In and Out

Silas' new favourite game is to take things out.  He isn't picky.  He doesn't care what it is.  He just wants to take everything out of boxes, bins, bags, wipe containers, kleenex boxes...  Sometimes, he will even put the stuff back in.  The other day he found his favourite thing to take in and out.  This way, he can have a snack while he is playing.  Thankfully, he kept tasting the same orange and he didn't bit each and every one.

And one of Caleb.  Just because I don't have as many pictures of him.  He's been busy the last few days building his lego.  The Star Wars lego that he got for Christmas this year is a definite hit!

Wait for me!

Silas has been busy the past little bit.  He is crawling and is constantly following Caleb and Sophie around. He is happiest when he is included in whatever game they are playing.  The other day when Caleb and Sophie were playing outside, Silas stood at the door for almost a half hour.  He watched the other two play, giggling when they would throw snow at the window and whining if they moved out of sight of the window.

Christmas 2010

 I love Christmas!  I love the energy and the excitement, the lights and music, visiting with friends and family.  The past few days have been pretty busy and the kids are looking forward to finally spending a day at home to play with their new toys.  Caleb is actually still sleeping this morning-at almost 10.  He seems to need the most sleep out of the 3.  It took a while for me to realize when Sophie was a baby that she just didn't need as much sleep as her older brother.  Silas seems to be more like his sister.  So far, he's not much of a fan of sleep.


Here is what has kept us busy the last couple of days...

Caleb, Sophie and Silas all dressed up for church

Sophie singing on Christmas Eve

Caleb singing.  It was hard to get a picture of him.
I always forget how small he is until he is in a big group with others his own age.

Silas on Christmas morning.
He LOVED all of the wrapping, bows and ribbons.

Christmas morning!  I couldn't find Christmas pyjamas that I liked this year
and finally settled on these.  Sophie kept exclaiming "It's a sleeping dress?!?!?!" 

Sophie was excited her princess gloves that she got from her aunt and uncle.
She was quite convinced that they would keep her hands warm outside and wore them all morning.

Silas eating Christmas dinner

Sophie and her cousin had matching dresses to wear
as well as matching flowers for their hair.
So cute!

We had a great Christmas this year and it's looking like it will be a relaxing Boxing day with the kids busy with their new toys and movies, Silas actually taking a nap and having one last family dinner.  Did I mention that I love Christmas?  ♥

Merry Christmas!!!

Getting excited for Christmas

Sophie loves wrapping presents.  She helped me wrap up all of the Christmas books and then decided that she should give a present to Caleb.  Sophie went around the house and collected a whole bunch of things that she thought that Caleb would like.  She wrapped it all up using half a roll of tape and put 4 bows on the top.  When Caleb got home from school, Sophie was so excited to give him his present and stood back and watched him open it.  She was so proud to give him something that she picked out and wrapped all by herself.

I'm glad that Sophie seems to enjoy the giving as much as the getting.  She is very excited to wrap more presents.  I may have to buy more tape though.

Can't wait for school!

Truth be told, Silas is a little scared of Sophie.  And with good reason.  She is constantly picking him up and dragging him wherever she wants to go.  He loves hanging out with Caleb though.  Caleb kind of lets him do his own thing while talking to him and handing him new toys when needed.  Here Caleb was reading the multiplication, addition and subtraction problems in his agenda (I know...weird.  And he was so excited asking me "And do you know what 3 x 4 is?  Wow!  It's 12!"  He really does like math.).  Silas was not going to be left out and just had to see what Caleb was up to.

He was so excited to be hanging out with Caleb.  Until Sophie dragged him off again.

Who needs a play pen....

...when you have a chair!  Silas is on the move.  He's not quite crawling forwards yet but is moving backwards quite efficiently.  His favourite place to crawl seems to be under the chair.

The only problem is, he can't figure out how to get out.

Cooking for the picky....

I never thought much about how kids became picky until I had Caleb.  I always figured that if I offered him lots of different foods on a regular basis, he would eat most of them.  I knew that he would have likes and dislikes but I didn't really think that he would reject so many foods.  I recently saw a t-shirt that summed up his meal plan when he was about 3.  It said "Cereal-it's what's for dinner tonight" or something like that and there was a picture of a bowl of cheerios.  And that is what he ate for what seemed like forever.  Cheerios, some fruit, bread and french fries.  I think he ate cucumber and tomatoes as well and if the stars were aligned, he might have had a few bites of chicken.  He reminded me of that book "Bread and Jam for Frances" where she only ate bread and jam-for every single meal.  Except in the book, Frances become tired of eating bread and jam.  At the time, Caleb never tired of cheerios,  I will never forget him trying to eat a perogy.  He was gagging every time he brought the fork up to his mouth.  Before the food even hit his tongue.  After that, we quit trying to get him to eat things.  I would cook what I wanted and we always offered what we had but he knew that he could have cheerios if he wanted.  Gradually he started trying new things and now he eats quite a wide variety though he still is not too fond of soups, casseroles and things like that.  He won't eat cheerios anymore.  I guess he got his fill between the ages of 3 and 5.

The one thing that all 3 kids eat without any complaining is spaghetti.  Sophie always picks spaghetti when she is asked what she wants for supper and it is quickly becoming Silas' favourite food as well.

I have to admit though....we have been eating a lot of spaghetti.  And I'm starting to get just a little bit tired of it.









Oh, and here's a picture of Sophie.  Who sometimes feels a little bit left out when I take pictures of Silas eating so she insisted that I take one of her too.  And then she made me take a second one because the spoon was not right in her mouth in the first picture.

Brrrr...

I am so thankful that it is warming up.  It has been freezing the past couple of days and I have not liked it at all.  In the afternoons we walk to the bus stop to pick up Caleb.  I suppose we could drive on days that it is -35 but I don't like warming up the van and getting the kids in their car seats just to drive for under 2 minutes and waiting for about 5.  (On the plus side-Caleb's bus driver is never late.  In fact she is usually early.  We are lucky that his stop is at the beginning of the route both in the morning and afternoon.)  If we are out at the time we need to pick him up, we will drive and both Sophie and Silas complain the entire time we are waiting.  So we bundle up and walk.  Of course Sophie and  Silas are nice and bundled in boots, ski pants and all the rest.  And then they get to sit in the nice covered stroller with an extra blanket on top.  So really, it's just me who gets cold.

**As a side note....I know Sophie is too old for a stroller and most of the time she does walk.  But sometimes she likes to sit beside Silas.  Besides, if someone offered to push me around in a stroller, I would probably take them up on the offer. ;)

I ♥ cloth

I never used cloth diapers with Caleb or Sophie but after getting some information from a couple of friends who were using cloth and really liking it, I decided to try with Silas.  Who knew how many different kinds there were-or how much fun I could have buying them!  I love the ones with the prints and recently ordered some from Rainshine designs for Christmas.  I have to say-I love, love, love them!

I'm not sure why he needs a fancy diaper, since he usually has pants on, but they sure are cute.

Trick or Treat!!

Caleb and Sophie love Halloween.  They have been talking about since school started and Caleb has his costumes picked out for the next 5 years or so.  They both have Halloween shirts that they have been wearing frequently for the last couple of weeks.  Sophie has worn pants more often than not which is unusual for her.  Typically she will not wear pants and chooses a 'princess' dress or a skirt but if I gave her the Halloween shirt she very willingly put them on.

Caleb and Sophie had a great time with the pumpkins.  I usually buy 2 so they can each draw a face.  They both helped scoop out the seeds so I could roast them.  This year I put sugar and cinnamon on half of them.  I prefer them with salt but Sophie loved the sweet, roasted seeds.

They both drew faces on their pumpkins so I could cut them out and were so excited to put candles inside so they could glow.

This year I was pleasantly surprised when he chose to be a knight instead of a superhero.  He does have numerous superheroes on his list for years to come.  Sophie was a princess, no big surprise there.  Silas was going to be a lion, since we had that costume already.  But I decided that since we had a knight and a princess, we needed a dragon.  And what a cute dragon he was!  Here he is, a day shy of 8 months, and already trying to get to the candy.

Here's Sophie's photography skills again...she is always stealing my camera and  taking pictures.  Here she caught the dragon and I having a little quiet time before it was time to go trick or treating.  Silas then slept the entire time we were out trick or treating so that worked out well!  Of course it is now 9:30 and he does not appear to be tired at all...

And here they are.  All ready to go and waiting for it to get dark.  Caleb and Sophie had a great time and can't wait for next year.

Happy Halloween!

Raising Readers!

Caleb and Sophie were so excited to get a pile of books from my cousin.  It was so cute listening to them 'read' on our way home the other night.  Amazing how their books all had the same story!  They took turns saying lines from their story, flipping pages periodically.  We try to read every night before bed.  And most nights we do but some evenings are busy with activities, supper and homework.  I think we are going to switch up the routine a bit so that reading happens right after supper.  Hopefully this will help us read every night and not just most of them.

Thanks again for the books!  They are a huge hit!

Mountain Climbing

Caleb is excited about 2 things in Banff-the waterslides and the mountains.  Ever since we arrived, he has been asking to go climb the mountain that he can see from his window.  We tried to explain that it is farther away than it looks but he was quite insistent that it was "right there".  So off we went to "climb a mountain".

Silas had the best seat in the house.  He was less than happy at first.  I haven't worn him much on my back but once we started walking he settled right in and took a little nap.

Sophie was quite insistent that she did not want to climb the mountain and just wanted to go "home".  After convincing her that it would be fun, she reluctantly started down the trail.  She did enjoy drawing pictures in the dirt as we walked.

Of course after she tripped and fell she kept reminding us that she told us that she "didn't want to come" in the middle of her tears.  We went back to play in the playground...which she did enjoy and Caleb and Ryan went on to tackle the mountain.  Caleb came home saying that his legs were tired but not too tired to go swimming.  And ready to climb another mountain tomorrow.

Cauliflower Anyone?

Silas is loving solids.  Of course he prefers to feed himself.  Since he is still working on his pincer grasp, he prefers big chunks of anything.  And I am enjoying eating my food in peace while it is still hot.

And one of Sophie who can't seem to keep her hands off of her baby brother.

First day of school!

Caleb and Sophie both started at new schools this year.
Here is Caleb on his first day of grade 2.

It's been a bit of a tough transition to his new school but hopefully he'll settle in soon.  He says that his new school is easier.

Sophie started preschool and she is loving it.

Before school started she brought me the calendar and asked me to show her what day she was going to her dayhome.  She was used to going places and seeing other kids during the day and staying home with me was not quite enough for her.  Now that school has started, she is enjoying her days at home.  She was so excited about her first day it was hard to get her to stand still for the picture!

Introducing

2 knights and a  princess!

Or a pirate and a fairy.
Caleb and Sophie love dressing up and playing make believe.  Well, really I think it's the dressing up part that they really like.

Here's Caleb showing off his moves at my brother's wedding.  Yes, even getting to wear his suit is exciting for him!

Caleb calls his suit his "doctor costume".  I'm not sure why.  He started using the term when he was 2 or 3 and it stuck.

Here is Sophie waiting so patiently in her dress.

She thought she was getting married that day and was quite upset when I told her otherwise.  She would wear a princess dress every day if she could.  And she often does.  Luckily, she calls almost every dress a "princess" dress.

And here's sweet baby Silas.

I don't see him like this very often.  He seems to think that sleep is overrated.  It's hard to believe that in 6  short months he went from this

to this

Silas is pretty content for the most part.   He just figured out that he can roll to get places.  When I put him down on his back he immediately rolls over onto his front and starts trying to get up on his knees.  I think that he will be crawling sooner rather than later.  Now if only I can convince him that sleep is wonderful!