Lets go to the EX

We went to the EX yesterday, we took the Go-Train. Our train obsessed little guy thought that was great. Actually it was MUCH better than driving Toronto traffic is ridiculous. We had a great day, although it was a little hot. My brother (Colin) was down from Pet, showing off a coyote (Tank) so we thought we would meet up with him. Lucas (and I think Peter too) really enjoyed checking out all the military stuff!





Ava tries out the Go-Train for the first time, she didn't think it was a big deal



Lucas on the Go-Train for the first time, It IS a big deal Ava!





Driving a tractor is very serious stuff



The drool monster came with us





Look at all the rubber ducks

The Chicken Man

Uncle Colin showing Lucas around the Coyote

Opa tries on all the gear

Look at all that Bling

Sure it's a good day to go to the EX, why not!

Time for a laugh?

In the public bathroom at the EX

Lucas: "Good girl Mommy you did pees on the toilet! Look at your pees Mommy"

Mommy: "Thanks Lucas, did you want to do pees on the toilet?"

Lucas: "I'm not ready yet, I'm too slow"

Sleep, Poop and a Wedding

I know I obsess about sleep but come on I don't function well on 4 hours of sleep, it is a well known fact!

Lucas has been having nightmares, which is really sad for the poor little guy but lets be honest it is annoying. I hate having to get up in the middle of the night for the little one, but now 2 crying children. Really when does the crying stop? Before you say it, I know one day I will miss all the love and attention and want them to go back to being so little blah blah blah. Right now I would settle for an uninterupted sleep.

Yesterday the doctor said "WOW that is a well breast fed baby" Crazy but somehow I felt proud about this, being a mom messes with your head. In my previous life I would never feel proud for doing something that my body does pretty much all by itself. Then a new thought flew into my head, are you calling my daughter fat??? Maybe I should be offended. See what sleep deprivation does to you, crazy thoughts in our heads.

We were at the doctors because Ava is having a hard time pooping (she is going to love me when she is older and her boyfriend gets to read this). I have to give her a suppository. I hope it works the first time because let me tell you I am not very excited about it. I have great expectations for this little thing maybe it will help Ava to;

1. Sleep all night
2. Be happy in the car
3. Play nicely on her own

Somehow I think my expectations are too high.

Ava eating prunes, apparently it is not prunes but the juice that is the laxative, oh well she liked them anyway

Lucas supporting his teams

Teaching Ava the joys of playing with Penguins

Mr and Mrs Oakley

A rare smile from Colin with Hayden, very cute

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!