8 months old – Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Today, Christmas day, you turn 8 months old. You have become such a little interactive human this month.

You are working on many new skills. You clapped your hands at Lily's concert – after being very surprised by everyone else clapping after each performance. You even sang along. Okay, it was a low moan, but the fact is you were trying to participate.

You look at books. Open the book, close the book. Open the book, close the book. Open the book, turn some pages. And you open cupboards. Open the cupboard, close the cupboard. Look at the grown-up holding you, smile and look for approval or praise.

You don't crawl yet, but if you want to get somewhere – like to the Christmas tree – you will roll there.

You have learned to show how much you want mama, usually in the form of lunging for me. I can't even walk by you when you're playing on the floor without you grabbing my leg. When you are in my arms, you smile and turn away from anyone else who puts out "uppy" arms for you. But you do give daddy love, too. When he got home from work the other day, you tried to crawl across the bed to see him.

Look! A new tooth on top there.

You provide ample comic relief by shaking your head when we ask you questions. Like the other day when Lily came home from the dentist we said, "Now that you have teeth, you'll get to go to the dentist soon." To which you responded no, no, no with head shaking. You also tend to say "no" to Lily the most, whether it's by shaking your head, pushing her away or by disapprovingly grunting at her.

Yes, you are a grunter. It's how you communicate a want. (Crying is still how you communicate your needs.) As soon as we sit down for supper, you immediately freak out and grunt with all your might in hopes that we will shove food into your mouth. So we do, whatever is on our plates. There's been lasagna noodles, chicken, stew, pineapples. You like it all. Especially toast. Sourdough to be exact.

You play piano and you do it with purpose. You travel up and down the keys in mad search of the high notes, then the low notes, then some light tickling of the ivorys followed by intense banging. You could be a prodigy. You also play ukulele; it's especially nice when you're banging the beaded garland from the Christmas tree over the strings.

And here you are pulling yourself up. Very talented.

You like to hit stuff. A lot. Bang. Bang, bang. That's the sound of your toys hitting each other. It's fun to watch, but we have to be sure not to sit too close.

You have lots of hair, but you scratch little cuts in your head when trying to relax.

You are overall a brave, beautiful boy who sometimes sleeps with the covers over your head so we have to find you when you wake up, but we're always happy to find you there.

One more sleep!!!

Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful holiday!

A little fuzzy on the definition

When we got home from the dentist yesterday, Chris asked Lily, "How was the dentist? Perfect checkup?"

"Yup," said Lily. "Only two cavitities!"

Somebody turned 33 today...

I'd tell you, but it'd be more fun making you guess.

Oh, and someone else finally popped out a new top tooth that had been bulging beneath his gums for what feels like ages and ages.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. We'll go out with a bang with a dentist appointment and swimming lessons in the afternoon.

Four more sleeps...

Busy for a bunch of introverts

Last week was our busy week. After the winter concert on Tuesday, I had my work xmas lunch on Wednesday, plus Lily's swimming lessons. On Thursday we made gingerbread cookies. On Friday Chris and I had dentist appointments, I had some friends over for soup (until midnight) and Chris was out at a work party until 2 a.m. On Saturday, we were very, very tired but we made it to Margaret's 80th birthday surprise party.

Brynn came over for a couple hours to play and then we went to our friends' Joanne and Paul's place that night.

Today we decorated the cookies and finished up the cards for some friends. Lily loves to make a mess and Finn really wanted to get his hands on those things.

Now we just have to finish making all our presents this week...

Wiggle, wiggle

We were munching on lunch yesterday when Lily said, "Ow. My quesadilla hurt my teeth." So I asked, "Is there a bone in there?" With a very disapproving look she responded, "You put bones in there?" And when she said it, I noticed her bottom middle right tooth was crooked. I stuck my finger in there and sure enough, it wiggled!

I almost burst with excitement, her dad and I both telling her how awesome it was and all about the tooth fairy and how big a girl she is to start losing her baby teeth and how cool it will be to stick her tongue in the hole. But she burst into tears. She was suddenly terrified about losing her teeth after talking about them feeling different, sore, over the last few weeks, that maybe they'd be loose soon.

After some hugs and reassurance, she was as excited as we were. Standing in the mirror, wiggling it with her finger, she made a list of all the people she could tell. First it would be her swim instructor, then Nana, then the kids at school.

Always one to think of her brother, she said, "It's like, when I loose my teeth, Finn grows them! Like we're trading!"

The 2010 winter concert

Lily said it's not called a Christmas concert anymore because not everyone celebrates Christmas. Fair enough. But it was just as sweet. There were two performances; the first at 1 p.m. that Nana, Finn and I attended and the second at 7 p.m. that just Chris and I went to. (And yes, that second one started 15 minutes after Lily and Finn usually crawl into bed...)

Check out their entire performance in less than three minutes:


Lily's xmas concert performance 2010 from Hood/Anderson on Vimeo.

In other news, Lily said she was falling in love with three of the boys in her class today, so if we include Creeson, she now loves four boys. Oh my.

Party, party, party!

On Sunday we attended the SGI kids Christmas party. As always, it was a great time. Santa always gives good presents and there's lots to do and eat.

Here's the day in pictures:

This is just before Finn started to make strange with Santa – and Lily, again, held his hand to keep him brave.

This is Finn's first Christmas present. It was a hit.

This is Lily's gift; it was a denim purse, keychain and change purse with a bunch of beads, jewels, ribbon, sequins, etc. to decorate them with.

There were face painters who did a great job accommodating Lily's request for a butterfly.

At the craft table, Lily and her Dad made some beautiful gingerbread ornaments; one for her and one for Finn.

And games! Oh, how Lily has skill. She did everything so well, it didn't take long to finish all the activities.

Tooth buds and new videos

Here are Finn's top tooth buds. Could pop through any day now... Looks like he'll have four front teeth for Christmas.

Seeing as he's soooooo cute, even when he's crying, I've finally gotten around to posting some videos of him and his sister. Check 'em out...especially the huffin' and nose scrunchin' one. It's his new skill and it's too cute for words.

Let the festivities begin!

Today we officially kicked off the season with the annual FCC kids xmas party. It was a gymnastics party so Lily enjoyed an hour of activity before we all filed upstairs for a visit with Santa. Here's the party in pictures:

Lily was lucky to have a friend, Ella, in her group. While I was saying good night to her she said, "It sure was nice to have someone I knew there."

Today was Chris's first day out of the house since getting sick over a week ago. Finn, on the other hand, felt spry. Spry enough to make goofy faces which he did all day long.

Awwww. Finn sat on Santa's knee so good, but only because Lily was holding his hand to keep him brave.

Lily eats the Rice Krispie cake treat that was in her treat bag from Santa.

Finn got a treat bag, too, but turns out he was mostly just interested in the actual bag.

Only 24 more days until Christmas...

Yikes! With just over three weeks until the big day, we've got lots to do. (Well, lots in a manageable kind of way, I hope.) Lily helped me sign the xmas cards yesterday and her favourite part with the stamps is still to come...

Lily is home for the next three days, so that slows things down a bit. She got her very first report card on Friday and then there were parent/teacher/student/little brother conferences today – and tomorrow and then a personal development day on Friday. And there are no concerns about Lily. She does well in everything. She's there or almost there (developing or well developed are the terms these days) with everything they do. We went through her portfolio, saw some art projects they'd worked on and that was about it.

Chris is sick and has been home sleeping for three days this week; I think I'm catching it. Finn is sprouting his top teeth. But in the midst of all that, we still made it out over the weekend in the mountains of snow as it was only -5˚C and not windy. But don't tell Finn that his sleigh is pink. I think he's feeling self conscious already...

7 months old

I wish we could freeze time, you are so perfectly wonderful right this second. You laugh at everything. You grunt when you're displeased. You grunt instead of talking. You talk when you wake up from your naps so we know you want us to come up to the bedroom and see you. You still cry when I lay you down for a nap. When you cry, you usually cry "mama." You only say mama or something akin to it when you're upset. You always smile when I walk into the room.

You hate getting bundled up, but you're fine when we're outside. You freak out with total joy when we hold our arms out for "uppy." You whip your head back and forth really fast for fun. You love jumping in your jolly jumper and have really gotten the hang of turning and reaching for whatever is near, like your exersaucer or the jolly jumper stand. You love your whale rattles because you can hit things hard with them – like the window at the pool at Lily's swimming lessons yesterday.

You are big enough to sit in a shopping cart seat, not that we venture out much. You quit lunging forward from sitting into a crawling position because the last time you did it, you hit your mouth and had an owie on it for a week. You just bounce wildly and excitedly now but are cautious not to go forward.

You have two teeth. You've bit me a handful of times while I was nursing you. You quit eating puréed food a couple weeks ago so we only offered you real food. You changed your mind, though, and had five whole cubes of apples the other day, then almost a whole mango and some watermelon. Last night you were thrilled to share our actual supper for the first time; you devoured the root vegetable curry soup with brown rice – kinda like this. You will fit right in to our family's spicy tastes.

I'm guessing that it's just going to get better, huh? I can barely imagine...

Style notes: Nov. 2010 edition

After some ruthless clothes purging, Lily has adopted many of my "fancy" shirts as dresses. Throw in a little up-do and a tiara and you're set!

Looks like we missed October, mostly due to the illnesses that would never end – and then there was the ear infection that she's still on antibiotics for:

But we're practically all healthy now. Just in time to make Christmas presents and goodies... And go to Christmas parties and concerts where there will be ample opportunity to make fashion statements.  Like this one:

Lily was a purple princess for neighbour Carly's birthday party.

And what's better than wrapping a scarf (left) or a shawl and a piece of fabric of Mom's to make you feel all dolled up? She spends many an afternoon getting gorgeous...while I chase her around and ask for just one picture for her website... Isn't it worth it?

Life lesson #1

The sky was a beautiful pinky purple this morning so I called Lily to come see it. When she looked out the back door, she saw that the gazebo frame was all destroyed and asked what happened. I told her the tent never got taken down and the weight of the snow collapsed it.

She was surprisingly upset. "Well, what are we going to do?" I told her we'd take it apart and take it to the dump, that it had probably had it's run anyway. (It had; most of the tabs were ripped off and the fabric was thin from years of sun exposure.) "We'll have to get a new one then. To have shade for my birthday and summer. Okay. So we're going to have to save our money then. Dad's birthday is next, then yours, then Finn's. I'll use the money in my piggy bank, Dad can use his birthday money or you know, those gift cards he gets sometimes? So then we should have enough money to get one."

I thought that was a great idea. While she doesn't really grasp how much things cost, she knows we have to save our money and work together to buy the things we want for our family.

It's a party!

Your printing is getting more effortless. Next on to lowercase letters!

Today Brynn finally had her 5th birthday party...not quite a month after she turned five. You made her this card, we put together a photo album of all your pictures together since you first met, and we gave her an Ariel heart locket that we bought at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Disneyland. How nice to be home and have time to do this stuff.

You're explaining the card you made...just in case she didn't get it.

You wanted to look so nice for the party and picked out this shirt well in advance. You even had Nana curl your hair after you specifically requested to have a bath so you could wash your hair. (Huh? That's a first!)

  

You did look nice. Always our little fashionista... Nothing better to run around in than a skirt!

L'il Chomper

It's a bizarre picture, I know, but we'd like you to meet L'il Chomper on the left and the corner of Bitey McBiterson just poking through on the right. It took about twenty pictures of me holding down Finn's bottom lip and trying to get an in-focus shot of these little troublemakers without his tongue in the way. Mission accomplished.

We've been using these little guys to try out all sorts of new things. Finn's a huge fan of chewing on day old French bread, pickle spears, steamed broccoli florets and apple and mango slices. He seems to really HATE IT when we spoon feed him cereal – or anything. After three or four bites, he's angry so we've given up for the most part. And since he's a second child, all the "rules" have been thrown out the window about how we should be feeding him; he probably knows better than us anyway. We're pretty sure he won't starve.

How nice that he can sit in high chairs at restaurants now!

Someone else who isn't starving is Lily. She's even on a food kick. She's been eating a lot, so it's kind of high maintenance. Sure, half the time it's tomato soup, but she ate two hard-boiled eggs and two carrot muffins today – on top of her strawberry porridge for breakfast and her butternut squash muffin at school. That's a lot for this girl.

Oh, and a lime.

The drool, the tears, the snot. (Oh, and the screaming.)

And that's only Finn. Lily was sick AGAIN from Friday until now. So sick she had two naps on Friday and I could barely get her to the photo studio to get her Kindergarten photos done. Then when we finally got there, she cried and cried and cried, clutching my leg. "I don't want to get my picture taken!!! Mama come in, too. Mama be in the picture!!!" Wouldn't that have been a nice look? The tear-stained, blotchy face is nice enough.

So now she has an awful cough and cold and was totally wiped out all day Saturday, too. On Sunday, we sent her to Brynn's to play. We needed a break from her constant whining!

Uh, I think he's trying to tell us something.

Then there's Finn. The baby who never really cried has been bursting into tears. Ouchy tears. For the past three or four days, along with the constant drool, his bottom gums have been swollen. Really swollen and we can see/feel some little guys trying to pop out. Lots of Advil (well, when necessary) and one rubbing of Orajel (which instantly stopped five minutes of earth-shattering middle-of-the-night screaming) has helped. Except now, as of last night, he has a brand new cold. Every sneeze shoots fountains of snot out, so now he's not pleased about us wiping his nose every other minute. What? That's not enough? His six-month immunization was this morning AND I topped that off with a flu shot. Sore gums, extremely snotty nose and really tender legs. Poor kid. (Got him weighed at the clinic and he's now 19 lbs., 12 oz., just under the 90th percentile. At least his girth isn't suffering...)

But oh, the carrots. The carrot soup.

This is right before I pureéd it into a rich burgundy colour soup. Look how the purple carrots turned the onions bright purple.

And oh, the bags and bags of carrots we have shredded and are awaiting us in the freezer for carrot cake and muffins. Sunday was such a nice day I finally pulled the rest of the carrots out of the garden. I washed, peeled and cut the carrots all Monday morning and Lily was a big helper and shredded carrots and washed dishes in the afternoon while Finn napped. (Well, we need someone to wash the dishes until our dishwasher arrives on Monday.)

I love purple carrots. And girls who actually wash the dishes sitting like this.