The Princess, Stinky One and Chicken Little

Kiera was in heaven, since she was able to dress up as 3 different princess/fairies - Tinkerbelle for he school parade, Belle for a friend's party, and princess in pink for trick or treating. Thanks to all the generous aunties and amah for providing such an assortment of wardrobe.

Ian, on the other hand was not into wearing any costume and it was only by pinning him down did we manage to get him into the skunk outfit. However once he realized there were treats to be had, he did not mind at all.

Victoria did not know any better, so she was fine being put into the chicken outfit.

Getting ready for Christmas

We went out Christmas tree chopping for the first time ever. Took all the kids and they had a blast. It was a Christmas tree farm out by Rockton and we thought we had done well by not immediately chopping down the first tree we saw, until we went on the tractor wagon ride and realized that there was a whole other section of trees to choose from - doh! Nevertheless, we picked a good one, if a bit wider than we expected once we set it up at home.

ballet

Today was Kiera's first ballet recital. It was more of a demonstration of all the things they learned during the year, but it was at the Theatre Aquarius and so they were on the big stage for about 15-20 minutes.

Kiera spent most of the time looking for us in the audience and looking a little like a deer caught in headlights, but she did great and said she was only a little nervous. She did enjoy it and the applause. She has been showing off the videos to all who want to watch. See below for a short excerpt.

Kiera's birthday

For Kiera's birthday this year, the one thing she asked for (and received, thanks to her Goo Goo Lianna) was a Belle dress. (We saw Beauty and the Beast musical over the Christmas holidays and has been fascinated by a fancy ball dress ever since. In fact, I think she was most upset during the show when Belle changed out of the ball dress and back into her regular clothes; and only perked up when Belle wore the dress again in the end.)

She wears her new Belle dress whenever she can (even to school) and dances around the house even more than usual. It has also gotten Ian into the dancing mood. Although his dancing usually consists of running around the house with his hands in the air until he hits a wall.

Ian, Scarface

Ian has been going through a bit of a clumsy phase this spring and seems to always land on his face to break his fall. The good thing is that other than a few tears when he first falls, it doesn't seem to bother him. Unfortunately, it always seems to be on the same side of the face. These are pictures from two different falls. Just when the first one healed, he hopped off some stepping stones at school and scraped the same spot. We are thinking of getting him to wear a helmet all the time.

Princess butterfly

Kiera has been very much into princesses for the entire winter, in which she HAS to wear a dress every day or else she is not "pretty like a princess". It has been a pretty cold winter, but she does not seem to mind. We have no idea where she gets this stuff from. The only saving grace is that she is not expecting a prince to save her. Here is her story about a butterfly prince and princess. It may be a little hard to understand since she was eating at the time, but this is the synopsis:


Once upon a time, the prince butterfly wanted to marry the princess butterfly. But the princess butterfly just flew away and the prince came back home. [Why didn't she want to marry him?] Because she had busy stuff to do. She told him "I'm too busy. Go back to your house and I'll do my stuff." The End

Ian's first week at daycare

Day 1 - Orientation - I went with him for the morning so he could get introduced to his teachers and classroom. I had gone through all this with Kiera, so nothing new for me. He had a few jealous moments when he saw other kids in his class sitting on my lap as I helped them get dressed to go outside for playtime and some teary moments when we were outside because he kept shaking off his gloves and then would get upset that his hands were getting cold and wet from the snow. But all in all, Ian had a great time with all the new toys and books in the room. We left after lunch and he immediately fell asleep on the way home.

Day 2 - First full day by himself - As soon as I took his jacket off, he was reaching for the doorknob and walked right into his classrooom. Completely ignored me while I tried to say bye. Teacher said he had to be rocked to sleep at nap time (we're making him go cold turkey from his pacifier during the day) and occassionally a few tears, but a good day for the most part.

Day 3 - As soon as I took his jacket off, he began to realize I was not going into the room with him and so began crying, working up to a wail as I handed him off to the teacher. Have I ever mentioned that he is a bit of a PITA (pain in the a**) when he doesn't get his way? Teachers said he eventually settled down, still needed to be rocked to sleep and a few tears throughout the day, but was adjusting.

Day 4 - He began crying as soon as we entered the building and was arching his back in the teacher's arms and pointing to the door, as I made my break. Good news - he went to sleep without a hitch at nap time (I broke down and left a pacifier at his school). Teachers say he is beginning to interact more and eating more at lunch as well.

Day 5 - End of the week - Still cries when I hand him off to the teacher, but they say he stops within a minute after I am out of sight. He is also playing more and giving them smiles. Of course, now he'll have to get used to all of this again after the weekend.

Jingle Bells

So I thought we would get on the 'blogging' bandwagon and start our own.

I have been meaning to send this out for awhile, but could not figure out a way to do it due to the large file size. My apologies for the length of the video, but this was actually the shortest version of her singing Jingle Bells. Yes, we know that Kiera is missing a few lines, but she is convinced that she has the proper order of the words and will correct you if you try singing it any other way. While Ian is not yet singing (or talking for that matter), he does very much want to get into the spotlight as well and is usually Kiera's best audience.