Big Feet & Little Feet

Big Feet: I recently found a pair of my slippers under the bed. I remember I had hidden them there about a year ago, because I was tired of Andrea stealing them, and leaving them in odd places. The last time she had them, she couldn't even walk yet (14 months old) so she wore them on her hands. :)) As soon as she saw them again, they were on her feet! They looked ridiculous, but I was impressed she could walk so well in them, considering they are even big and awkward on MY feet!
She has also become attached to my summer robe, which she calls my "Princess Dress." I can only wear it until she spots it--then I have to surrender it to the little dress-up queen.

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Little Feet: Kevin's little feet were going crazy this morning in his exersaucer. He was in a really good mood, and it looked like he was dancing! It made think of Flashdance and the song "Maniac." Of course, the more and the sillier I sang it, the more Kevin kicked his legs!

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When I went to pull up that baby picture of Andrea and the slippers, I was amazed at how much her pictures looked like Kevin--but in pink. :))

She was fairer, and her face was a bit rounder (she did weigh more than him at this age), but the eyes, nose, and eyebrows are almost identical!

Kevin's (not quite) First Trip to the Park

I wanted to call this "Kevin's First Trip to the Park," because it's the first time he could actually do something at the park. However, he was there several times before, as an infant. Here's a picture of Kevin's real first visit to the park, when he was one month old. All he could do back then was suck on his fingers!

Now, Kevin's eight months old, and he could try out the slide and swings and for the first time!

This is fun!

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Mama, I'm not so sure about this . . .

Is this thing secured safely?

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Michelle and Parker met Andrea, Kevin, and I at the park this afternoon. Again, I can't help but think back to the first time we met up at a park, when the boys were about 2 months old. It was Fall, so they were all snuggled up in their strollers.

Things have changed quite a lot! They're big boys who can play on the swings now. Parker had a riot; he was laughing, and sticking out his tongue, and leaning forward in his seat. Kevin was more cautious; his face was serious, studying everything, absorbed in his surroundings. He was so busy taking it all in, that I couldn't get his attention to encourage a smile!

Parker: "Yahoo!"
Kevin: "If I scrunch down some more, maybe I won't fall out!"

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Kevin: "Parker, what do you think?"
Parker: "I like it, Buddy!"

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Look at us! No hands!

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When it was time to go, Parker was tired out from all the fun. Kevin was just happy to be back on solid ground. (He's finally smiling!)

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When we got home, Andrea wanted to ride her bicycle for a bit. Kevin was very interested in the proceedings.

Kevin: "Hmm . . . where can I get one of those?"

Andrea: "Don't even think about it, Buddy!"

Here's Some Laughs

A few days ago, I was changing one of Kevin's diapers--and it happened to be a stinky one. Andrea came into the room, took one look at his diaper, and yelled: "It's a yucky Jell-o one!" Jell-o? How, and why, did she come up with that?! Anyway, I laughed so hard that now every time she sees me changing his diaper, she yells, "It's a jelly one!" even if it's just pee.

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Last night I was feeding Kevin an early dinner, and Andrea came in, saying she wanted her supper. I jokingly offered her Kevin's bowl of pureed sweet corn and chicken. She took one peek at the brownish-yellow mush and declared, "That's too di-gusting for me!" Evidently, Kevin felt the same way. About two minutes later, he gagged and spit up his meal. I guess that means sweet corn is off the list for now. Poor Kevin!

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Andrea has started to colour pictures with great concentration and intensity recently. Where before she liked blank paper and random colours, she now prefers colouring books, and only shades of pink and purple! She will sit and colour for several minutes, completely focused on her work. Well today, she ran out of pages to colour in her Dora mermaids colouring book. It was quite a tragedy! But Mommy's quick thinking saved the day. I got out one of her blank books, and drew some pictures of Dora with a black marker. Voila--colouring pages! However, it's times like these that I wish I was a graphic artist--or at least had some drawing talent. But I will share me and Andrea's combined effort here, because it is worth a laugh!

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Kevin has the greatest giggles right now. The best way I get him to laugh is to pop up at him from somewhere below his swing or exersaucer, and say, "I'm gonna get you!" He even giggles like crazy when I disappear--I think it's a reaction to the suspense, knowing what's coming.

I've got a video here, but you can only hear the giggling. Unfortunately, I had the camera in a bad position, so Kevin is in the shadows, and none of my editing software could fix it. Thus, the picture above, which gives you a sense of the expression on his face when we are playing!

Family Fun Continues

We spent Easter Monday with family, too--just on a smaller scale.

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Brigitte stayed overnight with us. In the morning, she spent some time reading to Kevin.

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Ah, the beautiful sight of the kiddies playing peacefully together. It's a good thing.

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When Daddy got home from work, we went over to Gram and Grandpa's for dinner. They had a nice chicken dinner for us, in honour of Mommy's birthday (which is Wednesday). Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Tony and Isabelle came, too. Andrea helped Gram put the candles on Mommy's birthday cake. (Thankfully, they only put on a representative amount!)

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Gather around to sing Happy birthday, and help Mommy blow out the candles!

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I told you Kevin got the tongue-twisting talent from Daddy!

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After dessert and presents, it was play-time for the kids. Andrea spent a lot of time colouring, and Izzy did some, too.

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Izzy played very nicely with Kevin. She gave him a plate, and pretended to cook him some food!

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Andrea found a toy comb, and everyone had to have a turn getting their hair brushed.

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Then Grandpa took the girls downstairs, to show us their "routines." He has special activities he does with them when they visit. He and Andrea get together for a few hours every Wednesday morning. I've heard what they do, but this is the first time I got to see it!

They like to play with the maracas. The girls were shaking the maracas and singing their ABCs with Grandpa, while he dinged the bell to the beat!

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Andrea is Grandpa's soccer buddy. They always go downstairs to play soccer when she visits him on Wednesdays. I don't know why Andrea is so into soccer; neither Daddy or I ever played it, besides in gym class. But Andrea has liked kicking soccer balls since before she could walk!

Last night, I finally got to watch a game. Izzy wanted to get into the game, too, and it became quite the soccer match! Andrea resorted to some aggressive tactics, but what Izzy doesn't have in size, she makes up in speed! They were so funny to watch.

Easter Sunday 2008

The Easter Bunny came! Kevin was awake first, and he surprised me by spotting the first eggs. I noticed he was leaning out of his swing to stare at something--he saw the shiny eggs nearby!

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Andrea got up about half an hour later. She saw her pretty basket and dove in right away! The toy camera and the crown caught her attention first.

Then, she noticed the chocolate eggs on her couch. That led her into the egg hunt. The Easter Bunny hid about 20 mini eggs around the living room, in places that Andrea could find them with a little help. She was very excited when she found the eggs! She's a good egg hunter. Of course, she wanted to stop and eat some, too. :))

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Kevin took a look at his basket while Andrea hunted eggs. He's finally starting to sit up steadily!

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After her egg hunt, Andrea followed me around, taking pictures of everyone. She did that all day--you'll notice the camera is with her in a lot of the pictures.

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I thought Kevin would like his soccer ball or ducky best, but he was barely interested in them. We couldn't get him to let go of the book! Kevin likes to play with and look at books. He must get that from Mommy. :))

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Here's Andrea, showing off her princess-themed press-on nails. She loved them at first, but she couldn't get used to how they made it feel different to pick things up. So, they only stayed on for about an hour! But after we took the press-ons off, we painted her nails a pretty pink for later.

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In the afternoon, we went to a big family dinner at Great-Gram's (Rod's grandma). Andrea was thrilled that she finally got to wear her "princess dress" again (she's been begging for it since we went for spring pictures), and was ecstatic over her new shoes. That's my girly-girl!

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Here's Kevin sporting his Easter look. It's similar to the one in the spring pictures, but he outgrew that one, so I had to buy him a new one!

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Since we were going to have Brigitte stay overnight with us, we invited her to come to Great Gram's, too. Andrea's always thrilled to have "my Brigitte" around.

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Poor Kevin--the teething continues. Thankfully, he was so busy checking out all the new people that he forgot to let his teeth bother him much. Still, it was a non-stop chew and drool fest; I had bibs on him all day, and he was chewing on whatever anyone offered him. Grandpa seemed to think a little alcohol might help! No, it was just that the glass is hard and cool on the gums. :))

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My drool-baby also exhibited a new talent yesterday, and he did it all day long. He can twist his tongue right over in his mouth! I can't do it, but I've seen Rod do it, so I know he got that genetic mutation from Daddy.

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Great Gram wanted a picture of her great-grandchildren. You see, three have been added just in the past eight months! You know how it is to get a whole bunch of little ones to cooperate for the camera, though. But here they are: Isabelle, Andrea, Jordan, Baby Morgan, Jocelyn, Baby Addison, and Baby Kevin.

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Kevin was intrigued by Baby Addison, who is only about 4 weeks old. I had been holding her, and Rod sat next to me, holding Kevin. Kevin kept reaching out to touch her arm and her head, and he was very curious about her. Even in the great-grandkids' pictures, he was reaching over and gently touching Addison's hair. Addie's big sister Jocelyn was a little concerned, but we assured her that Kevin wasn't hurting her baby. :))

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We stayed pretty late for the little ones, so they were all put into pyjamas after supper. Here's Grandpa snuggling Izzy and Kevin.

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Andrea was tired, but wired with excitement and sugar. So, she was playing a game with Gram where she would say, "I'm baby--I go to sleep," and Gram would pick her up and rock her like a baby. She makes quite a big baby! But then, she would say, "I wake up!" jump down, and try to run over to Aunt Claire--while Gram held onto her pyjamas!

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Andrea disappeared for a while, and I wondered what she was up to. They told me she was in the kitchen. I could see the sly glances I was getting from the adults--what was Andrea up to? Oh, they were just encouraging her to help herself to the cake!

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When I made her get out of the cake, they smeared whipped cream on a lid and gave it to her to lick! By then, I knew it was a lost cause. Pick your battles . . . :))

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So, with the kids hopped up on sugar, and overtired from all their partying, we made our way home for bed-time. Kevin went right to sleep; but Andrea kept getting out of bed until about 10:45, and Brigitte was awake until midnight! But it was a good day. :))

Getting Ready for Easter

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So far, we are having a quiet Good Friday at home. Daddy has to work today (not officially, but he's so busy), so the kids and I have been doing some getting-ready-for-Easter activities.

When Daddy was in Toronto on business a few weeks ago, he found a Dora the Explorer egg decorating kit for Andrea. I decided we'd colour our eggs this morning. It's a family tradition to colour Easter eggs on Good Friday: my mom always did it with us, and I've been doing it since Andrea was born, too. :))

I did the egg dyeing while Andrea and Kevin supervised. Andrea was in charge of putting the Dora stickers on the eggs, and then placing them in the Dora-themed egg holders. Naturally, toddler excitement led to a few casualties . . .

. . . but most of the eggs survived.

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Grandma and Grandpa G. stopped by to drop off some Easter presents for the kids after lunch. It worked out well that this morning I had dressed the kids in the Easter outfits Grandma and Grandpa had bought for them when they were on vacation last month. Andrea's shirt and Kevin's jumper look really cute, and suited today's Easter activities. :))

Some of the plastic Easter eggs in Andrea and Kevin's gift baskets were filled with sour candy keys. Naturally, Kevin's never had sour candy; and I don't think Andrea's ever tried any, either. Leave it to the grandparents to get the kids to "pucker up"!

"What the @#$% is this?!"

"OOOOOOOO . . . " (shudders)

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Grandpa also tried to get Kevin to stand up, holding onto the couch. Kevin isn't very confident yet, but he does put the weight on his legs, if you encourage him.

"You won't let me fall, right? Thanks, Grandpa. "

Nail Polish Fiend

Andrea and Daddy went to watch Daddy's little cousin play hockey tonight. Grandma and Grandpa Gagnon were there, too, and of course she came home with a box of Smarties and a smile on her face.

But she also came home demanding that I paint her nails. You see, Grandma always has nicely polished nails, and she sometimes paints Andrea's nails when they spend time together.

By the time they got home from the arena, it was time for Andrea's bath; but she kept insisting, "I want nails, Mama!" (She doesn't call it nail polish yet.) I tried to put it off until tomorrow--I promised her we'd do it in the morning. Nothing doing. She cried all the way into the bathtub, and could only be coaxed in by giving her more Smarties while she was in the tub! That sufficed for about ten minutes. Then she declared, "I come out--I'm all done, Mama." As soon as I went to get her out of the tub, she insisted, "I need nails, Mama! My nails, Mama!" She wouldn't even let me help brush her teeth with her Princess toothpaste (which she loves) until I finally caved and said, "Alright! If you stop crying, and be a good girl by brushing your teeth/hair/getting your pj's on nicely, we will do your nails." I hate giving in . . . but it worked. She behaved.

And so, after she was all ready for bedtime, I pulled out a shiny mother-of-pearl nail polish, sat on her bedroom floor, and painted her fingernails and her toenails. I was worried she'd want a more showy colour, but she was happy just getting her nails done. Right away, she was wriggling with excitement and exclaiming, "I'm so pretty!" Considering her nails are so tiny, and I wasn't too worried about this light polish smearing on anything, it only took about five minutes. I tried to get her to sit still, or blow on her nails so they could dry, but that part was lost on her. Once she had her "pretty nails" she was quite content to go to bed.

She will probably request a touch-up for Easter!

(Actually, I've spoken with the Easter Bunny, and he has found a set of the cutest little decorated press-on nails for toddlers. :)) I'm eager to see her reaction to them!)