Big Band-Aids

(I've never been one to do anything with my own hair...but I must admit, now that Kayla actually has hair, it's kinda fun to think of different ways to use the gazillion clips/ponies she wants me to use)

Thursday morning, while loading up the car to go to my Mom's, my foot got caught in one of our driveway bricks and I took a big tumble...along with my pump and Nathan.  Thank goodness Nathan was completely buckled in his car seat because he went flying in the air and landed on his side, completely unfazed.  I ended up with holes in the knee of my pants and a scraped up knee.

Anyways, I noticed this morning that one of the scabs had ripped off, and so it was bleeding a bit.  Matthew and Kayla noticed too and they offered to give me one of their Band-Aids.  Appreciative of their offer and not wanting to hurt their feelings, I agreed.  Kayla said she would give me a big Band-Aid.  They both ran upstairs, and Matthew came down first, with a Cars Band-Aid in hand.

Kayla followed a minute later.  I reached out to grab the Band-Aid from her and she passed me a pantyliner.  "It's a big Band-Aid, Mom."  Too cute.  I told her to bring me a Princess Band-Aid instead, so she ran upstairs to get me one.  When she returned, they both put their Band-Aids on me.  Kayla was studying the pictures, and when looking at the Princess one she gave me, she said, "Snow coming out of her penis" (see picture below).

5 Months Old

Nathan now weighs 19 lb and wears all of his size 9-12 month clothes.

My baby is no longer a baby.

Nathan has grown up a whole lot this month.  He learned to sit (amazingly well!) and now rolls (back to front) every day.  He LOVES playing with toys, whether it be in his exersaucer, the bouncy chair, sitting on the floor, or jumping in the jolly jumper.  He doesn't like to sit around doing nothing.

His fingers are still always in his mouth.

Unfortunately (for me), Nathan is still not sleeping through the night.  A week ago I started setting a 'goal time' in my head where I would not feed him any earlier than that time...and if he woke up prior to that 'time' he would just have to cry.  And cry he did.  I'm sorry...but waking up at midnight when you just fed at 8pm is not acceptable anymore.  After having a rough couple nights, he is learning (I think).  The past few nights he has woken up at 3:30am.  That's a 7-8 hour stretch, and so I was happy with that and fed him.  I'm hoping he continues these later middle-of-the-night feeds and eventually they get eliminated all-together.

Nathan had his first meal of rice cereal on March 9th.  I never intended to start feeding him solids this early, but I thought maybe it would help fill his tummy more for during the night.  He got the hang of it right away!  Within a couple bites he was already opening his mouth as soon as he saw the spoon approach.

Our Routine (Approximately):
8:00am Wake-Up
9:00am Bath, followed by bottle
9:15am Nap
*Day follows a cycle of 'Eat (4 oz), Awake, Sleep (4 naps a day, about 30-45 minutes)' every 2.5 hours
8:00pm Rice Cereal (1.5 Tbsp)
8:15pm Bottle
8:30pm Bed

3 Years Old!

There's so much I want to say about Matthew and Kayla, but it's so hard to put down on paper what they are like.  They are so very different, but so very much the same.  As different as they are, I wouldn't be able to say whether Matthew or Kayla is the easier child.  They both have their 'up' moments and 'down' moments, but overall, they are really easy kids.

Hands down, they are each other's best friends.  As I sit and watch them play together all day, every day, I can't help but think how incredibly boring it would have been for them if they weren't twins.  They have so much fun together because they always have a playmate that's the same age.  They seldom are bored, because they always think of something they can do together.  They'll both play with 'boy' toys, and then they'll both play with 'girl' toys.  I'd say 99% of the time they are playing with the same toys, together.

I am their favourite person.  I'm not saying that to be boastful, but just because it's true.  I am their go-to person, whether they are happy or sad.  Matthew has really become attached to me the last couple months, often saying when he's upset or tired that he wants to "sit with me."  Jon worries that I dote on them too much...but I just don't want them to grow up too quickly.  They are only this young once; time flies and before we know it they are going to be teenagers.

Not only have Jon and I really learned a lot about Matthew and Kayla this past year, but we've also learned a lot about our own parenting styles.  We often joke about how completely wrong we were in our pre-marital counseling classes about the type of parent we would be.  We always assumed that I would be the tougher, cold-hearted parent and Jon would be the softer one...but believe it or not, we're actually the opposite.  I'm the much softer parent.  I still discipline (I probably do the majority of it because I'm around them 24-7), but my approach is much different than Jon's.  I'm not saying that one is better than the other, they're just completely different.  The worst is when Jon punishes them and they come running to me for comfort.  My heart breaks for them, but I have to be careful to not undermine Jon.  It's tough!

Anyways, for the last week I've been keeping this post as a draft so that I could watch Matthew and Kayla and document some interesting-to-me facts about them...

Matthew:

- Weighs 28 1/2 lb and is 37 1/8" tall.  We are working quite hard on fattening him up!  He's so skinny...totally Jon as a child
- Wears size 2/3 clothes and size 7 shoes.
- Favourite Expressions:  "Oh my goodness"
- Loves playing "Duck, Duck, Goose", "London Bridges", "Ring Around the Rosie", "I Spy", and "Hide Seek"
- Loves playing with his doll stroller
- Can recognize and name almost all of the letters of the alphabet
- Favourite colours:  Blue and Green
- Favourite snacks:  Fruit, Candies, Stroopwaffles
- Favourite cartoon:  Little Bear
- If you ask him who his friends are, he'll say "Elmo"
- Is such a SLOW eater, it's painful.  95% of the time we are getting mad at him for fooling around at the dinner table and not eating.  He's great with breakfast, okay with his lunch, and then not-so-great for dinner.
- Loves having crackers with meat and cheese for lunch.
- Loves having veggies and dip, with any meal.
- Has started doing the actions and clapping to songs:  "If You're Happy and You Know It", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"
- Started Sunday School in January.  The first few weeks he shed tears and didn't want me to leave, but since then, he has been great.  During the Children's Message, Matthew's usually in his own little world and it's quite comical to watch.  He's definitely going to be the kid at the front that everyone laughs at :)
- Shows that he is three using his last three fingers.
- Likes to pick his nose.
- When referring to himself and Kayla, he says "Me and Mah-yew (Matthew)", because that's what Kayla says when she refers to themselves
- Still has the greatest giggle.  The GREATEST giggle.  It's so genuine and infectious.
- Loves girls/women in their early-twenties.  He always shows off and flirts with them.
- Has a great memory.  Last week Jon had said that he was impressed with the meal I had cooked, to which I pumped my arms up in the air (Jon is difficult to cook for).  Matthew and Kayla asked why I did that and so I explained.  A few days later Kayla asked me why I had put my hands in the air...to which Matthew quickly answered before I even had the chance to, that "Daddy liked Mommy's food".
- Is quite intrigued by the freckles he's developed in the past month.  He loves to look at them every time he's getting changed.

Kayla:

- Weighs 33.25 lb and is 38 3/8" tall.  Over the last six months she has moved from being in the 25-50th percentile for weight to just in the 75-90th percentile.  She is definitely filling out, and is looking more and more like me as a child.
- Wears size 4 clothes and size 8 shoes.
- Favourite Expressions:  "Stop talking.  You're not listening to me",  "One Second"
- Loves playing "Duck, Duck, Goose", "London Bridges", "Ring Around the Rosie", "I Spy", and "Hide Seek"
- Loves playing with her doll stroller.  She runs around our kitchen island saying she is "shopping" or "going to her party".
- Only wears her socks about 50% of the time.  She takes them off for one of two reasons: 1) Because she runs faster in bare feet, or 2) because her feet are hot (thanks to her Struik genes)
- Can recognize and name almost all of the letters of the alphabet
- Favourite colours:  Pink, Purple, and Yellow (in that order)
- Favourite snacks:  Fruit, Candies
- Favourite cartoon:  Little Bear.  Every now and then she'll tell me about an episode that she's seen.
- If you ask her who her friends are, she'll say, "Dora and Princess"
- Can often be seen carrying all of our pink and purple books and toys (Any blue and green toys are automatically considered to be Matthew's.  We received a grocery bag full of Little Ponies from my cousin, and Kayla right away gave Matthew all of the blue and green ones).
- Has become an AWESOME eater, 95% of the time.
- Loves having crackers with meat and cheese for lunch.
- Loves having veggies and dip, with any meal.
- Has started to only listen when she wants to.  If she doesn't think what you have to say is worth her time, she completely ignores you.
- Started Sunday School in January.  I thought she would be clingy and would not want me to leave, but she was completely okay with it.
- When she has her meltdowns, she let's all of her tears, boogers, and saliva fall from her face.  It's quite disgusting and we're trying to teach her to control it.
- Is very cooperative getting her hair done.  She likes to have as many clips in as possible.
- Loves jewelry.  She loves wearing all of her necklaces, bracelets, and rings at the same time.
- Loves order.  She likes to have everything in their proper place.
- Is quite intrigued by the freckles she's developed in the past month.  She loves to look at them every time she's getting changed.

Our Routine:
7am  Wake Up.  Watch cartoons (Little Bear), eat breakfast, get changed.
10/10:30am  Snack time.
12pm  Lunch time
1pm  Nap time.
2:30pm  Wake Up.  They are typically very grumpy if I have to wake them up so I let them watch cartoons (Little Bear) until they are 'awake'.
3/3:30pm Snack time.
5/5:30pm  Dinner
6:45pm  Bath time.
8:00pm  Brush teeth, play a 1 minute game of racing or hide and seek with Jon, read a book, pray, go to sleep.
(Usually they are asleep within 15 minutes of having their light turned off...but I think they're on a post-party high tonight.  As I'm working on this entry I hear them talking to each other and singing/chanting "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so...good job *clap *clap *clap" followed by the "ABCs".  It's so cute.  If I had plans for tomorrow I would be getting angry at them...but it's their birthday so they're okay to stay up late.  Is that me being too soft?  Jon's probably annoyed that I'm not getting mad at them :) )

"This is Stupid"

The nice thing about having a family business (BLG) is that Jon can pick up some extra days of work when the school has holidays.  Because it's Matthew and Kayla's birthday today, we decided that today would be a day where he didn't work, so that we could have a fun day with them.  I wanted to do something out of the ordinary for them, to make today a little different than normal.  They're still a little young for a bunch of activities, and I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg, so I decided that we would check out the playground at Langley Events Centre.  We've never been there before and so I thought they would really enjoy it, especially being able to visit a playground with Jon.

After they opened their gift from us this morning, we headed for Langley Events Centre.  Jon and I had a slight disagreement over how to get to the playground, so I let him try his way, accessing it from the north side of LEC.  As we're driving through the parking lot to get to the south side of LEC to get to the playground (meaning I was right...but I always am!), Kayla was getting frustrated that it was taking so long to get there...and blurted out, "This is stupid."  Her first 'swear' word.  :)

Rolling and Sitting

Nathan has now started rolling (back to front) all the time.  He had learned a while ago, but now he has mastered it and quickly rolls over.  He hates it though, because once he has rolled to his tummy he's stuck there because he doesn't know how to roll back over.  Nothing like putting yourself into tummy time.

This week, Nathan has also started sitting.  I'm quite impressed at how quickly he learned to do it!  I always compare use Matthew and Kayla as a guideline for when he should master a skill (Kayla being the quick one, Matthew being slower) and he actually mastered sitting a week before Kayla did.  She mastered rolling two months quicker than Nathan though.  Goes to show that each child will learn something when they want to.  I'm so curious as to whether Nathan will be a quick walker, like Kayla (11.5 months) or a slow walker, like Matthew (16.5 months).  Only time will tell!

My baby is growing up way to fast.  Time to slow down, Nathan...

Matthew's Eye Appointment

Matthew had his appointment with a Certified Orthoptist (Mara Sketchley) in Dr. Cline's office on Tuesday, to have the strength of his eye muscles measured.  Again, Matthew was really cooperative.  Shy, but cooperative.  The result is that they're going to wait two months and then have Matthew back again, and they'll see if anything has changed.  Because his eye only drifts inwards occasionally (ie. not 24-7) they're not as worried about it.  If, after two months, it's gotten worse, then surgery might be in his near future.  I'm not sure what would happen if it stays the same, and I'm not sure if they'll think it could get better?  I didn't really ask.

Nathan's First Stroller Ride

I was such a classic 'first-time Mom' with Matthew and Kayla, carefully trying to document and photograph every single first I could possibly think of.  Little did I know that I, who always vowed to try to be as fair as possible to all children, was setting myself up for a difficult task.  Now, I have to try and remember which 'firsts' of Matthew and Kayla's I recorded so that I can also do the same for Nathan.  I'm afraid he's probably already missing a few.  Oh well, all I can do is try my best.

Up until today, whenever I went on a walk with the kids I would put Matthew and Kayla in the stroller (we have a BOB Duallie) and I would wear Nathan in the Baby Bjorn.  Lately, this has become quite the chore.  About a month ago, I went on a walk through Tynehead with the kids (with a couple friends from work).  At the end of our walk, about 45 minutes later, I was exhausted.  Pushing a stroller with 60lbs of kid in it, plus wearing another 17lbs (at the time) when you are not in shape is hard work.  Since then, I've been on the lookout for a single stroller.  If I'm with my Mom on a walk, she can push one stroller and I the other.  Or, if I'm by myself, Matthew and Kayla could walk and I could push just Nathan.  The last thing I wanted to do was push a double stroller around with only one kid in it.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my BOB...but it is quite wide and the basket isn't as accessible as I would like.

I found (what I think is) a great deal on my swap, so now I'm the proud owner of two strollers.  I never would have thought I would own more than one stroller!  Thank goodness for a garage to store them in

Jon and I took the kids on a walk after dinner, and it was SO NICE.  It was so enjoyable not having to wear 19lbs.  I felt like I could have run the entire walk.  Not that I could have...but I felt like I could have :).

This was also Nathan's very first time in a stroller...and so here are the pictures to document it :)

(Matthew and Kayla take the worst photos right now!  They say 'cheese', but Kayla always looks away, as if she doesn't have time for the photo, and Matthew always squints his eyes almost closed and raises his chin up.  SO ANNOYING!  But cute, I guess?  Just makes getting a 'good' photo of them a little more challenging.  Thank goodness for digital cameras!

Playing the Piano

Matthew loves playing my parents' piano.  Kayla enjoys it too, but Matthew is always the first to play, and he often asks me to play for him, while he's sitting on my lap or beside me.

Today, while I was grocery shopping with my Mom, Jon sat at the piano with Matthew and Kayla.  Matthew pulled some sheet music out of the piano bench (the music I always play for him) and asked Jon to play it.  When Jon said that he didn't know how to, Kayla looked him straight in the eye and said, "Well then get off."

Too cute.