I feel like Nathan has grown up and changed so much in the past couple weeks that it warrants a mid-month entry, just so that I don't forget exactly what has happened, and when. (I reference my entries SO OFTEN. Seriously. I can never remember when my kids have done what in terms of development, and so I'm always looking back at Matthew and Kayla's monthly entries).
Anyways, over the past two weeks Nathan has been acting quite spoiled. He just loves me so much that it pains him to be left on the floor. Haha. It's a good thing I love him 'so much' too. He spends a lot of time on my hip, but if he's not on my hip, he can be found sitting on the ground. He has become quite a pro at sitting. He thinks he's a big shot now because if you try to lay him under his playmat, he cries. He does not like to lay on the ground anymore...all he wants to do is sit. It's almost too bad because he had just learned how to roll over...and now I haven't seen him roll over for a week or so, because he's never laying on the floor. Oh well.
He has also started to show strange, and he dislikes gatherings where there are a lot of 'strangers'.
Nathan has a new facial expression which involves squinting his eyes and sticking his chin out. It's the cutest thing ever. I initially saw it when he would complain about being in his exersaucer, but now I've started to see it more often.
Over the past two weeks I have also added breakfast and lunch to Nathan's diet. Introducing solids always stresses me out because I find there is so much (in terms of volume and selection) that a baby needs to be eating eventually, and not that much time to do it. Meal times are the most frustrating time of the day with Matthew and Kayla (but mostly Matthew), so I often wonder if it's a nature vs nurture thing...and if it's nurture, how can I do things differently with Nathan? Matthew and Kayla both were very picky when it came to chunky foods (and they STILL struggle with the texture of rice and ground beef), and so I've been introducing Nathan to chunkier food textures from the get-go. Rather than feeding him pureed carrots at dinner-time, I just lightly mashed some cooked carrots leftover from last night. He did just fine! I'm hoping that this time around I can use less store-bought baby food and more of my own...just from what we are eating at dinner. Maybe more of a baby-led-weaning approach. Who knows...we'll see how things go.
Anyways, I think that's it. Sorry for the poorly written post...it's the best I could do when I'm trying to get random thoughts out quickly so I can go to bed. At least if I'm in bed I don't have to feel (as) guilty about wasting the latter part of my evening on Facebook rather than being productive. Can I blame Facebook for the reason that I've once again fallen 2.5 months behind in creating my photobooks?
After struggling with infertility for three years, we were blessed with the birth of Matthew and Kayla in March 2011 (by in vitro) , Nathan in October 2013 (by frozen embryo transfer), and Olivia in August 2015 (naturally!). We are loving every moment (well, almost!) of our lives as parents.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
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).
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
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
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
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
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 :) )
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. :)
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. :)
Sunday, March 16, 2014
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 alwayscompare 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...
This week, Nathan has also started sitting. I'm quite impressed at how quickly he learned to do it! I always
My baby is growing up way to fast. Time to slow down, Nathan...
Thursday, March 6, 2014
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.
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