Afterschooling

     I always dreamt of the day when I would get to plan fun activities and crafts with my children, and now it is finally here! I feel like Laura took a long time to get to the point of enjoying activities I planned (and sometimes she still isn't into them), but when we do get to sit down together and work on something, it's really great. I am in my element here.

     Afterschooling is a sort of compromise between homeschooling and... not homeschooling. It's just about right for me (who, if we're being honest, can use a mental break from being the mom of a two-year-old while she is at school, but who also really enjoys planning toddler crafts and activities to help said two-year-old develop her mind). It's really the best of both worlds.

     Laura's preschool has weekly themes to work with, which makes it even easier for me to come up with ideas to complement what she is learning (with much thanks to Pinterest). Last week they focussed on apples, and this week, fall. Here are some of the things we got up to:

Crock pot apple sauce. Sooo yummy.

Apple sorting and counting tree

'A' is for apple!
We've been trying to follow along with the letters they are working on each week at school, too.

 We also made apple prints, but apparently I forgot to take a picture.

We made them into a birthday card for Grandma.

This week we went for a 'hike' along the trail to look for fall treasures.
Laura's favourite was the "milk leaf" (aka milkweed pod).
We gathered them up and brought them home to make some prints with.

(our prints)

I would have preferred to go to an actual forest, but I don't know of any good spots around here.
We're planning on going for a real hike up at Grandpa's next weekend.

We took some books on fall out of the library,
and talked about how the geese fly South so they don't get too cold in the winter.
We also talked about how squirrels gather up nuts and hide them so they have food all winter.

We made sugar cookies to look like fall leaves to share with Laura's class.

Sadly, they have had to mandate that no homemade food items are allowed to be shared. :(

And of course what would fall week be without leaf rubbings?

Rachel: 4 Months

     Today Rachel is four months old!

     She went for her four month check up and shots last week and weighs 13 pounds and is 24 inches now. Thankfully, she fits fairly well into all of Laura's hand-me-downs for the correct season (except shoes), even though Laura was born three months earlier in the year.
    Rachel is just the sweetest little baby, and can go days without crying, providing a nice contrast to her... shall we say 'high maintenance' sister. She always has tons and tons of smiles, especially for Mama, and has been laughing more often now. She is even starting to get a little ticklish. So cute. I feel bad because I have to take advantage of her easygoing nature to attend to Laura a lot of the time. But, at least Laura is in school twice a week now so I have a little more 'full attention' time for Rachel. Hopefully she doesn't sleep all the way through it. ;) When she does cry, though, she really cries. I refer to her as the Drama Queen because she is just so... dramatic. When we were at the doctor's last week, he put the cold stethoscope on her chest and she wailed. Good set of lungs on that one, but a bit of an over-reaction if you ask me.
     She has become quite wiggly in her old age (hence the less than stellar picture), and will immediately alternate arching her back when propped up in a sitting position with scooching her bum forward so that she wiggles all the way down to laying flat again. You'd think she likes the view? She still really loves grabbing onto her toys hanging from her activity gym, clothes and hair, and really anything she can get her hands on. She has also taken to this fairly hilarious 'grumbling' that she does when she is slightly unhappy (bored or mildly hungry, usually), but will carry on for half an hour or more. Grandma says we better watch out when she learns to talk because she'll never stop!
     She has yet to roll over again since she first did those two times at 3.5 weeks, and still hasn't slept through the night, either. She usually goes to bed around when Laura does now (8:00 - 8:30ish, totally awesome) and will sleep for at least six hours, but not all the way until morning. Most days I am still having to bring her into our bed in the early morning or else she wakes up several more times than is necessary (I think because she is cold, but it is too hot to put a sleep sack on her when she goes to bed, and she's too little for blankets yet!)
     We've been battling the neck stinkies the last month or so, as well. Mostly only when it's hot, she gets funk built up in her neck rolls (disgusting, I know) and it smells so bad, and gets all red and irritated. Looking forward to her outgrowing that! She also, as of today, has acquired her first cold, with special thanks to Laura for bringing that one home from school. Poor kid.

Rachel grumbling (and farting. Sorry, Rache.)

Routine

     We are home. Josh is home from an awesome week-long recording session up North, and the girls and I are home from spending the week with Grandma. We had a great time - went to the zoo, the fall fair, and enjoyed some of the fineries the town had to offer. It was a busy week on all our parts, and now it's time to settle down. I am fully looking forward to the new routine that September brings.
     Summer's done, I'm hoping to go back to work two nights a week, Laura is going to preschool two afternoons a week, and I'm even attempting to get Rachel into a consistent napping pattern so we'll be able to have a little more structure to our day. Every so often we get into a bad, too-much-TV-watching rut, and then I realize I'm letting my parenting slip and am inspired to do more with the girls. I'm hoping to start incorporating a weekly library trip into our schedule, and I'm happy that Laura's preschool has weekly themes that I can use as a kind of springboard for activities and crafts for the 'after schooling'  I want to do at home to compliment what she is learning about. I also want to start working on her letter and number recognition more consistently.
     With all this planning and routine-setting, I think I am going to try to implement a cleaning schedule so that things get cleaned more frequently than just when we have people over. ;) If everything else is in a schedule, it will be easy to add cleaning into it, too. (Right?)
     I've even gone as far as making an entire meal plan - not just dinners! - for us to follow, mostly for Josh, as he needs to incorporate more fruits and veggies in his diet, but also for me, because I could stand to lose some weight, too. I'm thinking about doing a sugar detox sometime soon, as well. We trialed two weeks of the meal plan at the end of August, and realized that I was a little ambitious about all the healthy snacks I was going to make. I ended up spending over an hour every night in the kitchen after the girls were in bed (aka all my free time) making ridiculous things like fruit leather and kale chips. It essentially left zero time for myself, and that wasn't going to work. So, we've made some adjustments, and Josh is just going to have to settle for more fresh fruits and veggies, since most of them are better for you that way anyway. The meal planning was a ton of work, but probably worth it if we can benefit from it in the health department. I think I will just use the two weeks I made as a sort of example framework to stick to now. I used the Canada's Food Guide to base it off of, and had the following constraints:

• must have fish 2x a week
• must have orange and green fruit or veg every day
• must have at least 5 servings of fruit or veg every day
• must have at least one serving of nuts/ lentils/ beans every day

(The other guidelines I wasn't as strict about, because even with these constraints it was difficult enough to come up with a rotation.)
Here is a week sample - it's not perfect, but it had to be attainable at the same time:

     There is something to be said for routine - it provides a sense of comfort and familiarity.
     Until we get bored. ;)

Preschool!

     As you know (if you read my blog) we have been batting around the option of preschool for Laura all summer. The last few weeks of August we made more progress in our decision, and visited a couple more schools as they got back to us with available positions for her. We had sort of ruled out the Montessori one that we previously toured for a variety of reasons, so it was down to two. One of them was run much more like a daycare, which was not really what I had in mind for Laura, but had perks that I knew the other school didn't offer. Unfortunately, we only had a few days to decide once we were notified there was a position for Laura there, and we weren't able to see the one I really wanted to send her to until after we needed to make our decision, so we were taking a bit of a gamble...
     Fortunately, when we toured the third school (the one I had always been leaning towards all along) it was more what I had in mind - so we signed her up! Starting today, she will be going for a 2.5 hour program two days a week... and here she is on her Very First Ever Day of School!

Marching right in :)

her classroom

     When I picked her up, the first thing her teachers said was, "Her forced laugh is hilarious!"
I was a little disappointed they didn't say much else other than that... no report on what they did, or how she behaved, etc. I had to gather as much as I could from her in the car on the ride home, which I guess was kind of fun in itself. :) She sounded like she had a good time, and didn't particularly seem like she wanted to leave, so I suppose it was a success!

Happy First Day of School, Baby Girl!

Pettiskirts

The back story:
   
    A long time ago, when our girls were just babies, a friend of mine mentioned how beautiful pettiskirts were, and how she would love to have one for her baby girl, but she couldn't justify getting one for her based on how expensive they were versus how quickly she would outgrow it. I had never even heard of them before, but was intrigued, and so looked into them. They were lovely, and so, as with many things that I deem to be too expensive, I was determined to find a way to make one for cheaper. I was lucky enough to find a great tutorial for how to make one on Pinterest, and I quickly dreamt up a beautiful photoshoot in the park with Laura running and dancing around in a beautiful, fluffly, blue pettiskirt that accented her gorgeous big blue eyes.

     And then I forgot about it for a little while.

     Then, I recently had an amazing opportunity come up through a friend's business page on Facebook, for a deal on a "Tutus in the Park" photoshoot. For $20!! I almost turned it down because Laura hates having her photo taken so much (I might take too many photos of her), but I just couldn't bring myself to pass up such a sweet deal. My friend assured me that the photographer would not be posing her, but photograph her having her own fun. I went and looked at his page for photos in his portfolio, and they were really lovely! My dream of her gorgeous pettiskirt photoshoot was revived. I was going to just buy a pettiskirt off my friend due to the relatively short time frame we were working with, but she didn't have any in blue. (I was stubborn enough to stick with blue because of my original vision for the shoot, but also because my sister is getting married next summer, and is leaning towards a blue colour scheme, so Laura could theoretically wear it again.) I ended up being able to order non-fraying chiffon, which arrived promptly, and after several hours of cutting and ruffling over 120 yards of fabric, my aching back and I finally had a finished product. (I really need a better sewing set up.)

     Next, I had to prep Laura for her photoshoot. I wanted her to want to do it. I told her that I was making her a pretty skirt, and she would look so beautiful in it (don't worry, I tell her she looks beautiful in her pajamas, too), and that we could go and dance around the park in it. It seemed to do the trick. ;) And one day while I was working on it, she came down and we had a little conversation something like this:

     "Laura, Mommy's making you a skirt!"

     "What you making?"

     "Your skirt, wanna see?" *shows long piece of ruffled fabric that in no way resembles a skirt yet*

     "Ohhh, its beautiful!"

     Melt my heart (I haven't heard her use that word before or since then). I was so glad she liked it already. When I finally finished it, I showed it to her and she wanted to put it on and dance in it right away. Score.

    So without further ado, here are a few of my favourite photos we received from out shoot today:

 

     And a couple of sweet little Rachel for a good measure. <3

  

     Now I guess I better get to making the pettiskirt for my friend's little girl!

Parenting: Not for the Weak

     This post is two-fold. One happy-tough story, and one not-so-happy-tough story.

Part One
 
     Last night I cried before falling asleep. Why, you ask? Because when I had just gone to check on Laura, I found her asleep in her big girl bed.

     Confused? So was Josh. And, if we're being honest, me too, a little.

     Laura didn't have a real nap yesterday, so she was quite tired by bedtime. She said she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed (as a stalling tactic, no doubt), but, we obliged. We kissed her goodnight and tucked her in. As soon as we shut her door, she hopped right out of bed and banged on the door. Par for the course. This is what has always happened in the past when we've tried to convince her to sleep in her big girl bed. I suggest to Josh we try to ignore it, and it stopped. Great.
     Later, I was up in Rachel's room (next to Laura's) and thought I heard the sound of pages turning. I peeked in at Laura, and she was sitting and reading her books on the floor. I went in and asked her when she is all finished with her books to please sleep in her bed and not on the floor (like she always has in the past). She said no. I left. And then when I checked on her before I went to bed, there she was, angelically sleeping in her big girl bed.
    This is where the crying comes in: this is the last of her baby 'things'. I know, I've said before that I get upset every time she meets a new major milestone, but this is the last one! (Well, the last baby one, at least). She doesn't nurse anymore (hasn't since before Rachel was born), she uses the potty now - I wash her underwear instead of diapers, she runs and hops and jumps and climbs and falls, just like a big kid. The last thing she was holding onto from her babyhood was sleeping in the crib. And now we might be done with that, too. And so forms a big knot in my stomach. Not completely sure why, as I am happy she is growing up (two isn't always the most fun age to deal with), but even the cuddles are coming fewer and further between now. I guess I feel like I'm one step closer to losing my little baby, and it is out of my control. Good thing I still have sweet little Rache coming up behind her.


Part Two

     Confession: this morning I did not do my best parenting.
 
     We had our breakfast and did our usual morning routine stuff, and then Rachel started getting fussy. I gathered it was naptime for her, so I went up to the nursery to nurse her a little so she would go down. Laura followed us, and I tried to explain to her that we needed to play quietly right now so Rachel could go to sleep, and that I would be able to play with her after. I suppose this concept is lost on a two-year-old as her next move was to go and play in Rachel's closet, which involves repeatedly opening and closing her loud closet door to go in and out.
    After telling Laura that it was too loud, and her continuing to not see the logic, I put Rachel down in the crib for a minute, and took Laura to her room. I asked her to please play quietly in there for a few minutes, so I could get Rachel to sleep. I guess she thought she was being punished, as she immediately started scream crying when I shut the door. This is the opposite of what is supposed to be happening. Why is this such a hard concept? I will play with you in a minute, after I get Rachel to sleep! My blood pressure is rising, as Rachel is crying because she just needs to go to sleep, and Laura is screaming because she thinks she is in trouble (when she really isn't - I just need her out of the way for minute!). Sigh. I pick Rachel back up and try to continue nursing her, but the screaming from the next room is getting louder and louder and now she is banging loudly on the door. I get angry and go in and put Laura in her crib and tell her to stop yelling, and that she can come out in a minute. Obviously this does not help anything, except that she can't reach to bang on the door. So she compensates with more blood curdling crying.
     And then I really lose my temper. There is something about my children's screaming that just sets me off and I just. can't. handle. it. I get this animalistic impulse to make the screaming stop, and sometimes it sends me past the point of being rational. I storm in and take her out of the crib, and bring her downstairs (what she had been screaming to do), clamping my hand over her mouth, trying to stifle the racket for poor Rachel. I'm not really sure why I thought this would help. But then again, I'm only human. And I can't take it anymore. Mommy needs a time out. I leave Laura downstairs and go lock myself in my room for a few minutes to calm down. Laura continues screaming hysterically the whole time.
     After a couple minutes I open the bedroom door, and ask her once again to please stop screaming. She comes in and climbs up on my bed, and I explain to her, now calmly, why I was so mad. She stops crying and we have a big snuggle. I make sure she understands what just happened, and apologized for getting so angry. We go back downstairs and she continues cuddling on my lap for a little while. Rachel is now (somehow) asleep, so we go outside to play and everyone is happy again.
   In hindsight, staying up until midnight or later the last couple nights probably hasn't helped anyone. Even if I don't necessarily feel tired, I'm definately more volatile. I just don't feel like I have enough time in the day to get everything done that needs to get done, and end up staying up too late working on it.

Parenting: Not for the Weak!

Rachel: 3 Months

   
     Rachel Bee is 3 months today!
     She is still growing like a weed, seems like she gets noticeably bigger every day, though she is not in danger of outgrowing the 3-6 month size clothes, yet. She is so much fun to hang out with now, so smiley and pleasant and much more interactive. She loves having 'conversations' with us - we take turns cooing at each other. :) She also laughed for the first time a couple weeks ago - during a very serious conversation I was having with her Grandma. What a kid. She also laughed the next morning in the car at her monkey mirror on the way to Santa's Village. Cutest thing ever.
     We need to take her infant insert out of her carseat, as I'm quite sure she is over 11 pounds by now, (which also means she has more than doubled her birth weight), and move the straps up a notch. We need to get her out of her newborn diapers that I am still cramming her into, too... just need to find time to finish replacing the elastics in our set of the next size up diapers (this was a 'before baby' project that I didn't get done due to her being early).
     She now really enjoys playing with her toys on the activity mat, and observing everything around her, including her sister. She also notices when we leave the room, and shows it by getting upset that she isn't part of the action anymore. :) She has a funny little obsession with trying to cram her clothes in her mouth, too, and on the odd occasion I've caught her sucking her thumb.
     She is sleeping in her own room in the crib now, most nights. She often falls asleep around 9:30 or so, and then I sort of rouse her when we are going to bed to change her diaper and dream feed her, around 10:30 - 11. A few nights she has slept 6 hours in a row and didn't wake me until 4:30 or so. Usually its still earlier than that and I bring her back to bed with us after that because she has been waking more frequently in the early morning hours. I would like to start trying to get her to stay in her crib the whole night soon.