25.6.12

Happy Birthday Pipsqueak!!


(Might as well dust off this old blog with a tribute to my littlest one …. )

2

That’s how old you are today.  No longer a baby, but a big toddler now.  It’s hard to believe that it has been two whole years since you were born, the details of that day are etched into my mind as if it happened yesterday.  Then again, it is hard to believe that you haven’t always been a part of our little family.  

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

It wasn’t an easy road to get you here, Pipsqueak.  Mom and dad waited for you for a long, long time and had just about given up when we got the happy news that you were on the way.  My pregnancy with you was a tough one, mostly physically, but also because I became a worrier and never quite relaxed into it the way I had with your sisters.  But none of that mattered when you were born.  Not at all.  You came out perfect and pink and hollering loudly in protest of being so abruptly yanked into the world.   You have been simply a gift to our family from day one, and I consider it a privilege to raise another little one (even during those sleepless nights …. ).  I love having my gaggle of girls!



 

This past year has been a busy one for you.  You have gone from walking to zooming around at high speeds, managing staircases and uneven paths without any effort and climbing anything climbable ALL day long.  I might add that your definition of “climbable” is a very loose one – pretty much anything qualifies – sometimes I think that my biggest achievement at the end of the day is that I have managed to keep you alive through all of your little adventures.  

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

You have also taken to running away at full speed in any public place – nothing funnier to you than being chased out of the store and down the block, or around the various displays at a super busy IKEA store, by your frazzled mom.  

You have learned to talk in short sentences and it is wonderful to get a glimpse into what is going on in that cute little head of yours.   

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

You love to sit and “read” your books, and you ask me to sing every song in your favourite songbook every day.  You climb into your own highchair AND buckle yourself in.   If you want a different chair at the table you crawl ACROSS the table to get there if we don’t stop you – if you end up sweeping a plate off the table in the process, you politely say “sorry plate”.  

You love to play and roughhouse with your big sisters, to spin on “spinny chairs” or wrap one arm around a metal post and then spin around it until you are so dizzy that you fall over.  You LOVE to be tickled and ask for a good tickly roughhousing tussle several times a day.   

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

In many ways this past year with you has been the way I have always imagined motherhood could be.  I always tell your dad that you are getting the best of us as parents.   Your big sisters have “broken us in” so to speak, and you get not only a slew of hand-me-down toys which makes our house better a equipped than most preschools, but also a more relaxed set of parents who are willing to go with the flow a bit more.   Parents who fully realize how fast you will grow up.  

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMugPhoto & Video Sharing by SmugMug

So much of the time I’m happy to just follow you around in your explorations of the house, the garden and the parks.  To just be there with you.  


I don’t feel the same need to keep a schedule, to get you to baby music class, toddler preschool or any other commitment.  I’m happy to just see you explore and I try not to rush you or rush myself.  If it takes us an hour to get you dressed because you love streaking through the house wearing only your diaper, then so be it.  This is it.  This is your childhood.  

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

No need to do anything else but be together, talk, observe, learn by just being exactly where we are.


You and your sisters are the most perfect gifts one could ever receive.  We are so very happy that you were born two years ago today, and we wish you lots of fun, adventure and happiness this coming year.   

XO

Mom



16.12.11

Christmas Card Photos

I tried to take a Christmas card photo of my girls this year - much too late because, one by one, they've fallen prey to a nasty bug in the last two weeks and this was the first day that all three were well enough to venture outside at the same time.  The Pipsqueak was still under the weather and not happy at all.   I knew she had about 15 minutes in her before a major meltdown, so all of my visions of three happy and relaxed girls cooperating nicely with a laughing and witty mother who makes them giggle while they pose for beautiful photos went out of the window pretty quickly.  I found myself scrambling to get even one photo of all three of them looking at the camera with even semi-happy expressions.  No go.  Not a single one.  So while the actual Christmas picture will have to wait, here are some of the outtakes:

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug





Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug







And here are some snaps from our subsequent walk, when the girls decorated our "Charlie Brown Tree" which we planted in the park in 2004

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug





You never know.  One year I may actually plan some matching outfits, have them ready by the beginning of December, have an early snowfall in usually rainy Vancouver and have all three girls snot free and perfectly cooperating with having their picture taken.  A girl can always dream ...

6.12.11

Gingerbread Houses Galore

Ms. M pronounced her Birthday Bash a success, which is a relief because she has been reminding me pointedly for quite some time now that she did not have an actual party last year while we were travelling.

Sometimes I wonder whether it wouldn't make more sense to have the party at some kind of kids venue rather than subjecting myself and the house to a roomful of excited, energetic, sugar-fueled children.  But then, once the whole thing is done, I'm always glad that I did.  This time here were games, a theme of snowflakes, the stuffing of "stuffies", cake and lots of messy, sticky, noisy Gingerbread house decorating.  Fun was had by all, especially the Birthday girl:

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
I loved it that Ms. M's little friend offered to bring her violin to play the Birthday Song (on the right)

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMugPhoto & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMugPhoto & Video Sharing by SmugMugPhoto & Video Sharing by SmugMug


Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug





We will be stepping on bits of candy and sticky icing for weeks .....

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...