21 Months

Grasyon has been sleeping in his own crib overnight and during naps since friday! I am so proud of my little guy :) I knew it would be an adjustment (especially for mommy) but am surprised by how easily he transitioned. We've tried him in his crib before by giving him his bottle and cuddling him to sleep. That  didn't go very well, he'd wake after an hour each time and so we basically quite trying. I knew he had to learn to fall asleep on his own, in order to stay asleep or put himself back to sleep in the crib, but

I honestly was so scared he'd stop sleeping through the night & I just didn't have the energy to put into sleep training him. Hey, when it took 14 months before he slept through the night even in our bed - could you blame me for not wanting to mess with his sleep?

Friday evening we gave him his bottle, cuddled him for a bit, said good night and put him in his crib. He cried for 45 minuted that first night. Gavin and I took turns every 5 minutes or so going in to console him. Each time his cry was less extreme and after 45 minutes was sleeping soundly in his crib. We were so surprised when he slept through the night the first night :) 

Saturday night was better. He was asleep after 30 minutes. He cried a little that evening but not as hard & we continued to go in and console him every 5 minutes. Again he slept through the night!

Sunday he went for nap with no crying and Sunday evening went to bed with no crying. In fact, when I checked on him at the 5 minute mark he was already asleep! 

I cherish the time we co-slept and am still a big fan of co-sleeping. It was his bed routine that wasn't working and the fact that he was napping & sleeping on the couch until we went to bed that was the main problem. It was starting to take him longer to fall asleep in the evening as well. 

Easter

Here are some photos & a video of our easter egg hunt. We celebrated Easter with Gavin's family on Good Friday and had our family Easter morning on saturday morning. We were asked to be  Godparents for our niece, & the Baptism was out of town on Sunday morning. It made for a busy weekend, but the kids were great and everyone had a wonderful time :) 

Easter Morning treats. It appears we forgot to set out Owen's 'gift' which was a new baseball helmet. The bunny brought far too many chocolates...again. I'm not sure the boys will ever eat the giant, chocolate teenage mutant ninja turtles, but they were excited to get them :)

Noah's gift was a new lunch bag and thermos for when he starts school next year, and a new summer outfit. Grayson also got some new summer clothes.

Grayson really had no interest in searching for eggs. He'd put the odd plastic egg in his easter basket, but really wasn't excited about it. The boys were good about helping Grayson & somehow just knew the plastic eggs were for him, while the chocolate eggs were obviously for them.

20 Months

20 Months Old! what a mess. 

Once again I am way behind on blog posts! My youngest one has started throwing temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way & has had two huge meltdowns in the past week. One was because his ice cream was in a bowl instead of a cone like the other kids, & the other one was because he wanted to play in the backyard longer. I know this is normal behaviour for his age, and we've been making sure he doesn't get what he wants by throwing fits, but it's still sooo difficult! 

Grayson has been taking swim lessons (pics to come next week) and this is a photo of Grayson and Gavin swimming at Meggie's pool! 

and finally some video of my youngest chatterbox! 

First Love Letters :)

(handcrafted ninja turtle mask)

So it appears that Owen has a couple of admirers in his kindergarten class :) he came home the other day after school and quickly emptied out his backpack & headed upstairs with what I assumed was some artwork from school. He knows he's to show me everything in his backpack before he puts anything away, so I went to check on what he had. Turns out he had two "love letters" from a couple of girls in his class. He found the letters in his class "mailbox" at the end of the day :)

The back of the one picture was covered in XO's & when I questioned him about these "girl friends" he became embarrassed and said " I don't play with these girls. I only like to play with my group of friends" (his group happens to be all the SK boys, total of 5 of them) I told him I thought it was nice of the girls to draw him a picture and that they must think he's a nice boy :) he rolled his eyes (won't be the first time I'm sure) and said " they are jealous of each other and always try to see who can draw me the better picture. And B isn't that nice - she had to sit in time out because she covered herself in stamps & Mrs. C wasn't very happy with her" lol 

I just LOVE kindergarten and don't want the sweetness to end. What will grade 1 bring? 

First Learn To Skate Lesson

Owen started a learn to skate program at the community centre. He has had four, hour long lessons so far, & we notice improvement with each lesson. The program divides children into groups based on ability & he is in the very beginner class. There are kids that range in age from 5 years to 10 years & he looks so small on the ice compared to the older kids. I'm so happy with the program and already am looking forward to having Noah take lessons as well next year. There are ten lessons in total, & I'm sure he'll be skating by the end of them. 

first day of learn to skate lessons. 

Whoops!

The first lesson they mostly focused on "getting up" from the ice :) the kids were to toss a ring "skate" towards it, fall on the ice & get back up. 

Owen loves the hockey portion of the lessons. He's been asking to play hockey for a few months now & we agreed that if he was still interested next year, & after his learn to skate lessons that we'd sign him up for hockey next year. He actually calls his skating lessons "hockey lessons" lol. So fun to watch him  learn new things and to see him really enjoy something:)

Zoo To You Party

I have been wanting to have a Zoo to You party for one of my kids (probably Noah) since I first learned about them! A few weekends ago we got invited to a friend's son's party & I thought it would be a good way to see if the party is worth the costly price tag! It sooooo was! very educational, professional and hands on for the kids! It definitely will be a party that kids remember & it was fun for the adults too. Plus, there were some great photo opportunities!

My boys were so brave! there was no way I'd be touching a tarantula! (the pic above isn't of one of my boys) 

We had so much fun! Thanks for inviting us Cheryl!

19 Months Old

19 Months old! still super cute and causing trouble :) he keeps me busy & he is oh so fast! literally running these days (him and me) and getting into every thing. He's been a little parrot lately, repeating everything he hears from his brothers & they think it's hilarious to get him to repeat 'potty words'. The other day he grabbed the wipes container & said "poo poo" so those potty words are useful at times :)

Grayson LOVES his big brother! he follows his brothers all over and is always snuggling, hugging & kissing them. I c aught them cuddling on the couch the other day & it just melts my heart to see them like that. I hope they always remain so close!

Here Grayson is trying to fit in with his brothers and sit at the kitchen table for snack. I think I remove him from the chairs fifty times a day.

Grayson sure has been loving his food lately! He's started using a fork & spoon and does quite well, although, by these photos you would never know that!

We're on day 4 of Grayson napping and sleeping in his crib. We still feed him a bottle and hold him until he falls asleep (he's always been fairly easy to put to sleep) then we put him in his crib. When he wakes we just move him to our bed, but he lasted until 2am the other night and naps have been about an hour an a half before waking, so not bad. I miss cuddling him before I go to sleep though :( Up until 4 days ago, I think he slept all of an hour in his crib. 

Happy 19 Months baby! growing up way to quickly.

Class Volunteer

Finally! I was able to help volunteer with Owen's class on a recent school outing. He was excited to have mommy finally join his class, as according to him "all of the other mommies can". Talk about making this  mommy feel bad! Last year, there was just no way I could help out and volunteer, Grayson just wouldn't take a bottle and being away from him for any length of time wasn't an option. 

His class trip was to a nearby bowling place and my duty was to help out my little group of five students. I'm not sure how the teachers manage every day, but man it was difficult. When I was first assigned my group we took off in search for shoes! I knew that with 100+ kindergarten kids and everyone wearing close to the same size, finding enough shoes to fit wouldn't be easy. I grabbed all the size 12's I could find and a pair of 11's for a smaller little girl and we were off! 

I had a great time watching my boy play with his friends and interact with his teachers and classmates. It was fun to see him with the people he spends all day with. Plus, it was nice to talk with his teachers and get to know them a bit better. Hopefully next year I'll be able to go on more class outings and volunteer in the class more. I may need to take a few more vacation days during the year, but I think it's important to have that time with my kids. 

Thanks Owen for letting Mommy spend the morning bowling with you and your friends!