Merry Christmas!

Santa definitely loves him!

Sibling love

Well, we did it!! We survived Cole's first Christmas and the first Christmas where Quinn was very aware of what was going on.  Q understood that Santa brings presents, but wasn't overly keen on the thought of some stranger being in her house to do so - if you asked her if Santa was coming to her house, she'd cry and whine and say "nooooooooo!".  When we took the kids to see Santa, Quinn was very excited and chatted up a storm while waiting in line about how she was going to meet Santa and say hi...and then she rounded the corner and was silent.  He did tell her that he was going to bring her a dolly (which prompted a little bit of last minute shopping) and he pulled through!

Cole had just woken up and terrified Quinn.   At least no tears were shed!

Chipper the Elf was a great tradition for us this year.  It was only this morning that Quinn asked where he was and we explained that he's back at the North Pole with Santa and that he'd come back next year when it's Christmastime again.  That seemed to be an ok answer to her.

Quinn the chef

The kids were spoiled by everyone and their closets are bursting with clothes.  I can't wait to see a lot of the new outfits on them!  Seeing Cole dressed up like a little man is just so cute!  There are also lots of new toys, including a play kitchen and easel that Quinn asks to play with every morning.  To say that there is some organizing being done in the house would be an understatement!

Cole is 6 months old today!!! I really can't believe that this time has flown by so quickly.  We moved him into his crib last night for the first time (he was in a playpen in our room up until then, with only naps in his crib).  He had quite a good night and was only up twice to eat before getting up in the morning.  I wasn't sure if Quinn would have woken him up as she likes to make quite a bit of noise before falling asleep and their rooms share a wall.  We also started Cole on cereal today.  He wasn't a big fan of having someone trying to jam food into his mouth and mostly wanted the spoon, but tomorrow's a new day to try again!

So Much To Update!

Wow...I hadn't realized that it had been over a month since I had updated this blog.  Oops!  I'll do my best to cover all the high points and again try to do better with the updates!

Hallowe'en
Hallowe'en was great fun this year!  Cole and I attended a baby party, he got his photos done for "Pumpkin Day" at Superstore (he even smiled!), and then for the big event, Quinn dressed as Cinderella and had a blast going trick-or-treating with Steve.

All set to go pick out a pumpkin

Ewwww pumpkin guts!

Cole the Great White Shark

Ottawa Hallowe'en babies!

Pumpkin Day

Pretty Quinn as Cinderella

All set to go trick-or-treating

November

We made the big transition of putting Quinn into a "big girl" bed (aka a toddler bed).  We chose the toddler bed over a twin bed since Quinn still has to wear her boots for a while yet, and the toddler bed is close enough to the floor that she can easily crawl back into bed if she gets out.  The bed is super cute - it's a white sleigh bed.  Quinn LOVES her big girl room.  It's the only room in the house that we painted a different colour (light blue) and it definitely is girly!  I'll take some pictures later on when it's finished up - there are still some craft projects that I want to do to really "finish" it.

Since we moved Quinn to her room, we also raised up the crib mattress and put Cole's "Monkey Rockstar" bedding on and valance up.  The next task is to take down the sticker mirrored butterflies all over the wall, which will prove to be a challenge as they're quite stuck.  Cole is still sleeping in our room until after Christmas, but we've been trying to get him to have naps in the crib...that's definitely been a challenge as he likes to resist these naps.  More often than not, he ends up napping in one of our carriers.  Thank goodness for baby wearing!!!

Potty training...well, we thought that Quinn was showing signs of being ready and she actually did pee on the potty once (and pooped next to it once).  But she seemed to have lost interest for now and we're not pushing it.  After Christmas is over and the craziness has died down, then we might try to gently push the issue again.

Cole weighed in at 15.3 lbs at his 4 month appointment and is sticking to his curve for length as well.  He's between the 50th-75th percentile for both, which is awesome!

Present Time...

So that brings us up to now.  Quinn's vocabulary continues to grow at an exponential rate.  She now can sing a few lines to many songs and can recognize what Disney princess sings a certain song within the first 15 seconds...super impressive!  She also LOVES to make Cole laugh and he continues to be absolutely mesmerized by her.  Doesn't matter where she is in the room, he'll find her and watch her.

We started the tradition of "Elf on the Shelf" this year.  Our elf's name is Chipper and Q loves to come find him in the mornings.  Chipper even brought a present yesterday of a new Christmas book!  The Christmas tree is up and twinkling...and currently has the coffee table in front of it to ward off curious toddlers. ;)

Making Christmas crafts with handprints and paint

The first appearance of Chipper on November 25th

Quinn giving Cole just a few toys to play with

Having fun with Daddy

Christmas party

Christmas party