More updates

These kids are changing and learning everyday, I just can't keep up with it! Here are some more updates about Daniel, Adam and Sarah.

Daniel:

• is almost impossible to photograph these days. He will not look at the camera! That's why his picture is one with Sarah - it's the only good recent picture I have of him.
• is doing a great job in his swimming lessons. At his "midterm," the teacher said he could do everything except keep his head under water for 3 seconds. The next lesson, he could do it. He didn't want us to know he couldn't do something!
  

Adam:

• is so funny these days! He has quite the goofy personality. He likes to make faces, stick out his tongue and talk like a goof. He also does his own version of the pinchy dance. He dances around pinching his hands like lobster claws. :)
• is talking a lot! Some of his new words are brrr, car (mroom mroom), cracker (cookie), eye, go (doh), hand, hat, help (hop), milk (unck), mouth (ah), sneeze (ah-too), walk, yawn, yummy (nummy)
• says his own name now! He refers to himself as Me Anam. So cute!
• can recognize many colours.
• is a real copycat. He wants to do everything Daniel does these days.
• still doesn't like swimming lessons. But he likes swimming - when it's in the warm pool!
  

Sarah:

• is growing well but is still a tiny little girl. She weighs 8 pounds 1.5 ounces, which puts her in the 10th percentile.
• is feeling much better these days. She had a bit of a cold and it made her pretty stuffed up and grouchy. But she's sleeping better and looking much happier.
  
  
  

Halloween!

What a fun Halloween we had! We started the day by going to swimming lessons. Daniel had a great time, as usual, and Adam cried in the cold pool, as usual. But he had a really fun time in the warm pool. Next session, we've signed them up at the new Killarney Pool because lessons will be in the warm pool. Hopefully Adam enjoys it more!

We spent the afternoon getting the house ready for trick-or-treaters. We had already decorated outside but decided inside needed to look spooky, too. We all made these little foam pumpkins together and the boys stuck them on the stairs. They had a great time and I think it looked pretty cool!

Then it was time to get into costumes! Daniel and Adam were both really excited but Sarah was less than thrilled with Halloween. She was really tired and cranky and slept through the first half of the evening. But she happily helped answer the door and handed out candy the second half. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of her, but she looked exactly like she did the night before. :)

Here's Venom. Daniel was in love with his costume. He ran up to every house and acted the part of a scary bad guy. I think he liked surprising people who didn't know it was him behind the mask.

Here's our little train. I was thrilled that Adam kept the train on the entire time out trick-or-treating! He wore it up to every house, even climbing up stairs. But, the moment we came home, the train came off! Oh well. I'm just happy he wasn't going door-to-door dressed as a kid with a woo woo hat on!

James got dressed up, too. Or did he? Isn't he always a jester, joking around? :)

James took the boys out for the first half hour or so while Sarah and I stayed by the door and handed out candy. Then we switched and I got to watch the boys run up to all the doors. They had so much fun! They were very polite and remembered to say thank you and nana. :) I was so suprised that they weren't scared. We have a few houses in the neighbourhood that go all out with their spooky decorations and the dads answer the door all dressed up in gory costumes. Daniel thought it was cool and kept telling me it was "just pretend." Adam didn't cry but he did stare wide-eyed for a long time at the men in scary masks.

Finally, after about an hour, the boys decided they were done trick-or-treating. Then they helped hand out the candy. They had almost as much fun doing that as they did going out themselves. They'd each get upset if their brother was able to give someone candy so we started having to give two pieces to every trick-or-treater - one from Daniel and one from Adam! Many of the kids commented on how cute the baby pumpkin was. And we got a few confused kids who couldn't figure out why their teacher was answering the door (since I work and live in the same neighbourhood)! We finally turned off the lights at 8:30, after 211 kids came to the door. We were so lucky that the rain stayed away and everyone enjoyed the night.

A Halloween Sneak Peek

We went to our community centre tonight for their Halloween Family Fusion event. Family Fusion nights are a really fun community activity. Usually it involves a dinner from one culture and entertainment from a different culture (like Mexican food and Japanese Taiko drumming or Indian food and Irish dancing). Tonight, the theme wasn't from a certain culture - it was all about Halloween! Dinner was beef or vegetable stew (with pumpkin or lemon meringue pie) and the entertainment was pumpkin carving and watching a scary movie. We skipped the scary movie but really enjoyed the rest! We knew perfectly well that the boys wouldn't eat beef stew so I brought them peanut butter and jam sandwiches. They got to run around with some of our neighbours (their favourite older friends, Kioko, Halen and Teilani) and had a lot of fun showing off their costumes.

Here is our scary Venom (the bad Spiderman) and our cute train (woo woo). Daniel thinks his costume is the coolest thing around and won't take it off. He was wearing it last night and the only way he'd get into his pyjamas was if I let him sit and hold his costume afterwards! Unfortunately, Adam will only keep his costume on for about 30 seconds. But he LOVES the hat. If you ask him to wear his costume, he just points to the hat, gives you a sidelong glance and says, "No. Woo woo...hat" as if to mean, "I don't need to wear my costume. My hat is good enough, thank you."

After dinner, we went into the gym to carve pumpkins. It was the perfect way to carve pumpkins - we brought the pumpkins and they provided all the tools and cleaned up all the mess! James was thrilled!

The boys with the finished products.

Sarah needed to pose with the pumpkins, too.

The boys managed to start in on the Halloween treats a day early. They ate some lemon meringue pie, found some suckers (which, as you can see from their sticky faces, they really enjoyed) and, later in the evening, Tim Horton's came by with Timbits and hot chocolate. Sugar overload!

The rest of the evening was spent watching some Halloween shows on the big screen and running like crazy with other little kids. Daniel found a Batman and an Incredible Hulk and the three boys chased each other around and around. Adam the train happily followed behind, not quite able to keep up but not really caring!

Sarah slept most of the evening so we had to wait until we got home to get some pictures of her in her little orange outfit with the cute pumpkin hat! It certainly is roomy on her! She was still pretty tired, though, so we weren't getting a picture without the soother.

I'll be sure to post a lot more pictures on Halloween but thought this little sneak peek could tide everyone over for now. :)

Sarah is one month old!

It's hard to believe that our little girl is one month old! It seems like she was only born yesterday but, in a way, it seems like she's been part of our family for much longer. There was never any real adjustment - she just fit into our family very easily. She has two brothers who absolutely adore her. She's a sweet little one, is quite easy-going but certainly lets her needs be known. She loves to cuddle, to be all wrapped up and safe in someone's arms. She's our little Sarah and we're so happy she decided to join our family.

As you can see, Sarah is very excited to be turning one month old!

Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year - pumpkin patch time! We all headed down to the Richmond Country Farms to go find ourselves some pumpkins. We got there and saw Polly Pumpkin and Corny Corn singing and dancing on stage! The boys were a little too shy to dance with all the other kids (yes, even our kids get shy sometimes!) but they enjoyed the music. Then we headed to the hayride over to the pumpkin patch. Adam wasn't too thrilled when we first got there. He didn't like the mud. (Daniel was exactly the same way when he was 2. He kept complaining that it was pleupy. Adam kept complaining that it was bleh and poopoo!) And it certainly was muddy! While going through the corn maze, we got very dirty and stuck in the mud. Daniel even fell in!

Daniel's muddy feet:

Adam's muddy feet:

Me and my boys getting lost in the corn maze:

Superdad James with his three cute kids:

Daniel and Adam liked checking out all the pumpkins and searching for the best one to take home.

And here are our three cute pumpkins!

Updates

It's been a while since I've updated on what each of the kids has been up to. Here are a few little facts about each one of them...



Daniel:

• now weighs 43 pounds (90th percentile) and is 42 inches tall (85th percentile)
• loves being "the biggest brother" and calls his little sister "so sweet"
• has decided that he's never going to nap again even though he desparately needs the sleep and becomes very grouchy when he doesn't nap
• loves 'puter games and has become quite the expert on the laptop
• still loves superheroes - Batman is starting to replace Spiderman as Daniel's favourite
• knows all his colours and shapes, sings the alphabet, recognizes most capital letters, can count to 19 (but skips 15 all the time),
• looking forward to Halloween but hasn't decided on a costume yet

Adam:

• now weighs 27 pounds (50th percentile) and is 32 inches tall (3rd percentile) - he's kind of short :)
• loves his new little "baby" and always kisses her head and lays his head against hers (his way of hugging her)
• talks constantly but still has a limited vocabulary - some new favourite words are baby-ya, doodoo (soother), unck (milk), peepee, poopoo (you know what those are!), peeta (pizza), not me, wee (playground), woowoo (train)
• is really interested in family members and loves to look at pictures and name everyone (Mommy-ya, Daddy-ya, Deh Deh, Baby-ya, me)
• occasionally says his own name (he calls himself Amam, just like Daniel used to!)
• loves to play with electronic stuff (like the TV, DVD player, computer)
• is a little clumsy these days - has a small black eye, a bruise in the middle of his forehead and a big rash under his chin
• wants to be a woowoo for Halloween
  

Sarah:

• now weighs 7 pounds 2 ounces (15th percentile) and is 20.5 inches long (50th percentile)
• is a pretty easy-going baby and doesn't mind the attention from her brothers
• sleeps pretty well but doesn't go to bed until quite late (close to midnight) - makes it hard for mom and dad who need to get up with the boys at 6am!
• had a minor staph infection in her belly button but it's all cleared up now
• has a very strong neck and holds her head up all the time
• likes tummy time and doesn't fuss too much
• has a pretty laid-back personality - only really cries when she's hungry or cold
• is breastfed and also takes the bottle well - gets about 2 -4 bottles a day and has started to take a soother
  

And, just to make you smile...here are the boys incognito...

Thanksgiving Apple Squish

Apple squishing time again! Sarah wasn't too thrilled with her first introduction to the apple orchard. It's a family tradition to take a baby's picture in the apple bin. Usually, though, the apples aren't covered in ice - the temperature went below freezing the night before! Record low temperatures!
Trying to take all three kids' picture in the apple bin wasn't much easier...

Daniel was so excited to try out the apple grinder - he wouldn't even wait until there were apples in it! I think he was the first to grind this year. Adam wasn't quite as thrilled with it, but went close to it with Daddy.

But he happily roasted and ate hot dogs with Grandpa.

Finally, Daniel got to grind some actual apples instead of just pretending. Here are the boys sampling the fruits of their labour - the apple juice Daniel squished all on his own. It tastes extra good when it comes out of a beer bottle!

Lots more grinding by Daniel. He'll definitely be taking after his dad. James is always one of the main apple grinders every Thanksgiving. Always wearing a plaid shirt, too. :)

Finally, Adam gave it a try. See, it's not so bad!

While Sarah visited with all the relatives, the boys went off into the orchard with Grandpa. They returned covered in dirt and scratches but had a lot of fun. (I think they were running down hills and climbing trees.)

Sarah's turn to grind! Daddy did most of the work, though.

Once again, we lucked out with a beautiful day for the Thanksgiving apple squish. The boys had a great time and are enjoying their apple juice from the apple squish now that they are home. We have a freezer full of apple juice now! They'll be able to enjoy Thanksgiving for a while yet...or maybe just a few days the way the two of them drink apple juice!