Tea

I suggested to the kids today that we surprise my Mom and stop by for a visit after lunch.  Kayla loved the idea, and suggested that we bring 'something' to surprise Grandma with (ie. Starbucks).  I told her that we should save that idea for another time because we had already had Tim Horton's on Saturday, and that maybe we could make a cup of tea instead.  She loved the idea!  Matthew, however, stated that, "Remember that I don't like tea, Mom?"  I'm really quite quirky and like to sing children's songs and say rhymes, so I started saying, "I like coffee, I like tea.  I like the boys and the boys like me!"  Nathan, who had been listening to the whole conversation, quickly piped up and said, "But I don't like you, Mom!"  And then he laughed.  What a quick kid.  He's going to be witty, I think. :)

Nathan is 28 Months Old!

At 28 months old, Nathan weighs 34.6 lb.  He is wearing all of his size 3T clothes and we've started in his size 4T stuff.  He wears size 9 shoes and I'm still squishing him into a size 4 diaper :).  He's still my 'little' boy, but he is also quickly turning into a 'big' boy.  

Nathan is still quite the character.  I can easily be so pleased by his maturity on the days where he is in a great mood.  On his great mood days he is giggly and happy and easy to get along with.  Those are the days where he plays with Matthew and Kayla, following their lead, without a single complaint.  And then there are the days where he is in "a" mood.  On those days, all he does is push his siblings' buttons.  Those are the days when he tries to wrestle Matthew all day long.  Those are the days where he stands right in front of the television so that Matthew and Kayla cannot see their show.  Those are the days that he tries to refuse to eat at meal time.  Those are the days when he hits kids when he doesn't get his way.  Those are long days.  Luckily, the great mood days outnumber the other days.  And he is a two-year-old, so I guess he's allowed to be a pain.

{He was in a great mood this day - Matthew and him were best buds!}

Nathan is pretty smart for his age, I think, at least :).  You can tell that he has older siblings because he is being introduced to things quicker.  He knows his birthday is October 18 and that Matthew and Kayla's is March 18.  He likes to say, "Happy Birthday!" to me every day.  When I reply with, "Happy Birthday, Nathan!" he says back, "It's not my birthday.  My birthday March 18."  All in fun, because he knows he's giving you the wrong birthday.  He can count up to twelve, but won't do it if you ask him to.  If you ask him what "his letter" is (what his name starts with), he says, "A-Y-L-A" (spelling Kayla's name).  If you say, "No, that's Kayla's name, what's your letter?" he says, "A".  Goof.

He LOVES puzzles.  Nathan could do puzzles all day long.  He can pretty much figure out any puzzle up to 24 pieces.  Unbelievable, considering when he turned two he just learned how to do 4-piece puzzles.  He loves doing our Thomas and Disney Fairies floor puzzles, as well as his Discovery Toys learner puzzles he received from Jon and I for his birthday, and he loves doing the Winnie-the-Pooh puzzle at my parents' house.

Nathan will eat anything.  He isn't phased by spicy foods, and so he easily eats Butter Chicken which is nice for us as we love it.  He loves helping me prepare dinner, especially if I'm chopping raw vegetables, because then he always sweetly asks me if he can have, "just one?" and holds up his pointer finger pointing at me while squinting his eyes.  If I let him, I have to carefully watch him because he won't stop at one; he will keep eating the veggies until there are none left.  A few weeks ago he even ate all of my diced (raw) onion, without even flinching.

Nathan loves eating bananas and drinking apple juice.  Multiple times a day he asks me for a banana and/or apple juice.

He has no desire to potty train.  Matthew, Kayla, and I tried for one evening last month and ended up with three accidents without him even realizing what had happened.  The goal is to try over Spring Break.  Sigh.  So not looking forward to that!

Nathan does quite well at watching television shows or movies.  His favourite cartoon is Paw Patrol (and Marshall is his favourite!), but he also enjoys Wild Kratts.

{Building a 'train' with Matthew and Kayla.  He requests to do this weekly.}

He loves being outside.  Of the three oldest kids, he spends the most time outside, and is the only one to ever request to go outside.  He doesn't need anyone out there to keep him busy, he'll just head over to the sandbox or play with any water that's accumulated in a bucket left outside.

Considering he only gets to ride his balance bike once or twice a month during the winter, he still does really well on it.  I've started to introduce the tricycle to him to help teach him pedaling so that it won't be a new concept for him when he learns to ride a big kid bike (without training wheels).  My goal is to teach him at the end of summer/in the fall.  We'll see how the summer goes on both the balance bike and tricycles.

Olivia is 6 Months Old!

My little girl has grown up so much this past month, I can hardly believe it.  I can't believe how much she has learned and grown these past six months.

{Jon is always on 'Olivia-duty' while I bathe the others at night}

At six months old, Olivia weighs 17 lb 12 oz.  She wears all of her 6-9 month clothes (while still wearing a few of her 3-6 month and a few 9-12 month items that I love).

Olivia is eating three meals a day (usually, unless I've forgotten...whoops!).  Her schedule/routine is as follows:
7:15 am Wake Up
7:45 am Breakfast (1 Tbsp rice cereal + 1 Tbsp fruit)
8:00 am Bath time (in the baby bath in the kitchen sink, so that I can either empty the dishwasher or make the other kids breakfast while she soaks)
8:45 am Bottle (4.5 oz)
9:00 am Nap #1
9:45 am Awake
11:15 am Lunch (1/4 slice of bread)
11:45 am Bottle (4.5 oz)
12:00 pm Nap #2
1:30 pm Awake
2:00 pm Snack (Gerber Graduates or Yogurt)
2:30 pm Bottle (4.5 oz)
3:30 pm Nap #3
4:15 pm Awake
5:00 pm Bottle (4.5 oz)
5:45 pm Dinner (1 Tbsp veggie + 1 Tbsp fruit)
7:15 pm Bottle (4.5 oz)
8:00 pm Bedtime
11:30 pm Bottle (3 oz)
3:30 am Bottle (3 oz)
These of course are all super-flexible, it's just a rough idea of how our day goes.

Olivia didn't start enjoying baby food until I introduced fruit.  It used to be a bit of a struggle to get her to open her mouth for food, but if she knows she's eating fruit she more than willingly opens it.  I now always alternate between bites of fruit and bites of whatever else she is eating to keep her guessing.  Her absolute favourite food is yogurt.

I'm super-thrilled to say that she is NO LONGER A SPITTER!  WAHOO!  You have no idea how nice it is to not have to worry about being puked on!  The combination of Playtex Nurser with Drop-In Liners bottles, Similac formula, and age have been miraculous.  If I change formula for even one bottle, she'll spit some of it up with her burp.  However...we have replaced spitting with drooling.  Wow, is she ever a drooler!  Much better than being a spitter though!

Olivia sits very confidently, and if she happens to fall over she seldom cries about it.  She still does very well with her tummy time, but doesn't know how to roll from her tummy to her back so when she gets tired she cries.  Because she enjoys being on her tummy, she's really starting to get the hang of spinning around to reach toys all around her.  She's even starting to realize she has knees.

She always plays toys with two hands, and really likes to try to grab small objects, like a button on a shirt or a necklace that I'm wearing.

She absolutely loves Matthew and Kayla.  She is constantly watching them, and giggles when they pay even the slightest bit of attention to her.  She is tolerant of Nathan.  He likes to smother her all the time, which she gets tired of.

{First time in a regular bath.  Kayla was quite excited to join her, but was less-so after she saw Olivia pee.}

Olivia is pretty frustrating at night.  She goes to bed amazingly well (most of the time), but as soon as her soother is pulled/knocked out, she cries.  So annoying!  I haven't made her drop any middle-of-the-night bottle yet because she needs those calories.  I have tried increasing her day-time bottle amounts, but she will only ever drink 4.5 oz.  As soon as she can tolerate drinking more at each feed during the day, then I won't mind to drop a night bottle.  She often (twice a week?) ends up in our bed because then I don't have to get out of bed to tend to her.

She has done really well in the church nursery so far, and has successfully fallen asleep in a volunteer's arms each week this past month, which is great!  It keeps our Sundays on schedule which is so nice.

{Is she too young to lick whipping cream off a beater?}

Olivia doesn't mind being in her carseat, but she hates being put in the car if it's not where she wants to be.  She also doesn't quickly fall asleep in the car, which is both nice and not-so-nice.  Nice when I want her to be awake so that I can have her nap in her own crib, but not-so-nice if we're going somewhere over her nap time and I need her to at least get a bit of a nap in.

When Olivia is excited to be held by someone, she gives that person a huge kiss by putting her open mouth on their face somewhere and sucking/licking it.  It's really gross, but really cute.  She also likes to cuddle into you when she's glad she's being held.

It's a little bit sad for me how quickly she's grown up, especially because Jon and I think she'll probably be our last.  I realized over New Years (which we spent on Mount Seymour for their Family First Night), that four kids fills up all of our hands (obviously, right?!?).  If we had another, it would ideally be close in age to Olivia but that would mean Matthew and Kayla are still pretty young...and that's too many kids for our hands to manage.  I like getting out and doing things, and that gets less manageable/convenient the more children we have.  Not to mention the increased financial cost of adding another child and keeping me out of the workforce for even longer.  And not to mention that we already have the kids sharing bedrooms upstairs, and with the way the housing market is right now there is not a chance we'll be moving anytime soon.  I've been testing out my emotions/thoughts by selling off the baby items that we'll definitely never need (duplicates from having twins).  So far, it feels nice to free up storage space.  Anyways, no permanent decisions have been made, nor will they be made for a while.  :)

Walk at Campbell Valley Regional Park

I love going for walks.  There's something about being outside (and burning calories!) that makes me happy and gives me a lot of energy.  The kids really enjoy it too, and do really well at walking most of the way.

{Matthew proudly displaying the map of the park}

I wanted to take advantage of the dry day today so we packed up the kids (and Grandma!) and headed to Campbell River Valley Park.  We've never been there before!  

We did the Little River Loop (2.3 km) and the Deer Trail (1 km).  The Deer Trail leads to the Historic Langley Speedway - so cool!  Jon looked up a photo of what it looked like when it was used as a racetrack in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.  Really, really cool to stand there and to imagine what it was like.  

Matthew decided to burn even more calories and ran around the track TWICE!  For a kid that learned to walk to late (16.5 months old!), he sure is a great runner.  (I hope running is something that he continues to be good at - so healthy!  I've always wanted to be a runner...maybe one day!).  I chased after the kids for the first half of the first loop and then ran the last half of his second loop with him.  He was all smiles!

Such a beautiful park, even in the winter.  I definitely hope to return sooner, rather than later.  I would love to do all of the trails there eventually - even the Shaggy Main Trail (11km!).  Maybe in a year or so when the oldest three kids are another year older.

The kids love getting their photo taken on a park bench.  When they asked for us to take their picture, it reminded me of them a year ago:

{Kids at Tynehead Park in February 2014.  Look at Matthew's shoes and jacket....}

{Kids (minus Olivia) at Campbell Valley in January 2015.  Now check out Nathan's shoes and jacket ...the size difference between the boys is getting smaller the older they get...so crazy}

The Kids' Bedrooms

Matthew and Kayla share (and have always shared) a bedroom.  When they were four they were allowed to bunk their beds (which were handmade by my Dad), with Kayla getting the top bunk because eventually (whenever eventually is) Matthew and Nathan will share a room and then Matthew will get the top bunk then.  Honestly, it's been 10 months and not once has Matthew complained about being on the bottom bunk.

Both of their bedding sets (Matthew = stripes & sports, Kayla = stripes and flowers) were from Jysk, and they sleep with a fleece blanket they had each received from Auntie Candice at Christmas last year (2014).  They love those blankets.  Kayla has 'matured' and no longer brings her blanket downstairs with her in the morning, but Matthew definitely does.  If I bring it back upstairs he eventually realizes it's missing and goes and retrieves it.

Kayla also used to sleep with just as many stuffies as Matthew, but she must have 'matured' out of that, too.  They both still sleep with their "noise makers" as we call them.  They are Fisher-Price Soothe and Glow seahorses that light up and play music when they are squeezed.  If they wake up during the night I'll hear the music go on to help them fall back asleep.

Nathan and Olivia are fantastic roommates.  It's been about 3.5 months of them sharing and it's going really well.  Nathan is very quiet when she is sleeping in there, so as not to disturb her.  Nathan's nap typically overlaps with one of Olivia's each day, and neither are disturbed as I lay a child down for a nap or get them up from a nap.  If (who am I kidding?  WHEN!) Olivia wakes up crying during the night, Nathan seldom even stirs.  The opposite is just as true, too.  Nathan sleeps with all of his own stuffies that he's received since he was born.  He must have his 'blanket' (with dots, which is his 'baby' blanket), his puppy (which he received from Great-Grandma for Christmas last year (2014)), and his baby (his doll which he received in his stocking last year (2014)).  He also likes to have his noise-maker (we bought him once this Christmas to be like M&K.  Correction:  I bought Kayla a pink one because she had a blue one and then put the blue one in the pink one's box for Nathan to receive!).  He also received a fleece blanket from Auntie Candice this past Christmas.  His bed sheets are mine from when I was a teenager and his duvet and duvet cover are Jon's from when he was a teenager.  He doesn't care!  I keep debating whether or not to buy him a 'kids' pattern but would prefer to hold off until him and Matthew are sharing a room and then they can both get new sets.

Olivia gets to use the crib bedding that her older siblings used.  Yay for gender neutral :).  She has her own stuffies in her crib, and a noise-maker that she received from Jon and I for Christmas this past year.  She always gets swaddled in her polka-dot baby blanket, with a flannel blanket on top (made by Auntie Leanne when Kayla was born), and a knit blanket on top of that (from Great-Grandma when Kayla was born).  Their room is only heated to 18 degrees, so she needs the blankets for warmth.  The two top blankets are for her waist down, so I'm not worried about them being in there with her. 

This rocking chair has fed a lot of kids during the night.  Matthew and Kayla were both sleeping through the night before they were three months old, so I think Nathan was and now Olivia is, trying to make up for the oldest two being so good.  I've gotten smart and put a blanket over the top so that when the kids horse around on it and let it knock the wall that it doesn't scratch the wall anymore.  

Each kid also has a cross-stitching done by my Mom hanging on their walls (note to self: Matthew and Kayla's still need to be re-hung since they switched bedrooms 10 months ago!).  Matthew and Kayla's were the exact same pattern, but with customized colours so became less gender-neutral and more gender-specific.  We even went so far as having Candice recreate the outer border in excel so that we could play around with the colour schemes.  My Mom and I are extreme perfectionists, so we will go to great lengths to make sure that it's exactly how we want it.  Jon just rolls his eyes at us.

Nathan's is my favourite for some reason.  I don't think we changed anything of his.

Olivia's cross-stitching does not really even resemble the original pattern, in terms of colours.  The original was very gender-neutral with a lot of oranges.  I'm a huge fan of pinks and purples for girls, so almost the entire cross-stitching was customized.

And that, my friends, is the kids' bedrooms.  Definitely nothing fancy, that's for sure!  

Olivia is 5 Months Old!

At five months old, Olivia weighs 17 lbs and is 27.25" tall.  She is wearing size 6-9 month clothes and size 2 diapers comfortably.

Olivia has taken her roll as the youngest in our family very seriously.  She lives up to being the "baby of the family."  Long story short, she is spoiled.  She cries (screams!) when you put her down, and settles instantly when you pick her up again.  When she's angry, she raises her arms above her head, clenches her fists, and screeches.  It's cute, in a not-so-cute way.

{She still has blue eyes!  We were discussing at the dinner table with the kids who she is like.  We decided she has Matthew's eye shapes, Nathan's chubby cheeks, Kayla's personality, Jon's hair colour.  I couldn't think of what she had that was like me, and then Kayla piped up, "Mom, she has your blue eyes!"} 

She has also become a little picky when it comes to eating.  She will only eat when she feels like eating.  She was even offered ice cream tonight when we were having dessert and she refused!

Olivia loves her soother, and when that is not available, she loves to chew on her fingers or her whole entire fist.  If her own are not available, she'll reach for the hand of whoever is holding her so that she can chomp on theirs.

Just this week Olivia has learned to sit on her own.  This is a great accomplishment and enables us to occupy her time when we can't hold her.  Just throw a feeding pillow around her and she'll sit and play for a good 30 minutes.

{Opening her very first Christmas present}

Olivia is a pro when it comes to jumping in the jolly jumper.  She loves jumping, and can do it really well.

Olivia has starting laughing at her siblings.  If they are acting silly towards her or if they are playing peek-a-boo with her she giggles.  She'll also giggle if she's being tickled.  I was tickling her so much the other evening that she started to cry.  Oops!

She still loves being on her tummy.  Put her on her back and she quickly rolls to her front.  She can even push herself up so that her arms are fully extended.

With all of her other accomplishments, Olivia has regressed in the sleeping department.  She is up every 3-4 hours for a bottle.  Lucky for her, she shares a bedroom with Nathan and so I don't want her to cry too loudly/too much in fear that she wakes Nathan up, so I give in to her.  She only likes to drink between 4 to 4.5 ounces of formula every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day, so she's not getting "too much" by having bottles during the night.  She typically falls right back asleep, and if she doesn't, I quickly bring her into our bed where she sleeps in the middle.

Even though she does not sleep as well during the night, she falls asleep for a nap or for bed at night amazingly well.  The secret?  A tight swaddle.  Swaddle her tight enough so that she can't grab for her soother and her eyes start to close almost immediately.

{She's my only child to ever get curious about the things around her while having a bath.  She often rolls onto her side to grab at the kettle.}

Her schedule (roughly!):
7:15am Wake up
7:30am  Bath time
8:00am  Bottle
9:00am  Nap time
10:00am  Wake up
10:30am  Bottle
12:00pm  Nap time
1:30pm  Wake up
1:45pm  Bottle
4:00pm  Nap time
5:00pm  Wake up
5:15pm  Bottle
7:30pm  Bottle
8:00pm  Bed time