Baking with Granny

Granny was here visiting us for 3 weeks in March. While we mostly entertained her with errands and party preparations, we did get a bit of fun squeezed in there too. One of those days was when we kept Clara home from preschool to do some baking with Granny. Yum!

Click the link here for more pictures!

Chloe's Language - A Little Parental Bragging

Chloe signing 'more' (as in, 'more going down the slide, please, Daddy!)

Wayyyyyy back when, (must have been nearly 3 years ago I suppose), I wrote a blog post about Clara's signs and words she was using.

Well, now it's Chloe's turn. She's just turned 1 (OMG!), so to celebrate, I made a list of her baby signs that she uses and her words that she says: (by the way, to read more about Chloe's birthday, click here)

Signs:
book, music, ball, cat, bird, butterfly, duck, caterpillar, mouse, pig, sheep, monkey, flower, hat, please, wash, want, milk, more, drink, eat, all done, change (her diaper), bath, hot, goodnight/sleep, apple, banana, cheese, dance, baby.

Spoken words:
Mama, Dada, Clara (ok, that one's hard to recognise, it sounds more like 'gara'), duck duck duck (she says it three times, like she's quacking), tickle, up, down, two (yes, she counts to two! or at least says 'two' in response to 'one'), ow (her current favourite), cheese, apple, book.

Animal sounds:
Moo, woof woof, clip clop (horse sound), roar (for lion or tiger)

She also blows kisses and waves (usually after people have already gone!)

That's my girl! :-)

Mama Pea Pod

I've been working a lot on my latest project - a new public 'Mommy blog'. Come over and check it out at http://mamapeapod.blogspot.com/ and please click on 'follow'. Since it's a public blog, you'll notice that the girls have pseudonyms, so if you leave any comments (which would be great) please don't use their real names. Please share it with any moms (or dads) you know of with small children. I'm hoping to build up a public readership with that one, and will still keep this one as my 'family and friends' blog.

Redecorating

I'm re-doing the girls' room this week. Super excited! Bought them a new wardrobe/dresser/shelving unit thingy from IKEA, and currently waiting for someone to come pick up the old wardrobe (not really old, we just bought it 2 1/2 years ago, but it's not big enough for both of them to share). We had planned to also sell the old dresser that converts to a change table, and someone was coming to pick that up too. However, I had to put Chloe down for a nap, so we moved the furniture out of the bedroom so we wouldn't have to wake her later when they arrived, and discovered that the dresser actually fits quite well in the hall, where we had planned to buy a cupboard unit. So we had to call the people back and tell them we're keeping it! Anyway, will post pictures when it's done.

Valentine's Day Surprise

Andras and I haven't celebrated Valentine's Day since 2003! That was the first Valentine's when we started dating. We went out for a lovely dinner at Queen's Pasta on Bloor (the same place we went to for our anniversary dinner last year). I was ok with not celebrating, sort of.

Anyway, this year I decided to take matters into my own hands. While out for coffee last week, I noticed that our favourite cafe was having a special Valentine's dinner, a three course set meal, including a glass of champagne (when I say 'cafe' I should probably add that this is no Starbucks coffee shop! I'm talking French gourmet here!). So I decided, "hey, why not?" The price was very reasonable and when I did the math, including babysitting, the whole night would cost no more than $85. At first I thought it would be fun to surprise him with it, but then I realised that probably wasn't very practical because knowing my luck he would probably have to work late and we'd miss it. So instead, I told him my idea. He thought it was a great idea and immediately called up the babysitter and the restaurant to reserve. Very exciting! Our first Valentine's day in 8 years!

As always seems to happen when we book a babysitter for a night out, however, one of the kids got sick (this time it was Clara with her throw-up-athon) and we had to cancel. Very disappointing, but the right thing to do for Clara's sake.

Anyway, when Andras came home from work on Monday, he brought me these to ease the disappointment. :-)

Clara's First Valentine - The Follow-Up

After delivering her Valentines to her friends in the building by taping them to their front doors, Clara discovered this on our door the next morning when leaving for preschool. She was thrilled!

Clara's First Valentine

Last week we started talking about Valentine's Day and how it's a special day when you tell people how much you love them. Clara, of course, absorbs every detail.

On Tuesday Clara went to a kids' concert. The musician is Gryllus Vilmos, a popular Hungarian kids' singer (think Hungarian Raffi). His music is actually very good, even though I can't understand most of the lyrics. Anyway, Clara loves his music and thinks he's one of her friends. So when we got to the concert she bravely sat herself down on the floor at the front, in amongst a group from a local preschool (Chloe and I sat further back on a chair). When he finally came out onto the stage, Clara jumped up and started waving wildly - very cute!

At the end of the concert, Gryllus Vilmos waved goodbye to all the kids, and Clara again jumped up and started waving wildly. Gryllus Vilmos, of course, saw her and gave her her own special wave and big smile - wow! She was sooooooo thrilled!

So on the way home she announced that she wanted to make Gryllus Vilmos a Valentine's card ("I think I love him!"). Too cute! So all last week she's been working on making Valentine's cards. Here are the results - pretty good I think!

For the one below (this is the one for Gryllus Vilmos), I made a cardboard heart template, which Clara traced and cut out by herself, then she decorated it with stickers.

For this one, she used a heart-shaped stamp and red and white paint to stamp hearts onto the pink paper, then she glued it onto a folded paper that I had cut and folded for her.

For the next one, she first used her heart stamp marker to stamp all over a square of pink paper. Then she traced and cut out a heart from it using the template, then used the 'negative space' to stick onto a square of paper then stuck that onto the card. 

This is the heart that she cut out from the space in the card above, which she stuck onto another heart that she had traced and cut out using the template.

The last one is the card I made for her from Daddy, Chloe and I.

I used a ribbon to hang it on her chair, so she'd find it when she came out for breakfast.

Ballet

Last spring, we enrolled Clara in a rather pricey, English-language ballet class (it's always more in English). We did a trial class and she really enjoyed it so we signed her up. Well, not a moment after I paid the 10-week session cost, she refused to participate again. She loved the idea of going, was always excited about it, practiced at home, talked about it all the time, and wore her little H&M tutu around the house constantly, but every time we got to the class, she would just stand next to me pouting, or at best admire herself in the mirror. In her defense, I think it was the timing that was bad for her. It started at 3pm, and she usually naps until 3pm, so to get there we had to wake her up early from her nap (we tried putting her down to sleep earlier, of course, but she never fell asleep earlier because it wasn't the usual time). Anyway, as much as she hates going to sleep, ever, she also hates being woken up and is a serious grouch if she's woken. Which I think is why she was always grumpy at ballet class.

Anyway, fast forward to now, and we decided in January to give it another go. She still loves the idea, still wears the tutu all the time, and (if it's possible) has become even girlier than she was before. So we thought we'd try again. She's almost a year older now, she's been going to ovoda so is more used to social groups of kids, and, most importantly, the time of the class has changed to 4:30 - perfect! However, this time I was wary of paying for a 10-week session for nothing, so the dance school owner ever so nicely said we could do 4 trial lessons before deciding. The first week didn't go so well as we couldn't find the new address (it didn't exist) and ended up giving up and going home! But then we got better directions, and the second week went really well. Clara loved it! It is also a slightly smaller group, and she knows a couple of the girls a little that are in it, and it's also a more laid-back group I think. Last year's kids always came fully decked out in proper ballet attire (they were 2!), whereas this year's group comes in mostly regular skirts or cheapo H&M stuff like Clara's. There is a new teacher who is young and lively, and who actually introduced herself to Clara (that makes a world of difference for her for some reason). Anyway, she is having a blast! And today we officially signed up for the rest of the school year (she'd better still like it after this!!)

Chloe stands!

Szegény Clara! (Poor Clara!)

We had a rough night in our household last night. We got woken up at 3am to the sound of Clara throwing up all over her bed. (Lovely.) We got up and took her to the bathroom, where she thew up some more, changed her bed, put the bedding in the laundry, gave Clara a shower, and set up a mattress on the floor next to our bed for her, with a bucket next to it. We all got back into bed, only to have the same thing happen 20 minutes later! Again, back to the bathroom, changed all the bedding again - but this time we didn't have any more duvets, so she had to sleep under two towels! Cranked the heat in our room instead. Back to bed. Andras and Clara went back to sleep, but I always seem to take longer to fall asleep once I've woken up. So....I was just FINALLY dropping off to sleep when Chloe woke up for her feeding at 4:30! So off I went to take care of that. Got Chloe fed and settled back in her bed. Back to my own bed again. And...sure enough, before I could fall asleep Clara threw up again! Now down to just one towel and a baby blanket on the bed. Back to bed yet again. And, of course, 20 minutes later she threw up again! Fortunately, not on the bedding this time, just the floor (easier to clean). By this time it was 5:30. And, you guessed it, just as I was beginning to drop off to dreamland, Chloe woke up at 6 to begin her day! What a night! Fortunately, Andras had been able to get a little bit of sleep in between the throwing up sessions, and had slept through Chloe's feeding, so he got up with Chloe at six and let me sleep a bit longer. But I was still up at 7 when Clara woke up.

So it's not just poor Clara, it's also poor Mummy and Daddy, and poor washer and dryer - between 3 sheets, 2 duvet covers, 2 duvets, the bathmat, several washcloths, a mattress cover, and 3 teddy bears, some of which had to be washed twice, our poor European-sized machines have been running for 14 hours straight now!

Clara hasn't thrown up again since 5:20am, despite complaining of a tummyache, and it's now 4:30pm, so that's good news. Although, she also hasn't eaten anything except a few dry rice krispies and camomile tea. I've got no idea what caused it, she doesn't have a fever or anything, and she didn't eat anything suspicious yesterday, so it's a complete mystery. I guess I'll be keeping her home with me tomorrow until we're sure she can eat normal foods again. The good news is that she stayed relatively cheerful the whole time - no tears at all! We broke out a stashed Strawberry Shortcake DVD we'd been saving for her birthday and she's been watching that quite happily. It's even about Strawberry Shortcake preparing a birthday party for her little sister's 1st birthday - how appropriate since Chloe's is coming up in a few weeks!

Chloe's Apple

Chloe's very chuffed with herself for starting to eat apples 'whole'. Up until now, she'd only had them grated (or pureed), but Clara brought out an apple from ovoda the other day and Chloe went crazy for it.  Since Clara and I were busy trying to get her dressed to come home, the apple seemed like a good way to keep Chloe occupied in the coatroom, so we let her have it to play with. Sure enough, she bit right in and scraped away at it with those little front teeth. Worked like a charm at keeping her busy the whole time. She loved it! And was not at all happy when Clara was ready to have it back. So when we got home, I got Chloe her own apple, and just peeled it all the way around and gave it to her like that. She thought it was great! She nibbled, scraped, munched, and rolled it all over the kitchen!

Sunrises

Clara and I have been watching a lot of sunrises lately (read: every day!). We get a fabulous view of them through our living room and kitchen windows. The pictures here definitely don't do them justice. The sky is always pink and purple, and the sun appears first bright red just as it comes over the horizon, then as it rises further it gradually becomes a dark, burnt orange colour, then bright orange, then .... well, then we are too busy getting ready for school to see what happens then. But our whole living room lights up orange inside, and there are bright orange patches of light in the hallway too. Almost (but not quite) worth getting up so damn early for.

Birthday Blues

Ok, I've been off blogging forEVER, but I'm going to give it another shot. So here goes...

I can't believe Chloe's 1st birthday is coming up already! :-( Boo hoo!

I was so excited for Clara's 1st birthday, but for Chloe's I just feel sad. I don't want my little baby to be so grown up already! I want to keep her as my little baby forever. I guess because I know it's my last chance this time. It's funny, though, because Chloe does seem like more of a baby than Clara did at the same age. Even though she's about twice her size! Clara was always so interactive and chatty, right from the beginning. Chloe is more laidback and does her own thing, rather than needing as much interaction to entertain her. I wonder if Chloe is getting the short end of the stick here - since she doesn't demand as much interaction, she doesn't get as much. Perhaps she's not learning as much? Poor Chloe-Moey. It clearly sucks to be the second child.

Anyway, in planning Chloe's birthday party, I'm wondering what to do. Who to invite? All her baby group friends? What about our other friends who have been watching her grow over the past year too? That's a lot of people, and quite a few older kids to keep amused at a baby party. Clara's was easier as it was summer and we had it outdoors, but since Chloe's is in early March, I'm not sure I could keep older kids entertained in the house for long. Hmmm.

And what about cake? Should I make a cake for Chloe to eat? Clara didn't have one, she had a watermelon isntead. But she loved watermelon more than anything, so it made perfect sense. Chloe doesn't really have one favourite food that she loves like that. Unless you count lasagne. But lasagne wouldn't make a very good cake substitute! Maybe I can use a banana bread recipe in a cake pan? Any suggestions welcome.

Maybe if I make a cake for Chloe, it will help to make up for some of the other areas where she misses out because of being #2....