Victoria - sitting pretty

Victoria has been rolling since just before six months and has now added sitting on her own to her repertoire. She is a pretty happy camper and can play for quite a while, especially since she got her bangs cut, and so can see well enough to reach out to pick up her toys. However, we don't think this stage will last long as she seems to be interested in pulling herself up and sticking her butt out and looks ready to go on the move. Time to baby-proof the house.

Kiera the skater

Bernie had to give up on signing Kiera up for Timbit hockey this year because she said that "she already knew how to skate" (she doesn't) and "didn't want to play hockey unless she could play on the Hannah Montana team" (no idea where that came from). But I signed her up for pre-CanSkate anyways and so Kiera has been learning to skate on hockey skates. The first class, she was very excited - until she fell down and realized she didn't know how to get up on her own. Before the second class, she told me that she still liked skating, but was not going to move - she didn't unless the instructor was holding her hand. Thankfully, by the fourth class, she figured out how to get up on her own and was very proud of herself. It also gave her the confidence to do a lot of other things like jump (she clears at least an inch off the ice). She is still in the least proficient group of skaters, but we are proud to say that she is close to being the best of the worst. She does have fun though and she had a great time skating on the canal in Ottawa this year.

School bus

Kiera takes the bus to school. The pick up is just up the street. She has a couple of other buddies on the bus and so is happy enough to get on the bus; although she does say that she would much rather have me drive her to school so that she can play in the playground before the bell rings. But since it saves me the time and the hassle of having to pack everyone into the car to drive two minutes to the school plus another 10 minutes to find a parking spot, I have told her that the bus is her only option. Especially now that it is winter time and it is enough work to get them all in snowsuits and boots and out the door. The only bad thing is that while Ian is excited to see the school bus, he would also like to get a ride and is usually in tears when I tell him that he has to wait until he is a bit older.

Sleep training, take 5000

After 6 months (not including the 4 years of the other kids), I am officially sick of never having 8 hours of straight, uninterrupted sleep, so I decided that Victoria was going to have to cry it out. The Ferber method never seemed to work with Kiera and Ian was a decent sleeper, so we never had to use it on him, but Victoria has been waking up every 3-4 hours during the night where I ended up having to feed her, which was not making me a happy camper.

Night 1 - started crying at 1:30AM, I did the check at 5 minutes, 10 minutes and another 10 minutes, then she slept until 7AM. Looked promising

Night 2 - started crying at 3AM, went in once and then didn't need to go again until 6:30. I was hopeful.

Night 3 - slept through from 9PM to 7AM. Bring out the champagne!

Night 4 - cried at 1AM and then again at 4AM, went in twice for each, but what the heck is going on?!?

Night 5 - started crying at 10:30 PM - this sucks!

Soother all gone

Even though he only used his soother for sleep time at home, we felt it was time for Ian to give up on his soother. Plus, it was getting very worn out and I was feeling too cheap to buy another one. So we convinced him that he should give it to the garbage man. He seemed fine with it, until he saw the garbage truck drive away and he began to realize that his soother was not coming back.

I was able to distract him easily enough with a promise of a cookie, but he became a wreck later in the day when Kiera kept asking him if he was sad that his soother was gone. Nothing like a little sisterly concern.

It has been a week now and he has only asked about his soother a couple of times and is satisfied with the answer that the garbage truck has it. Although I am beginning to wonder if that soother had magic powers since Ian has been whiny and does not eat as much. On the plus side, we can now understand him when he talks and he does not have that rash around his mouth.

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.