Good mornings and bedtimes...

You can learn alot by watching a toddler eat. That is, watching a toddler under the age of 18 months. After that, they almost universally get picky. Toddlers savor their food, they attend to every detail and when they're full, they stop eating. Even if it's cake and ice cream. Therapists and spiritual leaders make big bucks teaching people to be "mindful." Its simple really, just watch a toddler.

You can also learn alot by watching how a little one wakes up in the morning. Since purchasing our spy-cam we have gained even more insight into the world of the one-who-is-almost-three. We now know what goes on during naptime (fodder for another post), and we get to watch the little man wake up in the morning. If we could all wake up in the morning as Kai does, the world would be a much happier place.

First, he rustles, then stretches, then either sits and looks out the window or lies back with his hands behind his head and ponders the day's weather (we are no longer allowed to close the blinds on the window near his bed so that he can engage in his morning musing while gazing out the window). Then he often breaks into song entertaining his crib mates whose numbers have grown. Let's see, there are the plentiful bunnies (and even blue bunny, a former playroom/basement dweller, has been invited up to the 3rd floor bunny penthouse), there is red door, mr. handle (who also doubles as a bunny popsicle lately), water cup, bunny book, blanket, Lightning McQueen pillow, blue lion, music lion and Kai-Li (also a lion but so named b/c of his uncanny resemblance to Kai - think messy hair with sticky stuff in it and a pot belly). I'm sure I'm missing someone. Anyway, after the morning serenade they all engage in some funny stuff. I'm not sure what it is but there sure is alot of laughing going on in there in the early morning. Then, Kai does a few moves that look very much like yoga. After 20 minutes or so his doting parents arrive, sometimes with a cup of milk in hand and are greeted with a cheery "good morning." I'd be cheery too if my days started like Kai's do.

Then there is bedtime. Lately bedtime at the Fennell household is a little time consuming. Miss Teia has taken to waking up several times before she finally settles down for the night. We're not sure what is going on with her. Maybe she gets a case of the evening munchies. Or maybe she gets a bit lonely up there in her big crib. Or it could be that she wants to catch the late night Olympic hockey games. I'm making light of it but it has been rather frustrating and before we know it the evening has disappeared and its time for bed and the dinner dishes are still sitting in the sink. We can't get too upset about it, seeing as she is pure joy most of the time. So for now, we'll let her have her bedtime vice. But, as a result, we've been trying to hard to instill in Kai the importance of NOT waking his sister up as he galavants around during his bedtime routine. Bedtime for Kai has become Greg's kuleana seeing as I am nursing Teia. Oftentimes as I sit in the dark rocking Teia, her bedroom door flings open and Kai bursts in bellowing "Teia is feeping!!!" (not anymore little man), or "Mommy is feeding Teia!" But tonight he showed that he is learning to be quiet at Teia's bedtime. I heard him outside the door and started to tense up expecting him to come in and disrupt our sleeping angel. But to my pleasant surprise I heard him say "Teia's magazine. Magazine for Teia" (magazine? where does he get this stuff? He seems to learn words simply by osmosis these days!) Next thing I know, I hear a crinkling sound and a magazine is quietly slipped under Teia's door before he scampered off. Now THAT is progress!

Tonight Kai decided to turn the tables on Greg and put HIM to bed. I think this all started when Kai decided to call Dada by his first name today, walking around calling "Where is Greg?!" So Greg got a bath, was wrapped in a towel and even had his diaper and jammies put on by Kai before the little man brushed his teeth and relegated Greg to the ottoman so HE could sit in the prime reading spot for books and milk. Luckily he did not insist that Greg spend the night in his crib. I'm sure we're in for many more bedtime adventures once the newly constructed BIG boy bed is moved into Kai's room. Stay tuned...

More photos

I've been busy trying to take more pics lately as Teia's precious baby days fly by and Kai becomes more and more of a BIG BOY everyday! One of my goals is to try and take some pics of Teia in the same poses as some of my favs of Kai. So below you'll see pictures of my spa babies at 4 months of age:

And it finally happened! I asked Kai if he wanted to hold Teia for a photo and he said YES! He took his responsibility pretty seriously and held his little sis very gently and long enough for me to snap a few shots!

These two little monkeys keep me very entertained! Teia has started laughing. She thinks piggies shopping at markets are very funny and of course, she enjoys zerberts delivered to just the right spot. Kai was very busy this morning taking care of his bunnies. Hands were washed, bunnies were buckled into the highchair, quiche was prepared and served and the bunnies became "babies" and had some time on Teia's play mat before being thrown into Teia's crib b/c they were crying. Kai is quite the songster too lately. He figured he'd make the bunnies feel better with a song which went like this "kisses, kisses, kisses" to the tune of twinkle, twinkle little star. Awwww.... I'm starting to hear alot of myself in him lately "No, no, no new bunny! Don't touch heater!" or "new bunny, that's not nice" so I know it is definitely time to start being very careful what I say, otherwise I may hear myself when those chatty cathy bunnies start doing their thang!

In other news, I booked Kai's 3rd birthday party today. I am very excited b/c we are actually going to go all out and rent out an indoor soccer field and all kinds of active toys will be put out for the kids, even a bouncy house, and we'll be inviting his little posse of friends (someone has to go in the bouncy house b/c we're pretty sure Kai won't). We go every Wednesday and it is one of Kai's absolutely favorite places and has kept us sane during this long, dreary, good for nothing, snow-less, sled-less, ski-less winter. Is it weird that I am really, REALLY excited for his little party? I guess that means I am really, truly, officially in parentland. How many more years before I get to be a soccer mom?

1/3 of a year old!

Wow! It is so hard to believe our little Fuzzy Head, also known as Peach, (notice her fuzzy, prickly peach hairdo, best illustrated in the bumbo picture below) is 4 months old! She weighs 13 lbs now which means she is still at the 50th %ile for weight and she is now 24 3/4 inches long which puts her at the 75th %ile percentile for length. She is a little longer than her brother was at this age and quite a bit heavier.

She's been busy lately showing off her new skills. She still loves to stand up and seeing as she has been practicing it for quite a few weeks now, she has gotten pretty steady! If we prop her up leaning on the back of the couch she can even stand on her own!

Teia is quite the tummy timer! She doesn't even complain when given an opportunity to practice and seems to enjoy the different perspective. We're not quite sure how she got good at this seeing as she doesn't get put on the floor very often (fear of having her trampled by stampeding little boy feet has encouraged us to keep her on an elevated surface!) She has also learned how to roll from front to back, although sometimes it doesn't seem very deliberate and is more of a tip over.

Teia loves to grab things now so we have to be a careful when holding her at the table as she's likely to pull a cereal bowl and throw it on the floor. The other day she actually tossed one of her favorite toys, cat, into my soup bowl!

Here she is trying on a new hat that Auntie Shannon sent from Halifax. Its a little bit big but she'll grow into it and look cute doing it! Shannon sent Kai a book on Halifax and when he looks at it, he likes to say "Halifax, Hawaii." I guess I see the similarity, don't you?

In the video below Teia demonstrates her super advanced object recognition and receptive language skills ;-) Stay tuned for some more videos and photos to come... Hoping to get some chattering and giggling posted for our readers to enjoy!

GO North America!!!!

Tonight is the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver Olympics! I love the winter games and am especially excited this year to see Vancouver and Whistler showcased for the spectacular places that they are. We're not getting much in the way of a real winter here this year so it'll be fun to live vicariously through the athletes at the winter games. We're hoping to get the kiddos snug as bugs a little early tonight so we can catch the opening ceremonies. An insider tells us that they're pretty awesome!

Here is a shot of Greg and mini-Greg (I mean, Teia) dressed up in their CANADA attire. But of course we're a full continent family so we'll be cheering for all the North Americans. That is, unless Canada and the US find themselves in the gold medal hockey game. Then by default we're pulling for TC. It just has to be done.

Big Boy time

Lately, Kai has taken to being likened to a 'big boy'. For example, we say "Need to open your mouth wide for the toothbrush like a big boy" and sure as sugar-bugs, he opens his mouth a little wider (still not enough to get the toothbrush in, but we're getting there). Recently, after a hot date at IKEA with only Teia as the 3rd wheel, we got Kai a 'junior chair'; like a high-chair without belts. So we told him "You have to sit up straight like a big boy in this chair." That boy was sitting up so straight, he would have gotten a 2nd helping of graham crackers at school snack, I tell you!

We're also prepping Kai for transition to a 'big boy bed'. This could potentially be the end of life as we know it, as visions of Kai prowling through the night like a ninja fill our heads, but the time as got to come eventually. As Kai himself pointed out, "Mommy and Daddy too big for crib", ergo, so will he not too long from now.

To help the transition to 'big boy bed' (which was kindly given to us by our friends Kira & Zach), we got Kai a little 'big bunny bed'. It looks almost identical, only (big) bunny sized. Kai was pretty excited when he saw it; he hopped and squealed for about 10 minutes as I put it together the other night, then tried to carry it up himself before asking me for help. When we got it to his room and placed it in a suitable location, big bunny was immediately tucked in and kissed goodnight. Observe:

Big bunny is now quite the lucky, lazy Leporidae. The next morning, we thought Kai would enjoy shouting "Wake up!" to his new roommate, but instead he insists that big bunny needs his shuteye. He even states that its "ten-tend dark outside" so that bunny can continue to slumber in darkness. Big bunny has been on Kai-enforced bedrest for about 3 days now; not sure if rabbits suffer bed sores, but at some point we're going to have to change those sheets!

Desperate Times...

You know the saying: ...Call for Desperate Measures. That is how I've felt about working out these past few months. We're having a dismal winter in terms of useful snow accumulation. I think we've had 3 decent snowfalls with almost complete melts in between so there has been very little opportunity to ski. We've gotten out when we can but I think we're looking at year #2 where my GBF ski pass doesn't pay for itself...which is really silly seeing as I only need to go 6 times in order for it to do so.

I have been working pretty hard to get this baby weight off. I managed to gain almost 50 lbs with Teia which is a little better than how I did with Kai. I guess I'm just not inclined to be a skinny pregnant person. But I am determined to be a slimish un-pregnant person and soon. We have about 6 weeks left until I have to don a bikini on Lanikai beach! That is motivation for a person. I also believe it is important to get the baby weight off fast, before it becomes part of a woman's new self-image as a mother. A lot of what was important pre-baby becomes less so, so it is important to get that weight off in a hurry before a slightly larger mid-section and derriere become something one gets a little too used to. I'm in the home stretch now, about 10 lbs to go....

It seemed pretty easy to lose the weight last time with only one child and living in a warm climate surrounded by athlete friends. This time it is more challenging. The weather isn't as agreeable, I have two munchkins to account for and we haven't yet become connected with the athlete community of greater Bedford, although I'm sure they're out there. So I've been running when time, weather and the ankle permit, cycling indoors and even outdoors here and there, x-country skiing at any opportunity, and I've been doing exercise DVDs*. Yes, something I never thought I'd resort to. I don't even like aerobics classes and here I am doing exercise DVDs in our playroom. Once I discovered that I liked punishing myself for hours on end outside either running or biking, I haven't spent too much time in the gym or aerobics studio. (Why is it that endurance athletes like to use terminology like "punish" and "suffer"? - we must be somewhat masochistic at heart).

But I have learned that sometimes the only way to get a work out in is within the comfort and convenience of my own home. I've been riding rollers a little bit but that will make a person stir crazy if done too often, so I ordered some DVDs by a woman named Lindsay Brin with titles like Post Natal Bootcamp. Since getting said DVDs I have learned that Ms. Brin has never had a baby and that she is an NFL cheerleader, as well as an exercise instructor. But I've forgiven her for those things b/c her workouts are tough! They are a combination of pilates, plyometrics, strength training and kickboxing. I have to admit that I actually enjoy them. I have also discovered that when Teia is sleeping or with Greg, Kai will join in and I can get my work out in and play with my son at the same time. He does enforce mandatory rest periods and whenever I do a plank position he jumps at the opportunity to go under "mommy tunnel" or just to climb on me. He even has his own little weights...its pretty cute.

While I might have forgiven Ms. Brin for marketing a post-natal workout when she has never had a baby, I cannot forgive her for constantly referring to her butt as "buncakes." Or in some of the workout sequences, simply as "the cake." I prefer terms like glutes, or even bum or butt. Buncakes???? C'mon Lindsay! But I guess I'll have to put up with it b/c, like I said, these are desperate times...

*I have to point out that the opportunities for these work outs are entirely due to my wonderful and selfless husband who manages to appreciate an athletically inclined wife with limited domestic skills. Poor guy, the other day he came home and happily pronounced that he thought he smelled chicken, until he went into the kitchen only to discover that I was boiling 2 of Teia's soothers to sanitize them and had forgotten all about them so what he actually smelled was melting BPA-free plastic.....served for dinner - bink cordon bleu.

Smiling, Happy Babies!

This photo is one of our fav shots of Kai. He was 3 months old. We've been hoping to get a similar one of Teia. She is a very cheery girl who smiles all the time but catching her big grin on "film" has been a bit tricky!

Finally! here she is ... same age, same couch, BIG smile!