February

As the month draws to a close, I'm due to share a video of babies.  After much struggle with the computer and Internet connection, I present you with this series of clips of usual baby activity.

Both are crawling everywhere, climbing everything and generally making trouble.  After a bout with the gastro bug that's going around, Lucy is refusing to eat solids.  Claire, on the other hand, is on to finger foods in addition to her pureed foods.
Yes, that gastro bug hit here hard. First Lucy, then Robin, then my parents.  That was 2 weekends ago.  Claire, Abi and I were saved - until last night when Abi started puking.  She picked it up elsewhere - likely from my niece on Sunday.  I'm doing my best to keep my distance because mommies can't be sick!

We're still house hunting. *sigh* I'm still knitting and so forth for sanity. Robin's keeping busy at his new job. Planning Abi's 5th birthday party. She'll be glow bowling with her friends and cousins.

On the Hunt

We're on the hunt for a new house.
It is exciting.
And sometimes very scary - not the prospect of buying a house. I mean the houses we look at.
Seriously, homeowners, a curtain is not a sufficient divider between your bed and the toilet "en suite" you  have put in your master bedroom.
When your curved glass sunroom leaks from above, yes it is the window (above) that is leaking. No, it is not a minor "3" on a scale of 1-10.  The wood holding the glass up is a part of the window. Also, carpet should never be on the ceiling and it does not make a good wall covering for those spots where you removed the hand rail. (And carpet beneath your leaking window is not good either.)


We were very tempted by a lovely house in the city. It felt like home, but after careful consideration I knew it was (far) to small.  Imagine 3 teenaged daughters in there...

That's my craziness lately (on top of the usual - chasing the twins and Abi around).  Robin's enjoying his new job.  I'm busy scheduling house-viewings with our wonderful, very-patient-with-my-crazy realtor.

However, all of this is wonderful and exciting and things are finally coming together!

more pox and other exciting updates

Just when we thought we were done with the chicken pox, Claire broke out. Again. This time she must have caught them from Abi and she caught them good!  She has them worse than Abi did.  Head to toe and every place between including in the ears, all around the mouth/lips, face, torso, and especially the diaper area.

day 1 of obvious break out.

She seems to be done developing new pox and we're waiting on the healing of the scabs.

In Lucy news, she's quickly moved on from crawling to climbing.

In family news - Robin has finally secured a new job and starts Monday.  He's working in the same field as a call center supervisor at a new facility for in-bound customer service calls.  It is perfectly timed as his parental leave runs out that same day I think.  Just got off the phone with credit union and sounds like we're good to set up a mortgage asap. That means I can actually start looking at houses on the market. Oh, and did I mention I was offered a class to teach at my alma mater and in my area of specialization?  Life stuff is finally coming together and moving forward.  I love my parents, but I'm sure we'll all be happier to have our separate spaces again and I need a place I can easily baby proof.

ETA: short video of Lucy in motion

Pox and other "trouble"

Just when we thought we were free and clear, Abi developed the chicken pox. Everywhere.
She's a trooper though, with minimal complaints.

 Snuggled up to watch a movie with her new Owl named Pink and her fav blankie.

Working on a (very long) scarf for the snow man she knit.

Those are the internet-safe pictures. Of course I had to document the full coverage.  Pox sure break out quickly.  Saturday looked fine as we prepared for a funeral.

For this picture, I was trying on a new "bling" turtle necklace from my aunt and making sure we had a photo of Lucy in the handknit tunic/dress from my friend Gina.

To add to the fun this week, last night Lucy figured out the forward crawl.  Proof in the (low quality; Robin didn't know the zoom would not refocus as it should) video

Thankfully Claire still prefers to sit and play.

For Mrs. Hooper

We have yet to capture Lucy's usual antics on video - because once the camera comes out she is instantly distracted.
Lucy is so very close to crawling. Forward. She's got the rolling-across-the-room down and the rocking-as-if-I-will-forward-on-my-knees mastered. Alas, however, her attempts to crawl forward leave her frustrated as she moves further away (backwards) from her goal.  So close, so very close.
Crap.

Claire, on the other hand, is content to sit on the floor (Lucy prefers to topple sideways and roll away) and play or bounce in the exersaucer.

I'm terribly overdue to share photos, and I don't think any recent ones are terribly good, but I'll post these two anyhow and continue to try my darndest to get a good video to share soon.
Hey, at least we have a new camera that takes great HD videos.  We're still working on some computer issues as we'd like to reinstall the OS, if computer will let us.

Lucy

Claire

Xmas come and gone

As with so many months this year, December flew by.  The holidays tend to do that. It probably doesn't help that folks are more likely to be sick. For example, I think everyone's had a cold around here and then Lucy had to pick up chicken pox on top of it all.  Claire has developed her first couple of spots now - in time for New Year's Eve.

December has mostly been fun - how could it not be with 3 kids and Christmas?

Happy New Year

now, what happened to 2012? it was a wee bit busy/crazy.

Wish Lists

December already? So much knitting to finish, so little time!
And the babies are not helping with the time issue.
Given that the frenzy of gifts is almost upon us, I thought I'd answer that frequent/common question again. What do "we" want?
Robin and I don't really "need" anything. We each maintain a list on Amazon for ideas. I think I have one at amazon.ca and another at amazon.com - but they may be melded. I can't recall if Robin's at .com or .ca
Abi has a list there too for books and music.

Okay, gift ides for Abi:
She enjoys books and is starting to read on her own.  To be exact, she's reading letters and sounding out some words and writing words and learning to write new words. Early reader books would be good.

Abi does a lot of crafts. Thus we can never have too much paper (she's not usually interested in construction paper and it doesn't hold up well with paint or markers). Sparkle glue (not loose sparkles), small plastic gemstones to glue on, sequins, pompoms, etc would all be loved. And more washable paints. But no more markers or crayons, please. I think there's a good 5 dozen crayola markers in every size shape and colour and boxes of crayons.

Abi has more than enough Calico Critters for the time being (as I'm also taking into account ones I know she's already getting this Yule).
Likewise, she has more Littlest Pet Shop animals than I had - and that's saying a lot; I'm not counting my collection that she inherited.  The same applies to Ponies.

She enjoys playing with her little Polly Pocket dolls and their clothes. Same with her LPS Blythe doll. They're not my favourite choice, but more clothes would be fun and they do have the benefit of fitting into all her existing doll house accessories and playing with the Calico Critters and the pet shop animals.

She has asked for more wooden train set pieces.  I believe most wooden sets state that they are compatible with other wooden sets.  Ours do at least.  A train 'station' type of thing would be good. Our tracks are in storage, but there is a whole other set of wooden tracks here at Nana's that she could use with new trains and larger structures for now.  We do have quite a lot of track.

She'd like a new stuffed toy, but I will say that she can be very picky about stuffed animals so it would be ideal to let her choose her own.

All the girls have plenty of clothes, but for reference I'll say Abi's moving into a 5T (definitely not 5X). Claire at 6m is already wearing 12m sizes (18lbs+) while Lucy is still in 6m sizing (14lbs+)

The babies have quite a few toys.  They enjoy the small O-Ball that they share, so a second larger one might be good. Yes, I've become less rigid about plastic toys, but only because now many are BPA-free.  They already have plenty of rattles and chew toys.  They would enjoy some more interactive toys that are age appropriate.  Yes, I'm also more willing to endure the noisy, light-up toys - as long as they don't talk or sing and they're easy to shut up. Toys with buttons to press, 'walls' that stand up to play with, that sort of thing.  Clearly I'm not good at describing them.
It's interesting for me to watch the babies play because they're interests are so much different than Abi's were. Plus, I'm more desperate for toys that will distract them...

Frozen Bananas

You can never have too many recipe ideas for frozen bananas. Because, inevitably, you find yourself with very ripe bananas that are tossed into the freezer for "later" use.
The easiest (and arguably the tastiest) use for these bananas is as an ice cream substitute. Just mash 'em up. Sugar-free (besides naturally occurring fruit sugars), dairy-free, gluten-free and delicious.  That was Abi's first "ice creams". 
Frozen chunks are also good for teething babies starting around nine months. Especially if you have one of those new mesh bag feeders.
The next easiest use for frozen bananas, IMHO, is fruit smoothies.  Toss in whatever else you like - milk, yogurt, orange juice, berries...

Then there's the classic Banana Bread. Everyone has their go-to banana bread recipe. (Right?)

Yesterday I needed to bake for two potlucks (alas, I didn't make it out to the first due to icy roads). I knew we had bananas to use up. I planned to bake a couple banana breads.  Sadly, I faced two obstacles: 1) one of the containers with frozen bananas turned out to contain very freezer-burnt 'naners. I have no idea how long my mom's had them in there.  I was thus two bananas short. 2) I couldn't find the recipe box with our recipe nor could I find it in the recipe book it came from here at my parents'.
I did, however, find another recipe that - once upon a time - I had left a note beside: "Excellent!"  Clearly I had made it before and thought it was darn tasty.
I made a double batch and damn, I was right! It's tasty.  So here it is from a Kinette Cook Book of some early year.
(Cover has been burnt off by my dad. Several pages are also scorched. Why yes, my dad does leave things/put things down on hot burners on the stove.)
I'm slightly revising this a la Mandy

Banana Coffee Cake 

Preheat oven to 350

Beat together in a large bowl
1/2 c. soft butter / margarine
1 c (or a little less as I prefer) sugar
3 eggs

Sift together
2 c. sifted AP flour (or unsifted if you're lazy like me)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

 Mash
1 c. bananas (about 2 bananas)
Alternate blending the dry and banana into the mixture. 

Spoon batter into a 13x9", greased pan.

Combine a topping of (I didn't have any butter left to use and didn't want to worry about coconut allergies, so I simply sprinkled on brown sugar)
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp flour

Cut in
2 tbsp butter.
Mix in
1 c. flaked coconut
Sprinkle mixture over cake.

 Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy.

Claire and George

Claire and George are BFFs.
Which often makes me wonder what happened to the George we had in KW who would not have tolerated a baby and who was known to scratch Abi for walking too close - even though she'll still swear he is HER favourite cat. (Does this mean she'll be attracted to "bad boys"?)

semi-solids

Lucy and Claire have started their foray into (semi) solid foods.  They started with sweet potato puree a couple of weeks ago and have moved on to squash.  Both are enjoying it, although most days Lucy is more inclined to simply "taste" the food while Claire has progressed to scarfing down a cube (from the ice tray) or more.

Aside - you can see that Claire had her first bangs trimming. Lucy just had her bangs trimmed 15 minutes ago.

Eating solids, rolling around... 6 months is fun.  I am not encouraging crawling! But I will be happy when they can sit without assistance (for longer than a minute).