Getting into the swing of things...

Summer is over...well summer "holiday's" are over, and now that we have entered the world of sending a kid to school, we actually can say we DO summer holidays now. It's been a big week for our family, Abby started school, Madison started at the daycare, and Gillian is getting ready to start nursery school. Big, exciting changes that luckily everyone is very excited about.

First there was the obligatory Back to School haircut last week. Took the girls to the "Salon" and they got washed, cut and curled... a very exciting thing for them - they are such rough and tumble girly girls! Curls one minute, rolling in mud the next!

Then came home to play in the yard






(Madison isn't quite ready for haircuts, but won't be long!)

School didn't start for Abby until Tuesday, so Monday we did a quick trip to Valley View Animal Farm... where the kids always have fun:

And then it was time! Time for Abby to move on to the next stage in life... with routines, responsibilities, learning, fun, new friends, and new experiences... Kindergarten!

We are so lucky that our neighbours and babysitter take the same bus.
Someone to watch over her and help her!

And for the other girls.. a few more years to wait. So it's home time with Mommy - which is special too!

The wonderful world of Madison

She is really turning into quite a little girl. Just starting the very foundation of communication, saying a few things that sound more and more like words. We never got into the whole sign language movement, which is a great thing, I just didn't have the time and patience for it, so her communication is really starting from scratch verbally! It's such a cute age when they start to "speak" - saying Bye Bye, saying Uh Oh, when she purposely drops things, (actually she says it even before dropping them!), and clapping. She also has the most expressive face, smiling at everyone - which just started happening recently, before she was a little hesitant - squinting, and the most classic Madison face is what I call the "Frankenstein", where she will drop her head and look out of the tops of her eyes, to really pretend she is hiding from you... it's quite funny! It's really fun watching my last baby grow up and cherishing each moment of it... bitter sweet in a way.

Last post Jan 11th... ? WHAT?

I've been seriously neglecting this blog. Don't worry it isn't dead I am still here and it's often on my mind, but while I was swamped with life (loads and loads of laundry, one after the other and the other.....) and my other "job" (photography) I decided to just let this one "rest". I also felt like I didn't have much to say here. I have LOADS of photos to post, but it just felt all overwhelming to think of going through them and choosing ones! Sad. But the lack of something to write has been a pain. I think it has been the weather or something, but I've been super low on energy and creativity lately so I kept putting off updating my poor old blog! :)

So to sum up the past month or so, I'll start with Madison:

- She is now 6 months
- She weighs a whopping 19 lbs 6 oz
- She has two teeth on the bottom
- She is just starting to sit up
- She is the most even tempered child we have, and it's just wonderful!!!
- She has reddish hair and a very light complexion
- She is now bottle fed, I just didn't have enough milk for her and the blocked ducts were just getting me down!
- She likes to eat, but not a lot.
- She sucks two fingers (index and middle) and falls asleep on her own
- I think she is friggin' cute!! ♡ ♡ ♡
- and growing too fast!

Her sisters LOVE her!!

Gillian:
- she is now 2 1/2
- just like Abby, she is very agile, and athletic. We put skates on her and she was practically skating on her own after two tries!
- her smile lights up the room
- She isn't speaking as well as she should be for her age, so I'm going to look into speech therapy
- She LOVES to get dressed, and does it multiple times in the day so there are little socks all over the place because she changes them about 4 times a day!
- Is pretty much toilet trained during the day - haven't even tried at night!
- She still wakes up early - 5:00 am early, but is better at just lying quietly in our bed

walking down the tracks in Chelsea


My little Picasso!





The sulking princess


Gilly and her friend Paige


I wonder where she learned this???




At Winterlude 2010

And finally a little update on Abigail:

- she is now 4 1/2
- She will start school in September, and is pretty excited about it, especially taking a school bus
- She learned how to skate this year
- She loves to talk
- She loves her baby sister Madison, won't leave her alone really... !
- She whines - A LOT, but then when she chooses to be nice, she is beyond nice!
- She can make her bed neater than I can, I'm not sure how she does it... maybe she can teach me!
- She LOVES to wear dresses, the flowery the better!
- She loves to wear jewelery and have her nails painted

Her first "real" haircut!


Loves to paint!






Here she is saying what I say to them when I try to take a photo - it was priceless!


Gillian getting right into it!


Fell asleep watching the Olympics!


Can't get enough of Madison!

So that is my quick update, thing happen so fast and the girls change so much from day to day it's hard to keep track!! Hope to update more often, but we'll see - no promises. Bye for now!

Fall

Some people think we are crazy to live in Quebec, and at times (usually April each year, during the first snowfall trying to drive to work) I have to agree with them, but on the most part I would have to disagree with them. This is one reason: The view from our deck:

It takes my breath away every year!

Two weeks Today

Madison turned two weeks old today. It's always amazing how fast time flies, already two weeks since I was in labour! She continues to be a fantastic baby. We hang out at home, go for walks with Bender and is so calm all the time. I can take her out shopping and she won't really wake up for 2 hours, it's crazy! So much different from Gillian. Gillian and Abigail continue to LOVE their new sister and fight over who is going to hold her. I've found Abigail only once with Madison in her arms and her saying "look mommy I can carry her"! Even though they love her, I think they are feeling the change in the household with 3 now, and the sudden absence of mommy time with the new baby. I need to feed her and change her and all the while it's taking away from their time with me. It makes me sad, but it's the new reality, and once Madison grows up a little things will even out again!

I'm also happy to report the alarm trick has worked the past two mornings, they both didn't get up until the music started playing. I really think it's more because they are so exhausted (both physically and emotionally) that they need to sleep! Let's hope that it continues like this!

Here are a few photos to share:

Madison - cross eyed newborn cuteness! Aren't they just so funny
at this stage?

Gillian getting up to no good at 7:00 am

Abby needs hair intervention - time to visit a salon,
mommy's haircuts don't work anymore!

All of a sudden...

It's July 18th and I haven't updated this since the 9th. I'm going to loose all my loyal readers (hahahah!). There is no time for blogging... well with work done and watching the kids, it's pretty nutty. Last night, I had virtually hit the wall, Eric was at hockey, the kids were quite crazy yesterday, the Door Doctor came 2 min after I got the kids in the bath to fix our garage door that was fried by last weeks storm that fried out electrical AGAIN! Then Grandpa came to pick up his cooler, so the girls were yelling at him from their window... needless to say they were a little wound up to try and sleep and it required a good dose of "close the gate and ignore" therapy, to get them to finally sleep. And also needlessly to say, I was tired and needing space. But really, overall the week was fun, I'd much rather bust my butt watching the kids than what I was doing before. It's fun to see how they have changed, and how they change everyday, Gillian is cuter than ever, talking more and more everyday - and surprisingly settling down from hitting the terrible twos wall a couple of months ago. She is still determined, but responds much faster when I shut it down than Abby ever did. Abigial is becoming quite the big sister, and little mommy to her babies. She is beyond excited about the baby coming and likes to announce it to everyone. She hugs my belly and tells the baby to come out. She puts her ear up to my belly and tries to listen to her. Very cute!

Here are some highlight photos from our first week on holiday:

We went to the local park

Abby did a little dancing

Gillian did some sliding

Then I managed to catch the girls together!! and got some really cute photos:

My favourite of them all! I just love their expressions

Now it's Saturday, and it's pouring rain, no big surprise as it seems to rain every weekend this summer. But it's looking up for next week! Enjoy the weekend everyone!