Happy Birthday, Laura the Explorer!

     Happy birthday to my oldest baby, who turns three today! I love this little person so much, and it has been so thrilling to watch her grow into the person she has become so far. She is capable of so many grown up things now, and is (usually) a delight to be around. Her imagination is so great, and her favourite thing to do currently is to pretend and/ or tell stories, which she does on a daily basis (this has worked in everyone's favour, making car trips more bearable, and mealtimes, too: "Laura Shark, you should gobble up this fish!" ;) ... although she still prefers not to feed herself.)  Drawing and arts/ crafts are not among her favourite activities, however, she is adept at drawing circles and making faces, tracing objects, and the like. Her current thing she likes to draw are "pornados". She recognizes most letters now, and associates them with a word they begin. She can recite numbers up to about 12, although the actual concept of counting is perhaps still a little lost. She has an amazing memory for details, and is very observant. She still remembers crazy details from our trip to Disney World for her second birthday. She also seems to have a passion for music, and sings on pitch almost all of the time. She loves to make up songs and/ or silly new lyrics to already existing tunes. Quite the comedian, she is, and we love her very much.

    For Laura's birthday party this year, we went with a Dora Fiesta theme. We tried to avoid introducing Laura to Dora the Explorer for as long as possible. But, alas, it was inevitable, as her face seems to be nearly everywhere. Netflix was our downfall. I think we watched 16 episodes the week Laura discovered it. And so, the party planner in me couldn't help but start fashioning a Dora party while the mind-numbing show played in the background. I wasn't sure if she would still be into Dora by the time her third birthday rolled around, so I held off on any concrete plans for a few months. But, if we're being honest... the more I thought about it, the more excited I became to throw this party.

     Instead of searching Google or Pinterest for ideas, I came up with most of this party on my own. I find the internet can actually stifle my creativity that way, sometimes. Pinterest filled in the gaps here and there, and I discovered later on that other people had similar ideas to mine, but, most of these were my own original plans. I wanted to throw a Dora party without having her commercialized face everywhere. For these kinds of parties, I like to take the theme and colour scheme from the show, but put as much of a homemade spin on them as I can. Because of this - and the fact that I have two small children - I have to start party preparations well in advance, which is totally okay with me - I love doing it! (And for the record, I'm never trying to 'out do' anyone in my birthday party hosting, I just really like party planning and throwing. :) It's a great outlet for my creative side.)

     During a creative high in the fall, I was inspired to make a pinata for Laura's birthday. So that was when we concretely decided on the Dora Fiesta theme. Laura 'helped' make the pinata, and we filled it with with on sale Halloween candy. Sorry if it's a little stale ;). Not a lot more got done on the party preparations for the next couple months what with Christmas and all of that, but for the last few weeks I spent almost every night after the girls were in bed finishing up all the projects I had planned. And so, without further ado, here are the details of our Laura the Explorer party!

Invites

Invite outside                                                                                     Invite inside
(I spent way too long in photoshop doing this.)

Laura the Explorer and her sidekick, Baby Boots

Once all the guests had arrived, I took them up to Laura's room so Josh and his parents could set up while I introduced the adventure.
 I would like to tell you a story:

     Three years ago, a mommy and daddy were very happy because they had a little baby girl, and they named her Laura. Over the years Laura grew up and soon it was almost time for her third birthday party. Laura was a good helper and helped her mommy make a piñata for her birthday party to share with her friends.  They worked very hard to make this piñata, and filled it with candies and treats for her friends. But THEN, a few days before Laura’s birthday, Swiper the fox came and took the piñata and hid it in his den! Laura was so sad when she realized Swiper had taken her piñata, because she had been so excited to share it with her friends.
Can we help Laura get her birthday piñata back from Swiper? 

Grab your backpacks! Let’s go!

Laura has made some special bracelets for all of her explorer friends! Let’s look in our backpacks for our explorer bracelets. 

Is this an explorer bracelet? 

No, that’s a noise maker.   

Is this an explorer bracelet?

Yes! Everybody put on your explorer bracelets! 

Is everybody ready now?

 ~ Even though Dora always has lots of random items in her backpack, I held back my urge to fill the backpacks with random Made in China junk. ~

Explorer bracelets made by Laura :)

But who do we ask for help when we don’t know which way to go? You have to say “Map!”
Everybody get out your maps. We need to find Swiper’s den so we can get Laura’s piñata back!   

Map drawn by Daddy

To get to Swiper’s den, we have to go through the viney forest, past the snowy volcano, and through the gate. That’s how we get to Swiper’s den!
Come on, say it with me: forest, volcano, Swiper’s den.  Forest, volcano, Swiper’s den. Forest, volcano, Swiper’s den!
Come on, vamanos, everybody let's go! Come on let's get to it, I know that you can do it! Where are we going? Swiper's den! Where are we going? Swiper's den! Where are we going? Swiper's den!

And if you see stars along the way, you need to catch them and put them in your star pocket!

Viney Forest

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 Now that we made it through the viney forest, where do we go next? 
Next comes the snowy volcano! Does anybody see the snowy volcano? 
Let’s get our coats and boots on to go outside past the snowy volcano.

We need to bring eight ice marbles over to the snowy volcano so it can erupt.
Can you count eight ice marbles with me?  

(thanks to our neighbour, Mr. Plow for the snow pile) :)

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Great job, everybody! Let’s look at our map to find out where we go next. 

We have to go through the gate to get to Swiper’s den. Do you see a gate?

Everybody say "abre"!

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We made it through the gate. Where do we go next? Swiper's den!
Do you see Swiper's den? No? What are these? They look like fox prints! Let's follow them - maybe they will lead us to Swiper's den!

We found the piñata! Everyone get out your noisemakers from your backpacks so we can celebrate!
We did it, we did it, we did it, hooray! 

The music was Daddy's project. Though I was

the one who flipped through all the Dora episodes

to find words that fit with our adventure. ;)

Let’s see how many stars we caught! Let’s take them out and count them. Laura got the most stars, she gets to hit the piñata first!

We had to bring in the heavy hitter (Daddy) to crack it open ;)

For their favours, the girls got to take home their homemade backpacks with the candy, stickers, and hair accessories from the pinata, as well as their explorer bracelets and noise makers.
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After their adventure, and the pinata had been destroyed, we served lunch.

     Lunch was loosely fiesta-themed, in the sense that we had a make-your-own taco bar (Tico's Tacos). :) We also served Boot's Berry Lemonade, fruit, and melon balls (one of Laura's favourites), and veggies and dip. We had individual cups of Map's Marshmallow Salad, too, that I specifically made with Laura in mind. 

Other snacks included colour-coordinated jelly beans and candied popcorn
and Mexicana nachos and dip.

Swiper's Sweet Treats

Benny's Bean Dip

Once everyone was fed and full we opened Laura's birthday presents. She got lots of games and books, a trike from Mom and Dad, and a big set of dinosaurs that were a big hit. :)

And finally, to wrap the party up, we served her birthday cake - The Map!

   

(I used this technique to decorate the cake)

     Hope you had a great birthday, My Girl!!! <3 <3 <3

Also, a big thanks must be sent out to the in-laws who helped us out a lot with the party production. :)

Rachel: 9 Months

Rachel is 9 months old today!

With the risk of sounding like a broken record, Rache has once again astounded me with how much she has advanced in only a month's time.

     She now reaches to be picked up, waves at herself in the mirror, and if you're lucky, maybe at you, too. She has mastered the crawling this month and is super speedy now, and has even pulled herself up on various furniture a few times. Most notably, these last two accomplishments have brought new levels of excitement to playing the 'Crocodile Game' (Laura and I are Peter Pan and Captain Hook, taking refuge on the bed from the mean crocodile). One day Laura took a turn being the crocodile and Rachel took her part of shrieking on the bed to get away very seriously. So. Stinking. Cute.

     She has made advancements in her communication this month, too, seemingly using 'mama' and 'dada' in context, as well as shaking her head 'no' when refusing food a few times, too. While most of the time Rachel is good-spirited, she was sick (and grumpy) for a little while this past month, and definitely made her little temper known when she didn't get what she wanted. She is certainly strong-willed and has even started refusing some food in hopes of being offered something better!

One of my favourite things she does that has made a reappearance this month is her little head-bobble dance.

Go Go Gadget Milk!

I just want to nurse my baby. No bottles involved. Is that so much to ask, Mother Nature?

     As many of you know, I have been struggling with low milk supply for several months now. Originally it was due to becoming pregnant, but I'm not pregnant anymore, and we are still having a hell of a time getting off the bottle.
    I have sought advice from a variety of health care professionals: the public health nurse who runs the local breastfeeding group, who referred me to a lactation consultant, who referred me to Jack Newman. I spoke to my family doctor briefly about it, too, but I knew he wouldn't have much advice either as I had previously spoken to him about this issue when I went through this with Laura and being pregnant with Rachel. None of them had much to suggest since taking anything while pregnant is generally not recommended. Then one of my lovely friends suggested taking a homeopathic remedy. I wasn't about to just jump into that without researching it and talking to a naturopathic or homeopathic doctor first, but it was definitely an avenue I was interested in looking into since there weren't a lot of other options.
     Fortunately, Josh's benefits plan covers naturopathic doctor fees, so I found a naturopathic doctor in town who seemed like a good fit for me, and went in to her with my troubles. She suggested some additions to my diet, and also had some homeopathics in mind if the diet changes didn't help. Sadly, I lost the pregnancy shortly after my first visit with her. However, on the positive side of that horrible tragedy, I was able to utilize a much larger variety of options to increase milk production afterwards. My beautiful doctor made a house call for me (and brought me flowers - how sweet) the week I got out of the hospital, and brought with her a few different things for milk production and grief. One that worked remarkably well was a nursing tea that contains fenugreek, anise seed, marshmallow root, and a few other herb/ plants that are known for their milk boosting properties. A few weeks into my recovery we had made significant progress, and New Year's Eve Rachel went the whole day without needing a bottle. I was thrilled! The following few weeks she only needed a bottle about every two of three days or so. But, then I ran out of tea and the other homeopathic remedy my doctor had given me. And now, we are back down to one or two bottles a day. A notable setback. I went to see the naturopath again this week, and got some more tea, but today I was trying to nurse Rachel before her nap, and she just didn't have the patience for how little milk she was getting. So I put her down in her crib, and went and made her her third bottle of the day. She of course was screaming the whole time I was in the kitchen making the bottle, but was immediately consoled when I came back up and gave it to her.
I broke down and cried. Maybe I'm just having an emotional week, but I hate having to make her wait for her bottles. I hate that I can't just lift my shirt and have all the milk she needs on tap, right there, warm, ready, and exactly what she needs, nutritionally and emotionally. I hate that I have been (at least partially) replaced by a piece of rubber and some plastic. Seriously. Hate.

      At my post-operative appointment, the OB/GYN mentioned in passing that my pituitary may have been adversely affected by my blood pressure bottoming out, but the fact that I was still able to continue breastfeeding was a positive sign. However, a little shred of doubt is now lingering in my mind since I can't seem to maintain my supply without the heavy aid of homeopathic and/ or herbal remedies. I wish I knew more about the biology/ physiology.

    So please, Mother Nature, have mercy on me and my poor, fragile psyche, and go go gadget milk!

PS - Did I mention that Rachel was up, hungry four times last night? I'm sure the lack of sleep is not helping anyone, either.