On the Move!

by Julia 12/30/2008 1:29:00 PM

Veronika is now officially-officially MOBILE. She is not crawling on all-fours, but she scoots on her bum alll over the house. It takes her about a minute to get from the living room, down the hallway, and into Natasha’s room. But after Natasha’s room, her favourite place to explore is the kitchen; not only does she crawl there, but she also opens all the cabinets and looks inside them. Today she also pulled off EVERY SINGLE ornament off the tree that she could reach! AHH.

It’s like she just discovered there is a whole new world beyond our living room… I need eyes on the back of my head!

I said I will never do it, but....

by Julia 12/30/2008 12:45:00 PM

I used to say that I’ll never dress the girls in identical outfits… yeah, well,  so much for that! I couldn’t help it… I went to Old Navy (I can live there!) during Boxing Week sales and all of their winter jammies were 60% off. So of course, I just had to get these for the girls. Aren’t they just cute?? :)

I do, however, like to dress them in matching clothes… i.e. the same sweater but in two different colours, or different outfits but with the same pattern. They have to match! After all, what’s the fun in having kids close in age if you don’t do that?

 

By the way, we had a GREAT Christmas… the girls got piles of toys, clothes, and gift cards. They haven’t yet received their New Year’s gifts from my side of the family so we’re anticipating more stuff in a couple days. After Christmas, I packed 2 huge boxes of old & babyish toys they no longer play with and we put them away into the storage room in our basement. Much MUCH needed!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The Girls and the Tree

by Julia 12/20/2008 10:04:43 PM

So our tree’s been up since last weekend and so far so good! Natasha looooooves the ornaments, she calls them “balls”. And Veronika loves crawling up to the tree and pulling on the lower branches, but she isn’t strong quite enough to cause any damage so I think we’ll be okay. (and yes, she can crawl on her bum now… she sits down, puts her hands on the floor, places one hand in front of the other, and drags her bum allllll over the living room!)

Crawled up to the tree

Checking out the ornaments…

The girls together

Natasha, in front of the tree

And our playroom…err, I mean, living room!

Finally Better.. I think.

by Julia 12/15/2008 9:35:00 PM

Well, it’s been a heck of a crazy (almost) 3 weeks. First, Veronika got a runny nose that lasted a few days. Once she started getting better, Natasha came down with an awful cold which included a fever, runny nose, strong cough and general crankiness. That lasted well over a week… then when she finally started recovering… guess who gets sick? Veronika. AGAIN. But this time with the same cold symptoms her sister had. *sigh*

Anyhow… I’ve certainly had my fare share of crankiness, fussiness, sleepless nights, fighting with them both over applying Saline nose drops and Veronika screaming bloody murder because wiping her nose is obviously not cool. How could I think otherwise?

But all in all, I would MUCH rather deal with a sick toddler than a sick baby. A sick toddler can understand that she’s sick. A sick toddler does not remember the last time she was sick, so learning the word “sick” through her eyes is AWESOME. Learning to pull out tissues from the box and wiping her nose with Kleenex is AWESOME. Saying over and over that Tasha is sick is AWESOME. Of course, the next thing ya know, the Kleenex box is EMPTY because the toddler has wiped doggy’s nose, and dolly’s nose, and panda’s nose, and choo-choo’s nose, because you know… using the SAME tissue for all of them is just ridiculous. Again, what was I thinking even implying that?

A sick baby is a whole different story. A sick baby does not understand that she’s sick… A sick baby is miserable, cranky, whiney, needy, fussy… Need I go on? A sick baby wakes up at night with a sore throat and a stuffy nose, yet when you try to apply Saline drops to unstuff their nose so they can DRINK their bottle, baby completely freaks out. Baby screams soooooooo hard that baby turns bright red and cannot breath. And when you give baby some Tylenol, baby thinks it’s disgusting and coughs so hard that she spits out all the Tylenol PLUS the previous bottle.

FUN FUN FUN. Anyone want to join my pity party?

But it’s finally *fingers crossed* ending. IT’S ABOUT TIME. I hate winter.

Veronika is Army Crawling!

by Julia 12/10/2008 1:31:43 PM

So much for me hoping she’d not crawl until after the Christmas tree was down… *sigh*

… and she’s already better at it today than she was yesterday… monkey’s on the move!

More toddler conversations

by Julia 12/9/2008 12:12:21 PM

Natasha’s sure getting vocal… vocal in the sense that I can actually understand her!

From a few days ago…

Natasha running down the hallway, holding her hand to her head…

- Hurt! Hurt! Hurt!
- What happened? What hurts?
- Head!
- Your head hurts? How did you hurt it?
- DOOR!!!

And from today…

Natasha was drinking milk and spilled some on her shirt. 15 minutes later…

- Iffent shirt! Iffent shirt! (iffent=different)
- You want a different shirt? Why?
- Shirt YUCKY YUCKY!

These are just a couple examples of ‘conversations’ with her…. she’s also started asking “What’s that?” to pretty much everything. If she doesn’t know what something is called or who someone is, “what’s that?” and “who’s that?”. And lately, “what papa doing?” and “what mama doing?”

The Girls Meet Santa

by Julia 12/7/2008 11:06:19 AM

Yesyerday, we took the girls to the mall to see Santa. As you can see, it went somewhat better than last year.

Veronika was too fascinated by all the lights around to even pay attention as to who was holding her. Natasha wouldn't sit on his lap, but she agreed to stand by him for the picture while saying, "no scared, big girl.... no scared, big girl" over and over and over again (even Santa was laughing!) They didn't smile but at least they didn't scream, so we're making progress!

Veronika is 8 months!

by Julia 12/2/2008 8:41:49 PM

Where did the time go???

Veronika went for her 8-month well-baby check and she’s doing GREAT! She weighs 18lbs 3oz (8.2kg) and is 29.1 inches (74cm). The doctor said she’s gaining weight really well and looks good. She does have a minor cold she’s overcoming, but otherwise she’s just fine. We have to go back at 10 months.

My cutie-patootie

Natasha Sobbing to In the Night Garden ending song

by Julia 12/1/2008 9:43:20 PM

Here’s a video to go with my previous post… she starts sobbing after about 1min 30sec into the video.



AUTHOR

  • profileI am Julia, mommy to two sweet girls - Natasha and Veronika, and wife to Matthew, who developed this wonderful website for me.

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
-- Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta



Julia's bookshelf: read

When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer RougeSecret DaughterThe Kitchen HouseI Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's JourneyThe Doctor's WifeGirl in Translation

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