Emotional

These past few days have been rough. I've pretty much been crying off and on all week. I'm trying desperately to put a brave face on and have fun with the girls but the sadness eventually comes. The other day was beautiful and sunny so I brought the girls in their wagon to the park around the corner from our house. They had an absolute blast. Harper was so excited to go down the slides and to swing on the swings. Ella even loved going down the slide with my help of course. They both had the biggest smiles on their faces going down the slide.

Harper loved walking up and down the stairs like a big girl. She was so proud of herself that she could do it on her own.

She wasn't opposed to stopping to pose for me - she's pretty used to me always taking pictures of her!

Ella bells pretty much hung out with me for the most part since the climbers are surrounded by wood chips - there was no way I was putting her down so she could attempt to eat them, me and my OCD tendencies.

I attempted to put her in the baby swing but would not let her go, she is still so stinky tiny that she looks like she would flip right out of it. She wasn't a big fan anyways. Instead I took turns sitting the girls on my lap to swing on the big swing. Both loved it!

On the way home, Harper always likes to walk part of the way holding my hand, while we pull Ella in the wagon. She gets so excited to hold my hand which always makes me melt. 

Yesterday was especially emotional for me. Ella was having a rough day from the fact that she has two big teeth poking through the gums on the top. She was super attached and would scream out of no where in pain. She spent half of her nap time sleeping on my chest during which I quietly sobbed the entire time. It makes me sad that I won't be here to do that with her next week. If she's not feeling well, I won't be there to snuggle her to sleep. I won't be able to sooth her. 

I get excited about going back to work and then out of no where I'm so sad at the idea of it. Monday is going to be hard for me, I know it will be fine - that they will be fine - but I am going to miss them so much and will be looking forward to seeing them at the end of the day. 

The rest of this week is super busy with finishing up Etsy orders when the girls are in bed, finishing last minute things for Ella's birthday party on Saturday and organizing the house for my return to work. At the end of the day, as long as we are healthy and happy, everything else will works it's self out. There are people who are struggling with much harder things than the dreaded return to work - so I will suck it up and get things done!

Things kids say..

Harper is at the funniest and most frustrating age right now. She is one month away from being 2 and a half and most of the time I wish I could freeze her at this age forever. Other than being the biggest sweetheart ever, she is also one of the funniest kids I know. One of my favourite things about this age is some of the things she says. For instance, when she tells us she loves us, she always says "I love you too mommy". She adds the "too" even though she is saying it to you first. If she says it to me, she will immediately tell Fraser she loves him, Ella and even the dog.  

When Harper's about to get a treat or we're going to do something she loves, she will say with the biggest cheesiest smile ever "I'm exseeded (excited)". Makes me heart melt every time!

Another favourite of mine is when I ask her what she wants for lunch or dinner and she replies with things like "cupcakes" or "jellybeans" or "farties" (smarties) or her new one "faghetti". The fact that she pronounces anything that begins with the letter S with a F is completely hilarious. She will also randomly mispronounce words like the dogs leash as "douch" or racoon as "fuckoon" - which has Fraser and I covering our faces because we are trying to contain the laughter.

I love the cute ways she says certain things or how quickly she will pick up new words and will use them in the right context. She is so darn smart and I want her to stay this age forever and ever. Except of course when shes having a full on meltdown because you've asked her not to do something for the bazillion time.

Harper's Favourite Books

 Since Harper is such a book worm, I thought I would share her absolute all time favourites. First of all, Harper's favourite author would have to be Julia Donaldson. She absolutely loves her books. They are well written and the illustrations are beautiful. I probably should have included "The Gruffalo" since that was the first Julia Donaldson book we ever bought for her and she knows it almost word for word. 

1. The Gruffalo's Child by Julia Donaldson. 

2. Tabby McTat by Julia Donaldson.  

3. Stick Man by Julia Donaldson. 

4. Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. 

5. Emma by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver. 

6. Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow.   

7. I love You Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt.  

8. Alice in Wonderland by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver. 

Fraser and I love that she enjoys books so much. I love nothing more than to sit and read several books with her and have her actually want me to read them to her. I'm always buying her new books because she learns so much from them. Julia Donaldson has several new releases which I already have in my Amazon cart to purchase for her. I highly recommend her books as long as your child is willing to sit for a while since they are very long. 

If you have a young child who only likes to sit and read for short periods of time, I would highly recommend the Babylit books (Emma and Alice in Wonderland). They have only a few words on each page and beautifully colourful illustrations. Even though Harper enjoys the long stories, she still likes these books because of the pictures. There's so many fun ones to choose from!

I've started collecting all of the Babylit books and the Julia Donaldson ones since the girls enjoy them so much. My little book worms. 

Outdoor Fun

The weather has been pretty amazing the past few days with the sun peaking out and the snow finally melting away. Yesterday was so beautiful and warm, I had to bring the babies out for a walk. I loaded up our beast of a double stroller with all of the necessities and out the door we went. We went for a stroll around the entire neighborhood - both babes all snuggled up with a warm blanket. Harper was so excited she could hardly contain herself - yelling, "doggies" every time she heard a dog bark. Ella had a rough afternoon, fighting her naps like it was her job (thanks teething), so I was hopeful she would fall asleep on the stroll, no such luck.

After our stroll, as we pulled up our driveway, Harper said "again!" and I immediately dreaded a full on melt down as I attempted to bring her inside. So, we played in the backyard for a little while. Harper ran around in her raincoat and rain boots, stomping through the muddy grass while my OCD self hoped she wouldn't fall on her bum getting her cute pink pants all muddy. Since it wasn't nearly nice enough for Ella to crawl around in the grass, I walked around with her all bundled up in a warm blanket. She held onto a "leaf" that her big sister gave her to play with, such a thoughtful little lady. 

Harper does not require any toys while playing outside, since she is still obsessed with collecting pine cones, leaves, rocks and any other small thing she can find and hold. She seriously has a complete blast trying to hold as many things as possible in her little hands. 

I prepared Harper for the inevitable, telling her "okay baby, two more minutes and then we have to go inside". She obviously has no concept of time yet but I wanted to warn her rather than just bringing her in and surprising her. We have learned that she does not care for coming inside after having so much fun in the backyard. Surprisingly she did really well! I got a little container for all of her findings, to keep them safe for next time we play outside. 

Once I managed to get the girls and the stroller inside, I found Harper like this on the couch, with Ella's headband on. Such a fashionista, haha. Overall it was an amazing day with my girls. I'm glad the weather is starting to warm up, so I can have several more days like this with them before returning to work. Insert sobbing.

Smarty Pants

Although I've taken a bazillion pictures of Harper, I haven't done an update in a long time. Harper is 27 months old now. It feels like just last month she was just starting to crawl and then walk. Now she's this big girl with a super big personality. First of all, she is one of the sweetest kids I know. I'm not just saying that because she is my child, which makes her totally awesome ;), but because she truly is. She is always so concerned with everyone around her. For instance, she cannot handle when her baby sister Ella is upset. The second Ella starts to cry, Harper will run over hands overflowing with toys to try and cheer her up. If the toys don't do the trick, then she's full of kisses and head patting. It's so amazing to watch her try and comfort her sister. My favourite is when she says to Ella "c'omm here" (trying to mimic me), with her hands out. 

When Harper gets upset she always wants a hug. She will come running to Fraser or I asking for a hug. It's the sweetest thing ever.

Since Harper started to talk, it was very apparent to us that she was very intelligent. She picked up new words so quickly and also new the proper context in which to use them - which was the most impressive to Fraser and I. Now Harper uses multiple words to form sentences and also knows her entire alphabet, numbers 1-10, colours and animals (including the noises they all make). Her memory is amazing. You can tell her something once and she will remember it. If you read a book to her for the first time, she will remember the title and what it was about. She's a total book worm. If she is in a room full of toys and books, she will first go to the books. She brings books to Fraser and I constantly, sitting on our lap, wanting us to read to her. For bed, she wants us to read 5+ books to her.

Harper's been an amazing sleeper since she was 13 months old. At night she sleeps between 12-14 hours and still has a 2 hour nap after lunch everyday. I'm hoping Ella eventually sleeps that well.

This little girl brings so much light, love and happiness into our lives - and we're so proud of the little lady she is becoming.

Ella's 8 Month Update

This little lady is 8 months old and where the hell is the time going?!? Seriously. Since she is our last baby, the bigger she gets the sadder I get. Ugh. Every time I put away clothes she no longer fits in I tear up a little bit. Not just because she's growing up so fast but also because I will never have another baby to put them on. Waaaahhhhh.

 If I had to guess Ella's weight, I would say maybe 17lbs. She is still pretty tiny, especially compared to Harper at 8 months old. Although she's tiny, she does have some rolls and meat on her - which I love! She's also finally growing into her head. Now that her hair is growing in more, her head doesn't seem so massive (it's because she has a big beautiful brain). I brought her head size up to the doctor last time we saw him and he did confirm that she's in the 90th percentile for her head circumference - but that shes always had a larger head since birth so he has no concerns. If her head was drastically growing over the weeks and months - that would set alarms off.

Ella and Harper continue to warm my heart with their interactions together. They seriously love each other. Ella is always trying to see what Harper is doing and Harper is always interested in what she is doing. Harper's such an amazing big sister. She just adores Ella. 

Now into the updates:

Sleep: First off all...THANK GOODNESS. She is finally sleeping better and it only seems to be getting better as time goes on. I've stuck to the gentle sleep routine and I'm finally seeing results. She usually goes down at 6/6:30pm and will sleep until 10:30pm, nurse and go to sleep again until 3:30/4am and then back to sleep until 6:30/7am. There's even been nights where she has slept through the 10 o'clock feeding which is awesome. A few weeks back, the longest stretch she would do in the night was one 4 hour stretch and then would wake every 2 hours afterwards. 

She's also napping better during the day, getting back to her usual nap champ self. I blame all of her sleep issues on teething as her first two teeth have done nothing but come up and down for the last 3 months. It was really driving me insane - poor baby. 

Fun fact: Ella sleeps with socks on her hands. It started out as a way to keep her from scratching her head when she had bad eczema. Now, even though she longer has eczema, she still prefers to sleep with them on. 

 

Eating: Ella still nurses the majority of the time but she is slowly eating more and more solids as the weeks go on. She has breakfast, lunch and dinner - but doesn't eat a ton. She is recently obsessed with yogurt and apple sauce. She will get fruits and yogurt/applesauce in the morning. Veggies and fruits at lunch and meat and veggies for dinner. I buy an organic brand for her baby food and combine it with homemade baby food. I noticed I don't have nearly enough time to make everything homemade like I did when Harper was small. I try not to make myself feel guilty about it, as long as I'm feeding her a brand that doesn't use preservatives and artificial colors and flavors, then I'm happy.

Milestones: She is SO close to crawling. She does this funny thing where she lifts her bum in the air, pushing up on her legs and then pushes herself forward. So she gets where she wants to go, just not technically crawling.  

She loves to color on her big sisters magnetic board. The crazy thing is that she flips the pen so it actually colors and tries to erase afterwards (she's sat and watched her sister do it several times). 

I'm pretty sure she says "ma-ma" and "da-da" but only when she's upset. Harper has "ma-ma" when she was 8 months old. 

Teeth: None yet, but two massive lumps on her lower gums (grrrr). 

Personality: She is going to be a very bossy and temperamental toddler, I can already see it. She is so LOUD and will have a tantrum if you're doing something she doesn't want to do. For instance, she's obsessed with her baths, so once you start to pull her out she will start to arch her back and scream. She hates being lotioned up afterwards as well, so she does this high pitched squeal/scream while also arching her back. She also growls and grunts at Fraser and I all of the time - which is hilarious and scary as shit all at the same time. She's a fire cracker that's for sure.

She loves to watch her big sister play and is always trying to reach out and touch her clothes or hair. They are going to be best buddies.

I love watching these two beauties grow - but sometimes I wish they would slow down!

Next up: Planning Ella's 1st birthday party - insert tears!