My Girls

Nicole's first day of school

2008-09-04T17:06:00.004-04:00

Today was Nicole's first day of kindergarten. Mark and I took her there together to drop her off. The kids waited in line outside, then the teacher came out and took them inside. A quick wave to Mommy and Daddy and they were gone. Yes, I cried. But I knew I would.

I picked Nicole up from school, expecting to hear all about her day. But it some poking and prodding to find out anything! In the end I found out she had a good day, made a couple of friends, learned everyone's names (but can't remember them now), learned her teacher's name is Mrs. Van Elfen but she can be called Mrs. Van (to which I said "I doubt that, please call her Mrs. Van Elfen") and had to close the door to go to the bathroom (they tend to leave it open at daycare which I've always found strange) and would therefore be closing the bathroom door at home now.

On the way home after picking up Julia, they saw a UPS truck. Someone told them a while ago that they are called "Monkey Trucks". So in car Nicole asks me if they are really Monkey trucks. I told her that they aren't really, that they're for delivering large packages. Then Julia jokingly said that they are Cow Trucks. Nicole said "No Julia, you can't deliver cows, I learned that at school today". lol Anything to appear smarter than your sister I guess. ;)

Spiderman

2008-08-13T21:13:00.002-04:00

Nicole has recently labeled Mark as "Spiderman". Is it because he is able to climb walls or catch the bad guys with his webs? Oh no, it is because he kills spiders for us! So, "With great power comes great responsibility." And I'm happy to leave that responsibility to Mark. ;)

Don't eat the seagulls

2008-08-03T21:05:00.002-04:00

I haven't had much to post lately, things have been pretty quiet. But I had to share this story because it makes me laugh.

We were driving today and passed a field full of seagulls. The girls were facinated. Then Julia said "we don't put all the seagulls in our mouths". Weird, but okay, Mark and I agreed, we don't eat seagulls. The she said, "we eat them one a time". We are always telling her to stop shoving food in her mouth, to eat a bite at a time. I guess we now know that she is getting the message! :D

Princesses are the new Santa

2008-06-21T13:40:00.003-04:00

Nicole is obsessed with princesses. She told me other night she wants to be a princess when she grows up and asked how she would be able to do that. I told her that Mark and I would have to be a King and Queen which we're not, or she would have to marry a prince. She agreed that marrying a prince would be the way to go. Then she said "I'll marry a prince like Daddy". :)

Anyway, yesterday Nicole was asking lots of questions about princesses, where they live, why we don't see any here, etc. We told her that some countries have princesses and some don't and that we don't have any in Canada. She proceeded to tell us that Florida has princesses. Not catching on at this point, we tell her that no, the US doesn't have princesses. Then she tells us about Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, etc. who live at Disneyworld. Right, we get where we are going now. So we start to tell her that Cinderella and Belle aren't real and that those are just people dressing up. Silence. Mark and I look at each other, realizing our mistake. A quick whispered conversation (we were in the car) between Mark and I determines that we are okay with her believing in princesses for now. Luckily, Nicole doesn't believe me and tells me how she met Cinderella at her friend's birthday party, so she has to be real. Phew, crisis averted.

Julia is poopy

2008-06-04T20:09:00.004-04:00

She would tell you if I didn't. So I figured I would. ;)

When Julia moved the preschool room at daycare a month ago she refused to tell them when she had a dirty diaper. This was nothing new to me, she won't tell me either. You can smell her across the room and she'll deny it. Her daycare teachers spent the whole month getting her to fess up when she needs a diaper change (as a precursor to potty training). She finally started telling them about a week ago, which makes them very happy. Thanks to her daycare teacher, she will now tell anyone and their brother when she is poopy - random strangers, the cat, etc. The weekend she told me to tell Bethany (her daycare teacher) that she was poopy. Yeah, I'll call her and tell her that right now!

We're going to Niagara Falls next week, including a trip to Marineland. Nicole is super excited (and as a result, so is Julia)! Coincidentally, this is "ocean week" in Nicole's room at daycare. So Nicole is learning all about sea animals. Nicole thinks she will see all these animals at Marineland. We were watching tv the other day and Emily Young had an episode at Marineland. Emily was feeding the dolphins, swimming with the dolphins, and riding the dolphins. I've had to explain to Nicole multiple times now that we will not be swimming and riding with the dolphins! So all in all, this could be a very disappointing trip for Nicole! ;) In all seriousness though, I'm looking forward to the trip, I do think the girls will have a great time!

Oh, here is a random video of the girls singing their babies to sleep. I thought it was cute. :)

The Monster in the Clock and Wolves in the Bathroom

2008-05-15T18:12:00.004-04:00

Yikes, I can't believe how long it's been since I wrote anything! I need to get better with updates.

A funny story first. Nicole has a very active imagination and has now taken to scaring Julia. Nicole has Julia completely convinced that there is a monster in our grandfather clock. Julia won't go near the clock and now and gives it the evil eye when she walks by. Nicole also managed to convince her that there are wolves in the bathroom. I had a terrible time getting Julia in the bathroom to brush her teeth this morning. I guess potty training isn't going to go so well now.

Nicole had her first dentist appointment yesterday (late, I know). At my prompting, the dentist gave her a good speech about thumb sucking and how she has to stop. The dentist is going to call Nicole in 2 months to make sure she's stopped. Surprisingly, Nicole has taken this very seriously. Last night she told me I had better take her blankie away (yes, THE blankie) because she sucks her thumb when she holds it. I didn't have the heart to actually take it away, especially when Mark is away - I want to sleep! She still did very well and said that anytime she found herself sucking she would stop. So maybe she's on the road to being done. If only it could be as easy as taking away Julia's day time soother!

The dentist also said that some of Nicole's 6 year adult molars are in which surprised me (she's 4 1/2). She hasn't complained of any mouth pain. The dentist said we should expect she will lose her baby teeth early too, possibly starting within the next year. How can my baby be losing her baby teeth? It seems like just yesterday she was teething.

That's all for now, I'll try to update more often!

Julia's love affair with her soother

2008-02-28T15:29:00.002-05:00

Anyone who knows us, or even looks at pictures I post, knows that Julia is completely attached to her soother. I can't even tell you how many soothers we have kicking around the house. So I decided last week (mostly after looking through hundreds of pictures and seeing very few of Julia without her soother) that it was time to say goodbye to the awake time soother. I told her Sunday morning that she was a big girl and that she could have her soother for sleep time, but that was it. She had a few crying fits on Sunday, but was pretty easily distracted. Monday she asked about her soother, but easily accepted that it was in her crib. Wednesday, she didn't even mention it. Yep, it was that easy! I don't know if I'm just imagining it, but I swear she is talking more now, or at least I understand more. It's amazing as to how much I'm noticing it.

The funny thing is that Nicole has taken it upon herself to teach Julia how to suck her thumb. Luckily Julia isn't interested. I actually think taking Julia's daytime soother away is helping Nicole realize she has to stop sucking her thumb. I've noticed Nicole sucks her thumb a lot less these days. She went so far as to tell Julia, during a soother crying fit, that she only sucks her thumb in bed too (I tried not to roll my eyes when she said it).

Maybe we are on the road to getting rid of the oral fixation in this house! But would that mean I have to stop biting my nails? ;)

Nicole got her ears pierced!

2008-02-26T18:58:00.004-05:00

When Nicole was born I went through a phase where I really wanted to get her ears pieced. I think I just hated when people called her a boy! But I decided to wait until she was older and asked to have it done. They're her ears after all. I figured it would happen when she was around 8 years old. But Nicole is always ahead it would seem! :)

A couple of weeks ago she started asking about earrings and holes in ears. I explained how it worked and she said she wanted to go ahead and get earrings. I told her it might hurt, that she had to take good care of them, and that she would have to sleep with them in. None of this phased her.

So, on Saturday, I took her to the mall. She picked out a pair of white gold, diamond looking (I don't remember the stone's name) earrings and then sat up on the stool and waited for the girls to get everything ready. It took them quite a while to get everything sanitized, I thought for sure Nicole would change her mind then. But she just sat there, clutching the teddy bear they gave her to hold on to. They made little marks on her ears and then were ready to go. Luckily it wasn't too busy, so they could do both her ears. I had visions of Nicole walking around with one earring because she refused to to the second ear. So, after a count of 3, in went the earrings. Nicole didn't even flinch. I was so nervous for her, but she was wonderful! I was so proud of her.

She's been doing a great job taking care of them (well, letting us take care of them) and she has been good about not playing with them. I'm sure her friends are tired of hearing about them, she is very excited!

My baby is growing up!

We Need A Snowblower and The Rules of the Table

2008-02-08T19:00:00.001-05:00

I have 2 unrelated, but cute stories today.

Nicole declared tonight that "we really need a snowblower". I figure if a 4 year old says we need a snowblower, we've had too much snow! So we decided she was right and went out to find a snowblower. It would seem Nicole wasn't the only one with that good idea - the stores are completely sold out of snowblowers. So I guess Nicole will have to make do with shoveling for the time being. ;)

Nicole spent most of dinner lecturing us about the "rules" of the table. According to her, it is rude to talk with your mouth full, touch other people's food (this one was said as Julia had her hands all over Nicole's food), and put your hand in someone's face while they're eating - another rule Julia broke at dinner. Pretty soon we can stop parenting and let Nicole take over. ;) Nicole has become quite the little teacher, so much so that Julia is picking it up. Julia now lectures Nicole. This morning Nicole wanted jam on her toast and we had already put butter on it. So we said no to jam. Nicole threw a fit and Julia very calmly stated "no jam Nicole, eat your toast". I laughed out loud. Nicole wasn't impressed. But she did eventually eat her toast. :)

Double Why?

2008-01-22T20:37:00.000-05:00

It's starting!! This was our dinner conversation tonight:

Mark: "Eat your pasta Julia"
Julia: "Why?"
Nicole: "Why is Julia saying why?"

Yep, Julia's started with the Whys. Unfortunately, Nicole hasn't finished with them yet, so we are now on double why duty. I'm now trying to figure out how I get Nicole to answer Julia's questions. That would really help me out! :)

"I have bad news"

2008-01-16T18:43:00.000-05:00

When I was picking the girls up from daycare today, Nicole said to Julia "Julia, I have bad news. Daddy is coming home tonight." My first thought was, wow, I must be really spoiling them for Nicole to be dreading his coming home! But then she said "So we won't be able to see him until tomorrow which makes me sad". So the bad news was that she doesn't get to see him tonight. Phew!

Mark has been gone most of the last week and a half. I honestly don't know how single moms do it. I really miss having an extra set of hands around! It doesn't help that Julia's been sick (cold, cough, and fever) so she has been sleeping terribly. I've been really busy at work and existing on not nearly enough sleep. Makes for a cranky Mommy.

But Daddy is coming home tonight!!! :)

Disgusting!

2008-01-11T15:55:00.001-05:00

This is Nicole's new word of the week it would seem. She was putting on her boots at daycare and there was a wood chip in her boot. I was informed that "wood chips are disgusting". There was dirt on her window in the van that was also "disgusting". She stopped just short of calling dinner (mashed potatoes) disgusting. It's amazing what a stern look from mommy will do. :)

Julia has some virus it seems. And so winter truly begins. She had a fever this morning and has been extra grumpy this week. I assumed ear infection since she's had a lot of them lately. But her ears look good, so she just had a virus. But the dr told me that he wouldn't be surprised if this virus gives her an ear infection. Oh goody, I see another dr visit coming up in a week or so. Tubes were mentioned by the dr for the first time today. I think if this does turn into an ear infection we will start talking about tubes.

Mark has been away this week, he gets back tonight. Julia has been missing him like crazy! This morning I went in to get her (she was crying) and she took one look at me and said "NO, Daddy!". Every day she looks at a family picture and specifically points out Daddy. I think Nicole missed him, but not in the same way. She has a better understanding that he's coming back.

The Doll Saga

2007-10-02T19:45:00.000-04:00

When you think about having a second child you envision them playing together, loving each other, generally all round happiness. It seems I failed to think about the fighting. Oh the fighting. So, on that note, Nicole has a doll named Allison that cries and giggles. Julia really likes this doll. Nicole is rather possessive of the doll. I got tired of the screaming and yelling over the doll. So, being the good mom that I am, I decided that Julia should have her own crying and giggling doll. This lead us to make the biggest mistake any parent can make. We took them both to the toy store. I'm not sure why we thought this was a good idea, but it sounded fun. Even as an adult, I love the toy store. I love looking at all the new stuff and reminiscing over the old. I forgot that there is never time for reminiscing with children around. Anyway, we had warned Nicole that we were getting a doll for Julia, not for her. We did tell her we would get some new markers for her. Of course, when we got to the doll section Nicole decided she also needed a new doll (all parents reading this knew this was coming). She asked very nicely and was being really good, so we decided she could have a doll (and they were on sale, which always helps). Julia got a doll that coos and cries and makes sucking noises when you put a soother in the mouth. Her doll came with batteries in it, so she got to play with it on the drive home. Nicole got a doll that cries real tears. You feed her a bottle of water, then she cries tears. Then she goes to sleep. Her doll did not have batteries in it, nor did we have water for the bottle, so we had to wait until we got home to try it out. But she still got to hold it for the drive home. That was the most peaceful drive I've had in a while.

We got home and immediately hunted down some batteries and a tiny screwdriver (who designs these things anyway that you have to use an abnormally small screwdriver to open the battery case). We then filled the little bottle with water and proceeded to feed the baby, excited to see her cry. You'd think we wouldn't be that excited about a crying baby, after all, we've been through 2 real ones. But this one has an off button. Anyway, the baby would not drink the water! It just dripped down her face. We tried everything to get water into that thing. We finally determined that she was broken. It is unbelievably hard to explain to a 4 year old that their toy is broken and you are going to have to take it back. Real tears were certainly cried. But not by the doll.

The next day Mark and I raced to the toy store over lunch to exchange the doll. Luckily that was a very easy process. I was a bit worried that they would have a problem with the fact that we didn't have the box anymore. The box had gotten destroyed when removing the doll. I got tired of the 200 ties holding her in and tore the box. You'd think these toys come to life and try to get out with all the constraints. But the toy store didn't even blink an eye and gave us a replacement.

We got home and Nicole was excited to get her new doll. Again we filled the bottle. And (you saw this coming) again the baby did not drink!! At this point Mark and I think we must be incompetent. We tried pushing the bottle all the way in, just a little way in, and barely in. We tried sitting her up, lying her down, and somewhere in between. This doll just did not want to drink. I don't know what the deal is with this doll, but if 2 adults can't get this doll to drink, a 4 year old has no chance.

We still have the dud doll, but I guess we have to take her back. We won't be exchanging this for the same one, that's for sure. Maybe I'll get her a Barbie. They don't require batteries.

Our little monkey, err, ballerina

2007-09-13T20:54:00.000-04:00

Tonight was Nicole's first dance class. She is taking preschool dance at a local dance studio. It is a precursor to more advanced dance she can do when she's older. This one teaches some dance basics and really just creative dance that is fun for 3-4 year olds.

Nicole has been asking pretty much every day since we registered when dance class would start. She was really, really, really, really hyper by the time we got there tonight. She's been practicing jumping on one foot this past week and has repeatedly told me that they would do this in dance class. I told her that I didn't think they would be doing one footed jumping so she shouldn't get her hopes up.

So anyway, off to dance we went. In the car Nicole told me that it was nice to get away from Daddy and Julia every once in a while. When we got to the studio there was still a class in the classroom, so we waited for them to finish. Nicole watched the class with her face pressed up to the windowed door. I think some of the girls (mid teens I'd say) were giving her strange looks. But Nicole was fascinated.

Once the room opened up, we met Nicole's teacher, Robin and the 3 other kids in the class. Parents were asked to go in to the room with the kids for a couple of minutes. They took attendance and then asked the girls if they liked to dance at home. Most of them mumbled an answer while looking at their parents. Nicole, however, launched into a detailed description of the dancing she and Julia do at home. She was about to get up and give a demonstration, but I put a stop to that. Nicole is definitely not a shy little girl. :) So after a little bit of conversation, we were told to say goodbye because parents were leaving the room. I got a quick "bye mommy" and off she ran while the other girls clung to their parents.

There are 3 dance rooms and 2 of them have viewing windows. But Nicole's class is in the room with no window. There were chairs outside the room, so all the parents sat there and attempted to catch a glance of their child in the refection of the open glassed door. We could hear everything going on. Nicole did not shut up! I know, this shouldn't surprise me. When she wasn't asking questions, she was elaborating on her dancing skills, or telling the other kids what to do ("no, the teacher said to do it this way"). I was getting more embarrassed by the minute sitting in the hallway with all the other parents. Before class I told her it was really important to listen to the teacher and do what she said. I should have also told her it was important to let the teacher talk!

The highlight of the class was when they jumped on one foot. Mommy was wrong, apparently hoping on one foot is a dance skill. They also did some running on tip toes, moving to poems and songs, and the most entertaining part for me, moving like animals. They were asked what their favourite animal was. Most of the kids said cats, dogs, etc. Nicole said monkey. Then they had to dance like that animal. I wasn't able to see much, but the thought of Nicole dancing like a monkey had me laughing. Maybe next week she'll move up to a more graceful zoo animal.

Nicole had a wonderful time and cried half the drive home because she has to wait another 7 days to do it again. But I was able to convince her that she has to teach Julia all her new moves and that cheered her up. :)

Lions and Tigers and Cows, Oh My!

2007-09-05T22:03:00.001-04:00

We decided to take the girls to The African Lion Safari today. We were careful to not tell Nicole about it until this morning in case it was pouring rain. Disappointed 4 year olds are not fun to deal with. We woke up to lots of clouds and a storm sky and a weather report that promised sun. So Mark broke the news to Nicole. I came out of the shower and was told by Nicole "Mommy, did you hear the good news, we're going on safari!" And then the questions began. After we answered 50 questions about various animals, various modes of transportation (buses vs cars mostly), and various foods (she was hungry while we were getting ready), we headed out.

Car rides have taken on a new meaning since having children. I've never really enjoyed car rides, but I have since learned that I was crazy to not like them. Car rides pre-children are wonderful, wonderful things. Car rides with one child are tolerable. Car rides with 2 children are torture. There is a reason children under 12 are not allowed in the front seat and it has nothing to do with airbags. It is so that we can't reach our children and kill them.

Anyway, I won't bore anyone with the details. Suffice it to say, they yelled, I ignored, it was all good.

We got to the park (oh, and I've learned that you can't call things parks unless they have slides and swings, just an fyi for anyone who hasn't learned that yet) and waited in the car to pay. There was only one line open, so we waited a while. Julia doesn't understand the concept of waiting, so she cried while I cursed the African Lion Safari people and Nicole asked over and over again why Julia was crying. It wasn't all bad though. Nicole was actually very sweet and was trying to cheer Julia up. Unfortunately Julia took offense to Nicole's attempts and cried even louder.

The first thing we did was go see the birds. This was not terribly exciting for the kids, so we moved on to the petting farm. We couldn't go in with the animals because both girls are terribly afraid of anything that moves. But we did watch them from outside their pens. Julia almost touched an animal if that counts. Most of the time though she just whined at them. Nicole hid behind Mark and then needed to be carried. Good times were had by all.

Next we went to catch the bus for the ride through the animal reserves. Some people drive their vehicles, I call them crazy. Both girls were pretty excited about the bus. We saw way too many animals to talk about here. The highlights were the monkeys, lions, zebras, and giraffes, or "cows" to Julia. Every land animal is a cow. I was pretty excited when we did seem some cows (african cows, I don't remember what they're called) and quickly pointed them out to Julia. I'm pretty sure I got the "mom, we've been seeing cows all morning" look from Julia.

After the bus ride we went to watch the elephants swim in a big pond. Nicole was really interested. Julia played in the dirt and glanced at the "cows" occasionally. One of the older elephants was trying to drown a little elephant. It was entertaining in a morbid kind of way. But the little elephant just kept sticking his truck up out of the water. So he was fine.

We then had lunch. Nothing much exciting there. Julia ate well, Nicole ate something at least, story of our lives.

Then off we went to see the elephant show. We had a small issue with bees (they apparently like the smell of our stroller which should be no surprise since I'm sure many things have been spilt on it), but once we abandoned the stroller we were fine. I think the kids were getting tired by this point, so they watched the show fairly quietly. Julia had fun clapping along with the crowd. Nicole got to pet an elephant on the way out. She will touch an elephant, but not a tiny deer, go figure.

We were about to head home when Nicole spotted the train. It does a 15 minute ride through the park. Nicole stated "it will be a nice end to the day Mommy". We agreed. And it was.

Then back in the car we went, relieved that the girls were both exhausted (it was 2:15, way past nap time) and we would have a quiet car ride while the slept. Hahahahahaha. Julia slept for 10 minutes, Nicole not at all.

But all in all, it was a fun day. I think the girls really liked seeing all the animals. Nicole told me at bedtime that she is going to draw pictures tomorrow of us and the animals. She said she might need my help because she can't draw elephants. I didn't burst her bubble by telling her I can't either.

Thunderstorms, I used to like them

2007-08-23T15:34:00.000-04:00

Thunderstorms have always facinated me. I love the smell of the rain, the flash of the lightening and counting down the seconds until the thunder sounds. I used to think that one second meant the storm was one kilometer away, but someone later told me it was 3 seconds for 1 km. Who knows, but it's fun to count anyway. I remember thinking as a kid that thunderstorms meant that God was mad at the clouds and he was cutting them in half with a lightening rod. Then the clouds would bang back together. I always wondered what made God that mad and I sure hoped I never did anything to make Him that mad at me!

I'm not sure if I was afraid of thunderstorms as a kid. I would guess that I was, it seems to be the kid thing to do. As a parent, I have discovered that thunderstorms are not nearly as entertaining to me when I am woken from a deep sleep by a paniced 3 1/2 year old at 3am. Yes, Nicole is terribly afraid of thunderstorms. She came stumbling into our room, clearly shaken and scared. I didn't even know there was a storm going on. I am a deep sleeper, especially since having kids. I think my body has learned to take any sleep it can and make the most of it. So being woken up like this panics me. My first thought was that someone had broken into the house and was chasing Nicole (because I'm sure that's what people who break into houses want to do, chase 3 year olds around). Mark quickly told me that there was a thunderstorm in his own special way. "Duh, what do you think all the flashing lights and loud noises are?" He obviously wakes up easier than I do. So anyway, we haul Nicole up into our bed to wait out the storm. We try to sleep, but there is no way Nicole is going to sleep through all the racket, and if Nicole isn't sleeping, no one in the bed is sleeping either. The storm finally slowed down around 4am. By this point Nicole is pretty comfy in our bed and has no intention of going back to her bed. We have a brief discussion about her going back and she starts to threaten us with the I'm going to scream so loud and wake up Julia voice. So, the good parents we are, we give in and she gets to stay in our bed. But of course a queen size bed is not big enough for 2 grown people and 1 little person. In fact, that little person could stand to have a queen size bed to herself the way she sleeps. So off Mark goes to sleep in Nicole's bed. I move Nicole over to Mark's side and pray that she stays on that side of the bed so I might get to sleep a bit before the alarm goes off. She didn't stay on her side, but I did get some sleep, with a little, warm body snuggled behind me. :D