Sunny Weather

After lingering cold, yesterday a new weather pattern moved in and we suddenly have summer temperatures (too warm for my liking!). I love being able to open the windows though, and seeing all the summer close out there.

Last night we went to the Lyons Club Pancake Dinner at the DECC. It is a massive affair, and it was our first time going. It was also Ben's first pancake dinner. He was so excited about it going in when we described the concept, and the actual event did not disappoint. He was especially happy about the blueberry syrup they had. Felicity was pretty tired, so its hard to tell if she liked it or not. We also all had our vision screened by my friend Sam with this cool camera that you just have to look at to tell if your eyes have certain issues.

Felicity's new developments this week... she is saying a lot of things specific to her books, like the book that says "oops" and the one that says "noooooooo". She tries to mimic these dramatic sounds. She is also trying to say more other things like "all done", "please", etc. When we have made it to the playground, she has loved the slides. She has also tried some "big kid" obstacles like ladders and the like, she jumps right in and tries!

Ben has been pretending to be an animal or monster or creature basically non-stop. Bloody Devil (a giant black and red sea serpent he made up), or Alligators, or Spiders, or Spinosaurus (apparently from Jurassic Park?) . He plays he is the baby. He asks repetitively if we are still playing we are the parents. He likes when I call him "baby ____" instead of Ben. He has been loving Magic School Bus books recently.

Felicity at 19 Months

Felicity is 19m old!

She has peed on the potty 4 times so far! She is very interested in using it.
Its hard to remember what changes since the last time I posted.
She loves to brush her teeth, wash her own hands, and of course play in any running water. She loves baths.

She is a hungry girl, she eats so much on somedays! But she is already showing the same picky eating that her brother has. I suspect she is actually modelling his behavior. I was trying to get them to try cantelope. She refused. Then Ben refused. Then I dared Ben to lick it. He licked it and immediately took a bite (because its good!!). She immediately wanted some.

She is much more likely to eat something if she can put it on a spoon or fork. She uses utensils more, and better, than her brother. She likes BBQ sauce, oranges, beans, and cottage cheese the most. (and Jelly Beans...)

Her language has started to take off a bit in the past two weeks. She tries to say more and more things. My favorite thing lately is the way she says "oh". A common morning conversation would be:
Felicity: Da da daddy? (Pointing at the bed where he sleeps)
Me: He is at work
Felicity: Oh.
She also likes that rhythm... da da daddy? Ma ma mommy? ow ow owie? She uses it a ton.
She is still using Owie to mean help sometimes, though she does seem to understand help is a word too.

She continues to be pretty awesome.

I*N*D*E*P*E*N*D*E*N*T (Do you know what that means?)

Felicity is asserting her independence these last few days. She want's to do everything herself.

The most comical (and ridiculous) example of this has been the drinking fountain at daycare. Yesterday at pickup she stood on the little stool at daycare and begged for us to push the button for her to make it run (owie! owie!... we need to replace this with HELP lol). When we pushed the button and the water stated, she would try to drink it. But she is not tall enough, so she would whine. But if you tried to pick her up she would cry and kick and squirm. Basically she could not physically do the task, but refused help. Fun times!

She wants to serve herself food, and not sit in a high chair. She wants to use adult plates and bowls. She wants to fill her own "big kid" water cup and drink from it herself (she climbs up on the toilet to reach the downstairs bathroom sink). She tries to put on her own socks and shoes. She loves to put on her own hats. She wants to run with the big kids (and in general, run away from us). 

It is a frustrating.. but fun. 

Felicity At 18 Months

Felicity is 18 months old today!
Yes. Time flies. This morning I got the comment at daycare from another parent -  "How is she already in the toddler room? I thought you were just pregnant?". I told her I felt the same way.

Felicity grows and changes every day. She gives the best kisses, and pretty good hugs too. And she likes to do these things.

Her vocabulary is still pretty limited, but she is in that phase where she thinks we can understand much more she is staying then we actually can, so lots and lots of trying new words. Her "for sure" words are Mom/Mommy, Dad/Daddy, Dog, Water, More, Owie, Hi, and Bye. She can say Yes (Yeah) if you remind her to use it, but much prefers to just break into a big toothy smile and giggles when the answer is yes. She shakes her head vigorously for no.

Felicity is very into self care and cleaning. She loves to help find her socks in the morning, and tries to get close on and off. She can put her own hat on and occasionally manages to get a boot on. She likes to pick things up, and wipe things off. Sometimes she dumps something out just to get to wipe it up. She loves being helpful. I love how when she is eager to do something (like leave the bedroom, go downstairs, leave the house etc), you can stop her and tell her what needs to be done first, and she tends to calm down and do it or try to help with it. (Example: Its in the morning and she is eager to go across to Ben's room, and maybe is whining or pounding on the door. I can say "Felicity, we need to get socks for Ben" and she will come back around and start looking for socks. Or, "Felicity, I need to put pants on me? Where are my pants" and she will come look at what I am wearing and maybe go to the laundry basket. Its a lot of fun.

Felicity loves to read books. Her favorite things are anything with dogs in them, or flaps, or objects to open. Did you know "Going on a Bear Hunt" has a dog on every page? Felicity does. She also has "Spot the Puppy" and a lot of Hello! Magazines that she loves. She likes adults reading her books, but she also loves just sitting on her own, "reading" (babbling) as she turns pages.

At daycare, she has been in the toddler room for about two months. She seems to love being there. She arrives home entirely exhausted, and has therefore been going to bed at 6pm on days she was at daycare. On days she stays home or with grandma she naps more and can stay up later. She is sleeping through the night most of the time, and I just gave her a pillow and blanket, though she isn't really using them yet.

Felicity likes to play dolls, play with stickers, and draw or color. She likes to take the helmet's off Ben's lego guys and put them back on. She has been doing A LOT of puzzles, with some help, but she gets better every day. She uses "owie" to mean help, so if a piece won't fit she says "owie!" which is both adorable and confusing at times. She likes to be outside. She likes walking in snow, or on grass. She has an opinion about what shoes she wears, and what jacket, but the opinion changes.

When Felicity is really excited, she does this hilarious little rapid leg motion that we now call "crazy legs", and its sort of a nickname for her. We also call her Fliss, Baby Girl, Felicity Jane, and sister. Mostly its Felicity though. I think my mom calls her Little Bits.

I am still absolutely in love with her. More every day, if that is even possible.

First Hockey Game

On Friday night we took Ben to his first Hockey game, or, at least he first one he has any chance of remembering at all.

He did NOT want to go. He wanted to throw a big fit and stay home. But, we persisted. We wanted it to be HIS night. He made that a bit hard because he was asleep for the beginning of it, and very grumpy, but eventually he caught on. We took him to Perkin's for dinner so he could get breakfast food, which he loved. Then onto the hockey game. He was mesmerized as soon as we walked in, loved going through the skywalk, loved the atmosphere, loved the bleacher seating. There was a lot of empty space and he could run around.

When the game started, he watched pretty closely for the first 8 minutes or so of play, even craning his neck to see around other people. He liked the checking. Then he started to get restless and we moved to a less crowded section so he could move around more. He loved when UMD scored goals. We were really not sure how much he was following, but shortly after a goal got disallowed I was explaining how to read the scoreboard and he caught the difference ("2? I thought we scored 3 goals!"). We stayed until the end of the 2nd period, he was looking more and more tired and less and less interested. As we were leaving he said "Maybe you can watch the rest of the game on TV while I am in bed and when it is over come up and tell me if we won" and " maybe some time after my next birthday, after my five birthday, we can come back here and I can play hockey". It was adorable that he was so interested!

Really, the biggest and best outcome of the night was that we showed him it can be fun to root for a a good team! The atmosphere- the band playing, people screaming, jumping up and down, totally got him hooked. Maybe eventually we can translate to rooting for good guys in movies and fiction....

First Pigtails

Yesterday Felicity had her first Pig Tails. That is all.

Little Days (17 Months Old)

Felicity is 17 months old today.

I keep having the thought "Ben did not do this" and then wondering if maybe he did and I just don't remember well. I want to remember these days better.

I want to remember the way she sidles into my lap when I am not paying attention, so that suddenly my arms are full of her and she is doing whatever activity I am doing (this happens most frequently when I am playing something with Ben, like Lego).

I want to remember how much fun it is to have her try to say new words. She screeches as she tries to push her shopping cart over the lip of the tile, and I say "do you need help? Can you say "help please?"" and she says something that is vaguely but definitely like help please.

I want to remember how she says yes by a cacophony of laughter or a strange half nod movement of her head.

I want to remember her giggle. And what random things can make it come out.

I want to remember the sight of Benjamin leaning over to gently kiss her cheek in the bath.

I want to remember her walking around with a book pretending to read in a song of sounds.

I want to remember the feeling of her falling asleep in my arms as I rock her quietly in her room. And how she sometime hums and sings herself to sleep.

I want to remember her crazy legs, and that we call her "Crazy Legs" as a nickname because the little excited shuffle foot stomping she does.

I want to remember the curls of her hair and the softness of her cheeks and the deliciousness of her skin.

And how she tries to brush her own hair. And my hair.

And how, when she is in a clingy mood, and I try to put her down, she hangs off me like a monkey and uses her little feet to climb her legs back onto my hip.

And how she sits and waits on her little stool when she wants cheese-its.

And how she likes to look out windows.

And how she tries to crawl away from me, across the bed, when I am trying to get her dressed, and its a game to her and she giggles and laughs as I pull her back.

And how she tries to life her little foot up in the air to point at her sock or shoe.

And how she always picks the blue markers when she colors.

I will do my best to soak it all up.