January

 Kepler loving eating some "real" food

Switching spots

Never gets old, so cute!

Love this happy boy! He's doing great with solids.

Jayan's funny face

Jayna loves her hair in a whole bunch of braids like this

Big Girl

Lately Jayna (and I) have been struggling with the whole help me, let me go thing.

Here is my 2 going on 8 year old, she looks so old here!

She really wants to be a big girl, but also still wants to be a baby in so many ways.

She begs me to wear panties, but refuses to sit on the potty.

She wants to sit in the high chair for one meal, and in her own chair (not booster) the next.

She wants to do everything herself, put on her clothes, shoes, hat, mitts, except when she's not in the mood and wants me to do it all for her.

She says she's a big girl and then asks me to rock her like a baby and give her a bottle.

She wants to eat everything Gibb and I eat, and everything Kepler eats.

(Is it wrong that I'm totally taking advantage of her wanting to eat baby food, by giving her a bowl of green beans to eat, she would never touch this if it wasn't baby food).

I think part of the problem is that I feel the exact same way as her. I want her to be a big girl and an example to Kepler, and use manners and not throw tantrums, but I also still want her to be my sweet baby girl. No wonder the poor girl is so confused! It's not always easy watching your kids grow up.

Switching Beds

We finally got Jayna a toddler bed, which means that she is out of the crib and in a big girl bed. And that also means that Kepler is finally out of the playpen and can sleep in the crib! They both did great with it, no tears and slept all night like usual. Success!!

 They thought it was so fun to play in the crib together!

Seven

Kepler is 7 months old, and is now closer to being a 1 year old, than to being a newborn...

On a happier note he had a great month, with his first Christmas and first 2 teeth!

Kepler weighs 16 lbs. 4 oz. and is 26 inches long.
He loves: clapping, pat-a-cake, peek-a-boo, his toys, snuggling in the morning, Jayna's hugs, being tickled, warm baths, and chewing on anything he can get his hands on.

He is starting to get more mobile, started sitting up this past week, is "talking" a lot and so far loves all kinds of baby food.

Jayna would have nothing to do with this as a baby, she thought it was so gross, and also barely ever put things in her mouth. Kepler thinks it is the greatest thing and devoured the apples we put in there for him.

So far Kepler seems to be surviving his first Edmonton winter a lot more cheerfully than everyone else in the family!

(un)interesting

I got tagged by Talia to post 6 (un)interesting things about myself. Easy enough.

1 - I have a major sweet tooth

2 - Gibb and I have started doing P90X (trying to counteract the effects of my sweet tooth), and I can barely walk up the stairs, I'm so sore

3 - I am loving 24 so far this season
4 - I haven't had a haircut in 4 months, yikes!
5 - There was a homicide on our street 2 days ago, yikes! (no, we haven't moved back to Cleveland)
6 - I miss living in Cleveland

I tag:
Cassandra, Caprice, Lindsey, Alysha, Ashley

Some other (un)interesting things that have been going on around here lately:

Jayna reading to Kepler
and giving him hugs, she can be so sweet to him

Kepler is eating like a champ now that he's feeling better and his teeth are cut

Trying to have fun inside while it's cold outside
This involves lots of books, dance parties, dress ups, and play dates

Jayna loves dancing
but she always has to wear a princess skirt and santa hat

Here she was saying "Is this fun Santa?"

Gibb built this awesome slide in the backyard, complete with steps to climb up!
Too bad Jayna wouldn't go near it, too scary. I finally convinced (read: forced) her to go down with me and she loved it.

This is how I found Kepler in his crib yesterday, sleeves rolled up, leg out, on his back (he's a tummy sleeper), and smiling. He must've been having some crazy party in there.

It's Potty Time!

I decided to try and potty train Jayna. We got lots of juice and yummy drinks for her and some potty movies and books and just went for it. She was really nervous and had a few accidents most of the first day. Then all of a sudden around dinner time something just clicked and she peed in the potty. We did the potty dance and were so excited!! And after that she pretty much had it down! The only down side is that she was way too scared to go poo in the potty. So for now she is going in a pull up at nap time or bed time. Hopefully that will come soon enough. So proud of our big girl, she loves wearing her princess panties!

Jane Austen Book Club

Barb, Alysha, Sarah, Maren, Jenny and I have been doing a Jane Austen Book Club this year. We each picked one of her books and then host the book club for that book. It's been so fun! I chose the book Emma. 

Hahaha somehow I convinced Gibb to be the butler and answer the door when everyone got there.

We had a tea party with tea and biscuits and baked apples

We drew portraits of each other and they were very true likenesses if I do say do myself!

These girls are so fun, I'm so glad we're doing this!

Winter Fun

Gibb and Jayna having fun in the snow!

Gibb built these steps up to a snow slide for Jayna, fun times!

 

Lazy Sunday

We all stayed home from church today because of Strep Throat :(

We've all been so sick this year, I really hope this is it for a while, and really hope the kids don't get it this time. But we did have a really relaxing morning, which was kind of nice. Jayna helped Gibb make his
Fitzner's Famous Fat Fantastic Waffles.
Gibb loves making these waffles, usually on week-ends or whenever we're all home in the morning with not much to do, which isn't very often lately.

Jayna loves helping us in the kitchen. Whenever we start making anything, she pulls over her chair and asks to "look". She's getting pretty good at dumping stuff in the bowl, and is working on her mixing skills without flinging it all over the counter.

Kepler watching us devour our breakfast.

Kepler can't stand being left out of the action. He'll be playing happily in the living room and then realize that we're all in the kitchen and he'll cry until we come and get him. He loves being part of everything we're doing, even if it's just chilling in the high chair while we eat breakfast. This is probably partly due to his fascination with Jayna, he could watch her all day long, he loves his big sister!

You can see his 2 teeth here!