Our Beautiful Kids

Felix is 4 Months Old

Felix rolled over to the fourth month while we were in Vancouver. This month he continues to grow, change and mature, shocking huh? There is no doubt he is a big boy, he is well into all the 3 to 6 months clothes and on the verge of growing out of them, this month according to all the grandparents (who don’t see him everyday) he is finally starting to stretch out. His legs are getting longer.

Another physical change is that his hair has thinned a fair amount but now all the hair that is growing in is white blond. His bald strip on the back of his head still looks bald but actually it has some blond peach fuzz.

Another first for this month was that start of teething and Felix’s first real cold. Just before we left for Vancouver Felix started trying to chew on his hands my fingers and trying to chew on my face. He started to get stuffed up once we were in Vancouver which I thought was more teething side effect but by Monday he was a full on sickie mess. Poor little guy. He has a very runny nose and a cough, he wakes up from sleeps in a massive rage usually because his nose if crusted over, but once he is up he is still pretty cheerful. Hopefully this cold passes soon and so does the teething (one the second count I am not holding my breath).

Felix is also ALMOST rolling over, he manages to get up onto his side but he hasn’t worked out turning his shoulder to get all the way over but if he is anything like his sister once he starts rolling my relaxing days are going to come to an end.  He is also moving around his crib more these days and the bumper pads have gone back on the crib to prevent an head butting of the bars.

He is quite the funny little guy who loves attention, he will play on his own for abit and he is getting better at playing on his own for longer periods but he much prefers to entertain and be entertained. He has started giggling which is very cute, he also does a squeal when he gets really excited. He loves standing and as Amelia says “Mom, I think Felix’s is really pleased with himself” and she is pretty much right.

His sleeping is pretty good, he usually has two or three 2 to 3hr naps a day and he sleeps through the night for the most part. Unfortunately since he got this cold he has been waking up in the night, I think because his nose gets plugged. Hopefully we break this soon enough and we get back to full nights sleeps. Before this cold started he would sleep from about 10pm till 9am, please let him get back there!

Felix has become much more involved in his feeding… ugh! It is quite a challenge to keep a bottle in his mouth even when he wants it. He like to try to hold the bottle or hold my fingers, it is somewhat entertaining but it has also turned feeding into more of a sport.

I took him to the doctor the other day and found out he weights 17lbs 15oz and is about 26 inch long.

Death

As I said in my last post my grandfather on my dad’s side died in a couple weeks ago, Felix and I went out to the funeral last week. It was a really good trip, it was nice to get together with all my family and celebrate my grandfather.

Before I left I explained to Amelia where I was going and why. She asked if granddad was having a very long sleep and I said yes. We discussed it some more and she was upset but we talked about how lucky we were to have got to see him at Christmas and he was tired and needed a rest. After some more talk Amelia out of the blue said “maybe he needs a wheelchair…” when I questioned more she said “ a wheelchair, for granddad if he is tired” I said no that wouldn’t be enough his heart is tired. We talked some more and then she suggested he might need a new bed, I am not sure if that was for his long sleep our because he was tired…

After abit Amelia started to ask the really hard questions, “Am I going to die?”, “Are you and Daddy going to die”?… “I don’t want to die….” Oh man!!!! I was not prepared for this talk or the scared look on my little girl’s face… Jeff and I try to be honest with Amelia as much as we can (reference details of c-section etc) but this one I just couldn’t face yet but I took the easy way out and when she asked if it was only great grandparents that died, I agreed. What a tough talk to have with a 3 year old.

Guest Post: Hey, we still have that daughter.

Due to the unexpected – though in a way, appropriate – passing of Alicia’s grandad (aka “Super Grandad”), Amelia and I (Jeff) had a long weekend at home alone, with Felix and Alicia off to Vancouver and Salt Spring Island out BC way.

Allow me to summarize a couple of key findings:
1. Amelia is hillarious and continues to evolve excellent smart-alecky skills that will serve her “well” come middle school.
2. Amelia is more skilled than the average 3-year-old, in that she cooked the following over the course of the long weekend:
– oatmeal-chocolate cookies (requiring the use of a KitchenAid stand-mixer, see below)

– “Dutch” sugar cookies (requiring the bossing around of Mini and Tracy)
– Tuna casserole (requiring some serious pasta straining and tuna draining)
– Salad dressing (requiring the use of the garlic press, which I managed to crush her finger with)

In unrelated news, Felix should sell juice.

Also, I am a great parent (based on the finger crushing). Further, Amelia and I had a great time at Swiss Chalet on Sunday evening, including very deep conversations about baseball, pie, how to sign a cheque (not with a crayon) and the merits of plum sauce over bbq sauce. All in all a great weekend was had though we both miss(ed) Alicia and Felix and there have been many calls and general melancholy spells of missing mummy and feelie. Other fun non-missing activities this weekend involved colouring, making envelopes, three trips to the grocery store, two aborted trips to the beer store (due to line-ups out the door, bah) and one wicked trip to the zoo. Yay for the zoo and our now-broken-in Membership.

Hope everyone had a great Family Day weekend.

Another Wintery Week

This was another COLD week in Toronto, brrrrr… Monday was actually nice but I had already decided to stay in that day so I kinda missed the nice weather and by Tuesday when I was hoping for a walk there was a snow storm, not great planning on my part. Felix and I did brave the blizzard though and we walked up to the grocery store for a few things. Wednesday, I made plans with Heather and Chels again, we thought we would check out the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) that just re-opened. Last week went I took Felix downtown in the carrier my back was kind of breaking by then end of the day so this time I brought the stroller, UGH!!! I don’t know how people in wheelchairs do it!!!! It was exhausting just getting us downtown on public transit with the stroller, luckily I was with Heather and she also had a stroller, so we grumbled and grunted out way up and downstairs together. We also chose another rather unfortunate day to head out, it was -20 and with the windchilll it was down right nippy!!! It makes my teeth chatter just thinking about it!! We did manage to survive the walk too and from the subway and even braved a further walk over to Chinatown for some dim sum. For the first 15mins of lunch all three babies were asleep, what bliss but one by one they each woke up but still it was pretty civilized. The dim sum was YUMMMY and we all left with full tummies. Mat leave is so much more fun with friends to spend it with.

Thursday we had our normal routine with all of Amelia’s classes and Friday Amelia had swimming and then the three of us did some errands. Oh Friday we also went to see a house. Jeff and I are thinking about selling our house and getting something abit bigger. Now with two kids and all the paraphernalia that goes along with them, we are starting to feel like we are busting at the seams. Anyways we have started looking around but we aren’t going to get anything until we sell our place and we don’t wan tot sell our place till the spring when the snow melts and you can see the landscaping. Until then Jeff and I are working on all the little things that we have learned to live with but are probably best done before we list. My dreams will be filled with painting for the next month or so. This weekend we started and I am currently sitting her high on paint fumes.

Yesterday I also took Amelia to her first Chuckie Cheese birthday party, I think I developed ADD just walking in the door, that place is INSANE! It is one of the little girls from preschools birthday. Amelia had a good time but I must say I found it rather socially painful! I did meet some of the other kids parents and managed to talk myself into more socially painful situations in the future… good times.

Oh have I mentioned that PVR is the best thing even, LOVE IT! As a result of PVR my daughter now has days worth of Sesame Street and Busy Town Mysteries (Amelia has a serious addition to Richard Scarry Busy Town, yeah for lowly worm and gold bug).

Amelia continues to grow her vocabulary and she impressed our friends the other night when Amelia told them all that we were taking a hiatus from dessert. She is very articulate and it some times makes me forget she is only 3.5yr and not older.

The other reason I forget Amelia is only 3.5yrs is because she acts like a teenager with attitude, she is giving Jeff and I our run for our money. Grrrr… I am so tired of tantrums and the sassy hand on hip pose!!!! Bah!!

Amelia contiues to plan her next birthday party, apparently she has been inviting people to her party since Christmas. She loves getting out her cookbooks and planning the menu. We are still having trouble getting it through to her that if we by the groceries now they will all go bad by her birthday which is still 2.5months away!!!

Felix is good, he is very interactive, full off noises and giggles. He has also started to move around a lot more, he scoots all over his crib. Amelia used to be happy to play by herself but Felix will have none of that he wants to be part of the party and demands attention if he is being left out. It was abit of an adjustment for us but at least now we know how to make him happy, usually just means putting him in his chair so he can watch us. OH but big news, EXTRA EXTRA Felix is down to a mere chin and a half now, this is a significant reduction over the three he was born with. I think he might get a neck for Easter.

In sad news my grandfather passed away this past week, he was 94. It is very sad that he is gone but he did enjoy his life right up till the last day. Felix and I are flying out to BC this week for the funeral.