Maybe

Lucas has discovered a couple of new words but Maybe is his favourite at the moment, although I am not sure he gets exactly what it means. for example

Maybe Lucas would like some chocolate milk = Lucas wants chocolate milk

Maybe I would like to go to the park = I want to go to the park

Maybe Mommy would like to play trains with Lucas= Mommy wants to play trains with Lucas

Last week we went to Port Dalhousie and rode the carosel. Lucas was sooooooo thrilled with that. Mostly because he has a book called Thomas and the New Carousel, in this book Thomas the tank engine delievers a carousel to the festival and in the process loses a crate and then has to go and find it. Well all day he talked about that book and since being on the carousel we have talked about it, read stories about it, and discussed when we will go again. Lucas: "We will go to Port Dalhousie to go on the new carousel, Thomas delievered it." Mommy: Maybe on day. Lucas: "We will, we will". I guess we are going to Port Dalhousie again.

He never forgets anything, that kid. Lucas has started thinking about Potty training, and a while back we read a book that he had taken out of the library about potty training, in the book the little kid goes on the potty and says he is proud. Now when Lucas goes on the potty he says "I am so proud of me"

Can't forget to write about the little one. Ava is constantly watching her big brother and really wants to get going with him (notice she is playing with Monster trucks in her exersaucer, such a little lady). She loves playing with his train set, Lucas asks her to come and play but when the trains get "stuck in the drool" the fun is over because apparently drool is not good for train.

Ava is enjoying her solid food, maybe a little too much , we are having a problem getting it to come out the other end - hopefully she regulates that soon. She recently started blowing bubbles right on time, according to the development chart I follow, otherwise known as the "Lucas blog".

This weekend my brother (Colin) gets married and all the cousins will be together, probably for the first time. Should be an exciting day.

Happy Birthday And Than Some

We found a train set and table on Kijiji and thought he would like it. Since we never gave him a birthday present (unless you count Ava as a present) we figured it would be a nice gift. Anyway he sure did like it. It was a "Happy Surprise" he said. We couldn't play with it all day though because we went to Nana and Papa's for a swim which he was really looking forward to but wanted very badly to get home so he could play again. I was listening to him talk away to himself (as most of you know he is never quiet and today was no exception) he said "I would like to play with my trains all day" Sounds good to me Lucas-man knock yourself out!!!!! Maybe it is happy birthday present for Mommy instead!

Ava had her first taste of solids yesterday, I know it is early but I just can't handle the starving child in the middle of the night that wont take a bottle any more. So a little bit of cereal won't hurt, at least I dont think it will, and Lucas started almost exactly the same time as well so I am not too worried. Listen to me justify myself to myself, pretty sad. Anyway we didn't have a full nights sleep last night but when she got up she was not a ravenous crazy sucking machine so I think it did help a bit.

Peter had said that Ava was singing in Church on Sunday but I had not heard it until today. She sounds like a cross between a cat, cute gremlin, and some sort of monster. Pretty cute though I must say. Unfortunately the video upload on the blog does not work so well for me so I will try and load it up to facebook for you to have a listen. You do have to listen quite closely to hear her over top of her brother, man that kid talks a lot!

It's a Matter Reunion. Everyone was home, except not all are in the picture. Grandma is taking the picture, Aunt Emily is at work and Ava is sleeping. It was nice to have everyone in the same town/province/country for a weekend at least

Watch this space.... There may be an Oakley reunion too later this month!

BaskePuck

Who likes sports?

• First the Olympics, the house was full of a patriotic little man singing 'Oh Canada' all the time, even singing himself to sleep, and practising his ski jumping.


• The Stanley Cup was next with Penguin fever and a new little Guy moved into the house named Lucas Crosby.



• Next we have had the world cup first we had a New Zealand Super fan with lots of God of Nations and Lets go New Zealand while running around in circles.



• Now we are living with Van Persie and playing soccer constantly, thankfully we have a squishy Ikea soccer ball so Ava has not yet taken a beating.

Lucas is now in the process of creating his own game.

Baskepuck, involves a Styrofoam puck and a basket ball net. There is a goalie and a lot of falling down, the rules keep changing so it must still be a work in progress.

Not to be left behind, Ava continues to work on her Abs of steel with her favourite thing to do being crunches lately.

8 Days and we Finally have POO

Yes we are at it again, this time Ava was on the poop strike. Today she pooped after 8 days of holding out. She sure did have stinky toots so am glad to have the poop out finally. She just couldn't hold out the 16 days like Lucas did, lets hope she doesn't give it another go. I took a look back at the BLOG to see when Lucas was up to the no poop trick and it was also at the 4 month mark.

We have been trying to give her a bottle but she is not taking it so I thought in order to get more food into her I would give her a syringe of breastmilk at every feed. I am not sure if it was my intervention that helped but either way it came out today.

Yesterday Ava was giggling with Mommy and then talking and laughing with Lucas. He was doing a fake laugh and Ava thought that was pretty funny, giggling and throwing her arms up in the air. It was fun to see them communicating a little bit.

She has been trying desperatly to sit up kind of makes her look like she is doing crunches, I think it will be a while before she actually does.

Ava has found a way to settle herself to fall asleep she sucks on her index and pointer finger and rolls over on her side. Finally not screaming her head off until she gives in. Although for the last 3 weeks she has been getting up once, twice maybe three times a night which I do not like. I was spoilt for so long, from 6 weeks she was sleeping at least 11 hours a night and sometimes 13 hours, man is it hard to go backwards. Hopefully soon we will be back to a full night sleep.

I bought Lucas new "cars" sheets for his twin bed and he has insisted on sleeping in it. Thankfully he has been pretty good in it, no falling out and as of yet he doesn't seem to realize that he can get out of the bed, he just sits and yells for me instead. Soon enough though I am sure.

We had a Daisy visitor for a couple of days. Lucas thought that was great and is still filling water buckets in the back yard for her. As he says "Daisy will come back again tomorrow, yes she will"

Lucas showing off his Piha shirt under our Piha picture, almost like being there - sort of

This is how much Lucas loves Ava, he even lets her cuddle Patrick sometimes, although under supervision and only for a couple of seconds

No idea why this picture keeps loading upside down but I thought it was cute so it is staying

Big Boy Bed and First Swim

Today is Lucas' first night in his 'big boy bed', really the crib without the side on it. He hasn't tired to climb out and he is not big enough to fall out yet but we had to get him started since he has taken to kicking the railing that slides down because it makes this great noise. All fine and dandy but it wakes up Ava so time to remove it and learn to sleep like the rest of us. We will see how it goes as often he sleeps with his legs hanging out the side of the crib or his head stuck right up against the railing. Hopefully he doesn't fall out tonight.

Ava is doing much better, unfortunately she is not back to sleeping all night but it is not too bad. She had her first swim the other day. Not too sure how she felt about it, she was very quiet but didn't seem too upset. She is rolling all over the place, she can't seem to get all the way over but she is going back to side to back to the other side over and over. She is so aggressive with her toys. Nothing like her gentle older brother. I am worried she might pull the baby gym over on herself one of these days. She has started to turn around in her crib, a whole month earlier than Lucas. They say that girls do things faster. She is trying hard to sit up always bringing her head and legs up looks more like she is doing sit ups at the moment, even has a moan when she tries, and she has a very deep voice so sounds very funny. Maybe she wants to join Opa at the gym!

They are doing good together Lucas has said a couple of times "I love you so much Ava" and gives her a big hug. He loves getting the chance to hold her now, he has to be watched very closely as he likes to just push her off when he is done. Ava still loves to watch her big brother, almost more than Mommy.

Final thought - I almost forgot. Lucas has not forgotten where he came from. He often sings himself to sleep and tonight he sang "God of Nations" (NZ national anthem) What a proud little Kiwi. He must be gearing himself up for their World Cup debut!

I need a Drink

So Peter was not working at home today and for some reason it was a crazy place today. Lets see if I can paint you a picture:

1. Ava was up 3 times last night which is 3 times more than usual (I knew our luck would run out some time), so I started the day out tired.
she looks cute but she causes a lot of chaos!



2. We get into the car to go and drop Peter off and the car will not start, think the starter is gone.


3. Lucas was playing hockey outside waiting for Lori to come and pick Peter up to take him to work (thanks L-Train) and he knocked himself in the eye with his hockey stick = bruise number one.





4. Ava would not take her morning nap (that is nothing new though)


5. Lucas tripped and knocked his eye into the door downstairs = bruise number two on the same eye this time with cut and bump.
6. Lucas only slept for 1 hour at nap time today, that is 2 or 3 hours less than normal.


7. It took me 2 hours to get Ava to go to sleep tonight.

I am ready for Peter to come home!

Look at me rolling over!

"No they are not baby toys Mommy! Ava likes to share with Lucas"

Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow.

I WILL Win!!

Ava and I are fighting. Not sure what I have done to make her so angry but she is very angry with me. Yesterday she let me have it all day, she took a break for about an hour around lunchtime, then she finally exhausted herself at 5pm when she passed out for another hour, Finally in bed for the night at 7pm. Thank goodness. Can't say today has been much better but her anger seems to have calmed a little. Hoping for a better evening anyway.

I think every mom obsesses over something and mine is sleep. I think it is so important that kids get the right amount of sleep and if you live in my house you seem to need a lot of sleep. Ava has not yet learned that she would be a much happier person if she would just let go and go to sleep. It may be a bold statement but I think she is worse than Lucas was. Maybe a little better at keeping herself occupied when she is awake but probably a bit more stubborn when it comes to going down for a nap. She hates napping so much that if I go upstairs with her (nap time or not) she starts to cry and stiffens up. I don't know how I lucked out to get two kids that have an aversion to sleeping. It must be their fathers fault, it certainly is not mine. But I will win this battle one day.

On a less frustrating note Lucas is still making me laugh everyday. Still loves to play with Ava's baby toys ("When she is done Lucas can have a turn") and continues to get time out for throwing things.

Lucas still has things a bit mixed up. He calls himself 'you' and Peter and I 'me' or 'I'. It gets a bit confusing when he says things like

Lucas:"You want to have a drink?"

Mom: "No thanks Lucas I am not thirsty."

Lucas: "You want to have a drink!"

Mom: "That is very nice of you Lucas but I am not thirsty".

Lucas: "LUCAS WANTS A DRINK!"

Mom:"Oh sorry Lucas I thought you meant me."

Not exactly sure how to get him to figure that one out.

A little over 3 weeks and Lucas gets to see Aunt Elissa and Aunt Emily in the same room. I can't wait to see his reaction, I am convinced he thinks they are the same person.