Quiet Again

It's been a fun-filled week thus far, starting actually on Friday with that playdate, then Saturday with our friends over for dinner, then Sunday my cousin came down with her two kids and just left yesterday, and today was Gemma's last gymnastics class. It sure made the last 6 days go by super fast and now the countdown until mom comes home is down to single digits! Only nine more sleeps! ... pathetic, I know.. but I miss my mom!!!

Gemma sure loved having all the company and my little cousins played so well with her. Being 10 and 8, you can imagine most kids that age don't really want to play with a 2-year-old, but I think they really enjoyed spending time with her, or "entertaining" her, as they would call it. Usually, I find the hustle and bustle too much and am relieved when people leave (not very nice to say, I know, but I'm just being honest), but this time I really had a great time and miss everyone. We made perogies, went swimming, they took Gemma to the park, and I even got to go out grocery shopping without my kids! 

...and less than a month now til I go back to work!

We *Heart* Friends

It's been a busy couple of days! Yesterday, we had a playdate at our house in the morning. None of the boys could make it and so it was just a crazy gang of screaming little girls! Four of Gemma's friends who have little baby sisters - so 12 females in the house! It seemed like the big girls looked at all the babies hanging out downstairs and they were like "OMG this is where all the babies are hanging out. How lame. Let's go upstairs girls" and they all headed upstairs to play most of the day. Leni sure loved the attention the other girls gave her, as she doesn't get a whole lot of that from Gemma. As always, we had a terrific time with all our pals. 

Today, we had our friends over for supper and had another great time hanging out. Gemma decided not to nap today and was super cranky by the time our friends came over and was such a rude hostess! But after we got some food into her system, she got better and had a ball with Annika. Leni too seemed to have a good time, she was smiling and happy-screaming for most of the evening. 

Can't wait til the next time!

Making Each Other Laugh

Yesterday, the four of us had to drive around Calgary during rush hour traffic to get some errands done. I dreaded this and contemplated whether I should ask one of our friends to watch one or both of the kids, as both Gemma and Leni dislike the car so much. However, the kids did surprisingly well, even with one stop for the slowest train in the world. 

On the way home, Gemma was blowing raspberries and then Leni would copy, then Gemma would laugh and then Leni would laugh. It was so funny and it was one of those moments where I felt so good about the future when the girls can be good friends or, at least, keep each other company in the car. I think I've mentioned this before, but it's really hard to get a laugh out of Leni and I think yesterday was the first time that Gemma was able to make her laugh out loud like that. 

Silly girls...

Growing up

I really can't wait til Leni's at an age where the girls can really play with one another. Gemma keeps busy playing all day and sometimes I feel bad, like Leni's missing out. Right now, Gemma's on a kick where she gathers her favorite toys together and feeds them alphabet soup. The toys have  bibs on and are sitting on the table in a circle with magnetic alphabets in front of them. She came to me the other day asking for a spoon for each of the toys to eat with. She also likes to put Minnie in "the corner", for whatever reason, then sitting next to her to keep her company. I don't think it's a good idea that she thinks "the corner" is a place to play instead of the place that she goes when she's being bad, but it's so cute. 

Gemma's also obsessed with "jumping rope", where she swings my robe tie around, jumping. Who says kids don't learn from TV? She got that from Special Agent Oso. 

Her vocabulary has gone through the roof recently as well. Today, she said "where's my bib?" and is referring to herself more and more as "I" or "me" or "my". 

Kids grow up too fast.

8 months

Poor Leni... I feel so bad for not keeping up with this like I used to with Gemma. I have no idea what she weighs or how long she is; I should go do that this week. 

Reading back to Gemma at 8 months, Leni has some catching up to do. At 8 months, Leni can:

• wave bye-bye or, more like, hi
• dori-dori (shake her head) on command
• blow raspberries, make wa-wa sounds (hitting her mouth with her hand), clap
• really likes books, especially peek-a-boo books
• loves to feed herself, though she makes a terrible mess...
• not too mobile yet, though she can go in circles
• goes on all fours, but gets stuck this way and then cries
• eats 5 bottles a day and two meals - I think I better change this to 4 bottles and 3 meals soon (I feel like she is drinking too much formula)
• sleeps anywhere between 10 and 12 hours at night without waking up, naps anywhere between a total of 2-3 hours (not very much, I don't think)
• loves to sit in the swing at the playground
• favorite TV show (I know...) is Special Agent Oso  

Even though she may have some developmental catching up to do (to Gemma), she sure is a happy and mellow baby. Apparently this was around the time Gemma began acting impossible in public and I was feeling discouraged about going out with her. 

Going Crazy

Mix together terrible twos and a sick and whiny child together and you get Gemma. Her fever is gone, but her appetite is still not as great as normal. She can hardly finish one meal, whereas before, we would have to beg her to slow down. 

The thing she has started doing lately that is driving me absolutely bonkers is constantly changing her mind. "I don't want to eat, I want down" - so I take her out of her booster. As I take her out, she starts to scream "Nooooo, I want to eat, I want to eat!!"

"Gemma, do you want out or do you want to eat?" 

"Eat". 

so then I put her back and as I'm putting her in the chair, she starts to scream "I want out! Out!!"

In either situation, if I ignore her, she keeps screaming what it is that she wants. I honestly have such a hard time dealing with this and admittedly lose my cool a lot.

It's the same thing with bath time ("I want out", "No! I want bath!"), TV channels, drinks, going upstairs/downstairs, etc. It feels like I can't have a conversation with her without her going back and forth and driving me insane.

Any advice on how to cope??

fever...all through the night

I guess right around the time my mom left, Leni started getting a bit of a runny nose. I figured either she was teething or getting a cold and anticipated her to get sicker if she were getting a cold. Instead, she stayed pretty steady, but Gemma got sick. She got a runnier nose than Leni, then finally yesterday she developed a fever. I think this is the first time Gemma's had a real fever. She was shivering, but incredibly hot to touch. By bedtime, she couldn't hardly keep her eyes open even though she had woken up extra late and had a 2-hour nap. She kept whining and complaining that she was cold if I were to touch her and just wanted to be wrapped up in her blanket. 

I figured it was going to be a rough night, as I've fought bad fevers a few times myself and know how hard it is to sleep when your body is going through the motions of freezing, then burning. But miraculously, she slept solidly for 13 hours. I woke up extra early to start a pot of chicken porridge (a korean cure for a cold), which was for nothing, apparently, since Gemma refused to eat anything. She is still warm, but nowhere near hot as she was last night.

Hopefully she feels better soon and even more, I hope Leni doesn't get this.

This is March?

Holy smokes, it sure feels like spring is upon us. I know better than to think this beautiful weather is going to last, but the entire upcoming week is slated to be in the 10s and even my strawberries seem to be confused with little green shoots poking out. Right now, Gemma is playing in the back yard, busily shoveling snow into a small bucket, turning it over, then destroying it. Leni is having a nap. It's so peaceful...

This has definitely been the longest week of my life. Oh well. One down, four to go.

Missing Mom...

I can't even believe it's only been 3 days since my mom left. It honestly feels like it's been 3 weeks at least. I think the hardest part of mom being gone is how lonely I am. It must sound crazy; I have two kids keeping me busy, so how could I even have the time to feel lonely? But I DO. It's not as if when mom IS here she is spending each minute with me. In fact, she is often just sitting in her room watching TV or whatever, but I miss her company during lunch and just being able to see her whenever. Once Jesse gets home, it's so hectic with dinner, getting the kids bathed and ready for bed, then we each put a kid down to sleep. After that, we basically watch TV or read and then head to bed early ourselves. 

Gemma is really missing my mom. I know she doesn't quite know what it is, but something is off with her universe and she is having a hard time. She is constantly whining - yesterday, she couldn't say one thing to me without whining. She is so much more needy, always following me around and wanting to be picked up (she never does this). This morning, she woke up and said to me "harmony is at work?" and I said "no, she went on the airplane, remember?" and Gemma said "I want to see harmony". It was so sad! 

To make the loneliness worse, both kids have come down with a cold and so no playdates for us. I feel daunted by the thought of taking both kids out anywhere, especially in the cold, and so we're experiencing some major cabin fever. I can't wait for the weekend!

Yes!

It's so funny - Gemma just recently started saying "yes". Up until now, most often she would just repeat your question in an answer form, but now she says yes and understands perfectly what that means. It's so funny to hear - I dunno, I guess i'm just used to the "no"s more than anything.

Leni has also started to laugh more. Before, it was SOOOO hard to get her to laugh out loud, but now, she knows when we're playing with her and even laughs at some of the things Gemma does. 

First night without mom went surprisingly smoothly and we successfully got the kids in bed even earlier than usual. Unfortunately, Gemma woke up at 6:30, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because she had an hour and a half nap in the afternoon! Leni slept 12 hours straight and is only now having her first real nap. I don't know what is with my kids and why they don't like to nap! Anyway, I've even surprised myself by not having a pile of dishes in the sink and I even have the chicken brining for supper tonight (I highly encourage you to brine your chicken when roasting - what a difference!). Maybe I CAN do this!

Harmony has left the building...

...sigh...

I don't know what possessed me to tell my mom to have a vacation before I go back to work... LOL. This morning, I took my mom to the airport, where she boarded her flight to Vancouver, then to Korea. She is gone for exactly 5 weeks, which right now feels like FOR-E-VER. She's been by my side practically 24/7 since Gemma was born and I haven't been without her for a DAY, forget 5 weeks... 

Which is exactly why she needs this break and deserves it so much. She's going there to "relax", though I doubt she'll be doing much of that... Even as she was leaving, she was already worried about how much she is going to miss the girls... and that Leni won't recognize her when she returns...

I miss her already and it's only been 6 hours...

Have fun, mom! We love you to bits!!!