September Happenings

Well the last few weeks have brought quite a lot of excitement in this house.  Truthfully it's never a dull moment anyway!  Eowyn just seems to get bigger and more vocal all the time.  She has started with "Dada mama allala", sounds, which are just adorable, especially when she's shouting them at the top of her lunges!  She continues to amaze us with her eating - now devouring a whole 190g jar of food in one meal on a regular basis.  She still isn't fussy about what she's served, eating more or less everything we give her, including parsnip puree, broccoli and potato, spinach and rice.  Wow!  Recently I offered her a sippy cup to drink some water out of, instead of her bottle.  She loves it!  She is even able to direct it pretty accurately into her mouth and seems to know how to drink without much work!  One of her favorite times of day is still bath time, and when she's not reading a bath book she's splashing and flailing around laughing!  It's very cute to see, although Liam does get a bit annoyed with all the splashes and he tries to stop her by saying "time out"!

Bath time!

Sippy cup time

 Our weather has been a mixed bag this fall.  Last year it was so warm all September.  This year we've had some very cool days, some rain, and some lovely days.  Whenever possible we have made plans to go out to a playground and usually meet up with some friends.  Since Stirling and Drake will be starting school in November we've taken advantage of them being around in the morning to have the kids hanging out.  The are starting to work their own issues out - well at least sometimes.  Sometimes we still get the scream and the pulling of toys away from each other, but once in a while they seem to navigate the land of sharing, which is always a great sight to see.

 I would say that Liam is 90% potty trained, though we did have another accident last night (only the 2nd in 2 months!) and despite him not pooping on the potty.  Otherwise he totally gets it, and seems quite capable to hold on when he needs to.  Here he was being really goofy and pulled his undies all the way up - I told him he'd regret it when I took this picture!  Sorry Liam!  One of the great side effects of potty training has been hand washing.  We've bought some special foaming soap just for him and he's ever so eager to wash hands for all occasions.  Thankfully he's mostly able to do it himself!

 Liam's interest in dinosaurs is growing fast.  We got him a book on them, and often at night it is the book of choice.  We went to the grocery store a few weeks ago and lo and behold there were dinosaurs on display.  Liam was thrilled, and so we had to get a picture of him with his favorite dinosaur - the triceratops!

 In addition to dinosaurs we have added a few books to his repertoire to help with his expanding curiosity of the world.  We are definitely in the "why?" stage of things, and he is interested to know about a lot of things.  We have a great book about the human body, and recently he has been heard saying that his bladder has stretched out and is full of a big pee, so he has to go to the potty!

Just a couple of weekends ago we had some gorgeous warm weather, and on a whim we decided to head to the Lido.  We haven't actually ever been with the kids because usually when it's just me I think of it as being too much to handle, but on this sunday it seemed just right.  Eowyn hung out on the grass playing, and Liam's eyes nearly popped out his head when he saw the super cool kids pool.  To tell you the truth, it was so exciting that he was actually nervous to do everything!  We also had a little time on the actual beach so he could dig in the sand, and run into the water.  Despite me being under the weather it turned into a lovely Sunday morning, with a picnic lunch.

 Eowyn's doing a lot more sitting up these days, and seems to really enjoy herself when she gets out of the stroller at the playground and gets to sit on a blanket on the grass.  She's getting stronger and moving more, but at the moment it's still rolling just to one side, and scooting backwards on her belly.  That about sums it up.  But she loves to check out the toys, and especially if she gets to play what Liam is playing, like train tracks, legos, or reading a book.  Here are some play time pictures.  Balls are particularly fun these days.

Park play - a beautiful warm day

Liam introduces Eowyn to Thomas the Tank Engine!  She's engrossed!

Park play time on a cooler morning

We've had some really funny and interesting conversations with Liam this past week.  Here are a couple that I could actually remember:

Where babies come from...

Stirling left for the States yesterday and Liam had a lot of questions.  I told him her aunt is having a baby and she's going to meet the new baby.  We also talked about Carolyn being pregnant and that soon she will have a baby.  He then asked if stirlings Aunt will push a baby out? and continued to grill me with who else had a baby growing inside? does Kat? does Christina? Does Leigh?  We touched on the idea that it doesn't happen to boys, and that it takes a long time and isn't so easy.  He then asked if I had a baby inside.  I told him I already had 2 babies and so my plate was kind of full.  He asked me why.  

What exists?...

The other day we had a long conversation over lunch about what exists and doesn't exist.  It stemmed from him asking if there was a fox at Bellavista restaurant.  I said there wasn't and he said "Oliver said there is a fox there.  and a witch." They were playing a game running away from both a few weeks ago, and he was clearly just thinking about that time.  So I began to explain that sometimes we use our imagination when we play to make a game more fun, and that's what oliver was doing.  He then went through a list of things asking me if they exist - do witches exist? No. Do monsters exist? no. How about foxes - well yes they do exist, but they don't live near us they are very very shy.  And do dinosaurs exist? Not any more.  They are extinct.  I love that he's starting to really process information!

Yesterday we also had a lovely little walk and picnic with friends.  Christina, Jake, and Sam invited us and Elle and her parents to join them for a little walk in the woods.  It was great to be outside with the kids and both Eowyn and Liam had a great time.  Here's a cute picture of Sam and Liam before we got on our way.

Eowyn and mama

The Rest of August

Summer's gone. It was here in full force and we were begging for a reprieve, and now, just like that, just from one day to the next, it's gone.  I guess we should be glad for all the afternoon's spent down at the school pool while we had a chance.  While we made a few trips to UBS for the kids to go in the pool there, when the temps were in the high 90's James and I were so ready for some relief ourselves, and that's when we opted for the school pool.  Liam loved jumping in the water and playing with James, and Eowyn was thrilled to be in cool water and hang out with me.  

Meanwhile, because our summer wasn't busy enough, we began potty training for Liam in earnest after our last trip to Tuscany.  It's actually gone so smoothly and well so far, and I think it's because he was already doing much of what he needed to do, so basically all I did was buy him many pairs of undies!  He's been loving the independence of it all, and now picks out his underpants and often his outfit, and gets himself dressed.  We have only had 1 night time accident since switching to undies at night time too, and that's been over a week now.  During the day we haven't had an accident in a couple of weeks at least.  He always pees on the potty, but for some reason he is adamantly refusing to poop on the potty. He will yell out that he needs to poop and needs a diaper, and then we have to put one on, he does his business, and then we change him back to undies.  It's a bit strange, but I'm sure given a bit more time he'll have mastered that side of things too.  

On a more challenging note Liam's sleep is not very consistent these days.  While we still have a decent napper he has taken to popping out of bed numerous times after bedtime.  Sometimes he says he needs the potty, other times a snack, other times he has no reason except that he doesn't feel like sleeping.  It's getting a little tedious, but it's not half as bad as the early morning wake ups.  In the past 3 weeks he has, on a number of occasions, woken up at 3am or a bit later, and then just been awake for hours.  One day he woke up at 5am to use the potty and never went back to sleep.  Neither did I.  Three nights ago he woke up at 1am and wasn't asleep till probably 4:30am.  The thing is, he used the potty, then went back to bed and just as I was falling asleep, he called for me again.  And so it continued until 4am.  Eeeshis.  That is testing my limits for sure!  Hopefully that will fade soon.

Eowyn's eating keeps going strong.  I'm sad to not be making food for her myself, but with the breastfeeding and having another child to deal with it just hasn't panned out.  Still, she's eaten everything we've given her.  The few things that she didn't love right away we managed to convince her to eat with a bit of yogurt.  But honestly she chows down on Spinach and rice, broccoli, zucchini, pumpkin etc.  She's turning out to be quite similar to Liam in that way.  

She moved to her bedroom upstairs just before James started work (I think it was Aug 10th!), and since then she has gone without her 3am feed, which is great for me.  Unfortunately she is still waking up quite a number of times (average is probably 2 a night from 11-7am) but not crying so much as needing a pacifier, so James is still sleeping up there to avoid going up and down the stairs a million times.  Lately it feels like things may be regressing a little because she is also waking up a few times between 7pm and 11pm.  All in all she is a whole lot easier than Liam was in that you can pop the pacifier and leave most of the time.  Still, we would love to get things properly sorted soon!

Here's the two of them hanging out in my bed in their pj's - or as Liam likes to say "Kajamas!"

Eowyn is also so much more interested and interactive with things and people now.  She is particularly fond of watching Liam playing games, and is thrilled to pieces when she gets a hold of a train track, car or anything else that might make her feel included in the game.  Here she is with Liam's tow truck.  He has even been pretty great about sharing his toys with her, though he prefers to pick what she gets to play with!

We came into Liam's room the other day to find them playing together in the sweetest way.  Liam had put Bertie on Eowyn's head, which she found hysterical, and so did he.  We caught a bit on video but it's not posting them now, so here's a picture!

As I said, it was really hot.  So hot that even after going swimming at UBS our children refused to put on clothes.  I love that Liam and Stirling are dashing through the path in the woods, back to the cars, wearing close to nothing!

Eowyn is loving being in a seated position.  She gets really excited about playing and checking things out from this perspective.  Now she is able to support her weight with her own hands, toppling to the side from time to time.

Recently we went to the joint birthday celebration for Samuel and Stirling.  It was a gorgeous afternoon with a nice bbq and good friends.  The kids had such a good time that poor Liam was devastated when we had to leave.  He fell in love with the mini sand box which he must have spent 3/4 of the time in.

Eowyn with James in her party dress

Stirling, Liam and Cassidy hanging out in the sand box

Grayson joins in for some fun

Birthday candles and cupcakes.  Liam was just as happy with the fruit kebabs I gave him!

Jake, Sam, Christina, Gavin, Stirling and Leigh

Eowyn just had her half birthday last week.  I can't get over how fast time has gone.  Thankfully she is not over eager to do everything and get moving.  I'm really content to have her be more chilled out than Liam was!  She really does make my heart smile whenever I picture those big brown eyes!

Happy Half Birthday!