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We went to breakfeast with Santa at my mom’s work and had a lot of fun. Even though we don’t “do” Santa at our house (he doesn’t bring presents and we tell Leah he is just for fun). she was still excited to see him, especially once he arrived with Grandpa as his chauffeur. The secretary lent Leah these cool reindeer antlers.

Leah decorated a gingerbread man cookie before getting her face painted. The face painter was pretty quick with amazing detail and even glitter too.

We did our annual visit to St. Mark’s Anglican Church to experience their outdoor nativity. This year, we had a large group of friends come along which added to the enjoyment. Leah liked going right up to each of the displays.

For the first time as a family, we went caroling with some friends. We had a lot of fun sharing Christmas cheer while spending time with some lovely people. Leah loves to sing (and knock on doors before quickly running to join the group in song). Joel stayed warm snuggled up to me and even joined in with his own babble.

Our family all together. I didn’t have a Christmas dress picked out for Leah nor did I have the time to make one so I asked my mom to sew one. She did a great job making a jumper for Leah. When you ask Leah to smile, this is what you get.

So much excitement (as well as disruption of a nap in favour of church on Christmas eve) resulted in this.

On Christmas morning Leah cut off the last link on her Christmas chain before we opened presents. Leah made me a lovely sandwich with her new felt bread, condiments and toppings.

Joel was getting hungry during present opening to out came the cheerios. (I would love a cheerios dispenser in my kitchen right now). Leah loved to cheer on and assist Joel with his presents. He loves his cars and trucks as does his big sister.

Leah and Joel received a crazy amount of gifts. My mom also made Leah some super cute snowflake pajamas.

Joel with his awesome frog toque. We made a little birthday cake and sang happy birthday to Jesus.

Before Christmas though to new year’s we moved and painted Leah’s room and Morgan’s office. Both room look great and everything is almost in place (no pictures on the walls yet). Leah slept in her new bed in her new room for the first time last night.

Joel is learning so much these days. Last Thursday, Joel learned to clap. He was banging blocks together and then I saw him putting his hands together without blocks. On Friday, I took the opportunity to teach him the sign language for more since he already had the hand motions. Now, he understands what it means at meal time and will do the action when I tell him to say more please. On Saturday he waved for the first time.

Leah has also learned how to write out her name without prompts. She surprised me but looking back I think she learned it from writing out her name (tracing dots) for so many Christmas cards.

Joel loves bath time. You really have to watch him now that he can pull himself up to a stand as he tries to do it in the bathtub.

Leah helping melt chocolate to dip our Christmas cookies into.

Joel loves to crawl with this play pot lid in his mouth. It is hard to get a good picture of Joel and Leah now that Joel is crawling.

Some Christmas pictures with almost the whole family.

Joel and Leah love to ‘drive’ in the Home Depot carts together. The carts are a beast to maneuver but shopping is so much easier when they are both contained and entertained.

Leah had her preschool Christmas presentation today. She did great, singing and doing all the actions on cue. She takes her role very seriously.

Jingle bells!

We decorated an ice cream cone Christmas tree after the mini concert.

Leah and I made this countdown Christmas chain together. She is so excited about Christmas this year and I love it. She glued most of the links herself and cuts one off every morning. She remembers lots of details about Christmas last year, like Grandpa delivering our tree in a trailer and we had to cut off the top because it was hitting our ceiling. I asked her if we get presents on Christmas and she said, “no, that’s silly, we don’t get presents on Jesus’ birthday”. She is was so excited because she thought lots of friends were coming over (including baby Jesus) to have a birthday party for him with cake and presents. We are going to do a birthday cake for Jesus, though I told her baby Jesus wouldn’t be able to attend in the flesh.

A little random, but here is Joel experiencing his first teeth brushing session.

Leah and I decorated a gingerbread house at Grandma Fran’s house while Joel played with toys under the table.

Joel was fascinated by the train going round and round the Christmas tree.

Here’s Joel checking out our tree. I was so sad to not get a tree from a tree lot this year and more specifically my grandpa’s tree lot. He passed away soon after Leah was born. I have so many memories from hanging out at the tree farm and searching the acres for the perfect tree, drinking hot chocolate and talking by the fire, giving out candy canes to the kids and earning a few tips by helping carry trees out to vehicles. My grandpa would have loved to see Leah roam around the farm and her excitement at the whole experience.

Morgan tied the tree down while I took a few pictures of the kids. Joel isn’t very mobile while in his snowsuit.

Leah put on the some of the lower Christmas lights herself. I can’t express how excited she was about putting up, lighting and decorating the tree. Joel watched from the excersaucer and the floor was full of ornaments, tree needles and lights. I don’t think there will be any presents under the tree with him around this year.

Finishing up.

And on another random note, I asked Leah what she would think if I put Joel to bed in her room. She replied excitedly, “Mom, when he cries you can just come downstairs and give me the soother and I’ll give it to him”. I did put Joel in her room and discovered at two in the morning that Leah can sleep through excessive, loud crying. Gives me great hope for room sharing in the future.

We went to visit my Mom at work and see the farm all decorated up for Christmas. Grandma gave Leah a gingerbread cookie and we got to go on a horse drawn wagon ride.

The farm seems so peaceful with a blanket of snow.

We went to back to my mom’s house where Leah played outside with my mom in the snow. The following week Morgan and I were teaching Sunday school and telling the story of how an angel came to visit Mary. There were wooden blocks to build Mary’s house, some animal costumes for the stable and playdough to make angels out of. When asked what an angel looks like, Leah immediately went on the ground and showed her friends how she made her snow angel and explained that that is how angels look. There isn’t a lot of talk about angels around our house I guess. I struggle to explain how angels look as I’ve never seen one.

Leah and Joel have been interacting more since he’s found new freedom in crawling. Joel looks across the room, sees something he wants, gets really excited (breathing faster and making excited noises) and then starts crawling with great anticipation. He isn’t upset yet if you take something away from him.

He puts anything and everything into his mouth. On the second picture, Joel has just the end of the string in his mouth. Joel got his second tooth a week ago Wednesday.

Leah and I have been working on some Christmas cards. This is her smile for the camera.

Joel puts these fridge magnets in his mouth a lot and then crawls all through the house. A few of them have been dropped down the stairwell.

Leah had her November presentation at preschool on Tuesday. She was very serious and made sure she followed everything the teacher was doing and saying to them. I love to watch her and her whole class perform.

Attempting to get a nice picture of Leah and Joel.

The other day, I was hanging out in the kitchen with Leah and Joel putting together some gingerbread houses. I had Joel’s chair next to me (which has been deeply coveted by Leah) but had put Joel on the floor to crawl around. Leah wanted to go in it so she asked Joel if she could. She continued this conversation, answering for both her and Joel, with Joel’s voice being very high pitched. It continued like this:
-No
-Joel, but I really want to sit in your chair.
-No, I won’t let you sit in my chair.
-Mommy, Joel won’t let me sit in his chair.
I answered saying I do not break up fictitious arguments as I lifted her up into Joel’s chair.

Last Wednesday Joel rolled from back to front a few times. I also made him cry for the first time (kind of intentionally but not really). He bit me and I said in a rather stern, loud voice, “no!”. His face scrunched and he teared up and my heart broke. He didn’t seem to impressed by attempts to be consoled by the one who just scared him which tugged at my heart strings all the more. On a happier note, he also rode in a shopping cart for the first time. It was a ‘car’ shopping cart so he was Leah’s passenger and happy as a clam to go along for the ride.

On Thursday he was practicing his crawling skills and ended up with his stomach on the floor. I was waiting for him to politely ask for help express his irritation on being stuck before I helped him as I was cuddling a newborn and didn’t want to disturb anyone else. I guess he realized his predicament in being stuck and figured out how to get back up on all fours and then return to sitting.

A first for me this week was being up for long periods of time in the middle of the night with a hurting child. That’s not to say my children have never kept me up at night but just not due to sickness. I’ve been so blessed by the health of our children (which I take very little responsibility for). I’m not sure if it was teeth or an upset stomach or some other random cause, all I know is that he slept much better once Tylenol was administered and that I should have given it to him five hours earlier.

I very rarely give my kids medication of any kind as they rarely are sick and I don’t like taking medication however, it didn’t even cross my mind in my weary state till much too late. I still feel like a first time parent with Joel occasionally. Sometimes in learning the hard way like this and other times in my great excitement for new milestones (e.g. new tooth). Anyways, once he was sleeping, I heard Leah was awake so I got her from her room and we went on an adventure first thing while still wearing our pajama tops. We put on some lounge pants and went off to the store for some more Tylenol as it was all gone and a snack as Leah hadn’t eaten breakfast. I was amazed at how many people were out and about at just after eight in the morning. My kids sleep in (as do I most days) which I’m very grateful for. Funny how life goes on even when your not up to see it go round.

Leah quotes:
“Is it tomorrow yet?”

When asking about who is Grandma’s mom, I explained that she had died and was no longer around. Leah said that was sad and asked why she had to die. I told her that Grandma’s mom was very, very old and was sick. Then, not sure if she knew the meaning of death, I asked her what does it mean to die and Leah responded that it meant going to the doctor.

I was going to pick up something off of Craig’s list and Leah asked if I was going to take it. I said I was going to and she replied with that wouldn’t be nice. I explained that I was going to pay her for it but Leah still wasn’t too convinced. After I returned to the car when I picked it up, Leah asked if she said yes, meaning that we could have it and she was pretty happy about that

I can’t think of any more but I’ll keep adding them as they come, because there is lots of good ones these days.

The baby gate is up now full time as Joel is getting around in good time these days. He usually naps just once a day for a couple of hours in the afternoon but will have a morning and afternoon nap if he falls asleep earlier. He is also starting to babble away, mostly saying ba, ba, ba. Joel is growing up quickly these days and I’m reveling in his achievements.

It has been a very busy month with me preparing to get my daycare licensed as well as Morgan working hard on his business as well. Here is an update of the past month.

At the end of every month, Leah’s preschool invites parents to a small presentation so the teachers and kids can share a little of what they have learned that month. Leah has done great during the presentations, doing the actions and participating and following directions to a tee. She rushed over, passing a few kids in line so she could put her feet on the performance line.

Leah was invited to a princess party so we decided to dress her up a bit. Morgan put ‘blobs’ in her hair after her bath the night before.

I felt a bit like a pageant mom. I’m so not a girly girl but Leah loves all things girly. She loves rings, sparkly shoes, make up and all things pretty.

Cinderella came too.

Morgan spends time with Joel in his office so I can have some time to get things done. A few activities they do together include spinning on the second office chair.

I guess sitting on the floor playing with toys wasn’t exciting enough.

Morgan and Leah carve their pumpkins together every year. Morgan let Leah use a sharp knife for the first time but she was quite hesitant.

She had a lot of fun helping though. After Morgan was done carving his, he cut it up to cook it to make the pumpkin ready for pie.

Joel has been up like this for a little bit now and in this past weekend, he has been moving purposefully across the room. He keeps his one foot still under him most of the time so then he can return to sitting up. When he is up on all fours in the crawling position, he ends up on his stomach once he gets tired, which happens pretty quick.

He loves his food and is eating about three baby food cubes at every meal.

On October 27, Joel’s first tooth popped up. He is going down to bed at 8:30ish and getting up around 5 am to eat and then back to sleep until 8ish. He is eating breakfeast, lunch and dinner with us. Joel is still a happy, laid back babe most of the time. Leah is awesome with him and will sing patty cake or other songs to keep him happy for me if I need a few more minutes is he is fussy.
Leah is loving preschool and cubbies, her church preschool program. She is learning a lot. Leah is very much a mother hen with Joel and when her friends come over. She likes to correct and instruct everyone.

We had lots of fun with friends at the pumpkin patch this year. Leah enjoyed the petting zoo as well as hanging out with her buddies. She was a little nervous about the hayride but once we talked it over, she was excited.

Leah would not sit on the tractor this year but at least Joel was happy to comply. The picture of Leah is from last year. I don’t think it moved an inch.

The hayride dropped us off at the corn maze where we let Leah lead us through to the pumpkin patch.

Leah enjoyed the hunt for the perfect pumpkin.

The field was hard to walk through, so Leah hitched a ride and smelled the sunflowers.

Just like last year, Leah would pick up a pumpkin to check it out and then proclaim that is was dirty. This year we could easily explain to her that it grew in the dirt and we could clean it off, unlike last year, where she just kept trying to pick up other pumpkins that looked clean regardless of what we told her.

Leah decided on a nice, little pumpkin. Morgan also picked out a larger one to take home as well.

After the hayride back, we had a picnic lunch where Joel had a short nap on the picnic table.

I’ve started feeding Joel three times a day this week even though he doesn’t totally have the hang of it. He usually eats better during breakfast and lunch as oppose to his dinner. Joel doesn’t open his mouth intentionally for food yet so I try get him to smile or he grabs onto the spoon and helps me guide it into his mouth just like he grabs his toys and gives them a good chew. He has had rice cereal, banana, apple sauce, potato and carrots, with no apparent preference yet. He needs a good bib as food tends to get all over. The bib above looks like he is wearing football gear under it.

He loves his sippy cup though he doesn’t really get any water from it.

We went for an evening fall week one night last week and collected fall things to help decorate our home. I think Joel looks like a bushman with his awesome winter hat. Leah was chasing me down the road while I ran backwards with the camera. I love her real smile which can be hard to capture.

Joel has been able to stand holding onto things for at least a couple of weeks now. He has also learned how to swivel himself on the floor in order to get something he wants.

On Monday, we went to the park and I put Joel in the swing for the first time. At first he was a little unsure but there were lots of smiles in between the perplexed faces. Once he was more confident in the swing, I pushed him higher and higher as his smiles grew.

A dress I made for a precious one month old little girl. I got lots of snuggles too. I can hardly remember Joel being that young. Time flies.

As much fun as dresses are on little girls, there are lots of handsome things for the boys. I’m enjoying dressing Joel as much as I did Leah. Love the sweater vest.

On Wednesday mornings while I attend a teaching and small group time with moms, Leah goes to a Christian preschool program called Cubbies. She adores the vest she wears and wore it all day long. Leah even has a little bit of homework. She and I have been practicing her memory verse all week and she has it fully memorized now. It is “God is love. 1 John 4:8″.

I was trying to go over the activities with her and she was really tired from all of the excitement of the week and I had bad visions of what homework time might look like in a few years. Life is very full of new activities for Leah right now along with the regular play dates and such and I need to remember and intentionally plan downtime for our family, especially as she gets used to the new routine.

This morning after researching a new car seat for Leah, feeding everyone breakfast, putting a roast in the crock pot and bathing and dressing the kids, we were finally ready to run some errands. Just before we left, I paused amidst the mental list of things to pack and the physical list of places to go and items to buy and reflected. I pulled out the camera, delaying the trip I had carefully planned and embraced the time.

I’m unbelievably thankful for my kids. Sometimes I let them drive me to my wit’s end and I require some time to myself before I can come back to being the patient, attentive mother I strive to be. But, for the most part, especially when proper sleep has been attained and they have been fed recently, I look at them with awe and wonder and consider myself extremely thankful that they are mine.

Joel is just shy of six months so we have starting feeding him some rice cereal. He was super eager to grab the bowl and spoon.

I don’t think he is too crazy about actually eating it. I tried a little bit and I don’t blame him.

Leah had her first day of preschool last Thursday. Her preschool does gradually entry so her first class was only an hour. She did great and seemed to really enjoy it. Leah didn’t want us to leave but didn’t put up a fuss when we left. When I peeked in the window, she was playing with ponies happily with one of her teachers. Morgan was able to walk to preschool with us to see Leah off to her first day.

When I came to pick her up, her face lit up and ran over to give me a great, big hug. So precious!