April Update

Steve's big presentation is finally over, and we all enjoyed having a weekend together without him having to do work. 

Yesterday we went to the annual WW1 Airshow (Madeleine especially loved it) and today we went to the Chocolate Fish Cafe for a yummy lunch on the waterfront.

Madeleine has been in a much more agreeable mood lately. Last weekend, she and I did some intense potty-training, and she is doing really well. She loves wearing her "unnies" and has quickly adopted the view that the nappies are just for Ross (and her dolls, of course). We are so proud of her, and she is very noticeably proud of herself as well.

Here are a few more recent pictures of the kids...

 Ross rocking out to his rattle while wearing his CBC onesie.

Since Madeleine no longer uses her highchair, I thought I would try putting Ross in there while M and I were in the kitchen one day. He just sat there, slumped to one side since he's still a bit too young to sit up, but I got him to smile for the camera by tickling his feet.

Another 'cuddle on the couch' picture - although neither of them were very excited about it!

Ross with rather tame-looking hair for once.

Steve and Madeleine having a cozy pyjama morning and sporting their matching resistor colour coded socks, knit by my Mom.

3 months!

The weeks are flying by and all of a sudden our little baby is already 3 months old and our little girl is almost two years old! Last week was wonderful... fun-filled sunny mornings at various playgroups, long midday naps enjoyed by all of us (except Steve, of course), and good spirits all around. But not every week can be like that; this week it's rainy, both kids have a cold, and Madeleine has been refusing to nap and very moody.  One second she's asking for cheese, the next she's crying and pushing it away because I've already started to cut a piece for her, and then she starts eating it as the tears roll down her cheeks. She is certainly good entertainment for Ross.

He weighed in yesterday at 15lb 3oz and 63 cm long. His weight gain has slowed down a bit and he's dropped from 91st percentile to 75th. Although this seemed odd to me at first, apparently it can be normal around this age for weight gain to plateau. He has started noticing his hands and holding onto toys (when Madeleine is kind enough to let him have one) and he loves watching his big sister.

We did some baking this week, to help pass the rainy days, and M got completely covered in the dry ingredients when she decided flour is actually quite yummy to eat.

Other rainy day activities for Madeleine have included: wearing a frilly tutu dress, taking everything out of my wallet at least once, and cuddling with Ross on the couch.

Ross is still a happy, smiley little boy, with really wild hair. It's thinning and lightening a bit, but not really falling out at all. His eyes are still a deep blue, and he's generally quite happy on his tummy, although I haven't been that good at remembering to give him "tummy time".  Aside from this week, when he's been very congested at night, he's still waking just once in the early morning to eat. He often sleeps a couple of hours at a time during the day, which is wonderful since Madeleine was a cat-napper for her first year.

Steve has been hard at work these days, often putting in extra hours in the evenings and on weekends. He's preparing for some visitors from the US at the end of the month, who are interested in the spectrograph he built for his PhD. It's been a good motivator to get a few relevant chapters of his thesis done, and he's already received some really positive feedback.

Life Goes On

We said some tearful goodbyes to my Mom and Dad last Friday. It's definitely harder to say goodbye when we've seen how much Madeleine (and Ross!) loved having them around. She has said "Papa?" a few times this week when she hears a noise outside that sounds like Grandpa coming home on his bike. And she found some strands of wool the other day, from Grammie's knitting and said "Mama." She loves identifying what belongs to whom these days. As I hung the laundry on the line this morning, she was watching carefully and with each article of clothing she would yell out to whom it belonged - "Baby Ross! Daddy!  Maanna!" (Maana is how she says Madeleine, which really makes me feel bad for giving her such a long name.)

Madeleine loves to run along The Promenade walkway near our house - Grammie took her out on a particularly windy day when this picture was taken. M pumps her arms and waddles along, moving as fast as she can. 

She regularly asks to hold Ross on her lap, and he smiles up at her and is very patient and tolerant of all her pats and brushes and kisses.

She started trying to climb onto the coffee table and sit or stand on it, so we quickly inverted it to make a little seat for her. She loves sitting in it and playing with toys or reading books. She is also really taken with cutting things lately, and loved this wooden toy pizza from the Toy Library. Her other current interests are helicopters ("helio") and diggers ("digga").

Ross has been very smiley and chatty lately, and has the most adorable giggle fits when we talk with him. He has transitioned to the cot very well, and sleeps from about 8pm until 4 or 5am, eats, and then sleeps another couple of hours.

Lately, Madeleine has wanted to 'burp' Baby Ross, and wants to hold him on her shoulder. He's more than half her size now though, so it's a bit awkward, but she loves it.

And then she gets tired of it, and wants him off.

She was reading "Tales From the Arabian Nights" to him the other day, carefully pointing at the words and pictures.

Our first week on our own has actually gone really well, and I am reminded once again of how much I love being at home with my kids. I feel so blessed to have had so much help for the early weeks, and am sure that is why things are going so smoothly now. Plus, Steve has made some great progress on his thesis in the last few months, so he is starting to see the light at the end of the PhD tunnel. 

At our Plunket visit earlier this week, the kids weighed in at 30lbs for Madeleine, and a few ounces short of 15lbs for Ross. He is quite long, so he doesn't seem nearly as chubby as M did as a baby. Ross moving to the cot meant that Madeleine moved to a big bed this past weekend. After a few nights of popping in and out of bed at bedtime, and falling asleep on the floor one night, she now seems quite content to stay in bed. She's also starting to use the potty, and asking to go now and then. Our little girl is growing up!