Our tykes, Rebecca and Lucy

Ok, it's been a little while, but I have to share this...

2011-08-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Lucy is at the point where once a day, she needs to express that she is upset that she's not in charge. It's usually a meltdown over some inconsequential thing. When we're at home, it's easy enough to deal with. Leave her alone to calm down, or put her in her room if she's wound up. However, when we're out and about that's not always an option. If she has a fit of the screaming meanies when I'm buckling her into her car seat, I still need to buckle her in.

Anyway, the day before yesterday we were visiting with my sister's family who were visiting from Britain. My brother hosted brunch down in Westboro. It was time to leave, and Lucy decided she didn't want to go. My sister Fiona was with me, and helped me get the girls loaded in the car. Lucy lost it when I was putting her in the car, yelling "I want to get out" over and over again. Rebecca often gets a little upset when Lucy is screaming herself hoarse, and had her hands over her ears. As we rolled away, Rebecca decided to try to placate Lucy by giving her little sister her blanket and Cabbage Patch doll.

"I don't want my blankie. It's not my blankie, it's YOUR blankie now Rebecca!" (Understand that this blankie is what Lucy uses to get to sleep every night, drags along with her throughout the day and is probably her best friend)

I chuckled at this. Then I heard:

"I don't want the baby anymore. No more baby. It's your baby Rebecca. Get the baby off of me." At which point in the passenger side rear view mirror I see a doll in a fuzzy pink snowsuit get chucked out the window of the car.

I laugh. Rebecca is bawling. My sister Fiona is puzzled, looks in the mirror and sees something bouncing off the road and has a moment of terror thinking that Lucy somehow slipped her seatbelts and got out of the car.

Anyway, we went back and picked up the baby, and as normal, after another 5 or so minutes, Lucy was tuckered out and was reduced to sobbing gently. After that, she always wants big cuddles and apologizes for yelling.

That girl, she's 98% absolutely adorable. 2% rage.

Sugar bush visit and 3rd birthday!

2011-04-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

Couple little updates. We decided this spring that we had to go to a sugar bush and see some maple syrup production. We went for breakfast, some playing around in the park, a little walking through the bush and a hay ride.

Rebecca got her face painted, which was probably the biggest deal about the whole thing:

Next up: Lucy's third birthday. Man, time flies... Had some grandparents cousins and aunts and uncles there. Much merriment to be had by all:

What to say and how

2011-02-28T23:14:00.000-08:00

I had a grand total of two history classes during the course of my education. The first was in junior high and began with australopithecus and ended with the Second World War. The second was in high school - the history of Québec and Canada which did venture into the modern age but was decidedly narrow in its scope. Anything else I know about history (and Canadian history in particular), is a result of personal study or exposure to things like Heritage minutes. I suppose this is a consequence of pursuing a degree in life sciences. If only our fields of study stayed broader longer... At any rate, when it comes to the Famous Five, I'll admit to knowing next to nothing (beyond those Heritage minutes which I'm told have some inherent problems). My daughters have been exposed to the concept of suffrage via Mary Poppins, which is to say, only at the most basic level. The question is - what do you say about the Famous Five to your five-year old? Obviously, you say the good stuff in simplified terms but do you qualify the statements? Do you launch into a discussion of whether the ends justify the means? Until my sister illuminated me, I was completely unaware of the controversy surrounding some of the members of the Famous Five. I had accepted information presented to me at face value, with none of the rigour or analysis I would have employed when receiving data in a "scientific" context. Bad on me. Still, I feel ill-equipped to determine what I should do with my mixed feelings on this issue. Advancing the feminist cause - definitely laudable. Doing so in a potentially racist way... yikes. I don't think I want to have this conversation with my daughter and yet - I don't want to give her sanitized information either.
As a parent, there are many times when I have to navigate a tricky conversation with my daughter. Sometimes I do a good job, and sometimes I do not. Certainly, this issue has not proven as fraught with opportunities to truly mess up as in conversations on mortality, however, like most parents, I want to do right by my children and impart a certain set of values along the way - no matter the topic.
I think in the end, I will tell her that it's not just what you say and do that's important, but also how (a concept that should already be familiar). Maybe that's enough detail for now. After all, it's that very idea that has made me struggle over this issue in the first place.

Where's Daddy sheep?

2010-12-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

Lucy was playing with a small plastic Fisher Price sheep and a giant stuffed sheep. She was making voices for both sheep. The big sheep was the Mommy sheep and the little sheep was the baby sheep. Baby sheep said "Where is my Daddy?". Mommy sheep said "He's at Bushtukah".

First household infection of the year

2010-09-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

By the end of her first week back at school, Rebecca had brought back a cold and shared it with Lucy and I. Mom so far seems unaffected.

I called this morning to see if I should keep her home. They said if she wasn't feverish or coughing badly to send her on in. "If kids stayed home every time they were sniffly a few students would never come to school." Seems practical enough.

New Tricks

2010-09-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

Trick #1: "Look Daddy, I can have one eye open and one eye closed!" "That's called winking honey."

Trick #2: Maori tattoos for their baby dolls. Rebecca and Lucy discovered a permanent marker hidden among some odds and ends on the dishwasher. They decided that scribbling all over their dolls (one of which is Lucy's required bedtime companion) in black marker. It was later determined that they were marked around the back of the neck to "protect them from predators". They were also given "polish" on their feet. Assorted scribbles on their heads and bodies remain unexplained.

We've done some internet research to see if it's possible to remove the markings. We may be in the market for replacements.

Perhaps we'll take pictures first.

Sisters help each other

2010-09-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

Was taking care of dishes yesterday after dinner. Rebecca and Lucy were playing well together for a little while, then I heard sounds of conflict. Rebecca was opening and closing a door and Lucy was getting quite upset. I told Rebecca to let Lucy in.

A couple minutes later Rebecca came up and said:
"Lucy's bum is all stinky and messy. I tried to wipe it but I couldn't do it."

Uhoh.

Check the bathroom. As I suspected, there was a poopy toddler, poopy potty seat, poopy pull up in the bath tub, a couple of errant poops on the floor and a little other assorted mess.

Obviously I couldn't be angry, as Lucy was just trying to be independent and Rebecca was just trying to help, but I had to try to explain that Lucy needs the help of an adult if she's going to be using the potty.

American Dagger Moth

2010-08-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

The girls and I found the caterpillar of the American Dagger Moth crawling up the side of the house today. Since our street is lined with linden trees - I guess this is not too surprising, but this was the first one I'd ever seen. At any rate, I took some pictures (not my forté), which will be posted later. When we came inside, we all sat down and tried to identify the caterpillar in our book of North American Insects and Spiders. We had no luck - but the process was very nice, and ultimately the internet came to the rescue.

Summer update

2010-08-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, only three weeks to go! Yikes, where did all the time go?

I didn't get in all the camping I wanted, or have as many play dates, or teach Rebecca how to ride her bike without training wheels yet. Time just seems to evaporate around the ultra compact nuclear energy source that is my two little girls.

Rather than being comprehensive about all the stuff I've neglected to post about in the last few months, I'll offer a picture of the last couple days.

Yesterday I biked the girls out in the early afternoon to Agincourt Park, which is right behind Becca's school. It's got a little play structure and a wading pool. We met up with Becca's classmate Rachel (one of Rebecca's favorite people), Rachel's little sister Rebecca, and their mom Elizabeth.

Let me tell you, the whole Rebecca/Rebecca thing was a little trying for Lucy. I think we got her sorted, though, without thinking that her sister split in two. ;)

We spent a couple hours playing in and out of the pool, and really blew through a chunk of Lucy's naptime.

I noticed that they were having a 'Park party' type event today, though, so we made plans to return.

I'd seen one of these parties at the park at the end of our street a couple weeks ago, but we weren't able to attend. There was music playing, games aplenty, BBQ and ice cream and bouncy play castles.

I arranged to meet with Rowan and Luka (and mom Sarah) as well as mentioned my plans to Rachel's mom, who suggested she might show sometime around 1pm.

The morning consisted of dropping Mom off at work, and heading out for groceries. By the time we got back there was time to make a few phone calls and then pack up and head out to the Park again.

I got there a little later than intended due to an apparent slow leak in my rear bike tire, but it held up and we made it ok by around 12:30.

The event was a little more low-key than the one I had witnessed previously. They had music playing, and 'BBQ' hot dogs (ok, they were wieners done on a George Forman grill, but they were only $1) and a cotton candy machine. Things were less elaborate, but the various lifeguards were all very enthusiastic, some playing games and live music, and making things fun for all the kids.

Rowan had already had a taste of the water by the time we arrived (Luka too, apparently accidentally) and had decided it was too cold. She was back in her dry clothes. Lucy and Becca would have none of that, though, and went right into the pool.

I had to drag Becca out for lunch, after which they went back in the water, joined by Rowan. Shortly after that, Rachel showed up with her dad. She got in the pool, and came out pretty quickly after that. Rebecca must really have a thing for the water, though, because she stayed in all by her lonesome for a while, when the other kids were off doing other activities.

Timing of bathroom visits meant some running around, and being pulled in different directions by the kids meant no chance to sit down and relax and socialize with the parents.

The kids were well sun screened, but my plan of finding a place in the shade to watch over them didn't really pan out. No burn for me, but it made for a very tiring afternoon.

Lucy had had enough by around 3 and we beat our retreat. As I was trying to convince Rebecca that we needed to leave the play ground she wiped out on the slide and bit her tongue. Some cuddles and teary goodbyes and we were on our way.

Lucy went down for a nap fairly easily, and Rebecca put herself to bed too (!). But it was less than an hour until we had to get out the door to pick up Mom from work and go to swimming lessons.

The lessons started at 5pm, and today was 'parent day'. Lucy is in a parent and tot class, but this is the one class in the session where we get to go in the water with Becca. So Mom and I both swam, and traded off a couple times to spend time with each of the girls.

Both girls are coming along in their own ways. Rebecca seems to have this class mastered, happily climbing out and jumping into the pool unassisted, floating with her face in the water holding a pool noodle, and swimming around the pool on her back and front with a noodle. Next level will introduce swimming with no flotation aids. I'm interested to see that.

Lucy is a champ at jumping in the pool, kicks much better than Rebecca did at this point in her swimming career, and most importantly seems to love the water like big sister. What she can't abide by, though, is back float. Don't know why, but she freaks out about it.

Anyway, we were back home at 6pm, and Mom took off for a dinner date with a friend. The girls and I shared some leftovers, and we were into bedtime routine shortly thereafter. It took FOR.... EVER. As I tried to get one room tidied up, one or both of the girls would destroy the other one. Finally, I just got everything done for Lucy, and put her to bed.

Rebecca was supposed to be cleaning her room, but was so tired that she had the attention span of a chipmunk. I stubbornly had decided to dig in my heels and make her clean her room by herself. I would ask her to pick up a toy, and she wouldn't even make it to the appropriate shelf without starting to make up a little story, talking in voices and such.

All told, bedtime routine took the better part of an hour and a half between the two girls.

Neither of them were being particularly bad or trying at any point today, but it sure took a lot out of me anyway.

I'm pretty certain that they both had an awesome time, though, so I wouldn't have it any other way.

Sisters

2010-08-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

Summer is here post

2010-07-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

The fact is... the busier and more complicated our lives become, the less likely we are to be able to set aside time to update the blog. And naturally the things that are going on and keeping us from writing are probably more worthy of entries. We have both girls enrolled in swimming classes at the same time on the same night of the week -which is fun for everyone. Unfortunately, Greg expelled me from the swimming area because I was distracting Lucy from her lesson (by my mere presence). Greg keeps the girls busy with play dates and museum trips, and I do the same on the weekends (usually with grandparent visits). We recently bought a little blow-up pool which is greatly appreciated. Combine that with watermelon and corn on the cob, and suddenly it's summer.

The works of Robert Munsch
Rebecca is extremely interested in the works of Robert Munsch these days. In her first year, we bought her The Paper Bag Princess (essential reading for all young girls - in my opinion), but she also has copies of Murmel, Murmel, Murmel, Angela's Airplane, We Share Everything (ha ha ha), Millicent and the Wind, Alligator Baby and most recently - Smelly Socks. Alligator Baby was a book my Mom gave to Rebecca when Lucy arrived and was very appropriate. It is likely her favourite, but I have also read Smelly Socks so many times lately, that I believe I might have the text memorized. Lucy has Ribbon Rescue, which I have read to her every night since I bought it. Anyhow, Rebecca acquired Smelly Socks for herself and Ribbon Rescue for Lucy by twisting my rubber arm during a recent trip to the local bookstore. The objective was for me to buy one specific book, but naturally I emerged with a total of four (2 for the girls, 2 for me). At any rate, Rebecca engaged me in a lively debate about whether Alligator Baby was fiction or non-fiction. She was adamant that it was nonfiction, and I tried to reason with her that she was mistaken. When you reach the point of trying to reason with the 4 year old, I think something has already gone terribly wrong. At any rate, the bottom line is that I am very happy that they take so much pleasure in books.
http://robertmunsch.com/

The accursed ice cream truck
There's an ice cream truck that patrols our neighbourhood. I don't mean a cart with outrageously priced multicoloured nasty popsicles, I mean a legitimate truck with music and enormous soft ice cream cones for next to nothing (but cash only ladies and gentlemen). There are only a few songs in its repertoire - one is Fur Elise, and it can also say "hello". These songs aren't blasting, but they can be heard from miles away. If you are bbqing in your backyard with your children, everyone hears it the moment it approaches the neighbourhood - a veritable siren song that engenders a kind of Pavlovian dog response in Rebecca and Lucy. I have partaken of the ice cream once - and I admit it was delicious. The girls have partaken more than once. I'll even admit that on one desperate occasion, I packed the girls into the car and drove down the street to catch the truck in my jewelled flip flops and a WonderWoman t-shirt that was never intended to grace society. That was the time (although not the last time), it stopped literally across the street from our house while I was trying to put Lucy to bed, and then I couldn't get scrounge up my change fast enough. There were tears and sotte voce curses, but ice cream was had in the end.

Potty training
We have embarked on Lucy's potty training journey. Hooray. Sigh. At the very beginning, potty training always feels like a giant pain, since in many ways, diapering was so much easier. I am hopeful that her attitude will allow for a quicker training time than Rebecca. Lucy is also lucky enough to benefit from the enthusiastic support of Rebecca who takes her job of cheering Lucy on very seriously. Lucy has had two successful pees on the potty so far, but is still missing her timing on most occasions. She is very good at communicating what has happened - after the fact, but tends to refer to everything as being "poopy". Rebecca and I made Lucy a very nice poster - on which we wrote Lucy's name, drew a big picture of Dora and a big picture of Miss Spider. Much as Rebecca did at that age, Lucy places all her stickers on those things she likes best - so Dora's whole face is covered in stickers, and Miss Spider's eyes are also highly decorated.

Rebecca's manual dexterity
Rebecca's drawing skills seem to have taken another leap forward. Her representations of people are suddenly far more recognizable, with very distinct features. Lucy adores colouring and drawing, but Rebecca is constantly reprimanding her for scribbling, which I gather was a big J-K no-no. I have to keep explaining that it's o.k. for Lucy to scribble since she is still little and learning.

Summer is here

2010-07-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

Updates!

2010-07-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Rebecca finished her first year at school. We're now settling into the summer routine. She's quite excited about next year, her teacher is Madame Anne, and she has a class mascot, Patapouf, a teddy bear.

I'm sure she'll miss Miss Leslie, though.

We've got info from a few playmates, and just renewed our annual Museum of Nature membership, so we'll head down their fairly regularly. Swimming classes for both girls start on Wednesday.

This is you

2010-05-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

Lucy is a little girl who likes to play with dolls. She likes to dress them up. She likes to wheel them around in a stroller. She likes to tuck them into bed and give them kisses. It's all very sweet.
A recent birthday gift was a pair of magnetic dolls that can be dressed up in magnetic clothing much like paper dolls of yore. She loves this toy and makes daily use of it.
The other night I came home and I found one of the dolls heads. Just the head - in the living room. Lucy saw me holding it and said "this is you". Eventually, after a thorough excavation of the couch (where many treasures were uncovered), I found the body. When I showed her the body, again she said "This is you".
I'm sure there's a humorous interpretation out there.

Evolution

2010-04-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

Rebecca seems mostly better. I offered her a grilled cheese for lunch, and she declined, preferring toast and fruit.

A little while later she came up with this gem:

Becca: "One time when I was a baby I liked grilled cheese. But now that I'm a little girl I don't like it anymore."

Dad: "Why don't you like it anymore?"

Becca: "I liked it when I was a baby. I don't like it now. Because of evolution."

Becca sees creatures that dislike grilled cheese as further along the evolutionary chain. Interesting.

Becca's a poor sickie

2010-04-18T23:28:00.000-07:00

So Rebecca's been sick the last few days. She'll seem somewhat better for a while, have a good appetite, be in good spirits, then wham, either back to the bathroom to clean up after an accident or she throws up.

She finds it quite upsetting, but she seems to recover ok with cuddles afterwards.

I got home tonight late after work to find Mom looking kind of frazzled. Rebecca had thrown up in bed, meaning a couple loads of things to clean up afterwards, and some serious consolation after cleaning her up.

Apparently it was at this point that Rebecca said:

"I'm sick. I threw up four times. I'm four years old. I don't want to ever turn five years old."

I went in to check on her late tonight to find out she'd slept right through soiling her sheets, so I had to wake her up and take her to the washroom to clean her off in the tub.

Tonight she said that she doesn't like the bathroom because it's "where bad things happen".

It's amazing how helpless you can feel when your child is sick and you have no way to make them feel better.

She does give awesome cuddles though when she's feeling down in the dumps.

They like it when they match

2010-04-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

They like to be dressed alike.

Lucy turned two today

2010-04-12T18:49:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty recent picture.
I don't know how it is possible that she is already two!!!

Rosetta's bad day

2010-04-12T18:47:00.001-07:00

This is Lucy's Rosetta fairy doll.
I can't tell you how often I find her like this (although most dolls in the house end up naked). The same thing happens to Becca's Tink doll. What does it mean? I don't know.
Lucy will also shove all of her bathing suits into the holes of her shape-sorter elephant.

Sibling Cuddles

2010-04-12T18:46:00.001-07:00

It's all great until they find an object of mutual interest

Good times with hats from Great-Nanny

2010-04-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

More Easter girls

2010-04-12T18:39:00.001-07:00

Girls in their Easter dresses

2010-04-12T18:38:00.001-07:00

The trouble with the English language...

2010-03-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

So, since Rebecca started reading she likes to try to identify all the letters (but mostly the consonants) in a word she hears.
As a result, she is quickly discovering that English is a big méli-mélo with lots of exceptions.
She gets very frustrated when her guesses are wrong, or if words don't conform to the rules she knows.
Problem words lately:
1 - Ocean (bad enough already that c can be soft or hard, but to make "sh" sound is unacceptable)
2 - Pteradactyl (the concept of a silent p annoys her)
3 - Lucy (the u that makes an "oo" instead of a "you" or "uh" sound, the soft c, and the y that is neither "yuh" nor "eye" sounding).

Coochie coo does not fix an enraged toddler

2010-03-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

During our visit to the hardware store I had the temerity to try to strap Lucy into the back of a shopping cart. She was not pleased.

She started squirming, moaning, yelling, crying, bawling and occasionally emitting animal like guttural noises.

I studiously ignored it, as I don't want her to get her way every time she pitches a fit. Especially when I need to strap her down to get something necessary accomplished.

I had three separate Rona employees try to cheer her up. The first one came up, waved at her, made various cooing noises and very helpfully suggested that 'all she needs is a little distraction'. I thanked her for the advice.

The second employee showed up about 30 seconds later, bearing paint chips for children's bedrooms which are shaped like a little smily face on a card. She offered one to Becca, who graciously took it. Lucy instead growled 'No' and whacked it out of the kind lady's hand onto the floor.

The third employee was about a minute later, and came along with balloons for the kids. Rebecca was overjoyed. Lucy tried to dramatically throw hers down at the ground. However it, being a balloon, did not smash to the floor breaking into a million pieces.

I gave it a couple more minutes, and as the fourth helpful employee approached, I released Lucy from the torture chair, and brought her up to my shoulder. She stopped crying immediately, looked around, and started giggling about something.

She won, and the degree of persistence and patience she showed frightens me.

Small booster seat update.

2010-03-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

On day 2 of her booster seat usage, I was driving Rebecca home from Stomp. About 2 km from home I hear 'click' and look in the rearview mirror to see Rebecca scooting across the rear seat.

"Rebecca! NO! You do NOT undo your seatbelt, now I have to stop the car because that is NOT safe!"

I pulled over, got her buckled back in, and I gave her a little lecture about how if she's not buckled in, and we have an accident, she could fly around the car and get hurt. I told her how a seatbelt keeps her much safer in the car, and she should feel uncomfortable in a moving car without a seatbelt.

It must have been effective, because as soon as I was done the waterworks started. She was pretty much done crying by the time we got home, but as I opened the front door to let her in the house she let out a big wail "MOOOMMMY" and ran up to mom and gave her a big sobby hug.

We ran a few errands in the car today, and she's still excited about her booster each time she gets to ride in the car, and there have been no more unbuckling incidents. In fact she's been asking me if it's ok to undo it every time I shut off the car.

Chalk another success up to 'the stern voice'.

Girls in the closet

2010-03-08T21:08:00.000-08:00

The girls play well together.

Nanny makes awesome nightgowns

2010-03-08T21:07:00.001-08:00

Rebecca got Fifth disease

2010-03-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

Also known as "slap cheek", it is yet another virus she caught at school. The rash actually spread over her entire body, and is still dissipating, even though it's been a few weeks since its initial appearance.

Way overdue post

2010-03-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

Rather than try to post about the weeks that have already passed, I will post about today.
Rebecca is still talking about seeing Stomp. Stomp tickets were her big Christmas present and she went yesterday with Greg. She *loved* it and she also befriended a little girl sitting beside her. I don't know how I spawned such a sociable little lady, but there you have it. Lately, all Rebecca wants to eat is Dino eggs and watermelon. She used to have much broader food interests. I don't know what happened. Now she hates yogurt. It used to be a daily (and conveniently healthy) fixture. If I had any doubts about the yogurt loathing it was confirmed when I read her "All about me" book that came home in her backpack from school today. Under "foods I don't like/yuck yuck" was a picture of yogurt. There was also a picture of "ham" (actually salmon) and "chicken" (stir fry pork) which she claims to hate. The last time I bought a package of sliced ham, she ate 4 slices in a sitting. Of course, there are any number of untruths in "all about me". For example, Rebecca says her favourite colour is green, her favourite animal is a fox, and her favourite toy is a starfish. However, she did correctly identify and draw all the members of her immediate family, and did not include the neighbour's dog (we recently had a heated debate about whether Bailey the dog was our dog or not). Recently, Rebecca has been telling me that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up because then she could make me feel better when I'm sick. I thought that was really sweet. At the same time, she has been obsessing over bandaids and insists she needs one every time she so much as bumps up against something. This evening she tried to convince me that her knees (bumped two or three days ago) was bleeding. It was not. She also tried to call Nanny and Grandpa on a plastic toy phone because she misses them and wants them to come home. Rebecca is very enthusiastic about reading. Since she can now read simple sentences, she likes to take books off her shelf and pretend read them. Tonight she read Lucy a bedtime story. It was very cute and Lucy was thrilled to bits. I am impressed with how nicely (mostly) the girls have been playing together. They seem to have a lot of fun, and they trash both their rooms (yeah!). On the weekend we were having dinner with my brother-in-law and his family and Rebecca was playing with a big Bonhomme stick. She told me she was practicing her footwork with her bokken. It just goes to show that sometimes she listens and pays attention to me, even if often it seems like this is not the case. With Lucy, the lack of listening is very evident these days. We are definitely in the terrible twos (even if two is still a month away). I am rejoicing in the fact that Becca has finally achieved a weight sufficient to allow the elimination of her godforsaken car seat. We now have her in a booster and my back is grateful. Rebecca is over the moon with this development. Lucy is such a sweetheart but she has developed a preference for specific clothing items that often leads to frustration on her part. There are two shirts that she loves better than any others. One she call "colours" because it is a stripy shirt of different colours (and while she does have other multi-coloured stripey shirts, only this one is special to her). The other shirt she calls "castle". The reason for this title is more elusive - it is in fact a yellow t-shirt (which is now too small really) from Egypt that my parents gave to her in the fall. It has a picture of Horus and a Pharaoh on it. With pants she is somewhat less picky. There are two acceptable pjs. One is called "Kendo", and it is a pink nightgown with polka dots (this has no relation to my Kendo uniform at all). The other is called "Cake", and consists of a top with a cake on it, and pj bottoms with various sweets depicted on them. God forbid that all of these items be dirty at the same time. She will rifle through the hamper looking for them. You can, of course, dress her in other things, but at this point, if she doesn't want to wear something - off it comes. She also eats my grapefruit when I'm distracted.

Soapy coiffure

2010-02-09T21:22:00.001-08:00

Sleeping Lucy - January

2010-02-09T21:21:00.002-08:00

Lucy and her new injury

2010-02-09T21:21:00.001-08:00

Rebecca - January

2010-02-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

Lucy bonks her head again

2010-01-13T06:24:00.000-08:00

Second verse, same as the first. As happened back at the end of September, Lucy was walking on a bed, fell and hit her forehead on some furniture, cutting it and necessitating a visit to the hospital to get it glued shut.

Once again, she was a trooper, and stopped crying before we had finished wiping the blood off her face.
The wait at the hospital wasn't too bad, we were out in about 2.5 hrs.

Rebecca is a Candyland master

2009-12-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

She's gone 3 for 3 today, crushing mom and dad each time. Don't know how she does it. Allegedly this is a game of chance, but the really, the odds of her winning three times in a row like that are 27:1 against. Someone could have made good coin betting on her.

Also, she's not losing any teeth yet apparently. False alarm.

Speeding to maturity - someone make it stop

2009-11-18T18:56:00.000-08:00

Rebecca is losing her first baby tooth. After lots of research, I have determined that this is unusual but not abnormal. Certainly, given that she started teething at two months, and got her first teeth at four months, it stands to reason that this could occur.

Lucy's first trick-or-treat

2009-11-03T21:21:00.000-08:00

This year was Lucy's first trick-or-treat experience, and Rebecca's third. The first time Rebecca went out at Hallowe'en, she was fearless. She was fascinated by every Hallowe'en display in the neighbourhood (there are always two or three houses that go all out). The second time, she had learned to fear, and her trip was short. This year, she was only afraid of the really crazy places, and was otherwise willing to go until she couldn't carry her own goody bag. Lucy is still young enough not to know to be very afraid. She loved being in costume, but only truly realized the purpose of the evening after the first three houses or so. After that, she started running down the street to the next location. By the time we retired her, she was so tired she could barely walk. She just seemed to want to sit on the curb and hunt for chocolate in her bag. Lucy was very charming with the people in the neighbourhood. She was probably the youngest trick-or-treater we saw, and while she couldn't manage to say "trick or treat", she always said Thank-you, Bye, and she also blew kisses and waved. Usually Greg does the rounds with my Dad and the girls, but this year I took a turn. Sadly, I was mostly relegated to the position of photojournalist (for which I am most unsuited), since the girls preferred to walk with Grandpapa.
I had an unexpectedly positive feeling about humanity as a result of taking the girls trick-or-treating. Perhaps it was encountering so many positive reactions to my children from the strangers (and the non-strangers) in my neighbourhood, or maybe it was just the fact that so many different people are willing to participate in this activity for the sake of children, with little benefit and possibly some inconvenience to themselves. It's a perspective on Hallowe'en that I haven't really had before (answering the door and dispensing of candy leftovers tends to give one a combination of mild irritation and guilt).

Bzzz

2009-11-03T21:20:00.001-08:00

Hallowe'en

2009-11-03T21:19:00.000-08:00

T-Rex says RAWR

H1N1 shots for the girls (and dad)

2009-10-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

Three of us got our vaccines today. The girls will have to go back in 3 weeks as they just got half-doses.

I got the shot because I have asthma. I would have waited, but made the choice that they set up the priority groups for a reason, and I may as well follow their system.

We got to Tom Brown Arena at 1:30 with Lucy (Rebecca was at school) planning to get the shots for the two of us. Madeleine was going to try to do Rebecca tomorrow.

There were what looked like a couple hundred people in line outside. The lineup was to get a number (on a bracelet), which determined when you could go in to get your shots.

It took 1 hour to get through the line and get the number, and they told us to come back around 5pm. Rebecca was going to be done school, so I got her a number too.

We got back there at 5pm, but they were running a little slower than expected all day, so they were behind by 150 people, doing around 100 vaccinations/hour.

We got called inside a bit after 6pm, and got registered for our shots at around 7pm. Then another 15-20 minutes of waiting before we got our shots, then 15 minutes where you're supposed to hang around in case of a bad reaction.

We were back in our car by around 7:45.

The delays seemed to be caused by problems with the load on their computerized registration system. I'm not sure I can really blame them, as this is the first time there's been a mass immunization happening like this in recent times. It sounds like things are going more and more smoothly every day.

Both girls have woken up crying, but that's not too new. We gave Lucy some Tempra, and that seems to have settled her.

My arm is *%^$# sore right now, but otherwise I feel fine.

Yes, it made for a long afternoon/evening. But you know what? I feel incredibly fortunate. A mass vaccination like they're doing is no small undertaking. People were complaining about waiting in line to get a bracelet. Well, the bracelets were to try to stem people from gaming the system, getting in line multiple times to get numbers for friends and relatives. They weren't exactly strict about it, though. I think if they have those rules they should be a little less flexible, as the rules were to ensure that the most vulnerable get the vaccinations *first*. I can't think of a more fair way to dole out the shots.

Otherwise, yes, there were delays. That's understandable though. It's not like they can pull 50% of the nursing staff out of the hospitals or anything. They had limited resources, and were making the best of it. It's also pretty unprecedented to do a mass vaccination this quickly, with this short a turnaround from when the vaccines start coming off the line.

Yes, I know, the vaccine *probably* won't be preventing any deaths in my household, but it's the principle. I'd rather we go through the procedure this time with a pandemic that *won't* be killing hundreds of thousands of people, than with one that *will*. Next time I'm sure things will run more smoothly, and I'm fairly confident that there's going to be a next time.

Lucy has the croup

2009-10-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

It sucks.

She has a plastic one at home

2009-10-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

Rebecca and I are going to form our very own megatherium club.

Rebecca and Gastornis/Diatryma

2009-10-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

Prehistoric beasts make me happy too!

Indoctrination

2009-10-14T19:50:00.000-07:00

Madeleine may have taken the girls to the Museum of Natural History, but I got to take them to both the Air & Space Museum *and* and old-timey airshow at the Flying Circus Aerodrome (beware, website straight out of 1996)

In the prehistoric ward of the hospital...

2009-10-03T17:44:00.000-07:00

Prehistoric mammals get injured.

Thank goodness 3 year olds can raid the locked bathroom medicine cabinet to find the bandaid supply.

In this picture we see:
Two sabre-tooth cats
One Andrewsaarchus
One macrochenia
One megatherium
And one uninjured apatosaurus who is apparently drinking out of a Sleeping Beauty tea cup.

I am convinced that this behaviour on the part of Rebecca, is connected to Lucy's trip to the hospital and her very obvious facial bandages. I am going to assume that this is a positive sign that she is dealing with the experience, rather than take a negative interpretation and think that she is fixating on it and is troubled.

Lucy's sunshine smile

2009-10-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

Lucy's lunch

2009-09-29T19:38:00.001-07:00

The smile is Lucy's signature very happy smile.

School bus

2009-09-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

Update shots

2009-09-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

Update!

2009-09-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

So - this past weekend Lucy had her first trip to emerg. She fell and split her forehead open on a piece of furniture. There was lots of blood, tears, and drama. She was glued back together, and is still sporting bandages and crustiness. I could give more details, but the truth is - it was all very horrible and scary and I am having enough trouble banishing the images from my mind. I will never forget it! The last time Lucy made my heart stand still like that was when she was born. I suppose that given her adventurous nature, this sort of thing was bound to happen sooner or later, but that realization isn't at all comforting. I'm just happy she is o.k. Yesterday, Rebecca had me put a bandaid on her forehead because she wanted to be like Lucy. That at least, was pretty cute. Things roll on the way they do in the fall - at full speed. Every school day I try to wrestle details out of Rebecca, but I only get as much as she's willing to share - which is pretty minimal. Fortunately, I am clever enough to sometimes trick information out of her with innocent-seeming questions or assertions. As I learned from Sherlock Holmes, a very easy way to get information out of people is to say something that is probably blatantly false - thus giving them the opportunity to correct you (something most people jump at the opportunity to do!). Also, I can't help but catch the tunes of unknown songs that she'll randomly start to sing. We haven't posted pictures in a while because our gallery server was down. It's now up and our collection is slowly being restored. Soon - pictures will return. I will be posting some September ones that you haven't seen. We had to cut Rebecca's hair because she kept getting massive tangles. Had we been less reluctant to cut it when she was yonger, it probably wouldn't have gotten to that state, but - the new do suits her anyway. Enjoy the pics of Lucy's unblemished face - they are the last ones that will ever exist.

Lucy's better?

2009-09-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

Her appetite's back and she was acting normally this morning.

So far, no sign of illness in the rest of the family. Fingers crossed, as we just put Rebecca on the bus for school a couple minutes ago. If she gets sick at school I'll feel pretty guilty.

Lucy's sick. :(

2009-09-17T18:43:00.000-07:00

I was putting her to bed, and she seemed a little out of sorts. As I was finishing up our cuddle and about to leave she threw up. Got her cleaned up in the bath, had her wrapped in a towel, and she did it again. She was a trooper, not much crying. She was very, VERY tired though, so that probably helped.

Then two more times. The last couple were pretty much just bile. I *think* she's done. She's down now, and we'll try to get some water into her if she wakes up tonight.

I anticipate I'll probably be getting sick too.

Oh my god, we're in a whole new era

2009-09-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

Whoops, almost a month since our last post! :-/

So what's new?

Mainly, Rebecca's at school.

She's now successfully potty trained, and is currently in her third day of her educational career.

Assuming 2800 days of schooling before highschool graduation, she'll be a little over .1% done her schooling when I pick her up this afternoon.

She hops onto the bus full of smiles, talking with her schoolmates, and comes off the bus with random narrative snippets which we can't quite put together. I'm not sure exactly what's happened to her at school, but I know she loves it.

It makes me happy to know she's loving it, but I wish I could be a fly on the wall at the same time.

Another successful day

2009-08-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! Another full accident free day. Rebecca took herself to the bathroom to poop twice today. Woohoo!

Of course, after the visit, she came streaking out of the bathroom looking for poop-presents. We've gotta work on her follow through before September.

Twenty four hours of success!

2009-08-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Rebecca performed flawlessly. She wore the same underwear all day long, going to the bathroom a whole bunch of times. Most impressively, both times that she had to go poop, she took herself to the bathroom and called out that she pooped in the toilet after she was done! Hooray! Rewarded her with a Disney puzzle. (Got 8 of them in a box for $15) We'll wean her off the bribes soon, once we're getting consistent success.

Today also went well, not 100%, but I won't bore you with details.

Next up, wiping ourselves after poops. Following that, it's trying to go through the night in underwear.

I'm starting to feel more confident about kindergarten next month. :)

Now it's straight hair

2009-08-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

Also, unrelated to parenting.

This has nothing to do with parenting

2009-08-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

Rebecca wins a potty incentive

2009-08-08T19:15:00.001-07:00

She told me she is a potato doctor, and she "fixes" the potato lady.

Fancy hair for Becca too

2009-08-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

Notice Lucy standing on a dining room chair (again!!!)

Never leave home without your T-Rex

2009-08-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

Success on the toilet front

2009-08-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

So today Becca had a little accident on the sofa. I was a little miffed. I sent her to the bathroom as I cleaned the mess and told her to strip down and sit on the toilet.

After she had a pee she started to get up and in frustration I told her to sit on the toilet until she pooped as I didn't want her to put on underwear to just have another accident.

I asked her repeatedly to try to poop as I cleaned up. I was a little more persistent than usual. She pooped.

She then asked for help wiping up, and then wanted her 'present'. She has several rewards up on the medicine cabinet above the toilet. She chose a Tinker Bell story book over Mr. or Mrs. Potato head and a My Little Pony unicorn.

This evening when offered the poster from the Tinker Bell book, Rebecca asked that it be put up in the kitchen beside her potty success chart. "For poops."

I'm crossing my fingers that this is the start of a trend.

It's really real

2009-08-05T19:08:00.001-07:00

Sometimes when I read other Mommy blogs, I am amazed. These women sound so capable and on top of it all! Is it really real? Or, is it the face they want to present on their blogs? And why am I reading the maternal adventures of some stranger halfway around the globe anyway? I admit, there is some comfort in knowing someone else is sharing my experiences, even if I will never meet them. I think it is impossible to write for a blog without some awareness (however small) of your audience colouring your creative act. For my own part, I try to be conscious of my own acts of editing - but generally it is to avoid sharing those moments that are too boring to relate, or too fleeting to signify much. The point is - if this blog has ever been useful to someone else, it's not been in those moments where I am praising Rebecca's puzzle completion ability - but rather describing my efforts to curb her head-banging tendencies etc. I intend to try harder (when I have the opportunity to post), to be really real.
Lucy has become obsessed with a sequined blue hat. I don't know how it happened or why, but she insists on wearing the thing at all times - on the change table, at the dinner table, in bed. I know when she wants it on, because she grunts at me, points to the hat and says hat. She gets frustrated if, when she puts it on her own head, it is not properly oriented. So often, I must fix the hat for her. Every time I place it on her head, she makes a happy scrunchy face, followed by a grin of insane happiness.
While she may insist on covering her head, she certainly has no interest in any covering of her backside.
Every day for the last week and a half, Lucy strips in her crib. Her PJs - no matter how elaborate, no matter how many snaps and buttons - come off, and her diaper does too. She frequently tries to remove the diaper just after I've put it on her. I'm sure you can imagine the kind of problems this tendency has engendered. There is something that really gets you down about a baby with poo all over her feet, bouncing up and down in her bed. There is also something that really gets you down about having multiple rounds of "elimination laundry" during a day.
For some reason, despite being almost completely toilet trained, Rebecca has gone through a mini-regression in the last week. There have been accidents on the floor. She stands there with me, in front of the puddle, and still tells me that she didn't pee. It's annoying to be given a bald-faced lie, but I can only think it's because she is worried about the consequences of the truth. Our policy has always been that "accidents happen, and that's o.k.". We are trying to be good coaches and focus on the positive. But I suppose the difference between our exultant hurrahs for success and the neutral (and sometimes forced) "it's o.k.", is obvious all the same. I was on my hands and knees wiping up the mess with towels, when Lucy fetched a towel and joined me.
I had a peaceful evening with Rebecca. Before Lucy was born, on nights when Greg was working, Rebecca and I would have a lot of peaceful evenings of togetherness. We would do some puzzles, do some chores, read some books, have imagination play. Tonight, once Lucy was asleep, Rebecca and I had a lovely time together. At one point she looked at me and said "Mommy, where's your tea?". I said "I don't have a tea right now". And she said "I'm going to make you a tea". So she went and got her entire Princess tea set and served me "tea". Tea was cheerios in a Sleeping Beauty teacup, with a spoon in it. Best tea I ever had.

Sleeping Beauty Bicycle Fun

2009-08-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Greg!

2009-08-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

I gave Greg the ultimate gift for his birthday...
I let him sleep in and nap at will the whole day long.
And I took care of all dirty diapers, and accidents.
That and an iPOD makes for a happy man.
Naturally, the ladies also bestowed copious hugs, kisses, and cuddles.

She calls me "TinkerMom"

2009-07-27T20:38:00.001-07:00

Guess who wants to be a fairy for Hallowe'en this year

2009-07-27T20:37:00.001-07:00

Three generations of accessories.
My crown.
My Mom's shoes.
My grandmother's purse.

Lucy is a climber

2009-07-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

If I'd let her, she would have ended up completely on the table.

She also can climb onto her change table in the time it takes you to say "she can climb onto her change table".

We need to buy her heavier shoes.

Lucy and her Daddy

2009-07-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

Everyone in my house knows that Lucy has a very special attachment to her Daddy. Every single day she shows us how much he means to her.
This evening, while Greg was on a bike ride, I was reading a book with Lucy. Rebecca was merrily doing some solo imaginative play in her room, so Lucy had my full attention. We were reading Thumper counts to ten. Now, while Lucy has recently developed a very keen interest in books, she still can't sit through an entire book. Therefore, I was shocked when we actually reached number nine. On each page of the book, the numbers are represented by woodland creatures. Nine is quail. One big quail and a trail of eight baby quails. I told Lucy that these birds were called quail (although she still said "quack quack"), and look - it's a Mommy quail with her babies. At that point she pointed to the big quail (Lucy does a lot of pointing these days) and said "Daddy". It fascinated me that she interpreted the picture in this way. To me, it was a mommy and babies picture - I made the assumption, without even a nanosecond of thinking. Automatic processing. Probably accurate representation of what happens in nature. But to her, these parental scene does not just default to "Mommy". I don't want to overinterpret, but I would like to imagine that this might be a sign that by having Greg as the at-home parent, Lucy has the notion that a nurturing parent is not just limited to being a Mommy. As long as she doesn't think it's a role exclusive to Daddies, then I think it is a wonderful thing that might be happening in her brain.

Lucy and Rebecca mini-update

2009-07-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

Lucy's language and cognitive abilities are advancing by leaps and bounds! It's crazy what she can learn in just one day! She adds new words to her vocabulary every day.
Lucy now uses some two-word sentences. Her favourite seems to be "Where's Daddy?" (not terribly surprising given the strength of her attachment). A new one I heard today was "go there" (declaring her intentions). Sadly, I must admit that another recent one was "single ladies". I think the blame for that one must lie squarely on Rebecca's shoulders, as it is no doubt her frequent rendition of Beyoncé hits, that put that phrase on Lucy's radar.
Lucy will now also execute simple commands. She will move objects as directed. The best application for this is that we can make her put her own diaper in the garbage. It is nice that she listens to what we say - if only it lasts!
Lucy was watching me sort laundry into piles. She brought me a sock from a laundry basket and I told her it was mine. So she tried to put it on my foot.
Rebecca is starting to make use of comparisons and similes on a regular basis. They are ones of her own devising, drawn from her own experiences or books she's had read to her. The other night, when she was reluctant to go to bed, she compared herself to the train from The Little Blue Engine that Could who repeats "I cannot".
Rebecca can't seem to tell the difference between the sound of me laughing and the sound of me crying. The girls are always doing humorous things, so I repeatedly have to assure Becca that I am o.k.

Ice cream

2009-07-17T19:21:00.001-07:00

Shades

2009-07-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

High tea with black-eye Becca

2009-07-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

She needs to pay attention to where she's going at lightning speed

Blankets make the world a better place

2009-07-11T20:34:00.001-07:00

Canada Day with the girls

2009-07-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

As promised: Lucy's special spot

2009-06-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

Mmm... right near the kitchen garbage!

Looks like Naan bread is on the menu.

Play time

2009-06-29T20:24:00.002-07:00

Life is so much easier now that they play together!
Mostly easier...

Can't beat that smile

2009-06-29T20:24:00.001-07:00

Bathtime hairstyles

2009-06-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

Inside this sweet girl is a little bit of drama lama

2009-06-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

It's hard to keep her still long enough for a good shot

2009-06-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Also, it doesn't help that I keep closing my eyes when the flash goes off.

Mega photo update

2009-06-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

Hello out there to my out-of-town readers (you know who you are)! Miss you!

Lucy and Becca update

2009-06-22T19:35:00.001-07:00

Rebecca is on some sort of feeding binge. There must be a growth spurt in the offing because this girl is perpetually hungry and consuming more food than an adult could comfortably eat.
Lucy is getting faster and faster. She is going to grow up and become the road runner. Lemon-eating Lucy is working on her last premolar. The bottom two have been through for a while, and one of the top ones has all points (but not all centre) through the gums. This makes her suffer, but despite this she has a jolly disposition. Her ambition these days seems to be to climb me.

Parenting Personal Bests

2009-06-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday
Greg doing charity bike thing
Mommy's in charge
Lucy - morning nap
Rebecca - Can I watch Diego?
Me - perfect - I can have a quick shower and wash my hair.
As I exit - noises in Lucy's room
As I enter - pee on the hardwood - clean removed diaper - poops in the crib, poop on the clothes, poops on the face, hands, railings, poops in the damn cute but smelly baby butt cheeks
Sigh

Monday
So bloody tired
Lucy hasn't napped all day
Greg desperately trying to finish getting the garden in
Manage to get Lucy down
Me - distracting Rebecca doing a princess puzzle mostly by myself while she eat cheerios
Rebecca - begging to be allowed to help Daddy garden
Me - getting the thumbs up from Greg and promising Rebecca she can go provided we put some sunscreen on her
Rebecca - nagging me, then wandering off to her room
Me - opportunistically lying down on the living room rug and falling asleep
Intermittent audio/visual Rebecca in the hallway saying something to me
Me - sudden alertness - Rebecca is holding something from my room
Watermelon and mint hand lotion
Rebecca - tired of waiting for mommy, has sunscreened herself with hand lotion
Me - decide to abandon sun screen plan - put Minnie Mouse hat on Rebecca instead

Post-swim class play time

2009-06-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

Lucy likes dirt

2009-06-17T23:33:00.000-07:00

Playing in, and eating.

If you look at the full sized version, you'll notice she's sporting a beatnik style beard, made of sand.

And oh yeah, she enjoys climbing playstructures now, too.

She is quite a handful at the park right now. Fortunately, Rebecca is responding pretty well to vocal commands, because I can no longer chase after her if Lucy's playing in the sand.

Long overdue post

2009-06-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

It's been ages and we've been busy. On with the update!

What's new with Lucy
Lucy is learning and changing so much every day, that it's virtually impossible to keep track of it all. This is my attempt at the highlights. If my darling husband wishes to add anything - he is more than welcome to amend my list.

Lucy's kitchen spot
Lucy has a special place in the kitchen now, where she likes to hang out. It is the bottom level of a wooden shelf that is basically vacant, and is behind the garbage can (ewww). Anyhow, Lucy collects various items of interest (shoes, cloth shopping bags, her blanket, abandoned socks), and dumps them there. Sometimes she just sits herself down and observes the world. It's pretty funny and I hope Greg can catch it on film some day soon.

Lucy's climbing addiction
Rebecca was a big climber as a baby, but Lucy is an extreme climber. She will try to scale anything. This includes a wall. Just a regular wall! She can now climb (quickly and easily), the couch, the loveseat, all the chairs in the dining room, the coffee table and (almost) our bed. She has also figured out how to open her drawers. Lucy can't be left alone in the living room or you will find her standing on the top edge of the couch. She does this so that she can then stand on the window ledge and look outside. I have caught her trying to climb out of her crib - but only once so far. Today she managed to wedge her leg between the bars. I suspect that like her sister, she will be in a toddler bed before age two - to prevent a catastrophe!

Lucy's babies
Lucy continues to be obsessed with babies. Live and inanimate. She just loves dolls and she loves pointing out any babies that she sees. You don't realize how many pictures of babies are around until someone starts saying "Baby!" every time they see one. Lucy has a few dolls and abuses them. I found one baby wedged in the crib in a manner I would have thought impossible.

Lucy's kissing sounds.
Lucy has started trying to make kisses. Mostly she achieves a smacking sound with her mouth after someone kisses her. It is very cute.

Lucy's not respecting Rebecca's space in the go-bug
The go-bug is our two-seater bike trailer/stroller and generally the girls are very good about sharing the space. But Lucy will sometimes just reach out and grab Rebecca in the face. I have to say that Rebecca has been very good about tolerating this behaviour - she doesn't retaliate, she simply voices her complaints loudly. Lucy is already developed a "I know I'm being naught, but aren't I cute?" face.

Lucy uses a stacking toy and a sorting toy
This weekend I thought Lucy might like to try out a wooden stacking toy. You know the type - a wooden rod, onto which you can slide various size wooden discs. Well, at first it challenged her manual dexterity a bit, but then - she mastered it. All in the space of ten minutes or so! So that same day, I decided to let her try a shape sorting toy, and she figured that one out too! I must be hitting her with these things at just the right age!

Lucy's vocabulary
I haven't blogged much about Lucy's communication skills. She is building up quite the little vocabulary. Not all words are equally well enunciated, but such is the nature of the beast. Here are the words we've identified so far:

Uh-oh (everytime something is dropped - be it accidental or deliberate)
Baby
Shoe
Baba (this is for Rebecca, on occasion she gets closer to saying Becca or Rebecca, but Baba comes out the most often)
Mama
Dada
Cheese
Quack
Ball
Muk (milk)
More
Hi
Byebye (with a wave)

I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some! Oh well. We are far pickier about what constitutes a real word this time around, so those ones are the most common, and are very clear.

And in the freakish/semi-frightening way of little babies - sometimes she repeats sentences just after you say them.
I've heard...
It is a baby
Milk please

Lucy goes to the fridge
When Lucy wants a drink, she will now go straight to the fridge. Now, if only I can get her to drive the car to the grocery store and pick up the milk.

Lucy's happy feet
Just in the past week, Lucy has started dancing to music, or dancing when she's happy. It's a funny little tap dance, that only involves her feet. I hope Greg can catch it on video one of these days.

Lucy putting things into containers
With the exception of her laundry hamper, Lucy is now more interested in putting things into other things, rather than removing things from other things.
Lucy's non verbal commands
Even though her vocabulary is burgeoning, Lucy is making her wishes known using body language. We have grunts, we have pointing, gesturing, and facial expressions. I have to be careful that we don't make it too easy for her to avoid language - she communicates non-verbally so clearly that we often don't bother push her to express herself by other means.
Lucy's imitative behaviour
Lucy has many of the same imitative behaviours these days that we witnessed in Rebecca at about the same age. Lucy will pretend to be on the phone and say "Hi". She will also use a hairbrush, and try to put on other people's socks and shoes.
Lucy - another left-handed girl
So - I did initially declare Lucy to be left-handed. Then, for a good long while I thought I might have declared prematurely. But now - blueberries have given me the proof. Lucy loves blueberries. Sadly, from a diaper-changing perspective, Greg allowed her to consume large quantities in one sitting. Nevertheless, one morning, after allowing her to eat blueberries, I elected to clean her hands and face with a moist cloth. But only the left hand was blue!

What's new with Rebecca
Rebecca's basic behaviours aren't changing much - they are just becoming more sophisticated. Her memory does impress me - sometimes she will retain something I mention once in passing, and bring it up days later. Even if I thought she hadn't paid attention at the time. Her social skills continue to impress. She manages to make friends whereever she goes.
Rebecca loves Lucy a lot
Rebecca has been oh so sweet with Lucy lately. She hugs and kisses her. If Lucy isn't around, Rebecca asks after her. If Lucy is upset, she sings to her. Sometimes, she just goes up to her and hugs her and tells her that she loves her. Lately, she even allows Lucy to play with some of her toys. This is a big deal! It used to be, when Lucy wandered into her room, Rebecca would immediately yell "No Lucy!". But now, she will tell Lucy the names of certain toys.

Swim class
Rebecca has at long last mastered jumping into the pool. For ages, in her swimming class, she would simply sit down and ease her way into the water when asked to jump in. Who knows why things have changed!

Rebecca and the truth
Rebecca is beginning to tell fibs. This means that Greg and I have been beginning to talk to Rebecca about the truth. Somewhere in there lies belief, fact, perspective - argh. It's more complicated than it seems. What is heartening about the fibs is that she is only telling us things that I think she feels we want to hear - positive things. So, she'll tell us that she pooped in the toilet, even if she actually had an accident, and we know it. Why? Because she knows it pleases us and elicits a positive response. For some reason, this sits semi-comfortably with me - her motivation doesn't seem terribly corrupt. She's not even asking for something out of it, even though we normally reward potty successes.

First scraped knee
Rebecca got her first big scraped knee this week. It was very dramatic and she refused a bandaid. She put herself to bet and wailed until I cuddled with her.

Telling stories
In general, Rebecca's independent play time consists of elaborate storytelling with a cast of characters she creates using little figurines in her room. It's fascinating to listen to, and especially fun to figure out what has influenced her particular story line. I think what I've found funniest lately is when she dresses up her prehistoric menagerie. One day she took all of her underwear, and draped them over and around her dinosaurs so that they could wear beautiful dresses. Another day she used elastic bands to decorate them.

I don't want to read it anymore
The same bedtime story for over a month now! It is a pop-up book with sounds, and it is about the ocean. It's a lovely book, but I am heartily sick of it. It is beautifully illustrated and full of wonderful facts about the creatures that live in the ocean. However, I am beginning to know the text by heart, especially for Rebecca's favourite underwater beasties. She now has an unnatural oceanic vocabulary for a three-year old, to go with her unnatural prehistoric creature vocabulary. Who am I kidding? I love that she likes biology!

Read about my triathlon

2009-05-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

Showing the girls that ladies can be sporty!

Lucy and Rebecca are watching me do a triathlon. Rebecca does not understand why everytime she sees me - I leave.

Picture of me at the end of my run - don't worry, I put my butt in gear and passed that other lady. Seriously, I was just grateful to be approaching the finish line.

To read a detailed account of my triathlon experience, follow this link:
http://marshallgang.ca/fitness/
The post is entitled "My Triathlon". For some reason, we've lost the byline. At any rate, most of the other posts there are by Greg, not me - in case you become confused.

Into the stay at home dad routine

2009-05-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

It's been more than a month that I've been at home while mom trudges off to work again. Didn't post about it... oops!

It's wonderful, I love my time with my girls. I've been having trouble getting enough sleep, and have been hoping for more exercise time.

I'm going to have to get better about loading the girls up in the Gobug when it's time to take them to classes, or groceries or whatever. I can jog, walk or bike with it, so I should be able to get some good workouts going without sacrificing time with the girls, or sleep time.

I've also got to work on filling my schedule more during the days. It seems like days where there's something on the calendar, be it classes, errands, playdates or museum visits, just seem to go more easily than when I start the day and never seem to get my butt in gear and get on top of things. It's like you slip behind the curve and play catch up with the girls all day and get nothing done, not even all the chores that always need doing. If instead I can scoop them up and head out of the house, I get a bunch more stuff done.

I also think being more active sets a better example for the girls.

I should stash some spare changing supplies and some sunscreen in the trailer so I can just head out the door without the rigamarole of prepping the diaper bag etc etc.

I would hug her

2009-05-04T21:05:00.001-07:00

More credits to Jay.

Stripey hugs

2009-05-04T21:04:00.001-07:00

Bosu buddies

2009-05-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken by Jay.
I have to say, they make the exercise ball look like fun.

Lucy in the Go--Bug

2009-04-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

So far, no one has bitten anyone else or stolen anyone else's blanket.

Better luck next time Mr. Polar Bear!

2009-04-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

They're up to something... you can tell

2009-04-28T20:47:00.002-07:00

Princess with Attitude - Indeed

2009-04-28T20:47:00.001-07:00

Pastel M&Ms?!?! I specifically said no pastel M&Ms!

2009-04-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

I'll be in my trailer!

Chocolate Pudding = Yummy

2009-04-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

Sisters playing together without violence

2009-04-28T20:27:00.000-07:00

I don't want you to think that there haven't been any "incidents" lately. There have. But, I did want to relate Rebecca and Lucy's latest playing together craze. They chase each other around the house! They complete circuits through the kitchen, living room and dining room. Rebecca runs, and Lucy goes as fast as she can. Usually this happens post-supper time, so Lucy is beginning to be tired enough that her ability to walk is affected. So, every so often, there is a big thump as she lands on her backside. Rebecca laps her, but Lucy doesn't care. She is laughing so hard she bumps into the wall. I am hoping we can capture this on video soon because it is hilarious.
Also, potentially cuter - I taught Rebecca how to play peek-a-boo with Lucy, by peeking out from behind the wall. Becca loves making Lucy laugh, and Lucy loves having Becca pay attention to her. It's fantastic.

Random

2009-04-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

Today Lucy tried to brush her own hair after her bath. It was so cute! I hadn't seen much of that type of imitative behaviour yet, so it was pretty neat to observe. Rebecca had started out with telephone imitations (if I remember correctly - I could check the archive, but I'm too lazy).
Rebecca has been doing a lot of imagination play. She created an elaborate fantasy world when we were doing chores yesterday. The dirty laundry represented different types of fish, and the washing machine was a tank. There were whales, baby fish (of course!), and Mommy fish, and Daddy fish. When we took a basket of laundry upstairs, it too was a fish tank. Then, while I was settling Lucy, she constructed a giant whale out of clean laundry (complete with tail and fins), and used the empty laundry baskets to create a giant "egg" for herself. Ultimately (and endlessly), the egg hatches and out comes a baby monkey. My attempts to explain that monkeys have live birth, and eggs are for birds and reptiles met with the usual stubborn assertions that she was in fact correct. I have learned not to pursue these things because they often end in tears. I am sure you are wondering - how did Greg and Madeleine produce a child who is always convinced she is right? It is certainly a mystery.