always get such a kick out of the way the girls are so fond of each other and give each other hugs.  And Marisol, she was so excited to turn five!  It was her actual birthday!

We had a lovely time and Fiona slept almost the whole time.  Poor Alice however didn't want to leave and well, she didn't leave well!  EEK!  I don't suppose you want to know such things, but there was a time that Alice would cry so hard that she would throw-up, and sadly, today was one of those days!  She did however eventually recover and she did still want to be part of our family!

Thursday, November 28
Two birthdays in one week!  Today was so fun.  We met up with Andrew and Rayna before dinner and we all went to see Frozen.  What a great movie.  I wish it was already out on DVD because I want to watch it again.  We had a lovely dinner at Mom and Dad's.  We had roast beef and roast potatoes, and all the sides, and Rayna had quiche.  And we broke with tradition, Andrew didn't have an ice cream cake, he had a caramel crunch cake instead.  It was very, very good!  We had a lovely time.  And Andrew and Rayna still seem to like each other since they've moved in together! (ha!) They really are so cute together.

And just like that, it's December!

Fiona is Five Months Old

Over the last month Fiona has:

• Played lots in her exer-saucer
• Tried eating (well tasting really) banana, apple, pear, carrot, and celery (as of right now I think the thing she likes the most is chewing on a rubbery baby spoon)
• Started moving backwards
• Gotten increasingly more frustrated by her physical limitations - this girl wants to go!
• Persisted further in sucking her thumb (I'm still not entirely sure it will take, but she's trying)
• Remains entertained by her sisters, but now is engaging with them, and she doesn't seem to be terrified of Alice anymore (Oh and I need to record Kate singing her cute dog song to Fiona)
• She continues to be bright-eyed
• She is laughing more and more and smiles lots
• And she still freezes up in front of the camera (I should start trying to take her monthly photos with the point and shoot digital camera - then she can see Mom and not the scary camera)

I can't believe our sweet little Fiona (who is getting bigger and bigger all the time) has been with us for five months!!

A trip to Niagara Falls... sort of!

I've been obsessing about our outfits for our family picture shoot which is coming up in two weeks.  Obsessing so much that I called my bbf in Seneca Falls, New York and asked her to go to the Gymboree outlet and look at the wool coats.  She happily went the very next day, as she'd been meaning to go for a few weeks.  The mission, find a coat for Kate.  Instead Heidi picked up three darling hats.  The plan was for her to mail them to me... then she came up with a new plan.

We planned to meet in Niagara Falls on Saturday.  It's almost half way between us... slightly longer for her.  All week I looked at the weather forecast and thought, still rain, that doesn't work... I kept hoping the forecast would change, but it didn't. 

Saturday arrived wet and cold.  We drove out anyway.  We drove past the falls and oohed and awed.  We found Heidi and her ladies.  We still didn't have a plan as to what we were going to do.  So, what do you do on a wet, rainy, cold November Saturday in Niagara Falls, Canada?  You go to Walmart, Bulkbarn and Dollarama of course.

It was silly and fun and wonderful.  It made my sweet friend seem not so very far away.