Busy little peanut!

Well since her 7 Month update, Alivia has changed alot, hard to believe I know! She is a full blown, speedy crawler, two days after that she was pulling up to standing on her own, and the next day she was cruising slowly along the couch, a couple days after that, she was cruising along all the furniture, can get down and back up again. She even stands with one hand just resting. She is very brave, she will be an earlier walker I think! She can get around the kitchen in her walker no problem, backing up and turning. Poor Alaina is now getting her hair pulled alot, which I have to watch what I feared, Alaina pushing her away! I think she is enjoying her sister being mobile for the most part, she tries to get her to chase her, which Alaina does many laps before Alivia gets halfway lol. They now bath together and love it, Alaina asks every night if sister is coming. Alaina taught her how to splash and they giggle nonstop! This has also lead to bedtime stories together. Alaina now wants Alivia to come sit in bed with her, it's soo sweet :)

Alivia's Baptism

We had Alivia baptized at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church on November 2, 2008. It was a hectic day! I forgot all about the time change, had everyone up an hour too early. Then thought it would work to my advantage and I could get her to nap before church, well nope! She was awake from 7:15am until 1:30pm with a cold on top of it all. She was really good though. Alaina was really good too. She came running up, wanted to be held and watched Alivia get baptized over daddy's shoulder, and said awww sister, it's ok. It was the cutest thing :) I borrowed her dress from Kristy so I changed it shortly after so we wouldn't ruin it. So needless to say I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, no ceremony ones at all, my photographer didn't show & I couldn't signal anyone from up front :( and bailee was doing video, at least I have that. So I'm bummed but still got some good ones after. You will see Alaina is missing in alot of pictures, she was busy running around, and the ones she is in you can tell she's trying to break free! lol Thank you again to everyone that came and for all the thoughtful gifts :)

Godparents - Rob & Hope

Aunt Tay Tay & Grandpa Rob

Grammy

Grandpa Tom & Auntie Bailee

Papa Bob, Grandma Peggy, Aunt Candy & Cousin Drew

(Great)Nanny

Papa Ron & Grandma Pat

My cupcake cake

Halloween 2008

Halloween was a busy one! We decided last year we were going to start rotating the cities that grandparents lived in so they all get a turn and we have less running around. The last two years we did Ridgetown and Dresden. This year we made one stop in Dresden at my nans, she seen them in the car, then we headed to Chatham. First stop was Uncle Chucks. We trick or treated with all of them around a big block. Alaina was way behind her older cousins who were sprinting from house to house. She had alot of fun. Then we loaded up and headed over to Grandma Peggy's, then seen Grandpa Tom and Grammy was in town. The girls costumes couldn't be worn in their car seats and with all the in and out and running, I only got one picture :(

Lady Bug Alaina and Pea pod Alivia, daddy is a Jiffy Lube Employee :P

On November 1st we attended a big costume birthday party for Alexis Taylor (Oct 21), Zachary Hart (Nov 1) & Kale Ross (Nov 9) all turning one! We had a blast and really enjoyed seeing all the kids in their costumes, what a great idea!

All the kids, aren't they cute?!

The birthday Toddlers, Lexi, Zach & Kale

Pumpkin Carving

We skipped taking Alaina to pick out her own pumpkin this year, due to weather and time. So Brandon brought one home last night and carved it with Alaina. We did it while Alivia was sleeping, figured she's too young and it would be easier with Alaina alone. Just like last year Alaina didn't want to get dirty. She stuck the spoon in twice and then watched dad finish up lol It didn't scare her this year either, probably because she's older and dad carved it less scary!!

Blowing out the Candle lol

Updates

Alivia is 7 months

Alivia is now crawling! She can sit from her tummy and has 6 teeth. She is already getting into trouble not wanting to leave a plant alone. She smacks her lips together blowing kisses too. Not sure how much she weighs. I'm guessing she's on a steady growth of about a pound a month. She doesn't seem to like any new foods the first couple of times. I have to be consistent and persistent. A bit different from her sister. Cereal she loves, so I mix some in her food. I hope that changes, I don't want a picky eater on my hands! I think Alaina likes that she is a bit active now. oh and how could I forget, she said her first word a couple weeks ago ~ MOM!!! I was rocking her for bed and she said it a bunch, I had a perma-smile. Brandon didn't want to believe me and of course it was a couple days later when he finally heard it, so he's been working on dad lol

We spend alot of time in our jammies, less laundry :P

And her hair is becoming unmanageable, but I don't want to cut it :)

Note the Chiclets!!

Alaina Tidbits

Alaina still really loves her dance class. She is doing very well too. She can sing at least a dozen songs and helps me read all her books. She really amazes us on how quick she can memorize and remember something. She can sing 98% of the alphabet and knows some of the letters sounds, she actually knows the sounds better than she knows the name of the letter itself. She can draw an imperfect circle and line. She tries really hard to colour inside the lines too. We took her skating for the first time this year and she didn't have as much interest as we had hoped. She can stand on her skates off the ice good but she relys on us too much on the ice. So we are going to get her some skate guards so she can practise her balance and walking in her skates at home before trying the ice again.

The Little Mermaid

I took Alaina to see her first play at the cultural centre with Mel & Taya and Martha & Ella. Alaina hasn't actually seen that movie but she seemed to really enjoy the play. When they told the kids to get up and dance, Alaina said come on mom! And they had a bubble machine and she wanted to run up and get them lol. When it was all done, she said, Again! The next day she asked me if it was time to get ready to go see it lol. So all and all, I think she will want to go and see more plays :)

Mini Vacation

We took the girls to Toronto for a mini-vacation. It was Alivia's first family vacation and it didn't turn out so well! We checked in and had some lunch then I had to go write an exam and Brandon and the girls TRIED to nap lol. Then my buddy Carm came and had dinner with us in the hotel restaurant, it was terrible. I asked if it was real chicken for the burger, he said yep, breast meat, it was grey processed :( It was soo expensive too. Then we got all ready to go swimming, in what was suppose to be a heated pool. One of the reasons I booked that hotel. So the water was freezing, we couldn't get in past our ankles. There was a hot tub too, of course too hot for livia so we took turns holding her with our feet in or sitting right in. There was some pre-teen girls there and alaina wanted to swim and play with them so badly. Everytime they got too hot in the whirlpool, they would jump in the icebox. We were able to sit in the hot tub, hold alaina over in the cold pool so she could kick her feet with the kids as she called them. Alaina introduced us all to them too, this is daddy right there, mommy, sister livia and this is laina right here, it was sooo cute. After we went back to our room and my other buddy Timeka and her kids came to play. Alaina had a blast! Then it was time to settle in, all in one room for the first time. It took 30mins to get Alaina to sleep. Then 30mins after that the fire alarm went off! We grabbed as much as we could, got down stairs and people in the lobby said its a false alarm and were heading back to their rooms. 15mins after settling back in, the phone rang, it was reception saying we had to vacate the building. So we grabbed the kids out of bed and went outside. We waited for the fire department to clear the building and I asked if there was really a fire, if so we were heading home, it was 11:30pm at this time. He said no so back to bed we went. About 1:30am Alaina woke screaming, I think brandon moved and startled her, which in turn woke alivia. 30mins later everyone was back to sleep. 7am, the fire alarm went off again! We grabbed the kids again (each time we were able to grab more stuff!) and part way down the hall, people were saying false alarm, well we heard that before, so we called down, they said get out until the fire dept. comes and clears it. So we did. It was false again. They thought it was someone smoking causing the problems. So of course Alaina couldn't go back to sleep, she seen it was daylight. Alivia napped a bit longer. Then we went to get our complimentary breakfast. What a joke. It was an omelette, sausage, toast and homefries. Sounds good right. Sausage was a hotdog, toast was so cold and dry it was like eating breadcrumbs, egg was cold and rubbery. Homefries were cold but edible. I was soo glad I packed a goody bag. We couldn't wait to check out, and I almost booked 2 nights. We headed over to the woodbine mall by the college I went to. It has a build in fairground. It's really neat. We met up with another buddy of mine, Marco whom I hadn't seen in 6 years! He has a baby girl Tayah, 2.5 weeks older than Alivia. Alaina really enjoyed the rides. We headed home after that and both kids were out not even 2 minutes in the car. We woke them up in london to eat supper. So it was the worst hotel stay ever but good visiting was done!

Look at my muscles!

Livia & Cyntasha - 12 days apart

Justin, Jr. & Laina

Wrestling with Jr. He's 4, and she's got 'em, that's my girl!

Fantasy Fair at Woodbine Mall

Thanksgiving

We were busy thanksgiving with three dinners, soo yummy! We took the girls to the Brigden Fair the Monday. What a beautiful day! Of course we were all overdressed. We met up with Nana and Papa Coles. Alaina got to see Dora (the line up was too long, and when it finally shortened and we hopped in, they called a potty break for Dora, so we headed home), the animals and ride a couple rides. Miss Alivia slept the whole time lol. That Tuesday after, we had Kristy and Madelyn over for a playdate. It has been a long time since Kristy hasn't started her 2nd maternity leave yet. The girls played pretty well together. At first Alaina was a bit pushy and by the end it was Maddy that was being pushy lol. Ohh the joys of two year olds :)

Giving some love after duking it out :P