We are counting down the days here until my little baby (ok, my almost 4 year old) starts attending school aka Junior Kindergarten. She is very very excited. She now has a drawer-full of school-friendly pants although finding this child pants without buttons & zippers that don’t also fall off of her tiny waist was a HUGE challenge! I think she’ll be wearing a lot of tights! But I managed to find enough pairs that fit her right.

We also have her backpack ready. Water-bottle with a straw ready. Dora lunchbox ready (although she spotted a Thomas one at Zellers yesterday and went nuts!). Plastic sandwich baggies ready. New Velcro shoes ready. So far, so good. We’re meeting her teacher on Sept 8th so hopefully I can get my hundreds of other questions answered. Talk about stress. Talk about excitement. My wittle wittle baby is growing up. :(

Natasha is obsessed with her Magnadoodle! Actually, both girls are and now that they have two, it eliminates a lot of fighting! But Natasha has been drawing some impressive things on hers and I love her little 3.5 year old drawing skills!

January 2010 – Chickens

May 2010 – Thomas the train (this was on paper)

July 2010 – Snail

And today – August 2010 – my favourite, a giraffe!

Both girls are very excited to start/return to their sports classes this fall. Veronika will be starting her first year of gymnastics, and Natasha will start her 3rd! Natasha is also starting her 2nd year of jazz/ballet/acro but in a different dance school so it’s a new experience for her. Both are looking forward to it!

Today I took Natasha to buy her new uniform – bodysuit, tights, and shoes, and she really enjoyed trying everything on and then modeling at home for her daddy. Veronika got quite jealous of the attention her sister was getting, so Natasha (being the sweetheart that she is) asked me to dress her baby sister in her older pink bodysuit and that immediately lifted Veronika’s spirits!

We bought the girls tickets to watch their very first movie in the theatre! And what’s better to to see than their favourite character – Thomas the tank engine! The movie is called Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue, and is offered through Toons for Toddlers. I really love this whole service, even though they are only offering one movie right now, but it’s ideal for toddlers – it’s for kids ages 2-5, screening length under 60 minutes, reduced sound, and the theatre is not fully dark so parents can exit if necessary.

I am not a fan of people bringing young kids to ‘regular’ movies and have them cry, talk, and disturb everyone, so for us this is ideal. I am hoping the girls like it! Of course, it isn’t a first movie without popcorn and pop!

Last Monday was Veronika's 1st and Natasha's 3rd trip to the zoo! The girls had a fun day, and I think Veronika was pretty impressed with all the different animals, as well as the kids-zone climbing area and the huge splash pad. And Natasha... Natasha loved the splash pad! She is not huge on the zoo itself, as we learned for the 3rd time this year! She just wasn't impressed with any of the animals, except maybe the turtles. She was more fascinated with the merry-go-round at the entrance, and I guess she's more like me in that sense, as I'd much rather visit a theme park than a zoo. But she still had a ton of fun!

The splash pad was her favourite and she even attempted going on some of the water slides. Veronika took a while to warm up, but soon enough was loving the water as well. At the end, they each picked out a stuffed turtle from the zoo shop!

Zoo entrance

Checking out the turtles

Looking at… something! Can’t remember :)

Splash pad fun!

Spider webs!

I hope I don’t jinx myself by this post, but Veronika is officially potty trained!

We started training (initially) about two months ago. She was making great progress, but eventually regressed, was crying, and wanted nothing to do with it. To me these were signs that she wasn’t ready.

I decided to give it a 2nd try on Monday. This time she did fabulous! She had several accidents on Monday, only two accidents on Tuesday, and NO accidents on Wednesday! By Thursday afternoon she was using the potty all on her own, and by Friday (today), she completely mastered the whole thing. She was SO proud of herself! She also stayed dry on our two trips to the playground and during naps the past couple of days.

So hopefully she won’t regress again and maybe in the near future we can stop buying her pull-ups. As per rewards, she was getting one Smartie for every time she used the potty, but she is now losing interest in Smarties, just like Natasha eventually stopped asking for stickers as rewards. I guess those wear off!

My baby girl is getting big.

My darling almost-four-year-old makes it a point to remind me each day that she only likes 2 fruit and 2 veggies. That’s right. Then she goes on to list them – apples (sliced & peeled ONLY), bananas (without any brown spots), corn (canned or whole on the cob), and carrots (baby carrots, boiled until soft). That’s it. Other veggies & fruit are not part of her diet. Unless, they are floating in soup which she will usually eat.

I try to sneak fruit into her in different ways – she loves Mott’s flavoured applesauce whose ingredients are only fruit & water, so they are pretty healthy. She loves those in peach and strawberry and some other flavors. Then we make homemade smoothies which she also loves, and this way she takes in many kinds of berries. So there are ways to trick her, but she has become VERY picky in the fruit and veggie department. On a good day she will eat canned mandarin oranges, but forget fresh oranges…

… but aside from these, she is actually a very good eater! And my husband pointed out she loves potatoes, so I guess that’s another veggie she forgot she likes!

We finally took Natasha for her first dental appointment. She was very prepared! We read her Dora's Big Book of Stories book since it includes the “Show Me Your Smile” story where Dora the Explorer goes to the dentist. And therefore, Natasha knew exactly what to expect.

Her office is a pediatric dentistry office, so specifically for children, and all the staff was very friendly and knowledgeable as to how to speak and deal with children. She did not cry even once and was very brave! She had x-rays done (new digital technology which uses only a 1/3 of the exposure that normal x-rays use). Tasha loved looking at “pictures” of all her top & bottom teeth and received great news – no cavities!

She got to press a button and move her chair up & down, she got to examine all of the dentist’s tools, and she got to wear funky heart-shaped sunglasses which she loved. She also got several “prizes” and both girls got stickers and a nickel to get a toy from a toy-machine. Veronika watched (with some fear in her eyes!) Tasha’s entire appointment but she felt happy to be included in the prize-giving!

Natasha goes again soon for thorough teeth cleaning and afterwards only every 6 months for checkups. She was such a good girl!

So the summer has really arrived. The past week or two have been absolutely unbearable, with temperatures in the high 30’s, but feeling more like mid 40’s. Ew. The AC and our fan have been on pretty much non-stop. I am hoping it will cool off soon because both girls now have heat-rashes and we have resorted to putting them to bed in only thin tank tops. They are dealing well, but we haven’t been outside much because of it. They do love messing around with their water table on those types of days.

We have a local splash pad that is free and super fun… or maybe not! Last year Veronika was terrified and Natasha had a lot of fun… this year, essentially the same result. Although Natasha was not impressed with the larger “palm-trees” that sprayed water, she did enjoy the smaller sprinklers.

But it’s the perfect place to go on a super hot day!