On Weaning.

Ellie has 4 razor sharp teeth. Two on the bottom and two on top. 

Ellie likes to bite.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Ellie is almost 9 months old (What!) and I'm ready to stop breastfeeding. The whole biting thing is pretty much what cinched that decision. Yes, yes I've heard many methods to help this (push their face into your boob, flick their cheek, sit them on the floor for a minute) but honestly? I'm ready to be done. Instead of me trying to figure out when I'd like to stop, one bite and I said "Oh, yeah maybe NOW."

Too bad you can't just stop cold turkey, because many bites later I was ready to be done for good. 

I'm not going to get into it all, but two reasons you should wean slowly (as in more than a week), is because your boobs will be fairly uncomfortable and because there is potential for your hormones to go crazy and sink into a bit of a depression....in a very unscientific nutshell. 

Anyway, aside from pure biting, I'm ready to stop pumping milk for the evenings I leave her with someone else. I'm ready for someone else to put her down for a nap without a huge fuss or at nighttime which was always the hardest 9 times out of 10 for the babysitter. 

I'm very ready to burn my Hooter Hider (for the record, the name of your business blows. just saying), which is a nursing cover that always flowed in the wind or got pulled off by a struggling baby underneath to flash the public.

 AND, I'm reeeally looking forward to the time (which is nearing) for Ellie to have an overnight with her grandparents. None of us can really remember how many months old Wren was when she had her first sleepover. I want to say 8 months but now that seems so little!

I haven't been feeding her the daytime for the last few days, just before bed, in the night (about once) and right in the morning. Each time I am terrified she's going to get me! I keep my free hand near her mouth just in case I need to pluck her off quick. I'm not kidding people, it's the worst feeling. Ever.

SO. Now that it's bottles all day long, I asked Wren if she wanted to help feed Ellie. Well, of course!

See Ellie's hand ready to give Wren a big squeeze on the cheek? Ellie is a pincher as well. Please also notice the hold she has on the nipple of her bottle with those teeth. Yikes.

Ellie just thought this was the best thing ever. Wren is hired!

Okay is this not the sweetest thing you have ever seen....Such a cute little moment with the two of them. Sigh. 

I'm aiming to have Ellie completely on bottles by the end of the week. We have about a million Medela bottles so this won't be a problem!

1st Day of Preschool

Wren had her first day of preschool this morning, and it went...

Great!!

So great that she was very mad to have to leave. That's not surprising. 

In the morning she picked out her own outfit (honestly, I had nothing to do with her super cute choices), had me read her "welcome" letter 15 times, and talked about how much fun she was going to have.

She let me take a couple of pictures when she got home. 

(Not really the best time to do so- she was a tired, grumpy,  hungry kid, but hey.)

 Wren made a friend, and her teacher informed me that together, the girls made "sand cakes". Aw.
Within 2 minutes of entering the preschool room, she found a baby doll and toy stroller and began wheeling the baby around the room checking everything out. She was at home.

She shows off a rice krispie cake with a happy face and her name on it. 

Preschool is 2.5 hrs for 2 mornings a week with a group of about 10 other 3 yr olds. 

I think we are going to love this new part of our week!

Update: A few people have asked over the past while about Wren's potty training. I guess I never did catch you all up on that. Um, well, she's fully trained! Even at nap time. She can go all by herself and will run to the bathroom when needed. So, yay! All the hard work was worth it, as it usually is :)

Gone Sledding. Be Back Later.

A few days ago, we roped Aunty Andrea into coming over and going sledding, ha! 

She came prepared with snow pants- something I still don't own for some reason. It's not until you get outside and play with your kids that you realize your boots could also be higher when the snow is pouring in.

We sort of forced this smile out of Ellie. She's fairly solemn about being outside, unsure of why we she has to be with us out in the cold when she'd rather be inside gnawing on a Baby Mum-Mum. 

Sledding with a 3 year old means you spend 1.5 hours getting your kids ready (have snack, go pee, get socks on, sweater, hat, coat, snow pants, gloves, boots, etc) only to have them be unwilling to trudge back up the hill for 5 runs. As Kenton would put it "It's a lot of work for little return." haha! He uses this saying in other situations often. Kind of sums up it up at times though!

That's why you need Auntys around to give 'em a shove into the snow and play!

We pushed Wren in the saucer down the hill and when she got to the bottom she flopped over and said "I'm bwoken!"

Wren refuses to show that she was having fun, but we all know the truth. 

This isn't exactly the most "supportive" sled for Ellie. She just kept sliding out because she is mostly just a big snowsuit blob baby right now.

Here we have Wren making a snow angel. I'm going to be very honest despite how much fun we look like we're having, I'm getting excited at the thought of Spring/Summer 2013. I won't be sad if it comes early this year :)

Melissa & Doug Make-A-Face

Wren was given a Melissa & Doug Make-A-Face pad for her birthday this year. It's been hilarious watching her put together faces on the templates with eyeballs, eyebrows, mouths and jewellery. Here are a few of the faces she has made...

This is Alessandra (named after her neighbour friend)

Apparently this one is Alessandra-Baby. (All names are given by Wren).

This is Theresa. Not sure where that name came from. 

We made a "Wren". Pretty good!

This is me. I'm so...plain. What is she trying to say? haha!

I'm not making this up... but this one is "Daddy", as in Kenton. I give her credit for picking the only template with short, blonde hair! 

And this one is Ellie :) I can honestly say I did not help her with any of these!

This sticker game has kept her busy for a solid 30 min at a time, therefore, it's an amazing activity for a 3 year old. They even have ones with monster, alien and crazy faces, or scenes with animals or dress up dolls. 

Back to our routine, and I like it.

Happy New Year! 

I for one, am happy to be back to the normal routine again. I currently have both the girls down for naps, I'm surveying the disaster called my house and choosing to blog and paint my nails at the same time. 

I see all of these things around my house that I want to organize. I take things downstairs into designated boxes, but after 40 trips going up and down, I wonder how Martha Stewart can maintain so much order. She probably hires people to organize her house for her. 

On that note of organization, I'm slowly trying to take down Christmas decorations. We predict that if we do it all at once, Wren will view the disappearing act of Christmas as a travesty of all travesties to be had. Wren sort of sees the world through utterly ecstatic rose coloured glasses or in dark storm clouds of devastated circumstances.  Anything in between is few and far between. Like every year, the house looks sort of bare once it's been stripped down of decorations. Wren declared that we should now decorate for Halloween instead!

On this quiet day at home, I finally pulled out the camera again for a couple of shots and a few small updates.

Ellie is truly a sweet chubby munchkin. She is nearing the 9 month mark, and is not a fan of food, ever. She chokes down peach, apple and pear purees each day at my request. Ellie doesn't move. In fact, I think she is reverting back to her earlier infancy because she falls over a lot when she is only sitting, and just lays there. Ah well, I'm still in no rush for her mobility to come. When that arrives, that is Phase 2 of baby life that is another challenge in itself. Constantly ensuring all small objects are picked up, the house is baby-proofed again, and Wren not leaving her crap around for Ellie to get at. (Note: Wren has an obsession with "tiny things" to hold. Not a good mix).

Wren is still 3. She starts preschool next week and I have found her a backpack that I can also live with. American Apparel has super cute but simple ones with fun colours. Win, win. 

She is full of questions "Who is dat? Why? Where he going? What he doing? What his name again?" that seem never ending. 

At bedtime, we read stories, give kisses, leave the room, and then Wren sneaks around doing things she isn't supposed to. Last night she pulled all of  her underwear and socks out of the drawer and dumped them behind her headboard. She drags all of her stuffies and as many books as possible into her bed. She finds clothes, clips and extra pajamas and brings them all in. She looks out her window into the alley and looks at the houses with lights on. She tries laying in various weird positions. She also tries to "hide" things in her covers only to be overcome with the need to tell us what she hid and wreck her secret. 

She says things that make us laugh. Kenton came out into the living room wearing a new shirt and she enthusiastically said "Cool shirt!!".

When I helped get a sticker off of her page, she said, "You're a vewy good hewper Mom!". 

She also says things that melt your heart, like when she goes up to cuddle Ellie and says, "I love you Ellie. I love you da best."

Wren likes to point out that Ellie's eyes are blue like Daddy's, and that her eyes are brown like Mommy's. This is true.

She is also obsessed with knowing who bought her things, like her dress, her games, her books, everything. "Who bought dis for me?" she will ask....400 times a day. Oh, 3 year olds!

With all of the Christmas presents this year, she spent most of her day imagining games with this yarn in the picture below. Ellie liked all of the boxes and tissue paper. Typical :)