My week in pictures

Saoirse had her first time out this week. She had been talked to in the morning about telling lies, as she had accused Sophie of dropping cake from the table when really it was her. How did I know this? Well, Sophie was in the bathroom with me when I heard the thunk of cake falling from table to chair to floor. Plus, the icing was all over her white tights which is why she is wearing some clashing orange with the pink dress in the above picture. She was sent on the time out for throwing a toy at Sophie's head and immediately turning to me and saying "Sophie did it!" Then she ran under the computer desk chair and started crying. She refused to say sorry to Sophie so she received a 3 minute time out. She actually sat through it, something my others never would have done, and Sophie doesn't either. Don't judge me for the bloody dummy in her mouth. She's been really good about not taking it, we are almost ready for the dummy fairy to come and take them all away, but when she is upset she likes it. Yes, yes, I know she is over 3. Shut up. Sophie was kind enough to sit with Saoirse and keep her company, which sort of defeats the purpose of a time out.



She loves to stamp. Taylor was making a card for a friend's birthday so she joined in. She was having so much fun she didn't want to get changed for ballet.


A close up of her ladybugs, done on actual Stampin Up card stock. Usually I only give her scrap paper, but oh no, Taylor was kind enough to give her 18 cents worth of paper. I am officially cheap.


I am picturing this photo in her high school yearbook in the "Who is this baby?" section. Or at her wedding reception. She will be so mad at me for this photo one day.


This is what happens when a 3 year old picks her own clothes. Red striped dress, pink polka dot leggings, purple socks. She even told me how she wanted her hair done. Saoirse really has a thing for dresses right now, and hardly ever wears pants. The other day at school her teacher and a mum even commented on the fact that she was wearing pants, for the first time in about a month, but it was only because we were out of tights. (Hence the orange ones in the first picture!)

You say you've got a terrible mother...

I missed Sophie's first birthday update/letter. I was going to a grand one for her 13 month birthday but here it is, almost 11 pm on the 10th of September, she is 13 months and almost 12 hours old and what have I done?

Nothing. Feck all. Not a picture posted, there is no list of all the things she is doing, there is no record of how suddenly the whole house went quiet and then I found her drinking toilet water, no mention of her 6 teeth or her screaming everywhere she goes just to let us know she has left or entered a room. No writing about her shoe obsession and her funky new purple hightops. Or her love of books and giving hugs.

No there's none of that here, because I happen to be a shitty, crappy mother.

Oh, and my dad's here, which just takes all the fun out of sitting at the computer all by my lonesome.

But he gave me money so I can live with it.

And anyway, Sophie will never know.

Since you'll all be reading this on Tuesday go wish a happy birthday to the fantastically funny Catwoman, a girl who makes me smile everytime I read her. And sometimes? I even have a depends moment. Although she does somehow work it out so that she beats me at that scrabble game on facebook.

A letter

Dear Sophie,

Today you are 6 months old. You are such a joy. I can say that now, now that you enjoy the company of people who don't have to shove a boob in your mouth every hour. And that includes me. Sometimes you will even go three hours without insisting on being fed. You've always been great while we were out, you can go ages and ages without eating, but if we were just hanging out at home you were insistent upon eating almost constantly. Which, you know, kind of drove me crazy. There is something to say, however, for being the love of one's life. I wonder how much longer that will last.

Not long judging by the smiles your daddy gets now. Tonight when he was reading the Herald-Sun online you stood on the sofa looking at him and calling out and laughing every time he responded to you. God, your laugh. If I could bottle that laugh, I'd be rich. Who doesn't love a baby laugh?

So what can I tell you about you at six months?

You are trying so hard to crawl, you are doing pushups and falling back on to your stomach. You give it a go for a bit and then you go back to rolling everywhere. You love your toys, but mostly you love Saoirse's weebletown. You press the button to make the things spin around and then put down the little weeble and try to catch it. You've figured out that if you put your hand on the discs you can stop them from spinning. Take your hand off and they go again. You can do this over and over for a good 15 minutes and it never fails to amuse you.

You have discovered the joys of food. Farley's rusks, arrowroot cookies, jars of fruits, rice cereal, toast, you love them all. But avoid the carrots, not only do you hate them, but there's a big orange stain on the highchair table. I can't leave the bowl on table otherwise you dump it all over yourself. And did you know blueberries stain clothes? Something terrible, actually. One of your onesies looks like you rolled around in mud.

Saoirse adores you. Every night before she goes to bed she gives you kisses, and it has to land on your mouth, so she will give you kisses until it does and a big hug, which is really just her touching her head to yours with an "aaahhh." She plays with you pretty well, except for when she tries to move you and decides to do it by using your head. She did give you your first sleigh ride today, which I am sure you would have enjoyed but she kept stopping to make sure you were okay. "Okay, baby? Are you okay?" Taylor and Liam are also great with you, and love to get your big smiles. It's your daddy where we are seeing the most improvement though. You used to cry whenever he held you, but now you will willingly go to him, even putting out your arms.

You look a lot like Saoirse, but your hair is a bit darker. You have the exact same eyes, the light blue of Daddy's surrounded by my dark blue. You also have Daddy's slightly wiry eyebrows so a tweezer will be an important part of your life. I don't see me in you at all, but some people say you have a bit of Liam about you so there must be a bit of me there. You have your two bottom teeth, which you have used once or four times or so to remind me that you are eating. As if I could forget. They make you look like you are growing up and I am sort of regretting wanting those first couple of months to speed up.

Sophie, you make every single day such a pleasure. Unexpected gifts are always the best.

Love you lots and lots,

Mummy.

Slobbery kisses

Sophie has a new favourite thing to do. She loves to give kisses. When I say "Give me a kiss" and pucker my lips she laughs (oh my god! her laugh! I could die!), grabs my cheeks with her hands and comes towards me, putting her whole mouth over mine. It tickles and makes me laugh which makes her laugh all the harder.

And it's really quite sloppy. I hope she takes care of that before her teenage years. She'll have no luck with the boys if she doesn't.

Hallowe'en

I love Halloween. Not for the actual holiday itself, though I certainly enjoy it. No, what I love about Halloween is the next day. November 1st. The official kick off to Christmas. As soon as the last kid left my driveway tonight, I started putting up Christmas decorations. For the most part, I use snowmen until the middle of November and then start adding the actual Christmas decorations. In a place like Edmonton you could potentially have snow decorations up for 5 or 6 months. Even I get tired of them eventually and they usually come down at the beginning of March to be replaced by the St. Patrick's decorations. And on and on the cycle goes.

Anyway...back to Halloween. The two little ones were absolutely adorable, I will download the pictures tomorrow. I did their portraits in their costumes as well and will post them when they arrive next week. Sophie was a bat and Saoirse a monkey. We really lucked out with that choice, because she has become obsessed with Curious George. Tonight as William was taking her to bed she was crying for her costume "Monkey, monkey." It was very cute.

We went to Taylor's school parade. It took almost an hour, as the school has recently exploded in population. We are definitely feeling the effects of Alberta's booming economy. Need a job? Come here, just don't expect to find a place to live. At the very end, the principal invites all the younger siblings to parade around the gym. Taylor carried Sophie and her friend Ashley took Saoirse. Everyone loved the girls in their outfits.

William took Saoirse around our neighbourhood. She got a lot of stuff, but chose to eat the Halloween candy we were handing out. He then took Liam and his friends Josh and Tyler out for a few hours. Taylor went out on her own this year, for the first time. She went with her friends Connor, Theodore and Ryan (who she has had a crush on since Grade 3!) I was a bit worried about her being the only girl and being left behind, but she had a great time. Initially Ashley was also supposed to go but her mum changed her mind. She was out for over 2 hours and came home with 2 pillowcases full of candy.

Which leads me to a big problem. The candy...god, the candy. I have been going so great, I've lost more weight than what I gained with Sophie but between now and Christmas I am really going to struggle with not eating junkfood. Although I hate the fact that all my jeans are falling off me, I don't actually want them to fit properly ever again. I look forward to going out and buying new jeans, I don't want them to be too tight by January. Damn that candy tempting me. Bad candy! Bad!

I totally forgot to say...

...that on Monday Sophie rolled on to her tummy.

Has she done it again?

Absolutely not.

Oh, and Saoirse did not pee from 10am until 5pm. She then peed in her booster seat. She will go and sit on the potty, not use it, use a wipe, flush it, then climb on the toilet to wash her hands. I have told her she is no longer allowed to wash her hands unless she pees. Who knew hand washing could be used as a bribe? When she had a nappy put on at 7, she peed through it in about 5 minutes and leaked on to Taylor's jeans. That was a whole lot of holding that girl did.

This is so totally a mum post. Sorry to any of the fellas that read this (a grand total of four, I believe!)

The coming of winter

In honour (??) of the first snowfall this year, Sophie wore this shirt. Just so you know, last year we had no snow until March. They say this is going to be a mild winter but I don't believe a word of it. It's freezing.



Sophie shows the blogging world just what her mummy thinks of having 6 months of snow and cold.

Sophie at 2 months

Well, I was going to post pictures but blogger's a wee bit of a fucker. Sophie is finally, finally, not requiring to be constantly held. I actually get an hour or two where she will sit in her chair and let me do something exciting like clean the oven and stove burners. Even right now she is just lying on the couch, she should be well asleep, but at least she's content. She could start screaming at any minute of course.

The baby acne has cleared up and she is cute again. I don't care what anyone says, no baby looks cute with a face full of zits. There are hardly any pictures of her over the last month. And I will regret that if I ever get around to scrapbooking. Or perhaps developing some pictures.

Ha! I knew she'd start screaming. I may finish this post tomorrow and I may even get some pics uploaded.