Busy Summer!

It's been quite the busy summer for us!  Cole turned 1, we went to NS for a family wedding (Quinn was a flower girl), and now we're gearing up for Quinn's 3rd birthday!  How time is flying!

Cole is still a little munchkin at 22" long and 19 lbs 8 oz (below 25th percentile for both), but he's proportional!  Anything that makes him my "little" boy is great with me.  Our doctor isn't concerned about his weight or length since he's super healthy.  I've never seen such a little person pack away so much food.  I swear that he eats just as much, if not more, than Quinn!  It's nothing for him to pound back 2 avocados for breakfast.  Insane!

Quinn is turning into a little lady before our very eyes.  She learns new things every day and is quite the social butterfly.  Yesterday we met up with some friends at the park and she immediately ran over to her little friend Alex, grabbed his hand, and led him to the play structure.  These 2 haven't seen each other in months!

This week I'm looking after a friend's little one while their day care is closed.  It's giving me an idea about what things are going to be like in November when I start looking after my nephew!

Well, a short and sweet post today...but here are some pictures! :)

Birthday boy - June 28th

Cole's birthday party spread

The party theme was "Moustache and Bowtie"

Year 1 Update

Yummy cookies

"I'm one!"

Smash cake

Enjoying some applesauce on Canada Day at Parliament Hill

Little Canadian girl

Loving her little brother

The Latest

Wow...OK, so I guess that amidst all of my promises to update more, I've completely been off of the blogging wagon.  That's about to change...NOW!

Here are the latest dirty details:

• Steve has been back to work for 2 weeks after being off for 9 months on parental leave.  It's been a new routine for all of us, but we're settling in.
• Cole cut his first tooth on May 21.  He still won't let us see it and always sticks his tongue over top of his lower gums when we try to look.
• Quinn has met with both a pediatric allergist and dermatologist about her eczema.  It's been decided that she has both eczema and idiopathic urticaria (hives).  Of course her skin is the best that it's been in a long time when we went to the dermatologist, but at least we found out that it's nothing serious!
• We're waiting for Cole to see the same allergist about his potential allergy to eggs
• Last weigh-in for Cole (just over 9 months of age) was that he weighed 18 lbs exactly.  I forgot to ask what his length was, so I'll have to get that info at his 12m appointment
• Cole is the master of what we've been calling his "zombie crawl" - he drags his body around by using his right arm to pull himself around.  He has figured out how to crawl on all fours (somewhat) over the past week, so crawling is a work in progress.
• Quinn is becoming increasingly independent and says hilarious things.  Here are some recent gems - "Go away, Mom, and do your exercises", "Eat the crap" <-- that is referring to the ends of bananas or pepperoni sticks
• Cole was never a huge fan of pureed food, so this stage of eating didn't really last too long.  He has been eating small pieces of "big people" food for the last month or so.  He's a big fan of KD (also Quinn's favourite and the only way that she will eat macaroni and cheese), will eat Cheerios by the handful, and can devour an entire avocado in one sitting.
• Yesterday when we were at the gymnastics center for my boot camp/drop-in playtime, Cole pulled himself to standing and also climbed up onto a crash mat.
• We're planning Cole's 1st birthday party.  Can't believe that we're at this point already!

So once again, I'm vowing to make more frequent blog updates along with pictures.  Bear with me! :)

7 Months Old!!!

Cole is 7 months old today.  I have NO IDEA where the past 7 months have gone.  It seemed to take a really long time for Quinn to reach this milestone, but here we are already with Cole!

We took CJ for his 6 month shots a week and a half today and he also got weighed and measured then as well.  He weighs 16.6 lbs and is 67.2 cm long.  He's dropped down a bit from his 50th percentile curve, but the doctor said that he looks healthy and is clearly thriving, so she's not worried.  He'll get weighed again at his 9 month appointment, and there aren't any shots that he needs for that one.  Q and CJ both got their first dose of their flu vaccines then as well and were total champs!  So that was doctor appointment #1...fast forward a week and we were back at the doctor regarding Quinn's skin.  We had been thinking that she had eczema, but it never has really gotten better and we've been dealing with it for the past 18 months or so.  Now we're just waiting to hear from the dermatologist at CHEO and an allergist for her referral appointments.  We're really anxious to hopefully get to the bottom of her issue and nip it in the bud.  Right now we have to keep on bathing her every other day and making sure to keep her skin hydrated with cream.  She doesn't seem to be bothered by it all, so that's a good thing!

We FINALLY seem to have gotten CJ a little more used to solids.  He was definitely not a fan of carrots, green beans, or parsnips - all of those options elicited gagging.  Finally he seemed to really like the apple/pear with cinnamon combination - thank goodness!  Cinnamon seems to be the key to his heart, as he also likes sweet potato that was cooked with cinnamon.  Phew!

Baby Cereal - The Feeding Saga Continues

So it's been 5 mornings now that we've been feeding Cole rice cereal.  He's making a little bit of progress, but for the most part he still isn't so keen on being fed.  Yesterday he was actually starting to open his mouth for the spoon, but you still had to get past the flailing arms to get to his mouth.  I guess the good thing is that he's our second baby, so we're a bit more used to the "what not to dos" when it comes to feeding babies, so he doesn't get too messy!  Basically, we know not to put too much on the spoon, not to have too much cereal made, and how to quickly jam a spoon into a baby's mouth and clean up the extra with the spoon at the same time.  Quite the mastery lesson!

Cereal face combined with a "wtf is this?!" face

Quinn is doing very well with manual tasks.  She's getting better at drawing pictures and loves to play with her magnadoodles.  The other day she actually drew something that actually resembled a dragon (well, as much as a 2 year old can draw a dragon on a magnadoodle).  For Christmas, she got an easel that is a chalkboard on one side and has a roll of paper on the other.  This is definitely an item that she loves to play with!!! It's also great to not have to have all of her colouring implements on the main floor (although there is a sizeable tote with crayons and colouring books up on the main floor).  It's definitely a neat experience to watch her use crayons, chalk, markers, and paints to discover her inner artist.  One of the things that I'd like to do this year is have a "craft day" one day a week after her nap and before dinner.  Maybe I'll finally peek at all of the Pinterest pins that I have regarding kids' crafts!!

Quinn is also a total princess.  She received a sweet crown from her friend's birthday party and loves to wear it all the time (so much so that I hunted the local Target for replacements and when I couldn't find them, her Nana shipped some up from Nova Scotia!).  Her movie of choice lately has been the new Disney movie "Frozen".  She's a big fan and loves to sing the songs and parrot back dialogue.  For anyone who hasn't seen it, you really should go and see it!  Even if you don't have young kids, it's great and the music is fantastic.

Cole seems to be in the thick of his 6 month growth spurt.  He's been waking more often to eat (6x the other night and 4x last night, including over midnight - Happy New Year!) and isn't very content playing on his own.  His naps have also been all over the place, but today was a better day, so here's hoping that tonight is a better night!  I would love for Cole to go back to getting up 2x a night to eat and to kick this darn habit of pre-midnight wakeups.

Say "cheese"!

Cole the doctor

Big smiles from our growing boy

Super close up

Oh! And I almost forgot - Cole has been rolling over since the beginning of October (first from tummy to back, then from back to tummy), but he really only favoured going from back to tummy.  Well, that is no more!  Now he is a rolling machine - half the time you put him on the floor, turn around to do a task (like putting away clothes in the closet) and he's halfway across the room!  It's quite amusing to see.

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

It's Been a Busy Month!

Phew!  This past month has been such a blur!  We took our first mini family vacation to Annapolis, MD to visit some friends at the beginning of the month.  Unfortunately it was during the partial US government shutdown, but we definitely made the most of it!  We checked out the National Aquarium in Baltimore, walked around Washington, DC, and also toured around the US Naval Academy in Annapolis.  We had GORGEOUS weather the entire time (think 30+ degrees with humidity) and had a great time seeing our friends and their 8 month old son.  Our kids were actually very good on the long drive to and from Annapolis.  Minus some heavy rain and a thoroughly "poopsploded" PJ incident with Cole, we made quite good time considering that we had to stop every so often to feed Cole.  The trick to keeping Quinn occupied included colouring books, the iPad, and a kids Android tablet that a friend loaned us.

After the US trip, we were only home for 3 days until the kids and I jetted off to NS for a baby shower for my sister.  There was definitely a lot of spoiling done by the grandparents on both sides...and it was nice to be able to have someone else take Q outside to run around.  It wasn't a really relaxing trip since there was a lot going on, but it was really fun!  It was also Cole's first time on a plane!  On the way to Halifax, I flew alone with both kids, but Steve was able to accompany us to the gate.  That made such a HUGE difference!  The Porter flight attendants were amazing help as well - for example, when we got to the bottom of the jetway, one of the flight attendants took Q onto the plane for me while I folded up the stroller (I was wearing Cole) and she took Q to meet the pilot and see the cockpit.  Now you can't get Q to stop talking about planes and pilots!  Both kids were good as gold on the way to Halifax...on the way back, Quinn wasn't so keen on sitting in her seat, but luckily my sister was with us on that flight to help me out with holding Cole.

Milestone-wise there are some new things to report!  Cole rolled from tummy to back on Oct. 1, and then from back to tummy on Oct. 9.  He has seemed to have forgotten how to do the tummy to back roll now though...but the second the you put him down on his back, he rolls onto his belly.  Quinn has become pretty adept at using the iPad as well.  There are a couple of child-friendly games that we downloaded and she has them figured out quite well.  One requires baking and decorating cupcakes (she loves to put "BEANS!!!" aka Jelly Belly beans on them) and the other is doling out birthday cake and juice.  Watching her figure out how to drag items around on the screen and what areas to press is just mind-boggling.

We seem to be struggling through Cole's 4 month sleep regression right now though, which is extremely tiring.  It has seemed to have reached a peak the past couple of nights...so hopefully that means that we're getting through the worst of it!

Next up for the Oakey kids...Cole's 4 month vaccinations and Hallowe'en! Stay tuned for pictures! :)