Firstly, Declan is a terror. He's getting closer and closer to walking - he jumps without holding on and bails a lot - he power crawls up and around and over and through - unstoppable. Ach, his crawling sounds like a 250lb man stomping down the hall. We use large-ish kids toys and totes to block access to areas and drawers/cupboards as well as the baby gate from the hall to the stair area. Kitchen chairs get moved all over preventing access as required. He shrieks like a banshee when he doesn't get his way and has to have everything that his sister does. Diaper changes are near impossible without Mika's help. He eats as much as a full grown person - easily doubles Mika's intake per day. It's wild. Dex is still a pretty happy go lucky guy as long as he is allowed to explore and destroy at will. He babbles constantly and often sounds very commanding. He knows to stop what he's doing when I say his name a certain way.
Mika is more or less toilet trained! Now to find ballet lessons for her. The ONLY reason she is trained is the promise of ballet school. She practices every day and knows quite a few little moves and positions already. She is very serious about this - all day every day she talks ballet. Being a February baby, she misses the January cutoff for the local schools with the "3 and toilet trained" requirement. I don't think she can wait for the September intake. I'm hoping that I just haven't looked hard enough to find somewhere that can take her in the spring.
Mika had a nap-free weekend of fun starting with spending half of Saturday at the mall with her cousins. She played mini golf for the first time, went on the train and carousel, and spent a good hour and a half in the playpark. Declan went mad for the ball pool - I think he had the best time he's ever had in his life in there. He just freaked when I finally pulled him out. I may have to put a kiddie pool full of balls in the basement for him now and again. Mika was happy to stick to her cousin Jackson all day - she adores him and he digs his big cousin role. The literal icing on the cake, the talk of all last week, was Saoirse's 3rd Birthday party this afternoon. We met up at Crankpots, a ceramics studio on Whyte, where the kids picked pieces to paint, had some pizza, and generally had a good time for a couple of hours. The girls all chose jewelery boxes - Saoirse and Caelen picked gift shaped ones, Adia a flower, and Mika went for one with a tree frog on the top. (I'm not sure if I spelled all those names correctly). We pick them up next week when they're fired and glazed. Declan got a couple of hugs and a number of kisses from Saoirse and he was in his glory. The boy loves kisses. We have the fortunate luck of attending parties where the kids seem to get along and tantrums are few and far between - knock on wood.
Anyway, Mika is going around with her little head just spinning lately with all the seasonal activity. We do some kind of festive thing, whether it be craft or baking daily it seems. She's already decided that we're making gingerbread men tomorrow. We have another house to do too. And some gift wrapping - she painted lunch bags for me to use. Oi. We're having an afternoon playdate with the boys and possibly dinner too at Nana's this week as well as potentially a couple of other playdates - then its 5 solid days of heading out for visits/dinners starting on Saturday. This is another big topic for Mika - she asks about where we are going and when and does she have to go to daycare afterwards. We've been telling her that I have to go back to work after Christmas and that she and Declan will be in daycare. Speaking of which, I've been trying to get Declan to drink from something other than me and it's going so-so. He can drink from bottles and cups, but doesn't seem to grasp the purpose of it other than fun. He spills most out of his mouth, whether its milk, water, or juice/water. It's a source of much anxiety to me wondering how this guy is going to get along all day without his boobjuice and bed. He can't seem to deal with a crib - still needs to be bounced in his carrier or nursed to sleep. Not a daycare lifestyle kind of guy. At least Mika will be there too - but it's a small consolation.
