Veronika went to see her doctor today for a 2-year well-baby check. 

Weight - about 26 1/4 lbs.
Height - 35.5 inches

The poor girl cried and wanted to be held the entire time. She is scared silly of her Paediatrician. But on the bright side, she’s doing great and passed the developmental check-list with flying colors.

She’s also been showing a great interest in the potty; she goes at her own pace and I learned from Natasha to not push the issue. We’re taking it easy and following her lead. She’s definitely growing up.

The girls spent all afternoon playing “doctor” with each other and taking turns being “sick”. It was really cute. I guess the doctor left quite the impression on them!

So spring has (almost) sprung and the weather has been slightly warming up – it’s about time! Naturally, the girls love the warmer days and going to their much missed parks and playgrounds. I do not think they miss the snow at all…

Slide! Can they get any cuter???

Taking a break to eat a small snack-

Watching a large train pass by

Last Wednesday I took the girls to a playgroup at a local library; they do an hour of free-play with different toys, puzzles, play-dough, arts & crafts, and after that is done, they do an hour of music, dance, and story time; they also serve snacks and it’s all free. The place was packed with kids of all ages (birth-5).

The girls had a great time for the first hour (10-11am), but then got exhausted and I could tell they weren’t in the mood for story time. They also got extremely sleepy and the playgroup cut into their nap time. By 11:20 Natasha told me she wanted to go home and Veronika passed out in the stroller.

We might be heading to a different playgroup next week that is earlier, that way they can still nap at their scheduled time of 12 o’clock. I like my kids to be on a schedule, they function and behave so much better that way. Also, I couldn’t believe how many parents & caregivers bring snotty, sick kids to playgroups. Keep your sick kids at homeeeeeee! Isn’t that common sense? I guess not.

On Monday I took the girls to a grocery store and on our way out, by the cash register, they had these adorable little crafts. They might have been left over from Valentine’s Day, but they had a lot of them, so maybe not. They only cost $0.49 and consisted of a little plastic box containing red, pink, and white edible beads, and two different strings. I knew the girls would love it.

We came home and made edible necklaces! Except… I did not want the girls to know they’re edible because I am not huge on them eating hard candy. So we pretended they weren’t! The girls had fun and loved them!

 

Showing off their finished necklaces!

Last night our baby girl got a little bit closer to being a “big girl”. We converted her crib into a toddler bed to give her some independence. When Natasha was 21-22 months, she fell/climbed out of this same crib one day (I still to this day don’t know which one!), and that was our reasoning back then to buying her a toddler bed. Veronika, on the other hand, never fell or tried to climb out. Her reasons are different…

Our girls have been sharing a bedroom for about 11 months now, and every single morning she had to watch her older sister climb out of her bed and play with toys… or worse, walk out of the bedroom and leave Veronika alone, crying and crying for us to get her. So we decided to turn her crib into a toddler bed to give her that independence she needs right now.

Night No.1 (which was yesterday) went GREAT. She slept all night, did not fall out, and at 7:30am she happily left her room and walked down the hall to our bedroom. She was soooo happy and so proud of herself! She loves her new bed.

I’ve never been one to care for Valentine’s Day, but when you have small kids and see all the adorable Valentine’s gifts in stores, well it becomes a different story. Buying for your kids is a lot more fun than shopping for yourself.

Natasha has been asking for blue nail polish for a while now. Because pink is boring, right? She also wanted a purple one. I dropped by Claire’s and they had the perfect set! Moreover it’s scented (bubble gum, cotton candy, grape…). Mmmm. She loved it!

 

While in the same store, I saw these adorable stuffed… raccoons? They light up and make sounds… perfect for my little snuggle bear! She loved it, too.

Now, Matthew and I don’t really exchange Valentines gifts, but I wanted him to have something from the girls. A few days ago (together) we made him this:

Then we made some cupcakes and the girls decorated them with little coloured candy-stars. We also made some with pink icing and fresh blueberries. Then we ate them :P

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

So I really wanted to do some Valentine’s Day crafts with the girls. They LOVE crafts and all the “special” supplies I pull out which they never otherwise see. However, while Natasha is ready to deal with scissors, glue, paint, etc… Veronika isn’t. So it was quite the challenge to keep her focused and not eat anything that wasn’t edible.

Anyway – we managed to do this craft: 2 Valentine’s “bears”. Veronika wanted hers pink, and Natasha wanted purple, of course (her favourite color).

The girls love them and I think they turned out cute. Although, we ended up hanging them on the wall in their room because due to some rough-play, they have lost an eye or an ear about five times too many and I had to fix them up. =)

I had ideas for another 3-5 crafts, but I am not sure if we’ll be doing that many. Maybe just one more.

I saw this idea on a craft website months ago, and last weakened finally had a chance to create it. Apparently it’s really good for kids’ creativity, imagination, and general development so I figured they might enjoy it.

All you need is a few different bags of dry beans – red kidney, white, black, etc. or just an assorted bag of all. Place the beans in a large plastic container that has a lid. Then add a plastic scoop and whatever else you want. I stopped by the dollar store and picked up a few packs of little rubber animals, red rocks, and 2 plastic trucks.

They had a blast and asked to play with their “bean boxes” every single day last week. They’ve buried and unburied their choo-choo trains a hundred different times and they loved digging and un-digging the little animals. Cost of craft, about 10 dollars per box.

My friend Erin crocheted these beautiful beanies for my girls. I am keeping them for the spring, but the girls have been bribed to pose for a few pictures. I love them!

 

… when you can put choo-choo’s in a highchair and feed them hamburger??

For the record – my girls do like baby dolls; rather Veronika does. But they definitely love their Thomas trains best. Anything Thomas-related makes them very very happy.