6 months!

At six months, Ross is turning into our little bean pole! He's so much leaner than Madeleine was at this age, and this week weighed in at just under 18lb.

He is starting to sit on his own for longer periods, and is still constantly watching Madeleine wherever she goes.

Madeleine still loves to hold and 'burp' Ross, but it's getting a bit more awkward now that he is getting bigger.

She gives him lots of nice kisses and thinks it's hilarious when he gives her a slobbery kiss back.

Ross is much more fair in skin tone than Madeleine and his eyes have stayed blue. When I'm out with them both, people often comment on how similar they look, and yet I don't think they look definitively like either me or Steve.

This week we look forward to picking Grammie up at the airport! My Mom is graciously coming back to stay with us for a month, to help me out with the kids and enable Steve to work even longer hours. Steve is in the writing stage of his PhD, and with this coming month of intense effort, we are hoping he will be able to submit his thesis by October.

Happy Canada Day!

I felt pretty patriotic today: I dressed Madeleine in red and white and Ross in his "Canada" shirt (I completely forgot to take a picture, of course), I sang Oh Canada to Madeleine this morning, I tried to teach her how to say "ca-na-da", and I even read our "Canada ABCs" book to them.  But when she saw the page with x-country skis and snow and said "boat! water!", I knew maybe my efforts were futile. 

Here are some pictures of them from a couple of days ago. 

Madeleine's patience with posing for pictures is limited to about 5 seconds... I think I asked her to smile "just one more time" and this was her answer.

Ross, on the other hand, is still easy to capture.

Madeleine quickly took up the task of making Ross laugh and smile for me.

He had his 5 month immunizations last week, and weighed in at 17lb 8oz, and 68cm long. I think so far, he is roughly the same weight as Madeleine was at any given age, but he is a lot longer so not as chubby. He is still a wonderfully laid-back little boy. He sleeps well, with at least one longish (1.5-2h) nap a day and a couple of short ones, and falls asleep by himself, and wakes once or twice overnight to eat. He is starting to make more noises, and we're practicing his sitting, but he's still pretty wobbly. We've not started him on solid foods yet, but he is watching us with great interest as we eat, and it will be fun to see what he thinks of food in a few more weeks.

At the park...

There is a park just a couple of blocks away from us called Pukatea Park, and it is one of our most regular destinations. It's close enough that Madeleine can walk the whole way there and it's right along the walkway by the water, so we get some lovely views. Lately we've been going in the early evening before dinner, and there have been some beautiful sunsets. I finally remembered to bring the camera one day last week, to capture Madeleine and all her Pukatea Park moments.

She has gone from absolutely hating swings to loving them so much that she would swing for hours if Ross and I had the patience. She says "big push" over and over, even as I'm pushing her.

Climbing up to the slide, stopping to see what the view from up high reveals.

Pointing to baby Ross...

Climbing up to the top of the logs...

And just when I thought "she treats her dolls so well, I must be modelling such wonderful mothering skills to her"... she decides to squish her beloved dolly into a plastic container and put the lid on.

On another occasion, Dolly and the plastic container were put in the drawer for an entire day! I think we both forgot about poor Dolly and I admit, I did get a bit of a fright when I opened the drawer later that day.

Thankfully she doesn't try to squish Ross into any boxes, but she does like to give him really big hugs.

Our sweet girl, looking so grown-up to us these days...

5 months!

Ross is 5 months old now! The months are definitely passing more quickly with him, and I can't believe he will be starting on real food in another month or so. He won't have a check up and weigh until next week, so again, the stats will have to wait. He was scheduled to go in tomorrow for his 5 month immunizations, but he and Madeleine have both come down with a cold, so I decided to postpone his injections.

He is still a very easy going and happy little guy, who loves cuddles and watching his big sister. His hiatus from pooping ended after 25 days, and since then he's stuck to a more "regular" schedule of going every 8-10 days.

He's awake for longer stretches now and is so interested in the world around him. Unfortunately, this means that when we head out to playgroups or even just the nearby playground, it's a lot harder for him to fall asleep. He naps lovely long stretches of up to 2-3hrs if we're at home, but when we're out and about he generally only sleeps 40 min at a time. He would much rather be cuddled by anyone willing to hold him. At night, he is still waking up 1-2 times, which I find quite tiring, but he does seem genuinely hungry.

He still loves his baths, and the picture above was right after his bath the other night.

Although she doesn't always like holding him for more than a few seconds (or even long enough for a picture), Madeleine is still very affectionate towards Ross and likes to help me look after him. She consoles him when he's crying by patting him, shusshing, and saying "It's okay, mommy's coming". She takes him toys, and of course decides which ones he can and can't have. She also initiates changing his nappy - she has the removal of the old nappy figured out, but then she says it's "Mommy's turn".  It is so fun to see them make each other laugh, and recently Madeleine has started choosing Ross over me - if I'm going to another room and I ask her if she wants to come, she'll say "no, I stay with baby".  More Madeleine pictures to come soon...

Citizenship and Feijoas

We finally got around to getting some photos taken for Ross' Canadian citizenship application. We went to the same photographer who did Madeleine's photos. She was a couple months younger than Ross, and far less photogenic (see July 2011 post entitled "Our Week" for a reminder). Ross was incredibly calm and cooperative for the photo shoot. Thankfully he was more interested in the camera and lights than his crying sister hanging onto my leg. He looks like a little boy ready for his first day of school! He certainly is growing up quickly - he started rolling over this week and weighed in at 16lb 12oz. Although who knows how much of that weight is poo, considering he hasn't gone in 16 days now. Shocking, I know, but a good conversation for Mommy-types. He's pretty happy in spite of it, so I'm not too concerned; I just really hope I'm home when he does finally go.

It's feijoa season here in New Zealand. Feijoas are a fruit I had never heard of until moving here. They are a bit odd (Steve thinks they're awful) - very aromatic and a bit gritty in texture. But lots of people have feijoa trees in their yards, and we often end up being given big bags of them. Fortunately, I have come to love them and Madeleine likes them too.

You cut them in half and then scoop out the flesh to eat it....

... just like this! 

4 months!

Ross is 4 months old today! Some recent changes include: hair that lies a bit flatter, serious attempts to roll over, and laughing so hard he has tears in his eyes. He won't be weighed and measured until next week, so the stats will have to wait, but he's fitting this 6-9 month top from Grandma Georgia very nicely! 

His eyes remain a beautiful deep blue, but some days I think I see flecks of brown starting, so I'm not entirely convinced they won't still change colour.

He is a wonderful napper during the day, although a bit less reliable at night. He sometimes sleeps a blissful 10 hours, other times he wakes up every 4 hours.

While Ross works on the art of wriggling in circles and rolling over, Madeleine discusses the day's events with Daddy on the phone. She is obsessed with the phone these days, so it now lives on top of the fridge (which is quickly getting crowded with all the other things we need to keep out of her reach) in order to prevent calls to Timbuktoo or emergency services. She loves talking to Daddy though and acts out all her stories, so it's always very clear to me what she's trying to say, but sometimes not so clear to Daddy. 

May is the month of birthday parties for all her little friends from our antenatal group. We got her all dressed up like a ballerina for this one party, and then she threw a fit when we tried to take her picture (because, of course, SHE wanted to take the picture). Here is the best we could get - all the others she was blurry and lying on the floor in what Steve calls her "hippy protest" - a non-violent form of protest against all unjust parenting acts. 

Happy Birthday, Madeleine!

Our little girl is two! We celebrated with chocolate cupcakes, angel food cake, pickles, olives, diggers, dolls, balloons, and skype.  

Ross was not too impressed with the Happy Birthday hat we put on him, but he put up with it very well. The first of many things he'll do to make his sister happy, I'm sure.

Madeleine was not impressed with the hat either actually, but had so much fun opening all her cards that she forgot about it for a few minutes.

Grandma and Grandpa Gibson gave her a little doctor's kit for her dolls, and she has had so much fun using it. However, Ross has quickly become the preferred patient.

They also gave her some really cute new clothes, but this hat was the only item she was willing to try on that day.

One of the things Grandma and Grandpa Hoffmann gave her were some little toy diggers, which she is very proud of, and here she is holding one up for Ross to see.

She loved blowing out candles, so we gave her lots of opportunities. First, on chocolate cupcakes, which she actually ate very little of...

... then on angel food cake (can you spot Ross in the background mess of the room?! Still putting up with the hat)...

... which she ate slightly more of!

And then on her absolute favourite these days - pickles and olives! She calls pickles "tupitees" and olives are indicated by a noise that is something like a duck and a roar combined - not sure how to spell it, but clearly they embody some very cool things in her mind.

Being a birthday girl is hard work! She fell asleep on me while we were skyping with my sister and stayed there for nearly an hour.

No, this isn't Ross' hairdo for Madeleine's birthday, this is his everyday, completely un-styled hairdo. It really is impressive and his hair stands a good 2-3 inches on the top. He looks like a different child when his hair is wet or he has a hat on.

All in all, it was a fun birthday for Madeleine, especially since Steve took two days off of work to make it a four-day birthday weekend. Even though our families are far away, we are thankful for skype, which lets them share in the celebrations.  We didn't have a party with all her little friends, but her birthday was topped off with an evening visit to her favourite friend Jac, who lives just a short walk away. Every time we go for a walk, she asks if we are going to see Jac, so this time she was very excited to take him some of her birthday cake.