words

Selah is starting to love writing letters and words. She'll call me from the other room "What's next, mom?" and I have to tell her the next letter in the word she is spelling. So far she likes to write names. Here is some of her recent work:

As you can see I made the first R, but then she made her own. I also did the N, which she traced.

This one is a whole bunch of names, all jumbled up:

And this one says Daddy, though I'm not sure what happened to the Y:

Kezi is starting to say quite a few more words lately. She is getting really good with shaking her head and saying no, as well as nodding. Makes things much easier when I can ask her something like "do you want more" and she can answer me. She also likes to talk on her "phone" which could be just about anything. Recently it has been this calculator:

Yesterday Stacey and her kids came over for some chicken noodle soup. We decided it would probably save a lot of laundry if we just took the kids shirts off:)

Things are happening!

And it is so exciting! Bruce has been working so hard on the house, and getting so many things done. The basement is getting close to being finished. It is very different than it was when we first moved in. Pretty soon the girls can use the bedroom down there for a playroom. Also, our bedroom is now a nice deep red! I really like it so far. The closet doors need to be painted, and a few more pieces of trim put in, and then our room is done too! In the next week or two the girls room will be getting painted as well. Selah is looking forward to her blue room. I will try to post some pictures soon of all the renos.

Holidays:)

With Bruce involved with "Moses" we haven't had much time for holiday type stuff. We did go to the Manitoba Museum on Wednesday though. At first Selah did not like it at all. But by the end she was enjoying it. She didn't like all the big animals, etc. She said next time she will like it though:)

Bruce has been getting some work done in the house, which is great! The basement bathroom is almost done, just needs the flooring. Right now he is painting the laundry room. Woohoo!!

I got a few packages in the mail the last two days. Yesterday Stacey and I received some bathing suits. I can't wait to try them on! I also received two other packages. The first was a rubbermaid bin filled with all sorts of stuff. The second was a box of pool noodles...

What are they for? Carseats of course:) The Rubbermaid bin is my technician kit. It's filled with all sorts of stuff for doing carseat checks. Lets see, there are inspection forms, carseat pamphlets, flashlight, screw driver, duct tape, scissors, scale, tape measure, locking clips, I think that's about it. Now I'm all set, other than my certificate and technician number.

Just saw this great little video clip showing how rear-facing is so much safer for kids. Thought I'd share it:) Selah is still rear-facing in our car, and she loves it. Even Ashton, our 5 year-old nephew had to try it out, and he thinks its great!

I'm trying to sell a few carseats right now. Anybody need to buy one? One is a Sunshine Kids Radian 65, one is a Graco MyRide 65, and the other is an Evenflo Triumph Advance.

The Bed Battle

Alright, so I'll start the story back before Kezi was born. When Selah was about 18 months we converted her crib into a toddler bed.

We wanted her to be used to a toddler bed before the new baby came. We did have a toddler bed for her too, we just figured we'd make the switch slowly. At first she did fairly well. She fell out once in a while, but we kind of expected that. After a while we switched her to the other toddler bed so we could turn the other one back into a crib for the baby.

After Kezi was born some friends of ours were selling their german crib, which also converted to a toddler bed. It looked a little sturdier than the bed we had, so we bought it.

Now during this time, we also started finding Selah sleeping on the floor...

Or even on the chair...

I didn't mind it so much. When Kezi was born we had her in the living room for the first month or two, just till she started sleeping better at night so she wouldn't wake Selah too much. At first when we moved Kezi into Selah's room, it was fine. Selah was still doing her sleeping on the floor thing. But then one day when they were both supposed to be napping I peeked in their room and found Selah standing by Kezi's crib, with her arms through the bars, and touching Kezi's face. Of course she didn't hurt Kezi, but I didn't want to take any chances. So we turned her bed back into a crib.

Now the nice thing about german cribs (I'm not sure if they are all like this) is that they have 2 or 3 removable bars. This way you don't have to lift bigger kids out.

So Selah had been in this crib for over a year. I decided that on her 3rd birthday we would try keeping the two removable bars out of her bed, to see if she would stay in her bed. Well, lets just say that wasn't very successful. Oh yeah, and I should mention, the past few months even though the bars have been in her bed, she has been keeping Kezi from sleeping. She will sing loudly, or just talk, or throw stuff into Kezi's bed, or Kezi will throw her blankie into Selah's bed. Nap is usually the worst. At night time at least it is dark enough that they eventually fall asleep. Kezi NEEDS her nap, and well, Selah is happier in the evening if she has a nap as well.

Now we fast forward to last week. I had been starting off each nap/night time with her bars out, and if she got out of her bed I would put the bars in. Well just last Thursday she discovered that if she kicked the bars hard enough the two removable ones would pop out. She did that twice during her nap. And then just a while later I heard a big thump. She had thrown her pillow out of her bed and was trying to reach it over the side, and she fell out. So that evening I told Bruce it was time to convert it back to a toddler bed. So Friday evening that's what we did. And let me tell you, it's been a nightmare!!!

Night-time isn't too bad. There are two of us to deal with her, plus it's dark. Kezi is often asleep by the time we put Selah to bed (Kezi goes to bed around 8 and Selah around 9). But nap time is horrendous. Yesterday I kept going back in and putting Selah in her bed, giving Kezi back her blankie, etc. I tried just about everything to get her to stay in her bed. Kezi did not fall asleep until after 3. And Selah did not fall asleep until Bruce came home at 4 and took care of things. Today I set up the playpen in my room for Kezi to nap in. Selah is screaming in her bed/room right now cause she wants to sleep in my room too. NOT going to happen.

And that's about it. I'll gladly take any advice anyone has for dealing with toddlers at nap/night time!

She's 3!!!

Just a few pics of my 3 year old!

She had her 3 year check up on Friday. She's in the 75th percentile for height (38 inches) and the 10th for weight (27.5 lbs). I was quite surprised by her height, I didn't think she was that tall!

Almost Party Time!

Only 1 week till Selah's 3rd birthday, and she's getting pretty excited! About a month ago Bruce and I asked her what she would like for her birthday. She said a teddy bear. We've asked her a few times since then, and each time she has said a teddy bear. On Saturday however, she specified that it needed to be a BLUE teddy bear! So if anyone gets her a blue teddy bear for her birthday, I think they'll be number one on her list for a while:) The other thing she asked for quite a while back was flowers. On my birthday Bruce and Selah bought me some flowers. Then she told us that for her birthday she wanted flowers too:)

Speaking of flowers, the roses that Bruce almost gave up on are blooming! Since we've lived here our little rose bush in the front has only ever had 2 roses each year. Bruce thought about just digging it up this year. But I convinced him to give it another chance. This year, not only is it blooming early, but it has 6 roses on it! Two are already opened up. Here's a pic of one...

Here's a funny pic of Kezi walking at the valley yesterday.

And here's a pic of my kids and Ashton. I've been telling him for a while that the next time he comes in our car he could ride "backwards" since I now have two seats that he fits in rear-facing. Well Friday was that day. I was babysitting him during the day, and then we were going to Bruce's parents house for supper. Ashton sure was excited! By the way, he's 5 years 3 months, and 38 lbs.