The Boy Gets Bigger - 2 Month Birthday

As you can see, Bennett is growing into a little chubster! He continues to be a super happy baby and today we celebrate his 2 month birthday. At his last appointment (which was a few weeks ago) he was 10lb 5oz. We go back to the doctor this week for his 2 month shots, so I'll have a growth update soon.
I'm sure you can tell, from the lack of updates, that we've been very busy. I'm back at work now and we're still trying to find a routine with the 2 kids. Madeline is still adjusting to life with Ben around - she's very loving and gentle towards him but she freaks out if he cries (or if he even makes a sound like he might cry). She screams at the top of her lungs "baby cries! baby cries!" or "Mommy! Feed baby, Feed baby!" I can't figure this out. I'm not sure if she doesn't like the sound or if she is mad or worried about him. She's always been very sensitive, so I do wonder if she senses what he's feeling and she's upset she can't help him. Michael and I are both stumped on how to help her (and how to make it stop!!). It's the worst in the car, because we can't do anything about it. It has made for some very looooong car trips. I'm talking 3.5 hours on the way to the cottage with her screaming in the backseat. As you can imagine, I'm not in the mood to drive anywhere lately.

Weekend Pictures

On the weekend we headed to Grandma's house to celebrate her birthday! We had a great afternoon with the family (and some fabulous steaks!). I wanted to share some great pictures that Michael's brother Rob and his girlfriend Jordan took while we were there. Clearly they have some talent that I don't :)

The Little Ham

For some reason I just love the face she's making in this picture. She's only doing it because she's eating a banana....but it makes her look like she's got so much attitude. Makes her look way older than she is.

And here's another face....

The purpose of the photoshoot was to show off her cool new fall clothes from mini mioche. Pretty sure she's going to live in these, just like she lived in the summer dresses we got (seriously....i was so happy that I had 3 of the same dress in different colours. She wore them almost every day!!).

Update: Wanted to let you all know you can use code MCFALL to get 20% off online purchases of mini mioche. Enjoy!

Little Dude

Bennett is now 17 days old and continues to be a very chill dude. Although he was born weighing only 6lbs 10oz, he's now currently packing on the weight. At his first appointment at a week old, he was up by over a pound. Michael and I can even notice a difference in how he fills out his car seat, his bouncy chair and his clothes (out of the newborn outfits).
He spends most of his days eating and napping with the occasional break to chill in his bouncy chair. He seems to love being swaddled or taken to the park with his big sister while he's in his sling.
Right now we're going through a period of fussiness each day around 3-5pm. This has been interesting for me because it's also when Madeline is getting a bit restless. Did I mention she cries every time he cries?? I can't figure out if she's crying because it upsets her (she is very sensitive) or if she's just trying to compete for my attention. I think it's the latter. Regardless, at 3pm today you should think of me and my competing babies.
For those of you who are wondering - I'm currently not working and am home with the kiddies. I'm off for a couple of weeks and will then be gradually easing back into work.

Birthday Girl

We celebrated on Sunday, with family, Madeline's 2nd birthday! In her bright pink birthday dress (that she kept telling me was "pretty dress") she mingled with everyone, blew out her candles (with help from Mom), opened presents and ate too much sugar.
Thanks to everyone who joined us in making this a special day for our big girl!

Here's a shot of this year's cake. Again, we went to the awesome people at Noisette Pastry Works . They did a fantastic job again this year and the cake was delicious (lemon and raspberry)....perfect for the hot summer day!

Here she is applauding the crowd after singing "Happy Birthday".

With her Aunt Katie (are they starting to look alike?)

In her "pretty dress"....

Looking forward to next year!

Leap Frog - Tag Junior

We've had the Tag Junior in our home since last fall but Madeline is just starting to really use it on her own. For those of you not familiar with the Tag system, it's a "toy" that helps kids learn to read. At her age, it's actually more about helping children enjoy books and reading. It gives her a bit of independence with her books (I don't always have to be around) and it brings the books to life (music, sound FX, etc).
As you can see in the pictures below - the Tag Junior is designed perfectly to fit in the hands of the little ones (unlike the Tag which is designed for older kids and looks more like a pen). Madeline just grabs it, presses the on button and then starts to explore her Tag books by placing the toy anywhere on the book. The toy then plays a corresponding sound (it reads the words, or a character in the book says something or it plays music).



While we do read to Maddy a lot, she absolutely loves books so this toy has allowed her to explore her books on her own. You can also program the Tag to say your child's name when they turn it on. I think this is a new feature....or else I'm just discovering it. Madeline loves that it says "Hello Madeline" every time she presses the on switch.

The only drawback to the Tag Junior is that you need to buy the special books to be able to use it (obviously!). The books are reasonably priced and have lots of popular titles (Winnie the Pooh, Dora) so it's not a huge deal. Clearly she enjoys it.....

Happy Birthday!!

On Tuesday, our little girl turned the big 0-2!! Oy!
We spent the special day up at the cottage with Nana and Aunt Judy. She opened a couple of presents from Nana and Mom/Dad - both were a big hit. We got her the My First Dollhouse from Fisher Price. This thing was out of stock everywhere I went back in June. I must have gone to 5 different stores looking for it. I finally found it at the TRU at Yonge & Eg and I had to carry the massive box down the street (lets remember I was 7 months pregnant...so the box just seemed bigger). 2 weeks before her birthday it went on sale and every store seemed to have it in stock.
Anyhoo, she absolutely loves it and has been playing with it non-stop since she got it. So my adventures to find it have paid off.
Tomorrow we'll be celebrating with the whole family at a party at Nana's house. She's been talking about her Birthday party for about a month now. I have no idea if she really knows what it's all about. She'll tell you that there will be cake and balloons and that people will sing "Happy Birthday". I think she's most excited about the balloons. I'm most excited about the cake.... and maybe the wine :)

In other news, Ben had his first dr's appointment last week and gained over a pound since we left the hospital. He's feeding really well and seems to be growing like a weed. He's quite a happy little man.

Saying "cheese".....

And then we were four

He's here! Bennett Thomas Smirle was born August 16 at 10:51pm weighing 6lbs 10oz.
Ben's original due date was August 9th - like his sister, he kept us waiting a bit and then surprised us with a very fast labour and delivery. Here's a re-cap of the birth story for those who are interested (it's a bit long, but i wanted to capture it somewhere!):

• I went to the dr the morning of the 16th for a regular appointment. Had an ultrasound and the technician said everything looked good - I still had lots of amniotic fluid, which was probably why the baby was happy to stay in my belly (not necessarily news I wanted to hear at a week past my due date!)
• Dr checked me and I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. He asked me to call him Wednesday if I still hadn't gone into labour and they would schedule to have me induced.
  
• I went home and went about my day. This was Michael's first day of vacation, so we puttered around the house together for most of the afternoon. In the late afternoon we took Mads to get a popsicle and then walked to the grocery store (I was a bit nuts about keeping the house stocked with fruits, milk etc, in case I went into labour at any point). On the way back from the store, I started to have some contractions that were stronger than Braxton Hicks contractions.
  
• We got home from the store and made Maddy some dinner. It was now around 6pm and my contractions were getting stronger. We started to time them and realized they were getting very close together and they were much stronger. The next hour or so was a bit of a blur because I was focused on my contractions....but I know that we bathed Maddy, called my Mum and Michael's Mom (who hopped in her car from Markham and flew down the 404 to get here!) and got Mads into bed.
  
• Michael's Mom arrived just after 8pm. We were going to wait it out a bit longer at home, but my contractions were so strong and I remembered how fast my labour was last time so I figured we better head to the hospital just to be sure we made it in time.
  
• I was about 4cm dilated and fully effaced when we arrived. We made it very clear that my last labour was pretty fast so they moved me to a room pretty quickly. Our room this time was about double the size of our last room - much better!
  
• By this time it was about 9pm and my contractions were about 2 minutes apart, sometimes closer. I got the epidural which kicked in around 9:30pm and then they broke my water. At this point I thought we were settling in for the night. I figured I'd have a little sleep and Michael would go get some dinner.
  
• My Mum arrived at the hospital with my brother Matt. Both Grandpa's and Michael's brother also arrived to await the arrival.
  
• Shortly after they broke my water I started to feel pressure - so they checked me and I was fully dilated and ready to push. This was just before 10:30, I think. I was shocked. I completely thought that I was going to be hanging out for another couple of hours at least.
  
• The resident and nurse scrambled to get the room ready for a birth. The dr on duty was tied up in a c-section so he wasn't going to be there.
  
• After a few minutes of pushing, Bennett was born!

• The first thing I thought when I saw him? Boy, does he ever look like his sister!!
  

Here are some pics from our first couple of days as a family of four.

Going home day!

The full body shot:

Bennett just after birth.....

Maddy just after birth....

Am I the only one that thinks they look alike?

So far we're settling in well. We're off to the dr today for Ben's first check up. Michael is still on vacation until next week. I'm getting a bit nervous about being home with both kids on my own!! I'll keep you all posted on how that goes :)

Lefty

I'm not 100% sure when kids figure out which hand they favour - anybody know? What I do know is that Madeline currently only uses her left hand for colouring. And boy does this girl like to colour!! Here she is colouring the new Princess book I got her (she also now loves princesses....although I'm intrigued by what she loves so much about them, since she's never really seen anything to do with princesses). Princesses, Dora and babies/dolls are tops in her books these days. At some point I'm going to need to introduce her to cars and lego!!
We're also now in the countdown to birthday #2!! Less than a month to go. I'm planning a family soiree at Nana's house. Can't wait!

Signs of Baby

There are signs all over our house that indicate that a new baby will be arriving shortly. Many of these signs involve Madeline putting her dolly in some sort of baby apparatus that we've brought out from storage. She's also managed to put herself in many of these items. Many people have asked me if Madeline knows what's going on. She's a smart little gal so I'm sure she senses something is up. She'll tell you that the crib is where baby will sleep and that the car seat is for baby. She'll gladly lift up my shirt to show anyone in the room where the baby is and politely remind them "shhhh, baby sleeping". But, I'm almost certain she doesn't "get" that in a couple of weeks my belly will retreat to it's (somewhat)original size and she will have a little brother in her life. She's a nurturing little soul who likes to take care of things but she's also very much a Mommy's girl, so it'll be interesting to see how those personality traits play out. I'm looking forward to it!

Late night tunes

A quick video for Nana. Sorry Nana, I tried to get her to say "hi" but this was taken at 9pm last night (after a family outing to the beaches for ice cream) and she was in a bit of a wacky mood!
But she did sing her ABC's for you and it included her trademark "big finish".

We had a great weekend - Saturday we hit up the zoo in the morning. It was insanely hot and humid but all the animals were putting on a great show despite this. We only lasted 2 hours because Michael and I had not dressed appropriately for the heat!!

Yesterday we spent most of the day cleaning and organizing to get ready for baby #2. We hung pictures and pulled out more of the baby items that we'll need. We also rearranged closets so that we can put all of his clothes away. We're getting there! Off to a meeting now.....

Back by popular demand

Sunshine Girl

I picked up some 50% off sunglasses for the little lady since she was always insisting on playing with mine.

Today we went to Dufferin Grove Park to celebrate our friend Norah's first birthday. I took my camera so I could grab some pics, but turns out the battery had no juice left :( It was a great day for a birthday at the park and Mads and I had a fabulous time. Swimming, swings, croissants & cake. I kept on saying "lets go see Norah" and she kept on saying "yeah, Dora!". Pretty sure she thought we were going to see Dora the Explorer.

oh and Dora's mommy had this awesome bubble machine set up. Maddy must have played with those bubbles for over an hour. Note to self: buy bubble machine.

It's late, I must sign off.

Hi Nana! hope you are having a nice trip - send us an email update!

New Website

Just a quick note to let you all know that we've created a new website for Mom Central Canada. Check it out! If you're a Mom or a blogger, be sure to sign up.

Post for Nana

This post is for Nana! Nana is currently vacationing in Australia for 3 weeks so we're going to do our best to keep her updated with pics of Maddy. Yesterday morning we had a brief little photo shoot. Madeline had climbed into this big chair with her blanket in tow and then tucked herself in for a little snuggle. This kid is just like me and looooves her sleep.

Yesterday I took Maddy to the doctor - some sort of bone specialist. Our family doctor had referred us because we had noticed that she was walking with her feet turned out. So after the 40 minute wait (which I was actually expecting to be longer....how sad is that?) we visited with Dr. G. First thing he says to us? "why are you here, I don't see children". He was nice enough to realize that I had waited 2 months for this appointment, taken the afternoon off work, made Michael take a train, subway AND cab to pickering that morning for a meeting so I could have the car to get to the appointment and then waited 40 minutes to see him. So he humoured me and moved along with the appointment. In the end, he let us know that Maddy's feet are a bit flat and they're making her walk with a bit of a turnout. He said that she'll outgrow it as her arches rise and strengthen. We can help her strengthen these muscles by having her do "tippy toes" more often. And with that - we were done.

Summer's Here

We headed to the cottage last weekend. While the weather was off and on rain and low 20's, that didn't stop the little Miss from gettin' her swim on. The water was freezing and by the time we pulled her out of the water she was shaking with blue lips. Took her about an hour to warm up afterwards. But as you can see from the smile on her face - she was lovin' it.

Seriously, look closely at just how excited she is. She can hardly contain herself.

Twinkle, Twinkle. And then running in circles

Madeline sings one of her favourite tunes - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She then gets distracted by the thought of running in a circle.
The bag she's packing is her new "purse".

New Dress

Someone got a pretty new dress from the Mini Mioche warehouse sale! (picked up one in pink too. They are just the most comfortable looking dresses, so i figure she will wear them ALLLLL SUMMER!).